The poet I chose to use for my final project in my uh2010 poetry class is Gregory Corso. I am working with my classmate, Bethany York, who is using Lawrence Ferlinghetti. These two poets are similar because they are both from the Beat generation and were part of the general counterculture of that time. I chose Gregory Corso because I found his poems to be refreshingly different. His somewhat experimental poetry style adds a modern tone to his work, and his fairly negative and brutally truthful outlook on many subjects makes one think. 
Possible sources I have found so far include our textbook, The New American Poetry Edited by Donald Allen; the Poetry Foundation website, www.poetryfoundation.org; the book Gregory Corso: Doubting Thomist by Kirby Olsen; the article “Bomb” by William T. Lawlor; and the book Gregory Corso by Donald E. Winters, Jr. These sources range from biographies to analyses to volumes of poetry and contain a plethora of information. Possible poems I may analyze include “The American Way,” “Birthplace Revisited,” “Zizi’s Lament,” “Notes after Blacking Out,” and “Bomb.”

Denise Levertov and Marie Borroff are both similar and different. Although they are both modern poets who use the same type of diction, they use very different poetic forms.
One commonality is that they both use descriptive, though accessible, language in their poetry. Examples can be found in “A Happening” by Denise Levertov and “by Marie Borroff. In “A Happening” Levertov uses description such as “billowy snowlands,” “cotton wildernesses,” and “semblance of torn paper sacks,” which, although beautifully descriptive, are fairly plain (IE the phrases do not use sophisticated vocabulary). Like “A Happening,” “Portrait of a Young Woman, ca. 1912” uses simple, but descriptive words. Borroff uses phrases such as “posed like a princess,” “power dissembled, well-schooled wilfulness,” and “accomplishment mirrored in pure repose.”
As for differences, Levertov tends to be more modern, with her unconventional line break usage, while Borroff tends to write in highly structured forms, such as sonnets. “A Happening” contains unconventional line breaks such as “over the badlands, and the billowy / snowlands; they floundered on” and “of lost afternoon; continuing / through cotton wildernesses.” These lines contain unconventional breaks because they break in the middle of a description and not after the punctuation mark (in both cases a semicolon). For example, the first phrase would conventionally break as “over the badlands, and the billowy snowlands; / they floundered on” and the second phrase would break as “of lost afternoon; / continuing through cotton wildernesses.” These unconventional line breaks make Levertov’s poems more modern, as they do not follow a traditional set form of poetry. Borroff on the other hand, uses the sonnet structure in “Portrait of a Young Woman, ca. 1912.” This poem is characterized as a sonnet because it contains 14 lines broken up into 2 stanzas of 8 and 6 lines each. It also has a tight rhyme scheme (though not a traditional one) of ABABCDCD / EFFEGG.
The two poems used to illustrate the similarities and differences between Denise Levertov and Marie Borroff’s poetry styles are included below.

“A Happening”
By Denise Levertov

Two birds, flying East, hit the night
at 3 in the afternoon, stars came out
over the badlands, and the billowy
snowlands; they floundered on
resolving not to turn back in search
of lost afternoon; continuing
through cotton wildernesses
through the stretched night
and caught up with dawn in a rainstorm
in the City, where they fell
in semblance of torn paper sacks
to the sidewalk on 42nd St., and resumed
their human shape, and separated:
one turned uptown, to follow
the Broadway river to its possible source,
the other downtown, to see
the fair and goodly harbor; but each,
accosted by shadows that muttered to him
pleading mysteriously, half-hostile, was drawn
into crosstown streets, into
revolving doorways, into nameless
small spaces back of buildings,
airless airshafts, till no more
was known of man, bird, nor paper.

"Two birds, flying East, hit the night
at 3 in the afternoon...they fell
in semblance of torn paper sacks
to the sidewalk on 42nd St., and resumed
their human shape, and separated...till no more
was known of man, bird, nor paper."

“Portrait of a Young Woman, ca. 1912”
By Marie Borroff

Posed like a princess, blazoned in plain sight,
She takes the artist’s homage. Her left hand
Rests weightless on the keyboard, while the right
Half-turns a page of music on the stand.
Power dissembled, well-schooled wilfulness,
Accomplishment mirrored in pure repose:
The bosom of her elegant blue dress
Displays a frill of ruching and a rose.

Now on that scene the patron takes his place,
Puffs his cigar, approves the work complete.
I am the future, he the past. We meet
Here in the present image of one face
Whose calm eyes, looking down the decades, say
“I am Marie Bergersen. I play.”

"Posed like a princess, blazoned in plain sight...'I am Marie Bergersen. I play.'"

Poem:
 Fire and Ice
 By Robert Frost 

Some say the world will end in fire, 
Some say in ice. 
From what I’ve tasted of desire 
I hold with those who favor fire. 
But if it had to perish twice, 
I think I know enough of hate 
To say that for destruction ice 
Is also great
And would 
suffice.

Discussion:
 The above poem is “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost, who is 
one of my all-time favorite poets. 
My favorite poetic characteristics used in this poem 
include rhyme (desire/fire, twice/ice/suffice), rhythm, and the general 
succinctness of the poem itself (it is fairly short, but gets Frost’s point 
across). I also love the connection of emotions and elements (desire/fire, 
hate/ice). 
This poem is a lyrical poem because it is non-narrative,
  presents an idea/question, and maintains a vivid musical quality throughout its
  entirety. 
The article on the 3 poetry modes mentions lyrical poems
  maintaining a “sense of a song,” which is one of the reasons this poem is
  lyrical. The poem's meter is an irregular mix of iambic tetrameter and dimeter,
  and has an A-B-A, A-B-C, B-C-B rhyme scheme. The article also indicates that
  lyrical poems are generally known for their “compression and vivid intensity of
  image.” A mere 9 lines with 51 total words, “Fire and Ice” is a very compressed
  poem. Vivid imagery is also created through Frost’s keen word choice (perish,
  destruction, etc.). 
Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” reminds me of Edna St. 
Vincent Millay’s “My Candle Burns at Both Ends,” which is a poem quoted in the 3 
poetry modes article. These two poems are alike because of their rhyming, 
rhythmic, and compact structure characteristics. Like “Fire and Ice,” “My Candle 
Burns at Both Ends” is compact, containing a meager 4 lines with 25 total words; 
it is very rhythmic; and it contains multiple rhymes, with an A-B-A-B rhyme 
scheme (ends/friends, night/light). 

Emily Dickinson poem #1:
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not
live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or
help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in
vain.

Discussion #1: 
I chose this ED poem because it reminded of me of one of
my favorite prose passages (said by one of my favorite poets, Ralf Waldo
Emerson):“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—this
is to have succeeded.” As we discussed in class on Tuesday, prose is different
from poetry because it has no line breaks, and generally does not include
literary devices such as alliteration, assonance, meter, rhyme, rhythm, etc.
Dickinson’s aforementioned piece has definite rhyme and clear line breaks, while
Emerson’s quoted piece does not contain either. Therefore, what Dickinson wrote
was a poem, and what Emerson wrote was a prose piece. 

Emily Dickinson poem 
#2:
Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning 
eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
’T is the majority
In this, as 
all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,—you ’re straightway 
dangerous,
And handled with a chain. 
 
Discussion 
#2:
 I like this particular ED poem because it reminds me of
  another quote that I am fond of (written by the interesting and controversial
  German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche): “Those who were seen dancing were
  thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” I think Dickinson
  and Nietzsche’s points are very similar in these two pieces; that those who are
  seen as different are automatically deemed wrong when they should not be. One
  of the questions discussed in class on Tuesday was “What are your associations
  with poetry?” and one of my answers was “Poetry is about making connections,
  emotional, spiritual, and more.” I think it is interesting to see the
  connection between Dickinson and Nietzsche’s thoughts. Because I happen to
  agree with the point that Dickinson makes with her poem, I have a personal
  connection to it.