Professor Cline
English 102
9 September 2010
What Do I Know About Poems?
The first poem that I’m analyzing is the: “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl.
Overall this poem didn’t make much sense to me. In the first paragraph, it seems to me that the writer of the poem may live on a ranch and he is looking out over his land after a storm. From the third paragraph on, it appears like the writer is having a flashback from a war that he was in. I think he was also remembering a little girl that he had watched die after a bomb had hit her village. When he writes about: “I try to imagine she runs down the road and wings beat inside her until she rises.” (Lines 37-38). My interpretation of these two lines is he is thinking that she became an angel and flew away.
This poem to me is very sad and depressing. I have to say that I also found it a little boring.
The second poem that I chose to analyze is the: “Rite of Passage” by Sharon Olds.
I thought that this poem was cute and a bit humorous. It’s obvious to me that these little men are boys at her son’s birthday party. I can actually picture these six and seven year olds standing around jockeying for place, small fights breaking out, eyeing each other, and telling each other “I could beat you up.” (Lines 6-13). That is so typical of little boys.
I enjoyed this poem more than the first one. This poem was uplifting and fun.
Works Cited
Olds, Sharon. “Rite of Passage.” Poetry Foundation. 2004. 9 September 2010. Web.
Weigl, Bruce. “Song of Napalm.” Poetry Foundation. 2004. 9 September 2010. Web.
https://3bb.yc.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fweb
Hi Barb,
ReplyDeleteGood for thought, I like your interpretation
about the wings of angles. It makes a powerful contrast to the description in verse seven. Regardless, it is a pretty heavy poem, one that is harder to dwell on.
I thought Rite of Passage was also, just not as overtly. When Olds says “We could easily kill a two-year-old,” (line 22), to me it was summarizing the little hints throughout the poem. That is, each of the little boys are going to be “at war” when they grow up. That’s pretty broad; “war” could just as easily be in an office building as a jungle. It almost sounds like they couldn’t help themselves even if they wanted to. Anyway, to me the poem wasn’t nearly as harsh as the rest, but had a “dark side.” (That sounds like something out of Star Wars.)
Mary