Pam's+Poem+Portfolio

=Pam's Poem Portfolio = -wistful, longing -seems almost hallucinatory for narrator to mistake the shovel for his father, since it is suggested that his father is dead || -very ironic, from last line "all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts" we see some of the author's own bitterness at the pervasiveness of "white culture" in America || -orphans running away from foster care? -temporary losses because orphan children are only mourned for a while then they become just like any other adult, no longer orphaned children -beautiful comparisons of narrator's situation to those of other people who are feeling alienated and confused || -aggressive verbs a little too overzealous for strawberry picking used to create the murderous metaphor -adjectives/nouns used to refer to humans substituted for strawberries, personifying them to an even more horrifying effect || -captures the vitality of the child "flesh now, running on its nerve...dense with charm, its braided muscle" -ironic comparison because it seems as if the child is everything but a blank; he is not unnoticeable, insignificant, but rather his presence is quite enticing, the reader is drawn to him || -the mood at first is homey and inviting; the stove, the shelter of the house against the rain and the night -degrades into a somber atmosphere, the grandmother's tears and the child's "rigid house" drawing seem quite contrary to the at-first inviting atmosphere || -almost like a memorial of some kind; -dual nature of beauty/danger -fave line: "Last night aother big one fell. It splattered like an egg of fire against the cliff behind the house. The flame ran down." -the stanza at the end seems almost misplaced, but its distinction from the rest of the poem is made clear by italics, exclamation points, a change of register || -who's the queen of sunday -almost like a song, with a repeating chorus -religious imagery, rhetorical questions || -the imagery of the peaceful, quiet room juxtaposes the description of all the sounds outside -fits in well with Plato's idea of a "cave" where people can only see the shadows of reality -beautiful imagery, many adjectives, "shaking wagons, hooves' waterfalls" || -the mood is not romantic, rather somber, created by the imagery described i.e. a "carnivorous flower" is a metaphor for the bed the girl is sitting on -the girl asks "Are you a Jew" while seeing him naked for the first time, maybe prompted by his penis being circumcised? suggests she has more sexual experience than the boy, althought "she is younger than he" but has "old eyes" -the whole poem feels like it is two children who are not mature but somehow are being thrown into the adult world || -described like an animal (i guess anti-personification?_ -the tone is almost apathetic, unemotional so the act of the young boys harassing the hunchback seems even more horrendous || -reversal at the end -the whimsical mood is shattered very abruptly, reader almost feels cheated, deceived through the whole poem -the reader realizes its just a facade -"Dante's vision of the nether hell" || -the title indicates an obsession with the passing of time that the narraotr has -coming to terms with aging, "that's all, i'm old" although with a tone of bitterness || -blue could be the color of the "azure day" although its deeper meaning is the depression that the narrator is in because the blue day is actually making the narrator's "window bleaker" -crows could have associations with death, traditionally omens -lots of historical cultural references, confusing -the patients are labeled as potentially suicidal, so they are realy "walking in the blue" they have "locked razors" || -a rather morose, morbid, if realistic take on human existence -suggesting that humans belong back in the ground as part of the earth, dead and buried, one with the "trees...the snowfall" -our "incestuous" desire to die and become part of the earth again -"rages of happiness" encompasses the dualities of living but desiring death -exsitence itself is a duality || -lots of allusions, "birds have eaten the path home" hansel and gretel allusion suggests childhood, pointing out that the dead brother was very young when he died, still a child -lots of mention of family members "father's voice" "our mother's linen" "forgiven our sister", emphasizes the child-like dependency of the younger brother on family -causes the reader to think of the loneliness the dead brother must be feeling because of the absence of his family, the intense grief the family must have felt at the brother's passing || -addresses the idea of "a hundred years should go to praise thy eyes" if only they had "world enough and time" -feels like that they should embrace life as it is so short and not take their time in the relationship, make the most of it, live in the moment -uses time spent in praise, adoration of his lover as a measure of his dedication -very vivid similes, allusions used to express his love/passion; "like amorous birds of prey,/ rather at once our time devour/ than languish in his slow-chapt power" "I would/love you ten years before the Flood/ And you should, if you please, refuse/ till the conversion of the Jews" || -extended metaphor to describe the stages of separation as the development of a child "regret is the elementary school/ endurance is the graduation"; interesting because this could correspond to the development of their own actual child rather than the divorce they gave "birth" to -small details about their lives hint at long-standing issues they both had during the marriage, contributing to the larger conflict; "him to buy his very own toaster oven/ her seeking a prescription for sleeping pills" || -sensory language briefly illuminates one image then moves on to the next quickly, evoking a sense of vertigo, or cars rushing by as if on a highway, the rhythm contributes to the mood -"interstate" because the emotions in this poem span so much time -the breadth of the husband's and wife's love for their daughter is as great as the "interstate" || -seems like a meditation on her daughter growing up, likens the four months Persephone spends in hell each year because she ate four pomegranate seeds to the inevitability of her daughter growing up the narrator "will say nothing" as her daughter raises the pomgranate "to her lips" -the narrator's favorite part "of the legend is that I can enter it anywhere" -first likens herself to Persephone and then her daughter || Quite a diverse collection of poetry. Thoughtful commentary. || -metaphor of love poem to a person in love -"once it drank beer for breakfast" referring to the reckless, spontaneous life of young people -and then as time went by "it is time to consider a cat, the cultivation of African violets or a flowering cactus", referring to activities enjoyed by older generation -mood of longing for the past conveyed by repeated structure of "once..." -"when it finds itself disquieted by the pure and unfamiliar silence of its new life" -feeling, emotions of restlessness, dissatisfaction with the present -"it will touch them...with a single finger outstretched like a tiny flame" the lingering touch with a single finger, and the simile of flame, fire, relates to youthful passion and conveys a wistful longing for the past || -a dystopian view of humanity -"what drugs control the animals" talking about the rigidness, uniformity of society -narrator laments how he "cannot sing with the other animals", a disconnect from other people, a loner || -although first talking about divorce ironically conveys a feeling of togetherness by naming all the relatives and referring to "everyone" -divorce is what all the people have in common, what ties them together -metaphor of a small child and history "no your history doesn't smell sweet like a toddler's head" -children encompass our shared experience, ensure that it lives on in the next generation || -was he gone at war? "I keep no rank nor station" -"the time I put away was child's play" seems to be occupied with thoughts of his child during his time away -no mention of the actual house he returns to, only his daughter, who is home to him || -"it is always a matter, my darling, of life or death" could refer to the importance of bringing passion and perseverance to everything in life -the "commotion of typewriter keys" "at it again with a bunched clamor of strokes" signify the intensity with which the narrator's daughter is writing || -the girl portrayed in this poem has lost her path in life, doesn't answer mother's question "But are you happy?" -the girl only manages to discuss superficial topics rather than intangible concepts like happiness, avidly talks business and food || -narrator is contemplating on inspiration for writing -he proclaims his deeply ingrained passion for writing "writing becomes visible inside me words in invisble ink which appear when the paper is held to the fire!" -exclamation, the metaphor of ahving the words literally inside him, the mention of fire all depict his passion for writing -"it is a switch for the whole country" talking about a stone he finds while out in nature looking for inspiration he feels the city does not have in abundance -meditating on the power of literature, of expression through words || -through the unforgiving, unpretentious voice of a dog, the narrator portrays the absurdity of the busy metropolitan life of San Fracisco -the dog merely passes by and makes note of the people, objects, he's only concerned with what will affect him directly "Congressman Doyle is just another fire hydrant" -a stream of consciousness narrative, portrays the dog as perceptive, but lack of focus, only when he thinks about food does he pay attention to one thing -the dog seems to be a metaphor for the state of American democracy, freedom, he thinks he is "a real live barking democratic dog engaged in real free enterprise" yet he is actually just someone's pet, or a stray on the edges of society -the last 15 lines of the poem deteriorate into a jumble of words, in the middle of the page and with atypical indents -might be symbolizing a deterioration, incoherence of real freedom || -the mood of the piece is very depressing in its realism, no flowery portrayal of the world around the narrator -the setting at night also lends itself to a bleakness, depression -the passing of time is mentioned in a painstaking, agonizing tone, "the **old** clock ticks", "time sits solid" (even the clock is old seems weary) making the narrator seem even more exasperated at life; he seems repulsed by the idea of immortality, living this life forever -"Calcutta in Eternity-sweating and rotted away" the narrator sees nothing of aging and immortality but decay -uses the homeless men on the street and drug users as examples of the suffering that comes with life -"Leave Immortality for another to suffer like a fool, not get stuck in the corner of the universe sticking morphine in the arm || -the poppies' beauty is described at length by the narrator using various unexpected similes, metaphors -"even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts. Nor the woman in the ambulance whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly" -poppies are red but the narrator says they "cry open in a forest of frost, in dawn of cornflowers" -the contrast of the white frost and the jarringly blue cornflowers, suggest the idea of not fitting in, being out of place -in October, they are considered late bloomers -extend the metaphor to a larger context possibly? || -the narrator is angry about the Americans taking over the land she sees as belonging to her ancestors -the pure emotions of anguish and sorrow are well portrayed, the poignant imagery and metaphors -"the high scaffolding [of the freeway] cuts a clean cesarean across belly valleys and fertile dust" -"la sangre fertil" or the fertile blood -"Is it true that you still live here in the shadows of these white, high-class houses?" -each stanza ends with Spanish, showing the narrator's connection with her roots here || -the parallel experience between Chinese women and their Americanized descendants -lots of connections between the two worlds with descriptions of American descendant using traditionally Chinese imagery -"Rising with a tide of locusts, she swarmed with others to inundate another shore" || -the vitality of the mood seems to contribute to the whole theme of finding some meaning, valuing life -the negative concept of vanity drives the narrator to anorexia so that "the less I ate, the less there was of me to love" -the narrator views not sleeping or eating as a way of life, a way to "devour radiance" -eventually leads to the narrator's death " a way of shining out of this world" || -"already woles come down from the hills to forage among us" -nothing is timeless, appearances are temporary -the narrator seems to speak from a lack of hope, feeling as if nothing matters as it is all ruined by the passage of time -much interplay between manmade civilization/nature and surroundings, conflict between the two || -her speech in caps is quite charged, impassioned, tense -demonstrated her sole focus on the color of her potential renter's skin -throughout, the narrator is calling the landlady "madam" while she bluntly asks him if he is a "LIGHT OR VERY DARK" African -alliteration used, makes the tone softer when it seems the landlady might tolerate an African renter until the landlady's harsh blunt speech returns to continue questioning the renter || -thinking philosophically about the constructs of society, the idea of the "American dream" and finding it in a metropolis like New York "the rancid nourishment of this mountainous island they are coming and we holy ones must go" -metaphors of religion "supper-club conversation for the mill of the gods" || -the narrator's loneliness pervades everything the narrator talks about -is it the narrator melancholy over his own bachelorhood? or the fact that he thinks his father's marriage is a mistake? -solitude, lack of communication between the father and son their "house he turned into a forest, where both he and I are the hunters", analogy lends itself to creating image of solitude, loneliness || -mysterious, tone of the poem is questioning -giving up their freedom to God? the tableau vivant depicted is a portrayal of slavery, not giving up freedom in the literal slave way but these women have nothing to do but stay in the "darkened and airless" room with a "faint hum of trapped flies" -the first part of the poem is very luxurious, sensual description -segues into depression and staleness, stagnant scene where the women are literally doing nothing but lazing around in "hot indolence and languorous vassalage" while they may be doing something, constructing a //tableau vivant// their activity consists of doing nothing, staying still in one moment of time || -the narrator's family is his motivation, what he thinks of when work is difficult -"by the end of the first row [of cotton plants] you can buy one splendid fish for your wife and three sons" -title's interesting contrast to the whiteness of cotton plants || -the title "a story" as if the story of human life had already ended -"a family was here" past tense -images of decay, wearing down, deterioration -"the sink gone yellow around the drain" "the path worn into the linoleum where the wood...shows through" || -"the silence deep and white" brought on by the snow, the mood is very solemn -beautiful imagery "Every pine and ever fur, wore ermine too dear for an earl" -the title could mean the first snowfall since his daughter died? -even more depressing because the father kisses his living daughter in trying to send his love to the deceased daughter "then with eyes that saw not, I kissed her; and she, kissing back, could not know that my kiss was given to her sister" || -the solstice is associated with memories for the narrator -the boat journey she embarks on is part of the adventure she seems to associate with summer -"sex in the dunes with someone i would never see or taste again" || -the bus journey is the congregation of people of all walks of life, all with the small bit of hope of going somwhere better -describes the disgusting conditions of the bus "an outhouse on wheels", but still holds on to the hope of leaving somewhere and arriving somewhere different, same thing everyone else riding the bus hopes for as well || -colors not very extraordinary, the colors of quiet insignificant existence -the poem itself is titled for scavengers -"orange cork" a "cup of sour cream" in the garbage dump || // A diverse collection with good focus on specific text. // || -alliteration "sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence" -allows more emphasis and intensity of imagery -"but nothing happens" is a repeated line, the paradox is striking because a lot IS happening in the poem, but it's also not because the actions are futile || -surreal, jumps from one description to the next "clouds rupturing that purple slag of lightning" || -embattled back and forth, conflicting perspectives -leaves us questioning is the narrator being self-deprecating or vain? unreliable because making judgements of self? || -language is flowery -encouraging spontaneity -imploring tone towards the reader, "oh come be my love in the rain" || -her hair swept up in his favorite onyx comb: use of word swept evokes the imagery of the hurricane sweeping things away -personification: "the river cannot remember its flooding" -the poem's layout and spacing reflect a windswept, hurricane-ness -the language whisks you from one line to another briskly || -language is decadent, indulgent in all the experiences -yet all tied down to the concept of death -animal motif throughout, how everything one does is connected to nature? the natural cycle of things || -the poem seems quite grim, hopeless, setting is winter, bleak -ends with "him" reminiscing about how he used to look at "a world of possibilities" ||
 * || Title || Comments ||
 * 1 || "Eating Alone" by Li-Young Lee || -favorite line: "...a rotten pear. In it, a hornet spun crazily, glazed in slow, glistening juice."
 * 2 || "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel" by Sherman Alexie || -the structure is very interesting, long lines, almost prose
 * 3 || "Temporary Losses" by Dioniso D. Martinez || -narrator has a strong sense of not belonging, i.e. "phantom limb" and "foreign currency"
 * 4 || "Strawberrying" by May Swenson || -very disturbing not only because of the extended metaphor of strawberry picking and murder but that the "murderers" are children, poet even uses the metaphor to suggest rape, cannibalism; to the point where the reader never wants to eat strawberries again
 * 5 || "A Blank" by Thom Gunn || -talks about his gay lover and the child he has chosen to adopt
 * 6 || "Sestina" by Elizabeth Bishop || -focuses on setting and time
 * 7 || "The Armadillo" by Elizabeth Bishop || -sounds really beautiful
 * 8 || "Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday" by Robert Hayden || -have no idea what it's talking about
 * 9 || "In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave" by Delmore Schwartz || -all the commotion of construction and traffic outside seems muted and surreal to the reader as the poet describes the "motionless" air inside the room and the "lightened" ceiling
 * 10 || "The First Time" by Karl Shapiro || -describing a boy losing his virginity, very unsure, not passionate but going through the motions, a procedure "love hysterically burn away"
 * 11 || "The Hunchback in the Park" by Dylan Thomas || -"propped" sounds like he is an object or so disabled he cannot stand up himself, highlights his disability and separation from society, just inanimate THING watching the goings-on at the park
 * 12 || "Photos of a Salt Mine" by P.K. Page || -fantastical, fairy tale-like "how innocent their lives look, how like a child's", "Aladdin's cave"
 * 13 || "Next Day" by Randall Jarrell || -an aging woman wants to be desirable
 * 14 || "Walking in the Blue" by Robert Lowell || -the title indicates a dual meaning
 * 15 || "Dying Away" by William Meredith || -talks about the natural course of life being dying
 * 16 || "Black Petal" by Li-Young Lee || -eerie, haunting, speaks as if his brother is still there, always on his mind
 * 17 || "Shirt" by Robert Pinsky || -goes into such detail about the process of making a shirt, opens reader's eyes to the unsavory side of clothes industry ||
 * 18 || "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell || -narrator wants to embrace passion in the relationship with his "coy" lover
 * 19 || "In Praise of their Divorce" by Tony Hoagland || -rather uplifting view on the somber subject of divorce
 * 20 || "Interstate Highway" by James Applewhite || "the room light where we made love still cubes us in amber" best line
 * 21 || "The Pomegranate" by Eavan Bolund || -the allusion/extended metaphor of her daughter to Persephone from the greek myths
 * ||  || Checked 18 September 20/15-25 KBoyce
 * 22 || "This Was Once a Love Poem" by Jane Hirshfield || -a meditation on aging and replacing youthful love
 * 23 || "Dear Lonely Animal," by Oni Buchanan || -not sure if this is comparing humans to animals or animals to humans
 * 24 || "Family Reunion" by Jeredith Merrin || -emphasizing the importance of family
 * 25 || "Home After Three Months Away" by Robert Lowell || - the thing the narrator misses most about his home is his child
 * 26 || "The Writer" by Richard Wilbur || -the starling could be a metaphor for the narrator's daughter, after trying so many times, finally makes it out into the world
 * 27 || "The Bistro Styx" by Rita Dove || -"The Bistro Styx" referring to the river that runs through the underworld of Greek mythology
 * 28 || "Further In" by Tomas Transtromer || -fave line "the traffic thickens, crawls/It is a sluggish dragon glittering/ I am one of the dragon's scales"
 * 29 || "Dog" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti || -"the dog trots freely in the street and sees reality"
 * 30 || "Last Night in Calcutta" by Allen Ginsberg || -the struggle, the bleakness of life are ideas in this poem that stand out
 * 31 || "Poppies in October" by Sylvia Plath || -"a gift, a love gift utterly unasked for by a sky"
 * 32 || "Poema para los Californios Muertos" by Lorna Dee Cervantes || -a dedication "once a refuge for Mexican Californios...-plaque outside a restaurant in Los Altos, California 1974" (whoa its my hometown)
 * 33 || "Lost Sister by Cathy Song || -"like her, you have left no footprints, but only because there is an ocean in between, the unremitting space of your rebellion"
 * 34 || "Sunworshippers" by Cathy Song || -the title "sunworshippers" rather than "sunbathers" making the act of lying in the sun less passive, more the action of revering the sun
 * 35 || "Ruin and Beauty" by Patricia Young || -reminiscient, reflective mood
 * 36 || "Telephone Conversation" by Wole Soyinka || -racist landlady
 * 37 || "Rhapsody" by Frank O'Hara || -the run-on structure evokes the hustle and bustle of New York
 * 38 || "My Father's Wedding" by Robert Bly || -narrator's tone is quite stark, depressing
 * 39 || "The Deodand" by Anthony Hecht || --deodand means "a thing forfeited or to be given to God", so similar to an offering
 * 40 || "A Red Palm" by Gary Soto || -though the story is about hard work and menial labor, the narrator seems to be content
 * 41 || "A Story" by Phillip Levine || -apocalyptic atmosphere, created by lines wondering about world without people
 * 42 || "The First Snowfall" by James Russell Lowell || -the snowfall brings back memories of the narrator's deceased daughter
 * 43 || "The Solstice" by Ellen Dudley || -"apple blossoms strewn like snowflakes on the ground"
 * 44 || "Go Greyhound" by Eric Hicok || -"hope's a smaller thing on a bus"
 * 45 || "Skunk Hour" by Robert Lowell || -"I myself am hell" the narrator is conflicted about "Love, oh careless love"
 * 46 || "Woodchucks" Maxine Cumin || // Checked 21 November 46/42-70 //
 * 47 || "Exposure" by Wilfred Own || -many ellipses add to the idea of confusion in this poem
 * 48 || "The Wheel Revolves" by Kenneth Rexroth || -juxtaposition "girl of satin and gauze/ no you are my mountain and waterfall companion" ||
 * 49 || //Demon and the Dove// by Miguel Murphy || -supernatural imagery of Demon
 * 50 || //All Those Attempts in the Changing Room!// by Anne Stevenson || -vanity of the narrator contrasted with harsh adjectives referring to him/herself
 * 51 || //A Line-Storm Song// by Robert Frost || -natural imagery whimsical
 * 52 || //History of Hurricanes// by Teresa Cader || -crisp imagery, much alliteration used to highlight the vivid scene of content, peaceful life before the hurricane strikes
 * 53 || //An Octave Above Thunder// by Carol Muske-Dukes || -sounds evoke emotion-interesting dual narration between whimsical italicized voice and more urgent, in the present nonitalics voice ||
 * 54 || //Great Sleeps I Have Known// by Robin Becker || -sounds like many lifetimes, spanning many places, all a dream?
 * 55 || //A Winter Without Snow// by J.D. McClatchy || -"we've come to prefer the raw material of everyday"

-many rhetorical questions -lilting rhythm || // Falconress // by Robert Duncan || -metaphor of falcon and handler to child and mother -the imagery,lots of references to the mother's body "tread on her wrist" "bring down the skylark...to her feet" "wounds I left her had surely healed" -a comparison to the mother putting her whole being into caring for her child? -lots of touch, contact between the mother and the child, representing the close emotional relationship the two have as well || -juxtaposed with the bland, non-spontaneity and muted quality of artificial occurrences such as -“pixillated school girl. Sad subways” “contemplating a career in math” quite unenthusiastic tone towards these man-made phenomena -“a common bird” described in contrast to the “obscene grandeur and obscene decadency” of the peacock, as if normal life is quite monotonous || -this line closes the narrator's speech about many occurrences in life, the cyclical nature of the speech is portrayed -very little punctuation, the enjambment contributes to the rhythm of the piece, constant movement onwards to the next lines || Hull || -motifs of colors, the mood of different stanzas can be portrayed differently based on the colors used -"God I was innocent then, clean as a beast in the streets" the irony of the simile really emphasizes how depraved the world the narrator paints really is, if a beast in the streets is clean, what is considered dirty? -the jacket appears throughout, the only constant in the inconstancy of the cruel world the narrator describes || Blumenthal || -addressing reader directly -“the I-chew-with-my-mouth-open look of the one who will love you forever” the person the poem addressed is tired of pretention and facades || -“he [happiness] find you asleep midafternoon as you so often are in the unmerciful hours of your despair” illustrates the unexpectedness of finding happiness - “It even comes to the boulder in the perpetual shade of pine barrens, to rain falling on the open sea, to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.” -the beautiful natural imagery of inanimate objects’ happiness makes the reader question the true nature of imagery, is it really the human emotion we believe it is, does it have different forms? || //Inflatable// //Landscape// by Christian Hawkey || -a dreamy, whimsical mood -“One moon rose. A second moon rose on the windshield of a car and he thanked them both.” -an altered reality, almost as if under the influence or in a very fantastical dream -a very vivid slew of events occurrs - setting is dynamic, unfixed -time is also unfixed, no concrete passage of time || //Dancing// by Margaret Atwood || -title references the allure of helen of troy in comparison to being an adult entertainer, ironic -“Speaking of which, it's the smiling tires me out the most.” To the narrator, her job really is an act, a show -the narrator portrays herself as ethereal, transcending mankind, separated from her audience || by Margaret Atwood || -does a place itself retain the memories even when the house that was there is gone? -there is something lingering about memory-morning itself symbolizes a new period of time, a new day despite the destruction of the burned house-"thin green shorts and grubby yellow t-shirt" bright colors contrast to the destruction, the dead body || -long lists of adjectives used to describe the woman -much emphasis on "I" first person, what the narrator himself feels -lots of metaphors for semen, creating new life || -this line highlights the idea of a middle ground between two things, day and night, living and existing -the title itself is an "evening" walk a time between day and night, a time of transition between summer and the school year -Carl seems to be empty though he exists, is he really living or going through the motions || -the narrator is personifying the fruit, giving it life -memories and emotions connected to the taste of the fruit || -"day of fire dreadful day/ day for which all sufferers pray / grant me patience with they plenty / grant me vengeance with they sword" -lots of alliteration and rhyming to stress certain phrases, add to the gravity of the piece || -the wood-shop tools and materials are personified, described as "humpbacked", having "knotted hurts", and "breathing air" || -"then all the nations of birds lifted together the huge net of the shadows of this earth in multitudinous dialects" -"the shadow..." begins many lines -juxtaposition of the noise of birds talking in tongues and the "net rising soundless as night" -many contradictions, narrator seems to say that peace is temporary "lasted one moment" -in reference to the title, the peace could just be illusory, an apparition || -the narrator "couldn't get there fast enough" "close to the top" "normally you couldn't touch" -making love with a mathematics student, feeling conflicted that his/her lover's true passion is for math, out of reach -many references to difficulty, roughness, wear and tear -"tints were bleached-out by the sun" their love making is a "contest...to end up not in winning and defeat" -"nailed to a strip of lath that had half-broken through" || -the shape of the stanzas themselves are scattered, disorganized like the stars in the planetarium -superlatives used, portraying to the reader the breathtaking miracle of astronomy and the phenomenon it is a metaphor for, a woman || -a poem about discovery -lots of attention paid to time -the long flowing sentence lends itself to the portrayal of a lengthy natural history buried in the Yukon || -ALLITERATION -contrast between long, flowing descriptions of father's posessions and short, imperative statments -the narrator is set in her intentions, seems to lack emotional response to father's death -she tells not of her connection to her father but his life in terms of historical events || -seems more like a conversation, reminiscences to share with the reader -lots of mention of youth in terms of it disappearing gradually, forming "degrees of gray" -negative emotions throughout -colors used are not gray though, "the money...is silver" and "the [girl's] red hair" || -many direct statements || -the pronoun they is ambiguous are these animals humans or just any animals? -very active verbs rather than passive -alliteration highlights powerful phrases "under their feet forever" "feel no fear" "stalk more silently" -is the tree in the poem a reference to the tree of knowledge in the garden of eden? || -pessimistic view of the future -symbols of the changing society: "bleak high-risers", "M1 cafe" -in reference to the title, it's not yet gone though the narrator is speaking of it as if it will be || -ironically against romanticism? the poem itself is quite romanticized -allusions to the Bible -abstract imagery, senses become jumbled and intersect || -the foxes and horses all seem to be frolicking and happy, carefree -"the moon that is always rising" -nature seems to be the place where youth and happiness is untouched -the fanciful, playful mood of the poem changes with the sobering last lines -"wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land. Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means, Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea" || -a fearful, eerie mood is created by animal, natural imagery -comparisons to the narrator's mother made throughout, which woman is the title referring to? -the mysticism of the woman's actions and silence, the spell of mystery is broken by the mundane -when the narrator notices that she has "hair around her left nipple, like a man. Her clothes were old" -the silence keeps the mystery; when the woman speaks it is anticlimatic prophesy "//The future will make you tall"// || That was so bright against The gray of December That, from some distance Someone might have thought I was making a fire in my hands." -lots of colorful imagery -contrasts to the setting of December, typically bleak and cold -the warmth of the narrator's emotions is also in contrast to the setting || -represents the helpless inability of the comatose woman to speak -the direct accusation of the unconscious woman is threatening || -"feathers of the vain, sleek ermine and jewels of bright ambition" -some people have different identities than what they appear to have -"your small boy has become a fine man" whereas the queen is described as not regal and pitiful || -not only the Jamaican remedies seem to help the narrator with her illness but the song itself -the "tumbling cadences, ululations, in time with the swift sopping motion of her hands" -the peaceful serene mood of the piece when Miss Mirry is caring for Nana contrasts to the earlier angrier mood -"furious fanning of her shift tail, a series of hawks at the back of her throat" "the articulated neck of our Sunday dinner sacrificial fowl" || -brings to mind mortality, temporary nature of things (such as the narrator's marriage) -futility : "Because there's everything and nothing to be said" -"In the fridge, a heart-shaped jelly strives to keep a sense of balance" -the domestic imagery recalls the narrator's marriage, despite the unromantic nature of the objects detailed || -"does lip touch on lip a memento mori?" -"Each day's obits read as if there's a war on" -the narrator is musing on the mortality of humanity -warrior woman is what she refers to herself and other women as, referring to life itself as a battle to survive || -"my hands still feel their splinters" -the emotion she feels seems almost tangible in and of itself -her emotion is personified, "my joy...pulled me to my feet to tell you how much I loved you" -the ambiguity between the friend's living son and dead son speak to the narrator's dream-like state of reminiscence, only feeling for the emotion produced by her memories, unencumbered by the details of the present || -the piece echoes the sentiments of a man who has lived a hard life -the weary tone and depressed mood of the poem reflects this -enjambment of the line "Then bright grass rose between the thousands of cracked squares, / and that grass died" -emphasizes the eventual deterioration of everything || -"readying for being turned over and over as gravely and gradually as an intellect engaged in the hazardous redefinition of structures no one has yet looked at" -the rhythm of certain lines mimics the rolling motion of the waves, turning beach glass over and over || -lots of exclamations -the narrator's tone is actually quite upbeat, the exclamations add to this tone -is the narrator speaking praises to the strength and hardships of the Jamaican woman as a woman or from the man's POV? -two factions man vs. woman?? ||
 * 56 || // Even the Rain // by Agha Shahid Ali || -musing on the common motif through the narrator's life "the rain"
 * 57 || // My Mother Would be a //
 * 58 || // A Peacock in Spring // by Joyelle McSweeney || -motif of green, traditional color of spring, new life
 * 59 || //After the Grand Perhaps// by Lucie Brock-Broido || -"Which leads me back to the land, the old wolves which used to roam on it, the one light left on the small far hill where someone must be living still."
 * 60 || // Red Velvet Jacket // by Lynda
 * 61 || //Manners// by Michael
 * 62 || //Happiness// by Jane Kenyon || -the poem personifies happiness, describing it as being dynamic, in motion
 * 63 || //Slow Waltz Through//
 * 64 || //Helen of Troy Does Countertop//
 * 65 || //Morning in the Burned House//
 * 66 || // A Woman Waits for Me // by Walt Whitman || -proclamation of love, consisting of what the woman means in the context of the narrator's life, not just her own
 * 67 || //Evening Walk As the School Year Starts// || -"daytime's creatures crawl to cover, and night ones, having no choice, confront the night"
 * 68 || // Apples // by Grace Schulman || -beautiful imagery, "jaunty as Cezanne's still-life reds and yellows"
 * 69 || //Irae// by Kamau Brathwaite || -no capitalized words, enjambment, unassuming yet statements made are quite powerful
 * 70 || //Ogun// by Kamau Brathwaite || -sound used extensively, conveys the bustling noise of the wood-shop
 * 71 || //The Season of Phantasmal Peace// by Derek Walcott || -birds personified or a metaphor for people?
 * 72 || //The Problem// by Thom Gunn || - getting close to an answer to a problem but it's just out of reach, incomplete solution
 * 73 || //Planetarium// by Adrienne Rich || -reversal, interchanging woman and monster
 * 74 || //Foundlings in the Yukon// by A.K. Ramanujan || -"ten thousand years after their time they took root within forty-eight hours"
 * 75 || //All My Pretty Ones// by Anne Sexton || -lots of attention paid to time
 * 76 || //Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg// by Richard Hugo || -addressed to the reader, free verse
 * 77 || //The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir// by Richard Hugo || -the title has quite contrasting imagery, a lady and a kicking horse seem at odds with each other
 * 78 || //The Heaven of Animals// by James Dickey || -narrator seems wise, speaking in short statements
 * 79 || //Going, Going// by Philip Larkin || -musing, questioning tone of narrator
 * 80 || //Against Romanticism// by Kingsley Amis || -"and verbal scents made real spellbind the nose"
 * 81 || //Fern Hill// by Dylan Thomas || -animals are a symbol of innocence? "my wishes raced through the house high hay"
 * 82 || //Madre Sofia// by Alberto Rios || -details a visit to a fortune teller
 * 83 || //Oranges// by Gary Soto || -"I peeled my orange
 * 84 || //Sleeping Beauty// by Ai || -"language is silence, language is thirst that is not slaked"
 * 85 || //Bam Chi Chi Lala// by Lorna Goodison || -intricate language, tangible objects described as being constructed from intangible ideas
 * 86 || //Turn Thanks to Miss Mirry// by Lorna Goodison || -the movement and motion of the water contributes to Miss Mirry's soothing presence
 * 87 || //The Onion, Memory// by Craig Raine || -morbid metaphor of bread to "pasty babies"
 * 88 || //Year's End by Marilyn Hacker// || -complexity of human relationships
 * 89 || //A Time Past// by Denise Levertov || -a very vivid memory painted by the narrator with sensory images that she recalls
 * 90 || //You Can Have It// by Philip Levine || -"I think now we were never twenty"
 * 91 || //Beach Glass// by Amy Clampitt || -beach glass is a metaphor for undiscovered treasures
 * 92 || //Jamaica Oman// by Louise Bennett || -the colloquial diction of the narrator is specific to Jamaica
 * 93 ||  ||   ||