Naoshi Koriyama deftly equates the poetic process with a commonplace procedure in his poem "A Lo af of Poetry," proving that in the end , poetry is open to anyone who has the persistence, experience and i nspi ration to dab ble in it . Added to this is the idea that p oetry, like a loa f o f bread , is not a n ornate affair like some gastronomical preparation , but one of the primary forms of susten ance crucial to our diet. The fascination with this poem , often reprinted in textbooks and taught to students by way of introducing poe try to them, lies i n its simplicity which conce a ls Koriyama's metho dical approach. That, however, is what t he poem actually wants to point out : great care and diligence to create such a piece of writing is required , no matter how modest the end product may appear to be. 

This is the second part of the overview to Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Havisham" which covers stanzas one and two of the poem in terms of content.  Read part 1 which gives a brief biography, discusses the poem's structure (meter and rhymes), the sounds present in the poem and analyzes the persona of Miss Havisham (what is known about her from Great Expectations and how Duffy treats her case) here .

A paragon of betrayal, vengeance, self-pity and idiosyncrasy, Miss Havisham is Dickens's most memorable and intriguing character. She was the woman who stayed fossilized in my mind the moment I finished reading the chapter in which Dickens first described her. She mesmerized me in the guise of Martita Hunt in the legendary 1946 film adaptation of Great Expectations starring iconic Sir John Mills, Finlay Currie, as well as a young Jean Simmons and Sir Alec Guinness. Being thus prejudicially inclined, it was with immense joy that I discovered that a poem had been written to recapture the sound of a shattering heart. Miss Havisham lived on in her agony, yet this time round her thoughts were open to further interpretation not limited to details set down by Dickens's 19th century novel.  Carol Ann Duffy's 1993 poem does Miss Havisham justice, indeed. So much so, in fact, that I've spent hours drawing up my overview which at 3 A-4 sized sheets of paper is nowhere near ...

This poem is a classic. It is taught in English-speaking schools to demonstrate how similes work in favor of descriptions and students are often assigned to write their own poem which should include a number of similes. This is an activity I heartily applaud as it introduces poetry to a younger audience, enabling every imaginative dreamer to experiment with novel ways to express their creativity and inner world. Merriam's gift is to balance her thoughts perfectly as she weaves her argument, sweeping us with her objective and inventive comparisons, making us think this is a neutral, matter-of-fact exposition of two trees, then hitting us with an emotional viewpoint to draw the matter to a close.

Poetry is an acquired taste. The more you sample it, the more flavors you extract.   -- Elle Greco Reading a Kashmiri poet for me is a first , and first impression s when it comes to poetry mean the world to me.  A li's poem troubled me . N ostalgia and lo neliness exuded from the poem as a whole, but I had trouble realizing this until the very end , when in a worl d full of paper, the p oem's persona has yet to hear news from a loved one . The trouble was decoding the choice of words in the firs t six verses. Read in g and re-reading still couldn't provide me with definite motives that would help me build a definitive story which brought on such nostalgia. And then , when you think the poem e ludes you, you remember the one universal law embracing it : poetry is felt, and when f eelings enter into the picture , the picture becomes subjective for each person.  I suppose t he biggest question is w ho "you" refers to.