Creative Task - Modernist Poem

Summative #1

OVERVIEW:
As we have discussed, modernist literature focuses on “emphasizing the personal
imagination, culture, emotions, and memories of the poet.”

Through their poetry, modernist poets are attempting to make “an intellectual statement
that poetry could make about the world.”

In this task, you will attempt to do the same.

1. You will write a poem (minimum 20 lines) that attempts to make an intellectual
statement about the world, and you should use your own imagination, culture,
emotions, and/or memories to help relay that message.
a. You should incorporate the literary devices (5ish) we have discussed in class
(see chart below).
b. Optional: you use the literary theories we have discussed in class to allow for
varied interpretations of your poem.
2. In addition, you will write a rationale (200ish words) that explains the intellectual
statement your poem makes and how you used various literary devices to relay that
message.

GRADING:
You will be evaluated using the following rubric.

SUBMISSION:
Use this document to organize and draft your poem and rationale. For the final submission,
please make a new document with your poem and rationale, and upload that document to
the task in ManageBac.

Your due date is 20 September on ManageBac.

PROCESS:
Instructions: Use the chart below to help brainstorm ideas for your poem.

“Intellectual Statement” I wish to convey that you should be thankful for

What big idea about your life, society,
or the human experience would you
like to convey in your poem?
Think of this as the theme of the
poem.
the hobbies that you can enjoy. My message is
that hobbies, the things you do to actualize who
you truly are, are what makes you a complete
person, what nourishes your soul, and should
not be taken granted.

“Personal imagination, culture,
emotions, and memories”
What memories or experiences can
you draw on to deliver this intellectual
statement?
I had been told by several doctors that my ACLs
were torn on both sides from analysis of my
MRI, and thus I would not be able to play sports
for 3-4 years. It turned out that the bones in my
knee were bruised, which caused swelling, which
made it look like my acls were torn in the MRI.

Literary Devices enjambment

- Metaphor Simile
- Simile
- Assonance Personification
- Dissonance
- Internal Rhyme
- Symbol
- Enjambment
- Personification

Draft some possible lines or uses for

the literary devices we have studied.
(At 3 different kinds, 5 in total)

Literary Theories The strongest literary theory that i could

incorporate into this work would be
- Reader Response Psychoanalytic. As this is a confessional poem,
- Cultural Studies and t
- Formalism
- Feminist
- Psychoanalytic

Comment on how you could

incorporate characteristics of the
literary theories in your poem.
Black rainclouds blotch the sun,
And rain white down to asphalt.

Black and white paper

Show my knees,

A black fuzz,
My black rain clouds in place of joints.

Muscles, bones, ligaments.

A 3 year traffic jam.

Ball passing - Napoleon Bonaparte,

Exiled to St Helena.

Banished to concrete buildings and glass windows,

A turtle on its back.

Burning buildings
Black smoke billows from window and from door.

Flames lick and spit,

Carpet, chair, and bed,

All to ashes.
Disintegrating to the touch.

Like a modern Icarus,

Without water to quench the fire.

Computer screens, lines of white boxes

Typing endless lines
Like a military marching,
Marching

Marching down the page.

Trapped in a cell.
RATIONALE:
Instructions: In 200-300 words, explain your intentions in creating this poem. What did you
do? Why did you do it? How did you do it?

1. State your purpose in producing this poem.

a. What is the intellectual statement you are trying to make?
b. How does your statement connect to the subject of your poem?
c. What do you want the audience to think, feel, or believe about this
statement?

2. Identify two literary devices that were important in your podcast. Include a short
quotation or specific example. Explain the effect you wanted to create by using these
devices.

3. If applicable, identify a possible literary theory that could be applied to your poem.
Explain how that theory could affect the poem’s interpretation.

My intellectual statement which I wish to convey is that you should be thankful for the hobbies that
you can enjoy. My message is that hobbies, the things you do to actualize who you truly are, are what
makes you a complete person, what nourishes your soul. These things are a privilege to be enjoyed
and should not be taken for granted. The subject of my poem is my experience being injured and not
being able to enjoy the sports which I played. At age 12 returning from summer, I had started to
experience pain in my knees, upon MRI inspection doctors told me that I had torn both of my ACLs
and wouldn’t be able to play sports (I played rugby and did muay thai) for 2-3 years until I was old
enough to have surgery on my knees. This affected me in a great way as sport was a large part of my
life. What they thought were torn ACL’s was actually bone bruising in my knees and only needed
about ~3 months of physiotherapy for me to recover. In my poem, while the subject isn’t expressly
stated, I took inspiration from Sylvia Plath’s poem Cut in how I expressed my poem's subject, in that I
used a series of metaphors which allow the reader to visualize and relate to the subject which I am
writing about. One example of this is on line 6 I write “My black rain clouds in place of joints,”. Here,
black rain clouds symbolize the disconnect which I felt with my knees, like I couldn’t control what they
could do, in the same way that you cannot control the weather and when and where it rains. I want the
audience to relate and self reflect on what they have taken for granted in their lives, in the same way
that I did when this happened to me and to be more thankful for what you have. One literary device I
used was on lines 19 and 20. I wrote “Like a modern Icarus, /Without water to quench the fire,” This
was an allusion to the myth of Icarus. In the myth Icarus, using wings held together by wax, flies too
close to the sun, melting his wings. This is how I felt at the time, as I had injured myself, like my knees
were Icarus’s melting wings which worked no longer due to his own wrong doings. Another important
part of my poem was on the last line I wrote “Trapped in a cell,” to convey how I felt. This is a double
entendre because cell here could mean jail cell, as in physically trapped, but also a cell on a
spreadsheet. I felt like, without sports, my life was a lot of just doing school work, staring at google
documents all day then going home. Using this line I conveyed how I felt trapped by schoolwork and
how I felt my escape from monotony was taken away from me.