"Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead"

"He is ready.  I am not" (14).

In "Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead" by Andrew Hudgins, two key points stuck out to me.  The first is the title.  Why does the speaker elegize his father if the father is not dead - apparently the people who make the paper had the same exact question as I did.  The second concern was the above excerpt.  Why did the speaker use two simple sentences in the midst of a poem of complex, or compound at the least, sentences.

Note:  This photo in no way should influence anyone's decision to allow their dogs to smoke.  Smoking is very dangerous and does not look cool, even when bull dogs do it while wearing a Mr. Potato Head costume.

The father may not be dead, but he is ready for it.  Despite the son's mournful attitude that the father will soon die, the wisdom instilled in the father shows that he is willing to die.  This is further implored by the link between the father's sea faring ways and his expressions of going "beyong this world."

There is a clear distinction in the father's readiness to die and the son's hesitance to his father's attitude.

I just read the connection question - apparently this is like the Dylan Thomas poem.  I guess this poem talks about how wisdom makes people more ready for death, while the other poem also backed up this theory.

P.S.  Is that an enjambment after line 5, or just a faulty printer?

P.S.S.  Are all sailors suicidal by nature or nurture?

"Delight in Disorder"

"A sweet disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness" (1-2).

"Delight in Disorder" by Robert Herrick was the epitome of a poem I that I read and immediately wonder if it is really as easy as it seems.  Oh, and the poem is a sonnet - I have gotten really good at making that connection!  Wantonness is a very strange, yet suiting word for this situation.  See, I kept staring at the first option and trying to figure out how it related, but we want the noun version - a lustful person, usually a woman (they are in a dress, PLEASE be a woman).

I think that this poem uses metonomic imagery?  Since the disorder is delightful (Emily Dickinson would agree), we also have a paradox in order.  Time to prove those two theories in the cone of realism.

The imagery is not really able to be proven unless you just read it.  Really, do you not just see a woman in a dress, scarf, cuffs, waving, and shoes?

Note to self:  Erring does not equal earring.

Okay, it is metonomic (definitely the adjective form of metonomy...)  because each article of clothing represents a new part of her life.

The dress hides the lust and makes her feel safe.  The scarf distracts the people, but traps her stomacher.  Her cuffs are tearing.  All this is further hidden behind her waving.

Waving.  Who waves?  The queen of England or a Miss American model would wave so graceful.  Delight in disorder?  The speaker is mocking these people who hide behind perfection.  I think...

"Lonely Hearts"

"Please write (with photo) to Box 152.

Who knows where it may lead once we've begun?

Can someone make my simple wish come true?

Do you live in North London?  Is it you?" (16-19).

In "Lonely Hearts" by Wendy Cope, five distinct speakers are prevalent throughout the five tercets.  The Villanelle format used in this poem contrasts the needs of each person, while still linking them each as a lonely heart looking for their love.  This is one of those poems where the more I read it, the less I get out of it.  Let's compile a list of things I noticed about the pattern, since this is the pattern section and it should help me figure something out.

I noticed that they all pointed out sexual orientation in their ad which could point to a diverse area.

Each wanted love, but each had their own distinct requirements.

All of the requirements were strict, but equally strange.

I found no correlations between the two repeated phrases and the speaker of that tercet.

The fourth speaker uses an alliteration - well done random ad or clever poetic person... I wonder?

The last speaker does not point out a gender preference, but rather their astrological sign.  They are the most distinct, yet have the most leniant requirements.

#confused.

"Death, be not proud"

"Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but they pictures be,

Much pleasure - then, from thee much more must flow" (4-6).

John Donne's "Death, be not proud" was a very nice poem for a variety of reasons, some of which are not nice.  For one, the title of them poem immediately told me that the poem was an apostrophe towards death - or atleast I hope so, since this is the first time that I have noticed a work being an apostrophe.  Also, since this poem is fourteen lines, my English teacher taught me that it is probably going to be a sonnet with a call to action in the last six lines.

The title conveys the message that the speaker will be telling us all the reasons that death is not as mighty as it thinks it is.  I smell personification and lemon cleaner, the latter being more prevalent.  The above lines did not make sense to me until I started typing that last sentence, but now I actually find the excerpt quite humorous.  Let me just paraphrase them for you:

"Dear death, you cannot kill me, because

I, like everyone, enjoy naps

and death is just a long nap."

This, my dear friend, is flawless logic if I have ever heard any.  The speaker does not fear death per se, but the speaker is definitely trying to rap his mind around the idea that death is not something that should be considered so... deadly?  Let me explain (I am getting graded on that part after all).  If the speaker fears death - which is predestined by fate or just blind chance (a.k.a. inevitable) - then what happens after you die?  See, this is where the call to action happens!  The speaker actually gives me the answers in a barrage of paradoxes - thanks for making it more difficult on me.  Since death is just a nap, and everyone wakes up from a nap, after death there will be nothing for the speaker to fear then.

P.S.  Did John Donne just pass Emily Dickinson in the latest label war?

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"

"Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (1-3).

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," by Dylan Thomas, despite not being what I expected it to be about - thank you - shows a very clear pattern.  You see, Thomas uses the very distinct rhyme scheme of a Villanelle - I once wrote a Villanelle with Becca Quill entitled "Mice on Moon," which was turned into a feature length music video performed by Bryan Rainey, Abby Koop, and Margaret Blandford, but that is a story for another day.  Basically, the overall pattern is something like an ABA' ABA ABA' type of deal, with the last quatrain being something like an ABAA'.  Not only did this link the tercets, but it also emphasized the last stanza as that of importance.  This poem really gave meaning to your phrase, "The author was not just lazy with their word choice."  Before I get into what the four different... men? tercets were for, I decided to give a little shout out to the first tercet.  It not only served as a nice reiteration of the poem's title in case I had already forgotten - I hadn't - but it also told me what the "good night" is - death.

There were "men-y" tercets in this poem (that was a pun).  In fact, there were four distinct types of people in this poem - I do not believe that the speaker is literally talking about men, but rather using it as a way to say humanity.

Wise men know when they will die, but will not see that the contributions that they think they made were actually useless.

Good men always think that they could have done better with their life when they begin to see death.

Wild men just go with life as it goes, but as they see death, learn that they had did not do anything significant.

Grave men see death as almost an exciting term.  The speaker uses a simile to show this excitement.

Okay, another pattern is that wise men and wild men do not go gentle, while good men and grave men rage.  Can you say, "Those start with the same letter?"

P.S.  Margaret messed up when she was singing my song, but I have gotten over that!  Mrs. Sander might still have that video if you really wanted to see/hear it.