He also has several books of published poems, and many of them are available in Wright State's library. Some of his books are Americus : book I, Poetry as Insurgent Art, A Coney Island of the Mind, and San Francisco Poems.

The poet that I focused on in my Midterm essay was Catherine Wagner. In comparison with Denise Leverton, I found that while the subject matter that the two write about is drastically different, they do have a similarities in the way that they structure and style their poems.

Wagner is very comfortable with her sexuality and doesn't mind speaking very frankly about subjects such as sex, pregnancy, and child birth. Levertov on the other hand was more religious and lyrical in her poems, and she wrote more about her life, emotions, and things in nature. Both Wagner and Levertov seem to be very into taking advantage of the space that they are given to write with. Many of their poems are separated with extra space between stanzas, and many of their lines have been "tabbed" over to create extra spacing before words in a line. Wagner definitely uses spacing more than Levertov does, but it is clearly evident in both poet's writing. Another similarity that they have is their use of repetition. Wagner uses repetition quite frequently in her poems in order to reiterate and exaggerate certain points that she is trying to make or stress, and Levertov also uses repetition for that purpose. 

In regards to which poet is more challenging, I would definitely have to say that Catherine Wagner is more difficult to understand and read. Her extreme use of spacing can be very confusing to read at times, and the way in which she portrays her subject matter is a lot more cryptic and hard to pick up on than Levertov's is. Levertov's poetry is easier to relate to just because the reader can understand the message she is trying to portray a lot more quickly due to the fact that she uses nature and things that the reader is familiar with to talk about her subject matter. 

August 28, 2013


Poem 1

Nature, the gentlest mother,

Impatient of no child,

The feeblest or the waywardest,

Her admonition mild

 

In forest and the hill

By traveller is heard,

Restraining rampant squirrel

Or too impetuous bird.

 

How fair her conversation,

A summer afternoon,--

Her household, her assembly;

And when the sun goes down

 

Her voice among the aisles

Incites the timid prayer

Of the minutest cricket,

The most unworthy flower.

 

When all the children sleep

She turns as long away

As will suffice to light her lamps;

Then, bending from the sky

 

With infinite affection

And infiniter care,

Her golden finger on her lip,

Wills silence everywhere.

 

Poem 2

Frequently the woods are pink -
Frequently are brown.
Frequently the hills undress
Behind my native town.
Oft a head is crested
I was wont to see -
And as oft a cranny
Where it used to be -
And the Earth - they tell me -
On its Axis turned!
Wonderful Rotation!
By but twelve performed!

Journal #2

In class on Tuesday, we talked about different terms that we associate with poetry, and we watched a video about Emily Dickinson’s life. Some of the terms we discussed were iambic pentameter, haikus, couplets, sonnets, and imagery. In these two poems that I have chosen, Emily Dickinson uses a lot of imagery. The words that she uses really enable her readers to be able to paint a picture in their minds. She uses a great deal of detail in these poems by giving specific colors and settings for her readers to visualize.

 Another way that these two poems connect with Tuesday’s class is in the way that they display some of the facts that we learned from watching the video about Emily’s life. In the video, we were told that Emily was very smart and knew a lot more than the average woman about nature and science. This is very clear in her poems as she talks about subjects such as the rotation of the earth and the changing of things from day to night. Another aspect of her life that the video talked about was her relationship with her mother. Emily never really thought that her mother acted like a mother should act, and in the poem, she makes it clear what her view of the “gentlest mother” is, and how she sees that mother figure in nature.