Poetry Precis 9- "Tour" by Carol Snow

   In the poem "Tour", Carol Snow uses imagery and a peaceful tone to convey the message that often times, one cannot read situations simply based off of how they appear. Although the whole poem may seem to be simple at first glance to the reader, beneath the short and concise lines lies this deeper meaning. "Near a shrine in Japan he'd swept the path and then placed camellia blossoms there. Or- we had no way of knowing- he'd swept the path between fallen camellias" is how the speaker relays his or her message that one may not be able to tell how something occurs simply by looking at it on the surface level. The idea is that in this situation, the uncertainty of whether the man had "placed  camellia blossoms there" or had "swept the path between fallen camellias" remains an uncertainty. In other words, the speaker presents a question to the reader but the question cannot be answered; and that is the whole point. No one will ever know what truly happened and it is not worth it for anyone to make assumptions because of the fact that the only one who will ever know is the man who was there. Through her description of the setting using imagery, Snow reveals that often times, we are presented with situations that we are simply not able to uncover when looking at them from an outside perspective.

Poetry Precis 8- "Bad Day" by Kay Ryan

 In the poem "Bad Day", Kay Ryan uses a metaphor and a realistic tone to reveal how one's days may not always be easy or successful. "Not every day is a good day" is the first line of this poem which acts as a topic sentence, giving the reader an idea of the subject of this poem. In the next several lines, the speaker will develop a metaphor about a tailor that relates to something that all humans encounter.  While "Some days the stolen cloth reveals what it was made for" and the tailor has a clear cut idea about what he will craft, "some days neither the idea nor the material presents itself" and these are the times in which the tailor faces difficulty and a lack of creativity. In this metaphor, where the tailor is like any person, the "idea" represents an image or spark of creativity, while the "material" represents what is needed to carry out that vision in real life. In other words, often times not only do we not have a plan but we also do not have the resources to execute that plan. These kind of experiences are "the hard days for the tailor elf" as well as the hard days for us. This idea that sometimes we are unable come up with an idea as well as unable to accomplish that idea, is a message that Kay Ryan teaches the reader through the story of the tailor.

Poetry Precis 7- "The Farewell" by Edward Field

   In "The Farewell" by Edward Field, Field uses a metaphor to convey the fundamental message to the reader that often times, what others say cannot be trusted. This metaphor begins when a captain goes into the water because "they say the ice will hold" and he is "forced to believe them" by his "act of trusting people." "Naturally it gaps open" and subsequently the captain falls in, creating a metaphor for the reader that trusting others from the outside may result in an unexpected ending. This metaphor relates to the human condition; just as the sailor fell under ice as a result of him trusting others, so too are we vulnerable to failure and tragedy if we rely on others' words and thoughts. In the situation of the poem, the people had no way of knowing definitively that the ice would not break but even so, the speaker of the poem listened to them and was subsequently faced with death. Edward Field, through the metaphor that is "The Farewell", relays the consequences of trusting others through this story of the captain.

Poetry Precis 6- "Neglect" by R.T. Smith

In the poem "Neglect" by R.T.  Smith, Smith writes in an emotional tone as he uses imagery and a metaphor to tell a story and convey the hardships of loss. The speaker connects his experience of losing an apple tree and the aftermath of his experience to the regret and guilt humans go through when they consider their mistakes and regrets after losing a loved one. Upset because the apple tree that he neglected is now gone, the speaker uses imagery by asking if what he will remember will be "the scent of apple boughs smoking in the wood stove" and then continues with his regrets saying " I should have lopped the dead limbs early." Through the speaker's thoughts, he describes the process of coping; we have positive memories but we also think of what we did wrong to whatever we lost.  Instead of facing what has happened, the speaker is depressed as he or she continues to blame him or herself saying "I should have" this and that, something that we tend to do when tragedies of loss occur. The speaker says " but I was too enchanted by pear saplings, flowers and the pasture, too callow to believe that death's inevitable for any living being unloved, untended" showing how we become distracted by things in life and then, when someone or something that we once invested in is taken away from us, it is as if we cannot believe that it is really possible that they are gone. Through imagery and the overall metaphor of the tree being a lost loved one, the speaker is able to communicate the struggles that loss bring about and the difficulty of finding a way to cope with the harshness of it. 

Poetry Precis 5-"The Bat" by Theodore Roethke

     Written by Theodore Roethke, "The Bat" is a poem which conveys a message about the real fear of humans through its metaphors and a storytelling tone. Throughout this poem, "the bat" acts as a metaphor which represents "the unknown". To accomplish this, the speaker portrays the bat as a confusing and creepy creature as it is a "cousin to the mouse" and one that likes the "attic of an aging house". The creature is unpredictable and acts in a way that humans find scary during the night. When people see unfamiliar scenes, like a bat who "brushes up against a screen", "we are afraid of what our eyes have seen". This is not saying in the literal sense that humans are scared of bats in general but instead, this idea suggests that when something unexpected or unfamiliar happens, humans become the most fearful. The last line of the poem which says that something is "amiss or out of place when mice with wings can wear a human face", adds on to the message of this poem, explaining that perhaps what humans are most scared of is the ability for other humans to be so unpredictable.By comparing the bat to the unknown and then in the last stanza, to the unpredictability of humans, Theodore Reothke relays a message of truth to the readers which is that the things that are unfamiliar to us are the things that scare us most. 

Poetry Precis 4- "At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border"

 In the poem, "At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border" William E. Strafford uses a bitter tone through which the message that places of war are not the only ones to recognize. From the first line of the first stanza, "this is the field where the battle did not occur", the speaker states that the piece of land which he will describe is not a battlefiled but instead just a place where peace thrives.  "This is the field where grass joined hands, where no monument stands" yet since no one died here, this place is not considered monumental or valuable. In the second and final stanza of this poem, the speaker shows how this  "ground hallowed by neglect" has become a place where the air is "so tame that people celebrate it by forgetting its name." Through this statement and the rest of the poem, the speaker conveys how this simple place that has experienced no violence but instead, compromise and agreement, is not celebrated or spoken about because all the focus lies on battlefields and places with monuments of wars. The speaker's point is that the places that should be remembered are often the places where no monument lies because it is typical for monuments to stand where wars occurred but not where peace prospered. 

Poetry Precis 3- "Do you Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"

   In the poem "Do you Have Any Advice for Those of Us Just Starting Out?", Ron Koertge uses imagery to help maintain a counseling tone as he teaches the importance of maintaining a balance between studying and going out into the world. In the first stanza, the speaker tells the reader his idea stating directly, "Give up sitting dutifully at your desk" and then "Go out into the world". In the next stanza, when the speaker says that one should carry a "cheap" notebook "with pages the color of weak tea and on the front a kitten or a space ship", the speaker uses imagery as he includes colors and descriptions to explain his point that one should not invest too much in their notebook both in the metaphorical and literal sense. In the third stanza, the speaker says "Avoid any enclosed space where more than three people are wearing turtlenecks" and then in the fourth he says "the perfect place in a library is near an aisle where a child a year or two old is playing", emphasizing his belief that it is crucial to understand the value of splitting your time between enjoying life and working by showing that one can sit in a library but at the same time, allow himself to be distracted at times. Towards the end of the poem, the speaker uses strong imagery as he express show life should be, advising the reader tp "Laugh so loud everybody in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh". From start to finish, Ron Koertge's imagery allows him to clearly convey his ideas throughout his poem.