Lean on Me by Bill Withers
The denotation/literal meaning of this poem is that you
should call a friend when you are in need need help so that you can lean on them. The extended
meaning or connotation is that when you need you
help, just contact a friend and he/she will help you. If you are sad, you
should get a friend to help you with it get past the sadness. You shouldn't just hold it all
in by yourself. Bill Withers also tries to tell you that you should also expect
to help friends go through tough times ("For it won't be long, 'Til I'm
gonna need somebody to lean on").
I chose this picture
photo to show represent “Lean on Me” by
Bill Withers because I feel that the message of this
the song is about helping friends with sadness and
pain helping friends through tough times. I think the song is about
helping a friend cope with sadness or pain. In this picture there is one person
crying (meaning implying sadness) and a
friend beside her who seems to be trying to help her out. The friend is trying
to help the friend crying women deal with
the sadness and make her happier. The crying women is “leaning” on the friend.
Alone By Edgar Allen Poe
Preface: This poem is about loneliness, not friendship. Loneliness
is the lack of friendship. However, showing the other side of things, can help reader’s readers value friendships more because
they can see how loneliness negatively affects kids
people. From this poem, readers will be able to see why friends are so special
and should be treasured. If they aren’t, they may feel as negative as the author
of this poem.
The denotation of the poem says that Poe was never the
average child. The connotation or extended meaning of this poem is about Poe when he was a child Poe’s
childhood and how he was always lonely never able to fit in. Poe had different passions and
interests than the normal person did and that caused him to not have friends.
Poe tried to fit in to be like others but failed and could never escape
the loneliness.
This poem is very effective in
showing loneliness and isolation. First, this is written with the author having
experience experienced loneliness. The
author Edgar Allen Poe was interested in evil
dark and grim things. He was a lot different then everyone and because of this
he was lonely. He had no friends by his side to share his experiences with and
so this poem is from someone with first-hand experience which makes it more effective realistic and effective. Second, the
poem uses very well good symbolism. Poe
uses the uncontrollable nature and compares it to how he cannot control his different
passions and interests. This is very effective and can be seen throughout the
poem. Lastly, I like this poem because it vaguely represents everyone in some
way. Every single person in this world is different in some way. In Poe’s case,
he was lonely isolated because of his
differences. This reminds me of when I didn’t have a phone which made me feel
very different. Whenever I was eating with my friends everyone would have their
phone out and I was the odd one out. I felt like I didn’t fit in and felt
lonely every time that happened. I felt left out and it wasn’t my fault I didn’t
have a phone. Since I like many people can relate to this poem, it appeals to
me. In conclusion, I think Alone by
Edgar Allen Poe is a very effective poem that appeals to many people, including
me.
Reflection
I chose the theme of friendship
for this poetry portfolio. Friendship is not only
a very important and special theme. It is suitable for all audiences and anyone
can relate to it. I have made many friends through
throughout elementary school and new ones in high school. And To me,
friendship is priceless; nothing is better than a good friend who cares for
you, likes, and does what you like and do. Many people might feel lonely, and
when they meet someone, it's like a new light has
shined on their once dreaded life. This is a theme I like a lot because it's
worth the time and effort narrowing down such a large topic into something
narrower that many people can relate to. I enjoyed writing my poems most
because it was a different sort of task than what I’m used to. Most assignments
are dependent on research and looking at more
than one opinion but writing your own poems makes you to think for yourself and
use your own imagination. My least favourite task was the
denotation/connotation chart for the poem analysises. I found them difficult
and lengthy to do since I had to read the poem over countless times.
The poetry assignment was an
overall productive and interesting project to do. I worked hard on making my
website and poems to the best of my ability. I am really happy with the work I
have done because I have never thought I could be good at poetry, but on this
assignment, I had a theme that related to me and it eased the hardships in
writing poems of my own. I think my best piece of work is the sonnet I created.
I felt like that was a very good poem and I enjoyed making it the max most. My theme of friendship can be seen related to by everyone, and all audiences.
Everyone has a friend they would think of when reading my poetry portfolio and
I really do think they’d enjoy it. Whether it’s relating to close siblings,
life time friends, or even pets, they’d feel happy to know that someone
understands how they feel. There’s a lot of emotion and different feelings.
From loneliness to even humor. If I had another chance, I’d work harder on my
analysises because figuring out the real meaning and analyzing other poems and
author's feelings is harder than just reading the poem once. I also plan on
dividing my work up more evenly so I have equal amounts of time to focus and
work on it for future assignments. I want to be able to check my spelling and
grammar more thoroughly so I don’t have those simple mistakes. Also, I want to
get more than one person editing my work so I know my work would appeal to a
group rather than an individual. In conclusion, this assignment was a good mind
working project and I feel like it is very relatable. I plan on doing more work
like this because I enjoyed it and hopefully follow through on my goals for
future projects.