If you wander far enough
you will come to it
and when you get there
they will give you a place to sit
for yourselg only, in a nice chair,
and all your friends will be there
with smiles on their faces
and they will likewise all have places.
This poem most directly relates to death. The first stanza is about a person's life like wandering to "it", meaning death. Once death comes, you will have a place to sit, in a nice big chair. When death comes your friends will be there with smiles and they all will have places to sit as well. This poem is Robert Creeley's personal interpretation of death. Most readers can relate to this, it does have a very different twist compared to what most interpret death as heaven with god and angels and such, or in another perspective death is just death with nothing more to it and nothing coming after you die. This writer's interpretation is very interesting and gives its readers a new perspective.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Sick Rose by William Blake
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
This writer is using an analogy of a rose representing a woman or a girl. The girl is sick with an invisible worm, it flies in the night- this most directly means she got sick during the night probably becuase of a man or of an affair she had. The "howling storm" and the man with "his dark secret love" are lines in the poem that most directly relate. The woman is swept off her feet by a howling storm a man of crimson joy and from this small affiar she had her life was destroyed. It is most commonly thought that this woman got an STD from this affair or a sickness from the man she slept with, but it can also mean that she is sick from the giult that she commited. The guilt of having an affair or helping this "storm" of a man cheat can cause this rose to be sick or this woman to be guilty.
The structure of this poem helps it flow and makes it easier to understand. It consists of two stanzas both four lines each. the second and the fourth line in the poem rhyme. From this small amount of words and easy structure it adds to the luminosity of the poem. This poem is about a woman swept off her feet in the middle of the night struck by love and mystery- which ultimately leads to her destruction.
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
This writer is using an analogy of a rose representing a woman or a girl. The girl is sick with an invisible worm, it flies in the night- this most directly means she got sick during the night probably becuase of a man or of an affair she had. The "howling storm" and the man with "his dark secret love" are lines in the poem that most directly relate. The woman is swept off her feet by a howling storm a man of crimson joy and from this small affiar she had her life was destroyed. It is most commonly thought that this woman got an STD from this affair or a sickness from the man she slept with, but it can also mean that she is sick from the giult that she commited. The guilt of having an affair or helping this "storm" of a man cheat can cause this rose to be sick or this woman to be guilty.
The structure of this poem helps it flow and makes it easier to understand. It consists of two stanzas both four lines each. the second and the fourth line in the poem rhyme. From this small amount of words and easy structure it adds to the luminosity of the poem. This poem is about a woman swept off her feet in the middle of the night struck by love and mystery- which ultimately leads to her destruction.
Eating Poetry by Mark Strand
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.
The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.
Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.
She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.
I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.
The writer of this poem uses an extended analogy with a person eating poetry and then becoming a dog hungry for poetry. In the library the man literally eats poetry and the writings having "ink running from the corners of his mouth" and the librarian becomes upset. This poem is extended to mean a lot more about poetry. The man is the writer of the poetry eating it up happy as can be. The librarian is a personal critic who reads the poetry and "does not believe what she sees", The other dogs "coming up" are also critics. But critics who post views and are very badly opinionated about the poems. The librarian listens to these critics and listens to her own thoughts of the poetry and is so upset she weeps. I think she is confused on how she actually wants to interpret the poem and how others interpret it as well. I think the writer of the poem or the newly transformed dog finally realizes that he should not write poetry for the critics and try to please them or to lick their hands and convince them that the poem is good, the writer writes not for others but for himself now. He is newly transformed into this state and he is in "joy in the bookish dark".
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.
The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.
Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.
She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.
I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.
The writer of this poem uses an extended analogy with a person eating poetry and then becoming a dog hungry for poetry. In the library the man literally eats poetry and the writings having "ink running from the corners of his mouth" and the librarian becomes upset. This poem is extended to mean a lot more about poetry. The man is the writer of the poetry eating it up happy as can be. The librarian is a personal critic who reads the poetry and "does not believe what she sees", The other dogs "coming up" are also critics. But critics who post views and are very badly opinionated about the poems. The librarian listens to these critics and listens to her own thoughts of the poetry and is so upset she weeps. I think she is confused on how she actually wants to interpret the poem and how others interpret it as well. I think the writer of the poem or the newly transformed dog finally realizes that he should not write poetry for the critics and try to please them or to lick their hands and convince them that the poem is good, the writer writes not for others but for himself now. He is newly transformed into this state and he is in "joy in the bookish dark".
The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.When at first reading this poem there were some definities and research that needed to be done in order to better understand its meaning. I looked up who William Butler Yeats is and what Innisfree is as well. William Yeats is an Irish poet and playwright. He was born in Country Siglo and studied poetry in Dublin. He is known for his intrest in the occult and inIrish legends. The occult is the idea the knowledge is only known by people who were meant to understand it, it is also know as knowledge of the paranormal. Innisfree, whose name means "heather island" in Gaelic, is an island off the coast of Ireland of intense natural beauty. It is located in County Sligo, which is where Yeats's mother's family came from, and which he identified as the part of Ireland and the world closest to his heart. In the idea of building a home there and living as a hermit, Yeats was influenced by American transcendentalists such as Thoreau. He wrote in a letter: "My father read to me some passage out of Walden, and I planned to live some day in a cottage on a little island called Innisfree."
From this background information a reader can then better understand the poem. Yeats wrote this poem as a soothing connection with his hometown and with nature. He wants to return to the home of his heart and live there in tranquility and peace.
The structure of this poem is very particular and interesting. The rhyme scheme is very hard to pick up on but does exist. Yeats consistantly rhymes the first line and the third line. Also yeats rhymes the center word of the first line with the center word of the third line "there" "glimmer", "day" "roadway". Also the second line and the fourth line rhymes as well. From this rhyme scheme the reader can flow into the poem and see the tranquility of it. The words flowing like "water lapping with low sounds by the shore" can really influence the reader to take part in and appreciate nature and become one with it. The structure takes a major role in the peice as a whole.
Sign for my Father, Who Stressed the Bunt by David Bottoms
On the rough diamond,
the hand-cut field beneath the dog lot and the barn,
we rehearsed the strict technique
of bunting. I watched from the infield,
the mound, the backstop
as your left hand climbed the bat, your legs
and shoulders squared toward the pitcher.
You could drop it like a seed
down either base line. I admired your style,
but not enough to take my eyes off the bank
that served as our center-field fence.
Years passed, three leagues of organized ball,
no few lives. I could homer
into the garden beyond the bank,
into the left-field lot of Carmichael Motors,
and still you stressed the same technique,
the crouch and spring, the lead arm absorbing
just enough impact. That whole tiresome pitch
about basics never changing,
and I never learned what you were laying down.
Like the hand brushed across the bill of a cap,
let this be the sign
I'm getting a grip on the sacrifice.
Any poem written about a sport is never really just describing the sport. The peom is used to give off a deeper meaning of life and the lessons learned from playing the sport. This baseball poem is obviously about the lessons a young boy learned from his father when his father was teaching him the "strict technique/of bunting". Since I am not a true baseball fan and don't know much about baseball I talked to my father about the reasons to use a bunt and how it contributes to the game. According to him, a bunt is used to help progress another player across the bases or even to help them score, but there is a sacrifice. The sacrifice is that the player who hit the bunt is almost always thrown or tagged out.
In this poem the young boy was obsessed with home run hitting. That was his passion, even though his father tried so hard to progress and advance his game by teaching him to bunt, the son never understood. The boy never understood what the adantages of taking a bunt during a game rather than a homerun would be. The son finally understands his father's "sign" near the end of the poem. The sign the son is "getting a grip on the sacrifice". This obviously is associated with the idea that sacrifice for the greater good or the better of the team is better for humanity and could be better in his life lessons too. The greed and glorification associated with a home run rather than that of the bunt is not always better when it comes to life and learning from things in life.
This poem was not simply about the game of baseball but about the journey the father tries to teach the son through a game of baseball. The sacrifice the son can make for the greater good is always better than fame and fortune.
the hand-cut field beneath the dog lot and the barn,
we rehearsed the strict technique
of bunting. I watched from the infield,
the mound, the backstop
as your left hand climbed the bat, your legs
and shoulders squared toward the pitcher.
You could drop it like a seed
down either base line. I admired your style,
but not enough to take my eyes off the bank
that served as our center-field fence.
Years passed, three leagues of organized ball,
no few lives. I could homer
into the garden beyond the bank,
into the left-field lot of Carmichael Motors,
and still you stressed the same technique,
the crouch and spring, the lead arm absorbing
just enough impact. That whole tiresome pitch
about basics never changing,
and I never learned what you were laying down.
Like the hand brushed across the bill of a cap,
let this be the sign
I'm getting a grip on the sacrifice.
Any poem written about a sport is never really just describing the sport. The peom is used to give off a deeper meaning of life and the lessons learned from playing the sport. This baseball poem is obviously about the lessons a young boy learned from his father when his father was teaching him the "strict technique/of bunting". Since I am not a true baseball fan and don't know much about baseball I talked to my father about the reasons to use a bunt and how it contributes to the game. According to him, a bunt is used to help progress another player across the bases or even to help them score, but there is a sacrifice. The sacrifice is that the player who hit the bunt is almost always thrown or tagged out.
In this poem the young boy was obsessed with home run hitting. That was his passion, even though his father tried so hard to progress and advance his game by teaching him to bunt, the son never understood. The boy never understood what the adantages of taking a bunt during a game rather than a homerun would be. The son finally understands his father's "sign" near the end of the poem. The sign the son is "getting a grip on the sacrifice". This obviously is associated with the idea that sacrifice for the greater good or the better of the team is better for humanity and could be better in his life lessons too. The greed and glorification associated with a home run rather than that of the bunt is not always better when it comes to life and learning from things in life.
This poem was not simply about the game of baseball but about the journey the father tries to teach the son through a game of baseball. The sacrifice the son can make for the greater good is always better than fame and fortune.
Monday, May 2, 2011
The Golf Links by Sarah N. Cleghorn
The golf links lie near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.
This poem is about the times in America before child labor laws came into existance or even into effect. Children and families at this point in time had little to no money and companies would hire children to work very long hours with dangerous jobs. The children in this poem are working for hours and hours next to a golf course and every day the children can see the rich men playing golf and having a carefree time, probably not even noticing these children. I looked up information on Sarah N. Cleghorn and she lived between 1876 and 1959. She was a writer and a poet. She was against child labor which this poem explicitly represents and she was mentioned by Robert Frost many times for her great talents as a poet and writer.
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.
This poem is about the times in America before child labor laws came into existance or even into effect. Children and families at this point in time had little to no money and companies would hire children to work very long hours with dangerous jobs. The children in this poem are working for hours and hours next to a golf course and every day the children can see the rich men playing golf and having a carefree time, probably not even noticing these children. I looked up information on Sarah N. Cleghorn and she lived between 1876 and 1959. She was a writer and a poet. She was against child labor which this poem explicitly represents and she was mentioned by Robert Frost many times for her great talents as a poet and writer.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
The Guitarist Tunes Up Frances Cornford
With what attentive courtesy he bent
Over his instrument;
Not as lordly conqueror who could
Command both wire and wood,
But as a man with a loved woman might,
Inquiring with delight
What slight essential things she had to say
Before they started, he and she, to play.
This poem is passionate. The author compairs the quitarists passion for his instrument just the same as a passionate and loving relationship should be. The man is not bent over his instrument with power and greed but with love and compassion just as a man should do the same for a woman he loves. This love and compassion can be reflected into anyone's passions. A person who is passionate for reading, writing, singing, playing, composing, making, anything; these things a person is passionate about shoud be with love and care not with cruelty and power. The poem has a continued sentence with only a period at the very end. The rhyme scheme is a, a, b, b. This adds to the flow of the poem. It is almost as if the guitarist is playing this poem in his song. Also from the flow the reader can imagine the guitarist playing for his lover and his sweet music is compassionate and caring just as his feelings for his loved one is. This is a fun love poem.
Over his instrument;
Not as lordly conqueror who could
Command both wire and wood,
But as a man with a loved woman might,
Inquiring with delight
What slight essential things she had to say
Before they started, he and she, to play.
This poem is passionate. The author compairs the quitarists passion for his instrument just the same as a passionate and loving relationship should be. The man is not bent over his instrument with power and greed but with love and compassion just as a man should do the same for a woman he loves. This love and compassion can be reflected into anyone's passions. A person who is passionate for reading, writing, singing, playing, composing, making, anything; these things a person is passionate about shoud be with love and care not with cruelty and power. The poem has a continued sentence with only a period at the very end. The rhyme scheme is a, a, b, b. This adds to the flow of the poem. It is almost as if the guitarist is playing this poem in his song. Also from the flow the reader can imagine the guitarist playing for his lover and his sweet music is compassionate and caring just as his feelings for his loved one is. This is a fun love poem.
A Poison Tree William Blake
In this poem, A Poison Tree by William Blake there is a lot to comment about structure and meaning of the poem. To start off with meaning I see this as the common Friend vs Foe cliche. The author is writing about how he pents up his anger agianst his foe and uses it to actually kill him. Figuratively speaking I see this poem as meaning that it could have been a friendship if the problems were compromized and talked about but instead a secret war was started between these two people and the relationship between them was completely ruined. The author also uses a biblical allusion in some aspects of the poem. The entire poem is about a tree growing in a garden, a poison, or forbidden tree that obviously should not be eaten from if it is poisonous. His foe stole the apple from the tree and was found dead lying in its shadows. The biblical allusion aligns with the story of Adam and Eve in the secret garden. God's foe is sin or the devil. Adam and Eve commit a sin by eating from the forbidden tree and people are destroyed of being pure and sinless and original sin was born.
The structure of this poem is using an A,A,B,B rhyme scheme. There are four lines in every stanza and four stanzas. The structure of the poem adds to the impact it sets on the reader. It makes it easier to understand the situation that the character and his foe are in and the relationship between them. The character is "glad to see [his] foe outstretched beneath the tree" lines 15,16. The rhyme and the consistant stanza and line matching helps make the poem and the words flow together. When reading the poem out loud it is almost as if its a song.
The structure of this poem is using an A,A,B,B rhyme scheme. There are four lines in every stanza and four stanzas. The structure of the poem adds to the impact it sets on the reader. It makes it easier to understand the situation that the character and his foe are in and the relationship between them. The character is "glad to see [his] foe outstretched beneath the tree" lines 15,16. The rhyme and the consistant stanza and line matching helps make the poem and the words flow together. When reading the poem out loud it is almost as if its a song.
you fit into me Margaret Atwood
My mom is a big sewer. When I was little all my St. John's skirts she sewed by hand. It's weird to talk about that but that how I saw the first two lines of the poem. "you fit into me/ like a hook into an eye". There are pictures down below that would maybe help a reader understand what it looks like. The most common hook and eye would be at the very bottom, ladies would probably see this to button a bra. Atwood uses symbols to describe the speaker's relationship. She uses a common hook and eye, like what you would find on a dress, to illustrate compatibility. Two human beings fit together like a hook and eye, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, a fat kid and cake- there are many others. But then there is an enjambment, and then an explanation: this is not the hook and eye first imagined, it is painful. The lines "a fish hook/ An open eye"show how this would be a helpless relationship where the partners injured one another. The first line makes me think positively upon the situation, but then ends hopelessly. The couple has manajed to not fit together anymore but actually hurt one another.
Writing Jan Dean
and then i saw it
saw it all all the mess
and blood and everythink
and mam agenst the kichin dor
the flor all stiky
and the wall all wet
and red an dad besid the kichen draw
i saw it saw it all
an wrot it down an ever word of it is tru
In this poem I see the state of a human mind during a traumatizing experience. All these mistakes on the page with things written wrong and with spelling errors, short incoherent sentences, I see this coming from the actual experience the author went through. From what I can gather this is a child of a couple- a disfunctional couple, and this child watched or was there when the male seriously injured or even killed his spouse. The author uses the mispelled words to put a message into the reader's mind and make an impact. His small but discrpitive words allow the reader to capture glimpses of what happened and there is no mistaking what actually happened. For example "all the mess/and blood and everythink" this shows to the reader that this experience was violent and obviously someone was hurt, it was a blood bath. Only five words and the reader is already impacted in this poem, the author does a great job of leaving impact with a small amount of words with very little discrpition.
saw it all all the mess
and blood and everythink
and mam agenst the kichin dor
the flor all stiky
and the wall all wet
and red an dad besid the kichen draw
i saw it saw it all
an wrot it down an ever word of it is tru
In this poem I see the state of a human mind during a traumatizing experience. All these mistakes on the page with things written wrong and with spelling errors, short incoherent sentences, I see this coming from the actual experience the author went through. From what I can gather this is a child of a couple- a disfunctional couple, and this child watched or was there when the male seriously injured or even killed his spouse. The author uses the mispelled words to put a message into the reader's mind and make an impact. His small but discrpitive words allow the reader to capture glimpses of what happened and there is no mistaking what actually happened. For example "all the mess/and blood and everythink" this shows to the reader that this experience was violent and obviously someone was hurt, it was a blood bath. Only five words and the reader is already impacted in this poem, the author does a great job of leaving impact with a small amount of words with very little discrpition.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Personal Helicon
As a child, they could not keep me from wells
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.
One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.
I savoured the rich crash when a bucket
Plummeted down at the end of a rope.
So deep you saw no reflection in it.
A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
Fructified like any aquarium.
When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
A white face hovered over the bottom.
Others had echoes, gave back your own call
With a clean new music in it. And one
Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.
Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.
In this poem “Personal Helicon” by Seamus Heaney, Heaney really focuses on strong imagery and point of view to explore the happiness of his childhood days. I remember and so do many other people there childhood memories like family barbeques, adventures through a park, daycare centers, and many other things comprise many people with their childhood. The imagery in his poem effectively helps describe the actions of the narrator’s childhood self. He uses descriptive words such as “dank,” and “soft.” Nearly every line in every stanza of the poem contains some sort of descriptive word. This gives a mental image of the scenes to the reader and also gives memories of his or her own childhood. Some of Heaney’s phrases also stand out with strong imagery. When he writes about the “rich crash” that occurs when the child drops a bucket into the well or the child dragging roots from the dirt, his audience is truly experiencing the small events in the poem. This is why the poem is so effective to catch the eyes of all of its readers. Every person has good childhood memories that can connect the reader to the poem and to the author of the poem its self- Heaney.
This poem also has a deeper meaning. From the outside you can see it as having just a childhood experience with wells. But, from the development and change in tone and attitude the reader can conclude that the poem means a lot more. The poem displays a transformation of his perspective as the poem progresses to the end. This transformation might refer to Heaney attitudes of life itself during childhood and adulthood.
Like most poems; Personal Helicon has a deeper meaning.
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.
One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.
I savoured the rich crash when a bucket
Plummeted down at the end of a rope.
So deep you saw no reflection in it.
A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
Fructified like any aquarium.
When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
A white face hovered over the bottom.
Others had echoes, gave back your own call
With a clean new music in it. And one
Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.
Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.
In this poem “Personal Helicon” by Seamus Heaney, Heaney really focuses on strong imagery and point of view to explore the happiness of his childhood days. I remember and so do many other people there childhood memories like family barbeques, adventures through a park, daycare centers, and many other things comprise many people with their childhood. The imagery in his poem effectively helps describe the actions of the narrator’s childhood self. He uses descriptive words such as “dank,” and “soft.” Nearly every line in every stanza of the poem contains some sort of descriptive word. This gives a mental image of the scenes to the reader and also gives memories of his or her own childhood. Some of Heaney’s phrases also stand out with strong imagery. When he writes about the “rich crash” that occurs when the child drops a bucket into the well or the child dragging roots from the dirt, his audience is truly experiencing the small events in the poem. This is why the poem is so effective to catch the eyes of all of its readers. Every person has good childhood memories that can connect the reader to the poem and to the author of the poem its self- Heaney.
This poem also has a deeper meaning. From the outside you can see it as having just a childhood experience with wells. But, from the development and change in tone and attitude the reader can conclude that the poem means a lot more. The poem displays a transformation of his perspective as the poem progresses to the end. This transformation might refer to Heaney attitudes of life itself during childhood and adulthood.
Like most poems; Personal Helicon has a deeper meaning.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Reading Myself
Like thousands, I took just pride and more than just,
struck matches that brought my blood to a boil;
I memorized the tricks to set the river on fire-
somehow never wrote something to go back to.
Can I suppose I am finished with wax flowers
and have earned my grass on the minor slopes of Parnassus....
No honeycomb is built without a bee
adding circle to circle, cell to cell,
the wax and honey of a mausoleum-
this round dome proves its maker is alive,
the corpse of the insect lives embalmed in honey,
prays that its perishable work live long
enough for the sweet-toogh bear to desecrate-
this open book...my open coffin.
This poem has a hopeless effect on me. Lowell is using an analogy of a bee and its life and comparing it to his own actions throughout his life. The bee makes honeycombs cell after cell, with of what purpose? Lowell is comparing that with his life and the decisions he makes too. He is living in the "now" so to speak and in reminisence he realizes his actions have no purpose. The structure in this poem is very interesting as well. The author uses so much punctuation. I feel like he uses punctuations in the poem so that when your speaking at a natural pause he just adds in periods and commas. This is interesting becuase he obviously does not trust the reader to read it how he speaks it, which is pretty cool.
This poem is very relatable in terms with a teenager. Most teenagers live in the moment. I like how this author shows the bad affects of living in the moment. He is always trying to get a small thrill in his purposeless life.
struck matches that brought my blood to a boil;
I memorized the tricks to set the river on fire-
somehow never wrote something to go back to.
Can I suppose I am finished with wax flowers
and have earned my grass on the minor slopes of Parnassus....
No honeycomb is built without a bee
adding circle to circle, cell to cell,
the wax and honey of a mausoleum-
this round dome proves its maker is alive,
the corpse of the insect lives embalmed in honey,
prays that its perishable work live long
enough for the sweet-toogh bear to desecrate-
this open book...my open coffin.
This poem has a hopeless effect on me. Lowell is using an analogy of a bee and its life and comparing it to his own actions throughout his life. The bee makes honeycombs cell after cell, with of what purpose? Lowell is comparing that with his life and the decisions he makes too. He is living in the "now" so to speak and in reminisence he realizes his actions have no purpose. The structure in this poem is very interesting as well. The author uses so much punctuation. I feel like he uses punctuations in the poem so that when your speaking at a natural pause he just adds in periods and commas. This is interesting becuase he obviously does not trust the reader to read it how he speaks it, which is pretty cool.
This poem is very relatable in terms with a teenager. Most teenagers live in the moment. I like how this author shows the bad affects of living in the moment. He is always trying to get a small thrill in his purposeless life.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
It was a dream
in which my greater self
rose up before me
accusing me of my life
with her extra finger
whirling in a gyre of rage
at what my days had come to.
what,
i pleaded with her, could i do,
oh what could I have done?
and she twisted her wild hear
and sparked her wild eyes
and screamed as long as
i could hear her
This. This. This.
I think the poem is very self-explanatory. Lucille Clifton the author is looking back on her own life and is critisizing it. In this "dream" Clifton has her greater self or maybe the woman she always wanted to be is telling her in rage what she could have done differently to make her past life better. I personally think she is looking on her life as if she were dead. Her dead self is remembering her life- like right before you die you see 'your whole life flash before you', and her dying self is questioning whether she lived her life to the fullest. Her dead self is regretting it and saying This is what you could have done This. This. This. Whatever 'This' is, is a mystery to me. I do not know Lucille Clifton's aspirations.
rose up before me
accusing me of my life
with her extra finger
whirling in a gyre of rage
at what my days had come to.
what,
i pleaded with her, could i do,
oh what could I have done?
and she twisted her wild hear
and sparked her wild eyes
and screamed as long as
i could hear her
This. This. This.
I think the poem is very self-explanatory. Lucille Clifton the author is looking back on her own life and is critisizing it. In this "dream" Clifton has her greater self or maybe the woman she always wanted to be is telling her in rage what she could have done differently to make her past life better. I personally think she is looking on her life as if she were dead. Her dead self is remembering her life- like right before you die you see 'your whole life flash before you', and her dying self is questioning whether she lived her life to the fullest. Her dead self is regretting it and saying This is what you could have done This. This. This. Whatever 'This' is, is a mystery to me. I do not know Lucille Clifton's aspirations.
Cottonmouth Country by Louise Gluck
Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras.
And there were other signs
That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us
By land: among the pines
An unculred cottonmouth that rolled on moss
Reared in the polluted air.
Birth, not death, is the hard loss.
I know. I also left a skin there.
In this poem there are a few things I looked up to help understand the meaning. Hatteras is the first. There are many accounts of ships being caught in unfavorable winds and not being able to round Cape Point. Surfmen with the Lifesaving Service maintained a close watch over the ships in the doldrums. It would spell certain disaster should the winds turn unfavorable and drive them closer to shore. One such watch reported over 100 vessels (http://www.hatteras-nc.com/history/hatteras-village-history.shtml). The second I wanted to look up was cottonmouth. The cottonmouth is a type of snake found in swamps in the United States. This make sense towards the line "An uncurled cottonmouth that rolled on moss".
From this poem and the definitions provided I see it meaning that this poem is about changes. That both life and death bring changes to the world, probably more specifically the United States since the places and the animals referred to are only found in the US. I also think that the writer of this poem is referring himself as the snake from the line "I know. I also left a skin there." I think that he means skin as in shed skin like a snake. The snake visited this place of Hatteras and was overwhelmed with death and pollution. Birth is the hard loss because this place is so disgusted with things like death and pollution.
And there were other signs
That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us
By land: among the pines
An unculred cottonmouth that rolled on moss
Reared in the polluted air.
Birth, not death, is the hard loss.
I know. I also left a skin there.
In this poem there are a few things I looked up to help understand the meaning. Hatteras is the first. There are many accounts of ships being caught in unfavorable winds and not being able to round Cape Point. Surfmen with the Lifesaving Service maintained a close watch over the ships in the doldrums. It would spell certain disaster should the winds turn unfavorable and drive them closer to shore. One such watch reported over 100 vessels (http://www.hatteras-nc.com/history/hatteras-village-history.shtml). The second I wanted to look up was cottonmouth. The cottonmouth is a type of snake found in swamps in the United States. This make sense towards the line "An uncurled cottonmouth that rolled on moss".
From this poem and the definitions provided I see it meaning that this poem is about changes. That both life and death bring changes to the world, probably more specifically the United States since the places and the animals referred to are only found in the US. I also think that the writer of this poem is referring himself as the snake from the line "I know. I also left a skin there." I think that he means skin as in shed skin like a snake. The snake visited this place of Hatteras and was overwhelmed with death and pollution. Birth is the hard loss because this place is so disgusted with things like death and pollution.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Madness is Divinest Sense
This poem states that what is often declared madness is actually the most profound kind of sanity “Much Madness is divinest Sense", when viewed by someone with “a discerning Eye.” What is often called sense or sanity is in fact not just “Madness,” but profound madness “the starkest Madness”. It is only called “Sense” because it is not defined by reason, but by what the majority thinks.
This poem is a great example of the past historical, scientific, and political events that have been lost with this generation's lack of background. This poem is prime example of many historical happenings that no one every thought about due to common sense factor. Theories and questions that have long been answered and migrated into our daily lives were not always like that. For example the atom theory. The idea was developed in 5th century B.C. times by greek philosophers, and the idea came about through the simple thought that all matter was made up of smaller invisible particles joined together to make what we see now as a person or a chair- pretty much any object on the planet, including the planet. The idea was obviously laughed at and never considered. The idea was "madness" yet through hundreds of years and research, experiments, explaining and scientists this "mad" idea has been integrated into our common high school freshman biology class and it will be in the education system forever. The "mad" idea was thought of through and different perspective and considered in the natural world, and through this practical change in point of view it has changed the scientific feild and the world forever.
There can be many more examples of thinkers and philosophers that have been shot down and discriminated against for having irrational ideas, yet through the different facets of a perspective the ideas can be reinvented and not thought of as madness but pure genius. For example in today's society the idea of extraterrestrial beings is completely off the walls, but you never know in the future the ideas can be thought of differently and the perspective view can change human thinking forever.
The modern thinkers and philosophers are "chained" and discriminated against for being different. The "madness" may be madness but in considering different points of view and perspectives the mad sometimes do turn out to be the genius.
This poem is a great example of the past historical, scientific, and political events that have been lost with this generation's lack of background. This poem is prime example of many historical happenings that no one every thought about due to common sense factor. Theories and questions that have long been answered and migrated into our daily lives were not always like that. For example the atom theory. The idea was developed in 5th century B.C. times by greek philosophers, and the idea came about through the simple thought that all matter was made up of smaller invisible particles joined together to make what we see now as a person or a chair- pretty much any object on the planet, including the planet. The idea was obviously laughed at and never considered. The idea was "madness" yet through hundreds of years and research, experiments, explaining and scientists this "mad" idea has been integrated into our common high school freshman biology class and it will be in the education system forever. The "mad" idea was thought of through and different perspective and considered in the natural world, and through this practical change in point of view it has changed the scientific feild and the world forever.
There can be many more examples of thinkers and philosophers that have been shot down and discriminated against for having irrational ideas, yet through the different facets of a perspective the ideas can be reinvented and not thought of as madness but pure genius. For example in today's society the idea of extraterrestrial beings is completely off the walls, but you never know in the future the ideas can be thought of differently and the perspective view can change human thinking forever.
The modern thinkers and philosophers are "chained" and discriminated against for being different. The "madness" may be madness but in considering different points of view and perspectives the mad sometimes do turn out to be the genius.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Song of the Powers by David Mason
When reading this poem I thought of the simple hand game, ro-sham-bo, rock-paper-scissors, whatever you would like to call it. The entire poem I only thought of the game and the rules to which to play, until the last stanza:
Then I thought of this poem as a deeper meaning. I thought of the rock, paper, and scissors to each represent some form of power in the human world, like mere strength, speech, or sword. These three forms of human strength in the working world can represent how to get up on the "social ladder". It's hard to explain but the working class as a whole is really nothing without the individual strengths- just like how they "all end alone". But, all the individuals make up the entire class.
I also began to think of this poem to represent some sort of war movie, like Lord of the Rings. The stone representing a soldier (mere strength again), the paper representing something like a spy or a sneaky bird creature like that of Lord of the Rings, and the scissors representing something with more royalty like a King. All three can be defeated one or the other. The spy kills the soldier through sneaky traps, the soldier kills the king with mere strength and betrayal, and the king kills the spy with might and authority. The cycle just going on and on.
As stone crushes scissors,
as paper snuffs stone
and scissors cut paper,
all end alone.
So heap up your paper
and scissor your wishes
and uproot the stone
from the top of the hill.
They all end alone
as you will, you will.
Then I thought of this poem as a deeper meaning. I thought of the rock, paper, and scissors to each represent some form of power in the human world, like mere strength, speech, or sword. These three forms of human strength in the working world can represent how to get up on the "social ladder". It's hard to explain but the working class as a whole is really nothing without the individual strengths- just like how they "all end alone". But, all the individuals make up the entire class.
I also began to think of this poem to represent some sort of war movie, like Lord of the Rings. The stone representing a soldier (mere strength again), the paper representing something like a spy or a sneaky bird creature like that of Lord of the Rings, and the scissors representing something with more royalty like a King. All three can be defeated one or the other. The spy kills the soldier through sneaky traps, the soldier kills the king with mere strength and betrayal, and the king kills the spy with might and authority. The cycle just going on and on.
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