A Date with a Literary Scholar -Refaat Alareer-

     
               2 hour with Mr.Refaat was really excitement moment. A lot of  thing we learnt about Palestine, Gaza and the West bank where it has overtaken by the regime which is Israel. Not only that but we also  learnt about the prose that actually one of the starting point they started to used prose stated their right that they deserve to defend themselves.
        The innocent people were killed, the children lost their parent and don't have a placed to stay. This kind of humanity was a reality and there so many people suffered because the war. When its comes to this situation, the Palestine take an action to write something on behalf of Palestinian.


               Mr. Refaat has introduced a few poets that writing during the war. There two languages that the poets use at the time which is Arabic and English. The list:

      Famous Palestinian poets writing in Arabic

1.    Mahmoud Darwish
2.  Tamim Bargouti

    Famous Palestinian poets writing in English                      

1.   Rafeef Ziadah ( We teach Life,Sir)
2. Susan Abulhawa ( Wala!)
3. Remikanazi

 Style of poem before war

• writing more about life, matter and its depend on the situation at that time

              Mr.Refaat also wrote a poem. I really admired his work because the poem was so beautiful and really touch my heart. Here the list of the poem that his wrote: 

•   If I Must Die
• Over the wall
• And we live On..
• I am you

All of you can visit this to read this poems:

 http://thisisgaza.wordpress.com/

Then, Mr.Refaat also mention about writing poetry which is:

How it all started?(poetry)

• Read a lot of good and high quality poetry
• believe that you can write good stuff
• have the will to do so
• imitate
• be yourself
• write down all the thing that you read to get an ideas.
•  

          Within this class, I got so much things that I wouldn't know before.. Thanks to Mr.Refaat for sharing your knowledge and experiences. And I will always remember his word which is " being a writer is being able to be anybody else"

Thats all.

war poem

                  Almost as long as there has been life, war has been a part of it. Mankind continues to wage war even though the consequences often breed nothing but misery. However, when a person is called to defend his or her country, or protect other defenseless people, it is his duty to fight. There is no question that there is evil in the world and we must not rest on our laurels and say it is none of our business. We cannot stand by and watch while others are being persecuted. It is the duty of mankind to uphold justice.

W.N.Hodgson (1893-1916)
"Before Action"

By all the glories of the day
  And the cool evening's benison,
By that last sunset touch that lay
  Upon the hills where day was done,
By beauty lavisghly outpoured
  And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
  Make me a solider, Lord.
By all of man's hopes and fears,
  And all the wonders poets sing,
The laughter of unclouded years,
  And every sad and lovely thing;
By the romantic ages stored
  With high endeavor that was his,
By all his mad catastrophes
  Make me a man, O Lord.
I, that on my familiar hill
  Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of Thy sunsets spill
  Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
  Must say goodbye to all of this;--
By all delights that I shall miss,
  Help me to die, O Lord.

sources: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1914warpoets.html

notes:

The soldier is contemplating the impending action (fighting) and asking that the Lord will help him do his part with honor. War is often portrayed as glorious and much has been written to glorify war. He has been blessed to not have had to fight before and did not realize that this was a blessing because of the warrior mentality of men, especially soldiers. Most seek to be in the action. Now,
faced with seeing action he is not sure of his abilities to excute his training. This is a common concern for those seeing action for the first time. They ask themselves if they will be able to kill as trained when it comes to the moment. The seriousness of taking another's life is beginning to hit home.

          He is beginning to realize the castarophe of war, but praying to face his fears and fight like a man. Also, as a man (someone who is mature) he wants to have the right perspective. War is not the romantic thing of stories. It costs lives, stills laughter and is in fact a mad castasrophe.

        And now he has come to the realiziation that he may die very soon. He thinks about not only himself, but of those who went into action before him and died. If this is also his fate, then let him die with honor. Many have died even that day and now his turn may come. He is weighing the cost that he has agreed to pay and prays for strength to pay the ultimate price if this is his time.

What Is Drama??

Drama is a literary composition involving conflict, action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by players on a stage before an audience. This definition may be applied to motion picture drama as well as to the traditional stage.
Apply these questions to a recent movie you have seen or a radio or television drama,


Conflict

1. What did the leading character want?
2. What stood in his way? (People - environment- personality, etc,)
3. What was the high point of tension or the crisis? (This is where the leading character must make a crucial decision that will effect the outcome of the play.)

Character analysis

1. Are the characters true to life or are they types or caricatures?
2. How is the character revealed?
3. What is the driving force of each leading character?
4. If a character changes, are the causes convincing and true to life?

Setting

1. Are the sets appropriate?
2. Are they attractive?
3. Are they authentic?

Critical standards useful for drama, novel, motion pictures:

1. What is the chief emphasis (ideas, character, atmosphere)?
2. What was the purpose? (entertainment, humor, excitement)?
3. Is it realistic or romantic?
4. Does it show life as it really is or distort life?
5. Does it present any problem of human relationship?
6. Does it glamorize life and present an artificial happy ending?

Types of Drama:

1. Tragedy -- In general, tragedy involves the ruin of the leading characters. To the Greeks, it meant the destruction of some noble person through fate, To the Elizabethans, it meant in the first place death and in the second place the destruction of some noble person through a flaw in his character. Today it may not involve death so much as a dismal life, Modern tragedy often shows the tragedy not of the strong and noble but of the weak and mean,
2. Comedy -- is lighter drama in which the leading characters overcome the difficulties which temporarily beset them
3. Problem Play -- Drama of social criticism discusses social, economic, or political problems by means of a play.
4. Farce -- When comedy involves ridiculous or hilarious complications without regard for human values, it becomes farce.
5. Comedy of Manners -- Comedy which wittily portrays fashionable life.
6. Fantasy -- A play sometimes, but not always, in comic spirit in which the author gives free reign to his fantasy, allowing things to happen without regard to reality.
7. Melodrama -- Like farce, melodrama pays almost no attention to human values, but its object is to give a thrill instead of a laugh. Often good entertainment, never any literary value.

Types of Drama of Historical Interest:

1. Medieval mystery plays -- dealt with Bible stories and allegorical mysteries.
2. Chronicle plays -- dealt directly with historical scenes and characters.
3. Masques -- were slight plays involving much singing and dancing and costuming. They were usually allegorical.

Drama is the most dependent of art forms -- director, actors, scene and costume designers must interpret before the audience does.
The Place of the Actor

1. The player should respect his play, his part, his fellow players, and his audience.
2. He should have imagination enough to create character for us instead of merely exploiting his own personality.

He should have a technical equipment in his 'voice, facial expression, bodily poise, gesture, and by-play that enables him to project the character as he conceives it.    


Work Cited: http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/Drama.htm

What is Poetry?

          Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. It consists largely of oral or literary works in which language is used in a manner that is felt by its user and audience to differ from ordinary prose.
        It may use condensed or compressed form to convey emotion or ideas to the reader's or listener's mind or ear; it may also use devices such as assonance and repetition to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poems frequently rely for their effect on imagery, word association, and the musical qualities of the language used. The interactive layering of all these effects to generate meaning is what marks poetry.
Because of its nature of emphasising linguistic form rather than using language purely for its content, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another: a possible exception to this might be the Hebrew Psalms, where the beauty is found more in the balance of ideas than in specific vocabulary. In most poetry, it is the connotations and the "baggage" that words carry (the weight of words) that are most important. These shades and nuances of meaning can be difficult to interpret and can cause different readers to "hear" a particular piece of poetry differently. While there are reasonable interpretations, there can never be a definitive interpretation.

Work Cited:

• http://www.poetry.org/whatis.htm