I just finished reading the poetry for tonight's class. I like them all, but my favorite begins "Sundays, too, my father got up early......" Perhaps I like this poem the best because I grew up in the north where dads did get up early and warm the house for the family. I remember the coal being delivered in the fall in Chicago, and the dust in the house for a week, and my father going down in the morning, or when the fire went out, shaking up the coals, shoveling in more, and warming the house. The biggest thrill for northern fathers was when oil heat became a reality, and they no more had to start a fire.....I remember that too! My father smiled that entire winter. The last two lines, "What did I know! What did I know of love's austere and lonely offices" are perhaps two of the most poignant lines I've ever read.
Another son looking back on his childhood unfolds in "My Papa's Waltz" That boy loved his father! I think it gives a good portrayal of the connection and love children feel for their parents. One of the most telling words in the poem refers to the mother "My mother's countenance could not unfrown itself" I think that means her habitual expression was unhappiness. He did not say my mother's countenance did not "smile."
Oranges is a sweet poem of a first romance. The bright colors played against the fog bring it to life. I lived in California and have experienced the fog the poet describes.
I love all the images of life Billy Collins gives in his poem. At this age, I have experienced all of them. Emily Dickinson speaks for many people in her poem "I'm Nobody, Who are You." She declares she'd rather be "nobody" than "somebody telling his/her name the livelong June to admiring bog" but I wonder..... Is this how Nora felt?
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