A New Look

Instead of reflecting on one poem specifically, I think I am going to do a reflection over the poetry unit as a whole up to this point. I feel like this unit is very insightful and helps me to think more than I did before. The poems provide great practice for literary analysis, for example trying to understand the significance of "The Oxen" by Thomas Hardy. I am opening my eyes to new techniques to fully come to understand the meanings of works.

I think the group discussions are great. Today, for example, I felt completely lost about "The Apparition" by John Donne. I understood that the speaker of the poem felt depressed about the woman who wasn't returning his feelings, but with all of the "thy's" and "thou thinkst," it was hard to understand. In my small group, we discussed the poem and received other's thoughts. After that, I had a better understanding. The large group discussions also benefit me in the same way and I am very glad we have them.

Getting Out

I found this poem interesting and a little sad. The speaker in the poem is nostalgic about her situation and finds it sad herself. The speaker and the person she is addressing are deciding to separate. This separation was an agreement, but both parties feel sad about carrying it out. Coming to another point, I did not understand where the author got the title for this poem. It is titled "Getting Out," but neither of the characters want to get out of the relationship. They both feel regretful about separating. Even the lawyer in the poem was bewildered "when [they] cried, [on] the last day" (21). Maybe "getting out" could mean getting back out into the world to meet someone new and forget about the person the speaker was with before.

Crossing the Bar

First, sunset and evening star are metaphors for death. The sun is setting meaning your life is ending on earth and the moon takes the place of the sun. The person is in a different place with the moon instead of the sun. "Twilight and evening bell,/ And after that the dark!" (9-10). These are also metaphors for the last moments of one's life. The sky becomes darker with the twilight and the evening bell signifies the end of the day. After these things, the dark, meaning death. In line 15, the speaker refers to the "Pilot." The speaker "hope[s] to see [his] Pilot face to face." This is an allusion to God. The speaker wants to finally be in heaven to see the face of his creator and actually meet him.

My mistress' eyes

The tone of this poem is mocking towards the other love poems that compare lovers to nature (coral, snow, sun). These authors exaggerate with comparisons to flatter their women. The speaker is more honest in saying that his mistress is nothing like those things and will not waste his time with false comparisons. He believes that his love is more pure than any natural object and doesn't need to compare her to nature. The speaker wants to say that appearances don't matter because he loves his mistress the way she is. How she looks holds no meaning compared to her personality. She is just as beautiful to the women who are lied to.

Batter My heart, three-person God

I can also make a connection between this poem and Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll." The speaker in this poem feels like he is drifting away from God and can't find the way back. He wants God to "imprison [him], for [he], except [God] enthralls [him], never shall be free" (12-13). The speaker says that he has to hit rock-bottom and be completely vulnerable for God to fully enter him and bring him back to mercy. If the character in "Barbie Doll" hits rock-bottom with what people want her to do, maybe she will realize what she is becoming. Sometimes it takes a detrimental situation to bring reality to light. By being completely empty, in both cases, the character will most likely be able to find salvation and be the people they want to be.

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.

"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"

Although this poem does not include many examples of figurative language, one example sticks out to clarify the meaning of the poem. The last stanza of the poem is a metaphor that explains where the speaker is actually going. He is not dying, just going on a long journey where he will be away from his lover for a substantial amount of time. In the last stanza, it states "like th' other foot, obliquely run; thy firmness make my circle just and makes me end, where I began." These lines are a metaphor comparing his love and lover to a compass. He is the foot that is going to go in many different during his journey. She is the firmness that hold him in place and steers him in the right direction, eventually leading him back to her, back where he began.

"London"

"London" has a very dark and cynical tone. The author mentions cries of various people and "marks of woe" (4). It seems like this poem describes a time after a period of darkness (but not necessarily the Dark Ages). "And the hapless Soldier's sigh runs in blood down Palace walls" (11-12). These lines stuck out to me like some time after a battle. It seems fitting because the inhabitants seem to be in despair. The part about the chimney sweeper and the blackening church means that there can be an actual black cloud over the city, or a black cloud of despair over the city. Either way, London is not in good shape.

"The Widow's Lament in Springtime"

After reading this poem, I found it sort of sad. The woman was obviously sad about the death of her husband and could not enjoy the beauty of springtime. The beautiful white flowers reminded her of the times she used to have with her husband (19). When her son told her about the meadow at the edge of the dark trees, she thought about going there, but didn't. She wanted to "fall into those flowers and sink into the marsh near them" (26-27). I took that as wanting to die to be with her love. After thirty-five years of being with the same person, I can understand how she would feel that way. Her son was trying to help her cope with her loss, but his plan did just the opposite. After spring, I think she will be able to deal with her husband's death and move on with her life.

"I fealt a Funeral, in my Brain"

Although poems can be interpreted in numerous ways, I decided that this poem was not about an actual funeral, but an internal conflict. The central purpose was to get over all the conflicts in this person's life and let go. In line 3, the author writes "kept treading-treading..." This line reminds me of a short speech in the movie "The Replacements." In this football movie, the coach asks the players what they are afraid of. At first, they throw out things like spiders and bugs, but that was not what the coach was really talking about. The quarterback says "Quicksand" and the rest of the players take it literally and agree, but there was a deeper meaning behind it. He compared quicksand to a situation in a game where everything seems to be going great until one wrong mistake. Then another happens, and another. You keep fighting back but the more you fight, the farther you sink until you are completely stuck. "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" seems to be parallel to that story, except in a mental way. The person keeps thinking about their problems until "I thought my Mind was going numb" (6-7). Finally, you just have to stop fighting ("and then a Plank of Reason, broke") and you eventually get out.

"Those Winter Sundays"

After reading this poem, a reader can easily tell the tone of the piece. Through words like "cracked hands" (3) and "blueblack cold" (2), the tone is one of harshness and working. The narrator of this poem grew up in a household of "chronic angers" (9). The father obviously worked hard, but no one thanked him. It seems like the father cared for his children but maybe had some sort of problem with dealing with them since they were slow to rise in the mornings. He kept his relationships distant. The narrator seems to be putting pain, anger, and maybe being regretful in this poem as well. Pain (maybe mental pain) for dealing with everything his father put him through. Anger towards his father. Being regretful for not caring about anything nice the father did, like shine his shoes or make the house warm in the morning. The poem ends with the rhetorical question "What did I know...?" At the time, the narrator did not realize what the father was actually doing for him.

"Spring"

In the poem "Spring", there are a few different sound repetitions. The first two examples can be found in the second line: "When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush..." Both of these examples of alliteration adds to the imagery of actual spring time and new, abundant life. Another, in line four, states "rinse and wring." In line 8, "fair their fling", line 10 "being in the beginning", line 12 "sour with sinning" and in line 14, "worth the winning." Each of these sound repetitions end the lines of the poem.

Not only do the first letters of the words sound alike, but the words in general also sound similar. The author ends each line with a word that rhymes with another word above it. This added rhyming makes the poem softer and tells the readers of the joy of spring. It also helps the poem flow.

Perrine Poetry

In my opinion, I don't believe that there are right and wrong ways to interpret a poem. I agree with Perrine's statement that "there are only readings which differ more or less widely from a statistical norm." Who is to judge if an interpretation is right or wrong? A reader has that freedom to describe a poem any way he or she believes is correct. The only criteria the interpretation must fall into is that it "must be able to account satisfactorily for any detail of the poem" and the interpretation must rely "on the fewest assumptions nor grounded in the poem itself." The account cannot be too far-fetched and ridiculous. It must account for as many known facts without being contradicted by a fact. Although this may seem restricting, I think it is an excellent way to stay on track when trying to interpret the meaning of a poem.

This article gave me a new insight on how to analyze poems. I need to look deeper into the meaning and not go for the obvious answer. For example, I took the Melville poem to be about an army march through the darkness when it is actually about the stars and the night sky. When Perrine first mentioned this, I was shocked and could not believe how far-fetched he sounded. But when he started to explain the poem and provided examples of the words used ("bright", "beaming", etc.) I began to understand. If I never read this article, I would have never guessed that poem was about the stars. Now, I understand that I must look at the symbols and all the different meanings of words to interpret the real meaning of a poem. It may take a long time, but I believe that will be able to analyze the real meanings of poems.