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Monday, March 21, 2016
Poetry--due April 7
LI-YOUNG LEE at npr.org
GWENDOLYN BROOKS at nathanielturner.com
Which three poems found in our poetry folder matter to you the most? Which lines in the poems stand out to you?
102 comments:
1 Pollema
said...
Sexton’s “After Auschwitz” really hit me hard. I find the Holocaust horribly fascinating. The Holocaust was a terrible time in history that we need to learn from and keep on studying so the future doesn’t make the same mistakes. The lines that stood out to me the most was, “took, at 8:00 A.M, a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” These lines give you a gruesome visual but is portraying an accurate occurrence. The first time a read this poem it physically gave me chills. Bishop’s “The Man-Moth” was very interesting to me. The lines intrigued me; especially these ones, “Then from the lids one tear, his only possession, like the bee’s sting, slips. Slyly he palms it, and if you’re not paying attention he’ll swallow it. However, if you watch, he’ll hand it over, cool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink. Many times when I find myself about to cry it does feel like a bee sting because you do not want to cry you are trying to hold it in so much. But once you do cry you try to cover it up and so do most people because it is a sign of weakness, sadness, and damage. In reality crying is nothing to be ashamed of. Crying helps you relieve pain and that why in the poem it says his tear in pure enough to drink. Sexton’s “The Addict” also is very important. This poems confesses an addict’s addiction, the feelings the pills give him, and why he feels he has to take them. I am intrigued by this poem due to the all too often addiction problems many people go through. The lines that hit me hard was, “Now they ask why. WHY! Don't they know that I promised to die!”, I often find myself asking why, why would someone do something to themselves that they know is hurting them. These lines also helped explain why some people may keep taking the pills, “ I like them more than I like me. It's a kind of marriage. It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself. Yes I try to kill myself in small amounts, an innocuous occupation.” I enjoyed these confessional poems and exploring the rest of the folder. I found some of the lines extremely blunt and surprising which I found myself wanting to read more and more of them.
Each of the poems in the poetry folder is unique and each has its own meaning, with its own lesson to give. The first poem that stood out to me is “Dreams” by Poe. From Poe’s poem, I took away to never be crushed by my dreams. Through successes and failures, never give up on your dreams and the potential you have. According to Arjun Sree, this poem can give two different meanings--showing you the very little hope dreams can bring and to others, it can provide a sense of hope for dreams. These are my favorite lines of the poem because of the hope they show: "Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life; As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife; Of semblance with reality, which brings; To the delirious eye, more lovely things; Of Paradise and Love- and all our own!" The second poem that stood out to me is “There is Another Sky” by Dickinson. Again, there are a number of possible meanings to this poem. To me, it means that you can find a positive aspect to everything in life. There is no need to worry as things will get better--it is not he end of the world. These are my favorite lines of the poem because it shows if one thing doesn’t work out, there are greater and better things ahead for you: “There is another sky, Ever serene and fair, And there is another sunshine…” The last poem that stood out to me is “Do Not Go Gentle That Good Night” by Thomas. This poem is extremely emotional, as Thomas wrote it for his dying father. Here, Thomas is reminding his father to stay strong even though death is inevitable. Schmoop.com compares this poem to a speech that a coach would give to his team for a one last “pick me up”. It is used as a reminder to use all your strength and power, even in times of hopelessness. My favorite line of this poem is “rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light” because it in itself is a summary of the entire poem.
My top poems so far have been by Lowell and Larkin. Lowell wrote the poem "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage." This poem speaks of a wife who sits at home while her husband is off binge drinking at a bar. The husband is a fan on tequila and Lowell makes it seem like the husband is anything but pleasant when drunk. The most meaningful line in this poem to me is: "Gored by the climacteric of his want, he stalls above me like an elephant." In my interpretation I think her husband is going to forcefully rape her or he is much too aggressive after he returns home after drinking. The wife also talks about her being kind of frightened and having to tie money and her car keys to her legs just in case. Seemingly her only thought was how to stay alive on nights like these. The second poem we have studied is By Philip Larkin, "This Be the Verse." This poetry speaks deeply about life and how meaningless it seems to be. Larkin is set on life being miserable, misery being handed down person after person, son after son, until one can no longer handle that pain. He speaks "Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself." Thus meaning you should want to kill yourself in order to stop the train of misery, and do not have kids that you could potentially hand down that misery too. That line speaks to me in ways I cannot explain. No one should miss out on children, no matter how scary or dangerous it is. It is a feeling everyone should get to feel, an experience I am sure most mothers would go back and redo all over again.
The poems “To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage” by Lowell, “This Be the Verse” by Larkin, and “We Real Cool” by Brooks were the most meaningful to me. “We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Die Soon,” were the most meaningful parts of this poem because it describes the destructive decisions that one can make in their youth and the affects it can have on one’s future. I do not have such a cynical outlook on life as Larking but I do really like this excerpt from his poem,“They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.” I think this really describes how no matter how bad you might want to end up nothing like your parents, or how they try to raise you nothing like how they were raised, we all end up a spitting image of our parents in the end. In Lowell’s poem, I think this verse, ”It's the injustice . . . he is so unjust--whiskey-blind, swaggering home at five. My only thought is how to keep alive,” really demonstrates the struggles one can go through in marriage and how far apart two people can grow. She just wants her husband to acknowledge her on a physical level because the emotional connection has been long gone. It tells a really powerful story in such a short amount of lines.
Polasky 6 Reading poetry has not been one of my favorites. I do not always understand what I am reading. However, some of the poems we read in class the other day did intrigue me. I understood some of the short poems that were quick and to the point. They still did allow me to think and find the real meaning of the short story. It also made me think about my life and how I could maintain it. The poem “This Be the Verse” was something interesting to me. The language caught me a bit off guard but the author of this poem probably felt it was necessary to get his point across. It is considered confessional poetry so I do respect the fact he stated what he wanted while still doing it with taste. The quote, “Get out as early as you can,” intrigued me because after the discussion in class, I found out this line could have multiple meanings to whoever is reading it. The I also enjoyed “To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage.” It is another poem I enjoyed not just because I understood it but because this author took to a different view, a man telling through a woman's eyes. “This screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge,” was a interesting line. The author at this point started talking about the women in 3rd person instead of 1st person. It was a change to make one think, having a possible hidden meaning. Both of these poems take a mature audience but with that being said, it was great overall. The poem Daddy was confusing but maybe with a closer look it might be easier to understand.
The first poem that comes to mind for me is Sexton's after Auschwitz. Even in the first few lines it talks about the Nazi approach to extermination quite bluntly. "Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan." She then continues to speak of how evil man can really be, and I agree fully with her in the aspect that man is CAPABLE of extreme evil, but not that they will participate in it. The second poem that caught my attention was Larkin's "This Be The Verse". This poem caught my attention not only because of the taboo language in the first line, but the aspect of the poem. I find it true that your parents fill you with all of their bad habits and faults; however, on a more positive note I like to focus more on the fact that you have the potential to become better versions of your parents, filled with all of the best qualities and attributes of each. As a general rule of thumb, the confessional poems seemed to catch my attention more than others. That being said, my third poem I will discuss is Lowell's "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage." This poem was powerful because it speaks of a troubled marriage. It is about a woman who has to deal with an alcoholic man who also most likely dabbles in drugs, who unfortunately is her husband. The line: "This screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge." truly describes the seriousness of the couples condition, and shows just how bad it is.
Of all the poems in the poetry folder Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is the most powerful in my opinion. It is about Plath’s relationship with her nazi father. The descriptions of all of the terrible things done by her father and other Nazis during the war combined with Plath writing about a nazi who is her father is very unique and horrible. Some of the most impactful lines are: I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. In these three lines, she expresses that when she was younger she still wanted her dad back but later she realises that it is better that her father is dead because she could not live with his past. “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks is a very short but interesting poem. It is a social commentary about those who rejected the fifties ideal world and eventually became hippies in the sixties. The first and the last stanzas of the four stanza poem stand out the most to me. We real cool. We Left school.
We Jazz June. We Die soon. Brooks shows her distaste with this rebellious lifestyle by mocking it and call the people who live it stupid in the first stanza. She then gets very serious and says that the life these people live is going to kill them early despite how “cool” it is. The poem is a very good combination of sarcasm and seriousness. And despite the brevity of the poem it is a fun read. The last poem is “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin. Larkin writes about how everyone’s parents will impact their children more than he would like. His distaste is stated outright immediately. They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. I do agree with Larkin that people should become their own individual self, unrestricted by parental control but not to the same degree as him.
1 Klumpp The first poem that catches my eye is Sexton's "The Addict." She says: Yes, I admit it has gotten to be a bit of a habit- blows eight at a time, socked in the eye, hauled away by the pink, the orange, the green and the white goodnights. I'm becoming something of a chemical mixture. that's it! My supply of tablets has got to last for years and years. I like them more than I like me. It's a kind of marriage. It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside." This talks about the struggle in addiction and how hard of a habit it is to break. I love dark poetry and found this painfully interesting. The next poem I chose is Plath's poem "Daddy." Some lines that stuck out to me were: "You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you, A cleft in your chin instead of your foot But no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who Bit my pretty red heart in two. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. I thought even the bones would do. But they pulled me out of the sack, And they stuck me together with glue. And then I knew what to do. In my opinion, this poem speaks about Plath's Nazi father and how she disliked him, even hated him. She shows how impactful he was in her life and how he made her childhood rough. I have always been interested in the holocaust and that's why this poem jumped out to me.
6 Bose said… The three poems that I think are really important to me are “The Moose” by Bishop, “The Addict” by Sexton, and “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage” by Lowell. These are the poems that we read in class together, but they all display something to me. In “The Moose” I felt the simplicity of nature. Sometimes we go so fast in life and don’t take the time to realize the simple things in life like what a simple red gravel road looks like or how beautiful and omnipresent the moon appears. When Bishop describes the moose and how it appears out of the woods it just gives you a true look at how gorgeous life is. “A moose has come out of the impenetrable wood and stands there, looms, rather ,in the middle of the road.” The other poem I took a fancy to was “The Addict”. This was a poem to me that appeared that we judge people before we actually know their story and what they may be dealing with and why they act the way they do. Sexton does an amazing job of amplifying this in her poem. She describes that she is suicidal and wants to use pills to take her out of her misery. “Then I lie on; my altar elevated by the eight chemical kisses. What lay me down this is with two pink, two orange, two green, two white goodnights. Fee-fi-fo-fum- Now I'm borrowed. Now I'm numb.” I love this line because it describes how she wants to pass on. No it is not an exceptionally happy poem, but it is deep and I love it. The last poem that I really like is “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage”. It is also a sad poem. It makes you realize that what Lowell writes about is more common than not today. She is in an abusive relationship in the poem and it can be perceived that she is trying to escape this relationship. It was a sad poem but I really enjoyed it, a lot. I have never liked poetry but I love confessional poetry because it is different than regular poetry. It tells a real story that involves real life things and it is incredible. I really like the poetry that we are reading in class.
First off, I am not one who has liked reading poetry very much in past classes. I give my respect to those who write and like poetry. Some poetry is quite confusing. But reading through all of these poems in the folder have changed my outlook a little. I enjoy the fact that so much can be said in such short phrases or poems. The first poem that truly caught my eye was Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. Disregarding the foul language, this poem is an example of something that has such a meaningful connotation in such little words. From reading this, readers could suggest that Larkin might have came from a bad family: “Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself”. It is quite sad to know that how your parents act around you can change your outlook on family and life. Another poem that meant a lot to me was Anne Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. I am greatly interested in the Holocaust and this poem shows the anger and frustration that many people took to once it was over. Reading this poem, one can almost feel her anger towards the Nazis and what they did: “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan”. However, later on, it is almost as if she regrets what she said “ I beg the Lord not to hear”. I am intrigued by this sentence and still trying to figure out the meaning as why she ended such a hateful poem with that sentence. The last poem that stuck out to me was Hicks’ “Not Springing Forward in Barcelona”. I reread this poem multiple times and I am still in awe with the ideas that are portrayed in the short but noteworthy poem. The poem starts out with a great line: “In a time-zone all our own, we were a bubble of the past, a cleanser upon the last sentence of history”. Hicks then begins to go through major things that has happened and he ends with such an amazing sentence: we watched an apple fall up, into a tree—two famous lovers strolled along, their wrists as naked as ours”. He talks about everything basically doing the opposite of what they have done. His reference to Adam and Eve perhaps refers to the fact that because they bit into that fruit, death, disease, and fear has occurred.
Given its age, I was naturally drawn to Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 75.” In my opinion, the first two lines are the most stirring: “So are you to my thoughts as food to life / Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the ground.” Just as food is necessary for sustenance and rain is vital for farm yields, so the identified friend upholds and encourages the speaker. This sort of companion is to be sought!
I was taken aback by “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” in which Dylan Thomas champions life itself and urges those on death’s door to cling to their final days. By far the most powerful lines run thus: “Though wise men at their end know dark is right / Because their words had forked no lightning they / Do not go gentle into that good night.” In the end, we are all dead men. This is inescapable, and to be perfectly honest, I think it is an important truth to bear in mind. Our days on this earth are numbered. And while Thomas seems chiefly concerned with the passage of the elderly, life is never a guarantee for anyone--young folks included. By no means should we all live under a constant dread of death; nevertheless, the prospect of death ought to constantly temper the way we live.
Walt Whitman’s poem “O Me! O Life!” reminds me of Ecclesiastes, the anonymous, Old Testament book of wisdom literature. First, consider these strains from Whitman: “Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--of the struggle ever renew’d / Of the poor results of all--of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me / Of the empty and useless years of the rest.” Initially, the author of Ecclesiastes frames an equally bleak outlook on life: “All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” Man is frustrated by what he sees as the futility of this world. This perception stems from the fallen nature of our world. But ultimately, cynical or not, all must decide what they live for. For Whitman, this is simply “that life exists, and identity.” For the author of Ecclesiastes, this is to “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
The three poems that stood out the most to me are Yeats’ “The Second Coming”, Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”, and Dickinson’s “There is Another Sky”. In the poem by Yeats, it explains how the people of the world destroying themselves. It is talking about WWII, which a lot of things were ruined during this time period. In “This Be the Verse”, it talks about really how much your parents influence your life. It encourages the reader not to have kids because then you will just be passing on your misery. It reads “Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself”. I think that this is not very good advice because not everyone leads a miserable life, and a parent’s job is to help and support their kids, not the opposite. In Dickinson’s poem, it is very uplifting. It seems as if it is talking about a Heaven-like place for people to go. The line “Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been;” reminds me of the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side” which means people always think others have it better. This poem is a reminder about how it is all up to you how bright your life is. All of these poets do an amazing job of drawing in the audience, and portraying emotions through their writing.
Poetry has always been an admirable art by my eyes. Though I do not claim myself a fanatic, I find peace and content in spending an evening at the library, lounging in an oddly patterned armchair, drifting through lines of thick poetry books. Emily Dickinson has come to be my favorite poet over the years, her poem “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” making home in the back of my brain since my days studying at Brandon Valley Middle School. Her diction is simply entrancing, every word flowing harmoniously, calming my ever-anxious mind. Such a reputation lies unbroken upon my reading of “A Narrow Fellow In The Grass.” This poem particularly stood out to me due to its beautiful method of expressing a kinship built between man and nature, a connection I myself often feel. Additionally, I rather like snakes and find them massively misunderstood. Another female poet, one Anne Sexton, also wrote a poem that caught my attention: none other than “The Addict.” The title alone does it much justice, a subtle means of detaching the label from the first-person narration as though the narrator is still somewhat in denial of their condition. The perspective yields to the poem’s resonance, indeed, but is complimented all the more by the compositional use of stream of conscience. I adore confessional poetry because of the emotion it evokes from the audience; true art is provocative in every sense, and it is this raw provocation that makes art so astounding. This is not to say that it must all be gruesome and sickening to be worthy of study--Li-Young Lee’s “Persimmons” refutes such ideology. Though I personally favor the slightly sinister scene, Lee’s tactful dropping of information and gradual explanation left me awe-stricken. It somewhat reminded me of Martel’s approach to Life of Pi, the way it began with some information, explained a bit, flashed back shortly, explained a bit more, revealed a kicker, explained some more, et cetera. His parallelism is as precise as a persimmon, I must say. I cannot put to words my admiration for this thematic poem that began with the narrator talking about his 6th grade teacher’s disappointment at his confusion of several, though a grin crept onto my face when I read how he connected each pair. A mixture of sorrow and love ached in my chest upon reading how he admires the persimmons painting with his now-blind father, who reminisces: “Oh, the feel of the wolftail on the silk, the strength, the tense precision in the wrist.”
One poem and stood out to me the most was “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop. The lines, “However, if you watch, he’ll hand it over, cool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink” tells me that Bishop is telling the reader that people are not all the same and a lot can be gained if you have hope.The reader is also gaining and learning insight from the poem. Another poem that stood out to me was “Dream” by Poe. The lines, “I have been happy- and I love the theme: Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life, As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife” tells me as a reader that no matter how little or how small your dreams are you can be successful. If you fail once, get up again and start fresh learning from your mistakes. The third poem that intrigued me was “After Auschwitz” by Anne Saxton. The lines, “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan. And death looks on with a casual eye and picks at the dirt under his fingernail” informs the reader on what the condition of living was like during the Holocaust. Saxton knows how to get the readers attention by starting the poem off with such a gruesome visual.
The first poem that I found that meant the most to me was “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. One line that stood out to me was when he is talking about the beginning and ending of life as either a door or a window. It shows that he is wondering about like what is life really about and what comes after. I like how he says in between is a little singing which he realizes that our lives are just a little while and what comes after is for forever. Another line I liked was when he was talking about “his father’s kisses keep his father’s worries from becoming his?” It shows how all parents love on their children is to keep them from having to worry like an adult. Another poem I thought was really important was “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. This poem is about the second coming of a war just as bad or worse as the First World War. Yeats accurately predicates the second world war. This is important because the second world war was preventable. If a poet could sense that all was not right after the first world war then I think politicians and international agencies should of seen the signs as well to prevent the human loss that would occur during the second world war. It was a scale of slaughter never seen before. The last poem I found that I thought was important was “Dreams” by Edgar Allen Poe. One group of lines I found that stood out to me was the second paragraph talking about how perfect and happy his dreams are. He also says that dreams are a sort of escape from reality and allow him forget the “shadows of this life and revel in fake but very comforting expierence.
Each poem that we have available to us in the poetry folder is unique in its own way, and they all have their own individual message portrayed through the writing. However one really stood out to me, and that would be the Brooks “We Real Cool” poem. Although it may be short and others may think that it is nonsense and gibberish. I however I found it relatable. One line that stood out to me was when it states, “We Left school.” I relate to this because soon I will be leaving school, which may be a harsh reality but it is something that is going to happen and it is something we just have to deal with. I feel that this is a good poem for teenagers, such as seniors in high school, because when you read through a lot of things that it references are things that high schoolers do. Such as when they say, “We Lurk late” or “We Sing sin.” All of these things happen. We go out searching for something to do to have a good time on a Friday or Saturday night. Therefore we end up lurking around town late, and the singing sin part happens pretty much to anyone. I think one of my favorites from the poems is Lowell’s “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage.” This poem really is kind of touching and eye opening. It shows the perspective of someone involved in as bad relationship and how they have to act or how they feel about the situation. Two lines that really touched me in a way that was saddening was when it says, “My hopped up husband drops his home disputes, and hits the streets for prostitutes.” To me this is heart wrenching. How could someone do this to a person that they are married to and claim to love. It is a poem that really shows that emotion and makes you feel how disheartening this situation is, which is why I enjoyed reading this one so much. I also like how the end of two sentences rhymed, it was extremely catchy. One poem that I found interesting was Dickinson's “A narrow fellow in the grass.” The title is intriguing all in itself, but as you read it is they never really clarify what they are talking about however the context does a wonderful job on making the reader think critically to understand what is happening. One line that makes me wonder is when they say, “When stooping down to secure it, it wrinkled and was gone.” It makes me want to learn more, like where did it do? Is it not going to come back? When poems make you think like this one does I find it an enjoyable read, which is why I am particularly fond of this poem.
Peltier 1 Each poem that we have available to us in the poetry folder is unique in its own way, and they all have their own individual message portrayed through the writing. However one really stood out to me, and that would be the Brooks “We Real Cool” poem. Although it may be short and others may think that it is nonsense and gibberish. I however I found it relatable. One line that stood out to me was when it states, “We Left school.” I relate to this because soon I will be leaving school, which may be a harsh reality but it is something that is going to happen and it is something we just have to deal with. I feel that this is a good poem for teenagers, such as seniors in high school, because when you read through a lot of things that it references are things that high schoolers do. Such as when they say, “We Lurk late” or “We Sing sin.” All of these things happen. We go out searching for something to do to have a good time on a Friday or Saturday night. Therefore we end up lurking around town late, and the singing sin part happens pretty much to anyone. I think one of my favorites from the poems is Lowell’s “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage.” This poem really is kind of touching and eye opening. It shows the perspective of someone involved in as bad relationship and how they have to act or how they feel about the situation. Two lines that really touched me in a way that was saddening was when it says, “My hopped up husband drops his home disputes, and hits the streets for prostitutes.” To me this is heart wrenching. How could someone do this to a person that they are married to and claim to love. It is a poem that really shows that emotion and makes you feel how disheartening this situation is, which is why I enjoyed reading this one so much. I also like how the end of two sentences rhymed, it was extremely catchy. One poem that I found interesting was Dickinson's “A narrow fellow in the grass.” The title is intriguing all in itself, but as you read it is they never really clarify what they are talking about however the context does a wonderful job on making the reader think critically to understand what is happening. One line that makes me wonder is when they say, “When stooping down to secure it, it wrinkled and was gone.” It makes me want to learn more, like where did it do? Is it not going to come back? When poems make you think like this one does I find it an enjoyable read, which is why I am particularly fond of this poem.
I feel that “The Man-moth” by Bishop matters a lot to me. It is about the insight that can be gained from outsiders. In high school, many kids are shamed for their passions of video games and other hobbies that are seen as “nerdy” or “uncool”, but they can still provide interesting, poignant opinions. I try to get these people involved when I can. I like to play video games so I try and talk to them about the video games that I play and the video games that they play, and have a fun conversation. I learned from one of my conversations with a friend whom has an intense passion for Pokemon about how to make a better team, information that I have used to better dominate Pokemon. I think that everyone should try to make others feel as welcomed as possible. Another poem that stood out to me is “To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage” by Lowell. It shows the danger and fear of an alcoholic’s wife. I especially like the line “this screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge”. She is in fear that one night he might come home and be especially abusive and kill her, and only after murdering his wife, would he take the pledge of sobriety. It shows how alcohol abuse affects more than the alcoholic. The second piece of the line acknowledges the trend that alcoholics only address their problem when it is too late and something awful has happened. I think that this is the way with many addictions and problems: people only change their negative habits after it has gone too far.
Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night" is by far one of the best poems in the folder. It shows great effort at getting a point across as do not back down from what you believe in. I will think of this poem every time I will compete physically and mentally in my life. I feel the poem should be put around schools everywhere basically showing kids and telling them not to back down from what they believe in. This poem i will remember forever and will cherish a great deal. The poems best line are when it states that the rage inside is building and that you will not back down no matter the challenge that will arise. The second poem I have chosen would be "Addict" by Sexton. Her writing is scary close to what I imagine addicts to go through her writing almost implies that with her knowledge of addiction that she herself was an addict or that someone close to her was a addict for sometime. The pills she describes take a motherly shape for addict like a caring mother trying to help her baby, but that is not the case with pills they can help yes but only for a short while before taking to many will kill you. This poem has so much detail and knowledge about what addiction I imagine is truly like with out-of-the-box connections. The last piece of poetry I would use in ‘Daddy” by Plath. This work contains detail and mystery about what can only be described as amazing. Her work describes a person who has somehow killed their father but not actually her fault but maybe her thinking it's her fault and somehow blaming herself. It Makes sense because people sometimes feel responsible about someone's death. These works are all well written and great life lessons and can impact the lives of many.
After reading multiple poems in literature this past week, I have had different feelings and perspectives towards poetry and what poets try to accomplish or get information to their readers. Many poems in the earlier times were just simple happy easy rhyming poems, but the poets of this new era thought poetry could be more than that and did not always have to be happy and an easy read. For example, in William Butler Yeats poem “The Second Coming” he writes strongly about how he feels about World War I. He is saying that we are destroying ourselves by fighting this war and that nothing good will come from the end of it. He also predicted the coming of World War II as well. A certain line that really stuck out to me in this poem was, “Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer” (Yeats 1). Falconers have trained falcons to be able to find their falconer even in the most populated places. Falcons are extremely smart animals and can be easily trained to return to their master. But when a falcon cannot hear the falconer as said in the poem, you know there is something wrong. This line is saying that the world is not right and there is something terribly wrong, for the falcon is not able to return to the falconer. Another poem that had an impact on me was, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. In my opinion, this poem is saying that no matter how close you may feel you are to the light--or death--you should always continue to live life the best you can and make the most of it. The line that sticks out to me the most is, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas 1). This line is said multiple times throughout the poem, allowing itself to be stuck into the readers’ minds saying do not give up on life. The third and last poem that was very touching to me was Li-Young Lee’s “The Hammock”. This poem is about our children and children yet to come. It explains how you were known before you had even been born. This poem is very upbeat and can also be quite soul-moving for some people. One line that really stuck out to me the most was, “Is it a door, and good-bye on either side? A window, and eternity on either side?” (Lee 1). What this line means to me is that on one side of the hammock, you have a door which leads to “goodbye” or death, and then the other side, a window, which would be like heaven.
One of the three poems that stuck out to me was Young MC’s “More Rhymes”. Since a hobby of mine includes writing music, this particularly poem was interesting to me, because of the lyricism and flow, and the rhymes. While the poem itself spoke of how this man was Young MC and reiterated itself a multitude of times, it perhaps was meant to convey that we, too, should be proud of who we are, regardless of where we came from or how far we have (or have not) come. It seems like it may be more of a rap then a poem, though they may be too similar to categorize differently.
The second poem that stood out to me was Lee’s “The Hammock” as it speaks very lightly of what life and death may be. A window or a door, a window and a door. The poem claims that life and death are both: We can see into the past because of our predecessors/parents, and through our children and the next generation we can catch a glimpse of the future. Likewise/Contrariwise, after we enter the threshold of the door of life, the door closes behind us. We cannot go back through or personally witness what happened before the womb, nor will we be able to escape the eerie black room of death, seeing into the future. The door, simply put, is shut and locked behind us by an unseen doorman, of sorts. This poem also uses parallelism very well, as first it states that the narrator does not know why his mother acts in the manner she does, but then switches it to not knowing why the narrator does as he does. It just re-shows the transition from child to adult, adult to parent, parent to what comes next.
The last poem (that we discussed in class) that stood out to me was “Hills Like White Elephants”, by Hemingway. This specific work may or may not have peaked my interest, but by revealing all that we could as a group really attracted my attention, which helped me dive a little deeper into my analysis of the poem.
Nelson 7 The first poem that matters to me is “There is another sky: by Emily Dickinson. This one is different that most of the others. It is short and cheery which I like. What stands out to me is the the first line is “There is another sky,” and later in the poem there are lines such as “Here is a little forest,” and “Here is a brighter garden.” This makes me wonder why she chose to use two different adjectives. All poetry is up to the reader to decide the meaning and I think this poem is about finding beauty and happiness within yourself and not other people. In a darker twist, “The addict” by Anne Sexton is my next favorite poem. The lines that drew my attention are at the very end: Then I lie on; my altar elevated by the eight chemical kisses. What a lay me down this is with two pink, two orange, two green, two white goodnights. Fee-fi-fo-fum- Now I'm borrowed. Now I'm numb. This is the point where the pills are kicking in. Sexton is a confessional poet which makes me think she probably did this herself. I did some research and found out that she had severe depression and even attempted suicide at least once before succeeding. This information makes the poem a lot more powerful and emotional. The last poem that has importance to me is “As Freedom Is Breakfast Food.” At first I thought it was the strangest analogy but then I remembered how everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and immediately connected the freedom is important to everybody, everyday just as breakfast is. My favorite line is: deeds cannot dream what dreams can do —time is a tree(this life one leaf) but love is the sky and I am for you just so long and long enough
I thought the poem “After Auschwitz” was attention grabbing. I have always been intrigued by the Holocaust often I would read books about the stories of the survivors. Emotions fly when this subject is ever discussed. To feel the hatred in this poem is moving. The line that stood out to me in this poem was “Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.
I say those things aloud. I beg the Lord not to hear.” These lines are show the hatred Sexton feels towards death and the men causing it. It struck me because the whole poem she discusses that those men should never be able to be normal again when they are making people suffer the worst: death. She wishes death upon them yet hopes to the Lord he does not hear. She still has humanity in her with such hatred she wishes death but wishes the Lord does not hear. The second poem that stood out to me was “This Be the Verse” by Larkin. It was interesting that to be considered successful in this time of society they have money and love with family. Those who make a large sum of money and are married to someone (who also has a “successful job”) with kids is desired. Yet in this poem, Larkin states to never have kids. We who are living are living with the faults of our parents and with some of our faults, are worse off than to not even be living. To go out and have kids to pass on our faults is unimaginable to Larkin. People should stop having children, and that contradicts with what is successful. “Get out as early as you can” is the line that sticks out to me in this poem. Does Larkin imply to get out as to end our lives? The only way to get out of living is to end it. Larkin is a morbid man who I think needs help and this is his cry. This poem was interesting. The last poem that I selected was “Mr. Edwards and the Spider” by Lowell. I loved the rhythm and the rhyme scheme that can be found. The line “Is infinite, eternal: this is death, To die and know it. This is the Black Widow, death.” I like this enjoyed this poem.
The poem by Larkin, "This Be the Verse'" stood out to me the most. He displays his opinion on his parents, which obviously was a mostly negative experience growing up. "Get out as early as you can, And don't have kids yourself." This line really made me sympathize for him and what he must have gone through that it would have ruined his longing to have children of his own. Another poem that I have enjoyed is Bishop's "The Man-Moth." It's full of elaborate imagery. It appears to me the man-moth struggles with fitting in but is it that he simply cannot, or is it that he chooses not to. Either way, I think it is beautiful the way he goes about it. I loved the ending describing his eye, "It's all a pupil, an entire night itself...then from the lids one tear...cool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink." The last poem that made an impact was one we read today by Li-Young Lee, called, “The Hammock.” I admired its optimism and how it made me think deeply into the ideas he wrote about. This line from the third stanza really struck me, “I think, Dear God, and remember there are stars we haven’t heard from yet: They have so far to arrive.” I enjoy how he compared people to stars and that we should be optimistic for the future generation that hasn’t been born yet.
Before starting the poetry unit, I was never too fond of poetry and what it had to offer. I had never read any poetry other than the ones that discussed frolocking in a flower patch or the ones that described nature. My opinion changed once I read the confessional poetry in class.
Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is the first poem that stuck out to me. I interpreted the poem as a confession about her father being a Nazi, and possibly being an abusive father. The lines that had an impact on me are “Bit my pretty red heart in two. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die, And get back, back, back to you.” The horrors that were endured in the Holocaust are unimaginable to me, but to know that your father participated in them? That is absolutely heart-wrenching.
The second poem that is significant to me is Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. I deduced this poem to be about the faults and miseries that man hands on to man. One passage that was striking was the line: “Get out as early as you can”. I think that this is an effective line because it has multiple meanings; it can be taken as a message to commit the act of suicide, or even as a message to escape the grasps of your parents.
The third poem I read that stood out to me is Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Man-Moth”. I was so fascinated by it because of the clever way it was published as at the time it was unacceptable by society to discuss homesexuality in public works, and that it has various symbols throughout the poem--the moon being my favorite example. The first stanza was what initially caught my attention:
“Here, above, cracks in the buildings are filled with battered moonlight. The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat. It lies at his feet like a circle for a doll to stand on, and he makes an inverted pin, the point magnetized to the moon. He does not see the moon; he observes only her vast properties, feeling the queer light on his hands, neither warm nor cold, of a temperature impossible to record in thermometers.”
I believe that the moon is a symbol for the homosexuality or femininity of the Man-Moth. In Greek mythology, Artemis is the Goddess of the moon, chastity, virginity, as well as many other things which is the main reason for my belief. It was a unique and ingenious the way she incorporated this moon to represent this, or so I interpreted.
Poetry is hard thing to learn to love. A lot of people, including myself, don’t always know what the author of the poem is trying to get at. However, I love when poems have a deeper meaning and you understand what that deeper meaning is. All poems are unique in their own way, some are positive and some are negative. My all time favorite poem is the one we read in class today called “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. I love how it relates your life to a hammock and one end is when you are born and the other end is when you die and the part inbetween is your life. My favorite line in this poem is “Do his father’s kisses keep his father’s worries from becoming his?” This poem is my all time favorite because of how it makes me think about my future children that I do not even know of yet. “There are stars we haven’t heard from yet.” Another poem that I like is “Since feeling is first” by Cummings. I like how simple the poem is and that is how simple love should be. You should just always unconditionally love your spouse because your feelings should always be put first. I like the line “for life’s not a paragraph and death I think is no parenthesis.” I love how life and death is related to paragraphs and parenthesis. Another poem I like is “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. This poem saddens me because I know a few people with addiction problems and it is a sad and scary battle. One of the lines says, “And now they say I am an addict. Now they ask why. WHY! Don’t they know I promised to die!” This is the most true sentence I have ever read. People who are addicted kill of their entire life before they want to die. They destroy their friendships, their marriages, and their families. The last line of the sentence says, “Now I’m numb.” People who are addicted to something do not feel their emotions anymore. They don’t care about anything or anyone anymore. They throw their lives away. Addiction is a scary thing. I truly enjoy most poetry and especially the ones I can relate to. Most poets are amazing at drawing out people's emotions through poetry.
Poetry is one of my favorite literature styles to read. I enjoy Anne Sextons style of confessional poetry. I read her “After Auschwitz” poem. I believe the point she was trying to convey to the reader was how dirty and rotten the Nazi’s were to the Jews and to woman in general. I enjoy this excerpt, “Man is a bird full of mud, I say aloud. And death looks on with a casual eye and scratches his anus.” This is a statistical way that a man looks at all situations he deals with, scratching his head (or butt) and looking with disgust and confusion and usually complaining about what he has to deal with. I think she describes the way men and the Nazi’s treat woman and the Jews. The next poem I read was Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. This poem deals with what I picture as a parenting poem. It shows of all the things you carry on as a child from your parents and what your legacy as a parent could bring on to your child. I especially like “Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself.” This is the true meat and potatoes to what i viewed this poem was all about. It also send a certain punch to the stomach with the ‘don’t have any kids’ line. This can show a complete other side to ‘the miracle of life’ also being the ‘misery of your life’. Lastly I enjoyed William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”. I focused more on Yeats writing style as it is different from both Larkin and Sexton. It is peaceful and blissful. It flowed so smoothly and with elegance when the other two were harsh and deep, dark as well. This is a representation of the birth of baby Jesus in Bethlehem, thus the ‘second coming’. It is posed lastly as a question, “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” The evil is coming to pass and the joy of light within is to spread in the world. I wish to understand the poem further but I do favor the end as it is posed as a question rather than a statement.
The line that stands out most to me is “Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?” This line stands out the most to me because I can completely relate. I, myself, am the only one who believes I am the genius of my household and I believe that it is because I am the only who knows of my own unwritten law. I picked this poem as one that was most important to me because of my love for Williams style of writing specifically in this piece.
Brooks “We Real Cool”
The line in “We Real Cool” that stands out most to me is “We die soon.” Looking at this line compared to the others in the piece give the effect of living your life to the fullest. Dying soon from a life lived to its fullest capacity would give me more satisfaction than living a long life on the safe side. This poem matters most to me because in my lifetime I hope to be able to reach all of my goals and living in the beauty of earth.
Dickinson “There is Another Sky”
There are multiple lines in “There is Another Sky” that stand out to me. The first line that stands out to me is “There is another sky, Ever serene and fair,” it shows that even in the darkness, you can look forward to a new hope. The other line that I believe ties this poem’s meaning together is “Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been;” Showing that there is a place on earth where sin has never reached, and the goodness in the world rests waiting for those who have the potential innocence to become a part in it. This poem stands out to me because I, one day, hope to find myself in the good aura of the world.
Out of the many poems that are in poem folder, there are three in particular that stand out to me.
One is the poem written by Sylvia Plath, called “Daddy.” It talks about a girl who had an abusive father that died while she still hated him. She thought she had escaped from the abusive lifestyle that she was forced to live for so long, but, unfortunately, she married an abusive husband too, falling right back into the trap. The few lines that really stood out to me were, “If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two——the vampire who said he was you and drank my blood for a year, seven years, if you want to know.” It shows how similar her husband and her father were.
The second poem was written by Li-Young Lee, called “The Hammock.” It is a warm-hearted poem that shines light on the future we our kids have. It talks about the important people that are yet to come into this world yet. The next Albert Einstein, Kanye West, and Bill Clinton may have not been born yet, which is what Lee is getting at. A few important lines that stood out to me are, “A window, and eternity on either side? Yes, and a little singing between two great rests.” These lines are important because it proves that he, as well as many others, believe in the future.
The third poem that spoke to me was written by Elizabeth Bishop, called “The Man-Moth.” It talks about those individuals who are overlooked because they may not be as popular as others. This is a big reason why all high schoolers should read this poem. A few important lines in this poem that stood out to me are, “If you catch him, hold up a flashlight to his eye. It’s all dark pupil, an entire night itself, whose haired horizon tightens as he stares back, and closes up the eye. Then from the lids one tear, his only possession, like the bee’s sting, slips.” It shows how important even those you rarely talk to can be.
I did not really know exactly what I wanted to write about for this entry. I decided that I would go through look at the titles and their authors and decide that way. The first poem that really caught my interest in a weird distasteful way to some people is “After Auschwitz” written by Sexton. I have always had a large interest in the Holocaust, and I like reading anything Holocaust related. “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” Reading this line almost gave me the chills. Yet at the same time it has so much meaning, it teaches us so much in so little. It is telling us thing that happened in the Holocaust that you wish you did not have to hear about. You do not want to have to hear about the little kids being burned in the gas chambers, yet it also at the same time interests you. The next poem I find interesting is oddly enough also written by Sexton “The Addict”. I feel like sometimes people never truly understand what addicts go through, and I feel like through this story you are able to get a real sense of what they go through. It makes your brain churn its gears to really find out the truth of what the story is trying to non bluntly tell you. “I like them more than I like me.” Somebody really has to be at an all time low to feel this way about themselves, and I feel that with her becoming an addict this has caused her to feel this way. “We Real Cool” by Brooks is also a poem I find that intrigues me. Something that is so short with only just 32 words written, that can make you feel so many feelings all at once. “We left school” can have so many different meanings to every person. Whether or not it is being kicked out or graduating, everyone has their own different thought. As for me I can think if it as graduating, I will be leaving the school for a little over a month, and will not be coming back there unless it is for an sports activity my sister is somehow involved in. I believe that also in this poem it is showing children's recklessness and how they feel that they are their own bosses and do what they want whenever they want. Yet we need every little piece of guidance we can get, before it is too late for us.
6 Sadler Poetry, in the past, is something I always dreaded reading. My dislike for it was probably caused by the reading of boring and difficult to understand poems in past English classes. This year I have found reading poetry relaxing and calming. The poem that stood out to me the most in the poetry folder was Emily Dickinson’s “There is another sky.” I especially enjoyed reading this poem because it is optimistic. I liked the excerpt: Never mind faded forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields- Here is a little forest, Whose leaf is ever green; Here is a brighter forest, Where not a frost has been; Dickinson’s poem reminds me of the saying “think of the glass as half-full instead of half-empty.” There is a better time to come. I also enjoyed reading Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” I first heard this poem while watching the movie “Interstellar” and I very much enjoyed it then. What I take from it is that we should not sit around and wait for our lives to pass by. We should make the time we have on this earth matter. From that poem, the title line is my favorite: “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” Lastly I enjoyed the the poem “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. My favorite line from it was “there are stars we haven’t heard from yet: They have so far to arrive.” There are so many great things in my life still to come and it gives me hope and eagerness for the future.
1 Wardlow Poetry is a very intriguing art form and I believe it gives writers a lot of artistic license. Poetry displays the author's real feelings which is interesting to read. To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage by Robert Lowell. This poem displays a marriage gone sour. Abuse runs rampant in the relationship and most of it is alcohol driven. Many parts of this poem stand out to me. One line that struck me when reading the novel was “My only thought is how to keep alive”. This sentence makes me really wonder what it would be like to be in such an abusive relationship. That line really puts the reader in the shoes of the abused, how would they stay alive? When reading this poem I have many questions, whose point of view is this poem written from? Once in the poem it says “this screwball might kill his wife” and another time “my only thought was…” which causes me to be curious which point of view it is written in. Often times when I think of poetry I think it is supposed to be formal, but this poem uses the word screwball which I find interesting. The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop is another interesting poem. I find it very interesting that her inspiration for the poem came from a misprint in a newspaper where it was meant to say mammoth. Artists can really find art in everything. I like that she created something that does not exist however the reader can vividly imagine what she is writing about since she is so descriptive. This also seems like more of a story to me than a poem it is fascinating how an author can make what seems like a story into a poem. Many lines in this poem stuck out to me like, “ It’s all dark pupil,an entire night itself”. This line I think means that everyone has their own world. Everyone has their own problems and things going on in their lives. The poem by Philip Larkin, This Be the Verse is also very interesting. This poem speaks about how parents pass on their flaws to their children through their genetics. We can see these flaws in ourselves when we see the problems that we share with our parents. One line in this poem that stuck out to me was “They fill you with the faults they had” this shows that everyone has faults. Overall poems are very interesting and allow authors to use artistic license.
Of all the poems that we have read in class “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night” was the poem that I found the be the most powerful. This one uses powerful words like burn, rage, blaze, and fierce. Thomas’ use of commas are also something I find to be an aspect of power in this poem. The lines that occur most frequently are the lines that stand out to me. “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I love the way the these two sentences manage to stay on the same topic but have different ways of communicating it to the reader. The first urges almost pleads the reader to not be passive and let the days just go by. While the second calls the reader to action and places them on their feet readying them to go out and seize their life. Only once do these two lines appear together which adds to their impact. They only are seen together at the end of the poem. Another poem that I found to have a great impact was Lee’s poem “The Hammock” personally the line that stood out to me was when he writes “Between two unknowns, I live my life.” In the poem me means it to say that what his mother thought about him before he was born and his impact on his kids after he dies but I saw it a slightly different way. I saw this and thought about the huge stretches of time before we are born and the vastness of what happens after we die we are just a tiny drop in the ocean of what happens in the grand scheme of things and the impact we have is just that small I did see those tiny drops adding up and something had to make up the ocean. In the poetry folder I found the fable placed there written by Martel entitled “What the Drop of Water Had to Say”. Martel did a phenomenal job writing this and showing just how stupid we humans are to the Earth and its resources. The line that stood out to me was what I feel was the turning point of the fable the droplet said “I give myself to each and every with open heart, yet so many exploit me.” Before this moment the droplet is talking about how it helps others but here is when finally if talks about the greed of the people on the planet and it stuck a cord. These poems are powerful and I understand why we are reading them in class.
Cumming’s poem “Since Feeling is First” is one of my favorites out of the poetry folder. “Since feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things.” This verse particularly caught my attention. I find this to be true in my own life and can relate to it. It is so easy to fall in love with the looks and ideas of another person, but also just as easy to look over all the syntax of things. “We real cool. We left school” is how Brooks starts his poem “We Real Cool”. Both the title and first verse of this poem is what drew me into reading it. I was interested to find out what was so cool. According to Brooks drinking thin gin and singing sin is cool. Personally that is not my definition of cool but to many others that is what they have to do to feel cool. However by doing all of these things does it really make them cool? Brooks then ends the poem with we die soon. Nothing is cool about dying soon. Finally “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas is one of the most powerful poems in the folder.In the end everyone will die so live for the now. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” If you live under the constant fear of death, you will never truly get to live.
My three favorite poems were "This Be The Verse" by Philip Larkin, "The Man-Moth" by Elizabeth Bishop, and "The Addict" by Anne Sexton. "This Be The Verse" was a moving poem. The first line of the poem is shocking and immediately and obviously drives home a point “They fuck you up, your mum and dad”. The whole poem tells a beautifully sad story, with a warning at the end, “Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself”. This poem resonates with me, being adopted, and the topic of having children in the future. "The Man-Moth" was just a beautiful poem in general. I loved the way Bishop used imagery, “It’s all dark pupil, an entire night itself, whose hair horizon tightens as he stares back, and closes up the eye”. The message about this strange man-moth, his failed dreams, and his status as an outsider are moving and the poem is beautiful. "The Addict" is the poem that has meant the most to me. Its simple format is still incredibly accurate and indicative of what addicts feel like. “The pills are a mother, but better, every color and as good as sour balls. I’m on a diet from death.” I honestly liked the whole poem and if I could choose just one line I might as well choose the whole poem. “Now they ask why. WHY! Don’t they know that I promised to die!”.
The first poem to strike by attention was “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage” by Lowell. Within the first three lines the author goes right into the topic of abusive relationships and alcoholism. These two topics tend to go hand in hand. About half way through the poem the lines, “my only thought is how to keep alive. What makes him tick?”, go into the mind of the wife where she expresses her everyday fears of living with her husband. Another poem which caught my attention was “Daddy” written by Sylvia Plath. Like most students the Holocaust is an awful event yet one of the most intriguing lessons in history class. The lines, “I may be a bit of a Jew. I have always been scared of you,” crushes the reads heart as they realize the child in the poem has a Nazi father whose beliefs could and may kill the innocent kid. Finally “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop caught my attention because of the strange title. Bishop has a creative mind were she converted a normal word “mammoth”--creating a new character with its own story. A Man-Moth symbolized all people in society who did not fit in. He finds the the tunnels of the undergrounds and the shadows of town straying away from anyone who believes he does not fit in. One stanza says it all:
“But when the Man-Moth pays his rare, although occasional, visits to the surface, the moon looks rather different to him. He emerges from an opening under the edge of one of the sidewalks and nervously begins to scale the faces of the buildings. He thinks the moon is a small hole at the top of the sky, proving the sky quite useless for protection.”
Hoffman, Brett 2 Sexton “After Auschwitz” This poem is a poem in which after you read it, you wonder what was going on in the world that people were killing other people because of their appearance, beliefs, disabilities, etc. The start of the poem: Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan. And death looks on with a casual eye. This would hit everybody hard I believe just by hearing “A Nazi, took at 8:00A.M., a ‘BABY’ and sauteed him for breakfast…”
Plath “Daddy” Absolutely insane. Lost for words, she talks about how she had to kill her father, with when she says “and your aryan eye - bright blue”, we can assume it was she killing her father because he was more jewish looking than she was. After reading the whole poem, she apologized mid way through and then towards the end she talked about more of how she was seeing how the village and people around her never liked you, so she was through.
Lee “The Hammock” I enjoyed this one because Lee said “When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder:”. Which, at the beginning he is talking about remembering laying his head on his mother’s lap, and now he is wondering the thought of when he has a child if they will think the same thing. With that, he also brings up the idea of having children, which is why I enjoyed this poem so much, even though he doesn’t have any, the thought of them is alive much like the stars in the sky, they could die out but they are still shining or the thought of them is still there. Much like the possibilities of our families that we will all hope to have in our later years.
All of the poems in the poetry folder stood out to me and I enjoyed reading them all. They all had good imagery and really touch the reader. The one that stood out to me the most would have to be Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. The holocaust is a very sad and gruesome topic and I love reading and learning more about it. By just reading the title I knew this poem would really stand out to me. I believe it is very important to learn from the past so we can improve and learn from our mistakes and make sure nothing like that ever happens again. The most meaningful lines from this poem to me were: “ And death looks on with a casual eye and picks at the dirt under his fingernail.” This line really touches me and stands out. Although Sexton’s “After Auschwitz” stood out to me the most, Lowell’s poem "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage" also stood out to me. This poem speaks of a wife who sits at home while her husband is off drinking at a bar. The husband loves tequila and Lowell makes it seem like the husband is anything but pleasant when drunk. After reading the poem I interpret that the wife does not like when the husband is drunk, because when he is drunk he is not himself. He could be aggressive or scary when he is drunk. Like I said all of these poems stood out to me, but these two stood out the most.
One of the first poems that I read happened to be the most disturbing, ironically. It was Sexton’s “After Auschwitz.” The most horrifying line in my opinion would have to be “Each Nazi, at 8:00 AM, a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” This sentence gives the reader a horrifyingly gruesome visual. This poem gives off a very eerie and horrible aura. Another line that disturbed me was “Man is a flower that should be burnt.” This sentence makes me realize and come to the understanding that Sexton feels as though humanity is lost. Another poem that I found interesting was Lowell’s “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage.” I found it really odd, yet intriguing. One line at the end stuck out to me: “Gored by the climacteric of his want, he stalls above me like an elephant.” I actually found this somewhat disturbing. It almost seems as if he is going to rape her or take advantage of her. I felt disgusted after reading it. The last poem that I would like to praise would be Larkin’s “This Be the Verse.” A line that I really enjoyed was “Man hands on misery to man.” He means that when we have children, our miserable-ness is almost handed down to our children. All of our burdens now become our children’s problems. It is a really sad poem but quite frankly, undoubtedly true.
I was first drawn to "The Hammock" by Lee. Not because I studied any of his work before, I haven't. However, the natural concept of the poem speaks in ways like nothing else. Thinking of our children already around just not in the light, like the stars that are unseen by the daylight. This is an idea almost like fate. Everything is already decided but just cannot be seen because of the light. Finally the last line of the poem is powerful. "yes, and a little singing between two great rests." This could be talking about birth and death. The singing between two great rests is the life in between that one must enjoy. The entire nature of the poem is peaceful to me, holding family values by talking about the boys mother and father together with him. They cannot tell what each other is thinking but they know they love each other. This poem is a classic for many reasons and that is why it stood out to me. I will have to research more poems by Lee to see some more of his great work.
Reading all this poetry is not boring to me, quite contrary, I am very engaged in them. I used to write poetry as a hobby, so I like to think I have an appreciation for it. They are much shorter than a novel, but not lacking in depth and content. The three poems in this unit that stood out the most to me were: Thomas’ Do Not Go Gently Into the Night, Sexton’s The Addict, and Lowell’s To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage. In Thomas’ poem the line that inspired me the most was, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” This line was repeated four other times in the poem, it obviously holds importance. Reading this poem I was uplifted! It is a war cry for all of humanity to persevere in life-keep the knife sharp. Do not let yourself go dull. The second line of the poem, “Old age should burn and rage at close of day,” stood out as well. In this Thomas is saying that you can not let age stop you from going forward in life, rage against it! Anne Sexton’s poem The Addict is not for the lighthearted. The poem is full of depth and heart. The lines, “It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself. Yes I try to kill myself in small amounts, an innocuous occupation,” are heavy with emotion. This whole poem is about this person walking the thin line of life and death when they take these pills. She takes just the right amount so as not to overdose, but enough to escape from her current situation (whatever it may be.) Finally, Lowell’s poem To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage, is about a wife who knows her husband cheats on her with prostitutes. It says, “...freelancing out along the razor's edge. This screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge.” The latter part of this confused me especially because it says “his wife” but I had thought this was from the wife’s perspective...hm. The first part is talking about how her husband is dancing the edge between completely leaving his wife because of his infidelity and remaining in a loveless marriage. All of these poems hold depth and meaning that everyone can draw something from.
Mixell 1 Sexton "The Addict" This poem is most certainly my favorite out of the set of three I chose for this blog task. Addiction has been around in my life and I would say that this poem truly lets someone from the outside understand some of the thinking processes that make up addiction. Sexton speaks of how it kills the character, but he/she keeps doing it anyhow. The line that stood out to me the most was "Yes, I admit it has gotten to be a bit of a habit-." Most people who struggle with addiction will never admit just how bad it actually is. The character in this poem only admits it to be a mere habit, while it slowly kills him/her.
Poe "Dreams" I chose to read this poem because I have enjoyed previous works from Poe. Most of the stories/poems I have read from Poe are very dark and morbid, which I enjoy very much. I like Poe because it reminds me of Stephen King, an author which I thoroughly enjoy. I don't only enjoy it because it is morbid, I enjoy it because they are usually very descriptive as well. The line I enjoyed the most was "Its image on my spirit- or the moon Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon Too coldly- or the stars-howe'er it was That dream was as that night-wind- let it pass." You get a lot from these lines description wise, and I love reading lines such as these.
Sexton "After Auschwitz" This poem was extremely intriguing to me because I am extremely fascinated with the Holocaust. Such a horrible event to happen in our history as a world, but we can learn from it by studying it. She does a very nice job of explaining the anger and hatred built up by a prisoner at this time. What I found most interesting was the line "I say those things aloud. I beg the Lord not to hear." The character wishes that the Nazi's do not experience such simple pleasures in life again, but then begs that the Lord does not hear her pleas. I feel like it puts off a vibe that the character just wants her pain and suffering to be over.
Schwint 1 One of my favorite poems that I read in the poetry folder what “The Hammock” written by Li-Young Lee. I love this poem because it is a very heartfelt poem and I found myself relating to the poem. I enjoyed this poem because it discusses human wonder; We wonder about what others think and what will be waiting for us after this life. This is best summed up in the poem when it says, “Is it a door, and goodbye on either side? A window, and eternity on either side? Yes, and a little singing between two great rests.” I love this part of the poem because many people fight about whether or not there is an afterlife and while people may still fight I think this poem gives a great answer to what Lee think. The second poem that I enjoyed reading was “Dreams” by Edgar Allen Poe. I especially enjoyed in this poem how Poe talks about the happiness that dreams can bring you and he romanticizes dreams. My favorite part of this poem was when it says, “Of semblance with reality, which brings To the delirious eye, more lovely things Of Paradise and Love- all our own! Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.” This poem was surprising because Poe was known for his dark writings and this poem had a more positive note. The last poem that I enjoyed reading what the poem “A narrow fellow in the grass” by Emily Dickinson. I loved this poem because I enjoy nature and this poem discussed nature in a new way. I especially loved the part, “Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone.” This part caught my attention because there are times when I have encounter something like a giant spider or snake that has shocked me.
Every poem in the poetry folder could be considered a classic. That is not an easy won title, it takes a lot of effort and skill to be able to write a poem so artistically as those. Although it is hard to narrow down 3 favorite poems, I will give it my best shot. First is Thomas “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. Thomas does a very good job at making his poem flow well as well as using vivid imagery like “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay.” He writes so that people may have comfort with the thought of death, and I can imagine how many people listen to this particular poem on their deathbed, no matter how morbid that may be. Second is Lowell’s “Mr. Edwards and the Spider”. I like this particular one just because of the awe inspiring imagery. By reading this it’s almost like watching a movie about a spider dying and you can see it all play out right in front of you. He uses such imagery as, “I saw the spiders marching through the air, Swimming from tree to tree that mildewed day.” That piece instantly puts an image into your mind that sticks. Third is Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. Like most people, I am morbidly curious and intrigued by the holocaust. When reading “After Auschwitz” I could not help but feel sad and angry at the atrocities that occurred. Lines like, “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” hit almost everyone extremely hard while reading this. This poem captures the cruelty of the human nature so well that it makes me angry at my own race. It captures the harshness of life during those times for all those poor, suffering souls so on-point that it hurts me deep down in my heart as do most other holocaust writings. Along with immaculate imagery, Sexton makes one of if not the best holocaust poems of all time.
1 Peterson Reading through the poems in the folder, each one has a deep meaning throughout the poem. The first poem that stood out to was Sexton’s After Auschwitz. I have always been intrigued by the Holocaust since I was a 7th grader. The Holocaust is something that people should take the time to study about instead of pushing it aside like it did not happen. The lines that stood out to me was, Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan. The visual that is given is hard to read about, but it is also quite truthful. Each day Nazi’s would take a precious life of innocent people and that needs to be told throughout time so that horrific event will never happen again. Another poem that I took interest in was, The Addict by Sexon, again. I enjoy the way Sexon writes her poems, the way it flows, and the one worded lines--draws interest to me.The lines in this poem that stood out to me was, I'm becoming something of a chemical mixture. that's it! Reading that line made me sad, as she is extremely addicted to drugs that she herself is becoming a chemical mixture, and she seems to be totally okay with her situation. She seems to be struggling with depression and to take the pain “away” she uses drugs to numb her pain. The last poem that stood out to me was, Daddy by Plath. In this poem she is talking about how her dad was a Nazi and she wanted to have him back when she was a child. But, when she got older to realize the truth she did not want to deal with what he had done. The lines that stood out to me in this poem was, Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time—— She is expressing how she would have wanted to kill him because she figured out he was a Nazi but he had already died.
6 Bender The poem by Li-Young Lee called “The Hammock” is a fantastic poem that seems to be coming to my life at the perfect time. Going to college next year and having to deal with all of the stress and struggles alone makes me miss my mother and father. This is a happy poem that will always remind me to treasure every day because I will look back on this and miss being this age and doing the exciting things. I love the line “Between two unknowns, I live my life.” I look around and think of all the people in the world all living lives that I will never know. I will never feel their struggles or know what they are going through each day. This blows my mind of how how small I am on the planet and how little my stresses and worries are on the large scale of things. The next poem that relates to my life is by Dylan Thomas called “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. It is poem that builds and builds and makes you feel empowered by the end of it. I loved this poem and thought it related to my life because of what I was discussing previously: college. I want to live out every day of high school and get as much out of this as I can. The continual repetition of the “Do not go gentle into that good night” And “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” are extremely profound and the rhythm it creates for the poem is enchanting. The last poem that stands out to by Poe called “Dreams”. In this poem the lines “in their vivid coloring of life, As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife Of semblance with reality, which brings To the delirious eye, more lovely things Of Paradise and Love- and all our own” stand out. I love that the whole idea of the poem is centered around dreams and then transitions to reality. I dream of my future and what it will bring to me; hopefully it is a “paradise” and has love also.
Poetry to me has always been fairly boring. This is because as a younger student I read poems that did not interest me. Typically if you are not interested in a subject you do not try nearly as hard to learn it than you do something that you enjoy. I came into this class thinking that all of the poetry would be similar to what we had read before and it would be dreadful, but these poems are different and interesting. One of my favorite poems on the list is “After Auschwitz” written by Anne Sexton. This poem is about the holocaust and it is very moving. Mostly because of how dark it is. One of the best lines in the poem talks about how evil the nazis were. “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan. Another poem that touched me was “Daddy” by Plath. The poem is also about German nazis. A woman is abused by her father as a girl and he then dies. She misses him and tries to replicate him with another man who she then marries but she then kills him too. “The vampire who said he was you And drank my blood for a year, Seven years, if you want to know.” The third and final poem that I enjoyed was “We Real Cool” by Brooks. This poem was shorter than most of the other poems but I liked how it said so much in such little words. It talked about how these older teens skipped school and do what they want. They think of themselves as cool because they do not have to answer to anyone. The best line in the poem is “We Die soon.” because it shows that they do as they please but this lifestyle does not last long.
Normally I am not a huge fan of poetry. To me, a lot of the poems that I have to read for school are boring and confusing. Although, I do enjoy being able to discuss the poems after we have read them. By being able to have class discussions, it makes for better understanding for both me and others too. The three poems that stood out to me the most would have to be “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton, “The Hammock” by Li- Young Lee, and “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. “After Auschwitz” is a meaningful poem. The Holocaust has always intrigued me. After reading this poem, it makes me think long, and hard about all that I have learned about the Holocaust and how much it has impacted others. The one line that completely stood out to me was “Each day, each Nazitook, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan. Reading that made me feel sick inside. It breaks my heart knowing that those things actually happened. The second poem I enjoy, “The Hammock” is relatable to many, it makes me ponder about my childhood and all of the worries that I did not have. My favorite line is “Do his father's kisses keep his father's worries from becoming his?”. This is meaningful because children do not have a worry in the world. They are living the carefree life while their parents could be stressing away. The final poem “The Addict” is also a marvelous poem written by Sexton. I know in classes we learn about addicts and how they become addicted but do we truly know. Unless you are an addict yourself, you will not be able to understand the pain that they go through every single day.
2 Oren One of my favorite poems in the poetry folder would have to be “What the Drop of Water Had to Say” by Yann Martel. This poem discusses the poor treatment of earth by humans, the most powerful line is about half way through: “‘What are those ants that crawl in your garden?’ Sun asked his sister. Moon replied, ‘They’re called humans, my brother.’ ‘And what do you think of humans, Moon?’ ‘They’re beautiful but they’re foolish.’” The poem is almost a love story between Moon and Earth. Moon’s brother, Sun does not understand what is so great about Earth, then we hear from a drop of water. Water is sad because the humans do not care for him. There is oil in Water and the foolish human, the ones who can help him, just add to the water. All of the other animals are sad but humans do not change their ways. Sun is finally able to see why Moon is in love with Earth, because Earth is beautiful. This poem is quite powerful and puts so many things into perspective.
Another interesting poem is “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks it is fairly short yet says a lot. Since the poem is short I will include the whole thing: “THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool. We Left school.
We Lurk late. We Strike straight.
We Sing sin. We Thin gin.
We Jazz June. We Die soon.” I think that this poem is poking fun at the people who make poor life choices. If I were the one who wrote the poem, I would have italicized the word “real”. I believe that it would accentuate the sarcasm; that is, the sarcasm that I am interpreting. Brooks is portraying the fact that living in the moment and floating through life is not a lifestyle. Although a lot of people prefer to live in the now, it may not do you very well when you are trying to live in the later.
Another powerful poem would be “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton. My favorite part of the poem is right at the beginning: “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” The Holocaust is a touchy topic for anyone. Even should you not have been personally affected by the Holocaust no one really likes to talk about it. It was not one of mankind’s shining moments. And a passage such as this one brings to light just why we do not like to talk about it. They killed babies. Those children were innocent, all they have ever done is be born and they get killed. It is not our fault that we are born. We do not pick our own religions at that age, they are predetermined by our parents. And after surviving something like this, you are not likely to look at man the same way. There is a dark cloud that lingers in all of us. As we have read in books such as “Lord of the Flies” once that dark cloud is let out, there is not much that you will not do. Man can be evil when given the chance… powerfully evil.
Understanding and interpreting poetry has never been my strong point, however, there are an abundance of outstanding poems able to be found within our class poetry folder. Shuffling through the many examples laid out for me, I stumbled upon a few that stood out to me despite not having a particular interest in such works. Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” was a poem I came across that sparked interest in me. It seems that in the poem the speaker is declaring her hatred towards her father. The poem has numerous comparisons that make the underlying story that much more interesting, such as when the speaker says things like “I began talking like a Jew” and “I may as well be a Jew.” Most readers understand the horrific circumstances under which Jews lived and died, so throwing little bits like those in the story make it that much easier to understand the pain the speaker is going through having to had deal with her father for so long. For some reason and work of literature dealing with the Holocaust interests me. This is probably because to me it simply seems so unreal that such a thing was carried out. I cannot even begin to imagine, that is partly why I enjoy reading about it. This being said, I am sure it is not much of a surprise yet another poem I enjoyed is about the Holocaust. Anne Sexton’s “After Auschwitz” is another vivid, mental reminder of the ghastly destruction of the Jews. Within the first few lines of the poem she says “ Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” This line shocks me because it appears to be so gruesome, but I think that is the part of the point Sexton is trying to convey. The line is certainly not pleasant, but things like that did in fact happen. It is important to speak reality, it does not always have to be found between the lines. Anne Sexton captivated me once again with her poem “The Addict”. Reading this poem, I feel as if the depression the speaker is conveying is seeping into my own soul as well, that is how deep it feels to me. This poem interested me especially because I understand how many bodies depression enters and overtakes in society. It is interesting because not all of those experiencing depression put it into words. Although depression based poetry is utterly sad, it is a divine work of art. It truly gives meaning to the poetry if the author is feeling what they are in fact speaking. Sexton says “I’m becoming something of a chemical mixture.” This is one of my favorite lines from the poem because although it is a simple sentence, this one sentence tells the reader just how bad of an addiction there is to drugs.
Klumpp 2 One of the poems that stood out the most to be was Plath’s “Daddy”. It is a fairly dark poem and I enjoyed all the emotion that was put into it. This poem was a little easier to decipher than the other poems we read.The way I looked at and thought of the poem was that this is a women who lost her dad when she was fairly young. Her dad died during the war or right after who was probably prosecuted of war crimes. She wants to know her dad and bring him back but I also think she viewed him as not such a good guy because of the things he did and how he ignored her for all those years. A line I thought was interesting but can be hard to understand is when she says “The vampire who said he was you And drank my blood for a year, Seven years, if you want to know.’ I think this line could be talking about her husband who she married to try to represent her dad but he did not turn out to be everything she wanted. After 7 years of being married their rocky relationship they ended it. Another poem that was extremely well written was Sexton’s “The Addict”. This poem is about a depressed girl who uses prescription pills to escape her life and numb her pain. One of my favorite parts from this poem is,”Then I lie on; my altar elevated by the eight chemical kisses. What a lay me down this is with two pink, two orange, two green, two white goodnights.. Fee-fi-fo-fum- Now I'm borrowed. Now I'm numb.” My last favorite poem is Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. I like this poem because of its overbearing emotion and anger. You can just imagine the way someone would read it and you can almost envision it in your mind. One of the best lines in the poem and helps bring the whole poem together is,”They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.” This is basically saying that parents pass on their failures and things they did not get accomplished will eventually come back to you, which in effect brings more problems to you.
Schroeder Pd. 6 I really like some poetry, but most of the poems I cannot understand because it was written in the 16th century. Although, we have really great opportunities to look up translations online. I haven’t read much poetry, but going into Introduction to Literature this semester, poetry was one unit I did not want to start.
The three poems that I chose that matter to me the most were; Li-Young Lee’s “The Hammock”, Sexton’s “After Aushchwitz”, and the last one also by Sexton and “The Addict”. Just starting with reading these poems, I really liked Sexton’s writing style. I like that they are kind of dark in theme. Unlike Lee’s “The Hammock”, that one was a happy poem.
Li-Young Lee wrote “The Hammock”, and this one stuck out to me because it was such a good theme to it. That everyone was planned, everyone is loved, and everyone is cared about. Lee says through his poem that we were all planned, and we will all be missed. Thought of before and after our death. Between two unknowns, I live my life. The stanza that stuck out to me was this stanza:
“Between my mother's hopes, older than I am by coming before me, and my child's wishes, older than I am by outliving me. And what's it like?”
This sticks out to me because it just touches up on what I said above, on how my mother had hopes for me, and then after I have passed those that outlive me will miss me, like my children. Another part about this poem that I thought was really sweet was the line:
“When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder: Do his father's kisses keep his father's worries from becoming his?”
This explains that children are innocent and parent’s problems are rarely the children’s worries.
The next two poems I like were written from Anne Sexton. “After Auschwitz” was my second favorite because I like reading/learning about the holocaust. The part of the poem that stuck out to me was:
“Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.”
This was just horrible to think about. The last poem that I liked was another poem by Anne Sexton, “The Addict”. Anne’s style of writing is so good, because it offers great imagery.
“I’m on a diet from death” was one of my favorite lines within the poem. The person that is in this poem realizes that taking those 8 pills is equivalent to slowly eating yourself to death. The last part that stuck out to me was, “ I like them more than I like me. It's a kind of marriage. It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself.” They realize that they cannot hold a family together and all of their loved ones have left, so the pills are the only one there for them.
6 Kribell Dickinson’s “There is another sky” is one of the poems that stood out to me the most. Just the simplicity of it appeals to me. And even though it is simple and short, there is a much deeper meaning. You can almost take it and make it into your own personal poem. My favorite line is: And there is another sunshine. The second poem that I enjoyed was “The Hammock” by Lee. We read this in class together but I still find it interesting to think about. I do not, however, find it soothing, like others. If anything, I find it rather sad, but almost a hopeful sad. My favorite line from it is the part where he says, “Between my mother's hopes, older than I am by coming before me, and my child's wishes, older than I am, by outliving me.” And finally, the first poem that we read in class was third on my list. Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. It is just so true and real, and probably will be realistic for many generations to come. “They may not mean to, but they do.” Is my ultimate favorite part of this poem. It is extremely accurate and honest.
Poetry intrigues me to no end, sometimes more than a novel does. Less words are spoken; more is needed from imagination and deep thought. I can fill in the blank and find the symbols in poetry, whereas they are more often blatantly obvious in novels. For this reason, I most enjoyed the confessional poems by Yeats, (a true genius), Lee, and Williams. This surprised me, as I am a feminist and thought I would pick all female authors as my favorite. However, the gender of the author can be least important when reviewing a written piece of art. In “The Second Coming”, the poetry is dark and beautiful. My favorite line would have to be, “The blood-dimmed tide is loosened/the ceremony of innocence is drowned.” It spoke to me because when history repeats itself, as it often does, terror and heartbreak rips away any remaining innocence the world and its people have left. The gorgeous childhood innocence is torn from said child, his/her lives forever scarred by this sphinx of horror. It is dark, yes, but honest; I love that in writing. I find that in each person’s life, there is a darkness in which evil lurks, some darknesses are simply more overpowering than others. This personality overtakes even the kindest of people at times, and they act out; sometimes in hostility, sometimes in insanity. That is what I liked most about Williams’ “Danse Russe”. This “normal” man has a wife, a baby, a home; yet he sneaks away in the night to dance nakedly in front of a mirror. I myself, feel at times completely fried to the point of wanting to do something crazy, although nakedly dancing is not up my alley; “Dance naked, grotesquely/ before my mirror/waving my shirt round my head/and singing softly to myself” Each Person has their breaking point, and the outcomes are all unique and must pass without judgement. This depressing poetry fascinates me, yet I loved Lee’s “The Hammock”. I suppose that the reason for this is because it is nice to take a break from overran;lyzing the depressed mind and view a slight, positive piece of writing. I especially liked, “And remember there are stars we haven't heard from yet”. This reminded me of the children that have yet to come into this world, and their promise of continuing my legacy, their sweet innocence ready to make the world better. I love confessional poetry, and each of these poems evoke different sides of me.
So far I have really enjoyed the poetry we have read in class. By far my most favorite is the Hammock by Li-Young Lee. My favorite line is when Lee says, “Does my father’s kisses keep his father’s worries becoming his.” This line shows how parents want to keep their children innocent and shielded from the real world. I think all young children want to grow up so quickly but once they do they realize it is not what they expected. I also liked After Auschwitz by Anne Sexton. This poem put vivid images of these camps into the reader's mind. It brought the reader despair. “At 8:00 A.M, a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” This line shows the horror of these camps. It allows the reader to better understand the horror happening to many. The last poem I enjoyed reading was Dreams by Poe. It is an uplifting poem and brings much hope to those reading it although it is saying not all dreams last forever. I think it comes from a young perspective. From mine own home, with beings that have been. Of mine own thought- what more could I have seen? This line makes me think very hard and that’s why I like it. There are many ways to interpret it by the reader. If you have great thoughts could you ask for anymore.
6 Mullet I enjoyed “The Hammock” because of its positivity. Most poems written now are meant to be deep, but not many are positive. This poem has more of an optimistic approach while still maintaining the deep thoughts of other poems like Bishop. I especially like the two lines that say, “I don’t know what my mother’s thinking,” and “I’ve no idea what my child is thinking.” These lines bring you back to the understanding that neither knows how deep their thoughts are, but they both are of each other. This poem is overall one of the poems that I enjoy most in the folder. I also found great importance in “After Auschwitz.” It was a gripping poem about the Holocaust, which I have always been struck by. The Holocaust is something that has become so awfully fascinating that most people do not attempt to write about it if they were not a part of it. It has become so sacred that we feel forbidden to portray it in case it is inaccurate. I like that Sexton is able to talk about it and create feelings about it, even if you do not know much about the Holocaust. I love when she says, “I beg the Lord not to hear.” The reader could interpret that as if she does not want the Lord to hear how awfully she speaks of humanity, or as if she does not want the Lord to hear how awful humanity has been. One of the last ones I enjoy is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. I liked this one because although it is long, it is not obtuse and too vague like “Man-Moth”. It was enjoyable to read and I could pick out underlying possible themes while reading.
My really enjoyed both Sexton’s poetry “The Addict” and “After Auschwitz”. Both poems are deep and have so much meaning with just such little to read. After Auschwitz explains how much the teller of the story hates the Nazis which is understandable because they killed so many and probably many of the Tellers family. She explains nothing is beautiful about men and they have soiled themselves. With the line “Man is a flower that should be burnt” or “Man is a bird full of mud”. Both these things shows how she portrays men after the Holocaust. She is a bit ashamed of how she thinks and how much hate she has for these people, she says the things out loud but not wanting God to hear. That part really speaks volumes because she wants to be forgiven for the things she believes but does not know if she will be. The Next poem is by Sexton also and is also dark and that is “The Addict”. This poem tells a story about a person who is addicted to drugs and the daily struggle they go through every single day. They do not believe it is a problem for themselves and they think they are the “queen of the condition”. It is a sad poem because addiction is a real problem and many people probably can relate to it. The last poem I found interesting was Brooks “We Real Cool”, it is very short and to the point yet has a profound meaning. They all want to have fun by doing all these things even if it is not bettering themselves. They live fast and they die young. With the words like “We Jazz June, We Die Soon”.
6 Paauw Poetry usually impacts me a great deal and forces me to think deeply, or leaves me with much to be desired. On the day in class when we analyzed the confessional poetry, I believed I had found the type of poetry I had been searching for. Many of those poems ingrained memorable lines and thoughts in my mind. One poem with exceptional writing was “Daddy”, by Plath. It was a very somber poem with a lot of hidden meaning and Plath’s soul poured out through through the lines. One line, “Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time——” stuck with me. She is meaning to say that she wanted the satisfaction of killing her abusive father, but this came as an afterthought after his natural death. She had never received complete closure. But, she was so under his imposing control that she could have never hurt him, or turned against him. Sexton’s poem, “the addict”, also had some amazing lines; one of which being, “The pills are a mother, but better”. This line made me stop reading and think about what addicts of any kind go through. They need the drugs more than relationships or any other physical desire. The addictive element becomes the only thing the addict can turn to or be comforted by. This line helps explain why addicts steal from people they love; their loved ones are second to the drugs. Yeats’ “the second coming”, includes a line, “The ceremony of innocence is drowned;”. This entire poem captured my attention and never relieved me of it. The poem expresses how the people will eventually be their own undoing. This line put the thoughts into my mind about children--the innocence of the world--will no longer possess that quality as the world impounds on it’s own doom.
The three poems that caught my eyes would be “ The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee, “Hills like White elephants” by Hemingway and “Daddy” by Plath. These three poems all talk about life in some sort of way. “The Hammock” stood out because it talks about the distance from one side of the hammock to the other and that the hammock is the life span of time you have to live and enjoy life.The line “I think, Dear God, and remember there are stars we haven't heard from yet” is an interesting line from the poem because it states that the stars in the sky are the coming up children to arrive the brighter they are the closer they are the farther in distance would be building up to become bright and soon to become a child of your own. “Hills like White Elephants” stood to me because it talks about a situation in life that people can face and it is present in the government presently as well. The situation that is present throughout the poem is abortion and having a child. The boyfriend is selfish and is forcing the girlfriend to give up the child to have the life they have together. The girl is dependent on him from the language barrier and etc. She gives into the peer pressure because she has no one except him. The line I liked would be ‘‘No, it isn’t. And once they take it away, you never get it back.’’ ‘‘But they haven’t taken it away.’’ ‘‘We’ll wait and see.’’ This an attention grabber because the girlfriends says that they haven't taken the baby away yet but the boyfriends says just sit back and watch and see. The boyfriend knows that he will win the arguement because of the barriers between her and him. The boyfriend continues to talk and at the end asks about if she feels better. ‘‘Do you feel better?’’ he asked. “I feel fine,” she said. ‘‘There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.’’ The girl has nothing else to say except that she is fine because she has been defeated. “Daddy” is presented through the little girl and she talks about the horrible father she has. The timing is during World War 2. She is scared of who she is but she is mostly scared of her father. “I may be a bit of a Jew. I have always been scared of you.” She is so upset that she continues on saying that her daddy’s fat black heart has a stake in it. The villagers hate him for what he did. She continues on saying that she always knew it was him. “There’s a stake in your fat black heart And the villagers never liked you. They are dancing and stamping on you. They always knew it was you. Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through” All of these poems are talking and relating to the acts in life.
Three poems that I enjoyed were written by Dickinson, Cummings and Lee. All three poems stuck out to me in a few different ways. Poetry is a beautiful art that helps students critically think, yet connect to indefinitely. The first one is “There is another sky” by Emily Dickinson. She speaks about another planet it seems like, maybe in her own perfect world. She talks about the leaves being greener and no frost has ever existed there. It is a short and spirit lifting poem. My favorite line from the poem is “Never mind faded forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields”. This speaks out to me because in a perfect world there would be no dark places or silence to consume you in your sadness. The second one is “Since feeling is first” by Cummings. The author of the poem talks about how real and sentimental feelings should be the first thing when it comes to love, not the other persons wisdom or flaws. There are multiple lines this poem that I love. “Who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you; wholly to be a fool”. This sentence in the poem reaches out to me because it is so true and relevant to love dealing with our generation. There are so many things that a person can be consumed by that the kiss of a loved one will never be completely felt because their mind is not completely concentrated on what it is supposed to be—making that person a fool for not loving wholly. Another line that I love most is “the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids’ flutter which says we are for each other”. I like this line because the person is so in love with the simplest actions of the person they are in love with because they are so perfect in their eyes. I long to have a love as beautiful as this line. And lastly a poem named “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. In this poem he talks about the way he use to lay his head in his mother’s lap with no cares in the world so innocently. As the poem progresses he is at a point in his life where he too had a son that did the things he did. He questions life itself and explains his thoughts about God and the stars above. My favorite line from this poem is “I think, Dear God, and remember there are stars we haven’t heard from yet: they have so far to arrive.” As a senior who is struggling with stress and many unanswered questions, this line stood out too me and reminded me that everything will fall into place and that there is time for everything to work itself out.
As I read a few of the poems in the folder there were certain ones that caught my eye. These are poems written by Plath, Sexton, and Lee. The first one would have to be “Daddy” by Plath. This poem talks about how the narrator states that she has killed her father and the man she seems to be talking about. It catches your eye from the beginning to the end. One part that stood out to me was “You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you, A cleft in your chin instead of your foot But no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who Bit my pretty red heart in two.” The last sentence of that just makes you feel as if your heart is breaking. It is a stanza that messes with your emotions. Another poem that I was intrigued on was “The Addict” by Sexton. In this poem it seems to appear that this girl is just trying to escape from reality by overdosing on pills. The details in this poem are so diverse and entertaining. Also, the metaphors are clever as well. For example “The pills are a mother, but better”. I would have never thought to relate a pill to a mother like that but Sexton makes it comprehensible. Because I can actually understand what this poem is trying to accomplish to the readers it makes it easier to read and it is more enjoyable as well. The last poem that I would say was part of my top three would have to be “The Hammock” by Lee. The reason I enjoy this poem so much would have to be because it relates to the youth and to our society today. It is giving us hope for the future and opens up our horizons a little. “A window, and eternity on either side? Yes, and a little singing between two great rests.” This line is hopeful. It says that there is eternity, there is life, there is freedom on either side. No matter what happens you will always live for the better and will succeed. This makes me have inspiration and goals for achievement as I enter adulthood and will soon be graduating.
After reading through a couple poems, the first one that stood out to me was "we real cool" by Brooks. This poem stood out to me because of how simple the wording is but how big the overall message of the poem is. I know a lot of people who think they are cool by having a "good time all the time" and getting messed up every night of the week. Some of the people do not even have jobs anymore and still manage to get drugs or alcohol. I also have some family members that are getting into bad things in their life because they dropped out of school or had horrible grades and are throwing their lives away and it is almost pathetic. Sure they Jazz June, but that also means they could die soon (that was the line that stuck out to me in that particular poem). Another poem that interested me was Emily Dickinson's "There is Another Sky". This poem stuck out to me because it talks about how there is another sky out there are there are large unknown places, but happiness comes in small things. Although there are many crazy far out places and unseen skies, there is also everything you need where you are as long as you look closely and go for it. In this poem a couple lines that stood out to me are "here is a little forest" and "here is a brighter garden" and I enjoyed those lines because she is portraying that you can find anything you want here, where you are, as long as you open your eyes and appreciate the little things instead of wanting more. The last poem that stood out to me was "After Auschwitz" by Anne Sexton. This poem talked about her anger toward man and how horrible humans are, wishing for them to be unable to complete any task no matter how simple. She states aloud how her anger has made her feel towards man after her tragic life of Auschwitz. She holds heavy hatred towards man, God's creation, and at the end begs that he did not hear what she said. The line that stuck out to me most was "I beg the Lord not to hear". It stood out to me because so many people have been through harsh times in there lives and they become so blinded by anger, and react on it. Then after they complete these horrendous actions, the anger washes away and they regret what they said or did. It happens all too often and Dickinson captured that theme so perfectly, and for all these reasons are why I chose these three poems.
The poems that we are studying that matter the most to me are Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”, Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Night”, and Sexton’s “After Auschwitz.” Each one of these poems teaches the reader about life and gives them an insight into what life shaped them. As an eighteen year old, it is very helpful to get an insight into many different views of life in order to prepare myself for the life I have ahead of me. The first lesson that I learned from Larkin in his work is “they don’t mean to, but they do.” He is referring to parents inadvertently passing down their worst traits and characteristics to their children. This line makes me fear becoming the worst parts of my parents and then in turn giving my future children those same, terrible traits. However dark this passage is, it does give me motivation to focus on not letting those negative traits run my life and rather try to develop the good traits I possess. The second lesson that I learned from Thomas is to live each day to the fullest. He emphasizes the phrase “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Thomas concludes many of his stanzas this way in order to make sure the reader does not forget it. Thomas does not want a person to give up hope even if everything and everyone around them is negative. The third and final lesson is learned is from Sexton. She is giving insight into the mind of someone who has committed a large amount of evil against fellow humans, in this case Nazi’s. The line that she repeats and emphasizes is “I say aloud.” This phrase follows evils and dark mindsets about what happened to the Jews and others in order to convince the Nazi narrator that the actions that they took were acceptable. This terrifies me because anyone could convince themselves that any action they take can somehow be justified in their mind.
The three poems that stood out to me the most is as follows: “The Hammock”, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”, and “The Man-Moth”. “The Hammock” was written by Li-Young Lee and was an extraordinary poem about how the thoughts of a mother and son never seem to see each other. It was interesting to see how when the child was lying in the mother’s lap, he kept wondering what his mother was thinking about in a sort of innocent way and not a care in the world. However, when the reader gets to see what the mother is thinking it is far more concerning, not about her but her son’s well being, and how she worries about her son having the same problems as his father has. The second poem that stuck out to me was “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” because of the connection it has to the movie Interstellar. In the movie, Michael Caine’s character is talking to the other astronauts in the spaceship about to set out on the mind-bending journey of a lifetime. I found it to be a very appropriate poem because it starts by saying of course, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Of course the real poem is about living everyday to the fullest, but in the movie it gives the impression of the incredible task set before the astronauts; to go exploring where no man has gone before. The last poem that stuck out to me was “The Man-Moth”. Other than (in my opinion) having the potential of being a great protagonist in a superhero movie, “The Man-Moth” was a highly confusing poem due to it not being very clear if it is a literal man-moth or just a figment. Nonetheless, the poem had lots of imagery. An example of such imagery was when if someone catches a man-moth and shines a light in his eye he will start to cry. Then if the person can obtain the tear, then they can drink said tear.
7 Nador After reading most of the poems in the folder, it was difficult to pick the three best ones; all of them are meaningful. I remembered liking Dickinson's "Narrow Fellow in the Grass," simply because I really like her creative way of saying "snake." Her effective and accurate imagery made it extremely effortless to picture a little harmless snake sliding through the grass: "The grass divides as with a comb, A spotted shaft is seen, And then it closes at your feet, And opens further on." The second poem I liked because of the impact it made on my mood. After reading it, for a second, I fell into a deep, close-to-somber state. Anne Sexton's "After Auschwitz" bears power in Sexton herself being a woman remembering the Holocaust, and openly standing up against the Nazi men that participated and contributed to the events. However, she begs the Lord not to hear her judgement. It carries a strong message, and, to me, the poet being a woman adds to the poem as a whole. My favorite part is how she uses a metaphor to evoke the Holocaust: "Anger, as black as a hook, overtakes me. Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan." The third poem I picked is by Patrick Hicks, "Not Springing Forward in Barcelona." In the poem he reverses history and makes it perfect and positive by rewinding wars and the Holocaust and epidemics. For example, "M16s sucked bullets from the resurrected, disease brought health, everyone got younger, showers lifted poison from innocent lungs, refugees returned home to their flats" It made me want to turn history around and erase all the negative and destructive things that happened, because the world would be an unbelievably different place without our history.
Of the poems in the poetry folder, “This Be the Verse” written by Philip Larkin, is one of the poems that I have enjoyed reading. I appreciate the fact that we have been able to read a more mature piece of writing intended for mature readers. The idea behind the poem, the fact that your parents mess you up, is quite intriguing. Larkin makes the reader sense that there is no hope in improving generations; that the faults of the generations before us has done us wrong and we will only do the same with the next generation. This idea can be seen in the line: “They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.” This poem reveals a lot of what the writer may have went through in his childhood, writing “By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another’s throats.” Though only a few short lines, this poem hides a large amount of meaning. Another one of the poems that I have enjoyed reading has been “Daddy” written by Sylvia Plath. When I first read this poem it did not quite make sense, though after further looking in depth at the poem, it exemplifies quite a lot of personal history and depth. Plath’s poetry reveals a sort of depression in the life Plath has lived. Plath writes some shocking lines such as, “Daddy I have had to kill you.” And “At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you.” This poem was quite an intense read and most definitely a personal favorite of mine in the poetry folder. Lastly, I have enjoyed the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” written by T.S. Eliot. The fact that Eliot begins the poem with lines of a foreign language is fascinating. For some this beginning could make them read on, though I think for some it would turn them off from reading. This poem is almost like a short story with many lines and a plot behind it. This poem truly touches readers and people can relate to this poem. The idea behind the poem of not being enough is a feeling everyone feels and makes reading this poem much easier.
Poetry is always intriguing for me. It can be full of so many emotions, whether it be sad, lust, or an expression of feelings. Reading poetry is someone's heart poured out on a piece of paper. Out of all the poems in the poetry folder, a few stood out to me. Sexton's "After Auschwitz" was one of those poems. The brutal reality of the holocaust has always fascinated me and I feel like Sexton does a great, however gruesome job of bringing those realities to life. “took, at 8:00 A.M, a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” These lines hit me hard. They make the readers see just how gruesome this occurrence was. Another Poem that caught my attention was “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage” by Lowell. The first few lines deal with abuse from an alcoholic husband. “my only thought is how to keep alive. What makes him tick?” These lines bring the reader into the mind of any wife that is abused and show how they have to walk on eggshells in order to make sure they do not make their significant other mad again. Another poem that fascinated me was Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Night." Thomas does an excellent point of making sure the readers understand that you need to live each day to the fullest, and to make the most out of each day. Thomas gets this lesson across by including “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” at the end of multiple verses.
A poem that really stuck out to me was Yeats, "The Second Coming." It's very powerful and dark. These lines really stuck out to me, "The twenty centuries stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" Those lines were very powerful linking to Christianity and making it dark like the rest of the poem. Another poem that really stuck out to me was "Daddy." It was powerful and sad. I've always been fascinated with the Holocaust and this poem has deep, true emotion in it that make it a great poem. A couple lines stuck out to me: "I have always been scared of you, With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo. And your neat mustache And your Aryan eye, bright blue." I thought this was interesting because she is describing a German or a reference to Hitler (neat mustache.) I really enjoyed "The Hammock" by Lee. It reminded me of my childhood and innocence as a child. A few lines stuck out to me. "When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder: Do his father's kisses keep his father's worries from becoming his? I think, Dear God and remember" I loved those lines because it is so true and I can connect with it. My parents want the best for me, and hope I don't have to worry about all the things they worry about that I don't know about. It was a very powerful poem on family and love. One of my favorite poems we've read in class.
7Blok The poem “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton is one of the most powerful poems I have personally read. It is a horrific description of the Holocaust. The lines in this poem that are the most shocking to me are
at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.
These lines are horrific because they describe the horrible things that the nazis did to the jewish children in the Holocaust. Also the phrase “death looks on with a casual eye” which makes me think about how all nazis by the end of the war were more or less desensitized towards death and the killing of people.
The second poem that had the most impact on me was “Daddy” this poem described the relationship between a woman and the relationship she had with her nazi father. She describes herself as either part jewish or mostly jewish. She talks about how she needed to kill her own father but he died before she could. That line got me intrigued and then as you read on you find out that he was a nazi and that she strongly disapproved of everything her father was doing. The third and final poem that was interesting to me was “To Speak of the Woe That is in Marriage”. This was interesting to me because it describes everything I don’t want to be when I become a husband. It states that “he hits the streets to look for prostitutes.” And that he was “Whiskey-blind, swaggering home at 5”. That’s everything that I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be unfaithful to my wife and I sure as heck don’t want to have my wife go to bed without me wondering if I’ll come home. This poem irritates me more than anything because the man being described is no man that I would want to be.
One of the poems that matters to me the most is “O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman. In this poem, there are a few lines that stand out to me. “Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)” is one line that stands out to me. The line is trying to say that only an individual can lose faith in him/herself and when times are tough it is easy for the individual to do so. Another line that stands out to me in this poem is when Whitman says, “That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse”. Whitman is saying here that each and every individual has a purpose in life and will contribute something that gives them meaning. “Dreams” by Poe is also a poem that matters to me. A line that stands out to me in this poem is when Poe says, “Of semblance with reality, which brings To the delirious eye, more lovely things Of Paradise and Love- and all our own”. Poe is talking about how dreams give an air of realness, though they are clearly not real, but these dreams proved to humans a more pleasant reality that is strictly ours and no one else’s. The last poem that matters to me is “There is another sky” by Dickinson. The line “Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been” is one that stands out to me. Dickinson is telling readers that there are times in which life is tough and days are gloomy, but individuals can always look on the bright side of a situation and choose to find the good in it--this choice being completely up to the individual.
Poetry, I believe, is the most difficult unit we study. Though it is challenging, I enjoy the way it makes me think critically and deeper. The symbolism, rhyming, and alliteration devices make it intriguing. "Daddy" composed by Sylvia Plath out of my three favorite poems impacted me the most. One of the very first few lines was so relative to my life I was stunned:
"Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time--"
This line had such an intense impact because my own father has passed away. In a sense, I killed my father by having little to no memory of him. In the poem, the father is a terrible man--a Nazi. The daughter wishes for him to be dead after all of the horrid things he has done. Sylivia Plath's work is very dark, yet simply astounding. Anne Saxton's The Addict brought to light the feelings of being addicted to prescription drugs. This poem interested me because I know far too many people that deal with addiction everyday and many that have succumbed to their favorite-worst enemy.
"I like them more than I like me. It's a kind of marriage. It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself."
These lines are detrimental to an individual who has known the life of an addict. When someone becomes heavily addicted to drugs, that is all they care about in life--regardless of the amount of times in treatment or the pleading of family members to stay sober. Eventually the addict will lose their war. Lastly, Larkin's This Be the Verse poem impacted my views on the entire world.
"Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself."
These two lines depict the distrust in humanity. Everyone is so sick and horrible that we should no longer reproduce because we are only passing on our disgraceful traits to our offspring.
Every poem is written with it’s own purpose and meaning. I like poetry because of this. The poems that we have read in class so far create so many different emotions for the reader. My top three poems that we have read are “To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage” by Robert Lowell, “The Addict” by Anne Sexton, and “After Auschwitz” also by Anne Sexton. “To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage” by Robert Lowell is extremely sad and disgusting to me. I actually became angry when I read this poem. It is interesting to me that it is written by a man but his through a woman’s perspective. It makes me think that he might be talking about himself. The wife is sexually, physically, and emotionally abused by her husband and it is an awful truth that is hidden within many other marriages. The part in the poem talking about giving into his sexual wants whenever he wants it makes me so angry. “Gored by the climacteric of his want, he stalls above me like an elephant”. Basically the wife is explaining how she has no choice in her sexual relationship with her husband and it’s the only thing to prevent him from beating her. “The Addict” is another great yet disturbing poem as well. Sexton is able to unveil addiction into a something eye-opening. She describes addiction like I have never read it before. “I like them more than I like me. It’s kind of a marriage. It’s kind of a war where I plant bombs inside of myself.” I find these lines utterly depressing. She describes addiction in a way that helps people begin to understand the disease. “After Auschwitz” stood out to me in many ways as well. I find the Holocaust to be interestingly sad and horrific. I find the line “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan” to be disgusting. The sad part about that line is the fact is that it is true. The Nazi’s did anything and everything they wanted to do without every being stopped. I am glad we are studying poetry because I learn and gain insight from every poem I read.
2 Litt Poetry can be one of the hardest forms of literature to read, it can be overdone and difficult to understand. But when done right poetry can be one of the most impactful pieces of writing an author has in his literary arsenal. The poetry in the folder is some of the best examples of that that I have read. One in particular stood out to me as dark and peaking the interest of the mind. It is the poem “The Second Coming” by Yeats, it talks of the dark times humanity faces. Some of the lines are examples of literary genius such as the line “The ceremony of innocence is drowned” this line in particular is quite dark and ominous. It describes a time in humanity that no one has the chance to be innocent and the situation is too serious that even children need to grow up and figure out how to survive. Another line from that poem that I enjoy is “The falcon cannot hear the falconer” which sets the stage of a situation that is so severe that it is impossibly dangerous. The second poem that stood out to me is the poem “The Addict” by Sexton. This poem resonates with me for the reason that I have known people with addiction problems so I understand kind of where this poem is coming from. It is about the life of an addict and how the drugs are all that matter in their life. Many of the lines hit hard for people who know the effects of addiction. Sexton says “I am becoming something of a chemical mixture.” This line explains how addicts feel, they are powerless to the drug that controls their lives. It is prevalent in every addicts life and Sexton does a wonderful job converting a difficult feeling into words. The final poem that really stands out to me is “This Be the Verse” by Larkin. In this blatantly blunt poem Larkin describes how parents influence and inevitably can hurt a child by the way that they put pressures on their kids. One line that represents the meaning well is “They may not mean to, but they do.” It shows that parents may not knowingly mess their kids up but they do. It is scary to think as a parent that you could mess up the one thing that will carry on your legacy when you die.
After reading and criticizing the handful of poems that we have went over in class, I have a few favorites. After today, “The Hammock” by lee has become a new favorite. It is refreshing and nice to think about. “Yes, and a little singing between two great rests” is a nice, refreshing line of the poem. It is true; the rest before life is a beautiful thing, while the rest into eternity is even more beautiful. Life is the singing, but there is more than the human life we account. We have the life before our birth where our parents live their lives before us making way to our birth, and we have the life after us where our children live their lives after we are gone. It makes you think of how enchanting the longevity of our lives impact. Another favorite poem of mine was “This Be the Verse” by Larkin. It is cruel, and heartbreaking, but it does have an extended amount of truth in it as well. Parents, some worse than others, have a way of pushing their faults onto their children. Their faults and problems begin to push onto their children and affect them emotionally. They may not mean it, but their flaws becomes yours, and the flaws become your child and they pass through each generation. You are right, you must read this poem through a mature mindset, but with a mature mindset one can acknowledge some truth through each line of the poem. Out of the three, “To Speak of Woe” by Lowell left the biggest impact. It talks of a women not only being domestically abused, but sexually as well. It opens my mind of the hundreds of thousands of relationships that encounter domestic and sexual abuse. I like how Lowell goes from third person to first person in the poem; I believe it gives you more of a connection from thinking it is some random girl talking about a husband and wife, then transforming it to her actually being the wife. It makes you think that you can hear of someone being in an abusive relationship, and then someday that could be you in that type of relationship.
When thinking about the poems that stood out the most to me a couple of them come to mind. The one that stood out the most is Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. I have always been very interested in the holocaust. Due to the graphic nature of what occurred there. Right away when reading this poem, a line stuck out to me. “took, at 8:00 A.M, a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” When thinking about this line, it is just so hard to believe that something like this can actually happen, but when you really think about it, some insane events occurred. Things we can’t even imagine like sauteing a baby. Another poem that stuck out to me was “To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage” by Lowell. It shows the danger and fear of an alcoholic’s wife. Alcoholism is a scary disease and not only affects the alcoholic but the people around you. One line that stood out to me was “this screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge”. She is in fear that one night her husband might come home and be especially abusive and kill her, and only after murdering his wife, would he take the pledge of sobriety. This is just a perfect example of how awful this disease is and how far people will go just to get a drink.
I would have never thought poetry could be so interesting. Poetry was never something I would jump in my seat about, until this year. The poems we are reading are all amazing and thought provoking. Hard work goes into their craft and it should not go unnoticed. One of the poems that has stood out to me would be “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. The line, “Between my mother's hopes, older than I am by coming before me, and my child's wishes...” stood out to me and spoke volumes. I can relate to this line. In life, I strive to be everything my mother ever hoped. Her legacy will be handed down to me and there is few things greater than making your parents proud. A great feeling comes over you, because they have helped you to get there. I also want to be everything my future children wish in a father. Nobody is perfect, but it is something to strive for. This line made me think about the joys in life, and what really matters...family. Another poem that should not go unnoticed is “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. Mr. Thomas' poem talks about raging against anything you so choose shown in the line, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” He wants people to use their free will to stand up for what they believe is right and to have a passion. He does not want people to suffer day after day. The last poem I will talk about is “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. He wrote his poem shortly after world war two. He cautioned that everyone's actions will have a consequence. The line, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart” made a picture in my mind come to life. This line is expertly written and really hits home the meaning of chaos.
Lees “The Hammock” stood out to me because it talks abouts about something I think every parent fears with their children. It has to do with the awful things that go on in the world and things that every person goes through. The line that stood out to me was “When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder: Do his father's kisses keep his father's worries from becoming his?” These lines really put a physical aspect of what parents fear in their children's life. Sexton “After Auschwitz” It is a poem about a major event that went on not too far away from US and an event that went on when our grandparents were young and alive. We learn about it so much to show the severity of this event so it never happens again. The line that stood out to me was “Let man never again raise his teacup. Let man never again write a book. Let man never again put on his shoe. Let man never again raise his eyes, on a soft July night.” It really shows the power that man does have and to always make sure that man is never given too much power in order to protect everyone else. Sextons “The Addict” follows directly after its title how I took it. It talks through the story and mindset of what and acts thinks and does. The line that stood out to me was “I make arrangements for a pint-sized journey.” This stood out because addiction is a journey for the addicts and it does all stem from this pint sized container they found over that contains what they are addicted to.
I love “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. The topic of the poem is highly relevant in today’s society. Anne Sexton paints a dramatic picture by using vivid words. As a model, Anne Sexton must have experienced great pressure to be skinny and look great all of the time. Her poem shows how easy it is for people to succumb to addiction. The lines that really caught my eye were: “ I like them more than I like me. It's a kind of marriage. It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself. Yes I try to kill myself in small amounts, an innocuous occupation.” Her poems give the reader valuable insight of those addicted to drugs and even other things. Though drug addiction is horrible, Anne Sexton showed that addiction could lead to beautiful art. Another poem that I felt a connection with is “This Be the Verse”. The first line catches the reader off guard immediately: “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.” Expletives can seem crude or too thirsty for attention, but Larkin does a great job of placing it. Also, I can relate to the narrator of the poem. I often feel a lot of pressure from my parents; they are always urging me to fill out more scholarships. The poem addresses how our parents affect us, and I truly appreciate the way the poem goes about it. Our parents’ burdens are like hand-me-downs, passed on from one generation to the next. There have been times when I have come across unpleasant people, but then I learn about their childhood and the way the were raised and everything begins to make sense. Sylvia Plath is a name I have heard many times but I’ve never actually read her poetry...until now. I now see why everyone always mentions her poetry; it’s simply astounding! The rhyme-scheme of “Daddy” fits perfectly as though a child were relaying the story. The poem is a bit creepy in that way. Plath’s poem contains such vivid imagery. One line describes a swastika as “so black no sky could squeeze through”. The words of this line automatically bring thoughts, feelings, and emotions to mind.
Hicks 1 The three poems I like of the selection you gave are “The Man-Moth” and “The Moose” by Bishop and “There is Another Sky”. I like “The Man-Moth” for several reasons. One is that the man-moth is kinda hiding from society. I would not say that he is representative of gays but I can see why people would say that. Really speaks about society when people can identify a group with a fictional character that has to go through what the man-moth does.
“But what the Man-Moth fears most he must do, although he fails of course, and falls back scared but quite unhurt.”
Then there is “There is Another Sky” by Emily Dickinson. This poem gives hope as opposed to “The Man-Moths” (dark) reality. In my mind it gives the time old message, there is a better life out there, you just have to find it. Does not give out how or where, but simply says there is and in that simplicity lies another hidden meaning. Be where you are happy. A simple meaning, a simple poem and a huge message.
“There is another sky, Ever serene and fair, And There is another sunshine,”
The last poem “The moose” really did not tell much. It only captured a few seconds in a person’s lifetime in the way that poetry usually does. I really just like the feel of it, like a fond memory. Reminds me (and others) that there is a whole other world on earth that humans don't inhabit. Nature, which we can try to express with words and pictures, gruesome stories and magical tales, but never fully comprehend. For humans are not one with nature anymore, we are it's destructors. Soon, like the moose in the poem, we shall pass it by with our technology.
“Then there’s a dim Smell of moose, an acrid Smell of gasoline.”
2 Nick Rise The first poem I would say stands out to me would be “This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin. This is insanely cynical and is an outcry to the outrage felt towards family and more importantly parents and their children and the problems between them. This poem spoke to me and the fear I have to show my father’s problems and issues through myself and more importantly and even scarier pass these issues onto my kids. This is something that truly bothers me and to see it written here in a poem sheds a light to the vastness of this problem and how unisolated it really is. “Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself.” To end a poem, any poem that is, is a powerful message. The end of a poem speaks louder than any other line does. This is the portion of the poem the reader is forced to take in read for maybe a bit longer than any other.The poet has a choice after every line, to end the poem or to keep going. With that being said this line is the most important message to be given by Philip Larkin. His entire poem was a setup for this line, in my opinion that is, and oh boy is it powerful. To urge others to not have kids, to urge others to go against the gradient to fight what they have had instilled upon them for their entire lives. “Don’t have kids” truly sheds light on the fears we have knowing our problems and of course fearing that we pass them on to our own innocent spawn without their consent. Truly a thought and a notion to be worried about, but the decision to do without kids of course lies within all of us. To be honest I do not think Larkin really wants us to not have kids, but I do believe in the message he is spreading, or rather that I agree with the concept and how it was approached. This is a good way to help people to understand and hopefully prevent and withhold problems from extending from “man to man.”
The second poem did not stand out nearly as much as the first, but of course still matters to me. “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop stood out to me with a general message that was far from upbeat. We of course talked about this one in class, and as I recall people said that to them it was a symbolic story of being an “outsider” or a homosexual in a heterosexual world (or something like that) and not being accepted and this was her way of writing in that way by replacing humans or herself with a man-moth creature. Another way someone took it was of immigration and the integration one has when trying to accustom his/herself to the culture or in other words “culture-shock.”If I had to choose what I think the poem is supposed to be about I would hands down pick the immigrant choice, but in my mind the poem spoke to me, and the words it chose were “give up.” It seemed to be more of a poem about not persevering or rather that people who do persevere are weird, Moth-Men. Stick with your old ways and look stupid in front of others. Keep trying to reach the hole in the sky in my mind was a symbol saying in loud letters, “STOP CHASING YOUR UNATTAINABLE DREAMS!” This was at least the thought I had after that stanza, it seemed to be completely negative, almost a poem meant to elicit sadness in the reader. A deep resonating realization to not waste your time with frivolous dreams, and to not “chase holes in the sky” because obviously we, the reader, all know there is no hole in the sky.
“he climbs fearfully, thinking that this time he will manage to push his small head through that round clean opening and be forced through, as from a tube, in black scrolls on the light. (Man, standing below him, has no such illusions.)”
The third poem that stood out to me was “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. This poem in stark contrast to Larkin’s poem we read, speaks to the positivity felt between parent’s and their children rather than the problems. The line “there are stars we haven’t heard from yet” is really beautiful line talking about our future children. This poem does well to shed positivity over family and the bonds between kids and their parents and does remind us that is in our hands.
My favorite of the poetry pieces that we have read would have to be Dickinson's "A narrow fellow in the grass," Larkin's "This Be the Verse," and Lowell's "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage." I enjoyed Dickinson's piece because it was different from the other poems in the sense that it was about something simple, something that did not need to be hidden with imagery and symbols. It tells of a snake and is fairly calm until the last of the lines in the poem. "Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone." They stand out simply because they are chilling. Larkin's poem is different from the others because it grabs your attention right away with its language. It starts with a broad statement and then pulls it back with the next line. "They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do." People are imperfect and most of us know it, this poem states it for all. Lowell's "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage" was the poem that was most open to interpretation in my opinion. The interpretation that is to be discussed it that of what the wife figure's intentions are. She speaks of he husband being an alcoholic, that he cruises the streets for prostitutes, and that he makes her fear for her life. "It's the injustice . . . he is so unjust--" She says he is unfair and ignores what is right. But in most cases of abuse they stay because they have a form of Stockholm Syndrome, in this story 'she' speaks nothing of love or how 'he is a good man' which I find a little disturbing. She does not love this man, he is abusing her, she fears for her life, but she still stays. I would have definitely loved to learn more about the inspiration of this piece, or where he was coming from with this.
Being the avid Holocaust studier that I am the first two poems that really matter to me are “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath and “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton. It has always amazed me how people ignored what was going on in Germany and tried to act like it was not happening. Therefore I have never shied away from works of literature that pertain to the Holocaust. I especially like when poets like Anne Sexton use lines to show the true horrors of the Holocaust. An example of this is when she says: “each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” What I like about Plath’s poem is the sense of mystery behind it. In a sense it reminds me of Beatrice and Virgil because throughout the whole poem you are trying to figure out who “Daddy” really is. Just like we were trying to figure out who Henry is and if he was a Nazi or not we are trying to figure out who “Daddy” is. The whole time the “Daddy” is not an obvious villain to the author, however the last line really stuck out to me: “ Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.” It was Plath’s way of almost changing the entire mood of the poem. After reading the last line of the poem I had to go back and reread the poem to try to gain a better understanding of what she was saying. The last poem that really stood out to me was Philip Larkin’s “This Be The Verse”. Never before have a read poetry that was so harsh and blunt with the point using strong language but still left room for interpretation. The end of his poem leaves the reader thinking. “Get out as soon as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself.” Nobody knows what the meaning to this line is and I think he left it up to interpret. Do we not want to have kids because of the way our parents taught us? Is his idea to stop the spread of terrible parenting? Or is it because kids are just terrible to deal with and he thought it was a good idea to not have kids. What does the “Get out as early as you can” mean? Are we supposed to get out of our family as soon as possible? These are all things Larkin wants us to think about by the end of his poem. This is also why I enjoy his poem so much. It makes you reread the poem to try to understand what he wants the meaning of the poem to be. This is why I like this style of poetry more. Because it makes you think, and the more in depth I think about things, the more I enjoy them.
The first poem that I found intriguing, and disturbing, was “After Auschwitz.” After having read Beatrice and Virgil, and their references to the Holocaust, as well as studying the Holocaust in the past, this poem struck me for it’s historical meaning but also it’s references to the evilness that hides inside of man. The first line, “Anger, as black as a hook, it overtakes me.” Everything about that line shows just how the prisoners would have felt in the Holocaust and after it happened. To really believe that those German soldiers would “sautee” a baby for breakfast is beyond sickening. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” was very difficult to read. It talked about a father’s death. Thomas’s reminder to his father to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” is his last ditch effort to try to make his father understand how much it means for him to stay. Having lost my grandfather and watched my dad experience the death of his father, I can only imagine how much that has to truly hurt when they are taken away too soon. In “To Speak of Woe That Is Marriage,” it is heartbreaking to read what a wife will put up with from her husband and what she will do to render herself safe at night. With the line, “Each night now I tie ten dollars and his car key to my thigh,” it just seems she is waiting for that opportune time when there might be a chance to leave. Unfortunately, her fear is too strong and she most likely never will. All 3 poems were depressing in their own unique way, but taught me new perspectives.
I think that the poem called "A narrow fellow in the grass" was really interesting because it described a snake in a descriptive and symbolically way. This poem is not dark or heavy but rather it is light and calming. It is also short and sweet and not too long where it may get laborious to read. I also think Lee’s poem “This be the Verse” is very relatable not only to me but to other teeangers as well. I thought lines such as: “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.” It is showing that they do a lot to you to change you for the worst and the poem continues on with saying that they treat you like that way they were treated when they were younger and that the way we are treated is how we will treat our children. I have made it my goal in life to make sure that I don’t treat my children the way my parents treat me. If I do not accomplish this goal, I will have failed as a parent. However, I think the most interesting poem out of all that we have read is the one called “Hills like white elephants.” At first, I thought this poem was simply about getting married. To find out that it was actually about getting an abortion was a very big surprise to me. I think when poets do that, it makes an interesting story go to a fascinating story.
An absolute favorite poetry writing of mine would be “Do not go gentle into that goodnight” by Dylan Thomas. The reason for this would be the message coming across to the readers is almost a warning. A warning that we as human beings only have so long on this earth. He is getting angry at thought of somebody getting old and doing nothing about it. It should fill one with rage that old age is coming. You should be enraged therefor that should light the fire of ambition. Ambition to go out into the world and strive to be better for yourself and for others. To go easily into never ending sleep would be to let go of opportunities. Opportunities to visit loved ones that care about you. Also it is describing in the last paragraph how you may think that it is your time to go but somebody will always be thinking of how much they still want you on this earth. Once again this should enrage you about going softly into the night and make you do something about it.
The first poem to stick out to me was the one entitled "We Real Cool" by Gwendeolyn Brooks. First I liked that it was short using only three-word sentences. Its short but simple nature makes its content pop at every line. Though it only has eight lines you feel like you know a lot about the people the poems using what you know about young teens and their reckless behavior. The first line is "We real cool." a stereotypical kind of thing teens of this nature would think about themselves. It sets up a poem light-hearted in nature, listing off three-worded sentences about the activity of the reckless young adult. But it is the last line that pacts a powerful punch. "We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon." It is a sort of unexpected ending to the poem, that almost makes it sound like a Public Service Announcement. Like a warning that most are all too familiar with. Another poem to stick out to me was "There is another sky" by Emily Dickinson. If I am going to be honest I am not very sure on what she is talking about. This place where there is another sky and plants that never frost and flowers that never fade. I have a feeling that she might be talking about heaven. She refers to someone named "Austin." "Never mind faded forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields." Perhaps she is trying to comfort Austin into death by telling him of the flowers and colors in heaven where its "serene" and "fair." The last line reads, "Into my garden come!" perhaps the one talking is god. Lastly I will refer to the poem "since feeling is first" by ee cummings. What the poem is trying to get at is that feelings are more than words. Anyone can SAY something but it is the one who shows feelings that really makes a difference. Cummings says "the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids'futter." This is conveying the message that your brain can think of any word or phrase it wants to say to try to do whatever purpose, but crying will always be a more powerful message. It reminds me of the phrase "don't just say, do," or "actions speak louder than words." When it comes down to it, showing emotions is an action way more powerful that even the most well-crafted wording.
Rohrbach 1 I found "This Be the Verse" by Philip Larkin to be one of the more interesting poems. The concept of parents messing up their children by trying to prevent their kids from making the same mistakes they did. Larkin really catches attention with his first line: "They f**k you up, your mum and dad." The swear word makes for a change in pace for what is seen in school, so it personally caught my attention. The next poem that I like is "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. The idea of rebelling about aging and the passing of another day seems like a unique way of expressing a person's hatred of getting old. The way it was written makes it difficult to read for me, particularly "Though wise men at their end know dark is right." I do not understand what dark the know is right, but I assume that they accept death since light seems symbolic of life. "Danse Russe" by Williams is another poem that stood out for me. It talks about a man, in the dead of night, dancing naked. Normally poetry seems to be depressing or angry, but this one seems joyful and peaceful. I enjoy that he calls himself a "happy genius" in the line: "Who shall say I am not the happy genius of my household?" The author seems to be embracing a child-like attitude about what he is doing, which seems quite humorous.
All of the poems in the poetry folder stood out to me and I enjoyed reading them all. They all had good imagery and really touch the reader. The one that stood out to me the most would have to be Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. The holocaust is a very sad and gruesome topic and I love reading and learning more about it. By just reading the title I knew this poem would really stand out to me. I believe it is very important to learn from the past so we can improve and learn from our mistakes and make sure nothing like that ever happens again. The most meaningful lines from this poem to me were: “ And death looks on with a casual eye and picks at the dirt under his fingernail.” This line really touches me and stands out. Although Sexton’s “After Auschwitz” stood out to me the most, Lowell’s poem "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage" also stood out to me. This poem speaks of a wife who sits at home while her husband is off drinking at a bar. The husband loves tequila and Lowell makes it seem like the husband is anything but pleasant when drunk. After reading the poem I interpret that the wife does not like when the husband is drunk, because when he is drunk he is not himself. He could be aggressive or scary when he is drunk. Like I said all of these poems stood out to me, but these two stood out the most.
Poetry to me is like a math problem, sometimes i have to stare at it a while to understand it. It takes some research and rereading to comprehend the intricate yet relevant poetry we have read in class. I do enjoy them all, but the poems I tend to be more drawn to are the ones that I have picked apart and translated into my own words. I am glad to be introduced to not only the mainstream poets, but the poets who might be considered rare. Elizabeth Bishop is one of them. She was first published in 1946, a time when homosexuality was considered taboo. However, Bishop did not see herself as a "lesbian poet" or as a "female poet." In part because she refused to have her work published in all-female poetry anthologies, other female poets involved with the women's movement thought she was hostile to the movement. One of Bishops most popular poems is titled "The Man-Moth". Though it is debatable, this poem features a character that might reflect her own identity and struggles. She describes a character who each night "must be carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams". Dark symbolism is used all throughout this poem, giving it a dreadful and eerie feel. The man moth is living with a burden. There is a place he wants to reach but life is somehow holding him back. "The Man-Moth" is only one of the many dark poems I have been exposed to. Another great poem to study is "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats, who is conceivably one of the most negative writers of his time. What first comes to mind when hearing the words “the second coming”, one might first conclude that the rapture is what is being referred to; where Jesus returns to earth and casts the faithful to heaven. Yeats did not write about savior though, he wrote about utter destruction and death, and Jesus is not the administrator. It is the Sphinx of ancient egypt who rises from the sand dunes and trudges towards civilization to demolish villages and murder millions. Perhaps one of the more ominous lines of the poem is where it explain how the Sphinx comes to life, and how it almost represents satan. “somewhere in sands of the desert a shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun…”.
The poetry in the folder contains many different styles and symbols. One of the poems that stood out to me was “This Be the Verse” by Larkin. He uses profane language to exaggerate his point, which is something that I have not seen a lot in writing. Also, I find it neat that he talks about how regardless of what happens in life, you will end up like your parents. I also found “After Auschwitz” by Sexton interesting. The Holocaust is an unfortunate event that is fascinating to learn about. I like to learn about this subject. It is interesting reading how each person tells the story differently like with his poem and Martel’s Beatrice and Virgil. I also enjoyed reading Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 75”. I remember back in freshmen year when we read Shakespeare and I thought it was super complicated. Now, I understand the “fancy” language of Shakespeare and know the meaning of his work.
One poem that I thought was insightful was “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin. Larkin is especially dark in this poem. He views life as miserable and a burden. He even says, “Get out as early as you can, and do not have any kids yourself.” This is especially dark because most kids bring the parents great joy and hope for the future. He is saying do not have any kids so you cannot pass down your own flaws and downfalls to them making the world all the more worse. Another poem that I thought was meaningful was Anne Sexton’s “After Auschwitz.” One cannot read this poem without feeling extreme anger towards the Nazis. I find Holocaust stories especially interesting and solemn. One line that I found beyond vulgar was, “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan”. It would impossible to describe the Nazi’s as anything but pure evil straight from hell. Lastly, I found “To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage” by Lowell to be interesting. Lowell tells about how an abusive alcoholic husband can easily ruin a marriage. He talks about the danger and fear the wife of an alcoholic feels. “This screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge”. He is talking about the fear inside the wife when her husband comes home from drinking each night, fearing that he might kill her each time he gets physical but then when he sobers up regret it. By then it is too late, the damage has already been done. This is an addict's biggest problem; they do not think they have a problem until something really traumatic happens.
Dickinson’s “There is Another Sky” is one of the poems that stood out to me the most. Just the simplicity of it appeals to me. And even though it is simple and short, there is a much deeper meaning. You can almost take it and make it into your own personal poem. The line that stood out the most to me was, “And there is another sunshine.” In “To Speak of Woe That Is Marriage,” it is heartbreaking to read what a wife will put up with from her husband and what she will do to render herself safe at night. With the line, “Each night now I tie ten dollars and his car key to my thigh,” it just seems she is waiting for that time when there might be a chance to leave. Unfortunately, her fear is too strong and she most likely never will. My last favorite poem is Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. I like this poem because of its overbearing emotion and anger. You can just imagine the way someone would read it and you can almost envision it in your mind. One of the best lines in the poem and helps bring the whole poem together is,”They fill you with the faults they had and add some extra, just for you.” This is basically saying that parents pass on their failures and things they did not get accomplished will eventually come back to you, which in effect brings more problems to you.
There are three poems that really stick out to me in the folder. These are “The Second Coming” by Yeats, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Thomas, and "A narrow fellow in the grass" by Dickinson. The reason that Yeats’s poem sticks out to me so much is how dark it is, and I love that fact about it. It has a hopeless and lost tone to it that really intrigues me. I find it very interesting how someone can have such strong feelings about the human race and how doomed we are as a people. I especially love the line “The ceremony of innocence is drowned”, it really shows off how serious Yeats is about all of this. It is a really interesting look at humankind, and personally I like darker stories and poems. The next poem by Thomas really sticks out to me because it’s a poem about fighting death. It’s a man telling his father not to let death overtake him, and to instead fight it and stay alive. I think it’s a touching poem and really human in the way it’s expressed. I also really love the way it’s written with lines such as “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight. Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”. I love the way it is written and I think it’s very impactful. The final poem that I enjoy is Dickinson’s because it’s a story about a snake. It’s simple and to the point, and I just like how he describes the snake with lines like “Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone.“
As an avid fan of Edgar Allen Poe, of course I was drawn to "Dreams" (though I may have read it before...). Poe's dark and morbid writing is riddled with clever lines and excellent imagery that spark interest in any reader. Lines such as, "A chaos of deep passion, from his birth." show exactly what Poe portrays in his writing: a deep passion for literature and writing. "And loveliness,- have left my very heart" has little imagery, but astonishing writing and feeling. Poe has and always will be one of my favorite poets and authors; the macabre writing is a healthy mix of gruesome and satisfying. Another interesting poem is Larkin's "This Be the Verse". While being short and concise, it portrays a world of mistakes and one that we are trapped in. Lines like "It deepens like a coastal shelf." are further evidence of our imprisonment in the world we are born into. Others like the first stanza which reads, "They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had" cause to me to believe that parents bring us into this world only to "fuck us up". I say that in the way of the pressure for perfection and the habits that are either taught or forced upon us by our parents that we are later scolded for by the very people who taught us to behave in such a way. I was also intrigued by Sexton's "The Addict". I find it to be a deep poem about depression and what plagues the author of said poem. I find it quite interesting how Sexton describes suicide almost as an art form, it is almost something to be admired. Sexton writes, "I'm on a diet from death." and this almost proves her point that death is inevitable. I found this to be a deeply moving poem with an intense amount of emotion that, while being present in other poems, is even more noticeable in this particular piece.
Larkin’s “This Be the Verse” could bring shock to even the most optimistic people. His poem is one that matters a great deal to me of its demonstrating Larkin’s hatred of society. The lines, “They fill you with the faults they had and add some extra, just for you (Larkin).” Children are like clay; they are easily molded when young, but gradually become rigid in their beliefs as they age. Among other lines in the poem, they illustrate in my mind just how often society instills feelings of hatred in future generations. It is my personal belief that such forms lessons should be abolished, but I know that that would not be practical. Second, Bishop’s “Man-Moth” moves me. I interpret the poem as one of the hopeless and impoverished that dwell the cities of Man. The Man-Moth only resurfaces rarely, although occasionally when the moon is out. His resurfacing could symbolize a time of economic growth and he is a common pauper that will timidly try to earn a better life. Like the Moth-Man, these people do not have a real plan, they just want to rise to the top of the socioeconomic ladder. They try to climb by getting better jobs, but as the economy falls back into place, they too will fall, either by being laid off or by falling into debt. When they fall, they are not hurt, because they have been in the situation before, and know how to survive, but as they return to the artificial caverns, they do not look back, for they have lost their chance of greatness. It bring pain to me to know that there are such people that have to accept the unacceptable to live. Finally, Lee’s “The Hammock” is a poem that matters to me a great deal, because of its positive effect on people. “Between two unknowns, I live my life (Lee).” is an interesting line to me, because usually people fear the unknown, but Lee seems to embrace it. Also, unlike Larkin, Lee wants to have children and would like for them to outlive him and make the world that he lived in better. Having a balance between pessimism and optimism in my opinion is a great thing, because if you live your life with only sad, how would you know when you are truly sad, and if you were always happy, how would you be able to feel true joy? I do not know the answer to that question, but these poems make it one to ponder.
The three poems which matter the most to me are, “The Second Coming,” “The Addict,” and “Do not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” These three poems in particular spoke to me in a way many of the others did not. “The Second Coming,” spoke of how humanity is going to be wiped out, or at least punished by the Sphynx, and it was a very powerful poem to read. The line, “a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,” gave me the chills. It is easy to think about the Sphynx and see its blank and pitiless gaze. “The Addict,” was also interesting to read. I personally have an addictive personality, and I hope to never become an addict. Reading a poem about it was an enlightening experience. The line, “eight at a time from sweet pharmaceutical bottles,” really showed how bad an addiction can get. The person who is addicted can not control themselves at all. They are controlled by the substance. Finally, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” is a poem which speaks of the finality of life. It tells us to make the most of what we have. The line, “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,” spoke to me in the way that it showed how little much of us matter. Most of us do not make much of a difference with our deeds. However, that does not mean we should just go away. We have to make the world recognize us.
The poem I first went to was none other than Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool". This poem obviously directs itself to the youth from the Gwendolyn’s interesting word choice. She definitely does not use a broad vocabulary throughout this poem but she proves that it is not necessary to do so. The poem as a whole is exceptionally relevant to my peers and myself because being seniors it is difficult to maintain motivation. The lines that deem most important are “We real cool. We Left school.”
Whitman’s poem “O Me! O Life!”, really intrigued me by the layout of the his writing and his style of writing itself. In every line of his work he uses either ellipses, dashes, or parentheses and it seems to really put the poem together as a whole. But another aspect that got my attention was the build up of the poem to one of the last line which was a question. “The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life”? Along with this question, the poem ended with a separated section from the body of the poem and above the last couple lines, there was the word “Answer”. My favorite line from this poem had to be one that was a part of the answer… “That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.”
The last poem I felt drawn to was “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. This poem has to be one of the best context I have ever come across. Why I like this poem has to be because it deals with a child and all the thoughts that come from him or from his parents. The main reason why I picked this poem is because how powerful one line is. “I've no idea what my child is thinking.” This line can lead you to many thoughts about parenthood. It is mind-boggling to think about starting your own life and starting a family of your own. To have kids is one of the world’s greatest blessings but it can be a lot and to think of when your child is growing up can be heart-wrenching. To not know something about your child or to not know the thoughts of your own child is petrifying.
The poem that stood out to me the most is “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin. Parents mean to teach us to do better, but they just pass on problems. Larkin says, “They may not mean to, but they do.” I think that this poem relates very well to the problems that many families have. Parents want the best for their kids, but they unintentionally pass traits that lead to bad decisions on to their kids just by the way they act every day. One line that stands out to me is, “Man hands misery onto man.” It fits the whole theme of the poem, and it really emphasizes the author's viewpoint on life.
The next poem that spoke to me is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot. I just think the poem flows nicely and sounds pretty. I like the way it sounds when you read it aloud. My favorite line is the line that says, “In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.” I like the way he made the name of Michelangelo rhyme. I really like that name, and his work is my favorite of the Renaissance. He was also my favorite from the Ninja Turtles.
The third poem that I liked was “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. I like this poem because it gives insight into the mind of a drug addict. People who don’t do drugs have a hard time figuring out the motivation behind why a druggie would continue to do them, and this poem helps others understand. Also, people who are meddling with drugs can relate, or be scared away by this poem. I like the line in this poem that says, “It's like a musical tennis match where my mouth keeps catching the ball.” I like this line because it relates the taking of drugs to a tennis match, something that most people can relate to.
The first poem that caught my attention is “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. This poem basically tell the reader to not just idly sit by and let life go on. You need to get out and make experiences and “Don’t go Gently”. “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.” This is my favorite stanza because like many others including myself we always wished to be older in our youth, and when we finally grew up and we grieved and just wished to be young again. Another poem that I enjoyed from this selection was “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton.” Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” These lines in particular stood out to me because the Jews were treated so horribly during The Holocaust, that there is not a doubt in my mind that the Nazi’s would’ve done something like this. The last poem that caught my attention is “There is another sky” by Emily Dickinson. This poem describes a place where almost everything thing is nicer, the sky is bluer, the grass is greener, the flowers are unfading. I think this poem is something that she wrote before someone significant in her life was going to pass, and she wanted to comfort them.
The three poems that stood out to me most were "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," "We Real Cool," and "Danse Russe." Williams' poem stood out to me in that it was simply very forthcoming with itself. Williams took no liberties in writing it. Though slightly obscene, it isn't restrained by the chains of society, particularly how it described him admiring his "flanks and buttocks". "We Real Cool" is an excellent poem in that it speaks of the delinquency of youth. The poem itself speaks of problems that are all too real given any decade. The words "We Jazz June. We Die Soon" particularly tell me about how the choices people make can lead to their downfall. Finally, Thomas' poem is my (and many others') all time favorite poem. It speaks of rising against defeat, that if you are going to die then you are going to die fighting. It encourages you not to sit there and take unjustice, but to rage against it and stand up in the face of death. The lines "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" are absolutely haunting.
I real\y quite enjoyed two of the stores we read in class. First of which, is Li-young Lee's "The Hammock". I found it insightful for a different reason than most in class did. I did rather depressing, because of a realization I had. It is true, that we are live before we are born, and other thoughts in this story are true. I wont be alive before I die, and no one will care that I died, simply because the definition of it. I die when I am forgotten from humanity, and erased from its memories.It is quite tragic when I am forgotten or die, there will be no funeral, and it is like I have never even existed at all. Famous people are immortal, making their marks in textbooks and songs, but what about Bob who died of a heart attack working in a cubical from 7 to 4, Monday through Friday, who gives a damn about him? I remember many days in this day and period when I just sit in a trance thinking how I am not one of Mr. C's "greats" of Brandon Valley that he always talks about, yet I guarantee I stress more than "the greats" did and every single reference to them is a slap to my face saying, "These are the people that born with better parents, taught better skills, and born more talented to fit society." Speaking of parents, Larkin's "This be the verse" was the best peace of poetry I have ever read. I teared up reading and went home with anxiety, laid staring at the ceiling, and went to work distracted with the thoughts of how accurate this poem is. I was told about a month before reading ti by someone that "Your Parents teach you everything they know, the best that they can, but what they know, is all they have, and they do not have what you want." The shocking revaluation of what this man said to me clicked when I read this poem. The F-bombs just reminded me of a child with so many problems, tears plummeting down the rapids of their eyes, writing this after an incident with an abusive family. I can hear the hiccups, stutters, and the gasps for air while this child speaks like all people do when they are drowned with tears and sorrow. Any work of art that can do this I will remember, and will live as long as my body does, but unfortunately will not live with me when I die.
If I were to pick a few poems matters to me, the first one I would have to choose would be Cumming’s “Since Feeling is First.” It is a short poem, but it packs a hidden punch in the last line: “And death I think is no parenthesis.” You are forced to read this poem a second time after reading that last line because it just so sudden that your subconscious mind needs the solidity of specification in order to move on in life. This poem is really about the feelings that one has when they are holding their loved one in their arms when they die. “Since Feeling is First” is a positively powerful poem that perplexes people promptly. The second poem that truely hit close to home is Brook’s “We Real Cool.” I think I have written longer poems when I was a second grader, but none as true as this one. This poem only has eight lines, each of which begin with the word “We,” but each describes the life of high school students. Lines three and four--”We Lurk late. We Strike straight.”--speak to me in a different level because as a high school student, I typically stay up later than I really should, but even so I can strike straight when I need to. Possibly the most moving line in this poem, “We Die soon,” shows that even though life can be fun and we have the ability to do bad things with that fun, if we are to have too much of it, we will end our time in a tragic and early way. The third poem is a little more inspirational than the other two. Emily Dickinson’s “There is Another Sky” is an uplifting poem that deals with looking towards tomorrow. Lines nine through twelve--”Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been; In its unfading flowers I hear the bright bee hum”--demonstrates that there is a better place and that we should always be looking forward to it.
102 comments:
Sexton’s “After Auschwitz” really hit me hard. I find the Holocaust horribly fascinating. The Holocaust was a terrible time in history that we need to learn from and keep on studying so the future doesn’t make the same mistakes. The lines that stood out to me the most was,
“took, at 8:00 A.M, a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.”
These lines give you a gruesome visual but is portraying an accurate occurrence. The first time a read this poem it physically gave me chills. Bishop’s “The Man-Moth” was very interesting to me. The lines intrigued me; especially these ones,
“Then from the lids
one tear, his only possession,
like the bee’s sting, slips.
Slyly he palms it, and if you’re not paying attention
he’ll swallow it. However, if you watch, he’ll hand it over,
cool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink.
Many times when I find myself about to cry it does feel like a bee sting because you do not want to cry you are trying to hold it in so much. But once you do cry you try to cover it up and so do most people because it is a sign of weakness, sadness, and damage. In reality crying is nothing to be ashamed of. Crying helps you relieve pain and that why in the poem it says his tear in pure enough to drink. Sexton’s “The Addict” also is very important. This poems confesses an addict’s addiction, the feelings the pills give him, and why he feels he has to take them. I am intrigued by this poem due to the all too often addiction problems many people go through. The lines that hit me hard was,
“Now they ask why.
WHY!
Don't they know that I promised to die!”,
I often find myself asking why, why would someone do something to themselves that they know is hurting them. These lines also helped explain why some people may keep taking the pills,
“ I like them more than I like me.
It's a kind of marriage.
It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside
of myself.
Yes
I try
to kill myself in small amounts,
an innocuous occupation.”
I enjoyed these confessional poems and exploring the rest of the folder. I found some of the lines extremely blunt and surprising which I found myself wanting to read more and more of them.
Each of the poems in the poetry folder is unique and each has its own meaning, with its own lesson to give. The first poem that stood out to me is “Dreams” by Poe. From Poe’s poem, I took away to never be crushed by my dreams. Through successes and failures, never give up on your dreams and the potential you have. According to Arjun Sree, this poem can give two different meanings--showing you the very little hope dreams can bring and to others, it can provide a sense of hope for dreams. These are my favorite lines of the poem because of the hope they show: "Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life; As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife; Of semblance with reality, which brings; To the delirious eye, more lovely things; Of Paradise and Love- and all our own!"
The second poem that stood out to me is “There is Another Sky” by Dickinson. Again, there are a number of possible meanings to this poem. To me, it means that you can find a positive aspect to everything in life. There is no need to worry as things will get better--it is not he end of the world. These are my favorite lines of the poem because it shows if one thing doesn’t work out, there are greater and better things ahead for you: “There is another sky, Ever serene and fair, And there is another sunshine…”
The last poem that stood out to me is “Do Not Go Gentle That Good Night” by Thomas. This poem is extremely emotional, as Thomas wrote it for his dying father. Here, Thomas is reminding his father to stay strong even though death is inevitable. Schmoop.com compares this poem to a speech that a coach would give to his team for a one last “pick me up”. It is used as a reminder to use all your strength and power, even in times of hopelessness. My favorite line of this poem is “rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light” because it in itself is a summary of the entire poem.
My top poems so far have been by Lowell and Larkin. Lowell wrote the poem "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage." This poem speaks of a wife who sits at home while her husband is off binge drinking at a bar. The husband is a fan on tequila and Lowell makes it seem like the husband is anything but pleasant when drunk. The most meaningful line in this poem to me is: "Gored by the climacteric of his want, he stalls above me like an elephant." In my interpretation I think her husband is going to forcefully rape her or he is much too aggressive after he returns home after drinking. The wife also talks about her being kind of frightened and having to tie money and her car keys to her legs just in case. Seemingly her only thought was how to stay alive on nights like these. The second poem we have studied is By Philip Larkin, "This Be the Verse." This poetry speaks deeply about life and how meaningless it seems to be. Larkin is set on life being miserable, misery being handed down person after person, son after son, until one can no longer handle that pain. He speaks "Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself." Thus meaning you should want to kill yourself in order to stop the train of misery, and do not have kids that you could potentially hand down that misery too. That line speaks to me in ways I cannot explain. No one should miss out on children, no matter how scary or dangerous it is. It is a feeling everyone should get to feel, an experience I am sure most mothers would go back and redo all over again.
The poems “To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage” by Lowell, “This Be the Verse” by Larkin, and “We Real Cool” by Brooks were the most meaningful to me. “We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Die Soon,” were the most meaningful parts of this poem because it describes the destructive decisions that one can make in their youth and the affects it can have on one’s future. I do not have such a cynical outlook on life as Larking but I do really like this excerpt from his poem,“They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.” I think this really describes how no matter how bad you might want to end up nothing like your parents, or how they try to raise you nothing like how they were raised, we all end up a spitting image of our parents in the end. In Lowell’s poem, I think this verse, ”It's the injustice . . . he is so unjust--whiskey-blind, swaggering home at five. My only thought is how to keep alive,” really demonstrates the struggles one can go through in marriage and how far apart two people can grow. She just wants her husband to acknowledge her on a physical level because the emotional connection has been long gone. It tells a really powerful story in such a short amount of lines.
Polasky 6
Reading poetry has not been one of my favorites. I do not always understand what I am reading. However, some of the poems we read in class the other day did intrigue me. I understood some of the short poems that were quick and to the point. They still did allow me to think and find the real meaning of the short story. It also made me think about my life and how I could maintain it. The poem “This Be the Verse” was something interesting to me. The language caught me a bit off guard but the author of this poem probably felt it was necessary to get his point across. It is considered confessional poetry so I do respect the fact he stated what he wanted while still doing it with taste. The quote, “Get out as early as you can,” intrigued me because after the discussion in class, I found out this line could have multiple meanings to whoever is reading it. The I also enjoyed “To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage.” It is another poem I enjoyed not just because I understood it but because this author took to a different view, a man telling through a woman's eyes. “This screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge,” was a interesting line. The author at this point started talking about the women in 3rd person instead of 1st person. It was a change to make one think, having a possible hidden meaning. Both of these poems take a mature audience but with that being said, it was great overall. The poem Daddy was confusing but maybe with a closer look it might be easier to understand.
The first poem that comes to mind for me is Sexton's after Auschwitz. Even in the first few lines it talks about the Nazi approach to extermination quite bluntly.
"Each day,
each Nazi
took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan."
She then continues to speak of how evil man can really be, and I agree fully with her in the aspect that man is CAPABLE of extreme evil, but not that they will participate in it. The second poem that caught my attention was Larkin's "This Be The Verse". This poem caught my attention not only because of the taboo language in the first line, but the aspect of the poem. I find it true that your parents fill you with all of their bad habits and faults; however, on a more positive note I like to focus more on the fact that you have the potential to become better versions of your parents, filled with all of the best qualities and attributes of each. As a general rule of thumb, the confessional poems seemed to catch my attention more than others. That being said, my third poem I will discuss is Lowell's "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage." This poem was powerful because it speaks of a troubled marriage. It is about a woman who has to deal with an alcoholic man who also most likely dabbles in drugs, who unfortunately is her husband. The line: "This screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge." truly describes the seriousness of the couples condition, and shows just how bad it is.
Of all the poems in the poetry folder Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is the most powerful in my opinion. It is about Plath’s relationship with her nazi father. The descriptions of all of the terrible things done by her father and other Nazis during the war combined with Plath writing about a nazi who is her father is very unique and horrible. Some of the most impactful lines are:
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
In these three lines, she expresses that when she was younger she still wanted her dad back but later she realises that it is better that her father is dead because she could not live with his past. “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks is a very short but interesting poem. It is a social commentary about those who rejected the fifties ideal world and eventually became hippies in the sixties. The first and the last stanzas of the four stanza poem stand out the most to me.
We real cool.
We Left school.
We Jazz June.
We Die soon.
Brooks shows her distaste with this rebellious lifestyle by mocking it and call the people who live it stupid in the first stanza. She then gets very serious and says that the life these people live is going to kill them early despite how “cool” it is. The poem is a very good combination of sarcasm and seriousness. And despite the brevity of the poem it is a fun read.
The last poem is “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin. Larkin writes about how everyone’s parents will impact their children more than he would like. His distaste is stated outright immediately.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
I do agree with Larkin that people should become their own individual self, unrestricted by parental control but not to the same degree as him.
1 Klumpp
The first poem that catches my eye is Sexton's "The Addict." She says: Yes, I admit it has gotten to be a bit of a habit- blows eight at a time, socked in the eye, hauled away by the pink, the orange, the green and the white goodnights. I'm becoming something of a chemical mixture. that's it! My supply of tablets has got to last for years and years. I like them more than I like me. It's a kind of marriage. It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside." This talks about the struggle in addiction and how hard of a habit it is to break. I love dark poetry and found this painfully interesting.
The next poem I chose is Plath's poem "Daddy." Some lines that stuck out to me were: "You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you, A cleft in your chin instead of your foot But no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who Bit my pretty red heart in two. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you. I thought even the bones would do. But they pulled me out of the sack, And they stuck me together with glue. And then I knew what to do. In my opinion, this poem speaks about Plath's Nazi father and how she disliked him, even hated him. She shows how impactful he was in her life and how he made her childhood rough. I have always been interested in the holocaust and that's why this poem jumped out to me.
6 Bose said…
The three poems that I think are really important to me are “The Moose” by Bishop, “The Addict” by Sexton, and “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage” by Lowell. These are the poems that we read in class together, but they all display something to me. In “The Moose” I felt the simplicity of nature. Sometimes we go so fast in life and don’t take the time to realize the simple things in life like what a simple red gravel road looks like or how beautiful and omnipresent the moon appears. When Bishop describes the moose and how it appears out of the woods it just gives you a true look at how gorgeous life is. “A moose has come out of the impenetrable wood and stands there, looms, rather ,in the middle of the road.” The other poem I took a fancy to was “The Addict”. This was a poem to me that appeared that we judge people before we actually know their story and what they may be dealing with and why they act the way they do. Sexton does an amazing job of amplifying this in her poem. She describes that she is suicidal and wants to use pills to take her out of her misery. “Then I lie on; my altar elevated by the eight chemical kisses. What lay me down this is with two pink, two orange, two green, two white goodnights. Fee-fi-fo-fum- Now I'm borrowed. Now I'm numb.” I love this line because it describes how she wants to pass on. No it is not an exceptionally happy poem, but it is deep and I love it. The last poem that I really like is “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage”. It is also a sad poem. It makes you realize that what Lowell writes about is more common than not today. She is in an abusive relationship in the poem and it can be perceived that she is trying to escape this relationship. It was a sad poem but I really enjoyed it, a lot. I have never liked poetry but I love confessional poetry because it is different than regular poetry. It tells a real story that involves real life things and it is incredible. I really like the poetry that we are reading in class.
First off, I am not one who has liked reading poetry very much in past classes. I give my respect to those who write and like poetry. Some poetry is quite confusing. But reading through all of these poems in the folder have changed my outlook a little. I enjoy the fact that so much can be said in such short phrases or poems. The first poem that truly caught my eye was Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. Disregarding the foul language, this poem is an example of something that has such a meaningful connotation in such little words. From reading this, readers could suggest that Larkin might have came from a bad family: “Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself”. It is quite sad to know that how your parents act around you can change your outlook on family and life. Another poem that meant a lot to me was Anne Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. I am greatly interested in the Holocaust and this poem shows the anger and frustration that many people took to once it was over. Reading this poem, one can almost feel her anger towards the Nazis and what they did: “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan”. However, later on, it is almost as if she regrets what she said “ I beg the Lord not to hear”. I am intrigued by this sentence and still trying to figure out the meaning as why she ended such a hateful poem with that sentence. The last poem that stuck out to me was Hicks’ “Not Springing Forward in Barcelona”. I reread this poem multiple times and I am still in awe with the ideas that are portrayed in the short but noteworthy poem. The poem starts out with a great line: “In a time-zone all our own, we were a bubble of the past, a cleanser upon the last sentence of history”. Hicks then begins to go through major things that has happened and he ends with such an amazing sentence: we watched an apple fall up, into a tree—two famous lovers strolled along, their wrists as naked as ours”. He talks about everything basically doing the opposite of what they have done. His reference to Adam and Eve perhaps refers to the fact that because they bit into that fruit, death, disease, and fear has occurred.
Given its age, I was naturally drawn to Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 75.” In my opinion, the first two lines are the most stirring: “So are you to my thoughts as food to life / Or as sweet-season’d showers are to the ground.” Just as food is necessary for sustenance and rain is vital for farm yields, so the identified friend upholds and encourages the speaker. This sort of companion is to be sought!
I was taken aback by “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” in which Dylan Thomas champions life itself and urges those on death’s door to cling to their final days. By far the most powerful lines run thus: “Though wise men at their end know dark is right / Because their words had forked no lightning they / Do not go gentle into that good night.” In the end, we are all dead men. This is inescapable, and to be perfectly honest, I think it is an important truth to bear in mind. Our days on this earth are numbered. And while Thomas seems chiefly concerned with the passage of the elderly, life is never a guarantee for anyone--young folks included. By no means should we all live under a constant dread of death; nevertheless, the prospect of death ought to constantly temper the way we live.
Walt Whitman’s poem “O Me! O Life!” reminds me of Ecclesiastes, the anonymous, Old Testament book of wisdom literature. First, consider these strains from Whitman: “Of eyes that vainly crave the light--of the objects mean--of the struggle ever renew’d / Of the poor results of all--of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me / Of the empty and useless years of the rest.” Initially, the author of Ecclesiastes frames an equally bleak outlook on life: “All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” Man is frustrated by what he sees as the futility of this world. This perception stems from the fallen nature of our world. But ultimately, cynical or not, all must decide what they live for. For Whitman, this is simply “that life exists, and identity.” For the author of Ecclesiastes, this is to “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
1 Gloege
The three poems that stood out the most to me are Yeats’ “The Second Coming”, Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”, and Dickinson’s “There is Another Sky”. In the poem by Yeats, it explains how the people of the world destroying themselves. It is talking about WWII, which a lot of things were ruined during this time period. In “This Be the Verse”, it talks about really how much your parents influence your life. It encourages the reader not to have kids because then you will just be passing on your misery. It reads “Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself”. I think that this is not very good advice because not everyone leads a miserable life, and a parent’s job is to help and support their kids, not the opposite. In Dickinson’s poem, it is very uplifting. It seems as if it is talking about a Heaven-like place for people to go. The line “Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been;” reminds me of the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side” which means people always think others have it better. This poem is a reminder about how it is all up to you how bright your life is. All of these poets do an amazing job of drawing in the audience, and portraying emotions through their writing.
Poetry has always been an admirable art by my eyes. Though I do not claim myself a fanatic, I find peace and content in spending an evening at the library, lounging in an oddly patterned armchair, drifting through lines of thick poetry books. Emily Dickinson has come to be my favorite poet over the years, her poem “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” making home in the back of my brain since my days studying at Brandon Valley Middle School. Her diction is simply entrancing, every word flowing harmoniously, calming my ever-anxious mind. Such a reputation lies unbroken upon my reading of “A Narrow Fellow In The Grass.” This poem particularly stood out to me due to its beautiful method of expressing a kinship built between man and nature, a connection I myself often feel. Additionally, I rather like snakes and find them massively misunderstood. Another female poet, one Anne Sexton, also wrote a poem that caught my attention: none other than “The Addict.” The title alone does it much justice, a subtle means of detaching the label from the first-person narration as though the narrator is still somewhat in denial of their condition. The perspective yields to the poem’s resonance, indeed, but is complimented all the more by the compositional use of stream of conscience. I adore confessional poetry because of the emotion it evokes from the audience; true art is provocative in every sense, and it is this raw provocation that makes art so astounding. This is not to say that it must all be gruesome and sickening to be worthy of study--Li-Young Lee’s “Persimmons” refutes such ideology. Though I personally favor the slightly sinister scene, Lee’s tactful dropping of information and gradual explanation left me awe-stricken. It somewhat reminded me of Martel’s approach to Life of Pi, the way it began with some information, explained a bit, flashed back shortly, explained a bit more, revealed a kicker, explained some more, et cetera. His parallelism is as precise as a persimmon, I must say. I cannot put to words my admiration for this thematic poem that began with the narrator talking about his 6th grade teacher’s disappointment at his confusion of several, though a grin crept onto my face when I read how he connected each pair. A mixture of sorrow and love ached in my chest upon reading how he admires the persimmons painting with his now-blind father, who reminisces:
“Oh, the feel of the wolftail on the silk,
the strength, the tense
precision in the wrist.”
One poem and stood out to me the most was “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop. The lines, “However, if you watch, he’ll hand it over, cool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink” tells me that Bishop is telling the reader that people are not all the same and a lot can be gained if you have hope.The reader is also gaining and learning insight from the poem. Another poem that stood out to me was “Dream” by Poe. The lines, “I have been happy- and I love the theme: Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life, As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife” tells me as a reader that no matter how little or how small your dreams are you can be successful. If you fail once, get up again and start fresh learning from your mistakes. The third poem that intrigued me was “After Auschwitz” by Anne Saxton. The lines, “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan. And death looks on with a casual eye and picks at the dirt under his fingernail” informs the reader on what the condition of living was like during the Holocaust. Saxton knows how to get the readers attention by starting the poem off with such a gruesome visual.
The first poem that I found that meant the most to me was “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. One line that stood out to me was when he is talking about the beginning and ending of life as either a door or a window. It shows that he is wondering about like what is life really about and what comes after. I like how he says in between is a little singing which he realizes that our lives are just a little while and what comes after is for forever. Another line I liked was when he was talking about “his father’s kisses keep his father’s worries from becoming his?” It shows how all parents love on their children is to keep them from having to worry like an adult. Another poem I thought was really important was “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. This poem is about the second coming of a war just as bad or worse as the First World War. Yeats accurately predicates the second world war. This is important because the second world war was preventable. If a poet could sense that all was not right after the first world war then I think politicians and international agencies should of seen the signs as well to prevent the human loss that would occur during the second world war. It was a scale of slaughter never seen before. The last poem I found that I thought was important was “Dreams” by Edgar Allen Poe. One group of lines I found that stood out to me was the second paragraph talking about how perfect and happy his dreams are. He also says that dreams are a sort of escape from reality and allow him forget the “shadows of this life and revel in fake but very comforting expierence.
Each poem that we have available to us in the poetry folder is unique in its own way, and they all have their own individual message portrayed through the writing. However one really stood out to me, and that would be the Brooks “We Real Cool” poem. Although it may be short and others may think that it is nonsense and gibberish. I however I found it relatable. One line that stood out to me was when it states, “We Left school.” I relate to this because soon I will be leaving school, which may be a harsh reality but it is something that is going to happen and it is something we just have to deal with. I feel that this is a good poem for teenagers, such as seniors in high school, because when you read through a lot of things that it references are things that high schoolers do. Such as when they say, “We Lurk late” or “We Sing sin.” All of these things happen. We go out searching for something to do to have a good time on a Friday or Saturday night. Therefore we end up lurking around town late, and the singing sin part happens pretty much to anyone. I think one of my favorites from the poems is Lowell’s “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage.” This poem really is kind of touching and eye opening. It shows the perspective of someone involved in as bad relationship and how they have to act or how they feel about the situation. Two lines that really touched me in a way that was saddening was when it says, “My hopped up husband drops his home disputes, and hits the streets for prostitutes.” To me this is heart wrenching. How could someone do this to a person that they are married to and claim to love. It is a poem that really shows that emotion and makes you feel how disheartening this situation is, which is why I enjoyed reading this one so much. I also like how the end of two sentences rhymed, it was extremely catchy. One poem that I found interesting was Dickinson's “A narrow fellow in the grass.” The title is intriguing all in itself, but as you read it is they never really clarify what they are talking about however the context does a wonderful job on making the reader think critically to understand what is happening. One line that makes me wonder is when they say, “When stooping down to secure it, it wrinkled and was gone.” It makes me want to learn more, like where did it do? Is it not going to come back? When poems make you think like this one does I find it an enjoyable read, which is why I am particularly fond of this poem.
Peltier 1
Each poem that we have available to us in the poetry folder is unique in its own way, and they all have their own individual message portrayed through the writing. However one really stood out to me, and that would be the Brooks “We Real Cool” poem. Although it may be short and others may think that it is nonsense and gibberish. I however I found it relatable. One line that stood out to me was when it states, “We Left school.” I relate to this because soon I will be leaving school, which may be a harsh reality but it is something that is going to happen and it is something we just have to deal with. I feel that this is a good poem for teenagers, such as seniors in high school, because when you read through a lot of things that it references are things that high schoolers do. Such as when they say, “We Lurk late” or “We Sing sin.” All of these things happen. We go out searching for something to do to have a good time on a Friday or Saturday night. Therefore we end up lurking around town late, and the singing sin part happens pretty much to anyone. I think one of my favorites from the poems is Lowell’s “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage.” This poem really is kind of touching and eye opening. It shows the perspective of someone involved in as bad relationship and how they have to act or how they feel about the situation. Two lines that really touched me in a way that was saddening was when it says, “My hopped up husband drops his home disputes, and hits the streets for prostitutes.” To me this is heart wrenching. How could someone do this to a person that they are married to and claim to love. It is a poem that really shows that emotion and makes you feel how disheartening this situation is, which is why I enjoyed reading this one so much. I also like how the end of two sentences rhymed, it was extremely catchy. One poem that I found interesting was Dickinson's “A narrow fellow in the grass.” The title is intriguing all in itself, but as you read it is they never really clarify what they are talking about however the context does a wonderful job on making the reader think critically to understand what is happening. One line that makes me wonder is when they say, “When stooping down to secure it, it wrinkled and was gone.” It makes me want to learn more, like where did it do? Is it not going to come back? When poems make you think like this one does I find it an enjoyable read, which is why I am particularly fond of this poem.
I feel that “The Man-moth” by Bishop matters a lot to me. It is about the insight that can be gained from outsiders. In high school, many kids are shamed for their passions of video games and other hobbies that are seen as “nerdy” or “uncool”, but they can still provide interesting, poignant opinions. I try to get these people involved when I can. I like to play video games so I try and talk to them about the video games that I play and the video games that they play, and have a fun conversation. I learned from one of my conversations with a friend whom has an intense passion for Pokemon about how to make a better team, information that I have used to better dominate Pokemon. I think that everyone should try to make others feel as welcomed as possible.
Another poem that stood out to me is “To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage” by Lowell. It shows the danger and fear of an alcoholic’s wife. I especially like the line “this screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge”. She is in fear that one night he might come home and be especially abusive and kill her, and only after murdering his wife, would he take the pledge of sobriety. It shows how alcohol abuse affects more than the alcoholic. The second piece of the line acknowledges the trend that alcoholics only address their problem when it is too late and something awful has happened. I think that this is the way with many addictions and problems: people only change their negative habits after it has gone too far.
Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into The Night" is by far one of the best poems in the folder. It shows great effort at getting a point across as do not back down from what you believe in. I will think of this poem every time I will compete physically and mentally in my life. I feel the poem should be put around schools everywhere basically showing kids and telling them not to back down from what they believe in. This poem i will remember forever and will cherish a great deal. The poems best line are when it states that the rage inside is building and that you will not back down no matter the challenge that will arise. The second poem I have chosen would be "Addict" by Sexton. Her writing is scary close to what I imagine addicts to go through her writing almost implies that with her knowledge of addiction that she herself was an addict or that someone close to her was a addict for sometime. The pills she describes take a motherly shape for addict like a caring mother trying to help her baby, but that is not the case with pills they can help yes but only for a short while before taking to many will kill you. This poem has so much detail and knowledge about what addiction I imagine is truly like with out-of-the-box connections. The last piece of poetry I would use in ‘Daddy” by Plath. This work contains detail and mystery about what can only be described as amazing. Her work describes a person who has somehow killed their father but not actually her fault but maybe her thinking it's her fault and somehow blaming herself. It Makes sense because people sometimes feel responsible about someone's death. These works are all well written and great life lessons and can impact the lives of many.
After reading multiple poems in literature this past week, I have had different feelings and perspectives towards poetry and what poets try to accomplish or get information to their readers. Many poems in the earlier times were just simple happy easy rhyming poems, but the poets of this new era thought poetry could be more than that and did not always have to be happy and an easy read. For example, in William Butler Yeats poem “The Second Coming” he writes strongly about how he feels about World War I. He is saying that we are destroying ourselves by fighting this war and that nothing good will come from the end of it. He also predicted the coming of World War II as well. A certain line that really stuck out to me in this poem was, “Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer” (Yeats 1). Falconers have trained falcons to be able to find their falconer even in the most populated places. Falcons are extremely smart animals and can be easily trained to return to their master. But when a falcon cannot hear the falconer as said in the poem, you know there is something wrong. This line is saying that the world is not right and there is something terribly wrong, for the falcon is not able to return to the falconer. Another poem that had an impact on me was, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. In my opinion, this poem is saying that no matter how close you may feel you are to the light--or death--you should always continue to live life the best you can and make the most of it. The line that sticks out to me the most is, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” (Thomas 1). This line is said multiple times throughout the poem, allowing itself to be stuck into the readers’ minds saying do not give up on life. The third and last poem that was very touching to me was Li-Young Lee’s “The Hammock”. This poem is about our children and children yet to come. It explains how you were known before you had even been born. This poem is very upbeat and can also be quite soul-moving for some people. One line that really stuck out to me the most was, “Is it a door, and good-bye on either side? A window, and eternity on either side?” (Lee 1). What this line means to me is that on one side of the hammock, you have a door which leads to “goodbye” or death, and then the other side, a window, which would be like heaven.
One of the three poems that stuck out to me was Young MC’s “More Rhymes”. Since a hobby of mine includes writing music, this particularly poem was interesting to me, because of the lyricism and flow, and the rhymes. While the poem itself spoke of how this man was Young MC and reiterated itself a multitude of times, it perhaps was meant to convey that we, too, should be proud of who we are, regardless of where we came from or how far we have (or have not) come. It seems like it may be more of a rap then a poem, though they may be too similar to categorize differently.
The second poem that stood out to me was Lee’s “The Hammock” as it speaks very lightly of what life and death may be. A window or a door, a window and a door. The poem claims that life and death are both: We can see into the past because of our predecessors/parents, and through our children and the next generation we can catch a glimpse of the future. Likewise/Contrariwise, after we enter the threshold of the door of life, the door closes behind us. We cannot go back through or personally witness what happened before the womb, nor will we be able to escape the eerie black room of death, seeing into the future. The door, simply put, is shut and locked behind us by an unseen doorman, of sorts. This poem also uses parallelism very well, as first it states that the narrator does not know why his mother acts in the manner she does, but then switches it to not knowing why the narrator does as he does. It just re-shows the transition from child to adult, adult to parent, parent to what comes next.
The last poem (that we discussed in class) that stood out to me was “Hills Like White Elephants”, by Hemingway. This specific work may or may not have peaked my interest, but by revealing all that we could as a group really attracted my attention, which helped me dive a little deeper into my analysis of the poem.
Nelson 7
The first poem that matters to me is “There is another sky: by Emily Dickinson. This one is different that most of the others. It is short and cheery which I like. What stands out to me is the the first line is “There is another sky,” and later in the poem there are lines such as “Here is a little forest,” and “Here is a brighter garden.” This makes me wonder why she chose to use two different adjectives. All poetry is up to the reader to decide the meaning and I think this poem is about finding beauty and happiness within yourself and not other people. In a darker twist, “The addict” by Anne Sexton is my next favorite poem. The lines that drew my attention are at the very end:
Then I lie on; my altar
elevated by the eight chemical kisses.
What a lay me down this is
with two pink, two orange,
two green, two white goodnights.
Fee-fi-fo-fum-
Now I'm borrowed.
Now I'm numb.
This is the point where the pills are kicking in. Sexton is a confessional poet which makes me think she probably did this herself. I did some research and found out that she had severe depression and even attempted suicide at least once before succeeding. This information makes the poem a lot more powerful and emotional. The last poem that has importance to me is “As Freedom Is Breakfast Food.” At first I thought it was the strangest analogy but then I remembered how everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and immediately connected the freedom is important to everybody, everyday just as breakfast is. My favorite line is:
deeds cannot dream what dreams can do
—time is a tree(this life one leaf)
but love is the sky and I am for you
just so long and long enough
I thought the poem “After Auschwitz” was attention grabbing. I have always been intrigued by the Holocaust often I would read books about the stories of the survivors. Emotions fly when this subject is ever discussed. To feel the hatred in this poem is moving. The line that stood out to me in this poem was “Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.
I say those things aloud.
I beg the Lord not to hear.” These lines are show the hatred Sexton feels towards death and the men causing it. It struck me because the whole poem she discusses that those men should never be able to be normal again when they are making people suffer the worst: death. She wishes death upon them yet hopes to the Lord he does not hear. She still has humanity in her with such hatred she wishes death but wishes the Lord does not hear. The second poem that stood out to me was “This Be the Verse” by Larkin. It was interesting that to be considered successful in this time of society they have money and love with family. Those who make a large sum of money and are married to someone (who also has a “successful job”) with kids is desired. Yet in this poem, Larkin states to never have kids. We who are living are living with the faults of our parents and with some of our faults, are worse off than to not even be living. To go out and have kids to pass on our faults is unimaginable to Larkin. People should stop having children, and that contradicts with what is successful. “Get out as early as you can” is the line that sticks out to me in this poem. Does Larkin imply to get out as to end our lives? The only way to get out of living is to end it. Larkin is a morbid man who I think needs help and this is his cry. This poem was interesting. The last poem that I selected was “Mr. Edwards and the Spider” by Lowell. I loved the rhythm and the rhyme scheme that can be found. The line “Is infinite, eternal: this is death,
To die and know it. This is the Black Widow, death.” I like this enjoyed this poem.
The poem by Larkin, "This Be the Verse'" stood out to me the most. He displays his opinion on his parents, which obviously was a mostly negative experience growing up. "Get out as early as you can, And don't have kids yourself." This line really made me sympathize for him and what he must have gone through that it would have ruined his longing to have children of his own. Another poem that I have enjoyed is Bishop's "The Man-Moth." It's full of elaborate imagery. It appears to me the man-moth struggles with fitting in but is it that he simply cannot, or is it that he chooses not to. Either way, I think it is beautiful the way he goes about it. I loved the ending describing his eye, "It's all a pupil, an entire night itself...then from the lids one tear...cool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink." The last poem that made an impact was one we read today by Li-Young Lee, called, “The Hammock.” I admired its optimism and how it made me think deeply into the ideas he wrote about. This line from the third stanza really struck me, “I think, Dear God, and remember there are stars we haven’t heard from yet: They have so far to arrive.” I enjoy how he compared people to stars and that we should be optimistic for the future generation that hasn’t been born yet.
Before starting the poetry unit, I was never too fond of poetry and what it had to offer. I had never read any poetry other than the ones that discussed frolocking in a flower patch or the ones that described nature. My opinion changed once I read the confessional poetry in class.
Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is the first poem that stuck out to me. I interpreted the poem as a confession about her father being a Nazi, and possibly being an abusive father. The lines that had an impact on me are “Bit my pretty red heart in two. I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die, And get back, back, back to you.” The horrors that were endured in the Holocaust are unimaginable to me, but to know that your father participated in them? That is absolutely heart-wrenching.
The second poem that is significant to me is Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. I deduced this poem to be about the faults and miseries that man hands on to man. One passage that was striking was the line: “Get out as early as you can”. I think that this is an effective line because it has multiple meanings; it can be taken as a message to commit the act of suicide, or even as a message to escape the grasps of your parents.
The third poem I read that stood out to me is Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Man-Moth”. I was so fascinated by it because of the clever way it was published as at the time it was unacceptable by society to discuss homesexuality in public works, and that it has various symbols throughout the poem--the moon being my favorite example. The first stanza was what initially caught my attention:
“Here, above,
cracks in the buildings are filled with battered moonlight.
The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
It lies at his feet like a circle for a doll to stand on, and he makes an inverted pin, the point magnetized to the moon.
He does not see the moon; he observes only her vast properties,
feeling the queer light on his hands, neither warm nor cold,
of a temperature impossible to record in thermometers.”
I believe that the moon is a symbol for the homosexuality or femininity of the Man-Moth. In Greek mythology, Artemis is the Goddess of the moon, chastity, virginity, as well as many other things which is the main reason for my belief. It was a unique and ingenious the way she incorporated this moon to represent this, or so I interpreted.
Poetry is hard thing to learn to love. A lot of people, including myself, don’t always know what the author of the poem is trying to get at. However, I love when poems have a deeper meaning and you understand what that deeper meaning is. All poems are unique in their own way, some are positive and some are negative. My all time favorite poem is the one we read in class today called “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. I love how it relates your life to a hammock and one end is when you are born and the other end is when you die and the part inbetween is your life. My favorite line in this poem is “Do his father’s kisses keep his father’s worries from becoming his?” This poem is my all time favorite because of how it makes me think about my future children that I do not even know of yet. “There are stars we haven’t heard from yet.” Another poem that I like is “Since feeling is first” by Cummings. I like how simple the poem is and that is how simple love should be. You should just always unconditionally love your spouse because your feelings should always be put first. I like the line “for life’s not a paragraph and death I think is no parenthesis.” I love how life and death is related to paragraphs and parenthesis. Another poem I like is “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. This poem saddens me because I know a few people with addiction problems and it is a sad and scary battle. One of the lines says, “And now they say I am an addict. Now they ask why. WHY! Don’t they know I promised to die!” This is the most true sentence I have ever read. People who are addicted kill of their entire life before they want to die. They destroy their friendships, their marriages, and their families. The last line of the sentence says, “Now I’m numb.” People who are addicted to something do not feel their emotions anymore. They don’t care about anything or anyone anymore. They throw their lives away. Addiction is a scary thing. I truly enjoy most poetry and especially the ones I can relate to. Most poets are amazing at drawing out people's emotions through poetry.
Poetry is one of my favorite literature styles to read. I enjoy Anne Sextons style of confessional poetry. I read her “After Auschwitz” poem. I believe the point she was trying to convey to the reader was how dirty and rotten the Nazi’s were to the Jews and to woman in general. I enjoy this excerpt,
“Man
is a bird full of mud,
I say aloud.
And death looks on with a casual eye
and scratches his anus.”
This is a statistical way that a man looks at all situations he deals with, scratching his head (or butt) and looking with disgust and confusion and usually complaining about what he has to deal with. I think she describes the way men and the Nazi’s treat woman and the Jews. The next poem I read was Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. This poem deals with what I picture as a parenting poem. It shows of all the things you carry on as a child from your parents and what your legacy as a parent could bring on to your child. I especially like
“Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.”
This is the true meat and potatoes to what i viewed this poem was all about. It also send a certain punch to the stomach with the ‘don’t have any kids’ line. This can show a complete other side to ‘the miracle of life’ also being the ‘misery of your life’. Lastly I enjoyed William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”. I focused more on Yeats writing style as it is different from both Larkin and Sexton. It is peaceful and blissful. It flowed so smoothly and with elegance when the other two were harsh and deep, dark as well. This is a representation of the birth of baby Jesus in Bethlehem, thus the ‘second coming’. It is posed lastly as a question,
“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
The evil is coming to pass and the joy of light within is to spread in the world. I wish to understand the poem further but I do favor the end as it is posed as a question rather than a statement.
Rasmussen 2
Williams “Danse Russe”
The line that stands out most to me is “Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?” This line stands out the most to me because I can completely relate. I, myself, am the only one who believes I am the genius of my household and I believe that it is because I am the only who knows of my own unwritten law. I picked this poem as one that was most important to me because of my love for Williams style of writing specifically in this piece.
Brooks “We Real Cool”
The line in “We Real Cool” that stands out most to me is “We die soon.” Looking at this line compared to the others in the piece give the effect of living your life to the fullest. Dying soon from a life lived to its fullest capacity would give me more satisfaction than living a long life on the safe side. This poem matters most to me because in my lifetime I hope to be able to reach all of my goals and living in the beauty of earth.
Dickinson “There is Another Sky”
There are multiple lines in “There is Another Sky” that stand out to me. The first line that stands out to me is “There is another sky, Ever serene and fair,” it shows that even in the darkness, you can look forward to a new hope. The other line that I believe ties this poem’s meaning together is “Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been;” Showing that there is a place on earth where sin has never reached, and the goodness in the world rests waiting for those who have the potential innocence to become a part in it. This poem stands out to me because I, one day, hope to find myself in the good aura of the world.
2 Laycock
Out of the many poems that are in poem folder, there are three in particular that stand out to me.
One is the poem written by Sylvia Plath, called “Daddy.” It talks about a girl who had an abusive father that died while she still hated him. She thought she had escaped from the abusive lifestyle that she was forced to live for so long, but, unfortunately, she married an abusive husband too, falling right back into the trap. The few lines that really stood out to me were, “If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two——the vampire who said he was you and drank my blood for a year, seven years, if you want to know.” It shows how similar her husband and her father were.
The second poem was written by Li-Young Lee, called “The Hammock.” It is a warm-hearted poem that shines light on the future we our kids have. It talks about the important people that are yet to come into this world yet. The next Albert Einstein, Kanye West, and Bill Clinton may have not been born yet, which is what Lee is getting at. A few important lines that stood out to me are, “A window, and eternity on either side? Yes, and a little singing between two great rests.” These lines are important because it proves that he, as well as many others, believe in the future.
The third poem that spoke to me was written by Elizabeth Bishop, called “The Man-Moth.” It talks about those individuals who are overlooked because they may not be as popular as others. This is a big reason why all high schoolers should read this poem. A few important lines in this poem that stood out to me are, “If you catch him, hold up a flashlight to his eye. It’s all dark pupil, an entire night itself, whose haired horizon tightens as he stares back, and closes up the eye. Then from the lids one tear, his only possession, like the bee’s sting, slips.” It shows how important even those you rarely talk to can be.
1 Beck
I did not really know exactly what I wanted to write about for this entry. I decided that I would go through look at the titles and their authors and decide that way. The first poem that really caught my interest in a weird distasteful way to some people is “After Auschwitz” written by Sexton. I have always had a large interest in the Holocaust, and I like reading anything Holocaust related. “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” Reading this line almost gave me the chills. Yet at the same time it has so much meaning, it teaches us so much in so little. It is telling us thing that happened in the Holocaust that you wish you did not have to hear about. You do not want to have to hear about the little kids being burned in the gas chambers, yet it also at the same time interests you.
The next poem I find interesting is oddly enough also written by Sexton “The Addict”. I feel like sometimes people never truly understand what addicts go through, and I feel like through this story you are able to get a real sense of what they go through. It makes your brain churn its gears to really find out the truth of what the story is trying to non bluntly tell you. “I like them more than I like me.” Somebody really has to be at an all time low to feel this way about themselves, and I feel that with her becoming an addict this has caused her to feel this way.
“We Real Cool” by Brooks is also a poem I find that intrigues me. Something that is so short with only just 32 words written, that can make you feel so many feelings all at once. “We left school” can have so many different meanings to every person. Whether or not it is being kicked out or graduating, everyone has their own different thought. As for me I can think if it as graduating, I will be leaving the school for a little over a month, and will not be coming back there unless it is for an sports activity my sister is somehow involved in. I believe that also in this poem it is showing children's recklessness and how they feel that they are their own bosses and do what they want whenever they want. Yet we need every little piece of guidance we can get, before it is too late for us.
6 Sadler
Poetry, in the past, is something I always dreaded reading. My dislike for it was probably caused by the reading of boring and difficult to understand poems in past English classes. This year I have found reading poetry relaxing and calming. The poem that stood out to me the most in the poetry folder was Emily Dickinson’s “There is another sky.” I especially enjoyed reading this poem because it is optimistic. I liked the excerpt:
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields-
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter forest,
Where not a frost has been;
Dickinson’s poem reminds me of the saying “think of the glass as half-full instead of half-empty.” There is a better time to come. I also enjoyed reading Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” I first heard this poem while watching the movie “Interstellar” and I very much enjoyed it then. What I take from it is that we should not sit around and wait for our lives to pass by. We should make the time we have on this earth matter. From that poem, the title line is my favorite: “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” Lastly I enjoyed the the poem “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. My favorite line from it was “there are stars we haven’t heard from yet: They have so far to arrive.” There are so many great things in my life still to come and it gives me hope and eagerness for the future.
1 Wardlow
Poetry is a very intriguing art form and I believe it gives writers a lot of artistic license. Poetry displays the author's real feelings which is interesting to read. To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage by Robert Lowell. This poem displays a marriage gone sour. Abuse runs rampant in the relationship and most of it is alcohol driven. Many parts of this poem stand out to me. One line that struck me when reading the novel was “My only thought is how to keep alive”. This sentence makes me really wonder what it would be like to be in such an abusive relationship. That line really puts the reader in the shoes of the abused, how would they stay alive? When reading this poem I have many questions, whose point of view is this poem written from? Once in the poem it says “this screwball might kill his wife” and another time “my only thought was…” which causes me to be curious which point of view it is written in. Often times when I think of poetry I think it is supposed to be formal, but this poem uses the word screwball which I find interesting. The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop is another interesting poem. I find it very interesting that her inspiration for the poem came from a misprint in a newspaper where it was meant to say mammoth. Artists can really find art in everything. I like that she created something that does not exist however the reader can vividly imagine what she is writing about since she is so descriptive. This also seems like more of a story to me than a poem it is fascinating how an author can make what seems like a story into a poem. Many lines in this poem stuck out to me like, “ It’s all dark pupil,an entire night itself”. This line I think means that everyone has their own world. Everyone has their own problems and things going on in their lives. The poem by Philip Larkin, This Be the Verse is also very interesting. This poem speaks about how parents pass on their flaws to their children through their genetics. We can see these flaws in ourselves when we see the problems that we share with our parents. One line in this poem that stuck out to me was “They fill you with the faults they had” this shows that everyone has faults. Overall poems are very interesting and allow authors to use artistic license.
Of all the poems that we have read in class “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night” was the poem that I found the be the most powerful. This one uses powerful words like burn, rage, blaze, and fierce. Thomas’ use of commas are also something I find to be an aspect of power in this poem. The lines that occur most frequently are the lines that stand out to me. “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I love the way the these two sentences manage to stay on the same topic but have different ways of communicating it to the reader. The first urges almost pleads the reader to not be passive and let the days just go by. While the second calls the reader to action and places them on their feet readying them to go out and seize their life. Only once do these two lines appear together which adds to their impact. They only are seen together at the end of the poem. Another poem that I found to have a great impact was Lee’s poem “The Hammock” personally the line that stood out to me was when he writes “Between two unknowns, I live my life.” In the poem me means it to say that what his mother thought about him before he was born and his impact on his kids after he dies but I saw it a slightly different way. I saw this and thought about the huge stretches of time before we are born and the vastness of what happens after we die we are just a tiny drop in the ocean of what happens in the grand scheme of things and the impact we have is just that small I did see those tiny drops adding up and something had to make up the ocean. In the poetry folder I found the fable placed there written by Martel entitled “What the Drop of Water Had to Say”. Martel did a phenomenal job writing this and showing just how stupid we humans are to the Earth and its resources. The line that stood out to me was what I feel was the turning point of the fable the droplet said “I give myself to each and every with open heart, yet so many exploit me.” Before this moment the droplet is talking about how it helps others but here is when finally if talks about the greed of the people on the planet and it stuck a cord. These poems are powerful and I understand why we are reading them in class.
Cumming’s poem “Since Feeling is First” is one of my favorites out of the poetry folder. “Since feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things.” This verse particularly caught my attention. I find this to be true in my own life and can relate to it. It is so easy to fall in love with the looks and ideas of another person, but also just as easy to look over all the syntax of things.
“We real cool. We left school” is how Brooks starts his poem “We Real Cool”. Both the title and first verse of this poem is what drew me into reading it. I was interested to find out what was so cool. According to Brooks drinking thin gin and singing sin is cool. Personally that is not my definition of cool but to many others that is what they have to do to feel cool. However by doing all of these things does it really make them cool? Brooks then ends the poem with we die soon. Nothing is cool about dying soon.
Finally “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas is one of the most powerful poems in the folder.In the end everyone will die so live for the now. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” If you live under the constant fear of death, you will never truly get to live.
Hammond 7
My three favorite poems were "This Be The Verse" by Philip Larkin, "The Man-Moth" by Elizabeth Bishop, and "The Addict" by Anne Sexton. "This Be The Verse" was a moving poem. The first line of the poem is shocking and immediately and obviously drives home a point “They fuck you up, your mum and dad”. The whole poem tells a beautifully sad story, with a warning at the end, “Get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself”. This poem resonates with me, being adopted, and the topic of having children in the future. "The Man-Moth" was just a beautiful poem in general. I loved the way Bishop used imagery, “It’s all dark pupil, an entire night itself, whose hair horizon tightens as he stares back, and closes up the eye”. The message about this strange man-moth, his failed dreams, and his status as an outsider are moving and the poem is beautiful. "The Addict" is the poem that has meant the most to me. Its simple format is still incredibly accurate and indicative of what addicts feel like. “The pills are a mother, but better, every color and as good as sour balls. I’m on a diet from death.” I honestly liked the whole poem and if I could choose just one line I might as well choose the whole poem. “Now they ask why. WHY! Don’t they know that I promised to die!”.
The first poem to strike by attention was “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage” by Lowell. Within the first three lines the author goes right into the topic of abusive relationships and alcoholism. These two topics tend to go hand in hand. About half way through the poem the lines, “my only thought is how to keep alive. What makes him tick?”, go into the mind of the wife where she expresses her everyday fears of living with her husband. Another poem which caught my attention was “Daddy” written by Sylvia Plath. Like most students the Holocaust is an awful event yet one of the most intriguing lessons in history class. The lines, “I may be a bit of a Jew. I have always been scared of you,” crushes the reads heart as they realize the child in the poem has a Nazi father whose beliefs could and may kill the innocent kid. Finally “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop caught my attention because of the strange title. Bishop has a creative mind were she converted a normal word “mammoth”--creating a new character with its own story. A Man-Moth symbolized all people in society who did not fit in. He finds the the tunnels of the undergrounds and the shadows of town straying away from anyone who believes he does not fit in. One stanza says it all:
“But when the Man-Moth pays his rare, although occasional, visits to the surface,
the moon looks rather different to him. He emerges
from an opening under the edge of one of the sidewalks
and nervously begins to scale the faces of the buildings.
He thinks the moon is a small hole at the top of the sky,
proving the sky quite useless for protection.”
Hoffman, Brett 2
Sexton “After Auschwitz”
This poem is a poem in which after you read it, you wonder what was going on in the world that people were killing other people because of their appearance, beliefs, disabilities, etc. The start of the poem:
Each day,
each Nazi
took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.
And death looks on with a casual eye.
This would hit everybody hard I believe just by hearing “A Nazi, took at 8:00A.M., a ‘BABY’ and sauteed him for breakfast…”
Plath “Daddy”
Absolutely insane. Lost for words, she talks about how she had to kill her father, with when she says “and your aryan eye - bright blue”, we can assume it was she killing her father because he was more jewish looking than she was. After reading the whole poem, she apologized mid way through and then towards the end she talked about more of how she was seeing how the village and people around her never liked you, so she was through.
Lee “The Hammock” I enjoyed this one because Lee said “When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder:”. Which, at the beginning he is talking about remembering laying his head on his mother’s lap, and now he is wondering the thought of when he has a child if they will think the same thing. With that, he also brings up the idea of having children, which is why I enjoyed this poem so much, even though he doesn’t have any, the thought of them is alive much like the stars in the sky, they could die out but they are still shining or the thought of them is still there. Much like the possibilities of our families that we will all hope to have in our later years.
All of the poems in the poetry folder stood out to me and I enjoyed reading them all. They all had good imagery and really touch the reader. The one that stood out to me the most would have to be Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. The holocaust is a very sad and gruesome topic and I love reading and learning more about it. By just reading the title I knew this poem would really stand out to me. I believe it is very important to learn from the past so we can improve and learn from our mistakes and make sure nothing like that ever happens again. The most meaningful lines from this poem to me were: “ And death looks on with a casual eye and picks at the dirt under his fingernail.” This line really touches me and stands out.
Although Sexton’s “After Auschwitz” stood out to me the most, Lowell’s poem "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage" also stood out to me. This poem speaks of a wife who sits at home while her husband is off drinking at a bar. The husband loves tequila and Lowell makes it seem like the husband is anything but pleasant when drunk. After reading the poem I interpret that the wife does not like when the husband is drunk, because when he is drunk he is not himself. He could be aggressive or scary when he is drunk. Like I said all of these poems stood out to me, but these two stood out the most.
One of the first poems that I read happened to be the most disturbing, ironically. It was Sexton’s “After Auschwitz.” The most horrifying line in my opinion would have to be “Each Nazi, at 8:00 AM, a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” This sentence gives the reader a horrifyingly gruesome visual. This poem gives off a very eerie and horrible aura. Another line that disturbed me was “Man is a flower that should be burnt.” This sentence makes me realize and come to the understanding that Sexton feels as though humanity is lost.
Another poem that I found interesting was Lowell’s “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage.” I found it really odd, yet intriguing. One line at the end stuck out to me: “Gored by the climacteric of his want, he stalls above me like an elephant.” I actually found this somewhat disturbing. It almost seems as if he is going to rape her or take advantage of her. I felt disgusted after reading it. The last poem that I would like to praise would be Larkin’s “This Be the Verse.” A line that I really enjoyed was “Man hands on misery to man.” He means that when we have children, our miserable-ness is almost handed down to our children. All of our burdens now become our children’s problems. It is a really sad poem but quite frankly, undoubtedly true.
I was first drawn to "The Hammock" by Lee. Not because I studied any of his work before, I haven't. However, the natural concept of the poem speaks in ways like nothing else. Thinking of our children already around just not in the light, like the stars that are unseen by the daylight. This is an idea almost like fate. Everything is already decided but just cannot be seen because of the light. Finally the last line of the poem is powerful. "yes, and a little singing between two great rests." This could be talking about birth and death. The singing between two great rests is the life in between that one must enjoy. The entire nature of the poem is peaceful to me, holding family values by talking about the boys mother and father together with him. They cannot tell what each other is thinking but they know they love each other. This poem is a classic for many reasons and that is why it stood out to me. I will have to research more poems by Lee to see some more of his great work.
Reading all this poetry is not boring to me, quite contrary, I am very engaged in them. I used to write poetry as a hobby, so I like to think I have an appreciation for it. They are much shorter than a novel, but not lacking in depth and content. The three poems in this unit that stood out the most to me were: Thomas’ Do Not Go Gently Into the Night, Sexton’s The Addict, and Lowell’s To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage. In Thomas’ poem the line that inspired me the most was, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” This line was repeated four other times in the poem, it obviously holds importance. Reading this poem I was uplifted! It is a war cry for all of humanity to persevere in life-keep the knife sharp. Do not let yourself go dull. The second line of the poem, “Old age should burn and rage at close of day,” stood out as well. In this Thomas is saying that you can not let age stop you from going forward in life, rage against it! Anne Sexton’s poem The Addict is not for the lighthearted. The poem is full of depth and heart. The lines, “It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself. Yes I try to kill myself in small amounts, an innocuous occupation,” are heavy with emotion. This whole poem is about this person walking the thin line of life and death when they take these pills. She takes just the right amount so as not to overdose, but enough to escape from her current situation (whatever it may be.) Finally, Lowell’s poem To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage, is about a wife who knows her husband cheats on her with prostitutes. It says, “...freelancing out along the razor's edge. This screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge.” The latter part of this confused me especially because it says “his wife” but I had thought this was from the wife’s perspective...hm. The first part is talking about how her husband is dancing the edge between completely leaving his wife because of his infidelity and remaining in a loveless marriage. All of these poems hold depth and meaning that everyone can draw something from.
Mixell 1
Sexton "The Addict"
This poem is most certainly my favorite out of the set of three I chose for this blog task. Addiction has been around in my life and I would say that this poem truly lets someone from the outside understand some of the thinking processes that make up addiction. Sexton speaks of how it kills the character, but he/she keeps doing it anyhow. The line that stood out to me the most was "Yes, I admit it has gotten to be a bit of a habit-." Most people who struggle with addiction will never admit just how bad it actually is. The character in this poem only admits it to be a mere habit, while it slowly kills him/her.
Poe "Dreams"
I chose to read this poem because I have enjoyed previous works from Poe. Most of the stories/poems I have read from Poe are very dark and morbid, which I enjoy very much. I like Poe because it reminds me of Stephen King, an author which I thoroughly enjoy. I don't only enjoy it because it is morbid, I enjoy it because they are usually very descriptive as well. The line I enjoyed the most was "Its image on my spirit- or the moon Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon Too coldly- or the stars-howe'er it was That dream was as that night-wind- let it pass." You get a lot from these lines description wise, and I love reading lines such as these.
Sexton "After Auschwitz"
This poem was extremely intriguing to me because I am extremely fascinated with the Holocaust. Such a horrible event to happen in our history as a world, but we can learn from it by studying it. She does a very nice job of explaining the anger and hatred built up by a prisoner at this time. What I found most interesting was the line "I say those things aloud. I beg the Lord not to hear." The character wishes that the Nazi's do not experience such simple pleasures in life again, but then begs that the Lord does not hear her pleas. I feel like it puts off a vibe that the character just wants her pain and suffering to be over.
Schwint 1
One of my favorite poems that I read in the poetry folder what “The Hammock” written by Li-Young Lee. I love this poem because it is a very heartfelt poem and I found myself relating to the poem. I enjoyed this poem because it discusses human wonder; We wonder about what others think and what will be waiting for us after this life. This is best summed up in the poem when it says, “Is it a door, and goodbye on either side? A window, and eternity on either side? Yes, and a little singing between two great rests.” I love this part of the poem because many people fight about whether or not there is an afterlife and while people may still fight I think this poem gives a great answer to what Lee think. The second poem that I enjoyed reading was “Dreams” by Edgar Allen Poe. I especially enjoyed in this poem how Poe talks about the happiness that dreams can bring you and he romanticizes dreams. My favorite part of this poem was when it says, “Of semblance with reality, which brings To the delirious eye, more lovely things Of Paradise and Love- all our own! Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.” This poem was surprising because Poe was known for his dark writings and this poem had a more positive note. The last poem that I enjoyed reading what the poem “A narrow fellow in the grass” by Emily Dickinson. I loved this poem because I enjoy nature and this poem discussed nature in a new way. I especially loved the part, “Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone.” This part caught my attention because there are times when I have encounter something like a giant spider or snake that has shocked me.
Every poem in the poetry folder could be considered a classic. That is not an easy won title, it takes a lot of effort and skill to be able to write a poem so artistically as those. Although it is hard to narrow down 3 favorite poems, I will give it my best shot. First is Thomas “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. Thomas does a very good job at making his poem flow well as well as using vivid imagery like “Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay.” He writes so that people may have comfort with the thought of death, and I can imagine how many people listen to this particular poem on their deathbed, no matter how morbid that may be. Second is Lowell’s “Mr. Edwards and the Spider”. I like this particular one just because of the awe inspiring imagery. By reading this it’s almost like watching a movie about a spider dying and you can see it all play out right in front of you. He uses such imagery as,
“I saw the spiders marching through the air,
Swimming from tree to tree that mildewed day.”
That piece instantly puts an image into your mind that sticks. Third is Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. Like most people, I am morbidly curious and intrigued by the holocaust. When reading “After Auschwitz” I could not help but feel sad and angry at the atrocities that occurred. Lines like,
“Each day,
each Nazi
took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.”
hit almost everyone extremely hard while reading this. This poem captures the cruelty of the human nature so well that it makes me angry at my own race. It captures the harshness of life during those times for all those poor, suffering souls so on-point that it hurts me deep down in my heart as do most other holocaust writings. Along with immaculate imagery, Sexton makes one of if not the best holocaust poems of all time.
1 Peterson
Reading through the poems in the folder, each one has a deep meaning throughout the poem. The first poem that stood out to was Sexton’s After Auschwitz. I have always been intrigued by the Holocaust since I was a 7th grader. The Holocaust is something that people should take the time to study about instead of pushing it aside like it did not happen. The lines that stood out to me was,
Each day,
each Nazi
took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.
The visual that is given is hard to read about, but it is also quite truthful. Each day Nazi’s would take a precious life of innocent people and that needs to be told throughout time so that horrific event will never happen again. Another poem that I took interest in was, The Addict by Sexon, again. I enjoy the way Sexon writes her poems, the way it flows, and the one worded lines--draws interest to me.The lines in this poem that stood out to me was,
I'm becoming something of a chemical
mixture.
that's it!
Reading that line made me sad, as she is extremely addicted to drugs that she herself is becoming a chemical mixture, and she seems to be totally okay with her situation. She seems to be struggling with depression and to take the pain “away” she uses drugs to numb her pain. The last poem that stood out to me was, Daddy by Plath. In this poem she is talking about how her dad was a Nazi and she wanted to have him back when she was a child. But, when she got older to realize the truth she did not want to deal with what he had done. The lines that stood out to me in this poem was,
Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time——
She is expressing how she would have wanted to kill him because she figured out he was a Nazi but he had already died.
6 Bender
The poem by Li-Young Lee called “The Hammock” is a fantastic poem that seems to be coming to my life at the perfect time. Going to college next year and having to deal with all of the stress and struggles alone makes me miss my mother and father. This is a happy poem that will always remind me to treasure every day because I will look back on this and miss being this age and doing the exciting things. I love the line “Between two unknowns, I live my life.” I look around and think of all the people in the world all living lives that I will never know. I will never feel their struggles or know what they are going through each day. This blows my mind of how how small I am on the planet and how little my stresses and worries are on the large scale of things.
The next poem that relates to my life is by Dylan Thomas called “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. It is poem that builds and builds and makes you feel empowered by the end of it. I loved this poem and thought it related to my life because of what I was discussing previously: college. I want to live out every day of high school and get as much out of this as I can. The continual repetition of the “Do not go gentle into that good night” And “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” are extremely profound and the rhythm it creates for the poem is enchanting.
The last poem that stands out to by Poe called “Dreams”. In this poem the lines “in their vivid coloring of life, As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife Of semblance with reality, which brings To the delirious eye, more lovely things Of Paradise and Love- and all our own” stand out. I love that the whole idea of the poem is centered around dreams and then transitions to reality. I dream of my future and what it will bring to me; hopefully it is a “paradise” and has love also.
Poetry to me has always been fairly boring. This is because as a younger student I read poems that did not interest me. Typically if you are not interested in a subject you do not try nearly as hard to learn it than you do something that you enjoy. I came into this class thinking that all of the poetry would be similar to what we had read before and it would be dreadful, but these poems are different and interesting.
One of my favorite poems on the list is “After Auschwitz” written by Anne Sexton. This poem is about the holocaust and it is very moving. Mostly because of how dark it is. One of the best lines in the poem talks about how evil the nazis were.
“Each day,
each Nazi
took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.
Another poem that touched me was “Daddy” by Plath. The poem is also about German nazis. A woman is abused by her father as a girl and he then dies. She misses him and tries to replicate him with another man who she then marries but she then kills him too.
“The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.”
The third and final poem that I enjoyed was “We Real Cool” by Brooks. This poem was shorter than most of the other poems but I liked how it said so much in such little words. It talked about how these older teens skipped school and do what they want. They think of themselves as cool because they do not have to answer to anyone. The best line in the poem is “We Die soon.” because it shows that they do as they please but this lifestyle does not last long.
Normally I am not a huge fan of poetry. To me, a lot of the poems that I have to read for school are boring and confusing. Although, I do enjoy being able to discuss the poems after we have read them. By being able to have class discussions, it makes for better understanding for both me and others too. The three poems that stood out to me the most would have to be “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton, “The Hammock” by Li- Young Lee, and “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. “After Auschwitz” is a meaningful poem. The Holocaust has always intrigued me. After reading this poem, it makes me think long, and hard about all that I have learned about the Holocaust and how much it has impacted others. The one line that completely stood out to me was “Each day, each Nazitook, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan. Reading that made me feel sick inside. It breaks my heart knowing that those things actually happened. The second poem I enjoy, “The Hammock” is relatable to many, it makes me ponder about my childhood and all of the worries that I did not have. My favorite line is “Do his father's kisses keep his father's worries from becoming his?”. This is meaningful because children do not have a worry in the world. They are living the carefree life while their parents could be stressing away. The final poem “The Addict” is also a marvelous poem written by Sexton. I know in classes we learn about addicts and how they become addicted but do we truly know. Unless you are an addict yourself, you will not be able to understand the pain that they go through every single day.
2 Oren
One of my favorite poems in the poetry folder would have to be “What the Drop of Water Had to Say” by Yann Martel. This poem discusses the poor treatment of earth by humans, the most powerful line is about half way through:
“‘What are those ants that crawl in your garden?’ Sun asked his sister.
Moon replied, ‘They’re called humans, my brother.’
‘And what do you think of humans, Moon?’
‘They’re beautiful but they’re foolish.’”
The poem is almost a love story between Moon and Earth. Moon’s brother, Sun does not understand what is so great about Earth, then we hear from a drop of water. Water is sad because the humans do not care for him. There is oil in Water and the foolish human, the ones who can help him, just add to the water. All of the other animals are sad but humans do not change their ways. Sun is finally able to see why Moon is in love with Earth, because Earth is beautiful. This poem is quite powerful and puts so many things into perspective.
Another interesting poem is “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks it is fairly short yet says a lot. Since the poem is short I will include the whole thing:
“THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.
We real cool.
We Left school.
We Lurk late.
We Strike straight.
We Sing sin.
We Thin gin.
We Jazz June.
We Die soon.”
I think that this poem is poking fun at the people who make poor life choices. If I were the one who wrote the poem, I would have italicized the word “real”. I believe that it would accentuate the sarcasm; that is, the sarcasm that I am interpreting. Brooks is portraying the fact that living in the moment and floating through life is not a lifestyle. Although a lot of people prefer to live in the now, it may not do you very well when you are trying to live in the later.
Another powerful poem would be “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton. My favorite part of the poem is right at the beginning:
“Each day,
each Nazi
took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.”
The Holocaust is a touchy topic for anyone. Even should you not have been personally affected by the Holocaust no one really likes to talk about it. It was not one of mankind’s shining moments. And a passage such as this one brings to light just why we do not like to talk about it. They killed babies. Those children were innocent, all they have ever done is be born and they get killed. It is not our fault that we are born. We do not pick our own religions at that age, they are predetermined by our parents. And after surviving something like this, you are not likely to look at man the same way. There is a dark cloud that lingers in all of us. As we have read in books such as “Lord of the Flies” once that dark cloud is let out, there is not much that you will not do. Man can be evil when given the chance… powerfully evil.
Understanding and interpreting poetry has never been my strong point, however, there are an abundance of outstanding poems able to be found within our class poetry folder. Shuffling through the many examples laid out for me, I stumbled upon a few that stood out to me despite not having a particular interest in such works. Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” was a poem I came across that sparked interest in me. It seems that in the poem the speaker is declaring her hatred towards her father. The poem has numerous comparisons that make the underlying story that much more interesting, such as when the speaker says things like “I began talking like a Jew” and “I may as well be a Jew.” Most readers understand the horrific circumstances under which Jews lived and died, so throwing little bits like those in the story make it that much easier to understand the pain the speaker is going through having to had deal with her father for so long.
For some reason and work of literature dealing with the Holocaust interests me. This is probably because to me it simply seems so unreal that such a thing was carried out. I cannot even begin to imagine, that is partly why I enjoy reading about it. This being said, I am sure it is not much of a surprise yet another poem I enjoyed is about the Holocaust. Anne Sexton’s “After Auschwitz” is another vivid, mental reminder of the ghastly destruction of the Jews. Within the first few lines of the poem she says “ Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” This line shocks me because it appears to be so gruesome, but I think that is the part of the point Sexton is trying to convey. The line is certainly not pleasant, but things like that did in fact happen. It is important to speak reality, it does not always have to be found between the lines.
Anne Sexton captivated me once again with her poem “The Addict”. Reading this poem, I feel as if the depression the speaker is conveying is seeping into my own soul as well, that is how deep it feels to me. This poem interested me especially because I understand how many bodies depression enters and overtakes in society. It is interesting because not all of those experiencing depression put it into words. Although depression based poetry is utterly sad, it is a divine work of art. It truly gives meaning to the poetry if the author is feeling what they are in fact speaking. Sexton says “I’m becoming something of a chemical mixture.” This is one of my favorite lines from the poem because although it is a simple sentence, this one sentence tells the reader just how bad of an addiction there is to drugs.
Klumpp 2
One of the poems that stood out the most to be was Plath’s “Daddy”. It is a fairly dark poem and I enjoyed all the emotion that was put into it. This poem was a little easier to decipher than the other poems we read.The way I looked at and thought of the poem was that this is a women who lost her dad when she was fairly young. Her dad died during the war or right after who was probably prosecuted of war crimes. She wants to know her dad and bring him back but I also think she viewed him as not such a good guy because of the things he did and how he ignored her for all those years. A line I thought was interesting but can be hard to understand is when she says “The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.’
I think this line could be talking about her husband who she married to try to represent her dad but he did not turn out to be everything she wanted. After 7 years of being married their rocky relationship they ended it. Another poem that was extremely well written was Sexton’s “The Addict”. This poem is about a depressed girl who uses prescription pills to escape her life and numb her pain. One of my favorite parts from this poem is,”Then I lie on; my altar
elevated by the eight chemical kisses.
What a lay me down this is
with two pink, two orange,
two green, two white goodnights..
Fee-fi-fo-fum-
Now I'm borrowed.
Now I'm numb.”
My last favorite poem is Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. I like this poem because of its overbearing emotion and anger. You can just imagine the way someone would read it and you can almost envision it in your mind. One of the best lines in the poem and helps bring the whole poem together is,”They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.” This is basically saying that parents pass on their failures and things they did not get accomplished will eventually come back to you, which in effect brings more problems to you.
Schroeder Pd. 6
I really like some poetry, but most of the poems I cannot understand because it was written in the 16th century. Although, we have really great opportunities to look up translations online. I haven’t read much poetry, but going into Introduction to Literature this semester, poetry was one unit I did not want to start.
The three poems that I chose that matter to me the most were; Li-Young Lee’s “The Hammock”, Sexton’s “After Aushchwitz”, and the last one also by Sexton and “The Addict”. Just starting with reading these poems, I really liked Sexton’s writing style. I like that they are kind of dark in theme. Unlike Lee’s “The Hammock”, that one was a happy poem.
Li-Young Lee wrote “The Hammock”, and this one stuck out to me because it was such a good theme to it. That everyone was planned, everyone is loved, and everyone is cared about. Lee says through his poem that we were all planned, and we will all be missed. Thought of before and after our death. Between two unknowns, I live my life. The stanza that stuck out to me was this stanza:
“Between my mother's hopes, older than I am
by coming before me, and my child's wishes, older than I am
by outliving me. And what's it like?”
This sticks out to me because it just touches up on what I said above, on how my mother had hopes for me, and then after I have passed those that outlive me will miss me, like my children. Another part about this poem that I thought was really sweet was the line:
“When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder:
Do his father's kisses keep his father's worries
from becoming his?”
This explains that children are innocent and parent’s problems are rarely the children’s worries.
The next two poems I like were written from Anne Sexton. “After Auschwitz” was my second favorite because I like reading/learning about the holocaust. The part of the poem that stuck out to me was:
“Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.”
This was just horrible to think about.
The last poem that I liked was another poem by Anne Sexton, “The Addict”.
Anne’s style of writing is so good, because it offers great imagery.
“I’m on a diet from death” was one of my favorite lines within the poem. The person that is in this poem realizes that taking those 8 pills is equivalent to slowly eating yourself to death. The last part that stuck out to me was, “ I like them more than I like me. It's a kind of marriage. It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself.” They realize that they cannot hold a family together and all of their loved ones have left, so the pills are the only one there for them.
6 Kribell
Dickinson’s “There is another sky” is one of the poems that stood out to me the most. Just the simplicity of it appeals to me. And even though it is simple and short, there is a much deeper meaning. You can almost take it and make it into your own personal poem. My favorite line is: And there is another sunshine.
The second poem that I enjoyed was “The Hammock” by Lee. We read this in class together but I still find it interesting to think about. I do not, however, find it soothing, like others. If anything, I find it rather sad, but almost a hopeful sad. My favorite line from it is the part where he says, “Between my mother's hopes, older than I am by coming before me, and my child's wishes, older than I am, by outliving me.”
And finally, the first poem that we read in class was third on my list. Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. It is just so true and real, and probably will be realistic for many generations to come. “They may not mean to, but they do.” Is my ultimate favorite part of this poem. It is extremely accurate and honest.
Poetry intrigues me to no end, sometimes more than a novel does. Less words are spoken; more is needed from imagination and deep thought. I can fill in the blank and find the symbols in poetry, whereas they are more often blatantly obvious in novels. For this reason, I most enjoyed the confessional poems by Yeats, (a true genius), Lee, and Williams. This surprised me, as I am a feminist and thought I would pick all female authors as my favorite. However, the gender of the author can be least important when reviewing a written piece of art. In “The Second Coming”, the poetry is dark and beautiful. My favorite line would have to be, “The blood-dimmed tide is loosened/the ceremony of innocence is drowned.” It spoke to me because when history repeats itself, as it often does, terror and heartbreak rips away any remaining innocence the world and its people have left. The gorgeous childhood innocence is torn from said child, his/her lives forever scarred by this sphinx of horror. It is dark, yes, but honest; I love that in writing. I find that in each person’s life, there is a darkness in which evil lurks, some darknesses are simply more overpowering than others. This personality overtakes even the kindest of people at times, and they act out; sometimes in hostility, sometimes in insanity. That is what I liked most about Williams’ “Danse Russe”. This “normal” man has a wife, a baby, a home; yet he sneaks away in the night to dance nakedly in front of a mirror. I myself, feel at times completely fried to the point of wanting to do something crazy, although nakedly dancing is not up my alley; “Dance naked, grotesquely/ before my mirror/waving my shirt round my head/and singing softly to myself” Each Person has their breaking point, and the outcomes are all unique and must pass without judgement. This depressing poetry fascinates me, yet I loved Lee’s “The Hammock”. I suppose that the reason for this is because it is nice to take a break from overran;lyzing the depressed mind and view a slight, positive piece of writing. I especially liked, “And remember there are stars we haven't heard from yet”. This reminded me of the children that have yet to come into this world, and their promise of continuing my legacy, their sweet innocence ready to make the world better. I love confessional poetry, and each of these poems evoke different sides of me.
So far I have really enjoyed the poetry we have read in class. By far my most favorite is the Hammock by Li-Young Lee. My favorite line is when Lee says, “Does my father’s kisses keep his father’s worries becoming his.” This line shows how parents want to keep their children innocent and shielded from the real world. I think all young children want to grow up so quickly but once they do they realize it is not what they expected. I also liked After Auschwitz by Anne Sexton. This poem put vivid images of these camps into the reader's mind. It brought the reader despair. “At 8:00 A.M, a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” This line shows the horror of these camps. It allows the reader to better understand the horror happening to many. The last poem I enjoyed reading was Dreams by Poe. It is an uplifting poem and brings much hope to those reading it although it is saying not all dreams last forever. I think it comes from a young perspective. From mine own home, with beings that have been. Of mine own thought- what more could I have seen? This line makes me think very hard and that’s why I like it. There are many ways to interpret it by the reader. If you have great thoughts could you ask for anymore.
6 Mullet
I enjoyed “The Hammock” because of its positivity. Most poems written now are meant to be deep, but not many are positive. This poem has more of an optimistic approach while still maintaining the deep thoughts of other poems like Bishop. I especially like the two lines that say, “I don’t know what my mother’s thinking,” and “I’ve no idea what my child is thinking.” These lines bring you back to the understanding that neither knows how deep their thoughts are, but they both are of each other. This poem is overall one of the poems that I enjoy most in the folder.
I also found great importance in “After Auschwitz.” It was a gripping poem about the Holocaust, which I have always been struck by. The Holocaust is something that has become so awfully fascinating that most people do not attempt to write about it if they were not a part of it. It has become so sacred that we feel forbidden to portray it in case it is inaccurate. I like that Sexton is able to talk about it and create feelings about it, even if you do not know much about the Holocaust. I love when she says, “I beg the Lord not to hear.” The reader could interpret that as if she does not want the Lord to hear how awfully she speaks of humanity, or as if she does not want the Lord to hear how awful humanity has been. One of the last ones I enjoy is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. I liked this one because although it is long, it is not obtuse and too vague like “Man-Moth”. It was enjoyable to read and I could pick out underlying possible themes while reading.
My really enjoyed both Sexton’s poetry “The Addict” and “After Auschwitz”. Both poems are deep and have so much meaning with just such little to read. After Auschwitz explains how much the teller of the story hates the Nazis which is understandable because they killed so many and probably many of the Tellers family. She explains nothing is beautiful about men and they have soiled themselves. With the line “Man is a flower that should be burnt” or “Man is a bird full of mud”. Both these things shows how she portrays men after the Holocaust. She is a bit ashamed of how she thinks and how much hate she has for these people, she says the things out loud but not wanting God to hear. That part really speaks volumes because she wants to be forgiven for the things she believes but does not know if she will be. The Next poem is by Sexton also and is also dark and that is “The Addict”. This poem tells a story about a person who is addicted to drugs and the daily struggle they go through every single day. They do not believe it is a problem for themselves and they think they are the “queen of the condition”. It is a sad poem because addiction is a real problem and many people probably can relate to it. The last poem I found interesting was Brooks “We Real Cool”, it is very short and to the point yet has a profound meaning. They all want to have fun by doing all these things even if it is not bettering themselves. They live fast and they die young. With the words like “We Jazz June, We Die Soon”.
6 Paauw
Poetry usually impacts me a great deal and forces me to think deeply, or leaves me with much to be desired. On the day in class when we analyzed the confessional poetry, I believed I had found the type of poetry I had been searching for. Many of those poems ingrained memorable lines and thoughts in my mind. One poem with exceptional writing was “Daddy”, by Plath. It was a very somber poem with a lot of hidden meaning and Plath’s soul poured out through through the lines. One line, “Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time——” stuck with me. She is meaning to say that she wanted the satisfaction of killing her abusive father, but this came as an afterthought after his natural death. She had never received complete closure. But, she was so under his imposing control that she could have never hurt him, or turned against him. Sexton’s poem, “the addict”, also had some amazing lines; one of which being, “The pills are a mother, but better”. This line made me stop reading and think about what addicts of any kind go through. They need the drugs more than relationships or any other physical desire. The addictive element becomes the only thing the addict can turn to or be comforted by. This line helps explain why addicts steal from people they love; their loved ones are second to the drugs. Yeats’ “the second coming”, includes a line, “The ceremony of innocence is drowned;”. This entire poem captured my attention and never relieved me of it. The poem expresses how the people will eventually be their own undoing. This line put the thoughts into my mind about children--the innocence of the world--will no longer possess that quality as the world impounds on it’s own doom.
The three poems that caught my eyes would be “ The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee, “Hills like White elephants” by Hemingway and “Daddy” by Plath. These three poems all talk about life in some sort of way. “The Hammock” stood out because it talks about the distance from one side of the hammock to the other and that the hammock is the life span of time you have to live and enjoy life.The line “I think, Dear God, and remember there are stars we haven't heard from yet” is an interesting line from the poem because it states that the stars in the sky are the coming up children to arrive the brighter they are the closer they are the farther in distance would be building up to become bright and soon to become a child of your own. “Hills like White Elephants” stood to me because it talks about a situation in life that people can face and it is present in the government presently as well. The situation that is present throughout the poem is abortion and having a child. The boyfriend is selfish and is forcing the girlfriend to give up the child to have the life they have together. The girl is dependent on him from the language barrier and etc. She gives into the peer pressure because she has no one except him. The line I liked would be
‘‘No, it isn’t. And once they take it away, you never get it back.’’
‘‘But they haven’t taken it away.’’
‘‘We’ll wait and see.’’
This an attention grabber because the girlfriends says that they haven't taken the baby away yet but the boyfriends says just sit back and watch and see. The boyfriend knows that he will win the arguement because of the barriers between her and him. The boyfriend continues to talk and at the end asks about if she feels better.
‘‘Do you feel better?’’ he asked.
“I feel fine,” she said. ‘‘There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.’’
The girl has nothing else to say except that she is fine because she has been defeated. “Daddy” is presented through the little girl and she talks about the horrible father she has. The timing is during World War 2. She is scared of who she is but she is mostly scared of her father.
“I may be a bit of a Jew. I have always been scared of you.” She is so upset that she continues on saying that her daddy’s fat black heart has a stake in it. The villagers hate him for what he did. She continues on saying that she always knew it was him. “There’s a stake in your fat black heart And the villagers never liked you. They are dancing and stamping on you. They always knew it was you. Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through”
All of these poems are talking and relating to the acts in life.
Three poems that I enjoyed were written by Dickinson, Cummings and Lee. All three poems stuck out to me in a few different ways. Poetry is a beautiful art that helps students critically think, yet connect to indefinitely. The first one is “There is another sky” by Emily Dickinson. She speaks about another planet it seems like, maybe in her own perfect world. She talks about the leaves being greener and no frost has ever existed there. It is a short and spirit lifting poem. My favorite line from the poem is “Never mind faded forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields”. This speaks out to me because in a perfect world there would be no dark places or silence to consume you in your sadness. The second one is “Since feeling is first” by Cummings. The author of the poem talks about how real and sentimental feelings should be the first thing when it comes to love, not the other persons wisdom or flaws. There are multiple lines this poem that I love. “Who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you; wholly to be a fool”. This sentence in the poem reaches out to me because it is so true and relevant to love dealing with our generation. There are so many things that a person can be consumed by that the kiss of a loved one will never be completely felt because their mind is not completely concentrated on what it is supposed to be—making that person a fool for not loving wholly. Another line that I love most is “the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids’ flutter which says we are for each other”. I like this line because the person is so in love with the simplest actions of the person they are in love with because they are so perfect in their eyes. I long to have a love as beautiful as this line. And lastly a poem named “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. In this poem he talks about the way he use to lay his head in his mother’s lap with no cares in the world so innocently. As the poem progresses he is at a point in his life where he too had a son that did the things he did. He questions life itself and explains his thoughts about God and the stars above. My favorite line from this poem is “I think, Dear God, and remember there are stars we haven’t heard from yet: they have so far to arrive.” As a senior who is struggling with stress and many unanswered questions, this line stood out too me and reminded me that everything will fall into place and that there is time for everything to work itself out.
As I read a few of the poems in the folder there were certain ones that caught my eye. These are poems written by Plath, Sexton, and Lee. The first one would have to be “Daddy” by Plath. This poem talks about how the narrator states that she has killed her father and the man she seems to be talking about. It catches your eye from the beginning to the end. One part that stood out to me was “You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you, A cleft in your chin instead of your foot But no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who Bit my pretty red heart in two.” The last sentence of that just makes you feel as if your heart is breaking. It is a stanza that messes with your emotions. Another poem that I was intrigued on was “The Addict” by Sexton. In this poem it seems to appear that this girl is just trying to escape from reality by overdosing on pills. The details in this poem are so diverse and entertaining. Also, the metaphors are clever as well. For example “The pills are a mother, but better”. I would have never thought to relate a pill to a mother like that but Sexton makes it comprehensible. Because I can actually understand what this poem is trying to accomplish to the readers it makes it easier to read and it is more enjoyable as well. The last poem that I would say was part of my top three would have to be “The Hammock” by Lee. The reason I enjoy this poem so much would have to be because it relates to the youth and to our society today. It is giving us hope for the future and opens up our horizons a little. “A window, and eternity on either side? Yes, and a little singing between two great rests.” This line is hopeful. It says that there is eternity, there is life, there is freedom on either side. No matter what happens you will always live for the better and will succeed. This makes me have inspiration and goals for achievement as I enter adulthood and will soon be graduating.
After reading through a couple poems, the first one that stood out to me was "we real cool" by Brooks. This poem stood out to me because of how simple the wording is but how big the overall message of the poem is. I know a lot of people who think they are cool by having a "good time all the time" and getting messed up every night of the week. Some of the people do not even have jobs anymore and still manage to get drugs or alcohol. I also have some family members that are getting into bad things in their life because they dropped out of school or had horrible grades and are throwing their lives away and it is almost pathetic. Sure they Jazz June, but that also means they could die soon (that was the line that stuck out to me in that particular poem). Another poem that interested me was Emily Dickinson's "There is Another Sky". This poem stuck out to me because it talks about how there is another sky out there are there are large unknown places, but happiness comes in small things. Although there are many crazy far out places and unseen skies, there is also everything you need where you are as long as you look closely and go for it. In this poem a couple lines that stood out to me are "here is a little forest" and "here is a brighter garden" and I enjoyed those lines because she is portraying that you can find anything you want here, where you are, as long as you open your eyes and appreciate the little things instead of wanting more. The last poem that stood out to me was "After Auschwitz" by Anne Sexton. This poem talked about her anger toward man and how horrible humans are, wishing for them to be unable to complete any task no matter how simple. She states aloud how her anger has made her feel towards man after her tragic life of Auschwitz. She holds heavy hatred towards man, God's creation, and at the end begs that he did not hear what she said. The line that stuck out to me most was "I beg the Lord not to hear". It stood out to me because so many people have been through harsh times in there lives and they become so blinded by anger, and react on it. Then after they complete these horrendous actions, the anger washes away and they regret what they said or did. It happens all too often and Dickinson captured that theme so perfectly, and for all these reasons are why I chose these three poems.
The poems that we are studying that matter the most to me are Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”, Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Night”, and Sexton’s “After Auschwitz.” Each one of these poems teaches the reader about life and gives them an insight into what life shaped them. As an eighteen year old, it is very helpful to get an insight into many different views of life in order to prepare myself for the life I have ahead of me.
The first lesson that I learned from Larkin in his work is “they don’t mean to, but they do.” He is referring to parents inadvertently passing down their worst traits and characteristics to their children. This line makes me fear becoming the worst parts of my parents and then in turn giving my future children those same, terrible traits. However dark this passage is, it does give me motivation to focus on not letting those negative traits run my life and rather try to develop the good traits I possess.
The second lesson that I learned from Thomas is to live each day to the fullest. He emphasizes the phrase “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Thomas concludes many of his stanzas this way in order to make sure the reader does not forget it. Thomas does not want a person to give up hope even if everything and everyone around them is negative.
The third and final lesson is learned is from Sexton. She is giving insight into the mind of someone who has committed a large amount of evil against fellow humans, in this case Nazi’s. The line that she repeats and emphasizes is “I say aloud.” This phrase follows evils and dark mindsets about what happened to the Jews and others in order to convince the Nazi narrator that the actions that they took were acceptable. This terrifies me because anyone could convince themselves that any action they take can somehow be justified in their mind.
The three poems that stood out to me the most is as follows: “The Hammock”, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”, and “The Man-Moth”. “The Hammock” was written by Li-Young Lee and was an extraordinary poem about how the thoughts of a mother and son never seem to see each other. It was interesting to see how when the child was lying in the mother’s lap, he kept wondering what his mother was thinking about in a sort of innocent way and not a care in the world. However, when the reader gets to see what the mother is thinking it is far more concerning, not about her but her son’s well being, and how she worries about her son having the same problems as his father has. The second poem that stuck out to me was “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” because of the connection it has to the movie Interstellar. In the movie, Michael Caine’s character is talking to the other astronauts in the spaceship about to set out on the mind-bending journey of a lifetime. I found it to be a very appropriate poem because it starts by saying of course, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Of course the real poem is about living everyday to the fullest, but in the movie it gives the impression of the incredible task set before the astronauts; to go exploring where no man has gone before. The last poem that stuck out to me was “The Man-Moth”. Other than (in my opinion) having the potential of being a great protagonist in a superhero movie, “The Man-Moth” was a highly confusing poem due to it not being very clear if it is a literal man-moth or just a figment. Nonetheless, the poem had lots of imagery. An example of such imagery was when if someone catches a man-moth and shines a light in his eye he will start to cry. Then if the person can obtain the tear, then they can drink said tear.
7 Nador
After reading most of the poems in the folder, it was difficult to pick the three best ones; all of them are meaningful. I remembered liking Dickinson's "Narrow Fellow in the Grass," simply because I really like her creative way of saying "snake." Her effective and accurate imagery made it extremely effortless to picture a little harmless snake sliding through the grass:
"The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen,
And then it closes at your feet,
And opens further on."
The second poem I liked because of the impact it made on my mood. After reading it, for a second, I fell into a deep, close-to-somber state. Anne Sexton's "After Auschwitz" bears power in Sexton herself being a woman remembering the Holocaust, and openly standing up against the Nazi men that participated and contributed to the events. However, she begs the Lord not to hear her judgement. It carries a strong message, and, to me, the poet being a woman adds to the poem as a whole. My favorite part is how she uses a metaphor to evoke the Holocaust:
"Anger,
as black as a hook,
overtakes me.
Each day,
each Nazi
took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan."
The third poem I picked is by Patrick Hicks, "Not Springing Forward in Barcelona." In the poem he reverses history and makes it perfect and positive by rewinding wars and the Holocaust and epidemics. For example,
"M16s sucked bullets from the resurrected,
disease brought health, everyone got younger,
showers lifted poison from innocent lungs,
refugees returned home to their flats"
It made me want to turn history around and erase all the negative and destructive things that happened, because the world would be an unbelievably different place without our history.
Of the poems in the poetry folder, “This Be the Verse” written by Philip Larkin, is one of the poems that I have enjoyed reading. I appreciate the fact that we have been able to read a more mature piece of writing intended for mature readers. The idea behind the poem, the fact that your parents mess you up, is quite intriguing. Larkin makes the reader sense that there is no hope in improving generations; that the faults of the generations before us has done us wrong and we will only do the same with the next generation. This idea can be seen in the line: “They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.” This poem reveals a lot of what the writer may have went through in his childhood, writing “By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another’s throats.” Though only a few short lines, this poem hides a large amount of meaning.
Another one of the poems that I have enjoyed reading has been “Daddy” written by Sylvia Plath. When I first read this poem it did not quite make sense, though after further looking in depth at the poem, it exemplifies quite a lot of personal history and depth. Plath’s poetry reveals a sort of depression in the life Plath has lived. Plath writes some shocking lines such as, “Daddy I have had to kill you.” And “At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you.” This poem was quite an intense read and most definitely a personal favorite of mine in the poetry folder.
Lastly, I have enjoyed the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” written by T.S. Eliot. The fact that Eliot begins the poem with lines of a foreign language is fascinating. For some this beginning could make them read on, though I think for some it would turn them off from reading. This poem is almost like a short story with many lines and a plot behind it. This poem truly touches readers and people can relate to this poem. The idea behind the poem of not being enough is a feeling everyone feels and makes reading this poem much easier.
1 Jacobson
Poetry is always intriguing for me. It can be full of so many emotions, whether it be sad, lust, or an expression of feelings. Reading poetry is someone's heart poured out on a piece of paper. Out of all the poems in the poetry folder, a few stood out to me. Sexton's "After Auschwitz" was one of those poems. The brutal reality of the holocaust has always fascinated me and I feel like Sexton does a great, however gruesome job of bringing those realities to life.
“took, at 8:00 A.M, a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.”
These lines hit me hard. They make the readers see just how gruesome this occurrence was.
Another Poem that caught my attention was “To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage” by Lowell. The first few lines deal with abuse from an alcoholic husband.
“my only thought is how to keep alive. What makes him tick?”
These lines bring the reader into the mind of any wife that is abused and show how they have to walk on eggshells in order to make sure they do not make their significant other mad again.
Another poem that fascinated me was Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Night." Thomas does an excellent point of making sure the readers understand that you need to live each day to the fullest, and to make the most out of each day. Thomas gets this lesson across by including “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” at the end of multiple verses.
A poem that really stuck out to me was Yeats, "The Second Coming." It's very powerful and dark. These lines really stuck out to me,
"The twenty centuries stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"
Those lines were very powerful linking to Christianity and making it dark like the rest of the poem.
Another poem that really stuck out to me was "Daddy." It was powerful and sad. I've always been fascinated with the Holocaust and this poem has deep, true emotion in it that make it a great poem. A couple lines stuck out to me:
"I have always been scared of you,
With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.
And your neat mustache
And your Aryan eye, bright blue."
I thought this was interesting because she is describing a German or a reference to Hitler (neat mustache.)
I really enjoyed "The Hammock" by Lee. It reminded me of my childhood and innocence as a child. A few lines stuck out to me.
"When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder:
Do his father's kisses keep his father's worries
from becoming his? I think, Dear God and remember"
I loved those lines because it is so true and I can connect with it. My parents want the best for me, and hope I don't have to worry about all the things they worry about that I don't know about. It was a very powerful poem on family and love. One of my favorite poems we've read in class.
7Blok
The poem “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton is one of the most powerful poems I have personally read. It is a horrific description of the Holocaust. The lines in this poem that are the most shocking to me are
at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.
These lines are horrific because they describe the horrible things that the nazis did to the jewish children in the Holocaust. Also the phrase “death looks on with a casual eye” which makes me think about how all nazis by the end of the war were more or less desensitized towards death and the killing of people.
The second poem that had the most impact on me was “Daddy” this poem described the relationship between a woman and the relationship she had with her nazi father. She describes herself as either part jewish or mostly jewish. She talks about how she needed to kill her own father but he died before she could. That line got me intrigued and then as you read on you find out that he was a nazi and that she strongly disapproved of everything her father was doing.
The third and final poem that was interesting to me was “To Speak of the Woe That is in Marriage”. This was interesting to me because it describes everything I don’t want to be when I become a husband. It states that “he hits the streets to look for prostitutes.” And that he was “Whiskey-blind, swaggering home at 5”. That’s everything that I don’t want to be. I don’t want to be unfaithful to my wife and I sure as heck don’t want to have my wife go to bed without me wondering if I’ll come home. This poem irritates me more than anything because the man being described is no man that I would want to be.
One of the poems that matters to me the most is “O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman. In this poem, there are a few lines that stand out to me. “Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)” is one line that stands out to me. The line is trying to say that only an individual can lose faith in him/herself and when times are tough it is easy for the individual to do so. Another line that stands out to me in this poem is when Whitman says, “That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse”. Whitman is saying here that each and every individual has a purpose in life and will contribute something that gives them meaning. “Dreams” by Poe is also a poem that matters to me. A line that stands out to me in this poem is when Poe says, “Of semblance with reality, which brings To the delirious eye, more lovely things Of Paradise and Love- and all our own”. Poe is talking about how dreams give an air of realness, though they are clearly not real, but these dreams proved to humans a more pleasant reality that is strictly ours and no one else’s. The last poem that matters to me is “There is another sky” by Dickinson. The line “Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been” is one that stands out to me. Dickinson is telling readers that there are times in which life is tough and days are gloomy, but individuals can always look on the bright side of a situation and choose to find the good in it--this choice being completely up to the individual.
Poetry, I believe, is the most difficult unit we study. Though it is challenging, I enjoy the way it makes me think critically and deeper. The symbolism, rhyming, and alliteration devices make it intriguing. "Daddy" composed by Sylvia Plath out of my three favorite poems impacted me the most. One of the very first few lines was so relative to my life I was stunned:
"Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time--"
This line had such an intense impact because my own father has passed away. In a sense, I killed my father by having little to no memory of him. In the poem, the father is a terrible man--a Nazi. The daughter wishes for him to be dead after all of the horrid things he has done. Sylivia Plath's work is very dark, yet simply astounding.
Anne Saxton's The Addict brought to light the feelings of being addicted to prescription drugs. This poem interested me because I know far too many people that deal with addiction everyday and many that have succumbed to their favorite-worst enemy.
"I like them more than I like me.
It's a kind of marriage.
It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself."
These lines are detrimental to an individual who has known the life of an addict. When someone becomes heavily addicted to drugs, that is all they care about in life--regardless of the amount of times in treatment or the pleading of family members to stay sober. Eventually the addict will lose their war.
Lastly, Larkin's This Be the Verse poem impacted my views on the entire world.
"Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself."
These two lines depict the distrust in humanity. Everyone is so sick and horrible that we should no longer reproduce because we are only passing on our disgraceful traits to our offspring.
Every poem is written with it’s own purpose and meaning. I like poetry because of this. The poems that we have read in class so far create so many different emotions for the reader. My top three poems that we have read are “To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage” by Robert Lowell, “The Addict” by Anne Sexton, and “After Auschwitz” also by Anne Sexton. “To Speak of Woe That is in Marriage” by Robert Lowell is extremely sad and disgusting to me. I actually became angry when I read this poem. It is interesting to me that it is written by a man but his through a woman’s perspective. It makes me think that he might be talking about himself. The wife is sexually, physically, and emotionally abused by her husband and it is an awful truth that is hidden within many other marriages. The part in the poem talking about giving into his sexual wants whenever he wants it makes me so angry. “Gored by the climacteric of his want, he stalls above me like an elephant”. Basically the wife is explaining how she has no choice in her sexual relationship with her husband and it’s the only thing to prevent him from beating her. “The Addict” is another great yet disturbing poem as well. Sexton is able to unveil addiction into a something eye-opening. She describes addiction like I have never read it before. “I like them more than I like me. It’s kind of a marriage. It’s kind of a war where I plant bombs inside of myself.” I find these lines utterly depressing. She describes addiction in a way that helps people begin to understand the disease. “After Auschwitz” stood out to me in many ways as well. I find the Holocaust to be interestingly sad and horrific. I find the line “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan” to be disgusting. The sad part about that line is the fact is that it is true. The Nazi’s did anything and everything they wanted to do without every being stopped. I am glad we are studying poetry because I learn and gain insight from every poem I read.
2 Litt
Poetry can be one of the hardest forms of literature to read, it can be overdone and difficult to understand. But when done right poetry can be one of the most impactful pieces of writing an author has in his literary arsenal. The poetry in the folder is some of the best examples of that that I have read. One in particular stood out to me as dark and peaking the interest of the mind. It is the poem “The Second Coming” by Yeats, it talks of the dark times humanity faces. Some of the lines are examples of literary genius such as the line “The ceremony of innocence is drowned” this line in particular is quite dark and ominous. It describes a time in humanity that no one has the chance to be innocent and the situation is too serious that even children need to grow up and figure out how to survive. Another line from that poem that I enjoy is “The falcon cannot hear the falconer” which sets the stage of a situation that is so severe that it is impossibly dangerous. The second poem that stood out to me is the poem “The Addict” by Sexton. This poem resonates with me for the reason that I have known people with addiction problems so I understand kind of where this poem is coming from. It is about the life of an addict and how the drugs are all that matter in their life. Many of the lines hit hard for people who know the effects of addiction. Sexton says “I am becoming something of a chemical mixture.” This line explains how addicts feel, they are powerless to the drug that controls their lives. It is prevalent in every addicts life and Sexton does a wonderful job converting a difficult feeling into words. The final poem that really stands out to me is “This Be the Verse” by Larkin. In this blatantly blunt poem Larkin describes how parents influence and inevitably can hurt a child by the way that they put pressures on their kids. One line that represents the meaning well is “They may not mean to, but they do.” It shows that parents may not knowingly mess their kids up but they do. It is scary to think as a parent that you could mess up the one thing that will carry on your legacy when you die.
After reading and criticizing the handful of poems that we have went over in class, I have a few favorites. After today, “The Hammock” by lee has become a new favorite. It is refreshing and nice to think about. “Yes, and a little singing between two great rests” is a nice, refreshing line of the poem. It is true; the rest before life is a beautiful thing, while the rest into eternity is even more beautiful. Life is the singing, but there is more than the human life we account. We have the life before our birth where our parents live their lives before us making way to our birth, and we have the life after us where our children live their lives after we are gone. It makes you think of how enchanting the longevity of our lives impact. Another favorite poem of mine was “This Be the Verse” by Larkin. It is cruel, and heartbreaking, but it does have an extended amount of truth in it as well. Parents, some worse than others, have a way of pushing their faults onto their children. Their faults and problems begin to push onto their children and affect them emotionally. They may not mean it, but their flaws becomes yours, and the flaws become your child and they pass through each generation. You are right, you must read this poem through a mature mindset, but with a mature mindset one can acknowledge some truth through each line of the poem. Out of the three, “To Speak of Woe” by Lowell left the biggest impact. It talks of a women not only being domestically abused, but sexually as well. It opens my mind of the hundreds of thousands of relationships that encounter domestic and sexual abuse. I like how Lowell goes from third person to first person in the poem; I believe it gives you more of a connection from thinking it is some random girl talking about a husband and wife, then transforming it to her actually being the wife. It makes you think that you can hear of someone being in an abusive relationship, and then someday that could be you in that type of relationship.
When thinking about the poems that stood out the most to me a couple of them come to mind. The one that stood out the most is Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. I have always been very interested in the holocaust. Due to the graphic nature of what occurred there. Right away when reading this poem, a line stuck out to me.
“took, at 8:00 A.M, a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.”
When thinking about this line, it is just so hard to believe that something like this can actually happen, but when you really think about it, some insane events occurred. Things we can’t even imagine like sauteing a baby.
Another poem that stuck out to me was “To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage” by Lowell. It shows the danger and fear of an alcoholic’s wife. Alcoholism is a scary disease and not only affects the alcoholic but the people around you. One line that stood out to me was “this screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge”. She is in fear that one night her husband might come home and be especially abusive and kill her, and only after murdering his wife, would he take the pledge of sobriety. This is just a perfect example of how awful this disease is and how far people will go just to get a drink.
I would have never thought poetry could be so interesting. Poetry was never something I would jump in my seat about, until this year. The poems we are reading are all amazing and thought provoking. Hard work goes into their craft and it should not go unnoticed. One of the poems that has stood out to me would be “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. The line, “Between my mother's hopes, older than I am by coming before me, and my child's wishes...” stood out to me and spoke volumes. I can relate to this line. In life, I strive to be everything my mother ever hoped. Her legacy will be handed down to me and there is few things greater than making your parents proud. A great feeling comes over you, because they have helped you to get there. I also want to be everything my future children wish in a father. Nobody is perfect, but it is something to strive for. This line made me think about the joys in life, and what really matters...family. Another poem that should not go unnoticed is “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas. Mr. Thomas' poem talks about raging against anything you so choose shown in the line, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” He wants people to use their free will to stand up for what they believe is right and to have a passion. He does not want people to suffer day after day. The last poem I will talk about is “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats. He wrote his poem shortly after world war two. He cautioned that everyone's actions will have a consequence. The line, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart” made a picture in my mind come to life. This line is expertly written and really hits home the meaning of chaos.
Lees “The Hammock” stood out to me because it talks abouts about something I think every parent fears with their children. It has to do with the awful things that go on in the world and things that every person goes through. The line that stood out to me was “When my son lays his head in my lap, I wonder:
Do his father's kisses keep his father's worries
from becoming his?”
These lines really put a physical aspect of what parents fear in their children's life.
Sexton “After Auschwitz”
It is a poem about a major event that went on not too far away from US and an event that went on when our grandparents were young and alive. We learn about it so much to show the severity of this event so it never happens again. The line that stood out to me was “Let man never again raise his teacup.
Let man never again write a book.
Let man never again put on his shoe.
Let man never again raise his eyes,
on a soft July night.” It really shows the power that man does have and to always make sure that man is never given too much power in order to protect everyone else.
Sextons “The Addict” follows directly after its title how I took it. It talks through the story and mindset of what and acts thinks and does. The line that stood out to me was “I make arrangements for a pint-sized journey.” This stood out because addiction is a journey for the addicts and it does all stem from this pint sized container they found over that contains what they are addicted to.
I love “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. The topic of the poem is highly relevant in today’s society. Anne Sexton paints a dramatic picture by using vivid words. As a model, Anne Sexton must have experienced great pressure to be skinny and look great all of the time. Her poem shows how easy it is for people to succumb to addiction. The lines that really caught my eye were: “ I like them more than I like me. It's a kind of marriage. It's a kind of war where I plant bombs inside of myself. Yes I try to kill myself in small amounts, an innocuous occupation.” Her poems give the reader valuable insight of those addicted to drugs and even other things. Though drug addiction is horrible, Anne Sexton showed that addiction could lead to beautiful art.
Another poem that I felt a connection with is “This Be the Verse”. The first line catches the reader off guard immediately: “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.” Expletives can seem crude or too thirsty for attention, but Larkin does a great job of placing it. Also, I can relate to the narrator of the poem. I often feel a lot of pressure from my parents; they are always urging me to fill out more scholarships. The poem addresses how our parents affect us, and I truly appreciate the way the poem goes about it. Our parents’ burdens are like hand-me-downs, passed on from one generation to the next. There have been times when I have come across unpleasant people, but then I learn about their childhood and the way the were raised and everything begins to make sense.
Sylvia Plath is a name I have heard many times but I’ve never actually read her poetry...until now. I now see why everyone always mentions her poetry; it’s simply astounding! The rhyme-scheme of “Daddy” fits perfectly as though a child were relaying the story. The poem is a bit creepy in that way. Plath’s poem contains such vivid imagery. One line describes a swastika as “so black no sky could squeeze through”. The words of this line automatically bring thoughts, feelings, and emotions to mind.
Hicks 1
The three poems I like of the selection you gave are “The Man-Moth” and “The Moose” by Bishop and “There is Another Sky”.
I like “The Man-Moth” for several reasons. One is that the man-moth is kinda hiding from society. I would not say that he is representative of gays but I can see why people would say that. Really speaks about society when people can identify a group with a fictional character that has to go through what the man-moth does.
“But what the Man-Moth fears most he must do, although
he fails of course, and falls back scared but quite unhurt.”
Then there is “There is Another Sky” by Emily Dickinson. This poem gives hope as opposed to “The Man-Moths” (dark) reality. In my mind it gives the time old message, there is a better life out there, you just have to find it. Does not give out how or where, but simply says there is and in that simplicity lies another hidden meaning. Be where you are happy. A simple meaning, a simple poem and a huge message.
“There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And There is another sunshine,”
The last poem “The moose” really did not tell much. It only captured a few seconds in a person’s lifetime in the way that poetry usually does. I really just like the feel of it, like a fond memory. Reminds me (and others) that there is a whole other world on earth that humans don't inhabit. Nature, which we can try to express with words and pictures, gruesome stories and magical tales, but never fully comprehend. For humans are not one with nature anymore, we are it's destructors. Soon, like the moose in the poem, we shall pass it by with our technology.
“Then there’s a dim
Smell of moose, an acrid
Smell of gasoline.”
2 Nick Rise
The first poem I would say stands out to me would be “This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin. This is insanely cynical and is an outcry to the outrage felt towards family and more importantly parents and their children and the problems between them. This poem spoke to me and the fear I have to show my father’s problems and issues through myself and more importantly and even scarier pass these issues onto my kids. This is something that truly bothers me and to see it written here in a poem sheds a light to the vastness of this problem and how unisolated it really is. “Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself.” To end a poem, any poem that is, is a powerful message. The end of a poem speaks louder than any other line does. This is the portion of the poem the reader is forced to take in read for maybe a bit longer than any other.The poet has a choice after every line, to end the poem or to keep going. With that being said this line is the most important message to be given by Philip Larkin. His entire poem was a setup for this line, in my opinion that is, and oh boy is it powerful. To urge others to not have kids, to urge others to go against the gradient to fight what they have had instilled upon them for their entire lives. “Don’t have kids” truly sheds light on the fears we have knowing our problems and of course fearing that we pass them on to our own innocent spawn without their consent. Truly a thought and a notion to be worried about, but the decision to do without kids of course lies within all of us. To be honest I do not think Larkin really wants us to not have kids, but I do believe in the message he is spreading, or rather that I agree with the concept and how it was approached. This is a good way to help people to understand and hopefully prevent and withhold problems from extending from “man to man.”
The second poem did not stand out nearly as much as the first, but of course still matters to me. “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop stood out to me with a general message that was far from upbeat. We of course talked about this one in class, and as I recall people said that to them it was a symbolic story of being an “outsider” or a homosexual in a heterosexual world (or something like that) and not being accepted and this was her way of writing in that way by replacing humans or herself with a man-moth creature. Another way someone took it was of immigration and the integration one has when trying to accustom his/herself to the culture or in other words “culture-shock.”If I had to choose what I think the poem is supposed to be about I would hands down pick the immigrant choice, but in my mind the poem spoke to me, and the words it chose were “give up.” It seemed to be more of a poem about not persevering or rather that people who do persevere are weird, Moth-Men. Stick with your old ways and look stupid in front of others. Keep trying to reach the hole in the sky in my mind was a symbol saying in loud letters, “STOP CHASING YOUR UNATTAINABLE DREAMS!” This was at least the thought I had after that stanza, it seemed to be completely negative, almost a poem meant to elicit sadness in the reader. A deep resonating realization to not waste your time with frivolous dreams, and to not “chase holes in the sky” because obviously we, the reader, all know there is no hole in the sky.
“he climbs fearfully, thinking that this time he will manage
to push his small head through that round clean opening
and be forced through, as from a tube, in black scrolls on the light.
(Man, standing below him, has no such illusions.)”
The third poem that stood out to me was “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. This poem in stark contrast to Larkin’s poem we read, speaks to the positivity felt between parent’s and their children rather than the problems. The line “there are stars we haven’t heard from yet” is really beautiful line talking about our future children. This poem does well to shed positivity over family and the bonds between kids and their parents and does remind us that is in our hands.
My favorite of the poetry pieces that we have read would have to be Dickinson's "A narrow fellow in the grass," Larkin's "This Be the Verse," and Lowell's "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage." I enjoyed Dickinson's piece because it was different from the other poems in the sense that it was about something simple, something that did not need to be hidden with imagery and symbols. It tells of a snake and is fairly calm until the last of the lines in the poem.
"Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone."
They stand out simply because they are chilling.
Larkin's poem is different from the others because it grabs your attention right away with its language. It starts with a broad statement and then pulls it back with the next line.
"They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do."
People are imperfect and most of us know it, this poem states it for all.
Lowell's "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage" was the poem that was most open to interpretation in my opinion. The interpretation that is to be discussed it that of what the wife figure's intentions are. She speaks of he husband being an alcoholic, that he cruises the streets for prostitutes, and that he makes her fear for her life.
"It's the injustice . . . he is so unjust--"
She says he is unfair and ignores what is right. But in most cases of abuse they stay because they have a form of Stockholm Syndrome, in this story 'she' speaks nothing of love or how 'he is a good man' which I find a little disturbing. She does not love this man, he is abusing her, she fears for her life, but she still stays. I would have definitely loved to learn more about the inspiration of this piece, or where he was coming from with this.
Being the avid Holocaust studier that I am the first two poems that really matter to me are “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath and “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton. It has always amazed me how people ignored what was going on in Germany and tried to act like it was not happening. Therefore I have never shied away from works of literature that pertain to the Holocaust. I especially like when poets like Anne Sexton use lines to show the true horrors of the Holocaust. An example of this is when she says:
“each Nazi
took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.”
What I like about Plath’s poem is the sense of mystery behind it. In a sense it reminds me of Beatrice and Virgil because throughout the whole poem you are trying to figure out who “Daddy” really is. Just like we were trying to figure out who Henry is and if he was a Nazi or not we are trying to figure out who “Daddy” is. The whole time the “Daddy” is not an obvious villain to the author, however the last line really stuck out to me: “ Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.” It was Plath’s way of almost changing the entire mood of the poem. After reading the last line of the poem I had to go back and reread the poem to try to gain a better understanding of what she was saying.
The last poem that really stood out to me was Philip Larkin’s “This Be The Verse”. Never before have a read poetry that was so harsh and blunt with the point using strong language but still left room for interpretation. The end of his poem leaves the reader thinking.
“Get out as soon as you can,
and don’t have any kids yourself.”
Nobody knows what the meaning to this line is and I think he left it up to interpret. Do we not want to have kids because of the way our parents taught us? Is his idea to stop the spread of terrible parenting? Or is it because kids are just terrible to deal with and he thought it was a good idea to not have kids. What does the “Get out as early as you can” mean? Are we supposed to get out of our family as soon as possible? These are all things Larkin wants us to think about by the end of his poem. This is also why I enjoy his poem so much. It makes you reread the poem to try to understand what he wants the meaning of the poem to be. This is why I like this style of poetry more. Because it makes you think, and the more in depth I think about things, the more I enjoy them.
7 Ullom
The first poem that I found intriguing, and disturbing, was “After Auschwitz.” After having read Beatrice and Virgil, and their references to the Holocaust, as well as studying the Holocaust in the past, this poem struck me for it’s historical meaning but also it’s references to the evilness that hides inside of man. The first line, “Anger, as black as a hook, it overtakes me.” Everything about that line shows just how the prisoners would have felt in the Holocaust and after it happened. To really believe that those German soldiers would “sautee” a baby for breakfast is beyond sickening.
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” was very difficult to read. It talked about a father’s death. Thomas’s reminder to his father to “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” is his last ditch effort to try to make his father understand how much it means for him to stay. Having lost my grandfather and watched my dad experience the death of his father, I can only imagine how much that has to truly hurt when they are taken away too soon.
In “To Speak of Woe That Is Marriage,” it is heartbreaking to read what a wife will put up with from her husband and what she will do to render herself safe at night. With the line, “Each night now I tie ten dollars and his car key to my thigh,” it just seems she is waiting for that opportune time when there might be a chance to leave. Unfortunately, her fear is too strong and she most likely never will. All 3 poems were depressing in their own unique way, but taught me new perspectives.
I think that the poem called "A narrow fellow in the grass" was really interesting because it described a snake in a descriptive and symbolically way. This poem is not dark or heavy but rather it is light and calming. It is also short and sweet and not too long where it may get laborious to read. I also think Lee’s poem “This be the Verse” is very relatable not only to me but to other teeangers as well. I thought lines such as:
“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.”
It is showing that they do a lot to you to change you for the worst and the poem continues on with saying that they treat you like that way they were treated when they were younger and that the way we are treated is how we will treat our children. I have made it my goal in life to make sure that I don’t treat my children the way my parents treat me. If I do not accomplish this goal, I will have failed as a parent.
However, I think the most interesting poem out of all that we have read is the one called “Hills like white elephants.” At first, I thought this poem was simply about getting married. To find out that it was actually about getting an abortion was a very big surprise to me. I think when poets do that, it makes an interesting story go to a fascinating story.
Kyle Horner
An absolute favorite poetry writing of mine would be “Do not go gentle into that goodnight” by Dylan Thomas. The reason for this would be the message coming across to the readers is almost a warning. A warning that we as human beings only have so long on this earth. He is getting angry at thought of somebody getting old and doing nothing about it. It should fill one with rage that old age is coming. You should be enraged therefor that should light the fire of ambition. Ambition to go out into the world and strive to be better for yourself and for others. To go easily into never ending sleep would be to let go of opportunities. Opportunities to visit loved ones that care about you. Also it is describing in the last paragraph how you may think that it is your time to go but somebody will always be thinking of how much they still want you on this earth. Once again this should enrage you about going softly into the night and make you do something about it.
The first poem to stick out to me was the one entitled "We Real Cool" by Gwendeolyn Brooks. First I liked that it was short using only three-word sentences. Its short but simple nature makes its content pop at every line. Though it only has eight lines you feel like you know a lot about the people the poems using what you know about young teens and their reckless behavior. The first line is "We real cool." a stereotypical kind of thing teens of this nature would think about themselves. It sets up a poem light-hearted in nature, listing off three-worded sentences about the activity of the reckless young adult. But it is the last line that pacts a powerful punch. "We Lurk late.
We Strike straight.
We Sing sin.
We Thin gin.
We Jazz June.
We Die soon."
It is a sort of unexpected ending to the poem, that almost makes it sound like a Public Service Announcement. Like a warning that most are all too familiar with.
Another poem to stick out to me was "There is another sky" by Emily Dickinson. If I am going to be honest I am not very sure on what she is talking about. This place where there is another sky and plants that never frost and flowers that never fade. I have a feeling that she might be talking about heaven. She refers to someone named "Austin." "Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields."
Perhaps she is trying to comfort Austin into death by telling him of the flowers and colors in heaven where its "serene" and "fair." The last line reads, "Into my garden come!"
perhaps the one talking is god.
Lastly I will refer to the poem "since feeling is first" by ee cummings. What the poem is trying to get at is that feelings are more than words. Anyone can SAY something but it is the one who shows feelings that really makes a difference. Cummings says "the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids'futter." This is conveying the message that your brain can think of any word or phrase it wants to say to try to do whatever purpose, but crying will always be a more powerful message. It reminds me of the phrase "don't just say, do," or "actions speak louder than words." When it comes down to it, showing emotions is an action way more powerful that even the most well-crafted wording.
Rohrbach 1
I found "This Be the Verse" by Philip Larkin to be one of the more interesting poems. The concept of parents messing up their children by trying to prevent their kids from making the same mistakes they did. Larkin really catches attention with his first line: "They f**k you up, your mum and dad." The swear word makes for a change in pace for what is seen in school, so it personally caught my attention.
The next poem that I like is "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. The idea of rebelling about aging and the passing of another day seems like a unique way of expressing a person's hatred of getting old. The way it was written makes it difficult to read for me, particularly "Though wise men at their end know dark is right." I do not understand what dark the know is right, but I assume that they accept death since light seems symbolic of life.
"Danse Russe" by Williams is another poem that stood out for me. It talks about a man, in the dead of night, dancing naked. Normally poetry seems to be depressing or angry, but this one seems joyful and peaceful. I enjoy that he calls himself a "happy genius" in the line: "Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?" The author seems to be embracing a child-like attitude about what he is doing, which seems quite humorous.
All of the poems in the poetry folder stood out to me and I enjoyed reading them all. They all had good imagery and really touch the reader. The one that stood out to me the most would have to be Sexton’s “After Auschwitz”. The holocaust is a very sad and gruesome topic and I love reading and learning more about it. By just reading the title I knew this poem would really stand out to me. I believe it is very important to learn from the past so we can improve and learn from our mistakes and make sure nothing like that ever happens again. The most meaningful lines from this poem to me were: “ And death looks on with a casual eye and picks at the dirt under his fingernail.” This line really touches me and stands out.
Although Sexton’s “After Auschwitz” stood out to me the most, Lowell’s poem "To Speak of Woe That Is in Marriage" also stood out to me. This poem speaks of a wife who sits at home while her husband is off drinking at a bar. The husband loves tequila and Lowell makes it seem like the husband is anything but pleasant when drunk. After reading the poem I interpret that the wife does not like when the husband is drunk, because when he is drunk he is not himself. He could be aggressive or scary when he is drunk. Like I said all of these poems stood out to me, but these two stood out the most.
Poetry to me is like a math problem, sometimes i have to stare at it a while to understand it. It takes some research and rereading to comprehend the intricate yet relevant poetry we have read in class. I do enjoy them all, but the poems I tend to be more drawn to are the ones that I have picked apart and translated into my own words.
I am glad to be introduced to not only the mainstream poets, but the poets who might be considered rare. Elizabeth Bishop is one of them. She was first published in 1946, a time when homosexuality was considered taboo. However, Bishop did not see herself as a "lesbian poet" or as a "female poet." In part because she refused to have her work published in all-female poetry anthologies, other female poets involved with the women's movement thought she was hostile to the movement. One of Bishops most popular poems is titled "The Man-Moth". Though it is debatable, this poem features a character that might reflect her own identity and struggles. She describes a character who each night "must be carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams". Dark symbolism is used all throughout this poem, giving it a dreadful and eerie feel. The man moth is living with a burden. There is a place he wants to reach but life is somehow holding him back.
"The Man-Moth" is only one of the many dark poems I have been exposed to. Another great poem to study is "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats, who is conceivably one of the most negative writers of his time. What first comes to mind when hearing the words “the second coming”, one might first conclude that the rapture is what is being referred to; where Jesus returns to earth and casts the faithful to heaven. Yeats did not write about savior though, he wrote about utter destruction and death, and Jesus is not the administrator. It is the Sphinx of ancient egypt who rises from the sand dunes and trudges towards civilization to demolish villages and murder millions. Perhaps one of the more ominous lines of the poem is where it explain how the Sphinx comes to life, and how it almost represents satan. “somewhere in sands of the desert a shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun…”.
The poetry in the folder contains many different styles and symbols. One of the poems that stood out to me was “This Be the Verse” by Larkin. He uses profane language to exaggerate his point, which is something that I have not seen a lot in writing. Also, I find it neat that he talks about how regardless of what happens in life, you will end up like your parents. I also found “After Auschwitz” by Sexton interesting. The Holocaust is an unfortunate event that is fascinating to learn about. I like to learn about this subject. It is interesting reading how each person tells the story differently like with his poem and Martel’s Beatrice and Virgil. I also enjoyed reading Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 75”. I remember back in freshmen year when we read Shakespeare and I thought it was super complicated. Now, I understand the “fancy” language of Shakespeare and know the meaning of his work.
One poem that I thought was insightful was “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin. Larkin is especially dark in this poem. He views life as miserable and a burden. He even says, “Get out as early as you can, and do not have any kids yourself.” This is especially dark because most kids bring the parents great joy and hope for the future. He is saying do not have any kids so you cannot pass down your own flaws and downfalls to them making the world all the more worse. Another poem that I thought was meaningful was Anne Sexton’s “After Auschwitz.” One cannot read this poem without feeling extreme anger towards the Nazis. I find Holocaust stories especially interesting and solemn. One line that I found beyond vulgar was, “Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan”. It would impossible to describe the Nazi’s as anything but pure evil straight from hell. Lastly, I found “To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage” by Lowell to be interesting. Lowell tells about how an abusive alcoholic husband can easily ruin a marriage. He talks about the danger and fear the wife of an alcoholic feels. “This screwball might kill his wife, then take the pledge”. He is talking about the fear inside the wife when her husband comes home from drinking each night, fearing that he might kill her each time he gets physical but then when he sobers up regret it. By then it is too late, the damage has already been done. This is an addict's biggest problem; they do not think they have a problem until something really traumatic happens.
Dickinson’s “There is Another Sky” is one of the poems that stood out to me the most. Just the simplicity of it appeals to me. And even though it is simple and short, there is a much deeper meaning. You can almost take it and make it into your own personal poem. The line that stood out the most to me was, “And there is another sunshine.”
In “To Speak of Woe That Is Marriage,” it is heartbreaking to read what a wife will put up with from her husband and what she will do to render herself safe at night. With the line, “Each night now I tie ten dollars and his car key to my thigh,” it just seems she is waiting for that time when there might be a chance to leave. Unfortunately, her fear is too strong and she most likely never will.
My last favorite poem is Larkin’s “This Be the Verse”. I like this poem because of its overbearing emotion and anger. You can just imagine the way someone would read it and you can almost envision it in your mind. One of the best lines in the poem and helps bring the whole poem together is,”They fill you with the faults they had and add some extra, just for you.” This is basically saying that parents pass on their failures and things they did not get accomplished will eventually come back to you, which in effect brings more problems to you.
There are three poems that really stick out to me in the folder. These are “The Second Coming” by Yeats, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" by Thomas, and "A narrow fellow in the grass" by Dickinson. The reason that Yeats’s poem sticks out to me so much is how dark it is, and I love that fact about it. It has a hopeless and lost tone to it that really intrigues me. I find it very interesting how someone can have such strong feelings about the human race and how doomed we are as a people. I especially love the line “The ceremony of innocence is drowned”, it really shows off how serious Yeats is about all of this. It is a really interesting look at humankind, and personally I like darker stories and poems. The next poem by Thomas really sticks out to me because it’s a poem about fighting death. It’s a man telling his father not to let death overtake him, and to instead fight it and stay alive. I think it’s a touching poem and really human in the way it’s expressed. I also really love the way it’s written with lines such as “Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight. Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”. I love the way it is written and I think it’s very impactful. The final poem that I enjoy is Dickinson’s because it’s a story about a snake. It’s simple and to the point, and I just like how he describes the snake with lines like “Without a tighter breathing, And zero at the bone.“
As an avid fan of Edgar Allen Poe, of course I was drawn to "Dreams" (though I may have read it before...). Poe's dark and morbid writing is riddled with clever lines and excellent imagery that spark interest in any reader. Lines such as, "A chaos of deep passion, from his birth." show exactly what Poe portrays in his writing: a deep passion for literature and writing. "And loveliness,- have left my very heart" has little imagery, but astonishing writing and feeling. Poe has and always will be one of my favorite poets and authors; the macabre writing is a healthy mix of gruesome and satisfying.
Another interesting poem is Larkin's "This Be the Verse". While being short and concise, it portrays a world of mistakes and one that we are trapped in. Lines like "It deepens like a coastal shelf." are further evidence of our imprisonment in the world we are born into. Others like the first stanza which reads, "They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had" cause to me to believe that parents bring us into this world only to "fuck us up". I say that in the way of the pressure for perfection and the habits that are either taught or forced upon us by our parents that we are later scolded for by the very people who taught us to behave in such a way.
I was also intrigued by Sexton's "The Addict". I find it to be a deep poem about depression and what plagues the author of said poem. I find it quite interesting how Sexton describes suicide almost as an art form, it is almost something to be admired. Sexton writes, "I'm on a diet from death." and this almost proves her point that death is inevitable. I found this to be a deeply moving poem with an intense amount of emotion that, while being present in other poems, is even more noticeable in this particular piece.
Larkin’s “This Be the Verse” could bring shock to even the most optimistic people. His poem is one that matters a great deal to me of its demonstrating Larkin’s hatred of society. The lines, “They fill you with the faults they had and add some extra, just for you (Larkin).” Children are like clay; they are easily molded when young, but gradually become rigid in their beliefs as they age. Among other lines in the poem, they illustrate in my mind just how often society instills feelings of hatred in future generations. It is my personal belief that such forms lessons should be abolished, but I know that that would not be practical.
Second, Bishop’s “Man-Moth” moves me. I interpret the poem as one of the hopeless and impoverished that dwell the cities of Man. The Man-Moth only resurfaces rarely, although occasionally when the moon is out. His resurfacing could symbolize a time of economic growth and he is a common pauper that will timidly try to earn a better life. Like the Moth-Man, these people do not have a real plan, they just want to rise to the top of the socioeconomic ladder. They try to climb by getting better jobs, but as the economy falls back into place, they too will fall, either by being laid off or by falling into debt. When they fall, they are not hurt, because they have been in the situation before, and know how to survive, but as they return to the artificial caverns, they do not look back, for they have lost their chance of greatness. It bring pain to me to know that there are such people that have to accept the unacceptable to live.
Finally, Lee’s “The Hammock” is a poem that matters to me a great deal, because of its positive effect on people. “Between two unknowns, I live my life (Lee).” is an interesting line to me, because usually people fear the unknown, but Lee seems to embrace it. Also, unlike Larkin, Lee wants to have children and would like for them to outlive him and make the world that he lived in better. Having a balance between pessimism and optimism in my opinion is a great thing, because if you live your life with only sad, how would you know when you are truly sad, and if you were always happy, how would you be able to feel true joy? I do not know the answer to that question, but these poems make it one to ponder.
The three poems which matter the most to me are, “The Second Coming,” “The Addict,” and “Do not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” These three poems in particular spoke to me in a way many of the others did not. “The Second Coming,” spoke of how humanity is going to be wiped out, or at least punished by the Sphynx, and it was a very powerful poem to read. The line, “a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,” gave me the chills. It is easy to think about the Sphynx and see its blank and pitiless gaze. “The Addict,” was also interesting to read. I personally have an addictive personality, and I hope to never become an addict. Reading a poem about it was an enlightening experience. The line, “eight at a time from sweet pharmaceutical bottles,” really showed how bad an addiction can get. The person who is addicted can not control themselves at all. They are controlled by the substance. Finally, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” is a poem which speaks of the finality of life. It tells us to make the most of what we have. The line, “Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,” spoke to me in the way that it showed how little much of us matter. Most of us do not make much of a difference with our deeds. However, that does not mean we should just go away. We have to make the world recognize us.
The poem I first went to was none other than Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool". This poem obviously directs itself to the youth from the Gwendolyn’s interesting word choice. She definitely does not use a broad vocabulary throughout this poem but she proves that it is not necessary to do so. The poem as a whole is exceptionally relevant to my peers and myself because being seniors it is difficult to maintain motivation. The lines that deem most important are “We real cool. We Left school.”
Whitman’s poem “O Me! O Life!”, really intrigued me by the layout of the his writing and his style of writing itself. In every line of his work he uses either ellipses, dashes, or parentheses and it seems to really put the poem together as a whole. But another aspect that got my attention was the build up of the poem to one of the last line which was a question. “The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life”? Along with this question, the poem ended with a separated section from the body of the poem and above the last couple lines, there was the word “Answer”. My favorite line from this poem had to be one that was a part of the answer… “That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.”
The last poem I felt drawn to was “The Hammock” by Li-Young Lee. This poem has to be one of the best context I have ever come across. Why I like this poem has to be because it deals with a child and all the thoughts that come from him or from his parents. The main reason why I picked this poem is because how powerful one line is. “I've no idea what my child is thinking.” This line can lead you to many thoughts about parenthood. It is mind-boggling to think about starting your own life and starting a family of your own. To have kids is one of the world’s greatest blessings but it can be a lot and to think of when your child is growing up can be heart-wrenching. To not know something about your child or to not know the thoughts of your own child is petrifying.
7 Waldner
The poem that stood out to me the most is “This Be the Verse” by Philip Larkin. Parents mean to teach us to do better, but they just pass on problems. Larkin says, “They may not mean to, but they do.” I think that this poem relates very well to the problems that many families have. Parents want the best for their kids, but they unintentionally pass traits that lead to bad decisions on to their kids just by the way they act every day. One line that stands out to me is, “Man hands misery onto man.” It fits the whole theme of the poem, and it really emphasizes the author's viewpoint on life.
The next poem that spoke to me is “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot. I just think the poem flows nicely and sounds pretty. I like the way it sounds when you read it aloud. My favorite line is the line that says,
“In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.”
I like the way he made the name of Michelangelo rhyme. I really like that name, and his work is my favorite of the Renaissance. He was also my favorite from the Ninja Turtles.
The third poem that I liked was “The Addict” by Anne Sexton. I like this poem because it gives insight into the mind of a drug addict. People who don’t do drugs have a hard time figuring out the motivation behind why a druggie would continue to do them, and this poem helps others understand. Also, people who are meddling with drugs can relate, or be scared away by this poem. I like the line in this poem that says,
“It's like a musical tennis match where
my mouth keeps catching the ball.”
I like this line because it relates the taking of drugs to a tennis match, something that most people can relate to.
The first poem that caught my attention is “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”. This poem basically tell the reader to not just idly sit by and let life go on. You need to get out and make experiences and “Don’t go Gently”. “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.” This is my favorite stanza because like many others including myself we always wished to be older in our youth, and when we finally grew up and we grieved and just wished to be young again. Another poem that I enjoyed from this selection was “After Auschwitz” by Anne Sexton.” Each day, each Nazi took, at 8:00 A.M., a baby and sauteed him for breakfast in his frying pan.” These lines in particular stood out to me because the Jews were treated so horribly during The Holocaust, that there is not a doubt in my mind that the Nazi’s would’ve done something like this. The last poem that caught my attention is “There is another sky” by Emily Dickinson. This poem describes a place where almost everything thing is nicer, the sky is bluer, the grass is greener, the flowers are unfading. I think this poem is something that she wrote before someone significant in her life was going to pass, and she wanted to comfort them.
1 Finch
The three poems that stood out to me most were "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," "We Real Cool," and "Danse Russe." Williams' poem stood out to me in that it was simply very forthcoming with itself. Williams took no liberties in writing it. Though slightly obscene, it isn't restrained by the chains of society, particularly how it described him admiring his "flanks and buttocks". "We Real Cool" is an excellent poem in that it speaks of the delinquency of youth. The poem itself speaks of problems that are all too real given any decade. The words "We Jazz June. We Die Soon" particularly tell me about how the choices people make can lead to their downfall. Finally, Thomas' poem is my (and many others') all time favorite poem. It speaks of rising against defeat, that if you are going to die then you are going to die fighting. It encourages you not to sit there and take unjustice, but to rage against it and stand up in the face of death. The lines "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" are absolutely haunting.
I real\y quite enjoyed two of the stores we read in class. First of which, is Li-young Lee's "The Hammock". I found it insightful for a different reason than most in class did. I did rather depressing, because of a realization I had. It is true, that we are live before we are born, and other thoughts in this story are true. I wont be alive before I die, and no one will care that I died, simply because the definition of it. I die when I am forgotten from humanity, and erased from its memories.It is quite tragic when I am forgotten or die, there will be no funeral, and it is like I have never even existed at all. Famous people are immortal, making their marks in textbooks and songs, but what about Bob who died of a heart attack working in a cubical from 7 to 4, Monday through Friday, who gives a damn about him? I remember many days in this day and period when I just sit in a trance thinking how I am not one of Mr. C's "greats" of Brandon Valley that he always talks about, yet I guarantee I stress more than "the greats" did and every single reference to them is a slap to my face saying, "These are the people that born with better parents, taught better skills, and born more talented to fit society." Speaking of parents, Larkin's "This be the verse" was the best peace of poetry I have ever read. I teared up reading and went home with anxiety, laid staring at the ceiling, and went to work distracted with the thoughts of how accurate this poem is. I was told about a month before reading ti by someone that "Your Parents teach you everything they know, the best that they can, but what they know, is all they have, and they do not have what you want." The shocking revaluation of what this man said to me clicked when I read this poem. The F-bombs just reminded me of a child with so many problems, tears plummeting down the rapids of their eyes, writing this after an incident with an abusive family. I can hear the hiccups, stutters, and the gasps for air while this child speaks like all people do when they are drowned with tears and sorrow. Any work of art that can do this I will remember, and will live as long as my body does, but unfortunately will not live with me when I die.
If I were to pick a few poems matters to me, the first one I would have to choose would be Cumming’s “Since Feeling is First.” It is a short poem, but it packs a hidden punch in the last line: “And death I think is no parenthesis.” You are forced to read this poem a second time after reading that last line because it just so sudden that your subconscious mind needs the solidity of specification in order to move on in life. This poem is really about the feelings that one has when they are holding their loved one in their arms when they die. “Since Feeling is First” is a positively powerful poem that perplexes people promptly.
The second poem that truely hit close to home is Brook’s “We Real Cool.” I think I have written longer poems when I was a second grader, but none as true as this one. This poem only has eight lines, each of which begin with the word “We,” but each describes the life of high school students. Lines three and four--”We Lurk late. We Strike straight.”--speak to me in a different level because as a high school student, I typically stay up later than I really should, but even so I can strike straight when I need to. Possibly the most moving line in this poem, “We Die soon,” shows that even though life can be fun and we have the ability to do bad things with that fun, if we are to have too much of it, we will end our time in a tragic and early way.
The third poem is a little more inspirational than the other two. Emily Dickinson’s “There is Another Sky” is an uplifting poem that deals with looking towards tomorrow. Lines nine through twelve--”Here is a brighter garden, Where not a frost has been; In its unfading flowers I hear the bright bee hum”--demonstrates that there is a better place and that we should always be looking forward to it.
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