Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep. 

-Robert Frost

I love Robert Frost's poems because they speak to me and I can relate to them easily. This song talks about a secret place where he can get away from his responsibilities and reminisce. The poem talks about the woods and the beauty of the area. The woods are a place where he goes and gets side-tracked from his responsibilities. He stops  to enjoy the beauty. 

The song and the poem are both focused on escaping responsibilities and enjoying something that is special to them. The places that they go are simple places that they can rely on. Those places will remain constant - no matter what happens.  

Crow is Walking

Crow is walking
to see things at ground level,
the ground as new under his feet
as the air is old under his wings.

He leaves the dead rabbit waiting -
it's a given,
it'll always be there -
and walks down the dirt road,
admires the pebbles,
how they sparkle in the sun;
checks out his reflection
in a puddle full of sky
which reminds him
of where he's supposed to be,
but he's beginning to like
the way the muscles move in his legs
and the way his wings feel so comfortable
folded back and resting.

He thinks he might be beautiful,
the sun lighting his back
with purple and green.
Faint voices from somewhere far ahead
roll like dust down the road towards him.
He hurries a little.
His tongue moves in his mouth;
legends of language move in his mind.
His beak opens.
He tries a word.

-Grace Butcher


This poem was fairly easy to put into lines. The poet primarily used periodic sentences which made it easy to separate the ideas. I separated the poem into three paragraphs because I felt like the poem had three "scenes". The first scene introduces the crow, the second scene develops the personality of the crow, and the third scene shows the crow in action and experiencing new things.

The Rainy Day

The Rainy Day

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the moldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

This poem stood out to me because of its title. I love rainy days and thunderstorms, and sometimes find that the weather reflects my mood. At the beginning of the poem, the tone seems dreary and hopeless. As the poem progresses, however, it becomes one of hope and reassurance. The eleventh and twelfth lines read, “Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; behind the clouds is the sun still shining” On rainy days, sometimes it is hard to find hope, but this poem reminds the reader that the sun is still there and things will get better. I like poems that find the “silver lining” in situations and that can express to the reader a different and optimistic view on situations that seem hopeless.

I like Longfellow’s style because it uses many different tools of language such as vivid and descriptive imagery, rhyming, diverse diction, and meter. His poems are primarily reflections and observations that can be either personal or detached. I like the diversity of his writing and the fact that it never follows the same pattern. Unlike Longfellow, some poets get caught up in one style or one pattern and all of their poems become very similar.

Sundown

Sundown:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The summer sun is sinking low;
Only the tree-tops redden and glow:
Only the weathercock on the spire
Of the neighboring church is a flame of fire;
All is in shadow below.

O beautiful, awful summer day,
What hast thou given, what taken away?
Life and death, and love and hate,
Homes made happy or desolate,
Hearts made sad or gay!

On the road of life one mile-stone more!
In the book of life one leaf turned o'er!
Like a red seal is the setting sun
On the good and the evil men have done,--
Naught can to-day restore!

I took this picture this past summer in Arizona during my family's vacation to the Grand Canyon. When I read, "O beautiful, awful summer day, what hast thou given, what taken away?" that line made me think about all of the memories of that day at the Grand Canyon. Someone else may have chosen a picture that would have fit with the scenery in the poem - one that had a church in the foreground, trees, and a red cast to the sky. However, the picture above is important to me and it makes the poem more personal - and more meaningful - to me.

The Sound of the Sea

The Sound of the Sea:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
I heard the first wave of the rising tide
Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
A voice out of the silence of the deep,
A sound mysteriously multiplied
As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
So comes to us at times, from the unknown
And inaccessible solitudes of being,
The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing
Of things beyond our reason or control.

This poem, The Sound of the Sea, stood out to me because of the use of personification and sound. These different types of imagery give the reader a specific description of the sea: its appearance, its sounds, and its behavior.

The use of personification makes the sea seem alive by giving it human characteristics. For example, "The sea awoke" makes it seem as if, for a period of time, the sea was calm and quiet. When it "awoke", it became louder and more forceful than it had been.

Sounds are an important part of the poem because they give the reader a better insight into what Longfellow was experiencing when he was looking at the sea. The title of the poem is the Sound of the Sea, so obviously, he felt that the poem should be focused on sound. Longfellow wrote, "a voice out of the silence", and "roar of winds". He shows the reader through these descriptions that the sound of the sea seemed to come out of nowhere and was loud and stark contrast to the calm that had preceded it. When you read the poem aloud, the rhythm of the words reflect the motion of waves as they hit the shore. Not only the words of the poem but also the way they sound create the sounds of the sea.

Dr. K

It's a bird...

It's a plane...

It's...

well, I'm speechless.

(In reference to our previous discussion about Dr. Kendrick having super powers.)

:)