Dover Beach (Tone Poems)

"The Sea of Faith/ Was once, too, at the full"

This poem by Matthew Arnold is an extended metaphor comparing the sea to faith. At first, the speaker is discussing the beauty of the sea. He seems to be on the beach at the cliffs of Dover in England on the French coast. I'm confused on the last two lines of stanza one that says, "With tremulous cadence slow, and bring/ The eternal note of sadness in." I also need more explanation regarding the second stanza. The speaker then transitions to the "Sea of Faith." He says that is once was full, but lately it has been less beautiful. He is claiming that people have been losing their faith and he is lamenting this religious decline. He is still a believer and wants others to come back. He tells his audience, "love, let us be true/ To one another!" I find the last line, "Where ignorant armies clash by night" to be very effective. Whether the armies are literal or figurative, he still makes the point of the uselessness of fighting and lack of faith and love.

Getting Out (Tone Poems)

"We held on tight, and let go."

This poem is about a couple who split from a marriage. The speaker is the woman, and she is addressing her ex-husband. In the first line, she uses a simile, "waking like inmates who beat the walls," comparing her and her husband before they split to inmates. She uses the pronoun "we" a lot, leading me to think that their split was not being blamed on one of them and that the feeling was mutual. They both agreed that the realtionship was heading in the wrong direction, but at the same time they were sad to be ending their marriage and be leaving each other. This is proven in the text, "Taking hands we walked apart, until our arms stretched between us. We held on tight, and let go." I think the woman is understanding that splitting was the best thing, but she can't help but miss him and reminisce their relationship.

The Apparition (Tone Poems)

"When by thy scorn, O murderess, I am dead,"

The speaker's tone in this poem is very angry and vengeful. He is angry with a woman that he had a previous relationship with, probably an ex-wife or ex-girlfriend. Based on the quote above, she has killed him. There seems to be text that supports the literal meaning that she actually killed him, but I don't think it truly is meant to be taken literally. He says, "then shall my ghost come to thy bed," which means that he is going to haunt her. The speaker then mentions another man, who the woman is with now. He is most likely saying that he is going to be a burden to their relationship. The speaker insists that "my love is spent," but in reality, if he was over this girl, he would not be going through this much trouble. I think that the speaker still has feelings for the woman and is angry that she doesn't like him back. Also, he is jealous of the new guy she is with.

Crossing the Bar (Tone Poems)

"I hope to see my Pilot face to face/ When I have crossed the bar."

In this poem, the speaker is talking of his death. He is most likely close to death and explaining how he feels about it. He says, "may there be no moaning of the bar" and "may there be no sadness of farewell," which implies that he does not want people to be upset when he dies. He uses an extended metaphor of drifting out into the sea as dying. The text says, "When I put out to sea." "When I embark," and "When I have crossed the bar" all representing his death. The moment of death is expressed in the first line, "Sunset and evening star." The speaker does not want his death to be a big deal for others. In the quote above, the speaker refers to "my Pilot" which I understood to be God, who he will see "face to face" in heaven. Suprisingly, this poem is not sad, even though it is about death.

My mistress' eyes (Tone Poems)

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;"

In Shakespeare's poem, he is comparing parts of his mistress to nature. He uses lots of similes to make the connectionns. He is praising nature by saying that the things he sees in nature are much better than what he sees in his mistress. At first, I thought it was a poem more about how bad his mistress was, but then came to realize that he was just in awe of nature's beauty. In the end, he explains that he still loves this girl more than anything. The lines, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare" prove this statement. Shakespeare is contrasting with the normal comparisons used in love poems and saying that he doesn't love her any less, but doesn't have to lie about her physical attributes. He says that one does not have to lie to his mistress to love her.

next to of course god america i (POUI Poems)

"they did not stop to think"

Cumming's poem seems to be very sloppy, but of course, this is for a reason. I think he wants the reader to understand that this quote was done in a hurry and not meant to be completely formal. Based on the quotation marks and the last line, "He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water" the "He" is someone giving a speech to an audience. I think the actual speaker of the poem though, is someone in the audience who is quickly recording the speech and adding in their opinion at the same time, maybe a journalist. The person giving the speech is very patriotic and even references lines from the Star Spangled Banner, "oh say can you see by the dawn's early." Based on the quote I have at the top, I don't think that the person in the audience totally agrees with the person giving the speech. There is also irony in the poem when it says, "what could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead." Yes, the soldiers are heroic, but the war/fighting eventually led to their death, which is not beautiful or happy. The speaker clearly finds war to be foolish. I'm still not totally sure, but I think the speaker is a journalist criticizing the President's speech.

APO 96225 (POUI Poems)

"Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm on women and children."

This poem was one of my favorite's of the chapter. I think it was easy to visualize, understand, and relate to. The speaker is a narrator describing the letters being sent between a son and his family, while he is serving for the military. Based on the questions after the poem, I realized the title is the mailing address of the 25th Infantry Division in the Vietnam War. The poem is full of understatements, which are all the letters the son shares with his family about his experience, except for one. He talks about the rain, the funny monkeys, and the sunset, until finally he gives into his family and tells them what is really going on. His response was the quote above. Situational irony comes in when his father writes back saying, "Please don't write such depressing letters. You're upsetting your mother." This response represented most of America's view of Vietnam. They wanted to act like they cared and were involved in the war, but really did not know what was going on and did not want to hear the terrible truth.

Holy Trinity (POUI Poems)

"I, like an usurped town"

The poem "Batter my heart, three-personed God" by John Donne references the Holy Trinity. The speaker, and probably in this case the author, are Christian and believe in the one being of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The speaker is talking to God asking for help. Lines 2 and 4 are parallel to each other. The words "knock" and "break," "breathe" and "blow," and "shine" and "burn" each resemble the other. He compares himself to "an usurped town" and I looked up usurped, which means captured. The speaker could be captured by sin and wants God to forgive him of his sin. Also, "betrothed unto your enemy" could represent sin taking over his life. He recognizes his wrongdoings and understands that he needs God's help to be forgiven and avoid sin. This poem could easily be a prayer that the speaker is saying, or that the author made up.

Ozymandias (POUI Poems)

"Look on my works"

This poem also has lots of irony. One thing I noticed after only reading through the poem once was the irony of the words on the sculpture's pedestal. It read "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" The ironic part is that Ozymandias did not touch one stone, use one tool, or help at all with the sculpture, but yet the pedestal said, "Look on MY works." Also, the next line reads, "Nothing beside remains." Despite his boastfulness, the Egyptian tyrant's kingdom no longer exists. The speaker is purposefully trying to distance himself from the situation and time period. That is why he said that the "traveller from an antique land who said:" Antique means old, so the speaker is not from the same time period. I think that the author is critizing tyrants in this poem and saying that they are not really immortal, and their works and monuments will not last forever.

Barbie Doll (POUI Poems)

"So she cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered them up."

In this poem the speaker is reflecting a girl's life. The girl in the poem grows up a normal life, and once she hits puberty, she is told by a classmate, "You have a great big nose and fat legs" which means the classmate called her ugly. The author is emphasizing that even though the girl was completely normal, her peers only focused on her looks. She was told what to do to be accepted by them. As it would on anyone, the way her classmates treated her made her feel self-conscious. Eventually, she did not accept herself and couldn't take it anymore, so she killed herself, which is the meaning of the quote above. It's sad to think about, but the story depicted in this poem happens all the time. I think Piercy is trying to convey the message of being kind to all people and focusing on what is on the inside more than the out. The whole last stanza was ironic because with her legs covered and make up on, the other people finally said she looked pretty. This is supposedly "a happy ending," when truthfully it is a tragedy.

The Joy of February (Chapter 5 Poem Blogs)

"your small pink bumhole"


No, I did not misread the title of a poem. This blog is addressing both of the poems, "February" and "The Joy of Cooking." Both of these poems were extremely odd and hard to comprehend the meaning. "The Joy of Cooking"  is literally a description of how the speaker is preparing to eat parts of her siblings bodies. I don't think the speaker is actually a cannibal. She might be criticizing her sister by saying that she talks to much. She could also be saying that her brother is mean and cold-hearted. The quote at the top is a line in "February." I am interested to see what we have to say in group discussions about the diction in this poem. The speaker talks about his cat for most of the poem. The speaker also makes it clear by the end of the poem that he or she hates February, and wants the spring to come. "Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it spring."

Dream Deferred (Chapter 5 Poem Blogs)

"Or does it explode?"

I'm not sure if I liked this poem more for its length or the way it made me think. In the body of the poem, the speaker describes the feelings of having one's dream deferred to swell up and act slowly on the inside. Then the last line totally changes, and asks "Or does it explode?" I think the answer to these rhetorical questions depend on the person. Hughes is saying that letting disappointment and rejection build up inside can lead to an explosion/destruction/break-down. The entire poem uses similes, except for the last line. The dream is a goal, not a dream from sleeping. Referring to question 2 in the text book, the fact that Hughes was a black American plays into the poem. He certainly had dreams of being viewed as an equal to whites and having equal opportunities. This dream kept being turned down, so the poem is asking how this can affect someone. I don't know when this poem was written, but MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech was given four years before Hughes' death.

Toads (Chapter 5 Poem Blogs)

"But I do say it's hard to lose either,/ When you have both."

The poem "Toads" is an extended metaphor. The poem is describing two toads. The first one is the speaker's material wants. "Just for paying a few bills!" and "that's the stuff/ That dreams are made on;" are examples of how the first toad is referring to material wants. The second toad is the speaker's spiritual wants/ religion. His spiritual wants hold him back from getting his material wants. This is clear in the eighth stanza. One way to tell what the toads mean is that the first toad "Squat[s] on my life" and the second toad "Squats in me." Stanza three is a large alliteration, but I am not totally sure its purpose. The central purpose of this poem makes a lot of sense to me and often is a problem I also have. I work hard to obtain my material wants, but sometime my morals hold me back from getting some things, which they should. The final stanza says that the contradicting toads annoy him, but he would rather have both of them, than just one.

Oh Emily! (Chapter 5 Poem Blogs)

"I taste a liquor never brewed-"

Both of the Emily Dickinson poems we have read in class have had the title and the first line of the poem be the same text. I'm not sure how significant that is, but just an observation I noticed. This poem is a very deep and strange poem, similar to "I felt a funeral, in my Brain." The peom is a quatrain poem with four stanzas. The poem has sixteen hyphens, some lines with none, some with a hyphen at the end of the line, and some with two hyphens. I'm very curious to find the meaning behind all of the hyphens. In this poem, the speaker is having a feeling of intoxication, but not from alcohol, hence "never brewed." The things around her are making her drunk, such as the "Air," "Dew," and "summer days." I'm not sure what the "Bee" and "Butterflies" are referring to in stanza three, and I'm still trying to figure out how she is getting drunk. Whatever she is "drinking," she is never going to stop drinking it.

Bright Star (Chapter 5 Poem Blogs)

"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-"

This quote is the first line in John Keats poem and is the central purpose of the poem. The speaker wants to be forever unchanging, like the "Bright star." He is addressing the bright star, which is most likely the North Star or Polaris. The speaker is in love and is currently with his lover. He never wants to leave this situation and wants to be with her for forever. Lines 10-14 allow the reader to recognize that the two lovers are cuddling or very close together. The star is "watching, with eternal lids apart" over Earth, not the star being watched by Earth. Lines 5-6 use religious themes to describe the characteristics of the star. Keats uses "moving waters" (holy water) "priestlike" and "pure ablution."

The Panther (Poem Blogs)

"like a ritual dance around a center"

Even though the tone of this poem was sort of depressing, I really enjoyed and somewhat related to it. I want to answer the first critical thinking question after the poem, which says, "Why do you think Rilke chooses a panther rather than, say, a lion as the subject of the poem's images?" My answer was that a panther has different qualities that Rilke wanted to portray. A panther is a slick, black cat, which I think makes it very unique and mysterious. The panther is caged in a zoo or a circus. It wants to be released and be free, but it can't. I think the panther could resemble humans, or specifically the author. I can relate to the poem, becuase sometimes with the responsibilities of school, and basketball, and the pressures from the social aspect of life, I feel caged or trapped. I feel like I have to do exactly what other people think is right, but all the while, I want to be "released into the wild" and do my own thing.

Those Winter Sundays (Poem Blogs)

"No one ever thanked him."

This poem by Robert Hayden is a reflection back at a time earlier in his, or a character's, life. He now realizes how much his father actually did for him. Many times his father got up early on a Winter Sunday to warm the house and get everyone else ready for the day. The author regrets the fact that "no one ever thanked him." He recognizes all the good that came from his father, and is mad at himself for not being more appreciative. He is offering advice to other kids to not take what their parents do for granted. The last two lines were confusing to me. I think by saying these last two lines, he is admitting that as a kid/teen he thought he knew everything. Now, he realizes how much he misses and appreciates everything his father did, especially on "those winter Sundays."

The Convergence of the Twain (Poem Blogs)

"And consumation comes, and jars two hemispheres."

First off, "Twain" from the title has nothing to do with Mark Twain, and means "two." The poem has to do with the Titanic and includes the time leading up to and including the crash into the iceberg. The diction of the poem portrays that the ship and the iceberg were destined for each other. Words like "mate," intimate welding," "twin halves," and "consumation" suggest this destiny. Hardy is suggesting that the people felt the Titanic with all its luxuries and opulence was an amazing testimony to the power of man. He then tells the reader that God and nature will always be more powerful. "The Pride of Life," "Immanent Will," and "the Spinner of the Years" all stand for God, who is controlling this fate of the collision of the Titanic and the iceberg. The theme of the poem is human vanity < indifferent nature. I enjoyed Hardy's outlook on such a common known event.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (Poem Blogs)

"My Mind was going numb-"

This Emily Dickinson poem uses the literary term, quatrain. It is a poem that consists of five quatrains, that are four lines grouped together as a unit. I think the purpose of this is just to keep some of her thoughts separate from each other. I found this poem to be pretty confusing. I really want to know if there is a purpose for her randomly capitolizing some words, and not others, and if so, what is her reasoning or methodology? The overall meaning of the poem is kind of fuzzy too. Death is always connected with a funeral, so something is dying in her mind. Regardless of what is actually dying, she is having serious issues with her internal self. She leaves the ending open so the reader is able to decide on an ending for themselves.

William Williams... really? (Poetry Blogs)

"... not/ with the cold fire/ that closes round me this year."

This quote comes from William Carlos Williams' poem titled "The Widow's Lament in Springtime." I noticed the use of the oxymoron "cold fire" the first time I read the poem. I think the author uses the oxymoron because he wanted to portray the widow's feelings to resemble the intensity that a fire creates. He wants to clarify that it is a dark, sad, "cold" feeling this year, unlike the others. The oxymoron is parallel to "where the new grass/ flames at it has flamed/ often before" because of the theme of fire. The widow obviously had a positive relationship with her husband, especially in the springtime. I think it could be that this particular day or just a day in the spring was the date of her wedding anniversary. I enjoyed the addition of the widow's son to the poem. This made the poem a lot less depressing, knowing that she has a family to comfort her.

Perrine Poetry Blog

Overall, I agree with most of Perrine's points on how to determine "correct" interpretations of poetry. I agree that not every interpretation of a poem is correct. Some ideas can be too farfetched, that the details of the poem do not match the understanding. However, I think that if the main idea of the poem is understood, everyone's interpretation of each detail does not have to be the same, within reason of course. Who is to say that Perrine's understanding of every poem is not actually the truth in which the writer intended? One of his points that confuses me is that he says the best interpretation is the most "economical." There could easily be two different understandings of a poem that cover all the details and yet both make sense. Some writer's may purposefully leave their poems open-ended to allow readers to come up with their own meanings. In this case, there can be more than one correct interpretation.

My interpretation of Dickinson's poem was close to the correct meaning. I recognized the sunset being observed, but I took some of the details to be literal. I thought the "ships" "sailors" and "wharf"were actually being seen by the writer. I feel like my interpretation is just as logical as Perrine's. I was very surprised by the difference between the two poems that were compared. When reading Melville's poem, I did not recognize that he was actually talking about stars. After he told me the real meaning, I recognized all of the details and it made much more sense. I'm still confused on how he sees the poem as a question of the legitemacy of God, though. I thought Perrine's explanatons of details to be insightful. I agreed with the point, "a symbol 'means what it says and another thing besides.'" Symbols are open to more interpretaions than direct details. I think this article helped me recognize that I cannot look at a line or detail of a poem and understand its meaning. The true meaning lies in the poem as a whole, including every detail put together.