College Essays (563 words) - Xhosa People, , Term Papers

Robert Jencks November 8, 2011 The Island: Process Essay I found this assignment very challenging at times, but in the end I learned a lot about crafting poetry. The first hurdle I had to overcome was who my letter was going to be written, and after much deliberation, and back and forth I decided on Nelson Mandela. I have always admired his devotion, and his quiet strength that makes everyone around him at peace. His ability to turn the other cheek, and not seek revenge on those that took away his freedom is astounding. He has always sacrificed his own needs for the betterment of his people. I wanted to put a face to an ordinary South African citizen who his sacrifice has directly helped. I chose my persona to be young women, so it would allow me to contrast the elderly and male Mandela. I wanted to use my letter to not only thank Mr. Mandela, but to understand his experiences while at Robben Island. I wanted to be in his cell, eat his food and smell what he smelled. I wanted to totally immerse myself in his everyday life in prison so I co uld fully understand him, and by doing this help to acknowledge the hardships he endured. By doing this I was able to really put myself there alongside Nelson. I was able to vividly see your cell as I imagined it to be which was incredibly helpful in crafting my poem. After my initial struggles choosing a persona I am very happy I chose to take on the role of Riley, and to write to Mr. Mandela. I also enjoyed the creative process that came along with brainstorming possible personas. It enabled me to try on certain skins or identities to see if they fit me. Because the Apartheid government was so evil, and oppressive to black I found it easy to feel the pain that an oppressive government forces on the oppressed. The sacrifice mad by Mr. Mandela made him an incredibly likeable and sympathetic man to identify with and motivated me to do the best possible job in writing about him. After my initial letter was done I broke that letter into lines of 10 to 12 syllables. After I completed this I found that my focus was much too broad and that I needed to focus more closely on one part of his experience. I decided to focus on his cell at Robben Island. I wanted to put myself there alongside him. This exercise helped my overall understanding of poetic form. The more I worked on sounding out stressed and unstressed syllabus the easier it became. Because rhythm is so important in poetry this exercise allowed me to practice this skill. Blank verse is such a flexible type of meter it does not handcuff us like some other forms. It resembles spoken English more than most forms of poetry. However it does give us a framework to build our poem around. It gives us the skeleton of our poem, and gives us a very delightful tempo that is pleasing to the ear. Blank verse also gives us the freedom to not worry about rhyme. So we get the lovely benefit of the tempo without the sing song sound of rhymed iambic pentameter. This is a skill that will most certainly help me in my future poem writing.