DDCPoetry

Poem found here:  "A Man Young and Old" III. The Mermaid" by William Butler Yeats This poem is like an Aesop fable even with the didactic message at the end.  And even though this poems intent is a bit obvious after reading the poem, it doesn't mean that this poem cannot bear interest after each read. "A mermaid found a swimming lad, / Picked him for her own, / Pressed her body to his body."  At face value, this beginning has the mermaid take the lad as her own.  But note, there is no mention of love, just ownership.  Also, when her body presses up against his there's a sense of fusion or rather something akin to Adam and Eve, Eve and Adam. "Laughed; and plunging down / Forgot in cruel happiness / That even lovers drown."  It's not the didactic tale that keeps me reading this poem, it's how the poem is shaped syntactically.  The stand alone verb of "Laughed" reinforced the past tense with a more visual verb (pressed is visual...

Poem found here:  "A Crazed Girl" by William Butler Yeats So when I reread this poem, the pop image that came to my mind was Sia's video "Chandelier" .  Beautiful, artistic, but looks crazed. It's not that the girl in this poem is "crazed" -- this doesn't define her -- rather what is the cause of the "crazed emotion."  And, this poem being a bit vers libre and a but reverse sonnet, proclaims here core passion, "That crazed girl improvising her music / Her poetry, dancing upon the shore."  Her music, her poetry. Note the first stanza is more of an interpretation of her actions from the speaker upon seeing her art, "Her soul in division from itself / Climbing, falling she knew not where, / Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship."  Note how the speaker starts creating a narrative of this crazed girl as to understand her actions, "Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare / A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing / Heroi...

Tim Ellison is my guest blogger for today and he does a fine job analyzing "The Fascination of What's Difficult" by William Butler Yeats.   Normally I read only contemporary poetry on Tim Reads Poetry , but today I’m going to take advantage of the freedom writing for TheRetailMFAer gives me and take on one of my old favorites, W.B. Yeats’ “The Fascination of What’s Difficult”. In Helen Vendler’s great book about Yeats, Our Secret Discipline , she basically describes this poem as a frustrated sonnet. I think you’ll see what she means. Here’s “The Fascination of What’s Difficult”: The fascination of what's difficult Has dried the sap out of my veins, and rent    Spontaneous joy and natural content Out of my heart. There's something ails our colt    That must, as if it had not holy blood    Nor on Olympus leaped from cloud to cloud,    Shiver under the lash, strain, sweat and jolt As though it dragged road metal. My curse on ...

Original poem reprinted online here:   "A Drinking Song" by William Butler Yeats Originally read: October 2, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Butler Yeats So I don't know much about drinking songs.  I went here  to listen to some drinking songs.  Damn, depressing (or the ones I listened to: "O Danny Boy", "Seven Drunken Nights" "Molly Malone" -- it could've been my luck in selection).  If I was drinking, I wouldn't want to hear them. I think this poem, and some drinking songs, show why a person is drinking -- kind of like kicking themselves repeatedly for whatever reason: reliving the pain to dull it again, or to remember something good at least. "Wine comes in at the mouth / And love comes in at the eye."  So the rhyme scheme of this poem is an ababab rhyme scheme to accentuate the separation, but this starts out wistful enough, and then, "That's all we shall know for truth / Before we grow old and die...

Original poem reprinted online here: "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats Originally read: (a long time ago, but for this blog) February 18, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Butler Yeats I just listened to this poem read aloud by Colin Farrell , and then I read some of the comments for this poem -- a very dreamy, nice touching eulogy for a loved one.  And yes I can see that.  The tone of this poem is very loving (because love is repeated multiple times = love, right?) and how the speaker is so tender to the subject.  Not really. A couple of things, even though the subject is probably near death, the subject is capable of reading and/or taking down a book -- or this is the construction the speaker is addressing.  Also,  the second stanza kind of focuses the love idea to the a singular focus that disperses at the end which fits with the rhyme scheme (a b b a)  rhymes in the middle and rhymes at the end.  And, yes, the poem is in iambic...

Original poem reprinted online here: "A Coat" by William Butler Yeats Originally read: January 18, 2013 More information about the Poet:  William Butler Yeats I don't know what form this is.  There is a rhyme scheme, but it's not as consistent or follows a specific pattern.  Maybe since there is a certain foolishness with the poem in multiple levels, so the rhyme is offbeat -- depicts "humor." And this poem is humorous, especially when looking at the end lines, "For there's more enterprise / In walking naked."  There's a sense of defiance here that doesn't seem completely serious; however, in spite of the rhyme scheme and the ending, I feel the crux of the poem is the creation of the coat in the first four lines.      I made my song a coat      Covered with embroderies      Out of old mythologies      From heel to throat There's the concept of exposing oneself versus exposing one's art....