Response to "Snow Day," etc.

Billy Collins’ poem “Snow Day” accurately describes a day paralyzed by a snow storm. I found it interesting that in the beginning of the poem, Collins describes the landscape itself. He uses words such as “smothered,” “buried,” “blocked,” and “blankness.” Nature paralyzed the landscape. However, toward the end of the poem, he begins describing the people, using words such as “darting,” “climbing,” “riot,” and “sliding.” I like the contrast here; Collins clearly shows that the children become more active when it snows, while the landscape itself is stoic. Also, each stanza is five lines long- as set and stoic as the landscape described.

            Billy Collins’ “Introduction to Poetry” clearly sends the message that most first time poetry readers skew: some poems don’t have meaning. The point is to enjoy its parts and navigate your way around them. Midway through the poem, Collins cleverly uses the repetition of the “w” sound; this makes the poem flow easier and sound smoother. I noticed the shortest line was five syllables; this line leads into the only one line stanza in the poem. I’m not quite sure I understand why this is. I need to take Collins’ advice in my own writing and stop trying to begin with a huge meaning. I either need to not have a particular one or perhaps begin with a small concrete image and build a larger meaning onto it.

            Lucille Clifton’s “Homage to My Hips” is now on my list of favorite poems as well. I enjoyed the attitude of the poem so much that I looked up an audio clip of Clifton reading the poem- I wanted to hear her own “swagger” reading the poem. I noticed that nothing was capitalized in her poem. I feel as though it gives the poem a matter-of-fact attitude: this is me and I’m sexy. No special words are capitalized, giving these seemingly simple words all an equal importance. Starting with the ninth line, four lines are seven syllables each- each word is one syllable. I wonder why this is. Perhaps she uses these simple words to stick in the reader’s mind. It gives these lines a certain rhythm and the reader can easily remember it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the last line. The use of enjambment is powerful here: “spin him like a top.” Such an empowering phrase. Any woman can read that and feel sexy.

            Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” had one particularly strong characteristic: its voice. My guess is that it is perhaps the poet speaking, relaying things she was constantly told to do and not to do as a child and adolescent by her parents. I was signaled it might be her history from my looking up of the word “Benna” which is Antiguan music with scandalous gossip, etc… obviously something she is not allowed to sing in Sunday school. I could hear a tone of bitterness when she repeats “like the slut I know you’re so bent on becoming.” Kincaid is very talented at taking her life and explaining it in a show, not tell way. You almost hear parents preaching to the reader these things as the reader progresses through the poem. I need to focus more on the important events that have shaped my life as well.