Porphyria’s Lover by Robert Browning

This poem is a dramatic monologue poem. The best part of it is that it leaves the audience questioning both what is happening and the narrator’s state of mind.

Philip Larkin’s High Windows and This Be The Verse

Both of these poems were my favorites because of how related they are to current poetry. When reading it I could not help but be reminded of Yunior from Junot Diaz’s Drown and This Is How You Lose Her.

Preface to “Pictures of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde

I love this preface because it was so original and unlike any preface I have ever read in my life. Wilde makes a list of aphorisms-- which most of them I could not help but unline.

Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

Even though Whitman does not believe in taking out anything that he has already written. I was still in love with his writing and mainly his 21st poem that says:

I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul,

The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,

The first I graft and increase upon myself, the latter I translate into a new tongue.

The Raven and The Tell-tale heart by Edgar Allan Poe

We all know Edgar Allan Poe-- the father of the detective series. Most people read it during middle school and never read him in school again. I was excited to read him again and view his writing a different college way.

The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks

I like this poem in relation to the discussion that my class had about the poem. This poem stuck with me because Brooks was able to take a hard topic-- abortion-- and talk about it in a way that was not uncomfortable or saying that having an abortion is either bad or good.

All They Want is my Money my Pussy my Blood by Morgan Parker

This poem for me was earth shaking. The fact the Parker uses slang, and terms that group a generation, a neighbor and even a culture was new to me. Although, this can ostracize some people it was enduring to me and I went on to read the rest of her book “Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night.”

Orientation by Daniel Orozco

Orientation is the story of the narrator’s introduction into a new workplace and all the “fun” that goes with it. The whole story is relateable because it is the norm of society to be introduced to the work space layout, what everyone in the workplace is like (even the rumors about them) and the rules.

Pluto Shits on the Universe by Fatimah Asghar

I love the fact the Asghar started her poem with a scientific fact and went on to talk in the voice of Pluto. She uses a comical voice to the expectation of people that everything should follow a set course.

When I am Dead by Christina Rossetti

I like this poem because it’s truth to real life. The speaker is stating do not be sad that I am gone with an underlining tone which indicates that she wants to be missed which I think this is how everyone wants to feel when they die.