"Getting Out"

"... Taking hands
we walked apart, until our arms stretched
between us.  We held on tight, and let go."

This poem was a bit depressing.  It was about a couple whose marriage fell apart and they got a divorce.  But even though they separated, it seems as though they still love each other.  The tone seems to be regretful because the speaker looks back on the failed relationship with different feelings than when the couple split up.  The people still love each other, but neither of them felt like they could stay in the relationship.  Each of them still think about the other and they write each other letters every year.  The speaker will never fully get over her ex-lover because they had a really strong connection even though their relationship did not work out.

"Dover Beach"

"The sea is calm tonight,
The tide is  full, the moon lies fair"

This poem as a whole describes how life is always changing and how sad it can be.   I thought the tone of the poem was sadness and melancholy.  The poem contains some gloomy diction like "sadness," "misery," and "distant" that adds to the tone of the poem.  Then at the end of the first stanza, it talks about the eternal sadness in the world. It also contains a lot of nature imagery to symbolize human emotions. Our emotions are always changing like the tide and we must learn to adapt to our surroundings.  The speaker also discusses the decline of faith in his time which he compares to the retreating tide.

"The Apparition"

"When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead,
                  And that thou thinkst thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed..."

John Donne's poem is about a ghost.  The ghost of a man is haunting the woman that killed him.  The imagery creates a vindictive tone of the poem.  I feel like the ghost is trying to get back at the women that killed him by haunting her. In the quote above, the speaker is saying that his ex thinks she is free of him, but she is not.  He will haunt her in the night and make her feel guilty for hurting him.

"My mistress' eyes"

"And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare."

This poem by William Shakespeare is quite different from other love poems because it does not exaggerate the qualities of the woman.  Instead, the speaker shares the reality of his mistress' physical attributes. The tone of the first twelve lines seem a bit patronizing towards the mistress.  Instead of lying to his mistress about how she looks, the speaker is very straightfoward and does not make unrealistic comparisons.  Then in the last two lines, the tone shifts to respect of thier love.  The speaker's love for his mistress is greater than the love of any woman who had been lied to with false comparisons of their beauty.

"Hazel Tells LaVerne"

"but sohelpmegod he starts talkin
bout a golden ball
an how i can be a princess
me a princess"

I really enjoyed this poem by Andrew Marvell.  This is probably the first poem that I have truely felt like I understand it.  I think this is a very creative take on the classic fairytale "Princess and the Frog."  The speaker is lower class and works at some kind of restaurant.  The poet even uses uneducated language to show that the speaker is lower class.  She gets asked to kiss the frog and turn into a princess, but she turns down the offer.  She cannot imagine herself as a princess, which probably had a lot to do with her upbringing as lower class.  The tone of this poem is a little sarcastic.  The speaker makes sarcastic remarks about being a princess as shown in the above quote.

"Sorting Laundry"

"Folding clothes,
I think of folding you
into my life."

The quote above from "Sorting Laundry" by Elisacietta Ritchie is a metaphor comparing a lover to sorting laundry.  This sets a theme about love that is present in the poem.  The speaker reminisces about love as she folds the laundry. Certain object remind her of particular memories.  She describes the ups and downs of relationships with imagery of laundry such as "intact despite agitation" and "all those wrinkles to be smoothed."  In a relationship, there are always arguements and disagreements, but they can be "smoothed over" and love remains intact. At the end of the poem, the poet includes in overstatement that says a mountain of laundry could not fill the bed to describe how all their memories cannot replace their love.

"APO 96225"

"But his mother-reading between the lines as mothers
always do-wrote back,
'We're quite concerned. Tell us what it's really like.'"

I felt like this poem was easy to understand. It definitly pegged the idea about mothers always reading into things way too much.  My mom does the exact same thing.  She always thinks there is more to what I am saying when there is not.  It also shows that people can't always handle the truth.  The speaker was trying to "sugar coat" what was happening for his mother, but she kept asking for him to tell her the truth. So, at his mother's request, he told her what he really did and she got really upset.  This relates to how Americans viewed the war in Vietnam.  They did not really care what was happing in Vietnam as long as they did not know or hear about it. 

"Ozymandias"

"Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:"

Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" contains situational irony because it is simple.  It is about a once great king and who has been forgotten.  Ozymandias had a statue of himself built and on it is said "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair."  This statement on the statue is ironic because the king boasted about himself and had his statue built, but his statue is now broken and forgotten just as he was.  The king was an oppressive tyrant and his statue was a constant reminder, but after he died and his statue broke he was soon forgotten.

"Much Madness is divinest Sense"

"Much Madness is divinest Sense-
To a discerning Eye-"

What is Emily Dickinson saying? I really don't understand any of her poems.  Why are they so hard to understand?  This particular poem just seems like a bunch of random words put together.  I read the poem a few times and the only thing I got was that it contained a paradox (with some help from the questions).  The paradox is in the above quote and it is saying that insanity is good sense. I am not really sure what the point of the paradox is, but it also has another side to it that says good sense is insane.

"Barbie Doll"

"Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a greaat big nose and fat legs."

This poem is a bit depressing.  "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy  describes a normal little girl, who is constantly teased as puberty hits.  Eventually, she cannot take the teasing anymore and commits suicide.
In today's society, a lot of emphasizes is placed on appearences. Girls can be cruel to those who do not fit in.  The girl tried to change to fit in with others but she was still unsatisfied with how people viewed her which eventually led to her death.  I  noticed the verbal irony in the phrase "the magic of puberty" because puberty is when the teasing began. There was nothing magic about puberty for the little girl because it led to teasing for her appearences.

"The Joy of Cooking"

"I have prepared my sister's tongue....
I will have my brother's heart..."

"The Joy of Cooking" by Elaine Magarrell is a very strange poem.  If read literally, it is very disgusting-it talks about eating tongues and brains. However, it is not meant to be read literally but figuratively.  The speaker uses the tongue and the heart to characterize her sister and brother. The small bones and gristle of the tongue indicated sharpness and toughness.  Then it says, "it will probably grow back." These characteristics of the tongue make one think that the sister is sarcastic and does not let someone tell her what to do for very long. To describe the heart, the speaker says it is "firm and rather dry." The description of the heart indicates that the brother does not care for anybody.  It makes the brother seem cold-hearted and dull. The metaphor of this poem creates a vivid image of the brother's and sister's personalities.

"Pink Dog"

"Tonight you simply can't afford to be a-
n eyesore. But no one will ever see a
dog in mascara this time of year.
Ash Wednesday'll come but Carnival is here.
What sambas can you dance? What will you wear?"

"Pink Dog" by Elizabeth Bishop was a very interesting poem.  I not quite sure if I interpreted it correctly and I interpreted in two ways.  At first, I thought the dog might represent an outcast in society.  I thought it represented a person who would not wear a costume or mask for the festival  of Rio de Janerio.  Then I read it again and just thought the dog was a dog.  I felt like the speaker felt sorry for the dog because the poem said the dog look intelligent even though it was sick and people looked down on it. I also thought that the speaker feared that people would throw the dog in the river like they do with beggars.  His solution to helping the dog was the dress up and no one would notice it was sick. I am not sure if either of my interpretations is right, but that is what I got out of this poem.

Extended Metaphor

"Inebriate of Air-am I-
And Debauchee of Dew-
Reeling-thro endless summer days-
From inns of Molten Blue-"

Emily Dickinson's poem "I taste a liquor never brewed" is an extended metaphor in which alcoholic intoxication is compared to being drunk on life or nature.  At first, I did not understand what the metaphor was, but when I reread the poem I notices connections to nature. "Air," "Dew," "Bee," and "Butterflies" all represent nature. The "inns of Molten Blue" represent the sky and the "snowy hats" are the clouds. The speaker is drunk on nature.  The metaphor expresses how nature enraptures the speaker. The speaker just enjoys all the different aspects of nature as they are and takes life for what it is. Even the seraphs and the saints seem to be pleased with the speaker's joy of nature.

Apostrophe

"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-"

In his poem "Bright Star," John Keats uses apostrophe to directly address the star. Keats uses apostrophe instead of a description of the star to symbolize the everlasting nature of a heavenly body.  The speaker in the poem longs to be like the star.  So, the use of apostrophe also emphasizes the qualities of the star that the speaker wishes emulate and those he does not want to emulate.  The speaker wants to be steadfast like the star.  But on the other hand, he does not want to be alone.  He longs to be "pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast;" he longs for love.  His two desires are to be eternal like the stars, but also experience love. However, these two desires do not go together, which he shows awareness of in the last line:  "And so live ever-or else swoon to death."

Similes and Metaphors

"Or does it explode?"

Langston Hughes's poem "Dream Deferred" contains retorical questions, similes, and a metaphor.  These figures of speech are used to describe what happens to a dream if it is not achieved. The retorical questions serve a purpose of creating images of decaying objects. The first five questions are similes that compare dreams to things that decay with time. For example, it compares a dream to rotten meat or a raisin dried up from the sun. Then, these similes are followed by the metaphor in the above quote.  The metaphor compares a dream to a bomb using metonomy.  Instead of using bomb, Hughes uses exploding to represent a bomb.  This comparison to a bomb emphasizes how quickly a dream can be taken away.  All the retorical questions create images that relate to the question what happens to a dream deferred.

Allusions

"A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. -Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning..."

First off, I am not sure I really understood this poem.  However, I did notice the allusions in the poem "Spring" by Gerard Manley Hopkins .  First, he alluded to the Garden of Eden. He refers to Eden to show what earth was like before humans affected it.  It was sweet in the beginning before humans tainted it with sin.  Then, Hopkins also alludes to Jesus.  He refers to how Jesus came to save humans from sin.  The purpose of these allusions is to show how humans have corrupted to beauty of the earth and spring, but also show how we were redeemed when Jesus saved us.

The Panther

"Only at times, the curtain of the pupils
lifts, quietly-. An image enters in,
rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles,
plunges into the heart and is gone."

I enjoyed "The Panther" by Rainer Maria Rilke.  I felt like I understood it for the most part.  I thought it was about a panther in a cage at a zoo.  Panthers are usually respected for their stealth and power, but this panther is not. People are always staring at the panther.   In line 8, it says, "...a mighty will stands paralyzed."  This line is about being trapped and not having the will to escape.  The only way for the panther to escape imprisonment is through his dreams.  I think the quote above is talking about the panther's dreams and how they are very brief.  For brief periods of time, the panther feels like he has escaped through his dreams.

London

"How the Chimney-sweeper's cry
Every black'ning Church appalls..."

I think William Blake's poem is about how the people of London are unhappy with their surroundings.  The "marks of woe" on their faces is a sign that they are being oppressed. The people of London have a feeling of imprisonment without physically being in prison.  "The mind-forged manacles..." creates an image of the people feeling imprisoned.  The line "Every black'ning Church appalls' makes me think that the people feel imprisoned by the Church of England.  The people were forced to be a part of the Church of England so they felt oppressed by the church. There is also a bad connotation on marriage.  The Church of England was created so King Henry could annul his marriage, so marriage is seen as a bad thing because it brought about the Church of England, causing the people's imprisonment.

Diction

"...Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: 'What does this vaingloriousness down here?'..."

Thomas Hardy uses some strong diction in "The Convergence of the Twain." There were some words I did not understand and also some really good adjectives.  "Vaingloriousness" was a word I was confused by. After looking it up and using the context of the poem, I think it is referring to the attitude of the rich that they are better than others.  "Salamandrine fires" is another phrase I did not understand, but I learned that it refers to the old belief that salamanders can survive in fire.  After learning what it means, it is effective describes the engine room of the ship.  "Opulent," "grotesque," "ravish," "sensuous," and "solitude" were also some other well choosen words used in the poem. This words each gave a better image of what was happening in the poem.

Auditory Imagery

"A Service, like a Drum-
Kept beating-beating-till I thought
My Mind was going numb-"

Emily Dickinson's poem "I Felt a Funeral, in my brain" has great use of auditory imagery.  The language of the poem evokes the sense of sound.  Dickinson uses the words "Drum," "beating," "creak," and "Silence" to create an image that represents these sounds.  These particular sounds also creates the atmosphere of a funeral.  As I read this poem, I thought the speaker was thinking about what her funeral would be like when she died.  I felt like the speaker was dying mentally while her body lived.  Then in the end, it said "...And Finished knowing-then-," which made me think the speaker died.  I am not sure if that is correct, but that is what I got out of the poem.

Perrine Poetry

"That all interpretations of a poem are equally valid is a critical heresy..."(The Nature of Proof in the Interpretation of Poetry pg.1)

At first, I did not agree with Perrine. I have always thought there could be multiple interpretations of poems. I did not understand how there could be correct and incorrect interpretations of poetry because I thought the meaning of a poem was different for each reader. However, as I continued reading his paper, I realized there was some truth to his reasoning. Perrine was saying that some interpretations of poems are more correct than others. Take the Emily Dickinson poem for example: there are multiple ways to interpret it but some are better than others. I am one of those people who thought it was about a garden and I though it was a valid interpretation. However, after reading Perrine's reasoning, I would agree that the sunset reading of the poem fits much better.

I thought Perrine also made a good arguement on symbolism. Symbols can have multiple meanings within certain bounds. He proved this with The Sick Rose. The rose represented something pure and good, while the worm represented somthing dark and evil. There are many different things that the rose and worm could represent as long as they were with in the bounds set by the poem. Perrine makes a sound arguement and I agree with him for the purpose of literature class. However, I believe that for the purpose of enjoyment there can be many different interpretations of poetry. I think that in order to actually enjoy poetry, the reader must find a personal connection and interpretation of the poem, even if it is "incorrect."