-Annie Hall's Poetry Assignment -

Contains:

Collected Poems x5 + Reviews

Original Poems x5 + Explanations

(also click older posts to see all 10 poems) 

:)

Cicada

by Basho

(collected poem 5)

In the cicada's cry

No sign can foretell

How soon it must die

Review:

This is a poem about a cicada, that has no idea when it will die. It has the familiar 5-7-5 syllable form of a haiku. "cicada's cry" is alliteration. The first and last lines rhyme!

Eros Turannos

by Edwin Arlington Robinson

(collected poem 4) 

She fears him, and will always ask

   What fated her to choose him;

She meets in his engaging mask                  

   All reasons to refuse him;

But what she meets and what she fears

Are less than are the downward years,

Drawn slowly to the foamless weirs

   Of age, were she to lose him.

Between a blurred sagacity

   That once had power to sound him,

Love and God, will not let him be.

   The seeker that she found him,

Her pride assuages her, almost,

As if it were alone the cost.

He sees that he will not be lost,

   And waits, and looks around him.

A sense of ocean and old trees

   Envelops and allures him;

Tradition, touching all he sees

   Beguiles and reassures him;

And all her doubts of what he says

Are dimmed with what she knows of days,

Till even prejudice delays,

   And fades—and she secures him.

The falling leaf inaugurates

   The reign of her confusion;

The pounding wave reverberates

   The crash of her illusion;

And home, where passion lived and died,

Becomes a place where she can hide,—

While all the town and harbor side

   Vibrate with her seclusion.

We tell you, tapping on our brows,

   The story as it should be,—

As if the story of a house

   Were told, or ever could be;

We’ll have no kindly veil between

Her visions and those we have seen,—

As if we guessed what hers have been

   Or what they are, or would be.

Meanwhile, we do no harm; for they

   That with a god have striven,

Not hearing much of what we say,

   Take what the god has given;

Though like waves breaking it may be,

Or like a changed familiar tree,

Or like a stairway to the sea,

   Where down the blind are driven.

Review:

    This poem is an example of a ballad. It has 6 stanzas with 8 lines, an octet. The poem     has four-stress lines and the stanzas rhyme ABABCCCB. It is about a couple who has a rocky relationship behind closed doors and the theme is love and hate. "Love and God." is an allusion because it mentions God, a holy figure. The repeated mentions about the ocean, and waves is symbolism for how the woman feels inside. It could also partly be foreshadowing, like the last line suggests, that the woman will drown herself in the sea.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

by T.S Elliot

(collected poem 3)

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o'clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimney-pots,

And at the corner of the street

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

Let us go then, you and I, 

When the evening is spread out against the sky

   A patient etherised upon a table; 

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

The muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells

Review:

The theme of this poem is despair and gloom. A man is taking someone out to the city but is very dreary and there is not much happiness. The rhyme scheme is not exact, but there are several rhyming couplets in the freeverse. Due to the fact that the poem is freeverse it does not have exact structure but it  sometimes shows iambic pentameter. This poem contains a lot of imagery, describing the smells, feels, and sights of the world the poem is in. "With smell of steaks in passageways." is a combination of alliteration and assonance. "A patient etherised upon a table" is a metaphor, there is no actual patient, it just comparing that situation to the evening sky.

Ballad of the Cool Fountain

by Anonymous 

(collected poem 2 - ballad)

Fountain, coolest fountain,  

Cool fountain of love,

Where all the sweet birds come

For comforting-but one,

A widow turtledove,

Sadly sorrowing,

At once the nightingale,

That wicked bird, came by,

And spoke these honied words:

"My lady, if you will,

I shall be your slave."

"You are my enemy:

Begone, you are not true!"

Green boughs no longer rest me,

Nor any budding grove.

Clear springs, where there are such,

Turn muddy at my touch.

I want no spouse to love

Nor any children either.

I forego that pleasure and their comfort too.

No, leave me; you are false

And wicked-vile, untrue!

I'll never be your mistress!

I'll never marry you!

  Review: 

This poem is a ballad about a fountain who is angry with a nightingale. It expresses the emotions of the fountain, which is personification. "Sadly sorrowing"on line 6 is an example of alliteration. There is no definite rhyme scheme or structure. It is written in dactyl hexameter.

Sonnet VII

by William Shakespeare

(collected poem 1 - sonnet)

Lo! in the orient when the gracious light

Lifts up his burning head, each under eye

Doth homage to his new-appearing sight,

Serving with looks his sacred majesty; 

And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill,

Resembling strong youth in his middle age,

Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,

Attending on his golden pilgrimage:

But when from highmost pitch, with weary car,

Like feeble age, he reeleth from the day,

The eyes, 'fore duteous, now converted are

From his low tract, and look another way:

   So thou, thyself outgoing in thy noon

   Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son.

Review:

The sonnet is about a sunset being compared to a man's age. The theme is that the rise and fall of the sun is the same as a man is, starting young and growing old. It has a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. It has 3 quatrains and a couplet, with iambic pentameter. The whole poem is a simile because it is a comparison. It also contains rhyme. The sun is reffered to as "his" and has actions which is an example of personification.

Sloths

(original poem 5 - couplets/rhyming)

Sometimes I think that I could be a sloth

Hang from a tree and not do a lot

Sleep all day and eat all night

Nobody ever picks a fight

Go to the bathroom once a week

Leaves more time for me to eat

Favourite foods are leaves, twigs and fruit

makes it so that lunch is always a hoot

My head could turn 90 degrees

easier access for munching on leaves

I would always have a smiling face,

creepy or not it cannot be erased

Not very much muscle mass, mostly just claws

I would still hang on when dead, that deserves applause

But I remain a human, stuck on the ground

If I were a sloth I could just lie around

Explanation:

  

This is clearly a poem about sloths! It is written in rhyming couplets. The first line of the second couplet is alliteration, "Not very much muscle mass, mostly just claws."

Dove

(original poem 4 - freeverse)

A troop of soldiers moves silently through the underbrush

guns impatiently quake in their gloved hands

heavy breathing

sweat drips down into their eyes

A sudden bang causes them to halt

anticipation

anxiety

all hold their breath

The leader makes a quick signal and they jump

running quickly

"forward, forward!"

no time to think

They reach a clearing, the ground littered with 

bodies

remains of an explosive smoke up from the ground

there is nobody left

Several soldiers fall to their knees

weapons hang loosely at side

A single white dove flies over the masses

it lets out a cry and soldiers look up

The bird soars and soars until it flies into the trees 

never to be seen again

The soldiers pick themselves up

Tomorrow will be a better day

Maybe it will all end tomorrow

Explanation:

This a poem about a war. It is freeverse and has no rhyme scheme. On line 2 there is an example of personification because guns do not have emotions and cannot be impatient. The dove mentioned is symbolism for peace during times of war.

Baby

(original poem 3 - haiku)

sleeps on a blanket

she is a beautiful rose

chest rises and falls

Explanation:

This haiku is about a sleeping baby. It has 3 lines with a syllable count of 5,7,5. The second line is a metaphor because the baby is not actually a plant. 

   Dog and Frog

 (original poem 2- ballad)

Once upon a time there was a frog

He lived with his best friend, a dog

They were sick of their boring lives

They picked up and left a letter

"We are going and leaving for the better"

Put it in an envelope for their wives

The pair went adventuring off the city

they bustled like bees and it was pretty

until they met two men with knives

"Good God, look at these creatures"

"We could sell their coats to dealers"

Dog is caught but Frog survives.

Explanation:

This is a poem about two animals who leave their homes and then run into men who sell animal fur. For some reason I gave it a gruesome end. It is a ballad with 4 stanzas with 3 lines each.  The rhyme scheme is AAB CCB DDB EEB. In the last stanza, the first line has an allusion with "Good God.." Third stanza, second line contains a simile comparing the two animals to bees. The whole poem contains rhyming.

   Beach Day

 (original poem 1- sonnet)

The ocean waves crash

Roughly against the shore

Rocks tumble and smash

There is silence no more

Crabs scuttle through the sand

Seagulls search for their prey

Children run, fall and land

It is just another beach day

Ice cream falls and babies cry

Lifting rocks, poking holes

Kites soar and frisbees fly

People smile, happy souls

Families clean up and leave the beach

Nature is a lesson no school can teach

Explanation:

The topic of this poem is about families going to the beach and playing in the sand and enjoying the outdoors. It is a sonnet, that has 4 stanzas and a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. "Families clean up and leave the beach" on line 13 is an example of assonance. The first stanza contains imagery.