Plog: 'Red Fox'

In Red Fox, Margaret Atwood uses the analogy of a starving fox to comment on means of survival, and how human nature can turn itself around completely for the sake thereof. In terms of human nature, Atwood addresses the connotations that this has for relationships bewteen parents and children.
Throughout the first four stanzas, the poem remains relatively concrete, following the speaker's description of a fox crossing a frozen pond in winter. The speaker observes how desperate and hungry the fox appears, "Its winter and slim pickings", she says, "I can see the ribs, the sly trickster eyes, filled with longing and desperation, the skinny feet adept at lies". It is notable that this could almost be the description of a person, particularly with the word 'feet' used, rather than 'paws'.
In the fifth stanza, which is longer than the others, the poem becomes less literal and more abstract, as Atwood expouses on human nature. She admits there are mothers who are "squeezing their breasts dry, pawning their bodies", and "shedding their teeth for their children", but she also reminds us that "Hansel and Gretel were dumped in the forest becuase their parents were starving", and "to survive, we'd all turn thief". She is pointing out that human nature will always turn seeming selfless people into thieves, when their survival is at stake. The last two stanzas bring the poem back to the fox, and we see that the fox is a symbol for just such a person.

Plog: Blackberry-Picking

In Blackberry-Picking, Seamus Heaney describes, with a whistful tone, his memories of picking blackberries in late summer, presumably in his youth. He uses an array of pastoral imagery with strong sensory connotations to communicate longingly his memories of that time. The poem is written in two stanzas, the first of which has a tone of fondness and longing for a time long gone. The second, which is much shorter than the first, brings a pang of regret and almost bitterness into the tone, as Heaney describes the yearly crop of blackberries going bad. "It wasn't fair", he writes, "That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot". "Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not". This demonstrates his sadness at this yearly occurence. He has the same hope every year, but every year the berries still rot. This seems to imply Heaney's childlike innocence and idealism in the context of the poem.
The description in the first stanza of the berries themselves demonstrates Heaney's sensual connection to them; indeed it as almost visceral: "You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet/like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it/Leaving stains upon the tongue and a lust for/Picking". This passage, especially the word 'lust', communicates Heaney's relationship and associated feelings with the berries. Here he focuses on one very simple thing, eating and picking blackberries, and transforms it into a world of sense experience in itself.

Plog 2: Mid-Term Break

In Mid-Term Break, Seamus Heaney describes he and some of his family members' reactions to the death of a young sibling. As the poem progresses, he gradually reveals more and more about what has happened, building a sort of tension throughout.
He begins by stating that he "sat all morning in the college sick bay counting bells knelling classes to a close". This reveals that he his anxious about something, something that would prevent him from going to class. He is too anxious to do anything but count the tolling of the bells.
When he arrives home, he states that he saw his father crying. This image immediately tells the reader that something very horrible has happened; a father is generally a figure associated with masculinity and strength, and something that would make such a figure cry must be very tragic. Heaney continues, saying that he was "embarrassed by old men standing up to shake my hand". This shows that Heaney is caught off guard by the sudden role reversal; normally he would be the one to respectfully shake an old man's hand. Once again, this indicates that something very terrible has happened. Heaney also uses the phrase "away at school", which suggests a sort of disconnection from his family that may add to his sadness. The title of the poem is also significant in this way. Mid-term Break for college students would generally be a time associated with vacation and family, but for Heaney it has been, almost ironically, associated with the death of a young sibling. Heaney also describes his brother's body, saying that "he lay in the four-foot box as in his cot". This seems to compare death to sleep, suggesting that the young boy appears peaceful. Heaney finishes the poem with a one-line stanza: "A four-foot box, a foot for every year". This reveals the last peice of information about what has happened, and is meant to shock the reader, and impress the horror of the event.