Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand

The speaker says, "We all have reasons for moving. I move to keep things whole." I move to keep myself alive in every sense of the word. I'm alive in my absence, and exist every place I've been and therefore can say that I will live even when I die. That is how I find myself in this piece. The persona is this poem speaks as I just spoke, for example, "When I walk I part the air and always the air moves in to fill the spaces where my body's been." There is poignancy in knowing that even when you are an unknown in the midsts of knowns and vice versa.

Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson

I believe that one can be the happiest person on earth, with all the riches and fame, and still feel like your life is nothing. No on is perfect was the message I recieved from this poem. Richard Cory was a happy man, a gentlemen, he was rich, and others envied him, but that was his public life. The most poignant part of this poem is the last line, "And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, went home and put a bullet through his head." His private life was a living hell and not all the riches in the world could make him live a happy life. Even though he had everything to live for, he felt his life was a waste. Their is a bit of wisdom in this; a person may enjoy all the luxuries in the world but just as the days ahead are not a certainty those riches are not either and since yourself is all you have what others think of you cannot dictate the life one leads.

The Lie by Sir Walter Ralegh

The imaginative power of Ralegh is outstanding in this piece. The persona inm this piece speaks of the "soul, the body's guest" and how a soul can have all these different attributes, good and bad. I found poignancy in this piece as well because for every good aspect of the soul the author compares it to a negative thing. For example, witness the poignancy of this beautifully written stanza, "Tell zeal it wants devotion; tell love it is but lust; tell time it is but motion; tell flesh it is but dust. And wish them not reply, for thou must give the lie."

Morning Song by Sylvia Plath

The arrival of a child is like the song of the morning. The speaker is describing an infant. The poem goes on to speak of the poignancy of this child from how and why it is concieved to a mother jumping out of bed rescuing her infant because it is crying. The speaker says, "Love set you going like a fat gold watch. The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry took its place among the elements." I loved this description because it really does shed light on the idea that a new life is entering this world and someone is responsible for that. It is the only thing in the world, that is poignant and entails all that lyric life has to offer, that humans can control and that is the creation of a life and the destruction of one- life and death.

The Kill by Carl Phillips

I enjoyed this piece a great deal because of the poignancy in it. Sex can be both an outer body experience and as close to death as you can get and this poem confirms that feeling. Also, there is poignancy in what the speaker says about human nature and how and why a person is not willing to entrust someone else enough to have that death experience that sex can develop into. The speaker says, "We cleave most entirely to what most we fear losing. We fear loss because we understand the fact of it, its largeness, its utter indifference to whether we do, or don't ignore it."

La Migra by Pat Mora

This piece speaks on the ever so controversial issue of immigration and it is from the persona of a Mexican. The first half of the piece speaks on how the border patrol reacts to a "border crosser" and the next half is about how the border patrol officer needs the help of the immigrant he needs to get rid of. I find this extremely poignant in the fact that it is a direct shot to the opposers of legal immigration. The country wants to rid the nation of immigrants, but in reality we need there help just like this patrol officer. I'am pro-immigration so I find myself alot in this piece. The mexicans are not committing crimes; they just want to work and provide for their families. As sad as a reality as it is, the jobs that no American wants to do goes to the immigrant who could care less. So you see, they work and work and work and are really helping America rather than hurting, but you the thing is that America doesn't understand because "you can't speak Spanish."

Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde

According to the words of the poem the persona is one I could describe as triubled and in pain. The speaker repeatedly states, "momma's in the bedroom with the door closed," which can literally mean that the mother has her door closed but figuratevely may mean that this child is neglected and shuned by her own mother. This in turn leads to the poignancy about death. It is because this person is neglected that she speaks about death and dying; "what is I die before morning" and "suppose I die before graduation." She wants to die and speaks about her life and all the things she wants to accomplish but cannot because the neglect and disarray in her life is too much to fathom. I cannot say I find myself in this poem because I have every intention on living my life, but I can say that I can relate to the neglect in a way because I 'am a middle child and I never got what I wanted.