M+McNamara

 wishes for sons by Lucille Clifton

i wish them cramps. i wish them a strange town and the last tampon. I wish them no 7-11.

i wish them one week earl y and wearing a white skirt. i wish them one week late.

later i wish them hot flashes and clots like you wouldn't believe. let the flashes come when they meet someone special. let the clots come when they want to.

let them think they have accepted arrogance in the universe, then bring them to gynecologists not unlike themselves. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~vox/0607/0108/images/clifton.jpg

Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York in 1936. Clifton was the very first person in her family to go to college. She lived a normal poor life in a black community. Her dad was a steel mill worker and her mom was a launder. She began her studies at Howard University.

The poem starts out with the narrator wishing bad things on her sons. She wishes her son cramps and to be lost in a random town with no tampons or anything left to help with her problems. She also wishes them to not have a convenient store so that they can not buy anything to help. The narrator then wishes her sons to begin their period one week early in a white skirt which would be embarrassing. She also wishes for them to be one week lake which would be scary because of pregnancy. The narrator then wishes bad things on them like hot flashes and clots at bad times like when they are meeting someone special. The narrator then wishes that her sons feel great then bring them down when they go to the doctor.

I think the author is trying to get the point across of how difficult the life of a female is. I think that the author is trying to say the life of women and what they have to go through is very unpredictable and very troublesome at times.

My interpretation of the poem is that the narrator thinks that her sons do not really know what a woman goes through with her body. I think that the narrator just wants her sons to realize what how much trouble and stress that this time for a woman puts on her. I also think that the narrator just wants her sons to respect her. I think she feels undeserving of all she does while dealing with all of the other stuff.

I am going to relate this poem to Beyonce's song, "If I Were a Boy" The song is about Beyonce wanting the boys to understand and realize exactly what they are put through. I think that that is very similair to what this poem is saying because the narrator wants her sons to know what she is put through.



GRASS ILE the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo, Shovel them under and let me work-- I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work.
 * // by: Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) //**

http://www.nps.gov/carl/forkids/images/youngcshead285textwrap.jpg

Carl Sandburg was born in 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois. He was an active populist and socialist, a journalist, and an important figure in Chicago Renaissance of arts and letters. He wrote a lot of poetry during the 1920's and 1930's during the times of war. He went to multiple colleges and also joined the army. He wrote many poems and died in 1967.

The narrator started by saying stack the bodies up in big piles at Austerlitz and Waterloo. He continues to say shovel them high and let me do my job. The narrator says i am grass; i cover all. this whole poem is personification. The grass is the narrator in the poem so the grass has human like abilities. The narrator continues to say pile the bodies high at Gettysburg and at Ypres and Verdun. He continues to tell them to shovel them up and let the grass do its job. He says over time he will work and people on a train will come to these places and ask what place it is and where they are. He finishes by saying "i am the grass let me work."

He is saying that the wars took place in these places such as Austerlitz, Waterloo, Gettysburg, Ypres, and Verdun. He is saying that people fought and died there and now their bodies are being piled up and that the grass is just starting to overtake the area where they gave their lives. He is saying that the people who gave their lives are about to be covered up by grass and ultimately forgotten about. He foreshadows the soldiers being forgotten when the people ask where are they and what place it is. That line in the poem just shows that people are going to forget the people that gave up their lives on that field.

Rosa By Rita Dove

How she sat there, the time right inside a place so wrong it was ready.

The trim name with its dream of a bench to rest on. Her sensible coat.

Doing nothing was the doing: the clean flame of her gaze carved by a camera flash

How she stood up when they bent down to retrieve her purse. That courtesy.

http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/images/ritadove.jpg

Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952. She attended Miami University of Ohio and studied modern European literature at the University of Tubingen in Germany. Dove writes about painful things that have happened during her life that she has seen. She put these painful events down in poetry because she feels that the poetic form is beautiful and causes a friction between the difficult or painful events and the beautiful poetic form.

The poem "Rosa" starts out by talking about a woman sitting down somewhere. It goes on to say she was basically in the wrong place at the wrong time. It says that the person in the poem just dreamed of sitting down on a bench in order to rest. It says by doing nothing that she was actually doing something. People were taking pictures of her while all she did was sitting down. She then began to stand up and people went down to grab her purse as if to be gentlemen. Everything in this poem is sarcastic and not exactly what it seems. This poem is definitely about Rosa Parks who sat down on a bus a refused to move for a white passenger. It says how she sat there on the bus and how she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The wrong place at the wrong time was the white passenger’s seat when the white passenger wanted to sit down. Her dream of a bench to rest on was her dream to sit where she wanted to sit no matter who wanted to sit there. When she was doing nothing but actually doing, she was doing nothing by sitting there but actually doing something by taking the white passengers seat. She then stood up to move and the white passengers reached to give her purse and tell her to get off. Dove is being very sarcastic when at the very end she says, " when they bent down to retrieve her purse. That courtesy." They were not being polite by retrieving her purse.

http://www.edgateteam.net/Lessons/Images/Parks_Bus_logo.jpg

We Real Cool By Gwendolyn Brooks

THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool. We Left school. We

Lurk late. We Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We Die soon. http://www.balkanwriters.com/broj16/Gwendolyn%20Brooks.jpg

Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1917. In early work Brooks followed the writings of the Harlem Renaissance, such as Langston Hughes and Counter Cullen. Brooks was very aware of politics, and was very focused on her African American heritage and black experience and rage. Brooks attended Wilson Junior College. Brooks passed away in 2000.

The poem "We Real Cool" is a simple poem written by Gwendolyn Brooks. It starts by stating that there are seven pool players located at the Golden Shovel. It says that that they are real cool and that they left or skipped school. It then says that they stay up late or lurk late and strike at night. The poem states that they sing sin and drink gin. It ends with the pool plays jazz June and die soon.

This poem is about seven people most likely friends that hang out in a pool hall called the Golden Shovel. They think they are really cool and they skip school. They then continue to stay up late at this pool hall and strike straight. The striking straight part is just about them playing pool and striking the balls. Then sing sin. I think by singing sin, they are just hanging out around the pool hall singing songs that may not be the most appropriate form but they are just having a good time. They then thin gin. All this means is that they are drinking a little gin and thinning the amount of gin in the bottle by drinking it. They jazz June by just listening to Jazz music and hanging out. The final line is just saying how short life is and how there having a great time at the pool hall staying up late, singing, and drinking but eventually they will die and it will all be over.

This poem reminds me of a Dave Matthews song called "Tripping Billies." In the song by Dave Matthews he says, " Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die."

Eating Together By Li-Young Lee

In the steamer is the trout seasoned with slivers of ginger, two sprigs of green onion, and sesame oil. We shall eat it with rice for lunch, brothers, sister, my mother who will taste the sweetest meat of the head, holding it between her fingers deftly, the way my father did weeks ago. Then he lay down to sleep like a snow-covered road winding through pines older than him, without any travelers, and lonely for no one.

http://www.boaeditions.org/readings_literary_links/images/Li-YoungLee.jpg

Li-Young Lee was born in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1957. Many of Lee's writings are about his father who was imprisoned for 19 months by the Indonesian dictator Sukarno. Lee and his family fled Indonesia and eventually ended up in the America. In America Lee's father became a Presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania. A lot of Lee's poems deal with understanding the life of his father as well as dealing with power struggles in his home land.

The poem "Eating Together' starts out with the trout being steamed. The trout had been seasoned with little slivers of ginger, two pieces of green onions and some sesame oil. The family will eat the trout with rice for lunch. The family consisted of brothers, sisters, and his mother. They were the ones that were going to get to taste the sweetness of the trout. The father was there a few weeks ago but is not there any more. He lay down to sleep and is in a deep sleep with no one around. There is imagery in this poem when talking about the food and the way they eat it. There is a simile in this poem. It says, “He lay down like a snow-covered road.”

I think this poem is about a family eating together but are not completely together because they are missing their father. I do not think that their father is actually sleeping. I think that their father is either imprisoned or dead. I think this because Lee writes a lot of his poetry about his father and his father was imprisoned when he was young which could feel like he is dead or missing to Lee. I think that the title eating together is kind of skewed because they technically aren't all eating together. They are missing one big piece that would bring them together and that is their father.