Many red devils...

Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page,
They were so tiny
The pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.

This poem is one stanza that is an octet. I think the poem is literal I couldn’t decide what the devil were. I thought they could be a thought from deep in his soul. To me this poem had an endearing tone towards the little devils. The darkest thing I found in Crane’s life had an encounter with a prostitute. The devils are mashed to make the red ink he has to kill his own inner thoughts to write a thought which I thought was interesting. I don’t want to beat this poem with a hose so I think I’ll stop trying to smash the little devils.

this is a photograph of me

The first three stanzas describe someone looking at a photo of them self. The photo is described in great detail. The photo is of a lake by a small by a lake the photo is all smudged up. But there is no person. Then the next four stanzas are in partheses decribe where they are. I wondered since the photo was smudged because it was very old and she was looking back from heaven.

It was taken some time ago
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;

then, as you scan
it, you can see something in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.


When I found out this photo is from the day after they drowned in the lake, I wondered if someone took the photo unknowingly or if it was a police photo. I thought the ()made the last stanzas more intimate like if someone were whispering to me like it was a silly little secret they photo bomed someone’s pretty lake picture. “It is difficult to say where precisely, or to say how large or how small I am: the effect of water on light is a distortion. But if you look long enough eventually you will see me” This made me think of heaven. You can see the angles and loved one but if you’re long enough you can. I thought this could also mean we lose our self’s in life or sadness and can barley find ourselves again.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or how small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion.

but if you look long enough
eventually
you will see me.)

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.


This poem is one stanza that is an octave. This poem is end stopped and is one thought that flows through the whole poem. This poem is packed full of paradox like “Nature's first green is gold” and “Her early leaf's a flower”. This poem can be looked at as a spring poem. But I think this poem is about mortality of man. When we were first created we were free of sin (with hearts of gold) in the green garden of Eden. Not sinning is very heard no matter how hard we try every one sins at one point. Adam had the weight of the world on his shoulders to not sin ever that is a very hard hue to hold. “Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour.” He was free of sin but could only last for so long like the flower bloom of an apple. Then he went to the nature of man turning his bloom of not sinning in to leaf. Adam ate the apple and doomed humanity to grief. The dawn of man sank and we were cast away from the Lords good graces in Eden. Nothing so pure can stay.

Not Waving but Drowning

“Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.”

The first stanza which is a quatrain describes a man dying. “I was much further out than you thought” No one can feel or gauge how depressed someone truly feels. Nobody can hear the man’s moaning, because it is in the center of his soul. Waving is a happy action that welcomes and shares joy. While drowning is the same motion but filled with panic and desperation. While the man may look like he’s happy and waving but he is drowning and splashing.

“Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.”

The second stanza is also a quatrain. Larking is having harmless fun and pulling pranks. When people commit suicide we always deny it clamming they were so happy and larking that suicide can’t be an option. We think they must have made an accident maybe the cold froze their heart.

“Oh, no, no, no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.”

The last stanza is also a quatrain. In this stanza the possibility of suicide is excepted because it was always cold. She realizes she was too far out to see his depression and waved back at him while he was drowning.

NEW POEM PACKET

Introduction to Poetry

This poem is made up of 7 stanzas one single line, three couplets, and five terces. The imagery that Collins uses is easy to recall because each sense is used. This poem has a more structured feel to it and reads well.

Hallways

Goodbye to all the crowed hallways
I always had to push through,
Full of people in hats
That always got snatched away,
The wet winter floors that were like a slip in slide,
The low mumbles of teenage angst

Hello open campus,
I don’t have to squeeze through
Full of new faces
With talk of radical new ideas,
Goodbye small purple hall, Hello to my new life.

Much madness is divinest sense

This poem is one stanza, and has no set rhyme. Each line is capitalized even if it is not the start of a new sentence. This poem repeats the word sense often and uses words starting in s to give the poem a better flow. This poems message was questing what madness is, are the ones we consider mad truly genius. I liked the message because it made me think.

It was a dream

I really liked this poem due to its rich visual images. This poem was in stopped but reads very fluid. I thought it was very interesting there were no capitals except This at the very end. By only capitalizing This it emphasized the message even more. The poem is also one stanza long but look like two stanzas because, “what,” breaks up the poem and transitions focus. This poem had no set rhyme.