DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "What the Dead Know" by Robert Polito Originally read: March 13, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Robert Polito The form of the poem interests me.  The poem starts out with a lot of white space and the line center adjusted, the next line left adjusted, and the poem continues to follow this pattern.  The pattern adds a sense of duality to the poem (yes, I write this a lot), but the type of duality that follows a pattern.  The first stanza is where I had trouble at first because there's a lot of description, but they all refer to air.  Duh, right?  But the description of air is very complex because even though the focus should be air, the simile of. "Air here is like the water / Of an aquarium"  and so there comes a visual image of air as water which are conflicting images, but work because the description fits both air and water.  For example "appearing cold (and clear) as spring streams / Fed by snow and ...

Original poem reprinted online here: "In My Craft or Sullen Art" by Dylan Thomas Originally read: January 30, 2013 More information about the Poet: Dylan Thomas After rereading this again and again, I think about the title.  I think the title cuts multiple ways, but these two ways stick out for me.  There could be a separation between "My Craft" or "Sullen Art"; or, there one could define the other, "My Craft" = "Sullen Art.  The poem could actually be read both ways since the first stanza and the last stanza address the same issue of art and readership, but in different perspectives. In the first stanza, the speaker compares his/her night activities to those of "lovers"; however, the focus here is on the lovers and the line cuts from scene to contexts, "And the lovers lie abed / With all their griefs in their arms, I labour by singing light"  not that this is the longest line in the poem and sticks out pretty awkwardly; ...