A Letter in October

This poem is set in fall during October. The setting is very natural, containing a lot of natural scenery and giving a good sense of the outdoors and seasons. In the poem we read about an aging man. The season is fall because it correlates with were the man is in life. It shows that his life is coming to an end; he is closing in on death.

The imagery being shown is supposed to mirror the old man, it’s a mixture of reality and nature combining the two showing the parallels between humans and nature/seasons. Everything in the world eventually comes to an end.

The narrator plays with light and dark also giving a sense of life and death. In the line “Dawn comes later and later now” it’s saying that fall is turning to winter. Winter is representing the end of the old man’s time.

This poem is showing how quickly time goes by and how short life really is, we see this in the line "pale and odd, startled by time". In this line the old man is surprised; to him it feels like old age has just sprung on him it came so quickly, without notice.

The last sentence "And I, who only wished to keep looking out, must now keep looking in" I feel has to do with death. Sort of like being alive and part of the world he could do whatever, be wherever, see wherever, but with death comes confinement. He is no longer free, he is eternally stuck with no light or windows or nature. It is just his body lying still, an eternity slumbering, forever in the earth.

Under Stars

The poem "Under Stars" by Tess Gallagher is made up of four stanza's.

First Stanza:

"The sleep of this night deepens

because I have walked coatless from the house

carrying a white envelope.

All night it will say one name

in its little tin house by the roadside."

In this first stanza we see that its night out. The narrator is out "coatless" carrying a "white envelope" off to a mailbox. It seems to be a letter to a loved one, because she seems to be going a great distance to send this letter. We can assume she left the house without a coat on because it was earlier in the day and possibly warmer, but as the journey grew longer so did the day with the weather turning. The night and cold seem to be taking a toll on her. We can assume this from the line "The sleep of this night deepens because I have walked coatless from the house..." By this she seems to be getting tired and drawn out.

Second Stanza:

"I have raised the metal flag

so its shadow under the roadlamp

leaves an imprint on the rain-heavy bushes.

Now I will walk back

thinking of the few lights still on

in the town a mile away."

We see she has reached her destination and her task is complete. We see from the line "rain-heavy bushes" that it had rained earlier, possibly while she was walking to the tin mailbox. In this stanza we also learn that the town is a mile away, and we can assume she lives in town. So the letter must have been very important for her to walk that far to a mailbox.

Third Stanza:

"In the yellowed light of a kitchen

the millworker has finished his coffee,

his wife has laid out the white slices of bread

on the counter. Now while the bed they have left is still warm, I will think of you, you who are so far away

you have caused me to look up at the stars."

From this we can assume she is looking in through the windows as she passes by on her way home. She's also thinking of someone, we can guess its a significant other, maybe her husband. When she says "you who are so far away you have caused me to look up at the stars", it makes me think that possible the person she is thinking of could have passed away, but that wouldn't make sense if she's sending them letters. Perhaps she's looking up because she knows it's the same view as her loved one, maybe they are looking up at the sky at that moment too.

Fourth Stanza:

"Tonight they have not moved

from childhood, those games played after dark.

Again I walk into the wet grass

toward the starry voices. Again, I

am the found one, intimate, returned

by all I touch on the way."

Out of the whole poem this is the part that I was most confused about. I don't feel like it connects like the other three do. It doesn't seem to me at least to fit in with the rest of the poem. I'm not sure what Gallagher is trying to portray or get across. That first sentence seems to maybe mean that whoever she's talking about their in a state of bliss, happiness, they're like children, no worries or stress. Just carefree and happy.

Facing It

The poem "Facing It" by Yusef Kumunyakaa is about a Vietnam War veteran. In this poem he goes to visit the memorial, and he seems to go often. While there he seems to struggle with the idea that he is there. Meaning he's a part of it yet he is not. He states "I'm stone. I'm flesh." Which could mean he realizes he's alive but he feels like his name should be there. Possibly he doesn't think he deserved to live when so many others died. He pays special attention to Andrew Johnson, probably someone he knew during the war, and judging by the flashback, saw die. Also I feel this sentence "half-expecting to find my own in letters like smoke" reinforces what I feel. It's as if a large part of him did in fact die in Vietnam.

Also "I'm stone. I'm flesh" could be interpreted another way. If you look at the sentence before it where it says:

" I said I wouldn't, dammit: No tears. I'm stone. I'm flesh."

By "stone" he could mean that he is strong and powerful. He can take whatever life throws at him and whatever it takes away. He didn't want to succumb to those emotions. He wanted to be strong for himself and those he fought with.

The Fish

In the poem The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop, Bishop effortlessly conjures up vivid and clear imagery for something so mundane and seemingly uninteresting as a fish. Bishop wrote "He didn’t fight. He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely" by this we see that the fish didn't seem to have the will to fight, it seems as though it has given up that its tired of fighting back .
Along with that we also learn by the line "Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw" that this fish has been through trials and hardships, it has learned through the years how to survive. But after being caught for possibly the sixth time the fish seems to have maybe given up, grown tired of fighting back.
As she goes own she comments not only on its will but on its appearance showing the fish in a new light, comparing it with such things as flowers. Which someone would usually relate to as something pretty or nice to look at. In the very beginning of the poem it is made known that the fish was old and weathered, not something one would say is beautiful. She writes "He was speckled with barnacles, fine rosettes of lime... the pink swim-bladder like a big peony", by doing so she is seamlessly comparing something that is seen as sometimes "ugly" as something, if looked at, really looked at and examined can be seen as something beautiful. People don't always see things for what they are or see the true potential of things.
I feel the fish in itself symbolizes two things. Being strong and being able to take care of yourself but also seeing things in a different light. Don't make a snap judgement on something until you really see it and know it for what it is, what it means and what its been through.
At the end the fish is released back into the water. I feel the fisherman did this not because he felt sorry for the fish but because he felt pride and self satisfaction in himself for his accomplishment of catching this fish that has gotten away so many other times.