Hazel Tells LaVerne

I liked this poem because of its structure.  Although the poem used no punctuation, I felt like it was easy to read because the way it was set up.  It is separated into clauses and clearly shows the emphasis on certain phrases by breaking it up this way.  Throughout the poem, slang was also used as phrases like "tryin ta," "talkin bout," and "ya" all appear.  Also, the idea is introduced that if a princess kisses a frog, it will turn into a prince.  I feel like this is used in many storylines that involves princesses.  One example off the top of my head is in Shrek as Fiona's father turns into a frog because the spell was reversed or something.  An odd thing about this poem is that the princess actually does not allow the spell to come true.  She does not kiss the frog and just flushes down the frog without questions.

Getting Out

I liked this poem because I could understand the meaning, or so I think.  Two people were married, but now they are divorced.  They had "matching eyes and hair" which I think is a common stereotype that some couples have.  They have "kept to separate sides of the map" which I interpreted to mean that they were on opposite sides of a country.  The couple writes yearly letters to each other which tell the other how "happy" they are.  I think they would rather be with each other, but they cannot because they disagree too much.  Even on the day of their divorce, they amazed the lawyer by crying because they really did not want to go through with it.  This couple both contributed to the pain that ended their marriage, but neither of them truly wanted it to end.

Dover Beach

The setting of "Dover Beach" plays an important role in the context of the poem.  It is placed outdoors on a beach near France and England.  There is a "calm sea," and "the tide is full" which must mean it is night.  A "night-wind" is blowing causing me to believe that this setting will not stay for long.  I think a storm is about to occur and shift the scenery from being peaceful to chaotic.  The poem ends mentioning that "ignorant armies clash by night."  "Armies" signify the waves as they clash against each other like they do in a storm.  The person whom is he addressing is his lover because he says "Ah, love, let us be true" in line 29.

Crossing the Bar

Crossing the Bar talks about an aspect of death, and the way he might want to die.  Question 4 asks what "that which drew from out the boundless deep" refers to.  I think it refers to the tide that goes out onto the beach only to go right back into the ocean.  The "boundless deep" must then signify the ocean as the ocean is one thing of which the tide comes back.  Towards the end of the poem, "Pilot" is capitalized because it refers to God, the pilot of all events and creator of the world.  The setting must be at night because there is high tide and the sunset and evening star.  "Crossing the bar" must mean passing from life onto death as the poem states that the speaker wants to see God once he has "crossed the bar."  The one thing I don't understand is how the speaker wants to die.  Does he want to float away in the ocean, or does he just want a peaceful death?

My mistress' eyes

The several tones of this poem are very interesting.  It starts out with having a tone of disappointment with his mistress.  He compares how his girl's eyes are "nothing like the sun."  "Coral is far more red than her lips' red."  "In some perfumes is there more delight then in the breath that from my mistress reeks."  "Music hath a far more pleasing sound" than his lover's voice.  These are all examples of how he is basically pointing out all of her flaws.  Then, he shifts the tone in the last two lines to how glorious and rare she is.  The poem ends with "I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare."  I think it is ironic that he does this as he kind of contradicts himself in the same poem.  By doing this, Shakespeare has a great deal of effect on the poem and its meaning.  He wanted to show how the flaws of his "mistress" do not even compare to the rarity that she possesses.

next to of course god america i

Ask (or suggest) and you shall receive...

Well, I do not really know what to say about this poem.  The form and pattern of the poem was basically a whole bunch of words smashed into different lines.  The majority of the poem was in quotation marks, but the last two sentences were not in quotations.  I'm guessing that someone was giving a speech or something, and that's why there are quotation marks?  This poem also reminded me of the song "My Country Tis of Thee."  They have many common words, and I found myself stop reading in the middle of it and humming the tune.  As for analysis, I understood that the "heroic happy dead" did not stop to think about what they did, but I do not know what that means.  I really could not follow this poem because I felt that too many words were crammed together without punctuation.

APO 96225

This was definitely my favorite poem of the unit because it was told like a story.  Irony is a big part of the poem as dramatic irony takes place when we know what went on in the Vietnam War, but the people in the U.S. really had no idea.  A mother begs her son to tell them what is going on, but the son is trying to block his parents from the depressing side of the war.  The mother continues to beg, and the son tells her that he killed a man and dropped napalm on women and children.  She was horrified, and the father told the son to not write depressing letters.  I find this quite hysterical because the parents were asking for the truth.  When they finally received the truth, it was horrible, and they did not want to know anymore.  The poem really shows how clueless the people in the U.S. were about the war in Vietnam, and all they really wanted was answers.  In reality, the people just wanted to hear positive things happening in Vietnam instead of negative.