Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell Without knowing that a ball turret is small place in a B-17, we would not understand the central metaphor analogizing the mother's womb to the ball turret, which is essential to understanding that the poem is about the contrast between the warmth of a mother's love and the cold dehumanizing treatment of the "State" where he is just another soldier. Common Ground by Judith Cofer Before reading the poem, the title seemed quite self-explanatory, I figured the poem would be about finding common ground between people, and in a sense it is, but the message, after reading the poem, is much starker. It is more about the inescapability of aging, the common links that tie generations as the young get old and realize the commonalities they share with their parents.

Hazel Tells LaVerne by Katharyn Machan Knowing the fairy tale helps because in contrasting the fairy tale to the poem one can unearth the sardonic tone the poem uses to highlight the discrepancies between them, which is central to the poem's thematic core: that fairy tales are for white folks, black women don't become princesses.

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning In this poem the Duke is talking with an agent to negotiate his marriage to the agent's Master's daughter. The duke is a vain, jealous, and very controlling person. His last duchess was a carefree women, who was easily amused. She is...

He becomes so jealous to the point where he ends up killing the duchess. He is too vain to "stoop" so he "gave the commands" to kill her no doubt, and then "all smiles stopped together," not just hers but everyone else whom she used to smile to.
What It's Like...by Patricia Smith The image at the end of this poem evokes a sense of feminine powerlessness, a "caving in around his fingers." Smith in this image is drawing a parallel between racial inequality and gender inequality that make the life of a black girl doubly tragic.

The Blue Bowl by Jane Kenyon The title of this poem is very interesting in that the bowl in the poem is never described as being blue. Perhaps the color blue has some symbolic meaning related to either the sadness felt by the "we" who have to bury the cat, or perhaps blue being the color of death, in contrast to the liveliness of the robin, which is red. The only color mentioned is "red" in describing the cat's fur, which I suspect is red from blood. So, maybe the title "The Blue Bowl" is meant to convey something about how the inanimate object of the bowl is not as important as the cat at the moment of burial, hence the animation of color is assigned to the cat, but when reflecting on death, even the inanimate objects associated with those who…