Even If You Weren't My Father by Camillo Sbarbaro

I think that this poem gave off the mood that it did because of the way that each stanza tells a story of the father. Instead of just describing what the father was like, the author used a story to make the reader see in context the father's traits that were so lovable. This makes the reader have a better connection to the father. They are able to better relate to a story and think of their own fathers in the same way.

It also brings up an interesting question about something I have never really thought about: what would I think of my father if he was a stranger? Would we be able to notice those things about our own father? I think the theme of this poem is not just the author loving the father but being able to see people's characteristics from the things they do. Not just seeing the outward act but seeing the deeper meaning behind their thinking. Then, in a way, the poem is showing that we love people for who they are on the inside and necessarily just the outward meanings they have for us.

I really like this poem because my dad is one of my favorite people in the world and I love him a lot!

A Work of Artiface by Marge Piercy

When I read this poem, I didn't think about women in general but about women from China. It was mainly because of the bonsai tree but then also with it talking about the bound feet and the dwarfed growth. But it can definitely pertain to many societies. The poet mentions things that pertain to many societies. Even in America, sure there is the old idea of the Cult of Domesticity of the 1800's, but even now with attractiveness and femininity still having a large role in our lives.

Piercy also seems to have a little bit of sarcasm. She says things like "It is your nature to be small and cozy" and "one must begin very early to dwarf their growth." It is as though she is expressing her own opinion by using the words of what she considers society's perspective of women. She is saying the things in a way that would make it seem illogical and inhumane which gets her point across that things are not happening in the right way.

I really liked the way she was able to make a point about society in this poem without bluntly saying that there was a problem.

Only a Grandma

Every year the same.
They show up
just a couple days before.

The suitcases drop
and to the kitchen she goes.

The roller is pulled from
the dark depths
dusted,
and dropped into
a pile of supplies
that we're brought
just for her.

Counters are cleared,
flour sprinkled,
and the show begins.

Not a recipe in sight;
it's all over in 20 minutes.

Green, crisp apples for my dad
rhubarb and strawberries and blueberries too.
Chocolate if we're lucky.
Cinnamon and sugar over the extra
strips of crust for a midnight snack.

Now we have dessert for the next two weeks.

Human Condition by Thom Gunn

The first thing you notice about this poem is the way it is set up. In every stanza there are 6 lines and the lines are relatively short. There is also a interesting rhyme pattern of A, B, C, B,C, A. The combination of these things makes for an interesting rhythm. When you read the first line, there seems to be a rhythm, but as you keep reading, it seem as though the author is justing writing down thoughts and the rhyme scheme seems forgetten. The result is a little bit unsettling. I feel like I want to rhyme at different times than the author does and it makes me feel uncomfortable. This feeling goes very well with the idea of the poem which seems to be the discomfort the author feels with being exposed and alone. It is implied by the title that this feeling is a very normal and almost an expected part of living life and being a human.

For the Sleepwalkers by Edward Hirsch

I thought that the main theme of this poem wasn't really discovered until the second half where the author starts talking about our hearts. At the beginning, he makes it seem that he is talking only about the interesting idea of sleepwalking, but then he mentions that "our hearts are leaving our bodies." Our hearts are out in the world trying to get to certain things, but then they are forced to "fly back" to our bodies. This comparison goes back to the safety the sleepwalker feels. They go where they want to without being afraid just like our hearts do. So then, the theme the author is trying to tell us that we need to just let our bodies have a little faith in what our heart wants. Sleepwalkers welcome things that are normally scary like darkness. In the same way, we need to welcome things that our heart wants even they are scary. And the whole reason we need to do this is so that we can find nourishment from a place that we never would have found if we hadn't tried. It's kind of like the saying "You miss every shot you don't take." In the second stanza he uses the comparison between a stairs and a window, and a doorway and mirror. It's the difference between just watching and actually doing something.

Another sidenote that I just thought was kind of cool was how the author started the poem with the word "tonight". That really emphasizes the sleepwalking and darkness idea that starts the poem.

A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman

In honor of Halloween, I decided to write my poetry blog on something that scares me everytime I see it.

Ok, so really the poem isn't about a hairy 8-legged creature coming to eat me. But the way he breaks up the poem makes it easier to understand. The first stanza is talking about the actual spider, while the second is talking about a soul. Breaking up the two makes the metaphor easier to catch because it shows a shift between talking about two things.

In those two different stanzas, are two antecedent scenarios. One is obviously that he spent a day watching a spider find a place to spin its web. The other, which is shown to be still happening because of the use of the verb stand, is that his soul somehow found it way into an empty space where it is now searching for a place to hold on to and stand.

Describing the theme is going to make me sound like a real poetry geek who emphatically talks about how this poem really spoke to them and they connected with their own feelings.  But it's the truth. I get that he is saying that his soul (whether that be his personal soul or a companion who he considers his soul) is waffling around is this lonely, empty space. Trying to make connections with people, reaching for a safe place to put their foot down. The soul is just waiting to make that stronghold where that catches hold and they are able to swing back.

Ethics by Linda Pastan

I really liked the timeline this poem gives. She has these multiple years of listening to the question and never having the life skills to know the true answer. I can see her sitting there as a freshman feeling overwhelmed by it and life seeming the obvious answer. Then, as a sophmore trying harder to come up with an answer and choosing art. Next, as a junior, finally feeling credited enough to give a clever answer. And feeling quiet in her contemplation as a senior, imagining her own grandmother. All of these personas show me that this is much more than a simple question. There are so many different choices to make. And then finally, she finds herself in that museum, much later once she has lived life, and trying to answer that question again. It's seems as though she is saying the painting is so complex, just like her life, that someone who hasn't lived long enough or gone through hardships won't possibly be able to make the correct decision. But, there also seems to be something I'm missing. She obviously seems to mean something by describing the painting and then saying that woman and painting and season are beyond saving. I'm just not making the connection of those back to the beginning with the ethics and differing opinions.

In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver

The theme of this poem seemed to be that everyone needs to learn to love even though what they love will someday leave them.
The first half is showing that it happens in nature. The trees are dying, but are accepting it as fulfillment of what needed to happen. The cattails are moving on. The pond is becoming unimportant because important things have names. She creates this picture of things leaving, but the way she describes it makes it seem as though it's natural. The trees and the cattails and the ponds aren't fighting it because it's part of what they know needs to happen.

Then, she starts to describe it for the human. The three things she talks about are really just about not being afraid to love. It's kind of cool how she says it in such a way that the kind of love doesn't really matter. It could be romantic love or the love for a child or really just a love for a friend or a thing that will one day end. I don't think the word 'mortal' necessarily means that it's a human, but just something that will end. 

It's also really interesting that she doesn't show what she's talking about until the very end. The reader goes 6 and 3/4 stanzas before we actually understand what she's saying. But despite this, she gives the reason that those three things are necessary before she even presents them. She creates the picture of crossing a firepit and raging river of the loss of losing one's love, but also creates the picture of coming out better on the other side. That is really the reason the we all "must be able to do these three things."

I really enjoyed this poem and I thought that it was very coincidental that I was comtemplating and struggling with my own sense of fear for loss when I sat down to read a poem for my blog.

The Little Lamb

Looking around,
I see the anguish
the frustration.
What can I do to help?

I must remember that
it's not my worry.
There is someone else for that
someone for me to
 put my trust in.

I must not get so upset
because he is here

for me.

But it is hard...
there are so many
troubles in the world
and I want to help them
all.

So I turn to the others
to remember why I
do this...
say this...
am this.

I am not so strong
that I don't need help
too.

It's so much easier with
The Shepherd
carrying me.

New Heart of Darkness ending

"You were with him to the last? I think of his loneliness. Nobody near to understand him as I would have understood. Perhaps no one to hear..."
"To the very end," I said shakily. "I heard his very last words..." I stopped in a fright.
"Repeat them," she murmured in a heart-broken tone. "I want-want somethiNg-something to-to live with."
What should I say to her? Who am I to tell her those luminous last words. The horror, the horror... Who am I to know his intention and to share it with someone who he regarded so slightly. The darkness of the truth she won't Understand. I don't even understand... Would she even believe the truth? In her eyes he was a hero who could do no wrong. She never saw the dark side the dark side of Kurtz of he was not great enough of a man to have people thinking kindly of him in his end.
Her eyes bore into me, but I found no answer in the darkness of my soul. I left admittedly rudely without so much as a goodbye.
As I blended in with others who weren't affected by any of the tragedies in that house or down the river I found I couldn't forget the horror.

Wallflowers by Donna Verreyer

I think that the thing that really makes this poem come alive are all of the allusions to familiar things, and how we would never really think of them in comparison to words. Typically, when I think of wallflowers, I think of the school dance version where they are too shy to talk to anyone. But, with all of them, I had these little pictures in my mind of words sitting with dirty, tear-streaked faces, or cowering in the corner of a gym or getting off of a boat. They look so lost and sad that it makes ME want to help them too! She was able to appeal to events that people can either identify with or easily find themselves feeling sorry for. And before they know it, they want to help the words. The fact that she uses example words (gegenshein and zoanthropy) also help to make the picture realistic. There really do exist words that people never use.

She mentions the antecedent scenario of hearing a word that she had never heard before and then using it in her writing. This gets her thinking about other unused words and their feelings which is essentially what the poem is about.

Her structure is pretty basic and coincides with the ideas what the stanza is talking about. In the first stanza there is a little bit of alliteration with words beginning with w....Otherwise, I think everything about it is pretty straight-forward as far as theme and her ideas.

When I read the title of this poem, I thought it was going to be about some depressed kid who wanted to do more in life but was stuck on the sidelines at a dance. There was the dance, and a little bit of the depression, but in a much different way that I really enjoyed. It reminded me of the book The Professor and the Madman and the idea of the importance of words.

White Man's Burden by Rudyard Kipling

At first we were confused as to whether Kipling was for or against imperialism. But once we really got into the reading we could see that he was an imperialist. Throughout, there is a pattern of the poet describing what good imperialism does and then following with the fact that the people don't want any part of what the larger force is trying to do for them. He makes them seem like ungrateful bums who don't appreciate what good has been brought to them. In a way his whole point seems to be to persuade the people of Britain to continue imperializing nations. But, it doesn't seem very convincing: it's a difficult, thankless job that you aren't going to enjoy. He doesn't make it sound very enticing. However, I was pretty excited to actually be able to figure out what each stanza was saying!

Still going to do it anyway

Well, I have to say that when I work up this morning and was going through the homework that I needed to get done. I almost screamed when I remembered that HEY IT'S MONDAY AND YOUR BLOG WAS DUE YESTERDAY!!!! So yeah, I take full responsibility. Put me in handcuffs and take me to the procrastination police. But they won't win! I will do one anyway, for my own personal benefit. So, ha, take that you stupid self-conscious that waits till the last minute! You haven't (completely) beaten me.

Mr. Fear by Lawrence Raab

I think the most interesting part of this poem is that the speaker seems to have come to terms with the fact that Fear is coming. He just accepts that it's going to happen and says, "what are you going to give me?" It is also interesting that the fear comes in the speaker's dreams. To me this shows that dreams are the place where people are the most vulnerable to themselves. According to the poem, dreams are where all of those fears that the speaker has been holding up are made known to him. I think that's why the speaker is excited to see those dreams. Because he wants to be able to know what things Mr. Fear has been storing up so that the speaker can purge himself, or at least fight those fears. To me, that would make the theme be something about facing one's fears head on so that they can be overcome. As for any antecedent scenario, I think it would only be the dreams and the life that the speaker has lived before he came to this field where he is sleeping and then dreaming.

I found this poem to be very uplifting and encouraging even though it is about something that is obviously scary. I mean what isn't positive about knowing that if you don't deny your fears and face them head-on, you will be able to defeat them.

Still Memory by Mary Karr

What I first noticed about this poem are that the pictures that Karr create are very vivid. I can see the bed flying down a river towards an old house. I can hear a father banging into a busy kitchen, smell the coffee "smoky odor," and feel the cold bathroom tiles on my feet. I can also feel the pain that Karr is trying to portray. She does this easily by the use of foreshadowing, saying things like "my father in the doorway, not dead" at the beginning, then continuing her story until she brings it up again at the end. This makes me feel that nostalgia and that ache for the way life used to be. It's as though she is looking back at the good memories which are now overshadowed by the bad. The nostalgia also comes in the way she makes those pictures, remembering every little detail about that life. She acknowledges the simplicity of the life by describing the town around her and the everyday life. Karr's poem also gives a nostalgic, trying hard to remember the past, in the way that there are times when a line/ thought is finished in the next stanza as though she is trying hard to remember that time.

But Karr's main point in the poem is that when tragedy happens ( like parents dying), a person has to find a way to preserve the happy memories from before instead of being crushed by the present. This is shown in her line about how her sister is jumping across the bathroom tiles because they "are cold and we have no heat other than what our bodies can carry." The heat is happiness and the present is cold so we have to carry from the past our happiness. That is probably reading WAY too much into it, but that just jumped out at me.

Anyway, the way Karr seems to say to preserve those memories is to write them down, and that deep, realistic dreams are a way to enact that happiness.

On a beautiful cloudy Sunday, I was absolutely thrilled to feel such heartaches, and then discover a hopeful way to relive the happy memories.

Heart of Darkness: Text to World

As nerdy as this may make me sound, I was excited when I started reading Heart of Darkness. After many summer weeks of reading frilly young adult books, it was a relief to actually read something where I couldn't predict the next sentence. ( I know it really is my own fault for liking them so much.) The excess of description and story-telling point of view had me right from the start. However, that didn't last for very long.

At the beginning, I got Marlow's fascination with Mr. Kurtz. Essentially, the man was there, being what Marlow wanted to become. However, the story leading up to the actual meeting of the two did nothing for me. It was simply a story where I could see no connections as to what it would mean in the future. For the most part I could follow what he was saying, but was bored and frustrated by it.

Mr. Kurtz himself was very interesting. Here was a man who worked in a world that was all about glory and wealth, and all he wanted to do was what he loved. Granted, his line of work wasn't exactly an admirable cause, but it is still interesting to see that he did it because he loved it, not because of popularity. Also, it was unexpected to see that Kurtz turned out to be very much like what he was described as. It often seems that people of great respect can be over-hyped until Marlow has such great expectations that nothing can ever be met. However, that didn't seem to happen, even though Marlow did start to hate Mr. Kurtz seemingly because of his own hallucinations.

As for the title, I'm still not completely set on what the actual idea was. There were many times that Conrad mentioned it in the book. Most of them seemed to talk about inner demons, but, to me, there just seemed to be more to it than that. Although that inner demon thing seems to go along well with many of the characters in the book: Mr. Kurtz, his assistant, some of the black helpers on the ship, the manager, Mr. Kurtz wife, and even Marlow himself. They all had time when they were fighting something in the outside world that conflicted with what they wanted or were used to in their hearts.

Since I read this book first, the marking in it is the best. I summarized a lot of paragraphs but this text was also very convnient to apply to the world. Mainly, I was able to make a lot of connections to how the world has changed in viewing people of a different race.

I probably never would have read this book on my own. But, now that I've gotten the chance to, I might just read it again.... in a long, long, long time. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

The Great Gatsby

Let me start by saying that The Great Gatsby was another example, for me, of a book that takes on a whole new meaning the second time it is read. When I read GG the first time, I followed blindly through the pages catching bits and pieces here and there about Fitzgerald was trying to tell me. Granted, I was a freshman: not yet had I gone through the life changing circumstances that led me to better understand the book. (In other words, APUSH and a class with Mr. Moore.) Thus, the second go around was much more satisfying.

In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I absolutely loved Nick's sarcastic sense of humor throughout the book. I found myself laughing out loud through almost every chapter. It was almost made better by the fact that he seemed so serious! I loved that I could imagine his tone of voice for myself instead of through an actor's perception. Another part of the book that was funny were the parties that he attended. I felt like I was watching reality tv. The people were ridiculous! Those were mostly where having background on the 1920's was useful. I knew that this type of thing was completely new to people, so they didn't really have set rules on anything; they just did what they wanted. 

As for the main man, I couldn't help but feel bad for him. He had no real friends, no family nearby, and the girl he lived his life for didn't actually love him all that much. It's almost like the story was saying that money and popularity doesn't give you everything. Crazy!! and a little cliched, but there could definitely be warnings in there. His relationship with Nick was something I could never really quite comprehend. It definitely can't be described in a single word.

By the time I got to this book, marking the text was becoming non-existent. It was becoming more and more that I just wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. But, I did notice that Fitzgerald used a multitude of sentence styles.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and will definitely do it again in the future!

Kite Runner

I had read the Kite Runner before this assignment, and for me it was the poster child for 'why never to judge a book by a first-time read.' I had completely forgotten most of what actually happens in the book and I was not excited to read it again.

Fortunately, once I started it, I became intrigued.

I began to notice many similarities between and American kid's childhood and Amir's. The way he described winter break could easily be paralleled to my summer vacations--lots of freedom and the excitement of being away from school. I could also relate to his enjoyment of the first snowfall of the season..."the soft pattering of snowfall against my window at night." I could relate to the dynamics of the family gathering in Jalalabad. And even the sad truth of a father being much more excited for soccer (or football or basketball or baseball) season than his son is. Really, these things show that what Farid explained when Amir re-entered Afghanistan was true: Amir had never really known the real Afghanistan. I don't really know what that does to the story for me. I suppose part of me is comforted by the cliched fact that kids all over the world feel the way that I do. But it also kind of makes me spiteful towards Hosseini for giving me a false sense of what Afghanistan was really like.

However, the connection that I felt continued to grow. Although Amir was clearly a person that I was supposed to hate, I found myself identifying with some of the general feelings that he was dealing with. Such as the jealousy he felt, the guilt he held for decades, and the lack of courage that he had in handling a situation. As Amir grew, I found myself wanting to defend and comfort him--those are normal things to feel Amir!

Yet, there was still that hate.

It was something Hosseini would never let you forget. The minute a passive attitude pops into the mind...BAM! Something terrible happens in Amir's life that makes it seem like he is getting what he deserves. I kind of hate Hosseini for that.

As for marking in my book, I would say that this was the best of the three. I was doing text to self and obviously found some connections, and was writing things down pretty regularly, but the last half just seemed to not give me a lot to say.

Overall, I was glad to read the book again. It was entertaining and little bit self-reflective.