Poetry Project

Margot Supple                                                                                                         4/19/15

Poetry Project                                                                                                                  811          

Response to my Heart Poem

            I chose “Another Sonnet for Stephan” by Alvin Lester Sitmor to be my heart poem because of the chronological order of events that show the development of the main character. I believe it is the growth of the main character, Stephen, that makes this poem special.

            In the first 12 lines of “Another Sonnet for Stephen”, the narrator tells the story of Stephen’s life. In the first four lines Stephen is portrayed as a young cheerful boy who spreads happiness to the narrator. “Who made me feel it’s great to be alive” (line 3). It is by now that the reader is introduced to Stephen. In lines 5-8 the speaker is describing Stephen when he is in college. He describes him as “enthusiastic, kind, who scores a ten” (line 7). The reader now realizes that the author is referring to the young boy from lines 1-4. In lines 9-12, Stephen is a successful grown man who is “fighting back attackers of his health” (line 12). Every four lines represent a different stage in his life, which differentiates it from other poems that focus on a single moment.

            The last two lines of a sonnet are usually the most important or famous lines because they are excluded from the rest of the poem by having their own rhyme scheme. In “Another Sonnet for Stephen” the last two lines of the poem are a concluding note that shows more perspective of the narrator. “The boy, the youth, the man are each now gone, except that in my heart they linger on.” This shows that Stephen has died due to his illness mentioned in line 12. However, the last line states that Stephen will be remembered by the narrator because of all his accomplishments and personality. These last two lines are a great way to end the poem because they summarize the 12 lines before about Stephen growing up, and they show how the narrator feels about Stephen being gone.

In this poem Stephen reminds me of my grandfather. When my grandfather was a young boy he went to Duke and majored in economics. Shortly after he went to Penn for graduate school and majored in business. He grew up to be the president of the Head tennis company. When he was 43 he died of brain cancer, which was shortly after having my father. Although he has died, my family will always remember him.

“Another Sonnet for Stephen” by Alvin Lester Sitmor is a great poem because it shows the development of one character, and is a poem I can relate to.

Feel it's

  

Poem #1: Free Verse

The Mountain of Light

She starts with the light

As a young child
She climbs the mountain

Now she is older

And she is surrounded by darkness

She climbs the mountain

She reaches the top

Covered by a shadow

There is no more mountain to climb

But there is still light

I wrote this poem based off of a picture below of a dark mountain with light in the distance. I thought that the picture represented growth, because it got darker the higher the mountain got, but when the summit was reached, there was light beyond.

Poem #2: Haikus

Nature Haikus

A blank road ahead

A sky of orange and blue

Trees of every color

A glass painting of

A weakened tree

On the wall

Dim lights lead the way

To an unfound destiny

My heart is racing

The city never sleeps

Everyday it repeats

Not knowing how to stop

A bright springs day

In the middle of March

Becomes a chilled frost

I wrote these Haikus based on the pictures shown below and my surroundings. I believe that haikus are the most fascinating poems, not only because of their history but also because of their rhythm and comedic, wise, and dramatic interpretations.

Poem #3: Sonnet

The sound of gunshots cradles me asleep

And greets me at the start of a new day

My youth and pride are very hard to keep

When brutal wars have taken them away

Another battle twenty years ago

Stains the earth with dark red drops of blood

Before when no one thought it could be so

That war would take our country like a flood

Surrounded by the painful sounds of death

I fight and wait until it is my turn

For me to stop and take my final breath

And watch the world around me start to burn

I will escape the man I used to be

And from the war I’ll finally be free

            I chose to write my sonnet about war because I was recently studying World War One in Social Studies and the horrible conditions solders had to live with. I decided to write this sonnet about World War Two and make the narrator a boy who was drafted into the army and wants to escape the war because it is making him a monster.