Poems of Excellence

Title Based on the title I believe the poem will be about Marvin's feelings towards his dad after his death. "An Afterword To My Father" makes me believe that he is talking to his dad or telling a story about his dad after he has passed. Maybe even it's what he would want his last words to be to his father; We will see as we read. Paraphrase Line 1: "Still the wood I knocked on". Marvin is saying, after your death I still tried to call out to you. Sounds like he is still longing for something that is not there. Line 2: "is the family tree. I'm not a god,". He is knocking on the family tree but he is not God. He has to be the man of the house without his father there but he has not the powers of God because he is just man. line 3: "I haven't the face for it". He doesn't have the appearance to be God. He says that he can not be what he needs to because he is not ready or he feels he doesn't have the appearance of the

To an Adolescent Weeping Willow Marvin Bell ,  1937 I don’t know what you think you’re doing, sweeping the ground. You do it so easily, backhanded, forehanded. You hardly bend. Really, you sway. What can it mean when a thing is so easy? I threw dirt on my father’s floor. Not dirt, but a chopped green dirt which picked up dirt. I pushed the push broom. I oiled the wooden floor of the store. He bent over and lifted the coal into the coal stove. With the back of the shovel he came down on the rat just topping the bin and into the fire. What do you think?—Did he sway? Did he kiss a rock for luck? Did he soak up water and climb into light and turn and turn? Did he weep and weep in the yard? Yes, I think he did. Yes, now I think he did. So, Willow, you come sweep my floor. I have no store. I have a yard. A big yard. I have a song to weep. I have a cry. You who rose up from the dirt, because I put you there and like to walk my head in under your earliest feathery

To Dorthy Marvin Bell ,  1937 You are not beautiful, exactly. You are beautiful, inexactly. You let a weed grow by the mulberry and a mulberry grow by the house. So close, in the personal quiet of a windy night, it brushes the wall and sweeps away the day till we sleep. A child said it, and it seemed true: “Things that are lost are all equal.” But it isn’t true. If I lost you, the air wouldn’t move, nor the tree grow. Someone would pull the weed, my flower. The quiet wouldn’t be yours. If I lost you, I’d have to ask the grass to let me sleep. Title The title of the poem is To Dorthy. Based on the title I can infer that he, Marvin Bell is writing to a young lady, maybe his lover named Dorthy. From this I can predict that the poem will be about maybe an ex lover or about someone he is currently in love with. Paraphrase Line 1: "You are not beautiful.exactly". I think Marvin is trying to say that 'Dorthy' is different from the normal stereotype of