Directions: I have been reading you a poem from Billy Collins' Poetry 180: Poem of the Day collection. Your task? I would like you to peruse his website and read some poetry. Choose a poem you feel a special connection to. Cut and paste the poem into your post and write a two paragraph response. The first paragraph will be about the technical aspects. How does the poem work? Use your knowledge of literary devices. In the second paragraph, explain how the poem captured the feelings of his/her/their subject. What experiences can you apply? If you do not finish this assignment in class, please complete the assignment for homework.
Poem of the Day Website (See List of 180 Poems)
Poetry Literary Devices (There are links to Mr. Murry's cool webpage for more info)
ALLITERATION - is the repetition of initial consonant sounds.
ALLUSION - is a direct or indirect reference to a familiar figure, place or event from history, literature, mythology or the Bible.
APOSTROPHE - a figure of speech in which a person not present is addressed.
ASSONANCE - is a close repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually in stressed syllables.
ATMOSPHERE / MOOD - is the prevailing feeling that is created in a story or poem.
CACOPHONY - Harsh sounds introduced for poetic effect - sometimes words that are difficult to pronounce.
CLICHE - an overused expression that has lost its intended force or novelty.
CONNOTATION - the emotional suggestions attached to words beyond their strict definitions.
CONSONANCE - the close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels.
CONTRAST - the comparison or juxtaposition of things that are different
DENOTATION - the dictionary meaning of words.
DISSONANCE - the juxtaposition of harsh jarring sounds in one or more lines.
EUPHONY - agreeable sounds that are easy to articulate.
EXTENDED METAPHOR - an implied comparison between two things which are essentially not alike. These points of comparison are continued throughout the selection.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE - Language used in such a way as to force words out of their literal meanings by emphasizing their connotations to bring new insight and feeling to the subject.
HYPERBOLE - an exaggeration in the service of truth - an overstatement.
IDIOM - is a term or phrase that cannot be understood by a literal translation, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is understood through common use.
IMAGERY - is the representation through language of sense experience. The image most often suggests a mental picture, but an image may also represent a sound, smell, taste or tactile experience.
IRONY - is a literary device which reveals concealed or contradictory meanings.
JARGON - language peculiar to a particular trade, profession or group.
JUXTAPOSITION - is the overlapping or mixing of opposite or different situations, characters, settings, moods, or points of view in order to clarify meaning, purpose, or character, or to heighten certain moods, especially humour, horror, and suspense. also Contrast
LITERAL LANGUAGE - what is said is based in reality without the comparisons used in figurative language.
LITOTES - a form of understatement in which something is said by denying the opposite.
METAPHOR - a comparison between two things which are essentially dissimilar. The comparison is implied rather than directly stated.
METER - any regular pattern of rhythm based on stressed and unstressed syllables.
METONYMY - use of a closely related idea for the idea itself.
MOOD - see atmosphere
ONOMATOPOEIA - the use of words which sound like what they mean.
OXYMORON - two words placed close together which are contradictory, yet have truth in them.
PARADOX - a statement in which there is an apparent contradiction which is actually true.
PERSONIFICATION - giving human attributes to an animal, object or idea.
RHYME - words that sound alike
RHYME SCHEME - any pattern of rhymes in poetry. Each new sound is assigned the next letter in the alphabet.
RHYTHM - a series of stressed or accented syllables in a group of words, arranged so that the reader expects a similar series to follow.
SIMILE - a comparison between two things which are essentially dissimilar. The comparison is directly stated through words such as like, as, than or resembles.
SPEAKER - the "voice" which seems to be telling the poem. Not the same as the poet; this is like a narrator.
SYMBOL - a symbol has two levels of meaning, a literal level and a figurative level. Characters, objects, events and settings can all be symbolic in that they represent something else beyond themselves.
SYNEDOCHE - the use of a part for the whole idea.
THEME - is the central idea of the story, usually implied rather than directly stated. It is the writer's idea abut life and can be implied or directly stated through the voice of the speaker. It should not be confused with moral or plot.
TONE - is the poet's attitude toward his/her subject or readers. it is similar to tone of voice but should not be confused with mood or atmosphere. An author's tone might be sarcastic, sincere, humourous.
TROPE - a figure of speech in which a word is used outside its literal meaning. Simile and metaphor are the two most common tropes.
UNDERSTATEMENT - this is saying less than what you mean in the service of truth.
VOICE - the creating and artistic intelligence that we recognize behind any speaker.
Rene Roustand
ReplyDeleteI asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes
The tone of this poem is heartwarming. The author is talking to God about what is allowed, and what's not allowed. God herself is saying yes to every question the author is asking and it's quite heartwarming to say the least. The moral of this story is, "Just be yourself, and make your own path."
This poem ties with the author's feelings by asking questions. I have a few experiences that show this. When I was younger, I wondered what my future job will be. I always wanted to be a plumber, just like Mario. When I asked my mom, she said that I should stick to that goal.
Frankie Huntress
ReplyDeleteGratitude for old teachers
When we stride or stroll across the frozen lake,
We place our feet where they have never been.
We walk upon the unwalked. But we are uneasy.
Who is down there but our old teachers?
Water that once could take no human weight-
We were students then-holds up our feet,
And goes on ahead of us for a mile.
Beneath us the teachers, and around us the stillness.
Robert bly
This is a free or blank verse poem it doesn't follow the exact pattern of one that rymes. It is wild and uncontrolled it is more like a story with lots of metaphors and similes. It is split into two parts the first builds upto the idea of gratiud for old teachers then the next half explanes it
I choose this poem becuse there are some teachers that were good and there were some that were bad and as you get older you realy start to see the diffrence bettween the teachers i realy see thing becuse in all my years of elemetry school i only had on good teachers the rest were bad.
Peyton Levental
ReplyDeleteBreak
We put the puzzle together piece
by piece, loving how one curved
notch fits so sweetly with another.
A yellow smudge becomes
the brush of a broom, and two blue arms
fill in the last of the sky.
We patch together porch swings and autumn
trees, matching gold to gold. We hold
the eyes of deer in our palms, a pair
of brown shoes. We do this as the child
circles her room, impatient
with her blossoming, tired
of the neat house, the made bed,
the good food. We let her brood
as we shuffle through the pieces,
setting each one into place with a satisfied
tap, our backs turned for a few hours
to a world that is crumbling, a sky
that is falling, the pieces
we are required to return to.
—Dorianne Laux
I chose the poem "Break" because I can relate to what they author is writing. In this poem there is a symbol, the puzzle. The puzzle was a connotation for a better life. Giving people the life they have always wanted but never could achieve because of the world that we really live in, "tap, our backs turned for a few hours to a world that is crumbling, a sky that is falling, the pieces we are required to return to." I believe the puzzle acted as an escape for people how feel sad with the life they really live in. The mood in this poem was different at all different points. While they were doing the puzzle they felt happy and knew exactly what they were doing and that made them feel good, but when they put the puzzle away and had to go back to their own world they felt sad and and discouraged.
I enjoyed reading this poem. I liked it because I related to it. Something that I had that would take me away of all the stress of life would be my dog. I would walk her and all my focus is on her so I feel at peace and safe. When I would have a huge test the next day I would take a break from studying and go for a little walk with my dog. Going back to work is hard sometimes but I know that I have to do it.
Mitch Keamy
ReplyDeleteCat Scat
I am watching Cleo listening, our cat
listening to Mozart's Magic Flute. What
can she be hearing? What
can the air carry into her ears like that,
her ears swivelling like radio dishes that
are tuned to all the noise of the world, flat
and sharp, high and low, a scramble of this and that
she can decode like nobody's business, acrobat
of random airs as she is? Although of course a bat
is better at it, sifting out of its acoustic habitat
the sound of the very shape of things automat-
ically-- and on the wing, at that. The Magic Flute! What
a joy it is, I feel, and wonder (to end this little scat)
does , or can, the cat.
—Eamon Grennan
I chose Cat Scat Because I am a cat person and have 3 cats. The structure of the poem is very strange and interesting. There is an AA rhyme scheme throughout the whole poem, all rhyming with “cat.” However, some of the sentences are cut short in order to achieve the rhyme. For example, “Her ears swinging like radio dishes that,... are tuned to all the noise of the world, flat” and so on. The author, Eamon Grennan, personifies the cat by creating an image that the cat can hear mozart and understand the sounds better than a human.
The author describes the wonder in his cat. He creates an image of his cat listening to mozart, as if it can understand the music better than us. We se a cat with his ears perked up, very carefully listening as if it were human. The poem shows the brilliance of a cat doing absolutely nothing, but the author personifies the cat as a satellite dish tuned to all the sounds of the world. I definitely understand this, my cat can stare out the window for hours straight and be so interested, like a human on their phone.
Sophia Lakos
ReplyDeletePoem 75
To a Daughter Leaving Home
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
—Linda Pastan
In this poem, there is a little bit of an allusion towards the end but instead of it being something that happened in the past she fast forwards to the little girl saying goodbye. Since it is almost like a letter to the daughter this is a example of a apostrophe, since they are speaking of her but she is not present it is them sharing a memory. There are also a few examples of Assonance but it is not too consistent. The atmosphere reminds me of someone walking down memory lane. Their daughter is leaving and all these feelings are flooding back to them as they see her go. The author set the mood to be a little sad but it also is very sentimental. Imagery is also used and I can easily picture the story they are telling. It helps if you remember that moment in your life and can connect to the writer's poem. One thing that sticks out to me is that there is no rhyming in this poem, the other ones we have read all had a pattern and this one doesn’t. The voice of the writer is very present, I feel like I'm watching the story go down in front of me.
This writing stuck out to me because I can relate to it, mainly because I remember my dad teaching me to ride a bike for the first time. This poem has sentimental value, and I think the reader can relate to it if you are a kid or a parent. The author used something that almost everyone would remember so more would understand it and really get the feeling out there. Just like in the poem I remember falling when I was just learning to ride a bike and my dad is right behind me to pick me up.
Drew Wachtel
ReplyDeleteCartoon Physics, part 1
Children under, say, ten, shouldn't know
that the universe is ever-expanding,
inexorably pushing into the vacuum, galaxies
swallowed by galaxies, whole
solar systems collapsing, all of it
acted out in silence. At ten we are still learning
the rules of cartoon animation,
that if a man draws a door on a rock
only he can pass through it.
Anyone else who tries
will crash into the rock. Ten-year-olds
should stick with burning houses, car wrecks,
ships going down -- earthbound, tangible
disasters, arenas
where they can be heroes. You can run
back into a burning house, sinking ships
have lifeboats, the trucks will come
with their ladders, if you jump
you will be saved. A child
places her hand on the roof of a school bus,
& drives across a city of sand. She knows
the exact spot it will skid, at which point
the bridge will give, who will swim to safety
& who will be pulled under by sharks. She will learn
that if a man runs off the edge of a cliff
he will not fall
until he notices his mistake.
—Nick Flynn
I picked this poem because it connected with me in a sense that I am not the best science student and it made me laugh how this poet thinks that a ten year old would understand this stuff because of the cartoon physics that they use to make the cartoons more funny. This poem has some parts that are Hyberdole because the poet states some truth in the poem but it also exaggerates on the parts that have the truth in them. I also think this poem also has some imagery in it because at the end of the poem the poet gives us a visual at the end of someone that runs off a cliff and doesn’t notice his mistake until he looks down. The last thing that I noticed that the poet put into this poem is some Metaphors for example the biggest metaphor in this poem is the connection to what ten year olds think happen in the world because it happens in their favorite cartoons that they watch on saturday mornings so they believe it until they are told that they are not real.
Another reason why I picked this poem is I used to watch these types of cartoons when I was younger and I remember that I used to believe that whatever happened in the cartoons happened in real life. Like I said in the beginning I am not the best science student so I relate to the ten year olds that are surprised to when they learn that the things they learned when they are watching their cartoons are false in the real world.
Julia
ReplyDeletePoem 53
The Blue Bowl
Like primitives we buried the cat
with his bowl. Bare-handed
we scraped sand and gravel
back into the hole.
They fell with a hiss
and thud on his side,
on his long red fur, the white feathers
between his toes, and his
long, not to say aquiline, nose.
We stood and brushed each other off.
There are sorrows keener than these.
Silent the rest of the day, we worked,
ate, stared, and slept. It stormed
all night; now it clears, and a robin
burbles from a dripping bush
like the neighbor who means well
but always says the wrong thing.
—Jane Kenyonl
This poem includes an apostrophe of their dead cat and their irritating neighbor. In the first quartile, there is an assonance of the letter B. The atmosphere of this poem is uncanny and dismal because their cat died and they had to bury it by hand in presumably their backyard. There are a few Euphony's in the last quartile, “Silent the rest of the day, we worked,/ate, stared, and slept. The rhythm of this poem is gentle and somber.
I relate to this poem because I also witnessed my cat's death/burial. When I was little, I had to stay home one day because I was sick. That was also when that my cat died, and we buried her in the backyard that day. When my cat died I was really upset and confused because I was young and hadn’t really understood the concept of death at that point and it was really tragic for me to lose the cat that I loved so much. The narrator describes how tragic it was to lose a loved one and then to have to deal with the disturbing neighbor who shouldn't talk about things that aren't their business.
Ben Worthley
ReplyDeleteCartoon Physics, part 1
Children under, say, ten, shouldn't know
that the universe is ever-expanding,
inexorably pushing into the vacuum, galaxies
swallowed by galaxies, whole
solar systems collapsing, all of it
acted out in silence. At ten we are still learning
the rules of cartoon animation,
that if a man draws a door on a rock
only he can pass through it.
Anyone else who tries
will crash into the rock. Ten-year-olds
should stick with burning houses, car wrecks,
ships going down -- earthbound, tangible
disasters, arenas
where they can be heroes. You can run
back into a burning house, sinking ships
have lifeboats, the trucks will come
with their ladders, if you jump
you will be saved. A child
places her hand on the roof of a school bus,
& drives across a city of sand. She knows
the exact spot it will skid, at which point
the bridge will give, who will swim to safety
& who will be pulled under by sharks. She will learn
that if a man runs off the edge of a cliff
he will not fall
until he notices his mistake.
—Nick Flynn
The mood of this poem is happy in its own way. The poem is making allusions to the roadrunner cartoon. In the last line, they say She will learn that if a man runs off the edge of a cliff
he will not fall until he notices his mistake. Also with the rock in the wall. Wile E. Coyote tries to chase after roadrunner through a stone wall. The Roadrunner passes through like no problem but when Wile E. Coyote tries he gets stopped by the wall. The poem is split into different stanzas. A few times we see the line or one train of thought into the next stanzas. The mood or feel of this pome is happy but dark. The pice of the poem that is happy is the part about cartoons. Everybody likes cartoons, we all grew up watching them. I think the dark part is the part about the Auther saying kids should stick with Ten-year-olds should stick with burning houses, car wrecks, ships going down. The author is saying kids need situations where a hero can come in and save the day. But still, I think this part is pretty dark.
The Author starts the poem by saying Children under, say, ten, shouldn't know
that the universe is ever-expanding. He thinks its too complicated for them. Instead, they should stick with something that is simpler, Cartoons. He thinks that kids need situations where there are a hero and a villain. That kid should stick with what they know. Kids know more about this kind of thing than anybody. That's all they know. They are not like they know anybody.
Lucas Kaufman
ReplyDeleteThe Revolt of the Turtles
Stephen Dunn (1939 - ), 2016
On gray forgetful mornings like this
sea turtles would gather in the shallow waters
of the Gulf to discuss issues of self-presentation
and related concerns like, If there were a God
would he have a hard shell and a retractable head,
and whether speed on land
was of any importance to a good swimmer.
They knew that tourists needed to placate
their children with catchy stories, and amuse
themselves with various cruelties
such as turning turtles over on their backs
and watching their legs wriggle.
So the turtles formed a committee to address
How to Live Among People Who Among
Other Atrocities Want to Turn You into Soup.
The committee was also charged with wondering
if God would mind a retelling of their lives,
one in which sea turtles
were responsible for all things
right-minded and progressive, and men
and women for poisoning the water.
The oldest sea turtle among them knew
that whoever was in control of the stories
controlled all the shoulds and should-nots.
But he wasn’t interested in punishment,
only ways in which power could bring about
fairness and decency. And when he finished speaking
in the now-memorable and ever-deepening
waters of the Gulf, all the sea turtles
began to chant, “Only fairness, only decency”.
Stephen Dunn’s poem ,“The Revolt of the Turtles”, explores the concept of animals taking revenge against humans for the way we sometimes treat them for the sake of our own amusement. It is organized in an interesting fashion, consisting of a septet (7 lines), a sestet, a couplet, a second sestet, then another septet, and ending with another couplet. The rhyme scheme is completely non-existent- Dunn doesn’t try to use rhymes here, a choice I find interesting. Dunn uses the first three stanzas to enlighten the reader to the sea turtles’ concerns, as they are mistreated and possibly eaten as a soup, among other things. And as the sea turtles form a committee to help resolve their dilemmas, they consider launching a revolt against mankind to take the Earth from them and punish them for their misdeeds against not just the turtles but many other species of animal as well. The eldest turtle steps in in the second septet, and convinces his juniors that the way to victory is not violence but fairness and decency, as a world like the one previously proposed would lead the sea turtles to be no less tyrannical, and no better, that their human predecessors.
I was initially dawn to this poem just by its title- “The Revolt of the Turtles”- as I was intrigued by the idea of an animal launching a revolution against humankind- but not an animal like monkeys or apes that could do so with minor intelligence enhancements but something you would never think of, like giraffes, pandas, or, in this case, sea turtles. As I read the poem, I saw a clear message of nonviolence, as the eldest turtle steps in to calm the radicalist ideas of his juniors. The ideas of this elder turtle are ones that I think would greatly benefit the human race as a whole, since there is a lot of violence in the world and a lot of people who jump to the conclusion that violence is always the only answer.
Abhi Sharma
ReplyDeleteNovember
Edward Thomas, 1878 - 1917
November’s days are thirty:
November’s earth is dirty,
Those thirty days, from first to last;
And the prettiest thing on ground are the paths
With morning and evening hobnails dinted,
With foot and wing-tip overprinted
Or separately charactered,
Of little beast and little bird.
The fields are mashed by sheep, the roads
Make the worst going, the best the woods
Where dead leaves upward and downward scatter.
Few care for the mixture of earth and water,
Twig, leaf, flint, thorn,
Straw, feather, all that men scorn,
Pounded up and sodden by flood,
Condemned as mud.
But of all the months when earth is greener
Not one has clean skies that are cleaner.
Clean and clear and sweet and cold,
They shine above the earth so old,
While the after-tempest cloud
Sails over in silence though winds are loud,
Till the full moon in the east
Looks at the planet in the west
And earth is silent as it is black,
Yet not unhappy for its lack.
Up from the dirty earth men stare:
One imagines a refuge there
Above the mud, in the pure bright
Of the cloudless heavenly light:
Another loves earth and November more dearly
Because without them, he sees clearly,
The sky would be nothing more to his eye
Than he, in any case, is to the sky;
He loves even the mud whose dyes
Renounce all brightness to the skies.
This poem is about the month of November when leaves start to fall off the trees, where the night is longer than the day and the vibe is different than how it used to feel. November is the time of the month to adjust the night time getting longer than the day leaves changing color and falling.
Evan Brenner
ReplyDeleteFast Break
A hook shot kisses the rim and
hangs there, helplessly, but doesn't drop,
and for once our gangly starting center
boxes out his man and times his jump
perfectly, gathering the orange leather
from the air like a cherished possession
and spinning around to throw a strike
to the outlet who is already shoveling
an underhand pass toward the other guard
scissoring past a flat-footed defender
who looks stunned and nailed to the floor
in the wrong direction, trying to catch sight
of a high, gliding dribble and a man
letting the play develop in front of him
in slow motion, almost exactly
like a coach's drawing on the blackboard,
both forwards racing down the court
the way that forwards should, fanning out
and filling the lanes in tandem, moving
together as brothers passing the ball
between them without a dribble, without
a single bounce hitting the hardwood
until the guard finally lunges out
and commits to the wrong man
while the power-forward explodes past them
in a fury, taking the ball into the air
by himself now and laying it gently
against the glass for a lay-up,
but losing his balance in the process,
inexplicably falling, hitting the floor
with a wild, headlong motion
for the game he loved like a country
and swiveling back to see an orange blur
floating perfectly through the net.
—Edward Hirsch
In this poem the tone is a little nervous and exciting. You don’t really know what is going to happy next, if he is going to miss or make the shot. One example of a simile is “together as brothers passing the ball”. This means that they are very good at passing the ball and making it look good. I can clearly picture in my head about what is going on in the poem. There is really no certain rhyme-scheme in the poem. After the game everyone on the team was probably happy. If the result was different and the shot had not of gone in, it would of been a lesson for the team.
This poem really connects to me and I really understand it very well. I understand it well because I have experienced this before and been in this situation. I usually prepare myself in practice for these moments so I can succeed in the game. If I had this situation in a game and I had missed the layup, I know I would have to work hard in practice and make sure I wouldn’t miss it again. Also everyone makes mistakes and you can’t just give up after one mistake, you have to keep on trying.
Jayden Cho
ReplyDelete11/29/18
To Help the Monkey Cross the River,
which he must
cross, by swimming, for fruits and nuts,
to help him
I sit with my rifle on a platform
high in a tree, same side of the river
as the hungry monkey. How does this assist
him? When he swims for it
I look first upriver: predators move faster with
the current than against it.
If a crocodile is aimed from upriver to eat the monkey
and an anaconda from downriver burns
with the same ambition, I do
the math, algebra, angles, rate-of-monkey,
croc- and snake-speed, and if, if
it looks as though the anaconda or the croc
will reach the monkey
before he attains the river’s far bank,
I raise my rifle and fire
one, two, three, even four times into the river
just behind the monkey
to hurry him up a little.
Shoot the snake, the crocodile?
They’re just doing their jobs,
but the monkey, the monkey
has little hands like a child’s,
and the smart ones, in a cage, can be taught to smile.
—Thomas Lux
In this poem, Thomas Lux seems to explain the ideas of helping others and not causing any trouble to enemies, no matter the circumstance. This poem seemed to have no poetic format at all, but could be read like a guide on helping a monkey cross the river. In this story, the monkey seems to be trying to gather food all the way across the river, but seems as if the assumed protagonist crocodile and anaconda are in the approaching quickly. Although seemed as enemies and threats to the monkey’s life, the narrator thinks that it is wrong to harm the threats for doing what they were born to do, and just helps the monkey cross the river safely. Ironically, he shoots 1-4 bullets behind the monkey to speed up this process, which I found very humorous. An analogy I found useful to understand this extended metaphor is a superhero saving citizens from the villains. Although the villains are wreaking terror and causing destruction, almost all heroes try to solve this problem without causing any harm to the villains. The hero is the narrator watching this scene, the villains as the crocodile and anaconda, and the citizens as the monkey. The tone of the narrator throughout seems very relaxed and wise, and almost feels like he is teaching disciples of his how to fare with problems in the real life. One final thing that seems different than most poems is the line formatting, for very purposeful lines that continue on with the sentence are throughout this poem. It seems as if non-violent endings are the key theme in this poem, and the act of helping is always needed in times of crisis.
Jayden Cho
ReplyDelete11/29/18
{Continued}
This poem struck to me while reading the huge list of poems by the interesting title, “To Help the Monkey Cross the River.” For some reason, it reminded me a lot about the joke, “how did the chicken cross the road,” and intrigued me enough to go along and click on the poem. What surprised me was that the poem started right at the title, which made me confused at first for I had never seen a poem do something like this. I feel like the poet did this to make me anticipate for what would come next, because the poet seemed to purposely add many breaks and go onto the next line many times in the poem. What then surprised me was how on earth could an anaconda and crocodile be coincidentally equidistantly apart from the monkey going to the shore, and how the narrator seemed to calculate this is matters of seconds and know that the monkey would not make it? What made me even more surprised was the fact that he shot his gun near the monkey to make it go faster, which definitely created very funny imagery of me thinking about this comical scene. What confuses me even now however, was the purpose of the last few lines where he says “but the monkey, the monkey has little hands like a child’s, and the smart ones, in a cage, can be taught to smile.” I don’t understand the purpose of this line, maybe just for a funny image in your head as the end? I know that the lines before this seemed to be very reflectful and could be connected to present life, how the protagonist and antagonist are just doing what they are supposed to, violence isn’t the key to settling arguments. In the end, I liked this poem a lot more than the Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnets for I could more easily understand the main message more. However, the nice, perfect poetic format and rhyme scenes were very flowing and beautiful, and I feel like this poem was very choppy like John Donne’s sonnets.
Davis Blanch
ReplyDeleteMorning Swim
Into my empty head there come
a cotton beach, a dock wherefrom A
I set out, oily and nude
through mist, in chilly solitude. B
There was no line, no roof or floor C
to tell the water from the air. D
Night fog thick as terry cloth
closed me in its fuzzy growth. E
I hung my bathrobe on two pegs.
I took the lake between my legs. F
Invaded and invader, I
went overhand on that flat sky. G
Fish twitched beneath me, quick and tame.
In their green zone they sang my name H
and in the rhythm of the swim
I hummed a two-four-time slow hymn. I
I hummed "Abide With Me." The beat
rose in the fine thrash of my feet, J
rose in the bubbles I put out
slantwise, trailing through my mouth. K
My bones drank water; water fell
through all my doors. I was the well L
that fed the lake that met my sea
in which I sang "Abide With Me." M
—Maxine Kumin
The poem flows well. The poem has an ABCDEFGHIJKLM pattern. The poem rhymes well and has a few similes. One example of a simile in this poem would be the line “Night fog thick as terry cloth”. The line compares the fog of night to a thick cloth. The poem seems very relaxed and calming because just thinking of going for a morning swim in a steaming lake or pool seems like it would just calm you down and relax your body/ thoughts.
I chose this poem because I was looking for calming poems and I stumbled upon this one. The poem stuck with me because when I was younger my grandmother lived right on the water and sometimes my brothers and I would go for a swim in the water in the morning.
Lucy Elerath
ReplyDeleteDo You Love Me?
She's twelve and she's asking the dog,
who does, but who speaks
in tongues, whose feints and gyrations
are themselves parts of speech.
They're on the back porch
and I don't really mean to be taking this in
but once I've heard I can't stop listening. Again
and again she asks, and the good dog
sits and wiggles, leaps and licks.
Imagine never asking. Imagine why:
so sure you wouldn't dare, or couldn't care
less. I wonder if the dog's guileless brown eyes
can lie, if the perfect canine lack of abstraction
might not be a bit like the picture books
she "read" as a child, before her parents' lips
shaped the daily miracle of speech
and kisses, and the words were not lead
and weighed only air, and did not mean
so meanly. "Do you love me?" she says
and says, until the dog, sensing perhaps
its own awful speechlessness, tries to bolt,
but she holds it by the collar and will not
let go, until, having come closer,
I hear the rest of it. I hear it all.
She's got the dog's furry jowls in her hands,
she's speaking precisely
into its laid-back, quivering ears:
"Say it," she hisses, "say it to me."
This Poem is about a little girl and her dog, the writer is listening to what is happening and it is explained in the poem. The author feels like the dog does not understand what the little girl is saying and wonders why she is talking to something that cannot talk back to them. They are comparing the dog to the child. They said the dog lacks thought while the child had to learn how to speak and read and write, wondering which one has more love to give. They seem to wonder why humans have to learn words and learn love while love is natural to dogs. The little girl asks the dog if they love her, and holds it until they answer. The little girl does not understand why the dog cannot reply. The mood is uplifting and in the end solemn.
SEAN
ReplyDeleteI stopped to pick up the bagel
rolling away in the wind,
annoyed with myself
for having dropped it
as if it were a portent.
Faster and faster it rolled,
with me running after it
bent low, gritting my teeth,
and I found myself doubled over
and rolling down the street
head over heels, one complete somersault
after another like a bagel
and strangely happy with myself.
—David Ignatow