The Not-So-White Page

My favorite poem from this week’s readings is Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B.” The discussion, “Appropriated Forms -- Anti-establishment Poems,” is what sparked my interest. It allowed me to discover the importance of the poem’s form. The content of this piece gave me the idea that by writing in an “establishment” form similar to others, the poet is trying to say that Blacks are the same as any other race.

“Theme for English B” talks about racial discrimination against African Americans in the 1900’s through an assignment from Hughes’ English instructor. The assignment is as follows:

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true. (2-5)

The most interesting thing about this poem is the technique Hughes uses in order to make a powerful statement and express his thoughts on the issue. He uses a brilliant metaphor comparing the treatment of Blacks to the page he is writing the poem on. Langston Hughes writes about how he “like[s] the same things other folks like who are other races” (25-26) and adds:

So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
A part of you, instructor.
You are white— (27-31)

By white, Hughes means the truth. The instructor said that a poem will be true if the words or content originates from inside you. In a way, Hughes is arguing that that will not be the case for him, because he is Black. He believes that Blacks do not get the same respect or treatment as Whites. A poem written by a colored poet will not have the same effect and credit as one written by a white writer.

The Art of Influence

The first readings for this week are by Robert Frost. As soon as I started reading his poems, I noticed something very familiar. The five poems by Frost all relate and surround Nature. Nature Nature Nature. If anyone asked me anything about poetry, I would give him or her one word: Nature. Even though that is a bit exaggerated, the use of nature is what I began this course with and what I found the most interesting and enjoyable.

The famous “Nature-users” are Romantics like Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. Blake and Wordsworth’s poems are more joyful and optimistic, while Coleridge’s are more negative and gloomy, much like Frost’s poems. Looking back at Samuel Coleridge’s poems, I found something very intriguing. One of his poems is titled: “Frost at Midnight.” What an amazing coincidence! Robert Frost’s name is actually part of one of Coleridge’s poem titles. Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” and Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” are speaking about almost the same topic. The lines: “And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,/ This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood” (Coleridge 10-11) and “Whose woods these are I think I know./ His house is in the village though” (Frost 1-2) are a fitting example. Choosing only two lines in each poem, two subjects are already identical: woods and villages. In addition, both poems talk about the winter nights.

I also found that Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago” resembled a little of William Blake’s “Songs of Experience: London.” Both poems talk about the negative aspects of a specific city. In “London,” Blake writes about the “cr[ies] of every man” and “every Infant’s cry of fear,” (5-6) while “Chicago” speaks of how “on the faces of women and children [Sandburg has] seen the marks of wanton hunger” (8).

Thirteen Ways, Thirteen Stanzas

Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is an extremely smart and interesting poem. In this piece, Stevens (of course) uses thirteen different ways a blackbird can be observed. A very effective poetic element he chose to use is numbered stanzas.

There are thirteen stanzas, numbered from one to thirteen. Each of these numbered stanzas represent a way a blackbird can be seen. With this technique, Wallace Stevens creates thirteen miniature poems. Every single stanza could be a poem of its own. However, with all thirteen ‘mini-poems’ combined, an immense effect is achieved.

In this poem, there are stanzas that are in higher spirits: “The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds./ It was a small part of the pantomime.” This gives me an image of a blackbird flying peacefully with the winds. On the other hand, there are stanzas that are more negative:

“Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.”

The use of the word shadow in this stanza gives it a gloomy feel. Stevens is trying to compare “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” to the real word. I believe this poem is to show us how there is always so many different aspects to look at something. Every person’s view of something is dissimilar to another person’s. For example, a certain event can be devastating or it can be hopeful. It really depends on an individual’s perspective. Negative or positive, good or bad, it all comes down to how an individual looks at it.

We should not complain if we think our life is horrible; it is really our own choice. If everyone is optimistic and only looks at the good side of things, our world would be a happy place.

I may be totally off with my interpretation, but I think that even if there is no true meaning of this poem, it is still very enjoyable to read. Stevens seems like a very open-minded poet. He is able to create so many different and unique ways to describe only one topic, or even one item.

Blake Vs. Byron, Innocence Vs. Beauty

Similar to the world of sports, poetry can be a competitive field. As basketball players compete on the court, poets are battling through poems with their own thoughts and emotions. William Blake and George Gordon, Lord Byron are two very well known poets. These two English Romantics write very unique and different poems. However, there is one major aspect that can be used to compare the two very different but similar poems: Poetic Elements. Analyzing Blake and Byron’s use of poetic elements (more specifically their use of Language and Images) can lead us to determine whether “Songs of Innocence: Introduction” or “She Walks in Beauty” is the most effective at achieving its meaning.

Lord Byron’s ability to convey his message through tone in “She Walks in Beauty” surpasses that of Blake’s in “Introduction.” “She Walks in Beauty” is a very emotional piece; Byron is clearly writing in the midst of emotion. The first line in the poem is suitable evidence: “She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies” (Byron 1-2). If Byron is not writing this poem at the time when his feelings are strongest, he can easily change the poem to past tense. “She walk[ed] in beauty” will let the reader know that the writer is mentioning the past (Byron 1). George Gordon Byron makes it seem as if he is observing and admiring the beauty of a lady while simultaneously recording his feelings and emotions. By doing this, he is striking while the iron is hot with emotions and therefore can express his truest feelings. On the other hand, “Introduction” from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence is a retelling of a story. The entire poem is referring to the past, as seen in lines like: “So I sung the same again / While he wept with joy to hear” (Blake 11-12) and “So he vanish’d from my sight. / And I pluck’d a hollow reed” (15-16). Blake is writing at a distance from emotion, and that is exactly what his readers feel: an emotional distance in Blake’s poem. Because of this “distance,” the audience does not relate to “Introduction” the same way they relate to “She Walks in Beauty.” They feel closer to Byron’s poem than they do to Blake’s.

The images formed in both Blake and Byron’s poems are clear and definite. However, William Blake is able to use these images to create a deeper meaning in “Introduction.” In the first stanza, Blake writes:

Piping down the valleys wild
Piping songs of pleasant glee
On a cloud I saw a child,
And the laughing said to me, (1-4)

This first stanza creates the main image of the poem. As I read those lines, I imagine a beautiful green pasture on a sunny day with a clear blue sky and clouds like cotton. While an older man plays music, he looks up and sees a child on one of the fluffy clouds. With this image in my head, I continue to read the rest of the poem. I realize that this image is very meaningful; Blake is trying to portray the innocence of childhood. Using “a cloud” as to where he saw the child, the child is seen as an angel or someone belonging in Heaven (Blake 3). In addition, the white color of clouds represents innocence and purity. William Blake also describes the joy of an easily satisfied child in the following stanza:

‘Drop they pipe thy happy pipe
Sing thy songs of happy chear’;
So I sung the same again
While he wept with joy to hear. (Blake 9-12)

The child in this poem is indescribably happy, merely because of a song. This shows how the child is worry-free and unfamiliar with the real world’s dangers and stresses. William Blake describes how “[e]very child may joy to hear [his songs]” (20). “Every” indicates that the poet feels that all children live a happy, innocent and perfect life (Blake 20). Going a step deeper, Blake is in a way envious of the child. He wants to relive his childhood and return to a state free of worries. I believe Blake is not content with his current state; he probably has many issues and problems occurring in his life at the time the poem is written. Contrary to “Introduction,” Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” does not have as deep of a meaning to it. Byron is successful at creating a vivid image of the appearance of a lady to the reader. As I read the poem, lines like “She walks in beauty, like the night… / And all that’s best of dark and bright / Meet in her aspect and her eyes” let me know that the time when the poet saw the lady was probably at night, and her features are most likely dark: dark eyes, dark hair (Byron 1, 3-4). Although George Gordon Byron does a wonderful job at reproducing an image of the beautiful features of a lady, his images are purely decorative. There is no further meaning beyond that of a poet showing his admiration for a lady’s beauty.

Lord Byron excelled in the category, Language. He is able to draw his readers into his poem; the readers are actually experiencing exactly what Byron experienced. William Blake is weaker at using Voice to communicate his idea. His retelling of a story causes a distance between him and his audience. As for using images, Blake triumphs over Byron. William Blake is able to create images that advance the meaning of his poem. Deeper meanings can be achieved through Blake’s images, while Lord Byron’s images are solely decorative. One to One. The result is a tie for the Battle of Poetic Elements. Using only two elements to conclude which is the better poet is far too imprecise. There are many more aspects to consider when analyzing poems. In my opinion, I enjoy William Blake’s “Introduction” more than Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty.” I prefer an image that creates deeper meanings to an emotional tone. At the end of the fourth quarter, the two basketball teams go into a tiebreaker. Who will be the winner?

Works Cited

Blake, William. “Introduction.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy. 4^th ed. New York: Norton, 1996. 671-72.

Byron, George Gordon. “She Walks in Beauty.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy. 4^th ed. New York: Norton, 1996. 767.

The Power of Free Verse

When mentioning about poems, a great majority of people will think of a piece with rhyming lines and a strict metrical pattern. However, poems that follow strict rules can be misleading at times. It can make the reader pay a little too much attention to the pattern and rhyme schemes, causing the reader to devalue the meaning of the poem.

Free Verse poems, on the other hand, break away from the traditional style and offer added effects strict followers could not bring. When poets write in Free Verse, they are able to mold and create their own unique poem, emphasizing the meaning of their piece. Lines can be broken anywhere the poet sees fit, and the length of the lines in a poem can vary. In doing so, poets can emphasize specific lines and make them stand out to the reader.

In Amy Lowell’s “The Weather-Cock Points South,” there were a few phrases that stood out to me due to the unique length and line breaking in the poem.

“I put your leaves aside,
One by one:
The stiff, broad outer leaves;
The smaller ones,
Pleasant to touch, veined with purple;
The glazed inner leaves.
One by one
I parted you from your leaves,
Until you stood up like a white flower
Swaying slightly in the evening wind.”

In the first stanza, “One by one” is clearly accentuated. This phrase makes the reader slow down and creates a very relaxed pace to the poem. In the second stanza, a different effect is formed:

“White flower,
Flower of wax, of jade, of unstreaked agate;
Flower with surfaces of ice,
With shadows faintly crimson.
Where in all the garden is there such a flower?…”

In this stanza, “White flower” is emphasized. This phrase marks the beginning of a new subtopic. This makes it clearer and easier to comprehend for the reader. It also makes the stanza more powerful.

I believe Free Verse enables the poet to enhance and add wonderful effects to their poems.

Poetry of The Mid- to Late-19th-Century

After finishing the readings for this week, I found one noticeable difference between these poems and the ones from last week. I am able to understand the poems for this week much more easily! Of course, there are reasons as to why the poems seem easier to read. The poets of this time period write in a more modern style, one that most of us are more accustomed to. The poets mainly write in a specific metrical rhythm called "common meter," as I learned this week. This meter in the poems makes it easier to follow and understand.

In “The Darkling Thrush,” a common meter of 8686 and a rhyme scheme of ABAB is used:

“I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.”

Another example is Yeats’ “Adam’s Curse” which uses an AABB rhyme scheme:

“We sat together at one summer’s end,
That beautiful mild woman, your close friend,
And you and I, and talked of poetry.
I said, ‘A line will take us hours maybe;”

The poems of the Mid-Late-19^th Century were less open for many different interpretations. There were usually limited meanings to each poem. Even though each reader might interpret the poems differently, the ideas were mostly related somehow. The poets of this century do not totally break off from this concept though. In Robinson’s “George Crabbe,” almost all readers will agree that it is a poem to honor the late poet George Crabbe. However, the last line is where ideas may differ:

“In books that are as altars where we kneel
To consecrate the flicker, not the flame.”

In addition, I noticed that this week’s poems were more negative. The works of Romantics were much more optimistic. The poets of this century consistently used very gloomy words in their poems.

American Romanticism: Walt Whitman

As I read Walt Whitman’s poems, I saw both similarities and differences in the writing style of British Romantics. A very important aspect in the poems of British Romantics was their use of nature. The writers described nature using imagery, similes and metaphors to let their readers imagine the same scenery as the author. Nature was a way for the British poets to express their thoughts. On the other hand, Walt Whitman, as well as the other American Romantics, wrote poems that were more similar to stories, not just plain thoughts. Unable to completely break away from the use of nature, Whitman uses nature in a different way. He incorporates nature in his ‘stories’ and even writes a story/poem about nature like in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”

There are several principles that are in Whitman’s poems that separate them from the poems of British Romantics. In “Song of Myself” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” Whitman numbered sections in his poems. The numbered sections in “Song of Myself” serves like a timeline. As the numbers increases, the topic matures. The sections are different stories and topics connected to each other. As for the poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” the numbered sections were all about the same topic, and the sections combined to form a complete story.

Instead of using imagery and other concepts British Romantics loved to use, Whitman’s poems utilized repetition. He repeated words or phrases in a line and even began lines with identical phrases. For example:

“Twenty-eight young men bathe by the shore,
Twenty-eight young men and all so friendly;
Twenty-eight years of womanly life and all so lonesome.”

In addition, Walt Whitman’s poems were more open to sexuality, while British poets were very conservative and careful not to offend their female readers. The following line from Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is a fitting example.

“Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me it shall be you!”

Lastly, Whitman’s poems included society issues. Racial inequality is mentioned in the line:

“Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I receive them the same.”