"Keep your dreams alive..."

In Langston Hughes' poem "A Dream Deferred," the speaker uses one main figurative language type. Lines two through nine are written as five different similes. He compares "a dream deferred" to a raisin, a sore, meat, a sweet, and a load. Each of these provide a clear visual to the reader, allowing them to imagine an unreached dream being equal to these five things. Hughes furthers this visualization when he adds unfavorable words like "dry," "fester," "stink," "rotten," "crust," "sags," and "heavy." Each simile is therefore a negative one; this verifies in the reader's mind that a dream pushed aside can only cause horrible things. After using similes for the entire poem, Hughes sets aside the very last line and applies a metaphor. He asks, "or does it explode?" He draws special attention to this point by using these two techniques. It is with this metaphor that the most important comparison (in Hughes mind) is made. By using similes all the way up to the metaphor, Hughes allows the reader to become comfortable in their comparison and visualization abilities that are vital for this last line.

Spring is to Bliss as God is to Heaven

I am really glad we are allowed to write two opinionated blogs over the eight poems because I don't think my reaction to just one poem is enough. The final poem of this set that I am going to blog about is "Spring" by Hopkins. As the first poem we read, I had high expectations for it, and I am happy to say I liked this poem. I really enjoyed a light, airy poem contrasted with the many poems we read after this one on depressing subject matters. The first line "nothing is so beautiful as spring" sets the tone for the rest of the work. Reading this poem made me feel better; it also caused me to focus on God. Almost immediately I realized that the poem was praising God for all his wondrous works and asking him to return to the innocence of the Garden of Eden. I would say I am an upbeat, outgoing individual; the poem reflects the tone of such a personality too. On a smaller scale, I also enjoyed reading this poem because it rhymes. Personally, I enjoy poetry more when it rhymes because it seems more poem-ish to me.

Imagine, Visualize, See

One of the poems I found really interesting was "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden. I became intrigued by the poet's poignancy over his childhood, specifically his relationship with his father. I was enchanted by this novel because of the powerful imagery Hayden creates in each line of his entire poem. At first, the harsh lines lead me to assume Hayden was writing his experiences of abuse using metaphors. Phrases such as "chronic angers" definitely grayed the subject matter for me. Yet, as we talked it over in class and attempted to clear everything up, I decided that the poem was one of a regretful son. Hayden allows his audience to SEE everything his father did by using great control of language. For instance, "blueblack cold" allowed me to imagine a color associated with the extreme cold; "cracked hands that ached" granted me the ability to visualize hands that were chapped and ruined; "banked fires blaze" made me think of fires warming every inch of an individual.  This entire poem actually reminded me of The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. In one of her novel titled The Long Winter, there is a scene depicted much as this one was by Hayden, where Wilder describes the extreme chill of her home on winter mornings. Remembering the book's scene definitely lent to my visualization of the poem's scene too. Because of the great attention to detail Hayden uses in lines, I was able to put myself into this scene, just as I had in Wilder's book. I could easily imagine and identify the senses Hayden went through as a boy.

Trust Me, I'm Feeling a Funeral in MY Brain Too!

Time for a blog on my personal opinions! Okay, so a poem I really, really did not enjoy in the slightest was the poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" by Emily Dickinson. There are a myriad of reasons why I do not enjoy this poem, but unfortunately, I don't have the space or patience to list and describe them all. The first thing I noticed right off the bat was that the poem was written in a childlike manner; for some reason, I cannot get past this. Dickinson may be a respected writer, but I just cannot understand why she writes as if she were eight. I counted; she uses the word "and" to start TEN lines. In addition to her childish writing technique, it bothered me how she ended the poem...but stuck the word "-then-" on after. Another annoyance was her clipped phrasing. She used hardly any description, but an incredibly intense extended metaphor of the body throughout the poem.  Honestly, I think this poem just did not click with me. It bothered me that it took me a way too many tries to get the gist of the poem because it was well, too simple. 

The 'Ship of Dreams'

In the poem "Convergence of the Twain" by Thomas Hardy, the entire poem is clearly an allusion to the Titanic and its horrible fate. Even without the phrase in parentheses stating "lines on the loss' of the Titanic," the poem is obviously about a shipwreck. The supporting details that perfectly line up with the facts of the Titanic wreck only aid in clearing up the little confusion the reader may have.  The reader's first thought in reading this poem is the disaster that was the Titanic, for it is undoubtedly the most famous ship to hit an iceberg. Each stanza is a clear allusion to a certain aspect of the actual ship or the iceberg. For instance, stanza nine combines both the Titanic and the iceberg. By this point of the poem, the reader is positive that the author is alluding to the Titanic, and by the last line of the poem, he or she can no longer have any doubt. The details and imagery that Hardy lends to his work only add to the fact that this poem is a well-developed allusion.

London's Misery & Despair

In the poem "London" by William Blake, the tone can be described as bleak, dismal, gloomy, and sinister. He achieves a ominous ambiance with the usage of words and phrases that exemplify this adjective. He uses words such as "cry of fear," "hapless," "appalls," "blood down Palace walls," "plagues," "Hearse," "curse," and "tear." Each word or phrase that is mentioned has a negative definition or connotation to go with it. Furthering this negativity throughout the poem, Blake intensifies the despair felt by Londoners. For example, in line four, Blake writes, "marks of weakness, marks of woe." In lines such as this throughout the poem, Blake makes clear to the reader the horrors of the political unrest currently occurring in London. An additional detail that adds to the tone is the mention of the time. The line "but most through the midnight streets I hear" allows him to accentuate the darkness of the poem. The tone of "London" is made crystal clear by Blake in a variety of ways.

Time for Ryhme Comprehension

Making sense of poetry has forever been difficult for me; I have always found it easier to be on the other side of poetry, penning my thoughts onto paper. It was tough for me to decipher what the poems meant when we were handed them in class. And then, when I read Perrine's musings on the matter, it did not add to my confidence in interpreting poetry. I was totally wrong on several lines, not to mention entire poems! But then I began to think about Perrine's essay. In the first few reads, I found that he seemed to be quite contradictory, almost as if he can't make up his mind. He says, "there are no correct or incorrect meanings; there are only readings which differ more or less widely from a statistical norm." It took me until my third reading of the essay to understand this line, but I still think it to be a bit hypocritical in my mind. There are a variety of spots in the article in which I believe Perrine to not be able to decide for himself what the rules are in regards to interpreting poetry.
In addition to Perrine's varied statements, I did learn a few things about interpreting poetry. In his second paragraph, I was forced to consider that a poet might believe "'the meaning may be different for everyone.'" I found this concept to be rather intriguing; I like that poets want their work to be versatile. Also, before reading this article, I had not ever thought about the fact that the entire poem (as in every word) must stand for something. I had always believed that poems were symbolizing the gist of an idea. I now feel pretty unintelligent to not have recognized this at a previous time in my life, but I suppose 'you learn something new every day.' A final thought about Perrine's essay is that I did like reading the universal accepted interpretations of each poem we read in class. I found it to be interesting to see what I had and had not understood. I am hoping that I will improve my skills of interpreting poetry by using techniques from this paper as this year continues.