Rotation 8, blog 2

“Spring and All” William Carlos Williams
Poem is about spring  the title and lines from the poem: “All along the road the reddish/ purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes.”
Visual Imagery: “Under the surge of the blue/ mottled clouds.”
“Lifeless in appearance, sluggish”
Made up of 8 stanzas
-all aren’t the same length  every other stanza is made up of two lines, and then the 6 and 7 ones are made up of two lines, while the last stanza is made up of 4 lines. The pattern changes at the end within the last three stanzas
-punctuation used throughout
-no real rhyme scheme
-sounds more like prose when read aloud, even though the lines aren’t long in the stanzas
-beginning couple stanzas are about the earth before spring comes: “parches of standing water” and “brown with dried weeds”
-these images show how winter has dragged on the earth, and made it unpleasant looking
By the end of the poem you have different images: “one by one objects are defined” and “they/ grip down and begin to awaken.”  talks about plants “awakening” after the winter  personification
Tactile Imagery: “a cold wind”
Euphonic: “They enter the new world naked/ cold, uncertain of all.”
-Uses A LOT of adjectives throughout the poem: “cold, muddy, standing, tall”


“Oh no” Robert Creeley
Sounds like a regular sentence when read a loud
-all one stanza
-barely any punctuation
Seems to be talking about heaven: “and when you get there/ they will give you a place to sit”
“And they will likewise all have places”  makes you think that this means every single person will have a purpose
No rhyming
Poem isn’t exactly clear: refers to “they” as if you are supposed to know who they are
No challenging words
The first line: “If you wander far enough”  even though I think that this poem is about heaven this first line seems kind of strange
-if you die, it doesn’t seem like you would have to wander around to find heaven, I feel that you would just go there right away
-this line gives off a sense that you can choose to go to heaven or not
The second line: “You will come to it”  leaves it as the destination you have found
-calling the destination “it” leaves the option endless as to what the place truly is
Visual Imagery: “and all your friends will be there/ with smiles on their faces”
-makes heaven seem like a very happy, pleasant place to be
-never in the poem is there any indication of religion, or after life directly, but these lines above make me think of heaven
Internal alliteration: “with smiles on their faces”
Could be Euphonic  isn’t hard to read aloud at all, but doesn’t seem poetic enough to be considered euphonic
-the diction seems too simple to be considered “pretty language”


“Piano” D.H. Lawrence
Has rhyme scheme throughout all three stanzas
-each stanza is made up of four lines and the two lines have end rhymes
Stanza one: A
A
B
B
-this is the rhyming pattern throughout the whole poem: “strings, sings” “outside, guide”
-the lines are pretty long  even though the poem looks like prose, it sounds more like a poem when read aloud because of the rhyming
Words that may need to be looked up: insidious, tinkling, vain, appassionato, cast, vista
Tone: he is remembering his childhood, as a woman sings to him
-this singing reminds him of his mother, and makes him miss his childhood: “I weep like a child for the past”  this is also a simile
Uses a great deal of adjectives: “black, poised, small, weeps
Tactile imagery: “with winter outside”
First half of the last line: “Down in the flood of remembrance”  strong line  shows just how much all these memories are coming back to him, and how much they mean to him
Seems cacophonic at times: “in spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song”
But then at other times seems euphonic: “softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me”
-First line is iambic
Punctuation is used at the end of every last line in each stanza
-made up of 3 stanzas
-each stanza has 4 lines
-most of the lines aren’t enjambed lines
Overall, the poem seems to be pretty happy until the end when he starts to cry
-but at the same time, it’s good that this man loved his childhood so much
-will want to make his kids childhoods even better

Rotation 8, blog 1

“At North Farm” John Ashbery
-the first line is made up of iambs = iambic heptameter
-the lines are pretty long for a poem  almost like prose
-made up of two stanzas
Euphonic: “the streams run with sweetness, fattening fish”
-“that the dish of milk is set out at night”
I’m not sure if this is an understatement or if there’s a hidden meaning behind it: “hardly anything grows here” and then the next line is “yet the granaries are bursting with meal”
-the first line seems like an understatement, but I’m not positive because it seems like there is a meaning behind the line
Visual imagery: “birds darken the sky”  gives off a spooky or chilling feeling
“The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish”
“The sacks of meal piled to the rafters”
Gives an array of settings: “Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through narrow passes”
 Strange that it is such a various number of settings, but I think that here the author is trying to emphasis how far this person is traveling
-no rhyme scheme
-some punctuation
-no words that need to be looked up
-even though there aren’t any challenging words in this poem, it isn’t exactly clear what the author is writing about exactly  did a good job of hiding meaning behind word choice
The last three lines in the second stanza: “That the dish of milk is set out at night, / that we think of him sometimes, / sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?”
-First line makes me think that the author is talking about a car
-then the second line makes me think this cat is dead or lost, but is still thought of sometimes
-then the last line makes me think that maybe when they think about the cat, it isn’t really that important to them sometimes, but other time they really miss the cat, which goes along with the “mixed feelings”


“The Donkey” G.K. Chesterton
Personification: “When fishes flew and forests walked”
Words that needed to be looked up for their multiple meanings: errant, parody, scourge, deride
Has an interesting rhyme scheme:
First stanza: A, A on the 2 and 4 lines  thorn, born
Second stanza: B, B on the s and 4 lines  wings, things
Third stanza: C, C on the 2 and 4 lines  will, still
Fourth stanza: D, D on the 2 and 4 lines  sweet, feet
Simile and visual imagery: “And ears like errant wings”
Shows how this person is strong: “starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb/ I keep my secret still.”
-these two lines show how even if you starve this person, if you torture them, or mock them, they don’t care
-this person won’t tell you their secret
“I am dumb” is showing how even if you do all these things to the person, your degrading them so the author is saying “I am dumb” but really the author doesn’t think this, she is just trying to show how strong she is
Hyperboles: “When fishes flew”
“…when the moon was blood”
-made up of iambs
-First line is iambic tetrameter
-made up of four stanzas
-punctuation is used at almost the end of every line
-chose diction that was more challenging than previous poem, but still had really good imagery overall



“Titanic” David R. Slavitt
This poem is pretty sarcastic
“We all go: only a few, first-class”
-making a joke about how everyone eventually does die, but only a few get to die “first- class,” as in only a few will get to die in a famous tragedy or be well known after they die
Makes dying not seem so bad after all: “We all go down, mostly/ alone. But with crowds of people, friends, servants, / well fed, with music, with lights! Ah!”
-these couple of lines adds to the joke: makes dying seem kind of fun if you’re with a group of people
-who would want to die alone, when you can die with all of these people, and then be famous afterwards
“The cries on all sides must be a comfort”  stating that even if your suffering, you know that everyone else is too so in a way it’s a comfort because you know you’re not going alone
-made up of 5 stanzas
-seems more like a story or prose when read aloud  lines are pretty long for a poem
-no words that need to be looked up
-not vague at all in the sense of what the author is talking about
-does a really good job with diction choice and using this to create the tone of the poem
Tactile imagery: “the cold/ water is anaesthetic and very quick.”
In the beginning of the poem, the author talks about if tickets were to be sold again for the same passage that the Titanic took, people would still most likely want to buy them
 This is kind of a weird assumption, but rings somewhat true
 I can definitely see people buying tickets for this
In the third stanza: “And the world, shocked, mourns, as it ought to do/ and almost never does”
-shows how the author believes that most people don’t mourn over things that are tragic
-author obviously feels that people should be more sympathetic
-the second line shows how the author also feels that people don’t really care much about others, except themselves
Overall, poem seems to be pretty sarcastic, but at the same time seems to have a cold shoulder towards the Titanic

rotation 7, blog 2

“The Man with Night Sweats” Thom Gunn
-made up of 8 stanzas
-every other stanza is made up of two lines
-enjambed lines
-lines 1 and 3 rhyme in some of the stanzas and the couplets all have end rhymes: “shield, healed”
-Personification:
-“wake to their residue,/ sweat, and a clinging sheet.” makes it sound as if it’s the dreams residue
Internal alliteration:
“The given shield was cracked”
“My flesh reduced and wrecked”
Slant rhymes:
“Sorry, hurry”
“Cracked, wrecked”
Tactile Imagery: “sweat, and a clinging sheet”
Euphony: “I grew as I explored/ the body I could trust”
-isn’t straightforward
-no words that would have to be looked up
-diction choice and rhyme scheme makes the poem flow when read aloud
-the line: “where it was gashed, it healed”  has intense imagery of a very deep cut, but doesn’t leave the reader in a disgusted state of mind
-has a way of turning this gash into an okay image by using words such as healed, and then keeping the poem moving
-another line: “the pains that will go through me”  also an intense image standing alone, but the surrounding lines make this image not be so strong
-the diction choice plays a huge role in these two examples above by toning down the images that would normally be more intense on their own

“The Names” Billy Collins
-made up of 8 stanzas
-the stanzas have different numbers of lines throughout the poem
-throughout the poem, names of people are listed throughout in alphabetical order, until the letter Z is reached
Simile: “Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears”
“I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden/ as in a puzzle concocted for children”
-Second example is personification  saying that letters can be tangled up
-no real thyme scheme
-the lines are pretty long
-feels more like prose when read aloud
-lines aren’t enjambed
Tactile Imagery: “In the morning, I walked out barefoot/ among thousands of flowers”
Auditory imagery: “A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze”
Internal alliteration: “Names rising in the updraft and buildings”
“A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox.”

-the overall poem makes names seem like such a big deal  writer does a really good job in “exploding” this idea
Words that may have to be looked up: unfurled, boughs, updraft, and swallows
-even though this poem has imagery, similes and other alliteration it’s pretty straightforward
-shows how a writer can incorporate multiple types of alliteration into a poem, but still keep it simple
The last line of the poem seems really strong: “So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart.”
-seems to mean that throughout our lives there are so many names of different people that we see constantly
-a lot of people also keep their friends close to them, and if they’re your good friends you don’t forget their names  could take up room on the “walls of the heart”
-kind of seems that there isn’t much room left for anything else but all of these names listed throughout the poem
-this line could maybe be considered a hyperbole since the writer is claiming there isn’t much room for anything else but all these names
-kind of an exaggeration



“Fire and Ice” Robert Frost
-made up of one stanza
-enjambed lines
-some rhyming: “fire, desire” “hate, great”
-not a lot of punctuation
-throughout the poem he’s talking about how he people believe the world will end through either fire or ice
-says he would “hold with those who favor fire” but then “if it had to perish twice…/to say that for destruction ice/ is also great.”
-saying he chooses fire over ice, unless the world got to end twice then he would also choose ice
-makes the end of the world sound like a good thing, and not a big deal: “to say that for destruction ice/ is also great/ and would suffice.”
-here he is saying that ice is a great way for the world to end too along with fire
-kind of sends a weird tone to the reader since Frost makes this scary idea into a light idea
-shows how his use of diction has helped toned down this idea of the world ending
Internal Alliteration: “I hold with those who favor fire”
Euphony: “from what I’ve tasted of desire/ I hold with those who favor fire.”
-claims that he has “tasted desire”  abstract idea
-No similes or metaphors
-some punctuation usage
-when read aloud has a good rhythm
-even though this poem is only one stanza, the idea of the poem is really strong
The lines: “I think I know enough of hate” relates to ice and “From what I’ve tasted of desire” relates to fire
 Makes ice seem more “cold”/less liked and a turn off compared to fire
 Fire is temperature wise warm, but in this poem it makes fire seem like a good thing

Rotation 7, blog 1

Rotation 7, blog 1
“Final Love Note” Clare Rossini
-made up of three stanzas
-feels more like a story when read aloud
-need the next line for the idea to make sense (enjambed)
-the second line on the poem the letter “e” is repeated (internal alliteration):
“Never touching. Yet your shade commingled.”
-doesn’t seem like there is a real beat in the poem
-has a euphony feel to it:
“Pure – green, wooden – hearted, all your leaves moved/ summer – long, then suddenly caught fire.”
-the last part of this example, “suddenly caught fire” seems to change the vibe to cacophony
-the words before are pretty and light and then the word fire is a drastic change
-“My heart beats. Then a dull thunder shakes the house” – auditory – gives off a sense of a heart beating really hard, as if someone else can hear it
-the thunder you can hear during a storm
-but, it seems contradictory because it says a “dull thunder” yet it shakes the house  a dull thunder couldn’t do something this intense
-“yet it shakes the house” hyperbole
-“dull thunder”  understatement
Tone: seems like lonely and sad
“In winter I endured your silences” and “right out of my lilies, while you, elm, died on –”
-even though in a sense this poem seems like a person is being talked about because there is a line that says, “As human lovers do,” this poem seems to be about a tree in this persons front yard
Simile: “never tiring/ as human lovers do.”
-comparing the sounds this tree makes to a pair of lovers
At the end of the poem: “I hear the chain saw cry out ecstatically.”
-saying how this chain saw is excited about cutting down the tree
“Your many arms are falling”  all the branches on the tree  personification



“Neutral tones” Thomas Hardy page 241
Has a rhyme scheme
First stanza: 1 and 4 lines have end rhymes
-2 and 3 lines have end rhymes
Second stanza: 1 and 3 lines has slant rhymes “rove and love”
-2 and 4 lines has slant rhymes “ago and love”
Third stanza: 1 and 4 lines have end thymes
-2 and 3 lines have end rhymes
Fourth stanza: 1 and 4 line has end rhymes “deceives and leaves”
-2 and 3 lines have end rhymes “me and tree”
-made up of four stanzas
Visual imagery: “And the sun was white”
“And a pond edged with grayish leaves”
“Starving sod”
Assonance: “And a few leaves lay on the starving sod; / they had fallen from an ash, and were gray.”
Good diction choice: “your eyes on me were as eyes that rove”  makes the reader think a lot
-the next line: “Over tedious riddles of years ago”  paints a picture for the reader of how someone is looking at this person with wandering eyes, as if they can’t hold the other persons gaze
-good amount of punctuation usage
-the lines don’t need the next line to make sense
“They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.”
-the sound of the language seems to be euphony
-“and some words played between us to and fro/ on which lost the more by our love.”
-seems to change to cacophony towards the last stanza: “your face, and the god- curst sun, and a tree”
-the line: “Alive enough to have strength to die”  opposites
-makes the reader think a little more about what the writer is exactly talking about
-not a straightforward poem