Poetry in Motion

The first video called “To This Day” was just a masterpiece of art, music and emotion. From the start of the video all the way to the end, every bit of animation flowed and connected with each other. A character falls off an edge and becomes a raindrop. That raindrop becomes a part of the drops raining down on the character. The rain and the character, in his sadness, opens up and shows his heart, in which it breaks and is rained on.  Everything was set in a reaction, like pushing a domino and watching all the others fall. This way on animating portrays one of the themes that the speaker is trying to convey- that a single event can cause a massive chain-reaction that goes beyond imagination. The kids that bullied the boy and his friend in the third grade probably didn’t see past their teasing, and despite their ignorance, their teasings had a terrible impact on the lives of the bullied.

The Simpsons performing “The Raven” written by Edgar Allen Poe is an excellent example of the way rhythm plays a great role in poetry. Reading “The Raven” by itself can be somewhat difficult with the difference in language from 1945 to 2018. I consider myself a musician and would hope that I have rhythm and despite all this, it’s hard for me to find it when I read that poem. The Simpsons were able to show a flawless reading of it and how the stressed syllables found in every line of the poem has an impact on the sentence and gives greater meaning to the word or words it’s stressing. One of the final lines is the man, driven mad by the bird, saying that the raven, “still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door.” The Simpsons help show the rhythm in which that sentence was meant to be read.

I especially loved the singing of “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day” by the lead singer from Pink Floyd. I think the idea of taking poetry and setting your own music to it is awesome. It can give a new perspective of how the poem can affect someone. Two people can receive the same poem differently, despite what the author wanted to say through it. Will one person write a minor and eerie melody, or a major and joyful chorus?

I think I’m going to try and do this now.