The simplicity and length of the poem Again written by Robert Creeley leads one to believe, upon the initial glance, that this poem will be straightforward and easy to understand. However, this is not the case when considering what this poem is actually speaking about. Throughout the fifteen lines of this poem, Creeley illustrates a journey through an average day of an average person in the modern society. Although this illustration of a journey such as this appears to be simple and boring, the poem itself is rather asking the question, “Why not do more?” This very question is something that Creeley seems to embrace in both his other writings and his life. Robert Creeley was born in Arlington, Massachusetts and worked a varied of jobs such as an ambulance driver, a chicken farmer and a publisher (218). In addition to his variety of career choices, Creeley also attended Harvard and then became instructor at Black Mountain College. Creeley’s background in being surrounded by a variety of environments connects him to the message that is in hidden inside this poem, a message of wanting to break the average routine and do something greater.
Again is set up as a poem consisting of five stanzas and each stanza consisting of three lines, or triplets. Creeley uses this particular setup for this poem to create a simplistic feel so that the message that Creeley wanted to create within the poem can be found without the necessity of in depth close reading. When this poem’s setup up is stacked against different types of poems, the reason as to why Creeley chose this type over many of the others is realized. For example, a sonnet or an ode, both different forms of poems, would not suit the needs of Creeley for a poem such as this. Reason being...
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...gives this poem a high level of appreciation and an increased level of understanding for those who read it. Due to these features of this poem, the message of wanting to break away from the daily routine and being something special that Creeley wants to convey through the poem is successfully achievable for the reader without a need for in depth close reading.
Works Cited
Creeley, Robert. "Again." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry Second Edition. By J. D. McClatchy. 2nd ed. New York: Vintage, 2003. 222-23. Print.
"Glossary Terms." Ode : Glossary Term : Learning Lab : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
"Glossary Terms." Sonnet : Glossary Term : Learning Lab : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
McClatchy, J. D. The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry Second Edition. 2nd ed. New York: Vintage, 2003. Print.
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enable us to understand the moral of the poem. Which is work hard and you will receive you goals and never give up.
...t P. and Stanley B. Greenfield, Old English Poetry: Fifteen Essays, Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 1967
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Stevens, Wallace. "Sunday Morning." The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry. Editor: Jay Parini. Columbia University Press, 1995. 330-331.
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For example, in “The Rain”, the entire poem has lines that are enjambed, “Is it / that never the ease, / even the hardness, / of rain falling”(8-11). The phrase or idea talked about in one line does not end at the end of a line, it continues on for several lines and sometimes several stanzas. In addition to the poem “The Rain”, enjambment can be seen in the poem “For Love”. Examples of enjambment can be found frequently throughout this poem, but specifically from lines 15, to 18. The poem reads, “I wouldn 't either, but / what would I not / do, what prevention, what...”. The subject talked about in these three lines is not thoroughly explained in the lines given, as the poem continues it discusses different subjects that are also spread out through several lines, with no one line being about one subject. The meaning of what Creeley is trying to describe can only be found by reading several lines of the poem because of the way he structured his poems. In the article "Love and Frangibility: An Appreciation of Robert Creeley", Heather Mchugh EXPLAINS, “ First of all, he 's often miscast as a rebel against poetic forms, foot soldier in the resistance against prosodic refinement... I believe that Robert Creeley 's abstemious formality nourishes a luxury of readings”. Mchugh SAYS that the line structure that Creeley uses is
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
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Life and death are two things that we as humans must all face. The road from one to the other, from life to death, is a long and at times, both joyous and painful one. Robert Frost’s poems are a prime example of these times and trials. The poems I chose for this paper highlight them, and with Frost’s allegory, they present a sort of silver lining to the string of dark and dreary words he’s pieced together for these poems. The depressing tone to the poems “Acquainted with the Night”, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowing Evening” could be attributed to the death of many of Frost’s family members, and how despite this he overcame it all, and at the end of his life, was a successful writer. These poems to not go into great explanation of the details of Frost’s life, however, I believe that they are representations of the things path that he’s walked, and how he viewed his actions and death in general.