Humanities: The Poet Laureate Society Project
In this project, my class was given an assignment relating poetry and history called the Poet Laureate Project. The synopsis for this project was that Dr. Patton, our teacher, was part of the Omni-Temporal Poetry Society and that our jobs as poets was to create a poem commemorating a United States event from our assigned time period. Our class was then assigned jobs to work on a book containing our poems that would be sold to the public.
The time period that I was assigned with was the 1910's to the 1920's. Within that time frame, I chose the United States' entry into World War 1, which took place in 1917. The main reason why I had chose this event was because, in my opinion, it was the largest and most important event in the decade.
This project taught me a lot of new information, not just about history during my time period, but also about the different writing styles and forms of poetry. The stuff that I learned about poetic forms helped me to understand that poetry isn't about rhyming words but more about number of syllables in each line and a certain pattern within the sentences. I remember learning about Iambic Pentameters, which were key in writing our poems. I am most proud of my final poem, mainly because of the positive criticism that it had got from other classmates. However, I have learned over the course of this project that I need to work on my skills in quickly developing information for my assignments and typing it down. I feel like most of the poetic skills that I have learned, mainly in writing, will help me in school sometime in the future.
DraftedBy Deangelo Concepcion
I am a soldier drafted in the war. Sent far from my family and my friends. I sailed by ship to reach the bloody shore of European countries fighting ends. I never wanted a part in this fight. I did not want to kill or shoot a gun. I wanted to have a good life, despite the deadly war that needed to be won In Nineteen Seventeen, six months before While the Great War raged in Europe’s own land I was drafted and sent to the deep core and saw the fight of the countries first hand The food is rationed in tiny portions The living quarters are dirty and rank As I run through the deadly trench sections, I see the bodies of dead lay eyes blank So here I am, out in the fields of France Gun in my hand, hearing the battle cry. Wondering if I’ll have a decent chance. Wondering if I’ll live or if I’ll die. |
Explanatory Essay
The main reason why I wrote about my event is because World War 1 was the most important event during that time period for the United States and the rest of the world. At the time, newer inventions such as machine guns and mortars attributed to one of the highest death tolls of the early century and tactics such as trench warfare were a commonplace during battles. Also, the United States had entered late into the war and was more of a deciding factor. April 6 1917 was the day that the United States declared war on Germany. Before that time, during the War, the United States remained a neutral country. The event that sparked America’s interest into joining the War was when a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania in 1915, holding a various group of Europeans and Americans. President Woodrow Wilson demanded an end on unrestricted warfare from Germany. Two years later, Germany resumed their attacks on merchant and passenger ships. Realizing that this would mean war from the United States and taking advantage of United States’ small military, Germany sent a telegram to Mexico. Known as the Zimmerman Telegram, it was an invitation to Mexico into the war to fight against the United States and gain back lost territories. Intercepted and released to the public, many Americans saw it as a proximate cause into World War 1. On April 2, 1917, Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States at the time, urged for Congress to declare war on Germany in a speech addressed to the congressmen. And 5 days later, Congress declared war on Germany. Before this event, the military of the United States had been small and relied heavily on volunteers to join. After Congress had voted for the United States to go to war with Germany, they passed the Selective Service Act of 1917 in order to increase the amount of soldiers in the military to be sent to war. Because of this act, the military had increased dramatically, contributing to more than 2.8 million for the war overseas in Europe. I chose the perspective of a U.S. citizen drafted into the Army. A month after Congress had declared war on Germany, the United States passed the Selective Service Act. This stated that all men 21 to 30 were required to register for the military. A year later, this was changed to all men 18 to 45 were required to register. This resulted in a total of 2.8 million people being drafted into the war compared to the 2 million that volunteered. That meant that there were more than 800 thousand men that were drafted into the military compared to the amount that volunteered. A lot of those that were drafted were unmarried men with no dependants and were deemed “fit for military service”. |