DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here:  "The Teller" by David Mason Originally read: January 14, 2013  More information about the Poet: David Mason So this poem is tricky.  Yes, indeed that these is a narrative.  Also this is a Elizabethan Sonnet (even though the construction is separated in eight and six), so the volta in the poem is the couplet at the end.  So within the form already there's a bit of a sleight of hand. However, it's not really realized in the first eight lines.  The poem starts off like a regular narrative about how an Eskimo named Jack got lost at sea while fishing.  This all feels like back story, but what makes this poem work for me is that the back story is literally eight lines -- all I need to know is there. Then the next five lines, I believe, chronicle the five years the Eskimo took to go back home.  I write this: The anaphora matches the passage of time.  Technique wise, it's pretty brilliant. 1 [year one] Did the En...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Outside Fargo, North Dakota" by James Wright Originally read: December 29, 2012 (Am I missing a day? Too lazy to go back now)  More information about the Poet: James Wright So in my notes I write that this poem works on two levels -- Internal and Meta: "Internal:  The next lines "'onely / and sick for home.' the images above feel[s] like a representation of internal strife: white horses, going into the shadows, a sprawled body derailed." "Meta:  The poem turns from observational to internal -- nothing too surprising.  But the line 'I nod as I write good evening' is the only physical response of the speaker to anything -- and his physical response turns inward to the poem and the speaker." Past me, I don't think you fully describe meta that well.  So the speaker of the poem writes about the creation of a poem.  And all the symbols and images lead to how a poem is created.  And I could see it in ...