Dover Beach: Personal Reflection

I found this poem to be one of the most difficult to understand from this section. The speaker is standing, I think literally, on the beaches of Dover in England. He is comparing the sea in front of him to the Sea of Faith. The speaker states that faith has been receding and less people are believing in God. My confusion stems from this knowledge. I'm not sure whether he himself believes in God or if he is even troubled by the lack of faith. However, the last line "where ignorant armies clash by night" leads me to believe that the speaker is angry with the injustices in the world. Whether it is in war or faith, the speaker seems to be condemning the world around him for their behavior.

Getting Out: Simile

Throughout the poem, I noticed a couple of similes that added meaning to the poem. The first simile is in the first line of the poem which says "That year we hardly slept, waking like inmates." This simile infuses an image of either prisoners trapped in a cell or a mental inmate imprisoned in their own mind. To me, the second one seems more likely given the context of the poem and the emotional differences that led to the couples end. The next simile "heaving words like furniture" describes the destructive nature of the couple's relationship. It describes the arguements in a more severe manner and illuminates the large conflicts that the couple had. Finally, one excerpt that I think gives a more significant meaning to the poem is the phrase "our matching eyes and hair." This seems to describe a couple comprised of two people who were so alike that they could not coexist together because of such similarities eventually ending in their divorce.

Hazel Tells LaVerne: Allusion

Reading this poem, the allusion to the Princess and the frog can be recognized. However, the outcome is much different. The woman kills the frog. What is the purpose of referencing the story to twist the ending in a  modern and less charming style? My only guess right now is that it may have been simply for just humor. However, lost in the usage of improper grammer and lacking punctuation, I'm having trouble determining a theme or message from the poem. Usually when I think of poetry, I think of elegent words from hundreds of years ago that I have to look up in a dictionary to understand their ancient meaning. In contrast, this poem is literally the exact opposite of my stereotype of poetry. My only understanding for the theme of this poem is that its intended meaning probably lies somewhere among its informal nature.

My mistress' eyes: Personal Reflection

I'm going to take a stab at the meaning of this poem. First off, literally all the first 12 lines state all the imperfections of the speaker's mistress and how he doesn't like her. Then he goes on to say his love is rare and great. Why discuss everything that you hate about someone and then go on to tell them you love them? That just seems to go against the normal way of things. However, I think that the meaning to this poem could be that imperfections shouldn't matter. The speaker describes all the flaws in his mistress' physical being yet never says anything bad about her spiritual characteristics. Through this, he creates a sense of flawless spirit among the woman and conveys that physical imperfections should not determine love.

Crossing the Bar: Imagery

I couldn't help but notice the recurring imagery throughout this poem. Various images of a "sunset and evening star", "boundless deep", and a "twilight and evening bell" all metaphorically described the death of the speaker. All these images have a central theme in common. They each are something at the end of their cycle. These images are used to describe the speaker's approaching death. The speaker in the poem states "And may there be no moaning of the bar." At first I didn't know what this meant; however, after reading the description in the questions in the book, I can conclude that this statement means that the speaker wants to have a peaceful death. He does not want to die in agony, yelling from pain which is certainly what I think all people would want. Overall, I think I understood and enjoyed this poem's unique imagery that helped communicate its meaning in a metaphorical manner.

"next to of course god america i": Personal Reflection

I'm not sure what it is I even read. I have so many questions for this poem, but I don't even know exactly what it is to ask since I can't even decode what the poem is about. These are probably my most basic questions. Who is the speaker in the poem? Is the theme of the poem about America's brilliance or faults? Why does the poem shift from mocking American songs to the speaker's own thoughts in the same lines? These shifts in and out of song are very confusing and hard to pick up on. I'm definitely going to need to listen to other peoples' thoughts on this poem during class discussion.

APO: 96225: Personal Reflection

This was my favorite poem out of the section because of its simplicity and profound implications. The mother, to me, seems to represent innocence and curiosity. She seems to symbolize the attitude of the American public during the Vietnam war. Hardly anyone knew of Vietnam before the war started and were curious to learn about what was going on in the war. The mother displays these qualities in her curiosity for her son's well being. Just like the mother, a vast majority of the American public protested the war when they learned of the horrors involved in it. The poem seems to convey the robbing of innocence that war brings whether it was in the son's actions during the war that plague his concience or the mother's knowledge of the realities her son must face. This poem, as a whole, seems to embody the experiences the American people went through during the Vietnam war.

Sorting Laundry: Central Purpose

I think that this poem is about a couple aging through life together. Details of "shirts and skirts and pants recycling week after week" lead me to believe that this is about an aging couple. All their "wrinkles" still "in style" conveys that the two lovers are growing old together and ignore the aging process as a hinderence in their relationship. From these details, a central purpose in the poem emerges. I think the central purpose is to show that love is something that never grows old. The last stanza in the poem conveys this through describing how there is no material substitute for love. "A mountain of unsorted wash [that] could not fill the empty side of the bed" seems to depict this immaterial quality to love.

Ozymandias: Imagery

The various images in this poem contribute to a general theme and meaning among the work. Ozymandias was a powerful Egyptian tyrant during his reign. Statues and monuments were created of him boasting "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings." However, the imagery of the poem conveys that all things eventually end. The images of an "antique land" describing post-kingdom Egypt create a sense that the power of the kings, especially, Ozymandias has dissolved into history. Though Ozymandias thought himself invincible, the images of the monument, or "colossal wreck", in "decay" illuminate the meaning of the poem that all things, even once thought invincible, will come to be just a mere "antique" of history. This, to me, creates a bleak sense about our world today. The tone of this poem has two sides to it: that all opression will come to an end but also, with it, all other good things in life. The tone just seems to imply that all things come and go and no matter how invincible people think they are, they will eventually be forgotten.

Much Madness is Divinist Sense: Paradox

This poem by Emily Dickinson seems to be one big paradox. I think I'm on the right track to understanding this poem. The first line states "Much madness is divinest Sense." How could madness be supreme reason? In reverse order, the speaker states that "much sense [is] the starkest Madness." The speaker, through the paradox, conveys the theme that those who sometimes are thought of as logical and belonging to the majority are the ones who are insane. The speaker illuminates that the majority of humanity is insane for "handling with a chain" all those who do not think the same way as them. The speaker, through the paradoxes, conveys that those who aren't open minded and refuse to consider other ideas other than their own are the one's who are insane rather than logical.

The Joy of Cooking: Personal Reflection

They say serial killers always torture animals when they're young. I wonder if they write about cooking their sister's tongue and eating their brother's heart, too. This poem is just simply the wierdest thing I have ever read. After getting through the gruesome details, I think I have discovered something close to the meaning of the poem. Thankfully, it seems to be metaphorical. The speaker describes her brother's heart as "barely feeding two" when it should serve six. This seems to symbolize her brother as being a very cold-hearted individual who probably did not love the speaker as he should have. However, I'm confused on what her sister's tongue could symbolize. This poem, overall, confused me on its exact meaning as well as ranked number one on the wierdest things I've ever read list. I would think she'd be able to come up with something else to get her point across that didn't involve cooking her siblings' organs, but apparently we can't always get what we want.

February: Personal Reflection

This poem seemed to carry a dark metaphorical tone. The speaker describes "sex and territory" as "what will finish us all off." This statement conveys a bleak tone that the world will end up destroyed due to humanities' own flaws. Also, the speaker talks of death very casualy when he describes his cat frequently checking to see if he is dead. This casual talk of death implies that the speaker is indifferent on the subject of death and seems to be just simply waiting for it. Through images of pollution pouring out of chimneys to keep him warm, the speaker associates the month of February with that of gloom and depression. In the last line, I found the final statement "make it spring" to be very profound. To me, it seems that the speaker is representing the bad times and depressed outlook on the world with the month of February. Spring symbolizes the happiness that the speaker so desperately wants, needs, and is asking for.

Dream Deffered: Simile

The speaker in the poem addresses the issues of dreams people don't pursue. He describes the outcomes that could impact the person through the use of similes. The images depicted in these similes carry a negative tone to them. The speaker, through these images, conveys the lingering emotions that may come when people don't pursue a dream. However, each question and statement is said with slight doubt. Each statement describes a negative affect of a deffered dream but then conveys that this affect may simply go away. What is the purpose of doing this? The final line seems significant in the sense that it supercedes all the other outcomes of a dream deffered. Asking if it explodes reveals that a dream deffered could affect a person so strongly that it could destroy their life. I think that this poem conveys that we should actively pursue our dreams in life and not simply give up on them without trying because we will never know how bad the burden of deffering our dreams may be looking back from our future.

Toads: Symbol?

This poem was very hard to understand for me. What are the two toads symbolizing in the poem? The speaker describes one toad as soiling "six days of the week... with its sickening poisen just for paying a few bills." Is the toad money and greed? This is the only thing that makes sense to me, but throughout the rest of the poem, I struggled to come up with any examples or text supports to prove this. The speaker describes poverty through depicting "nippers [that] have got bare feet." However, I have found no direct connection between the toad and this description. The second toad is described as "hard to lose" when both toads are present in a person's life. However, I'm clueless what this could be. I'm interested to hear what other people think these toads symbolize in class.

I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed: Extended Metaphor

This whole poem is an extended metaphor comparing liquor to something else. The first line shows that this "liquor" is metaphorical through the speaker's statement "I taste a liquor never brewed." This conveys that the liquor is not actually something tangible, but is instead utilized as a metaphor. However, I'm not exactly sure what the speaker is comparing this too. Some clues in the text give me the perception that the speaker is somewhat "drunk" on nature's beauty. The speaker describes the liquor as "Inebriate of Air," "Debauchee of Dew," and "Reeling-thro endless summer days." All these details depict nature. The speaker, through these details, seems to convey that they enjoy nature to the point it is intoxicating. It goes a little far in describing this, but , to me, it just seems that the speaker is describing their appreciation of nature and all its beauties.

The Panther: Personal Reflection

I found this poem to be very vague in its meaning. I'm not sure I have fully understood the meaning behind the poem but I have a few thoughts of what it could be. First off, the poem has a very dark tone, even in the sense of the panther. The panther was chosen for its darkening image among the other dark language used in the poem's description of the panther being caged from the world. Also, the panther is significant to be the animal chosen to be in the cage because it is a more mysterious creature than others such as a lion. A panther, historically, has been at the edge of environmental tragedies. This panther could symbolize the injustices placed on a certain person or group. However, who or what could this be? Reading this poem, I have noticed certain details that may describe this, but I'm still unsure what exactly it could symbolize. However, what is known is that the images of confinement and that the image the panther sees in the end create a feeling of sympathy for the creature that is cut off from the world on the other side of the bars. I'm curious to understand the exact symbolic meaning behind this poem.

London: Central Purpose of the poem

William Blake describes a battered London as a result of the horrors of society. Descriptions of "every cry of every man" being heard illuminate a sad tone to the poem. Also, Blake depicts the "youthful Harlot's curse" as destroying the sanctity of marriage and the lives of children. However, blame is not placed upon the Harlot. The adjective "youthful" reveals that the Harlot is not the sinner but a tragedy of the unjust society caused by an out of touch "black'ning Church" and neglectful government. Through these details, Blake reveals the central purpose of the poem. Its purpose is to reveal a warnful tone of the horrors that can injure the people of a nation if they are not respected by their government or if religion and morality become out of touch with the people. If these atrocities are enabled in society, Blake conveys the inevitable outcomes that coincide with them.

The Widow’s Lament in Springtime: (Images Q 10)

This poem is full of symbolic imagery. Williams describes a widow who has lost her husband recently. His images of the plumtree white with flowers are associated with that of her husband. Her husband’s death has left her sad and lonely. However, when the images of the white flowers again resurface, it is under the hope that the widow will again see her husband. Her son depicts the scene of trees of white flowers at the edge of the woods. The woods are used as a metaphor for the woman’s life and that at its end, she will arrive to be with her husband when she “sinks into the marsh” around the flowers. William’s use of symbolic imagery intertwines the two people through the description and representations of the white flowers of their lives. This imagery reveals a thematic message in the poem which implies that true love and friendships still exist even after death.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (Personal Reflection)

I found this poem very confusing at first. Dickinson metaphorically compares her transition from sanity to mental chaos with that of a funeral. The funeral, in her brain, is the loss of reason and replacement with insantity. Her diction reveals this metaphor in the first line "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain." Personally, I enjoyed observing this transition through her metaphorical images of the casket plunging into the ground when the "Plank in Reason" breaks. The cutoff at the end of the poem added to this effect of the person's lack of communication with the rest of the world that coincided with her insanity. However, one thing that I found strange was her capitalization of certain words while leaving others normal. Was this a way she signified their importance or just pure randomness? Anyway, the poem demonstrated very well each stage in the process starting with the failure of reason leading to the eventual insanity of the person.

The Convergence of Twain: Tone of the poem and how it is achieved

Upon analysis of this poem, I have come across two tones that the author creates within the poem. The first is that of a gloomy atmosphere conveyed through the author's diction using words such as "grotesque", "slimed", and "bleared and black." The author uses such words to describe the once luxorious and magnificent ship now at the bottom of the sea. The ship has now become worthless along with all its "jewels in joy designed." In addition to his gloomy tone of the present state of the ship, Hardy shifts to a warnful tone of the coming event. He describes the ships growth and progress as well as the iceberg's growth. These seemingly unrelated objects now meet after this warning in Hardy's next lines that depict the catastrophic event of their "intimate welding of their later history." Through his diction, Hardy is able to achieve both a gloomy, dark, and warnful tone in his poem.

Perrine Poetry Blog

        Upon picking up the article and reading the first few statements, I already disagreed with Perrine's idea that some explanations for poems are wrong and others are right. I have always thought that a poem was whatever a reader wants it to be. However, after I finished the article I was in general agreement with him. Perrine doesn't advocate that only one interperetation of poetry is right while the rest are wrong. He simply states that logic should be applied to analysis. With this logic should come limitations in the scope of perceptions into the poem's true identity. From this, one correct explanation of a poem or a multitude of explanations may arise. Perrine simply states that some interperations of a well-written poem can be proved implausible.
        Within Perrine's logical idea, I do find myself disagreeing with some aspects of his explanations. Poetry is not always meant to be analyzed for a specific meaning. Therefore, this idea for interpereting poetry is not always applicable. Sometimes, in my opinion, poetry is composed to create a broad spectrum of interperetations in which none should be limited by logical reasoning. However, for the most part, poetry vaguely addresses things in which real meanings can be discovered. Because of this, I think that Perrine's analytical stratagies can be very helpful. They can help me in class by using the process of logical steps in my explanations and interperetations of a poem's meaning. By using these steps, it will prevent me from having conflicting meanings within my own interperetations of a poem as well as serve as a guide and starting point when first reading the poem.