Lonely Hearts

"Can someone make my simple wish come true?

Do you live in North London? Is it you?"

I think this poem is about a woman who is looking through the ads in the paper trying to find a possible partner. According to the wide range of people she is looking at, she seems to be very desparate to find love. As it is repeated several times, the reader can infer that she is looking for someone close to her in North London. The differences in the people could stand for all the different things she is looking for in a relationship. This could also stand for everything she is willing to try to maybe excite her life. I get the impression that she is very sad and, as the title states, lonely. So she could be looking for someone unlike her to change who she is.

Edward

"Why does your sword so drip with blood,

Edward, Edward,

Why does your sword so drip with blood,"

I found this poem greatly annoying. The structure of the poem was frustrating in that it was essentially only about 28 lines long if you took out all of the repeated phrases. It just said the same thing over and over again. This also made it increasingly harder for me to grasp the concept behind the phrasing. I think Edward is a warrior or soldier of some sorts who is leaving to go fight. The speaker I don't think is pleased by this because they say things about Edward leaving his children and his wife. Ah! Ok, the speaker is his mother? And is he a king? King Edward? Because it says "what will ye do with your towers and your hall", meaning a castle, I'm assuming.

Elegy for My Father; Who Is Not Dead

"One day I'll lift the telephone and be told my father's dead."

This poem is a bit ironic in the sense that the speaker is saying an elegy for their father who is not even dead yet- a point he addresses in the title. Every elegy I have come across is about someone who has passed away. To the speaker, they already see their father as being dead because he has accepted death, "I think he wants to go, a little bit- a new desire to travel building up, an itch to see fresh world. or older ones."

Another obvious literary device I saw was the use of an elegy. (I really had to dig deep for that one...) Usually, when I read these sort of things, the speaker or writer is often praising the person they are speaking/writing about. However, the speaker in this is almost criticizing their father for being ready to pass away. The speaker looks at this as the final step before they have to meet death themselves.

Death, be not proud

"Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me."

In this poem, the speaker uses an apostophe. He directly addresses death throughout. For example, "Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desparate man," shows the speaker speaking directly to death, as if if were a human being. Further, the speaker personifies death.

Another thing I noticed about this poem is that there is a lot of imagery about sleeping. "And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well," is one example of this imagery used. Another is "one short sleepe past, wee wake eternally." I think this means that death does not end our lives, as most people assume to be true. It only puts us to sleep, so to speak. The speaker recognizes that we (hopefully) will go somewhere after death and that our souls will continue to live on.

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

"Old age sould burn adn rave at close of day,

Rage, rage againts the dying of the light."

One thing that stuck out to me most in this poem was the tone of seriousness and caution. The speaker is warning his father that death is not the option. He must fight to stay alive and to "not go gentle into that good night". This message is repeated throughout the poem, even repeating the exact same line. The speaker is also saying that "Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight, blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,", meaning that even though he is nearing the end of his life, he should not accept this as his end and do what he can to fight it and "rage against" it. In addition to this, the speaker addresses four aspects of his father: "wise men", "good men", "wild men", and "grave men". I don't exactly know what this means in relation to the tone, but it was something I noticed.

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.