Reflection on Poetry Poster

o   BLOG ENTRY (Title: Reflection on “Poetry Poster”). Answer the following (150-word minimum for EACH ANSWER).

1.                   Compare the ways in which the final version of your design is more effective (or, perhaps, less effective) than your earlier draft. Make sure to consider purpose, audience, and language conventions.

2.                   Explain how your design uses more than words to achieve your purposes. Consider layout, design, headers, images, fonts, color and other graphic elements.

3.                   Describe the processes you have used effectively in composing the final draft that you believe are worth repeating when you do another project. Consider planning, collaboration with peers, class critiques, viewing models of successful and unsuccessful posters, using library resources, revision techniques, editing techniques, and the timing of your drafts.

The final version of my design is more effective than the numerous early drafts in how it is now more visually effective and original.
Our very first draft (see previous post) had photos that were  very cliche' and that everyone has pretty much seen before. After doing a complete turn around on our idea, we created an original piece of work that represented our poem in a unique, interesting way.
The final version was more visually effective because after hearing feedback on our beginning drafts of our new idea, and after learning how to use photoshop better, we were able to make the pieces of paper much more realistic, and the believability of our poster helped to convey our message in a professional way.

2. Our design uses more than words to convey the message of our poem because each choice we made for our layout, fonts, and colors was intentional to bring out the most of our poem. The dark setting with the fire helps to tell the audience immediately that this poem is a more intense, dark poem. The burning of paper pieces tells the audience that someone is perhaps angry or upset and that drives the curiosity of the reader to wonder why.

3.The processes that we have used effectively in composing the final draft would be class critiques, viewing models of successful and unsuccessful posters, and various editing techniques. The class critiques were the most beneficial form of feedback, because we were able to here many opinions at once and to here ideas being juggled back and forth until we came up with a good solution. The models of successful and unsuccessful posters were good frames of what to shoot for and what to avoid when we were first starting out. Then, the various editing techniques we used in gimp (knock-off photoshop) helped improve the poster, and the longer we played around with gimp we learned to make the photo more realistic.

All in all, we've had nearly ten different drafts, some with very drastic changes and others with minor. After all of these revisions I think that my group has finally pulled together a great piece of work.

Poetry Poster Final Draft

o   BLOG ENTRY (Title: “Poetry Poster Final Draft”). Upload a digital version of the final version of your poster.

Poetry Poster Project--Rough Drafts

This was our initial poster idea, very simple and (we realized) too cliche. 

After listening to the comments about liking the slants, we decided to write the poem with  a whole new layout with the only thing similar being the slanted text.

Poetry @ Tech Review: Eady, Smith, and Lamkin

I noticed that each of these three speakers would give a brief introduction before beginning. They also all seemed very comfortable and confident on stage talking to the audience, something that not all of my peers in class had while reciting their poems (but understandable of course).

The first speaker, Cornelius Eady spoke like as if he were telling a story, like he was reading from a story book. I suppose he was telling a story within his poetry. It was just a slightly different form of recitation that  I wasn't generally used to. In one of his poems he talks about how his dad did the groceries in the house because although they were living on government surplus, bringing back food was a way of still being the breadwinner of the house. Now my dad does have a full time job, but he also is the primary grocery-getter for my family, and so I could relate to that.

The second speaker, Smith, was very musical. He would recite his poetry along with playing guitar and singing. It was an interesting concept because songs and poems are really so similar, practically one of the same. Songs use a lot of the literary devices like symbolism and repetition just as poetry does. It was also very impressive to me that he was able to still effectively read his poem while singing and playing a guitar. I know just from my experience reciting my poem, that it takes a lot of concentration, so it takes skill to simultaneously concentrate on other tasks in addition to an effective recitation. However, the singing and playing of the guitar also made it a bit more difficult to understand the actual words he was saying.

The third speaker, Patricia Anne, was very loud and clear. She was my favorite speaker of the three. Probably in part because I could understand each word she spoke so well. I could even hear her speaking live despite the fact that I was in the overflow room. The first poem 13 began about talking about her period, a subject most often hushed and not talked about. It was an attention grabber for sure. The various other 12 parts in her 13 part poem of 13 were all so descriptive showing a different aspect of the age 13 for each one.

However, the poem that really stuck in my mind was her poem about the drowning of a little girl. She begins by telling how it is based off of a real incident that has occurred, Then he just adds in such description and detail that you can imagine the play-by-play of this horrible event occurring.
She splits the poem into the five stages of drowning and switches from the girls point of view to the father's disturbing point of view. At one point, she even stuttered to simulate the girl drowning, gasping for breath, a sound she imitates so well that it really brought the scene to life.

All three of these speakers were very talented and they each had unique styles of reciting, (just like the students in my class). I almost think that the order was chosen on purpose though, because it was perfect to have such a loud vibrant speaker such as Lamkin finish out the evening.

Poetry Recitation Reflection

1. In the formal oral presentation of my poem, The Loveliest of Trees by A.E. Housman, my strength in responding to the needs of the audience was smoothly combining the visual powerpoint of the cherry trees with my speaking. 

Including the the visual powerpoint of cherry trees in the background gave the audience something they can visualize when I was speaking. It gave the poem a bit more meaning because the listeners could then imagine actually walking through those trees they saw, and they could actually comprehend the metaphor of the cherry "hung with snow". I also included numerous photos of cherry trees one after another  to convey to the audience the symbol of the springs going by over time. 

I also practiced he rate of my speaking in coordination with the powerpoint so that despite my back facing the screen, I could end together with my powerpoint. 

Where I could improve in responding to the needs of the audience, is in my timing. I could take a longer pause in between stanzas to show the shift (from enjoying the beautiful trees, to the realization of time passing, to his appreciation of the trees in what time he has left) in the poem. 

2.In the formal oral presentation my strengths were speaking clearly, and having  a suitable tone for my poem. My poem, The Loveliest of Trees, is about a man pondering about life and how quickly it passes by. It carries a calm, gentle mood that I tried to display through the tone of my voice. 

To improve my oral presentation, I could increase my volume because although I want to maintain the soft tender tone of this poem, I need to project it to the back of the class as well. Of course I could also slow down my pace a bit more to give more emphasis on each line, each word of the piece. It was difficult to concentrate on slowing down my pace when I wanted to keep the poem flowing, and despite all of the practicing in front of group members and family, speaking so very slowly is still a skill that I am not used to. 

3.In the formal oral presentation my strengths in controlling the body were looking up and having good posture. I made sure to be standing tall, straight and  relatively still, with my hands folded in front of me--further emphasizing the gentleness of this poem. I looked up and to the back of the room so that I would be speaking to the entire audience. In addition, by looking up and far away it represents the pondering of life in the poem. I also incorporated varied facial expressions while reading. While saying the lines in the second stanza, "..and take from seventy years a score, it only leaves me fifty more", I portrayed the face of actually doing math and coming to that realization.

I could improve upon adding more hand gestures while speaking. For example gesturing towards the bloom that is hung on imaginary cherry trees. I could also add a tiny bit of movement, by walking around the room to represent the roaming Housman speaks of in the poem, without distracting too much from what I am saying.

Recitation Planning

Loveliest of Trees       —                                                      A.E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.


I chose the poem "The Loveliest of Trees" by A.E. Housman to recite. 
I love the idea behind this poem. Ever since I turned 18 I sort of hit a realization that life was flying by, that I was now, at least legally, an adult. I try to be reminded each day that life and time are precious and I need to make the most of it, and never waste a heartbeat. I learned that Housman's mother died when he was at the young age of 12. This could have also been an inspiration for his poem showing him how quickly life passes. 

Techniques for memorization that I will use is separation of stanzas so that I memorize small bits and then later compile them into the complete poem. I will also try adding one line at a time while reciting so that I remember both the previous lines and the new line. 
To perform this I plan on having a gentle ( yet still clearly audible) tone and perhaps including a prop of a miniature cherry tree so that I have it to direct my attention towards while speaking about the cherry tree. I'm both excited and a bit nervous because I tend to get a little uncomfortable when the spotlight is on me. I will simply practice a lot and in front of my roommate in order to become more comfortable speaking publicly.