one art - Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

The poem suggests that the speaker has lost many things in the past varying from simple items such as keys to larger and more important things such as a relationship with a loved one. 
The last stanza implies that the speaker is still hurting from some loss of a relationship with a loved one (whether romantic or otherwise), but is trying to act as though they are doing alright. 

The speaker appears to be female because of the mention of losing a mother's watch. Most males would not be in possession of their mothers' watches, nor would they worry too much at the loss of watches. 
It can also be inferred that the speaker is an adult. She has been in the world long enough to have lost "three loved houses" among other things. 
The speaker has loved someone dearly and has in some way lost that person or the relationship with said person, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally.

The poem begins with a lighthearted and instructive tone, giving the impression that losing things really is not hard to master. 
The tone progressively changes as the poem continues, becoming more personal to the speaker and begins to lose this lighthearted feel around stanza 4. 
The last stanza has a complete change in tone from lighthearted to distressed and sorrowful. The speaker has a mini argument with themselves through the parenthesized words and creates a feeling of distress and perhaps regret for the audience. 

Erica Jong - After the Earthquake

After the first astounding rush,
after the weeks at the lake,
the crystal, the clouds, the water lapping the rocks,
the snow breaking under our boots like skin,
& the long mornings in bed. . .

After the tangos in the kitchen,
& our eyes fixed on each other at dinner,
as if we would eat with our lids,
as if we would swallow each other. . .

I find you still
here beside me in bed,
(while my pen scratches the pad
& your skin glows as you read)
& my whole life so mellowed & changed

that at times I cannot remember
the crimp in my heart that brought me to you,
the pain of a marriage like an old ache,
a husband like an arthritic knuckle.

Here, living with you,
love is still the only subject that matters.
I open to you like a flowering wound,
or a trough in the sea filled with dreaming fish,
or a steaming chasm of earth
split by a major quake.

You changed the topography.
Where valleys were,
there are now mountains.
Where deserts were,
there now are seas.

We rub each other,
but we do not wear away.

The sand gets finer
& our skins turn silk

Commentary

 I believe that this poem is basically explaining how the author misses her husband. The tittle could signified how after the earthquake she miss her husband. And being there at her home she is being remind consentaly about him. Another meaning I would get from stanza 5 and 6 was that this other person had came to her life and was a huge difference. Made her way of living and seeing life now different. The line " our skin turns silk" would be an example of foreshadowing. Overall the last stanza would be how they are getting old and but they still seem to together. The tone of this poem would be loving.







Narcissus Photographer -Erica Long

"...a frozen memory, like any photo,
where nothing is missing, not even,
and especially, nothingness..."
-- Julio Cortázar, "Blow Up"

Mirror-mad,
he photographed reflections:
sunstorms in puddles,
cities in canals,

double portraits framed
in sunglasses,
the fat phantoms who dance
on the flanks of cars.

Nothing caught his eye
unless it bent
or glistered
over something else.

He trapped clouds in bottles
the way kids
trap grasshoppers.
Then one misty day

he was stopped
by the windshield.
Behind him,
an avenue of trees,

before him,
the mirror of that scene.
He seemed to enter
what, in fact, he left.

Commentary

When I read this poem I thought that i was able to understand the poem and infer what I thought was the main idea of it. Was mainly talking about the idea of the mirror and how it seems to look at all the things around it. Seeing the reflection of various things throughout the world. Explains how this mirror seems to be entering a new world but with out even realizing that he had left. 

Sestina - Elizabeth Bishop

September rain falls on the house.

In the failing light, the old grandmother

sits in the kitchen with the child

beside the Little Marvel Stove,

reading the jokes from the almanac,

laughing and talking to hide her tears.

She thinks that her equinoctial tears

and the rain that beats on the roof of the house 

were both foretold by the almanac,

but only known to a grandmother.

The iron kettle sings on the stove.

She cuts some bread and says to the child,

It's time for tea now; but the child

is watching the teakettle's small hard tears

dance like mad on the hot black stove,

the way the rain must dance on the house.

Tidying up, the old grandmother

hangs up the clever almanac

on its string. Birdlike, the almanac

hovers half open above the child,

hovers above the old grandmother

and her teacup full of dark brown tears.

She shivers and says she thinks the house

feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.

It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.

I know what I know, says the almanac.

With crayons the child draws a rigid house

and a winding pathway. Then the child

puts in a man with buttons like tears

and shows it proudly to the grandmother.

But secretly, while the grandmother

busies herself about the stove,

the little moons fall down like tears

from between the pages of the almanac

into the flower bed the child

has carefully placed in the front of the house.

Time to plant tears, says the almanac.

The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove

and the child draws another inscrutable housei

This poem is written in a  sestina is a seven stanza poem. The first six stanzas consist of six lines and the last one of three. Something I find really interesting about them is way the last word of each line repeats itself: 'house, tears, child, almanac, stove, and grandmother.' Stanza 1 begins in a domestic scene as a grandmother reads jokes from an almanac to her granddaughter. Grief is suggested by the Autumnal atmosphere and the “failing light “. This is made explicit by the description of the grandmother “laughing and talking to hide her tears.”Stanza 2 chronicles the grandmother’s superstitious thoughts as the almanac, she believes, “foretold “ the tragedy which has engulfed the house. Meaning that only her grandmother is knowing of her loss as her granddaughter is too young to understand the lost of her parents. Yet the grandmother is unable to contain this grief away from her, and this is emphasized by Bishop’s personification of the kettle.“the tea kettle’s small hard tears Dance like mad on the hot black stove” Grief is ready to engulf the child. Her innocence cannot protect her indefinitely. In stanza 5, the author personifies the “Marvel stove” and the “almanac as it discuss the child’s loss. The child tries to escape from the grief which surrounds her by drawing a house and a man, generally supposed to represent her dead Father. However, the man’s buttons are like “tears”. The final two stanzas are surreal as they describe how reality contaminates 

the child’s fantastic imaginary world suggesting that her life will be tainted with tears once she is old enough to understand her grief. The speakers attitude in this poem would be reflective.The theme of the poem should be losing something or someone . The stove would be a symbolic of warmth. As it acts as a sense of comfort for both of them and the winding pathways shows in the girl's view a difficult pathway. An example of similie would be in stanza 6 "But secretly, while the grandmother busies herself about the stove, the little moons fall down like tears" 

Woman Enough -Erica Jong

Because my grandmother's hours

were apple cakes baking,

& dust motes gathering,

& linens yellowing

& seams and hems

inevitably unraveling

I almost never keep house

though really I like houses

& wish I had a clean one.

Because my mother's minutes

were sucked into the roar

of the vacuum cleaner,

because she waltzed with the washer-dryer

& tore her hair waiting for repairmen

I send out my laundry,

& live in a dusty house,

though really I like clean houses

as well as anyone.

I am woman enough

to love the kneading of bread

as much as the feel

of typewriter keys

under my fingers

springy, springy.

& the smell of clean laundry

& simmering soup

are almost as dear to me

as the smell of paper and ink.

I wish there were not a choice;

I wish I could be two women.

I wish the days could be longer.

But they are short.

So I write while

the dust piles up.

I sit at my typewriter

remembering my grandmother

& all my mothers,

& the minutes they lost

loving houses better than themselves

& the man I love cleans up the kitchen

grumbling only a little

because he knows

that after all these centuries

it is easier for him

than for me

In the poem Woman Enough even though Erica mentions that she does not follow the footsteps of her grandmother and mother, she still consider herself woman enough to make her own decisions. For this poem by Erica it would be consider to be a free verse poem, since it doe not contain any pattern of stressed or unstressed syllables. The poem would be in a structure of a cause and effect structure, because her mother and grandmother spent the majority of their life cooking and baking ; she is unable to keep her own house clean , rather the dusty. The word" dust" gives us an idea that her house is dirty. A good example of imagery and touch would in stanza 3 " love the kneading of bread as much as the feel of typewriter keys under my fingers" as well as " the smell of clean laundry & simmering soup... The smell of ink and paper". In stanza 

2 we can see an example of personification "my mother minutes were sucked into the roar of the vacuum cleaner, because she waltzed with the washer - dryer" The tone would be determined in my option as she has chosen things that she rather do and enjoys it. Instead then stay like her mother and do the typical woman work she wants to do something new that is a passion towards her.

Argument - Elizabeth Bishop

Days that cannot bring you near

or will not,

Distance trying to appear

something more obstinate,

argue argue argue with me

endlessly

neither proving you less wanted nor less dear.

Distance: Remember all that land

beneath the plane;

that coastline

of dim beaches deep in sand

stretching indistinguishably

all the way,

all the way to where my reasons end?

Days: And think

of all those cluttered instruments,

one to a fact,

canceling each other's experience;

how they were

like some hideous calendar

"Compliments of Never & Forever, Inc."

The intimidating sound

of these voices

we must separately find

can and shall be vanquished:

Days and Distance disarrayed again

and gone... 

While reading the poem I was able to see personification on Days and Distance pulling the speaker away from something or someone.The meaning that I got from this poem was that the speaker has not been near her loved one for a long time. As days pass the distance separating them keeps getting bigger and bigger, seeming to argue with her. But, she believes that her and her loved one will win the argument. A good example of imagery being used is the line " Remember all that land beneath the plane" representing the huge distance there is between this two things. In stanza 3 the words " cluttered instruments" is a symbolism representing the sound of voices arguing."That coastline of dim beaches deep in sand stretching indistinguishably "  would be imagery representing the huge distance between.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvJg0sWoSCU

Climbing You - Erica Jong

I want to understand the steep thing

that climbs ladders in your throat.

I can't make sense of you.

Everywhere I look you're there--

a vast landmark, a volcano

poking its head through the clouds,

Gulliver sprawled across Lilliput.

I climb into your eyes, looking.

The pupils are black painted stage flats.

They can be pulled down like window shades.

I switch on a light in your iris.

Your brain ticks like a bomb.

In your offhand, mocking way

you've invited me into your chest.

Inside: the blur that poses as your heart.

I'm supposed to go in with a torch

or maybe hot water bottles

& defrost it by hand

as one defrosts an old refrigerator.

It will shudder & sigh

(the icebox to the insomniac).

Oh there's nothing like love between us.

You're the mountain, I am climbing you.

If I fall, you won't be all to blame,

but you'll wait years maybe

for the next doomed expedition

This poem is about a girl who's loves a guy who is hard to read. Which makes it difficult for her to make sense of him, making her to work for the love. Some of the figurative language I found was metaphor. " The pupils are black painted stage flats". For imagery the line" Everywhere I look you're there a vast landmark, a volcano poking its head through the clouds." is a great example. As you can read it and visualize a volcano through clouds barely showing itself. This line could also be served as a personification and a metaphor. With this line you can also see how the speaker feels about him,how she always seem to see him; like a mountain, its always there and can never miss it."I'm supposed to go in with a torch or maybe hot water bottles and defrost it by hand as one defrost an old  refrigerator.It will shudder & sigh" This would be personification towards the refrigerator. The last line in stanza 2 "Your brain ticks like a boom" and " The can be pulled down like window shades" would be similes.