Dear Class,

Here are my second sets of poetry responses:

Those winter Sundays

This poem expresses the beauty of nature in a dark and saddening way. The winter seemed to cause aches and pain to the author’s father. The cold winter cracked his father’s hands, caused him much work creating heat for the house, and emptiness in his heart. I wonder if his father knew that he appreciated his work. The poem mentioned that no one ever thanked the father, but was the thanks possibly implied?

Stop All the Clocks

If my loved one died would you drop everything to mourn her? No, life moves on. You cannot forever chase the dead without being dead yourself. Even though the world may have ended due to a death, it clearly has not. Cars will still move, the wind will still blow, and airplanes will still fly. The death of the author’s loved one was so significant he felt everyone should experience the pain he feels. He thinks the person who died deserves everyone on Earth’s respect. Eventually maybe he will discover the courage to move on.

The Incident

This poem seemed like it may have been written during the era of great migration. During the great migrations a large sum of the black population would migrate from farms down south up to large cities. Even though African Americans were free, obviously racism still existed. I think this poem portrays that very well due to the fact that the 8 year old boy was called such an insulting name. This event carried with him his whole life since he wrote about it as he got older. It is sad that someone would say something so awful even to a child just because of the color of his skin.

My Papa’s Waltz

Dancing with a very drunk man is never fun. Some drunks become very pushy even if they seem happy. If the mother had  a problem with her son dancing with the drunk Papa she should have spoken up and told the Papa to stop. Maybe back in the day this was written women did not have much say and it was a bit more socially acceptable for a drunken man to beat his wife. If he unintentionally abused his son, then I am sure he wouldn’t have a problem doing the same to his wife.