Crossing the Bar

As a small group we decided that this poem was a pretty easy one to interpret. My notes, before the small group discussion changed very little. I mentioned that "put out to sea" and "when I embark" symbolized death and the pilot symbolized God. The whole poem basically says that the speaker is nearing death. In my notes i also said that line two "One clear call for me!" Basically meant that the speaker is ready to die; they know it's their time. In our group we noticed a contradiction to this. Line 10 says "And after that the dark!". We felt like this was a contradiction because this person is supposed to be happy and peaceful "sailing off to heaven" and then out of nowhere they mention the dark. We decided the tone was sort of "accepting" in the sense that the speaker is accepting of the fact that it is their time to die. This idea can also be supported in the fact that the speaker wants their to be "no sadness of farewell" when he dies. Grace mentioned that this mirrors the idea in the song "when I'm Gone" by Eminem. I feel compelled to add a few lyrics from the song: " And when I'm gone, just carry on, don't mourn Rejoice every time you hear the sound of my voice"

My mistress' eyes

I'll admit- when I read this I thought "wow, the speaker in this poem is a jerk." I took the poem and a sort of laundry list pointing out all the negative aspects of the speakers mistress. However, after we discussed the poem in our large group I really started to like it. A lot of the time I don't enjoy poetry. Half of the time I feel like what I am reading makes no sense. I feel like the poet just wrote a bunch of different words that sounded really fancy or cool together but didn't have a real meaning to them. I hate reading lines of poetry where the speaker just goes on and on about how beautiful a woman is by comparing her to unrealistic things. The fact that Shakespeare satirizes this concept is awesome. On the other hand, I feel like there had to be a better way to do so than to make this woman sound ugly. Basically the whole poem felt like one of those statements people make when asked "is she pretty?" - if this person is clearly not cut out for Miss America the typical answer is something along the lines of "well, she has a great personality". Even though I don't think that is quite what Shakespeare was going for, it's hard to get little else from the poem. The first 12 out of 14 lines basically explains everything this girl is not. Oh but then he throws in two lines about how shes rare and there's no one who can compare and that is supposed to make up for it? I love the idea of the poem, but I don't really like how Shakespeare did it. But it's Shakespeare....so 400 and some years late my opinion really doesn't really matter. obviously if we are still reading this poem it must be pretty dang good.

The Apparition

The speaker in this poem is speaking to their love indirectly. This poem is more like the thoughts/ plans of a man who is expecting to be cheated on. I got the image of the movie "ghosts of girlfriends past"stuck in my head after reading this. After talking in our small groups (and with help from you of course) we figured out that the speaker was not actually in a relationship with the woman that he is referring to. This made more sense- especially when looking at certain lines such as lines 2-3 "And thou thinkst thee free From all solicitation from me,". I looked up the definition of solicitation, adn though it had several different entries, the one i felt best fit this poem said "To persistently endeavor to obtain an object, or bring about an event; To woo; to court;" Basically how I understood this was that this guy continues to creep on this girl and she avoids him or refuses him time and time again. The speaker then says that when he dies she is going to think that she doesn't have to worry about him bothering her anymore- but this couldn't be further from the truth because he plans to haunt her. He plans to come to her bedside as a ghost to scare her but because she will be with a man "worse" than him, she will be neglected when she turns to him for comfort. We decided that the tone of the poem was revenge... even though the speaker is planning to get revenge on someone who hasn't even done wrong to him yet.

Getting Out

I really liked this poem. Although in my initial reading I thought the tone of the poem would be more negative, it became clear to me that nostalgic would be a better description. From the title I think I automatically assumed that the "break up" taking place in the poem ended rough. Using the term "getting out" instead of something like "going our separate ways" definitely seems very negative. In the poem however, I think there is much more support to the claim that the speaker and her former lover will miss each other. I think the best example is in line 18 where the speaker says "still I'm startled by men who look like you". Another example that manifests the nostalgia for the love they shared can be found in the final lines where the speaker is describing their last encounter together and how they cried in front of the lawyers holding hands, and then finally let go. This seems so contradictory to the beginning of the poem. In the first stanza the speaker describes their relation as being somewhat forced. She goes as far to say that they are like "inmates". When I read that line I immediately got the image that they felt trapped in the bond of marriage even though they weren't in love. By the end of the poem however it's obvious that they still care for one another- but sometimes just caring about each other isn't enough to make a marriage work. I could really relate to this idea because my parents got divorced when I was in third grade. They still care about each other to this day but they felt that they couldn't make their marriage work. After they separated they started to get along much better- which is what I think the speaker and her husband decided to do.

Sorting Laundry

I liked this poem because it was very simple. At first, reading it I thought Really? someone wrote a whole poem about laundry? But after reading the whole thing it really kind of made sense to me. There were two stanzas that I felt stood out; lines 25-27 and lines 49-51. I liked lines 25-27 because I can relate to what the speaker is saying. "And what's shrunk is tough to discard even for Goodwill." It's funny because no matter how old or small something is, if it holds some sort of emotional value to us we are reluctant to give it away. I thought this was the speakers way of relating her love to her clothes/ laundry. She does this again in the final stanza where she says "a mountain of unsorted wash could not fill the empty side of the bed." Basically, what i understood from this poem was that every little thing reminded this woman of her lover. Something as simple as doing the laundry was difficult to do without thinking about the hopes and dreams and memories they shared. She describes how every article of clothing reminds her of her love- from the towels they bought together to take to the beach, or the sheets they used to cover their bed.

Ozymandias

(As noted in question 3) Ozymandias was an Egyptian tyrant. From this, it is easy to understand what the poem is about. What I believe this poem to mean is that Ozymandias was a ruler who really did not accomplish much. And even if he did, people were not likely to remember. They describe him saying (lines4-5) "Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,". Then the author finishes the poem saying (lines 12-14) Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away." What I took this to mean was that the empire didn't last. The only thing that remains of the empire is Ozymandias' reputation as a tyrant and a poor leader. In repsonse to question 12, I think Ozymandias is a symbol. I believe he represents all leaders. He serves as an example that if you are a harsh tyrant, you will not be appreciated by your people. When time passes people will not mention the great things you did, but rather your harsh nature. I think that leaders should keep this in mind because although at times it is important to be firm and strict, you do not want that to be what you are most remembered for.

APO 96225

I thought this poem was very realistic. One thing I really liked about the poem was that you could feel the emotions of the different people in the poem. When reading the poem I could imagine and hear in my head a young man writing to his mom and trying to sound very optimistic. On the other end, i could imagine a worried and scared mother begging to know what her son has gotten himself into. The central theme of this poem can be seen in a variety of different things I think. I thought the main point of the poem was that we always want to know the truth. When we feel like we arent given the whole story we always press people to tell us every detail even when we know we are better off not knowing. Therefore, when they do tell us we regret ever asking in the first place. The mother begs and pleads her son to be honest with her and tell her exactly what's going on, but the minute he tells her she becomes extremely upset. Also, in our small group someone mentioned that maybe the mother just wanted to believe that her son was okay. She wasn't asking him to tell her more because she wanted to know more, but rather she was asking for him to assure her that he is fine. This poem was writtien about the Vietnam War- which got a lot of negative attention. Our small group thought maybe the mother just wanted her son to reassure her that the war wasnt as bad as people made it out to be. Either way, the mother was clearly not ready for the truth.

Barbie Doll

This was probably my favorite poem in this unit because I feel like it sends a really strong message. In response to question 6 (What is the central purpose of the poem?), i think the poet had one central thought/ idea he wanted to get through to her readers. I believe this poem is about how a person "dies" when they do everything they can to change their appearance. The girl in the poem is clearly unhappy with how she looks because people always pointed out the negative things about her. She was smart and healthy but after awhile these things werent enough to satisfy her and therefore she had to change her appearance. lines 15-18 "Her good nature wore out like a fan belt. So she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up." The final stanza describes her body in a casket and how people are commenting about how pretty she looks. I took this to mean she wasn't literally dead, just figuratively. The old her was dead and she is now this flat unhearty and sad person whose only wish is to please other people through her appearance. I thought the overall tone of the poem was very negative. Basically the author's point is don't let your insecurities change who you are. This girl thought she would finally be happy when she changed how she looked, but she lost herself instead.

Toads

I'm going to admit right now that I really struggled with this unit of poetry. Most of these poems were over my head the first time I read them and it wasn't until the group discussions that I actually got something out of them. The poem "Toads" by Philip Larkin is a great example of one. I honestly have no idea why the author even mentions the toad in this poem. I felt like central theme of the poem was about all the negative things in a persons life. I think the best support for this idea could be found in the second stanza "Six days of the week it soils With its sickening poison- Just for paying a few bills! That's out of proportion." I took this to mean that the speaker is unhappy with his job that he works six days a week just to get by. Another stanza that stuck out to me was the seventh one. It says "For something sufficiently toad-like squats in me, too; Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck and cold as snow." From the word "squat" I got the impression that the speaker is saying that he is holding something back- something that bothers him and weighs him down. It almost seems like the speaker is envious of other people. He mentions the lives of other people a lot by saying "Lots of folk live..." which to me seems like he is longing for something they posses. Another possible support to this idea is in lines 29-32 where the speaker says "And will never allow me to blarney My way to getting The fame and the girl and the money All at one sitting." Im not really sure if thats on the right track or not so i would like to go over this poem in class together!

February

So... this was an interesting poem. When I first read it I honestly didn't think there was much depth to the poem. I thought it was about sex.. and that was pretty much it. Even in lines that may not have been intended to sound sexual I sort of got the impression they were. ex ". . .jumps up on the bed and tries to get onto my head. It’s his way of telling whether or not I’m dead. If I’m not, he wants to be scratched; if I am He’ll think of something" and "He shoots he scores!" The overall tone I got from my initial read was pretty negative. Especially in the lines where it says " It’s all about sex and territory, which are what will finish us off in the long run. Some cat owners around here should snip a few testicles. If we wise hominids were sensible, we’d do that too, or eat our young, like sharks." Basically what my interpretation of the poem was that Margaret Atwood was against reproduction. To me, this poem says that if we were smart we wouldn't be worried about sex or territory because if we do then these things will be our demise. I didn't really understand why she used a cat in this poem until we discussed it in our small groups. Someone in my group said that they thought Atwood was equating male behaviors to cat behaviors (later we established this idea in our large group discussion). After searching for the deeper meanings I really did like this poem better than many of the others in this unit. One thing I noticed about the poem (whether it's really significant or not) is that the first word of the poem is winter and the last word is spring- which to me seem like complete opposites (winter usually symbolizes death and spring new life). I felt like maybe this was a reflection in the tone of the poem because although Atwood starts off by saying if we are wise we will "snip a few testicles" she ends the poem saying "so get going on a little optimism around here". I dont know if that makes sense, but it's just a thought

Bright Star

In response to question 2, the speaker is obviously speaking directly to the star. This literary technique is called an apostrophe. The speaker in this case is a man (we can assume this from line 10 when he says "pillowed upon my love's ripening breast"). To be honest, I didn't completely understand the message of the poem until we discussed it in a large group. This is because I found it to be too contradictory. I could not decide whether the speaker admired the poem- such as in line 1 "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-" or if he did not want to be like the star - such as in line 2 "Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night,". It wasn't until we discussed the poem as a class that I accepted the idea that the speaker really meant both of these things. In my initial reading however I did note several words that I thought really contributed to the theme of the poem. The speaker uses several words which have similar meanings: "steadfast (2x), eternal, sleepless, unchangeable, forever(2x), still (2x), and so live ever" I thought all of these words/ phrases had a specific reason for being in the poem. Obviously the speaker wanted to be with his fair love forever- I just couldn't really relate this idea to star until we put it all together in class. After discussing it in a large group though I understood it to mean that the speaker basically wants to love forever or at least love for a little and then "swoon to death". This he related to the star because a star never changes which is what he wants his love to be like.

Pink Dog

A few members of my small group and I had different opinions on the topic of the poem. While half of us thought the poem was referring to a beggar whereas the other half of the group thought it was referring to a prostitute. I think the argument could go either way because there is evidence to support both opinions. I was under the impression it was about a beggar simply because it describes a dog who goes begging. The second stanza i felt really supported this idea. "Oh, never have I seen a dog so bare! Naked and pink, without a single hair. . . Startled, the passersby draw back and stare". To me, this definitely supported the idea that the dog represents a hobo. First of all the author calls the dog naked and bare. I thought this symbolized a homeless person because they lack shelter and warmth just like this dog lacks its fur coat. Another thing that stuck out to me was the fact that the author mentioned that the "passersby draw back and stare". This reminded me of the way people react the poor begging for change on the street. Most people by and stare in disgust. Other people in my group said that the pink dog represented a prostitute because the author mentions the dog having children and wearing mascara. I'm not really sure which is right, but my personal opinion is that the dog symbolizes the poor.

A Dream Deferred

So, out of all the poems in this unit I would have to say this was my favorite one... And that's not just because it was the shortest and easiest to understand (or so I think), but because when I read it I immediately got the impression that it was written for anyone. To me, the message of the poem was simple "Go for a dream you have as soon as you can. If you wait it could be too late and you will miss out on your opportunity". What I thought was really interesting about this poem was the fact that it was written by Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance so he most likely wrote this for the African American community. Either way, I thought it was a really versatile poem in the way that anyone could apply it to their life. Another thing i liked about the poem was Hughes use of similes to get his point across. Instead of saying something like "you will regret not going for a dream" or "it will always bother you to know that you didn't take that chance" Hughes says "[Does it].. fester like a sore- and then run?" I thought that was a really strong image.

Spring

I thought this poem was almost the easiest one to understand. Obviously it takes place during the springtime (question 5). Everyone knows that spring represents new life- that's when all the flowers are blooming and you get the image of bunnies and ducklings and all sorts of happy things. the author conveys this idea with different words such as "beautiful, blooms, richness, lambs, joy, Eden". The poem therefore is about the innocence of spring. It represents unmarked and pure life. The author is comparing Spring to children because they both posses the innocence of youth. One line that really supports this idea is, "Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning" The author is basically saying that yes everything in springtime (as in youth) is beautiful and pure- but that's only at first. Soon it will "cloud" or become tarnished by sin. I can;t really think of a word to describe the overall tone of the poem, however I would say that the overarching theme of this poem is the idea that springtime is just like youth- beautiful and pure.

I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

Not gonna lie, this one was kinda creepy. When I first read it I immediately picked up on the idea- this girl is dead and she's talking about what it is like inside the coffin. Weird. But after our large group discussion someone pointed out another way to interpret this poem which i think fits. They said it's almost as if the speaker is going crazy- the mourners then would be the people around her trying to help her and bring her back to reality. One line that really struck me was "My Mind was going numb-" I think the author is trying to tell the reader that she really is losing her train of thought. I think the poem says a lot about who the speaker is: a woman who is slowly becoming delusional and she doesn't realize it until it's too late (question 2). The last stanza, I believe, really supports this thought. it says, "And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down- And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing then". This to me seems like the speaker finally realized (plank of reason) "okay, I'm crazy" but this realization is too much for her to handle and she snaps "broke, And I dropped down, and down.." And that's when her state becomes basically irreversible.

After Apple Picking

So I'm not completely sure if I fully understood what this poem meant. I thought the poem was about a person who has died. Their life therefore is being described as apple-picking. The first line, "My long two-pointed ladder's sticking thorough a tree Toward heaven still And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough". I thought this meant that the speaker was going up to heaven- like walking up the ladder. He stops and thinks about his life and how it is incomplete: "barrel that i didn't fill". And the next part "and there may be two or three Apples..." I took to mean that there were still a few people he hadn't forgiven in his life that he wanted to before he died. More support I found within the poem are the phrases "Long sleep" and "But I am done with apple-picking now." I thought both of these symbolized death. (question 12) I thought the whole poem was an allegory- the speaker is dead and on his way to heaven. He is looking back and his life at all the things he didn't get the chance to make right or finish. The title "After Apple-Picking" I feel could be interpreted as "After Living" because essentially the poem is about how one feels about their life once they are dead.

"Those Winter Sundays"

I thought that the overall tone of this poem was regret. A lot of people disagree and said that it was sort of like suppressed anger that the author had about his father. I don't think this is true because of the first stanza. He says "...then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze." I thought the fact that the author took the time to say that his fathers hands were cracked and he was in physical pain from his labor showed that the author noticed and wanted the reader to visualize the amount of work the father did. Also, the author ends the first stanza with the sentence "No one ever thanked him." To me it's like he's saying "My dad worked so hard all these years and we never took the time to notice or appreciate it." The last stanza especially solidified my thought because he says "What did i know, what did i know of love's austere and lonely offices?" (I looked up austere just to make sure and it means strict) Therefore I took this poem to be almost a reflection. This man has grown up and finally realized and appreciated his fathers strictness and his hard work that as a child he really couldn't relate to- he was "indifferent" as he says. I liked this poem just because I think a lot of people can apply it to their lives. They don't appreciate what their parents do for them now because they think they are being annoying or overprotective but when they get older they will be thankful that their parents cared so much for them. The central theme of the poem is that as one grows older they learn to appreciate things they didn't notice while they were young.

"The Widows Lament"

The overall tone of this poem seems negative (question8) . Obviously the widow is upset over the loss of her husband. In our small groups a lot of people talked about the flowers symbolizing a funeral. I don't think that is true. When i read this poem it kind of reminded me of my dad. Recently my dad found his best friend dead in his home. Although my dad was very upset over this loss, he distanced himself from the situation. My dad never shows emotion. This reminded me of the poem because the woman lost her husband- someone who was obviously very close to her. It seemed like both my dad and the widow (and anyone else who loses someone close to them) is torn between two thoughts - she wants to run from the pain and the memories (which i thought represented her mind because she says "sorry is my own yard" her yard is her mind because its where she is confined to and she wants to leave because it reminds her of her husband) - but at the same time I think she would feel bad and that is why she says she wants to sink in the marsh and fall in the flowers. She wants to move on and be happy but she doesn't to be happy because she feels bad about losing him and doesn't want to forget him.

I'm Always Right.... Or Am I?

I actually enjoyed reading this article because it brought up a question that a lot of people have "How do you know what is right/wrong when interpreting poetry?" I think a lot of times people just assume that you really can't be wrong about how you interpret a poem. I don't agree with this assumption. If a poem is all about flowers and someone decides its really about nuclear warfare, that is clearly wrong. However, I did like the comparison Perrine made in his paper. He compared poems to inkblots - in the fact that it is really up to the reader to decide what they believe the poem is about. Another thing I found interesting in this article was the way in which the poets seemed to react towards the topic of interpretation. Perrine says, "No poet, however likes to be caught in the predicament of having to explain his own poems. He cannot say, 'What I really meant was. . .' without admitting failure, or without saying something different (and usually much less) than what his poem said." This part really stuck out to me, maybe because it reminded me of the ending of The Sun Also Rises in the way that the author uses ambiguity to create more of an effect. After reading this it seemed to me that Perrine says Poets don't want to be too clear on the meanings of their poems so that readers may interpret them however they really want.
In his paper, Perrine lists the two criteria used for interpretation: that the interpretation is not contradicted by any other details within the poem and that if there are multiple interpretations then the most accurate one is the one that "relies on fewest assumptions not grounded in the poem itself." At first i really had no clue what the second one meant. However, after reading the example listed by Thomas Huxley the idea seemed to register. Any interpretation can make sense but the one that is most accurate is the one that is most likely to happen- which almost seems like common sense. After reading these criteria though i wondered how many people really use them when they are reading a poem? I think most people just use word association to determine the subject of a poem. For example, the poem we received in class "THE NIGHT - MARCH" By Herman Melville can be interpreted using just that. When I read it i assumed, because of all the military words, that it was actually about an army: army, salute, ranks.. etc. But, after listening to other people's interpretations- using the same method as I, other people thought that it was about the stars: night, beaming, bright, gleam, twinkling. I really don't believe it is necessary to use the "criteria" Perrine suggests. I think that, as the authors said, whatever way the reader interprets a poem is okay. As long as what you think makes sense and is possible, it may be a correct interpretation. And who is to say it is wrong? As Perrine stated, a poet in unlikely to admit what they really meant in the poem anyways.