Atwood Plog: The Sad Child

"Your sad because your sad. It's chemical." These are the words that the speaker uses that really sums up an important piece to this poem. This is because the poem is about a young lady that just experienced her first step into puberty becoming sad because she views herself as no longer a child and no longer under that protective shadow that her parents once cast over her. In the poem "A Sad Child" by Margaret Atwood, the speaker uses images of a bathroom and destruction, as well as diction to tell a story about a girl growing up. The speaker also comforts the girl and explains that every womyn before her has gone through the same situation before.

The structure of this poem is very interesting because there are five stanzas and all of them are the same length except for the third stanza. I believe that Atwood did this to physically show a build up and resolution to her piece. The first two stanzas are more general and describe sad childeren and that some move past it and others dwell on the sadness.

The third stanza is arguably the most important stanza in the poem because it explains and describes so much and can be interpreted in two different ways. The first way to interpret the story is literally and believing that a girl spilled ice cream on her new dress at a lawn party, and that she went into the bathroom to wash it out and starred into the mirror saying that she wasn't the favorite child to herself. That is the basic way to read the poem and, which ever way you decide to read the story, both come to around the same general idea.

The second way to interpret the story is that a girl is experiencing her first time of the month as she matures and moves in to that specific stage of puberty. Perhaps some of the blood gets on her dress and causes her to feel embarressed and no longer the favorite child because of the fact that she isn't a child and now considers herself an adult. The reasons why I came to this interpretation of the story was because of images and words used such as "age, chemical, flushed, bathroom, sulky, pill, and psychic."

Overall, which ever way the reader decides to interpret the story, the reader is still sad and the speaker is attempting to cheer up and explain why she is sad. Both stories make sense and I believe there is enough evidence for either interpretation. (I also really hope i get this poem for my oral)

Storm On the Island Plog 4

The poem is about a group of people on an island getting ready to withstand a ferocious storm. The poem "Storm on the Island" by Seamus Heaney (happy alex?), is a narrative that uses imagery, and personification to convey and add to the overall tone and theme of the poem.
The poem is one stanza long and is literally about a speaker preparing for a storm. The poem begins talking about the supplies the people have, and goes on to discuss the fact that there are no trees on the island and that when the storm acutally arrives that one inadimite object, that can't be seen or captured, can turn all material and physical objects against the people. This object is air and wind. it can rip things apart and destroy lives without ever being caught or punished. The poem ends with the author saying that it is ironic how everyone is so afraid before a storm and the thing that the people fear the most is just one big blob of nothing.
The personification in the poem is a device that cannot be overlooked and adds to the overall tone in the poem of fear and uneasyness. In line 15 the speaker states, "The very windows, spits like a tame cat turned savage." This shows how the wind can break and bend windows to do whatever it wants because of course windows can't really spit. In this poem the wind is the biggest piece of personification because it is in acting in control and with powers.
Overall, the poem sends a message that no matter how powerful or safe you think you are, there is always something much bigger and stronger that is ready to take you down a notch. I believe that the wind was that bigger force in this poem. The personification helped unveil the air's true identity and power because it gave the air human characteristics and put them into play.

Mid-Term Break Plog 3

In the poem "Mid-Term Break" by Hanney, the author uses mood and imagery to depict a sad story of life. The poem was written to show the sadness of everyone except for the author until the end when he realizes that even though he might not have known his brother very well, he still was his brother and felt grief for him.
Some of the images that occur are ones such as his father crying, and mother holding his hand with angry tearless sighs. This image shows that the mother was so upset that there were no tears left within her. The father crying that a strong man can be brought to tears. The corpse is stanched and bandaged by nurses which shows that that the way that the victim died was not pleasant. Throughout this entire beginning the author isn't sad just quiet.
The speaker wasn't sad just possibly in shock or indifferent to the events occuring this could be because he hardly knew his younger brother because he was gone at college and the little boy was only 4 years old. Also before this the boy was anticipating getting out of school to go on a nice break but is suprised to find that the case is opposite.
In the first part of the poem the speaker is refering to his brother only as "the" bedside and "the" room, and in the end of the poem the grief and depression of the entire situation strikes him and as he mourningly reflects he refers to the brothers things as "his" bed and "his" room.
Overall, this poem was very touching because of the fact that it was narrative and told a story as well as maintained good flow throughout the piece. The mood and tone were definately the most important aspects to this poem and it is what made the poem so sucessful.