The Oxen by Thomas Hardy

The first time I read this poem I instantly thought of Jesus' birth and Christmas time for the obvious reasons that it mentions Christmas Eve quite often. When it speaks of the oxen kneeling, that brings to mind the manger scene with all of the sheperds and animals that surrounded Jesus on his birthday. The tone of this poem seems somewhat forlorn and gloomy even though Christmas is usually a happy and exciting time.

When the speaker refers to what "our childhood used to know," it makes me think that maybe he was there during Jesus' birth and he is remembering what it was like on that Christmas Eve. Then again, it wouldn't be called Christmas Eve yet because it would have been the first time Jesus had ever walked the earth.

This version of hope at the end of the poem is not exactly a looking forward hope. Instead, he seems to be reluctant to what might come next. "I should go with him in the gloom" sounds like he has to go and not that he necessarily wants to go. This seems more like a burden than anything else for the speaker.

Getting out by Cleopatra Mathis

9:39 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
This poem has some awesome imagery in it and it's very easy to make a mental movie in your head while reading it. Plus, the fact that it is a more recent poem [at least after 1947] makes it more relatable at times too. The woman in this poem is somewhat pining but more reminiscing on the old days with her ex-husband. They were "...waking like inmates/who beat the walls. Every night," that they were together the last year before their divorce. They sound like the kind of couple that gets on each others' nerves so often but it's worse when they are apart. "Bad when we're together, worse when we're apart" type situation that I'm seeing here. The fact that they still keep in touch means there are feelings of some sort that still linger. I know that if I ever got a divorce, I feel as if I would keep my distance as much as possible unless there were still lingering feelings.

The "unshredded pictures" that are spoken of give off the image that once they divorced the woman went kind of crazy and threw her ex's stuff away and damaged it. Typical girl response...not gonna lie...burning all the pictures and giving everything away. Hey, sometimes you just have to do away with the painful things. BUT she still kept some of the pictures unharmed. I don't think it's healthy to completely forget things that happen in your life, especially the bad because they tend to make you a better person and you learn more lessons from them. This is another of my favorite poems this quarter.

The Apparation by John Donne

9:31 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
This poem freaks me out but it might be my favorite poem that we've read all semester so far. The speaker seems to have had a breakup with his lover and he is still pining for her. She has found another man and portrays herself as perfectly happy with him rather than her ex. The tone of this poem is rather bitter with many hints of vengeance in it.

The speaker is still alive, but he speaks as if he were dead. He says that one night when his ex believes that she has nothing to worry about because she is safe with her new man, he is going to come into her room in his ghostly form and haunt her. Her man of course won't do anything because he is asleep and thinks she is being crazy. The ghost man just wants her to feel pain. While this probably isn't the nicest or most mature way to end a relationship...many people tend to feel like this after being rejected for at least a little while. I feel like he is just threatening her the whole time saying that he will haunt her forever once she thinks she is rid of him. She must have done a number on this guy.

My favorite lines are "And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected, thou,//Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat, wilt lie/A verier ghost than I." This reminds me of when you wake up after a really bad dream and you're freezing but you have this crazy cold sweat going on that you can't control. Whew he sounds like some kind of nightmare. I'm glad he's not my ex...

My mistress' eyes by William Shakespeare

9:17 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
Okay, personally, I love Shakespeare. I think he has a great relationship with words :]

The central purpose of this poem centers around the speaker telling his lover what he thinks of her and Shakespeare is satirizing other poets' works. Most love poems compare "her hair to the golden sun" and "her skin as white as snow," but this poem says...yeah...you're not really all of that because you're a real person. There isn't a mortal woman alive who is absolutely perfect physically or mentally. I like that the speaker is able to tell his lover that he likes her just the way she is and he likes her imperfections. I don't think I would want to hear that I am perfect...it's sweet and all, but perfect is a lot to live up to.

Shakespeare is kind of playing his own satirical game in this poem because instead of the normal cliches that poets use to speak about their loves, his speaker seems to be dissing on his woman. First read through I thought he was just putting her down the whole time, but the upon reading it again, it's easy to see that he is simply being realistic. He loves her just the way she is from the inside out. Like we said in class today...it's a wonderful reverse backhanded compliment...or a forehanded compliment--depends on how you look at it. :]

Much Madness is divinest Sense by Emily Dickinson

Another crazy Emily Dickinson poem. Seriously...you'd think we had read half of her anthology by now! :]

I like her though. I know I've said something similar to this in my earlier blogs, but her craziness is intriguing. At the same time, she drives me insane when I can't figure out what she is talking about. I'm just going to post the entire poem on here because it's not terribly long.

"Much madness is divinest sense
To such a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness
'T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent-- and you are sane.
Demur-- you're straightaway dangerous,
And handled with a Chain. "

Everything she writes has so much meaning but it really takes a lot of concentration to delve into it. The central theme in this poem is conformity is sane which is actually mad, so madness constitutes true sanity. Yeah, that doesn't exactly make sense when I read that back to myself, but after I keep reading it I can make sense of it. Talk about the ultimate paradox! This poem basically turns the meaning of the words sane and madness around from what we have always known. According to Dickinson, madness is best because nonconformity and madness go hand in hand. Dickinson was obviously a nonconformist and she seems to believe that conforming is completely insane, so the majority is wrong. I like her individualism and how she believes in the power to the minority. Maybe some poeple see her as crazy and depressed or something, but she gives us a great stance on thinking about life.

Sorting Laundry by Elisavietta Ritchie

9:34 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
While I was reading this poem, I was thinking about how poems are awesome because they can compare the craziest thing to something completely unrelated and yet it just works.

Laundry compared to love. Not exactly the expected comparison! I really like the comparison though because it's unusual and because when it is put in the terms that Ritchie put it in, love sounds comfortable and nice.

The speaker speaks about her love as if she has lost him or as if he has gone away. It's hard to tell if he is permanently gone, but he is on some sort of journey or is not with her at the present time. She mentions Kuwait, so maybe he is a soldier and fighting in far away countries. She speaks about how simple their love is by mentioning small things like "pocket surprises" such as "forgotten matches/lost screws clinking the drain." I imagine a woman doing her laundry and finding her lover's clothes mixed in with hers bringing back memories of them together and putting her into a day dreamy mood.

"All those wrinkles
To be smoothed, or else
ignored; they're in style."

This is my favorite stanza. It brings to mind the thought that even though the couple has had a few wrinkles in the past, they accept them and continue on because their love is so strong. I like that she is ignoring the wrinkles by saying they are in style, so they ignore their differences because they are in love.

It's a great love poem...possibly one of the best that I have read because it is simple and easy for most people to read since it includes a common practice like laundry.

APO 96226 by Larry Rottman

9:21 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
There are very few topics that I enjoy discussing more in history than wars, and Vietnam is one that I truly appreciate. I realize I wasn't alive during this time, but sometimes I kind of wish that I could have experienced the emotions that America experienced during this war.

This entire poem is chock full of IRONY...which come on, who doesn't love a good ironic poem and/or story?

The soldier who is in the "far country" is writing letters to his parents, namely his mother, and telling them random tidbits of information like how it rains often and how beautiful the sunsets are. The mother, being as all mothers are, senses that there is something more to his superficial answers than what he is letting on. She claims to want to know the truth and for her son to not "hold back." Finally, in the 7th stanza, he does not hold back and says:

So the next time he worte, the young man said,
"Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm
on women and children."


Talk about hitting his parents with some truth! When he sends this letter, his DAD writes back and tells him not to say such horrible things because it upset his mother. Well, mother of son fighting for his country, do not ask questions you do not want to know the answers to!

The poem is ironic because the whole time he is shielding his family from what he is actually experiencing even though they claim to want to know what is actually going on. When he finally opens up and tells them the horrors he is experiencing, they are afraid and scold him! People really should not ask questions unless they are prepared to know the answers, no matter how gruesome or macabre.

This definitely represents America well during the time period. Americans did not know what the war was about...heck...soldiers didn't even know what the war was about!! They were merely doing their duties. The irony helps to emphasize how America was so oblivious to what was going on, and yet when they asked questions, they were upset to find out the answers.

Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

9:12 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
This poem kind of hits home for me and probably every other girl who has felt pressure to conform to what society dictates. This girl in the poem is described as "usual" in the first line of the first stanza. The first stanza shows how naive and innocent the girl was as a young child until she went to school and met her other girl classmates. Honestly, I think girls are much more vicious than boys are, so this made perfect sense to me that the girl in the poem was innocent and happy with how she looked until she went to school and people told her of her imperfections.

This is definitely a shot at society.

"She went to and fro apologizing
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs."

Isn't it ridiculous the emphasis that society puts on being "perfect?" I mean, WHAT IS PERFECTION and who gets the right to decide that? Girls seem to have such a terrible time with the pressure of perfection in nearly every aspect, but especially outside appearance. It becomes quite ironic as the poem goes on because the last stanza states:

"Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending"

Personally, I don't think death necessarily equals a happy ending. It's ironic that she finally got her wish while literally laying on her deathbed: to be pretty and to have people notice her. It is difficult for me to tell though whether or not she killed herself or if she had some sort of plastic surgery that went wrong. Either way...I think this is a desparate cry to a society that values appearance rather than intelligence and inner beauty.

Bright Star by John Keats

I have read a few of Keats' poems before and I'd have to say I'm a fan of his writing. He uses a lot of vivid imagery that must be read a couple times to understand it but it's not as confusing as Emily Dickenson.

"Bright Star" is a symbol. He is speaking directly to the star in apostrophe, but he is actually speaking about something/one else. He is speaking to the star about his love and how he wants his love to be like the star in its unchanging manner. The star can stay forever in its place [in his mind at least] and see everything. The speaker would like to lay with his love forever [No--yet still steadfast, still unchangeable/Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast] and never change or lose what he has with her. He claims that laying with her forever would be the best way to spend the reset of his life, and he would even "swoon to death," which doesn't sound like an awful death. The bright star is a symbol for everything he wants to be, except for the fact that the star hangs in the sky by itself. He never wants to be alone and he always wants to be with his lover.

He compares himself to the star in a way by saying all the things that stars can see. If he himself could see all of these beauties [snow upon the mountains and the moors...etc], they would not compare to his love. Keats sounds like quite the romantic poet in this poem. It always makes me wonder what poets and writers think when they write such poems. Is it about their experiences? I'd like to think so in this instance.

I taste a liquor never brewed by Emily Dickenson

9:44 PM Posted by Emily Looney 2 comments
My fellow Emily has got to be the coolest yet oddest [is that a word..?] poet from whom I have ever read material.

She just does what she wants. I kind of admire that about her even though I think she was kind of psycho. I know we aren't supposed to focus on the way she writes, but her capitalization truly drives me insane. She capitalizes all of the nouns in the body of her poem and then decides to not capitalize the important words in the title. Talk about author's preferences.

Honestly...I don't understand this poem too well. I understand that she is using liquor as a metaphor or a symbol for something else...but it's difficult to decipher. She uses words such as brewed, Tankards, Vats, Alcohol, and Debauchee that are reminiscent of alcohol, but I'm still not positive what they are in reference to.

In group discussion I formed the idea that maybe this is about the rain. The clouds are "leaning against the sun" and they take in the unbrewed liquor [a.k.a. water] for a new rainfall that quenches the thirst of the Foxgloves and plants.

This poem really got me thinking...and then confused me :/

Toads by Philip Larkin

6:39 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
'Toads" is an extended metaphor that continues through the poem comparing a toad to something that is responsible for controlling the speaker's and other peoples lives. This poem uses many alliterations [Lots of folks live on their wits/lecturers, lispers/losels, loblolly men, louts] and has incredible diction. The diction along with repetition helps the speaker get his point across. He is not just going to sit down and allow the "toad," or "the man," run his life. At the same time, the speaker seems almost envious of the toads because they do not have to worry about making money.

"Their nippers have got bare feet
Their unspeakable wives
Are skinny as whippets--and yet
No one actually starves,"

This stanza makes me think that the speaker wishes he could have a wife "skinny as a whippet" just because she watches what she eats, not because she is starving. He wants to live a lush life and not stick to what the man says. He wants to be "The Man."

The final stanza makes this point yet again.

"I don't say, one bodies the other
One's spiritual truth;
But I do say it's hard to lose either,
When you have both."

The speaker is referring to the "fame and the girl and the money." He seems to think that once you have one, it's difficult to lose the other. He definitely seems to think he is stuck in his life and not moving along. His diction shows his passion and somewhat angry feelings for those who are of higher authority and salary than he.

Pink Dog by Elizabeth Bishop

6:15 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
"Pink Dog" by Elizabeth Bishop seems very political and ironic. This tells a story of a "shaved dog," which represents an individual in society who tried living his or her life by the standards of society and then decided to break away from that norm. The speaker is speaking to the dog in apostrophe and trying to "persuade" the dog in a way to conform to society standards. The Carnival represents society as a whole-- a place full of fakeness and bright colors trying to cover up normal boring discrepancies.

"They say that Carnival's degenerating
--radios, Americans, or something,
have ruined it completely. They're just talking."

This line really stuck out to me. It calls out America for its superficiality since this poem seems to have been written about Rio de Janeiro, a city in Brazil. It's pretty annoying to look at American media sometimes and see what superficial and unimportant issues that are in the headlines. Yet, Americans feed on the drama, the gossip, and the superficial. Wonderful place we live in, isn't it? I kind of wish we could all just step back and see how stupid the things we worry about are. But... you know... I'll probably still worry about the same stupid things. I'm glad Elizabeth Bishop could call us all out though. We need a little reality check at times.

February by Margaret Atwood

5:32 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
Such an interesting woman Margaret Atwood is. I'm not going to lie, the first time I read this poem, it freaked me out a little bit. Let's just say when I heard the title "February," I wasn't expecting the theme to have anything to do with sex and cats.

In one sentence, the theme of this poem is we all have a call to action and it's time to get out of bed and do something.

Actually, I think it's kind of difficult to state just one theme from this poem because there are so many random and weird things it incorporates. Surprisingly though, they all work together. The poem goes through a stream of consciousness in the mind of the speaker who is laying down in bed in the middle of the winter, not wanting to face the day. At first she is criticizing how society is way too sexual and focused on "scoring" [line 20, "he shoots, he scores"], but then she contradicts herself by saying at the end "Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring." I like the outlook the speaker has at the end because it's very optimistic thinking. It reminds me of those "Just do something!" ads. Despite its oddities, the poem is quite memorable and interesting.

London

The diction of London by William Blake gives off more of a political vibe than a nature vibe as the rest have. It is written differently than most "American" poems with its abbreviations like thro', charter'd, black'ning, etc. The diction also makes it seem like the speaker is walking through the streets of London at night by the river during a war of some sort. He hears manacles, which are like chains, that gives off the impression of imprisonment. There is also many things that the speaker hears, such as "cry of every Man, every Infants cry of fear, Chimney-sweeper's cry." Talk about a lot of crying going on in London...

The poem also sounds dirty. Chimney-sweeper has the connotation of being a dirty and filthy job, and Harlot shares a similar dirty meaning. At the end of the poem, it says "And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse." I am thinking that the disease that is sweeping through London might be divorce or marriage problems because of all the Harlots running around and seducing people. Seems like we have the same problem in America though...

After Apple Picking

10:29 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
I could consider Robert Frost as one of my favorite poets because when he writes, he uses such vivid imagery that it isn't an overkill, but it more clearly explains what is going on [unlike Emily Dickenson].

When I read After Apple Picking, the first thing I thought was this entire poem is an extended metaphor. It is a metaphor for starting something with passion and excitement and watching it slowly fizzle out as the task continues on. Humans have that weakness, that temptation to quit something when they do not have their whole heart into it.

"And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have hadtoo much
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired."

Actually, that quote reminds me of myself at times when I take on too many things at once and just get tired of doing them all. I like to be busy 24/7, but there are days that I become so worn out that I just want to quit everything I am doing and just sit down for a while. The poem goes on to talk about how "all that struck the earth, no matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, went surely to the cider-apple heap," which gives the impression that it doesn't really matter if there are imperfections as long as it is the best it can be, it will be used. More people need to realize this in life. Even if something is not perfect or exactly as planned, it can still have the best outcome possible.

The Convergence of the Twain

10:12 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
This poem might be one of my favorites in this unit because I am a big fan of the Titanic and its history. The structure of this poem is repetitive in that it has two short sentences then a long one for each stanza. I especially like the juxtaposition between the initial thought of the Titanic and what it became. The Titanic was this regal, sophisticated steamliner that was the biggest and the best of its time. Only the best of the best, or the truly lucky, could afford a ride on the cruise ship. Its beauty is juxtaposed with how its fate ended up-- in the bottom of the ocean.

"Over the mirror meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls--grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

Jewels in joy designed
To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind."

The way this poem says it, I feel like its fate saying, "Haha, that's what you get for being a stupid, prideful human!" What was once so beautiful and regal is now a home for decay and sea animals, thousands of feet under the ocean.

I also like that the poem relates the iceberg as a part of the ship's fate. It was fate for the two to meet, even though it was a deadly fate. The Titanic serves as a lesson to the rest of humankind to never underestimate the power of mother nature.

Spring

"Spring" by Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of those poems that is chock full of religious imagery and allusion.

Spring, in the religious world, is thought of as a time of renewal and rebirth. This poem justifies the Catholic belief in that quite plainly. The first stanza speaks more of the physical beauty of spring. As a sidenote, I like spring and all, but autumn is way better than springtime. In the second stanza, however, there is a reference to the Garden of Eden, Christ, lord, and sinning. These religious images are parallel to spring bringing forth new life from the dead of the winter time and Jesus dying and coming back to life. Although...he died and came back to life much quicker than our seasons go unfortunately.

I would have to disagree with the first line of the first stanza though. While I agree that spring is absolutely beautiful, I don't think I can say that nothing is more beautiful than spring. Of course I love it because it gets me out of winter, but there is something about fall that is just so much more appealing to me. Then again, spring is closer to the end of the school year...which tends to be pretty beautiful. :]

I Felt A Funeral In My Brain

9:04 PM Posted by Emily Looney 0 comments
Everything I have read by Emily Dickenson is somewhat ambiguous and generally depressing. This poem didn't let me down!

It sounds to me like Miss Dickenson was going through an extremely rough time and really needed to express how brain dead she was feeling. The tone is depressing and funeral-esque [quite appropriate, cough cough, the title], and the diction used connects nearly everything to a slow death[ie. mourners, going numb, finished knowing, hit a world at every plunge]. She uses the senses to back up the tone by making them all seem like they are contributing to her funeral. Her thoughts are the "mourners" in her brain that just continue to fill her mind until there is no more room. Her heart serves as the beating drum, symbolizing the beginning of the event. The "boots of lead" term applies to the emotions that are weighing her down. I feel like something has just happened to her that she cannot handle in her life and she is at such a low point that she feels like she is literally becoming brain dead. Finally, she has a catharsis, letting go of everything that was plaguing her mind, and then the worst part; the poem just STOPS. How annoying is that?! I want to know what happens! Or at least have a little more to think about. That abrupt ending really makes me think that some suicidal thoughts were going on here. Maybe this was written near her death...?

Perrine

Back to blogging :]


Perrine kind of sounds like he knows what he is talking about since he uses outside resources to back up what he says about poetry, like comparing a poem to "an ink blot in a Rorshach personality test," but I don't agree with everything he says. Let's just start with what I do agree with I suppose. I like how Perrine addresses the fact that a poem can be interpreted in many different ways, but it is not meant for the author to interpret his own poem. I would think the author would want to have some mysteriousness in the writing, so it seems only fair that they keep the true meaning to themself. I definitely completely interpreted the poems differently than how Perrine interpreted them, but I still like my interpretations because that is the beauty of poetry. I believe everyone should be able to read a poem and allow their imagination to wander anywhere it wants to go along the lines of the words.

On the other hand, it really irritates me how he states,"If it is contradicted by any detail it is wrong," in reference to interpreting poetry. That just sounds bad because any person with an imagination can spin something so it includes every detail, including words in a poem. He says that a poem with multiple interpretations should be narrowed down to one interpretation by choosing which ever account sounds more "real..." yeah, I'm not a big fan of that either. Poetry is an art form; therefore, imagination is required. Far-fetched interpretations turn out to the be the best ones sometimes!

I guess I will say though that for reading poetry in class, it would definitely be easier to match the details exactly with interpretations and choose the interpretation that sounds more "real," but I just do not like what that takes away from poetry as an art form. Art is supposed to be expressive and imaginative...so who are we to take away from what the author could actually want us to see in it?