Monday, August 13, 2012

poetry assignment #1

This commercial below was produced by Levi's (and then pulled from the airwaves in the UK due to the image of the young person staring down riot police), and it raises questions. Here are the ones you are required to answer by Monday, August 20 (please post your responses to #1-4 here on the blog; #5 will, natch, be a live performance):



1. From what poem/author does this commercial borrow (without credit)?
2. Why might the use of this poem by a corporation be considered ironic?
3. Does the poem reflect the reputation of the author? Why/why not?
4. How did you find the answers to #1 & #3? Describe your research process and your sources in detail.
5. MEMORIZE the poem and be prepared to recite it on demand.

84 comments:

  1. #1)The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    #2)This poem is ironic because, well, Levi's IS a big brand name. "Don't let it be clubbed into dank submission." Some could say that corporations are making us submit to their... desires through advertising and the likes. Levi's is actually doing what it's telling us not to. Reeling us in by making it look good. You know what I mean? I still have a couple hours left of summer, my brain hasn't fully rebooted yet...
    #3) Bukowski was frequently bullied and rejected as a kid. An alcoholic, sex addict, and sometimes prone to violence he relied on EXPERIENCE(like Montaigne, fancy that) to guide his writings. He has always been known for seeing things as they are. Even in the poem he talks about hard times, but there's always hope. He didn't like the city and thought the American life depressing. I think he just wanted a way out and he didn't want anyone controlling his life. To conclude, yes, I think this poem mirrors its author's reputation quite a bit.
    #4)... first I started with Wikipedia, but keep your skinny jeans on, cuz I basically just got a feel for the author and then I poked around on other sites, like one of my favorites called Poetry Foundation and gathered all the information I needed to answer your questions, Doc.

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  2. 1>Charles Bukowski's The Laughing Heart.
    2>The irony of this ad is that, if you don't have the luxury of a dvr and cannot fast forward through commercials, you will be presented with this video every other commercial break. Even if you are not in this class you may have memorized the poem by the time your show is over...if you let it club you into dank submission. Also, if I'm so marvelous, why do I need these jeans for the gods to delight in me?
    3>This poem is certainly marked by the style of the author and his reputation as an abused person who finds a way out of his misery and eventually into celebrity. The light he knows exists out there for everybody to find is one he himself has taken advantage of.
    4> Step one: enter words of poem into google. Step two: observe results page. Step three: Verify that The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski is in fact the poem in the video by searching his name and the poem's name. Step Four: find the poem on the Best American Poetry blog edited by the same man who edits the annual Best American Poetry series. Contentment.

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  3. You can find my homework on my blog, under Poetry Assignment # 1. With this video, a picture, and detailed answeres to your questions. Obviously all but # 5 are present in this blog :)

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  4. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. This commercial could be considered ironic because the only goal is to get us to buy jeans. When the poem is saying don't be clubbed into dank submission or beaten down into surrender, the commercial is trying to beat us into buying jeans.
    3. Yes, the poem reflects the reputation of the writer because he talks about the highs and lows of life and the pursuit of finding light when all you see is darkness. He definitely knows the highs and lows of life firsthand because he was a gambler, alcoholic and a sex addict.
    4. I found the answer to #1 by googling "levis poem commercial" and it was the forth result from a website called The Inspiration Room. I found the answer to #3 by googling "Charles Bukowski" and going to The Poetry Foundation.

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  5. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The commercial can be considered ironic because of the fact that it is forcing us to sit there and watch their commercial, like all commercials. It is trying to smother the idea into our brains that we have to buy their jeans while the poem is stating that we control our lives and we can choose what we want to do with ourselves. "Your life is your life. Don't let it be clubbed into dank submission." The commercial is stating the exact opposite yet they say it was inspired by the poem by Bukowski.
    3. The poem definitely reflects the author's reputation. Throughout his life, Bukowski has had to deal with alcoholism and gambling. You can certainly see this in his style of writing as he describes the findings of lightness and darkness and how we can either let death overcome us or cheat it.
    4. I found these answers by, like Kaitlyn, Googling the poem and also found the poem that inspired the commercial. For #3 I simply Googled Charles Bukowski and found the Wikipedia site that has his biography on it.

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  6. Hey guys, I don't mean to sound rude. But I don't think this sight is for you to post you'r homework. Because then he would have over 90 kids commenting on all of the assignments. I'm not sure, Dr. Preston, how would you like to go about this?

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  7. Hi Ashlie, asking a question or suggesting an idea isn't rude. In this case, however, I DO want everyone's comments here. Sometimes you'll post your thoughts to your own blogs, sometimes you'll contribute in a shared space. Thanks for being concerned about the process!

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  8. 1.) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski.
    2.) I think it's ironic due to the fact that advertisements were meant to entice viewers into purchasing products of the company; yet the poem is all about freedom and overcoming hardships, when the audience is being forced or brainwashed to purchase Levi products via the advertisement.
    3.) The poem does reflect his life. Bukowski was an ardent alcoholic abuser and many times struggled with it. Similarly in the poem, Bukowski refused to be "clubbed... to submission" by his problem. Similarly, he was attempting to "beat death in life" (aka the alcohol again) in order to focus more on his writing.
    4.) I discovered the answer to number one by searching the very first lines of the poem in google. I discovered the poem and I traced the words from the ad to see if they matched and they did.

    For number three I researched Charles Bukowski's personal life and found that he was an alcoholic via Wikipedia and Bukowski.net.

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  9. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The use of this poem by a large corporation is quite ironic in that corporations nowadays are often marked by fakeness and fraud. For this reason it is ironic that a large corporation is using such a powerful and meaningful poem as a marketing device. Why not just put their jeans on models that have perfect smiles without the poem being read in the background (like most commercials!)?
    3. The poem does reflect the reputation of the author in that because Charles Bukowski had such a difficult like growing up, his work culminated into an ironic expression of positivity and hope. Growing up he came from a very poor family resulting in a malicious father who often abused him both mentally and physically. During his life he also became an alcoholic. Because of these complicated obstacles, Bukowski decided to write this poem on the life all people are given and how we must make the most of it in order to live a full and happy life.
    4. First) Went to the link on the video that led me to the video on YouTube…Second) Copied the name of the YouTube video and searched it in Google…Third) Added the word “Poem” to the search…Fourth)Read the description under “Go Forth – Levi's Campaign | Mahesh CR” website and found who is was written by…Fifth)Looked up Charles Bukowski on Google…Sixth) Went into Wikipedia and read up on the history of the author.

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  10. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The use of this poem by a corporation can be considered ironic because corporation's only seek one thing, your money. In the first 4 lines of the poem it says to live your own life and not be prone to submission from others. This is ironic because the ads that these corporations release have one purpose and that is to persuade you to purchase their product and yet they are telling you to think for yourself when they should be convincing you why you should buy their product.
    3. The poem does reflect the author's life because throughout his childhood he suffered abuse from his father for the slightest offences. Charles Bukowski was an alcoholic and he wanted a way out and he expressed this through his poems. In "The Laughing Heart" he says to live a happy life which can only be accomplished by being you. When he says to follow the light in the poem, I believed he meant to follow your heart and to do whatever pleases you and to refuse submission by others.
    4. I clicked on the link on your blog, "pulled from the airwaves in the UK." Then, I researched "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski. Finally, I googled Charles Bukowski which led me to his Wikipedia page.

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  11. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The use of this poem could be ironic because it is, in a sense, asking you to "be yourself", and be comfortable with the way YOU are, but at the same time it is a commercial telling you to where Levis, which exist in nearly every American home.
    3. The poem does not directly reflect his own life but, but reflects the life that he seemed to think most wanted by himself and his reputation supported that life. His problem with alcohol showed his restraint to addiction that he would later in life have to deal with. "Your life is your life, don't let it be clubbed into dank submission..."
    4. I clicked on the link you gave. Then saw that it was "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski. I then googled Charles Bukowski and read about his life on a Wiki page.

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  12. 1.The laughing heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. Using this poem in the ad that many people see is ironic because most of the company likes to focus only on the product and tries to make people to want to buy it, but the poem is saying don't let others to control your mind (life). The poem is saying total opposite on how the usual advertisement controls buyers mind.
    3.yes, the poem does reflect Bukowski's life. He had a very difficult life. He was an abusive father and also an alcoholic. But he knew that his life has been disaster and wanted to fix it. By writing the poem that is saying you have to live your own life and "don't let it be clubbed into dark submission.."
    4. for #1, I googled the first line or so, and the title of the poem and author came out. and for #3, I googled Charles Bukowski and read his life.

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  13. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The use of this poem by a corporation can be considered ironic because the main purpose of advertisement is to convince the customers to buy their products. But, the first few lines of the poem which is: “Your life is your life...there is a light somewhere." expressed the idea of standing up for your own life and thinking. The company will not make money if the customers aren't been persuaded to buy their products.
    3. The poem does reflect the reputation of the author because Charles Bukowski lived through a harsh childhood. He was been abused by his father and bullied by other children. Then, he became alcoholism. By reading his poem, you can find both pain and hope.
    4. First, I enter words of poem into Google. (A blog with the heading of Just Poetry)/ Double check with the website of (read a little poetry)
    Then, I googled Charles Bukowski (e-note: Charles Bukowski Criticism)

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  14. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The use of this poem can be considered ironic because it's saying to be yourself and do what you want basicly, yet it's an advertisement. So they want you to be yourself in their product?
    3. The poem does reflect his reputation because the way he says everything and how you know it came from the heart, couldn't have just been made up.
    4. I found the author and poem title by all the previous comments and then i typed it into google and read about Charles Bukowski.

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  15. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The poem being used with the Levi brand is that the poem is telling you to go forth and express yourself, but it's big corporations like Levi's that are constraining us by telling us what to do and what to buy. The ad is telling you to go forth and be yourself, but what they really want is you to buy their product, and their product alone.
    3. Yes the poem does reflect the reputation of the author and the way he has led his life. He used to be an alcoholic and was also abused by his father. He did not let these obstacles and hardships stand in his way. He became his own man and took control of his life.
    4. 1)I listened to the first couple lines from the video and typed them into google. 2)I found out that it was The Laughing Heart. 3)Then I typed in the author's name 4)I clicked onto the wikipedia page 5)Then learned about his personal life.

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  16. 1. The commercial plagiarizes "The LAughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski.
    2. It is ironic because the theme of the poem is that you should take your own way to make your life the best it can be for you, while ultimately convincing the consumer to buy Levi jeans. Levis might not be the best jeans for everyone, but the commercial leads you to believe they are.
    3. Yes, Charles Bukowski led a very difficult life but he overcame his adversity by living his life the way he needed to be happy.
    4. Ian Janssen warned me about this assignment and he basically told me the title and author and that Charles Bukowski went through some tough times. He really didn't tell me anything about the irony, but that part was pretty obvious if you watch the commercial and read the poem.

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  17. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. Often times when you hear something repeated time and time again, you tend to start to believe it. This is the same premise with this video; it will, in a sense, pummel our minds with the repetition of the video until we eventually give in and buy the product. However, the poem suggests that you do the exact opposite “don’t let it [your life] be clubbed into dank submission.” It is the contrasting theme in the poem and the primary motives of the ad which makes this commercial so ironic to the viewer.
    3. In a sense, yes. Bukowski throughout his life was constantly being told that he couldn’t be a writer and that he wasn’t good enough. His works were not very successful in being published during his early career, and his own father even went to the extent to throw out his works onto the lawn when he first read them. This is where you can easily see the connection between his personal life/career and the line “don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.” He was told he wasn’t good enough and he started to believe it. This put him into a deep depression where he began to turn to alcohol. His period of alcoholism parallels the “darkness” in which he continually mentions throughout the poem, and the light represents him sobering up. His entire journey as a writer seems to be summarized in this short poem.
    4. To find what poem this was and who it was by, I first watched the video and typed into Google the first lines that were narrated: “your life is your life don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.” I went onto the first site and it had the entire poem as well as the author. I then googled “Charles Bukowski” and found a site with his biography.

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  18. 1- The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2- This seems ironic because in a typical commercial the product is presented in a way as in were that product is the best that is all around. But it is a contradiction, the commercial with the poem of Bukowski, Bukowski's states in the first line alone "your life is your life" with this said alone why should a individual listen to a tv commercial to but their add?
    3- The poem does reflect on his life in ways because he had a bit of a hard life while growing up and he just always had hope that something will come out good. When he became an adult he is an alcoholic and is a sex addict. Even though he deals with this life style he sees that as long as there is some light then you will be able to over come the "darkness" that is slowly consuming you.
    4- I used Google to start off and found a source able website for the poem and then I went to Wikipedia for the bio of Charles Bukowski.

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  19. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The poem itself is telling you to be yourself and express yourself the way you want to be seen. Be yourself no matter what life gives you because there's always a positive outcome when you can be true to yourself. The advertisement for Levi's is also telling you to express your style but by wearing their clothing. By incorporating the poem into the advertisement, viewers cannot help but to believe that Levi jeans is the way to be original.So it's ironic that they are telling you a strong inspirational message of being who you want but in order to be who you are, you have to buy Levi jeans?
    3. The poem does reflect the reputation of the author. He grew up in Germany and moves to the U.S., he is an obvious stranger to everything and on top of that he has an accent. He was made fun of, got involved into alcohol, and was constantly told he couldnt be a writer. There's no shame in who you really are or who you honestly want to be. You have to let go of the past, step into the light, live the present and worry about the future later.
    4. I watched the video and then searched the first line of the peom on google. After finding out the title and author, I googled Charles Bukowski and found multiple sites that described him as a writer/poet and about his early life.

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  20. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. This poem is ironic because Levi's is telling you to express yourself and be yourself, but they are tellin you that you can only do that on their brand of clothing.
    3. It does reflect the reputation of the author because he had a difficult life and is using his own feelings in this peom. His life was difficult an he dealt with abuse but he still had to live his own life.
    4. I googled some words for then peom to begin my search. Once I found the peom I looked up a biography on the author on Wikipedia.

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  21. 1) The commercial borrows Charles Bukowski's poem, The Laughing heart.
    2) The use of this poem could be consider ironic because Charles Bukowski strayed as far away from mainstream as he could. After a bit of research, I found that Bukowski actually was on the Civil Service Commission but was later investigated by the FBI because both the FBI and the Post Office took offense to his column, "Notes of a Dirty Old Man." When I read the column, it was clear to see that Bukowski was anything but mainstream and now, years after his death, his poem is now a part of a mainstream ad campaign for Levi's Jeans.
    3) This poem succeeds at reflecting the author's reputation because on the one hand, this poem talks about living freely and passionately which is reflected in much of his other work. This poem also talks about not sheltering you're individuality which also mirrors the lifestyle that Bukowski lead because he never follow "the rules" so to speak.
    4)I found the answer to the first question by looking through the comments on youtube, when I found Charles Bukowski's name, I used Google to find out whether or not the comment was right or not. I used four sites to confirm that The Laughter Heart was the poem being used in the "Go Forth" campaign. When I was done finding the author of the poem, I then did my research on Charles Bukowski by going on biographical websites and reading several columns relating to Bukowski which is how I was able to get some sense of his reputation.

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  22. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The use of this poem by a large corporation such as Levi's is ironic due to the fact that the tone of the commercial is inspiring, carefree, and is deep. Lots of "big box" business' get the rep that they're all about the money and small things relating to the people don't matter. Honestly, I watched the clip before I even read the directions above it and thought it was kind of like a music video for a poem, or possibly even a project made by some college students. Once i saw the red Levi's logo I was actually surprised by how nice of a commercial they made. The idea of the poem largely contrasts my view of a jean brand but since it was a positive reaction after watching, I now would associate Levi's with more than just corporate dealings.
    3. I believe that the poem does reflect Bukowski's life because he was an alcoholic, was addicted to sex, and was abused as a child. The poem is all about finding the light in the darkness and doing what you can with that. When you have that many problems, it's so important to look for the light because "it beats the darkness".
    4. The first line of the poem, also the repeating part, was a big hint in the name of the work. I went onto Google and typed in "your life is your life" and it showed that it was taken from "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski. Then i googled Bukowskis name and got a biography him.

    Laura Trenev
    Per.0

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  23. 1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2) The use of this poem by the corporation is ironic because the poem states "your life is your life", saying make ur decisions your decisions, chose on your own and be you as a single person. However; this commercial is trying to persuade us to use their product making our decision slightly inclined to use their product taking away from "our" decision.
    3) The poem definitely reflects the authors background of neglect and bullied life, but it also reflects his lesson he learned along the way. He tells us to be ourselves and make our life as great as it can be. These are he lessons he learned through out life while going through is life's challenges.
    4) It started with previous comments planting a seed in my head. I Googled the poem, then read it. I then Googled the author and read up on him, connecting the poem and my research it gave me number three.

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  24. 1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2) The use of this poem by the corporation is ironic because the poem states "your life is your life", saying make ur decisions your decisions, chose on your own and be you as a single person. However; this commercial is trying to persuade us to use their product making our decision slightly inclined to use their product taking away from "our" decision.
    3) The poem definitely reflects the authors background of neglect and bullied life, but it also reflects his lesson he learned along the way. He tells us to be ourselves and make our life as great as it can be. These are he lessons he learned through out life while going through is life's challenges.
    4) It started with previous comments planting a seed in my head. I Googled the poem, then read it. I then Googled the author and read up on him, connecting the poem and my research it gave me number three.

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  25. 1) Charles Bukowski's The Laughing Heart.
    2) I find it ironic that a big business like Levi's would give such an inspirational quote. This being ironic because big businesses dominated life in the early twentieth century. The quote says to: "don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission." but all businesses ever did and beat down the poor and middle class.
    3)I think the poem definitely reflects the reputation of Charles Bukowski who wrote extensively on the social lives of the poor.
    4) I looked the answer to #1 by utlizing google to write down the voice in the youtube video. I asked #3 by looking up Charles Bukowski on googling and clicking on the wikipedia page as well as bukowski.net (a biography on bukowski).

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  26. 1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2) The use of this poem may be considered ironic because a corporation's main purpose is to persuade people to buy their product. However this poem expresses the idea that you should just live your life to the fullest and to not let "things" bring you down...wouldn't that include Levi's jeans?
    3) This poem does not reflect the reputation of the author because he is often known to write stories of alcohol. Also as a child he was abused by his father and bullied by other kids. This poem is all about finding the light and to continue on living which is not remotely similar to the feelings you get when reading of abusing a child.
    4) I read a few of the comments and learned the poem's title and author. From there I researched the poem, to clarify what Bukowski said, and then I researched the man himself to learn more about his past.

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  27. 1. Charles Bukowski's The Laughing Heart
    2. The use of this poem by a corporation can be seen as ironic simply because big corporations make a living out of holding the comsumer's mind "hostage". They create ads that appeal to the consumer and then work their way up to the "buy my product because this ad was appealing to you" part of the ad. Consumers fall into the trap and go out and buy the advertised product. In this ad they use a poem that tells about fighting for freedom and maintaining hope in the process for at the end you are sure to triumph.
    3. Bukowski is one to speak from the heart. His poems reflect hardships often seen in the world as well as hardships he has had to overcome. He grew up with an abusive father and was forced to grow up after dropping out of school and leaving home. He tells about his feelings during such hardships including those that helped him overcome them. This poem tells about what it takes to triumph over problems that are prone to arise throughout the life of a person and how one must fight for freedom and move on.
    4. To find the poem and author I googled part of the poem that says "you can't beat death..." and I clicked on the first thing that came up with the title The Laughing Heart. This showed the poem as well as the author. For question 3 I simply googled Bukowski's life and clicked on Charles Bukowski Poet on the Edge. I read about his life hardships and answered the question.

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  28. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. Most of the ironic elements in the commercial have already been said but I’ll try to add something. The commercial repeats the statement “Your life is your life”. This means we should be able to wear whatever we want because of your unique personality and style. The ironic part is that corporations naturally don’t want everyone to wear clothes that they didn’t make. They want to mass produce a pair of jeans and sell those jeans to everyone. This makes everyone less unique (on the outside) because everyone wants to wear what is seen as “cool”. So our life is our own life but we are pressured by corporations to follow fashion trends in order to be “cool”.
    3. According to what I’ve read the video is pretty spot on about his entire life. First off the video shows a lot of teen lovers which reflects his many girlfriends and affairs. There are many moments of excitement then calm pauses then excitement with some violence. This reflects the ongoing conflict of having unstable income. When his works didn’t sell so well he would have moments of sorrow but then he would get excited after selling a popular novel. In the videos where the teens are happy and calm this is how he felt after finishing a book, recalling all of his work. He was an alcoholic as well which for sure brought violence in his life and the video uses the riots for this purpose. All in all the video seems to get his life right.
    4. I first just typed the video title on the internet. Looked at the websites until one of them talked about the inspiration for the video. Found the authors name and the poem he used. Then I typed his name in and just read websites talking about his life.

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  29. 1. The Laughing Heart, by Charles Bukowski
    2. The poem advocates forging one's own path in the world ("your life is your life"). The imagery used in the video further this idea, particularly at 0:46 where a man (clad in Levi's, of course) faces down riot police. Levi's is evidently pushing for rebellious, anti-authoritarian sentiments. The irony is the same as with any commercialization of a counterculture--the movie Exit Through the Gift Shop comes to mind. Use of the poem by a corporation is directly contrary to the theme they seek to impose. This is especially ironic for a clothing company, as they often rely on peer pressure and "social norms" to sell product.
    3. I think that the poem is more of a result of his reputation than it is a reflection. The poem has a heroic tone. However, his early life was "clubbed into dank submission" and was later plagued by alcoholism. It seems Bukowski writes it from the perspective of a brokenness rather than infallibility. It's as if he is saying "I made these mistakes and survived, don't follow my example". The poem by itself is inspirational, but lacks immediacy without knowledge of the poet's life. Bukowski's reputation is what makes the poem personal. It isn't a depiction of Bukowski's life, but it teaches a lesson that springs from his hardship.
    4. In all honesty, I actually took a glance at the comments before answering. It was compulsive curiosity, and I caught the title of the poem (but nothing else!) before stopping myself. However, for the sake of the exercise I put "your life is your life poem" into Google. The first link gave me the title and author. I then went to Wikipedia and used the references on the page to find the Poetry Foundation (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/charles-bukowski), which was the main source of my answers.

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  30. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  31. (Number One)
    -The Laughing Heart By Charles Bukowski
    (Number Two)
    -The irony is that throughout the commercial the author's basically saying "your life is your life," but how can we make our own decisions in life if we're being told what to choose?
    (Number Three)
    -I think it does reflect the reputation of the author because the poem reflects the freedom a person choose to have. Bukowcki's character showed someone who overcame a lot, and by speaking through his heart his words can be seen as encouraging.
    (Number Four)
    -I first read through the comments then Googled the poem written by Charles Bukowski (Source: http://milan-poetry.blogspot.com/2007/03/laughing-heart-charles-bukowski.html)
    -I eventually researched Bukowski himself and found a few biography's, picking apart the information I needed for this post.

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  32. 1) "The Laughing Heart," by Charles Bukowski.
    2) The use of this poem by Levi's is ironic because while the poem is saying to live how you want to live and not how people tell you to live, Levi's is advertising their brand and only their brand.
    3) The poem does reflect the reputation of the author because he didn't care for the restrictions that society tried to force upon him and he shows that you don't have to give in, through the lines, "Your life is your life. Don't let it be clubbed into dank submission. . . There are ways ou."
    4) I read the title before I even saw the commercial because I scrolled down too far. So after finally watching the commercial, I googled "The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski," and went to readalittlepoetry.wordpress.com. Then after typing in answers #1 and #2, I typed in "charles bukowski reputation" and came to enotes.com.

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  33. 1."The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    2.Bukowski is telling us to avoid the evil darkness and live in the good light, and don't pass on the chances to live in the light offered by the gods. Corporations often times are considered to live more in the darkness, so their use of this poem in their ad is ironic.
    3.Bukowski's life was often lived in the darkness, especially when he was dealing with his alcoholism, childhood in poverty, and his abusive father. The darkness in his poem comes from his own reputation, and he is telling us to live more in the light.
    4.To find the name of the poem i googled the first line and found a website with many of Bukowski's works.To learn more about Bukowski to answer number three i read part of his bio from wikipedia.

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  34. #1: "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    #2: I believe this poem can be seen as ironic due to the fact that the Levi's company is trying to in a manipulative way to get us to buy their products. The poem however talks about liberty and self expression/enjoyment. The commercial tells us that the way to be happy is buying their jeans and that is that way. That is what I think makes is very Ironic.
    #3: I think this poem represents Bukowski very well. Moving here from Germany and living a depressing life due to how different he was made his mind set change completely then he might have been before. However going through all the bad he did I believe that it made him in a way realize you have to live day by day and stop caring about the future or about others who only try to ruin your life.
    #4: After researching his timeline page bukowski.net and reading some more of his works as well as part of his biography in Wikipedia I came to know of this man. Also of all he has gone through and pulling those pieces together I could see where he got his inspirations and ideas for his great pieces of writing he made.

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  35. 1)"The Laughing Heart," by Charles Bukowski.
    2)So I looked the The Bio of Mr. Bukowski which was very interesting. I was searching for something to hit the commercial with a declaration of irony not previously mentioned. I saw a few possibilities. Nothing i was as right. but the very last sentence of the site I visited is just too perfect. "..... fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?" -Factotum, 1975
    website:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001977/bio

    Any commercial, clothing company, advertisements are expecting just this. For us to run to them blindly, make them money, do the gods wait to delight
    in us now because they are rich? Who's to say.

    3) i do feel this poem does reflect the reputation of the author because of the struggling childhood he lived sometimes thinking there was no way out, even consider suicide, but always found his way back.

    4) I first Googled the first few lines of the poem, Name of author and poem cam up right away. I then looked up his Bio ( http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001977/bio )
    Very interesting!

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  36. 1) The Laughing Heart, By: Charles Bukowski
    2) It is quite ironic that Levi's used this as a campaign ad, as they are promoting customers to buy their clothing, yet saying not to "be clubbed into dark submission," and "your life is your life." If you want to promote freedom and independence, don't push your product down the customer's throats.
    3) The poem accurately portrays Bukowski's outlook on life, as he didn't have the most comfortable life growing up. At 20 years old, his father tossed he and his literary works out of his home. Bukowski struggled to find himself, but clearly outlines the importance that freedom and second chances could have turned his life around.
    4) To find the poem's identity, I typed "poem used in Levi's commercial" into google and clicked on the first site. To find info about Bukowski, I googled, "Charles Bukowski's life", and I clicked on Bukowski.net/timeline. Here I looked at the hardships he faced that had an effect on the way he portrayed life in the poem.

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  37. Better late than never, right?

    1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. The corporations use of this poem might be perceived as ironic because the poem itself is saying to not to let the world beat you up. My take on that is by not obeying societies rules. I see that almost as reverse psychology, for lack of better terms. "These people don't let life beat them up and they wear Levi's!"
    3. I believe the poem itself is a reflection on Mr. Bukowski, however I don't think the commercial is an appropriate representative. I'm sure there are rights and large sums of money that went along with the commercial but I don't think that it's truly something that Bukowski would want be to do by "joining the cool kids!"
    4. I typed the first few words that I caught from the commercial into google. This video with subtitles then popped up. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnNblizjuEk ) Being able to make out more of the words I typed more into google. The poem name and author popped up on almost every link. I then typed in the poem name and author and found the words to be the same as those from the commercial. To answer the third question I typed in Charles Bukowski biography and read a little about him. Not only was I intrigued but I was able to answer the third question with the insight on his life.

    -Lacey Mougeotte

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  38. 1)"The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    2)When the poem said "your life is your life", i translated it as saying it is our lives to live and we shouldn't be influenced by others. While the commercial is ironically telling us to not be influenced and be unique while trying to influence us to buy their jeans.
    3)The poem does reflect the reputation of the author. Bukowski had a really rough life growing up and lived in darkness and even thought of cuicide. He was forced to overcome his difficulties in life. In the peom he says "it may not be much light but it beats the darkness" saying that there is always hope in life. He is trying to inspire us to keep going in rough times nomatter what we are going through.
    4)First, i watched the video posted and I then found the poem online by typing the starting line "your life is your life" to google. It brought me to the website - http://milan-poetry.blogspot.com/2007/03/laughing-heart-charles-bukowski.html
    I then typed in "the life of Charles Bukowski" to google. It led me to the wesite - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001977/bio where i read up on his life.

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  39. 1) This Commercial borrows from The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2)The poem is ironic in that a big shot corporation is trying to tell us that we can choose our own lives and do what we want to but, in a way, showing us images of their product. This gives us messages, maybe not right away, to buy jeans because they let us do what we want, when we want to.
    3)The poem reflects the lesson the author learned during his life. It reflects his years being bullied and struggling, the time when his father through him out of the house, and his life from then on after. It is hard earned lesson put into a poem.
    4)I got my information from Wikipedia and from http://goforth.wikibruce.com/Ad_Campaign. I scanned the pages for information about the author and found out about his life.

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  40. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. It's Ironic that the goal of this campaign is to get more people to buy Levi's, yet the poem they used (and some of the video clips give you the feeling) motivates us to be our own person and make our own choices in life. because: "your life is your life"
    3. The poem, in my opinion, reflects his own thoughts on his reputation. "don't let it be clubbed into dark submission" reminds me of his father throwing his papers on the front lawn. "there are ways out" and "the gods will offer you chances" relates to his college drop-out, living in a hotel, time in jail, and being twice divorced.
    4. I searched "your Life is Your Life poem" and found- http://milan-poetry.blogspot.com/2007/03/laughing-heart-charles-bukowski.html
    Then I typed in "Charles Bukowski's life" and found-http://bukowski.net/timeline/ and read a bit on him.

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  41. 1. The poem title is "The Laughing Heart" written by Charles Bukowski.

    2. The poem being used in a Levi's commercial is ironic because the associations I have with Levi's is almost entirely opposite the theme of the poem. The opening line of the poem "your life is YOUR life" suggests a theme of individuality. In the poem the line "don't let [your life] be clubbed into dank submission" encourages the reader to fight against conformity. Levi jeans are a standard American wardrobe staple. They practically scream conformity. Since the Levi's jeans were created for gold miner's in the California gold rush they have become an iconic symbol. (http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventors/a/Levi_Strauss.htm) I would be shocked if tomorrow in class there was less than five students clad in some sort of denim or Levi related product. The lines in the poem encourage the consumer to associate Levi jeans with the freedom of individuality. The poem seems to promise the buyer that Levi's will change your life from light to dark and that the god's will delight in you once you wear Levi's. This marketing technique is most likely being used because recent fashion styles have been about expressing individuality and denim is losing popularity.

    3. The author's reputation seems to be that of a German-American boy who was born into a poor family and grew up to be an alcoholic and a famous writer. This poem's theme of your individual spirit conquering darkness might be from the author's personal struggles throughout his life. This poem could be what he thought to keep himself motivated in his life.

    4. I found the name of the poem by googling the Levi's commercial and looking at what my classmates had put to be sure I had the right poem since I could not get the linked video to play. Then I googled Charles Bukowski and read the top websites and the google biography on him. the sites I used for this assignment are linked at the bottom of this post.




    http://bukowski.net/

    http://milan-poetry.blogspot.com/2007/03/laughing-heart-charles-bukowski.html

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski

    http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventors/a/Levi_Strauss.htm

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  42. Ok here is my assignment :)

    --- (Levi's "Go Forth" commercial)

    1.) Levi's commercial "Now is your time" is based on the poem “The Laughing Heart”, written by Charles Bukowski. Charles was born 1920 - 1994, he was a German man focused on the poor society and the background of economic, social, and cultural subjects in that of the American people.

    (Here is the original poem by Charles : )



    your life is your life

    don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

    be on the watch.

    there are ways out.

    there is a light somewhere.

    it may not be much light but

    it beats the darkness.

    be on the watch.

    the gods will offer you chances.

    know them.

    take them.

    you can’t beat death but

    you can beat death in life, sometimes.

    and the more often you learn to do it,

    the more light there will be.

    your life is your life.

    know it while you have it.

    you are marvelous

    the gods wait to delight

    in you.

    2.) I believe this poem is ironic due to the fact that the whole commercial is based on "you". It "your" time, "your" life, and its "your" freedom. But what truly makes it this way is that it is subliminally saying to buy "their" product, focus on "their" commercial, and get caught into "their" scheme. Then again, that is propaganda for you.

    (Charles , himself)

    3.) The author was a man that focused on the poor parts of American life. His father was an American soldier, and his mother was German. He was a contemporary poetry and prose writer. Who also lived in LA for 50 years of his life.So yes I believe his poem represents him. With his culturally different background he finds more passion for life. Yet not just the great times, the painful times as well. He really describes how through all this, how he found himself. As if to give you guide lines through his eyes. Honestly though I don't believe this commercial did justice to this man's art. And it is more beautiful written in plain ink.

    4.) I found the answer to number one by putting the line "Go forth Levi's poem" into Google and up popped a sight that said Levi's Go Forth : The Inspiration room. Which under that said " A laughing heart poem" in tinier letters. Then after following this link http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/levis-go-forth-with-legacy/ ... I wanted to find out a bit more about Charles before I even read number 3. So I went back to Google, typed in his name in the search engine, and went to Wikipedia at this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski .... And finally I got to number 3. Where I wanted to know much more, so I typed in Charles's name again in Google, in which Google recommended me to CharlesBukowski.com , thus following it and leading me to this link http://www.charlesbukowski.20m.com/home.html .... which gives you his bio , bibliography, poems, photos, more links, guest book, and even a message board. But I guess every one is a critic :) .... THE END

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  43. Where it says Levis commercial, and Charles himself. That is because this was originally written on my blog were it features the video and a picture of charles. So please ignore those two things thankyou .

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  44. 1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2)The poem is ironic because it says "don't be clubbed into rank submission or beaten down into surrender " yet it is telling us to buy Levis jeans. The commercial pursuades us to buy the jeans yet the poem says to think for yourself and be free.
    3) I believe the poem reflects Bukowski's reputation. Bukowski's life was presented with overwhelming obstacles and his poem talks about funding the light and hope.
    4) I googled "Levis commercial poem" and then I googled "Charles Bukowski"

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  45. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  46. 1.The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2.This poem could be considered ironic by a corporation because the poem directly says,"your life is your life." Meaning you can make whatever choices you would like. Strange thing about that is the commerical is trying to sell you jeans which is not giving you a chance to make your own choices. They are basicly saying here buy these jeans without even thinking about what you want. To put it simply they want your business and are just selling you the product.
    3.I do believe strongly that the poem reflects the author's repuation. The reason I say that is beacuse he had a very rough life. As time went by though he developed this way of thinking that you can make life what you want of it. He tells his readers that life may be diffult but "you are marvelous", as he puts it. He also says,"there are ways out". Which to me is a very powerful statement that can keep people from being discouraged. His poem defintely reflects him.
    4.It took me a few trys to find what I wanted but at last I googled Levi's Go Forth 2011 and found the website called The Inspriation Room. It said the commerical featured"The Laughing Heart"by Charles Bukowski. Then it provided that lyrics to the whole poem. I went back to the video to make sure the words matched up and to find out about Charles Bukowski I just used Wikipedia.

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  47. Is "natch" a thing? Kids these days...

    Poetry Assignment #1 by Beka Castillo
    1. The poem is called The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski. Apparently, it’s very controversial.
    2.The use of ANY poem by a corporation is ironic, first of all. Poetry is such an intimate, almost spiritual art. Corporations are notoriously soulless conglomerations. The fact that a jean company is using both a popular poem and footage of the youth riots to appeal to a young audience is laughable because the group that is being targeted is probably the least likely to “conform” or however its put nowadays.
    3. Judging by the website in his honor, this man was either brilliant or completely insane. Likewise, I’m still deciding whether I believe his poem was brilliant or complete insane nonsense. So yes, I’d say this sums him up nicely.
    4. What I ended up doing was going on the Google and typing in “Levi’s Go Forth commercial” and scrolled until I saw Walt Whitman’s name. I then found myself on this website (http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/levis-go-forth-in-america) which named the poem as the “America” poem by Walt Whitman. I then found this, (http://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/1891/poems/318) but I was pretty sure this wasn’t the poem. So then to Youtube comments! And BINGO Youtube user Hogochogo posted something snarky about how this was a poem by Charles Bukowski. Not Walt Whitman at all! And I found the poem posted on some hipster’s blog. (http://milan-poetry.blogspot.com/2007/03/laughing-heart-charles-bukowski.html) This identified the poems title as The Laughing Heart. I then confirmed this with another Google searches which led me to other blogs, and videos of poetry readings. This was indeed the poem I was searching for.
    I then Googled the poet and came across (http://bukowski.net/) and his fans are clearly awesome people. The introduction to the website was very witty, and not what I was expecting from a deceased (yes, he is dead) poet.

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  48. 1)The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2)The way they used this commercial is ironic. The first line of the poem says "Your life is your life" "don't let it be clubbed into dank submission" but yet this levi commercial gets you into believing that for you buy these jeans it's going to make you even better. But this is really not leading you to make a choice, so by buying these jeans it will making you more independent?
    3)This poem does reflect on the author's reputation. It reflects on his past the way he was bullied and neglected throughout his lfe. The poem says you can be whatever you want to be and therefore don't let anyone take that dream of yours to be successful.
    4)First I went to google and typed the first line of the poem. Then I clicked on the first site that it gave me and it gave me the title of the poem. Just to make sure it was the right poem i played the video and read along with the poem they gave me. As I went more into it I looked up Charles Bukowski in wikipedia to learn more about him.

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  49. 1)The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2)The use of this poem in this commercial is ironic because Levis is trying to influence our lives. "Your life is your life, don't let it be clubbed into dank submission" The poem is trying to tell us to take control of our life and here we are giving into an advertisement.
    3)The author speaks of hard times we face and a light that we find along the way. He directly relates to these words because he himself had gone through much abuse in his past and also found this light.
    4)Aside from hearing all of last years students recite this poem and name who it was by, I checked out the sources my good friend Sarah Gutierrez used and followed suit :)

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  50. 1) "The Laughing Heart" By Charles Bukowski
    2) I find the use of the poem by big corporations ironic because the poem is saying not to be suppressed and to try to be yourself whereas the goal of most large corporations, especially clothing ones like Levi's, is to have everyone to be consumers of their product, essentially making all of us indistinguishable from one another when it comes to the clothing we wear.
    3) I believe that the authors reputation is clearly a part of this poem because he talks about hard times and he was bullied and abused in his life but there is always hope in the future and he believes that and shows it in this poem.
    4) I used Google and typed in a part of the poem and found that it was called "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski, I then checked several other sites on the results page to confirm that I was right. For number three, I once again used Google and typed in Charles Bukowski and read about his life on Wikipedia as well as poemhunter.com and learned all I needed to know to make an accurate response to number three.

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  51. 1."The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski

    2.In our materialistic motivated society its ironic that a large conglomerate corporation would utilize a poem emphasizing your freedom, expressing "just be yourself" whilst said corporation essentially claims that you are not a valued, a real and "cool" individual if you are not using/purchasing there products.

    3. Yes, from my internet based research I surmise that this particular poem contemplates on Bukowski's frequent pursuits of capturing the actuality, reality of the common citizen. Bukowski emphasizing the need for individuals to pride themselves on just that, themselves.

    4. I utilized a simple search engine (Google) and read the biography presented at http://www.poemhunter.com/charles-bukowski/ as well as http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/394. Like any literary analysis i then synthesized the information, forming my own personal perspicacity on the given prompts, to which i then answered.

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  52. 1. This commercial borrows from Charles Bukowski's poem, "The Laughing Heart."
    2. It is ironic because it says right in the beginning, "Don't let [your life] be clubbed into dank submission." I find that all advertisements that center themselves around individuality, living your own life for yourself, and breaking from submission ironic and absolutely absurd to the point of hilarity. So here it is, a poem about finding your own way out of darkness and finding the light, hope; a poem about not bowing to others so you may not be thrust into the lifeless, pith-black place under another man's will. Except, instead of being used in a meaningful context, we are hearing it recited on a blue jeans commercial. The most popular denim brand in the world is using it to tout their trousers--a poem about taking delight in your own life is being used in commercial brainwashing!The more pants I buy from Levi's, the more light I shall find in my life?
    3. Yes, the poem does reflect Bukowski's reputation, because he had experienced the darkness he spoke of. Not only did he experience it in the abuse he endured as a child, and in the abuse he put himself through as a an adult (his alcoholism and other addictions), but he eventually became known as the "laureate of American lowlife" (Time Magazine) because of his portraits of the common American and his/her problems.
    4. First of all, I went to the almighty Google and searched the commercial; this gave me the name of the poem and its author. I promptly received a barrage of insults and minor threats from my brother who was playing a video game across the hall. I ignored him and next went on to search the full poem itself, which I found at milan-poetry.blogspot.com. Not surprisingly, my next search was the author himself. I found detailed information on his life and his works at poemhunter.com.

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  53. 1."The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    2. This commercial can be considered ironic because the poem emphasizes on freedom, it expresses just be yourself. The goal of most large corporations is to make you a consumer. The commercial is trying to tell us to take control of our life's, but we are giving into an advertisement that wants us to buy there jeans.
    3.Yes, the poem does reflect the life of Charles Bukowski. He had experienced the darkness of which he speaks of through his abuse as a child and the abuse he put himself through as an adult using alcohol. He speaks of trying to find the light and hope which he need to heal his wounds.
    4. I started off with Google searching the authors name and came up with these websites http://www.poemhunter.com/charles-bukowski/ as well as http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/394.

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  54. 1. "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    2. Its Ironic because the poem is about being your self and the idea of a commercial is to get people to do something. Irony...
    3. Yes the poem reflects his life. He often discusses darkness. I guess i would say its the period in his life where he turned to alcohol after struggling with his writing.
    4. I googled the first few lines of the poem, and then succeeded

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  55. 1.The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2.The poem is ironic because when it says "...your life is your life" it doesn't mean you should follow everyone else into getting some pair of pants that everyone wears and looks the same.
    3.Yes this poem reflects the authors reputation because he is talking about his life and the troubles he went through but to always keep your head up.
    4.I first got the title and author from other comments and then used Wikipedia to look up how Charles Bukowski life was.

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  56. 1. "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    2. This is considered ironic by how the poem is presented. It's not presented by someone who is struggling in the dark to find the light, nor is it presented by someone making an inner change within themselves. It is presented by a large corporation trying to convince their consumers to buy their brand of jeans. Stereotypically, large corprorations are known for doing this, which presents the irony when they speak of a poem that shows us to express ourselves with our freedom. So, Levi, how much of the truth from the poem are you portraying through your advertisement?
    3. There are many different forms of abuse. Bukowski happened to have endured abuse through his childhood. From that came the result of abusing his future with alcohol as a grown man. So the poem does reflect off of the poet's life through his adversities and abusive past that remodeled him into what he was, someone who had a beautiful perspective on life. But he's not just talking about himself. He's reaching out to those who are also struggling and allowing hope to enter their system; he's telling them to find their light.
    4. Google tends to be very resourceful. I looked up the Levi commerical, which gave me the name of the author and name of the poem. I googled his biography and I gathered a lot of information on him on imdb.com. I wanted to try anything BUT wikipedia for once.

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  57. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. It might be considered ironic because it's telling us what to do. They're getting us to make the decision to buy their product, but yet they're telling us to make our own decisions. "your life is your life." This is said twice in the poem, but at the same time they're trying to tell us what to choose.
    3. I think it reflects the reputation of the author because he had a hard life growing up. The poem speaks of trying to look on the bright side of things and to stay strong which relates to how his life must have been. I'm sure since he was abused and experienced miserable times he had to learn to find the ways out and search for his own light.
    4. I found the information by first typing in your life is your life into google then I picked the first one and it showed the poem with the author. Then I googled the author, Charles Bukowski, and read up on him.

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  58. 1. "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski.
    2. The use of this poem by Levi's is ironic because the poem's message is to be yourself. "Your life is your life, don't let it be clubbed into dark submission... You are marvelous, the gods wait to delight in you." A big brand name corporation like Levi's wants you to submit to their products, and only their products. In reality, they don't want you to be yourself, they want you to be yourself on their terms only, which cancels out to you being what they want.
    3. The poem does reflect a bit on Bukowski. There had been multiple times were people and events tried to "club him into submission," like his abusive father, his trouble with school and his peers, and his severe alcoholism. Bukowski is writing about how to take control of your life, despite the obstacles coming at you.
    4. I had seen the title and author while scrolling down. I then proceeded to google Charles Bukowski and visited sites discussing his life. My aunt, who happened to call while I was typing this up, talked a little about him with me as well, since she's a very knowledgeable when it comes to authors and their works.

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  59. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. In the poem there is a bit of mystery, because of the openness of each line's meaning. "Be on the watch"... For what a new pair of pants, specifically Levi's? Seems to be very silly if you look at the commercial's target audience. "The gods will offer you changes." What gods do you mean, or is the powerful Levi corporation the 'gods' who are putting pants on sale for $10 each. Or the Levi corporation might be the darkness (the ironic part), which is referred to several times as being beaten by the light and life.
    3. This poem might as well be the motto of Mr. Bukowski's life. "Your life is your life...", maybe this is based on his years of wandering the U.S. in 1942 or that he sent letters due to his rejection of induction over his "personal philosophy". He is tested for service and found incompetent due to physical and physiological evaluation. Seeming like this poem was his mantra to himself "You are marvelous. The gods wait to delight in you.".
    4. I found the poem by typing in some words to Google and once I found out who the author was... I search who Charles Bukowski was! The powers of Google are almost scary.

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  60. 1) The Laughing Heart - Charles Bukowski
    2) Levi's using this is ironic because they are telling us to be unique yet they mass produce jeans in hope that we only buy their product.
    3) The author Charles Bukowski went through many struggles in his life as he expresses in this poem. A drunk, divorced, sex addict was stuck in the darkness but still did everything to keep motivation.
    4) To be honest i found #1 by looking at everyone's blog above me. #3 I researched Charles Bukowski and read about his life.

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  61. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. I find this poem ironic because they are saying there is a way out and that the gods have more in store for you. Meaning that there is a better life then giving into corporations? Your life is your life, why pay for over priced jeans. Ironic being they actually want you to buy them.
    3. Charles Bukowski an interesting person, he seems to do whatever pleases him, he writes for himself and not to please others. (maybe why his poem books are very popular to steal?) He knows he is not the greatest thing to grace this earth, yet knows he is great at what he does. Bukowski didn't seem to be pleased with doing just one thing and knew there was more to life and wanted to find out what it was. That is a great way to think about life. His poem does reflect him.
    4. To find the actual poem I searched "your life is your life" found that it was Bukowski then google searched "Charles Bukowski famous poem." Wikipedia is always the best way to go!

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  62. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski.
    2. The use of this poem is ironic because Levi Company is telling you to be yourself and not do what others say or do, yet they're want you to buy THEIR product.
    3. Yes, the poem does reflect Bukowski's life. Charles Bukowski overcame hardships in his life but they led him to learn to take control and be his own person.
    4. Kelli told me the name of the poem and i read some of the comments but I Binged it to be positive.

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  63. Valerie Gonzalez-Per. 3
    1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski.
    2) I find the use of this poem by Levi to be ironic because the poem advises one to not be "clubbed into dank submission" and like all advertisements, Levi is making you submit into buying their product with this commercial. What I got out of this commercial is "If you buy these Jeans you will live the rebel, crazy, cool life" which apparently applies to all teenagers everywhere. The poem repeatedly says "your life is your life", and "be on the watch". I take this to mean be on the watch for powers trying to control your life which are what big corporations do to us. We might not be paying attention to an ad but our subconscious records and picks this information up and although we don't give it that much credit, our sub-conscience is a powerful thing. One minute this commercial comes on and next thing you know your standing is a Levis store trying on a pair of jeans.
    3) Charles Bukowski was a crazy but brilliant man, which makes sense because crazy and brilliant seem to go hand in hand. He did not believe or practice a religion, he was an alcoholic and he did what he pleased. In a sense the poem does reflect the reputation of the author in that he always says "gods" instead of "God" and the fact that he lived his life his way and didn't submit to people, rules, or expectations. Essentially, this poem reflects his reputation perfectly except his alcoholism. He submitted to alcohol and that is a substance that, in my opinion controlled his life.
    4) My research consisted of first, watching the commercial, then googling the first phrase of the poem "Your life is your life" and there it was. For the background information I looked on Wikipedia and then searched for some quotes from him. These summed up his character very nicely!

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    Replies
    1. Quotes
      http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/13275.Charles_Bukowski

      Information
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski

      Delete
  64. 1- The Laughing Heart By Charles Bukowski
    2- The cooperation of the poem and the commercial as a whole presents irony in that the poem is essentially saying to live life the way one desires; however, as a major jeans company, Levi's is clubbing one into submission.
    3- The poem heavily reflects the author because as an early teen, Bukowski started drinking and later he was stuck by drugs and sex addiction. Personally that sounds exactly like his poem because he states, "your life is your life. dont let it be clubbed into dank submission." To me that offers every perspective on the topic as possible, including rebellious behavior. He was also known to have escaped the military draft from Germany, thus living his life his way.
    4- I found the title of the poem by searching "dank submission" into the Google search. As for the biography of Charles Bukowski, I found a bio of him in the same Google search as I used to find the title.

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  65. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2. It is ironic since the poem flat out tells the audience not to follow trends or popular ideals but to follow your own path and live your own life while corporations want people to follow the current trends and to buy their product.
    3. Yes the poem does reflect the author. Bukowski fell into alcoholism in his early life and later into fell into a depression later in life. Bukowski is warning others off of the path he took when he let himself be "clubbed into dank submission". Also Bukowski was know for following his own path and that is reflected in the words "your life is your life".
    4. Really I googled the first line of the poem "Your life is your life" and immediately it gave me the poem along with several different bio of the author.

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  66. 1) the laughing heart by charles bukowski
    2.) I find it ironic because the poem wants you to be independent and always be positive but yet Levi's just wants you to be their jeans. They also oppose all other brands.
    3) this poem directly reflects mr.bukowski because as a youngster his father abused him. Later in life he became an alcoholic. However he has over come all obstacles holding him down because he always saw the light.
    4) First, I looked up "Levi's go forth" commercial on google. Then I found a link named the inspiration room and I found out the Charles Bukowski. Then I researched Charles Bukowski and read a biography on Imbd.com

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  67. 1. "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski.
    2.The usage of this poem may be considered ironic in the sense that corporations have been created for one purpose only, to make money. And how they make that money is irrelevant. Whether it be through lying, manipulation or hypnosis, it doesn't matter. However, that would seem to contradict the second line "don't let it be clubbed into dank submission." or the sixteenth line "your life is your life." As evidenced by Google's and Facebook's data hiving, if a company can't make you a puppet, then they will at least try to understand you and manipulate you.
    3. In a sense, this poem does reflect on Bukowski in that, throughout his life, he was a heavy drinker and a man who had growned disillusioned with writing for a brief period, most notably because publishers refused to publish his works. However, he eventually moved on, hence "The gods will offer you chances. Know them. Take them." Essentially, he believed he had "beat the darkness", though whether he actually had or not is up for debate.
    4. On Google Chrome, I typed in "Levi's 2011" and on forbes.com, the author mentions that the poem is "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski. I then searched "The Laughing Heart" and went on and compared the lines to the commercial, and bingo! we have a match. I then went on wikipedia and resarched Charles Bukowski.

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  68. 1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski.

    2) The irony is in the diction and video of this poem. The point of commercials is to allow companies to show the public why it's necessary for them to invest in their various products. To make their point valid, companies show the public exactly why they need to buy their products and how investing in them would improve their quality of life. Commercials impose the idea that one can only reach happiness if they buy certain products. However, this isn't the case with this Levi's commercial. The narrator clearly states, "You are marvelous, the Gods wait to delight in you." Well, if I'm so marvelous the way I am, I obviously don't need to purchase a pair of Levi's jeans to improve my appearance. Not only that, commercials usually show happy people enjoying their wonderful lives, while this comercial does the opposite in a way. The people in this commercial look depressed and less than delighted in life. For example, the man rolling down the body of water looked less than happy to have a bought a pair of Levi jeans.

    3) This poem certainly reflects Bukowski's perspective on life as well as his repuatation. After being arrested, battling near- death illnesses, and having a rough up-bringing, Bukowski learned to see that, "There is light somewhere." After surviving treatment for a fatally-bleeding ulcer, Bukowski knew that, "You can beat death in life, sometimes." Well, ovbiously he did exactly that. All of his experiences in life such as alcoholism and an addiction to sex made Charles Bukowski who is today, which is reflected in the content of his literary work.

    4) I found the answer to number one by googling, "Who wrote the poem in the Levis 2011 'Go Forth' commercial?" From here the search engine took me too, "The Levi's Go Forth with Legacy- The Inspiration Room", which was my first option on the page. I found my answer to number three by googling, "The life of Charles Bukowski", which took me to a biography of his life on PoemHunter.com.

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  69. 1. "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    2. The usage of this poem in the commercial is ironic because they are telling you not to follow what others say, yet they are persuading you into buying there brand of jeans.
    3. The poem definitely reflects Bukowski as a writer because he went through some dark times before he was a famous writer and he is able to show us that "there is a light somewhere." He gives you hope and something to look forward to.
    4. To answer number 3, I googled Charles Bukowski and was able to read up on his life and for number 4 i googled the commercial and learned what the poem was the called.

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  70. 1."The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    2. This poem used by the corporation can be consider ironic for a couple of reasons. To begin with the poem talks about freedom. For example it says " your life is your life", this says that you make your own choices, but at the same time the ad is selling the product. In the ad they are trying to sell you the jeans. They are teling you that you need to buy the jeans because they are the best. So then when youre about to buy jeans, you are undecide to buy this one or other ones, now youre doubting your opinion on which ones to get. They are brain washing you.
    3. The poem reflects the reputation of the author. In the poem the talks about freedom. The author grew around trouble makers, so then he on his own decide to drop out of high dchool. This shows the kind of freedom he had. Another example would be when he dedided to leave his parents house. This shows how free and indepent he was. In the poem he says " the gods will offer you chances, know them, take them", this was exactly what he did.
    4. I founded the answers to question one and three on goggle. I typed the first line of the poem on google and then it gave me choices and i chosed the poem. I also did some research on his personal life and i read about his childhood etc. His childhood relate to the poem in some way.

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  71. #1 "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski
    #2 It's ironic because Levis is using a poem about being independent to get you to follow along and purchase their brand.
    #3 This poem definitely reflects a life of a man who had a very rough time in his life, which Bukowski did.
    #4 Honestly i got #1 from the comments above, #2 from "The Laughing Heart" and the video, and #3 from Wikipedia and "The Laughing Heart".

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  72. #1 "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski.`
    #2 the commercial is ironic because its funny how a corporation is saying "your life is your life don't let anyone or anything hold you be independent" but levies is a popular brand that almost everyone one wears there for the independent part of that is removed.
    #3the poem reflects the reputation of the author because he is speaking from personal experiences and it can be alluded to constantly thought the poem.
    #4 typed "your life is your life" in to Google search bar then clicked on this website "http://milan-poetry.blogspot.com/2007/03/laughing-heart-charles-bukowski.html" then assumed Charles Bukowski must be the author so then I typed in his name in and wound up here "http://bukowski.net/database/index.php" read up on him and took the rest of my answer out of context from the poem.

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  73. 1. Laughing heart by Charles 

    2. Commercials are usually made to attract people  to buy the product. This commercial is a little bit ironic because in the poem they use in the commercial it says " your life is your life" meaning that you make your own choices and decisions in life because it will only affect you in the long run. The commercial is saying  to make  your own decisions in life but also to buy the jeans. By telling you to buy them then you aren't making your own choices. 

    3. The poem does reflect the life of Charles Bukowski. He had a rough life dealing with alcohol, gambling, and the constant abuse. The poem talks about his high and lows in life .

    4. I looked up numbers 1 and 3 on google, which helped me on number 2. 

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  74. 1. This Levis commercial borrows the lyrics from "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski.
    2. The use of this poem in a commercial could be considered ironic as the lyrics encourage you take responsibility for your life without being "clubbed into dank submission" by the darkness of life's evils. Commercials have the main purpose of influencing you to purchase a product by trying to appeal to your emotional and occasionally physical needs. This commercial appears to provide a "honest" warning that somethings can't be trusted in the hope that you will ironically "trust" its endorsement of the product.
    3. The author, Charles Bukowski is reputed to have repeatedly abused alcohol and engaged in promiscuous and dangerous behavior. His bad actor reputation gained him ironically a sort of trustworthiness. He related to the populous with his "no better than anyone else" attitude and his apparent lack of aspiring to overachieve. The poem does reflect this reputation and this ironic "trust" is exactly what the commercial is trying to tap into to sell its product.
    4. To answer question 1, I "googled" the first few lyrics and found the author and title on a post in "the Inspiration Room" which also related it to the Levis commercial. I then googled the author and read the biography on the Poetry Foundation.org.

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  75. 1. the laughing heart by charles bukowski
    2. I found the use of this poem in the commercial ironic because the poem tells you that "your life is your life" to live it free and not under others, which is funny because at the same time their advertising to you to just do it while wearing levi jeans like everyone else does. Which doesn't seem really free and independent to me if your following a companies command
    3. it does sort of reflect the author Charles Bukowski's reputation as he was an alcoholic and abused as child, who in his poem expressed his Ill live how i want not how you want attitude
    4. well honestly i looked at everyone elses comments and found the author and title then typed "charles Bukowski Biography in google and found a biography at poetry foundation.org

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  76. 1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski

    2) The use of this poem could be considered ironic because they used the poem with giving credit to the author. They are basically passing it off as their own to anyone who doesn't know who Charles Bukowski is. This is ironic and hypocritical because if Levi's were to be in the other position, for example if a person was wearing their jeans and passed them off as their own rather than saying "oh, these are Levi's," Levi's would most likely be upset if they found out.

    3) The poem is an accurate reflection of the author because he did lead a hard life by being a victim of bullying, but he eventually push through and found that his life was his life. And that he was marvelous.

    4) To find the answer to number one, I'm going to be honest and say that i looked through about 20 of the comments and noticed that they all had the same exact answer so I figured that that was the right answer. I then googled the poem and found that it did indeed match the poem in the commercial. To find the answer to number three I Googled Charles Bukowski and read his biography on Wikipedia.

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  77. 1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski

    2) The commercial was in fact ironic due to the fact that large companies such as Levi's actually push people further into the darkness. They think of people as a unit, rather than the individual. In the essence of business, your life is not your life.

    3) Yes, the poem is accurate of his life. He had to face very challenging issues throughout his life including alcohol abuse and gambling, but he was able to find the light, and through this poem he was able to share such light.

    4) The answer to number one was found first by looking at the comments, then confirming going to google and searching the poem and his name. The second was found through google then progressing to PoetryFoundation.com to find the information on his biography.

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  78. 1. The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2.The use of this poem by a corporation may be considered ironic because some people feel that large businesses are the darkness. For a small local business owner, a large corporation like this over shadows them and makes them inferior. Also the use of this poem and its lines of " your life is your life" could be ironic in that large corporation in a sense have taken over the lives of the people by controlling most of the wealth and goods.
    3. The poem does reflect the authors reputation because he has learned from experience that there is a way out of the darkness if you stay on the watch.
    4. I typed in the first line of the poem to Google.com. it brought me to a wikipedia page with the Author, the poem, and information about the author.

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  79. 1) The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski
    2) Levis using this poem could be found ironic because the poem states that "your life is your life", but corporations such as Levi's think of people only as consumers, looking to conform them to Levi wearing people. They want everyone to be the same, and not live their own life.
    3) This poem is reflective of Bukowski's life, because he went through very hard times and like the poem says, "There are ways out."
    4)I found the answer for #1 by looking at the comments, then I binged the name of the poem, which took me to poetryfoundation.com, where I got the answers for #2 and #3.

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  80. 1. In this Levi Commercial "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski was borrowed without credit.
    2. The use of this poem by a corporation like Levi's could be considered ironic because Levi's goals and what the author of the poem had in mind are opposites.The poem stresses the freedom of choice, to decide what you want for yourself. Whereas the Levi commercial producers had one thing in mind to get you to believe you want their product, basically choose for you.
    3. The poem definitely reflects the reputation of the author. In fact many times through out the piece the authors past shows through. Bukowcki before his writing career struggled through life mentally with emotions and physically, thats why this poem is so important to him it teaches others that things will turn out alright. That they have all the power they need within them. "Your life is your life. Don't let it be clubbed into dank submission"
    4. I found the answers for #1 and #3 by reading what others had responded and searching the poem on google along with the author.

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  81. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  82. KisselAugust 11, 2016 at 9:38 PM
    1.) This commercial copies Bukowski's poem, "The Laughing Heart", without credit.

    2.) The use of this poem by a corporation product like Levi's, may be ironic since Levi's is a type of brand that makes jeans. On the otherhand, the poem had sent a message on living your life the way you want. Its the complete opposite of a brand and a poem. It may also be ironic because Levi's was trying to sound persuasive for the viewers to buy their product throughout an inspirational poem.

    3.) Yes, the poem does reflect the reputation of Bukowski. It reflects on his reputation because in the commercial it had contained imagery such as sex and alcohol. Bukowski himself had a routine such as sex, alcohol abuse and violence. His style as a writer had included all of that type of things. It also reflects on his reputation since Bukowski had struggled with rough obstacles growing up, which is why his poem, "The Laughing Heart", was so positive on the way one can act in life.

    4.) For my responses on questions 1 and 3, I found my answers through google. On the 1st question I searched up some parts of the poem lyrics on the search tab, which lead me to Bukowski's poem. Then on the 3rd question I had searched up Bukowski's background and there was a website called 'Poetry Foundation', and it had Bukowski's routine that he had as a writer and also the things he had been through growing up.

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  83. #1: This copies "The Laughing Heart" by Charles Bukowski without any credit.
    #2: I think What makes the use of this poem by a corporation ironic is that the poem is saying your life is your life that u can control it, yet here comes this company trying to convince you to buy their jeans.
    #3: Well, sort of because the poem does talk about the world having darkness and life being hard and Bukowski had a hard life, he was depressed and suicidal. But then there's this little sign of hope he brings out which kind of strays from most of his poems that bring a feeling of gloom.
    #4: I found my answers to 1&3 through Google. I looked up "The Laughing Heart" (since it said it on the youtube screen)and Charles Bukowski's name came up with his poem. Then I looked up Charles Bukowsi and I went to Wikipedia, Poem Hunter, and Academy of American Poets. Those three websites had his life, writing career, and some of his poems/stories.

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