Poem 4

Michael

Suinn

Ariel

Evan

Fault

Ron Koertge *

In the airport bar, I tell my mother not to worry.
No one ever tripped and fell into the San Andreas
Fault. But as she dabs at her dry eyes, I remember
those old movies where the earth does open.

There's always one blonde entomologist, four
deceitful explorers, and a pilot who's good-looking
but not smart enough to take off his leather jacket
in the jungle.

Still, he and Dr. Cutie Bug are the only ones
who survive the spectacular quake because
they spent their time making plans to go back
to the Mid-West and live near his parents

while the others wanted to steal the gold and ivory
then move to Los Angeles where they would rarely
call their mothers and almost never fly home
and when they did for only a few days at a time.

This poem is about a mother worrying too much about her son. I can tell the author is going on a flight somewhere because he says “In the airport bar, I tell my mother not to worry.” The boy then goes on a tangent talking about movies and how boys would never visit home and never call home. This makes me think that the boy is not going to do as he knows his mother wants him to do and not call or make other arrangements to communicate with his mom.

The meaning of this poem is that a boy from the mid west is moving to California, right by the San Andreas fault and his mother is worried about it. The poet compares this to a movie. In the movie there are explorers and a pilot and a doctor and an entomologist. The pilot and the doctor want to go home in the mid west, but the others who are vain want to go to California where they will never call home and if they do it will rarely happen. This is how the poet shows the feelings of the mother. The mother thinks that because her son is going to California that he will never talk to her or visit. The boy on the other hand tries to assure her that he will call and visit, and he knows what she is thinking about and he knows how she is feeling.

Poem 3

Ariel
Evan
Suinn
Mike

Biscuit
Jane Kenyon
The dog has cleaned his bowland his reward is a biscuit,which I put in his mouthlike a priest offering the host.
I can't bear that trusting face!He asks for bread, expectsbread, and I in my powermight have given him a stone.

The speaker of the poem is the dog’s owner. In this poem the dog finishes his food and expects a treat from his owner but he could give the dog something else because he has power over the dog. In the first stanza, the poet uses positive words to describe what’s going on. For example, “reward”, “biscuit”, “offering” are all positive words. But in the second stanza, the poet uses more negative words because he realizes his power over the dog. For example, “bear”, “expects”, “power”, “stone” are all negative words in this poem. The images in this poem are the dog cleaning his bowl, his rewarding biscuit that the owner put in the dog’s mouth, and the dog’s trusting face.
The meaning of this poem is that some people use their power to be in control of someone or something else. Just because you are more powerful than someone else, doesn’t mean you can control them to make yourself happier. You should treat everyone the way you would want to be treated.

Poem 2

Suinn, Mike, Ariel, Evan

SICK By Shel Silverstein

"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more--that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut--my eyes are blue--
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke--
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is. . .Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"


The speaker of the poem is the poet. The whole poem is Peggy Ann McKay speaking to her mother. She is pretending she’s sick so she won’t have to go to school. The poet uses strong negative words to show how sick she is pretending to be. For example, “I cough I sneeze I gasp I choke—I’m sure that my left leg is broke” and “My elbow’s bent, my spine ain’t straight, my temperature is one-o-eight” are just two descriptions of being sick. She describes many sicknesses but it’s impossible to have all of them at once. Each line in this poem is an image. Every thing she says she has is in image you can see. For example, “My tonsils are as big as rocks, I’ve counted sixteen chicken pox” and “My leg is cut my eyes are blue” are images in the poem.
The meaning of this poem is that the little kid doesn’t want to go to school. She keeps on making excuses for why she cannot go to school. At the end of the poem she realizes that it is Saturday and that she feels better and that it is a miracle. This shows that kids will do and say anything just so they don’t have to go to school. All of the images in the poem are different excuses showing that she is too sick for school.

Poems

Ariel

Evan

Suinn

Mike




Dreams by Langston Hughes



Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.



Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.


The speaker of the poem is a wise person or a dreamer. The speaker is communicating that if you don’t have any dreams to follow, life will be unfulfilling. In the poem, the speaker starts off every line the same way except the last line of each stanza. He is comparing life to something that can’t go anywhere. “Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly” and “Life is a barren field frozen with snow” are examples of what the speaker is comparing life to without any dreams. When Hughes says that “Life is a broken-winged bird”, he means that life would be unfulfilling for a bird without wings just as life would be unfulfilling to a person without dreams.


The meaning of this poem to hang on to what you have and make the most of it. When Hughes says “Life is a barren field, frozen with snow”, he means that a barren field is of no use. When he says “Hold fast to dreams” he means that you should never let go of your dreams because without dreams, you would have no motivation to live your life and life would be plain without them. The meaning of the poem is to always have dreams.

New blog group

Ariel

Suinn

Evan

Michael



The reason why we decided to modify this blog is because we added two new members to our poetry group. Our group does not like poetry. We feel indifferent about studying poetry. We have learned a lot about poetry so far. We have learned what a metaphor is and how to analyze one. We also learned the different parts of a metaphor such as a vehicle, a tenor, and the grounds of a metaphor. We hope to learn how to further understand poetry, and someday wish to write it ourselves.



Unique and original examples of devices



Apostrophe- O! He's in a happier place

Irony- Mark: It's not going to rain, mom.

Mother- ok

Mark goes outside and half-way through his journey, it starts to pour.

Metonymy- The suits on Wallstreet

Paradox-Theoretical physicists look for paradoxes in the universe.

Personification- The fish looked like he had the honor of a soldier

Synecdoche-Wings for bird

Tautology- The room was dark and there was no light in the room.

Understatement-The eruption of Mount Vesuvius was small.

Anthropomorphism-

Snow by David Berman

Original: "A room with the walls blasted to shreds and falling."
Could be thought of as a room ruined by someone, not a natural cause.
Changed: "A room with the walls destroyed and torn apart."

Original: "Our voices hung close in the new acoustics."
Could be an echo.
Changed: "Our voices lingered in the new acoustics."

Original: "We returned to our shoveling, working side by side in silence."
Could be interpreted as everything was silent, not just the kids.
Changed: "We returned to our shoveling, working side by side without speaking."

The Mentor

Timothy Murphy's Mentor

Before: "when I lived so near," After: "when I was located so near"

Could be he lived as in he lived in a house near the teacher, or he lived as in he was alive when that person lived near him.

Before: "of the wholly grown" After: "of the completely grown"

Could be interpreted either as the person is completely grown or their mind is compltely grown.

Before: "and the nearly great" After: "and the nearly famous"

Telling how the person is either nearly good or nearly notable for it.