Cottonmouth Country by Louise Gluck

Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras.
And there were other signs
That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us
By land: among the pines
An uncurled cottonmouth that rolled on moss
Reared in the polluted air
Birth, not death, is the hard loss.
I know. I also left a skin there.


Let's just say I don't understand the poem exactly, so I had to do some research on some keyword throughout the poem. The first word I looke up was Hatteras, I assumed that this was a place near a patch of water, and I was correct Hatteras is a little town in North Carolina near the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. This is why fish bones are laying across it. The next word that I looked up was Cottonmouth, not exactly sure what that was and discovered that it is a snake, not just any snake but the only poisonous water snake in North America (Snakes our my greatest fear in my life, so I don't like this poem because of the snake!!) From looking up those words I tried putting the pieces together. I know most of the poem is about death, just by it talking about death, but what meaning is she trying to convey throught death and what does it mean to her. The title of the poem Cottonmouth Country which in translation means deadly snake. So i am going to make some assumptions about the poem by the poem saying that where ever the Cottonwood Snake goes, so does death. I don't if that is actually what the poem is saying, but that is my prediction for the poem.

I also know that this poem is octave strusture with a rhyming scheme. I believe that the rhyming scheme is ABABCDCD so it is pretty simple. This poem is a lyric poem, where the poem has a reflective tone and also has a subject to it. This poem is not a ballad because it is not written in quatrains, basic rhyme scheme, and not very songlike quality.

Much madness is divinest sense by Emily Dickinson

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye,
Much sense, the starkest madness
'Tis the majority'
In this, as all, prevail:
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur, you're straightway dangerous
And handled with a chain

For this poem I looke up a whole bunch of words, for some reason the way she uses the words together just doesn't click with my brain. I first looked up "discerning" which means showing a good understanding. When talking about divinest usually means in a biblical reference of pertaining to god. Demur means objecting to something. When looking up these definitions I definently think I understand the poem better. I believe that Emily is talking about how "Madness" is a gift from God. She says this by saying Madness is the divinest sense. Then saying that having the sense about "Madness" is the "starkest Madness", meaning complete madness. Then she talks about that if you believe, you are sane and will possibly go to heaven, because of the biblical reference of divenest. Then if you "Demur" something of objection and this is dangerous if you don't believe in madness. What has me stumped  is the last line in the poem. "And handled with a chain" to me this line just seems random and don't really knows how it connects. I guess that it could possible be a biblical reference also. My problem is that I don't know much about the bible or being Christian for that matter. I like this poem and how it shows that if you think you are sane, that is wrong, and if you believe in madness, it means you are sane. I don't know if this makes sense, I kind of wrote about what was going on inside my head while reading this poem and looking up definitions.

Alone by Edgar Allan Poe

I enjoy Edgar Allan Poe and his poetry, I have only read a some of his work, but I still enjoy what I have read. When reading this poem I believe that Edgar is putting a personal approach to this poem. What I got from this poem is that it is about growing up, being lonely and different at the same time. i think that the poem is talking about how being alone in the world, you are not the only one that is like you. They would understand what the other lonely person is doing.  In the poem this lonely person is I believe to be his personal experience of being lonely and different. Possibly his hope that he is not the only one in the world who is lonely and different in the world. I also believe that with this loneliness is what created the man known as Edgar Allan Poe. The loneliness created the person who he is today and the obstacles he has overcome. This poem is depressing but also shows a story of the of a man and his loneliness. If this is not about Edgar Allan Poe than this is about a random person, or a person he used to know.

Untitled by Stephen Crane

My first thought that came tomy mind when I read this poem the first time was GROSS!!, but don't worry I believe that this poem as different and deeper meaning. The eating the heart part was what grossed me out even though it shouldm't because we read about eating dead babies which isn't even that worse. With this poem I believe that the most two important words are HEART and BITTER. So the first thing I did was get a formal definition of Bitter, the best definition that I believe the author uses in the poem is being resentful or cynical. This is used in the poem to show that possibly the "creature" in the poem is eating away his heart which is resentful and cynical. This can also be derived into putting a bitter taste in the mouth literally. I enjoy the visual affect the poem brings, even if it kind of grosses me out. Through such a short poem the author brings a visual affect to what is going on in the creatures life. By getting rid of the bitterness in the creatures heart by eating it, the only way the creature knows how because he is just a creature not a human. I don't know if the creature is trying to gain his humanity back by eating his heart ti get rid of the thing that makes him a creature, the bitterness in the heart he is eating.

I don't know if this blog makes sense my thoughts kind of jumbled together and I don't even know if they are correct, or if that is what the poem is about. So sorry if you don't understand my blog.