Plath - "Edge"

There isn’t much that I understand about Sylvia Plath. There is poignancy to this poem, that death is glorified. This poem seems to say that in death there is perfection. The only way that Sylvia Plath would be happy is if she were dead. “Her dead / Body wears the smile of accomplishment” portrays that because this woman is dead, she has not only accomplished something during her lifetime, that she accomplished something in death. The wisdom of this poem says the same. That there is this certain accomplishment is death in the eyes of the author. With all of the accomplishments made in life, “Her bare / feet seem to be saying: / We have come so far, it’s over” it is alright that it is over. There is a sense that because you have gone so far in life, it is ok, or excised, that one dies.

Whitman – “A Hand-Mirror”

There is a certain personification within this poem as it looks into what is the real self. It speaks of costumes that are eventually stripped to show the real, sad self. We don’t really know who this person is, but we know that in truly looking at their self, there is nothing to brag about. The poignancy of the hand mirror image is that of one having to take it upon themselves to hold the mirror up to their own face. The idea that to finally look inside, and look back at yourself on your own will is a scary thought. There are so many things that we as people like to deny, but within this poem, you have to look into this “hand-mirror” in order to face the ugly person you really are, or can be.

“Keeping Things Whole” – Strand

The wisdom of this poem answers the question of who we are with the uncertain. “Wherever I am / I am what is missing” examines that wherever we are, we are not somewhere else. This poem exemplifies the mass that is our bodies but the weightlessness of our soul as we keep ourselves whole. The poignancy of the movement aspect of this poem is alarming. “We all have reasons / for moving. / I move / to keep things whole” makes us see that each one of us has a different purpose that keeps us going. There has to be something in life that motivates us to get up in the morning, to breathe and to live. The author moves to keep things whole and keeping whole you keep yourself.

“Richard Cory” – Robinson

In some ways, I find myself in this poem. Richard Corey is a man who has everything; on the outside. Everyone sees him as this perfect man who is happy, educated and rich. However, on the inside, things are different. This man who seems to have everything ends up killing himself. I have seen a lot of people who seem to have a lot, and in reality they are completely unhappy. I have had friends and classmates who have ended up ending their own lives when everything seemed fine. There is poignancy in the idea of suicide. It is a horrific thing, but on the outside, many times, things seem fine and then things take things for the worse. Death is a mysterious thing, and in no way do I understand it, but there is one understanding; it is not something that one takes into their own hands.

Frank O’Hara “Ave Maria”

I love the irony of the title and the underlying message of this poem. There is a focus on the sexual, the pornographic and the freedom to use religion. The poignancy is found in the pull between the mother letting go, letting her children experience life but letting them go to a world that me be too adult and sinful. Again, there lies sin in the words under “Ave Maria” and being taken to an apartment building “Heaven on Earth” for an “experience”, all with the pull between the sexual and the religious. Wisdom I found to lie in the balance between love and sex, not sex and religion. Sex without love is meaningless; sex is more important under love. However, even with love, religion does not see the beauty in sex. It sees it as sin, something to be done only in marriage and for purposes other then pleasure. (I therefore see no reason for religion).

W.S. Merwin “For the Anniversary of My Death”

There is a certain poignancy that comes with thinking that today could eventually be the anniversary of your own death. There is a certain mystery involved surrounding death, a certain wonder and fear, the one thing that all know that is inevitable. So why live in fear, of something that is in fact inevitable, but something that is still at least one second away; one second of life. Time and space is examined not necessarily in a literal sense, but a figurative sense. There is a wonder of when and a curiosity of how. The poem ends with a wren bowing, after three days of rain, and not knowing to what he is bowing. We need to learn to accept certain things, such as the inevitability of death and in the mean time; live life.