The History Teacher - Billy Collins

Trying to protect his students' innocence
he told them the Ice Age was really just
the Chilly Age, a period of a million years
when everyone had to wear sweaters.

And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,
named after the long driveways of the time.
The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more
than an outbreak of questions such as
"How far is it from here to Madrid?"
"What do you call the matador's hat?"

The War of the Roses took place in a garden,
and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan.

The children would leave his classroom
for the playground to torment the weak
and the smart,
mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,

while he gathered up his notes and walked home
past flower beds and white picket fences,
wondering if they would believe that soldiers
in the Boer War told long, rambling stories
designed to make the enemy nod off.

This poem is very unique and enjoyable. I think it is like telling a children story. I really like the way it is told, and the story of it. There is nothing that I did not like or that confused me about this poem. Everything about it I really enjoyed.

Barbie Doll - Margie Piercy

This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy. Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs. She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity. She went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs. She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle. Her good nature wore out like a fan belt. So she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up. In the casket displayed on satin she lay with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie. Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending. This poem is one of my favorites. It's very much like reality for many girls now-a-days. I really like this because it can relate to many people. It says "You have a great big nose and fat legs." I think that that person she is talking about it herself, everybody else see's the beautiful and intelligent young girl, but she sees the great big nose and fat legs. One thing that confused me if how at her funeral the people said "Doesn't she look pretty?". I think that it's not necessary nor right. I think it means something very brutal, that people could only see how pretty she was when she wasn't alive.

A 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.

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.

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.

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.

I really liked this poem because it was very creative and seemed as to teach a way of life. It made me think of decisions. One thing that I didn't like as much was how Frost wrote "sorry" in the poem, i don't understand why that is. Overall, this poem really catches my eye.

The sick Rose - William Blake

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

This poem is very creative and meaningful. It is a happy ending, of a life. One thing that I really like about it is the language, it makes it sound more elegant. One thing that I didn't enjoy as much is that i don't see what the first line has to do with the poem. In the end, its a great piece of art.

Fire and Ice - Robert Fros

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

I really enjoy this poem. It strongly shows opinions and feelings on life. One thing that I really like is how I think it is talking about life and how people intend on going by day by day. One thing that confused me was when it says "but if it had to perish twice". There is nothing that i didn't really like about it and over all i think that it is very well written with strong and hidden ideas about life and how people live it.

The Sick Rose - William Blake

O Rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm

That flies in the night,

In the howling storm,

Has found out they bed

Of crimson joy,

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

One thing that i really like about this poem was the word choice. I felt that he used very interesting words to explain this poem in a very descriptive word. One thing that I didn't like was how nothing rhymes, its a beautiful poem, i just am more interested in the ones that rhyme. There was not anything that confused me all to much in this poem.

Those Winter Sundays - Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early And put his clothes on in the blueback cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking. When the rooms were warm, he'd call, and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him, who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices? This poem is most definitely one of my favorites that I have read. One thing that i really like is how the character is telling a story but it is not so hidden in the writing. Robert Hayden doesn't write it too complicated, it is very straight forward and full of meaningful detail. The only thing that i disliked about the poem was the last two lines when it says, "What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?", that confused me and threw me off a little bit. That same idea confused me.