Labels Schmabels.

For the poem "Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead", the categories of "optimistic" and "pessimistic" do fail to describe the poem. The speaker sees life as this grand adventure, which could be labelled optimistic. at the same time, he is questioning his dad for welcoming death and stating his refusal to die. This could be labelled "pessimistic". So, these labels are too confining for a poem of this nature. On the pessimistic side, the speaker says, " He's ready. I am not. I can't just say good-bye as cheerfully as if he were embarking on a trip...". The speaker sees his father's cheerful attitude toward death as preposterous. On the optimistic side, the speaker says, "...a new desire building up, an itch to see fresh new worlds." This is an optimistic view in the sense that he is describing death as a gateway to new experiences and new worlds. As is the case with most things in life, these labels are whack.

Dream Weaver

In the poem "Elegy for My Father, Who is Not Dead" by Andrew Hudgins, the speaker is basically expressing his father's will to die. His father knows he wil die soon and is open to it. The son has no intention of dying soon and could not be more closed to the idea of death. I think this could stem from the simple factor of age. His father knows he has lived a full life. He obviously had a child and raised that child to be a man. When someone has done everything they set out to do, they usually begin to feel like there is nothing left to do. Sometimes this is abitter feeling of worthlessness and other times, it is a satisfied feeling of surrender. The latter seems to be the case in this poem. Still, the son cannot let go of his dad because he does not see how he can be that open to death because he is still young and has dreams to fulfill. This poem is simply a case of a generation gap.

Lonely Stanzas for a Lonelier Heart

The form of the villanelle is so appropriate for Wendy Cope's poem "Lonely Hearts" because it makes the separate personal ads that much more distinct. If they had all run together, it would have been difficult for the reader to distinguish which person wanted what. Also, the separation of the stanzas made the poem seem lengthier. This helps the reader better understand that so many people with different needs and attractions all wanted the same basic thing, which is love. Also, the repetition of the same last line drove home the theme of the universal search for love. The rhyme scheme of a villanelle also helps the flow of the poem and the flow from ad to ad. Even with the title of the poem, the reader gets the feel that the writers of the ads feel alone and are looking for a way to end that loneliness. With the stark separation of the individual stanzas, it cements the idea of loneliness because the individual stanzas are all so far from eachother.

Can Anybody Find Me Somebody To Love?

In the poem "Lonely Hearts" by Wendy Cope, the most stark difference in the different personal ads was the sexual orientation. They seemed so scattered that it was a bit hard to follow. It took some thinking to discover that each stanza was a different person's ad, but once that was figured out, it became truly interesting. People these days make a big deal out of the gay and bisexual communities, but this poem is a perfect example of why all this talk about gay marriage and other related topics is ridiculous. Even though all these people were of different orientations, they all wanted the same thing : companionship. Anyways, back to the question. The point of the poem is that, even though these people are all looking for different things, like a biker and a Jewish woman, and many have different sexual orientations, they all are just looking for someone to share their lives with,

A Poem Strongly Resembling Psycho

In the poem "Edward" (written anonymously), a conversation is playing out between a son and his mother. The son killed his father. There is also mentioning of him killing various animals, but those seem to be symbolic. Stil, he's going on a trip, so maybe he killed them for food. Either way, it's somewhat irrelevant. The boy killed his father. He likely killed his father mainly because his mother talked him onto it. This is hinted at in the line, "The curse of hell from me shall ye bear, Such counsels you gave to me, O." He is saying that his mother told him to kill his father, so she is also to blame for his death and will go to hell alongside her son. To guess at why the son killed his father would go outside the cone of *insert term used in class that I cannot remember here*, but it must have been a domestic issue, such as alcoholism, cheating, etc.