Desert Places- Robert Frost

This week I decided rather than rave about how brilliant a poem is, I'm going to write about how much I hate it. Robert Frost- all around neutral kinda guy. I mean, sure he's a credited poet that we read from our plastic elementary chairs, but has he ever written anything of substance?? Robert Frost plays it safe. I honestly think he writes just to be read. Take this poem, for instance. Loneliness is one of the most common emotions! You can't go wrong that. It's exactly like The Kite Runner- everyone just loved it, but I saw how the author just knew how to spin every human emotion into a dramatic plot and it would be an automatic success. It's the exact same here with this poem. The words Frost writes are actually rather nice. He adds nice touches with the symbolism of the woods and delicate metaphors such as, "all animals are smothered in their lairs." The two lines I really enjoyed from this poem are in the third stanza: "And lonely as it is that loneliness will be more lonely ere it will be less." I think I love those lines because I honestly don't understand them. They just sound so nice! I feel like the rest of the poem just failed and these two lines could stand alone. Maybe he was trying to say the more lonely we are the less loneliness bothers us. I just can't figure out an interpretation that seems to suit. Other than those two lines I think the symbolism of the desert was boring and predicable, the quatrain format merely standard, and found no superb brilliance to this piece whatsoever.

"Reading Myself" by Robert Lowell

Robert Lowell was a renowned poet of the early 20th century. He won several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, which makes this poem ironic. He writes, " Somehow never wrote something to go back to." In this poem, Lowell tells of his desire to write something of substance. He says, "I memorized the tricks to set the river on fire"- or rather, he knows the tricks to writing a good poem. He plays words as we would cards. He has no problem tossing together a string of words and accepting the praise of his ingenuity. He speaks of Parnassus- the mountain in Greek mythology that is "the seat of music and poetry;" he has earned a seat on the slopes, but he has long to go before he can reach the peaks. I think we all like to wonder around the slopes. We live for excuses, so we do not have to reach our potential. The magnanimity- or rather the undetermined capacity of mankind is intimidating. We admire the greatness of humanity from our rocking chair on our front porch, perhaps too afraid to know our own capacity. Just food for thought.

"Untiled" by Stephan Crane

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In the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,

Held his heart in his hands,

And ate of it.

I said: "Is it good, friend?"

"It is bitter-bitter," he answered;

"But I like it

Because it is bitter,

And because it is my heart."

-Stephan Crane

(I apologize Mrs. White, I'm pretty sure this is the ONLY poem you're going to hear about this week, but I like it!)

So apparently this poem is very dark and bleak, but I felt like it was just very calm. I think it's a social commentary on the decay of mankind, but like Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," there was no drive of call to duty. Crane was commenting on how mankind is gradually becoming more and more selfish, yet, in a twisted sort of way, we like our selfishness. I think Crane used the symbol of the creature to represent mankind in the most natural state. Our heart is symbolic of our intentions or desires. It's also interesting to me how simple his wording is, yet it's so descriptive without being verbose! I think it really adds a nice, dark tone to this little piece. It has a minimalistic feel, which again reminds me the simplest form of mankind.

Personal Helicon by Seamus Heaney

This poem was written by Seamus Heaney, an Irish professor. It really sounds to me like a 'middle-aged' poem; it was written at a point where there was a lack of direction. I don't think I'm quite there yet. My life seems so perfectly planned out for me, but I'm certain that in everyone's life there comes a point where you sit and wonder how you got there, to that point in life, and ponder your next step. This is why people get sex changes at 40! The author's diction felt eloquent, yet still impressive and interesting which contributed to the middle-aged, mature style. Anyway, there are plenty of poems out there that speak of direction, but "Personal Helicon" stood out in the way in which it was written. The authors uses metaphors and symbolism to emphasize his point. The well, for instance, is symbolic of a dark time in one's life when it is hard to see one's identity. The flower and root are symbolic of the flower being the facade or one's appearance, and the roots being one's hidden qualities and strengths. The use of symbolism and metaphors gave the poem a sense of an unclear setting... almost like fog. Which in itself is another symbol. The poem had a nice tone to it; it felt somber, perhaps a little melancholy even, yet there was a nice sense of indignation to it. Almost like the author was realizing he wanted a change of direction, yet acknowledged it was in his control. I really enjoyed this poem. I felt like it effectively conveyed a message while still connecting with an audience.