Tuesday, March 25, 2008

"The Word Plum"

The part of this poem that I like the most are lines 10 and 11, "and reply, lip and tongue of pleasure." It reminds me of eating a ripe plum and it tasting so good. It brings happiness to my mind when I read this poem and picture myself eating this plum. I think the only way a reader wouldn't feel joyful after reading this poem is if they don't like the taste of plums.

Another reason this poems gets a positive reaction out of the reader is that Chasin not only talks about the pleasurable taste of the plum, she writes about the appealing apperance and even the sound of the word "plum". The very first line, "The word plum is delicious", shows how appealing the writer thinks the plum is. You can "see" this plum in lines 6 through 8 where it states, "taut skin pierced, bitten, provoked into juice, and tart flesh". These characteristics of the plum make it seem so glorious.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Nature Poems

These are the ten poems I choose for today:

"Roses" by George Eliot
"Summer Serenade" by Odgen Nash
"Sermon of an Elder Catfish" by Miles Garrett Watson
"The Sloth" by Theodore Roethke
"Lost" by David Wagoner
"Maples" by Judith Pordon
"The Shapes of Leaves" by Arthur Sze
"Fancies" by Lucy Maud Montgomery
"Heavenly Grass" Tennessee Williams
"Leaves Before the Wind" by May Sarton

Again, I have chosen poems that are mostly about things in nature. Two that I have chosen to talk about are "Roses" and "Summer Serenade". I like these two because they are so upbeat. When reading them, it reminded me of the summer and happy times. For instance, "Summer Serenade" ends on a happy note by saying, "If we must melt, let's melt together!" This is talking about a nice summer thunderstorm and these two people are about to get wet from the rain.

In the poem "Roses", Eliot writes, "I wish the sky would rain down roses, as they rain from off the shaken bush." When a reader reads this, they can imagine these nice, soft roses falling from the sky and dancing around in them as they lay on the ground. It seems as if one can feel only happy after reading these poems.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

My Poems

“Kitty Litter”

The cat poop
In the kitty litter box
That I scoop everyday



Rewrite of “Song of Myself”

I Love myself, and praise myself,
And what I like, you like,
I CELEBRATE for every belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I and invite my friends,
I lean and at my ease observing a piece of washed up sand.

My tongue, every muscle, from this body,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now nineteen years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to keep it up.

School and work together,
back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original celebration.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Poems I Found

I found my poems in a book of my roomate's called The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry. The poems I found that I like are

"Well Water" by Randall Jarrell
"Evening Hawk" by Robert Penn Warren
"Hamlen Brook" by Richard Wilbur
"Watermelons" by Charles Simic
"Drops in the Bucket" by Kay Ryan
"Fast Break" by Edward Hirsch


I noticed that most of these poems have to do with things in nature. The first two lines of "Evening Hawk" can help me describe why I enjoy these poems:

From plane of light to plane, wings dipping through
Geometries and orchids that the sunset builds,

Here, I like how Warren is so descriptive when writing about the eagle flying. He makes it easy for his readers to picture in their heads what he is writing about. One of the other poems, "Hamlen Brook", is also very descriptive. An example of this is:

A startled inchling trout
Of spotted near- transparency,
Trawling a shadow soldier than he.
He serves now, darting out

Wilbur is descriptive of this trout. The readers can easily "see" this fish swerving and darting through the water.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Marks

This was the only poem that got a response out of me when I got done reading it. After I read the last line, "Wait 'til they learn I'm dropping out", I was like, "Wow". This woman is really getting sick of her family picking her apart. Yeah, it was nice that her husband gave her an A for her cooking, but the rest of the things her husband, son and daughter say about her are just plain hurtful. And actually, when I read that last line, I was rooting her on, because she doesn't deserve those remarks, and she should try to get away from them.

I also felt like this poem seemed more real than the rest of the poems. These kind of things happen to families all the time. I can't personally relate to this poem, but I have seen movies and read about this same occurance.

I thought it was creative that the author thought of this woman's life as a report card. She related each of the things the woman does for her husband and children and gives her some sort of grade for each.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Barbie Doll

This poem is kind of depressing. To me, it is about a girl who grows up trying to please everybody, but doesn't really succeed because she is not good looking. So she kills herself because she is sick of everyone making fun of her. And once people see her in her casket, they think she is pretty because of her fake nose and beautiful make up.

The title, "Barbie Doll", has to do with the end of the poem when she is laying in the casket and everyone thinks she is beautiful. Before she died, she tried so hard to be perfect like a barbie doll, but that didn't happen.

The poem does have an effect on me: it is very sad but very true at the same time. That is sometimes how people treat others which can lead them to hate themselves. It is sad that the people couldn't look past her looks and see that she is beautiful in every other way.

Monday, March 10, 2008

"Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone"

The speaker of this poem seems to be addressing her whole town. He or she wants everyone to know that their spouse has just died, and thinks that the town should be shut down so everyone can come mourn with him/her. The reason that the poet is displaying this public greif is because he/she is so upset that their spouse died and they want everyone to know it.