Gary Soto

"After Tonight"

This poem consists of four stanzas of varying lengths. There is no rhyme scheme. The poem is instructive and reminds the audience that nothing is certain. Just because your days have gone by relatively unchanged does not mean that tomorrow holds the same.  The poem instructs readers not to take anything for granted. Soto criticizes the addressee with
And you do not think of the hills
And of the splintered wrists it takes
To give you
The heat rising toward the ceiling (lines 15-18).
We often forget from whence we derive our comforts and our security.  We see horrible things happening to people and think "them, but never me."  Soto's message is important. It seems to be a common feature of human nature that we take our security and comfort for granted when we are not forced to actively protect and defend it. Soto's use of language is such that it warns us quietly and sternly. Without explicitly telling the addressee that she ought to be aware of and acknowledge every possibility, Soto creeps into our thoughts and we feel insecure. The greater message is not one of fear but of realism. No one is immune to mishap or disaster.

Gwendolyn Brooks

"The Boy Died in My Alley"

This poem consists of eight stanzas of varying lengths. The poet describes how she was visited and interrogated by police after a boy was found dead in her alley.  The policeman asks the speaker, "'You heard a shot?'" and she replies "Shots I hear and Shots I hear. / I never see the dead (lines4-6).  The speaker has become accustomed to the sound of gunshots at night.  When asked is she knew the boy, the speaker replies that "I have known this Boy before, who / ornaments my alley" (lines 18-19).  She explains that she "always heard him deal with death" (line 22) but the speaker has "closed my heart-ears late and early. / And I have killed him ever" (lines 24 - 25).  At this point, the reader realizes that the speaker may not have known the dead boy personally but that the boy has become a casualty in a place where men are often killed in the streets.  The speaker feels personally responsible for the death because she has done nothing to stop it and has turned a blind eye or "closed my heart-ears" in deliberate ignorance of the atrocities of the streets. I once read this poem in a UIL poetry reading competition about 11 years ago! I was 16! I think I would be able to present a more convincing reading of this poem now that I have gained some maturity.  While the themes addressed by this poem invoked sympathy in me and inspired me, the judges weren't convinced that a 16 year-old white boy from Levelland, Texas really understood the suffering of people who witness violent crime in the ghetto every week or every day of their lives.

Sylvia Plath

"Fever 103˚"

It seems that very few people have the self-confrontational honesty and insight demonstrated by confessional writers like Plath. Plath's poetry is truly "confessional" and has a particular vibe which is reflective of the modern American middle class at its darkest. It reads like disturbing diary entries and relates the personal psychology of a woman living in personal torment in a pristine and modern suburban setting.  "Fever 103˚" consists of eighteen stanzas of three lines each.  There is no rhyme scheme. What limits the writer's word bank is not a constrictive adherence to a measured pattern but the impetus to construe languid sounding poetry rich with metaphor.  She begins by asking (addressing herself?) "Pure? What does it mean?"  Through brief and uneasy imagery she conveys a sense of disgust, fear, and shame in the stanzas that follow. Exactly half-way through the poem, the speaker addresses someone in particular (outside herself) with "Darling, all night / I have been flickering, off, on, off, on. / The sheets grow heavy as a lecher's kiss." (Lines 28-30).  The events that take place and have taken place behind the scenes of the poem are left to the imagination of the audience. When the poet says "Three days. Three nights. / Lemon water, chicken / Water, water make me retch." we do not know the personal memories and life experiences that inspired these words.  We are left to imagine what might have happened or to simply ponder on the uneasy connotations of the rapidly changing horrors suggested in few words.  The guard dog of hell, the vague and morbid reference to the freak-accident death of an American celebrity, and other "ghastly" snapshots are put to the audience with intermittent references to sin and love.  After the half-way point and now directly addressing someone in particular, the poet declares herself "too pure for you or anyone."  She informs the person that "Your body / Hurts me as the world hurts God."  What the author describes is felt and understood by this reader in my own terms but not in terms that are easily conveyed.  This demonstrates the usefulness of poetry paired with the shortcomings of our language; there are not enough words or known concepts for expressing all of our experiences and poetry finds ways of getting around this.  What the author speaks of is shame, fear of intimacy, emotional vulnerability, and a struggle to reconcile human nature with the enculturation of shame and sin.  The puritanical but lasting notions that "cleanliness is next to godliness" and that purity of mind and heart is not only to be sought but to remain constant and unwavering have met their matches with the liberal philosophies of the 20th century and the tension created by this conflict of values manifests in neurotic preoccupations which are then jotted down beautifully by Plath.  The Cubist painter Georges Braque claimed that "Art is meant to disturb."  Art should not be limited to serving only one function in society but "to disturb" the audience must have its place in art.  If something artistic makes you feel uneasy or uncomfortable, it is because you are avoiding an uncomfortable conversation with yourself.  Plath confronted her own shadows and shared them with the world.  It seems there was no conversation or topic too uncomfortable to address for Plath because the discomfort was addressed and embraced with surrender. Unfortunately, she was unable to triumph over the neurotic preoccupations and emotional suffering through her confrontational and open approach.  However, it has been suggested that poetry like that of Plath and other confessional poets has therapeutic applicability for some of those who write it and read it.

Philip Larkin

"Homage to a Government"

This eerie poem by Larkin seems very appropriate for America today as we usher troops back home after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The poem was written in 1969 and was a response to the end of the war in Vietnam.  It is a cynical look at relationship between the American people and the government's military actions abroad.  The American people with their disparate and media-influenced opinions about war sacrifice their sons and daughters to unjust wars.  In "Hommage to a Government,"  Larkin explains that "Next year we are to bring the soldiers home / For lack of money, and it is all right." (Lines 1-2).  The impact of war on the economy seems to be the focus of the poem, Larkin ends the piece with "All we can hope to leave them now is money." (Line 18).  This ending arrives after a slow and indifferent explanation of how it was that soldiers ended up abroad only to cause harm there and to return home for lack of money but "this is all right." The refrain of "this is all right" occurs three times in the poem and with great impact each time.  The poem overall is full of irony.  The reader easily detects the subtext or latent content which actually addresses the futility of the war.  The voice of the speaker is complacent and subdued.  The distance of the war abroad has caused us to forget that we are at war as was the case with other wars.  One can easily imagine that the speaker is a common man who derives his opinions from the nightly news, the papers, and the political institutions that he was taught to trust. Ignorance is bliss after all.  This is not the voice of draft dodgers, angry protesters or the mothers of soldiers who have died abroad.  This is the voice of the middle-aged, working class male who swallows whatever propaganda and misinformation that he is fed.  The character we derive from this poem belies the questioning voice of reason in the subtext who implores the audience to take a critical look at the official story.

Elizabeth Bishop

"One Art"

This rather nihilistic poem reminds me of something written by Plath or Sexton because of its ambivalent detachment.  It speaks of a surrender to depression after a long struggle.  Bishop speaks of losing her keys, her houses, her mother's watch and of loosing her lover, of loosing everything as if loosing were an art form that the author has mastered.  The poem consists of six stanzas of three lines each and a simple rhyme scheme of A-B-A, A-B-A.  Bishop explains that "so many things seem filled with intent / to be lost that their loss is no disaster." (lines 2-3).  The speaker advises her audience to practice loosing and to "accept the fluster" of things lost.  Life is a series of gains and losses but the losses are far more inevitable than the gains.  This poem reminds us of this and its message can be interpreted as sad and nihilistic or as resolute and realistic.  In the last stanza the author forces herself to declare to that loosing her lover has not been a disaster:  "It's evident / the art of losing's not hard to master / though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster."  (lines 17-18).  This rhetorical strategy gives some insight into the mind of the speaker who is not completely resolute and is not completely content with the inevitability of loss.  Loss has become like a fact of life for Bishop but it's still a hard pill to swallow.

Dylan Thomas

"In My Craft of Sullen Art"

This poem consists of two stanzas of eleven and nine lines respectively.  Thomas speaks of art for art's sake.  His art is writing (line 12) and he practices his art "in the still of night" (line 2).  The rhyming scheme is present but irregular and follows thusly:  A-B-C-D-E-B-D-E-C-C-A (first stanza) and A-B-C-D-E-E-C-C-A.  The rhyming words at the end of lines are apparent but without metrical regularity.  The content is verily straight-forward and without much simile or metaphor.  Thomas explains that he writes not "for ambition or bread," nor for posterity but for "the common wages / Of their most secret heart." (Line 9).  The possesive personal pronoun "their" refers to "the lovers" who "lie abed / With all their griefs in their arms," (Lines 4-5).  Dylan Thomas proclaims emphatically that his craft is undertaken in honor of lovers "Who pay no praise or wages / Nor heed my craft or art." (Lines 19-20).  With these lines, Thomas sees his work as a self-sacrificing labor of love.

Shel Silverstein

"The Perfect High"

This simple poetic anecdote by Silverstein has a moral.  Gimmesome Roy is the main character and the majority of the poem details the many ways in which Mr. Roy sought "the perfect high" from every intoxicant he could find. It seems that Gimmesome was predisposed to substance abuse from a very early age for we are told that "As a kid, he sat in the cellar, sniffing airplane glue." (Line 3).  Despite his endless experimentation, Gimmesome cannot seem to satisfy his longing.  What is it that he seeks?  Substance abuse counselors the world over might tell us that the addict seeks to escape his reality and become like someone else; to change his mind with the assistance of intoxicants in avoidance of himself.  He is his own worst enemy and cannot bear simply to be.  After much seeking, Gimmesome takes the proverbial climb up the mountain upon which sits a guru.  The guru's name is Baba Fats.  Shel Silverstein is ever the comedian and beings light to any situation.  The throes and pangs of the life of the addict are a serious matter but Silverstein makes it laughable and therefore palatable with his whimsical sense of humor.  The guru informs Gimmesome that the answer lies within.  He says "Son, if you would seek the perfect high--find it in yourself." (Line 36).  The message is clear and the poem is hardly cryptic.  It is written in a hipster style with slang words and colloquialisms, yet with class and depth.

Allen Ginsberg - "Howl"

Howl chronicles the lifestyle of the bohemian beat poet of the mid nineteenth century.  Many of the names and places referred to by Ginsberg are of much greater significance to the bohemian beat community of the 1950's then to the average reader.  This exclusivity of content is a bit anti-social and compartmentalizing.  Then again, for those who might like to role-play and time travel in the world of Ginsberg of his contemporaries, this poem might serve as a catalyst for just such experiences.  Because it chronicles the daily lives of these men, the poem also serves as a historical document.  It is unusual that so many of Ginsberg's college age buddies and fellow rebels went on to become household names.  Although it is difficult to avoid all mention or knowledge of characters like Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac, the notion that we have of them tends to be watered down.  In reality, the life of the beats was indeed grungy and rebellious, as well as licentious and much of this edginess is explicitly apparent in their written works.  While Ginsberg's mention of sexual matters is always frank and often times shocking, there is merit in his honesty.  It does feel that the shock value of Ginsberg's aesthetic is intentional and is perhaps reactionary; reactive to the conservative austerity of the mainstream that Ginsberg grew up with.

Allen Ginsberg

"A Supermarket in California"

Like many of Ginsberg's poems, this poem is written in a prose-like structure with full sentences.  The poet addresses Walt Whitman.  He expresses a longing for communion with Whitman.  He also mentions Federico Garcia Lorca (Line 4).  While in the supermarket, Ginsberg imagines that Whitman walks with him.  "A Supermarket in California" speaks of the desire to share life's experiences with a like-minded companion.  We deduce that Ginsberg must feel lonely or as if he has no one with whom to share his world.  He was gay as was Whitman and Lorca and never had a family life as an adult.  Ginsberg was also a creative thinker and perhaps had an acute sense of being different.  The language is colorful, whimsical, and unconventional as in the following lines "In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!" (Line 2).  In line 3, Ginsberg accuses Whitman of "eyeing the grocery boys."  The insinuation is subtle but from a gay reader's perspective, the implications are obvious.  While many types of audiences might have access to this poem and might read it, to me it seems to contain a coded subtext that speaks most to certain readers;  those readers who might have more in common with Ginsberg than the average reader in terms of politics, sexuality, and art.

Gary Snyder

"Milton by Firelight"

The theme taken on by Snyder in this poem is that proverbial notion of paradise lost.  Snyder alludes  to Milton's "Paradise Lost" multiple times (lines 10, 29) but the scene painted by Snyder is distinctly American.  He speaks of Indians and squalls, a pastoral scene of the American wilderness. Snyder contemplates the temporal nature of nature itself and declares that
"In ten thousand years the Sierras
Will be dry and dead, home of the scorpions."
(22-23)
Snyder brings the European interpretation of the biblical Garden of Eden into the America of his day and lifestyle.  The opening stanza gives a lovely description of the miner's art which he beholds with grief (line 2).  He ends the stanza curiously with "What use, Milton, a silly story / Of our lost general parents, / eaters of fruit?" (Lines 10-13).  The reader soon understands that this poem is written in the form of an internal monologue.  While reading Milton and surveying the scene before him, Snyder connects the world of Milton with his own.  Although not explicit, one can easily sense a feeling of discontent in the poem.

William Carlos Williams

"The Widow's Lament in Springtime"

This poignant poem consists of a single stanza of short lines which are mostly enjambed.  Williams is able to say so much with so few words and he combines the words in creative ways so as to make the words fresh again.  Dickinson said that "A WORD is dead / When it is said, Some say."  When words are overused they can loose power in the minds of those who read/hear/say them.  Poetry such as that of Williams resuscitates old words so as to renew their power.  Often poetry is written in a condensed language so that every word retains more of its essence and Williams was certainly a great writer of poetry with regard to that technique.  The poem begins with;
"Sorrow is my own yard
where the new grass
flames as it has flamed
often before but not
with the cold fire
that closes round me this year."
(Lines 1 - 6).
This is a great introduction.  The reader wants to keep reading as to ascertain the source of this persons sorrow.  The references to cycles of time and memories of the past juxtaposed with the sincere declaration of sorrow subtly suggests that the speaker has a story to tell.  In earnest, a reader could not know that the speaker was a widow based on the one indication in lines 7-8:  "Thirtyfive years / I lived with my husband."  It is only due to the title that we know for sure.  With the closing lines, the widow explains that she would like to drown herself in the marsh.  It would seem that her husband was her purpose for living to some degree and that in his absence, the world has lost its beauty.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Spring"

This poem by Millay is written in free verse. It has little, if any metrical regularity.  The speaker address the month of April and the arrival of Spring.  Unlike the typical joy expressed upon the arrival of spring flowers, this poet expresses a disgust and weariness with the signs of Spring.  The poet explains that the beauty of Spring only serves to conceal death and disintegration. In line 13, Millay concludes that "Life in itself / Is nothing,".  The poet personifies Spring as "an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers." (Line 18).  With this poem, Millay expresses an ironic disdain for that which would conceal or ignore the darker sides of life.  The tone is cynical and the speaker seems jaded.  The poem opens with a question;  "To what purpose, April, do you return again? / Beauty is not enough."  (Lines 1-2).  The poem paints Spring with its flowers and renewal as something detestable, deceptive, and naive. The notion of personifying and questioning cosmic cycles of time is easy to connect to pagan ideas of the natural world but here we are presented with an ancient idea in a form which is quite modern.

T.S. Eliot - "The Waste Land"

This post covers sections III - V of "The Waste Land."

Section III - "The Fire Sermon"

The title of this section refers to a sermon of the Buddha which urged devotees to steer clear of carnal passions in order to achieve nirvana.  The section is the most sensual among the five sections and is overtly sexual.  Rather than being sexual in a vulgar way, this section treats the topic of sexuality with some reverence for its confounding mysteries.  This theme is not apparent initially.  We are beholden to a scene of desolation in which "The nymphs are departed" and one cannot find any traces of "summer nights" (Lines 175, 179).  Throughout this section, the theme of sexual intrigue is made apparent through its absence in the life of the speaker.  Within lines 197-222, Eliot speaks of anticipation; the anticipation of the woman for her lover. The lines that follow give a detailed description of the ladies belongings in her boudoir.  Here, the sexes are delineated.  The woman must maintain the proper vestiges of her sex in order to attract men but in matters of copulation, she is relieved when the ordeal is over with (Lines 245-249).  This stanza ends with the speaker describing himself in lowly and diminutive language as someone who has "walked among the lowest of the dead."The ideas conveyed by Eliot in this section are reminiscent of those within "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock."  As a man, the speaker is condemned to a passionate drive to be accepted and embraced by the woman while she is either indifferent towards or repelled by his advances.  Beginning with line 266, the scene changes as does the form of the poem.  We are taken to sea.  Seafaring motifs recur throughout the poem.  The section as a whole is devoted to repressed sexuality in favor of purity or due to lack of sexual opportunities.

Section IV - "Death by Water"

This is the shortest section of the poem and consists of three short stanzas.  The brief section reads like a lament for the drowned Phlebas.  It also functions as a cryptic, discretionary reference.  The speaker warns his audience to "Consider Phelbas, who was once handsome and tall as you" (Line 321).  Perhaps this is to remind the audience of the fleeting nature of youth and beauty.

Section V -

T.S. Eliot - "The Waste Land"

This post covers sections I and II of "The Waste Land."  The remainder of the poem will be covered in another post.

Section I. "The Burial of the Dead"

At times, Eliot's poetry is verbal collage.  It is as if Eliot collected clippings from old books, periodicals, personal correspondences, and personal memoirs for use in his work.  In the first stanza alone (18 lines), Eliot references "Satyricon" by Petronius, Dante's "Purgatorio," Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," the personal memoirs of an Austrian countess, and the Bible.  The poem is written in a semi stream of consciousness style in which several conversations and other events blend together in a dream-like sequence.   The first two stanzas speak to the title and follow the seasons and cycles of the natural world with intermittent memories and a lament to desolation. The third stanza introduces a card reader called Madame Sosostris and her cards are described as if laid out for a reading given the audience by the clairvoyant.  The reading is a bit grim but redeeming in its references to cycles and therefore to rebirth and renewal.  The fourth stanza takes the audience to London's financial district where the speaker encounters an old shipmate.  The reference here to Mylae is anachronistic.  Eliot's poetry renders a world in which chronological time is meaningless.  All times and places are here and now.  Lines 71-76 detail the words or thoughts which the encounter with the old shipmate inspires.  The imagery is macabre.  We see a corpse buried and either nurturing and sprouting new life or disinterred by a "Dog" with a capitol "D."  Perhaps this "Dog" alludes to Anubis, Opener of the Ways into the ancient Egyptian underworld.  

Section II.  "A Game of Chess"

The first stanza of section II begins with the 77th line of the poem.  Here we find a Cleopatra-like woman enthroned.  We know that she is a lavish and luxurious woman from the vivid depictions of her finery and the palatial throne room in which she sits.  The depiction of the woman in her throne room is interspersed with uneasy words such as "strange," "synthetic," "troubled," "confused," "drowned," "sad."  These words nuance the scene with a sinister and a desolate feeling.  The woman is compared to Ovid's Philomela who transformed into a nightingale after her brother-in-law King Terseus raped her.  Stanza 7 brings the audience into a nervous conversation.  Perhaps it takes place between two lovers.  One is shaken and nervous and the other implores to know his/her thoughts and complains that "I never know what you are thinking. Think." (Line 114).  Line 139 begins the 13th stanza and carries the audience back into the present era.  A very contemporary scenario is depicted through conversational ramblings. Eliot introduces new characters such as "poor" Albert, George, and Lou.  What is conveyed is a sense of discontent with the goings-on of life for the young English who's lives are overtaken with war (presumably WWI) and with the activities of off-duty soldiers.  "HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME" is the refrain repeated five times within this stanza.  This is the closing time call of the English pub.

T.S. Eliot - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

This much discussed poem by Eliot is profound in its attempts to convey the ineffable.  Although somewhat incomprehensible due to its stream-of-consciousness style, this piece has been embraced the world over.  Perhaps this is because it speaks of human emotions as they sometimes are; confounding, illogical, romantic, afflicted and beyond control.  The speaker takes his audience on a journey through the mundane avenues, "cheap hotels," and "sawdust restaurants" of his life.  These references and others have led some scholars to believe that Eliot expresses a discontent with the entrapment of modernity.  The speaker says that he has "measured out my (his) life with coffee spoons;" (line 51).  For this reader, what is conveyed through the poem is a profound sense of helplessness in the throes of natural impulses which must be experienced from within a world of social obligations, and these social expectations make the longing that much worse.  The speaker seems beyond the drama of being tormented by his emotions and into a phase of surrender.  He makes references to aging with "a bald spot in the middle of my hair-" (line 39).  This talk of aging indicates that the object of the speaker's longing may be further and further out of reach.  The longing, the helplessness, the emasculation all seem to be directed towards a particular woman; she with "Arms that are braceleted and white and bare" (Line 63).  The speaker (perhaps Prufrock) indicates that he is unsure as to the cause of his suffering in the following lines "Is it perfume from a dress / That makes me so digress?" (Lines 65-66).
Although the poem contains a loose rhyming scheme, the pace is languid and reads like a long hymn.  Also, while the poem conveys feelings of profound longing and discontent, it does so without the  quixotic histrionics typical of  romantically unrequited poets.  The ability of the poem to evoke empathy in readers is largely due to the understated feelings of the writer.
The epilogue offers clues for the solving of this puzzle.  The epilogue is a quotation from Dante's "Inferno" which speaks of personal secrets and the conditions under which one might feel free to reveal his/her secrets.  The speaker has "some overwhelming question" which he is dying to ask but he is either too insecure or afraid of rejection to do so.  The speaker is insecure in his convictions and asks many questions as to whether or not he should perform a number of tasks such as parting his hair or eating a peach.  He laments that while he can see the mermaids singing offshore, they will not sing to him.  The idea has some importance for the poet; he isolates it in a one-lined stanza which reads "I do not think  that they will sing to me" (Line 125).  The last lines of the poem all speak of elusive mermaids and echo the previously covered theme of the elusive and inaccessible woman.  Overall, the piece is tinged with insanity and contrasts the inner life with the social life outside as in the last stanza;
"We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown."
What is implied is that one may live in a sublime ethereal dream world of beauty until rudely awakened into the institutional realms of human life by the pressing obligations of society.
Overall, for this reader, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" expresses the pangs of being human and with natural longings and wildly motivating impulses with being in human society with its conventions and expectations; a cold, cruel reality.

T.S. Eliot

"Whispers of Immortality"

This curious poem by Eliot consists of thirty-two lines placed into eight quatrains.  The poem is separated into two sections and indeed, seems to be two different poems.  The connection between the first sixteen lines and the last sixteen is difficult to discern.  The first sixteen lines are an uncanny declaration of admiration for John Webster, the English dramatist and for John Donne, the poet. Uncanny because both men are spoken of with fondness but also with imagery and concepts which are not normally associated with admiration or admirable qualities.  Eliot informs his audience that "Webster was much possessed by death / And saw the skull beneath the skin."  According to Eliot, Webster also saw demonic beings such as one might find in a painting by Hieronymus Bosch but Eliot implies that Webster was aware of truths unknown to most. He implies the same with regard to John Donne  who "...was such another / Who found no substitute for sense, / To seize and clutch and penetrate; / Expert beyond experience."  He then conjures another set of grim imagery in association with Donne. The descriptions of these men as having been somewhat enlightened seems ironic when adjacent to the description of these men as having been somewhat macabre fellows.  Eliot seems to admire the realistic attitude that the two men seemed to have with regard to mortality and the temporal qualities of life.
The second half of the poem takes the audience elsewhere rather quickly. Rather than extracting the merits of realism from within the grim and frightening imagery, we are introduced to a female character called "Grishkin."  Eliot's description of Grishkin exudes sexuality; "Uncorseted, her friendly bust / Gives promise of pneumatic bliss."  The use of the word "pneumatic" is creative and counter-intuitive, for pneumatic has three meanings according to Webster's Dictionary.  The word means of, related to, or using gas but it also refers to the ephemeral realm of spirit.  Thirdly, the word is indicative of "having a well-proportioned feminine figure; especially:  having a full bust." The phrase "pneumatic bliss" must be a double entendre here.  Grishkin is compared to a "sleek Brazilian jaguar" stalking her prey.  The last stanza is quite charming;
"And even the Abstract Entities
Circumambulate her charm;
But our lot crawls between dry ribs
To keep our metaphysics warm."

As stated above, the connection between the two halves is not made easily.  However, one could postulate that when Eliot refers to "our lot," he may be referring to the male gender which would include John Webster and John Donne and that the intention is to draw a distinction between the male and female.  For, "our lot crawls between dry ribs / To keep our metaphysics warm,"  but Grishkin is a busty maid with an ineffable way of being ephemeral which is unknown to realistic and sometimes grim men.

W. H. Auden

"As I Walked Out One Evening"

This poem by Auden consists of sixty lines divided into fifteen quatrains.  The rhyming scheme is somewhat unusual; only the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme.  The piece is rich with metaphor and simile;  "The crowds upon the pavement / Were fields of harvest wheat." (lines 3-4). As the title implies, Auden recounts walking out onto Bristol Street in the evening. Auden says that he heard a "lover singing / Under an arch of the railway".  The lover's song is an ode to his/her loved one and is detailed within the poem. The song is sung in hyperbole.  It is an expression of a love so great that it defies all conventions and expectations:

"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street."

The lover's love is great and enduring but what of time?  Time becomes a main character for the remainder of the poem and is presented as an opponent of love:

"But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
"O let not time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time."

Auden capitalizes the word time as if to deify it or to bring it to life.  Time is almost equated with death in certain instances, or at least, time serves as death's agent.
Auden's unconventional use of imagery and metaphor is particularly brilliant in "As I Walked Out One Evening," as in the following example;

"The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead."

What is meant with these lines?  Auden's language is cryptic.  Perhaps some Freudian free association was employed to contrive these riddles and they are written in a subconscious language known only to the writer.  Any interpretation seems forced and arbitrary.  Instead, I'd rather enjoy the word-play and take it as it is; without prescribing and projecting my own experiences therein.  If indeed these lines are written in a way which was very personal to the writer, my attempts to interpret them would only result in a sloppy transliteration.  Although a bit incomprehensible, the metaphors imagined through these words are beautiful and force the reader into his/her own subconscious mind.

As for the singer under the arch, it is unlikely that the song presented here was actually heard by Auden.  We cannot know if the singer existed at all.  That being the case, who is this singer? What does she/he have to offer in the way of symbolism?  Perhaps Auden did in fact hear someone singing under the railway that evening and perhaps he was inspired by that and could ascribe his own lyrics to the lover's song.

It seems as though volumes could be written solely for the purposes of interpreting this piece.

Langston Hughes

"Song for a Dark Girl"

"Song for a Dark Girl" consists of three short stanzas of four lines each.  The first line of each stanza is identical and reads:  "Way Down South in Dixie," which alludes to a Civil War minstrel song.  One is reminded of the famous song "Strange Fruit," which was written by Billie Holiday and first recorded in 1939.  Since Holiday also lived in Harlem for a time, she was probably familiar with Hughes's poetry.  Popular culture in the United States has had a very strong African American influence since the time of the Civil War and increasingly thereafter.  Jazz, the blues, and eventually rock n' roll were all inventions of the Black subculture and "Song for a Dark Girl" is written like a languid, mournful song.  The poem is about the phenomena of lynching, which primarily took place in the deep south.  Hughes imagines himself in love with a girl who has been lynched and mourns his loss.
"They hung my black young lover
To a cross roads tree."
"Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree."
The imagery evoked by the poem is stark and morbid but realistic:  "(Bruised body high in air)".
One phrase in particular stands out and is placed right in the middle of the poem:
"I asked the white Lord Jesus
What was the use of prayer."
This phrase is particularly powerful in conveying the message of the poem.  This singular phrase is one that would have resonated deeply with the disenfranchised African Americans who's lives had been rife with imposed oppression, pain, and suffering.
Hughes and other Harlem Renaissance poets wrote in a lyrical style which was quite different from the styles being explored by white poets of the time.  It is distinctly American, distinctly Black, and makes no apologies for its honesty.  Mournful poems such as "Song for a Dark Girl" reminds one of the Biblical prophet Jeremiah who perfectly transcribed his suffering and oppression with brutal honesty.

Valentine Ackland

"Instructions from England"

This poem is political in nature.  It speaks of a prevailing attitude which never stops to consider the reasons that war exists and forgets the loss of life.  This perspective is one of absolute mental obedience to authority.  The person with this clinging to authority may never stop to question it.  The poem was written in 1936, the year that marks the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.  Ackland specifically refers to this event;

"Spain fought before and fights again,
better no question why;
note churches burned and popes in pain
but not the men who die."


The references to churches and popes can be interpreted as referring to authority figures and to the allegiance which people uphold in their honor while dishonoring their fellows through their own negligence to question the authority figures who send men to war.  The poem has a sarcastic tone.  Ackland ironically instructs the audience to obey without questioning, the conventions and decisions of the powers that be despite the atrocities being committed.  Rather than a paradigm shift, many are content to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed from the sources of power that they were conditioned to trust and obey in return for their own well being.  To question these paradigms means to face a lack of security and stability.

D.H. Lawrence

"Whales Weep Not"

"Whales Weep Not" is an ode to the majesty of the whales.  What is most interesting about the content of the poem is Lawrence's romantic descriptions of biological processes and behaviors.  The act of mating, the nursing of the calves, the defensive capacities of whales to protect one another are all presented with a tone of admiration and empathy.  The description of mating between whales is particularly grandiose;
"Then the great bull lies up against his bride
in the blue deep bed of the sea,
as mountain pressing on mountain, in the zest of life:
and out of the inward roaring of the inner red ocean of whale blood
the long tip reaches strong, intense, like the maelstrom-tip, and comes
to rest
in the clasp and the soft, wild clutch of a she-whale's fathomless body."

The poet's description of the whales in human terms paired with his starkly honest descriptions of whales' social behaviors does much to place sexuality back in its proper realm; nature.  This notion of sexuality as something beautiful and natural is in contrast to the treatment of sexuality as something shameful, unspoken, hidden and dark.
Lawrence likens the whales unto angels multiple times:
"the burning archangels under the sea..."
"archangels of bliss"
"...great Cherubim"
"...like great fierce Seraphim..."
Onto the whales, Lawrence projects anthropomorphic feelings of bliss and longing and in doing so he idealizes the lives of the whales in their realms.  It is as if the whales are no different from human beings in some ways and that by describing their behaviors in human terms, we feel connected to them.  Lawrence's whales are majestic, mysterious and emotional beings.  In one instance, the poet compares the whales to gods and later describes the realm of the whales in heavenly terms;
"And all this happens in the sea, in the salt
where God is also love, but without words:
and Aphrodite is the wife of the whales
most happy, happy she!"

The language is prose-like and without rhyming yet smooth and lyrical without awkward stops and pauses.  The effect is ode-like but without formal structure.  The piece reads like a hymn but one which exonerates nature and sexuality from the condemnation of the western Judeo-Christian traditions.

Gertrude Stein

"Why Do You Feel Differently."

This cryptic, modern poem is separated into two sections; the first consists of five lines of normal length and the second section consists of twenty-four short lines (mostly two or three words long).  The difficulty in interpretation comes in connecting the two sections in a meaningful way.  The first section asks the audience "Why do you feel differently about" various entities of different sizes, quantities and states of being.  The entities mentioned in the questions are all plants and animals.  Rather than ending these questions with question marks, Stein chose to end each one as though it were a statement; with a period. The effect is paradoxical.  Are these questions or statements? Beginning a sentence with a question and ending with a period creates a shock in the reader who is unaccustomed to this type of irreverence for syntax and semantics.  The last line of the first section is counter-intuitive. It states "All nice wives are like that."  The interpretation is open ended.

The second section of the poem is a series of short statements as stated above.  The word "please" with its variations of use is explored. We find that the word "please" can have a number of connotations.  It can refer to pleasure, it can express suffering, it can express humility, and other ideas. My personal interpretation of the poem could also be referred to as my best guess as to what Stein meant to say.  However, it is presumptuous to assume that anything was meant.  Stein's poems are sometimes playgrounds of words for the mind to learn and explore rather than solid arrangements of ideas to be cognitively adhered to by the reader/audience. To me, the poem is a simple statement about women, but more specifically, the role of the wife.  Wives are required to keep practical knowledge about the management of daily lives and needs. Objects and beings in the natural world will come in various sizes, quantities and states of being and it the job of the wife to know how best to utilize or avoid these things.  The speaker of the first stanza seems to be the man who finds himself in a different role and who doesn't see why she bothers over specifics.  The second stanza is spoken by the wife who seems imprisoned by the conventions of her role in all of her efforts to please and say please. Also, the passage asks the reader to go through the folder in his/her verbal memory that is labeled "PLEASE" and to re-sort its contents.


For this reader, Stein's aesthetic is not unlike the painterly school of Abstract Expressionism that arose after World War II.  This style came just as Stein died in 1946.  Believing that artists typically seek inspiration from all other arts despite their own chosen medium, it can be theorized that artists such as Pollock and De Kooning took some cues from Stein, at least indirectly. Her philosophy certainly resonated with certain trends in modernism.  As in the works of the Abstract Expressionists, "Why Do You Feel Differently." is a mixture of elements and ideas that seem orderly and chaotic simultaneously.  As did the AbEx painters, Stein walked the line between intentional impressions and random accidents.

The philosophical and artistic trends of the western world during the last 130 years or so have moved towards an increasing concentration on the sovereignty of the individual and Steins work is no different. The work is left open-ended so that the beholder is invited in and asked to interpret the piece according to his/her own ideas and experiences.  The artist looses his/her sovereignty over the content of the piece but gains a certain intimacy with the audience hitherto unknown.  This particular trend in modernism is present to this day in all art forms and particularly among the avant-garde. "Why Do You Feel Differently." is a prime example of abstract art which preceded its equivalent in imagery.  The methods demonstrated here had not yet extended into the methods of visual artists.  However, it is important to keep in mind that this particular style was only one of many employed by Stein during her career.  The effect is existential; it is the duty of the individual to determine meaning. Ultimately, this is always the case but more nebulous works of art and literature allow for a greater range of interpretation to those who would allow themselves to experience these works with open minds and a willingness towards introspection.  This almost "Zen" kind of aesthetic openness meets with adverse reactions to this day.  Perhaps people are not willing to form their own interpretations and get to know themselves better.

Of course, this is my individual interpretation. The beauty of Stein's style is that it allows the individual reader/audience member to make of a poem as he/she will.  There are no right answers, nor any wrong.

I always thought of poetry as being written so that it could be read aloud.  This type of modernism in poetry requires that we see the printed text for ourselves.  Simply hearing someone read it aloud, we have not experienced the work.  The punctuation and placement of words becomes important.  This is another way that modern works seem more intimate than their predecessors; the individual is confronted with the option of reaching inside for an interpretation that cannot be found elsewhere.

Amy Lowell

"The Pike"

This poem seems to be written according the specifications of the Imagist style.  It creates an image, captures a moment in time, and it does so without sentimentality.  This is reminiscent of Japanese haiku. However, this poem is more emphatic than haiku; a haiku that rephrases and then repeats itself.  Lowell chose a very straight-forward and simple use of language with no word games or phonetic embellishments.  This is a very masculine style of writing; without frills and romance.  The poem simply describes the motions of the natural world like a nature documentary.  She describes seeing a fish lying dormant and hidden beneath the reeds which stirs as if startled and bolts across the pool.  The emphasis is on the colors and the light;
"In the brown water,
Thick and silver-sheened in the sunshine,"
-and-
"Out from under the reeds
Came the olive-green light,
And orange flashed up
Through the sun-thickened water."

Lowell certainly achieves her image; for me it appears like an impressionist painting of a mid-day at the lake.  Like so many art and literature movements, Imagism seems to me like conformity for non-conformity's sake.  However, this style certainly seems to have influenced other writers since it began.  Poetry moved away from the romance and the melancholy of the Victorian and lost its favored themes which often manifested in quixotic odes to love lost.  Instead, we prefer the down-to-earth, the self-sufficient, and the privilege simply to be.

The British War Poets

Ivor Gurney

"The First Time In"

This poem reminds me of "Man's Search for Meaning," a book written by holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl.  As a psychologist, Frankl developed logo-therapy.  Unlike Adler's "will to power" and Freud's "will to pleasure," Frankl believed that finding meaning in one's life is the main driving force.  Frankl used his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp as anecdotal evidence.  He described how people seemed to become numb to the atrocities of the camps.  To Frankl, this wasn't a numbing effect at work but was due to the driving force to extract some meaning from one's experiences.  Utilizing this trait, people are often capable of coping with unimaginable trauma.  This theme is evident in "The First Time In" in which Gurney describes the joyful experiences of camaraderie in war and the sounds of the Welsh soldiers singing their songs to cope beneath the sounds of firing weapons.
Gurney recounts that:
"...boys gave us kind welcome,
So that we looked out as from the edge of home,
Sang us Welsh things, and changed all former notions
To human hopeful things.  And the next day's guns
Nor any line-pangs ever quite could blow out
That strangely beautiful entry to war's rout;"

In the throes of tremendous fear and violence, Gurney was able to find some solace in simple joys.
The poem is seventeen lines long in a single stanza.  The rhyming scheme is as follows;
A
A
B
B
C
C
D
D
and so on.
This scheme fragments the poem into a series of quick two-line rhymes when read aloud.  This is not a lyrical structure or traditional.  His word choice and use of grammar and punctuation are quite casual; as of someone writing a letter home to his mother.

Edgar Lee Masters, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, and Carl Sandburg

Edgar Lee Masters

"Elsa Wertman"
This poem tells an interesting story. A girl (also the speaker) was seduced by her married employer and births his child.  His wife was not angry with the girl  and said she:

"...would not make trouble for me,
And, being childless, would adopt it."


Mrs. Greene, the bosses wife, is kind to the speaker and creates the impression that she is with child herself.  The boy grows up presumably not knowing who his true mother is.  The people of the town do not know either.  The boy becomes an orator at pollitical rallies which his biological mother attends.   She cries and "sitters-by" think that she is crying;

 "At the eloquence of Hamiltion Greene - 
That was not it.
No! I wanted to say:
That's my son! That's my son!"


This poem speaks of small town culture.  One of secrets and scandal.  The poem is without rhymes and the language is simple and concise.  It is not filled with adjectives and simply tells the story of the speaker's plight.

"Hamilton Greene"

This poem is a companion to the previous poem, in a way.  The speaker is Hamilton Greene, as mentioned above.  He describes his parents as having been "Of valiant and honorable blood both."  He tells the audience that he has been "Judge, member of Congress, leader in the State" and that he served the people well.  As in "Elsa Wertman," the language is concise and matter-of-fact without much embellishment.  The poem is most interesting when read as a companion to "Elsa Wertman," for Hamiltion knows not that she is his biological mother.  He does not seem to know that his father has been less honorable than Hamilton might have believed and that Mrs. Greene is not his biological mother. One wonders what might happen to his political career if the small town secrets were ever revealed.

Edwin Arlington Robinson


"Reuben Bright"
This poem is very similar to those of Edgar Lee Masters.  It recounts a small town tragedy.  Unlike those of Masters, this poem is written in third person and has a rhyming scheme.  The scheme is unusual in the sense that it is somewhat irregular;
A
B
B
A
A
B
B
A

A
B
A
B
C
C
With regard to the content of the poem, many questions remain unanswered. The character Reuben Bright has lost his wife to death and has closed his butcher shop as a result.  The audience is not informed as to how his wife died or what he did with his life after her death.  Therefore, we must assume that Robinson omitted this information intentionally.  The point is that Reuben Bright has had to cope with great loss in his own way and within the prying view of onlookers.




Robert Frost

"Mending Wall"

In "Mending Wall," Frost questions the value and necessity of fences between neighbors.  He begins the poem by describing an incomprehensible force (perhaps nature itself) that does not care for walls and that places gaps in them through which we can pass through. He contrasts this with men, which he calls hunters. Frost goes on to detail the ways in which hunters hail from a different set of motives than nature.  Then he offers a personal anecdote.  He has a fence-loving neighbor and each year, the two retrace the property boundaries as a ritual or "another kind of outdoor game."  The speaker explains to the audience that;
"He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apples will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him."


Twice the speaker tells us that his neighbor prescribes to the old adage that;
"Good fences make good neighbors."
Robert Frost was deeply enamored of the natural world and I feel that this naturalism shows through in his writing style.  It is humble, straight-forward, romantic on the fringes, and "woody" for lack of a better adjective. "Mending Wall" is about isolation and the contrast between those who seek and enforce it and those who would prefer to live without fences. Frost implies that nature itself takes on the latter perspective.

"After Apple-Picking"

This poem is a reflection on the speaker's relationship to his task of picking apples.  He describes the great care required by the task in handling the apples into the bucket so that they do not hit the ground.

"For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, 
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth."


The poet speaks of dreaming and describes his day of apple-picking with an ethereal and dream-like quality.  In particular, he describes looking at the grass through a dripping-wet pane of glass and the experiences of his day are blended with his dream life so that it becomes difficult to distinguish between them.  The last ten lines are particularly telling as to the intention of the poet in speaking.  Following lines 32-36 (quoted above), the poet says:

"One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is. 
Were he not gone, 
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, 
Or just some human sleep."


These final lines are cryptic.  One interpretation can be made by comparing the last lines of E.A. Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream," in which Poe says:

"And I hold within my hands
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! Yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep - while I weap!
O God! Can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?"


It is difficult to say exactly what the two poets wanted to save from the injustices of the cedar-apple bin and the "pitiless wave" respectively, but I believe it was the same impulse in both instances that the poets attempted to express; the inner conflict created by the human impulse towards preservation and meticulous care (order) contrasted with the natural forces of destruction and displacement (chaos).

"The Wood Pile"

"The Wood Pile" describes an experience the speaker had in the wintertime woods.  Frost describes the scene in his typical language; simple, humble, and subtly tinged with emotion.  As we read or hear the poem, the mind's eye follows the eyes of the poet in his memory as they move from the snow on the ground, to the woods, to a shy bird on a branch, to a wood pile, and finally to the clematis vines around the wood. As the speaker moves his focus through the sites of the wintered forest, he produces two main ideas which seem very separate and only akin in their contemporaneity; the paranoid shyness of the bird and the site of the gray wood pile which sat;
"To warm the frozen swamp as best it could
With the smokeless burning of decay."


As usual, Frost's language is languid and dream-like.  It is reminiscent of the experience it so often speaks of; the slow-paced reverie of absorbing and contemplating nature.

"Birches"

This poem is whimsical and somewhat faster in pace than Frost's poems covered thus far.  Frost begin by describing the frozen branches of birch trees and the effects of the ice on the trees and on the ground.  The entirety of the poem revolves around the fascination of the speaker with the ability of the branches to bend.  This type of fixation with the miraculous properties and sights of the natural world is easily understood by children and several times Frost says that he'd "like to think that some boy" is swinging, climbing, or bending down on the branches.  My interpretation of this particular poem is that it is in fact about the human fascination with the natural world and especially that of children.

"For Once, Then, Something"

In this poem, the speaker tells of peering down into a well and seeing his own reflection along with glimpses of:
"...a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths - and then I lost it."


The well keeps a secret and the poet leers deeper to see beyond his reflection and to ascertain the mystery but in vain. The well's hidden "something" remains a secret;
"What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something."

Yet again, the language is that of story-telling; without embellishment and dreamlike.

"Desert Places"

"Desert Places" consists of four stanzas of four lines each.  There is a rhyming scheme of:
A
A
B
A.
This scheme is consistent throughout.  Frost describes the lonely effect of beholding the winter wilderness covered in snow.  The animals are "smothered in their lairs."  This poem is not a reflection of the nature of loneliness but of a fear on the part of the speaker of a lack of feeling whatsoever.  This is evidenced in lines 7-8 as follows:

"I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares."
This theme is especially evident in the last stanza;
"They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars - on stars where no human race is. 
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places."

Being that the speaker describes himself as "absent-spirited" and fears his own "desert places" can be interpreted as indicating that isolation has not led the speaker to loneliness but has made him numb to it.

"Design"

Frost vividly describes a "dimpled spider, fat and white," as it perches on a flower while holding a dead moth.  His description is full of startling simile such as "dead wings carried like a paper kite."  He describes the spider, flower, and moth as a triad of "Assorted characters of death and blight,".
The second of the two stanzas is the poets interpretation of the sight.  What is implied therein is that these three entities came together as the result of a great design; the triad was meant to be.  This poem speaks of the perfection of natural beauty and its ability to confound human onlookers into awe and inspiration.  Events outside the human realm seem to function according to a cosmic scheme.

"Directive"

William Butler Yeats

“To the Rose upon the Rood of Time”

With this poem, Yeats presents a strongly sentimental ode to Ireland.  Throughout the poem are mythical references.  The two stanzas mirror each other in the sense that the first begins with a hail to the rose (highly revered by the Irish) and the second line speaks of singing and of the “ancient ways;” the second stanza ends with a repetition of these themes in reverse as follows:

First two lines:

“Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days!

Come near me, while I sing the ancient ways:”

Last two lines:

“Sing of old Eri and the ancient ways:

Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days!”

The feeling that one gets from this poem is a sense of melancholic nostalgia and a deep passion for one’s own ethnic heritage.

“The Lake Isle of Innisfree”

In this poem, Yeats depicts Innisfree and an envisioned life there which is peaceful and ideally solitary.  He is reminded of the waters of his homeland and explains:

“I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.”

Yeat’s poetry is almost nationalistic in how it conveys the poet’s passionate familiarity and fondness for his birthplace. 

“The Sorrow of Love”

This poem begins and ends with a nighttime scene of active sparrows, moonlight, and the sounds of the trees.  As in “To the Rose upon the Rood of Time,” the first and last stanzas mirror each other with regard to content and form.  The second stanza is addressed to someone.  Yeats does not disclose to whom it is he speaks.  He describes the person as having “red mournful lips” and says that he/she “came with the whole world’s tears.” 

The pangs of love lost seem to be a common theme for poets throughout history.  

“When You are Old”

“When You are Old” Is tender and touching.  It seems to be addressed to a widow for Yeats says:

“Murmur, a little sad, From us fled Love;

He paced upon the mountains far above,

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.”

The last lines of the second stanza end thusly:

“But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face.”

This line is deeply sentimental, as is the poem as a whole. 

“[Who Goes with Fergus?]”

The meaning of the poem is somewhat ambiguous.  Yeats speaks of the much-loved Fergus, ancient king of Ireland and he addresses a young man and a young woman.  He implores them not to “brood Upon Love’s bitter mystery.”  Yeats goes on to explain that King Fergus rules the woods and sea.  The poem is deeply ethnic in the sense that it speaks of a cultural hero specific to the Irish.  I feel that there is an Irish way of understanding this type of poem that cannot be reached by outsiders.  

“The Hosting of the Sidhe”

Once again, the theme is Irish myth and legend.  In this poem, ethereal heroes with “burning hair” and fairy maidens beckon the reader to abandon his/her “mortal dreams” and to enter a mythical place.  Perhaps this is the Land of the Ever-Living.  The meter and structure of the poem give it a sing-song quality when read aloud. 

“The Song of Wandering Aengus”

This poem recounts a supernatural encounter with a shape-shifting, silver trout.  The trout, after having been captured from the stream with a makeshift fishing pole, transforms into a “glimmering girl” who calls the speaker by his name and then runs away.  In the last stanza, Yeats promises to find the girl and to live out his days with her.  One of the prominent symbols repeated in this poem is the apple.  The girl wears apple blossoms in her hair and the last two lines are:

“The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.”

The symbol of the apple as understood by Yeats would take some further research.  Clues are gained from the title “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” for Aengus is the old Irish god of youth, beauty and poetry.  Perhaps apples too, symbolize youth and beauty in the Irish mind.  

“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”

“Cloths of Heaven” seems to represent the sky in its various states and shades,

“Of night and light and the half light,”

The speaker claims that if he had the “Cloths of Heaven” he would “spread them under your feet.”  He explains that because he is poor, all he has are his dreams and so he’ll spread those out instead to be tread upon.  One might presume that the speaker addresses someone very dear to him and for whom he is willing to sacrifice all in favor of that person’s comfort. 

“Adam’s Curse”

This poem is addressed to a woman and presumed lover of Yeats.  He recounts the experience of sitting with her and her "close friend" and talking of poetry.  Yeats describes "Adam's Curse" as being evident in the toiling labor of those who work. Yeats says that making poetry and siting with his love is laborious despite the claims of the establishment;

"Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen

The martyrs call the world."

The last stanza is a bit ironic and contrasts the seeming happiness of true love with the weariness it brings and compares this to the rising and setting of the moon, which Yeats describes as being like a worn down shell. 

"The Fascination of What's Difficult"

In "The Fascination of What's Difficult," Yeats laments at the difficulties of everyday life.  He implies that one, like a horse, is broken in order to fulfill his duties in life.  With the last line, Yeats proclaims:

"I swear before the dawn comes around again

I'll find the stable and pull out the bolt."

 This line speaks of a longing for freedom and the audacity of one who is willing to pursue it and to set the horse free per-say.  

"A Coat"

This is a short poem and is heavy with metaphor.  The speaker has

"made his(my) song a coat

Covered with embroideries 

Out of old mythologies."

However, "fools" have taken the coat and have defiled it's beauty "in the world's eye."

Therefore, the speaker thinks it fitter to go about naked if he is to keep his dignity intact. My interpretation is that Yeats is down-trodden that worldly people have been unable to appreciate the beauty of the old myths and romantic themes so dear to Yeats. Nevertheless, they have used them for their personal gain and have devalued them by making them cheap and superficial.

 "The Wild Swans at Coole"

This poem is an ode to the mysterious beauty of the swans at Coole upon the nineteenth visit of the speaker.  Yeats speaks of the natural features and especially of the swans with great sentimental fondness.  Coming to this old place makes the speaker nostalgic when he notices how things have changed.  He fears that someday the swans will not be there at all.  One wonders if the swans still visit Coole today.  

 

"Easter, 1916"

To be properly understood, this poem requires that the reader take on some extraneous information about the characters mentioned therein and about the events of and leading up to Easter, 1916.  On that day, Irish nationalists staged a revolt against the British government and were captured and mostly executed in firing squads.  Many of the individuals involved were intimately known by Yeats.  The poem is a lament in honor of those who died to proclaim Ireland a republic, but in vain.  

"The Second Coming"

The poem was written at the onset of World War I and during the throes of tremendous upheaval and violence in Europe.  Yeats interprets these events as heralding in the apocalypse of the Bible and the coming of a new world age.  The tone of the poem is heavy and dark.  Yeats explains that;

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity."

This was the zeitgeist or spirit of the time and seems to continue on into today.  Yeats describes a sphinx stalking through the desert towards Bethlehem to be born; the great iconic god of the next world age.  Are we to assume that nearly a hundred years later, the beast still makes his way towards his coronation and to usher in the end of an age and the dawn of the next?

Section I of "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen"

As with many of Yeat's poems, one must have some background information to fully appreciate this one.  The year 1919 marks the beginning of the Anglo-Irish war between the IRA and British government forces.  The main theme of this section of the six-part poem is sadness at the lost of great and beautiful things and the atrocities of war. What is suggested is that war and violence only serve to destroy beauty and to facilitate atrocities such as the "mother, murdered at her door."

"Leda and the Swan"

Once again, Yeats alludes to myth and legend.  Leda was a mortal woman raped by Zeus who appeared to her in the form of a large swan.  This myth has inspired generations of painters and poets.  Leda birthed four children from her unwanted assault, two of which were the fabled Castor and Pollux.  The myth was said to represent the dawning of a new age and this is another theme of which Yeats seems to have favored for writing.   The poem is viscerally descriptive and all at once sensual and violent.  The poem ends thusly;

"Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?"

This ending suggests that perhaps Leda is the powerful victor in the end despite Zeus's violent violation.  For Leda, being a woman, gave birth and through the birthing and fostering of human lives, great nations rise and fall.

"Sailing to Byzantium"

Yeats speaks of Byzantium as an ideal paradise; a place similar to the heaven described by the Bible, with golden streets and trees, a place of eternal youth.  Yeats speaks of age as a vice to be overcome and implies that youth is a state of mind with the following lines from the second stanza;

"An aged man is a paltry thing, 

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing..."

Byzantium is a happy mental escape for the speaker who imagines himself there in any form other than his present one;

"Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,

But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

Of hammered gold and gold enamelling..."

To equate being in Byzantium with being "out of nature" is to call Byzantium a supernatural place.

Hardy, Housman, and Thomas.

Thomas Hardy


"Hap"
In "Hap," Hardy proposes that IF all of life's sorrows were unavoidably bestowed upon him by a malicious higher power, he would have no choice but to bear them and await death. In the last stanza he admits this to be untrue and then asks the reader about the nature of sorrow. In my interpretation of the text, he seems to suggest that like beauty, joy and sorrow are in the "eye of the beholder" and that life is therefore what we make of it.  Referring to Time and Casualty (the temporal nature of reality and the unpredictability) as the great villains of life, Hardy says
 "These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain."
That is to say that events which might have been experienced as sorrowful, could have easily been construed as joyous events.
The structure of the piece is simple with three stanzas and a gentle rhyming meter, the specific style of which I have yet to learn. The pattern chosen in the first two stanzas is interrupted and expanded in the final stanza as if to evoke a cumulative sense of climax or catharsis interrupting the routine.

"Neutral Tones"
"Neutral Tones" seems to refer to a story of love grown cold. Hardy sets a sublimely bleak scenario in which he and another casually converse outside on a winter day.  The scene is painted in neutral tones such as white and gray.  Hardy describes the eyes and smile of the other person in such a way as to indicate that the mood of the encounter matched the neutral winter tones of fallen grey leaves. He describes the sun as having been
"...white, as though chidden of God,"
This condemned sun is in contrast to the happy, life-giving properties usually attributed to sunshine. The second stanza, describing the gaze of the other as it moves upon the speaker, implies a long history between the two with the line
"Over tedious riddles of years ago;"
and the word "tedious" adds to the sense that love has grown cold. This is further expounded by the startling description of the smile of the other upon the speaker which was

"the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing..."

In the last stanza, Hardy explains that his memory of the event near the pond on that winter day is associated with
"lessons that love deceives,"

There is a disillusioned bitterness in the emphatic tone of the last stanza in which the sun is once again claimed to be cursed by God.
The rhyming takes on a pattern of
A
B
B
A
and so on throughout the four stanzas.

"Darkling Thrush"
In the "Darkling Thrush," Hardy yet again paints a picture which is cold and gray, desolate and depressing. He describes looking out at a coppice (thicket) from behind a gate and all that he surveys is dead and gray.  His grim reverie is interrupted by the call of a thrush who bursts into the scene with startling joy and celebration. Hardy explains that whatever joy the thrush speaks of, he (Hardy) is unaware. For
"So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,"

I am beginning to think of Thomas Hardy as having been a brilliant but highly depressed person. This gives me impetus to read the autobiographical information included in the preface to his selected poems.

"New Year's Eve"
For me, "New Year's Eve" is reminiscent of "Hap" wherein Hardy questions higher powers in seeking to understand the source of sorrow and the point of life despite its hardships.   God has finished another year
"In grey, green, white, and brown;"

and has tended to the upkeep and routine of natural processes. The colors chosen here are earthly but cold.  In the second stanza, Hardy asks God
"And what's the good of it?"
He explains that

"If ever a joy be found herein,
Such joy no man had wished to win
If he had ever known!"

At this point, one feels sympathy for Hardy and wonders how it is he lived 88 years without committing suicide.  The rest of the poem describes the character God in less than flattering light as a being acting without logic and unweeting (unknowing).  One can assume that referencing god in a such a way would have seemed blasphemous to many.  Hardy pokes fun at God in "New Year's Eve" as a man who seemingly felt that life itself was a cruel joke.

"Chanel Firing"
"Chanel Firing" describes "gunnery practice out at sea."  One assumes this practice is done by military men because Hardy goes on to speak of war.  The firing of guns causes a stir and disturbs the people and creatures who are calmly resting or attending their affairs. The disturbance is so great as to illicit thoughts of "judgement day." Hardy condemns men of war saying that

"That this is not the judgement-hour
For some of them's a blessed thing,
For if it were they'd have to scour
Hell's floor for so much threatening..."

As in "Hap" and "New Year's Eve," Hardy once again scoffs at things religious and divine.

"The Convergence of the Twain"

This poem was written in memory of the famed Titanic, lost at sea in April of 1912.  Despite the great loss of human life that took place, very little mention is made of the deaths of those on board.  Instead, Hardy presents an ode to the majesty of the vessel alongside the majesty of the mysterious depths where
"Dim moon-eyed fishes near
Gaze at the gilded gear
And query:  'What does this vaingloriousness down here?'..."


The poem is organized in eleven numbered stanzas, each containing three lines with a rhyming scheme of
A
B
A

Hardy chose to end the poem thusly;
"Till the Spinner of the Years
Said 'Now!' And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres."


As mentioned above, the main concern of the poem is in describing the peculiar union of something majestic and man-maid with something majestic, alien, and of nature. The "Spinner of the Years" is the only intelligent living being mentioned in this poem, aside from the slimy creatures of the sea.  The "Spinner of the Years" references the event of the sinking of the Titanic as having been caused by an unseen force.  As usual, Hardy has attributed the tragedies of life to a malicious, god-like force beyond apprehension.

"The Voice"

This poem is an ode to a presumed ex-lover, as evidenced by the line
"When you had changed from the one who was all to me,"

Hardy addresses the poem to the woman and tells her that he hears her calling to him, or was it just the breeze?  The lost love has left the speaker despotic and nostalgic.  He speaks of fair days of yore and describes himself in his current state as
"...faltering forward,
Leaves around me falling,
Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward
And the woman calling."

The oozing wind is a particularly clever description. It is counter-intuitive and therefore novel.  Being a  novel and innovative way of thinking about the wind, it lends itself well to a clarity of expression with regard to the intense emotions of the speaker.