Poetry Blog #13

A Study of Reading Habits
By: Philip Larkin



This poem, throughout the first two stanzas is describing the adventures that one can have while reading a book. His use of descriptive words helps the reader visualize these adventures. He uses specific words in lines such as, " To dirty dogs twice my size," and "Evil was just my lark." These lines are catchy and help the reader become interested in the poem wanting to read more. 


At the end of the poem Larkin says in his last line, "Books are a load of crap." I find this very ironic because he spent this entire poem saying how great books are and how useful they can be to the imagination and to the avid reader. For this reason, the end of the poem almost felt as if it came to a halt and was very abrupt. 


The theme of this poem is that although we read about all of these fascinating and dangerous ideas in books that catch our attention and let our imagination run wild, that doesn't mean they are true. Books are not real and they get ideas in children's and adult's heads that can not come true and say things that will never be done.

Poetry Blog #12

365 Days a Year
By: Madison Condon

Pie is
sugary sweet,
mouth watering,
nose tingling,
delicious dessert.

Pie is bringing
family together.

Pie is celebrating
holidays.

4th of July has cherry.
Thanksgiving has pumpkin.
Christmas had apple .

Chocolate, Key Lime, Peach, Blueberry, Pecan & Cream
fill the other 362 days left in the year.

Poetry Blog #11

For the Sleepwalkers
By: Edward Hirsch

This poem is about what happens at night for a sleepwalker. It talks about the journeys they have and the willingness to leave their beds during the night. This poem is about how sleepwalkers put all their trust in themselves at night when they are still sleeping. They do things that they would not normally do during their waking hours. They make decisions that they are too afraid to make during the day with the watching eyes of others around. During the night, they let their heart do what they please leading them down the path that the truly want to go. 

At the end of the poem the author says, "We have to drink the stupefying cup of darkness and wake up to ourselves, nourished and surprised." These couple lines show that when the sleepwalkers wake up in the morning they have to wake up to their true self who is afraid to do what their hearts desire during their waking hours. They have to go back to normal and are surprised to hear what they have done during the long night. 

This poem is a good realizer that when our hearts desire something we should not be ashamed to follow our hearts during our waking hours and not be ashamed to follow our desires despite of what others think.