The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
In the days of long ago,
Ranged where the locomotives sing
And the prarie flowers lie low:
The tossing, blooming, perfumed grass
Is swept away by wheat,
Wheels and wheels and wheels spin by
In the spring that still is sweet.
But the flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
Left us long ago,
They gore no more, they bellow no more:–
They trundle around the hills no more
With the Blackfeet lying low,
With the Pawnee lying low.
Lying low.
1) Look up 3 or 4 YouTube videos on the poem.
2) Select the best video and write a short commentary explaining your choice.
3) Write a paragraph analysing the differences between “Lament” and “The Flower fed Buffaloes” in their treatment of Nature.
2) Out of all the videos we have watched, Ivan and I have decided that this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRWf-WsSnGw&feature=related was our favorite because the imagery and the music really suited the poems style, and it was nicely done.
3) Lament talks about the gulf war and how that particular war affects nature and animals, all the harm a war can do. It is a pessimistic poem, it mainly focuses on negativity. Clarke doesn’t show hope for the animals or nature whatsoever. While on the other hand The Flower-fed Buffaloes is more pessimistic, while it talks about how mankind is destroying nature it shows hope for nature, it shows both the good and bad side.
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEEnybLrQc0
Sofi and I chose this video because we think that it suits the poem perfectly well. The photos help you to understand the poem and what the writer wants us to think. This video also creates an atmosphere because of the music it has and because of the images that have been selected.
2)One of the differences that we noticed is that G. Clark described nature as being destroyed, by humans actions, by war. While Lindsay described in his poem, that buffaloes’ habitat has been changed, because of progress. Everytime you change something, you win ones, and you lose another ones, that is what Lindsay described.
Another differences that we noticed are the words these two writers use in their poems. Gillian Clark uses negative words while Lindsay uses joyful word such as: “sing” (for the sound locomotives do). This particular word shows us that Lindsay isn’t angry about the change, he accepted it and he is kind of glad about it.
2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCHdOZauoFA. We have chosen this video because the music gives a good accompaniment to the images; the images show clearly the poem and the tone is reflected in the music and the images.
3)The Flower Fed Buffaloes: This poem talkes about the extincion of the buffaloes because they were being killed very often in America. It talks about change ( for the worst). The theme is Nature and the tone is reflexive but it shows the good things of nature with some words like ” Perfumed grass”.
Laments: Lament, by Gilliank Clarke talks about the Gulf war in 1991 and how the war was contaminating the sea and how it was killing lots of people. It focuses on how nature and the human being is being killed and how war was ruining the nature. But, we think that the main diference between The Flower fed Buffaloes and Lament is that the tone changes from reflexive ( Flower fed Buffaloes) to sad (Laments). The flower fed buffaloes talks in a more positive way than Lament, because Lament is written in a more sad and negative way.
The Flower-fed Buffaloes
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEEnybLrQc0
2) After watching some videos, the three of us decided that the most original and interesting was this one. Because it had a lot of beautiful images, that described exactly what the poem was saying. And we could understand very clearly what the poem was about without analyzing much.
3) “The Flower-fed Buffaloes” and “Lament” are two poems which talk about nature but in two different ways. “The Flower-fed Buffaloes”speaks of nature but in a happy mood,as a change of nature that had to happen, whereas “Lament”talks about nature with a melancholic mood,as if nature was destroyed by the human beings without thinking about the consequences.
2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEEnybLrQc0
In my opinion, this is the best video because it uses the best pictures to illustrate the ideas of the poem, and it helps us to understand the meaning of many words. Also, the images have a good quality and the words can be read clearly. In addition, the other videos used pictures that did not represent what the poet was trying to say more accurately; and the voices of the speakers were hard to understand.
3) The two poems have some differences.
Lament is set during the Gulf-War. Its themes are death, pollution, destruction of nature, the consequences of war and human actions because the poem is about how humans damage the environment and kill millions of animals by starting war. It describes nature in a disappointed and negative way; the poet knows that we have the ability to communicate and solve problems peacefully, but instead we resort to war. The tone of the poem is regretful and angry. The Flower-Fed Buffaloes is set in the USA (in the countryside), and it is mainly about change, progress, replacement and nature. It describes the positive and negative aspects of industrialisation. First the poet says that it is something new and positive, using happy words such as “sing” and that it brings many benefits to society (for example wheat provides food and jobs) and the situation is described as if it were part of the progress of humanity. But then he mentions that this provokes the destruction of nature (but this is not described so negatively like in Lament, and Lindsay does not blame anyone for this). The main message of this poem is that when you gain something, you lose another thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEEnybLrQc0&feature=related
1) We have chosen this video because it has such amazing and clear images which make it easier to understand and interpret the poem. What is more, it has an instrumental song that motivates us to listen to it, and to infiltrate into the poem.
2) In the poem Lament, Clarke describes nature as being destroyed due to human’s actions and lack of communication. She describes the environment as polluted, and also, there are several words connected with death because she conveys that many marine animals and seabirds were killed because of the war, known as the Gulf war. Furthermore, the tone of this poem is disappointed and extremely pessimistic.
On the other hand, we have The Flower-fed Buffaloes written by Lindsay, and it refers to the changes of nature, because of the progress of the world. It transmits how the buffaloes were affected by that progress, how they lost their space until they were almost extinct. The tone of this poem is reflective, realistic and also melancholic, because it is in a way, sad, as the buffaloes got reduced due to the Industrial Revolution.
Isabella Carneiro and Victoria Nielsen
We have chosen this video because it is clear and all the images are really good and help us to understand the poem. The song was really suitable for the poem because it was a sad song and the poem is lamenting the destruction of nature for man`s insatiable wants or needs.
The poem “Lament” is lamenting the gulf war. In this poem nature is destroyed because of war between countries and the hatred and greed of people.
The poet talks about how modernism and civilization has the destroyed the beauty of nature. I really like the fact that the poet noticed how beauty and peaceful nature
was before things started changing.
2) This is the video that we have chosen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiHbwo0t18c. We choose it because we found the images very clear to understand what the poem is about. They represent some words and phrases of it in a very clever way, making it easier and more dynamic to understand.
3) In “Flower-Fed Buffaloes” the author sees the human’s influence as a destroyer of nature, but in a joyful way, at first. However in “Lament” the author describes the destruction of nature as an awful and hateful thing, and also she blames human, who were responsible of war, bombs, etc. In “Flower-Fed Buffaloes” the main idea is presented by showing how humans have killed the buffaloes and invaded there land by putting a train line there, but in “Lament” the main idea is that humans are destructing the world and killing other humans or animals in a war. Both poems describes humans as the destroyers of nature but in a different tone, in “Flower-Fed Buffaloes” the author uses words, to describe the awful things of destruction, with joyful or hopeful words, but “Lament” uses more strong words to describe badness of war. Also in “Flower-Fed Buffaloes” the author sees these destruction of nature as a part of the progress of life, he sees it without anger because he thinks it is just a way of improving, and that it was going to happen anyway, while in “Lament”, she sees it as a consequence of human decisions, she blame them with anger and sorrow.
THE FLOWER FED-BUFFAedLOES
2) The following is the link of the video we have choosen for the poem The Flower-Fed Buffaloes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sQVDgbHHZ8w
We choose this video because of all we have seen, in opinion, is the one that best describes the poem. Images are very clear. For example, when the poem names “the Blackfeet” and “the Pawnees” an image of Native American tribes appeared. This made us understand the meaning of those words, that before, were meaningless for us. Furthermore, it is a dynamic video, and really easy to follow.
3) The flower fed-buffaloes and Lament share something in common: Nature. But Nature is used in different ways. In Lament, Nature is destructed by war. The poem names everything that was affected by war, from animals and humans to the environment being contaminated. On the other hand, the other poem has a more positive perspective. It talks about the Industrial Revolution, and how Nature can coexist with new technologies. The poem shows how Nature is affected by innovations like, for example trains.
Eugenio Serra y Micaela Cardalda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anfBo-7HSa0&feature=related
I really liked this video because of its clear images. If I had to make a presentation about the poem I would use many of those pictures.
In “Lament”, the author is focused on the pain, sadness and destruction caused by war, he uses a melancholic and sad voice and the poem is aimed at mature people (+14) because of its seriousness whereas in “The Flower-Fed Buffaloes” the author has a positive piont of view, he uses many colourful images and has a inocent and childish point of view and although the voice is melancholic, it lacks seriousness. In my opinion the poem is aimed to young people (+9).
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRWf-WsSnGw&feature=related
We chose this video because it was the only video that not only shows the poem , but also explains the message behind it. The images are really clear and it ¡s very well organized.
3) In “Lament”, Clarke describes nature as being destroyed by actions of men, by war. She describes the effect of war in the sea and in the animals. In “The Flower-Fed Buffaloes”, Lindsay describes a change in the environment that has been made by the industrial revolution. He describes this change in a more positive way, using words such as “sing” to the sound locomotives do. He describes this change as an evolution and a progress that mankind has made. He says that with this change, tha buffaloes’ habitat has been modified and they don’t longer had the things they had before, because the changes have replaced the habitat of the buffaloes. We think that when you gain something, in this case: to progress, you will also lose another, acording to this poem, the buffaloes’ habitat and land.
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anfBo-7HSa0&feature=grec_index
We chose this video because it has very nice images to accompany a very sad poem
3) Lament describes the damage of nature in the present, while The Flower-Fed Buffaloes describes the damage of nature in the past, during the Californian and Industrial revolution.