Evan

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 * 1. "A Poison Tree" by William Blake-** A tale of how how fostering hate can kill. A fairly standard poem in that it has four quatrains, but atypical in that each line has seven syllables giving the verse a strange rhythm. The message is dark in that Blake is happy to defeat his "foe" through hate. Each line in the first stanza begins with "I" and the presence of the first-person possessive "my" is prevalent. I feel like this emphasizes a personal responsibility on the speaker's part for their feelings and that Blake is satirizing the human irresponsibility to resolve conflicts peacefully.

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 * 2. "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron-** Byron depicts the beauty of a woman who "walks in beauty, like the night" (1). The image evokes a sense of mystery and allure to Byron's subject although the common explanation is that she is in mourning. Using light/darkness imagery, Byron emphasizes the suttlety of beauty. While night contains "cloudless climes and starry skies;" (2), he describes the day as "gaudy (tasteless)".

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 * 3. "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost-** In general, I find Frost's iambic tetrameter extremely readable and catchy. He breaks meter twice, once to reemphasize the dichotomy between fire and ice and again to bring attention to his implication that the end of the world would be "great\ And would suffice." (8-9). I also noticed the poem can be divided into two stanzas, one more focused on fire and the other on ice, further opposing the two images. While the poem, quite irregularly has nine lines and three rhymes (-ire, -ice, -ate) the changes are only minor modifications to a more conventional two quatrain poem and spills off the tongue when read.

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 * 4. "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost-** This piece describes a man at a fork in the road, a metaphor for decision in life, and recounts how he made his choice. The structure is strange, adding an extra line and extra syllable per line to Frost's characteristic iambic tetrameter quatrains. Seeming unlikely any decision has but two choices, I think this odd structure suggests that there is //more://that the road "less traveled by" (19) would be one not traveled at all, one that would not even appear a road. While people generally regard 'taking the road less travelled' as positive, Frost's message is laden with regret, not being able to go back, despite trying to keep "the first [path] for another day!" (13) I've always felt that even if I've makes the right decision, the possibilities of 'the road not taken' are haunting.

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 * 5. "Who Ever Loved That Loved Not at First Sight" by Christopher Marlowe-** The poem almost seems like an unfinished sonnet, with only one quatrain and a sestet (which can be divided into another quatrain and an ending couplet), although the rhyme scheme doesn't mark it as either a Petrachan or Shakespearian sonnet ([|from the man who some say used Shakespeare as an alternate pen-name]). Although the message feels somewhat underdeveloped as a result, his metaphor comparing the beauty of two lovers to "two gold ingots...\What we behold is censured by our eyes" (6) reminds me of the saying 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. Most of his lines contain two phrases emphasizing the duality, two halves of a whole, of two lovers.

Found in July 25th issue of the New Yorker, can be viewed here: []
 * 6. "A Black History of the English-Speaking Peoples" by Daljit Nagra-** I fear this Londoncentric poem (with references to Shakespeare, Q. Elizabeth, Lawrence of Arabia, may have sailed over my head to some extent, although many of its references were relevant enough to American history or literature to understand the basic gist of the allusion's meaning. Written by an English poet of Punjabi descent, he initially mocks the Imperialistic aims of "the visions of Albion led to a Rule Britannia" (10) [Albion and Britannia both being archaic terms for the British Isles], citing "each necessary murder" (16). This tone is representative of the reversal found in the title, where we are more accustomed to seeing 'An English/American History of the Foreigners'. A major theme I found was the rift for British of various descents between their ancestral heritage, and the heritage of their home especially when Nagra admits "it's easy aligning myself with a "turncoat"" (52). As a mixed-race 'Third-Culture kid' I feel I myself am familiar with conflicting cultures and histories, especially considering US policies in the Philippines which bordered on modern Imperialism throughout the 20th Century.

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 * 7. "A Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe-** In this piece Poe compares the ecstasy of dreams to the relative torment of the real world, largely through a juxtaposition between imagery of night and day for the respective phases: "(in) dark night\ I have dreamed of joy departed" (1-2) juxtaposed to a "waking dream of life and light\ Hath left me broken-hearted" (3-4). The speaker describes his dreams in reverence, portraying a "holy dream--that holy dream". (9) The line is repeated for emphasis. It's interesting here in that the dreams the speaker is consumed with are those of "the past" (8) not the future. Although this reminiscence is typical of Poe's writing, I've always personally associated dreams with what is possible, while what the speaker describes are memories.

The next was a curiosity to see how this ties into Poe's poem, "A Dream" (see above). The significance of the speaker's assertion that "//All// that we see or seem\ Is but a dream within a dream." (10-11) is not that nothing is real, but that what we experience, whether in a dream or in reality, having //experienced// it makes the two equally real. Poe also reprises the role of day and night as reality and dreams respectively in the repetition of "In the night, or in the day,\ In a vision, or in none" (7-8) However, at the end of the piece the speaker is suddenly uncertain (just like the ending of...well, you know), as opposed to his previous assertion, repeating, but now as a question "Is all that we see or seem\ But a dream within a dream?" This question now acknowledges the possibility that it is not dreams that are as real as reality, but perhaps it is reality which is as make believe as dreams. However, although this poem ends with uncertainty, I know one thing for sure, Edgar Allan Poe co-wrote Inception. Note: I actually had no knowledge of the Inception connection when I picked this poem...and now my head hurts. []
 * 8. "A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe-** The first thing that came to my mind was...INCEPTION! (BWAU.......BWAU.......oh, Hans Zimmer). If Poe's image of a man "amid the roar\ of a surf tormented shore,\ (holding) Grains of the golden sand--" (12-14) did not serve as the inspiration for the opening scene of Inception...my head will explode. Also, the speaker cries "while I weep!\ O God! Can I not grasp\ Them with a tighter clasp?" while in Inception Leonardo DiCaprio cries "O God!" while weeping not because he can't stop sand from falling but because *SPOILER ALERT*: he can't stop Mal from falling. (Text to left is white, highlight to view) MIND. BLOWN.

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 * 9. “Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike-** Updike tells the story of a washed-up high school basketball star named Flick Webb who is now resigned to manning gas pumps and playing pinball. The speaker uses a road as a metaphor for Flick’s life “Pearl Avenue runs past the high-school lot,\[...]and stops, cut off\ Before it has a chance to go two blocks”(1-3). Webb’s journey as a basketball player began in high school but he never made it to the next level despite his acumen; he was ‘cut off’ so to speak, and now works at the Esso gas station where that road, his dream, ended ‘before it had a chance to go further’, probably in part because “He never learned a trade” (19). Still, Updike’s imagery, and the contextualization of it with basketball vocabulary gives a sense that Flick //is// a basketball player, not a gas station attendant, especially when describing his teammates, the gas pumps who stand “idiot pumps--\ Five on a side,[…]\ Their rubber elbows hanging loose and low.” (7-9) This image is evocative of a basketball player in a defensive stance, however the diction of ‘idiot’ certainly contrasts to Flick’s old team, the Wizards. In my mind, the most striking line is the ending when Updike uses enjambment to cut off a phrase so as to create an image of an audience, but to continue to reveal the true nature of that audience: “bright applauding tiers\ Of Necco Wafers, Nibs, and Juju Beads” (29-30).

[] For more on Daoism:[2] [] For a (condensed) history of the New York Yankees: []
 * 10. “Tao in the Yankee Stadium Bleachers” by John Updike-** This poem combines two seemingly unrelated things, the Daoist (Taoist) philosophy (or religion depending on who you ask), such as a reference to an allegory where Zhuang-zi encounters a talking skull, and the New York Yankees baseball team, such as references to iconic players, such as Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. The comparison seems to be the application of Daoist belief, that one should lead a simple life and “conform to the slow gentle rhythm of the Universe” [2] by baseball fans. In a crowd one does not pursue achievement as advocated by Confucius (typically seen as the opposition school of thought), but only to be part of something greater, much like how Daoists perceive the ‘Dao’, the ‘Way of Life’. I feel the idyllic nature of a baseball game is exemplified in the line “The thought of death is peppermint to you\ when games begin” (23-24). Many of the disjointed phrases and enjambments create a voice which seems quite zen-like, in the spirit of the Daoist conception of ‘qi’. In terms of imagery, Updike intersperses images of a baseball game within peaceful, natural images: “pitcher’s pertinent hesitations, the sky, this meadow, Mantle’s thick baked neck” (14-15).

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 * 11. "For My People" by Margaret Walker-** From the first line "For my people everywhere singing their slave songs" (1) it is evident that this work, whose author was a groundbreaking poet in her time as a black woman has a strong civil rights message. We see this theme frequently popping up with allusions to "lynchings" (27), impoverished black neighborhoods in major US cities, and, an allusion made more meaningful by future events in the Civil Rights Movement, her home in Birmingham, Alabama. However, I feel this poem is not just relevant in terms of the struggle of the African-American people, but anyone oppressed by society. Most of Walker's images used to create a sense of enduring hardship are of poverty, including descriptions of menial labor, "sleeping when hungry" (35), and "needing bread and shoes and milk and land and money..." (32-33). In particular, the line "devoured by money-hungry glory-craving leeches" (42) indicate a degree of class warfare, one group taking advantage of another, in a way that would make Marx proud. What I found in terms of the Walker's rhetoric is that she doesn't complete a single sentence or idea until the last stanza, in which she asserts powerfully "Let a new earth rise." (45) pleading the reader to allow the world to change and grow.

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 * 12. "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks-** Brooks describes the outlook of pool players of schooling age, implied by the line "Left school" (2), who assert that they are "real cool" (1). The simple language Brooks uses suggests that the players are ignorant and allows Brooks to be very succinct in her message. The final line "We\ Die soon" (7-8) emphatically reveals the results of their irresponsible actions. As a poem read aloud, the enjambment separating 'We' from the action which the group performs makes the group seem insignificant to the actions they perform. This may serve to suggest the group itself is weak or that it is the actions themselves which matter in the long run as they determine ones lot in life. Another notable device is the alliteration in the third stanza of "Sing sin, We\ Thin gin" linking four instances of 'in', linking the two actions together as similar.

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 * 13. "Riot" by Gwendolyn Brooks-** The poem is preluded by the Martin Luther King Jr. qutoe: "A riot is the language of the unheard". Upon further research, it turns out the subject of Brooks poem are the Chicago riots in response to King's death in 1968. In the context the quote implies that the African-American people must resort to rioting to express their opinions. The central character of the work is "John Cabot" (1), named for an Italian explorer. The only explanation I can supply for this allusion is that the Age of Exploration led to African enslavement and transportation to the Americas. The riot itself is described as a single entity, like a pestilence, when Brooks labels them as traveling "In seas. In windsweep." (14). Brooks separates one line to stand alone from the other stanzas, "Because the Negroes were coming down the street" (10). It forces the reader to consider the gravity of the statement. In one manner it gravely points out the danger of the riot, but in another it highlights the racism which has led to this happenstance. There is great irony in John Cabot's death then where he pleads "Lord!\ Forgive these nigguhs that know not what they do!" (29-30) when he himself has lived in the luxury of "his Jaguar" (4). While the white man has lived 'expensively', they have suppressed the blacks.

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 * 14. “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll-** From the larger work __Through the Looking Glass__, I was a bit underwhelmed by the knowledge that this is regarded as a ‘nonsense’ poem, rather than having some deep-rooted symbolism in its wild fantasies. Despite the fact that the work largely makes no sense, we get a strong sense of character from the language itself, whimsically using phrases such as “gyre and gimble in the wabe” (2) and “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” (23) Extensive use of alliteration, especially of ‘round’ sounds such as g’s and b’s lends itself to his fantastical mood. Although no imagery are given for inventions such as the Jabberwocky, the Bandersnatch, and the Tumtum tree, the names themselves have connotations which help us visualize our own imagery. While it is stated the Jabberwocky is a great beast, I interpret the Bandersnatch to be some sort of predator of cunning and agility and the Tumtum tree to be a colorful, tropical fruit tree.

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 * 15. “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman-** Whitman points out the variety in the American people by naming various professions such as “the mechanics, each one singing his (song) as it should be blithe and strong” (2). Despite the wide range of professions mentioned, the imagery of them singing together promotes a sense of unity among them. The pace of the poem increases from one image, to two, to three in the line “the delicious singing of the mother, or the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing.” (8) and in fact throws two images in one: ‘sewing or washing’. Furthermore the professions are largely working class, implying that //these// are the //true// Americans. I feel that Whitman portrays the strength in spirit of the American dream by depicting these hard-working men and women “Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.” (11)

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 * 16. “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman-** Upon further research, this poem is a metaphor for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. After the Civil War, America's "fearful trip" (2), which Lincoln had guided the Union through like a ship's captain, he was shot at Ford's theater by John Wilkes Booth.Tragically, he was killed //after// he had navigated the Civil War and "the prize we sought (was) won" (2). Whitman's elegy characterizes Lincoln as a benevolent paternal figure as well as a resolute leader, also exclaiming "dear father!" (13) and lamenting that "father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will." (20) The praise Whitman voices for Lincoln is emphatically interrupted in the final line of each of the three stanzas by the abrupt line "fallen cold and dead." (8, 16, 24).

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 * 17. "A Noiseless Patient Spider" by Walt Whitman-** Between the two, five-line, free-verse stanzas, Whitman parallels "A noiseless patient spider\...isolated" (1-2) to "my soul...in measureless oceans of space" (6-7), using the image of a web-spinning spider to bring life to the idea of a human 'soul' trying to settle down like an 'anchor' (9) or a 'bridge' (9) connecting the 'oceans of space'. One of the notable devices used to link the two stanzas is repetition in each, for example the spider launches "forth filament, filament, filament" (4) while the soul is "Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing" (8).

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 * 18. "Are you the new person drawn towards me?" by Walt Whitman-** Whitman offers this poem as a warning to a potential lover, beseeching them "To begin with, take warning" (2). The eight questions asked boil down to 'don't idolize me because I'm still human after all', referring to the subject as a "dreamer" (9), going so far as to suggest the lover's perception of the speaker is merely an "illusion" (9). However, perhaps this illusion is more the speaker's doing, admitting their false nature when asking "Do you see no further than this facade, this...manner of me" (7).

Cosmology: Theory/doctrine describing the natural order of the Universe []
 * 19. "Charon's Cosmology" by Charles Simic-** This work depicts Charon, the ferryman to the underworld across the river Styx in Greek/Roman mythology, guided only by his "dim lantern" (1). The speaker goes so far as to propose that Charon "must be confused\ As to which side [of the river] is which" (7-8). Exacting his toll (traditionally coinage), Charon runs through the pockets of his passengers taking "a crust of bread" or "a sausage" (12) but possessions such as a mirror or a book "he throws\ Overboard into the dark river\ Swift and cold and deep" (14-16) Perhaps Simic's message is that the 'confused' Charon cannot appreciate the creations of humanity, only the needs of sustenance, or perhaps it is that inherently human traits such as vanity (the mirror) or the search for knowledge (the book) mean nothing in the land of the dead.

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 * 20. "Colonoscopy Sonnet" by Sandra M. Gilbert-** A poem inspired by an event in which George W. Bush, "the chief exec of trouble" (3), under went "a presidential\ colonoscopy" (1-2) and for "three whole hours" (3) Dick Cheney was technically Commander-in-Chief. Gilbert refers to this exchange as Bush handing "trouble to his vice" (4). The use of 'trouble' in the place of 'power' or a word to similar effect suggests an instability within the position and in the nation. Humorously, Gilbert compares the presidential rectal tract to a political landscape, noting the absence of "bacterial armies" (6), that it is "bubble gum pink, not a spot of shit" (10) and naming it as a place "where global decisions stir & sit" (12). Given the common satirical perception that Bush was unintelligent it seems almost a low-blow to suggest that his lower intestines are his decisions' place of residence rather than his head.

The following poems are from the collection "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" cited here:

Dickinson, Emily, and Virginia Euwer. Wolff. //I'm Nobody! Who Are You?: Poems by // //Emily Dickinson //. Ed. Edric S. Mesmer. New York: Scholastic, 2002. Print.

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 * 21. "I'm nobody! Who are you?" by Emily Dickinson-** Dickinson was anonymus in her days as a poet, and was only posthumously recognized as a "major American poet" when her exceptional cache of poetry was discovered by family. Only a few of her poems were published in her lifetime and she was considered an eccentric recluse. As such, it is fitting she would refer to herself as a "nobody" (1). She satires the more common human desire for fame exclaiming "How dreary to be somebody!" (5). She uses a simile to compare people who tell their "name the livelong day" (7) to a "frog" (6), an animal of little majesty.

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 * 22. "There is a word" by Emily Dickinson-** The speaker portrays a word as a weapon, commenting that "a word\ Which bears a sword\ Can pierce an armed man." (2-4) This is elaborated when the speaker refers to the word's "barbed syllables" (5). While the 'word' itself is the subject of the poem, the speaker also refers to "Some epauletted brother\ Gave his breath away." The tone and syntax here connote a sense of insignificance, this is not a particular man, but just another one of many who over time will be "forgot" (18). Dickinson lived through the American Civil War, and so I believe this may have been intended to point out that while the noble patriotism of each side would live on and be died for, the men who died were tragically forgotten for the most part.

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 * 23. "Is bliss, then, such abyss" by Emily Dickinson-** Dickinson compares a feeling, bliss, to a physical object, a shoe. The speaker identifies an all-too human anxiety of exhausting what is good, like taking the last cookie in the jar. They fear putting their "foot amiss\ For fear I spoil my shoe?" (2-3) It is ironic that the speaker is unwilling to use the shoe for its intended purpose, because of its potential consequences. However, they rationalize that "to buy another pair\ is possible" (6-7). In contrast, the speaker laments that "bliss is sold just once" (9). The reason for the speaker's association with 'bliss' and 'abyss' is that its value causes one to be miserly with it and not enjoy it and if it is lost or ruined, it causes more //despair// than if it was never even //there//.

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 * 24. "You cannot put a fire out" by Emily Dickinson-** Dickinson supposes that one "cannot put a fire out" (1) asserting that it "Can go...without a fan" (3). Juxtaposed to the fire, is water: one "cannot fold a flood\ And put it in a drawer" (5-6). The contrast between fire and water contribute to the universality of the main point, one cannot force something to go against its own nature. The second person structure ("You cannot") is strong in its assertion.

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 * 25. "This world is not conclusion" by Emily Dickinson-** The speaker alludes to an afterlife, or at least an existence after our own. Dickinson uses a metaphor of a narrative to describe the relationship, asserting that "This world is not conclusion, A sequel stands beyond," (1-2). Further imagery is used to compare the speaker's conception of the metaphysical to art when next, the speaker states that the "[sequel is] Invisible, as music, But positive, as sound." (3-4) The purpose of this metaphor to the arts is to demonstrate a certain complexity, in order to explain how what comes after life "It beckons and it baffles" (5) and that "To guess it puzzles scholars" (9). All of humanity's preoccupation with what comes after life because it will elude us until we get there.

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 * 26. "November in the Former DDR" by Tomas Transtromer-** 'DDR' refers to the former East Germany (not Dance Dance Revolution). Referring to this historical item leads us to view the images conveyed from the perspective of someone analyzing Communism's effects on the region. Transtromer portrays a city that has been "Beaten black and blue" (3). The stated suggests that this change in color is brought on by the night but the implied meaning is that Soviet occupation took its toll on East Germany. One predominant device is personification, such as a train which "lays eggs" (6) and "The clang of church bells' buckets fetching water" (8). Transtromer also uses abrupt phrases and exclamations to illustrate an atmosphere or idea such as "Almost silent." (7) to depict a stillness to the scene or "How sore my eyes are!" (17) to convey the speaker's pain.

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 * 27. "High Windows" by Philip Larkin-** The first verse of this poem simply astounds me with the contrast of the unromantic, profane description of a couple, where "he's fucking her and she's\ Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm" (2-3) to the assertion that "I know this is paradise" (4). Larkin points at that when one is old they crave the youth, the opportunities, the "Bonds and gestures pushed to one side" (6) they can never have again.

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 * 28. "Maturity" by Philip Larkin-** In another poem dealing with youth and aging, Larkin's speaker states that "this must be the //prime of life"// (7). The italics convey a degree of sarcasm that demonstrate the speaker's pessimistic view on aging, as their "single body grows\ Inaccurate, tired;" (2-3) and they "start to feel the backward pull" (4). The idea of 'Maturity' promised in the title is implied to be an idea conceived by others, not the speaker when he states "Some say, desired" (6) suggesting he does not concur with that idea.

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 * 29. "Love Again" by Philip Larkin-** The speaker relates the envy and angst of the knowledge that a former lover is with someone else. The profane image of the speaker "wanking at ten past three" (1) juxtaposes with the thoughts the next verse of the former love with "Someone else feeling her breasts and cunt\ Someone else drowned in that lash-wide stare" (7-8). All of this happens in the speaker's head of course, his first thought being identified through parenthesis: "(Surely he's taken her home by now?)" (2). The speaker resents his position, sulkily remarking "And me supposed to be ignorant,\ Or find it funny, or not care" (9-10).

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 * 30. This Be the Verse" by Philip Larkin-** In another poem related to youth, Larkin points at the vicious cycle of parents raising children, citing that "Man hands on misery to man" (9). In typical Larkin fashion he grabs you with a blunt, profane opening line: "They fuck you up, your mum and dad." (1) Perhaps the most shocking part of the poem is not the profanity, but his suggestion that one not "have any kids yourself" (12) because you'll inevitably 'fuck them up' even if you "may not mean to" (2).

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 * 31. "On the Meeting of Garcia Lorca and Hart Crane" by Philip Levine-** Reading more like an anecdote than a poem, Levine, retells the meeting of two doomed poets. However, because of the language barrier, the meeting is underwhelming of two minds of such caliber, so the speaker asks "let's not pretend the two poets gave each other wisdom or love or even a good time, let's not invent a dialogue of such eloquence". He relates the irony of his cousin, who acted as a translator, who in this moment had a premonition of death, a vision coming to "an ordinary man staring at a filthy river". The point here is that imagination can be found not in just the profound and brilliant, but also in the average and mundane.

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 * 32. "Detroit, Tomorrow" by Philip Levine-** Levine depicts a mother whose son has just been murdered. This free verse poem is arranged in iambic pentameter and so features a great deal of enjambment. Levine uses this to highlight key phrases: "Newspaper said the boy killed by someone\ don't say who." (1-2) gives focus on the final fragment, a plea to keep the anonymity of the killer to focus on the boy; "she's too awake to not remember him\ her only son" (10-11) the enjambment highlights that the dead boy was not only the mother's child, but her //only// child, making that much more tragic. Yet life must go on, one must still look to 'tomorrow': she jumps "nimbly from the bus" (32) on her way to work. The speaker asks the reader "make\ her one promise and keep it forever" (39-40), to not pray to God, because any God worth worshiping would not allow such tragedy. I had quite a visceral reaction to this poem because it reminded me of someone close to my family who lost a child recently at birth, yet afterwards she continued to work to support her other daughter, and I remember thinking to myself that I would not have the strength to carry myself through such an experience.

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 * 33. "During the War" by Philip Levine-** Levine illustrates through his imagery how war deteriorates youth. He first describes his brother whose "home from war\ [carrying] his left arm in a black sling" (1-2). Meanwhile, a woman confronts the speaker, calling him out on not going to war "while her Michael was burning to death." (8) With the image of the fourteen-year-old Michael in "his white uniform\ turning slowly gray" (13-14) while burning, there is a suggestion that the speaker's brother has been 'burned' as well by the horrors of war. The poem also reveals the torturous effects of war on the home front, the speaker's brother goes so far as to suggest "Michael's wife" is in hell. At the same time "shards of ash" (28) fall from heaven, indicating that war burns away at youth's purity, youth's "white uniform".

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 * 34. "Caged Bird" by Maya Angelou-** Angelou compares the lives of a "free bird" to a "caged bird" in an allegory for social repression, likely in the vein of the Black Civil Rights Movement, as Angelou was deeply involved as a civil rights activist, working with leaders such as MLK Jr. and Malcolm X. The catch here is that while the free bird has everything the caged bird does not, he "thinks of another breeze" (23). The caged bird also sings of "things unknown", "for the caged bird\ sings of freedom" (21-22) Here, Angelou has ironically suggested that know matter someone's social freedom, it is in their nature to long for what they don't have.

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 * 35. "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou-** Angelou suggests that this relates to the Black Civil Rights Movement, the speaker representing the African-American community as a whole, with images such as "a black ocean" (33). She asserts that their struggle cannot be subverted in the history books any longer: "You may write me down in history\ With your bitter, twisted lies...(But still) I rise" (1-4). Using natural imagery, the Angelou conveys that this ascension is inevitable, because "Just like moons and like suns,\ With the certainty of tides...Still I'll Rise" (5-8) As the poem develops, the assertion becomes more prevalent until "I Rise" it is repeated three times emphatically at the end.

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 * 36. "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats-** Yeats juxtaposes a loss of youth with a loss of love. The speaker addresses one who will be "old and grey and full of sleep" (1) who has been loved "false or true" (6) but who spurned the "one man [who] loved the pilgrim soul" (7). Yeats personifies 'Love', who flees and paces in "upon the mountains overhead" (11) and hides "amid a crown of stars." (12) The implication here is that the 'one man' is the subject's 'Love' and the speaker of the poem. Yeats also presents an underlying theme that beauty doesn't last forever, so one should be loved by someone who will love them 'When one is old'.

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 * 37. "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats-** Yeats presents numerous images of chaos and evil to present a situation where "anarchy is loosed upon the world" (4): a falcon spiraling out of control of his falconer, his master; "darkness drops again"; "blood-dimmed tide". The speaker asserts that "the Second Coming is at hand" (10). They are fearful though of "what rough beast...Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" (21-22) The famous line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" (3) suggests that eventually, all human organization will turn to 'anarchy'.

Taken from the text collection "The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems":

Wilde, Oscar. //The Ballad of Reading Gaol: and Other Poems //. Ed. Stanley Appelbaum. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1992. Print.

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 * 38. "The Grave of Keats" by Oscar Wilde-** An eulogy to John Keats, Wilde states that the Romantic poet, plagued by sickness his entire life, is now "Rid of the world's injustice, and his pain" (1). Wilde compares Keats to a martyr, "Fair as Sebastian, and as early slain" (5). Wilde also compares Keats to the martyr Isabella when the speaker promises that "tears like mine will keep thy memory green" (14). Wilde credits Keats as a contributor to English culture specifically, calling him the "poet-painter of our English land." (11)

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 * 39. "Requiescat" by Oscar Wilde-** Wilde describes a woman buried "Under the snow" (2). I love the image of "All her bright golden hair\ Tarnished with rust" (5-6) to highlight a loss of youth and beauty in death. Perhaps the line "she can hear\ the daisies grow" (3-4) is a reference to the figure of speech "pushing daisies". The speaker takes solace in that "she is at rest.\ Peace, peace" (20-21). Wilde's repetition emphasizes the beauty of death. It seems as if the speaker is the truly tortured one, lamenting that "All my life's buried here" (23). Written in Avignon, I initially thought this might have been a tribute to Joan of Arc, as the subject is described as pure, "Lily-like, white as snow" (9), but it doesn't hold up given historical context and that she wasn't in fact buried in Avignon.

P. 3
 * 40. "Impression du Matin" by Oscar Wilde-** Meaning 'morning impression' in French, does not as you might expect take place in France, but on a morning in London, with "The Thames nocturne of blue and gold" (1). This synesthetic image, evoking both visual color and auditory music, is immediately contrasted by "a harmony in grey: \ A barge with ochre-coloured hay." (2-3) This seems to suggest that as the city comes alive in the mornings, it loses its natural beauty. Of the London sights and sounds referred to, no person is singled out until the last verse when the speaker sees "one pale woman all alone" (13). This woman has seductive, but cold-hearted nature, with her "lips of flame and heart of stone" (16). It is unclear whether woman merely another passing Londonite who stands out to the speaker, a lover (but Wilde was gay, sorry ladies), online, [|it is even suggested]that her 'lips' are diseased and this is a reference to [|The Contagious Diseases Acts].

P. 14
 * 41. "Silentium Amoris" by Oscar Wilde-** Meaning "The Silence of Love" in Latin, this poem describes a failed courting. Wilde uses the age old imagery of a sun and a moon as lovers who are fated to never be together: "the too resplendent sun\ Hurries the pallid and reluctant love." (1-2) The speaker reveals themselves to be 'the sun' of the metaphor, the 'moon's' "Beauty [making their] lips fail\ And all my sweetest singing out of tune" (5-6) Maybe this is 'singing' is a metaphor for 'sweet-talking'. The speaker confesses that in their "excess of Love my love is dumb" (12). Ironically, communicating affection is hindered by saturation. In the end, the speaker must "nurse the barren memory\ Of unkissed kisses, and songs never sung." (17-18): the 'silence of love'.

P. 44
 * 42. "The Harlot's House" by Oscar Wilde**- This poem curiously uses iambic tetrameter tercets with an AAC BBC rhyme scheme. The iambic tetrameter, like Robert Frost's writing, gives Wilde's euphoric, but distorted, images of music and dancing a light-hearted rhythm. Wilde describes the occupants of this house as puppets and robots, not conscious of their existence: "mechanical grotesques" (7), "wire-pulled automatons" (13), "clockwork puppet" (19), "horrible marionette" (22) each in the first line of their respective stanzas, highlighting this characterization, cementing the image in the reader's mind. The poem takes an even darker turn however when the speaker's love goes in, and "Love passed into the House of Lust" (30) (I love this line). When this happens, with the musicians playing 'Treues Liebes Hierz', "the tune went false" (31).

Checked 18 September 6/15-25 KBoyce Standards and then The New Yorker selection (a good place to revisit). Thorough commentary, but limited collection.

Checked 21 November 42/42-70 Thanks for clearing up the DDR issue. A decent collection that has diversity as well as concentration (ie Larkin, Dickinson, and Levine...an interesting trio).


 * “Ghana Calls” by W.E.B. Du Bois:** This poem, dedicated to Kwame Nkrumah who as the leader of Ghana declared independence from the UK, was likely written circa 1960 when W.E.B Du Bois traveled to Ghana in order to ‘celebrate’ its independence. He reminisces on his childhood in which he felt like an outsider, surrounded by white children who “laughed and stared” (10). His ‘dream’ of Africa (reasserted in such a way as to reflect MLK’s more famous “I have a dream” speech a few years later) is a place of terror and enslavement, “chained with pain,\ Streaming with blood” (21-22). Yet when he sees Africa for himself he sees it as a place of beauty and opportunity, “not up from Hell, but from the sum of Heaven’s glory.” We can see Du Bois’ socialist leanings which alienated him from both the American government and the NAACP. His final cry of “Pan Africa!” seems to say Africa’s time has arrived.

[]


 * “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” by W.E.B. Du Bois:** Du Bois parodies the patriotic song of the same name, labeling the USA as the “Late land of slavery” (2). In it he echoes his ideals that African-Americans must “rise above” (14) hate and prejudice. Before the lyrics begin, Du Bois starts with prose, attacking the idea of conformity and “Noblesse Oblige” but then suggests the subtle lyrical changes to a singer. It should be noted that Du Bois opposed civil rights compromises such as the Atlanta Compromise, believing African-Americans should not conform to the demands of their white oppressors.

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 * “The Song of the Smoke” by W.E.B. Du Bois:** The speaker’s assertion that “I am the Smoke King!\ I am black!” (1-2) begins and ends every stanza. Du Bois links the idea of smoke to the American industrial revolution when he alludes to ‘mills’. The reversal of “I whiten my black men—I blacken my white!” (39) seems to say that while smoke literally makes a white man black, it figuratively makes a black man white. Du Bois was appalled at black acceptance of white supremacy and the subjugation of workers caused by industrialization exemplified the continued oppression of the poor by the rich.

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 * “God” by Langston Hughes”:** Hughes ironically presents God, who we see as omnipotent, as leading a sad existence, “Alone in [his] purity” (3) separated from the ‘young lovers below him’. Hughes seems to endorse the community of simple humanity, “Better to be human\ Than God—And Lonely” (12-13).

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 * “Harlem” by Langston Hughes:** Hughes poses the question “What happens to a dream deffered?” (1) First he suggests it rots, using imagery such as “a raisin in the sun” (3) and “rotten meat” (6). However his final, emphatic suggestion //“Or does it explode?”// (11) hints that a ‘dream’ develops over time, rather than decaying.

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 * “April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes:** Hughes personifies rain as a lover, however there is a certain maternal quality to the ‘rain’s love’, perhaps due to the imperative phrasing of “Let the rain…” depicting the speaker as passive. Hughes short, simple sentence structure in general is juvenile in tone. Hughes seems to say that he lets the rain love him “And I love the rain.” (7).

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 * “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes (hey that rhymes!):** Hughes, famously an innovator of the Harlem Renaissance’s ‘jazz poetry’, recalls a black piano player singing the ‘weary blues’. His description of the setting, “the pale dull pallor of an old gas light” matches the tone set by the music, an expression of suffering: “Ain’t got nobody in all this world”. After all, blues, and the Harlem Renaissance as a whole, found its origins in African-Americans seeking an escape from poverty and subjugation. Through art, they as a people found a means to rise above. My favorite line in this poem is the juxtaposition of “ebony hands on each ivory key”.

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 * “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes:** As the title suggests, the speaker is a mother talking to her son. She asserts that “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” twice, instead building the image of a torn-up wooden stair filled with ‘splinters’ and ‘tacks’. She is trying to tell her son that no matter how hard life gets, you have to “keep climbin’”.

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 * “Advertisement” by Wislawa Szymborska:** At first, it is unclear exactly what Szymborska’s advertisement is for, but slowly reveals that the subject is pharmaceutical drugs through hints such as “let me melt beneath your tongue” and “have faith in my chemical compassion”. It is eerie that the drug itself is the speaker. The poem spirals from simply reflecting elements of a typical ad to the dark plea “Sell me your soul”. Szymborska characterizes drugs as a great evil, stating “There is no other devil anymore”.

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 * “The Terrorist He Watches” by Wislawa Szymborska:** This poem takes place from the point of the view of a terrorist, watching people casually walk in and out of the building where they know a bomb is placed. Szymborska gradually builds suspense through reminders of time much like a countdown and uncertainty, such as the question “Was she dumb enough to go in, or wasn’t she?” Especially in the last stanza, the phrasing becomes much more brief and succinct. The bomber is anxious and even seems to take pleasure when the bomb finally goes off: “Not yet\ Yes this is it\ The bomb it goes off.”

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 * “ABC” by Wislawa Szymborska:** Szymborska inserts letters of the alphabet as if they were in the stead of names of past lovers. The alphabetization not only puts these lovers in a sequence, but also suggests that they are indistinct from each other. Then it is ironic that the speaker ponders whether their “being around meant anything [to] the rest of the alphabet” when it appears they meant nothing to the speaker.

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 * “Pi” by Wislawa Szymborska:** Szymborska’s ode to the number pi goes through the first few dozen or so digits while revealing the possibilities and applications of numbers. Imagery such as “fairy tale snakes” and “caravan of digits” depict pi as fantastical and lengthy (it is, after all, infinite). Szymborska also uses alliteration to create the ‘fantasy-like’ atmosphere such as “bloatedness and bottomless” and “prodding and prodding a plodding eternity\ to last.”

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The following works are from this source if they are noted with page numbers:

Williams, Oscar, and Hyman J. Sobiloff, eds. //The Pocket Book of Modern Verse.// 3rd ed. New York: Washington Square, 1958. Print.

p. 61-64
 * “The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll:** Carroll’s, now proverbial, tale from Through the Looking Glass is surreal: a walrus and a carpenter on “A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk” (33). Carroll’s sentence structure, full of redundancies like “You could not see a cloud, because\ No cloud was in the sky” (15-16), adds to this surreal atmosphere. The shit really hits the fan once the walrus ‘beseeches’ young oysters to join them on the walk. Ironically, the walrus and the carpenter, who are friendly at first, eat the oysters, the walrus “Holding his pocket-handkerchief\ Before his streaming eyes”. One common interpretation is that this poem is a criticism on capitalism. I personally suspect it may be an expression of Carroll’s latent pedophilia (“young Oysters” who the Walrus can’t resist).

p.64-65
 * “Father William” by Lewis Carroll:** This question and answer session between Father William and a ‘youth’ juxtaposes old and new. The stanzas alternate between the youth informing William “You are old” (1) and Father William retorting “In my youth” (5) until he becomes fed up with answering the youth’s questions. Although in one respect the youth commends Father William for his prowess, he reminds Father William that he is aged and his personal achievement is due to what he has done is his youth, now come and gone. Surreal images such as Father William being able to balance “an eel on the end of [his] nose” remind us why Carroll is the Pink Floyd of poetry.

p.232-233
 * “The Yachts” by William Carlos Williams:** Williams presents a stark contrast between a yacht race and “Arms with hands grasping […] at the prows”. He explains that while the yachts are shielded from “the too heavy blows of an ungoverned ocean” which “tortures the biggest hulls”. I see this work as an metaphor depicting the rich staying afloat while the poor drown. The anonymity of the image “Arms with hands” suggests the distance between classes which allows the inhumane disregard of the upper class as portrayed by William: “they cry out […] as the skillful yachts pass over”.

p.233-234 or []
 * “Queen-Anne’s-Lace” by William Carlos Williams:** It should be noted before reading that Queen-Anne’s Lace is a flower (I had not realized) and fact, its root is commonly known as “a carrot”. This explains the lewd image of a “wild carrot taking\ the field by force”. The entire poem appears to use the flower as a metaphor for the “white” of a woman’s body and conveys the beauty of a lover’s touch: “Each part\ is a blossom under his touch\ to which fibres of her being\ stem one by one, each to its end, until the whole field is a\ white desire”.

p.234
 * “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams:** In many ways, this poem has come to define the imagist movement, led largely by Williams’ friend and contemporary Ezra Pound in which every word must have a purpose. Imagist language is not so much terse as it is ‘precise’. One of my favorite lines is the alliteration of “They were deliciou**s**\ **s**o **s**weet\ and **s**o cold.” It is ironic to find something as simple as an apology note as poetry.

p.233
 * “Poem” by William Carlos Williams:** Like “This is Just to Say”, the longest line in “Poem” is only five syllables long. If presented otherwise, this ‘poem’ would be just a simple, factual description of a non-descript cat. Again, alliteration aids the William’s flowing language such as “the **p**i**t** of\ the em**pt**y\ flower**p**o**t”** and “**f**i**r**s**t** the **r**igh**t**\ **f**o**r**e**f**oo**t**”

p.251-252
 * “The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” by Ezra Pound:** This poem from the point of view of a wife whose husband is away for months is marked by a passage of time, beginning in the woman’s youth and progressing, revealing how her love for her husband progressed. I can’t decide whether “I desired my dust to be mingled with yours\ Forever and forever and forever” is the cutest or the weirdest expression of love I’ve ever read. Grown moss, autumn leaves, and autumn butterflies round out the passage of time as symbols of aging, after all, the river merchant’s wife will “grow older” without her husband.

p.247 For “Summer is Icumen In”: [] (or Wikipedia it)
 * “Ancient Music” by Ezra Pound:** The first line “W**i**nter **i**s **i**cume**n** **in**” (translation: Winter has arrived) flows extremely well due to alliteration and is a reversal of “Summer is icumen in”, the oldest musical round known to exist, dating back to medieval England. Pound’s bastardization of the original lyrics (reminding me of Du Bois’ “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”) appears to express the speaker’s extreme distaste for winter: “Sing goddamm, dam, sing Goddamm,\ Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.” (The original lyrics are curt and instead of “goddamm”, “cuckoo”. Pound gives reasons for his distaste including “Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us”, “Freezeth river, turneth liver” where the original lyrics feature idyllic natural imagery like “the wood springs anew” (translated from Middle English, Wessex dialect)

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 * “In a Station of a Metro” by Ezra Pound:** “The apparition of these faces in a crowd; \ Petals on a wet, black bough.” AND THAT’S IT. When I first saw William Carlos William’s “This is Just to Say” a few years ago, I never thought I would see a non-haiku that was shorter. I find it strange that Pound characterizes faces as ethereal, but perhaps it is how he illustrates the anonymity of a subway. The relation to the next image, petals on a black bough is enigmatic and seems ominous.

p.176
 * “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep” by Robert Frost:** Frost introduces the image of people on a beach who “look at the sea” (12). I think Frost points out how we desire what we can’t have rather than appreciating what we do when he highlights how the people “turn their back on the land” (3) despite the fact that they can look ‘neither out far no in deep’ to the sea. I’m puzzled by why Frost, who typically writes in iambic tetrameter, wrote this work in lines varying between 6 and 7 syllables each, closer to iambic trimeter.

p.183-184
 * “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost:** Frost hints at the superiority of nature over man when his speaker ‘trespasses’ on another man’s woods. In reality they are everyone’s to see, not one man’s. Furthermore, the personification of the speaker’s horse, who “thinks it queer”, “asks if there is some mistake”, and “gives his harness bells a shake”, suggests the power of nature in the snowy woods. The repetition of the line “And miles to go before I sleep” at the end of Frost’s poem seems to emphasize the depth of the woods.

p.180-181
 * “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost:** Frost describes a time where autumn transitions to winter: ‘after apple-picking’. The image of a ladder “sticking through a tree\ Toward heaven still” (1-2) compares the boughs of apple trees to heaven. Frost highlights that by picking these apples from their ‘heaven’, they are prevented from falling down to the earth and onto the ‘cellar’ or the “cider-apple heap\ As of no worth”. It is ironic that the speaker admits “I am overtired\ Of the great harvest I myself desired.”

p.184
 * “Meeting and Passing” by Robert Frost:** Frost describes an awkward encounter meeting where his conversation partner (presumably a woman given her ‘parasol’) “seemed to see\ Something down there to smile at in the dust.” Frost sarcastically proclaims “(Oh, it was without prejudice to me!)” indicating he feels slighted. His final image of “I went past what you had passed\ Before we met and you what I had passed” illustrates the lack of social connection between the two: they are two people moving in opposite directions, both literally and figuratively.

P.187-188
 * “A Considerable Speck” by Robert Frost:** Frost’s oxymoronic title describes how something which seems insignificant can be full of life. Presumably from his own experience, while writing a “speck” turns out to be “unmistakably a living mite”. He depicts the misunderstandings of two worlds of different scales: the mite feels threatened by Frost’s pen while Frost can’t even fathom the presence of its feet. He has pity on the mite because “it was nothing I knew evil of “. The final stanza plays on the word “mind”, stating that this has been a meeting of two minds “in any guise” while when he reminisces “I am glad to find\ On any sheet the least display of mind”, rather than suggest his poetry is lacking in intellect, he suggests he is glad he did not scatter the mites brains upon his paper.