Week 5: Ashbery, Levine, Rich etc.

Ashbery:
"They Only Dream of America" was hard for me to understand, but lines 3 and 4 remind me of Claude McKay's "America." It seems like the negative and positives of America. I feel like someone is in jail or prison and they are re-entering society . Line 7 throws me off.

Levine:
I like "Animals Are Passing From Our Lives" because the imagery is amazing. I think that the poem is about the pigs last thoughts before he is sold into market. I almost get the sense that he is showing himself off. Hes practically pracing. He writes about animals as if he wanted to be an animal. "Fear and Fame" is a complete turn around. Not at all like the other two poems. I had a hard time understanding what this was about as well. His job is obviously dangerous and he gets to recognition as shown in lines 21 and 22. I know he does something with chemicals.

Rich:
I love the ryhme scheme in "Aunt Jenifers Lions." It's so cute and it makes me think of a childrens poem. There is a lot of emphasis on her hands and there is a drastic change from the beggining of the poem compared to the end of poem.

Atwood:
I got ridiculously excited when I opened the link for Happy Endings. I LOVE THESE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENDING STORIES!!! I feel like a kid again. Ending A is boring and ending B sucks. I love how it's the little thing that sends her over the edge. Not that he's seeing another woman, but that he took her out to eat. Ending C is great too. This story is bad ass. I love it. I especially love how it starts with Mary and John and ends with Madge and Fred. Such a good story. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, love it.

Carver:
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is definitely the story I should have read before Happy Endings. It isn't nearly as fun and happy as Happy Endings. Although both are about marriage and love. You have one couple who has been married before and one couple wo has just been married and is young and naive of the harsh realities of love and marriage. I didn't like this one nearly as much as Happy Endings.