Language- Pied Beauty

Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Pied Beauty=Particolored beauty: having patches or sections of more than one color.

The author starts out by describing the many colors that are in one pattern or design in nature, using the colors from others:

"rose moles" dotted on "trout that swim"

"skies of couple olor as a brinded cow"

"Fresh firecoal chestnut falls"

Then the author describes the landscape, which reminds one of the aerial view of land from a plane, where its different colors are sectioned by the way each piece of land was worked

The author then moves beyond the visual meaning of "pied beauty" and includes the great assortment of "all trades", and then "all things counter, original, spare, strange". 

The authors language shows how the author sees one thing as an ensemble of others, and how the beauty is not only visual but is found in every different aspect of life.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Reaction to "Singapore" by Mary Oliver

in the Norton: pg. 911

Setting the poem in the Singapore airport gives it a gritty tone. The very worldly singapore is a well known sight of drug trades, prostitution, and an overall lack of hygiene and safety. Saying that "a darkness was ripped from my eyes" (2), meaning that she has learned or realized something and seen the light, in a Singapore airport is quite significant because she could have seen any number of things she'd never been exposed to in ohio or upstate new york (http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/O/OliverMary/index.htm)

The speaker didn't particularly like the setting or the situation she was in, "disgust argued my stomach"(5), and switches settings briefly in her mind , thinking that "a person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem" (12), as she describes beautiful unspoiled nature.

The meaning of the entire poem is given at the end, saying "the light that can shine out of a life" (29), like the woman she saw there, can be just as beautiful and happy as the trees and birds she was describing earlier.

Response to "God Says Yes to Me"

The speaker could be the author or most probably a woman at the least. She is speaking directly to God in a childlike manner: the diction and syntax of the questions are simplistic and humble, lacking sophistication and pride. So the speaker is either a child, or feels like a child in the presence of God. Also, the speaker refers to God as a female who is loving and calls her "honey"(7) and "sweetheart"(14) in a motherly manner. The nature of the speaker's questions (1,3,5,6,12) about whether it's ok to be melodramatic, short, wear or not wear nail polish, and not paragraph letters seem to have to do with general standards and critiques of feminine perfection and/or inferiority, which could explain why both the speaker and God are females.

Overall the speaker seems to be looking for affirmation from "her creator and god" that she can be exactly who she is.

"God Says Yes to Me" by Kaylin Haught

God Says Yes To Me

Kaylin Haught

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramaticand
she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes