How to understand a poem Examine the basic subject of the poem • Consider the title of the poem carefully. What does it tell you about the poem's subject, tone, and genre? What does it promise? (After having read the poem, you will want to come back to the title in order to consider further its relationship with the poem.) • What is your initial impression of the poem's subject? Try writing out an answer to the question, "What is this poem about?"--and then return to this question throughout your analysis. Push yourself to be precise; aim for more than just a vague impression of the poem. What is the author's attitude toward his or her subject? • What is the poem's basic situation? What is going on in it? Who is talking? To whom? Under what circumstances? Where? About what? Why? Is a story being told? Is something--tangible or intangible--being described? What specifically can you point to in the poem to support your answers? • Because a poem is highly compressed, it may help you to try to unfold it by paraphrasing the poem aloud, moving line by line through it. If the poem is written in sentences, can you figure out what the subject of each one is? The verb? The object of the verb? What a modifier refers to? Try to untie any syntactic knots. • Is the poem built on a comparison or analogy? If so, how is the comparison appropriate? How are the two things alike? How different? • What is the author's attitude toward his subject? Serious? Reverent? Ironic? Satiric? Ambivalent? Hostile? Humorous? Detached? Witty? • Does the poem appeal to a reader's intellect? Emotions? Reason? Consider the context of the poem • Are there any allusions to other literary or historical figures or events? How do these add to the poem? How are they appropriate? • What do you know about this poet? About the age in which he or she wrote this poem? About other works by the same author? Study the form of the poem • Consider the sound and rhythm of the poem. Is there a metrical pattern? If so, how regular is it? Does the poet use rhyme? What do the meter and rhyme emphasize? Is there any alliteration? Assonance? Onomatopoeia? How do these relate to the poem's meaning? What effect do they create in the poem? • Are there divisions within the poem? Marked by stanzas? By rhyme? By shifts in subject? By shifts in perspective? How do these parts relate to each other? How are they appropriate for this poem? • How are the ideas in the poem ordered? Is there a progression of some sort? From simple to complex? From outer to inner? From past to present? From one place to another? Is there a climax of any sort? • What are the form and genre of this poem? What should you expect from such a poem? How does the poet use the form? Look at the word choice of the poem • One way to see the action in a poem is to list all its verbs. What do they tell you about the poem? • Are there difficult or confusing words? Even if you are only the slightest bit unsure about the meaning of a word, look it up in a good dictionary. If you are reading poetry written before the twentieth century, learn to use the Oxford English Dictionary, which can tell you how a word's definition and usage have changed over time. Be sure that you determine how a word is being used--as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb--so that you can find its appropriate meaning. Be sure also to consider various possible meanings of a word and be alert to subtle differences between words. A good poet uses language very carefully; as a good reader you in turn must be equally sensitive to the implications of word choice. • What mood is evoked in the poem? How is this accomplished? Consider the ways in which not only the meanings of words but also their sound and the poem's rhythms help to create its mood. • Is the language in the poem abstract or concrete? How is this appropriate to the poem's subject? • Are there any consistent patterns of words? For example, are there several references to flowers, or water, or politics, or religion in the poem? Look for groups of similar words. • Does the poet use figurative language? Are there metaphors in the poem? Similes? Is there any personification? Consider the appropriateness of such comparisons. Try to see why the poet chose a particular metaphor as opposed to other possible ones. Is there a pattern of any sort to the metaphors? Is there any metonymy in the poem? Synechdoche? Hyperbole? Oxymoron? Paradox? A dictionary of literary terms may be helpful here. Finishing Up • Ask, finally, about the poem, "So what?" What does it do? What does it say? What is its purpose? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdvDHbNkPOk
I know it's a bad title
but I'm giving it to
myself as a gift
on a day nearly canceled
by sunlight
when the entire hill is
approaching
the ideal of Virginia
brochured with goldenrod
and loblolly
and I think "at
least I have not woken up
with a bloody knife in my
hand"
by then having absently
wandered
one hundred yards from
the house
while still seated in
this chair
with my eyes closed.
It is a certain hill
the one I imagine when I
hear the word "hill"
and if the apocalypse
turns out
to be a world-wide
nervous breakdown
if our five billion minds
collapse at once
well I'd call that a
surprise ending
and this hill would still
be beautiful
a place I wouldn't mind
dying
alone or with you.
I am trying to get at
something
and I want to talk very
plainly to you
so that we are both
comforted by the honesty.
You see there is a window
by my desk
I stare out when I am stuck
though the outdoors has
rarely inspired me to write
and I don't know why I
keep staring at it.
My childhood hasn't made
good material either
mostly being a mulch of
white minutes
with a few stand out
moments,
popping tar bubbles on
the driveway in the summer
a certain amount of pride
at school
everytime they called it
"our sun"
and playing football when
the only play
was "go out
long" are what stand out now.
If squeezed for more
information
I can remember old clock
radios
with flipping metal numbers
and an entree called Surf
and Turf.
As a way of getting in
touch with my origins
every night I set the
alarm clock
for the time I was born
so that waking up
becomes a historical
reenactment and the first thing I do
is take a reading of the day and try to flow
with it like
when you're riding a mechanical bull and you
strain to learn
the pattern quickly so you don't
inadverantly resist it.
II two
I can't remember being
born
and no one else can
remember it either
even the doctor who I met
years later
at a cocktail party.
It's one of the little
disappointments
that makes you think
about getting away
going to Holly Springs or
Coral Gables
and taking a room on the
square
with a landlady whose
hands are scored
by disinfectant, telling
the people you meet
that you are from Alaska,
and listen
to what they have to say
about Alaska
until you have learned
much more about Alaska
than you ever will about
Holly Springs or Coral Gables.
Sometimes I am buying a
newspaper
in a strange city and
think
"I am about to learn
what it's like to live here.
"
Oftentimes there is a
news item
about the complaints of
homeowners
who live beside the
airport
and I realize that I read
an article
on this subject nearly
once a year
and always receive the
same image.
I am in bed late at night
in my house near the
airport
listening to the jets fly
overhead
a strange wife sleeping
beside me.
In my mind, the bedroom
is an amalgamation
of various cold medicine
commercial sets
(there is always a box of
tissue on the nightstand).
I know these recurring
news articles are clues,
flaws in the design
though I haven't figured out
how to string them
together yet,
but I've begun to notice
that the same people
are dying over and over
again,
for instance Minnie Pearl
who died this year
for the fourth time in
four years.
III three
Today is the first day of
Lent
and once again I'm not
really sure what it is.
How many more years will
I let pass
before I take the trouble
to ask someone?
It reminds of this
morning
when you were getting
ready for work.
I was sitting by the
space heater
numbly watching you dress
and when you asked why I
never wear a robe
I had so many good
reasons
I didn't know where to
begin.
If you were cool in high
school
you didn't ask too many
questions.
You could tell who'd been
to last night's
big metal concert by the
new t-shirts in the hallway.
You didn't have to ask
and that's what cool was:
the ability to deduct
to know without asking.
And the pressure to simulate
coolness
means not asking when you
don't know,
which is why kids grow
ever more stupid.
A yearbook's endpages,
filled with promises
to stay in touch, stand
as proof of the uselessness
of a teenager's promise.
Not like I'm dying
for a letter from the
class stoner
ten years on but.
. .
Do you remember the way
the girls
would call out "love
you!"
conveniently leaving out
the "I"
as if they didn't want to
commit
to their own
declarations.
I agree that the
"I" is a pretty heavy concept
and hope you won't get
uncomfortable
if I should go into some
deeper stuff here.
IV four
There are things I've
given up on
like recording funny
answering machine messages.
It's part of growing
older
and the human race as a
group
has matured along the
same lines.
It seems our comedy dates
the quickest.
If you laugh out loud at
Shakespeare's jokes
I hope you won't be
insulted
if I say you're trying
too hard.
Even sketches from the
original Saturday Night Live
seem slow-witted and
obvious now.
It's just that our
advances are irrepressible.
Nowadays little kids
can't even set up lemonade stands.
It makes people too
self-conscious about the past,
though try explaining
that to a kid.
I'm not saying it should
be this way.
All this new technology
will eventually give us
new feelings
that will never
completely displace the old ones
leaving everyone feeling
quite nervous
and split in two.
We will travel to Mars
even as folks on Earth
are still ripping open
potato chip
bags with their teeth.
Why? I don't have the
time or intelligence
to make all the
connections
like my friend Gordon
(this is a true story)
who grew up in Braintree
Massachusetts
and had never pictured a
brain snagged in a tree
until I brought it up.
He'd never broken the
name down to its parts.
By then it was too late.
He had moved to Coral
Gables.
V five
The hill out my window is
still looking beautiful
suffused in a kind of
gold national park light
and it seems to say,
I'm sorry the world could
not possibly
use another poem about
Orpheus
but I'm available if
you're not working
on a self-portrait or
anything.
I'm watching my dog have
nightmares,
twitching and whining on
the office floor
and I try to imagine what
beast
has cornered him in the
meadow
where his dreams are set.
I'm just letting the day
be what it is:
a place for a large
number of things
to gather and interact --
not even a place but an
occasion
a reality for real
things.
Friends warned me not to
get too psychedelic
or religious with this
piece:
"They won't accept
it if it's too psychedelic
or religious," but
these are valid topics
and I'm the one with the
dog twitching on the floor
possibly dreaming of me
that part of me that
would beat a dog
for no good reason
no reason that a dog
could see.
I am trying to get at
something so simple
that I have to talk
plainly
so the words don't
disfigure it
and if it turns out that
what I say is untrue
then at least let it be
harmless
like a leaky boat in the
reeds
that is bothering no one.
VI six
I can't trust the accuracy
of my own memories,
many of them having
blended with sentimental
telephone and margarine
commercials
plainly ruined by Madison
Avenue
though no one seems to
call the advertising world
"Madison
Avenue" anymore.
Have they moved?
Let's get an update on
this.
But first I have some
business to take care of.
I walked out to the hill
behind our house
which looks positively
Alaskan today
and it would be easier to
explain this
if I had a picture to
show you
but I was with our young
dog
and he was running
through the tall grass
like running through the
tall grass
is all of life together
until a bird calls or he
finds a beer can
and that thing fills all
the space in his head.
You see,
his mind can only hold
one thought at a time
and when he finally hears
me call his name
he looks up and cocks his
head
and for a single moment
my voice is everything:
Self-portrait
at 28.
|
Triathlon and study inspires my life,
ResponderEliminarAnd with God's help I can,
Fighting for your goals,
Working hard for help other people,
and improving myself for not be in the middle,
Important things are in my mind,
God, my family, and my whole life.
Thinking about the future makes me feel scare, but I look forward and not stay on rest, for work hard and be one of the best.
...for helping other people
Eliminar... for not being in the middle
... for working hard...
it's the weekend and the sun dips below
ResponderEliminarthat is when the air hollows out our fears
let is go clubbing, let is go anywhere but there
there is something perfect that the day shows
and i wake up next to the beautiful day
and the smiles are show
my family is in home
and I
I go the way of the life
the way of my life and my today
waiting
hoping that this weekend will be better
and is the best for me
and it is the best for me.
EliminarWell done!
Congrats.
Once it starts
ResponderEliminarit will never stop
The sun will shine my face
while you see my growing up
People come
people go
But other ones will be here
until I die, until I die
Music target my road
And knowledge gives me reasons
to know that time runs away
and my feelings get stronger
stronger than yesterday
Well done!.
EliminarCongrats!
the light morning,
ResponderEliminarthe sun is getting out,
the birds are singing,
and I am happy
The evening is coming,
the people are going to the bed,
everything are going to turn off,
and the day is over
Well done!
EliminarThe love
ResponderEliminarLove is a double edged sword
If is reciprocated is a blessing
I fis unnoticed heartbreaking
This can alter our world
-------------------------------------------------
Everybody dream with our love
Everybody want that this passion
Everybody need the communication
Of what we call love
---------------------------------------------------
Everybody need love
This is the solution
Fort he unión
Of this world which have
Hate in its hart
And not the beautiful love
-------------------End------------------------------
Ii is unnoticed...
EliminarEverybody dreams... wants...needs
for the union of ...
Well done!
*If is
ResponderEliminar*heart