ESL Poem
Monday, 12. March 2007, 00:52:50
All poems don't have to rhyme. What makes something a poem? Focus and economy! Poems value words and don't waste them. Poems are not careless with words. Poets try to find the right words to portray exactly what it is they want to say. There are many styles of poetry. Here is a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, called 'A Vast Confusion.' What do you think of it?
Long long I lay in the sands
Sounds of trains in the surf
in subways of the sea
And an even greater undersound
of a vast confusion in the universe
a rumbling and a roaring
as of some enormous creature turning
under sea and earth
a billion sotto voices murmuring
a vast muttering
a swelling stuttering
in ocean's speakers
world's voice-box heard with ear to sand
a shocked echoing
a shocking shouting
of all life's voices lost in night
And the tape of it
somehow running backwards now
through the Moog Synthesizer of time
Chaos unscrambled
back to the first
harmonies
And the first light.
Does it put you to sleep, trying to figure it out? Does it make you think?
Long long I lay in the sands
Sounds of trains in the surf
in subways of the sea
And an even greater undersound
of a vast confusion in the universe
a rumbling and a roaring
as of some enormous creature turning
under sea and earth
a billion sotto voices murmuring
a vast muttering
a swelling stuttering
in ocean's speakers
world's voice-box heard with ear to sand
a shocked echoing
a shocking shouting
of all life's voices lost in night
And the tape of it
somehow running backwards now
through the Moog Synthesizer of time
Chaos unscrambled
back to the first
harmonies
And the first light.
Does it put you to sleep, trying to figure it out? Does it make you think?
WIDGETIZE
☜☞Sarah☜☞ # 12. March 2007, 01:05
art because they can be interpreted in the
way that the reader wants to. When I write,
I know that there are going to be many
interpretations made of the poem. That said,
I see this poem as talking about a natural
disaster, I don't know how others will see it
but that is what it says to me, something of
an earthquake and tidal wave.
I find it beautiful.
Jon # 12. March 2007, 02:18
Thanks for sharing yor insight!
I am glad you didn't fall asleep!
-=J=-
Eliane a/k/a Elly # 12. March 2007, 02:45
I like the poem. Considering the poem, I think it is talking about creation and destruction; how Earth's creation still echoes the destruction from which it was born.
Jon # 12. March 2007, 15:36
Eliane a/k/a Elly # 13. March 2007, 00:07