Ginsberg is also demonstrating somewhat avant-garde diction in this text. His choice of words and phrases are very intense and shocking, often using doubleness and density to surprise the reader and keep them on their toes.

This work mimics the time motif from T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land". It jumps time and place within a sentence or two. The reader goes from Colorado to New York within a few lines. Time is not linear, just as it was in "The Waste Land".

Ginsberg is creating a very negative, intense image that almost contrasts itself. Every sentence or section is both negative and positive at the same time.

It is interesting to view this doubleness of good and bad existing at the same time. "Limousines" and "small-town" remind me of positive, safe, happy things while "winter", "midnight" , and "streetlight" are not words that remind me of happy things. There is also an excitedness of whoever is jumping into the limousine that contrasts the real danger of jumping into a man's car at midnight.

The repetition reminds me of Quicksand. He's displaying such a destructive and lethal habit/lifestyle and these individuals that he is describing are continuing to dwell in these self-destructive habits while disregarding their own well-being because it makes them happy ("Paradise Alley"). Helga goes through a similar self-destructive cycle.

I'm curious as to why Brown is referencing his own people as separate from himself. Why would he say "we"?

It is interesting for me to notice the dialect change between "Strong Men" and "Ma Rainey". This helped confirmed my theory that the specific use of languages used in "Ma Rainey" was purposeful and intentional.

Ma Rainey seems to be the "every man", or the relatable and reliable character, that African Americans can connect with. She is a icon and a representative of this community that feels she can accurately describe their emotions and their hardships.

I think at many points, the diction used in this poem may be referencing Jamaican accents, or maybe stereotypical accents other cultures, especially white Americans, have had the audacity to make fun of. Maybe Brown is hinting at this.

I feel that Hughes would view the dialect in this poem as authentically African American. Brown is not trying to conform to "white standards", but is rather embracing his culture fully and unapologetically. Hughes would be proud.

He's right. The more we move forward in time and become more aware morally, the more people want to forget our past and the terrible things that have happened and continue to happen. I personally can admit to not wanting to talk about emotionally charged topics because I find them too overwhelmingly emotional. However, Hughes is right: the problem will not go away unless we talk about it. The more we sweep it under the rug, the more this problem with fester and grow until it consumes us once again.

Hughes outlines racism in the United States and its effects on African Americans so intellectually. He does not use emotionally charged phrases. but rather, uses facts. America has undervalued African Americans. They have contributed materially a corrupt system, yet stayed patient and grounded. This come off incredibly intelligent and makes a really strong point for his argument.

I noticed that this text was written in 1925, which is a few years short of the Civil Rights movement. This was the midst of the Segregation Era, which Hughes himself may have saw the start of a rebellion to. Hughes might have had premonition and foresaw the start of the Civil Rights movement.

I feel that this is true for not just understanding different races, but also different genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, identities, etc. He's almost seemingly laying down a blueprint for defeating racism and guiding people into better living with people different than themselves.

I love the way Locke organizes these lines to really stand out to even the laziest of readers. It's basically highlighting that these sentences are the important phrases needed to understand the entire text. This is what is significant for the reader to understand. These sentences are also powerfully poetic and are likely to stick with the reader.

Or his reputation surpasses him. The idea of what a black man or woman is, at least in the eyes of white people, has overshadowed what they really are or what they have the potential to be. This particular line really emphasizes the damaging effects of stereotyping.

Is he claiming that this group has evolved and distinguished themselves from stereotypes within the last ten years?

Throughout this poem, the metaphors Hughes uses resemble to me different, complex emotions one could feel after realizing their dreams can't be achieved. However, I think the fact that he ends with "does it explode" is incredibly important. Exploding could be related to extreme emotions while the rest of the metaphors he uses are much more mellow and subtle. Maybe he himself, like many people, had a dream that was crushed and he felt all of those emotions, but most importantly, he felt like exploding.

The rhythm of this poem was really catchy; it almost reminded me of a song. Hughes seems like he recognizes this and hints at it when writing about a "poor piano moan with melody" and "like a musical fool". I wonder if he intended this poem to be almost sing-songy.

A connection I initially made was that rivers often connect different parts of land to each other. They have often acted as bridges, connecting people of different backgrounds to each other. I think Hughes using this connection to speak on his own experience as an African American was subtle yet telling.

I think this is such a great analogy. Caucasians and some African Americans alike played into this radicalized mindset that, in turn, caused African Americans to be treated as freaks when stepping outside of stereotypes and boundaries society had set for them.

Maybe Hughes himself comes from this social status, hence why he is happy that it is the majority and why he finds it to be better than being a part of the middle or upper class.

This really stuck out to me. I think it is incredibly interesting that Hughes is choosing to point out exactly how the racial hierarchy comes into play in everything one does, even in marriages between African Americans.

I find the way Hughes interpreted what the poet said to be a very radicalized. I interpreted what the poet said as he wanted to be acknowledged, not for the color of his skin, but for the poetry he writes.

It seems that Eliot's critic of progress and the motif of time is consistent throughout this poem. Maybe that is what the entire poem is about: rather than being about war, it might be about the passage of time.

There are also plenty of biblical allusions included throughout this poem as well.

There are a lot of Shakespearian allusions throughout this poem. This particular line reminded me of Hamlet.

Something I noticed was that every season is mention in this poem except for fall. I wonder if there is a reason for that.

This word seemed interesting to me because there are a lot of words that start with the letter "p" in this poem. "Pen", "patent", "pin", "pause","petunia", "pricking", "pressing", and more are all included in this poem so it seemed to be particularly important to the rhythm of the poem,

This entire line, as well as the word 'foolish', stood out to me because it reminded me of the saying "foolish (or stupid) is as foolish does". This word sparked something in me that told me it would be important to the argument of the poem.

Again, this word didn't seem like it "fit" in with the poem, however, the more I read this poem, the more it seems that nothing in this poem relate or connect. It all seems to be almost randomly included and repeated.

I think this word was interesting because it appears twice in this particular line. At least I thought the entire phrase could be French. It just stood out to me because it seemed like it didn't belong in this poem.

This poem reminded me of a summers day. It felt, contrary to the previous poem, happy and upbeat. I also really enjoyed the format of this poem. The meter presented in the two or three word lines and four lined stanzas were very rhythmic.

I find it fascinating that Williams included and connected marriage, something we often consider holy, as well as girl, not a woman so still a child, with terms that are much more negative, such as disease and murder. I wonder why he also said "dash of Indian blood" as if it were a negative connotation.

I'm curious as to what precisely this means. I'm assuming it means that these men have carefree attitudes. If this is the case, I'm impressed by the way Williams chose to describe these men. He could have used "carefree", but instead included this reference to the devil to make his readers view the men in a certain, negative light.

Pound is describing, basically, a list of do's and don't for modern writers. He heavily includes his own biases and opinions, such as this one.

Through the way Pound describes Imagism, we can understand his feelings towards the style of writing; he thinks Imagism liberates writers, freeing them from time or spacial constraints.

I thought this particular list was interesting. It isn't often reader come across lists, especially not lists written in this particular manner, in texts.

Yet another incredibly powerful line. Millay definitely have a very strong feminist stance that is present in all three of these poems. She provides such mazing personification, describing a rose, which we often associate with delicacy and love, armor is so unique.

The fact that he says, "Here lies" and no name afterwards is very interesting. In my opinion, Millay might have done this purposefully, to make this man seem more like an "every man" to the reader. This could be anybody and everybody.

I really appreciate how this poem immediately opens up with such a powerful opinion, one of which I have myself. It's such a common stereotype of poetry that poems are about love so it's refreshing to hear a very clear opposition.

This sense of optimism and hope is the opposite of what we see in Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", where all we feel is impending doom.

This somehow reminds me of Jay Gatsby and how he was a part of both worlds, the rich and the poor.

I thought this was interesting because it divided two ends of "The Slot" which mirrored the two types of people within a city. One is poor, one is rich. One is good, one is bad. It was a great motif similar to that, I think, of Debois' motif of society in "Of Our Spiritual Strivings".

This was a great way to describe how we make decisions in each of our lives. He wants to see where each path of life could take him and attempt to see what the future would hold on each path if he were to take them. He did so, as we all do, so that he can avoid any possible negative impacts his choice of path could have on him.

The fact that these two neighbors are mending this fence shows that they are respectful and accepting of one another, but appreciate the separation of their lives.

I interpret this to mean the borders between countries that separates and isolates societies and people. This, I feel, could mirror the situation occurring in America today, with Trump attempting to build a literal wall between Mexico and the United States.

The loneliness and emptiness presented in the imagery of the night described in this poem are really unique. "The road was his with not a native near" is a very rhythmic and flowing line that describes the solidarity of the characters within the poem.

The way in which Robinson describes the night such as this is very interesting. "Silver loneliness" is such a unique way to describe the moonlight and how Mr.Flood feels on this night in particular.

I am curious as to why Robinson chose to make Mr. Flood go climbing at night. That is not the common time of day to go hiking so this is definitely odd.

I really enjoyed the fact that this poem ends on a positive note, even when it is discussing death. We have to live in order to fully appreciate life, which is absolutely true. Also, Masters' capitalizes "Life" in the last sentence of the poem, in my opinion, in a way to emphasize that life really is bigger than all of us.

I'm absolutely curious as to why Masters' capitalized the first "WENT" in both this and the previous poem, and then capitalized "SEEDS" in the first poem. It seems almost a random pattern.

What I believe Masters' is trying to say here is that you cannot have one without the other and we cannot fully understand what is true if we don't understand what is false. One doesn't exist without the existence of the other, which is an interesting concept, possibly reflecting his views on life. Good could not exist with evil existing as well and that is life; a constant balance of the two.

I like how Masters' used meter in this aspect of the poem. The repetitiveness he uses here and when he writes "tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick" makes this particular poem feel like a 'traditional' poem.

I personally like how she separates each thought and sentence in it's own paragraph throughout the most part of this piece of writing. It stresses importance onto each idea, eliminating the need for the reader to pick it apart in order to understand it because all of the important information is there and easily read.

This might be another reflection of the way she views marriage and, more specifically, her marriage. What is made distinct again is that her husband doesn't respect her. Any respectable husband, we would hope, would not only support his wife in her opinions, but believe and entertain her illusions, if not in truth, then to please her. He would want to wish her well, both emotionally and physically.

The reason why she chooses to put this word in particular in all caps, not once, but twice, might be to emphasize the lack of seriousness she wants this opinion to be interpreted. She does want to express it, however, she wants to stress that it is merely a possibility and not a fact.

We get a glimpse of Gilman's opinions and perspectives on marriage through this line. It could be interpreted that she seems to expect a certain lack of respect or at least a lack of seriousness between a husband and wife and within their relationship.

DeBois stating that he does not wish to erase the past, but rather embrace it is very respectful, in my opinion. He is not full of hate and vengeance, wanting to "get even" with those who have done him and his race wrong. He simply wants to progress, to become a truer version of himself. He simply wants to feel like a man, not a slave, not a lesser and lower class citizen. This speaks to his peaceful character.

In the beginning of this sentence, DeBois has separated himself from the world. He is viewing himself as a separate individual and not as a part of the "world". It also is notable to state that DeBois has put himself first, before the world. In the English language, we usually put the other person we are including with ourselves first out of respect. This clearly shows his perception and his level of respect for the world around him.

This, I feel, could reflect how DeBois feels as an African American man, which is possibly why he felt the need to include this poem. He might be pessimistic about his and all African Americen's treatment - that there will never be an end to it.

The diction has not been very consistent throughout the text. Occasionally in the text, such as at this point, the diction mimics Biblical diction, possibly to make a point. At this point, the text is beginning to talk about sexuality as well as the holiness of reproduction as opposed to the "sin" sex is often viewed as so it might be mimicking Biblical diction for a reason, to set a certain God-fearing mindset into the reader.

This text might have underlying religious symbolism, which might be an explanation as to why one of the character's names is Adam, such as Adam and Eve. The words "God", "cathedral", "virgin", and "cross" are used in the following paragraphs often, possibly to draw connections between religion and science.

This reminds me of a quote by Aristotle that says, "The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching." It stands true of almost all literary knowledge we consider to be great and useful.

I considered this to be an interesting concept to include in the poem. Usually, we compare pigs as being dirty, impure, and for the most part, unholy animals. Jewish, Muslim, and Seventh Day Adventists refrain from eating pork because the Bible and the Qur'an, consider it to be unholy. "and the swine, because it divideth from the hoof yet does not chew the cud, it is unclean..." (Deuteronomy 14:8) and "He has only forbidden you dead meat and blood and flesh of swine and any food over which the Name of Allah has not been invoked." (Qur'an 2:173) both condemn the act. Having these religiously condemned animals suddenly gain holiness is quite contradictory and fascinating.

What's most notable about this line is that the word "Lion" is capitalized, possibly implying that "Lion" could be a group of people or a name of some sort. It might be important when considering the context of the poem to remember that lion are usually considered immensely powerful within the animal kingdom. It isn't until the final line that we see that whoever "they" are actually feed the lion and he comes, meaning that the "lion" is differentiated from the "they".