Poetry Q & A

"My Papa's Waltz"

by Theodore Roethke

1. What is the tone of this Poem: I think the narrator who is the son of Papa, is fond of his father, but confused at his drunkeness.



"For a Lady I Know"

by Countee Cullen

1. What is Cullen's message? / The lady that passed on is used to having slaves, and expects the same luxury in death.

2. How would you characterize the tone of this poem? Wrathful? Amused? / I think the tone is a little of both of the suggested words. I think that the narrator is a little surprised at the audacity of "She".



"To a Locomotive in Winter"

by Walt Whitman

"I Like to See it Lap the Miles"

by Emily Dickinson

1. What differences in tone do you find between Whitman's and Dickinson's poems? Point out whatever in each poem contributes to these differences. / Whitman's poem is written in classical, almost biblical tone while Dickinson's is brief and quick, but much more effective in my view, because it is easier to understand on first read.

2. Boanarges in Dickinson's last Stanza means "Sons of Thunder," a name given by Jesus to the disciples John and James ( see Mark 3:17 ). How far shouold the reader work out the particulars of this comparison? Does it make the tone of the poem serious? / The reader will go as far as they are compelled to go by the inspiration they get individually. If they are compelled to research the name Boanarges to find it's true meaning, the may do the research. If they are not compelled to do the research, they may not do the research. I think it does set a serious tone, but only in the final stanza. The reason for this thought is that the final stanza defines the difference between being late, and being punctual.

3. In Whitman's opening line, what is recitative? What other specialized terms from the vocabulary of music and poetry does each poem contain? How do they help underscore Whitman's theme? / Recitative refers to the rhythm of the locomotive. Some other specialized terms from music and poetry that I found are; ( Whitman) beat, gyrating, metrical, pulse, verse, sound, notes, ringing, fierce-throated, chant, music, swinging, piano; ( Dickinson ) lick, step, stanza. Whitman's theme is all about the rhythm of the locomotive and the amount of terms he used in the poem that relate to music is almost one term per line. The musical reference in Whiman's poem is undeniable.

4. Poets and songwriters probably have regarded the locomotive with more affection than they have shown most other machines. Why do you suppose this is so? Can you think of any other poems or songs as examples? / The locomotive is a machine of rhythm. At full speed, it is performing almost a perfect shuffle beat. The shuffle beat in music was modeled after trains and is the inspiration for "The Orange Blossom Special", "Folsum Prison Blues" and "The Wabash Cannonball" to name just a few.

5. What do these two poems tell you about locomotives that you would not be likely to find in a technical book on railroading? / I think that the poems tell us about the appeal of the locomotive to the average citizen. I also think that they illustrate the musical appeal which is at the heart of the general public's love of the locomotive, whether conscience of subconscience.

6. Are the subjects of the two poems identical? Discuss. / I do not think they are completely identical. I think that both poems show the fondness of locomotives from the narrator's point of view, but Whitman deals with the musical appeal to a greater degree than Dickinson.



"Doo Wop"

by Kevin Young

1. What is the tone of this poem-comic? Serious? both at once? / I would say the tone is both elements at once with a flavor that reflects the 1950's.

2. How many plays on words, and playing with the sounds of words, can you find in the poem? / The plays on words I see are; Milk shake your moneymaker, Alabama mamma jamma and the sound plays are found in every line of the rest of the poem.

3. Beyond the author's exuberent delight in langauge, what do you think "Doo Wop" is about? / I think the poem is about the narrator's fondness of his date and the fact that he likes the way she dances.



"For My Daughter"

by Weldon Kees

1. How does the last line of this sonnet affect the meaning of the poem? / The last line tells us that the narrator does not want to risk his unconditional love on a daughter. It would be too painful.

2. "For My Daughter" was first published in 1940. What considerations might a potential American parent have felt at that time? Are these historical concerns mirrored in the poem? / As I read the piece, I felt the flavor of the fear of war all the way through. In 1940, the American public was not yet engaged in World War Two, but they read of the horrible civilian deaths that were happening in Europe and China.

3. Donald Justice has said the "Kees is one of the bitterest poets in history." Is bitterness the only attitude the speaker reveals in this poem? / I read a good share of bitterness in "For My Daughter", but I also sense some fear in the poem.



"Luke Havergal"

by Edwin Arlington Robinson

1. Who is the speaker of the poem? What specific details does the author reveal about the speaker? / The speaker in "Luke Havergal" is an angel of death. The stanza speaking about coming from the grave is the detail that leads me to beleive the speaker is an angel of death directing Luke to heaven.

2. What does the speaker ask Luke Havergal to do? / The speaker asks Luke to go to the western gate.

3. What do you understand the "western gate" to be? / I think the western gate may be the entrance to heaven.

4. Would you advise Luke Havergal to follow the speaker's advice? Why or why not? / I would advise Luke to follow the speaker's advise, for Luke has already passed on and the speaker offers directions to heaven and explains that the alternative is hell.



"Monologue for an Onion"

by Suji Kwock Kim

1. How would you characterize the speaker's tone in this poem? What attitudes and judgements lie behind that tone? / I would characterize the speaker's tone as disgust. The onion claims to be pure and calls the human that is peeling it, an idiot.

2. "I mean nothing" (line 2) might be seen as a play on two senses of mean-"intend" and "signify." Is the statement true in both senses? / Yes, I think it is a play on both senses. The onion means nothing for the human is cutting and peeling it with abandon. The onion could also be using the statement as a preamble before telling the human what it thinks.

3. Suppose someone said to you, "The whole point of the poem is that vegetables have rights and feelings too, and humanity is being rebuked for its arrogance and insensitivity toward other species." How would you argue against that view? / I would give them credit for an original idea and then let them know that the human race must ingest something for nutrition and if not animals, than it must be vegetables, fruit and grain.

4. The speaker is obviously one tough onion, cutting humanity little or no slack. To what degree do you think the speaker represents the author's views? Explain your response. / I think that the author is disgusted with the way the human race continues on with things as they are and does not do more to improve the human condition.



"A Glass of Beer"

by James Stephens

1. Whom do you take to be the speaker? Is it the poet? The speaker may be angry, but what is the tone of the poem? / I think that the speaker is the poet and that the poem is based on an experience that the poet had. The tone of the poem is one of angry sarcasm.

2. Would you agree with the commentator who said, "To berate anyone in truly memorable langauge is practically a lost art in America"? How well does the speaker ( an Irishman ) succeed? Which of his epithets and curses strike you as particularly imaginative? / I would not agree with the commentator's assessment based on the careers of lunitics like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck who drive their broadcast ratings and ulimatley their annual incomes on berating people. I feel the speaker in "A Glass of Beer" succeeds in the berating of his female nemisis. I like the term "lanky hank of a she" as a imaginative curse.



"Her Kind"

by Anne Sexton

1. Who is the speaker of this poem? What do we know about her? / The speaker of this poem is an old woman looking back on three phases of her life. We know she was a young woman of the night, then a wife and finally an old woman whom has passed on.

2. What does the speaker mean by ending each stanza with the statement, "I have been her kind?" / The speaker is affirming her experience and itemizing the three phases of her life that she is describing.

3. Who are the figures with whom the speaker identifies? What do these figures tell us about the speaker's state of mind? / The first stanza features a posessed witch. This represents the young woman who is a woman of the night, possibly a prostitute. The second stanza features worms and elves. These characters represent the males that the woman served in midlife, possibly husbands. The third stanza features the driver of a cart. This represents the funeral wagon driver. The figures all add up to a woman who had a very unhappy life and died unfulfilled.



"The Red Wheelbarrow"

by William Carlos Williams

1. Write a paragraph summing up your initial reactions to "The Red Wheelbarrow." / My initial reaction to "The Red Wheelbarrow" is that it is the one thing in the life of the chickens that means food and water and survival. The chickens drink and eat from the wheelbarrow.

2. Now write a second paragraph with the benifit of this snippet of biographical information: Inspiration for this poem apparently came to Dr. Williams as he was gazing from the window of a house where one of his patients, a small girl, lay suspended between life and death. How does this information affect you reading of the poem? / The red wheelbarrow is a bridge to life for the white chickens. The wheelbarrow is the practice of medicine and the white chickens represent the little girl.



"The Unknown Citizen"

by W.H. Auden

1. Read the two-line epitaph at the beginning of the poem as carefully as you read what follows. How does the epitaph help establish the voice by which the rest of the poem is spoken? / I think the epitaph sets the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the poem.

2. Who is speaking? / I think the speaker is a member of the government, possibly the Bureau of Statistics.

3. What ironic discrepencies do you find between the speakers attitude toward the subject and that of the poet himself. By what is the poet's attitude made clear? / The poem describes the perfect citizen yet I sense that the poet does not believe any man could be this perfect. The poet's attitude is made clear by the last two lines and possibly the title....a man this perfect is unknown.

4. In the phrase "The Unknown Soldier" ( of which "The Unknown Citizen" reminds us ), what does the word unknown mean? What does it mean in the title of Auden's poem? In the phrase of the soldier, unknown means the soldier has not been identified. In the title of Auden's poem, the word unknown means no citizen can be this perfect.

5. What tendencies in our civilization does Auden satirize? / Auden is commenting on acceptance and "keeping up with the Joneses."

6. How would you expect the speaker to define a Modern Man, if a CD player, a radio, a car,and a refrigerator are"everything" a Modern Man needs? / I think the speaker would define the man as complete and whole, but the poet would identify him as shallow.



"Rites of Passage"

by Sharon Olds

1. What is ironic about the way the speaker describes the first-grade boys at her son's birthday party? / They sound alot like adults that are attending a party.

2. What other irony does the author underscore in the last two lines? / The boys begin to play war when the beginning of the party was like a real war.

3. Does the mother sentimentalize her own son by seeing him as better than the other little boys? / Yes she does because she sees him speak up as a host showing a little maturity.



"Dakota: October, 1822: Hunkpapa Warrior"

by Rod Taylor

1. How would you describe the speakers' tone-confident, boastful, serene? / I would describe the speaker's tone as all three of the suggested elements with a touch of pensiveness.

2. What is ironic about this poem? / The irony comes on the last line. After decribing a near perfect life, the speaker asks what can go wrong with a tone the suggests something will go wrong.

3. What kind of irony does the poem display? / The poem displays verbal irony.



"The Golf Links"

by Sarah N. Cleghorn

1. Is this brief poem satiric? Does it contain any verbal irony or is the peot making a matter-of-fact statement in words that mean just what they say? / I think the poem is satiric. The statment is matter-of-fact, but the fact that children are in the factory and the adults are playing golf is a slam on child labor that was a norm in1917.

2. What other kind of irony is present in this poem? / I feel sarcasm in the poem.

3. Sarah N. Cleghorn's poem dates from before the enactment of legislation against child labor. Is it still a good poem, or is it hopelessly outdated? / I think it is still good as I see retired men heading to the golf course and I must go to work.

4. Would you call this poem lyric, narrative, or didactic? / I would call this poem lyric.



"Second Fig"

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

1. Do you think the author is making fun of the speaker's attitude or agreeing with it? / I think the author knows that "Castles made of sand, slip into the sea, eventually." Therefore, I think she is making fun.



"Comment"

by Dorothy Parker

1. Is Marie of Roumania the speaker of the poem? / No, this is a sarcastic statment that says the previous three lines a not true.

2. How serious is the poem's tone? Consider the rhythm and rimes in lines 2 and 4. / I do not think the tone is serious at all. It is completely sarcastic.

3. In actuality, Queen Marie of Roumania had an unhappy life. Does this add another level of irony to the poem? / It does add another level of irony. Even if you did not know that fact about Marie, you still know that the last line is sarcastic. Knowing that Marie was unhappy is an oxymoron to the rest of the poem.

"Making It In Poetry"
by Bob Hicok
1. Is the title of this poem ironic or not? Explain your answer. / The title is ironic because the comment on small checks is evidence that the author is not making it in poetry.
2. Both of the teller's questions are answered the same way. Is there irony in that fact? / There is irony in that fact because the small checks show that the author is not making a great living and the fact that no one has heard of him supports the same result. The way he answers the two questions the same way, even though in the teller's mind they are two different questions, is the irony.
3. Do you find any significance in the description of the teller as "young"? / I do find significance in the fact that the teller is young. She is asking her questions showing the lack of experience in the world of artists making a living at their craft.