Porphyria's Lover

The man in this poem is a complete psycho, at first he seems normal and then boom he kills his lover. The man seemed normal until she confesses that she loves him, I guess he wanted to be able to love her for the rest of HIS LIFE and her saying that she loved him was not enough for him. The passage that gave me a sneak peak into his craziness was when he said, "Happy and proud; at last I knew/Porphyria worshipped me; suprise" (Browning l. 32-33). When someone uses words like "worships me", I think that is a good sign to go ahead and get out of that relationship. The man in the poem mentions her hair quiet often throughout the poem so when you find out that he strangled her with her hair it wasn't that suprising. "In one long yellow string I wound/Three times her little throat around,/And strangled her" (Browning l. 39-41). It was just really weird that her killed her with her own hair. When you look at it her hair could of been her most beautiful quality, but in the end it was actually the death of her, makes you think. All in all I thought it was kind of a twisted poem but interesting at the same time.

Stop all the clocks,cut off the telephone

I do like this poem, "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone" by W.H. Auden. It is on the rather depressing side. When you experience death first hand it does seem like life can't go on. When Auden writes, "He was my North, my South, my East, my West" (stanza 3 line 1). In a marriage this feeling is very typical. Like the old saying states, this is my better half. I know most people would feel this way if something ever did happen to their lover. I also felt so bad when I read, "I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong"(stanza 3 line 4). Just because the love of their life just died, doesn't mean the love they shared will EVER die.

"Porphyria's Lover"

This poem is about a young women who goes home to her lover. What she doesn't know, is that her lover is going to kill her. While the killer (also the women's lover in the poem) is talking about his girlfriend coming home, he makes it sound so sweet and innocent. This poem completely shocked me, I didn't think that he was going to kill her in the end. Toward the end of the poem you can tell that the lover/killer is a little psycho. He starts to sound controlling, a little threatened (because she was out), and has some insecurities. Another thing that I would like to point out is that his character makes it sound like if he cant have her than no one can, but he already does have her and that's the weird psycho part.

"Stop All The Clocks"

This is a rather interesting poem. On one hand you have the view that this is the death of a loved one, however you also have the secondary death of the relationship. The line "I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong" (S. 12), solidifies this idea. The speaker is wanting the moment to forever be remembered by the stopping of the clocks and making sure all is quiet in order for them to be able to soak the moment in. The poem also includes the customary use of light/dark to signafy death and life, "Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun" (S. 14). All in all, the class discussion hit most of the main points of the poem, and really just confirmed what I already though.

Stop All the Clocks

This poem "Stop all the clocks,cut the telephone" by W.H. Auden seems to be about this girl who has lost her loved one. He must have died because line 6 says "Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead." The woman (or whoever else you may think this person is) acts like this is the end of the world. He was my North, my South, my East and West,/My working week and my Sunday rest,/My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;/I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. (l.9-12) When someone dies yes it is hard, but she makes everything sound like the world should stop. This was an easy poem to follow. I enjoyed reading it.
Another thing that i noticed was that the word aeroplanes is spelt differently. I dont get why it is spelt this way.

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"

I agree with our class discussion about Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" where we talked about the overall message that this poem displays. "Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (Thomas. l. 3), to me, represents the idea that no man should die without a fight. Thomas's second line, "Old age should burn and rave at close of day" also seems to represent the same idea, but enforces the fact that elders should make the most of every day they have because they don't know when it will be their last.

Some things that we didn't discuss in class that I found interesting throughout this poem are the descriptions used to characterized the different men. Words like good, grave, wild, and wise are all used and it seems that this gives the effect that the poem reaches out to ALL men and not just one type. The speaker emphasizes these descriptive words by placing them at the very beginning of each stanza, excluding the first and the last. Thomas's third line again, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light", is repeated exactly four times, the same number of descriptive words used. I think that is meant to direct the same "fight for every breath" message towards each type of man.

"Stop All The Clocks"

"Stop All The Clocks",by W.H. Auden is a poem with silence. As the reader, a feeling of complete sadness occurs throughout the poem. In the first stanza, quietness is what the writer wants you experience. Time needs to stand still and there is to be no communication with the outside world. "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone"(l. 1). All the reader should hear is the muffled tone of silence. Going on the the second stanza, the reader learns that someone has passed away. It goes on to explain that this person that passed away was everything to the speaker. "He was my North, my South, my East, my West"(l. 9). The last stanza still goes on to say how important this person was but now the imagery is bigger. "The stars are not wanted now:put out every one;/Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;" (l. 13-14). From the first stanza of listing things a person could actually do to listing things that a person can only imagine shows how the grieving process is different for everybody. The death of his/her lover became the death of everything around him/her.

Evaluation of "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone"

In W. H. Auden's poem "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone", there is a description of a woman mourning her husbands death. There are four stages of the poem. The first is silence, the second is respect, the third is the meaning of this person, and the fourth is the impact of the death. It has a very somber and silent tone. She wants respect to be shown with silence by stating "Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone"(Auden l. 2). The whole second stanza in this poem is dedicated to respect. She states "Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come" because she wants the procession to commence, so she can put the grief behind(Auden l. 4). The third stanza tells of how he meant everything to her. The third stanza uses contrast and comparison to show that it was no small impact. It was like investing a whole life savings into a stock, just to see it crash. It was like the end of the world, because "nothing now can ever come to any good"(Auden l. 16). It is a very sad poem because it shows only hopelessness.

"Do not go gentle into that good night"

"Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas
In the stanzas three, four, and five they talk about how some people approach death
Stanza three is how good men go towards the light. They seem to go towards heaven but they feel that they were not allowed enough time to accomplish more in their lifetime.
Stanza four is how wild men take death. THey do not have enough time to do what they want to. they live for each moment doing crazy things.
Stanza five is the Grave men. THey are accepting it but feel like it is unfair.
Over all everyone dies at some point and no one wants to so they keep fighting for what they want to do and never give up.

" Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone"

The mood in the poem " Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone" by W. H. Auden leaves you in a somewhat depressed state of mind. Imagine if a person were to have this outlook after someone close to them died. It would be miserable. " Poor away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good. (l.15, 16) What a depressing end to a depressing poem. I would say that the poet strikes on many readers emotion when they read this poem because many people have lost someone close to them and it is never an easy time. It seems as though the character in this poem has such a deep dark outlook that they will never be able to move on and feel happy again after their loss. After losing someone life does go on and life will get better. It is just a time in one's life that may be more challenging and need more attention. In the first stanza I believe that it also signifies a moment of silence for the deceased and time to reflect on what is going on. I think everyone needs that when a loved one has passed away.

Those Winter Sundays

This poem to me is of a son who doesn't regonize the love his father shows to him and his family at first but then in the end realizes that love doesn't have to be said but can also be showed in many different ways. The poem starts of with a line that to me means his father is a dedicated man that gets up early, "Sundays too my father got up early," (page 677). Then the line, "Then the cracked hands that ached," (page 678) tells me that his father is a hard working labor man. He didn't get much appreciation for this from anyone, for the senctence, "No one ever thanked him," (page 678) said. The son explains how he would wake up when his father called, but didn't care that much to hurry and get up and work. "And slowly I would rise and dress," page (678) tells me this. I believe that the son feared of no love by the line that states, "Fearing the chronic anger of the house," (678). But in the end as the boy ages he realizes that love doesn't always have to come in the words, "I love you," but can come by showing and feeling it. The last line made me think that way, "And love's auster and lonely offices," (page 678).