Journal #9

Nika Bogoslovsky
10/12/07
Bradstreet

"By nature trees do rot when they are grown, And plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall, and corn and grass are in their season mown, And time brings down what is both strong and tall."

Summary:

These are three poems which she wrote as a response to her grandchildren's deaths. They are a sort of last kind word.

Response:

Again, I think her poetry is really beautiful and how she paints pictures with her words is quite impressive. I forget that really long ago doesn't mean bad and elementary. It must have been difficult for her and her family but there was something creepy and weird about her poems to her deceased grandchildren. I'm not sure if it was a customary thing to do or if it was a type of obituary, but they seemed a bit morbid to me even though she only said kind things. They were too short to have any feeling to them, granted some of these babies were only just a year old, but to me they lacked warmth. It seemed like she felt she had to something about it so she just wrote. I felt like when she wrote more things about one it meant that she liked them better because she had more nice things to say. I don't know, maybe it's because I can't understand what if would like to be in her shoes at the time and having to comfort your children who are losing their children.