Elegy for My Father, Who is Not Dead

This poem is speaking about the future. It includes a lot of symbolism between the father and the son. The father equals strong faith and conviction. The son is doubt and uncertainty. There is a father vs. son comparison throughout this entire poem. The father is optimistic. He talks about life after death. He also thinks that he will be reunited with son after he dies. The son is extremely pessimistic. He thinks that the "ship will sink". He doesn't believe that he will have life after death. Death is compared to a trip. The "new world" is a metaphor for the after life. Father has the positive attitude. The son has a negative attitude.

Delight and Disorder

The broken rhyme scheme of this poem contributes to the theme of disorder. The phrase "wild civility" is an oxymoron. The poem is talking about how imperfections and inconsistencies are not always a bad thing. It reminds me of Shakespeare and how he was accepting of the imperfections of his "mistress" as well. The theme of beauty in imperfection is common amoung poets. The speaker prefers disorder to preciseness in a woman. The rhyme scheme can be compared to his type of woman because it is not perfect, it's a little off. It makes him happy to see flaws in the things he loves.

Edward

Edward is a psycho. He supposively kills a hawk, horse, and his dad. In reality he just kills his dad. His mother asks him three times what he has killed because she knows that he is lying about the hawk and the horse. The reason she knows that he is lying is because she told him to kill his father. She "gave counsel" to him. When he is lying to his mom about the things he killed he uses very ironic adjectives to describe them. He says that he killed his "good" hawk, his "fair and free" horse, and his "dear" father. This shows the reader that he was against the killing that he did. It seems that Edward is talking about committing suicide at the end of the poem. Whatever it is, he is definitely leaving and not coming back. He is leaving his wife, kids, and mother and he doesn't care.

Lonely Hearts

The first thing I thought of after reading this poem was EHarmony. It is satirizing the people who advertise themselves and search for love. All of these people are looking for the same thing, love, but they are so different. The author describes the most random people. They seem to be outcasts of society. They all have extremely specific expectations. The repeated lines in the poem are "do you linve in North London? Is it you?" and "can someone make my simple wish come true?" This last line is very ironic. The word simple is ironic because they dont have simple requests at all they are very specific. Also those two repeated phrases contribute to the layout of the poem as a villanelle.

My Mistress' Eyes

When I first read this poem, I thought it was extremely offending. It seemed like the speaker was trying to negatively break down his lover. I was very wrong. Towards the end of the poem, it says "and yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare". The speaker is saying that he isn't going to lie, his love isn't perfect. He is accepting of her flaws. Even though she is not perfect, he still loves her. Shakespeare is satirizing all the people who worship their wives and tell them whatever they want to hear. He is being honest with his and telling her exactly how it is. He doesn't care that she isn't perfect and he accepts it. Also, he is not saying that she is ugly, she is just "as rare" as every other girl.

Getting Out

This poem seems like they are talking about trying to have a kid but they physically are not able to."Every night another refusal", every night they attempt to have a child but it never works. Then "exaughsted" they "gave up". This is uncommon in society today because when couples are not able to have kids they usually just adopt. The next step on this couple's mind is to get a divorce. This divorce is strange because it is clear that neither of them want it to happen. They hold hands as they go up to the lawyer and cried on the last day. It is unclear to the audience what this could mean but it is extremely sad. Nothing went wrong in their relationship, it just didn't work out. Another thing I noticed in the poem that emphasized the seperation of the poem is that in the first stanza there is repetition of "we". In the second and third stanza they use "I". This transition shows the reader the couple has split.