In this post, I will be talking about the poem Snow Geese, by Mary Oliver. I was not able to find the year that it was written. I immediately fell in love with this poem when I read it. It gives such a visual explanation, that I am able to see exactly what is happening, and exactly what the person who is in the poem, is seeing and feeling. The emotion in the poem comes out even in the first line of the poem - "Oh to love what is lovely, and will not last!" - which gives an energy that sets us up for the rest of the poem.

This poem is seen as long and skinny. The reason for this, is because of the pattern of the poem. It is a free verse, which means it does not necessarily rhyme, but it has a certain number of words on a line, which each mean something to the poem. Some lines have five or six words in them, while some lines only have one. These lines of specific wording and length of words controls where the author wants us to breathe while reading through it. With the metaphor of the match, I see that as being kind of a surprise delight - something you are not used to, but something that is special. Also with the metaphor of the veil, the next word is "secretly," which is what I feel helps out the word "veil," because it seems like a secret experience, a personal experience, which is beautiful and, like the poem said, is so rare.

Another thing I noticed, was that the poem type was a lyric narrative poem. I say that because for the lyric side, the author tends to use "I," throughout the poem. However, this poem tells a story, so it would also be considered a narrative. This then brings us to the "voice" of the poem. I do not think of the poem's voice to necessarily be the voice of the author, at least in her current stage of life. A young woman is who I see as the voice of Snow Geese, in how the picture comes into my head when I read the poem. I feel as though she is telling her perfect experience with nature. What she says draws you in. I think the reason I picture the "voice" as a young woman, is because the rare experience of beauty, reminds me of a different rare experience of beauty I have had in the past, watching the sun rise on a mountain top in Colorado. I like poems that I can relate to. I noticed that in much of the poem, the author uses many commas, rather than end the thought with a period, especially in the middle of the poem. In the end, however, many periods are put in. The reasoning for this seems to me that we need to pause because what is being said is extremely important. It is her reflections to what she just saw, and that she is content with the memory of the beautiful sight that she had just encountered.

This is Snow Geese:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/mary_oliver/poems/15857.html

I will be giving a visual description of the painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (shown above) by the painter Georges Seurat. This is my first time describing something using visual description and formal analysis, so bear with me! First of all, I chose this painting, because I first saw it as a mural in Saugatuck, an artsy town in Michigan, and I fell in love love with it. The actual piece is currently in the Art Institute in Chicago.

The first thing I notice whenever I see this painting, is the texture.  Everything in this piece is made by only dots, which gives it kind of a feathery appearance. Multiple colors of dots make up each object in the painting, as well as the water in the background, and the shadows on the ground. Many different kinds of people make up this painting as well - high class with their fancy Sunday attire, the middle class with their Sunday best, and the lower class, all enjoying the grass and shade beside the lake, or river, whatever the body of water may be. The colors in this painting are in no way extremely bright, but because the colors are blended together within the dots, it makes the painting visually appealing, and interesting to look at. Because of the shadows, and the people who are up close, and then people that are further away, it gives a 3D feeling to the piece, which gives more interest to the painting. The word that I think of when I see this painting, is elegant.

Hello, and welcome to my blog! This blog is for my summer 2013 Humanities course, on literature and art. It is an online course taught by Ann Hostetler through Goshen College. Ann is the author of Empty Room with Light, and the editor of A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry.

My name is Melanie Hertzler, and this coming fall will be the beginning of my junior year at Goshen College. I am a theater major with a minor in American Sign Language. I have lived in Goshen all my life, but just recently moved with my family from the outskirts of town, into town, which has given me a new perspective of the town of Goshen.

Ever since I was a small child, I loved doing art projects and drawing, and finding different ways of being creative. Even now, I still enjoy being creative. I took some ceramic classes in high school, and I fell in love with that - working with my hands, being able to mold the clay into anything, and never knowing exactly how each piece would turn out, was an exciting process for me. I myself am not a painter, but I have always enjoyed looking at paintings. The work of Vincent Van Gogh was always been intriguing to me, and I could probably say he is my favorite painter. I look forward to learning more about the visual arts in this course, and being able to discuss different paintings and poems with other people, as well!