April 1st

PHEWWW! I did not pass out or stumble while reciting Sunday Afternoons.  I was the first one in class and desperately wanted to go first, I felt like I would not be able to focus on any one else's poem until I recited mine.  Jenna came in the room and declared she wanted to go first, so I quickly called "dibs" on second.  Once Jenna finished I walked up to the front of the room and began my recitation.  I stayed confident and was able to get through the poem without a hitch.  To be honest though it was the questions I was most worried for because you cannot prepare yourself 100% for those.  Thankfully the questions that were asked were all about things that I had already written about in my journal.  I think I might miss my poem to be honest, I kind of wish we had to write a final paper on the poem.  There is always more to look at in a poem and I think I could honestly spend another month with Sunday Afternoons.

March 28th

Well this is my last blog.  Tomorrow I will recite my poem in front of the class and have to answer the questions of my peers.  There are a bunch of kids in my class who I know will ask some pretty tough questions, so I have been rereading my journals to brush up on my analysis.

I feel like I have honestly analyzed this poem as much as I can.  I have looked at each aspect of the poem several times and while I may not 100% understand everything, I have at least tried to.  I have been practicing my recitation all weekend, so much that I think my roommate could recite it in front of the class tomorrow.  While reciting it to him and his girlfriend, I realized the poem began to sound more like a monologue than a poem.  Since it is written in the first person, I was able to show a great deal of emotion.  It really took me back to my drama days back in high school, but then I realized I couldn't get to into acting it out because I was doing this in front of the class.  The poem is truly about the memories the author had add as a child and him trying to recreate his frustration in writing.  He recreates the memories he has with his brothers and highlights his struggle to become an adult and grow out of being a child.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

March 27th

So I have been avoiding the ending of this poem like the plague.  I have seen how the speaker wants to be an adult and move away from his childhood, but the reference to the moon and the mirror comes out of no where for me.  I understand that the mirror has to do with him being able to see into the room and that because the "door halved the dresser mirror" it must be open.  Which goes back to my point yesterday of why would they leave the door open?  That honestly just seems wrong to me.  I do not understand why they would want their children to experience any of their sexual experience.  I think this just shows how bad of parents the speaker had.  I could be reading this completely wrong though.

March 26th

So today I am decided to go back to what I wrote about in one of my first journals.  I mentioned how latching a screen door is not the most efficient way to keep someone out, if that is your goal.  The same goes for when the speaker's parents "pull venetian blinds,"  the poem does not say they close the windows they marly pull the shades down.  While the parents are definitely trying to keep their children out of the house, I wonder if they are purposely not locking the house completely up.  And despite their effort to prevent the boys from seeing, the speaker says in the end "I knew if I held my right hand above my eyes like a gambler's visor, I could see how their bedroom door halves the dresser mirror like a moon held prisoner in the house."  Clearly their is ways in which the boys could see what is happening, and I fail to understand why the parents would halfhazardly prevent the boys from looking in.  What do they not want them to see, but want them to hear?

March 25th

Ok so the struggle continues.  I am so glad that I volunteered to recite on Tuesday because I do not think I could do two more days of this.  Not there isn't enough to right on, I just feel constrained by this poem now.  I want to read other poems by Komunyakaa and other authors.  I've reached the point that I feel like i could write an 8 page paper on a single line of this poem.  There is just too much to even write.  Once you think you've figured it out, there's always more.

Going along with the idea of constraint though (bringing it back to the poem).  There are actually quite a few words that point to the speaker feeling trapped.  For example: "latch" in line one and "not to leave" in line two.  Well that was way less than I thought, but I guess there is a general sense in the poem of the speaker trying to escape.  He is not yet trying to escape his home or life, but almost move on from his childhood.  The speaker is ready to be an adult, but he feels constrained by his parents and more specifically his lack of knowledge.

March 24th

Well look at this, according to www.poets.org (obviously one of my top visited sites on the internet) Yusef Komunyakaa was born in 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisiana.  He was the oldest of five sons of a carpenter.  Knowing just this small bit of information leads to further believe that "Sunday Afternoons" is written from Yusef's personal experiences.   He was from the South and that is where this poem is set.  The speaker of the poem is clearly older than his other siblings and Yusef was the eldest of five children.  All of his siblings were boys and that is another similarity from his life to the poem.  The speaker in the poem seems to know he want to be an adult poet someday, and you guessed it Yusef is now a poet.  Yusef must use his childhood experiences as inspiration for his writings.

March 23rd

I kind of want to take another look at stanza four.  I think I previously said that the "gospel" music was played by the brothers to mask the sounds of their parents coming from inside of the house.  They blast the radio as "loud as shattered glass in a Saturday-night argument about trust and money."  While the volume of the music can be determined by this phrase, there is much more to be understand, as you unpack it.  The brother's parents obviously have a very flawed marriage and fighting is nothing new for them.  It is evident that these fights sometimes grow violent.  This gospel music might even remind the boys of these arguments that have become almost routine.  It seems like the author is talking from first hand experience.  I ma going to look him up on the world wide web for tomorrows entry!

March 22nd - Where my literary devices at?

Well it is becoming increasingly difficult to find things to write about every day.  Today I decided to move away from analyzing and look at the poem to find some literary devices.  I have read online that Yusef loves using similes and sometimes criticized for over using them.  In this poem I picked out only three similes in the latter half of the poem.  The first appears in stanza six, "The backyard trees breathed like a man running from himself."  This line is also personification.  The next two appear in the final stanza, "Like a gambler's visor" and "The dresser mirror like a moon Held prisoner in the house."

March 21st

I never really noticed this until today, but I am almost positive this poem takes place in the American South.  You can tell by the word choice of the author.  He writes "mayhaw" and "saw vines," both of which are southern terms.  These terms refer to hawthorne and briar plants respectively, so it is clear the author was intentional in using the southern terms.  In stanza four he also mentions "gospel" playing on the radio.  The most popular audience for gospel music is in the south.

March 20th

I can see now the speaker is more or less the author of the poem.  I think Yusef is writing this from personal experiences that he has had.  I think one of the greatest moments in the poem is when he comes to a realization in the sixth stanza of the poem.  He really separates himself from his brothers.  He defines himself as the oldest and most wise brother.  The speaker makes it seem as though he seeks to be a poet when he grows old.  I know this may seem like a stretch, but I truly think that this may be the moment in his life that Yusef decided he wanted to write.

March 19th

From the first stanza of the poem, the speaker refers to himself in the plural.  The reader infers that the "we" refers to the speaker and his siblings.  There is a shift though after the fourth stanza.  In the fifth stanza the "we" turns into "I".  The attention is then placed on the main speaker instead of the collective experience of all the siblings.  The brothers obey the parents and stay away from the house as evident in line 29, "As my brothers backed away from the screen door."  The speaker stay, fighting to see what happens behind his parent's closed doors.  Seeking knowledge of the adult world that he so not yet apart of.

March 18th - Animalistic Nature

We have all heard the melody melody"Lets do it like they do on the discovery channel" from that song that no one knows the name of nor who sings it.  My point here is that we as humans do in fact have animalistic instincts and these transform from when we are children to when we are adults.  In the poem the siblings are locked out of the house, but because they are curious children they literally get n touch with their natural side; Interacting with all of the "wild" things they know. They become "drunk" off of mayhaw juice and pestered the birds that nested in their yard.  While the children are doing this, their parents are doing "adult things" specifically the animalistic action of sexual intercourse.  It is not until stanza four do any of the siblings try to go back to the house.

March 17th

Figured out the egg stuff, OH YEAH!  So wouldn't you be pissed if every week you were kicked out of your house so your parents could do the naughty?  I know I would be pretty pissed.  It is evident that the speaker is angry by his behavior, but it is also clear in line ten when the author writes "speckled eggs, blue as rage."  He is mad just as much as he is curious what is going on.  Most people, when they are children, have to deal with the mysteries of their parents and figuring out what noises are heard on the other side of closed doors.  In this poem, the speaker deals with this struggle.  The egg also
seems to conjure an image of nature futility along with the image of dogs in heat.  These are both natural sexual things that may be referring to the sexual phase in which the siblings currently lie.

On a side note, today's CRAW class was probably our funniest to date.

March 16th

The word "and" does not appear in this poem.  Instead the author uses the symbol "&."  I do not know why he did this. 

March 15th

So when people have sex they tend to make noise.  Looking at lines 21 and 22, the author says "we were born between Oh yeah and Goddamit."  Now, I don't want to be too dirty, but I think this phrase could be referring to the words his parents "cry" while they have sex.  Looking deeper into the phrase it almost seems like their birth may have been a mistake.  Let me explain. People have sex for pleasure and some don't think of the consequences.  When the author says "Oh Yeah" he refers to the pleasure part of sex.  The "Goddamit" refers to the onset of the consequence.  When he says "we were born between" he is referring to the instance between the pleasure of sex and the reaction to the consequence.  I think it is clear that their birth was an unexpected consequence of sex.

March 14th

Well this poem has basically memorized itself.  Since I have been focusing on it stanza by stanza I just need to make sure I orate them in the correct order.

The first four stanzas end with a period, but the next three are all linked by the continuations of sentences in the previous stanza.  I wonder why this is?  This also goes back to my point that the lines are very odd, in that they are not separate ideas nor unique in any way.  The sentences are what rule this poem, not even the stanzas.  It seems like the poem was just broken up into stanzas because it had to be and not because it made sense in the though process, but maybe I am completely wrong.

March 13th

Where is the Rhyming?  What is so special about the way this poem is formed?  It seems more like sentences then lines of a poem.  I feel like the lines are very useless.  They are very short and seem to only give a reference for where certain words appear.  I know that this is not true, but without a rhyme it is hard to see the purpose.

March 12th

Today I specifically looked at line 14 and 15.  "When we followed the hawk's slow deliberate arc?"  Literally the phrase refers to the speaker and his brothers looking up at a Hawk in the sky and trying to follow its path on the ground.  I picture the brothers running through a field and looking up at the hawk, not looking where they are going.  Looking at its context in the poem I feel the words "slow and deliberate" in line fifteen are very important.  They describe the hawk, but I think they very nicely contrast to the behavior of the brothers.  The brothers are getting "lost" and "drunk," which are pretty much the opposites of deliberate.

Also, adding to yesterdays post, "dogs in June Dust and heat" could also be a contrast to the boys.  In the Summer heat of June, dogs are not very active, but the brothers, on the other hand are.

March 11th

Why cant there be a summary to this poem online?  I know I should be looking only in my own mind for details about the poem, but i just have so many questions.  There are so many things I don't understand the meaning behind.

I'm abandoning my egg quest and am going to turn my attention to the third stanza.  Starting with line thirteen there are a few things I want to look at.  "Watching dogs in June Dust and heat" is a very odd phrase.  June seems to be giving the reader further details as to the time in which the poem is taking place.

Dogs may be paired with watching to compare the brothers to watch dogs.  Watch dogs are curious about everything and look out for the family.  These brothers are curious and are acting somewhat like watch dogs.  Although I dont necessarily think Yusef is trying to get the reader to imagine the brothers as dogs.

March 10th

In stanza three the speaker says "Where did we learn to be unkind", referring to him and his brothers.  The first thing that comes to mind is that these boys learned this from their parents.  It also reinforces my point that the boys are up to no good while they are locked out of the house.  Whether it is actually stealing a bird's eggs or other forms of mischief, it seems as though their parents behavior is the reason they are doing this.

March 9th

Today I am going back to the "egg" reference.  Yusef refers to the egg in lines ten and twelve.  I wonder if the speaker and his brothers are actually stealing eggs from a"hawks"nest or does it refer to something else.  Is the egg suppose to make a reference to birth, or to the youthfulness, of the speaker and his brothers? I really have no idea at this point.  Literally I think the lines do refer to the brothers stealing eggs from a bird, but I do not think that is the message the author is trying to send to the reader.  For now I am thinking he just wants us to see that the boys are up to no good, but I will read more into it in the future.

March 8th- The Spy Who Shagged Me

Yesterday, I said that the speaker and his brother spy on their parents in the poem.  I am now questioning if this is true.  Beginning in line 22 the speaker says " I knew life Began where I stood in the dark, looking out into the light, and that sometimes I could see Everything through nothing."  Trying to literalize this proves difficult.  I know the speaker is outside during the poem and it is afternoon, so I do not know how he is standing in the dark. It could possibly refer to when he was born, but I am not sure.

In line 29, the author writes, " My brothers backed away from the screen door."  This seems like they are scared to go into the house and/or see what is going on inside.  There is a possibility for the boys to see what is happening , which is evident in lines 31-35.  The speaker says "If I held my right hand above my eyes like a gambler's visor, I could see how their bedroom door halved the dresser mirror like a moon held prisoner in the house."  While they did not want to see what was happening, the mirror was trapper and had to watch.  I wonder if they can see the reflection on the mirror.

March 7th

So now that I think I have figured about what this poem is "about," I feel like I chose it for all the wrong reason and am slightly embarrassed about what I thought it was about in previous posts. However, I am intrigued by this twist in meaning and look forward to learning even more.

While reading the poem today I see that the speaker's "Sunday Afternoons" are similar from week to week.  It seems there are almost rituals that he and his brothers do every Sunday.  These rituals include getting into trouble, eating the tree fruit around their house, listening to the radio, and spying on their parents.  While the speaker and his brothers know they are not suppose to be inside, I sense there is still some curiosity as to why.  Although I am not sure at this point if they actually know what their parents are doing in the house.

March 6th- Make Up Sex

This revelation I had yesterday about sex makes even more sense now.  Looking at stanza four the reference to sex is clear as day.  "In the yard, we heard cries," the speaker and his brothers are hearing the noises his parents are making inside the house.  The speaker seems to be trying to drown out the sound out with "gospel on the radio" but it does not seem to be working.  The reference to a "Saturday night argument" makes it seem as though this maybe make-up sex.  Their parents me have fought last night about "trust and money" and now a day later have finally gotten over the fight.

March 5th- Doing the Naughty

Trying to clear up the parts of the poem that I did not understand yesterday, I decided to look up a few words in the Oxford English Dictionary.  The first word I looked up was "Speckled" which appears in line ten.  Before looking it up, I assumed the word meant spotted.  While filtering through the many definitions in OED, I found one that describes the word as meaning consistent with something.  I'm not sure why, but that seems to be the most appropriate definition in this context.

I also looked up "rage" as it appears in line ten.  Most definitions point to some kind of anger or violence.  But one points to sexual desire.  REVELATION!  I now see the reference to sex and understand that the speaker was not being kept in the house, rather he was kept outside of the house so his parents could have sex.  Yes I said it SEX.

March 4

When reading the poem aloud there is a shift in line nine.  The author brings up the topic of a nest and eggs.  This is a clear divergence from playing in the yard.  The nest and eggs clearly connects with the birds "diving through the saw vines".  The author says "Each nest held three or four. speckled eggs, blue as rage".  There is a sense of uncertainty when he says "three or four", as if there is no definite answer.  The "nests" may refer to houses in the speakers neighborhood and the eggs could be the children in each house.  As for why the eggs are "speckled" or "blue as rage,"  I am still not sure.

March 3rd

So I went to El Paso over Spring Break for an immersion trip and did not have access to a computer so I will be posting my entrees for the last week and a half this evening with the date I wrote them as the title.

Today I focused on the second stanza.  There is no real rhyme scheme except for the slant rhyme between "rage" and "brave".  I understand that the "juice" mentioned in line six refers to the mayhaw and crab apple in the first stanza.  However, I do not understand the reference to drunk and brave.  The speaker compares himself and whomever he is with to birds diving through saw vines.  The footnote tells me that saw vines refers to saw palmetto, which is a palm plant that produces berries.  These berries were used by Native Americans as medicine, and I assume the palms are prickly so that may be why only brave birds would fly through them.  Native Americans are also considered to be brave quite often, but that seems like a stretch.  I also now can see that brave is also referring to how the speaker escaped his yard and got "lost" despite the fact that it seems someone was trying to keep him inside.

poems, poems, poems,

Well I have been writing my second paper for CRAW poetry the passed couple of days and the thought of already diving into another seemed so much better yesterday.  My head ached as I read "Sunday Afternoons" today, trying to find meaning behind the words, while also trying to pay attention to sound, themes, diction...the list goes on and on.  Instead of trying to go at it all at once (hey I do have an entire month with this poem) I'm going to take it line by line.

When the author writes "They'd latch the screen doors," it makes me think of how my mother use to do the same thing.  My father would always laugh because by latching the screen door, who is really being kept out or in, one can just push through the screen.  I feel as though the author was also making a reference to the fact that to "latch the screen doors & pull venetian blinds shut" will actually not be able to keep the speaker trapped, as "They" would like.

I do have a few questions about these first two lines.  Who is "they"? Who are "they" trying to keep in? Who are "they" telling not to leave? Why the "&" symbol and not the word "and"?

Love at First Sight

After frantically remembering at 3:30 that I needed to go to Professor Mulrooney's office to chose my poem for our recitation exercise, I ran from Lehy (where I reside with my roommate Jeff) all the way to Fenwick to find only two other students patiently waiting.  Turns out Professor Mulrooney forgot that we were coming and had to print out the list of twenty poems on the fly and post it on his door.  I walked over to the list and immediately began to scan for authors I knew.  I feverishly flipped through my Norton Anthology of Poetry and tried to see which poem caught my eye.  After many page turnings and whirl wind reads of some pretty complex poems, I began just to look at the titles.  The one that stuck out to me was "Sunday Afternoons" by Yusef Komunyakaa.  Sunday Afternoons are where I often contemplate life and have had some very fond memories, so despite the poems length I signed my name away, making a month long commitment to this poem.  Instead of a written journal or a typed word document, I decided to create a blog to record my thoughts on the poem instead.  I will use this blog to reflect upon "Sunday Afternoons" daily and will had photos and videos along the way.

Today I read the poem only twice, and compared what I envision to occur on a Sunday Afternoon and what the author actually writes about in the poem.  While not what I would have written about, the author uses some great imagery that allowed me to vividly see in my mind what (I currently think) he is writing about.  I can see kids running around and enjoying the wilderness, being curious in their ways.

My past girlfriends have said I am afraid of commitment, but I look forward to my month with this poem, so I can dissect it word by word, line by line, stanza by stanza and attempt to piece together what the author truly wants the reader to get out of it.