My papa's waltz by Theodore Roethke

In this poem, it is about the fear of rough of father's love. Or I also can describe that it is about the author's childhood with having bad treatment from father. To father, it is easy to treat the young child and he can do whatever he wants to his child so he can move the child around with waltzing himself. However, the child cannot stop him and even the child is afraid of him, the child still need to hold the father.
The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; such waltzing was not easybut I hung on like death: such waltzing was not eays, explained that the father was drunk and he drag his child and a small boy is dizzy but he just holds his father.
We romped until the pans slid fromt he kitchen shelf; my mother's countenance couldn ot unfrown itself, explained that his father is waltzing with his child too roughly, as much as the dishes can slid down and mother is worried about it.
The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knucle; at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle, explained that the father had rough life as his hand and when he missed his step, he can hurt his son but he does not stop and also his son, too.
You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me of fto bed still clinging to your shirt, explaiend that he had rough job because his hand is rough with dirt and to him, it is only his happy time so he waltzed his son around. However, his son is just holding father's shirt with fear.

"Song for a Dark Girl" by Langston Hughes

Way Down South in Dixie (a word that indicates the South: negative word)

(Break the heart of me)

They hung my black young lover

To a tree at the cross of the roads.

Way Down South in Dixie
(Bruised body in the air)

I asked the white Lord Jesus

What was the use of prayer.

Way Down South in Dixie

(Break the heart of me)

Love is a naked shadow

On a gnarled (deformed) and naked tree.


The speaker of this poem I think is a black man who has witnessed his love being beaten and hung by a white man/ white men. I think that the lines in the parenthesis indicate what he is really feeling but cannot express to other people because he is a black man. The last line means that his lover is a naked shadow, shadow describing her skin color, and hanging from a deformed and naked tree. The strongest line besides that one, to me is, “ I asked the white Lord Jesus…”. I felt like it was very strong because he says he asked but there is no question mark, therefore he made a statement. What is the use of prayer when all you pray for, you lose? I think that is the real question he was asking.

(by Sara Bell/posted by Ms. Winter)

"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks

This poem is about seven kids who ditch school, stay out late, and do all kinds of bad things to mess up their future. The whole point of the poem is these kids think they are so cool, but they’ll die sooner because they are being stupid and taking life-threatening risks. When it says “we Jazz June”, I think it means they lie, a lot. They “lurk late”, stay out really late into the night. They “sing sin”, they live for being bad. But in the end, “We die soon”; their stupid decisions will get them killed.

I think this poem is narrated by one of the seven kids who finally realized how messed up they were getting. I think the rhythm of the poem is like a rap or song, very R&B/Hip Hop. This probably took place in a bad part of a city where it’s normal/cool for kids to skip school, but they end up just skipping out on their future. Also, this paints a very cliché picture of kids messing around in high school, or school in general, and then having to deal with the consequences, sometimes the consequences being death. This poem is a life lesson to all kids to don’t mess around with life because you only got one life to live.

“Rites of Passage” by Sharon Olds

Throughout the course of this poem, the narrator is describing the scene at her son’s party. From this mother’s perspective, she is specifically focusing on two boys that were attending. First she points out that they were short “men”, and that they had smooth jaws and chins. They have small conversations, consisting of simple questions about age, resulting in smart answers. After this had started to starts some controversy between the two because they start eyeing each other. Being the young children that they are, they cleared their throats, folded their arms, and frowned. Moving away a little from the topic of these two boys, she begins pointing out things that she notices about her son. She says that he sparkles like a nutmeg on his cheeks. His chest is narrow like a balsa keel, and his long hands are cool and thin, like the day she gave birth to him. Finally, she explains that hey finally end up playing war as if they were generals.

This poem first gives me the perception of a mother just explaining details about her son’s parties, and other things that she finds interesting at the time. As I continued to read, I saw that she was pointing out many details about each thing. As I thought more into it, I started to realize that this is written from a mother’s point of view. In this case, this must have been something special for the mother and the son, and so the mother took notice into a lot of the minute details. The way that the author not only goes into detail, but uses dialect within the poem, enables me to actually envision what it going on. In a way, this poem is a little humorous because it personally reminds me when I was in first grade, and how I used to see people behave. Finally, I understood what was happening at the party and so on, but the part that I was confused about was the last two lines of the poem. I am not sure what the author exactly means by the men relaxing and playing war, because I am getting the perception that they are little kids, even though they are “men”, which is another thing that confuses me.

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" By Robert Frost

This poem is talking about the auther talking about how he stops at the woods where someone clames thm and he stops by to remanince these woods. While he is at these woods, the person isnt there because he is in the village. The person who is in the woods won't see the author there and watch the woods fill up with snow. When he is talking about his horse and his horse being "queer", he means that he is unusually different with the surrounding becuase he is use to going to a farm house. Inside the lake, there is a frozen lake and this is the darkest evening of the year.
The deeper meaning of this poem is that there is a man who is going by the woods and he realizes no one has been there to take care of it. The owner is to busy in the village. i think they are comparing the woods to the country, and the village to the city. And with being in the village, you like is more hectic then being in the woods. With the guy, he is too busy to leave the village and spend sometime at the woods. With having the author there and having the woods fill up with snow, symbolizes that noone cares. This shows that the snow is kinda in a since like garbage. If you dont pick it up, or take care of the place the garbage will add up untill there is nothing you can do about it. With the part of the poem where he describes how there is a frozen lake in the middle of the woods and how it is the darkest season of the year, this is basically saying how if people took care of the place they will see the real beauty inside, but if noone does, it will freeze up and become ugly.

" I'm Nobody by Emily Dickson"

In the poem it talks about someone who is a nobody and they meet someone else who is a nobody. The first two line the authour is asking who the person is and they say they're a nobody too. Then in the next two lines she talks about how they're is a pair of them, but they can't tell anybody or else they'll get banished. It then goes on to talk about how bad it is to be somebody and being somebody and being public is like a frog.

I think the poem is about someone who tends to be in the background alot and likes to be a nobody. I think in the in line 3 and 4 it was intresting how she said:" there is a pair of us" making the infrece there is not alot of them. I think the theme of the poem is sociality and how sometimes being a somebody is like a "bog" which is wet, decayed piece of land. I think the tone of the poem is very upbeat and perk b/c in line 1 and 2 when the authour asks " Who are you" i got the infrence of it being very perky like someone surprised to meet someone new.

“The Eagle” By Alfred Lord Tennyson

In this poem the author describes what seems like maybe your typical eagle and how he is perched on to a crag, which is a steeply projecting mass of rock. Only Tennyson does not say he clenched the crag with his claws but instead he says with his hands. Then he describes how he then stands but he almost makes it seem as the subject of the poem is some sort of god because he writes that the subject is looking above the sky and ocean and is watching as they both pass. Also something I thought was interesting was the way he referred to the sea. He described the sea as crawling and I think it sort of still plays into the whole theme of the eagle because from an eagle’s perspective its prey could be crawling especially if it was looking above it. Also at the end it compares the subject falling like a lightning bolt. I’m not sure exactly how to interpret this last line since he could be talking a bout person or sort of like a god.

I believe this poem is some what talking about a person and an eagle but I guess he is using certain words to show maybe the similarities though because instead of using claws he is using hands so maybe he is sort of trying to show the similarities like strategy and precision. Also maybe the last line could possibly be expressing how he went in for the kill and grabbed his prey because when he compares him to a thunderbolt, to me thunderbolts are a quick flash a light you barely have time to truly process when you do see it. So in some ways he is being very figurative and sort of creatively being vague about his subject, but I am not too sure.