Response to the Woody Guthrie exerpt

This excerpt made me feel impressed by the way Woody Guthrie uses language in order to describe “the wild canyons of Wall Street” and its effect on people. Through his language he creates a vivid picture of a hectic and therefore threatening city. He repeats the word “afraid” three times in one sentence. Basically, his technique of repetition is probably meant to emphasise the threat that is caused by the very big skyscrapers that make the individual appear to be very small and meaningless. Another very important symbol is the ticker which indicates how much affected people are by today’s fast moving and hectic life which makes especially poor people suffer who are living “on the slummy edges”. This picture is even more intensified by the use of many negatively connotated words such as “deaths”, “divorces”, “lies”, and “explodes”.

The threatening first impressions of the speaker are followed by the contradicting image of a seaman. Everybody wants to escape his duties and the hectic life sometimes I guess. And the picture of a seaman illustrates that intention quite well. Being a seaman and sailing across the oceans means some kind of freedom the “canyons of the Wall Street” can not provide, they can only provide material thing.

Actually, I like the way the speaker appreciates the simple things of life. He just walks around watching people. He even begins to sing in the street while children listen to him and wants him to sing louder.I would probably never sing on the street, but I think it is sometimes important to escape the every-day life and just enjoy little things.

Response in Chapter 5: The Sound (and Look) of Sense

Response on Chapter 5: The Sound (and Look) of Sense

Thinking about rhyme and his effects is very interesting. In elementary school I had to learn many poems by heart. And as far as I can remember they always rhymed. At that time I liked rhyme since it was easier to learn I guess.

In this chapter the author states that especially in English language it is hard to find exact rhyme which is obviously the case for the words “circle” and “month”. When writing poems I have also experienced how difficult it is to find rhyming words especially as a non-native speaker.

However, I prefer poems that do not rhyme since rhyme often appears to make the poem some kind of harmonic. It could also draw the attention away from the poem’s content or make the tone change. When I wanted to create a poem that was partly about the sky the words “flying high in the sky” popped up immediately. It’s because these words can be found in many songs so that they have become overused I guess. Actually, I did not want to create any rhyme at all. The point is that many line endings do not surprise the reader or listener anymore since they occurred to our ears so many times just because they rhyme.

Basically, I think rhyme is only a good thing if the poet wants to create a poem that is really ironic. So the harmonic effect of rhyme would underline the irony intended. And this kind of contradiction would probably make the poem more provoking.