Joy Harjo "Deer Dancer"

            Joy Harjo crafts a unique poem pertaining to a cultural shift in morals and life-style to a strict heritage of people in "Deer Dancer."  She also encompasses the inner feelings and desires of women of the night by relating their life-style of frivolous dancing for income to a deer.   The symbol of a deer represents how the wild and untamed beast they become when they dance is natural to them and has become natural to the society due all the changes in morality.  The bar where all the strippers, lowlifes, thugs, and as the poem describes, "broken survivors, the club of shotgun, knife wound, of poison by culture," is not only where these individuals gather but their hardships of life.  The bar contains principals of culture that have spiraled downward into pool of pain that only the dancers can cure with their dance that is sacred to them.  Her mystical movements clean the broken-hearted men or women that fill that place but in turn create more troubles thoughts of her own.  

Gwendolyn Brookes "Saudie and Maud"

            Gwendolyn Brooks accomplishes invoking the roll of the 1940s African American female in her poem "Sadie and Maud" by portraying their different social identities that black women could have.  One of the obvious rolls given is the young girl that successfully becomes a college graduate, but at the price of her youth.  The other is girl who skipped out on the option of going to college to enjoy herself and the beauty of her youth and working through life.  These two girls do differentiate in their rolls by shame accompanying the girl who used her beauty to pass through life and the other partnered with loneliness for pursuing education.  And even though Saudie's beauty brought two children that the rest of her family didn't approve of, she still had more pride and love for those two girls than her sister did.  Moral of the story, don't be so judgmental of the actions of other because karma is a bitch.  

Ted Hughes "The Horses"

Ted Hughes "The Horses" is one of the more eerier poems that I have read this year.  Its dark tone and damp theme instinctively and instantly create the idea that the four legged beasts represent death and the terror they bring with them.  Hughes goes into deep detail of the dismal scene of the woods and frost surrounding the animals with finer imagery than most poems I interpret.  At first glance, these horses seem to be representing one of the four apocalyptic horses, death, but Hughes sheds light into the poem by shedding light.  By doing this he not only changes tone and theme for the piece but what the horses represent themselves.  He includes that a "red light" splits through the clouds.  To me, this imagery created  not only a stronger theme for death but for the murderous idea of war.  Hughes says in stanza seventeen, " In din of crowded streets, going among the years, the faces/May I still meet my memory in so lonely a place," and creates that these horses have a job to do and nothing will stand in their way.  

Philip Larkin "Church Going"

Philip Larkin's "Church Going" conveys a strong theme of absence in religion for both the poet himself and every attendant of modern church.  From the very beginning Larkin mentions the disbelief of religion inside of the church even while the sermon is going on.  As he talks about his own thoughts, his belief with religion is absent as he fills an empty seat on a pew with an empty shell of a man.  He ponders about the other participants of this tradition and wonders why they all attend also.  Do they really believe in it, are they like him, or do they all congregate to relieve themselves of past sins in order to cleanse the palate?  Larkin erupts these types of question through the poem as he establishes another theme through his many questions.  He strongly persists on the idea that God may becoming absent in religion and people due to the church and its ways.  He forms the idea that the church is killing religion in itself because we are forced into a confined building and expected to praise instead of actually wanting to; relaying the idea that it has become more of a conditioned  habit than a faithful tradition.  

Robert Lowell "For the Union Dead"

                "For the Union Dead" portrays the evolution and advancement of society while the great old historic monuments and events of the past are left to dissolve like faint memories.  Lowell concentrates on the social aspects of society and how in his point in time there is an albescence of gratuity for those that have sacrificed so much to establish equality.  He also vaguely indicates the political factors that went into creating the equality by mentioning prime figures of the Civil War.  Colonel Shaw was the only man that took on the duties to lead an all-black regiment to fight against the republic.  Lowell incorporates a presence of familiarity and loyalty by displaying some slang from his era in stanza thirteen quoting, "Shaw's father wanted no monument/except the ditch,/where his son's body was thrown/ and lost with his 'niggers (48-51).'"  Obviously Lowell wanted his audience to feel a sense of remorse for destroying and forgetting about the history that helped shaped America for personal satisfaction and comfort.  

Shel Silverstein - "The Perfect High"

Shel Silverstein delivers a very unique twist on what would be a children's poem in "The Perfect High."  The story follows the druggie named  Gimme-Some Roy who seeks that perfect high through effort, determination, and pain.  He follows his dream of attaining the high that's going to satisfy him forever once he snorts, smokes, or sticks it in his veins.  Through the perils of the mountain to get that perfect high he must go through the guru Baba fats that knows the secrets of the getting it.  But in the end, Baba Fats leads him down a new road full of more crap than the last.  The irony is that Baba is in a state of being high as he talks to the Lord while sitting on top of a mountain completely naked before sending the persistent  youth to nowhere.   The captivating  story and rhythm make the poem memorable and leaves an impression of how quizzical and crappy life can be. 

blog on howl

            Allen Ginsberg's  "Howl"  is like a love letter to the dark underground of drugs and filth that the author occupied while he was free to roam the underbelly of New York and New Jersey.  To start off, I really did not enjoy it for the fact that it just sounded like one long continuous rant from the author.  He depicts the humans of the city society in a raunchy and ridiculous way that's seems childish because he can't control himself.  It's almost as he needs to curse in some areas to get his point across to the audience but in fact he doesn't really need to.  I will say that the way he rally's and combines his word creates a distinct diction about the poem that leaves an imprint.  To me this seems like a rant, but its slightly less annoying knowing that it does fulfill the purpose of describing the specifics of that time period related to that area.  It creates the notion that this time period, not everything was fine and dandy and that everyone lived a "Great Gatsby" life but revels that the American dream, and the road to it, was corrupt just as the society itself.  

14 "The Young Housewife"

"The Young Housewife" by William Carlos Williams displays how young love is ruthless, carefree, selfish, stupid, and inconsiderate.  The poem, which is told from a first-person point-of-view,  speaks of a young woman who goes behind her husband's back to cheat with other men that are mentioned within the piece.  The ice-man and fish-man both have her way with her before she is discovered by the narrator whom I presume might be her husband or private investigator.   The last line of the poem says, "The noiseless wheels of my car/rush with a crackling sound over/dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling," which I take as a notification of discovery and satisfaction for catching the frivolous female in the act of deception.  As I stated earlier, the narrator may very well be the husband or a P.I. tailored to trailing the deeds that the young housewife commits, so as he "bows and smiles" as he passes her the gratification may come from the idea that he caught her red-handed or  it is the husband's gratification for finally freeing himself of deception, lies, and false love.   

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            Mina Loy's poem "Der Blind Junge" takes a new perspective on the war poems that I have seen and gives her audience the notion of what war is to the German soldiers of World War I, or The Great War.  In this particular poem she is framing the idea that the young boys who served had no say or choice on the actions they committed.  The war changed these boys to men and took their freewill into a false reality that pervaded their humanity in order to complete tasks of cruelty.  These new bred tools of destruction are used for the sole purpose of causing death and mayhem and Loy implies that they have no say in the matter.  In stanza eight she also states, "A downy youth's snout/nozzling the sun/drowned in dumbfounded instinct,"  that implies these soldiers have realized that war has changed them but they do not refute it because in war it is either kill or be killed.  

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                "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot is a poem that is hard to describe because of its grand allusions to history and its epic stories of the past.  His allusions range from stories in the Bible, Greece mythology, poems, and tales from different eras of time.  It splits and fragments each of the allusions and scatters them throughout the poem to make an obscure story that is confusing but almost angelic and prophetic at the same time.  Eliot takes these great pieces of literature and transports the reader to that time by using the languages  to connect figures, words, voice, culture, and time.  The tone is set throughout the story from the very first sentences.  Irony runs throughout "The Waste Land" When Eliot uses Petronius, Satyricon, which almost sound like the word "Satirical." 

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                As I said in my previous blog, Prufrock is an intriguing character.  Eliot describes him as an older man who  has experienced a good deal of life's twists and turns.  Prufrock is a pale and frail individual filled with many self-doubts and insecurities that hinder his desires to achieve things, in this instance a woman.  He is afraid to face the women because he believes they will judge him strongly on his appearance.  But Prufrock is made out to be a person that is a day dreamer as he visualizes the many outcomes and what-if's that would have been if he had talked with one of them.  One lines 87 he says, "And would it have been worth it, after all,/After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,"  and again on line 99 with, "And would it have been worth it, after all,/would it have been worth while."  The desires are not fulfilled in the end as the heartbroken Prufrock sings his song of goodbye to the unattainable "Mermaids" on line 123.  

blog numero whatever "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

                Eliot has a very subtle tone in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by creating imagery of the characters and scene in the poem.  It is also seems to be for those who can really appreciate the very essence of the poem like the very cultured or intellectual.  For instance, the very beginning of the poem does not start on line one but before it.  The excerpt from the Dante's Inferno is aimed at an audience that is able to read latin and is cultured in the arts.  All that aside, Eliot shows his first imagery of the city by letting the audience know about what type of city it is from stanza one through three.  The yellow fog like a cat helps create the notion that it slips around the city very subtly by creeping through the cracks of doors tracking anywhere it can.  It also is a definitive detail about the city.  Since it is yellow it means that the city is an industrial city that burns a lot of coal. This city is bound by the seashore according to line seven that mentions oyster-shells, which is an aphrodisiac, which also lets the reader know more about the city. 

                Prufrock himself is a very peculiar man as Eliot describes him to be a frail, pail, and nervous individual.  He is plagued by the passionate idea of acquiring something that he cannot attain.  He questions himself multiple times throughout the poem on whether or not he is good enough or worthy to go after a trophy he thinks is mystical.  This prize is a higher class of female that is like no other he has been around and they attract him because of their uniqueness.  

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                "Who's Who" by W.H. Auden ordains the notion of someone or a man committed to becoming a great figure of impeccable accomplishments in order to receive acceptance from his father or father-like figure.  It is a homage to human kind's perseverance as well as its humility because of its display and tone within the poem.  It honors human perseverance by detailing the great actions that a man has done like climbing a mountain, discovering a seas and lands, and becoming a man through trial and error.  However, all of these accomplishments are done in the respect of proving himself to another figure in his life.  This other figure is someone else but most likely a father figure that has gained the attention of this young person.  This father figure is the motivation and drive that the man uses to achieve his goals in order to prove his worthiness to another who does little to better himself or the world.  This poem is about family and how everyone has a drive in order to protect a loved one and would go to great lengths to do it.  

Blog ocho "The Creation"

                The bio about James Weldon Johnson describes him as a man who liked to instill qualities of the sermons he had heard in childhood.  In "The Creation" he does this by making the whole poem seem as if it is told from a child's point of view.  He creates a childlike theme by describing the process of creation as a  five year old would tell it.  It is very nostalgic to me in its overall context because the poem has a mellow tone of "God" being the childlike figure in the poem.  Johnson gives the creator childish features like in stanza one, "I'm lonely - Ill make me a world," and "And god rolled the light around in his hands/Until he made the sun/And God said: That's good (15, 16, 25)."  These are things that something a little kid would say and do when he is playing outside.  Johnson does this throughout the poem and makes the creation of the earth, moon, and stars seem to be a kid having fun in a sandbox.  The only real question is if Johnson makes out the existence of man and mankind's faith of Christianity to be some kind of joke or feeble false reality or does Johnson take the creator of life and reality and describes God from his own point of view?

Blog numero siete "Southern Night"

D.H. Lawrence had a very unique collection of poems that I found intriguing to read and others emotionally close to the poet.  "Southern Nights" had an eerie feel to it  like the type of discription of a horror movie and  with an emotional connection between words.  In stanza three, line two it states, "Bitter-stinging white world that bore us," gives a concrete and ambiguous way in describing light.  It is concrete because it is boring through the eyes and becoming a piercing light.  However, he loosely refers to it as the white world that illuminates our surroundings.  I enjoyed his description of the autumn moon and how it is this orbiting object that not only brings a sense of foulness to the air but also an idea of a whole new world to perceive.  With the rising of the blood colored moon comes with it a creep atmosphere to linger until the end of the poem. I also liked how Lawrence draws the readers with use of anphoras, ploces, and other devices.  

Blog numero seis "Why Do You Feel Differently"

Have you ever had an misunderstanding with someone and both of you did not know what the other was talking about? Well Gertrude Stein's "Why Do You Feel Differently" is a description of that type of situation.  To me, the poem itself seems to be either a miscommunication between an internal thought or between two actual subjects.  One point of view could be the "nice wives" stated in the poem but ultimately it is still about some sort of confusion.  The underlying fact is that to fully understand someone or something questions must be asked.  The repetition in the poem serves as a point in this fact because to truly understand something one must regurgitate it until it is embedded in the mind.  The style of using the same words in a different manner also complements the idea that as individuals we interpret each situation differently.  This difference in thought is an idea that causes the confusion and misunderstandings that we have among each other, but it is what makes the individual unique.  If everyone had the same pattern of thought then the world would lose the meaning of creativity.  

Blog numero Cuatro "Dead Man's Dump"

Dead man's dump caught my attention in being an ode to those unfortunate souls lost in the midst of war and must await until the battle resides for their fellow comrades to retrieve them.  What makes this poem unique is the flow and combination of words that create a very visual picture of a battle ridden with death.  Rosenberg intuitively creates the sense of emotions and anxiety of battle by using a combination of words such as, "A fear may choke in our veins/ And the startled blood may stop," which is an illustrious way in making one experience how a soldier felt in that type of situation.  He also paints a picture of the battle by describing the scenes and moments as, "the air is loud with death/ the dark air spurts with fire." These two verses create a sensation by describing the smell and visualization of the battle he is in.  He not only crafts a picture of war but takes into account that a battle is still taking place in that point in time and puts the reader into the boots of a soldier.  He states, "His shook shoulders slipped their load/ But when they bent to look again/ the drowning soul was sunk too deep," which depicts the life of a fellow soldier being snuffed out.  Rosenberg's style is almost angelic at times by being what Sasoon says as, "Biblical and Prophetic quality," when he bluntly unfolds to the reader surreal images using sharp and bold words.  

Blog numero tres "Grass"

 Sandburg is a poet who likes to include a subject when he writes about his poems.  He demonstrates this in  "Grass" which is about time and how it is a constant anomaly that will never cease to stop.  Time is something that is constantly flowing and Sandburg makes the figure of grass represent the passage of time.  The poem is also stating that time does not stop and the world keeps turning after traumatizing and dramatic events like death.  Even though one has passed on to the next life, the grass and people still grow and the past is left behind, leaving many wondering about the distant times humanity once had .  One thing that Sandburg liked to do is make many allusion to great clashes in history such as the battle of  Waterloo and Gettysburg.  These battles were fought in various places around the world and are destinations  where many men lost their lives for their country or beliefs.  The allusion of these battles helps support the theme of time and death and clarifying that only time will heal past battle scars.

Blog numero dos "When You Are Old"

                W.B. Yeats is a master craftsman when it comes to poetry and shows his talent in "When You Are Old."  Yeats uses many allusions in his poems and the title of this poem is an allusion to a sonnet by French poet Pierre de Ronsard.  This particular poem attracted me because of the theme of nostalgia and dreams of the distant past.  In this brief poem so much is said through few words about how memories of joyful moments never leave the human mind.  Stanza one is a statement that old age will inherently come to everyone alive and by that point we will learn the value of time by taking every action slowly.  We will cherish every fleeting moment with the passage of  time with pleasant memories of events or loved-ones.  This poem in particular is talking about someone, most likely a woman, who has engraved her image of beauty and frivolous  personality into the mind of the speaker.  However, near the end it seems that Yeats is saying that some memories must remain in the past because of the pain it might cause in the present.  

Blog numero uno "Hap"

            "Hap" by Thomas Hardy seems to be Hardy's  self-expression of what life and pain are.  From stanza one it seems that Hardy believes that all of his hardships are rained down from a deity that takes great pleasure from his agony.  He is stating that the human race as a whole is doomed to suffer through the emotions god has given.  Stanza two is the realization that humans must accept the suffering and accept  the numerous complications of life.  Here Hardy is saying that people must deal with the agony at hand because it has already happened and one must come to terms that there is no going back to the past.  However in Stanza three Hardy recaps on what has caused the torment inside and blames all of his choices and emotions. He refers to all the negative emotions  as "Crass Casualties" that blind him from being happy and regret  as "purblind Doomsters" that linger in his mind.