Poetic Technique

During the first week of class, I was a little skeptical about how poetry would grow on me but now at the end of all of this, I can say this has been one of the best classes I've taken. This class has taught me that it's okay to feel and write certain ways and it has made me think out of the box a l

This was definitely my favorite chapter in Nine Gates. This response also took me a ridiculously long time to write because I have pretty mixed feelings about what Hirschfield is saying. To me, this chapter really encouraged exploring the fuzzy edges of personhood and personality and what it means t

In this chapter of Nine Gates, Jane Hirshfield describes what she calls the "threshold state of ambiguity, openness and indeterminacy" that poetry and prose allow for writers - as well as their audiences - to enter into. Throughout the chapter she expounds upon this "state of 'betwixt and between'"

"Awareness of emptiness brings forth the heart of compassion." What this chapter really imparted in me was the idea of transforming the consciousness. There is a brief moment of time, the space in between seconds, the space between words of a sentence that the poet lies in. There they live in, in

Within this chapter, Hirshfield maintains that knowledge realm of sound is very dissimilar from that of the visual when considering in what ways poetry works to create remembrance. She details that "sound is perceived as coming toward and entering" (178) meaning that the incorporation of sound withi

(better late than never haha) ... The reason as to why I chose this poem and why I think it relates to the remembrance chapter is because of the cultural significance that Dinéyazhi' discuses within this poem. It is not necessarily a memory that the author had from their own life, but the autho

To refer to your heart as The Penguinery To bronze your heart-shaped knees To run numbers up the flagpole To vespertine Maria To chia-pet the fairway and to shrinky-dink the admiral To love your colorized body even more than the original To knit cob-webs out of sugar cubes while the fulsome, die

Hey y'all, I hope everyone's well. I suppose I'll just jump right into discussing my "poetic journey." I have always been kind of scared of poetry. I really enjoy the media, and have always tried to write it myself but have been afraid of my own work. I was scared that it was too angsty, or too cri

While reading this chapter, the main idea that I took away from Hirshfield was that as writers, we need to go beyond who we are and our experiences in order to write. "To speak, and to write, is to assert who we are, what we think. The necessary other side is to surrender these things -- to stand hu

This was a really interesting chapter to read. I'm not very well versed in Buddhism or many of the spiritual practices Hirschfeld talks about, so she lost me at some points (which is not unusual for this book). However, the gist of what she seemed to be saying is that writing can be used as a way to

This final chapter of Nine Gates serves not only as summation of the book itself, but of my own journey as a writer, and a person. I think anyone who gives themselves over to the pursuit of truth - for that is all art is, is the pursuit of truth - is aware of their existence at this border between m

"For most members of a community, the liminal is a point of transition, entered briefly, at a particular time, in passage towards something else; such persons are dipped into nonidentity and self-forgetfulness in order to change who they are. For some, though, the liminal becomes their only dwelling

On page 221, Hirshfield says something extremely intriguing (and quite simple). "To speak, and to write, is to assert who we are, what we think." For me, I have always viewed poetry as the opportunity to "spill oneself" without any fear or danger. With this chapter, the idea of threshold and being

Within this chapter of Nine Gates, Hiershfield details the task often assumed by many twentieth century poets that is the task of choosing to look at and explore the part of the human experience that is most difficult to see, what Carl Jung called, the shadow by means of new subject matter and techn

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Dru

I chose this poem because I felt like it went best with the chapter, Hirshfield says in Mnemosyne’s world the oral world who’s in men’s shadow we can see in the works of homer and which lives on in virtually every characteristic by which we recognize poetry as poetry all the qualities that work to h

Hello guys, I hope you all are doing well! Below I have attached a link to my portfolio, which features a collection of my poems from this semester, some of reflection/analysis of my time in class, and playlists that I made to coincide with 4 of my poems! It was great getting to know you all and he

This chapter took me a while to read because I would read one of the poems and then get inspired and write one myself, and this happened a few times. I really liked this section though. This was one of the few chapters where Hirshfield gave us very clear advise to help us with our writing. As Hirshf

While I have not always understood Hirschfield, I feel I took away an important aspect of being a good writer and a good person. In particular, Hirschfield points out that being a writer means being able to rid yourself of the norms in society that separate people by class, sex, gender, ethnicity, r

Hirshfield's final and probably most impactful chapter really drove home the idea poetry should push boundaries and capture all the joyful and painful life aspects we experience every day. Everyone's interpretations of this chapter that I've read, Bijan, Matt, and Emma, and all the others who contri

"Speaking from the point of view of multiplicity, betweenness, and visitation, the writer can become a person in whom both individuality and community may ripen into true expression." (Hirschfield 205) I think that this line from Hirschfield really sums up the entire piece for me. Humans are not is

I like how Hirshfield starts off the chapter by saying the many ways to look at this story and all of its images. I like how she says to consider the play in the light of a concept from anthropology to look at an aged figure who exemplifies the realm of the luminal. I will say ending on this chapter

I'm just going to link the poem here because it's a pretty long read (but worth it). I chose this poem for a couple of reasons: 1) the epigraph, 2) the repetition. The epigraph is an excerpt from Dante's Inferno. This relates back to the chapter, Vessel of Remembrance, because it quite literally c

This text describes moments that can transcend time but still hold this emotional connection to it. A longing for self through memory. Connecting this to the poem: The importance of visuals being used to conjure up these feelings of nostalgia.

Another poem not from my anthology, sorry Mat!! Reading this chapter made me instantly think of this poem because it was written six days before Plath's death and is considered by many scholars as her version of a suicide note, since Plath never left any formal letter. In this chapter, Hirschfeld mu