Numbers

Mary Cornish

I like the generosity of numbers.
The way, for example,
they are willing to count
anything or anyone:
two pickles, one door to the room,
eight dancers dressed as swans.

I like the domesticity of addition--
add two cups of milk and stir--
the sense of plenty: six plums
on the ground, three more
falling from the tree.

And multiplication's school
of fish times fish,
whose silver bodies breed
beneath the shadow
of a boat.

Even subtraction is never loss,
just addition somewhere else:
five sparrows take away two,
the two in someone else's
garden now.

There's an amplitude to long division,
as it opens Chinese take-out
box by paper box,
inside every folded cookie
a new fortune.

And I never fail to be surprised
by the gift of an odd remainder,
footloose at the end:
forty-seven divided by eleven equals four,
with three remaining.

Three boys beyond their mothers' call,
two Italians off to the sea,
one sock that isn't anywhere you look.

I liked this poem for a number of reasons. Mainly, I liked the way it reminded me of learning numbers in elementary school. When as a young child we would learn how to do math, the teachers would try to animate it and make it easier to understand. These images of the numbers both brought me back to that and painted a good picture of numbers in my mind. While doing math and dealing with numbers can be pretty boring, this poem brings life to these kind of things and makes them fun. Now, looking at numbers and doing different problems in math class I will thing of this poem and it will be a little more fun. It lightens up what can be a dull and boring topic.

The Moon

The Moon
by Robert Bly
After writing poems all day,
I go off to see the moon in the pines.
Far in the woods I sit down against a pine.
The moon has her porches turned to face the light,
But the deep part of her house is in the darkness.

I like this poem because it provides a new point of view on the look of the poem. Using metaphors it describes the look of the poem as well as almost personifies this poem. I like the fact, also, that the author uses the visual of the moon to relax. After a long day he goes to the relaxing and quiet woods to look at the moon and relax. The "porches" of the moon are used to represent the lit parts of the moon that stick out. The "deep part of her house" is used to describe the darker part. This moon beng described is not a full moon. The "porches" are the only part showing. By comparing the dark parts to an inside of a house it makes the reader curious as to whats on or in the other part of the moon when there isn't a full moon. It makes the reader question what the other part of the moon looks like since we can't see it at that moment. i liked this poem for both the imagery and metaphor, but also because it makes the reader think and wonder.

To a Daughter Leaving Home

To a Daughter Leaving Home
by Linda Pastan

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.

This poem is about a young girl growing up from a mother's point of view. How I interpret this poem is her riding away from her mom is not only that instant where she is riding her bicycle, but it is symbolism of the girl's life. At the end when she is saying goodbye, the girl is maybe leaving home or going away to college. I picked this poem for a number of reasons. First, i appreciated the symbolism that the author used to represent a child leaving home. The time on the bicycle is depicted as a fun and joyful time, symbolizing that her childhood and her life at home was good. I also picked it because my mother and I are in this position now that I am going away to college. So, this poem reminded me of myself when I read it. The imagery is very good in this poem, but the main literary device that I like is the symbolism, which I have already explained.

This Moment

This Moment
by Eavan Boland

A neighbourhood.
At dusk.
Things are getting ready
to happen
out of sight.
Stars and moths.
And rinds slanting around fruit.
But not yet.
One tree is black.
One window is yellow as butter.
A woman leans down to catch a child
who has run into her arms
this moment.
Stars rise.
Moths flutter.
Apples sweeten in the dark.

This poem is about capturing a moment in time. I think that today a lot of people run through life not slowing down and taking the time to appreciate the world around them. I like in this poem the line “One tree is black. One window is yellow as butter” because it paints a really good picture of a neighborhood at night. This poem is about taking notice of times like these, something I don’t do very often. So, I think this poem sends out a good message. I often find myself personally running from event to event and never even taking the time to slow down and realize the family around me. The sixth line describes a mother and a child and their connection. It describes a simple moment that when you think about it, isn’t as simple as it seems. This one simple gesture shows how much love the two have for each other and the happiness the two share. This poem’s entire point is that people should stop and take notice of these moments because a lot is being missed when you just race through life. For this reason I not only found this poem extremely intriguing, but I also found it helpful in making me notice that maybe I need to start paying more attention to the little things. This poem most effectively gets its point across through imagery.

"I have measured my life in coffee spoons"

In the seventh stanza the third line is "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." Our group interpreted this as him measuring his life by the amount of work he has done throughout his life. When a person is working they constantly drink coffee to fuel themselves and keep themselves going, just as he has done through his work filled life. By saying this he is implying that he has almost wasted his life working instead of having fun and enjoying life. He doesn't put himself out there and take risks. Instead, he stays closed and safe and protected by his work. in the other parts of the poems we see that he doesn't want to take the chance of talking to the scholoraly and sophisticated women and he remains held back and shy. This goes along with the idea that he stays protected behing the work that he does. Because he is so shy and closed off he works a lot. This is why he "measures his life in coffee spoons."

The Love Song by Alfred Prufrok

My favorite part of this poem was the imagery used in the fourth stanza. Prufrok describes a yellow fog that is traveling through the streets and in many other places. What I think this yellow fog is is sunlight. The third line reads "Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening". In my head I picture this as dusk where it is not yet completely dark and there is still some sunlight. The yellow fog that "rubs its back upon the window-panes" is sunlight shining through the windows.

I think this is a very creative way of describing sunlight and I love the metaphoric relation to a yellow fog. By describing the sunlight this way the image in my mind of the poem is not that of simple daylight, but it is the air being filled with sun. It gives the reader a different perspective on sunlight itself. This along with many other metaphors and imagery in this poem make for a very beautiful and interesting read.

Poetry 180

Nights

Kevin Hart

There’s nothing that I really want:
The stars tonight are rich and cold
Above my house that vaguely broods
Upon a path soon lost in dark.

My dinner plate is chipped all round
(It tells me that I’ve changed a lot);
My glass is cracked all down one side
(It shows there is a path for me).

My hands—I rest my head on them.
My eyes—I rest my mind on them.
There’s nothing that I really need
Before I set out on that path.


I liked this poem for a couple of reasons. First, I liked the symboilsm that the author found in his or her plate and glass. The fact that the plate had chipped a lot around the edges means that he changed a lot through the years and the crack going down the glass symbolized that there is a path in life that is set for him. The last STANZA, however, is my favorite. I like the IMAGERY of the LINE "my eyes- I rest my mind on them." In the second line the author uses PERSONIFICATION to describe the stars (as rich and cold). This poem does not rhyme and follows a FREE VERSE structure. Imagery is the main literary device used by this author in this poem.

Intro to Poetry

Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
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 poem by Billy Collins is about enjoying poetry for what it is instead of picking it apart and looking for a right or wrong answer. Poetry is subjective and has many different meanings and interpretations. Students and readers of poems often look to immediately find a meaning and answer to the poem when they should just be enjoying it and gathering a general feeling or idea from it. Sometimes in poetry I feel like the mouse trying to find the way through the poem and struggling tremendously. The point of this poem is that this is ok. It is also not necessary to pick apart every line to find the meaning. Poetry is there for enjoyment so instead of trying to pull out of it an immediate answer, the reader should just enjoy it for what it is. Each stanza is offering a different approach to viewing the poem. All in all, there is no need