Comments on: This Week’s Poem: "Ask Me" by William Stafford http://onethingiknow.net/2007/02/15/this-weeks-poem-ask-me-by-william-stafford/ Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:02:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Dawn http://onethingiknow.net/2007/02/15/this-weeks-poem-ask-me-by-william-stafford/#comment-311 Dawn Sat, 29 Sep 2007 23:40:17 +0000 http://s37651.gridserver.com/?p=589#comment-311 if you want to understand Stafford better, read his two books that discussed poetry: "Writing the Australian Crawl" and "You Must Revise Your Life." Sadly, there isn't many analysis on this poem. I found a brief analysis by Erlan G Anderson in "Explicator" of the spring 1996 issue. Sadly, Anderson wasn't clear on what Stafford was attempting. Still, ambiguity my have been Stafford's position because we never truelly come to know ourselves until we are "meant" with a situation. Another way to say there are no absolutes. It is a beautiful poem wth many twist in it, based on the landscape set up by Stafford: "the river is ice." This landscape, since he doesn't build on it specifically, allows the reader to make many metaphorical connection, such as a person placing a wall between themselves and the world, or the shell covering what is really inside the self, or the next step of life since cold puts away the old and rest for a time before continuing on. It is possible he is using all three of these metaphorical ideas. I found this site because I was looking for more critical reviews on this poem. I'm using it for an oral report--teaching the class about Stafford--for my American Poetry class. Thanks for responding to this poem. It has given me some ideas on how to teach this poem. Dawn if you want to understand Stafford better, read his two books that discussed poetry: “Writing the Australian Crawl” and “You Must Revise Your Life.”

Sadly, there isn’t many analysis on this poem. I found a brief analysis by Erlan G Anderson in “Explicator” of the spring 1996 issue. Sadly, Anderson wasn’t clear on what Stafford was attempting. Still, ambiguity my have been Stafford’s position because we never truelly come to know ourselves until we are “meant” with a situation. Another way to say there are no absolutes.

It is a beautiful poem wth many twist in it, based on the landscape set up by Stafford: “the river is ice.” This landscape, since he doesn’t build on it specifically, allows the reader to make many metaphorical connection, such as a person placing a wall between themselves and the world, or the shell covering what is really inside the self, or the next step of life since cold puts away the old and rest for a time before continuing on. It is possible he is using all three of these metaphorical ideas.

I found this site because I was looking for more critical reviews on this poem. I’m using it for an oral report–teaching the class about Stafford–for my American Poetry class.

Thanks for responding to this poem. It has given me some ideas on how to teach this poem.

Dawn

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