COMMENTS ON POETRY SELECTIONS

            My assignments ask you to read some of my own poems. I do that for at least two reasons. First, I suppose, I think it keeps you "honest" as the essay you have to write will require you to compare one of my poems to another poet's. That way you almost certainly won't be tempted or even able to download pre-fabricated literary criticism and pass it in. You'll have to read and think and search and then write.

            I'm trying to get you to read through, around, into poetry. My poems are written in the American grain. They are typical of contemporary American poetry. They've won awards. Sure, I get to brag. But beyond the ego balm--the kudos I give myself--I'm  confident you will respond to them. I have published eighteen books of poetry and many are still available on line. You are welcome to read more of my work!

RANDOM THOUGHTS on your poetry selections

"Prufrock" http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a monumental work of poetry as well as a quintessential work by T. S. Eliot. The poem, thematically, typifies the "Tragic Vision" in contemporary literature. In such works as "Prufrock" there is little to cling to that reassures a person about life's meaning. Religion doesn't work. Materialism pales. Even one's friends are not real friends--talking behind each other's backs. Prufrock is alone, lost in thought, disassociating, free-associating. When a moment comes to ask "what was it all about?" will you, yourself, have any better an answer than Prufrock or will you feel you are drowning as he does?  To all this I must add, the work reads so musically. The poem broke all the rules of its time, escaping from the formalities of poetry, yet it still creates wonderful word-music. I would have to say "Prufrock" was a major influence on my own writing style, and sometimes, alas, on my own philosophy and life-view.

Want a line to quote that will impress your friends or help you fit among the literati at a party. Tell them lately you feel "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."

In your readings list for poetry you will find three "classical" poems, by three master poets--each of which expresses the wisdom &/or longings of the ages. Modern literature does not hold the patent on a search for or doubt about the meaning of life. Whether it is Wordsworth or Billy Joel asking "if that's what it's all about" we can all relate to questions of "getting and spending." Sometimes it takes a dramatic turn in one's health, as with Milton contemplating his own blindness, to turn us toward asking our own purpose in life. (I nearly went blind. I can relate to that last line that consoles anyone forced to just "stand and waite.")  And in the end, for all we think we have accomplished, will we have any more to show than Ozymandius?

"

Related to the theme of alienation and loss of meaning that one finds in "Prufrock" is the picture of conformity one finds in "Citizen." Plug into the poem your own list of things that would depict a person who conforms totally. What trends, fads, popular beliefs and behavior would up-date the portrait of the Unknown Citizen? How susceptible are you, yourself, to the pressures to keep up with the Jones, to conform, to have and do what everyone else has and does? Walk into a room full of people, observe the way everyone is dressed, what they are talking about; think of who they really are? Ask the same questions as at the end of the poem. Are they happy? Are they free? Are you? The poem appeals to the non-conformist in me, even as I love all those "conveniences necessary for the modern man!"

"Dover Beach” http://www.bartleby.com/42/705.html

Adding to the feeling that there is little in life any of us can hold dear is the poem " Dover Beach ." I grew up by the ocean, lived on Long Island over-looking the Sound with a view to Connecticut . The notion of looking out over the sea toward some distant point and wondering who and what is out there is familiar to me. The poem strikes a sad note but one that allows some hope because there is, at least, someone at the speaker's side to take comfort in. If there isn't any particular meaning, at least there is a moment's love. The poem fits thematically into some of the other anti-war, anti-absolutist literature you will be reading. What, after all, is worth fighting for? What is real, really important, worth joining some "ignorant army" for?

"Traveling Through the Dark" http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/William-Stafford/1087

William Stafford's poem so affected me that I used the title in a poem of my own. In fact, the sample poetry essay I offer you compares that poem I wrote to Stafford 's. Again we sense a loss of certainty, of meaning--the tragic vision--at work in the poem. We may think hard, but real meaning is not so clear. Rather, we do what the moment demands of us, hoping we have learned our lessons adequately enough to at least do no harm. Better, we may do some good.

As for the style of this poem, it is a fine model of modern poetry. Modern poetry is as often first person (I, me, my); experiential (letting us believe the poem was a real experience someone had); descriptive (and this poem vividly engages our senses); and, for that matter about 12 to 20 lines long, written in free verse (no particular rhythm/form) and blank verse (no particular rhyme/form).  

"Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15309

For a short poem, this is about as good an anti-war poem as you can get. So much for heroism! If Joe or Ron were gunners killed in action, they'd hose them out the same way!  Now couple this with another very famous  anti-war poem:

"Dulce est Decorum Est" http://www.english.emory.edu/LostPoets/Dulce.html

and tell me that you believe that ancient--but presently popular--lie "how seen and honorable it is to die for your country."

"The Flea" http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/flea.htm

There is a tendency to think in the old days people were ever so conservative.  Victorianism may have put that notion into our minds but here's John Donne (1572-1632), no less than an Anglican minister, writing a really dirty little seduction piece. How could a high school sophomore not love poetry after reading this poem? It made me wish my girlfriend had fleas so I could try these lines! Work with this one. Don't let the older uses of English throw you. He's trying to get into her pants and it's worth reading and rereading it until you get the point. Oh, and don't let the bed bugs bite if you do jump in the sack.

"Kubla Kahn" http://www.classicauthors.net/Coleridge/kublakhan/

If you don't know Coleridge, this poem should charm you. Some students like the poem more when they learn that he was stoned on laudanum (http://www.nycgoth.com/more/laudanum/) which was the Percodan of its day. I just love the music, the romantic feel of the poem. You could dance to this one.

"Tiger" http://www.classicauthors.net/Blake/PoemsOfWilliamBlake/PoemsOfWilliamBlake1.html

Among the romantics of roughly the same period as  Coleridge you will find William Blake. Google him for his artwork if not his poetry. He's psychedelic! You have already read my little essay in which I confess that I did poorly analyzing "Tiger" for my introduction to literature class. I still think it's about a tiger. Screw the industrial revolution. I worked in a plastics factory for seven summers so I know how oppressive industry can be. As a poet, I know the poem is a credit to the old style in which poems were written and it raises some early and troubling questions about the nature of creation, as does "The Chimney Sweep" http://www.classicauthors.net/Blake/PoemsOfWilliamBlake/PoemsOfWilliamBlake16.html

Ah but then, we on Long Island are all children of Walt Whitman and should pay our literary respects to his Leaves of Grass http://www.bartleby.com/142/index2.html 

For a glimpse of a gorgeous passage that compares to "The Voyeur" among my poems go to  Whitman's poem "The Twenty-ninth Bather."

If you read Whitman in school, it was probably "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" or "Captain, Oh Captain," mourning the death of Lincoln. There's so much more to Whitman than that. I don't often get involved in the biographies of poets but I particularly like to tell folks how Whitman was so different, and so explicit, that he couldn't get a poetry publisher to do his first book. He had to use a publisher of medical books. He sent his work to Emerson who wrote him back in a personal letter full of praise. When Whitman asked if he could quote that same letter to help promote his work, Emerson, worried about his own reputation if he endorsed such controversial poems, told Whitman no. Whitman quoted him anyway. A man after my own heart!

Unless you want to imitate a vacuum cleaner, read Whitman. He's better than just collecting dust! He's exciting and hey, you live on Long Island . Go visit his house in Huntington, where, yes, it is across from the Mall.