"To His Coy Mistress"

"An age at least to every part

and the last age should show your heart.

For, lady, you deserve this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate"  (17-20).

"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, I really learned only one thing about poetry.  Apparently romantic poetry does not have to be "OMG, why do you hate me?"  The tone actually seemed to be rushed, but hopeful.  The speaker clearly does not want to rush into a relation with this lover, but society seems to push him.  This almost causes me to think of it as a satire, but I am not convinced on that part.  Now, I have to wonder why you chose to give us a poem from the figurative language section of the book while we are talking about tone.  Logic would state that the metaphors would relate to the overall tone in the poem, but we all know that logic is not a good strategy when dissecting a poem.  I think - thinking; also not a good strategy for me - that the metaphor is to a garden.  The speaker talks about how you have to take your time almost so that it will ripen or "grow vaster than the empires."  If you spend time on every part, and the last one at the heart, then it is kind of like you are spending time nurturing all the requirements so that the finished product will have meaning.

Note to self:  I am not good at figuring out tone.

"A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"

"If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two" (25-26).

In "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne, I can honestly say that I have no clue what it is about.  I really thought that I understood the meaning, but the questions at the end completely negate everything that I thought the poem meant.  The one thing I can say with almost 25 percent certainty is that the speaker is not about to die, but rather go on a journey.  The simile I posted above is the only one that I can find, but there are apparently another two I am missing a long with a metaphor?  It was also what leads me to believe that the speaker is about to go on a journey, since you would not really need a compass when you die.

I also understand that there was an earthquake which killed many and left the rest stranded to leave the town behind?  This might be the source of the contrast between the journey and the dying, but I honestly have no clue.

Another small observation that I made that probably means nothing at all is that the speaker said "Care less" and not "careless" in line 20.

Refer to the picture below for the expressions I made while studying this poem.

"I taste a liquor never brewed"

"Inebriate of Air- am I-

And Debauchee of Dew-

Reeling- thro endless summer days-

From inns of Molten Blue" (5-9).

In "I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson, the speaker seems to contrast the rural definition of drunkenness with the more common urban definition through an extended metaphor.  If you asked anyone on the streets of down town Indianapolis, then they would say that drunkenness is directly related to how much alcohol one consumes, yet the speaker in the poem is talking about being drunk off air in the above excerpt.  The speaker goes on to show that not only human's suffer from a summertime intoxication, but even the "bees and butterflies" (symbols for the different types of people) become addicted by summer.  I do not actually understand the first stanza, but I think that it is an allusion (?) to Germany's stereotype of being big on drinking beer.  Maybe it is hyperbolizing the amount of beer that Germany manufactures in an effort to show the magnitude and ease with which summer than cause an intoxication effect on the victim?

The last stanza goes back to the city definition of intoxication, but with a twist.  In this scene, even the seraphs and saints are eager to learn where the town drunkard got tipsy.  When the "tippler" is leaning against the sun, I think that represents a street light, but I really cannot figure that last line out.

I am started to understand Dickinson's style of poetry.  All three of poems of hers that we have read have had a literal meaning that is very obvious and a deeper meaning that takes a little more digging, but is usually easy to figure out based on her very helpful titles.

"The Joy of Cooking"

For the first time in my life, I feel fairly confident on a poem's meaning!

"Although beef heart serves six

my brother's heart barely feeds two" (15-16).

In "The Joy of Cooking" by Elaine Magarrell, the speaker juxtaposes the sister's tongue with the brother's heart.  Through what I believe would be metonomy (Google Chrome thinks that I meant to say Deuteronomy, but I definitely meant metonomy...), the speaker is relating the preparing of the tongue with simply having a heart.  The tongue represents speech, while the heart represents love.  The sister's tongue has been "scrubbed and skinned" (2) because of its constant use.  Meanwhile, the brother's heart is "firm and rather dry" (10) because he does not use his heart.  While the speaker has clear favorite combinations when speaking about the tongue, the speaker merely finds a stuffing for the heart lack luster.  The speaker then goes on to lines 15-16 where the speaker compares the heart of cow with that of a brother.  Of all the major players on the food chain, humans have some of the smallest hearts (somewhat because of our natural size, but this suggests deeper meanings since the speaker does not relate how a cow's tongue is longer than a human's tongue).  It almost implies that should humans use their hearts as much as we do our tongues, then the heart would be able to mature to the stage that the tongue does and maybe become a delicacy.

Lastly, the tone seems to satirical.  The speaker definitely seems to be mocking how people think that words speak so much louder than they will let their actions show.

"Dream Deferred"

"Or does it explode?" (11).

"Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes is very interesting in that Hughes uses six separate comparisons in an effort of expressing the emotions of an African American trying to fit into American society.  I chose the line above because it starkly contrasts the other five comparisons.  What brought me to notice it first was definitely the italics and separation from the other comparisons.  It brought my eye to it when I first scanned the poem and forced me to accept that all of the other comparisons were leading up to a greater message.  The first five similes were each individual ways of showing that the dreams postponement could be easily overlooked by the speaker since the speaker obviously felt that they were a small obstacle.  This is juxtaposed by the magnitude of an exploding dream.  The final, and lone, metaphor drove home the fact that while the five previous consequences of a longing dream may not seem as serious, the elevating risk-factors clearly end in a lost cause.  Dreams are being compared to bombs because they are something that you can see smoking, but there is no tangible danger until it actually explodes, just like the lingering effects of reaching for an unobtainable dream.

"Pink Dog"

"Ash Wednesday'll come but Carnival is here.

What sambas can you dance?  What will you wear?" (32-3).

"Pink Dog" by Elizabeth Bishop seems to be an extended metaphor which compares the fear that a pink dog strikes into people with the foolish nature of a beggar.  While both of the images in comparison are negative, I feel like this poem is much like "London" in that Bishop is shining them in a new light.  The pink dog has "a case of scabies, but looks intelligent" (8-9).  To me, this line implies that the pink dog is only naked because of an outside force brought upon by some indirect life choices, much like a beggar.  Dogs would never choose to have scabies much like how a beggar would never choose to have to beg.

The quote I chose above mocks society in a sort of way.  The society (Germany calls their Fat Tuesday celebration Karneval, so maybe a German society?) is creating a false sense of perfection in the society with the celebrations.  This correlates with the message that Bishop is achieving because she seems to parallel on the message of Jesus that those with misfortune on earth will have happiness later in eternal life.  Bishop juxtaposes her early negative imagery of the pink dog ("Naked," "passersby draw back and stare," "of course they're mortally afraid") with a new light of hope for the dog that it might look grim now, but in time, the dog will be glorified.

Also, are the rhetorical questions there for a purpose or just decoration?