14. ANTHOLOGY

Parent’s Love Spectrum

Parents can have an enormous amount of love for their children, but not all of the love is the same. Love is a natural feeling that is created within everyone depending on different situations towards different people. I am told there is no love like a parent’s love. Though love can range from one parent to the next and is unique depending on the child and situation. A mother’s love differs from a father’s love. The love will also vary if it is a son and daughter and the different relationships they have with each of their parents. All parents begin with the new love. This is generated from the creation of making a child, caring for the unborn, and bringing it into the world. Everything is new to the parents and they learn to love this human being that comes from them. Parents have the unconditional love that regardless of the child’s wrong doings will forever love their child. From the same parent can be brought hard love, doing things that a parent’s knows is right for the child though it might not make the child happy. There is a range of different types of love between these two. I have brought together an assortment of poems that expresses different types of parent’s love.

Sylvia Plath expresses in “Morning Song” a mother’s love for a newborn child. A single cry from the child and the mother without hesitation goes to the child. “One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral In my Victorian nightgown.” (Plath line 13-14). This conveys the quick action a mother takes for her child. Newborns are vulnerable to the world and mother’s feel they need to not only nurture but protect them from harm. When you hear a baby cry you are not always sure what they are crying about. That baby’s mother will promptly tend to the child in a loving manner to find out. This same mother deprives herself of sleep at her “wake to listen” (line 11) for her baby. A mother has instinctive incomparable love for their newborn.

A way to express love for a child is to teach them. In Margaret Atwood’s free verse poem “You Begin” she writes about teaching a child. This poem is about how a mother can teach her child, first about the simple things in life like the hand and colors. Learning is a constant action that children should continue to undergo. “Once you have learned these words you will learn that there are more words than you can ever learn.” (Atwood line 21-23). Teaching a child about basics is a necessity for a child’s success as they get older but telling your children that the world is a hard place is a good lesson for a child to learn. “This is the world, which is fuller and more difficult to learn that I have said.” (line 16-17). Parents are showing a deeper love for their children when they teach them that life can be hard but that should not restrict them from still achieving. Preparing children for life is another type of love a parent can give. The speaker readjusts her thoughts back to the appropriate audience, a child, by the end of the poem.

Dedicating time to your children is another approach how parents can express their love. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow writes about this time in “The Children’s Hour.” In this poem he uses a tradiational rhyming scheme, rhyming the second and forth lines, similar to a children’s poem or book. This is a metered poem about how the father “pauses in the day’s occupations” (Longfellow line 3) to spend time with his children. This also represents a child’s love for their father, childishly plotting to all sneak up on their father with love. “They almost devour me with kisses, Their arms about me entwine” (line 25-26). This father does not rush his children out of his study but enjoys the moment of love with his children. Longfellow knows that he has a never-ending love for his children. He uses the metaphor that he is in a castle and that his children have entered the walls. Longfellow ends the poem by saying he has captured his children and put them into the dungeon in his heart where they will forever stay until the walls crumble. He is simply stating he will forever love his children and they will always remain in his heart.

Another form of love a parent can have with their children is an empathetic love. This love is expressed in an unrhymed poem by Richard Wilbur in “The Writer.” This poem is written in three line stanzas and addresses how a father feels the emotions his daughter is going through as she writes. He can hear the typewriter keys going, pause and then start up again. He can understand the working and thought process that goes into writing and wishes “her a lucky passage.” (Wilbur line 9). This is where a parent shows love through silence not action. I feel that the father is not only empathetic but also proud of his daughter for trying to be a writer and following in his footsteps. He ends the poem with a silent compassion to his daughter hoping the best for her.

One of the hardest loves a parent goes through is letting their child go. “For a Daughter Who Leaves” by Janice Mirikitani is a free verse unstructured poem where a mother is preparing for her daughter’s wedding. This is a mother’s continuous love and the realization of letting her daughter go and start her own life. The mother uses the “spool, the same she used to stitch her daughter’s first jacket” (Mirikitani line 8-10) to sew the wedding slippers. I feel this represents the endless love the mother has had for her daughter since the beginning. The mother reminisces about when her daughter was young and how she has grown into a woman. The wedding slippers represent how the mother is preparing her daughter to go and walk into her new life. “The woman spins her thread from the spool of her heart,” (line 26-28). The mother is letting go and passing on the love to her daughter.

Another type of love a mother can go through is the love for the unborn. Gwendolyn Brooks writes about the controversial subject of abortion in a free verse poem “The Mother.” This poem speaks of the love a mother has with the creation of life and the unborn child. Mothering a child can create a bond that cannot be broken and though this baby was never born does not mean the baby was not loved. “You will remember the children you got that you did not get,” (Brooks line 2). This is a compassionate poem how a mother who made a choice does not mean they never loved the child. She realizes she cannot complain or whine about her choice. This mother of the unborn feels she did love the child though she was unable to meet or hold them. I feel the poem is ended best, “Believe me, I loved you all. Believe me, I knew you, though faintly, and I loved, I love you All.” (line 31-33). This can be a difficult subject for anybody to talk about, but this poem shows another side, the love. It might not be expressed the same as a parent/child love but this is love for a child that only the mother knows.

This next poem is advice to mother’s to allow their kids to grow up during their childhood. In Frank O’Hara’s jagged fragments of sentences in “Ave Maria” he gives advice on a way for mother’s to love their children. He feels that mothers should allow their children to go to the movies while they are young and learn “where candy bars come from” (O’Hara line 16). He gives advice to mothers and all parents to love their children by not sheltering them from their childhood. Let children experience their childhood so that when they are older they do not go “blind in front of a TV set seeing the movies you wouldn’t let them see when they are young” (line 34-36). An overprotective parent is limiting their children from allowing them to grow up. The parents that let their children grow and learn without constant mediation are helping their children to be better adults. This special type of love is rewarded to those parents because as the children sees what the parents have done, they will love their parents more as they get older.

Not every poet feels the same about parents love. I am including an antonym poem to my anthology. Philip Larkin is one of the poets that feel differently for he expressed this in a simple contemporary free verse style poem, “This Be The Verse.” He mentions that your parents “fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.” (Larkin line 3-4). He doesn’t express that the parents do not love their children but that parents can corrupt their children. He ends by advising we should prevent anymore rotten people entering this world telling everyone “don’t have any kids yourself.” (line 12).

I found “A Parents Love” a poem by an unknown author that depicts the emotions of parents the best. No matter how much a parent advises, offers, and teaches to their children, that once it is given to the child it is in the child’s hands. This poem is written in couplets of what a parent can do and what they do not have control over. “I can teach you right from wrong, but I cannot always decide for you.” (Unknown line 11-12). I feel this poem illustrates the best on what parents can give to their children and the types of love they have for them while observing the realistic truth that a child is their own person. The parent knows that the child might choose to do something wrong or against their will but that does not stop a parent from trying to prepare their children. The last line of the poem is the control a parent does have, “I can love you with unconditional love all of my life… and I will!” (line 47-48). I feel this poem ties my anthology together, that regardless of the loves a parent has, it is ultimately the child’s choice.

I love my parents and they have taught me a great deal about love. They do not always love me the same way, and react differently to my sisters and me. That does not mean they love one of us more or less, just differently. During different times of my life they have expressed their love from the unconditional motherly love my mom has to the hard love my gives me to see I succeed. I feel that people can relate to the love between a parent and child and know that it is not one dimensional. I have gathered these poems together as an adult realizing the different loves parents have. In the children’s book Love You Forever by Robert Munsch, speaks of the love a mother has for her son. As the son get’s older and changes, at the end of the day the mother still loves her son the same. This book was written for children to understand the love of a parent. The son becomes a parents and truly understand the love his mother had for him. These poems are more abstract, harder to understand, and as an adult you are able to see the underlining theme of a parent’s love. My anthology was gathered as a daughter who has experienced the parent’s love spectrum.

Bibliography

“A Parents Love.” Luv's Creations. 4 Dec. 2007. .

Atwood, Margaret. "You Begin." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2005. 1896.

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “The Mother.” Online. 3 Dec 2007. .

Cohen, Nan. “A Newborn Girl at Passover.” Online. 3 Dec 2007. .

Larkin, Philip. "This Be The Verse." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2005. 1657-1658.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. “The Children’s Hour.” Online. 2 Dec 2007. .

Mirikitani, Janice. “For a Daughter Who Leaves.” Online. 30 Nov 2007. .

Munsch, Robert. Love You Forever. Ontario, Canada: Firefly Books, 1995. Can also be accessed online at: http://www.rogerknapp.com/inspire/loveforever.htm

O’Hara, Frank. "Ave Maria." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2005. 1730.

Plath, Sylvia. "Morning Song." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2005. 1837.

Wilbur, Richard. “The Writer.” Online. 2 Dec 2007. .

13. SENTIMENTALITY

Sentimentality is the state of being emotional and affectionate to an idea. Writers and speakers use this to induce or heighten the reader or listener’s emotional response. Using sentimentality can be overdone and the meanings of the poems can become lost through the reader’s personal emotional response. On the other hand sometimes writers try to avoid the sentimental literary device to remain unbiased and allowing readers to interpret their poems differently.

Sylvia Plath is a poet that uses sentimentality throughout her poems. In “Morning Song” she avoids the blatant sentimentality by the use of contradictory emotions. In the third stanza she starts with “I’m no more your mother” (line 7) which reveals the beginning of her postpartum depression. This expresses her detachment of the child from within the womb. Within the fifth stanza she mothers her child. “One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral” (line 13). This conveys the mother’s love for a child. A single cry from the child and the mother without hesitation goes to the child. Throughout this poem she does not use words that capture the reader’s emotions to her poem but slowly unwinds to the reader her personal story of her newborn.

Even though in “Morning Song” Plath does not force the same sentimentality as she does in “Daddy” and in “Lady Lazarus.” In “Daddy” she speaks of the little she knows of her father. “I was ten when they buried you.” (line 57). She lost her father at a young age and throughout the poem mentions the heartache and loss. As reading the poem the reader connects with the emotion of Plath. She uses the same style throughout “Lady Lazarus” as she speaks of her personal suicide attempts.

I feel that the poem that used sentimentality the best this week was Galway Kinnell’s “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps.” He sets the poem up well describing the sounds that he can make. He then expresses that the soft noise of love making seem to be “louder” than the ones previous mentioned. He then climaxes with “and he appears—in his baseball pajamas,” (line12) slowly revealing that it is his son that is awakened through the soft noises. He ends the poem exposing that he is not upset with his son for it was the same act that created him. I feel the way Kinnell slowly uncovers the meaning through his poem with the touch of sentimentality at the end is used successfully.

12. BEATS VS. NYS

The new contemporary writing comes from the Beats and the New York School poets during the 50’s through 70’s. Both were ironic poetry movements heavily influenced by their surroundings, generation, and social circles.

The Beats was a radical group of writers that believed poetry was an escape from oneself and their conception of a poem as a perfectible object. Wikipedia defines these poets characterized as at best only a passing fad which had been largely fueled by media-attention. The Beat literature is believed to have changed the establishment through their radical rebellion. One of the poets during this time was Allen Ginsberg. In his poem “A Supermarket in California” is an expression of this time. He writes about a trip to the grocery store interlacing influential poets throughout his poem. He brings the idea of Walt Whitman as a customer of in a modern day grocery store. “I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meat in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.” (line 4). He imagination of this idea is new to the poetry movement by combing imagination into the real life at the same time. Being a Beat poet Ginsberg uses this form of expression new to the established poetry before him.

The New York School poets is believed their work was a reaction to the Confessionalist movement. This poetry has been defined to be light, violent, or observational and their style to be worldly. The poets wrote in manners of word paintings, often using vivid and visual imagery. They were inspired through the contemporary avant-garde art movements and their friends of the New York City art world's vanguard circle. The poetry was serious as well as ironic. Frank O’Hara’s a New York poet wrote “Ave Maria.” The poems words were written in jagged fragments of sentences, forcing the reader to take in each burst of words one at a time, slowing the mind’s progress down the page. The format was not the only contemporary component of this poem. It was an extreme poem clearly written from that radical generation. To write anything against authority and being an individual is true to this time.

Both these movements created a new set of contemporary poems that rebelled against not only society but the traditional forms of poetry before them.

11. PLAIN VERSE FACTS

Free verse is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers will perceive to be part of a coherent whole defined by Wikipedia. The poets of Plainspeech, Free Verse, and everyday “Mere” facts are using a language that is more familiar to the daily reader. When using a more common language the poet can be more plainspoken without relying on other words to convey their poems message.

The use of common language does not restrict the poets from using traditional poetry styles. In Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Armadillo” she uses the traditional rhyming scheme of rhyming the last word of the second and fourth lines in nine of the ten stanzas. In the eighth stanza the tone and style changes, in the second line “Hastily, all alone,” (line 30) is a shorter line compared to the others. This line also does not continue the rhyme scheme in “rose-flecked, head down, tail down,” (line 32). This is also that free verse Bishop uses to give the poem direction and a style of its own. She wrote this poem is still written in a contemporary style of word choice. The contemporary style is not as complex as previous readings making the poem easier to understand without looking into great depth on what the poet is trying to express.

In Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse” is also written with a traditional format in a contemporary free verse style. The poem is written in three quatrains, where the first and third lines rhyme and the second and fourth. The poem has on average eight syllables to each line for the first eight lines. On the last quatrain the syllables are shorter. The quick ending is a way to be stern and to the point ending the poem bluntly, “And don’t have any kids yourself.” (line 12). This is poem is written crassly; Larkin uses curse words and blames parents in an insensitive tone. The word choices the poets use give their poems the ability to transcend mere facts. This is a bold poem to write today and even more so in the 70’s. But this was also right after the time that children began to rebel against society and their parents to create a new generation in the sixties. And it’s that mindset that gives this poem a contemporary style. The poem can be written from a person obviously from a certain time but that does not have to restrict the popular styles of their influences.

10. ECHOES

In Audre Lorde’s “Echoes” she uses a lot of figurative language throughout the poetry. Like many poems the use of figurative language in laced throughout “Echoes.” Being Part of the Black Arts Movement, Lorde uses a lot of imagery, the use of the five main senses, throughout the poem. Lorde’s also uses unique spacing throughout the poem to create a pause for the reader. She starts the poem with “There is a timbre of voice tht come from not being heard” (line 1-2). Within the first stanza Lorde means that the voice is identifiable though it’s never been heard, an interesting contradiction that has depth. Since this “voice” hasn’t been heard it’s unique, unheard, becoming identifiable. Then she continues saying that your not heard because of the voice, but simply noticed because of the unique sound, and what is being said is still not heard. She uses this to create an idea and her meaning of sound.

In the second stanza Lorde uses a lot of descriptive words and adjectives and more figurative language. I feel she uses a particular metaphor in her poem for the climax. “Till after you’re gone your hot grain smell tattooed into each new poem” (line 14-16). She is saying that even the person is gone, that they will forever leave a permanent linger throughout the future to come. The hot grain smell she refers to is the lasting sense that cannot be forgotten. The smell tattooed, a permanent mark that leaves a lasting impression. The future is each new poem that hasn’t been written yet. I feel this is bold metaphor that strikes the reader. She follows that metaphor with “resonant beyond escape” (line 16-17), the echoes that one cannot escape. I feel this really affects the meaning of the poem, the power Lorde’s is trying to convey. This is a strong metaphor that the poem builds up to. This is more than a meaning; it is an example of the meaning in action. I feel that by using this metaphor in that particular placement that Lorde’s develops a powerful tone that is set for the rest of the poem.

9. INFLUENCE

Influence can be a powerful tool for anyone. No matter what your profession is as a student you learn about the leaders before you. And who better to learn from than the masters of your passion. The writers we’ve been reading have all probably known of the greats before them. As we have read before the themes that have been the strong continue to be used. Nature and human feelings are two of the most popular themes poets will frequently use.

There were multiple poems we read this week that used the theme of nature commonly embraced by poets of the Romantic period. Most of Robert Frost’s readings included many aspects of nature. Apples were mentioned in “Mending Wall” “He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across” (Front 24-25). Frost also writes “After Apple-Picking,” about all the human feelings (another Romantic period poet trait), the surrounding land, nature, actions he reflects about apple harvesting. In his “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Come In” both mention the woods as well as the land and earth are brought up in both “After Apple-Picking” and “The Gift Outright.” Some of the nature speaking Romantic’s we’ve read which influence writers such as Frost are William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

I feel that Carl Sandburg was influenced by Emily Dickinson. In Sandburg’s poem “Grass” has a similar Dickinson style. “Grass” is a very abstract poem. Sandburg has made the author of the poem nonhuman, a trait that would be familiar to Dickinson. This poem is very similar to the abstract form Dickinson uses, creating that individual spin to the style of wording and meaning of the poem. This poem is also slightly morbid, another common trait of Dickinson’s poems. After I read “Grass” I saw a very familiar connection to Emily Dickinson.

Poets can be influenced by all the authors before them. They can be influenced by a time period or by identifying with the popular common themes. Poets can also be influenced by another particular poet. Regardless of the source, writers will forever be influenced by the authors before them.

7. ODE SQUARED

I am going to compare John’s Keats’ “Ode on Melancholy” and William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimation of Immortality” from Recollections of Early Childhood. Two different poets wrote them during the eighteenth century but they have many differences and similarities.

Both poems have an abstract speaker. Neither poem states the sex of the speaker, but they are in first person so it is safe to assume that they are both male speakers. In Melancholy the unknown aged speaker is giving advice to an unknown person in the same manor as a general audience. At the end you feel that the speaker had already told this to the unknown person and continues to explain that person’s fate. He tells his audience not to choose death as an answer for mourning. The reliable speaker has emotions for the audience he is speaking to. A theme throughout the poem is death and another is taking one’s own life because of a loved ones death. The mourning person is being lured by the idea of death, “Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be” (Keats line 6) to end their own personal misery or loss. In Immortality the author is much older than his memory, starting the poem with, “There was a time” (Wordsworth line 1) and stating “It is not now as it hath been of yore” (W line 6). The speaker’s reliability is not really tested through out this poem. The speaker continues to reminisce about many past thoughts, feelings, and memories speaking to a general audience in a story speaking manner. There are a lot of different scenes, feelings and descriptions going on in this poem. Themes within this poem include human life and nature.

Both poets use many poetic elements throughout their odes such as sound and rhyme. “Ode on Melancholy” does not use assonance, consonance, or alliteration: the repetitions of sounds and letters within a line. In “Ode: Intimation of Immortality” Wordsworth does not use those a lot either but starts a line with a consonance, “Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,” (W line 48). Keats rhymes the last word of every line with another line; a rhyme scheme. There was not as much of a sound repetition as there is rhyme. The rhymes were mostly written naturally since it was not a constant repeating of two lines in a row, which affected the sound flow but not the meaning of the poem. Wordsworth uses rhyme but in not particular pattern throughout his stanzas. Nether forced the sound or tone. Keats’ was not forced because of the chosen rhyme scheme he uses and Wordsworth does not use a particular rhyme scheme which allows it to flow more natural. Keats uses a metered rhyme scheme repeated throughout ten lines. The first four lines create a quatrain and the last six create a tercet. The rhyme scheme repeats a total of three times. I feel that the rhyme is an appropriate tone for poem. The poem is mellow along with the rhyme that was used. In Immortality is written in open form, there is no specific rhyme scheme or followed meter. The eleven stanzas also differ from each other ranging from seven to thirty-eight lines, some rhyming but a variety of sounds. I feel this compliments the perplexity of the poem and being an appropriate tone.

In both odes the poets used the sentence element. In Melancholy the sentences are on average the same length. They are not very complex offering a particular idea or thought per line, “Turning to Poison while the bee-mouth sips;” (K line 24). The sentence structure continues to favor the meaning parallel to the previous mentioned pattern, rhyme and line length of the poem. Each line is very similar to one another creating an overall unity and flow of the poem. Wordsworth sentence structure is not the same. There is a combination of both short and long lines, as well as lines that are complex and very simple, “Land and sea” (W line 30). This adds meaning through the assortment Wordsworth uses throughout the poem. Both Keats and Wordsworth use punctuation in their poems. Keats uses punctuation at the end of almost every line as a break but each stanza is broken into its own complete sentence by only ending in a single period. Wordsworth’s stanzas are broken into several sentences ending in different punctuation. Wordsworth like Keats uses punctuation at the end of almost every line to form a break for the reader.

Another poetic element that John Keats and Williams Wordsworth use are line structure and line breaks. In Melancholy the lines remain around ten syllables no less than seven, a natural breath. Since all the lines remain around the same length it tributes to the constant flow and pattern of the poem. On the other had in Immortality the lines are different lengths, still around the natural breath of ten syllables but going as low as two to a line, “But he” (W line 69). The fluctuating line length can relate to the variety of thoughts and stories of the free verse poem. Most of the lines in Keats’ ode are end stopped, each line finishing at the end of the line, “Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,” (K line 12). However, in Wordsworth’s lengthy ode he uses a combination of that and lines that are enjambed, a line continued through the next verse, “And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended;” (W lines 73-74). This affects the poems the same way the line length favors the flow and meanings of the odes. Not all the lines are broken on specific words for emphasis. In Melancholy the lines are ended more to match the rhyme scheme of the poem. Wordsworth uses the technique more since he has an open formed poem that does not require a particular rhyme or line length to end the line. This also allows for more enjambed lines.

I enjoyed both poems in different ways. I felt that the diction used made it difficult at times to understand the poems thoroughly. The way Keats used an abstract speaker for the audience made it an interesting way for the reader to interpret the poem. I enjoyed the foreshadowing that began to explain the reason for the people in the end of the poem. I thought it was a thought out poem that made you think about not only the person that you were reading about but also relating it to real life. Losing a loved one is never easy and for someone to want to end their own life for the love of another is a powerful meaning. Wordsworth was often wordy and jumped around a lot. He talked a lot about human life and different stages. His wording and thought structure was hard to following clearly and tough to find the connections. I enjoyed the differences of the poem and how the different poetic elements contributed so much to the style of the poem. John Keats’ “Ode on Melancholy” was a followed pattern. Each line, each stanza and each rhyme linked the poem together well in a followed blueprint. This added to the monitored structure which made the poem symmetrical in a way. William Wordsworth followed the exact opposite approach in “Ode: Intimation of Immortality.” He used a variety of poetic elements that followed no particular structure creating abstract connections throughout the poem. His variety also factored into the array of thoughts and ideas throughout the poem.

Keats, John. "Ode on Melancholy." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2005. 937-938.

Wordsworth, William. "Ode: Intimation of Immortality." The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy. 5th ed. New York: Norton & Company, 2005. 796-801.