In Mikaela Gatewood's post she talked about the poem The Day Lady Died, and made some very interesting points. She did a good job of researching the context or the story behind the poem, which gave it a new meaning for me. I read it without really knowing the subject, but once I learned it I realized that in the poem the author is trying to keep his mind off of Billie Holiday's death, trying to think about other things. That's why he talks in a very fragmented way, it shows that he is trying to stay in the moment, by walking through his daily routine in his mind. Mikaela also did a good job of connecting her quote about art being redemptive with the poem. She talked about how Holiday's music was a redemptive or rescuing force for the narrator, which I think definitely explains why he metaphorically "stopped breathing" at the end, because he didn't feel like he could make it in life without Holiday's music to redeem him.
I like how in Caroline Toddy's analysis of The Harlem Dancer, she talked about opposing viewpoints within a piece of art. This was interesting to me, because in this poem the speaker talks about the lusty attitudes of a group of people towards a woman dancing, and then the way the dancer herself felt. I think this contrast that Caroline is pointing out is vital to the poem's impact and also perfectly fits with the quote about art that she chose. The poem explicitly"records the reactions of [a] personality to the world [it] lives in."
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