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.