DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "French Kissing" by Gregory Sherl Originally read: March 12, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Gregory Sherl I needed to read the "about the poem" the first time to understand that this is an allusion to Joan of Arc.  I did write down notes of what I thought about the poem the first time that focused on the idea of the "emasculated peace time."  But in my notes I didn't go further about that idea. And today, rereading the poem after a couple of months -- I still don't see the allusion to Joan of Arc,  how the poem operates with the allusion.  Actually I do in a sense, but my focus the entire time is the speaker, and there's little hiccups which makes me feel I have to know more about the history of Joan of Arc in a not interesting way. The poem starts off with a rhetorical question that does emasculate a man during peace time, "What is there left to do during a truce, but look at boys / swinging ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Spring Training" by Maxine Kumin Originally read: March 11, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Maxine Kumin . How long did it take me to know that this was a poem with baseball imagery, probably by the second line.  How long did it take me to realize that this is not a sonnet, just recently.   I think I wanted this to be a sonnet, I just miscalculated the stanzas (one extra) when I read it the first time.  However, this is important because there's no hard volta in the poem -- not in the couplet.  I feel the tone throughout the poem is the same -- a sense of wonder built by the imagery. In the first stanza there's imagery of baselines, peanuts, and catcher's mitt -- but look how they operate.  The Baseline imagery is followed up by slight alliteration "smoothed to suede" which brings a visual dreamlike quality to the image -- something real in a surreal sense.  Then comes the the peanuts line, "ancient smell...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry" by Howard Nemerov Originally read: March 10, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Howard Nemerov Six Lines -- a quatrain and a couplet.  On top of that there's an alternating rhyme scheme, and the poem is somewhat iambic pentameter.  I'm pointing this out this time because the main separating line between prose and poetry (before the advent of free verse) was that poetry was in form and prose was not.  And I think that's it...no, really. And this poem does address the differences in an ars poetica imagistic way.  The first line sets up a blur between words like "feeding" and "freezing."  These gerands have homophonic and visual similarities which parallels the debate between poetry and prose -- similar but something is different. In the second line, there's the introduction of the you which watches the drizzle into snow -- again similar visual...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Meditation XVII" by John Donne Originally read: March 9, 2013 More information about the Poet:  John Donne So I just want to point out that I found this on Poem Hunter first.  Then after doing some research that Poem Hunter didn't post a poem but a prose piece -- a meditation of John Donne.  I'm not much of a John Donne scholar so please forgive me for not knowing (and those who might find this useful for you exam/question/essay, heed this as a big warning to go to the other sites that have better analysis). Then after doing some research about this meditation, then reading it -- there's a lot of consistency with "Holy Sonnet VII" and "No Man is an Island" (well duh the phrases are in here), but furthermore, this is shows a more linkable connection between both poems -- meaning, style, theme, etc. And of course the meditation is about death, the soul, and religion then.  I'm not going to go over the en...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Surface Tension" by Chelsea Rathburn Originally read: March 8, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Chelsea Rathburn The poem is in quatrains and there is no particular rhyme scheme.  There are moments of sound in this poem that has a lingering effect, "close" and "lows" in stanza two; however, there's also some repetition that doesn't fit for me, "pleasure."  And this is what I think the goal of the poem is in a sense, that there's some sonic good times that pushes the theme of awkwardness, but there's awkwardness in the repetition which comments on how the theme is utilized.  Awkward. Any the set-up the poem is a 1st person collective we narrative and this is why I find the form interesting.  With quatrains, there's always a sense of togetherness, balance in a sense -- with the awkwardness there's also the comfort (familiarity? complacency?).  So I feel the quatrains strengthens an...

Original poem reprinted online here: "When the Grandmother Dies" by Fady Joudah Originally read: March 7, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Fady Joudah The title is the first line of the poem.  However, this is not apparent until the poem is read and then backtracked.  The speaker sets up three different poems with a similar thread through the use of anaphora.  For the first section, the focus is on distance.  First, the distance between what is actual and how information is spread, "It'll be kept a secret / from her four daughters".  The separation then turns to a physical one, "who'll be flying in / from three different countries."  Then this section ends with the reinforcement of distant "after years of absence / reunion ends."  Here the line "reunion ends," juxtaposes the distance -- that the idea of the sisters/daughters being united through the routine and understanding of distance, now they are forced to deal with ea...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Boy at the Window" by Richard Wilbur Originally read: March 6, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Richard Wilbur Alternating rhyme scheme in an octave form.  There's a loose iamb and meter, but it's mostly iambic pentameter.  And when I see a form like this, I think that both stanza work similarly like the first part of the Italian sonnet -- the questioning part, rather than the sestet -- the answering part.  And I think most importantly there shouldn't be a volta, that sharp turn which changes the subject or gets to a point. I'm not writing that this poem doesn't have a point -- rather the question is the point, right? However, the first part of the poem borders on the sentimental (I keep writing borders, but one day I'll actually state that 'this is sentimental') because the whole scene in the couple of lines is a boy weeping seeing his creation -- a snow man -- melt in the rain.  Also there are techn...

Original poem reprinted online here: "White T-Shirt" by Lewis Ellingham Originally read: March 5, 2013 More information about the Poet: Lewis Ellingham So color is prevalent in this poem, and when I mean prevalent, I mean the symbol of the color white -- pure,  and black -- reclusive, nothing.  Both represented by white (young man) and black (speaker/atmosphere.other parts of the man).  So the speaker, the atmosphere, and the man himself are basically the same thing because the physical surroundings surrounding this white shirt stands out, the scenery and thoughts just fade into the mundane and the shirt is set up as totemic. I think I'm getting too far into it. Yes, I use the ambiguous pronoun of "it" because this is how the poem starts, "I caught sight of it at a bust stop."  Now, I usually don't like the use of ambiguous pronouns, but after reading a couple of poems with them and how the noun operates -- I get a sense of this.  When "it...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold Originally read: March 4, 2013 More information about the Poet: Matthew Arnold First off, there are notes about this famous poem on Wikipedia : notes, analysis, historical background. Anything you could ever want to know about this poem you can find very thorough and rich thoughts with a simple google search. I'm not sure why you are still here.  So I must assume that you are a spambot -- and as such, me, of the "living" and you who are dead with no conscious are the "ignorant armies  [that] clash by night."  Keyword here is "ignorant." I was just going to end here and let wiki handle it, until I read this on the wiki, "In Stefan Collini 's opinion, 'Dover Beach' is a difficult poem to analyze, and some of its passages and metaphors have become so well known that they are hard to see with 'fresh eyes'." So let my ignorant rambling analysis comm...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Growing Old" by Matthew Arnold Originally read: March 3, 2013 More information about the Poet: Matthew Arnold   The poem is in quintains and I don't know why.  There's kind of an arc set up there, but it's not really harped upon on the poem.  Instead the poem opens up with a rhetorical question "What is it to grow old" and right there I feel the audience is set.  There has to be some interest about growing old (which is also in the title) -- because the questions don't stop coming. 1) Is it to lose the glory of the form? 2) The lustre of the eye? 3) Is it for beauty to forgo her wreath? Yes, but not alone 4) Is it to feel our strength - not our bloom only, but our strength decay? (for this line in particular, the line break here brings an emphasis on "strength" in the positive, only to be undercut by "decay" in the next line -- the break of expectation) 5)Is it to feel each limb grow stiffer, ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Rule Book" by Lauren Shapiro Originally read: March 2, 2013 More information about the Poet: Lauren Shapiro So this poem can be mistaken from a found poem because most of the lines are rules to some things like amusement parks or being a model (the usual troubles of regular citizens), but there are some lines here that take away from the sense of the "found" and more of the "constructed" through the use of hyperbole and litotes.  The game, in a sense, is to separate the realistic from the constructed.  Also note, that rules are made by authority figures and, in some point in the poem, the authority changes. 1) "At the age of ten you will be allowed / in the deep end."  -- internal rhyme brings a innocuous feel to the line.  Also this shows that the speaker is addressing someone.  Within the next couple of lines, the personal "you" and the speaker will disappear from the poem and the focus will be o...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Wise" by Countee Cullen Originally read: March 2, 2013 More information about the Poet: Countee Cullen Personification of the dead as feeling emoting being from another plane of existence.  Well, perhaps.  The form here interests me.  Tercets with a rhyme scheme of (a-a-a, b-b-b, c-c-c, d-d-d).  Also each stanza is an end-stopped line.  I think the poem forces the reader to begin and stop making the didactic nature of the poem amplified. "You will learn from the wise (who happen to be dead) -- and this is what the living should do"  Also the trinity symbolism is quite -- heavy (also including anaphora of "Dead Men" which repeats three times).  So there are "some" spiritual undertones with this poem. Note though the progression the poem goes on explaining why the dead are wise: 1)  "How far the roots of flowers go, / How long a seed must rot to grow"  The theme juxtaposition in the the third line...

Original poem reprinted online here: "On. On. Stop. Stop" by Saskia Hamilton Originally read: March 1, 2013 More information about the Poet: Saskia Hamilton The punctuation in the title foreshadows something in the poem, but taken by itself, the title seems too post modern.  A period after each word -- why should I pause after each word, and why is does the title have repetition of "on" and "stop"?  I think, at first, the title didn't make me hopeful.  The contents and technique in the poem though brought me in. The first sentence plays with the idea of the present and the past: "In the old recording of the birthday party, the voices of the living and the dead instruct twelve absent friends on the reliable luxury of gratitude" Past me wrote in the box to remind myself that "this poem is viewed in the now."  And at first, I wondered who are these dead people?  Why are some guests absent?  I think this is important to note about this ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Americans" by Elizabeth Hughey Originally read: February 28, 2013 More information about the Poet: Elizabeth Hughey I think the stream of consciousness technique has it's positives and negatives.  On one hand there's the ability to think and see different connections with things that haven't been thought to connect.  I guess the pop culture equivalent would be the 6 degrees of Bacon, where any actor is connected to Kevin Bacon in one sense or another (I actually wrote that...well then).  The other side is that the connections can be looked at as superficial (see above) or so convoluted that the connections, although linked together, become overly forced and predictable conventions (talking about death of planet, then death of someone, those type of poems). Now, with this poem, I feel the speaker is playing with this idea -- toying with the positives and negatives of stream-of-consciousness -- not only on the image level, b...

Original poem reprinted online here: "My Apocalypse" by Rae Armantrout Originally read: February 28, 2013 More information about the Poet: Rae Armantrout  "My" such a personal word, next to "Apocalypse" which is a bit epic.  However, look at the weight of the words.  "Apocalypse," at least to me, is interesting as a concept, but that's just it -- a concept; meanwhile, the "my" brings in a personal interpretation of the term "Apocalypse."  So there's an expectation set -- well a weird one actually.  Satire, "My Apocalypse is my ipod doesn't work," deeply personal and sincere, "My Apocalypse is <insert excruciatingly painful childhood/teenage/adult/old person experience here (yes, an apocalypse over a lifetime)>"; however, this poem explores the idea of apocalypse on a personal level. Starting off with the first stanza where a woman from the outside asks about the speaker's own Apocalyps...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Holy Sonnet 7" by John Donne Originally read: February 28, 2013 More information about the Poet: John Donne This wasn't a poem a day.  I wanted to reread this poem in conjunction with the previous poem I analyzed "Tis Late" by April Bernard which alluded to this poem.  I would write about the connection between both.  The allusion to this poem in "Tis Late" comes in the third person part where the previuous script writing graduate student reciting this first line of this poem., "At the round earth's imagined corners, blow."  It might be a jump into the academic intelligence doesn't necessarily bring real world experience. Rather this poem, goes from epic religious request to a more personal internal strife.  Every four lines in this poem uses different techniques -- and although that would mean different subjects (the usage of a different technique like from first to third, or from narrative to li...

Original poem reprinted online here: " Tis Late" by April Bernard Originally read: February 28, 2013 More information about the Poet: April Bernard There's a lot of shift and spacing here -- and not visually alone.  The first "section" of the poem is a description of an individual which the speaker takes in and then the poem takes on the persona of the first person.  However, I feel the core of the poem comes in two parts -- kind of like a call and response technique, and I think both happen in the first person perspective part. Then why bring up the 3rd person part of the poem.  Well, let's look over it.  The description is a woman but one in the past and the "present.."  The present woman is selling carnations she stole from the graveyard with a god bless you, and this a rather interesting decision.  This foreshadows the question sincerity, and not in that pretentious way where some annoying blogger writes, "I think this is overly-sentimenta...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Estrangement" by Paula Bohince Originally read: February 27, 2013 More information about the Poet: Paula Bohince After rereading this poem and looking at my notes, I really didn't look up a lot of things that I should've.  The first being the color of flowers or actually remember what they look like.  The second is to reconsider or consider how the word estrangement fits into the poem.  Who is the one alienated? Well me as a reader in some aspects.  At some points in the poem I felt that I should know the flowers to gain a deeper meaning into the poem ("amaryillis" "juniper" "mint" "jasmine" "oleander)) not only for the shape and smell of each individual plant, but, what makes nature poems hard to do, is what each flowers literary history.  Yes, I know that would be symbols in one aspect, but I feel that images, especially nature images, have multiple contexts when a reader reads into t...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Base Camp" by Tom Healy Originally read: February 26, 2013 More information about the Poet: Tom Healy Rereading this poem, I wonder who the "we" is referring to.  Yes, another focus on the ambiguous pronoun because the importance of the other shifts throughout the poem.  And yes, this poem is from Poet's.org where the poet talks about something in the poem.  I read it.  Some things make sense, but doesn't change my interpretation of the poem. I interpret this poem through the technique introduced in the beginning -- very short lines that break up a sentence; yet, the context for the short lines is in the first line "How much oxygen" where the focus is to interpret each line as a breath -- trying to say something important through fragments and leads to a sense of speed and multiple interpretations. The first rhetorical.uses an either/or strategy where the stronger of the two options will tend to over take the p...