Looking back from the beginning.

Good ol' introduction to poetry!!!!

Well I decided to go through this poem again (to be honest) because intellectually I'm quite brain fried from working on the independent reading assignment.
This poem is of huge significance to our class because we did EXACTLY what the poem says that people do when they begin to read poetry, they simply try to beat the sense out of it. Trying to make sense of words that seem to not make sense is a hard task to do, but I firmly believe that our class has done a good job of trying to move forward from the difficult task of beating out the sense.
Poetry is meant to  be enjoyable whether it may be a happy poem or sad poem - that doesn't lack the enjoyment out of it.
If I can be completely honest? Poetry has significantly grown on me. Once I learned to let go of trying to make sense of the "un" sensable (lol) I was able to actually enjoy the strange and different way that poetry enables us to think.

HumanCoverings.

The Book

Miller Williams

I held it in my hands while he told the story.

He had found it in a fallen bunker,

a book for notes with all the pages blank.

He took it to keep for a sketchbook and diary.

He learned years later, when he showed the book

to an old bookbinder, who paled, and stepped back

a long step and told him what he held,

what he had laid the days of his life in.

It’s bound, the binder said, in human skin.

I stood turning it over in my hands,

turning it in my head.  Human skin.

What child did this skin fit?  What man, what woman?

Dragged still full of its flesh from what dream?

Who took it off the meat?  Some other one

who stayed alive by knowing how to do this?

I stared at the changing book and a horror grew,

I stared and a horror grew, which was, which is,

how beautiful it was until I knew.

Fortunately near the end of the poem the realization that the author isn't talking about an actual book made from human skin  was very helpful in trying to figure out what this poem is saying.
"I held it in my hands while he told the story..." The significance of this beginning is in the simplicity of it, automatically the author has the reader glued in on guessing what the story may be about and what the end of it will conclude.
As the poem furthers in stanza 4 the drama of the poem enfolds, the book that he held was of human skin. He wondered who's could it be a child? A man? A woman? But prior the knowledge he had recieved the book had been a thing of beauty that he could look at.
The authors structure with the poem has an emphasis for dramatic elements, he places the spaces where they are to dramatize the piece. Williams also consistently is asking questions of why? how? and who?
Which really puts it on the reader themselves to answer for him, although there may not even be a sufficient answer to the question.

Again, the book is not of ACTUAL human skin, that would be quite horrifying- but rather the book is his life. The life that he is looking at could give him disgust and horror because he refused to do anything of real merit. The book was "found in a fallen bunker", it had been mistreated and forgotten, until the realization of someone else brought about the idea unto the person whos life is written on those pages.
The book is a symbol of cruelty, being that the person who is holding the book finds its past to be horrifying, which could also be a metaphor for someones life.

What the poem chooses to focus on isn't the content of the book, but rather the cover of it. The cover which binds this book is the importance.

Mirror mirror on the wall..

It was a dream

Lucille Clifton

in which my greater self

rose up before me

accusing me of my life

with her extra finger

whirling in a gyre of rage

at what my days had come to.

what,

i pleaded with her, could i do,

oh what could I have done?

and she twisted her wild hair

and sparked her wild eyes

and screamed as long as

i could hear her

This.  This.  This.

Lucille Clifton lived her life for her poetry, she was awarded countless prizes and in 1999 became the chancellor of the academy of American poets, unfortunately in 2010 Clifton passed away to the killer disease- cancer. The reason I feel this background knowledge is essential, is that upon reading ABOUT the writer, I understoof more fully the meaning as the reader.

The title of the poem was merely a first line of the poem itself, without the title the readers would be completely lost. The other interesting observation about the poem is that she did not separate the lines into separate couplets or stanzas, she just kept it in one neat and tidy stanza. Her reasoning could have been that she feels that the poem will explain itself, there's no need for extra detail or fluffiness, the poem will work better under the readers interpretation.

I am pretty sure that everyone has had those moments with their parents when one lecture seems to ultimately become their day job, or the fact that you refuse to make your bed turns into- " you're always late to class, you aren't focused enough, you can't take things seriously..."
At then end of the poem what Clifton is trying to emphasize our own ability to do that to ourselves, " This doesn't look right, this can't be helpful, this is merely a waste of time."
We need to reflect upon ourselves but not in a negative way, there is a way to look at things with the glass half full and I think that Clifton was taking a round about way at looking at that.

The beauty in a poet is there sense of understanding that they will have to leave it up to the reader to think for themselves, and not let a mirror do it for you.

Desert Places.

Robert Frost seems to always fascinate me with his figurative language, the imagery seems to float off the page and seemingly- in front of you.

The snow which primarily in the first stanza could symbolize a coldness that seems to be covering the entire plain, on the other side, snow is also something that is very pure and bright. In a poem named Desert Places, many would think of the arid and sunny desert, but in this situation Frost is using the desert as a forgotten arctic wasteland. This wasteland is torn up with his lonliness and sorrow, but he refuses to be frightened of the empty space he see's out in front of him because he knows that this is a place in his OWN mind.
A desert has been referred to as a place which may take a very long time to leave, therefore; he is having problems leaving the own loneliness of his mind.

I know this may sound cliche but the man is having a self reflection. Reflection seems to make the best story because that is when we entirely figure out (obviously) who we are, and where we're supposed to go. Someone else pursuing self reflection serves as a beginning point for others to look at themselves as well. We learn best from others, but uiltimately it is up to us to change our lives....

Poe Poe Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe never has ceased to amaze people with his elaborate way of telling a story in a poem form, and in such a bleak tone. Poe has always been an author that has seemed so strange to me, not only because of WHAT he writes about but the tone he sets nearly every single one of his writings in.

The poem Alone, isn't very hard to suggest why he chose to title it in the way that he did, is an detailing the way in which a person who has been alone may think but the detail is in such a way that adds such depth and heartbreak, which in turn brings the reader in. There were several lines that depicted the "angst" in which the title suggests he is in such as,"My sorrow- I could not awaken", the loneliness that he is feeling cannot be dismissed nor hidden. He compares that of many things in nature, including; the storm, lightning, and mountain, which could suggest that he feels as if his life is one that he is unable to control much like the roaring of the storm or cliffs of a mountain we cannot fathom to posses.

The ending of the poem is usually always the most important and that remains true with this poem. "And the cloud that took form ( When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view."
This analytically suggests that near the end of this life reflection- he cannot find a way out of his sadness and feels as if the only view he can see is the demon. A demon is are those beings cast out of Hell sent to earth to dwell and grow stronger from those mistakes done by humankind, demons are believed to be strong beings that rely on the doubting emotions to make them stronger because all negative attitudes done by humans are done by Satan and only seek the bad. With the background knowledge of demons made known by my church I can further understand the depth of the mans loneliness, and sorrow. By using the ending of the poem relating to the evil beings suggests his sorrow.... will never leave him.

To be KNOWN is to be LOVED, and to be LOVED is to be KNOWN.

This is a friendly reminder of how much God loves us, and beyond that

how much he wants us to come to Him with every longing in our hearts.

"I Thirst" is what he said on the cross of Calvary, he wasn't speaking

of  a physical thirst but rather a thirst of love that can only be found in His children.

I Thirst for you....

Bitterness.

The poem Untitled by Stephen Crane had a very dismembered meaning behind it. This poem was not read to be analyzed as literal, meaning that the "being" is not actually eating his REAL heart but rather looking inside the soul. The author looks at this creature amidst the desert, and many times the desert (as in the bible) is looked upon a place that ceases to have hope...the bitterness would be easy to gain insuch a desolate place. The creature that the author is looking at is holding his heart.
HOLDING HIS HEART.
 Automatically the human reaction is disgust, repulse, and even pity. As we look further into the "holding" of his heart and ultimately eating it that is the refelction of human kind on their character and what may be held deep inside the heart.
"I said: 'Is it good, friend?"'
This line is the potential we have as humans to pass by the anguish of another, many times we would rather ignore the helpless than help them get through the day. The answer of the "creature" is simple, "It is bitter..".
Poems are meant to be symbols, and this line is a deep reflection of what the human character has to reside to when they have seen no love. No love causes us to grow bitter, and see ourselves as though creatures growing bitter against everything throughout the world.
The structure of the poem is simple and short, it requires no further explination of the story. Along with the title of the poem being "Untitled" could go from the story being untitled.. or even the creature. The creature being unknown, unloved-and further- untitled.