First Fight, Then Fiddle...

After reading "We Real Cool" I decided to look at more Gwendolyn Brooks because I've read some other works of hers and I always enjoy them.

"First Fight, Then Fiddle" Is a traditional petrarchan sonnet. The Norton talks about stanzas and how they break up different thoughts, here Brooks breaks up her thoughts in two different "sections" so the first 8 lines have one idea, while the next 4 have a different idea. The poem has a Couplet as well at the end of the poem.

The first 8 lines of the poem are about positive things, which is strange because in the title she tells you to first fight, then fiddle, but here she is talking about tings like fiddling first. So in the beginning, there is no mention of anything violent, she mentions imagery such as "ply the slipping string," which drives home the idea of mentioning the act of fiddling before one goes to fight.

Once the reader gets to the 9th line, there is a sudden change in tone, it goes from pleasant to violent by using language such as "A while from malice and from murdering." In these next four lines she talks about war, and how ugly and dehumanizing it is. She makes it clear that people are senseless during a war by telling the reader to, "be deaf to music, and to beauty blind." She also shows how people need to forget their emotions when their fighting a war, by leaving behind "harmony." The mainly one syllable rhymes also gives the poem a rough feel to it, like "sing thing, hate late," it makes the poem sharp like a war.

We Real Cool

by Gwendolyn Brooks

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike Straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.


This poem I think is all about the economy of words and how she is able to convey a feeling of free spiritness into 24 words. I believe it is possible to hear a person saying this with an attidude of arrogance, and listening to her read it on Poets.org and talking about it, I think that point is made even clearer. I'm fascinated by her thought process here, and how she went from "why aren't these boys in school," to "how do they feel right now," and I believe she was able to capture that feeling of mischevious play in this poem. I am amazed at how she can convey this very "cool" feeling in such a small amount of words.

Here is where you can hear Gwendolyn Brooks actually talk about her poem and then read it. I think it's one thing to read it yourself, but to hear the actual author read it, is a whole new story. I think it's great the way she reads this.

Reading by Gwendolyn Brooks
http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433

Tear the court down and make it a dance floor...

I believe this poem by Stephen Dunn is about how he is kind of inspired by whatever hits speaks to him at the time. Dunn wants to talk about how poetry is rooted from moments in life, you don't find poetry, it almost finds you, in "an apple orchard," or "an old hotel," whatever hits a writer at that moment. He talks about the "gray areas," where he finds the inspiration to write something. He wants his words to make him feel as though he's, "been taken somewhere." That is the beginning of poetry.

In the middle, he talks about how having a "fast red car and a winding road," is a good thing, which I think of as losing yourself in the poetry and letting it take you where it needs to go, so all you have to do is stear the wheel and nothing else. I really like that metaphor.

The book asks about the final two lines of the poem. "Strange music beginning, the dance floor getting crowded now." I think this is his pictation of how a poem hits him and he is inspired to write one. "Strange music" could be the language used to write the poem and the crowded dance floor could be his mind becoming crowded with ideas.

The Red Wheelbarrow

"The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams is an interesting poem because I believe that it is utilizing the colors red and white to possibly signify a good vs. evil theme. The red wheelbarrow is symbolizing the evil while the white chickens symbolize the good. I believe that the rain comes in to the poem to kind of "purify" the evil that is the wheelbarrow.

I am stuck on the idea of why he would choose a wheelbarrow to carry an evil connotation. I tink that it is possible he is thinking of how wheelbarrows can carry objects, which means that maybe evil can carry people away, but the white is associated with objects that can fly (chickens). That could possibly mean that once you are cleansed (by the rain) you are free. That is a total stretch :)

Marks

This poem ("Marks" by Linda Pastan) really shocked me, even though it is only twelve lines long, she still really drives the point home. She is fed up with everyone constantly judging her and she uses the grading system to show that. The language she chooses (the grading system) shows that she is treated like no more than an object or an inferior human being. Because she does this, we can feel the bitterness and the fact that her words bite at the reader. She is able to convey a message with such few words, it is amazing.

She is very effective when she writes her poem, the last two lines are the lines that really hit the reader. It's like the reader's floor has been pulled from underneath them (or atleast, that is how I felt). I think this really adds to the piece because she is so blunt and to the point. There is no beating around the bush in her poem. She punches the reader with a heavy line, and the fact that it is such a quick sentence shows she's already made up her mind on a subject that is so heavy. That makes people react, she is so cold about the fact that she is leaving, she's clearly had enough.

To a Daughter Leaving Home

I thought it would be interesting to read the other poem about motherhood as well. The tone in "To a Daughter Leaving Home" is much more focused on the joys of parenting. Although she is a little disheartened that her child is growing up, she is still proud of the fact that she can ride a bike by herself and possibly the mother has taught her what she needs to know to grow up and be successful.

In "Daystar," the mother wants to get away from her children, but in this poem, the mother hates to see her daughter leaving her. She, "kept waiting for the thud," but it would never come. That thud is the symbol of the daughter's dependance on her mother, but she doesn't need it anymore. The mother is saddened by this, she is still trying to hang on to her daughter's innocence, sprinting to "catch up," but the mother feels left behind because her daughter is growing up so quickly.

Both of these poems have very different views on motherhood. This poem inparticular felt as though she would lose her daughter. The tone of the "handkerchief waving goodbye" is a very sad one, leaving the mother behind. While in the other poem, the mother wishes to be alone, and she reminisces happily in the memory of being absolutely "nothing," for even just an hour. With no responsibilities of a mother, or anything. She was just an observer.

Daystar

Rita Dove talks about how she is overwhelmed with her children in the poem "Daystar". She "wanted a little room for htinking" so she goes out into the backyard. But she only accomplishes peace for about an hour. The tone of this poem really contributes to the situation of this poem.

Her views on motherhood are focused on the fact that it is very tiresome and that she really needs a break every now and again. She needs her own space, so she builds a "palace," which is really the mother mentally escaping from the responsibilities because palaces are things of fantasy. She is creating something to hide in, or to just take herself out of the role of a mother for a while. When she was hoping that she would only see her "vivid blood," I believe that is her talking about peace and quiet, and what she is hoping for, but it is soon broken by her kids again.

However, I think it is important to note that I don't think she doesn't like her kids, she just feels overwhelmed sometimes and she just wants to escape.