With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--

In this stanza, the poet uses rhyming and imagery. The lines that rhyme are "do I dare", "middle of my hair", and "descend the stair"; "growing thin", "to the chin", "a simple pin", and "legs are thin". I think the poet uses all of the rhyming to make it stand out more. The things that stand out are all of the imagery, like the bald spot in the head or the collar of his coat resting on his chin. Knowing what the poem is all about, I can see that this is the first time that the speaker begins to speak poorly of himself and say how he is not good enough. I now know that the bald spot is signify that he is old or past his time. He speaks as if he is thin and frail by saying "they will say: 'but how his arms and legs are thin!". I can also see how he starts to think that people will judge him and will not accept the way he is. He assumes that peole will mock him, but he is just all talk and people may not even really say things about him. Through out the poem, he is constantly guessing what people say, but it is not really the truth. The speaker is stuck in his old age and self pity, that he doesn't realize that people may htink differently than what he thinks.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

In this poem it seems kind of weird that some of the lines ryme and others don't. There is not any constant form and the language and thoughts seem very varied. The lines that I like are the couplet "In the room women come and go Talking of Michelangelo". This couplet is actually repeated two times through out the poem. I think they are good lines that help the reader unsterstand more of what the poem is about. Knowing this, one would think that he was at some fancy party. First, I know it is a party because it talks about all of the women and how the come and go. Then, I know it is fancy or upscale becuase the speaker talks about Michelangelo. (Only an educated person would know that he was a Renaissance man. A Renaissance man is a very well rounded gentleman who cared about everything from the arts and huimanities to philosophy.) The speaker is trying to say that women don't care about him, they only want that perfect guy. This couplet expesses the low self esteem of the speaker and how he doesn't think he is good enough. Maybe he wanted this part of the poem to stand out and that is why he made it rhyme and repeated twice.

Prufrock is on the outside as he talks about the women who are on the inside. He is 'locked' out on the streets with the gross restaurants and one night hotels and could only dream of being with those women. This is the life that Prufrock lives and he is just a witness to all of these women that he sees. The women are at some exclusive place that Prufrock feels he isn't worthy enough to be there too. He is past his time and therefore has been locked out from most things. Getting older is hard for him to deal with and he describes everything he does as pitiful in comparison to others. Maybe at one point he did know the women that came and went, but know he is down and out becuase he has passed his prime.

Same old story from yesterday morning

I think that "to be inside" means to be a part of something. I think the poet, who uses a lot of imagery to make more of an impact, feels lost since he was an immigrant and he does not know where he fits in. Asking if he is inside someone or something is like asking if he belongs there or if he is a part of that. The lines "practice until you feel the language inside of you" is saying that the more you try something the more, it will be a part of you. Once you become familiar enough with something , you will be able to feel like you belong and can identify with that thing. This realtes to all parts of the author's life and he feels like he just wants to belong. When he says "Am I inside you? I asked once lying between her legs, confused about the body and the heart", I think the wordsmith is trying to ask if he is supposed to be there. Being an immigrant, the author has been displaced and he is confused about his own identity and how he fits in. Everyone wants to belong someplace and feel like they are "on the inside". I think that at one point or another everyone feels what the author is feeling (whether or not they are immigrants). This poem is all about figuring out what you as a person and if you fit in with your enviornment.

A poem to reflect the weather...

Snow
David Berman

Walking through a field with my little brother Seth

I pointed to a place where kids had made angels in the snow.
For some reason, I told him that a troop of angels
had been shot and dissolved when they hit the ground.

He asked who had shot them and I said a farmer.

Then we were on the roof of the lake.
The ice looked like a photograph of water.

Why he asked. Why did he shoot them.

I didn't know where I was going with this.

They were on his property, I said.

-I chose this poem because I thought it was cute and fun especially because it is snowing. The WORDSMITH uses a FREE VERSE form and there are no rules or rhyming that the poem conforms to. It kind of seems like the poem is more of a conversation than a poem. I really like the whole idea of the poem how little kids just always ask questions and questions and you can make anything up and they will probably believe it. I love telling crazy and random things to my little cousins and they always think that it is true. That is why the STANZA "I pointed to a place where kids had made angels in the snow. For some reason, I told him that a troop of angels had been shot and dissolved when they hit the ground" are my favorite becuase the are so creative. Also, "For some reason a tropp of angels" is a LINE becuase it isn't sentence, it is just from one end to the other. Another one of my favorite parts is the line that says "the roof of a lake"; it is really weird to think about, but it is true. I really like the IMAGERY that this POET continuosly shows. Also, a good example of SIMILIE is the line that reads "the ice looked like a photograph of water". Then, the poem continues with the child asking more questions, which is even funnier because that is exactly how little kids are; all they ever do is ask questions. I think that this whole poem was really interesting and fun to read.

Intro to Poetry

Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

-I think that this poem can be both very true and also not true at all. First, from a teacher's perspective, this is what they want a student to feel when they are reading a poem and the teachers always feel like students read to much into a poem. But from a student's view and from my experience, a teacher always wants me to read more into it and just go deeper and deeper. Beisdes from that, my favorite lines are "walk inside a poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch" because I know this feeling and I think a poem is more powerful and meaningful when you can connect your personal life. This was a good poem to introduce the new unit on poetry.