Lonely Hearts: Personal Reflection

I found this poem to be pretty wierd and strange. Also, I'm just simply confused on the meaning or purpose behind this poem. To me, I just see six lonely people trying to use an old version of E-harmony. Why write a poem about this? I don't really see a theme or purpose at all in this poem. One thing that is apparent is that these people live in North London. After that, I'm just lost. I don't really even know what questions to ask about this poem to better understand it. I'm definitely going to have to hear other people's perspectives on this poem in class because I think I'm reading it too literal.

Delight In Disorder: Personal Reflection

I found this poem to be very interesting in the speaker's view towards disorder. Generally, our everyday lives have a schedule and plans to govern the day. However, the speaker in the poem conveys his objection to this. He finds satisfaction among disorderly things and even anger among order. The speaker states that he finds a sweet disorder in some dress. The oxymoron, "wild civility", describing the tied and orderly shoelace among the disorderly dress conveys this outlook the speaker has on order. He, in contrast to society, views civilization as being somewhat barbaric or "wild." I found this point of view on the matter very interesting because it is something most people don't ever think about in our daily lives of "wild civility."

Edward: Repetitive Form

The first thing that I noticed in this poem was the repetition in the form of the poem and in certain lines and phrases. This poem was very hard to follow due to this unusual nature. I think I understand the gist of the poem but lack the entire meaning. Edward starts off killing his hawk, and his mother somewhat sugarcoats his wrongdoing. Next, he kills his steed and yet again his mother does not let him know of his wrongdoing. Finally, Edward kills his father. His mother then asks what is he going to do. Each stanza showed a progession in Edward's offenses until they became so great he would be forced to leave his old life behind. In the end, he blamed his mother for not giving him proper advice or punishing him for his wrongdoings. Because he was able to get away with his faults, he never learned anything from them and continued to commit a more serious offense. I think that the author is trying to imply that punishment and consequences have good intentions in teaching valuable lessons. However, many aspects of the poem still remain unclear to me. I will be interested to hear other peoples' thoughts and interpretations of this poem.

Death, Be Not Proud: Central Purpose

I think that the speaker's central purpose in this poem was to convey that people shouldn't fear death. He describes death as not being "mighty and dreadful" as some have called it. Conversely, he goes as far to ask death to kill him. The speaker describes death as just a simple step until "we wake eternally" where death does not exist. The poem takes an unorthodox approach to look at death in a positive light. The speaker, obviously a man of faith, describes death as the last thing between people and their eternal life after. One of the things I didn't understand from this poem though is why he is telling death to not be proud. The speaker describes all the good things of death and then says for it to not be proud. Usually when we think of good things or qualities, there is a sense of pride that comes along with it. Paradoxically, the author conveys that this is not the case which has left me a little confused on the theme or if my understanding of this poem is right.

Elegy For My Father, Who Is Not Dead: Extended Metaphor

This poem represented two conflicting and relavent beliefs that many people have about an afterlife. The arguement in this poem was whether or not people believe in life after death or a heaven. This theme was communicated through an extended metaphor in the poem. The speaker metaphorically compared death and what comes after to a journey on a ship. The father in the poem embraced the idea of a heaven and was described as having a "sureness of faith." In contrast, his son did not think the same way. The son clearly disagreed stating "I do not think he's right." The metaphor of the son watching his father sail away convinced the ship is going down and the father convinced he'll be waiting for his son on the other side represents the divide in human belief and faith found in our modern world. One thing I didn't understand, however, was the author's own opinion on the matter. I couldn't decide whether or not he believed in heaven or if he was even trying to communicate his own beliefs through the poem.