somewhere i have never travelled

The poem, “Somewhere I have never traveled”, is about a man who is expressing his love for a woman.  Cummings used lots of imagery in this poem.  When he says “your eyes have their silence,” we imagine that he cannot read how she feels about him.  She is a mystery to him.  Perhaps he means her eyes and feelings are somewhere he has never traveled.  In the second stanza when he says “your slightest look easily will unclose me” means that all she has to do is look at him and he will open up his feelings to her.  Again he is using imagery to get us to feel what he feels.  In the poem Cummings is describing how he wants to know what his lover is feeling.  He tries to read her feelings through her eyes and her actions but she is still a mystery to him.  He describes how she can open and close his feelings with a glance, and he hopes that her feelings are the same as his.  In the last stanza he wants his lover to know that she has power over him and when he says, “the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses” he expresses just how much she means to him.  He uses imagery throughout the poem which helps interprets his feelings in a meaningful way.  We feel the emotion he has for the women and know how much he must love her.

Elegy for Alfred Hubbard

The poem Elegy for Alfred Hubbard is about a person who is eulogizing an old plumber.  He starts out by praising him for his abilities as a plumber but then quickly starts to point out his faults.  When he states “that his rule of thumb, which were often wrong”, he starts to show the plumbers flaws.  The poet goes on to say that he heard a lot of gossip and knew the streets well but didn’t know much about plumbing.  There is a lot of irony throughout the poem where the poet shifts from reverence to sarcasm.  He presents many sarcastic references to his wrong doing, such as in the lines “for much he never got round to doing, but meant to, when weather bucked up, or worsened, or when his pipe was drawing, or when he’d finished his cup.  I thought time, he forgot so often had forgotten him”.  (Lines 25-30)  The poem was actually funny in its irony because this was a person who was supposed to be saying nice things about this dead plumber.  In the end the poet talks of the plumber’s wife, waiting by a gate that he promised to mend. The last line "and the housewife banging his front-door knocker is not surprised to find him gone,and runs for Thwaite, who's a better worker" could be a great standup comic routine.   In the end the reader realizes that Hubbard is a human being with many flaws just like a lot of us. 

Still I Rise, a poem by Maya Angelou

The poem, “Still I Rise”, by Maya Angelou is a poem about self-confidence and self esteem.  It is about overcoming adversity under any circumstances.  The poet is a black writer who is viewed differently because of her color but won’t let others views on her lower her spirits and break her.  You can tell by the way she writes in her poem that she has suffered through discrimination of others lines 17-20 “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.” shows her determination to overcome.

“Still I Rise”, what do these words mean? I feel that through this women’s words that each and every comment against her or the way she is treated or looked at makes her grow more and more stronger as a person, knowing that what these people do or say doesn’t make me or break me and that in the end I will feel how I want to feel. When she uses the words, “You may shoot me with your words, You May cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with you hatefulness”, she is comparing nonphysical violence with physical violence.  She thinks that there is really no difference.  No matter whether its words or actions it’s still discrimination and it hurts just as much.  She remembers the past and how hard it was on blacks.  Her phrase, “Out of the huts of history’s shame, Up from a past that’s rooted in pain”, means that she learns that the past is behind her but she will remember the struggles the people of her race had and will rise above her roots to survive.  I believe she is not only speaking for herself, but for her race in general and how much they have overcome.  This poem is inspirational not only for blacks but for anyone overcoming extreme adversity.  It lifts your spirits and lets you know that nothing is impossible and we can all rise above anything is we have the desire.