Sort of a Song

"Let the snake wait under
his weed
and the writing
be of words, slow and quick, sharp
to strike, quiet to wait
sleepless.
--through metaphor to reconcile
the people and the stones.
Compose. (No ideas
but in things) Invent!
Saxifrage is my flower that splits the rocks."
I really liked the first stanza of this poem, it flowed very well and the images described were very vivid. The second stanza seemed kind of garbled and erratic. The two stanzas show the two different way of writing. The first being when the words just flow and come easily. It is like a snake that moves smoothly and can strike with deadly force. This is like when a writer has a profound sentence that just magnifies the whole collaboration of sentences to make their point.
The second stanza is when a writer has writer's block or has a hard time getting their point across.

Introduction to Poetry

I thought the structure of this poem was interesting, the author beings many of his stanza's with I and these stanza's differ from one to three lines. The structure is simple but it flows well. As for the meaning of the poem, I believe the author meant that what he wants is for people to simply enjoy a poem but instead he says that people analyze it too much and look too hard for a deeper meaning. This is shown in the lines where he says, "I want them to water ski 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."
We have discussed this in class, that we analyze things too much which I think is very true. Some things are meant to be symbolic but others like this poem has the meaning right in front of us, we do not need to look for a deeper meaning.

Alone

"From childhood's hour I have not been As other were--I have not seen As others saw--I could not bring My passions from a common spring-- From the same source I have not taken." I thought that Poe might be talking about his childhood literally and how he felt ostracized because as I have seen in his other poems he has a very dark thought process. In this poem he is describing how he felt different than everyone else. I also did some background research on Poe and found out that he was orphaned at the age of two and taken in by a man who eventually disinherited him leaving Poe penniless. So I began to think that Poe felt he wasn't the same as others in his childhood because he didn't have parents like they did and that made him feel like an outcast.
Poe continues the poem by describing different things like the fountain and the mountain, which I think might be the part of his life where he made a name for himself and became rich but he still feels like that outcast child who couldn't relate to anyone and the demon in his view, is his past memories of that and the tragedies of his life.


P.S. I commented on Ana's blog

It Was A Dream

I felt that this poem was pretty straight forward. The other part of herself or what she refers as her "greater self" is telling her at the end of the poem, what she could have done is make her voice heard, her presence known. The author describes her "greater self" with "wild hair" and "wild eyes". I think this is to further accentuate her point to be more confident, raise her voice, and voice her opinion.
Another point of view I took on this poem was perhaps the author experience a great loss, and feels guilty. Her "greater self" is the part of her that believes she should have done something to prevent whatever happened. If the woman with "wild hair" is her "greater self", then she is screaming at herself, and she is screaming that she should have done something.
As for the structure of the poem, I thought it was a little odd that she begins the poem as if the title of the poem was the first line. When you begin reading the poem as if the title is the first line it makes much more sense as well.