Billy Collins TED Talk

I thought Collins's idea of setting poems into motion was a great idea and really enjoyed reading the animations. From the five poems that I have read, my favorite is the poem, " Somedays" since it has the deepest message in it. I thought the poem conveyed a special tone of loneliness as it described the life of a person, how he could be the controller one day, and the controlled in other days. Some days, he was the one who put people in their places at the table, bending their legs at the knees, and other days, he was picked by the ribs and into the dining room of a dollhouse. In some ways, I think collins was conveying a message of the vanity of life. Throughout the poem he used the sentences such as " I put the people in their places at the table," or " lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse" that gave readers an image of a little girl playing with her toys. Life is nothing but a game, and destiny is the little girl. Destiny often times can be trivial by their means and favor only certain types of characters, the heroic ones, the beautiful ones. You can never predict what will come later in life, you may be a vivid God with your shoulders in the clouds, or you can be another figure with a little plastic face with absolute no control of our destiny.  I think the way Collins expressed his thoughts on life through this poem was extremely interesting. I'm not sure that I have such a pessimistic view point on life, but I do think this is a good poem.

Ballad Self-reflection

After writing a ballad for English class, I felt that I have learned a lot. Here are some things I learned that I can improve for next time. My editors had been fairly nice and didn't write down any harsh negative comments, but I think that I should improve on my usage of poetic elements. I focused only on the story throughout the entire poem, spending little for rhyme or rhythm. I simply didn't pay attention to any of that, thinking that that stuff is not important. Yet in real life, it is. My poem could probably be a lot better if I were to insert in more poetic elements and a steady rhyme scheme. I was surprised to find symbolism in my own poem. My editor Jenny wrote on her comments that she appreciated the symbolism I inserted of a kite symbolizing freedom. After reading my own poem again after some time, I realized that she may be right. I think the symbolism made the poem a lot more powerful than it could have been which is a good thing. I also though the plot for my poem this time wasn't good enough and that I should have put in my effort into the actual planning of the story. Jenny thought that parts of it  was unclear and after some self-reflection, I realized that she was right. I should probably work on that next time.