Erica Spangelo:

…In the poem’s first stanza the reader encounters a sight that is different than the imagined young girl doing a happy dance. Instead, the reader finds a young boy who is dancing with his drunkard dad. Roethke implies that the boy is slightly afraid as he “hung on like death” because of the difficulty of the dance.

In the second stanza, Roethke gives us a view of the setting of the poem. The reader realizes that the waltz is taking place in the kitchen with a very unhappy mother watching. This stanza also explains how long and in what manner the dance was taking place. Because the pans were falling from the shelves, one can assume that it would take vigorous dancing to cause such clamor as well as an extended amount of time.

The third stanza works to show some of the characteristics of the father. Roethke implies that the father was dancing haphazardly because with each faltered step the boy’s ear was scraped. This works to show some of the ruggedness of the father as well as the mentioning of the scar on the father’s hand. Also, this stanza tells the reader about the age of the boy. If the boy’s ear was at the length of the father’s buckle then the child isn’t very old probably seven or eight.

Finally in the last stanza, Roethke continues to demonstrate the father’s…

Justin Atwell:

Tony Hoagland’s poem “Adam and Eve” takes a look at the emotions of a man who is attempting to deal with the complexities of a woman’s attitude toward sex. The poet spares none of the gritty details in describing the emotional rollercoaster that is sex. Although the poem is rather frank in its subject matter, Hoagland’s use of symbolism helps to give the poem a sense of style which doesn’t exist in many other works with similar subject matter. […] The narrow gap between love and hate seems to be the poem’s central theme as the man, who so passionately desired to be with this woman, once again informs the reader that he would like nothing more than to “punch her right in her face.”

The poem ends with the same sort of concept: “Until we say the truth, there can be no tenderness. / As long as there is desire, we will not be safe.” Although this is not a new idea, the frankness with which the poem is ended certainly drives the point across. Love and hate are not so different, and can often be confused for one another. The final summation seems to be that the passion and desire (especially sexual) that seem to create love can also create hate.

Chris Peterson:

In “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, Yeats uses a variety of techniques to reveal how the Lake Innisfree is only a dream within the narrator internal thought. It seems the thought of the Lake Innisfree is somewhat of an escape from reality. Yeats mentions how the narrator will be able to transfer the pleasure experienced from the lake into everyday life away from it, making the narrator seem dependent on the lake to bring happiness to his overall life. Some of the techniques Yeat’s uses to support this idea are through rhyme, sentence length, and word choice.

The first word in the poem is “I”, immediately letting it be known it is written in first person. Many other areas within this poem use this word also, especially in the third stanza where it is used as the first word in three out of the four lines. Repeating the word so repetitively in the third stanza supports how the stanza shifts its focus to how the lake scene will carry over into the life of the narrator. The first two stanzas don’t use the word as much appropriately, since the focus of those first two stanzas is shifted more towards characteristics of the lake scene. Another word used more than once is “dropping”, located in the first and second lines of the second stanza. Yeats uses this word effectively…

Mike Lundberg:

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is just an average poem to me, although maybe not as average as the others because I actually almost understand it. The poem to me sounds like person taking a afternoon walk through the woods that comes upon a fork in the road and is debating whether or not to take the one that is less worn down from traffic. The person in the poem ends up traveling the path that is less taken by others and is happy with his decision to do so. This poem reminds me a bit of myself in that I too enjoy to take the path that is less traveled, to not do what everybody else has already done. I like the fact that the author of this poem did not end up using language that is, for a lack of better terms, out of whack, or so uncommon that its annoying to read. The fact that he uses words that aren’t so obscure and take a lot of thinking just to figure out what they mean like you see in so many poems is a breath of fresh air. That reason in itself is probably why poetry makes so many people feel incredibly stupid (myself included.) The imagery used in the poem truly helps the reader to see the two paths laid out in front of the traveler, one is beaten down from being traveled, and the other a path can be seen but is overrun with underbrush. One thing I wish this poem would have added is at least one line about what was actually down this path, whether it was nothing but grass and maybe bugs or something like that, or if it was the most super cool thing that one could find out in the woods.

Just the title of this poem is enough to actually get a person like myself to read it, which is saying a lot because I do not enjoy poetry. The title just says it all, this poem is about a road that is less traveled than a road leading to the same destination.

Erin Doerner:

Upon reading through “Adam and Eve” by Tony Hoagland, I was pleased to find a poem that I could actually ‘read’ and not have to stop every few lines to untangle the language. The written analysis of this poem will probably not be that smoothly constructed but I hope to cover the entire poem and hopefully touch on some key parts which struck me deeply. Whether that is due partially to the fact that I am keen on visual or aural aesthetics I’m not sure, but I hope to demonstrate some thoughtful analysis of “Adam and Eve” that is worth reading.

In some ways, I felt that the poem read almost like a monologue, as if I could picture the person reading it aloud on stage. It is one of the longer poems that we could have chosen to read but I was drawn to its immediacy right from the start – “I wanted to punch her right in the mouth and that’s the truth”. The author clearly knew how to catch my attention. With a title like “Adam and Eve”, I suppose I had some preconceived notions about what the piece might be about. This preliminary statement was very beneficial in not only catching my eye but also affirming some of my notions. I am willing to assume that the biblical story of Adam and Eve is associated in many people’s minds to the origin of human sexuality…

Owen Romo:

The idea of the market is one of America.  As a consumer based society we find social interaction at places where we shop.  The market is much more than a place to get fruit.  It becomes a place to meet poets, chat with strangers and even to ogle the occasional grocery boy and yet in the end we walk out alone.  Left at the end of our days watching our lives slip away…

Justin Messner:
As far as anyone should be concerned, a poem detailing the loss of life, especially in the dark recesses of a mountain road, should usually be considered a solemn, depressing journey into a character’s psyche. However, the poem Traveling Through the Dark, by William Stafford, details this journey not in moods of depression, but through the casual observation of a character that has seen this type of loss, whether through animals or something a little more hard hitting, and has started to become emotionally deadened by his past experiences. […]
If the conclusion that is represented in this paper is not correct, it truly doesn’t matter. This is only one more take on a poem that has probably been around longer than myself, and will be here long after I’m gone, so sad.

Carl Malheim:
Papa’s Waltz appears to be a poem stemming from an encounter with an abusive father in a boy’s early childhood. He may have likened his nightly routine to a dance in order to remove some of the malicious and hurtful feelings he gained while undergoing such constant abuse. I assume this happened frequently, again because it was likened to a dance. A dance is a coordinated series of movements perfected only through repetition and practice. In the same way a dance has you step here, and then there, and then clap out this beat, then that, the boy knew that this “dance” would take him from one room to the next moving in time with the rhythm of his father’s swings in order to dodge and avoid as much harm as possible. Left hook, duck, right jab, left step, all kept in time by the clanking of the kitchens pots and pans set into motion by the great ruckus.
The alcohol seems to be the driving force that turns a working class father into an abusive monster…

Peter Hatori:
The process of literary analysis is typically deconstruction of a work and extracting further information of an authors perceived or unperceived message. Through this process the work is broken down into various compartments and studied in finer detail. In poetry the type of poem is determined and meter may be assigned to complete the intricate study of each line. It is then possible to determine the multiple possible and choice of each word in a given line and find obtuse, but directed intent by the author.

Kristin Gruber:

…The poet plans to build a cabin, of simple means, and plant a garden, or small crop. It is clear the author intends to enjoy the quiet that will come of living alone. "I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow . . ." The intention is to soak in the sounds of nature…

Brian Knutson:

Frost weighed the two finding them to be “as just as fair,” but decided to take the one he did “because it was grassy and wanted wear,” even though “as for passing there had worn them really about the same.”

Olivia Edwardson:

Overall, I enjoyed this poem. I believe that it shows the writer’s true feelings, and I was able to picture the isle in my mind clearly. Yeats did a good job with this poem, and I would recommend this poem to others.