Listening to the Pulitzer Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey was quite interesting. I have to be honest; I had no idea what a Pulitzer Prize was. From my research online, I found out that the Pulitzer Prize is:
“an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements and musical composition. It is administered by Columbia University in New York City” (Wikipedia).
Wow! What an honor! These awards are given out every year but to receive one is one of the highest honors imaginable. Natasha Trethewey seems like a very intelligent lady from what I saw last Thursday at the Shriver Center. She gave a short biography about her life and her time in Mississippi and then she finally discussed her poems.
I felt that the crowd at the Shriver Center enjoyed Natasha’s “speech”. She did well to “win over” the crowd by saying how she felt that Miami felt like home. From all the speeches I have seen, these things are always eaten up by the audience.
Now, switching over to the part about her poems, the poems were inspiring. I thought her poems were very interesting but NOT because of the way she presented them. I remember in high school when I presented ANYTHING, my teacher always said to add some flare with our voices. I was always “forced” to show emotions through my voice. Using a strong tone, not only brings the poem to life, but also keeps your audience interested. Lets be honest, some poems are very boring but if the reader is “in it”, the audience will also be somewhat interested. Unfortunately, Natasha Trethewey did not use much of a tone while she was reciting her poems. You would think that such a praised poet would put some sort of emotion into her speech, but no, she did not. Just by her voice, you would think that every poem was the same, but I do not think that was the case at all.
From her poems, I learned a lot about her writing style. It seems as if she loves to use very detailed imagery in her poems. For example, in the poem Genus Narcissus, there are many similes such as “I knew nothing of Narcissus or the daffodils’ short spring-how they’d dry like graveside flowers, rustling when the wind blew”. I love it when poets and other writers use figurative language because it seems to bring the poem or piece of writing to life more. Also, the poem keeps the reader interested because we get to comprehend this figurative language in our own sense. I know when I read poems in English class back in high school; I did not always understand figurative language that was used in certain poems. But, that is a good thing! Not understanding results in you thinking more about what the author’s message is.
Overall, I am very happy that I went to see Natasha Trethewey because not only was it entertaining to watch, but it was also a once in a lifetime opportunity. All the imagery she used kept me interested in the long run. The only thing she did that I did not like, was her sort of monotone. This was not good. Haha. Even with the monotone, Natasha’s poems are good inspiration for some other poets.
April 29, 2008 at 9:21 am
Thanks, Tom. I think you are one of several students who were pretty surprised by the tone with which she reads her works. I only wish we had someone to compare that to — different poets do things so differently and I’ve heard many a poet read whose poem I didn’t understand, but whose tone was divine.