I have hardly done any sort of writing for myself since I have been in school. It seems that as a Group Social Studies major, all of the things that we write have something to do with an idea or a fact. It has to be accurate with the stereotypical thesis statement, and examples to back up an argument. That has been all my writing since I can remember. My voice was my ability to give examples and analyze my thesis. However this semester I have this class, which allows me to write a bit more creatively, and WRT 219 which is Creative Writing. This Creative Writing class has given me a chance to find my voice and play around with other aspects of writing that Kirby, Kirby, and Liner talk about. Here is an example of a poem I wrote earlier in the semester:

Black and White

Little slabs of grease,

wrinkled pieces of green,

costly doses of heavy sticky calories,

with no real source of good.

Ease is the issue,

convenience is the answer,

in the end this doesn’t even matter.

This is the promised time, the time to make

something of myself.

Everyday there are countless hours,

spent on slumber,

spent on study,

spent on community,

spent on sweat, toil, occupation,

but not vocation.

What is it worth?

The powers at be,

make it this way.

To be numb to have a skill,

for green paper but not to write on.

Use it for the scheme the method,

if not, then no mention of opportunity

or profession.

It isn’t serious,

and many a friend has been made.

Snicker,

scowl,

smile,

bland,

dutiful,

colorless

been shared,

parties and agonizing slow green have been made.

However,

the truth is black and white.

Numb and sweat,

perhaps craft.

With my first stanza I was trying to convey some imagery. It is all supposed to come together to create an overall picture. The “grease”, and  “sticky calories” is supposed to show that this is a sticky fast food sort of place. The “green” is supposed to represent money. The rest of the first stanza and the second stanza I was trying to convey a complacency with work and the soul searching college and high school students have to endure every single day they have to work at things, like a job, that does not really matter in the grand scheme of things. The third stanza is trying to again show that in order to get to one’s vocation they have to earn money in a place that doesn’t matter. It shows that the people on top want laborers and maybe not thinkers. The last stanza incorporates listing which shows images of the struggle of this reality.

The voice in this piece is complacent, unhappy, a feeling of being educated but doing things that don’t promote it among other feelings. It’s the dissatisfaction of having a day job. I also don’t flat out say this in my poem so it does require some thinking.

Shiloh from Herman Melville provides a good voice and image.

If I were to do a lesson on voice I would show them my writing like Kirby, Kirby, Liner have suggested and then show them Shiloh and determine the voice of this poem and what it means. After that I would have them write a poem using pieces of imagery to make something of their own.

Sentence Stalk:

Over the field with April rain

Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain

This certain line also deals with rhyme scheme. This could also be looked at in relation to the whole poem but his could be a good voice exercise as well.

Mentor Text: Shiloh by Herman Melville

http://www.online-literature.com/melville/572/