"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.)

Number 4

" The Book" by Miller Williams is a very odd poem about a notebook bound in skin. This disgust me and made me upset. The first time I read it I was confused wheather this skin bound book was a metaphor or a real book wrapped in skin. The second line in the poem says, "He had ound it in a fallen bunker" which helps make sense of the poem. The second time I read it, I read it allowed to my friend Emily. I announced to her how gross this poem was and then read it to her. before she began to tell me about how the wife a Nazi leader would have jews killed and skinned if she liked tattoos that they had and use their skin as lamp shades and other furniture coverings: which is terrible. Te meaning of the book is now different for the person in the poem because in the first three stanza's including the first line the author doesn't know what the book is bound in but knows the importance inside the book. After finding out that is is bound in skin many unanswered questions are asked, "what child did this skin fit?" The last stanza shows the change and the horror the book now holds in place of beauty. There are seven stanzas and they range from one to five lines. Only the last stanza has rhyeming the rest almost seems to fit together like a story. The author seems like he used free style with this poem.

Untitled.

This is my first blog of 2011, and it is also my first poetry response for second semester. I decided to start off with the poem titled, Untitled by Stephen Crane. The poem is more of an image. I could see this creature eating it's own heart and enjoying it. The thought disgusts me, and maybe it's because the creature's heart is bitter and that's what makes it so good or because it's bitter. At first i thought of just the image and how gross it is but as I thought more deeply about it I thought of suicide or something simular too it. The creature is eating itself and enjoying it. Then I asked the obvious question- Why is it called untitled? Is it because it's almost vague or because the title Untitled is just that. The authors style is odd as well; it is one stanza of ten lines. Half of it is a conversation: a question and an answer, which make the poem what it is. The creature answered saying, "bitter" twice which is what makes you believe the heart is truly bitter. After all maybe the poem isn't too digusting but almost bitter- yes, bitter.

Only a Snow Man Can

This is this weeks poetry response. I'm starting to feel the cold weather so The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens stuck out to me this week. The poem is simple, only four stanzas with only three lines each. "Pine-trees crusted with snow," makes me think of all the pine trees that surround us here in Colorado and how they look when it snows. He says "one must have a mind of winter" this is true when winter is here and you look out your window you see the snow covered ground and trees. With the first snow people start to think about winter; getting their snow boots and coats out. "In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land Full of the same wind That is blowing in the same bare place," this shows famililarity and consistency. Some of the only things that are consistant is the season, winter, spring, summer and fall. That is what is nice is knowing that winter is coming or going and so is the feelings of winter. Brrr I'm getting cold just reading the poem, so I'm going to go get some hot chocolate.