Erring Lace

I guess I'll go straight into what this poem is about.. even though I shouldn't.

It's better to be a little bit messy than to be perfect all the time. The speaker gets to this by describing the way clothes are worn... words like thrown,erring, neglected, confusedly, careless, and wild all give the poem an off-beat sort of tone. Not everything is quite right, but it works.

The author also uses a broken rhyme scheme, which gives me a sense of disorder.

There are also some oxymorons, which gives off another sense of chaos and whatnot.

"wild civility"--talking about shoestrings. When I invision this, I think of the laces not being tied. The guy is civil, because he is wearing shoes.. but he is "wild" because he didn't tie them. What a rebel.

"flow confusedly"--ribbons. When something "flows", it usually makes more sense and its easy to get.. so flowing confusedly must mean tangled.

O O Mother Mother Edward Edward O O

So when I first read this, I wasn't frustrated. I thought that in the beginning he was making excuses for himself.. so he wouldn't have to admit to his mom that he killed his dad. But "momma knows best".. so eventually she sucked it out of him. It was like she wasn't surprised that her husband was dead, which I found funny. She goes straight to his punishment-taking care of business, like most moms.

At the end he blames his mom for all his problems.. I just thought he was a big baby.

But then today in class, I was sort of wrong. The mom wasn't a good lady.. she wanted her husband dead, so she convinced Edward to do it. She doesn't start taking care of business to take care of her son, she does it so she can get all the goody goodies her husband "left" behind. In the end, Edward doesn't blame his mom like baby.. she blames her for convincing him to kill the dad.

I don't get why she wanted the husband dead.. wouldn't all his riches be hers when she was married to him?

Poppy or Charms

There's lots of personification in this poem.

The speaker gives death human characteristics.

Death is mighty, dreadful, and a slave to chance, kings, and desperate men.. Meaning death can only occur by chance, or if a leader wills it (like Hitler or Saddam Hussein) or like a man who kills someone or himself (or a woman).

The end of the poem reveals that death can die! We all wish that death could die.. but if we want it to, we have to die ourselves. So it's not really worth it.

I think what the speaker wants to get across is that death is inevitable.. so you really shouldn't think it's "mighty" or "dreadful".. it's just a fact of life. Eventually "our best of men with thee do go".

I like how the speaker says that death "dwells"... in sickness, poison and war.. It's like saying that death lives, which is a paradox! I think.

So death lives on Earth, but dies in the after-life. Once you get to heaven (or hell), you can't re-die.

Danced in a Green Bay

tone.

tone.

tone.

tone.

I think I'm going to go with gloomy/fearful. The speaker continuously warns us not to "go into that good night", which I think means death. And death is usually a gloomy subject to talk about.. and then the speaker says that "the dark is right". Which implies that we should fight death even when it is our time, because it's scary. So he's fearful.

He gives us the stages that each type of person goes through when facing death.

The old men know it's their time, but they are too afraid.

The good men begin to doubt themselves--were my deeds good enough to get to heaven?

The wild men regret their lifestyle.. if they go into the dark, they won't reach the "light". (you know, heaven)

The serious men.. I don't get the "grave men".

In the last stanza the speaker is begging his father to fight off death.