#8- "Getting Out"

The tone of this poem is sad rather than bitter. This surprises me because divorces are usually very disruptive and an angry process. The couple is having problems because they have matching hair and eyes, so they only have physical similarities, and nothing else in common. Also, they are imprisoned by each other and when the man tried to leave, he was stopped by all of the things they hadn't worked out or the things that need to be addressed. Those things were like the piles of clothes on the floor and unstrung tennis rackets. At first the couple tried to ignore it, but finally they had to part. Another thing is that they do not assign blame, they just fell out of love. In the end, they were crying and sad and it showed that the tone was correct from the beginning. A theory is that the couple is unable to conceive a child and that inability drove the couple apart.

"The Apparition"

I think this is a kind of strange poem because the speaker is worrying over something that has not happened yet. He warns his lover that if she leaves him, her new lover will not be able to protect her like he can. He keeps saying when you reject and scorn me, and it is like he is waiting for his lover to leave him. This makes me think that there is something wrong with the couple. Therefore, the man believes that he will be left. This poem is interesting because it is written in the future tense. Since it is written in the future tense, the tone is shown to be one of worry and a little bit of anger. The man is the one who might be causing the problems and he might be driving his lover away. However, that is just a theory. The only thing we know is that for some reason, the man is warning his lover that if she leaves him, she will regret it.

#10- "Crossing the Bar"

In this poem, the speaker is using ocean images to represent death. I think that the choice of imagery is helpful because so many of the functions of the ocean can represent a cycle, life, and death. The boundless deep image reminds me of a vast and calm ocean and that represents heaven because it is also described as home. A person is created by God in heaven and returns to heaven(hopefully) in the end. Also, the tide represents fate. It is a beautiful image of fate and the feeling that you'll go when you go because tides are strong forces of nature, but are not as conspicuous as waves, but ever present. The sand bar represents that step from shallow water to deep water or crossing over into heaven=death. The images in this poem support the peaceful and quiet tone of this poem. The author wants to meet his Pilot(God) in a quiet and calm way, just like the ocean on a calm day.

"My Mistress' Eyes"

When I read this I automatically thought of a ridiculous line in Dawn of the Dinosaurs(don't judge, yes I watch animated movies!). "I fell in love with a pineapple- an UGLY pineapple! But I love her." At first this poem reminded me of this silly kid's movie because I thought that the speaker is saying that his love is not the prettiest but he loves her. However, after discussion, I realized that the speaker is actually saying more by contrasting her to the objects that most people of the time compared women to. The speaker is satirizing the men who wrote poems to women and compared their beauty to the sun and the snow. The speaker makes the argument that his lover's eyes cannot be like the sun, because they are not the sun, but she is just as beautiful as the women who are having those poems written for them. I think the honesty of the speaker makes this poem more beautiful and true than the other poems written because of the "lies." Also his love for this woman is rare because it is not made under false pretenses like some are. It is rare because it is not exaggerated, it is honest, and it is true.

next of course god america i

This poem was really overwhelming for me because of the lack of significant punctuation and the speed at which you read the poem. After class discussion though, I felt like I really understood what the poem is about. A lot of Americans go through the patriotic motions but really do not feel or know what they are saying. It has become mindless, the Pledge of Allegiance, and something I don't even have to think about. This is what the speaker is warning against and what he is angry about. I think he is posing the question, "Do we really know or care?" With this satirical piece, he is calling the audience to action and to take pride in their country. The identity of quoted speaker is never really said, but I think that it is a person just like the rest of us. He talk fast in a jumble of nonsense at first, but then starts to form actual coherent thoughts toward the end. I think that he is unsure and doesn't want the attention on him, but is trying to figure out patriotism. His last couple thoughts really strike a cord, especially the one on the soldiers. This poem is trying to help the common people figure it out just like the speaker is trying to.

APO 96225

This poem reminded me overwhelmingly of The Things They Carried. There is a similar motif in that the people at home pretend to care and understand, but really just want to forget about the war. I think that this poem is written in the objective point of view because there is not embellishment or feelings that the writer conveys, just the facts. However, while the POV is objective, the author assumes the role of the speaker to convey his thoughts on the war through the poem. I think that by being objective, the speaker really shows how he feels and conveys that emotion. The Vietnam War and the Iraq War are very similar in the regard that after awhile people stopped being horrified and just wanted to forget. I will always remember something Mrs. Helbing taught us that is that the veterans of WWI and WWII received floats and parades and were considered heroes when they returned, but the veterans of Vietnam received nothing and people would not even listen. The author is expressing frustration in the American public for their lack of compassion and concern.

#10- Barbie Doll

I think the Barbie Doll is a symbol of the ideas of society and the plastic surgery the girl goes through is society's hold on youth. The beginning is characterized by a beautiful little girl playing with her Barbie, not caring about the Barbie as much, but her game. As she grows older, she cares less about her creativity, her individuality, and more about becoming that very Barbie she grew up with. The Barbie has different purposes throughout the girl's life and ultimately leads her to change who she is. The casket has its own meaning. It symbolizes the death of the old image of the girl and her individuality and marks her entrance into society and blending in. I think this girl was told that she had a weird nose and fat legs and that she was not pretty. In doing that though, the girl became less beautiful, I think, because she gave up her uniqueness and now fits the mold. Finally, the overstatement of "cutting off" her limbs shows the sacrifice she made to society... she cut herself up.

#13- Much Madness is divinest Sense

This poem is filled with paradoxes. The poem itself is a paradox too, I think, because not only do line lines form paradoxes, but the poem is one as a whole. The two most important paradoxes and the ones that the poem is based off of are "madness is sense" and "sense is madness." These lines are paradoxes because they seem to be contradictory and wrong, but there is a truth in what is being compared. Madness is sense when you object to the ideas of society and sense is madness when you assent to the ideas of the majority. The first one means that while society calls objecting the norm "madness," it is really the sane thing to do because a lot of the time society and the majority are wrong. The second one goes right along with the first as opposite because society calls assenting "sense," while the speaker disagrees and call it mad. I tend to agree with the speaker because a lot of the times society is not driven by faith or morals, but greed and immorality. If you go along with society because it is what everyone is doing, you are assenting to live an largely immoral life. Also, a lot of the ability to think for yourself is lost which does not help the condition at all.

"I Taste a Liquor Never Been Brewed" (she was an interesting one)

This poem was the hardest for me because I have never really gotten Emily Dickinson before. I take poems to literal so I thought the speaker was just a drunk who was explaining how it felt. I did not understand until the small group discussion that the speaker was drunk on nature and it made the poem beautiful, but still confusing to me. The speaker uses a lot of nature imagery to describe this intoxication as beautiful and real like the fox gloves and butterflies. I think that the speaker is so overcome by the beauty that she cannot describe it other than totally taken over by nature. However, I was confused by the seemingly random entrance of the Seraphs and Saints because they have nothing to do with nature. I think that it possibly might have to do with the Saints and Seraphs blessing her love of nature and watching over her as she takes in the world. The "leaning against the sun!" is actually the only part in the poem that before the small group led me to believe that nature has something to do with the poem. The sun is a lamp post and I think the speaker is standing outside, taking in everything and taking in nature.

February... oh dear

The overall message of this poem is left until the very end when the speaker says "so get going on a little more optimism," but before that its a bunch of whining. The title of the poem is February, but never does the speaker actually mention February except to define it as the Month of Despair(dun dun duuuuuun). Most of the time the author talks about winter in general. This fact makes me think that the speaker has angry feelings toward February and especially February 14th. The poem is a heartbreak poem because the speaker has felt love, but has had it taken away. The speaker spends the majority of the poem complaining about her cat's whining and neediness when she is actually complaining about her lack of love and need for comfort. She used the bed to describe the comfort that she is lacking from a person, so she spends more time in bed. Finally, at the end, she realizes that she cannot be a lonely cat lady forever, tells the cat to get off her face, and orders herself to be optimistic. The last line is "make it Spring" which solidifies the despair she felt in winter.

#11 Dream Deferred

"Dream Deferred" was full of figurative language! Most of the comparisons are similes, but there is a metaphor that cause quite a bang at the end. The purpose of the figurative language is to make the author's point as clear as possible in each way. The first simile, "does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?," compares the speaker's dream to a raisin that has become smaller and smaller until it shrivels up, without much life and meaning. The next is "festers like a sore." This simile was the saddest to me because dreams are supposed to drive you and make you happy, but in this case it is causing the speaker pain and is infecting him. Does the dream "stink like rotten meat" is also quite descriptive because it is describing the dream as old and the chance has been lost and finally, "crust and sugars over." This was the hardest for me to understand because sugar usually has a positive connotation for me, especially chocolate. This shows that the dream comes back to bite you because it seemed better than it really is and has become sickly sweet and overpowering; it acts as a barrier between the speaker and moving on with his life. Finally, OR DOES IT EXPLODE is a metaphor. I think the speaker left this example of figurative language for last because it is the most destructive. I think the author left it until last also because he thought that this is the course that his dream would take.

#8 Pink Dog

The tone of the poem is degrading and sarcastic, but I think it is supposed to be satirical. The tone is meant to get the audience to think and is a call to action because they are supposed to be embarrassed about the subject of the poem. The tone is achieved by the word choice, the images, and especially the rhyme scheme. The rhyming gives the poem the degrading tone and calls the audience to action. The subject is the beggars and poor that the rich seem to ignore and only cover up during the holidays. Also, the radios and Americans influence the change in culture and the shift from tradition to the need to cover up problems instead of fixing them. The author is intentionally harsh toward the subject because he wants the rich to see how they are being treated and to help them. The imagery is also humiliating for poor because he compares them to dogs. He uses phrases like "in what slum have you hidden them[your babies]...? and "a dilapidated dog would not look well" to cause the rich to pity and help them. The "slum" brings a nasty image to mind and hopefully, if the author's goal was accomplished, the audience of the time also felt pity and was moved to action.

#9 Bright Star

Bright Star was one that I had problems with initially, probably because I was stuck on the "star" instead of what the speaker was really saying, but here it goes. The diction means a lot in this poem because it is what compares the star and the lover. One of the words that I paid a lot of attention to was "swoon" in line 14 "swoon to death." I was confused because I thought that swoon meant to faint and I couldn't figure out what it meant. Swoon in this sense is a positive connotation I think. The speaker would rather be with his lover for eternity, or "swoon to death" at the peak. This poem is very sweet and the diction leads the readers to make the connection and understand the meaning. Another example is the comparison of the star to a hermit. Hermits to me are very holy, patient, and always there and the comparison helped me see how the speaker was comparing the love he wants to a star.

#6- "Those Winter Sundays"

The central purpose of this poem is to show the love or lack there of in this household. When I first read this poem I think I skipped over the part about the chronic anger in the household because I felt sorry for the father due to my great relationship with my dad. This shows love because the father gets up in the brutal cold and heats up the house and polishes the shoes, but I think these actions are the only way he could show love. The poem doesn't not show just the temperature cold in winter, but the emotional cold felt by the whole family. The father was never thanked, but he still loved. This poem leads me to believe that something held the family back from love and it could be the anger or it could be the father's job. I think the speaker is also still cold from the anger and lack of love being said. He cannot warm up because he cannot thank his dad for all of the things he has done for him. Something is holding this family back.

#7- "After Apple Picking"

I believe the central theme in this poem is the age of the speaker and the weariness he is feeling. I think that this is about a man who has lived his life, but is growing tired and has come to grips with the fact that he is tired and that death is the inevitable end of life. I do think that he is unhappy with some of his choices, but that it is life. The empty barrel (ln 3) could represent the things he hadn't done and "no matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble" could represent the things he had done and the battering he took sometimes as well. I especially was proud of my analysis of the window in relationship to the theme. The previous line talked about the strangeness in sight, which to me represents the failing sight older people face, as the speaker looks through a pane of glass. I always think of looking through a pane of glass as a glimpse into another world or a setting which you are not, so the glass could be representing his life as he remembers it and plays back his memories. Finally, is the repetitive apple picking itself. The speaker is clear when he states that he is tired from apple picking and doing it every fall. This shows how tired the old man is and how waking up is almost like apple picking to him.

#12- "The Convergence of the Twain"

I think the mirrors, the "opulent glass," are symbols of the vanity and the grandeur of the ship. This poem seems to focus on human vanity (ln 2) and what can come from it. The ship was designed to be unsinkable and it was decorated as richly as a palace because it was that "special" but still it was reduced to a wreck in the ocean. I think the sea worms could represent how all of the chandeliers, painting, and expensive objects were reduced to nothing. I think the speaker's objective is to use the symbols and our knowledge of the Titanic to warn the human race about the destructiveness of vanity. People of that time were really sad about the sinking, but I think they were also angry. The sinking of the unsinkable ship dented the armor of the human race and I think the vanity was reduced a little. The disaster caused people to be more careful and to doubt their advances.

#17- "Spring"

I learned something today and it is that this poem in a sonnet, an Italian sonnet to be exact. I did some research on sonnets because I did not have any idea of what they were besides eight lines followed by 6 lines and I wanted to understand the author's reasoning behind writing in this form. The first eight lines formed a description, while the next six lines formed the comment. In this poem, I think that the speaker is describing new life and innocence and how Spring is used as a symbol. The new grass, the eggs, and the lamb especially represent new life. Additionally, I think the frolicking of the lambs represents the innocence of youth. The six lines at the end are sent up as a prayer and possibly a warning. The speaker is noticing the changing lifestyles and the loss of innocence and is commenting on how the young kids will not be innocent but will be "sour with sinning." The prayer, which is sent up to heaven, is also an important part because not only is the speaker commenting on the loss, but he is pleading and praying that they will change.

#8- "The Widow's Lament in Springtime"

I automatically thought of the juxtaposition that occurred in this poem when I read it and that is the normal joy of Spring and the grief of the loss of a loved one. The tone is that grief that is so evident when compared to the new life and joy of spring. The tone is grief, but longing as well because the speaker would rather "sink into a marsh" than live with the grief. This woman is so distraught that she cannot be in her yard because it reminds her of her husband and the happiness they shared together. She can't go to the meadow because the little white flowers that are present remind her of her husband too. I think that the tone has something more than grief though as I think more about it, and I think that despair fits more than grief. She is very sad over the death of her husband, but with the despair comes a panic almost because she is left alone and can't move on. The tone is what stuck out to me in this poem even more than the similes and symbols because I could feel the despair she felt in her tone.

Poetry... grrrrr

I do not like poetry that much because I would much rather read something that went into more detail and actually unfolded instead of just ending after a couple of lines, but I suppose I'll put my feelings aside and try to enjoy it.
Perrine's approach to determining correct interpretations make sense to me, but I think there are always exceptions. Sometimes, I think that details in poems are there to add to the poem, but should not be zeroed in on like they usually are. I, personally, would like to read a poem that is not cryptic and that doesn't hurt my head, but uses its details as an aid to the meaning, not the whole meaning. I have not studied poetry, so my analysis might be totally wrong, but I do not like the emphasis put on things that are analyzed, but could be totally irrelevant. I do agree with the second one because I think that random poetry is created for children and for laughs. I was struck by the "that it is satisfactorily account for as many as possible of the known facts without being contradicted by any fact." It took me a fifth read to understand the words and that even if there are as many as possible that are not contradictory, there will be some that are not in that "as many as possible" because it doesn't say that all will. It is confusing because the first criteria is that all details must not contradict each other or it is wrong.
This article did change some of my interpretations of the poems and how to interpret poems in the future, but I still have problems with poems in general. I get how the stars in The Night March can be described as an army and I now understand how by describing stars as what they aren't can give a more vivid and can keep dead metaphors from showing up. However, I don't like the untitled poem by Emily Dickinson. I feel almost cheated from the real meaning of the poem, the sunset, because there are so many beautiful ways to describe a sunset. I did not get the sunset in this poem. I saw a garden that was full of life, but when I read this paper and learned it was a sunset I felt like I could have seen it, but my analysis kept me from it. I do understand the "any interpretation is acceptable which lies in that area." The horse example helped me a lot when it came to understanding. The more detail the author puts in a poem, the less he leaves to the reader to come up with on their own. The author has their own meaning, but I think now that I have read this, they want the audience to get it, but they do not want them to only get it because it is black and white. I think the trick is to find a happy medium between too much detail and too little detail, so that the audience can understand it fully.