That time of Year

William Shakespeare was completely correct in his poem about the changing seasons, of fall to winter. The yuckiness of winter has a universal and timeless affect on people throughout the world. The speaker compares the season of winter to death. This common pairing of the two completely defines winter for me..DEATH! Three separate images are used to convey the tone. The color of the changing leaves, the fading sunset, and the glowing of fire are all imagery used to describe the undesired things that winter brings. Also, diction such as bare, ruined, lie, ashes, black, night, shake, and cold all help to show the speaker's attitude towards the dreadful season. The negative word choice proves a dark and sad tone of the poem. This is easy to understand and relate to because most everyone I know of hates the winter time where everything dies and everyone turns bitter.

Edward

This poem is veeeery strange to me. It is basically a conversation between a mother and her son in poetic form. The son kills a hawk, a steed, and his father. It can be interpreted that the mother had some incentive for her son to do this. The last line of the poem is a quote from the son. "The curse of hell from me shall ye bear, such counsels you gave to me, O." This proves that the mother talked the son into the murder of her husband, the only question is why? Also throughout the conversation, the son seems to be ashamed and remorseful of his crime...that would be why he is planning to run away from it. The whole tone of this poem is creepy and dark. Everything that is unknown adds to the suspenseful attitude conveyed. Also, the author is anonymous...

Lonely Hearts

I absolutely love this poem, it is by far my favorite in this chapter. The language is common and easy to understand. It also relates to many modern and universal experiences. The poem discusess people who are lonely and looking for someone like themselves. These personal newspaper ads all describe specific personality traitx that each person desires.

"Male biker seeks female for touring fun."
"..into music, Shakespeare, and the sun.."
"Successful, straight and solvent?"

In the end, though, all of these "lonely hearts" really desire the same thing. They all want/need someone to love. The structure of this poem also reflects this theme. Each stanza of the villanelle consists of two lines at the beginning in which describe the specific characteristics. The third and final line of each stanza are alternated between the two similar questions.
1. "Do you live in North London too? Is it you?"
2. "Can someone make my simple wish come true?"

Delight in Disorder

There are a few things that really stick out to me within this poem. The varied length of the lines reflect the title - almost illustrating something disorderly. The speaker also incorporates many oxymorons in the poem. One main oxymoron is found in the title, "Delight in Disorder." Many might find it odd to find delight in something disorderly. A few other oxymorons are: "wild civility", "fine distraction", and "sweet disorder." These oxymorons reflect the main theme being conveyed. The speaker is talking to his significant other and gives examples of how she looks with everything out of place. The speaker then states that he enjoys the disorderly and messy way she is.

My Mistress' Eyes

I am struggling with this piece of poetry. I understand that the beginning is supposed to be satirical. It mocks those men who lie to girls, telling them they are perfect in everyway. We all know this cannot be possible. Not everyone's "eyes are like the sun", and not everyone's skin is "white as snow". The speaker is trying to be realistic in describing his mistress. The part that I do not understand is why?! Why would the speaker call his mistress these things to her face? I know if it were me, LIE TO ME! No girl wants the truth! To all the males out there, LIE TO HER! We aren't perfect by any means, but we like to think so.
The last line of the poem does make a small compliment. "..I think my love as rare/As any she belied with false compare." The speaker is insisting that he loves her just as much, be he is not going to lie to her.

Getting Out

This poem is one of my favorites so far. Of course I'm a girl and all girls LOVE cute, sensitive, lovey things. But this poem is sort of a backwards love. I think it is very easy to understand because we have all been in some sort of this situation. Anyone who has experienced a break-up can relate to the speaker's attitde in the poem. The first two stanzas illustrate the actions that have previously taken place. "Exhausted, we gave up.." reveals that the couple has tried to work things out, they have tried to remain together. Things just simply were too broken to fix. "We held on tight, and let go" sets the tone into place. This couple has a great deal of love for each other, they held on as long as they could before things fell apart completely. The blame of this break-up is also shared between the two. It seems there is no bitterness about the other person, only sadness and regret of losing him.

The Apparition

I looked up the word "apparition" in Webster's Dictionary and received the following definitions:
1. an object or person appearing unusally
2. a visible spirt; ghost
3. one who appears or haunts unexpectedly
Each of these definitions reflect my interpretations of the poem. The speakers diction towards his ex lover is every creepy/spooky. He almost sounds similar to some kind of stalker? Words such as "muderess", "ghost", "repent", "scorn", and "threatenings" all reflect the tone of the work. The tone, in my opinion, is very haunting - made to sound creepy. Another aspect of the overall tone could be revenge. The speaker also makes an undefined threat to his ex lover in which reveals that he will make an unexpected haunting. This entire poem is sort of freaky for me. It reminds me of the movie disturbia in a way, about some freaky stalker rapist dude.