I Felt a Funeral in my Brain
by Emily Dickinson
Found at http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/I_Felt_AFuneral.htm
I have never read to much of Emily Dickinson's work and was therefore quite stunned to find so many of her poems realted to or dealing with death. I truly enjoyed how this poem used death or a funeral as a metaphor to represent how the speaker feels a part of her is dying. It seems to me that the speaker is at a loss of control, or has no control over her conscience. In other words, it seems like the speaker can't make sense of herself due to the chaos. In a sense this is an exact opposite of funerals which are very structured and are controlled. Furthermore, in this poem the very first line states that the speaker is "feeling a funeral in her brain." Using the idea of a metaphor, I began to think that since a funeral is in a sense, a passage from one state to another, the idea of the speaker feeling a funeral eludes to the idea that she is feeling the passage from comprehension and understanding to another state of chaos and misunderstanding.
Even the structure and grammar adds to the change in state within this poem. In the beginning, the use of her punctuations are quite orderly and structured. However, as the speaker begins her descent into madness, the use of punctuations begins to get chaotic. Commas and dashes are used much more frequently creating a sense of chaos just by looking at it on the page, as well as, reading it aloud.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
I Died for Beauty by Emily Dickinson
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth,--the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms.
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
Beauty and truth are associated in this poem. Both the speaker and the man in the adjoining died but each died for a different cause. Although the two are in different rooms, they are “brethren” and “kinsmen.” To die for beauty is ridiculous and undignified. On the other hand, to die for truth is noble. From the first stanza, the speaker made it apparent that she and the man in the next room are two different kinds of people. However, in the next stanzas, they are “brethren” and “kinsmen.” Does that mean truth and beauty are the same? In definition, they are not. As reasons of death, they are not. However, they are the same in that they are would be obliterated by death. Both the speaker and the man are taken over by the moss crawling up to cover their lips and their names. The moss here is a symbol of nature, of which death is a part. The moss stops the speaker and the man from speaking and wipes out their identity. Humans are, thus, powerless against nature.
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
"For beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth,--the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms.
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
Beauty and truth are associated in this poem. Both the speaker and the man in the adjoining died but each died for a different cause. Although the two are in different rooms, they are “brethren” and “kinsmen.” To die for beauty is ridiculous and undignified. On the other hand, to die for truth is noble. From the first stanza, the speaker made it apparent that she and the man in the next room are two different kinds of people. However, in the next stanzas, they are “brethren” and “kinsmen.” Does that mean truth and beauty are the same? In definition, they are not. As reasons of death, they are not. However, they are the same in that they are would be obliterated by death. Both the speaker and the man are taken over by the moss crawling up to cover their lips and their names. The moss here is a symbol of nature, of which death is a part. The moss stops the speaker and the man from speaking and wipes out their identity. Humans are, thus, powerless against nature.
from The World Doesn't End
by Charles Simic
p. 438
What first stands out about this poem is it's form: it doesn't look like a "traditional" poem, but regular prose. The title implies it's from a volume, but it's interesting that it was put in this anthology. The two "paragraphs" are also separated by a break with a dot, not normally seen. After first glance, this poem remains very interesting with it's dark imagery and great metaphors. This is one of the darkest poems I've ever read; in fact it's pretty scary and spooky. The imagery in this poem sounds like a nightmare to me. It finally ends in an extremely sad disappointment. And what makes it even more fantastic is that the disappointment is in you, the reader, so you feel exactly what the poet is trying to say.
p. 438
What first stands out about this poem is it's form: it doesn't look like a "traditional" poem, but regular prose. The title implies it's from a volume, but it's interesting that it was put in this anthology. The two "paragraphs" are also separated by a break with a dot, not normally seen. After first glance, this poem remains very interesting with it's dark imagery and great metaphors. This is one of the darkest poems I've ever read; in fact it's pretty scary and spooky. The imagery in this poem sounds like a nightmare to me. It finally ends in an extremely sad disappointment. And what makes it even more fantastic is that the disappointment is in you, the reader, so you feel exactly what the poet is trying to say.
Well Water
"Well Water" by Randall Jarrell (p. 62)
This poem contains much repetition, especially within the parenthetical portion, where the speaker repeats "errand" and "a means to." The repetition seems to resemble the routines of daily life; the first and last lines of the poem also contain the phrase "the dailiness of life," showing that each day in the speaker's life is a cycle, where the beginning of the day seems much like the end of the day. Now that I think about it, the phrase "the dailiness of life" seems to mirror the pattern of the Sun (or rotation of the Earth), where the morning Sun shines across the land from the horizon, and the evening Sun shines light across the land from the opposite side of the horizon. The middle portion of the poem describes the work required to survive: pumping water from a well. This also seems to reflect the daily routine of life during the day, where most people are active during the day. Later, however, the speaker notices that the pump operates by itself due to its own weight; this could be like the periodic rewards that we receive for our efforts each day.
I thought this poem was interesting because it seemed optimistic throughout the poem rather than becoming cynical or pessimistic. The optimism that is seen at the end of the poem also seems to show the preparation needed to start another day - where the speaker needs to feel optimistic to face the next day's errands.
This poem contains much repetition, especially within the parenthetical portion, where the speaker repeats "errand" and "a means to." The repetition seems to resemble the routines of daily life; the first and last lines of the poem also contain the phrase "the dailiness of life," showing that each day in the speaker's life is a cycle, where the beginning of the day seems much like the end of the day. Now that I think about it, the phrase "the dailiness of life" seems to mirror the pattern of the Sun (or rotation of the Earth), where the morning Sun shines across the land from the horizon, and the evening Sun shines light across the land from the opposite side of the horizon. The middle portion of the poem describes the work required to survive: pumping water from a well. This also seems to reflect the daily routine of life during the day, where most people are active during the day. Later, however, the speaker notices that the pump operates by itself due to its own weight; this could be like the periodic rewards that we receive for our efforts each day.
I thought this poem was interesting because it seemed optimistic throughout the poem rather than becoming cynical or pessimistic. The optimism that is seen at the end of the poem also seems to show the preparation needed to start another day - where the speaker needs to feel optimistic to face the next day's errands.
That Light One FInds in Baby Pictures by Jay Hopler
THAT LIGHT ONE FINDS IN BABY PICTURES
1/ Being born is a shame—
But it’s not so bad, as journeys go. It’s not the worst one
We will ever have to make. It’s almost noon
And the light now clouded in the courtyard is
Like that light one finds in baby pictures: old
And pale and hurt—
2/When all roads are low and lead to the same
Place, we call it Fate and tell ourselves how
We were born to make the journey.
Who’sTo say we weren’t?
3/ The clouded light has changed to rain.
The picture—. No, the baby’s blurry.
4/That’s me—, the child playing in the sand with a pail
And shovel; in the background, my mother’s shadow
Is crawling across a soot-blackened collapse of brick
And timber, what might have been a bathhouse once.
The tide is coming in—. Someone has written HELL
On its last standing wall.
Since I have not blogged on my own poem, I will use Jay Hopler’s poem. It definitely striked me as simple at the beginning with words such as “baby pictures and light”. However, progressively it became more difficult to connect all the pieces/stanzas and find the common connection between them-just like in the poem 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Especially, what made me select this poem was the ending with the wall written with HELL grafittied on it. Now, that made me realize that under its simple lines , there must be something the poet was trying to get to. Unconsciously, my first reaction was that this poem did not only involve the simple objects of pictures and light, but rather something more solid, that I could not grasp, is working its way through the poem. I did notice that a lot of cliché was used such as, “being born..journey” The connection of life as a journey has been overdone over and over again. Also “baby pictures are alwsy described as old, sad, reminiscing, pale,etc,etc,etc,etc.”:everyone knows this connection . This reminded of Richard Siken’s Crush because he also used something common as “film” in order to show his conflict. Perhaps, Hopler is also using this strategy in order to describe another underlying meaning that I have missed. I see the similarities of Siken’s and Steven’s poem in which they grab a common ordinary overused object and mold the reader’s mind to view it in a different value. I capture something diffrent of baby pictures- I mean I have never connected pictures with Hell and graffiti – but it defiantly makes me see more introspectively of baby pictures. I also noticed how the third stanza id more indented than the others and it is also peculiar that this is the stanza I have more trouble on understanding than the others. Its odd structure adds to its odd word arrangement. “The baby” and “fate” is italicized and “HELL” is bold….what is the connection??? This reminds me of predestination but that could be or could be not the case here.
1/ Being born is a shame—
But it’s not so bad, as journeys go. It’s not the worst one
We will ever have to make. It’s almost noon
And the light now clouded in the courtyard is
Like that light one finds in baby pictures: old
And pale and hurt—
2/When all roads are low and lead to the same
Place, we call it Fate and tell ourselves how
We were born to make the journey.
Who’sTo say we weren’t?
3/ The clouded light has changed to rain.
The picture—. No, the baby’s blurry.
4/That’s me—, the child playing in the sand with a pail
And shovel; in the background, my mother’s shadow
Is crawling across a soot-blackened collapse of brick
And timber, what might have been a bathhouse once.
The tide is coming in—. Someone has written HELL
On its last standing wall.
Since I have not blogged on my own poem, I will use Jay Hopler’s poem. It definitely striked me as simple at the beginning with words such as “baby pictures and light”. However, progressively it became more difficult to connect all the pieces/stanzas and find the common connection between them-just like in the poem 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Especially, what made me select this poem was the ending with the wall written with HELL grafittied on it. Now, that made me realize that under its simple lines , there must be something the poet was trying to get to. Unconsciously, my first reaction was that this poem did not only involve the simple objects of pictures and light, but rather something more solid, that I could not grasp, is working its way through the poem. I did notice that a lot of cliché was used such as, “being born..journey” The connection of life as a journey has been overdone over and over again. Also “baby pictures are alwsy described as old, sad, reminiscing, pale,etc,etc,etc,etc.”:everyone knows this connection . This reminded of Richard Siken’s Crush because he also used something common as “film” in order to show his conflict. Perhaps, Hopler is also using this strategy in order to describe another underlying meaning that I have missed. I see the similarities of Siken’s and Steven’s poem in which they grab a common ordinary overused object and mold the reader’s mind to view it in a different value. I capture something diffrent of baby pictures- I mean I have never connected pictures with Hell and graffiti – but it defiantly makes me see more introspectively of baby pictures. I also noticed how the third stanza id more indented than the others and it is also peculiar that this is the stanza I have more trouble on understanding than the others. Its odd structure adds to its odd word arrangement. “The baby” and “fate” is italicized and “HELL” is bold….what is the connection??? This reminds me of predestination but that could be or could be not the case here.
You Kindly
You Kindly
by Sharon Olds
pg. 497-8
This poem represents another side of Olds' poetry, as compared to The Glass, which I will be writing my paper on. This poem has great sexual details, while The Glass has more details regarding death and decay. Olds heavily uses details of the female body throughout the poem, in terms of sexual pleasure and the physicalness of the relationship between her and her partner. Though it is a very sexual poem, it is more descriptive, and not necessarily passionate. To quote the poem, it is "like a grey flower / the color of the brain", it is not full of love and exhileration, instead it is more a physical experience. Also interesting is the fact that Olds brings her father into the poem, yet again. She mentions she "did not think of her father's hair" while she is brushing her lover's hair back. To think of your father at a time like this is very unusual and unexpected; it seemed very out of the blue and jarring. The mention of her father also made the passion of the sex degrade, especially.
by Sharon Olds
pg. 497-8
This poem represents another side of Olds' poetry, as compared to The Glass, which I will be writing my paper on. This poem has great sexual details, while The Glass has more details regarding death and decay. Olds heavily uses details of the female body throughout the poem, in terms of sexual pleasure and the physicalness of the relationship between her and her partner. Though it is a very sexual poem, it is more descriptive, and not necessarily passionate. To quote the poem, it is "like a grey flower / the color of the brain", it is not full of love and exhileration, instead it is more a physical experience. Also interesting is the fact that Olds brings her father into the poem, yet again. She mentions she "did not think of her father's hair" while she is brushing her lover's hair back. To think of your father at a time like this is very unusual and unexpected; it seemed very out of the blue and jarring. The mention of her father also made the passion of the sex degrade, especially.
The Sun Rising
The Sun Rising
John Donne
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/sunrising.htm
I love the attitude and tone of this poem. It is all based around the speaker and his attitude towards the woman he loves. It really expresses how those in love block out the rest of the world and it really can "conquer all." Donne goes as far as talking to the sun and scorning it for disturbing him and his love, calling the sun a "saucy pedantic wretch." This harsh and descriptive diction is so powerful, and I just love that line. The poem's focus is two lovers in a bed, and the speaker continues to act as if nothing powerful in the world compares to the power of their love. He says he can "eclipse and cloud [the sun's beams] with a wink." He compares his love to the highest of princes and kings. This poem reminds me of Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" as it has the same underlying theme of love being able to endure great obstacles; this is part of what I love about Donne's poetry. It not only has this appealing theme, but also addresses it in a unique, but very direct, way. There is rhyme in this poem as well, but I feel it adds a flowing and elevated nature. I really enjoy this poem and the speaker's attitude towards the world and the sun in particular is a great way of sticking it to the skeptics who think that love is not all powerful.
John Donne
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/sunrising.htm
I love the attitude and tone of this poem. It is all based around the speaker and his attitude towards the woman he loves. It really expresses how those in love block out the rest of the world and it really can "conquer all." Donne goes as far as talking to the sun and scorning it for disturbing him and his love, calling the sun a "saucy pedantic wretch." This harsh and descriptive diction is so powerful, and I just love that line. The poem's focus is two lovers in a bed, and the speaker continues to act as if nothing powerful in the world compares to the power of their love. He says he can "eclipse and cloud [the sun's beams] with a wink." He compares his love to the highest of princes and kings. This poem reminds me of Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" as it has the same underlying theme of love being able to endure great obstacles; this is part of what I love about Donne's poetry. It not only has this appealing theme, but also addresses it in a unique, but very direct, way. There is rhyme in this poem as well, but I feel it adds a flowing and elevated nature. I really enjoy this poem and the speaker's attitude towards the world and the sun in particular is a great way of sticking it to the skeptics who think that love is not all powerful.
To the Republic
To the Republic
by James Galvin
Past
fences the first sheepmen cast across the land, processions
of cringing pitch or cedar posts pulling into the vanishing
point like fretboards carrying barbed melodies, windharp
narratives, songs of place, I'm thinking of the long cowboy
ballads Ray taught me the beginnings of and would have taught
me the ends if he could have remembered them.
But remembering
was years ago when Ray swamped for ranches at a dollar a day
and found, and played guitar in a Saturday night band, and now
he is dead and I'm remembering near the end when he just needed
a drink before he could tie his shoes.
We'd stay up all night
playing the beginnings of songs like Falling Leaf, about a
girl who died of grief, and Zebra Dun, about a horse that
pawed the light out of the moon.
Sometimes Ray would break
through and recall a few more verses before he'd drop a line
or scramble a rhyme or just go blank, and his workfat hands
would drop the chords and fall away in disbelief.
Between
songs he'd pull on the rum or unleash coughing fits that
sounded like nails in a paper bag.
Done, he'd straighten and
say, My cough's not just right, I need another cigarette, and
light the Parliament he bit at an upward angle like Roosevelt
and play the start of another song.
Then, played out and
drunk enough to go home, he'd pick up his hat and case and
make it, usually on a second try, through the front gate
and gently list out into the early morning dark, beginning
again some song without end, yodeling his vote under spangles.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15472#
Galvin is able to play with his poem and make use of indentation. The whole poem is written as a column, but Galvin has managed to use interesting placement of the first lines of his stanza, and it makes your line of sight curve down as you look at the page. Galvin also breaks against the phrase, and this also helps not only with the column arrangement, but also gives a sense of urgency to his writing. He makes good use of alliteration, and it gives the poem a slow feeling of trudging along. One of the first things that drew me to this poem was the title, “To the Republic,” which immediately reminded me of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Galvin plays with a similar set of images. For example, “yodeling his vote under spangles” brings to mind voting and the Star Spangled Banner, which are both patriotic images. But spangles could also be interpreted as a button, or pin upon a military coat. There are also more images that evoke a sense of Americana, like long cowboy ballads, ranches, horses, and Roosevelt. He is able to allude to an older, simpler time, with a bittersweet nostalgia.
by James Galvin
Past
fences the first sheepmen cast across the land, processions
of cringing pitch or cedar posts pulling into the vanishing
point like fretboards carrying barbed melodies, windharp
narratives, songs of place, I'm thinking of the long cowboy
ballads Ray taught me the beginnings of and would have taught
me the ends if he could have remembered them.
But remembering
was years ago when Ray swamped for ranches at a dollar a day
and found, and played guitar in a Saturday night band, and now
he is dead and I'm remembering near the end when he just needed
a drink before he could tie his shoes.
We'd stay up all night
playing the beginnings of songs like Falling Leaf, about a
girl who died of grief, and Zebra Dun, about a horse that
pawed the light out of the moon.
Sometimes Ray would break
through and recall a few more verses before he'd drop a line
or scramble a rhyme or just go blank, and his workfat hands
would drop the chords and fall away in disbelief.
Between
songs he'd pull on the rum or unleash coughing fits that
sounded like nails in a paper bag.
Done, he'd straighten and
say, My cough's not just right, I need another cigarette, and
light the Parliament he bit at an upward angle like Roosevelt
and play the start of another song.
Then, played out and
drunk enough to go home, he'd pick up his hat and case and
make it, usually on a second try, through the front gate
and gently list out into the early morning dark, beginning
again some song without end, yodeling his vote under spangles.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15472#
Galvin is able to play with his poem and make use of indentation. The whole poem is written as a column, but Galvin has managed to use interesting placement of the first lines of his stanza, and it makes your line of sight curve down as you look at the page. Galvin also breaks against the phrase, and this also helps not only with the column arrangement, but also gives a sense of urgency to his writing. He makes good use of alliteration, and it gives the poem a slow feeling of trudging along. One of the first things that drew me to this poem was the title, “To the Republic,” which immediately reminded me of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Galvin plays with a similar set of images. For example, “yodeling his vote under spangles” brings to mind voting and the Star Spangled Banner, which are both patriotic images. But spangles could also be interpreted as a button, or pin upon a military coat. There are also more images that evoke a sense of Americana, like long cowboy ballads, ranches, horses, and Roosevelt. He is able to allude to an older, simpler time, with a bittersweet nostalgia.
Journey into the Interior
by Theodore Roethke
In the long journey out of the self,
There are many detours, washed-out interrupted raw places
Where the shale slides dangerously
And the back wheels hang almost over the edge
At the sudden veering, the moment of turning.
Better to hug close, wary of rubble and falling stones.
The arroyo cracking the road, the wind-bitten buttes, the canyons,
Creeks swollen in midsummer from the flash-flood roaring into the narrow valley.
Reeds beaten flat by wind and rain,
Grey from the long winter, burnt at the base in late summer.
-- Or the path narrowing,
Winding upward toward the stream with its sharp stones,
The upland of alder and birchtrees,
Through the swamp alive with quicksand,
The way blocked at last by a fallen fir-tree,
The thickets darkening,
The ravines ugly.
------------
The first thing that I thought was peculiar about the poem was how it is talking about the journey into the "interior", which to me gives a sense of an internal search within oneself, yet much of the imagery that is used in the poem aludes to the outside world. It is not just any environment either; it takes about places that seem very barren far from any human contact. I thought that these contrasting images used to compare someone's "interior" to vast, lonely places was very interesting. I also thought that it was contradictory to say "journey out of the self" but into the interior at the same time. The ways the author described the journey worked in the way that it made that journey seem not only dangerous, but one that someone must face him/herself. I did not get a sense for any type of connection with an outside person besides the within the writer. By the end of the poem, I am not exactly sure if the journey was completed or not. It talks about how "the way" was "blocked at last", and immediately the scene darkens and gets uglier, as if the situation is closing in on the person. Interpreted in this way, it would seem that trying to find something deep within oneself is almost an impossible task. Either that, or the journey is still unfinished, with more obstacles to come in the way.
There are many detours, washed-out interrupted raw places
Where the shale slides dangerously
And the back wheels hang almost over the edge
At the sudden veering, the moment of turning.
Better to hug close, wary of rubble and falling stones.
The arroyo cracking the road, the wind-bitten buttes, the canyons,
Creeks swollen in midsummer from the flash-flood roaring into the narrow valley.
Reeds beaten flat by wind and rain,
Grey from the long winter, burnt at the base in late summer.
-- Or the path narrowing,
Winding upward toward the stream with its sharp stones,
The upland of alder and birchtrees,
Through the swamp alive with quicksand,
The way blocked at last by a fallen fir-tree,
The thickets darkening,
The ravines ugly.
------------
The first thing that I thought was peculiar about the poem was how it is talking about the journey into the "interior", which to me gives a sense of an internal search within oneself, yet much of the imagery that is used in the poem aludes to the outside world. It is not just any environment either; it takes about places that seem very barren far from any human contact. I thought that these contrasting images used to compare someone's "interior" to vast, lonely places was very interesting. I also thought that it was contradictory to say "journey out of the self" but into the interior at the same time. The ways the author described the journey worked in the way that it made that journey seem not only dangerous, but one that someone must face him/herself. I did not get a sense for any type of connection with an outside person besides the within the writer. By the end of the poem, I am not exactly sure if the journey was completed or not. It talks about how "the way" was "blocked at last", and immediately the scene darkens and gets uglier, as if the situation is closing in on the person. Interpreted in this way, it would seem that trying to find something deep within oneself is almost an impossible task. Either that, or the journey is still unfinished, with more obstacles to come in the way.
The Heaven of Animals by James Dickey
The Heaven of Animals by James Dickey
Here they are. The soft eyes open.
If they have lived in a wood
It is a wood.
If they have lived on plains
It is grass rolling
Under their feet forever.
Having no souls, they have come,
Anyway, beyond their knowing.
Their instincts wholly bloom
And they rise.
The soft eyes open.
To match them, the landscape flowers,
Outdoing, desperately
Outdoing what is required:
The richest wood,
The deepest field.
For some of these,
It could not be the place
It is, without blood.
These hunt, as they have done
But with claws and teeth grown perfect,
More deadly than they can believe.
They stalk more silently,
And crouch on limbs of trees,
And their descent
Upon the bright backs of their prey
May take years
In a sovereign floating of joy.
And those that are hunted
Know this as their life,
Their reward: to walk
Under such trees in full knowledge
Of what is in glory above them,
And to feel no fear,
But acceptance, compliance.
Fulfilling themselves without pain
At the cycle's center,
They tremble, they walk
Under the tree,
They fall, they are torn,
They rise, they walk again.
In comparison with James Dickey's The Hospital Window, this poem is very similar. One of the first similarities I notice is the short, staccato sentences. Both poems have short lines with very strong "t" sounds. The poem also flows very well with repetition of sounds like "To match them, the landscape flowers,/ Outdoing, desperately/ Outdoing what is required:/ The richest wood,/ The deepest field". Dickey does a great job of emphasizing the nouns with the use of "the" and then saying "outgoing" to articulate different thoughts.
Another similarity I find is the way Dickey uses the words "rise", "floating", and "glory above them" in this poem. Although he is talking about animals in this poem, the way he talks about his father in The Hospital Window draws a picture of a similar heaven. He creates a sort of grim image with "It could not be the place/ It is, without blood./ These hunt, as they have done/ But with claws and teeth grown perfect" but then makes up for it in saying that this is where all animals can be at peace because although they must experience pain, they somehow find a way to live again in this heaven.
“Looking into History” by Richard Wilbur [pg. 126-128]
Like Wilbur’s other poems, he uses end rhymes and four lined stanzas. In this poem, the rhyme pattern is abab. The gives structure gives an air of formal writing: the verses are neat and particularly organized. The formality of the poem is more expressed by capitalizing every letter in the beginning of each line. The overall feeling that the speaker has is a sense of lost. I see the speaker looking at an old picture of soldiers. This object triggers the emotion that the speaker goes through. It is also the element of the speaker’s thinking. Wilbur alludes to other literature and history in his poem. In the first line, Mathew Brady, a Civil War photographer, is mentioned. This gives the clue that the speaker knows the details of the Civil War, or at least the photograph. The speaker refers to himself as Hamlet, referencing Shakespeare, to convey his internal emotions of confusion. The pictures act as a barrier separating the speaker from the men in the picture. The speaker can only wonder the thoughts of the soldiers captures on camera. Wilbur also alludes to Macbeth in mentioning the illusion of Birnam Wood. He uses the reference to describe the situation he pictures the soldiers in. The first part of the poem focuses on him looking at the picture. It is the most distant kind of interaction with the soldiers. The second part has the speaker imagining him at the location of the soldiers. It gets closer in the third part, when the speaker understands his feelings for the soldiers. The speaker feels as if time separates him from the past.
Like Wilbur’s other poems, he uses end rhymes and four lined stanzas. In this poem, the rhyme pattern is abab. The gives structure gives an air of formal writing: the verses are neat and particularly organized. The formality of the poem is more expressed by capitalizing every letter in the beginning of each line. The overall feeling that the speaker has is a sense of lost. I see the speaker looking at an old picture of soldiers. This object triggers the emotion that the speaker goes through. It is also the element of the speaker’s thinking. Wilbur alludes to other literature and history in his poem. In the first line, Mathew Brady, a Civil War photographer, is mentioned. This gives the clue that the speaker knows the details of the Civil War, or at least the photograph. The speaker refers to himself as Hamlet, referencing Shakespeare, to convey his internal emotions of confusion. The pictures act as a barrier separating the speaker from the men in the picture. The speaker can only wonder the thoughts of the soldiers captures on camera. Wilbur also alludes to Macbeth in mentioning the illusion of Birnam Wood. He uses the reference to describe the situation he pictures the soldiers in. The first part of the poem focuses on him looking at the picture. It is the most distant kind of interaction with the soldiers. The second part has the speaker imagining him at the location of the soldiers. It gets closer in the third part, when the speaker understands his feelings for the soldiers. The speaker feels as if time separates him from the past.
Parents
Parents by William Meredith
What it must be like to be an angelor a squirrel, we can imagine sooner.
The last time we go to bed good,they are there, lying about darkness.
They dandle us once too often,these friends who become our enemies.
Suddenly one day, their juniorsare as old as we yearn to be. They get wrinkles where it is bettersmooth, odd coughs, and smells.
It is grotesque how they go on
loving us, we go on loving them
The effrontery, barely imaginable,of having caused us. And of how.
Their lives: surelywe can do better than that.
This goes on for a long time. Everythingthey do is wrong, and the worst thing,
they all do it, is to die,
taking with them the last explanation,
how we came out of the wet seaor wherever they got us from,
taking the last linkof that chain with them.
Father, mother, we cry, wrinkling,to our uncomprehending children and grandchildren. Monday, February 5, 2007
The Best Slow Dancer by David Wagoner
The Best Slow Dancer By David Wagoner
In this poem, my first impression is a feeling of floating and a feeling of being caught up in a slow motion camera. With the words he uses, I feel as if I am the taking part of the dance ; I immediately identified myself as the girl rather than the “you”. –perhaps because I always take the feminine side of everything almost always. The Title is sort of contradictory at first to me because I always imagined a dancer as fast-moving with expertise but perhaps by reading this poem, those two words , “best slow” are a perfect combination to describe the slow passion undertaking through these “slow” dancing movements. The poem accurately describes the physicality of the dance and by doing this one can transform physically and mentally into the dancer he is describing. Since dancing is all physical, this poem entails physical descriptions of human contact in order to instill the feeling of basically “feeling” the touch of the dance. After the last human contact of the lips, the speaker shifts physicality into contemplation of wanting to tell her something. It all shifts into mind of the boy and how he is not a boy any longer. It is interesting how right after the physical contact of lips with ear that this physical dancing contact is gone between the two. Perhaps it is because, the lips was the aim of the dance and the other human contact was needed in order to get to the pursuable-the lips. Through the lips he can tell his story and that is what he indeed wanted. I also like how the poem has a lot of “s” sounds in order to make the dance slow with lots of hushes and he and her exist with this hushness around them.
In this poem, my first impression is a feeling of floating and a feeling of being caught up in a slow motion camera. With the words he uses, I feel as if I am the taking part of the dance ; I immediately identified myself as the girl rather than the “you”. –perhaps because I always take the feminine side of everything almost always. The Title is sort of contradictory at first to me because I always imagined a dancer as fast-moving with expertise but perhaps by reading this poem, those two words , “best slow” are a perfect combination to describe the slow passion undertaking through these “slow” dancing movements. The poem accurately describes the physicality of the dance and by doing this one can transform physically and mentally into the dancer he is describing. Since dancing is all physical, this poem entails physical descriptions of human contact in order to instill the feeling of basically “feeling” the touch of the dance. After the last human contact of the lips, the speaker shifts physicality into contemplation of wanting to tell her something. It all shifts into mind of the boy and how he is not a boy any longer. It is interesting how right after the physical contact of lips with ear that this physical dancing contact is gone between the two. Perhaps it is because, the lips was the aim of the dance and the other human contact was needed in order to get to the pursuable-the lips. Through the lips he can tell his story and that is what he indeed wanted. I also like how the poem has a lot of “s” sounds in order to make the dance slow with lots of hushes and he and her exist with this hushness around them.
90 North
"90 North" by Randall Jarrell (p. 56-57)
I was drawn to this poem because of the title; I assumed that the number 90 in the title referenced the number of degrees in the angle to find the North Pole (90 degree angle/right angle). At second thought, the title seems to be slightly redundant in that North is obviously 90 degrees North of the Equator, and North is simply a direction that indicates directly "upward" from the Equator.
The poem is broken into eight stanzas, each with four lines (with the exception of the third stanza, which contains a fifth indented line). The number of stanzas seems to fill the space between each 10-degree mark from the Equator, and every line could count for about two degrees. At the beginning, and end of the poem, the speaker seems to be at home, about to sleep at night in bed. He first mentions a long voyage with his "furs" and "dogs," and only in his voyage he mentions that he has a black beard. The imagery seems particular; he only describes the way the snow falls and the thoughts he has after his "voyage." This could signify that reaching a final goal in life requires the determination to survive through the cold and ruthlessness that will attempt to bring suffering into one's life. He seems to mention this idea of pain especially at the end, where he essentially states that wisdom is pain: without pain (physical or psychological), we will not learn, and therefore to possess wisdom is to have experienced pain previously.
The speaker seems to have described the processes that occurred when he fell asleep in his bed at night, and then woke up the next morning, as mirrored as like that of what seems to be the dream of traveling to the North Pole with dogs. The climactic point of the dream is probably when he places the flag into the ice at the North Pole, and the process of waking up could be seen through his travel South. The last three stanzas seem to mainly speak about his thoughts after waking up and reflecting on the dream, where he realized that in surviving through the darkness (sleeping through the night), he was able to learn that life requires pain to reach a climactic point.
I was drawn to this poem because of the title; I assumed that the number 90 in the title referenced the number of degrees in the angle to find the North Pole (90 degree angle/right angle). At second thought, the title seems to be slightly redundant in that North is obviously 90 degrees North of the Equator, and North is simply a direction that indicates directly "upward" from the Equator.
The poem is broken into eight stanzas, each with four lines (with the exception of the third stanza, which contains a fifth indented line). The number of stanzas seems to fill the space between each 10-degree mark from the Equator, and every line could count for about two degrees. At the beginning, and end of the poem, the speaker seems to be at home, about to sleep at night in bed. He first mentions a long voyage with his "furs" and "dogs," and only in his voyage he mentions that he has a black beard. The imagery seems particular; he only describes the way the snow falls and the thoughts he has after his "voyage." This could signify that reaching a final goal in life requires the determination to survive through the cold and ruthlessness that will attempt to bring suffering into one's life. He seems to mention this idea of pain especially at the end, where he essentially states that wisdom is pain: without pain (physical or psychological), we will not learn, and therefore to possess wisdom is to have experienced pain previously.
The speaker seems to have described the processes that occurred when he fell asleep in his bed at night, and then woke up the next morning, as mirrored as like that of what seems to be the dream of traveling to the North Pole with dogs. The climactic point of the dream is probably when he places the flag into the ice at the North Pole, and the process of waking up could be seen through his travel South. The last three stanzas seem to mainly speak about his thoughts after waking up and reflecting on the dream, where he realized that in surviving through the darkness (sleeping through the night), he was able to learn that life requires pain to reach a climactic point.
The Heaven of Animals
by James Dickey
p. 155
I really enjoy this poem because it is a great example of what I believe poetry is supposed to do: to make you think while bringing on a new, maybe even overwhelming emotion. After reading this poem for the first time, my feelings at the time, and even my sense of time and space, were completely displaced, and I felt the happiness, the feel of "Heaven," expressed by the poem. In the blurb about Dickey, Dickey is quoted of speaking of poetry being "the emotional, half-animal, intuitive way in which we actually experience the world" and "the forfeited animal grace of human beings." This is another great thing about this poem, the connection of humans to primal feelings, putting the reader to a primal state of mind that anyone can understand. "The soft eyes," "the riches wood," and "the deepest field" are things anybody (or at least in my case), not just animals desire after leaving this life. I especially love the way the poem ends, talking about the Heaven of those animals that are preyed upon, and them having "full knowledge" and "no fear, but acceptance, compliance." For me, the "Heaven" expressed in this poem is indescribable, a real work of art.
p. 155
I really enjoy this poem because it is a great example of what I believe poetry is supposed to do: to make you think while bringing on a new, maybe even overwhelming emotion. After reading this poem for the first time, my feelings at the time, and even my sense of time and space, were completely displaced, and I felt the happiness, the feel of "Heaven," expressed by the poem. In the blurb about Dickey, Dickey is quoted of speaking of poetry being "the emotional, half-animal, intuitive way in which we actually experience the world" and "the forfeited animal grace of human beings." This is another great thing about this poem, the connection of humans to primal feelings, putting the reader to a primal state of mind that anyone can understand. "The soft eyes," "the riches wood," and "the deepest field" are things anybody (or at least in my case), not just animals desire after leaving this life. I especially love the way the poem ends, talking about the Heaven of those animals that are preyed upon, and them having "full knowledge" and "no fear, but acceptance, compliance." For me, the "Heaven" expressed in this poem is indescribable, a real work of art.
The Illiterate
The Illiterate
William Meredith
http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/Illiterate.html
Touching your goodness, I am like a man
Who turns a letter over in his hand
And you might think that this was because the hand
Was unfamiliar but, truth is, the man
Has never had a letter from anyone;
And now he is both afraid of what it means
And ashamed because he has no other means
To find out what it says than to ask someone.
William Meredith
http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/Illiterate.html
Touching your goodness, I am like a man
Who turns a letter over in his hand
And you might think that this was because the hand
Was unfamiliar but, truth is, the man
Has never had a letter from anyone;
And now he is both afraid of what it means
And ashamed because he has no other means
To find out what it says than to ask someone.
His uncle could have left the farm to him,
Or his parents died before he sent them word,
Or the dark girl changed and want him for beloved.
Afraid and letter-proud, he keeps it with him.
What would you call his feeling for the words
that keep him rich and orphaned and beloved?
The Reckoning
The Reckoning
by Theodore Roethke
All profits disappear: the gain
Of ease, the hoarded, secret sum;
And now grim digits of old pain
Return to litter up our home.
We hunt the cause of ruin, add,
Subtract, and put ourselves in pawn;
For all our scratching on the pad,
We cannot trace the error down.
What we are seeking is a fare
One way, a chance to be secure:
The lack that keeps us what we are,
The penny that usurps the poor.
http://gawow.com/roethke/poems/28.html
Roethke titles his poem “The Reckoning,” which at first glance gives you mental images of revenge of a lover, or some other emotional situation that involved getting what is due to you. But instead we are presented with another picture of drama, this one being incurred by “numbers” or taxes. I love how Roethke is able to twist the meanings or words around and use them in fresh ways to make his poems appealing and witty. He uses slant rhyme in stanza two, so the rhyme scheme is abac. In this poem he has end rhymed the first and third line of the first two stanzas, and in the third used eye-rhyme. Roethke is able to make his poem flow by using iambic tetrameter. He also uses internal rhyme with alliteration that also helps with the flow. In addition, Roethke also makes use of imagery. We are able to see the people in the poem frantically work go over math on a legal pad trying to figure out their mistake. He also juxtaposes each image of addition with something that takes away, or subtracts from it to keep in mind the “reckoning” of his subjects, creating logical poetry.
by Theodore Roethke
All profits disappear: the gain
Of ease, the hoarded, secret sum;
And now grim digits of old pain
Return to litter up our home.
We hunt the cause of ruin, add,
Subtract, and put ourselves in pawn;
For all our scratching on the pad,
We cannot trace the error down.
What we are seeking is a fare
One way, a chance to be secure:
The lack that keeps us what we are,
The penny that usurps the poor.
http://gawow.com/roethke/poems/28.html
Roethke titles his poem “The Reckoning,” which at first glance gives you mental images of revenge of a lover, or some other emotional situation that involved getting what is due to you. But instead we are presented with another picture of drama, this one being incurred by “numbers” or taxes. I love how Roethke is able to twist the meanings or words around and use them in fresh ways to make his poems appealing and witty. He uses slant rhyme in stanza two, so the rhyme scheme is abac. In this poem he has end rhymed the first and third line of the first two stanzas, and in the third used eye-rhyme. Roethke is able to make his poem flow by using iambic tetrameter. He also uses internal rhyme with alliteration that also helps with the flow. In addition, Roethke also makes use of imagery. We are able to see the people in the poem frantically work go over math on a legal pad trying to figure out their mistake. He also juxtaposes each image of addition with something that takes away, or subtracts from it to keep in mind the “reckoning” of his subjects, creating logical poetry.
I Knew a Woman
I Knew a Woman
Theodore Roethke
http://gawow.com/roethke/poems/122.html
This is a very loaded poem with some beautiful language and many deeper meanings. I love the first stanza as it describes the woman in all of her beauty and how amazing she is. At first I saw this as a woman the speaker adores and loves in a romantic way, but as I got to the second stanza, where there are references to teaching, especially things like standing and that she stroked his chin, I thought of the possibility that she is a motherly figure the speaker loves and looks up to. The last three stanzas of the poem have a great deal of metaphors and thought provoking ideas with deeper meanings in them. These are the most difficult to decipher exactly what is going on in the poem, but it all seems to attract the reader and really strikes me. The rhyme scheme is very set and gives a light flow as each line progresses to the next. It isn't a sing-song type of rhyme, but rather a connecting one. There is also an interesting use of parenthesis at the last line of every stanza. This seems to offset ad accent that final line. I find it interesting that if you read only the parenthesized lines, it all seems to be one flowing idea. Almost a mini poem that gives a feel of the original as a whole.
Theodore Roethke
http://gawow.com/roethke/poems/122.html
This is a very loaded poem with some beautiful language and many deeper meanings. I love the first stanza as it describes the woman in all of her beauty and how amazing she is. At first I saw this as a woman the speaker adores and loves in a romantic way, but as I got to the second stanza, where there are references to teaching, especially things like standing and that she stroked his chin, I thought of the possibility that she is a motherly figure the speaker loves and looks up to. The last three stanzas of the poem have a great deal of metaphors and thought provoking ideas with deeper meanings in them. These are the most difficult to decipher exactly what is going on in the poem, but it all seems to attract the reader and really strikes me. The rhyme scheme is very set and gives a light flow as each line progresses to the next. It isn't a sing-song type of rhyme, but rather a connecting one. There is also an interesting use of parenthesis at the last line of every stanza. This seems to offset ad accent that final line. I find it interesting that if you read only the parenthesized lines, it all seems to be one flowing idea. Almost a mini poem that gives a feel of the original as a whole.
I Knew a Woman
by Theodore Roethke
page 45-46
I chose to blog this poem because I saw some parallels to the "Dream Song" poem that my group presented in class. After reading this poem, you get a sense about this man in love, who has nothing but praise and kind words about the woman in the poem. The way in which he describes her is very far from cliche, and although his descriptions may be a little unclear at first, everything in the poem comes together to give this very soft, delicate feeling towards the woman. Words and phrases such as "undulant white skin" and "dazzled at her flowing knees" make the woman very feminine, almost fragile in a sense. Roethke says that "when small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them". Comparing this woman to a small bird puts her above any other woman; like a small bird, she is a very sweet, pretty thing to look at. Also like a small bird, if you get too close to fast, you will scare her away, so the author acts towards her with the utmost gentleness. The line "of her choice virtues only gods could speak" further separate her from any other woman, almost like she is from somewhere higher than this world. Although the rhyme varies throughout the poem, the general scheme for each stanza is ABABCCC, with changes here in there in a couple lines. The way the rhyme scheme separates each stanza makes the reader pay more attention to each stanza on its own, making it obvious where one idea ends and the next begins, not because of the end of the stanza but of the final rhyme.
page 45-46
I chose to blog this poem because I saw some parallels to the "Dream Song" poem that my group presented in class. After reading this poem, you get a sense about this man in love, who has nothing but praise and kind words about the woman in the poem. The way in which he describes her is very far from cliche, and although his descriptions may be a little unclear at first, everything in the poem comes together to give this very soft, delicate feeling towards the woman. Words and phrases such as "undulant white skin" and "dazzled at her flowing knees" make the woman very feminine, almost fragile in a sense. Roethke says that "when small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them". Comparing this woman to a small bird puts her above any other woman; like a small bird, she is a very sweet, pretty thing to look at. Also like a small bird, if you get too close to fast, you will scare her away, so the author acts towards her with the utmost gentleness. The line "of her choice virtues only gods could speak" further separate her from any other woman, almost like she is from somewhere higher than this world. Although the rhyme varies throughout the poem, the general scheme for each stanza is ABABCCC, with changes here in there in a couple lines. The way the rhyme scheme separates each stanza makes the reader pay more attention to each stanza on its own, making it obvious where one idea ends and the next begins, not because of the end of the stanza but of the final rhyme.
The Gas Station
The Gas Station
by CK Williams
pg.426
The author of this poem, CK Williams, chose to write his poem with longer and more complete sentences as opposed to small phrases, like many poets do. By having these long sentences, the poem seems like it could be a paragraph, if it was written out in such a format. The languages is very descriptive; this also supports that it could act as a paragraph in a novel. The structure of the poem compliments the long sentences that fills the poem. The poem is describing a long train ride, so it is likely that the poem's long lines on the page as well as constant indents represents the length of the train ride, and the indents being the jerks of the train as it rattles down the tracks. CK Williams occationally has short abrupt sentences, in the midst of the long drawn out ones. These made me stop and read it as if the speaker was more startled, as if they were observing these things and taking quick notes on what they saw.
by CK Williams
pg.426
The author of this poem, CK Williams, chose to write his poem with longer and more complete sentences as opposed to small phrases, like many poets do. By having these long sentences, the poem seems like it could be a paragraph, if it was written out in such a format. The languages is very descriptive; this also supports that it could act as a paragraph in a novel. The structure of the poem compliments the long sentences that fills the poem. The poem is describing a long train ride, so it is likely that the poem's long lines on the page as well as constant indents represents the length of the train ride, and the indents being the jerks of the train as it rattles down the tracks. CK Williams occationally has short abrupt sentences, in the midst of the long drawn out ones. These made me stop and read it as if the speaker was more startled, as if they were observing these things and taking quick notes on what they saw.
The Waking
by Theodore Roethke (p.45)
This poem has an interesting feel to it. It seems to be about taking everything in step as they come. This idea seems emphasized by a line that is repeated throughout the poem "I learn by going where I have to go." The relaxed nature of the poem seems to characterize the mindset that is setup by the title "The Waking." The images and feelings that the poem describes are very natural, and seem to point to a very dreamlike awareness.
Another take on the poem could be the acceptance of an inevitability that may not be desirable, such as death. The poet writes "I feel my fate in what I cannot fear." this seems to be an acceptance of the inevitability, and later in the poem he writes "This shaking keeps me steady" as if to say that although he may fear death, he also lives for an end so that he can make more of himself while living. This is implied by the indications of taking thing in turn, an not trying to rush ahead. If each action is dealt with individually there is no need to fear an ending. In the repeated line "I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow." The author suggest everything that lives must die, so why not take waking, living, slow. Also by referencing "Great Nature" the poet seems to reference the cycle of life to be beyond the control of man, fate is something much larger than himself. To further the impression of the cyclic manner of things he write "What falls away is always." which seems like a manner of saying that even after death, which can be related to falling away, it is always contained in the cycle.
This poem has an interesting feel to it. It seems to be about taking everything in step as they come. This idea seems emphasized by a line that is repeated throughout the poem "I learn by going where I have to go." The relaxed nature of the poem seems to characterize the mindset that is setup by the title "The Waking." The images and feelings that the poem describes are very natural, and seem to point to a very dreamlike awareness.
Another take on the poem could be the acceptance of an inevitability that may not be desirable, such as death. The poet writes "I feel my fate in what I cannot fear." this seems to be an acceptance of the inevitability, and later in the poem he writes "This shaking keeps me steady" as if to say that although he may fear death, he also lives for an end so that he can make more of himself while living. This is implied by the indications of taking thing in turn, an not trying to rush ahead. If each action is dealt with individually there is no need to fear an ending. In the repeated line "I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow." The author suggest everything that lives must die, so why not take waking, living, slow. Also by referencing "Great Nature" the poet seems to reference the cycle of life to be beyond the control of man, fate is something much larger than himself. To further the impression of the cyclic manner of things he write "What falls away is always." which seems like a manner of saying that even after death, which can be related to falling away, it is always contained in the cycle.
“Advice to a Prophet” by Richard Wilbur [p. 130-131]
In this poem, the speaker is a person addressing the prophet. This poem most likely occurs before the prophet enters the city. It is the speaker’s response to the prophet’s action. The speaker carries a tone of indifference and knowledge at the same time. The speaker has an attitude that he already knows what the prophet would say. The poem carries a regular rhyme pattern of abba and every stanza is four lines long. This consistency gives the poem a strict persona. It would relate to the message of the poem since mass destruction is a serious subject. One of the biggest images used is one of destruction. The use of heavy words, such as “death”, “soul”, and “cold”, gives the speaker a yelling or argumentative tone. It further shows the speaker as somewhat disrespectful of the prophet. The prophet is a faceless character in this poem. His existence is only through the speaker’s reference to the prophet. It leads to question who the prophet is. From reading the poem, two references to God are made. The first one, the speaker sets the prophet as a missionary of God. He is shown as one of those people who would yell the do-this -or-you’ll-burn-in-hell speech in the populated area of the streets. The second reference is the “dove’s return” from the Noah’s Ark story. It alludes to previous messages of God. In this poem, the use of “we” and “us” hints that the speaker is mixed into the ordinary populace. Either the speaker is acting as the spokesperson or the speaker is all people in a way. My favorite part is when the “worldless rose” is mentioned in the beginning of the last verse. The contrast of the image is chilling.
In this poem, the speaker is a person addressing the prophet. This poem most likely occurs before the prophet enters the city. It is the speaker’s response to the prophet’s action. The speaker carries a tone of indifference and knowledge at the same time. The speaker has an attitude that he already knows what the prophet would say. The poem carries a regular rhyme pattern of abba and every stanza is four lines long. This consistency gives the poem a strict persona. It would relate to the message of the poem since mass destruction is a serious subject. One of the biggest images used is one of destruction. The use of heavy words, such as “death”, “soul”, and “cold”, gives the speaker a yelling or argumentative tone. It further shows the speaker as somewhat disrespectful of the prophet. The prophet is a faceless character in this poem. His existence is only through the speaker’s reference to the prophet. It leads to question who the prophet is. From reading the poem, two references to God are made. The first one, the speaker sets the prophet as a missionary of God. He is shown as one of those people who would yell the do-this -or-you’ll-burn-in-hell speech in the populated area of the streets. The second reference is the “dove’s return” from the Noah’s Ark story. It alludes to previous messages of God. In this poem, the use of “we” and “us” hints that the speaker is mixed into the ordinary populace. Either the speaker is acting as the spokesperson or the speaker is all people in a way. My favorite part is when the “worldless rose” is mentioned in the beginning of the last verse. The contrast of the image is chilling.
The Hospital Window by James Dickey
I have just come down from my father.
Higher and higher he lies
Above me in a blue light
Shed by a tinted window.
I drop through six white floors
And then step out onto pavement.
Still feeling my father ascend,
I start to cross the firm street,
My shoulder blades shining with all
The glass the huge building can raise.
Now I must turn round and face it,
And know his one pane from the others.
Each window possesses the sun
As though it burned there on a wick.
I wave, like a man catching fire.
All the deep-dyed windowpanes flash,
and, behind them, all the white rooms
They turn to the color of Heaven.
Ceremoniously, gravely, and weakly,
Dozens of pale hands are waving
Back, from inside their flames.
Yet one pure pane among these
Is the bright, erased blankness of nothing.
I know that my father is there,
In the shape of his death still living.
The traffic increases around me
Like a madness called down on my head.
The horns blast at me like shotguns,
And drivers lean out, driven crazy—
But now my propped-up father
Lifts his arm out of stillness at last.
The light from the window strikes me
And I turn as blue as a soul,
As the moment when I was born.
I am not afraid for my father—
Look! He is grinning; he is not
Afraid for my life, either,
As the wild engines stand at my knees
Shredding their gears and roaring,
And I hold each car in its place
For miles, inciting its horn
To blow down the walls of the world
That the dying may float without fear
In the bold blue gaze of my father.
Slowly I move to the sidewalk
With my pin-tingling hand half dead
At the end of my bloodless arm.
I carry it off in amazement,
High, still higher, still waving
My recognized face fully mortal,
Yet not; not at all, in the pale,
drained, otherworldly, stricken,
Created hue of stained glass.
I have just come down from my father.
The first thing I notice about this poem is that it begins and ends with the line, "I have just come down from my father". That line can have different meanings for the author ranging from: he (the man in the poem) has literally just come down from visiting his father, he has just been released from his father's hold, or something along the lines of visiting his father in heaven. I notice that each stanza is exactly 6 lines each. Dickey uses imagery containing color and other words such as "tainted", "pale", "hue", etc. He also manages to create each image by describing sounds heard or by what he physically feels at the time. I enjoy the way Dickey portrays the present reality of life compared to the passing of the father in the poem. Dickey also makes another parallel aside from the first and last lines by giving the idea that people are born and die with the same blue color. There are also many references to windows, glass, and other items that the man in the poem can apparently see clearly through--this maybe is his internal realization of needing to be away from his father.
Dying
by Robert Pinsky p. 455-6
This seems to be mainly a meditation on death. Initially it is dealt with in reference to things, concrete and abstract that die--dogs, metaphors--and then the poem moves to "someone I know is dying" which I think is the triggering subject of the poem. Then he moves to things that are growing but also dying, as we all are. The speaker also mentions pace of dying. The dying acquaintance is dying faster than the rest of us, which makes it more significant. There are also comparisons of human death to the other living things: the moth is nerveless like the nails and hair on our bodies but it is also like a soul. I don't know what to make of the last line: "Bored and impatient in the monster's mouth." Maybe the monster's mouth is a metaphor for the universe. The feeling I get from this poem is the interconnectedness of all life and death. There are nine 3-line stanzas, about half end-stopped and the lines are relatively long but there is plenty of punctuation within the lines in the first four stanzas. I think the stanzas flow more, having less punctuation in the remaining stanzas, the pace actually quickens, which makes us feel the increased pace of some deaths compared to others.
This seems to be mainly a meditation on death. Initially it is dealt with in reference to things, concrete and abstract that die--dogs, metaphors--and then the poem moves to "someone I know is dying" which I think is the triggering subject of the poem. Then he moves to things that are growing but also dying, as we all are. The speaker also mentions pace of dying. The dying acquaintance is dying faster than the rest of us, which makes it more significant. There are also comparisons of human death to the other living things: the moth is nerveless like the nails and hair on our bodies but it is also like a soul. I don't know what to make of the last line: "Bored and impatient in the monster's mouth." Maybe the monster's mouth is a metaphor for the universe. The feeling I get from this poem is the interconnectedness of all life and death. There are nine 3-line stanzas, about half end-stopped and the lines are relatively long but there is plenty of punctuation within the lines in the first four stanzas. I think the stanzas flow more, having less punctuation in the remaining stanzas, the pace actually quickens, which makes us feel the increased pace of some deaths compared to others.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Country Stars by William Meredith (p. 115)
This is a short poem, containing two stanzas with five lines in each stanza. The poem has the rhyme scheme of abbab and cdcdd. I like how the poem opens up with a cute scene of a child coming downstairs to get a goodnight kiss. From the title, I could picture a little house in the country, where there are beautiful sceneries and bright stars at night. However, the poem then talks about cities, a chemical plant, and clotted cars. The second stanza makes it clear that the poem is about pollution and how it’s destroying our environment. I think when the child in the first stanza “blows on a black windowpane until it’s white,” she is trying to create the brightness of the stars. Through the black windowpane, the child could see a great bear passing over the apple trees. I take this to mean the pollution smokes that resemble the shape of a big bear. Thus, the child covers that by blowing on the windowpane. The last line of the first stanza also says that “she puts her own construction on the night,” meaning that the child creates her own surroundings where there are no smokes but the brightness of stars, like the “bright watchers” in the last sentence of the poem.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Prodigy
Prodigy
by Charles Simic
I grew up bent over
a chessboard.
I loved the word endgame.
All my cousins looked worried.
It was a small house
near a Roman graveyard.
Planes and tanks
shook its windowpanes.
A retired professor of astronomy
taught me how to play.
That must have been in 1944.
In the set we were using,
the paint had almost chipped off
the black pieces.
The white King was missing
and had to be substituted for.
I'm told but do not believe
that that summer I had witnessed
men hung from telephone poles.
I remember my mother
blindfolding me a lot.
She had a way to tucking my head
suddenly under her overcoat.
In chess, too, the professor told me,
the masters play blindfolded,
the great ones on several boards
at the same time.
The first line of this poem is what immediately caught my attention. The image it created for me after reading it was so powerful that I knew I would be forced to read the entire poem. "I grew up bent over/ a chessboard" creates this image of the speaker being used for someone's benefit or in this case due the the title being prodigy, someone's replacement. Further along into the poem, Simic is able to create all this chaos in the background and yet a peaceful and beautiful situation in the speaker learning the game. For example, "planes and tanks" were shaking the "windowpanes" and the speaker had "witnessed me hung from telephone poles" but yet is engulfed in a game. There is also a very distinct and clear image presented when the speaker delves into the game. It is as though nothing else matters, but the exact details of every facet of the game. For the speaker talks about how the "paint had almost chipped off the black pieces," and the "white King was missing and had to be substituted for," clearly showing the degree of detail in this aspect and lack of it elsewhere.
I also really enjoyed the comparison between the speaker's mother and masters of the game of chess, in that both were excellent at their profession or their duties, such that the mother protected the speaker and the masters could play blindfolded. Furthermore, there is this idea that the mother blindfolded her from many things and that master play blindfolded, giving off the sense that her mother was in a way preparing her. Personally, I feel that because the mother had kept the speaker "blindfolded" throughout most of their life, the speaker should be able to understand and comprehend the art of playing as though she were a master, blindfolded and on several boards at once.
by Charles Simic
I grew up bent over
a chessboard.
I loved the word endgame.
All my cousins looked worried.
It was a small house
near a Roman graveyard.
Planes and tanks
shook its windowpanes.
A retired professor of astronomy
taught me how to play.
That must have been in 1944.
In the set we were using,
the paint had almost chipped off
the black pieces.
The white King was missing
and had to be substituted for.
I'm told but do not believe
that that summer I had witnessed
men hung from telephone poles.
I remember my mother
blindfolding me a lot.
She had a way to tucking my head
suddenly under her overcoat.
In chess, too, the professor told me,
the masters play blindfolded,
the great ones on several boards
at the same time.
The first line of this poem is what immediately caught my attention. The image it created for me after reading it was so powerful that I knew I would be forced to read the entire poem. "I grew up bent over/ a chessboard" creates this image of the speaker being used for someone's benefit or in this case due the the title being prodigy, someone's replacement. Further along into the poem, Simic is able to create all this chaos in the background and yet a peaceful and beautiful situation in the speaker learning the game. For example, "planes and tanks" were shaking the "windowpanes" and the speaker had "witnessed me hung from telephone poles" but yet is engulfed in a game. There is also a very distinct and clear image presented when the speaker delves into the game. It is as though nothing else matters, but the exact details of every facet of the game. For the speaker talks about how the "paint had almost chipped off the black pieces," and the "white King was missing and had to be substituted for," clearly showing the degree of detail in this aspect and lack of it elsewhere.
I also really enjoyed the comparison between the speaker's mother and masters of the game of chess, in that both were excellent at their profession or their duties, such that the mother protected the speaker and the masters could play blindfolded. Furthermore, there is this idea that the mother blindfolded her from many things and that master play blindfolded, giving off the sense that her mother was in a way preparing her. Personally, I feel that because the mother had kept the speaker "blindfolded" throughout most of their life, the speaker should be able to understand and comprehend the art of playing as though she were a master, blindfolded and on several boards at once.
Description of a Pear on a Pewter Dish by Young Smith
Description of a Pear on a Pewter Dish
See the blue there shadowed
beneath the yellow’s gloss.
That blue is the sky
within the cutis of the pear.
At night this sky grows dark
and unfolds a crust of distant stars.
It is these pale fires within its skin
that give the pear its taste of heaven.
Young Smith
What I enjoy most about this poem is the imagery used. Smith used the same colors to represent the three different subjects he was referring to: blue of the sky, yellow of the sun and stars, and pear seems to signify earth. Not only did he use colors but he also gave the distinction of light versus dark with the words "gloss", "dark", "pale", and "fires". "Cutis" refers to the atmosphere surrounding the earth and sky. I also like that he refers to the earth as a "pear" but it can also be considered a person. This person can only look up to see the sky and sun illuminating. Then, as the sun goes down and dark arises, the stars are the "taste of heaven". I like the idea that stars are what can be considered heaven. The fact that Smith says "these pale fires within its skin" can be thought of as people being unholy and the idea of heaven is what can revive them once again to see outside of the "cutis of the pear".
Theodore Roethke Lull
The mind is quick to turn
Away from simple faith
To the cant and fury of
Fools who will never learn;
Reason embraces death,
While out of frightened eyes
Still stares the wish of love.
Theodore Roethke Lull
What I enjoy most about this poem is the simplicity of it. Roethke puts what would be two sentences into poetic form. The first thing I noticed is that each line has 6 syllables. The words flow off your tongue when it is read. Roethke did an excellent job of relaying the message that all people can sometimes be distracted by what others say when love is right in front of them. With the way it is line breaked I think that more thought goes into what the poem is actually trying to say.
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