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Listening By: Jean Valentine

Listening By: Jean Valentine. Poetry Project Rebecca Carey November 22, 2013. Biographical Information of Jean Valentine. Born in Chicago 1934 Writes lyric poems Taught workshops at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the 92 nd Street Y in New York

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Listening By: Jean Valentine

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  1. Listening By: Jean Valentine Poetry Project Rebecca Carey November 22, 2013

  2. Biographical Information of Jean Valentine • Born in Chicago 1934 • Writes lyric poems • Taught workshops at Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the 92nd Street Y in New York • Named the State Poet of New York in 2008 • Winner of the 2004 Nation Book Award for Poetry • Received the 2009 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets • Poems- • Listening • The Rose • Sanctuary

  3. Biographical Information Continued • Books by Jean Valentine- • Break the Glass • Little Boat • Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems 1965-2003 • The Cradle of the Real Life • Growing Darkness, Growing Light • The Under Voice: Selected Poems • The River at Wolf • Home Deep Blue: New and Selected Poems • The Messenger • Ordinary Things • Pilgrims • Dream Barker • Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaevea, A Reading by IlyaKaminsy and Jean Valentine • [the Ship] • Lucy • The Lighthouse Keeper: Essays on the Poetry of Eleanor Ross Taylor

  4. Listening By Jean Valentine My whole life I was swimming listening A beside the daylight world like a dolphin beside a boat B —no, swallowed up, young, like Jonah, C sitting like Jonah in the red room D behind that curving smile from the other side E but kept, not spat out, F kept, for love, G not for anything I did, or had, H I had nothing but our inside- I outside smile-skin ... J my paper and pen ... K but I was made for this: listening: L “Lightness wouldn't last if it wasn't used up on the lyre.” M Poem Structure- 5 stanzas 15 lines No Rhyme Free Verse- non-rhyming lines, non-metrical • Imagery- a word of phrase that appeals to one or more of our senses used to share sensory experience • “A dolphin beside a boat” • “Sitting like Jonah in the red room” • “My paper and pen” • “inside-outside smile-skin”

  5. Imagery “a dolphin beside a boat” “Sitting like Jonah in the red room”

  6. Imagery “my paper and pen…” “inside-outside smile-skin”

  7. Literary Analysis • Literal Meaning: The literal meaning of this poem is that the speaker is swimming in the sunlight like a dolphin swimming beside a boat. Then the speaker compares themselves to Jonah in the whale (a biblical story). The speaker mentions that they are not spat out but kept for what they have inside and for their paper and pen. The speaker then ends by saying that they were made to listen and with a quote about a lyre (an instrument). • Figurative Meaning: The figurative meaning of this poem is that the speaker always listened and how it felt to do so. The speaker saw things happening but couldn’t be there. An example of this is when the speaker says “ beside the daylight world like a dolphin beside a boat” the daylight world represents happiness and the dolphin beside a boat shows how she couldn’t be there. A dolphin can’t get in the boat. The author speaks of how they feel alone like Jonah in the whale. He was all by himself watching others live life from the inside of the whale. This is like the speaker, sitting alone, just watching, and only listening. When the poem says that the speaker was kept not spat out and kept for love not for what they did or had represents that the speaker how more to offer and it doesn’t matter how cool you are or if you do anything special. The speaker says they are kept for what they had inside them and their paper and pen which represents their writing.

  8. Authors Purpose The author’s purpose for writing this poem is to share how she felt growing up. It was her way of sharing her experience growing up through her words. It was seen through this poem that she was excluded in a lot growing up and didn’t really say much. She never did or had anything spectacular growing up but she had her writing and that was all that mattered to her. That is what she was known for. The speaker says that they were made for listening and I feel that this was the authors way of telling herself that she has a purpose in life and that everyone does. This poem was the author’s way of expressing herself and telling us who she is and why she is the person she is today.

  9. Intended Theme The intended theme of this poem is how it feels to just listen. I also think that the theme of the poem was that it is okay to just listen. Also that you do have a purpose even when you are feeling alone and excluded from activities in life. All you need to do in life is what you love for that is your purpose and I think that is shown in lines 6-12 in the poem.

  10. Sources • http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poet/jean-valentine • http://www.jeanvalentine.com/bio10.html • http://youngnzwriters.weebly.com/ask-pen-2-paper.html

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