"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

One of the forms used in "Delight In Disorder" is inversion. In different lines, the author applies the use of sentence inversion. Examples of these inverted lines are "a lawn about the shoulders thrown" and "A cuff neglectful." This technique adds to the meaning of the poem since it is about disorder; it literally causes disorder for the reader. The poem's focus is on imperfection which is the point of the poem- imperfection and disorder is more attractive than perfection. The poem format reflects its content; Herrick wrote the poem with the careful intention of  deliberately crafting his words to reflect the point he was intending to make in his poem.  Other ways Herrick added to the disorder were with an end rhyme pattern that was inconsistent and the syllables in each line changes mid-way through the poem, which throws the rhythm off.

Mourning Before Death?

I found the poem "Elegy for my Father, Who is Not Dead" to be touching and slightly grotesque. I think everyone can understand the pain the narrator is going through because of the fear he has in regards to finding out his father is dead. This subject is very identifiable because I think that all people do have the fear of picking up the phone and hearing that a loved one has died. I also could understand that his father was ready for death, but the narrator is not. Older people are ready to pass on to the next world because of their deeply rooted faith and peace with themselves. Their successors, however, cannot accept the passing of someone they love so much and greatly look up to. I know I can personally identify with this poem because of my granddad's passing this summer; my entire family knew he was more than ready, but we still had a very difficult time accepting it. The speaker is simply looking into the future and openly discussing his or her fears.

A Plea From A Son to His Father

The central theme in the poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night" written by Daniel Thomas, is addressing dying men not to not give into death easily; they must fight death. The poem gives examples of four different types of men acting in "rage against the dying light." The men are "grave," "wild," "wise," and "good," and all of them refuse to give into death for different reasons. These stanzas are the speaker's attempts at convincing his father to not "go gentle into that good night." The speaker believes that even when men are old and weak, they should act as if they are energetic and excited about life. He feels very intensely about his father's impending death; his prayer is surrounded by the paradox of curses and blessings. This poem is a plea from a son whose only wish is that his father fight death.

A Member of the "Lonely Hearts" Club

Cope's poem "Lonely Hearts" was one that I really liked; the subject is depressing, but to me the poem was written in a cutesy way. I really thought it was unique how the poem reflected the style of the classifieds. The speaker reveals a lot about herself in this short poem. She lives in North London (shown by the three repititions of the phrase), she is "successful, straight, solvent," and she thinks she has a "simple wish." I felt like I was peeking into a lonely woman's life; a woman who has the unfortunate  problem of not finding love; all she wants is a man to understand her. I think the poem cleverly makes the point of bad luck in love and how sometimes desperation causes people to do crazy things to find it. Personally, I also enjoyed how this poem was in modern language that was easy to read. Also, I liked the rhetorical questions posed at the end of the stanzas because they caused me to think.