Blog 4: Place Poems

There's something about "Reflection at Lagunitas" by Robert Hass that really struck me. It has a very melancholic tone, which is immediately set with the first line, "All the new thinking is about loss," and it carries throughout the whole poem. I really like that it's all one stanza and the use of enjambments and caesuras. I think that makes it feel more of a story, rather than just simply a poem, despite the fact that all of these poems are stories. For most of the poem, there's a sense of building up to something, but Hass's use of "But" in the twenty-sixth line completely turns the tone. It shifts from hopeful to reminiscent and nostalgic. It's a poem that, although I've never been in this situation, feels very easy to relate to. Hass reveals Lagunitas in a subtle way - not through the places exactly, but through moments, sights, and sounds. It's like a snapshot, rather than the big picture.

"Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota" by James Wright also struck me because it conveys a significant amount of feelings for a shorter poem. William Duffy's farm is revealed through a lot of figurative imagery, such as the "bronze butterfly" and "The dropping of last year's horses / Blaze up into golden stones." It gives a really vivid image of the farm, as does the personification of the cowbells that "follow one another." The last line is what's the most striking of the whole poem, though. It's so different from the rest of the poem, and so final, which I really, really like.