A Light Exists in Spring

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Poem Number 214

In this poem, Emily Dickinson uses the "light" as a metaphor to which is actually the heavens

"A light exists in spring 
Not present on the year 
At any other period" 
We know that this reference to light is a religious symbol because of the fact that Dickinson says it only appears in the spring. Rebirth is often portrayed as spring time.Spring is also religious in literature because it only happens once and it is when the earth comes alive again, in contract to winter which represents death. Dickinson also says, in lines 7 and 8, "That science cannot overtake But human nature feels" - She is saying that this specific light cannot be explained by science because it is what people feel within themselves, much like how in present day science often tries to explain religions. Imagery is also used in this poem. For example when she says,  "A color stands abroad On solitary fields." The reader can envision this light overcoming the darkness to make the surroundings vibrant. This emphasizes the reference to religion and how illuminated the speaker is by this light. I interpreted this poem as a reference to religion and how reliant people are on believing in a greater being. It was in comparison to spring and how a season can change the earth just like the light of heaven can change a person. 
On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High by D.C. Berry
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Poem Number 203
In this poem, D.C Berry uses  one metaphor that's carried throughout the poem. The metaphor of coming to age, like fish being unfrozen in a pond. The first stanza initially describes his classmates as frozen fish. They are all listening, but not completely engrossed in the poem. The fact that they are described as frozen instead of dead concludes that they are present but not interactive. In the next stanza the students gradually become interested, but their interest is not recognized, "till it reached my ears". The third stanza is when the audience is completely emerged in the poem. The reader assumed he was "drowning" them  with his poem, but they became apart of it, "opened up like gills..and let me in". "Together we swam around the room", is a good example of the imagery within the poem. This paints a picture of the fish finally coming to life and together as one they absorbed the information given. I liked this poem because it was a different perspective. Since being a high school student myself, I am normally the frozen fish giving the blank uninterested stares back at the speaker in front. But this poem took the difficulty it takes to make students interested in what they are saying and puts it into words the feeling of watching a sea of people come alive to your poetry.