“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