"Richard Cory" -- Edward Arlington Robinson

"Richard Cory" is interesting, because it shows that no one should ever wish to be someone else, because that someone else’s life may not be any more favorable than your own. Richard Cory was “richer than a king-/ And admirably schooled in every grace,” but appearances can be deceiving. The speaker says that “we thought he was everything to make us wish we were in his place,” but Richard Cory was clearly so miserable that he took his own life. Money cannot buy happiness. In fact, Richard Cory’s wealth may have left his ostracized and detached from society: he says “good morning” to the townspeople as he passes, but no one knows a thing about his personal life. The townspeople were in awe of him, but Richard Cory was not a superman: “he was always human when he talked.” Being wealthy and affluent is looked at as a desirable “status” in life, but this poem makes it clear that these “blessings” can really turn into burdens. No one’s life is perfect, whether it’s economic, emotional, or physical afflictions that trouble a person. To commit suicide is to denounce life. All we know for sure is that we are given a life to lead on earth, and we must accept and embrace what we are given, rather than cursing it.

"The Middle-Aged" -- Adrienne Rich

This poem talks about what it’s like to live as a child dependent on adults. The speaker expresses a desire for independence when she says, “For to be young/ Was always to live in other people’s houses/ Whose peace, if we sought it, had been made by others/ Was ours at second hand and not for long.” A child’s comfort and happiness can ultimately depend on the comfort and happiness of those people providing for them, whether it’s a parent or other legal guardian. The “middle-aged” provide a home for the children, but cannot give them life experience: “twenty years of living/ They could not give.” Children are affected by their parents’ pasts, even when the parents keep the past a secret. The middle-aged never speak of “the coarse stain,” “the crack in the study window,” or “the letters/ Locked in a drawer and the key destroyed.” Still, repressing or ignoring the existence of things and events will never make them go away. These are physical reminders of the past that will never be explained and will never disappear. When the speaker returns as an adult, she must come to terms with her parents and her own past, as much as things are left unaccounted for and unsaid.

"Edge"- Sylvia Plath

This poem, as with many of Plath’s other pieces, is a bit confusing as to what she is literally talking about; however, the imagery (both mythological and biblical) is very strong. The lines, “Each dead child coiled, a white serpent,” really struck me, because it’s interesting to compare a child to a serpent. Usually children are associated with innocence, while serpents have long been associated with evil and corruption. I wonder if “each dead child” is really dead, or if Plath intended to mean this figuratively. They could be “dead” because they have been corrupted. The fact that the pitchers of milk are empty also indicates death, because milk is what nourishes children from the moment they are born. The moon could actually be the dead woman, “perfected.” The moon is thought to have born life at one point in time (there are indications of water bodies, etc), but now it is in a state of constant deadness. The moon has been in the sky for ages, and “is used to this sort of thing.” The lifelessness of the moon could be a reason for the moon to have “nothing to be sad about,” because without life, how could something have emotion? It simply is.

"Anthem for Doomed Youth" --Wilfred Owen

This poem laments the massive loss of life in warfare, beginning with the question, “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?”, and the answer, “Only the monstrous anger of the guns.” The fact that Owen refers to dying soldiers as “cattle” leaves the reader with the sense of nameless, selfless bodies being used as human “beasts of burden.” In war, the soldiers’ creed is usually along the lines of “kill or be killed”- a brainwashed mentality that lacks any sort of reverence for life.

The speaker points out that when these people perish in battle, there are “no prayers nor bells;/ nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,/ The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.” The value of an individual life shrinks considerably on the battlefield, and the reader gets a definite sense of the absence of God. This idea is interesting, especially considering the title of the work deems dead soldiers “doomed youth.” It makes me wonder what the speaker believes these youth are doomed to. Could it be a fate worse than death? It seems that the speaker may have similar questions about the fate of young spirits who’ve committed and lost their lives to some purpose that they may not believe in. Are these “lost souls?”

We don’t know the answer to that question, but the speaker seems to be hopeful. The candles are “in their eyes,” rather than “in the hands of boys” (for how can one manage both a candle and rifle?). The “tenderness of patient minds” serves as their flowers. In short, the speaker may be saying that religious rituals are irrelevant to the destiny of one’s soul. He ends by saying “each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.” This image of sunset shows that all things come to an end, but the sun will rise again in the morning. The idea of nighttime, the mind, sleep, and death reminds me of Shakespeare’s notion that “we are such stuff/ As dreams are made on and our little life/ Is rounded with a sleep…”

"For the Anniversary of My Death" -- W.S. Merwin

In this piece, Merwin offers a new perspective on the progression of life. Every year, most people celebrate the anniversary of their births. Even though we continue to grow older and approach death, each of us reveres the day we came into the world. None of us know for sure what day we will die, and even if we did, why would we celebrate that? Still, Merwin’s words hold true for all living things: “Every year without knowing it I have passed the day/ When the last fires will wave to me.” Although death is something people would like to consider exceptional or something to be avoided, that simply is not the case. With each passing moment, we are closer to death.

What’s interesting here, though, is that the speaker does not express apprehension towards his impending demise. When he says “the silence will set out/ tireless traveler/ like the beam of a lightless star,” Merwin gives the impression that we are all on an infinite spiritual journey propelled by a series of death and rebirth. It is almost as if he looks forward to when “I will no longer/ Find myself in life as in a strange garment/ Surprised at the earth.” It seems that he believes he will exist in his true essence once his physical being dies.

At the same time he's "surprised at the earth," he recognizes the glory in nature: “As today writing after three days of rain/ Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease/ And bowing not knowing to what.” These lines suggest that the speaker is actually bowing to the beauty and force of life and death in terms of nature. He owes the sustenance and constancy of life on earth to these forces, rather than the bearded Zeus or Lord Almighty.

"The Ache of Marriage" -- Denise Levertov

Unlike Blumenthal’s poem, “A Marriage,” this piece reflects the frustration with being trapped in an unhappy marriage that has presumably been consummated under God. Blumenthal points out that marriage can be a struggle, but the strength of its bond is worth any “trouble” in the end. Here, however, Levertov expresses the marriage itself as being a burden that must be endured, rather than a means of two people supporting each other amidst life’s other burdens. Instead of holding up a ceiling together, the marriage described in this poem is of two people trapped in a whale’s belly “looking for joy, some joy/ not to be known outside of it.” The speaker sees no comfort or joy in a marriage.

It seems that the speaker craves independence and feels a loss of individuality when she says, “two by two in the ark of the ache of it.” This Biblical reference to Noah's ark, along with the “leviathan” (presumably a reference to the Lord commanding a whale to swallow up the sinner Jonas), and the communion ritual, all suggest that this matrimony has Christian connections. The feelings of entrapment and despair may stem from the fact that religion can be confining, and the speaker may feel anxiety about her marriage being consecrated and consequently judged by “God.”

The contrast between these two poems of marriage could very well lie in the gender of the speaker: the male is contented while the female is discontented. Historically, Christian marriages have been “patriarchal”; that is, the males are generally dominant in the family’s decision-making. This poem could also reflect female frustration of being repressed in a male-dominated society that expects “righteous” women to marry and quietly “honor thy husband.”

"This Be The Verse" -- Philip Larkin

This poem’s poignancy strikes from the first line, “they fuck you up, your mum and dad./ They may not mean to but they do.” I imagine that many people blame their parents for their own faults, and this anger is something I can definitely relate to. The wisdom lies in the fact that this statement has some truth: people are, in fact conditioned by the way their parents raised and treated them. An added layer to this, though, is the fact our parents are people, too- people who were also shaped by their upbringing. There is also the idea of heredity here: “they fill you with the faults they had.” If my father and his father are alcoholics, then I am inevitably predisposed to the same affliction, genetically and by the influence of their behaviors. Each person, in a way, pays for the sins of his or her parents.

The poem shows the cycle in which “man hands on misery to man,” which reflects the Buddhist philosophy in a way that “all life is suffering.” The difference here is that the speaker advises the reader to “get out as early as you can, and don’t have any kids yourself.” Rather than wisdom, this reflects a foolish, though common, mindset towards life. The Buddhist would say this is something of a weakness of character. If we are to waste our lives blaming our parents for our own miseries and misfortunes, then we will certainly inflict the same misplaced anger towards our own children. If "wise" people are to stop having children, then where is the future of the human race? This poem seems to suggest that in order to break the unending cycle of “misery,” we must be willing to forgive our parents before we can then embrace and raise our own children in a more positive, nurturing way.

"A Poem for Myself (Or Blues for a Mississippi Black Boy)" --Etheridge Knight

The language in this poem is interesting because the speaker repeats several phrases for emphasis and this repetition reinforces the speaker’s confidence and purposefulness in his words. The persona in this piece was “born black in Mississippi,/ Walked barefoot through the mud.” The notion of walking barefoot in the mud is interesting, because unlike the “shod” foot of Hopkins’ poem, this persona is rooted to the land he calls home.

He tells the reader that he “headed North/ As straight as the Wild Goose Flies,” which implies his was a natural migration for survival purposes. Even though the speaker has been to all the major northern cities and “strolled all those funky avenues,” he tells us “I’m still the same old black boy with the same old blues.” No matter how far from home he fled, he could never forget his home, his roots, and his identity. He goes back home “to stay for good-/ Gonna be free in Mississppi/ Or dead in the Mississippi mud.” The idea of a black boy being free in the deep south has obvious references to the American institution of slavery, but the idea of “liberty” has a much broader range of meaning.

This theme particularly strikes me, because I recall D.H. Lawrence’s essay “Spirit of Place,” and the idea that “men are free when they are in a living homeland.” The speaker is of African descent, but it seems clear that he has never been to the continent, and his home is actually in America. Although the speaker hightailed it out of Mississippi when he was younger, he comes to discover that he really belongs there, where his family is or was. We don’t know whether or not his parents are still alive, though.

It’s interesting that the speaker compares freedom to death, because many philosophically or religiously- minded people will say that death is freedom; that is, the “soul” is liberated from the prison of the physical bodily vessel.

"God’s Grandeur" --Gerard Manley Hopkins

This poem is particularly poignant because it celebrates “God’s Grandeur” in a way that we can all understand: God’s power and glory lie in forces of nature. The first line, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God” suggests that the life force of the earth is a divine energy. The speaker discusses man’s relation to nature in that “generations have trod, have trod, have trod.” The repetition here emphasizes just how long man has walked the earth, and also leaves the reader with the impression that we beat and pound down on it and our ancestors with each footstep. Though mankind was born from nature, this poem also shows our growing detachment from it: “the soil/ Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.” The idea of being barefoot indicates an intimacy with the earth, but this poem points out the unnaturalness of wearing shoes.

Similarly, the speaker seems to disdain commerce and other aspects of “civilization” when he says that “all is seared with trade.” Although the speaker criticizes man for wearing down the world, he says that “nature is never spent”. This is interesting wisdom, because we don’t know for sure whether nature will always be here “for us.” In fact, one of the most heated areas of debate lately is global warming and the coming “end of the world.” The more we destroy nature for our own purposes, the more we become a device for the demise of our species. At any rate, the poem closes with the notion of death and rebirth with sunset in the west and sunrise in the east. The “Holy Ghost” is nurturing and fosters life “with warm breast.”

Western civilization generally operates independently of religious mandates, and the idea of “God” seems abstract in the context of our capitalist “American Dream.” However, the cyclical generation, degeneration, and regeneration of life on Earth is something more tangible and more readily respected when it is called to our attention.