Introduction to Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

1. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/barbie-doll/

Piercy, Marge. "Barbie Doll." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 27-8.

2. Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll was written in 1973. It is a poem that reflects on the way that little girls are brought up and the images that they are taught and how reality is different than these images. A girl expects Barbie doll perfection and, once she goes through puberty and realizes that she is not like that, she spends her life trying to make herself that impossible image. She is dead at the end due to trying to look a particular way because she thinks that looking like a Barbie will bring happiness.

3. What particularly drew me to this poem was the manner in which Piercy questions what happiness really is. She makes the point more effective by relating Barbie to false happiness. Barbie is a universal symbol of perfection but one must realize that a Barbie is also fake and plastic. There is no real depth of thought or emotion that is connected to a Barbie. This point is hit home at the end of the poem when the girl in question is dead. She may have tryed to achieve looking like a Barbie but now her being is more like a Barbie than ever. She is dead and therefore has no feeling or emotion, much like a real Barbie.

4. This poem is similar to Adrienne Rich's poem Power. Both poems revolve around women seeking to achieve something that will make them powerful or more memorable. The girl in Piercy's power is looking to be attractive and therefore, achieve the power of confidence that comes with happiness. Marie Curie in Rich's poem is seeking to be a powerful woman of science. Ultimately, these goals and hopes that they carry out to become happy result in their deaths.

Margaret Gibson's "Newspaper Photograph"

1. Gibson, Margaret. "Newspaper Photograph." One Body Poems. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. 23-24.
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2. This poem describes the speaker's sight and consequent interpretation of a modern newspaper photograph depicting the tradition associated with migrant women carrying stones in an Indian quarry. The seemingly serenity and beauty of the photo turns when the speaker realizes the desolation and daily torment that this labor puts the women through. In the end, the speaker asks God to help her see, recognizing that all images have a purpose.

3. The striking imagery is what drew my attention to this poem, depicting the most minute details in the most beautiful manner. Having heard it read aloud by Margaret Gibson herself, I felt the passion which responded to each carefully choosen word used to describe that rudimentary but necessary tradition. When the poem transitions towards the broader scope of sight, it concretes the sense that everything happens for a reason. As a result, the reader feels enlightened and at ease with the up and downs of life.

4. Margaret Gibson's "Newspaper Photograph" is comparable to Keat's "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles." The hardships associated with the life and death of humanity are clearly presented in both poems. Whereas, Keats' speaker has to deal with each "imagined pinnacle (line 3)" moving towards his or her inevitable death, Gibson's Indian women must overcome their daily affliction to "make a wheel: wheel of life and death (line 20)" Keats' speaker struggles with the inability to become immoral like the Elgin Marbles, but consequently becoming immortilized by this poem. The Indian women are indirectly immortilized through the continuous cycle of tradition, the newspaper photograph and Gibson's poem. After reading Keats' structured sonnet, the reader has a sense of confusion, ultimately asking why such different concepts are linked together. Whereas, after ready Gibson's poem, the reader has a clear understanding of how the story of the Indian women is linked to a greater understanding of the present vision and how it affects the future.

Keats, John. "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 344.

Mark Strand's "Keeping Things Whole"

1. Strand, Mark. "Keeping Things Whole." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mayes. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 252.
http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/poem.html?id=177001

2. A strong sense of spatial awareness is established in the first lines of this lyric poem and carried throughout. In the first couple of stanzas, the speaker is at extreme odds with his or her environment. However, in the final stanza the speaker realizes that he or she is an integral part of the life cycle.

3. Having read multiple poems by Mark Strand, I was drawn to this poem. Like Mark Strand's other poems, "Keeping Things Whole" provides an ambiguous take on the general process and purpose of life and concordantly death. Simple in verse, it was easy to comprehend the surface of the work. However, it is Strand's close attention to the importance of image, line break, and tone that intrigued me to take a deeper look into the meaning.

4. Strand's "Keeping Things Whole" resembles Shakespeare's "[Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore]." While Shakespeare's poem adheres to a more formal sonnet form in comparision to Strand's free versed poem, they both visit the same theme, the role nature plays in the individual life. In Shakespeare's sonnet, nature serves to bring the speaker to the realization that "like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore" so he or she moves towards impending death. In contrast, Strand's nature serves to show the speaker that his or her actions bring life and "keeps things whole." In both cases, the speaker exists in contrast to his or her environment. Both speakers attempt to gain control over time and place, as explified in the metrical variations. Shakespeare takes a slight variation on the sonnet form stringing lines together by stressed lines, emphasizing the rising and falling of the speaker's accomplishments. This suggests that despite his or her efforts, nature is still prevailing. In Strand's poem, the speaker strings together the concrete ideas of field and air, negating his personal attachment for a more physical insertion. There is a sense of push and pull between the speaker and the environment created by the repetition of I and the repetition of place. In the end, however, Strand's speaker is able to become balanced with nature and coincide harmoniously.

Shakespeare, William. "[Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore]." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mayes. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 215.