DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Promenade" by Lorraine Doran Originally read: February 21, 2013 More information about the Poet: Lorraine Doran When I was reading this poem, I thought the definition of "Promenade" for this poem was "a ball."  Today, I went to check the definitions of promenade just to be sure.  The first definition, I feel also applies to this poem, "A leisurely walk, especially one taken in a public place as a social activity."  And so if this poem is the speaker walking through somewhere, that'd make sense. Because the people met on a walk don't make sense.  On the page, I tried to decipher every image and metaphor as they are connected to one another.  At least the tercets led me to believe that there's a consistent pattern going on.  What is consistent (if this is indeed a leisurely walk) is that the speaker is going in one direction describing scenes or superficially judging scenes -- there's no going b...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Late Confession" by Gary Soto Originally read: February 20, 2013 More information about the Poet: Gary Soto The reoccurring image here is the orange.  Not only in this poem but from the poem " Oranges" also by Gary Soto .  Did I pick this up on my first read? Nope.  So I bring this up first because I wonder how much of a conversation this poem and "Oranges" have with one another.  Is it only the image?  Or is there contextualization issue where one image of the orange in a poem brings a different light to another image of the orange  The idea behind this is focusing how poems connect with each other, perhaps through a collection, or solo. As of now though, I only have this poem by itself, and, although I have read "Oranges",  I feel that this poem stands on it's own and the image of the orange (and also others) within the poem creates unrepentant nostalgia. So late confession stands for a confession in th...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Philosopher Savant Again Dreams of War" by Rustin Larson Originally read: February 20, 2013 More information about the Poet: Rustin Larson I can't believe I didn't catch it on my first read.  This poem is an Elizabethan Sonnet.  Does this change anything from the first read?  Well, not really.  I struggled with how this poem operates, and I wrote things like, "misconception when further inspected," but I didn't address what is further inspected or what the misconception is. Does knowing that this is a sonnet help me out as a reader.  Not entirely.  Yes, I know that there's going to be a volta somewhere, and there's going to be sections to think of; however, the style of this poem (white space, not entirely iambic, consistent rhyme scheme though) isn't the "typical" sonnet.  So, all I can take from the form, well is the form -- an expectation of a volta. The first four lines of the poem work ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Ars Poetica" by Natania Rosenfeld Originally read: February 19, 2013 More information about the Poet: Natania Rosenfeld "Ars Poetica" is a very loaded title.  Ars Poetica --Poetics of the speaker (this was my definition I brought before reading the poem.  Ars Poetica -- "The Art of Poetry."   This term sets up, especially in the title, forces the reader to look at the construction of the poem and how the form, subject, and mode is in relation to the form, subject, and mode. And I did just.  Past me read and put comments like, "The conjunction of 'or' brings a sense of separation -- theme reoccuring in the previous stanza.  Forced from the speaker or style."  When I was rereading the poem (out loud) again I realized something about the difference between past me and the reader I am now. Yes, I can look at the form, subject, and mood and discern what these things add to the creation of poetry.  However,...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Dinner Out" by Christopher Howell Originally read: February 19, 2013 More information about the Poet: Christopher Howell I was looking this poem up to link to it, then I ran into this youtube video of a man, Hektor Munoz, reading the poem out loud.  Now when I first read this poem, I probably read the poem in my head.  And here's the real danger of reading a poem in the head -- the automatic construction of both theme and meaning, if too strong, will override the actual words on the page.  So after listening to Hektor Munoz read "Dinner Out" out loud -- yeah, my interpretation the page is somewhat different than what is actually there.  I'll get to that point soon. I do want to point out that the stanza focuses a lot on images.  The construction of the images are nice, but a little too nice, a little too precise; meanwhile, the actual place is a not remembered.  From the first stanza, there's a feel that the speaker...

Original poem reprinted online here: "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats Originally read: (a long time ago, but for this blog) February 18, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Butler Yeats I just listened to this poem read aloud by Colin Farrell , and then I read some of the comments for this poem -- a very dreamy, nice touching eulogy for a loved one.  And yes I can see that.  The tone of this poem is very loving (because love is repeated multiple times = love, right?) and how the speaker is so tender to the subject.  Not really. A couple of things, even though the subject is probably near death, the subject is capable of reading and/or taking down a book -- or this is the construction the speaker is addressing.  Also,  the second stanza kind of focuses the love idea to the a singular focus that disperses at the end which fits with the rhyme scheme (a b b a)  rhymes in the middle and rhymes at the end.  And, yes, the poem is in iambic...

Original poem reprinted online here: "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks Originally read: (a long time ago, but for this blog) February 18, 2013 More information about the Poet: Gwendolyn Brooks I forgot that this poem was after the Richard Cory poem.  Also I feel dumb because I didn't realize that bother had a 1st person collective narrative (we).  Currently, I wonder why that aspect of the poem didn't draw me in. I think one of the main reasons is the rhythm of the poem.  Every sentence after the first stanza is only three words and they all start with "we." The repetition of "We" becomes more mesmerizing with each line that I get lost within the rhythm.  Especially when Gwendolyn Brooks reading this .  Also in the link, she discussing the background influence of the poem and the sort of meaning of the poem.  Furthermore, she also admits that this poem can be read in a different ways "Jazz can be looked at as a sexual reference."  Howeve...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson Originally read: February 18, 2013 More information about the Poet: Edwin Arlington Robinson So the "we" narrative has been done before and reinvented through stories like Kanthapura  and A Rose for Emily  (oddly, I cannot remember works that use the "we" narrative before this poem was written).  So what does the "we" narrative contribute to a piece 1) I think isolation is the main point.  That the "we" narrative is a collective thought (everyone is thinking this way) against the construction of the subject through the lens of the collective thought.  For example, if the collective thought that  subject was weird -- the style and the narrative adapts to the collective style. 2) In the "we" narratives that I've read, the collective doesn't know the "exact" nature of a person.  Richard Cory, who seems to have everything he wants, ki...

Original poem reprinted online here: "A Song" by Ghassan Zaqtan Originally read: February 18, 2013 More information about the Poet: Ghassan Zaqtan  So I keep thinking in my head war poems are really hard to do. I once was asked, "do you know any Vietnam War Poems."  No, not really.  Yes there's been poems about World War I and II.  But nothing too recent, and I wonder why.  It's not like poets have stopped writing about wars -- all topics are on the table. Yet this poem doesn't address the casualties of war.  What this poem does is take away that emotional sentimentality line that (the emotional suffering of war) -- yes, I think by now that most people will agree that emotionally speaking -- war is bad, and instead shows the aftermath of war in a non-Hollywood fashion. Note -- I'm referring to the concept of war being written in poetry rather than the individual stories  like "The Death of the Turret Ball Gunner" by Randell Jarell  where th...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Tyger" by William Blake Originally read: Long time ago, but reread on Writer's Almanac on February 17, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Blake I think this is a required poem to read.  What grade level?  Who knows.  In any case, I have different outlooks on this poem from when I first read it in high school, broke, college, broke, after college, broke.  I've heard some very interesting perspective about this poem, but to be honest, the poem lends itself to interpretation through the use of rhetorical questions (not the questions themselves, how they operate) and the images (which range from nature to allusive to industrial).  So I'm going to post down some of the interpretations I've heard an how they are argued.  Note two very important background information about this poem: 1) This poem is found in "The Song of Experience" which sets up a sense of time, distance, age to the poems in the collect...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Traveling Through The Dark" by William Stafford Originally read: February 17, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Stafford I remember reading this poem a long time ago, and I didn't know what it meant.  I looked straight at the narrative about a guy dumping off a still born into the river -- saving it from a harsh life.  The images are nice and describe the tension of the decision. Yes, the poem means this.  Past me even wrote this down to reaffirm my beliefs. Now though, I'm looking at this poem differently.  First, the poem has the form of a sonnet, but not the rhyme scheme or the meter.  This adds to the incompleteness of the poem but some semblance of form is there -- form: something to reattain or discard.  Second, William Stafford, for a time, was considered in the Deep Image school of poetry with the likes of Robert Bly, Galway Kinnell, Louise Simpson, James Wright (I think these are poets all from the...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Legend" by Hart Crane Originally read: February 16, 2013 More information about the Poet: Hart Crane I have a hard time with Hart Crane in general.  He's poems like "The Bridge" and "For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen" are interesting technique and subject wise, but very hard to decipher why and how those techniques and subject are used.  I like his work, but I kind of distance myself from his poems unless I want to spend many nights deciphering individual lines. But when I came across this poem, I thought, "this one isn't too much for me to handle" after the first read.  And after the second read I know how I want to analyze this poem -- through one line. "The legend of their youth into the noon" This doesn't seem much but there are two words to look out for in the poem, "legend" and "noon"; or rather, how the speaker configures and constantly redefines these tw...

Original poem reprinted online here: "February Snow" by Francisco Aragón Originally read: February 15, 2013 More information about the Poet: Francisco Aragón I didn't write a lot of notes on this poem when I first read it.   I think the narrative of the poem, the main core technique of this poem, and the ambiguous pronoun of "you" confuse me.  I had the read the poem a couple times to figure out there's three to four narratives (okay so it doesn't seem like I didn't figure out much, but I swear...yeah). 1) Narrative between the present speaker and a "you" who is traveling in Spain. 2) Narrative of how the war began. 3) Narrative of the Postal Worker [4) Overall Narrative of how these three narratives connect with the speaker's life.] I wrote "Narrative" too many times in the last two paragraphs; however, the poem is both dependent on understanding the three narratives and how they tie in together.  Also, form wise, if there ar...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Sonnet 109: O! never say that I was false of heart" by William Shakespeare Originally read: February 14, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Shakespeare There's plenty of analysis on this poem -- well all of Shakespeare.  And usually Shakespeare sonnets deal with love, or cheating, or being in love while cheating.  Well this poem is about cheating on his rose (by any other name would smell just as sweet) and still be in love with her. Charming. So this poem is an Elizabethan sonnet, but instead of separating the poem by the rhyme scheme (three quatrains, and then a couplet).  This poem is connected together like a narrative -- unlike the speaker and his "soul." The opening line suggests that there's an argument and the speaker is playing defense, "O never say that I was false of heart."  There's an implication that he was called false of heart.  From hear the speaker then goes on to separate his ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Undecided" by Hal Sirowitz Originally read: February 13, 2013 More information about the Poet: Hal Sirowitz   Past me wrote this about the last line of the poem, "The last line might be too sentimental, but I feel that this end is strong due to the ambiguous way to read the end: dismissive, genuine, desperation."  I reread and reread this poem and I understand what's going on -- a father telling his child (son) that they got him a gift of a shirt and, even though the parents has bought his son a shirt for the last three years, the father still cares.  Yes, this is where past me saw this poem as a bit sentimental because the "plot" of the poem is one of those after school special bonding moments, but for this poem, there's something else to it. The difference in the poem is this, "Father said."  This is a small big point.  The perspective of what is being said by the father is the product of the speake...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Ash Wednesday" by Louis Untermeyer Originally read: February 13, 2013 More information about the Poet: Louis Untermeyer This poem is comprised of two Italian sonnets.  What I didn't think of when I wrote notes on this poem is how the  form operates in this poem.  Usually, Italian sonnets are divided into an octave (first stanza) then a sestet (second stanza).  In the octave, there's a question being presented; meanwhile, the sestet answers the posed question.  Now with this poem, the core of the poem is what the answer to the question or the first sestet. The poem starts off thought with the question, "Shut out the light or let it filter through" -- the tone is one of a command but a command that (falsely) gives the power of decision to the reader; however, the speaker continues on what the filtered light illumiated: "feet that grew, "twisted and false," "cupids smirk from candy clouds," "Th...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Editing Job " by Carl Dennis Originally read: February 12, 2013 More information about the Poet: Carl Dennis From the title, the poem works a great deal with humor and puns.  This poem sets up a sense of wit to it in multiple levels: language, irony, perspective.  I think I'll start from back to front on this one.  Past me wrote this about the perspective, "Editor takes on a 'god-like' voice over biblical text, further into the poem the speaker becomes more vested in the text."  Furthermore, the tone of the poem is quite humorous when the speaker initially takes on the God voice, On top of this, I would like to add that further  into the poem the character of God has less and less emotional attachment to Job and just "replenishes Job possessions."  Until finally at the end the speaker turns the humor into cynicism. The irony in the poem is what past me wrote about at the end of the poem, "The end is i...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Spaces We Leave Empty" by Cathy Song Originally read: February 11, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Cathy Song This poem took me a long time to analyze when I first read it.  I finally had to write down the reason why.  "Is this poem about rape?  or does it matter?  Is there something wrong with my interpretation."   This thought stems from the external scenario of the poem -- a thief enters a window and steals something with the mother looking on helplessly. I thought to myself, "why did my thoughts go there?"  There's no mention of sexual in here unless implied or interpreted by the reader.  However, after rereading I have a new interpretation on the poem -- which is also disturbing for me since I'm thinking I'm either trying to deflect my original interpretation or, perhaps, I do see something new.  In any case, I'm getting too far away from the poem. The focus in the first two stanzas...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "No Return" by William Matthews Originally read: February 10, 2013 More information about the Poet:  William Matthews Three stanzas sestets.  When I think of sestets, I think of Freytag's theory of Narrative -- exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement.  Even though there's five parts to the theory, my mind thinks this way probably because of all the sestets I've read (including Italian sonnet form).  Now what does this mean to the poem that isn't narrative (the last half of the poem is narrative in a sense). Exposition -- "I like divorce"  In the first stanza the speaker drops a pretty loaded word, "divorce" into the poem; however, the speaker redefines the term rather quickly by not dwelling on the definition of the word rather focus on the tone.  "I like divorce," the full first sentence reads a bit sarcastically for me.  I think it's the brevity that punctuates the...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Persimmons" by Li-Young Lee Originally Read: May 22, 2010 in the collection "Rose" (my Goodreads review here ) Originally re-read for this blog: February 9, 2013 More information about the Poet: Li-Young Lee When I first read the collection "Rose" I thought the writing was so smooth.  The way the narratives constructed themselves seamlessly from memory to present especially in poems like "The Gift" and "Rose"; furthermore, the narrative don't come off as fables, or overly-didactic, even though the narratives themselves have a fable and/or didactic nature to them. Rereading this poem in Febuary, and now, I  knew I wanted to go back to this poem because of the technique Li-Young utilizes here.  I want to know how he constructs his narratives and learn from his techniques.  I also want to know how the poem continuously borders on sentimentality -- sometimes the line is crossed, but the majority o...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Eviction Notice" by Dan Gerber Originally read: February 8, 2013 More information about the Poet: Dan Gerber Past me write down for the opening two lines  that they have a, "sing-songy quality and humorous."  So inspecting the first two lines again, "The spider from the rug / suddenly wondered where he was" not only has a sing-songy and humorous quality, but also a fable like quality.  In the first two lines we have a character who, through the description, has a heroic journey feel to him (ala Aeneas).  Not that the poem goes for the Aeneid allusion, more of a demonstration of character which is undercut in the next line, "if spiders ever do;" which brings the focus back onto the speaker interpreting the thoughts and actions which is further explored in the the following three lines, "the world went white, / then dark, / then bright/"  not how the focus is adjective visual imagery -- simple devic...