Rich: "Diving into the Wreck"

This last poem we'll discuss is a fairly difficult poem, but it does certainly seem to be working on an allegorical level. What do you think things like the diver and the wreck represent? the damage? the ladder?

Symbol

We revisit symbol because it is so important. Read Margaret Atwood's "This is a Photography of Me." p 849. Do you see anything acting as a symbol in the poem? What does it symbolize?

Meter

Read "Mid-Term Break" on p887.

What techniques does Heaney use to give the poem more emotional impact. Pay particular attention to the last line.

(note: In Ireland, wakes are often held in a person's home instead of a funeral home. This is why the ambulance arrives at the home in stanza five.)

No post

For those of you looking, I realize I forgot to post a question at the end of the week. So you are off the hook for today.

Supermarket in California

So is this poem about supermarkets? About Walt Whitman? About Poetry? About love? About America? What do you see as its primary theme and why?

The One Girl at the Boy's Party

What do the metaphors and similes of this poem contribute to the meaning? Consider metaphor and simile as vehicles. They transport the essence from one thing to another in order to say something new about a thing, emotion, abstraction, etc. What gets transfered in these figures of speech and what new meaning is created?

Imagery

How do the images of "Scott Wonders If His Daughter..." (p901) help suggest the theme of the poem?

Or

Fill in the blank and write the poem entitled:

"How to Write the Great ___________ Novel"

Voice, Tone and Irony

Looking at Alexie's poem, "How to Write..." describe the speaker of the poem, his attitude toward novelists who write about Indians. Is this poem ironic? That is, are the moments when discrepancies exist between the literal meaning of the poem and another, more truthful meaning?

Page numbers for Friday

I noticed that I neglected page numbers for a couple of the pieces you need to read for Friday.

Langston Hughes's poem "Negro" is on p604

and

Irony is on page 621.

Poems about War

Having read a number of poems about war, I want you to go through and pick two poems that share one of the following;

A common theme
A common image
A common tone

Tell us which poems and what they share.

Poetry

Let's begin our discussion of poetry with some experiences you've had with poetry. Tell us about an encounter with a poem--good or bad.

I'll begin. I see my relationship with my wife bracketed by two poems that I wrote for her. The first, when we were college students, was probably the result of reading way too much Shakespeare and drinking way too much wine. In other words, I thought just enough of myself to think I could write a good poem. And one rarely writes poems to one's teammates, so I wrote to my girlfriend. Thirteen years later --and a few other poems in between--I wrote this poem for her for Christmas when we found out we were going to have a baby. Both poems can be found in the Dana College Sower.