Rotation 5 Blog 3
“Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter” by Robert Bly
This poem is only one stanza, it is very brief and has five lines (cinquain). Even though Bly uses simple adjectives such as cold, snowy, and deserted, to describe things, there is still a huge presence of imagery. Since his words were so direct it was easy to picture everything and feel the things he writes about such as: “As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron”. The mailbox is given a bad connotation because “cold iron” does not sound very welcoming or joyful. Even with all the cold imagery Bly creates a warm feeling in his poem when he talks about how he loves this privacy when the town is deserted.
“Embrace” by Billy Collins
Collins turns a silly gesture of embracing yourself to make it look like you are kissing to a somewhat scary thing of being fitted for a straight jacket. What really stuck out to me in this poem was the way Collins looked at both sides of an action: “from the back it looks like someone is embracing you” then later, “from the front it is another story…your crossed elbows and screwy grin”. He not only writes about the 2 sides of a person’s actions, but what could be happening in the persons head mentally (having to get a straight jacket). The last line of the poem I think is the most important and meaningful line, “one that would hold you really tight”. It appears that he is talking about the straight jacket but there is that idea of one holding you tight, like when you embrace yourself like the person was doing in the beginning.
