Those Winter Sundays

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he'd call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love's austere and lonely offices?

One thing that I liked about this poem was how descriptive it was. The author uses good imagery in this poem.

I didn't really dislike anything about this poem. The description was great, and it was a good poem overall.

One thing that confused me about this poem was the story being told in this poem. I did not know whether it was talking about slavery, or what it was actually talking about.

The main literary device used in this poem was the use of auditory imagery. Auditory imagery is an image that represents a sound. An example from the poem that describes this is, "I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking."

To His Coy Mistress

To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

Had we but world enough, and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love's day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges' side

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the Flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster that empires, and more slow;

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;

Two hundred to adore each breast,

But thirty thousand to the rest;

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.

For, lady, you deserves this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear

Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

Thy beauty shall no more be found,

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song; then worms shall try

That long-preserved virginity,

And your quaint honor turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust:

The grave's a find and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew,

And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may,

A d now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rathe at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

Let us roll all our strength and all

Our sweetness up into one ball,

And tear our pleasures with rough strife

Thorough the iron gates of life.

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

One thing that I liked about this poem was the use of different poetic devices in the poem. There were two main poetic devices that were used, metaphors and metonymies.

One thing that I disliked about this poem was the length of it. The longer poems are to be, the more it seems to confuse me and have me not know what is going on during it.

One thing that confused me about this poem was the actual meaning of it. I couldn't exactly tell what the poem was truly about and what the author was trying to say in the text.

The poetic device used in this poem that I found interesting was, the use of a metonymy. A metonymy is the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant. An example of a metonymy used in this poem is the line in which they say, 'Deserts of vast eternity.'

The Author to Her Book

The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,

Who after birth did'st by my side remain,

Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,

Who thee abroad exposed to public view;

Made thee in rags, halting, to the press to trudge,

Where errors were not lessened, all may judge.

At thy return my blushing was not small,

My rambling brat (in print) should mother call;

I cast thee by as one unfit for light,

Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;

Yet being mine own, at length affection would

Thy blemishes amend, of so I could:

I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,

And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.

I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,

Yet still thou run'st more hobbling then is meet;

In better dress to trim thee was my mind,

But nought save homespun cloth in the house I find.

In this array, 'mongst Vulgars may'st thou roam;

In critics' hands, beware thou dost not come;

And take thy way where yet thou art not known,

If for thy Father asked, say, thou had'st none;

And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,

Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.

One thing that I liked about this poem was how she described her poem and how she basically told a story through the poem. She thought her book was very bad, and she tried to correct things, but the more she corrected the more flaws she saw in her writing.

There wasn't anything in the poem that I didn't really enjoy. I liked pretty much everything about this poem, and also the way the author used her metaphors wisely

One thing that confused me about this poem was the use of older words. The author of this poem was alive in the 17th Century, so the language is a lot different from today, and this

confused me a little bit.

The main literary device used in this poem is the use of metaphors. One of the metaphors that I really liked, and thought was pretty neat how she used it was, " washed thy face, but more defects I saw, and rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw." This was very interesting to me and I really liked it because the more and more the author corrected things, the more flaws she saw in her writing. The way she used this metaphor was very smart.

Metaphors

Metaphors by Sylvia Plath

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils.

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.

Money's new-minted in this fat purse.

I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.

I've eaten a bag of green apples,

Boarded the train there's no getting off.

One thing that I liked about this poem was the fact that each line had nine syllables in it, and how she put the words together to achieve this.

One thing that I did not like about this poem was all of the references that the author used in the poem. She referred to herself as many different things, and that made it difficult to actually figure out what she was talking about.

One thing that confused me about the poem was the structure of how the poem was worded. Many of the sayings in the lines confused me and it was hard to understand what the author was talking about in the poem.

The main literary device in this passage is the use of metaphors. A metaphor is an analogy between two objects or ideas, conveyed by the use of a word instead of another. A prime example of a metaphor in this poem is, "A melon strolling on two tendrils." Melons do not walk, so therefore this is an example of a metaphor used throughout this poem.