Poetry Response #9 (Sestina)

“What none knows is when, not if.” Frank Bidart’s poem, If see no end in is, is a very sophisticated reflection on the mysteries of life and the future. Its title is the end words from the first stanza that Bidart repeats throughout each additional stanza (structure of a sestina). He continues, saying, “the finite you know, you fear is infinite.” Meaning that much of our fear originates in the unknown- we fear what we cannot see, understand, hold, etc.

            Each stage in life is characterized by stepping into a new unknown abyss- that's not meant to sound so negative, simply dark. Each new chapter opens in figurative "darkness" and, as Bidart says, “the future will be different: you cannot see/ the end.” So each “future” is new and different- his poem addresses the fact that you cannot prepare for what you cannot see coming, so there are always aspects of the future which are unprepared for and hazy. One of the only concretes or definite assertions in the poem is that time will pass, the future will come--it is a matter of "when" not "if." 

            All the time Bidart is speaking about the uncertainties of the future, he is also talking about the blindness of the present. He gives the example of unreturned love: “You cannot see what is there to see —/not when she whose love you failed is/ standing next to you.” Bidart is overall expanding his idea that life is all ambiguity, that there is no preparation, exercise, or forethought that can get you ready for what life has in store. I have always heard the colloquialism “you can’t see the forest for the trees,” meaning that one cannot see the whole picture while he or she is in the situation and that “what none knows is when, not if.” 

Poetry Response #8

“The Waking” by Theodore Roethke uses the repetition of the phrases “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow” and “I learn by going where I have to go” to impart the main themes of life as a dulled version of sleep and of learning as an involuntary requirement. These themes bolster the message of reform and dissatisfaction that the author sees in the culture around him.

I love these sentiments- not because I agree with them thematically, but because they are profoundly spot-on.  So much of what I learn is not the voluntary, romanticized knowledge, but the experience from happenstance and from requirements- for better or worse, I suppose… I think the lessons you learn when you’re figuratively “lost in the woods” are the ones that remain ingrained and a part of you. They touch not only the logical, but also the emotional parts of your mind and sink past the inhibitions a hazy unreality.

So much of life is absorbed in fantasy musings and dream-like escapes from “waking,” so much so that the readmission into reality has to be taken slowly and purposefully- allowing the “sleeper” time to readjust to the imperfection of actuality. This acceptance of the mundane, painful, yet joyful and fruitful real life shocks the “sleeper” out of the cycle of sleep and escape. Roethke invites his readers to un-cloud their realities and to be open to enlightenment. 

Poetry Response #7

In "France: an Ode" by Samuel Taylor, Taylor responds profoundly and lyrically to the French countryside and to France as a political and military entity. His tonal changes between stanzas push the poem from a naturalistic, surface level, observatory tone to an indicting, mournful, nationalistic tone.

            His lofty diction and use of repetition and anaphora help elevate the tone of the poem to a plane of authority. His frequent asides and use of extended apostrophes, personification, and exclamatory sentences add a passionate voice for the voiceless- the dying French soldiers, virgin woods, and misting waves. In Taylor’s five stanzas, his attitude develops from exultant  admiration to defeated hope to wounded deliverance to cherished repentance finally to libertarian excitement. This  morphing of tone establishes a fluidity, but also a noticeable shift between stanzas. This shifting shows the progression of both time and thoughts, as France develops alongside Taylor's perspective and understanding. By dividing the stanzas by time, Taylor subliminally highlights the different stages of France's beauty- he captures it in development, rather than in a snapshot moment. It is this evolution and dramatic appreciation for nature that characterizes the 'ode' and that gives weight to Taylor's. 

Poetry Response #6

“1914 II. Safety” by Rupert Brooke is the generalized World War I soldier’s contemplation on death. The tone of the poem progresses from a joyful experience to an accepting expectation of death and the safety found therein.  This tone of hope and optimistic acceptance veers from the expected genre of the “war poem” and draws the reader in because of this discrepancy.

It follows a Shakesperian rhyme scheme (ababcdcdefefgg) with a similar structure divided into three quatrains with a concluding couplet. The first quatrain has a tone of assured safety, the second quatrain has a tone of realistic experience, and the final quatrain has a tone of confident victory reinforced by the author’s diction and selection of detail. The slight tonal divisions between the three quatrains serves to pull the reader along- keeping them interested and invested while promoting the common theme of man’s power, even over death. The major shift (volta) comes between the final quatrain and the couplet where the author announces with absolute certainty the soldiers’ safety “though all safety’s lost,” where there is none, and “where men fall.”

The structure reinforces the soldiers’ confidence- the continued assurance in the first three stanzas and the crescendo of confidence in the final couplet illuminates the self-possession and faithful conviction that “war knows no power” when there is such peace and harmony just beyond it, that “we have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever” in death. 

Poetry Response #?

“A Barefoot Boy” by James Whitcomb Riley is a man’s observation of and desire for childhood. The poem is written with a petrarchan rhyme scheme (abba abba cdcdcd) but in a Shakespearean structure where the first twelve lines run together with a common theme (divided into three quatrains), and the volta comes before the final couplet and shifts the focus of the poem from youth to age, and past to present.

The first twelve lines hypothesize, almost day-dreamily, about the little boy’s activities based off his “dusty trousers,” “grimy, bare ankles,” and “stripes of the nettle” on his feet. This youthful reverie illuminates the older man’s wistfulness and the continuous structure of the first twelve lines helps prolong his reflective musings. When the poem shifts in the final couplet, it jolts the narrator back to the present and old age. He compares the young boy’s big toe to “the clasp of an old pocketbook” which subconsciously shows what’s on the elder man’s mind- finances, responsibility, and a longing for the untroubled days of his childhood.

The operative theme of the poem is reflection, which is developed through the structure and content of the poem. The structure groups the elder man’s meditations on and yearnings for childhood together with a common idea and consistent rhyme scheme (for the most part, the last six lines share a scheme, but aren’t cohesive in theme). The content is consistent through the three quatrains- a dreamy desire for childhood, and the couplet- a shock back to present consciousness. The poem overall uses reflection as a tool for escape.

Poetry Response #3: Dramatic Monologue

The entire poem consists of the female narrator’s response to the push of a stranger. She analyzes both his actions and the actual motives behind the “shove.”  She addresses the hurried man on the subway platform as if he were standing there, listening and asks rhetorical questions as if expecting an answer or explanation. She begins creating situations to justify his push- an interview or rushing home? The rhetorical questions create a tone of hesitant justification and curiosity. 

After exploring the physical reasons behind the man’s pushing, she delves into the spiritual and emotional handicaps that could have manifested themselves through that push. She asks, “Can he catch up with his soul?” adding a deeper meaning behind the man’s push. Finally the narrator looks introspectively and asks herself how the man’s “thoughtlessness defiled who [she] was before he shoved [her]” and how she might have been if he hadn’t pushed her, “how might I be smiling now if he’d smiled, hanging back, as though he might have loved me?” This profoundly multifaceted reaction to physical and psychological actions shows not only the woman’s need for acceptance and notice, but also her desire for respect.

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Poetry Response #2 (Dramatic Monologue)

Louise Erdrich's poignant poem, "Captivity" addresses the tumultuous ramblings of a woman in captivity. The woman, Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, is recounting her story of capture and survival. The poem was based off of her own personal memoir and uses descriptive language, imagery, and hyperbole to draw her readers or listeners more personally into her story. She sets the scene and recreates the circumstances of her captivity. She was captured by an indian tribe, the Wampanoag, and held hostage in the frigid Massachusetts forests, forced to live off the land, at the hand of her captors. Her fear and disdain for her captors at first demonstrates her stubbornness and independence. In fact, she goes so far as to say, "I told myself I would starve/ before I took food from his hands." However, the longer she remains the Wampanoags' prisoner, the more she relates to them, so much so that when she is rescued and returned to her family she "remembers herself as she was [with them]" and views her family's life as unusual, the Wampanoags' as normal. The grander meaning of the poem can be found in Mary Rowlandson's growth towards the Wamponoag, and her acceptance of innate differences in conjunction with  universal similarities. Her introspection opens her up to the depth of the world around her. Ironically, her physical captivity is what mentally sets her free.