Pick one of the poems you read this week, and think about what makes this piece of writing “literature.” Write about the features of the poem that jump out at you as being important to the question of ‘”what is literature,” asked by Jonathan Culler. Are there aspects of literature that Culler describes that you see in the poem you’ve chosen?
Write a post of about 300 words
In the poem “The brain-is wider then the sky-” by Emily Dickinson explains that the sky is wonderful being to bring everything that match with sea. Many people try to learn what possible poems and literature things do. Emily Dickinson trying to tell us that the sky is peaceful knowing that listening to the sounds in the sky can remind you of what peaceful it can be to know the history beginning of yourself. Watching the sea makes the matching the sky color of the ocean.Their for many realize what possible ways to feel so many can be beside off what you really do.Those around many things poem for the weight of any god to make. Those around people their always poems and brains to think of your ideas.
Blog Post # 1: ” The Brain – is wider than the sky- ” by Emily Dickinson.
Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Brain – is wider than the sky- ” focuses on the power of the brain and how the human mind is capable of conceptualizing almost anything. The speaker of the poem says the brain itself is larger and broader than the sky itself metaphorically to imply that our brain can do anything it sets its mind to. In my opinion, what makes this piece of writing “literature” is Dickinson’s use of the literal device. In the poem, she uses metaphor, simile, and parallelism making her poem stand out more to the reader. For example, In the poem, Dickinson uses metaphor to make a comparison between the sky and the brain. In the second stanza, Dickinson compares the brain to a sponge ‘As sponges, – buckets – do’ which indicates the use of simile. And these are some of the features of the poem that jump out at me as being important to the question of ‘” what is literature,” asked by Jonathan Culler. According to Culler, literature is more than just the written word, and the quality and unique structure of literature make it recognizable. And in my view, the poem ” The Brain – is wider than the sky- ” by Emily Dickinson has great quality, and the poem itself is very clear. Yes, there are aspects of literature that Culler describes that I see in the poem I’ve chosen. The poem rhymes, and followed a rhythmic pattern of repetition and a series of stressed and unstressed syllables which makes it literature. For example, ‘The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—.’ Therefore, I would say this poem is a great example of literature.
In the poem ” The Brain is wider than the sky” by Emily Dickinson
The poet compares our minds to the sky, the sea, and the weight of God. All of them are vast in their respective fields, while also being something that has not fully been understood. The poet states how the mind can be abstract and hold a spectrum of meanings, relating to how she compares the mind to the sky, the sea, and the weight of god in different aspects of their relation to our minds. They all have their own blind areas, a portion that is untouched and yet to be understood, just like the nature of mind. Some features that jump to me as being important to the question “what is Literature” is one example of how the sentence “The Brain is wider than the sky” can be literal and non-literal at the same time, it compares two things and the relation between the two, but the relations are not realistic and accurate. Culler also states how both literal and non-literal works can be studied together and in similar ways, much like our poet’s comparison of the mind with a different perception and the correlation between the two entities. The poem constantly refers to the use of metaphors and how the poet chooses to express the central message of the poem to the readers, this shows us some aspects of Culler’s “what is Literature” such as metaphors and hyperboles.
Blog Post #1: “The Brain – is wider than the sky-” by Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson”s poetry titled ” The Brain – is wider than the sky-“. In the first stanza it compares the human brain with the sky. Which suggests that the brain is wider than the sky. This portrays that the mind has the power to think and imagine beyond anything. Also I think that the meaning of the first stanza of this poetry is that the brain has no limit . This is why the speaker compares the brain with the sky because even though the sky is high and very wide, the brain is wider because it has the power to do almost anything with you on the side. On the second and third stanza of this poetry it talks about the brain being deeper than the sea and the brain just being the weight of god. In these last two stanza I think the significance is the brain can absorb anything . For example, the brain can absorb any kind of information , images that the eyes sees and the brain captures or any sounds that you hear the brain will absorb just like a sponge or a bucket does. The brain being just the weight of god means that the brain in all can be very powerful and great as god is but not infinite. Overall, what makes this piece of writing literature is that it describes the brain and compares with things of nature like the sky, the sea and god . Is like the writer of this poetry is trying to express that the brain is a very beautiful thing like the sea and was made to perceive the great things created while you on the side. The way the writer expresses herself about the brain is in a very artistic way and so this is why i think this piece of writing is literature.
The Brain- is wider than the sky by Emily Dickinson is a poem which tells us about how vast the human brain can be. What makes this piece of writing “literature” to me is the concept in which the author Emily Dickinson portrays the wonders of the human brain. Although it may seem to be a paradox, the vastness of information the brain is able to store and comprehend is larger than the sky, the depths and complexity of emotions and memories is deeper than the sea, and the possibility of creation is as great as the weight of God to man. The manner in which the author portrays the brain in all its glory and wonders make this piece of writing “literature”. Also, the structure of the poem also makes it “literature” to me. It is a short poem with only three stanzas, each stanza has four lines in them. the line with the highest number of words in it has eight words while the line with the lowest number of words in it contains only four words. The first letter of each word starting each line begins with a capital letter. The only punctuation in the poem is the Hyphen, which serves as both a comma and a full stop. One aspect of literature Jonathan Culler describes that is present in this poem is “literature as the ‘foregrounding’ of language”, the rhythmical repetition of sound in the first stanza Sky… Side… Beside, second stanza blue… do, and third stanza God… pound… sound. Culler stated that we deal with languages organized to attract attention to the linguistic structure
Ebuka, very insightful post. I am especially interested in the last part, about how the poem foregrounds language. I’m wondering if you could say a bit more about that. What do these features of the poem show us about language?