Poetry Outloud

        Nightmare Flight, by Paul Curtis is a poem that I can relate to on a very deep level.  His poem discusses death, and the reaction from society to it.  Death is a frightening thing to the individual, of course becuase it is death.  But to society the death of another is more of a nuisance, or a reminder that everyone will go one way or another.  Literally, Curtise's poem is correct, in saying the masks on planes are only their to muffle the screams, the oxygen is to calm the people down and is merely for fighting panic.  Figuratively, the poem refers to society's view of death.  Which is the nuisance, hence Curtis's line saying: "They're only their to muffle the screams."
     I intend to convery the poem, by begining in a leaning stance with my head down.  From their I willl say my first line, than I willl look up and say my next line, then the third, then I will say half of the fourth, pause, and say the rest.  I will finish with my heaad down again.  I also intend to speak quietly to potray the frightening unknown factor of death.  I will speed my speech up in the middle of the poem, but finish sowly.  As if im cotemplating what I am saying.  I will use little gestures to symbolize the low energy of the poem and death.  Also the depresssion the author is trying to get across in his poem, a kind of hopeless death. 

Poetry Out Loud Questions

1.  The speaker of "She Walks in Beauty" is a man who is writing about beauty, a romantic, hopeless.
2. The audience for the speaker is perhaps the void, he is writing to sooth his own soul with no real audience
3. The speaker writes of her when she is walking and gives him a glance
4. The time is day because he describes the rays of sun upon her face
5. The setting is outdoors, in the city
6. The speaker is talking of this women's beauty, inner and outer.
7. The speaker is watching this women or recalling from memory, her beauty and relating it to nature
8.  The central idea of the poem is: This women is unearthly beautiful yet full of nature
9. The imagry is often relating to nature, or the heavens
10. One simile is: she walks in beauty like the night
11. The speaker alludes her to the heavens
12. The tone of the poem is yearning, it is created by the author writing about how beautful she is and then comparing her to heaven and nature, which are both things that give men happiness
13. In the first stanza the speaker is comparing her to the heavens, in the second nature down on earth, and in the last, a mind that is at peace with all down below
14. The poet was trying to express some of his emotions, and record her beauty into words.
15.This poem makes me think of all the beautiful women I have seen that have been out of my league and have wanted to right poetry about just to make myself feel better.