Poems #2

Advice to Young Ladies by A.D. Hope
This title makes me think of either an etiquette lesson from days of old or a feminist radical's views, quite contrasting I know. The poem begins with the story of Postumia, the vestal virgin, being charged of a sexual misdemeanor, but then cleared. It then speaks of the unreasonable restrictions of females throughout history and how it has effected the world. The comparison of Postumia's life after her trial and being buried alive is very true. They took away her spirit and freedom of mind which made life hardly more than being dead. The poem is full of imagery and comparisons. "Husbands...rank next to God." That was the feeling of the time and the last stanzas are filled with examples of the human's belief that the man is more important. The author wishes young ladies to be aware of their imprisonment and to fight against it and she herself feels indigination at the injustice of it. The focus of the poem shifts off from Postumia's story to young ladies in general in line twenty five. The general content of the theme wasn't too far off my original assumption from looking at the title. The theme of the poem is a timeless one. Women are no less in mind than men, but are under valued.
I really enjoyed this poem. The rhyme scheme was easy and fun to follow and the content was extremely true. The charges presented against Postumia at the beginning can be seen in similar instances through time. A boy would never be charged of being "too witty" or walking "too lively". The poems speaks of quenching the last spark of her mind. While females today do have more freedom, some places still strive for that. The line "Of being a woman made genius a crime" really speaks puts the idea behind all the accusations in simple terms. I wish I better understood the end of the poem. I'm not positive what it means by "Trusted the servile womb to breed free men?". I like the stanza before that where it talks about how crushing these female's spirits is as serious as crushing Socrates, Galileo, and Bruno.

wahbegan by Jim Northrup
I had no idea what to think when I first saw this title. It made me think vaguely of maybe an African language. I was extrememly wrong. The poem is about all those who survived Vietnam, but were permanently affected by it. The short choppiness of the lines makes it interesting to read. The use of the word "didja" in the first line changed the way I read the entire poem. Wouldn't that be considered colloquial language? The author uses a lot of imagery to help the reader perceive some of what they went through. The lines "He died in the war but didn't fall down" and "Some can find peace only in death" are oxymorons. The author is mourning for his brother and all the others who came back, but were never the same. He wants the audience to feel sympathy and respect for those men. The theme of the poems is that some things make us welcome death.
The only reason I took the time to read this poem was the use of colloquial language in the first line. It turned out not to be what I expected at all, but I really liked it. I don't understand how the title related at all. I really thought the author should have used other words like "didja" throughout the entire thing or repeat it more than just once. It sets up a pattern at the beginning, but doesn't follow it. The content of the poem is really good. America does do so much to honor our dead and sometimes forgets about those who made it through.