Maxine+Kumin

=__Nathan Milton__= Maxine Kumin was born on June 6, 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and received her BA and MA from Radcliffe College. Kumin has published many books of poetry ranging from The Long Marriage (2003), Connecting the Dots (1996), House, Bridge, Fountain, Gate (1975), and much more. Her awards range from the Levinson Prize, the Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize, and the Sarah Joseph Hale Award just to name a few. Maxine Kumin has served as a former Chancellor of the Academy of the Academy of American Poets, as well as a Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and Poet Laureate of New Hampshire.

"Maxine Kumin." //Poets //. Academy of American Poets. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. Pride, Mike. "Being Maxine Kumin." //Concord Monitor //. Mike Pride, 08 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2016.



**The Quarrel**
Said a lightning bug to a firefly, 'Look at the lightning bugs fly by!'

'Silly dunce!' said the fly. 'What bug ever flew? Those are fireflies. And so are you.'

'Bug!' cried the bug. 'Fly!' cried the fly. 'Wait!' said a glowworm happening by.

'I'm a worm,' squirmed the worm. 'I glimmer all night. You are worms, both of you. I know that I'm right.'

'Fly!' cried the fly. 'Worm!' cried the worm. 'Bug!' cried the bug. 'I'm standing firm!'

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Back and forth through the dark each shouted his word <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Till their quarrel awakened the early bird.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">'You three noisy things, you are all related,' <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">She said to the worm, and promptly ate it.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">With a snap of her bill she finished the fly, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And the lightning bug was the last to die.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">All glowers and glimmerers, there's a MORAL: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Shine if you must, but do not quarrel.

====The following poem from Maxine Kumin shows an argument between 3 different creatures. They keep bickering over a miscommunication until they awaken a bird, which then precedes to eat all of them. The theme depicted here is pretty self-explanatory, to the point where it even states itself at the end of the poem. Show the world how good you can be, but never argue or quarrel, or else pride and ignorance will be your downfall. This poem appears to be a moral message to people who enjoy arguing just for the sake of arguing, trying to convince these people that this kind of behavior will only lead to creating divisions between themselves and other people in the world. The lightning bug, firefly, and the glow-worm are all symbols of people who shine too brightly and try to show off to the world how great they think they are. This poem does not seem to take itself very serious, despite having a somewhat important message about gloating and showing off. The bird that appears at the end of the poem just nonchalantly devours the three creatures because they interrupted his sleep. If those creatures were human, then the poem would have taken a much darker approach to resolving the issue with pride that is discussed. The only downside that I had with the poem was that is was over just as quickly as it started. I was hoping that there would be more to __The Quarrel__ than just a few short meters of poetry, but what I got was satisfactory, and pretty entertaining as well. Another interesting way that I have found to interpret the poem is that even the brightest lights in the world will eventually flicker and die if they do not work together. Because the glow-worm, lightning bug, and the firefly all argued and quarreled among each other, outside forces caused the three to perish. If humanity wants to survive, petty differences need to be put aside for the greater good of all.====

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"The Quarrel - Poem by Maxine Kumin." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Poem Hunter //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. 15 Jan. 2016. Web. 02 Feb. 2016. <span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"The Early Bird Gets the Worm Quotes." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Quotesgram //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Jeremy Paxman. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.



The Revisionist Dream
Well, she didn't kill herself that afternoon. It was a mild day in October, we sat outside over sandwiches. She said she had begun

to practice yoga, take piano lessons, rewrite her drama rife with lust and pride and so she didn't kill herself that afternoon,

hugged me, went home, cranked the garage doors open, scuffed through the garish leaves, orange and red, that brought on grief. She said she had begun

to translate Akhmatova, her handsome Russian piano teacher rendering the word-for-word so she didn't kill herself that afternoon.

She cooked for him, made quinche and coq au vin. He stood the Czerny method on its head while her fingers flew. She said she had begun

accelerandos, Julia Child, and some expand-a-lung deep breaths to do in bed so she didn't kill herself that afternoon. We ate our sandwiches. The dream blew up at dawn.

====Out of all the poems I have read by Maxine Kumin, this is by far the most depressing and saddening one. The story behind the creation of this poem was that a woman named Anne Sexton committed suicide in 1974, so Maxine Kumin wrote a poem about it. Judging by how the poem progresses, it appears to take place in the mind of a victim of this woman's suicide. The person is trying to repress the memory and attempts to think positively about her life before the tragedy. Memories such as the piano lessons, practicing yoga, and cooking delicious food. All of this is in vain, as no positive memory can hope to bring back the life of Anne Sexton. One of the most important themes that I have taken away from this poem is that there is a lot to live for in life, and doing something as awful as committing suicide will not only affect your life, it will devastate the lives of those who you care about most. There is no regular rhyme scheme in this poem, but I believe that this was intentional. There is no point in trying to butter up words about why committing suicide is awful, and there is no sense in rearranging words so they would sound better when discussing such a taboo topic. An interesting topic to bring up is the title of this poem. __The Revisionist Dream__ may seem like an odd name for a poem about suicide, but it fits the overall tone in my opinion. The dream is taking place in this person's head, and they are trying to piece together a new memory of this woman. This person is trying to remember or add new details to Anne Sexton's life in order to keep all that was good about her intact, even in death. Throughout the poem, the phrase 'so she didn't kill herself' is repeated four times, which leads me to believe that whoever is in mourning over this death cared about her very much, and is trying to believe that Anne is still alive, and that this is all a terrible nightmare that is impossible to awaken from.====

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kumin, Maxine. "The Revisionist Dream." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Poetry Archive //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Giles Anderson, 2005. Web. 2 Feb. 2016. <span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Pianoforte Studio." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Pianoforte Studio //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.



Six Weeks After
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">two roistering dogs splayed me flat <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">on frozen turf shattering six ribs <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">consigning me to gray walls, bleak thoughts <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m up and about, hitching from place to place

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">and I see the common coarse-grained stones <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">have not given up their good seats in the wall <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">though the deckle-edged daffodils came and went <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">while I motored my rented bed up and down

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">and I see the greening margin along the road <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">is shaggy and unshorn and the goldfinches <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">have exchanged their winter costumes <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">for strobic lozenges of yellow that brighten

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">the window feeder and an indigo <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">bunting has brought his electric blue <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">to my sphere so that each time the rose- <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">breasted grosbeak alights for a sunflower chip

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">I am stunned into wholeness, healed <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia,Palatino; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline;">by a wheel of primary colors.

==== As far as difficult and confusing poems to interpret go, this one was the biggest pain to understand what message is being conveyed to the reader. I am torn between trying to decide if this poem is a message saying that pain is temporary, but the beauty of the world can heal even the deepest of scars. Or, this poem could just be a message saying how beautiful the world is, and that it is worth living for to experience all of the amazing and wondrous sights it has to offer. After much consideration, I believe that the message best meant to be interpreted is that despite how cruel the world can be at times, there are always moments where it shines through the clouds and storms of negativity and despair to show the color and beauty of Earth. At the start of the poem, the person speaking appears to have just been attacked by two dogs, which has resulted in six shattered ribs. It is more appropriate to have the dogs attack the person since some people tend to act in a similar nature in the world, perhaps not in a physical sense, but instead with verbal aggression. People can act like animals whenever things do not go their way, and I believe this personification is a good example of showing how they act, without actually saying it. Another curious bit of information is the selection of color in the rest of the poem, from the 'greening margin along the road', to the 'strobic lozenges of yellow'. However strange these particular choices of words can be, the entire point of this colorful language appears to show how beautiful the world is despite the bad it contains. This poem may have a concept that is difficult to grasp for some people, but it is a very beautiful and enjoyable poem to read through, and should be recommended for people trying to find beauty in this unforgiving world. ====

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kumin, Maxine. "Six Weeks After." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Shenandoah Literary //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Web. 2 Feb. 2016. <span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"Guard Dog Training Center Pty Ltd." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Guard Dog Training //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.



Woodchucks
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The knockout bomb from the Feed and Grain Exchange <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">was featured as merciful, quick at the bone <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">and the case we had against them was airtight, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">both exits shoehorned shut with puddingstone, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">but they had a sub-sub-basement out of range.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Next morning they turned up again, no worse <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">for the cyanide than we for our cigarettes <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">and state-store Scotch, all of us up to scratch. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">They brought down the marigolds as a matter of course <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">and then took over the vegetable patch <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">nipping the broccoli shoots, beheading the carrots.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">The food from our mouths, I said, righteously thrilling <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">to the feel of the .22, the bullets' neat noses. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">I, a lapsed pacifist fallen from grace <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">puffed with Darwinian pieties for killing, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">now drew a bead on the little woodchuck's face. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">He died down in the everbearing roses.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Ten minutes later I dropped the mother.She <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">flipflopped in the air and fell, her needle teeth <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">still hooked in a leaf of early Swiss chard. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Another baby next.O one-two-three <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">the murderer inside me rose up hard, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">the hawkeye killer came on stage forthwith.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">There's one chuck left. Old wily fellow, he keeps <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">me cocked and ready day after day after day. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">All night I hunt his humped-up form.I dream <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">I sight along the barrel in my sleep. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">If only they'd all consented to die unseen <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">gassed underground the quiet Nazi way.

====In a close second to __The Revisionist Dream__, Maxine Kumin's poem, __Woodchucks__, is one of the most disturbing poems I have read by this author. A family seems to have a woodchuck infestation in their household, and they are trying to kill them by using gas bombs underneath the house that are supposedly merciful, quick, and painless to the rodents. Unfortunately, when the bomb does not work, one of the members of the family is forced to get his gun and kill them while they are destroying the family's garden outside. After a long hunt, only one elusive woodchuck remains, which keeps him alert and searching for the rodent. All the while, he is wishing that all the woodchucks had died quickly and without notice, instead of being mowed down by gunfire. In a way, this poem captures all of the horrors of war and pain all in a few brief words. It makes people question which is worse: to all die together with a single strike, or to die one at a time in the hope that at least one will survive to fight again another day. Another interesting aspect of the poem is that the man who is gunning down the woodchucks used to be a pacifist, but was then recruited in a war, killing the positive attitude he used to have. These actions are a personification of the darkest natures of humans. We can be violent and cruel when the time allows it, and it is moments such as these that humans exemplify these dark emotions. Perhaps another way to interpret this poem is to show that the horrors and madness of war will always follow those who participate in it. The man killing the woodchucks is a veteran who has tried to lay down his arms, but the deeds of the past have come back to haunt him during this moment. We can try to outrun our dark pasts in an attempt to forget it, but in the end, nothing can prevent these events from resurfacing.====

<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kumin, Maxine. "Woodchucks." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Poem Hunter //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. 20 Jan. 2003. Web. 2 Feb. 2016. <span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">"What to Do About Woodchucks." //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Humane Society //<span style="background-color: #ffe7af; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">. 03 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 Feb. 2016.