Week 6 Journal Poetry Class

For this week I have decide to reveal my opinion about a poem called ‘When I am dead, my dearest’ by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). This poem has 2 stanzas, eight lines each. Christina Rossetti did write this poetry in the Victorian period. The first time I read this poem, I was almost crying. I don’t know why, I can feel sadness and something sincere.

I had several times in my life experienced something like someone who was leaving us forever to the heaven. I had been one very stressed when my brother had gone. It happened when I was still in my second grade at High School. The feeling was just like hell. I couldn’t accept it. I was crying all day long. And I was scared for nothing. It had happened for some weeks.

Then, one day, I had realized something, when I am died, would I like my families, my friends crying for my death? I thought I will hate it. It is better if they don’t cry. So probably my brother disliked if I was crying for him. Then, after that I woke up, wept my tears, and did all my stuffs were like usual. I just need to make our dreams become real. I hold this estafette stick, and run to keeping these dreams until now. Then, when the day comes, I will choose to leave this world first than others because I hate to feel the painful of being leaved by others.

This is my story, the reason why I can feel the poem, titled “When I am dead, my dearest”. Believe me or not, while I write this journal I almost cry.

Christina Rossetti was a poet who get a cancer diagnose. So, probably when she wrote this poem, she had ready enough to leave this world. By using this poem she just asked her family, relatives, people around her to let her go when the day she should go came. According to me this poem is just like Christina Rossetti’s requests to her all people around her to not weep over her death. She will hate to see her ‘dearest’ send her with tears.

This is my interpretation of ‘When I am dead, my dearest’ by Christina Rossetti. This poem is such a great poem, probably because it is written sincerely from the bottom of her heart. And as the characteristics of Victorian period, Christina Rossetti emphasized more in duty using the common words.

Week 5 Journal Poetry Class

For this week, I’ve decided to write my opinion about this long-distance-relationship-poem HAHAHA. Why? Because this poem is so much romantic! I can feel the sentimentality when the poet wrote this. The poem is ‘Something Childish, but Very Natural Written in Germany’. I had been laughing when I read this title once. From the title, it’s already a childish thing, I think. And Samuel Taylor Coleridge still wrote this ‘Something Childish’ stuff, HAHAHA, I am sorry, I never feel such ‘Something Childish’ before, that’s why I laugh out loud.

This poem has 3 stanzas and 5 lines in each. The first stanza tells us that the writer, Samuel, always had been dreaming about if he had wings, became a little feathery bird to fly to the place where his lover lived in order to keep close with her. Even, in second stanza, he had dreamed flying to his lover, but when he woke up, he all alone. The third stanza shows that Samuel always wanted to past the day soon everyday. But it was still just a dream to meet his lover, even if he past the day soon.

Why I say this poem is a long-distance-relationship-poem? I just guess it first from the title ‘Something Childish, but very Natural Written in Germany’ that means this poem was written in Germany. Then when I read the whole poem, I can say Samuel wrote this poem when he missed his lover. According to Samuel what he had done (daydreaming, dream about his lover) was something childish but still it’s a natural thing and common as a lover. For me, this poem really has the romantic period’s characteristics that are sentimentality and back to nature (use the word: bird, wing, etc).

Well, this is my opinion about this poem. Every poem that I choose in every week is my poem’s type, and I choose it because it has something unique in the first sight when I try to read it. This is a great romantic poet for someone who has the long-distance-relationship. HAHAHA. I am sorry, I can’t stop laughing.

Week 4 Journal Poetry Class

For the 4^th week journal, I decide to discuss THE SMILE by William Blake (1757-1827). This poem has four stanzas and four lines in each. When I read this poem I can feel something unique because William Blake used the word ‘smile’ and ‘frown’. These two words totally have different meaning and stand in the different path, don’t they? We can analyze this poem using norm strata analysis, but there’s something still undecidable for me from this poem. So I’ll make it short to try revealing my opinion about this poem.

According to me, this poem tries to show us that as human, we’ll always have two kinds of condition against each other which we can’t avoid it. It sticks in the heart’s deep core / And it sticks in the deep back bone, these lines explicitly tell us that this ‘smile’ and ‘frown’ or the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ side will always stick on us. And it happened during our life, just like the lines: That betwixt the cradle and grave. This smile itself can be the real one or just fake (deceit) or another kind of smile (love). Also, the frown can be a real frown, frown of hate, or frown of disdain. And only the smile of smiles which is invisible because placed in the inside of our heart can end all the misery.

I am not so good in analyzing poetry, so I’ve tried my best by revealing my opinion for this weekly journal. But, I can feel that this poem has a message inside. William Blake may say in this poem that everyone can live happily when they honest and sincere to their self and everybody else, so all misery will end. This is a great poem, I think.