A Man Saw A Ball Of Gold by Stephen Crane

A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;
He climbed for it,
And eventually he achieved it --
It was clay.

Now this is the strange part:
When the man went to the earth
And looked again,
Lo, there was a ball of gold.
Now this is the strange part:
It was a ball of gold.
Ay, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold.

In this poem, Crane gives the example of a man that has the perseverance and will power to reach the "ball of gold in the sky."  The man found that it was only clay, but still had enough faith to climb for another ball when he saw it.  This time it actually was gold.  Crane shows with this poem that anybody can try to accomplish something, but he or she won't get anything out of it unless they keep trying.  

  

Happy Thought by Robert Louis Stevenson

The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.  This poem is short and to the point.  There is really not much to get about this poem except that everything in the world is out there, but we just have to go out and get it, and because everything is out there, we should be satisfied.  Stevenson gets the point across in this short poem while expressing his positive and optimistic look on life.

Whatif by Shel Silverstein

Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I'm dumb in school?
Whatif they've closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there's poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don't grow talle?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won't bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don't grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems well, and then
the nighttime Whatifs strike again!

I chose this poem because of the humor Silverstein brings to the questions we think about while we are laying in bed.  These questions are what a child would ask, but we ask ourselves questions about different things like school and work.  Silverstein writes what a kid would get stressed about by personifying the questions as "Whatifs." 

Cottonmouth Country by Louise Gluck

Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras.

And there were other signs

That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us

By land: among the pines

An uncurled cottonmouth that rolled on moss

Reared in the polluted air.

Birth, not death, is the hard loss.

I know. I also left a skin there.

   I believe this poem is about the changes that are associated with life and death.  The author gives the reader examples of how death is signaling its arrival, but then she says, "Birth, not death, is the hard loss."  With this line, the author is saying that death is not the only thing that can cause pain.  In the last line, the author shows that she has experienced changes due to birth, and she reveals that she has moved on by shedding her old skin.   

new to blogging

Not really sure what I'm doing but I am now officially a blogger. Yesss!!