3 Articles-FK

I Bask In Dreams of Suicide: Mental Illness, Poetry, and Women This article discusses the connection between mental illness and poets. Among poets with mental illness this article also discusses the fact that it is mainly female poets that have mental illness. The article discusses how people that have mental illness tend to express there feelings more then someone else who does not have mental illness. Poetry attracts people who are willing to express there feelings. The fact that people with mental illness tend to express there feelings more regularly may cause them to gravitate to expressing them on paper through poetry. Poetry may also cause writers to become mentally ill because of the fact readers tend to enjoy the work of poets that seem to be emotionally unstable. The article also discusses how women tend to be more emotionally unstable in fields of work such as poetry. All in all this article was discussing the connection between mental illness and those who write poetry. Sylvia Plath And The Failure Of Emotional Self-Repair Through Poetry The author of this article discusses the life of Sylvia Plath and events that could have led to her having unstable mental state. I liked the fact that the author used Sylvia Plath's on journal entries when going through her life. Reading this helped me better understand how the loss of Plath's father really wore her down emotionally. I feel that growing up with no father figure to guide her was a main reason for her being emotionally unstable. The article also discusses how Plath used poetry to channel some of her emotions. It also discusses that being able to express her emotions freely on paper may have led to Plath developing a case of mental illness. As you can see this article was about the events in Plath's life that may have caused her to develop a mental illness. Sylvia Plath: Fusion With The Victim And Suicide This article was about Sylvia Plath's poems and suicide. The author discusses how some of Plath's poems foreshadowed her eventual suicide. I feel that the author tries to connect Plath's suicide with her ability to freely cope with her emotions through poetry. All in all I believe the author was trying to connect Plath's suicide with the actual words of her poems.

Bask in the Dreams of Suicide VH

I Bask in the Dreams of Suicide:

This article discussed the research that highlights the relationship between mental illness and poets. It was pointed out that scientific research has been done and that research has discovered that many poets suffer from mental illnesses. They also discovered that poetry attracts those with a mental illness and although poetry may help those with a mental illness it may also cause one to obtain a mental illness. Also the research pointed out that woman are caused a great amount of physiological stress from poetry. Overall the idea was that Tendencies of mental illness are greater in artistic fields of work.

3 article -WR-

The article “Sylvia Plath : Fusion with the victim and suicide” is about Sylvia Plath’s life and related her life to the poem that she wrote for better understanding her life. The author of the article has hypothesis that a poet who wrote about and committed suicide, a series of assumption concerning the relationship between the failure of the defense of identification with the aggressor and a tendency toward self-destruction. To support the hypothesis, the author uses some lines or stanzas from Sylvia Plath poem. This article is somewhat hard to understand and take long time to finish reading because sometime I don’t get the same feeling that the author get. However, the article helps me a lot to understand Sylvia Plath life and the reason of her suicide.
“I Bask In Dreams of Suicide: Mental Illness, Poetry, and Women” . The purpose of the article is to explore possible reasons for the high rate of mental illness among female poets. The authors also give some examples of the linkage between creativity and mental illness, especially in the domain of poetry and among female poets. In the article Sylvia Plath is introduced as an example of a female eminent poet who committed suicide.
“Sylvia Plath And The Failure Of Emotional Self-repair Through Poetry” This article is about Sylvia Plath’s life. The author tries to find the reason why Sylvia Plath committed suicide and what effect her decision. In the article introduce two important events that effect Sylvia’s decision. The first event was Sylvia’s mother’s visiting to England possibly stirring up her old fears of her father. And the second event was Sylvia’s husband’s affair with another woman.

Articles - Jeet

I bask in dreams of suicide:

1. Empirical studies have established a link between mental illness and creative writers/artists; female poets in particular
2. Poetry attracts more expressive, emotional, "narrative", "legislative" thinkers who are more prone to instability. Depressed women tend to ruminate more than men and writing may have a deleterious effect. The personal nature of poetry attracts emotionally disturbed women looking for an outlet.
   
3. Poetry may not have the same benefits as other creative writing and might adversely impact the artist's internal locus of control, and therefore his or her self esteem. Female poets in particular tend to attribute their accomplishments to an external agent such as a muse.
4. The "gatekeepers" of poetry may have ingrained expectations about the personal nature of a female poet's work and therefore may view the works of emotionally unstable female poets in a more favorable light.
5. Mental illness is more prevalent in the young population and compared to artists and professionals in other fields, poets tend to peak earlier in their lives.
6. Female poets in western society might struggle more than men to deal with the higher expectations that accompany creative success.

The failure of emotional self repair through poetry

1. The dualities - a)Writing for an audience and writing for personal reasons. b) Destructive and constructive activity within writing. c) Fantasy and pretense as opposed to reality. d) Interplay and harmony between content and form
2. In Plath's later years, the emotionally devastating experiences of her life, coupled with her unstable mental state and her narcissistic withdrawal from the world led to her abandoning her controlled traditional style of composing poetry. She adopted a more a much more personal style that let her feelings run loose, only heightening her inner turmoil.

The Fusion of the victim and suicide
I'm not sure if i understand the article. The implication seems to be that Plath's poetry gave her a venue to vent her rage and control her swirling mass of ambivalent emotions. However, in her later years, the creative force weakened and the absence of this coping mechanism led her to kill herself. (?)

KaufmanBaer Women are not at a disadvantage to men when in the literary world. However, while writing seems to be the most prevalent area for great success and recognition also carries the burden of a high rate of mental illness more than men and women as a whole. There seems to be a link between women writers, mostly of fiction and poetry, and mental illness. There have been studies that have shown that women creative writers are more likely to have a mental illness and increased levels of depression. These studies have also shown that of the artistic professions poets are more likely to be bipolar than fiction writers and playwrights. There are any reasons given to explain why it is female poets who are usually the most likely to be mentally ill. The reasons are that poetry is the type of art that mentally unstable are most drawn to, poetry does not alleviate mental illness, and that poets peak at a young age which is when most mental illness strikes. Another possibility is that the linguistic style of poetry may appeal more to the mentally ill than other forms of art or writing. A reason given to explain why females are more likely to suffer from mental illness is because they write about more personal things than men poets. Also women creative writers suffer from more stress than men, which is another cause for mental illness. SP Fusion Victim “Fusion with the victim” is a term to describe people with a regressive vicissitude of identification with the aggressor. The article talks about the life of Sylvia Plath and mentions the death of her father when she was 8. It also mentions a poem written by Matthew Arnold that was read to her by her mother. The poem was the jumpstart of her writing career because she began to write poems shortly after. In college she used her father’s red leather thesaurus to write her poetry in. The writer then tries to use Plath’s works to understand her thinking and her suicide. The writer cites many of her poems to show how she is feeling when she was writing a line or what she was intending to mean when she wrote it. Most examples were of poems talking about her father. He says that she was putting herself and ideas of suicide in her writing to temporarily get it out of her system. SP Emotional Repair Poetry needs a certain criteria to be truly successful. There are four sets of overlapping dualities that explain how the writer used everything from the tone to the poet’s own personal tendencies. One of these is the balance of wanting to write for an audience and wanting to write for your own personal reasons. The second is the balance of destructive and constructive activity the writer is using within and while writing the poem. The third includes the interplay between pretense and fantasy dictating one part and the other part of it is the poet’s acceptance of reality. The fourth and final duality in effect when writing a successful poem is the ability to create a harmonious interplay between primary and secondary process mechanisms. The article then begins to talk about Sylvia Plath by saying her life was a valiant but unsuccessful attempt to make use of literary talent to resolve the powerful, unconscious, emotional conflicts of a severe narcissistic and depressive disturbance. Her father died when she was 8 which she was never able to fully understand or accept. Despite being smart she had a painful adolescence. She made a serious attempt at suicide shortly after receiving a one month guest editorship at Mademoiselle. After returning to school she met Ted Hughes who she later married. Her turning point of her work occurred in 1959 because of a combination of doubt and trouble within her personal life. She had resumed psychotherapy again until she went to England with Ted Hughes that December. In February of 1961 she suffered a miscarriage, which was followed by an appendectomy a month later. Then in January of 1962 she gave birth to her son and after this she began to write many poems. She wrote very little between the end of 1956 to early 1960. In the summer of 1962 her mother comes to visit bringing back bad memories. This combined with Hughes leaving her for another woman in late 1962 seemed to be her breaking point. A few months later she wrote her last poem, 6 days before her suicide.

3 articles - BK

I Bask in Dreams of Suicide: Mental Illness, Poetry, and Women discusses the linkage between mental illnesses and creative writes namely poets. Within poets, there is a bigger connection between female poets having mental illnesses over male poets. It goes on to describe many studies that have proven this correlation.

"The tendency toward being more expressive

may make one more prone to illness."

i think the people who are prone to illness are more expressive, not the other way around.

"Ludwig’s

(1998) investigation of more than 1,000 people

in 18 different professions showed that people

who pursued professions that were more objective and formal were less likely to be mentally

unstable"

again, I think that makes sense but it is probably the other way around.

There are way too many assumptions in this article, and facts that are used to argue for a point, that while true, don't relate to the point being argued.

I agree with this " People who may be more likely to suffer

from mental illness may be more drawn to writing poetry"

That pretty much sums it up right there.

One thing this article did not discuss is the fact that many people who are poets are introverted, and spend a lot of time by themselves, perhaps this could cause mental illness? Again this could be the other way too, people have the mental illness therefore spend time by themselves, and then since they are by themselves, and probably bored, they right poetry to express how they feel. Maybe because they don't get enough time talking to other people about their feelings, I'm not sure.

It may be found more often in women due to their schism between their personal life and duties to raise a family and be a certain image in society. Creative writing isn't exactly looked at as a viable option for women and that may contribute to the feelings they deal with.

_________________________________________________________________

Sylvia Plath and the Failure of Emotional Self Repair discusses her life through her prose, poetry, and journals. Silverman and Will go chronologically through her life, discussing major events that happened as well as interjecting with her journals, which I found most interesting. She was quite cognisant of what was going on within her head, and even alludes to the difficulties of growing up with no fatherly influence to teach her things like science. It discusses the transition that she made within her poetry, and how that transition coincided with the progression of her mental illness. It is said that her poetry allowed her to control something, which was a break from the chaos she dealt with in her head. They also discuss her possible inability to have children playing a role in her losing it, which I didn't get because she had children.

______________________________________________________________________

Sylvia Plath: Fusion with the Victim and Suicide:

Orgel discusses a lot about Plath's life, and I wasn't aware that she started writing poetry so early, 8 or 9 years old.

I found it interesting that in college she used her father's red leather thesaurus to write poetry. I'm surprised that she would keep that and almost use him to do that. She recalled her father's "perfect" timing.

I don't understand a lot of what this means. page 273 2nd and 3rd paragraph

Orgel believes that a lot of it does go back to the untimely death of her father at a pivotal stage of development.

This article mainly discusses a lot of her poems and how the poem explained an aspect of her life

We should look at the bottom of pg 283 to 284 and discuss that. There is some statement about why she killed herself and letting the aggressor object and victim merge... I just don't get it. Whenever I read stuff like this I always feel like saying, "yeah that makes sense, because you are looking back on it and connecting the dots, but what if it had nothing to do with that"

3 Articles - R. Abbott

'I Bask in the Dreams of Suicide: Mental Illness, Poetry, and Women' This article basically stated taht mental illnesses plague female poets far more than either male poets or other women in general. Through scientifically conducted research, it was deduced that creative writers had significantly higher rates of mental illness - labeled the 'Sylvia Plath' effect. It was explained that mental illness was more prone to [female] poets because the type of people that are drawn to poetry to begin with are sometimes unstable and then the prolem worsens when poetry itself is unable to solve their problems. Research has also shown that writing can be very therapeutic, but the value of writing poetry is less clear. An interesting note from the article was that suicidal poets were found to use the first person singular more often than a control group. More specific to females, the reason why they are more mentally unstable is that as they produce high levels of work and expectations increase, they feel more stressed than males. 'Sylvia Plath and the Failure of Emotional Self-Repair Through Poetry' The author listed three dualities in her poetry: (1) balance between creative individual's use of the audience to serve her own narcissistic interests; (2) balance between destructive and constructive activity; (3) interplay between pretense and fantasy on the one hand and the acceptance of reality on the other. In a biographically portion of the article, Plath's adolescence was described as very painful and difficult, despite having great academic success. An interesting note about her first meeting with Ted Hughes was how she bit his cheek, drawing blood, and giving herself crashing, fighting to him. The articles also acknowledged the fact that Plath recognized that powerful destructive force wtihin herself through her poetry. Several tragic disasters which re-surface in her poetry were the death of her father, her miscarriage, her suicide attempts, and Ted Hughes cheating on her. It was said that the loss of Hughes was the final blow in Plath's short life. 'Sylvia Plath: Fusion with the Victim and Suicide' This was easily the most difficult of the three articles to make complete sense of. A revealing Plath quote in the reading was, "...it's quite amazing how i've gone around for most of my life as in the rarified atmosphere under a bell jar," stated well before she ever wrote he book. The author's hypothesis linked suicidal behavior (like Plath's), Christ-like empathy for victims, and poetic sensibility. The author also believed that Plath's poetry abled her to vent her rage for a brief period of time, but it would all come back once she completed the writing. It was also stated that, while reading Plath's poem chronologically, the forces opposing death as constuctively dealt with until in the last few, where this force weakens and dies - along with Plath herself.

The Colossus (M.A)

This poem by Sylvia Plath consists of six stanzas, with five verses each. The poem seems to be about her father when he was suffering through his illness. The first stanza talks about how she is not able to understand her father's words because he is unclear and is making "mule-bray, pig grunt and bawdy cackles/ [that] proceed from your great lips". The second verse suggests how much she respects her father with the words "great lips". And she also describes the noise "worse than a barnyard".

In the second stanza, she describes how her father considers what he says to be important and maybe is therefore trying to say something. But she states that even after thirty years, she still does not know what the sounds mean that he made.

In the third stanza, she describes how she is trying to clean his face with disinfectant.. slowly "like an ant in mourning" over his bushy eyebrows and cleaning his eyes. This creates a segway into the fourth stanza  of his expressive looks that are "pithy and historical". This metaphor is compared to the Roman history.

In the fifth stanza she describes how her father's physical and mental ability have been ruined and that it takes "more than a lightning-stroke to create such a ruin". She realizes that it isn't a normal illness that can be cured and a lot of damage has been done.

In the sixth stanza, her message is a bit confusing but it seems like she is just trying to say that she doesn't have to hear those harsh noises anymore. 

The Colossus MQ

This five stanza poem is another work of Plaths were she truly mourns her fathers death and uses hatred for him as a tool for coping with his passing. this poem describes her father as being like a giant statue or colossus as the title states and often refers back to ancient greek and roman culture through various jargon used throughout the poem including "Roman Forum" "Oracle" and "cornicopia". all of these words really bring the reader back into this ancient time when reading the poem. one of the greatest inferences to the ancient greeks was in lines 22-23 "it would take more than a lighting-stroke/to create such a ruin" this is an obvious referance to zues, and it is like the author is saying that not even the greatest god could have caused this much destruction, and this much pain. the poem also shows how Plath is suicidal in line 28 when she says "My hours are married to shadow". I really liked this line and saw it as a way to set tone and show the reader just how much of a negative effect her fathers passing had on her. Plath ends this poem saying how she no longer waits for the sound of ships coming in meaning she no longer waits for her fathers return and she has accepted his death.

The Colossus - Jeet

In the six stanzas of the poem, an irregular meter is apparent. The poet is speaking about her father and her somewhat unflattering thoughts about him. This becomes apparent towards the latter half of the poem and is much more easily divined with some knowledge of Plath's life - her father died when she was young and she came to feel betrayed and upset by his death; she even blames him for it.

She starts off the poem by likening his didactic speech with the senseless sound of beasts. She says that while he himself might have had a high opinion of the wisdom he was imparting, she for one never could make sense of it.

She speaks of herself as an ant in mourning, a small creature in his overbearing presence. In alluding to the skies of the Greek tragedies and the Roman Forum, she is indicating that while he didn't offer her anything of value, he still is a very significant part of her life, which at times was rather depressing for her.

The reference to cypress and the symbolism that associates that tree to death and funerals indicates the father's continued significance even after death; and that death had such a profound impact on her that it must have been caused by something much more powerful than even lightening.

"My hours are married to shadow" - in thinking of her dead father all the time, her life is somehow linked inextricably to death. She has given up on being conscious about the more easily perceptible things (emotions) in life.

The actual description of the father is also linked to the stone colossus (statue) and lends itself to comparison with a stony, unmoving figure that is a big part of her life. In this, the poem may be thought of as an extended simile/ deceit.

The Colossus MP

The Colossus was written by Sylvia Plath in 1959. The poem contains 6 stanzas with 5 lines in each, making 30 in total. Plath seems to be comparing their father to Colossus, a larger than life figure (statue) as well as mourning his death. The poem's underlying tone is dark and uneasy. The first stanza talks about the speaker's trouble of reconstructing her father's memory properly. In lines 3-5 in the first stanza, the speaker uses animal noises to describe the way the father spoke, and sarcastically adds "proceed from your great lips" to show how people saw him.

The second stanza begins by comparing her father to an oracle or god-like creature. However, she claims that for 30 years she's tried to "dredge the silt from your throat" which asserts that she hung on to every word he said during this time. But, this is only to add on that she is "none the wiser" after 30 years of hearing it.

In the fourth stanza, the setting is described as, "A blue sky out of the Oresteia arches above us," which comes from a trilogy of Greek Tragedies. The father is then described as "pithy and historical as the Roman Forum." These comparisons give her father very powerful qualities, to make her seem smaller as well as make his image even greater.

The end of the fifth stanza shows the speakers inability to communicate properly with her father. "Nights, I squat in the cornucopia of your left ear, out of the wind," portrays the fact that she wanted to communicate with her father, but they never truly communicated well. In the ast stanza, ''My hours are married to shadow." talks about the fact that she'll always be under him and never will escape his glory. But, the last 2 lines "No longer do I listen for the scrape of a keel on the blank stones of the landing" relates to the author's acceptance of her father's death.

The Colossus-VB

The Colossus was written by Sylvia Plath in 1959. The form of the poem is 6 stanzas containing 5 lines each and there is a total of 30 lines of the poem. The tone of the poem is very disheartening and has a feeling of someone who is done and giving up or realizing the fact that they cannot c0omplete or conquer a task. I get this from the first stanza where the writer is talking about never being able to put soemthing together completely. She can be talking about life as a whole or understanding the people in her life. However, the references seem to be talking literaly about a statue which I feel is a metaphor for the ideas listed above. The writer talks about scaling ladders with glue pots and put the image of people building a huge statue or pyramid in ancient times using simplistic ways to do so compared to the tools we have now. The last stanza seems to be where the writer has come accustomed to failure and hardship at this point in her life and no longer trys to solve others' problems or figure out what else she has to do to make the people around her appreciate her.

The Colossus-WR-

“The Colossus” is written by Sylvia Plath in 1959. I think she compares colossus to her father. “The Colossus” has six stanzas (of thirty) which is cinquains. From the first stanza, the colossus is taking apart and it seems unable to be repaired. Also I think “Mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles” (Line 3) is the sound that she hears from the conversation with her father in her dream. From the second stanza “ I am none the wiser” explains how she does not understand who he is because her father was taken from her too early to share his wisdom with her. From the third stanzas “I crawl like an ant in mourning” (Line 12), she describes herself as ants and it makes the image of the colossus even larger which gives me an image of authoritative. Not only giving the colossus larger image, she also describes it ugly. Also from the last stanza “My hours are married to shadow” (Line 28), I think she did not wanted to be exposed to the sunlight because the sunlight shines the tongue of the colossus which reminds the sounds that she wrote in line 3 in first stanza. I think the last stanza also connected to the first stanza because she will hear voice again from the colossus someday.

The Colossus-FK

"The Colossus" is a poem written in 1959 by Sylvia Plath. The poem consist of thirty lines arranged in six cinquains. There seems to be no apparent rhyme scheme within the poem. The title of this poem is "The Colossus" which I believe is a reference towards Greek mythology. I looked up Colossus and found out that it was a statue of Greek god Helios. The poem is written in the narrators perspective towards her dad. For the most part I believe the narrator is comparing the building of Colossus to the narrators own troubles trying to construct and understand her fathers character as a person. The first stanza of this poem paints a picture of someone trying to construct a statue that they are never going to be able to complete the way they want to. In the second stanza the narrator admits to trying to piece together the statue for thirty years, but not being able to. The narrator uses the simile "I crawl like an ant in the mourning." Along with stanza three, this simile paints a picture of the narrator looking so small in compared to the statue he/she is trying to construct. In stanza four the narrator refers to the statue as his/her father. Stanzas four and five are a little confusing to me, but I believe the narrator is trying to get the point across that he/she is done trying to make this statue perfect. By the narrator implying that he/she is done trying to make this statue perfect I believe he/she is actually saying that he/she is done trying to understand his/her father because he/she is never going to see him as perfect.

The Colossus - BK

I understood the Colossus to be a statue, which she compares to her father.

The statue is in pieces and the speaker admits "I shall never get you put together entirely, / Pieced, glued, and properly jointed." This is congruent with the plea to her father later in the poem "O father, all by yourself / You are pithy and historical as the Roman Forum."

All throughout the poem there is a mythical element that made me think of old Roman and Greek culture, "great", "oracle", "god", "skull-plates", "Roman Forum", "cypress (which sounds like the island), and "old anarchy".

It seems as though the speaker is trying to put together her father in her memory "Scaling little ladders with glue pots and pails of lysol", but the damage is too much, "It would take more than a lightning-stroke / To create such a ruin."

Therefore the speaker isn't able to recreate her father in her head, so her "hours are married to shadow", or she is all alone.

The last two lines "No longer do I listen for the scape of a keel / On the blank stones of the landing," I took to refer to the actual statue of the Colossus of Rhodes, which constantly hears the sounds of ships (keel is the hull of a ship) coming in and out of shore.

'The Colossus' - R. Abbott

Written in 1959, 'The Colossus' consists of six five-lined stanzas. The poemk begins with what seems to be the discription of someone who has lectured the speaker his/her whole life but has really made no sense. The second stanza reinforces this notion when the speaker says he/she is "none the wiser" after listen to this person for 30 years (10). In the third stanza the speaker goes on to describe the person of which he/she speaks as very old, whom is later revealed as the speakers father. The second to last stanza opens up to the reader that she really dislikes who her father is saying, "it would take more than a lightning stroke/to create such a ruin" (22-23). The speaker concludes the poem with what appears to be a description of the death of his/her father, but the speaker seems indifferent or even satisfied with his passing. Throughout the poem, there is no set ryhming scheme.

LAdy Lazarus-WR-

Sylvia Plath suicide several month after she wrote this poem. So when I read the poem I cannot get rid of an idea that she was suffered from her life. The poem has tercet form, and her tone is very pessimistic. The first stanza gives me an idea of suicide. She has tried killed herself every ten years, and she is counting her suicide. The thirteen stanza is about her desire to death “The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all”. She did not want to be survived, but she failed to die.
The poem really made me sad because I felt her weakness throughout the poem. In the seven stanza and third line she wrote, “And like the cat I have nine times to die”. She may believe she could live until ninety years old because she said she “done it again one year in every ten…”(1). When she wrote the poem, she was still young. She did not live enough to say the world is terrible. The overall image is of the poem is very dark and painful. However, after reading this poem, I only had one thought in my mind. I really wanted to help her.

Lady Lazarus (M.A)

The poem has 29 stanzas and has three verses in each stanza.
The poem seems to be about dying three times out of nine. She refers to herself as a cat, because it is a myth that cat have nine lives. She starts talking about her injuries, of how her right foot was "like paperweight", which means she couldn't feel it and it was broken.
She then mentions how she has gone through this three times, although the first one was an accident, and the other two were purposely done. That means that the first time she had an accidental near death experience and the other two were suicide attempts. 

Lady Lazarus FK

"Lady Lazarus" is a poem written in October 1962 by Sylvia Plath. One important thing to note about this poem is that it was written a few months before Sylvia Plath took her life.

The poem is made up off 84 lines arranged in 28 triplets. There is no apparent rhyme scheme in this poem, but a number of the lines consist of internal rhyming. The overall theme of this poem is death. Like a lot of Sylvia Plath's other poems there are many refrences to Nazi's and Jew's. For example in lines 4-5 Plath compares her skin to that of a Nazi lampshade and in lines 8-9 she compares her featureless face to that of a Jew linen. Another refrence that appears a few times in this poem is a refrence to Lucifer and God. There is also good use of figrutive imagery throughout this poem. One example is lines 6-7 where Plath uses a metaphor to compare the weight of her right foot to that of a paper weight. This poem seems to be written in the perspective of Sylvia Plath explaining her own death.

This poem seems to be Sylvia Plath's way of foreshadowing her future death. She starts off the poem by saying she has done it again. Plath says she does it once in every ten years. Here I think Plath is talking taking her life. I am assuming she has tried to take her life before, but to no success. In line 21 Plath talks about how she is like a cat and has nine lives and in line 22 she says this is her third life. In line 35 Plath says the first time she tried to take her life was when she was ten. I feel that this might have occured because off her fathers death because it occured around the same time. She says that this time it was an accident but she goes on to explain that the second time she tried she meant it. In the fifeteenth triplet Plath says that dying is an art and she is exceptionally well at it. She then uses the rest of the poem to describe her third attempt on her life (which hasn't happened yet). She uses a lot of Nazi and Jew refrences here. In the 24th triplet I believe Plath is comparing her third attempt at dying to Jew's getting killed by Nazi's at concentration camps. She talks about how she burns and her enemy pokes and stirs her ashes and all that remains is a wedding ring. This imagery here really paints a picture of Jew's getting burned at concentration camps. At the end of the poem Plath warns God and Lucifer that she will rise again out of the ash.

LL - BK

I took this poem to be in part about Plath's suicide attempts.

I have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it--

This first stanza meaning that she has tried it once every 10 years, and when she survives it she compares herself to a cat having nine lives.

I think she compares her face to a Jew linen to imply a weak or defenseless look.

It seems like the first time she didn't mean to almost die,

The first time it happened
I was ten. 
It was an accident.  
The second time I meant 
To last it out and not come back at all. 
I rocked shut

whereas the second time she really tried to kill herself and failed.
The speaker then compares dying to an art, which she claims she does exceptionally well, which is a bold claim since she has never done it and failed at it when tried.
She describes it as a sort of theatrical event with spectators.

I am still confused about 

For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge For the hearing of my heart-- It really goes.  And there is a charge, a very large charge For a word or a touch Or a bit of blood  Or a piece of my hair or my clothes. So, so, Herr Doktor. So, Herr Enemy.

Lady Lazarus VB

Lady Lazarus consists of 84 lines that are all grouped into 28 triplets. It is free rhyme with most rhyming coming within lines. The poem starts out by saying "I have done it again" refering to killing someone. First her father when she wasa chuild, then the attempt to take her own life when she was in college, and I beleive the third is talking about her soon to be third and final attempt.

Within the poem she makes a handful of references towards nazis and connecting them father. She even refers to the devil in line 79. She had made earlier references to Lucifer in lines 64 and 63 when she capitalizes Herr Doktor and Herr Enemy.

There is a feeling of resentment and bitterness to not only her father but other men in her life. I thinks some of the anger is for her husband as well because he uis just another male figure in her life that seems to have done nothing to help better her.

The end of the poem ends in a way to show that she has become strong because of the men around her not helping her. She has found her own way to gte past struggles withou their help.
"Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air"
That is the filan triplet in the poem and it is saying how strong hse has become so these men that try to bring her down should fear her because she knows that she does not need them.

Lady Lazz Vic H

This poem is written in the form of a tercet. This tercet however lacks a consistent rhyming pattern and seems as if the form was chosen more contribute to pacing the reading of the poem.

In this poem Plath makes what seem to be biblical references. The title Lady Lazarus is the first reference to the bible. The name Lazarus appears twice in the in the new testament once in Luke and once in John. The first appearance of the name Lazarus refers to Lazarus the beggar who is poor and neglected by the rich man. Ultimately he ends up in a position where the rich man is begging him for a drop of water while being tormented by fire in hell. In the second appearance of the name Lazarus it is in John where Lazarus is dead and Jesus revives him from the dead four days later in a spectacular miracle.

Plath throughout the poem makes biblical references early on. In stanza two the first line she states “A sort of walking Miracle…” When read alone it has little meaning, but it is a small hint at an overall theme. The miracle is of biblical origin so it easily linked to other references in the poem. In stanza four she says “peel off the napkin” which can be compared to the story of Lazarus in John where after he was revived they had to take off the wrapping that he was in, in his tomb. In stanzas five and six Plath is describing a revival. She is describing her facial structure returning as well as her flesh and the disappearance of the bad breath that brought upon her because of the time she spent deceased. Amongst her description she uses a personification that makes it seem as if the cave is actually eating her by stating “ Soon, Soon the flesh/ The grave cave ate will be/ At home on me”

She continues the poem comparing herself to a cat having nine lives in the seventh stanza using a simile. She then informs the reader she is on her third life and reminds the reader that she dies once every ten years. Plath in stanza thirteen talks about a time where she meant to die and not come back. This makes believe that this poem is about failed suicide attempts. She talks about the pain, the scars and mentions the doctor in stanza twenty-two referring to him/her as her enemy and I would assume it is because he keeps her from achieving an absolute death by helping her. With the last five stanzas she talks about burning to ash. I believe she is making reference to the other Lazarus who was poor and the rich man who neglected him went to hell and burned. I believe that because she mentions so many items that signify wealth like pure gold, rings, and gold fillings and concludes by saying “herr Lucifer”.

'Lady Lazarus' - R. Abbott

Lady Lazarus was written in October of 1962, when Sylvia Plath was already thirty years old - the age of her suicide. The first time reading through all 41 of the poems in 'Ariel,' this one stood out immediately as one whose tone was very dark and whose theme seemed to be about death. Many times, Plath mentions how close she has been to death at several points throughout her short life: "the first time it happened I was ten...the second time i meant/to last it out and not come back at all" (35-38). Even the Biblical reference in the title leads the reader to believe that this poem will be about death, but instead of being saved from death as Lazarus was by Jesus, Plath clearly wishes not to be saved. She uses wonderful imagery of her being "unwrapped" and shown off to perverted people obsessed with the notion of someone who would want to die but instead was saved. Plath implements a similie when exposing a scene of her in a grave: "they had to call and call/and pick the worms off me like sticky pearls" (41-42). Plath blatantly admits to the audience that dying is an art form that she is particularly good at and for whatever reason she seems to embrace it. It also seems as though Plath is bringing her father's untimely death into this poem as reason for her hatred of life when she uses German terminology (Herr Doktor) and towards the beginning describes her face as "fine Jew linen" (9). The metaohor describing herself as a "pure gold baby/that melts to a shriek" also sets the tone for the menacing ending to the poem (69-70). The last few lines of the poem send an eerie shock up the reader's spine - one which Plath explains what she will do to the men who mistreated her during life in her afterlife.

Love sonnet 8/10 !REDO! Vic H

Love Sonnet 148

The poem is 10 syllable per line with three quatrains and a couplet. He did it in the form of an Shakespearian sonnet. The Shakespearian sonnet uses an aabb, cdcd,efef, hh pattern which distinguishes his writting style from others.

In the first line I imagine someone frustrated with being in love with someone they don’t know why they are in love with. It seems as if this person cannot see why they are in love with someone and is questions their judgment.

“Or if they have, where is my judgment fled”

They are wondering where their judgment has fled to using a personification to give their judgment the ability to flee as if a human. I looked up the word censures to get a clearer understanding in the next line. The poet is asking if their criticism or condemnation of their infatuation for this other is correct. I also looked up the word dote which is extreme fondness. This gives the line greater understanding.

“If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote

What means the world to say it is not so? “

Shakespeare then defends the other against his criticism, questioning the opinions of the world. In that line Shakespeare was speaking to the reader but staying omniscient enough to be able to be speaking to everyone. He then continues questioning yet this time questioning the eye of loves truth. In questioning the eye of loves truth he is using synecdoche to combine a feeling such as love with the eye. He then discusses why loves eye could be incorrect and he points out that the eye is vexed when infatuated or straining through the occurrence of tears credited to love. As he continued to defend the love he basically states “no wonder he mistook this person”, referring to his position in the beginning. He understands that he made a mistake and compares his mis-viewing to the sun not being able to see the heavens until the clouds clear. He is comparing the clouds to the distractions that might have gotten in the way of things, and the sun as him making the mistake of not being able to see through the clouds. He is using personification in the give the sun the ability to see through clouds.

He finishes by declaring that the tears have kept him blind, referring to the strain spoken about earlier when the eye is vexed. He is saying he needs to avoid his eyes being good because fault would be found clearly in his other which proves that maybe there is something wrong with him.

For My Daughter (M.A)

This poem is written by Weldon Kees in 1962. The poem is 12 verses long and the rhyme scheme is ababccdedeffgg. The poem is about a father who finds his daughter dead after, what most probably seems to be an accident, maybe in the river.
The first few stanzas mention how he tries to see past her "innocence of morning flesh concealed" which could symbolize the while and fresh skin that usually shows, but it is now concealed by death.
The winds have messed up her hair and the seaweed has injured her hands, which tells us that his daughter most probably died in some body of water.Furthermore, the "night's slow poison and tolerant bland, has moved her blood" symbolizes how the night, which is considered to be dark, has come over her and has made her cold blooded and completely white in the face.
He then describes her physical attributes, that the age that used to be seen is now foul and lingering with death and the slim legs that are green could be covered with seaweed. He also considers her looks to be like the bride of syphilis or a fool, which means it is fresh. And then he says how they are a sour sight in the sun and that he now has no daughter. And maybe does not want another one again...

For Semra, With Martial Vigor - Ray Carver (Jeet)

The poem consists of two stanzas and is written in a very contemporary style.
The poet is with a first date or possibly with a prostitute. When she asks him how much writers make, he says that they often have to moonlight when they're starting off. It strikes her as odd that learned men might have to do menial jobs like sweeping floors. She is a foreigner for she alludes to her own country where a writer would never have to do such labor.
She goes on to implore him to write a poem, a love poem. He responds that all poems are love poems. It is a recurring theme in Carver's works that love for numerous objects, persons and even abstract ideas can prove to be a muse. The lady confesses she doesn't quite understand what that means; he proceeds to write nonetheless. She stops him, claiming she only wanted to see if he would write for her and asks to see the poem at a later time.
As the poet gets closer to her and puts his hand on her thigh, she stops him, indicating she wants to talk. She tells him of Istanbul's charm and asks him about Khayyam and Gibran. He confesses he doesn't know the latter and she inquires what he thinks of the military.
He admits he doesn't think too highly of it upon which she says that she rather does, having once lived with an army man, a real man.
Feeling the need to impress her, the poet, drunk and clumsy gets up to find a make believe sword and strut about like a military man. Instead, in his inebriated state, he ends up knocking over the teapot. He confusedly mumbles apologies first to the teapot, then to Semra. Observing his clumsiness she wonders aloud why she let him pick her up.
In the poem, I believe Carver is poking some fun at both the disinclination of writers towards the martial profession and also at his drinking - this is sadly ironic, for Carver, in his later years, abused alcohol before he eventually went missing.

For My Daughter MQ

This poem is written in the form of an english sonet with 14 lines and ending with a rhyming couplet. It also is written in iambicpentameter the form preferred by shakespeare. but apart from form this is an extremely dark poem, fillled with wourds and phrases that instill images of darkness and death in my mind. Phrases like "the nights slow poison" or with the alliteration " seaweed snarled these miniatures of hands" really provide dark imagery for the reader. throughout the poem the author is referring to the darknesses of the world that he sees waiting for his daughter. he says that she will not heed the hints of death and that the cold wind blow her hair and he hands are snarled in seaweed meaning that she is being effectively corrupted by the cold dark world as has no idea that it it happening. he says that she will begin to relish the agonyof others after being fed with the hate of teh worldand that she may end up marrying either someone with an std, pressumable reffering to a promiscous person, or a fool. He ends by saying how he has no daughter and he doesnt desire one wich could mean one of two things, either he genuinely doesnt like his daughter for some reason or, he loves her so much that e doesnt want her to have to live through the evils of the world.

For My Daughter- VB

The poem I chose was For My Daughter by Weldon Kees. The format of the poem is a 14 line sonnet. Its rhyme scheme is ABABCCDEDEFFGG. The poem, which is very dark and pessimistic, describes the scenarios that he sees possible for his daughter when she grows up. All of these are terrible futures and troublesome thoughts for the parents of girls or those who have young siblings that are girls.

There are three possible futures he sees for his daughter. The first is a life of pain, suffering and hardship. The second is summarized by the line "Or, fed on hate, she relishes the sting of others' agony; perhaps the creul", meaning that she will have a life where she is surrounded by negative and hateful people, possibly making her like them. Lastly he sees a future for his daughter that involves her being married to a cheating husband.

I chose this poem because I have twin sisters that are 14 months old. This poem only describes possible bad futures for women and gives them no chance to be happy, meaningful, and/or influential. I disagree with Kees because of this. When I look at my sisters I see their potential and I know I will always be there guiding them alongthe way as best I can and protecting them from these fates and other obstacles they may face.

For My Daughter-FK

For My Daughter is a poem written by Weldon Kees. The poem is one stanza consisting of fourteen lines and has a rhyme scheme of ababccdedeffgg. Kees writes this poem to his daughter. Overall the poem has a pretty dark feel to it.

The poem starts off with the author looking into his daughters eyes. He talks about how his daughter looks innocent on the outside, even though she is nearing death. The body of the poem is the author discussing how his daughter is dying. Kees uses imagery to describe how his daughter has been through a lot and is gradually dying. Kees uses the phrase "the nights slow poison" to show how his daughters time is coming to end. At the end of a poem Kees uses an interesting line. He says "I have no daughter, I desire none." This makes me feel that Kees daughter was dead when he wrote this poem. I feel that this poem was just describing his daughters last few years alive. The last three words of this poem "I desire none" are the strongest to me. They just show how much Kees loves his daughter, that he doesn't want another child because he can't replace her.

'For My Daughter' - R. Abbott

The sonnet 'For My Daughter,' written by Weldon Kees, was written in 1940 and essentially describes a moment between a father and daughter. Kees was a very artistic person in general, and his poetry is especially noted for its bitterness apparent in this poem. 'For My Daughter' has a very interesting rhyme scheme going: ABABCCDEDEFFGG - rather unothordox. The poem begins with the speaker looking into his daughters eyes, looking past her innocence to all the darkness and sadness in life which she does not yet realize lingers in her future. Immediately the reader can see that the mood of this poem is gloomy at best. Kees uses a metaphor to describe his reading deeply beneath his daughter's skin - 'beneath the innocence of morning flesh concealed.' Kees uses symbols of cold winds and snarled seaweed to describe the bad things his daughter has encountered in her life, but that she seems to have not noticed or cared enough to notice. Kees then uses the metaphor of the 'night's slow poison' as a reference to what time can do to people - ruins innocence and bring the pain of adulthood. Kees does not want to see her turn into a cruel person or a person who has to suffer as the spouse to a person with some sort of STD/a moron. As Kees dwells more on all of the negative thoughts he associates with his daugher and her future, they continue to worsen. In the final line of the sonnet, he concedes that he actually has no daughter (most likely for all the reasons explained throughout the poem) and he does not desire to have one either.

New Mother (Vic)

I thought this poem was a good poem. It paints an image in my head of a man who desires his wife but understands that she has just had a baby and needs to heal. It is ironically a beautiful image. "splitting and tearing, with the patience of someone finds a wounded animal in the woods and stays with it, not leaving its side until it is whole, until it can run again." She uses a metaphor to compare herself to a wounded animal. Also she compares him to a kind and gentle individual who waits with her, yet in reality he is waiting for her.

New Mother (M.A)

The Poem "New Mother" by Sharon Olds is 21 verses long and has no rhyming scheme. The poem describes the poet's experience of being a new mother and how it has affected her sex life. She starts the poem by describing how her husband or lover is kissing her passionately after a week that their child was born. The tone of this poem though is very harsh as if the poet is taken aback and scarred after the birth and is not ready to resume her sex life yet. But when she starts to "throb" like in verse 7, it could be of pain or even passion and this makes a segue to her experience of giving birth.
Her "sex had been torn" which means her genital muscles and skin had been stretched from inside by the baby's head and how she got stitches as well and they were bothering her. She talks about the initial stage of being torn apart in the genital area and how that feeling doesn't go away, just how, once you lose a love, you think you will never love again.
She then goes on how her lover or husband starts kissing her after she gave birth and how he was erotically charged with the words "your sex dry and big" . She compares herself to a wounded animal because of all the blood and stitches, which is a metaphor in this poem. The end of the poem has a more softer and calmer tone, a bit relieved as well where she describes how her lover is patient and will stay with her and wait until she is ready. 

Mock Orange BK

The poet shows a hatred towards men, and also sex,

"I hate them as I hate sex,

the man’s mouth

sealing my mouth, the man’s

paralyzing body—"

describing the power that men have over women, especially while having sex.

She also describes the noises that occur when having sex as negative,

"and the cry that always escapes,

the low, humiliating

premise of union—"

I think the speaker is saying that she holds hope for men to treat women better, but they don't, and women continue to have sex with them, and then the next generation doesn't treat women any better

"that mounts and mounts and then

is split into the old selves,"

The poet believes women as a whole "were made fools of" because they continue to fall back into the old pattern. I think the flower is used throughout the poem because a flower grows and grows, then eventually produces offspring that is exactly the same as the flower before.

I am not sure exactly why she chose this specific flower, i know that they are white, so perhaps there was an undertone of innocence that exists in the flower but is not shown

New Mother - Jeet

This is a poem of a new mother reuniting sexually with her beloved. It is written against the backdrop of the physical ordeal women go through in the act of birth.

Since the birth, the mother's body has undergone changes. As they are kissing on the bed, her breasts, swollen with milk, soak her shirt.The moist feeling and the odour make her uncomfortable. She is in pain even, from the actual birth. The cesarean section has surely been a painful and physically taxing experience. As a new mother, she says she doesn't know that "you'll be healed again, better than before". If I may take the liberty of making an interpretation, I think there's more to this line than meets the eye. While medically, indeed the skin stitched after an incision does heal to be stronger than before, what she means is that a woman really comes into herself as a mother. It is womanhood's crowning moment.

So there she lies in bed with him, in discomfort and pain. While she senses his desire, she knows he loves her and will treat her with understanding and with patience. Its a delightful simile when she likens him to someone who stays with a wounded animal until it is healed and can run again.

Sharon Olds powerfully conveys the anxiety of a new mother's sexuality and the man's role in supporting her through it.

New Mother by Adam Sprung

I chose the poem New Mother by Sharon Olds for a couple of different reasons. First, the poem is extremely contemporary and that is something that appeals to me. I like how it is very free flowing, and not direct to the point. When reading this poem and had to look it over a couple of times. The first time, i did not quite understand where she was headed, and that is something else that enjoyed about the poem. It made me think.

The poem starts off by saying that this couple just had a baby, something very joyous and happy. However, as you read the poem, you get this lurking sense of misery and despair, all the way until the very last line "until it can run again".

Throughout the poem she brings up the idea of sex, and combines that with imagines of a new mother. However, i think the "stitches" and the wounds and cuts referes to something more than just what may have come from her child labor. I beleive that she is feeling a lack of a connection to her child now that it is no longer inside of her. She is longing to feel that connection again, but realizes that it will take time to heal. I think that its her motherly insticts that she is talking about. She wants to nurture this child, but is having a hard time doing it for some reason. Maybe she was not ready to have a child. Maybe, she just is nervous about the future. I get this from the line "and the first time you’re broken, you don’t know you’ll be healed again, better than before. I lay in fear and blood and milk"

Towards the end of the poem, there is a reference to this other person giving tender care, and having patience, and tending to her as if she were a "wounded animal in the woods". I think this is quite interesting. It really gives the impression that she is hopeless, cant help herself. This bothers me. I'm not sure why, it just does. I just feel like one week after a child is born, there should much more happiness than pain.

Mock Orange- WOORAM

In the poem, the author complains about brightness of the world during the night.
I come up with two different images from the fourth stanza. First, the fourth stanza seems to describe herself in a bed hearing a noise coming from outside. Especially from “I hear the question and pursuing answer fused in one sound”, I can feel that noise is coming to her ears even though she did not want to. And she blames the moon because it carries the noise into her room. Second, she may suffer from a problem and keep thinking about it. She keeps thinking about the problem and suddenly realizes there is moonlight. She simply blames the moonlight to make herself feel better.
At the last stanza, she describes the moonlight as an odor. She again blames the moon because it disturbs her rest. Furthermore, she is not content of her night life because there is moonlight.
She wants to enjoy the darkness but the moon disturbs her. So she calls the moon “Mock Orange”. I have believe that she love loneliness and darkness.

Mock Orange - VB

I chose the poem Mock Orange by Louise Gluck. It is a poem that consists of 24 lines throughout 5 short stanzas of varying length. Overall I feel the poem is about a bad relationship that both members are keeping alive because they are married.

The poem talks about the sex the couple has very negatively. First by saying how she hates men and sex and then going on talking about the end of the sex when her partner "and the cry that always escapes, the low, humiliating premise of union". By her sayiing this it is clear that she is disgusted by her partner and even the thought of having sexual relations with him. Also because she calls it the humiliating premise of union it is clear that she does not want to be married to him.

The end of the poem talks about the flowers outside their bedroom window. She says how can I restw ith that odor in the world talking aboutr the odor ofthe flowers tajht have drifted into the room. I thought that was talking about her desire to be in a place where the flowers and her husband are not there so she can rest and not lie next to a man that she cannot stand.

Mock Orange Mike Quigley

Mock Orange, is a very intersting poem consisting of 5 stanzas. the main premise of this poem i belive is the authors disdain for intercourse and how she relates it to the mock orange smell drifting into her window.

in the first stanza, she states that it is not the moon that light up the night (a common romantic symbol) but the flowers in the yard, (often associated with first dates and crushes). I think what she is trying to say here it is not true love, what she is doing with this man.

in the second stanza she descries how she hates those flowers just as she hates sex. One of her reasons for hating sex is that the man is in control of her. she states how she hates the mans mouth civering her and his paralyzing body, which would make her unable to move and unable to speak.

in the third stanza she discusses that low, humiliating presence of union and referring to sex she feels tat no true union is ever made just two seperate entities working differently. realy unromantisicing lovemaking.

and in the last two stanzas she states how her and the man are fools for feeling anything stronger that a physicall realationship and that that smell of mock orange is drifting into the window. she states that she cannot rest with that mock orange scent ligering in the world which i feel is the idea that sex and love are closley realted.

Mock Orange-FK

Mock Orange is a poem written by Louise Gluck. This poem consist of five stanzas and seems to be about Gluck's hatred of becoming one entity with your partner when your having sex.

I looked up what a mock orange is and it is a type of plant that looks similar to orange plants, but aren't really orange plants. I feel like Gluck uses mock orange as the title of this poem to symbolize how during sex you seem like one entity, but really you are just two separate people.

In the first stanza Gluck expresses her hatred of the plants that light up the yard.

She continues to express her hatred for these plants in the second stanza. Gluck compares the hatred of these plants to her hatred of sex.

In the third stanza Gluck talks about how there is a premise of union when you're having sex. I believe she is implying that this is why she hates sex.

During the fourth stanza Gluck begins to question if there is a union during sex, but as soon as her partner and herself finish she realizes that they were made fools of. They weren't really one entity, but two separate people. At the end of this stanza Gluck talks about the scent of the plants coming back. This scent symbolize why she hates sex and that is because during sex her partner and herself seem like something they are not, just like the mock orange.

In the last stanza Gluck questions how she can rest knowing that scent is always going to be in the world. For her the scent symbolizes that she will never be one entity with her partner when they have sex.

Mock Orange Matt Pryzby

Mock Orange by Louise Gluck was written to portray the author's disdain of sex. In the first stanza, Gluck contends, "It is not the moon, I tell you. It is these flowers lighting up the yard." The bright moon may be seen as a romantic symbol, while the flowers are usually synonymous with first dates and a cheesy/stereotypical gift.

In the second-third stanza, Gluck says, "the man's mouth sealing my mouth, the man's paralyzing body - and the cry that always escapes, the low humiliating premise of union -," which shows a sort of forceful and impersonal sexual encounter with a man. The man's paralyzing body displays a woman being held down. The cry that always escapes - from the sealed mouth - there seems to be a lot of unwanted sex / rape references in this poem. The low humiliating premise of union refers to the actual act of intercourse between the two.

The author displays her displeasure with a merely physical relationship by using such phrases as "i hear the question and pursuing answer fused in one sound that mounts and mounts and then is split into the old selves, the tired antagonisms." The tired antagonisms refers to the two beings after they have finished and do not have the same passion for one another as they may have shortly before.

The scent of mock orange is a reminder to the author of a loveless physical relationship and is also syneshesia. Her final stanza shows her lack of faith of love in a world where people are more focused on the physical aspects of a relationship.

'Mock Orange' - R.Abbott

The poem 'Mock Orange,' by Louise Gluck, is essentially about the repugnance the speaker has for effects of physical love and the many things she associates with it. Overall, the poem is relatively short, so Gluck delivers her powerful message without using many words. I believe the title is referencing the color of the flowers outside the window of the speaker - flowers which have exceeded the light of the moon and now remind the speaker of a type of sex which has a lack of love/meaning. The speaker expresses her hatred for the sex being described throughout the poem when she discusses the 'humiliating cry' that people make during the act, and then the 'split into the old selves' after the act is complete. Gluck seems to state that the sex occuring during the poem is only happen for selfish reasons - not out of true love. This become apparent when she uses the metaphhor 'tired antagonisms' to describe the lack of interest after the two split. A vivid use of synesthesia is implemented when Gluck describes the scent entering the room through the window - 'the scent of mock orange drifts through the window' - connect a sense of smell and vision into one moment.
-Ryan

First Kiss (M.A)

The poem "First Kiss" is written by Kim Addonizio. The poem is one verse and 21 stanzas long. The poem descirbes the poet's first kiss with a man and she compares that feeling to her daughter's breast feeding action. The poem is almost written as a conceit poem which is a long metaphor. Almost three quarters of the poem is comparing the kiss to breastfeeding.
The first two verses describe the man's drugged look, which could mean his drunk look for love or lust or passion. The verse "as though behind them the milk was rising up to fill her" could mean how the man was filled with energy after it, like a meter turning up. 
The verses " the wild flailing and crying until she fastened   

herself to me and made the seal tight

between us, and sucked, drawing the liquid down   

and out of my body;" could represent the moment their lips touched and the description becomes very visual, describing the kiss and exchange of bodily fluids. 
The poem goes on to describe the intensity of the kiss until she comes back to reality and describes the situation of the kiss where the man leans back on a chain fence by a burnt down church. This image could represent some kind of sin maybe or how they should not be together but they are.
The last three verses that state "a man

who was going to be that vulnerable,

that easy and impossible to hurt." represent how the man is weak but he is such a gentleman, that no woman would want to hurt him, therefore he is impossible to hurt. He may also be impossible to hurt because he is with her, who will protect her like her daughter that she was breastfeeding before. 

The Japanese Wife

The Japanese Wife by Charles Bukowski is a comparison between Japanese women and American women. The American woman has been "derailed" whereas the Japanese woman "have not forgotten . . . closing the wounds men have made"

American women "care less than a dime", as opposed to the Japanese Wife who was wronged by her husband, but eventually forgave him, with no lawyers needed (like American women would need).

The end has some great imagery,

"nothing but little Japanese prints on the wall,

all those tiny people sitting by red rivers

with flying green birds,

and I took them down and put them face down

in a drawer with my shirts,

and it was the first time I realized

that she was dead, even though I buried her; "

These are powerful lines that show the sentimental view that the speaker feels about this woman.

However he hasn't gotten over her death yet, he says

" some day I’ll take them all out again, . . . but not right now, / not just yet"

I am still confused about this line

"said, you can wrong me now,

and I did,"

I'm not sure what it means

First Kiss Adam Sprung

After reading this poem the first time, I was not sure how I felt. The idea of comparing a kiss from a man to that of breast feeding her child was almost appalling. But after reading it over one more time, I saw the passion that existed in the metaphor. There is not only passion for the man's kiss, and the memory of that, but there also seems to be a passion for the act of giving life and sustaining it.

The poem is set up that she introduces the man, and the moment of the kiss right away, and does not even refer to that kiss until the very end. There seems to be this very memorable factor to it. However, what makes it more interesting is the innocents that she conncets to it. There is something so pure about the act of feeding an infant, and to compare that emotion to a kiss is extremely powerfull. I especially like the part "the wild flailing and crying until she fastened herself to me and made the seal tight between us, and sucked, drawing the liquid down and out of my body; no, this was the crowning moment, this giving of herself, knowing she could show me how helpless she was—that’s what I saw" In this part, i can just see the man she kissed being upset at first, not sure if he was going to get that kiss, but once they locked their lips its the climax of their relationship. She is able to truly see into him, and feel his helplessness and vulnerability.

I also really like the image of a chain linked fence. It almost make me think that she is linking these two emotions together, weaving them and making them feel as though they are once.

Overall, the poem really does not have any rhyme scheme to it. It is very free flowing, and i think that's the part i like the best about its form.

First Kiss - Jeet

The poet starts out with the metaphor of a "drunk, drugged look", since the her beloved wasn't literally intoxicated. She then links this to a simile of how that dazed look reminds her of the look in her baby daughter's eyes after she had just been suckled. The filmy look in her eyes makes her think that the milk is swelling up inside her baby's head.

The poet says that she is amazed by the power of contentment that so easily mollifies the anxiety of hunger in her baby. What brings her the most joy is the comfort and inevitability with which her daughter's expression betrays to her that her mother satisfies her every need easily.

She likens the expression to that on the face of her lover, after they shared their first kiss out in front of a church - "a man who was going to be that vulnerable,that easy and impossible to hurt". She says she's glad to have loved someone that so readily and helplessly professed her ability to make him content and happy.