A Day With The Poet Mr. Refaat

It was a good sharing I guess from the experience poet like Mr.Refaat.

Below is the conversation between our classmates and Mr. Refaat :

1) Q : Who is your favorite poet?
    A : John Donne 

2)  Q:  The style of poem before the war at gaza? 
     A:  Same with other country. For example, love and so on.After the war,its  more to memories.

3) Q :  Do you stay in Palestine? Why do you write about Palestine?
    A : He lives in Gaza. To write a poem, does not have to be a person who in Palestine. Poet is used to the stories or retell by the others. He is actually inspired to write by his students.

4) Q :  The status of education at that place?

    A:   There are 5 universities. Majority the students are woman and less of guy. The ratio =3:2

           15 writers = 3man. 12 woman (active than guy)

 

5) Q :  What was the situation before the war?

    A :  It was simple. It was more to agriculture.

 

6) Q :  About the picture in the blog. Does it symbolize something?

    A : Yes. The olive oil represent the traditional medicine. Pick the olive is the best thing to do in that place.But,  after the war, they did not  get the opportunity to do it. Means spend time with family.

WORLD WAR 1 POEM : THE SURVIVORS BY SIEGFRIED SASSOON

NO doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain

  Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.

Of course they're 'longing to go out again,'--

  These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.

They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed

  Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,--

Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud

  Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride...

Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;

Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad

 

___________________________________________

  In his poem ‘Survivors’, Siegfried Sassoon gives the readers a satirical and paradoxical take on war and its effect on the soldiers who partake in it. This particular poem was written by Sassoon when he was spending his time in the Craiglockhart hospital where he was forced into convalescence due to his strong portrayal of anti- war emotions. On arriving at the hospital he was diagnosed with neurasthenia and had it not been for the work of his psychologist Dr. Rivers, Sassoon would have paved a tragic path to his self destruction. (Anaida D'souza)

         1) 'No doubt they'll soon get well'
The opening line gives the reader a sense of misleading hope. The throw- away feeling emphasised by the assured 'No doubt' calls to mind the sinister complacency of "Does It Matter?"

          2) 'stammering, disconnected talk'
One of the symptons of shell-shock or 'neurasthenia' (as it was then termed) is a stammer, and a failure to string sentences together coherently. The conditions of some of the patients at Craglockhart are described powerfully in 'Regeneration' the opening book to Pat Barker's WWI trilogy.

          3)  'Of course they're 'longing to go out again,''
Again the disassociated, unfeeling voice make its presence felt. The flippant remark, suggesting that all soldiers were willing to return to the front, is typical of the attitude Sassoon perceived in the non-combatants at home.

         4) 'These boys with old, scared faces'
Sassoon contrasts the youth and innocence of the soldiers with the ageing process of the war. Yet, although these men are made old before their time, they are also reduced to infants having to re-learn such basic processes as how to walk 

          5) 'They'll soon forget...of friends who died'
On Sassoon's return to England in April, 1917, after receiving an injury earlier that year, his anti-war sentiments reached new heights. Angered by the attitude he perceived in the people who remained in England, and troubled by visions and nightmares in which he saw corpses littering the streets, he was moved to publish his famous declaration  against the war, which ultimately led to his spell at Craiglockhart.

           6)  '- and they'll be proud/Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride'
Again the poet presents us with a sense of hope, immediately reversed by a harsh reminder of brutal reality. The survivors, once they have managed to forget the nightmares and visions of their dead comrades, will then be able to reflect on the 'glorious war' with pride; but this, in turn, will remind them of their time spent overcoming the horror, when they had no self-esteem having been reduced to helpless children. 

            7) 'with eyes that hate you'
Sassoon ends the poem in an accusatory manner, no doubt directed at the supporters of the War, the people who can so easily push soldiers back to the front without ever knowing the horrors of trench warfare.

References:

*  http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/education/tutorials/intro/sassoon
*  http://theourownword.blogspot.com/2013/09/survivors-critical-analysis.html

POEM: ~ WHAT WAR IS ALL ABOUT ~ BY TETSKE VAN DER WAL

War is evil
War is the devil
War is between politicians
War is about religions
War is destruction
War is not construction
War is depression
War is an obsession
War is fighting
War is killing
War is sorrow
War is no tomorrow
War is explosions
War is confusions
War is blood
War brings tears like a flood
War makes you cry
War makes you die
War is death all around
War makes you die on foreign ground
War is fire
War is not to admire!
War is creed
War is between different breed
War is cruel
War cost a lot of fuel
War is amputations
War is mutilations
War last forever
I wonder if it ends in Heaven
War is only release
For those who are killed
It means 'PEACE'




______________________________________________________



From my opinion, we can know that the persona hate war. He keeps mentioned about negative things about war. We can see his negative opinion even from the first line, "War is evil". He also stated that all the war was caused by the politician can give a really bad impact, "War is an obsession ,War is fighting,War is killing,War is sorrow". He also seems mocking about some believe that trust who ever died in war will be placed in the heaven. He stated "I wonder if it ends in Heaven , War is only release, For those who are killed,It means 'PEACE' ".

~ :: POETRY & DRAMA ::~

What is Poetry?





 Poetry is  words arranged in a rhythmic pattern with regular accents (like beats in music), words which are carefully selected for sound, accent and meaning to express imaginatively ideas and emotions. Each poem

has rhythm, melody, imagery, and form.

There are 6 elements in poetry. They are :

                                                                        *     Voice
                                                                        *     Tone
                                                                        *     Theme
                                                                        *      Setting
                                                                        *      Imagery
                                                                        *      Figures of speech


VOICE:

One of the best methods of interpreting poetry is to define the voice, to discover as much as possible about its quality, mood, and concerns.From the voice, we can consider:

                                                                               # Who is the speaker?
                                                                               # What is the point of view?
                                                                               # What can you tell about the speaker?
                                                                               # To whom does the speaker talk?


TONE :

The tone of a poem established the mood of piece, the changing emotions of the speaker, or the persona's attitude  towards the subject. The tone can be sad, angry, shocking, nostalgic or humorous.


THEME :

 Every poem have its own theme. We can define the theme through its voice, images and symbols. Example of theme is such as time, love, art and death.


SETTING :

The setting in the poem is not just consider about the place,but it also consider about the time and the atmosphere.


IMAGERY :

Every poem must have the imagery.  Imagery is created using descriptive words and phrases to evoke a "mental picture" of the scenes (not so much scenery, actual scenes) in a book.




FIGURES OF SPEECH :


Expression that suggest more than literal meaning, present implied or direct comparison that give readers the experience of an abstraction or an emotion. For instance, metaphor, simile, personification, synecdoche, metonymy and hyperbole.




STRUCTURES


There are a few structures in the poem that we can see. For example, stanzas,rhyme and sound, rhythm and free verse.


Stanza : The lines of poem that divided into group or units.

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadows, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.  

 

# Life's  Brief Candle by William Shakespeare

Rhythm: The indispensable elements that  distinguishes poetry. Four basic categories: Traditional meters, strong stress rhythms, syllabic counts and free verse.









WHAT IS DRAMA?

 

  
Drama is a unique tool to explore and express human feeling. 

Elements of drama :  *  Character
                               *  Action
                               *  Plot
                               *  Setting
                               *  Symbolism
                               *  Irony
                               *  Theme