The first poem that caught my eye was, Immigrants in Our Own Land. This poem was a story of an individual (the immigrant) going from his "old world" to the "new world". When he previously though that the old world had no use for him and going to the new one would be full of opportunity. But, when he arrived to the new world he was in for a surprise, of disappointment. Finding out that his life was lost in the new world and his old world was everything. For once, it showed the audience a perspective from the "immigrants" side and showed that maybe what is thought to be can be the biggest disappointment in someone's life. I really enjoyed this poem because, I, being a Hispanic, I am really interested in the immigration laws and to see a poem that shows the actual feeling of coming to America was interesting to me.
The second poem that interested me was, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting. This poem was very short and right to the point. It is repetitive throughout the entire poem starting each stanza with "I tell her...". From my perspective, I imagined a man telling a woman/something his experience during a war. Even though this poem is only three stanzas, it still shows a lot of detail and gives the reader an imagination to really feel what the writer is feeling. Sometimes poem don't have to be five pages to get a point across.
Interesting Interpretation of the poems. When I read the “Immigrants in our own land” poem I immediately realized that it was using the Idea of immigrants and moving to a totally different culture to describe the feeling of going to prison. I really liked this poem because it really made clear some of the struggles shared between immigrants moving to a new country and Inmates first entering the prison system. Obviously there are many differences but overall it is a good analogy that really helped me understand the true meaning of Poetry of Witness.
ReplyDeletei would like to say your battle of interpreting the poems was the same as mine this last week. Coincidentally i picked one of the same poems you did "immigrants in our own land" and after reading i wasnt too sure if i did a good job interpreting it. i was close but not nearly as well as you did. great job!
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