Poetry Paper Essay, Research Paper
Paper on Poetry Mending Wall, by Robert Frost (1874-1963), is a poem which asks the question, Do fences make good neighbors? Frost feels they do not; a wall isolates the people who built the wall, keeping them from their experiences with each other. Frost nonetheless excites the reader s curiosity to discover what that something might be. As well, the rhythmical impulse of the poem has been set in motion. In the opening line something refers to a third entity. In the next couple of lines the something must be reckoned with: That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, / And spells the upper boulders in the sun: and makes gaps even two can pass abreast. It is destructive of the wall but creative of unity between people: two can pass abreast as a result of the gaps something has created. That it sends the frozen earth to undermine the man made structure suggests that something is the power of nature itself which often frustrated human designs. Frost also shows that the something is different than a human being when he says, such as hunters with infamous disregard for farmers property in pursuit of their sport, accented by the use of onomatopoeia, the yelping dogs. The skill that requires work has magic about it: We have to spell to make them balance. The two people whom the wall separates are clearly not needed: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. Frost eventually argues a second point, that the something may have been elves. The neighbor continues to rebuild the wall saying, Good Fences make good neighbors. In Filling Station by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), the poem illustrates taking pride in the least of things and that everyone has a love in life. Everyone would like to enjoy their workplace and would like to think of it as being a nice place to work. Bishop expresses this idea with lines such as some comic books provide the only note of color, Why the extraneous plant? and Why, oh why, the doily? The poet shows no matter how dirty the filling station may appear someone is trying to make it an enjoyable place. A meek family runs the filling station. An example of the family s meager means is shown by the lack of fitting uniforms. The father s uniform is described as a monkey suit that cuts him under the arms. The reader is advised that the family may live in the filling station by the dirty dog sitting on the sofa quite content. The speaker tries to add humor to this poem so the reader doesn t have so much pity for the inferior family when she says, Somebody waters the plant, or oils it, maybe. Bishop concludes by letting the reader observe how something so dirty and old as a family filling station can still be very much cared about. Somebody loves us all. In California Hills in August, by Dana Gioia (b.1950), the poem simply relates to a very hot day in the summer hills during the end of summer. The setting reveals how an outsider might discover these fields unbearable, especially without modern convinces. The speaker tries put the reader actually into the California Hills by using descriptive words such as dust and scorn. Gioia reveals to the reader how deserted the hills are as to talk about the hawk as the only other living thing. Stillness overcomes the land when the speaker says, without wind, without motion. Beautiful things may be found on these hills despite the heat: Yet how gentle it seems to someone raised in landscape short of rain. Gioia gives a wonderful contrast with reference to the hills. The comparison of people from different regions of the countryside might see the hills as being wonderful or possibly dreadful.
The Fish, by Elizabeth Bishop is a poem about a woman who catches a fish. Bishop gives the reader a great deal of imagery. Examples of imagery are shown in line 14, shapes like full-blown roses and line 28 packed in like feathers. The impression of the fish upon the speaker is one of respect, a five-haired beard of wisdom. The fish has eluded capture at least five times. The speaker really gives the reader a detailed description of the fish, an example of this might be: He was speckled with barnacles. The fish contains life and the speaker has a sort of pity on the fish because everything associated with the fish s habitat is either old or damaged: aching jaw , rusted engine , and sun-cracked thwarts. The oil spilling into the water is easy to visualize, especially where oil has spread rainbow. The rainbow represents a new time as after a heavy rain shower has passed. The reader is persuaded to think the catcher of the fish is going to put the fish out of its misery and keep it. But the end result is overpowering, as the fish is victorious again. Butcher Shop, by Charles Simic (b. 1938), is a sad poem about death and what it takes to be fed. The speaker is a person who probably can t sleep so at times he walks the neighborhood. He passes by a local butcher shop and tells what he sees. The setting is dreary as the speaker conveys that there is a single light in the store/ like the light in which a convict digs his tunnel. The speaker could be looking for something and is lost; this is why he compares the apron to a map of blood in the second stanza. The speaker could also be looking for God as he is wandering late at night. In the third stanza the speaker compares the knives to altars in a dark church: there are knives that glitter like altars / In a dark church. In the last stanza the speaker is comparing the old dried blood on the butcher block to a dried up river, Scraped clean a river fried to its bed. I am convinced that the poem is about a man who loves meat and was hungry for something he could not have. At the end of the poem a voice is calling to him. I believe this voice is a notification that his late night dinner is ready so he should come and eat. The voice comes from where he normally eats because the speaker says, Where I am fed, / Where deep in the night I hear a voice. A Street in Bronzeville, by Gwendolyn Brooks (b.1917), is a poem that uses language and poetic style along with rhythm and rime. Examples of rhythm and rime are underground and found and air and their. The poem s subject matter is about the death of a Madam or prostitute and what has become of her grave. The poem has a contradiction by the way the poet uses school of beauties and Madam. Once a school of beauty s which was a prostitute house, now a tavern. The Madam has died and much of her wealth has been placed upon her tombstone, Her own is early found. and Where the thickest, tallest monuments cuts grandly into the air covered into cool hard steel. The grave is a reminded of the Madam by the way the grave is decorated: red velvet lining, / silk is shining. The speaker is content with what the Madam has done with her wealth and delighted to express it in a poem.