The Thought Fox

I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Besides the clock’s loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.

    — Ted Hughes

I chose this poem because the authors first name was Ted, and it made me think of Ted Bundy.  The author kinda looked a little scary too, haha.  But I chose the Fox poem because I like the wily little guy, and I feel sorry for little foxes that were and still hunted down by men and dogs.  The title of the poem is not the first line of the poem like Emily Dickenson’s work.  The Thought Fox is a good way to title the poem, because it is true that foxes are very smart.  In a lot of the stanzas there is enjambment from stanza to stanza, it makes the poem a little confusing, but it also makes the reader pay more attention to how the poem is moving stylistically.  There are also caesuraes in the poem in the forms of commas and semi colons. “that now And again now, and now, and now”  this line from the poem makes me think of a fox looking out from under it’s shelter and looking back and forth back and forth, looking and sensing if there is danger near by.  “The window is starless still; the clock ticks,The page is printed.” This line shows parallelism to the beginning of the poem, because Ted said that the sky was star less, and that the clock was ticking, but at the start of the poem he said the page was blank, which made sense.  At the end of the poem he said the night was still starless, the clock still ticking, and that the page  was now not blank, which makes sense again, because he has been busy writing his poem on it.

It is not growing like a tree

It is not growing like a tree
In bulk doth make Man better be;
Or standing long an oak, three hundred year,
To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere:
A lily of a day
Is fairer far in May,
Although it fall and die that night—
It was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see;
And in short measures life may perfect be

– Ben Johnson 1572 -1637

This poem is very short, and only contains one stanza of ten lines.  The Author I assume did not give this poem a title, so the title became the first line of the poem.  I picked this poem, because Ben Johnson seemed like such a common name, and not at all sounding like what a poet’s name should sound like.  This poem is about trees, flowers, humans, and life, how like how life is relatable through nature.  In the lines three and four there are multiple commas and they serve the poem through cearsuras.  There are a lot of end stops in this poem as well.  The endstops include semi colons, commas, colons, and hyphens.  In some cases there is no end punctuation at all, and in the last line where I felt there should be a period, there was nothing.  I take it back, by reading it again the poet is saying that a lily does not grow like a tree and does not live as long, and it says that it grows and dies very fast, and in this short life span life is perfect.  “A lily of a day is fairer far in May”  to me this sounds almost like a metaphor, but its not quite, the line is just saying that lilys are fairer in May , and that makes sense, because they sure are not doing their growing in winter.  In the last line the poet compares the short perfect span of the lilies life are comparable to a humans life, and that there are short perfect spans in our own human lives. 

Too Lazy to be ambitious

Too lazy to be ambitious,
I let the world take care of itself.
Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag;
a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.
Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?
Listening to the night rain on my roof,
I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

By: Ryokan

It’s cool to see a Japanese poet.  Usually in this unit they have all been English.  This poem is very short, it has seven lines, and only one stanza.  All the letters are capitalized at the beginning of each line.  Every line is end stopped.  It actually sounds very modern.  The language does not seem like it is from the 19^th century.  There is only one caesura and it is in the middle of the last line.  The poem is made up of free verse, and has no rhyming scheme.  The poem sounds very euphonious.  It is very soothing to read, and makes me not worry about the worries that tomorrow will bring.  It is almost meant to be a didactic piece of literature because in a way it is instructing someone on how to live a stress free life.  So of course the speaker or persona of the poem in my minds eye is a very “chill” sort of guy.  This poem makes me think of the bible in that it tells people to give their worries up to God and let him worry about the problems in your life like drama, food, shelter ect. So you can go on with the living part of your life, but it is also said that God helps those who help themselves, so in that way this poem is  not like the bible, this may be an allusion to a religious proverb in Japan.  The Janapese people are known for being very hard working though, so maybe not.

O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting
 
          fingers of
purient philosophers pinched
and
poked
 
thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy
 
      beauty      .how
oftn have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and
 
buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
        (but
true
 
to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover
 
          thou answerest
 
them only with
 
                        spring)
 
Poem by E.E. Cummings

Wow crazy poem, how its spaced and stuff, makes me really have to concentrate on what is going on and it kinda distracts me from the meaning of the words.  The stanzas kinda have a pattern, but then again they don’t because in the last maybe half of the poem the lines skip the four line stanza and the weird part really almost starts where the parenthasee starts.  There are also either misspelled words, or words that are leaving out letters on purpose, they can also be the mark of the time they were in when they used that older style of English.  In the third stanza there is a caesura in the form of a period.  Pretty sure that is the only period in the whole piece.  This piece is about Earth and how people are forever messing with it.  The scientists are forever trying to find out all of her secrets, philosophers are always trying to figure out how the world works, in a very abstract sort of way, and the religious people are always trying to find God’s in the Earth or on the Earth.  But Earth is never in winter all year long to retaliate to the wrongs that all these groups do to her, but always bounces back in the form of Spring.  This is very forgiving of Earth, I think if I was Earth and I felt all the proddings of these different groups, I would have Spring everyother year deffinatly, and then maybe people would learn their lesson.

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient sleepless eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors;
No yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever or else swoon to death.
 
Poem by John Keats

“And watching with eternal lids apart”, wowzass I really like that line, there is personification because stars don’t actually watch, but I really like the eternal lids part, it really makes me think about how long stars actually are on this world, its pretty amazing.  In the line before splendour is spelled differently but not wrong.  I think John is listing all the things that are on Earth that happen and that are, and then goes on to say , But!  Even those things are not as strong and eternal as my love for you, and your love and devotion to me.  It’s some pretty heavy stuff so he must be really into this girl.  Other noticings that I see, There is a lot of caesura in this poem in the way of commas, a lot of different spellings of words showing that this poem was in fact written  in the old times.  Pillow’d is spelled with an apostrophe, and I cant remember what that is called but the apostrophe took the place of the E or the vowel sound, poets usually use this when writing iambic pentameter, so that the syllables will match up.  Some words were used that I did not know before er⋅e⋅mite – a hermit or recluse, esp. one under a religious vow.//

And, ablution, which is a cleansing with water as a religious ritual.  So both these new words have to do with cleansing and being religious, maybe Keats thinks love and God and the Bible all tie together, that by finding love one also finds all of God’s glory in the process.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise,
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints -I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
 
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Wow, I did not know that Elizabeth Browning wrote this poem.  This has got to be one of the most famous love poems in all of history.  In lines one, three, six, seven, eight, ten, and thirteen there is either a caesura with a dash, question mark, or period.  There is also a lot of enjambement in this poem, this poem being a love poem is obviously very euphinous sounding, it is very pleasing to the ear because she wrote this to someone that she loved, and you would not write nasty ugly sounding words to someone that you loved.  There is also an anaphora in the middle lines with the words I love thee and then it goes on to say how she loves him.  I think the I love you repeated three times really pounds it into the poem what her feelings are for this guy, also in the second to last line there is a bit of catalouging, with smiles and tears.  This is also a couplet, the stanzas are just not separated, I suspected this because the last two lines sounded different from the rest of the poem, and this makes sense, because the volta or the turn around would naturally sound different from the rest of the poem.  Some of the lines in this poem are end stopped.  Elizabeth also puts her I love you themes into metaphors comparing love to being pure and a man trying to right wrongs, also this is one humongous apostrophi, or an ode, that is posititve throughout the whole poem.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty

Your subjects hope, dread Sire--
The crown upon your brows may flourish long,
And that your arm may in your God be strong!
O may your sceptre num'rous nations sway,
And all with love and readiness obey!
But how shall we the British king reward!
Rule thou in peace, our father, and our lord!
Midst the remembrance of thy favours past,
The meanest peasants most admire the last
May George, beloved by all the nations round,
Live with heav'ns choicest constant blessings crown'd!
Great God, direct, and guard him from on high,
And from his head let ev'ry evil fly!
And may each clime with equal gladness see
A monarch's smile can set his subjects free!

I think this poem is hoping for the end of a ruling king, or maybe the end of a ruling like a mean person.  In a lot of places in this poem apostrophis are used to take the vowel sounds out of words.  It makes the poem sound more provincial and peasent like, maybe the feel that she was going for, I can just hear an accent when I am reading this poem.  There is no enjambment in this poem, because you see that more in modern day poetry.  There are a lot of end stops with the use of an exclamation point.  There are also cesora’s throught out the poem in the way of commas.  A lot of words are spelled differently too, like scepter, and favours.  This also adds to how old this poem is because you just don’t see those words in todays world.  There is a lot of talk about God when talking about the King and monarch.  It makes me think of the olden days when kings said things like, “God spoke to me last night and said we needed to go to war”  A lot of rulers said that they talked to God when they probably did not.  It’s sickening how they misuse their power in this way.  In a way I can see how the separation of church and state is good now because that enables people to no longer abuse the power of God, they can no longer use his power to further their own in an unscrupulous manner. 

Bee! I'm expecting you!
Was saying Yesterday
To Somebody you know
That you were due -
 
The Frogs got Home last Week -
Are settled, and at work -
Birds, mostly back -
The Clover warm and thick -
 
You'll get my Letter by
The seventeenth; Reply
Or better, be with me -
Yours, Fly.
 
Poem by Emily Dickinson

I really like this poem, its like the start of spring and the fly is corresponding with the bee, like they are old friends and the fly is telling the bee he needs to come out of hibernation.  In the first line there is a ceasora with an exclamation point that line is also enstopped with an exclamation point.  This is also a kind of personification animals talking to animals, because they cant do that that is a human characteristic.  There are a lot of dashes and some lines have enjambment.  There are four lines per stanza, three stanzas.  Letter is capatilized in the third stanza giving is emphasis.  Reply is also in big letters.  It’s pretty much a big letter that is a poem.  This is like a metaphor for Emily’s letters to people, because Ms. M said that even her letters that she wrote to friends were in poem format.  That is pretty crazy because that means she would have to like think in poems all the time.  She was not a writer of poems she was the poem.  Its like when people learn a new language  you have to learn to think in that language if your really going to be fulent, Emily was fluent in poems.  I wish that I could think this way in Spanish class haha Emily was really talented and it is really too bad that she became famous after she died, but she did not write poems to become famous, she wrote them because they were her passion, that is really cool, I hope I can find something in this life that affects me like that.

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee
Wi' murd'ring pattle!
 
I'm truly sorry man's dominion,
Has broken nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
What makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!
 
I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!
 
Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!
 
Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell -
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.
 
That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!
 
But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
 
Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me;
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects dreaer!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
 
Poem by Robert Burns
I picked to a mouse, because it sounded like a cute poem.  I was surprised when I read it because it is written in a scotish brouge.  It’s interesting to think that maybe the scotish write like this all the time like in normal writing?  But that would not make sense.  I cant remember the litereary technique but it’s when an ‘ is used instead of the vowel sound.  This technique is all over the place because of the scottish brouge it’s written in.  there are eight stanzas of six lines.  Masculine ryhme is present through out the poem.  Catalouging is used in the first line to describe the mouse.  The syntax is really old timy with words like thou and little beastie, who uses those words any more? The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
This phrase is used a lot I’m not quite sure what it means, just maybe that even men can be brought down by a much simpler being.  Like a mouse.  Or the mouse could be a metaphore for the small things that muck up the plans.  Because usually a great plan is ruined by the smallest little thing.  I'm truly sorry man's dominion,

Has broken nature’s social union,this phrase makes me think of man taking over the world! And taking what used to be shared with nature in harmony.  Every year it seems that more and more animals get put on the endangered list, or that something else is going wrong with the Earth.  Then it all  points back to humans and how destructive we are.  I think it is very arrogant to say we can destroy the Earth, but I believe we can destroy life on Earth.

A Mother's breast:
Safe refuge from her childish fears,
From childish troubles, childish tears,
Mists that enshroud her dawning years!
see how in sleep she seems to sing
A voiceless psalm--an offering
Raised, to the glory of her King
In Love: for Love is Rest.
 
A Darling's kiss:
Dearest of all the signs that fleet
From lips that lovingly repeat
Again, again, the message sweet!
Full to the brim with girlish glee,
A child, a very child is she,
Whose dream of heaven is still to be
At Home: for Home is Bliss.
 
Poem by Lewis Carroll
 
This poem is made up of two octanes.  The puncuation of the poems sort of mirror themselves.  Like in line one both lines end with a semi colin, and in lines four the lines end with an exclamation point.  Also the last lines end with a period.  Only one line in this whole poem starts with a lower case letter.  The poem ryhmes in a masculine ryhme scheme.  Childish is used in repitition in the first stanza.  In the fifth line alliteration is used with the s words.  Also the last two lines have the same semi colon punctuation.  The same lay out.  This poem does not have any enjambment, the author prob is to old to have that kind of style in their work.  There is a ceusea in line six with a dash.  A lot of other ceusas are used in this poem with commas.
 
In the first stanza when the author says that when she sleeps she sings, I think that the baby has started to cry in her sleep.  And that the new mother thinks it’s the most beuatiful sound in the world.  I’m sure she wont be thinking that in a few more weeks.  But a babies loud cry is good to a mother’s ears also because then she knows her baby is healthy, ususally babies that are quiet usually and not healthy and are sick.    I don’t know if docotors still do this or not but they used to smack that babies bottom when they were just born if they were not crying when they came out.