1 Form: Mostly Iambic pentameter.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: canasta: a card game; Izalco: a volcano in western El Salvador.
1 Form: Prose poem—Vocabulary: picaresque: involving rogues; Hennie Youngman: (also Henny Youngman) (1906-1998), stand-up comic specializing in one-liners; paratactic: juxtaposing thoughts or clauses without connectors; Chairman Mao: (Mao Zedong, 1893-1976, Chairman of Communist party of China; malarkey: exaggerated or foolish talk; Adam: First human (Bible), who named all things; prosodic: metrical structure of verse.
1 Form: Free verse—Notes: Notice the use of color tones throughout the poem. The poem addresses issues of sexuality, sexual differences, and overcoming obstacles.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: gramma grass: type of pasture grass; Sangre de Cristos: mountain range—Notes: The driving lesson is a metaphor for their ranch life, with the children wanting to go out into the world while the grandfather wants them to stay in the ruts worn over time.
1 Form: Prose poem.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: Sinter: chemicals from a mineral spring.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: proofed: waterproofed; bitumen and pitch: components of tar; sedge: grasses—Notes: It is the author’s hope which is sent forward in time and out via the basket of the poem.
2 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: swill: to flood with water; Trevor McDonald: broadcaster; Esther Williams: fashion model—Notes: Here rain is a metaphor for the feeling of separation between the couple following a fight with the narrator’s in-laws.
1 Form: Mostly iambic tetrameter.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: diorama: 3-dimensional scene with painted backdrop.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse—Notes: A follow-up to “The River-Merchant’s Wife.”
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: sumac: a type of shrub—Notes: This poem explores the idealizing of things based on time and based on distance.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: pampas: tall decorative grass; nettles: type of weed.
2 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: hoe: backhoe.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: ledger: a horizontal timber in a scaffold.
1 Form: Free verse—Notes: Here the pick works as a metaphor for opportunity.
1 Form: Free verse—Notes: Notice the similar initial sense of wonder and disbelief at physical injury in this poem and in Robert Frost’s “Out—Out!”
2 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Blank verse—Notes: Here the room is most likely the room of a dead child.
2 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: Parkside: restaurant.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: Dry Tortugas: islands west of Key West in Florida; kingfisher: type of large bird; Bonaparte gulls: type of gull that nests in trees; Myer’s and Appleton Gold: types of rum.
1 Form: Sonnet—Vocabulary: Two Buck Chuck: Charles Schaw Merlot, selling for $2 per bottle.
1 Form: Free verse.
2 Form: Free verse—Notes: A poem that describes the slow loss of hearing with aging.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: Therese Raquin: protagonist in Opera of the same name. She and her lover kill her husband, whose ghost then haunts them; Rigoletto: Main character in opera of the same name, he ends up mistakenly arranging to have his daughter Gilda killed; Butterfly: main character in Madam Butterfly. She waits for the return of her lover but to no avail, and ends up killing herself.
1 Form: Iambic, irregular line lengths—Vocabulary: sconces: lights attached to walls.
2 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: Impala: model of car; Barracuda: model of car; rig: truck; Mercury Montego: brand of car; LTD: brand of car; shammy: soft leather cloth—Notes: Although not explicitly stated, the brother died in a motorcycle crash.
1 Form: Free verse—Notes: This poem defies simple analysis, because the ark is a symbol and it can represent many things. Examples include your own body (and thus, your life); a political party in power; or even the Earth.
2 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: wolftail: brush.
1 Form: Prose poem.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Sonnet with relaxed form—Vocabulary: Transformatrix: a made-up word implying transformation and relationships; stiletto: slender dagger; safe word: word used in bondage games to stop the game; trusses up: ties up—Notes: The sonnet form is considered by most poets to be the most restrictive, and here that sense of the form is compared to a bondage scene.
2 Form: Iambic, mostly tetrameter but varying—Vocabulary: football strips: soccer uniforms; Owen: WWI British War Poet; Boche: derogatory phrase for Germans; pike: long spear; grapeshot: small iron balls used in cannons.
1 Form: Free verse.
1 Form: Free verse—Notes: What the narrator learned about history was learned more from the experiences the teacher shared than from the textbook, but perhaps the most important lesson was that no-one in life can avoid pain.
1 Form: Free verse—Notes: Notice the changing meaning of the word free, starting with available without payment, then released, then abandoned, and finally, the forcibly cast off.
1 Form: Free verse—Vocabulary: crone: old woman.
The Giant Book of Poetry Page 76