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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

To His Coy Mistress

I liked this poem in that it addresses a universal topic. This topic is something we all adhere, time. There are certain ways we have to spend our days and certain ways we wish we could spend it. The speaker wants to spend the afternoon with his lady walking and passing the long love's day away. Which in a way, is ironic, because part of the poem is not having the amount of time to spend with his love and how they need not let time pass. Time is also prevalent in the poem in that the speaker wishes he could go back to an earlier time so he could have loved her sooner. His love also continues into the future for the woman deserves this forever. The last two lines wrap up the poem in saying that they cannot make the sun stand still. Which ultimately means they cannot stop time at all. The seasons will continue to pass, and as the seasons pass they become older losing more and more time together. Overall, carpe diem, seize the day.

Crossing the Bar

I feel this poem is more than just a man who takes his boat out to sea at night. I think the poem is symbolic of death, and there is a tone to it which suggests a farewell. There are three lines which really struck me. "and may there be no moaning at the bar" "and may there be no sadness of farewell" "I hope to see my Pilot face to face". The sunset and evening star is calling him to not necessarily die, but to move on to heaven. While the bar, which on the sea would have to be a sand bar refers to the leaving of one life to the next. Like the land is familiar, but the sea he is beginning to float into is the unknown. When the speaker leaves on this journey, he wants no one to be sad. Finally, I think what truly proves the extended metaphor is the word Pilot. The speaker wants to meet his Pilot, Pilot, with a capital P, which ultimately means God. This person is ultimately ready for death.

My mistress' eyes

To me, this poem was really opposite of something one would write to try to tell a girl you love her and she means everything to you. The tone at the beginning of the poem is almost cynical. It is almost as if the speaker has nothing positive to say about his love. I mean it seems as if everything compares to her and is better. A A real love poem would be quite the opposite. For example, her "eyes are nothing like the sun" would be "the sun is nothing compared to her eyes". However, the last two lines of the poem create a shift in tone with the words "and yet". According to the book, the last line can be paraphrased as "as any woman who has been lied to with false comparisons..." The line before that says his love is rare. So putting these two ideas together, I think the speaker is trying to say that when men say things like "the sun is nothing compared to her eyes", it's a lie. Yet, since he is not lying to his love, his love is true? That almost seems paradoxical.

Getting Out

The tone at the beginning of the poem seems better because the speaker is discussing how they were confined. The word confined implies prisoners. I do not believe the couple was insane, but rather they were 'chained' to each other. Something kept them from separating long before. As the poem continues there is not only a shift in tone but a shift in the direction of the poem. The first stanza discusses the fight itself. The second stanza is reminiscent of the gradual process of leaving. The third stanza shifts the tone to reminiscent and loss. Instead of the speaker focusing on them together, she begins to express her own feelings. It is obvious the speaker is not over her love, and she believes that he is not over her, or that he is lying about being over her. Like the line, "you're sure to say you're happy now" means he is lying or stating that he was right. It sounds like a typical breakup, for it is hard to make a break up mutual. In the end, someone always gets hurt.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Much Madness is divinest Sense

Well, here we go with another Dicknson poem! This time, she has created quite a paradox in a few short lines. The speaker states that madness, insanity, or chaos is good sense. While also stating that good sense is madness. This brings me back to my AP biology class today in which we studied entropy. Entropy is the amount of chaos in a system and the world favors this chaos. If applying this to Dickinson's poem, the world is constantly insane, because there is no such idea as normality when all people are unique and different. SInce being normal does not ultimately exist, this is good sense, because it is madness. However, possessing good sense, which would be attempting to act normal, or as if nothing existed would be madness. Which I think madness in this sense is almost supposed to be used in an exclamatory sentence. Such as "Wow, that's insane! Crazy!" If anything, this poem is insane.

APO 96225

This poem also ranks as one of my favorites because it was comparable to "The Things They Carried". It considers the topic of what is appropriate to note from the war and what is not. Just like "The Things They Carried", the speaker does not focus on the day to day events of the war because that is what he lives in. By writing his parents a letter, he is able to escape this zone for atleast a short time. He also hides the violence of the war by referring to understatements or aversions--like that it rains a lot. When discerning between situational and dramatic irony, I think it is probable that both exist. For example, we as the reader know he is shielding his parents from the war. However, it is also situational in that when he actually writes his mother the truth she does not want to hear it again, even after she repeatedly asked for the truth. It basically sounds like a situation the speaker cannot win.

Ozymandias

This whole poem is ironic. There is verbal irony in the lines '"My name is Ozymandias, King of kings;/Look on my words, ye Mighty, and despair'". Basically, he wants the people who view his statue to look at all the great things standing around him. Yet, there is nothing present except sand. There is no great city, and no magnificent reason for him to be remembered. All that remains is a statue with a cold sneer on his face. This cold sneer relates to the why there is nothing remaining him or of his rule. He was a tyrant who oppressed his people. Yet, years later, oppressing his people means nothing because there are no remains of the mighty king he thought he was. Overall, the poem teaches the lesson that the truth will really be the idea that withstands time.

Barbie Doll

This was one of my favorite poems I read because it's such a prevalent issue in society. I found it interesting that the author was born in 1936 and the Barbie Doll was an unrealistic model probably around the 1950s-1960s too. At first, when I read the poem, I thought the girl had committed suicide. This would have also related to today's society with the many issues of not belonging and bullying. However, when one focuses on the diction, (it always comes back to diction) I noticed words like cut, cosmetics, and a turned-up putty nose. All of these point to another common situation in our society, plastic surgery. The last three lines of the poem are also satrical of society. This girl gave up everything that made her beautiful on the inside for perfection on the outside. She could not stand that soceity saw her imperfections and it wore on her on the inside. The sad truth about this poem is that it is a day to day occurence.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

5. Pink Dog

The pink dog is symbolic of the homeless people of Rio De Janiero. Basically, the dog's rabies, madness, and scabies, are paralleled with flaws of homelessness like paralysis and parasites. The repetition of the word beg is also one associated with a dog and that of a poor person. Which is precise diction used by the author. Overall, it is fair to say that the treatment of the homeless people is not even fit for a dog.

Throughout the poem, there is a juxtaposition of the dog's nakedness and the masks of the carnival. It is almost as if the author is saying Fat Tuesday is the day for the homeless people to be different because they can be. They can hide behind mascara (with accent) and fantasia (also accent). Or, the author is threatening them to do such a task because the people at the festival do not want to see them. However, the last stanza is brightly positive basically saying it does not matter what happens, the show must go on!

4. Dream Deferred

"Dream deferred" contains five similes and one metaphor. Each simile refers to the dream having negative consequences because it is put off. However, the final metaphor questions that if the dream would it be positive or negative. At first, when I read I thought explode to mean blow up, or destruction or violence. However, explode can also mean to take hold or spread which could be inferred as the dream taking hold.


From the book, the reader learns that the author was a black American and from the time frame, I think it is fair to associate the dream with civil rights. Just reading the poem without this makes the dream unclear. If the topic is civil rights, this also coincides with the title, because by the 1900s the dream would have already been put off since the Civil War was in the 1860s. It would continue to be deferred as well and I think the author knew this fact. The goal of achieving civil rights had been negative for so long, as stated through the similes, and had burdened the people long enough. So the author questions the dream through the ending metaphor.

3. Toads

Throughout this poem there are toads juxtaposed. The first toad represents the man's work, while the second represents his pride. Toad one is his working life, but pride basically questions 'why should I have to work? I see all these other people surviving' Yet, the man's pride tells him that is why he works, because he is not lazy and he wants a good life for himself.


It is interesting to note how the pun and the allusion work together. First, the speaker says "ah, were I courageous enough to shout stuff your pension". In this sentence, stuff is used as a verb, like to get rid of. Then the allusion to Prospero ridding of his magic in 'The Tempest' says "but I know, all too well, that's the stuff that dreams are made on". Here stuff is used as a noun. There are two ways these can be associated together. First, the speaker could be saying that pensions are what dreams are made from, as in retirement. However, I think it is intended as more of a joke or dream that the speaker would dare give up his pension. Which, leads back to the prideful toad.

2. I taste a liquor never brewed

This poem is an extended metaphor for not how the speaker literally becomes intoxicated on alcohol, but rather life. Instead of referencing to different types of alcohol, the author lists aspects of nature like air, endless summer days, bee, butterflies, and sun. "From inns of Molten Blue", which I associate the sky as which is in the context of the poem, her bar. The word inn, reflects a tavern that people used to gather and drink at back in the day. And ultimately, the sky being nature/ the bar means she is drunk on life. Next, there are many allusions to places in this poem which are generally associated as social, celebratory atmospheres. Although I am not completely sure of all these places, I do understand that the vats along the Rhine refers to fermenting wine. Yet, the speaker says she has a better tasting liquor. Finally, it is fair to say that the title and first line reflect the extended metaphor. If a liquor is not brewed, I do not think it possesses much alcohol.

1. Bright Star

This poem focuses on the unchanging, unwavering stars. However, there is an underlying meaning to the stars. The speaker wishes to be steadfast like them, but never wants to be far a way from his love, or alone. The speaker not only does not want to be a way from his lady, but is happy with his place in life. The last line states "and so live ever or else swoon to death". So he basically wants to live forever in this moment with his love, or die at the height of passion.

Through the poem there is a mention of symbols of water. Such references like "moving water", "ablution", "shores" and "moors" create a river sort of image. In which a river is always moving unlike the stars. Overall, throughout literature, a river is a universal symbol of life. Which could ultimately lead back to the point that the speaker wants to live forever with his lover.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

5. After Apple-Picking

I feel "After Apple-Picking" really creates an image of the labor done, and the oncoming winter season. Some images that reflect the work finished include, ladder, tree, barrel, scent of apples, stem end and blossom end, cellar bin, and harvest. Winter reflects the author's need for rest. A common theme of winter is hibernation in which the author is taking part in after finishing his work. His work was so laborious, that he still feels the ache in his feet and the swaying of the ladder. The shift from the past tense to the present tense illustrates how the author talks of his future sleep and his actual dream. His work is so long and demanding, that he not only thinks about how he will dream about it, but he actually does dream about it. Once again, the woodchuck refers to an animal of hibernation and if the author will partake in this type of sleep, or human sleep.

4. The Convergence of the Twain

This poem was actually one of my favorites. Without the epigraph, I am unsure I would have made the connection. Knowing the subject of the poem, Titanic, made it all the more beautiful. The first stanza criticizes human vanity for why the ship ultimately failed. The creators believed it was unsinkable. Continuing throughout the poem, I feel the theme of human vanity is continued as the failure of Titanic becomes more drastic. The author creates a soul mate for the ship, the mighty iceberg. Yet, their love is destructive and they go down together. Yet it was not really these two objects fault for their fall, but rather, human vanity.

Another fascinating idea from the poem is its like organization. two which are short, followed by a longer one. I feel the short lines parallel the Titanic's short life, while the longer line represents the forever it will spend under the sea.

3. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

I feel the purpose of this poem really focuses on an extended metaphor of an actual funeral, but really describes the expression of someone with depression, or who has been forgotten. This person might be quite dismal and actually consider death as an option. So describing the metaphor to someone's real life: Stanza 1: The author is lying in a coffin, like at a showing. In real life, people walk past this person and do not know how to respond, or do not pay attention. Stanza 2: The funeral service begins, but the author really wants us to focus on the beating, not a drum, but a heart and that is all that is heard. Stanza 3: The author is taken a way to be buried. Outside of the metaphor, time keeps passing and space goes by. Stanza 4 and 5: focuses on the burial into the ground and then it all comes to an abrupt end like death.

2. The Widow's Lament in Springtime

The tone of this poem is sorrowful and reminiscent. There are two separate events occurring in the poem. One mentions the death of her husband, and the sorrow she feels, while the other tells the beginning of the spring season. Yet, they tie together in that the spring reminds her of the husband's death. Instead of the white blossoms being one of joy, they are one of sorrow. I feel that the boy in the poem has just visited his father's grave. However, he is returning to tell his mother to move on. The white trees are those near his resting spot, possibly representing heaven. The ultimate hopeless point of the poem are the last four lines. The author states that she would rather be dead and lie with her husband rather than live through another spring.

1. Spring

By the author's diction, I understand the poem "Spring" as having to do with Easter. The words eggs, heavens, lambs, Eden garden, Christ, lord, all are religious and can be associated with the event. The first line, "nothing is so beautiful as spring--" ties nicely with the last stanza. The book in question four is able to paraphrase the last stanza basically saying save us from sin. Which having a Catholic background, means that there is nothing more beautiful than being saved from sin. Thus, like Hopkins describes the "peartree and blooms" and mother nature starting over, people may also have the chance to renew themselves. This can also be illustrated through the line "a strain of the earth's sweet beginning/In Eden garden".

Monday, September 6, 2010

Intro to Poetry

I believe it is impossible to just make a poem mean whatever the reader pleases. However, it is difficult to come up with a meaning "which relies on the fewest assumptions not grounded in the poem itself". This idea is rather confusing and depends upon how a specific person's brain functions. Surely, I can read a poem and find ideas from it that would be completely wrong. Within a poem itself, there is figurative language which must be broken down and interpreted. If one of these sections is misunderstood, but still applies by Perrine's rule, what happens when the one section makes the entire poem wrong? This is what makes poetry complicated; the infantile meanings and the meaning as a whole. Overall, when reading poetry it is still possible to create a misinterpretation that is still in root with the poem itself.


When hearing Perrine's interpretations of the poems, I realized how far off I was. Yet, I feel some of these interpretations are almost impossible to reach a conclusion on. The only two poems I was even close on were "The Night-March" and the "Sick Rose". Yet, I had only began to realize the stars in the first by concluding that the setting was nighttime. The final poem, I was able to conclude love and sickness. It was not until Perrine put the words together that I then understood. So my strategy from now on is to look at the writer's diction, especially good verbs like "twinkle" and "glimmer" etc and to see if there is a connection. This will imply a much deeper and slower reading, but in the long run will probably allow for more efficiency in understanding poetry.