pOsT PoSt pOsT

“Mirror” by Sylvia Plath

My initial reading of this wasn’t intense and I sort of liked the writing. I like the style and transition between being literally a mirror then becoming a natural reflective surface. It was a changeup that kept the story interesting, but I did think there was a lot more she could have talked about from just the mirrors point of view. I felt and do feel that the second section of the poem was just sort of thrown in there to finish the writing rather than be building on the beginning. There was no transition and that was really off putting and confusing. If I were the author, I would have made the the lake be focused on something other than a person. Well, now that I think about it (cause I read the poem like sixty times) I guess the author was trying to convey that the human was getting in the way of the lake looking at the beautiful nature around it. The human was placed in this last section because it expands upon the first section where the mirror is complaining that faces and darkness come between it and the wall. Maybe this face comes between the lake and nature...who knows. I feel like the mirror is indifferent as it says it is, but care a little about the objects that are before it the most.The questions about this story weren’t too bad. I honestly just hated the question because of the stupid trick wording. Usually I do not mind working on them, but the wording makes me so aggravated. Rana and I worked through them together though. We did come to the same answers on most of them though, so that is a positive. Next time I think I will like to work on them alone and then compare just so I know I can do it. For a first time, it was nice to have a partner. I think I need more practice with interpreting lines of the poem and interpreting symbols.

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

Rana and I selected a poem at random and when this popped up I think we both looked at each other and went, “Really?” It was/is so short and easy it really did not feel like poetry at all. I mean, I know anything can be poetry, but at the same time I just really didn’t expect this. Anyway, I sort of liked it...not really. It sort of bothered me how it was both structured and written. The speaker was vague and seemed to not have the vocabulary or grammar skills to be able to form the story. The fact that the speaker also said they left school really bothered me, because it only makes sense to me to stay in school until you are at least out of high school because that is a basic education. This speaker really severely needed to stay in school, but that is just my opinion. Honestly, once I read that I think that is the major thing I took away from this story. Upon revisiting the poem a few more times after that first time I did start to take in some of the other information that the author gives the readers. The fact that this speaker seems to be in a not so great place at this point in their life also seems to be a topic discussed. I can’t tell if the speaker is disappointed or if they are proud of their decisions. It feels like the story begins with the speaker being a bit proud of their decision to leave school and claim some freedom, but as the story goes on with its train of thought the speaker begins to speak about sadder and sadder content. The ending line really just made me think of “YOLO” because all of the things before it seemed reckless and something a teen would want to do because they feel invincible. So… I am part of the “YOLO” Generation. Personally, I’d like to say in school and make the right decisions, that way I can get what I want in life and not fall into a downward spiral that a lot of people fall into because of bad choices in their youth.