The Road Not Taken

I am choosing to write about the poem "The Road Not Taken," wrttien by Robert Frost because I think it has a meaning to everyone who can understand it. I say that because it is pretty difficult to comprehend the first time you read it. I got a better understanding after discussing it in calss and realized that it actually had several different meanings, a literal and figurative. I personally got the impression that it was about life. For example, there is always more than one path in life to take. It is just important to choose the best path for you. The poem has four stanzas, short, but impressive with meaning. In the story he said that he was going to take one path, that wasn't the most popular, he was taking is own path, and might take the other at another time. It is important to do things your own way and not do things because everyone else is or everyone wants you to. Take the road that leads you to your happiness.

We Real Cool

I decided to write about one of the simplest and easiest poems to understand. "We Real Cool" is written by Gwendolyn Brooks. When I first read this poem, I read it as if it were just another poem and didn't really care much for it becuase it wasn't too intruiging. After Sweeney played the video of Gwendolyn Brooks reading the poem that she had written, I was immediately more interested. I reread the poem in class and imagined her reading it along with me. It was very simple, very unique, and I imagine very realistic for some people. It is crazy to see how big of a difference a poem can change just by hearing the person who wrote it, read it, the way they  meant for it to be read. To me, the poem went from meaningless to heart renching, because she put her all into that poem to show the feelings and emotion behind it.

Retired Greyhound II

I decided to write about this poem because I read it and I found it to be pretty interesting. I am a real dog lover and it was intruiging to read a poem describing how animals may feel. In this poem, the dog has experience being abused and because of this, the dog is scared and skiddish to any human. The dog shows some compassion towards the woman, who was attacked by a dog. It was cool to see the irony in that the woman liked the dog, although she didnt like dogs becuase she was hurt by one and the dog liked the woman, although he was abused by a human. it seemed as though this pair had some sort of connection that drew them together, regardless of their awful past experiences. It goes to show that no matter the dreadful experiences one is put through, there is hope that something or someone will come along and maybe change things. I wish we could have had time in class to talk about this poem because after class discussions, I always get a better, more in depth understanding of what was read.

Dulce et Decorum

Dolce et Decorum was written by Wifdred Owen. This is also known as a war poem. I didnt realize this when I was reading it the first time because I pretty mcuh just didnt understand what it was talking about. When we went over them in class Mr Sweeney said that it was about like some man recalling his experiences of a war.This poem, like the others didnt rhyme, I did enjoy reading it though because it has such vivid descriptions.

Facing It

Facing It is another poem we were assigned to read in class this week. It is written by Yusef Komunyakaa. This poem I could tell is a war poem, because it clearly says in the poem "the Vietnam Veterans Memorial" and it seems as though it is someone talking about how he is feeling as though he has been through alot and feels like he is still remembering things that he may have experienced and then realizes that what he sees isnt what he thought. I think.

Aristotle

Aristotle is another poem that we were assigned to read this week. It is written by Billy Collins. The main point that I got from this story was that it described the beginning, middle and end of a journey. This journey could be describing pretty much anything. it expresses that the best part of the journey is the beginnign. the middle become more serious and has more complex things going on that can minimize the amount of joy experienced. The end is thought to be the worst part of the journey, because the end is just the end, you face the reflection of all past memories and it is just over. This poem also didn't rhyme and was probably the shortest poem, and/or story we have had to read, making it my favorite.

The Fish

The Fish is a short poem written by Elizabeth Bishop. When I first read the poem I really thought it was just anout a fish and did't have much of a meaning to it. Then it was discussed in calss and I learned in further detail that the poem was really thought to be a war poem as though the fish was like a soldier, containing battle wounds and being a hero. The fisherman, I assume looked at the fish as if it was a soldier and let it go. Or he may have felt sorry for the little fish and let it go. Other details about the poem are that it doesn'r rhyme, it is about 2 pages long,and really not too hard to comprehend.