Oh No

Robert Creeley creates a fantastic image with this poem. It's only two stanzas long with an abab rhyme scheme in the first stanza and an aa bb rhyme scheme in the second stanza. This poem has very simple diction and is an easy read. This simple and straight to the point poem represents the idea of the piece. I see this poem as representing a person arriving in heaven because the poem talks about having a chair available for you only, and thats symbolic of God always having a place for a person in heaven no matter who the person is. This poem represents a person dying and going to heaven and the poem is so straightforward that its kind of like death because death is so straight forward; everybody dies eventually and it's inevitable. Also, the poem starts off with wandering too far and this poem could be talking about how everybody gets off track sometimes and your not alone.

Writing

Sadie and I presented this and I really like the depth behind this poem even though it comes off as very simple. This piece of writing that a student does for a teacher and the commentary she gives back represents how much grammar a teacher looks at instead of the idea and creativeness behind the writing. The kid is obviously writing about a serious event in her life and the teacher doesn't even acknowledge what the student is actually saying. Even the structure of the how the child writes with the uneven spacing between words and the wrong spelling of such words as "agenst" and "dor" show that the child comes from background or home. The teacher even mentions that maybe next time the student will have "more to say" which is ridiculous because what the child is saying has a lot to say about the child's home life and a very violent memory in this kid's mind. The piece almost has some irony because sometimes grammar is so focused on when the idea behind the piece should be more important and here the teacher is saying that the child didn't write enought. This piece is very depressing but true.

A Poison Tree

This poem almost has a joking tone to it. The writer talks about creating his own enemy and how problems against someone just grow into a "poison tree" and just become a bigger and bigger problem. I absolutely can relate to this poem too because there is always that one person in your life that you just completely dislike. Most people don't face their deceitful feelings towards the person they dislike, and like the poem states with "watering it in fears" and "soft, deceitful wiles" shows that a person just covers their true feelings with fake smiles and are too scared to solve the problem in front of them. Eventually that hate takes over you which, in this poem, is represented by an apple and the foe "knew that it was mine." This poem also has a beginning and an end, a process of hate, that has a rhyme scheme of aabb which makes the hateful poem flow well through the process of hating. When a person really doesn't like another human being, this "poison tree" is the prime example.

The Guitarist Tunes Up

As a musician's point of view, I could see how a musician would related their instrument kind of like seducing a woman. I can definitely relate because I play piano and with any instrument the player can't force it, but simply go with it. A person playing an instrument knows that it isn't "conquering" but instead wooing the instrument like a woman. The musician is able to relish in the beautiful sounds of the instrument, but only by being patient listening, such as how the author compares this to seducing a woman. A musician must listen to the instrument first to make sure it is in tune, and kind of test the waters before actually going all out and playing. This is compared to listening to what a woman has to say, and showing interest in what she is saying. The author sees playing the guitar as sort of an art and that there is a passion behind it just like love. The musician must have a relationship with the instrument that they are playing.

at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation

Clifton is very clear by the end of the poem with his hostility towards how people look at all the work thats put into the walnut grove plantation. The first three stanzas are pretty normal describing the situation at hand and how the inventory just lists ten names of slaves who lie at that cemetery, yet this simple situation is so much more to it than meets the eye. These people who are listed actually are human beings that each have a story to tell. Theres also the stanza that is italized that says "the inventory lists ten slaves but only men were recognized." In the next stanza, the author goes on to say that these people were also woman and children who should also be recognized for their hardships. The author wants the reader to know that these "bashful names" should be given more credit than a mere list of names that lived and worked on the property. Slaves were the main reason our economy even flourished the way it did, and without them we couldn't of made it this far, and American history downplays the importance of these people. The end of the poem repeatedly says here lies and finishes with the word "hear," and the author wants people to hear and appreciated the slaves who worked so hard for economy and our country.

MVHS

Purple, black, and silver.

The football games and painted faces.

The crowded hallways and announcements.

The countless friends and good memories made.

Early morning naps and good old CSAPs.

Going out to eat and talk of the weekend.

High school, the building blocks into the real world.

Questions poem

Why is nature so beautiful?

Why is nature always called "wild?"

Why is it so destructive?

Why is nature depleting?

Why is it called nature?

Why is it so fragile?

What makes nature so detailed?

Why are we killing nature?

Why can't we coexist with nature?

What makes nature so beautiful?

Why is nature loved and cherished?

Alone

At the beginning of the poem is gives a very depressed, sorrowful tone. I could kind of see her point of view of being alone because a lot of my life in middle school I had trouble relating to a lot of my friends just because I had different interests. Poe then goes on to explain about nature. This was a different perspective because, in a way, nature is kind of alone on its own. Something so pure, natural, and fragile all on it's own. The very last sentence talks about how a demon formed in the shape of a cloud and this makes me think that she sees evil in herself. She mentions her childhood and kind of compares it to her adulthood, and he brings up the fact that are entire lives people are trying to distinguish good from evil and struggle to do so. Also, this poem is all one stanza because I would think that she would split them up into groups according to her timeline or subject. I think this is so she can mix the image of nature and loneliness together a little better. There are also a lot of dashes and I think they are there to help kind of guide the person along and have the piece flow.

The Tree in the Garden

I love the image this poem paint in my head as I read it; "the trees in the garden rained flowers"-doesn't that metaphor just make you want to run under the tree and dance around? The beginning of this poem just gives off joyous happiness.Then the reader gets to picture this thorn of a bush amidst all these gorgeous flowers. When compared with it's surroundings it's ugly and dismal, not part of the joyous, pretty, floral picture the reader first imagines. Then the reader realizes that this thorn represents the strong who aren't always beautiful, yet they stand and are bold. The thorn bush is what deserves to be beautiful but isn't. Sometimes a person doesn't have to have the "pretties" of life to be happy and strong, yet the bare basics can make a person looked up at as a role model. This piece could definitely be interpreted many ways and there is a very deep idea behind the thorn and the flowers surrounding it.

The Hat Lady

This poem started out so happy and then went downhill so fast. At first I thought it was about a simple childhood memory of a child remembering the hat lady that came to make hats for her mom, but in the end the reader finds out that the hats are to cover up the bare head of a woman stricken with cancer and going through chemotherapy. It's awful because today in my nursing assistant class today my class watched a woman go through the process of cancer and dying in the end. If I put myself in the girl's shoes in this poem I can't even imagine watching a family member go through a painful treatment like that; it's awful to just even picture that in my head. What the reader thinks is something so innocent as a hat lady really is the symbol of death coming to take away the cancer-stricken patient. It's interesting but true because cancer is one of those diseases that comes in disguise, and a lot of times when it's recognized it's too late to treat.

Much Madness is Divinest Sense

This poem is very compare/contrast. It has words that are opposite in the same sentences such as "madness and sense," and yet it makes sense at the same time. It's kind of saying that what is madness to one person looks completely normal to another. Madness can only be defined by the interpreter. Demur, which means objecting, is different way of looking at madness, because most "mad" people object to being insane, and this is a very dangerous aspect if the person doesn't accept it as part of them. The poem says that your "handled with a chain" if you object because madness allows a person to have a kind of freedom because their thinking is unusual and out there, but it is a type of freedom. I think that everybody is a little mad in their own way, and if you agree to it then it's not as bad, but denying that your mad truly can't be because being "insane" is interpreted so differently by every individual. This reminds me of the movie Shutter Island because in the end we don't really know if the person who was suppose to be insane was actually going mad or if everybody else around him was going crazy.

The Book

This piece is ridiculous; I definitely didn't expect the book to be covered with human skin, that's disgusting. Besides that, there's a very chilling beauty behind it. It reminds me of innocent childhood or innocent love. When your a child, the person doesn't know of the horrors and hardships that he/she will face in the future. A child can simply enjoy life and play imaginary games all day without a care in the world, just like the book before was just a nice gathering of blank papers that could have innocent thoughts written on them. Even love is innocent at first until somebody cheats or life throws problems that trouble a relationship, but until then love is innocent and flirtatious. Maybe the main idea of this book symbolizes a human because a person has all these thoughts and feelings inside them (the writing in the book) and then the skin on the outside represents the simple form of a human. It was a definite realization of horror that I felt when I first read this piece.

Introduction to Poetry

This poem is all about imagery. Every stanza has a different image given to the interpreter of how it feels to try reading a poem. Honestly, I think every reader experiences some puzzling, inquisitive feeling when reading a poem for the first time and this poem pretty much puts this into images. This poem uses similes to give the reader a feeling about poetry such as "hold it up to the light like a color slide." Collin talks about how he wants readers to probe through a poem just like a mouse in a maze and find the light switch in a poem's room, but instead people try to tie the poem to a chair and torture confession out of it. His point of view he's trying to get across is that people need to have patience and time when trying to figure out a poem and see the art and masterpiece behind the work, not merely just to read and find out what the poem is truly trying to say. The reader needs to enjoy the poem for what it is before just trying to get the job done and find the meaning. This piece teaches a lesson that poem is a type of art that needs to be enjoyed.

The Cat

Honestly, I can relate to this poem so much. I think of the cat as representing either a piece of the author of woman that left him. Because I just broke up with my guy, this poem kind of shows how I feel. I lost my guy just like he lost his cat and never saw it again, yet the author is reminded of it by the sound in the wind just like I'm reminded of my guy through certain memories and things I see throughout the day. The cat could also represent the author losing a piece of himself. Black kind of represents hopelessness and emptiness and a black cat disappearing into the night shows him losing a piece of himself. It seems like this because the last 2 lines says "and you listen intently to your own self" which makes me think that this cat represents a piece of himself that he had lost and is reminded of every once in awhile. This poem definitely can be looked at with different view points and angles

Untitled

The first thing that caught my attention to this poem is the fact that it's called untitled. Why wouldn't the author give this poem a title? Although this poem is only one stanza, there is a very "in your face" point proven in the poem. This poem is so simple and straight to the point that it makes the reader want to think deeper into the theme behind the text. The fact that he is eating his own heart shows that he is relishing in his own pain. It kind of symbolizes how humans rather feel pain than nothing at all, and that really every human is naked and alone in the world with all this emotion that we don't necessarily know what to do with; it shows individualism of every human that exists. Emotion is what makes us human, and although bitter at times, it is a very valued trait that humans get to experience. As for the desert setting, I see it as symbolizing how humans are all alone and have nothing but themselves, but it least we have emotion that we can express. The setting definitely sets the mood for the theme that Crane is trying to get across, and the dialogue helps to bring in the dramatic affect of the bitterness of the heart that the author feels. Although a simple poem, there is plenty of meaning behind it.

Song of the Powers

I never really thought deeply about rock, paper, and scissors. I mean everybody knows the game but what do these symbols stand for? The stone stands for power and more solid than simple wishes. It gets the job done and stands alone. Then there's the paper that, like the rock, stands alone but it is able to dominate not with power but by smothering. It is light and white, but is able to cover rock. Paper still stands alone, yet it is able to shape and become a part of an object, just like a rock is able to bend, shape, and crush scissors. The scissors gash through paper and is able to shape paper. This poem mentions a lot about wishes such as the scissors tattering wishes and the rock stronger than wishes. This poem represents the different wishes people have and the different ways they are conquered and brought back into reality. The poem ends with all the objects-paper, rock, and scissors-all ending alone which is symbolic of how wishes stand alone and can destroy each other if allowed. A person can only have so many wishes before they start to step on each others toes. This poem is able to make the reader think deeply on symbols that when glanced at seem simple but represent so much more.