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Showing posts from April, 2020

Analysis of "44306" by Meg Johnson

Poem found here:  44306 by Meg Johnson The opening line reminds me of the opening line from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."   "Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky".  Compared to, "Let's get this  ménage  a trois started."  Okay so maybe the sentiment is different, but the connecting as humans, a couple versus a collection of three, "You, me, and this three / legged dog of a city" is there.  I guess this'll be from my perspective, but I feel the lines are connected and now I'm relating the mood of Prufrock, observation and desolation, to this poem. "The most majestic / creature here is a blimp in the sky,"  and from Prufrock, " When the evening is spread out against the sky /  Like a patient etherized upon a table;".  The metaphor in Prufrock parallels this poem's pretty straight forward description.  I don't know what this means exactly.  This could be a breaki

Analysis of "We Never Know" by Yusef Komunyakaa

Poem found here:  "We Never Know" by Yusef Komunyakaa War poems are hard to do.  I had a professor once ask a class, "where is all the famous war poems from Vietnam, or the Iraq war?"  And I just didn't know.  In this poem, "We Never Know," the setting is on the battlefield, but the emotions come out to the forefront. "He danced with tall grasses / for a moment, like he was swaying / with a women"  The simile brings together two strange situations together -- a man dancing in the grass and swaying as though dancing.  This feels like the speaker trying to project an emotion to a mundane situation until we get a little more context "Our gun barrels / glowed white-hot."  This is an interesting way of stating guns were shot. At first, I thought it was the collective "our" like everyone was on the same side.  And this idea plays on later in this poem, but the immediate has dire consequences, "When I got to him / a blue hal

Analysis of "A Poison Tree" by William Blake

Poem found here:   "A Poison Tree" by William Blake This is an either/or poem which is very heavy on the second part.  The first part follows the idea of forgiveness, "I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end."  When dealing with emotions, for friends, it's best said and done with, one way or another.  Get it done quickly and move on in doing more friend stuff. But, say you like revenge or have some enemies.  This is where the poem goes into a bit too much detail, starting here, "I was angry with my foe: / I told it not, my wrath did grow."  Why hold in such anger?  The reasons don't matter.  Just like The Cask of Amontillado , all that matters is that an injustice has happened.  Now what? "And I watered it in fears. / Night and morning with my tears;"  A little bit sappy here, but feeding wrath with emotions to make it grow -- sorrow and fear the nutrients.  "And I sunned it with smiles, / And with soft deceit

Analysis of "Eurydice" by Carole Stone

Poem Found Here:   "Eurydice" by Carole Stone This is a persona poem from the myth of Eurydice .  I think the couplet form and the terseness of the lines really play with this character trying to rationalize and cope with being away from her "love." "I thought I wanted to return to earth. / What for?"  The doubt written a matter-a-factly brings a sense of humor to the poem.  Humor as coping, at first.  "My husband's harp playing / the trees sighing, animals moaning?"  Note, Her husband, Orpheus, mourns her death through song which affects the world around him into being just as sad as he is.  For these lines, I feel like it more of a mood -- negative and sad, than semantics and the rules. But the strictness of rules comes into play, "Hell is being with or without a husband. / Transgression is accidental, / like the way Orpheus looked back."  Lot's of ideas running through these lines.  The first of these lines is a limbo in a se