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.

William Carlos Williams

Today I would like to talk about William Carlos Williams' "Danse Russe". This poem is somewhat short with two stanzas and 19 lines. I found this poem to be somewhat humerouse to me. I interpreted this poem to be about a male character in his home. When all his family members go to sleep, he then releases his innerself and basically runs around naked. He goes on to admire himself in the mirror and feel on top of the world. I find this to be funny because many, many females do this when no one is around. I find this to be very literral to some extreme. I don't think that most men would dance around the house naked, but I do think that they would do somethings that they may not otherwise do infront of their family. I also find the last line to be very powerful, "the happy genius of my household". I think he has found his dominance in his home when there is no one else to dominate. He has done all the things that he might not to while they are around and feels that nothing can stop him so now he is the leader.

Mina Loy

Today I would like to talk about Mina Loy's poem, "Gertrude Stein". This poem is one stanza long with nine lines. It has personification in lines 5-7 as follows, "she crushed/ the tonnage/ of consciousness". It is known after reading the biography, that Mina Loy was friends with Gertrude Stein, but why would she name a poem after her? Through  my research I found that Gertrude  Stein was a lesbiand, actually she was infactuated with the fact of being a lesbiand. Most people say that that is all she could talk and write about. It is never stated anywhere that I could find, that Gertrude and Mina had sexual relations, but shouldn't it be questioned? Could this poem be a secret love poem to Gertrude. Clearly the poem is to Gertrude, given that that is the title, but what about the content. The poem talks about a famous scientist, Mari Curie, who discovered radium and was the first woman to win the Nobel Piece Prize. But why would Mina write a poem about a scientist and name it after Gertrude? Obviously there has to be symmbolism in this poem. The way I interpreted this is that the whole poem is a symbol. The poem goes on to explain how the scientist powered through to find "radium". I found this in the same lines I mentioned before. I feel that Mina Loy is trying to symbolize all the Gertrude Stein pushed through, possibly including her lesbianism, if that is even a word. I do however feel that Mina Loy wrote this poem as a reflection of Gertrude Stein's accomplishments and did so through symbolyism of an astonishing scientist.

Marianne Moore

Today I would like to talk about Marianne Moore's "The Fish". I would first like to start off by saying that I love the fact that she writes about animals. I am a zoology major and it is so nice to read the feelings of what another person sees in an animal or the way that person interprets the animal. The next thing I would like to talk about is the way the Marianne aranges her stanzas. She does not really care about metrical rythm or endstops, but more of what her stanzas physically look like. In this particular poem she creats her stanzas in such a way that they look diagnal. Marianne even cuts words apart, such in stanza 7, just to make all the stanzas appear in this mannar. I really enjoyed reading this poem not only because the content is something that I am so interested in, but the fact that it is a bresh of fresh air to see a poem arranged like this. To see creativity and not just the normal day to day stanza. I am sure that a lot of modernist viewed this as unproffesional or maybe even stupid but I Marianne to be one of the most interesting writers I have seen so far in this book. The similies she uses to describe things and the word choice she uses, paints such a vivid picture in my mind that I almost feel as if I am there with her. "Crabs like green lillies", "submarine toadstools", these are just some of the words that caught my attention and sent me into this setting Moore has created. I feel that Marianne Moore just may have become my new favorite poet.

Wallace Stevens

Today I have chosen to talk about Wallace Stevens's "The Emperor of Ice-Cream". This is a rather short poem of just two stanzas both of wich are octaves. There is use of anaphora with the word "Let" in lines 4 and 7 in the first stanza and again in line 15 of the second stanza. Stevens also used rhym in lines 7 and 8 with the words seem and cream and again in  lines 14 and fifteen with the words beam and cream. I could sit here and practice analyzing this whole time but I would also like to talk about my interpretation of this poem. I take this so called "emperor of ice-cream" to soemwhat be of a disgrace. In lines 12 and 13 it talks about how "cold and dumb" the girl would be to let her feet protrude. To me this sound very sexual. This girl would be looked down upon if she slept with this whore of a man. The poem sort of glorifies this person with all the vivide pictures Stevens paints with the descriptions of the boys carrying flowers and the women in dresses. This man is glorified but not by this narrartor, instead this narrarotor is being  very sarcastice at the beginning. Insulting this character by saying bring all these great things it means nothing. I do however wonder if the narrartor has some sort of connection to the woman in the poem and maybe there could be a sense of jealousy. I am hoping that we discuss this poem in class so that I can get a better understanding for what this truely is about and if I am even close in my interpretation. 

Wasteland part 2!

Well it turns out that I was somewhat on the right track about this poem. When considering fragmentations and after listening to the poem in class, it is clear that there was different characters speaking in this poem. It is also clear that this poem is very much so about death. We talked in class about possiblities along the lines of death and I personally think that this poem is indeed talking about society after the war. War is a very devistating and disasterful event. Of course there was death in large numbers and devistation everywhere. I think that Eliot was trying to take one perspective or one story but use the different charecters to express different feeling. My favorite part of this poem is all the anologies to the bible and Jesus Christ. It shows that in even the worst of times, even in war, there is hope through faith and the lord. I think Eliot does a wonderful job at making a reader envision these biblical references and also giving the sence of a happy ending. I can see why this poem made it so famous. Obviously war topics generally make it in the spot light but Eliot took it into the modernist view and was bold enough to bring faith and hope into the picture. After the class discussion of this poem I have begun to understand this poem much more and hope that tomorrows class period will make me even more familiar.