{"id":837,"date":"2023-12-14T14:11:40","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T19:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118st-fa23\/?p=837"},"modified":"2024-08-28T15:56:20","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T19:56:20","slug":"yellow-chrysanthemum-a-remix-of-nothing-gold-can-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118st-fa23\/yellow-chrysanthemum-a-remix-of-nothing-gold-can-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow Chrysanthemum: A Remix of “Nothing Gold Can Stay”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Link to my poem<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Yellow Chrysanthemum: A Reflection<\/p>\n

For my final project, I decided to remix Robert Frost\u2019s poem \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d (1923) by
\nwriting my own four stanzas of poetry both as a continuation and response to the original. While the
\noriginal poet focused on the fleeting nature of youth and death\u2019s inevitability, I sought to challenge the
\ndescribed bleakness of life with a much more optimistic viewpoint through the extended metaphor of a
\nflower blossoming in foreign lands. To do this, I decided to draw on my lived experiences from the past
\nfour months in which I\u2019ve discovered a new, yet integral facet of my identity: a daughter leaving home for
\nthe first time and finding her place in womanhood. After all, throughout this first semester of my college
\nexperience, I have indeed felt the sorrow and grief described in \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d and yet I
\nconstantly feel that it is even more important to emphasize my new security and radiant joy in entering
\nadulthood. In other words, the very core of my project is to underscore the beauty of maturation and to
\ndispel the fear of change that so many existing works have instilled within us, highlighting instead the
\nrichness and fulfillment that come with navigating the unavoidable transformations of life.<\/p>\n

Throughout the creative process, I continued to try to wrap my head around the concept of
\ncritique and consistently returned to our class manifesto to supplement my understanding. Every time, my
\nfavorite renditions of Judith Butler\u2019s ideas presented in What Is Critique have been the statement of
\ncritique being intimately linked to self-transformation and the claim that critique is a practice of
\nimprovement. As such, I tried to incorporate both aspects into my remix. Improvement, for one, took hold
\nin my expansion of the themes introduced in the original and my reworking of its ideas. For example, I
\ntook Frost\u2019s motif of natural imagery\u2013 produced through the analogies of spring\u2019s ultimate decay into
\nwinter and day\u2019s transformation to night\u2013 and flipped them so that they could tell a fuller story. Instead of
\nreducing all contentment in life to sorrow and deterioration, the reverse allegories of night becoming day
\nand new life emerging from a seedling allowed me to argue that there is always gratification hiding
\naround the corner, no matter how slow it may seem to take. Though it took me four stanzas to get this
\nassertion across while Frost only needed one, I attempted to reveal my own journey through my poem\u2019s
\nprogression, giving a window into my personal improvement. This realization also led me toward the
\nconcept of self-transformation in critique. Being that it has been many years since my first introduction to
\n\u201cNothing Gold Can Stay,\u201d I can confidently say that my understanding of the poem has seen significant
\nshifts. And I believe that it is these renewed perceptions that act as a lens through which my self-growth
\ncan be observed. From how I see it now, critique is an exercise that leads its practitioners to re-evaluate
\ntheir beliefs and identities: a value that the creative process behind my remix similarly guided me to
\nconsider. After all, I consider my project to be a critique of both Robert Frost\u2019s \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d
\nand of myself.<\/p>\n

While I have made it clear throughout this reflection that many of the ideas introduced in my four
\nstanzas took direct inspiration from Robert Frost\u2019s original poetry, I am a strong believer in the inherent
\ndependency between one\u2019s creative work and their individuality. Namely, I think the specific details
\ndeveloped in my poetry stem from the culmination of personal experiences that are unique to me, making
\nmy remix an original that no other individual could replicate down to the tee. A small example of this
\ncould simply be my incorporation of mixed media in which I embedded a supplemental \u201clyric video\u201d as a
\nlink hidden behind the 1825 Katsushika Hokusai painting. In high school, one of my English teachers
\nencouraged me to visualize poetry through different mediums when straightforward on-the-page poetry
\ndidn\u2019t appeal, and poetry short films were my solution. Though I didn\u2019t have the means to create a video
\nnearly as high quality or time-consuming as those that had first garnered my interest in poetry, I drew on
\nthem as inspiration and tried my best to use the new resources Smith offered to create my own rendition.
\nAdditionally, I infused pieces of my cultural background into my writing, as seen in the title \u201cYellow
\nChrysanthemum.\u201d With my Chinese-American heritage being an integral piece of my identity, I channeled
\nmy culture\u2019s use of the chrysanthemum as a representation of vitality and rebirth to further solidify my
\noutlook on the cycle of life. Thus, the individual skills and interests I invested in the making of my final
\nproject are a testament to the fundamental relationship between remixing, originality, and identity where
\none\u2019s identity may be so infused into an existing piece that all that remains is a remix just as original and
\ndistinct.<\/p>\n

Overall, I\u2019m quite pleased with the outcome of my project and the opportunity it provided for me
\nto not only return to previous topics we\u2019ve discussed in class, like remixing and originality, but also learn
\nmore about their application. Most importantly, I feel that I\u2019ve finally realized that critique is something
\nthat we\u2019ve been talking about all along and that critique and remix are nearly one and the same. In fact, I
\nwould say that critique and remix are entirely codependent with remix acting as the ultimate catapult
\nthrough which personal identity may be expressed to push the boundaries of what an existing piece
\nalready argues and does for society. So, reflecting on my creative process and the final result, I\u2019m happy
\nto conclude that \u201cYellow Chrysanthemum\u201d was both a remix and a critique that serves as a reminder that
\nleaving home and the familiar, facing change and uncertainty, and feeling lost in all that life throws at you
\nare just stages that will pass; in the end, happiness awaits eagerly.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Butler, Judith. What is Critique? An Essay on Foucault’s Virtue. 2001.<\/p>\n

Frost, Robert. \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay.\u201d Poetry Foundation, https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poems\/
\n148652\/nothing-gold-can-stay-5c095cc5ab679. Accessed on 17 Dec. 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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