"To his coy mistress"

"But at my back I always hear
Time's a winged chariot hurrying near;"


This poem's tone has a sense of urgency. The speaker wishes and desires to have enough time to love his lover slowly, however there is not enough time to do this. The speaker is basically saying "life is short and we need to enjoy it while we can.". Instead of wasting time with people and other things, they need focus on loving each other completely while knowing that they have limited time. Time wont slow down for the two people and the speaker is very aware of this. Therefore a tone of urgency is created in the speaker. To me, the tone of urgency kind of creepily became an urgency to have sex with the woman instead of truly love her. The lover in this poem represents the idea that people cannot just wait to do what they want to do in life. Due to the fact that life is short, every moment needs to be treasured.

"Hazel Tells LaVerne"

"an how i can be a princess
me a princess" 

I enjoyed this poem. It was pretty humorous at some parts. The poem begins with the speaker at her job, cleaning a bathroom. When the frog appears and starts talking to the woman, she immediately disagrees with the talking frog and says "an how can i be a princess/ me a princess". The woman is aware of her current state of living, her job, her education, and possibly her looks. All of these things are contributing factors to the woman's disagreement with the frog. Although the lack of punctuation and vernacular language make the woman seems as if she is uneducated, the poem itself could have a bigger meaning. This woman understands that a slimy, green frog cannot give you what you want or desire and it definitely cannot make someone a princess. The necessity of people to desire to be something they are not is an ever present theme in society. This woman knows that even if the opportunity arises, a little frog cannot turn her into something she is not. She is smart enough to stick to her belief of this, regardless of whether she wants to be a princess or not.

"Getting Out"

"Taking hands 

we walked apart, until our arms stretched
between us. We held on tight and let go"


In Cleopatra Mathis's "Getting Out," the tone of the speaker is very reflective and reminiscent. The speaker describes a failed marriage. After reading the poem, I noticed the paradox in the last line "We held on tight and let go." To me, I feel like this line is a good description of the poem as a whole. The entire poem reflects on the marriage and how the bad times outweighed the good times. Although the two loved each other, there love wasn't enough to sustain their relationship and it fell apart. Although the couple loved each other, neither of them could stay in the relationship any longer. The desire to "hold on tight" was present for both parties, yet the truth of letting go was eminent. The vivid imagery really controls this poem and moves the theme forward. 

"Crossing the Bar"

"I hope to see my Pilot face to face, When I have crossed the bar."

This poem is a metaphor for dying and going to Heaven. To "cross the bar" is symbolic of dying and leaving the earth to reach Heaven. However, unlike most people, the speaker speaks of death in an accepting way. The attitude of death is calm and not fearful, especially through this line "and may there be no moaning of the bar". The speaker wants to "cross the bar" with "no sadness of farewell". Although he is leaving and dying, he is going to go to heaven to meet his "Pilot faces to face" and this is the reason as to why there should not be sadness. The speaker is too happy to be going to Heaven to meet God and to praise God for all of his works.   Overall, the speaker has a very accepting and positive view of death. The metaphor of "crossing the bar" serves as the theme of the poem.

"My mistress' eyes"

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"

I had to read this poem twice to understand what Shakespeare is talking about in all aspects of the poem. At first, he describes all of these beautiful things and then follows this by saying his mistress is not like this at all. Shakespeare uses all of these similes to compare the mistress to well-known things, such as the mistress' eyes being nothing like the sun, or wire hairs being the same type of hair that the girl has, or the lack of rosiness in her cheeks. All of these similes contribute to the imagery and tone of the poem. The tone, even though the speaker is describing the flaws of his mistress, is very content with his mistress. The last lines of the poem describe how even though she is not perfect or similar to well-known beautiful things, she is rare. Her rareness is what makes the speaker love her.

next of course god america i

This poem thoroughly confused me. I had a hard time following the poem because of the lack of punctuation. The lack of punctuation is what I first noticed about the poem. I also noticed different songs like the "Star Spangled Banner" and "My country tis of thee" being apart of the poem. I don't understand their purpose, but I did pick up on their presence in the poem. I thought that the language that Cummings uses is confusing such as "deafanddumb" and "by jingo be gee by gosh by gum". I don't really know what he is talking about at all. The "heroic, happy, dead" people could be soldiers. Although, the point about the soldiers "rushing like lions to their roaring slaughter." was interesting. I guess soldiers with pride of their country would be rushing to be killed. The line that confused me the most was the last line, "He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water." To me, this just seemed like useless information that was randomly placed at the end of the poem. I know that it is not random or useless, but I don't understand what it means. Perhaps the speaker is giving a speech and he is pausing to drink water. I cannot relate this statement with the rest of the poem though. I hope E.E. Cummings isn't another Emily Dickinson poet.

Ozymandias

"'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains."

I feel pretty confident about this poem. This poem describes the king, Ozymandias. He was a king of a great land. He controlled everything and was pretty powerful. A statue was made in his "honor" so that everyone could see this marvelous king. However, now this statue is nothing more than ruins. This statue is surrounded by sand and nothing else. The emotions on Ozymandias face are forever stamped yet the statue is nearly destroyed. I find this poem ironic because of the power that Ozymandias had at one point. It seems to me like this king was very vain and he took advantage of all of the power and wealth that he had as a king. But now, his power is gone, his life is gone, and the statue to honor him is gone as well. I think this is symbolic of the destruction and downfall of those who have power and abuse it. Look at this "king of kings" now, he's a midst sand and a desert and nothing else.