The Anthology of Poetry with Frosty Themes

Kwan Yin Ma

Jamie Thomas

ENGL2306, 07971

5 December 2007

The Anthology of Poetry with Frosty Themes: Introduction

Nature is a significant part of poetry. Many famous poets incorporate nature in their masterpieces in order to create numerous different types of enhancing effects. Originally, I had planned to construct an anthology revolving around the theme of Nature. However, with the aid of Professor Thomas, I realized that the topic was way too broad for this assignment, and an anthology of poetry with similar themes of Nature will most likely take an entire book to cover. Since we are in the midst of winter with temperatures dropping significantly and the holidays right around the corner, I thought to myself, “What can be more suitable than a collection of winter poems?” As a result, I turned to poems specifically relating to winter. I noticed throughout this semester that many poets have a tendency to write about the wintry season, usually associating winter with negative aspects of life. After researching an abundance of poems with winter themes, I learned that poems relating to winter are not always dark and gloomy; they can be joyful and hopeful as well.

The Anthology of Poetry with Frosty Themes is organized by beginning with poems that portray winter negatively and transitions to poems that describe the positive aspects of the season. The unique part of this anthology’s title, “Frosty Themes,” originates from the title of one of my discussions earlier this semester that talks about the recurring themes of the assigned readings by Robert Frost. I believe the spark of interest that motivated me to create this collection came from that discussion.

I decided to begin my anthology with an extremely popular piece by a very famous poet, Thomas Hardy. “The Darkling Thrush” is the epitome of a poem that makes use of winter in a negative way. Hardy incorporates words like “desolate” (3), “haunted” (7), “corpse” (10), and “gloom” (24) in this poem in order to create a very depressing and gloomy tone. In addition, with these types of words, it is as if Thomas Hardy is comparing winter with the dead. When I am reading “The Darkling Thrush,” I picture a freezing, pitch-black night in a cemetery.

Winter is also associated with old age by poets like Robert Frost and Edith Nesbit. When one thinks about old age, he or she will most likely think of being alone, the coming of death, and the end of life. This is exactly what Frost’s “An Old Man’s Winter Night” is in relation to. One particular line stuck out to me the most: “One aged man—one man—can’t fill a house” (Frost 26). I believe this line contains the main idea of what the poet was trying to convey. Houses are not designed for a single person; they are built for families. As one gets old, his or her significant other may pass away, and the children will move out of the house and form their own families, leaving the aged with nothing but loneliness. When winter comes around, the house will be extra quiet and cold. The warmth of a family will not be present to mend the winter hardships as well. Every day is just another step closer to death.

Another poem that links winter with death is Ralph Burns’ “Fishing in Winter.” A semi-new concept is brought about in this piece. Burns starts with the stanza:

A man staring at a small lake sees

His father cast light line out over

The willows. He's forgotten his

Father has been dead for two years

And the lake is where a blue fog

Rolls, and the sky could be, if it

Were black or blue or white,

The backdrop of all attention. (1-8)

The loneliness from the loss of a father causes the man to hallucinate. He has illusions of his father, who died two years ago. The man also imagines that the river is the sky. It is a possibility that the man in this poem is meeting his father in heaven, meaning that he may have committed suicide by walking into the lake and drowning. This can be one interpretation from the lines: “He wades out to join the father,/ Following where the good strikes/ Seem to lead. It’s cold” (Burns 9-11). The coldness of a winter day can maybe signify the nearing of death.

As a transition from such a melancholy topic to a more cheerful subject, I chose the poem “Winter And Summer” by Arthur Weir. “Winter And Summer” reminds us of all the great and joyful things winter brings; the poem speaks of winter very optimistically. The part that makes this a very suiting transition poem is the last stanza.

But Summer, winsome Summer,

Holds greater stores of bliss,

When all the land awakens,

And blossoms at her kiss;

We soon shall feel her presence,

And breathe her perfumed breath,

Then, Winter, dear old Winter,

We will not mourn your death. (Weir 41-48)

Even though winter has its advantages, it is still not the preferred season. When summer comes, no one will feel sad that winter is over.

In his poem “Winter-Time,” Robert Louis Stevenson describes the winter sun perfectly and in a unique way through the first stanza.

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,

A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;

Blinks but an hour or two; and then,

A blood-red orange, sets again. (Stevenson 1-4)

During winter, the sun does not come out for a long period of time. Winter days are mostly dark and consist of little sunlight. I believe the reason many poems regarding winter are sad and gloomy is because of the darkness. Robert Stevenson, on the other hand, does not view the sun-less winter as depressing. He thinks the “tree and house, and hill and lake,/ Are frosted like a wedding-cake” (Stevenson 19-20). This last line in “Winter-Time” basically sums up Stevenson’s opinion of winter. He sees it as frosting on a cake.

Opposite to “The Darkling Thrush,” William Makepeace Thackeray’s “The Mahogany Tree” contains very positive words. Thackeray uses words like “Happy” (26), “Pleasant” (28), “Gentle” (30), “Peace” (31) to describe the holiday season. With Christmas in December, William Thackeray views winter as a wonderful season. He also portrays winter as a time when one is free of worries.

Sorrows, begone!

Life and its ills,

Duns and their bills,

Bid we to flee. (Thackeray 49-53)

All of the troubles that one has to go through in life will all disappear in the wintry season.

After including poems that depict winter negatively and also ones that describe winter positively, I end my anthology with an incredibly strong and powerful poem. In “The Snow Man,” Wallace Stevens is arguing that most people’s perception of winter is negative, but winter is actually really admirable. Winter is usually seen as a dull and lonely time of the year. Stevens believes that you “have to have a mind of winter” (1) in order to enjoy the season, and you have to patiently observe out in the cold in order to see the wonders of winter (4).

The perception of winter is truly based on what each poet wants winter to be. In addition to creating a collection of enjoyable poems relating to winter, I hope the readers of my anthology realize that life is also what you make of it. There will always be a good and a bad side. I hope that everyone will choose to view his or her life as beautifully as a frosty winter. Happy Holidays!

The Anthology of Poetry with Frosty Themes

The Darkling Thrush

by Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate

When Frost was spectre-gray,

And Winter's dregs made desolate

The weakening eye of day.

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky

Like strings of broken lyres,

And all mankind that haunted nigh

Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be

The Century's corpse outleant,

His crypt the cloudy canopy,

The wind his death-lament.

The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard and dry,

And every spirit upon earth

Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among

The bleak twigs overhead

In a full-hearted evensong

Of joy illimited;

An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,

In blast-beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul

Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings

Of such ecstatic sound

Was written on terrestrial things

Afar or nigh around,

That I could think there trembled through

His happy good-night air

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

And I was unaware.

An Old Man’s Winter Night

by Robert Frost

All out of doors looked darkly in at him

Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,

That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.

What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze

Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.

What kept him from remembering what it was

That brought him to that creaking room was age.

He stood with barrels round him—at a loss.

And having scared the cellar under him

In clomping there, he scared it once again

In clomping off;—and scared the outer night,

Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar

Of trees and crack of branches, common things,

But nothing so like beating on a box.

A light he was to no one but himself

Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,

A quiet light, and then not even that.

He consigned to the moon, such as she was,

So late-arising, to the broken moon

As better than the sun in any case

For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,

His icicles along the wall to keep;

And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt

Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,

And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.

One aged man—one man—can’t fill a house,

A farm, a countryside, or if he can,

It’s thus he does it of a winter night.

Winter

by E. (Edith) Nesbit

Hold your hands to the blaze;

Winter is here

With the short cold days,

Bleak, keen and drear.

Was there ever a day

With hawthorn along the way

Where you wandered in mild mid-May

With your dear?

That was when you were young

And the world was gold;

Now all the songs are sung,

The tales all told.

You shiver now by the fire

Where the last red sparks expire;

Dead are delight and desire:

You are old.

Fishing in Winter

by Ralph Burns

A man staring at a small lake sees

His father cast light line out over

The willows. He's forgotten his

Father has been dead for two years

And the lake is where a blue fog

Rolls, and the sky could be, if it

Were black or blue or white,

The backdrop of all attention.

He wades out to join the father,

Following where the good strikes

Seem to lead. It's cold. The shape

Breath takes on a cold day is like

Anything else--a rise on a small lake,

The Oklahoma hills, blue scrub--

A shape already inside a shape,

Two songs, two breaths on the water.

Winter And Summer

by Arthur Weir

Come Winter, merry Winter,

Rejoice while yet you may,

For nearer, ever nearer,

Fair Summer draws each day,

And soon the tiny snowdrops

Shall waken from their sleep,

And, mossy banks from under,

The modest violets peep.

The apple trees shall scatter

Their buds at Summer’s feet,

And with their fragrant odors

Make every zephyr sweet;

While Nature, of wild roses,

And lilies frail and white,

Shall make a wreath for Summer,

And crown her with delight.

Forth from the smiling heavens

Shall fall the gentle rain,

The earth shall feel her presence

And welcome her with grain;

The birds shall come and twitter,

And build amid the boughs,

So Winter, merry Winter,

While yet you may, carouse.

We love you, merry Winter,

You and the joys you bring,

And loud and long your praises

Throughout the world we sing;

But Summer, gentle Summer,

Comes shyly through the glade,

And draws all hearts to love her,

So fair is she arrayed.

We love the merry sleighing,

The swinging snowshoe tramp,

While in the clear, cold heavens

The calm moon holds her lamp,

We love the breathless coasting.

The skating and the games

Played amid shouts of laughter,

Around the hearth-fire flames.

But Summer, winsome Summer,

Holds greater stores of bliss,

When all the land awakens,

And blossoms at her kiss;

We soon shall feel her presence,

And breathe her perfumed breath,

Then, Winter, dear old Winter,

We will not mourn your death.

Winter-Time

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,

A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;

Blinks but an hour or two; and then,

A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,

At morning in the dark I rise;

And shivering in my nakedness,

By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit

To warm my frozen bones a bit;

Or with a reindeer-sled, explore

The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap

Me in my comforter and cap;

The cold wind burns my face, and blows

Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;

Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;

And tree and house, and hill and lake,

Are frosted like a wedding-cake.

The Mahogany Tree

by William Makepeace Thackeray

Christmas is here;

Winds whistle shrill,

Icy and chill,

Little care we;

Little we fear

Weather without,

Shelter’d about

The Mahogany Tree.

Once on the boughs

Birds of rare plume

Sang, in its bloom;

Night birds are we;

Here we carouse,

Singing, like them,

Perch’d round the stem

Of the jolly old tree.

Here let us sport,

Boys, as we sit—

Laughter and wit

Flashing so free.

Life is but short—

When we are gone,

Let them sing on,

Round the old tree.

Evenings we knew,

Happy as this;

Faces we miss,

Pleasant to see.

Kind hearts and true,

Gentle and just,

Peace to your dust!

We sing round the tree.

Care, like a dun,

Lurks at the gate:

Let the dog wait;

Happy we ’ll be!

Drink every one;

Pile up the coals,

Fill the red bowls,

Round the old tree.

Drain we the cup.—

Friend, art afraid?

Spirits are laid

In the Red Sea.

Mantle it up;

Empty it yet;

Let us forget,

Round the old tree.

Sorrows, begone!

Life and its ills,

Duns and their bills,

Bid we to flee.

Come with the dawn,

Blue-devil sprite,

Leave us to-night,

Round the old tree.

The Snow Man

by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Works Cited

Burns, Ralph. “Fishing in Winter.” Cleveland: Cleveland State, 1983. 25 Nov. 2007

.

Frost, Robert. “An Old Man’s Winter Night.” Mountain Interval. New York: Henry Holt and

Company, 1920; Bartleby.com, 1999. 25 Nov. 2007 .

Hardy, Thomas. “The Darkling Thrush.” The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret

Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy. 4^th ed. New York: Norton, 1996. 1052.

Nesbit, Edith. “Winter.” Poetry X. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 8 Sep 2006. 25 Nov. 2007

.

Stevens, Wallace. "The Snow Man." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson,

Mary Jo Salter and Jon Stallworthy. 4^th ed. New York: Norton, 1996. 1150.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. “Winter-Time.” A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. New

York: Current Literature, 1906; Bartleby.com, 2000. 25 Nov. 2007

.

Thackeray, William Makepeace. “The Mahogany Tree.” A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. Ed.

Edmund Clarence Stedman. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1895; Bartleby.com, 2003. 25

Nov. 2007 .

Weir, Arthur. “Winter And Summer.” Poetry X. Ed. Jough Dempsey. 8 Sep 2006. 25 Nov. 2007

.

Sentimentality in Family-related Poetry

Poetry is of course built and created from the emotions of the poet. Emotion is the foundation of a poem. However, there is only a thin line between a beautiful poem filled with emotions and an overly sentimental piece. This is clearly portrayed in two of this week’s readings.

Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Galway Kinnell’s “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” are both related to Family. Most will agree that the topic, Family, is one that is sensitive and emotional. Although both poems relate to family matters, they are two very different, almost opposing poems.

In “Daddy,” Plath voices her opinion, mostly negative ones, regarding her father. Going through this poem, I can tell she has very strong emotions towards her dad. A little risky, Sylvia Plath is on the verge of being overly sentimental. Certainly, a poem is where a poet expresses his or her emotions, but I believe Plath may have immersed herself in too much of her own emotions while writing this poem.

Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do. (56-60)

The stanza above may be too overwhelming for the reader. The content makes the reader step back away from the poem. This piece contains a little Too much emotion and details.

On the other hand, Kinnell’s “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” does a good job in avoiding excess sentiment. He does not go into too much detail about making love (a topic which not every reader might be comfortable with if overly used), and instead focuses his details on his son and the emotions the child brings him. The last line, “this blessing love gives again into our arms” ensures that this poem’s main topic is the child, not love making (21).

The Beats Vs. The NY School

After reading the poems for this week, I noticed something unique to each category of poems. The poems from the Beats are more related to the poet’s thoughts. They are also a little more on the passive side. On the other hand, the poems coming from the NY School concentrate on a specific event; they are usually about one subject or occurrence. There are some poems in this category that are like stories and some that are about writing poems or being a poet.

One of my favorite pieces from the Beats is Gregory Corso’s “Marriage.” In this poem, the entire thought process of a man thinking about marriage is stated. After reading this poem, I thought to myself, “Wow, this is so real and true.” Common thoughts of a man meeting his significant other’s parents for the first time is seen:

When she introduces me to her parents
back straightened, hair finally combed, strangled by a tie,
should I sit with my knees together on their 3rd degree sofa
and not ask Where's the bathroom?
…
O how terrible it must be for a young man
seated before a family and the family thinking
We never saw him before! He wants our Mary Lou!
After tea and homemade cookies they ask What do you do for a living?
Should I tell them? Would they like me then? (10-13, 16-20)

In this poem, Corso emphasizes on his thoughts and feelings.

A very different type of poem, Frank O’Hara’s “The Day Lady Died” from the NY School describes a specific event (the day Billie Holiday passed away). In this poem, O’Hara lets the reader know what a typical New Yorker day in the year 1959 was like. He uses numerous references to popular culture to highlight the lifestyle and culture of his time. For example, he would “have a hamburger and a malted and buy an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING” on a typical day.

The poem from the Beats concentrates on the thoughts of the common man, while the piece from the NY School emphasizes the typical lifestyle and culture of a specific time period.

Plainspoken, But Indeed Poetic

Free Verse is a type of poetry that does not follow strict metrical and rhythmic patterns. Poets using Free Verse have a lot of freedom in creating their poems.

The poems of this week are very plainspoken. These modern poets use everyday language to write about everyday topics. In order to distinguish their writings as poetry and not just “mere facts,” these poets use brilliant techniques.

In my opinion, what makes poems different from “mere facts” is that poems are created from the thoughts and feelings of its creator. When one reads a poem, he or she can experience what the poet felt at the time the poem was written. Even though the poems of this week are written so plainly, the content of the poems is a part of the poet. Each individual poem reflects the personal experience of a poet and what he or she went through.

In addition, the poets of this week make use of certain poetic elements. For example, repetition of the words “Why” and “Somebody” can be seen in Elizabeth Bishop’s “Filling Station.”

Why the extraneous plant?
Why the taboret?
Why, oh why, the doily? (28-30)

Somebody embroidered the doily.
Somebody waters the plant,
or oils it, maybe. Somebody
arranges the rows of cans
so that they softly say:
ESSO-SO-SO-SO
to high-strung automobiles.
Somebody loves us all. (34-41)

Moreover, rhyme is present in John Berryman’s “The Dream Songs: 324.”

Henry in Ireland to Bill underground:
Rest well, who worked so hard, who made a good sound
constantly, for so many years:
your high-jinks delighted the continents & our ears:
you had so many girls your life was a triumph
and you loved your one wife. (1-6)

The rhyme scheme here is aabbcc.

These modern, plainspoken and everyday poems are definitely not “mere facts” and are extremely poetic.

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.”

Byron's "She Walks in Beauty"

George Gordon, Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” was a very beautiful poem, expressing the speaker’s admiration of a specific woman’s beauty. Even though the poem does not specify, the speaker is probably a male at a mature age. It seems like the speaker is at a distance looking at the lady. He is in love with the woman in the poem, or at least infatuated with her beauty. While describing the beauty of the lady, the speaker keeps a very respectful tone, making sure not to go over board with his words. I believe the speaker is Byron himself, and the woman is someone he met but not close to.

I was not sure what reliable/unreliable meant for this poem, but I believe the speaker was reliable, because those were his own thoughts. Also, that question led me to think about the possibility of the woman being imaginary, either in his dream or his ideal lover.

This poem’s intended audience is just anybody, very general. The speaker does not seem like he is talking to the woman specifically or to someone else. He is just expressing his feelings in this piece.

“She Walks in Beauty” was a very straightforward, simple poem; therefore, it was difficult to find a proper theme. The theme could be a man admiring the beauty of a woman, or that everyone has an ideal image of his or her lover.

The language of this poem is fairly casual, since it is the thoughts of a man. The author uses a lot of imagery and similes/metaphors of nature to compare to the beauty of the woman. He compares the lady to the calm night. Also, by using the comparison to the night, Lord Byron makes the poem flow even more. In addition, the poet is writing in the midst of emotion. He was writing the poem at the time when he was in love with the lady’s beauty. Byron expressed a great deal of emotion in this piece.

I really enjoyed this poem by Lord Byron. I found it very beautiful and elegant. I especially liked the fitting use of comparisons, imagery, similes and metaphors in “She Walks in Beauty.” Even though others might have a slight different interpretation of this poem than me, this poem was very straightforward in its meaning and content. Unlike many other poems I read earlier, this piece does not have an infinite number of interpretations.

The Natural World

After this week’s reading assignments, I discovered how important nature is to Romantics like Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge. The poems written by the three expressed the feelings of the poets through the use of the natural world. This creates a wonderful effect and a sense of imagery for the reader. The reader can easily grasp what the author is feeling at the time they wrote the poem with the aid of descriptions of nature.

One of my favorites lines (maybe because it stood out the most to me) was a line from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence: Introduction.

“On a cloud I saw a child…”

In the Introduction, Blake describes the innocence and worry-free life of a child. Using a cloud as to where he saw a child, that gives the audience a very joyful sensation. Also, the child is also seen as an angel or in Heaven.

Blake’s Holy Thursday [I.] includes the line

“Gray headed beadles walked before with wands as white as snow…”

The last part of the line “as white as snow” illustrates innocence. The color white is best when describing innocence, and snow has a soft texture and gives a very calm, heavenly sense.

Another element of nature enhances the effects of poems tremendously. That is the use of wind. Wind can be used in various ways to express different emotions or feelings. Wind can be calm, carefree, eerie, or gloomy. The two odes by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge are fitting examples.

In Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality, the use of wind describes a very calm, relaxed, blissful state.

“The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep,
And all the earth is gay”

On the other hand, Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode portrays wind in a more negative way, lonely and gloomy.

Since all three of these Romantics see childhood as a time of joy and happiness and their adulthood as pain and suffering, I believe they had many problems in their life. They were probably not happy and content with their life when they wrote these poems. Because of that, they turn to nature as a form of escape and hope.

Introduction

My name is Kwan Yin Ma, and I live in Sugar Land. I am currently a second year at the University of Houston majoring in Pre-pharmacy and planning on applying to the University of Houston Pharmacy School for the Fall 2008 semester. My PCAT exam is tomorrow, and I am extremely nervous!

Truthfully, almost all the writings I have done are school related. I seldom write on my free time or as a hobby. I realize that those are not the words a professor, especially an English teacher, would like to hear from his students. However, although I write only when required to, I find myself enjoying the process of writing when the assignment is not as stringent. Of course, the rewarding A on a paper I spent numerous days on adds to the pleasure of writing.

The last time I read or wrote poetry was in high school. Analyzing, or plainly just understanding, poetry is my weak point. On the other hand, writing creative poems is something I find very enjoyable. Even though I may have to struggle through this course, I am still very interested and excited about this Intro to Poetry class. I believe poets are amazing, because they are able to transform their thoughts and ideas into an entirely different and unique language. I hope that by the end of this semester, I will have a great amount of new knowledge about poetry.

On Monday, the first day of school, I found out UH changed the professor to one of my classes without informing me. Let’s just say that was a scary one hour. After several days of waiting for someone to drop this class, I finally found an open spot and am a part of your ENGL 2306 class! Following enrollment to this course on Monday, I had to wait for WebCT to fix their problem with loading students in their classes (UH always has a way to make your life miserable). Hoping I have not missed any assignments yet, I was finally able to get access to this class today, Friday. As I quickly learn the how-tos and familiarize myself with the structure of this class, I am here typing my first assignment of the semester that is due tomorrow.