Blog 17
“Life” by Grace Treasome
The first thing that I notice about this poem is that it is written in only one single stanza with quadtrains within it. It follows an abab rhyme scheme because “tooth” and “root” ryhme as well as “heart” and “start”. I believe that this poem follows a stressed then unstressed rhyme scheme. Example, for the first line “Life is like a jagged tooth” I think that “Life” should be stressed and “is” should be unstressed and so on. The author uses one similie “Life is like a jagged tooth” comparing life to a jagged tooth. If I were to inerphret that that means I would think the author was trying to say that life isnt perfect. A jagged tooth is an image of a flaw so comparing it to life indicates to the reader that life is not perfect. The next line makes the life sound terrible: “that cuts into your heart”. I wouldnt really say that life “cuts” into your heart but this line paints an image that life is painful. In a sense I could see that being true but it also sounds morbid. “Fix the tooth and save the root” I think is a metaphor for fix a flaw in life maybe and keep what is important to you. The next line kind of confuses me: “and laughs, not tears, will start.” I undserstand “and laughs not tears” kind of means you know the ordinary, focusing on the good things will make you happy but “will start” is weird and I wonder what that means and why that is there. This poem is very short and if there were no line breaks would be one sentence. The author uses all correct grammar although she only capitalizes the first line instead of each new line. The first and third line have seven syallables and the second and fourth line have six syallables.
“Fog” by Carl Sandburg
This poem has two stanzas with couplets in the first stanza and quadtrains in the second stanza. There is no distinctive rhyme scheme. This poem uses really cool imagery because in the first stanza the author says that the fog comes on “little cat feet” I think that is so cute. That picture to me seems like the fog is creeping in really small and sly like a cat. It also makes me think of a cat walking through the fog. “It sits looking/over harbor and city/on silent haunches/and then moves on” is the second stanza. I think that a cat is a perfect example of something to compare fog too. They both creep in and stare and stuff silently and then walk away somehwere else. I think that the line breaks make sense because there is a main focus on each line. “looking”, “harbor and city” “silent” and “moves on” are all the main ideas of the poem and that is why I think they are on separate lines. I think that the poem follows an unstressed stressed pattern. I think it is interesting that this poem was written in 1916 because it seems like something that was written recently. I really like this poem a lot because I never would have been able to think of comparing fog to a little cats feet but now everytime I think of fog I will think of the cat. I like this poem a lot.
“Missed Time” by Ha Jin
This poem has two stanzas with five lines in each. The poem has no specific rhyme scheme. The poem does have enjabment because some thoughts start and end in the same line. For example, “around me. I have no use” this makes the line brake random and you wonder why he just didnt start a new line. I really like this poem because it is about how a man doesnt write in his notebook anymore because he is in love with someone and doesnt need to record how much he loves her. The second stanza is cute because the narrator goes “when I am gone, let others say/they lost a happy man/though no one can tell how happy I was”. I think this is sooo cute because maybe he cant write down how much he loves this girl and since he loves her so much he doesnt want to record it or cant. I think that this poem however gets across how much he is in love by how he describes that he himself doesnt even know how much he loves this girl. You know that he isnt sad about not writing in his notebook because he says that his pen lies “languorously without grief”. I think this title however is interesting though becuse its called “missed time”. You would think that since he is happy with his lover that he wouldnt title not writing in his notebook as “missed time”. I would think he would have named it something more like “no need for words” or something like that. I like this poem because I think it is so cute. I like that this man is happy because it makes the tone of the poem cute and happy.
