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

Rotation 6, blog 1

“Embrace” Billy Collins
-made up of two stanzas
-no real rhyme scheme
-uses a good amount of punctuation in both stanzas
Visual imagery: “wrap your arms around your own body/ and from the back it looks like/ someone is embracing you”  also tactile imagery because you can feel this when you do it to yourself
-a lot of little kids do this jokingly when they are younger
“Her hands grasping your shirt/ her fingernails teasing your neck”  Tactile imagery
-very sexual, but in this sense it’s more on the light –hearted jokingly side
-all of the examples above are from the first stanza
-tone: has a jokingly, sexual connotation
-changes in the second stanza to lonely
-“You never looked so alone/ your crossed elbows and screwy grin.”
 Shows how when you do this, you look completely different from the front
-Second stanza seems ironic towards the end: “one that would hold you really tight.”  talking about how “you could be waiting for a tailor/ to fit you for a straightjacket”
-straightjackets are really tight  would hold you really tight
-the poem is called “embrace” seems ironic that the writer would bring in a straightjacket because this is something that can hold you tighter than a human being ever could
-the line, “your crossed elbows and screwy grin” makes me think of my childhood because I remember watching people do it all the time and joke about it
-realistic poem

“The Runner” Walt Whitman
-One stanza
-punctuation throughout whole stanza
-no rhyming
-a lot of visual imagery but also auditory imagery
Visual: “he is thinly clothed”
“He is lean and sinewy, with muscular legs”

Auditory imagery: “on a flat road he runs the well – train’d runner”  visual imagery as well but the sound of this man running on the flat road contributes to the auditory imagery
-after reading this poem, I don’t think of a runner on a track, I think of a messenger running somewhere
-even though in the first line it says, “well-train’d runner” the other descriptions throughout the poem don’t make him sound trained or professional
-“he is thinly clothed” makes him seem maybe poor, but he also may be thinly clothed because it is hot outside
-“he leans forward when he runs”  seems kind of weird because when you run you don’t lean forward
-at the same time puts the image of him running really fast in your mind, the more he leans forward, almost like he’s lunging
-“with lightly clothed fists”  imagery and tactile
-visual imagery because you can picture someone running like this
-tactile: when I used to run track I used to always make my hands into fists  by the end of the race I would have nail marks in my hands because I closed them too tightly but I would always run the sprinting events  maybe this person is running long distance if he hands are lightly closed fists
-Poem is mainly visual imagery, but there are other aspects of imagery hidden throughout it


“Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter” Robert Bly
-One stanza
-each line is its own sentence
-no rhyming
-no difficult words
-lines are to the point, and simple
Imagery:
“It is a cold and snowy night”  visual because you can picture this in your mind but also tactile because you can feel the cold when you walk outside, and you can feel the snow
“The only things moving are swirls of snow”  visual imagery
“Snow night”  visual imagery
“I feel its cold iron” --> can feel the coldness of the mailbox door  tactile imagery
Tone: pleasant and peaceful
“There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.”
-no one is out but him, and he loves the silence that comes with the falling of the snow
“Driving around, I will waste more time.”
-driving around in the snow makes him relaxed
-the winter usually soothes people compared to the summer
-in the summer, you are usually out doing things, and swimming, etc…
-in the winter, people tend to stay inside, sit by the fire and talk with their friends or family  “the main street is deserted”  shows how no one is out, this allows him to have this privacy with the snowy night

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

Blog 5, rotation 1

Rotation 5, blog 1

“Unholy Sonnet: Hands Folded” Mark Jarman
-all one stanza
-whole poem is two sentences
-lines aren’t too long, but need the next line to make sense
-comparing hands to a church
-the last two lines are a couplet
-last two words: “withstand and hand”
-no exact rhyme scheme, some end words rhyme but it seems to be by chance “skin, within” and “light, tight”
-tactile imagery: “if that will ease your grip and let them go”
-metaphor: “the nails like welders’ masks”
-weird to compare hands to something not living (a church)
-doesn’t have any words that would need to be looked up
-has a little beat, but nothing too strong
-feels a little more like prose when read aloud
-tone: dark
-talks about trapped people: “among them you can hear their half- choked cries”
-talks about people trying to get out of something  not very happy
-“but stuck now they are willing to confess”  makes you feel like once these people have been greatly punished then they will tell everything they know
-seems realistic to me  until someone is greatly punished then there is a greater chance that they will tell whatever information they know

“Drinking alone by Moonlight” Yueh Hsia Tu Cho
-not a good beat when read aloud
-a lot of punctuation usage
-made up of one stanza  pretty long
-personification: calls the moon a her
-“yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave”
-tone: seems peaceful at first, but then towards the end seems lonely
-“a cup of wine, under the flowering trees”  makes you feel peaceful, makes you think of the people sitting on the bayou in the evening
-“I drink alone, for no friend is near”  could be seen as lonely, but I feel that this line is leaning more towards the fact that he likes to be alone
-everyone needs some alone time  this could be his
-towards end of the poem: “now we are drunk, each goes his way.”  makes you feel like he is lonely now because he feels that once he’s drunk he has no friends
-sense that maybe the wine makes him depressed
-visual imagery: “for he, with my shadow, will make three men”
-only one word that I had to look up: inanimate  lifeless  contributes to the loneliness tone at the end of the poem

“One Art” Elizabeth Bishop
-the words disaster and master is repeated
-the last two lines of the poem: a couplet using these two words as the ending rhyme words
-made up of six stanzas
-each stanza has three lines except for the last one  the last word in the first line rhymes with the last word in the third line in each stanza: “fluster, master” “faster, disaster”, “vaster, disaster”
-poem starts out with talking about losing little things, like a key
-each stanza builds up to larger objects lost, things such as a city and then even a continent
-the last stanza talks about losing someone  bigger than anything
-people are what affect you the most, not material items
-tone seems a little sarcastic at the end: “Even losing you…it’s evident/ the art of losing’s not too hard to master.”
-has a good rhythm when read aloud  I think the rhyming helps with this beat
-words that may need to be looked up: intent, fluster, realms, shan’t (older than every other word in the poem)
-the poem has a light feeling the whole way through even though it’s talking about a serious topic: losing things
-poem makes a point though  everything will be lost one day “so many things seem filled with the intent/ to be lost that their loss is no disaster.”
-the lines are pretty simple, and straightforward
-no metaphors
-the line “the art of losing isn’t hard to master” is repeated a couple of times
 I think this helps the poem because it’s used as the poem builds up on losing bigger and bigger things/places