In high school, I remember talking about the meaning of the poem we were reading, which was called “Leda and the Swan”, and I remember thinking “What the hell is this about.” Poems usually never make any sense to me, so I have always hated reading them. I never felt that I really understood the actual meaning of the poems. Someone would start saying what they thought about it and I would just think “How did you get that from this? ” The two poems I read were “Otherwise”, by Jane Kenyon, and “Hay for the Horses”,by Gary Snyder. I made sure to read them slowly and more than once to try to really understand what the poem is about.
My reaction to the poem “Otherwise” was different after I read it a couple of times. In the poem, it repeats the line, “It might have been otherwise” (Kenyon). The first time I read the poem I thought she wanted her life to be different. I felt that she was explaining what she does everyday and that she wanted to change things up, especially in the last line when it says, “But one day, I know, it will be otherwise.” I started thinking about my life and when I leave to go to Michigan State in the spring that there is going to be change that I can’t wait for. I want change in my life, instead of doing the same thing everyday and I felt that was what the poem was about. Then I read it a few more times and the meaning of the poem became much more different.
The second and third time I read the poem my reaction was the opposite. I realized she doesn’t want her life to change; she is explaining what she does everyday because she wants every day to be like that. It says, “I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach...All morning I did the work that I love.” When she describes the peach as flawless and that she loves her work, I saw it was more about her realizing how good her life is and that she doesn’t want those days to change.
The meaning of the last line that says, “But one day, I know, it will be otherwise” changed for me and the feel of the poem changed as well. After finding out what the poem really was about, the poem became sad for me instead of a more exciting feeling which I had the first time. It is almost as if she knows something bad is going to happen and that she only
The tone of this poem is a mixture of emotions. She seems to enjoy being in his company, although the stories he shares break her heart. She expresses her conflicting feeling when she states the following:
I decided to pick this poem for a couple reasons. First, I read it though once, and understood the big picture, but I didn’t understand certain lines. Second, I relate to this poem because when I cook, I always make sure that the amount of food that goes into the trash is minimum. If I don’t, I feel guilty for the rest of the day. Third, I love potatoes and some people call me a potato so it was cool finding a poem with my name in the title.
From my understanding of this poem I believe that this poem talks about regrets. We all have regrets about things we have done or said or even not done or said. Like that moment when you have an argument with your parents and after they leave your room, you think about everything you wish you could have said. I believe that sometimes regrets might not be the best things but sometime they help you later in life. In this poem the girl is talking about how she was asked to go on a bike ride with some of the older boys, and how she didn't go, but wanted to go. The poem talks about the regrets we will have in the long run.
The woman being described in Maxine’s poem is confident in her own skin, where Maxine says, “The woman I am in my dreams, is taller than I am, she sees the world as she walks” this suggests that the woman always has her head up high and takes in the world as she walks. The woman wears red “spike heels” and “that woman walks only when she feels like not running, not jogging” would suggest the woman is physically capable of both running and walking. The verse “they don’t hide under long skirts; her legs and feet are well” would elude that the woman in the poem isn’t afraid to show off her legs which would support the idea that she is physically able.
Overall, this poem shows the past, present, and future of the writer. His life is full of regret at points and then seems hopeful in others. This poem could be viewed in many ways but mostly you understand it as a man who wishes he could change his past because he knows his future is near and his life will soon be coming to an
As you can see the general idea of this poem is that her and her husband are deeply in love and truly care about one another. This love that they share, she values and she will never let anyone take it away from her. She also goes on to talk about the afterlife and how great their love is now, that she cannot wait until she gets to spend eternal life with him. Through this poem one is seeing the view of Bradstreet that is shown in the majority of her poetry. She is seen how she wants to be seen as a devoted Puritan wife that is so in love with her husband that she would do anything for him. She also ties in something about God too, because he is supposed to be her focus in life. This poem, though, is only one side of Anne Bradstreet.
I think that the moral of this poem is that life is precious, and that life should never be taken for granted. I think this is because the whole poem is comparisons between life and death, and because she says that the people who have passed away would do anything possible to come back to life, even under the worst conditions, to be loved, to love, and to be with the people they
From the beginning of the poem, the reader can tell that the tone of the poem is consistent. There is no shift in tone, it’s simply sad and bitter. The father notices the innocence of his daughter and knows that there is bad luck that is coming for her future. The reader is able to see the father’s concern throughout the poem when he says that the “night’s slow poison” will change her. He knows that this issue cannot be changed, so he is doing what he can to avoid it becoming a bigger dilemma. By the end of the poem, it’s easy to notice that the father has become angry about the situation that is brought upon him. In the last two lines, the father decides that he doesn’t want to have children because of all the things he sees in their future, nothing but pain and suffering. His decision is expressed in the way he says “These speculations sour in the sun. I have
Literature is such a beautiful thing because it does not give us an answer to it's questions. There are so many iffy spots that leave us to develop our own thoughts and feelings toward the piece of work. This is an interesting factor because at many times it affects us in a different way and can develop us as an individual. When reading a piece of literature, one person can interpret it in different ways than another person reading the same piece of work. I remember analyzing poems with my English class in the previous years and when we were asked to interpret it, we all had different answers. Sometimes what I got out of the poem didnt even go close to the direction that my classmate
As the poem goes on it gets deeper with meaning, sadder even. Lines four and five are the most crucial lines of the poem. Line three ends with the head giving the heart advice. “You will lose the ones you love. They will all go,” this isn’t the first thing someone wants to hear, especially not someone who is aware that they have just lost someone they love. But this is classic, logical advice that your emotions need to hear. What it means is that one day everyone you love will be gone, it is the sad truth of the world we live in. Nothing is forever. “But even the earth will go,
As the poem moves along, she focuses on the growing baby inside her and the reaction she expects from her husband. The woman‘s statement “I know you’ll say it makes your
As we reach the end of the poem, the speakers attitude changes. The mother realizes that aging is just a part of life. We all get older, we all start to wrinkle and our hair color eventually turns grey. She realizes that at some point she has to let go of her daughter’s childhood so that she can start a family of her own one day and keep the generation going. The speaker and the daughter are moving forward in their lives but their aging processes, at the time, are
n the introduction of the poem the writer mentions that the poem is meant to relate to the speakers experience with encountering nature. With much thought into this idea, could you not say that you could relate this poem to the experience of the way society is changing today. In our lives we get use to certain people that we could never "unnoticed" them, but there are a couple of others that we may not even bother with or notice they are there. In the first stanza they question the appearance of the fellow and in reality that may be them questioning the appearance of some people in their lives.
The woman in the poem feels as if she is being forgotten by her husband and children. As she gets older, she experiences loss of loved ones until she is seemingly alone. Not surprising whatsoever, Gwendolyn Brooks has made yet another relatable poem. Whether they admit it or not, everyone in their lifetime feels as if they are lonely in some hard times. Brooks has the ability to create a character that portrays a complicated feeling incredibly well, which is a quality that every writer would wish to accomplish. Brooks’ talent as a writer is heightened in this poem, mostly because she shows how much she truly can transform her writing into a complex poem for audiences to think about. In doing this, she uses personification to add to the creativity of this poem in the line “the grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown.” This is symbolic for autumn and the aging of a person’s physical features, because just as plants age from spring to fall, people age from a child to grow wrinkly, shriveled and no longer full of youth. Brooks incorporates repetition into this specific poem. For example, in this piece of poetry she repeats “I am a woman,” ”it is summer-gone,” and writes “I am cold in this cold house this house.” All of these uses of repetition emphasize the development from a younger woman to the older-age of womanhood. The manner Gwendolyn Brooks goes about writing this poem hints to the
In both pieces she wishes to be detached from love and responsibility, yet as the poem progresses, she has a change of heart, almost an epiphany.