Anne Sexton

The 1950’s and the 1960’s were decades of change for women. Their roles were beginning to change. The housewives of yesteryear were becoming more independent. Some accepted the change and others did not. Women in general had problems feeling important or feeling like they had a place in the world. For some reason I think Anne Sexton was a lot like that. When reading “Her Kind,” it shows a depressed almost dark side of Anne. She had a wonderful gift of writing but I just don’t think she ever really appreciated her talent and what it meant in the world of Confessional Poetry.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/UfvS_fgbuDI-rare-film-clips-of-poet.aspx This was a great clip that I found. It gives me goosebumps to hear her voice and to realize she took her own life.

Frank O’Hara

Today

Until I read, “These things are with us every day even on beachheads and biers,” I was not sure where this poem was going. After reading it through several times it appeared to me this was dealing with Normandy Beach. The war was raging and the things things were tough in the US. Kangaroos, I am not sure of, but chocolate sodas, sequins, harmonicas, jujubes, and asprins were things that people desired. Guys and women in the service at the time would have loved any or all of these luxuries. The beachheads and biers could have been Normandy Beach, and I wonder if the mention of Pearls, could have meant Pearl Harbor.

Theodore Roethke

My Papa’s Waltz

This can be read in different ways, but I think it is a man who possibly has a drinking problem and his daughter is always there for him to romp with. I am thinking this is a man who did not have a son and is treating his daughter rougher than he should. She loves to dance with him for his attention but he does not realize or does not care how rough he is. Sometimes little girls like the attention they get from their dad even if it is bad. These little girls will usually become abused in their relationships with their boyfriends or husbands. It can become a vicious cycle, never ending... Roethke made me think on this one.

Berryman

John Berryman’s 29

Berryman had a way to twist and turn his writings to make them very interesting. In his 29, Berryman seems to show a very dark picture of life. The thing that was so heavy on Henry’s heart to me was the new starts he was trying to have but seemed to never get. The mention of the, “grave Sienese face,” tells me it is a very sullen time. He mentions the woman’s body is hacked up, but no body is missing, shows me that someone has died and they were not even missed. How powerfully sad this is.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks

of DeWitt on his way to Lincoln Cemetery

This was something I found on Youtube that I liked, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBHBabdNsas

I loved the feeling that was put into this poem. I could feel what the writer was saying and when I listened to it read with the paintings and art work, it helped me really get into it. No matter what he did or where he went, he was still, “a plain black boy.”

McKay

Claude McKay

The Negro’s Tragedy was published and you can not help but think of WWII. Those were very turbulent times for many people. The blacks were not given their rights and were still treated as second rate citizens. In this poem, “Only a thorn-crowned Negro and no white man can penetrate into the Negro’s ken,” made me think about Jesus because of the “thorn-crowned Negro.” The mention of the “shroud of night,” again made me think of Jesus. I believe McKay was saying at the end of the poem that our country was going to other countries to help the oppressed people but here in the United States we were overlooking our own. I thought it was a great poem, it will be one I will use one day when I start teaching.

William Carlos Williams

The Widow’s Lament in Springtime by William Carlos Williams

This poem made me think about a widow’s life. This widow had been married thirty-five years and seemed not to know what to do. I see a lot of despair. “Sorrow is my own yard where the new grass flames as it has flamed often before but not with the cold fire that closes round me this year,” new grass is green and lush and should be enjoyed but with the widow she does not feel the softness of the lush grass but instead feels cold and indifferent. She describes the trees that through any other’s eyes would be beautiful but I just don’t think she can feel the beauty anymore since she has lost her husband. She goes on to say,”...but the grief in my heart is stronger than they for though they were my joy formerly, today I notice them and turn away forgetting,” she seems not to want to see the beautiful flowers. The widow’s son tells her about the “trees of white flowers,” that at the edge of the heavy woods. Could the heavy woods be the grief that she has felt and the, “trees of white flowers,” would be the healing after the pain? I am thinking he wants her to heal so she can learn to enjoy life again.