Unveiling

Linda Pastan talks about death all throughout her poem "Unveiling." I thought that the title of the poem was confusing to what the topic was. Normally when an author talks about death it's more of a covering up than an unveiling. This is because Pastan speaks about the topic differently. She doesn't fear death. In a way she is almost looking forward to it. She talks about how her aunts, mom, dad, and uncles are all "together" dead. The all "lie in two long rows almost the way they used to sit around the long planked table at family dinners." Pastan goes on to say how she almost feels left out of her family for not being there with them. She knows that it is not her time yet and her time will come. She relates this back to when she was a kid she didn't understand all the secrets that went on between the adults. My thought is that this feeling of being left out comes from being Jewish. Jewish families are known for being very close to each other and living their lives tightly with one another. Now that Pastan is missing that, she is the one left out and longs to be with them again.

For the Sleepwalkers

The first thing I noticed about this poem was the topic. Normally poets compare their topic to things like nature, a meaningful story, or basic things throughout life. I have never seen a poem related to sleepwalking or sleeping in general before. The fact that Hirsch does this makes the poem topic stick out to me even more. Hirsch talks about the fact the sleepwalkers are able to have so much trust in their bodies to get them from point A to point B without knowing it. He compares this idea to us as humans having to trust our hearts. Its weird to think that we don't always have 100% control over ourselves all the time. Sleepwalkers are able to explore an entire house and sometimes even the outside world without ever knowing it. I've never though of the aspect of sleepwalking before. Sometimes we have to learn to not always be in control and be okay with that. It doesn't mean that we let ourselves get hurt but we just don't have all the control all the time. Hirsch comparing sleepwalking to the human heart really gives a different view on the topic that I've never seen before.

The Coming of Wisdom with Time

Of course the first thing I noticed about this poem was the length. The poem is 4 lines long with an average of 8 words per line. Its short, sweet, and to the point. Kind of the way Yeats describes the coming of wisdom throughout the poem. The other thing I noticed was the fact that the first word of the poem is not capitalized but the second, third, and fourth lines have the first word capitalized. I feel like there is a significance to this but I'm not completely sure. Maybe it symbolizes the coming of wisdom like Yeats describes in the poem.

The first line, "through leaves are many, the root is one...," gives a very image rich idea of what Yeats views was wisdom. The leaves represents the countless experiences, memories, and adventures that people experience through life. The "root is one" represents the person in the end of all the experiences. Yeats then uses the last three lines to make a sort of metaphor to the youthful days and the older days.
"Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth."
Yeats is saying that now since he has experienced all of this, he can be done. The last line "Now I may wither into the truth," seems a little more harsh then the rest of the poem.

I Hear America Singing I,Too, Sing America

I always like to see two different sides to a story, idea, or situation. That's exactly what was given through the two poems; "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman and "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes. Both of these poems relate to the "American Dream" era that occur ed around the 1920's. Whitman experienced this era as a middle class, white man with the world at his fingertips. Hughes experienced this era as a low class, black man with nothing but the clothes on his back. These two different views and ideas come out through each of their poems. Whitman focuses on each individual person as workers, working toward that America Dream and having nothing stopping them. Hughes focuses on the fact that everyone else was living this dream life while he was considered, "the darker brother." He was never given the same chance as the "carpenter, boatman, shoemaker, and wood-cutter."
Seeing these two views gives readers a better idea of not only the personal struggles, but also the overall experience of the era.

In Blackwater Woods

The first thing i noticed about Mary Oliver's poem was all the nature, and natural aspects to it. She talks about trees as "pillars of light," cattails "brushing and floating away over the blue shoulders," and "the fires and the black river of loss." All of her distribution of nature gives readers an undeniable imagery of her work. The "New York Times" described Oliver as "far and away." This ideas becomes clear through this poem.

Mary Oliver's inspirations are known to come from her hometown of Maple Height, Ohio (a semi-rural suburb). She also lived on a farm with poet Edna St. Vincent Millay's sister Norma for 7 years. Being constantly immersed in nature gives Oliver a unique take on the topic. Oliver is also known for her "clear observations of the natural word." Many times she gets these observations from walking through nature.