Shakespeare, move over!

I always suspected that despite its visual complexity and ability to intimidate, poetry could be extremely appealing genre. It has something for everyone, we'll just have to find it. I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked Neruda's "We Are Many" when I red it for the first time. Little did I know, that soon afterwards, while surfing the web, I'd come across a stunning discovery - love sonnets by Pablo Neruda. I have to confess to having a preconceived idea about Neruda due to his political and communist background.(Born and raised in Soviet Union, I'm well aware of how communist poetry sounds like.) Was I wrong... Amazing, unforgettable, one of a kind poetry! And just to think that it was dedicated to his wife - love of his life! With all due respect, Mr. Shakespeare, you lost this round!

So, please, enjoy!

Submitted by Aksana Norman

Love Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

The Amazing Disaster

As I was reading the poems, O captain my captain really hit me. I love american history, and I was really into it in high school. But reading this poem brought back memories of losing my dad. Walt Whitman really expressed his deep sorrow of losing his president, and losing a my dad made me lose a large part of me. I know its not related to the poem of losing the president, but losing someone so important to you that made your whole world turn; all of a sudden your world just crashes down before you. The immense feelings that are shown through this poem really and truly show how important it was to Whitman that people understood how much it affected people. And losing someone of such importance really can take a deep toll into someones heart. This poem gets an A+ in my blog.

Submitted by Jennifer Morgan

Dental Fear

I don’t know how many people experience white knuckles when they are in the dentist’s chair. I have never had a painful experience at the dentist, yet my fear is real so I have the death grip on the armrest. From the moment I open my mouth till the moment I leave I can’t relax. There is probably a term or phobia that can explain my fear of the Dentist. The reason I’m bringing this up is I have the same reaction to Shakespeare.

Our reading assignment this week was Shakespeare’s sonnet; Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds. I was pleasantly surprised how ordinary this poem was written, there was no Shakespearean language that needed to be deciphered. The theme of the poem is obvious. The metaphors were uncomplicated and somewhat easy to figure out. So maybe my exposure to Shakespeare in High School was a misrepresentation of his works. Being called upon to read poetry randomly in front of a classroom from a textbook is cruel and usually punishment. I now know the person needs to be prepared and understand the words and context of the poem. There is hope; I’m not scarred for life, poetry can be enjoyable. Thanks

Submitted by Kate Misler

Enjoyed the Poems

In this unit I really enjoyed the poems that we had to read. One of the poem i specifically like what Edgar Allen Poe's Anabell Lee. I liked the structure of the poem and the overall story.

Submitted by Kelly mays

Golf Links Litte Ones

I really loved the poem The Golf Links by Sarah Cleghorn. Even though it is such a short poem, the irony in this poem is huge. Obviously now with child labor laws, this is not realistic. But if you look beyond this fact, you just have to chuckle a little. It is so crazy to visualize the children peeking out the mill windows while they are working to watch the men playing golf. In reality, it is totally the opposite, and the children should be playing while the men are working. Especially, today when golf is so popular and the children start playing as soon as they can walk.

Submitted by Cindylou Lyons

Poetry Not For Me

I have not enjoyed this poetry unit very much. I have never been a big fan of poetry. I did give it a chance and I really tried to make the best of it. I must say when I logged in after break and saw "more poetry" I was like AHHHH. I have been putting off the homework and having trouble with the writing assignments because I first off don't really want to do it and secondly have trouble understanding it. I have been getting help from my friends who make music because poetry and music coincide. Meter, feet and rhyming are all pertinent to music as well. I understand poetry is part of literature and why we have done it, I just haven't enjoyed it. I have trouble with metaphor, irony, determining meter, etc. I am happy that I read some of the works of Whitman, Dickinson and Poe as I have heard very much about them but never read much of their work. I did like reading "O Captain, My Captain" and "Annabel Lee" but that was about it. I think they were fairly easy poems to read and I see why they are classics. I think if poetry is a way of people expressing themselves then that is great I just don't think it's for me or my of expressing myself. As I said I am happy to have been exposed to some of the classics because I most likely would not have done it on my own. However, I am even more happy that the poetry unit now over!

Submitted by Christina Carbone

Poe's Eerie Obsession

Poe's obsession with death was clearly displayed in his writing. "Annabel Lee" was a prime example. Perhaps it was the cause behind all of his writing. Although Annabel Lee was his beloved wife, he had an eerie love obsession for her. He states in his poem that although she has departed this world physically, he knows their souls are still entwined. It gets strange when he starts to get slightly delusional. He states that he continuously relives their memories in his head and also lays by her tombstone at night. Poe believed that everyone he loved died because of him. He thought he walked around with the touch of death. All that he cares for and care for him die, but not of old age. I can understand why Poe wrote many of his works. Although he is still a strange writer to me, I do admire his work.

Submitted by Diane Caimares

Childhoods Presence in Poetry

Although it was the shortest and most childish of all the poems we have read, I thoroughly enjoyed Ogden Nash's "The Panther", along with all of the other poems by Nash that Professor Accardi posted in the discussion board. I liked to write poetry when I was much younger, however have a lack of interest in it now. Nash's playful writing style intrigued me regarding poetry for the first time since my early childhood, something I miss more than anything. I love the words he makes up at the end of his poems as I find them to be the most witty and clever aspect to his writing. Creativity is something I cherish, and I love the fact that Nash's poems are not only directed to children but to adults as well.

Submitted by Justine Budesky

Push

The poem I decided to blog about is “We are Many” by Neruda because I found this poem to be very inspirational. Although the stanzas were not about achievements they expressed desired to react differently for the future instead of settling for less. Its not just about pushing yourself or finding out who you are as a person but it’s also about doing the right thing. Sometimes when I’m in a rush I skip out on little things I wish I had done. Below is a commercial that reminded me it is important to do the right thing and learn to take extra time to make decisions based on what I want. The Quote on the picture explains pushing youself to the next level.

Submitted by Ryan Bent

The Road Frost Took

Of all the poems’ I’ve read, Robert Frost is by far my favorite poet. “The Road Not Taken,” is one of my all time favorites. I loved the symbolism he used, and the decisions in life being represented by a fork in the road.

It brought to mind how important the decisions we make can be. Although we might not know where a road or decision will lead us, our decisions have long-lasting effects sometimes. I found the diversity of students’ interpretations on this poem very interesting. When I first read the poem I thought Frost must have been thinking about his life as a poet and author when he wrote this. This made me think how lucky we were that he chose the road he did. If he chose another road, we wouldn’t have all the marvelous works he wrote. I was, however, very surprised when I read a passage of his from the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference in 1953. He was thinking of a friend who had gone off to war, when he finished the poem. He said he had written one stanza and found it three or four years later and couldn’t bear not to finish it. It made me realize that our perceptions are often incorrect. What we think about a particular poem may be impacted by our own beliefs and views. So, I guess it doesn’t really matter why he wrote the poem, it just matters that he did, and I LOVE IT.

Submitted by Kelsey Hynes

Whitman’s Admiration for Abe

Walt Whitman’s poem “O Captain! My Captain!” is about a captain who falls dead on the deck of a ship after a victorious journey. In the poem, Whitman encourages the people to continue rejoicing while Whitman continues to mourn the death of the captain. The captain represents Abraham Lincoln who was assassinated after winning the American Civil War and the election for president for a second term.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14 1865. The nation was in complete shock. The American Civil War and the murder of the president was a huge blow for the nation. Grief engulfed the country. Many mourned his death, especially poets, authors, and song writers. A well-known poet, Walt Whitman wrote, “O Captain! My Captain!” after President Abraham Lincoln’s death. This poem became one of his most famous poems.
Whitman greatly admired Lincoln. A fun fact: Whitman was very particular about the appearance of his poems and paid attention to detail of spelling and punctuation. He even went as far as tearing out the page of an edition of his poem and mailed it back to the publishers with his corrections!

Submitted by Shelley Hun

Who Am I? For I Am Many…

I just read Pablo Neruda’s poem We Are Many and I absolutely love this poem. I, like many others, I believe, can relate to this poem. Neruda explores how we all have different sides of us. After reading the poem and reflecting on it I thought of different times in my life where I wanted to be one way and acted another just like Neruda writes about in lines 5-8 “when everything seems to be set to show me off as intelligent, the fool I always keep hidden takes over all that I say”.

I also think Neruda captured pure self dissection. In the lines 21-24 where he writes “all the books I read are full of dazzling heroes, always sure of themselves, I die with envy of the” Neruda captured the feelings of admiration's of those who are great. I don’t know about anyone else but, I often envy those “heroes” of the world, the super and the every day. All in all the message I perceived from this poem is “who am I, for I am many”…

After reading this poem I decided to Google some other works by Neruda and here is a poem I found that I believe is probably one of the best poems I have ever read.

Tonight I can Write

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is shattered,
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, and sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes?

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her,
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
That night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that is certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes,

I no longer love her, that is certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer,
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Submitted by Samantha Graziano

Everyone is different

I really liked the poem by Pablo Neruda entitled We Are Many which is about how everyone has different faces and how everyone is different. It also shows how different people have different outlooks on certain situations based on previous experiences. For example if someone goes on a cruise and it rains the entire time, you might say the cruise was horrible not true the cruise wasn't horrible the weather was. This goes to show you that you can have the same identical situation and one person has a good experience and the other has a bad experience now the person who had the bad experience will handle those future situations differently than the person who had a good experience.

Submitted by Robert Fisk

A Different Side of Edgar Allen Poe

I enjoyed reading Edgar Allen Poe's "Annabel Lee" because I saw a softer and more human side to Edgar Allen Poe who supposedly wrote this poem in memory of his wife who had died. I like this poem because it showed the readers how much he missed his wife and that his love for her still remains after death. I have read other works of Edgar Allen Poe such as The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Cask of Amontillado which were all short stories. All of these works that I had read from Edgar Allen Poe were stories that were disturbing and borderline grotesque. That is why I was surprised when I read the poem "Annabel Lee" because it was different and I think poetry helped Edgar Allen Poe show readers a more humane and relatable side to him.

Submitted by Laura Farley

The Road Not Taken

My favorite poem I have read so far was Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." This poem got me really thinking about how many choices I have taken in life that have changed the road my life is going down. I realized that a decision I make may seem like a good idea at the time but in the long run it may not end up being so good. When I read this poem I visualized two roads and me standing there thinking of where they will end up. Usually when you look down a path it bends somewhere so you cannot see where it will end but you can see a short amount of what it looks like. This is true for when it comes to life decisions you make. I may not have made all of the best decisions throughout my life but the road must end somewhere, even if there are a few more splits along the way, you inevitably choose where it ends.

Submitted by Stephanie Corbett

This Unit I really enjoyed Poe's "Anabel Lee".

There were such strong lyrics of love and lost that created a vivid image of the strong bond that love and love lost experiences. Poe speaks of how he knows it was the jealousy of the universe that they would have such an envious love, he had it taken, stolen in the "chilling" night. My favorite part of the poem is:

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

The reason I love these lyrics of the poem are his ability to make me feel that he genuinely does not experience life the way he did with her. The moon will never represent the same thing as it once did, for not it brings him dreams of what he once had. He states the stars never rise and shine on him anymore, not the way they did before, he remembers Anabel lee and her bright eyes which were brighter to him then any set of stars in the universe. His devotion to her makes me feel the love and pain that he experienced as he lost her. His pain creates the idea of needing to blame the loss on someone, SOMETHING, and he chooses the heavens above, how having such love on earth made the heavens jealous as well as the demons below. Something that precious is not allowed to be enjoyed on earth, not on this realm.

Poe's words show not only his fascination with death as he does in other poems of his, but the magnitude of loss he experienced. He has the ability to show how strong love feels but how devastating losing love is too. That is impressive to convey two extremely strong emotions clearly in text.

Submitted by M

Flip of A Coin...Which Side Will You Get???

I really liked Neruda's Poem We are Many. It was easy to relate too. I believe we all have multiple faces. Depending on life circumstances depends on who someone may see. As the reader I understood and could relate to Neruda's question of self,and who he really was,within?!?! My favorite line of the poem is" I would like to know if others go through the same things that I do,have as many selves as I have,and see themselves similarly". I think we can all relate to this poem at many points in our lives. We are all made with a common thread:)

Submitted by Alyssa Rutherford

The Case of the Bursting Bubble

So I read the poem by William Shakespeare as assigned, it was entitled "Let me not to the marriage of true minds". I really liked the poem. I am happily married, have been for 28 years this year, I believe my husband is my solemate, I know he is my best friend. I was so pleased with the poem of how everlasting true love is. A poem about marriage and fidelity, it was moving and beautiful. Sometimes the younger couples forget that a marriage is a commitment, its a throw away society, true love everlasting is rare, multiple marriages are common. "Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom, If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved." What conviction, what a beautiful poem, how strong must good old Will feel about his true love to write such a poem, how strong is the commitment he feels for his wife? "I never writ, nor no man ever loved", NOW THAT IS CONVICTION.......I bet you can tell that the bubble part is coming soon can't you? So I write on the black board how impressed I am in the strength of old Wills love, how beautiful was the poem I read.......Then the bubble.....Professor says, its a great poem, amazing it was written by a man who was said to have cheated on his wife..WHAT????? duped again...how many times do we believe these public outbursts of love and fidelity? Why do they feel they need to post that which is not true, I guess it starts from the top....the assurances of innocence."I did not have sex with that women"....A certain golfer who did not cheat on his wife...a vice president candidate who "DID NOT" father a child while his wife was dying......oh sad sad sad...et tu William???

Submitted by Margaret Russo

Poe Annabel Lee

"Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe was one of my favorite poems we have read by far. I love how the poem flows so seamlessly with the meter and rhyming. Poe is one of my favorite writers he is very to the point with his writing. He doesn't beat around to bush so to speak using tons of similes and metaphors that need to be decoded. Male poets from the 18 and 1900s know how to express their feeling about love and despair as opposed to men in this day and age. The poets make it seem that true love actually existed at one point in time. I can not stand when a poem has no rhyme or reason, literally and figuratively speaking.

Submitted by Lauren Pike