Blog Post 2

We discussed in class the fact that Emily Dickinson didn't rhyme her poetry but used slant rhymes. And even as far as slant rhymes go, there were some that were a stretch. I did however enjoy the use of these slant rhymes. I don't think her work would be nearly as good if she used proper rhymes. If she had used proper rhymes, it would sound too sing song or childish, like a nursery rhyme. If it had been perfect rhymes, i know I wouldn't like her work much. You can criticize her, saying she's lazy to use slant rhymes, but the use of slant rhymes opens up a whole number of words you can use instead of a perfect rhyme. Slant rhymes allow the writer a larger selection of words, allowing them to really say what they want. I don't think she was lazy for using slant rhymes, rather they allowed her to express what she really wanted.

I also do not like the criticism about the rhymes. Who cares if it isn't perfect rhymes? I really don't like poems that rhyme. For some reason a lot of people think poems have to rhyme, when a poem can really be whatever you want practically, as long as it involves at least one word, or letter I guess. I remember a scene in a TV show where one character criticized a child who wrote a love letter for them because it didn't rhyme, so it wasn't a poem really. Where in fact we all know rhyming is not necessary at all in a poem. I'm not a huge fan of Dickinson, because I'm not a huge fan of rhyming poems, but I like her enough because she's only half way there.

Blog Post 1

Something that stood out to me whilst reading the selections of Mark Twain was his way of expressing humor. Most of Twain's humor comes from him poking fun at other people, often other writers. I find this interesting because I feel that today, poking fun at people is often easy humor. The Comedy Central roasts are all about making fun of the person being roasted, but these jokes are very low level jokes, though often funny. I see Twain as one of the first stand up comedians and his jokes were at the expense of others. If a comedian was to only make fun of other people today, they would probably be considered a lower level comedian, or at least one with unintelligent jokes. It would be like Frank Caliendo, who only makes fun of celebrities via impersonations. Today's best comedians use a much smarter level of humor, using whit, satire, and exchanges with a live audience. This is nothing against Twain or his writings, I just don't know how popular Twain would be today as a comedian with his personal style. "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences" is Twain ranting about how poor Cooper's popular book series was written. People do this every day while watching bad movies or television shows. Again, this isn't against Twain's writings, which I enjoy, just the humor he uses would not be considered very impressive today. One reason though is that Twain was an innovator for American comedy, and comedians have branched from Twain's style and have advanced it, therefore Twain's work would seem a lower level of comedy today.