Living in These Pages

When comparing Julia Alvarez’s “Sometimes the Words are So Close” and earlier drafts of the poem, the final meaning is altered from the drafts because the missing punctuation shows the speaker’s growth as she learns she has a home in poetry. Alvarez mentioned in the interview that she learned English late and books became a “portable homeland”. This poem mirrors her own journey of growing up, learning English, and finding a home and identity in words.

In previous iterations, Alvarez incorporated punctuation into the poem. An early draft approximately reads, “Sometimes poems are close to who I am / expressed, all that I am, down on pages / feet, legs, thigh, hips, belly, breasts, arms”. Alvarez did not end up including the list of body parts in the poem, so the focus became less physical and more about words. By eliminating the need for the previous draft’s commas, she brought the words closer together (as the poem title suggests) and took enjambment to the next level. The final version still communicates the same idea that the speaker belongs in poems.

The final poem begins with, “Sometimes the words are so close I am” (line 1). This version creates more of a jumbled, confused, stream-of-consciousness feeling due to the lack of punctuation and lines that form a run-on sentence. By blurring the lines together, the speaker replicates the babbling speech patterns of a multilingual(?) child and leaves the line’s meaning more open-ended. Since “I am” doesn’t fit grammatically within the sentence, readers stumble on the words. In the beginning, the speaker does not have a home inside or outside the poem (which relates to the underlying metaphor of the speaker being the poem itself). The second line truly begins within the first, “I am / more who I am when I’m down on paper / than anywhere else” (lines 1-3). This speaker is uncertain as to where she belongs, so her thoughts are jumbled and conjoined. However, she recognizes that she has a close relationship with words and language in general (as demonstrated in the first line where she is literally close to words).

When the speaker finds her full form as a person, the poem has full sentences with proper punctuation. The stylistic change mimics her clarity concerning homeland and self. This change would have been less apparent if Alvarez had keep an earlier draft where the speaker is coherent throughout the poem. In this version, the speaker’s thoughts are less scrambled and more clearly distinct because she has found more stability with her identity. Poems have given her space to strip back her layers and translate them into words. The speaker is confidently expressing herself, so she is no longer a poem “in the drafts” (line 12). Through reflection, revision, and time, a poem with humble beginnings transforms into a masterpiece. The speaker reveals her true self to be in poems, and says, “Who touches this poem touches a woman” (line 14). This poem is a deep look into this woman’s whole life and journey with language. Her experiences influence her writing, and through poems, she reveals her innermost thoughts and struggles with identity and belonging.

~Miki Chroust 

Love but Harsh

In Claude McKay’s sonnets, “Flower of Love” (75) and “Jasmines” (88) they both share a thematic approach towards a connection of a woman’s beauty by describing her sweet scent, and comparing her to a flower. I believe the poem “Flower of Love” was a continuation of the poem “Jasmines” but may also be vice versa depending on the poem wanting to be considered a happy or sad story, since “Flower of Love” is approached as a poem of love while “Jasmines” theme involves a deep sadness in leaving his lover. 

In the “Flower of Love ” poem, there are 16 lines and falls within a Shakespearean sonnet. In addition, on line 10 there begins the volta, however, doesn’t seem to have another line within the poem that would rhyme with line 10: “Here let us linger indivisible”. Although the volta didn’t have a pair, the rest of the poem did have about 3 quatrains, but on line 15-16 the poem doesn’t end with a rhyming couplet, rather it ends with what seems in another quatrain. In other words, the speaker is breaking the traditional form of what a Shakespearean sonnet is supposed to originally be. Therefore, enhancing this poem’s meaning by not being able to divide this specific line into any other rhyme scheme in this poem, it was meant for the speaker to approach it as an undivided affection toward his woman, nothing can separate one another, not even traditional values. Furthermore, this poem represents a strong love towards a woman in which line 4 mentions “I worship at your breast.” It may sound peculiar for the speaker who would want to worship his lover’s breast, it is a way for him to describe how her scent becomes so captivating that his feelings become overpowering. Not only does the scent describe the woman’s beauty but a flower is used as a metaphor towards the petal as temptation. Which leads me to my next point in the poem “Jasmines”. 

In this sonnet there are 15 lines and it was difficult to really tell what sonnet this poem was because on the first line it states, “Your scent is in the room” but there would be no rhyme scheme to go with this line so I thought it may be considered a volta but in the third line, it also takes a turn as it also doesn’t have a rhyme in the poem. I think an extra line was added to this sonnet to really give the idea of how chaotic a relationship can be as this poem showed how messy it can get. To add on, I thought this poem really brought out the “Flower or Love” as one story as they share the similarities of the struggles and beauties of love. In “Jasmines” the aroma is powerful or as mentioned by the speaker, “Swiftly it overwhelms and conquers me!” (2). In addition, I found it rather interesting that a jasmine is not only describing his lover’s scent but also describing her as the flower itself; a night jasmine. A “night jasmine cannot bloom in this cold place” (9) is meant to portray the sadness and loss of memory the speaker had with his woman. Not only that, but at night jasmine can’t bloom in a dark cold place otherwise the scent will be lost and its petals won’t blossom. It is as if his woman and the speaker are parting from one another as her scent is leaving, and the last couple of lines in the poem began to describe nature with harsh weather. This follows with “Flower or Love” as love at first can be really beautiful that it begins to grow onto you such as the scent, but it can also be really cruel.

Celeste Tejeda-Menera

I am not a rose. I am a free poppy.

‘The Rose and The Poppy’ by Adrianna Puente is most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose. To understand this poem, we need to start with the title. The Rose traditionally symbolizes ‘love’ itself, with its thorns representing ‘pain.’ However, alongside it, The Poppy is traditionally a symbol of ‘Remembrance and hope for a peaceful future.’ Yet, in this poem, The Poppy seems to focus more on the efficacy of the flower rather than its traditional meanings. As we know, The Poppy is sometimes associated with a type of narcotic, but it can also be used as a medical remedy. Depending on its use, The Poppy can either harm or heal individuals.

Throughout the poem, the speaker insists that the speaker is not The Rose but The Poppy. The speaker rejects all the symbols associated with The Rose, such as love, friendship, comfort, romance, etc., and claims herself to be a kind of natural flower, The Poppy. Why does the speaker keep asserting that she is not The Rose? While The Rose traditionally symbolizes not only love but also alluring women, the speaker asserts that she is not a captivating woman like The Rose, but rather a flower in nature, inartificial, just one among many people, like The Poppy. As mentioned earlier, The Poppy can be both a remedy and a poison. The speaker states that she may be chosen like The Rose on Valentine’s Day, but she never forgets who she truly is in any situation. The speaker chose The Poppy, which can eventually turn brown like a wildflower in a field, rather than conforming to the traditional symbols of love, friendship, and pain associated with The Rose. And that woman, the speaker, strongly asserts her desire not to play the typical role associated with The Poppy as either poison or remedy, but rather to live freely like the Poppy blooming in the field. By doing so, the speaker effectively rejects the traditional symbols of The Rose. A captivating woman like The Rose is just one among the common 8 billion people, much like The Poppy.

Jisoo Jang

A Rose’s Battle

I believe the most effective poem in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose was “Sea Rose,” by H.D. On the first line, “Rose, harsh rose” was being portrayed for something cruel. A rose is typically a symbol of beauty and love, but this rose is considered displeasing. On lines two through four, it states “marred and with stint of petals, meagre flower, thin, sparse of leaf.” These lines were really focused on the rose’s appearance due to its misfigured and unappealing look which goes against what a traditional rose usually stands for its breathtaking beauty. In other words, this rose is ugly, it has little amount of petals, it is very thin, all in which imagery is present in this stanza and the whole poem. This rose in particular may be referring to a woman, despite her lack of beauty, she is unique.

Although this “rose” is described poorly, on lines five and six it states, “more precious than a wet rose.” A rose that is wet has a bright and a glitter appearance, it could be referring to a blossoming rose. So a rose that is misfigured has a higher value than a rose in blossom. It may also refer to the sea since the water reflects and glitters from bright sources such as the sun and moon. In addition, on line eight states, “you are caught in the drift” which is portraying the sea as rough, but the rose is staying firm in the drift. That being said, traditionally the rose is seen as delicate but this rose is strong and independent in the drifting sea.

Which appoints my next lines of reasoning, nine through thirteen continue to describe the environment of the sea but with the wind being rough. On lines nine and ten it states, “Stunted, with small leaf, you are flung on the sand” in which the rose or woman is tossed by the many brutal battles of the world. Even though the rose is put through a harsh environment, the rose is “lifted in the crisp sand that drives in the wind,” according to lines eleven through thirteen. In other words, through the hardships of life being thrown to this rose, it continues to stay put but also sounds like the rose is flying across the breeze, as though to say the woman wants to be free from all that life is pushing onto her. Traditionally, a rose is meant to be kept with care but this rose is kept in harsh environments that can harm it.

Furthermore, on lines fourteen through fifteen, “Can the spice-rose drip such acrid fragrance hardened in a leaf?” This is the only line that had a question mark instead of a period because it is asking of its questionable and strong fragrance. The spice-rose can be interpreted as saying that the strong fragrance is the brutal environment in the woman’s life. In addition, the poet somewhat makes it seem as though a spice-rose and a rose are to be compared. Basically to portray that the rose may look like it is losing its strength but, it is able to create its own fragrance. A rose typically has a beautiful smell but this rose is overpoweringly displeasing.

With that being said, I don’t believe Adrianna Puente really challenged the traditional symbol of the rose because it didn’t seem like it was well captured. In a sense that the rose isn’t only taking part but a poppy as well, which really drives away from the idea of a traditional rose. In addition to this, I thought the rose wasn’t really part of this poem, it mostly was speaking of the orchards, tangerines, and “Electric orange.” However, this poem did contain lots of imagery and diction. The formatting was really interesting on how “I am” was used as a repetition on the first and second paragraph, to indicate that this is what they are resembling or not.

Celeste Tejeda-Menera

We both are penitents

Ode 44 tells a story about love, drunkenness, and Islam. Overall, I believe that the poem portrays an acceptance of Islamic spirituality.

In the first stanza, I distinguish between the Tenor, which is ‘She’, and the Vehicle, which includes ’tilted glass’, ‘verses on her lips’, ‘Narcissus-eyes’, ‘wine-red lips’, and ‘a dewy rose’. I deliberated extensively whether to assign ‘she’ or ‘her lips’ as the Tenor, but ultimately, I chose ‘She’ for the Tenor because I believed that this first stanza praises her beauty. ‘Tilted glass’ came with ‘with,’ so I regarded it as a Simile. Additionally, since ‘and’ connects ’tilted glass’ and ‘verses on her lips,’ I considered ‘verses on her lips’ as a Simile as well. ‘Narcissus-eyes’ describes the characteristic of her eyes, hence I thought it a Simile. As for ‘wine-red lips,’ it signifies that her lips are as red as wine color, so I considered it a Simile too. Furthermore, ‘a dewy rose’ is preceded by ‘as,’ so I interpreted it as a Simile.

In the second stanza, I considered ‘he’ as the Tenor and ‘churl’ and ‘a double traitor’ as the Vehicle. In fact, this part took me a long time to interpret because it started with ‘I’ but had ‘he’ appearing in the middle. Therefore, I regarded ‘He’ as representing an Islamic person. As another Tenor, I considered ‘we’, and ‘Drunkards’ as the Vehicle. Here, the author mixes ‘We’ and ‘I,’ which I saw as a clear indication of drawing a line to distinguish between an Islam puritan and oneself. Since ‘churl’ came from the sentence ‘he surely were a churl,’ I considered it a metaphor, as it describes the same subject, and ‘a double traitor’ was also seen in the same light, hence I thought it’s a metaphor too. Additionally, ‘Drunkards’ is a word immediately preceding ‘we,’ so it’s a metaphor. Consequently, I,’ or ‘we,’ describes how love and wine are perceived slightly differently between us and the Islamic person, but nonetheless, we are destined under God’s privilege.

In the third stanza, I saw ‘Hafiz’ as the Tenor and ‘poor penitent’ as the Vehicle. Although I also considered ‘wine and woman’ as the Tenor, when I observed the exclamation ‘Oh! HAFIZ!’ at the beginning of the stanza, I felt that ‘Hafiz’ should be the subject because the author emphasized this word. Regarding ‘poor penitent,’ since it’s preceded by ‘this,’ it indicates that the author equates ‘Hafiz’ with ‘poor penitent,’ making ‘poor penitent’ a kind of metaphor. In the last stanza, by directly addressing ‘Hafiz’ and asserting that we are both penitents, it implies that we will not live too humbly.

As the overall content of the poem portrays both the Islamic person and oneself as penitents before God, it is evident that the poem embraces Islamic spirituality.

Jisoo Jang

Beauty is Messy

I believe Robert Herrick has done a more effective way in representing the nature of art. In this poem, Delight in Disorder, it is followed by an iambic tetrameter. I found it to be that Herrick’s poem had vivid wording that captured the beauty of nature within women as both being one art, even for her messy attire. On the first and second line, he is describing the dress of a woman as “disorder” which can symbolize the appearance of her clothing. On lines one to four, Herrick had mentioned that the dress is “A lawn about the shoulder thrown” (Herrick 3). It was captivating how he used “A lawn” to describe a woman’s shoulder. According to Oxford’s dictionary, a lawn can be referring to a garden or a fine linen. In this case, “A lawn” can be portrayed as something improperly taken care of, such as the woman’s dress towards her revealing shoulders. Due to the woman’s shoulders being exposed, this leads it to be a “fine distraction” (Herrick 4) to a man. In addition, this just describes how messy art and poetry can get. They both describe how the beauty of something messy reflects a message that others might have a hard time grasping. Just as the woman in this poem, her attire is all so chaotic but the man finds it to be a taunting spell. In lines twelve to fourteen the man is bewitched by the woman’s beauty through her many pieces of clothing such as ribbons, a petticoat, dress, and shoestring. All in which are considered a complete odd appearance but attractive.

On the other hand, Ben Jonson didn’t really capture the nature of art within the poem, Still to Be Neat. In this poem it is also an iambic tetrameter and Jonson had also described a woman getting dressed, powdered, and perfumed, as mentioned in line one two three. These are what are described within women who dress up and like to look the part. In addition to Jonson’s poem, lines seven to nine described the flow within a breeze of hair that surprisingly followed by the rhythm of the poem, giving it a soft touch of what a light wind in the air might feel. Although Jonson described the “flowing hair as free,” (Jonson 9) it wasn’t as skeptical in details as Herrick portrayed in his poem. 

Celeste Tejeda-Menera

Sea Rose Vs The poppy

Both poems include imagery as well as strong metaphors. The thing is both poems talk about more than just a single rose one talk’s about the poppy with is Adrianna’s poem and the other talks about the Sea Rose. If you were to read the poem “Sea Rose” you wouldn’t think much of it although that’s not what the dictionary says, the dictionary gives you a completely different flower that is unique as the rose and both are similar when it comes to describing woman. The poem “rose and the poppy” talks about not only a rose but also talks about a flower poppy. The poem that is most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose would be the rose and the poppy.

The reason I say this it’s because the poem is full of metaphors but what do you think when you think of a rose? Strong, beautiful, lover and kind although this wouldn’t exactly be the traditional simbol of the rose for me. A rose is a woman and I believe that the poem is telling me exactly this, “scenting rooms with our fragrance” the poem is not talking about the rose scent itself but its talking about woman’s fragrance their own smell because the poem gives us metaphors, comparing the rose to a woman. “Most times I am forgotten” this is another comparison between the rose and woman a rose can be forgotten once it dies, swell as woman can be forgotten from time to time. The poet uses imagery to describe “I am not a revising ruby red” to tell us that the poet is not talking about a rose itself but it’s talking about someone else about a person so in this case personification. The reason why I say that the rose and the poppy has more of a traditional symbol to the rose it’s because a poet will never actually talk about a rose, but instead of a metaphor and I felt like the poem “Sea Rose” Explained more of an actual rose than what a rose can represent.

-Ana Munos

Rhythm and Meter

Trying to decide between two poems is like trying to decide between ice cream and cake, both are great for certain days or different occasions. For today’s occasion, I suppose Ben Johnson’s “Still to Be Neat” (1609) is the poem that most effectively represents the nature of art, rather than Robert Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” (1648).

Jonson’s “Still to be Neat” is written in dactylic foot, as each line starts and ends on a stress. The first line, for example, “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” can be read with breaks in the words almost like, “Still, to be neat, Still, to be dressed”. This similar format throughout the poem shows that the words: still, neat, still, dressed, still, powdered, still, perfumed are all emphasized and nearly have a rhyming sing-sound to them. The endings of each two lines rhyme together, and the poem speaks about a woman. Everything about this poem is out in the open, sort of like nature!

Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder ” conveys a similar feeling when breaking down the poem’s rhythm. If you look closely you may notice that the ends of the first two and last two lines rhyme. This poem is written in iambic and has a faster rhythm, for example, the line “A winning wave, dereserving note” has a stress on nearly every word. While this poem does more speciffically talk about art and both poems are alike in that nature in both these poems in represented by women, clothing, and appearance, I do belive that “Still to Be Neat” is the more rhythic and represts the nature of art.

Anne K. Anderson

Rhythm and Meter

Looking at the titles of the poems firsthand, I realized my interpretation was different. It had never occurred to me that it would be a portrayal of woman. To me, “Delight in Disorder,” sounded more of a poem that demonstrated the hues of  blacks, whites and grays within the world from Robert Herrick’s perspective. Whereas, “Still to Be Neat” was revolving Ben Jonson’s focused attention on the world. 

After thoroughly reading over the poems, and taking them into depth, I realized that it was more than that. Both Herrick and Jonson all focus on woman, in such a unique manner. Herrick’s refers the woman as a “sweet disorder in a dress.” Disorder is defined as “putting something out of order.” Herrick symbolism on the woman is a person who is meant to disrupt his daily life. To allure him away with her “tempestuous petticoat.” He gives every inch of her attire a purpose to benefit him. The terms he uses describes the lady as if she intended on doing so. 

In Jonson’s poem, he holds a similar lens on woman. Jonson seems to focus on more of what she is always doing, than rather the attire she wears. The narrator notes that she is always “still to be powdered, still perfumed.” The woman is someone who is always well-dressed no matter what. What caught my eye was lines 10 to 12. He views the woman as a person to complete the act of lust. Where the woman “strike [his] eyes but not [his heart].”

Both poems kind of connect to the history of woman and how they were treated. Today, woman are still facing certain conflicts without being sexualized in any manner.

Evelyn Hernandez

Poetry is a delicate art; every poet uses a unique way to present his idea. Ben Jonson, and Robert Herrick are two poets that shed the light on the importance of using literary devices to deliver their messages to the readers. Both poems, “ Still to be neat, still to be dressed,” and “ Delight in Disorder,”  describe the idea of how woman are deceived. Ben Jonson focuses on the physical appearance of the woman in his poem, “Still to be neat.” Meanwhile, Robert Herrick focuses on the rhythm to deliver the purpose to the reader.  To exemplify this, in the second stanza of Jonson’s poem iambic rhythm is seen.  On the other hand, Herrick’s poem is based upon heartbeat rhythm. All in all, the use of rhythm is important in both poems as it helps in delivering the message to the reader.

Rhythm is an important key element in poetry. It helps in delivering the message to the readers. Both Ben Jonson’s and Robert Herrick’s poems show a different style of rhythm. I personally would prefer the style used by Ben Johnson, as he uses a song-based rhythm compared to a heartbeat rhythm in Herrick’s poem. In conclusion, the rhythm used in the poem “Still to be neat” is more impactful because of its more musical inspirations.

Ramsey Mogannam