The Sick Rose

I think this a very simple, straightforward poem to interpret, but it can be either literal or symbolic. The poem is structured with two quatrain stanzas and a rhyme scheme of ABCB DEFE. I think this was intended to keep the poem organized, but retain 2 separate ideas within the poem. The first stanza talks about how the rose is sick and the perpetrator that caused its sickness and then the second stanza is more admirable of the dying rose. This poem, though, seems to be more than literal. With a little help from Google, I figured out that the rose is a symbol for love, and well a worm is symbolic of...you know. I think this poem is sort of showing how love is sick and distorted by such actions done unto it by sexual pleasures that the worm represents in this poem. Specifically when the poet puts in the line Has found out thy bed, there is a play on words and it can play between both themes in the poem-- the rose and the lover's bed. This poem is really cool when you move past the initial picture!

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I just want to start off by saying that this poem reminds me of both an artist names Bon Iver (who went into the woods and wrote and album) and my own "Innisfree" next to a lake in Idaho. With that out of the way, this poem is three separate quatrains. The rhyme scheme of this poem is ABAB CDCD EFEF, so in other words, pretty orthodox. Also, the first six words in the first and third stanzas are parallel. I think this is to remind the reader with redundancy that he is ready to go, almost like saying goodbye for a second time to the reader, letting he or she know that the Yeats is going to wrap up what he's saying. I thought the name "Innisfree" was just a fictional place made by the poet as a play on words, but I Googled it and it turns out that it is a quaint lake with some sort of resort next to it, so Innisfree is actually a reference to a place in Ireland. This was also said to be inspired by Thoreau's writings about Walden Pond, possibly giving view into Yeats style of writing. This poem is just a great peek into paradise and, when it is read, just makes one think of every descriptive word that the poet uses, such as imaging the "...lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore," is like a little piece of heaven. I think this poem was  sheerly written for enjoyment annd that feeling that is received when it is read. Here is a nice picture of Innisfree and another of Walden Pond:

The Explosion

This poem is composed of eight tercets followed by the concluding line being singular. There seems to be no apparent rhyme scheme. The sixth stanza is written in italics, assuming importance or a quotation. So in the beginning, this poem makes me think of a bunch of men hiking down a mine, because it refers to the word "pit" twice, and miners oftentimes use explosive dynamite to mine. As the poem went on, it confused me and I retracted the idea of them being in a mine. The eggs seem very symbolic somehow, as they are found in the third stanza and are again brought up in the last stanza of the poem. Maybe the explosion happening and this giant tragedy happing in the middle of what they're doing is symbolic for what we do today. Example: we heard about the earthquake and nuclear disaster and tidal wave in Japan, but we gave a quick shocking thought to such a humongous event, and then turned around and started back at our routines. I think the fact that the men go back to their interest in the egg after the explosion was specified to possibly killing a lot of people shows how caught up they are in themselves and their own lives--just how we are in ours. Few amounts of people dropped everything they had--jobs, families, lives--and went to Japan and just started volunteering to help. We just got right back onto our routine 5-9 jobs and let someone else handle it. I believe this is definitely one way that this poem can be interpreted, but it could also be seen way diffferently with a different frame of mind.

The Golf Links

Seeing as I have no knowledge or interest in golf, I chose this as the poem to analyze. This poem is only for lines long, but there are 2 indentations that break the poem into two couplets. The 2nd and 4th lines rhyme but the first and third don not. Maybe this is just to parallel the four lines into two couplets again using this tactic. I get a very strong visual from this short poem. This poem gives a giant contrast in perspective just as good as any other. The first line starts the reader out right in front the tee on the fresh green, and then like that, the poet changes the perspective in a 180, to the poor children watching the rich men playing golf. Poor is implied here through the word "laboring." I think this is a wonderful display if the conflict of class in today's society--the long-treaded war between the white and blue collars. Come to think of it, this poem has nothing to do with golf and I'm glad I picked it. It's sort of ironic, too, that the golf links are near the mill--that the golfers probably manage or own. This poem does not have a complete message, but is simply just an argument. I really love tis poem!

Post Comments

Mrs. White! I don't know if I am past the deadline, but I commented on Wacker and Kaya's posts. :)

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

The first thing I noticed about this poem was actually its structure. The first four stanzas start with "When" and have paralleling description of something that would be found in a NASA laboratory. Then in the most solid stanza from lines from 9 to 11, Whitman says he becomes tired and sick, and then he starts to describe himself in a place--"...rising and gliding out by myself,/ In the mystical moist night air...Looked up in perfect silence at the stars." The poet makes it to seem as if he falls into a daydream or falls asleep, but what is described is actually the image of what being a true astronaut would be. Maybe he is setting this image next to the preceding comments in the poem about charts and diagrams and proofs and figures in order to mock the profession, possibly suggesting that imagination is the tool that should be utilized, or possibly that this dream of space should continue to stay in our dreams and imagination. It is very clear where the line is that separates the two ideas: 1-8 and then 9-11. There also seems to be no rhyme scheme as well, but I just forgot to add that into the structural specs. I think this poem can definitely be one to come back and look at in some time, as added perspective may let me find a different view into this poem.

The Guitarist Tunes Up

I really like this poem because I can relate to it in the fact that I play the guitar, but I think anyone who plays an instrument or composes some types of music can relate to this. I think Cornford is talking about the art of music, or in this case, the guitar. He is saying that is not something to be conquered, but is something that is to be  relished as a beautiful thing--in this case he uses the analogy of comparing the guitar to a woman. It seems like he compares the playing of the guitar to making love with a woman, that it is a beautiful thing derived from pure and intense emotion, not being able to have power over the guitar...or woman. The poem had an AABBCCDD rhyme scheme, which I think the poet used to make it lyrical, as a song might be. It also gives the poem better rhythm. There is only one stanza, but the rhyme scheme made the lines pop out like couplets, which gave a lot of organization to Cornford's ideas throughout the poem. I really enjoyed reading this poem because of the way I was able to relate to it, but now I should be off to Calc Camp!

The trees in the garden...

I really enjoyed this poem a lot, mostly because I tie it to political meaning. This poem reminds me of the constant struggle between the left and right, and Social Darwinism. The poem talks about how a tree blossoms flowers and the most skilled and opportune children are able to grab them and bundle them. Chance flowers then blossom for the rest and the skilled children find it unfair, but the father let the protesting child know that it was perfectly fair, and questions the child's own integrity. This could also be seen in a religious light, in terms of those who have found God and followed him from early on, but the others who find God later also get into Heaven, and the early followers claim it is unfair. The voice of the father may be God himself. I guess the fact of the matter is that this poem may be seen from different social perspective. There doesn't appear to be any rhyme scheme to this poem. Although, Crane does use a lot of dialogue towards the latter half of the poem, and I think this is to show the interaction of the child and the father more vividly, and be able to show the reader the lesson the boy was learning without having to come out and say it. I think that there isn't really a designated stanza structure because of the flow of the actual poem, so it reads like actual lines of a story or script. The message, more than the structure, fascinated me with this poem and I really enjoyed reading it.

It was a dream

I don't know if this poem was supposed to be funny in a weird sort of way, but to me it was, or at least the picture i got in my mind. Structurally, this poem does not have a rhyme scheme nor does it have a certain defined stanza differentiation. This poem does not use capitalization until the end to mark the words of the crazed "greater self" in the dream. Also, the word "what" seems to be highlighted in the seventh line of the stanza; in my opinion, to shift ideas. I think Clifton does not capitalize to represent herself and what she has not accomplished--the whole reason her greater self seems to appear in her dream to resurrect from her. I think it just displays the mediocrity of herself, but then the words of her greater self are capitalized. But also, the poem uses a lot of imagery through this "greater self" who i imagine looking like a witch with fiery eyes and crazy hair, and by saying "This.This.This." she was pointing to herself and telling the lesser self to be a little bit crazy sometimes; get out of your shell a little bit. I really didn't like this poem upon the first time reading, but now that I have found humor and meaning in it, I found it very interesting and am now quite fond of it.

Introduction to Poetry

I definitely recognize this poem from first semester. This poem starts out with a 3 line stanza and then a single and then a double, but these stanzas pop up in different variations, so there is no stanza structure. There also seems to be no clear rhyme scheme in this poem. I think Billy Collins mainly used this structure for the use of conveyance and comprehension of the reader. The way the stanzas are broken up make the poem easier to read and break apart into pieces, in my opinion, so the reader doesn't try to beat Collins' poem with a hose. The main argument used by Collins here seems mainly to be to highlight the fact that poetry is for enjoyment of the audience and the poet, very similar to a sport like football, soccer, or maybe even waterskiing. At times these sports can be taken a little too seriously by the people in and surrounding it, which strangles the fun out of it--like in a poem when one tries to take it much too seriously to the point where a hemorrhage is being conceived. When the activity is taken for the pleasure that it is worth to the user, then the activity is serving its true purpose, just as is applicable in the world of poetry. As choppy as that whole explanation was, the point of the matter is to take things for what they're worth and what makes them the most enjoyable; don't force anything. I liked this poem because it did convey this strong message by using such simplicity within metaphors that we find more easily transitional into everyday life.

Desert Places

So I'm gonna start out by saying that I really like Robert Frost. Now that is out of the way. The rhyme scheme going into this poem seems to be AABA CCDC and so on. This is actually a fascinating rhyme scheme and I'm wondering why he did use this. Is there a certain significance to the words he didn't rhyme? Ironically, two of those happen to be "snow" and the title is "Desert Places." I just found that interesting.

After giving the poem another read-through, I definitely think Frost is trying to connect a snow to being blankness. It is white, a clean slate, covering everything that was previously there. I think, ironically, these snowy places are his hideaway to be alone, to get away and find a silkscreen to hide from reality. I get the feeling when it snows that it is really peaceful out and when it snows, it closes you in to worry about the world in a twenty foot parameter rather than a several mile one. It gives a cozy feeling, where nothing else matters, and it's like an uplifting clean slate--to nature and to mind. That what I think Frost is trying to describe through his poem here.

Cottonmouth Country

This poem in it's entirety is one stanza with eight lines. The lines are written in Iambic Pentameter, I believe, because each line has five stressed syllables...or at least lines 1,3, and 5. The rhyme scheme goes: ABABCDCD, but if seen as slant rhyming could be:ABABACAC. In either case, I think this breaks the poem into two four-line stanzas without actually doing so in the structure. I think Gluck did this so the poem wouldn't have a normal, structured look, but then was well-thought an organized once it was analyzed. I looked up "Hatteras" and it is a city in North Carolina, and is apparently famous for their yachts, but I don't think that really makes a difference. But it is a coastal town, hence the fish bones. I think the fish bones represent death by water and the Cottonmouth Snake, by land. The poem says that they "Woo" us towards death, but it is actually birth that is the burden. Maye this poem is trying to say that life is the actual punishment and death is either tempting or divine in some way. So the last line is confirming that the narrator (the snake) knows of rebirth because it has been born into a new skin by shedding its old one. This is the real burden. I think Gluck definitely takes a unique tand on life and death if I'm analyzing this correctly.

To Mrs. White

My other comment was on Matt Peterson's post on 1/30/11.

Personal Helicon

I find this poem rather intriguing due to the fact that it starts off seeming like a memoir of different wells and what they behold in a sort of nostalgic manner. The moment I realized that there was the possibility of symbolism was toward the end of the poem. The initial thought I gained from the first reading of this poem was that it related to people. Between the shallow wells signifying Narcissism; and the deep wells, no reflection of water (meaning to me--deep, not shallow), the poem started to create it's message to me of its theme. I found it interesting how the author left the hint of symbolism towards the end, maybe to make the point more profound that it is not a dandy poem about wells. The rhyme scheme is ABAC DEDF, so on.... The rhyme scheme is kind of interesting but very confusing. The stanzas are in quartets, so the poem is somewhat of a standard structure. I'm trying to do something with the structure, but it's not really working out yet, but I'll find my touch. Everything aside, I did find this to be an interesting poem.

Much madness is divinest sense

I really find this poem interesting because I did some research into some of the meanings of the words of the poem instead of reading the poem and running off of my visceral senses. The words "Divine" is most commonly used with the idea of God and Christianity and I feel like Emily Dickinson is taking a knock on Christianity, or questioning it at least. I think in the beginning she is saying that the majority of people are God-loving and  religious, but they are simply mad. But then she goes on to clarify that it is what defines people i our society as "normal"--you aren't questioned, you will go to heaven and that's that. But those who have different outlooks--"Oh no, stay away from them, because they are dangerous and must have an eye kept upon them." The word "Demur" means to essentially object. I think Dickinson is tapping into the reality of our situation in the fact that if one is of a different culture, religion, or upbringing, then he or she is scolded for his or her beliefs. It's kind of ironic, really. This is a constant occurring event, whether someone is Catholic, Jewish, or now--Muslim--they will be tormented for not flowing with the same grain, as ignorant as the majority of the people in it are. I really like this poem.

Alone

I think this Edgar Allan Poe-m (haha) is quite interesting the way it is structured. It seems like he uses the dashes to signify the actual story-line of his poem and give the rhythm to which the reader should read it, but then his rhyme scheme is based on the structure of the lines. Poe uses an AA BB CC (etc.) type rhyme scheme here at the end of each line. He uses the dashes, instead of the line structure, to break up his lines. I just find this way of structure very clever and creative. I do like what he even has to say in his poem too. The ending seems very profound with the line "Of a demon in my view--." Although, I'm still trying to connect the dots with this. I guess I grasp the fact that he is very much an outcast in this world that he describes himself living in, but then I get thrown off at Then--... unless Poe is saying that throughout life, he has been followed by a demon and a cloud overhead that sets him different from everyone else. That makes him the puzzle piece that doesn't fit.  OR his being an outcast throughout life have caused him to create his own demons that block him from the normal world and keep him isolated and alone. I remain inconclusive, but I will be discussing this soon with Luke to construct our presentation.

Untitled

     I am really fascinated by this poem by Stephen Crane. First off, this poem just makes me think of Jim Morrison of the band The Doors and his LSD pilgrimage to the desert. The image of the man in the poem comes to me as a looney Jim Morrison. Anyway, I do also like the fact that this poem is somewhat simple and more to the point than a typically longer, more detailed poem (likewise).
    I do think this poem is symbolic in some way of something more than a homeless-looking crazy man in the desert eating his own heart from his hand. Is this symbolism for someone selling their soul away? Is it some depiction of self destruction or nihilism? Why does the man like the bitter taste and more the fact that he is eating his own heart?
     I think this has to do with the way people feel from pity. People like to be self hating for the seek of others' attention. People like attention. The best way to call it is by self destruction. It seems here that he is eating his own heart in a desert because he feels so alone in the desert of society and the world but he is morbidly craving the attention of someone by eating his own heart out, just as one may cut their wrist or a similar case.
     I think that this poem is open to several interpretations, though, but I guess this became most relevant to my mind. I really like this poem.