Nothing

Looking through the glass 

the rain pouring so slowly

 Drowning in sorrow 

…

Is tomorrow gone?

no stars no dreams nothing seen

now where do I go?

Dear friend, 

I wanted to take on a haiku and the poem I chose to imitate was from you in the Anthology of Wartime Haiku, into to poetry it goes, 

“From the window of despair 

May sky

there is always tomorrow 

…

At daybreak 

stars disappear

where do I discard my dreams?” 

Pg100-101. I wanted to encapture almost like a similar style of words for example tomorrow, stars, dreams. I wanted to get the connection between poems by presenting these words in similar tones. I know you were in a really bad place where you wished everything was over and that you could finally go home. I chose to encompass those feelings you might have felt. By choosing my first line to be “looking through the glass” almost like a reflection in your poem of its first line being “From the window of despair”. I wanted to bring forth the imagery of the poem and have a new modern audience see through the window that it is pouring rain outside as maybe you were inside writing your poem. I wanted people to see the true sorrows you may have been through being in an internment camp and the pain it caused you to try and live on. Even though you had said it was a May sky meaning it was in May at the end of Spring and beginning of Summer I wanted to bring a counterpart of myself into it. How whenever I am going through a tough time it is usually when it’s raining. The rain just symbolizes for me the dreadfulness and freedom to cry, with my cries being muffled by the rain. I hope this is alright for you and you don’t see it drift much apart from your poem. In my second stanza just like you had written “Where do I discard my dreams?” I wrote “Now where do I go?”, I wanted to say that you were the dreams and now were deciding what to do. 

I wanted to show the power of alliteration I know as a fellow friend you would love from your writing skill level. I chose to input this to symbolize the word no and nothing in stanza 2 line 2. With alliteration I could help display your work on one line instead of multiple. This helps in bringing rhythm and the importance that there is nothing surrounding this poem. There is an abyss of nothing, and it is the speaker’s choice to see where maybe they can go.

I know you like free-style haiku and from the last lines from the stanzas you would end that would be 7 syllables instead of 5 in retrospect, a traditional haiku ending and starting with 5 syllable lines and in the middle being 7 syllables. I tried to form a nice sounding rhythm to your poem to intrigue an audience to go on a poetic rhythm as they continue reading on. I wanted to fight your notion and capture the traditional haiku to show you that it also could work with your poem and what you are trying to say about being boxed in and not being able to live your life freely. From being on one side of the window and watching the world pass by as you sit and write poetry to show what had happened during World War 2. 

My dear friend people are drifting apart from history so I wanted to make this poem to pay homage to your poem. It deserves to be read and analyzed by poets throughout. I thank you for writing something so deep and emotionally beautiful. That is why I made this to show people today the dreams that were crushed, the pain and abuse you had gone through, and most importantly the historical aspect of when you wrote this. Today, there is something similar as to when you were in the camps. It is a war. A war on Gaza and the Palestine people. How they now have to leave their homes just like you did or they would face death. Even today they are still facing it and don’t know whether they can get it tomorrow. My dear friend this is why I wrote this homage poem, to have these people who are oppressed know they are not alone and that we the people see them. Like how we saw you guys we will not remain silent. 

          With deep love and understanding your friend,

    Kelly Flores

Forgive Me Father for I Have Sinned

 Exploring the themes of Temptation and Forgiveness Hafez writes about how he’s “Foredoomed to drink and foreordained forgiven”, which means he will be doomed to drink and will be forgiven anyway for it. By using alliteration in these lines, he shows how easy it is to get away with sinning. He also parallels ‘Fore’ in saying he’s rejecting responsibility.  He has so much love for drinking, which is a sin in the Islamic religion, so this represents the rejection of Islamic spirituality because it is not prohibited. Even though Haifez knows that there will always be temptations nearby he will choose them over being a saint and following the rules of Islamic religion. The reason is that he will be forgiven if he just pleads for it.

 Hafez also uses similes in a satirical way to signify that the woman in his poem is a temptation or the Iblis (devil) who will lead him down the bad path. For example, in “Warm as a dewy rose” this line compares the woman to a wet flower which is not warm, it’s a satirical way to express how she appears pleasing yet, she isn’t. By using the imagery of a woman Hafez shows the rejection he shows to Islamic spirituality because he doesn’t care what she’s there for he’ll take whatever she has. Since at the end of it all, he can just apologize like everyone else and be okay. 

 The poem Ode 44 by Hafez is a great interpretation of Adam and Eve of the temptation of the Apple. How the two showed great love for their God but still fell victim to the Tree of Wisdom and the snake guarding it. Haifez is woken by the woman calling him to sip on wine which is like the snake guiding Eve to take a bite of apple which she does. She bares the consequences and gets kicked out yet, in this poem, Haifez doesn’t care about the consequences and takes the sip and knows he isn’t the only man to have drunk before and will be forgiven just like the rest. 

Kelly Flores

Body=Soul=Beauty

 In Walt Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric”, he uses fast-paced or almost too little to no periods to convey his message. Just like in Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s poem “We Are All Whitman” where he uses little to no periods until the next stanza to show his message. Like Whitman’s poem, Whitman is trying to tell the world that the body is the soul, and the soul is the body. For what we wish to perceive to love from the outside of man we should also choose to love the inside since they coincide.
 In Ambroggio’s poem, he follows in Whitman’s footsteps to tell this story but also adds some of his personal form to it. He adds in how Latin countries were colonized and yet, they stay strong and comfortable in their bodies. Even though they had to experience great scrutiny their souls and bodies belonged to themselves, and the colonizers couldn’t take that away. In stanza 5 he says “This Self is Puerto Rican, Chicano, from Cuba free dancer merengues, from Santo Domingo and all the Caribbean, from El Salvador and Nicaragua” he lists Latin American countries in the same way that Walt Whitman listed body parts and went down a list to how they connect with each other. These two poems show the same rhythm when they start listing countries and parts of the body, it gives a strong and powerful vibe that one can’t stop till their body gets tired or has to inhale again to read more. That is what makes these two poems flow so nicely and give the feeling of how our souls are beautiful and how everyone is intertwined with each other in some way or another even though we all are different we are all so similar.
 Ambroggio translates his poem into Whitman by not only expressing how he loves Whitman’s interpretation but by taking from Whitman’s poem and poetically making his own baby poem with it. For example, they both use alliteration throughout both poems to evoke a notion of feeling to the reader to read with more emphasis and to see if they can follow through the words being the same sounds. Another thing is from the video of Luis speaking in an authoritative voice I took that into the translation and read it thoroughly that way to see that both poems could be compelling to get their readers to have the same views about their bodies and souls to be beautiful rhythmically.

Kelly Flores

Dreading For Tomorrow

The Harlem Renaissance in the 1920’s & 1930’s was a cultural reset with the struggles the working lower classes faced. In Claude McKay, ‘Harlem Shadow‘ it descriptively shows how living during the Harlem Renaissance was. Claude McKay’s “Outcast” extensively represents the amount of hopelessness and despair of the working-class in “The Tired Worker” through the use of alliteration and imagery in both poems.

In the book, the poem ‘The Tired Worker’, “O dawn! O dreaded dawn! O let me rest / Weary my veins, my brain, my life! Have pity! / No! Once again the harsh, the ugly city!” (McKay, lines 12-14) The poet uses alliteration by starting off his sentences with the word “O”, McKay does this to show the speaker is dreading for tomorrow and is going restless throughout the Harlem. The author paints the picture of living in the Harlem Renaissance, through the use of a sad and angry tone of living in that “ugly” society. Tracing back to the tittle, where the poet titles it “The Tired Worker”, this statement is clearly true throughout the poem, showing the worn out workers. In “Outcast”, “Some vital thing has gone out of my heart, / And I must walk the way of life of a ghost” (McKay lines 10-11) McKay uses the alliteration of the word “I” to show what the speaker and most of the working class’ journey living through the struggle of the Harlem Renaissance. Specifically in this line of losing yourself, where the speaker compares himself to living life as a ghost and losing part of their heart. Where in the title the speaker compares theirselves to an outcast. The despair and hopelessness the working-class has faced doing the Harlem Renaissance shines thoroughly in McKay’s poems.

Throughout the extensive amount of poems McKay wrote in the book ‘Harlem Shadows’, “Outcast” and “The Tired Worker” clearly depicts the fight of the working-classes had to face in order to live during the Harlem Renaissance. The hopelessness of feeling tired and waiting for tomorrow to come and the despair of staying connected to oneself, where it’s common to lose yourself and becoming an outcast of their own soul.

~Roma Ventura

Falling Meter vs. Iambic Tetrameter

Ben Johnson’s poem, “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” rhythm is of the dactylic foot meaning it is a falling meter. This poem moves more rapidly for example the first line starts with a stressed syllable following two unstressed syllables. There was also a caesura in between “still” and “neat” indicated by punctuation. The effect of these words “neat” and “still” are emphasized to bring relation to the description of the lady refereeing her to as neat and still. The first line also has a masculine ending since the word “dressed” is a stressed syllable, the author wants to bring attention to the description of the woman as “neat” and “dressed.” There is more caesura in the poem for example, between the words “powdered” and “still,” the first syllable in the word “powdered” is stressed to emphasize the things the lady does to make herself beautiful. In the word “perfumed” the second syllable is stressed to make it seem like the sound of perfume being sprayed. This line was also an end-stopped line because of the pause at the end. Towards the end of the poem you see the dactylic foot, “they strike mine eyes,” the words “they” and “eyes” are stressed indicating that “they” refers to the robe and the hair of the lady. Johnson ends the line with “They strike mine eyes, but not my heart” the words “but” and “heart” are stressed to call attention to the fact that he might like what he sees and find the lady beautiful but it does not make him feel something in his heart. Robert Herrick’s poem, ‘Delight in Disorder’ maintains a iambic tetrameter except for lines 2 and 8 which are trochaic tetrameter that also ends in a feminine ending. Although iambic tetrameters usually contain masculine endings but line 2 and 8 defy this regulatory. I noticed that the poem flows in a natural rhythm resembling a heartbeat which gives the poem a sense of intimate feeling. Lines 2 and 8 disrupt the natural beat of the poem signifying the impression of heart palpitations. Similar to Johnson’s poem Most lines contain caesura indicated with punctuation marks, mostly commas, which helps the rhythm explain the heartbeat’s occasional irregularities. Not only does Herrick rely on rhythm to get his meaning across, he also uses paradox and alliteration. In line 12 he uses a paradox when he describes the woman as “wild civility” which is contradicting seeing the woman as someone who rebels subtly. His use of alliteration helps to establish imagery allowing it to flow smoothly that gives the female a rounder shape rather than sharp, cut and masculine. These two poems both reference women to art to explain the beauty of art but Herrick seems to see art more positively than Johnson based on Herrick’s feminine endings and approach. The heartbeat rhythm establishes an intimate feeling that Johnson’s poem lacks. 

Natalie Rodriguez

Freedom from “Freedom”

Steve Dunwell’s photograph of Somerville, Massachusetts is an exceptional supplement to Thomas Lynch’s poem Liberty because they both critique the concept of American freedom during the 20^th century in similar ways. During this time period, many immigrants were drawn to the United States in hopes of attaining a better standard of living. When observing the photograph, the most obvious detail is that there are many houses tightly packed together. Building the suburban neighborhoods in such an organized fashion made it possible for the area to accommodate the growing population. As the number of immigrants seeking better lives in the “Land of Freedom” increased, so did the population densities of these American neighborhoods. As an ironic result of this, the immigrants who came to this country searching for freedom were welcomed with less personal freedom than they may have had in their home country.

Lynch’s Liberty serves to critique the same irony that exists in Dunwell’s photograph through the incorporation of different poetic elements. When reading the poem, it becomes clear that the speaker is dissatisfied with the “liberty” that the United States was said to embody. This is evident in the first line of the poem, where a clear alliteration in the phrase “front lawn as a form of freedom” draws readers’ attention to the reason behind the speaker pissing on his lawn. By relieving himself outdoors, despite the societal norm of using a toilet indoors, he explains that he feels as free as he was in Ireland. Furthermore, the author makes effective use of imagery throughout the text to highlight the situational irony of American immigration. Phrases such as “under stars that overarched the North Atlantic where the River Shannon empties into sea” as well as “as dense as the darkness in West Clare” paint a vivid image of the open space present in the speaker’s homeland while providing a stark contrast to the tightly packed homes shown in Dunwell’s photograph (line 7, 16). This makes explicit to the readers that the speaker in Lynch’s poem prefers his homeland to the exaggerated freedom boasted by American culture.

The Redemption of Paradise

Though both poems offer shaped verses, a wealth of poetic elements, and a distinct theme of Christianity, I believe that George Herbert’s Easter Wings offers a more powerful Christian message than his other poem, The Altar. While the latter draws an image of an altar built of metaphorical hearts, the prior takes readers back to the creation of mankind. In line 1, the author states that the Lord “createdst man in wealth and store” and this phrase seems to refer to the story of Adam and Eve, the first humans. Adam and Eve were allowed to live life in the Garden of Eden, a beautiful, perfect paradise created by God for mankind, but were expelled when they ate the forbidden fruit. By incorporating this story of Adam and Eve, Herbert paints a more complete image of God, as well as the Garden of Eden.

In the second half of the first stanza, the speaker seeks to redeem himself from Adam’s mistake and expresses his wishes to “rise” with the Lord, just as Jesus had risen from his grave on Easter day. This desire for redemption is further highlighted by the alliteration used by the author in line 10 (fall further the flight) as well as the rhyming “shall the fall”. In addition to the fact that the two stanzas have been fashioned into the shape of two wings, it is evident these wings symbolize redemption in this poem. Because the speaker claims that mankind has “fallen” as a result of Adam’s sin, it makes sense that the author needs wings to fly back up. This is further evident in the last two lines, where the speaker displays his desire to “imp” or attach his own wings to Jesus’s, as he rises on Easter day. It is also important to consider the two stanzas comparatively. Each stanza starts off with a negative, almost bleak tone but by the end of each stanza, the tone becomes optimistic and full of plea. Because both stanza’s starts with the result of Adam’s sins, they give the effect of “rising”, consistent with this idea of resurrection. This plea, as well as the speaker’s changing tone, paint a clear image of the resurrection of Christ and allow readers to perceive the speaker’s deep desire for both salvation and redemption. Because to me, Christianity is a religion of repenting sins, and redemption, I believe that the ideas and imagery present in Herbert’s Easter Wings provides a more powerful Christian message than his other poem, The Altar.

Visual vs Audio: Which Do You Prefer?

I think that both Herrick and Johnson’s poems have the same theme but are portrayed differently. In Herrick’s poem, Delight in Disorder, Herrick uses alliteration and rhyme to make the poem an audio one, something very playful when read aloud. For example in lines 1, 9, and 14 Herrick uses alliteration when he writes, “disorder in the dress”, “winning wave”, and “precise in every part” to show the fun and light heartedness of the poem. Without the use of alliteration, captured through saying the poem aloud, the reader may not be able to see the theme of chaos and light-heartedness as well. Along with using alliteration to show the theme of disorder and imperfections in the poem, Herrick also uses personification and strays from the prosody, iambic tetrameter. For example Herrick uses personification in lines 5 and 6 when he writes “an erring lace, which here and there/ Enthralls the crimson stomacher” which when read allowed allows the listener to see lace sway in unpredictable yet beautiful ways as it wraps the other fabric. His blatant decision to not follow iambic tetrameter throughout the poem enhances certain lines. For example the change in rhyme scheme in line 4, “Into a fine distraction” quite literally distracts the reader allowing him or her to maybe even feel the disillusion and disorder Herrick is trying to portray. Without the use of manipulating iambic tetrameter, Herrick’s poem would not be able to portray delight and disorder in an audio way, which would have potentially not allowed the readers to really understand the meaning of the poem.

Johnson on the other hand doesn’t use the rhythm or prose of the poem to create an audio experience for the reader. However, his use of word choice and simplicity of rhyme scheme allows the reader to reach the meaning of the poem in a very visual, descriptive way. For example his word choice is simple and not over bearing allowing the reader to take the poem at face value. This is clear when Johnson writes in lines 8 and 9 “that makes simplicity a grace/ robes loosely flowing, hair as free” because the reader can clearly see the theme of disorder and imperfections shine through due to the word choice. Along with simple words, Johnson’s decision to maintain iambic tetrameter throughout the poem, absent of spondees, allows the reader to not have to pause or get caught up in the reading of the poem.

I think that Johnson’s decision to keep the prose simple and Herrick’s decision to mess up iambic tetrameter really proves that there are multiple ways a reader can reach the intended theme of a poem. However I enjoy Herrick’s manipulation of the poem to be slightly easier to interpret the ideas of chaos and imperfection than Johnsons.

Herrick vs Jonson

The prosody (which is iambic tetrameter), rhyme scheme, and alliteration of “Delight in Disorder,” help to provide the poem with a light and playful mood.  I found this piece to be extremely easy to read and understand due to the primarily unchanging meter alongside several changing poetic elements.  For one, this poem has a rhyme scheme that includes numerous couplets, such as the last two lines which end in “art” and “part,”  which make the poem fun and simple to read.  However, lines like 3 and 4 contain ending words that require some vocal alterations in order to rhyme, like “thrown” and “distraction.” In addition, Herrick frequently uses alliteration, especially in the beginning of the poem. The first line places an emphasis on the letter “d” in the words “disorder” and “dress,” while the second line places an emphases on the hard “k” sound in the words “kindles” and “clothes.”  This element provides the poem with a smooth flow in many of the lines.  On the other hand, lines like 3, 4, and 5 clearly do not contain alliteration, and  therefore produce a different kind of flow when read allowed.  To summarize, the various modifications in the rhythm of “Delight in Disorder,” along with the light-hearted mood that marks the poem, allow Herrick to demonstrate the main theme of his piece: delightful disorder.  The poem’s narrator is attracted to slight disorder, specifically in terms of clothing, and attempts to openly attract the reader to the disorder of the poem.

The theme of disorder in “Still to Be Neat,” on the other hand, is not so obvious when studying the rhythm of the poem.  Each of the couplets in this poem are very clear; the ending words in each line rhyme without any effort or alteration.  Thus, the entirety of the poem can be read very naturally.  However, the theme of Jonson’s poem, similar to the theme of Herrick’s poem, is that disorder is preferable to perfection. The narrator of this poem prefers his lady to have be simple; rather than wearing a fancy dress, she should casually be wearing a “loosely flowing” robe with her hair “free,” (line 9).  So, Jonson does a great job at displaying a preference for disorder through imagery.  Herrick, on the other hand, uses rhythm to assist him in displaying the theme of disorder.  For this reason, I prefer Herrick’s approach, because it more creatively displays the central idea.