Blog 4
“American Primitive” by William Jay Smith
This poem is really sad. I read it and I think it is about how the author’s dad is really old fashioned in the way that he cares more about his money than he does his own son. And maybe it is called “American Primitive” because Americans are so fixiated on becoming rich. This poem has three stanzas and it also has tercets in each one. There sort of a refrain that the author says in two of the three stanzas and I think it is what gives the poem the most emphasis because its “And I love my Daddy like he loves his Dollar”. Actually maybe the poem is about George Washington because of the title and then it talks a lot about a dollar. This poem also has a definate rhyme scheme of every other which makes the poem flow fairly easy. There is punctuation but things like Dollar and Daddy are capitolized perhaps to give more emphasis on those two words. There were some words that I had to look up like the word cravat which is a cloth that men wore around their necks. I think that, that makes the poet’s dad sound primitive because a cravat, according to the dictionary, is something that men wore mostly in the 17th century. Maybe the poet’s father is a civil war re-enactor.
“Titanic” by David R. Slavitt
This poem is obviously about the ship Titanic that sank in 1912. I like this poem a lot because I am really interested in Titanic. The first thing I notice that the lines in the poem do not really make sense and they are enjambment. There are five stanzas but some of them are tercets, some are quadrains and some are single lined. Even though I know what this poem is about, I am unsure about what some of the lines mean. I like the poet’s use of word choice like “The cold/water is anaesthetic and very quick.” I think that enables the reader to imagine exactly what he is talking about when describing how cold that water really was. “To go down….We all go down, mostly alone.” I think means that we all die but we usually all die by ourselves unlike the people on the famous ship who all died together. I think the last line of the poem is really signifigant even though I am not clear on what it may mean: “We all go:only a few, first-class.” I think that leaves the reader left to decipher the meaning of life maybe or maybe how rich people get the upper hand in every situation.
“American Poetry” by Louis Simpson
This poem is very short and only has two stanzas: one a tercet and one a quadrain. I like it because a. I have no idea what it means and b. because it is really succinct and c. because I think it is about how hard poetry is to decipher or understand. The poem starts out with “Whatever it is” which is referring to the title. I really like the imagery that the author uses to try and describe what is American Poetry is about and what it is. It does not have a distinct rhyme scheme but it does have correct grammar and punctuation. I think this poem is weird because it says “Like the shark, it has a shoe.” What? sharks don’t have shoes. Maybe the author uses this as a joke to say that poems don’t make sense so his poem isnt going to make sense since he is writing a poem. This is probably the shortest poem that I have ever encountered. I think I have had text messages that are longer than this poem. I wonder why the author made the poem so short because it seems like he could have gone on talking and using imagery to make fun of or try and explain what American poetry is like.
“My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun” by William
Shakespeare
I think this poem is rather funny. It is about how Shakespeare has a mistress but she is not pretty and how he basically doesnt love her. Actually this poem makes it sound like he hates her. The poem is one stanza with muliple lines although the last two lines are indented. There is a specific rhyme scheme with every other word rhyming. I think that this poem is interesting because each line is kind of long. Most of the poems I have been reading lately have had relativley short lines but this one has full sentences as lines. The poet also uses a lot of imagery to describe how un-pretty his mistress is. He compares hair to black wires and how music is a lot more delightful than her voice. He is actually really mean to her in this poem. He talks about how bad her breath smells and how her breasts suck, how her eyes dont glow and how her cheeks are not red. You have to wonder why this woman is even his mistress. I find this poem kind of ironic though because even though Shakespear is saying all of this really bad stuff about his mistress and basically how gross she is, the poem still sounds really beautiful. I think it is because the poet uses words like “roses” and “perfumes” and he just has that old english language going on which makes the poem sound a lot more romantic than it actually is.
