Bilingual/Bilingue

Rhina Espaillat’s “Bilingual/ Bilingue” clearly shows the conflict of mixing cultures. In the writing effectively on page 276 the author gives some insight behind her poem. Espaillat states that her father didn’t allow the mixing of English and Spanish in their home. He preferred to keep them separate having English spoken outside and strictly Spanish inside the home. Her struggle between two worlds in shown in her poem “ Bilingual/ Billingue”The first two lines of the poem state,

My father like them separate, one there,

one here (alla y aqui), as if aware

The Spanish words are hidden in parentheses. This demonstrates the speakers struggle in not being able to mix the two languages. Her father wanted English spoken to the outside world and the Spanish hidden. The poet adds the parentheses to show her how her father disapproves of mixing the two languages.

Lines 7 and 8 relate back to the poets biography and show how the father disapproved of his daughter trying to mix Spanish with English

“ English outside this door, Spanish inside

he said, “ y basta”

In the last two lines of the poem the speaker finally decides that she isn’t going to hide anymore and mix the two languages together.

“he stood outside mis versos, half in fear

of words he loved but wanted not to hear”

I noticed that in these two lines the words “mis versos” are free without any parentheses. Although the father disapproved the speaker finally decided that she wanted to mix the two worlds no matter what her father thought.

I enjoyed this poem because it showed the struggle through culture. The poet effectively brings in the audience with the use of Spanish. I feel that if the Spanish words were removed the poem would loss its meaning. Do you think the poem will still achieve the same message if the Spanish words were removed?

Here is the author reading her poem

First Love: A Quiz

The poem that really captured my attention was A.E. Stallings “ First Love: A quiz”

It caught my attention because each stanza was in a form of a quiz with multiple answers. When I read the title of the poem I thought of  one of those quizzes that you take in teen magazines to see if your crush really likes you. I believe that the title of “First Love: A quiz” is meant to be ironic. When you see the title you automatically think it’s going to be one of those cheesy quizzes about love, but the poem to me has a much darker tone at parts. Also, thinking about the word quiz itself makes me think of something with many options. Ideally there is one right answer and other options that are incorrect. By the title, I thought maybe the poet was saying that in love we tend to choose the incorrect response although there is no perfect answer.

The first stanza, to me, is showing how people expect their first love to be perfect and they have all these high expectation but it never turns out to be that ideal fairytale. This line depicts a dark image of romance.

“in a lead chariot drawn by a team of stallions black

as crude oil”

This gave me the imagery of the fairytale prince riding in with his horse expect this man is no prince hence why he is black as crude oil. In the beginning of the poem the speaker seems like she is almost some jealous towards her friend and has a feeling that she will never be able to end up with this guy.

The last two stanzas from me took on a much darker tone. This line really through me off in the poem

“ he was my uncle the one who lived in the half finished basement, and he took me by the hair”

I found this part of the poem very unexpected. The tone of the poem almost shifts to an eerie tone.  I’m still unsure of the meaning behind this line in the poem, but this is why I feel that the poems title is ironic because she is speaking about a first love and mentioning all these dark things.

The end of the poem ends in a rhyming couplet

“d. is called by some men hell and others love

e. all of the above. “

I read this line as “ the place he took me is called by some men hell and others love”

I interpreted the poem about  maybe being about an abusive relationship. When first reading the title I thought the poem would be a reflection on a first love. To me it seemed to have a dark tone to it. I think the meaning behind the poem is that your first love isn’t always picture perfect. Love isn’t always what we imagine it to be and it can have those dark aspects to it.

Your absence, father, is everything.

In the poem “Sin Qua Non” by A.E. Stallings the poem seems to take the form of an Italian sonnet. There is an octave followed by a sestet. However, it appears to not take the full form of an Italian sonnet because at the end of the poem there is a couplet.

“ The void stars hang in, the interstice of lace,

The zero that still holds the sum in place”

 Throughout the poem the author repeats

“Your absence father is nothing”

However, there is some sarcasm in this statement. By just looking at the title of the poem “Sin Qua Non” which means something is essential, crucial, and an indispensable ingredient without which something would be impossible. The speaker’s repetition of “your absence father is nothing” is essentially saying “your absence father is everything.” The speaker seems to be devastated and doesn’t want to upfront admit that she misses her father.

Also, the first line of each of each stanza is incomplete and seems like the speaker didn’t finish their thought

“Your,  absence father is nothing- for it is”

 The incompleteness of the sentence shows how the speaker is really devastated by the absence of the father in their life. If the speaker truly didn’t care about their dad the sentence would read “Your, absence father is nothing.”

 The speaker’s sadness is reflected all throughout the first stanza. The speaker says she is “Weeping its black thread.” Thread is what brings things together but since it is black it shows that the speaker and her father aren’t bound together that is why the speaker is weeping.

 The speakers sadness is also shown in line eight where it states

“And crickets pause to let the winter pass”

Winter is a time that represents death. The speaker uses the image of winter to show the death of the relationship with her father.

 The end of the sonnet shows that nothing is resolved. The speaker longs to have this relationship with her father but the speaker realizes that it very unlikely that it will ever occur.

 Although this poem is sad I really enjoyed the poets use of words to describe her feelings. Even though she says that it means nothing the poem clearly depicts her pain.

When I was one-and-twenty

When reading “When I was one- and-twenty” by A.E. Housman it really reminded me of advice that my parents used to give me. The poem made me think of a parent giving advice to their child about love because they have more experience with it. The line that I enjoyed most about the poem was

“Give crowns and pounds and guineas

But not your heart away”      

After looking up the words I found out that crown, pounds, and guineas were all a form of money. The wise person is stating to the speaker to give money away but not your heart. The message behind this is that giving away money can be less painful than giving away your love to someone because potentially you can get hurt.

The wise man continues to tell the  speaker

“Tis paid with sighs a plenty

And sold for endless rue.”

These lines mean that love doesn’t come without paying a price. Although love can seem appealing at first the person might regret it when it’s all over because they are so heartbroken. Love doesn’t come easy it takes a lot of work and when it is lost it can be devastating. When your feelings and emotions get involved in something it is much harder to get over then losing something that is strictly material.

Also, the author uses the word choice of one-and- twenty and not twenty-one because it makes the poem more lyrical.

The last few lines of stanza two state

“And I am two and twenty

And oh tis true, tis true”

In these lines I think the speaker realizes that the advice given by the wise person was true.  They are now twenty-two looking at the advice given to them a year ago. They didn’t listen and ended up falling in love with someone and getting hurt. They realize that they should have taken the wise mans advice but the speaker decided not to listen. 

I enjoyed this poem because it’s short and has a message in it that many people can relate to. Everyone has that “wise man” in their life who tells them advice because they have already lived through it.

What’s the best advice that you’ve received from a “wise man”?

Eleanor Rigby

Although many listen to “Eleanor Rigby” as a song it can be looked at for its poetic lyrics. It is also a ballad which tells a story.When listening to the song I felt that it provided a different tone then the lyrics itself. The lyrics have a very sad tone to it. The ballad depicts the sad reality that there are many who are left behind and forgotten about. The repetition of the lines,

 “ All the lonely people”

really gets the listener thinking about people we don’t typically think about. The ones who have been shut off from society and have no one to turn to.

The third stanza states

All the lonely people,

Where do that all come from?

All the lonely people,

Where do they all belong?

I feel that the questions “where do they come from?” and “where do they belong?” gives the listener guilt. The listener begins to think about everyone they have shut off in life and how they might of had a hand in them being lonely. The lines that really struck me was

“ Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by door

Who is it for?”

I spent some time trying to come up with meaning for these lines. I think that the jar might be makeup or just the image that the person puts on outside their home to impress others. The question at the end “who is it for?” is basically just saying why does it matter because you’re lonely anyway.

The ballad goes into narratives of the two peoples life Father McKenzie and Eleanor Rigby. I think that the essential message is that these two people were lonely. They lived together in the same town so maybe they could of helped eachother, but they lived aloneand Eleanor ended up dying lonely. The narrations really add to the ballad and help the listener really get into the story.

The way that the ballad is set up leaves a lot of room for interpretation. My interpretation is that they the ballad is about to strangers living in a town who are lonely. Could it be though that the ballad is about two people who knew each other? What is your interpretation?

Money

When reading “Money” by Dana Gioia I immediately thought about how many  people are so obsessed over money. I believe the speaker in the poem  is trying to depict money as a toxic thing because money becomes peoples main concern in life and they loss sight of the valuable things in life.

   In the first stanza the speaker uses descriptive words that we use to associate with money

                            cash, stash,rhino, jack

                             or just plain dough

The speaker is showing all the different words used for money. Since there are so many different nicknames for money it demonstrates how important it is in our society. The different uses of the word money also shows how often people speak of money in everyday conversations for money to have so many nicknames.

The next stanza uses words to describe people spending money.

“ watch it burn holes through pockets”

I believe the speaker is trying to depict the need people have to spend. When people have money they feel anxiety and they need to spend money right away.  Our society encourages people to spend money not save it.

In stanza three the speaker describes the importance of money for a persons  mere survival.

 feathers a nest

holds heads above water

makes both ends meet

The imagery of feathering a nest is used to illustrate a person who needs to provide for their family. Money keeps people afloat because it allows them to pay their bills therefore they aren’t “drowning” . I think that money can make people drown though because people can get themselves in debt.  Since many people rely so heavily on money because of family and also to keep up their lifestyle it brings the obsession of it from stanza one.

In the last stanza the author uses personification for money stating that “money talks”. This shows how people can basically get their way as long they have money. People listen when you have money and you will more likely be able to get what you want.

I believe that this poem isn’t made to show the goodness of money. In contrast, it is showing the negative aspects of money. Money can become an obsession and will cause people to do anything because they want to maintain their lifestyle and have the comforts of life.

Birthday Cake

“ Old people don’t celebrate birthdays”

 This is something I hear from my grandparents each year when I call them to wish them a Happy Birthday.  I received this image from reading Paul Goodman’s “Birthday Cake”. Once people hit a certain point in life Birthdays become something we dread because it only reminds us how we are getting older and our youth is gone.

In the first stanza the speaker uses the repetition of the word “too many”

“are one two too many

too many to blow out

too many to count too many

isn’t it time to give up this ritual”

This reminded me of how when some people get older they have memory loss. They repeat the same stories over and over even though they had already mentioned the story. Also, I pictured there literally being  to many candles that the speaker can’t even stand there and count them all.  The repetition of too many shows the age of the speaker.

The second stanza has a darker  tone to me.

“ and through the darkened room advancing”

This gave me the image of when someone is walking in the room with a cake and the room is dark with everyone waiting to sing Happy Birthday. However, I feel that the speaker is depicting a much darker picture.  The speaker is saying  that since it is their birthday that death is approaching. The speaker goes on to say that the cake is

“still the most loveliest sight”

I read this as the the speaker reflecting on the past and thinking of the memories that he had with the birthday cake. Even though he’s not a fan of the birthday cake now he still thinks it is a lovely sight because of past memories.

                The last stanza was a bit confusing for me.

“when the fires are too many

to eat the fire and not the cake

and drip the fires from my teeth

as once I had my hot hot youth”

I believe that the speaker wants to eat the fire because it will bring him back to his “hot youth.”The cake in this poem is symbolic and represents old age and death. I feel that the overall tone is dark. A birthday is something that brings images of celebration and happiness. The speaker is realizing their age and is dreading their Birthday because it only means that they are getting older and closer to death. The speaker wants to go back to their youth that is why they refuse to eat the cake.

Do you dread getting older? With age, do you believe your birthday will still be a celebration or something you will hate?

Fire and Ice

When I first read the poem “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost the image of 2012 and all the commotion behind it popped into my head. My inital reading  of  the poem was very literal. The poem seems simple at first glance.  There are some people who believe the world will end in fire and some who believe it will end in ice. The speaker favors the world ending in fire as opposed to ice, but sees the damage that both could create.  

However, when I reread the poem I began to think of the significance of the words fire and ice. When I think of the word ice I think of the cold. Therefore, I believe the author is using the word ice as a person being cold with hatred. The speaker also uses the word hate in comparing it to ice.

  I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

                The word fire could have many meanings to me, but from the poem the speaker says,

“From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire”

 The words fire and desire go together. I interpreted the word fire meaning an individual’s own desire.  The word desire can signify almost anything since everyone has different desires. Some examples that came to mind was desire for wealth, love, and fame. However, since the end of the world has a negative depiction I think that the person’s desire doesn’t necessary have good intentions with it. For example, some people desire wealth and will do whatever it takes to get wealth even if it means harming others. It reminds me of egoism because the person has a desire and it only benefits them. The way that the person accomplishs this desire is insignificant.

                The message of the poem is that the world will either end by people’s selfish desires or by hatred or coldness of others. He says that he prefers fire but ice or hatred can do the same amount of damage as fire.

Would you prefer the world to end from fire or ice?

English con Salsa

          The poem English con Salsa by Gina Valdes really hit home to me. Both my parents came to the United States from different countries and they brought their own individual traditions with them. My family’s household is a blend of American culture with Latino culture. The picture on top is Frida Kahlo’s Self Portrait of 1932. I think this photograph strongly depicts Valdes poem. In the painting, Frida is standing in between the border of Mexico and America. I feel that Valdes poem is about finding that “inbetween” feeling between two cultures.

      The poem English con Salsa uses a lot of humor. The beginning of the poem reads,

“Welcome to ESL, English Surely Latinized,

ingles con chile y cilantro, English as American

as Benito Juarez.”

The first line offers humor because ESL (English as a second language) is referred to as English Surely Latinized. She is using humor to show that even though the student is learning English they are still going to Latinize it. I think that the main point that Valdes makes with her poem is that although Latinos are coming to America they are still going to keep their Latin culture with them. She recognizes that immigrants are coming to America then learning the language and customs, but at the same time they still embrace their Mexican traditions.  It’s not about moving to America and forgetting where you came from, but being able to blend the two cultures together.

       Valdes also speaks about the promise of the American Dream. The reason that most immigrants come to America is to make a better living for themselves and their family.

“in four weeks you can ask. More coffee? in two months
you can say. May I take your order? In one year you
can ask for a raise”

She uses humor to portray how people come to America to make a better life for themselves.

In the last stanza she depicts many Mexican traditions, names places, and customs again to prove the point that Mexicans are becoming Americanized, but at the same time not forgetting where they came from.

Do you think it’s important to embrace your families or ancestors culture? What where your thoughts when you read Valdes’s poem.

Lastly, I found a good video of the poem being read outloud. Many of the places in Mexico were difficult for me to pronounce so it was nice hearing this poem read outloud.

Winter Sundays

 

The poem Those Winter Sundays is speaking about a son’s relationship with his father. He describes how hard his dad works for the family. The poem is occurring in winter and it appears as the author is speaking about his father working hard to maintain heat in the home, but no one ever acknowledging everything that the father does for the family. From the poem I picked up that the relationship between the father and son isn’t the most pleasant with reoccurring arguments.

“ When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

And slowly I would rise and dress,

Fearing the chronic angers of the house”

By chronic the author is illustrating the constant arguments occurring in the household. The father and son have a relationship where they aren’t the best of friends. The last line of the poem caused some confusion.  

“of love’s austere and lonely offices”

I was unsure what the author meant by that last phrase of the poem. After reading the poem it also appears as the author is reflecting on the past perhaps maybe his childhood memories. I feel that this poem is relatable because growing up many people do have difficulties with their parents and it isn’t always the easiest task to communicate with them. The poem gave me clear imagery of cold winters and also got me thinking about my relationship with my father.  A thought that I had was that perhaps the son is reflecting on his childhood with his father. He remembers the struggles that him and his father had,  but looking back on it he has grown to appreciate his father even more for all the hard work that he used to do for his family.