PJ #7

PJ #7

Literary Critic Reponse to "it may not always be so; and i say"

it may not always be so; and i say

it may not always be so; and i say
that if your lips, which i have loved, should touch
antoher’s, and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart, as mine in time not far away;
if on another’s face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know, or such
great writhing words as, uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be, i say if this should be-
you of my heart, send mea little word;
that i may go unto him, and take his hands
saying, Accept all the happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face, and hear one bird
sing terriblly afar in the most lands.


Literary Critic:

In the poem “it may not always be so; and i say” the author express his pessimistic expectance of the love he shares with his lover. He expects that one day the love they use to share will no longer be in existence. Until that day of unrequited love, he realizes that she may fall in love with somebody else and asks for her to tell him. If she is to belong to somebody else that way she was once his, he begs her to “send me a little word.” He wants to acknowledge to her new lover the happiness they once shared and that he is to in the future hopefully experience with her. Even though he does not seem to have any antagonistic feelings towards her new lover, he will still experience grief in his moments without her for when his face turns he’ll “hear one bird/ sing terribly afar in the most lands.” Losing her will be a heartache to him but he will understand the circumstances. Through the use of end rhyme and selectivity of words, the author is effective in demonstrating his sorrow yet comprehensive feelings towards losing a woman he is to love with all his heart to another man. He uses end rhyme thoughout the poem (that if your lips, which i have loved, should touch/ another’s, and your dearr strong fingers clutch) to make the poem read smoothly. I noticed that the first stanza uses a different rhyming scheme than the second, which I am not sure if it was done intentionally for thematical reasons. All together, the sad love poem is effective in convey the message of accepting unrequited love.

Poetic Response to "i love you much (most beautiful darling)"

I love you much (most beautiful darling)

More than anyone on the earth and i
Like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singin welcome your coming

Although winter may be everywhere
With such a silence and such a darkness
Noone can quite begin to guess

(except my life) the true time of year-

And if what calls itself a world should have
The luck to hear such singing (or glimpse such
Sunlight as will leap higher than high
Through gayer than gayest someone’s hear at your each

Nearness) everyone certainly would (my
Most beautiful darling) believe in nothing but love


Poetic Response:

Reading “i love you much (most beautiful) darling” I was impressed with the use of paranthesis throughout the poem. Instead of creating an effect where they distracted me as a reader, they actually made the poem read more gracefully. Even though parenthesis usually indicate that whatever is enclosed is less important than surroudning text, in this poem they served as insertions of meangingful text that were essential to both the flow of the poem and the significance of it. In my response I attempted to use the parenthesis the same way. In most parts of the poem I employ the parenthesis with short phrases but similarly to the original there’s a part where I break what is inside the parenthesis with two separate stanzas. The content of my poem simply echoes the original poem as well; the love a being feels for another.

i love you more (my dearest lover)

the scent of grace
the color of beauty
darling (my most beautiful darling)
none other can compare to you

my love, my man, my lust, my king
a manifestation of my dreams
i love you more (my dearest lover

i love at your command), drunken and happy
holding myself for fear that i...
might awake and discovering ive been wandering
lost in the depths of my imagination

-a mix of passion and fidelity
(my dearest lover) you’re all together complete

and as the morning melts the night
we are lovers for all eternity
loving each other to a mysterious dimension
where love anad death are interchangeable

now, breathing the same breaths
and dreaming the same dreams
(my dearest lover) i love you more

Comparative Poem Response to "Forgetulfulness" by Billy Collins

Forgetfulness By Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nin Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is sliping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever t is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dar mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the windo seems to have drifted
ouot of a love poem taht you used to know by heart.


My Comparative Response:

While the poem by Sandra Cisneros “My wicked ways” focuses on remembering clearly witha a photograph what happened with her family, “Forgetfullness” by Billy Collins is all the opposite; he focuses on forgetting. The forgetting is not about his family though, it is about forgetting information in general, even commen sense memory. Even though forgetting things may seem to be insignificant at times or even not hurtful, especially with the innocent forgetfullness that the author describes like forgetting an author, the quadratic equation, or the capital of Paraguay, it seems that Billy Collins is getting at something bigger. Perhaps it is that we are so consumed with our lives that we forget about what really matters; our values, morals and those we love. The last line “out of a love poem that you used to know by heart” hinted to me that as people we use to love someone and care for them but then later when there are a million on things to worry about we don’t remember that we care for them.

Personal Response to "My Wicked Ways" by Sandra Cisneros

My Wicked Ways by Sandra Cisneros

This is my father.
See? He is young.
He looks like Errol Flynn.
He is wearing a hat
that tips over one eye,
a suit that fits him good,
and baggy pants.
He is alsoo waering
those awful shoes,
the two-toned ones
my mother hates.

Here is my mother.
She is not crying.
She cannotl ook into the lens
because the sun is bright.
The woman,
the one my father knows
is not here.
She does not come till later.

My momther will get very mad.
Her face will turn red
and she will throw one shoe.
My father will say nothing.
After a while everyone
will forget it.
Years and years will pass.
My mother will stop mentioning it.

This is me she is carrying.
I am a baby.
She does not know
I will turn out bad.


My Personal Response:

In this poem, Sandra Cisneros seems to be reflecting on the past. It seems that she is looking at a photograph of her family before things got bat. Although a photograph is never mentioned, I came to the conclusion that she was looking at one since she kept on saying “Here is my father.../Here is my mother...” The photograph symbolizes the good times and the happiness that the family once shared. The author now looking back at that same photograph points out details of her family. Perhaps more importantly, she says what eventually happens that makes her family fall apart. The author herself, turns out bad as the title suggests and the last lines “This is me she is carrying/ I am a baby? She does not know/ I will turn out bad.” I personally connected to this poem not only because I already like Sandra Cisneros as an author, but also because the poem was about families and the falling apart of them; I can personally relate to this. Just as the author looks at that particular photograph and says to herself This is before it all went bad, I oftentimes look at baby pictures of my family and I and say This is before my father left. In Sandra’s situation, what went wrong was her father finding another woman, while in mine it was my father leaving.

Literary Critic Response for "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" by Amiri Baraka

Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note

Lately, I've become accustomed to the way
THe groud opens up and envelops me
Each time i go out to walk the dog.
Or the broad edged silly music the wind
Makes when I run for a bus...

Things have to come to that.

And now, each night I count the stars.
And each night I get the same number.
ANd when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.

Nobody sings anymore.

And then last night, I tiptoed up
To my daughter's room and heard her
Talking to someone, and when I opened
The door, therew was no one there...
Only she on her knees, peeking into

Her own clasped hands.


Literary Critic:

When I first read "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note", I was initially intrigued by the title. It along told an intersting story. Perhaps the poem was about someone's attemps and thoughts to a suicide he or she never executed. As I began reading, I observed that the poem read with a pessimistic tone. THe structure, together with the clever selectivity of words, makes the poem emphasize the suicide feelings that is naturally evoked. It is esepcailly interesting to me how at the end, after explaining the solitude in her life, she refers to her daughter praying as somethings strange; "talking to someone.../there was no one there...".

Contemporary Poet Response to "Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle" by Black Elk

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle

Everything the Power of the World does
is done in a circle. The sky is round,
and I have heard that the earth is round
like a ball, and so are all the star.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.

Birds make their nests in circles,
for theirs is the same religion as ours.

The sun comes forth and goes down again
in a circle. The moon does the same,
and both are round. Even the seasons
form a great circle in their changing,
and always come back againt to where they were.

The life of man is a circle from chidhood to childhood,
and so it is in everything where power moves.


My Response Poem:

Everything the Power of the World does is done on a straight line

Everything the Power of the World does
is done on a straight line. The sky is straight,
and I know that within the scope of our vision,
we see straight ahead

We walk in a straight line,
A fixed path standing to guide us.

And yet the lines
stand straight
so meekly, beyond
an understanding
yet so emphatic,
regressed to ignorance.

With lines comes order
With order comes power
And so everything of the Power of the World
is done on a straight line.

A starting point
an ending point,
a straight line is our life.

The life of man is a straight line from birth to death
and so it is in everything where power travels.