I taste a liquor never brewed
By: Emily Dickinson

When I first read this poem, I honestly had no idea what Dickinson was talking about.  The best I could come up with was that the poem was and extended metaphor that compares being drunk to a summer day.  However, I didn't realize the narrator wasn't literally referring to being drunk.  It turns out that she is talking about being drunk on nature.  She compares this feeling to drunkenness because she feels like she is in a different state of mind.  The poem first presents the metaphor by talking about how this "liquor" is unique.  The narrator starts the second stanza by saying that she was "inebriate of air" (Dickinson).  I think she was saying that the beauty of nature was breathtaking.  The metaphor continues throughout the poem, and the end talks about how others wanted to watch the narrator indulge in the enjoyment of nature.  "And the saints-to windows run-to see the little Tippler leaning against the-Sun-" (Dickinson).  After I finally understood the meaning of this poem, I really liked it.  I can relate to how the narrator felt.  I went on Summer Field Studies this past year, and I had never experienced nature in that way before.  I still can't explain how I felt when I first saw the Grand Canyon and stared in shock at how huge it was.  I enjoyed reading this poem because of the extended metaphor that attempts to explain this feeling in such a unique way.

The Convergence of the Twain
By: Thomas Hardy

This poem discusses the tragic sinking of the Titanic with excellent use of imagery.  However, it lacks a tone of sympathy, rather it is a bit harsh and rude.  I would have thought that the author would feel bad for all of the people that died in this historic event, but he seems to ignore the people altogether.  Instead, he focuses on the material things aboard the ship.  For example, instead of mentioning the bodies that went to ocean floor along with the ship, Hardy talks about the jewels.  Titanic was extremely extravagant and elegant, and there were many wealthy people on the ship.  In Stanza IV, Hardy mentions how the jewels "lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind" (Hardy).  Hardy using this imagery to allow readers to picture the many riches just laying at the bottom of the ocean.  I found it odd that he was so concentrated on these material things.  Other images included in this poem include sea-worms and cold, alienated waters.  Based on all of the negative images, I think that Hardy was comparing the sinking of the Titanic to the sinking of human dignity.  With this theme, he focused on the items that the people all took pride in.  Hardy seems to think the ship's sinking was bound to happen.  If they had been more concerned with the people, more lives could have likely been saved.

My Mistress' Eyes
By: William Shakespeare

In this poem, the narrator has an odd way of describing his love's beauty.  While most would assume that the woman would be receiving positive compliments, the narrator actually does the complete opposite.  "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (Shakespeare) is the opening line of the poem.  How sweet...  In addition to this, the narrator continues on with these "compliments."  He says that her breath stinks, music is more pleasing to listen to than her voice, she treads when she walks, etc.  If I were the woman he were talking about, I would be completely insulted!  Any time he starts to say a compliment, he compares her to something else and says she is less perfect than that.  In the couplet, though, the narrator brings up an interesting point.  "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare" (Shakespeare).  Here, the narrator is claiming that his love for this woman is unique.  He says that it is so unique that it can't be compared to anyone else's love.  I find this to be very interesting, considering he basically wrote a poem of insults about her.

Barbie Doll
By: Marge Piercy

This poem was actually very depressing, in my opinion.  The girl that the poem is about was a normal, happy little girl as a child.  However, when puberty hit, a classmate told her that she had a big nose and fat legs.  Regardless of what she did and accomplished, this is all anyone would notice.  No one could see past her fat legs and big nose.  Eventually, the girl could not handle the stress of everyone's harsh judgments.  "Her good nature wore out like a fan belt" (Piercy).  This simile bears a great significance to the poem.  I had to look up what a fan belt was to understand the simile to realize this, though.  A fan belt keeps a car's engine from overheating.  If it runs out, then the engine would no longer work.  Similarly, the young girl grew tired of people judging her.  Her good nature refers to her self-confidence and motivation to ignore people's rude opinions.  She grew angry towards everyone and did not want to have to deal with the situation any longer.  As a result, she cut off her nose and legs.  The narrator describes that in her casket, she had a "turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie" (Piercy).  When everyone viewed her casket, they commented on how pretty she looked.  This was sad to me.  No one would recognize the girl's true and natural beauty.  They only saw her to be beautiful when she had a fake nose and no legs in her casket.  The final lines say "consummation at last.  To every woman a happy ending" (Piercy).  I thought that this quote was a shame.  It is basically saying that no woman ever feels happy until she is told that she is pretty.  Since no one said this about the girl until she was dead, I found this quote to be especially upsetting.

A Jury of Her Peers
By: Susan Glaspell

In this story, Martha Hale is suddenly called by her husband to a crime scene.  John Wright was murdered.  As soon as Martha learns of this, she feels a sense of guilt.  She had known Minnie (John's wife) for years and had never visited her.  Mr. Hale explains his knowledge on the situation.  He had been trying to talk John into buying a phone for awhile, so he went over to the Wright's house.  When he got there, Minnie frantically answered the door and said that John had been murdered.  She tells Mr. Hale that John had been strangled. Based on her reaction to the situation, Mr. Hale didn't suspect that Minnie would have killed her husband.  However, we soon learn that Minnie is guilty of the crime.  Her husband had killed her pet bird, so she killed him in return.  The women (Martha and the sheriff's wife) discovered the evidence that revealed this truth.  "Desperately she opened it, started to take the bird out.  But there she broke-she could not touch the bird" (Glaspell).  Martha found a box that contained the dead bird, which reveals Minnie's motive to kill John.  I think that the bird was symbolic.  Minnie said that her husband had told her that she could no longer sing, and then he killed her bird.  I think that the bird symbolized her voice as a woman.  She was upset that her husband would ban her from singing and kill her pet.  She may have felt like he was treating her as an inferior because of her gender.  Either way, I think that Minnie has some problems.  Who kills their husband over a bird?!

Hunters in the Snow
By: Tobias Wolff

In this short story, Tub, Kenny, and Frank go on a hunting trip together for the day.  It is cold and snowing outside, which is not ideal hunting weather in Tub's opinion.  Tub consistently annoys his friends with negativity and complaints.  Frank and Kenny seem to enjoy ganging up and Tub and giving him a hard time. After a few hours of hunting, the men stop to eat lunch.  Kenny and Frank eat heavily, while Tub snacks on a hard-boiled egg and a stick of celery.  Kenny and Frank tease Tub about this and his weight.  Tub snaps back and claims he has a gland issue.  After they continue hunting again, Tub ends up separated from his friends and sits down to eat again.  "He ate both the sandwiches and half the cookies, taking his own sweet time" (Wolff).  With this sentence, it became very clear the Tub was lying about his glands.  He pretends to have health issues as a way to avoid the jokes about his weight.  This is an internal conflict.  Tub is essentially living a double life.  "When I said that about my glands, that wasn't true.  The truth is I just shovel it in" (Wolff).  Tub confesses the reality of his health to Frank.  He tells his friend how difficult it is to keep up this lie.  His wife, friends, etc. all think he truly has problems with his glands.  However, Tub actually is overweight because he eats so much.  Because he basically lives two separate lives, Tub suffers from an internal conflict.  He must keep up with his lie.  If he ever wants to tell the truth, he has to build up the courage to fess up and do so. 

Othello (Blog 8)
By: William Shakespeare

Well, this play definitely fits in the category of a tragedy!  Knowing how Shakespeare's tragedies always end, I knew that at least one of the characters was going to die.  In Act V, Scene 2, Othello kills Desdemona in the bed.  She begs him not to, and she even tells him that she and Cassio never slept together.  Despite his wife's desperate pleas, Othello stabs Desdemona.  Before she dies, Desdemona tells Emilia that she killed herself.  "Nobody, I myself.  Farewell.  Commend me to my kind lord.  Oh farewell!" (V.ii.122-123).  I think that this proves that Desdemona truly loved Othello, and she didn't want anyone to know that he killed her over a rumor that wasn't even true.  When Emilia shows up after Othello stabbed his wife, she tells Othello that Cassio is alive and he killed Roderigo.  In addition, Iago kills Emilia when the truth comes out to reveal that he is a villain.  As Emilia is dying, she tells Othello that Desdemona had remained faithful to him.  "Moor, she was chaste.  She loved thee, cruel Moor..." (V.ii.248-249).  After realizing that he murdered his wife for no reason at all, Othello stabs himself so that he falls back and dies on the bed next to Desdemona's body.  "I kissed thee ere I killed thee.  No way but this, killing myself, to die upon a kiss" (V.ii.356-357).  All of these deaths make the end of the play very depressing, making it fit the category of a tragedy perfectly.  It's a shame that all of these characters died due to the lies and deceit of Iago, whom ended up living in the end.