My Thoughts on Poetry

One of my great grandmothers was a published poet. She was also one of my greatest role models. I wanted to do everything like her, so in elementary school, I wrote many poems. I love words and language, and I love rhyme and rhythm. I am one of the strange few who actually enjoys reading the dictionary. Maybe I should not have admitted that, but I really do love learning new words, playing with words, learning word origins, and so on and so forth. Thus, poetry kind of excites me, but only if it rhymes. I really have a hard time getting into poems that do not rhyme, and I know I will have to get over that for this class.

I spent some time studying poetry for my ninth grade English class and my tenth grade Language and Composition course. The poems we studied were very diverse, but some used very formal, antiquated diction that was incredibly hard to read and even harder to interpret. Symbolism in poetry intimidates me. I have a terrible time searching for "deeper meaning," as I often miss it altogether. I also have a hard time recognizing irony and satire when I am reading. When I do recognize the symbolism or satire in poems, however, it makes me feel like I've just discovered buried treasure. It can add so much more meaning to the poems. I hope that discussing the poems we read will help me to interpret them accurately.

Before I started reading the poems for this unit, I was nervous that they would be too "deep" for me to understand or too wordy to hold my attention. As I read them, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were fairly simplistic in diction, although I was incredibly disappointed that none of them rhymed. Nonetheless, I did enjoy all of the unit eight poems (except "Moving Camp Too Far," which I could not find anywhere). I love that poems can shed new light on topics that have been over-discussed (in my opinion) in other genres of literature. "Jump Cabling" did just that. It provided a new, and somewhat humorous way, of looking at romantic attraction.

I am a little nervous about our poetry unit, as I am not sure if I will be able to comprehend the meanings of the poems. However, I am looking forward to reading some new material, and I am really hoping that some of the poems rhyme!

Past Experiences with Poetry - By Leah S

In the past I have never liked the thought of "poetry". It makes you think too much, there are too many interpretations, I don't understand it. It is all about rhymes and words that I don't understand. These are all things I have thought in the past when having to start studying poetry. After reading the five poems tonight I have a bit of a different outlook. Though I did not like all of them, I was able to understand them and also enjoyed a couple of them.

In high school I remember trying to memorize poetry by making it into a song. Sort of like the youtube video that was posted...though I was never that cool.

I think due to what I have learned in this class already, including classes from the past, I am much more open at this time to studying more poetry. I am not going to say I will like it but I will do my best to understand and comprehend it. Besides, the goal of the class is to learn is it not?

"Doe Season"

"They were the same woods that lay behind her house, and they stretch all the way to here, she thought...(paragragh 1). Thinking of this gave Andy comfort that things don't seem to chang in her childhood. This is why when she entered the woods things seemed different. This was the beginning of Andy's change into adulthood. As a child she had foundcomfort in knowing that things were always the same. The ocean had scared her and she did not feel comfortable walking into the unkown water. Her mother was not afraid and this made her think of the unexpected chages of becoming an adult. "Blowing through the treetops, it sounded like the ocean, and once Andy thought she could smell salt air." (paragraph 45) The wind in the woods reminded her of the ocean and how frightened she was by it. This symbolized her fear of the unknown in the woods and of shooting a deer. Andy is aware that a change his coming but is not sure what it is until she shoots the doe and saw it lying dead. At this point she realized that she had changed and she no longer wanted to be known as Andy.

Doe Season

Childhood can be compared to the description of the woods being "always the same", in that when you think as a child, changes don't impact you as much as long as you have the basics (mom,dad, home, food, school, etc.). A child's life is fairly simplified and a child will look at his surroundings and see them as just part of his world. When a child grows into a teenager and then an adult, "the woods", or familiar places (like home), become much smaller and life can be better compared to the ocean. In this "ocean", the world becomes much larger and more complex as the maturing mind begins to analyze everything around it and connecting oneself to these surroundings in a different way. Andy discovered that her actions had changed the world, a living being stopped existing because of her choice. In the same way, teenagers and adults begin to see how their choices render the consequences around them. For Andy, the shooting of the doe triggered her transition from a comfortable, simple existence to the "terrible, now inevitable, sea" of adulthood, wherein she has already discovered that many questions don't have easy answers and many problems don't have simple solutions. Even her name has lost it's innocence and she runs from the fallen doe with the thought that "she would no longer be called that [Andy]".

Doe Season

"They were always the same woods, she thought sleepily as they drove the early morning darkness." (pg.1) This was Andy's thoughts about the woods as her father and her leave on a journey that will change Andy's life forever. The woods in which they are about to retreat to are so large that Andy believes they connect to her home and cross country. This is well related to how she explains the ocean when she visited it. Andy was not afraid of the woods. In fact she was quite excited to be on hunting trip with her father; even if it also involved Charlie and his son Mac, a friened of her fathers. Andy was scared of the ocean the first time just as she was to shoot her first deer. If her father hdn't been so persistant she may not have shot at the doe. Andy's dream was quite disturbing yet it changed something inside her; almost as if she understood the doe. "huge and empty, yet always moving." (pg.45) This is the same as the ocean always has waves yet not people and the woods always has animals moving around in it yet without the wind or people. At the end of the story is no longer "Andy" after shooting the doe, she must then become Andrea.

Doe Season

In the story Doe Season. It talks about how the wind "blowing through the tree tops, it sounded like the ocean, and it frieghtend her." It was huge and empty and always moving". (459) I think Andy was hoping to become an adult, with going out and making her first kill, with the other adults. As the story talks about the woods being huge and empty like the ocean, which she was also scared of. She was scared to walk out in the ocean, afraid of how deep it was or what might be in there that she couldn't see. She was also scared to pull the trigger, scared of killing the deer. But when she was in the ocean, she was too scared to go out to deep, showing the child side of her. And when out in the woods, when she made her first kill, is when she went from childhood to adulthood.

"The Chrysanthemums"

There may be two different symbolic things here.
Elisa Allen is smbolic of women in the olden days who minded their own business and did what women were supposed to do. "When she heard him splashing in the tub, Elisa laid hie dark suit on the bed, and shirt and socks and tie beside it. She stood his polished shoes on the floor beside the bed."(p.638. 95) In this statement of her actions, Elisa had been the prime wife in those days symbolically showing her husband that she knows her place. Then there is the chrysanthemums.
The chrysanthemums are symbolic of what she would like to be. They seem to portray the idea that she would like to rid of certain things in her life and do more. "It's when you're picking off the buds you don't want." This is symbolic of her regret and desires all at the same time. The colors of the flowers may be used to interpret her longing to be bright (happy). "Kind of a long-stemmed flower? Looks like a quick puff of colred smoke?" he asked.p.635) "Quick puff of colored smoke": can symbolize a sense of boldness and independence, all things that she does not stand for (only desires to).

"The Chrysanthemums"

"The Chrysanthemums"

The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa Allen; beautiful, strong, earthbound. The story occurs at a time where a woman’s place was well defined. They are to embody feminism, do menial household tasks, and leave the serious work to men. When the man in the wagon showed up she secretly envied him, he represented all she could not be. He was free, independent, in charge of his own destiny. His hands were cracked and unwashed, her own protected by gloves. Knowing she could never live that kind of life, the idea of something she grew and that which represented her, the chrysanthemums, “escaping” her garden was the next best thing. After the man leaves she prepares for her night out. Despite yearning to break the convention she is expected to adhere to, she makes herself attractive in the typical feminine style. She scrubbed the soil and rough spots off her body, put on a fancy dress, and put on rouge. On the way to town for a typical night out of dinner and a movie, something her husband mentioned jokingly earlier suddenly intrigued her. Going to see men fight, witnessing the violence, something a proper woman should have no interest in, sparked her curiosity. After casually inquiring about the fight she relents and tearfully relinquished into her place as a proper woman. At least the potted chrysanthemum was on its way to an unknown destiny.

Doe Season

Andy compared the distance of the woods and the ocean and the moon. I see this compare and contrast as how small or young that she views herself. She states in the first paragraph that the woods are always the same, but yet when they arrived to hunt in them, they were then different. Four hunters making noise and tracks in these quiet woods. They were small compared to the mile and miles of woods, just like the ocean in paragraph 45. "The ocean was huge and empty, yet always moving". The woods are huge and appear to be empty when you want them to be full of deer during deer season. But the animals are always moving.
In her memory, she is afraid of what is under the water, but admires her mom for going out past the break point. Her mother was very brave, and I think she is very brave for going on a hunting trip with all men, trying to impress them.
She shot the first doe, which I think proves how quick she is growing up in this story. Along with her not wanting to be called Andy anymore. She wanted to be called by her grown woman name from now on.

"Doe Season"

Andy first states that the woods were “always the same.”(paragraph 1). Andy finds out by going on her first hunting trip that they are not always the same. This time she would have to do something that she thought she was ready to do; which was to shoot a deer. She was afraid of this. Andy recalled another time when she was afraid. This was a new experience for Andy and it brought her back to a previous experience that she encountered. It was when she first saw the ocean water, which scared her. Andy recalled that the ocean water did not scare her mother. “Her mother had floated beyond the breakers, calling her to come in, but Andy wouldn’t go farther than a few feet into the surf.” (paragraph 45). David Michael Kaplan wanted to compare the innocence and fearfulness of a child to the bravery and courageousness of an adult. In paragraph 1, “always the same woods” symbolizes childhood because someone is always going to be there to protect you. Later in the story when Andy recalls the ocean as being “huge and empty, yet always moving,” on paragraph 45, symbolizes that how life changes when you become an adult. Andy’s life changed and she grew up when she realized that the woods were not always the same. The hunting trip also made Andy realize that sometimes you do things that you don’t want to do. It also made her realize that things are not always what they seem to be.

"Doe Season"

Throughout David Kaplan's "Doe Season," Andy mentally compares and contrasts the woods that she resides in with the ocean she once visited. This contrast symbolizes the similarities and differences between childhood and the adult world which Andy is exploring.

Andy is comforted by the woods because "they were always the same". She thinks to herself, "They stretch [...] longer than I could walk in a day [...], but they are still the same woods" (456). These woods are like her life as a child--safe, comforting, predictable. "There was no place she would rather be" (458).

However, Andy's recollections of the ocean are just the opposite. The ocean "frightened her." "It was huge and empty, yet always moving. Everything lay hidden" (459). While both the ocean and woods were quite expansive (possibly signifying the vast array of experiences in both childhood and adulthood), the ocean was everything the woods were not. It was scary, unnerving, and unpredictable.

As Andy follows her father through a majority of the hunt, she remains comfortably within her role as a child. Her father is nearby, and life is simple. He tells her what to do, and she does it. He is around to protect her, guide her, and ensure her welfare, just as the woods are always around her as a security blanket.

The moment Andy is handed the gun, however, she momentarily enters the world of adulthood. The status quo has suddenly changed, and she must make her own decision: shoot the doe to please the hunting party, or let the doe run off to safety. No one can choose for her. Her situation is much like the ocean she recalls, which was "always moving" and in which "Everything lay hidden." She has yet to discover what the consequences of either decision may entail. Later, as Andrea flees the scene while her father guts the deer, she realizes that the "sea" of adulthood is "now inevitable" (467).

Thus, the contrast between the woods and the ocean effectively signifies the contrast between childhood and adulthood. Children must eventually become adults by learning to make their own decisions, even when unsure of the consequences.

Doe Season

The woods suggests that Andy's childhood was "always the same" for miles and miles. As she transitions into her adulthood her life would become huge and empty, yet always moving. As stated in paragraph 45 "She and her parents had gone last summer to stay for a week at a motel on the New Jersey shore. That was the first time she'd seen the ocean, and it frightened her." This is also brought up after she shoots the deer. As a child begins to grow, life starts to throw you different things and many different "hurddles" arise. The blood supports the story's initial theme of being scared. Growing up as a child there are many things that scare different people. After Andy shoot's the deer, she is scared initially. She has a nightmare that night but the next day they find the deer and she is no longer scared. Another theme that they may be suggesting is menstration.

Doe Season

Andy and her father and her fathers friend are on a hunting trip far from the ocean and far from
Canada. Andy wants to impress her father and her fathers friend that she can be as good as them even though she is much younger and is of the opposite sex. When Andy first went to the ocean in New Jersey she was frightened of it and she did not like it. When her father asked her if she wanted to shoot the deer even though she didnt have a licence and was not of age she did it anyways and that became her new thing that she was scared of. At the end of the story she decides she does not care if she is of opposite sex or that she is much younger because she likes it just the way she is.

Doe Season

The contrast between the woods and the ocean suggests the transition Andy must make from childhood to adulthood because in paragragh 1 the narrator states, "They were always the same woods...They were the same woods that lay behind her house, and they stretch all the way to here, she thought, for miles and miles, longer than I could walk in a day, or a week even, but they are still the same woods." This shows that Andy indeed finds comfort and reassurance in the fact that the woods are still the same. Children like anything that comforts them or reassures them that they are safe. In Andy's case, it's the woods. In paragraph 45 where the narrator says, "She and her parents had gone last summer to stay for a week at a motel on the New Jersey shore. That was the first time she'd seen the ocean, and it frightened her. It was huge and empty, yet always moving. Everything lay hidden. If you walked in it, you couldn't see how deep it was or what might be below; if you swam, something could pull you under and you'd never be seen again." This is the way that Andy thinks of the ocean and it's described from a child's point of view. A person who has made the transition into adulthood would most likely describe the ocean in a different way, signifying that they are indeed an adult. There are adults that are scared of everything that isn't soft, fuzzy, or even safe, but an adult who had never seen the ocean before would probably think it's simply amazing. An adult might describe it as beautiful, glistening sun over the water, etc. An adult would probably just walk right in, not thinking about how deep it was or the fact that something could pull you under and you'd never be seen again.

Doe Season

In David Kaplan’s “Doe Season”, Andy is a girl who is torn between trying to impress her father and finding out what that means. While out on a hunting trip, she embarks out with three men to prove her worthiness and discovers that the world is often a frightening place. She recalls a trip to the ocean and states “that it frightened her, it was huge and empty” (par. 45) this implies that she is afraid of the unknown and feels more comfortable and safe in the woods where “they were always the same… and they stretch all the way to here” (par. 1). These woods make Andy feel protected in that they will not change; they will remain the same no matter what. She is about to do something that will push her forward towards adulthood, towards that ocean she is so afraid of. As soon as she shoots that doe she is changed, and that frightens her.
Kaplan managed to capture an extremely difficult period in the young girls’ life, making this story relatable to everybody. In the end, Andy realizes that she does not want to grow up but instead stay a child.

"I Stand Here Ironing"

I do think the narrator feels guilty about who her daughter has grown to be, but she feels helpless with how to change this. Emily's mother was left with no other choice but to leave her daughter here and there in order to work or look for work, since her husband had left them. When she could not afford to take care of Emily, she would leave her with family until she could afford to come get her. Soon, she felt like she barely knew her daughter. The narrator also felt bad for leaving Emily with the "evil" lady at nursery school. In her mind she knew emily did not want to be there, but it was the "only way they could be together" (page 284 paragraph 6). After she married again, the narrator and her husband would leave Emily home alone "telling ourselves she was old enough", even though Emily asked them not to go or go another time (page 285 paragraph 3). Then after her second child, Susan, was born Emily became ill with the measles and could not be with her mother or around her new sister. The narrator felt bad that she could not comfort Emily during this time. Eventually the narrator noticed Emily's resentment of her sister. How Susan seemed so perfect and smart. Emily seemed almost like she was an outcast next to her sister. Her mother felt guilty for all of these things, but felt that there was nothing she could do now. She felt like she had tried her best to raise Emily right at the time, but I think now she feels like she should have done more for her.
I think that the choices that the narrator made to keep her daughter healthy may have seemed like good ones at the time but later showed how growing up the way she (Emily) had, impacted her negatively. I did not have to experience living in this era, but I have heard stories about it from my grandmother. I felt sorry for both the narrator and for Emily because neither one of them deserved the tough life they were handed. I do not think that the narrator did anything purposefully to harm or neglect her daughter, it just happened because of how things were at the time.
I would not necessarily say the narrator was a good mother, at least not to Emily. I would not say she was a bad one either. She did the best she could, considering jobs were scarce and finances were limited. Being left a single mother during those times would definately be difficult. It is even difficult in this day and age. Some choices she made, like having more children, was not the best thing for a mother who could barely take care of her first born. Or even leaving Emily home by herself, I think she could have tried to work something out so she wasn't left alone. But she was a young new mother and did not really know any better. Knowing how things turned out for Emily did affect the narrator and how she felt about herself as a mother. As a mother myself, I know if I were in her shoes I would be quite upset with myself if this had been my daughter.

I Stand Here Ironing

The narrator of Tillie Olsen's story "I Stand Here Ironing", voices the guilt that can be found in the heart of many parents. She explains that her daughter's insecurities and conflicts may have come from her being "a young mother" and "a distracted mother" (p.288). She felt that her "wisdom came too late." (p.289). She replays the situations that left Emily alone or in the care of others, away from love and security, several times in her young life. She says she didn't smile at her enough, wasn't able to be there for Emily when she was sick and needed her. She wonders, "What in me demanded that goodness in her? And what was the cost, the cost to her of such goodness?" The impact of all these things is apparent in the actions and emotions of Emily, but it seems each situation that neglected Emily was unavoidable. The narrator had to raise Emily without the help of a father and was forced to rely on the help of others to care for her, while she worked to survive. When Emily's becomes ill, there are great risks involved with a new baby, that forces Emily to suffer alone.
The mother of Emily truly loves and cares for her daughter, even describes her loveliness, and mourns the things that hurt her child. Perhaps Emily would have benefited from an easier, secure environment, but her mother could only give her what she did, and it simply was all she could. Ultimately, there will always be something lacking and more that could've been given, but Emily's mother truly wouldn't be a good mother or fully care about her child if she did not feel this way.

"The Lottery"

Central to the plot, and equally symbolically significant, “The Lottery” takes place in the innocent and happy setting of a village square on a “clear and sunny” June day. The village square, in the center of town, is where activities most central and important to a town often occur. The bright sunny day on which the lottery takes place ironically symbolizing life and happiness is in stark contrast to the inevitable cruelty that is to conclude the days activity.

All villagers from the youngest children to the eldest seniors gather in casual Sunday attire, Mrs. Hutchinson even in her apron, pointing to the seeming mundane normalcy of the day’s proceedings. Of these villagers is Old Man Warner, symbolizing a testament to tradition and also perhaps also survival, “Seventy seventh year I been in the lottery”, he says while on his way to select his slip of paper from the aptly colored black box. “Pack of crazy fools”, Old Man Warner says of young people suggesting they give up the lottery, “There’s always been a lottery” he states as if because something always has been, that it always should be, adding close-mindedness the list he symbolizes. A seemingly close-knit community, together on a pleasant morning to choose who will die that day is representative that society can be cold as cruel.

The Lottery

The village square had a lot of significance in this story because it is where most of the story took place. One thing beyond the meaning of this would be that it is where they had been doing the lottery for many years. This could also mean that it is the square in which the "looser" is boxed in to get rocks thrown at. Mrs. Hutchinson's apron was what she had dried her hands off on could have signified bad luck for the up coming lottery. As Mrs. Hutchinson stated on page 407, "Wouldn't have me leave m'dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?" also shows that she felt as though her husband didn't want to tell her about the lottery because she was finishing dishes. Old Man Warner was just a negative old man that continuously was saying that it wasn't like it used to be and that he had been doing the lottery for 77 years. This shows how important the lottery is and that unlike other villages he believes it should continue. The slips of paper just go to show how the lottery is changing slowly and will probably one day be done in this village too. But as stated on page 406, "The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born." The black spot could also show that the person who gets it will get rocks thrown at them. This could be a signal of death.