Poems Pt. 2 Flashcards
Author of “There’s a certain slant of light”
Dickinson
“There’s a certain slant of light” points
-describes the way a shaft of winter sunlight
-prompts the speaker to reflect on the nature of religion, death, and despair
-suggests such feelings are a part of a message from God
-seeing the slant of light changes the speakers understanding of the world
What poem?
There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –
Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference –
Where the Meanings, are –
None may teach it – Any –
‘Tis the seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –
When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, ‘tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –
“There’s a certain slant of light”- Dickinson
Author of “Because I could not stop for death”
Dickinson
What poem?
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were toward Eternity –
“Because I could not stop for death” -Dickinson
“Because I could not stop for Death” points
-tells the story about being visited by “Death”
-ride takes the speaker past symbols at different stages in her life
-read as anticipation of heavenly Christian afterlife
-raises idea of what happens when people die
Author of “The Lonely Land”
Smith
What Poem?
Cedar and jagged fir
uplift sharp barbs
against the gray
and cloud-piled sky;
and in the bay
blown spume and windrift
and thin, bitter spray
snap
at the whirling sky;
and the pine trees
lean one way.
A wild duck calls
to her mate,
and the ragged
and passionate tones
stagger and fall,
and recover,
and stagger and fall,
on these stones —
are lost
in the lapping of water
on smooth, flat stones.
This is a beauty
of dissonance,
this resonance
of stony strand,
this smoky cry
curled over a black pine
like a broken
and wind-battered branch
when the wind
bends the tops of the pines
and curdles the sky
from the north.
This is the beauty
of strength
broken by strength
and still strong
“The Lonely Land” -Smith
“The Lonely Land” points
-image arouses sense of loneliness
-speaker brings sense of hope and optimism
-speaker recognizes the sense of the natural beauty of nature
-recognizes there is beauty to be seen and heard in the way winds bend the pipes
Author of “The Dream Songs”
Berryman
What Poem?
Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatingly) ‘Ever to confess you’re bored
means you have no
Inner Resources.’ I conclude now I have no
inner resources, because I am heavy bored.
Peoples bore me,
literature bores me, especially great literature,
Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes
as bad as achilles,
who loves people and valiant art, which bores me.
And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag
Dream Song #14
Points of The Dream Song #14
-speaker takes the reader through many things in life that bore him
-doesn’t take pleasure from books or people
-he’s so bored because he lost companionship
-dog is used as a symbol of that missing companionship
What Poem?
The marker slants, flowerless, day’s almost done,
I stand above my father’s grave with rage,
often, often before
I’ve made this awful pilgrimage to one
who cannot visit me, who tore his page
out: I come back for more.
I spit upon this dreadful banker’s grave
who shot his heart out in a Florida dawn
O ho alas alas
When will indifference come, I moan & rave
I’d like to scrabble till I got right down
away down under the grass
and ax the casket open ha to see
just how he’s taking it, which he sought so hard
we’ll tear apart
the mouldering grave clothes ha & then Henry
will heft the ax once more, his final card,
and fell it on the start.
Dream Song 384- Berryman
“Dream Song 384” points
-poets inability to comprehend fathers death by suicide
-turns into anger and violence
-wants to destroy the starting point- being his father and his suicide
-rage over something that is irreversible
Author of “How Aunty Nansi Reshuffled Prospero’s Books”
Agard
