The readings this week

Firstly I just want to say that I’m really glad that we always discuss the readings in class the next day and that we don’t have to write and hand in a poetry analysis, because if that were the case I’d fail. Unless the theme is blatantly obvious, I’ve never been especially adept at analyzing texts, and the same holds true yet again for most of the poems that we’ve read for class. What I love and notice about poetry is the tone, the diction, how the poem flows and how it makes me feel. I can really admire and love a poem even without knowing exactly what it’s about.

That being said, I really liked Thursday’s poem “Fountain”. I get what it’s about mostly, but there are areas where I’m not exactly sure what the poet meant by what she wrote. For example, toward the end of the poem when she writes “And I remember how, once, enraged, she spat at me, my siblings, Your lives have been what I’ve told you they’ve been whether it was the truth or not”. I know she’s quoting her mother, but I was a little confused as to what it is the mother is trying to say there…

I also really liked Tuesday’s “Columbus”. I thought it was fun, silly yet very clever. Auden’s poem however, I wasn’t too big a fan of. I picked up on the slow quiet tone of the poem, and I could appreciate that, but I wasn’t sure what it was about exactly. It was a little too sophisticated for me at first, but after talking about it in class it makes a lot more sense now.

As for Jarrell’s poem, it was so short I really wasn’t sure what to make of it. After having just read “Fountain”, this poem immediately made me think of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement and protestors getting beaten and blasted with hoses by the police. I’m not sure if that’s the connection with the other poem, or if there even is one, but I have no other guesses on this one. It’ll be interesting to hear what people come up with in class tomorrow!