The speaker of this poem starts out as a young child and then midway through the poem switches to that same child as an adult. Again there is no particular rhyme or rhythm to this poem, however the commas and periods add pauses in all the best places. I it is easy to hear this daughter almost talking to her father, with such a spiteful tone.
I believe with this poem the tone takes a major role is developing its meaning. In the beginning, the little girl starts out so hateful of her father. “”When mother divorced you, we were glad.” Just this first line of the poem says a lot about her attitude towards her father when she was young. It goes on to say that as their father lost everything they “grinned” inside. However I think when she grows up there is a slight tone change. I believe her talking about the bums when she gets older is a metaphor connecting the bums with her father. Her father lost everything after the divorce, his family his cloths his job, and she was happy as it happened. The whole poem talks slowly about how her father loses his family job and then possessions. She specifically focuses on him losing his suits. “would they take your suits back, too, those dark carcasses hung in your closet”. And when she sees the bums she mentions something about their suits as well. “suits of compressed silt”. She does not feel remorse for her father, however instead of being so hateful it is more pity and speculation. What drives a man to loose everything until he sits in a row of bums so pathetically?
The next literary device that is essential to this poem it’s diction. When the girl talks about the suits she describes them as “dark carcasses”. Having such a dark description for such a simple item helps develop the tone in her voice as a child. The hate that she felt for her father. The way she describes the bums is also interesting. She almost describes them as shark like with, “white slugs of their bodies gleaming,..stained flippers of their hands, underwater fire of their eyes.” Its such a dark and angry description of a person. White slugs gets across the picture of a lazy man who does not see much sun. I believe their hands are stained from the wrongs they have committed against their families. And the underwater fire in their eyes are the evil inside of them. And she sees all of this in her own father which makes it easier for her to understand them, just not how they got to the point they are at.
I particularly liked the reference to Nixon in this poem. “We grinned inside, the way people grinned when Nixon’s helicopter lifted off the South Lawn for the last time”. This is a metaphor relating the way Nixon was a let down to the nation just as her father was a let down to her family. As for the overall poem, I thought having the speaker start out as a child and end as and adult was very clever. I liked the question that it rises in the reader at the end of the poem. I also like this poem because I think every person that reads it can get a different interpretation of it from their own experiences.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
The lost Baby Poem
The speaker of this poem is a mother that has just had an abortion. In the begging she tells of what she has done, and in the next stanza she describes what “could” have come for his unborn baby. Like the last Clifton poem I had read there was no particular rhyme scheme. There was no particular rhythm to the poem either. It was simply a mother telling her story. This is important in making poem more personal, like the reader gets to witness a mother telling her unborn child why she had ended her life so early.
The syntax of this poem is very important to note. Like many of Clifton’s poems, there are no periods or commas, and none of the personal nouns are capitalized. The poem in my opinion could be interpreted many different ways, I believe it is about a mother that has gone through an abortion. I think the I’s are not capitalized for two reasons. One even though the poem is about the justification for the abortion, I can still feel a sense of remorse the mother is feeling. Like many women after they get an abortion, she may not feel like she is worth being capitalized. She also many have kept the I’s lowercase so that they were not so personal, to make the statement that there are many mothers of her time that must do this to supposedly save their children. Another part of the syntax that’s stands out in this poem is the large spaces that are in the second and third stanza’s. In line 7-8”In the year of the disconnected gas and no car We would have made the thin walk over Genesee Hill into Canada wind..”. These spaces are important because when I read the poem, I could hear the mother talking, and at these spaces is where she needed to take a short pause to collect herself.
Another important literary device in this poem is diction. “the time i dropped your almost body down” (line1) The important word in this line is almost. The first time I read this poem I thought the mother had had her child and then drowned her. However there are many small clues that suggest that she had an abortion and the reference to drowning is just a piece of her that was once a part of her is now lost, dead, drowned. Another hint is in line 7 “You would have been born into winter”. The key word being would. The last word that gets across that the mother got an abortion is in the last stanza. In line 16 she says” If I am ever less than a mountain for tour definite brothers and sisters” The word definite is important because it means that they were real, they had been born. Also, in the last two lines it says “Let black men call me stranger always for your never named sake.” From the references of the city and under the river and traveling to Canada, I got the feeling that this particular mother lived in some ghetto in New York. The entire poem is her trying to justify why she got an abortion. I think the black men are the black pastors of her local church, and since she got an abortion they are not going to acknowledge her existence.
This poem is more personal to me because I am strongly against abortion. She spent most of the poem trying to defend herself. Her reasons are worthless. There is no good reason to “drown” a child. Her reasons were all speculation, she had no idea what was to come she only assumed it was going to be a harsh winter. But it was because of her bad decision making that she was in that situation in the first place. I thought it was interesting that in the first stanza she relates the abortion to the low rivers of the sea, and she ends with references to a mountain. She hopes to be mountain for her children that she chose to have, but if she isn’t she thinks she might as well drown as well.
The syntax of this poem is very important to note. Like many of Clifton’s poems, there are no periods or commas, and none of the personal nouns are capitalized. The poem in my opinion could be interpreted many different ways, I believe it is about a mother that has gone through an abortion. I think the I’s are not capitalized for two reasons. One even though the poem is about the justification for the abortion, I can still feel a sense of remorse the mother is feeling. Like many women after they get an abortion, she may not feel like she is worth being capitalized. She also many have kept the I’s lowercase so that they were not so personal, to make the statement that there are many mothers of her time that must do this to supposedly save their children. Another part of the syntax that’s stands out in this poem is the large spaces that are in the second and third stanza’s. In line 7-8”In the year of the disconnected gas and no car We would have made the thin walk over Genesee Hill into Canada wind..”. These spaces are important because when I read the poem, I could hear the mother talking, and at these spaces is where she needed to take a short pause to collect herself.
Another important literary device in this poem is diction. “the time i dropped your almost body down” (line1) The important word in this line is almost. The first time I read this poem I thought the mother had had her child and then drowned her. However there are many small clues that suggest that she had an abortion and the reference to drowning is just a piece of her that was once a part of her is now lost, dead, drowned. Another hint is in line 7 “You would have been born into winter”. The key word being would. The last word that gets across that the mother got an abortion is in the last stanza. In line 16 she says” If I am ever less than a mountain for tour definite brothers and sisters” The word definite is important because it means that they were real, they had been born. Also, in the last two lines it says “Let black men call me stranger always for your never named sake.” From the references of the city and under the river and traveling to Canada, I got the feeling that this particular mother lived in some ghetto in New York. The entire poem is her trying to justify why she got an abortion. I think the black men are the black pastors of her local church, and since she got an abortion they are not going to acknowledge her existence.
This poem is more personal to me because I am strongly against abortion. She spent most of the poem trying to defend herself. Her reasons are worthless. There is no good reason to “drown” a child. Her reasons were all speculation, she had no idea what was to come she only assumed it was going to be a harsh winter. But it was because of her bad decision making that she was in that situation in the first place. I thought it was interesting that in the first stanza she relates the abortion to the low rivers of the sea, and she ends with references to a mountain. She hopes to be mountain for her children that she chose to have, but if she isn’t she thinks she might as well drown as well.
On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South high
The speaker of this poem is a teacher that is going to read poetry to a class of seniors. There is no rhyme of rhythm to this poem. What this poem uses to get across the message is syntax. The paragraphs are specifically broken up into sections that the authors wants analyzed. He did not use any punctuation, just simply paragraph spacing to make his point. The best example of this is line 22 “Where we all leaked out”. I believe this line is isolated to show emphasis on the fact that all it takes is a bell for everything that they had accomplished in the period to leak out. The line has more meaning by itself, which is why it is like that.
The first literary device i want to point out about this poem is the first simile in the poem. It is what opens up the poem, and takes them into the “fish world” “I noticed them sitting there as orderly as frozen fish in a package.” (lines 3-5) This is an interesting way to describe students in a classroom. This simile is important to the poem in making the transition from classroom to underwater world.
I believe the rest of the poem is just one long extended metaphor. Berry is relating the students he is reading his poetry to to fish. He says “I tried to drown them with my words that they had only opened up like gills for them and let me in” I believe this is a teacher that expected this period to be like any other period of his day. He was going to read the same poems to a new group of seniors and he expected that they were going to not be very interested in what he was going to read. However, as the poem takes off I believe he relates these children to fish because they seem to take some interest in what he is reading and telling them. “Together we swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words”. The ideas were going everywhere, the class is participating, and the teachers excitement level is at its peak at this point in the poem. This metaphor adds meaning to this poem because without it it would be hard to paint a picture of the teachers excitement as well as the students enthusiasm in only two 2 stanzas.
I liked this poem because it reminded me of a few classes that I have had this year. Those classes that are usually boring and we have to go through the same old criteria until the teacher hits something that a few students are interested in. All it takes in one opinion and the classroom takes off. I believe the poem is so fast moving and ends so quickly because that about how long those moments last. Sitting through a class period that everyone is interested in what is going on goes by so quickly. I especially liked the ending of the poem when he says “my cat licked my fins tell they were hands again”. It took him till he was home for his excitement level to go back down.
The first literary device i want to point out about this poem is the first simile in the poem. It is what opens up the poem, and takes them into the “fish world” “I noticed them sitting there as orderly as frozen fish in a package.” (lines 3-5) This is an interesting way to describe students in a classroom. This simile is important to the poem in making the transition from classroom to underwater world.
I believe the rest of the poem is just one long extended metaphor. Berry is relating the students he is reading his poetry to to fish. He says “I tried to drown them with my words that they had only opened up like gills for them and let me in” I believe this is a teacher that expected this period to be like any other period of his day. He was going to read the same poems to a new group of seniors and he expected that they were going to not be very interested in what he was going to read. However, as the poem takes off I believe he relates these children to fish because they seem to take some interest in what he is reading and telling them. “Together we swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words”. The ideas were going everywhere, the class is participating, and the teachers excitement level is at its peak at this point in the poem. This metaphor adds meaning to this poem because without it it would be hard to paint a picture of the teachers excitement as well as the students enthusiasm in only two 2 stanzas.
I liked this poem because it reminded me of a few classes that I have had this year. Those classes that are usually boring and we have to go through the same old criteria until the teacher hits something that a few students are interested in. All it takes in one opinion and the classroom takes off. I believe the poem is so fast moving and ends so quickly because that about how long those moments last. Sitting through a class period that everyone is interested in what is going on goes by so quickly. I especially liked the ending of the poem when he says “my cat licked my fins tell they were hands again”. It took him till he was home for his excitement level to go back down.
Good Times
This poem is written from the viewpoint of the eyes of a young uneducated child. Having the speaker of the poem be a child makes the poem more personal, making the reader be able to celebrate with her. The Childs language is crude, in sentences such as “the lights is back on”, and “they is good times.” The last two lines however seem to be spoken from the same child as an adult, telling her own children to think about “the good times” when the bad times come. There is no particular rhyme scheme, this poem did not need one. It created its own rhythm with the use of repetition.
The use of repetition is a key literary device in this poem. The word “is” is repeated several times throughout the poem. There is emphasis on this word not only because it is repeated several times but also because it is used grammatically the wrong way. Using the word “is” incorrectly throughout the poem could give the reader a sense of life for the child, and her education. It could also be repeated because the speaker wants to keep the “good times” in present tense. The word “and” is also repeated several times throughout the poem. In the first stanza, the word and is used for the girl to tell how everything on this day is finally turning around for the better in her life and for her family. They finally got some money to pay off the bills and it was time to celebrate. In the second stanza she lists everything they are going to do to celebrate.
The syntax of this poem is unique. There are no periods, commas or exclamation marks used even though this young girl is talking about a very exciting time in her life. What is great about the poem is that it needs no punctuation to get the same energized message across. “Oh these is good times good times good times.” (lines 12-15) The repetition and rhythm of the poem paint a clear picture of excitement all by themselves. Just glancing at the poem without reading it tells a lot about it. The lines are short and brief. I know when I get excited about something that’s really big in my own life I don’t have big long sentences to say. The way the poem is designed is much like a young child would say it.
I liked the two poems written by this author that the book provides. I looked up a little bit about the author and her poems made even more sense than they did before. She grew up in a ghetto town, and wrote her peoms about her life and family. I could picture a small child that is used to the lights being out and strange men coming over and upsetting her parents. But then all of a sudden they have power and the man is gone and her whole family is smiling and celebrating. This poem describes a specific time, but is one of many times im sure within her life. I could picture from the language that she probably lived in the south, and that the times were hard. Although the girl is very excited throughout the poem, when I read it I had mixed emotions. I was happy for her family and for their temporary financial stability, however, it makes me feel bad for all of the things I take for granted.
The use of repetition is a key literary device in this poem. The word “is” is repeated several times throughout the poem. There is emphasis on this word not only because it is repeated several times but also because it is used grammatically the wrong way. Using the word “is” incorrectly throughout the poem could give the reader a sense of life for the child, and her education. It could also be repeated because the speaker wants to keep the “good times” in present tense. The word “and” is also repeated several times throughout the poem. In the first stanza, the word and is used for the girl to tell how everything on this day is finally turning around for the better in her life and for her family. They finally got some money to pay off the bills and it was time to celebrate. In the second stanza she lists everything they are going to do to celebrate.
The syntax of this poem is unique. There are no periods, commas or exclamation marks used even though this young girl is talking about a very exciting time in her life. What is great about the poem is that it needs no punctuation to get the same energized message across. “Oh these is good times good times good times.” (lines 12-15) The repetition and rhythm of the poem paint a clear picture of excitement all by themselves. Just glancing at the poem without reading it tells a lot about it. The lines are short and brief. I know when I get excited about something that’s really big in my own life I don’t have big long sentences to say. The way the poem is designed is much like a young child would say it.
I liked the two poems written by this author that the book provides. I looked up a little bit about the author and her poems made even more sense than they did before. She grew up in a ghetto town, and wrote her peoms about her life and family. I could picture a small child that is used to the lights being out and strange men coming over and upsetting her parents. But then all of a sudden they have power and the man is gone and her whole family is smiling and celebrating. This poem describes a specific time, but is one of many times im sure within her life. I could picture from the language that she probably lived in the south, and that the times were hard. Although the girl is very excited throughout the poem, when I read it I had mixed emotions. I was happy for her family and for their temporary financial stability, however, it makes me feel bad for all of the things I take for granted.
Birds
One of the smaller symbols in this book was in the last section when Stephan touches on how he was watching birds in flight. He brings up so many observations about the birds that parallel with his own life. The birds make him think of his last name and the story behind it when he says “ A sense of fear of the unknown moved in the heart of his weariness, a fear of symbols and portents, of the hawk like man whose name he bore..” (244). At this point in the novel Stephen is struggling to figure out just how to make him self an individual. Later on in the book he talks to his friend about leaving the University and his friends and family behind. This is the “sense of fear and unknown”. The birds make him contemplate whether his actions of isolating himself from his family and friends will have positive or negative results. “But was it for his folly that he was about to leave forever the house of prayer..to which he had been born and the order of life out of which he had come?”.
He knows what he wants to do just as Dedelius knew what he wanted to do, but when he goes about doing it he gets scared of the unknown. Although the birds make him think of the fears in what he is doing, they can also symbolize his freedom. His freedom from the church and from his parents judgments, “souring out of captivity”. He says that as he looks at these birds, his mothers face appears. This is because she is one of the many people that he feels is holding him back from being a true artist.
“ It humiliated him and shamed him to think that he would never be freed from it wholly, however holily he might live or whatever virtues or perfections he might attain..a feeling of restless guilt would always be present within him..I have amended my life, have I not?”
This quote was one of my favorites because when I was reading about all of these horrible things that he was making himself do I could not stop thinking how ridicules he was being. And when he finally questioned what he was doing I couldn’t help but let out a YES FINALLY!, to myself. The organization of this entire section is important. IT starts off with him listing everything that he does to keep himself a holy person. “Each of his senses was brought under a rigorous discipline”. As the section goes on, his paragraphs get longer and longer, and suddenly he goes informing the reader of what he is doing, to letting the reader know how it affects him emotionally. This part is important because it is one of the first times that Stephen takes notice that his life really isn’t all that much better off than it had been. I also think that the extreme exaggeration of his actions in becoming a better person is necessary for his rebirth later on in the book.
This quote and section of the book is also important because this experience gives him a taste of what priest hood would be like. Although Stephen does not come out and say that he does not like this way of life, the language suggests that he is not enjoying it. Although he has gone through all of this self-discipline, he still recognizes that he is still temped by sin as in the quote above. The play on words using “wholly” and “holily” is significant in tying the thoughts that he will never get rid of all his sins, even when he puts his trust in the holy spirit.
A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was not one of my favorite books we have read this year. There were parts about the book that were interesting but many parts of the book that I did not understand fully why they were even there for in the first place. The stream of consciousness writing was at times hard to follow with him jumping around so much. The book also got difficult to understand because there were no quotations or any form of punctuation when people were talking, and although that is an important part of this books syntax, it nevertheless made it hard to distinguish between the characters talking. There were some things that I did like about the book. I did enjoy the beginning of the book when he was a child telling the story, and I can appreciate how hard that must have been for Joyce to try and remember the thoughts that were going through his read as young as he went back to. I also liked to see how Stephen gradually realized that the church should not make him feel so guilty about just living his own life because I found a subject like that easy to relate to. All in all, it was interesting to read about Stephens self journey, but was not one of my favorite books purely because I could not get a grasp some of the important sections of the book.
One of the smaller symbols in this book was in the last section when Stephan touches on how he was watching birds in flight. He brings up so many observations about the birds that parallel with his own life. The birds make him think of his last name and the story behind it when he says “ A sense of fear of the unknown moved in the heart of his weariness, a fear of symbols and portents, of the hawk like man whose name he bore..” (244). At this point in the novel Stephen is struggling to figure out just how to make him self an individual. Later on in the book he talks to his friend about leaving the University and his friends and family behind. This is the “sense of fear and unknown”. The birds make him contemplate whether his actions of isolating himself from his family and friends will have positive or negative results. “But was it for his folly that he was about to leave forever the house of prayer..to which he had been born and the order of life out of which he had come?”.
He knows what he wants to do just as Dedelius knew what he wanted to do, but when he goes about doing it he gets scared of the unknown. Although the birds make him think of the fears in what he is doing, they can also symbolize his freedom. His freedom from the church and from his parents judgments, “souring out of captivity”. He says that as he looks at these birds, his mothers face appears. This is because she is one of the many people that he feels is holding him back from being a true artist.
“ It humiliated him and shamed him to think that he would never be freed from it wholly, however holily he might live or whatever virtues or perfections he might attain..a feeling of restless guilt would always be present within him..I have amended my life, have I not?”
This quote was one of my favorites because when I was reading about all of these horrible things that he was making himself do I could not stop thinking how ridicules he was being. And when he finally questioned what he was doing I couldn’t help but let out a YES FINALLY!, to myself. The organization of this entire section is important. IT starts off with him listing everything that he does to keep himself a holy person. “Each of his senses was brought under a rigorous discipline”. As the section goes on, his paragraphs get longer and longer, and suddenly he goes informing the reader of what he is doing, to letting the reader know how it affects him emotionally. This part is important because it is one of the first times that Stephen takes notice that his life really isn’t all that much better off than it had been. I also think that the extreme exaggeration of his actions in becoming a better person is necessary for his rebirth later on in the book.
This quote and section of the book is also important because this experience gives him a taste of what priest hood would be like. Although Stephen does not come out and say that he does not like this way of life, the language suggests that he is not enjoying it. Although he has gone through all of this self-discipline, he still recognizes that he is still temped by sin as in the quote above. The play on words using “wholly” and “holily” is significant in tying the thoughts that he will never get rid of all his sins, even when he puts his trust in the holy spirit.
A portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was not one of my favorite books we have read this year. There were parts about the book that were interesting but many parts of the book that I did not understand fully why they were even there for in the first place. The stream of consciousness writing was at times hard to follow with him jumping around so much. The book also got difficult to understand because there were no quotations or any form of punctuation when people were talking, and although that is an important part of this books syntax, it nevertheless made it hard to distinguish between the characters talking. There were some things that I did like about the book. I did enjoy the beginning of the book when he was a child telling the story, and I can appreciate how hard that must have been for Joyce to try and remember the thoughts that were going through his read as young as he went back to. I also liked to see how Stephen gradually realized that the church should not make him feel so guilty about just living his own life because I found a subject like that easy to relate to. All in all, it was interesting to read about Stephens self journey, but was not one of my favorite books purely because I could not get a grasp some of the important sections of the book.
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