August

Kasischke || * The poem flows nicely, as if the speaker is talking directly to the reader "Nor in the murmurous twilight May I sit below thee, Worshiping in whispers Tremulous as far-heard bells"
 * **Name** || **Author** || **Comments** || **Date** ||
 * 1 || Tarantella || Hilaire Belloc || * I like how the rhythm of the poem gets faster and makes the speaker seem more frantic as the poem goes on
 * Speed of the poem pairs nicely with the title of the poem, the tarantella being a fast and upbeat dance
 * Lots of rhymes in the poem give it a nice musical quality. I really liked the lines "Of the girl gone chancing, / Glancing, / Dancing, / Backing and advancing" || August 16, 2011 ||
 * 2 || Bike Ride With Older Boys || Laura
 * The poem presents a specific situation in the speaker's life - declining a bike ride with two older boys when she was thirteen - and the speaker reflects on it, saying "what if", making the poem relatable to anyone who wonders about decisions in their past and if they were to change them
 * I like how the poem uses ellipses and seems to trail off at two points ("knowing the girl I was..." and "turn down my street, the other girls see me...") leaving the readers to imagine further details on their own || August 17, 2011 ||
 * 3 || Our Other Sister || Jeffrey Harrison || * Another poem that reflects on childhood actions. While Kasischke's feelings toward her past actions were more ambiguous, the speaker here shows great regret for their actions (telling their little sister that they had an older sister that lived in California)
 * My favorite lines are "but that first sentence was like a strand of DNA / that replicated itself in coiling lies"
 * I like how the speaker uses the image of a blowdart in the first stanza of the poem and then brings it back toward the end of the poem as a metaphor for the feeling of regret ("blowdart of remorse") || August 17, 2011 ||
 * 4 || The Key to the Highway || Mark Halliday || * The poem is quite dense with information. To me it does not read like a typical poem; it feels more like reading the opening paragraph to a book
 * It's yet another poem in which the speaker is reflecting on a past event. The speaker, unlike the other poems, looks fondly upon his past, perhaps with a pang of sadness that he will never relive that moment in time
 * You get the impression that the speaker is unsure of himself and his actions and is hesitant to voice definite opinions ("Or is it", "I don't know", "I said so with as much dignity as possible") || August17,2011 ||
 * 5 || "Out, Out-" || Robert Frost || * I like how the poem starts with images of mountain ranges and sunsets and the mention of "sweet-smelling stuff". The peacefulness of the setting contrasts nicely with the "snarling and rattling" buzz-saw, the ominous sound of the suggesting something will go awry in the future
 * I also like how the saw is personified, as if it is a wild animal that the boy has no control over ("the buzz-saw snarled", "[the saw] leaped out at the boy's hand" )
 * It bothers me that at the end of the poem, the boy's family nonchalantly go "back to their affairs" after he suddenly dies ("little-less-nothing! - and that ended it"). What kind of society do they live in where they don't have the time to mourn the dead? || August 18, 2011 ||
 * 6 || Phenomenal Woman || Maya Angelou || * I like how the speaker is never quite clear about what quality she possesses that draws men to her, as if she's being coy ("It's the fire in my eyes, / And the flash of my teeth, / The swing in my waist, / And the joy in my feet.")
 * Her beauty seems to lie in the confident way she carries herself, her womanly essence; she possesses something much more powerful than conventional beauty
 * I also like the repetition of "Phenomenally. / Phenomenal woman, / That's me.", as if she is reassuring herself that she is a spectacular person. To me it makes the speaker seem real and relatable, as if she is looking in the mirror and reciting the poem to herself || August 22, 2011 ||
 * 7 || Men || Maya Angelou || * The word "Maybe" stands alone at the end of the poem, hinting that there is hope that the speaker has not completely given up on men, despite all the pain the men have put the speaker through
 * I really like the lines "Their shoulders high like the / breasts of a young girl". It's interesting something as manly as "high shoulders" to something as feminine as breasts brought together in a simile
 * It's interesting how the speaker makes women akin inanimate objects when they interact with men ("[men] hold you in the / palms of their hands, gentle, as if you / were the last raw egg in the world", "Your mind pops, exploding fiercely, briefly, / Like the head of a kitchen match."), perhaps suggesting a belief on her part that men treat women like objects, as if they are just possessions that they own || August 22, 2011 ||
 * 8 || Still I Rise || Maya Angelou || * The speaker possesses a confident voice similar to that in //Phenomenal Woman//, but this time the speaker appears to be speaking to someone other than herself and has more aggression, as if arguing and defending herself
 * The speaker continuously uses lavish imagery to allude to the high amount of confidence with which she carries herself (ex. "Cause I walk like I've got oil wells / Pumping in my living room"). My favorite is "I dance like I've got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs". The images are ridiculous, but make the speaker seem sassy and likeable, helping to put readers on her side
 * I like how the speaker compares herself to ever-present aspects of nature, like dust, air, the moon, the sun and the tides. The use of these similes sounds much more formal and poetic than the aformentioned images. The voice of the speaker, though continuously confident, seems to fluctuate in formality from stanza to stanza, using more formal language and similes in some stanzas and using more haughty and informal language ("'Cause", "diggin'") in others. It's as if the speaker momentarily gets rid of her filter and just speaks straight from her mind, not bothering to make her speech more elegant || August 22, 2011 ||
 * 9 || here is little Effie's head || E. E. Cummings || * I initially though that this poem sounded like a children's fairy tale with the anthropomorphisized gingerbread crumbs. I guess the crumbs just bring to mind Hansel and Gretel.
 * A lack of punctuation and capitalization in some parts makes the poem rather hard to follow. I find it interesting how the author did not capitilize the names of the crumbs, but did capitilize God and the name Effie. There are some break betweeen sentence that also mess with the flow of the poem (ex. "watch your step and follow me / stooping by Effie’s little, in (want a match or can you see?) / which the six subjunctive crumbs / twitch like mutilated thumbs"). It goes along with the chaos of Judgement Day described in the poem. I've been reading other E. E. Cummings poems and the language he uses in a lot of them is really confusing to me.
 * Maybe the crumbs that are left of Effie's brain (may, might, could, would, should, must) represent what Effie did, what Effie didn't do, and what Effie thought of doing in her life, which is in theory what a person would be assessed on during Judgement Day. || August 22, 2011 ||
 * 10 || Annabel Lee || Edgar Allen Poe || * The steady ABAB rhyme scheme helps the poem flow smoothly and beautifully. To me it makes the poem seem pure and simple, reflecting the love between the speaker and his "beautiful Annabel Lee"
 * The speaker repeats his lover's name, Annabel Lee, frequently. It's as if saying her name keeps her alive in the mind of the speaker, keeps their love alive and conveys the speaker's deep connection to her.
 * Purity seems to be a theme in the poem; the speaker claims he and his lover were innocent children, "winged seraphs of Heaven coveted" their love as if it were purer than angels themselves || August 23, 2011 ||
 * 11 || Ezra on the Strike || Ezra Pound || * The speaker uses such colloquial language; the letters of certain words are even changed to help convey that the speaker has an accent (ex. "meadows" is changed to "medders"
 * The rhyme scheme is really interesting (AAAB CCCB). I've never seen one like that before.
 * I'm confused as to what Ezra is striking against; that's not made very clear in the poem || August 28, 2011 ||
 * 12 || The Summons || Ezra Pound || * The very formal voice is an interesting contrast to the colloquial tongue of the speaker in "Ezra on the Strike"
 * My favorite line is
 * I like the idea of the ever-progressing relationship presented by the speaker; one always calls out to the other, urging them to "Follow! Follow!" (Line 21), always pushing them to move forward in their lives together || August 28, 2011 ||
 * 13 || My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun || Emily Dickinson || * In the first stanza, Speaker described his or her life to be "a loaded gun" and "in corners", which conveys to me that his or her life was at a stand-still, with no where to go and nothing to live for
 * I really like the image of the "Vesuvian face" in line 20. It brings to mind the volcano Vesuvius, and the bright, vivid color of the magma inside it.
 * My first impression was that the "He" the speaker talks about is God. The speaker seems to have found religion, which lead him or her out of the stand-still that was once their life. || August 30, 2011 ||