The Gift

I really liked this poem. I thought many people could relate to this, since most times when I was a child I would run to either my mother of my father when I was hurt, pleading with them to make the pain go away. The parts where it talks about death such as at the end of the first stanza, "the iron silver I thought I'd die from." or in the fourth stanza, "christen it Little Assassin," seemed over dramatic, which made sense, because a lot of times with children they over emphasize things. The part where the man removes the splinter from his wife's finger was like the way his father had done so for him. I thought it was interesting that it focused on the tenderness the father had towards his son and how the son learned that tenderness and used it later on in life. There it that stereotype that a father shows his son how to become a man, and was interesting that the poem focused on such a tender moment when usually a person might think of moments between a father and son as playing catch, working on a car, building something, etc.
I don't really have much else to say on this poem, I thought it was pretty straight forward.

The Snow Men

"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 along 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."

I really enjoyed this poem because I love winter. I felt that for the most of the poem it was saying that to enjoy winter, something many people dislike, a person must have a different perspective of it then their own. "True wisdom has two sides." For people who only think of winter as a cold, barren season that brings death to all the trees and flowers probably wouldn't aprreciate winter as those who like winter. I love winter because everything is dead and dark colored while the snow that covers it is so white, it creates a beautiful contrast. I love it when my nose and cheeks and hands get cold and then I go inside somewhere warm and can feel the contrast of the cold on my skin and the warmth in the air.
The poem talks about the sound of the wind which is like a howling sound and describes a landscape of winter with the trees covered with snow. In the beginning of the poem it says, "One must have a mind of winter", which made me think that perhaps for someone to like winter they have to have a certain way of thinking, maybe a colder, darker way than a person who loves the warm, sunny season of summer and spring.