To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet (Poem #8)

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay; 
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever.

I liked how this poem was written overall. She’s comparing the love she has to riches, that she prizes their love more than people would prize many mines of gold or any riches. She is explaining that her love cannot quench a river because there is too much of it, that there is no way to make it stop. The narrator knows that this love has no price tag, so it cannot be repaid. She is hoping that no matter what, their love with continue through, in which the author said, “Then while we live, in love let’s so persever”.  All of these things make the poem very interesting to follow, and easy to understand how much she may love her husband, which is implied to be endless. It’s weird though because it almost sounds like she is implying that she will never love him as much as he loves her. The narrator also mentioned this idea, “If ever two were one, then surely we,” which indicates they are like ‘two peas in a pod’, always on the same page, with the same mind set; it’s interesting she didn’t outwardly say this, but from this quote, the reader can interpret what the narrator was trying to say between the lines. It’s also interesting the fact that the narrator is speaking of her love as an object, rather than a feeling in itself. She’s describing love as something that cannot quench thirst, and something that is better than gold itself; when we think of these things, we think of an object, but when we think of love, we do not think of an object.

When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes by William Shakespeare (Poem #7)

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

(Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

It sounds like the narrator is not satisfied with who he is. He would rather be like the people around him, which is implied by one of the lines, “Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope”. He seems to be jealous and not content with the life he is living. He says that he remembers what wealth brings, so he changes who he is because he wants to be like a king, with such wealth and nobility. I like the fact that the narrator fails to explain why he is feeling down, and what has caused his anguish. Maybe it could be the fact he is comparing himself to the people around him; he might believe they are better at doing something that he wishes he was better at. I like the ambiguity of the poem, and the fact that the narrator is very vague about any of the causes to his feelings forcing the reader to try to figure this out through the information he is presenting. I think at the end of the poem he is saying he has sweet love, “For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings that then I scorn to change my state with kings,” but that wealth may bring more happiness for him; that he feels worthless when it comes to wealth, and wishes to change himself to become more like a king to feel no more disdain. Even though this poem was written a long time ago, it can still be relatable in some ways, like in the way some people feel worthless without power and wealth just like the narrator does.

On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley (Poem #6)

'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand

That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

"Their colour is a diabolic die."

Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,

May be refin'd, and join th' angelic TRAIN."

I really liked this poem, and I believe I’ve read it before somewhere as well. I think the narrator is really trying trying to emphasize that when he came to Africa, he was not welcomed; there was still racism and inequality, and he could not understand why. If they had the same religion, why were they seen as so different? Their color was seen as evil, as the narrator has quoted (what has been said about his race), “Their colour is a diabolic die.” What the narrator is trying to comprehend is why their color is seen as evil, when they believe in a religion like everybody else, a similarity they all have but are seen as different. Just because they are black does not mean they do not still join the rest of the whites on the same religion, which is referred to as an ‘angelic train’ by the narrator. The fact that the narrator used the word ‘sable’ to describe his race is implying a bigger meaning; the definition of sable is a marten with a short tail and dark brown fur and is valued for its fur, similar to how their race was only valued for slavery. Also, the narrator described his own soul as ‘benighted’, which means ‘overtaken by darkness’, which is probably what the racist people thought of them overall. I really liked how this poem implied so much more than a reader would think; it explained how they felt when they were rejected, and explained what the whites depicted them as.  

Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne (Poem #5)

I personally liked this poem and what I thought it was trying to say. Overall, the narrator is talking about death as a whole, and saying that it is not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. The narrator is talking about death as if it were a person, and saying that although people have thought death is scary, and dreadful that it is not any of that at all, so death should not be proud of it’s wrath. Death is similar to sleeping, so it should not be something people fear because everyone is familiar with sleep. I think it is saying that death does not kill us, but life does. At the end of the poem, the narrator is saying that one will sleep, and wake up eternally (when a person dies), and when people realize this, then the idea of death will die, and that ideology will not be existent. Once people think of death as not being so powerful, then death will not be as scary as ‘war, poison, and sickness’ as the narrator mentions in the poem, most likely to show contrast on how much more worse poison, sickness, and war are than death is. I liked that the narrator mentioned this because it proves a good point. The theme is that sometimes we make things more worse than they are just by over thinking it, instead of trying to make things like death easier to think about, deal with, and cope with.

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell (Poem #4)

I was confused by this poem; I did not know what the narrator was talking about. The narrator is talking about his/her fur, but it would not make sense since they are human. I think maybe the narrator was using personification, and pretending to be in an animal’s perspective. It’s like an animal thats wished his life was different, like a dream as it says in the poem, “Loosed from its dream of life,” the animal was loosened from his/her dream of life. It seems like the animal woke up in a nightmare, maybe the last place he’d ever want to be. A turret is a tower-like place, so when he/she died, he was just washed out of the tower, with a hose implying that the narrator was unimportant to anyone around. When the narrator died, it did not seem like anyone mourned him/her, but that it was easy to get rid of him/her. Obviously the narrator felt upset about his death being nothing to others. I felt like the theme was the fact that we are born into life, in a harsh or easy environment, and we leave noticed, or unnoticed. I liked the poem’s implicitness, and how  it was simple and short. Alot is implied or implicitly said through just five lines, which is a very interesting way to write a poem. Since it is short, we as the readers must read it over and over again to really attempt to understand it and what it is trying to say.

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman (Poem #3)

I did not understand the poem much. I think the narrator learned about how one becomes an astronomer. He also learned things involved he had to study to do what he wanted to do, which was become an astronomer. After hearing about how difficult it was through the lecture he/she  listened to, and the math involved in astronomy, he/she grew sick and tired of trying to become one. He just like wandering around, looking up at the silence of the stars, instead of learning how to really study them. The narrator seemed to like the simplicity of the stars in the sky, not the complications in studying them to become an astronomer. The narrator did not enjoy learning the depth of astronomy, and did not seem to find it interesting in any way. The theme is that sometimes, we as humans, like things that are simple, and do not like the complications of the actuality of something. The narrator makes this clear by ending the poem with looking up at the stars, instead of talking about what he learned that day. He/she was so engrossed with the sky and stars that what he learned and heard at the lecture did not fascinate him, only the view did. The view is what seemed to push the narrator to want to become an astronomer, but when it came down to it, he did not enjoy learning about it’s specifications.Not everything is what he seems; the study of space was not just the view of the sky, but a very complicated study that the narrator was not anticipating.

This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams (Poem #2)

I really liked this poem because of what it is implying; that sometimes we like things that are sweet and cold, opposites of each other, that go together perfectly. We sometimes take advantage of something even though we know we should not, just like the narrator said, “I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast.” This shows that the narrator knew that the plums were probably saved for someone else, but could not resist it’s coldness and sweetness. You would think that sweetness is so far from being cold, but that is what makes the plums delicious to the narrator. The narrator wanted to be forgiven, even though he/she enjoyed the plums. If someone is too much of something, it is not good, that means there is no balance whatsoever. If someone was cold (cold-hearted), and had no sweet tendencies, than the person would not be enjoyable to be around. If the person was too sweet all of the time, and can not be cold at times, this person would be walked all over, and taken advantage of. If a person can be both when needed, than the person is balanced, just like the plum was. The plum, originally sweet, was put into an icebox, making it could; the conditions the plum was put in made it “so sweet, and so cold”, just like the narrator said. This is true to humans, like I said before, if one is put into a situation when they needed to be cold, they have the ability to do so, just like the plum did based on it’s surroundings which is what made the plum so desirable to the narrator.

Pass/Fail by Linda Pastan (Poem #1)

This poem is talking about constantly having something you are trying to overcome; you will never finish because in your mind, there is always something to be done, always something you want that you cannot have. I read the poem and understood that it is saying whatever you do, personally you will find a way not to get to it, a way not to overcome it. As much as we think we passed, we have finished, there will always be something to do and try to accomplish. It’s saying that the heart will only overcome what it thinks it can handle. The title Pass/Fail, connects to the whole poem because it can be either be a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ for achieving something a person’s heart wants. The poem did a good job in giving examples of the authors idea of something getting in the way of passing or failing, like “when you reach for a book - it closes its door in your face; when you conjugate a verb - it is in the wrong language.” When I read this quote, I thought about how a person thinks they are on track to do something, then something simultaneously happens so that you cannot succeed to pass. You might be on your way to do something, and something little will stop you, unexpectedly and this is true to life as a whole. What I think the poem fails to say is that even though you do not ‘pass’ per say, trying then failing is not the same thing as just straight out failing with no effort.

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

The first time reading this poem, I realized that it was short for a reason. I realized the title had something to do with what the narrator was trying to tell us as the readers. The second time I read the poem, I noticed the same things as the first time reading it, but realized that the narrator thought what they did made them cool, that to make them cool, they did not have to do much hence the shortness of the poem itself. Also, I really recognized the last line the second time around reading it because the narrator was saying that they die soon, meaning they die young, not living a long life but it was okay because they were 'real cool' anyway.

Othello

1) When I initially read Othello, I didn't focus on what the narrator meant by telling us that Desdemona's dad loved him. I liked it the first time around, especially since I already read the play before and loved it. The second time reading it, I really focused on what Othello was saying between the lines: he was exaggerating his experiences to seem more appealing to Desdemona's father, and to Desdemona. In those days, being an experienced man was mandatory, and made him a 'knight in shining' armor.

2) Some of the questions were easier than others to answer. I had to put more thought into some questions. The questions I did not find so hard were the ones with the quotes from the poem, asking about what the narrator was trying to say, and another I found easier than others were the questions that asked the definition of a word in the context it was used in the text. The questions I felt like I needed more instruction on were the ones that asked what two lines stated the same idea, and the one that asked about what line the poet introduces no variety into the passages iambic rhythm.