Getting Out

"Finally locked into blame, we paced that short hall, heaving words like furniture." - Cleopatra Mathis

I don't know why I feel so sad when I read about divorce, but it's poems like these that make me very grateful that my parents are still married.  I guess it's just that feeling inside of what would happen to me if my parents separated?  The whole situation seems terrible and I can't even imagine what it would be like to go through something like that.  Anyway, one literary technique I discovered in this poem is a simile in the quote above.  The simile helps to set the tone because it shows how the couple fought a lot and with cruel words.  The words were so heavy in that they attacked the other person almost as if in the same way as throwing a piece of furniture.  The thing I wondered about was in the last four lines when it talks of how they cried when they finally signed the divorce papers.  The poem also depicts the couple holding hands until they finally let go and went their separate ways.  Maybe the two people really did love each other.  Maybe, with time, they could have worked their problems out and hearts could have been saved from being broken. 

Dover Beach

"The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled." - Matthew Arnold

I found this poem to be very interesting especially because I feel like it could be applied to our world today.  I think the main point of the poem, though, is that there have been many challenges to the validity of religious beliefs, morals, and precepts which in turn have shaken the faith of people and their religion.  Around the time Arnold wrote this, people like Darwin and Lamarck were putting forth ieas that were very contradictory to our faith.  People began to doubt God and their religion, which was horrible sounding to Arnold, a deeply religious man.  Just as light on the Dover Beach can be gleaming one moment then disapeer the next, the light of our faith can die off in a matter of moments. The good thing, though, is that it can always come back.  We musn't forget our faith when things seem to be contradictory to God's word and His light seems to be fading away.

Hazel Tells Laverne

"so i goes ta flushm down
but sohelpmegod he starts talkin
bout a golden ball
an how i can be a princess" - Katharyn Machan

This is definitely my favorite poem out of all those we have read so far.  I just find it so darn cute!  The first thing I noticed about the poem, though, was the vernacular in which it was written.  The speaker seems more southern than anything else.  This helps to set the tone of a free-spirited, easy-going girl who freaks upon the request of a kiss from a frog.  Honestly, I think I would have reacted in the same way if I was put in the same situation.  The second thing I noticed right away from this poem is how it could be connected to the relatively new movie The Princess and the Frog.  This movie was also southern as it was set in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.  In the same way the speaker reacts to the request from the frog in the poem, the princess in the movie is hesitant to kiss the frog.  Although the princess did not flush the frog down a toilet, the connection can still be made.

Crossing The Bar

"I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar." - Alfred, Lord Tennysosn

Ok, so immediately, I noticed that this poem is an example of the use of quatrains.  I didn't have to even read it.  I just looked at the poem itself and saw it was a quatrain because it consisted of  four groups of four lines.  The reason the poem is divided into quatrains is because it creates the outline for the rhyming.  For example, in the first quatrain, "star" and "bar" rhyme and "me" and "sea" rhyme.  This sort of rhyming is consistant throughout all the quatrains of the poem.  The second thing I realized (not quite as immediately this time) was that the poem was about dying and going to heaven.  The quote above is an excellent support for this theory.  At first, one might think that the poem is about going off to sea.  I realized it was not about going out to sea when I saw the word "Pilot."  It is only capitalized because it is being used in replace of the word God.  God is who the speaker wishes to meet once he or she has "crossed the bar," or died.

My Mistress' Eyes

"If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head." - William Shakespeare

I was a little caught off guard when I first read this poem.  The title made me think it was going to be some kind of sonnet about the love the speaker has for his mistress. Instead, the poem points out all the things he finds wrong with his mistress.  For example, her lips are not red, her cheeks do not remind him of roses, and some perfumes smell better than her breath.  Then, the last two lines mark a shift in tone when he says: "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare."  Here, the speaker is saying that his mistress is as wonderful as any other woman compared.  The tone throughout most of the poem, though, is established through the use of negative diction.  For example, the speaker says in the quote above that black wires grow on her head as hair.  This negative diction establishes the tone set on the negative aspects of the mistress.

Much Madness Is Divinest Sense

"Much Sense — the starkest Madness —

’Tis the Majority" - Emily Dickinson

Wow! This was incredibly confusing when I first read it and I was pretty sure Emily Dickinson was just streaming a whole bunch of words together and calling it a poem.  After reading it over a couple more times, though, I think I figured out its meaning.  Dickinson is saying that society usually relates the minority of sociey, or those who act much different from the majority of society, with that of being insane.  But what if we are all wrong?  What if the majority of society is insane and the minority are the ones who are sane?  I had never thought about this before reading this poem and I had like a brief moment where I questioned just about everything.  I was wondering why Dickinson would have written a poem like this and I found out that during her lifetime, many people criticized her and called her insane.  I believe this poem was written in order for Dickinson to defend herself.  This fact doesn't really matter much to me, though.  My eyes were opened regardless and I think Emily really put up a good argument for why we shouldn't be so quick to judge someone.  If we are wrong, then everything we thought during our lives was false.  We shouldn't make prejudements on people especially when we are assuming that we are the normal ones.

APO 96225

"And the father wrote, 'Please don't

write such depressing letters. You're upsetting

your mother.'" - Larry Rottman

I personally enjoyed this poem the most because I could understand it completely by reading through it only once.  Plus, it was very interesting and thought-provoking.  I love it when I read a poem and immediately can relate to the implied theme and the purpose for which it was written.  Anyway, I believe the theme of this poem is that although most Americans act as if they know what is going on during war, we sort of put the entire situation on the back shelf.  We hide the thought of war from ourselves and refuse to actually embrace what war means.  We don't want to actually know how bad it can get and we just want the immediate satisfaction of men serving overseas for our country and the good of society.  It is sad to think that even the soldier knew that what was going on where he was would be upsetting for his mother to hear.  Then, when he was convinced to actually explain in detail what was happening where he was, the situation was too much for his mother to hear.  Our society is like this.  We haven't actually experienced in our lifetimes a war held on our own turf.  For this very reason we are almost oblivious to what terrible things occur during a war.

Mr. Z

"And so he climbed, unclogged by ethnic weights, 

An airborne plant, flourishing without roots." - Carl Holman

This poem is all about a black man who, from the beginning of his life, was told that his color was a sign of error.  He gained status by turning his back on personal identity and race and by adopting one that was more socially acceptable.  Mr. Z was able to in a way hide his color and rise up in society although always worring about fitting in.  The quote above is a metaphor that helps to demonstrate to the reader that although there were challenges Mr. Z had to face because of his race, he did not let anything stop him.  The one thing I thought was interesting as well as a bit sad about this situation was that Mr. Z tried to fit in his entire life and it is ironic that his obituary said, "One of the most distinguished members of his race.”  Throughout his life, Mr. Z felt he had to rise above challenges and be careful about what he said and did.  In the end, Mr. Z was seen as a very important figure and I think it is sad that he probably didn't feel this kind of respect when he was still alive. 

Ozymandias

"'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away." - Percy Bysshe Shelley

This poem describes a traveller telling the speaker of the ruins of a statue he saw in the desert of his native country.  The situational irony in the poem is very simple.  The king, Ozymandias, thought himself to be an amazing leader.  His statue even read: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"  It is ironic that his statue says this because there is barely anything left of the statue.  The legs are the only thing standing and the head is off to the side, half sunk in the muck.  Throughout his life, Ozymandias treated others badly and was very self-centered.  Now, many years later, the statue that was built to identify Ozymandias and his ego is almost completely gone, buried in the desert along with his memory.

Barbie Doll

"So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up." - Marge Piercy

As a young woman living in a society that puts pressures on girls to act a particular way and look a particular way, I can totally relate to the uneasiness felt by the "girlchild" in this poem.  Sometimes girls can be very mean and cruel and if one doesn't totally fit into the category of what a typical girl should look like, life can be hard.  One literary technique I noticed immediately about this poem is the hyperbole expressed in the quote above.  I believe the girl killed herself because she felt very bad about her appearance.  She did not literally cut off her nose and legs and offer them up.  The purpose of this literary device is to express to the reader that the girl's dissatisfaction with how she looked and how people viewed her led to her demise.  I think it is awful that some women go on living life worrying about things like this.  Everyone is beautiful in their own way and us girls need to stop reinforcing these opinions about appearances along with ending our own desires to be like what most people describe as a beautiful.  Beauty shouldn't be measured from what we look like on the outside.  It should be measured on how we act from the inside. (<--- Sorry this seams like such a cliche!!)

February

"February, month of despair,
with a skewered heart in the centre." - Margaret Atwood

Knowing the title and before actually reading, I felt some bitterness towards the poem immediately.  I will not be hesitant to state that winter is my least favorite season of the year.  I hate being stuck inside feeling freezing while passing the time daydreaming and impatiently waiting for spring and summer to arrive.  It is from these feelings that I was a little reluctant, I must admit, to begin reading this poem with an open mind.  I was a little shocked when I read the poem, though, because the tone seemed to be of despair, death, and disillusionment.  I was also very impressed with myself for catching a tiny little detail which is that the poem itself starts with the word "winter" and ends with the word "spring."  To me, this seemed like the speaker's own wishful thinking that winter would leave and spring would come.  I felt a great connection between the speaker and myself at that very moment.  Winter seems to be a most depressing time because it is usually associated with "slumber" and "death."  For example, plants and flowers die and wither away while rivers and lakes freeze and cease to move.  Spring, on the other hand, is associated with ‘rebirth’ & ‘life’. 

I Taste A Liquor Never Brewed

"Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue." - Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is able to successfully describe the exhilarating effect that nature has on her in this poem. She uses the extended metaphor of drunkenness and intoxication to show how the beauty of nature makes her happy, just as alcohol makes a drunken person happy.  The speaker establishes this literary technique immediately in the first stanza.  She states that her liquor is even better than that of the Rhine River (The Rhine River runs through Germany, a country well-known for its alcohol.).  I thought this was an incredibly clever way of showing how much nature elated her.

For some reason I found the second stanza to be sort of humorous.  I am not quite sure if this is the effect Dickinson wanted to create or if it is just me.  She depicts herself being drunk on air and dew.  I found this image to be funny because I just envisioned a person prancing through a field of flowers, breathing in the air and dew, and becoming increasingly more drunk.  I guess the whole situation is a little weird to me because although I do love nature and enjoy being outside during spring and summer, I don't really feel as if I am made so incredibly happy by it that it could be seen as the equivalent of being drunk.

Bright Star

"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art" - John Keats

I really enjoyed this poem.  Just as the speaker shows a certain interest and respect for stars, I find the stars above to be beautiful and calming.  What I noticed right from the start of this poem is that the first line is an example of an apostrophe in which the speaker addresses the star. In this way, the speaker is able to create a situation where it is a reality to live as a star lives, perhaps still being able to think and have feelings as a human would.  The speaker wishes to be like the star in that it doesn't change as the world it looks down upon does. This ability to look down on the world is another characteristic the speaker wishes to hold, along with the ability to watch from a distance at the activitites of this world. On the other hand, though, the speaker realizes that there would be drawbacks of being a star.  Loneliness would be a huge disadvantage and personally I would hate this aspect.  One would only be able to sit and watch with no real communication with others at all.  Even though I am mystified by the stars, I surely do not wish to be one.  I found it very odd that the speaker said in the poem that he wants to live like a star, "or else swoon to death."  Does this mean that the speaker would rather die than live a life like anything other than as a star? 

Pink Dog

"Didn't you know?  It's been in all the papers,
to solve this problem, how they deal with beggars?
They take and throw them in the tidal rivers." - Elizabeth Bishop

When I first read this poem I was very confused about what was going on.  There are two interpretations I took from the poem.  The first is that iT ridicules prejudices about the poor people in society.  When we think of homeless or poor people, probably unknowingly, we consider them to be worthless or incapable of solving problems for themselves.  Either they are unable or just too lazy.  The quote above is an example of a hyperbole.  It demonstrates to the reader that society would rather just ignore the situation of poverty and set it to the side.  This hyperbole depicts beggars being thrown into tidal rivers so that we can be rid of them.  Our society today sometimes acts as if ignoring the situation is better.  In doing this, we are technically just throwing the homeless away, refusing to be of any service to them. 

The other interpretation I had of this poem was that it was a warning of over flaunting the body.  The poem says, "Oh, never have I seen a dog so bare!"  I think the dog can be seen as a person, most likely a woman, who flaunts her body around with no understanding or willingness to understand the importance of being modest.  The hyperbole from above could then be used to suggest that society doesn't take these kinds of people seriously.  In order to succeed in life or to acquire a decent job, one must have respect for oneself and put up a good appearance. 

Dream Deferred

"What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?" - Langston Hughes

This poem was definitely the most interesting to me probably because I can relate to it a lot.  I will get into that more here in a second, though.  First of all, this poem is made up almost completely of rhetorical questions and similes.  These rhetorical questions, like the ones above, are meant to get the reader to think deeply and to provoke thought.  The similes are meant to create an image in the reader's mind, pulling the reader closer to the words.   For example, hearing these similes made me relate the poem to my own life.  My most important dream right now is to go to a university where I can compete college gymnastics and still get a wonderful education.  As I read the lines, "Or fester like a sore--And then run?" I got the image of the sores I get on my hands from swinging on the bars during practice.  I also got the image of running down the runway to do a vault.  How would it feel if all the pain and hard work I put in to this sport was for nothing and I didn't get to compete in college?  This is the question I asked myself immediately after reading this poem.  I don't think these words were meant to be taken literally as I took them, but the effect was still there. 

Those Winter Sundays

"Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze." - Robert Hayden

I found this poem to be the most insightful, sparking my own thoughts and realizations of how I feel about my own father.  This poem portrays the self-sacrificing duties the speaker's father did everyday.  The father would get up early every morning in the cold and start a fire, allowing for the members of the family to rise from their slumbers a little more enjoyably than he did.  Something else I noticed was Hayden's use of the word "too" in the first line.  This shows that everyday, not just on Sundays, the day for rest, the father would wake up early and help the family the best way he could.  The last two lines of the poem say, "What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?"  Here the speaker is admitting that he took for granted the things his father did for him and his family.  I began to wonder what kinds of things my own father did that I, too, took for granted.  

The Panther

"His vision, from the constantly passing bars,
has grown so weary that it cannot hold
anything else." - Rainer Maria Rilke

When I first read this poem, I didn't really put that much effort into deeply analyzing it.  I just thought that it was about a panther trapped in a zoo, pacing back and forth against the bars, longing to escape the cramped space.  Then when I came to class today and we talked about what the meaning behind most of these poems were, I received some very insightful thoughts from my classmates.  My peers convinced me that this poem is actually about a prisoner trapped behind the bars of his or her jail cell, stuck in the cramped space in which he or she  must stay, almost paralyzed, for a great length of time.  I then got to thinking that maybe this prisoner isn't just confined to this jail cell for a great length of time, maybe he or she is actually on death row.  Rainer Maria Rilke wrote how "An image enters in, rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles, plunges into the heart and is gone."  This could be the prisoner's sudden hope that he or she might be freed.  Just as quickly as this hope comes, though, it is lost.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

"A Service, like a Drum-
Kept beating-beating-till I thought
My Mind was going numb-" - Emily Dickinson

Out of all eight of the poems we read, I feel like this one had the most imagery involved in it.  Imagery is the representation through language of sense experience.  Poetry appeals directly to our senses.  This particular poem by Emily Dickinson is effective in portraying all the senses except for one: sight.  This only seems logical considering the funeral is taking place in the mind of the speaker, where there would be no sight anyway.  The sense of hearing is probably the most dominant of all the sentences in this poem.  For example, words such as "creak," "beating," "ear," and "silence" are found throughout.  The imagery of this poem is most effective because with the use of all but one of the different senses, the reader can develop a full, mental picture of what is happening, considering it is taking place inside the mind of the reader and not physically occurring.  Something that later occurred to me is that maybe the purpose of this poem is to show how the speaker felt as if he or she was going insane, saying that his or her "mind was going numb."  The speaker is in a casket and can hear everything going on around him or her.  It made me definitely question how awful would it be to be buried alive?

The Convergence of the Twain

"Till the Spinner of the Years 
Said 'Now!' And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres." - Thomas Hardy

In order for me to be able to identify the central purpose of this poem, I had to reread it at least three times.  Hopefully, I am now fully aware or almost fully aware of the point Thomas Hardy was trying to make.  It was not until the last stanza when I realized that the purpose of this poem is to suggest that it was God's will to sink the Titanic.  "The Spinner of the Years" most certainly means God himself for He is the creator of all things, even time.  Once I figured this out, I went  back through the poem to try and find another example.  The other example I found was when it said, "No mortal eye could see The intimate welding of their later history."  Here Thomas Hardy is saying that no living, mortal person would be able to know that the Titanic was going to hit an ice burg and sink, but it does seem to insinuate that an immortal being might be able to know.  This immortal being would be God.  Once I realized that the central purpose of this poem was to show that the sinking of the Titanic was God's will, I wondered, "Why?"  I realized that the answer to this question was also given throughout the poem itself.  Hardy writes of "the Pride of Life" that was amongst the vessel and the "Jewels in joy designed."  God's reason for sinking the, as most people call it, "unsinkable ship" was probably because of the immense egos and materialism aboard this ship.  Although this poem's central purpose is most certainly to show that God sank the Titanic, I do not believe it is entirely true.  For starters, God can punish us, but I do not think that he is so cruel to kill so many people in such a horrific manner.  Maybe some of these people were asking for it, living incredibly lustful lives, but I am not sure God is the cause for the destruction of this amazing vessel.

The Nature of Proof in the Interpretation of Poetry by Laurence Perrine

"These two criteria, I ask you to notice, are not different from those we bring to the judgment of a new scientific hypothesis."

Poetry is something I have always had love for, finding pleasure in the hidden meanings and thought-provoking words.  To be honest, I didn't really like the way Perrine simmilarly linked the judging of any interpretation of a poem to the judgment of a new scientific hypothesis.  Poetry doesn't seem to be something that should be connected with science as it is more deep and mind exercising.  Anyway, as for the first criteria Perrine says should be used to judge the interpretation of any poem, I had very conflicted feelings.  It only makes sense that a correct interpretation must be able to account for every detail and if it doesn't, then it is wrong.  One shouldn't assume things about a poem that aren't supported by the details and context of a poem.  The thing I disagree with, though, is that I feel like poetry should mean anything that a reader wants to see in it.  I feel as though the reader should happiness, saddness, or whatever feelings he or she should so desire.

I do completely agree with what Perrine states as the problems with symbols.  Symbols are very different from literary devices such as metaphors or similes.  As Perrine states, symbols mean something much more than what they are, whereas these literary devices like metaphors or similes mean something other than what they are.  This is something I never really thought about but once I saw it written on paper and discussed, I realized the truth in what was stated and I totally agreed in the statement.  The one thing a reader must never confuse with is that although symbols mean something much more than what they are, that does not mean they can mean anything.  Just as there is always a correct interpretation to a poem, as Perrine describes, there is always a correct interpretation of a symbol.  Similar to the interpretation of a poem intself, the interpretation of a symbol should also rely on the fewest assumptions.  Details must fully support the interpretation of the symbol.  Unlike my belief that a poem can be interpreted by a reader to be whatever he or she wishes it to be, a symbol should never be mistakenly interpreted to mean something other than what it really is.