In Friday night when rest I took
Lit up my phone I did not look
With every message heard the sound
And then the noise came all around.
I checked to find that dreadful sight:
Of texts inviting me at night.
I, starting up, began to drive
And quite soon I was to arrive,
But then my mind began to roam
Considering going back home.
I was convinced to stay some more
But still looking towards the door.
And when I could no longer stay,
And was socially drained away,
I looked towards the coming days
For I had time to sleep away.
So stayed some more I did with friends
Then to myself on the weekends.
In Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House”, she writes about the fire and the items she lost along with her home. She later realizes that her material belongings are meaningless, and her house in heaven awaits her. She places God above all else and praises him for his greatness. Overall, Bradstreet portrays how religion was the center of Puritan communities and how it shaped the literary era. She uses juxtaposition, end rhyme, meter, personification, and other literary devices to give her poem rhythm and communicate her purpose that God is all powerful and worldly goods are meaningless. In my mini poem, “Upon the Leaving of My House”, I mimic the work of Anne Bradstreet. I describe the exciting start of my Friday nap, when it is interrupted by a text. I am convinced to sadly leave my home while I am in no extroverted mood. I make the realization that I have the whole weekend to sleep and “recharge”. I integrated the beginning line in the first three stanzas of Bradstreet's poem into my own. “In silent night when rest [she] took” (Bradstreet line 1), the fire started to burn her house down. Relating the fire to the text message, I changed her silent night to the “...Friday night when rest I took” to parody her work. I also used iambic tetrameter, end rhyme and inverted syntax to mimic her style.
I really enjoyed your poem and how detailed you were in mimicking Bradstreet's style. I also thought it was very clever how you analyzed that Bradstreet's poem was centered around religion and how that was the center of puritan life and used that to focus your center around your theme. You showed how modern society tends to be geared towards extroverts and your introverted look at that was very cool!
ReplyDeleteThank you :)))
DeleteI love how you wrote a poem about yourself in comparison the Bradstreet's poem. I love how your poem compares to the modern society and how all of us carry out our daily lives. How does this poem connect to your purpose in life and how does Bradstreet's work have an effect on how you interpret your religious beliefs?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say this poem connects to my purpose in life (I really don't know WHAT my purpose is). Personally, I am not religious so Bradstreet's work did not have much of an effect on my beliefs. I did find Bradstreet's perspective on material possessions and the afterlife to be very interesting and something I never really thought of.
DeleteI really appreciated your creativity in mimicking Bradstreet's style and applying it to an experience of your own! That takes a lot of thought on your part, as you are writing in a style that is not your own. Writing poetry certainly takes a lot of forethought. How to you think you would continue to develop this theme, mimicking the entirety of Bradstreet's poem? Do you think poetry is still a relevant form of writing in today's times?
ReplyDeleteIf I continued the poem I would've included some of the more complex aspects of her writing like more juxtaposition, shifts in voice, and word choice. I feel that poetry today has become a less relevant form of writing since it is not as direct and clear.
DeleteI really enjoyed your use of Bradstreet's style but I also liked that you added your own style and voice to make your poem more unique. I like how you incorporated lines of Bradstreet's poem to show the connections between the two poems. How would you make your poem different if you had a different voice? Do you believe in the religious beliefs that Bradstreet writes about in her poem?
ReplyDeleteIf I used a different voice I probably would've written in prose since iambic tetrameter and end rhyme can be quite restricting. I lean more towards the agnostic/atheist view on religion so I don't really believe in what Bradstreet expressed in her poem but none the less, I enjoyed reading it and experiencing a different perspective on religion.
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