So+Yeon's+Poetry+Journal

__August 15__ 1. On Imagination by Phillis Wheatley
 * the poem praises the power of imagination
 * interesting how imagination is described as having multiple roles; it is not only an inspirer of creativity, but is a winged being with enough power to be a ‘ruler’ or a creator of perfection
 * some interesting connections to seasons; winter is described as an ‘opponent’ of imagination as it brings the reality which seems to encroach on the effects of imagination and its power which seemed to be limitless at first
 * liked the last few lines: // Winter //  austere forbids me to aspire,/And northern tempests damp the rising fire;/They chill the tides of //Fancy's// flowing sea,/Cease then, my song, cease the unequal lay.

2. Remembrance by Emily Brontë
 * could definitely feel that the speaker of the poem had genuine feelings for the dead one (the speaker lamented the death for 15 years)
 * lots of technical, literary devices; the speaker’s personal, intimate feelings are effectively communicated through the poem
 * notable that the speaker did not simply live in grief, yet managed to accept the reality confronting the speaker, and felt that life should go on even after great loss
 * favorite lines: But, when the days of golden dreams had perished,/And even Despair was powerless to destroy,/Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,/Strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy

3. The Triumph of Time by Algernon Swinburne
 * the speaker mourns the passing and decline of “wonder” “music” “spirit” that characterized his past love
 * lengthy: stanzas devoted to illustrate the intensity of past love - could feel that his now lost love was once so passionate
 * good contrast with the present, exposed the fleeting nature of love
 * like the other poem, the speaker’s personal feelings are communicated clearly throughout the poem

__August 20__ 4. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
 * vivid imagery: could imagine the speaker standing behind the roads divulging in two different ways, which helped relating with his 'dilemma' of having to choose one way or the other
 * the situation of having to choose one from the available options and its associated troubles, potential regrets, which is common in one's life, seems to have been simplified through the speaker's experience of having to choose one road from the two in the poem
 * the speaker's change in thoughts makes the speaker seem like he/she is still undecided, or unsure about his decisions even after he/she has made up his/her mind to take the second road instead of the first one as it seemed to have been "less traveled" by others
 * Tricky in that the speaker describes the two roads as seemingly different, yet soon corrects that comment by suggesting that the two roads seemed "about the same" in the end; the speaker's perception of the roads, again, changes constantly
 * the last stanza with lines, "I shall be telling this with a sigh..." "I took the one less traveled by,/ And that has made all the difference," made it seem like the the speaker was satisfied with the decision to take the unfamiliar, and perhaps more dangerous path instead of the other one. However, when the stanza was read again, I felt that the two lines could in fact indicate that the speaker is regretting his choice of not taking the first path (sigh with regret, negative difference instead of positive one) as well.

5. A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe
 * Interesting in that who the speaker is addressing remains ambiguous - is it the speaker itself from the past? someone else?
 * dream indicative of his goals, and desires, and hopes seems to have been unfulfilled, leaving the speaker feeling regretful and wistful
 * the speaker seems depressed and disappointed of the fact that none of his 'dreams' could be achieved in real life, but only in 'dreams.' use of rhetorical questions to express his hopelessness and doubt in the possibility of such fulfillment in real life settings

6. Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
 * clearly communicates that the speaker will persevere and endure all the hardship through direct, straightforward language
 * alike 'A Dream Within A Dream' the author addresses "you" with numerous rhetorical questions; who that is not revealed in the poem, is it the speaker's sense of fear? anxiety? or is it in fact another figure causing the troubles the speaker is forced to overcome?
 * short lines stating "I rise" multiple times in the last stanza are quite striking; effectively conveys that the speaker's determined attitude to stand up, yet again
 * at some points, especially when the poet utilizes the rhetorical questions, they almost make it seem like the speaker is challenging "you" instead of feeling discouraged by the presumably harsh situations facing the speaker

__August 28__ 7. The Soul Selects Her Own Society by Emily Dickinson
 * irregular meter, giving interesting rhythms to the poem; but we can still find the general rhyming, overall structure that keeps the poem organized
 * interesting imageries with the chariots, emperor, builds unique comparisons, communicate the idea of soul ’ s “ exclusiveness ”
 * tone seems to be quite serious, regretful of the topic – the soul selecting her own society, without being able to let other people in to the community

8. After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes by Emily Dickinson
 * easy to relate to what is discussed in the poem; after great pain, the feeling of numbness as if no suffering has occurred before sets in
 * the “ mechanical ” “ wooden ” descriptions make it seem like the “ formal feeling ” we get after great suffering sets in like an endless cycle, repeatedly
 * the poet seems to be very perceptive of human nature and our psychological feelings, tendency. Is this coming from her self-observation?

9. I Cannot Live With You by Emily Dickinson
 * line length disparities: they become quite significant as the poem progresses, adding on to the dramatic effect
 * Interesting description: she is unable to consume herself with the paradise, or enjoy it because she is too caught up with the vision of him
 * Feelings of despair and regret; yet mixed with the hope that the speaker will meet with the beloved one.

__September 4__ 10. Star Light, Star Bright by Dorothy Parker
 * Interesting contrast between regular rhymes – easy to read structures with the actual contents of the poem
 * The message delivered in the poem deals with profound matters (the speaker deciding between what she wants, whether that be love, goal, etc., and what will need to be sacrificed)
 * Engaging Style, effective use of rhetorical questions, makes the readers think about the questions being addressed although the speaker is really asking the questions to herself

11. A Certain Lady by Dorothy Parker
 * Similarly, Dorothy Parker uses a well organized structure for her poems, the two stanzas have parallel structures that make the readers engaged, and also helps them compare what is being addressed in each stanza and how they are similar or different from each other
 * Interesting, effective use of punctuation “—“ “ ,,, ” conveys the hesitant emotion of the speaker
 * Vivid expression, clear delivery of the speakers ’ feelings

12. A Portrait by Dorothy Parker
 * Personal, yet successfully powerful tone is prominent in the poem, also emphasized through the prevalent use of pronouns addressing herself (the speaker)
 * Discusses how capricious, and perhaps, unpredictable one ’ s feelings can be, especially when it comes to love
 * Questions that are used in the first stanza also add to the effect of delivering the swaying feelings that change from one to another, illustrating the speaker ’s feeling of indecisiveness.

__September 11__

 13. The Land Of Dreams by William Blake

 * Reality disrupts their full exploration of "the land of dreams"; in the end, the boy and the father are living in the reality, whereas the boy's dead mother is not
 * As the father has remarked, he, too has tried getting to the Land of Dreams (where the mother - his wife - is), but he was only forced to realize that such was impossible -> heartbreaking
 * The ideas of grievance, loss, and sorrow are all effectively conveyed through the boy's innocent and sincere want to reach the land of dreams where his mother is, and the exchange between the boy and the father revealing their longing for her (the mother, the wife)
 * Touching description of the reality as the land full of unbelief and fear -> the world without the mother is like the one full of fear for the little boy

14. The Eagle by Lord Alfred Tennyson:

 * ====Glimpse into the world of the 'eagle' portrayed in the poem ====
 * Portrayed as the powerful bird, yet sometimes its solitude is emphasized as well (i.e. lonely lands)
 * Desolate, sometimes restless environment and the nature in which the eagle is inhabited in
 * Use of harsh-sounding consonants, the texture of the words, also add to the harsh environment, and sometimes cruel nature

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">15. If by Rudyard Kipling

 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: middle;">Each line touches on the life's challenges that many are faced with throughout their lifetime
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: middle;">Yet, while illustrating the common challenges, the poem at the same time tries to emphasize the importance of us taking responsibility of our actions and choices we make even in times of troubles
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: middle;">Delivering the message that we are the 'masters' of our lives, who should carefully look after them and also be able to find answers within ourselves without having to blame other for problems, let others push you down or anything

Checked 18 September 15/15-25 KBoyce Good variety in your collection with occasional concentration on a particular poet. OK commentary.

__ September 18 __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">16. Mirror - Sylvia Plath <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">17. Alone - Edgar Allan Poe
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Intriguing point of view: the poem is narrated from the perspective of the mirror that the described woman looks into frequently on a daily basis
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The mirror seems to be privy of all the ups and downs that the woman has gone through during her lifetime, as it could 'observe' her since her childhood
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The mirror is playing the role of reflecting the truth, and detail regarding the woman's life to the readers; the truths can be assumed to be objective as the mirror simply reflects the true image of the woman and has no biases
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Interesting topic: as manifest from the title, an image of a rather diffident, shy boy is created through the first few lines' description of the speaker's childhood
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">His characteristics as a relatively less confident boy are something not common in the community he is living in - could imagine him being frowned up, people regarding him as 'different' from them
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">While underlining the lonely feeling he must have experienced, he tries to describe his unique character and point of view in a positive light - he could find his 'heaven' by acting as he wanted to (by being a quiet, shy boy)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">18. She Walks In Beauty - George Gordon
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Mainly focused on the description of a lady and the speaker's fascination with the lady's beauty
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">While highlighting her physical beauty, her innermost qualities are also discussed, described as being reflected through her physical beauty
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Does not necessarily come across as a love poem, but more of a revelation of the speaker's genuine fascination with the woman's beauty and the celebration of it

__September 25__

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">19. "To My Own Soul" by Swami Vivekananda
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The poet addresses his soul as if it's a separate entity that he can talk to. A lot of personification techniques are utilized within the poem to effectively depict his soul as an entity that is separable; this depiction becomes even more useful as the speaker is pointing out that it seems like his soul is wanting to separate from his body (his physical self).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker replaces the subject of his address, his soul, with multiple terms and descriptions, such as, "thou," as if it is another person, "reflector," "recorder" and "heart." These multiple terms that describe his soul show the amount of significance that it holds in him, since it is demonstrated that he is able to relate to the soul in multiple ways.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">There is a 'begging' tone in the poem since the speaker is asking his soul to stay with him, seeing that they have been through many travails together (both challenging and easy), the speaker wishes to continue their life journey together
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The fact that he is requesting his soul to stay with him, shows that he does want to keep his 'true heart' that has successfully guided his way until this point in his life, often times 'warn[ing him] when evil thoughts were brewing." Because his soul, his heart has allowed him to keep his moral standards and positively endure the sorrow and regret caused by the passage of time, he believes that his soul has been loyal, faithful to him, making him to continue keeping it to himself.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">20. "We Too Shall Sleep" by Archibald Lampman
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The title itself symbolically represents death
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker is assumed to be the mourner of the dead one. Yet, instead of just mentioning his grief regarding the death, the speaker goes on and talks about what life has to offer and what he believes it is about, as if he wants to let the dead one know about life which he did not get to fully experience. Hence, while the speaker does mourn for the deceased one, the poem also reveals a lot about the speaker's holistic view on life
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker's general attitude towards life is that life can be sometimes good and enjoyable, and at the same time, become extremely difficult. But, he believes that life does tend to be quite short, and it has been true for the dead one as well.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Death is described to be similar to sleep, it is something peaceful and quite relaxing, as death means that one does not need to go through the complex troubles and hardship that many encounter in their lives

21. "How You Know" by Joe Mills
 * Poem that was read smoothly with ease; the language is pretty direct and the incorporation of quotation makes it seem more realistic, and helps the readers visualize or imagine the conversation between the two.
 * The speaker's view on love in general is clearly expressed within the poem; the metaphor comparing love as a giant elephant and us, the lovers, as small mice who are incapable of looking at the big picture, in other words, understanding the whole, is especially effective.
 * The speaker believes that we become so blind that we often fail to recognize the love, which is preventing the speaker from being able to clearly explain how we can know if something is love or not.
 * As an attempt to provide some explanation, the speaker wishes to emphasize the sincerity one should feel if it is love, describing love as the " desire to help even when I know I can't"
 * Favorite lines: "Instead I shake my head… Go ask your mother. She laughs and says, I did. Mom told me to come and ask you."

__October 2__ 22. The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake
 * The speaker of the poem shows his innocence; the fact that he does not seem to realize the lowliness of his assigned work particularly underlines his childlike innocence and hopefulness
 * "'weep, 'weep, 'weep, 'weep" (line 3): holds multiple meanings as it directly shows the speaker's young age through his underdeveloped pronunciation, highlights the drudgery of the work through repetition (sweep-weep), shows the sadness the speaker must feel for having lost parent
 * The young sweepers' life is further delineated through the emphasized entrapment of their circumstances; the sense of entrapment is created and symbolized in the line "Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black."
 * Tom Dacre: hopeful boy who optimistically dreams of a better life; portrays the sweepers' innocent, idealistic dreams that are so detached from the hopeless reality they are living in.

23. The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet
 * Interesting approach/angle: the speaker is the author addressing her book in the poem; the book is being personified as the speaker is referring to her publication as 'thy' 'thee'
 * For the speaker, her book is such a flawed creation that she employs metaphors to compare the book with a physically imperfect child; it is interesting to follow the speaker's changes in attitudes from initial rejection of her book to maternal claim (linking back to the child metaphor again). She claims her book as "mine own" and it is her strong feeling of attachment and "affection" towards her work that motivates her to amend the blemishes she continuously finds in her work.
 * The speaker (the author of the book) still fears the criticism her work is likely to receive and holds some hope and desire for her work to be accepted somewhere

24. George Gray by Edgar Lee
 * The speaker's tone is quite regretful since he is discussing that he has finally become able to come to a conclusion that he has misspent his life; but such realization has arrived too late that he is forced to feel regretful about how he has lived his life up to this point
 * The image of the sailing boat; the furled sail describes his life which was marked with his tendency to look for ways to live it safely without taking some risks when he could; it is his fear that held him back in every instance (i.e. "shrank" from the "disillusionment [of love]", feared when "sorrow knocked at [his] door" and was even afraid of meaningful "changes" of his ambition) - all of these ammount to his feeling of regret
 * The speaker tries to teach the lesson that he acquired too late to the readers; this is shown through the emphasis on the word "we" when he notes that "we must life the sail/ And catch the winds of destiny"

__October 4__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">25. Reading by David Dominguez
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The structure of the poem allows the reader to trail the speaker's thoughts around, moving from one idea to another, moving from the contemplation on current/present events to reflection on past events that the speaker remembers at the scene; the couplet allows the presentation of a range of different ideas to be clearly distinct from one another as each pair or every two lines of the poem often concentrates on a single idea or a topic.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">From his biography...: As a poet who generally enjoys composing poems that often reflect on life around him, sometimes focusing on his personal or daily life, or paying his attention to the general life (common societal issues, i.e. economic hardships) found in the community surrounding him, this poem seems to fall under this common topic that David Dominguez likes to address in his poems. The points that he discusses in this poem, and the language he employs to convey these points tends to fit well with the every day life he is focusing on in the poem; there are not too many literary devices, or poetic techniques that could make the poem dense and difficult to follow, instead the free-flowing lines and every day expressions that are used in the poem.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The past events that the speaker discusses provide insights into the despair and confusion (i.e. feeling directionless, hopeless) that often engulfed the speaker from the readings that he had done, sometimes they even seem to signal the speaker's passive behaviors (i.e. avoiding composition/writing) that reflected such hopeless state of mind; yet, some of his memory indicates that there were books that provided some hopes (i.e. clear future), and through inspiration, he could find ways to settle anxiety, and as the speaker reflects on these from the present, they seem to be simple parts of the past.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__October 6__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">26. Song for Baby-O, Unborn by Diane Di Prima
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker's candid and sincere tone is found throughout the poem; such tone suits well with the situation as it is the parent talking to her unborn child
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker's 'warning' to the baby that it cannot be guaranteed that he will never go hungry or become sad, indirectly reflects the speaker's view on the often devastating world in which the speaker is living and the baby will be born to; it also reflects the amount of love and concern the speaker demonstrates to her baby as it conveys that even before the child is born she is beginning to worry about the harsh reality that the child will have to face and feels the need to inform him about it
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Even in the hopeless situation, what the speaker can promise for her baby is to 'love', but that does not seem to be any less valuable than other things that can be taught to or given to the baby.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__October 7__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">27. The Rhodora by Ralph Waldo Emerson
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The poem seems to be an ode eulogizing the beauty of the Rhodora that the speaker has seen; the majority of the poem is devoted to the depiction of the Rhodora's beauty which creates pleasant aesthetic experiences for the viewers, just as the speaker is seeing the Rhodora. In lines 3-4, "Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, /To please the desert and the sluggish brook", the poet describes the fresh Rhodora to be bringing spring to the seemingly lifeless land; the rhodora not only pleases the viewers' eyes, but also pleases the surrounding environment, thus emphasizing the beauty that the speaker sees in it.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Interesting use of alliteration, "the purple petals, fallen in the pool" enhances the image of the rhodora's petals peacefully falling on the surface of the water, as the alliteration seems to mimic this occurrence
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The poet further employs the description of the "charm" or the beauty of the rhodora to deliver a more general message that beauty does not necessarily have to be seen to be justified as long as it is present; this is shown through the line, "This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, / Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, /Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:"

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__October 9__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">28. Ode to Ethiopia by Paul Laurence Dunbar
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The poem effectively underlines the agonies that Africans had to endure under slavery in America.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Yet, the poet also successfully delineates, and brings out the nobility and the fine qualities or virtues that his race has possessed from the past until the present day; this is shown through phrases such as "they stir in honest labor," to demonstrate that the Africans were working hard despite their hopeless situation in America, while being mindful of their origins (i.e. singing the "hymns" of Ethiopia). Furthermore, despite the injustices that must have been prevalent, they have also been "So noble in forgiving"
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">It seems evident from the poem, that the speaker is thankful and appreciative of the work that his ancestors have done, and the nobility, determination that they have demonstrated when faced with hardships; he notes that there has been advancement for his people (i.e. now "Proud Ethiope's swarthy children stand, Black Americans "bolder grow each hour" in their work)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">October 15 __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">29. Come Sleep, O Sleep! The Certain Knot of Peace by Sir Philip Sidney
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker seems to be needing "sleep", in other words, the sense of restfulness, the most. The reason why the speaker longs for moments to rest is shown through the reference to the personified Despair who is causing the disquiet in his mind. The speaker is even willing to pay for sleep's services.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Interesting personification technique, describing Despair to be throwing darts at the speaker. The speaker's desire for protection from hopelessness is underlined as the speaker addresses that he wishes to be shielded from Despair's darts
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Reference to his love: the speaker cannot be awarded with sleep, then the speaker will be left to lie awake and think of his love; the speaker seems to escape from the incessant thoughts regarding his love, which are only causing profound sense of despair that is troubling him. His traumatized, distressed, and hopeless state of mind is clearly highlighted in the poem

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">30. To Helen by Edgar Allan Poe
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker eulogizes the addressees perfect, ideal beauty; the admirable state of beauty that the addressee possesses is especially emphasized through the use of natural imageries, the established image of a fine garden with beautiful flowers in it. In the poem, the speaker is remembering a "July midnight" in an "enchanted garden" where "a thousand/Roses" were giving up their "odorous souls" because of the unparalleled beauty coming from the presence of the addressee. Such comparison with nature (i.e. flowers, roses) underline the pristine, pure beauty of the addressee
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The fleeting beauty of the nature: the roses die, having been influenced by the addressee's presence and the moonlight. Their fragrance is compared to a soul leaving the body.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker also underlines the heavenly quality of the addressee's soul; the speaker compares the addressee's soul to the "full-orbed moon," as both seek "a precipitate pathway up through heaven."

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">31. The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers by Andrew Marvell
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The tone of the speaker is unique in the sense that it shifts from being admiring to admonishing.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Interesting, and frequent use of contrasts, in addition to the speaker's contrasting tone changes: while the "nymph" is described as being as innocent as nature, at the same time, she has control over nature (i.e. she "tames/The wilder flowers and gives them names" "does tell/What color best becomes [the roses]")
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The issue regarding the power and chastity possessed by the nymph is discussed; there are flaws in nature, as represented by the tulips, violets and roses in the poem, but the nymph is powerful enough to correct these flaws. She can correct the imperfections (i.e. give the violets longer life).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">October 22 __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">32. Merritt Parkway by Denise Levertov
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;"> From beginning to end, the poem stresses how relentless the described highway journey is; when such a point is reemphasized in the concluding, last stanza, the alliteration with the sound of // s // links to the idea. The continuous sound imitates the continuity involved in the highway journey.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The idea of the continuity of the highway journey ties with the poet's view on human activities and human lives in general, which is that we are constantly in action, and in haste most of the time, without knowing when to stop or how to stop; in the poem, the brevity of the lines also parallel with the hastiness of the activities
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">When the interesting expression of comparing the journey to the "dreamlike continuum" is used, although the expression itself connotes a continuation of pleasant event, in the context of the poem, the expression seems to emphasize the sleepy, tedious nature of the unending journey
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The "sealed" road: the diction seems to reveal the isolation of driving, again, connecting with the poet's view on human life (hasty, isolated with not much interaction with others)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">33. To the Ladies by Lady Mary Chudleigh
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Quite a critical and straightforward tone is being employed in this poem; the poem primary addresses wives and potential wives, referring to the society's power that has given men superiority over women
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">As women or wives in particular are living significantly restrictive lives especially after the marriages, the speaker is suggesting and arguing that women should, in fact, "despise" men for their misleading acts that lure women into agreeing to marry them; for example, men before marriage are expressed as "fawning flatt'rers" in the poem
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker of the poem is teaching the women to learn to take pride in themselves, love themselves for their own values and merits; the speaker's feminist view is clearly delivered throughout the poem. The speaker seems to value independence of women.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">34. Epigrams: On my First Son by Ben Jonson
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Gloomy, bitter mood is prevalent throughout the poem; the speaker is addressing his recently dead son
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">Interesting use of financial imagery to describe his son's life and death; this technique helps display and underline the speaker's resignation in giving up his son to his destiny, his strong sense of balance or equilibrium that should be present in nature (or the universe). He realizes that all living beings are subject to their own fates, and deaths are only natural parts for the universe to maintain its ideal equilibrium
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker seems to almost force him to comfort himself and accept the depressing reality confronting him; he tries to believe and teaches himself that there is no point in brining another life into the world when death is the nature's preferred state of being
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: middle;">The speaker also tries to be happy for his dead son by focusing on the 'advantages' of having left the world filled with "rage"

__October 30__

35. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
 * Simple structure, simple 'story' is being narrated within the poem - a man stopping by beautiful woods that have successfully captured his attention in a dark evening.
 * However, such simplicity of the poem seems to make it complicated in that it allows a variety of possibilities for interpretation, analysis of the work (regarding what this simple incident of suddenly stopping by woods on a snowy evening is supposed to represent)
 * While the woods have definitely caught the man's attention, the speaker is forced to leave due to the journey awaiting him; the miles ahead of him that he should continue to walk seem to represent the tasks that he is assigned to or expected to undertake. Because of such busy life loaded with responsibilities and work, the man seems to have been prevented from being able to freely enjoy the simple beauty of his surroundings or anything that attracts him (also why his horse seems to be surprised at the man's unexpected stop by woods - up to this point, he has not been able to take a moment, and relish simple, positive aspects found in his life, and yet again, he feels obliged to continue his journey, miles waiting ahead of him)

36. The Wood-Pile by Robert Frost
 * The speaker makes close interactions with the nature, the bird, the decaying wood-pile, all provide him with realization, teachings, or directions. The decisions that he makes, the feelings he experiences all seem to be quite common for anyone in general - linking to the human nature to work for something with determination as long as the strong desire exists (they will still go ahead and try even though the product may be unclear)
 * While he wishes to go back, the sudden urge to proceed further, even though the end of the path on which the speaker is walking is unclear and dark; it is the unknown desire and adventurous minds that prompt him to continue his journey and this also seems to reflect the unending efforts that people put into in their pursuit of their goals. Yet, the "gray" decaying wood-pile symbolically represents the inescapable sense of fear and despair that will engulf anyone in their journey to their goals.
 * Continuing reference to paths (representative of the humans' journey, pursuit of their dreams, etc.) and nature in Robert Frost's poem (also tying with the previously read poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost)

37. Mending Wall by Robert Frost
 * Common daily life occurring to represent the broad issue of maintaining or getting rid of barriers, confinements within the community; the two people have opposing views regarding the problem of maintaining the wall, yet, both as civilized individuals and members of the community do seem to have valid reasoning for their positions/stances - getting rid of the wall ensures the absence of segregation, while maintaining the wall helps him work in a focused manner within his boundary, thus, within his principles
 * Not only about the issue of segregation or harmony within a community, but, in broader terms, also touches on the issue of maintenance of traditional values beliefs, and conventionality
 * Just as the two men in the poem are portrayed to have equally valid reasons, the structure of the poem also seems to reflect such; the poem itself possesses a combination of conventional and unconventional features as a poem - it follows the rules, the conventional 'wall' of a poem by maintaining some poetic features, yet it does not become strictly confined by the rules (i.e. no strict rhyme schemes, etc.)

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">November 4 __

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">38. Piano by Dan Howell
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 21px;">Depicts a marked contrast between the pianist's playing from before and that of present; the striking difference in terms of the accuracy, tempo, and power with which the playing was done underlines the aging process of the pianist. Now that the pianist is significantly older, such aging is demonstrated through the changed playing style.
 * While the quality in playing in terms of accuracy, tempo, and power may be lacking now, the "quivering notes" are still beautiful to the listener's ears. The performer, pianist's attempt to deliver the equally excellent performance even after having aged so much "aches with pure intention"; it is this "pure intention" and genuine efforts that the performer is putting into her playing that makes the quivering, inaccurate notes to be even more beautiful than they used to be.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 21px;">Such depiction of the piano playing (described to be even more graceful after the performer has aged) seems to highlight the positive aspects of passage of time and aging in general.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">39. Sonnet 22 - "When our two souls stand up erect and strong" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 21px;">Specifically illustrates the development of a couple's love into a more stronger, intimate one; the passion between the two is underlined through the conventional symbol of passion and interest - fire. The harmony between the two is also emphasized as the two souls are drawing "nigh and nigher"
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 21px;">Interesting reference to the heaven and the earth; the attraction between the two is strong that they will rather keep it on earth, since if they are brought to heaven where everything will probably excel their love, such greatness of their love will be lost. Also, on earth, they will love freely without any boundaries.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 21px;">Such wish to be able to spend even the afterlife on earth, so that their love can continue to exist further underscores the intensity of the two's love.

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">November 6 __ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">40. Equation by Caroline Caddy
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 21px;">An interesting presentation format/structure of the poem; it effectively conveys and brings out the delivered message because the structure itself seems to reflect the process of progression, moving forward. The speaker's original belief about his original feelings towards a woman gets shifted and develops further into a stronger interest in her as the poem progresses. Also, considering that structure and presentation are a critical, significant part in any equation also links to the theme and the title of the poem
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 21px;">An effective metaphor, comparison of the way the speaker found and became fascinated by the woman he is describing in the poem with how people develop their obsession and achieve discoveries through given equations.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 21px;">Just as people start noticing "glowing works of art" within seemingly intricate and complex equations, in a crowd of people where the speaker did not seem to notice anyone, he finds that a woman whom he has once overlooked now seems to be incredibly attractive, just like the "glowing works of art" one would find in an equation. This is why even in the middle of long corridor filled with crowds he does not "feel lost' at all.

__<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;">November 13 __ 41. Ex-Basketball Player by John Updike
 * The matter-of-fact tone of the speaker that goes through the day-to-day tasks or actions that the ‘ex-basketball player’ performs contribute to the depiction of the player’s current life as dull and mundane.
 * Vivid descriptions of the player’s current lack of capabilities as a good basked player that he used to be (physical qualities are lacking – particularly exposed and underlined) build a stark contrast with the player’s past as “the best” high-school basketball player
 * Also seems to tie in with the idea of fleeting youth and how the individual starts losing some of his/her most precious qualities as the youth goes away

42. A Reminiscence by Richard O. Moore
 * Melancholy tone is prevalent throughout the poem, a vivid natural imagery is created through the detailed visual description of the now past autumn season (referring to October specifically within the poem)
 * The speaker longs for the once existed peace and love; such past is paralleled with the autumn season that is now gone. As autumn is a season associated with aging, and passing of time, such association seems to further emphasize the passage of time
 * The poet seems to have intended to underline the negative aspects of the idea of aging, as evident from the dictions, “failing,” “brittle” “blood red”

43. Letting Go by Fay Zwicky
 * A common parent-child relationship is illustrated within the poem; parents are almost forced to “let go” of their children once they become grown-up adults; while this is an easily found, prevalent occasion, it is still depicted as being particularly significant and capable of resulting in some significant emotional impact on the parents.
 * It is also interesting to see that the parents are compared to obedient servants who were serving the children until the point they had to let go of them, and now they are respecting their freedom by doing so. The fact that the parents also have to hide some of their innermost feelings inside, as represented through the act of writing them down in prose inside a journal which will be “trapped” in a drawer underlines and furthers the depiction of the parents as being almost powerless
 * The illustration of the parents as the one receiving disadvantages by letting their children go continues, and even highlights some of their suffering through visual imageries (i.e. “your spine is twisted like a sea-bird…”)

__November 18__ 44. "And then we cowards" by Cesare Pavese
 * Depicts the major turning point from being the "cowards" into the individuals who can recognize that they need to stand up, listen to their "heart" that tells them to stand up and be "alive", "alone" - independent
 * The descriptions of the 'objects' or the natural scenes that "we" liked (past - no longer true for now) symbolically represent and underline the passive manner and the composure with which "we" faced situations; yet, now that they directly face 'life' and the complication/complexity found in life (as symbolized by the life chain) they no longer feel the "sweetness"
 * Strong, effective word choice - "blood" that startled them to emphasize how drastic their transformation and realization was; "sweet soundless sorrow" - alliteration emphasizes each word, the combination of these three words for this phrase are interesting in that they would not normally be put together. The sorrow that "we" experienced was repressed and even regarded to be "sweet", and because it was put away or hidden, it remained "soundless".

__November 19__ 45. Summer of the Ladybirds by Vivian Smith
 * Interesting analogy/metaphor using the behavior or the life of the ladybirds that are being described within the poem: the poet's choice to use ladybirds as the insects to represent the idea or concept of persistence was particularly striking and effective because the ladybirds are especially small and regarded as quite powerless, feeble insects - such characteristics of ladybirds emphasized persistence because even such feeble and weak insects were gathering together and trying to endure difficulties as a group, trying to overcome their weaknesses
 * The determination of the ladybirds seem to be more significant as it leaves the readers with the idea that even these insects have such sense of purpose and direction; it also gives the sense of hopefulness and ambition through the determination of these ladybirds
 * Yet, the mood created within the poem suddenly shifts and turns into a more pessimistic and dejected one, which is underlined and represented through how the ladybirds disappeared with the storm; the force of nature - as in the weather - was still much more powerful than the ladybirds' strong ambition and determination. The poet's pessimistic outlook is reflected in this last stanza of the poem.

46. To a Grey Dress by Arthur Symons
 * The speaker's infatuation with the anonymous woman that he sees from far away is depicted; the way that the poet describes this woman is particularly vague and unclear which connects to the fact that the speaker vaguely knows the woman that he saw (just a woman that he saw from distance - he does not know any details about her)
 * The color of the dress is also emphasized; the grey color seems to be symbolic of the impossibility for the speaker to achieve his unlikely dream. The unclear dream or fantasy that he has in his mind is the one created by the sight of the grey dress that he caught; similarly, his dream is 'grey' (associated with hopelessness). This depiction links to the bigger idea of 'unrequited love' that the poet is discussing through the poem
 * The poet also focuses and highlights the fleeting nature of this dream inside the speaker's mind (i.e. dream to meet the woman, to be in relationship with the woman); it seems to give readers the sense that this is merely a short-lived fantasy, not necessarily serious infatuation that will be long-lasting.

//Checked 21 November 46/42-70// //An eclectic collection here. Thorough and thoughtful commentary.//

__ December 4 __

47. The First Line is Deepest by Kim Addonizio
 * Depicts life of a women who is depraved-not sure where to go in life
 * Filled with sickness and despair: degrades body with drugs and alcohol
 * Life is a metaphor for modern American society: lost its core values of peace and prosperity-war and a degenerative young generation
 * Poet tries to find beauty in her life

48. The Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
 * the poet details on the concept of the lack of appreciation for the boy’s father
 * “banked fires blazed. No one ever thanked him”- boy’s father put in all his effort (“cracked hands that ached”)to provide heat in winter-efforts were not appreciated by public
 * warmness described in poem is in fact a negative sensation as opposed to positive-“angers of that house”
 * father sacrifices so much, but son doesn’t see it
 * ironic: Sunday is supposed to be a time of worship and family gathering, but here it is full of family detachment

49. Always by Rane Arroyo
 * poet reflects on past life with loved one
 * quite a depressing reflection: focuses on things they never did- “never ride across Russia together”, “listening to //A Chorus Line// all those weekends didn’t teach us the foreign language”
 * “poetry always demands all of ghosts”: poetry is a medium through which the poet reveals the pain in his life?

__December 6__

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">50. Almost Nowhere in the World, as Far as Anyone Can Tell by Dick Allen


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The poet’s discovery: finding ‘happiness’ in small, seemingly trivial events (everyday life) As t
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Yet, an ironic tone is employed when the speaker narrates and even provides a rhetorical question regarding how happy one would be when one finds oneself in such situations described within the poem; such tone conveys the subtle sense of self-pity in the speaker
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Recognizing the small things may be viewed as the realization that sense of satisfaction is not hard to achieve as long as the importance of everyday events, objects and surroundings is recognized; however considering the ironical and self-piteous tone prevalent throughout the poem, it can be conversely viewed as the speaker’s convinced belief that we are so small as to being insignificant in such a vast, large world surrounding us (giving the feeling of ironic acceptance)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This ironic tone is further established through the title “almost nowhere in the world, as far as anyone can tell”

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">51. Developers by Alice Lyons
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The speaker acknowledges that the prevalent greed and avarice of mankind are driving the recent development, growth boom
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">First, the poem is written in a matter-of-fact tone, yet proceeds to adopt a more bitterly emotional tone as the speaker starts specifically addressing our endless desire to bring ‘development’
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The speaker sees that no one can potentially have a complete authority over another; for her gaining any kinds of authority which are often included in the process of development are only meant to be provisional and often regarded as being “untidy”.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">52. Imaginary Countries: The Real World by Michael Sharkey
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Ironic in that the poet chooses to describe what can be considered as an imaginary world as “the real world” within the first few stanzas in his poem; this irony is what makes the actions described in these first few stanzas more unrealistic and unlikely to happen in the real world surrounding us (the actions from which we can see the prevalent sense of compassion, love and care)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The real world that the poet proceeds to describe in the last few stanzas are what can be commonly seen and regarded as the true ‘real world’ where the powerful members of the society enjoy their authority, the powerless people work to serve the controlling ones. The description of this world is so vivid that it makes the presented image of such a society more realistic, also enabling the readers to relate to the description.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Bitter tone, last stanza’s description regarding how the true ‘real world’ is eclipsing the fantastical, imaginary ‘real world’ (the one everyone hopes for) conveys the poet’s regret and (at the same time) resignation.

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">December 15 __ 53. Soliloquy on an Empty Purse by Mary Jones
 *  extensive use of personification by the poet to portray her purse as a human figure that she talks to; a lot of questions thrown to the subject (the purse), while the questions themselves serve as rhetorical questions to which she gives away or hints her answers
 *  her unfavorable comments on the materialism are embedded through her continuous remarks at her purse, revealing how she feels relieved about the fact that she no longer has to fear about any possibilities of having whatever that is contained in her purse stolen, or used excessively, or leaving her in the state of unrest, now that her purse is simply empty
 *  although a lot of the criticisms are directed to herself, reflecting upon her now seemingly foolish obsession with wealth, financial status that used to override her when her purse was not empty, her comments are still directed towards others as well

54. The Sun Rising by John Donne
 *  interesting to see that the poet has chosen to directly address, make the speaker have his remarks directed towards the sun, when the main message that is to be delivered is the praise of the woman that the speaker is in love with and of their strong love
 *  The qualities that the poet associates with the sun (or the sun rising) seem to be applicable to the characteristics that the poet wishes to expose of the woman or their relationship: i.e. warm people (their hearts), strong and revered
 *  sometimes, the sun is the source of distraction or interruption for the lovers (or for the speaker): the speaker’s attachment to the woman is clearly underlined in that he expresses his disappointment or regret towards the sun rise (the start of the day) that will cause he and his lover to part after waking up, towards the sun beam that will cause him to “cloud [the beams] with a wink” and thus makes him lose the sight of his lover while doing so

55. Song: To Celia by Ben Jonson
 *  organized structure is maintained throughout the poem with the consistent rhyming structure that emphasizes the subject matters that the poet seems to emphasize or accentuate (part of his belief regarding the concept of love or his relationship)
 *  The speaker’s level of infatuation with his lover, Celia, is underlined clearly as he constantly urges his lover not to waste any moments that they have together by employing direct comparisons with the nature, such as the sun (rising and setting) and the time (passage of time in particular)
 *  Another emphasized aspect is his request for truthful, frank expressions of love that do not betray their innermost feelings for each other; his frequent use of rhetorical questions and direct tones almost make his ‘suggestions’ seem more like an adamant order that he expects Celia to follow closely

__January 11__ 56. Lines Depicting Simple Happiness by Peter Gizzi
 *  Straightforward account of the speaker’s seeing his lover in bright sunlight; the vivid visual imagery that the poet incorporates in the speaker’s description of such a beautiful sight, complemented by the frequent use of hyperbole to bring out his lover’s beauty, exposes his strong feelings of love for her
 *  The simple language and the rather trivial subject matters (i.e. proofs, grammar, vowel sounds, music, etc.) that he includes for explaining the ideas that are conjured up while looking at the woman reflect that his feelings of love are not complicated or esoteric in any way, but simply leaves pleasant feelings inside him
 *  The power or seriousness of his feelings is shown through the fact that he even sees what he used to relate with negative connotations (i.e. passage of time) as a simply “beautiful process” after falling in love

57. You, Therefore by Reginald Shepherd
 *  Rich with abundant metaphors and visual imageries that are used for illustrating what the speaker’s lover means to him (both exposing her physical beauty and the inner qualities that he sees in her)
 *  The long list of subjects found in nature (i.e. strawberries, lily, white star, meadow sky, snow, etc.) which the speaker uses to compare his lover to, seems to reflect his state of mind that becomes inundated with these associations or similarities that he finds as he sees his lover
 *  Although mostly compared to subjects with positive connotations, some subject matters include the ones that have bitter feelings or connotations/images of falling downwards, indicating that the lover means almost every aspect of the speaker’s life that includes both the positive and the negative parts (thus underlining the significance of the lover’s presence in the speaker’s life)

58. Tenderness and Rot by Kay Ryan
 *  <span style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The speaker underlines the fine line separating the concept of tenderness and decay. While these two concepts seem unrelated or even incompatible, the speaker conveys that the untruthful or ‘faked’ tenderness is indicative of rottenness and that ‘rot’ is a dangerous idea that “keeps creeping over”
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The idea of duality and the opposing factors is clearly incorporated within the poem by the poet’s choice to juxtapose the two concepts right next to each other, thus making the contrast (and yet their proximity to one another) evident
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The poet’s opinion is hinted through the speaker’s asserting that each concept is not meant to ‘step over’ the boundary separating the two, thus meaning that the truthfulness behind demonstrated tenderness should be kept clean

__January 20__ 59. Love and Friendship by Emily Jane Bronte
 *  Constant comparison between the concept of love and friendship through the metaphorical symbol that the poet chose to represent each concept (love: rose-briar, friendship: holly-tree)
 *  nature serves as an apt symbol for these two concepts and their characteristics that the poet wishes to illustrate within the poem as the rose-briar connects with transient nature of its beauty and the holly-tree relates to consistency
 *  The poet’s view that friendship will shine more than love in times of trouble, as represented by the harsh season - winter, is reflected through the extended metaphor and symbols (especially in the last stanza)

60. Last Wish by Theophile Gautier
 *  The speaker’s life coming to an end is compared metaphorically to the passage of time that is evidently shown through the changes that occur in the natural environment/surrounding (i.e. seasonal changes, blooming and withering, sun sinking low, etc.)
 *  The generally gloomy and depressing mood that is prevalent throughout the poem fits well with the poet’s sentimentality that links with wistfulness due to the knowledge about impending death
 *  While the speaker seems to be trying to appease himself by telling himself that he will be able to soon rest at peace eternally, protected by the nature as its part from now on, the speaker’s feelings of regret and pensiveness are reflected through his melancholy tone in the last stanza and his wish for the “last kiss” that links to the idea of love, care and life

61. Shepherd Road by Ashley Anna Mchugh
 *  The speaker’s attachment to the woman is conveyed through the patient description of the step-by-step everyday procedures that he carries out (grabbing the back-door key, sliding a folded list into his pocket, etc.) followed by his sudden thoughts regarding her; she is thus portrayed as someone that is ‘embedded’ within his everyday life
 *  The details with which the speaker remembers her adds to the characterization of the woman while further revealing his attachment towards her
 *  The last line concluding the poem gives a sense that the speaker is trying to control his feelings for her to keep them manageably, thus showing that his feelings for her are constantly growing

__January 27__ 62. “The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!” by John Keats
 *  the poem is started with an emotional expression of the speaker that closely reflects his feelings of regret and wistfulness regarding the absence of the “sweets” that are characteristic or representative of his loved one
 *  The elaborate descriptions (all adjectives with positive connotations) that serve to describe the speaker’s loved one are introduced in an organized line structure that employs parallel structure and repetitions to emphasize each and every words that are characteristic of her
 *  The imageries are not confined to a single sense, but extend to embrace the tactile, visual and auditory senses as well to create a comprehensive and detailed image of the woman the speaker is describing and also revealing the amount of attention that he pays to her

63. Winter Stars by Larry Levis
 *  narrative account that details the speaker’s relationship with the father, first started with inability to understand his father now bridged with a sense of connection and unspeakable bond with his aging father (who is facing impending death)
 *  the star and its fading, dim yet beautiful light serves as a symbolic representation for the remaining life for his father and the still significance that the father holds in the speaker (which is getting amplified as the speaker is feeling more connected to his father with the passage of time)
 *  at the same time, the cold winter star light is what helps the speaker find peace in his state of mind and believes that it is what is aiding in reconciling his father and himself

64. The Performance by James L. Dickey
 *  A lengthy narrative that shows the speaker’s reflective tone that he successfully employs for describing what he has observed from Armstrong. The elaborate descriptions and details regarding his attempts and trials in perfecting “his role” help characterize Armstrong
 *  The sense of tension and conflict are conveyed through the speaker’s word choice and often opposing concepts are juxtaposed together
 *  Sometimes the portrayed character of Armstrong is like a hero that possesses skills that impress and amaze people but at the same time sense of violence and cruelty surrounds the character

__February 4__ 65. Closing Hours by Ann Lauterbach
 *  Just as the speaker comments on the ambiguity in the past hour until the departure, the structure itself reflects the speaker’s state of mind with sudden breaks and use of punctuations along with the employment of rhetorical questions
 *  The murky and dim scenery that is represented through the rich natural and visual imagery also complements the ambiguity that is being described throughout the poem
 *  The confusion and also wistfulness regarding the departure are conveyed through the patient yet a rather depressed tone that is established within the poem

66. Nativity by Glyn Maxwell
 *  Interesting structure; in each stanza the first three lines portray the aspect of the world that the speaker finds whether that is confusion, value on time and money, quest for answer (from a writer’s perspective) it is complemented by an example that the speaker discovers from his everyday life or the native land, the people around him
 *  Clearly reflective tone that goes over the different aspects that the speaker wishes to discuss in an organized structure, thus highlighting the main points or topics of discussion
 * The topic of discussion seems to be narrowed down from big ideas to the elaboration of his experience as a writer or as an individual (wanting for questions and answers)

67. Afterword by Louise Gluck
 *  lengthy narrative poem that closely trails the moods or feelings that the speaker (who is gradually falling in deep love) experiences, first started out as confusion mixed with dark feelings that seemed to disguise the feelings of love, but soon developing into strong attraction
 *  Relates to what she sees (other people, a woman singing, a woman leaning against her lover’s shoulder, a child, etc.) trying to find an answer to the ambiguous and confusing feelings that are troubling her
 *  Later as she reflects upon the feelings that she went through she realizes the ambiguity surrounding her feelings could only confuse her loved one as well, and now, for her, at least, the “mist had cleared”. But still such realization leaves feelings of regret as her loved one will not fully understand her feelings

__February 8__ 68. The Kite by Judith Beveridge
 *  The speaker’s observation of a boy flying his kite, followed by his amazement at the boy’s steadfastness and his stable state of mind that helps with the kite flying is carefully revealed through the narrative tone that is employed throughout the poem
 *  The amount of details that are put into for describing the boy’s act of flying the kite in the first few stanzas reflect how fascinated the speaker must have been, watching the boy, creating a vivid visual imagery of the speaker looking at the boy in the readers’ minds
 *  The speaker’s realization concludes the poem by revealing that the speaker’s previous doubts or distrust regarding the boy’s such amazing abilities have been cleared away

__February 11__ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">69. The Other Forest by Darcie Dennigan
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">An interesting structure, as written almost like a prose, words and phrases are connected through consistent use of punctuation, ‘,,,’; as the poem itself centers on the speaker’s mind and thoughts that surface inside her head as she delivers her speech to audiences about love, desire and sexuality, this structure makes the poem seems like her trails of thoughts that constantly move from one idea to another
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">While the speaker must be in an awkward, uncomfortable situation where she has just begun to talk about sensitive ideas like sexuality and desire in relationships in front of audiences that include a group of nuns, the speaker still tries to convey her thoughts by building imageries and comparing to others like the forest, birds, animals, dark robes etc., to emphasize the wilderness
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">The speaker’s emotions, starting with uncomfortable feelings and confusion at the beginning are closely reflected throughout the poem; it is interesting to note that these emotions develop into a certain degree of pride and increased level of comfort (regarding speaking in front of these particular audiences)

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">70. I Too Have Been to Candyland by Anthony Madrid
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">An effective couplet structure that brings out the poet’s major points in each stanza; often starts with the poet’s claim about himself or other poets, what he has noticed from them, followed by his regrets, reflections that seem to direct him to think about how he should continue writing as a poet or what he should really try contemplating on for his poetry writing
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">a special emphasis seems to be put on the concept of truth and how poetry should try to reflect such that the poet feels or finds around him despite the fact that such truth may not necessarily be pleasant and can even be painful to note of
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Spontaneity and responsiveness to raw feelings without embellishment seem to be what the poet regards as important and what he sees as imperative of including in his poetry; this seems to be applicable for this particular poem as well, since he does try to convey his genuine emotions through vivid imageries and direct quotations

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 26px;">February 17 __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">71. Dream-Land by Edgar Allan Poe
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">A good majority of the poem, especially starting with the first few stanzas are devoted to illustrating a peaceful yet memorable nature scene with a heavy employment of natural, sensory imageries along with some detailed descriptions
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">A still, calm, seemingly unchanging scenes are created, yet also melancholy atmosphere surrounds these images; this atmosphere makes it more suitable and fitting when the ‘traveler’ that the speaker notes of appears
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker suggests that in the ‘dream-land’, past memories that have left the traveler, or different individuals with pain and regret, do not actually leave them feeling sad only and even glorifies such memories and experiences by suggesting that they can lead the individuals to achieve calm, peaceful states (like the natural scenes themselves); but, the individuals are too “weak”/vulnerable or too afraid to face such painful memories directly and accept them

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">72. Silence by Billy Collins
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Different examples where the poet finds silence are referenced to throughout the poem; often times, these moments of silence seem to be associated with the times when there is surprise, or just before a shocking event occurs, sudden or abrupt change or halt
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">As these moments are from the times related with such events, an uncomfortable feeling is created or such an atmosphere is established throughout the novel
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">a vivid picture of the poet that just broke the morning’s silence by starting to compose a poem is created at the end through his last lines in the poem; interesting to note that he has described his act of starting to write this poem as bringing “the poor silence now”

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">73. Sunday Calls by Chard Deniord
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">structure is effective in bringing out what the nuns have to say about the speaker’s dad that the speaker does have some wistful feelings towards as she misses him after not having been able to see him for long; clear that the speaker remembers everything and little details that the nun has told her of
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker’s dad’s days, as described by the nun through the Sunday calls, seem to demonstrate how lonely and melancholy he must be feeling; most of the descriptions center on how each day passes with the changes in nature (gradual, not a conspicuous change, along with peacefulness)
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker often recollects her memories from the past (especially those associated with the experiences she had with her dad), her love for her dad is underlined through her lines towards the end of the stanza

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 26px;">February 25 __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">74. They Say It’s New by Clark Coolidge
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">each detail of what the speaker observes around her, whether it is a natural scene, darkness found in night, or the floor or the wall, she tries to give it a memorable meaning despite its seeming worthlessness
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker also tries to give it the past and memories associated with it and tends to reject the idea that the objects or the scenes that she notices are relatively new; suggest that her memories relating to them have long existed in her mind
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">tries to prepare for the coming days (indirectly suggest that she has noticed that despite having past, the time it has taken to move from the past to the present has been relatively short - brevity of time, time passing)

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">75. This Ecstasy by Chard Deniord
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">while the speaker is genuinely pleased and even to a certain degree excited about this feeling of ‘ecstasy’ (made clearer through the direct comparison and reference to paradise to describe it), such positive feelings are offset by the realization that there are not enough people around to share the joy
 *  <span style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">“I’d be flying with the quickness of a hummingbird and grace of a heron…” this reference to animals also seem to underline her excitement that she feels if more were present to share such feelings
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">juxtaposed with this positive feeling are her past experiences of loneliness and melancholy emotions; as she describes the forest that will follow, whether this ‘ecstasy’ will continue in the coming days is quite questionable

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">76. Last Wish by Theophile Gautier
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">From the beginning first stanza of the poem, the speaker’s obsession with and attraction towards the female lover of his clearly suggested; emotional remarks complemented by the use of structure (short lines, direct to the point) and punctuations
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">interesting to note that the speaker has chosen to compare himself to ‘winter’ and his lover to ‘spring’, for him just as the spring season comes after the winter, bringing warmth and growth, she is like a savior that brought ‘life’ to his seemingly ‘dead’, desolate days (before meeting her)
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker’s detailed descriptions on the lover’s facial features, physical appearances emphasize the amount of attention that he pays to his lover

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 26px;">March 2 __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">77. A Prayer for Rain by Lisel Mueller
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">interesting that the poet has chosen to compare romantic relationships, love of couples to nature and other natural phenomenon (rain, thickness of air, mist)
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker hopes for the rain as it will help get rid of the mist, thickness of the air that have obscured the lovers and prevented them subsequently from realizing the truthfulness that should be included in their feelings for each other; the speaker makes a note of misunderstanding and mistrust
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker also comments on the ‘crippled lovers’ that often blame on other matters for their mistakes in developing their relationships in a genuine, truthful ways; the speaker’s preference and hope for genuine love are indirectly hinted throughout the poem

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">78. Finding the Space in the Heart by Gary Snyder
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">while genuinely drawn to the girl that the speaker feels attracted to at the initial stages of his relationship or at the early days as he starts developing his feelings for her, the emptiness or hollowness that fills up the ‘space in his heart’ is also juxtaposed in the description of his growing love for her
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">as the speaker notes the changing stages in his relationship with the girl, and even moves on to the time when years have passed from the beginning, how he is still on his journey of finding and filling up the space in his heart he once felt like was empty
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">yet, throughout such a journey, since he is accompanied by his companion, his lover, he realizes that the precious moments, memoires, and experiences he has shared with his lover are beginning to fill up the spaces

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">79. Love Song: I and Thou by Alan Dugan
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the amount of independence that the speaker develops in his life, as he is all by himself (with no companion, no lover) is made explicit through his detailed descriptions of how he spends his days or how he acts on a regular basis
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">in his descriptions of his daily life, it becomes clear that the speaker tries to emphasize the presence of loneliness and even incompleteness despite a high level of independence and confidence for himself
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the incompleteness that the speaker associates with himself is what makes his need for the lover that he feels attracted to especially desperate, and he conveys such desperate feelings and attraction towards her by directly and explicitly stating them; he also refers to her as a help, a love, a you, a wife

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 26px;">March 10 __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">80. Kept Busy by Joanne Burns
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">lengthy prose-like structure that the poet adopts for composing this poem emphasizes the steadfastness and calmness with which the speaker makes notes of her thoughts and feelings about her everyday life
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Her daily life and others’ everyday routines that she observes from the people around are quite mundane, her references to exact times in her days and recount of what she did make her days seem more rigid and routinely.
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Yet, despite being simple and mundane, she notes that they only seem mundane because many including her fail to notice the importance and value of little, seemingly trivial matters found in different corners of their lives

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">81. Reading by Joanne Burns
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">similar to “kept busy”, also written by this poet, the poem adopts a lengthy prose form and each stanza is long enough to look like a paragraph; the unconventional use of punctuation and with no use of capitalization, the lengthy sentences with no breaks underline the repetitiveness of the process of finding a book, consuming it, that the speaker makes note of in the first stanza
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the repetitiveness suggests how much the speaker is involved with the process of reading and how important a task it is within her daily life, as she continuously engages in the activity; her love for reading is further emphasized through dictions that explicitly suggest her interest and even suggest that she admires most of the teachings and understanding that she gains from reading
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker also feels especially drawn to one of the books that she owns and how she treats this particular book almost parallel with how someone would treat a lover, a loved family or a friend

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">82. But It Says Nothing by Clark Coolidge
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the poet chooses to focus on detailing the descriptions of everyday objects commonly seen around us; the description of furniture is also quite noteworthy as the speaker continues to make references to them as the speaker tries to emphasize the stillness
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the hardness associated with the objects described parallel with the stillness that exist despite the passing of the time; none of them move, none of them speak, and the speaker even feels drawn towards such stillness as the speaker feels overwhelmed by the capricious nature, changing nature that she finds from people
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">emptiness is also associated with the still objects and the speaker states that speeches that people make while sitting at the still furniture are also associated with ‘nothingness’ and underline futility of speech

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 26px;">March 16 __ <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">83. Agony in the Garden by Peg Boyers
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker carefully observes the boy and his short journeys, movements from one place to another, as if the speaker is a god-like, omniscient figure he notes and even makes some expectations as to what the boy will do next in terms of the activity that he engages in
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">even though the actions that the speaker observes are everyday actions, that may as well be regarded as quite trivial (i.e. walking on the bridge), the speaker emphasizes each and every activity and portrays the actions as having some noteworthy significance
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">these actions are being compared to the overall journey that the boy will take on throughout his life and that will definitely continue in his future as he continues to grow as an individual; the speaker comments that the future, relationships he will develop with his friends and lovers, all depend on his actions that he performs and leaves the speaker with certain feelings of agony and unsettling worries as he is unsure of how the future will develop or what the boy is heading towards

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">84. January 6 by Vicki Hearne
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">using the time of the year, the season and the weather condition, the poet emphasizes and makes note of the coldness that many are concealing inside yet not explicitly suggesting; the act of hiding such emotions and harshness trouble the speaker
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the direct, straightforward tone with which the speaker points out the coldness that he has discovered seems to mimic such feelings of coldness
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker repeatedly uses the expression, “that’s as cold as it gets” to underline the extremity involved with the hidden coldness in people, by suggesting that it is not completely “frozen” he is suggesting that such coldness can grow even more to its extreme

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">85. Glad by Coleman Barks
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker provides a vivid recount of a sports event and instead of focusing on the winners’ joy chooses to detail the losers’ side and their feelings
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the intense atmosphere marked by experiences of extreme emotions (such as the referenced excitement and sudden feelings of hopelessness) is suggested through unconventional uses of punctuation and employment of capitalization when describing or suggesting these emotions
 *  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">the speaker’s optimistic view is suggested and made clear that he is advocating such a perspective, as the speaker notes of the joy, the ‘glad’ that can still accompany the losers (despite the fact that they have lost) when trying to laugh “continuously” instead of laughing “last” after the winners have enjoyed their joy

__<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">March 22 __ 86. Madman’s Song by Elinor Wylie
 *  Unlike the title, where the ‘madman’ is addressed, the general attitude of the speaker seems gently insistent about what he believes to be “better”; this tone is further emphasized through the repetition and the parallel structure that each stanza is consisted of, also gives some rhythmic aspect to the poem in general
 *  the speaker’s firm belief that it is better to follow the natural path of aging and living instead of blindly pursuing materialistic success or driven by excessive greed; the speaker’s opinion seems to be quite reasonable and also mature, but, ironically described as a “madman”
 *  perhaps, the description of the speaker may seem like an opinion of a ‘madman’ in a current, modern society where materialistic pursuit has become a part of social norm

87. Blue Girls by John Crowe Ransom
 *  vivid imagery from the first stanza, starting off the poem, immediately creates a joyful, happy mood that suits well with the young girls without any worries that the speaker later discusses in the poem
 *  contrast is built as the speaker becomes realistic and addresses the mortality of beauty and mentions that the girls’ pure beauty, genuine happiness will soon disappear; the primary theme of the poem seems to be the fleeting nature of youth (and other associated qualities, such as, young, pure beauty)
 *  the fleeting nature of beauty that the girls are currently enjoying is further emphasized through the poet’s focus on the motif of decay (especially shown in the last stanza: “all her perfections tarnished…”)

88. In Heaven by Stephen Crane
 *  the main thematic idea being conveyed through this poem seems to be that it is essentially better to be modest than to be boastful, or to be proud of whatever one has attained through one’s exhibition of excessive greed
 *  the purity of such an idea is being emphasized through the setting of the poem as the heaven; God is also included in the poem as one of the speakers in the poem
 *  the unexpected response from God at the end of the poem (especially since the response is delivered after the heightened anticipation for the last line) also emphasizes the importance of modesty through God’s judgment

__March 30__ 89. On His Deceased Wife by John Milton
 *  sonnet clearly delineating the speaker’s mourning process after his wife’s death; it is clear from the poem that the speaker has loved her and still does a lot. The apparition that he sees and his belief that it is his wife visiting to see him underlines how much he misses her
 *  disappointment and sadness overwhelm the speaker once he realizes that the image he saw was just an apparition; such feelings are emphasized through the employed metaphor that the night has come back to him
 *  allusion is employed at the beginning of the poem to illustrate the vision/image (perhaps a ghost) that he sees

90. Promises Like Pie-Crust by Christina Rossetti
 *  the promises that are constantly referred throughout the poem and also serves as a main thematic element seem to be the speaker’s marriage vows
 *  interesting to note that the poet has chosen to compare the speaker’s current relationship with the “you” in the poem to a restrained diet of plain food; other interesting, vivid imageries are also employed through unique comparisons/symbols (promises - pie crust, sunlight - genuine mutual love, etc.)
 *  the feelings of betrayal (due to the broken promises) are also hinted throughout the poem; the speaker now believes and realizes that no one can ever know the true feelings of those who made binding promises in the past

91. The Mower to the Glowworms by Andrew Marvell
 *  interesting to focus on the role of glowworms in natural setting; their natural luminosity is described as something that provides assistance to princes and mowers
 *  through the description of their roles and the help they are indirectly providing for many others in the community the importance and value of cooperation is highlighted throughout the poem
 *  glowworms are also described as a mysterious source of light, but one that is greatly appreciated because of the help it is providing

__April 7__ 92. To Be of Use by Marge Piercy
 *  the consistent use of animal references throughout the poem serve as a purposeful extended metaphor: the seals, oxen, buffalo are compared to the people who are performing or engaging in meaningful labor
 *  the speaker clearly favors those who are creating meaningful changes by industriously working in each of their own fields and thus, seems to demonstrate limited tolerance for anyone who is not fully engaged in his or her own work or not fulfilling his or her own responsibility
 *  the emphasis is also placed on the fact that the work should be beneficial for all, for the entire community

93. Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson
 *  interesting for the poet to decide to describe the arrival of death as something that moves in a carriage; the speaker naturally accepts the arrival and even joins on the ride through eternity
 *  the carriage journey seems to be the one reflecting on the past lives, watching the path that the speaker has walked on up to this point in her life (passing wheat fields, school children); the steady meter, and rhythmic structure also emphasize and fit in well with the description of the journey and the movement of the carriage
 *  the speaker mentions the seeming brevity but actual longevity of death; the acceptance of death takes place in a calm, composed manner (but definitely lacks any kinds of excitement); interesting that the death is also described to be quite ‘polite’ when personified

94. Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
 *  the speaker confidently celebrates the individuality and his own uniqueness throughout the poem
 *  the poet seems to have chosen to use free verse to write this poem in order to bring out this discussion of individuality. If there was a restrictive rhythmic structure or meter, this would be not suitable for the context
 *  interesting to include the series of three episodes for the speaker to arrive at the realization, while allowing to speaker to be reflective

__April 14__ 95. The Boarder by Lewis Simpson
 *  the poem is rich with imagery and descriptions that emphasize separation, isolation and division among different groups of people, objects, and settings
 *  the motif of the outside and the inside is also underlined and is associated with darkness and light; seems to represent the group or the community that is enjoying the benefits/welfare and the other one that is often neglected
 *  isolation of the outsider is further emphasized through the outsider’s only action (which is watching) and how he is different from the group of other people who are portrayed to be engaging in actual conversation

96. Shakespeare Sonnet III
 *  the speaker in the poem is encouraging “thou” to have children; the speaker seems to have a firm belief that having children will even remind the addressee of his past youth, which is being described as his “golden time”
 *  structural parallelism is employed throughout to underline and emphasize the speaker’s argument that the addressee should have children
 *  the thematic idea of perpetuating youth is interesting in that the speaker sees the goal can be obtained through having children, extending the family

97. Love like a Juggler Comes to Play His Prize by Lady Mary Wroth
 *  pessimistic, negative view at love and those in love, as shown through the description of comparing love as a “juggler” who operate cunningly and can easily deceive others especially those who are blinded by the feelings of affection
 *  desire and lust are associated with the “juggler” in the poem and the poet describes the personified love as someone constantly wishing others to watch him
 *  the speaker’s bitter feelings are underlined when he/she sees the juggler and notices that the juggler is simply “abusing” his skills, manipulating other’s “hearts” as he wants to

__April 22__ 98. And Yet I Cannot by Samuel Daniel
 *  the speaker seems to value the importance of trying and having the confidence to try out new challenges no matter what the outcome is (regardless of whether one achieves the success or not)
 *  the frank tone employed by the speaker is effective in clearly communicating his own belief in trying without fearing first
 *  even the goals are related with materialistic pursuits, the speaker addresses that the determination to put genuine efforts to achieve the goal; everyone needs to first “go out to the sea” first

99. The Flower That Smiles Today by Percy Bysshe Shelley
 *  the thematic idea that the entire poem is based on seems to be that almost all earthly matters/objects/lives are mortal and are associated with brevity
 *  even the positive aspects of life, such as virtue, friendship and even love are scorned by the speaker because of their short-lived natures
 *  the speaker proceeds to mourn for their fleeting nature in the last stanza, as the speaker notes that he “wake[s] to weep” for them

100. To One in Paradise by Edgar Allan Poe
 *  rich natural imagery, vivid descriptions of beautiful scenes are employed to illustrate the pleasant, happy times that the speaker enjoyed when he and his “love” were together; he becomes wistful and reflective as he discusses this memorable past which is no longer present
 *  the speaker seems to be hopeless, and his feeling of emptiness is also clearly conveyed through his depressed tone throughout the poem
 *  after his separation with his “love[r]”, he wishes to gain a new, positive, optimistic outlook on his future life; yet, he is left feeling empty once again, as he cannot stop thinking about his past love

__April 25__ 101. Always by Rane Arroyo
 *  wistful tone, longing the times that the two spent together, dreaming together of a better future, when they will be able to enjoy everything others did (i.e. wealth, vacation, etc.); although they did not have anything back then, since they were together, they could be hopeful about their future
 * the speaker now realizes how important his partner was to him, but, regrets that he cannot be together with her anymore
 * as he puts together his thoughts and writes them down in the poem he is forced to remember all the past moments he spent with her; his agony is reflected through his tone

102. Acts of Love by Pam Rehm
 * simplistic diction, does not try to use elaborate language to describe the simple concept concerning feelings of love, aims at directly and straightforwardly communicating the emotional bond that needs to exist
 * suggests that showing sincere love, care for someone comes from the feeling extremely close in heart to that person
 * the speaker also notes that it is important to realize, remember and appreciate the love that one receives from others in the last stanza upon giving the love back to the person

103. Don’t You Wonder, Sometimes? by Tracy K. Smith
 *  lengthy, paragraph-like stanza because of its length; the lines are written like lengthy sentences as well as if the poem is a prose; reads like a narrative with the speaker talking about all the wonders that she had about the world surrounding her
 *  the speaker seems to be inquisitive and imaginative as she is capable of finding all the little details that she wonders about, even though others would easily overlook them; provides interesting insights for the readers as the speaker forces them to reflect on the small wonders found around them
 *  seems to be advocating adventures and willingness to act upon curiosity (trying to find out the answers to questions)