Kurtz Limerick

There once was an ivory trader
Who considered himself a crusader
He was worshipped by all, But Marlowe came to forestall
For in fact he was an invader

Poetry Response #10

Peter DeVries' "To His Importunate Mistress" is extremely effective in his imitation of Andrew Marvell's "To his Coy Mistress".

The initial parallel yet contrast lies within the title. DeVries alters one word, the description of the mistress, changing her from a hesitant to an overbearing woman. DeVries follows the form of the original very closely, copying the couplet rhyme scheme and only deviated in the poems length, as the origional consisted of three stanzas and forty-six lines, instead DeVries' two stanas consists of eighteen lines. DeVrries also recycles a handful of lines from Marvell's work to solidify his parody for his audience, beginining with "Had we but world enough, and time,/My coyness, lady, were a crime" nearly verbatum of the opening of the original. He continues on with "But at my back I always hear/Time's winged chariot, striking fear" an again very similar line, which in the original it is the turning point, but here is placed in the opening right before he shows that the poem is not, in fact, about running from time, but creditors.

DeVries takes the tone of the original, which is an urgent and convincing plea of a lover to his mistress, and transforms it into an exasperated tale of a man who has given more than he can afford to his mistress and grows weary of her demands. He twists the address to the mistress to be not about love but about the strain on his pocketbook. He complains about the sacrifices he has to make to afford such an expensive mistress, how he has to pack his lunch to pay for increased hotel rates. But he most loudly laments that though he has given her everything, once he runs dry she will move on.

In analyzing DeVries’ imitation of Marvell’s poem, his similarities served to emphasize the humor in the difference between the poems and the different take on the same subject, one eager and the other irritated.

Poetry Response #9

All-American Sestina by Florence Cassen Mayers

Mayers’ mastery of the Sestina is impeccable as she uses the form to compress as many American ideals as possible into her poem. The numbers one, two, three, four, five, and six are her intertwining and repeating theme. She incorporates those numbers into each stanza, giving the poem the feel of a children's rhyme or game. The poem follows no rhyme scheme and has a blatant lack of proper punctuation, emphasizing its unsophisticated construction. Within each of her stanzas, the content has no pattern; the subjects cannot connect them. The poem encompasses symbols of life, death, and everything in between. This poem's simplicity reflects the defining traits of America, revealing that an uncomplicated life is best. Her references to sports, the suburbs, history, TV shows, music, and everyday phrases that have fallen into the slang of Americans evokes both nostalgia and patriotism.

As the poem opens with the recognizable line from the Pledge of Allegiance, which any school child would have memorized, she stirs the nationalistic feelings almost tongue-in-cheek. It goes on to reference nearly everything associated with America that has a positive connotation. Every item or event referenced displays the consumer-obsessed society, but also the good times that come with that attitude, the positives of the progress greed essentially has brought upon Americans. Her epitaph for the country of America is a double-edged sword, in how everything is sentimental to the countrymen, but while it reflects America not everything in the mirror is flattering when put all together. Her poem is a wonderful and intricate puzzle of past and present ideals within the country that cover a variety of life's experiences, and there is undoubtedly a country song focused on each of the topics Mayers listed in her poem.

Poetry Resonse 3-22-11

In Martha Collins “The Story We Know” is a simple poem depicting life at its most basic, where the days are full of the phrases hello and good-bye. It shows the process of decisions, snippets of conversation in a day. She portrays this in that she seems to slip between remembered dialogue and her thoughts behind each interaction. She describes the day as “always the same,” but not in a monotonous way, it more reflects the settled rhythm and pattern of one’s day. In this poem she talks of meeting someone and the pleasantries that go along with it “your hand, your name.” She also makes plans with a friend “lunch tomorrow?” stressing that the beginning of anything begins “simple, sane” and follows the routine of a Sunday. But then she begins to change her attitude, the repetition is no longer looked on as endearing, but monotonous in how it begins to make life too predictable and calluses the individual. But life goes on, the same until something comes and changes the routine, in this instance, a snow day. It stops everything, work, plans, and the routine. It makes everything new and brings people together, but it is new within the story that always begins with hello and good-bye.

I found this a beautiful poem in how Collins shows a typical lifestyle of the Western World, where people depend on their routine to guide them through life, and depend in the dictated norms of society to run everything smoothly. Its only when we take a step back, when people are forced to stop that people begin to look and process the world around them. The underlying tragedy is that most everyone is painfully aware of the effects of the non-stop lifestyle that has become essential to the culture. Collins ends her poem with the apparent sigh of “we know, we know” in the repetitive form of a scolded child to the punishing parent.

The Ode: Poetry Response #7

Savannah Gilman
Jernigan
English IV AP Literature AP
March 6, 2011
Ode to a Grecian Urn

In Keats’s poem, he uses the paintings across a Grecian Urn to illustrate how fleeting and yet how beautiful, mysterious, and yet sad life is for all. He begins by addressing the lovely bride of the picture whose story is essentially unfinished as she is perpetually silent, unable to escape her fate or share it. Yet, he states that the music frozen on their lips is more beautiful than any that has been realized, as theirs remains ever a mystery. But there is the fate that they will never be able to kiss, embrace, or enjoy the scene, as they are to be ever beautiful but never together. Keats believes that in this state of eternal beauty, happiness can be obtained as their love is always at its height. The events that surround the lovers will ever remain a mystery for they cannot let known their predicament. He concludes stating that the urn mocks humanity as it will outlast all mankind yet preserves the admirable attributes of the human race.

Keats uses the depictions upon the urn to reveal to humanity that while there is a certain grace in eternity, there is true beauty in the moments we live fully and take full advantage of. While the unspoken, the unknown, and the evergreen hold not only majesty but is unattainable, it need not be envied, but appreciated. Keats is trying to show that despite all of the beauty that this symbol of a Romanticized civilization encompasses, the more he studies it the more apparent it becomes that in life we should be fully conscious of our potential.

The World is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth

Savannah Gilman
Mrs. Jernigan
English IV AP Literature
February 28, 2011

Wordsworth’s poem follows the format of a traditional Italian sonnet. Though the narration is not that of a typical love poem with a story between a man and a woman, it instead recounts a man’s passion for nature. The poem consists of the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDE CDE, and it is split into an octave and a sestet.

In the beginning section of the octave, where Wordsworth introduces the problem, he lays out his issues with humanity’s treatment of the world. He admonishes the actions that have greedily and wastefully been conducted against nature and for the essential betrayal against nature that occurred when gave “our hearts away, a sordid boon!” He personifies nature, giving her the role of a lover, but bemoans that her best qualities have been compromised or “gathered” by humankind, attributing this to the reason “we are out of tune.”

The sestet picks up with the transition where Wordsworth is aghast at the apathy of mankind. He claims that he himself would prefer to be stripped of religion, reduced to paganism, than suffer man’s fate of disregard for beauty. In order to not be cut off from nature, he would undergo anything, even if it would result in him experiencing the terrible, ancient forces of nature from the romantic Greek mythology.

Savannah Gilman
Mrs. Jernigan
English IV
February 23, 2011
“Death, be not proud” by John Donne
This sonnet follows the Italian/Petrarchan format for the beginning of the rhyme scheme with abba abba cddc, but then it has a twist with a couplet of ef at the finale. Though it deviates, it remains an Italian sonnet variation.
As with Italian sonnets, the first eight lines follow the theme of a presented conflict. The altercation that arises is between the speaker, an arrogant mortal man, and Death. The speaker claims dominance over death itself, renouncing the names of “mighty and dreadful” that others death have given it out of their fear. He boasts that while death may receive the best of men, he is invincible.
However, in the ninth line his tone and message shifts subtly, now referring to death more personally, which is ironic since to ‘know’ death better one must be dead themselves. He taunts death, calling it a slave that begs for crumbs, or souls, from sheer chance and shows that death is in no position of power. The speaker also mocks death because its effects can be experienced through numerous other means such as sleep, drugs, and charms.
In the final lines, he inserts a couplet that within itself does not rhyme. Its oddity emphasizes that death can only claim so many souls before its purpose runs out and it will essentially die as well.

Glogster

Poetry Response #3

The Cab Driver Who Ripped Me Off

In Cornelius Eady’s dramatic monologue the speaker is the cab driver that is telling his captive audience about his views and experiences with beggars. The piece is set in a relatively modern city in America. The speaker is a cab driver that once was a beggar himself and has contempt for them.

As the cab driver rants to his passenger, his actions and words reveal a significant amount about his character. His jargon is colloquial, uneducated, and vulgar which suggests his background and life revolve around street life. He takes his passenger the “round-a-bout” way, implying that he does not have any conscience issues with shortchanging someone and is therefore greedy. He uses strong language when speaking, showing the passion he has for the subject as well as the anger he harbors towards beggars. His consistent complaining shows his narrow-mindedness and bigotry on the subject. He is arrogant in that he believes he was exceptionally clever to escape poverty and despises all those beggars he deems too moronic and lazy to make anything of themselves.

His calloused outlook on life is ironic paired with his final remark that someone should do something about the problems and his disillusionment that he “don’t hold nothin’ against no one”.