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As-salamu alaykum. Again, today we continue doing

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our English poetry course at the Islamic

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University of Gaza. Last time we had a discussion

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on the nature of poetry and what to do with poetry

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in order to understand and approach poetry. I

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spoke about my major objectives in this course. We

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also spoke about techniques

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in order to approach poetry. I'm going to be

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repeating some of these issues in today's class as

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we define poetry and continue to take examples of

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poetry from English, and today we'll have an

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example from Arabic poetry. If you remember, last

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time we concluded with one significant fact, which

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is if there's something in a text, in a literary

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text, especially in a poem, it's almost always

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there for a reason. There's a purpose behind it.

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Poets select carefully their words, their images,

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their metaphors, their sounds even, their rhymes,

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what to say and what not to say. This is a quote

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that I like very much about poetry. It says, in

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poetry, every word and every sound and everything

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counts. It has a purpose; it impacts the way, the

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direction of the poem, and it impacts the

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reception of the poem by the reader. Everything

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has its function and makes a difference. And we

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should always ask why certain words or sounds or

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phrases or images or metaphors are used instead of

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another. I claim sometimes that creative writing,

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poetry, fiction writing is a process of making

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choices: what to write and what not to write. This

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applies actually to writing, to speaking, but

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because we speak involuntarily, when we write

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academically or any kind of writing, especially

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creative writing, we try to carefully choose what

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to say and what not to say. And then last time, I

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kind of drew the iceberg. This is an iceberg.

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Maybe the tip here is a lot bigger than the one I

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drew last time. But usually what we see is the

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tip. There's also an idiom in English that says

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it's only the tip of the iceberg, because what's

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hidden, what's beneath is almost always more,

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sometimes more important, more significant. So any

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person, any text, any poem shows us this tiny

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thing in the tip. Our job is to use what we see,

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the tip, and to dive deeper and make connections

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and try to understand the implied meanings, the

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things that are hidden beneath that can tell us

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many things, not only actually beliefs and values

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and ideas and themes, but also things related to

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the form and the structure and the sounds of the

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poem. So before I ask you to give me your own

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definition of poetry, I want to repeat something

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I also said last time. A poem shouldn't mean, but

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be.

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Last time I said, don't let a poem be engaged.

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This could be contradictory. Like, leave the poem

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as it is. And I don't want you to misunderstand me

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here. It means that no explanation, no summary, no

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interpretation of a poem can do any poem justice.

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Because if you want to explain a poem, you need to

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rewrite it, to say it in other words. And saying a

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poem, a text in other words, usually takes away

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the beauty of the text. And this happens to us all

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the time. Like, you read a poem or you memorize a

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line or two lines of verse and you go to someone

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and say, "Hey, today I read these beautiful lines,"

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"beautiful, what are they about?" Like he's saying, "If

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uh, uh, because you're courageous, you can you beat

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everybody, even the heroes. Okay, this idea, I get

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this idea all the time; people say it all the time.

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No, no, no, but in the poetry, in the lines, it's

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really fascinating, the imagery, the sounds, the

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choice, the choice of words. So many people, I'm one

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of those people; I'm against summarizing poetry.

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If you want to talk about poetry to people, show

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them the poem. But because this is a poetry class,

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we need to try to understand and analyze and

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interpret poetry. What should we do? We need to

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follow particular techniques. I'm not going to say

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scientific techniques of understanding poetry,

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but some techniques, some methods and strategies

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in order to appreciate poetry even more.

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And here, this is a significant point also, the

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only meaning of poetry that really matters is its

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effect on you as you read it or hear it, the

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impact of the poem on you as a reader. And again,

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don't let the poem be. So there are two things

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here: we need to engage, we need to make the

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influence, to feel the influence of the poem, the

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impact of the poem, but at the same time, we don't

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want to look at poetry as just a story that I can

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rephrase and paraphrase, because I have just said

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that every word, every image, every sound, every

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phrase, every metaphor is carefully and

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meticulously selected by

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Now, remember last time we came up with this list

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when we spoke about poetry? Rhyme, rhythm, sounds,

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lines, ellipses, repetition. Sometimes poetry

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doesn't follow the rules of grammar. Now I want

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you to look again here, please, at this with the

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imagery and literary devices and everything. Look

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at the list. I'm sure you still remember most of

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them. And I'll give you two minutes to try to come

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up with your own definition of poetry, in the

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light of these words, or if you don't want to use

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them, it's up to you. But when we spoke of the

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nature of poetry last time, when we talk about

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poetry, we talk about these things, more or less.

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So, what is poetry? What is poetry? You don't have

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to be Shakespeare to define it. Just tell me what

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you feel. Tell me what you think of poetry. The

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nature of poetry. If you want to define poetry. If

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somebody in a taxi, in a bus, if your mom says,

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"poetry," what is poetry? Why is there a course for

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poetry in particular? Because there are other

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courses you study for. I know short story, novel,

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drama.

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Mm-hmm. Do

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you think there is one correct definition of

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poetry? Okay, thank you. This is not mathematics

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or physics. Got it. So

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poetry is... Now, I want to give you one more minute

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to share your definition with your classmate.

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Show her your definition and see her definition of

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poetry and try to see where you meet and where you

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differ.

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Could you please share your definition with your

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friend, yeah? Same here, yeah?

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I'll ask you two questions in a minute: how you

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define poetry and then whether you agree or

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disagree with your classmate.

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Did you focus on the same thing?

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Are you jealous because your friend's definition

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is better than yours? Are you proud because yours

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is better than hers?

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You proud? Excellent. This is the spirit. This is

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the spirit I want. Okay. You're proud of each

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other because you both did well. Good. That's the

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spirit. Okay. Somebody please share your

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definition.

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Oh,

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that's a big definition. It's also beautiful. Can

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you say it again? So there are words, definitely

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there are words, and in words we can find images,

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actions, okay, and feelings. Wow.

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I like... is there rhythmically... even a word. Thank you

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for coining this if it's not a word already.

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Rhythmically arranged.

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Okay, so there is a purpose here. You want to

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influence, to impact the readers. That's a

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definition. I think we... send it to me; I'll add it

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to the book. It's beautiful. Please, over there.

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Poetry is a group of words that are designed on

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the basis of technological rules in order to reach

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others and express our feelings. Okay, so poetry,

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say again. It's a group of words. Group of words.

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Designed, design. Okay. I like also the word design

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because it shows intention, to... You

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know, that to reach others. So to reach out, express

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feelings and emotion. Fantastic, please. So

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deep thoughts, necessarily. Okay.

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Shared using metaphors and music,

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different types of music. So thoughts that are

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deep, necessarily shared in a particular way, more,

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this way, please. It's an art of the language that

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expresses feelings and ideas in an organized way.

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In an organized way, using rhythm. Okay, very good

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also. Yes, Hanin.

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Organized in?

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In a musical way? Following particular forms. Can

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somebody tell me something about your friend's

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definition of poetry? What did you like about your

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friend's definition of poetry? Did you find

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something that you didn't mention? Okay, what did

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you find? Okay.

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She used a simile to talk about poetry where

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painting and pictures could be connected in a way.

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How? How can you connect pictures and how can you

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bring pictures and poetry together? Because

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pictures, colors, but pictures use colors, paints,

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a canvas. And poetry, most of you just said this,

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poetry uses words. Like Hamlet says, "Words, words,

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words." Please.

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That's an excellent connection. The imagination,

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the visualization, poetry brings things to life.

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Okay?

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This is probably one of the most important reasons

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why we, when we read poetry, we imagine everything

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as a, as like a picture or a movie happening in

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front of us. Do you have to feel this all the

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time? No. Because there are some poems that are

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very abstract, intentionally done so. Well, there

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has to be a purpose for doing it. Okay. Thank you

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very much.

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Like, do you mean a story with characters and...?

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So you'

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wants to say their definition. I wanted to comment

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on what I was saying. I wanted to say that I don't

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think that by saying that poetry makes you imagine

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things that you are drawing a whole picture in

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your mind. Maybe it's just the whole idea of

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making your mind work and not only being confused

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by the complexity or the ambiguity in the poem

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itself. So I think that it doesn't have to make

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you draw a whole picture in your mind. Yeah, of

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course. Again, it depends on how the different

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schools of poetry, the different background,

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different philosophy, different age, different

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time. We see there is a movement in the 20th

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century. I'll give you an example for that. It's

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called imagism, where the whole poem is one image,

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concrete image that brings, expresses a

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particular, could be an abstract experience in an

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image. Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot. It's called

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Imagism, a modernist movement early 20th century.

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We can't imagine this poem. If you can't imagine,

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visualize. Either the poem failed or you have

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you're hungry, your imagination isn't triggered yet.

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Okay, definition. My definition is the best words in

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their best organization. And also I want to share

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no, no. How is that? Can you explain because this

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is something good to say: the best words in the

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best organization. When we have a group of words or

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when we want to write a poem, we try to choose

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some words that are selective words to reach our

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meaning, maybe our feelings. In this organization,

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because sometimes we, even when we write our

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poetry for the first time, sometimes we feel the

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meaning will be there when we... this way, not this

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way. Inversion, fronting, this word instead of

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that word. Okay, I think I like all your

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definitions. Okay, go on. I want to share

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something that I read about Samuel Johnson. They

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asked him about what is poetry, and he said, oh, I

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think it's easier to say what it's not. What it's

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not. Yeah. Okay. Samuel Johnson triggers me,

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actually, because he hates John Donne. And I

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wouldn't take him seriously. No offense to, if you

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liked Samuel Johnson. And because he was involved,

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actually, in the debate. He said that John Donne

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doesn't write poetry. It doesn't necessarily

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matter. In this course, we need to learn that

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there are no authorities that we need to follow

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100%. Even T.S. Eliot, the best poet in the 20th

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century, one of the best critics. But sometimes,

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even T.S. Eliot... Sorry, T.S. Eliot. I see it the

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other way. He's different. And again, this is what

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I try to do to encourage you to think outside the

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stupid, clichéd box. Think for yourselves. Please.

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I like the way she defines poetry. Who's she?

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Who's she? Asma. Okay, Asma. Go on. Because she

278
00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:04,000
said that poetry is the overflow of feelings and

279
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:05,660
emotions using the apt words.

280
00:19:08,990 --> 00:19:10,650
That's Asma Wordsworth.

281
00:19:14,370 --> 00:19:18,990
Okay. Is Wordsworth a relative, William? Do you

282
00:19:18,990 --> 00:19:22,910
know him? Is he a friend, a Facebook friend? Because

283
00:19:22,910 --> 00:19:25,730
this is closely taken from what Wordsworth says.

284
00:19:26,070 --> 00:19:28,710
One of the definitions that we will be seeing in a

285
00:19:28,710 --> 00:19:33,870
bit. So thank you very much, all of you. Okay, so I

286
00:19:33,870 --> 00:19:36,770
have six definitions here of poetry. Could you

287
00:19:36,770 --> 00:19:42,750
read number one, please, someone? Please. Poetry

288
00:19:42,750 --> 00:19:45,870
is like painting. Poetry is like painting. That's

289
00:19:45,870 --> 00:19:52,470
Horace. That's over a thousand, almost more than 2

290
00:19:52,470 --> 00:19:55,870
000 years ago. Poetry is like painting. Number

291
00:19:55,870 --> 00:19:56,090
two.

292
00:20:01,210 --> 00:20:03,250
If you notice, this is old, by the way. This is 500

293
00:20:03,250 --> 00:20:07,270
years ago or so. Painting, picture, almost the

294
00:20:07,270 --> 00:20:11,350
same. This guy is Sidney, Sir Philip Sidney, okay.

295
00:20:13,570 --> 00:20:16,910
With the end, most of you spoke about influencing

296
00:20:16,910 --> 00:20:20,370
others, impacting others, reaching out to others.

297
00:20:21,460 --> 00:20:25,500
In this classical definition, neoclassical

298
00:20:25,500 --> 00:20:30,420
definition of poetry, poetry has to teach, poetry

299
00:20:30,420 --> 00:20:34,940
has to delight. There is an end to poetry. They

300
00:20:34,940 --> 00:20:38,240
didn't believe in art for art's sake, writing

301
00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:41,080
poetry just for the sake of writing poetry. Number

302
00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:44,420
three. Okay, maybe Asma, she's familiar with this.

303
00:20:45,360 --> 00:20:46,000
Okay.

304
00:20:50,710 --> 00:20:53,790
This is William Wordsworth, a Romantic poet. Now

305
00:20:53,790 --> 00:20:57,010
look at this. Many people would just stop here at

306
00:20:57,010 --> 00:21:03,070
feelings. This is 50% of the definition. The

307
00:21:03,070 --> 00:21:07,230
spontaneous overflow. So it's feelings that are

308
00:21:07,230 --> 00:21:12,110
powerful, with an overflow and at the same time

309
00:21:12,110 --> 00:21:13,990
spontaneous. It's not intentional. You don't say

310
00:21:13,990 --> 00:21:16,410
okay, now I want to write a poem. I want to make a

311
00:21:16,410 --> 00:21:22,090
poem. You're just inspired by a natural scene, a

312
00:21:22,090 --> 00:21:22,470
scenery.

313
00:21:26,070 --> 00:21:28,670
The second part, we'll see how significant the

314
00:21:28,670 --> 00:21:30,770
second part is, "recollected in tranquility."

315
00:21:31,770 --> 00:21:36,050
Recollected in tranquility. There's something

316
00:21:36,050 --> 00:21:38,790
related to memory here, recollecting something,

317
00:21:38,930 --> 00:21:41,770
recalling something that happened in the past. In

318
00:21:41,770 --> 00:21:44,610
Romanticism, there is a difference between

319
00:21:44,610 --> 00:21:48,920
reacting instantly to an event and then absorbing

320
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:53,140
it, bearing it in your mind and heart, and then

321
00:21:53,140 --> 00:21:56,780
when in a vacant or impulsive mood later on,

322
00:21:56,860 --> 00:22:01,480
recalling this experience. So feelings, we move

323
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:06,440
from painting, from picture, to teaching and

324
00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:09,920
delighting, to feelings, internal, self-

325
00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:12,580
expression, that is recollected in tranquility.

326
00:22:13,380 --> 00:22:14,980
Number four, please.

327
00:22:20,380 --> 00:22:23,060
Okay, this is something interesting from Samuel

328
00:22:23,060 --> 00:22:27,500
Taylor, another Romantic poet and critic: prose is

329
00:22:27,500 --> 00:22:32,580
words in their best order. Because we don't want to

330
00:22:32,580 --> 00:22:35,400
trash prose here. When we write prose, we also

331
00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:37,360
deliberately choose what to say and what not

332
00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:40,660
to say. But because sometimes we write a lot of

333
00:22:40,660 --> 00:22:44,420
prose, like you write a book, a novel, a long

334
00:22:44,420 --> 00:22:46,940
research paper, sometimes it's really demanding,

335
00:22:46,940 --> 00:22:50,420
it's really... it's not easy to choose and pick

336
00:22:50,420 --> 00:22:53,120
carefully everything you do in the text. But when

337
00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:57,220
you write a short poem, half a page, one page, two

338
00:22:57,220 --> 00:23:01,800
pages, basically it's easier. So poetry is the

339
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:05,520
best words in their best order because the way you

340
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:10,100
order things matters. Five, please.

341
00:23:14,770 --> 00:23:17,510
Poetry, again, this is another Romantic poet and

342
00:23:17,510 --> 00:23:22,130
critic, Coleridge. Poetry makes familiar objects be

343
00:23:22,130 --> 00:23:26,810
as if they were not familiar, unfamiliar. Again,

344
00:23:26,950 --> 00:23:28,170
in Romanticism, there's something called

345
00:23:28,170 --> 00:23:29,190
defamiliarization.

346
00:23:31,290 --> 00:23:35,810
Is it Van Gogh, the guy who draws the sunflowers?

347
00:23:37,790 --> 00:23:39,930
Keeps drawing the same thing again and again and

348
00:23:39,930 --> 00:23:41,370
again. Every time you see the picture, it's like,

349
00:23:41,690 --> 00:23:45,710
wow, as if you've never seen this before. In

350
00:23:45,710 --> 00:23:49,190
Romanticism, we call this the childlike

351
00:23:49,190 --> 00:23:54,010
experience. Kids almost always react to things as

352
00:23:54,010 --> 00:23:59,260
if they have just seen them, unlike adults. So

353
00:23:59,260 --> 00:24:02,440
when we grow up, there is a veil of familiarity

354
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:06,960
over our hearts and minds. We don't enjoy the

355
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:10,360
beauty of things. And I usually ask this question

356
00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:12,520
to the students, when was the last time you looked

357
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,360
up at the moon and said, wow, what a beautiful

358
00:24:15,360 --> 00:24:18,220
scene? We don't. We don't have the time. We can't

359
00:24:18,220 --> 00:24:20,060
see because of the concrete, because we're busy,

360
00:24:20,140 --> 00:24:23,700
because we're spending 24/7 of our time

361
00:24:23,700 --> 00:24:28,870
online, on Facebook, social media. When was the

362
00:24:28,870 --> 00:24:30,750
last time you stopped to, I don't know, to feed

363
00:24:30,750 --> 00:24:33,230
the cat here around campus, to look at the

364
00:24:33,230 --> 00:24:36,770
artificial kind of nature, the trees, the flowers,

365
00:24:36,890 --> 00:24:40,240
the roses? But look at the kids. The kids, when

366
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,940
they see things again and again, they're just

367
00:24:42,940 --> 00:24:45,500
like, you know, when they start talking and they

368
00:24:45,500 --> 00:24:48,580
see the light, "daw, daw." Every time they look up,

369
00:24:48,660 --> 00:24:50,300
they're like, "daw," right? The light, the light.

370
00:24:50,380 --> 00:24:53,340
They just keep saying the same word again and again. And

371
00:24:53,340 --> 00:24:55,980
when they see the moon or they see a donkey in the

372
00:24:55,980 --> 00:24:58,860
street, it's like, "mah, mah, mah," right? Even if

373
00:24:58,860 --> 00:25:02,220
they see it like every minute or so. This is a

374
00:25:02,220 --> 00:25:04,440
Romantic concept. That's why childhood is

375
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:07,970
significant in Romanticism. It's called

376
00:25:07,970 --> 00:25:11,210
defamiliarization, this defamiliarization thing,

377
00:25:11,350 --> 00:25:13,690
defamiliarizing things in order for you to see

378
00:25:13,690 --> 00:25:17,770
them anew, to see them afresh. And personally,

379
00:25:17,770 --> 00:25:19,930
he's one of the most fascinating poets of all

380
00:25:19,930 --> 00:25:23,830
time. He's a revolutionary poet. Number six.

381
00:25:26,370 --> 00:25:30,670
Please. There's a magical creation of beauty, for

382
00:25:30,670 --> 00:25:33,860
American poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar

383
00:25:33,860 --> 00:25:36,380
Allan Poe also has a definition of poetry, the

384
00:25:36,380 --> 00:25:39,900
rhythmical creation of beauty. You turn beauty

385
00:25:39,900 --> 00:25:43,360
which is abstract into something rhythmical,

386
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:46,700
musical. You turn beauty into music, no matter

387
00:25:46,700 --> 00:25:50,940
what it is. Which one do you like the most?

388
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:57,980
Please. Okay, why is that?

389
00:26:01,420 --> 00:26:06,090
The words are beautiful. Aha, so the words

390
00:26:06,090 --> 00:26:12,670
themselves are poetic. Okay, that's nice, a nice

391
00:26:12,670 --> 00:26:16,090
way of putting it. I like the sound of the words,

392
00:26:16,390 --> 00:26:19,650
please. Yeah,

393
00:26:22,330 --> 00:26:22,890
nice.

394
00:26:39,070 --> 00:26:44,130
But here he's turning abstract ideas of beauty

395
00:26:44,130 --> 00:26:48,750
into music, into words, into forms, into small

396
00:26:48,750 --> 00:26:51,270
forms, like babies, babies, and how beautiful they

397
00:26:51,270 --> 00:26:58,150
are. I like the first one because the emotion has

398
00:26:58,150 --> 00:27:00,970
found its thought, and the thought has found its

399
00:27:00,970 --> 00:27:03,930
form. Okay, what about the first one? No, the first

400
00:27:03,930 --> 00:27:07,010
one, I commend him. Okay, but he doesn't say

401
00:27:07,010 --> 00:27:08,830
anything about it; Horace doesn't say anything

402
00:27:08,830 --> 00:27:12,890
about it. Okay, the second one? This picture, this

403
00:27:12,890 --> 00:27:15,590
and to teach and delight. To teach and delight. There

404
00:27:15,590 --> 00:27:19,170
are many people who always, always have a theme,

405
00:27:19,370 --> 00:27:21,310
have a moral lesson at the end of their poem.

406
00:27:21,630 --> 00:27:25,210
Could be artificial sometimes, but they usually

407
00:27:25,210 --> 00:27:30,890
end their poems, you know, like what's that in

408
00:27:30,890 --> 00:27:31,470
... Tuyor El Janna?

409
00:27:37,530 --> 00:27:40,890
It's like some people feel that this is childish.

410
00:27:41,030 --> 00:27:45,010
If you end your poem, your text with a glaring

411
00:27:45,010 --> 00:27:49,190
moral lesson, treating me as a child. Let me get

412
00:27:49,190 --> 00:27:53,530
to that conclusion. Let me feel it, experience it,

413
00:27:53,570 -->

445
00:30:18,090 --> 00:30:21,250
metaphorically speaking. Taking life by the

446
00:30:21,250 --> 00:30:23,770
throat. Because life sometimes doesn't obey us,

447
00:30:23,830 --> 00:30:27,650
doesn't listen to us. It just goes the way it

448
00:30:27,650 --> 00:30:30,450
wants to go. Doesn't follow our wishes and hopes.

449
00:30:30,570 --> 00:30:33,110
So probably in a poem, you can come here.

450
00:30:36,430 --> 00:30:41,650
Four, please. Poetry is as exact as science, as

451
00:30:41,650 --> 00:30:47,950
geometry. Okay. French novelist. French, French.

452
00:30:48,210 --> 00:30:49,510
It's interesting that he's a novelist. I'm not

453
00:30:49,510 --> 00:30:53,190
sure if he's a poet also. Gustave Flaubert. Poetry

454
00:30:53,190 --> 00:30:56,310
is as exact as science, as geometry. It's like

455
00:30:56,310 --> 00:30:56,750
mathematics.

456
00:30:59,750 --> 00:31:03,710
Is it? No. Five, please.

457
00:31:11,140 --> 00:31:14,920
So this is not words and expressions, this is a

458
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:20,600
step even one or two further: syntax, grammar. Grammar,

459
00:31:21,380 --> 00:31:23,700
the way you arrange words, the way you put words,

460
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:27,440
the fronting, the organization of words, how

461
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:30,240
sometimes you break the rules of syntax. We just

462
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,160
said that. The challenge is to make it do what you

463
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:38,280
want it invisibly. Invisibly. You feel that

464
00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:40,640
there's something here, the poem begins nicely,

465
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,220
it's so smooth at the beginning, but I can't, I

466
00:31:44,220 --> 00:31:47,720
don't know how and why. This here is about, this

467
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:49,920
class is about trying to understand these, you

468
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:53,840
know, invisible impacts. Prophet Muhammad, peace be

469
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:55,240
upon him, says that from clarification to magic.

470
00:31:56,120 --> 00:32:01,390
Sometimes people, they bewitch us, kind of

471
00:32:01,390 --> 00:32:04,350
literally, sometimes with their rhetoric, with

472
00:32:04,350 --> 00:32:06,030
their words, with their poetry, with their

473
00:32:06,030 --> 00:32:08,010
writing, with what they say and how they say it.

474
00:32:08,610 --> 00:32:13,710
We stand amazed, sometimes even stunned. And

475
00:32:13,710 --> 00:32:16,250
usually we don't know why. We know this is because

476
00:32:16,250 --> 00:32:19,430
of the beautiful poetry or stuff they're reading.

477
00:32:20,210 --> 00:32:22,970
So let's try to dig deeper here and try to make

478
00:32:22,970 --> 00:32:26,550
connections in order to understand this invisible

479
00:32:26,550 --> 00:32:31,480
act of dazzling us. Finally?

480
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:35,360
Please.

481
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:39,180
Unconscious.

482
00:32:41,780 --> 00:32:45,720
So there's rhythm, the beats, up and down, you

483
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:48,120
know, the stress, the music, the internal music.

484
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:52,480
Rhythm is the unconscious engine of poetry. This

485
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,800
is a contemporary poet. I checked, she's still

486
00:32:54,800 --> 00:33:00,210
alive. Anne Stevenson. I don't know her. And also

487
00:33:00,210 --> 00:33:06,290
Susan Sontag is also alive. So which one of these

488
00:33:06,290 --> 00:33:11,930
definitions do you like the most? Or dislike the

489
00:33:11,930 --> 00:33:19,510
most? Which one? Please. The second one because

490
00:33:19,510 --> 00:33:25,670
it's emotional. The word can enrich us. So the

491
00:33:25,670 --> 00:33:30,210
emphasis here on how poetry reaches us, gets to

492
00:33:30,210 --> 00:33:33,170
us, is something you like. Please.

493
00:33:47,790 --> 00:33:51,510
Isn't sometimes releasing anger or emotions, isn't

494
00:33:51,510 --> 00:33:53,150
it sometimes violence?

495
00:33:55,750 --> 00:33:56,670
Isn't it violent?

496
00:34:00,510 --> 00:34:02,510
I want you to imagine different situations. Like

497
00:34:02,510 --> 00:34:05,970
okay, when you're expressing your actions and

498
00:34:05,970 --> 00:34:08,890
feelings and experiences to your family members,

499
00:34:09,030 --> 00:34:12,730
teachers, or friends, probably you're peaceful,

500
00:34:12,990 --> 00:34:15,690
you're calm, you're non-violent. But remember we

501
00:34:15,690 --> 00:34:18,850
said poetry is a means of resistance. We said

502
00:34:18,850 --> 00:34:21,230
this. Look at Mahmoud Darwish saying,

503
00:34:26,490 --> 00:34:30,610
This is violent. And yes, this is some kind of

504
00:34:30,610 --> 00:34:33,830
incitement, because incitement is sometimes good.

505
00:34:33,970 --> 00:34:35,570
This is not an invitation for violence, but

506
00:34:35,570 --> 00:34:39,930
sometimes you need to react to violence by

507
00:34:39,930 --> 00:34:45,290
violence. Poetry teaches us to do both. Number one

508
00:34:45,290 --> 00:34:47,810
here, taking life by the throat. I think, I don't

509
00:34:47,810 --> 00:34:50,250
mean here, I'm not sure what exactly he means, to

510
00:34:50,250 --> 00:34:55,730
be honest, but poetry helps us make sense out of

511
00:34:55,730 --> 00:35:02,490
the nonsense around us. We suffocate, we die, we

512
00:35:02,490 --> 00:35:04,630
suffer, we are humiliated sometimes.

513
00:35:07,950 --> 00:35:11,310
And when you write a poem, you're just attacking

514
00:35:11,310 --> 00:35:14,250
back, you're like holding life, controlling life

515
00:35:14,250 --> 00:35:17,580
and saying, hey, what the hell? Why is this

516
00:35:17,580 --> 00:35:19,980
happening to me? Why always me? Or why always us?

517
00:35:20,660 --> 00:35:23,520
So you try to make sense out of this thing.

518
00:35:23,620 --> 00:35:27,940
Because life is uncontrollable. Does a poem help

519
00:35:27,940 --> 00:35:31,760
us control life? Probably creating a bitter

520
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:32,340
reality?

521
00:35:35,660 --> 00:35:42,900
I think in a way. I like your different opinions.

522
00:35:43,020 --> 00:35:44,960
Don't feel bad if you have a different opinion.

523
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:48,320
Always say it. I wanted to say that it is like my

524
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:50,500
favorite part because it is my favorite definition

525
00:35:50,500 --> 00:35:52,620
because it's like you're saying that I'm choking

526
00:35:52,620 --> 00:35:55,340
life and I want it to give me what I want. So I

527
00:35:55,340 --> 00:35:57,000
want to create my own life. I am in charge, I'm

528
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:59,680
the boss. Exactly, yes. So this goes with the

529
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,220
concept of art makes life. Thank you. I also love

530
00:36:03,220 --> 00:36:07,810
the trip. I love the second and the third. But I

531
00:36:07,810 --> 00:36:10,890
still say that sometimes poetry makes us feel warm

532
00:36:10,890 --> 00:36:13,450
rather than cold because it's the opposite of

533
00:36:13,450 --> 00:36:18,050
making us feel cold. And I love Robert Frost's

534
00:36:18,050 --> 00:36:21,930
concept because sometimes poetry is actually

535
00:36:21,930 --> 00:36:26,110
grasping, grasping the meaning of life and putting

536
00:36:26,110 --> 00:36:30,050
it on paper. And this is not an easy thing to do.

537
00:36:30,090 --> 00:36:32,690
You need to struggle with yourself, with life.

538
00:36:35,010 --> 00:36:38,090
The first, the fourth, and the fifth are so cold

539
00:36:38,090 --> 00:36:41,990
and narrow definitions, I think. Poetry, to me, is

540
00:36:41,990 --> 00:36:44,870
more about emotion. It's more about feelings and

541
00:36:44,870 --> 00:36:49,750
thoughts than science. But can we pick and choose?

542
00:36:49,850 --> 00:36:53,490
Can we just make the perfect definition of poetry

543
00:36:53,490 --> 00:36:56,230
selecting and choosing from? Because even when you

544
00:36:56,230 --> 00:37:00,530
talk about rhythm and meter, they basically go

545
00:37:00,530 --> 00:37:04,500
under mathematics or geometry. Because things like

546
00:37:04,500 --> 00:37:09,440
engineering a poem, the rhyme scheme, the beats,

547
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:14,180
the feet, the stressed, unstressed, but not in the

548
00:37:14,180 --> 00:37:18,000
literal meaning. Definitely.

549
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:21,060
Yeah, definitely.

550
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:28,620
Okay, we'll see. Okay.

551
00:37:34,350 --> 00:37:38,610
Or, for

552
00:37:38,610 --> 00:37:42,830
example, for me, I do all kinds of romantic stuff

553
00:37:42,830 --> 00:37:48,190
because poetry, I think, is just self-expression and

554
00:37:48,190 --> 00:37:51,590
releasing of inner thoughts. For example, when I

555
00:37:51,590 --> 00:37:57,230
write anything, I don't even want anyone to read

556
00:37:57,230 --> 00:37:59,230
it. It's very personal.

557
00:38:03,860 --> 00:38:07,340
But I think William Wordsworth and the romantics wrote in

558
00:38:07,340 --> 00:38:18,080
order also to be read, so why would you...? It's

559
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:22,440
not criticism; it's not science. You think it's

560
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:26,140
criticism? Yeah, because sometimes when you can't

561
00:38:26,140 --> 00:38:29,460
criticize someone directly, you can write a poem

562
00:38:29,460 --> 00:38:33,820
to criticize someone indirectly. Because sometimes

563
00:38:33,820 --> 00:38:37,100
when you criticize someone, there's a punishment,

564
00:38:37,460 --> 00:38:39,720
there's something after it. So you can do it

565
00:38:39,720 --> 00:38:42,050
indirectly. That's true. It doesn't have to be

566
00:38:42,050 --> 00:38:45,030
like criticism of life, saying, "OK, I'm writing a

567
00:38:45,030 --> 00:38:51,010
poem. Today's pizza was horrible, and the

568
00:38:51,010 --> 00:38:54,670
cafeteria should be shut down." Today is something.

569
00:38:54,930 --> 00:38:57,150
It doesn't have to be literally this way. And

570
00:38:57,150 --> 00:39:00,710
sometimes we read the stupidest poems about the

571
00:39:00,710 --> 00:39:04,750
stupidest things, but the most beautiful things.

572
00:39:04,750 --> 00:39:07,170
We'll see some of these poems, poems that could

573
00:39:07,170 --> 00:39:11,490
sound stupid. Nonsensical. They're deep because

574
00:39:11,490 --> 00:39:14,590
they're true. They address, they reach us, get to us

575
00:39:14,590 --> 00:39:16,250
somewhere deeper, please.

576
00:39:22,650 --> 00:39:23,290
Yeah,

577
00:39:25,710 --> 00:39:28,430
so somebody here is finding a connection between

578
00:39:28,430 --> 00:39:33,070
criticizing life and releasing your thoughts.

579
00:39:48,260 --> 00:39:49,660
Okay.

580
00:39:56,330 --> 00:39:59,450
I like it when we have very different opinions,

581
00:39:59,650 --> 00:40:02,490
especially from friends. So I want you, when you

582
00:40:02,490 --> 00:40:06,830
finish this class, in the break, fight with each

583
00:40:06,830 --> 00:40:09,910
other, argue, try to convince each other, or try

584
00:40:09,910 --> 00:40:13,270
to make your point clear. And this is how we have

585
00:40:13,270 --> 00:40:19,970
fun. We don't have much time, but somebody wants

586
00:40:19,970 --> 00:40:22,190
to say something that is significant, that if she

587
00:40:22,190 --> 00:40:24,930
doesn't say it, this course is not what it should

588
00:40:24,930 --> 00:40:28,420
be. Okay, one line. Yeah, I'm very sure that the

589
00:40:28,420 --> 00:40:32,320
criticism in Arabic is different from English

590
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:35,540
because the criticism in Arabic, we have, like, a

591
00:40:35,540 --> 00:40:37,920
negative connotation;  they criticize

592
00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:41,460
something, we put the negative aspects that we have in

593
00:40:41,460 --> 00:40:43,940
something. But also there is constructive criticism. But the

594
00:40:43,940 --> 00:40:46,780
English connotation here, in English

595
00:40:46,780 --> 00:40:51,110
sometimes when we criticize things, like we want to say

596
00:40:51,110 --> 00:40:54,490
something about this. In literature, when we say

597
00:40:54,490 --> 00:40:57,330
criticism, this is not like saying bad things

598
00:40:57,330 --> 00:40:59,350
about the text; it's about appreciating it; it's

599
00:40:59,350 --> 00:41:03,290
about trying to see how it says what it says. But

600
00:41:03,290 --> 00:41:05,710
again, even in Arabic we still have constructive

601
00:41:05,710 --> 00:41:10,780
criticism. I like the first one, the criticism of

602
00:41:10,780 --> 00:41:12,960
life, because it duplicates our life as

603
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:15,620
Palestinians. In the recent years, we have seen

604
00:41:15,620 --> 00:41:18,280
many poets like Mahmoud Darwish, Ahmad Shawqi,

605
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:22,560
Fadwa Tuqan, Zoghlul Tuqan, they criticize the

606
00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:26,180
enemies. They criticize life? Yes, especially

607
00:41:26,180 --> 00:41:28,700
Israeli enemies through the hidden lines or

608
00:41:28,700 --> 00:41:33,080
powerful meanings. True, that could be also true.

609
00:41:33,420 --> 00:41:37,660
We can take this discussion to the Facebook group.

610
00:41:38,420 --> 00:41:40,840
I'll post these questions and probably we can

611
00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:47,880
continue this on Facebook. Okay, now I'll tell you

612
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:52,470
about an experience writing one of the most famous

613
00:41:52,470 --> 00:41:56,450
high-casual 20th-century poems by Ezra Pound. Ezra

614
00:41:56,450 --> 00:42:00,330
Pound is T.S. Eliot's friend. He's an early 20th

615
00:42:00,330 --> 00:42:08,010
century modernist and poet and critic. He writes

616
00:42:08,010 --> 00:42:11,270
about his own experience seeing he was somewhere

617
00:42:11,270 --> 00:42:17,030
in France, in a metro station, and he said he

618
00:42:17,030 --> 00:42:21,750
suddenly saw a beautiful face. You know, poets

619
00:42:21,750 --> 00:42:24,990
always see beauty in the midst of tragedy and

620
00:42:24,990 --> 00:42:31,670
stuff. Or vice versa. And then another. And then

621
00:42:31,670 --> 00:42:36,610
yet another. And then a beautiful child's face.

622
00:42:37,410 --> 00:42:41,900
And then another beautiful woman. And he says

623
00:42:41,900 --> 00:42:46,160
here, "I tried all day to find the words," look at

624
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:48,760
the medium here, "to find the words." So the

625
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:52,780
emotions, the feelings, are there, and this is

626
00:42:52,780 --> 00:42:57,800
Ezra Pound.  To find any words that seemed to me

627
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:04,840
worthy to describe this beautiful scenery. Or as

628
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,920
lovely as the sudden emotion. He was taken aback,

629
00:43:08,020 --> 00:43:11,830
like, "Oh my gosh!" You see this all the time. A kid

630
00:43:11,830 --> 00:43:15,030
does something, you see a rose, a flower, somebody

631
00:43:15,030 --> 00:43:19,030
does something, an old man, a homeless person does

632
00:43:19,030 --> 00:43:22,390
something, a taxi driver says something, pizza

633
00:43:22,390 --> 00:43:25,170
tastes a particular way, and then you're like,

634
00:43:25,330 --> 00:43:30,010
"This should be in a poem." And this is a poem. He

635
00:43:30,010 --> 00:43:33,690
said he failed the whole day to try to find the

636
00:43:33,690 --> 00:43:38,500
right words to express himself, to

667
00:45:50,380 --> 00:45:53,900
The painting, picture definition can easily, if you

668
00:45:53,900 --> 00:45:56,820
have the skills, you can easily draw this. So

669
00:45:56,820 --> 00:46:00,980
trees in fall, when you know, the leaves, the

670
00:46:00,980 --> 00:46:05,660
branches, the buds fall down. That's the beautiful

671
00:46:05,660 --> 00:46:08,420
image. You know, the cherry blossom. If you've

672
00:46:08,420 --> 00:46:10,800
been to America, you've seen this. In Japan,

673
00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:16,080
fascinating scenery of how trees blossom and

674
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:18,760
sometimes when they fall down. But this is the,

675
00:46:20,750 --> 00:46:24,930
It's actually something from underground going up.

676
00:46:25,890 --> 00:46:28,350
I don't know why he's doing this, but I love this

677
00:46:28,350 --> 00:46:30,450
scenery when everything is falling down, falling

678
00:46:30,450 --> 00:46:35,390
down. One thing, one particular thing is rising

679
00:46:35,390 --> 00:46:43,670
up, is flying back to its branch. A butterfly. So

680
00:46:43,670 --> 00:46:49,130
many things are missing here. That you keep, and I

681
00:46:49,130 --> 00:46:52,430
love this, I love the haikus. I usually go online

682
00:46:52,430 --> 00:46:56,490
to Twitter and just keep looking up haikus because

683
00:46:56,490 --> 00:47:00,970
they make me, Wordsworth says in one of his poems,

684
00:47:01,110 --> 00:47:04,210
"the music in my heart I bore." And this is

685
00:47:04,210 --> 00:47:07,290
beautiful because you don't bear music. Music is

686
00:47:07,290 --> 00:47:10,850
abstract. So you bear something. Sometimes you

687
00:47:10,850 --> 00:47:12,330
feel there is, you know, a burden on your

688
00:47:12,330 --> 00:47:14,630
shoulders and head and heart because you read

689
00:47:14,630 --> 00:47:17,250
something, because somebody said something to you.

690
00:47:17,790 --> 00:47:21,290
So here I, I, I, I like usually high could haunt

691
00:47:21,290 --> 00:47:25,090
me for, for a lot of time. So he says, okay, there

692
00:47:25,090 --> 00:47:30,090
is this haiku thing that he knows. And he gives

693
00:47:30,090 --> 00:47:32,730
another example that, again, I love very much. He

694
00:47:32,730 --> 00:47:35,850
talks about a guy, I don't know this guy, Viktor

695
00:47:35,850 --> 00:47:39,110
Plar, tells me that once when he was walking over

696
00:47:39,110 --> 00:47:44,310
snow with a Japanese naval officer, they came to a

697
00:47:44,310 --> 00:47:46,790
place, across a place where a cat, imagine the

698
00:47:46,790 --> 00:47:51,800
scene, it's snowy, it's white all over the place.

699
00:47:52,540 --> 00:47:54,940
They came to this place where a cat had crossed

700
00:47:54,940 --> 00:47:58,580
the path. So this is the snow and then there is

701
00:47:58,580 --> 00:48:02,080
this cat. If you have a cat, probably you'll feel

702
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:05,640
this more than anyone else. That's it. If you look

703
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:10,080
at it from afar, from a distance, it's beautiful,

704
00:48:11,230 --> 00:48:16,730
especially with the tiny pose, because it's going

705
00:48:16,730 --> 00:48:19,790
to sound something like this probably, I don't

706
00:48:19,790 --> 00:48:23,750
know. And then the Japanese man, and this is what

707
00:48:23,750 --> 00:48:28,090
I like about this story, he said, "Stop, I am

708
00:48:28,090 --> 00:48:30,410
making a poem." It's like "Stop, I am being inspired"

709
00:48:30,410 --> 00:48:32,830
because people who, you mentioned Ahmed Shawqi,

710
00:48:33,670 --> 00:48:36,560
the Egyptian poet, not the Palestinian poet. Ahmed

711
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:41,100
Shawqi had his beautiful way of writing poetry; he

712
00:48:41,100 --> 00:48:44,740
just gets the inspiration and he stops talking to

713
00:48:44,740 --> 00:48:47,380
people and he keeps walking to and fro around the

714
00:48:47,380 --> 00:48:49,800
place and he holds a pen and he writes wherever he

715
00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:52,100
on his hand, on the pack of cigarettes, he writes

716
00:48:52,100 --> 00:48:54,120
the poem, the inspiration; if he doesn't write it

717
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:57,380
back, probably it's going to, he's going to forget

718
00:48:57,380 --> 00:49:02,900
it. But this guy says, "Stop, I am making a poem," and

719
00:49:02,900 --> 00:49:06,100
the act of, because poetry in its root, originally,

720
00:49:06,100 --> 00:49:09,560
poetry means to make something, to make something,

721
00:49:09,560 --> 00:49:11,740
to create something, to build up something, to

722
00:49:11,740 --> 00:49:15,980
construct something. So he says, "Stop, I am making a

723
00:49:15,980 --> 00:49:20,200
poem." We usually make up a story, we make cake or

724
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:25,020
pizza, okay? So, and the poem goes roughly like this:

725
00:49:25,020 --> 00:49:29,260
Look at this, how easy but difficult at the same

726
00:49:29,260 --> 00:49:33,750
time. "The footsteps of the cat upon the snow." It's

727
00:49:33,750 --> 00:49:36,370
usually the second part that surprises us, catches

728
00:49:36,370 --> 00:49:39,550
us by surprise. Usually these poems don't have the

729
00:49:39,550 --> 00:49:43,950
linking verb, so it adds more to the poeticality

730
00:49:43,950 --> 00:49:48,350
of the poem. "Plum blossoms." You know, the plum,

731
00:49:48,530 --> 00:49:52,010
plums, plums, the plums, they have these trees,

732
00:49:52,270 --> 00:49:55,370
they have the beautiful flowers when they blossom.

733
00:49:56,610 --> 00:50:03,220
So the footsteps of the cat upon the snow are like

734
00:50:03,220 --> 00:50:08,120
plum blossoms. So our friend Ezra Pound said he

735
00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:12,300
was inspired by these things. Again, he failed. He

736
00:50:12,300 --> 00:50:14,660
was inspired by it. But look at how Ezra Pound, as

737
00:50:14,660 --> 00:50:18,460
a Western European guy, how he's appropriating

738
00:50:18,460 --> 00:50:22,580
Eastern Japanese things. Because if the haiku is

739
00:50:22,580 --> 00:50:27,240
originally three lines, five syllables, seven

740
00:50:27,240 --> 00:50:29,660
syllables, and then five syllables, look at how

741
00:50:29,660 --> 00:50:32,000
he's distorting this and appropriating it,

742
00:50:32,100 --> 00:50:35,380
changing it. As if saying that, "OK, it's nice,

743
00:50:35,580 --> 00:50:39,420
but..." There's always a "but." And that's why they would

744
00:50:39,420 --> 00:50:44,160
be appropriating this. Finally, he wrote the

745
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:47,580
famous poem, but he says, "I wrote like months

746
00:50:47,580 --> 00:50:50,860
later, two months later, I wrote a 30-line poem

747
00:50:50,860 --> 00:50:55,660
about that particular experience and destroyed it

748
00:50:55,660 --> 01:00:00,340
because it was what we call our second intensity.

749
01:00:01,020 --> 01:00:04,300
It's artificial in a sense. It's not what he

750
01:00:04,300 --> 01:00:06,160
wanted. It's not what he felt. It wasn't genuine.

751
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:13,410
Six months later, I made a poem half that length,

752
01:00:14,370 --> 01:00:18,430
still destroyed it, still second intensity. A year

753
01:00:18,430 --> 01:00:22,750
later, I made the flowing haiku, one of the most

754
01:00:22,750 --> 01:00:24,110
famous poems. This is a poem:

755
01:00:26,910 --> 01:00:30,390
"The apparition," you know apparition? It's like the

756
01:00:30,390 --> 01:00:32,690
ghost, apparition, ghost.

757
01:00:35,510 --> 01:00:40,370
"The apparition of these faces in the crowd." Look

758
01:00:40,370 --> 01:00:43,750
at a year later, the beauty of the faces in that

759
01:00:43,750 --> 01:00:46,130
particular time and place turned into an

760
01:00:46,130 --> 01:00:49,070
apparition, probably something spooky, bleak.

761
01:00:50,170 --> 01:00:55,010
"Petals on a wet, black bough." You know the petals?

762
01:00:56,830 --> 01:00:59,950
You know, this is, yeah. In Arabic, they say  البتلات

763
01:00:59,950 --> 01:01:02,930
(al-batalat). So this is a petal, this is a petal, this

764
01:01:02,930 --> 01:01:05,440
is a petal, this is a petal. But look at the

765
01:01:05,440 --> 01:01:12,020
choice of words. Like if this is, if every petal

766
01:01:12,020 --> 01:01:18,220
is a human being, it's going to be like "petals on

767
01:01:18,220 --> 01:01:24,720
a wet," not just wet, also black.

768
01:01:28,720 --> 01:01:33,300
It's beautiful, but it's also haunting.

769
01:01:40,750 --> 01:01:42,590
Okay. Okay.

770
01:01:55,490 --> 01:02:01,390
Don't you think the word "apparition" is key here?

771
01:02:02,810 --> 01:02:08,850
What does he say? The faces. The anything, the

772
01:02:08,850 --> 01:02:11,830
pictures of these faces in the crowd. He says

773
01:02:11,830 --> 01:02:12,930
"apparition."

774
01:02:17,250 --> 01:02:22,090
They're just a blurry image. But look at this

775
01:02:22,090 --> 01:02:25,470
experience, like so many things. Imagine writing

776
01:02:25,470 --> 01:02:29,810
30 lines and then 50 lines and then a year later,

777
01:02:30,770 --> 01:02:35,760
okay. I want to appropriate Japan and then say

778
01:02:35,760 --> 01:02:39,720
what I want to say and look cool. I love this

779
01:02:39,720 --> 01:02:43,220
poem. Can I say something? Can I say first that I

780
01:02:43,220 --> 01:02:47,020
don't like the haiku at all? It's okay. I can't

781
01:02:47,020 --> 01:02:49,760
live reading such poems. I can't live reading that

782
01:02:49,760 --> 01:02:54,380
the poet tried so hard to recollect his thoughts.

783
01:02:55,240 --> 01:02:57,380
Not necessarily. Sometimes when you are a poet,

784
01:02:57,740 --> 01:02:59,900
you are a poet. You just keep writing. It depends.

785
01:03:06,820 --> 01:03:09,440
You're right. You're definitely right. But what is

786
01:03:09,440 --> 01:03:11,960
challenging about this is the fact that the unsaid

787
01:03:11,960 --> 01:03:16,260
is a lot more than what he says. There is a lot to

788
01:03:16,260 --> 01:03:20,600
excavate, the hidden meanings. The stuff

789
01:03:20,600 --> 01:03:26,740
between... He doesn't even use here the verb. Is

790
01:03:26,740 --> 01:03:31,680
it "is"? Is it "was"? Will be? So is he talking about

791
01:03:31,680 --> 01:03:36,120
now, the past, the present? Makes you think. So

792
01:03:36,120 --> 01:03:39,860
I'll ask you to think about trying to write a

793
01:03:39,860 --> 01:03:43,020
haiku. Listen, the Japanese haikus, you will love

794
01:03:43,020 --> 01:03:46,950
them. So just Google "Japanese haikus," famous

795
01:03:46,950 --> 01:03:49,670
Japanese haikus, and try to read them. You'll feel

796
01:03:49,670 --> 01:03:53,550
probably, no offense to Ezra Pound. He's a great

797
01:03:53,550 --> 01:03:56,950
poet. But if you don't like Ezra Pound's haikus,

798
01:03:57,310 --> 01:03:59,670
probably you can read somebody else's. They're

799
01:03:59,670 --> 01:04:01,970
beautiful. Again, the challenging thing is that

800
01:04:01,970 --> 01:04:06,870
you need to put so many things, so many feelings

801
01:04:06,870 --> 01:04:12,690
and emotions in just two lines. Please.

802
01:04:18,470 --> 01:04:23,030
Possible, yeah, possible, possible. I like the

803
01:04:23,030 --> 01:04:25,410
whole concept of Pound, but I think that it goes

804
01:04:25,410 --> 01:04:29,510
against the idea of spontaneous love that we said

805
01:04:29,510 --> 01:04:32,530
before, because he spent a whole year just to come

806
01:04:32,530 --> 01:04:35,410
up with those words. But listen, the same with

807
01:04:35,410 --> 01:04:37,430
Wordsworth. Wordsworth didn't write his poems

808
01:04:37,430 --> 01:04:41,810
instantly. Wordsworth also believed that second

809
01:04:41,810 --> 01:04:45,630
intensity reacting to a particular scene is not

810
01:04:45,630 --> 01:04:48,210
good, it's not romantic enough. So he would take

811
01:04:48,210 --> 01:04:52,050
it and do it later. I want to say that when you

812
01:04:52,050 --> 01:04:54,230
asked us first to write our definitions, I said

813
01:04:54,230 --> 01:04:57,150
the word "precise" and to that point. In my

814
01:04:57,150 --> 01:04:58,970
definition, I didn't think that it was very

815
01:04:58,970 --> 01:05:01,870
significant. But I think that here it fits in

816
01:05:01,870 --> 01:05:06,120
finding this particular. Okay, thank you. So we

817
01:05:06,120 --> 01:05:10,580
conclude with Ezra Pound saying, "All poetic

818
01:05:10,580 --> 01:05:14,900
language is language of exploration." It's like

819
01:05:14,900 --> 01:05:19,300
kids exploring things. The kid, a one-year-old kid

820
01:05:19,300 --> 01:05:26,650
would say, "Open the light," right? They don't know

821
01:05:26,650 --> 01:05:29,590
the proper collocation here, but they would say

822
01:05:29,590 --> 01:05:33,310
this word, and the word here, "open," is a word of

823
01:05:33,310 --> 01:05:35,550
exploration. The kid is still exploring. But

824
01:05:35,550 --> 01:05:39,150
sadly, when we grow up, when we go to school, we

825
01:05:39,150 --> 01:05:41,770
learn to limit our imagination or something. So

826
01:05:41,770 --> 01:05:46,770
Ezra Pound is saying here, you need to explore.

827
01:05:47,070 --> 01:05:49,190
You need to break all these barriers, because

828
01:05:49,190 --> 01:05:52,040
poetry is basically a metaphor to avoid the

829
01:05:52,040 --> 01:05:54,600
thoughts that have been already thought out by

830
01:05:54,600 --> 01:05:59,560
others. The thoughts, if you don't explore, you

831
01:05:59,560 --> 01:06:02,920
will end up repeating and saying, "Well, I think

832
01:06:02,920 --> 01:06:05,500
Antara says, هل غادرة الشعراء من متردامي أم هل

833
01:06:05,500 --> 01:06:08,400
عرفت الدار بعد تراهم؟  Antara, the Arab poet 2000

834
01:06:08,400 --> 01:06:11,800
years ago, almost 2000 years ago, says that poets

835
01:06:11,800 --> 01:06:15,360
have said everything I want to say. But why did he

836
01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:19,500
still write poetry? Because he was exploring and

837
01:06:19,500 --> 01:06:21,500
the other Arab poet I will mention this later on

838
01:06:21,500 --> 01:06:26,600
so many times he said, "I'm

839
01:06:26,600 --> 01:06:29,880
quoting other poets, I am imitating other poets, I'm

840
01:06:29,880 --> 01:06:33,860
echoing other poets." We repeat; poets repeat each

841
01:06:33,860 --> 01:06:38,800
other. In order to avoid this, you need to explore

842
01:06:38,800 --> 01:06:42,420
with image, with, with experiment with imagery, with

843
01:06:42,420 --> 01:06:46,020
language, everything. Okay, now

844
01:06:47,270 --> 01:06:51,510
I'll conclude. I expected to do more, but we'll

845
01:06:51,510 --> 01:06:52,010
see.

846
01:06:55,070 --> 01:06:58,010
So there are four ways, four phases to approaching

847
01:06:58,010 --> 01:07:02,190
a poem. One, two, three, like you'll find

848
01:07:02,190 --> 01:07:03,770
different people saying different things,

849
01:07:03,890 --> 01:07:06,510
different books, different sources. But I like to

850
01:07:06,510 --> 01:07:09,990
follow this kind of system. You don't have to

851
01:07:09,990 --> 01:07:13,350
follow it as, you know, like literally. Number

852
01:07:13,350 --> 01:07:16,600
one, when you read a poem, try to notice things

853
01:07:16,600 --> 01:07:21,320
about it. When you have to do a poem to understand

854
01:07:21,320 --> 01:07:23,860

889
01:00:20,840 --> 01:00:23,680
course, but this is enough. So, the difficult words

890
01:00:23,680 --> 01:00:26,520
come to class. The next class we'll see, we'll

891
01:00:26,520 --> 01:00:29,860
study a poem by Tamim Barghouti. I was planning to

892
01:00:29,860 --> 01:00:34,480
do it today. And a poem by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Whoso

893
01:00:34,480 --> 01:00:38,000
lists to hunt. Whoso, this is a new word. What

894
01:00:38,000 --> 01:00:43,960
should you do? Go to the dictionary. Number four, and

895
01:00:43,960 --> 01:00:48,040
this is where we do our business here. Read

896
01:00:48,040 --> 01:00:51,740
between the lines. Connect between the form and

897
01:00:51,740 --> 01:00:53,540
the meaning, and the shape, and the idea, and the

898
01:00:53,540 --> 01:00:57,720
words. Analyze the sounds. Answer the question,

899
01:00:57,940 --> 01:01:00,740
why? So what? Why is this repeated? Why does this

900
01:01:00,740 --> 01:01:04,580
sound like this? Why is the rhyme different,

901
01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:07,640
regular, irregular? So link the form and the

902
01:01:07,640 --> 01:01:10,700
meaning. Aim for the implied, for the things

903
01:01:10,700 --> 01:01:14,160
between the lines. This is close reading, we

904
01:01:14,160 --> 01:01:17,830
mentioned before. And again, the metaphors, the

905
01:01:17,830 --> 01:01:22,150
literary devices, and the imagery. What I usually

906
01:01:22,150 --> 01:01:24,530
do, remember Ali Abunama's poem? We noticed

907
01:01:24,530 --> 01:01:27,930
things, and then we try to see, read it aloud, and

908
01:01:27,930 --> 01:01:31,730
then to see what new words, probably, sometimes,

909
01:01:32,170 --> 01:01:34,210
number three, by the way, sometimes you will not

910
01:01:34,210 --> 01:01:36,850
be able to understand what the poet means, because

911
01:01:36,850 --> 01:01:39,550
poets say stuff. Even poets themselves sometimes

912
01:01:39,550 --> 01:01:42,630
don't know what it means. I never closed the

913
01:01:42,630 --> 01:01:45,200
newborn desert. I don't know. But this is the

914
01:01:45,200 --> 01:01:48,540
beauty of, it doesn't mean, I don't know means I'm

915
01:01:48,540 --> 01:01:52,580
not 100% sure, but I can still guess. I can give

916
01:01:52,580 --> 01:01:59,700
an idea. We'll see how things go. When we comment

917
01:01:59,700 --> 01:02:05,620
on a poem, finally, on a text, whatever you do,

918
01:02:06,740 --> 01:02:10,880
base your opinions and thoughts on the text, on

919
01:02:10,880 --> 01:02:15,040
ideas, on evidence. I could claim here that there

920
01:02:15,040 --> 01:02:17,960
could be two types of evidence. Number one,

921
01:02:18,100 --> 01:02:22,380
textual evidence. The poet repeats the word "nor"

922
01:02:22,380 --> 01:02:26,320
three times. The poet ends with the same

923
01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:30,940
rhyme scheme: "I I I I" sound. The poet begins with "I"

924
01:02:30,940 --> 01:02:37,240
and ends with "I" to support your argument. Okay,

925
01:02:37,500 --> 01:02:41,580
always do this. In exams, in your discussions, most

926
01:02:41,580 --> 01:02:44,280
of you forget to do this; this is, to me, more

927
01:02:44,280 --> 01:02:49,420
important than anything else. Get used to saying,

928
01:02:49,420 --> 01:02:51,780
"the poet is doing this," "the poem is saying this"

929
01:02:51,780 --> 01:02:55,600
because, in the text; for example, in the text, it

930
01:02:55,600 --> 01:02:59,540
goes like this. Number two: evidence based on

931
01:02:59,540 --> 01:03:03,900
thoughts. Again, going back to Ali Abunama's poem, we

932
01:03:03,900 --> 01:03:07,950
said, replying to the question whether the speaker

933
01:03:07,950 --> 01:03:13,090
will change or not, some of you said, "I think he

934
01:03:13,090 --> 01:03:16,750
is going to change because the very act of writing

935
01:03:16,750 --> 01:03:20,680
the poem is an act of change." This is evidence

936
01:03:20,680 --> 01:03:23,780
still, not based on something in the text, based

937
01:03:23,780 --> 01:03:27,820
on logic, on my understanding of life, thoughts,

938
01:03:27,960 --> 01:03:31,740
connecting things, connecting the dots. Not

939
01:03:31,740 --> 01:03:37,240
necessarily. Not necessarily. I usually don't like

940
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:40,200
to go to the background or something. So I don't

941
01:03:40,200 --> 01:03:43,280
want to go and call Ali, what did you do when you

942
01:03:43,280 --> 01:03:45,060
when you wrote this poem? What did you change in

943
01:03:45,060 --> 01:03:47,150
your life? I don't care about this. But this is

944
01:03:47,150 --> 01:03:49,970
because even evidence number two is still

945
01:03:49,970 --> 01:03:52,430
something around the text, writing the poem

946
01:03:52,430 --> 01:03:54,670
itself. When you say, for example, "I take this as

947
01:03:54,670 --> 01:03:57,430
evidence," this is what I'm saying. So if I ask you

948
01:03:57,430 --> 01:03:59,510
a question in your exam, "Is Ali Ibn Umar going to

949
01:03:59,510 --> 01:04:02,290
change," give evidence from the text? You could

950
01:04:02,290 --> 01:04:05,290
say, "I think he's going to change because the very

951
01:04:05,290 --> 01:04:09,010
act of writing the poem is evidence of change,"

952
01:04:09,130 --> 01:04:14,930
writing, speaking, releasing the thoughts. Someone

953
01:04:14,930 --> 01:04:19,010
else might say, "Yes, because in the text he uses the

954
01:04:19,010 --> 01:04:22,410
word 'regrets,' and 'regrets' is plural. So he's not

955
01:04:22,410 --> 01:04:24,850
regretting one thing, he's regretting many things."

956
01:04:26,410 --> 01:04:30,550
In the text he uses the past simple tense: "I never

957
01:04:30,550 --> 01:04:34,930
felled," and then there were other verbs: "felled,"

958
01:04:34,950 --> 01:04:38,530
"clothed," "couldn't." The use of the past simple

959
01:04:38,530 --> 01:04:41,130
tense here indicates this is evidence; textual

960
01:04:41,130 --> 01:04:44,970
evidence indicates something that happened in the

961
01:04:44,970 --> 01:04:48,690
past, and there's a promise here that this will

962
01:04:48,690 --> 01:04:54,450
not happen again. For next class, ladies and gentlemen,

963
01:04:55,610 --> 01:04:58,290
we're going to examine Tamim El Barghouti's poem,

964
01:04:58,290 --> 01:05:01,390
part, only just the first part of it. Again, this

965
01:05:01,390 --> 01:05:04,570
is in Arabic, I know. We'll comment on it in

966
01:05:04,570 --> 01:05:08,050
English, but we'll study the Arabic text and see

967
01:05:08,050 --> 01:05:11,950
how everything we said so far can be applied to

968
01:05:11,950 --> 01:05:17,290
this poem. If you have a question, something to

969
01:05:17,290 --> 01:05:25,480
say, please go on. to the definition of OG. I

970
01:05:25,480 --> 01:05:32,900
think that OG is, can always amaze us and attract

971
01:05:32,900 --> 01:05:37,860
us. It's so hard to touch us deeply until it

972
01:05:37,860 --> 01:05:40,560
reflects us, until we see ourselves in the oil,

973
01:05:40,940 --> 01:05:45,000
until we feel like it talks about us. But the pros

974
01:05:45,000 --> 01:05:48,540
of short stories can easily affect us because the

975
01:05:48,540 --> 01:05:51,740
author has the chance to explain,

976
01:05:54,300 --> 01:05:57,280
Okay, so you're saying in poetry you have to have

977
01:05:57,280 --> 01:06:02,980
this moment of identifying with the text, which is

978
01:06:02,980 --> 01:06:06,660
a challenge, but in prose, in novels, we find this

979
01:06:06,660 --> 01:06:12,640
all the time, basically. This is

980
01:06:12,640 --> 01:06:13,880
for you and about you.

981
01:06:20,280 --> 01:06:23,740
That's so true. But also, sometimes we still like

982
01:06:23,740 --> 01:06:27,160
and identify with texts because as human beings we

983
01:06:27,160 --> 01:06:30,020
identify with people around the world. The

984
01:06:30,020 --> 01:06:32,100
struggle of Black people in America, the struggle

985
01:06:32,100 --> 01:06:35,000
of South Africans against apartheid.

986
01:06:37,990 --> 01:06:40,170
Okay, yeah, I see your point. I see your

987
01:06:40,170 --> 01:06:42,910
point. Thank you very much. I will stop here and

988
01:06:42,910 --> 01:06:43,990
see you next time, inshallah.