My Mistress's Eyes

Surprisingly, I actually liked this one! Ok I'll correct that, as far as poetry goes, I liked this one. However the reason I liked this poem is a bit ironic. I liked it because it makes fun of poetry. Not just any poetry though, all those horrible cheesy love poems that for some reason, some girls like. He really starts out saying, look, your not the best thing in the world. In fact your relatively normal. But that's not a bad thing since he still loves her extraordinarily. Basically it's kind of a shocking start to the poem that makes you say wait why is he saying this? But if you read further you realize his point and it gets you thinking a little. Nevertheless it definitely moved Shakespeare up in my book.

Crossing the Bar

I'm not sure if I just don't have a "poet's mind" (Well actually I am pretty sure I don't) or if I just don't quite see things the way these people do but I always have no idea how they would decide to write the poems they do. I mean really who is just sitting at home, writing some poetry, when they think, "hey I'll write about death but I'll use a sand bar to represent it." I mean I can understand a lot of kind of crazy comparisons to death but a sand bar? that one I don't really understand the thought process. Regardless of whether I would have thought to write about a sandbar or not the poem does, kind of, although I regret to say it, make sense. I mean he says that he's leaving (dying) and so he's going out to sea. Then to further represent dying he's going to cross some sand bar. The water gets shallower and all kinds of other symbolic stuff and it's kind of a long and involved process. Much like death can be. Overall this poem seems to me to be just another death comparison.

The Apparation

This poem took me sometime to get but once we got the ball rolling today in small groups it all seemed so clear. It's a bit of an odd premise, but they haven't broken up yet. However the speaker says that when her "scorn" kills him he's going to haunt her. It's a bit ludicrous but I guess it makes sense? Maybe the speaker is concerned about their relationship so he is trying to threaten her to force her to love him. This doesn't really strike me as the best strategy to pacify a failing relationship but hey it's his relationship, not mine. Something makes me think that it might be logic like this that has gotten him into this kind of trouble but that's neither here nor there. The whole part about when she's with her future lover seemed kind of premeditated and strange too. He is saying that when he is haunting her, if she tries to get her lover to tell her he'll just roll over and pretend to be asleep since he'll think she just "wants some more" for lack of a better phrase.

Getting Out

I am still sticking to my guns on the whole they can't conceive thing. It just seems to make so much sense to me. They're waking like inmates, that beat the walls. Inmates might wake because they're mad they're in jail. However since they say they hardly slept it just makes me feel like they are upset because they can't conceive. the tightening heart also makes me think they aren't really fighting its something outside of their control that is really getting to the core of them. It also, in the second stanza, says "locked into blame, we paced the short hall." How much clearer could it get?!? This seems like the icing on the cake, case closed. Also I definitely don't think this is a sure thing but could the "matching eyes and hair" be referring to their dream of a kid with matching eyes and hair? The entire lawyer part also supports it. They still send a yearly letter, it's like there apart because they have to be not because they want to be. Also they hold hands and cry on the last day when they are presumably getting a divorce. "The lawyer's bewilderment." That's because the lawyer doesn't know why they are getting a divorce!

Next to of Course God America I

First off I would like to say that I think if any of us wrote this poem it would not be considered good. At best I could see it getting a little bit of attention. This is really one reason I'm not a fan of poetry. To me poetry seems like an useless or maybe even obsolete form of literature. Anyway though, to the poem. The satire makes this poem better. I always like a good satirical piece of literature, well better than a non satirical one. I think it's because I like sarcasm even though I NEVER use it in my day to day life (<--Sarcasm) Other than all of that I do like the parallels to government and the constant regurgitation of facts that occurs day to day and nothing gets done.

Sorting Laundry

This poem makes me think of one of those stereotypical crazy ladies who hasn't changed clothes or washed the hand they touched their dream husband with since prom of their senior year. I don't really know if you know the kind of lady I'm talking about but its more or less a crazy cat lady. I especially get this kind of vibe when the speaker talks about the "unsorted wash" on the other side of the bed. This really gives me the image of the crazy lady who doesn't leave the house. In line 27 the word "Goodwill" is capitalized. I'm not really sure if this has any significance but this isn't an Emily Dickinson poem and its the only random word capitalized so it must have some sort of significance.

Batter my Heart three personed God

One of the clearly present themes in this poem is the use of a paradox. Really the whole poem is a bit paradoxical however there are some specific instances in which specific lines are a single paradox within themselves. One example is in line 10 when it says, "But [I] am betrothed unto your enemy." This is a bit of a paradox since why would you marry someone who you want to marry's enemy? Thats confusing but thats a paradox I guess. It makes sense though since (s)he is figuratively married to satan since (s)he is inclined to sin.

Much Madness is Divinest Sense

I really like the message this poem is conveying. It's something that I think happens far too often in our society. Oftentimes people do things simply because thats what everyone else does or that's the way they've always done it. Both of these reasons are invalid to me and obviously to the speaker of this poem. I think even looking in on a smaller facet of society such as a high school the same things happen. I'm not just talking about the students either, sometimes I feel like the administration falls into these habits too. One way I see this happening is with some teachers seeming to lose the essence of teaching. The goal in the end isn't to make the student fail or in some cases struggle the goal is to learn the information and if they do that without needing a test formatted so that it is overly complex and harder than necessary than that shouldn't be a problem.

I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed

This poem definitely has an extended metaphor; the tricky part is determining what exactly the metaphor represents. Clearly the metaphor is based off of the “Liquor never brewed” but what exactly is this liquor compared too? It seems to me that this liquor never brewed is nature. I know that we aren’t supposed to really take into account who the writer is because they are not the speaker but Emily Dickenson seems to let her life STRONGLY influence her poems. Dickenson loved nature and a liquor never brewed could be grapes or really any fruit that hasn’t fermented. Regardless the poem is still confusing to me it seems sporadic and unorganized.

Toads

Toads is a very weird poem also. Just like Bright Star the use of a toad in this poem to represent something that is annoying seems like an odd choice. When I think of something that is bothering me I don’t normally think of a toad as my biggest annoyance. It occurred to me on my first read that maybe the toad represented human greed. The speaker seemed to be saying that in order to succeed, at least in order to succeed in the superficial sense; we must abandon all care for others. Obviously the speaker doesn’t really think we should do this, I don’t think anyone who felt this way would be a poet so the sarcastic tone of the speaker is clearly felt throughout the poem.

February

This poem was . . . well it was different. I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to relate to this like the book says I should be able to but regardless it is a very strange poem. I feel like the speaker in this poem is speaking to people, possibly more specifically people in the U.S. It seems this way because a lot of the things that she more or less says through the allusions and metaphors she uses are many of the bad stereotypes of Americans. The speaker at first definitely seems to be a very negative and pessimistic person but near the end she begins to be more optimistic and seems to attempt to invoke change. This shift seems to be the point that the speaker is trying to make through her intricate web of allusions and symbolism.

Bright Star

When I read Bright Star I thought it was an odd comparison to make. A star? It kind of has some loopholes in the analogy. I know that Keats is probably righting this poem with very limited knowledge of stars especially considering that this poem was written pre-1821. All of this granted I still am a bit peeved by the lack of correctness and I felt like a blog would be a good place to let it out. First off he says the star is unchangeable but stars actually change a lot throughout the course of their life. He also says the star is steadfast. The star could have actually burnt out millions of years ago and be completely gone. All of this considered I realize that it really has no impact on the poem or its meaning.

Dream Defered

Dream Deferred is a poem that, like many, gets clearer and clearer every time you read it. After my first read I didn't really have to much of an idea of what exactly it was about I just knew it was talking about dreams and what happens when they are, well, for lack of a better word, deferred. Upon reading it another time, more slowly, I realized what the individual lines dealt with in reference to the dreams. Your dream could shrivel up like a raisin which means if not taken advantage of the best opportunity to achieve your dream could pass. It could fester like a sore, which means if it is not tended to it could bug you and progressively get worse and worse. The one line that really seemed to have a lot of different things that could potentially be in the “cone of meaning” was the last line about the explosion. This lone metaphor obviously needs to have some kind of meaning however what exactly is the most likely solution. Based on the time period the most probable thing that Hughes, as the speaker, would be talking about is civil rights and the possibility of them “exploding” and the possibility of violence.

The convergence of Twain

When I first read this poem I failed to see the subtitle that mentions the titanic. This made the poem extremely confusing and it wasn’t until the second to last stanza that I started to wonder if maybe the poem was about the titanic. When I saw the subtitle I was very relieved that I wasn’t missing the point entirely or that I knew nothing about Mark Twain. For the most part though this poem changed a lot of my view on the titanic, it made me think on a different level from a different perspective, about what happened. Especially since at first I didn’t realize it was about the titanic. In fact, I’m actually glad I didn’t see the subtitle at first. It made me read the poem from a completely oblivious perspective without being completely oblivious, if that makes sense.

Those winter Sundays

This poem seems to hold somewhat of a general central theme. It seems to me it could be taken a few different ways. First off the obvious approach would be to take the “father” figure to be the speaker’s father which makes sense however it doesn’t exactly explain the Sunday part of the poem. It is plausible, however, Sunday is a day associated with God and the father, in that case, would obviously be God. I think that maybe some of both of these could be the more correct interpretation. Perhaps the father is the father of the speaker but the speaker sees him as a higher power in the same way the speaker sees God. In this case the Sunday morning is just enough of a hint to give this type of identity to the father without making it seem as if the father figure is only God and nothing more. Hopefully of this is in the cone of reason. The tone of this poem seems to be somewhat reserved however it sends a clear message that whoever the father is or is representing he is underappreciated.

I felt a Funeral, in my brain

I think that this poem is filled with symbols because I think that the poem is an allegory. Overall the poem seems to be representing the speaker going insane. The fact that the speaker is hearing and experiencing his/her own funeral speaks enough for itself and how it demonstrates this point but further details also reveal this. In line 8 the speaker says, “My mind was going numb.” This seems to be symbolic of the fact that the speaker is almost aware of their growing insanity but doesn’t do anything to prevent it (maybe because they’re insane.) The way the speaker seems to die, in a way, at the end seems to show that at that point they are beyond the point of no return and have completely gone insane. The poem also seems to be phrased so that it progresses pretty slowly for instance when treading is repeated early on in the poem it makes the poem drag on.

Spring

To me it is interesting how Hopkins chooses to portray the weeds. When I think of weeds I think of them as a nuisance but the way Hopkins portrays them shines an entirely new light on them. When I read Hopkins description it makes the weeds sound much more exotic and makes the whole area seem to be untamed and free. The tone of Hopkins poem seems to be kind of light and carefree. He seems to write without too much direction in the first stanza, just describing things he sees as he sees them. The second stanzas tone seems to change though. Many more of the words have a more negative connotation such as cloy, sinning, strain, and sour. He seems to start to snap out of the ignorant bliss he had in the first stanza and focus more on peoples impurity’s and how we are not deserving of this beauty, at least that’s what the reference to Eden makes me think.

London

In this poem I think it is very interesting how Blake seems to allude to his dislike for Governmental structure. Although he doesn’t directly address it, I get the feeling that in lines such as when he says “I wander through the chartered street” he is indirectly targeting government, since there isn’t any other clear reason for specifying that the streets are chartered. Also, “chartered” is the only word that is defined on the side of the page which leads me to believe it of some sort of importance. The Poem seems to have a very negative tone that is shown in many places such in lines 11-12 when he says, “And the hapless Soldier’s sigh runs in blood down Palace walls.” The diction here holds a very dreary tone and when this tone is associated with the title, it seems very clear that Blake sees something wrong with London. Blake also makes an allusion to the river Thames in line 2. This river flows through central London and I think is simply a reference to the fact that Blake writes this poem as if he is walking through London. This allusion demonstrates Blake’s ethos since many people outside of London wouldn’t know what the Thames is.

The Nature of Proof

As far as Perrine's views on the "correct" way to interpret poetry I would say I partially agree. Only partially because she says that ". . .That all interpretations of a poem are equally valid is a critical heresy. . ." I think that in many cases poets are deliberately ambiguous and, in fact, purposely put things in a poem that can be read 2 or sometimes many more different ways. I definitely agree with Perrine when she says that the solution that relies on the fewest assumptions is probably correct. As simple as that sounds I think that many times people overlook simple things like this when trying to interpret poetry. This concept really struck me when I reread the poems we had previously interpreted because I came up with more than one idea of what I thought the poem meant but when I simply looked at the numbers and which of my ideas had the fewest assumptions I found that interpretation to be correct.

This reading has definitely helped me to better understand poetry that I will read in the future. I used to look at poetry as just kind of a useless form of writing that didn't have any type of real deeper meaning other than to sound pretty. Now I feel like interpreting poetry and realizing that not all interpretations are completely correct, that poetry doesn't simply mean what I see it to mean, can allow me to better appreciate poetry and see it has some worth. I think that Perrine provides some real incite into interpreting poetry. I also like how Perrine looks at it almost from more of a numerical standpoint when she considers the number of details that don't rely on assumptions. I myself am more of a numbers and facts based person. I like science and math and that is something that has really distanced me from poetry since in many ways it seems to be the opposite of the "numbers" way of thinking. Now, however, I think I won't have as much trouble with poetry since I can look at it through more of my own way of thinking.