So, since the beginning of my Creative Writing class this semester (Poetry) my professor has insisted, repeated over and over how we don't read enough poets, and how we need to read more poets. He is quite right, and I haven't followed up on this; I don't like reading poetry, honestly, I can write it, and even when I write it, I don't feel it is TRUE poetry. So, as my proposal, I want to do some sort of hypertext tree of poetry. It'll consist of pieces of different poets that don't speak the same language --translations provided-- are from the same country, or lived during the same time frame. What the pieces will have in common will either be some really random word, which will then link to another poem with that same word-- the word will not be anything small like "the" or "as." But, perhaps, the words will link these pieces, poets by a theme, symbol, or image; I really don't know yet. I don't know if this is truly what I find interesting, but it will be something related to literature, and will work for two things: to read more poetry and to create the term project for this class. What I'm not sure about is whether or not the writing must consist of my writing. If I do indeed go for the poets, will it be wrong because my writing will not be displayed? Or, do I have to do it with the work that I write. I would mind the latter, being that the better poetry that I have is very limited.
I think using your own poetry is not necessarily needed. If you're linking other poets by random words, or the places they lived, or other random facts, you may end up putting more effort in that. I think that maybe you should develop the idea a little more though, just in terms of what your actual goal is in this project. What will your argument be for the 5 page paper? All in all it is a really good idea that just needs a little more developing!
I think you're on good ground no matter which way you go in terms of whose poetry; it might even be more interesting to instead of picking random facts to correlate, take a sampling of an internet poetry site and then like some poems from "the canon", like T.S. Eliot, Shelly, Keats, etc. and interlink those. Or even to interlink (or make a system for collaborative or automatic interlinking) some big typed body of poetry, whether from published compilations on Project Gutenberg or a writers' forum. But who knows. Sounds like it could be a pretty interesting writing form either way. I was wondering what you were thinking about in terms of class readings; just the general hypertext readings or were you thinking of something specifically?
I think it's really cool when the topics of any two classes intersect! But I do agree with totoros mushroom, what is the core argument of your critical analysis?
I think it would be really cool if you end each cycle with your poetry. After the reader goes through a series of works by published/world-renowned/dead poets, it would be really cool to end/restart the hypertext cycle with a personal touch from the project's creator.
I like this idea, too -- I'm very happy that you're tailoring the assignment to your other interests outside of the class. (And yes, you should definitely be reading more poetry! I'm always perplexed why people like to write things that they don't like to read...) I've got several questions here, though; do you know what poets you'll use? Do you have a sense of how you'll create the linking structure? Are there particular conceptual interconnections that you're interested in exploring? You'll of course want to do something thinking about the relationship between the content that you're linking and the ways that it's linked; what does the form have to do with that content? Additionally, you're going to need to be careful about the copyright questions that arise in the production of this piece... I'll look forward to seeing more!
Pure hypertext has always seemed very poetic to me, so I can see this feeling very natural. I've done a lot of academic work involving Beat poetry, and I think it would be great to apply your idea to some Beat work. As I envision it, hypertexted poetry would have the same spontaneity, feelings of displacement, and tension between arbitrary disconnects and overarching interconnectedness that characterizes Beat poetry and philosophy. If you don't feel it, don't bother, but I think the connection has potential.