Rotation 3, blog 3

Rotation 3, blog 3

“To Waken an Old Lady” William Carlos Williams
-no rhyming
-Short lines – only four times is punctuation is
-each line has emphasis because it’s only a couple of words:
“Skimming/ Bare trees/ above a snow glaze.”
-compares old age and waking an old woman to a flight of birds
-pretty good imagery: “oh harsh weedstalk”
-“the snow/ is covered with broken/ seedhusks.”
-some words that may need to be looked up: buffeted, tempered, piping
-this poem doesn’t particularly make me think after I’ve read it
-isn’t very interesting
Tone: somewhat calm, but at the same time made me feel a little sad or empty
-“gaining and failing”
-“dark wind”
-“is covered with broken/ seedhusks”

“Mother to Son” Langston Hughes
-has a definite rhythm but no actual rhyming
-sometimes seems like slant rhymes: “climbin and landin”
-uses words in a southern accent: “For I’se still goin’, honey”
-uses this type of language as an advantage for the rhyming
-also makes poem have an older feel to it
-isn’t how we would speak today even though we’re from the south
-adds character to poem
-pretty good usage of punctuation
-End – stopped:
“I’se still climbin”
-Uses the line: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” in the beginning and end of the poem
-tone: never give up
-keep pushing the hard times à courage and strength to move on
-Uses items such as tacks and splinters to compare her life to
à Some of the things she has run into really hurt her life, and had to get over these obstacles
-Emphasis on the line with one word: “Bare.”
à Makes you feel alone à change in tone at this one point in the poem
-only a couple of lines are longer than the others, but all pretty much short lines
-makes you want to keep going with your life, and be thankful for the things you do have

“Life” Grace Treasone
-Only one stanza and one whole sentence
-every other line rhymes
-metaphor: “Life is like a jagged tooth.”
-good beat to it
-End – stopped
“Fix the tooth and save the root”
-tone: inspiring, starts out as a little depressing and by the last stanza and a half the tone feels a lot more lifted and happy
-makes you realize that how your life turns out is up to you
-your everyday attitude affects how your day is in general à good attitude can lead you to a better life
-life can be tough but you can get move on and instead of staying upset, you can be happy about your life
-even though this poem is only one stanza, I feel that it is very moving
-it’s talking about life which is a hard concept to grasp sometimes à harder to form into poetry
-Treasone did a good job explaining her view of life in such a short poem
-doesn’t feel like a philosophical point of view on life
-just a general moral that can help to guide others
-when I read the phrase, “cuts into your heart” it made me think that life really is “sharp”
-life really is hard at times
-the tooth that represents life cuts into your heart, and you must fix it
-to think of fixing your life sounds really complicated, but this poem makes it sound like a simple task à good word choice
-there aren’t any words you would have to look up
-pretty straight forward even though life is compared to a jagged tooth and how you must fix it