The Life of Donald Justice
Donald Justice is a poet who has had some of the best poems from American literature, along with the lifestyle that is shared by most striving artists1. He has worked his way through life with many occupations and experiences under his belt, with the same diversities possessed by his poems3. Some of these poems include "Men At Forty," "For A Freshman Reader," "Poem," and "Incident In A Rose Garden" and show a great difference in tone. Not every poet has the same way of showing a different tone for their poems; sometimes, poets keep to one style of writing and stick with it. Donald Justice works his own weave for these poems, each individual to one another.
"Men At Forty" is a poem written by Justice, which isn't all about personal experience, but is more or less about the standard man at middle age7. As the poem begins, the ubiquitous narrator refers to the fact that "Men at forty learn to close softly doors to rooms they will not be coming back to," which is a metaphor for the decisions that cannot be taken back or changed. Closing softly refers to the way most males are about decisions, brash and make a lot of risks that aren't normally referred to as "Softly" closing. Then the narrator refers to life as a voyage on "the deck of a ship," which is a metaphor for the way that men are carried through their life without the ability to go back or try again, but are on a course that is unchangeable7. "The face of the boy as he practices tying his father's tie in secret," is explaining the preparation for being a middle aged man from childhood. Then "the face of that father" is more or less another sign that men will ultimately suffer the same life at forty that his father had before him7. The subtle message here is that Justice does not want to be bound by the same bonds that held his forefathers1, but remake his own and not follow the same mordant existence that is supposed. Justice knew that the "normal" ways of life wouldn't interest him; he even started as a musical major then decided to instead earn in BA in English1.
"Poem" is a short title for a very bitter sonnet addressed not to the reader, but to the reader's opinions6.
Billy Collins is one of the most credited poets of this century and last. He is a man of many talents, most recognized though by his provocative and riveting poetry. As John McEnroe was to the sport of tennis, Billy Collins has done the same for the world of poetry. Collin’s rejected the old ways of poetry, created his own form, broke all the rules, and still retains the love and respect of the poet community. Collins has received the title of Poet Laureate of the United States twice and also has received countless awards and acknowledgements. He has achieved this through a style of poetry that is not over-interpreted and hard to understand to most, but that of the complete opposite, his poetry is hospitable and playful.
Ogden Nash is a great American author, best known for his “pithy and funny light verse” (“Ogden Biography” 1). New York Times refers to him as America’s “best-known producer of humorous poetry” due to his buffoonery verse style. Born in the August of 1902 in Rye, New York as a child he moved often due to his father’s exporting-importing company (1). After completing high school at St. George’s School he attended Harvard University unfortunately quitting a year later. Reflecting on better times, Nash taught at his previous high school but left less than a year later, with little success in establishing another job (2) (“Ogden Nash” 1-2). Nash tried many different careers throughout the next decade finally finding success as a poetic advisor at Doubleday publishing house. Advertising gave him the opportunity to explore various styles of writing where he eventually came up with his own unique style. During this period he moved to Baltimore, the place he ultimately considered his home, married Francis Leonard and promoted from the market department to the editorial department at Doubleday (“Ogden Nash” 1-3).
In poetry, we can vent our frustration and interpretations of the world around us on paper. Poets make their points using metaphors or little stories to bring them out. When reading poetry, I always put myself in the shoes of the first or third person to better understand what is trying to be put across in the words of the sonnets. Most poems can mean anything to anybody. There are many cases in which you see people finding beauty in things they don't even understand, such as an Italian Opera or Ancient Hieroglyphics painted on a pyramid wall. Poetry can be silly, cheesy, boring or down right appealing and consuming to the readers eyes.
"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.
Nearly four centuries after the invention of the sonnet, Oscar Fay Adams was born. He stepped into his career at the brink of the American civil war, a time when typically cold Victorian era romances were set in stark contrast to the passions of Warhawks. It was in this era when Adams wrote his sonnet: “Indifference”, which explores the emotional turmoil and bitterness a man endures as he struggles to move on from a failed relationship . Adams utilizes the speaker's story in order to dramatize the plight of an individual trying and failing to reconcile holding on to the joy that passionate love brings with the intense pain it bestows in conjunction with this joy . Adams employs various poetic devices in order to present a new view of indifference,
One might wonder why Brooks produces poetry, especially the sonnet, if she also condemns it. I would suggest that by critically reckoning the costs of sonnet-making Brooks brings to her poetry a self-awareness that might justify it after all. She creates a poetry that, like the violin playing she invokes, sounds with "hurting love." This "hurting love" reminds us of those who may have been hurt in the name of the love for poetry. But in giving recognition to that hurt, it also fulfills a promise of poetry: to be more than a superficial social "grace," to teach us something we first did not, or did not wish to, see.
"Sonnet 144." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 1. Eds. M. H. Abrams,
...e speaker admits she is worried and confused when she says, “The sonnet is the story of a woman’s struggle to make choices regarding love.” (14) Her mind is disturbed from the trials of love.
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
The speaker of the poem tells the audience that he or she should be flattered that they were chosen as the subject of the speaker's poetry. The speaker convinces the audience that life is weak and Time is strong, but the speaker's poetry is stronger still. Perhaps the speaker felt that the audience was not appreciative enough of some previous efforts at immortalizing him or her in verse! For whatever reason, the speaker of Sonnet Sixty gives the audience a profound example of the importance of poetry.
Jarrell, Randall. ?Fifty Years of American Poetry.? The Third Book of Criticism. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
The natural bitterness of the sonnet is set up from the earliest starting point, when the storyteller starts with a specific end goal to get his mindset off of Lenore. The
..., D. E. (2009, November 7). The Sonnet, Subjectivity, and Gender. Retrieved October 11, 2011, from mit.edu: www.mit.edu/~shaslang/WGS/HendersonSSG.pdf
Mar. 1972: 86-100. pp. 86-100. Major, Clarence. American Poetry Review.
Moran, Daniel. “Sonnet XXIX.” Poetry for Students. Ed. David Galens. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 146-147. Print.