Wright, Carver, Collins, Lee

            I would like to begin by saying that my favorite poet of all these men was Billy Collins.  I thought his writing was easy to relate to and it was also easy to connect with.  My favorite poem was Forgetfulness because it rings so true for myself.  His observation about forgetting the quadratic equation was humorous because I can remember studying and memorizing it.  Today, I am not sure I could come up with any parts of it.  Or the part about forgetting capitals, order of the planets, or authors of books was also quite humorous.  It seems these were so important to memorize growing up but now we cannot even remember them.  I like his word play with “oblivion” because it seems that a lot of this information will escape from our minds and will not be there—but then he ends the poem with the character rising at night to look up this random information that he had forgotten.  Another one of his poems about the Three Blind Mice was also very humorous.  Even the title of this poem uttered a chuckle from me at least.  I can just imagine him chopping up parsley and he hears this song and begins to micoranalyze where these mice came from and how they became blind.  The one explanation I liked most was “a searing explosion, a firework”.

            I thought James Wright’s poems reminded me a little of William Blake’s style.  They both observed nature and explore their relationship in accordance to nature.  Wright’s poems are definitely based on the Midwest, writing about football games and the prairie.  One thing I noticed about Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio was the oxymoron in line 9 “suicidally beautiful”.  I thought this was a strange play on words and I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on it?  In his poem To the Evening Star I loved his imagery of a star being a light that comes on in the sky like a lamp in the prairie.  His last poem of the last line in A Blessing was a very “Blake” line about how he would step out of his body and break into blossom.  Any thoughts?

            Li-Young Lee Persimmons was strange because I felt like it was written in a stream of consciousness.  It seemed to jump around, but I did like that he included bits about himself and his background culture in it.  I thought it was interesting that in many of his poems he included his father as an important part—unlike Sylvia Plath it was a much more positive note.  He writes about missing him and recalling him and his love which I think is beautiful, especially since it is a son and father relationship.

Plath, Roth, Rich

                Sylvia Plath’s poetry was insightful and graphic.  I actually enjoyed it even though I have never read any of her works.  I found her references to the WWII intriguing and questioning to know more about her.  While I did read the bibliography note in the beginning, it doesn’t really talk about her connection to Jews or Germans.  I know that her father died when she was young and was one of the reasons that drew her to an attempt at suicide which she mentions in Daddy.  She talks about how she tried to get back at her dad by killing herself but then being put together by others.  She describes her father as a vampire and having a “fat black heart”.   She talks about getting revenge to her father—by killing herself?  I am not really sure how that would be revenge…any thoughts?  Her other poem “Lady Lazarus” was interesting—particularly the title.  I didn’t understand the title until the end of the poem.  I know that Lazarus was a man that was raised from the dead.  In my opinion, I think she is referring to the Jews especially in the last stanza with the line “out of the ash”.  The footnote talks about the mythical creature called the phoenix which is reborn out of the ashes similar to Lazarus.  Although I’m still not sure why the title includes the word “lady”.  I didn’t know about the Natzi gold fillings being made out of corpses and lampshades being made of victims’ skin.  It makes me sick to think about these images—but I am glad that they are brought to the surface.

                Call me a romantic but I loved the first line in “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning” which is “My swirling wants.  Your frozen lips.”  It reminds me of something in a cheesy chick flick—but I don’t care it’s poetic!  I want more explanation of this poem because while I can pick up bits and pieces I would like to have some more opinions.  It seems someone is trying to forget something bad, but then at the same time it talks about writing and grammar.  I also like the last line—I feel like it’s highly individualized and a modernized notion.  The message of being independent and being living life in a personal choice and not letting others chose it for you.

Synder, Ginsberg, Kerouac

I would like to begin by commenting on Howl by Allen Ginsberg.  This poem or short story or whatever this is seems to remind me of a modern version of Edgar Allen Poe.  After reading this my mind was very disturbed by the images that he has created.  In my opinion it seems that he is either trying to critique America or the world/humanity in general.  Throughout he mentions various states which I think is interesting and noteworthy—perhaps he is trying to focus more on the United States.  He talks about people chaining themselves to subways and the failing law enforcement system.  While this short story does seem to present some grotesque images they are certainly poetic.  One in particular that stood out to me was “returning years later truly bald except for a wig of blood, tears and fingers” (pg.1360).  While this is a disturbing image it is also I guess lack of a better word—beautiful.  I am slightly worried about my comment I just made, nevertheless, it’s an image that sticks in my brain and I can picture it clearly on a canvas.  I wonder if anyone else thought about this image and has any insight into it further.  I thought the second part was interesting with the speaker crying out to “Moloch” who is stated in the footnotes as a fire god.  This cannot be a coincidence.  My own interpretation seems to say that this fire god should destroy all of the filth in the world that humanity has created.  Like the speaker says “Mad Generation” (pg.1362).  Maybe we have become so corrupt that the speaker wishes to show his audience what we have become.  And then what’s with “Rockland”?  Another image that stood out to me is “where we hug and kiss the United States under our bedsheets the United States that coughs all night and won’t let us sleep” (pg. 1363).  I was hoping for some opinions or other insights into this imagery.

On a less disturbing yet sad note is Snyder in August on Sourdough, A Visit from Dick Brewer.  I’m not sure if these two are lovers or friends but at any rate the one must bid a goodbye to the other after spending a night reminiscing and enjoying each other’s company.  

Ellison, Baraka, Lorde, Walker

The Invisible Man short story I did not find particularly fascinating; it just didn’t really seem to resonate for me.  It was somewhat interesting at parts but to be honest I found it dull and boring.  I hope I am not offending anyone by saying this, I guess everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  I mean I thought the ending was clever because he wakes up to his grandfather’s laugh ringing in his ears—creepy yet symbolic.  He’s wrestling with conforming and fighting the norm. 

I wanted to do a small cheer when I read that the mother took the quilts away from Dee because as a character I did not like her.  The author, in my opinion, did a wonderful job of painting the picture of each character in a short amount of pages.  I think especially with short stories it can be difficult to develop characters because of the limited space.  I actually can identify with Dee because it felt like when I was younger I didn’t appreciate a lot of things about my heritage and past.  I think this is a more modern idea—taking old, traditional style and using it as decoration.  Last time I went home to Iowa I asked my mom for some of her mason jars that she keeps in the basement to use as decoration—similar to the quilt I didn’t really care about them until I got to college.  I guess you could say the author is making fun of the educated that go off to school and come back and realize how different their lives are.  Maggie just seems so different from Dee—she seems naïve but appreciative of her heritage and past.  The fact that she tells Dee that she can take the quilts because she can still remember her grandmother regardless was inspiring. 

Roethe, Bishop, Lowell, Berryman

            I actually have read My Papa’s Waltz for an education class and we discussed the different images and cruelty of the poem.  We talked about using this poem as a gateway poem into further discussions.  The imagery in the poem is very explicit and I want to hate it yet I love it.  I love the way the author paints such a clear picture in the poem of the father and the action that goes on in the poem.  The next poem Dolor I found strange because they refer to things that are in schools and offices.  Very strange, perhaps the author is unsatisfied where he is at in his life?  The Waking uses a lot of repetition especially about waking and sleeping.  Two opposites and talking about going slowly I’m not really sure what the whole underlining message is but I’m interested to see what we talk about on Tuesday.

            I found Bishop’s poem The Fish strange especially in relation to the imagery.  The author talks about disgusting and gross things that are wrong with the fish.  Then in the end the fisher decides to let it go.  The author also describes the boat with similar disturbing images; I’m not sure if this is a coincidence or if it was on purpose.  Another one of her poems is called Tshe Armadillo which is definitely not what I thought it would be like.  I have actually seen them multiple times while living in Texas.  I noticed that in the poem there were a lot of images involving fire like: “flame”, “burned”, and “ash”.  I wonder if any of my peers noticed this or had any ideas regarding this observation.  The last poem by Bishop touches on the idea about losing is easy and then mentions the everyday things in life that we lose and how it’s not as difficult as we may think it is.

Carnival Post

          I am going to begin with one very interesting thought that came from almost all of the posts that I read: Wallace Steven's poetry is confusing and could be interpreted a variety of ways.  I will admit I also posted on my blog and while I was reading his poetry I was confused.  I found it very interesting how each person comes in with their own interpretations and images that come to them when they read the poems.  I also thought it was interesting that two classmates felt inspired by the poems to actually write some of their own--and one was reminded of how much they hate poetry:)

            When I was reading about A Rose for Emily and The Mountains of Kilamanjaro I found it interesting that the topic of modernism seemed to appear quite a bit.  This may have been due to our discussion that we had in class but I think that it's worth noting.  Many of the blogs talked about irony and a possible connection between the author and the male character.  This whole idea of the old ways getting set aside for new ideas[taxes] and how that affected the people during this time and the writing.  This idea of small towns and death was particularly interesting which came from one blog.

           Time to move on to Mine Eyes were Watching God which seemed to have many of the same themes as well as different and opposing ones within our class blogs.  First of all, I would like to point out that almost everyone mentioned something about the dialect and the use of Black English.  Some of us enjoyed the new territory while others did not like how it would switch from one dialect to the other.  I found it interesting that most of us mentioned the author's unique style and how she used this as her means to develop the story.  Some of us found it harder to read while others of us found it intriguing and enjoyable.  I would like to add that we are all skeptics of one, some, or all of the characters in this book.  We question the choices that characters make and who should be trusted and who should not be.  Personally, I think that Hurston has done an excellent job to create that skeptism in her book of her characters.  We all chose characters that we questioned and did not trust whether that be by their decisions or by their descriptions.  Another theme that came up in our blogs was the idea about love and the love between Janie and her 3 husbands.  To begin with, Logan was the security that Janie's grandmother wanted for her and she did not love him or want to be with him so she up and decides to go marry Joe.  Some of the blogs talked about how she lost her identity to these two men and as time went on she gained maturity and wisdom that she carries over into her marriage with Tea Cake.  The last theme that our blogs have in common are the ideas about sexism and racism.  Most of us agree that the book shifts from focusing on sexism and racism throughout the book.  Sexism dealt with the security issue and Janie finding it and how their society was hung up on a woman being married in order to "identify" and secure herself.  Racism was dealt with through Mrs. Turner and the Indians as well as other racial comments scattered throughout the story.  I cannot say that we all agree about these topics but I find that refreshing that we all can look on these matters from different lenses from our own opinions and experiences.