Help! Poetry, Films, songs about writing...

[manderlyh]

Okay guys. I'm preparing a HUGE unit for teaching expository writing--you know, the essays--for my student teaching.

I want find some songs, poetry, films, short stories, essays, novels, artwork, anything that is some kind of media to collect about writing. I want this so I can show the kids that there are all kinds of thoughts, processes, etc. that go into it. It doesn't necessarily have to be age-appropriate because I can adapt it to work.

I thought the people here would be really good for sharing films and songs about writing with me.

I'm thanking everyone now for taking the time to help me out!

[AllisonAdler]

Hey Manders--some random thoughts:

"Introduction" poem to Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience

Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, sonnets 1, 34, 74

Shakespeare's Sonnets, 17, 18, 19, 55, 71, 84, 103

I've also always loved teaching two of Woolf's essays on writing, "Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown" and "Modern Fiction."

And here is the first Sidney sonnet, just because it's so great:

Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show,

That the dear she might take some pleasure of my pain,

Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know,

Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,

I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe:

Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain,

Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow

Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburned brain.

But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay;

Invention, Nature's child, fled stepdame Study's blows;

And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.

Thus, great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:

"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write."

[croquet'n'cocaine]

Films and songs about writing? You mean where the subject matter is about the process of writing? Like Paperback Writer by The Beatles?

[GioBrasil]

"Il postino" (The postman), Directed by Michael Radford

http://www.1worldfilms.com/postman.htm

[JethroTull]

Maybe not exactly what you want, but......

Celluloid Heroes a stunning song by The Kinks

Everybodys a dreamer and everybodys a star,

And everybodys in movies, it doesnt matter who you are.

There are stars in every city,

In every house and on every street,

And if you walk down hollywood boulevard

Their names are written in concrete!

Dont step on greta garbo as you walk down the boulevard,

She looks so weak and fragile thats why she tried to be so hard

But they turned her into a princess

And they sat her on a throne,

But she turned her back on stardom,

Because she wanted to be alone.

You can see all the stars as you walk down hollywood boulevard,

Some that you recognise, some that youve hardly even heard of,

People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,

Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.

Rudolph valentino, looks very much alive,

And he looks up ladies dresses as they sadly pass him by.

Avoid stepping on bela lugosi

cos hes liable to turn and bite,

But stand close by bette davis

Because hers was such a lonely life.

If you covered him with garbage,

George sanders would still have style,

And if you stamped on mickey rooney

He would still turn round and smile,

But please dont tread on dearest marilyn

cos shes not very tough,

She should have been made of iron or steel,

But she was only made of flesh and blood.

You can see all the stars as you walk down hollywood boulevard,

Some that you recognise, some that youve hardly even heard of.

People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,

Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.

Everybodys a dreamer and everybodys a star

And everybodys in show biz, it doesnt matter who you are.

And those who are successful,

Be always on your guard,

Success walks hand in hand with failure

Along hollywood boulevard.

I wish my life was a non-stop hollywood movie show,

A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,

Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain

And celluloid heroes never really die.

You can see all the stars as you walk along hollywood boulevard,

Some that you recognise, some that youve hardly even heard of,

People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,

Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.

Oh celluloid heroes never feel any pain

Oh celluloid heroes never really die.

I wish my life was a non-stop hollywood movie show,

A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,

Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain

And celluloid heroes never really die.

[Hotplant]

MISERY!!!!

Well, from an authors view...

[Footsteps of Dawn]

Poems:

- Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (really long; I've read Books 1,2, a and 5...tells a girl's life story and how she became a poet, and her thoughts on poetry...I think Book 1 has the most on this, if I'm not mistaken...otherwise, it's Book 2)

- Robert Browning's "Fra Lippo Lippi"...talks about art, but applies to his philosophy on writing, too

- Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind"

Films:Shakespeare in Love, Adaptation, Barton Fink, Capote...that's all I can think of at the moment

Songs: "A Perfect Sonnet" by Bright Eyes:

Lately I've been wishing I had one desire

something that would make me never want another

something that would make it so that nothing matters

all would be clear then

but I guess I'll have to settle for a few brief moments

and watch it all dissolve into a single second

try to write it down into a perfect sonnet

or one foolish line

'cause that's all that you'll get so you'll have to accept

you are here then you're gone

but I believe that lovers should be tied together

thrown into the ocean in the worst of weather

left there to drown

left there to drown

in their innocence

but as for me I'm coming to the final chapter

I read all of the pages and there's still no answer

only all that was before I know must soon come after

that's the only way it can be

so I stand in the sun

and I breathe with my lungs

trying to spare me the weight of the truth

saying everything you've ever seen was just a mirror

spent your whole life sweating in an endless fever

now you're laying in a bathtub full of freezing water

wishing you were a ghost

but once you knew a girl and you named her lover

danced with her in kitchens through the greenest summer

autumn came, she disappeared

you can't remember where she said she was going to

but you know that she is gone 'cause she left you a song

that you don't want to sing

singing I believe that lovers should be chained together

thrown into a fire with their songs and letters

left there to burn

left there to burn

in their arrogance

but as for me I'm coming to my final failure

killed myself with changes trying to make things better

ended up becoming something other than what I had planned to be

now I believe that lovers should be draped in flowers

and laid entwined together on a bed of clover

left there to sleep

left there to dream of their happiness