1. fill in the blank: a) poetry is ____________. - anything you want it to be.
And so, the author explains her own stylistic choices with that short, dam1. fill in the blank: a) poetry is ____________. - anything you want it to be.
And so, the author explains her own stylistic choices with that short, damning declaration.
It’s so simple. Poetry can be what the reader makes of it. I have not yet met another medium that is so fundamentally reliant on the subjective experience. Whether words speak to you, ignite a sparkle in your soul, tear themselves into your memory, is almost invariably linked with the reader’s own, unique experience.
In The Princess Saves Herself in This One, Amanda Lovelace writes about her own experiences. Her childhood, bullying, abuse, alienation, her losses, her loves. Those experiences are radically subjective; and the reader’s perception of these words is most likely correlated with whether some of these experiences are shared.
As for my own, personal experience with these words: some of them spoke to me, sometimes they made me sigh with how contrived I found some of the wisdoms woven into the poetry. My main issue is that I found the stylistic choices incredibly annoying. A sentence doesn’t suddenly turn into poetry if a paragraph is inserted after every single word. Poetry as a medium seems perfect as an expressive playground of stylistic variations; for me, however, it was taken too far here, and ultimately could not win me over.
But as I said before: poetry is inherently subjective. This worked for a lot of people, just as it didn’t work for a lot of people. And both reactions are fine.
”Just because they don’t hit you doesn’t mean it isn’t abuse.”...more
“My own garden is my own garden,” said the Giant; “any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.”
The Selfish Giant is“My own garden is my own garden,” said the Giant; “any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.”
The Selfish Giant is a grumpy, uncooperative being who cherishes his peace and will not tolerate disruptions; when a group of children discover the garden to his castle and begin their plays in this new place, the Giant quickly puts an end to this interference to his blissful existence.
Oscar Wilde's short story paints a picturesque, fairy-tale-like image by using imaginative descriptions, allowing childlike imaginations to envision the beauty and excitement of an isolated garden full of magical secrets to uncover (sort of like the world of Frances Hodgson Burnett's secret garden if it belonged to Ebenezer Scrooge).
With his child-like prose, Wilde's story quickly distinguishes itself from his more prominent full-length novels that often dealt with the moral abysses of humanity, instead opting for a much more hopeful portrayal of positivity in a morality tale written for children about the magnitude of vanity and self-centeredness of humans (represented by the central character being a giant, of course).
What might come as the biggest surprise of The Selfish Giant is the ending, however. I do not want to spoil anything here, but if the almost childish writing made you doubt whether it was indeed an Oscar Wilde story you were reading, the final conclusion is what undoubtedly gives this story its memorable touch and ensures that it will continue to linger in the minds of its readers.
Then the Spring came, and all over the country there were little blossoms and little birds. Only in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was still winter....more
Fabian {Councillor}
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Books:
fairy-tales
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