Barbie Doll

What a sad poem. After reading this and Emily Dickinson's poem "Madness is divinest Sense," I feel like I can make a connection between the two. In "Barbie Doll," the character starts out as a girl who loves herself for what she is. She loves life and is a happy person. Then in high school, she is criticized for what she looks like, "a fat nose on thick legs" (11). The character takes this to heart and does what everyone tells her and thinks she should do. She completely changes herself and ultimately dies inside. This "sense is madness" (Madness is divinest Sense). Instead of standing up for herself and being her own person, she came to sense and conformed. Both poems teach us a lesson about being happy for what and who God made you.

Much Madness is divinest Sense

This whole piece is a paradox. Dickinson, in a twisted way of telling it, tell readers he views of conformity and madness. "Much Madness is divinest Sense-To a discerning Eye-Much Sense-the starkest Madness-" In these lines, she says that madness is sense, and sense is madness. Sense is madness goes along with the verb "assent" which means to agree or go along with. This also goes along with conforming to what society wants you to do. Having sense, in Dickinson's mind, is being a follower who can't make decisions and goes along with what everyone else is doing. Madness is sense goes along with the verb "demur" (7) which means to disagree with. It also goes with nonconformity. Dickinson is telling people to step out and be themselves, even if other people think you are mad. Become your own person and don't care what other people think about you.

next to of course god america i

I found this poem to be very interesting and creative. The lack of punctuation aided the author in achieving the central purpose. The author wanted to criticize politicians and patriots and express his view of military actions. The punctuation (or lack of) increased the speed of the poem and made it like a stream of thoughts. Readers could not really tell where one sentence ended and where another began. Also, pieces of patriotic themes, like the Star Spangled Banner, were used to add to the point the author was trying to make. Ultimately, the author ends with "He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water" (14). I feel like this line enforces the passion of the author and how he disregards politicians and some of their views. He wanted to make a statement and I think like this poem was a clever way to do it.

Toads

I found this poem to be very entertaining and creative. The first time I read it, I automatically thought about the toads that live around my house and how they behave. Usually they just sit there without movement when you walk by, occasionally taking a small hop if you come too close. The toads in the poem are different than the toads at my house. In the poem, the toad represents the normal business life. One can't step out of line or make a huge mistake without facing the chance of getting fired. If one wants to be successful in life, he or she has to succumb to their inner toad and squat until they reach their goals.

I taste a liquor never brewed

Once again, we have another Emily Dickenson poem. Although some people find her poems to be very creepy and nonsensical, I find them rather interesting and creative. Instead of just flat out saying what she means, she finds clever ways to express her ideas without actually telling the readers. Dickenson uses a variety of literary devices to reach her true meaning, but also leaves room for readers' different interpretations. For example, the first line (and title): "I taste a liquor never brewed." After reading the rest of the poem, a reader can see that she is not talking about an actual liquor. I found that she is expressing her emotions about nature. Dickenson gets "drunk" off the beauty of nature. She uses different types of alcohol and also words like "foxhole", "butterflies" and "sun" to compare the two. I think she is a very skillful in how she portrays her ideas.

February

The central theme of this poem is to call people to "make it be spring" and go do something instead of laying in bed all day or being unproductive. Essentially, the author is comparing cat behavior with human behavior. Cats like to lie around all day, relaxing, not giving a care about anything. They usually don't run and take their time to get from one place to another. More or less, they can be very lazy. In the poem, the speaker acts very much like a cat, staying in bed, eating, and watching hockey all day. Even though it is winter and it may be very cold, one should get out of bed and do something. They need to "get rid of death, celebrate increase, [and] make it be spring."

Dream Deferred

The central theme of the poem is having a dream that one puts off, but keeps bugging them. The goal is unreached and put aside. If the dreamer does not go after this dream, it will sit there and fester like a sore (4). They could eventually get mad and have the situation get out of hand. Instead of doing the work to reach the goal, the person kept it on the back of their mind and did nothing. The whole theme and lesson that Hughes was trying to convey was to go after one's dream and don't let it fester. He was encouraging people to go out and fight for what they wanted, especially since the time period he wrote this in was during the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes wanted people to act.