This is Just to Say

this is just to say William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

This is just to say...what?

So, I solely chose this poem because it was so simple...? It is confusing me how simple it is.
I feel like there is some crazy, metaphorical deeper meaning that I should pick out, but i think it is just about...eating plums that didn't belong to the writer?

Can I be a poet now? I'm pretty sure I can write something like this...unless I am toally missing the point.

There is much more I can say about the content of the poem, it is like an apologetic note you leave on the kitchen counter for eating something in the fridge you knew belonged to someone else.

I guess I can talk about the structure, which is also very simple. The poem is three stanzas and there are four lines each. There is no rhyme scheme or rhythm. I noticed the second stanza is not capitalized, but I'm pretty sure that is because it is part of a sentence.

I think that about covers it...

Many Red Devils...

Many red devils . . .
Stephen Crane
Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page.
They were so tiny
The pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.

I immediately recognized the Stephen Crane wrote this poem because of his creepy style! He wrote "Untitled," and I interpreted that the poem was about depression. It is interesting, because after reading this poem, my perspective kind of changed about the main point of his other poem.

I think that this poem is autobiographical and it made me realize that Crane must be...a little messed up? I don't know how to explain...but he reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe, because both are interesting, great writers but they have, weird disturbing styles or topics. The poem "Untitled" may not be about depression because Crane is naturally dark, and it wasn't something that he just wrote about once, not I realize all his poems are like that!

Anyway, I think this poem is about Crane getting his angst, anger, depression, and "dark thoughts" out. Instead of normal people going for a jog or venting to their friends, Crane uses poetry as an outlet, and let his "red devils" go.

On a side note, for some reason it suprised me that Stephen Crane's writing is so old!He is from the late 1870's and I totally thought he was a "new age" writer! His style is very modern.

For a Lady I Know

For a Lady I Know
Countee Cullen
She even thinks that up in heaven
Her class lies late and snores,
While poor black cherubs rise at seven
To do celestial chores.

Cherub- A winged angelic being described in biblical tradition as attending on God, regarded in traditional Christian angelology as an angel of the second highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy.

Celestial- Belonging or relating to heaven.

I think this poem has to do with slavery or racial issues. Maybe that race or class doesn't matter, but this girl always think it will...The cherub metaphor was interesting because it is an angel, so it is revered in heaven, but at the same time it is the second highest order so maybe it is symbolizing how when whites discriminated they were acting like God, so that was wrong. So, the ironic part of racial issues. It may also be a simpler analogy, that a white lady thinks blacks will always be lower class in heaven...Hmm?

I decided to look more up about the author and this poem. What I found is that Countee Cullen was a poet in the Harlem Renaissance (explains race issues). I also looked up more analysis of this poem and one source said, "presents a satirical view of whites obliviously mistreating their black counterparts as it depicts blacks in heaven doing their "celestial chores" so that upper-class whites can remain in their heavenly beds."
So, I think I was on track(:

I really liked how short and crisp the poem was, it really made it more impactful.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

I LOVE this poem! Silly, but ever since The Outsiders I have always adored it. Obviously, Frost is metaphorically comparing nature and Eden to life...I think that this poem is pretty ambiguous, it can be taken in a depressing way, that nothing can stay "golden," or in a reflective way, that you should appreciate everything you have because it won't always be there forever.

I noticed Frost's biblical allusion to the Garden of Eden...Look, I just alluded to class! (:
Anyway, Frost made this allusion because when God made the Garden of Eden, it was supposed to be something permanent, but Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge when they weren't supposed to, and when God caught them, they were cast away from the Garden. Thus, "nothing gold can stay."

Moab

Tonight and most of the week, I will camping in Moab, Utah. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my poetry packet with me on my trip, so I decided to blog about a song I have heard called, Moab. Good reasoning, right?(:

Moab
Conor Oberst
I used up your compassion
So I've come to make a trade
You can hate me but just love me in return And if I know where to find you
I'll stay out of your way
I won't come beg to borrow all the happiness you earned

I'll just slide back down to the bottom While you make your place in the hills

There's nothing that the road cannot heal
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal

They say the sun won't burn forever
but that's a science too exact
I can prove it - Watch, we're crossing the state line
See those headlights coming towards us?
That's someone going back
To a town they said they'd never,yeah
They swore it on their lives

But you can't break out of a circle
That you never knew you were in
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal

Some would spend their precious time
trying to decorate their lives
Taking measurements for some new look they want
So from one to ten - ten's exactly what I am
Zero being everything I'm not
Tell me what you like

Is it less than five?
Is it less than five?

There's nothing that the road cannot heal
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
When I make it to Moab
I'll get my canteen filled
There's nothing that the road cannot heal
Washed under the blacktop
Gone beneath my wheels
There's nothing that the road cannot heal

This song is basically about how getting away or taking a break can replenish someone. In this case, a road trip to Moab, which is known as an outdoor, adventure place.

The first two stanzas are the main reasons why the singer, Conor Oberst, is sad, or needs a change.

The chorus is straightforward, a road trip, or getting away makes people feel a lot better and leave their, in a way, small problems behind ("Washed under the blacktop, gone beneath my wheels").

The rest of the song talks about material things that bring us down in life ("Some would spend their precious time trying to decorate their lives...") and how change, taking a break, etc. can clear your head ("That's someone going back to a town they said they'd never...").

The end is my favorite when Oberst says, "When I make it to Moab, I'll get my canteen filled. There's nothing that the road cannot heal." Oberst uses a metaphor to show that when he makes it to Moab, he will be rejuvenated and replenished, as if he was getting his canteen full again.

I can say that the last couple of weeks in school has really worn me out, and once I got to Moab, I realized how nice a break is. Therefore, I definitely related to this song.(:

A Poison Tree

A Poison Tree
William Blake

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, and my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And soft, deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night
Till it bore and apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

I really liked this poem! It makes the reader visualize a spectacular analogy between an apple tree and a grudge...and, to be honest, I love poems that rhyme, they sound so much more smooth if the rhymes aren't forced!

The second and third stanza is about a man who could not let go of his hatred, or grudge, that he held it in until it grew so deep his enemy could see. This poem, in a way, reminded me of Hamlet's plot to avenge his father. Hamlet thought about his hatred so much, that in the end, it consumed his whole life.

The third stanza explains how the author is so absorbed with his grudge, that he lets his enemy "win" because he put so much emotion and energy into his hatred.

The apple tree analogy shows this wonderfully.

Th rhyme scheme makes the poem flow well and it goes AABB for each stanza. There are four stanzas in the poem.

Much Madness is Divinest Sense

Much Madness is Divinest Sense
Emily Dickinson

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye,
Much sense, the starkest madness.
‘Tis the majority
In this, as all, prevail:
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur, you’re straightway dangerous
And handled with a chain.

I really like this poem because it brought up the question of being normal and left alone, or being strange and "handled with a chain." It kind of reminded me of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
The poem is pretty straightforward to me, in Dickinson's eyes, to be mad is to be perfect because you are not the same as everyone else. If you agree to be "normal," you are sane and if not, you are unstable and dangerous.

I think it is cool that just about anybody can relate to this poem because everyone is different. Even if you did not have a life as strange as Dickinson's, you still can feel the same.

I noticed in the poem's structure that only "sane" and "chain" rhyme, but nothing else. I wonder if it is just a coincidence or did she mean to do that, because nothing else rhymes? Hmm

Group Poem

Questions about purpose...
What is the meaning of life?
What will I achieve in my lifetime?
Am I important?
Will I be important?
How important will I be?
Why will I be important?
Does it matter if I'm important?
What makes important?
How do I make myself important?

Untitled

Untitled
Stephen Crane
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial, Who squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered; “But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”

Even though this poem is graphic and crazy, it was one of my favorites to interpret in class! Should that make me nervous?(:
Just kidding! But still...

This is how I imagined it as the reader literally:
I am walking through the desert- tired, sweaty, maybe lost... I see a figure in the distance hunched over. As I approach the creature he is starving, skin & bones, holding his heart in his hands. His hands and lips are bloody and you cannot see anything in his eyes. When I ask how it tastes I see his eyes shine with fear and sadness...then he responds that it is "bitter, and because it is my heart."

This is how imagined it as the reader figuratively:
I have a friend who is a good person, but always makes the wrong mistakes because he does not have good self-esteem. He always puts himself in the wrong situations and makes his life worse, and worse. When I try and stop him tell him it is okay and he can fix it, (“Is it good, friend?”) he acts like he wants to...but he doesn't because secretly, he wants his situation to be worse (“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered; “But I like it Because it is bitter, And because it is my heart.”) He is caught in the web of depression and he thinks the only way he can feel anything is to make matters worse.

Depresssssing...but interesting, I guess; that is how I interpreted it. I liked how simple and descriptive this poem was and how story-like.
Hmmmm...
I think I'll pick a happier poem next time...

Praise in Summer

Praise in Summer
Richard Wilbur

Obscurely yet most surely called to praise,
As sometimes summer calls us all, I said
The hills are heavens full of branching ways
Where star-nosed moles fly overhead the dead;
I said the trees are mines in air. I said
See how the sparrow burrows in the sky!
And then I wondered why this mad instead
Perverts our praise to uncreation, why
Such savor’s in this wrenching things awry.
Does sense so stale that it must needs derange
The world to know it? To a praiseful eye
Should it not be enough of fresh and strange
That trees grow green, and moles can course in clay,
And sparrows sweep the ceiling of our day?

To be honest, the only reason I chose this poem was because I miss summer...a lot. When I read it through it had very beautiful imagery and I thought it kind of reminded me of Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay." I'm not exactly sure why...maybe the imagery...maybe the mood...the bittersweet undertone?...maybe some hidden meaning I subconsciously understand...I don't know!

I don't really understand this poem and it is driving me crazy because I feel like I can relate to it when I don't even know what it means! I understand the first part, but is the second really simple, am I over analyzing it? I am guessing that it is about people not appreciating nature as they should...

Well, I guess one thing that I am sure about this poem is that it is a sonnet. Hopefully we will go over this in class(:

The Day Millicent Found the World

The Day Millicent Found the World
William Stafford

Every morning Millicent ventured farther into the woods. At first she stayed near light, the edge where bushes grew, where her way back appeared in glimpses among dark trunks behind her. Then by farther paths or openings where giant pines had fallen she explored ever deeper into the interior, till one day she stood under a great dome among columns, the heart of the forest, and knew: Lost. She had achieved a mysterious world where any direction would yield only surprise.

And now not only the giant trees were strange but the ground at her feet had a velvet nearness; intricate lines on bark wove messages all around her. Long strokes of golden sunlight shifted over her feet and hands. She felt caught up and breathing in a great powerful embrace. A birdcall wandered forth at leisurely intervals from an opening on her right: “Come away, Come away.” Never before had she let herself realize that she was part of the world and that it would follow Wherever she went. She was part of its breath.

Aunt Dolbee called her back that time, a high voice tapering faintly among the farthest trees, Milli-cent! Milli-cent! And that time she returned, but slowly, her dress fluttering along pressing back branches, her feet stirring up the dark smell of moss, and her face floating forward, a stranger’s face now, with a new depth in it, into the light.

I really enjoyed this poem when we read it in class last time, so I decided to say what I thought it was about when I read it. Of course, like almost all of my other ones, this blog will mostly be about the content of the poem.

I wanted to build off of what Becky said about this poem being about a coming-of-age theme...I think this poem is about a journey and learning experience, but I don't necessarily think that it about someone at a certain age, I think it can be anyone in particular.

I think the whole meaning and tone of this poem is about an epiphany, spiritual realization or the person growing intellectually...something along those lines.

I think the metaphor in the poem is that people have to experience something dark (the forest) and need to be lost to learn, grow, and be a part of the world (light). I think that "Millicent" can be any age, but she is only a child until she experiences darkness. She is changed and more wise when she runs to Aunt Dolbee's call into the light.

This poem was very story-like because it went through stages, and it used enjambment to create the story. There are 3 stanzas, the first two with 11 lines, and the second with 7 lines.

The Cat

The Cat Miroslav Holub

Outside it was night like a book without letters. And the eternal dark dripped to the stars through the sieve of the city.

I said to her do not go you’ll only be trapped and bewitched and will suffer in vain.

I said to her do not go why want nothing?

But a window was opened and she went,

a black cat into the black night, she dissolved, a black cat in the black night, she just dissolved and no one ever saw her again. Not even she herself.

But you can hear her sometimes, when it’s quiet and there’s a northerly wind and you listen intently to your own self.


I chose this poem because it reminded me of one of the song lyrics I analyzed in the first quarter (Passing Afternoon by Iron & Wine) because it generates the feeling of lost love and longing in the end of both poems.

Obviously, the cat is a woman who left him. To me, it seems like it is not because she didn't love him, it is because she was "a cat" and needed to leave for herself and change.

The fact that it is night, allows the poem to make sense because a black cat is usually pictured walking in the night, not the daylight. When he says the dark was a book without letters, it made me think that it is kind of "not alive" in a way. In the daylight things are active and new, while in the night it can be sad, scary and dark...a book without pages is the same because you cannot read it, but it is still there and the same, just different and dark. Sorry, it is really hard to explain my thoughts on this...

When she left into the dark "she dissolved" because he knew she was never coming back and because she changed or wanted to. She didn't want to be with him anymore (change). I imagined that in this poem she traveled to far off places, kind of gypsy-like and did not want a regular suburban life...totally left to the imagination but that is what I thought of.

In the end where he says

"and no one ever saw her again. Not even she herself. But you can hear her sometimes, when it’s quiet and there’s a northerly wind and you listen intently to your own self."

I interpreted it as she left, she had changed, and the man thought of this as she changed completely: "and no one ever saw her again. Not even she herself." The last stanza is about how he still thinks of her and wish she never left.


I really liked the flow of this poem, for some reason, even the way it was set up, it brought longing and the slow feeling of time, losing something you love. The short stanzas are what accomplished this...I also enjoyed how story-like it was, and how it went through time.

Change

Mrs. White, I have decided to make my blog more interesting and fun instead of boring and school-like...I think it will inspire me to write more and probably, it will make it more fun for you to read(:

Heritage

Heritage
James Still

I shall not leave these prisoning hills
Though they topple their barren heads to level earth
And the forests slide uprooted out of the sky.
Though the waters of Troublesome, of Trace Fork,
Of Sand Lick rise in a single body to glean the valleys,
To drown lush pennyroyal, to unravel rail fences;
Though the sun-ball breaks the ridges into dust
And burns its strength into the blistered rock
I cannot leave. I cannot go away.

Being of these hills, being on with the fox
Stealing into the shadows, one with the new-born foal,
The lumbering ox drawing green beech logs to mill,
One with the destined feet of man climbing and descending
And one with death rising to bloom again, I cannot go. Being of these hills, I cannot pass beyond.

I really enjoyed the concept and metaphors presented in this poem. I interpreted it as kind of a poem where you can never escape who you are and where you come from. It is like you want to escape, but you will never be able to.

This concept is apparent in the end of the poem that was italicized,
"And one with death rising to bloom again, I cannot go. Being of these hills, I cannot pass beyond."
That even in death, you cannot escape who you are or where you come from.


The poem used description and enjambment to create the theme of the poem, and used two stanzas to do this.

The Rose That Grew From Concrete (Blog # 19)

I decided I don't want to procrastinate on my poetry blog for this week so I'm writing it today.(:

Anyway, so I know I totally don't seem like the type to listen to Tupac, but I do...and I really like this poem he wrote!

The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac:

Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.

The whole poem is a metaphor, and the metaphor is pretty easy to detect. Basically, this is an autobiographical poem Tupac wrote about himself. He is the rose, and he learned to find his way by himself.

The poem is about Tupac having a hard upbringing by being poor and he got out of poverty himself because he followed his dreams. No one helped him through and against the odds he succeeded by getting out of poverty...at least that is what I took out of it.

The thing I like about this poem is that it is so simple, but very powerful.

Anyone can relate to this poem because it can be about overcoming a hardship and believing in yourself. I think that is why so many people like Tupac's music because the things he sings about are universal, everyone has struggles.

Alone (Blog #18)

This week I chose to write my blog on "Alone" by Edgar Allen Poe. This is the poem Taylor and I are presenting to the class.

This poem is very dark and has a depressing undertone. The poem is straightforward, but the description is very detailed and metaphorical. A think that "Alone" is a glimpse into Poe's actual feelings and it helps you understand how he wrote such dark, but cool stories.

In the first couple of lines, Poe describes how he sees the world differently than others, how he never fit in and basically, was alone. The feeling the poem generated for me was that Poe was so consumed and overtaken with being alone and never fitting in, that he turned to darkness because it was the only thing that accepted him. The last half of the poem made me think this when he described the cloud that formed like a demon.

Desert Places (Blog #17)

I picked Desert Places by Robert Frost as my first poem for the new semester because I really love his work. Despite the depressing mood of the poem I thought that is was enjoyable because of the comparison of nature to emotion is always very beautiful.(:

Frost describes the snow as something desolate and in a way, lonely. I really related to this because...winter is not my season and snow is not my thing; I am a summer person. Anyway, I think Frost's metaphor of his loneliness and the lonely feeling winter brings is brilliant. Even if someones favorite season is winter, they have to admit that it is the most lonely season of all.

I noticed the stanzas were rhymed verses and the rhyme scheme of the poem was:
A
A
B
A
The majority of the rhymes were masculine rhymes
and there was 4 lines in each stanza. There was a total of 4 stanzas.
The tone was reflective and melancholy.