Dream of Fair Women by Ann Hayes (299)

The lady gave her trust, an apple fell,
And guilt began, and pain, and death as well,
In stories that we tell.

The lady gave her trust, the heavens shone
Upon a maiden mother, one alone
In ballads we have known.

O first and second Eve, O dream of men
Believing life is good or might have been
And that we live again!

A sleeping beauty dreams her lover's grave,
Opens her eyes upon a human fave,
Keeps up the human race.

The musical sound of the poem makes it very similar to a nursery rhyme, in which there is a message that although we have been exposed to ideas of excellence of women since their childhood, we have to recognize that these ideas do not represent reality. There is also irony in the sound and sense of the poem being that the almost childlike sound contradicts the underlying message that childhood fantasies are not real.

The second literary device throughout the poem is the use of an allusion. The poem alludes repeatedly to Eve and Mary and the Bible, as well as to Sleeping Beauty. These are all representations of women, well known to all. These women are depicted as angelic, innocent, and in need of men to be successful. The narrator discovers that women do not play the stereotypical feminine roles, and men also do not play the stereotypical masculine roles. 

I like this poem because it is short and sweet, and contained a message of importance that was not hard to understand. Society has ingrained the ideas of gender roles, and this poem questions it. I love the contradictions between the form and the content. 

Desert Places by Robert Frost (289)

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast

In a field I looked into going past,

And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,

But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it--it is theirs.

All animals are smothered in their lairs.

I am too absent-spirited to count;

The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness

Will be more lonely ere it will be less--

A blanker whiteness of benighted snow

With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between stars--on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

Robert Frost

Robert Frost's Desert Places is a poem is full of imagery of loneliness, reflecting the narrators own sense of isolation. The narrator paints a picture of desolation, as slowly the barren field is enveloped by the falling snow. "I am too absent-spirited to count," supports the idea that the emotions of the narrator are represented by the bleak scenery.
A second aspect of the poem that adds meaning is the structure. The poem is in four verses, each slowly adding to the depressed mood. This structure breaks up the thoughts of the narrator, but is connected by the rhyme in the first, second, and fourth lines of each verse. 
My personal interpretation of this poem is that the narrator is suffering an episode in his life that is very depressed and empty. This loneliness prevents the narrator from appreciating the beauty and purity of fresh fallen snow. The narrator is leading a bleak life, and fails to see the beauty of nature.