week 11

My comments on

Danse Africanine by Langston Hughes

This poem gives me the image of a girl dancing and singing around a camp fire. The way she moves makes your heart pound and skips a beat. You can hear the beating of the drums but by the way she swirls around the fire you do not pay much attention. You get lost in the way the music lifts up the smoke from the fire. Everything begins to slow down but your blood flow begins to rise rapidly and it leaves you with shivers all down your spine.

Dream Variations by Langston Hughes

Hughes is defining every dream everyone makes. Everyone wants to accomplish their dreams and once they have what, what do they got left to live for. Dreams can go as far as the stars can reach and no one stops until they have reached them. I also, thought this poem as they live too lives. They show people one person but when no one is around they are a different person. Some people live to please other and when they are gone they show their true colors.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe talks about everything he would do for love. He would “Prove that valleys, groves, hills, and fields, woods, or steeply mountains yields.” Things would not stand in his way to make her happy. They would go for walks on the beach and watch the water hit the rocks and listen to the birds sing. He would make a bed of roses with every scent you could ever imagine. Clothes only made from the finest, shoes only for the best from the best, flowers of every kind. He would sing to her swirl her around. She could have all of this but only if she would be his lover.

The Hymph’s Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh

This poem explains that everyone leaves the nest. Everyone finds love and let their emotions run free. Just like birds cannot help but to migrate. Flowers begin to fade as people fall out of love. Every bud that freezes during winter blooms again and forgets, just as if it never happened, just like we do with our memories that were not too good.

week 10

My comments on

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Frost talks about coming to a path and having to choose between which ways to go. One was more grasser and pleasant. The other path was rough looking and more difficult to travel on. Most people would not even give the second path a second glance. Everyone likes to take the easy way out. But, sometimes that’s not the best choice. Because, what do you get to learn by doing that? Taking the most difficult path when making life decisions, it makes a huge difference. You can most likely predict what the easy path or the one most traveled will bring you. It just sugar coats the issue and brings up another one. Not everything in life is going to be easy and bring you happiness but those moments are what make and break you. Those are the ones you always remember and learn from.

Storm Fear by Robert Frost

I think Frost is describing a winter storm. During this storm he is looking out the window and sees snowflakes falling fast as fast as snowflakes can fall. He hears dogs barking to come out and play with them in the snow storm. He does not even attempt to move. As he is looking out the window the fire starts to die out and the winter chills start to settle in. He watches as the yard and roads start to be covered by snow. He fears that everything will be gone and nothing will be left.

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some people are very passionate about the way the world will end, others just want it to end but be preserved. If the world ends with fire, then, everything is destroyed and the only thing remaining is its aches. Everyone has to begin again. We have to start over from the ashes and rebuild everything brand new. But, if the world ends in ice things get preserved and wait to be used again. Something’s might get ruined but most stay intact and is available to be reused and restored. Either way, you are going to have to start over, maybe not from the ground but pretty close. Something’s you are going to have to throw away. Something’s you can freeze and go back later to solve or use it again.

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking by Robert Frost

Everyone likes to help others. His is just a way of nature. Everyone gets a broken heart at some point in their life. They need someone who cares and tries to understand how they feel. Maybe, they need someone to talk to. Maybe, they just need to know that someone is there for them. Sometimes you cannot help. Maybe, you do not know what to say or do. Maybe, you do not know how to take on the action that has been done. You feel like you have failed at something and you just cannot deal with that. You cannot hold it against yourself if it does not work and you cannot heal that person who is hurting. But, you will cherish every moment spent, that you have restored a beating heart. Your comfort is all that is needed. Words cannot solve everything because not everything needs words.

Water Is Taught By Thirst by Emily Dickinson

Everything is made by something else. If you did not have one thing the other could not exist. Everything is a repeating cycle that never ends. You have to have scars to show how things have been proved. You have to fall off your bike to learn how to ride. You have to move to experience new things.

week 9

My comments on

“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake

This poem is about a little girl whose mother died when she was very young and her father sold her. All she does is work from the break of dawn to dusk. She did not let anything get to her. She knew she was better than that. She liked to help people and make them feel better. When she helped one little boy, he told some of his friends what she said to him and that it made him feel better. Therefore, they would have hope too. Then later on, an angel came to Tom and talked to him. The angle told Tom that he was a good boy and that he had God and did not need anything else in his life. This made Tom super happy and he did not have a single fear in the world.

“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke

This is a poem about someone that is used to being abused by someone that drank all the time. It says there was whiskey on your breath that could make a small boy dizzy. It says no matter what my mother frown would or really could not go away. Not only was she unhappy but the boy was too and even the father was unhappy. Maybe that is why he was drinking. But, this still does not give him a reason to hit his son! He is not going to solve anything. I wonder what happened to make things this way. Was it something between the wife and husband? Was it something that happened in his family? Was it something to do with his job? Maybe, it was something between him and his son. So, he drank to make himself feel better but drinking made him violent and made him beat his child.

“My Mistress Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun” by Shakespeare

This poem is about a girl, a girl that he has falling head over heels in love with. He compares her beauty to the beauty of the world. He said her voice is like music to his ears. Nothing can compare to his feelings for her. Nothing could be or get any better than her. Her body is like nothing he has ever seen in his entire life. He said her walk is like what you could imagine a goddess’s walk would be like. He is in heaven and nothing can compare to her, not a thing. Nothing is more pleasant than her.

week 8

Comments

 “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

This is about people who think they are real cool. They think they are awesome because they quit school, stay up late, do things they are not suppose to do, and all they do is smile about it and think there is nothing  wrong with what they are doing. Then, they do something that makes them realize that what they are doing is not really that cool, it is actually pretty stupid.

“We Old Dudes” by Joan Murray

This poem is about a group of people who do pretty much everything together. They like to play golf every chance they get and go to the mall. They pretty much spend every waking moment together.

“Marks” by Linda Pastan

This poem is about a wife and mother who thinks her work is not welcome anymore. Her husband says her cooking is amazing but the sex is not that great. Her son just thinks she is like every other mom, nothing is really different. Her daughter just sees her as yes, you are an okay mother or no, you are a horrible mother. The mother cannot take it anymore and wants to leave.    

“Root Cellar” by Theodore Roethke

This poem is really bah! It talks about a cellar. It talks about what is in a cellar. It describes what it looks like and what it smells like. It tells you about what you will most likely find in a cellar from all the old stuff to the new. It tells all about the stuff that lives and grows in there. Maybe, no one has been in that cellar in a very long time since it says “Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.” Everything has a meaning in that place. Everything has a place and it is in its place.

“Rearview Mirror” by Robert Morgan

This poem talks about how time passes us by. One second we are thinking about what we are going to do with the rest of our lives and the next second ten years have passed us by. We have accomplished so much but we also still have so much ahead of us. As soon as we make a plan for our future it is already in the past and it is time to think about the future again. Some people just live day to day and do not think about their future or think about their past, even though, it shapes you as a person and makes you who you are. Time fly’s by and you only have yourself to look at.