PUISI ESAI sebagai Puisi “Bertendens” di Era Kontemporer: Potret Batin dan Isu Sosial

PUISI ESAI sebagai Puisi “Bertendens” di Era Kontemporer:  Potret Batin dan Isu Sosial

 Dr. Rasiah, M.Hum>> Literary studies Scholar>>Dosen Sastra Inggris>> UHO

William Wordsworth's Poems

"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.

The child is father of the man. Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart."

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in  Cockermouth, United Kingdom and dead on April 23, 1850 in Rydal, UK. He was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads. Wikipedia

She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways

She dwelt among the untrodden ways 

Beside the springs of Dove, 

A Maid whom there were none to praise 

And very few to love: 

A violet by a mossy stone 

Half hidden from the eye! 

—Fair as a star, when only one 

Is shining in the sky. 

She lived unknown, and few could know 

When Lucy ceased to be; 

But she is in her grave, and, oh, 

The difference to me! 

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud (Daffodils)

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed- and gazed- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils

A Night Though

Lo! where the Moon along the sky
Sails with her happy destiny;
Oft is she hid from mortal eye
Or dimly seen,
But when the clouds asunder fly
How bright her mien!

Far different we--a froward race,
Thousands though rich in Fortune's grace
With cherished sullenness of pace
Their way pursue,
Ingrates who wear a smileless face
The whole year through.

If kindred humours e'er would make
My spirit droop for drooping's sake,
From Fancy following in thy wake,
Bright ship of heaven!
A counter impulse let me take
And be forgiven. 

The World Is Too Much With Us; Late And Soon - 

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune,
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 

A Narrow Girdle Of Rough Stones And Crags - Poem by William Wordsworth

A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags,
A rude and natural causeway, interposed
Between the water and a winding slope
Of copse and thicket, leaves the eastern shore
Of Grasmere safe in its own privacy:
And there myself and two beloved Friends,
One calm September morning, ere the mist
Had altogether yielded to the sun,
Sauntered on this retired and difficult way.
----Ill suits the road with one in haste; but we
Played with our time; and, as we strolled along,
It was our occupation to observe
Such objects as the waves had tossed ashore--
Feather, or leaf, or weed, or withered bough,
Each on the other heaped, along the line
Of the dry wreck. And, in our vacant mood,
Not seldom did we stop to watch some tuft
Of dandelion seed or thistle's beard,
That skimmed the surface of the dead calm lake,
Suddenly halting now--a lifeless stand!
And starting off again with freak as sudden;
In all its sportive wanderings, all the while,
Making report of an invisible breeze
That was its wings, its chariot, and its horse,
Its playmate, rather say, its moving soul.
--And often, trifling with a privilege
Alike indulged to all, we paused, one now,
And now the other, to point out, perchance
To pluck, some flower or water-weed, too fair
Either to be divided from the place
On which it grew, or to be left alone
To its own beauty. Many such there are,
Fair ferns and flowers, and chiefly that tall fern,
So stately, of the queen Osmunda named;
Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode
On Grasmere's beach, than Naiad by the side
Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere,
Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.
--So fared we that bright morning: from the fields
Meanwhile, a noise was heard, the busy mirth
Of reapers, men and women, boys and girls.
Delighted much to listen to those sounds,
And feeding thus our fancies, we advanced
Along the indented shore; when suddenly,
Through a thin veil of glittering haze was seen
Before us, on a point of jutting land,
The tall and upright figure of a Man
Attired in peasant's garb, who stood alone,
Angling beside the margin of the lake.
'Improvident and reckless,' we exclaimed,
'The Man must be, who thus can lose a day
Of the mid harvest, when the labourer's hire
Is ample, and some little might be stored
Wherewith to cheer him in the winter time.'
Thus talking of that Peasant, we approached
Close to the spot where with his rod and line
He stood alone; whereat he turned his head
To greet us--and we saw a Mam worn down
By sickness, gaunt and lean, with sunken cheeks
And wasted limbs, his legs so long and lean
That for my single self I looked at them,
Forgetful of the body they sustained.-- 

Poems by Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in America. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech,^[2] Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He became one of America's rare "public literary figures, almost an artistic institution."^[3] He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for his poetic works. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named poet laureate of Vermont.

Thanksgiving in the United States

“There is no better way of earning more and more than being thankful for what all you have and trying to achieve whatever more you want in your life. Thanksgiving Day is all about saying thanks to every single breath.” (Sonali Pathak)

Stuart HAll's Theory of Representation in Literary and Cultural Studies

REPRESENTATION: 

Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (1997) 

Edited by Stuart Hall

Sage Publication. 

The parts of this volume are dealt with representation.

What is representation? what does representation have to do with culture; what is the connection between them? 

Simply culture is about "shared meanings", and language has privileged medium in which we "make sense" of things, in which meaning is produced and exchanged (p.1). 

Representation, Meaning, and Language

Representation connects meaning and language to culture. in common sense, representation means using language to say something meaningful about, or to represent, the world meaningfully, to other people. Representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a cultures. re. It does involve the use of language, of signs, and images which stand for or represent. 

The circuit of culture (Hall, 1997, p.1)

How does the concept of representation connect meaning and language to culture? Here we will be drawing a distinction between three different accounts or theories; the reflective, the intentional, and the constructionist approaches to representation. For reflective, the main question to be asked is does language simply reflect a meaning which already exists out there in the world of objects, people and events? It meaning is produced by human beings through ideas, media objects and experiences in society in a real way.For  intentional, does language express only what the speaker or writer or painter want to say? The speakers of both spoken and written language give a unique meaning to each of his work. Language is the medium used by speakers in communicating meaning in each of the things that apply specifically called unique. For constructionist, is meaning constructed in and through language?  The speaker and writer, select and assign meaning in the message or work (objects) it makes. However, it is not the material world (objects), the work of arts, that leave the meaning but the man who put the meaning.

Stuart Hall considers that "there is something wrong" with the representation of minority groups in the media, even he believes that the image of the media is getting worse. He said, "There is something radically wrong with the way of black immigrants-West Indians, Asians, Africans- are handled by and presented on the mass media". Hall observed that media tend to be sensitive to middle and upper middle-class lifestyles, the majority of organized societies, while blacks are described as "outsiders," "out of consensus," "relatively disorganized," "working class." Furthermore, the media increasingly glorifies the institutions of society, where blacks are problematic in the area of sensitive power; employment, public discrimination, housing, legalization of parliament, local government, law, and police.

The issue of representation brings us to several important questions:

• Does the picture in the media help us to understand or comprehend how the world works?

• In what kind of depiction  of 'some people'  are represented in the media?

GOODWILL & FAMILY STORE: Sedekah Ala Amerika

Saya mengenal Goodwill & Family Store ketika saya berada di DeKalb, Illinois, USA, sekitar September  sampai Desember tahun 2016. Dua tempat ini menjadi tempat favorit saya dan teman-teman untuk belanja kebutuhan pakaian untuk musim dingin (Winter) pada saat itu. Kami membutuhkan baju-baju yang dapat memberikan kehangatan di tengah adaptasi hawa dingin di bawah nol derajad saat itu. 

Goodwill dan Family Store rupanya bukan sekedar tempat belanja barang-barang bekas yang sangat terjangkau dengan kualitas baik, tetapi kedua toko itu adalah lembaga charity yang menyediakan lapangan kerja dan skill bagi masyarakat tak mampu. Salah satunya adalah penggalangan dana yang ditempuh melalui industri penyediaan barang-barang dagangan yang bernilai "sedekah". 

Goodwill dan Family store merupakan dua pusat belanja keluarga yang menyediakan barang-barang second hand yang didapat dari cara donasi dari berbagai kalangan, dan kemudian dijual kembali dengan harga yang terjangkau. Hasil penjualan ini kemudian digunakan untuk membantu orang-orang yang tidak mampu dan orang-orang cacat  (disable) agar tetap mendapatkan kesempatan dalam pendidikan dan kehidupan yang layak serta mendanai pusat-pusat rehabilitasi sosial. Jadi, belanja dan mendonasikan barang-barang dan belanja ke Goodwill dan Family Store sama dengan berpartisipasi dalam kegiatan amal tersebut. Saya dan Teman-teman saya pun selama di AS lebih memilih belanja di kedua toko tersebut, dan ketika pulang ke Indonesia barang-barang itu kami donasikan kembali ke Goodwill dengan cara mengembalikan barang-barang itu ke kotak yang sudah disediakan di Asrama kami menjelang libur musim dingin.   

Goodwill dalam sejarahnya dibangun pada tahun 1902 di Boston atas gagasan seorang Pastur bernama Edgar J Helms, seorang petinggi Methodist dan inovator sosial awal. Helms mengumpulkan barang-barang bekas seperti barang-barang rumahtangga dan pakaian dari orang-orang yang kaya di kota, kemudian melatih dan membayar orang-orang tidak mampu untuk memperbaiki barang-barang bekas tersebut. Barang-barang bekas tersebut kemudian dijual kembali atau diberikan kepada mereka yang telah memperbaikinya. Sistem ini berhasil, dan mencetuskan filosofi Goodwill  tentang “a hand up, not a hand out” (tangan ke atas, bukan tangan ke bawah). 

diambil dari laman Family store/salvationarmy.org

Senada dengan Goodwill, Family Store yang memiliki semboyan “The Salvation Army” (bala keselamatan) juga menerapakan prinsip dan kerja yang sama. Mengumpulkan barang-barang donasi sukarela dari masyarakat mampu dan kemudian barang-barang tersebut dijual kembali dengan harga terjangkau. Hasil penjualan ini kemudian digunakan untuk membiayai pusat-pusat rehabilitasi, misalnya pusat rehabilitasi korban narkoba, dimana orang-orang yang berada dalam cengkeraman candu menemukan bantuan, harapan, dan kesempatan kedua dalam hidup.

Dua pusat belanja keluarga ini merupakan program industri serta perusahaan layanan sosial, penyedia lapangan kerja, pelatihan dan rehabilitasi bagi orang-orang yang memiliki keterbatasan, dan sumber bantuan sementara untuk individu yang tidak memiliki mata pencaharian tetap. Kedua pusat belanja ini telah menjadi salah satu destinasi belanja bagi masyarakat Amerika khususnya kalangan bawah, tidak terkecuali masyarakat Indonesia yang berada di Amerika. Harga dan kualitas barang terjamin, sehingga kepuasan pelanggan pun terpelihara. Belanja di Goodwill dan Family Store merupakan upaya berpartisipasi dalam program kemanusiaan. 

(sumber,goodwill.org/salvation.army.org)

   

Sepenggal kisah dari pengalaman 

Visiting Scholar PKPI-Ristekdikti Republik Indonesia Program 2016

di Northern Illinois University, Amerika Serikat.