Week Four

In class we were assigned to read Dadd, Lady Lazarus, and Morning Song. All of which were poems wrote by Sylvia Plath. In Daddy, I noticed that Sylvia used strong enjamment when rhyming. She talked a lot about Germany, and the Jews. She is very bold in the poetry she writes. I liked morning song and how she talked about the baby, and her first line of "love set you going like a fat gold watch." We also read from The Plath Cabinet, which is a collection of poems by Catherine Bowman. I really like her style and how she analyzes Sylvia and her things.

I really like how Catherine Bowman wrote poems inspired from wedding invitations. I think it is a very good idea, and something I never would have thought to do. I have struggled in class annotating and imitating certain styles. I feel when I have to imitate, I have to stick to a similar subject. Or I feel like I can't be creative on my own. I feel forced into writing a poem. I prefer free writing, and then use what I came up with on the free write. I really enjoyed in class, looking at a small object, and then free writing about that. Describing it, writing about it when it wasn't in my hands, and then getting it back again. I thought when we did that, I wrote one of my best poems to date. Another struggle I have, is finding a creative and interesting way of describing things, and being specific about things. I tend to be more vague in my poetry. When Sylvia describes things in certain ways, I feel like I could never describe things in an interesting way they way she does.

On the topic of ethics. I wanted to share in class that, I think ethically Catherine Bowman is not doing anything wrong, with using Sylvia, and her things to write poetry...So long as she got permission from the Plath family to do so. I think the way Catherine Bowman used her artistic process (Sylvia's things), to make a whole published book, was very intriguing. I wonder if anybody could just do that. Think of an artist that has died, gather some of their things, and then write about them and their lives. It is kind-of a weird concept to think about, it seems to be almost invasive, and what if you get things wrong about that person, you might offend someone. An interesting subject to think about.