Crush- Smashing Pumpkins

You wrap your arms around
A feeling that surrounds
Like a liquid peppermint
Just taste the drinks that she served 

And this feeling shivers down your spine
Love comes in colors I can't deny
All that matters is love, love, your love

You're sleeping in your bed
Just rest your weary head
Maybe you shouldn't care
Throw away those dreams and dare

And I wonder if it matters to me
Love comes in colors I can't deny
All that shimmers is love, love, your love
Your love
Your love


I chose this song not only because Smashing Pumpkins is one of my favorite bands, but because this song, like many of their other songs has poetic devices. Within "Crush" there are a few devices that stand out the most, such as ambiguity and simile "You wrap your arms around  A feeling that surrounds  Like a liquid peppermint" (lines 1-3). I believe that this is a comparison between a man's love for a woman and drug use. It is as if her love is a drug-inducing chemical for him, making him high, making him "shiver". However, it could also mean that like peppermint, her love is something that takes his breath away, a cooling sensation that brings contentment. This song is clearly about an infatuation, a "Crush" on someone, laced with drug innuendos and metaphoric devices, but it bring a sense of gustatory imagery along with it by using words such as "peppermint" and "taste the drinks that she served"( line 4). This song is very ambiguous as a whole and I think the point of the song is to form your own interpretation. 

Spring

A sense of warmth is tapping at the door;
And hope, a feeling out from distant lore
– Or so it seems – clears the deep refrain!

Emerging youth: a dormant lea awakes.
The raging colour, singing loud, partakes
In annual birth – spring is born again!

A zest anew for nascent life
Begins in floral train:
Carriage one: a snowdropp thrill;
Carriage two: the crocus;
Number three, a daffodil – dancing,
Drawing focus – as she would,
Attention seeker!

How I love our spring:
The bold and sleeker feel I get,
An inner glow, a ring!
I’ve paid the winter’s chilly debt, so
Now upon the wing!
                                  -Mark R Slaughter

I chose this poem by Mark R Slaughter, because it was very pleasant to read. I like the fact that Slaughter compared Spring to a train, each carriage containing another element of the joyous season that is Spring. "A sense of warmth is tapping at the door" (1) This quote shows the author's contentment and happiness toward the coming season and also personifies the season as a person "tapping" on the door, bringing happiness. Spring is a wonderful time of year and Slaughter was able to create a poem that I truly enjoy about my favorite season.

ODE TO CLOTHES

Every morning you wait,
clothes, over a chair,
to fill yourself with
my vanity, my love,
my hope, my body.
Barely
risen from sleep,
I relinquish the water,
enter your sleeves,
my legs look for
the hollows of your legs,
and so embraced
by your indefatigable faithfulness
I rise, to tread the grass,
enter poetry,
consider through the windows,
the things,
the men, the women,
the deeds and the fights
go on forming me,
go on making me face things
working my hands,
opening my eyes,
using my mouth,
and so,
clothes,
I too go forming you,
extending your elbows,
snapping your threads,
and so your life expands
in the image of my life.
In the wind
you billow and snap
as if you were my soul,
at bad times
you cling
to my bones,
vacant, for the night,
darkness, sleep
populate with their phantoms
your wings and mine.
I wonder
if one day
a bullet
from the enemy
will leave you stained with my blood
and then
you will die with me
or one day
not quite
so dramatic
but simple,
you will fall ill,
clothes,
with me,
grow old
with me, with my body
and joined
we will enter
the earth.
Because of this
each day
I greet you
with reverence and then
you embrace me and I forget you,
because we are one
and we will go on
facing the wind, in the night,
the streets or the fight,
a single body,
one day, one day, some day, still.

-Pablo Neruda

I chose this ode by Pablo Neruda because I enjoy the fact that he can take something as simple as clothing and turn it into something of far more importance. Throughout Neruda's ode, he emphasizes the importance of his clothing and demonstrates that they are more than just external garments, they are a part of his entire being, his soul. "To fill yourself with my vanity, my love, my hope, my body" (3-5) shows Neruda's love for his clothing and demonstrates just how important his clothing is to him. Clothing is personified within this ode, and he speaks of it as if it were a friend or loved one. If this wasn't titled "Ode to Clothes" I would assume Neruda was talking about a person of great importance in his life.

Wind and Window Flower

    LOVERS, forget your love,
    And list to the love of these,
    She a window flower,
    And he a winter breeze.
    When the frosty window veil
    Was melted down at noon,
    And the cagèd yellow bird
    Hung over her in tune,
    He marked her through the pane,
    He could not help but mark,
    And only passed her by,
    To come again at dark.
    He was a winter wind,
    Concerned with ice and snow,
    Dead weeds and unmated birds,
    And little of love could know.
    But he sighed upon the sill,
    He gave the sash a shake,
    As witness all within
    Who lay that night awake.
    Perchance he half prevailed
    To win her for the flight
    From the firelit looking-glass
    And warm stove-window light.
    But the flower leaned aside
    And thought of naught to say,
    And morning found the breeze
    A hundred miles away.

The poem "Wind and Window Flower" by Robert Frost interested me the most because it appears to be a poem about constant conflict in love and in life. As I read the poem, I truly felt a sense of conflict between the two lovers in the poem as well as a slow, painful deterioration between them. In the 3rd and 4th line, I believe that a boy and girl are metaphorically represented as a window flower and the wind. The window flower could be a symbol of a girl who grows in love for the boy and the boy is wild and unpredictable like the wind. The girl could be compared to a flower in the sense that she is warm and dainty while the boy is compared to the winter breeze, symbolizing that he is cold and carefree. This in turn, leads to the lovers' downfall. The end of the poem shows that the two are no longer together, yet still think of one another. For example "And morning found the breeze A hundred miles away"(27-28) show that the lovers are no longer near one another, but the flower is still able to feel the breeze despite the distance between them. The flower feeling the breeze could symbolize the fact that the lovers still feel love for one another despite their downfall and the distance separating them.