Batter My Heart Three-personed God

This is a poem taht any religious person can relate to. All humans are sinners. We are constantly confronted with temptation. However, the author or speaker of this poem seem to have hit rock bottom. He claims to be married to the devil and wants God to save him. He says," Divorce me, unite or break that knot agian" The speaker obviouse feels that he must be punished inorder for him to repent. He uses paradox to describe his need for God. For example, he says he can not be free unless God imprisions him. This poem/prayer seems very desperate to me and heart-felt. The Speaker prays for God to save him and bring him closer to him.

Next to of course God America I

The format, or syntax, of the poem is especially important to the meaning. This poem has very little to no punctuation. This leads to the belief that this is being sad very quickly with no concern toward the reader's comprehension. The man being quoted begins his speech with phrases from patriotic songs followed my paradoxical word that point out how Americans should not really be so patriotic. For example he says, "why talk of beauty what could be more beautiful than these heroic dead" This line points out that we are at home talking about the war and being patriotic there are men who are dead because of it and there is no beauty in that.

Much Madness is Divinest Sense

This poem, Like Barbie Doll, also is critisizing society's view on uniquness. Society is the opinion of the majority of people. The poem claims that if you agree with society's beliefs then society will say you are sane. However, the author says that in reality, the person who forms their own opinion is actually the sane one who thinks on their own. This poem uses the paradox, madness equals sense while sense equals madness, to prove a point. IF people always alow others to make decisions for them then they have given up their own thinking process and are there for mad. This was an interesting idea that can easily be realated back to The Barbie Doll peom. If the girl were never told by society athat she was ugly she may have been able to make the decision to be happy with herself and would not have given up her uniqueness.

Barbie Doll

This poem uses irony to satiracly express society's veiw on beauty. Young girls are often given dolls and toys that sterotype women. These dolls will be perfectlly thin and have a voulumtuouse figure; yet, these dolls are not real people they do not have thoughts and emotions like a real person. Young girls often feel as if they must look like these dolls in order to be beautiful. The girl in this poem is lead to believe that she is not good enough because she has thick legs and a large nose. The only time this girl is recognized as beautiful is when she has changed her appearances. The poem says she cuts off her thick legs and large nose and offers them up in a coffin. The coffin analogy gives the feeling that she has removed some part of herself that makes her unique. She replaced her own beauty with what society told her was beautiful and now her beauty is dead.

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by: John Donne

This poem was one of the more confusing ones for me. When I break it down it seems to be talking about a lover and announcing their love to others. At the beginning of the poem however, it seems like a man is about to die and they are saying good bye. This is more fitting for the title because a valediction is a farewell. Perhaps the man who is dying is saying good bye to his love. The man may not literally be dying, his death is simply a symbol for his emotion. Unfortunately This symbolic meaning is one I can not make sense of. This poem along with a few of the others seems like a puzzle and it is hard to put all the pieces together so that they fit. In the article we read about the correct way to interpret a poem, it said all details must fit the interpretation. I find this to be the greatest challenge because often ideas of what the author is speaking of pop into my mind and then a new fact is revealed that ruins the original thought. I think this is a poem we should discuss in class because it is hard to make sense of.

I taste a liquor never brewed by: Emily Dickinson

I feel like Emily Dickinson wrote her poems like there were meant to be a puzzle or a riddle to be figured out. First of all, a liquor that was never brewed would not contain alcohol. So if whatever Emily is getting drunk off of it is not alcohol. The author describes nature and its beauty. However she does this using words related to drinking and being drunk. She says the drunken bee, the butterflies renounce their drams, and inebriate of air. These descriptions all are related to drinking yet they are describing things in nature that can not be drunk. I think she is trying to make the point that nature and beauty make her feel as happy as if she were drunk how ever she does this in a very artistic and creative way.

Febuary by: Margaret Atwood

The diction used in this poem sets a very distinct tone. The author is not happy. It is February, the month of despair, as well as the month in which Valentines day takes place. The author makes a few references to how Valentines day and the male gender are a waste of time. They are as shallow as cats (specifically her cat). February is cold and dreary and she wants to stay in her warm bed and avoid the world. The diction she uses such as; "Winter. Time to eat fat." "It's all about sex and territory" and "love has done us in", allow the reader to get a sense of the author's feelings and sympathize with her. Such graphic word choice such as your small pink bumhole, snip a few testicles, and we should eat our young like sharks; shocks the reader and grabs their attention. The diction really makes this poem memorable.