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.