Response to My Papa's Waltz

My Papas waltz is a poem made in the 1940s about a son and his father "waltzing".  I myself, really liked this poem.  It's one of those poems I feel like is just fun to read.  It all fits nicely together and is very smooth.  Underneath all of that, the poem is more complex with many different layers.  At first you don't really think much of it, you just see it as a kid and his father dancing.  Then you see it as maybe the father is abusing the son.  Then after you've noticed that you start debating with yourself whether or not he's abusing his son and you try to look for little things in the text to lead one way or the other.

All in all, I thought this was a great piece of literature

Yeah

So I'm on the train
Yeah
And I'm not feeling any pain
Yeah

And like there's this guy
Yeah
And he keeps screaming why
Yeah

Why is life
Yeah
Why do people give strife
Yeah

And this guy is homeless
Yeah
And he kinda smells like piss
Yeah

But he's saying something real
Yeah
Something meaningful on one meal
Yeah

The guys saying what's on his mind
Yeah
He's asking himself why should i be kind
Yeah

This guy, he's like saying what's up
Yeah
Saying how he feels, and his job is holding a cup
Yeah

And i got off, cause it's court street
Yeah
And I start walking to a new beat

Yeah.

Poem on important incident

Why,
What a fine sunny day
That I have seen today

So I,
Took a walk down the street
Say hi to everyone I meet

And,
I'm very very happy
And I'm feeling awfully awfully sappy

When I,
Look down to see the poo
See the poo on my brand new shoe.

Poem off work of art

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/americanscene/images/GrantWood-American-Gothic-1930.jpg

He is an old man
She is an old woman
Together
They are an old married couple

They fight in the day
As they do their chores
They fight at night
And hit the sack at 8

The man likes his pitchfork
It is his oldest companion
The woman complains
Says he likes the pitchfork more than her

It is sunny outside
The horses paw at the ground
The old man looks up
And begins to frown

Response to "Starry Night"

When reading and listening to this poem, I felt and thought a couple of different things.  At first, from just reading it once and skimming it over, I didn't think much of it.  I just saw it as this lady trying to make a poem deeper that it need being.  I just looked at it appeared to look like, and not what was underneath.  I judged it before i really thought it through.

Reading it a second time and really thinking it through, I realized that there was more to it.  I saw a connection between her and Van Gough when he drew the painting and what she thought he was thinking.  She created her own version and her own story behind what Van Gough was thinking when he was drawing the painting.

Then, after we discussed the poem in class and i found out she committed suicide, it made me reread the poem and see that it was suicidal.  She's talking about How she wants to die, but she writes it like this: "This is how
         I want to die"
She makes I want to die it's own separate line. 

Observations on Visual Art

http://home.sprynet.com/~bdsalern/american.jpg

Observations: Big white building in the background, every window has curtains, two people (woman and man probably husband and wife), the man is wearing a white shirt covered in a black jacket, the man is holding a pitchfork, the man is balding and seems elderly, he is wearing glasses, the woman is completely covered in 3 different visible layers, her hair is up, the man is looking at you but the woman is looking away, there is a red barn-like house in the background, behind the houses are a lot of trees, the woman is slightly standing behind the man.

Inferences: I think that the setting is on a farm, I think their religious because of the way they are dressed and because they look like they're from the 19th century a time period where religion was very important, i think they are married because there is one house in the background and by the way they are both in the same portrait.

Interpretations:  I think the artist was, had a connection to, or had an interest in farmers in the nineteenth century, I think the artist was trying to say something by making the woman be slightly behind the man and having the woman being looking away.