Customer Reviews

Poetry in Motion

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This CD ROM is a showcase of poets performing their works, talking about their poetry, and discussing how they think of themselves and their work as poets in digitized interviews. I was enchanted with the performances of the poems; it was amazing to me to watch the rhythm of the poetry through the poet's own words. In addition, some of the poetry was adapted by the writer to be performed with music as a vocal performance.

I feel this CD-ROM could be used in schools in several ways. First, it could be used as an example of the effect an author has on his work. Because the poets are talking about and reading their own poetry, you get a unique perspective on the poems. This would be a really interesting way to talk about ownership of writing and the importance of the author's intention.

A second way this CD-ROM could be used is in helping students to define poetry. Not all of the poems on this CD-ROM are published, and some were edited to be accompanied by music or to better fit into an oral performance setting.

Each of the poets had a unique way of presenting their work and it was difficult to categorize any of the poets together. This could spark an interesting discussion of "What is poetry?"

Finally, I think this CD-ROM would encourage students to think about different ways of expressing themselves. I was inspired to write poetry after viewing these performances and I think students would be, too.

One of the drawbacks of this CD-ROM was the language used in some of the poems. I definitely would limit this CD-ROM to seniors, possibly juniors, in high school because of the language and content. Also, I was disappointed in the lack of written text to accompany the performances of each poet. I found myself wanting to know more about each of the poets, and no biographical or publishing information was given on the CD-ROM to answer some of the questions that I had. However, this could be a benefit for some students who would then be motivated to do research on the poets he/she found intriguing on this CD-ROM.

All in all, I found the directions for use very simple and the performances to be engrossing. There is a lot of material on this CD-ROM; I recommend at least an hour for viewing in order to experience a wide range of the forms and styles featured. I'm looking forward to seeing more classrooms encouraging "poetry in motion."

The original Manufacturer's Suggested Retail was $29.95 for each volume.

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