robert lowell

Robert Lowell was an influential confessional poet. Both Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath credited his class with their development as writers. I like how he uses history in “For the Union Dead” and also comments on modern day problems. He spends a significant portion of the poem with past references (i.e. the old aquarium and the display for Shaw and his men). And, he also notes “Space is nearer. When I crouch to my television set, the drained faces of Negro school-children rise like balloons.” These references to desegregation, the moon landing, and other significant events of the time work well with the historical facts he puts in the poem too. I enjoyed reading Lowell.

George Saunders

Saunders’ “Sea Oak” story was a really comical take on modern day issues. I enjoyed reading the story and found it hilarious, although it did leave me with a bleak picture of the “American Dream.” Freddie sums up this attitude in his dinner speech: “It’s the freaking American way-you start out in a dangerous craphole and work hard so you can someday move up to a somewhat less dangerous craphole. And finally maybe you get a mansion.” As mentioned in class, I find the disparity her sickening. A person’s choices are A) dangerous craphole B) less dangerous craphole or C)Mansion. Where’s the middle class, 2 story, suburban house with the white picket fence? It’s like that American dream has disappeared for many people in this country.

Louis and Espada

I love both of these writers and how they use poetry to speak out about issues facing their people.

In “Dust World” Louis has several references to modern culture that I find interesting. The “’70 Chevy, and T Bird” both seem to reference the commercialism in America. While he lives in a “..sad, welfare world. This land that time forgot.”

Espada references this too in “The Skull Beneath the Skin of the Mango.” The lines: “…the wooden boxes exported to the States…” and “An American reporter, arms crowded with fruit…” both point out what the American consumer and business are taking from the country. Yet, they are suffering from slaughter and murder that is going unacknowledged by their government. The reporters “…muttered that slaughter is only superstition in a land of new treaties and ballot boxes.”

I think both poets make a similar point about the way impoverished and disenfranchised groups of people continually are taken advantage of and exploited. Therefore, reinforcing the cycle of poverty.

Louise Gluck

This is the first time I read Louise Gluck and I loved her poems! They were really beautiful. I like how she recounts the Odyssey tale in such simple language. The MAP site contains this quote from Gluck: “It seemed to me that simple language best suited this enterprise; such language, in being generic, is likely to contain the greatest and most dramatic variety of meaning within individual words.” It was also interesting how she varied the line lengths, point of view, etc. and each poem reads differently. “Circe’s Power” and “C’s Grief” are both told from the first person, with Circe as the narrator. All the other poems are third person. I like the last lines of both of the “Circe” poems, in which she reveals her longing for Odysseus. “If I wanted only to hold you/ I could hold you prisoner.” And “…if I am in her head forever/ I am in your life forever.”

Sherman Alexie

Alexie’s works seem to combat stereotypes about Native Americans with their sarcastic wit. In “How to write a great American Indian novel” he uses some of this sarcasm to describe stereotypes that are often portrayed of Native Americans. The last line of this poem is the most effective to me: “In the Great American Indian Novel, when it is finally written, all of the write people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts.” In my opinion, this line depicts what really happened between whites and Native Americans. Whites wanted land so bad, they killed for it. Alexie’s line reminds us of our greed toward the Native Americans and our desire to have what is really theirs.

T.C. Boyle

I read and loved Boyle’s book “Tortilla Curtain.” I would recommend it to anyone. This short story didn’t disappoint me either. So, I’m ready to read more by Boyle. I found an interview w/ Boyle (and also he reads some of his other stories aloud) online. Here’s the link if you’re interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLnthcN7jmU&feature=related At some point in the clip he says: “A great work of art, can appeal to everybody.” He believes that literature should have the ability to be readable to people from all walks of life.


In “Chicxulub” Boyle relates the disaster of losing a child to a natural disaster, that of a meteor hitting the earth. The impact the loss of a child has on a person hits them like the impact of the meteor. It could leave a massive crater in a parent’s heart. He mixes the 2 storylines back and forth so well, they tie together easily. “…the chances that a disaster of this magnitude will occur during any individual’s lifetime at roughly one in ten thousand, the same odds as dying in an auto accident in the next six months…” He notes how death is the thing that makes us equal. “…we, and all our works and worries and attachments, are so utterly inconsequential. Death cancels our individuality….” And, later he reflects on how powerless we are as humans to stop the meteor (or death of a loved one). In the end, the couple realizes it’s not their daughter after all. They are relieved, but the narrator realizes “…The rock is coming”…and sympathizes “For the Cherwins, it’s already here.”

Philip Levine

Levine’s poetry was interesting. I really had a hard time reading “Animals are Passing from Our Lives” and“ They Feed Lion,” the animal slaughter references are a little too much for me.

However, I loved reading “Fear and Fame!” The text notes that Levine: “took a number of working-class jobs; those, and the ruined industrial landscape of Detroit, helped shape the settings and political loyalties of his poems (925).” The job described in this poem seems extremely difficult and dangerous. “Then to arise and dress again in the costume of my trade for the second time that night, stiffened by the knowledge that to descend and rise up from the other world merely once in eight hours is half what it takes to be known among women and men (932).” It seems like no one really appreciated the hard job he had. “Oddly enough no one welcomed me back…” He couldn’t be known or acknowledged for what he did.