Othello video

Envy, sadness and anger can make people do unimaginable things, this is the theme of Shakespeare's "Othello." The "Othello Music Video" fits perfectly with the play because it conveys the plays theme of jealousy well. In the video, Othello is murdering his wife because of jealousy that his friend Iago created in him after convincing Othello that she was unfaithful. Iago plots against Othello because of his jealousy of Cassio, who Othello chooses as his own right-hand man. The clip shows Iago masterminding a plot when he is playing chess.The lyrics of the video also match the images being displayed. This makes the video perfect in capturing the theme of Jealousy in the play "Othello". While the song is playing, "Now their going to bed, and my stomach is sick, but it's all in my head, but she's touching his chest now..", the images that are shown in the video are of Othello having nightmares where his wife and Cassio sleeping together.

Trifles

Plays are often easier to understand when they are seen and not read. Watching the clip of "Trifles," a play written by Susan Glaspell, gave me an understanding of the mood and situation in the play that the reading did not. The clip has very spooky background music which added tension to the story. The dark lighting used in the house of the clip helps illustrate the mysterious and suspenseful tone of the play. The clip shows the faces and expressions of Mrs Peter and Mrs Hale as they were unveiling the death of Mr Wright and the woman who killed him while he was asleep. While reading the play it was hard to know who was talking when and how the death of Mr Wright happened, but after watching the clip all the pieces came together.

Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa

Imagery can be helpful in tapping to the reader's senses so they can further understand the mood of the poem. Yusef Komunyakaa uses Imagery so the reader can understand the isolated and mournful tone of his poem "Facing It." "Facing It" is a poem about a black veteran who visits the Vietnam memorial and finds it hard to cope with the events he had to endure there. Yusef states in one quote "Names shimmer on a woman's blouse but when she walks away the name stays on the wall." Yusef uses this detail to explain that the speaker of the poem feels a special connection with the wall, and in isolation because of it. The people around the narrator can look at the names on the wall mourn for a few moments and then move on with their lives. Since the speaker experienced the war, he can not just move on, when he walks away from the wall the memories of the war will still stick with him forever. This statement expresses a mournful and isolated tone because the speaker feels that he can not relate to the other people who are visiting the wall, and the soldiers who died during the Vietnam war deserve more than a just one moment of mourning.

Not Waving But Drowning

Literature that foreshadows a bleak future for a character often gives off a desperate and/or dreadful feel. From the title alone the reader can see that that "Not Waving But Drowning" by Stevie Smith will be an eerie poem with the mood of despair, because the title suggests that the speaker of the poem is foreshadowing someones death. In the poem the author writes "Oh no no no, It was too cold always, (Still the dead one lay moaning), I was much too far out all my life, Not waving but drowning" (515). This gives off a tone of despair because the speaker of the poem seems to have lost all hope that anyone would come and save the drowning man, or that the drowning man will stay alive. The speaker predicts the worst for the drowning man and blames it on people who are cold and not caring enough to save him which gives the poem an eerie feel.

Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues.

In many cases a person can not rely on one perspective to get the entire story. The "Langston Hughes Weary Blues" video illustrates this idea that there are always two parts to a story. In the clip which takes place during the Harlem Renaissance images are shown of headliners dancing singing and displaying other arts on stage, they appear to be having a good time. The images present just one perspective of the shows that are occurring during the Harlem Renaissance, the audience in the crowd's point of view.

In Langston Hughes poem which is being read in the video, the speaker explains how an artist feels playing the blues one night on on Lennox avenue. The crowd is swaying with him enjoying his music but they are not aware of his genuine emotions. The speaker of the poem states "The singer stopped playing and went to bed. While the weary blues echoed through his head," meaning that the performer was not just putting on a show but truly feels like he is in deep depression. Even though the crowds in these shows see performers dancing and making beautiful music the artist can feel a completely different way. The video shows a double perspective of the Harlem Renaissance.

Rebellious Poems

Poems can be rebellious through the style the author chooses to write the poem, down to the punctuation he or she chooses to leave. The two poems that I thought were rebellious was Williams Carlos Williams' "This Is Just to Say,"and Lucille Clifton's "Homage to my Hips".

Williams Carlos Williams writes a poem where the speaker rebels against what his mother or wife tells him not to eat. The speaker does not feel guilty that he eats plums his wife or mother is saving for breakfast especially since he explains how much he enjoys the plums because they were sweet, delicious and cold. The way Carlos Williams writes "This is Just to say" is also rebellious because it is more straight forward than a lot of poems. There is no underlying message, the reader does not have to read in between the lines to understand the point of the poem.

In "Homage To My Hips," the speaker makes no apologies for the large size of her hips, instead she talks about how she can "put a spell on a man and spin him like a top" with them. The speaker of the poem is basically telling women that they can love and show off their body no matter what shape or size, in a society where the media has a beauty standard for what is acceptable and not acceptable to flaunt.