The Guitarist Tunes Up

I love this poem. i do not play an instrament so i cannot really relate to this in the sense of a musical instrament but i can relate to it as just an instrament because of tennis. my tennis racket is like an instrament. i see this poem as a man playing a guitar but he does not see it as just an instrament he needs it so much and respects it so much he sees it as a lover. He knows that he needs the guitar to make music similar to a man knows he needs a women to do pretty much anything. It is a respect type of thing he has for his instrument.

You fit into me

i like this poem.
at first i just liked it because even the mention of something being in an eye makes devyn squirm and that makes me laugh.

When i first read it i did not know that an eye was like a bra clip so i thought it was about an actual fish. This made the poem better because i figured it was like a relationship that the person had not wanted but got anyway. Much as a fish would just be swimming in the water and a fish hook comes out of nowhere and hooks him in the eye. This is a metaphor for a bad relationship.

Then i leaned that it is a hook and then it became a metaphor for a good relationship.How they are very different things but they come together to accomplish a goal.

A Poison Tree

To me i find tis poem being about forgivness. The tree that grows is because the man in the poem cannot forgive and the tree is what comes out of him being angry. The anger is all he can think about so it becomes something tangible, an apple tree that grows a beautiful apple. I do not know if this is true because why would not forgving someone make something goode like an apple. Except it made sense to me when someone in class made the allsusion to the fairy tale snow white and that the apple could be a poison apple. That is why the man is glad to see his foe underneath the apple tree becasue he knows it will hurt his foe. That made sense to me because that also shows in the part "i sunned it with smiles, with soft deceitful wiles." This also reminds me of snow white because the witch pretends to be a nice old women so the decietful wiles is also in snow white.

I usually feel like i know what the poet is trying to say but with this poem i do not. The first stanza made me think it was going to be something about how you should forgive people. Then in the end i think the angry man kills his foe with a poision apple. well that is how the end goes in my head. so i am not sure of what the message is. maybe it is just a story but i really doubt it. I think it just goes over my head.

It was a dream

This is a poem for the last packet because i lost my packet but i have not written a blog on it yet.

I do not really like this poem. I cannot explain why i just do not. I think it is not as descriptive and flowery. it does not put as much of an image into my head as the other poems that i like.


The author of this poem used to have an extra finger and cut it off. In the poem it refers to her dream self as her greater self and that version of herself still has the extra finger. this makes me think that the author regrets having her finger removed. The line where the real version says " s pleaded with her, could i do. oh what could i have done?" makes me think that the author thought removing her finger was the only thing she could have done. that living with an extra finger was not an option. The dream self replies "This. This. This" as she is pointing and i think that means that she should have left the finger that she could have been better with it. The dream self does not like the fact that she cut off her finger for vain reasons.

The way she explains her dream self "wild hair ..wild eyes" makes me think of medusa. That is the classic allusion this poem brings to my head.

I Remeber the Room was Filled with Light

In class we talked about how a title can change a whole poem with untitled  by the person i can't remember now.  I think that kinda happens with this poem. When i read the title it reminded me of a hospital because when i think of bright rooms i think of someone dying which just makes this a sad poem just from the title even when this poem has nothing to do with that.

This poem to me is about a family that is poor and it has taken such a toll on the parents that they have began to resent each other. They have stopped speaking to each other and are only staying together for the child. i can tell they stopped talking because of the line "i ran to her, though she could hear" this means that even though she simply could have answered the question because she heard him ask but she refuses to.  i can tell they stay together because of the child because of the last line "i danced between them, forgiveness in my cup, wise messenger of the gods, their child." this means that no matter how mad they get at each other they will always have their child to keep them together. i think the "messenger of the gods" means that the author thinks his parents are meant to be together. the gods want them together and that is why they sent him down to keep them together for always. i like the line "i stood at the brim of a wound just healing" which means that the parents had recently gotten into the fight and it was just starting to get better. 

The Golf Links

The golf links lie so near the mill
       That almost every day
 The laboring children can look out
       And see the men at play.

When i read this poem i can really picture it. i see small children working in sweat 

shops and they are going home from work and they see these men playing golf on this 

very expensive and nice golf course. ht ese children have nothing and these men fly 

out to some foreign country to play golf. I picture them being CEO's even though i do 

really know what that is. I just know they are over payed by a lot. It reminds me of 

Fun With Dick and Jane the movie. how there are the people in charge who have millions

while other people are suffering and the do not care. The men do not care that the 

are working and should not be they are just there to look out for themselves. 

this sounds like someone describing a picture that you could hang on a wall. i can 

really see this like it is a snap shot and i think that is a feat and means the poet 

is a great poet because there are only four lines.  

When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer

WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. This poem is a great example of how a person does not have to understand something to love it or think it is beautiful.The narrator is trying to understand stars and gets bored and then goes outside and looks at the stars and finds that he loves the stars even without understanding them. This reminds me of the poem  Of Mere Being. We do not have to add human meaning to everything sometimes it can just be. The stars can make people happy without understanding them . In regards to the structure of the poem i think that the way Walt Whitman repeats "when" and capitalizes it shows how monotonous and boring trying to learn about the stars is to him. Until Walt leaves the room every line starts with "When" and it shows how the lecture drags on and how boring it is. I can relate to that because i have been in some very boring classes. I think Walt Whitman wants people to get out of this poem that knowing everything is not necessary that sometimes we can enjoy things we do not understand.

poem from class

Goodbye...
Goodbye to high school
to someone always holding me accountable
to it being okay to makes mistakes
to never being able to fail
     not for a lack of trying

Goodbye to my family
to the rules marred by double standards
to the loveing obsequious little brother, little only in years
to the harsh comments made strictly to hurt
to my parents who always kept me from falling to hard
to the lessons they let me learn
   and the lessons they kept me from learning

Goodbye to my 5th home
to the creaking walls that terrify me at night
to wood pecker who i lived in the roof above my room
  and woke me up at 7 on sunny saturday mornings
to the bed constantly warmed
to the dog so ugly he was almost cute who kept it that way
to the black lab who hates the world, mostly me
to my puppy, no longer a puppy, who never gets mad  no matter how much i bugged him
goodbye to unconditional love

goodbye to my security

The Day Millicent Found the World

This poem is so pertinent to the lives of every person in our AP Lit class because we are all about to graduate and go on a new adventure.  I think this poem could be about high school in general because freshman come into high school and begin to "venture further". we begin to steadily separate ourselves from our parents and our lives because we are growing up. As we move on and pass years by we get lost in a " mysterious world where any direction would yield only surprise". we soon realize that we are going to be thrown out into the real world soon. we are not just children anymore. people care what we have to say and actually listen to us. " never before had she let herself realize that she was part of the world and that it would follow wherever she went." when we leave high school we have so many options to what we will do and we realize that there is no wrong decision. we can do whatever we want and the world will still be there. nothing can happen that is that bad we will always be okay. Then in our senior year we begin to care less about high school and all we stop caring as much "senioritis" We start to dream about the future but then someone calls us back and reminds us that we still need to graduate  "Aunt Dolbee called her back that time...and she returned that time but slowly" next time, however, we will not have someone to call us back we will be alone in college or working and we will have no one to make sure we come back. we might not come back. in the course of high school we have all become different people. we have grown and experienced and high school has marked all of us forever. " and her face floating forward, a stranger's face now, with a new depth in it, into the light."

The Trees in the garden

The trees in the garden rained flowers.
Children ran there joyously.
They gathered the flowers
Each to himself.
Now there were some
Who gathered great heaps—
Having opportunity and skill—
Until, behold, only chance blossoms
Remained for the feeble.
Then a little spindling tutor
Ran importantly to the father, crying:
"Pray, come hither!
"See this unjust thing in your garden!"
But when the father had surveyed,
He admonished the tutor:
"Not so, small sage!
"This thing is just.
"For, look you,
"Are not they who possess the flowers
"Stronger, bolder, shrewder
"Than they who have none?
"Why should the strong—
"The beautiful strong—
"Why should they not have the flowers?

Upon reflection, the tutor bowed to the
     ground.
"My lord," he said,
"The stars are displaced
"By this towering wisdom."

Survival of the fittest.

 

We talked about this poem in class and we talked about religion in this poem. I think this poem is not directly about god but eludes to him. I think when the poem says my lord and father it is just saying the owner of the garden. I think this can be a metaphor for god and the world. The poet could be saying that the world is the garden and god is the owner. i like to think that it is that one that it is about god. I do not really know why. i guess because i like timeless poems that can be read forever. The religious part means that people will always look at this poem and it is a unifying theme in the poem that the past present and future can and have read that will always be understood. 

 

"Why should the strong—
"The beautiful strong—
"Why should they not have the flowers?"

"See this unjust thing in your garden!"
But when the father had surveyed,
He admonished the tutor:
"Not so, small sage!
"This thing is just.

I love these lines. Because it is beautiful and also applies to almost everyone. This 

line applies to everyone and esspecially people our age at this time in our lives. 

We are applying to college and the "Beautiful strong" will get in while the weak 

will not get to go where they want to college. the "stronger bolder and shreweder" 

have their choices in what to do with their lives. This is another theme that will 

always apply to people and make this poem timeless.

"My lord," he said,
"The stars are displaced
"By this towering wisdom."

I'm not sure i completely understand. I guess maybe that the idea that it is fair that 

the strong get more than the weak is such a big idea that the stars have to move to make 

room for this idea. I like that. I think the author is being sarcastic. And this line 

is saying that the owner of the garden thinks to highly of himself. That why should he 

have the power to say what is just and what is not just. Why should he be able to move

the stars to fit his ideas. If the author is using this as a comment on god then that 

is a huge statement. and probably a very controversial statement.

I like this poem not because of what it means. I like it because of the way it sounds.

Without putting any meaning to the words they sound beautiful together. The way 

they flow together is amazing and he is a great poet.   

Of Mere Being

The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze distance.
A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.
You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.
The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird’s fire-fangled feathers dangle down.

~Wallace Stevens, 1954~

This poem is saying that everything just is. The poet is saying that even though the bird singing might make us feel happy or unhappy that the song itself is not happy or unhappy is merely is. The poem goes onto list things that just are: the bird just sings, the birds feathers just shine,  the winds moves the branches. These things are without human meaning. He is saying that just because we give them meaning in our heads does not mean that they actually have meaning.The bird singing has no meaning until people give it meaning.  The bird's feathers are not shining because that makes people happy they just are shining. If the shining held no meaning for us the feathers would still shine no matter what. They do not shine because of us or for us they just shine. I think the poet is making a comment on how people read to deep into things we, as people, give meaning to meaningless things. Such as the song of the bird. It is all in our head that things give meaning and sometimes we need to stop. I think this poem is similar to "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins in that respect. Both poems are talking about looking into things to much " They begin beating it with a hose to find out what is really means." Both poems are saying that sometimes it is okay for something to just be without human meaning.
 

The book

    First of all i do not think this actually happened, but if it did that is utterly disgusting. i cannot imagine holding something and then finding out it was covered in human skin.
   I think this is a really good poem. i think it is a metaphor for how beautiful something can be before you search to figure out what it is. The man in the poem obviously liked the book because he kept it with him. He thought it was great until he went to try to figure out what it was. maybe the author is saying that we need to not search so hard for what something is and just take it as what we think it is if that makes us happy. If something makes us happy and we try to look too deeply into it we could ruin it. The author is saying that sometimes it is okay to take this at face value and not go deeper than that. because if we always try to investigate further it may turn out to be like a book bound in human skin - horrifying and gross. "how beautiful it was until i knew." The book was beautiful to him until he took it to someone to see what it actually was. He should have just kept it as a book that made him happy.
   I really like the part of the poem right after he finds out that the book is bound in human skin and he just stands there looking at the book. it takes him awhile to comprehend what he has learned. and slowness he comprehends and his repulsion for it grows.  I really like this because i can really see a man standing there holding a book  "and turning it over in my [his] hands" slowly figuring out that what he is holding is holding, and what he used to think was beautiful, is grotesque.
  As i am reading it again i realize the poet never says it is good or bad that he found out what the book actually is. I guess maybe he is leaving it to the reader to decide. but he could have meant that just because you think a thing is beautiful does not mean it actually is. He could be saying that you need to check into all things or you could be carrying around a book bound in human skin. The more i think about it the more that i think it is this possibility to me because i would not want to be carrying around something like that thinking how beautiful it was. The poet could mean both ways but i think i am going to take it as a person needs to investigate everything so that the person is not carrying around something horrifying.
 

Reading Myself

Like thousands, I took just pride and more than just,
struck matches that brought my blood to a boil;
I memorized the tricks to set the river on fire-
somehow never wrote something to go back to.
Can I suppose I am finished with wax flowers
and have earned my grass on the minor slopes of Parnassus....
No honeycomb is built without a bee
adding circle to circle, cell to cell,
the wax and honey of a mausoleum-
this round dome proves its maker is alive,
the corpse of the insect lives embalmed in honey,
prays that its perishable work live long
enough for the sweet-tooth bear to desecrate-
this open book...my open coffin.

 At the beginning he is saying that like many people he had too much pride.  I do not understand what wax flowers are i googled them and it just showed a bunch of websites that teach a person how to wax flowers. it might mean that he is done with things that will not die because wax flowers are stuck the way they are forever and he does not want that. this also might connect with the end because he says the stuff about perishable  work so he wants the work to be able to die but he hopes it will last long enough for someone to appreaciate it. I like where the poet compares a bee hive to a life-long work of art. That when you are working on something so long that you become so into it that you cannot separate yourself from it. The thing you are working on so hard and trying to make perfect becomes your coffin. Like the bee that works its whole life on making the hive that it dies in it and becomes almost a part of it. this is what the author is saying that when an artist or poet or writer is working on something so hard they will eventually not be able to stop and when they die they become a part of it and that is what they are remembered for. Artists of any form are remembered for their works and that is why their works become their mausoleums. The thing you come to see when you want to see someone but they are dead. All artists want their work to live on long after they are gone and that is why he says that the bee hopes its perishable work will live long.

The Cat

I think the cat in this poem is the women and he calls her a cat because cats do not like to be controlled. That is what the author is saying i think that he tried to control her but she could not be controlled and left. Cats leave for no reason they like to be free and roam outside they could have everything and yet still run away. I think this is shown in the line " i said to her do not go why want nothing? but a window was opened and she went," there was nothing outside for her and the man could provide anything but she had to roam. I like the lines about her dissolving because it has such imagery. It really made me picture a woman walking away and slowly you cannot see her anymore.  I do not know why it is repeated maybe because that is how the author felt he was so shocked that he could not even comprehend what happens. like in movies when the actor repeats things over and over again because they do not really think it really just happened. the last stanza. I think he is saying that we all feel a need to roam and that we all do not like being controlled that is why he said "you can here her sometimes...you listen intently to your own self. My favorite line is " i said to her do no go you'll be trapped and bewitched and will suffer in vain." this is so meaningful i think because it sounds like a desperate man who loves her and is just trying to make her stay. this puts the image into my head of the women and the man and the women has her hand on the door about to walk out and this is his hopeless last cry to try to make her stay even though he knows she will not stay. She then walks out the door into, "the black night, she just dissolves."

Untitled by Stephan Crane

i interpret this poem as a man coming upon a creature in the desert and the creature is eating his own heart. I think this poem is very good because it is short but it manages to put a very vivid picture into peoples heads. I think that maybe because it is so short is why it is so very able to put a picture into peoples heads. it is just long enough to give you an idea of what is happening but the lack of very descriptive words makes the reader put in his own idea and make of it what he or she wants. The poet has made it perfectly long enough to make people really see it in their own way. In class we talked about this poem and everyone said that he used the desert because it is barren and lifeless. But i think he used the desert because it has so much going on and so much life in it but you just have to look a little deeper. In my head i see a little the  Lord of the Rings character. i cannot remember the name but he has the ring at the beginning and it ruins him and turns him into the little gross creature. This makes me interpret the poem as that the creature used to be a man but his heart turned bitter for whatever reason and that has turned him into a creature like the lord of the rings creature. He does no know what to do with his bitter heart and is just holding onto it. i think that his bitter heart has taken such a toll on him that he is now complexity a creature and in the end he does what beasts do and eats what is in front of him. Even though he cannot stop himself from doing this he knows that he still in fact likes his heart just for the mere fact that it is his heart. and i think that is where the desert comes in and just because he looks like a beast and is acting like a beast does not mean he is actually a beast he used to be a beast but for whatever reason his heart grew bitter and slowly but surely that became his downfall form which he could not get up from.

Much Madness is Divinest Sense

assent- agree
stark-extreme
discerning- discriminating
divine- god like
 demur- object

Much Madness is god like Sense --
To a discriminating Eye --
Much Sense -- the extreme Madness --
'Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail --
agree -- and you are sane --
disagree-- you're straightway dangerous --
And handled with a Chain --

madness is everywhere and to be called sane you must agree 

with the majority and if you do not then you are insane and 

considered hazardous. to be normal in the world you have to 

stay out of the way and not object to anything. i think Emily 

Dickinson in saying that you should demur even though there will 

be consequences. I think this because she says that much sense 

is the starkest madness so that what the majority considers sane 

is actually very insane. I think she is making a statement to 

make your own path instead of following others.