Annotated Bibliography Assignment

By Kiersten Meehan, Group Project: Sensory Analysis

 1. Williams, William. “Portrait of a Lady.” Carlos Poetry X. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 16 Jun 2003. 04 Nov. 2013. <http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/9158/>.

In terms of our project’s overall goals, this poem and its many unique attributes prove to be especially appropriate and thus worth exploring further. Williams utilizes a variety of images in an unorthodox manner. Within this poem, he is essentially interweaving imagist scenes of nature to ultimately construct the image of a woman. The large amount of visuals provided by Williams provides a wide range for interpretation and a lot of room for creativity when it comes to our picture choices. One particularly interesting idea we are considering involves using pictures of the nature references to physically build woman that Williams is depicting, while adhering to bodily shape and form. Another distinctive and potentially useful asset of the poem is its aggravated tone and unfocused nature. The frustration conveyed to the reader through its use of certain words (Ex: “agh!”) or its unfocused nature, subject-wise, somewhat portrays the speaker as scatterbrained or distracted. This could serve as an interesting factor when it comes to how we choose to take our pictures, like with color, fade or blur effects for example. Lastly, the sexual innuendos featured in the poem could also affect how we portray our illustration of each phrase. This, however, would be entirely dependent on how strict we choose to stick to the literal meaning of each word, term or phrase. The only somewhat difficult attribute that this poem bears is its incessant questioning. Solidifying an adequate and creative way to portray questioning that would differentiate the questions from ordinary statements and words might prove to be a little difficult but will certainly be interesting to explore nonetheless. 

2. Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” Poetry X. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 16 Jun 2003. 04 Nov. 2013 <http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/271/>.

Robert Frost is well known for his excess use of nature scenes and environmental imagery. Once again, this type of imagism will thus come into play for our project. This poem specifically depicts two grassy roads and a few qualities of each. Each line, however, is heavily weighted with metaphors and symbolism, which can certainly create more options for the subjects of our visuals (once again depending on how literal we ultimately decide to be).  Another favorable aspect of this poem is its simple and strictly followed form. This will facilitate the flow of visuals and make it easier to portray concept by concept consecutively in an organized manner. This simplicity, however, might simultaneously lead to a uniform response from our audiences, which may or may not be favorable, yet is still a factor to consider. Similarly, there is certainly one prominent flaw associated with including this specific poem amongst our chosen works and that would be its universal popularity. It is a very well known poem and has been thoroughly interpreted buy numerous scholars. Therefore, many might already have a very solidified, stable or unchanging understanding of this poem. This might be hard to find unbiased or uninfluenced responses by previous knowledge of this poem. 

3. Pound, Ezra. “In A Station Of The Metro.” Poetry X. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 13 Jul 2003. 04 Nov. 2013 <http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/815/>.

This poem is renown for its brevity and quick use of seemingly meaningless imagery. The length of this poem can either prove to be a little challenging or rather very striking when it comes to visually depicting it. Its sense of time is also unique. It depicts one quick instance somewhat comparing two moments in time. The comparison aspect will also be interesting when it comes to our visual depiction. We must portray the two differing sets of imagery in a fashion that makes them appear similar. If not, we need to find a creative way to combine the two to at least give the sense that a comparison is taking place. It is most interesting because it is a literary technique that we will be most concerned about here rather than just the images themselves. Also, the brevity featured in this work is what primarily differentiates it from the other works that we have proposed. This would allow us to perhaps be more detailed and thorough about these few short images and portray it entirely different from the other two. One possibility is to create on singular image but by morphing the two into one. Another could potentially involve more complicated visuals such as GIFs, due to the smaller amount of visual subjects needed. It seems that the poem’s short length almost gives us more freedom when it comes to creativity.  

4. Geschke, Charles. Warnock, John. “Adobe Photoshop CC”, AdobePhotoshop, n.d., Web. 5 Nov 2013. <www.adobe.com/photoshop>.

Adobe Photoshop would certainly be useful when it comes to the visuals associated with each poem. It includes a wide variety of practical features. It would give us the capabilities to enhance and alter the pictures we take. We can change the backdrop according to tone as well as manipulate the images themselves to ensure that the word or phrase represented is properly illustrated within our pictures. It also has a few new features such as a 3d paint engine and camera shake reduction, which would similarly aid along those lines. It is a very project-friendly source as well, so it could definitely aid in creating a competent and organized presentation as a whole, rather than only aiding us each individual image. With such a feature, we could compile our results with the initial stages of the project (the pictures/texts), which is a convenient option to have. We could also save our work/files/results within its ‘creative cloud’ if need be. With this, it would actually allow us to share or broadcast our work and keep track of who sees it. The only real down side is its somewhat pricey monthly fee but due to its unique features, it seems quite worth it. Also, we would most likely only need one month of use.

5. Goldberg, Dave. "Survey Monkey." . SurveyMonkey, n.d. Web. 5 Nov 2013. <www.surveymonkey.com>.

Survey monkey is a program that we could use as a means of facilitating an interactive form of analysis for our project. This online program is essentially a survey template processor, which provides the format needed to create survey types of almost any kind. We would use this tool to most likely make two different kinds of surveys. One would be provided after the participant experiences our visual interpretations of the poems and then we would provide another one after they had read each specific text that the respective visuals were drawn from. This tool would allow us to essentially gather information regarding how our visual interpretation might affect literal interpretation.The site also provides a wide variety of tutorials regarding subjects such as analysis of the results reported or how to adequately design the templates. It also allows us to share our results in numerous fashions (ex: PDFs, via social media etc.). Another interesting factor is that the company running the program can in fact provide recruited individuals to take our survey, if need be. However, we will most likely not utilize this, as we would like this project to be based upon our fellow peers. Lastly and most importantly, this program allows us to incorporate images by attaching them to the respective survey question, which would aid with the visual aspect of our project. The only flaw with it, however, is that its maximum file size is somewhat small. However, the program allows for GIFs to be attached to the question as well, which could be interesting to incorporate rather than solely still frames. All in all, this program would prove to be especially useful when it comes to the end product of our project. It would allow for us to know if visuals can possibly dictate, alter or perhaps have no affect at all on the interpretation of literary works.