Alone in the Woods

Alone in the Woods is a poem by Stevie Smith and it is talking about how man is angering nature with how he is acting and how he is treating nature.  Nature is angry because man does not appreciate it and thinks that it is ugly and not beautiful when it really is.  I think this is the authors way of saying that man does not appreciate what is around him and if he doesnt start appreciating it it will turn on him.

Digging

Digging is a poem written by Seamus Heaney. It is a peom that is describing of his father and grandfather and how they were bouth men  who worked with thier hand and in the fields.  He describes them as hardworking and then he explains how he broke with the tradition and became a writer. This set him apart from his family, but later he came to realize that he could still be hardworking just like his grandfather he would just apply it to writting.

In Memory of W.B. Yeats

In Memory of W.B. Yeats is a peom written by W.H. Auden.  The poem seems to be a contradiction when you first read it.  It says that poetry can do nothing and later it says it can, which seems a little strange considering that we are reading a poem and it is written by a poet.  So either the writer really hates his job or he has some other meaning behind this, considering Auden wrote a lot of poetry I'm going with another meaning.  I think what he is really saying is that poetry by itself is just words and words can do nothing unless they are read by someone.  People are the key to the problem peotry is there to state the ideas and opinions, but it takes people to make any sort of change.  If no one reads it or acts upon it, the the author is write poetry can do nothing but people can do amazing things with words.

Refugee Blues

Refugee Blues is a peom by W.H. Auden, it is about a man who is trying to get his family out of Germany just before World War II, but he is a Jew.  The imagery that Auden uses really paints you a picture of how the man must have felt. "Saw a door opened and a cat let in:But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews" He sees that even animals are treated better than he and his family is.  The man is extremely lost on what to do he recognizes in the poem that Hitler wants themdead and he is trying desperately to save his family but there is no way out.  The fish that he watches swimming in the harbor have more freedom than he does and this saddens him greatly because he can almost see his freedom it is just out of his reach.

T.S. Elliot and Religion

Elliot seemed to have troubles with religion throughout his works, no matter what he was writing it always seemed to have some section or phrase devoted to religion.  As his works progressed through the years he seemed to become more and more curious about religion and it shows through in his works. Some poems seem to leave you in a hopeful position on religion such as "The Wasteland" while others seem to leave you without hope such as "THe Hollow Men". Elliot obviously struggled with his views on religion and he displayed that through his works.

Aubade

"Aubade" is a poem by Edith Stillwell, at first glance this poem seems to be about kind of making fun of a girl that isnt doing much but is just content to do nothing. But I believe this is a carpe diem poem, the narrator is urging the girl to not sit there and do nothing, she is saying get out and live your life.  She keeps urging the girl to get out of her room and come down and live her life she should not waste it.

T.S. Elliot

Even though T.S. Elliot did not produce a large amount of poetry his works had a significant influence on modern British poetry. His work in the Waste Land was very confusing but I think that he wrote it that way so that people would think deeply about what they are reading. I also believe that he may have wanted people be able to interprut his poetry how they wanted and devise their own meanings from it.