Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Because I could not stop for Death,He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

By Emily Dickinson



   Obviously this is a poem about death. Dickinson portrays death as a companion in the carriage as she passes previous places from her past such as the school. I didn't quite understand the meaning of the poem except for the fact that while she travels, it seems to me that her final destination is inevitably towards her grave. What I enjoyed about this poem was the aspect of being near immortality. Death takes life but at the same time he is immortal and has no idea how long it has been or rather he doesn't even care. I enjoyed the casual feeling of the poem even though it revolves around the fearful idea of being with death. I also felt as though the poem centers around the theme of the journey towards death. When we die it's said that your life flashes before your eyes and the school is the narrators life flashing by her. Usually we would see this as a shocking and somewhat terrifying moment but in this case it is a leisurely stroll.

Eldorado

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old--
This knight so bold--
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow-
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be--
This land of Eldorado?"

"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied--
"If you seek for Eldorado!"

By Edgar Allen Poe

   Edgar Allen Poe is known for all of his dark work and when I read this poem I was somewhat surprised that unlike his other poems, he wasn't outright with his somber details. In Eldorado he "covered" the dark details with an adventure where a man seeks fame and fortune in a mythical place. The poem becomes even lighter in the sense that it can be seen as a cheery song. Poe usually has some sort of rhyming pattern in his poems and I enjoy that however what made this poem more appealing then the others was that it told a tale that anyone could relate to. Eldorado brings out the adventurous and mythical side in all of us. I enjoyed this poem because although Gaily Bedight meets his fate in the end, the poem is still upbeat and happy.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

By Robert Frost

    When I analyzed this poem I started off by looking at it's form. Oddly enough it puts a small twist to the idea of a sonnet. Instead of a four by four, meaning four stanzas and four lines in each stanza, it consists of four stanzas with five lines in each. The sonnet is most noticeably attributed to Shakespearian poetry and with Shakespeare we usually attach iambic pentameter however Frost uses another twist to this. Instead of iambic pentameter he seems to use iambic tetrameter. Another interesting aspect that caught my eye was how Frost used and unusual rhyming pattern of ABAAB. The reason why I found it important to state those poetic styles is because the poem is overall about taking the path less traveled. Not only does Frost talk about that theme in his poem, it is also present in his writing style. Instead of looking for a deeper meaning within the diction, we can look for it in his actual structure style which made me personally enjoy the spin he puts on his poetry. I knew this was a famous poem before I chose it which is why I was initially interested however after reading it the first time I didn't quite understand what it was saying. Yes of course it's about a man looking at two different paths to take and sure it can be related to the everyday choices we make but the idea that the structure was also connected made this all the more worth while for me to read. I didn't need to completely understand it to get where he was going. In the end though, it was the search for the quirky structures that made it the most interesting. I love Robert Frost poems by the way...

Vintage

I will mix me a drink of stars, --
Large stars with polychrome needles,
Small stars jetting maroon and crimson,
Cool, quiet, green stars.
I will tear them out of the sky,
And squeeze them over an old silver cup,
And I will pour the cold scorn of my Beloved into it,
So that my drink shall be bubbled with ice.
It will lap and scratch
As I swallow it down;
And I shall feel it as a serpent of fire,
Coiling and twisting in my belly.
His snortings will rise to my head,
And I shall be hot, and laugh,
Forgetting that I have ever known a woman.
By Amy Lowell

I enjoyed this poem because of the use of double meanings that Lowell uses. Instead of feeling as though I was beating it with a hose I felt that I could easily pull out a meaning from the poem. Throughout the poem the writer talks about mixing a drink however you realize slowly that it is about forgetting. The unusual imagery seems confusing at first but then becomes clear as it is easily related to drinking. The pain, the fire in his stomach, and the fact of forgetting is portrayed in a beautiful way that I really enjoyed. The poem is straightforward yet at the same time an allusion which I enjoyed.

Alone

Alone

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

By Maya Angelou

                

    Maya Angelou uses a lot of figurative language throughout the poem. Angelou also uses personification in a biblical sense when saying, “Where water is not thirsty… and bread loaf is not stone.” Jesus says to the women at the well that he can give her water such that she will never thirst again. Also the bread loaf is not stone may refer to God giving good gifts which goes on to say what father when asked for bread gives his children a stone instead. She also uses a rhyming scheme of AB, AB for example in the third stanza where she rhymes, “With money they can’t use… Their children sing the blues.” What I enjoyed about this poem was the fact that it was centered around the idea that not only can a person successfully live alone, it’s the idea that a person can’t be happy when they isolate themselves from other people of the world. At the same time that you can narrow this idea down to being about one person disconnecting themselves from society, you are also able to relate it to society and even nations as a whole. Humanity isn't able to survive without the company of others. And when she mentions that she can hear the human race suffering, moaning from the pain, I believe that ties into all of the racism in the world due to prejudices and preconceived notions that aren't true. All they do is separate humanity. I enjoyed this poem because it was a hidden message, but at the same time a real eye-opener.

Wallflower by Donna Vorreyer

Wallflowers by Donna Vorreyer creates the idea that every word we know should be able to “belong” or at least be loved by someone. Words such as, “gegenshein” and “zoanthropy” which before looking up I had no knowledge even existed, can have a place in someone’s vocabulary. What I enjoyed about these words was not the fact that they sounded different but instead that the author had no clue what they meant either until placing them in her poem which added to the overall effect that any word no matter how ridiculous sounding can be a part of society. After finishing the poem I returned to the second stanza where Vorryer writes, “They say if you use a word three times, it’s yours. What happens to the ones that no one speaks?” Continuing on she suggests that those words are lost entirely until a brave soul finds them however there’s the possibility that they have to simply wait as the more common words are used frequently throughout the day.

I particularly enjoyed the end of the third stanza where she writes, “yes, you . . . you’re the one.” It finally gives all these random, unused words a shape through personification which later becomes clear as they are described as, “shy shadows at the high school dance”. The personification gives the words a deeper meaning, making them more appealing to the reader with words like “poor” and “tired” which I thought was funny because words aren’t usually made out as people. They’re just ideas that get a point across but in this poem they’re actual people waiting to be chosen, to be given the chance to bloom into something greater.  

However, at the very end of her poem she writes, “all those words without a home, come out and play --- live in my poem.” I particularly enjoyed this line because in the end, all of those misfit words were given a place to stay. Vorreyer becomes a foster parent to the English language and shows her respect to a language that was once beautiful but has been reduced to using vulgar and simple minded words. Vorreyer still has respect for words over two syllables that may sound different but have a beautiful meaning. I enjoyed her admiration for English and the fact that she made the language sound awe-inspiring and not just another language in modern society. She treats every individual word as something special and she did so in a beautiful poem.

Definitions:

Dickensian: Of or like the novels of Charles Dickens (especially with regard to the poor social and economical conditions.

Ellis Island: Symbol of American immigrants, an island just off Manhattan that allows immigrants to stay.

Gegenshein: A faint spot of light in the night ski that appears directly opposite the position of the sun.

Zoanthropy: A delusion that you have assumed the form of an animal.

Poetry Assignment #1

Mr Fear


He follows us, he keeps track.
Each day his lists are longer.
Here, death, and here,
something like it.

Mr. Fear, we say in our dreams,
what do you have for me tonight?
And he looks through his sack,
his black sack of troubles.

Maybe he smiles when he finds
the right one. Maybe he’s sorry.
Tell me, Mr. Fear,
what must I carry

away from your dream.
Make it small, please.
Let it fit in my pocket,
let it fall through

the hole in my pocket.
Fear, let me have
a small brown bat
and a purse of crickets

like the ones I heard
singing last night
out there in the stubbly field
before I slept, and met you.

—Lawrence Raab

   Mr Fear by Lawrence Raab uses personification to bring fear to life in this eerie and yet exhilarating poem. Raab creates Mr. Fear, a character that visits him in his dreams with “his black sack of troubles,” in a personal matter where he becomes familiar to the reader making Mr. Fear that much more haunting. The human form of fear in this dream seems horrific and even threatening however Mr. Fear doesn’t have to say a word. Nor does the writer give us vivid images of his face or structure but instead lets us sculpt Mr. Fear for ourselves. Personally, I thought of a figure similar to Death when picturing Mr. Fear in this poem. What also struck me as interesting was the fact that he’s fighting against the fear by trying to befriend it at the same time. He calls him mister fear instead of just fear. He also doesn’t want something frightening to come out of Mr. Fear’s sack so instead he asks kindly for small objects and adds “please”. Raab’s style seemed to be somewhat simplistic to me. Every stanza contained four lines and his word choice was quite simplistic. But it was that same simplicity that made the poem easier for everyone who read it to feel the same emotion of fear behind it all. Overall, I enjoyed this poem because it was simple to read and yet had many different ways to look at it.