Week 3: Olsen, Welty, Roethke, Brooks, etc.

Gwendolyn Brooks
I liked Gwendolyn Brooks's poetry. You can tell by reading her work that she is a strong, proud black woman. I like how she uses dialect in her poetry and how she mentioned specific places and objects, for example the L train. I like the poem "of De Witt Williams on His Way to Lincoln Cemetery" because it is the simple story of a black man going to visit a black cemetery. Her pride in her race is reflected in her poetry.

Welty
Why I Live at the P.O. is a dark humor story. At parts it reminds me of my own family with the arguing and the misunderstanding. Lisa and I were talking about how much this sounds like our families and how one minute everything is fine and the next your whole family is against you because of a stupid misunderstanding.

Olsen
It's interesting how these two short stories started out of have a woman ironing in them. In this story she is reflecting about her daughter as she irons clothes. The tone of this story is so sad. She talks about facial expressions quite a bit and how she doesn't smile that often, but I don't blame her! Shes 19 with a child, her husband has left her, shes in the depression, sheesh I wouldn't ever smile either. I do like the ending though how she compares the dress to life and how there is always a larger force pushing and pulling and making things the way they are.

Alan Ginsberg
Howl is wow. I don't even know where to begin with this. I guess I will begin by disagreeing with Lisa. She doesn't know what shes talking about. I had to borrow her book and read it aloud because apparently the previous owner of my book felt the same way Lisa did and hated it and ripped it out of my book. :(. I love that there is no punctuation other than a comma. I love the first part the most. It's just a wild story and hes jumping from one part to another to another and it goes so fast and it's fun to read. I like it.

Elizabeth Bishop
I really like the poem "One Art." It makes me think of what the progression of Alzheimer's might be light. Start of forgetting little things and then they get bigger and bigger. I like the pattern of the poem and the rhyme scheme.

Theodore Roethke
Oh "My Papa's Waltz" where do I begin? This has to be one of my favorite poems probably because of the argument's that can be had because of it. I'm going to refrain from presenting what I think until the day I present it because I want to know what everyone else thinks. Usually I hear three different arguements. I hear it's about a loving father and son, molestation, or child abuse. You decide.

Frank O'Hara
Today is an awesome poem. I love the specific things he decided to list. "These things are with us every day even on beachheads and biers" to mean means through the times you feel most alive and the time you are dead. These little things are special because they aren't specifically special in the first place.