Mark Strand's Eating Poetry

Construct a close reading of this poem that demonstrates your awareness of the poet’s body of work.

Wendell Berry’s “The Pleasures of Eating” is a strong-opinioned article on how and why people (in his view) take for granted the food they are served and nourished with everyday. The read itself is lengthy in the fact that the first three pages don’t mean that much; the numbered bullet points starting on page four outline what the author was trying to say throughout the whole piece. Berry is such a smooth writer with a strong vocabulary, that reader’s like myself could have trouble staying on topic with his side thoughts in just about every sentence. In dissecting his bullet points, I think this will serve as a good summary and personal reflection. The first point is about growing our own food to feel the reward and labor that many farmers

In line 5, the adverb ‘coupling’ is describing the couple as R.W is walking to McDonald’s; also showing sign of symbolism. This makes the reader understand the time it takes for writing a quality poem. Next, on line 3, the preposition ‘through’ and the adjective ‘blossoming’ are “feeding” the reader’s brain, and the reader can really enjoy this. Lastly, on line 18, the phrase ‘the counter girl is as crisp as a pickle’ is a very descriptive simile that makes the reader starving after reading so much descriptive adjectives about McDonald’s and their

mind. It suggest the poet see it as love or nothing and that he was

The source of the earlier European colonist anxiety about their diet comes from their limited understanding of genetics, diets, and overall human health of the time. In Rebecca Earle’s work “The You Eat Their Food…”: Diets and Bodies in Early Colonial Spanish America, the historian presents the ideals of the early European Settlers, mainly Spanish, on how food effected the human body and form. The work elaborates on the Spanish logic for the aliments of both the settlers and the indigenous people of the land, linking it to food. Food in the New World played a prominent role in race and health – based upon Eurocentrism.

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

“Sunshine seemed like gold,” (line 4) and “Whole damn world’s turned cold,” (line 5). The poet

The structure and tone of the poem enhance the conflict and hopelessness the speaker is feeling towards the woman he loves and desires. For the first twelve lines of the poem there is an “abab” rhyming pattern. This ties into the despairing and desirable tone and how the rhyming scheme can be an example of the speaker constantly going back and forth between emotions for this women. For example, “And that mine eyes take no delight to range About the gleams which on your face do grow.” (Gascoigne 3-4) are two phrases that contradict the speakers feelings. Stating that his eyes take no delight in range can refer to the speaker finding no use or happiness in looking at the woman. Although, he then mentions the gleams upon her face growing, giving the audience the idea that even though the speakers love for the woman causes him deep despair, he still desires her enough to describe her features in attentive detail; in this example the gleams on her face. This shows the back and forth pattern and the speakers struggle when it comes

I think that the poet is trying to tell us to live life to the fullest

The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem. This use of personification is effective as it makes the

While reading the poem “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins sends a message to the readers that they should be patient and impartial when it comes to analyzing a poem in order to see the true meaning behind the without being over analytical. There is a revieting situation that takes place because Billy Collins is delivering his message to all readers about the way that one should be able to read a poem. This poems educates the reader on how to be able to read and plunge into a poem, through using many techniques like mood, tone, and literary devices to do so. In the first two lines Collins demands that we tackle a poem with a invigorating eye. There should be an exploration of what the poem means to us. How does this poem apply to our

In the poem “Eating Poetry” the author writes weird behaviors that happen to “him.” One behavior the speaker does is barks and licks the librarians hand. On line fourteen the author writes, “When I get on my knees and lick her hand,” this is an example of the behaviors in the poem.

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”

Here is the interpretation and analysis of the poem based on the sections that respect the grammar and meaning of its sentences:

The poem begins with the narrator's describing the poem as a 'dream' that ''was not at all a dream'', which already causes doubt and tension within the reader. The narrator then goes on to talk about