Poetry journal Week 4

Elisabeth Magana
AP Lit / Devin
Feb 23, 2007
Contemporary Poet



Not Quite There Yet

I am a new person I’d say
For giving you up and for saying so
In cheese poetry;
But there is that more interesting girl he once met
She’s definitely quite hard to forget
And As the complex yet delicate workings of the world
Do fierce and rhythmic swing of the wind
I thought, my fears for once were gone
I attempt to lessen my loss with uneven lines that somehow seem to rhyme
Change almost imposed on you cannot be so genuine
For it is not done voluntarily

But I have made a strong attempt
To be some girl, some student, someone
That doesn’t cause you any pain
And by posing here next to you
Grief sorrow and pain
Grow from emotions to
Prevailing eternity
And I who used to be that one girl
Now grow to be this girl
who does not seem to know where she stands.

I attempted to copy the structure in the poem The Triple Fool, in which he talks about some one he could not be, a wise man. In my poem I write about someone who I was almost forced to be. I take the perspective of a girl who was not loved therefore she felt compelled to change. She explains her sorrow and loneliness through poetry. Then I go into explaining how that change that she underwent is only superficial because it is almost impossible to change your nature just for someone else. I also exaggerate the reference I make to nature and the world in lines 7-8 just so that my poem could sound a little bit like the poem by John Donne.

Poetry Journal #1 week three

Title: It may not always be so
Style: Contemporary Poem

It may not always be so; receiving the distant call after
Work, loving every moment we spend together
Wishing the days were longer,
Wishing my heart were stronger
To hold and revive any feeling that without you
Might, lost be.
If other emotions may be raised by anyone who isn’t me
If your love never was there for me

If this should be then afar my heart concealed be
Away from you
Away from her or him.

I was inspired by the poem “It may not always be so.” I too share the same perspective on love, if it is not mutual then someone has to let go. One cannot cling onto someone forever unless it is mutual. The idea of love is always appealing but letting go, even though it might sound cruel, should also be considered by someone who is falling in love. Things and PEOPLE change their looks, perceptions, ideas and many times their love or interest might as well change too. When people change the way they interact with there loved one, something could be going wrong then and there is when one needs to be able to let go.

Poetry Journal #2 week three

Title: I carry your Heart with me (I carry it in
Style: literary critic


The speaker of the poem is definitely someone in love, who’s extremely obsessed with the person they are “courting.” The tone of the poem is hopeful and melodramatic. The speaker is overly excited about this person and wants to be with that person for the rest of their lives. The occasion is presumably a declaration of love. The subject and the audience is the person being courted. This love poem is specifically directed to one person; it is not talking in behalf of love. This poem has a lot of end rhyme, especially to wards the end of the poem. The author is successful at getting his message across, The author portrays the speaker as someone blindly in love. And the repetition of subjects in two of the lines emphasizes the speaker’s persistence on their love, and how they are complements to each other. Their love seems to be the core of their lives, the best thing that has ever happened to him, the most important thing in his life. These can be assumed through the author’s choice to include, “The root of the root and the bud of the bud.” This couple is just what each other need and the author is making sure that the reader can understand this. The mere purpose of this poem is to express love and beautify his/her emotions by putting them into words, words that could be understood and interpreted by other people. The author uses metaphors, which are clearly understood by the reader because readers usually relate a heart, which is a muscle, to being the place where all the emotions are held. The speaker too says that he/she holds the other person’s heart within his /her own heart. I interpret this as the speaker loving the love that the other person has to offer. The purpose of this poem is to love and the author conveys his messages through the \use of very literal examples and even a bit too unrealistic.

Poetry Journal #2 week two

Title: “I am accused of tending to the past”
Style: Literary Critic

The tone of the poem is responsive and it sounds defensive as well. The Speaker is someone who is very fond of history and who believes that it is here for a reason. The speaker is vehemently speaking on behalf of history; he or she even personifies history to make his argument more valid and compelling. The purpose of the poem is to explain the importance of history, the fact that it was here long before humanity. It would be like a rhetorical question, “what happened first? The egg or the chicken?” History could not exist without humans and for humans to exist there has to be some type of history behind it. It seems as if the speaker was confronted with a problem regarding the importance of history and he/she is responding with this poem. The occasion could be a confrontation he/she had with someone who disagreed with him or did not necessarily understand where he was coming from with his argument. As mentioned before the subject of the poem is history and its different aspects. The author wants History to be appreciated by others just as much as he appreciates it. After his justification seems to be as clear as it gets, the author chooses to expand on history’s greatness and how it continues to expand day by day. The author of the poem is very successful at utilizing different poetic devices. He uses repetition and end rhyme. The repetition adds power to the poem, it sounds more convincing because the speaker sounds very confident. The author explains what he is being accused of and then he follows with a justification. It is a very efficient way to persuade someone because he mentions the problem just briefly and later utilizes many lines to justify his way of thinking and why he sees History as a factual journal recording the life of humanity as a whole.

Poetry Journal #1 week two

Title: My Wicked Wicked Ways
Style: Personal Response

The diction of the poem implies that the speaker is a kid, and towards the end of the poem it is revealed that it is indeed a baby, a baby who is aware of the marital problems going on around her parents. The poem is written as if it were a prediction therefore the occasion seems to be as one in which the speaker is going back in time to when she was a child, and was witnessing her life being replayed in front of her. There could be many other interpretations. The purpose of the poem seems to be to create awareness about the psychological problems that could be imposed on children if they are exposed to dysfunctional marriages throughout their childhood. The poem’s structure and the economy of words are well employed aspects in this poem which add a lot of meaning. The poem has short very clearly stated lines. A life story if told throughout the poem, and the causes and consequences are also of the life she lead are also mentioned. The tone of the poem is gloomy. The innocence of the speaker is clearly perceived thought the adequate use of simple words. The audience seems to be the general public or someone who the speaker is trying to justify her wicked ways to. This poem reminds me of my parents. My parents got married when my mom was 17 and my dad was19. My mom had me immediately after they got married. My father cheated on my mom multiple times and they would argue but now they do not even think about it. My mother was a young immigrant mother with no one to take care of her. I believe that the mother in the poem was in a vulnerable situation as well therefore she was unable to leave the cheating husband. These stories frustrate me there should definitely be more help out there for families in crisis, especially young mothers who have no one to turn to. It is necessary to intervene before the children in the relationship pay the consequences for the lack of support

Second POetry Journal ---Neruda

Elisabeth Magana
February 2, 2007
AP LIT/ Devin


Title: Ode to My Socks
Style: Contemporary Poet

The speaker of the poem is a proud owner of a pair of socks. The occasion is nothing special, just his eagerness to reveal his love and appreciation for his socks. The audience is the public in general and probably those who do not sit and think about the little things in life, everyday stuff. The purpose of this ode is to explain his love for the pair of socks that was given to him by Maru Mori. The tone of the poem is soothing and appreciative. The diction of the poem affects the meaning of the poem because it is said in a continuous from and it sounds like a never ending poem which could also reflect the never ending affection of the author for his socks. The idea of writing a poem about a “insignificant pair of socks might sound silly but Neruda justifies his appreciation for the socks throughout his poem and make it more acceptable.
Ode to Neruda….and Thanks to Holly

Holly made us read
Two Neruda poems,
His magnificent
Yet conscious ability to expand upon a simple
Everyday
object and make it seem
More beautiful than
Ever
Shocked me,
I now embark In the same journey
yet I am unable
To achieve such fluency
Glory
And
Beauty,
I one day
Want to be
Like him
I for long
resisted my longing
To be somewhat
Poetically
“fluent.”

My ability to write poetry and
beautifully express my
emotions are questionable
but yet I sit here
trying to write an
ode
a simple
and
concise
group of
words regarding
an author who I most admire.
I still question myself but
And further admire Neruda
But I am left
With
Thanks Holly
For bringing in two
Odes and
The Alcachofa……



Alcachofa= Artichoke

1st Poetry Journal---We wear the mask

Elisabeth Magana
February 2, 2007
AP LIT/ Devin


Title: We Wear the Mask
Style: Literary Critic

The speaker of the poem is an African American, speaking on behalf of the entire black community. The occasion of the poem would be none in particular; just him trying to let the world know about the deep scars from past suffering. His Audience is everyone familiar or unfamiliar with the African American struggle. The purpose of the poem is to remind others of the atrocities that the black community has undergone, and that even though they might smile and dance there are still sadness within them and that they are still experiencing discrimination. The tone of the poem would be revealing and defying. The poem has rhyming at the end of some lines and one can also see assonance in some parts. I would say that the poem is free verse which facilitates the author’s to convey this idea of freedom. This style is suitable for the purpose of the poem, which explains that the black community is still affected by the atrocities of slavery. It shows the author’s eagerness to rebel, defy others and communicate his people’s longing for freedom from their past. The mask that “they “wear is like setting up a façade of happiness, love and feeling of equality. They want to achieve all these therefore they do not want the world to think otherwise. The author expresses that he wants other people to see them as regular people, or people “wearing the mask.” But he is still informing people about the mourning in the black community and their constants struggle to achieve happiness or seem happy.