"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" By: Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas left school at the age of sixteen to become a writer. His best known poem is this poem, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night". Thomas had a drinking problem which was the cause of his death at the age of 39, in 1953.

          The title of this poem is the first line, not surprisingly the line that is repeated several times throughout the poem. By just reading the title, we most likely think the poem will have a calm, melancholy, soft, tone or mood but as we read the poem, we get the sense the poem holds more of a sad and fearful tone. As we focus on the rhyme and meter of this poem, we see the pattern is a b a a b a...aa. We are able to identify the meter as iambic pentameter and at the end of the poem there is a couplet, two lines that are connected by the use of rhyme at the end of their verse. A couple times in this poem we see the use of enjambment, for example in lines 7 and 8 and lines 13 and 14, which helps to keep the poem flowing. The poem is structured so that each stanza has three or four lines, and each stanza except three repeat the refrain, "Do not go gentle into that good night".  We notice quite a bit of alliteration and assonance throughout the verses, along with the use of simile and metaphor. For example, good night is compared to death in the first stanza and also in the first stanza we see assonance within the words age, rave, and day.

"Symphony in Yellow" By: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is best known for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. He was arrested and imprisoned for being gay, and died at the age of 46 of meningitis.

          The focus of this poem is the metaphor and symbolism within the phrases and stanzas. We know from just reading the title that the color yellow will play a part in defining the deeper meaning of the poem. Each stanza mentions the color yellow, and within each of the ways the color is mentioned, it portrays a happy or bright meaning for what it is describing. In the second stanza, yellow is used in a way that makes darker objects become viewed as brighter, happier things rather than the dark objects they normally are seen as. For example a "yellow silken scarf" sounds elegant against a "thick fog" that hangs in the air. Now, focusing more on the poem as a whole, we can assume this scene is taking place in the fall season with gloomy weather. The color yellow is used throughout the entire poem, but when we enter the last stanza, the color green is mentioned, a "pale green". The changing of colors could be symbolic of how the seasons may be changing in the poem because in the last line "jade" can also be a color description to demonstrate a change occurring.  If we were to pick out a mood for this poem, the colors and peaceful scene being described in the poem would lead us to feel as though the mood is calm and angelic, with a tone that reflects change in the setting or time of year.

 

"My Papa's Waltz" By Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke was born in Saginaw, Michigan and lived a complex life. He suffered greatly from abandonment and loss, leading him to write some extremely great works in his day. He attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and died of a heart attack in his friends swimming pool.

     This poem, written by Theodore Roethke, can be interpreted in two ways. Depending on how the reader would like to view the poem, it can portray a happy memory or a depressing memory. My literal meaning of this poem is that the "waltz" occurring throughout the poem, is realistically another term used for the beating the father is doing to his son. The poet uses diction throughout this poem that can be interpreted in a couple of ways or be read in a contrasting manner. For example, the words "waltz", "beat",  "dizzy" and "romped" could have more than one meaning in the language of this specific piece of writing. In the way I read the poem, the language is a positive mask for a negative meaning. The way the "waltz" is described portrays the father as an alcoholic who comes home and beats his son in a routinely way. The speaker seems to be looking back with a feeling of sadness on a memory from his childhood. He wants to remember his father in a positive way but he knows from this specific memory, his father's actions are now poignant to how he remembers his childhood.

"To a Daughter Leaving Home" By Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan lived a very normal life; she went to school where the main focus of the curriculum was ethics. Her knowledge of ethics later showed in her pieces of work. Pastan started a family and stopped writing for a while, but then in 1960 picked up writing again, publishing some of her best works.

In this poem, Linda Pastan writes about a small piece of a story in which the speaker is narrating. We know from lines one and two that the person who is being referred to by the speaker was much younger in the story being told. The situation of this poem is a speaker, probably a mother, speaking to her daughter about leaving and moving on with her life. The daughter acts as the direct audience of this poem, being the focus of the mother's concern. The poet creates a tone that shows a sense of longing or despair, causing the poem to create an effect that portrays a mother caring for her daughter and remembering a time in which the daughter was portraying a time of growth in her life. The significance within the context of this poem is the idea of remembering and sending someone off to a new chapter of their life. The mother demonstrates acts of care and concern for her daughter, that in my view point, seems to be leaving for college or moving out of the house for a specific reason. This poem reflects more situation than setting in its context, but based on the situation the setting would be several years ago, outside somewhere.

"Hanging Fire" By Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde considered herself a "black feminist lesbian mother poet" who wrote poetry to simply communicate with others. She expresses pride, love, anger, fear and personal survival in her work and has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant.

This poem is focused primarily on the troubling emotions of a teenage girl. The speaker, whom could be either the author or just a character who is speaking, describes a roller coaster of emotions she is experiencing in her life. By reading this poem, we can conclude the speaker is unhappy with herself and is going through troubling times. She feels "not good enough" for the people in her life and for herself. The author adds descriptive images for the speaker to talk about and use as support for why she is so angry and sad and confused. After reading about the author, it fits well with the poem that the speaker is most likely the poet, but the poet could also be writing about an actual experience she has witnessed. The speaker of the poem uses depressing language and even the verb "die" more than once, portraying the idea of suicide. It is clear in this poem, the speaker, whether it is the poet or a character, is going through or went through a rough patch of their life. The repeated line "and momma's in the bedroom, with the door closed.", represents both the fear the speaker is feeling and also the trapped emotions she is dealing with.

"The Aim Was Song" By Robert Frost

Robert Frost was an educator as well a poet. He is a four time Pulitzer Prize Winner. Many of Frost's works depict life, through language and situations, that is familiar to the common man. 

When I first read this poem, I thought that the main focus was on the wind. But after reading it over a few more times, I realized the subject of the poem was the wind and a man. This poem is about a man who is trying to teach the wind how to properly blow. The man is trying to teach the wind to blow with more melody, or song. This is where readers can connect the title with the content of the poem; the aim of the wind is to create song or a better wind.The author uses personification to create a better understanding for what is occurring between the two main figures. If we took the meaning of this poem to a deeper level, we could talk about why the man is teaching the wind to blow and why the wind does not already know how to correctly blow. In the first line, "Before man came to blow it right", I am reminded slightly of time before man. It is as if the author was referring to why man came to earth, which we know is because we were created to complete God's work and make a difference; to teach.

"Barbie Doll" By Marge Piercy

Marge Piercy was born in Detroit and suffered through the Depression. She became sick in her teenage years and during this time of all her sickness she put all her love into books. She was the first person in her family to go to college, and much of her writing highlights factors in our lives that are taken away from us or held back from us. 

In this poem, the topic is focused on young girls and their appearances. Looking deeper into it, we can see that the theme of this poem is the pressure young girls have to look perfect. The author uses comparison and imagery to help readers understand the pressure young girls have on themselves to look exactly how everyone believes they should look. For example, in lines 12-15, we get an idea of what it is like to be objectified to the point of wearing ourselves down to the point of wanting to commit self- harm. The author uses a tone that focuses on struggle and death to convey the theme's message. When we read this poem, we are able to visualize the way society controls women and their actions and choices. The poem contains descriptive words to characterize young women and the way they are viewed as imperfect to outsiders. In lines 20-25, it is clearly identified the only way women think they can cope with their pain and insecurities is through suicide or by giving into their sadness. This piece of writing should be a reminder for all young women to stay strong and for all people to get an idea of what being rude to other people could do to their life. The theme of this poem is accurately expressed through the tone of the author and holds a great message within it.