Full of similes.

"Dream Deferred" is made almost entirely of similes. It uses these to show what could happen to a dream that is deferred. The function of these similes is to create a vivid image of what could happen to the dream. The reader gets a clear image of a dream shriveling up like a raisin into something that cannot be attained. Each simile creates a worse image of what could happen to the dream, and no one wants their dreams to become those images. What person wants their dream to seep puss? This creates a desire to follow ones dreams, which is what the author is trying to cause through his poem.
The last simile creates my favorite image. An exploding dream almost seems dangerous. This forces the reader to think that they could be harmed by their deferred dream. Though the author doesn't specifically state which simile describes what happens when a dream is deferred, he makes the author think of possibilities, none of which sound pleasant.

not about a spider.....

The poem "The Widow's Lament in Springtime" is obviously about a sad widow, so I'm not going to talk about that. I'm going to focus on the springtime part of the title. A widow can easily be sad in winter or summer or fall, so why make the poem take place in the spring? Spring is characterized by flowers, and it is these flowers that set off her sadness. She used to see beauty in the flowers, but now she forgets their true beauty. She now sees her dead husband in them. Maybe she thinks of the flowers at his funeral, or maybe they just remind her of him, but either way, it is the flowers of spring that amplify her sadness. Her son sees happiness in the distant, free field of flowers, but the widow is hesitant to see the happiness there. She wants to go to that place and sink into the marsh near the flowers, but for some reason she doesn't. I see that reason as one of her not being comfortable leaving her yard. Though it makes her sad, it reminds her of her husband. She doesn't want to leave a place that brings him to her mind. Though it would benefit her to leave, and she knows that it would, she can't bring herself to doing it.

Emily, you worry me.

Emily Dickinson's "I felt a funeral, in my Brain" is disturbing. If taken literally, it is about a person who is dead and writing about witnessing their own funeral from inside the casket. Why on earth would a person want to write that? I just don't get it.
Now that that's off my chest, I can do some analyzing. The fact that she says she feel a funeral in her brain, not her head, makes me think that there isn't any physical pain, just emotional pain. She seems to be having some sort of mental troubles that cause her to feel like she is dying, not physically, but mentally. She is wearing "boots of lead" that are weighing her down and hindering her progression out of her troubles. Some think that it has to do with her having an emotional breakdown, which I can see, but I think she is just depressed. She is still sane enough to understand what is happening, so she is only thinking, or maybe hoping, that this funeral would happen to her. No matter what is happening to her, it isn't good and she realizes that. She needs help. Or maybe she just shoulda had a V8.

And the twains converge.

The point of "The convergence of the Twains" is to show appreciation for the Titanic, yet mourn for its loss. It speaks of the "jewels in joy designed" and how the ship was beautifully designed. It speaks of how it had noble goals and had wonderful "structure, grace, and hue." It then compares the growing of the ship to the growing of the iceberg that ended it. The iceberg and the ship were both of grand size and beauty. They were two separate beings that coincidentally crossed paths and one ended the other. The poem, though about a sad topic, does not focus on a sad message. It focuses on the slender that was in the wreck and the beauty that remained afterwards. It gives the reader a different perspective on the wreck. Though it is an unusual one, I like it better than a sad perspective.

I don't remember it looking like this.....

The poem "London" has an extremely melancholy tone. Every line speaks of people's sadness and crying and sighs and blood. It is just terrible. I have been to London and I thought it was a pretty happy place, but I'm sure the writer was speaking of a time other than 2009. However, if the goal of the poet was to create the melancholy tone, he was very successful. The first three stanzas are all about the people. Their sadness, their children's sadness, and their blood. The reader gets a very sad feeling after reading the poem, because every word has a sad feeling to it. The line that really shows this is "the hapless soldier's sigh runs in blood down the Palace walls." An image of soldier's blood on a castle is about as gruesome and sad as it gets. The word "cry" is also repeated in multiple stanzas which adds to the tone. Though I like happy poems, I can definitely see that the poems tone is conveyed very well.

Oh the poems.

Well the poem "To Autumn" really confuses me. With poems, I want them to have some secret meaning, but this one doesn't seem to have that. I am going to focus on its imagery though. The fruits such as grapes and apples that it focuses on help bring the season of autumn to life. It also appeals to the sense of touch. The first line mentions the "season of mists," which I imagined on my skin after I read that. One can hear the "wailful choir" of gnats and see the "barred clouds" in the sky. Though the poem isn't that exciting, it is a wonderful example of effective imagery. The author, John Keats, uses this imagery to make his view of the season of fall come to life in the readers mind. The reader remembers and experiences the senses that the writer appeals to. The tone of the poem is a happy one due to the enhanced images of autumn. They bring to mind bright colors, good tastes, and pleasant smells that create that happy tone. The theme of the beauty of autumn is also brought out through the vivid imagery.

If his head got any bigger...

When I read the poems that Perrine references, I interpretted them as his students did. After he explains his thoughts on them, his way of seeing them makes sense too, but why would a poet write a poem that needs a secret formula for interpretation? Literature is one of those subjects that has no specific formula for success. It is not an exact science, but rather an art, so it cannot be treated like a science. I'm sure that Perrinne has many papers that say he knows a lot more about literature than I do, but that doesn't mean he can make some law for correct reading of poetry. I think that he wants to make it easier for him to grade his students' papers by giving all poems a right and wrong meaning. Yes, I can't make every poem on earth mean whatever I want, but if a poem says "Daffodil" in it, it isn't a stretch to say it's about flowers. I don't like that Perrinne has a very arrogant tone in this essay and tries to make all of us seem like fools for thinking the logical thing about a poem. He needs to get a grip and realize that he sounds rather ridiculous.
On a more academic note, there were some things that he said that made sense to me. He talks about not making assumptions, and I like that. Certain words like "Daffodil" can have more than one implication and forcing one definition to fit the rest of the poem is probably not the best way to go about interpretting poems. I also like that he says that all of the details need to work together. The poet has very few words to express their thoughts, so each word is chosen carefully. Each detail centers around a specific theme and if one detail does not fit one's interpretation, they probably have some flaw in it. Despite that, there still can be multiple interpretations that can fit a poem. I realize that poets write poems with one interpretation in mind, but poets as well as Mr. Perrinne need to realize that most poems can be seen in more than one way.