The Victims by Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds is a contemporary poet who has been honored with many awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and more. She often writes about topics that affected her during her youth or are part of her life today.

The Victims

When Mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and
took it in silence, all those years and then
kicked you out, suddenly, and her
kids loved it. Then you were fired, and we
grinned inside, the way people grinned when
Nixon's helicopter lifted off the South
Lawn for the last time. We were tickled
to think of your office taken away,
your secretaries taken away,
your lunches with three double bourbons,
your pencils, your reams of paper. Would they take your
suits back, too, those dark
carcasses hung in your closet, and the black
noses of your shoes with their large pores?
She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it
until we pricked with her for your
annihilation, Father. Now I
pass the bums in doorways, the white
slugs of their bodies gleaming through slits in their
suits of compressed silt, the stained
flippers of their hands, the underwater
fire of their eyes, ships gone down with the
lanterns lit, and I wonder who took it and
took it from them in silence until they had
given it all away and had nothing
left but this.

This poem is written as one long stanza. There is no separation of the lines but there is a separation of ideas which I will discuss later. In terms of rhyme scheme, there seems to be a lack of one in this poem. There were occasionally lines that rhyme, but there did not appear to be a distinct pattern that would denote a rhyme scheme. I also couldn't come up with a uniform meter.  As soon as I would think that I discovered a specific patter of stressed and unstressed syllables, the next words and lines would break it and I would start the process all over again. 

Because this is a structure and form blog post, yet nothing in this poem seems to fit this, its curious as to why I chose it. What really intrigued me about this was how the shift in tone and subject acted as line and stanza breaks contributing to the structure, For example, up until line 17, the speaker refers to the father in an accusatory and biting tone. At the start of line 17, however, the speaker begins, "Father. Now I pass the bums in doorways, the white slugs of their bodies..." This shows a shift in tone from the speaker accusing the Father of causing a miserable life for her and her mother to the Father being portrayed as the victim who "took it from them in silence." 

This poem shows that regardless of whether or not there is a specific meter or rhyme scheme, there is always structure to a poem that works with the development of tone and ideas helping to further the reader's understanding of the message that is being conveyed by the speaker. 

A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

Robert Burns, as a Scottish lyricist and poet, inspired many of the Romanticism poets and writers as well as to the founders of liberalism and socialism. He wrote in his native Celtic language, English with a Scots dialect, and standard English.

A Red, Red Rose

O my Luve is like a red, red rose 

   That’s newly sprung in June; 

O my Luve is like the melodie 

   That’s sweetly played in tune. 

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, 

   So deep in luve am I; 

And I will luve thee still, my dear, 

   Till a’ the seas gang dry. 

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, 

   And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; 

I will love thee still, my dear, 

   While the sands o’ life shall run. 

And fare thee weel, my only luve! 

   And fare thee weel awhile! 

And I will come again, my luve, 

   Though it were ten thousand mile.

In this poem the first thing to realize is that when the author says "Luve" he means love, and that is most likely the Scottish dialect appearing in his writing. This is the first time on the blog when the bio came into play in the analysis I made, so it is pretty exciting. 

In the first stanza of the poem there are two direct similes that compare love to a "red rose" and a "sweet melody." These phrases use the word "like" which differentiates a metaphor from a simile. In reading this poem, I couldn't establish any metaphors that could accompany the simile to further develop the comparison but to each reader, a rose and a melody are backed by positive connotations helping to develop the tone of the poem. This shows that metaphors and similes are related closely to diction and work in somewhat of the same way. The similes that are in this poem help to develop an analogy. The main comparison that the author is trying to draw is between the love he has for his "bonnie lass" and something that is always happy and never ends. The analogy that the figurative language creates is supported by rhetorical devices such as repetition of "Till a' the seas gang dry" to reinforce the eternity of the relationship because chances are the sea will never dry up completely. 

Similes are hard to create an entire poem around. They are a much harder of type figurative language to use but metaphors are a different story. Although this is true, both similes and metaphors complement diction, description, and every other "blog post topic" to develop the tone and speaker. This was a good poem to reinforce that realization and it was a good way to start the end of the poetry unit. 

Slim Cunning Hands by Walter De La Mare

Walter De La Mare is a modern example of romantic poets who writes about abstract ideas such as death, dreams, emotions, and childhood fantasy worlds. He also writes novel which are just as comparable in excellence to his poetry.

Slim Cunning Hands

Slim cunning hands at rest, and cozening eyes-
Under this stone one loved too wildly lies;
How false she was, no granite could declare;
Nor all earth's flowers, how fair.

This poem if you understand it, is pretty dark. It explores the untimely death of a beautiful women and the man that loved her, but it also openly clearly tells "how false she was" as a person. The reason that so much information is able to be conveyed in four short lines is because of the diction and clever descriptions that the author provides. In the first line, the words "cunning" and "cozening" show that the woman was a clever liar, and because of this the reader begins to wonder if that is one of the reasons that the man loved her. The next line explores both her deceptiveness as well as her untimely death. The word "wildly" again gets at her being out of control but the word "stone" begins a series of word choices ("granite" and "flowers"included)  that hint at death and the brevity of life. These concrete words provide a vivid description for the reader about a tombstone and an easily destroyed life. Both of which generate clear pictures in the minds of the readers heightening the purpose of description in the poem. The flower is a metaphor for life in the sense that it is fragile and can end so quickly. This is an example of how words can also have double meanings because the flower also can be understood as a literal flower that is placed on a tombstone or around the casket at a funeral. The description in this poem is brought about through the diction which is what typically happens in a poem. Diction also develops the situation, setting, and tone, once again reinforcing the idea that all aspects of poetry are interrelated and it is hard to have one without the others. 

To a Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan is a Jewish American poet who won the Mademoiselle poetry prize during her senior year in college and after taking a decade off to raise a family, she returned to writing poetry having to do with marriage, family, grief, and other feelings of everyday life.

To a Daughter Leaving Home

When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.

The context of any poem includes the both the situation and the setting that surround the action. Context answers the "what," "where," and "when" of the poem. The situation of this particular poem, or in other words what is happening, is that a mother or a father (the speaker) is comparing the daughter leaving home to the same daughter learning how to ride a bike when "I taught you at eight to ride a bicycle, loping along beside you." We know, as readers, that the daughter is leaving home based on the title and because of that we can assume that the poem acts almost as an extended metaphor to compare the two experiences in the parent's head. This makes up the situation, but to find the setting took slightly more digging because it is not clearly stated. This vagueness is intentional, however, so that it can be applied universally to anyone who reads it. The setting of this poem is on the surface is "ahead down the curved path of the park" but on the deeper level, this poem is probably set in the family house or something that has the same effect to relate the action back to family and connect with the reader on a personal level. Both the setting and the situation help to develop the tone in the poem. The context provides the reader with clues that hint toward a tone of reminiscence and bitter-sweetness. The mother remembers an old fond memory to try and cope with the new painful memory that is forming. 

Paper Matches by Paulette Jiles

Paulette Jiles is an American born Canadian poet and novelist who has won the Governor General's Award (Canada's highest literary honor) for a collection of her poems, as well as many prose awards both in Canada and in the United States. 

"Paper Matches"
My aunts washed dishes while the uncles
squirted each other on the lawn with
garden hoses. Why are we in here,
I said, and they are out there?
That’s the way it is,
said Aunt Hetty, the shriveled-up one.
I have the rages that small animals have,
being small, being animal.
Written on me was a message,
“At Your Service,”
like a book of paper matches.
One by one we were taken out
and struck.
We come bearing supper,
our heads on fire.”

This poem at face value can be taken as a young girl at a family party, but on a deeper level this poem is saying much more. The speaker in the poem is not necessarily the author but instead is any young girl (probably age ten or a little older) who observes that she and her aunts "washed dishes while her uncles squirted each other on the lawn with garden hoses." The speaker is the one that continues the plot of this poem through her tone.  The tone in the first few lines is inquisitive and slightly naïve, and by using first and third person pronouns it makes the reader connect on a deeper level and begin to wonder about this question too. Gender roles are brought into consideration, which are always a universal problem. The tone in the poem then shifts when the speaker's Aunt Hetty, "The shriveled-up one" tells her that it is the way that it is. This enrages the speaker and the tone becomes angry and resentful. The young girl compares her situation to a book of paper matches that are used then disposed of without a second thought. She feels like all the women in her life have been taken advantage of and that there is nothing she or anyone else can do to change that. The final sentence of the one stanza poem makes up the strongest two lines. "We come bearing supper, our heads on fire." This creates a pictorial metaphor comparing the women to burning matches.

Mother of the Groom by Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney, born in 1939 and died in 2013, was an Irish poet who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. He is also a famous playwright, translator and lecturer and he has won many awards for each position.

Mother of the Groom

-

What she remembers

Is his glistening back

In the bath, his small boots

in the ring of boots at her feet.

-

Hands in her voided lap,

she hears a daughter welcomed.

It’s as if he kicked when lifted

and slipped her soapy hold.

-

Once soap would ease off

the wedding ring

that’s bedded forever now

in her clapping hand.


Throughout the poem, the reader can detect the speaker's tone of reminiscing as well as of anger and resentment. The poem is about a mother's feelings when her son is getting married. In the first stanza she fondly remembers bath time when he was a little kid which shows that she misses even the simple things about her son that are no longer a part of her life. She reminisces about this time that was so long ago and how she had him all to herself. The second stanza is the point at which the tone shifts from being wistful and remembering to jealous and angry. In the poem the mother's lap is empty (symbolizing that the son is gone... getting married) and it is empty because of a "daughter welcomed." The mother is jealous of the bride because she gets to be with her son and takes away from their mother-son time. The next line says, "It's as if he kicked when lifted and slipped her soapy hold." This represents the son's willingness to leave from his mother and that only incites more anger within her. The third stanza is almost like the mother's warning. "Once soap would ease off the wedding ring" shows that the mother believes strongly that the marriage will end in divorce and the mother and son can resume become close again. This shows her resentment and jealousy because as a mother she should be happy for her son that he is getting married, but instead she awaits that day that his marriage fails.
Just like any other work of poetry, the tone is developed primarily through the diction. Words like "glistening" and "ring" evoke happy thoughts in the mind of the reader, supporting the reminiscent tone but words such as "voided" and "slipped" produce unhappy thoughts which supports the idea of anger and resentment.

"Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins

Sometimes called the "most famous poet in America," Billy Collins was appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003 and is now a teacher in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton. 

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose  

to find out what it really means.

This modern poem, although short, provides the reader with the basic "dos" and "don'ts" of reading and analyzing poetry. The parallel structure that begins each "do" in the poem creates the notion that reading poetry is simple and enjoyable and that it is the reader that makes it an often unpleasant experience. It uses metaphors to create verbal imagery that all people will understand and to evoke a particular feeling about reading poetry. For example, "Holding it up to the light" represents taking a deeper look at the meaning of the poem, "dropping a mouse into the poem" represents how you are supposed to enjoy the complexity, and "waterskiing across the surface of a poem" represents having fun while reading the poem. At the end of the poem in the last stanza, Collins mentions the "don'ts" that people always seem to do when reading poetry. He says that readers analyze each poem too much and don't ever appreciate a poem simply for its beauty. The reader instead destroys the beauty and "beats each poem with a hose to find out what it really means" and "tortures a confession out of it" making the overall experience unpleasant and unfulfilling. I enjoyed this poem because it expresses how I feel about reading poetry. I think that in school the "poetry unit" often encompasses far too much time and that sometimes poetry needs to be taken at face value to appreciate the beauty of its simplicity.