Philip Larkin

Today I would like to write about Philip Larkin's "High Windows". This is a rather short poem with six stanzas with a total of twenty lines. When I first read this poem, I had to read it again because I was unclear what the author was trying to get across. I often find myself getting lost in words such as cus words or crude words. It is almost as if these words distract me and I sit there trying to figure out why the author chose those words, instead of trying to find out what the poem is really meaning. As I read this poem the second time, I went under the impression that this was a man looking in on another persons life. This character was seeing the kids and happiness and stereo typing that this was paradise. This is what caught my attention the most. As I am only eighteen, I still think to myself how bad I want to just start a family and be a part of this so called paradise, but why rush it? Another one of Larkin's like was as follows, "...I wonder if/ Anyone looked at me, fourty years back,/ And though, That'll be the life;" (lines 9-11). This line stood out to me for the simple fact that it made me think the same thing. Does anyone look at me and find themselves picturing "paradise" with me? This poem almost made me feel like my biological time clock was clicking. It made me realize how much I do not want to end up like this character, looking into anothers life an wishing I had theirs. Now, I may be completely off on this interpretaion of the poem, but like they say, everyone interprets poems differently. I also read "Sad Steps" and would reccomend any of you who read my blogs to read that poem as well.

Elizabeth Bishop

Today I would like to talk about Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish". As many of you know by now, I am a zoology major so I am very intrigued by poems about animals. This poem cauth my attention almost imediatly with the various adjectives she choses to describe the fish. The first line reads as follows, "I caught a temeddous fish/ and held him beside the boat. half out of water, with my hook/fast in the corner of his mouth." (lines 1-4). These opening lines give you a vivid picture of the setting this person is in. Obviously the character is fishing but this author's descriptions only get better through out the poem. Another line that I really enjoyed was as follows, "...Here and there/his brown skin hung in strips like ancient walpaper," (lines 9-11). It is here we start envisioning the fish, When I read this line I picture old brown, wrinkly wall paper draped across his body. I also really liked the line about the fish's gills, "While his gills ere breathing in/the terrible oxygen--the frightening gills,/ fresh and crisp with blood," (lines 22-25). My absolute favorite piece of this entire poem, is when the author describes the fish's beard, or so we think. "if you could call it a lip/ grim, wet, and weaponlike,/ hung five old pieces of fish-line,/ or four and a wire leade....Like medals with their ribbons/ frayed and wavering,/ a five-haired beard of wisdom/trailing from his aching jaw". This shows not only how many times this fish had gotten away but his will to live. The poem goes on to explain the feelings the character felt and how the person goes on to let the fish go to live and keep growing his beard.

Dylan Thomas

Today I would like to talk about Dylan Thomas' "Twenty-four Years". After reading just a few of Dylan Thomas' poems, it is clear that he has an obession with death. In the biography that you read before the poems, it states how he enjoyed writing about this darkness with crude and twisted words. His goal was to take an image and undress it, then lay it out for the reader. The moment I read this poem I felt sadness and darkness. I most certainly got the vibe of death and wanted to take it a little further. I did a little more research on this poem and found out that the title was the meaning of his twenty-fourth birthday. It is said that he often did poems to celebrate his birthday but, this was the first one. My question is, why is Dylan Thomas feeling such sadness in a celebratory time. The opening line leads me to think that his life was not so great, "Twenty-four years remind the tears of my eyes." (line 1). It is obvious that as he thinks of the past years up until that point, something is bringing him grief and saddness. There is one line that really stood out to me painting a very grusome and frightening image, "By the light of the meat-eating sun." (line 5). This almost shocked me because when I think of the sun, I think of warm summer days with happiness and laughter. When I read this line by Dylan Thomas, I get this image in my head, almost of a cartoon devil sun. This was probably his goal since he was so intrigued with death. Another line that created a cartoonist image in my head was as follows, "With my red veins full of money," (line 7). The second I got done reading this line, all I imagined was money bills soaring through these red hot veins. The last line brought me to somewhat of a conclustion of what this poem was really about, "I advance for as long as forever is." (line 9). This line gives me the idea that this poem was possibly about him outliving death after twenty-four years. He advanced on to forever. Now this could also mean that he advanced on to heaven making this a fictional poem because as we know he lived past the age of twenty-four, but beings that he followed the Christian ways, it is possible that he was talking about advancing to heaven. As usual I hope this poem is discussed in class so that I can get a better understanding of just what Dylan Thomas was feeling on his birthday.

Howl, Ginsberg

As you know, today we had to read "Howl" by Allen Gisberg. I would like to start by saying I hope I wasnt the only one who was a little confused while reading this poem. I am glad that we are talking about it in class but a little worried for the quiz. If it wasn't for the subscripts at the bottom I am not sure that I would know much of anything about this poem but here it goes. I understand that through much of the poem he is talking about being in an instatute for the mentally insane. I believe it sort of explains how he got there through the pictures on the window and such. I think the thing that confused me was that Ginsberg would jump from one person to another. Although I thought this was creative that he would refer to other authors I found it a little confusing in the story line. I understand that he put hints in there such as the Rocky Mountains and so fourth but I am still very lost. I also wonder why he puts such obsene things in this poem. I am not offended by them but curious as to why they are in there. Through my previous readings, I understand that he is homosexual, but in this poem he makes anal sex seem like a punishment. I hope that through next class period I will be able to understand this poem much better because the way I see it now I am completely lost. "Howl", you have officially baffled me.

Allen Ginsberg

Today I would like to write about Allen Ginsberg's "Sphincter". This poem is only twenty lines but some of the most disturbing twenty lines I have ever read. The title its self means "Ringlinke muscle that maintains costriction of an orifice, such as the anus". That was the first distrubing thing I cam upon right off that bat. I did read in the biography that Ginsberg was in fact homosexual, but little did I know how explicit he was. I chose this poem because it was taking me outside of my comfort zone. I come from a very small town where homosexuality is not only frowned upon but it just is much heard of either. While reading this poem I got the sence of a very proud homosexual who is not afraid to talk about personal things such as his "asshole" or "hemorrhoids". He even goes as far to talk about AIDs and how he is afraid of them but it does not stop him from having anal sex. I am curious as to how his lovers or past sexual relations felt about this poem. I am sure they knew he was explicit about his sexuality but did they know he was this proud of preforming anal sex. It also make me question if all homosexuals are like this. I am glad I read this poem just to get a taste of what homosexuality is really all about. Although it took me outside of my comfort zone it also brought be a great insight about Allen Ginsberg.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Today I would like to write about Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "Dog". This poem is rather long including eighty-four lines. The way I interpreted this poem when I began reading it, was simply a dog wondering around the city. The reader imideiatly gets and image about the setting of where this dog is and the things he is seeing. I think that imagery is one of the things that Lawrence mastered in this poem. As I went on reading the poem, I began realizing that this poem was not just about some dog wondering the streets, but instead how a human should live their life. The poem talks about how the dog does not care about the policemen because they are useless to him. This is a huge symbol to me about how we should live our lives. We should not worry about what those we don't care about think about us, instead we should continue on "through the streets". Another thing that I noticed about this poem was that Lawrence used a pun with the the words "tale" and "tail" in lines 54-56. I also noticed a lot of personification given to the dog in what I thought was the attempt to symbolize a human. In line 58 it states that the dog is deomocratic which clearly is impossible, there for not only showing the symbolism but the metaphore used as well. I think that my favorite part of this poem was one that it was about an animal and I love animals being that I am a zoology major, and two that for the first time I felt like I was reading a story. I know that a lot of the poems that we have read are telling stories,  but I have never felt like it was a story until reading this poem. I also enjoyed the staggering of stanzas toward the end of the poem. It showed creativity and that Lawrence did not want to be like the writers before him. The last thing I would like to talk about is the last lines of the poem, "just about to spout forth/some Victorian answer/to everything" (lines 82-83). I found this rahter amusing because I have spent a lot of time this semester writing about the modernists and their "truth". I find the comment in the above lines amusing in the sense that Lawrence is poking fun at the Victorian era in the sence that they always had some idealistic answer for everything.