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THE BEST GOES FIRST - I know that's not how the saying goes but this poem, "Funeral Blues" really touched my heart and I can feel the excruciating grief the speaker has. This is a beautifully written poem. Usually one can't put this type of feeling to words but this, this was just all everyone wanted to hear and for someone to have said it.

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That one moment where Troy and Rose finally stand on equal ground, head to head in their power dynamic. Both are hurt, angry, scared and wondering what comes next. There is so much built in heightened emotion as the couple come forth exposing their vulnerabilities without apologies either. We’re disgusted with Troy’s misdeeds and shocked by Rose’s decision.

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This poem is the definition of a poet pouring his farthest reach of imagination in the multidimensional complexity imagery and symbols.

For example, the concept of fire and ice imagery carry connotations that refers to sensation one can feel. For example fire evokes felling of heat of light but can also be a burning sensation and or pain.

There are so many examples for symbols for example fire symbolizing a burning desire and ice as a symbol for darkness or hate. This poem can be applied to anyone's life and be interpreted as a warning when one had desires or war -- violence and hate. These symbols forces the reader to connect and share a personal connection or application to the mood of this poem.

This truly is a beautiful, far, elevated imagination of life by this poet.

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This is another poem that the poet is able to speak his mind and challenges the ideas of race as well as American identity. The speaker of this poem self identifies as a black student, "I am the only colored student in my class" (Hughes, Theme For English B, 741). The speaker emphasizes the difference between him and the rest of his white classmates as well as the teacher. The speaker wonders if "it's that simple" to "go home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you-- / Then, it will be true" (Hughes, Theme For English B, 741).The speaker hints about segregation, hence saying life is more simple for the teacher when she is "older -- and white--" (Hughes, Theme For English B, 741).

The speaker's way to school isn't simple at all: the speaker travels a very long distance everyday to the simply attend "this college on the hill above Durham"(Hughes, Theme For English B, 741). The speaker seem to face so much racial tension as goes for the kids in the historical time of 1900s.

Overal the speaker includes what it means to be different than being similar to his white classmates and teacher. For example, the speaker disregards their difference in ethnicity and identifies both the teacher and him as American in this stanza, “So will my page be colored that I write?/ Being me, it will not be white./ But it will be/ a part of you, instructor./ You are white --/ yet a part of me, as I am a part of you./ That’s American.”(Hughes, Theme For English B, 741). This goes to show that even though experiencing racial tension, he can still unite and be identified with them as being Americans as a whole.

Hughs has expressed this reality and idea of race and American identity in this poem.

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Similar to "My Papa's Waltz", "The Silken Ties" was written by the Poet Robert Frost as a "love poem" admiring his wife attached to her domestic duties.

This poem overall is about the beautiful bondage of man and wife. As the wife is symbolized as the silken tent, it's "supporting central cedar pole /  that is pinnacle to heavenward /" this refers to her angelic soul that is reliable (Frost, The Silken Ties, 759). As the tent is tied down with the "countless silken ties of love and thought" she is bound with love and and the bondage of marriage and responsibility that are countless.

This man brings out the beautiful importance and admiration of a bondage, not only in marriage and vows but can relate to ones bondage to religion, etc.

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On a deeper emotional level, this poem contains Roethke's mixed disparate emotions and moods. The narrator, the son, reminisce of his father and their complex relationship .

This son seems to have conflicting emotions towards his father as he first describes their relationship to be very close and intimate, "But I hung on like death:"(Roethke, "My Papa's Waltz" 468).This seems that the child hung on as if scared of the consequence of letting go, perhaps the fear of "death" upon his father or fear of distancing away from their father-son relationship.

Their father-son relationship was metaphorically described as a Waltz. The dance itself is violent and intimate just as trying to understand their complex relationship as his father which made them or the son dizzy.  It seems to be a dance with a mixture of tenderness and brutality or of the son's admiration and fear.

Overall, it is a son who recalls a time of his childhood and recounts memories of closeness. This poem gives us insight on the poet's relationship with the poet's father as well as experience of loss. The way the poet expressed his emotions and mood, it just seems as though this poem was a tribute to his father.

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A Martian Sends a Postcard Home - Craig Raine

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A Martian Sends a Postcard Home - Craig Raine

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This poem is exactly what the title is: a postcard sent back from a martian of the wonders he's seen and observed. The poem entirely is about perception and in this poetic way, he wants to share his view of life by defamiliarizing everyday things to show it's significance including some amounts of humor.

For example, lines 10-11, "Rain is when the earth is television. / I has the property of making colors darker"(Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home, 546). Rain is like television, where they make "colors darker" concealing the reality of what was there.

Or "Model T", being known as the popular first car to change america's world, is dissected to an imagery of "a locked room with a key" and its purpose to "free the world" metaphorically changed the world (Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home, 546).

The poet's use of abstract language, in describing everyday things in a peculiar way, is his way of expressing "his farthest reaches of imagination" (Amy Lowell).

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In We Wear The Mask by Paul Laurance Dunbar

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In We Wear The Mask by Paul Laurance Dunbar

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The poet projects his view on how his collective black people live by "masking" it in this lyrical poem. It is about the oppressed black American being forced to hide their pain and frustration behind a mask of happiness and contentment.

Dunbar uses somber diction such as "torn", "bleeding", "tears" and "tortured souls" to set an oppressed tone.

Historically,  this poem was published in 1895 and in that year there was racial antipathy towards Black Americans.

In the 19th Century, blacks frequently concealed their pain, frustration, and anger from whites, as well as from one another. For blacks to reveal publicly their true feelings about whites' maltreatment of them would have been to risk dangerous retaliation. In this way of a poem, Dunbar is able to express and mask these emotions for us readers.

Therefore this poem itself is "masked" because one could not openly state these feelings.

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We felt such loss, such grief and pain of human love. The poet expressively showed his shock, anger, and grief during the lost of his beloved.
The poet expresses such anger in the beginning, wanting to "stop" and "silence" all time and noises in the world to grieve.

"For nothing now can ever come to any good."
The poet does not expect to overcome this tragic event but want to cherish this lasting moment in grief. The worst part of grieving is accepting that life will go on and you are expected to get past this.

Again, this poem is this poet's way of communicating to the people who shares the same feelings and experience of mourning the loss of their loved ones. This poet expressively shares the feeling of grief and pain in a man's love loss.

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Through poetry, we can see the different emotions, voices, and vibrant imagery projected by man.

It is a way of communicating.

It is an outlet to express your elevated thoughts and ideas as you wish you could when speaking.

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Amy Lowell writes, “We should read poetry because only in that way can we know man in all his moods – in the most beautiful thoughts of his heart, in his farthest reaches of imagination, in the tenderness of his love, in the nakedness and awe of his soul confronted with the terror and wonder of the universe.”