A Sophomore Essay and Random Things

November 30, 2005 at 10:04 PM

Haven't practiced yet, because I had lots to do.
I got to eat lunch with my friend, Sam, today (yeah!), and then I came home and wrote a raving review on this nonfiction text on poetry we read.
For those who care about such things:

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How to Write Poetry
From adolescents to senior citizens, people of all sorts love to read and write poetry. Perhaps the latter even more, for poetry allows one to express oneself in ways no other art can. But learning proper poetic authorship can be a challenge, and often one who has begun the study of poetry will abandon all hopes of ever becoming a bard after he gets bogged down with the plethora of rules and regulations for this seemingly simple craft. This is where Nancy Bogan comes in.
An English professor at the College of Staten Island, Bogan is the author of the poetry handbook, How to Write Poetry. This handy little text is bursting at the seams with information, enough, in fact, to springboard an amateur poet on the way to becoming a full-fledged writer. Bogan begins at the beginning: the usage of words. Building up from this base, How to Write Poetry goes on to introduce new terms (such as similes, oxymorons, spoonerisms, and other such knick-knacks) and stylistic word play often used in writing. Bogan then introduces the reader to traditional English verse, drawing examples from such renowned rhymesters as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Gerard Manley Hopkins. With a chapter dipping into free verse and another sampling the Italian sonnet, the information in so small a tome is quite astounding. The work ends with a list of contact information for magazines which publish poems and a four-page bibliography. Chock-full of facts for the less-experienced versifier, this is a must-have for anyone interested in diving into the world of poetry.
This handy volume, guaranteed to captivate anyone with an appreciation of the language that is poetry, is an excellent starting point for the budding sonneteer and is well worth its scanty price. Bogan provides a textbook covering many of the most interesting aspects of the art. Her inventive exercises, designed to spark the readers imagination, her informal, conversational writing style, and her top-notch choices of well-known poems, dotted throughout the paperback as examples, keep the readers interest level high and leave him wishing for more when the pages come to an end. High-school English teachers, young adults, and even mature readers interested in dabbling with words will find this charming little manual a bargain.
As Bogan goes through the mechanics of the poem and the details that make poetry come alive, the reader will find himself having more fun than would be expected in a textbook. Bogan’s How to Write Poetry leaves readers with a greater appreciation of poems and a zealous desire to write one themselves.
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So yeah, I wrote that, and then I got my thinning hair cut. My hairdresser said it was actually okay, just needed a good cut of four inches or so.
*phew* I was worried it would be, like, seven, eight, ten inches (I have two feet of hair, so I'm not exaggerating, You can't tell in my pic cause I wear it bundled up when I play.

So yeah.
Oh, and Mr. Gao said we're going to play Flight of the Bumblebee for string ensemble with a xylophone soloist. Sweet, huh?

I'm listening to the "Glaz". I'm adding that to my "Should play with orchestra" list. Not to be confused with the "MUST be played with orchestra" list.
Ehe.
Hey, y'all are musicians. You understand...

From Sydney Menees
Posted on November 30, 2005 at 10:39 PM

I got a trim on Monday...it was only an inch, though.

From Linda L
Posted on November 30, 2005 at 10:51 PM

I gotta get my hair trimmed soon. It's about 2 ft 4 inches, the last time my friend measured it, and that was about a month ago. o_O It gets stuck in everything: My chinrest, my bow, my music stand, the bathroom door, the little screws in the back of chairs, agenda books, hands of people I dont know. I just hate getting hair cut.

From Emily Grossman
Posted on December 1, 2005 at 4:42 AM

I chopped mine to shoulder length the day I left town last week, and you wouldn't believe how much fuller it will make your hair feel. Unless you were actually seeing bald patches in your head, I'd say that it felt thin because it was getting so long. That's the case most of the time.

Think of something exciting to do with it!

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A Sophomore Essay and Random Things

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