Blog #9 -- Poetry Presentation

Reflection:
The project asked us to use a music video to depict the form of a poem. The form that our group was assigned was the sestina and the specific poem was "Sestina: Altaforte" by Ezra Pound. We had to analyze the form of the poem, where the tone shifts occurred, what style model would best fit this poem, and execute a music video that encompassed the natural tone shifts of the form.


I learned the most when analyzing the poem itself and how the author used the different tone shifts to relay a certain message. The most significant and difficult part of the task was trying to put literary devices used in the poem into a visual music video. Initially, I group was mesmerized by the poem and got sidetracked into the poem itself rather than the form as a whole. In the beginning, I underestimated the complexity of the poem and did not realize how significant the sestina form was to portraying the the theme of the poem.

Having done this project, I am more aware of how the structure affects literature. I have also learned that the rules of the poem form should not be seen as limiting but rather as another way to add nuances to the meaning of the poem.I believe that my skills in analyzing the effect of the form on a poem has increased because I am more aware of the subtleties. Personally, the most difficult part of this task was being able to work in the group with a variety of schedules and a variety of opinions. I believe the knowledge of the poem form will be useful in analyzing any text because, while it may not have the same form, every piece of literature has purposeful choices in the structure that affect the complexity and the meaning of the work as a whole. I think working in this group taught me a lot about how to work in a group project and how to split up the work and ask for help when help is needed. In the future, I hope to use this experience to help me with how I approach any piece of literature as well as how I approach any given task. I would like to change the way our group approaches the task so that we follow the timeline more strictly and divide the project into individual tasks.