My Mistress's Eyes- Central Purpose

"I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight"

The purpose in writing this poem is to warn against the sin of vanity. Someone does not have to be beautiful to be loved and respected. So, even though, this woman would not be sought after by most men, the speaker loves her for who she is, not what she looks like. Shakespeare is condemning seeing a person as solely skin deep. He is saying that there is more to a person than their Physical attributes. And, if people would try harder, they would see the personality shine through, rather than focusing on vanity. In the poem, he is giving the reader a list of all of the characteristics that most people would find most unflattering. But, they way in which he speaks on this subject does not seem as those he is repulsed, but affectionate, and forgiving of the feature, that can't or shouldn't be changed.

Dover Beach- Imagery

"The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore"

"Dover Beach" invokes an image of waves crashing on a beach, in a cycle from the beginning of time until the end of time. And these waves have stayed close to the shore all of that time. This is compared to the faith of humanity. So, While the waves have stayed close to the ocean, people have drifted closer and farther from their faith, as they reach for other monetary goals. So, they grow farther from God. It is important to not let those such vein needs get in the way of finding and connecting with God. But, as the tides go in and out, sin, and forgiveness can strengthen or weaken our relationship with god. And, when we have faith, it is that much easier to reconnect with God when, we do stray off.

Crossing the Bar- Medaphor

"Twilight and evening bell,  
  And after that the dark!     
And may there be no sadness of farewell,  
  When I embark;"

Crossing the bar is like crossing in to the gates of heaven. When this man is on earth, he wonders what this journey will be like by imagining the only part of heaven that he can actually see, the horizon. This horizon separates the heavens from the earth. So then crossing this horizon, meant leaving the earth behind and entering the beyond. This also be more simple then the man dreaming about what heaven would be like. He might just be praying. He is out at sea, all alone and looking into the heavens to ask for help, crossing the horizon to talk  to the "pilot". This could explain why he was seeing the horizon go from day to night, because he is in need of rescue. This could also, explain both interpretations. He might be pleading for God to save him, or contemplating death.

Hazel Tells Laverne- Central Theme

"ya little green pervert
am i hitsm with my mop
an has ta flush
the toilet down three times
me
a princess"

The theme of this poem is to never take the easy way out. This woman is obviously a low class worker, that is probably in debt and have financial issues. So, it would be easy for her to get lost in the word that this talking frog is preaching to her. Being a princess would mean that all of her problems would be solved! She would have the money of the country she ruled behind her, and people would look up her with respect and honor. The latter would also be important, because at the level at work that she is accustomed, people rarely would actually see her for a person. As a princess, she would have fame a fortune. So, she had every reason to dream, but it is important that she did not merely acquiesce to this "prince" but stood for what she believed in.

My Mistress' Eyes- Tone

"I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound"

So, at first read the speaker seems to be condemning this poor woman, but when the tone of the poem sets in, you realize that he is not speaking harshly about these facts. He is speaking tenderly about her. He says, "I see no roses in her checks". Instead of using negative connoted words, he uses the positive to show his affection for her. So, as the poem continues, it is more apparent that he does feel affectionately toward her in a way that does not "compare" to any other. There is a shift in tone from the first half of the poem to the second. At the beginning, the tone was accepting of her imperfections. Then it changes toward the end to loving her imperfections in a way that know other man could.

Barbie Doll- Diction

"Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last."

The diction used in this poem is important because it makes a distinction between an innocent poem about dolls and an intense message to society. The use of Cherry red lipstick instead of simply lipstick, is that it is associated to a specific kind of woman. Most women were lip sick, but only the most beautiful, perfect women would dare to where Cherry red. And, the diction to describe the girl is perfectly normal. She is intelligent. She is Strong in the arms and back. But despite these seemingly average attributes, even flattering attributes, all that she sees is the ways in witch she is different from the perfect girls. So, she had to change, "diet" and "exercise", but obviously this was too much for her, and sadly would rather cease to exist on this earth than exist with "a fat nose and thick thighs".

Much Madness id Divinest Sense- Paradox

This poem presents a paradox because, she is saying that to be crazy is to be sane, and to be sane is to be crazy. This differs from the views of society, but she is not talking of strictly of mentally ill persons and the "normal". These are the extremes. She is talking about the everyday individual. She is saying, that since we all are different, in way of thinking, and acting, that we can not all be sane. Since we all think differently from one another, we are all slightly crazy in someone else's eyes. So, because the "majority", are odd, they are all also "sane". So, we are all equal in the fact that we are all different from one another.

APO 96225- Central Purpose

The central purpose of this poem is to basically to warn against the truth. Once you learn the truth, you can never go back, to ignorance. Most hate being lied to, and want to find out every detail that is being withheld from them, and why. But, less often do we consider why it is that we don't know the whole truth, or why someone would want to lie. This poem is saying that the truth can be hurtful, so be careful what you ask for. This could also relate to science. Is it necessary to advance further? Is anyone thinking about how this uninvented technology of the future will change our world, possibly for the worse? This comes up in the poem because, the son is in war fighting ethic battles daily, weather to use the weapons invented to take lives.

Sorting Laundry- Imagery

The Imagery presented in "Sorting Laundry" is simply the tasks of an everyday woman, with represent the story of her lost relationship. First, two fall in love and "fold together" giving the reader, at first the image of towel and then, the two lives being folding happily together. Next they "dream" together, literally, sleeping side by side, and figuratively planning their future. And, after awhile, their love is still strong and recycles, showing the literal image of the same clothes going through a weekly laundry cycle, but their love going through the same cycle, maybe getting boring after all these years. Now, the all the good memories together seem to fade and be forgotten. And, the love of her life is gone, and nothing could fill "the empty side of the bed, and the void in her heart. Now, all that she is left to remember what once was, is the clothes that got left behind, and the images they create ing mind. These take her back to when she was doing laundry for two, instead of doing laundry alone and nostalgic.

Barbie Doll- Central Theme

The central theme of "Barbie Doll" is that body image is establish early, but can have dire consequences on the young girls of America. By the title of this poem one would assume that is would be about the youthful joy of playing with that one special toy. But, almost from the start, it is clear that this is not the case. While discussing the toys the this impressionable little girl played with in her youth, the speaker focusses on the most steriotypic "women" roles, and these toys seem to describe the perfect woman. So when this girl grows up to be slightly less than the perfect woman she grew up idealizing, she feel inadequate. This is furtherd by others confirming her insecurities, because they to grew up in the same inviroment. So, dispite her trys to become the perfect woman, she fails to change her self enough to meat societies high standered, and finally gives up on trying. This message is aimed specifically to society, to wake them up to the reality that glamour is not as important as the lives of our youth.

Bright Star by John Keats- Central Purpose

The central purpose of this poem is to illustrate innocence and baptism. A star from far above is looking down on earth and observing all the earth has to offer. The star first sees the beautiful scene the oceans cleansing the beaches everywhere. This is a direct reference to baptism with water and cleansing, making the beaches a new and clean. Also these waters preform a preist like task, to complete the image of a formal baptism with the priest presiding. The Star then sees the covered mountains blanketed in snow. It does not witness the uneven underbrush but the pure white poder that makes it apear to be cleansed. The purpose of snow in general as well as in this poem is to generate new life, for the spring. The star sees only those things that are good about earth, because it is unattainable to the star, therefore the star finds it more spectacular.

"Toads" by Philip Larkin- Tone

The tone of this poem is uninspired and a little hopeless. The speaker is passionate about this subject, but lacks the power to voice his opinions publicly. This is apparent when he says that he would like to shout out his feeling of pensions, but he is not courageous enough. When he comments that the system "will never allow me to blarney My way", this instills a hopelessness into the poem. The reader understands that not only is he generally unhappy about his life, but he feels he can not get out it. He wants, like any other man in his situation, to stop and take it easy, like he see's that the well payed actors and bankers that seem to have it all, have. But, even though he wants this life, and dreams about it, he knows that it will not happen. This is why this man is uninspired. He does nothing to change his situation.

"February" by Margret Atwood-Figurative Language

In this the cat is used is a metaphor for human nature. It focusses on death and needs. Similarly, we focus on the dipair in the winter months. Even though we are separated from animals by love, we are more like them, in our most basic thoughts and desires. That often times get us into trouble, because animals are only really concerned about their selves. So, when we become to animalistic, we don't take into account the feelings of others. This is where our love and compassion comes into save us from acting like this all the time to create relationships with each other in love. This part of a person is like springtime, without death or greed. So, cats are stuck in winter all years whereas humans get to enter into springtime.

“ Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes- Imagery

 In this poem imagery plays a huge part in describing what happens to dreams when other ambitions take over, and that dream is no longer sought after. Hughes discusses many ways in which a dream can be forgotten. It could have dried up in the sun showing the reader an image of not only the raising drying up but also the dream getting old and soon useless to the dreamer. It could fester like a sore illustrating how if left on confronted or underachieved dreams can just sit there nagging at the subconscious until forgot. When dreams are compared to the stench of rotten meat Hughes is implying that a dream unfulfilled is a missed opportunity, like rotten meat that could have been used for nourishment. These images have there own significance, but unite together to make the reader understand that a forgotten dream is tragic. This make the tone of this poem sorrowful, because of the diction used in the imagery, like "dry up", "fester", "rotten", "crust", and "explode". And, this imagery including the tone delivers a theme, that says you must never give up on a dream.

“Toads” by Philip Larkin–Central Theme

 The central theme of this poem is that government doesn't do enough for the average classes. Larkin comments that these men must work 6 days just to pay the minimum all of their bills. This does not even cover food for the family. This is why a these men go on with eating sardines, and their wives are so skinny. He is blaming the government for this because he comments that the rich have all the luck and always get their way while the average class gets stuck living paycheck to paycheck. He's saying that the rich and famous have everything handed to them, like the men who have fame, the girl, in the money. He's saying that like a toad is stuck being a toad for his entire life, and average class man is stuck being average for the rest of his life. This government makes it difficult for hard-working men to raise up and become more than average.

"London"- Central Purpose

The Central Propose of this poem is to propose an alternate city where corruption succeeds to warn against allowing corruption in. He says that while the city still functions, by commenting on the Thames still flows, the people with in the city are defeated. Everyone was scared of what was going to happen next. Even the forceful soldier looked defeated on the street. How could the average citizen ever feel happy again. Corruption has finally succeeded, even the palace runs crimson with the blood of defeat. This place should be avoided at all cost, this skewed alternate reality. For nobody wants to live in a world where corruption wins and happiness, and freedom falters.

The Panther- Figurative Language, Medaphor

This poem illustrates how dreadful death can be when it is expected. For the man in the cell, is compared to a man battling a raging panther in a closed cage. The man in the cell is condemned to death, like the man pitted against the tiger in a cage. So, the man and the Panther dance around the cage. This is like the mind of the prisoner at war with itself to try to except what is about to happen to him. While death is inevitable, both of the men try everything they can to extend their sentence even longer, because they know that what lay beyond the moment of thought, is far worse that the short term situation. This metaphor is successful because of the similarities drawn, out of the mist of the deeply contrasting ideas. Panthers, and prisoners are not often compared successfully, but at the end of this poem, the reader is not uncomfortable with this odd comparison at all, because Rilke drawls the right comparison while excluding others.

The Panther- Imagery

The image that forms in the readers head when reading this poem that of a solemn prison cell with no way out. The prisoner has been locked up for so long that he has no idea what the world outside is like any longer. This contributes to the Imagery of the poem because a sean of a lonely man slowly looking up and out through the many bars only to see a vast emptiness. The inside of the cell is destitute and sorrowful, but out side the cell, there is nothing, nothing to hope for, no dreams to form. The prisoner is physically trapped and mentally trapped inside of that cell. This is clearly an example of Visual Imagery because the reader is visualizing this dark dreadful sean through the poem. This imagery lends a dark and sinister tone and a message saying that no matter how seemingly dreadful the situation, their is always something worse, so be positive.

Those Winter Sundays- Tone

The tone of this poem is obviously nostalgic and sorrowful. This man is looking back at his childhood regretting his relation ship with his father, and how he, the son, treated his dad. He now realizes how hard his dad worked to provide for him. However, he feels sorrowful that he had not realized this sooner. He regrets not seeing how is dad "ached", and "speaking indifferently to him. For while his son was being difficult he was in pain after a long day. The pain is transferred from the physically hurting father to the spiritually regretful son. This is apparent in the text when he says, "What did I know, What did I know?", meaning that he has not forgiven himself for all those years in which he stole form his father the credit he deserved.

The Convergence of Twain- Central Theme

The central theme to this poem is God punishes for a reason, in this intense, vanity. The passengers of the titanic represent greed, and pride. They never thought that there lives were in danger, because they never met a problem that they could not buy. This is the precise reason that they were on this exact ship, because it was too "unsinkable" and expensive to ever be dangerous. Just as they thought that their money could buy them "eternal" life, they praised their possession over all else, their satis symbol to all of society. These people claimed to be God worshiping even though their true god was their wealth. This Coupled with the earlier suggested pride, as feeling though they could buy death, God became very angry. The titanic was not filled with merely innocent bistanders but potentially poisonous to the world and therefore had to be removed from their high positions.

Lawrence Perrine Article

 “In this paper, accordingly, I wish, not to advance any new proposition, but only to reassert the accepted critical principle that for any given: there are correct and incorrect readings...”

     This article both cleared up some aspects of poetry for me and also presented many new questions regarding the interpretation of poetry. Interpreting poetry is much harder than interpreting the meanings of books because, as Perrine says, poetry has symbolism that the reader has to interpret correctly. And if not correctly interpreted the poem is greatly misunderstood. Interpreting different symbols can be difficult because, as pairing says, a symbol not only represents itself but also another meaning past itself.  This can be difficult to understand in so few lines whereas in the story the reader has many other references to back that symbol up. In a book you have a entire story to understand the style and structure that the author likes using. The reader can implement this, to more easily understand the meaning behind the symbols, but in poems the reader only has a few stanzas to fully understand the work as a whole. Knowing now that each poem has a correct interpretation, I can now seek it out.  In addition to this I will now go deeper into understanding a specific poem. For instance, in the poem him by William Blake, I understood the  rose to be innocent and the worm to be corruption, however if I just looked deeper into  that symbolism I would have seen this story the way beneath.