Reading Response 5: Ted Kooser and John Donne

     The readings about poetry we've had thus far have been illuminating for me.

     First, I'd like to compare The Poetry Home Repair Manual to Bird by Bird. I would say that they are similar, but in a sense that they are more than both just broad introductory books. A lot of the "action through inaction" principles in Lamott's book resonate with the "A poet needs to write essential details, nothing more. No spare parts" (Kooser 27) mentality of Kooser's.

     Second, I'd like to comment on how effectively Burroway analyzed and wrote about many of the core techniques of poetry. It was specific, getting as in-depth as to discuss the role of "...English as an 'onomatopoeic' language" (p298) while later reintroducing readers to basic elements such as alliteration and assonance. I would call Imaginative Writing's section on poetry an even briefer version of The Poetry Home Repair Manual.


     Lastly, I want to discuss Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud by John Donne. I chose this poem not only because it forced me to finally look up the differences between "thou", "thy", "thine", "thee", and "ye" (I always thought one of those meant "me", and it was always a different one each time), but also because it was one of the only poems so far that I've been able to mostly grasp. The rhyme scheme was "ABBA ABBA ABBA CC", the "CC" being the couplet in the end to drive it home. The conflict in the poem seems to be John Donne listing disputing death's ultimately morbid role by providing his perspective. 

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness 

     Just an example of how Donne achieves this effect. Simply by framing death, the reader has the ability to see death from a different point of view. Death is reliant on the fate and chance, meaning that it is unchanging and unpredictable. Death also depends on the actions of people, it is not autonomous entity. Death is affiliated with bad things such as poison, war, and sickness. Death is weak.

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

     Reference to an afterlife; after a "short sleep", death is obsolete.