Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead

Well another poem that I think tries to grab some readers with a little shock value. The title seems to me to just be a tool to get people to actually read the poem and I guess its worked since here I am reading it (even though I am forced to the point is still valid.) I've noticed lots of poets like to talk about death. What is it with poetry and death? I mean I get that death is a big topic but other forms of literature don't seem to focus so much on it. Here's my theory; since poetry is a dumb form of literature when people get depressed from death they write poetry, makes sense to me.

Delight in Disorder

Well, this poem seemed pretty straight forward. The speaker gets delight. . . from disorder. I don't really see the point to writing a poem about it but I guess that's why I'm not a poet. Anyway, basically this poems structure matched the theme. Broken rhyme scheme=disorder. I also think that the poem not being divided into stanzas at all and therefore, unorganized is also deliberate. This guy almost seems like he is, and I know this might be an extreme stretch, but maybe even sexually attracted to "disorderly" girls. He says a lot of things that make me think of a woman's clothes like the erring lace and the crimson stomacher, but who really knows.

Edward

After reading this poem this was the only thing I could think of:



I thought of Edward Scissorhands for a few reasons. One, his name is Edward. . .obviously. Also, hes creepy and sadistic. The fact that his mom told him to kill his dad, her husband, and he did even though he seemed to still like his father is probably the creepiest part. Honestly, I know this is an extreme euphemism, but killing your dad because your mom told you to even though you still like him makes me think this guy was kind of a momma's boy. More in the sense that he had some kind of really close and odd relationship with his mother.

Lonely Hearts

This poem is another one of those you read the first time and go, "WHAT?!?!" I've noticed there's a lot of those, I kind of think the poet just likes the shock value. They just want people to recognize their poems and well make them less boring. I know I'm probably just being biased since I don't like poetry and this might be outside the cone zone but sometimes I really just wonder if these poets that write these things are crazy. Anyway, back to the poem. This poem has some irony in that it it lists all of these extremely specific characteristics about someone, then specifies a location and still calls it a "simple" request. Overall though it seems pretty clear that this poem is really just satirizing all of these specific dating requests people have and post in public places.

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.