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This song is a cry for help: Help me! Only you, only you can, you are unique”

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plMaid of Athens, ere we part.
By Lord Byron
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JI293Xdbyus

MAID of Athens, ere we part,
Give, O, give me back my heart!
Or, since that has left my breast,
Keep it now, and take the rest!
Hear my vow before I go,
My life, I love thee.

By those tresses unconfined,
Wooed by each Ægean wind;
By those lids whose jetty fringe
Kiss thy soft cheeks’ blooming tinge;
By those wild eyes like the roe,
My life, I love thee.

By that lip I long to taste;
By that zone-encircled waist;
By all the token-flowers that tell
What words can never speak so well;
By love’s alternate joy and woe,
My life, I love thee.

Maid of Athens! I am gone.
Think of me, sweet! when alone.
Though I fly to Istambol,
Athens holds my heart and soul:
Can I cease to love thee? No!
My life, I love thee.

Byron falls in love with this 12-year-old from Athens on his way to Constantinople. He offered 500 pounds for her, which got declined because her family was relatively impoverished. He left once and visited once more before never seeing the girl, Teresa Makri, again. However, he dedicated a poem to her (and most likely her two sisters) because she found out he was a poet.
When reading this poem, it is evident that he probably wasn't absolutely in love with this girl, but with her "attributes." In the first and second stanzas, it sounds like like he is in love with Ms. Makri, because he describes her in a beautiful, pure manner, however in the third stanza, it becomes obvious that he only loves her for her body. Throughout this entire poem there is not one instance where he speaks about her personality or who she is as a person. Personally, even though he wrote his post poem when he was in his younger years, I feel like this piece of work speaks volumes about the man he is/was.
The last stanza sounds like he doesn't really love her and he is just trying to appeal to her to make her feel less bad about him leaving. Clearly, she wasn't really his life, as he was a fairly wealthy man at the time and to him she was only worth five hundred pounds. I'm pretty bitter about this poem altogether. I think it makes him out to be pretty skeevy.

Lord Byron
The Pathless Woods
https://youtu.be/bM5aQL8rfXs

   There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
   There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
   There is society where none intrudes,
   By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
   I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
   From these our interviews, in which I steal
   From all I may be, or have been before,
   To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

   Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!
   Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
   Man marks the earth with ruin--his control
   Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain
   The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
   A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
   When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
   He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

   His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fields
   Are not a spoil for him,--thou dost arise
   And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields
   For earth's destruction thou dost all despise,
   Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,
   And send'st him, shivering in thy playful spray
   And howling, to his gods, where haply lies
   His petty hope in some near port or bay,
And dashest him again to earth: —there let him lay.

In the first stanza, I believe he is describing his happy place where he resides when he's stressed. I believe he doesn't want anybody to disrupt the peace there, and so in the second stanza, he's placing a curse on those who look for war or look to harm the peaceful place. Nobody is allowed get through to the peaceful place. I think in the third stanza he is also cursing survivors of the wreckage to make sure they don't get to the peaceful place, because they don't belong there. So if they survive, they die on the island.

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https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/still-i-rise/ COMMENTARY:
Still I Rise: The two stanzas introduces the tone which is self-confidence and assertiveness. "With you bitter, twisted lies, you may tread me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I'll rise." Angelou emphasizes the when she attempts to be apart of a movement, down in history their actions will be be a twisted lie. "Does my sassiness upset you". Meaning does her logic and well organized thoughts upset the ones who are against her.
CONTEMPORARY: https://padlet.com/curley_rene00/bvknxlye2dmj
In the poem “Alone” Maya Angelou uses different themes and ideas. Through the use of imagery, symbolism and repetition, “Alone” by Maya Angelou uses the theme of isolation in order to emphasize abandonment in the poem; she also utilizes allegory to show how social class and wealth is not necessarily congruent to the pursuit of happiness; tone uses repetition to emphasize the feeling of abandonment.

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The Bean Eaters

They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
Tin flatware.

Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep on putting on their clothes
And putting things away.

And remembering . . .
Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room that
is full of beads and receipts and dolls and cloths,
tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.

This poem is about poverty and loneliness. In a time of racism and social inequities this old couple has been left to fend for themselves without the support of the economy and no assistance from the government. Just the two of them have become isolated and astray from society. They have become used to a monotonous routine. Everyday they eat beans, the same meal because they can afford nothing more. Not only are they lonely but they have no money to show for their lives. They can only reminisce. Brooks uses visual imagery and diction in order to portray how the couple lives a lifestyle of poverty and are unfit to support themselves. “Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood, Tin flatware” (lines 3-4). Chipware is a variation of the word silverware which people who have more money would use. It is something unaffordable to the couple therefore they must use a cheap alternative. They are also using a table that creaks implying that it must be something like vintage and also unfit for use. The old age of the gjgjcjfhdfvthings they use seem to be a metaphor for their haggarty type of feel . Worn out, wise, and experience they are left with nothing but pain and memories. “Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,” (line 10). They recall memories of happiness and sadness.

The Sonnet-Ballad

Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
They took my lover’s tallness off to war,
Left me lamenting. Now I cannot guess
What I can use an empty heart-cup for.
He won’t be coming back here any more.
Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew
When he went walking grandly out that door
That my sweet love would have to be untrue.
Would have to be untrue. Would have to court
Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange
Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)
Can make a hard man hesitate—and change.
And he will be the one to stammer, “Yes.”
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?

Brook speaks of her lover who has left her to go to war. Often times, the government would draft men into the war knowing that they would likely die. Brooks seem to lament the loss of her lover before he even dies. She is just so sure that he will not return to her therefore setting a tone of pessimism. She calls on her mother as a shoulder to cry on when she feels as though she has lost the love of her life. The use of repetition helps to show a feeling of hopelessness . When she says her “would have to be untrue” (lines 8-9) she is trying to convince herself that her love for him is unreal since he will not be returning anyway.

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She Walks in Beauty

By Lord Byron (George Gordon)
https://youtu.be/xI_51j73MWc

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens oer her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and oer that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Lord Byron wrote this poem with loaded visual imagery. When I read this poem, the first word that popped into my mind was innocence. The way that Lord Byron describes his lover conveys her to be sweet and innocent. He uses words like
"pure and sweet" to almost give her a childlike effect. In a majority of his love poems, when Lord Byron describes a lover, he inserts many sexual metaphors and innuendos, and because of this, I believe this poem is about his most innocent form of love for this woman. This could have been a time in his life where he really thought he found the one. It is quite long compared to his other normal poems, actually one of his longest poems, which shows this man clearly had a lot to say about this woman.
So in the first stanza, he begins to describe her as beautiful as a night sky, almost as if she was mysterious as well. He said that she was everything good that was light and dark. This woman is clearly the most beautiful thing n the world to him. Maybe this line could indicate that she was beautiful even when she was mad or upset. What's last of the first stanza could indicate that she may have been somber a lot, but even through that somberness, he could see her inner beauty and innocence shine through. When he says to meet in aspect in her eyes, this could be seen as a warning to be careful when approaching her because she's sensitive. The second stanza just describes her physically, so we see that she has dark hair and radiant, lively features. In the third stanza I believe that he is saying that he hopes being with him puts her mind at ease and finally makes her happy.

So We'll Go No More a Roving

By Lord Byron (George Gordon)
https://youtu.be/mDXWN5bAtCs

So, we'll go no more a roving

So late into the night,

Though the heart be still as loving,

And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,

And the soul wears out the breast,

And the heart must pause to breath
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,

And the day returns too soon,

Yet we'll go no more a roving

By the light of the moon.

Immediately, one could tell that Byron was heartbroken when he wrote this. Clearly, though, she was not with him anymore. In the second stanza, it becomes clear through visual imagery that his lover passed away. My guess is that they often went walking at night. In the first stanza he proclaims that he still loves her, and this is a very direct poem. There's not much to be analyzed.

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Replying to Lily Hatchet's commentary on Sharon Olds "The Victims"

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Replying to Lily Hatchet's commentary on Sharon Olds "The Victims"

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 The commentary of "The Victims" definitely points out the main ideas and elements portrayed in this poem, but I do feel like you could have dug a little bit deeper. I agree with you that the child's mother taught them to hate and despise their father because of the abuse that went on in the family, however, I believe that she only taught this child how to see the truth behind her silence. Although the narrator was this woman's child, I am convinced that this poem is about what their mother had gone through in silence before her divorce.

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Mothers

BY NIKKI GIOVANNI

the last time i was home

to see my mother we kissed

exchanged pleasantries

and unpleasantries pulled a warm

comforting silence around

us and read separate books

i remember the first time

i consciously saw her

we were living in a three room

apartment on burns avenue

mommy always sat in the dark

i don’t know how i knew that but she did

that night i stumbled into the kitchen

maybe because i’ve always been

a night person or perhaps because i had wet

the bed

she was sitting on a chair

the room was bathed in moonlight diffused through

those thousands of panes landlords who rented

to people with children were prone to put in windows

she may have been smoking but maybe not

her hair was three-quarters her height

which made me a strong believer in the samson myth

and very black

i’m sure i just hung there by the door

i remember thinking: what a beautiful lady

she was very deliberately waiting

perhaps for my father to come home

from his night job or maybe for a dream

that had promised to come by

“come here” she said “i’ll teach you

a poem: i see the moon

the moon sees me

god bless the moon

and god bless me”

i taught it to my son

who recited it for her

just to say we must learn

to bear the pleasures

as we have borne the pains

Commentary:
Nikki’s poem is a memory collection of watching her mother sit in the darkness, a representation of the trials and oppression. The thought of her mother waiting for her father to come home showed the gender norms of needing a man in the home. She describes her mother sitting in the moonlight of a dark room teaching her a poem, this poem is culture being passed to the next generation when she’s teaches it to her son. Even with her son, being a woman she is dependent on her mother. This poem shows the relationship between Nikki and her mother how they were through the restrictions.

Dreams

BY NIKKI GIOVANNI

in my younger years

before i learned

black people aren’t

suppose to dream

i wanted to be

a raelet

and say “dr o wn d in my youn tears”

or “tal kin bout tal kin bout”

or marjorie hendricks and grind

all up against the mic

and scream

“baaaaaby nightandday

baaaaaby nightandday”

then as i grew and matured

i became more sensible

and decided i would

settle down

and just become

a sweet inspiration

Commentary:
Nikki’s poem shows musics influence in bad times. How racism held her down, dreaming wasn’t allowed, but how that didn’t stop her. She’s chosen to push boundaries calmly like martin Luther king jr. She’s chosen to settle down to show resistance without the risk of fame spoiling her thoughts, to stay level headed. Her childish diction makes her easy to understand for all.

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Padlet post #2

Judith Ortiz Cofer

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54127/esperanza

Commentary:

Esperanza is translated to Hope. Hope plays a big role in this poem. It explains how a young girl doesn’t receive affection from her father and she feels as if it’s her fault. She thinks he’s holding her mother’s death against her. The tone is sad, the audience feels pity towards her. Her father hates her for something she could not control. At the end of the poem, a metaphor is used. “All of it I have tried to wipe away. In my hands I hold a broom, in my heart—ashes, ashes.” The broom represents how she wants to sweep away her problems, but the ashes will not go away. She starts off the poem with “My name mocks me for I was born at the cost of my mother’s life”. The use of the words, my mother mocks me symbolizes her feelings towards her mother’s death. In the poem, Ortiz says “earning my fathers hatred with my first breath” this represents the level of hatred she felt her father had for her. The use of “first breath” gives the example.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57667/women-who-love-angels

Commentary:

The title of this poem is very tranquil and foreshadows what the poem will be about. The first thing I noticed about this poem was the alliteration in it. “Living out their long lives in spacious rooms” Many of her sentences are like this. The second thing that stood out was the diction. Ortiz used many words that made the poem difficult to understand. The godly themed sentences were intriguing. In the third sentence, Ortiz says “ Age makes them translucent” this metaphor symbolizes women turning less secretive and being more upfront as they age.

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Brass Spittoons

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47879/brass-spittoons

Langston Hughes was a writer in a very different age in time. This was extremely apparent when I was reading his poem “Brass Spittoon”. I first had to look up what a brass spittoon was because I had no clue what that was. It was spitting tobacco pot that was used commonly in the early and mid 1900s. In the poem he talks about what one could have considered to be the day to day life of an african american male. He each aspect as a sort of build up through the poem that escalated and added  on with each stanza.  He begins the poem with by naming a list of cities which were heavily populated with colored people. This almost seemed like a direct address to the social problems occuring, it also could have quite possibly been a shout out to these different cities as well. He also uses the word “boy” often in different areas of the poem usually in the transitions from one aspect of life to another. He also sort of tells a story with the entire poem. The portions of life are mentioned are also done by threes. He first mentions the hotel kitchen, spittoons, and lobbies. These are the cleaning jobs they were often time occupied by african americans during this time. Obviously this was a low class and very strenuous job that was not easy or for the faint of heart. Hughes also talks about the pay which was described in threes as well. He moves saying a nickel, a dime, and dollar and it finally ended at 2 dollars a day. And finally the shift appeared with the change explaining the life in four instead of 3 stages. The stages become about the personal life of the man talking about his kind his home and his religion.

April Rain song

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51625/april-rain-song

The use of repetition in this short poem played a crucial part in how the poem. The rain is mentioned in almost every line. I noticed the poem was not long although Hughes often wrote short poems this one had no particular meaning. Hughes was very notorious for writing about social injustice and other touchy subjects as well as jazz and the harlem community. When hughes wrote this poem he brought out rain in a very different light that is not often exposed. He gave rain a sort softness that makes it seem soft and gentle as though it is a lullaby that would put one to sleep. He even goes as far to describe the rain as silver liquid. Hughes also used quite a bit of personification such as talking about the rain kissing the reader. Usually when talking about rain writers usually use pattering or other terms that are soft descriptions of hitting or tapping but never kissing. The way this poem is established it has no actual meaning behind it. After deep analyzing one could even say this was a poem used just to show off his skills as a writer. He may have even had the small inspiration of just wanting rain and just wanted to write about it. During the later parts of the poem he does talk about the way the water runs off into the gutter. This could possibly have been symbolizing the flow of his life and the movement that was being made. Even though Hughes may have had no real reason for writing this poem he still may have made small reflections for the readers. He may have even wrote about his enjoyment of the rain because he may have had less work to do. He did live in a big city where rain may have slowed down the speed of the city and given a day of relaxation to workers.

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Dawn by William Carlos Williams
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dawn/
Commentary: When I read this poem, I thought of a bird singing as the sunrises to welcome a new day to the world; some lines I am still unsure what they signify. "Elastic bird songs pound the hollow vastness of the sky with metallic clinkings--" The word "elastic" means (object) able to resume its normal shape spontaneously after contraction, dilatation, or distortion. When the bird is singing, I think of the bird stretching its voice into higher octaves when singing just like singers do near the end of a song; this portrays auditory imagery because the reader can imagine the bird singing in the morning. The songs cannot pound anything, therefore this is personification; the "hollow vastness of the sky," brings up the idea of freedom to me because the sky is big and empty, however, it is not restricted or anything of that nature; it runs free like a widespread disease. "Beating up color up into it at a far edge, -- beating it, beating it". The color that is being "beaten" are the colors of a sunrise. This line represents repetition; the word "it" is seen throughout the whole poem and is used as an emphasis on the sky. The "far edge" mentioned in the poem is the horizon; for example, when I stand on a beach, I look out into the ocean and it looks like the edge of the world even though it is not. "With rising, triumphant ardor, -- stirring it into warmth, quickening in it a spreading change, --". I had to look up the word "ardor"because I had know idea what it meant. It means passion and enthusiasm; in this line, there is thermal imagery because of the word warmth, in which you can feel the warmth of the sun. What is changing in the poem is the change from dark to light; dusk to dawn. "Bursting wildly against it as dividing the horizon,". The colors of the sun are free and running wild across the sky like paint on a canvas. The theme of the poem is every day is a new day; I think Williams is trying to say that everyday is a new beginning to start over or start something new. Williams strikes again with yet another poem with a powerful meaning.

Thursday by William Carlos Williams
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thursday/
Commentary: Why is it called Thursday? Is he dreaming about Friday or the weekend? I did not really understand this poem, but I got a few things out of it. From what I read, I believe the theme is that we cannot escape reality, even in our sleep. In the first two lines, "I have had my dream-- like others-- and it has come to nothing," I feel that Williams is saying what he dreamed about in his sleep did not happen in real life; sometimes our dreams feel so real that we think we are awake when we really are sleeping (I hope this makes sense). I am going to skip around a bit because I still do not understand some lines yet. "Feeling my clothes about me, the weight of my body in my shoes, the rim of my hat". Williams uses tactile imagery in these lines to get the readers to imagine themselves as if they were him. This also goes back to my point of people thinking that their dreams are real; when he feels his clothes, his body, and his hat, to me, I think he is dream is coming to an end and he begins to wake up. "Air passing in and out at my nose-- and decide to dream no more." When we are sleeping, especially in a deep sleep, we do not feel ourselves breathing; at least I do not, however, when we begin to wake up, we can feel our breathing. When he says he does not dream anymore, I think he has finally woken up; Williams has to face reality and society that he tries to escape. “I remain now carelessly.” For the life of me, I could not figure out to he is careless about and why. This poem will always be a mystery in my head, but I revealed some important pieces of it.

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Emily Dickinson

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Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.
Commentary

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Commentary
Nothing Gold Can Stay is predominantly iambic trimeter in rhythm, that is, there are three regular stress beats to most lines, except lines 1 and 8, which contain trochees and spondees:

Nature's / first green / is gold,

Nothing / gold / can stay.

Frost was a classicist after all, and much preferred to rhyme his lines. He also use alliteration on line 1 green is gold

line 2 Her hardest hue

line 6 So Eden sank

line 7 So dawn goes down.

The first line contains a metaphor, where green becomes gold, as will line three where a leaf is a flower.

rich alliteration and a hint of personification as (Mother) Nature struggles to keep hold of this new fresh gold.

A repeat of 'Her' to remind the reader of the cyclic process. The leaf now transforms into a flower, that is, it represents the transient state of life, fleeting existence.Each leaf becomes less active as time wears on; they fade away as sure as the temperature starts to drop and the days become shorter.Line six brings with it the relation to the human condition, specifically the old testament Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve's lives fell into shame because of their disobedience. The parallels are clear - perfect, ideal situations don't last forever. It’s was clear that he made that reference when he said Eden because the only Eden that I’ve heard of is from the Old Testament bible.

https://www.emaze.com/@AOFTZOIW/nothing-gold-can-stay

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Because I could not stop Death

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity –

COMMENTARY:
In “Because I could not stop for death” Emily Dickinson uses imagery, personification and alliteration, to depict her journey/ encounter with death. Dickinson uses terms, to make it seem as if she is speaking beyond the grave, throughout the poem Dickinson personifies Death in light of the fact, so her audience can understand Death in a more profound way. She also uses iambic rhyme meter. In addition, the main themes of the poem are mortality and immortality. Dickinson found death fascinating, in addition she depicts a man taking her on a ride to eternity. I also noticed in the first stanza "Immortality" is capitalized and on a line by itself not only is she personifying the word immortality, I feel as if it has an important meaning and that she is emphasizing it. Another word that I feel like she emphasized a lot on is "passed" its also repetition, she used it a lot to highlight the importance it has in the poem.

A Bird, came down the walk

A Bird, came down the Walk -
He did not know I saw -
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,

And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass -
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass -

He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad -
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head. -

Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And rowed him softer Home -

Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim.

COMMENTARY:

In “The Bird came down the walk” Dickinson uses iambic trimeter, simile, imagery, personification, metaphor and alliteration to depict her encounter with observing a bird, who was unknown to the fact that it was being watched. In the very first stanza she depicts o how she seen the bird eat the angle worm in halves, this is an example of imagery she illustrates a vivid picture of the image she is trying to portray, in addition she also gives another example of imagery in the next stanza, she explains how the bird "drank the dew from convenient grass" and "let the hopped sideways to let the Beetle pass." I took that as the Bird like things that are easily accessible to him, the term "convenient" means to have easy access to, and "let the Beetles pass" in a sense I feel as if the bird didn't want to have the hassle of trying to keep up with the Beetles, and worms tend to move way slower than beetles, so it's like he was settling with the worm to save him the inconvenience.

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

COMMENTARY:

In “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” Dickinson creates a metaphor using hope, she uses imagery, metaphor, and imagery to depict how she believes hope flies within her. She uses a ABCB and ABBB rhyme meter. Dickinson initiates the first two lines with a metaphor. She also uses imagery such as "And sore must be the storm, That could abash the little Bird" to depict all the affliction and trouble the bird went through. In the second stanza  Dickinson really implies on how hope keeps us going, in addition of creating a metaphor through the bird (hope), she tries to convey the idea that we all have a moment in life where we feel down but we need to have hope to encourage us. Dickinson also uses syntax, it creates extra pauses and emphasis on certain phrases. In the third stanza Dickinson creates a personal connection with herself, to help convey her main idea.

I heard a Fly buzz—when I died

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air –
Between the Heaves of Storm –

The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset – when the King
Be witnessed – in the Room –

I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
What portions of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –

With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –
Between the light – and me –
And then the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –

COMMENTARY:

In “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died”, Dickinson describes the ambiance when someone dies. She uses iambic meter, symbolism, diction, and anaphora (to emphasize on the words of the poem) to depict how the room is where she is dying in and the people that surrounded her in that point of time, and at an absurd/random moment a fly buzzes across the room. This is another poem Dickinson wrote of her speaking beyond the grave. In the first stanza Dickinson is depicting the scene of her death. The poem gives us the idea to question afterlife and eternity and what really happens when we die. And since Dickinson is telling her story beyond the grave, she must had some type of existence after death. The main idea of the poem is Death and Afterlife. In addition Dickinson use repetition, she repeatedly states "In the room", creating and emphasis on the setting so the readers wont get misguided. The fly is a minor character in the poem but creates a major idea. The fly represents Dickinson climatic moment. It represents lack of control and Dickinson's inability to hold on to faith when facing death. (No God or judgement)

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https://www.essence.com/galleries/maya-angelou-life-pictures

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/phenomenal-woman/
"Phenomenal Women" Commentary: In Phenomenal Women Maya uses metaphors and similes to compare a woman's physical feature.The first stanza sets the tone which is confident. "I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size". Angelou emphasizes that no matter what size a women, one is still beautiful and should embrace one characteristics.  The second stanza emphasizes a woman with a big personality, self-respect and confidence is a man'sdream within a woman. "They try so much but that can't touch my inner mystery." Men that Angelou came across tried to see or know her through her physical appearance but in reality she needed them to have interest in her intellect. The last stanza is the shift in the poem because it starts with "Now you Understand," basically expressing "now that I have informed you" respect is what I expect from now on. Not only respect but emphasizing a woman's strong and confident being.
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/caged-bird-21/COMMENTARY: In the poem Caged Bird tone is sorrowful and somber. The theme of the poem is minorities escaping social suppression and breaking free from the confinement of society. The caged bird symbolizes an African American or minority."The free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky." The first stanza introduces visual imagery. As the poem progresses to the third stanza the "caged bird" starts to sing and is heard. Which translates to African Americans or minorities speaking up about social injustices. "His wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing." The statement above emphasizes the feeling of being stagnant and confined to restrictions and limitations just because of the race and background. The poem ends by stating when the caged bird sang his voice was filled with fearful trill but his voice was heard. Also, meaning when African Americans or minorities speak out , one hear's the pain and struggle when they speak. Overall, the poem consist of the feelings and emotions that were felt during the Civil Rights Movement.

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COMMENTARY: While reading the poem “The Victims” by Sharon Olds I realized it is divided into two main sections: the first part in the past tense showing the speaker as a child and the second part is the speaker as a adult trying to make sense of past events. In the beginning, the speaker appears to be a young child telling her experience of her mother's divorce. The tone from the speaker is anger towards her father. In line 1 and 2, “She took it and took it in silence” references to a act of abuse. The family was so bitter towards the father that the speakers reveles there feelings towards when he was fired from his job, “ we grinned inside, the way people grinned when Nixon's helicopter lifted off the South Lawn for the last time.” This line could also be seen as some of the figurative language that was used throughout this poem, this being a metaphor while the father is being compared to Nixon’s. It was as if the mother was out to destroy the fathers imagine by teaching her children to hate their father. The speaker says, “She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it until we pricked with her for your annihilation.” The next line of the poem reveles the shift from past tense to present tense in the poem. The shift includes a metaphor (line 17) where the speaker is comparing a cruel father to a “bum.” It wasn’t until the alliteration of the repeated “s” sound is made that you see the speakers turning point point for her attitude. This shows the speaker is wondering who actually was the victim and could her father just be victimized for bad behavior. The present tense version of the speaker no longer shows hatred towards her father, but shows sympathy towards him.
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-victims/ -THE VICTIMS

COMMENTARY: Sharon Olds poem “Late Poem to My Father” reveals the effect of childhood trauma can have on someone, even in adulthood. The poem reflects over the traumatic childhood her father endoured and the dependence on alcohol he had as a adult. This creates the tone of sadness and pity. In the beginning imagery is created by the description of her father; “in your physical beauty, a boy of seven, helpless, smart…”. Not only did she use figurative language throughout the poem, she also used deliberate line breaks throughout the poem to develop the sorrow tone while reflecting on her father's childhood. In the first seven lines of the poem she uses details to establish a dark image of the setting; in lines two and three she describes the house with “unlit rooms” and a “hot fireplace”. The description of the apples in lines 9 and 10-”sweet apples picked at their peak….rotten and rotten.”show a comparison between her father’s loss of innocence, and the ripe fruit being left to waste.  In lines 12 and 13 the realization of the overall theme is presented; “something was not given to you, or something was taken from you when you were born.” This reveals the theme to me because it’s stating something was not given to her father to make him a certain way as a adult. Line 17 going into line 18 is a good example of the line breaking that Olds demonstrated throughout her writing, ending 17 with “the poison to help you” and starting 18 with “drop down unconscious.” This made me think at first her father used the alcohol as a means of “help”, but it is then said what it actually is for. Metaphors are also used throughout the whole poem, but lines 22-25 “the tiny bones inside his soul twisted in greenstick fractures, the small tendons that hold the heart in place snapped” shows the damage her father faced from the child abuse. In the last four lines of the poem Olds writes, “When I love you now, I like to think I am giving my love directly to that boy in the fiery room, as if it could reach him in time” this shows the speakers forgiveness and love for her father despite the pain he causes her.
https://vegancinephile.com/2013/06/14/poem-of-the-week-late-poem-to-my-father-by-sharon-olds - LATE POEM TO MY FATHER

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https://youtu.be/L9ro1KjkJMg
https://goo.gl/images/waUHV5
”Heaven” commentary:
Cathy Song often incorporates her cultural background as an Asian-American woman into her work. Majority of her poems are created in the style of a metaphorical diary entry of Cathy Song and her family life as immigrants. The poem heaven was a representation of the difficult days of Song life when she often felt hopeless. She made several allusion to Asians in the United State history with one of them being the Chinese railroad constructionist. Chinese immigrants was used as labor forces for the railroad construction 150 years ago. Her purpose of bringing up the history was advocate the themes of cultural identity. It's also ironic that someone who is living in what assumes to be would dreamland would idealize somewhere half the world away. This show Cathy Song strong belief in cultural identity. In addition to that, the young male character in the poem often associates China to the color blue and uses dark imagery to describes America. The color represent the light in her life which was similar to Chinese belief that blue is a symbol of peace. They have been through so much hardship that the family desire harmony. The structure of Cathy Song poem is free-verse and enjambment which represents her desire for continuous posterity and happiness. The poem “Heaven” really brings upon the nostalgia of childhood and causes the readers to sympathize with her. Cathy Song is a strong advocate of family life which presents itself in all her poems. The image of family has becomes her inspiration to write this poem. She wanted to show that the root of a person is not where they was born but rather where their ancestors was born, where a person heart is full of joy and where the sun seem to be brighter. Even when she and her own family begins the journey of  receding back into dirt, they want to be able to becomes a part of China; the land where where Heaven resides.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43369/heaven-56d2221a34def

“Christmas Eve” commentary:
https://youtu.be/Uwfz5mMLSDM
In Cathy Song poem, “Christmas Eve”, a story was told about a family during Christmas Day and the contrasting mood they have experienced. What made it contrasting is the fact that it seems calm, peaceful and jubilated on the exterior. However on the deeper surface of the poem, the author seem to be describing a very unhappy family on Christmas eve. Cathy Song uses sorrowful and depressed diction such as “cold”, “muted” and  “dark” to characterize the holiday. it brings upon the poems a very dejected feels as if the family aren’t together at hearts. It is quite ironic to characterize Christmas Eve to be so depressing. Societal norms characterized this holiday to be the time of love, hopes and happiness. Children would anxiously wait for Santa and husband and wife are enjoying times by each other. Cathy revolt against that by painting a dispirited picture such as: children are worrying about possible disappearance of the Christmas tree, the wife is comforting herself in times of loneliness, husband is breaking his back working somewhere. This family seem to be so detached with these images being shown.  It also illustrate the warmest in the relationship between a man and a woman in this poem, their relationship seem so superficial and possibly decaying. The first person point of views added emphasis on the mood by making the audience sense the thick atmosphere. It serves to capture the audience attention and emotions. Cathy Song purpose by doing this was to show that not every Christmas is happy, not when you have to worry about the next meal on the table. She have let the audience a chance to walk her shoes and relive her memories. She advocates the idea that family and togetherness is complementary subject. The author want to teach the reader to cherish those around them for not togetherness is a blessing not a requirement.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=159&issue=3&page=13
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=159&issue=3&page=14

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"The Map"
https://padlet.com/florsalazar/ido0qmom59i8

“October”
https://padlet.com/florsalazar/Bookmarks

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The Meaning of the Shovel
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47873/the-meaning-of-the-shovel

COMMENTARY
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d_hPr6Jf_Mzxd4Js9zgiAlky2CTfstpDleAbi5BWp_U/edit?usp=sharing

You got a song,Man
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48821/you-got-a-song-man

COMMENTARY
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1icDiDrb0rkKszFJuOOLDH6pG6dnoSVg8tWCyONQj8pU/edit?usp=sharing

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https://padlet.com/jaydahampton1/alexiepadlet2 link to padlet
comment below this post

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https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/evening-hawk
Commentary:
In “Evening Hawk”, Robert Penn Warren uses symbolism in order to depict the importance of time. In the poem, the hawk symbolizes the close proximity that people have with death. The imagery of the hawk’s wings dipping “out of the peak’s black angularity of shadow” initially sets up an ominous tone. Then, the tone intensifies when the hawk’s “wing scythes down another day. When I looked up the word scythe, I discovered that it is a tool used to mow grass or reap crops and it is also associated with the grim reaper. I think that the allusion to the Grim Reaper is used in order to say that people don’t realize that any moment could be their last as no one knows when they will die. Basically, Warren uses the allusion to connect to the theme of death. The next  lines in the poem stood out to me as important to the overall theme of the poem. The first thing I noticed was that time was capitalized as if it were a person or place.I think Warren did this to say that people should treat time as valuable and precious. Warren then personifies “the stalks of time” perhaps to say that people allow desire and greed to dictate who they are and how they spend their time. Warren also makes an allusion to Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher. I believe that he did this to contrast people from the past and how he perceives society to be in the present. While Plato represents wisdom,Warren believes that the society he lives in lacks wisdom and are going down a path of destruction.This can be connected to the last stanza of the poem. The simile Warren uses about history dripping “in darkness like a leaking pipe in a cellar” is saying that if people continue to ignore the mistakes and flaws in society, history will continue to repeat itself. Overall, the poem is an example of metaphysical conceit that is used to connect to several different themes that pertain to life.
https://silverbirchpress.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/tony_hisgett.jpg?w=300
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/tell-me-story
Commentary:

In the poem “Tell Me a Story”, Robert Penn Warren develops a theme that also revolves around time. The first idea that I picked up in the poem was isolation. The imagery of the boy standing alone on a dirt road in the dark made me think of the boy as being isolated from other people. The image also conveys a negative tone. The next thing I pulled out of the poem was what the geese could symbolize. I think that they represent freedom or a better situation because birds travel northward in the spring in order to find a nesting area and reproduce. In addition, the fact that the boy can only hear the geese but not see them might represent the hope that he continues to have even though things might  not be so positive around him. I think that the first line in the second stanza is where the shift occurs. It almost seems like it is a different person from the first stanza ,demanding to to be told a story. The speaker clings to the story, needing it to survive the “mania”. Initially, I thought that the speaker was relying on the story as a way to escape the harsh reality that envelopes him. However, when the word tie appeared once again with a capital letter, I re-evaluated my position. I think that the speaker desires to hear about the past because his present time is unbearable. The alliteration “deep delight” implies that the speaker enjoys learning and talking about the past. The use of anaphora in the second stanza highlights the desire the speaker has to hold on to the past. As with “Evening Hawk”, time plays a crucial role in this poem. It may be  the only thing keeping the speaker from succumbing to the mania himself. Warren’s strategic use of literary elements help to enhance the overall theme of the poem.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQBtnrFeZ9_B19je7IcbKgR6_09sdJJ9vlVv9_tRPvJzv-u8F685g

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"Monday in B-Flat"
https://padlet.com/razanspreap/aczc2dff8692

"Wise I"
https://padlet.com/razanspreap/tt0xxj8w1qg

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BE NOBODY'S  DARLING
Be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Take the contradictions
Of your life
And wrap around
You like a shawl,
To parry stones
To keep you warm.
Watch the people succumb
To madness
With ample cheer;
Let them look askance at you
And you askance reply.
Be an outcast;
Be pleased to walk alone
(Uncool)
Or line the crowded
River beds
With other impetuous
Fools.

Make a merry gathering
On the bank
Where thousands perished
For brave hurt words
They said.

But be nobody's darling;
Be an outcast.
Qualified to live
Among your dead.

COMMENTARY:
The poem starts off with the expression of honor and follows it with “be an outcast,” suggesting that it is better to be an outcast and shunned than to be nothing more than someone else’s favorite person. To be your own favorite person. The poem compares life’s contradictions to a piece of fabric worn by women over the shoulders or head or wrapped around a baby, but makes it the choice of the reader to create that simile. Should you choose, these lines say, the confusing contradictions of life can be made into a shawl, turning something stressful and confusing into something warm and beautiful.

After this, a more pointed exchange occurs when the poem says “Let them look askance at you / And you askance reply.” The repetition of “askance” adds a more grim tone to the poem briefly — it gives a negative element to this outcasted life, either because other people will be staring in a suspicious way, or because the listener will be glaring back. It indicates defiance and independence, but it also indicates a difficult struggle. This is alleviated somewhat by the next few lines, which utilize words such as “pleased,” and “beds” to light the tone somewhat. When the verse references “impetuous fools,” it is an idea filled with scorn, suggesting a speaker who feels liberated by being an outcast, and therefore less well-associated with those they consider reckless fools. This is also reflected in the use of “(uncool)” as a description of what is being said in a more “modern” way – and ultimately demonstrates what poor ammunition it is by using a hollow and relatively meaningless word to demonstrate.

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WE ALONE
We alone can devalue gold
by not caring
if it falls or rises
in the marketplace.
Wherever there is gold
there is a chain, you know,
and if your chain
is gold
so much the worse
for you.

Feathers, shells
and sea-shaped stones
are all as rare.

This could be our revolution:
to love what is plentiful
as much as
what's scarce.

COMMENTARY:

In the first five lines, it becomes aware of the power of the human heart. The first line “we alone” gives the reader a sense of responsibility. No one but humans can “devalue gold”. These lines reveal the power of care.

Lines 5-10 of the poem probably give a warning and reveals that wherever there is gold, there is a chain. This chain is symbolizes the chains that would bind a prisoner. For those who live for money are bound by money. They are owned by the love of money, and they are slaves to the idea of making more and more. In these lines, the speaker reveals that those who have gold, are chained to it, and that the gold and the chain make their owner “so much the worse”. This is not a new idea, but it is proclaimed in such a simple and profound tone.

Readers are compelled to look into their own hearts and ask themselves, “what is it that I value?” The suggestions of “sea shaped stones” and “feathers” and “shells” as that which humankind should value reveals the speaker’s realization that true enjoyment of nature is of more value than wealth or power could ever hope to be.

With these lines, the speaker communicates to the reader that these musings are a possibility, if only everyone would agree to act. The speaker claims that it “could be our revolution” to end the struggle for money and power and begin to value moments of connections with nature and other human beings. The speaker finally expresses a final thought on all that humankind values. She reveals that the revolution could finally happen when people would learn “to love what is plentiful as much as what is scarce”. Therefore, the speaker presents the idea that human love is what is behind the way the world works. Because we, as humans, love power and material wealth, we place value on what is rare. However, if we could together agree to love all that nature has to offer, whether scarce or plentiful, we would surely enjoy a more thorough life.

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By Dylan Thomas

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan't crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

This my third poem by Dylan Thomas and I realized that he particularly prefers themes of death, human emotions, and life quite often. The title, "And death shall have no dominion" was repeated six times throughout the poem. This line occurs at the beginning and end end of each stanza. By doing enforcing this repetition, Thomas adds emphasis on his overall meaning of his work: do not let death conquer over your life. Do not let it have dominance.The title stands out because it already states the overall meaning of the poem and also because it is a reference to the New Testament. This brings about the desire to live ones life. The first thing I notice about the very first stanza is that there is unity, " Dead men naked they shall be one." I believe that Thomas is implying that even after one dies, people reunite in the afterlife no matter how different everyone is. Even when lovers die, they will not lose one another. Thomas employs diction such as "clean" and 'naked' to show a de-humanizng of the soul to demonstrate freedom from the human world.It is like a removal of anything earthly to proceed into the spiritual world. This showcases a lack of control in death but one has control as to how to live his or her life. Also in the first stanza, he uses imagery such as "man in the wind and west moon' by doing this, he creates a dreamy and almost cosmic like tone. Thomas is talented when it comes to imagery because he always incorporates many abstract ideas in which we have to deeply analyze.In the end, Thomas tells the readers that death will not and should not taking over our lives as people have much to live for.

The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman’s lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather’s wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover’s tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

In this poem, Thomas utilizes strong visual imagery at the very start.This given imagery is organic and natural, it brings a delicate sense to the poem. Flowers are delicate just like humans.The poet constantly refers to a 'force' that is possibly referencing to time. This 'force' is a destroyer of youth. Thomas uses the words ' green age' to state that it his youth. I see that there is a transition in life-humans go through the phases of childhood to adulthood to death. These are all stages of life in which death is the promised ending. When one is young, they are green and lively, but overtime, flowers will wilt and die-just like the cycle of life. Everyone at some point can agree that youth goes by fast and it almost feels 'stolen' from us. There is repletion of the word 'dumb' and I do not think it explicitly means the modern connotation, rather it means shocked at how fast time can go to the point where he can't utter a word.The oxymoron, " wintry fever' has a special meaning: death occurs during winter, but a fever is an illness, Thomas elicits the fact that time is like a disease/illness. The death of his youth and the passing of time is the 'destroyer' that kills him. The rose he mentions is a symbol for beauty that has been destructed. A transition occurs between stanza 1 and 2 when the topic shifts from florals to geology. The red blood that he refers to will become like wax, meaning his blood will stop flowing one day which is a metaphor to death. Similar to his other poem, "Clown in the Moon" the meaning of the overall work is ambiguous. The first time I read it, I was confused after the first stanza. In order to understand the poem, you must find the deeper meaning.

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Negotiations with a Volcano

We will call you "Agua" like the rivers and cool jugs.

We will persuade the clouds to nestle around your neck

so you may sleep late.

We would be happy if you slept forever.

We will tend the slopes we plant, singing the songs

our grandfathers taught us before we inherited their fear.

We will try not to argue among ourselves.

When the widow demands extra flour, we will provide it,

remembering the smell of incense on the day of our Lord.

Please think of us as we are, tiny, with skins that burn easily.

Please notice how we have watered the shrubs around our houses

and transplanted the peppers into neat tin cans.

Forgive any anger we feel toward the earth,

when the rains do not come, or they come too much,

and swallow our corn.

It is not easy to be this small and live in your shadow.

Often while we are eating our evening meal

you cross our rooms like a thief,

touching first the radio and then the loom.

Later our dreams begin catching fire around the edges,

they burn like paper, we wake with our hands full of ash.

How can we live like this?

We need to wake and find our shelves intact,

our children slumbering in their quilts.

We need dreams the shape of lakes,

with mornings in them thick as fish.

Shade us while we cast and hook—

but nothing else, nothing else.

Negotiations with a Volcano was my favorite poem to annotate by this author and one of my favorites to read throughout the project so far. The title was quick to catch my attention. I found myself very caught up in the poem and continued to read it over at least 4 or 5 times. The authors poems usually contains bits and pieces about religion so I was surprised about this one because it was fairly different. However, the poem still fit her style. I was really able to visualize everything the author was saying and it helped me to gain a better understanding of the deeper meaning of the poem. The imagery the author infused into the poem transported me to a tropical region like the islands of Hawaii with residents residing around surrounding volcanoes. I found ideas such a innocence, lost of innocence, desire for peace and certainty, growth, rebirth, serenity, and power. The lit elements I saw used were symbolism, simile, repetition, visual imagery, and possibly a biblical reference. The tone of the poem was pleading and also fearful. I noticed themes of chaos and order as well as hierarchy in nature.

https://www.google.com/search?q=volcanoes+in+hawaii&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi50JCZwo3aAhVQM6wKHZ_HDk8Q_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=662#imgrc=XgT-a0xLVfC41M:
Loving Working
"We clean to give space for Art."

Micaela Miranda, Freedom Theatre, Palestine

Work was a shining refuge when wind sank its tooth

into my mind. Everything we love is going away,

drifting - but you could sweep this stretch of floor,

this patio or porch, gather white stones in a bucket,

rake the patch for future planting, mop the counter

with a rag. Lovely wet gray rag, squeeze it hard

it does so much. Clear the yard of blowing bits of plastic.

The glory in the doing. The breath of the doing.

Sometimes the simplest move kept fear from

fragmenting into no energy at all, or sorrow from

multiplying, or sorrow from being the only person

living in the house.

I choose this as the last poem because a lot of Naomi S Nye’s poems were a little confusing and misleading to me so it was difficult to annotate any of them. This poem was still just as challenging but I was able to better understand parts of it. Just like Negotiations with a Volcano, this poem was a lot different than a lot of other poems she has created yet it still fits with her style and gave the same surprise factors as all the others do. For some reason I get a different feeling than what the poem suggest I feel. In other words, the poems does doesn’t trigger the emotions it is intended too. When it talks about planting, sweeping, and cleaning, I feel calm and picture it as a time of hard work and peace. Then the mood suddenly darkens and becomes depressing when the poem shifts to or sorrow from “.. or sorrow from being the only person living in the house..” This was a clear idea of isolation and I also saw lack of companionship. I also found the desire to keep pressing forward as an idea in this poem. I found devices such as personification, metaphor, and visual imagery.

https://www.google.com/search?q=clean+houses+and+gardens&safe=strict&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOs5zQg5LaAhUB3VMKHT1tD1IQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=662#imgrc=bRpo5NGGA77WxM:

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COMMENTARY for O Me! O Life!:
I had to re-read this poem so many times! The ending was the easiest part to understand, but we’ll talk about that later. Whitman’s purpose or theme of this poem was to express to his audience that we should stop being selfish and take life for what it is. He writes this poem by proposing a question, followed by an answer. This format of writing allows the reader to think hard about what the speaker is saying, and it allows for a mysterious and unexpected ending. Whitman is both the speaker and the audience, he’s talking to himself and reflecting on his own thoughts. The poem is only two stanzas: the first is the “question” portion, containing seven lines. The second stanza is the “answer” portion and consists of three lines. The most obvious literary device that Whitman uses in the first stanza is an anaphora. In the beginning of every line, he writes Of; he creates a sonic effect. I think this sonic effect allows the reader toreally think about that Whitman is trying to convey. The definition of the word of is: expressing the relationship between the part of a whole. So, is Whitman trying to tell us that each question he questions comes to play in one big idea? Or is Whitman just trying to allow the reader to enter the mind of the speaker? So basically what Whitman talks about in the first poem is that he questions his purpose in life. The one-worded line “Answer” is where the shift of the poem happens. In this stanza, he moves from being all questionable, to actually answering his own question. You can also see a shift in tone. In the first stanza, the speaker seems to be pessimistic, and in the second stanza, he’s more optimistic. The last stanza is my favorite (although there’s only two…) because of the message he says. Whitman reflects to himself that the purpose of human life isn't anything specific, but its the fact we have life and we are living. Also, that we should be glad that we continue to live everyday (hopefully). This is a great poem, another of my favorites now!!

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The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want   [Official]

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Pollice in su se vi piace e iscrivetevi al canale. A voi non costa nulla ma per me è un sollecito a migliorarmi sempre di più. Grazie!

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COMMENTARY for America:
Walt Whitman’s “America” is a short poem. Although its short, with only six lines, the reader gets a glimpse of the poet’s political views and his nationalism of his country. Walt Whitman has many poems written about America and the democracy; I believe he thinks its the best kind of government and that America is indeed the greatest country ever. I think that that’s exactly what this poem is trying to convey to the audience. The whole poem personifies America. The first line says, “Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,” here Whitman views that America is equal. Which is surprising to me because it was published in 1888, a time where the country was in reconstruction from the Civil War, and slaves weren’t really viewed as “equal” neither did women have equality like men. So what was Whitman implying? Was this the equilibrium for the society, or was he trying to guide America towards equality by putting the word “women?” He goes in depth with America being equal in the next two lines. He writes, “ All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old/ Strong, ample, fair enduring, capable, rich” He calls Americans equal no matter the age, and he also believes that Americans contain those adjectives he states in the third line. He’s basically describing how all Americans are the same in ambitions in a way, if that makes any sense. In the fourth line he uses the word perennial, which means “lasting or existing for long” I think he’s trying to say that America will never not exist, it’’ll be here till the end, always and forever. He continues, “with Freedom, Law and Love,” I think the capitalization of these words show Whitman’s values. Also, i think in a way this is an allusion, or something like it (I honestly don't know) to the unalienable rights written in the United States’ Declaration of Independence, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Also, seen in the fifth line, he views America as a “mother,” but a “grand, sane, towering” mother, meaning she’s a special lady. The last line reiterates his idea that America will never go away, she’s here to stay as she is “adamant of time”. This poem is honestly now one of my favorites, as you can see Whitman's love for his country. #USA

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We Real Cool

THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool.

We Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

In Gwendolyn Brooks’s We Real Cool, she uses elements such as consonance, rhyme, allusion,repetition, and realism in order to convey a theme of all good things must come to an end and image isn’t everything . In the start of the poem she displays the self image that Brooks has for the group that she is a part of. The inclusion of herself allows us to become aware of a personal connection in this poem. She uses a repetition of the word we to show a first person point of view. She is showing us a downward slope through the use of chronological order. She sends a message of what a carefree lifestyle can lead to. Initially Brooks and the group she belongs to is supposed to be considered cool but eventually recklessness leads to bad endings. They made the wrong decisions and ended up out late . They were out drinking and having sex and celebrating sin so they ended up with a fatal outcome. Even though had been in with the in crowd they still had the worst fate due to their low morality and ignorance. The sing-song type rhyme in the poem also helps portray the apathetic feelings that the group has. She uses “jazz June” as a double entendre with opposite meanings. Jazz is a calm yet celebratory music and it is close to the time where they are settling because June is the wedding season. Also, by urban diction and slang “jazz June” means to have sexual relations so in that case she is leading in a direction of why they are still reckless.

The Lovers of the Poor

arrive. The Ladies from the Ladies’ Betterment
League
Arrive in the afternoon, the late light slanting
In diluted gold bars across the boulevard brag
Of proud, seamed faces with mercy and murder hinting
Here, there, interrupting, all deep and debonair,
The pink paint on the innocence of fear;
Walk in a gingerly manner up the hall.
Cutting with knives served by their softest care,
Served by their love, so barbarously fair.
Whose mothers taught: You’d better not be cruel!
You had better not throw stones upon the wrens!
Herein they kiss and coddle and assault
Anew and dearly in the innocence
With which they baffle nature. Who are full,
Sleek, tender-clad, fit, fiftyish, a-glow, all
Sweetly abortive, hinting at fat fruit,
Judge it high time that fiftyish fingers felt
Beneath the lovelier planes of enterprise.
To resurrect. To moisten with milky chill.
To be a random hitching post or plush.
To be, for wet eyes, random and handy hem.
Their guild is giving money to the poor.
The worthy poor. The very very worthy
And beautiful poor. Perhaps just not too swarthy?
Perhaps just not too dirty nor too dim
Nor—passionate. In truth, what they could wish
Is—something less than derelict or dull.
Not staunch enough to stab, though, gaze for gaze!
God shield them sharply from the beggar-bold!
The noxious needy ones whose battle’s bald
Nonetheless for being voiceless, hits one down.
But it’s all so bad! and entirely too much for them.
The stench; the urine, cabbage, and dead beans,
Dead porridges of assorted dusty grains,
The old smoke, heavy diapers, and, they’re told,
Something called chitterlings. The darkness. Drawn
Darkness, or dirty light. The soil that stirs.
The soil that looks the soil of centuries.
And for that matter the general oldness. Old
Wood. Old marble. Old tile. Old old old.
Not homekind Oldness! Not Lake Forest, Glencoe.
Nothing is sturdy, nothing is majestic,
There is no quiet drama, no rubbed glaze, no
Unkillable infirmity of such
A tasteful turn as lately they have left,
Glencoe, Lake Forest, and to which their cars
Must presently restore them. When they’re done
With dullards and distortions of this fistic
Patience of the poor and put-upon.
They’ve never seen such a make-do-ness as
Newspaper rugs before! In this, this “flat,"
Their hostess is gathering up the oozed, the rich
Rugs of the morning (tattered! the bespattered . . . ),
Readies to spread clean rugs for afternoon.
Here is a scene for you. The Ladies look,
In horror, behind a substantial citizeness
Whose trains clank out across her swollen heart.
Who, arms akimbo, almost fills a door.
All tumbling children, quilts dragged to the floor
And tortured thereover, potato peelings, soft-
Eyed kitten, hunched-up, haggard, to-be-hurt.
Their League is allotting largesse to the Lost.
But to put their clean, their pretty money, to put
Their money collected from delicate rose-fingers
Tipped with their hundred flawless rose-nails seems . . .
They own Spode, Lowestoft, candelabra,
Mantels, and hostess gowns, and sunburst clocks,
Turtle soup, Chippendale, red satin “hangings,"
Aubussons and Hattie Carnegie. They Winter
In Palm Beach; cross the Water in June; attend,
When suitable, the nice Art Institute;
Buy the right books in the best bindings; saunter
On Michigan, Easter mornings, in sun or wind.
Oh Squalor! This sick four-story hulk, this fibre
With fissures everywhere! Why, what are bringings
Of loathe-love largesse? What shall peril hungers
So old old, what shall flatter the desolate?
Tin can, blocked fire escape and chitterling
And swaggering seeking youth and the puzzled wreckage
Of the middle passage, and urine and stale shames
And, again, the porridges of the underslung
And children children children. Heavens! That
Was a rat, surely, off there, in the shadows? Long
And long-tailed? Gray? The Ladies from the Ladies’
Betterment League agree it will be better
To achieve the outer air that rights and steadies,
To hie to a house that does not holler, to ring
Bells elsetime, better presently to cater
To no more Possibilities, to get
Away. Perhaps the money can be posted.
Perhaps they two may choose another Slum!
Some serious sooty half-unhappy home!—
Where loathe-lover likelier may be invested.
Keeping their scented bodies in the center
Of the hall as they walk down the hysterical hall,
They allow their lovely skirts to graze no wall,
Are off at what they manage of a canter,
And, resuming all the clues of what they were,
Try to avoid inhaling the laden air.

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50-50
In reading the poem “50-50” by langston hughes I noticed a that the poem hit on the theme of desire. The poem itself is not at all a long poem but with each word he creates a masterpieces to touch on something deeper than a lonely woman. In the beginning of the poem Langston has the woman speak  about how she feels. She reflects on the vulnerability of humanity. To me Langston really connects to the readers inner emotion of loneliness. He uses small details in order to reveal just how lonely the woman is. In fact the woman directly says she is alone in this world.  Langston also utilizes double negatives in when speaking as the woman. Then as the woman progresses she directly states her desire to have a man. Through the entire poem desire and loneliness is referenced especially whenever the woman is speaking about how she feels. Also as she talks she refers directly to wanting a man as though friendship is not what she searches for. As the poem progresses Big boy is introduced and he is what seems to be a means to an end. When he speaks to the woman he speaks as though he is her only option. Hughes uses Big boy in order to allude to the superficial myopic views of society. He tells her that she isn’t using her mind when he says this he is implying that she isn’t utilizing all of her resources in order to get what she desires. This reveals how bad the world is all to well. Because it basically refers to how some people want to control and use other for their own personal gain, because at the end of the poem he says “... share your bed… And your money too.” This was Big boy saying that he will will be with her but not for her emotions but for her body and money which represents the shallow desires possessed by humanity.

Dying Beast
Dying beast is the most interesting poem I have ever read. This poem does not simply talk about any one subject directly. But it does burst with a personality that describes life and death. As the title states it is about a dying beast that is taking its last breaths be for the inevitable. This scene really opens up the conversation of acceptance of whatever happens. When Hughes describes the event as a whole he uses nature to describe it. He talks about the flesh under the weather as it decays. When describing the event it is done as though time is no real concept. Everything seems to be moving both fast and slow at the same time. Hughes used each detail to fill the situation with meaning and make the time seem as though it was not moving. As I read the poem I noticed that Hughes was very specific about each thing that was happening.As the moment unfolds the buzzards gain an honorable mention sort of say. They transition the poem into a morbid tone that develops the event occuring. Hughes also uses an oxymoron in order to describe the final moments of the beast. He says where life dyes. This also personifies life giving it the inherent ability to die even though dying is the act of losing life. He also describes life's dying moment as still moment that almost stops time in its tracks. When this part of the poem comes into play to me it seems as though the words itself causes the reader to take a breath before reading the last words. The end of the poem itself seems to create the still moment it is describing. And with the ending of the poem there seems to be a tension that is relieved that was built up over the course of the poem. It is as though Langston Hughes was trying to convey the very emotions the beast felt to the reader.

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The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams

So much depends upon

a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain water

beside the white chickens

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Commentary (The Red Wheelbarrow): The poem ends as quick as it began; it starts and ends with four lines . When I think of a wheelbarrow, I think of a farm, hence the chickens mentioned in the poem. Williams uses literary elements such as symbolism, diction, structure, imagery, and deconstruction. The red wheelbarrow represents progress: support, tool, makes work easier. When you use a wheelbarrow, you use it to help yourself with the work you may have to do on a farm, or maybe a construction site, or wherever wheelbarrows are used in a line of work; the wheelbarrow also symbolizes transportation and containment. Transportation because it carries things and moves; containment because it holds things, however, the wheelbarrow does not have a lid to trap an item. The idea that comes  to my mind is freedom instead of restriction/limitation. "glazed with rain water beside the white chickens." The wheelbarrow glazed rain water symbolizes renewal or restoration; rebirth for a new day. The chickens are a food source for humans which is good for us, but not for them because they will be eaten. Notice that he says "white" chickens; the color white stands for innocence and purity. The fact that the poem is so short and simple in my opinion is amazing because not everyone will understand how much meaning is hidden behind fifteen words. The very first time I have ever read this poem, I was extremely shocked how short it was and for the life of me I could not see how, if any, information could be extracted from such a short poem. Some people may think that it is stupid or irrelevant and should not be even considered a poem; true literature/poem lovers will be grateful for the work of William Carlos Williams. The fact that Williams can write poems about the simplest things and give them a vast amount of significance is extraordinary and will forever be.
Commentary (This Is Just To Say): I find this poem to be humorous. The character admits to swiping a plum from whoever was saving it for later, however, he or she does not ask for forgiveness; they simply admit to temptation. The plums symbolize temptation for a late night snack. The icebox symbolizes containment due to it holding and covering the plums which brings up the idea of restriction as well as limitation; I say limitation because the plums were for one person to eat, not for the character to snack on.  The character does not seek for forgiveness when he or she says "Forgive me" because they know that they are at fault and just wants his or her actions to be acknowledged; the character knows that he or she is guilty for the crime committed. Williams uses parallel structure at the end of the poem to show that the character enjoyed the plums that were "so sweet and so cold". When I annotated the poem, I thought of a biblical reference; this was taking a stretch, but it made sense to me. The icebox represented the tree outside of the garden where Adam and Eve lived, and the plum symbolizes the forbidden fruit. Christians are familiar with the story and how Adam and Eve were not supposed to eat any fruit from that tree; in this case the apple represents temptation and the tree represents restriction just like the icebox and the plums; the theme of this poem is temptation is hard to ignore. I honestly enjoyed this poem, because everyone has been in a situation where we were tempted to eat something that was not ours and went through with it and not regret it, because in the end it tasted amazing.

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-red-wheelbarrow/

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/this-is-just-to-say/

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E.E. Cummings: love is more thicker than forget

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E.E. Cummings: love is more thicker than forget

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Love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

It's most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

Love is more always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less litter than forgive

It's most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
love is thicker than forget Commentary:

E.E. Cummings wrote many poems based on romance in every form, from sensual to pure, true love, Cummings had wrote it all. To give you a brief summary on what I believe this poem means, it essentially describes love in the most complex way which is fitting for this emotion. Just the complexity of the poem as a whole interested me, although it took time to truly understand its meaning. As you may well know, the theme of this poem is love and, in my opinion, what love really is: a complex, deep, rewarding or disastrous feeling every person has felt but none can give a direct meaning of. That’s why I love this poem and how it is written by Cummings to convey how love isn’t clear-cut and that in many ways, love contradicts itself. To demonstrate this, Cummings uses metaphor, repetition, and oxymoron.
To start off, the oxymoron, that is also a metaphor, that stood out to me was the title itself, “love is thicker than forget.” Even though the word ‘thick’ was used to describe love, I know it means that love is unforgettable, that love is a heavy thought on the brain (Get the pop reference?). However, the next line goes as follows: “more thinner than recall.” In a way it’s contradictory to what was said before but it fits the purpose of this poem. The repetition in this poem is tastefully done as well. I had noticed the repetition of ‘more’ in the first verse and ‘less’ in the third shows a contradictory relationship too. I believe these two words are used due to the pattern of contradiction in this poem. This relationship confused me at first but once I understood that the whole point of the poem was that love is actually that confusing. Audio of the poem:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk4P10nsq4c

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a pretty a day
(and every fades)
is here and away
(but born are maids
to flower an hour
in all,all)

o yes to flower
until so blithe
a doer a wooer
some limber and lithe
some very fine mower
a tall;tall

some jerry so very
(and nellie and fan)
some handsomest harry
(and sally and nan
they tremble and cower
so pale:pale)

for betty was born
to never say nay
but lucy could learn
and lily could pray
and fewer were shyer
than doll.  doll

a pretty a day Commentary:

This poem by far is one of the more complex ones out of the rest Cummings has created. I definitely had to read this more than a couple times to really understand its context, however, after reading it for the 20th time (no joke!) I’ve reached a verdict! The story is not talking about how pretty the day is, it’s talking about being with a beautiful girl once a day. It’s a poem about young ladies losing their virginity to men that they meet. So in the beginning the title is mentioned: a pretty a day. It also has, “and every fades” which I believe means women whose beauty has faded. “Here and away” of course means wherever the narrator is ,and abroad in other countries. The next stanza goes to describe the suitors they meet, some are limber which I take to mean thin, and some are “very fine mowers” as described in the poem. After that stanza, each man are paired up with two women which I found interesting since in those days (those days being the 1950s) men could be with multiple women and be looked upon as  ‘desirable’ while the women would be looked at far more negatively and labeled unfavorable names. In the final stanza, Cummings describes how a woman would feel about the loss of her maidenhood. A Betty (commonly known as a girl who, to put this appropriately, has been around the block) who never say no, a Lucy who can learn to accept the fact, a Lily that can pray that she’d accept it, and a few ladies who are too shy to reveal themselves to suitors. Those few women are described as dolls to show their innocence. I believe Cummings wrote this poem because he has a daughter himself, and describes these men in such a way that makes them look like players. He wants to appeal to his daughter to stay like a “doll” and not be like the other women.

Audio for the poem: https://youtu.be/PwC1MxbVr8U

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Persimmons

BY LI-YOUNG LEE

In sixth grade Mrs. Walker

slapped the back of my head

and made me stand in the corner

for not knowing the difference

between persimmon and precision.

How to choose

persimmons. This is precision.

Ripe ones are soft and brown-spotted.

Sniff the bottoms. The sweet one

will be fragrant. How to eat:

put the knife away, lay down newspaper.

Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat.

Chew the skin, suck it,

and swallow. Now, eat

the meat of the fruit,

so sweet,

all of it, to the heart.

Donna undresses, her stomach is white.

In the yard, dewy and shivering

with crickets, we lie naked,

face-up, face-down.

I teach her Chinese.

Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten.

Naked:   I’ve forgotten.

Ni, wo:   you and me.

I part her legs,

remember to tell her

she is beautiful as the moon.

Other words

that got me into trouble were

fight and fright, wren and yarn.

Fight was what I did when I was frightened,

Fright was what I felt when I was fighting.

Wrens are small, plain birds,

yarn is what one knits with.

Wrens are soft as yarn.

My mother made birds out of yarn.

I loved to watch her tie the stuff;

a bird, a rabbit, a wee man.

Mrs. Walker brought a persimmon to class

and cut it up

so everyone could taste

a Chinese apple. Knowing

it wasn’t ripe or sweet, I didn’t eat

but watched the other faces.

My mother said every persimmon has a sun

inside, something golden, glowing,

warm as my face.

Once, in the cellar, I found two wrapped in newspaper,

forgotten and not yet ripe.

I took them and set both on my bedroom windowsill,

where each morning a cardinal

sang, The sun, the sun.

Finally understanding

he was going blind,

my father sat up all one night

waiting for a song, a ghost.

I gave him the persimmons,

swelled, heavy as sadness,

and sweet as love.

This year, in the muddy lighting

of my parents’ cellar, I rummage, looking

for something I lost.

My father sits on the tired, wooden stairs,

black cane between his knees,

hand over hand, gripping the handle.

He’s so happy that I’ve come home.

I ask how his eyes are, a stupid question.

All gone, he answers.

Under some blankets, I find a box.

Inside the box I find three scrolls.

I sit beside him and untie

three paintings by my father:

Hibiscus leaf and a white flower.

Two cats preening.

Two persimmons, so full they want to drop from the cloth.

He raises both hands to touch the cloth,

asks, Which is this?

This is persimmons, Father.

Oh, the feel of the wolftail on the silk,

the strength, the tense

precision in the wrist.

I painted them hundreds of times

eyes closed. These I painted blind.

Some things never leave a person:

scent of the hair of one you love,

the texture of persimmons,

in your palm, the ripe weight.

In this poem, Lee reminisces about his years in school, and the struggle he faced while attending one. I like how after he stated the words he was bad at, he immediately followed it with the word in a sentence used correctly, as if to spite his previous teacher.  He also recollects other words that caused him trouble, but for these he recalls what his mother tells him to help him differentiate the words better. he also expresses his discontent towards his teacher by using those same words in a sentence correctly. He, next, remembers a time when the teacher brings in a persimmon, and had the class taste a "Chinese apple." However, I believe this shows the contrast between the teacher and Lee. As Lee describes, he knows the persimmon isn't ripe, but the teacher, being ignorant of this, asked the class to taste it. While the teacher may know many things about words, unlike Lee; the teacher doesn't seem to quite know the right way to check if a persimmon is ripe or not. He follows it with another memory of his mother describes the persimmon as having the sun inside it just like his face. This shows that the persimmon is the center of his life, because he has had so many associations with it. As the sun is the center of everybody's life, his mother uses the simile of him being like the sun, because Lee is the center of his family's life. The poem then shifts to his father and his later years. Lee finds three scrolls in his parents' basement and his father inquires about them. One of the scrolls depicts two persimmons; this shows that the fruit has such a large presence in their lives that it can be committed to memory: the smell, taste, and the feel of it to the point where it's possible to paint it even when blind. I like how the poet could write a poem based primarily on one fruit and could pull so many memories from it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=persimmons&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiaqrSChpPaAhUQq1MKHYDCDkoQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=637#imgrc=ecCUdegPJMAgeM:

Secret Life

Alone with time, he waits for his parents to wake,

a boy growing old at the dining room table,

pressing into the pages of one of his father's big books

the flowers he picked all morning

in his mother's garden, magnolia, hibiscus,

azalea, peony, pear, tulip, iris;

reading in another book their names he knows,

and then the names from their secret lives;

lives alchemical, nautical, genital;

names unpronounceable fascicles of italic script;

secrets botanical

description could never trace:

accessory to empire, party to delusions of an afterlife,

kin to the toothed, mouthed, furred,

horned, brained. Flowers

seem to a boy, who doesn't know better, like the winged,

the walking, the swimming and crawling things abstracted

from time, and stilled by inward gazing.

Copying their pictures, replete with diagrams, he finds

in the words for their parts,

the accounts of their histories,

and their scattered pollen,

something to do with his own fate

and the perfection of all dying things.

And when it's time, he discovers in the kitchen

the note left for him that says

his parents have gone and will return by noon.

And when it's time, the dove

calls from its hiding place

and leaves the morning greener

and the one who hears the dove more alone.

In this poem, Lee constantly mentions time, and in the first stanza it seems like he's been waiting for a long time for his parents, however, in reality they only went out for a little while. His sense of loneliness seems to surround the poem, because it talks about a "boy growing old at the dining room table." This, to me, gives a feeling of solitude, because it seems like he would wait for an eternity to meet the people he wants. I also noticed he lists several flowers that he presses into his father's book. Most of the flowers and their meanings seem to be about femininity, hope, and love. This could be a representation of his parents, because he's pressing the flowers from his mother's garden into his father's book, seemingly combining them to have a piece of each of his parents. He, then , describes how the flowers live a secret life compared to their simplistic appearances, their Latin names, however, are not. To the poet, it seems like a whole different world and seems to be like "the winged, the walking, the swimming, and crawling things abstracted from time." This shows that the knowledge and what they do are unknown to him, as well as other factors he can't experience or live with. However, he changes his perspective; if he looks more closely at things and dissect their details, he would be able to learn more about them, for example, their history and where they go. I think this means that if people slow down, they can see thing more in depth, and that there's no need to rush, because everyone will one day die. This poem, to me, was pretty difficult to pull apart, because at first it seemed mundane and the like, however, I think the poet intended for the reader to slowly read it and fully understand it.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=637&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=Mqe9WoboBoKszwLfwbMo&q=flower+pressing&oq=flower+pressing&gs_l=psy-ab.3...4186116.4188816.0.4188887.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.8k9CEE45sGg#imgrc=CxIEihopogu2uM:

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-Second poem: "An Agony. As Now."
--Link to poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52777/an-agony-as-now
--Visual of the poem:
The picture below the commentary.
--Commentary:
This poem is considered one of the most famous poems by poet Amiri Baraka. If poems had genres, this would be labeled as psychological terror which is a subgenre of horror that relies on emotional, mental, and psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle the audience. The poem centers around the separation between the body and the soul that creates psychological troubles for an individual who feels disassociated from the bodily process and has no means to stop them; Baraka also low key alludes to the causes of such situation such as external forces like societal norms and racism. Baraka does not use ostentatious language to throw off the reader, he uses very simple language; however, it is hard to understand and follow the incomprehensible situation of the speaker. Nonetheless, the first two lines of the poem can be the thesis of the poem: “I am inside someone / who hates me.” The word choice gives off a very intense tone; and from these two lines, I was clued in that this poem will be a psychologically identity-based experience of the speaker. These two lines mean that there’s an “I,” a person, who is trapped inside a body that hates the person; from the get go, the atmosphere of the poem is hopeless and horrifying as it relies the idea of lack of control and trapment. This idea is developed throughout the poem by various symbolism, but the one that stuck out to me is second stanza in which the speaker has “Slits in the metal, for sun. Where / my eyes sit turning,” and interacts with the “flesh” of other individuals. This is the image of a metal mask with only eyes opening to yearn for the sunlight; this is isolation and restriction in a nutshell. Baraka himself declares “This is the enclosure.” The metal prevents the speaker from having any contact with humans and the sunlight is his desire for the sense contact with other people, but when he gets into skin-to-skin contact with them, their flesh is as hard as his own; this means the other people feel separated from their body. After this, I started to notice some unconventional punctuation with the parenthesis which gave me a stress while reading it. Therefore, it is Baraka’s purpose to emotionally invest his readers into speaker and elevate their emotions; there are few other scholars, who I agree with, think that since this poem was published in 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement, it is a way for Baraka to not follow the rules of the white man by rebelling because in the sixth stanza, Baraka discusses “cold men” and I believe that he might  mean the white man (take the whole stanza into consideration because he describes them in what seems like villains and grim reapers). Overall, I personally love the poem because in a way I can relate to it. Sometimes, we don’t feel sad or happy, just empty, as if something inside us in dead and we want it back, and the speaker wants his identity back that is slowly being destroyed.

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Note: Baraka's portrait is below the commentary.
-First Poem: "Ka'Ba"
--Link to poem: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ka-ba-2/
--Link to picture (visual of the poem): https://www.google.com/search?q=kaaba&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9mrDU3oHaAhVNYK0KHeatAfIQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=974#imgrc=vmPqtwodpKT7bM:
--Commentary:
Honestly, the only reason I chose this poem because it is one of the poems that I could make a connection with on a personal level. This spectacular poem by Amiri Baraka centers around Baraka celebrating his African identity and what does it mean to be an African American; furthermore, he urges his fellow African Americans to unite and rise together as he acknowledges the hardships they go through in a white man society. Baraka converted to Islam and is credited with being the founding father of the Black Arts Movement,  a “politically motivated black poets, artists, dramatists, musicians, and writers who emerged in the wake of the Black Power Movement” following Malcolm X’s assassination (blackpast.org). Therefore, the title of the poem, “Ka’Ba,” alludes to Islam: Kaaba is the most sacred and holy place for Muslims (it is a shrine and our most sacred mosque); Islam was often associated with the Black Power Movement because the Nation of Islam provided much of the leadership of the movement; as a result, it is possible that Baraka agrees with the views of the Nation of Islam and sees Islam as part of the development of modern African American identity. Taking this into consideration, perhaps, the “sacred words” Braka is alluding to at the end of his poem could be Islamic. I also think that Baraka titled his poem “Ka’Ba” because he hints at unity: For us, we can visit Kaaba any time during the year and perform what we call umrah*, and there’s this special ten days when we perform haj*; nonetheless, in both cases, Muslims all around Kabba are united and perform salat* and duaa* , hence, Baraka might be asking his African American audience to unite in a similar fashion to overcome adversity. I highly recommend you guys to look up the words I put an asterisk by to really understand what they are and what I’m trying to get at because 1) it is explained better on Dr. Google, and 2) it will take a lot from my 500 words limit. However, the poem celebrates traditional African costumes, music, and religion as when Baraka states, “Full of masks and dances and swelling chants,” and what I really like about him is that he is very blunt and doesn’t beat around the bushes, for example, when he says “Though we sprawl in grey chains” to symbolize the chains that was used on slaves, and “We have been captured, Brothers.” The second quote, when I read it hit me with so much heavy emotions, it carries so much weight, you know? Additionally, I love the words Baraka uses to encourage African Americans to embrace their identity because they give out so much confidence such as “We are beautiful people / With African imaginations” and when he says “Defying physics in the stream of their will” in the beginning. After further investigation, I realized that Baraka used an allusion when he says “We are beautiful people” which is a slogan from the 1960s Black is Beautiful Movement that advocates African Americans to be proud of their ethnic customs; the movement initially spurred from John Rock, one of the first African American men to earn a medical degree, who believed that  the beauty standard projected for the African American community is unrealistic and resulted in them hating their features; thus, Baraka states “With African eyes, and noses, and arms,” to hint at John Rock and the movement. And I went over 500 words …

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I am waiting for my case to come up

and I am waiting

for a rebirth of wonder

and I am waiting for someone

to really discover America

and wail

and I am waiting

for the discovery

of a new symbolic western frontier

and I am waiting

for the American Eagle

to really spread its wings

and straighten up and fly right

and I am waiting

for the Age of Anxiety

to drop dead

and I am waiting

for the war to be fought

which will make the world safe

for anarchy

and I am waiting

for the final withering away

of all governments

and I am perpetually awaiting

a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Second Coming

and I am waiting

for a religious revival

to sweep thru the state of Arizona

and I am waiting

for the Grapes of Wrath to be stored

and I am waiting

for them to prove

that God is really American

and I am waiting

to see God on television

piped onto church altars

if only they can find

the right channel

to tune in on

and I am waiting

for the Last Supper to be served again

with a strange new appetizer

and I am perpetually awaiting

a rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for my number to be called

and I am waiting

for the Salvation Army to take over

and I am waiting

for the meek to be blessed

and inherit the earth

without taxes

and I am waiting

for forests and animals

to reclaim the earth as theirs

and I am waiting

for a way to be devised

to destroy all nationalisms

without killing anybody

and I am waiting

for linnets and planets to fall like rain

and I am waiting for lovers and weepers

to lie down together again

in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the Great Divide to be crossed

and I am anxiously waiting

for the secret of eternal life to be discovered

by an obscure general practitioner

and I am waiting

for the storms of life

to be over

and I am waiting

to set sail for happiness

and I am waiting

for a reconstructed Mayflower

to reach America

with its picture story and tv rights

sold in advance to the natives

and I am waiting

for the lost music to sound again

in the Lost Continent

in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting for the day

that maketh all things clear

and I am awaiting retribution

for what America did

to Tom Sawyer

and I am waiting

for Alice in Wonderland

to retransmit to me

her total dream of innocence

and I am waiting

for Childe Roland to come

to the final darkest tower

and I am waiting

for Aphrodite

to grow live arms

at a final disarmament conference

in a new rebirth of wonder

I am waiting

to get some intimations

of immortality

by recollecting my early childhood

and I am waiting

for the green mornings to come again

youth’s dumb green fields come back again

and I am waiting

for some strains of unpremeditated art

to shake my typewriter

and I am waiting to write

the great indelible poem

and I am waiting

for the last long careless rapture

and I am perpetually waiting

for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn

to catch each other up at last

and embrace

and I am awaiting

perpetually and forever

a renaissance of wonder

This poem is very different from the rest of Ferlinghetti’s poems that I have read. The structure is very tense and serious, which affects the tone of the poem. With the use of repetition, structure, and imagery, Ferlinghetti emphasizes many struggles of the modern world, such as war and and government, as well as more controversial topics such as religion.
The theme of this poem is made evident with the repetition of  “I am waiting... for a rebirth of wonder.”  The theme of this poem is for a new world. Some ideas shown here are of hope, rebirth, and renewal.

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Don’t Let That Horse... by Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

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Don’t Let That Horse... by Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

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Don’t let that horse

eat that violin

cried Chagall’s mother

But he

kept right on

painting

And became famous

And kept on painting

The Horse With Violin In Mouth

And when he finally finished it

he jumped up upon the horse

and rode away

waving the violin

And then with a low bow gave it

to the first naked nude he ran across

And there were no strings

attatched

https://goo.gl/images/mi2Ej6

Unlike his poem “I am waiting,” this one takes advantage of a loose physical structure, giving it an easy going tone. Reading this poem, it definitely seems as though Ferlinghetti wrote about chasing his dreams without any obstacles or consequences in his path.
The theme is of following ones dream, regardless of who steps in the way. Literary elements used in this poem include visual imagery and structure. Ideas expressed by the poet are restriction, and escape, along with the idea or obstacles and struggle.

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https://padlet.com/jaydahampton1/alexiepost1 Link to post
comment below this post

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https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/true-love                               Commentary:
In the poem “True Love”, Robert Penn Warren connects to a widespread audience through the theme of unrequited love. When I first saw the poem, the thing that stood out to me the most was the structure. The poem is written in blank verse, lacking a rhyme scheme and containing several instances of enjambment. The layout of the poem caught me off guard, but once I got over it I was able to pull several ideas out of the poem. In the beginning of the poem, I noticed the strong desire the boy had for this mysterious girl. Her beauty captivates him and brings out  the strong feeling of love that he had not previously felt. The imagery provided by the brightness he associates with her and her smile that makes him think he “would wake up dead” further demonstrates the strong emotions he has for her. From the girl’s parents, I pulled out the ideas lack of control and purity. Warren’s juxtaposition of the mother and father reminded me of light  and darkness due to the father’s dark mental state and the mother’s devotion to God. The girl’s impending marriage breaks the spirits of the boy. Her unintentional rejection causes a wave of sadness and makes the sorrowful tone more apparent. This part of the poem made me go back to the first few lines to try to get a better understanding. In the first few lines, Warren’s use of personification enhanced the meaning of the poem.Before the boy saw the beauty of the girl he was not aware of the strong emotions he could feel towards someone. I interpret the lines to mean that before encountering the girl, he felt empty did not see all the joys of life.Although the boy missed the opportunity to declare his love, he still wished for his love to have a fulfilling life and for her to be happy. I think that this is one of Warren’s more known poems because many people can relate to the central character’s story of unrequited love and the heartbreak that ensues.
https://pre00.deviantart.net/6da3/th/pre/i/2014/228/2/3/unrequited_love__crying_eye_by_eagle4176-d7vgszk.png

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/mortal-limit
Commentary:
In contrast with “True Love”, Warren’s poem “Mortal Limit” has a true physical structure. The Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains and one couplet and follows the "abab cdcd efef gg" rhyme scheme. In my opinion, the structure is significant because each quatrain represents the different stages of the hawk’s life. I interpret the poem as a metaphor for life. In the first stanza, the hawk rises from the “coniferous darkness” and flies during the sunset in Wyoming. To me, the  imagery of the two opposing sides (light and darkness) highlights the hawk as a focal point. I interpret this stanza to mean that sometimes in life people have to go through hardship in order to see a better day. The dark forest symbolizes the hardship and the sunset is essentially the light at the end of the tunnel. I believe that the next stanza symbolizes a challenge or obstacle that one can face head on or take the easy way out. As the hawk is going to encounter snow peaks Warren poses a series of questions. He wonders if the hawk will be able to see beyond its range and reach new heights. I think that Warren uses this stana to question whether one can challenge oneself to look beyond the surface and realize that not everything in life will be easy. One thing that stands out to me is the color of the hawk’s eyes. Gold is a rich color and is usually associated with courage, wisdom, and victory. Along with the hawk, its eyes can be seen as a symbol in their own way. The third stanza is where I believe the shift happens. Warren initially seems optimistic about the hawk’s chances of survival. In this stanza, the transition word or connect it to the second stanza and Warren’s optimism disappears. He wonders if the hawk will instead succumb to the “circular downwardness” and the darkness. I think that Warren is saying that one can tackle the challenges he or she encounters or allow them to consume him or her, resulting in one losing sight of their aspirations. The rhetorical questions that Warren poses leaves the hawk’s fate open ended and is completely contingent upon the hawk.
http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/harriss-hawk

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I WILL KEEP BROKEN THINGS
I will keep broken
things:
the big clay pot
with raised iguanas
chasing their
tails; two
of their wise
heads sheared off;
I will keep broken things: the old slave market basket brought to
my door by Mississippi a jagged
hole gouged
in its sturdy dark
oak side.

I will keep broken things:
The memory of
those long delicious night swims with you;

I will keep broken things:

In my house
there remains an honored shelf
on which I will keep broken things.

Their beauty is
they need not ever be "fixed."

I will keep your wild
free laughter though it is now missing its
reassuring and
graceful hinge.
I will keep broken things:

Thank you
So much!

I will keep broken things.
I will keep you:
pilgrim of sorrow.
I will keep myself.

COMMENTARY:
The poem starts off with items that have some sort of significance toward Walker but starts to shift once she starts to talk about memories in the fifth stanza
The utilization of "delicious" here is so basically describes the nights she had spent with her significant other, that is the manner by which we feel about solid recollections with somebody we cherish, or adored. It burst out at me as something so brilliantly individual, yet in addition something shared among individuals.
This poem,  isn't just about the items or the other individual that Walker partners them with, this poem is additionally around an acknowledgment – a 'keeping' – of herself, which she anticipates onto each one of these broken things, a title she plainly connects with herself. We as a whole have our little cracks and tears, fixed yet never "fixed", for they have no need to be, as Walker so concisely puts it.
Walker completes the poem as though finishing an affection letter, melancholy and meandering, yet in addition with happiness. It's such a stunning hit, to the point that it sort of took me aback.
She ends with the line, "I will keep myself" which adds significance to the things that surround Walker, for example, the people, the memories she's made that make her the person she is

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EXPECT NOTHING
Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.

COMMENTARY:
The advice given throughout the verse is simple.  The first two words, “Expect nothing” is pretty straight forward. If a person doesn’t spend their time expecting things to happen, they’ll always be pleasantly surprised when good things do, and won’t be disappointed when good things don’t. The following lines, “Live frugally / On surprise” states that a person should live frugal, meaning simple, plain, costing little and living light without the expectation of anything. When things happen, live in the moment regardless of expectation. The first two lines basically sets the tone carrying a blunt, somewhat unusual kind of atmosphere to it. The rest of this verse advices the reader to never accept too much from others, but to stop accepting compassion at the point where they no longer need it, but rather begin to want it. When it says to “purge away the need,” it refers not only to compassion, but to anything that becomes a need simply out of desire.

Walker continues to give advice about living without expecting in the second verse. Walker uses a metaphor of a star to symbolize the human heart that states that the reader should never wish for anything greater than their “own small heart,” which is a fairly vague sentiment, since a wish cannot be measured in the way a physical organ can. In other words, that wishes should come from the heart, and be sincere to what the person feels and wants. In this sense, the heart can be as large and as grand as a star, if it is sheltered from “wild disappointment.” The way the poem suggests to handle these disappointments is with cold caresses; which is to say without feeling disappointed, but to make disappointment a “parka / For your soul.” A parka is a large windproof coat made of animal skin that is designed for cold weather for place like northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. In this metaphor,disappointment is like feeling cold, and the only way to be sheltered from the cold is by wearing a parka. In other words, get used to disappointment, and tame it so that it thickens your skin and defends you against future disappointment, because in life there will always be filled with disappointments.

This last verse just gives strength and the idea of independence throughout the poem, and reinforces the advice that begun the poem, “Expect nothing. Live frugally / On surprise,” which indicates that this is important, and indeed, much of the poem can be compressed into those two lines alone.

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To a Stranger- https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/to-a-stranger
COMMENTARY for To a Stranger:
Firstly, I would like to say that I really like the length of the poem. It’s short, yet you get the purpose or idea that Whitman is trying to convey to the reader. I believe, in my opinion, that Whitman’s purpose to writing this poem was to express his feeling that we pass by so many people, that we consider “strangers” and we don’t notice the vast opportunities we miss by not meeting these “strangers”. I like this idea because anyone can relate to it. I also like that how he just started the poem, with the word: “passing.” Once finished reading the poem, I looked back to the top of the poem and the word passing, in a way shook me. I was like, wow he got all these potential ideas, from someone he hasn’t even met. Whitman mentions in the poem that he recalls the person from a dream. Whitman continues explaining their actions in his dream, showing the positive opportunities they could have. I also think that Whitman is trying to express “love at first sight.” You can relate that felling with this poem, because with love at first sight, it is clear to the two individuals that they are meant for each other, even if they have never met. Whitman writes “recall’d” this is an example of anastrophe. The anastrophe emphasizes the imagery that follows, “flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste,/ matured,” The imagery allows for the reader to feel the emotions that Whitman has towards this never before seen stranger, and it strengthens Whitman’s theme of the missed opportunities.

Excelsior- https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/excelsior
COMMENTARY for Excelsior:
The theme of this poem is to reach your fullest potential in everything. The structure of this poem is weird. It seems that in every other line there is a question, in which he answers with the following line. In a way, it can be seen as anaphora throughout the poem. He starts every questions with “Who has…” and answers with “for I.” The questions also engage the reader to think about themselves as well. Although the answers to the questions may not be true, I think Whitman believed the answers to be true. The exaggeration, or hyperboles of himself being the best of the best, expresses his confidence with in himself. I like this poem for the positive vibes it expresses. The confidence in the poem inspires me to reach my own full potential. The questions begin with broad guards to more narrow questions. It’s a ladder of accomplishments that Whitman believes of himself. The use of first person, helps the reader relate to it, as if the reader was the one asking themselves the questions and answering them. The poem is a great example of the actual meaning of “excelsior”, which means upward, or still ever higher. It shows that Whitman or the reader should be unreachable, they are one of a kind.

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Imagine the Angels of Bread

This is the year that squatters evict landlords, gazing like admirals from the rail
of the roofdeck
or levitating hands in praise

of steam in the shower;
this is the year
that shawled refugees deport judges, who stare at the floor
and their swollen feet
as files are stamped
with their destination;
this is the year that police revolvers, stove-hot, blister the fingers
of raging cops,
and nightsticks splinter
in their palms;
this is the year
that darkskinned men
lynched a century ago
return to sip coffee quietly
with the apologizing descendants
of their executioners.

This is the year that those
who swim the border's undertow
and shiver in boxcars
are greeted with trumpets and drums
at the first railroad crossing
on the other side;
this is the year that the hands
pulling tomatoes from the vine
uproot the deed to the earth that sprouts the vine, the hands canning tomatoes
are named in the will
that owns the bedlam of the cannery;

this is the year that the eyes
stinging from the poison that purifies toilets awaken at last to the sight
of a rooster-loud hillside,
pilgrimage of immigrant birth;
this is the year that cockroaches
become extinct, that no doctor
finds a roach embedded
in the ear of an infant;
this is the year that the food stamps
of adolescent mothers
are auctioned like gold doubloons,
and no coin is given to buy machetes
for the next bouquet of severed heads
in coffee plantation country.

If the abolition of slave-manacles
began as a vision of hands without manacles, then this is the year;
if the shutdown of extermination camps
began as imagination of a land
without barbed wire or the crematorium,
then this is the year;
if every rebellion begins with the idea
that conquerors on horseback
are not many-legged gods, that they too drown if plunged in the river,
then this is the year.

So may every humiliated mouth, teeth like desecrated headstones, fill with the angels of bread.
COMMENTARY
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tLltxFBEbd3fYa89sOylY5fqAMV_4hzKDdiiH1LpIxQ/edit?usp=sharing

Federico's Ghost

The story is
that whole families of fruitpickers
still crept between the furrows
of the field at dusk,
when for reasons of whiskey or whatever the cropduster plane sprayed anyway, floating a pesticide drizzle
over the pickers
who thrashed like dark birds
in a glistening white net,
except for Federico,
a skinny boy who stood apart
in his own green row,
and, knowing the pilot
would not understand in Spanish
that he was the son of a whore,
instead jerked his arm
and thrust an obscene finger.

The pilot understood.
He circled the plane and sprayed again, watching a fine gauze of poison
drift over the brown bodies
that cowered and scurried on the ground, and aiming for Federico,
leaving the skin beneath his shirt
wet and blistered,
but still pumping his finger at the sky.

After Federico died,
rumors at the labor camp
told of tomatoes picked and smashed at night, growers muttering of vandal children
or communists in camp,
first threatening to call Immigration,

then promising every Sunday off
if only the smashing of tomatoes would stop.

Still tomatoes were picked and squashed in the dark,
and the old women in camp
said it was Federico,

laboring after sundown
to cool the burns on his arms, flinging tomatoes
at the cropduster
that hummed like a mosquito lost in his ear,
and kept his soul awake.
COMMENTARY
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OktRsU4YWCMPqIPi5d8OFdKNuDZU7FEGvHXQaAnleYQ/edit?usp=sharing

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“Time Travel” by Sharon Olds consisted of one of the main themes she uses throughout her poems which is concerning to her painful past. The speaker portrays a journey back in time to find her childhood self in her troubled family. The first and second line explains what is taking place, “I have learned to go back and walk around and find the windows and doors.” This line indicates foreshadowing because the meaning of those openings are made clear at the poem’s end, but the reader recognizes them already as typical means of escaping. Visual Imagery also is shown throughout this poem; “the walls and floor are pine,full of splinters.” She identifies that the person she is looking for in this as it to be her father. She goes into describing how she sees him; "the red plaid shirt", "the baggy pants","and long perfectly turned legs." I believe she does this to show a everyday look at her father. Something that she will always remember him by. While describing him though she mentions details of his body and how it is placed; "hands folded across his body" and "eyes closed." Through the diction I visualize someone who is dead could also be described through this. This was interesting to me because it could be telling us what is actually going on without even saying it. The shift would follow as when she describes what is happening with the other family members. " Upstairs mother weeps. Out in the tent my brother reads my diary. My sister is somewhere changing boyfriends in a car and down by shore of the lake there is a girl, twelve years old." This girl ends up being the speakers younger self. Although the speaker came back to re live her old life and see the family for what it once was she realizes that she came back for a stronger reason. To see her younger self and identify her as a survivor, for getting through all the bad parts of life. "She does not know she is the one survior." https://ptsdlovenotes.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/a-poem-by-sharon-olds/#more-18 -TIME TRAVEL

In the action of the twenty-one lines that make up “The One Girl at the Boys Party,” Olds combines three patterns of imagery that stress the speaker’s recognition of her daughter’s approaching maturity. A mother brings her daughter, an intelligent math student, to a pool party where guys instantly flock her. “They tower and bristle, she stands there smooth and sleek.” This line shows the masculine of the boys vs the girl there. Symbolism along with diction is used because throughout the poem the girl uses mathematical terms to refer to the boys. The daughter compares there sleek, hard bodies with a prime number, multiplying their curves of sexes, and evaluating the boys in numerical terms. Diction is used this poem is mathematical merging with sexual(between the two genders). The major shift follows…”she’ll subtract her height from ten feet, divide it into hundreds of gallon of water, the number bouncing in her mind like molecules of chlorine in the bright blue pool.” The use of mathematics also accomplish the nature to adult thought. The final part of the poem relates to the feminism of the female race; “...she will see their eyes, two each, their legs, two each, and the curves of their sexes, one each… she will be doing her wild multiplying, as the drops sparkle and fall to the power of a thousand from her body.” This “wild multiplying” shows a hyperbole and symbolism for the thoughts towards opposite sex. Sharon Olds creates a poem representing a realistic situation of maturity.
http://www1.assumption.edu/users/ady/HHGateway/Etexts/oldsparty.html - THE ONLY GIRL AT THE BOYS PARTY

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https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54128/el-olvido
“ EL OLVIDO” COMMENTARY:
COMMENTARY FOR “EL OLVIDO”:

The poem “El Olvido” is translated to “Forgetfulness” in English. The title already anticipates what the meaning of the poem will be. Ortíz emphasizes the importance of learning to grow without forgetting. The main theme of the poem is culture and Ortíz portrays the message of not forgetting where you came from. A few literary elements are Imagery, Biblical Allusions, and Diction.

“ A bare, cold room with no pictures on the walls.” Using Visual imagery, Ortíz let’s the audience picture how lonely and melancholic life can be when you forget  where you came from. Here he uses the words “bare and cold” which add to the melancholic tone in the sentence. Diction plays a big role in the poem. “ It is dangerous” is used a lot throughout the poem. While describing all the dangers of forgetting your culture, Ortíz explains them with a frightened attitude. “It is dangerous to spurn the clothes you were born to wear for the sake of fashion.” She is saying that many people our too wrapped around the idea of fitting in, in today’s society, that they forget their traditions, their roots, and their past. (Which frightens her) Biblical allusions are used twice throughout the poem. First, “Dangerous to disdain the plaster saints before your mother kneels praying with embarrassing fervor” In Catholicism, praying to saints is a way of asking the saints to pray for us as well. Ortiz fears for her kids to forget their culture and asks the saints to help her too. The words “embarrassing fervor” emphasize how intense her worries are. The second example of a biblical allusion is seen in her last stanza. “Jesus, Jose, And Maria, El Olvido is a Dangerous thing.” She refers to Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, from the Bible and says Forgetfulness is a dangerous thing. She closes the poem the same way she opened it, which once again emphasizes the importance of remembering where you come from.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57812/quincenanera
"QUINCEÑERA” COMMENTARY:
In “Quinceañera” Ortíz explains what changes the narrator will go through while changing from a young girl to a woman. In the first few lines, she is explaining the process of her quinceañera. “My dolls have been put away like dead children in a chest I will carry with me when I marry” the opening line introduces the theme of growing up. This simile is comparing dolls and dead children, because the dolls will sit in a chest until she is married. She won’t be able to play with her dolls anymore, because she is a woman. Another example of her becoming a woman is seen later in the poem when she says “I am to wash my own clothes and sheets from this day on”, Her mother will no longer do it for her because she isn’t a kid anymore. She will later have her own family to take care of so she has to learn all these chores that a “woman should know how to do.” The author ends the poem with “I am wound like the guts of a clock, waiting for each hour to release me.” This closing line shows how the narrator is dreading growing up. The tone mainly seen here is uncertainty. The narrator is unsure of all the changes she will face and how she will react to each one.

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In Golden Gate Park That Day... By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

In Golden Gate Park that day

a man and his wife were coming along

thru the enormous meadow

which was the meadow of the world

He was wearing green suspenders

and carrying an old beat-up flute

in one hand

while his wife had a bunch of grapes

which she kept handing out

individually

to various squirrels

as if each

were a little joke

And then the two of them came on

thru the enormous meadow

which was the meadow of the world

and then

at a very still spot where the trees dreamed

and seemed to have been waiting thru all time

for them

they sat down together on the grass

without looking at each other

and ate oranges

without looking at each other

and put the peels

in a basket which they seemed

to have brought for that purpose

without looking at each other

And then

he took his shirt and undershirt off

but kept his hat on

sideways

and without saying anything

fell asleep under it

And his wife just sat there looking

at the birds which flew about

calling to each other

in the stilly air

as if they were questioning existence

or trying to recall something forgotten

But then finally

she too lay down flat

and just lay there looking up

at nothing

yet fingering the old flute

which nobody played

and finally looking over

at him

without any particular expression

except a certain awful look

of terrible depression

https://brunch.co.kr/@dannyyun/195

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Cathy song experience as an Asian-American gives her inspiration for the majority of her work. She utilizes symbolism, visual and auditory imagery, diction and many mores literary elements to paints a splendid picture that is a representation of human conditions and nature. Through the use of visual imagery symbolism and diction, Cathy Song spins a heartfelt story of a women who wish to be free from the pain of sickness and the hospital room that cause her to old memories. This poem speak out to me as how ironic the situation is. It's in a human nature to want to seek freedom but to seek freedom by wishing death upon self is quite ironic. We all fear dying but this sick woman wants to put an end to the lack of control she felt in her life. Death here symbolizes freedom and control. The poem cause the readers to also recall the happy times in their life and cause the readers to think differently about death. It main message is that life is full of fickleness and death is just a new beginning; a rebirth of a me journey. Cathy Song choices of diction speaks a lot about her own belief in life. She uses euphoric terminology to represents something that is connotated to be ominous. Death was given the negative connotation due to the the fear of the unknown that presented itself in human nature. We as human beings fears death simply because we have no idea what happen after we die. Cathy Song enjoy the aspects of the unknown. She look back at the past and reminisce the feelings it brings but she treads forward into a new beginning. This was the reason as to why Cathy Song chooses to end “The Hotel By The Lake” with the word “itinerary” which means journey. Death symbolizes a journey in Cathy Song opinion.

———————————————————————————
Cathy Song own belief about life was represented in the poem “Adagio”. Adagio means slow and expressive in music terminology. This means that the music will be express in such a heartfelt and melancholic style. Poems are also music but without the auditory aspect of it. Adagio was chosen as the title of this so call music was to oppose the societal norms of life. Societal believes the best way to approve a fickle life is to do as much as possible while you can. Cathy Son position of this statement is that life is indeed fast. She advocated the belief that we should take our time and enjoy the taste of every moment of each day that we were bless with. I’m her poems she uses symbolism, visual imagery, and structure to points out the effect of living a fast pace life. Cathy Song organize the poems in a random and very rush style instead of chronological like most of her previous work. This was intended to shows that by the end of that fast life there’s is an end to a journey. Despite believing death is a new beginning, Cathy Song strongly believe in ending a life with no regrets. The image of the little girl wanting to be like her father and her father wanting to be like his father proves that it’s in a human nature to desire perfection. Humans always chase after perfection and unavoidably letting life flew past them in a blink of their eyes. Cathy Song purpose in creating that analogy was to draw a parallel to human nature. She want to advocated in self love and identity; you are the most perfect you and be at the moment and you won’t be happy if you were that “perfect” human.

https://goo.gl/images/cWrpyy

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Oranges
https://padlet.com/florsalazar/t3eu29u4f4o1
Avocado Lake
https://padlet.com/florsalazar/qyfo32qlgb8u

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Do not go gentle into that good night
By:Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

At first glance, we can infer from the title that the poem is about a passing or ending of life. When we say goodnight, it is the end of the day, and in the context of this poem, it is similar to a 'farewell' to life.  Something people do not realize is that time goes by very fast. There will be people who appreciate the essence of life, but there will also be people who spend it without passion. Thomas in this particular poem belittles those who do not live like to the max. I was not too sure what the poet was talking about until I saw the shift from 3rd person to 1st person. As it turns out, Thomas was actually alluding to himself. I personally really like when authors or poets have that sort of twist in their stories. By switching to first person, I felt it made the poem more personal and humane. In some ways, I think teens can relate to this piece of work. Honestly, it felt like yesterday when I began freshmen year and now in the blink of an eye, we are 2 months away from graduation. I think that everyone at some point in their lives wondered if they accomplished a goal by a certain age. This poem has a message and it is this: live life like as if your last day was today. Everyday we have our own situations, and it results in us forgetting to reflect on ourselves at the end of the day. The diction in this poem is also interesting.
When Thomas uses the word 'rage,' he is not implying anger, but  rather as a fight against the ticking clock of life. He tells readers that life is short, so therefore live to your best abilities.

Clown in The Moon

My tears are like the quiet drift

Of petals from some magic rose;

And all my grief flows from the rift

Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,

It would crumble;

It is so sad and beautiful,

So tremulously like a dream.

It is natural human emotion to feel sad and we all have a breaking point. I like how in this poem, the clown is a symbol of a facade-clowns are always portrayed as happy and jubilant  people, but in reality, the narrator is utilizing it as a 'defense' against others from knowing his true-self. Although not specified, he does this so others do not see his sensitive side. People for the most part do not like showing their true emotions, which is quite understandable. No one wants to portray a weak character in society. Another thing that the clown could symbolize is foolishness. Perhaps he feels foolish for showing that sort of emotion and having a mental break down. What's interesting is the line that goes "if I touched the earth, it would crumble, is so sad and beautiful...like a dream." After I read that line, it made me think on more of an abstract level. Dreams are abstract- they are something we can not touch. However, we can infer from them. So why did Thomas compare it to a dream? He could be alluding to another abstract concept such as his emotions. His diction, such as him using the word beautiful and crumble is an ironic combination because crumble is similar to destruction or downfall, which is not related to beauty. These two words are opposite, but they create an effect that shows emphasis on his feelings. Based on this poem alone, I feel like the poet himself is someone who has a lot of sensibility and emotions but does not confront the issue all the way, which results in why this poem is slightly ambiguous. The reason I say that this is slightly ambigous is because he does not specify what he means when he talks about the earth crumbling at his touch.

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The Road Not Taken

Launch Audio in a New Window

BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.
Commentary:
Four stanzas, each of five lines in length (a quintrain), with a mix of iambic and anapaestic tetrameter, producing a steady rhythmical four beat first person narrative. Most common speech is a combination of iambs and anapaests, so Frost chose his lines to reflect this:

examples:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

The poem is a extended metaphor about how the road is life, and it’s diverges, how it splits apart.

The tone and atmosphere of the poem was reflective, thoughtful poem. The poem was clear enough to see that you take one path or the other. The tone of the poem meditative the person is looking at two options, weighing up the pros and cons or studied manners. The speaker know that he prefers the road less traveled because he enjoys his solitude and believes that to be important or he could have been individualist that prefers to set his own agenda.

Birches

BY ROBERT FROST

When I see birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter darker trees,

I like to think some boy's been swinging them.

But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay

As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them

Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning

After a rain. They click upon themselves

As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored

As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.

Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells

Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—

Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away

You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.

They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,

And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed

So low for long, they never right themselves:

You may see their trunks arching in the woods

Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground

Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair

Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.

But I was going to say when Truth broke in

With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm

I should prefer to have some boy bend them

As he went out and in to fetch the cows—

Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,

Whose only play was what he found himself,

Summer or winter, and could play alone.

One by one he subdued his father's trees

By riding them down over and over again

Until he took the stiffness out of them,

And not one but hung limp, not one was left

For him to conquer. He learned all there was

To learn about not launching out too soon

And so not carrying the tree away

Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise

To the top branches, climbing carefully

With the same pains you use to fill a cup

Up to the brim, and even above the brim.

Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,

Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

And so I dream of going back to be.

It's when I'm weary of considerations,

And life is too much like a pathless wood

Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs

Broken across it, and one eye is weeping

From a twig's having lashed across it open.

I'd like to get away from earth awhile

And then come back to it and begin over.

May no fate willfully misunderstand me

And half grant what I wish and snatch me away

Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:

I don't know where it's likely to go better.

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

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Langston Hughes 50-50                                                                                                                                            I’m all alone in this world, she said,

Ain’t got nobody to share my bed,

Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand—

The truth of the matter’s

I ain’t got no man.

Big Boy opened his mouth and said,

Trouble with you is

You ain’t got no head!

If you had a head and used your mind

You could have me with you

All the time.

She answered, Babe, what must I do?

He said, Share your bed—

And your money, too.                                                                                                                                                    Dying Beast                                                                                                                                                                 Sensing death,
The buzzards gather —
Noting the last struggle
Of flesh under weather,
Noting the last glance
Of agonized eye
At passing wind
And boundless sky.

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London Crossfigured: Lawrence Ferlinghetti

London

crossfigured

creeping with trams

and the artists on sundays

in the summer

all ‘tracking Nature’

in the suburbs

It

could have been anyplace

but it wasn’t

It was

London

and when someone shouted over

that they had got a model

I ran out across the court

but then

when the model started taking off

her clothes

there was nothing underneath

I mean to say

she took off her shoes

and found no feet

took off her top

and found no tit

under it

and I must say she did look

a bit

ASTOUNDED

just standing there

looking down

at where her legs were

not

But so very carefully then

she put her clothes back on

and as soon as she was dressed again

completely

she was completely

all right

Do it again! cried someone

rushing for his easel

But she was afraid to

and gave up modelling

and forever after

slept in her clothes

https://jowsy.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/lady-in-red/

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Early in the Morning

BY LI-YOUNG LEE

While the long grain is softening

in the water, gurgling

over a low stove flame, before

the salted Winter Vegetable is sliced

for breakfast, before the birds,

my mother glides an ivory comb

through her hair, heavy

and black as calligrapher’s ink.

She sits at the foot of the bed.

My father watches, listens for

the music of comb

against hair.

My mother combs,

pulls her hair back

tight, rolls it

around two fingers, pins it

in a bun to the back of her head.

For half a hundred years she has done this.

My father likes to see it like this.

He says it is kempt.

But I know

it is because of the way

my mother’s hair falls

when he pulls the pins out.

Easily, like the curtains

when they untie them in the evening.

In the poem, Lee showcases the routinely morning in his household. I like how he contrasted the two ideas of restriction and freedom: restriction coming from the way the mother does her hair; the father claiming it's kempt like that. However, in the evening, the father pulls out the pins which depicts freedom. The part that stood out to me was when he said, "my mother glides an ivory comb through her hair, heavy and black as calligrapher's ink," because we all think that ink is dirty; however, the ivory combing gliding through her hair counteracts the seemingly dirty ink and expresses it more as something like silk. Another thing I noticed was Lee doesn't go into too much details about what he does in the morning, and focuses more on how his parents interact. This could be seen as how he respects them, because he watches them and their mannerism every morning. Another thing I found interesting was Lee's concept of time, he refers to years as "half a hundred years" rather than bluntly specifying how many years. Because of this, it creates an air of mystery and timelessness. What I thought to be a simple poem was actually one with many layers and hidden meanings. I think the curtains also symbolizes secrecy and mystery when the couple unties them in the evening. This gives a sense of intimacy and a feeling of unwinding for the day. In addition, when the father watches the mother comb her hair, it's like he expects to her the "music of comb against hair" and waits for it so he can start his day. Personally, that may be a stretch. Overall, this poem gave me a relaxed and peaceful feeling, because of the passive tone, even for a relatively short poem, I thought it fulfilled it's goal of expressing the relationship between two people.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ivory+comb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiuyuyb0YHaAhVRgK0KHbaGBSIQ_AUICygC&biw=1366&bih=637#imgrc=m8KFAYN189ZvYM:

This Hour and What Is Dead

Tonight my brother, in heavy boots, is walking

through bare rooms over my head,

opening and closing doors.

What could he be looking for in an empty house?

What could he possibly need there in heaven?

Does he remember his earth, his birthplace set to torches?

His love for me feels like spilled water

running back to its vessel.

At this hour, what is dead is restless

and what is living is burning.

Someone tell him he should sleep now.

My father keeps a light on by our bed

and readies for our journey.

He mends ten holes in the knees

of five pairs of boy’s pants.

His love for me is like his sewing:

various colors and too much thread,

the stitching uneven. But the needle pierces

clean through with each stroke of his hand.

At this hour, what is dead is worried

and what is living is fugitive.

Someone tell him he should sleep now.

God, that old furnace, keeps talking

with his mouth of teeth,

a beard stained at feasts, and his breath

of gasoline, airplane, human ash.

His love for me feels like fire,

feels like doves, feels like river-water.

At this hour, what is dead is helpless, kind

and helpless. While the Lord lives.

Someone tell the Lord to leave me alone.

I’ve had enough of his love

that feels like burning and flight and running away.

When I first read this poem, I noticed there was a lot of anguish and anger incorporated into the poem. This poem, I believe, depicts the sad story of a brother that died due to his village being engulfed in flames, and sitting restless in Heaven. Lee gives the ominous statement of: "At this hour, what is dead is restless, and what is living is burning." This shows that they are in a situation of destruction and that the living should flee, as what the narrator and his father seem to be getting ready to do. I find interesting the metaphor Lee uses to describe his father's love to a needle's stitching, because when you think of a needle, you think of a sharp point which equals to puncture marks and pain. However, Lee doesn't express it that way, instead he depicts it as hurting, but if you look at the whole picture it's actually there, similar to a tough love concept. I also noticed how the dead is never at peace, always restless, helpless, and worried. He expresses his contempt and chastises God, because he believes that God's love is no longer something he can handle due to the endless suffering he endured. But it's ironic, because in his biography, his father was a Presbyterian minister, and had a big influence on Lee's love of language. This poem stood out to me initially, because of the disdain against God, which I have witnessed so far, very little. What surprises me is the contrast for his love of his father, but his contempt for God. It could indicate that he looks up to his father more than God, because his father tried to help him get through the disaster. I think this poem was able to accomplish its task of letting the reader experience the angst that the dead felt and the anguish the living felt.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=637&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=RYi0Wq7SFoOIsQWImK3YAg&q=hand+sew&oq=hand+sew&gs_l=psy-ab.3...39163.40743.0.40872.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.JjCsMH9eSFY#imgrc=iGqWOZtJcqv2sM:

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Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Charge of the Light Brigade

I

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

II

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

Someone had blundered.

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs not to reason why,

Theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

III

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

Rode the six hundred.

IV

Flashed all their sabres bare,

Flashed as they turned in air

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

All the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right through the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reeled from the sabre stroke

Shattered and sundered.

Then they rode back, but not

Not the six hundred.

V

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell.

They that had fought so well

Came through the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of hell,

All that was left of them,

Left of six hundred.

VI

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.

Honour the charge they made!

Honour the Light Brigade,

Noble six hundred!

Charge of the Light Brigade: Commentary

This poem talks about how a small brigade of horses that charges the front lines of the enemy in order to regain their stolen weapons. It continues to say that the man riding in knew that the captain has messed up, but no one questioned his command. They didn’t question it because they had courage and they are to follow his orders no matter how dumb they may seem. Tennyson uses imagery, personification and repetition in order to describe the severity of the situation.

The main piece of imagery used in this poem is the Valley of Death. The Valley of Death is the setting of this poem and the author used these words to describe what was going on the poem. We are made to believe that six hundred courageous men on horses charged a miles and a half in order to regain their weapons. Tennyson also uses personification to describe the impending doom the riders were about to endure. He says they were riding into the Jaws of Death. This refers to enemy lines that the riders were told to charge. This poem is pretty straight up with its point. Tennyson keeps on repeating himself and continues to stress that these men were not coming back from this fight and that this was a suicide mission. The reason Tennyson wrote this poem was to explain to the reader that the courage and will never fade away. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Commentary:

The Eagle is not a normal poem. Teachers and students like this poem for two reasons. One is that is short and the other is the simplistic nature of how Tennyson just says what he means. The Eagle captures the truth nature of an eagle perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Tennyson uses imagery, personification and metaphors in order to reveals the power of the imagination to create its own truth.

Tennyson uses a metaphor in the last line which captures a small but majestic event of an eagle diving from a cliff with complete accuracy and precision. He also uses imagery in the whole poem.

The reason he wrote this poem was because when he went on a trip on the ocean he was able to see the true beauty of nature and wanted to share his experiences with everyone. I chose to write on this poem not because it was short but because it me think more on why someone write instead of how they write.

Break Break Break

https://interestingliterature.com/2016/04/08/a-short-analysis-of-tennysons-break-break-break

The unnamed speaker of "Break, Break, Break" is sad. He also tells us that he can't express himself well. Grief has made him tongue-tied. And then he goes on for three more lyrical, lovely stanzas about how much he misses his dead friend. Who says he can't express himself well? Our speaker is too modest. We're at the seaside. Now, before you start imagining palm trees and white beaches, we should add that we're by the sea on a coast in England somewhere. The sea is gray, and the coast is rocky. Not a lot of beaches around here. The waves keep crashing, smashing, splashing against the rocks. It's not a deserted spot, by any means: there are fishermen, and their kids are playing. Sailors are singing while they work and ships are sailing by. Not so bad, right? The title of the poem is just the first line: "Break, break, break." In the context of the poem, it's the speaker telling the sea waves to "break, break, break" against the rocks. But lots of other things break, too, right? Like mirrors, glasses,hopes or hearts. You get the picture that it's not a happy word, generally speaking.

Crossing the Bar

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45321/crossing-the-bar

The speaker heralds the setting of the sun and the rise of the evening star, and hears that he is being called. He hopes that the ocean will not make the mournful sound of waves beating against a sand bar when he sets out to sea. Rather, he wishes for a tide that is so full that it cannot contain sound or foam and therefore seems asleep when all that has been carried from the boundless depths of the ocean returns back out to the depths.

The speaker announces the close of the day and the evening bell, which will be followed by darkness. He hopes that no one will cry when he departs, because although he may be carried beyond the limits of time and space as we know them, he retains the hope that he will look upon the face of his “Pilot” when he has crossed the sand bar. This poem consists of four quatrain stanzas rhyming ABAB. The first and third lines of each stanza are always a couple of beats longer than the second and fourth lines, although the line lengths vary among the stanzas. Tennyson wrote “Crossing the Bar” in 1889, three years before he died. The poem describes his placid and accepting attitude toward death. Although he followed this work with subsequent poems, he requested that “Crossing the Bar” appear as the final poem in all collections of his work.

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Famous

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,

which knew it would inherit the earth

before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds

watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom

is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,

more famous than the dress shoe,

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men

who smile while crossing streets,

sticky children in grocery lines,

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,

but because it never forgot what it could do.

Throughout the poem, Naomi Shihab Nye depicts her desire to be known. I like how the author uses the simplest objects and compare them to express her point because it shows that each one contains a special significance. The line “The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds watching him from the birdhouse.” really stood out to me because I saw it was another prospective/point of view due to usually it would be the cat watching the birds. There was also a shift in the story where the Nye goes to her point of you and expresses her personal goals. Before this shift I noticed how most of the things she was comparing was in singular form then when the poem because personal the objects became plural. This made me believe that Nye’s goal is to become recognized and appeal to more than just one audience. When the author talks about the bent photograph it lead me to believe that the meaning of famous here is changed to cherished due to the fact that she said to the one who holds it and not the one who is in it. If this is true then the author would also be using ambiguity in her poem. I noticed several themes that relate to this story: beauty of simplicity, fulfillment, and self-empowerment. She uses literary elements like symbolism, point of view, visual imagery, and repetition to show ideas of desire, growth, and development towards her personal goal. By the end the the tone gives me inspiration because readers see she is thriving to become something more. Annotating this poem was interesting because I was able to go more in depth and find more things each time I read over it. Overall I really enjoyed this poem and find it one of the most interesting poems I have annotated by this author.

https://www.google.com/search?q=fame&safe=strict&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjo2drf__3ZAhVCwYMKHVeQAeAQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1366&bih=654#imgrc=FtxkyNRT14JwxM:

Blood

"A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,"

my father would say. And he'd prove it,

cupping the buzzer instantly

while the host with the swatter stared.

In the spring our palms peeled like snakes.

True Arabs believed watermelon could heal fifty ways.

I changed these to fit the occasion.

Years before, a girl knocked,

wanted to see the Arab.

I said we didn't have one.

After that, my father told me who he was,

"Shihab"--"shooting star"--

a good name, borrowed from the sky.

Once I said, "When we die, we give it back?"

He said that's what a true Arab would say.

Today the headlines clot in my blood.

A little Palestinian dangles a truck on the front page.

Homeless fig, this tragedy with a terrible root

is too big for us. What flag can we wave?

I wave the flag of stone and seed,

table mat stitched in blue.

I call my father, we talk around the news.

It is too much for him,

neither of his two languages can reach it.

I drive into the country to find sheep, cows,

to plead with the air:

Who calls anyone civilized?

Where can the crying heart graze?

What does a true Arab do now?

This poem was confusing to me at first because I did not know what Naomi Nye meant by a “true Arab” and also did not understand the the meaning and themes of the poem as a whole. However, I saw the meaning of a “true Arab” in the question as a search for truth and identity. To better understand what the author meant by “..watermelon could heal fifty ways..” I researched what impact watermelon had on the Arab culture. Learning the historical information about certain subjects helped me to better understand the poem and pull more ideas from the text. The poem is based on family relations between a father and his child. When it says “After that my father told me who he was..” it made me aware that the person in this story did not know anything about his identity before the father revealed the truth. When the question of “What flag can we wave..” arised, I realized that it was a choice and a decision that the author made of who he is. I saw the themes of role of religion, truth for identity, and change vs tradition. The author uses the literary techniques flashback, simile, visual and auditory imagery, symbolism, repetition, and analogy. The author also used past and present as a unique literary device to elaborate on the themes and ideas.The poems contains the ideas of unity, identity, self discovery, traditions, and rebellion. The author contrast the Arabs and the other people by their actions, culture, and traditions which gave me an insight to their lifestyle. The use of the author identifying people by their culture allowed me to realize that the author uses religion as a main focus in a lot of the poems she develops. This poem was very interesting and contained many interesting details which made it the ideas stand out more I as better understood the story.

https://www.google.com/search?safe=strict&biw=1366&bih=654&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=fJ-yWuaNJsqsjwSt2YLIBQ&q=arabic+culture&oq=arabic+cul&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0l10.645567.648578.0.650366.10.10.0.0.0.0.93.829.10.10.0..3..0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.10.828...0i67k1.0.YdKbWpBHMvI#imgrc=nnDi9tfo1Fd-OM: