W.S. Merwin – For a Coming Extinction

I personally love this poem, as it has been one of my favorite yet. I find a strong sense of poignancy in this poem, as it looks upon how selfish of a creature we humans are. I love the lines “Join your word to theirs, Tell him, That it is we who are important.” It breaks us down into nothing but animals, yet shows how we see ourselves as the only thing on this planet worth anything. We do not care what we destroy as long as we live on. The sense of death of a creature, and that creature no longer exists. The death of each person is an extinction of that person’s life, but what happens when there is no other one like that person to carry on his story? The sense of the ultimate end in this poem is what draws me to it, as each person’s death is his or her ultimate end.

Denise Levertov – The Ache of Marriage

The Ache of Marriage explains the hardships of marriage as well as the beauty in which it can be. I find a sense of myself in this poem, as I have experienced the same type of hard times and beauty this poem speaks about. I have dated the same girl for 4 years now, and it takes hard work to make a relationship last. You can sometimes feel the pain in your teeth from the things that go on, but at the end of the day, you appreciate exactly what you two are working for. The poem has true sense of truth about it, and it is told in such an unconventional way which initially drew me to the poem. The hardships you go through in your relationships are what you have to do before it can turn into a blissful, happy relationship.

Stanley Kunitz – The Portrait

This poem is such a blunt feeling of love lost and anger. It is about a man who killed himself in a public park while his wife was pregnant, and she never forgave him for that. I could never imagine having to deal with that sort of pain, losing someone that way when your lives are about to be joined by a child. The poignancy in this poem however is not about the suicide, it’s about the hurt that never dies. She was never able to let the hurt go, even after the son was older and her reaction to the father’s picture was to rip it up and smack the child. That pain that she felt was then held by the son who at the age of 64 still carries that pain that she dealt with. The time factor in this poem turned a pain from a mother, to child, to poem forever caught in time.

Yusef Komunyakaa – Boat People

I find myself in this poem, yet not in the complete sense. As I interpret Boat People as a poem about fisherman, Thai fisherman in the poem, and the life they live at sea. Seasick, they daydream Jade Mountain a whole world away. This line from the poem could refer to the homes they left behind, that seem that they will never be back to caught in the tides caused by the moon, drifting all over the grand ocean in search of a catch. I find myself in this because as a child I used to go on many fishing trips with my dad. After hours upon hours out in the sea, you always start to look back at the land you came from, longing to be able to walk on the solid ground again. These people are at sea for months, never being able to just turn around and quickly go back home.

Robert Hayden – Frederick Douglass

I realize that I have a trend toward poems involving racism, but I do find such poignancy in the past struggles of this now “non-racist” world. This poem takes an iconic figure, and breaks him down into the man he really was, a poet. It is not about the legends or poems, it is about those that he affected with those medians. The other thing about this poem that makes it poignant is the talk of freedom, something that many in today’s society take for granted. I find myself in this poem, not because I was a black slave who was freed, but because I am one who lives in this free world. I feel it is powerful and realistic referring to freedom as a “beautiful and terrible thing.” It is amazing how something like freedom can be referred to as a terrible thing, because those who have it take it for granted. Frederick Douglass is one that understood what freedom is, something much of today’s society has forgotten.

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.

Impression of EN210

Entering into the course this semester, I feel that I knew what I was in for after already taking Professor Dansdill the previous semester. I felt the unique way the class was taught was an interesting twist to my usual classes at Quinnipiac, which was half the reason why I signed up for this individual class. The other half was due to what I learned last year in my poetry class, which "sparked" my interest of something I was never previously aware of. I will continue through the class again this semester, with just a glimpse of a grain of sand of the artistic beach trying to be brought to Quinnipiac, and hope to enjoy the class as much as last semester, which in fact led me to the class this year.