Poem performance on music

https://youtu.be/c0jj0UApimQ
Dasha, Mike

Class performance preparation

• We are talking about music creation and how it creates us. The reason we are doing this is to emphasize the importance of it in our lives.
• We will highlight the most important lines in the poem, excluding unnecessary detail.

Pom responce

Chosen poem response
By Dasha Ialovega
10/26/19Lit and Performance IB

When I first read the poem The Everyday Enchantment of Music I thought it was just another ordinary poem talking about one's tragic heartbreak. I was a bit surprised about the fact that there is only one big stanza in this poem and I also did not expect to encounter so many metaphors in such a short piece of writing, but there was nothing else so special about it. Or so I thought.

To be honest, I did not understand the meaning and the purpose of this poem at very first sight, but after reading it over and over again and trying to understand the real meaning I realized that the poem had much more to it than just a dull "heartbreak story". What I understood in the process of digging into the meaning, was that there is a full story being told in just one paragraph. The main character of the poem is music, however, there are multiple figures other than music appearing in the text. Also, I noticed that the author talks about how music takes an important part in our lives.

What I like about this poem is that it tells a whole story in just one short stanza. It doesn't take up loads of pages filled with unnecessary detail, but it tells what has to be told using different metaphors. I would rather read something short but meaningful and not spend a lot of time reading each and every tiny detail in a long poem, so this writing was pleasant to read. Also, I love the author's idea of "summarising" his story. The way he links different and in some way random events together shows that he thought through every word before putting it on paper.

There are several questions that I would like to ask the poet: 

What made you write the poem in the chosen style, putting all the thoughts in just one stanza?

Why did you focus on using metaphors and describing something that was happening on the other side of the city, rather than something that was happening right in front of you at that time?

What influenced your choice of transforming your ideas into long sentences, but not short and in somewhat way more effective short sentences?

Why did you decide to express your feelings in such an abstract way?

Poem notes

1st poem is I, Too by Langston Hughes

• The poem talks about how a black person is discriminated but in the end, racism is broken
• The tone is the "strength"
• Repetition of "I am America"

2nd poem is Eating poetry 

• Kind of dark
• Unusual
• Repetition of "I" and "The"

3rd poem is The Everyday Enchantment of Music

• Talks about heartbreak
• Metaphors, personalization
• Only one stanza

Figurative language

• Simile
  My twin runs just like Usain Bolt
• Metaphor
  The first twin stood up 
• Personification
  The sock’s twin disappeared from the box
• Hyperbole Her twin is as tall as the Eiffel tower
• Onomatopoeia
  The twins’ laughter sounds like barking
• Alliteration The twin tossed the tangled thread to the teacher
• Assonance
• Consonance

Final draft reflection

• I think my final draft turned out to be better than I expected, but I still feel like I could've done even better.
• I worked more on adding detail to the analysis, and also putting in more quotes to make the text more interesting.
• The easy part was finding the "hidden meaning" in-between the lines, but the difficulty of this assignment was actually trying to explain what the poem is trying to tell the readers by those "hidden meanings".
• My strengths in this essay are the great use of detail and complete explanation of the poem's under-surface meanings, but the weakness is that it appears to be a bit repetitive.
• If I had more time, I would totally spend it on improving my essay.
• I think I will get the top points on 1) Paragraphs, 2) Word count, and 3) Song title in quotation marks
• I feel like I will lose points on 1) Original ideas, 2) Essay clarity, and 3) Sentence lengths variety.

Final draft

Poem analysis final draft
By Dasha Ialovega
10/11/19
Lit and Performance IB

Heartbreak acceptance

      The poem "Supermarket Flowers" by Ed Sheeran combines two completely different feelings in it. At a very first glance, it seems like the whole text is about sadness brought by the loss of an important person, but if you take a better look at it and read in between the lines, the whole new meaning of the words opens up.
      Ask anyone in the entire universe, how would they feel if their loved one died, and they would give you an answer without hesitation: extremely sad or even depressed. Not so many people can handle such an unbearable situation properly, but the writer proves to us that he is different from others. 
      "A heart that's broken is the heart that's been loved". Just by reading this line, you can sense the pure strength in his spirit. This is because far not everyone can say such a meaningful thing when their heart is torn apart, but he is facing the tragic truth with his head held high, and this appears to be the reason why he is able to say this deep sentence filled with strong emotion. Personally, I am not so sure I would be able to say anything like that if I was him, and this is just because the only thing I would probably do is cry my eyes out.  
      The line "And when God takes you back we'll say Hallelujah" suggests that he has no sorrows about the past and that now he is finally ready to let his mom go up into the sky. In this case acceptance of the fact that the dearest person in the author's life is gone goes well along with the expressed sadness. It seems like the two feelings are conflicting, but the poem proves different.
      In addition, the line "I fluffed the pillows, made the bed, stuck the chairs up" shows how much he cared for his mother, suggesting that the loss hurt him way more than anyone else in this situation. Further in the poem, he mentions that the tear rolled from his eye, and this clearly shows that the mental pain triggered by the death of the closest person in the world cannot be avoided by anyone, even by such a strong person like him. 
       Although he is feeling down, he has accepted the fact that his precious parent no longer exists in this world. "Spread your wings as you go" - this is what the writer says to his beloved mother, implying that she was a great woman that deserves to be an angel and live in Heaven. Furthermore, such respect and love towards someone show that she was truly a marvelous person, as not all parents are considered to be saint by their children. 
      Finally, the line "I'll sing Hallelujah" proves that although the poet is truly sad, he accepted the brutal reality. In conclusion, the hidden meaning inside the poem is that the love towards his parent will never be gone and that he appreciates everything his mother has done for him. 

Poem analysis 1st draft

The poem "Supermarket flowers" by Ed Sheeran combines two different feelings in it. At a first glance, it seems that the whole text is about sadness brought by the loss of an important person, but if you take a better look at it and read in between the lines, the whole new meaning of the words opens up.

Ask anyone how would they feel if their loved one died, and they would give you an answer without hesitation: sad or depressed. Not many people are able to handle such heartbreaking situation properly, but the author shows us that he is different. Only by reading the poem, you can feel how strong his soul is.

Although he is feeling down, he accepted the fact that his mother no longer exists in this world. It seems like the two feelings are almost opposite, but the poem proves different. 

Song/poem reflection

The overall tone of the poem is acceptance and sadness. It makes me emotional. This poem’s overall message is that the author’s mother was a great woman and he loved her, but now she is gone.

The few most important lines in the poem are “You were an angel in the shape of my mum”, “Spread your wings as you go” and “And I know that when God took you back he said Hallelujah”. I like this poem because it feels very honest and deep, and my favourite lines are “And I know that when God took you back he said Hallelujah”, “A life with love is a life that's been lived” and “A heart that's broken is a heart that's been loved”.

A song with an interesting meaning

Supermarket flowers

I took the supermarket flowers from the windowsill

I threw the day old tea from the cup

Packed up the photo album Matthew had made

Memories of a life that's been loved

Took the get well soon cards and stuffed animals

Poured the old ginger beer down the sink

Dad always told me, "don't you cry when you're down"

But mum, there's a tear every time that I blink

Oh I'm in pieces, it's tearing me up, but I know

A heart that's broken is a heart that's been loved

So I'll sing Hallelujah

You were an angel in the shape of my mum

When I fell down you'd be there holding me up

Spread your wings as you go

And when God takes you back we'll say Hallelujah

You're home

I fluffed the pillows, made the beds, stacked the chairs up

Folded your nightgowns neatly in a case

John says he'd drive then put his hand on my cheek

And wiped a tear from the side of my face

I hope that I see the world as you did cause I know

A life with love is a life that's been lived

So I'll sing Hallelujah

You were an angel in the shape of my mum

When I fell down you'd be there holding me up

Spread your wings as you go

And when God takes you back we'll say Hallelujah

You're home

Hallelujah

You were an angel in the shape of my mum

You got to see the person that I have become

Spread your wings

And I know that when God took you back he said Hallelujah

You're home

Final poem performance

https://youtu.be/wM1LQiyziXc - the link

Personally, the lines were quite easy to memorise as we've read and heard them many times in the class, so I didn't mess up any of the lines during the performance.

Our group performance was interesting to watch because the music and our emotions created an atmosphere where the audience could easily sympathise with our feelings.

Overall, the class did a great job at planning and performing (except for one group ((: ).