Monday, April 25, 2011
The Explosion
When I first read this poem, I thought it was Apocalyptic. The diction in the poem creates and image of Armageddon. Larkin's use of the words "explosion," "shadows," "tremor," "heat-dazed," and "dimmed" illustrate what the Apocalypse might look like and what I imagine it to be. However, when I learned that the word "pithead" meant the entrance to a mine and the word "pitboots" were miners boots and the Larkin wrote this poem after watching a documentary about miners and being fascinated by it, my paradigm of the poem shifted. The poem is not about the Apocalypse but rather mining, and each stanza discusses different aspects of mining. For example, the first stanza illustrates an explosion in the mine, the second stanza the miners after a day of work, and so on. What struck me the most was the stanza that was italicized, however, after reading the poem again I understood that this stanza represented the funeral of a miner and the italicized words are the words spoken by the priest. The last three stanzas had the most impact on me because the focus of the poem shifts from the miners to their wives which makes the poem relatable to many people, especially when Larkin says, "It was said, for a second Wives saw men of the explosion," because many people have been in a situation oh where it could have been their loved one that was hurt or had died and think of the horror of it.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Many red devils...
Friday, April 15, 2011
the lesson of the leaves
Friday, March 25, 2011
The Golf Links
you fit into me
Sunday, March 6, 2011
So Long to Colorado
to the deep purple
of the Rockie Mountains
and the crystal snow capped peaks.
Farewell to the bipolar seasons.
Snow rain, sunshine, sleet,
wind, and hail all
in the same day.
Good bye Colorado fashion.
Ugg boots and shorts
in the middle of winter.
Snow pants and ski
jackets in May.
Farewell to the
"Sweetheart City"
that sometimes
wasn't so sweet.
So long to my blue
house on the corner.
How your paradigm
has shifted.
Fifteen years has
transformed you from
a monument in the
eyes of a three year old
to a home. My home.
Questions we have about compassion?
Is compassion seen or heard?
Is it a feeling or an action?
Do we choose who we show compassion to?
How can we be compassionate to some but not to others?
Is compassion done for all or just those in dire need?
Why can you be so fake?
Why are some people unable to receive compassion?
Why are some people unable to show compassion?
Why aren't you natural?
"Compassion is not religious business, it is human business, it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability, it is essential for human survival."
Dalai Lama
*the quote wasn't apart of the poem originally but I thought it went really well with it and answered some of the questions.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Day Millicent Found the World
William Stafford
Every morning Millicent ventured farther
into the woods. At first she stayed
near light, the edge where bushes grew, where
her way back appeared in glimpses among
dark trunks behind her. Then by farther paths
or openings where giant pines had fallen
she explored ever deeper into
the interior, till one day she stood under a great
dome among columns, the heart of the forest, and knew:
Lost. She had achieved a mysterious world
where any direction would yield only surprise.
And now not only the giant trees were strange
but the ground at her feet had a velvet nearness;
intricate lines on bark wove messages all
around her. Long strokes of golden sunlight
shifted over her feet and hands. She felt
caught up and breathing in a great powerful embrace.
A birdcall wandered forth at leisurely intervals
from an opening on her right: “Come away, Come away.”
Never before had she let herself realize
that she was part of the world and that it would follow
Wherever she went. She was part of its breath.
Aunt Dolbee called her back that time, a high
voice tapering faintly among the farthest trees,
Milli-cent! Milli-cent! And that time she returned,
but slowly, her dress fluttering along pressing
back branches, her feet stirring up the dark smell
of moss, and her face floating forward, a stranger’s
face now, with a new depth in it, into the light.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Desert Places
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sort of a Song
The initial thing I noticed about this poem was the structure and the length of the lines. The lines vary from long to short and are very end stopped so it makes the reader pause in thought. The variance in structure is what ties the title into the poem, Sort if a Song. The poem is structured like a song and flows somewhat like a song, and in historic times, poetry was used to tell stories through songs. In the second stanza, Williams uses very odd syntax. Instead of beginning the second stanza with a capital letter and a sentence, he placed a dash to create a tie between the two stanzas so the reader would understand their connection. He also has two single word sentences which provide big emphasis on those two ideas, and he put parenthesis around another idea to show a more passive emphasis that idea.
In the first stanza, Williams uses the snake as a symbol of poets. "Let the snake live under his weed and the writing be of words, slow and quick, sharp to strike, quiet to wait sleepless." In this stanza, Williams is describing poets as snakes. They wait and watch the world. Then when an idea comes to them they are "sharp to strike" their words to paper, and after they recede back to their "weed" “quiet and sleeplessly” waiting for another epiphany. The second stanza then talks about how poets connect with others and the world. "-through metaphor to reconcile the people and the stones. Compose. (No ideas but in things) Invent! Saxifrage is my flower that splits my rocks. Williams talks of how poets connect "the people" together through metaphor because "reconcile" means to bring into agreement or harmony. In that sentence, the dash shows the connection to the first stanza, and, therefore, makes the reader realize that Williams is meaning to show that poets are the ones reconciling with out having to directly say it. Then Williams makes the assertion that there are no new ideas except in tangible things and challenges people to "compose" and "invent." The last sentence was the most striking to me and ties the two stanzas together. Saxifrage is a flower that grows in between rocks and cracks them. In this sentence, Williams is saying that even the smallest ideas can change the world just like how something so fragile like a flower can split a strong, sturdy rock in half.
*Oh and I commented on Natillie's and Correy's blog.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
It was a dream
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Alone
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Book
I held it in my hands while he told the story.
He had foound it in a fallen bunker,
a book for notes with all the pages blank.
He took it to keep for a sketchbook and diary.
He learned years later, when he shpwed the book
to an old bookbinder, who paled, and stepped back
a long step and told him what he held,
what he had laid the days of his life in.
It's bound, the binder said, in human skin.
I stood turning it over in my hands,
turning it inmy head. Human skin.
What child did this skin fit? What man, what
woman?
Dragged still full of its flesh from what dream?
Who took it iff the meat? Some other one
who stayed alive by knowing how to do this?
I starred at the changing book and a horror grew,
I starred and a horror grew, which was, which is,
how beautiful it was until I knew.
This poem really struck me. It left more of a mark on me than any other poem we have read in this class. It begins with someone telling a person the story of his discovery of a mysterious book with blank pages. Then the author, Miller Williams, tells the true nature of the book. That it is bound by human skin. Finally, the person holding the book is struck with horror as he or she finally realizes the book's real meaning. The first stanza stood out to me because it is only one line. "I held it in my hands while he told me the story." I think the one lined stanza is a symbol for the book because it is one of a kind and different from any other book because it is made of "human skin." I'm not sure if the author means for the book to be literally made out of human skin though or if the book is even a book. I think the book is a symbol for the lies that people unkowningly build their lifes on, when people turn the other way and do not understand what people have done and do to other people. "An old book keeper... told him what he held, what he had laid the days of his life in. It's bound... in human skin." This part was when I first thought the book was a symbol rather than an actual book. "What child did this skin fit? What man, what woman? Dragged still full of its flesh from what dream? Who took it off the meat? Some other one who stayed alive by knowing how to do this?" This part is reffering to the people who stole dreams from other people, who robbed them of their chance. This part was also where I saw the significance of the blank pages. The blank pages are a symbol of the people who were "dragged" still full of life from their dreams and never got to lay their life down in a book. The last stanza is what realy hit home for me. "I starred at the changing book and a horror grew, I starred and a horror grew, which was, which is, how beautiful it was until I knew." This really hit me because I could relate this to so many situations past and present. When I was reading this poem, I kept relating it to slavery. I kept thinking of the thousands of men, women, and children who were dragged from their dreams so other people could build a life for themselves. "The book" is horrific because you think something so very horrible is incredibly beautiful until you understood its true nature.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Of Mere Being
I remember in class people were debating the idea if whether or not this poem is about faith or not. There were two parts of this poem that make me believe this poem was, indeed, about faith. The first is in the second stanza, "A gold feathered bird Sings in the palm, without human meaning, Without human feeling, a foreign song." I think this part is talking about faith because humans cannot describe the meaning of faith or the feeling of it, because of this, I believe the author is using the bird as a symbol for faith. The second part is in the last stanza, "The palm stands on the edge of space." Heaven is typically referred to as above the earth, so when Stevens says "on the edge of space" I think he is referring to the palm as a symbol of Heaven.