I thought that the poems that were posted online, “It feels a shame to be alive” and “The name—of it—is ‘Autumn’”, were a little difficult to read at first because of all of the dashes Emily Dickinson includes. I found that the dashes caused me to read them with awkward pauses that inhibited any flow. Nonetheless, I like that they are included because it is closer to how Dickinson herself wrote them. I thought seeing the facsimiles online mad her poems come alive when they were seen in their original form.

I also really enjoyed reading “They dropped like flakes” probably because of the rhyming that I have always found appealing in poetry. Furthermore it comes across as far less gruesome than “The name—of it—is ‘Autumn’”, which has a lot of blood imagery and metaphors in it. Although it is clearly about death, this poem read a lot lighter to me than “It feels a shame to be alive”, which, partially due to it being twice as long, goes more in depth about the price of war. The lines, “In Pawn for Liberty” and “That lives—like Dollars—must be piled before we may obtain?” particularly stood out to me. The notion that soldiers can be used as mere pawns, nearly inconsequential in a larger game bothers me. Furthermore, the latter line brings up the question of whether or not the cost in lives is worth the outcome of war, which I think should be considered a lot more before starting any war. When lives are concerned I believe that very few ends can justify people as means.