Hazel Tells Laverne

"ya little green pervert
am i hitsm with my mop
an has ta flush
the toilet down three times"

The classic fairytale about the Princess and the Frog finally gets a twist that I can enjoy. The uneducated vernacular shows that the speaker is of a lower social class. Most women, when told that they can be a princess, will do anything for the title. Being a princess is everyone's dream. However, because of this woman's social class,  she doesn't waste time dreaming about an unlikely life. In fact, the speaker doesn't even consider the possibility of kissing the frog or becoming a princess. She is what we would call a realist. The poem goes to show that the less fortunate don't waste their time on sreams because they hardly ever come true.  I believe that this is the more likely ending to the classic fairytale.

Getting Out

"Taking hands
we walked apart, until our arms stretched
between us. We held on tight, and let go. "

I think the female speaker is remembering her divorce. First she sees the time just before the divorce where she was miserable. The diction lends the time to be more torturous and loving as if they knew the marriage was doomed to fail. The speaker then seems to become bitter as she recollects the times when her husband attempted to just leave or avoid divorce. They are described as "locked into blame" as if it's almost against their own will to get the divorce. Finally back in present tense, the speaker's feelings on her divorce are sorrowful. She still constantly thinks of her ex husband and knows that she'll never fully get over him. The once married couple will always have a strong connection even though the marriage didn't work out.

Creep.

"What I will say, I will not tell thee now,
Lest that preserve thee; and since my love is spent,
I’d rather thou shouldst painfully repent,
Than by my threatenings rest still innocent."

The speaker is a ghost, hence the eerie tone throughout the poem. I can also infer that this woman that he is watching has wronged  him;moreover, she murdered him. She has found a new man and the ghost is not happy about it. The ghost haunts her. Call me crazy, but I think that there is no ghost and the ghost is just symbolic of her guilt. Guilt keeps her up at night and will not let her be happy with her new lover. Coldsweats are described so I think that no one knows that she murdered him. She is extremely paranoid about the truth getting out, and the guilt ghost is playing on the paranoia. The guilt ghost will eventually convince her to turn herself in.

Crossing the Bar

"The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar."

Literally, the poem begins at nighttime, and is set on the ocean; however, I believe it is all symbolic for a death bed. THe speaker begins by hearing God's call for him to leave Earth. He, like every other human, wishes that he could die painlessly. He doesn't want people to be sad when he leaves this Earth because he realizes that it's the natural cycle of life. The speaker simply hopes and prays that he can make it to heaven. He is not scared of death, rather, he has accepted it and is now anxious for the next life. I would say he's at peace with how he's lived his life and now he's excited for his next  life with God.

My Mistress' Eyes

"I love to hear her speak, yet well I know,
That music hath a far more pleasing sound."

The love affair has lost it's luster. Shakespeare conveys this through dimming the colors used to describe her lips and hair. He also sets a contrast between red roses and her cheeks. Not only is the writer saying that the mistress has lost her appeal, but the secret relationship is fading as well. While he will not stop comitting adultery, the speaker begins to doubt if sneaking around is worth it. The affair was once exciting and perfect (or godly), but now he is aware of how bland it has become. When it all began, the mistress seemed to be much more beautiful because the speaker lusted for her. Now that he has had her she has lost her appeal and thus her beauty and sensuality, but the speaker has no choice but to live with his actions.

Much Madness...

"When someone tells you that you can't be who you are, you tell them you're a little monster and you can do anything." -Lady Gaga

Dickinson is officially off the luney bus. She sort of is reminding me of Gaga. By saying that insanity is normal Dickinson is merely trying to make herself normal. It wouldn't be called insanity if it were normal, Emily. It's a biography. Dickinson is trying to make her life ironic. Well I find it to be ironic that everyone insists she's a writing-genius and yet I always call her crazy after I read her poems. The most amusing thing is that she writes as fact, like Gaga. Because a controversial woman wrote it, it must be a universal fact. So be crazy like Dickinson, or be Gaga's Little Monster if you want to be considered normal because Dickinson said so. Make a lifestyle of not conforming along with the million other hipsters in the world.

Ozymandias fail

Correction: This is an epic fail. This king of kings is so boastful about how awesome he is, but his kingdom is in ruins. However, the irony goes way beyond the literal kingdom of the man with the long name. Ozy was a political figure who was sure that he was the sole reason why his kingdom was once successful. In that sense, It's about time. The poem insists that  politics cannot sustain a successful kingdom forever. I'm particularly irked by the fact that he is referred to as "king of Kings". You aren't God, man. Oh no. Is the author implying that God's kingdom will fall? Here it goes again. Poetry makes me cynical.

this is why I don't do laundry

She's a psycho. I've never been so sure in my life. Setting your failing relationship equal to laundry? That has to be ironic in itself. If you're so pathetic that you analyze doing you're laundry, you should probably be single. If you can compare your lover to doiled clothes, it's probably not working. Moreover, if you cannot look at a shirt without thinking about adultery, you should check in to some kind of facility. Seriously, I doubt you've ever even had a boyfriend.

America, the Beautiful?

Did someone say American Irony?...



This poem. This poem. There's a complete void of any sort of punctuation and it's in quotes so it can only mean one thing: we have an American Idiot on our hands. This speaker is just so excited to get out all of his American love that he can't even stop to take a breath or finish a thought because he just loves Ameria oh so much, but wait. IF he loves America so much why did he never finish any of the songs? Also, the tone completely contradicts all of my thoughts. I almost feel like it's mockery, but it couldn't be. Everyone loves America. Right? I don't know. What I do know is that the patriot is all about liberty, and yet he won't be mute. Maybe the writer has a hidden agenda. But the quotes mean that the speaker is also the writer. The text leads me to believe he's a veteran, and a veteran wouldn't bad talk America.

If Barbie is so Popular, Why do You Have to Buy Her Friends?

I would first like to say that all of this poetry analysis has made me completely cynical about everything. It all goes back to death in my book.

The irony behind all of this is that Barbies are supposed to be perfect, but even they become inferior in our minds eventually. Another unique technique in the poem is the parallelism between barbie's popularity and her playmate's life. This all leads to the ultimate female cliche: we're all beautiful. Atleast the poem goes about it in a sick and twisted way. As Barbie becomes less popular and gets mutilated, the playmate takes her own life because she can't take the scrutiny. The ultimate irony that I found is that Barbie is supposed to symbolize the perfect American Woman, but she completely destroyed the pubescent girl's life and is thus not an attainable goal. Happy go lucky Barbie is many a girl's nightmare.

Star of Wonder. Star of Light.

Bright Star demonstrates the structure of our faith. I believe the bright star embodies because it's described as steadfast and watching. Next, the clergy of priests are obviously the waters because they are said to be priestlike. The new snow symbolizes the new believers that God speaks to. The unnamed woman might be the church because it's based on the paschal mystery that no one can prove to be factual. This belief can be described as sweet unrest.

In other words, God watches as priests pass his word on and make a lasting impact on converts who take the word and stick to it (or freeze). Because of this system, the church thrives despite it's ups and downs and the uncertainty of it's base.

It's Time For a Hillbilly Moment

I cannot get passed the vernacular of Toads. He just seems so uneducated so inadvertantly, I cannot take the writing seriously. Maybe this points to the fact that he should not be taken seriously or he is not taken seriously. On my third read I finally began dissecting this Toad. I believe that there's two toads. The first one is a sort of metaphor. this virtual toad is figuratively dropping solid waste material all over the speaker's life and on his neighbors'. The speaker feels a need to tell everyone to appreciate what they have (because they aren't that  unfortunate), but he knows this is a far fetched idea. This is where toad two enters. The fairytale toad that helps everyone live happily ever after. Atleast the speaker recognizes that toad two doesn't exist.

A Graduation Foreshadowing

This is foreshadowing to the speech we will all hear in May with more formal diction (unless Bryan Rainey is valedictorian then it will be exactly like this). The poem in its entirety is a speech addressing some sort of graduation. With that in mind, it is typical to ask for no tears. The poem is taking "dont cry because it's over. Smile because it happened" to a whole new level. Even though the school is just a structure, the speaker addresses it as if it has emotions about the graduation. With this anthropomorphism, the speaker says his bitter sweet good byes and promises to remember the school. He also takes time to remind the class that the school will always me their common link and their home. Funny how all valedictorian speeches hit home now more than ever. Nice choice.

The Joy of Picking Your Siblings' Lives Apart

This lady is very critical of her siblings. I think she played a major role in the upbringing of her sisterand sent her off to live on her own. Unfortunately, her sister is failing, specifically because she's gone broke. The chef is very disappointed but has hope that her sister will get through it. The brother is not so fortunate. She accuses the brother to be heartless and emotionless. He's described as a sour person. It also says he barely has enough heart for two people so that may be the chef and her sister. I'm thinking that the sister worked hard to raise her siblings and now that they're failing as human beings she is having a psychotic episode via cooking.

The Creeps Come Out in February

How many ways can a person say awkward? Kind of like how one should not mention diarrhea in a college essay except this time it's testicles in a poem. If this is art I am perfectly alright with having no creativity. "He shoots. He scores." refers to..... let's just say the male half of the reproductive process. However, I'm stunned to analyze that the tone was bitter towards the cat's shooting percentage, but not hateful. The awkward mood reaches it's climax when the reader realizes that February equals winter and winter equals cat living inside. So what do you get when you put an unfixed cat in a house with a cat lover? Please don't answer that. It's already awkward enough to have a teacher read this.

Regret

Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance. ~Ruth E. Renkel

In "Those Sunday Winters" the character looks back on his memories of his late father. On the outside, he thinks of the common occurrence of his father splitting wood at the crack of dawn to warm the house. He is stung by regret for not being as thankful. However, the father drove out more than the cold. Cold is often used to symbolize cold natured people, or generally bad times.The man's father mingled in his son's life, tried to help in any way possible. Like many children, the son probably hated his dad for butting into his life, but now that he is mature he truly appreciates it. The man regrets never truly thanking his father for protecting him throughout their lives together.

Get out of London!

London is demolished. The conventional society has been completely corrupted. The cries mentioned may be that of the past happiness and functionality. The soldier is a synecdoche for the entire army and sighs because he can't even help London at this point, because it was destroyed by something other than manpower and war. London has become humanistic so the church has lost it's shine. Instead of the prime minister running the streets, it is the street walker that is greatly influential. This new society is a curse placed on London that will not easily be lifted. However, this may not be what the harlot wanted. The harlot is described as "youthful" which gives her a sort of innocence in the situation. If the harlot embodies the population of London, then their city has been corrupted against their own will.

What does a Panther even look like?

But really, I don't even know what a panther is. So that got me thinking about the symbolism of the poem. Without the title, I never would've thought of a Panther, so why should it be about a panther? It shouldn't. The whole poem is an extended and almost implied metaphor comparing an imprisoned or confined man to a caged panther. Both ave lost the will to escape what is confining them, but dream of the life outside the bars, figuratively or metaphorically.

Then that got me to thinking that maybe the panther was chosen because it is unknown. The reader will assume that a panther is similar to a lion or tiger, but really has no idea. Similarly, a man chained down by racism or an innocent man that is put in jail for life may seem like every other different racial man or convict in the world, so people are quick to stereotype. These men lose hope in letting the truth be known, and only find comfort in their dreams.

Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

This is exactly why I hate poetry. Spring is completely happy-go-lucky. The birds are singing, the flowers are beautiful, the world is perfect.  This has young love written all over it. The lambs mentioned that have their "fling" are the young love birds, who are Thrushes to be more exact. In other words, I have read Disney's next movie where they all live happily ever after. The only thing stopping me from being positive that I've nailed this one is the very last stanza. Could the writer be asking God to cloud over or hide sin so that our lovebirds can have the perfect life for a while longer? Or, is he praying that God smite them for being so naive?

By the way, Lion King is out in 3D. Get excited. (:

I'm Trapped in a Glass Case of Emotion!

Emily Dickinson's "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" is what my parents like to call melodramatic. The character is stuck in a life of agony and woe, as if they are at the most depressing funeral in the history of the world. But if it really is her funeral, why is she still using so much imagery? I may be wrong, but people generally cannot describe their own funeral so (this is a shocker) the poem is symbolic. A piece of the character is dying inside. She has given up on some aspect of her life and is apparently devastated about it, but knows she can do nothing about it just as a person cannot walk in "lead boots". The character's life will always be the epitome of death and agony. Side note theory, the character is going emotionally psychotic as if she were buried alive.

"The Nature of Proof in the Interpretation of Poetry": does it exist?

"Our perception of a work of art is not something that is fixed. It depends as much, if not more, on the period in which the work is being viewed and on our expectations of it as it does on the period in which it was created."

I think this essay is complete nonsense. I try my hardest to avoid poetry because it's too abstract for me, but I have been forced to dabble in the literary unit through the years. What I have come to realize is that poetry is like painting a picture with your words. Poetry is for the most creative writers with the most spectacular diction. Poetry is very emotional and moreover extremely unique.

In these respects poetry is more relatable to drawing and painting than to writing an essay or analyzing a novel. Unlike Perrine, I believe poetry speaks to different people in different ways. A reader with a charmed life will analyze differently than a reader with thousands of skeletons in his/her closet. Aspects of our life such as our hometowns, our families, and our friends impact how we think. No one has the same life so no one has the same brain.

That being said, I cannot agree with any aspect of Perrine's lecture. Maybe I missed something he said or I'm not understanding correctly, but it's my interpretation and I'm sticking to it.