Response Question Two: Situation and Setting: The section of today’s analysis deals with What? When? and Where? Today’s readings, “Daystar,” page 762, “The Beautiful Changes,” page 835, “Summer Storm,” [posted under Poetry link] all deal with situation and setting, as well as word choice.  Please read these poems, and post your analysis of these poems, which must include the situation and setting. Please note the following, which will help you analyze the poem: Setting: the scene; the basic backdrop of the story, like the location, the year, the season. These are usually factual and describe the scene where the situation takes place. Examples of setting: · in a forest · in a clubhouse · surrounded by lions · at a cemetery at night · Talking with another person, Where? When?  Why? · Talking to oneself (soliloquy) Where? When?  Why? · Situation: describes what is going on within the setting. It is usually dynamic, telling a story of how characters interact with each other (or with the setting). Examples of situations: · a man and woman are fighting about whether to discipline their children · the poet loves a woman very much, but she has recently died, and he feels regret for never telling her of his love Response Question Two (cont’d) Language: This section deals with - - Word Choice and Order: In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” page 825, the word choice is extremely important.  Many people read the poem and think that it is a poem about a young boy having a wonderful time dancing with his father.  Others read it as child abuse.  What is your opinion, and what words specifically made you think that way? RITA DOVE Daystar She wanted a little room for thinking: but she saw diapers steaming on the line, a doll slumped behind the door.
 So she lugged a chair behind the garage 5 to sit out the children’s naps. Sometimes there were things to watch— the pinched armor of a vanished cricket, a floating maple leaf. Other days
 she stared until she was assured 10 when she closed her eyes
 she’d see only her own vivid blood. She had an hour, at best, before Liza appeared pouting from the top of the stairs.
 And just what was mother doing 15 out back with the field mice? Why, building a palace. Later
 that night when Thomas rolled over and lurched into her, she would open her eyes and think of the place that was hers 20 for an hour—where
she was nothing,
 pure nothing, in the middle of the day. RICHARD WILBUR The Beautiful Changes One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides The Queen Anne’s Lace1 lying like lilies
 On water; it glides
 So from the walker, it turns 5 Dry grass to a lake, as the slightest shade of you Valleys my mind in fabulous blue Lucernes.2 The beautiful changes as a forest is changed By a chameleon’s tuning his skin to it;
 As a mantis, arranged 10 On a green leaf, grows
 Into it, makes the leaf leafier, and proves Any greenness is deeper than anyone knows. Your hands hold roses always in a way that say ...

1. Response Question Two:
Situation and Setting: The section of today’s analysis deals
with What? When? and Where?
Today’s readings, “Daystar,” page 762, “The Beautiful
Changes,” page 835, “Summer Storm,” [posted under Poetry
link] all deal with situation and setting, as well as word choice.
Please read these poems, and post your analysis of these poems,
which must include the situation and setting.
Please note the following, which will help you analyze the
poem:
Setting: the scene; the basic backdrop of the story, like the
location, the year, the season. These are usually factual and
describe the scene where the situation takes place. Examples of
setting:
· in a forest
· in a clubhouse
· surrounded by lions
· at a cemetery at night
· Talking with another person, Where? When? Why?
· Talking to oneself (soliloquy) Where? When? Why?
·
Situation: describes what is going on within the setting. It is
usually dynamic, telling a story of how characters interact with
each other (or with the setting). Examples of situations:
· a man and woman are fighting about whether to discipline
their children
· the poet loves a woman very much, but she has recently died,
and he feels regret for never telling her of his love

2. Response Question Two (cont’d)
Language: This section deals with - - Word Choice and Order:
In the poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” page 825, the word choice is
extremely important. Many people read the poem and think that
it is a poem about a young boy having a wonderful time dancing
with his father. Others read it as child abuse. What is your
opinion, and what words specifically made you think that way?
RITA DOVE
Daystar
She wanted a little room for thinking:
but she saw diapers steaming on the line,
a doll slumped behind the door.
So she lugged a chair behind the garage
5 to sit out the children’s naps.
Sometimes there were things to watch—
the pinched armor of a vanished cricket,
a floating maple leaf. Other days
she stared until she was assured
10 when she closed her eyes
she’d see only her own vivid blood.
She had an hour, at best, before Liza appeared
pouting from the top of the stairs.
And just what was mother doing
15 out back with the field mice? Why,
building a palace. Later
that night when Thomas rolled over and
lurched into her, she would open her eyes and think of the place
that was hers
20 for an hour—where she was nothing,
pure nothing, in the middle of the day.
RICHARD WILBUR
The Beautiful Changes

3. One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides
The Queen Anne’s Lace1 lying like lilies
On water; it glides
So from the walker, it turns
5 Dry grass to a lake, as the slightest shade of you
Valleys my mind in fabulous blue Lucernes.2
The beautiful changes as a forest is changed
By a chameleon’s tuning his skin to it;
As a mantis, arranged
10 On a green leaf, grows
Into it, makes the leaf leafier, and proves
Any greenness is deeper than anyone knows.
Your hands hold roses always in a way that says
They are not only yours; the beautiful changes
15 In such kind ways,
Wishing ever to sunder
Things and things’ selves for a second finding, to lose
For a moment all that it touches back to wonder.
1. Plant sometimes called “wild carrot,” with delicate,
fingerlike leaves and at clusters of small white flowers. 2.
Alfalfa, a plant resembling clover, with small purple flowers.
Lake Lucerne is famed for its deep blue color and picturesque
Swiss setting amid limestone mountains.
“Summer Storm” by Dana Gioia
We stood on the rented patio
While the party went on inside.
You knew the groom from college.
I was a friend of the bride.
We hugged the brownstone wall behind us
To keep our dress clothes dry
And watched the sudden summer storm
Floodlit against the sky.
The rain was like a waterfall
Of brilliant beaded light,

4. Cool and silent as the stars
The storm hid from the night.
To my surprise, you took my arm —
A gesture you didn’t explain —
And we spoke in whispers, as if we two
Might imitate the rain.
Then suddenly the storm receded
As swiftly as it came.
The doors behind us opened up.
The hostess called your name.
I watched you merge into the group,
Aloof and yet polite.
We didn’t speak another word
Except to say goodnight.
Why does that evening’s memory
Return with this night’s storm —
A party twenty years ago,
Its disappointments warm?
There are so many might have beens,
What ifs that won’t stay buried,
Other cities, other jobs,
Strangers we might have married.
And memory insists on pining
For places it never went,
As if life would be happier
Just by being different.
Dana GioiaInterrogations at Noon (2001)
THEODORE ROETHKE
My Papa’s Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
5 We romped until the pans

5. Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
10 Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
15 Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
MARTHA COLLINS
Lies
Anyone can get it wrong, laying low
when she ought to lie, but is it a lie
for her to say she laid him when we know
he wouldn’t lie still long enough to let
5 her do it? A good lay is not a song,
not anymore; a good lie is something
else: lyrics, lines, what if you say dear sister
when you have no sister, what if you say guns
when you saw no guns, though you know
10 they’re there? She laid down her arms; she lay
down, her arms by her sides. If we don’t know,
do we lie if we say? If we don’t say, do we lie
down on the job? To arms! in any case
dear friends. If we must lie, let’s not lie around.