Crossing the Bar

"And may there be no moaning of the bar
When I put out to sea,"

Well, it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't talk about how I did not understand at least one poem. :) And here it is! What exactly is the bar that the speaker is talking about? I feel as if it could shift in meaning from the first stanza to the last because of how it is used in context. In the first stanza, the speaker is talking about going out to sea, so I first took the bar to mean either the oar (I pictured them on a row boat) or a sand bar. But a sand bar doesn't moan so that did not make sense. In the last stanza the speaker says, "I hope to see my Pilot face to face/ When I have crossed the bar." I took this bar to mean that he/she left life, as in died. The Pilot to me seems to symbolize God because he guides us in everything that we do.

Maybe I did know more than I thought I did...

Hazel Tells LaVerne

"musta come from the sewer
swimmi aroun an tryna ta
climb up the sida the bowl"

I really liked this poem! As I'm sure you have read from about every other girls' blogs -I just got a phone call from Juliana Schott saying she talked about the same thing- but when I read this poem, the first thought that came to my mind was how much it was like Princess and the Frog. First, let me just say how much I love that movie. If you haven't seen it and you are opposed to Disney movies (which is a serious character flaw) you should put all of that aside and watch and enjoy the greatness of the movie. Back to literature. The speaker's diction was a little hard to read at first. But it is also very easy to tell exactly what type of person this is based on stereotypes. The thick accent that I heard in my head while reading was very strong throughout the poem, especially when the speaker said the above quote.

Getting Out

"That year we hardly slept, waking like inmates
who beat the walls. Every night
another refusal, the silent work
of tightening the heart."

At the beginning of this poem, the speaker uses a simile to show the relationship of the couple before or during the process of the divorce. The above quote compares the couple to inmates. I think this is sybolic of many relationships. People get into horrible marriages where nothing is working out, yet they are married, so they are sort of "stuck" with each other or imprisoned within the marriage. The tightening heart the speaker talks about is also very symbolic of divorces in that people have to squelch their feelings in order to get over their partner. When they "tighten their heart", they are doing their best to let the other go in order to save their feelings.

Dover Beach

"The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled."

The above quote is an example of a simile. The speaker compares faith to a corset, something very commonly worn by upper cast woman during the time that this was written. Corsets were things that sort of held the women together and was a necessity in every day life. To the speaker, faith used to be the same way. It was a part of the world that was key to survival and was essential to every day life. However, "girdle furled" means that the corset lost its purpose and no longer works. This was true of the faith as well. The speaker is saying that everyone lost their faith and that it was no longer as prominent and relevant as it once had been to his society and maybe in his/her own life.

My mistress' eyes

"And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks."

In this poem, the speaker uses a lot of imagery. Granted, all of that imagery is very negative; all he talks about is how terrible his mistress is. He calls her out on practically every flaw that she could have. An example of the vivid imagery that this speaker utilized were, "If snow be white, why then her breasts be dun". Another, "If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head." Both of these lines, as well as the rest of the poem, allow the reader to get a clear image of what the woman looks like. Often, the speaker says more of what the woman is not. The harsh words leave the reader with the idea that the speaker absolutely loathes this woman. However, in the last two lines that notion is put to rest: "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare." This shows that even though she had all of these horrible traits, she still had some redeemable qualities and something that the speaker could not stay away from.

next of course god america i

"in every language even deafanddumb

thy sons acclaim your glorious name by glory"

I had absolutely no idea what this poem was talking about, but you said you wanted us to blog about it. So I'm going to make a bulleted list of things that stood out to me.

• I dislike how everything is lower case.
• And the lack of punctuation.
• Except for the last line... that probably has some significance
• Is the person talking within the quotations supposed to be like, uneducated or something?
• "jingo by gee by gosh by gum"... that's pretty weird
• Is this person a little crazy from a war? Because that's the feeling I'm getting.
• "heroic happy dead" = oxymoron?
• "then shall the voice of liberty to be mute?" This did not make sense to me with the rest of the poem.

APO 96225

"So, after a while,

the young man wrote,

'Dear Mom, sure rains here a lot.' "

This one was actually kind of depressing. The thing that made this so was not the fact that this man/boy was fighting in a war (yes, that IS depressing as well...), but rather how he was trying to protect his mother from the truth the whole time. I feel like this was very true during the Vietnam War. People knew it was happening and seemed invested in it, as long as they did not know the specific details. I think people wanted just to believe that everything was alright. They thought they wanted to know the truth, but once they did, the reverted back to the same old thinking prior to the reality check. This is really shown in the man/boy's mother. She wanted to know, but once she did, she couldn't handle it. This to me, makes this poem extremely saddending.

Barbie Doll

"Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs."

In this poem, the general tone was sort of melancholy. This girl was brought up like any other girl: force-fed all these ideas of what she should be in order to be viewed as acceptable in society. However, she did not fit this norm. Instead, she was only seen as "a fat nose on thick legs." The speakers diction and the text really amplified and ellicited what the girl must have been feeling her whole life. The speaker talks about how the girl was seemingly unaffected by all of this: "She went to and fro apologizing." However, as the poem progresses "her good nature wore out like a fan belt." And finally, she ends her life, further adding to the melancholy tone. There is a bit of irony at the very end when the speaker mentions, "To every women, a happy ending." This girl did not end her life in a happy way at all. But since society expects that from the girl, it makes this ironic.

Batter my heart, three-personed God

"But I am betrothed unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie or break the knot again,"

In this poem, one thing that stuck out to me was this quote above. It mentions that the speaker (let's call it a he) is married to God's enemy. As we all know, God's enemy is sin (or the devil). The word betrothed gives the meaning that the speaker and sin are bound together. This reveals lots of truth about human life. We cannot escape sin, no matter how hard we try. It's simply in our nature. However, there is a little part in all of us -at least I like to think- that wants to deny sin and not give into the its temptations. Another part that stuck out to me was when he speaks to God saying, "Except (unless) you enthrall me, never shall be free, nor ever chaste, except (unless) you ravish me." This part seemed a little awkward to me. Never would I think to put God and ravishing in the same scenario. But this further proves the whole marriage idea behind sin and attempting to turn away from sin.

Mr. Z

"Taught early that his mothers' skin was the sign of error,

He dressed and spoke the perfect part of honor," lines 1-2

In this poem, Mr. Z is a character that stands for someone who is racially desriminated. In particular, Mr. Z is an African American. This is hinted at when the speaker says, "his plate shrank from cornbread, yams, and collards," because these are all part of stereotypical Southern cuisine. This Mr. Z tried his best to overcome his stereotype. He took part in typical "white" activities and interests, even put himself through the best schools. This could symbolize all of those poeple out there who try to overcome similar situations. Also, there is a bit of irony at the end of the poem: "One of the most distinquished members of his race." This is ironic because his whole life he tried his best to NOT be seen by the color of his skin, and yet, after his death that was all he was viewed as.

Bright Star

This one was very pretty. That sounds so un-insightful, which I guess it is, but it's very true. Although I have no idea what this poem was really talking about, I like it. It was very pleasant to read. Stars and the night sky are among my favorite things so I felt that I could really connect with the speaker on this one. The language was very romanticized and, like I said, pretty.I wouldn't mind someone using these kind of words on me. (Unless I'm interpreting the poem incorrectly and they are in fact NOT nice, endearing words...) It evoked good and pleasant mental images. I only wish that I could understand it a little better. I look forward to going over this one in class.

February

This one was just plain weird. The thing that I gathered from this poem was the connection between February and the speaker's general tone. It is obvious from the language that they do not really enjoy the winter. The speaker comes right on out and declares their hatred for February: "February, month of despair, with a skewered heart in the centre." That sounds like someone who really loathes this winter month. I can connect with this. When February rolls around, I am so tired of the dreary, bleak cold. All the fun winter holidays and festivities are now over and all anyone can think of is that spring in around the corner. Sure, the corner may be a couple hundred blocks down the road, but if you squint really hard, you can just make it out. This speaker, however, I don't think has that good of vision. They don't see the corner are running low on optimism until the very end of the poem.

Pink Dog

When I started reading this poem, I finally thought that I understood what was going on. However, that was diminshed as I read further into the poem and realized that I had absolutely no idea what the speaker was talking about. But my initial interpretation sounds nice, so we will go with that. I belive that the dog is a symbol for the people who are looked down upon in our society. More specifically, I belive the speaker is talking about the poor. For example, when they say, "Naked, you trot across teh avenue. Oh, never have I seen a dog so bare!". This leads to me to make the connection between an actual, hariless dog and the poor and the lack of belongings. Poeple in today's society tend to stray away from the poor. As ashamed as I am to say this, when I see them on the street, I usually do my best to keep my distance. This is demonstrated when they say, "of course they're mortally afraid of rabies". This is hinting that the poor have something that people with mone don't want to "catch". The speaker is sort of ridiculing this aspect of society.

Dream Deferred

This one, obviously, is basically all similes. I actually kind of liked this. A reason why this author decided to use all similes was because they evoke good images. Almost everyone can identify with these images. So the reader really connects with the writer in this case. The way this author used the similes created quite a vivid image. I found myself actually picturing a dream as a tangible object. This tangible object was then transformed into all of the things that it was being compared with. I also feel as if I really understood this poem, which is a first for me.

The Joy of Cooking

This poem is probably the oddest poem that I have ever come across. Once I got passed all the macabre and disgusting imagery, however, one thing really stood out to me: the tone. The tone at frist seemed sort of sarcastic. Who would actually want to kill their brother and sister and cook them to serve as dinner? But as I read the poem again, I began to notice things that, while the speaker did not want to actually cook their siblings, their might have been some underlying animosity and bitterness towards the two. What led me first to believe this was the body parts that the speaker chose to "prepare". In the very first line, they talk about their sister's tongue. Usually, this is associated with speaking. So I'm inclined to believe that they said something offensive. Then, the speaker talks about their brother's heart. Now, heart is associated with love and feelings, so this could symbolize that brother's lack of one. For example, a few lines down the speakers says that a normal beast heart serves six, but "my brother's heart barely feeds two" implying that the heart was already small to begin with. This all generally adds to the tone of bitterness.

London

This is another where I don't think I comprehended it very well. But I will give it a go.

The images in this are all negative and kinding depressing. Especially when the author writes, "runs in blood down palace walls." To me, this whole thing was talking about the different social castes within the city of London at the time. The Palace was simply a symbol for the king. And the blood running down the walls could be all the people that the king was using sort of as pawns. They represent the people who had no respect, but were forced to give their lives to not only the king, but the Church and other institutions. The "forged manacles" represents the mindset that everyone had towards other people. They had a set way that society must be in order for it to run the way it should in their minds. This led to no diversity and no individuality. Finally, what also struck me was when they were talking about Harlots and how they hurt infants. This means to me that prostitution and arranged marriages, something very common in that time, are making children unahppy and corrupting the youth, as well as the city as a whole.

The Panther

I'm finding out that my interpretations of poetry are usually much different than everyone else's. I'm also figuring out that I do not delve very deep into possible meanings for poems. For example, this poem is one of those that I simply saw on the surface. I am really looking forward to figuring out exactly how to interpret poems. But for now, I will just go over what I thought this one was about. To me, this one is about someone or something that is locked behind bars (well duh, it says that. "It seems to him there are a thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world.") But what this is referring to is not physical bars, but the implications that they pose. This being is inhibited by something and is therefor unable to move forward. And when this creature gets glimpses of what life could be like, they get a sad feeling and close off from the world, knowing they will never acheive it while they are imprisoned by something.

I realize that this was inredibly vague...

To Autumn

Out of all the other poems, "To Autumn" really stuck out to me in terms of imagery. Unlike the other poems in this selection, this had extremely vivid imagery that appealed to all of the senses. The sense of touch is represented when the author writes, "thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind" because it evokes a familiar feeling of the wind blowing through one's hair. Another example of imagery in this poem appeals to the sense of sound. "Hedge-crickets sing; and now with the treble soft the red-breast whistles from a garder-croft." But most predominantly, this poem has lots of imagery relating to visual senses. From the very beginning, it is stated, "Season of mists and mellow fruitfullness". This initially evokes a scene behind the readers' eyes. This is kept up throughout the entire poem and makes it very easy to follow.

I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain

This poem was greatly confusing to me, and I feel like that may have been Emily Dickinson's objective; to confuse her reader a little. The central theme of this poem is insanity. The speaker in this poem had something happen to them that caused them to lose their mind. This final breaking point that I observed was in the last stanza: "And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dopped down, and down-". Once I read this, I reread the whole thing and it began to make sense. The funeral she was descibing was -to me- a death of some idea or constant in her life, leading her break down. Another thing that added to the them of the poem was at the very end of the poem it just ended. Midthought, the speaker stopped. This could mean that the speaker had lost the ability to use words and finally suck into insanity, or maybe even death.

The Widow's Lament in Springtime

(I'm going to start off saying that blogger does not really work on my laptop all that well, so I've been writing my posts all out and posting them at once... is that alright? Because I'm now seeing that you said to post them separately...)

After reading through this poem and then looking over the suggested questions, number eight really stuck out to me. An obvious tone of this poem -to me at least- was depressing. Even though she was talking about beautiful flowers and other things that usually are paired with happiness or content thoughts, she stated them in a sort of mournful way. It is apparent that her husband died as the title states she is a widow and it jumps out at you throughout the poem. However, I had to dig deeper to find just how she felt about it. When she says towards the end that she wants to "fall into those flowers and sink into the marsh near them" I feel like that is her giving up and giving in to her depression. Maybe, she ultimately is hinting at an eventual suicide. What leads me to this was she said "sorrow is my own yard". When she talks about all the things that are outside her yard, it makes me belive that her sorrow is like a prison to her and to escape it this she must leave to go out to the flowers. And the only way to do this, and to be with her husband, is throught suicide, further carrying out the tone of depression.

The Perrine Article

(for some reason this was not letting me post it on my laptop...)

Let me first start off with this: I never knew there were so many different ways to interpret poems. I mean, I knew there were different ways, but it just dawned on me how I can view something one way, and someone else can have a totally different opinion. However, I don't always agree that one person has to be right and the other must then be wrong. I understand what he was saying in the passage that there are usually more correct ways to viewing poetry, but I don't think that that is always the case. I belive that there was a way the writer wrote it, but people can take from that what they want. I strongly belive that what the reader's past experiences can greatly influence what they see in the literature. And I do not think that this fact makes them incorrect in their interpretations.

But -and I'm going to contradict myself- what also really struck me was how Perrine explained the reasonsing as to why he was correct. He had and almost scientific method to proving his point. I got excited when all of his students thought the same things I did about the poems. But then as I kept on reading, I realized that what he was saying actaully did make a lot of sense. We have to think about our interpretations to fully understand what the writer was trying to convey. Sometimes- although I'll be the first to admit how difficult this is- we should do some extra work in deciphering the messages. We should look things up and read into the history of the writer in order to get a good understanding.