Make up on empty space

We change our identity so many times that we tend to lose track of who we are. The imagery suggests that the poems are made by just writing how you feel at the moment. They have no time to rhyme, their poetry slips onto the paper the way it would slip off their tongues. They are basically writing in a journal, things that don’t make sense, things that are being done at that very moment, things that they feel. They speak on it and turn it into a poem. That’s how I write mines. The imagery also suggest that the complexity of defining an identity comes from various different ways. The poet speaks of

I am putting make up on the empty space
Everything crumbles around empty space

Those two lines shows the irrelevance to mankind and this world because of the fact that she believes that empty space is what defines all that we are surrounded by. Maybe its just her world that she feel has an empty space because she only speaks of herself an her world in these terms.

Marge Piercy ``Barbie Doll``

``Barbie Doll`` discusses the present day issues that females go through on a regular basis. Its about a lost girl who finds herself to be imperfect, the fact that other people (students) point out to what they feel are her flaws makes her feel less attractive. She obviously went to someone for comfort because it explained that

She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.

This is nothing new to any generation, dolls symbolize perfection and what society feels a female or male should look like to be considered perfect. Well in this poem we read about a female who then decides to cut off her ``so-called`` imperfections which are her nose and legs an eventually dies.

Theme for English B by Langston Hughes

Honestly speaking, as I read this poem it reminded me of how I write my poems. He wrote this poem literally as he was writing in a journal. He did not rhyme so you can tell the poem was written just as he would speak it. He went into the context of showing face that he didn't want to be like his professor (not sure if just by race, occupation or American) but also the professor didn't want to be like him either. He said

 Go home and write

      a page tonight.

      And let that page come out of you—

      Then, it will be true.

    He did and thats exactly why he wrote the way he did. He let out his true emotions and put it on the paper. I don't know why but so far both poems that I read from him didn't necessarily give me an image to work off off, maybe the next one I read will.

Harlem by Langston Hughes

This poem brought me back to my high school days when I analyzed this exact poem. I watched the movie called "A Raisin in the Sun" and discussed what the poem meant. Reading it again reminded me of where I am at today. My dreams were deferred. In high school, I had plans to get into FIT college and become the greatest fashion designer out there. It obviously has not happened that way because my dream got deferred due to the realities of life.

Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?

    Those four lines signifies the harsh realities of peoples dreams. Dreams either never happen, shrivel up til it can have life brought back into them, sit there and then goes away. This poem does not rhyme and it has no imagery to it but it makes you think deeply about festering dreams. Its a dream we can only make of it, what we want to make of it.

We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

This poem sounds like the writer is trying to show the world what life really is about. Some people live life thinking only certain things are possible and nothing could ever go wrong. In this poem the author shows its readers that we live to die basically. There is a lot of rhythm and word play in this poem. I do see an image and that image is of acceptance. I really do like the poem because the author sounds very confident considering the word play she uses. I like the fact that she chose not to rhyme every line but every other line. What I didn’t understand in this poem was the part where she said

 “sing sin, we thin gin”

It made absolutely no sense to me at all. After rereading it over and over, I then came to the realization that it probably meant we always sin but act like we don’t. That’s what I felt the quote meant but overall it was a pretty decent poem even though it was so short.

In Golden Gate Park That Day ...

The final image affects my sense of it & prompts me to reread the previous images by overshadowing the original emotion. Everything seemed so happy & content but it really wasn’t. This goes back to the same quotes people use, “Don’t envy no one because you don’t know the life they really live”. I mean the fact that they don’t make eye contact with one another shows that she respects her husband & his word on things. She waits til he falls asleep to show her facial expression of true emotions. She can be unhappy with him or unhappy with their situation. I believe she’s unhappy with what ever situation they are in and I believe the man has learned to accept it.  

The pattern I detected was the reuse of some lines such as,

“ thru the enormous meadow, which was the meadow of the world”  & “without looking at each other”

These lines were repeated to keep the reader informed about the specific area of life & personality of the characters.

The epiphany is a dark one, simply because depression is a dark & hollow path. The epiphany was showing that they world may be of beauty but not every aspect of it is beautiful. You can live in a big mansion & have all the money in the world but that won’t necessarily make you happy because you can lack something that will lead you into depression. Something like having no family, broken heart, etc.

Li-Young Lee & Tess Gallagher

Li-Young Lee

“The Gift”

Physically he did not receive a gift but spiritually he did. The gift his father gave him, he gave to his wife. The gift was discipline. Confidence, security & trust was what his father showed him because although he had a splinter, he thought that he would die. So he carefully executed the same thing (minus the prayer because he did not remember word for word) to his wife.

Tess Gallagher

“Choices”

The “nest” becomes an epiphany/moment of self awareness for the speaker because to think that she was going to remove something that was so beautiful which would have made her feel a way. The view itself held beauty & to take away a nest which belonged to a creature would have been wrong. Maybe she felt like, who am I? To take away something that does not belong to me. Something so innocent, at that.

 "Under the  Stars"

The “you” that was addressed in stanza 3 collides with the envelope in stanza 1 means that the envelope contained a letter to the “you”. I want to believe that the “you” is a childhood love because she showed imagery of a “couple” in stanza 3. She also reminisces on the childhood games that were played in the dark and uses the word “intimate” in stanza 4.

The “games” is referred to her childhood memories that her & “you” use to play when they were younger. Everyone had childhood games that they would be play back when they were young.

In relation to the imagery, the significance in the final line is that her mind was running rapid on things that she sees around her. You know when you’re happy & content with a thought of something that you notice the beauty of things you see everyday & you end up getting wrapped up in your own world. Well on her way to the mail drop off area her thoughts were flying. As she got closer back to home she got back into reality.