Ana Portillo

Elegies

Information on Elegies:
This poem is typically written about someone who passed away.
As for structure, originally, they were in elegiac meter, which is with dactylic hexameter and
pentameter, and did not have to have a certain subject, like grief. However, grief was a common
theme in English poetry for this genre, and overtime became what this genre was known for.
(Elegy). Another format an elegy could take would be a quatrain (which means it has four lines)
in iambic pentameter (ten syllables in each line), following an ABAB rhyme scheme. This rhyme
scheme means the first and third lines will rhyme; the second and fourth will rhyme together as
well. Though, elegies do not have to follow this format. Many modern elegies do not have a set
form. (MasterClass)

An Example of an Elegy:
This example breaks the format; each stanza contains a quatrain (four lines), then has an indented
quatrain that follows the ABAB rhyme scheme. The first one out of the two are mostly longer
lines, and the second ones have considerably shorter ones, around half the length. Neither follow
iambic pentameter.
“O Captain! My Captain!” By Walt Whitman
“O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
                         But O heart! heart! heart!
                            O the bleeding drops of red,
                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,
                                  Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
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                         Here Captain! dear father!

                            This arm beneath your head!
                               It is some dream that on the deck,
                                 You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
                            But I with mournful tread,
                               Walk the deck my Captain lies,
                                  Fallen cold and dead.” (Whitman)

My Elegy:
I took the format of a quatrain with iambic pentameter that has an ABAB rhyme scheme.
“An Elegy for the Semicolon” by Ana Portillo
These days, you only live in my essays
I forget feeling that you’re meant for more
I wish I wouldn’t feel that way, it stays
You aren’t too formal; you are not a bore.
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Haiku Poems

Information about Haikus:

This type of genre originated in Japan. Because this poem type is very short in length, the
selectivity of word choice is imperative. Its format consists of having three lines in the whole
poem; the first line has five syllables, the second has seven, and the last line has five again.
Originally, the measurement of sound they use is called moras, in which some translators say the
total of 17 moras used in Haikus is comparable to 12 English syllables, so the formatting may not
look consistent in English (Haiku).

Example Haiku:
This poem follows the Haiku’s format of three lines and the five-seven-five syllable pattern, so
it’s a Haiku.

“The Falling Flower” by Arakida Moritake

“What I thought to be
Flowers soaring to their boughs
Were bright butterflies.” (Moritake)

My Poem:
My poem follows this same format of three lines and a total of 17 syllables with 5-7-5 in each.

“TV and Couch” by Ana Portillo

It’s just furniture
But memories show we laugh
And cry together.
 Ana Portillo

Blank Poetry

Information on Blank poetry:

This genre’s format consists of iambic pentameter (ten syllables in each line); however, they do
not have a rhyme scheme. This is called unrhymed iambic pentameter (Blank Verse).
Example of a Blank poem:
This poem does follow iambic meter, and does not rhyme, so it follows blank structure.
“Thanatopsis” By William Cullen Bryant
“To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a Voice of gladness, and a smile.” (Bryant)
My Blank poem:
These poems follow blank poems’ format
because they are written in iambic
pentameter, but the end of the lines don’t
rhyme.

“Accents” by Ana Portillo

I wish I wouldn’t feel weird practicing
Spanish in public. What am I afraid
Of? People thinking worse of me? I
should
Not be. Pero lo quiero intentar.

“Pacemaker” by Ana Portillo (EXTRA)

I think I’m gonna combust. I wanna
Yeet my heart into the distance. Why is
My brain like this, the smallest thing can make
You fall. Catching myself is letting go.
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Free Verse
Information on Free Verse poems:
This genre of poetry’s name describes itself accurately; Free Verse poetry does not conform to
any structure, whether it be in its stanzas, or in rhyme scheme. Therefore, the end of each line
does not have to rhyme with another certain line to create a pattern. There also does not need to
be a certain number of lines in each separated group, or a certain number of syllables in each line
(Free Verse).
Example of a Free Verse poem:
This does follow the format of no format. It has four lines in the first stanza and three in the
others; it does not have a rhyme scheme or follow a particular meter.
“The Garden” by Ezra Pound
“Like a skein of loose silk blown against a wall
She walks by the railing of a path in Kensington Gardens,
And she is dying piece-meal
of a sort of emotional anemia.
And round about there is a rabble
Of the filthy, sturdy, unkillable infants of the very poor.
They shall inherit the earth.
In her is the end of breeding.
Her boredom is exquisite and excessive…
will commit that indiscretion.” (Pound)

My Free Verse poem: It doesn’t follow a set format, so it’s a free verse poem.
“Positive Feedback Loops” by Ana Portillo
Positive feedback loops
Science term
You’d think this would mean something nice
Positive, possibly
Like ‘Kindness goes around’
Nah
Instead
The effect of a problem causes it to happen more
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Which makes the problem worse

Example 1
The more ice melts, the more ice melts

I’ve noticed I cause most of my own problems

Then I continue to do just that
Which makes them worse
This sounds familiar

For example

I open social media

“Oh nice, cool art”
But then there’s more cool art, just right there
The clock jumps ahead before I look up
Out of a standstill I felt we both were in
When did this much time pass?
Even so, later
I open social media

I start homework
My mind follows all the noise around me
It’s exhausting
But when I put in earbuds, it’s too quiet up here
I can’t stay focused
I start thinking about anything but my work
Any questions that come to mind, I search
Any ideas, I write down
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Because I forget them just as easily

I daydream, and all responsibility
Seems to leave me
Although time is scrambling by
I hardly notice

I feel stressed
A due date, a test, an event is imminent
I eat comfort food
It’s easy food, sweet food
I forget water tastes nice
Cool and clear
Helpful for survival
Instead
I keep getting up to get more

I watch a funny video

And it makes me feel better
I click on a longer one
So my brain can listen to something while it works
But the video’s interesting
I find myself working less and less
The video ends
The absence of sound
Makes the silence seem unbearably loud
I put on another
This doesn’t stop
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I feel tired
Because I always go to sleep late
Because I always procrastinate
Yet I don’t take naps
Because I could be doing something else
Like consuming media, stories with characters,
Or attempting homework
Which I can’t focus on when I need to
When I try to
My brain won’t rest
So it can complete homework
So it can take a nap
It doesn’t want to sit still
I don’t want to sit still
But at the same time
I do
I want to complete my work
But I don’t
By trying to work and relax at the same time
The important one
The time-sensitive one
My schoolwork
Suffers

I create problems for myself

They add up on each other
And by doing this
I make them worse
 Ana Portillo

Even though I know this

I continue
I don’t stop
For some odd reason
I won’t stop
Comfort

I try to change, but it’s only slightly

I mostly stay the same

I don’t finish my homework in time

I’m upset with myself
But that doesn’t stop me from repeating this tomorrow

Positive feedback loops

Example 1
The more ice melts, the more ice melts

I remember a few times where I studied in silence

Late at night
Because I had procrastinated all day
I didn’t put something on
I needed to get work done
It was quiet
But after a bit
I got into the swing of things
It worked, surprisingly enough
I wish I would give it a go more often
 Ana Portillo

Lyric Poems

Information about Lyric poems:

This genre describes when a poet’s poem is expressing their feelings. They often are written in
first person, and originally were combined with music, like on the instrument the lyre. These can
follow any metric structure. These would include iambic, trochaic (a stressed syllable and then
an unstressed one, the opposite of iambic meter), or pyrrhic (two unstressed syllables) (Pyrrhic
Verse). Rhyme schemes can vary; some are written in an AABB format (the first and second
lines rhyme with each other), while others are written in an ABAB format (every other line
rhymes with each other). However, lyrics are not restricted to a certain format in rhyme and
meter (Lyric Poem).

Example of Lyric poetry:

This is an example of Lyric poetry because it expresses emotion. It also has a consistent rhyme
scheme (AABB) and meter, which helps with the flow of the poem to be sung.

“The Pains of Sleep” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Ere on my bed my limbs I lay,
It hath not been my use to pray
With moving lips or bended knees;
But silently, by slow degrees,
My spirit I to Love compose,
In humble trust mine eye-lids close,
With reverential resignation
No wish conceived, no thought exprest,
Only a sense of supplication;
A sense o'er all my soul imprest
That I am weak, yet not unblest,
Since in me, round me, every where
Eternal strength and Wisdom are.
 Ana Portillo

But yester-night I prayed aloud

In anguish and in agony,
Up-starting from the fiendish crowd
Of shapes and thoughts that tortured me:
A lurid light, a trampling throng,
Sense of intolerable wrong,
And whom I scorned, those only strong!
Thirst of revenge, the powerless will
Still baffled, and yet burning still!
Desire with loathing strangely mixed
On wild or hateful objects fixed.
Fantastic passions! maddening brawl!
And shame and terror over all!
Deeds to be hid which were not hid,
Which all confused I could not know
Whether I suffered, or I did:
For all seemed guilt, remorse or woe,
My own or others still the same
Life-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame.

So two nights passed: the night's dismay

Saddened and stunned the coming day.
Sleep, the wide blessing, seemed to me
Distemper's worst calamity.
The third night, when my own loud scream
Had waked me from the fiendish dream,
O'ercome with sufferings strange and wild,
I wept as I had been a child;
 Ana Portillo

And having thus by tears subdued

My anguish to a milder mood,
Such punishments, I said, were due
To natures deepliest stained with sin,—
For aye entempesting anew
The unfathomable hell within,
The horror of their deeds to view,
To know and loathe, yet wish and do!
Such griefs with such men well agree,
But wherefore, wherefore fall on me?
To be loved is all I need,
And whom I love, I love indeed.” (Coleridge)

My Lyric Poem:
My poem is a lyric because it expresses my personal feelings. I chose not to follow a consistent
rhyme scheme or certain meter, but in some places, I attempted rhyme because it fit well with
what I wanted to say.

“Sports and How They Can Explain My Fears Pretty Well” by Ana Portillo
I’m a perfectionist
Two summers ago
When I was trying to get better at basketball
From my pretty much non-existent skill level,
It always made me feel self-conscious
Whenever I’d be trying
And failing
To make baskets
And somebody would walk past
On the sidewalk parallel to our house
 Ana Portillo

The trees that stood between the two might as well not have been there
They could see me, and I could see them
I didn’t want to try and fail
Over and over
In front of somebody.
I didn’t want them to hear
The sound of the ball clanging against the backboard
And the bounces of it hitting the pavement
Because I missed.
And the sound of my shoes hitting the pavement,
Chasing after it,
Because though rejection hurt my soul a little, I was going to try again.
But the problem is, you need to try and fail
To improve.
Even so.
Knowing somebody would hear that for an extended period of time
Felt like too much pressure
Like their eyes were
Following me
Weighing on me
Judging me
Though I know logically, they’re not.
They are literal strangers
I probably don’t exist in their world
And if sound does catch their attention,
They’ll probably forget me in a week at most.
However,
Especially at the beginning
 Ana Portillo

I would stop for a water break

Whenever somebody would walk by
Because if I didn’t
(As I found when I tried to stick it out)
My nerves would affect my performance
I’d try, but feel watched, and fail even more.
What I didn’t want to happen would happen anyway.

Speaking of nerves,
Even though I’ve been doing this for a while,
I always get nervous before swimming a race
Or playing my clarinet for people
Or performing in front of people in general.
I think this is a pattern.
I don’t swim year-round anymore
I wait for the summer season to start
But I don’t practice swimming in the winter,
Though I know it’ll mean
It’ll take two months
(the whole season)
of daily swimming for me
To get back to where I used to be.
So why don’t I?
Time, I say, which is true
Homework seems to be all I do
But also,
I’m afraid people will judge me
Because I’m out of practice
 Ana Portillo

(Slow and easily tired)

Well, the only way to fix that is to practice
Quite the predicament,
Seems familiar.
I could make the time,
But I don’t.
It’s scary,
But I should.
Because I love to swim.
I also put off practicing because swimming is a very exposed sport
I am not fit
So I feel a bit self-conscious sometimes
I walk around in a sweatshirt in summer
But to be fair, even if I was fit, I’d probably still do that
Sweatshirts are nice to wear outside the pool, swimsuits are less
When I’m in the water, sometimes feeling too aware of how people might perceive me
Follows me into the pool, and I hope my swimming’s not making me look bad
Bro, I’m there to improve
Stop worrying about what people think
Just be yourself
Which I know is a well-known saying
But it’s hard.

I wish I wouldn’t care as much about what other people think of me

I do this too much, as you can see
I noticed I talk quietly
Sometimes;
I wondered why one time
 Ana Portillo

I think it might be that I’m scared I’ll embarrass myself,

Like how I’m kinda scared the people I’m trying to talk to won’t hear me,
So the silence from them that follows
Would be louder than my words
But the problem is
You need to speak louder if you want people to hear you // “if you want to be heard”
Not quieter
I need to understand,
It’s okay that sometimes
People don’t hear me the first time
It just means I have to speak a bit louder (which my friends are helping me with),
I have to try again
And that’s okay.
I don’t wanna wave to someone in the hallway
If I think they won’t wave back because they don’t see me
‘Cus that would be embarrassing.
I’d start to, see their eyes are staring straight ahead, and pretend I just lifted my arm for fun
Who cares if other people I don’t know
See myself get DonoWalled (ignored) by accident
At least I tried to say hello
To the people I care about, who do know me, and care about me too
These whole ordeals
Are no big deal
And I’d like to get that through my skull
So what, the world isn’t going to end.
Say hello.
 Ana Portillo

Reflection
By writing in different genres of poetry, I’ve learned the importance of concise word
choice by needing to meet the requirements of more strict genres, like the Haiku. I’ve also been
able to see how word choice shapes what Since I was only allowed to use three lines with less
than ten syllables each, I really had to think about what ideas I wanted to include and what to
exclude to still get the same message across like I wanted to. For example, in “TV and Couch,” I
had to be very short in my descriptions of how my family bond over watching television by
simply saying how we “laugh and cry together,” which was the main point I wanted to get at,
though I could elaborate on it more if not for the requirements. I ended up adding “TV and” to
the title I originally planned on because I didn’t have enough syllables to describe how exactly
the couch and expressing emotion together were related, but I was able to do it loosely through
the title description, which also shows how titles affect how the reader will perceive the poem.
The title of a poem is like a first impression on the work; it gives them an idea of the
topic that might be explored. It also gives the reader a base to check their analysis against. You
can also get different impressions of a poem by just changing the title. I reflected on this while I
was writing my lyric poem especially. When I was jotting my ideas down for this poem, I
originally called it the ‘basketball rejection one,’ and it didn’t really have a name. After I realized
this, it’s second name was ‘The Fear of Being Seen and Not Seen,’ and had I kept this name, I
most likely would have elaborated more on subconsciously wanting to act how I thought would
be best received by others, and how that backfires sometimes. This was the topic of a scrapped
stanza I wrote. In my poem, I mostly talked about wanting strangers’ approval and focused more
on the “fear of being seen” part instead of “not seen.” This shows how if a title is created before
the full poem, it can also affect the author’s writing process and end product. Also, the “fear of
being seen” part of the second title I made sounded a bit sketchy without context, and I thought
that since a lot of my poem revolved around sports, why not explain that in my title. That’s how I
came up with the title “Sports and How They Can Explain My Fears Pretty Well.”
I also got practice of choosing what I wanted to say more purposefully with the more
open-ended poems, like my lyric poem. Originally, I had written another stanza after the ending
but chose to cut it because I didn’t like how it was sounding (though the idea mentioned earlier
made sense in my head) and liked the ending of “So what, the world isn’t going to end. Say
hello” better because it encompassed what I wanted to tell myself about all the things I was
worrying about in the previous stanzas and provided a nice conclusion.
Knowing my poems had to be paired with something relatively ordinary in my life to
represent the poems themed around myself influenced my writing process. When I was writing
down ideas for poems, I would mostly draw from experiences in my life that could be shown in a
picture and paired that either with an idea that I had already been thinking about. For example, I
had already written previously last year on how TV shows had brought my family and siblings
closer together in an exercise, but I decided the subject of my Haiku could be our “… Couch”
(from the title) because whenever I watch something with my siblings or my parents, it’s usually
 Ana Portillo

on our couch, so it holds a lot of memories. Another example would be my blank poem
“Accents.” This idea of wanting to practice Spanish again but being scared to came to me
because I wasn’t taking Spanish this year and missed learning the language again (the tests, not
so much). But practicing out loud with others besides my parents was a bit scary, even if it was
with some of my closest friends, let alone strangers, because I had lost a lot of the vocabulary I
learned in school. I recalled a memory of my friends helping me practice by us only speaking in
Spanish during marching band, and though I was slow and asked a lot of ‘How do you say’s,
they encouraged me a lot to keep trying. The reason why I wanted to learn Spanish was so I
could communicate with and understand my Grandpa Jorge, who wasn’t as fluent in English as
my other relatives. Since my parents are both fluent in Spanish and English, they speak both to
each other every so often. That’s how I got the idea for the photo: I had my parents write
something in Spanish, as well as my older sister who took five years of Spanish compared to my
three, and my little brother, who is three-quarters done with his second year of Spanish in school
(and recently learned how to give directions, which is what he wrote :) ). I also wrote something
in between my Dad and Mom’s notes.
I came up with “Accents” by mixing these two feelings and memories, which definitely
impacted my writing. Because I was drawing mostly from personal experiences and feelings I
had, it made my writing a lot more feelings-based, especially with my free-verse poem (“Positive
Feedback Loops”) and my lyric. My genre choice impacted my enthusiasm positively for writing
these two poems slightly, as it kept me writing lengthier poems. This is because since these
genres had less restrictions on format, I was able to express my feelings better. I even included
some rhyme where I wasn’t required to simply because it fit well with what I wanted to say, and
it was fun to make that sound nicer when read out loud. For example, in my lyric, I wrote: “I do
this too much, as you can see / I noticed I talk quietly / Sometimes; / I wondered why one time.”
In my free-verse, I wrote: “I start thinking about anything but my work / Any questions that
come to mind, I search / Any ideas, I write down / Because I forget them just as easily / I
daydream, and all responsibility / Seems to leave me / Although time is scrambling by / I hardly
notice.” I’m particularly proud of these lines because they deliver what I want to say, and I can
read it like I’m performing slam poetry on stage, talking quickly and then pausing to let what I
said sink in. I also liked my word choice in my free verse that went like this: “I open social
media / “Oh nice, cool art” / But then there’s more cool art, just right there / The clock jumps
ahead before I look up / Out of a standstill I felt we both were in / When did this much time
pass? / Even so, later / I open social media.” I was very proud of this stanza because I felt it
really encompassed the loop effect I was trying to achieve, by using the same first line as the last
line in it. The word choice also provided imagery that I thought helped show the feeling of being
so into something, you really don’t notice the passage of time. These examples show how the
specific choices an author makes, including the genre, can impact how ‘digestible’ the poem
sounds to the audience (as rhyming words sound pleasant to the ear), as they can include rhymes
or not, fluffy word choice or not. These are all skills I discovered and delved deeper into by
completing this project.
 Ana Portillo

Works Cited

“Blank Verse - Definition and Examples of Blank Verse.” Literary Devices, 5 Sept. 2019,
https://literarydevices.net/blank-verse/.

Bryant, William Cullen. “Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry
Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50465/thanatopsis.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “The Pains of Sleep by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.” Poetry
Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43995/the-
pains-of-sleep.

“Elegy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 17 Sept. 1999,

https://www.britannica.com/art/elegy.

“Free Verse - Definition and Examples of Free Verse.” Literary Devices, 11 Feb. 2022,
https://literarydevices.net/free-verse/.

“Haiku - Definition, Structure, and Examples of Haiku.” Literary Devices, 26 Oct. 2021,
https://literarydevices.net/haiku/.

“Lyric Poem - Examples and Definition of Lyric Poem.” Literary Devices, 21 Feb. 2019,
https://literarydevices.net/lyric-poem/.

MasterClass. “Poetry 101: What Is an Elegy in Poetry? Elegy Poem Definition with Examples -
2022.” MasterClass, MasterClass, 16 Aug. 2021,
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-an-elegy-in-poetry-elegy-poem-
definition-with-examples#how-did-elegaic-poetry-originate.

Moritake, Arakida. “The Falling Flower.”

“Pyrrhic Meter.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/pyrrhic-meter.

“The Garden, by Ezra Pound.” Poetry Archive,

https://www.poetry-archive.com/p/the_garden.html.

Whitman, Walt. “O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry

Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45474/o-captain-my-captain.