who bit detectives in the neck and shrieked with delight in policecars for committing no crime but their own wild cooking pederasty and intoxication,
I'm not sure what this means. It could be a bad time of police brutality in the 1970's. I mean the use of drugs during that time caused a lot of commotion of people biting cops when they were being arrested, I think. It makes a little sense.
who wandered around and around at midnight in the railway yard wondering where to go, and went, leaving no broken hearts,
The only image I can see are a group of people trying to figure out what they should do at the rail yard. I think I understand the part about broken hearts. Maybe it's a symbolism of following their hearts.
who talked continuously seventy hours from park to pad to bar to Bellevue to museum to the Brooklyn Bridge,
I can only picture an image of someone talking a lot about New York and its entire history. The person seems to have extensive knowledge. It's an interesting moment in this poem.
who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York,
This just reminds me of the 1970's when this stuff was coming through the area. In this poem, it felt like this moment is when having drugs on you got into trouble with the police.
They branded you,
It’s a mark on a person to show the emotions of a person. It’s traumatic.
An’ some jokers keeps deir laughs a-goin’ in de crowded aisles,
I see images of people laughing and a crowded group of people in the aisle.
I shall return to loiter by the streams
It’s more like the writer is imagining himself going to a stream for peace and quietness.
The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street.
Image I see are the girls with sore feet.
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
I can picture a piano playing a low melody.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I keep thinking of a soul with a deep river going in directions.
But while the minds of most of us, black and white, have thus burrowed in the trenches of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the actual march of development has simply flanked these positions, necessitating a sudden reorientation of view.
The image I see are how soldiers during the Civil War fought together and it didn’t matter who was fighting side by side in the trenches. It’s an interesting moment.
The Sociologist, The Philanthropist, the Race-leader
Reminds me of the a Biologist, Anthropologist and Psychologist from the book ‘annihilation’
He is never taught to see that beauty. He is taught rather not to see it, or if he
It’s a emotional sense he’s being told to not respond to beauty but avoid looking at it.
His family is of what I suppose one would call the Negro middle class: people who are by no means rich yet never
I feel like he’s saying his social status is more in the middle and others aren’t even close to the higher status.
Seben nappy heads
I think this means heads that are sleeping. It's an image of people sleeping in a room.
Sleep, little baby, sleep sound, Under the southern stars.
I see an image of a baby sound asleep outside under the stars. I can connect it to Part 2 in Eliot's poem about the concept of 'time' being used. Time is limited and runs out fast.
when the air shakes a single voice
I can only picture an image where a voice is trying to say something but the air prevents sound from occurring.
but nevertheless, they shut off his gas; nevertheless, the bank foreclosed; nevertheless, the landlord called; nevertheless, the radio broke;
I feel like these are things lost in a sandstorm or taken away from someone intentionally. The image of a bank taking away a house, gas company turning off the gas to remove any chance of having heat, rent being due to a landlord and a radio that stops working. It makes sense.
Our banners flashed in the sun But our hearts were dark with anger.
This is like the part in Eliot's poem with the woman looking at herself in the glass from Part 3. I see an image of banners flying and lots of anger.
I am Chang from the foundries On strike in the streets of Shanghai. For the sake of the Revolution I fight, I starve, I die.
The image of this one is like Eliot's poem with the change of someone who is willing to rebel back. It's all about going through a change in this part of the poem.
the spring that came the next year and the years that followed
It just reminds me of images of the Great Depression in the 1930's where spring just repeats itself over and over.
Down countless avenues the senses feel impending change: the clues that guide our burdened hearts, heavy with pain,
This reminds me of Eliot's poem on when each section changes. I think of images of avenues changing on a street in one pattern and a heart that's in pain. A broken heart or memory.
Not Christmas nor the new year white with snow
It's an image of a holiday without snow or happiness.
A woman drew her long black hair out tight
This is an image of a woman drawing out her hair and fixing it.
Here is no water but only rock Rock and no water and the sandy road
The only pattern I see the connection from the rock to the water being nonexistent and the sandy road. It's very descriptive. It shows an image of water not being there, a rock and sandy road leading in one direction.
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
It feels like the image of someone turning the wheel of a boat towards in the wind in the ocean.
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell And the profit and loss.
It feels this is an image of the sounds of birds being forgotten and the sea moving rapidly in the ocean. I can't find the connection to profit and loss.
She turns and looks a moment in the glass,
The image I see is the girl looking at herself in the glass and how she felt after the guy leaves.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
The image I see is a river with no litter in it. It's very clean and empty. I like how Eliot puts in several things of what could have been in the river.
And we shall play a game of chess,
This is the part where the chess board is being setup. I can only think of this image of the two people talking about playing chess.
I think we are in rats’ alley Where the dead men lost their bones.
The image I see in this line are rats eating bones of a dead person by gnawing on what's left in an abandoned alley.
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused
I can only picture images of a variety of perfumes floating in the air with different smells. Powdered perfumes kind of makes sense in this part of the poem.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
The imagery here is the person seeing a group of people walking around in a ring shape formation or traffic circle pattern. I like the analogy of crowds of people compared to a ring.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.
The image I get is the person sitting in a chair reading a book by candlelight and snow outside on the ground.
Weeds without papers. Weeds without papers are necessary.
Why are weeds better without paper? I couldn't find a connection to those two things in the poem. What kind of weeds is Stein talking about?
I love honor and obey I do love honor and obey I do.
There's repetition of 'obey I do' twice in this line and honor being repeated. The writer is honorable meaning she's an honest person.
peasant traditions to give them character but flutter and flaunt
I think what Williams is saying is that peasant traditions come with a rare status in society to flaunt and show the world who the person really is.
or the ribbed north end of Jersey with its isolate lakes and
The pattern of this stanza is 6-1-5 and it varies for every stanza in the poem itself. I see imagery of isolate lakes and the north end of Jersey.
At times I can find a marked metre in “vers libres,” as stale and hackneyed as any pseudo-Swinburnian, at times the writers seem to follow no musical structure whatever.
The phrase "vers libres" stood out to me. I know it's Latin for something, but I can't think of what it means. I wonder what she meant by finding a marked metre.
As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.
What's a metronome?
To lay aside the lever and the spade
I can't understand the connection between the lever and spade. A spade can be a card or shovel used in golf. The lever is a symbol for pulling down a bar and opening a door.
A rusted iron column whose tall core
I think of a column that's all wore out and rusted. The poem has a lot of rhyme between every first and fourth line. The meter is there as well. There's various imagery throughout the poem itself.
And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could
I see the rhyme and repetition of 'And' being repeated three times in Lines 2 to 4 in first person. He's basically saying a person a can't travel on two roads at once.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Frost is putting in a motto of how people can get along with a fence placed in the middle between them. It gives a good vibe of neighbors being good friends.
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
I keep thinking the writer has put in one person as a pine tree and second person as an apple tree. It feels like they are on two sides of the fence. I think this is what Frost tells the reader.
Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, Eight of whom we lost
This shows the writer telling a story of having a family with 12 kids and losing 8 in the process. It's kind of emotional and sad. She keeps going forward with her story. It adds more meter to the poem itself.
Driving home in the moonlight of middle June,
I keep picturing the writer driving on the road and looking at the moon at night. It's a good image of a moonlight beaming down on the road.
“What is the use of knowing the evil in the world?”
I have no idea how to answer this question. How do you know all the evil in the world when it's everywhere. I thought it was an interesting question the writer put in the poem.
WHEN I died, the circulating library
I picture a library with circulating stairs. I think the writer put in the analogy of death at the top waiting for the person to take them away.
The snows and the roses of yesterday are vanished;
I think these are cliche images of snow and roses disappearing.
Tragedy, comedy, valor and truth, Courage, constancy, heroism, failure–
What truth is being sought? heroism = which heroes is the writer talking about? I was curious about that.
Triolets, villanelles, rondels, rondeaus,
These are poetry styles rarely used anymore. It repeats the same line towards the end of the poem and makes it repetitive.
Like Roland’s ghost winding a silent horn.
I think of an image of a ghost winding a silent horn in the fog. It's kind of scary. I wonder what the writer meant by that?
What comes of all your visions and your fears?
This is Robinson's question of the poem asking what you see that scares a person. It can be a lot of things. Fears come and go. I don't know about visions. Visions feels like Robinson telling the reader about looking into the future tense of reality.
Poets and kings are but the clerks of Time,
I think the poets and kings are like the guardians of time. They are the ones monitoring time-travel. I don't understand them being 'clerks' of time.
A valiant armor of scarred hopes outworn.
I think of valiant as being brave or having honor. Scarred hopes feels like the writer had his hopes dashed on something he was trying to get. I'm just guessing.
On earth again of home, paused warily.
I know the Earth is an image of home. I'm not sure of the pause part in the line.
It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw—not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.
I like this line because she's picturing images with the color yellow on it like buttercup flowers. They are strange flowers.
I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.
She's taking a lot of medications on a schedule and feels safe that John takes care of her, but doesn't take it for granted.
I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I’m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition.
She feels resentment towards her husband John, but never knew about him being nervous all the time. I can agree with that.
The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village.
She's gives an interesting description of the house and how it stands out alone from the village. The house represents it to being a lone house and stands out as beautiful.
You see he does not believe I am sick!
She has a thought her husband thinks she's insane. I see it as a sign of someone who's in need of help by her husband, but he brushes it to the side.
One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
This is a pattern of twos being used on two things like two people, thoughts, ideas and one person being put together into one. The writer is saying one person can be split in pairs
The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance.
This scene is with one person getting rejected by another for giving a card. It felt like the person took one look at it and tossed it to the side. There's very little emotion of how the person reacts.
The voice of my heart in my side or the voice of the sea,
This line shows an image of the sea talking and a heart being placed on the side. I like the analogy of both because it's the one line that got my attention.
No more relation could he discover between the steam and the electric current than between the Cross and the cathedral.
The connection between the steam and electric current is related to the Cross and Cathedral as a parallel force of belief. I think these two items were used in society to push everything in motion to show symbolism. The images of a cross and steam engine are two different things.
he began to feel the forty-foot dynamos as a moral force, much as the early Christians felt the Cross. The planet itself seemed less impressive, in its old-fashioned, deliberate, annual or daily revolution
I got confused by what the writer meant by the 'forty-foot dynamos as moral force'. I have to guess he's describing the movement of a machine and comparing it to a baby sleeping in a crib.
(1900
1900 represents the year all the events took place during that era such as World Fair ending and Science becoming a new thing.
He led his pupil directly to the forces. His chief interest was in new motors to make his airship feasible, and he taught Adams the astonishing complexities of the new Daimler motor, and of the automobile, which, since 1893, had become a nightmare at a hundred kilometres an hour, almost as destructive as the electric tram which was only ten years older; and threatening to become as terrible as the locomotive steam-engine itself, which was almost exactly Adams’s own age.
The use of the word 'force' describes a creation of Adams putting together the motor for the automobile and connects to an analogy of a nightmare of when the tram was built years earlier, It also makes a connection to the age of a locomotive engine as the same age as Adam. That's an interesting connection.
The use of the word 'force' describes a creation of Adams putting together the motor for the automobile and connects to an analogy of a nightmare of when the tram was built years earlier, It also makes a connection to the age of a locomotive engine as the same age as Adam. That's an interesting connection.
1900 represents the year all the events took place