The Forge by Seamus Heaney Blog #12 Poem #8

All I know is a door into the dark.
Outside, old axles and iron hoops rusting;
Inside, the hammered anvil’s short-pitched ring,
The unpredictable fantail of sparks
Or hiss when a new shoe toughens in water.
The anvil must be somewhere in the centre,
Horned as a unicorn, at one end and square,
Set there immoveable: an altar
Where he expends himself in shape and music.
Sometimes, leather-aproned, hairs in his nose,
He leans out on the jamb, recalls a clatter
Of hoofs where traffic is flashing in rows;
Then grunts and goes in, with a slam and flick
To beat real iron out, to work the bellows.

This poem makes me think of a old memory that someone is recalling and reminiscing on. In a way the way it's being described I think of something rusty and old but it also makes it a light poem because although it starts out talking about the dark door we realize that it's not as dark. It's a joyful memory in the narrators life. The way they describe the "fantail of sparks." demonstrate something important. The poem isn't recalling a terrible memory but a memory they can smile about. When I read the poem I thought of a child remembering the things that the family had kept in the shed and how the father would do things while the child watched. It's almost a simple memory that puts a smile on the narrators face because of just how simple it is. I thought of simple memories I have with my family and they also make me smile. This is exactly how I see the narrator, smiling while remembering the significant moment in their life. It's interesting that all the ways the narrator describes the memory happen to not be dull. They interest me and when I read it for the second time I saw the beauty it holds. The description of the sounds, the grunts, it's unique. I enjoyed the poem. 

William Wordsworth, “The world is too much with us” #7

The World Is Too Much With Us

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

When reading this poem I thought about the society we live in and how the author is trying to depict that we're not appreciating everything around us. The nature is avoided, we're always rushing with life that we miss the most beautiful things. Where the author says "For this, for everything, we are out of tune." is practically my favorite line in the entire poem. I feel like here he is saying that we're doing everything so wrong. Almost like strings when I play the cello, if I play the piece wrong and my notes are out of tune the beauty of the piece isn't present and I think that's exactly what the author is trying to show us. When the author also says "Little do we see in Nature that is ours." I think of this as we have the freedom to embrace something free but we don' t. In our world we're worried about the money, the clothes, the social class. We completely shut out everything free and unique around us. But it also made me think that we survive with the nature. Without it we would be dead...so why aren't we thankful for it? I find this poem so different because this doesn't talk about the love for an individual but the love for the world, the beautiful nature around us. 

The Youngest Daughter BY CATHY SONG #6

The Youngest Daughter

BY CATHY SONG

The sky has been dark

for many years.

My skin has become as damp

and pale as rice paper

and feels the way

mother’s used to before the drying sun   

parched it out there in the fields.

      Lately, when I touch my eyelids,

my hands react as if

I had just touched something

hot enough to burn.

My skin, aspirin colored,   

tingles with migraine. Mother

has been massaging the left side of my face   

especially in the evenings   

when the pain flares up.

This morning

her breathing was graveled,

her voice gruff with affection   

when I wheeled her into the bath.   

She was in a good humor,

making jokes about her great breasts,   

floating in the milky water

like two walruses,

flaccid and whiskered around the nipples.   

I scrubbed them with a sour taste   

in my mouth, thinking:

six children and an old man

have sucked from these brown nipples.

I was almost tender

when I came to the blue bruises

that freckle her body,

places where she has been injecting insulin   

for thirty years. I soaped her slowly,

she sighed deeply, her eyes closed.

It seems it has always

been like this: the two of us

in this sunless room,

the splashing of the bathwater.

In the afternoons

when she has rested,

she prepares our ritual of tea and rice,   

garnished with a shred of gingered fish,

a slice of pickled turnip,

a token for my white body.   

We eat in the familiar silence.

She knows I am not to be trusted,   

even now planning my escape.   

As I toast to her health

with the tea she has poured,

a thousand cranes curtain the window,

fly up in a sudden breeze.

This poem happens to be one of my favorites and I can't explain why but I think because it seems to describe the relationship of a mother and daughter. When I first read the poem a thought of the death of a mother because the daughter was describing her as sick. She made me visualize the way her mother had diabetes and couldn't take care of herself. I also came across the thought that the daughter was white because of the way she describes her skin as pale. What confused me was the way she was taking care of her mother. I believe of african american culture? Something in this poem keeps throwing me off. I think its when she says "She knows I am not to be trusted." BUT WHY? I'm so lost. She seems to be her mothers caregiver but she isn't trusted. She literally bathes her. I mean I'd give trust to someone that bathed me and took care of me on a daily basis. I think i'm over thinking a bit but every time I read this poem that line just throws me off completely. The way the mother's body is becoming old seems to be symbolic because the narrator talks about how she herself is having problems with her own skin. This poem interests me. At one point I thought of this to be a little after the time of slavery because of the way the daughter says that her skin feels like her mothers skin when she worked the fields. 

“To My Dear and Loving Husband” #5

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay;

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

This poem is about love and the strong love a wife has for her husband. It was actually so beautiful when I first read it. The beginning was interesting in a sense where the wife confesses her love and how lucky she is to have a husband like hers. What I found creative about this poem was the amount of confidence the wife had while talking about the love her husband had for her. When reading the poem it almost made you envy the wife for having such a wonderful husband. In the poem when it said "My love is such that rivers cannot quench" I thought of how strong the love of this couple must be. The fact that her emotions are so alive as well as his is so unique. At first when I read the poem I thought about how it must feel to be so in love and how in our generation love is lost so it's weird to see a male so captivated by his wife. Also obsession crossed my mind because we never get to hear what her husband says, only what she tells us about him. So my essential thought was that she wanted to make her husband seem in love because he probably didn't act it so she created a sort of persona for him. 

Pass/Fail #4

You will never graduate

from this dream

of blue books.

No matter how

you succeed awake,

asleep there is a test

waiting to be failed.

The dream beckons

with two dull pencils,

but you haven't even

taken the course;

when you reach for a book - 

it closes its door 

in your face; when

you conjugate a verb - 

it is in the wrong 

language.

Now the pillow becomes

a blank page. Turn it 

to the cool side;

you will still smother

in all of the feathers

that have to be learned

by heart.

This poem was interesting when I first read it because I thought of the future and how a person generally has dreams they strive to achieve and sometimes those dreams are hard to succeed in. I think the meaning of "never graduating from this dream of blue books" tries to symbolize that we will never stop dreaming or wanting something. That once a dream ends another one begins. It makes it sound like when you're aware of what you're doing, you do it well but when you're dreaming its only a test thats most likely going to fail. Not all dreams come true and this poem seems to want to point that out. I liked the way the author referred to the pillow and the way it's like a blank page, when I thought about that I thought of it as when we go to sleep we always dream something different and that shows that once again you start with a blank page, and the reference to where the pillow is flipped to the cooler side, I assume the author wants us to think about a new beginning or a new dream that someone has. The last part of the poem talks about how although you have all these different dreams you want, it doesn't mean you will be able to get them all. You'll be influenced by all of it but not all of it will effect your heart. This was a poem a read about ten times and every time I had a different thought or interpretation about it. In a way it made me think that's what the author was trying to demonstrate, a person who keeps figuring out new things or ways they see things or want them. 

In The Waiting Room by Elizabeth Bishop #3

This poem confused me,  the way the narrator talked seemed to be present day or at least a casual day.  When reading it the first time I thought of a child at an appointment with their aunt. I felt a shift in the poem when it said that it was dark and everyone was old. I think that made the environment change throughout the entire poem. The narrator seems to be invested in the National Geographics magazine and describes to us exactly what she see's in it. We know that the images inside of the magazine bother the narrator but what catches her attention is the yelp of her aunts. The lack of surprise was interesting because it seems that both have a close relationship. I don't think I got the concept of this poem but I feel as though when I read it the second time around I thought of the narrator being thrown into the future while going to the appointment or maybe even the past because at the end of the poem the narrator realizes that they are not at the dentists but in the middle of war. The author did a great job at giving the reader false hope regarding the location. The plot just changed so quickly at the end. I didn't see the end coming at all. The poem did a good job at giving the reader a visual of everything that the narrator was experiencing. But I'm still a bit confused after reading it for the third time!

Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes

When I first started to look at this poem what caught my attention was the title but I feel as though my thought on the title was completely different than the poem. My initial thought about the title was about immigrants and how Langston would like to get rid of them in order to give America back to Americans again but when I first read the poem it seemed that Langston was speaking to the government about how America has changed. But the poem also seems to be talking about how America was never free and no matter what a person looked for in this country they wouldn't be able to find it. I think what Langston is trying to say is "Let America be exactly what the constitution states" Everyone should be equal and have the freedom they want. Langston also mentions dreams and I think he wants us to know that people come here for the American dream but what they don't know is that dreams are crushed and ruined here. American isn't the same and he doesn't feel welcome in it anymore. Life isn't free in America, he describes everything he feels and sees regarding the people that live in american and have lived in America. This poem does a great job at explaining the life in America. Langston uses a lot of examples in which gave me the sense of how right he is. This poem is unique and I think it has a lot of meaning to Langston.

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

When I started reading this poem for the first time I thought of a hard working man and a family that isn't of high class because of the way the narrator states that the father is always working and that "Sundays too my father got up early" The mention of Sunday shows how much the father works. Sundays are supposed to be days of rest but we get to know that in this family that is not the case. Reading the poem for the second time I realized the narrator doesn't only want to show us his fathers hard work but also the appreciation he has for his father. He demonstrates the hardship of his father and wants us to know how important his father is. I think the poem gave us a glimpse into the authors life because of the emotions he used to describe certain things. He seemed to want to show us that it wasn't easy, quite difficult. Through the cold and the early mornings. The title of this poem gives us a clue as to what it will be about, overall I did enjoy reading this poem.

Since There's No Help by Michael Drayton

1) When reading this poem for the first time I saw how it was written in a beautiful way, I just thought it was was very passionate and held a sense of heartbreak. I got a little bit caught up in a certain lie, when it said "When we meet at any time again, Be it not seen in either of our brows." I honestly can't tell you why this caught my interest but he seemed so uncaring. I think its what a typical guy would say to his long time girlfriend. Kind of a slap in the face. What changed when I read it the second time would probably be the tone I read it in, the first time I thought of it as heartbreak and a man trying to comfort himself with how the break up should go but the second time I thought of it as a careless tone.

2) The questions that followed the poem weren't that difficult. I had to go back to the poem to refer to the lines and meanings but overall I seemed to understand this poem better than the other two poems we read. The questions made sense to me.

Spring and Fall

Annotating the poem Spring and Fall helped me understand the poem in different ways and made it easier when it was broken down. When the poem was broken down in sentences it made me stay focused on each phrase. I enjoyed reading the poem because it was short which helped with how I understood it. The fact that I had to annotate while reading through each line really was helpful. I liked the flow of the poem and the way it made me think.

#1 How To Analyze Literature

Three important things I've learned while reading this article:
        - Plot implies that there is conflict occurring.
        - The purpose of a foil character is to reveal by contrast the characteristics or traits of a main character.
        - Symbols do not mean, they suggest or remind or reflect.

Two questions I still have or want to learn:
        -I want to learn how to identify Point of View and understand it in a stronger way.
        -How do I enhance my ability to use Diction?

One thing I know well that I could teach others:
       - The structure of the story and how it contributes to the text.