marks

marks by linda pastan is a great metaphorical poem that is in someways also humerous. the protagonist is a wife and mother who is being graded rather harshly by her husband and children. she is given a range of grades from an A to an average C, and it is concluded that over all she passes at her position. just passing, however, is not good enough for her and she announces that she will leave them all because they don't appreciate her enough. it is interesting that the speaker doesn't show any hostility or remorse toward her decision. she announces it as if it is her triumph over them. she thinks she's gonna show them all once she is not there to do everything for them.

what time of year thou mayst in me behold

this poem had an immediate tone of sadness to it. the fact that it compared the dying of the year to the dying individual was not unique, but nonetheless it's clever. usually shhakespeare is extreamly difficult for me to understand, but with this poem i didn't have too much trouble. most of it was written in words that we still use today which helped. the first two lines which talked about few yellow leaves refered to autumn or winter, the time when the year is coming to an end and not only the year, but everything is dying. the part about the "boughs which shake against the cold" gave me the impression that the individual is afraid of dying. in the fifth line "the twilight of such a day" seems to refer as well to the protagonist dying because his life is coming to an end. as twilight comes to the end of the day. in the eight line i thought the word "rest" was significat becuase the line refers to sleep taking over, but rest makes me think of how we write "rest in peace" on tombstones and so i relate this line to death as well. the next two lines are interesting because they relate the man's dying youth to his dying self in the present time. i am a little confused as to who the 'he' is in the tenth line. throughout the poem it seems as though the speaker in the poem is talking to someone about how they would see him. the person the speaker is referring to must be a lover as hinted in the last two lines. the speaker refers to her love becoming "more strong" and then refers back to his death when she must leave him before long.

delight in disorder

this poem seemed to me to be about a man who is expressing his love for women who are not perfect but who are all over the place. he calls disorder "sweet"and calls distraction "fine". i think it turns him on to see woman whoe's clothes are all in disarray. i like his use of the word "wantonness". it's very creative and different. when i first read this poem i took the first line literally in that he was refering to a woman as a "sweet disorder" which clothes wants to automatically be on. i'm not sure why the speaker is so infatuated with woman who appear this way, but my guess it's the same raw infatuation that guys find with girls who have just awoken in the morning.

my papa's waltz

i believe this poem was written from a man looking back on his childhood because it was written about in past tense and in an adult voice. i though the use of the word death in the third line was harsh for this poem, but it made the boy sound as if he were afraid. afraid to let go and didnt' compleatly trust his father to support him. in the second stanza we are introduced to the mother and we get a hint in the 8th and 9th lines that she is always unhappy with her husband's drinking behavior. the father is described as having battered knuckles and dirt smudged hands hinting that he is a rough houser and used to difficult work and a difficult way of survival.

slim cunning hands

cozen: To mislead by means of a petty trick or fraud; deceive

this poem caught my attention because poems about death usually to. it's a really common subject, so it's interesting to see how people write about it so differently. the word choice in this poem is awsome. the author used words such as cunning, cozen, and false to constantly declare how deciving this person was in life. the poem says no one could write on her stone how untrue she was. then in the next line it controdicts itself and says that she was more beautful than any flower on earth. what i gathered from this poem that it was about a whore who was killed at a young age who was never true to any man nor herself, but was beautiful even in death.

the golf links lie so near the mill

this poem sounds ironic and sad at the same time. it almost has a sarcastic tone. the children who work in the mills are watching the grown men play golf. the word choice is interesting because the author chose to use "laboring" instead of just labor. the "ing" makes the word slow down and makes it feel like the work the children do is long and tedious. the "men at play" line sounds ironic becuase we are used to hearing children at play instead.

hawthorne

young goodman brown was a hard story for me to get through. i found it compleatly boring and the fact that i had so fuch figurative language in it made it difficult to get a jist of it at a glance. it requires some deep thinking to really understand the story the way the author intended. im not sure if i believe goodman brown actually met with the devil or if he simply went into the forest and had a dream. i'm curious to know if his father and his father before him really met up with the devil as the evil man said they had, if they had been as profoudly effected as goodman brown was. it seemed significant in the story that the goodman was so shocked that his elders whoem he thought so highly of, were to go the same evil path that he was taking. i think using the name Faith in the story really enhanced it because it has such a double meaning. we know the husband is literally afraid of loosing his wife, as well as he is afraid of loosing his faith with God. all the symbolism, such as the devil carrying a stick that looks like an evil respresenting snake, made this story so deep and powerful.