I looked at most of the poems. Starting with "The plot against the Giant". The language was a little complex which made it difficult for me to understand the full context of each part of the poem without pausing to look up different meanings of the words, such as "yokel" or "maundering". There were a few parts in this poem that were difficult to break apart and understand. It took re-reading this poem a few times to obtain a vague understanding of the poem's true meaning. I believe it was the last paragraph of this poem that I grasped a little meaning. The parts of this poem were broken up by first girl, second girl, and third girl. I felt like each one of these "girls" were in competition with each other over how to win over some mysterious and charming man. It looked like each "girl" had her own different method for how to catch "his" attention. I wish I understood the language and context of this poem more in depth because it really seems rather interesting.
Moving onto Emily Dickinson. The same theme appears in Emily's poems as well, I wish I had a better understanding of the language and context of the poems. Her poems seem a bit more dark and made me pause and re-think what I had just read. The poems don't necessarily flow with a prevalent rhyming scheme, but it still sounds good and looks like the made a rhyming scheme in a few places. I felt like her poems are more for thought, to evoke some type of thought process from the readers, or some type of emotion. For example, in Emily Dickinson's "377" I highlighted a couple of parts. The first being "under the light, yet under. Under the grass and the dirt, under the beetle's cellar, under the clover's root. further than the arm could stretch were it giant long, further than sunshine could were the day yet long." In her other poem directly next to this one (375) I feel that Emily is talking about death and defying odds. It feels like she is trying to describe something of great power. Poem 377 seems a little dark maybe, it seems like from poem 375 to talking about a coffin and paradise she does the same by transitioning from what is unreachable down below and what is unreachable way up over our heads. Maybe she was describing Hell below and Heaven above. I liked these poems but wish I had a better understanding of the language.
Moving onto some Poems by Langston Hughes. I have previous knowledge on Langston Hughes merely because I find him fascinating. I know Langston Hughes is from Brooklyn NY and was a revolutionist during his time. He was African American during controversial racial times, and I have always found his words very moving and meaningful. I was excited when I saw Langston's poetry in this packet. I automatically knew that the poems would relate to racial discrimination. Such as "Sister" by Langston. At the very end, it mentions "Marie runs around with trash" In the very beginning it states that the man is black. The transition surprised me because blatantly, Langston is drawing a connection to this black male and trash which I thought was interesting. He wasn't bluntly stating that racism is wrong, but forming it into real life context. It is understandable that a white woman or a woman of a race not black with a black male may be controversial for their time. In "Preference" Langston goes further into real life context, and talks about his liking for older women. He says older women are not money hungry like younger women seem to be, he says he appreciates an older woman who can appreciate him. I enjoyed this Preference poem. In both of Langston's poems there was an emphasis on women and who they liked- and who he liked.
Excellent responses here the past few weeks, keep going!
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