"Sindhi Woman" by Jon Stallworthy

I enjoy this poem mostly for its message and description.

The description of the first sestet is fluid and flowing. Words such as "undulant," "glides," and "ripple" provide this effect, which brings to mind either the desert wind or an oasis (at least it does for me due to the Middle-Eastern, or possibly Indian, setting). These comparisons are interesting, and each lends a different atmosphere to the poem. Not necessarily a change in mood, but a shift in the "color" of the poem, I guess. That's the best phrasing I have for it. I also thoroughly appreciated the ABBACC rhyme scheme of both sestets: it's an unusual style of rhyme that provides relaxation in the first part of the stanza that pushes forward with rhythmic intensity in the second.

The poem's message is uplifting and at the same time saddening—that the people who hold the most strength are those who have fought against adversity. Struggle has a strong impact on a person's resolve of character, and the speaker, having lived his life of privilege, observes this. (With a name like Stallworthy, I'm inferring the author has not lived in the unindustrialized squalor described and that the speaker is an outsider looking in.)

I was feeling very depressed tonight, and this poem seems to have put my head back on straight. I'm glad I read this.

"The Golf Links" by Sarah N. Cleghorn

The power of this poem comes from the irony of its subject matter along with its resemblance to nursery rhymes.

According to the years Sarah N. Cleghorn lived, this poem almost assuredly centers on the child labor that resulted from the American Industrial Revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the poem still has meaning today, for corporate heads still live lives of leisure while exploiting poor children in less developed countries, mainly in sweatshops. The irony of this concept is blatant and rather infuriating: it is an almost demanded quality of the middle and lower classes to be offended and angered by the often exploitative and corrupt actions of the upper class. Also, you'd be hard pressed to find any person that admits (or at least openly admits) to condoning child slavery or labor. However, the irony doesn't stem from these infuriating aspects of the poem; it exists within the reversal of the traditional societal roles of children and adults. That men should play while children labor is a foreign concept, which causes readers to pause and examine how they really feel about the treatment of children in certain areas and whether their own actions benefit or hurt these unfortunate souls.

As for the power of a somewhat nursery-rhyme format (a quatrain with ABCB rhyme scheme), it has a similar effect to how "For a Lady I Know" by Countee Cullen uses the format (which I discussed in an earlier blog). The lighthearted nature of this poem style illustrates the resignation children in the described situation feel; it exemplifies their acceptance of their role and depression at the fact that many have come before them and many will after as the trend of child labor has become a fact of their lives and society.

"Writing" by Jan Dean

This poem is striking in both its style and content and is one of my most favorite selections from these poetry packets.

The poem's style is quite unique, distinctly in two certain facets. First, the poem doesn't read like a poem. Yes, the text possesses a certain flow and several poetic refrains of key words and phrases in the first stanza, but without rhyme scheme, meter, structure, or explicit lyricality, the poem reads as a story in the first stanza and a conversation in the second. (Note: "lyricality" should be a word.) This decision of Dean's makes the horrifying tale described by the young child far more real to the reader; the words frighten and move the reader on a personal level. This in turn makes the anger experienced by readers during the second stanza surprisingly intense because we sympathize with and want to comfort the child of the first stanza, which the teacher fails to do whatsoever.

The second unique aspect of Jan Dean's style is that "Writing" is one of, if not the, most understated and realistic poem I have read. The situation described is not fantastical or poetical but grounded in reality, and the poem needs no complex diction or syntax to leave impact on the reader, in fact using confusing and purposefully incorrect diction. Dean places endless trust in the power of his content to shape the reader's reaction to it. He doesn't strive to achieve impact but rather lets it occur.

"For a Lady I Know" by Countee Cullen

After my first couple readings of this poem, I was almost positive that its themes ran along racial lines, but I wasn't convinced. To decide, I researched the author on Wikipedia, discovering that he was black and a proponent of the Harlem Renaissance. That gave me suitable justification for my earlier assumptions.

The structure of this poem consists of a quatrain utilizing an ABAB rhyme scheme. What's effective about this format is that it possesses a childish quality, reminiscent of nursery rhymes, which is disturbing when the content of the poem is considered. It proposes that racism has became a natural truth of life that even children learn and that no one any longer recognizes its horrors, lulled into acceptance by racism's prevalence and ubiquity.

The actual meaning of this poem, to me, is interpretable in two distinct ways. The first considers the "she" referred to in the poem as a white woman. In this case, the poem states that white society believes even in heaven it lives a life of luxury while blacks perform their same menial duties. This interpretation adds a bit of dry humor to the poem: not only do whites think that something as unjust as racism will persist in heaven but that they will be rewarded for their prejudicial actions on earth. Now, the second interpretation has the "she" of the poem being a black woman. The poem's meaning and mood now shift to ones of despair and hopelessness. The optimistic blacks believe that even though racism pervades their earthly lives, they will receive their vindication in heaven. However, the older and wiser blacks know that in reality their people will remain the servant class even in death. The second interpretation affects me more than the first because of its resounding bleakness.

"Turning Pro" by Ishmael Reed

I really enjoyed this poem because it doesn't read like a poem. It reads like a well written speech—the kind that starts a "slow clap" in inspirational movies. The seemingly random enjambment of the lines and lack of rhyme scheme or defined meter make the poem read as if the author is imagining "that speech" he will make.

The simple language and use of jargon solidifies the feeling that the author is an old veteran of the baseball game that's telling the reader this tale. You sympathize with him because he's not embellishing his diction or syntax and doesn't use clever turns of phrase; Reed's words hold a resounding rawness to them because of this.

And Reed's character is so endearing! He embodies attitudes that we've all felt at one time or another. That we've become obsolete; that our time has passed; that maybe we never had any talent to begin with. Through this, we more than sympathize with Reed's character; we empathize with him. Personal, human connection is a powerful thing, and it allows us to feel such joy for the narrator when his moment of glory arrives.

"The Hat Lady" by Linda Pastan

This poem was interesting in that the mood was so lighthearted through the first three octaves but then became so unsettlingly bleak in the last. The emotions in this poem come from the wealth of unique description and continuous motif of hats.

To understand some of the references in the text, I researched what some of the hats mentioned looked like. After seeing the general style amongst them, the first three stanzas provided me a very mid- to early-20th century vibe—relaxed and classy. However, the allusion of the Hat Lady to Saint Sebastian was a little eerie and perhaps should have prepared me more for the shift in tone in the last stanza.

The last octave surprised me with how abrupt it changes the direction of the poem. The author appears to describe her mother leaving for the hospital and later the cemetery ("where my father and grandfather waited, head to bare head") after experiencing what I believe to be chemotherapy. Since Pastan was born in 1932, chemo seems a possible explanation. Earlier in the poem, the Hat Lady simply represents that—a woman who sells hats. However, in the last stanza, I believe the Hat Lady becomes a nurse because she wears "a bracelet of needles." Also, nurses wore those little white hats in the early 1900s.

I don't know exactly what the significance of hats are as a symbol, but the author obviously holds some deep connection to them.

"Goodbye to the Little Things" (Own Poem)

I'll miss the "big tree,"
gnarled and massive,
three stems extending upward
in an impregnable triangle.

I'll miss how it wasn't scary
or frightening,
with branches untouchable
except perhaps by the feathery
grasp of clouds.

I'll miss the cloven stump
that shattered the unbreakable triangle,
that still to me displays a drawn-on Pokéball,
not a peace sign.

***

I'll remember the glistening expanse
of the lake down the road
and how it left
as my family packed tight
the wood-paneled green van,
drew down the tacky blinds
over the windows,
and accelerated.

I'll remember its silent reassurance,
the calming gray of the white-capped waves
on ominous days,
that sprayed up in spouts
finer than on any blue,
placid afternoon.

***

I'll remember it left me for a time.

***

I'll recall the dusty, rolling fields
that replaced it,
accompanied by a soundtrack
of whirring bicycle tires
moving never quite fast
so as to merely drone over
the exhausting resonance of silence.

***

I'll recall,
I'll remember,
I'll miss,
the small town with so many faces.

So many different faces.

"Of Mere Being" by Wallace Stevens

I'm continually surprised by how true your statement about these weekly blogs has been, Mrs. White. If I don't understand a poem at first and start over-analyzing it, I come back to it in a successive week, and suddenly it reveals some certain meaning to me.

This poem was definitely one of those. I read it last week but didn't see any symbolism within, so I put it off for a week. I am so glad I did.

The basic stanza organization in this poem is four unrhyming tercets with no constant meter. Each tercet reveals a unique aspect to the poem, illustrating a different facet of Stevens' theme.

The first tercet describes a palm tree while the second, a "gold-feathered" and fiery bird. Originally, I had trouble deciphering these symbols until I thought, "What is my first connection when I think of each of these objects?" Then I understood. I think of tropical islands, paradise, when I think of palms, and the bird instantly brought to mind a phoenix, a symbol for rebirth. Therefore, the two first stanzas act to set up a physical representation of heaven, paradise at "the end of the mind, beyond the last thought," and the afterlife, the bird in the tree.

The third stanza then defines the poem's theme. Stevens suggests that the quest for heaven and the afterlife is not really a deciding factor in the happiness of our lives. The concepts are foreign to us, "without human feeling," and as such are incapable of being understood, "without human meaning." I don't think Stevens means this as much a knock on religion as an instruction for people to appreciate the life they have on earth.

Any meaning derived from the fourth stanza, I believe, is personal interpretation. I see the tercet as placing the palm and bird in an idyllic pose, that they are waiting for their time to be experienced.

"Praise in Summer" by Richard Wilbur

I know I've read this some time before; I can't place when, though.

I love this poem. What more can I say? To analyze it takes away from its simple beauty.

The soaring ground beneath our feet. The beauty in the everyday. That stagnates in the view of some. But truly remains ever as beautiful.

Is life not capable of awing us? Must we contrive meaning, purpose to content ourselves?

Can't I watch the sun rise


and have that be enough?

"Heritage" by James Still

The description in the first stanza of the poem is rather unorthodox. Still describes the land in a distinctly action-oriented style, using verbs such as "drown" and "burns" to add a sense of life to the land. I find this interesting because from its description, the land does not seem enticing or enjoyable at all. Without the sense of life in his phrases, it would seem dead and desolate. With it, the land seems more sad, lonely, and forgotten. That living character allows me to connect with the land the way the author obviously does.

The second stanza further works to elaborate on the life of this homeland by shifting focus to its inhabitants. The animals and people occupy this land with perhaps less drear and sadness than the land itself until the line "And one with death rising to bloom again, I cannot go." At this point, the author's somewhat melancholy theme solidifies itself—people hold a deep connection, an attachment, to their homelands that never leaves their spirits. The line concerning death means, to me, that even as the animals and people the author has known die and disappear from his homeland, that it is still his home. It is a vital part of his being and can never leave him.

"The Day Millicent Found the World" by William Stafford

The mood of this poem evokes in me a strong attachment to the lines. The words are soft and tranquil—"leisurely," "embrace," "tapering faintly"—and develop an enveloping air of peace and contentedness. The journey of the poem is not frightening or exciting, but calming. I experience life in this way (rather, I've chosen to), where life is a slowly unfolding revelation of beauty. The poem reaches that part of me.

The poem's message is a clear suggestion to the reader to experience the untested tides of their lives instead of remaining in the shallows. The poem states that these journeys profoundly affect our persons, providing wellsprings of new experiences. The excursion need not be permanent either, which Stafford demonstrates by the guiding call of Aunt Dolbee in the final stanza.

This is a poem that exists in the beauty of its reading, developing a mood to be absorbed as well as a snippet of life advice.

"The Cat" by Miroslav Holub

"The Cat" is one of those rare poems that reveals itself differently to everyone. All poems do this to some extent, but here it is so prevalent as to alter the meaning and remembrance of the poem. As I perceive it, "The Cat" expresses the desire to hold onto the present, to not allow it to pass into memory.

The first cinquain describes the subconscious and the memories of the mind. The world is dark, the substance of this blackness filtered from the city, which represents the experiences of the present. The second cinquain along with the next quatrain stanza express the desire of people to hold onto the present. These experiences will be "trapped" and "bewitched" within the night of memory if they leave. They will become "nothing."

The next couplet and following sestet then demonstrate the necessary fleeing of experience into the past and into memory. The repetition of "a black cat" in "the black night" vanishing reveals the nature of memories, that they all form the dark veil of past experience and new ones simply merge into the fabric.

The final sestet shifts the poem from a solemn mood to a bittersweet one: it illuminates the idea that memories never wholly disappear. Though not as whole or full or rich as on the day they were experienced, memories remain nestled within the deep depths of our minds.

"It Was a Dream" by Lucille Clifton

For me, the description in this poem, though plentiful, does not perform the true emotional work of the piece. It acts mostly to provide a setting and character through which the powerful dialogue can affect the reader.

The poem's initial line confused me slightly until I realized that the title was meant to precede it. I loved this because I was forced to reread the title and appreciate its importance within the poem; the setting and the spirit within it are both a dream. So often I read a poem's title, and then it slips away as I turn to the poem itself. That didn't happen here, and in fact, it provided the last line with a stunning personal profundity. "Oh what could I have done?" "This. This. This." In my mind, the apparition beckons to herself, in that she is a dream. She tells the author that she could have dreamed, dared to dream, to live the life she once envisioned for herself. This notion captures me and inclines me to consider my own regrets and lost dreams.

"Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe

“Alone” contains themes of isolation and sadness and confusion; it touched me as I suppose it does most people. At some point, nearly everyone feels alone, unlike anyone else. Poe’s eloquent expression of this taps that core of emotional dissociation we sometimes feel with the people that surround us.

The entirety of the poem has a dual-line rhyme scheme, but the first half of the poem utilizes this uniquely. Poe maintains rhyme, but each line does not articulate a complete thought. Lines hang over to start the next; dashes intersperse themselves, causing the reader to pause. Poe illustrates his feeling of alienation by his use of lines that are beautifully written and paced, but done so in an unorthodox and arresting fashion.

The second half of the poem then suddenly shifts to the classical style of rhyme, with each line a coherent purpose. This shift caused me to see the world, as Poe describes it, as ordered and uniform, yet still no less beautiful. Poe’s style of describing the world juxtaposes his description of his own experiences. His feelings of solidarity naturally seeped into me as I read.

As a last note, I can't seem to interpret the “demon” Poe describes. Perhaps I'm not meant to. The “demon” seems to represent the force that separates Poe from the rest of the world. He does not understand it any better than the reader can.

Untitled poem by Stephen Crane

The imagery of this poem is staggering. Crane's description is reserved and succinct but allows endless personal interpretation into the appearance and demeanor of his "creature." The creature is never mentioned to be humanoid or even ugly, but in my mind, these images first arose. In one word, "desert," Crane achieves a profound level of imagery: I envision a blazing red expanse, dulled with orange, where the hard, packed earth does not burn or chill. The landscape vaguely reminds me of the one portrayed in Salvidor Dali's painting The Persistence of Memory. I've read the poem many times now and remain baffled as to how Crane can provide such clear images with such simple words.

Thematically, this poem presents a far vaster challenge of understanding. The essence of meaning is veiled by Crane's sparse language, which inversely succeeds in creating the depth of imagery and personal attachment I described previously. In fact, an identical process occurs here, but time for reflection and analysis are necessary.

I believe the theme to be that people who seem consistently joyless and sullen may not find such misery in their conditions as others might suppose: these emotions are who they are. The creature says his heart is "bitter—bitter," but he professes that he enjoys eating it because of its bitterness, "because it is my heart." Crane implies that humans appreciate themselves for how they have defined themselves in their own minds, regardless of the beauty of these definitions.