That Time of Year

So, I may be completely wrong, but i felt like the overarching theme in this poem was love. The speaker in this poem describes the changes outside as the seasons change as well as the changes outside when night comes. I felt that these two things symbolized distance or separation. I got this impression after I read the poem through once and read the final lines "This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long". To me this meant that- like in the changing of the seasons and daytime- we miss what we had before. The desire and appreciation of something always seems stronger once you have to go without it. To me it's like when the summer fades to fall and fall fades to winter all I can think about is summer and how much I miss it. It's from that separation that my appreciation of summer is strengthened. I feel like the whole meaning of the poem is summed up in those last couple lines. I could be really off, but that's just how I interpreted it.

Edward

Well, I don't really even know what to say about this poem. I was really confused a lot of the time. First of all I really disliked the repetition. That stupid "O, Mother, Edward, Mother, O" crap was driving me nuts and keeping me from concentrating. In addition to the repetition (haha that rhymed) I was completely thrown off by the mention of the hawk and the steed. After I read through the poem once I felt like I had a grasp of the main idea: This Edward fellow killed his father and his mother knows about it and possibly convinced him to do so. That much I understood; however, I really didn't see the significance of the first two and a half stanzas. And although I feel like I understand what actually happened/ took place within the poem, I feel like I'm missing a lot of background information. If the author had implied why Edward chose to kill his father than I missed that completely- and I feel like that is something that should be mentioned. I thought the overall tone of the poem was creepy and sinister. The mention of blood several times was creepy- but I also thought the mother seemed really creepy too. I don't know if she influenced Edward to kill his father, but she seemed pretty content with the fact that he did it.

Elegy For My Father Who Is Not Dead

This poem reminded me of "Crossing the Bar". Rather than the speaker being optimistic and ready for death in this poem, it is the speakers father who is waiting to die. In this poem the speaker is hesitant and somewhat fearful about the "world after this world". The first question that came with the poem asked "Why does the speaker eligize his father if he is not dead?" I thought about this question the moment I read the title before I even read the poem. Automatically I assumed that the father was probably mentally unstable or changed in someway that his family did not recognize his personality. This came to my mind first, I think, because one of my friends grandpa had Alzheimer's. My friend hasn't visited him since he was diagnosed with the illness because he is afraid to see what he is like. My friend always says that his grandpa is dead to him. Now, this may be far from the cone of reason, but it's really the only explanation I could really think of to explain why someone would eligize another person who isn't actually dead. Basically, I feel like the speaker wrote this poem to express his fear of death in contrast to his father's calmness.

Delight in Disorder

When I read this I really thought that Shakespeare would enjoy this poem. In a way it sort of reminded me of "My mistress' eyes" because it didn't falsely compare women to flowers or the sun. This poem seems to point out all the flaws in the way this woman is put together (not so much her physical characteristics, but her clothes). The speaker does point out negative things; however it seemed to me that they were sort of mentioned in a more positive light. This poem reminded me of the song "Best I Ever Had" by Drizzy Drake . In the song Drake says: "Chillin' with no make-up on that's when you look the best." I felt like this sort of summed up the speakers thoughts in this poem. ALthough the speaker uses words such as disorder, thrown, here and there, confusedly, and careless when describing the woman, he always pairs these words with more positive ones. Such words include: sweet, fine, enthralls, and deserving. This use of diction helps convey the real tone of the poem- which is that he loves the woman although she isn't perfect. I really liked how the final lines sort of tied the whole poem together- "Do more bewitch me than when art Is too precise in every part". Basically the speaker is saying that yes, sometimes she looks like a mess, but he is more attracted to her when she looks sloppy than when she is all put together.