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Consortium Response #2: Poetry to Create Mood

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Post  Mr. Lyon Mon Feb 25, 2013 4:36 pm

For your second forum response, please read the poems "Life is fine" by Langston Hughes and "Touched by an Angel" by Maya Angelou that are posted under the "Assignments and Agenda" section of the class website. (These are both easily findable online, as well.)

Please post a response to this topic in which you examine and explain the word choices, details, and sound/structural elements that either Angelou and/or Hughes utilized in crafting their poems. Provide evidence in the form of specific lines, words, and/or phrases that help to convey your thoughts.

Remember to follow the rules of forum posting as set on our class website under the tab "Creative Consortium." You must post an original response of your own AND two replies to two classmates' responses in order to receive full credit for this assignment. [b]DO NOT CREATE NEW TOPICS WHEN RESPONDING TO THIS PROMPT; simply respond WITHIN this topic.[/b]

DUE DATE/TIME: Friday, March 1 (responses must be posted no later than 8:00 AM)
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Post  DTMF Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:15 pm

[u]life is fine by Langston Hughes:[/u] Hughes' use of repetition in lines 9, 18, and 27 demonstrate the shock felt by the speaker in the poem when confronted with a situation where he cannot commit suicide because he makes excuses for himself. Line 9 states that "...it was Cold in that water! It was cold!" meaning that because the water is so cold, he cannot drown himself in it, leading me to think that he doesn't really want to die.
[u]touched by an angel by Maya Angelou:[/u] The use of alliteration in line 4 when Angelou says a "high holy temple" gives the temple more significance and makes it pop out to the reader. Also, any words that rhyme in the poem stand out because most of the poem does not rhyme, therefore making rhyming a rare occurrence and much more noticeable.

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Post  31544 Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:42 pm

"Touched By an Angel" by Maya Angelou

The poem does not have a strong rhyme scheme, as it's meaning does not require one.
"shells of loneliness" is a symbol for the residence of isolation that many grow around themselves if they do not let themselves experience love. Love, flying down from it's "high holy temple", is almost personified in it's goodness and holiness. Angelou uses this to show love as a caring thing. It is said to "liberate" souls by merely coming into their sight, striking away the "chains of fear" and setting us free.
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Post  llamasarecool Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:58 pm

"Life is Fine" by Langston Hughes

This poem follows an ABCA rhyme pattern except for lines 9, 18, and 27. This is an unusual rhyme pattern, but fits the poem quite nicely. Personification is used when the author capitalizes Cold and High. This is also powerful because the author obviously wants the reader to feel the depth and power that this words means and creates. I think this poem is about a person who wants to commit suicide, but keeps giving him/herself reasons to not go through with it, meaning that the person probably doesn't really want to die. For example, in line 18, the person says how high the elevator is, so that it is too high to jump off of.The repetition of the words die, cry, and high give the poem a sad appearance, while words like livin', love, and baby give the poem a lighter aspect.

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Post  llamasarecool Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:03 am

I like the fact that you explained how both poems use word choice and detail to craft the poem. I also like the fact that you gave specific lines and quotes from the poem to help explain your meaning. I liked the explanation for "Life is Fine", but I think you could have explained just a little more about the theme and mood in "Touched by an Angel". Very nice response!

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Post  llamasarecool Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:06 am

I like that you used words like alliteration and personification. I also liked the fact that you used specific quotes from the poem. Very nice way of saying how the elements contribute to crafting the poem, also.

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Post  Dark Woods Thu Feb 28, 2013 6:52 pm

In the poem Life is fine by Langston Hughes, the speaker talks about committing suicide, but the meter in the poem seems to disagree with what he is saying the rhythm makes the poem sound carefree, while his word choice also seems to go with that mood. I find it strange that he wrote the poem like this. When he writes his excuses for not drowning, or leaping to his death, his wording doesn't portray him being scared at all. The repetition at the end of the ends of lines nine and eighteen seems to make the situation almost joking and less realistic. His word choice also conflicts with the mood you'd expect in a poem about an attempted suicide. He uses words like "hollered", "a-been", "livin'", and "dogged". The final line really makes the speaker seem like he never really intended to end his life in the first place. "Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!" This line makes him seem too relaxed for someone who was about to kill himself.
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Post  seguin199 Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:34 pm

In "Life Is Fine" by Langston Hughes, the poem has a well thought out rhyme scheme that makes the poem sound very smooth. The poem had an ABCB rhyme scheme which highlighted certain words and phrases such as "cried" and "died". The topic of the poem was rather dark and depressing, whereas on the other hand, the rhythm of the poem is very light and happy. Most lines started with the speaker saying "I." This comes across as something very personal, even though many people can relate to these types of feelings. In the second poem, the author uses an interesting use of rhyme. Personally I didn't enjoy this poem as much because of where the rhyming words were used. This poem showed how expressing different emotions can give off very different moods. When she says "Love arrives." We feel a sense of happiness and joy. However, when she says "ancient histories of pain." we completely loose the sense of happiness and get the feeling of grief in return.

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Post  seguin199 Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:40 pm

I agree with you when you said that the mood of the poem is altered because the rhythm of the poem counteracts. When you said "his wording doesn't portray him being scared at all." I feel that this was something that the author did to show how the speaker didn't care about his life. When it all comes down to it, the poem is about suicide and why would he want to end his life if he cared about it?

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Post  Dark Woods Thu Feb 28, 2013 7:50 pm

I too thought that the poems structure was smooth sounding, looking deeper into the poem, perhaps this light and happy mood, was meant to be read this way, sort of jokingly, to the loved one that the speaker wrote about in order to brush aside these suicidal actions. He could have done this to make it seem like he was really alright, that it was no big deal, and that this girl shouldn't worry.
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Post  emptybackpack Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:01 pm

In "Life is Fine" Hughes uses contrast and contradiction to illustrate his point. He follows a pattern, writing two stanzas conjuring the futility and anxiety of life, and presenting the dark idea of the ending of it, and the fear of going through that. He contradicts himself with a single line after these two stanzas expressing some enthusiasm for life (note the exclamation points). He concludes with a final set of stanzas expressing that life is in fact worth it. His contradictions set up a great contrast, and the final set of stanzas placed after the the first two imparts positive feeling upon the reader.

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Post  jemoria Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:22 pm

In the poem "Life is Fine" by Langston Hughes a great deal of words are used intentionally to create a mood. The poem consists six stanzas, and the first four stanzas are the Hughes attempts to commit suicide. But he just can't bring himself to do it. He emphasizes his incapability by using exclamation points:
“I came up once and hollered! I came up twice and cried!”
"But it was High up there! It was high!"
This brightens the mood of the poem and makes it sounds more hopeful. Hughes also uses rhyme. He doesn't just rhyme for the sake of rhyming however. He using it to convey the mood of uncertainty and hope that he uses throughout the poem.
He rhymes:
-cried and died in the 2nd stanza
-down and ground in the 3rd
-cried and died again in the 4th
These words evoke emotion "cried and died" tell a story of someone being upset and then dying. Hughes rhymes to create a certain mood.

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Post  seguin199 Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:37 pm

I also thought that the author was trying to convey someone who wanted to commit suicide but didn't decide to go through with it. I also thought that the rhyme scheme worked very well with the poem. It had a really nice flow and it helped to display the overall meaning of the poem. Even though the rhyme scheme was obscure, it came across to me as the author was unsure about a set rhyme scheme, just like the speaker was unsure about committing suicide.

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Post  kayykayy Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:48 pm

Life is Fine; So I think this poem is about death as a solution, in the line “I tried to think but couldn’t; So I jumped in and sank.” to me that means the person used death a permanent solution to their problems. But then later on in the poem it shows how the attempt of dying failed twice so he screams and cries. oh and the line “I thought about my baby -And thought I would jump down”, shows that his problem was love, and maybe a heart break led him to this decision.

Touched by an Angel; This poems main point that i got was once youve been hurt from love you hide from it like in the line "And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be." The author thinks that without love people are empty and alone "live coiled in shells of loneliness" but with love they are "Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls." which means that if people can be lucky enough to find love it will be amazing.

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Post  kayykayy Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:51 pm

I like that you brought up the point that the author "uses words like "hollered", "a-been", "livin'", and "dogged". The final line really makes the speaker seem like he never really intended to end his life in the first place. "Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!" This line makes him seem too relaxed for someone who was about to kill himself." Its deff something to think about when reading the poem!!

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Post  kayykayy Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:53 pm

"Hughes uses contrast and contradiction to illustrate his point. He follows a pattern, writing two stanzas conjuring the futility and anxiety of life" This point I feel is extremely strong and adds when you think about it when reading the poem again!

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Post  gbs13 Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:01 pm

In the poem “Life is Fine” the narrator is attempting to commit suicide. Hughes is describing the man when he talks about how he is going to jump from the building, or how he is going to drown himself. Hughes has repeated the use of the word “cried,” and using it with “died”. This gives the effect that the narrator really doesn’t want to die, because he is truly saddened at the thought of killing himself and ultimately dying. Then Hughes brings in the idea that the man really doesn’t want to die and he is giving reasons to justify his backing out of the act. He says how “If that water hadn’t a-been so cold” also saying that “If it hadn’t a-been so high” as reasons for why he decided not to commit the suicide by drowning or jumping from the building, making me think that again he really doesn’t want to die and is only looking for ways to get out of it. Even though he does not want to die he also is clearly not happy with his life. While he doesn’t want to die as seen from his crying, and because he is talking himself out of it he wishes that his life was different. When he says “Life is fine!” and repeats it, it is almost as if he is trying to convince himself that his life is fine so that he won’t need to kill himself to escape his problems.

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Post  gbs13 Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:09 pm

I liked your while response and how you discussed the differnt rhymes and how they are important. I especially liked how you talked about the puncuation and how that changes the mood and plays a role. Good job.

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Post  gbs13 Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:21 pm

I really liked how you talked about how the meter disagrees with the rhythm I think that it was a good point to make. I also liked how you touched upon the fact that he sounds too relaxed to commit suicide which adds to the mood of the poem. Lastly I liked your choice of examples and thought they they supported your points well. Nice job!

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Post  jemoria Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:38 pm

I agree with your point on Hughes contradiction between the tone and words he uses and the actual topic he is writing about; his struggle with suicide. Great response, well thought out and overall a very good job!

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Post  Dark Woods Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:53 pm

Suicide is the focus of the poem, but being saddened by the fact that he was going to die wouldn't make sense for the speaker. Generally people who commit suicide are too upset over whatever is bothering them to be saddened by the fact that their life will end, they just want instant from the stress or pain they have undergone, although it is the speakers own decision, i think the reason that he stopped himself from doing anything was because he was scared, not because the fact that he would have died made him sad.
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Post  Kingoflizard Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:04 pm

In "Life is fine" I like how water being cold and the building's height was almost a convoluted way of a metaphor, a metaphor is an association of two completely different objects as being the same thing. The way I saw it was two completely different things ( the low temperature and the height) meaning not the same thing, but two possible things. Those possibilities being: A. the height and temperature were good because in the end they saved his life or B. They were bad because they did'nt do what he originally wanted, death.
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Post  jemoria Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:21 pm

I agree with you in that the poem sounds smooth and easy in an effort to explain to someone that his thoughts were "no big deal". Just like you said it seems as though he's explaining it to a friend or something and sort of down playing it trying to rhyme and sounds funny. Great ideas and good job!

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Post  Jungleboogie Thu Feb 28, 2013 10:36 pm

Hughes' poem "Life is Fine" really reminded me of bipolar disorder/ depression. He jumps from ideas that contradict each other (Ex- lines 10-13 v. 18-20) and the ideas discussed are exceedingly sad. The topic of suicide is prominent throughout the entire work, However, it seems as if something clicks in Hughes mind to silence the suicidal impulses. This silence therefore creates the dramatic mood changes. Hughes also uses enjambment (lines 8-9) to illustrate the just how quickly his mind changes. With all of these combined Hughes creates a very melancholy, depressing, and frightening mood.

@Dark Woods. I must disagree with you (to an extent). "being saddened by the fact that he was going to die wouldn't make sense for the speaker." I agree that the speaker is afraid of death but I believe they are also saddened by the idea of killing them self. Suicide is more of a last resort. They feel they have no other way out of their pain. How would that not sadden them? The fact that they believe they must DIE rather than live because their life is far too painful is extremely sad. I think that they are just using their fear as an excuse that way they don't actually kill them self.

@gbs13. "When he says “Life is fine!” and repeats it, it is almost as if he is trying to convince himself that his life is fine so that he won’t need to kill himself to escape his problems." I couldn't agree more. To coincide with your interpretation, Hughes seems so defeated at this point. It appears that he still has hope for a brighter future (which can mainly be expressed by him not committing suicide) but he also reiterates his hope by attempting to persuade himself. It's quite a beautiful poem.
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Post  b-l-a-c-k-l-i-g-h-t Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:51 pm

[color=blue]Life is Fine: I feel this poem is about having suicide being the only answer to their problem as said, “I tried to think but couldn’t; So I jumped in and sank.” which really stood out to me personally with the context clues of death.
Touched by an Angel: The line "Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls." made me think a lot to what it means, and I ruminatively thought that it meant Love only comes to you if you stand out, not if your shy but thats just my opinion

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Post  TeamDizzieKappa19 Fri Mar 01, 2013 12:25 am

Touched By An Angel: This poem conveys two contrasting moods in order to juxtapose them and make them both feel more intense. First it conveys a feeling of sadness and emptiness, which is seen by Angelou's use of the words "shells of loneliness" and "ancient histories of pain" these phrases show the reader how it is to feel lost and alone and hurt, and it is not a very fun mood. But it is used in order for the reader to enjoy the other mood even more, and the next mood is joy. This joy is expressed by the feeling of loving another and being loved in return. This mood is shown through her use of the phrases, "liberate us into life" and "in its train come ecstasies".

Life is Fine: This poem gives the reader the mood of strength of mind and will. The poem is all about thoughts, and attempts of suicide and how the narrator rethought his choices at the last minute and saved his own life. And then the poem says why, and the narrator explains that "But for livin' I was born" giving a logical-to-him reason for continuing to live, but the sentence wasn't about justifying saving himself to the reader, it was about letting himself know that he had made the right choice by not killing himself, and that sense of self-awareness and sureness shows the strong will and mind that the narrator has.

Response to Dark Woods:
In your response to Life is Fine, you talked about how the poem seemed to make light of the situation and made it seem like he was never going to kill himself in the first place. I like that you supported your argument with specific examples from the poem, but I am going to respectfully disagree with you. I think that the lightheartedness of the poem made the suicide attempts more realistic because the lightness of the poem shows that 1) he is proud of himself for not going through with them, and 2) that he is working hard to stay in a better mood so there isn't a successful attempt coming in his future. I also think that the last line "Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!" is his last attempt in the poem to prove to both the reader and himself that life is worth living and that he isn't going to try to kill himself again.

Response to seguin199:
I loved that you noticed the use of the word "I" because I didn't pay much attention to it, but you are right, it does make the poem more personal and a bit more intense and real. It also drastically effects the mood of the poem, because if it was in third person, we would have gotten the mood of apathy about someone else's suicide attempts, but because it was in first person, it kept the mood grounded and deep.

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Post  Jmo Fri Mar 01, 2013 12:50 am

In "Life is Fine" the poet uses word choice to convey mood. The speaker "hollared" and "cried;" both words hold negetive connotations, giving the poem an intense tone. "Cold" describes the water and "high" describes the building. These two words are the speaker's claimed reason for not dying in the water and not jumping off the building, but both words are unpleasant, reinforcing the negetive mood of the poem.
In "Touched by an Angel" the poet also incorporates cirten words to create a mood. The speaker decides to say "we" instead of me or you. This implyes a universal meaning, creating a mood of unification. The speaker also refers to a train in the poem. "Train" is used as a meaphore instead of car, bus, etc. because trains cant quickly stop, they are powerful, and they must be run by much work and many people, (refering back to "we.")

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Post  Jmo Fri Mar 01, 2013 12:56 am

I agree with B-l-a-c-k-l-i-g-h-t-'s points about how "Life is Fine" is about saddness, and how "Touched by an Angel" is about love. This reinforces the idea that the mood of "Life is Fine" is negative, whereas the mood of "Touched by an Angel" is posative. The moods of the poems contrast each other.

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Post  Jmo Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:00 am

I like how Jemoria described the hopeful, bright mood amidst the darkness of "Life is Fine."
"'I came up once and hollered! I came up twice and cried!'
'But it was High up there! It was high!'
This brightens the mood of the poem and makes it sounds more hopeful.'"

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Post  TheKeeper00 Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:43 am

“Life is Fine” In Life is Fine Langston Hughes creates a dark mood. The ABCB rhyme scheme makes the B lines stand out for example bank sank, cried died and ground down. The structure of the poem is also interesting, having two stanzas then a single line to break up the next two which I feel gives the idea of Hughes being indecisive and constantly changing his mind on killing himself.

“Touched by an Angel” – The mood of this poem isn’t as dark but instead almost gives off a melancholy feeling towards love with words like “old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain” also the constant use of words starting with L give off a feeling of being slow and dull.
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Post  TheKeeper00 Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:47 am

I like how Jmo explained the words "Cold" and "high" and how they act as the readers excuses for not dying and how they are "reinforcing the negative mood of the poem." nice job.
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Post  TheKeeper00 Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:52 am

I also like how Jungleboogie brings up the idea of bipolar disorder/ depression because throughout the poem the speaker contemplates death and keeps on changing their mind yet in the end the speaker says that life is fine which does help create the idea of being bipolar. nice job!

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Post  RemyWilde Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:22 am

What I noticed in Langston Hughes poem "Life Is Fine" is the repetition of capital letters in the middle of a sentence. It happens twice in the poem. Once, on line 9: "But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!" And again on line 18: "But it was High up there! It was high!" I believe Langston Hughes used these capital letters on a single word in the middle of a sentence to emphasize how cold the water was or how high the building was. When reading the poem, one automatically emphasizes these words to give a stronger meaning to the poem in general.

In Maya Angelou's poem "Touched by an Angel", the particular word choice in each stanza is interesting and almost creates a motif that coincides with the subject of the poem. The first stanza has the words: courage, exiles, and high holy temple. The second stanza: ancient histories, bold, strikes, chains. The third being: timidity, brave, suddenly, free. These words give the poem an almost battlefield motif pertaining to love. Angelou's word choice makes me believe that both finding and falling in love is difficult to go through, like a battlefield.

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Post  Kingoflizard Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:07 pm

I like how you think that "Love only comes to you if you stand out, not if your shy but thats just my opinion" from the quotes by Maya Angelou. It seems like a smart thing to think when a quote like that pops up, I see it as sort of a be yourself and don't be ashamesd kind of thing.
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Post  Kingoflizard Fri Mar 01, 2013 1:52 pm

I didn't see it from your point of view on how Hughes doesn't really want to die and how he is making excuses on how he almost died but survived. I saw it as: he was really trying to die but just couldn't but I see how you can see his excuses and that he really wants to live
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Post  sadie24 Sun Mar 03, 2013 9:14 pm

In "Life is fine" by Langston Hughes, rhyme is used both to keep the poem flowing, but also to make certain lines stick out.
"But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!"
"But it was High up there! It was high!"
"Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!"
Lines 9,18, and 27 all have a greater impact because the ear is drawn to them. Also, Hughes uses punctuation and capitalization to put emphasis on certain words and phrases. He also uses imagery in his poem by making his audience imagine the river and the elevator. His word choice added to the poem, giving it a very negative tone. His use of words like sank, hollered, cried, cold, and died all shape the poem to give off the tone he wanted. Also, his repetition of words like hollered, cold, and cried are successful at making sure the mood is clear.

In "Touched by an Angel" by Maya Angelou, she uses a simple structure that reflects the calm tone of the poem. She uses a structure that I have not seen before, however, with stanzas of 6, 7, and 8 lines. A few of her lines rhyme, but there does not seem to be a specific rhyme scheme. The lines that stand out because they rhyme are lines 2 and 5, and 17, 19, and 21. Angelou's word choice does an excellent job reflecting her thoughts about love: that love can change you. She uses words such as liberate, ecstasies, pleasure, light, brave, and free to show how amazing love can be. On the other hand, she uses words such as pain, chains of fear, and loneliness to show what life is without love.

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Post  sadie24 Sun Mar 03, 2013 9:20 pm

[quote="Jmo"]In "Life is Fine" the poet uses word choice to convey mood. The speaker "hollared" and "cried;" both words hold negetive connotations, giving the poem an intense tone. "Cold" describes the water and "high" describes the building. These two words are the speaker's claimed reason for not dying in the water and not jumping off the building, but both words are unpleasant, reinforcing the negetive mood of the poem.
In "Touched by an Angel" the poet also incorporates cirten words to create a mood. The speaker decides to say "we" instead of me or you. This implyes a universal meaning, creating a mood of unification. The speaker also refers to a train in the poem. "Train" is used as a meaphore instead of car, bus, etc. because trains cant quickly stop, they are powerful, and they must be run by much work and many people, (refering back to "we.") [/quote]

I thought that this was insightful, and you gave ideas about the poems that I had not even thought of. The only advice I have is that you may want to also talk about any sound devices and structure in the poems. Nice work!

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Post  sadie24 Sun Mar 03, 2013 9:27 pm

[quote="gbs13"]In the poem “Life is Fine” the narrator is attempting to commit suicide. Hughes is describing the man when he talks about how he is going to jump from the building, or how he is going to drown himself. Hughes has repeated the use of the word “cried,” and using it with “died”. This gives the effect that the narrator really doesn’t want to die, because he is truly saddened at the thought of killing himself and ultimately dying. Then Hughes brings in the idea that the man really doesn’t want to die and he is giving reasons to justify his backing out of the act. He says how “If that water hadn’t a-been so cold” also saying that “If it hadn’t a-been so high” as reasons for why he decided not to commit the suicide by drowning or jumping from the building, making me think that again he really doesn’t want to die and is only looking for ways to get out of it. Even though he does not want to die he also is clearly not happy with his life. While he doesn’t want to die as seen from his crying, and because he is talking himself out of it he wishes that his life was different. When he says “Life is fine!” and repeats it, it is almost as if he is trying to convince himself that his life is fine so that he won’t need to kill himself to escape his problems. [/quote]

I agree with your thoughts about what the poet is trying to say, and you made points that I had not noticed before. This response is well thought out, but it could include more ideas about sound devices and structure. Keep up the good work!

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Post  31544 Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:17 pm

[quote="Dark Woods"]In the poem Life is fine by Langston Hughes, the speaker talks about committing suicide, but the meter in the poem seems to disagree with what he is saying the rhythm makes the poem sound carefree, while his word choice also seems to go with that mood. I find it strange that he wrote the poem like this. When he writes his excuses for not drowning, or leaping to his death, his wording doesn't portray him being scared at all. The repetition at the end of the ends of lines nine and eighteen seems to make the situation almost joking and less realistic. His word choice also conflicts with the mood you'd expect in a poem about an attempted suicide. He uses words like "hollered", "a-been", "livin'", and "dogged". The final line really makes the speaker seem like he never really intended to end his life in the first place. "Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!" This line makes him seem too relaxed for someone who was about to kill himself. [/quote]

Interesting comment. Certainly a different way of looking at it than I did.
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Post  31544 Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:20 pm

[quote="Jungleboogie"]Hughes' poem "Life is Fine" really reminded me of bipolar disorder/ depression. He jumps from ideas that contradict each other (Ex- lines 10-13 v. 18-20) and the ideas discussed are exceedingly sad. The topic of suicide is prominent throughout the entire work, However, it seems as if something clicks in Hughes mind to silence the suicidal impulses. This silence therefore creates the dramatic mood changes. Hughes also uses enjambment (lines 8-9) to illustrate the just how quickly his mind changes. With all of these combined Hughes creates a very melancholy, depressing, and frightening mood. [/quote]

Interesting way to look at it. I like the original ideas. Can't quite agree on the mood, though. I'd say it is a little more cheerful or joking.
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