"In the Middle of the Road" by Elizabeth Bishop

So it's 12:08am on a lovely Friday night Saturday morning and I realized I had a blog due yesterday. Wonderful. I completely forgot... this week has totally screwed with my mind. And I'm at my sisters house, deprived of all my school materials, so I'll have to just flow with this one.

Last class we read a poem called In the Middle of the Road by Elizabeth Bishop. It was kind of boring and repetitive, considering it talked about a stone in the middle of the road for 2/3rd's of the poem. I have to admit, I was pretty confused considering there wasn't much to go on.

I realized by the second time we listened to it that the stone in the middle of the road had to mean something, but I wasn't exactly sure what. Turns out it was about overcoming obstacles in life. Which makes perfect sense, considering that life is sometimes reffered to as a road.

However, the author was very somber about it. She says that she will never forget that obstacle she had to overcome, instead of forgetting it once she overcame it, she is almost letting it haunt her, which is something a lot of people tend to do- not letting go of the past. By not I mean not totally forgetting about it because that would defeat the purpose, you wouldn't grow as a person if you forgot about what you went through and how you got through it just fine. I mean that we should forgive but not forget. Don't let something haunt you down, remember it for what you have become because of it.

"At the Un-national Monument along the Canadian Border" by William Stafford

When I first read this poem, I have to admit, I was really confused. The author seemed to be talking about a field that people have forgotten about. The author compares it to a field people have fought a war on and those that people have died on and how, although it still looks the same, if not better, it is not remembered for anything special.

When we talked about this in class, the idea about memorials came up. It seems as though people remember certain places where battles were fought, when the real issue is to remember why the battles were fought and what came of them.

We also spoke about how the purpose of poetry is to commemorate the little things. This sort of reminds me of speaking for those who cannot speak up, for those who are oppressed and go un-noticed everyday. There are a lot of people that need to be stood up for and spoken for, and this poem was just a small example of that.

Grammar Exercises:
The field, that went unnoticed, was really something that shoudl be rememebered.
Reading this poem, I felt inspired to speak for those who cannot.
I think it is important to remember who fought for your rights.

"After Dinner" by Phillip Levine

This poem is about a woman who, after eating dinner, sits down and decides to read a book. As she's reading she nods off a few times but then is startled when she hears a noise from her backyard. She opens her door and steps on her porch, staring at her shadow, then later follows it as if it were a real person. When she goes to follow her shadow, she finds herself along, wringing her hands because of the cold.

She feels a presence with her when she is outside. Some say what she's feeling is fear, others say loneliness or simply that she's just sleep walking.

For me, I think that she has maybe lost someone recently and when she hears the noise coming from outside, she secretly hopes it's whoever she has lost. I think at some point we all feel that sense of loneliness. We wish that the person you miss would magically appear infront of you and make everything better. I think this woman's motivation for even going outside was from a sense of loneliness. Because if she were scared, why would be go outside where she would be vulnerable to it? It seeems like she went outside looking for someone, then realized when she was out there that the person she wanted to see really wasn't there and she was alone.

"Advent 1955" by John Betjaman

This poem was very suiting to the time of year we're currently in. But, the poem also speaks truths in how commercialized the Christmas/Holiday season has become.

Betjaman speaks about people missing the point in Christmas. While we are supposed to be celebrating the symbol of Jesus' birth, we instead get stressed out with shopping for our friends and family.He also mentions the idea of Christmas Cards, and how if you get one, you feel obligated to send one back just because they sent you one... even though you don't even speak to that person all that much.

Christmas has turned into such a commercialized holiday now. It ends up bringing more stress than it's supposed to, and ends up giving you a sour feeling in your stomach sometimes. It reminds me of something oiut of an AA meeting. I'm pretty sure one of the steps is to ask for forgiveness for all those who you hurt. It's almost like the idea of Christmas cards giving a message of "Hey, we don't talk anymore, we should really start that, Merry Christmas!" and you know the person doesn't mean to actually keep in touch, it's just something that is said. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a lot of people have intentions of actually keeping in touch, but some just say it in a card once a year and never make the effort, it's very fake.

Compound Sentence: He recieved a card in the mail, and he felt obligated to send one back.
Verb Agreement: Running around shopping for gifts has become a stressful activity.
Who/Which/That Clause: The meaning of Christmas, which is symbolic of the birth of Christ, has been forgotten.
Gerund Phrase: Looking back at Christmases past, he realized how much the season has changed,

"Bypass" by Susan Kelly-Dewitt

This poem is written in the point of view of a recently married woman who seems to have lost her husband during surgery. While she is waiting to hear any news about her husband, all these thoughts travel through her head. Most of the thoughts are about how they have only been married five weeks and how she hasn't even been able to have any special memories with him. "we'd been married only five weeks. I had not yet kissed into memory those places they raided to save your life." Waiting for him to wake up, she thinks of all the things that are trying to keep him alive.

I could not imagine how bad it feels losing someone that you love so quickly. Especially when you're watching them die. She is told that her husband is not dying, although he looks like it- "till unconscious, you did the death rattle on the gurney."His body is trying to warm itself up," they explained, to comfort me." It's almost like she knows he's dying no matter what anyone else says.

"After A Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes" by Emily Dickinson

Even though this poem was really somber, I liked it. I think Emily Dickinson is an amazing poet and definitally wrote some of the best works in American poetry. I really like the way she uses metaphors in her imagery. This poem was an ideal example of the way she uses imagery as a metaphor.

This poem was about the death and funeral of a person who died. In the title itself she starts the metaphors; the great pain resembles the death and the formal feeling is the funeral. This all makes sense because funerals are always very formal and proper.

She also goes on to describe the family as nerves, and how they are sitting "ceremonious like tombs," and also she uses the symbol of lead to describe how heavy the mutual feeling that everyone has. To end the poem she writes:
"As freezing persons recollect the snow--First chill, then stupor, then the letting go."
She related the feeling of losing someone to the feeling of clenching snow with your bare hands. First you're affected by the person loss, then you become numb to the feeling and eventually come to terms and let go of the person.

"Afraid So" by Jeanne Marie Beaumont

When reading this poem I was overcome with a sense of a depressing tone and mood. The poem is composed of questions, which "afraid so" can be the answers to them all. The questions remind me of questions everyone asks, and knows the answers to, but still asks them anyway, hoping for a different answer than what they already know.

In that sense, it's almost like setting yourself up for dissapointment when you find out the real answer you knew all along. But the feeling of hope drives you to ask for something better. I've found myself in this position a lot lately. Always asking the questions you already know the answers to and getting different answers, but knowing the truth. I guess I'm not making much sense here, so I'll stop rambling.

Even though the poem had a depressing undertone, I really liked it. I've never seen a poem written entirely in questions and it was interesting to see something new.