"The Raven" By Edgar Allan Poe

This man is beyond crazy to have written works like this, but it's also the only poem I actually like so I can't really judge him. the poem seems to be based around this notion of a raven stalking him and driving him insane. The raven obviously can sufficiently describe many things, but I think it portrays death. Poe has many of his poems based on insanity, death, and sometimes retribution; therefore, I take the raven to describe death creeping up on this man.

"The Sick Rose" by William Blake

well roses symbolize love much of the time so perhaps the poem is about a dying love. Whomever this poem is directed to must have either been dying or falling away from someone. It could also just be about someone dying and the poet saying that the resemble a rose as they die.

"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell

Well since this glorious little foot note on the printed copy of this says, it is a poem about a woman who is not certain she wants to fall in love with aman. This poem is the man's response to this phenomenon. It seems the man is desperately in love with the woman and just wants her to be with him forever. I think it makes him out to be a little pathetic but those are just my thoughts.

"Death, be not proud" by John Donne

This poem seems to be a religious one simply because of the many references to death not having power. The reason i say this is because many if not all religions describe life after death almost to make the followers ready for death. This makes me believe this to be a poem written by someone who is in the process of losing someone important. He could even perhaps be dying while writing it. In a nutshell, I interpret this poem to be a critcism of death little power in a world with life after death.

"My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

I am really horrible at interpreting poetry, but I'll give it a shot. It seems like the "Papa" has a drinking problem and gets in fights. This doesn't change the son's opinion of him because he loves his father. it seems like this poem was written after the father died because it seems like a remembrance of him.

"Trifles" by Susan Glaspell

I sympathize with the two women in the story who want to hide the canary. If my friend were in trouble for doing an awful act but the victim deserved it by all means I would help them out as well. To have to go through such terrible treatment and keep going is just an awful occurance. The women shouldn't have killed John, but it sounded like he deserved it on some level. John couldn't get away with killing that bird that ment so much to his wife and think he could get away with it.

"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

So I read this story 1 and a half times and still can't really get a grasp of it. I go the part where he had a vision and he thought that everyone was a sinner, but I couldn't help wondering if tha was the nature of the story. That everyone makes mistakes and everyone had secrets. I hope to find more about this story once I get to class today and maybe it will answer my confusion.

"A Hunger Artist" by Frank Kafka

Well my belief about this story is that it shows that if you can't find something you like about a thing than you should not do it. In this case it was eating because he couldn't find food he liked so the man decided to fast. It seems pretty straight forward with little interpretation necessary except I feel like the panther means something, if someone could help me figure it out that would be great. Bye all

"Cask of Amontillado" By Edgar Allan Poe

This is the knid of story I enjoy. A tale of betrayal, trickery, and ultimately anothers pain. As sadistic as that sounds I am still a completely normal person. This story is filled with verbal and dramatic irony in every page. Some examples are the victims name, Fortunato meaning somewhere along the lines of "good luck" (I can't remember the exact translation). Another is in one of the closing conversations when Fortunato said "let us be gone" he meant they should both leave whereas when the narrator spoke he meant let him leave and fortunato ascend to the heavens. Another moment was when the narrator said that Fortunato was "luckily met", Fortunato believed this to be a greeting where the narrator knew it to me more of good chance for the plan to succeed. I like this story, I've read it before and will probably read it again at some point and I hope to read more like it soon for this class.

"Recitatif" by Toni Morrison

This was a change of pace from the usually love story we read which was nice. The short story told more of a bond formed between two completely different girls (economically speaking). This story showed the great relationships that racially different people can achieve and how they can grow and then so tragically end because of the times. Too look deeper I would say the author perhaps had an experience like this perhaps and found inspiration in that, but I cannot be certain as the internet lies too often. Regardless, it was refreshing to not read a love story.

"Araby" by James Joyce

On a note before I tell my feelings of this read, I have noticed many failed or complicated relationship stories leading me to believe that bany writers have a history o terrible relationships. Anyway, I read Araby and I believed the girl to have some kind of motive to lead him on a little. I would like to say that the boy was a bit rash and quick to act as well. Manipulation knows no sexual boundaries yet I witness it more in women than men for some reason which of course leads me to believe that this poor lad was tricked with notions of love. The fact that he had no money saved him from his fate. Different read, but still not to my liking yet.

"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

The point of this story is to show how tragic a life could be if one feels they are better than everyone else. It seemed like everyone had compassion for her yet Emily didn't seem to care about any of them. When Emily bought the arsenic I thought she was going to murder Homer, but it did not seem like that was the case for Homer up and left too long after she bought it. I guess she could have still used the poison to kill him, but it would have been a much more diabolical plan if that is true. It wasn't that bad of a read, but it is not what I would consider a classic either.

"The Lady with the Dog" Anton Chekhov

This story came off a little weird to me at first but I reread some of the parts and came to realize some of the details. I had to read the last paragraph a few times to get a theory as to what they meant at the end. I believe that they were either going to end up divorcing their significant others or they were going to commit suicide. Regardless, I think this story was a simple fobbiden love story and it wasn't a terrible read.

Ambrose Bierce's "Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge"

The basic outline of the plot in "Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge" is the execution of a man who gave away information to a federal scout. This man miraculously escapes and makes it away from the guards by using what seemed like "super-human strength" to break to ropes and get his hands free. As he is about to find his wife and flash ofwhite light takes him to his awaiting death. Now the way this story is arranged it tricks the reader into believing the man has escaped until the end. The 1st time I read this story I was shocked to find that he was actually dead. When I read it again I saw some good proof that it was a vision. For example, when the "grey-eyed marksman" missed his shot, and when he was shot in the neck and did not become badly wounded. The arrangement of the vison sequence into the story itself was incredible. On a side note, they made a "twilight zone" episode of this story that was awesome and everyone should see it.

Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl"

It seems as though the plot of "Girl" is to teach a girl how to be a woman in an incredibly condensed time. It kinda seems like the mother thinks te daughter is going to be a hooker for a living if she doesn't do something about it as well. The mother just seems to be teaching the daughter how to be proper and not look like a total fool to their culture. My personal thoughts on this short story is that the author is giving away far too many of women's secrets. Bye readers!