Some 20th century poems

Warm up

Lyrics

On modern poetry
We have now arrived in the 20th century. The poetry of the 20th century is simply immense and it is hard to chose a list of major works. But here we have a selection, anyway.

Task 1
Read one, or several, of the poems below. Write about their mood, message, and meaning.

Mood – How would you describe the feeling the poem has or i trying to portray?
Message – How would you interpret what the poem ”is trying to tell you”?
Meaning – What did you think about the language in the poem? Any particular line that was powerful or caught your attention? Why? Any particular line or word that you thought about or had to look up?

Post as a comment.

Task 2
Choose a poem, or song, with a lyrics that you find interesting. Comment on its mood, message, and meaning.

Post as a comment. Include the text and author in the posting.

List of modern poems
1. The Wasteland – T S Eliot

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

Read the rest here

2. Howl – Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg is best known for Howl (1956), a long poem about the self-destruction of his friends of the Beat Generation and what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in United States at the time.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly
connection to the starry dynamo in the machin-
ery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat
up smoking in the supernatural darkness of
cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities
contemplating jazz,
who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and
saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tene-
ment roofs illuminated,
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes
hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy
among the scholars of war,
who were expelled from the academies for crazy &
publishing obscene odes on the windows of the
skull…

Read the rest here

3. Daddy – Sylvia Plath. Along with Anne Sexton, Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry.

You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time–
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.

Read the rest here

4. The Snow Man – Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

5. This is just to say – Carolos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast. Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.

6. The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

7. The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

8. O me! O life! – Walt Whitman (1892)

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

25 reaktioner till “Some 20th century poems”

  1. 8. O me! O life! – Walt Whitman (1892)
    Mood – How would you describe the feeling the poem has or i trying to portray?

    To begin with the poem gives off the feeling of despair and hopelessness. But as you read through the whole thing the feeling it portrays is hope and that you are enough.

    Message – How would you interpret what the poem ”is trying to tell you”?

    I think the poem is trying to tell you that no matter what you are enough. Even if you question yourself and everything around you. It’s not worth giving up. You should have hope because you are here, you exist and that can lead to great things.

    Meaning – What did you think about the language in the poem? Any particular line that was powerful or caught your attention? Why? Any particular line or word that you thought about or had to look up?

    I like the language it’s simple and easy to understand. It portrays the feelings a person which is giving up could feel. Also what a lot humans with suicidal thoughts think about every day. I like the line where he answers his own portrait of despair and hopelessness with the one thing most people need to hear. That they exist and that they can contribute. The reason this was so powerful and why I like it is because of how real and lifelike it is.

    Gilla

  2. The Snow Man – Wallace Stevens

    1. The mood is quite distant and telling, as in not commanding to listen, but that it knows that it is intriguing enough to keep you reading anyways. It is easy enough to understand to get a feeling of understanding, but complex enough to give you a sense of distance which is for me a sense of someone trying to learn me something.

    2. I think that it is trying to tell me to listen and try to understand others peoples situations and see their points. I think that the ”wind to to one who listens” is that everything has something to tell you if you listen, even in the most mundane thing you can discover something new if you listen hard enough.

    3. ”One must have a mind of winter
    To regard the frost and the boughs”
    , the first line, was the one that caught my attention. It is right from the get-go telling you its message which makes the rest easy to relate to. I understood it as ”You must have a relative understanding of something to relate to the rest of it”. It is like that you need to understand the brutality of war to be able to understand the situation that refugees are in.

    Gilla

  3. The Snowman – Wallace Stevens

    The entire poem is bult upon how we perceive things so thats how I will write it

    Mood – The feeling is very cold, how a winter affects the landscape and how we feel about it. But it changes drastically if we see it through the eyes of the Snowman, a beautiful cold snowy landscape which he was created from, his only place in life.

    Message – To perceive things in the right ways, to not only see the cold and bad parts of a snowy and dark January day, but also see the beauty in the frost covered tree tops and only hearing the wind roaring.

    Meaning – The language is pretty easy to understand. All the words is making sense. I had to google bough and juniper understand exactly, but the main of understanding is to see both sides of the perception.

    Gilla

  4. The Red Wheelbarrow

    Mood: The mood in this poem feels Casual, Sarcastic and plain normal. It shows me an image of an old red wheelbarrow drenched in water after a rainfall standing there with lots of white chickens.

    Message: There is a red wheelbarrow. It tells me that this is a normal casual poem with no deep meaning to it.

    Meaning: Why does the words have space between them? is it cause of the poem-ish feeling it has to it? This poem has a lot of spacing between the words and looks to be a normal sentence deceiving us to thinking it is a great poem. For me it has no deep meaning to grumble over for hours to analyse. It’s a “poem” showing that a normal sentence can be turned into a poem without problems.

    Gilla

  5. The Red Wheelbarrow

    so much depends
upon
    a red wheel
barrow
    glazed with rain
water
    beside the white
chickens.

    The mood is quite depressing, a rainy day on a farm or on the country side. Depending on the wet and slippery wheelbarrow on that cold day, trying desperately to protect you white chickens.

    The message is that no matter what, you have to keep going for your white little chickens. the barrow is dependable and the chickens need help. You should use tools to ease the life of those around you.

    The language of the poem isn’t anything special, quite lazy and simple but still with deeper meaning. The line ”beside the white chickens” it could have been kids or old people or dogs or anything, looking up at you with helpless eyes begging to get home into the ward dry softness of wherever they live.

    Gilla

  6. This is just to say

    mood: the mood in this poem is regret or sadness. he’s trying to take back a action he can’t. And try to make up for it in words and apologize.

    Message: He is trying to apologizes for the mistakes he did by eating the plums and shows his regrets. but its
    ¨
    Meaning: i think that the meaning with this poem is that you should think about the actions before you perform it.

    Gilla

  7. 5. This is just to say – Carolos Williams

    Mood.
    We get the feeling that the person who ate the plums are sad, sorry and filled with regrets because the person realized he/she/attack helicopter, was doing wrong to eat the plums.

    Message.
    We get the feeling that the author is trying to tell us to think again before taking something that is not yours, even if its longing and screaming your name.

    Meaning.
    Its very simple and easy written. ”they were delicious” this sentance was most powerful because he tells the owner of the plums that they were delicious.

    Gilla

  8. TASK 2

    LONG SHOT PARTY – DISTANCE (ENGLISH)

    You are my friend
    Aah, you still remember the dream we had that day, don’t you?
    You are my dream
    Aah, we’d just gotten started, you are my long lost friend

    Whoa, it’s time to get moving!
    Every day, lit up by the shine ahead,
    I wanna see you, it lights my soul on fire
    But now, we’ve bid farewell to those fun days

    To be the future, I’ll try to take over, and that’s why I’ll dream on!
    I’ll go the distance
    Gazing at a sky so full
    I’m just now starting

    I’ll use my greatest power, full tilt!
    You are my friend
    Aah, you still remember the dream we had that day, don’t you?
    You are my dream

    Aah, we’d just gotten started, you are my long lost friend
    Whoa, it’s time to get moving!
    Thank you my friend
    Aah, I haven’t forgotten what happened on that day

    You are my dream
    Aah, next time I’ll protect you my way!
    Whoa, I’ll go the distance!

    Mood: It’s sad but happy at the same time. It’s making me feel like losing a great friend after they have moved far away from you but still waiting to meet that friend once again, having your hopes up.

    Message: It is trying to tell that the fun times will never last forever, everyone has to move on and live their life. You can’t be a child forever. Living the life with no regrets and trying to achieve the dreams together.

    Meaning: It is a song lyric for an anime. Always saying dream and friend indicates that those two characters in the series are “great” friends but one has strolled away to the evil side and the “good” guy is trying to take him back thus the meaning of dream and lost friend.

    Gilla

  9. Some 20th century poems:

    Task 1:
    Howl- Allen Ginsberg

    The mood- I think the feeling the poem is trying to portray is can our choices make a difference for other person. Like for instance standing up to the military, but is that the right thing to do? For the poem he thinks that we have many opportunities but no way of knowing what is right.

    The message- I think the poem is trying to tell that we have million choices, a million opportunities but we don’t know if we’re doing the right choice. We just go for what seems the most right. He connects to ethics and morality in his poem in my opinion.

    The meaning- In the first line of the section, the author tells us that he has been a witness to a destruction of ”the great minds” of his generations. The rest of his poem is a detailed description of people. Who they were and what they did. He doesn’t tell us what destroyed them quite. Most of the lines begins with ”who did this?”, ”who did that?”, etc. The many questions gives the poem an uncertain, worried feeling… Perhaps we are faced with more questions than answers in modern life? Perhaps life was easier before?

    We have a million choices, a million opportunities but no way of knowing what is right. Who knows? That seems to be one of the things in the poem.

    Gilla

  10. Mansion – NF(feat. Fleurie)
    [Chorus – Fleurie:]
    Insidious is blind inception
    What’s reality with all these questions?
    Feels like I missed my alarm and slept in (slept in)
    Broken legs but I chase perfection
    These walls are my blank expression
    My mind is a home I’m trapped in
    And it’s lonely inside this mansion

    [Verse 1 – NF:]
    Yo my mind is a house with walls covered in lyrics
    They’re all over the place, there’s songs in the mirrors
    Written all over the floors, all over the chairs
    And you get the uncut version of life when I go downstairs
    That’s where I write when I’m in a bad place and need to release
    And let out the version of NF you don’t want to see
    I put holes in the walls with both of my fists ‘til they bleed
    You might get a glimpse of how I cope with all this anger in me
    Physically abused, now that’s the room that I don’t want to be in
    That picture ain’t blurry at all, I just don’t want to see it
    And these walls ain’t blank, I just think I don’t want to see ‘em
    But why not? I’m in here, so I might as well read ‘em
    I gotta thank you for this anger that I carry around
    Wish I could take a match and burn this whole room to the ground
    Matter of fact I think I’m a burn this room right now
    So now this memory for some reason just won’t come down
    You used to put me in the corner, so you could see the fear in my eyes
    Then took me downstairs and beat me ‘til I screamed and I cried
    Congratulations, you’ll always have a room in my mind
    But I’m a keep the door shut and lock the lyrics inside

    [Chorus – Fleurie:]
    Insidious is blind inception
    What’s reality with all these questions?
    Feels like I missed my alarm and slept in (slept in)
    Broken legs but I chase perfection
    These walls are my blank expression
    My mind is a home I’m trapped in
    And it’s lonely inside this mansion (inside this mansion)

    [Verse 2 – NF:]
    Yo my mind is a house with walls covered in pain
    See my problem is I don’t fix things
    I just try to repaint, cover em up, like it never happen
    Say I wish I could change. Are you confused?
    Come upstairs and I’ll show you what I mean
    This room’s full of regrets, just keeps getting fuller it seems
    The moment I walk in to it is the same moment that I wanna leave
    I get sick to my stomach every time I look at these things
    But it’s hard to look past when this is the room where I sleep
    I look around. One of the worst things I wrote on these walls
    Was the moment I realized that I was losing my mom
    And one of the first things I wrote was ”I wish I would’ve called”
    But I should just stop now, we ain’t got enough room in this song
    And I regret the fact that I struggled trying to find who I am
    And I lie to myself and say I do the best that I can
    Shrug it off like it ain’t nothing like it’s out of my hands
    Then get ticked off whenever I see it affecting my plans
    And I regret watching these trust issues eat me alive
    And at the rate I’m going they’ll probably still be there when I die
    Congratulations, you’ll always have a room in my mind
    The question is: Will I ever clean the walls off in time?

    [Chorus – Fleurie:]
    Insidious is blind inception
    What’s reality with all these questions?
    Feels like I missed my alarm and slept in (slept in)
    Broken legs but I chase perfection
    These walls are my blank expression
    My mind is a home I’m trapped in
    And it’s lonely inside this mansion (inside this mansion)

    [Verse 3 – NF:]
    So this part of my house, no one’s been in it for years
    I built the safe room and I don’t let no one in there
    Cause if I do, there’s a chance
    That they might disappear and not come back
    And I admit I am emotionally scared to let anyone inside
    So I just leave my doors locked
    You might get other doors to open up but this doors not
    Cause I don’t want you to have the opportunity to hurt me
    And I’ll be the only person that I can blame when you desert me
    I’m barricaded inside
    So stop watching
    I’m not coming to the door
    So stop knocking, stop knocking
    I’m trapped here
    God keep saying I’m not locked in
    I chose this
    I am lost in my own conscience
    I know that shutting the world out ain’t solving the problem
    But I didn’t build this house because I thought it would solve ‘em
    I built it because I thought that it would be safer in there
    But it’s not, I’m not the only thing that’s living in here
    Fear came to my house years ago I let ‘em in
    Maybe that’s the problem
    Cause I’ve been dealing with this ever since
    I thought that he would leave, but it’s obvious he never did
    He must have picked the room and got comfortable and settled in
    Now I’m in the position it’s either sit here and let him win
    Or put him back outside where he came from, but I never can
    Cause in order to do that I’d have to open the doors
    Is that me or the fear talking?
    I don’t know anymore

    Mood – How would you describe the feeling the poem has or i trying to portray?

    I think the song is trying to portray a lot of feelings but that at the same time it’s leaving it up to you to feel the song. It talks about feelings that a lot of people can feel regularly or at one point in their life. There’s despair, fear, hope, pain and a lot more. For me personally the song gives of a feeling of relief, about how you can finally talk out about something that’s been holding up and now move on.

    Message – How would you interpret what the poem ”is trying to tell you”?

    I think the song is trying to makes us think. Think about our life and how our actions can affect people. Think about how he and other people that have suffered through traumas could feel. Take a step into his world per say. To give us a perspective on how another human can think and feel. I think it’s also trying to create a metaphor about how he himself doesn’t always know if it’s him the ”real” him or his memories/feelings/fear that is talking. As we can see in the last few lines.

    Meaning – What did you think about the language in the poem? Any particular line that was powerful or caught your attention? Why? Any particular line or word that you thought about or had to look up?

    It uses simple words to a point with exceptions for words like ”insidious”. But with these words he creates different sentences with a deeper meaning that can really make you think as to what it could mean. There are so many ways to interpret most of the lines in this song that it’s astonishing. We can see how good his wordplay is considering the simplicity of the words he uses. I like the line ”These walls are my blank expression”. Because it portrays the feeling of hopelessness and how it feels when everything is over. You’re just blank, you are there. No color, no life, no dreams just blank. You have stopped feeling and the metaphor is that you are a wall. He compares a wall to how he is feeling, and string these together with the words ”blank expression”.

    Gilla

  11. Daddy

    Mood – How would you describe the feeling the poem has or i trying to portray?

    The feeling is sorrow and the poem is very tragical. The girl thinks of her father as a god or someone mighty whilst she thinks of her self as a jew. Her father was a nazi and I believe her father was part jew which might have made her own father hate her. The poem tells us about this.

    Message – How would you interpret what the poem ”is trying to tell you”?

    The poem tells us how she thought of her father and it gave us many metaphors trying to show this.

    Meaning – What did you think about the language in the poem? Any particular line that was powerful or caught your attention? Why? Any particular line or word that you thought about or had to look up?

    The language was very powerful and gave a lot of images whilst reading the poem. The very last line was the best in my opinion. I thought the whole poem was good but the last one was really powerful. Otherwise there were no particular line or word that I thought about more than the other ones. The poem was very interesting.

    Gilla

  12. This is just to say – Carolos Williams

    I have eaten
    the plums
    that were in
    the icebox and which
    you were probably
    saving
    for breakfast. Forgive me
    they were delicious
    so sweet
    and so cold.

    Mood – How would you describe the feeling the poem has or i trying to portray?
    The mood of the poem is quite a sad one because the author did a bad deed by stealing his friend’s/wife food and he now also ran out of plums.
    Message – How would you interpret what the poem ”is trying to tell you”?
    That plums are great.
    Meaning – What did you think about the language in the poem? Any particular line that was powerful or caught your attention? Why? Any particular line or word that you thought about or had to look up?
    The language is simple. There are no hard words or anything such as that. All the lines caught my attention by being so short and their divisions seem to be so random.

    Gilla

  13. Viva la Vida – Coldplay
    I used to rule the world
    Seas would rise when I gave the word
    Now in the morning, I sleep alone
    Sweep the streets I used to own

    I used to roll the dice
    Feel the fear in my enemy’s eyes
    Listen as the crowd would sing
    Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!

    One minute I held the key
    Next the walls were closed on me
    And I discovered that my castles stand
    Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

    I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
    Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
    Be my mirror, my sword and shield
    My missionaries in a foreign field
    For some reason I can’t explain
    Once you go there was never, never a honest word
    And that was when I ruled the world

    It was a wicked and wild wind
    Blew down the doors to let me in
    Shattered windows and the sound of drums
    People couldn’t believe what I’d become

    Revolutionaries wait
    For my head on a silver plate
    Just a puppet on a lonely string
    Oh, who would ever want to be king?

    I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
    Roman Calvary choirs are singing
    Be my mirror, my sword and shield
    My missionaries in a foreign field
    For some reason I can’t explain
    I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
    Never an honest word
    But that was when I ruled the world

    Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

    I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
    Roman Calvary choirs are singing
    Be my mirror, my sword and shield
    My missionaries in a foreign field
    For some reason I can’t explain
    I know Saint Peter won’t call my name
    Never an honest word
    But that was when I ruled the world

    Mood – The entire feeling is surrounding the nature of revolution and what it embodies like a big crowd sings in choir. The singer represent the head of state, a person who often gets his power by putting heads on silver-plates and not by mercy.
    Message – Even tough he is probably gonna die, he asks himself ”Who wouldn’t want to be king?”, because that’s what a revolution is, to get more power.
    Meaning – The language is pretty simple but uses some latin words and many religious words because many leaders were ”graced by the gods”, and the song is from their pov(point of view).

    Gilla

  14. Daddy – Sylvia Plath.

    Mood – In the start of the poem it sounds as if she has really great respect for her father and is afraid to do anything in her own home, like she is a prison. Later in the poem her father dies and she starts to feel a bit freedom but as time moves along, she misses him more and more and feels like a piece of her is missing.

    Message – The message i get from this is ”you don’t know what you got until you miss it a lot” i get the feeling that she hates her father greatly from the starts but then when he is gone she misses him greatly aswell.

    Meaning – The line that caught my attention and made me want to keep reading was this one ”You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white,
    Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. Daddy, I have had to kill you.” this makes me think that she is caught in a ”prison” in which she describes it as a ”black shoe” and its because of her father that she is in this ”prison”

    Gilla

  15. Song ”Who What Who What” – by Ling Toshite Sigure

    http://www.lyrical-nonsense.com/lyrics/ling-tosite-sigure/who-what-who-what/#English

    1. It gives of a distressed and sad but angry mood. It is about fake realities and how people are manipulated which is a more philosophical statement but still gives of the feeling of sadness and irritation towards ones situation and how little control you have over it(if you go in deep that is).

    2. The message that I get out of it is as mentioned before, how little control you´ve got over your own life. ”In the maze of meaning set up by this world” ”Lining up permanent question marks in the ringing distortion” ”A perfect disorder of double-edged knifes”. It gives the feeling of ”it dosen´t really matter what you do, you´ll get hurt in the end anyways, you can´t control it” and that it is impossible to really understand something in our world. It is quite depressing to think about but it gives you a feeling of distance and understanding when you can come to terms with it. It ends with ”Truth please respond! Truth please respond! The resounding scream pierces me, as my emotions slip away” which is a final cry to try to understand something before sucumbing to the system of the world.

    3. The language is quite advanced. It is ment to be cool since it is a ”action song” made for listeners to find interesting since it is an opening to the anime ”Psycho-Pass” which is dystopian themed. What captured my attention is the meaning, which I really prefer in a song over melody in most cases. I did have to google the word vacuous, which means empty(probably from ”vacuum”) which was featured in the start of the song

    Gilla

  16. This is just to say by – Carolos Williams

    The mood – The mood in this poem is guilt. The character felt sad for taking food from the other person even when he knew that the plums was for someone else.

    The Message – He knew that the plums was for someone else who were saving it for breakfast so they could keep up with the day.
    The temptation made him eat the plums and it shows how people are easily giving in to temptation and it shows also people would take stuffs from other people to make themself happy or in this case satisfied and not have any care in the world for the people they took from.

    The Meaning – The word that caught my eye was ”delicious”. The reason why it caught my eye was because it showed his temptation to the plums that he gave in to his desires even when in this situatuon he couldn’t take the plums.

    Gilla

  17. Lose Yourself – Eminem
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFYQQPAOz7Y – song
    http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eminem/loseyourself.html – lyrics

    Mood.
    The mood is pretty low and dark like you just lost something important. But then you get the chance and the sound gets lighter because you are going to give back.

    Message.
    Its made to bring back hope in people who think they lost it all, it says to get the F up and work for what you want, if you get the chance to change your life then DO IT! JUST DO IT!

    Meaning.
    Its VERY cleaverly written, the author makes it easy to understand and you get the feeling very quickly. The author makes it clear that this is to make you feel down but to help you rise up from this ”down-time”. And if you are looking at the words in the song EVERY word is rhyming with another word in the song, this is a very unusual technic that Eminen uses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooOL4T-BAg0 , this guys shows us how Eminem takes rap to another level.

    Gilla

  18. Task 1.
    1. The Wasteland – T S Eliot
    Mood: The poem was very sad and dark in the beginning and got brighter towards the end.
    Message: Life consists of both happy and sad moments, so when life struggles, you will need to remember that brighter times will come.
    Meaning: ”And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.”
    You will always find happiness even though it sometimes feels like it is out of reach.

    Gilla

  19. Task 2.
    Mood: It´s a very sad and the lyrics describes him as lonely and hopeless with a brooken heart.
    Message: That he has lost the love of his life and hope that she one day will come back running into his arms.
    Meaning: ”Only miss the sun when it starts to snow”
    You don´t start missing what you have until you lose it and it´s all gone.

    ”Let Her Go”

    Well you only need the light when it’s burning low
    Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
    Only know you love her when you let her go

    Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
    Only hate the road when you’re missing home
    Only know you love her when you let her go
    And you let her go

    Staring at the bottom of your glass
    Hoping one day you’ll make a dream last
    But dreams come slow and they go so fast

    You see her when you close your eyes
    Maybe one day you’ll understand why
    Everything you touch surely dies

    But you only need the light when it’s burning low
    Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
    Only know you love her when you let her go

    Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
    Only hate the road when you’re missing home
    Only know you love her when you let her go

    Staring at the ceiling in the dark
    Same old empty feeling in your heart
    Cause love comes slow and it goes so fast

    Well you see her when you fall asleep
    But never to touch and never to keep
    Cause you loved her too much and you dived too deep

    Well you only need the light when it’s burning low
    Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
    Only know you love her when you let her go

    Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
    Only hate the road when you’re missing home
    Only know you love her when you let her go
    And you let her go
    And you let her go
    Well you let her go

    Cause you only need the light when it’s burning low
    Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
    Only know you love her when you let her go

    Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
    Only hate the road when you’re missing home
    Only know you love her when you let her go

    Cause you only need the light when it’s burning low
    Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
    Only know you love her when you let her go

    Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
    Only hate the road when you’re missing home
    Only know you love her when you let her go
    And you let her go

    Gilla

  20. TASK 2

    Pressure
    Draper feat. Laura Brehm

    I don’t understand
    What they want from me
    They take my hands

    Washing them in dirty water
    Try to find what’s right
    In a distant place
    So far away
    The silence fills my heart with empty space

    But now I’m sure of where I’ll go from here
    And tensions rise,
    They push me to divert my vision
    But I will break the ceiling and the walls that kept me in
    For all this time
    And all the reasons that I cannot find

    They’ll wait for me to fall under the pressure
    They’ll wait for me to give it up
    Well I will not work against the forces
    I just have to stay above the rushing, the rushing, water

    I will do my best to keep myself composed
    It takes a lot not to overload
    They can’t tell me what is right for me
    I just need peace of mind and my ability
    No one said that it would be this hard
    You can’t force it but you’ll play your part
    So I will run until I reach the end and who knows where I’ll be
    But all I know is that we’ll start again

    They’ll wait for me to fall under the pressure
    They’ll wait for me to give it up
    Well I will not work against the forces
    I just have to stay above the rushing, the rushing, water

    I’ve got my sights on
    My sights on a brand new beginning
    A steady rhythm will hold me to the shore
    I’ve got my sights on
    My sights on a brand new beginning
    A steady rhythm will hold me to the shore

    The mood, just like in the wheelbarrow is quite depressing, but telling you to stay strong and keep going because those who are trying to keep you down and drown you in ”the rushing water” will not win, you will escape.

    The message is that you need to ”keep yourself composed” and ”not overload” stay cool in the situations where others are trying to ruin your reputation and stop you from progressing in life. When I hear the lyrics I imagine a brilliant young adult who has been taken by some rich family to make sure that their slightly less brilliant young adult gets ahead and maybe gets the job or the spot for some education. The song is saying ”whoever is messing with you don’t give up, you will break the ceiling and you will break free from the chains of unfairness. A steady rhythm will hold you to shore.”

    The meaning is the poem, is to keep you going even through the hard times. ”But I will break the ceiling and the walls that kept me in For all this time.” I will be free from the chains that hold me and I will prosper in ”the new beginning”.

    ”They’ll wait for me to fall under the pressure
    They’ll wait for me to give it up
    Well I will not work against the forces
    I just have to stay above the rushing, the rushing, water”

    Gilla

  21. 4. The Snow Man – Wallace Stevens

    One must have a mind of winter
    To regard the frost and the boughs
    Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time
    To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
    The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think
    Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
    In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land
    Full of the same wind
    That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow,
    And, nothing himself, beholds
    Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

    Mood – How would you describe the feeling the poem has or i trying to portray?
    I would describe it as melancholic. Fairly sad, depressing and gloomy.

    Message – How would you interpret what the poem ”is trying to tell you”?
    Only one who has a mind of winter, can regard it as otherwise. Something other than miserable and barren. And one who has a mind of winter realizes that they’re nothing. And that everything else is nothing.

    Gilla

  22. task 1, Howl – Allen Ginsberg

    mood – the poem is trying to show how the people behaved and what they did in the beat generation. the feeling in the poem is maybe sadness over what mostly people did in their life that made things worse for them and others.

    message – What the poem is trying to tell me is what can happen to me if i do what they do or showing me what was happening in that generation that even good people can become like them.

    meaning – the words the poem is using is pretty vulgar but it show how that guy felt when writing this poem that he was not happy about this and what was happening around him.

    task 2, this is just to say – Carolos Williams
    Forgive me
    they were delicious
    so sweet
    and so cold.

    mood – he is trying to show that they were delicious but att the same time cold because he stole them.

    message – the poem is trying to tell me that the plums was delicious and he felt guilty by stealing.

    meaning – it’s short and easy but really random?.

    Gilla

  23. Daddy

    The mood – in this poem is mad in the beginning but in the end it turns sad and regretting.

    The message – ”You do not do, you do not do, Any more, black shoe, In which I have lived like a foot ,For thirty years”. She talks about how the man has no let him decide about anything and kept him almost like in prison. The woman wants kills him but the man dies before she does it. In the end she starts to miss him.

    The meaning – is easy in this poem. The line that caught me is ” You do not do, you do not do, Any more, black shoe, In which I have lived like a foot ,For thirty years, poor and white”. He kept him in ”shoe” meaning keeping him inside and not letting her see day light.

    Gilla

  24. task 2

    Stephen – Crossfire

    The lyrics is about all people who unwillingly are in wars, like in the world wars and now in Syria. The four first lines are as follows:

    ”He’d trade his guns for love
    But he’s caught in the crossfire
    And he keeps wakin’ up
    But it’s not to the sound of birds”

    He then opens up another part with:

    ”I’d trade my luck to know
    Why he’s caught in the crossfire
    And I’m here wakin’ up
    To the sun and the sound of birds”

    The meaning of this is to demonstrate the difference between us who has luck and them who are caught in the crossfire. I think the purpose of the text is for us to think more about those who lives in bad conditions and to fight for every human to have the luck we have. Because of this I think highly of the song.

    Another part of the song that has a really deep meaning is the following:

    ”Heaven if you sent us down
    So we could build a playground
    For the sinners
    To play as saints
    You’d be so proud of what we made
    I hope you got some beds around
    Cause’ you’re the only refuge now
    For every mother
    Every child
    Every brother
    That’s caught in the crossfire”

    Heaven sent us down to build a ”playground” but as we see now we have failed and the only refuge we have now is to go back to heaven. I think this is really powerful.

    Gilla

  25. Task 2:
    Eminem- When I’m gone
    Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iBfVk_Mv1Y

    The mood- When I first listened to this song, I felt very sad back in the days because I didn’t want him to quit his career. I really liked his song and he’s really good at rapping because he raps about the real life he have faced.

    The message- The song message is Eminem’s way of telling his fans that he’s afraid of losing his daughter Hailie, and he wants a normal life with his family. He’s telling us not the be sad that he’s going to go.

    The meaning- I like the language Eminem is using in his song, it’s complex and easy to understand. The whole first verse he talks about someone that he would protect, no matter what costs and that’s his family. The second verse is that he’s dreaming and the person he works so hard for doesn’t want him to work anymore. She’s begging him not to go because it’s hurting him and everyone around him. The third verse he’s going to work and performs for a crowd, but sees his daughter that’s still crying for him to stop working and come home because they need him. She tells him that he doesn’t care about them and tells him that the crowd alos love him and he loves the more than his family.

    Gilla

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