I need help with poems

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The Clock is ticking
And then it starts tocking
Always ticking
Never stopping
And then it starts ringing
So you get out of bed
You got up too fast
Now you've got a great big lump on your head.

~ By Lieutenant JAK
 



They were all in the clear
and so very near
and eventually were told to go and
 
Actually while in college (& having to take 2 courses in English to satisfy the stupid credit requirements, despite being an engineering major), I had poetry for part of one semester. Of course I hated it, and the prof revelled in making me sweat as I was the only engineer in his class.

Anyway we were assigned to do some in-depth analysis of one on a list of poems, and I chose one entitled Death of a Toad, by a Richard Wilbur. Dunno if he was a shining light in the poetry universe or not, but I liked the imagery of the poem:

Richard Wilbur, "The Death of a Toad" (1950)

THE DEATH OF A TOAD

A toad the power mower caught,
Chewed and clipped of a leg, with a hobbling hop has got
To the garden verge, and sanctuaried him
Under the cineraria leaves, in the shade
Of the ashen and heartshaped leaves, in a dim,
Low, and a final glade.

The rare original heartsbleed goes,
Spends in the earthen hide, in the folds and wizenings, flows
In the gutters of the banked and staring eyes. He lies
As still as if he would return to stone,
And soundlessly attending, dies
Toward some deep monotone,

Toward misted and ebullient seas
And cooling shores, toward lost Amphibia's emperies.
Day dwindles, drowning and at length is gone
In the wide and antique eyes, which still appear
To watch, across the castrate lawn,
The haggard daylight steer.

Anyway, my analysis had to do with the toad representing the ancient order of Amphibia, which once ruled the earth, until displaced by Reptilia (dinosaurs) and then later Mammalia (incl. mankind). My point was that the lawnmower represented the next dominant species, Mechanica, which would soullessly and dispassionately exterminate all before it, including mankind.

Needless to say, the prof was so impressed that I got an "A" in the course 😛..
 
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
 
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