Sadly, yesterday’s seminar class marked the last day of the poem presentations. I can honestly say, that by experiencing it as a class, I witnessed a side of my classmates; I never knew had existed before. Each of my friends have their strengths and weaknesses, and for some, public speaking wasn’t their forte. Each poem that was assigned, I think represented the person who read in some way or another.
I found it interesting how, Professor Kahan made Stephanie go last because her poem, I believe was the only one with a vivid and well-defined ending. Her poem was entitled, The New Colossus, and I personally think it summed up the ideals and beliefs all Americans embody. More importantly, the passion and enthusiasm it was spoken in, enabled me, as part of the audience, to get a much better feeling and understanding, behind what the author was trying to convey.
Each poem presented throughout the two weeks, touched me in a different way. However, ironically enough, they all described New York. I believe that this speaks quite highly of NYC, because it was analyzed and deciphered by different authors in completely different ways, but in the end, it all drew back to one common universal belief of New York. This feeling I got, mostly came from how well and effectively it was presented. Ultimately, if a poem that seems meaningless and prosaic is performed in a loud and enthusiastic manner, it will be absorbed much easier, and therefore I will understand it a lot better.
When Corinna presented her two poems, I couldn’t help but laugh, not at her of course, because I was in the same boat last week. We were both nervous and scared, but ultimately, we got through it and destroyed the barriers that once impeded our progression. By repeating your poem over again, the fears and worries disappear and you become one with the poem. I thought it would be a bad thing to have to redo my poem again and again, but it actually helped me understand it better as well perform it more artistically. Public speaking comes more natural for others, but the more that it is practiced, the better off you will be. This art is related to comfort levels because the more the person is comfortable speaking in front of a large group of people, the better and more informative their presentation will be.
Moving forward, we will be learning about cinema and having a guest speaker inform us about the world of movies and all it entails. Obviously, I am looking forward to watching movies in class, but I have to say, by doing these poetry assignments, I have a new liking for some poetry.
