DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Native Trees" by W. S. Merwin Originally read: September 30, 2013 More information about the Poet: W. S. Merwin I feel everything in this poem is dependent on unpacking the image of "Trees", but also how the image of trees relate to the idea of "Native" since the poem goes in one trajectory, a straight forward narrative based on on knowledge, but could expand to multiple trajectories of family, past, connection which pervades either strongly or weakly throughout the poem. "Neither my father nor my mother knew / the names of the trees / where I was born" past me noted, "tying in definition: trees, self"  and I think this is me overreaching here too early.  What's the most important aspect of the first three lines is the idea of naming and what defines naming for the speaker.      what is that      I asked and my      father and mother did not      hear they did not look where I poi...

Original poem reprinted online here:  "To The New Year" by W.S. Merwin Originally read: January 1, 2013 More information about the Poet: W.S. Merwin So here's what I wrote on my notes: "'that do not stir' is important here because the simile is not on the leaves but the ambiguous 'you' that is the representation of sunlight."  So old me, I agree that 3/4 of the first stanza describes the "you" but I'm not so sure that the "you" is the representation of sunlight. "You" gives off "the first sunlight,"  what else gives off sunlight?  The sun (well it's in the wording sun-light)?  What am I trying to get to?  Okay.  So I think previously I wrote that "you" in a story refers to the speaker, or an audience.    There's more possible ways (I think I concluded), and here's one.  The "you" in the poem is a construct of the speaker.  The speaker first states the you then starts to d...