DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Camma" by Oscar Wilde Originally read: September 27, 2013 More information about the Poet: Oscar Wilde Italian sonnet. (abba. cddc, efgefg).  Again I focus on the structure of the piece first, why?  The structure informs some hints on how to read the poem -- the Italian sonnet having more of a question (first stanza) and answer (second stanza) approach with a turn (volta, line 9 usually).  In any case, the poem is more about playing on allusions, established references. "As one who poring on a Grecian urn," I thought this would be an allusion to Keat's "Ode to a Grecian Urn," and perhaps it is, but the next couple of lines refers to the shape of gods, "Scans the fair shapes some Attic hand hath made, / God with slim goddess, goodly man with maid,"  Note the comparison with a God with a slim goddess, and a goodly man with maid -- bringing the divine back down for something more tangible. "And for thei

Original poem reprinted online here: "How I Understand Eternity' by Brian Swann Originally read: September 26, 2013 More information about the Poet: Brian Swann Even though the first line is a statement, the line brings up an rhetorical question, "Organisms evolved colors before / there were eyes to see them." The question the reader imposes on this line is, "why?"  But the thing about this poem is how the poem evolves.  Don't be tricked by the change in the first line. "I take a look before floating / to the Cretaceous where colors / are now butterflies and beetles."  Not a redefinition, a shift of colors take shape into actual specific animals -- butterflies and beetles.  Two things of note, the introduction of the "I" speaker comes in as an observer, and the adjusted lines structure the evolution of the poem. "shaping themselves to flowers / of sassafras and magnolia."  Now the poem goes into a stream-of-consciousness mo

Original poem reprinted online here:  "A Blessing" by James Wright Originally read: September 26, 2013 More information about the Poet: James Wright Narrative with specifics with an expansive end.  This is how I remembered this poem.  And, yes, another famous poem with many strong critical, and analytic essays.  The common idea with all the critical essays I've read is this: the way the speaker interprets the world. Specific, "Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota. / Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass."  Here the language fluctuates, but is specific -- location to scenery -- just the way the descriptions play from direction to metaphorical which continues:      And the eyes of those two Indian ponies      Darken with kindness      They have come gladly out of the willows      To welcome my friend and me. The phrase to look out for is "Darken with kindness." Some critics think this opens the poem to more of a Jungian shadow play.  Others s

Original poem reprinted online here: "Why I Am Not A Painter" by Frank O'Hara Originally read: September 25, 2013 More information about the Poet: Frank O'Hara This poem is hard to explain as a poem, but I think Robert Pinsky in his book the  Singing School: Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters  sums this poem best as "freedom." Now this isn't the poem which decides the debate on "what poetry is" with all the terms thrown like "rhyming" or "craft."  However, this poem is from the vantage point of a poet trying to create. "I am not a painter, I am a poet. / Why? I think I would rather be / a painter, but I am not. Well," Here the speaker is being casual with the language and does set up a rhetorical question which states "why" he isn't a painter.  From the tone of the piece, there's a sense of a shrug, "well" and then the story goes. And with the second stanza

Original poem reprinted online here:  "My Childhood" by Matthew Zapruder Originally read: September 24, 2013 More information about the Poet: Matthew Zapruder So Matthew Zapruder discusses how he came up with the poem, and the last two sentences sums up his creation process, "I guess I knew what I was writing about without knowing it, and the title just says it. The title plus poem felt personally inevitable, and out of my hands." "Out of my hands" is a good allegory for this poem.  The poem is the speaker in the situation rather than being part of it, so the title, "My Childhood" which could be a very internal sentimental topic turns into a vivid observation. "the orange ball arcs perfectly into the orange hop / making a sound like a drawer closing."  So why not "basketball"?  Well the addition of the color brings in a sense of blur which is against the simile of "drawer closing."  There's something not exact ab

Original poem reprinted online here: "University" by Karl Shapiro Originally read: September 22, 2013 More information about the Poet: Karl Shapiro Each stanza has three adjusted parts.  The first three lines four lines in the poem are left adjusted, then the next three lines are adjusted as though indented, and then the last line which is a couple spaces off from the previous three. But this is the structure, what the poem does is attack structure "University" without holding back, especially the first line, "To hurt the Negro and avoid the Jew / Is the curriculum."  This is the academic side which butts up against incoming interpretations, "In mid - September / The entering boys, identified by hats / wander in a maze of mannered brick."  And what's the first thing of notice?  The curriculum?  The freshmen?      Where boxwood and magnolia brood      And columns with imperious stance      Like rows of ante-bellum girls         Eye them, outla

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Door" by Peter Joseph Gloviczki Originally read: September 21, 2013 More information about the Poet: Peter Joseph Gloviczki A poem to discuss stream-of-consciousness.  So the poem starts off with the image/idea of a "door" and then there's the opening with the conjunction "and" as though the title itself should be a complete thought.       And what will the ricochet       of my right ankle be worth       when all the scalpeled men       rearrange this bony puzzle       in the window doubling Here's the trick with the conjunction, the next phrase is more likely has to be taken as a whole.  So with this part of the shifts in image goes from the closeness of the ankle, then further with "scalpeled men" (note the instrument, not the men seems to stand out  more here), and then the idea of a "bony puzzle" as thought to go further into a fracture in a complete phrase. The window doubling part see

Original poem reprinted online here: "Skunk Hour" by Robert Lowell Originally read: September 19, 2013 More information about the Poet: Robert Lowell Probably the most influential poem in the mid twentieth century. Overstatement, probably (I don't know the entire history of late 1950's - 1970's poetry -- well there's "Howl" which played more of a cultural impact...,but let me just continue).  Most influential in that this style of writing, Confessionalism, was recognized by critics and academia which, in turn, opened up recognition of other poetry styles. So this is why many students have to (begrudgingly) write essays about this poem specifically.  And let's be honest, this poem is the anti-fun at least for the first half, and then confusing but momentum based in the last half.  Yes, I wrote probably five essays on this poem during my academic career (all of paling in comparison with the five thousand other essays about this poem), and here is a

Original poem reprinted online here: "A Grace" by Donald Hall Originally read: September 20, 2013 More information about the Poet: Donald Hall So the poem is structured as a prayer with two rhymed couplets and a tercet.  Each couplets serves different purpose: whether to strengthen a point or to counter a point. "God, I know nothing, my sense is all nonsense / And fear of You begins intelligence:"  So these lines bring up an interesting rhetoric.  The second line does overpower the first though, intelligence brings fear (also a little pun on intelligent design), but the admittance of "knowing nothing" is mixed with the play of language of "sense is all nonsense." "Does it end there?  For sexual love, for food, / For books and birch trees I claim gratitude."  Two thing, the construction of the sentence, and the use of the ambiguous pronoun.  The ambiguous pronoun sets up a continuation of "intelligence" -- a list that creates f

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Not Waving but Drowning" by Stevie Smith Originally read: September 20, 2013 More information about the Poet: Stevie Smith The refrain of the poem, "Not Waving but Drowning" happens twice in this poem -- once at the end of the first stanza, and again on the end of the last stanza.  Why the refrain, well, I think it sets up this idea of waving -- going forward and going back. What also adds this idea of going forward and going back is the endstopped stanzas which are pretty much self contained.      Nobody heard him, the dead man,      But still he lay moaning:      I was much further out than you thought      And not waving but drowning. At this point the "drowning" is more literal in the sense, but the dead man lay moaning is an interpreted metaphor.  The speaker is placing he words in the dead man's mouth; however, the setting is observant with the speaker nothing "nobody heard him."      Poor chap, he

Original poem reprinted online here:  "from Debths" by Susan Howe Originally read: September 19, 2013 More information about the Poet: Susan Howe Humor within the metapoetics.  "A work of art is a world of signs, at least to the poet's nursery / bookshelf sheltered behind the artist's ear."  The images are surreal, but there's the somewhat set distinction between art, artist, and poet.  "I recall each little / motto howling its ins and outs to those of us who might as /well be on the moon illu illu illu"  The last part I don't understand, but the sense of connection keeps breaking since the language seems like they flow but the context doesn't flow back. With the second part, it's the reverse, the context makes sense, but the language is broken up, "Antique Mirror / Etce ce Tera, Forgotn quiet all."  Then the commentary that doesn't allude to the past lines, "Nobody grows old and crafty / here in middle air togeth

Original poem reprinted online here: "How to Make Love in the Garden of Good and Evil" by Lo Kwa Mei-en Originally read: September 17, 2013 More information about the Poet: Lo Kwa Mei-en "To adaptations of the broken / heart" was the first line to pop out from reading this because the line doesn't come off cliche in the context of the poem.  Rather the line makes more logical sense since the beginning of the poem is a reinterpretation of the Adam and Eve (more focused on Eve) story. "Your nimbus is pouring.  Your halo shows off from under my dress, / bird of light. Unwit cage."  Note the situational play especially with the last two statements in which the cage relates back to where the you's halo appears.  This is just stating there's something tongue and cheek going on here, "In a beginning there was a fruit & a noose / -shaped animal making a woman a woman. One man. I mean anima."  The biblical allusion with "In a beginnin

Original poem reprinted online here:  "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams Originally read: September 17, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Carlos Williams Probably one of the most famous and the most analyzed poem from William Carlos Williams.  I'm sure, dear reader (or spambot) you can find better analysis than mine on the subject.  This is just a warning. Every class in where we analyzed this poem, there were always snickers from the audience, "oh, you know what this means."  No, I don't.  "It's about sex."  Great. Where in the poem should be the question:        This is Just to Say       I have eaten       the plums       that were in       the icebox Note the lack of punctuation here and also note how the title bleeds into the body.  The speaker admits on this sort of innocent theft to "the other."  Who, presumably his wife.  And stop right here.  Anytime someone says "presumably" this is more o

Original poem reprinted online here: "Decent Recipe for Tilapia" by Jillian Weise Originally read: September 17, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Jillian Weise Written in tercets and, in the beginning, there's a distinct difference between two aspects in the beginning: a recipe and the idea of relationships forming.  During the progression of the poem, both are intertwined, and the question is why:      Tell your back home friends it means nothing      and you will drop him as soon as you have      friends in the city.  If you had more friends,      you would not sleep with him. Here the focus is the idea of proof.  The speaker is reasoning on why too keep this guy, to have the power still.  He means nothing, at least, tell that to your friends.  Already there's a sense of a facade placed here -- that the reasoning have to be external to "sleep with him," or "If not him , / who would share your Tilapia? No beloved meal / begins, 'Alone befor

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Hole at the Bottom of the Pool" by Caroline Maun  Originally read: September 16, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Caroline Maun The poem starts out with a linguistically playful line, "The pool was aquamarine serene;" which is then played upon with the surreal descriptions like, "sometimes it was also the belly / of a whale."  Furthermore, the interaction with the pool is play as well, "me / macro-poloing in that microcosm."  But within the first stanza there are little snippets of the serious, "voluntarily, temporarily blind." or "In that riot / it was impossible to square cause and effect."  Note that the application of the serious went from sort of fun prsonal to a rhetorical sort of question that feels like hindsight.  now what appears before the speaker:      Even in stillness, the wind picked up      a few waves and threw light      on the white stucco. The screen was torn

Original poem reprinted online here:  "Earlier" by Joanne Kyger Originally read: September 16, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Joanne Kyger In the comments section for this poem, the first thing I read was "true story."  And I think the poem plays with idea with the idea of truth.  Note that this isn't necessarily a prose poem; rather, this poem plays with the idea of prose. But the setting is set up first, "Into the party, with engraved invitations, I am bored when / I realize the champagne in the decrepit bowl is going to get / filled up a lot."  A never ending source of alcohol.causes boredom.  It's the action -- as though this happens far too often that comes up here.  So there's a juxtaposition between the spectacular being mundane. "Well then, on the greens in front of the / Mansion are walking Tom Clark and Ted Berrigan, what chums!"  The cynicism with the "what chums" line is what gets me.  The speaker insert

Original poem reprinted online here:   "Marriage" by William Carlos Williams Originally read: September 14, 2013 More information about the Poet:   William Carlos William I think this poem is set up as either an homage or a critique of Ezra Pound's famous poem "In a Station of the Metro" .  In any case, this short poem works similar with the punctuation meaning more than the poem.      So different, this man      And this woman:      A stream flowing      In a field. Now the first punctuation is the comma which puts the "difference" as the first thing to read forcing a sense of how to read the poem.  Difference. Man and women.  Now the next punctuation is a colon which indicates the previous phrase is defined by the following image. Then the question is who is the stream.  And who is the field?  I think this poem is tongue-in-cheek that way.

Original poem reprinted online here:   "My Bright Aluminum Tumblers" by Michael Ryan Originally read: September 13, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Michael Ryan There are two references to the phrase "who are you" in this poem in which the shift of ideas happen.  As I reread this poem, I kept wondering if the shift connects or disconnects.  Also I feel that the lack of punctuation First though, "Who are you / long legged women / in my dream" automatically the  tone shifts to an erotic one, but note the speaker automatically places the other in a "dream" world. "kissing me open mouthed / pressing me for ice / we fetch together naked"  and in this dream world the actions don't have to make sense, but note the description of tactile sense with kiss, and ice -- the senses and the lust guide the speaker. "from the freezer / with bright aluminum tumblers"  I didn't understand what an aluminum tumbler was, but here is

Original poem reprinted online here:   "In Ripe Wilderness" by Bill Rasmovicz Originally read: September 11, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Bill Rasmovicz There's different things the speaker references and addresses in the poem: body, "you," self, speaker.  There is also mix of image, rhetoric, and tone which ties with shift of who is addressed. "There is blood so red it is black, horns / that double back to pierce their fecund animal source."  With this opening sentence the speaker addresses a setting -- color shift to a darker shade and the word phrase of "double back" used for scene and a foreshadowing device.  The speaker addresses the Wilderness. "Outside, workers dig a pit / exposing the infrastructure, the hairline fracture and rusted main."  Then the shift is not necessarily only people, but people in nature and it's a nod toward structure: "infrastructure," "hairline fracture" "rusted

Original poem reprinted online here:   "Alone Looking at the Mountain" by Li Po Originally read: September 11, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Li Po This poem is based on perspective. And, yes, even though this poem is purely image based note the location of each line. "All the birds have flown up and gone."  The location: the sky.  But the key here is flying up, a direction where the birds are gone. "A lonely cloud floats leisurely by"  The key is the adjective and the adverb and how they juxtapose each other.  The lonely cloud has sentimental weight behind it but what does the cloud do?  Floats on leisurely.  It's not like that the emotional tie holds it back from moving. "We never tire of looking at each other."  Here the speaker plays with the sense of togetherness and friendship. And then this, "Only he mountain and I" I guess the big note is the placement -- land, but also note the comparison. Even though the mountain

Original poem reprinted online here:   "Scythe" by Stuart Dybek Originally read: September 10, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Stuart Dybek The poem, in couplets, "rhyme" in the first three stanzas, then there's a slight visual connection (with words) in the fourth, and a lack of rhyme with the last three stanzas.  As the form changes, so does the purpose of images. The first stanza is very direct, "In the barn demoted to garage, / the ax in a cherry stump can't be budged."  Note how visual the image is on the second line and how specific the image is and also the how it "can't be budged" kind of like the status of the "barn demoted to a garage." "Daylight perforates siding despite / the battered armor of licence plates --"  Again, heavily image based lines in which a single twist of language "despite" changes the view of the images.  So does this mean that the light shouldn't be able to go th

Original poem reprinted online here:   "Garden" by H.D. Originally read: September 10, 2013 More information about the Poet:   H.D. This poem is separated by two sections where the first is more of a dialogue, and the second mostly reminisces about a figment. "You are clear / O rose, cut in rock, / hard as the descent of hail."  Past me noted, "the image 'hard' goes against natural convention.  Maybe design."  But also note that the focus of the image is "rose," which causes the juxtaposition on tactile expectation. "I could scrape the colour / from the petals / like spilt dye from a rock."  this is the first mention of the "I" in the poem which desires to have a piece of the rose -- scrape indicates a harsh action, but also a last ditch effort action to keep something. "If I could break you / I could break a tree."  The first line ine the couplet has a tinge of sentimentality because of the conceptual nature

Original poem reprinted online here:   "Time Study" by Marvin Bell Originally read: September 9, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Marvin Bell How many times can the phrase "The coffee was cold so I said so" be reconfigured, and reworded?  For what purpose?  Who needs one.  Rather the poem plays with construction and the shifts of meaning doesn't mean anything expansive, but means more about the speaker. So the list in the first stanza is: my coffee is cold and I said so I said I am glad my coffee is cold because I get to say so I said my coffee is cold like the Sahara at night I said the Sahara is a lot like my coffee, which has cream, and it is cold which means I have to say so or someone will say to drink my coffee, which is cold and the camels are asleep. What expands upon with the variations is a metaphor that goes ahead, maybe too ahead.  And, yes, the humor because of the extension is humorous, but note that no matter how far the metaphor goes, the

Original poem reprinted online here:   "Moon-Wrapped Fragrant Spareribs" by Kiki Petrosino Originally read: September 8, 2013 More information about the Poet:   Kiki Petrosino The focus is "the eater."  Now the eater could be innocuous as a presence who likes to eat.  But further into the poem, the eater gains attributes, gains power. "Happy is the eater who rules by the cyclone of her face."  The metaphor is a bit humorous here since the images are over-exaggerated -- cyclone face.  But in the background of the image is the emotion of "happy" "By the / syrup of her eye shall she drown the clanging earth."  Now with this line there's the mix of the body and the earth.  The lines are still a bit humorous, however the verb "drown" foreshadows a more serious sense. "For the eater / combs justice like beeswax through her hair, & her hands catch only righteousness in their fiery mesh."  Note how each description a