One of my favorite poems from the reading was James Schuyler’s “February”. The poem doesn’t have a set structure but reading it was smooth and it seemed like the poem was slowly unraveling. I thought that it was very similar to “Things to do between home and school, 1986” in that reading the poem feels like a journey. Through similes, personification and metaphors, I get to see the images that Schuyler is able to see on, what I think is, a early February 28th. He emphasizes small details like the pink that is almost unnoticeable in the blue sky of the rising sun before it reaches the horizon, the few snowflake-like flowers on some almond trees and the woman at the window jogging a baby with pink fists. Each one of his small descriptions and observations lead to the next, patiently and in no hurry to the end of the poem. The observations are completely unrelated, but somehow Schuyler is able to fit it together and make it work. Even if I don’t completely understand the poem and the repeated image of tulips, “February” is an extremely relaxing poem.
One of the first things that I noticed in “February” was the mentions of colors. Schuyler sees pink, blue, green, violet, gray, copper and yellow in the city even in the winter. Most people would think that February was a white month because of the snow and wind but it’s the opposite in New York City. The city is vibrant and full of colors every single day of the year and “February” is able to completely show it. He brings the reader along on a memory of the city and it really is “a day like any other.” I think we’re lucky that the city is never colorless and Schuyler really makes me want to take a walk through my neighborhood and see if I can see the colors that make up New York City. “February” even makes me want to wake up early enough to see the sky right before the sun rise (6:25AM on Wednesday). Does it make you want to see more of the colors of New York City?
