DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Spring Training" by Maxine Kumin Originally read: March 11, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Maxine Kumin . How long did it take me to know that this was a poem with baseball imagery, probably by the second line.  How long did it take me to realize that this is not a sonnet, just recently.   I think I wanted this to be a sonnet, I just miscalculated the stanzas (one extra) when I read it the first time.  However, this is important because there's no hard volta in the poem -- not in the couplet.  I feel the tone throughout the poem is the same -- a sense of wonder built by the imagery. In the first stanza there's imagery of baselines, peanuts, and catcher's mitt -- but look how they operate.  The Baseline imagery is followed up by slight alliteration "smoothed to suede" which brings a visual dreamlike quality to the image -- something real in a surreal sense.  Then comes the the peanuts line, "ancient smell...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Holy Sonnet 7" by John Donne Originally read: February 28, 2013 More information about the Poet: John Donne This wasn't a poem a day.  I wanted to reread this poem in conjunction with the previous poem I analyzed "Tis Late" by April Bernard which alluded to this poem.  I would write about the connection between both.  The allusion to this poem in "Tis Late" comes in the third person part where the previuous script writing graduate student reciting this first line of this poem., "At the round earth's imagined corners, blow."  It might be a jump into the academic intelligence doesn't necessarily bring real world experience. Rather this poem, goes from epic religious request to a more personal internal strife.  Every four lines in this poem uses different techniques -- and although that would mean different subjects (the usage of a different technique like from first to third, or from narrative to li...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Sonnet 109: O! never say that I was false of heart" by William Shakespeare Originally read: February 14, 2013 More information about the Poet: William Shakespeare There's plenty of analysis on this poem -- well all of Shakespeare.  And usually Shakespeare sonnets deal with love, or cheating, or being in love while cheating.  Well this poem is about cheating on his rose (by any other name would smell just as sweet) and still be in love with her. Charming. So this poem is an Elizabethan sonnet, but instead of separating the poem by the rhyme scheme (three quatrains, and then a couplet).  This poem is connected together like a narrative -- unlike the speaker and his "soul." The opening line suggests that there's an argument and the speaker is playing defense, "O never say that I was false of heart."  There's an implication that he was called false of heart.  From hear the speaker then goes on to separate his ...

Original poem reprinted online here: Analysis of "In the Park" by Gwen Harwood Originally read: January 3, 2013 More information about the Poet: Gwen Harwood So I warn my students about this when creating a sonnet -- "don't rhyme -ing words -- it's too easy."  Why?  Because my teachers warned me about doing such a thing.  On one hand rhyming verbs ending in --ing is too open (basically anything works); however, on the other hand the usage verb vs gerund would  be intersting (one focusing on action vs the other appropriating the noun with action).  However, this poem doesn't do that.  The -ing here, I won't say it's easy, but brings in a certain sense of the mundane that is a theme in the poem. On the first read, I only talk about form, "I'm not sure about the monosyllabic rhyme scheme.  A part of me thinks it's too simple, but simplicity, for the first part of the poem details the woman's life -- simply matter of fact." I to...