The Golf Links

The Golf Links

Sarah N. Cleghorn

The golf links lie so near the mill

That almost everyday

The laboring children can look

And see the men at play.

This poem is very short. It's only one stanza with four lines. At first I thought writing this response would be easy because the poem is easy, but it turns out it's hard to write a response about a four line poem. I am inferring that Cleghorn is meaning a golf course when she says golf links. I find it curious that she would say link instead of course. This poem reminds me of going to my Grandpas house in Iowa. He lived on the 18th hole of the course, so everyday my sister and I would watch the golfers play. I also find it interesting that in the poem Cleghorn only says watch the men play, but not women as well. It's even more odd that a women would write this poem about the course when she said only men play. It makes me wonder if Cleghorn was one of the children watching the men play golf or if she was envious of the men who had the privilege of playing golf. I think part of the reason Cleghorn said only men were playing golf was because it was set during the time when golf was only a male sport. When Cleghorn mentions that the course was near the mill and the children can watch I think of the early 20th century when children worked in mills.

you fit into me

you fit into me

Margaret Atwood

you fit into me

like a hook in an eye

a fish hook

an open eye

The first thing that struck me about this poem was its length. It is two stanzas that consist of a couplet. I find the simile Atwood uses to illustrate how she fits with another to be curious: a fish hook and an eye don't really fit well together at all. I think Atwood could have used this simile to show that the person she is addressing and herself don't fit well together, whether its personality, relationship, etc. The next thing that caught my eye was how the hook changes from just a hook in the first stanza to a fish hook in the second stanza, and how the eye goes from just an eye to an open eye. The use of the fish hook and the open eye creates a more gruesome image for me than the first stanza illustrated ti begin with. I think her tone in this poem is slightly ironic because she is comparing two very different things and poking fun at how they appear to fit well together, then in the second stanza, she emphasizes the eye and the hook and makes them less alike and more gruesome.

So Long to Colorado

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 universal?
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.

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.