"Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year"

Raymond Carver’s poem “Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year” was a good poem. I thought the part “He would like to pose bluff and hearty for his posterity,/ wear his old hat cocked over his ear./ All his life my father wanted to be bold.” (lines 8-10) was good that his father was trying to be bold and the child could recognize the way his father tried to be bold and how he wore his hat. I also liked the part “In jeans and denim shirt, he leans/ against the front fender of a 1934 Ford.” (6-7)I am a little confused by the end, though. “yet how can I say thank you, I who can’t hold my liquor either,/ and don’t even know the places to fish?” (14-15) Is he thanking him seriously or sarcastically? I really cannot tell. The way I read it seems like it would be sarcastically, but I don’t know for sure.

Prophyria's Lover

This was a twist of tales of irony that showed her coming to tell him that she would give her love to him and in that moment of giving herself to him he became mad at the thought that no one else can have and made sure of that so he killed her with that last thoughts of him on her mind of his love. The irony is ironic that he thinks that that is what she wanted is to be with him forever and this is how to do it. I thought that this was a good poem because of the twist in the middle and changes moods.

My Papa's Waltz

I liked this very short poem. As I was reading it I imagined a young boy standing on his father's feet and hanging on tightly while dancing. Apparently the father decided to have a nightcap first, "The whiskey on your breath" (1). The words used in this poem allow for the description of the father as a hard laborer, "Was battered on one knuckle"(10). Lines 15 and 16 make it clear that it was time for bed whether the boy was ready or not, "Still clinging to your shirt"(16). I can look at this poem in two ways. Either the boy just did not want to go to bed or he was clinging to his fathers shirt out of freight because his father was really drunk.
JenN

Barbie Doll

While reading this poem I pictured a girl in high school who was only trying to be like everyone else. Some "popular" girls took it upon themselves to comment on her "big nose and fat legs". Bullying her to the point that she no longer felt like she wanted to live. She had beautiful inner beauty that others apparently couldn't see. When the speaker mentioned "she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up" (17) I pictured a paper doll that she destroyed. In the end I felt like she took her own life and others finally accepted her.