Author Archives: Caroline Heath

Olivia does a great job in “Parenting 101” using prose to capture a poignant moment in a poetic way. The opening descriptions of the diner fill the short piece with beauty and tension. “The cheap maroon upholstery” paired with the … Continue reading →

Patrick Kelleher’s “Ode to National Debt” is an excellent example of an anti-ode, except that this poem is more subtle than some of the ones we discussed in class. Because he still uses language that seems to build up the … Continue reading →

Matthew Zaccari’s “Parents” portrays a compelling growth by the speaker from dependence on the words of his parents to a reflection on a life lived. Zaccari demonstrates this progression in the form of his work. He begins with short two … Continue reading →

Yancy Martin’s “What a fool!” is an excellent example of a persona poem. Martin brilliantly uses a poem to give voice to… a poem! His word choice and form develop the persona of a poem and allow the reader to … Continue reading →

Gillian Nicol’s “Listen” is a moving piece that cries out to the reader to hear from the speaker what has been brutally ignored in the past. On the surface, the poem is a reflection on a painful past, moving to … Continue reading →

Ian Moore’s “The Man That Waits for the Sun” is an excellent example of the pantoum form. All of the even numbered lines are repeated in the following stanza, which means that all of the poem’s lines are repeated except … Continue reading →

Drew’s poem is in Shakespearean form, except that the meter is not iambic pentameter. The lines are much shorter, never longer than six or seven syllables. It is Shakespearean for the rhyme scheme that clearly organizes the piece into three … Continue reading →

Tabb’s piece brilliantly illustrates the speaker’s frustration with her health. Many aspects of the poem’s form contribute to the content. First, Tabb has broken the lines up into stanzas of random length to illustrate the erratic behavior of the ventricle … Continue reading →

In his poem “Connie,” Chinedu Nwadiugwu uses strong images to create a first upsetting atmosphere that transitions beautifully into one of redemption. The speaker describes an event, a dramatic fight with his lover brought on by “cheating, lies, changes.” Nwadiugwu … Continue reading →

*side note* I had the pleasure of hearing Ashley read her poem at the CAB poetry reading event tonight! She did a GREAT job. In her poem “Love,” Ashley Green uses few words to speak volumes about the kind of … Continue reading →