The video below is an example of "Def Poetry." The poet performing, "Shihan" is most
commonly known from HBO's Def Poetry. For the past 15 years, Shihan has
been co-hosting Da' Poetry Lounge, the nation's largest open mic night
held in Hollywood, CA. A
native of New York’s Lower East Side and a current resident and local
legend of Los Angeles, Shihan is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic
spoken word artists of our generation.
What is Def Poetry?
"Def poetry is a form of poetry typically based on urban culture and
themes, often with an expressed focus on the African American
experience. While not defined purely by racial themes or poets, and
anyone of any race or cultural background may compose such works, there
is certainly a precedent for African American poets in this art form.
This type of poetry typically serves to illustrate the experiences and
lifestyle of those who grow up in urban environments. Def poetry can
take a number of different forms, depending on the poet, though it typically expresses personal opinions and life stories." Source
This
week take a look again at the video we viewed in class and react to it.
What is your opinion of this example of Def Poetry? Do you like it or
dislike it? Why? Give reasons to support your opinion. In your response also be sure to explain one example of a poetic device (metaphor, simile, alliteration, personification etc.) that Shihan uses.
Your post is due no later than Friday at 5pm and must be at least 8 sentences.
I liked it. How he spoke about his daughter asking if he still loved her was touching. Also how the man said he was god. He spoke with such passion of how only his family is god to him. I felt sad when he told us that his own daughter asked if he still love her. He spoke with such passion. I thought that if I had to say that on television i might cry. I bet he loves his daughter with all his heart and was about to break out in tears when he was talking about that subject.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it, but he was talking way too fast to understand it all. His words were touching. He used many poetic devices. For example, "tears pregnant with guilt." This is an example of personification because tears cant be pregnant.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion on this video/example of Def Poetry is, truthfully, I did not like it that much. I did not like this video because I could not understand almost anything he said. To me he talked way to fast. I felt like I was listening to nonsense because I could only hear about 15 or 10 words out of every twenty. Even though I bet his poem was very moving, it would have been more touching if I could hear the words clearly. This video did not really help provide me with what a Def Poem really is. Clearly, in my opinion, this video was not the best example of Def Poetry.
ReplyDeleteOne example of alliteration I could hear in his poem was “moving mountains.” This is alliteration because it has two words that start with “m” and are in a row.
Also, one example of repetition was “30 fingers and 30 toes.” This repeats 30 two times in one sentence and basically in a row.
Needles and pins,
DeleteNeedles and pins,
Sew me a sail
To catch me the wind.
Sew me a sail
Strong as the gale,
Carpenter, bring out your
Hammers and nails.
Hammer and nails,
Hammer and nails,
Build me a boat
To go chasing the whales.
Chasing the whales,
Needles and pins,
Needles and pins,
Sew me a sail
To catch me the wind.
Sew me a sail
Strong as the gale,
Carpenter, bring out your
Hammers and nails.
Hammer and nails,
Hammer and nails,
Build me a boat
To go chasing the whales.
Chasing the whales,
Needles and pins,
Needles and pins,
Sew me a sail
To catch me the wind.
Sew me a sail
Strong as the gale,
Carpenter, bring out your
Hammers and nails.
Hammer and nails,
Hammer and nails,
Build me a boat
To go chasing the whales.
Chasing the whales,
Needles and pins,
Needles and pins,
Sew me a sail
To catch me the wind.
Sew me a sail
Strong as the gale,
Carpenter, bring out your
Hammers and nails.
Hammer and nails,
Hammer and nails,
Build me a boat
To go chasing the whales.
Chasing the whales,
Needles and pins,
Needles and pins,
Sew me a sail
To catch me the wind.
Sew me a sail
Strong as the gale,
Carpenter, bring out your
Hammers and nails.
Hammer and nails,
Hammer and nails,
Build me a boat
To go chasing the whales.
Chasing the whales,
Needles and pins,
Needles and pins,
Sew me a sail
To catch me the wind.
Sew me a sail
Strong as the gale,
Carpenter, bring out your
Hammers and nails.
Hammer and nails,
Hammer and nails,
Build me a boat
To go chasing the whales.
Chasing the whales,
Sailing the blue,
Find me a captain
And sign me a crew.
Captain and crew,
Captain and crew,
Take me, oh take me
To anywhere new.
This poem Pins and Needles by Shel Silverstein is one of my favorites. I enjoy it because it’s a fun poem and it’s very creative. Something else I like about this poem is that it rhymes. I love poems that rhyme because they make them entertaining for me to read. Also, it has a great amount of poetic devices. For example, “catch me the wind,” which shows personification. That’s an example of personification because a sail can’t really catch something. Catching is a human like quality therefore, it’s personification. Another poetic device in the poem is alliteration. For instance, “sew me a sail.” This is alliteration because the s sound repeats. There is also repetition, a simile, and a metaphor. Overall Pins and Needles by Shel Silverstein is an awesome poem because of all its great qualities and that’s why it’s one of my favorite poems.
In my opinion I thought the example of Def Poetry was very powerful. I enjoyed listening to what the poet was saying even though I had to watch the video a few times to get everything he said. If he uttered slower at points it would be easier to soak in what he was saying, but I think the reason he speaks quickly is so his audience needs to be attentive and really listen in order to understand what he’s expressing. I still enjoyed the video because he was talking about his family and it takes a great amount of courage to get on stage and talk about personal things. Also, I liked it because I thought he did a great job conveying his feelings. In addition, he used many poetics devices. For instance, one of them was, “Because life is a poet it’s harder than it looks.’’ This was an awesome example of a metaphor. Also, he gave an example of a simile when he said, “Moving mountains like a grain of sand.” Overall I thought this was an excellent example of Def Poetry.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I didn’t really like it, because, he was talking to fast so I couldn’t really understand him. I could only hear a couple of words he said. It sounded like he was talking about a life story, so it kind of showed me what def poetry is. An example of alliteration in his poem was “moving mountains.” This is alliteration because it has two words that start with the same sound, and are in a row. Also, one example of repetition was “30 fingers and 30 toes.” This repeats 30 two times in one sentence and basically in a row. Clearly, he did have a very good meaning to his poem, but I couldn’t really hear him. I think if he slowed down his talking I would've liked it better. His poem is definitely an example of def poetry, because I could hear some words and it was about his life.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a good example of def poetry. Because, def poetry is about experiences and lifestyles. In this video he talked about both. Past shows and his, relationship with his daughter. To me this was a very touching poem but, as lots of others said I think he talked to fast. To me though it didn't really matter. For the words I did hear where filled with poetic devices and meaning. The way he used metaphors like this one, "tears pregnant with guilt." were very touching to me. So overall I had a good experience with Shihan's show.
ReplyDeleteHonestly,I didn’t really like the video all that much.He was talking way too fast,and I could only understand every other word he said.However,what I did hear was very touching.He spoke about his daughter asking him if he loved her still was very touching.The way he spoke about only his family being like god was so passionate.I felt sad that his daughter asked him if he love her still.The way he spoke was just so passionate.If i had to say that on tv,I would break down,I wouldn’t be able to do it.I bet he loves his daughter so much,that he was about to break down and start crying when he was talking about that.On example of poetic device he used was alliteration when he said “moving mountains”.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion is I actually liked it. I liked it even though he did talk to fast the part where he mentioned his daughter asking him if he still loved her. It was touching. A poetic device I heard was only alliteration. When he said moving mountains. There was more but I didn't really hear any because he was talking really fast. I enjoyed this def poetry.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I liked the video. It was very personal and when he was talking about his daughter who loved him so much was very heart warming. When he gave a deep and touching speech about his life, that is hard to do and make it sound really good. I don't really mind him talking so fast because I feel like that made it even more deep and interesting. I found alliteration in his really marvelous fast speech for example, He said "song say" , "Daddy don't" , and "family for". He was about to break down and cry and I really like that because it was very personal.
ReplyDeleteI liked the video because it was very powerful.I liked this video because of the way Shihan spoke.It was very strong,especially when he talked about his daughter who asked him if he still loved her.The story about his daughter changed my perspective about Shihan. He talked about god and how his family was very important to him.One of the poetic devices Shihan used was a metaphor where he said "tears pregnant with guilt" was very powerful.Shihan talked but the few things I could hear helped me better understand his poem.Overall it was an interesting video.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I thought the def poem was very moving and heartfelt but sort of hard to understand. The first time I listened to the poem I had no idea what the poet was saying, but the second time I really listened and realized how touching this poem was. The reason it was touching was because Shihan talked about how hard it was being a poet and that his kid asked "dad do you still love me" and he almost died. I thought that was so sad because his kids are probably the most important people in his life as he stated towards the beginning of the poem. Clearly, this poem was very touching.
ReplyDeleteOne example of figurative language in the poems is a simile which is "she spoke to me like god." This is a simile because it's comparing two things with the word like. An example of repetition is "30 fingers and 30 toes" this is repetition because it repeats 30 twice in the same line.
I thought that the def poem was really cool and very moving. At first I didn't know what he was saying but after a second I started to understand him. I like how he said he wasn't god but he speaks like he is. He speaks the truth about what's going on. I hope that I can say stuff like that soon.
ReplyDeleteI thought Shihan's def poem was powerful. The first time I listened to it I was confused about what he was saying. Soon I understood that it is hard for him to be away from his family for long periods of time. These are the people he loves the most and as Shihan said in the poem, "Roadtrips make babysitters see my baby more than I do." Clearly, Shihan just wants to be with his family.
ReplyDeleteIn this example of Def poetry there is plenty of figurative language. For example, Shihan says, "Daddy don't cry," and "Daddy do you love me?" Both of these are examples of alliteration because they have repeated sounds. Also, Shihan says, "Tears under eyelashes pregnant with guilt." This is an example of personification because tears can't be pregnant.
My opinion on the def poem was that I thought it was inspiring. I find it inspiring because of his wonderful word choice he choose. I espessicly like that he used personal details about his daughter. I felt as if after this I knew what he was expierencing. I thought he really explained it well. I knew a lot more about poets. One of his poetic devices I relized was allitteration. His daugheter said "Daady dont cry." Cleary, this is a inspiring poem.
ReplyDeleteI think that the def poem was very inspiring and heart warming. The first time I saw it I didn’t understand a word. I didn’t catch any poetic devises either. I think it was because he talked to fast. The second time I saw it I understood it way better and I even caught a few poetic devises. One example of figurative language was “Tears pregnant with guilt”. That is an example of personification because tears can’t really be pregnant. Pregnant is a human quality. He was talking about how he loves his family. When he comes home after so time they ask him do you love me he says he will always love them. He also said that his son and daughter will grow up to be great people. Def poetry is really inspired and heart warming.
ReplyDelete