DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold Originally read: March 4, 2013 More information about the Poet: Matthew Arnold First off, there are notes about this famous poem on Wikipedia : notes, analysis, historical background. Anything you could ever want to know about this poem you can find very thorough and rich thoughts with a simple google search. I'm not sure why you are still here.  So I must assume that you are a spambot -- and as such, me, of the "living" and you who are dead with no conscious are the "ignorant armies  [that] clash by night."  Keyword here is "ignorant." I was just going to end here and let wiki handle it, until I read this on the wiki, "In Stefan Collini 's opinion, 'Dover Beach' is a difficult poem to analyze, and some of its passages and metaphors have become so well known that they are hard to see with 'fresh eyes'." So let my ignorant rambling analysis comm...

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Wise" by Countee Cullen Originally read: March 2, 2013 More information about the Poet: Countee Cullen Personification of the dead as feeling emoting being from another plane of existence.  Well, perhaps.  The form here interests me.  Tercets with a rhyme scheme of (a-a-a, b-b-b, c-c-c, d-d-d).  Also each stanza is an end-stopped line.  I think the poem forces the reader to begin and stop making the didactic nature of the poem amplified. "You will learn from the wise (who happen to be dead) -- and this is what the living should do"  Also the trinity symbolism is quite -- heavy (also including anaphora of "Dead Men" which repeats three times).  So there are "some" spiritual undertones with this poem. Note though the progression the poem goes on explaining why the dead are wise: 1)  "How far the roots of flowers go, / How long a seed must rot to grow"  The theme juxtaposition in the the third line...

Original poem reprinted online here: "How to Kill" by Keith Douglas Originally read: February 21, 2013 More information about the Poet: Keith Douglas The poem has a parabola rhyme scheme.  Past me drew a picture to demonstrate -- the rhyme scheme is (a-b-c-c-b-a).  Now, sonically, some of the rhymes don't fit; however, look at the words, most of the rhymes are sight rhyme or a play on the last letters of words ("long" "sang").  However, the rhyme scheme "drops" in the middle of stanza two ("ways" "his" [sonic assonance rhyme?]). In any case, the parabola rhyme scheme (as I drew in the picture as well) reinforces the idea of a grenade being thrown since the rhyme scheme creates a curve that goes back down on either the speaker or to another person. This idea is utilized in first stanza when referencing childhood (playing with a ball),  and then the following stanzas when the speaker throws the grenade. In the first stanza t...

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: "Follower" by Seamus Heaney Originally read: January 26, 2013 More information about the Poet: Seamus Heaney So the poem is in rhymed quatrains that works sort of like a question and answer poem.  The first three  stanza sets up a certain question and the last three stanzas answer the question. The first three stanzas define the "Follower" as the father.  A person who, for generations probably, worked the field.  The single statement of "An expert" actually made me see the poem in a different way when I reread this today.  Past me wrote, "The fragment sets up a distinct definition, and the following sentences -- discussing of technique with no description shows expertise."  Maybe I'm not looking at the poem at this angle at this time. Currently, I'm thinking how to be an expert at something, and placement.  For a horse-plough there's the horse, who is in front, and the person who is in "contro...