In your reading of Chapter 1, you learned that New York University was (and is) the home for performance studies that is most influenced by anthropology and sociology, and that Northwestern's "brand" of performance studies comes from the interpretation and performance of literature.
For this week's creative assignment, you will interpret a poem and "perform it." You will do some analysis and writing about the poem ahead of time. There are three steps in this assignment:
- Write a vernacular translation of the two stanzas of the Wadsworth poem below. This means that you will "translate" the poem into everyday language so that you are certain you understand its literal meaning. This will help you to make good decisions about how to speak it.
Here's an example, using the first four lines from the Emily Dickinson poem, "Tell All the Truth But Tell It Slant" The first text is the poem stanza, and the text below it in purple is my vernacular (literal) translation:
Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
Tell the truth, but not the entire truth.
It's better if you circle around the truth
Because sometimes hearing the truth
Is too shocking for us to handle