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.
Monday, February 5, 2007
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.
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