My first thought on A Red, Red Rose is “Its a love poem”. The second thought is “What the heck is till a’ seas gang dry, my dear”.

The language used and words like lass make me think the author has some Scottish background or influence. The poem is centred around love, that too the everlasting kind that speaks of forever… The poet compares his love to a red rose, to the freshness and the beauty of flowers. He or she professes their undying passionate love that will last forever, even when the seas dry up and humankind is no more. The poet bids a temporary farewell to his beloved and promises to come back, however far the distance and however long the time.

My first thought on Calling A Wolf A Wolf is “I’m not sure what’s happening, where it’s happening and who it’s happening to” and my second thought is “seems like the thoughts of a remorseful dying man”. The poem is written quite uniquely. There’s no punctuation and the sentences or thoughts per se are spaced out in a continuous paragraph. It seems to begin with the poet recounting moments of his recent past that make it seem like he or she has been in the same spot for quite a long time, observing everything as that’s the only pass time he or she has and is dying because of a slow illness. The poet feels envy, an emotion that’s worse than sadness, when he sees a healthier man. The poet is quite contradictory here when he tries to comfort himself/herself by thinking of horrifying things he never did while describing an innate coldness within himself that caused him to deny others requests for help. These thoughts are of a person whos asking their higher deity “what have I done that is so evil that you imprison me in my own body until I pass from this life?”.

When I read these two poems, I see simplicity in the writing while I see the complexity of the thoughts present underneath. The poets have a directness that states what is going through their minds and makes it easier for the readers to feel those ethos and words. My favourite would be Calling A Wolf A Wolf as I connect with it more than a poem about eternal love. I’ve seen people with a death sentence which allows me to understand the poets thoughts in the poem.

Today, I chose to read the Valediction by Sherman Alexie and the Dostoevsky Sonnet. I definitely liked the sonnet better because I just think that it has more depth and it references timeless issues like racism. The Valediction gives us an idea of an impending falling out just from its title. I liked the simplicity and truth of it. It’s the kind of story that resonates with me and it would with anyone who’s lost a friend because of a plight. I think the story is a good story but its not a teller-proof story. Yes, it has a moral, a story about the consequences of choosing between yourself and your future and standing united with a friend. I don’t think it is a funny story at all and it has no jokes. It should be a teller proof story because of the solid moral message but I think this story is only profound because of the way the writer wrote it and the words and literary devices he used. In the Dostoevsky Sonnet, I loved the lineation used. Its a story in the form of a sonnet, so it doesn’t become dense and keeps the reader’s attention. The story is not something I can remember with all the important details as it just has many but it’s a beautiful real story I would love to read anytime. The subtle details the writer uses like referring to the girlfriend as ex-girlfriend from the beginning, a foreboding for their impending breakup. The cliche plot of the best friend stealing the girl doesn’t make this special but carries the story forward. The idea of wanting things in life but not getting most of them is what packed a profound punch. The importance of the loss of a friend which was valued more in this sonnet than the loss of the girlfriend, also made it favorable to me. The race issues addressed so bluntly and clearly, the use of definitions for terms that were part of the writer’s typical diction but I wouldn’t know of like “Jody”, and many other writing techniques used here made this sonnet a good one. I don’t think teller-proof stories exist because if a human doesn’t give a piece of literature a distinct voice, the message will never be the same to different audiences.

How my independent reading is connected with a text we’ve studied in terms of attention to a global issue.

In this extended lockdown, I’ve read a lot of books (just for self-entertainment) and lots of poems for my IB English class as I enjoy poems compared to classic literature now. One poem that I enjoyed immensely is “The Applicant” by Sylvia Plath. I have been looking into the Canongate Myth Series, Carol Ann Duffy’s work, Anne Sexton’s – Cinderella, and many more but the applicant truly caught my attention.

It speaks about a very present issue in today’s society but also from the 1980’s – inequality. It also reminds me of some ideas from “The Importance of Being Earnest” where the female characters are described as ditzy and subservient. The poem is about a male who goes for an interview and is asked what he can offer them when “something” is missing and that something is a wife.

• Stitches to show something’s missing? No, no? Then
  How can we give you a thing?

The employer describes the wife like an accessory a male needs when he talks about all she “offers”.

• To bring teacups and roll away headaches
  And do whatever you tell it.
  Will you marry it?
  It is guaranteed

The employer also refers to a wife, a female as “it”. The pronoun shows an obvious disrespect to the female and also makes her appear as an object instead of a human being. The employer calls for a woman to come and present herself to the applicant.

• I have the ticket for that.
  Come here, sweetie, out of the closet.
  Well, what do you think of that?
  Naked as paper to start

The employer also refers to the female as “that” with the obvious disrespect that flows throughout the poem in regards to the female. He refers to a potential wife as a ticket to getting a job and refers to her as naked, as in like a blank slate where the male can manipulate her into anything he wants her to be for him.

The disrespectful terms for females runs though the next stanza where he refers to the female as a “living doll” further cementing the fact that the male can “play” with her as he likes. He refers to their future marriage years as silver and gold. He further undermines the value of a female by listing frivolous things he thinks she only has to offerlike sewing, cooking and talking endlessly.

• But in twenty-five years she’ll be silver,
  In fifty, gold.
  A living doll, everywhere you look.
  It can sew, it can cook,
  It can talk, talk, talk.

The employer ends the monologue by saying that marriage is the only option left for the applicant to ever be successful. The employer says “will you marry it” but it’s not a question, but a statement.

• My boy, it’s your last resort.
  Will you marry it, marry it, marry it.

The females in the importance of being earnest are regarded as silly and frivolous while choosing a potential husband based on a name and falling in love with a name rather than an actual person making females seem naive and dumb. The trope of the dumb trophy wife is exemplified here.

The poem talks about the journey to Ithaka. It talks about hope for a long journey full of adventure and discovery. It wants you to gain an immense amount of knowledge that makes you “rich” intellectually rather than monetarily. It’s saying that this journey is going to prepare you for the world and your awaiting life at your destination. It advises you not to have any expectations but to take it all in as it happens because its a once in a lifetime experience – live in the moment. The last line mentions “these Ithakas” which I think means these personal pieces of wisdom and advice that the author is writing about in the poem.

The poem –

The Odyssey is about the journey of Odysseus to Ithaca from the war at Troy. He spent ten years at war and took another ten years to get back to Itaca because of the animosity from Poseidon, the god of the sea. By the time Odysseus comes home, he finds a number of men invading his home to court Penelope, which leads to more woes and fights for him. His dedication to come home shows his strong love for his family yet he has affairs with Circe and Calypso which show the double standard when Penelope has to stay faithful when she has a number of suitors to choose from. Nausicaa’s immature attraction to Odysseus proves insignificant to him and cannot trump his desperate longing to return home. We can see the trickster and cunning intelligence in Odysseus’s character when Polyphemus curses the Ithacans and only Odysseus survives. Penelope isn’t some dumb, naive character either. She is as smart as her husband when she delays choosing a suitor by a ruse to marry only after weaving a death shroud for Laertes, she weaves and unweaves the shroud and delays the event for three years till a maid snitches.

The daughter says “I love you” to her dying father to appease her future guilt. The poem shows her obvious disconnect and lack of emotional relationship with her father yet we also see herself getting ready for him to pass away. I think this kind of father daughter relationship is common in Sweet Nothing and Fun Home. Alison and Bruce don’t have the most emotional loving relationship but she also shows signs of regret regarding the lack of that kind of relationship just like in sweet nothing.

When I was five in Louisville
we drove to see nighttime fires. Piled seven of us,
all pajamas and running noses, into the Olds,
drove fast toward smoke. It was after my father
lost his job, so not getting up in the morning
gave him time: awake past midnight, he read old newspapers
with no news, tried crosswords until he split the pencil
between his teeth, mad. When he heard
the wolf whine of the siren, he woke my mother,
and she pushed and shoved
us all into waking. Once roused we longed for burnt wood
and a smell of flames high into the pines. My old man liked
driving to rich neighborhoods best, swearing in a good mood
as he followed the fire engines that snaked like dragons
and split the silent streets. It was festival, carnival.

If there were a Cadillac or any car
in a curved driveway, my father smiled a smile
from a secret, brittle heart.
His face lit up in the heat given off by destruction
like something was being made, or was being set right.
I bent my head back to see where sparks
ate up the sky. My father who never held us
would take my hand and point to falling cinders that
covered the ground like snow, or, excited, show us
the swollen collapse of a staircase. My mother
watched my father, not the house. She was happy
only when we were ready to go, when it was finally over
and nothing else could burn.
Driving home, she would sleep in the front seat
as we huddled behind. I could see his quiet face in the
rearview mirror, eyes like hallways filled with smoke.

Regina Barreca’s free verse poem Nighttime Fires (1986) is about a father who was fascinated by fires and the destruction they caused. She writes the poem about events that happened in her childhood that she struggled to understand. The poem is written from a five year old’s perspective. The title “Nighttime Fires” can be interpreted as the fiery thoughts that plague one’s mind at nightfall. The full analysis was done on paper in class…

How does this poem correspond to your own understanding of Dean Young? What is the author’s attitude towards Dean Young?

My first reaction to this poem was confusion, which is my reaction to most Dean Young poems. When I read a Dean Young poem, I’m truly clueless as to what is going on. I get a glimpse at multiple ideas and subjects and don’t know how to connect these thoughts to get a sense of understanding for his poems, yet I enjoyed Undertow. Young’s lines are relatable separately but when put together confuse me. I particularly enjoy and resonate with this line about the ocean –

Similarly my first reaction of confusion to this Hoagland poem corresponds to my reactions to Dean Young. After multiple reading and understanding lines separately, I finally gather an opinion of sorts or more like my thoughts about what is going on. A couple of lines about childhood anecdotes and memories of hospital treatments, lines about change in personality to lines about drinking wine a certain way show me that Hoagland and Young had a close relationship with each other. I feel this was a tribute of sorts to a close friend about their relationship and the barriers they crossed together as comrades.

When Dean Young Talks About Wine – Tony Hoagland

The worm thrashes when it enters the tequila.
The grape cries out in the wine vat crusher.

But when Dean Young talks about wine, his voice is strangely calm.
Yet it seems that wine is rarely mentioned.

He says, Great first chapter but no plot.
He says, Long runway, short flight.
He says, This one never had a secret.
He says, You can’t wear stripes with that.

He squints as if recalling his childhood in France.
He purses his lips and shakes his head at the glass.

Eight-four was a naughty year, he says,
and for a second I worry that California has turned him
into a sushi-eater in a cravat.

Then he says,
This one makes clear the difference
between a thoughtless remark
and an unwarranted intrusion.

Then he says, In this one the pacific last light of afternoon
stains the wings of the seagull pink
at the very edge of the postcard.

But where is the Cabernet of rent checks and asthma medication?
Where is the Burgundy of orthopedic shoes?
Where is the Chablis of skinned knees and jelly sandwiches?
with the aftertaste of cruel Little League coaches?
and the undertone of rusty stationwagon?

His mouth is purple as if from his own ventricle
he had drunk.
He sways like a fishing rod.

When a beast is hurt it roars in incomprehension.
When a bird is hurt it huddles in its nest.

But when a man is hurt,
he makes himself an expert.
Then he stands there with a glass in his hand
staring into nothing
as if he were forming an opinion.

Fun Home