Poetry Response

This be the Verse 

by Philip Larkin

It is Philip Larkin’s prominent voice that is to blame for the success of this poem. Though the voice is pessimistic, it serves an effective purpose. He immediately hooks the reader with his first sentence, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad”. Larkin is daring in this line, for he negatively generalizes the influence of parents on their children. I enjoy the passion rooted within each word he includes. As a reader, his words intrigue me. I cannot help but to ponder this character’s past with his parents. Larkin’s words also hold truth. His negativity is not immediately discarded for there is an undeniable truth strung within this poem, though his use of rhyme helps keep the context light.

Blood

By Naomi Shihab Nye

What I enjoyed most about this poem was Naomi Shihab Nye’s ability to capture a descriptive narrative in poem format. She both shows and tells in her text, while also leaving the reader with imaginative freedom as the poem turns abstract towards the end. I love Nye’s depiction of the young girl’s father:  

“A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,”   

my father would say. And he’d prove it,

cupping the buzzer instantly

while the host with the swatter stared.

I can so easily imagine the characteristics of the father. He is strong, passionate, and stubborn. He holds pride in his heritage, and hopes to pass that onto his family. It amazes me that in four short lines, Nye grabs the attention of the reader, vividly paints the father, and establishes a foundation for the rest of the poem. She captures both the inner and the outer self of the narrator, leaving the reader in some suspense as the poem unfolds.

Kindness

By Naomi Shihab Nye

I enjoy the change of voice from “Blood” to “Kindness”. She holds the same passion as the voice in “Blood”, yet focuses more on the depth of the text rather than the narrative. She includes various metaphors for receiving hunger and lacking hunger, my favorite being:

“When you held in you hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness”

Nye proposes an additional way to look at kindness in this quote. She emphasizes the large region of a person’s emotions, explaining how quickly one can go from receiving kindness to having known. Nye leaves me thinking with every sentence she includes. Her words compliment each other well, and she brings them simply together, letting the text speak for itself.