Poetic inspiration
By | December 12, 2007
One topic of great interest this week is Real Networks’ move of retrenching employees. The move of laying off workers usually meets with strong disapproval and striker and unrest from labour unions and the workers. The first to lay off the labour force was Dell that cut down its employee strength by one tenth when it downsized and shut down many of its centres in India and other parts of South Asia.
Real has downsized almost 35% of all its employees with around 10% being in Europe and the remaining being in South Asia. The reasons being cited for this downsizing is the redundancy of assets due to the six mergers Real Networks has been involved in. Lack of adequate work is an acceptable reason for downsizing and while no one blames Real Networks what needs to be looked at is the sudden drop in fortunes in IT and IT Enabled Services that is prompting such severe measures and how long the affected sector will take to recover from such losses.
Recently a large number of IT companies have been forced to downsize and lay off a number of their employees and workers including Sun Microsystems and a large number of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) units in South East Asia.
Now with even Real being forced to get rid of employees is worrying news for employees not just in America and Europe but almost all over the world. While some corporations are breaking new sales records, some like CompUSA are being forced out of business while others are forced to cut down their operations. The cause behind these need to be looked into so that the jobs of these people can be given back and those of the remaining employees can be saved.
Topics: Poetry for Beginners | No Comments »
An ode to an unacknowledged poetic genius
By | December 3, 2007
I’m sure there are more than a million Doors’ fans in the world. You, you’re probably one yourself. But have you ever thought of Jim Morrison as a poet? I know ‘Light my fire’ probably isn’t Wordsworth, but it still has a quality which makes you identify with him, something the likes of Wordsworth and Milton couldn’t. Morrison is one of those guys who, when I read his lyrics and poems get the feeling that he was high. The way he goes about ‘An American Prayer’ just confirms that feeling. It’s like he’s just sitting in his studio, on one of those high stools, before a microphone and a bottle in his hand and mumbling the words. It just seems to me that the rest of the band just sat down later and put the music together. Every time I listen to the song I can see Morrison doing just that. The studio gloomy and unlighted and Morrison in alcohol induced oblivion. Like I see him right now.
Morrison became addicted to alcohol in his teens and continued to suffer from substance abuse until he death at the age of 27, due to alcohol poisoning. He had become quite a disturbed person and was known to be a disruptive influence at school. That showed in his works, his behavior and his relationships. Morrison’s lyrics shocked quite a few people in the 60s and despite requests to change the lyrics he did not and performed ‘The End’ on the Ed Sullivan. Many of his writings were controversial but it was the controversy that made him and The Doors popular.
The End has particularly intrigued me. It’s not the perceived reference to the Oedipus complex, it more about a killer and it also talks about the end of a relationship. The killer puts an end to someone’s life, and the person in the song puts an end to a relationship. I can’t really help but draw parallels to Morrison’s life.
The reference to a killer is also made in ‘Riders on the Storm’. The lyrics of ‘An American Prayer’ are pure genius in my opinion. Never have I seen a person expressing his opinion about war quite so eloquently.
Comparisons have very often been drawn between Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, with Cobain in particular. Though I am a huge fan of Cobain, he is nowhere the genius that Morrison was. Morrison was a disturbed personality and it was perhaps this trait that made him a genius.
Topics: Famous Poets | No Comments »
Poetry
By | November 27, 2007
Poetry (from the Greek “???????”, poiesis, a “making” or “creating”) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics. Poetry, and discussions of it, have a long history. Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle’s Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Many ancient works, from the Vedas (1700–1200 BC) to the Odyssey (800–675 BC), appear to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and ancient societies. Poetry appears among the earliest records of most literate cultures, with poetic fragments found on early monoliths, rune stones and stelae.
An important part of poetry is the rhyming scheme. However many modern poetry avoids traditional rhyme schemes. Poetic diction treats of the manner in which language is used, and refers not only to the sound but also to the underlying meaning and its interaction with sound and form. Many languages and poetic forms have very specific poetic dictions, to the point where distinct grammars and dialects are used specifically for poetry.
Poetic diction can include rhetorical devices such as simile and metaphor, as well as tones of voice, such as irony. Other ancient epic poetry includes the Greek epics, Iliad and Odyssey, and the Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. Poetry is a soulful art. It soothes the mind and takes into into another dimension all together. There are various classifications and genres of poems. Some include Sonnets, Jintishi, Sestina, Odes, Ghazal, Free verse and a lot more. Poems can also be classified as narrative, epic, dramatic, lyrical, and satirical. Some famous poets include William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Siddharth Anand, Sylvia Plath amongst many others.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »