The Guitarist Tunes Up- Poetry response 26

The Guitarist Tunes Up - Francis Darwin Cornford

With what attentive courtesy he bent
Over his instrument;
Not as a lordly conqueror who could
Command both wire and wood,
But as a man with a loved woman might,
Inquiring with delight
What slight essential things she had to say
Before they started, he and she, to play

This poem is really cool! I is one continuous stanza. It is even one whole sentence. The rhyme scheme is aabbccdd (can you write the rhyme scheme like that???). In class a lot of the musical kids were saying that they thought this poem was a relationship between man and his instrument, but I have played music for a long time too, and I think the poem could be about both the relationship between man and instrument and man and woman. The man, in the beginning is caring, and nurturing, and looking to interact with the instrument, not conquer it. He is getting ready to play the guitar, and instead of looking to just jump right in and do what ever he wants, he listens to the instrument, this literally could be like tuning, or just strumming. This is where I think the poem could relate to a man and woman relationship because it shows the tenderness he shows, and I think of a man listening to a woman, before he loves her, instead of trying to conquer her. I like that idea a lot :) The slight essential things that women have to say, that very often go over looked by a man searching for power, instead of a meshed together, beautifully played relationship.

Many red devils - Poem response 25

We did this poem in class today, and I really liked the imagry in it. I think that the poet was trying to get across the idea that writing from the heart, is difficult. It is so real that it is intimidating, and many times we can't find the correct words to tell what we want to say. Our ideas, or concepts that come from the heart (just like the little devils) and small and fragile. The wrong words could crush their idea. The pen could smash them. Get it??? Also I liked what someone said about how readers struggle in the ink reading the things from the heart, because it is sometimes hard to read something that is so raw from someone's heart. The structure of the poem was cool to me! I liked how the author made short lines, and just one stanza, because it kept the poem simple yet so descriptive, and visually appealing.

“At the Cemetery, Walnut Grove Plantation, South Carolina, 1989-poem response 24

I often like poems about historical events, and this poem was no exception. Lucille Clifton's language was what brought this poem to life. The main idea of the poem is to recognize that these slaves, at the Walnut Grove Plantation, were complete nobodies. They didn't even have any records of them. Clifton says that no one mentioned slaves. I might be reading too far into this one, but I kind of think that this idea that people just don't talk about slaves at this plantation, could relate with the fact that a a nation, we like to overlook, and ignore that slavery ever happened because it is such a blemish in out country's stature. It could be a small example on a larger scale. Clifton also tells that only 10 male slaves were documented (although there were many more), she challenges another idea that only men were listed. Why? Clifton is a very brave and honorable woman to stand up for two groups of people that throughout history have been fighting for equl rights as men, and furthermore, white men. I especially like at the end how Clifton repeats 'here lies," four times, just so that the idea of respecting these dead slaves is known. She is saying that had she known their names, she would have paid them the proper respect. This poem is sad, but cool, and I like how Clifton incorporated a much larger picture to just one tour she went on of just one plantation.