Enough by Katie Peterson: Poetry Analysis

Note: This is not part of my official AP blog portfolio; it's simply an attempt to stay on top of my goals. Fellow students, feel free to comment, add to, or disagree with my analysis. This poem was the Poetry Foundation's Poem of the Day for Friday, August 22nd.

Enough by Katie Peterson

So many forget-me-nots, with their white centers,     1

scattered, you'd say, if there weren't

so many everywhere, as many as the stars

last night in between the branches

above the porch, behind the house.     5

Was it an argument or were there just

things they had to say?

I could have faith in so many creatures—

the old setter from the neighbor yard

who follows me around the corner     10

and no longer, the chick with its new beak

just past breakable whose lighter top feathers

have a bit of flight, any mother bear—

you say things and the next day

it's like they don't matter, we want our faces     15

to alter though we don't want to get older, neither

do we want to get younger, repetition

with less knowledge is ridiculous,

just ask the Greeks, you get to keep

being a tree but without the branch     20

that showed the sky your starlike shape?

I don't think so. Steadiness can be useful,

but my loyalty loves a form

that will follow me through changes.

At a diagonal the dark woods     25

on the back slope have enough space

to walk between, not enough to hide.

He looks into them

and writes notes to his mother, she

looks into them and finds alignment,     30

or looks for what she wants.

She has a human skeleton on her desk.

He has a protractor. I had wishes

for both of them yesterday

but the weather has become so kindly,     35

so temperate, I forget what blessings

they don't think they have.

Line 1: Forget-me-nots - flower imagery; white as a color of innocence
Line 2-3: Beauty is scattered
Line 12-13: Fragility of youth, beauty
Line 15-17: Presents paradox in human wanting
Line 17-18: Alliteration - repetition is...ridiculous
Line 20: Tree conveys strength, steadiness
Line 25: Woods - archetypal mysterious and dark setting
Line 32-33: Death vs curiosity or just simple anatomy vs mathematics?

Overall: I'm not a big fan of freestyle poetry (not sure if there's a name for this specific type of poem), and I suppose this one wasn't much different. I pulled what I could. Peterson used enjambment repeatedly, making her writing a little stilted - not to my taste, really. Her metaphors were a bit scattered, and I couldn't find a big overarching metaphor (though if someone else has spotted it, please speak up and help me out!) I did think her symbolism (especially using flowers and woods to set the 'atmosphere' of the poem) was subtle and well-executed.

So poetry analysis is definitely still an issue for me. I can't find the quality in poetry that is supposed to be top-notch. I'll try my hand at some Shakespeare later -- guess I can't become adroit at this overnight!