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In her article “Why We Should Read Poetry,” Amy Lowell argues the merits of reading poetry.  “We should read poetry because only in that way can we know [humanity] in all [its] moods – in the most beautiful thoughts of [its] heart, in [its] farthest reaches of imagination, in the tenderness of [its] love, in the nakedness and awe of [its] soul confronted with the terror and wonder of the universe.”  In this quote, Lowell argues that poetry defines humanity.  In poetry, we can see humanity expressed in every possible way.  Poetry shows us the imagination, love, honesty, and terror seen in ourselves.  Through this quote, Lowell intends to showcase the true power and importance of poetry.  She is attempting to highlight how important poetry is by acknowledging poetry’s ability to showcase the human nature of the poet.

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The first poem I believe showcases humanity, as Lowell describes, is “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats.  Yeats’ poem perfectly captures the awe of the human soul as it is confronted with the wonder of the universe.  Much of Yeats’ poem describes the lake where the poet is writing from, and paints a very vivid word picture.  Throughout the poem, we can palpably feel the emotions of the poet as he describes this paradise, and we can feel the longing of the poet to be in this place.  Yeats demonstrates humanities awe of nature through his vivid descriptions of the lake, as well as the characters longing to be there.  Through the various emotions described, as well as the vivid description of the setting, this poem captures humanities wonder and awe of nature.

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The second poem I believe showcases humanity is “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke.  While the first poem showcases humanities wonder and awe of nature, this poem focuses on the whimsical nature of humanity.  Much of this poem deals with complex humor, as a small child is being forced to aggressively waltz with his drunken father.  However, the author paints a picture of a drunk father and his son waltzing in the kitchen, with a mother disapprovingly watching.  Through this poem, we glimpse the true whimsical nature of humanity, when late at night all a drunk father wants to do is teach his son to waltz. While the poem does seem dark, the whimsey of the father is not lost, and the poem ends with the father waltzing his son off to bed.

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The third poem I believe showcases humanity is “Funeral Blues” by W. H. Auden.  Through this poem, the grief and brokenness of humanity is glimpsed through the grieving of a widow.  Many of us like to focus on the positive attributes of humanity, but Auden chose to focus on humanity at its most broken point: grief.  Humanity has many moods, and some of them can be quite devastating.   The poem follows the grieving of a widow at the loss of her soulmate.  The true brokenness of the character is felt, as the entire poem has a somber tone.  Ultimately, the poem highlights the sad and broken nature of humanity after the loss of a loved one.

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Poem 4: “Speech to the Young, Speech to the Progress-Toward”

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Poem 4: “Speech to the Young, Speech to the Progress-Toward”

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The fourth poem I believe showcases humanity is “Speech to the Young, Speech to the Progress-Toward” by Gwendolyn Brooks.  In her poem, Brooks demonstrates the fighting spirit of humanity.  The narrator of the poem attempts to speak out against a group of people, and unite everybody to live life to the full.  The narrator of this poem feels tied down by something, and encourages us to “Live life in the along.”  This poem is almost a call to arms, calling everybody to speak out against those oppressing them.  Such strong feelings of rebellion move the reader to action, and calling all of us to a better life.

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The ninth poem I believe showcases humanity is “Traveling Through The Dark” by William Stafford.  In this poem, Stafford demonstrates humanity’s resolution to complete a certain task.  We can see humanity’s resolution in this poem through the actions of the narrator, who kills a pregnant doe with his car.  As the narrator speaks to himself, his mind is constantly set on what needs to be done.  We see in this poem that humanity can be resolute when a hard job needs completion.  Even though the deer was pregnant, and the fetus was still alive, the narrator was able to continue on with his life by pushing the deer over the cliff.  All in all, the narrator exemplifies humanity’s resolution through his handling of the situation with the deer.

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Poem 7: “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”

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Poem 7: “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”

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The seventh poem I believe showcases humanity is “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” by Craig Raine.  This poem perfectly demonstrates the farthest reaches of humanity’s imagination by writing about the different inventions we have created.  The entire poem focuses on several inventions humanity has created, including the printing press, alarm clocks, and automobiles.  The descriptions of these various inventions highlight the ingenuity and extent of humanity’s imagination.  The explores humanities accomplishments through the eyes of an outsider.  In the end, this poem points out many of the great things humanity has created.

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The fifth poem I believe showcases humanity is “Grass” by Carl Sandburg.  In this poem, Sandburg demonstrates humanity’s destructive power.  The poem is told from the perspective of the grass sitting on top of the thousands of dead bodies.  The places listed off where the grass is growing are all gruesome and prolific battlefields.  Each one of these battlefields watched as thousands upon thousands of soldiers died on top of them.  While the grass attempts to grow over the dead bodies to cover up what happened, the brutality of humanity cannot be overlooked.   All in all, no amount of grass can hide what truly happened on those battlefields.  However, the poet did demonstrate humanity’s imagination by writing from the perspective of grass, an inanimate object.
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https://static.pexels.com/photos/33359/grass-meadow-green-forest.jpg

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The eighth poem I believe showcases humanity is “America” by Claude McKay.  In this poem, McKay demonstrates the ugly nature of humanity.  Humanity’s ugliest qualities stem from oppression and the infliction of pain.  This poem paints a very dark image of someone being attacked and poisoned by America.  The person or group of people telling this poem feel attacked and overwhelmed by America.  Through a dark and negative tone, this poem shows an ugly side of humanity.  Ultimately, the poem uses the symbol of America to depict a truly gruesome side of humanity.

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The sixth poem I believe showcases humanity is “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall.  This poem, like “Funeral Blues” captures the brokenness in humanity through grief.  However, this poem also demonstrates the innocence in humanity through the little girl who wants to go march in the streets.  Humanity’s innocence is so clearly exemplified in this little girl, who does not know the danger of the Freedom March, just wants to go downtown.  Just like in “Funeral Blues,” however, we see the brokenness of a mother in grief as she searches for the dead body of her child after a bomb.  The mother’s brokenness is seen as she races through the streets of Birmingham, clawing at brick to find her baby’s body.  In the end, this poem demonstrates two aspects of humanity: brokenness in grief and innocence.

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After completing this unit and reading over twenty poems, I would say my favorite poem is "High School Training Ground" by Malcolm London.  Out of all the poems I have read in this unit, this poem grabbed my attention more than any other.  This was by far the most emotion-driven poem that I have read in this unit.  Moreover, this poem helped me connect to the struggles of the African American community, and opened my eyes to the continued oppression many face today.  "High School Training Ground” was written with such passion and emotion that I could do nothing but be moved by the poet’s words.

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Malcolm London: "High School Training Ground"

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Young poet, educator and activist Malcolm London performs his stirring poem about life on the front lines of high school. He tells of the "oceans of adolescence" who come to school "but never learn to swim," of "masculinity mimicked by men who grew up with no fathers." Beautiful, lyrical, chilling.

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The tenth and final poem I believe showcases humanity is “I Carry Your Heart” by E. E. Cummings.  In this poem, Cummings exemplifies the beautiful thoughts of the heart.  The poet captures the tenderhearted promise of one lover to another, and in essence demonstrates the heart of humanity.  Cummings captured the essence of humanity: love.  Love drives the heart of every human being. The poet realized that, and told the story of one lover promising to protect the other lover’s heart forever.  In the end, humanity has many moods, but the poet of “I Carry Your Heart” demonstrates the most powerful  mood of all: love.

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As I stated in the first post, Lowell uses her quote to argue that poetry defines humanity.  Besides poetry, I believe that film captures humanity in all of its moods.  Film, like poetry, is very intimate.  Also like poetry, film shows every side of humanity.  While poetry can paint an image, film uses video to capture humanity.  Through film we see all of the moods of humanity described by Lowell.  For instance, in the film Interstellar, we see everything from humanity’s wonder and terror at the universe, the beautiful thoughts of its heart, its farthest reaches of imagination, and the ugly side to humanity.  While this is only one film, all of film helps capture humanity and all of its moods.
image: https://d35fkdjhhgt99.cloudfront.net/static/use-media-items/27/26617/full-1699x2654/567022b0/interstellar_ver2_xxlg.jpeg?resolution=0