molly's blog

you fit into me

like a hook into an eye

a fish hook

an open eye

I really like this poem because of its simplicity and because of the way it is written. It’s a simpler poem. When you first read through it you imagine the author saying that ‘you fit into me like a fish hook into an open eye’. To people who first read the poem that may translate into ‘you fit into me like a fish hook is supposed to fit into a fishes eye’, but I don’t think that that is where the author is trying to go. Fish hooks aren’t supposed to go into a fishes eye, they are normally caught around it’s mouth. So, the fish hook that the author is talking about is the curved hook that you can find on the back of dresses. It is shaped almost like a shepards hook/a lure for a fishing rod (this is the fish hook) and the eye is the oval shaped thing that the fish hook goes into. This creates a more pleasant picture and shows that the author is saying that the two people are meant to be together. The fish hook and the eye are made for each other.

You know the parlor trick.

Wrap your arms around your own body

and from the back it looks like

someone is embracing you,

her hands grasping your shirt,

her fingernails teasing your neck.

From the front it is another story,

You never looked so alone,

your crossed elbows and screwy grin.

You could be waiting for a tailor

to fit your for a straitjacket,

one that would hold you really tight.

When I first read through this poem I definitely got a cynical and sad feeling about the poem. The poem consists of two stanzas and it looks like a poem. The first stanza is a bit happier than the second stanza; they are both lonely, though. Their isn’t much figurative language in this poem- the words are pretty straight forward. I can tell that there is supposed to be some deeper meaning, though. Some of the sentences wrap around, so you are a little unsure of breaks and pauses in the poem, but if you read it aloud it becomes a little clearer. This was a tougher poem to write about.

This poem caught my eye because of the diction that Johnson uses throughout the poem. I love when I read poems like this because sometimes the way a poem is worded isn’t actually how the author would say it. By reading the way the narrator is saying the poem you also get a look as to what kind of person it is. You can tell from the title that the theme of this poem is the life of a person after someone important has left it- perhaps a boyfriend/girlfriend or wife/husband. This poem contains 4 stanzas. At the end of each stanza is the repetition of the phrase “Sence you went away”. There is a definite rhyme scheme throughout the whole poem. AAA B CCC B DDD B EEE B. The apparent rhyme scheme makes this poem a little more catchy and also makes it seem a little happier than the apparent subject is. In a way it also sounds like a child’s poem, but just because there is a rhyme scheme does not make that true. If you read the poem out loud you can imagine, see, and feel the emotions that the narrator is going through. There is some figurative language in the stanzas- “Seems lak to me de stars don’t shine so bright“, “Seems lak to me de sky ain’t half so blue“. I’m very happy that I found this poem, I really like it.

Money, the long green,

cash, stash, rhino, jack

or just plain dough.

Chock it up, fork it over,

shell it out. Watch it

burn holes through pockets.

To be made of it! To have it

to burn! Greenbacks, double eagles,

megabucks and Ginnie Maes.

It greases the palm, feathers a nest,

holds heads above water,

makes both ends meet.

Money breeds money.

Gathering interest, compounding daily.

Always in circulation.

Money. You don’t know where it’s been,

but you put it where your mouth is.

And it talks.

I really liked this poem because of the way it sounds when you read it out loud. When the words come out of your mouth it’s almost like you haven’t heard/said anything like it ever. There are many figures of speech in this poem- “chock it up, fork it over, shell it out. Watch it burn holes through pockets”, “money breeds money”, etc. The poem is structured like a poem and has verses. The 5^th verse is a little different from the others; it’s compiled of 3 sentences. The author may want us to ponder over the cold hard facts of money by putting periods at the end of each line. Most of the poem talks figuratively about money. The last verse also has periods- the longest pause an author can place in a poem- around “money” and “it talks”. This verse, unlike the other verses, talks a little bit more concretely about money, too. There are many forms of punctuation in the poem. This helps to make sure that all of the descriptive words and phrases that the author says are said individually so the reader doesn’t skip over the importance of them.

Rhyme scheme A, B, C, D, B, E, F, E, G, H, H. Short, yet very descriptive poem with lots of imagery. Lots of metaphors, some similies. “D0es it dry up like a raisin in the sun”, “Does it stink like rotten meat”, “Maybe it just sags like a heavy load”. Seen as a bit of a comical poem, yet the meaning is that these bad things will happen if you don’t follow your dreams. Follow your dreams and you won’t have stinky rotten meat or a heavy load in your brain or on your conscience.

Verses and stanzas. Lots of descriptive language, metaphors and similies, just like most of Angelou’s poems. For example, ‘but still, like dust, I’ll rise”, ” ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells pumping in my living room”, “I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide” and ” ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines diggin’ in my own backyard”. Creates lots of visuals inside of your head, and with those visuals you understand and feel moved by the poem. Repitition of the phrase “I rise” and “I’ll rise” emphasizing the importance of the words and how no matter what happens, she will rise.

No rhyme scheme, blank verse. Long sentences. Repitition of the phrase “good fences make good neighbors”. “And on a day we meet to walk the line and set the wall between us as we go” descriptive images enter my mind of two men walking down the wall of stones that separate their houses from each other. “That sends the frozen-ground swell under it and spins the upper boulders in the sun…” imagery and personification. “We have to use a spell to make them balance”- imagery of the two men placing the bricks upon one another and enchanting them to make them stay for another year. Speaker is skeptical of his neighbor and why he wants a fench built between them, but the neighbor says “good fences makes good neighbors”.

1. Mamet describes several scenes from his childhood in this essay, only one of which involves a rake. Why, then, does he entitle the piece “The Rake”?   

Most of Mamet’s childhood memories are of bad times. There wasn’t one that was good, and each was placed around the glass table in the ‘nook’. Time after time the glass on the table would shatter because there step-father would get upset at them. “So the table was associated in our minds with the notion of blood” (Mamet 184). Mamet and his sister rake the leaves in their front yard, something that makes Mamet upset because why should he make the front yard look nice and pretty when everything inside the house is shattered and imperfect? He throws a rake at his sister one time when they are outside, and their parents make her sit and the table while she is gushing blood. This may have been the first time that the blood associated with the table is his fault.

2. What is the tone of Mamet’s essay? How does it compare to the tone of E.B. White’s essay?

Mamet’s essay tells a sad story, but you don’t get a sad vibe. It sounds like his voice is in monotone. To me, it compares to E.B. White’s essay because both are telling you everything that’s going on, drawing you into the story, but there isn’t really any emotion attached to their voices.

1. 1.       How does E.B. White’s style differ from Raymond Carver’s? Do you think E.B. White could have written the same story in Carver’s minimalist style? Why or why not?

E.B. White’s style differs from Raymond Carver’s because his story is based on detail. He describes all the little pleasures of the lake house, and how it made him feel and the visual aspects of the home. If you changed White’s story to the minimalist style of Carve, you wouldn’t have much of a story. There would be a father and a son; the father would wish to be in the son’s shoes, reminiscing about his past days there. People would be confused about what happened.

2. What does E.B. White’s description of his summer vacation tell us about the perfect family?

E.B. White describes the perfect family at the lake house. “This was the American family at play, escaping the city heat, wondering whether the newcomers in the camp at the head of the cove were “common” or “nice”, wondering whether it was true that the people who drove up for Sunday dinner at the farmhouse were turned away because there wasn’t enough chicken” (White 273). He describes the lake house as a place where an American family can get away from everything else and enjoy themselves at a quiet abode. There would be no worries, just happy times.

1. In depicting the character of Connie, Oates writes, “everything about her had two sides to it: one for home and one for anywhere that was not home . . .” What are Connie’s two sides? How do they compare to one another?  

Connie has two sides, one at home and one when she’s out with friends. Connie at home is childish, her laughter was high-pitched and annoying and her mouth was smirking. Out, Connie is languid, her laughter is attractive, and her mouth is bright and pink.  At home, you get the idea that Connie is immature, she’s whiny and she thinks to much of her. But, when she’s out, you get the idea that she’s beautiful and nice. She may not mean to have two different sides, but she does.

1. What kind of commentary on family life does this story make?

The story depicts a family life where everyone isn’t close. There’s a mother who cares for only one daughter, a father who works all day and comes home to eat and sleep, a younger sister who feels like her family doesn’t like her, and a perfect older daughter, even though she still lives at home. This story definitely does not depict the perfect family life and it doesn’t depict the kind of normal family life. This family is the kind of family that perfect families hope to never become.