Amanda Arbon
Period 3B
English
33 The Meadow
Kate Knapp Johnson
Half the day lost, staring
at this window. I wanted to know
just one true thing
about the soul, but I left thinking
for thought, and now -
two inches of snow have fallen
over the meadow. Where did I go,
how long was I out looking
for you?, who would never leave me,
my withness, my here.
This poem seems to me to be the subject is the writer’s state of mind. She is lost in her thoughts and when she realizes that it’s snowing; she then knows she has been gone for a period time in her thoughts. The tone of the poem is one of soft thoughts of the mind and the style of the poem flows with the thoughts and mind set of the writer. The relevance of the poem to me reflects moments that I have had; being lost in thought and not being aware of the beauty of the meadow around you.
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42 The Poetry of Bad Weather
Debora Greger
Someone had propped a skateboard
by the door of the classroom,
to make quick his escape, come the bell.
For it was February in Florida,
the air of instruction thick with tanning butter.
Why, my students wondered,
did the great dead poets all live north of us?
Was there nothing to do all winter there
but pine for better weather?
Had we a window, the class could keep an eye
on the clock and yet watch the wild plum
nod with the absent grace of the young.
We could study the showy scatter of petals.
We could, for want of a better word, call it “snowy.”
The room filled with stillness, flake by flake.
Only the dull roar of air forced to spend its life indoors
could be heard. Not even the songbird
of a cell phone chirped. Go home,
I wanted to tell the horse on the page.
You know the way, even in snow
gone blue with cold.
The subject of the poem is one of many different moods and thoughts of youth; school; study and why one must be forced indoors on days that you should be out of doors. Even home would be better then trying to figure out the poet. The style of the poem is smooth and chopped, from wonderful weather to the worst of weather there is still life in Florida even when there is no snow. The tone of the poem is one of true feelings of the writer’s students. This poem is relevant to any student who has sat in a class room and longed to be somewhere, anywhere but there.
45 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.
The style of this poem is very soothing and comforting, it reads very easily. The tone leaves you with a feeling of hope and being settled in your thoughts. The subject of the poem is finding one’s purpose of life by exploring the chips and cracks in experiences in life. The relevance of this poem is to me being rested in ones thoughts and truly knowing what you really need in your life before live it or set out on new adventures.
124 Morning
Mary Oliver
Salt shining behind its glass cylinder.
Milk in a blue bowl. The yellow linoleum.
The cat stretching her black body from the pillow.
The way she makes her curvaceous response to the small, kind gesture.
Then laps the bowl clean.
Then wants to go out into the world
where she leaps lightly and for no apparent reason across the lawn,
then sits, perfectly still, in the grass.
I watch her a little while, thinking:
what more could I do with wild words?
I stand in the cold kitchen, bowing down to her.
I stand in the cold kitchen, everything wonderful around me.
I love the style of this poem; it flows with ease and is uncomplicated. The tone is set by the relationship the writer has with the cat. The subject of the poem is the relationship with the cat and the simplicity of the home. The easiness that the writer and the cat have with each other; from breakfast to the cold kitchen; the relevance of the poem to is that relationships should be as loving and uncomplicated as it is with this cat.
146 Blue Willow
Jody Gladding
A pond will deepen toward the center like a plate
we traced its shallow rim my mother steering
my inner tube past the rushes where I looked
for Moses we said it was a trip around the world
in China we wove through curtains of willow
that tickled our necks let's do that again
and we'd double back idle there lifting
our heads to the green rain
swallows met over us later I dreamed
of flying with them we had all the time
in the world we had the world
how could those trees be weeping?
This is a wonderful poem; I loved the style and the freedom that the writer expresses. The tone is an experience that you would remember for the rest of your life. Time stands still and moments with nature and your mother are forever. The subject of the poem is one that your imagination can run away with you; and you can be anywhere from China to Moses and Egypt. Then you could do it all over again and go somewhere else. This poem is very relevant because we all love being free and having these kinds of experiences and you smile when you read it and that’s a good thing.