Poetry--Reader Response

Overall I liked both poetry books equally well, but in completely different ways. Mary Oliver's serene look on life is really easy and calming to read and her imagery and use of word flow is very effecting. Her subjects are interesting in the way she describes them and the randomness of poems like "Flying" is a nice break in between sad poems like "Ghosts" and "An Old Whore House." However, Billy Collins seems almost like the opposite. Although both authors have endings that often don't seem to fit their beginnings, Collins' subject choice seems much more day to day, which is refreshing. I especially like what I translated as a jibe at Oliver's dramatic flare with "To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years From Now." I found Collins to be more amusing than Oliver, but both are equally entertaining.

Oliver's "John Chapman" was the first poem of hers that really caught my literary eye. I wonder what the poem is saying about women, or perhaps men, when a character like Chapman who "honored everything...spoke/only once of women and his gray eyes/brittled into ice: 'Some/are deceivers'"(24). Were the author male, I would assume this is a sexist remark, but coming from Oliver I don't know how to take it. Obviously some women are deceivers, but the same could be true for men, so why would Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) make such a derogatory statement? The end of the poem struck me on a deeper note. "[H]e became the good legend, you do/what you can if you can; whatever//the secret, and the pain,//there's a decision: to die,/or to live, to go on/caring about something" (25). When I read this I paused for a moment and reread the last three stances (stanzas?) to appreciate the full meaning. Care about something and leave your mark, become a legend and a symbol for others to follow.

"Tecumseh" was the other most poignant poem for me to read. "There's a sickness/worse than the risk of death and that's/forgetting what we should never forget" (77). The poem basically appreciates the loss of Native American culture and I felt like the poem is a final encouragement for us to at least attempt to make amends.

Collins’ poems are completely different and yet also the same. I never know what the message will be until I reach the very end of the poem and read the last few lines twice trying to comprehend the full meaning. There are some poems which I still don’t understand why he wrote: Egypt and Duck/Rabbit. Yet there are others that I appreciate too much to question. “Marginalia” may be my favorite poem in the book because I can relate to it so much. Staining books is a sin I feel sorry about daily, especially library books. As well as the need to write in the obvious, my copy of Monkey Bridge is littered with statements like “irony” or “symbolic??”. More importantly though, is the end of the poem. “‘Pardon the egg salad stains, but I’m in love” (16). This really brings back the deeper meaning of things to me. Why need I worry about staining the pages of a worn book, there are so many more important things in life, and at least such metaliteral communications will amuse later readers.

“Victoria’s Secret” is the poem I’m sure people will be talking about. The imagery amazed me because I could imagine each ostentatious pose. My favorite line is “What do I care, her eyes say, we’re all going to hell anyway” (57). Each elongated description of the clothing just adds to the pompousness that I think we often forget is inherent in a catalogue, nay a store, such as Victoria’s Secret. Mr. Collins, I salute thee.

Both books have given me a new appreciation of poetry. I still don’t understand the nuances, but I like it anyway. My ignorance is helping my bliss in this case and I may be sad once we must study the symbolism of the location of breaks in the line, which I missed entirely and eventually gave up looking for.