"Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead" Andrew Hudgins

First of all, I looked up elegy to see if it meant the same thing as eulogy; it doesn't. According to dictionary.com, the definition of elegy is a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, esp. a funeral song or lament for the dead. So really the speaker is following the definition of a melancholy poem, even though his father is not dead. This poem is about a man who cannot handle the fact that his father is about to die and is accepting of that fact. He says that he thinks his father "wants to go,/ a little bit - a new desire/ to travel." I thought that was an interesting way for his father to think about it, "embarking on a trip." He says that he cannot look at it that way. Obviously he has talked to his father about this, because in lines 10-12, he says "He thinks he'll wrap me in his arms and laugh,/ the way he did when I arrived/ on earth." I think that is a neat way to think about that as well. Heaven is where one is created and where one ends up after he/she dies. The speaker does not feel the same; he follows that statement by simply saying "I do not." I think that the speaker is just afraid to face life without his father on earth.

"Delight in Disorder" Robert Herrick

This poem is about a man who likes for his woman to be disorganized. I think it is attractive, and, for lack of better words, he gets turned on when a girl looks messy. Throughout the poem, the speaker says things like "a lawn about the shoulders thrown," "an erring lace,"a neglected cuff," "ribbons... flow[ing] confusedly," "tempestuous petticoat," and "a careless shoestring." These words give the image of a disheveled woman. In the 12th line, he uses the oxymoron of a "wild civilty," which I took as an elegant woman with a wild side. He follows this line saying "Do more bewich me than when art is too precise in every part. When I think of art that is not precise, I think of Van Gogh and his somewhat swirly paintings. He is saying that he would rather have an unorganized girl with a great personality, than a proper stickler. The varying sentence structure of long and short sentences may be representing the disorganization of the woman.

"Edward" Anonymous

I believe this poem is about a man who killed his father, because his mother wanted him to. In the first stanza his mother asks him why his sword is bloody, and he says it is because he killed his hawk "so good,/ and I had no more but he." This may be referring to how he killed his only father. Then his mother says that his hawk's blood isn't that red, so he tells her that he killed his red-roan steer "that was once so fair and free." This may be referring to the way he felt about his father, that he was fair and free. She responds by saying that the steer was old and he has more, then asks what is his "other grief." He finally says that he killed his father. She acts surprisingly calm and asks him questions, such as what penance he will do, what will he do with his towers and hall, and what he will leave his children and wife. Edward answers these questions saying that he is going to leave on a boat, let them stand until they fall, and let his family beg through life. Finally, she asks what he will leave for she, his mother, and he says "the curse from hell," because of the counsels she gave him. That last stanza is what brought me to truly believe that she was the one who told him to kill her father, because he is saying that she will be the one that pays for it. Her nonchalant attitude after he told he also backs up my theory.

"Lonely Hearts" Wendy Cope

"Lonely Hearts" is a variety of different newspaper singles advertisements. I found it interesting that in the second stanza it is advertising a gay person, the third stanza is about a bisexual person, and the fourth is about a straight stanza. One is a gay vegetarian who is into music and Shakespeare, another is looking for a bisexual woman who is young and arty, and then there is a straight, successful solvent looking for an attractive Jewish woman with a son. I guess she was just trying to cover all sexualities. This poem is in the form of a villanelle, because it is an easy way to display the separate ads. Every different person has the same desire to "make my simple wish come true." The simple wish is to find companionship that meets their different interests. I wondered why she used North London for the place that every person lives, so I looked her up on wikipedia, and it said that she is from Kent, a county in England.