"Crossing the Bar" Alfred, Lord Tennyson

This poem is about a man who is extremely accepting of death. He knows it's going to happen, so he somewhat embraces it. In the first stanza, he says "may there be no moaning of the bar/ When I put out to sea." I took this as the speaker not wanting people to mourn his death, because he feels like it is his time to go. In the second stanza, the last line says, "that which drew from out the boundless deep/ Turns again home." This is showing that he is dying and going to heaven with God, because it speaks of returning back home. God created us in heaven, and that is where he plans to go when he dies. Again in the third stanza, the speaker says, "may there be no sadness of farewell/ When I embark," further proving the point that he does not want people to be sad about his death. Then finally in the last stanza, he says, "I hope to see my Pilot face to face/ When I have crossed the bar." In this sentence, the "Pilot" is God; He even capitalizes the "P" in the word. I would say the tone of this poem is accepting.

"The Apparition" John Donne

So first of all I looked up apparition, and the dictionary.com definition is a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, esp. a ghost. The speaker is upset by the way that this woman has treated him in the past. It seems as though she has dumped him, and he is obviously not taking it well. He has died now and is now threatening to haunt this woman. I want to know how he died. There is not much evidence, but maybe he killed himself, because he couldn't take the heart ache. The last stanza is the creepiest, in my opinion. He says that he "will not tell thee now,/ Lest that preserve thee." In those lines, he is saying that he is not going to tell her when he is coming or what he is going to do. He wants to leave her in the dark, so that she has no way of preparing for it. The tone of this poem is quite vengeful. He wants to get back at her for breaking his heart.

"Getting Out" Cleopatra Mathis

For me, this poem is relatable, because I feel like it is talking about two people that care about each other a lot and want things to work out, but they just never do. I have been in a relationship like that, and it's terrible. The first line speaks of "waking like inmates," which makes one wonder whether the speaker is referring to inmates in a jail or inmates in a mental hospital. But the next line says, "who beat the walls." This sort of clears it up somewhat, because when I think of someone beating on the walls, I think more of a mental institution than a jail. Throughout the poem, she speaks of how the two are somewhat trapped in this relationship. The second stanza tells of how the husband "tried to pack up and go," but by using the word try it shows that this person was unable to successfully leave. I think this shows that they were both in it, and he couldn't make himself leave. Finally in the the last stanza, she speaks of the "last unshredded pictures/ of our matching eyes and hair." I always think that when couples are together for a long time, they begin to look alike, and that's what I thought of, but talking in class, you said that it could symbolize immaturity. I don't really know what to think about that. Beside from that, she says that she is still startled when she sees men who look like him and that he writes her every year still, so obviously they're still holding on. The very end talks about the day in court where they finally got divorced. It says that the lawyer was shocked when they cried, and they held hands tightly until their arms couldn't stretch any further, then let go. This gives the poem a regretful tone. You can see the apparent love between them. It's really a sad poem.

"My mistress' eyes" William Shakespeare

When I first read this poem, I thought that the man was calling his "mistress" ugly. He says that her eyes are nothing like the sun, and her lips aren't as red as coral, and that her hair is black wires. None of this is appealing. He goes on to talk about her cheeks, her breath, and her voice and how they don't compare to other things. Then I realized that this is satirical, and he is making fun of all the men who say the sun can't shine as bright as their lover's eyes and things like that. He's being realistic more than anything. He doesn't want to lie to his woman and say things that aren't true, when he can compliment her in other ways. In lines 13-14 he says, "I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare." In a way I kind of took this poem as the speaker giving his mistress a backhanded compliment, but we talked about it in class, and decided it's a forehanded comliment, because he points out these things that seem wrong, but then fixes it by saying she is just as rare, or beautiful, as those other women.

"APO 96225" Larry Rottman

In my mind, this poem was written by one of the soldiers in "The Things They Carried." It just reminds me of exactly the situation they were in. Ironically, the questions after the poem in the book verify that the title of this poem is a mailing address of the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam. In the first stanza he leaves out all details from the war and just says "Dear Mom, sure rains a lot here." When his mother responds, she asks what it's really like, and, yet again, he avoids the truth. That cycle repeats once again. Then he finally tells her " Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm on women and children." After this letter, his father writes him back and asks him not to tell his mother such depressing things. So he goes back to where he started, "Dear Mom, sure rains a lot." I love the way this poem ends. It is a great expression of the ignorance of everyone at home during war. All the people pretend to be so concerned, but when they hear the truth, they wish they hadn't.

"Batter my heart, three-personed God" John Donne

I took this poem as a the speaker asking God in the form of the Trinity to save him from temptation and sin. In lines 2 and 4, he lists verbs and then a final action. In line two he says "knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend." Then in line 4 he says "break, blow, burn, and make me new." I think these two lines are parallel to one another where the first is associated with God, the second verb is associated with the Holy Spirit, the third verb is associated with Jesus, and the final action is the outcome of what happens after They all do Their work. It is as if he wants God to break him down before he can build him up again. He hit rock bottom and needs an intervention from the Lord. Lines 12-14 say "Take me to you, imprison me, for I,/ Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,/ Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me." This statement seems almost contradicting, but he means that God mus completely take him over in order for him to be saved from the devil.

"next to of course god america i" e.e. cummings

The whole poem, minus the last line, is the speaker vocalizing a long string of thoughts in a speech. The last line, "He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water," emphasizes my point of it being a speech, because after public speakers get finished talking they usually take a drink of water. The lack of punctuation indicates the speed and disorganization. There are many references to patriotic songs, such as "America, the Beautiful" and the "Star Spangled Banner." Then he uses cliches, such as "by jingo by gee by gosh by golly," which makes me think that either the speaker is old or he has an old audience. When I put all of these things together, I realized the speaker is a politician. This poem is satirizing political figures saying that they don't really know what they're saying, they just sort of ramble on. Line 13, speaking of the soldiers, says "shall the voice of liberty be mute?" In this line, he is trying to tell his audience to be loud and proud like he is, even though he has no idea what it's like in war, further asserting his ignorance.