Po-I-Try

"The Quiet Life"
Right off the bat, I assume that this poem is going to be about living a simple life, one that is now rarely heard of because of the title. And it is in a sense, but it also is about slipping in and out of time, leaving no mark. "Thus unlamented let me die; / Steal from the world, and not a stone / Tell where I lie." In this poem, the famous writer Alexander Pope is commenting on the virtues of defining yourself in a tight community. He uses the ABAB rhyme scheme connecting the concepts within a stanza together. "Sound sleep by night; study and ease / Together mix'd; sweet recreation, / And innocence, which most does please / With mediation." Essentially sleeping is innocence which is soothing and napping and mediating both induce the sleep state. By having the poem set in a rural small farm or that atmosphere, "Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, / Whose flocks supply him with attire..." Pope induces the reader's imagination to one of an old farmer having just what he needs to live and be happy with the simplicities of life. Accomplishing his purpose of defining the qualities for living in a bounded community.

The contemporary poem that I chose was "I'm Nobody! Who are you?". The reason that I chose this poem, was because of the contrasting tones that were declaring the same thing. Although Emily Dickinson almost demands that everyone be a nobody and that it is best to be a nobody, Alexander Pope subtly describes the life of a happy nobody living on his or her own. Alexander Pope begs to be left alone and to be a nobody while Emily Dickinson demands that a person be a no one. This is my poems and why I chose them! I honestly sometimes want to be forgotten and left alone, but sometimes I want to stand out and have my voice heard as a human from a society still working women into engineering.