Wendy Cope “Lonely Hearts”

This poem was appealing to me because it had a lot to do with feeling. In my opinion this poem is about the wish and desire of every person to find someone to spend the rest of their lives with. I thought it was funny though that all these people were put ads in the personals column to find someone. In my opinion that is no way to meet someone. I also thought that it was funny that all these different people were from the same place, “North London.” If there are so many people in the same place looking for their “special someone,” I would think they would go out and try to find them; not just put an ad in the personal’s column.

WORD COUNT: 125

Carl Sandburg “Grass”

This poem is very unique. It is told from the view of an inanimate object, grass. I found it interesting because it uses allusion to help make a point to the audience. In this poem different war battles are alluded to. For example, the battle of Austerlitz, Waterloo, and Gettysburg are named. When referring to these battles, the poem talks about the people who died in them. It says to pile the men high and bury them. Then the grass continues to narrate the poem and says, “let me work – I am the grass; I cover all.” I found it interesting to compare the men who died to the grass that will last forever. The grass will always be there and it will always cover those who die; however, I found the most interesting part at the end. The grass seems to erase what happened there, at the battles. When people go by they ask where they are like nothing significant ever happened there. After the grass grew over all the buried bodies, it’s like what happened there was erased or forgotten.

WORD COUNT: 182

Oedipus

Over all I really enjoyed the story of Oedipus. It was very interesting as a tragedy because one always assumes that the main character never has anything bad happen to them. They always end up surviving what ever killed everyone else and they are the hero. But is Oedipus a hero in this story? I've pondered this a while since we read it. In an obvious way, no he is not. He is the one that killed the last king and brought doom on his city in the first place. However, in the end he leaves the city. He does not return which, in a way saves the rest. So, the last thing we have to look at is motive. In my opinion, I have no opinion. This is a difficult decision because he was ignorant to his actions for so long and he had no idea about their consiquence.

WORD COUNT: 150