Natural History

Natural History
E.B. White


The spider, dropping down from twig,
Unfolds a plan of her devising,
A thin premeditated rig
To use in rising.

And all that journey down through space,
In cool descent and loyal hearted,
She spins a ladder to the place
From where she started.

Thus I, gone forth as spiders do
In spider's web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken thread to you
For my returning.


This letter (in the form of a poem) was written to "Katherine" from the "King Edward Hotel, Toronto". I'm not sure what that means, but the fact that it's a letter shows some significance. It means that these two people were communicating with one another, most likely on good terms. I would even go as far to say that they were lovers. There is an overall sound to the poem which makes it seem like that, such as "attach one silken thread to you for my returning". This sets the poems tone and automatically makes it come across as a love poem.

An effective strategy that E.B. White characterizes the spider as a woman. This is a metaphor to human life, as it is the woman who is stereotyped to stay at home while the man goes out and does his thing. It also shows how a spider, or woman, can be conniving. They seem harmless but trap you in their web. This poem shows a feminist view, but from a male narrarator. This is powerful because it is a view that is sometimes neglected but showing it from the oppositions view point in a positive manner makes it work really well and unique.

Those Winter Sundays

Robert Hayden
Those Winter Sundays


Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueback cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?



In this poem Robert Hayden's appreciation for his father shows. He must have had a somewhat awkward connection with him because he makes it evident that he cares about what his dad does but never really is able to repay him, even if it is just keeping the house warm. This shows a part of who Hayden is as a person because he is able to appreciate a small thing that many people over look like keeping a house warm in the winter. His dad is up early every morning looking after his family and Hayden realizes this and looks up to his father for it greatly.


A strategy that Hayden uses in this poem is discribing the importance of something that is often overlooked in everyday life. This things which are often under played like this can have an unknown affect on people if they are put unto a pedestal and shown the signifcance of them. This can help a writer because they can write about a familiar topic of importance to them that many other people would ordinarily not understand. This can give people insight to the troubles in the lives of other people than just their own. Writing about personal sentimental stories can be effective because it lets others feel how the author does.

Island
Langston Hughes


Wave of sorrow,
Do not drown me now:

I see the island
Still ahead somehow.

I see the island
And its sands are fair:

Wave of sorrow,
Take me there.



This poem feels as if it is a metaphor for not giving up hope. Langston Hughes most likely faced racism and had to deal with it throughout his life, and his poetry may have helped him get through it. In this poem he is saying there is always that place that is good, and you should not give up till you get there. However, the means of getting there may be rough, such as "waves of sorrow". It may take pain to get there, but what he is saying is that you must ride that sorrow and stick it out to get to that "fair" place.


Using metaphors how Hughes uses them in the poem "Island" can be a useful tool. Metaphors can make overused topics seem new because it is a unique approach. In this case he uses and island symbolize hope and waves to symbolize a journey. In the end you can see how it is all a metaphor for racism. Using metaphor can also let you write about topics that may not be acceptable but if you "screen" it using metaphor you can acomplish what you want. Using metaphors can help enhance the meaning behind a story or poem when used properly.

The End and the Beginning
Wislawa Szymborska


After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.

Someone has to push the rubble
to the side of the road,
so the corpse-filled wagons
can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.

Someone has to drag in a girder
to prop up a wall,
Someone has to glaze a window,
rehang a door.

Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.

We'll need the bridges back,
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.

Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls the way it was.
Someone else listens
and nods with unsevered head.
But already there are those nearby
starting to mill about
who will find it dull.

From out of the bushes
sometimes someone still unearths
rusted-out arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.

Those who knew
what was going on here
must make way for
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.

In the grass that has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.


This poem must be based on events that happened in Wislawa Szymborska's life. She writes as if she has first hand knowledge on this subject and actually knows what it is like to recover from war. This poem very easily could have been written to help her vent her frustrations of the war. It is obvious she is bitter because she says how new people come in and think they know what happened there, but really they are just clueless. This poem is very effective at portraying the views of the people who feel that they have been cheated out of something, such as their land.


In this poem Wislawa Szymborska uses first hand knowledge to add emotion to her poem. Whenever you can add first hand knowledge into something you can always make it more meaningful. In this case she states how the people who are left in rubble must fix it themselves while staying out of the way "those who know little" of that place. It is effective because it adds real emotion into the story which makes the reader feel sympathetic towards her, but also feel disgusted by those who would come in and try to take over something that was once good. By using her first hand experiences she has added a feeling of real emotion into her poem, which is able to make readers better connect with the poem

My heart leaps up when I behold
William Wordsworth

MY heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!
The child is father of the man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.


This poem talks about how natural beauty, such as a rainbow, has always been fascinating to him. I think it is interesting how he shows this lasting astonishment for nature throughout his life. I also like how he pretty much states that the day he doesn't find happiness in nature's gifts, like rainbows, than he might as well die. The third to last line sticks out a lot to me; I think he is speaking as that the rainbow is a child since it was just "born" and has given him the joy and happiness and his like. The whole idea about nature giving happiness to man is a very special theme, and it is portrayed very well in this poem.

There are several techniques that Wordsworth uses in this poem that can help poets be more effective. When he uses the repitition of the word "so" to explain the progression in his life it shows there is still similarity regardless of the change in age. This resembles how he is still affected by the sight of a rainbow through out the years even though he is a grown man. Using a single word to congeal a span of time throughout his life and highlight the consistency. By using this I think that a poet can make a passage of time hold together and help show how things can stay the same with time.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls:
He watches from the mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.


This poem is really cool because it takes a topic that can be just very plain and boring to write/read about but it is actually a good poem. It is short, but precise, just like how the eagle is described as flashing down like a thunderbolt. The poem really shows how open and free eagles are, and how nature around them is so peaceful, yet, the eagle is there to strike down in a moment and capture its pray all in such a graceful manor. I think this poem is really trying to portray the peacefulness that the eagle has. It also shows the eagle as a dominant force in nature.

One thing that can be taken from this poem is the stylistic idea of taking a maybe not so peaceful sight (such as an eagle capturing pray) and making it seem like a delicate and peaceful part of nature. There is nothing in this poem that isn't described with natural words, which makes everything about it seem pure, even the act of catching pray. The poem flows smoothly with words that combine nicely with each other to help it sound like a real setting. Everything about the eagle is just simplistic and easy going. It prooves how nature can really be freeing.

Week 3

The Piano Speaks
by Sandra Beasley Sandra Beasley
After Erik Satie


For an hour I forgot my fat self,
my neurotic innards, my addiction to alignment.

For an hour I forgot my fear of rain.

For an hour I was a salamander
shimmying through the kelp in search of shore,
and under his fingers the notes slid loose
from my belly in a long jellyrope of eggs
that took root in the mud. And what

would hatch, I did not know—
a lie. A waltz. An apostle of glass.

For an hour I stood on two legs
and ran. For an hour I panted and galloped.

For an hour I was a maple tree,
and under the summer of his fingers
the notes seeded and winged away

in the clutch of small, elegant helicopters.


This poem was particularly interesting to me because I was fortunate enough to hear to poet herself actually read the poem to me and my creative writing class. This poem is so intriguing by the way Sandra Beasley gives life to the piano and makes it feel things and think things. It is such a unique concept that a particular piano player (Satie) can give this dull inanimate object so much life and purpose to it. This poem takes the piano and makes it seem so natural and pure. This really proves how she feels that music, especially by an expert like Satie, can make dull things have life and seem brilliant.

The thing that Sandra Beasley used in her poem that I tried to use in mine is the idea of breaking out of a cage and just being free. I lifted a line from her poem to begin mine and took off from there. In my poem the theme was how just unthinking things can help you enjoy life, and that sometimes people just think too much and are too up-tight. Her idea of breaking into primitive instincts, like how the piano did, helps show that life can be excellent if you just go and do what is fun and possibly childish. Another thing Beasley does so well is her imagary and word choice. The lines "under his fingers the notes slid loose/from my belly in a long jellyrope of eggs/that took root in the mud." are, in my opinion, the best example from this poem of how smooth everything the piano was doing was. You can picture exactly what Beasley was intending, and you actually feel the kind of slimy "belly in a long jellyrope of eggs". It is amazing, and this along with many other of her techniques can be valuable to a writer.