Poetry for Week 8

Reflecting on Poetry
Week 8

     This week, I choose five poems to Blog about from the list of the required reading. The five poems I chose were: “We Real Cool,” “We Old Dudes,” “ Mirror,” “Richard Cory, “ and “ A Man Said to the Universe.” Most of the poems were very short this week. The reader had to look further into the work that they were trying to convey to the reader.

     “We Real Close” by Gwendolyn Brooks was a short poem. In the beginning of the poem, a setting is placed regarding playing pool. The poem seems to depict young people who skip school to go the pool hall. They always seem to think that is so cool. The author seems to be saying that the pool players think they are cool, but their excesses in life will catch up with them. The author explains that young people will most likely die soon.

     “We Old Dudes” by Joan Murray depicts an old retired man with white hair who likes to go play golf. The habits, the way he chooses to dress, the way he votes, and when he will help seems to describe that someone will die soon as well. This kind of reminded me of my father. He is always going to play golf. When you spouse dies, you are left with a lot of hobby time.

     “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath seems to depict a woman’s plight as she notices she is aging. There’s no hiding from a mirror. Once the woman in the poem was young with a beautiful young face. Now as the woman looks in the mirror, she sees things she can’t change. This is harder to swallow. It is harder to look in the mirror and not see a young face anymore. How does that happen?

     “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson depicts how a wealthy man is viewed by his peers/acquaintances. Everyone seems to idolize someone like Richard Cory. No one thinks someone like him could have any type of problems. It seemed like Richard had everything a person could ever want. It appeared as though he was not as happy and lucky as everyone thought. Richard Cory killed himself and no one knew he was suicidal or needed help. We see a lot of these situations these days in the media. A lot of the time drugs are a reason behind a person dying too  young.

     “A Man Said to the Universe” by Stephan Crane depicts the plight many humans may feel sometimes. The world is such a big place. Sometimes an individual struggles to find their place in this world. The poem could be saying if that the world didn’t expect much of the person and his ability to reach his full potential in the poem. It also seems like the person is shouting to the world not to forget about him.

     Once again, I enjoyed reading the poetry for this week’s assignment. With most of the poems being so short, I had to think over what they might be trying to say.