January

Whitney || * In each stanza, the speaker seems to be giving little bits of useful advice or a comment on the human condition - other than that, the stanzas do not really have much connection to each other 16, 2012 || 29, 2012 || 29, 2012 || 29, 2012 || 29, 2012 ||
 * || Title || Author || Comments || Date ||
 * 71 || The Boom and After the Boom || Alice Lyons || * When I first read through this poem, I did not know what to make of it. There were quite a few instances where I was not sure at all what the speaker was talking about.
 * For example, in line five the speaker mentions "LIDL". When I looked up LIDL, a European supermarket chain was the main result. I did not think that fit very well into the context it was placed within the poem, so I'm still confused as to the meaning of LIDL.
 * From what I can understand, the speaker describes workers constructing a pier on a lake - I enjoyed the sensory imagery of the worker's hammers tapping in nails on the dock. || January 9, 2012 ||
 * 72 || To her Sister Mistress A.B. || Isabella Whitney || * The poem's speaker is female and through the poem is writing a letter to her sister, expressing that she is happy for her sister and the life she has made for herself - she is happily married and has children
 * The speaker also wishes her further happiness in life, and hopes to see her nephews grow into intelligent, upstanding young men
 * Though the speaker is happy for her sister and perhaps dreams of someday having a married life such as hers, she seems perfectly content remaining as a observer for now, not tending to a husband or children but rather to her writings || January 9, 2012 ||
 * 73 || A Sweet Nosegay, or Pleasant Poesy, Containing a Hundred and Ten Philosophical Flowers || Isabella
 * The title hints to the content of the poem - each stanza is like one of the "hundred and ten philosophical flowers"
 * I enjoy the ABCB rhyme scheme. It reminds me of old lesson-teaching nursery rhymes. || January 9, 2012 ||
 * 74 || Paris Latin Quarter || Femi Osofisan || * I really liked reading this poem - the short, couplet stanzas as well at the speaker's excitable voice made it very fast-paced and entertaining
 * The speaker is a black man living in Paris - he is fluent in French and during the poem is trying to enjoy a meal with his French, white lover, Marie-Anne
 * The poem addresses the series issue of racial discrimination against blacks, specifically the judgements that are often thrown toward interracial couples, but is quite humorous as well. I enjoyed the line “On the phallus of—pardon, the merits of Negritude!" || January 9, 2012 ||
 * 75 || The Way We Were Made || Marcus Wicker || * I would guess that the speaker is addressing some sort of all-powerful entity, as he or she is talking about the way "we" (people) are made
 * There is constant repetition of the word "but", as if the good qualities of humans the speaker lists in the poem make up for all the bad qualities we have
 * As I read through the poem, it started to seem as if the speaker is not addressing people in general, but just women. The qualities the speaker addresses seem really feminine, like a "delicate, elegant wrist" and a "glorious, singing thigh" || January 16, 2012 ||
 * 76 || The Park || Harry Clifton || * It seems as if the speaker is at a park, as the title suggests, describing the various scenes he or she sees
 * I thought it was interesting how the poem appears to be very much in order, with each of the ten stanzas is organized into three lines, but there are always enjambments that stretch lines across the stanzas, making the poem seem more jumbled and jumpy
 * I think the poem has some beautiful bits of imagery - you can easily imagine yourself at the park. My favorite one is "the human buddhas, legs infolded, reading". || January 16, 2012 ||
 * 77 || In The Station of the Metro || Dan Beachy-Quick (what an interesting last name) || * I thought that is was very distinctive how the poem contained absolutely no form of punctuation. As a result, the speakers voice does not seem to really pause; it just quickly continues on, as if the poem is a speedy train of thought
 * It is interesting how the title, containing the industrial image of a metro station, comes in stark contrast to the natural imagery in the first stanza of the poem. The speaker describes "one petal after another" and a "plum tree in blossom".
 * I like the repetition of words like "eyes" (lines 5 and 6), "dim" (line 30), "of" (line thirty). The repetition again gives the impression that the poem is a quick train of thought by the speaker as he or she waits within "the station of the metro" || January 16, 2012 ||
 * 78 || The White Room || Charles Simic || * I had to look up the word "Scheherazade" (line 11). Apparently Scheherazade was a legendary Persian queen who is the story teller of One Thousand and One Nights (better known as Arabian Nights). She apparently provides the introduction and set up for the stories
 * In the poem, the speaker appears to be outlining the the rather dark and frightening stories that he or she "heard" from trees at night, as if nature was talking
 * I find myself wondering who the "the woman / who always wore white" is - she appears to be sickly, since she "doesn't leave her room much" || January 16, 2012 ||
 * 79 || The Friends of Heraclitus || Charles Simicloo || * Before I even started reading this poem, I had to look up Heraclitus. He was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. He had a contempt for human nature and had a "riddling nature" to his philosophy, so he was thusly known as both the "Weeping Philosopher" and "The Obscure"
 * I like the ironic situation that the speaker presents in the first stanza. A person's friend has died, a friend with which that person always spoke about philosophy. After the death, the person chooses to speak about philosophy, specifically the differences between the world in our heads and the world in "reality", with the ironic delusion that the friend is still alive, talking with them.
 * I suppose that the speaker is comparing Heraclitus to the person in the poem. The person does not seem to show much grief at the death of their friend; they simply continue to live their philosophy-filled life, perhaps much like Heraclitus, a misanthropist, might have done if one of his friends died, if he has any in the first place || January
 * 80 || Passtime with Good Company || Henry VIII, King of England || * What first interested me bout this poem was that it was written by Henry VIII, the king of England notorious for creating the Anglican church and having six wives. Before I began reading, I wondered what he would possibly write a poem about - I was never aware that he wrote poetry.
 * I thought the rhyme scheme of the poem was interesting - in the first stanza it starts out as ABBA, but then in the second it changes to AABB and continues to the third stanza.
 * My favorite lines are "company with honesty / is virtue, and vice to flee". || January
 * 81 || A Lay of the Links || Arthur Conan Doyle || * The poem seems to be describing a day playing golf away from the workplace
 * The speaker portrays golf as a game for all to enjoy, as something that brings many different people together ("come youth and come age, from the study or stage / From Bar or from Bench - high and low!")
 * Golf is also portrayed as a source of happiness and a means of escape from the sorrows of reality, though it is only temporary ("if worry and sorrow come back with the morrow / at least we'll be happy to-day") || January
 * 82 || The Owl and the Pussy-Cat || Edward Lear || * This poem is really adorable. The speaker outlines the tale of a Owl and a Cat that sail out to sea together. They want to get married, so they seek out a ring and eventually find and buy one from a pig. Then they happily get married and dance by the light of the moon.
 * I like how each of the three stanzas end the same, with two pairs of repeated lines. It makes the poem seem like it popped out of a children's storybook. After all, I think this was a poem intended for children.
 * I love the image created of the boat sailing in the water under the starry sky as the owl sings and plays guitar. It's just too cute. || January
 * 83 || The Children of Stare || Walter De La Mare || * In this poem, the speaker tells of the ominous house of Stare and the children that inhabit it
 * I like the contrast between the dark, cold, and even scary architecture of the estate and the happy, playful children ("Their frolic bodies gentle as / flakes in the air that pass...Above them silence lours,/ still as an arctic sea")
 * I really enjoyed the imagery created by this simile: "like rabbits on the frozen snow / their tell-tale footprints go". || January
 * 84 || The Listeners || Walter De La Mare || * The poem's speaker tells the tale of a lone horseman knocking on the door of a lonely, empty castle, continually asking "Is anybody there?"
 * Despite the poems lack of action, I quite enjoyed reading it. The eerie imagery of the horseman's voice echoing through the castle was captivating all by itself.
 * There were some particular lines that struck my interest: "Louder, and lifted his head: / 'Tell them that I came, and no one answered / that I kept my word". I wonder who the horseman was keeping his word for - why would he have to go to an empty castle? || January 31, 2012 ||