Late number 3

Oh No by Robert Creeley is a simple yet interesting poem. The main idea from the poem is death isn't really that bad. Once you've died you make it to wherever you believe in and your friends will be there waiting for you. Your chair will be nice. The poem is the authors interpretation of death and what happens when you die. Once you make it where you're going you will belong there as do your friends, and it's a good place because your friends are smiling and happy to see you. Robert Creeley was an American author who wrote poems and books. The style of the poem is short it is only two quatrain stanzas. There is only one comma and one period at the end of the poem. The first stanza describes the distance you go to get "there" and the second stanza describes the people and the place in short description. Oh No is an interesting title because it almost seems irrelievent to the poem, but maybe just maybe it's how the person started on the journey in an accidental way. Either way the title contributes to the poem in some way. The poem just doesn't seem to go further than that.

Late number 2

Music is truly a beautiful thing and to incorporate any relation of music into a poem is wonderful. 'The Guitarist Tunes Up" by Frances Cornford does that exact thing. The poem describes the guitarist as he prepares to play the guitar, but not as conqueror but as a lover. The guitarest can play the instrument simply because he has love from the woman he plans to play with. He isn't only going to play a guitar but going to be in love; he won't participate in love as a "lordly conqueror" but as a man in love. The whole poem is one sentence with an aa, bb, cc, dd rhyme scheme; the rhythm brings out the musical sense. Playing the guitar is a metaphore for the man's love and in the end the man and the woman play love together. A different way of looking at it is that the guitar is his lover because the last two lines say, "What slight essential things she had to say before they started, he and she, to play." The "she" is the guitar and the reason he doesn't play the guitar like a "lordly conqueror" is because he loves her (the guitar) for the music she makes. Wow it's funny how deep I thought about the poem at first and half way through my response I realized it's as easy as that, the guitarist loves the guitar and that is why he plays her.

Late number 1

I'm missing four poetry responses and this is the first one. I'm using the new poetry packet for all of them.

you fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye
by Margaret Atwood

I found this poem very interesting after reading it a few times. Although it is short the analysis is interesting. In the first stanza she explains how "you" fit's into "me" and then clearifys that the hook is a fish hook and the eye is open. There are manys ways to take this poem in and I thought of it as sad. The thing fitting into her is a fish hook which is small and sharp and the fact that the eye is open makes the relationship of whatever is fitting into her hurtful. I wouldn't want a fish hook in my eye. The thing that fits isn't a good thing because of the metaphore of it fitting like a hook into an eye. Maybe this is a metaphor for love and how love hurts. Fish hooks are small and the love fitting into her is a fish hook making that fit a small fit. The first stanza opens the possibility of a positive relationship but the second stanza corrects it with the bitter hook and eye.

"It was a Dream"

"It was a Dream" is a sonnet by Lucille Clifton. Within the poem the author uses words like "me" and "my" but then tells the story in third person because the poem is explaining the dream she has about herself. The dream is more a nightmare of what she has become. "This." is repeated three times at the end of the poem to express the importance of what she has become. My thoughts were that the poem explains someone yelling at himself/herself for who he/she is. The poem has no capitalization except "This" at the end and there aren't very many stresses. There are only two periods used and just enough punctuation to help understand what's happening. There are fourteen lines which would make the poem a sonnet but there is no rhythem so it's a free verse. Lucille Clifton is an African American poet who just died last year due to cancer. She was proud of who she was being a woman of color, and that changes the poem. Maybe it's not a nightmare; it may just be a dream of becoming greater than who are and how dreams can come true. After researching Lucille Clifton it makes sense when she states in the poem "accussing me of my life with her extra finger." The women in Lucille's family where born with a genetic disorder called polydactyly which means they were born with an extra finger. Lucille Clifton and her poem means so much more now.

The Second Late Response.

Last week we went over the poem, "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins, I had a bit to say but didn't get the chance, so here it is. We did read this poem at the beginning of the year and I realized this within the first two lines. I remembered this poem easily because I really apprceiate it and agree with it. The poem is seven stanzas with each stanza containing either one line, a couplet, or a tercet. The metaphores used in this poem are fantastic. It made me think that what we are doing right now is exactly what the poem says not to do. We are beating each poem with a hose and obviously it's what you have to do sometimes because you can't just leave a poetry response blank on the AP Lit tests. Each poem creates a light or an idea in your head and by analysing it we turn on the light or think the idea. "Waterski across the surface of a poem" I'm going to do just that and leave it at that.

On of the Late Ones.

Today I decided to try something different and start my blog with what I noticed about the poem just glancing at it. I haven't read the poem yet and I notice that the authors style is different the poem is one stanza with fourteen lines; this means that this is a sonnet. The title is "Praise in Summer" and it's writen by Richard Wilbur. Now I'm going to read the poem. It doesn't make complete sense right now but does create the image of summer in my head. Wilbur uses the term "I said" often throughout the poem, which clarifys that he is speaking. The poem refers to how being praisful is the way to be and Wilburs love for nature. Things won't be strange if you are praisful. A brief summary on Richard Wilbur is that he was in WWII and while he wrote poetry he also translated French plays.

Response

"Sort of a Song" by William Carlos Williams is the poem I have decided to do this week. The poem is separated into two sestets: there are two stanzas. The first stanza explains how words are like a snake. The poem is more like a song as the title referes too. Both a writter of poetry or song have ideas like the movement of the snake. Most writters think quick and have to quickly write down their thoughts, which then sit there and wait to be read or sung. The second stanza reads,

"-through metaphor to reconcile

the people and the stones.

Compose. (No ideas

but in things) Invent!

Saxifrage is my flower that splits

the rocks."

The thoughts in this stanza is maybe that metaphors are the thoughts that split the rocks. The style of the lines and phrases is short and the tempo seems almost speedy but understanding. (the picture above is the saxifrage flower.)