From Bishop's Poem "The Fish", my favorite line is "where he broke it, two heavier lines,"
The line is only a fragment of the sentence describing the state of the old fish but it was at that point in the poem that the entire work took on a different appearance for me. It was no longer about the pitiful state of an aged fish but a story of the rise and fall of a fighter. The fish's skin was no longer disgusting and weathered, but full of scars that represented a life lived-full. The fish didn't fight the speaker not because it was too sickly but because it had grown so tired after the many battles. There is a distinct beauty that surfaces in the poem after reading that line in particular.
My favorite poem was "Blood on the Wheel" by Herrera.
I can't say I have a favorite quote, because I loved the fact that he uses the word "blood" to start off each line.
He uses the word “blood” to represent violence, guilt, life itself, vigor, a common humanity, and familial, or even communal loyalty (i.e. blood ties). Blood connects everything. American politicians, for example, might be connected by their culpable ignorance, by an outrageous and especially "American" devotion to violence, and by a kind of loyalty to one another that — if it doesn't destroy our country — might actually save us instead.
my favorite line was is "grim, wet, and weaponlike"
He gives this metaphor and imagery to describe this fish's lip. around this time in the poem is were you realize this fish isn't just some old fish it wasn't his first time being caught and wont be his last. I like that this poem showed the fisherman's compassion for this fish.
My favorite line is "And I let the fish go" from Elizabeth Bishop's Poem "The Fish" because it was so ironically anticlimactic. The speaker admired the fish for the entirety of the poem and conveyed his or her pride. A hype was created throughout the poem in order to express the fisherman's excitement towards the reader, and the energy was destroyed by the single line. I laughed as I finished, for I expected something of the sort to happen. It also left the poem with an ambiguous feeling because it was unclear whether the speaker felt sympathetic towards the fish due to its majesty or was merely catching and releasing the fish for recreational use. If this circumstance were to happen in real life, all of these observations would probably happen in a matter of seconds.
Both of Simic’s poems were awesome because they completely destroy the common notion of forks and watermelons, but the simple yet impactful phrasing of Watermelons did it for me. The line, “spit out the teeth” throws in an almost morbid level of imagery. It’s as though we are eating Buddha’s cheerful face and casually spitting out his teeth, but then you realize it’s just eating a slice of watermelon. It’s an interesting duality that defamiliarization creates.
My favorite line was from Charles Simic’s poem, ‘’Watermelons”, where he writes, “We eat the smile/And spit out the teeth.” This stuck out to me because it seemed to be a metaphor for the way that humans digest things; knowledge, concepts, ideas, truths. We happily accept the aspects we like, and reject the portions that bite us, the ideas that challenge our own, but ultimately would be the most useful. It is fitting that this line would come directly after Simic calls the watermelons “green Buddhas”, as religious ideas are the ones that most commonly challenge and offend the humanistic ideals that we try to hold so tightly to.
My favorite line is from "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, " Like medals with their ribbons, frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom" I felt that that line was a huge turning point in the poem because it signified the moment where the fisherman had a change of attitude towards the fish, fishing, and I believe, nature in general. This was also my favorite poem because the level of imagery was incredible. I was able to have a clear picture in my mind of everything I was reading.
My favorite lines are from "Watermelons" by Charles Simic, "We eat the smile and spit out the teeth". The poet uses the word "smile" for the shape of a piece of watermelon and the word "teeth" for a watermelon's seeds. His word substitutions change eating and spitting into a fun and childish thing to do. --Rayna Gomez
My favorite lines are from "Fork" by Charles Simic, where he writes, "This strange thing must have crept/Right out of hell." I thought this was interesting largely due to the fact that I have never looked at a fork as anything other than a fork. Simic gives defamiliarization to the fork by using it as a metaphor for a birds claw; this gives an animalistic quality to humans that use a fork when cutting into meat, which is something that is normally seen as a completely civilized habit. He seems to challenge general social conventions of utensils and the way we use them on a daily basis.
My favorite line is from "Blood on the Wheel" by Juan Herrera is "Could this be yours? Could this item belong to you? Could this ticket be what you ordered, could it?" He is frequently using the word blood throughout the poem and it was just interesting to see a not so sweet poem that we usually imagine, like roses are red and violets are blue. While reading the poem I felt that there is a sense of reality because he is expressing some more dark feelings about a life of violence. Reading that line just puts things into perspective about people who are born into or exposed to a life where they are influenced to live a life of violence, blood, drugs, gangs, etc.
There were many lines that stood out to me in "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. One line that continued to resonate with me the entire time I was reading was "He didn't fight." This for me was a red flag and just from that line, I knew that there had to be a reason that this fish didn't fight back. With the use of imagery the author illustrated that the fish was in terrible shape and he had several other hook marks on his lip. That was when the fisher realized the fish had been fighting for a long time. For me, this line showed a brave and strong soul that had just given up. By the end, I see the fish as a survivor.
My favorite line was "And spit out the teeth" from the Charles Simic poem "Watermelons." I enjoyed this line because it made me think of only using something when it is beneficial to the user like how religion is sometimes thought. Some people like to talk about the grace and forgiveness of a figure and forget about the wrath until it is useful as a scare tactic. I don't think that is what the poem was about but that is what it made me think of. It was a line that made you think about what it could mean longer than it takes to read the poem.
Out of all the poems, my favorite line had to have come from the poem "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. The line stood out to me was at the very end and it simply says " And i let the fish go". although the actions seam so simplistic they mean so much more. After catching a "tremendous" fish and admiring ever detail, realizing the prize that this fish had it wasn't until the narrator realized the death behind the hooks in the fishes mouth. Every hook represents the fishermen who had once caught this amazing fish but admired its beauty and calm aura so much that they let the fish go. -Alicia Martin
Out of the four poems, my favorite line in "Watermelons" by Charles Simic is: "we eat the smile/ and spit out the teeth." The first read of these lines jolted me. The serene visual image of large, ripened green watermelons sitting on a stand is turns to a gritty image of spitting out the seeds. I think on one level, this can be interpreted as a watermelon being a metaphor for life and that in order to enjoy life fully, we have to take the bad, sour seeds, with the good, the smile of a watermelon.
Herrera's line "Blood on the couch, made for viewing automobiles & face cream" in "Blood on the Wheel" was my favorite because it eloquently describes the way in which normal everyday people can get so focused on everyday material things that they might forget what real problems there are going on around the world. It reminded me of when I asked a family member who is a veteran how this could be so. He replied, "It's no one's fault. One person's 'lucky' is another person's 'normal'. When you've lived a certain way all your life it's hard to distinguish between the two."
I really enjoyed all three poems and have favorite lines from each. But the one(s) that stand out the most are "This strange thing must have crept/Right out of hell" which are the first and second lines of the first stanza in Simic's "Fork". Perhaps it's because it was the first poem I read and I started it thinking something along the lines of "why would anyone write a poem about a fork?", it just sort of stuck in the back of my mind even as I read the rest of the assigned poetry. I've never thought to describe a fork, the simple pronged utensil I use to eat spaghetti with, as some sort of hellish bird foot-like device that accessorizes a cannibal's neck. In both of his poems, Simic uses defamiliarization to convey such simple and innocent things, in this particular case a fork, as something much more sinister and threatening.
Reading through the poems I favored the line: “Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw” from “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. This line stood out to me because wisdom is a product of pain, the fish gained knowledge and experience with every battle and it survived five different instances where it was caught while keeping the hooks as proof. Just the imagery in that single line, the way it is described caught my attention with how the hooks looked like a beard. Earlier in the poem it is mentioned that the fish did not fight against the hook, it just hung there with its weight and still managed to get away even with the battered shape it was described to be in. What I saw from the poem was a fish that has seen death many times in its life and got away. By the fish’s sixth experience it just left it all to fate and fate was on the fish’s side in how it provided a fisherman who admired it and caused the boat to malfunction. I do not know why but the end of the poem reminded me of the story of Noah and the Ark in how the rainbows came in the end of the struggle. -James Dy
Being such a short poem, I enjoyed Charles Simic's Fork because of how concise and surreal it is. Personifying the object in describing how it "... must have crept Right out of hell..." immediately shatters all notions of what any "normal" person would deem relevant for a fork, and sets the tone for the remaining lines to entertain a metaphor with a bird / bird's foot, and as a tool for "the cannibal". While I am a novice in literature it is clear to me that there is much deeper meaning in these lines and those that follow, namely:
"Its head which like your fist Is large, bald, beakless, and blind."
These passages seem to have some deep contextual meaning that is lost on me. If I had to pick a favorite line, then, it would be the last two because they have provoked the most confusion and thought from me. - Andrew Van Bindsbergen
Reading all of the poems, my favorite poem would have to be "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. My favorite line throughout the poem would be "He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all". this particular passage caught my eye because it was unusual. When a fish is caught its natural instinct is to fight and escape but described in the poem the fish had given up. As i continued to read, the fish had been caught before shown by five older pieces of fishing line. the fisherman described these hooks as medals and ribbons from his aching jaw. The use of imagery here explained how the fisherman admired what the fish has been through and ultimately decided to let the fish go.
My favorite line is "could this be yours? could this item belong to you? could this ticket be what you ordered, could it?" This line stood out to me because blood becomes symbolic for anger, sadness, regret, or hatred and the ending is asking if that path is what you wanted or if that choose you. Either way you have the power and the choice to feel angry about those circumstances or be happy because in the end of the day you choose your future and the past is the past.
My favorite line was "Like medals with their ribbons," from the poem "The Fish". This is my favorite line because it is a symbol of the fish and his journey of getting away from the people who captured him. The scars on his neck are his medals and reminders that he has always evaded being captured. This is a very powerful line to me because it talks about how the fish always overcame adversity but finally got apprehended. Luckily, the person who caught him realized what the fish had been through and decided to set him free.
My favorite line was "It is blood time, Sir Terminator says, It is blood time, Sir Simpson winks, it is blood time, Sir McVeigh weighs." from the poem, "Blood on the Wheel", by Juan Felipe Herrera. This line alludes to the Terminator, The Simpsons, and I believe that it is also alluding to a terrorist named Timothy Mcveigh. This is allusion was very well-done because in this poem, blood is a symbol for sin, pain, regret, evil-deeds, etc. And this allusion just goes to show that everyone, even fictional characters such as Homer Simpson, have at one time decided to commit an evil deed. Hence the phrase "It is blood time". - Jeff Ice
"He was speckled with barnacles, fine rosettes of lime, and infested with tiny white sea-lice,"
Here, and in the lines that follow, Bishop has chosen a very flowery way to describe how hideous this fish is. Using pretty words like "speckled" and "fine rosettes" against barnacles and lime creates a typical, but effective, juxtaposition; the poetic diction of the speaker establishes an almost doting attitude toward their capture, lulling the reader into a similar, weird admiration for the thing. Bishop does not soften or subdue the homeliness of the fish, but almost eases into it - until the mention of sea-lice. At the line "and infested," Bishop drops all pretense of ornamenting the fish; instead, with a single, gross line, she pummels us with the full weight of this fish's ugliness.
My favorite line was “They shifted a little, but not to return my stare” from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish”.
I enjoy this line more than any of the others that personify the fish because it makes the fish appear indifferent to what could be its death. This assumes that the fish decides not to look at the person, of course. Choosing to ignore its captor makes me picture the fish as a calm, collected villain that has experienced so much danger that nothing surprises him or her. Being caught is just another fact of life and being eaten or thrown back into the ocean is of no consequence.
My favorite lines come from Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish," in which the speaker depicts, "He was speckled with barnacles, / fine rosettes of lime." In this description, which is similarly portrayed throughout the poem, the speaker describes the fish she has just caught - something that is undoubtedly gross - by using the metaphor "rosettes of lime." By describing the fish in this way, using the word "rosettes," which are typically used to describe beautiful flowers, she provides this seemingly vile fish with attributes of beauty - something that is not to be expected when depicting a fish that has just been removed from its natural habitat after biting into a line. The speaker's continuation of comparing the fish to different flowers thus provides readers with an unexpected depiction of a fish, which brings about a greater sense of empathy for this fish, as these few lines did for me.
I enjoyed reading all the poems, but "Watermelons" by Charles Simic stuck out to me the most. My favorite line would have to be "We eat the smile" just because of the visual it gave me. Watermelon slices are usually shaped like a crescent, and closely resembles a smile. Saying that "we eat the smile" is like saying we are taking in happiness and joy. Saying that watermelons were "Green Buddhas" was very interesting, too. Buddhism's beliefs include reaching "nirvana", which is a sort of heaven or paradise. Simic does a great job giving visuals with only four lines.
My favorite line from the Fork by Charles Simic was "As you stab with it into a piece of meat, It is possible to imagine the rest of the bird." It shows how much anger the person is going through. The author used imagery so the readers can picture how much anger the person has. It was very powerful because I could picture exactly how that person was going through while he was eating. Then towards the end of the poem they start to like ease down.
My favorite line was from "Watermelons" by Charles Simic. The line is "We eat the smile, and spit out the teeth," the watermelon seeds symbolizing teeth. The line alludes to a childhood phenomenon we all experience, losing baby teeth. We lose our baby teeth, like we lose our childlike innocence. Throughout maturity, however, we try to hold on to the joy, or "the smile", we felt with this innocence. This line made me wonder if you can really have joy without innocence. -Alexandra (Allie) Darling
One of my favorite lines was from Watermelons by Charles Simic. It was, “We eat the smile, and spit out the teeth.” Because even though on the surface those lines have seemingly nothing to do with watermelons, my mind still went to that conclusion. I think it’s such an odd and interesting way of wording something so common and familiar, that in a way it makes it distant. I’d never associate watermelon seeds with teeth so I think it funny that the speaker could come to that conclusion.
Another line I liked was from The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop, I just really liked the ending line “And I let the fish go.” Because I felt sorry for the fish throughout the poem because it’d escaped capture so many times before only to meet its untimely end now. And the speaker was aware of this and felt proud that she’d accomplished what others before her couldn’t, and still she let the fish go. Which is what I was hoping for.
All three poems were interesting to read but the line that I favored the most from all three poems was Charles Simic's line in Watermelons, "We eat the smile/And spit out the teeth". He refers to the watermelon slices as a smile which in my perspective is a representation to the joyful things in ones life and the happiness we want to consume daily. He then goes on by regarding to the watermelon seeds as teeth we spit out which I believe is a way to describe how we do not like to accept the bad in life and "spit out" negativity and the sour things we do not want to be a part of our daily lives.
Whereas the majority of this week's assigned readings were fascinating “The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, in particular, was my favorite. Amongst several lively imagery and literary techniques, the line "like medals with their ribbons" sticks out like a sore thumb-with good reason of course.
As Bishop illustrates a fragment of the fisherman's catch with ongoing suspense, the reader is almost assured that the fish, being captured and defeated by default, will ultimately meet its end. Still, the fisherman is moved by the scarred and mutilated fish jaw. Captivated by the organism’s winning spirit the fisherman finds fulfillment in only capturing the fish consequently leading to its release.
Akin "medals with their ribbons" the previous hooks attached to the fish's jaw are evident of the organism's struggle for survival. These lines are indicative of a powerful moment in which the fisherman is not only in awe of nature, but also humbled. In this lies the poem's literary subliminal stimulus.
My favorite line of the three poems was "we eat the smile and spit out the teeth," from "Watermelons" by Charles Simic. Though the line is short and simple, I liked it the most because it said all that the writer was trying to depict in just a few words. In those few words alone, I felt more awe than I did in any of the other lines in the entirety of all the other poems. I feel that Simic used defamiliarization quite well to make a simple joy like watermelons seem even more joyous by bringing a little fun to the thought of watermelon eating.
My favorite line was "We eat the smile" from Charles Simic's poem "Watermelons" because it symbolizes childhood memories and the happiness people have felt when they ate something that tasted good to them. The word "smile" refers to the shape of the watermelon that's been sliced or bitten into, and a smile also makes me think of how powerful and contagious it can be sometimes. A smile on ones' face can put or influence one on anothers.
My favorite line was "Blood on the Virgin, behind the veils, Behind- in the moon angel's gold oracle hair" from "Blood on the Wheel". The piece of work beautifully describes the violence, hate, anger, and regret in the world. But this line made me think that this is all around us, and even the most noble person has some bad in them. We are not all perfect.
My favorite line is from Juan Felipe Herrera Blood on the Wheel. "What blood is this?" because of its opened ended in the poem. We all have spilled blood at times whether its from work, pain, and even fear. So when the poem gets to that line its like you have no choice but to emote your own feeling of what your blood is on. It tells a story of what we leave blood behind on through all our emotions and everyday life activities, and the poem is a tribute to it all in a way.
My favorite line is from the poem Watermelon by Charles Simic. "We eat the smile. And spit out the teeth." I think that these lines represent the good and bad and the things that we have to achieve and overcome throughout our lifetime. We smile and take in the good, the happy moments/memories, the obstacles overcome and goals achieved. We spit out the teeth which is translated to the bad, the pain, the failures, and the loss that appears in our life to challenge us and make us grow.
The line(s) that stood out to me the most were from Juan Felipe Herrera's poem titled "Blood on the Wheel". Of course almost every line in the poem is controversial, however since it’s my topic of interest, I like the lines, "It is blood time, Sir Terminator says,/It is blood time, Sir Simpson winks,/It is blood time, Sir McVeigh weighs.” Here Herrera makes allusions to action movies such as “The Terminator”, the O.J. Simpson case, and Timothy McVeigh. What they all have in common is that they were broadcasted, televised, and shown to millions of people. Movies like The Terminator are praised and given awards even if it’s about bloodshed. America was torn over the O.J. Simpson case wondering if he was a murderer or pardoned because of his NFL status. Timothy McVeigh is considered a domestic terrorist who detonated a bomb in Oklahoma City killing over a hundred people. I like these lines because Herrera is calling out some of the stupidity in America where if blood is spilled, it’s shown and made famous to everyone. ~Jennie Heffler
The line that I chose is "Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw." from "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. I chose this because earlier in the poem she says how the fish was not fighting and once she said this it reminded me of a wounded soldier. As if the fish had gone through a tough and painful war and had finally decided to stop fighting. Also, when a soldier returns from war they bear scars from their battle, which is exactly what the hooks and lines are to the fish, battle wounds.
My favorite line from the poem "The Fish" was "Like medals with their ribbons". This line from the poem stood out to me because of how Elizabeth Bishop compared the old fishing lines hanging from the fish's lip to metals. One would think it would give the fish a negative description of how old it is but instead the fish is honored for its wisdom and courage. I really enjoyed how the poem gave me a different perspective on the worn-out fish as the writer showed respect for the fish since it had battle scars demonstrating the fish's age and wisdom.
My favorite line was “Could this ticket be what you ordered, could it?” the poem was called "Blood on the Wheel" by Juan Felipe Herrera. I favored this line because it tells me that not everyone is lucky enough to go where they want to go in life. It explains to me that life is hard and that there are different situations in every persons life that we as people can not control. We don’t always end up where we want to be due to the obstacles and changes in the economy. in my own words this is what i think the line means, “could this life that we live now be what we truly want.” -Abigail Herrera
My favorite line came from "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. The line I choose was the very last, "And I let the fish go." I liked this best because I found it surprising that after the speaker spoke of victory filling the boat and being prideful that the fish was finally caught after so many tries, they let the fish go. As a reader, I was not expecting the speaker to let the fish go free and I enjoyed the fact that I was wrong about where the poem was going. -Ashlee DeMalade
Out of the three authors poems, the one that stood out to me was Watermelons by Charles Simic where he uses [we eat the smile and spit the teeth] because in its totality I think it's referring to the truth bliss of life and the idea that life also comes with its lows but as humans, we generally want to accept the good aspects in life and dispose of the bad, like when we spit out the seeds of a watermelon us. Similarly, when it refers to Buddha it refers to the fact that he is always happy and has a watermelon smile on his face.
In Charles Simic's poem Watermelons my favorite line was "we eat the smile." This was my favorite line because since I was a little child my siblings and I would act as if the watermelons were big smiles. Simic did an amazing job in helping me capture the picture of someone actually eating a watermelon.
My favorite line is from the poem "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, saying "Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and it's pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper: shapes like full blown roses stained and lost through age." I really enjoyed this poem because of its clear imagery of the fish and the comparisons used to describe the fish. I particularly favored the line upon because it almost describes the old fish with life by using the object of a rose to somewhat describe it. A rose is often a symbol of love and beauty, and as the line reads "full blown roses stained and lost through age", it goes with out clearly saying that the fish once was beautiful in its younger age, but now barely shows sign of that time. I loved how a simple line, if not a couple words in that line, can unveil a lot of information and history about a little fish with an almost secret comparison.
- Addison Walters
As I was posting my second blog post, I noticed it was not showing up as I was reading other blog posts. I then checked to see if this was the case for my first blog post and it indeed was. That is why this first blog post is late, because when I tried posting anonymously both times for each blog post, it did not work. For now on I will post under my google log in. Thanks, and I hope I don't get points marked off!
After reading all three poems by Simic, Bishop, and Herrera, my favorite line was "we eat the smile,"by Simic. Even though it was such a short poem, it had a strong meaning and brought back childhood memories. As a kid, my mother use to cut the watermelons and leave the rind. There was a way she cut them to form it into a smile. After my brothers, sisters and I would bite all the pink flesh of the watermelons, we would hold up the rind to our face and create a smile.
My favorite line would have to be from Juan Felipe Herrera's "Blood on the Wheel" due to the multiple use of allusions and visual imagery. The line "Blood on the Virgin, behind the veils, Behind-in the moon angel's gold oracle hair" may be alluding to the Virgin Mary. Blood is most predominantly associated with death, negative experiences and sorrow. However the Virgin herself is seen in the Christian faith as a symbol of hope, peace, and harmony. Seeing how blood would be "on the Virgin" depicts an unusual image of destruction, death, and hate towards the Virgin Mary. Perhaps one was trying to kill her or cause her harm. Also where would this blood be coming from? Whose blood is it? Would Felipe Herrera be raising the question that the blood would actually be the Virgin's during her childbirth to Jesus Christ? And in that sense would she really be as pure and saintly as she is depicted throughout Christianity? The controversy in this line begs the question that Felipe Herrera was questioning his own faith during his time of personal turmoil which led to questioning of core values that he was brought up to believe.
From Bishop's Poem "The Fish", my favorite line is "where he broke it, two heavier lines,"
ReplyDeleteThe line is only a fragment of the sentence describing the state of the old fish but it was at that point in the poem that the entire work took on a different appearance for me. It was no longer about the pitiful state of an aged fish but a story of the rise and fall of a fighter. The fish's skin was no longer disgusting and weathered, but full of scars that represented a life lived-full. The fish didn't fight the speaker not because it was too sickly but because it had grown so tired after the many battles. There is a distinct beauty that surfaces in the poem after reading that line in particular.
--Steven Dessenberger
My favorite poem was "Blood on the Wheel" by Herrera.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I have a favorite quote, because I loved the fact that he uses the word "blood" to start off each line.
He uses the word “blood” to represent violence, guilt, life itself, vigor, a common humanity, and familial, or even communal loyalty (i.e. blood ties). Blood connects everything. American politicians, for example, might be connected by their culpable ignorance, by an outrageous and especially "American" devotion to violence, and by a kind of loyalty to one another that — if it doesn't destroy our country — might actually save us instead.
-- Mary Sarkies
my favorite poem was "The Fish" by Bishop
ReplyDeletemy favorite line was is "grim, wet, and weaponlike"
He gives this metaphor and imagery to describe this fish's lip. around this time in the poem is were you realize this fish isn't just some old fish it wasn't his first time being caught and wont be his last. I like that this poem showed the fisherman's compassion for this fish.
---Ranay Knight
My favorite line is "And I let the fish go" from Elizabeth Bishop's Poem "The Fish" because it was so ironically anticlimactic. The speaker admired the fish for the entirety of the poem and conveyed his or her pride. A hype was created throughout the poem in order to express the fisherman's excitement towards the reader, and the energy was destroyed by the single line. I laughed as I finished, for I expected something of the sort to happen. It also left the poem with an ambiguous feeling because it was unclear whether the speaker felt sympathetic towards the fish due to its majesty or was merely catching and releasing the fish for recreational use. If this circumstance were to happen in real life, all of these observations would probably happen in a matter of seconds.
ReplyDeleteBoth of Simic’s poems were awesome because they completely destroy the common notion of forks and watermelons, but the simple yet impactful phrasing of Watermelons did it for me. The line, “spit out the teeth” throws in an almost morbid level of imagery. It’s as though we are eating Buddha’s cheerful face and casually spitting out his teeth, but then you realize it’s just eating a slice of watermelon. It’s an interesting duality that defamiliarization creates.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line was from Charles Simic’s poem, ‘’Watermelons”, where he writes, “We eat the smile/And spit out the teeth.” This stuck out to me because it seemed to be a metaphor for the way that humans digest things; knowledge, concepts, ideas, truths. We happily accept the aspects we like, and reject the portions that bite us, the ideas that challenge our own, but ultimately would be the most useful. It is fitting that this line would come directly after Simic calls the watermelons “green Buddhas”, as religious ideas are the ones that most commonly challenge and offend the humanistic ideals that we try to hold so tightly to.
ReplyDeleteSarana McDaniel
My favorite line is from "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, " Like medals with their ribbons, frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom" I felt that that line was a huge turning point in the poem because it signified the moment where the fisherman had a change of attitude towards the fish, fishing, and I believe, nature in general. This was also my favorite poem because the level of imagery was incredible. I was able to have a clear picture in my mind of everything I was reading.
ReplyDelete-Sandra Torres
My favorite lines are from "Watermelons" by Charles Simic, "We eat the smile and spit out the teeth". The poet uses the word "smile" for the shape of a piece of watermelon and the word "teeth" for a watermelon's seeds. His word substitutions change eating and spitting into a fun and childish thing to do.
ReplyDelete--Rayna Gomez
My favorite lines are from "Fork" by Charles Simic, where he writes, "This strange thing must have crept/Right out of hell." I thought this was interesting largely due to the fact that I have never looked at a fork as anything other than a fork. Simic gives defamiliarization to the fork by using it as a metaphor for a birds claw; this gives an animalistic quality to humans that use a fork when cutting into meat, which is something that is normally seen as a completely civilized habit. He seems to challenge general social conventions of utensils and the way we use them on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line is from "Blood on the Wheel" by Juan Herrera is "Could this be yours? Could this item belong to you? Could this ticket be what you ordered, could it?" He is frequently using the word blood throughout the poem and it was just interesting to see a not so sweet poem that we usually imagine, like roses are red and violets are blue. While reading the poem I felt that there is a sense of reality because he is expressing some more dark feelings about a life of violence. Reading that line just puts things into perspective about people who are born into or exposed to a life where they are influenced to live a life of violence, blood, drugs, gangs, etc.
ReplyDelete--Andrelle Garcia
There were many lines that stood out to me in "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. One line that continued to resonate with me the entire time I was reading was "He didn't fight." This for me was a red flag and just from that line, I knew that there had to be a reason that this fish didn't fight back. With the use of imagery the author illustrated that the fish was in terrible shape and he had several other hook marks on his lip. That was when the fisher realized the fish had been fighting for a long time. For me, this line showed a brave and strong soul that had just given up. By the end, I see the fish as a survivor.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line was "And spit out the teeth" from the Charles Simic poem "Watermelons." I enjoyed this line because it made me think of only using something when it is beneficial to the user like how religion is sometimes thought. Some people like to talk about the grace and forgiveness of a figure and forget about the wrath until it is useful as a scare tactic. I don't think that is what the poem was about but that is what it made me think of. It was a line that made you think about what it could mean longer than it takes to read the poem.
ReplyDelete-Iesha Clouden
Out of all the poems, my favorite line had to have come from the poem "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. The line stood out to me was at the very end and it simply says " And i let the fish go". although the actions seam so simplistic they mean so much more. After catching a "tremendous" fish and admiring ever detail, realizing the prize that this fish had it wasn't until the narrator realized the death behind the hooks in the fishes mouth. Every hook represents the fishermen who had once caught this amazing fish but admired its beauty and calm aura so much that they let the fish go.
ReplyDelete-Alicia Martin
Out of the four poems, my favorite line in "Watermelons" by Charles Simic is: "we eat the smile/ and spit out the teeth." The first read of these lines jolted me. The serene visual image of large, ripened green watermelons sitting on a stand is turns to a gritty image of spitting out the seeds. I think on one level, this can be interpreted as a watermelon being a metaphor for life and that in order to enjoy life fully, we have to take the bad, sour seeds, with the good, the smile of a watermelon.
ReplyDelete-- Kinlynn Austin
Herrera's line "Blood on the couch, made for viewing automobiles & face cream" in "Blood on the Wheel" was my favorite because it eloquently describes the way in which normal everyday people can get so focused on everyday material things that they might forget what real problems there are going on around the world. It reminded me of when I asked a family member who is a veteran how this could be so. He replied, "It's no one's fault. One person's 'lucky' is another person's 'normal'. When you've lived a certain way all your life it's hard to distinguish between the two."
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed all three poems and have favorite lines from each. But the one(s) that stand out the most are "This strange thing must have crept/Right out of hell" which are the first and second lines of the first stanza in Simic's "Fork". Perhaps it's because it was the first poem I read and I started it thinking something along the lines of "why would anyone write a poem about a fork?", it just sort of stuck in the back of my mind even as I read the rest of the assigned poetry. I've never thought to describe a fork, the simple pronged utensil I use to eat spaghetti with, as some sort of hellish bird foot-like device that accessorizes a cannibal's neck. In both of his poems, Simic uses defamiliarization to convey such simple and innocent things, in this particular case a fork, as something much more sinister and threatening.
ReplyDelete- Kristin Galetano
Reading through the poems I favored the line: “Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw” from “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. This line stood out to me because wisdom is a product of pain, the fish gained knowledge and experience with every battle and it survived five different instances where it was caught while keeping the hooks as proof. Just the imagery in that single line, the way it is described caught my attention with how the hooks looked like a beard. Earlier in the poem it is mentioned that the fish did not fight against the hook, it just hung there with its weight and still managed to get away even with the battered shape it was described to be in. What I saw from the poem was a fish that has seen death many times in its life and got away. By the fish’s sixth experience it just left it all to fate and fate was on the fish’s side in how it provided a fisherman who admired it and caused the boat to malfunction. I do not know why but the end of the poem reminded me of the story of Noah and the Ark in how the rainbows came in the end of the struggle.
ReplyDelete-James Dy
Being such a short poem, I enjoyed Charles Simic's Fork because of how concise and surreal it is. Personifying the object in describing how it "... must have crept Right out of hell..." immediately shatters all notions of what any "normal" person would deem relevant for a fork, and sets the tone for the remaining lines to entertain a metaphor with a bird / bird's foot, and as a tool for "the cannibal". While I am a novice in literature it is clear to me that there is much deeper meaning in these lines and those that follow, namely:
ReplyDelete"Its head which like your fist Is large, bald, beakless, and blind."
These passages seem to have some deep contextual meaning that is lost on me. If I had to pick a favorite line, then, it would be the last two because they have provoked the most confusion and thought from me.
- Andrew Van Bindsbergen
Reading all of the poems, my favorite poem would have to be "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. My favorite line throughout the poem would be "He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all". this particular passage caught my eye because it was unusual. When a fish is caught its natural instinct is to fight and escape but described in the poem the fish had given up. As i continued to read, the fish had been caught before shown by five older pieces of fishing line. the fisherman described these hooks as medals and ribbons from his aching jaw. The use of imagery here explained how the fisherman admired what the fish has been through and ultimately decided to let the fish go.
ReplyDelete-Gerson Bello
My favorite line is "could this be yours? could this item belong to you? could this ticket be what you ordered, could it?" This line stood out to me because blood becomes symbolic for anger, sadness, regret, or hatred and the ending is asking if that path is what you wanted or if that choose you. Either way you have the power and the choice to feel angry about those circumstances or be happy because in the end of the day you choose your future and the past is the past.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line was "Like medals with their ribbons," from the poem "The Fish". This is my favorite line because it is a symbol of the fish and his journey of getting away from the people who captured him. The scars on his neck are his medals and reminders that he has always evaded being captured. This is a very powerful line to me because it talks about how the fish always overcame adversity but finally got apprehended. Luckily, the person who caught him realized what the fish had been through and decided to set him free.
ReplyDelete-Teo Chiesa
My favorite line was "It is blood time, Sir Terminator says, It is blood time, Sir Simpson winks, it is blood time, Sir McVeigh weighs." from the poem, "Blood on the Wheel", by Juan Felipe Herrera. This line alludes to the Terminator, The Simpsons, and I believe that it is also alluding to a terrorist named Timothy Mcveigh. This is allusion was very well-done because in this poem, blood is a symbol for sin, pain, regret, evil-deeds, etc. And this allusion just goes to show that everyone, even fictional characters such as Homer Simpson, have at one time decided to commit an evil deed. Hence the phrase "It is blood time". - Jeff Ice
ReplyDeleteFrom Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish"
ReplyDelete"He was speckled with barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white sea-lice,"
Here, and in the lines that follow, Bishop has chosen a very flowery way to describe how hideous this fish is. Using pretty words like "speckled" and "fine rosettes" against barnacles and lime creates a typical, but effective, juxtaposition; the poetic diction of the speaker establishes an almost doting attitude toward their capture, lulling the reader into a similar, weird admiration for the thing. Bishop does not soften or subdue the homeliness of the fish, but almost eases into it - until the mention of sea-lice. At the line "and infested," Bishop drops all pretense of ornamenting the fish; instead, with a single, gross line, she pummels us with the full weight of this fish's ugliness.
My favorite line was “They shifted a little, but not to return my stare” from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish”.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy this line more than any of the others that personify the fish because it makes the fish appear indifferent to what could be its death. This assumes that the fish decides not to look at the person, of course. Choosing to ignore its captor makes me picture the fish as a calm, collected villain that has experienced so much danger that nothing surprises him or her. Being caught is just another fact of life and being eaten or thrown back into the ocean is of no consequence.
- Michael Harp
My favorite lines come from Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish," in which the speaker depicts, "He was speckled with barnacles, / fine rosettes of lime." In this description, which is similarly portrayed throughout the poem, the speaker describes the fish she has just caught - something that is undoubtedly gross - by using the metaphor "rosettes of lime." By describing the fish in this way, using the word "rosettes," which are typically used to describe beautiful flowers, she provides this seemingly vile fish with attributes of beauty - something that is not to be expected when depicting a fish that has just been removed from its natural habitat after biting into a line. The speaker's continuation of comparing the fish to different flowers thus provides readers with an unexpected depiction of a fish, which brings about a greater sense of empathy for this fish, as these few lines did for me.
ReplyDelete- Haleigh Earls
I enjoyed reading all the poems, but "Watermelons" by Charles Simic stuck out to me the most. My favorite line would have to be "We eat the smile" just because of the visual it gave me. Watermelon slices are usually shaped like a crescent, and closely resembles a smile. Saying that "we eat the smile" is like saying we are taking in happiness and joy. Saying that watermelons were "Green Buddhas" was very interesting, too. Buddhism's beliefs include reaching "nirvana", which is a sort of heaven or paradise. Simic does a great job giving visuals with only four lines.
ReplyDelete- Hugo Hernandez
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line from the Fork by Charles Simic was "As you stab with it into a piece of meat, It is possible to imagine the rest of the bird." It shows how much anger the person is going through. The author used imagery so the readers can picture how much anger the person has. It was very powerful because I could picture exactly how that person was going through while he was eating. Then towards the end of the poem they start to like ease down.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line was from "Watermelons" by Charles Simic. The line is "We eat the smile, and spit out the teeth," the watermelon seeds symbolizing teeth. The line alludes to a childhood phenomenon we all experience, losing baby teeth. We lose our baby teeth, like we lose our childlike innocence. Throughout maturity, however, we try to hold on to the joy, or "the smile", we felt with this innocence. This line made me wonder if you can really have joy without innocence.
ReplyDelete-Alexandra (Allie) Darling
One of my favorite lines was from Watermelons by Charles Simic. It was, “We eat the smile, and spit out the teeth.” Because even though on the surface those lines have seemingly nothing to do with watermelons, my mind still went to that conclusion. I think it’s such an odd and interesting way of wording something so common and familiar, that in a way it makes it distant. I’d never associate watermelon seeds with teeth so I think it funny that the speaker could come to that conclusion.
ReplyDeleteAnother line I liked was from The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop, I just really liked the ending line “And I let the fish go.” Because I felt sorry for the fish throughout the poem because it’d escaped capture so many times before only to meet its untimely end now. And the speaker was aware of this and felt proud that she’d accomplished what others before her couldn’t, and still she let the fish go. Which is what I was hoping for.
Stephanie Borges
All three poems were interesting to read but the line that I favored the most from all three poems was Charles Simic's line in Watermelons, "We eat the smile/And spit out the teeth". He refers to the watermelon slices as a smile which in my perspective is a representation to the joyful things in ones life and the happiness we want to consume daily. He then goes on by regarding to the watermelon seeds as teeth we spit out which I believe is a way to describe how we do not like to accept the bad in life and "spit out" negativity and the sour things we do not want to be a part of our daily lives.
ReplyDelete- Arcely Ramos
Whereas the majority of this week's assigned readings were fascinating “The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, in particular, was my favorite. Amongst several lively imagery and literary techniques, the line "like medals with their ribbons" sticks out like a sore thumb-with good reason of course.
ReplyDeleteAs Bishop illustrates a fragment of the fisherman's catch with ongoing suspense, the reader is almost assured that the fish, being captured and defeated by default, will ultimately meet its end. Still, the fisherman is moved by the scarred and mutilated fish jaw. Captivated by the organism’s winning spirit the fisherman finds fulfillment in only capturing the fish consequently leading to its release.
Akin "medals with their ribbons" the previous hooks attached to the fish's jaw are evident of the organism's struggle for survival.
These lines are indicative of a powerful moment in which the fisherman is not only in awe of nature, but also humbled. In this lies the poem's literary subliminal stimulus.
My favorite line of the three poems was "we eat the smile and spit out the teeth," from "Watermelons" by Charles Simic. Though the line is short and simple, I liked it the most because it said all that the writer was trying to depict in just a few words. In those few words alone, I felt more awe than I did in any of the other lines in the entirety of all the other poems. I feel that Simic used defamiliarization quite well to make a simple joy like watermelons seem even more joyous by bringing a little fun to the thought of watermelon eating.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line was "We eat the smile" from Charles Simic's poem "Watermelons" because it symbolizes childhood memories and the happiness people have felt when they ate something that tasted good to them. The word "smile" refers to the shape of the watermelon that's been sliced or bitten into, and a smile also makes me think of how powerful and contagious it can be sometimes. A smile on ones' face can put or influence one on anothers.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Green
My favorite line was "Blood on the Virgin, behind the veils, Behind- in the moon angel's gold oracle hair" from "Blood on the Wheel". The piece of work beautifully describes the violence, hate, anger, and regret in the world. But this line made me think that this is all around us, and even the most noble person has some bad in them. We are not all perfect.
ReplyDelete-Crystal Magana
My favorite line is from Juan Felipe Herrera Blood on the Wheel. "What blood is this?" because of its opened ended in the poem. We all have spilled blood at times whether its from work, pain, and even fear. So when the poem gets to that line its like you have no choice but to emote your own feeling of what your blood is on. It tells a story of what we leave blood behind on through all our emotions and everyday life activities, and the poem is a tribute to it all in a way.
ReplyDeleteMarqualla Thomas
My favorite line is from the poem Watermelon by Charles Simic. "We eat the smile. And spit out the teeth." I think that these lines represent the good and bad and the things that we have to achieve and overcome throughout our lifetime. We smile and take in the good, the happy moments/memories, the obstacles overcome and goals achieved. We spit out the teeth which is translated to the bad, the pain, the failures, and the loss that appears in our life to challenge us and make us grow.
ReplyDelete~Hannah Riggle
The line(s) that stood out to me the most were from Juan Felipe Herrera's poem titled "Blood on the Wheel". Of course almost every line in the poem is controversial, however since it’s my topic of interest, I like the lines, "It is blood time, Sir Terminator says,/It is blood time, Sir Simpson winks,/It is blood time, Sir McVeigh weighs.” Here Herrera makes allusions to action movies such as “The Terminator”, the O.J. Simpson case, and Timothy McVeigh. What they all have in common is that they were broadcasted, televised, and shown to millions of people. Movies like The Terminator are praised and given awards even if it’s about bloodshed. America was torn over the O.J. Simpson case wondering if he was a murderer or pardoned because of his NFL status. Timothy McVeigh is considered a domestic terrorist who detonated a bomb in Oklahoma City killing over a hundred people. I like these lines because Herrera is calling out some of the stupidity in America where if blood is spilled, it’s shown and made famous to everyone.
ReplyDelete~Jennie Heffler
The line that I chose is "Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw." from "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. I chose this because earlier in the poem she says how the fish was not fighting and once she said this it reminded me of a wounded soldier. As if the fish had gone through a tough and painful war and had finally decided to stop fighting. Also, when a soldier returns from war they bear scars from their battle, which is exactly what the hooks and lines are to the fish, battle wounds.
ReplyDelete- Jasmin Leon
My favorite line from the poem "The Fish" was "Like medals with their ribbons". This line from the poem stood out to me because of how Elizabeth Bishop compared the old fishing lines hanging from the fish's lip to metals. One would think it would give the fish a negative description of how old it is but instead the fish is honored for its wisdom and courage. I really enjoyed how the poem gave me a different perspective on the worn-out fish as the writer showed respect for the fish since it had battle scars demonstrating the fish's age and wisdom.
ReplyDelete- Mariela Andrade
My favorite line was “Could this ticket be what you ordered, could it?” the poem was called "Blood on the Wheel" by Juan Felipe Herrera. I favored this line because it tells me that not everyone is lucky enough to go where they want to go in life. It explains to me that life is hard and that there are different situations in every persons life that we as people can not control. We don’t always end up where we want to be due to the obstacles and changes in the economy. in my own words this is what i think the line means, “could this life that we live now be what we truly want.”
ReplyDelete-Abigail Herrera
My favorite line came from "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. The line I choose was the very last, "And I let the fish go." I liked this best because I found it surprising that after the speaker spoke of victory filling the boat and being prideful that the fish was finally caught after so many tries, they let the fish go. As a reader, I was not expecting the speaker to let the fish go free and I enjoyed the fact that I was wrong about where the poem was going.
ReplyDelete-Ashlee DeMalade
Out of the three authors poems, the one that stood out to me was Watermelons by Charles Simic where he uses [we eat the smile and spit the teeth] because in its totality I think it's referring to the truth bliss of life and the idea that life also comes with its lows but as humans, we generally want to accept the good aspects in life and dispose of the bad, like when we spit out the seeds of a watermelon us. Similarly, when it refers to Buddha it refers to the fact that he is always happy and has a watermelon smile on his face.
ReplyDeleteIn Charles Simic's poem Watermelons my favorite line was "we eat the smile." This was my favorite line because since I was a little child my siblings and I would act as if the watermelons were big smiles. Simic did an amazing job in helping me capture the picture of someone actually eating a watermelon.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line is from the poem "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, saying "Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and it's pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper: shapes like full blown roses stained and lost through age." I really enjoyed this poem because of its clear imagery of the fish and the comparisons used to describe the fish. I particularly favored the line upon because it almost describes the old fish with life by using the object of a rose to somewhat describe it. A rose is often a symbol of love and beauty, and as the line reads "full blown roses stained and lost through age", it goes with out clearly saying that the fish once was beautiful in its younger age, but now barely shows sign of that time. I loved how a simple line, if not a couple words in that line, can unveil a lot of information and history about a little fish with an almost secret comparison.
ReplyDelete- Addison Walters
As I was posting my second blog post, I noticed it was not showing up as I was reading other blog posts. I then checked to see if this was the case for my first blog post and it indeed was. That is why this first blog post is late, because when I tried posting anonymously both times for each blog post, it did not work. For now on I will post under my google log in. Thanks, and I hope I don't get points marked off!
After reading all three poems by Simic, Bishop, and Herrera, my favorite line was "we eat the smile,"by Simic. Even though it was such a short poem, it had a strong meaning and brought back childhood memories. As a kid, my mother use to cut the watermelons and leave the rind. There was a way she cut them to form it into a smile. After my brothers, sisters and I would bite all the pink flesh of the watermelons, we would hold up the rind to our face and create a smile.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line would have to be from Juan Felipe Herrera's
ReplyDelete"Blood on the Wheel" due to the multiple use of allusions and visual imagery. The line "Blood on the Virgin, behind the veils, Behind-in the moon angel's gold oracle hair" may be alluding to the Virgin Mary. Blood is most predominantly associated with death, negative experiences and sorrow. However the Virgin herself is seen in the Christian faith as a symbol of hope, peace, and harmony. Seeing how blood would be "on the Virgin" depicts an unusual image of destruction, death, and hate towards the Virgin Mary. Perhaps one was trying to kill her or cause her harm. Also where would this blood be coming from? Whose blood is it? Would Felipe Herrera be raising the question that the blood would actually be the Virgin's during her childbirth to Jesus Christ? And in that sense would she really be as pure and saintly as she is depicted throughout Christianity? The controversy in this line begs the question that Felipe Herrera was questioning his own faith during his time of personal turmoil which led to questioning of core values that he was brought up to believe.