Poetry Journal #3

Title: since feeling is first
Style: contemporary poet

S: a person in love
O: expressing love for lover
A: the speaker’s lover
P: to tell their lover that realizing the true uniqueness and worth of them takes more than identifying their characteristics and coming to conclusions based on those easily identifiable characteristics
S: realizing uniqueness
Tone: realization

In the poem entitled “since feeling is first” E.E. Cummings uses references to literary characteristics to suggest that the true uniqueness of a person can not be concluded based on their easily identifiable characteristics. The poem is broken up into five stanzas, the last consisting of only one line. Throughout the poem, he uses little punctuation to make his words flow into one another; making it more appealing to the lover he is talking to. Also, by referring to literary devices like “syntax,” “paragraph” and “parenthesis,” Cummings implies the depth required to see the true beauty his love possesses.
In my poem entitled “But, you loved me last,” I counter Cunnings declaration of love from a feminist perspective. I use the same literary devices he did to imply that, while a man may say that my physical structure is less important than my spiritual being, more attention is paid to that structure because, to them it is more appealing. Also, I chose to capitalize the “I” in my poem to make it more clear to the person I’m speaking to that I am the one most important in the poem.



But, you loved me last

Since feeling is first
You pay more attention
To my syntax
In hopes of partially kissing me;

Wholly, you are a fool
since partial feeling is what you feel for me.

My blood rises
and boils at the though of me accepting your kisses.
The wisdom I though I had countered my fate, sir.
I cry with the most vulnerable chasm in my spirit
As you so majestically walk away from it.

We were for each other: then
Time gripped deep in the present
And held on with promises never to let go.
Life’s not a paragraph after all.

Now death I know is no parenthesis




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Title: i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)
Style: Comparative Critic

S: a person in love
O: declaring their everlasting love for their lover
A: the speaker’s lover
P: to tell their lover how unique and beautiful they are, explaining why they will always love the,
S: love
Tone: peaceful and serene

In the poem entitled “I carry your heart with me (i carry it in)” the author uses iambic pentameter, parenthesis and nature to declare his feelings for his lover. In the beginning, the author makes a straight-forward proclamation of how he and his lover are connected through their hearts. As the poem goes on, he enhances the power in that statement by connecting her uniqueness to nature such as the moon and the sun. The question that is ultimately answered is how their love has continued to survive; and he concludes that it is because “i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart).” (15) The poem is broken up into four stanzas—four lines in the first two, five lines in the third, and one line in the last stanza. The fact that the poem is written in iambic pentameter indicates to the reader that there will be some sort of conclusion drawn at the end of the poem. The author uses parenthesis throughout the poem to enhance the meaning of the lines that come before it. For example: in the first stanza, rather than saying “I carry your heart in my heart,” the author chooses to say enhances the fact that they are directly connected by saying “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart).” (1-2)
The author uses similar techniques in some of his other love poems. For example, in his poem entitled “it is at moments after I have dreamed” he also writes in iambic pentameter and uses parenthesis to enhance the meaning of the lines that come before it. And though he makes fewer comparisons to nature, he uses more rich diction to suggest the deep love he has for his lover.