"beware : do not read this poem" - Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Reed is an American poet born in 1938. He is well known for his satirical poetry in criticizing the American society.

tonite, thriller was
abt an ol woman , so vain she
surrounded herself w/
          many mirrors

it got so bad that finally she
locked herself indoors & her
whole life became the
          mirrors

one day the villagers broke
into her house , but she was too
swift for them . she disappeared
          into a mirror 

each tenant who bought the house
after that , lost a loved one to
          the ol woman in the mirror :
          first a little girl
          then a young woman
          then the young woman/s husband

the hunger of this poem is legendary
it has taken in many victims
back off from this poem
it has drawn in yr feet
back off from this poem
it has drawn in yr legs

back off from this poem
it is a greedy mirror
you are into the poem . from
         the waist down
nobody can hear you can they ?
this poem has had you up to here
          belch
this poem aint got no manners
you cant call out frm this poem
relax now & go w/ this poem

move & roll on to this poem
do not resist this poem
this poem has yr eyes
this poem has his head
this poem has his arms
this poem has his fingers
this poem has his fingertips

this poem is the reader & the
reader this poem

statistic : the us bureau of missing persons re-
         ports that in 1968 over 100,000 people
          disappeared leaving no solid clues
          nor trace     only
a space     in the lives of their friends

Write from the start we can identify this poem as a horror story. For the first three stanzas, this poem tells us a story about a mirror haunted by an old woman who cause people to mysteriously disappear. There is no consistent meter or rhyme in this poem, but its erratic and mismatched structure is used for a specific purpose. In the first three stanzas telling us about the haunted mirror, it is very jerky with seemingly random splits in sentences and abruptly ends lines just how you or I would would feel when watching a horror movie with an erratic and fast paced heartbeat. The motif of mirror in this section is in an attempt to reflect the meaning of the poem with an identical reflection of our experiences. Going along this idea of reflection, Reed is attempting to liken the haunted mirror to this poem. The poem is personified and takes on characteristics of the mirror. It says this poem is drawing in the reader and consuming him, just as the mirror did to its victims. The parallel structure in the fifth stanza of this poem help strengthen the idea of parallel worlds between the world with the haunted mirror and our world with this supposedly "haunted" poem. Just as when looking into a mirror, you are seeing your own world but flipped around revealing the two sides of both these haunted objects. These objects seem harmless and even inviting from the outside but when we delve deeper and attempt to discover the true meaning, we realize the darkness and the ever-consuming animal within. The second to last stanza describes this beast within: "this poem has his head / this poem has his arms / this poem has his fingers / this poem has his fingertips" These few lines make it seem as if the monster is growing just as each of the lines is slowly growing in length line after line. Finally in the last line, when it talks about the disappearance of individuals every year, it uses physical spaces between words causing us as readers to feel as if something is missing just as the people are missing.

"The Sick Rose" - William Blake

William Blake was born in the 18th century and was an English poet and painter. His subjects for many of his pieces were extremely weird or peculiar.

"The Sick Rose"

O Rose thou art sick. 

The invisible worm, 

That flies in the night 

In the howling storm: 

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

          At first glance, this poem appears to be simply about a rose. However, in this poem, it stands in for something else. Everything in poetry is not what it seems. In many poems, the subject represents more than itself and is used as a metaphor. This rose is a metaphor for love and sexuality, but with the context of this poem it talks about the misuse and destruction of this rose and therefore the corruption of love and sexuality. The diction of this poem helps build onto this idea. Phrases such as "bed" and "crimson enjoy" add a tone of sensuality. Yet, when put in juxtaposition to words such as "night," "secret" and "destroy," it introduces corruption and despair. The destruction of the rose can be seen as similar to the loss of virginity and the misuse of one body. For example, prostitution and being a stripper fall into this category. A rose is usually thought of as sacred and kept hidden. The pedals of the rose keep the all important insides protected. But when this pedals are torn away and the outside world breaks through, the rose becomes stained in sin. The howling storm in this poem is a symbol for the outside world beating tirelessly against the formidable rose trying to get inside and corrupt. Blake goes contrary to the traditional idea of what a rose represents and twists the perspective around. This is one of things that make Blake one of the strangest and idiosyncratic poets of his time.

"The Golf Links Lie So Near the Mill" - Sarah Cleghorn

Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn was born in 1876 and died at the age of 83. She was an American Naturalist. She lived in Vermont for most of her life and wrote most of her poems to teach people. Her most famous and widely read poems is "The Golf Links Lie So Near the Mill."

The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day 
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.

Clearly, this poem is extremely short and concise and is written in an ABCB rhyme scheme. When a poem is this short, every word in the poem is chosen for a specific reason even if it doesn't seem like it. However, this small poem contains a large social message and is actually a satire. "The golf links" that "lie so near the mill" shows the economic contrast. The golf links represent the upper class and the wealth where only those with tons of money and loads of spare time are able to play. It seems a bit strange to the reader that these golf links are so close to the mill, a place where people work long arduous hours for very little wage. Every day the workers in the mill look out at the golfers. In this context, the phrase "every day" seems to have a negative connotation as if the laborers are working and working endlessly. The most powerful message comes out in the last two and ironic lines of the poem. It says how "The laboring children can look out/And see the men at play." Shouldn't it be the other way around? The children should be out playing in the fields while the men are at work attempting to support the family. During Sarah's life, child labor laws were a very controversial topic. She is commenting on how those who work hard get nowhere in society while the ones who have no responsibility have the wealth and the power.

"The Night Wind" - Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte is an English writer and was born July 1818 and lived for thirty years. She is known mainly for her novel Wuthering Heights which has received critical acclaim around the world.

"The Night Wind"

In summer's mellow midnight,
A cloudless moon shone through
Our open parlour window,
And rose-trees wet with dew.

I sat in silent musing;
The soft wind waved my hair;
It told me heaven was glorious,
And sleeping earth was fair.

I needed not its breathing
To bring such thoughts to me;
But still it whispered lowly,
How dark the woods will be!

"The thick leaves in my murmur
Are rustling like a dream,
And all their myriad voices
Instinct with spirit seem."

I said, "Go, gentle singer,
Thy wooing voice is kind:
But do not think its music
Has power to reach my mind.

"Play with the scented flower,
The young tree's supple bough,
And leave my human feelings
In their own course to flow."

The wanderer would not heed me;
Its kiss grew warmer still.
"O come!" it sighed so sweetly;
"I'll win thee 'gainst thy will.

"Were we not friends from childhood?
Have I not loved thee long?
As long as thou, the solemn night,
Whose silence wakes my song.

"And when thy heart is resting
Beneath the church-aisle stone,
I shall have time for mourning,
And THOU for being alone."

This nine quatrain poem is written in an extremely straightforward and concise way. With this style of writing, the reader is able to quickly identify the situation and the setting. The first stanza is straight and to the point and begins to explain both the temporal (during a summer night) and the spacial (near an open parlor window) setting of the poem. A few stanzas later we can discern the situation of the poem and what is going on. While the narrator is sitting by the window, the wind blows by and begins talking with her and tempting her. The wind is personified as a "wanderer" and a "singer" causing the temptation to become more sinister and deadly coming from a "human" figure. Although not directly stated it appears as if the wind is tempting the narrator into the darkness.. As shown in many other plays and stories, a midnight during the summer is a prime to time for devils and demons to be lurking about. If the narrator were to follow she would most likely encounter her demise. In the last stanza, the wind eerily says how when the narrator dies she will be alone but the wind/devil will continue on. This can be likened to today's society and teenagers of our time. The first thing that comes to mind is peer pressure. As young and very easily influenced people, teenagers are easily tricked by demons and led towards sin. The narrator of this poem appears to be fighting back the temptations and keep the wind from entering her mind.

"Dickhead" - Tony Hoagland

Tony Hoagland was born in 1953 in North Carolina where he was born and raised. In his poetry, Tony looks at subjects in a new and usually funny point of view. He appears to be extremely intune with the language and jargon of the American people.

Dickhead

To whomever taught me the word dickhead,

I owe a debt of thanks.

It gave me a way of being in the world of men

when I most needed one,

when I was pale and scrawny,

naked, goosefleshed

as a plucked chicken

in a supermarket cooler, a poor

forked thing stranded in the savage

universe of puberty, where wild

jockstraps flew across the steamy

skies of locker rooms,

and everybody fell down laughing

at jokes I didn’t understand.

But dickhead was a word as dumb

and democratic as a hammer, an object

you could pick up in your hand,

and swing,

saying dickhead this and dickhead that,

a song that meant the world

was yours enough at least

to bang on like a garbage can,

and knowing it, and having that

beautiful ugliness always

cocked and loaded in my mind,

protected me and calmed me like a psalm.

Now I have myself become

a beautiful ugliness,

and my weakness is a fact

so well established that

it makes me calm,

and I am calm enough

to be grateful for the lives I

never have to live again;

but I remember all the bad old days

back in the world of men,

when everything was serious, mysterious, scary,

hairier and bigger than I was;
I recall when flesh

was what I hated, feared

and was excluded from:

Hardly knowing what I did,

or what would come of it,

I made a word my friend.

Like many of his poems, Tony utilizes the American slang and instruments it into his poem "Dickhead." The poet does far more than just using it in the text but focuses the entire poem's message around it. The tone of this poem appears to be both mocking and irreverent shown by the use of crude and juvenile language "wild jockstraps flew across the steamy skies of locker rooms," "savage universe of puberty" and the word "dickhead" itself. The speaker of this poem can be identified as "weak" man attempting to find his place in "the world of man." This speaker recounts his story of how the word "dickhead" helped him to navigate this world. "The world of men" is characterized as an immature and childish but at the same time these men are portrayed as stern and serious.  His quest to belong in this world is a challenge for the speaker until he counters the word "dickhead." This word is his way of achieving passage and acceptance into the world of man and can possible allude to the speaker going through puberty and finally becoming a man. Specifically, this word acts as his way of attaining power in this society of men. he uses it to assert his authority and dominance in this world. Although the speaker is still weak in comparison to other men, he accepts that and even attempts to embrace it. He recalls the dark times when he lived in fear, but now he is no longer afraid of the overpowering men and has learned to live among them.

"In Time of Plague" - Thom Gunn

Thom Gunn was born and raise in England. He was praised early on in England as a poet and at the age of twenty-five moved to the United States. While here, he wrote about crude and controversial topics uncommon in poetry. 

In Time of Plague by Thom Gunn

My thoughts are crowded with death

and it draws so oddly on the sexual

that I am confused

confused to be attracted

by, in effect, my own annihilation.

Who are these two, these fiercely attractive men

who want me to stick their needle in my arm?

They tell me they are called Brad and John,

one from here, one from Denver, sitting the same

on the bench as they talk to me,

their legs spread apart, their eyes attentive.

I love their daring, their looks, their jargon,

and what they have in mind.

Their mind is the mind of death.

They know it, and do not know it,

and they are like me in that

(I know it, and do not know it)

and like the flow of people through this bar.

Brad and John thirst heroically together

for euphoria--for a state of ardent life

in which we could all stretch ourselves

and lose our differences. I seek 

to enter their minds: am I fool,

and they direct and right, properly

testing themselves against risk,

as a human must, and does,

or are they the fools, their alert faces

mere death's heads lighted glamorously?

I weigh possibilities

till I am afraid of the strength

of my own health

and of their evident health.

They get restless at last with my indecisiveness

and so, first one, and then the other,

move off into the moving concourse of people

who are boisterous and bright

carrying in their faces and throughout their bodies

the news of life and death.

This poem vividly expresses a disturbed yet harsh tone. This structure of this poem helps build upon the tone. This poem is written extremely jagged, never completing a full thought in a single line. This causes the reader to jump back and forth with ideas creating a sort of harshness to the poem. Also, this inconsistency also compliments the speaker's  confusion and indecisiveness. Whenever death is mentioned, people immediately jump to the conclusion that the poem has a grave tone, which is also true about this poem but there is also more. By simply looking at the title we assume this poem is about pain and suffering. "Plague" has a connotation of being something horrid and disastrous.  However, after reading the first two lines in the poem we are given a shock. The speaker talks about death and how "it draws so oddly on the sexual." Most of the time when somebody is talking about death, the last thing that should come to mind is sex. The speaker is confronted by two "fiercely attractive gay men who want him to shoot up some heroine. The speaker is face with a problem with peer pressure. He/she wants to try the drug but is battling the possibility of his own annihilation. According to the speaker, this two gay men carry the news of life and death. at any one point, a person may be perfectly health and the next, be found dead on the floor with a needle in his arm.This creates a sense of mystery and confusion that is present throughout the text.

"The Aim Was Song" by Robert Frost

Robert Frost lived from March 26, 1874 to January 29, 1963 and one of the most famous and critically acclaimed American poet. He has received numerous awards for criticizing American society and culture.

The Aim Was Song

Before man to blow to right
The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
In any rough place where it caught.

Man came to tell it what was wrong:
It hadn't found the place to blow;
It blew too hard -- the aim was song.
And listen -- how it ought to go!

He took a little in his mouth,
And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
And then by measure blew it forth.

By measure. It was word and note,
The wind the wind had meant to be --
A little through the lips and throat.
The aim was song -- the wind could see.
                                    Robert Frost (1874)

This poem, while short and concise, is able to hammer its point across. Like many of his other famous poems, Robert Frost writes about society and in this one specifically, he examines how poetry has evolved and changed its form and the ideas it represents. Frost attempts to use wind as a metaphor for the changing form of poetry. Wind represents a powerful and nearly uncontrollable force and when the wind starts blowing you have no ability to stop it. This wind can be easily related to the American mindset where patriotism and nationalism create an unstoppable drive within the American public. Whatever, the author's goal is they always have the aim of creating a song and melody. Frost does this by writing a poem with a firm structure. This poem has a very strict form and contains four quatrains all written with an ABAB rhyme scheme and is written in iambic pentameter. These poetic conventions create a rhythmic and melodic feeling when reading the poem. If read out loud this poem simply rolls off the tongue and at any point, it appears as if the reader could break out in to song at any moment. Wind acts as a source of change. A majority of past poems were written in very loose and unstructured form and Frost comments on how there is a new prevailing use of structure and consistency in modern poetry. Wind also creates noise in a silent world. It blows past our ears and runs through trees and causes a rustling sound. Frost realizes that wind is the song of the Earth and utilizes this to strengthen his poem.