The Day Millicent Found the World

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.

*I tried to incorporate a lot of poetry words, so I apologize if this doesn't sound very deep because I was focusing on using fancy words. :)

"The Day Millicent Found the World" by William Stafford consists of three stanzas. Each stanza depicts different parts of the story. One of the things I noticed when I read the poem is the lines are end stopped because each line is not a complete thought and runs to the next line. I found this technique difficult to read the first time but as I continued to read and read it a second time, I noticed it became less challenging. The author's syntax varies, from incredibly long and descriptive sentences to short, one lines sentences. I also noticed that the poem has no rhyme scheme because it feels like the author is telling a story, so the thoughts just flow rather than have the traditional sound of rhyming poetry. Throughout the poem, Stafford uses a few literary devices. The most noticeable device was personification. He personifies the forest in every stanza to give it human like qualities and make it appear more friendly rather than an eerie forest.

Desert Places

Desert Places by Robert Frost contains four stanzas, all quatrains. In this poem, Robert Frost is telling the story of his feelings upon observing a field covered with snow. As the poem flows, the reader discovers that Frost's feelings towards the emptiness of the field are a reflection of his own isolation and depression. In the second stanza, Frost uses personification to exemplify the loneliness of the field. "The woods have it-it is theirs." In this phrase, Frost is acknowledging that the surrounding woods are all that possess the field which shows the extent of the loneliness of the snow covered field. Frost also utilizes the color of the snow to emphasize his isolation. "A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression of, nothing to express." In this passage, Frost is referring to how blank and empty the color of snow is and it has no expression which he then reflects on himself by saying "nothing to express." The last stanza is when Frost outwardly states his depression. "They cannot scare me with their empty spaces Between stars-on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer to home To scare myself with my own desert places." Here, he is saying that the desert places of the universe do not frighten him because he has empty space inside him.

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.

It was a dream

I think this poem has to be taken for its literal meaning. There are no similes or metaphors no hidden meaning. I do not think we have to beat this poem with a stick to discover its true meaning. I think the fact that we don't have to do this and that the author, Lucille Clifton, being so straight forward and honest makes the poem so much deeper and leaves a stringer mark on the reader. The first thing I noticed was that there capitalized letters except in the last line, "This. This. This.", when the "greater self" is telling the dreamer the things he or she could have done differently. I think capitalizing these letters was important because it puts emphasis on the last line and really makes the poem stick in your mind and thing about the things you could have done differently. This poem was definitely easy to relate to. I sometimes look back at my almost eighteen years of existence and wonder how things would be or if I would be a different person if I had done things differently. However, I felt like this poem dwelled in the past and looked at the things the dreamer had done as all pessimistic. I think we should look at our past and not always think "what if" in a negative way because our choices define who we are and whatever mistakes we made can always be atoned for as long as we learn from them.