“These Lacustrine Cities” by John Ashbery

“These Lacustrine Cities” by John Ashbery is a seven stanza Quatrain. What I like about “These Lacustrine Cities” is that it is poetry in motion when reading it. In the first stanza Ashbery is saying that the lacustrine cities are not just angry with history but upset as well. The poem has a very dark upsetting tone to it but contains many visuals. Some of the examples of the visions that Ashbery uses in “The Lacustrine Cities” are the branches (in stanza two), the middle of the desert (in stanza four), and a violent sea (in stanza five). By reading it Ashbery transform the images and setting from stanza to stanza almost like flashbacks or a window to the future. “Whose disappointment broke into a rainbow of tears.” (Ashbery pg. 391) I love this line in the poem because I pictured a broken rainbow being dim and dull almost dripping away. The complete opposite to how a rainbow is suppose to look like. The one thing that makes Ashbery’s poems great is his use of images and a rainbow in tears is a great way to end a depressing poem.

---Richard Liptak

“The Arrival of the Bee Box” by Sylvia Plath

“The Arrival of the Bee Box” by Sylvia Plath is a seven stanza Quintet. There is no rhyme scheme structure in this poem. In the first stanza the poem deals with the title of the poem the arrival of a bee box. Plath describes the bee box as a clean wooden box, that is almost to heavy to lift. She incorporates death in the first stanza by saying “I would say it was the coffin of a midget or a square baby.” (Plath pg. 604) I find that quote very interesting because it is almost like she is saying that the bees that just arrived are prisoners of death. In stanza three Plath uses the words “African hands”. By using those choice of words Plath is confirming that the bees in this wooden box or not just prisoners but slaves as well. In the last two stanzas Plath wonders if she sets the bees free that they might not be grateful but revengeful towards her. In a way Plath controls the bee’s faith. See comes to terms with herself and tells God that she will release the bees and set them free. In the last line Plath writes “The box is only temporary.” (Plath pg. 604) I feel by using that line to end the poem was a great choice of words because she is saying that even tough the bees are in the confined to a wooden box, when set free the bees can live their lives. The box is temporary for the live that they will live.

---Richard Liptak

[O sweet spontaneous]

What makes E.E. Cummings poem [O sweet spontaneous] so unique is the set up to this poem. The title of the poem is the first line in stanza one. What really strikes me is the one word use throw out the poem. Also each stanza is a Quatrain I think with seven stanzas. I feel that E.E. Cummings in a way was kind of brilliant in how he set up this structure because it looks spontaneous. I could see him typing on typewriter and just seeing were it goes. The use of “fingers of prurient philosophers” (Cumming pg. 547) is an interesting word choice because I feel that phrase sums up the whole poem. Cummings love the spontaneous of writing and the words that flowed throw his mind and on to the paper. Cummings compares his writing to “prurient philosophers” because like most philosophers that speaks what comes to mind. The ending of the poem is very usual too because I don’t think that answerest is a real word and it looks that he hit the spacebar a couple of times. I feel that he did that to focus on his point of being spontaneous and make the message of death that he quotes in the last three stanzas seem not that dark.

---Richard Liptak

"Cross" by Langston Hughes

What I like about “Cross” by Langston Hughes is the structure that he implies. There are three stanza Quatrain. What really makes the poem interesting is that in his first stanza the AB structure is not a rhyme but the same word. For example man with man but makes the rhyme with black and back. This pattern goes on in the next two stanzas with the second and forth line matching. The tone of the poem would have to be that of slavery. His old man is white and his old mother’s black. (Hughes pg. 689) I feel that in the first two stanzas that Langston Hughes feels that he is in a struggle between races. If he ever cursed his father he takes it back means that he loved his father and said the same thing about his mother but wishes he never said it. In the last stanza if feel that he is judging which way he is going to die. With having a white father who die in a big house and a black mother who died in a shack could mean that they got divorced and he doesn’t know if he will live the class of a white man or live the life of a black man in the end. By ending the poem saying “I wonder where I’m gonna die, Being neither white or black?” (Hughes pg. 689) I feel that he saying on how would society judge me than.

---Richard Liptak

What Are Years by Marianne Moore

What struck my interest about “What Are Years” by Marianne Moore is the doubt that comes from the poem. “What is our innocence, what is our guilt? All are naked, none is safe.” (Moore. 452) When I read these lines I feel that Moore depicts are birth when she says “we are all born naked.” We all are born naked. “None is safe,” could mean that we don’t know how our life will go. As we live our life we learn certain rules and guidelines that are supposed to make us socially accepted in ones culture. Moore is trying to challenge what is socially accepted by asking what is or innocence, what is our guilt? I also like the last three lines in stanza three because in a way it plays off the first stanza. “Though he is captive, his mighty signing says, satisfaction is a lowly thing, how pure a thing is joy. This is mortality, this is eternity.” (Moore. 452) What I get is Moore is saying that even if he is imprisoned, you can imprisoned your soul are your joy. By realizing the joy in your life your soul will have an eternity of happiness.

---Richard Liptak

Unharvested by Robert Frost

Robert Frost gives the reader a visual picture of an apple tree. The first line of “Unharvested” stuck my attention. “A scent of ripeness from over a wall.” (Frost. 227) That like struck my attention because I now I just don’t have a visual picture of an apple but I have the scent of an apple in my head too. As the poem goes on I get this picture of a sky-blue, hot summer day and I am traveling down a road were I see and smell the shiniest red apples you ever see. As I walk closer to this apple tree, the hot summer day starts to clam down and a breeze goes by. This apple tree has the greenest leafs and the reddest juicy apples around. “As complete as the apple had given man. The ground was one circle of solid of red.” (Frost. 227) As I keep walking, fallen apples engulf the green grass. The smell of apples has now become even stronger. “May something go always unharvested! May much stay out of our stated plan, Apples or something forgotten and left, So smelling their sweetness would be no theft.” (Frost. 227) What I get from the last stanza is that an apple so colorful and rich that is not picked from a tree is left forgotten. When apple picking no one wants to get the apples on the floor they want to pick the apples off the tree. The solid red floor of apples are forgotten. Apples that may not be eaten and will become unharvested. When Frost says that it would be no theft to smell their sweetness he is saying that you can’t eat or take all the apples but you can get the scent of all the apples together before they become unharvested.

---Richard Liptak

The Death of a Soldier by Wallace Stevens

I like how Stevens compare the life of a soldier to an autumn day. When reading “The Death of a Soldier” I pictured this soldier that is going into battle knowing that he may not can back in the shape he was or if he will still be living. I get this vivid image of this soldier lining up in his platoon and embarking on his mission. As he looks around people are getting shot and falling down one by one like leafs that fall from an autumn tree. As I keep reading “He does not become a three-day’ personage, Imposing his separation, Calling for pomp.” (Stevens pg. 246) I get the impression that this soldier got shoot. The soldier is down but still wants to fight not because he wants to be a celebrity but to defend his honor, shooting other soldiers off one by one but more of he enemy still coming know that he is going to die looking death right in the eye looking for his own splendor. Eventually he can fight the enemy of anymore and dies. Instead of giving him a proper memorial he is pushed aside so other soldiers can fight. “When the wind stops and, over the heavens, The cloud go, nevertheless, In their direction.” (Stevens pg. 246) After the battle has ended and the retreat was made that battleground that saw death and violence now is a vast space of emptiness. The soldiers death represents the wind stopping but the clouds go represents the soul and sacrifice that this unnamed soldier made.

---Richard Liptak

Death by William Carlos Williams

I like the poem Death by William Carlos Williams because this is a poem of how he deals with the death of his father. The poem seems to be a very dark and upsetting poem. What strikes me to this poem is the tone of this poem. Williams is describing how the dog won’t have to sleep on his potatoes (toes) anymore to keep them from freezing. “he’s dead the old bastard – He’s a bastard because there’s nothing legitimate in him any more he’s dead” (Williams pg. 295) I find that an unusually passage because there is “nothing legitimate in him anymore”, gives me the impression that Williams think with his fathers death that there will be no love for him anymore. The nothing in him could possibly mean the love in their father and son relationship. I feel that Williams is mad about his father dieing. That he is upset because Williams feels abandon. The last line “He’s sick-dead” could mean that he died sick or that Williams is sick that his father is dead.

---Richard Liptak

The Pool by Hilda Doolittle

I chose The Pool by Hilda Doolittle. because it is such an unusually title for this poem. H.D. starts the poem by saying “Are you alive? I touch you. You quiver like a sea-fish” (H.D. pg 395) This is what came to me when I read it. I did not think of a pool or any sea terms but a different interpretation that maybe a little far off. I pictured a homeless person lying in a cold street in a desolate city. A woman goes over to see if this homeless person is still alive, so she goes over to grab this homeless person and sees that this person is shivering. “I cover you with my net.” (H.D. pg 395) Out of the goodness of her heart she gives this homeless person her jacket. Her “net” for warmth. “What are you----banded one” (H.D. pg 395) I feel that after she gave her jacket to warm this homeless person, she wanted to know more about this homeless person. Branded one also strikes me because banded means marked with bands of different or contrasting colors. I have this vision of this homeless person that is very white, dirty, has a rose color nose because of the cold, and greasy black hair. With all of these different unique colors that this person has she is seeing many contrasts in colors in this homeless person.

--- Richard Liptak