Poems

            This week in class we read a variety of poems. Of all our lessons so far I think I enjoyed this one the most, I say this because personally of all types of literature poetry is without question my favorite to read.

            Of the poems we read two three truly stuck out to me the most. Those were “Dulce Decorum Est”, “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be”, and “Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”.

            Of the three my favorite was “Dulce Decorum Est”, this one particular poem just showed how truly agonizing the first World War must have been. The author also goes from speaking of himself, his group, and then to the reader in three different sections very well and it was an interesting way to approach the poem. And his last line I loved because at the time this was published, the height of nationalism in countries around the world, it must’ve been an extremely controversial way to end a poem.

            Next, was “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be” and “Death of a Ball Turret Gunner”. These both had to deal with death and that is always an appealing subject because it is universal to all of us in that at some point we will die. The first of the two dealt with the fear of dying without actually being remembered, which appears to frighten the author substantially. Another thing that is touched on in the poem is how truly awful it would be to die without ever connecting with your one true love, which I’m sure is something many people truly do fear. And the latter of the two poems dealt with how insignificant soldiers are sometimes, or at least that’s what I got out of it. Because the author speaks of “Washing out what remains”, after the character in the story is killed inside the belly of a B-52 Bomber and all they do is just clean him out with a hose and what did remain of him is gone. And that is a very frightening thought.

            But in all I enjoyed all the poems, it was just these three that caught my interest more than the others, and I’m sure the poems we come to read will also gather my attention one way or another.