D.+Gallant

**Emily Dickinson

365 [338]**

I know that He exsits. Somewhere – in silence- He has hid his rare life From our gross eyes.

‘Tis an instant’s play- ‘Tis a fond Ambush- Just to make Bliss Earn her own surprise!

But- should the play Prove piercing earnest- Should the glee – glaze- In Death’s – stiff – stare-

Would not the fun Look too expensive! Would not the jest – Have crawled too far!

1) The literal meaning of Emily Dickinson’s 365 [338] is about looking for someone who Dickinson knows exists somewhere, but is seemingly trying to find this being. The second stanza mentions the differences that this being can portray leading into the third stanza that mentions the actions that are true of this being and mentions of death. The last stanza mentions how the actions that would look expensive even though they are fun but would have gone too far.

Dickinson lived a very reclusive and introverted life. She went to college for a short amount of time, but to later come back to live in her parents home, becoming so introverted and recluse that she did not leave her room. Dickinson thought that her home gave her power. While at home, when she was not writing, she spent much time reading, which mostly consisted of the Bible or classic English works. Dickinson seemed to be death obsessed, writing about psychic pain, and using death in writing to convey the reality of it with honesty, humor, and curiosity. She also was unsettled by death by expressing its discomforting.

2) The contradictory parts of this poem include the “He” which could be God, or could be death itself. “’Tis a fond Ambush” could be discussing a warlike ambush, but the use of her capitalization of some specific words also makes them stand out. There is irony in the fact that in the last stanza, the word fun, could be describing death.

3) I believe that this poem is about death because of Emily Dickinson’s interest in writing about the topic of death. I think that the He could be either death or God. If it is God, then she is saying that there is a God somewhere, hidden to her, and she is watching him work his magic, but does not know if she believes in God. Part of God’s play is death, which would be an expensive and tolling thing. However, to Dickinson this is something that would be stiff and not needed to work to hard to get to. 

Carl Sandburg

Fog Courtesy of Stephen Gallant

The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

1) Literally, this poem is about a fog coming and how the fog comes into the harbor, city, or cat’s feet, and then leaves after a while. The fog is personified almost like a person in the fact that it can come and go and stay as it pleases.

Carl Sandburg spent most of his life in the Midwest. His father was a Swedish immigrant. Carl Sandburg was a well-known poet and his poems tended to celebrate the American people through poems that were understandable. He was in the army during the Spanish American War as a war correspondent. Sandburg realized that American towns were very urbanized, having less interest in small towns and middle class. Through his political poems, he shows how he feels in regards to their energy and outrage towards their injustices.

2) The narrator is comparing a cat’s feet to fog, that it is able to come and go as it pleases, quietly. Like a cat, the fog sits looking over the city or harbor, then moving on. The fog is that of elusive and mystifying. A cat is a wandering creature, many times not domesticated, but just living its life as it pleases.

3) This poem to me reminds me of two specific instances in my life. The first was this past summer when I was in Japan. The picture accompanying this page is of a bridge, just a red bridge, but in fog, it appeared as a mystifying bridge, more surreal. This bridge was in one of the most sacred places in Japan—Nikko, making the place seem very special to an outsider like myself. Secondly, this poem reminds me of a recent stroll to class one morning. As I woke up earlier than normal in order to go to breakfast, the campus was quiet and still. Very foggy, I felt like I needed to take in the beautiful site that made everything look different. The “reflecting pond” in front of the library for once even looked nice as I walked through the amphitheater, not like a cement pool. Then, as I was walking on my way, a cat crossed my footsteps. No—I am not making this up, but this creature, that I normally do not like, crossed my path, making me a little uneasy, but then, I was calmed realizing that that cat was leading its own life as an elusive cat.

Carl Sandburg

Grass Pile 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 year, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now?

I am the grass. Let me work.

[|Grass] 1) The poem is about the dead bodies from various well-known bloodshed battles from war. The grass is covering all of the dead bodies and after years of work, the grass takes over and battlefields turn into grassy fields.

Carl Sandburg spent most of his life in the Midwest. His father was a Swedish immigrant. Carl Sandburg was a well-known poet and his poems tended to celebrate the American people through poems that were understandable. He was in the army during the Spanish American War as a war correspondent. Sandburg realized that American towns were very urbanized, having less interest in small towns and middle class. Through his political poems, he shows how he feels in regards to their energy and outrage towards their injustices.

2) The poem has many allusions to images of war at battles such as Austerlitz, Waterloo, Gettysburg, Ypres, and Verdun. All of these are places where bloody battles were fought. Another literary device that is used is personification, in which the grass is personified because it is watching the war and the covering over the damage.

3) I believe this poem is teaching a few lessons. First of all, that history repeats itself. These battles were all bloodshed that occurred in different wars, with the same outcome—many people died. Second, grass and nature cover up human imperfection by covering up the problems that will then reoccur. Third, after time, all the bodies are covered up by the grass and forgotten about. And lastly, when lives are stopped in wartime, nature continues without question as to its goal. However, other than these themes are all learned from this poem, the actual meaning of the poem is very straightforward—that of the hardships of war being covered up by the grass.

Ezra Pound The days are not full enough And the days are not full enough And the nights are not full enough And life slips by like a field mouse Not shaking the grass 1) This poem literally is just about the days and nights being not full enough. It compares life to that of a field mouse who does not make large strides in life.

Ezra Pound was known as a poet who changed the voice of poetry to a more concise, precision, and clarity. He was a strong figure of the Modernist movement along with promoting a modernist aesthetic in poetry.

2) This poem is very straightforward. There is not much ambiguous meaning to it. There is the use of simile comparing life to a field mouse. Life can just be very quiet and slipping by without making much of a change in the scenery of life, like the grass.

3) This poem to me is very simple, and in a time of need or time of sadness, I can go to this poem to remind me that there is time for everything. The time in the day and night that is not full and that there is time for other things that may need to be done. Personally, to me, this reminds me that at the end of the day, when I am very tired and want to get in bed, that the quiet time that I should spend with God is still available. Something that I also remember, is that God provides. This poem, in essence reminds me of that saying because if the days and nights are not full enough, God can be put into those times in order to make them full, or to give time to whatever is necessary. Also, it is important to make the best of life. For me, traveling is something that I enjoy doing. Every summer, my family goes on a trip out of the country to open up our horizons and create memories. This poem teaches those to do the things that they want to do in order to remember them later and live life to the fullest. And, also, this poem reminds me that the small things in life are the blessings and can be important as well.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-- This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask.

We smile, but O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask! 1) Literally, this poem is about wearing a mask. In the first stanza, the mask hides the face and is covering up who is really behind the mask. In the second stanza, the world sees them when they are wearing the mask. The mask also hides the tears and sighs. In the last stanza, the mask hides the smiles because of the souls.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born to an escaped slave. His father fought in the civil war for 55th Massachusetts Colored Cavalry Regime. Dunbar wrote many poems throughout his life, and was friends with Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. His poetry is known for its conversationalist nature as well as its rhetorical tactics. During the Harlem Renaissance, his poetry was criticized because it seemed to appeal to whites and used African American dialect. Dunbar died at an early age due to tuberculosis.

2) The ambiguous parts of the poem include the mask itself and what it stands for. It could be an actual mask, whereas, it could also be an image to show hiding. In the last stanza, Dunbar brings Christ into the poem, showing a religious take on the poem. The type of rhyme scheme in the poem is AABBA.

3) The first time I read this poem, I thought that the mask was an actual mask and the poem was about war. I think that this still can be true. With the mask hiding the identity of the soldiers while they are killing other humans. In order to feel better for killing, soldiers wear a mask and are only killing machines when they wear a mask—they are not as human when they have on the mask. However, after looking more in depth and learning about Paul Laurence Dunbar, I realized that the poem could be about racism. Black people at the time in which this poem was written were oppressed and possibly had to hide themselves. Therefore, the mask is a covering or hiding. The “tears and sighs” are how the African Americans feel when they are not wearing the figurative mask. They look to God and Christ to help cope with the oppression that they feel. When looking at his writing as catering to the white people, this then could be applied to this poem, expressing the need for the African Americans to hide.

[|We Wear the Mask]


 * If you click on any of the pictures, it will take you directly to the site at which the photo was found. The only exception is the picture of the red bridge in the fog, in which the credit is given.

//The Norton Anthology of American Literature//. 7th. 2. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. Print.