"This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams

Just so you Know

I have cleaned
the bikes
that were left in
the house

and which
you brought
mud
on my carpet

Forgive me
I sold them
to pay
off the mortgage

We Real Cool

"We Real Cool" definitely has a powerful message behind it. Gwendolyn Brooks illustrates the essence of troubled teenagers who will eventually suffer the ill-fated possibility that life renders a human being if they continue the lifestyle of the streets - death.

The content in this poem is directed African-American youth in the 1960's. Jazz was the popular music of the time in the African-American community, and slang words were used in the content of the songs and likewise in the common language of young African-American youth. Also the way the poem is written is a way to get the young black youth to read in the late 1960's. The poem is very easy to read and has a catchy almost musical flow.

The teenagers are obviously not too fond about attending school. Therefore, they skip and find solace and pleasure at a pool facility. It seems as if the teenagers really don't care about their education and go day by day living a happy-go-lucky lifestyle. The happiness that they are feeling by playing pool supports that theory.

The ‘We’ — you’re supposed to stop after the ‘We’ and think about validity; of course, there’s no way for you to tell whether it should be said softly or not, I suppose, but I say it rather softly because I want to represent their basic uncertainty, which they don’t bother to question every day, of course.” In 1976, Barbara B. Sims wrote that the lines of “We Real Cool” are short to suggest the shortness of the lives of the pool players, and that the words “lurk,” “strike,” and “sin” suggest pool players who, outside the pool hall, thieve, rape, and kill.

Even though the poem was written in 1960, it mirrors the situation of today, for many young men and even young women skip school everyday - not to mention those who dropout.

Gwendolyn Brooks does an excellent job with this piece. With its monosyllabic and eight-line stature, the poem is to the point and frank.

"We Real Cool" is impressive and has a profound implication: No education (i.e., skipping an institution of schooling that provides knowledge) and living a carefree lifestyle as a dropout leads to the likelihood of death.

What's your Dream?

In this poem, Harlem, Hughes asks questions that make the readers think about their dreams in life; however, his questions are quite obvious to the reader because these are the things that people face in life and that chose to go through by accepting a challenge to pursue a dream.

By reading this poem over and over, I was able to read the poem carefully and find the tone of voice that is being used to express each meaning. What I realized about the interpretation of this poem is that it follows a pattern in which the tone is being expressed in five different ways. This pattern starts off with the author's thoughts in line one, then it switches from a negative to a more positive tone in lines two through eight, then it goes back to a negative tone in lines nine through ten and ends with another thought of mind to which the readers have to think about.

As for the effect, the tone of this poem follows the effect towards the choice of words that Hughes uses to describe each tone of voice that is being made. For example, in line two, Hughes mentions "Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Knowing this, I was able to break down one of the meanings of the words from this line and noticed that raisin can be used as a simile which describes two different things but ends up relating by saying a raisin is like a person. When we think of the word raisin we usually describe how dry it is and how it has no more value because its worn out. Referring back to Hughes simile of a raisin to a person, we can see the similarities to where the person is seen as the raisin. This can be caused because of working to hard in the sun which causes one to wear out because all you do all day is work, work, and work and eventually lose value towards your strength and own self.

By comparing the similes to the overall meaning of the poem, Hughes describes in line three two different terms with different meanings. This simile in line three, "fester and sore" tries to send a message that a person can actually get frustrated over their dream and end up having to deal with a sort of pain. Due to this pain, a person can end up running away. In the next line, we see that "stink and rotten meat" are being compared towards one another. From this information we can describe that "stink and rotten meat" can lose interest in a dream because the irritation of an old dream ends up being thrown away.

Overall, Hughes helps us think about our dreams in life by using different similes. These similes were really effective to the reader because thinking about each dreams meaning helps us understand that dreams face conflicts and difficult situations in life. With this being said, what is your dream?

Thesis: "At The End" by Ed Meek

In this poem, "At The End," Ed Meek explains how and elderly man is willing to accept death because as a person grows older death gets closer.

Life is a Blur

In her poem, In a Station of the Metro, Ezra Pound uses language to create a visual image for the reader. Pound explains how people are able to walk past others without noticing much of their surroundings until a certain image catches their attention. In this poem, Pound explains how a crowd of people can cause an apparition to where it's hard to make a visual of what the person looks like; however, one will actually see an image of beauty due to its attractiveness.

Based on my metaphor, Ezra Pound shows how a crowd of people can make beauty stand out. The first thing that comes to our attention by looking at this picture is the crowd of people. The crowd is an indication of people that surrounds this picture. It creates an illusion to where everyone looks as if they are one and some stand out more than others do.

The image further shows how beauty can also be seen by its uniqueness through its color. The color makes it unique as well because using black and white creates a blur to where only some people in the picture fade into one, while each person is seen individually. By focusing on the color of the image, black shows more of a dominance than the colors white and gray. At this point, black is also indicating that there is a dark side to this poem. Pound mentions, "Petals on a wet, black bough," which represents and indicates that petals are seen as the people because when we think of petals they tend to be dark colors, just as the people in the picture are seen. By wearing darker colors, each individual will stand out more.

Another image that creates beauty in this picture is the structure of certain images given to us to see. For instance, the bike in the picture is causing attention to stand out because if you look at the two bikes next to each other there is no blur to its image. The street address is another example that is causing attraction to the picture to stand out as well because of the French writing and its structure of the pole being a solid shape. The structure of the pole and the bikes shows a solid picture which we can draw more attention too because with the crowd of people causing an apparition our focus is being drawn into the things we can see clearly.

As we put all of these reasons together, whether it's by the crowd of people, the uniqueness of color and the structure of different images, the words used in this poem were meant to have a meaning towards life.

Overall, Pound shows how a crowd of people can have no attention for us to visualize on each person; but as soon as we see beauty, are attention focuses on things that are interesting to us.

Dealing With Death

The Poems, Sonnet 73, and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, both introduce how death is being dealt with in different ways. Both Shakespeare and Thomas talk about death; however, each poet addresses death differently.
For instance, in line three of Sonnet 73, Shakespeare informs the readers that his poem deals with death as a form of re-leaving his pain by accepting his lost of his loved one. For this purpose, his love towards someone shows that he cares and he has to do what's right by moving on and accepting his lost of what he loves most. In each stanza Shakespeare emphasizes the different stages of death by first talking about loneliness, sadness, and ends by talking about his deeper emotions that eventually lead him to accept death. From reading Shakespeare poem, I was able to make a connection with one of his quotes in Sonnet 73. In line eight, Shakespeare mentions an important quote that says "Death's second self that seals up all in rest." Knowing this, I was able to see death being used as a metaphor for sleep. Sleeping is a profound form of death because you might not wake up and just stay asleep.
As for Thomas, he sees death as a frustration by pleading because he does not know how to accept death. In his poem, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Thomas is speaking to his father and tells him, "do not give up and to basically keep on trying." Thomas' way of expressing his feelings towards his father is difficult and death becomes a form of frustration.
Overall, these two authors look at death in different perspectives. Shakespeare looks at death as a form of re-leaving pain by accepting death and moving on. Thomas in the other hand sees death as a form of frustration and does not know how to handle losing someone.