Many Red Devils . . .

Many red devils . . .

Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page.
They were so tiny
The pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.

                       - By Stephen Crane


 First thoughts: Crane has created a poem about writing down negative things, whether those be thoughts, memories, previous actions, etc. . . It is a possibility that Crane's large collection of poetry is made up of mostly positive ones and that this is the interpretation of his first experience with negative writings. Crane could not stop writing nor could say he did not like writing with the red devils because they came from his heart and were true.

Every letter beginning each sentence in this one stanza poem is capitalized. In my AP Literature class we discussed the importance of capitalized and un-capatalized letters. Crane wanted emphasis on every sentence and wanted that emphasis to create importance of each sentence. Every word matters just as much as the other.

Tiny, mash, muck. These three words make me think of children. It is not that they are childish but that children are especially drawn to them. I believe Crane used these words to make the poem about tiny devils more pleasant and less dark. It's neither a happy poem nor a dark. It is content, as is the author with the tiny devils in his heart.

The Explosion


On the day of the explosion
Shadows pointed towards the pithead:
In thesun the slagheap slept.

Down the lane came men in pitboots
Coughing oath-edged talk and pipe-smoke
Shouldering off the freshened silence.

One chased after rabbits; lost them;
Came back with a nest of lark's eggs;
Showed them; lodged them in the grasses.

So they passed in beards and moleskins
Fathers brothers nicknames laughter
Through the tall gates standing open.

At noon there came a tremor; cows
Stopped chewing for a second; sun
Scarfed as in a heat-haze dimmed.

The dead go on before us they
Are sitting in God's house in comfort
We shall see them face to face--

plian as lettering in the chapels
It was said and for a second
Wives saw men of the explosion

Larger than in life they managed--
Gold as on a coin or walking
Somehow from the sun towards them

One showing the eggs unbroken.

                                                 -by Philip Larkin

A Pithead: The top of a mine shaft with buildings and hoisting gear nestled around it.

Slagheap: A man made mound or heap formed with waste material (slag) as a by-product of coal minging.

                                                                      Lark Egg

 The first four stanza's initially make me think of apocalyptic events. The first line of stanza three and the slight mention of lark eggs make me think of food. Why would he be chasing rabbits after explosions? Food. "Through the tall gates standing open..." This brings an image of the golden gates of heaven. The mention of the heavenly gates once again back up my theory of an apocalyptic event. Tremors are then talked about and talk of meeting God face to face and how that meeting is as set as the lettering in the chapels.

From the first read it seems as if an apocalyptic event is taking place and fate is being discussed. I did realize that I did not know the exact definition of a hand full of words in this poem. Upon looking them up I discovered the poem is about a mine explosion and the wives waiting to see their husbands through their moleskin's. God and fate is being discussed over the minors and whether more explosions are going to occur and who is all in danger.

The significance of the lark eggs is difficult for me to understand. The last one lined stanza of the poem is dedicated to the safety of the lark eggs. If the eggs aren't broken than the safety of the men is assured? That is my best guess.

Cottonmouth Country

Cottonmouth Country

Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras.
And there were other signs
That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us
By land: among the pines
An uncurled cottonmouth that rolled on moss
Reared in the polluted air.
Birth, not death, is the hard loss.
I know. I also left a skin there.

                             - Louise Gluck

Death seems to be a common theme in my assigned poems but I agree when Mrs. White says that stronger emotion comes from more serious poetry. At first I believed that this poem was talking about death and the changes that come with it. Life, as in birth, brings changes too. In the 7th line the meaning goes beyond deep. When someone is born into a negative time (like The Road) it is sometimes easier to give up right away. Trying to live through destruction is worse than dieing.

The first line mentions sea creatures and waves. I tried to make some connections and related it to the large BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Death did woo us by water and land when that occurred. I'm not sure what time this poem was written but it does fit wonderfully with this event. The last line could be of a person who helped with the clean up or maybe even was a cause of the spill itself. Feeling guilty for what is happening to all the wild life, he feels he has died a little to, leaving a skin there.

I really like the meaning I found behind this poem. I don't know if this is what Gluck was intending but it is what I got. Great poem!

My Goodbye poem

Sorry this poetry response is late!

Goodbye

Goodbye to the old life,
to the dogs barking
at the kids playing
with my little sister in the street.

To the red walls of my basement room
and the concrete floor
littered with sharpie memories.

Goodbye to the old life,
the the ground coffee
from the coffee tree
to the antique smell of
family owned shops on fourth street.

Goodbye to the old life,
welcome the new
the unknown
take in the swell of future
that will suround me soon.

Hello to the new future,
you scare me so.

Hello to the new future,
you seem like suck a foe.

Hello to the now,
I think I'm ready to go.

                                     - Toni Ruggles


I like what were doing in class with this guest writer!