August Wilson "Fences"

There are several big moments in the play “Fences” by August Wilson. One was when the main character, Troy Maxson, discloses to Rose Maxson, his wife of eighteen years that he is going to be the father of a child, which also means that he has been cheating on his wife. Rose promptly tells Troy that she does not want her children’s family to be the way hers was, broken and mis-matched parents. Another climax is when the Maxson’s receive a phone call that the mother of Troy’s child had given birth, but wound up dyeing while delivering the baby. This is where Rose’s true character comes out. All through the play rose is the hero or good person while her husband, Troy is the mean or bad character. When Rose learns of this she does not immediately jump to the rescue and take the child as her own, but soon after she does. At the end of this play all the characters are getting ready to attend Troy’s funeral. It does not seem that the attitude of the characters is consistent with what one would expect it to be after a family member died.

There are a few other characters in this play. Jim Bono is Troy’s friend that he met while in prison. Jim seems to be a follower of Troy and admires him. Jim also seems to be more level headed than Troy, as he reminds his friend of what a great wife he has and seems to already know that Troy is cheating on his wife. Jim is defiantly the angel resting on Troy’s shoulder, trying to push him to do the right thing. Another minor character is Lyons, Troy’s oldest son by a previous marriage. Lyons only appears when he needs or wants money. He does seem to be upset with his father and feels he was never around when he was growing up. Gabriel is Troy’s brother who truly believes he is the Archangel Gabriel. He was in the war and had to get a metal plate put in his head, he is described as wearing a trumpet around his neck at all times, and at the end of the story he finally gets to live out his belief of being Gabriel. Cory is Troy and Rose’s son. He is the only son that is Rose’s. Since he still lives at home he gets the brunt of Troy’s meanness, and is eventually kicked out of the house. Raynell is the daughter Troy conceived while cheating on his wife.

The setting of this play is at Troy and Rose’s house. There are references to the characters going to different places but the play itself unfolds within the Maxson’s property. I believe the overall meaning of this play would be that there are no black and white lines of what family is. I also believe there is a theme that you can build fences in every aspect of your life, but things have a way of creaping through the cracks. The presentation of this play is very realistic and from reading the authors biography, I believe this play is based on his life.

Week 12 Poems

I enjoyed the Poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet. The speaker was the wife and she was talking to her husband. The wife seemed to be happy in the marriage and thinks the husband is as well. This poem is a very loving one. While I believe the speaker is devoted and loving toward her husband I also get a feeling that she is looking forward to a better life in heaven, but still wants her husband with her. Every 2 lines end with rhyming words in this poem.

The poem “Memorandum” by Billie Bolton is quite humorous. Even though it appears to be an email, you can take away the to, from and RE: and you have a poem. The thing that makes this poem so great is that it is actually portrayed as being sent to a “Boyfriend from hell”. Each numbered segment is actually a stanza. Each stanza starts out with a broad topic the girl never wants to hear anything else about, then she goes in to specific detail about what bugs her about her boyfriend.

A.E. Housman’s poem “To an Athlete Dying Young” is a happy but also sad poem. It’s sad that the person is dying so young but on the plus side he has had a good run, and will not have to experience the pain of seeing his name die out. It seems the whole town thinks highly of the athlete. This poem’s rhyme scheme is ever two lines at the end. It is coupled into quatrains.

I looked up “Battle-Hymn of the Republic” by Julia Ward Howe online and found that this poem is also a hymn. This poem is mainly about God, and the coming of the Lord. I believe this poem is to try and encourage other to choose the Lord, and a way to spread the gospel. There is a refrain at the end of each stanza “Marching On”. This poem consists of 5 stanzas all the same length. The end of each line of each stanza rhymes. The only line that does not follow this pattern is the refrain. The tone of this poem seems very serious, and hopeful.

Out of all the poems I would have to say that “This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams was my favorite one. It was very funny. It makes me think of real life, eating something that someone was saving and enjoying every bit of it. This poem is just 3 short stanzas but a lot is said. I would say the speaker is talking to a person he lives with. I take this poem as being a note to let the person (audience) know what happened to their plums.

Hughes and Alvarez poems

I really enjoyed most of Langston Hughes’s poems. “I, Too” was one of my favorites. It made me think how so many people do not consider people with a skin color different from white American. My favorite part was “Tomorrow I’ll me at the table when company comes”. No matter what the speaker knew that one day he would be treated like everyone else. The style of this poem if very effective, the first and last line are similar but at first he just states that he sings America, the last one says I, too am America. The speaker of this poem is clearly an African-American. I would say the setting was some time during the years America practiced slavery, and was at his slave owner’s home.

Another one of Hughes poems I like was “Negro”. This poem was about a black person’s life. I believe this poem was about the whole African -American population, rather than just one person, over an extend period of time. I really like the style of this poem as well. Each stanza starts out with a refrain, what the black person has been, and then goes into more detail. As with most of Hughes’s poems I believe the setting of this poem to be around the early 1900’s.

The poem “Cross” by Hughes is about a person struggling with their identity. I take the part about his mom being white and his dad being white as literal because during this time I’m sure there were a lot of slave owners having relations with their slaves. The speaker seems to feel bad for any wrong doing he has done to either of his parents, and seems to miss them. The most important verse of this poem would be “Being neither white nor black”.  The speaker was talking about himself, being a cross between white and black.

“Red Silk Stockings” by Hughes is a poem about a little black girl getting dressed up for the white boys. The speaker is talking to the little girl. There is definitely some strong black southern dialect in this poem. I believe this poem was probably during the time after slaves had been freed. The girl has nice clothing, something most slaves couldn’t afford, she is free to walk where she pleases, something that was not allowed during slavery. I don’t quite understand the significant of the speaker tell the girl to let the white boys look at her legs.

I did not like most of Julia Alvarez’s poems. They were hard for me to understand and get any meaning out of. The poem “Sometime the Words Are So Close” is about a woman who feels she is more herself when she writes poetry. I believe the speaker is trying to persuade the reader to start writing poetry.

Dickinson and Frost Poems

It seemed that both Frost and Dickinson carried on a theme through most of their poems. With Frost it seemed he wrote a lot of poems that involved nature. Dickinson seemed to write a lot about death and heaven.

I enjoyed Frost’s pome “The Road Not Taken” the best. It reminded me that we all make decision on which path to take and most of the time whichever one we choose will change our lives drastically. The rhyming scheme of this pome is the first, third and fourth lines of each stanza. The speaker of this poem seems to be a little disappointed with his choice, the reason I believe this is because he states “I shall be telling this with a sigh”. This is usually a sign of disappointment.

I also enjoyed “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Frost. I believe this poem signifies that anything that is perfect and beautiful will not always be that way. Things tarnish or decay away. Frost uses nature to depict this. Just as a beautiful day will turn dark, so do things in a person life. The rhyme scheme to this poem is in couplets. The speaker of this poem seems to have a sad tone. This poem doesn’t seem to have an audience, but the speaker seems to working out their emotions.

Out of Dickinson’s poems I liked “If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking” the best. The speaker in this poem seems to be working through their own feelings as well. It seems that as long as she does something to help someone else her life will be worth something. The rhyme scheme of this poem is lines 1 and 3 and 2 and 4 of the first stanza.

I also liked “”Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers”. The speaker is telling what they feel hope is. This poem is full of metaphors. There is rhyming words in this poem, but not all of them stand out. Rhyming words are paired every other line. Most of Dickinson’s Poems do not have a setting and this one falls into that category. Hope is characterized as a little bird. I believe this is symbolic because hope, like a bird, is without limitations. However if something bad happens the hope can be crushed quickly.

The poem “Because I could not stop for Death” also by Dickinson is an unusual one. The speaker is talking after she has died. The speaker tells about how I feel death will be. It will come when we are not ready for it, after all who waits around on death. It will also slow us down. I believe in life after I die here, and believe it will much slower and peaceful than the life I lead now. The speaker also says it was just her and death, I believe this is how many people think of death. That it will just be you on your way and you will get to see the life that still goes on in this world, and things of your past.

"The Chimney Sweeper", "My Papa's Waltz", "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun", "Lonely Hearts", "Death Be Not Proud"

  William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” was a little unusual to me. It rhymed really well but the point was a little hard for me to understand. William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweeper” was a little unusual to me. It rhymed really well but it was a little hard for me to understand. From what I gathered the speaker (Tom) was a boy who seemed to have a rough life, his audience was whoever was listening to his story. The main setting of this poem is Tom’s dream. After Tom wakes from his dream he is in much better spirits, I know for me whatever I dreamed about influences how I feel in the morning.

“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke was a poem I enjoyed. The speaker is the child in the poem remembering a special time he had with his father. I believe the father may have even been trying to teach the child how to waltz from the line “you beat time on my head”. This makes me think the father was trying to help the child keep time with the dance, which is very important to be waltzing correctly. This poem had rhyming words at the end of every 2^nd and 4^th line of each stanza.

 At first I thought the speaker in “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” did not love his wife, and was thinking bad of her. Then I realized he was just speaking the truth. Most poems about a person’s lover just gushes about how they are absolutely prefect, which is far from reality, in this one Shakespeare says exactly how he feels. I found the most humorous line was, “Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks”. Most people do not think about how their significant others breath smells, but are aware that it does. This poem follows the traditional form of a sonnet.

I enjoyed the poem “Lonely Hearts” by Wendy Cope. Each stanza was three lines except the last. The lines “Do you live in North London? Is it you?” and “Can someone make my simple wish come true” alternates in each stanza, and at the end both are combined. This poem is, as the title implies, about people with lonely hearts who are looking for love, or at least companionship. Each stanza is a completely different person looking to meet someone. In this poem the speaker could be someone reading the personals or each person seeking their lover. The audience would be variable also depending on who the speaker was.

“Death Be Not Proud” is also a sonnet like Shakespeare’s poem. The speaker is addressing why death should not be proud. I doubt the speaker fears death, it seems she almost feels sorry for it because it is a slave to several and connected with poison, war and other negative things. In this poem Death is personified. The speaker is addressing death as a physical being. This was not a poem that I truly liked, I had more questions than answers.

Poems- Brooks "We Real Cool", Murray "We Old Dudes", Pastan "Marks", Robinson "Richard Cory", Robert Morgan "Mountain Bride"

 Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “We Real Cool” and Joan Murray’s poem “We Old Dudes” are almost the exact same. Both are only 4 stanzas long with 2 lines in each stanza. Each poem is a constant refrain (we... something). There is no apparent setting or audience for each of these poems. If I had to guess on the audience I would say they are speaking to each other, almost like a chant. In “We Real Cool” the author changes her attitude toward the players. At first it seems they are living a great life, and are really cool. At the end it seems they might not have such a cool life after all, as the last line is “We Die Soon”. In “We Old Dudes” I believe they are a bunch of rich old men, who are enjoying the last bit of their life, as they know soon they will die. This poem is different than “We Real Cool”, because of things like “We Soak teeth”, and “We Old Dudes” make it humorous.

I really liked the poem “Marks” by Linda Pastan. When I first read the title I thought it might be about the marks that is on a person, and in a way it is. It is about the grade members of her family gives the speaker. It seems everyone is overall satisfied with her performance and gives her high “marks”. At the end she says “Wait ‘til they learn I’m dropping out”. I find this to be the best part of this poem, because the reader knows there is no way to simply drop out of being a mother/wife.

The Poem “Richard Cory” by Edwin Robinson is about what outsiders think of Richard’s like. The speaker is a member of the town he is from, who think very highly of Richard. Words like “gentleman”, “fluttered pulses”, and “thought he was everything” sets the overall tone of this poem. The turning point of this poem is the last line, “Went home and put a bullet though his head”! I believe the theme of this story is not to judge others and things are not always as they seem. As I was reading this story Richard Cory was being built up in my mind as this perfect man, who women loved and men were jealous over. All that went away when the speaker said he killed himself. I believe most people do this in their daily lives. We judge people based on what we see, and never get to know the person.

From the title of “Mountain Bride” I thought this poem was going to be one about love. In a way it is, the husband dies protecting his new bride, a sign of love. This poem is divided into 4 line stanzas. It also has some irony in it, like “Richard Cory”. The couple is spending their first night together and the husband winds up dyeing from snake bites. The setting is the couple’s new home in the mountains. The speaker is an outside person looking in.

Poems- Piercy's "The Secretary Chant", Bishop's "The Fish", Morgan's "Mountain Graveyard", Cofer's "Common Ground", Slavitt's "Titanic"

Week 7 Poetry

The Secretary Chant by Marge Piercy is a secretary saying what she feels like. It seems she feels under appreciated and her worth as a person is no more than the work she produces. This poem is filled with metaphors, as she compares certain parts of her body to items a secretary uses. I believe the audience of this poem is anyone that will listen; she just wants someone to hear how she feels. At the end of the poem she says “I wonce was a woman” this is the whole theme of this poem. In this poem Piercy also uses onomatopoeia, (“Buzz. Click”). The setting is left out; I believe this was done so the audience could not be defined.

John Updike’s poem Dog’s Death is one I like least. Not because I didn’t understand it, but because of what it was about. A family’s dog had died and some parts are a little gruesome. At the end the last words are “Good Dog”, which are to imply that even though this dog had become sick and left a streak of feces across the floor he had tried to make it to the newspapers he was trained to use.  There is rhyme though out this poem but there isn’t a particular form to it.

The poem Mountain Graveyard by Robert Morgan is just twelve words long. It is written in two columns. When I first looked at this poem I didn’t even recognize it as the poem. I thought it was part of something else. The poem is titled as Mountain Graveyard, which makes me automatically think of death or dying. The words in the poem all tie into death. If the title had been anything else this poem would not make sense, and leave the reader puzzled. As the book pointed out all the words that are used are a series of anagrams.

Just by reading the title Common Ground by Judith Ortiz Cofer, I thought of two people meeting in the middle on something. Similar to what I thought, this poem is about a woman who is starting to find certain aspects of her appearance similar to her parents. The first stanza is about ageing; the second is more personal and describes what the speaker feels she has in common with each parent. It was hard for me to distinguish a setting, or audience in this poem. I believe they have been left out, because they are not need to make this poem work.

I found Titanic by David R. Slavitt to be amusing, especially compared to Hardy’s poem about the Titanic. Instead of being sad about dying the speaker is almost comforted, because most everyone else is also going to die and he will not have to go alone, and their death will be fairly quick. The speaker is certainly a person that dies on the titanic, and from the line “We all go: only a few, first class” I believe he is probably from 2^nd or 3^rd class.