Henri Cole - Kayaks

When I first read this poem, something inside of me took interest, however I did not fully understand what was being described in the poem. Then I realized after reading it a couple times how it talks about such a beautiful sight. The kayak cutting across the water with the sun reflecting off the lake, the same rays passing through the observer. However, the observer is disconnected from the scene, not able to differentiate between promises and pity, yet blames no but there self for this. “Though the failure is not in the other, but in me because I am tired, hurt or bitter.” Love is compared to a beautiful, even perfect, scene that they are on the outside looking in at. They lost this love because of their disconnection from this sight. The disconnection from this moment, from that feeling, is felt strongly through the poem.

Lorna Dee Cervantes – Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person Could Believe in the War Between Races

This poem is full of two things, personae and poignancy. It speaks to me in a way that it is so true, and that is not a good thing. For years upon years people have been striving to destroy the thoughts of racism, destroy segregation. After all those years, steps have been made. However, it is still there and it will always be there. People are raised with the mentality that the color of a person’s skin dictates who they are. This poem is about that very thought. The line that sums this up is: “Racism is not intellectual. I can not reason these scars away.” This poem talks about the feelings of a well educated African-American talking about truth, and the way it is talked about, poignancy flows from the poem. Marked by the color of skin, they are not shooting at you, these lines were like a strike to my mind and heart, because they are so true. We live in a society in segregation and judgment upon first impression, and color of skin is where it begins. Will it stop, maybe there will be a race war. Time can heal some wounds, but some wounds are not of flesh.

Emily Bronte - Remembrance

This is another poem that has such a strong sense of loss and love. The poignancy factor comes from the true loss that the person suffered when their loved one has died. The entire beginning speaks about how there is nothing more to live for, this stanza being the most heartfelt to me:

“No later light has lightened up my heaven,
No second morn has ever shone for me;
All my life’s bliss from they dear life was given,
All my life’s bliss is in the grave with thee.”

The passion in those lines is truly felt, but just like in Easter Morning, the speaker has to deal with the loss, and move on into the future. With “checking the tears of useless passion”, and “weaned my young soul from yearning after thine”, it shows that the speaker knows that they have life ahead of them, and they need to move on without the joy that the previous lover has brought to them. It is time to move on and find new joy in an empty world.

John Berryman - Dream Song 384

This poem has such an intense feeling to it, you can feel the rage that Henry feels against his father. The poignancy factor comes from this hate that he has, when he talks about his father’s suicide, and how he cared more about his banking business then he did for his son, Henry. How Henry wants to rip open the casket, see him there dead being consumed by the insects, then tear about his body with the axe. I also feel that there is something lying underneath what is being blatantly said here. When he says that he has “often before…made this awful pilgrimage”, it shows that he still goes to visit his dead father rather often. A man that truly hated his father I feel would not actually go see him, so there is an underlying affection for his father, who would be part of what brought him into this world in the first place, which is brought about in the last line of the poem. (Will heft the ax once more, his final card, and fell it on the start)

Margaret Atwood - Up

This is a poem I find myself in. Margaret Atwood’s Up speaks about the struggle of simply getting out of bed in the morning. This topic of poem does not seem like one that would be suspended in time, however it is something that every person has to deal with. Every morning when I wake up is a battle between drifting back into sleep, or getting up and going on with the day. The comparison of the weight of your past keeping you in bed like gelatin filling your lungs instead of air is just an amazing depiction of the weight your past can have on you. Then imagining yourself on your deathbed, that is what makes this poem great. The image of yourself lying in bed for the final hour of your life, thinking who exactly you need to forgive, that is a visualization which is very powerful, and just adds to an already amazing poem.

A.R. Ammons – Easter Morning

Easter Morning was a very heart felt poem that “moved” me in a way that many poems have not. The poignancy factor I feel was due to the extreme situation on which the poem was based upon. A boy who lost his brother and now visits his grave on Easter Morning. What strikes me most about the poem is how it starts talking about the incompletions and death, which seems like a dead end road. However, all of a sudden it turns to the birds above, straying from their original path, but then continuing on. It brings about a certain “hope” in future, where his brother may have died, but he still has a life to live. It strikes me more than others because of the vision of the birds shows that there is a still a path that needs to be continued, and you can not let the past deter your own future.