Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

Very nice poem. Although it gets me very angry thinking about what a trully pathetic world were living in.

Ok so Marge describes a girl that is perfectly normal if not better than normal "healthy, tested intelligent,strong arms back etc", the classmates comment made this normal girl apologize for everyone seeing her fat nose and legs, as if it was hurting other peoples eyes when they looked. (One thing that bothers me about the classmate going through puberty mentioning how the girl has a big nose and fat legs... this idea that big nose and fat legs is considered "ugly" is a notion taken from the outside world, those people who labeled the fat legs and big nose as ugly and negative). "She was advised to play coy/excercise"etc as opposed to telling the girl to be strong and not let the people get to her but instead theyre teaching her to be open to other peoples opinions and accept what they tell you... which eventually leads to someone taking power over you and becoming more dominant (men)
Her good nature wore out (she lost herself in this pathetic world of labeling and conformity).. She cut off her legs and gave them up (did what society told her to do symbolic to death because it would be like dying if your sense of power came from within and it has been destroyed therefore the only thing you have is the physicality and you would not be accepted in society unless you conform. Marge basically symbolizes death and being a barbie doll in which everyone adores you, but in the end you are dead inside and end up being empty because everything that made you "YOU", your significance is stomped on, and in the end "shes in the casket,cosmetics painted on..Consummation at last" or more like Perfectly dead and in the end of the end she is that cute little girl just like any other barbie doll, "PRETTY in pink who played with stoves and lipstick" NO significance.

In Golden Gate Park That Day ...

Love the poem for the simple fact that this is an observation of human condition specifically, and not a sort of general observation although this poem has elements of that as well. This poem has an empty and unfulfilled tone to it, that the husband and wife are unhappy, they sit down,eat oranges "without looking at eachother" and saying anything to eachother. "at a very still spot where the trees dreamed and seemed to have been waiting thru all time for them" "and put the peels in a basket which they seemed to have bought for that purpose without looking at eachother" is a sign of them doing this often, perhaps too often, not looking at eachother not speaking to eachother because nothing to see and nothing to say, sort of emptiness between their emotions for eachother. They are in a beautiful environment, enormous meadow with birds and still air, fruits (sign of spring) this is an environment that hides the ugliness of the relations between the man and wife, and the enormous meadow is symbolic to their possibly supressed relationship, their surrounding is enormous, big (seems like endless opportunity and possibility) like the birds questioning existence(whats their purpose in life) and "trying to recall something forgotten"(what is missing) and their inner life is dull, sort of supressed. I have an idea of what this poem could be but not sure how to put it into words. What I really am curious about is why he said meadow of the world (possibilities/opportunities that the world offers?)

Howl by Allen Ginsberg

OK so I am still in the process of figuring out this poem but so far this is what I have come up with;

It seems as though he wrote this poem due to a strong urge to express a certain emotion or opinion about the 1950s, it appears to be an observation; he seems angry or maybe disapointed (negative emotion) about that time period "I saw the best minds get destroyed........and the blond & naked angel came to pierce them with a sword”. Maybe the generation is seperating because some people do not act in accordance to how they should at that time period. He also refers to the words; dreams, heaven, angels, this can probably have somehting to do with the unconscious or the unknown. I feel like he is describing the events that affected him the most, this poem kind of reminds me of the Levertov's "February Evening in New York" because she also describes her observations in a way but not as detailed as Ginsberg. Need more time to put more thoughts into this poem though, very interesting poem this is. I like.

February Evening In New York by Denise Levertov

Great poem! I think this poem is describing the pace of life in New York, in the beginning she describes the beauty and the significance of the February in NY, then she begins to describe "Feet patterns the street, in hurry and stroll"..balloon heads and seperate bodies...probably is symbolic to not being present and whole at the moment, and not observing whats really surrounding them and where they are, because they are in their own head. The women that she describes that are walking in a fair pace is contrasted with the people who are hurrying to reach their next goal, not stopping and enjoying life, the crooked heels for some reason made me think of someone who is living in the streets or even working on the streets, or is always outside wandering around maybe someone with no goals, not sure about that one.

Birches by Robert Frost

It seems as though Frost is trying to connect nature and humanity together. He uses the nature to describe human experience and the nature of the boy and youth as well as growth and he uses the word "subdue" and "conquer" to describe the boy taking over his fathers trees, this could mean that the boy is conquering the fathers ideas, questioning it, and changing it and making it his own. The authos also says "Whose only play was what he found himself, Summer or winter, and could play alone." This could mean that he doesnt need anybody to play with because there is so much to do so much to question and learn and experiment with (take over) that he needs noone but himself to play, summer or winter. "he took the stiffness out of them, And not one but hung limp, not one was left For him to conquer" meaning probably that the boy revised his fathers trees and made it better, questioned it like it hasnt been questioned before. The boy climbing the tree towards heaven being further away from earth symbolizes imagination and being in another state of mind, but also being further away the things that the earth has to offer which is love, and this whole idea of the poem I think is that Frost also goes back and forth between the imagination of the youth and the reality and the sense of awareness of the father (adult) and he goes back and forth between those two, Frost likes to think of the imagination when he says he prefers the boy bending the birches, but he also describes the reason why the birches are really bend but he doesnt want to go to the reality since he is already there, but wants to go back to that state of imagination, that state of being high on the tree towards heaven as opposed to the earth.

The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop

Ok So I have thought about this poem a bit deeper, and it seems like to me that ELizabeth Bishop is describing the beauty of the fish, and its existance, and how it is beautiful in a different way than we are as humans.

For example, when she found out that he has survived other hooks, she begins to feel respect and admiration for the fish, just like you would for a human being if you knew he was a survivor. She gives him the quality of a human being, which I think reveals to us that she is trying to put aside the fact that he is a fish, and see a deeper meaning in its existance.

She uses the word rosette, full blown roses, and peony as a symbol to the beauty of nature in its self. In the beginning of the poem though, she starts off telling us an ordinary experience of catching a fish, and then it seems to me as if she does what other ordinary fishermen do not do which is admire the fish, and connect with its existance and its beauty.

She also describes the fish in a ugly unattractive way, (when she compares its pealing and old skin to a wallpaper). But then she also seems to go deeper in its inner beauty of the fish, its survival, and its struggle to survive in a different environment, just as how we humans would. I think she sees the beauty in it, and therefore connects with the fish, and in the end lets him go because she begins to see rainbow filling the boat, beauty and freedom of nature I suppose. Not too sure, I may be wrong but that is what seemed to me, so let me know what you think of this.