This second part of the poem is so haunting and beautiful, the spaces between the words make you pause and stop for each one for the lines "serpent cane razor ray of the sun". the words serpent and razor invoke the image of death even though they are terms used to describe the rays of the sun, in the lines that follow the poet speaks about burying the dead and how piles of bones are found in "each personal heap". death is described quietly as something that occurs often and is adapted to. Death and life are the same.

This line caught my eye because of its unique phrasing. I think the line "sliding along the wall of the night" creates an image of a melancholy speaker in the poem losing himself in the "crack of ruins".We get the impression that he is making an exit. I like this line because it can mean so many things at once, is the speaker trapped? Is he lost because he wants to be? does it matter?

This opening to the poem really sets the scene where the poet speaks about the likeness of nature to a dream. The celestial light making the earth and "every common sight" as if in a dream. He speaks of nature very affectionately and fondly, expressing his gratitude and connecting the wonder and innocence of childhood to nature.

I think the fact that this poem was able to become so famous and be a spectacle which caused so much controversy is an example of what poetry is really all about. It makes such a powerful statement that the public was shocked, and tells us about how political poetry can be. And within reading this as a political statement, we also have to remember to read this as a poem and consider the artistic elements.

In this poem I think the first think I notice is the deep nature the language takes in going from describing one thing to another. though it is a very short poem only 3 lines in total, we still get a sense that the poem is complete dither is nothing else to say. The poem allows toe carafe to take on many different meanings and offers us contradictions to each. "A spectacle and nothing strange" and "All this and not ordinary" speak to the duality in things based on our varied interpretations. One day it may just be a carafe, the next it is "a single hurt color".

I find repetition to be a really interesting think whenever I see it poetry, its interesting to see how classical styles of poetry and song have evolved into modern poetry. whenever I see repetition the first thing I think about is a nursery rhyme or a sonnet from the 16th century. Here the repetition isn't only stylistic to conform to a certain form, its used to emphasize the lines of the poem.

The metaphor of the river both literally and figuratively represents a life force akin to the blood in someones veins. Water sustains us, by the speaker saying that "I've known rivers" he I saying the he knows life, he knows his life and in that he has found great connections between our life and that of the natural world. He draws a picture which imagines us as all interconnected. His soul is deep like the rivers which speaks to the capacity of the human soul to connect to everything around it and find meaning in objects like a river which represent much more than a simple natural occurrence, but the force of life itself and all its nuance and power.

Terraplane: an automobile built by the Hudson Motor Car Company between 1932 and 1939

I find it really interesting that the editors of Emily Dickinson's work had to create the titles for her poems and correct the punctuation. I winder how the poems would change if Emily cad created her own titles. most of the titles are simply a repetition of the first line, I wonder if Emily would have made the name of the poems much different to the theme of the poem.

These lines make me think that Emily is creating a language for the reader which paints the "Nobodies", as their own secret society, as if the "somebodies" are the outsiders and there is a place in society for the nobodies, among the other nobodies.

I feel like this stanza is essential to the meaning of the poem. from the very beginning Whitman tells us that he exists within everything, and we do too, every atom in him is in us, and vice versa. this poem contemplates on the connection of all beings. in this stanza he says you will understand the meaning of all poems of you "stop". He urges us to pause and contemplate the power within us that lives in all things, saying that we may possess the "good of the earth and the sun" and we no longer have to "take things at second or third hand".

Learning in class that It was uncommon for infants to be mentioned in poetry makes this line curious in the way that the child is described. Being able to say that the infant has the power in its extreme calmness to vex meditation, something that is already innately a peaceful act is interesting since we imagine infants to be helpless. He endows the child immediately in the poem with the authority to wreck the calmness with its calmness, what a funny paradox.

This acts as a contrast to the children's life as labourers, where they were "locked up in coffins black" essentially condemned to work till death, when they are described as "naked and white" we get a sense that the children have regained their purity and their innocence. with their things left behind they are free to be a child.

These lines remind me of a women's purity and virginity being tied to flowers and the image of soft nature. when the speaker says to gather the rose buds while you can, I imagine he is saying guard your purity while you have it, guard your youth and innocence while you have it because it is easily lost. The following lines where he says the flower that smiles today will be dying, an opposite image is painted where we recognize the idea that innocence is fragile and can "die" in an instant.

This image of two people being combines as one through "mingled" blood within a flea is a dark depiction of all the things in this world that have the power to make one close to another. It reminds me of the idea of a blood pact where blood is used as the most sacred bond because you essentially spill your life force with another.

When we discussed this poem in class I realized that upon the first read I didn't see the musicality that I do now after watching the video. knowing that this poem is a celebration of summer, and that it was written specifically to music completely changes the energy of the poem and makes it much brighter and joyful.

Referring to heaven as a roof for mankind is an interesting idea when thinking about the content of this poem. Heaven being the highest level for humans to strive for, being close to God and that being the purest form we can be.