Great Regulars: But purpose of the poem is clear:

it says, "we're better than you because we adhere to a vague sense of self-righteousness"; it consists of ideological talking-points that demonstrate a blind political stance, ungrounded in historical fact or the reality of current events.

Kudos to [Charles] Bernstein, however, for writing a poem that is bad for you. He’s a man of his word.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: 'The Ballad of the Girlie Man'

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She and her big hips move in an expansive universe of large, profound ideas and significance that transcends the little ideas of petty thinkers like the minds that would call a big mama an unkind name because of the size of her hips.

She says, "these hips/are free hips/they don't like to be held back."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Clifton's 'homage to my hips'

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Then he supposes that being African American does not make him all that different in the things he likes as other races. So the question occurs to him: "So will my page be colored that I write?"

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Hughes' 'Theme for English B'

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The tone of the wind's deep roar, the porch sagging under time's sway, the leaves behaving like a snake all add up to "something sinister." Then the speaker surmises what is causing all this somber and sinister activity: the word is out that he is in the house alone. His secret has somehow gotten out.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Robert Frost's 'Bereft'

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Now, it is becoming clear that the speaker is once again comparing the young man's youth to nature; just as trees were once useful with their full branches, the green or youth gets bundled up and is "Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 12

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You know the sound economy of fathering offspring, because you yourself had a father, so let your son say the same thing. Get busy and marry and produce sons!

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 13

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The sun is hot, that is why the wax wings melted. No one notices that Icarus fell into the sea, even though there was a splash, which meant that Icarus was drowning.

The poem focuses on the fact that such a significant event is portrayed as insignificant to the people in the poem who were not drowning. The event was "unsignificant" and "unnoticed."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Williams and Auden

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