My favorite of the poems was "Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind" by William Shakespeare. I enjoyed this because he is turning one of the worst things that people hate "winter'' and turning it into a joyful event. There is a lot of rhyme in this poem such as "holly" and "jolly" which is said several times in this poem" also "keen" and "seen". ''Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,
That does not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp'' to me is my favorite part about this poem. Shakespeare seems to be giving human like features to the cold winter sky, also known as a personification. "Thy sting is not so sharp", he is describing that, that hard time in life is not that hard. Though this poem is written around the topic of winter I think you can relate this to any time in your life where you have been scared or nervous about something and you just have to look at in in a positive direction.

The poem that I enjoyed most was "your little voice/ Over the wires came leaping" by E.E. Cummings. I really like the fact that Cummings plays around with capitalization and punctuation to make a message show in a fun way. In the poem there are examples of personification like: your little voice over the wire came leaping, shouting flowers, skipping flames, and a humorous moon. I think that in the poem, the narrator is talking on the phone to a friend or relative that he has not heard from in a while. Also, the narrator is literally jumping for joy and he feels like the world is the happiest place on earth.

My favorite poem was "The Sky is Low, The Wind is Mean" by Emily Dickinson. This poem was my choice because it is about a time during the Winter season when a storm was raging around the country. The wind was personified to be a person by saying, "A narrow wind complains all day
How some one treated him." The author was saying that the wind blew hard that day because it had been treated wrongly by someone. And the author is also being personified as a queen, "Nature, like us, is sometimes caught
Without her diadem." Diadems are meant only for those of great power and authority, a king or queen for example. This poem was meant to be portrayed in the Winter, but truthfully, you could take it as any season other than summer, for it does not snow in the summer.

My favorite poem that we had to read was, "Oh Captain, My Captain" by Walt Witman. I loved this poem because I can make a connection to it. My connection to the poem is that Witman makes it known that he loves Lincoln . I know that you can read this poem when you have lost some one that you love.
It has rhyme in the first and last lines of them poem. This gives the poem a lovely beat to it. The poem is also an extended metaphor. A symbol in the poem would be the captain as Lincoln. So, whenever Witman refers to the "Captain" he means and talks about Lincoln.

I concur with Miss. Welch. The way Dickinson portrays herself as a queen is a nice thing for you to find in the poem. Wonderful thing to find! I can see how you can relate this poem to any season. You could also connect the poem to a person who had been hurt by someone or thing in their life. If I had to choose that would have been my second favorite poem in the ones that we had to read for class.

Erin, you do make a good point. Many people can relate to the poem "O Captain My Captain" because it tells the story of Lincoln's death and how the narrator misses him after he's gone. I know how it feels to lose someone you love, and now that you mention it, when I read the poem, I think of the "trip" as the person's life before they died. The "trip" can be long and troublesome for them and their family, but eventually it clears up and they are taken to a better place. Oh, and one more thing that I caught while reading is that the author used "fearful trip" to describe the long years of the Civil War.

The poem I enjoyed reading most was "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman . My favorite part of this piece was that the author compared Lincoln to the captain of a ship which represented the the Union army. He starts the poem in a happy mood because they won and finally reached their goal. However near the middle of the poem when the narrator see's his captain (President Lincoln) dead on the deck of the ship. A this point in the poem the narrator is desperate to see his captain alive and talking to him how he is a hero and that the flag is raised in your glory. He expresses the peoples desperateness to see their leader finally back from war before they realize what had happened.

My favorite poem was "The Sky is Low the Clouds are Mean." I enjoyed the style of rhyme, the mood, and the form of it.The last two lines"Nature like us is sometimes caught without her diadem," feel as if Emily Dickinson is saying that nature can be ugly sometimes like a very bad snow storm.

Good point Erin Tully! "Oh Captain, My Captain" by Walt Witman may be about the tragedy of Abraham Lincoln though you can relate to it when someone that you loved or admired deeply has passed away or or someone that you happen to be ,missing at the moment. My favorite line from that poem is "But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead." Also as Erin said this is a metaphor, for a heart can not bleed of red blood but it can bleed of love that was lost for a person. Also as Erin said that when he refers to "Captain" he means Lincoln, but if you relate to this poem in a special and unique way. So it can mean "grandma" or whoever you have lost.

I disagree with Emily, I did nit enjoy "your little voice/ Over the wires came leaping" by E.E. Cummings. I did not like the style and I feel like it is sloppily written. I realize that it is supposed to be like that but I do not like it. There is no rhyme scheme or pattern to follow.

My favorite poem was probably " O Captain, My Captain" because I loved how the authors choice of words where. For example, exalting and mournful because i feel like it gave it the kind of rawness and seriousness that really made me look at this poem a different way after I re-read it a couple of times. I also like how determined the narrater is. Like he says cheerfully " O captain my captan!" over and over again after getting no response from his captain but he keeps on saying it so maybe just maybe he'll say something back.

Thank you, Emily. Yes Whitman does use the ship to portray the ups and downs of the Civil War which Lincoln helped with. I believe that the poems that are extended metaphors, like this one, are the best. You have to look carefully at the meaning and it is easier for people to connected to their own lives. I am glad that you enjoyed as much as I did, Emily. Thank you again for your response.

My favorite poem was "Oh Captain,My Captain" I liked that poem because it has a vert good meaning to it. I like the way the poem starts off with a happy attidude because their victory was complete then all the sudden they found out Abraham was killed. Since I love poetry that rhymes "Oh Captain,My Captain" had many rhymes in it like done and won or red and dead. Even though this story my be about tragedy, I can still relate to this because I know how it feels to lose someone you love.My favorite part of this poem was " Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath you head! It is some dream that on the deck. You have fallen cold and dead.

My favorite poem was "O Captain My Captain!" I liked this poem because it showed how people felt when Abraham Lincoln was killed. They won a very good victory and then found that out so it was not such a great one after all. There was much rhyme in this poem such as red, dead, and head. I do not have anything can relate to this poem nor do I want to relate. I do not want to lose anyone who I love deeply. My favorite part in the poem was, O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done, the ship has weather'd every rack, prize we sought was won. At this point no one knew of his death.

My favorite poem is "Oh Captain, My Captain" because it really tells 2 stories. It tells the story of a captain and his ship sailing through a storm at sea, but when the ship is getting close to the harbor, the captain suddenly dies. Although it tells this story, it is really talking about the hardships that President Abraham Lincoln went through during the Civil War and the fight against slavery. I liked the rhyming because it wasn't a part of every line but it was part of some of the sentences, so the poem sounded right. The whole poem is an extended metaphor since it explains the death of the captain of a ship but it really explains the death of Abraham Lincoln. I chose this poem because although it explains the death of Lincoln, it could really be about the death or loss of any roll model.

Brendan, I agree that it tells two stories, like a two sided coin. Both are true, it is just that one is more obvious than the other to be real. The one about Abraham Lincoln being killed is the one that is the not so obvious real one. The story of the ship and the captain ebing killed could be real, but not in the way this story was meant to be told in. This poem is like saying, don't judge a book by it's cover.

My favorite poem out of the four we had to read was "The Sky is Low the Clouds are Mean" by Emily Dickinson. I liked this poem because it flowed it didn't rhyme so much but it flowed. It was a good poem very well written I could understand it unlike "Your Little Voice" by EE Cummings. I like the mood she created and I think the meaning of this poem was that life can be peaceful at times and at times it could be awful.

I'm impressed with what many of you have said here; however, I can't believe that you didn't like the e.e. cummings' poem. He breaks the rules of syntax and mechanics. I figured you would think he was daring or cool.

My favorite poem was, "The Sky Is Low, the Clouds Are Mean", by Emily Dickson. Even though this is a very short poem, don't let its size fool you. In this poem, the writer is talking about a time in winter, when the weather is really bad. However there is a reason why this weather is really bad. "A narrow wind complains all day how some one treated him." In this line, the author is using personification, to say that the weather is mad because he was mistreated. Therefore a blizzard arrives.

My favorite poems were "Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind" and "your little voice". Shakespeare's poem appealed to me because the necessity of something so cold and bitter to human life was an interesting thought to me. It reminded me of the fact that all human life is necessary, no matter how mean they are. Cummings poem appealed not because of the style it is written in (that annoyed me). The poem appealed to me because of the voice that was mentioned in the beginning poem brought colors such as the flowers and flames, the stars and humorous moon.

My favorite poem above all was "O captain! My captain!" In this poem Walt Whitman really expressed the true pain the country felt about Abraham Lincoln's assassination. At first the poem talked about the joy over the victory of the civil war, and immediately turned grim when Abraham Lincoln who in this poem is the captain of the ship dies. The love that America Felt for Lincoln was unparalleled. This is by far my favorite poem I've ever read.

A poem that I really didn't like was "The Sky is Low the Clouds are Mean." This poem really didn't appeal to me in terms of meaning. I feel that the poem was very depressing. I like poems that talk about the joy in life. I still believe that Emily Dickinson is a great poet and I love reading her poems.

My favorite poem would have to be “The Sky is Low, The Wind is Mean” by Emily Dickinson. This is because I enjoyed the way she expressed her thoughts through nature. Behind what the title states, she tells a story. I believe this poem isn’t about just the sky and the clouds that appears when you first see this poem. She compares how nature is like us, and I believe she is referring to a man who’s trying to forget about the past before it catches up with the future.