Rotation 5, blog 2

Rotation 5, blog 2

“Desert Place” Robert Frost
-each stanza has four lines
-end rhymes: “fast, past” “snow, last” “theirs, lairs”
-a lot of punctuation
-has a pretty good beat when read aloud  rhyming helps with this
-slant rhyme: “count, unawares”
-each first word of each line is capitalized
-the word “lonely” is repeated a good number of times
-word that may need to be looked up: benighted
Visual imagery: “and the ground almost covered smooth in snow”
-makes you think of a wide open field covered
“But a few weeds and stubble showing last”  makes this field see more realistic
-shows how there are still some grass or weeds sticking out the snow
Tone: peaceful but lonely at the same time
-“with no expression, nothing to express”
-talks about how the snow is so white that there isn’t any feeling left
-everything is quite and hidden now  but the next line changes this tone:
“They cannot scare me with their empty spaces”
-shows how he doesn’t let this vast open field and the animals hiding away scare him
-has his own places that are closer to home that can scare him, compared to this open field
-didn’t notice any metaphors but the diction choice makes this poem kind of hard to understand
-not exactly straightforward the whole time

“When you are old” William Butler Yeats
-made up of three stanzas
-each stanza has four lines and the 2 and 3 lines rhyme while the 1 and 4 lines rhyme
-this rhyming pattern occurs in each stanza
-visual imagery: “when you are old and grey and full of sleep”
“and slowly read, and dream of the soft look”
-in the third stanza the word “loved” is repeated multiple times
-tone: starts out as realistic (old people sitting by a fire) then trails back in time to when the person was younger and talks about lost love  tone changes to a sadder note
“and nodding by this fire, take down this book”  from the beginning of the poem
“but one man loved the pilgrims soul in you,/ And loved the sorrow of your changing face.”  in the second stanza – incorporates a man into the poem and how he loved this girl and the things about her
-makes his love sound like it’s in the past
“Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled/ And paced upon the mountains overhead”  shows that the love this man had for her is gone
-makes it seem like he left her  change in the tone to a sadder note
-the last line really stood out to me: “and hid his face amid a crowd of stars”  makes me think that he tried to hid from this woman, maybe he didn’t want her to find him
*or this could also mean that he died and is now up in heaven
-this is why his love is gone, because he dead so this woman feels that his love is in the past
-the stars = tend to represent heaven
-when read, it feels more like a prose or a story
-has a good beat to make it seem like a poem, but the punctuation also makes it seem more like prose

“Rites of Passage” Sharon Olds
-made up of one stanza
-good amount of punctuation used
-Seems more like prose than an actual poem  the beginning of a new sentence starts on the same line as the end of a previous sentence
-no rhyme scheme
-opens with a little boys birthday party but then compares these young boys to older men  “short men, men in first grade/ with smooth jaws and chins.” These descriptions make the young boys sound older
-words that may need to be looked up: turret, balsa, keel
Metaphor: “the dark cake, round and heavy as a/ turret, behind them on the table.”
“they clear their throats/ like Generals, they relax and get down to”
Visual imagery: “My son,/ freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks”
-gives off a sweet image of her young boy, and makes all the other boys seem “bad”
Auditory imagery: “They clear their/ throats a lot, a room of small bankers”
-the clearing of the throat is auditory
Tone: very light hearted and funny
-makes these young boys seem older and is comparing them to bankers, and talks about them fighting one another cause some are “older” (seven years old compared to six years old)
-shows how even when you are this young, the older you are still gives you the right to be have power over someone younger
-weird how this trait shows up in young kids
-not too surprising that it’s showing up in young boys though
-a real light hearted poem, but at the same time has parts that shine through real messages to the reader