DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Swiss Family Robinson" by Ron Padgett Originally read: June 17, 2013 More information about the Poet: Ron Padgett The confusion of language.  In the first half of the poem focuses how language can dissuade a reader from reading; furthermore, the focus of language is described as simple as possible. The speaker admits he "never quite understood / the Swiss Family Robinson were."  Note the construction of the sentence with the verb last which usually defies syntactical convention (Subject -> Verb -> Object).  And by writing syntactically like this, the speaker foreshadows his own misunderstanding.      The inversion of their name      confused me at an early age,      just as the name Mary baker Eddy      sounded as though she started out      as a woman and turned into      a guy named Eddy. There's humor he...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Autumn Almanac" by Ron Padgett Originally read: April 21, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Ron Padgett Meaning.  The end.  Well not really.  I found out about Ron Padgett from doing this blog, and I've done analysis of two of his poems, "Love Cook" and "Lost and Found" .  I think what interests me about these poems is that he plays with so many techniques: tone, audience, line breaks, expectation, philosophy that there's humor on the surface, but if you want to there's "meaning." But this poem addresses the concept of "meaning" in a poem, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  The poem opens up with this sentence, "Today there's supposed to be a break / in the weather."  Yes, there's the easy line break of "break / in" that could serve as a double meaning further into the poem, and it does.  However, the core of this poem addresses how a reader (unfortun...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Lost and Found" by Ron Padgett Originally read: March 29, 2013 More information about the Poet: Ron Padgett The poem hinges on the epigraph.  Well, not the words of the epigraph, rather how the epigraph is used in general.  What is the purpose of an epigraph in a poem?  Why quote someone else and not let the poem ride for itself?  If the epigraph is used as an allusive device, why?  What does the epigraph do to a poem? "Man has lost his gods. / if he loses his dignity, / it's all over" What an epigraph does, traditionally for me, is set up the tone and allusion to the poem.  There's two ways that this poem could go (well multiple, but these are the two that I'm looking for) either support or undercut what's being stated through tone and content.  The epigraph brings a sense of free will, that man has "lost his gods" and only has "dignity."  The epigraph is also a very advice type of epigraph. ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Love Cook" by Ron Padgett Originally read: December 21, 2012 More information about the Poet: Ron Padgett It's hard to read a cheeky love  poem and come back to the poem and find something differnt.  Of course, as usual, I do put my misinterpretation spin on it, but this poem plays with expectation in a sense and, depending on taste, the poem doesn't cross the line from cheeky to creepy (which love poems do sometimes). The title set's off the fun.  "The Love Cook" is a little corny, but since the adjective noun combination isn't used too much, I found it interesting to learn more.  I think for poems that the title is a strong noun (added with an adjective sometimes) the poem sets up a definition -- who is this _______, what is this ______. So I want to know more about this love cook.  The first two lines are disarming, then we get to the line, "in fact / the rest of your clothes" now if the poem wen...