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.