"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.

"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.

"Hazel Tells LaVerne"

"an how i can be a princess

me a princess" (12-13)

The entire time I read "Hazel Tells LaVerne" by Katharyn Howd Machan, I was wondering why she is the only poet who thought to have a sense of humor in her writing.  For one, the setting does not include some depressing nature image, but rather a bathroom at her job.  Next, there is a frog trying to climb up a toilet seat. Lastly, the lady does not speak proper English, which is always funny.  The tone of the poem is kind of sarcastic and doubtful.  Not only does the speaker get asked to kiss a frog, but she turns it down.  Oh, and not to mention the fact that the frog in a toilet starts to talk?  Talk about situational irony.  Now for the punctuation... lack of punctuation that is.  I really have no clue behind the reasoning in this poem other than that it kind of contributes to the humor and sarcastic nature of the poem.  It almost could be seen as satirizing the working class and how they tend to lack the required work ethic to speak properly.

"Getting Out"

"Taking hands

we walked apart, until our arms stretched

between us.  We held on tight and let go" (21-23).

In Cleopatra Mathis's "Getting Out," the tone of the speaker appears to be nostalgic - that's a tone, right?  If it is not a tone, then I guess I would go with regretful.  The speaker really does not seem to feel the same now as he did when they broke up.  The imagery of a feuding couple is juxtaposed by the only tangible memory of the speaker which practically depicts them as being born for each other.  The main imagery in the passage is sound.  This imagery is even paired with a simile (that's so cool!) in line 13 when they heaved "words like furniture."  I don't know about you, but if I was being bombarded with furniture, then I would expect it to be quite painful.  The couple needed to learn to talk with each other more respectfully.  Now, they speak once a month through the mail and their words are only hurtful.  Personally, I feel like they would not even still communicate if they did not have love for each other.  They only "held on tight" because they did not want to leave, but they felt like they had to.  It's almost like that feeling when you flip a coin that it will land on one or the other, even if you are only flipping it because you were in a toss up.  Neither wanted to leave, yet both couldn't stay.

"The Apparition"

"Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat, wilt lie

A verier ghost than I" (12-3).

In "The Apparition" by John Donne, I kept thinking about how this completely negates everything I learned from Casper: The Friendly Ghost.  I felt like the tone was definitely revengeful.  Donne creates this tone by his very scary imagery of wanting to get back at an old "murderess" lover.  The diction in this poem confuses me.  Literally, it sounds like the speaker is truly a ghost, but I think that it was more metaphoric for killing the speakers sanity.  This really only makes sense logistically and does not have much text support (other than maybe line 8 and 13).  If the speaker wants revenge, then simply being a ghost would leave them incapable of any physical ability for revenge.  I think that the idea of a ghost is a metaphor for the speaker being invisible to the former lover.  In line 13, the speaker wants to make his old lover a "verier ghost."  I took this to mean that the speaker is not a ghost, but that he wants to make the cause of his broken heart a true ghost (e.g. dead).

"My Mistress' Eyes"

"I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

that music hath a far more pleasing sound" (9-10).

I really wish that I had not seen the name Shakespeare before I started to read this.

In "My Mistress' Eyes" by thou whom shall nither be named, I felt like the tone was probably condescending.  The speaker seems to not think very well of the mistress.  Even the good qualities in the mistress such as her voice are not good enough for the speaker.  I get the feeling that the speaker either does not want to have feelings for the mistress or has set their requirements in love far too high.  To me, it would be common sense that no one's eyes are as bright as the sun (Go similes!), yet this seems to be detrimental to the possibility of a relationship to this speaker.  I feel like this speaker does not want to love the mistress more than the latter of my previous options.  The speaker basically says, "You know, your eyes sparkle like the morning sun, but they are not made of rubies and marble so you are inadequate."  I feel like since this is Shakespeare, someone should have died, but I suppose the confusion in the love of these two will have to suffice for the traditional Shakespeare writings.  The last two lines go to suggest that the speaker really does have emotions for the mistress, but that the feelings are for fake reasons and not genuine care.

"Ozymandias"

"'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains.  Round the decay" (9-11).

In "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley, I found myself trying to pronounce Ozymandias in as many ways as possible instead of actually figure out the meaning.  Despite this hardship, I did manage to possibly get something out of it.  For instance, the above line makes me chuckle because of the irony.  A once mighty king now lies in ruins.  How depressing would that be?

Anyways, I think that this entire poem is kind of mocking the material rewards of power and royalty maybe?

The first line says that the traveler was from an antique land.  I know that that adjective has an implication, but I do not know what it is!  It kind of goes along with the old-fashioned feel in the poem, but I think that there is more.

Oh, and I listened to you and looked up words I didn't know in the dictionary, but it wasn't there.  I guess Ozymandias is was a person so it makes sense.

"APO 96225"

"And the father wrote right back,

'Please don't write such depressing letters.  You're

upsetting your mother" (16-18).

Question one of "APO 96225" by Larry Rottmann confused me for the entire class today.  I think that this poem deserves a list for situational irony and dramatic irony.

Situational Irony:

1. When his mother asks him to tell them everything, he writes only about monkeys and sunsets.
2. When he tells his mother everything, his father writes back telling him not to upset his mother.

Dramatic Irony:

1. Everything is positive, but that is only because the actual situation is so negative.

Okay, so those lists are really short, but I think that they helped me find the answer.  Despite being less points, the dramatic irony weighs much more strongly on the overall poem than the situational.  Imagine that the rocks on the right are the situational and the rock on the left is dramatic.  Since the dramatic irony is in every stanza, I think it is the actual prominent form of irony.  The letters are not to show that the mother and son have a strong bond in hardship, but rather the joyous message of the letters are supposed to show just how hard the situation is.  (pun intended.)

"Batter my heart, three-personed God"

"Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me" (12-14).

"Batter my heart, three-personed God" by John Donne is an excellent example of how poets are able to write in a multitude of styles and not always confuse me.  I definitely learned that this poem can be summarized in four words.

Paradox after annoying paradox.

While the word paradox is fun to type and say, the implications in a poem like this go far beyond the realm of imagination - big words are fun!  Anyways, the first sentence introduces the idea of "battering" someone's heart in order to heal it.  This is basically the equivalent of telling someone to stab me in the head because I have a headache, but it makes sense in context.  The speaker has turned towards the Devil's influence and needs to have the evil hammered out of "him."  (Can we just make this understanding that all speakers are guys unless it is explicitly stated otherwise?)

Another paradox is in the last two lines (thank you question 3).  It is odd to think that by trapping the speaker, that God will be freeing his thoughts, but it is more symbolic of starting a new leave (is that the phrase?) without the Devil's influence on his life.

The last line of the poem is also a paradox (shocker).  Basically, without God intruding on the speaker's personal bubble - is that a nice way to put it? - the speaker will never experience His grace.

P.S. I enjoy the time in class to read the poems.

"Mr. Z"

"The obit writers, ringing crude changes on a clumsy phrase:

'One of the most distinguished members of his race," (25-6).

In "Mr. Z," by M. Carl Holman, not only did I have "Mr. Jones" by the Counting Crows stuck in my head, but I also managed to catch on to some of the things talked about in the questions.  For example, the first line gives a clear idea that Mr. Z was African American.  From here on out, the poem became a satire, and the speaker juxtaposes being proud of Mr. Z for breaking the race barrier and mocking him for his awkwardness.  To be honest, I am not really sure why the speaker does not name Mr. Z, but I almost feel like it might be because the speaker just does not know it, but that seems like a far-fetched reasoning, so we should act like I never said it.

Let me go back to the point I made earlier about the contrast of pride and awkwardness.  The pride comes from Mr. Z's ability to fit in (3-6), while the awkwardness comes from him choosing raceless views and going to places that accept "exotic skin."  Assuming that I read this correctly, Mr. Z is Jewish, but non-traditionally married a lady who left the Jewish faith.

Okay, so I have yet to address the quote from above.  Question number five asks about the irony in the obituaries - when or if I die, can you make sure that no one makes a joke in my obituary for me?  The irony is actually kind of amusing for me - which is quite disturbing - but the obit writers basically are saying that his race, African Americans, have remained useless wastes of space and congratulations on doing something productive even if you had to avoid anywhere that might not find you worthy.

P.S.  I love this song, which caused me to directly enjoy the poem.

"next to of course god america i"

"next to of course god america i

love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh" (1-2).

In "next to of course god america i" by e.e. cummings, I really had to wonder if I prefer this style with no punctuation versus Emily Dickinson's idea of capitalizing every noun.  Judging by the quotation marks and last line, I conclude that this entire poem was originally spoken.  I believe that this poem has verbal irony.  When I read it, I kept getting caught up on all of the clauses that could either end the thought or start a new one, but when I read it out loud, my natural inclination told me when to place the commas or break up the flow of the poem.

The speaker creates an overall excitement and love of America in the first line when he - Let's act like it's a guy - blatantly compares his love for America being second only to God.

List of what he loves -

1. God
2. America

This love starts out as merely a list of cliches, but as the speaker goes on, there is a clear shift (Thank you to question number 3).  This shift from "thy" to "your" (line 7) shows that the love is eternal.  While the men who drafted the Constitution would have said "thy," we today still have liberty.  After this realization, the speaker tells of why patriotism survived.  The speaker ends with a rhetorical question to power in the idea that liberty will never die.  I believe this poem is in such an odd style of no punctuation merely because it was spoken and has multiple interpretations when read or heard (ambiguity) and because it was spoken in a hurry - as though something bad had just happened.

P.S.  I hope that you enjoy my new look on the blog.  I think the joke I found spelled alliteration wrong!  I will change it either every quarter or every unit based on how lazy I am... Let's just assume it will be quarterly.

"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.