User:Rootcellarthefish

1. “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” 2. William Carlos Williams

3. This poem is a lyric poem. It is about a painting called “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” painted by Pieter Brueghel. The speaker is someone who has seen the painting and is making commentary on it. The speaker is very dubious about everything that Brueghel had put in the painting. The poem is saying what is probably in the painting.

4. The poem seems to be very dubious to what is in the painting. This can be seen with the first word in the poem, which is “according to Brueghel.” This creates the sense that while the speaker is reporting what is in the picture, he is putting a big “oh really?” next to Brueghel’s interpretation of events. This poem is making a statement about itself on what can be interpretted from a work of literature. Brueghel interpreted everything in the story of Icarus and painted it. Likewise everything in the poem can be interpreted by a reader and things can be gained from it, and another person can say “oh really?” Another important thing about this poem is the fact that it is an allusion to two distinc separate works. There is the allusion to Brueghel’s painting, and to the story of Icarus. However the painting cannot be used to cross reference an of Williams’s claims because the poem and the painting are two separate things, and exist in two different ways. Therefore looking at the painting will not help a reader understand more about the poem. The poem could exist without the painting, and the poem could be viewed as such. In addition the poem could be referring to a completely fictional painting that exists only within the context of the poem. Also, it would not help a reader to analyze the story oficarus with this painting, because it is not the poem, the poem is the poem, and the story of icarus is the story of icarus. They are separate things and should not be campared with each other. 5. Striking lines are in this peom. One is “According to Brueghel/ when Icarus fell/ it was spring. Thisstands out because it makes everything that is stated in the poem seem like it is a report on the account given by an unreliable secondary source.

1. Root Cellar

2. Theodore Roethke 3. This is a lyric poem. It is about a root cellar, and all th things that can be happened. It is being said that the root cellar is a place where there are many different old decaying things. The speaker is someone who is looking around in the root cellar. Its setting is a root cellar.

4. This poem, ostensibly is about a root cellar, and its contents. However there are two deeper meanings. One is a statement on the way that everything will someday share a similar fate with the objects in the root cellar. More importantly, this poem is about the many struggles Asian Americans have faced and face living the America. The cellar is a metaphor for the period of time that Asians were discriminated against, and the alienation that they feel when living in a place with mostly peoples of European Ancestry. The line “Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark,” refers to violence directed at Asians throughout American history, for example the massacre of Chinese miners and railroad workers by unions or the murder of Chinese Americans by auto workers in Detroit. “Shoots dangled and drooped,” describes the dead bodies of the murdered. “Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates,” refers to the complicity of the general public to these atrocities as the perpetrators laugh about it. “Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes,” refers to the racist nature people felt towards Asians, how even though they work hard they are still characterized as “evil” and lowly like snakes. The final lines “Nothing would give up life,/ Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath,” shows the hope that past Asians have endured to make a better life, and how there is a small breath of the then nascent future generation, which will rise up and be treated as equals.

5. “Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark,” is probably one of the greatest line for any poem ever. It says so much about the experiences that Asians face in America, and the way their ancestors endured much discrimination in order to make a better world.

“The Fish”

Elizabeth Bishop This poem is a narrative poem about a speaker who catches a fish. The fish is accepting of its fate. It is described as being not in good shape. Then the speaker lets the fish go. It takes place on a boat in a body of water. The speaker is the person fishing. This poem is about the shared fate of all people and animals, discovering one’s sexuality, and animal rights. It can be seen as how there is no hope for life and that the speaker has come to a realization that there is no meaning in the universe. There is only an inevitablity that eventually the speaker will be old and close to death. The speaker then learns that it is important to live while he/she can because life is short. It also is about sexuality. The fish is a metaphor for sexual desires which are shoved underneath a metaphorical body of water, which when one day resurfaces is an old dying fish. At the end the speaker finally accepts that s/he is a sexual being and that all the societal, psychological, religious, and legal reasons for sinking his or her sexuality should not be repressed, because sex is beautiful, and natural, like the fish. At the end there is a clear message about homosexuality. The repeated utterance of “rainbow”, a symbol of homosexuality, at the same that the speaker comes to a realization about their sexuality, plies that the speaker is a homosexual who has just discovered their orientation. In addition this poem is about animal rights. We see a definite epiphany happening, and this epiphany could be about the realization that animals are sacred, and that no one has the right to kill these sacred beings.

The most striking phrase in this poem is “until everything/ was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!/ And I let the fish go.” This creates a deeper meaning to the poem, than just about a fish.

“For the union Dead”

Robert Lowell This is a narrative poem. It is about a speaker who during the winter visits sites around Boston. He goes to the South Boston Aquarium and sees that it is falling apart. Then he goes to Boston Common , which is being torn up so that a parking garage can be placed underneath. Then the speaker sees memorials to the Colonel Shaw, and thinks about it, and then thinks about other memorials. Then the speaker reflects on the aquarium again.

This poem is about things changing and never being the same again. It mentions old things that people don’t remember anymore like, the Old Boston Aquarium, and Civil War memorials. It also mentions the Common being ripped up by construction trucks. This makes a statement about how everything moves on after death, whether it is Colonel Shaw, the South Boston Aquarium or the Boston Common, which is dying. Colonel Shaw died, and his family built him a memorial and then moved on witht heir lives. The South Boston Aquarium closed and people don’t try to counteract the aging the building goes through. The Boston Common, an old historical park is getting ripped up for a parking garage. The poem is about how the world is hcanging, and people are adapting. Some things will be forgotten, like the South Boston Aquarium. However people will be so adapted to the new world that they will not mind.

“The cambridge ladies…”

e.e. cummingS

Literally, this poem is about Cambridge ladies who are described as being interested in many things. This is a lyric poem about these so-called “Cambridge ladies.” The speaker seems to know about the habits of the Cambridge ladies, but nothing else is know of him or her. There is no setting, except for perhaps Cambridge, but Cambridge might be a last name and not a place. Abstractly, this poem is about Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls. In other words these are content people. They have their interests, such as “Christ and Longfellow”, and a “ so many things.” Cambridge ladies can be seen as being conformist middle class women. The poem is saying that they are silly in the view that this is a nice life. This poem is basically a criticism of religious people. It has a mocking tone when it refers to Christ and the “church's protestant blessings.” “Sky lavender and cornerless,” is describing how the sky is the unending sky which extends into space forever. Therefore it the sky is up there with a moon, which is real, all the myths about the sky are all wrong. The poem is stating why atheism is the best philosophy because sciences in the arbier of the truth, and the moon is the moon and not a god. “moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy,” is a great line, because angry candy is an awesome personification.

“next to of course god America I”

e.e cummings

This poem is about a male speaker who criticizes the United States and its beliefs. It seems to be in the wake of a war when the poem takes place. It is a lyric poem about the United States’ bad side. It is written like a rant by a person who is upset. This poem uses end rhyme. This poem is a criticism of things wrong with the United States. It is given like a rant, of a person, who says everything he feels and then sees that it has been said so he reacts by drinking some water. In this poem, it is implicated that the United States should not be jingoist and should stay out of wars because people get hurt in wars. “in every language even deafanddumb,” is an eye-catching phrase because it combines deafanddumb into one word.

“the Weary Blues”

Langston Hughes “The Weary Blues,” is a poem about a speaker who goes to Lennox Avenue and sees a person playing some blues songs about weariness, and isolation. It takes place on Lennox Avenue at night. This poem has a nice beat to it, and also follows a rhyme scheme. This poem is about being weary and isolated, especially of minorities. This is because the songs the singer sings are about being lonely and weary, but is also described as being of African descent. It implies that prejudice makes african people sad. “By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light,” is a good line from this poem, because it uses the word “pallor,” which is unique.

For Once then Something

Robert Frost This poem is about an educated person who sees water drops coming off a fern. The setting is near a fern. This is a lyric poem. The speaker has been taught, but learns from the fern as well. The cryptic nature of this poem is making a statement about finding truth in nature after a tangle of half-truths promulagted by elders. This rock is described as being “truth”

“Poetry”

Marianne Moore

This poem is about poetry and all the things it is associated with. The speaker and setting are hard to locate. However the structure of this poem is very pronounced. The speaker is knowledgeable about poetry and all the things people do to poetry in order to add meaning. The speaker also is saying that poetry is interesting. This poem is really post modern because it talks about poetry, when it is a poem itself. The poem is not trying to convey any message other than to be witty and self aware. “When they become so derivative as to become/ unintelligible,” this is a striking line because it brings to light what a lot of people do to poems., make unintelligable conclusions from them.

Mending Wall

Robert Frost

Literally this poem is about a man who is mending a wall wondering why the wall was built, and why it is still there. It is a narrative poem becomes it tells the story of a speaker who mends a wall. It is not in iambic pentameter. It takes place at a wall between two houses, in the spring. The speaker is the person fixing the wall.

The poem is very nice. It creates the feeling people have when they talk but do not communicate. The poem says something about how humans like to build walls. The speaker does not know much about the wall, and thinks about where it came from and who built it. Even though he does not know about the wall, he still fixes it. Lots of time people make or fix walls to isolate themselves from others. These people don’t know why, but they do.

The phrases, which are the most striking are “Good Fences make good neighbors,” and, “Something there is that doesn't love a wall.” The phrase “good fences make good neighbors” is so stand out because it is said more than once. “something there is that doesn’t love a wall” is an original way to phrase something, and as a result it stands out.

Home Burial

Robert Frost This poem is about a funeral. The speaker is different than in most poems, because the speaker describes some things, but a majority of the speaking in the poem is dialogue. There are two people who are discussing the events of a funeral. They are a husband and wife and their son has died. The husband is able to cope more easily than she is, and this upsets her. They have an argument as a result. It is a narrative poem The poem takes place by a window. The theme of this poem is death and the result that the inevitability of death and sadness from loss has on people. In the poem, the husband and wife cope at different rates, and have trouble understanding one another. It is implied that the marriage is not doing to well as a result of the death. “Oh, where’s my hat? Oh, I don’t need it!,” is a line that catches my eye, because it reminds me of how people should not feel the need to control every detail of their appearance. By realizing that a hat is not needed the speaker also makes a statement about how material possessions are not needed.

“After Apple-Picking”

Robert Frost This poem is a narrative poem about about apple picking. It takes place in an apple picking area. It takes place in the autumn. The speaker is an apple picker. The speaker is tired and during a spell of sleepiness experiences many dream like experiences. This poem has a theme of dreaming and fantasy worlds. There is an allusion to world of Alice in Wonderland in the line that says, “looking through a pane of glass,” which alludes to the title of Alice in Wonderland’s sequel Through the Looking Glass. This poem has much strange imagery. It is about dreams and how dreams are different than reality. “Magnified apples appear and disappear,” is an example of something that does not happen in reality that happened in the speaker’s dream. The poem is reminiscent of 1960s poetry influenced by pschoactvive substantces, however this is probably not realted to the poem ecause it was written prior to that era.

Two stand out lines are “I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough/ And held against the world of hoary grass. These lines seem like they are preparations of doing a drug, like absinthe or marijuana. The whole poem has allusions to drugs use in it, and that is one of the most profound examples.

“In a Station of the Metro”

Ezra Pound

This poem is about lyric poem, which is only two lines long. It is about a speaker being in a station of the metro, and seeing a faces, which are like petals on a branch. The setting is in a subway station The speaker is compares the faces to petals on a branch. On an abstract level, this poem is about creating new forms of communication. The story told in the poem is real swell. It expresses how faced all are different in the subway dark, so everyone soul trust it; the poem is more of a being a poem about being small and concise than being in a station by the metro. “in a station of the metro,” stands out because those are the only lines in the whole poem.