Monday, February 29, 2016
Thought Process
The first time I read this poem it went through one ear and out the other. I felt like I was reading the poem but my mind was somewhere else because I had no idea what I had just read. In order to answer the question in the prompt I used a portion of the TPCASTT Directions on how on how analyze poetry ( I figured it might help me understand the poem better considering the fact that I was completely clueless). Since the first T stands for title I asked myself what could "Base Details" mean and combined that with some paraphrasing. When I looked back in the poem it seemed like base was being described as a place, "I'd live with scarlet Major at the Base...(2). The poem mentions war so that led me to believe that Major was similar to a sergeant major or someone of high authority in the military. So I started thinking of "base" as the main camp. I started skipping around with the TPCASTT because I eventually decided to just flow freely through my thought process. I looked at poem closer and read each line carefully over and over again. I realized that the speaker starts his first word with "if" and then continues on to give what seem like examples of what he would do if he were "fierce and bald and short of breath (1)" so I'm getting the feeling that this man is in combat running for his life away from gunfire. Everything after line one is merely an example of what would take place if he were fierce, bald and short of breath. So my first inference can be that he's not any of those things that he just described. These are all things that he would do. One specific poetic device that writer used to help convey the speakers sarcastic attitude is diction. In line 10 when the speaker says "I'd toddle safely home..." I felt like he might be aggravated with the war because he uses the word safely, implying that his place in the war right now is not safe and he'd rather grow old and die on his death bed rather than get shot to death.
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I felt like your response showcased the thought process that it takes to understand the poem itself. This is evident by the fact that you took your readers through the steps of TPCASTT. As for the title, “base” possibly has a double meaning—it could mean a military base or something of inferior quality, while “details” could be a command assignment. However, I felt like the main focus of the post (the poet's use of a poetic detail and how it helped explain the meaning behind the poem) was not thoroughly addressed. An example of diction that I think you could have pointed out is the use of the word "petulant" to describe the faces of the majors. Since petulant means to act in a childish way, you could connect that to the use of the word "toddle" which has child-like connotations. I think there was a lot that could have been said that just wasn't. For instance, you never directly stated what the poet was trying to say. As I personally went through the poem myself I thought that he was criticizing the careless nature of the military majors who were oblivious to the pain being experienced by the ordinary soldier’s on the front line during war.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that you took us into your thought process for understanding the poem. Poetry is relatively difficult to comprehend for a number of people, I included, and it definitely takes time to really get the ‘point’ of something. The skills and process you describe like skipping around and using TPCASTT will likely be indispensably helpful to people struggling with understanding poetry. I know that I will definitely look back to this the next time I need to figure out what a poem is saying. Additionally, I thought it was interesting that you interpreted the poem in a completely different way than I did. There is one line in the poem that you explain as signifying that “[the speaker] might be aggravated with the war because he uses the word safely, implying that his place in the war right now is not safe and he'd rather grow old and die on his death bed rather than get shot to death”. I really liked this interpretation as it was so vastly different from my own. It’s always really interesting to look at what other people think of a poem’s meaning as they can often be completely different, as in this case. Anyways, this was a great post as always and I look forward to your next one!
ReplyDeleteHi Jacquie! I totally agree with you! When I first read the poem, I had somewhat of an idea of what I was reading but did I have a complete understanding? Of course not. Poetry is not really my forte so you would understand the struggle I went through. I love the way you used the prior knowledge that Mrs. Smith gave us about TPCASTT to analyze the poem. I feel like that actually did help when it came to the analysis of the poem. Like Mia said, I like how you went about analyzing the poem in your own way using your own thought process. I feel like going through it on your own makes it much easier because you know what you are looking for. I also like how you used a different poetic device much like Mia did. I do not have much experience with diction so I like how you put your own take on it and explained it in your own way. I enjoyed reading!
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