Poetry Blog #2

2. TPCASTT one poem and discover what it really says to you. Write about the poem and its theme, especially about how the poem’s message shed light on the universal human condition/experience

The poem I chose to TPCASTT was Emily Dickinson’s ‘I meant to have but modest needs.’ Poems carry messages the poet tries to deliver, but how the poem actually feels when you read it is different for each person because of reader response. We all have different experiences and thoughts of life. And I guess that’s why different poems reveal us in different ways.
When I was looking through the poetry packet and reading which poems I felt linked to, the speaker of this poem. The past few weeks have been a hectic time for all of us, so I felt these weeks were a time of disappointment that the speaker feels after the shift in the last stanza of the poem. This poem written in quatrains uses enjambment, caesura, alliteration, personification and other literary devices to explore the messages about the search for satisfaction through prayer and how we as humans misinterpret the way God answers our prayers. This central message is enhanced by the mood and tone of the poem. The first seven stanzas incorporate a calm, optimistic, reverent mood, while the last stanza (stanza eight) is a defensive, insecure and pessimistic one. This mood helped me see myself in this poem. I always see myself asking for things. Whether it is from my parents, myself, or God. Every time I pray for something, I seem so selfish, praying especially when I need something. Like the poem puts it, ‘And so, upon this wise I prayed,- Great Spirit, give to me.’ I don’t know if it is just me, but I feel like I am, metaphorically, using great words when I need something from God. And when the result turns out bad, I tend to misinterpret the answer to my prayers. It is quite inevitable in my life. Even last week or so, I had been praying for better SAT scores when I hadn’t really studied. And when the result was really disappointing, I became very pessimistic, and felt betrayed. Even though I knew that there was a purpose and that God didn’t betray me, the rush of disappointment really made me feel that way. As I live, each day, I need something to hold on to, or depend on, something really powerful, which is God. So when I am disappointed, I tend to first blame anything besides myself. When I am not in one of these states, I realize my flaw, but it’s really hard… not asking for more, and it’s even harder to accept rejection.
Therefore, I think this poem is really powerful in shedding light on the universal human condition/experience, of how we also seek more and how we tend to seek for positive results.