Poetry Blog 2

Strand states "Something beyond knowledge compels our interest and our ability to be moved by a poem," and that seems to be eerily true. The underlying symbolizing, the thousands of interpretations all amount to how one person may relate differently to poetry than another and that in itself creates a unique reader experience.

The interpretation of Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" ("..the act of love, the pleasure it seeks might offer the illusion of sidestepping the inevitable, but the lovers cannot stop the sun, all they can do is make it run; that is make time pass more quickly, join their heat to the sun's heat.") especially resonated with me. Marvell had written that "And yonder all before us lie/ Deserts of vast eternity." While it seems quite bleak, with nothing to look forward to but a stagnant and endless eternity, the ability to "... roll all our strength and all/ Our sweetness up into one ball," to make the sun run brings a sense of purpose to life. This need not even be with a lover; Marvell seems to speak to the age old "Carpe diem!" to create in the reader the sense of self worth and infinite ability, so long as the passion is there. 

MacLeish's "You, Andrew Marvell" prompted Strand's poetic journey and juxtaposes "To His Coy Mistress" by creating a "world enough and time". With a lack of punctuation, MacLeish takes the reader on a never ending worldly journey, giving hope that the "always rising of the night" can bring adventure, too. Marvell urges to readers to ardently live, while MacLeish calmly accept. MacLeish speaks to the hopeful world traveler in me, that while now I may not be able to see "The wheel rut in the ruined stone" or "Of Africa the gilded sand", once the day ends, the night begins.