litstudies

Because I Could Not Stop For Death - Theory Questions

2008-05-14T06:52:00.005-07:00

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Dickinson, Emily. "Because I could not stop for Death." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton 2007. 531.

I chose to look at this poem by trying to see connections between Dickinson's own life and the poem. I'm not sure how well it worked out, but I thought I'd give it a shot just to see what might happen.

1. In the third stanza, why do you think Dickinson chose the images of childhood, ripe wheat, and a sunset?
2. Emily Dickinson wrote a large amount of poems in her lifetime. Do you think the title and first line of the poem reflect anything about her?
3. What do you think Dickinson's own thoughts on death were based off this poem?

Fire and Ice - Close Reading

2008-05-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

Fire and Ice
Robert Frost
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/poems/531

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour 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."

It's interesting that Frost gave different emotions to the two elements of Fire and Ice, though both the elements and the emotions fit well together. Classically, fire is seen as being passionate, while ice is seen as being distant and unfriendly. While both elements can be seen as agents of destruction, they can also be seen as symbols of rebirth. For example, when a forest catches on fire, the trees burn and the animals are killed or are forced to leave. After a little while, however, the fire goes out and the soil becomes richer from the burnt materials. During winter, the world is covered in ice. Plants die and animals hibernate, but when spring comes and the snow melts, life can begin again. It's interesting how the syllables in the lines jump between nine, eight, seven, and four. I'm not entirely sure why that would be, maybe just so he could fit everything, but maybe the staggering and jumping around of lines is supposed to show that life isn't predictable and no one knows how anything is really going to end and that the narrator's guess is as good as anyone's.

A Dream Within A Dream - Close Reading

2008-05-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/edgar_allan_poe/poems/18847

"I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!"

The word roar in the first line, is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary Database as, "a loud and deep sound uttered by one or more persons, esp. as an expression of pain or anger." This definition carries great importance to understanding the rest of the lines, since they carry a deep sense of pain and fear. The image of falling sand, for instance, calls to mind the image of an hourglass and how time is always moving despite a person's deepest desire and fondest wishes for it to stop. Additionally, the lines seem to flow together really smoothly and give the sense that you're hearing waves when you read it out loud or at least it did for me. It's an interesting technique, especially since the poem discusses waves on a beach and it's cool that he decided to make it sound peaceful when the words themselves speak of pain and fear. It's also interesting that he chose to make the sand golden in color, instead of a dull brown or gray. Golden brings to mind the good times in life, so it might be that the narrator is lamenting growing older.

CLose Reading of "Of the Light" by Josh Ashbery

2008-05-10T13:31:00.001-07:00

Lines 6-11:
Yes, day may just be breaking. The importance isn't there
but in the beautiful flights of the trees
accepting their own flaccid destiny,
or the tightrope of seasons.
We get scared when we look at them up close
but the king doesn't mind. He has the tides to worry about,

I have read this poem over about 15 times now, trying to make some true sense of the few lines that are there and to be honest there is not a clear answer to what the speaker is discussing here. I have theories, but i dont really know. I chose to do a close reading of these lines because they are the most absurd and i thought that maybe if i look at them alone, it will make more sense of the poem as a whole...

To start I'll share what i think is happening: The day is just breaking, but that is not important, what is important is what is happening around the day, how each day is different and the trees respond differently to each change in weather, like the seasons. The speaker uses the word flaccid to describe the tree's destiny, then tightrope to describe seasons. These words create tension, for they are opposites and the tree's destiny goes along with the seasons. What this says about light i do not know? Then the speaker comments how "we get scared when we look at them up close." i think "we" is just people in general, and "them" refers to the tension created by the tree and seasons. The King i believe is a god-like figure to men who doesn't mind the changes for he is the one who does the changing.

Overall, i have been trying to connect this whole poem back to light, and from these lines i conclude that the poem uses light as a analogy for life. People want to trap life and stay young as long as possible. Therefore they need the days to never end, to trap light and keep it. These lines are explanations of this analogy. If anyone has a different opinion, i would LOVE to know, because i am really kinda lost with this one...

Theory Questions: Allen Ginsberg, "America"

2008-05-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

"America" Allen Ginsberg
Cultural Poetics
I grabbed this one from an earlier post for theory presentations. from the other class. Since Ginsberg is one of my favorite poets, I figured i would end the semester with something I am familiar with.
The beat generation was truly an anti establishment way of literature. As Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs and Ferlinghetti had written in their very complex, yet almost a satirical look in the vein of post modernism, they each found their own light through their works. Ginsberg's "America" is one that resonates deeply with me. I find its lyrical structure to be very revealing, he opens his mind and captures his audience with very sincere images of his world around him.

1. Why does Ginsberg shift his tone to say that his America rather than continue to stay the voice of America?

2. Why does Ginsberg make America such a personal poem?

3. Why does Ginsberg seem to make America out to be more than just a country, more like a human being?

Close Reading of " Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"

2008-05-10T13:22:00.001-07:00

Dylan Thomas' " Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" ( http://www.bigeye.com/donotgo.htm)

Close reading of the first two stanzas:

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night" (lines 1-6)

The first thing I noticed about these first two stanzas was the fact that every line has exactly ten syllables, and the importance of day/light and night, which are naturally contrasted in the words themselves, and by the fact that they stand out, being the last words ( except for line5) of each line. The mentioning of not going into "that good night" is significant as it is repeated multiple times throughout the poem- the word “night” signifies darkness, which brings about thoughts of the unknown, unconscious, and more importantly for this poem, death and ultimate ending. The fact that Thomas calls it a "good night" is a pun. He wants his father to not go easily into that "good night" as in the expression "goodnight", the simple saying of goodbye for the day. If his father gives into the saying “goodnight” then he is acknowledging the end. It’s interesting that Thomas sets up the words so that they can mean this expression which signifies a simple parting at the end of the day, which, seems to be a light way of referring to death. However, if you read “good night” as two separate words, it implies that the night is good, which may indicate how alluring the night, the end, is, under harsh conditions. The speaker of the poem makes a case against simply going willingly, gently into the night, instead of fighting it. He seems to be looking at other’s reactions to death, in order to set his own expectations for life and death. In the second line he says, “Old age should burn and rave at close of day”, and in the entire second stanza he speaks of wise men and their unwillingness to go gently into the night because they had not gotten to fulfill their goals and intentions during life. It’s interesting that Thomas speaks of not being able to complete life and fully live it out ( giving the impression that something else is needed before one can die), yet each stanza is composed of perfect pentameter, showing completeness and nothing lacking.

Theory questions: "Anorexic" by Eavan Boland

2008-05-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

The poem "Anorexic" by Eavan Boland can be viewed using Gender Criticism. Although there are males with eating disorders, they tend to be more common in females. This poem is written by a woman so there is the possibility that she or someone she knew was anorexic. The poem is written in the first person referring to the narrator's body in the third person calling her a "bitch." However the disease is a male, the narrator says she will give up food and, "slip/back into him again." The poem is devoted to being thin and doing anything to stay that way. The things like breasts and hips are erased as the narrator loses these feminine qualities in her quest to be as thin as possible.

Critical questions:

1) How would this poem be viewed had this poem been written by a man or had a male narrator?

2) What is the narrator saying about herself and what message is she sending to the reader about anorexia in that she is ridding herself of feminine physical qualities to be thin?

3) Why is the disease referred to as a male and what does this say about the narrator's views on the male gender?

Theory Questions: "Beat! Beat! Drums!" by Walt Whitman

2008-05-10T10:36:00.001-07:00

The poem "Beat! Beat! Drums!" can be read here:
http://whitman.classicauthors.net/PoemsOfWaltWhitman/PoemsOfWaltWhitman1.html

This poem should be looked at using Cultural Poetics. This theory looks at the text by the time, place, and society it is generated from. Walt Whitman wrote this poem in light of the Civil War. The poem focuses on the sounds of the drums and bugles used during the war overpowering the people and the land. Whitman was against war. By using the adjectives such as "terrible" used to describe the sounds of the instruments and the way the line "Beat! beat! drums!-- blow! bugles! blow!" is repeated over and over throughout the poem, interrupting the flow of the poem similar to how the sound of the instruments interrupted American society during the war shows his anti-war feeling. By looking at this poem using knowledge of the time it stems from and seeing it as Whitman's attempt to rile society against the war helps the reader understand the poem.

Critical questions:

1) If you did not know the poem was written in the time of the Civil War, would you assume it was about that war or a war of some type by the descriptions in the poem and the use of the drums and bugles?

2) How does Whitman use imagery to describe how he sees society being affected?

3) How does using exclamation points and the repetition of the line "Beat! beat! drums!-- blow! bugles! blow!" affect the message of the poem?

Close reading: "Barbie Doll" by Marge Percy

2008-05-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.

By using the word "girlchild" the poem emphasizes the fact that this child is a girl and it makes her seem unimportant as she was "born as usual." Including children's toys and using adjectives to show that these toys are small to fit the child and using the word "pee-pee" and relating the lipstick to "cherry candy" play up the youth being described in this stanza. In saying that the toys were "presented" to the girl shows that she had no choice in the matter, she was expected to play with dolls and stoves and put on play make up. The objects that the girl is given show that the girls is expected to grow up a housewife; the "dolls that did pee-pee" prepare her for having children of her own, "the miniature GE stoves and irons" will be appliances she will use to cook for her husband and iron his clothes, and the lipstick will be worn to look pleasing to him. Using the word "magic" to describe puberty exemplifies the mystery of growing up and how children don't understand what is happening to their body; it suddenly begins to change right before their eyes. Finally, the classmate criticizing the girl shows how a female's appearance is judged and how harmful it can be to a young girl's self esteem. These harsh words of the classmate come in the same line as the girl is said to hit puberty to show how the adolescent years really shape a person and how they are confused by what is happening to their body and how the words of others can affect how an adolescent views themself.

Close reading: "After Making Love" by Stephen Dunn

2008-05-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

No one should ask the other
"What were you thinking?"

No one, that is,
who doesn't want to hear about the past

and its inhabitants
or the strange loneliness of the present

The stanzas and lines of this poem are very short and broken up. This relates to the "strange loneliness of the present" one feels "After Making Love." The feeling is described as a "strange loneliness" because usually making love is associated with a physical and emotional bond, yet this poem shows a separation that is felt after making love, when feelings are not there. By saying you don't ask, "What were you thinking?" after love making, and the repetition of how no one asks that question shows how each person carries a part of their past with them and through each person they have sex with, they carry memories of past lovers. The word "inhabitants" is an odd way to refer to the people of someones past, like they still linger in the person's mind, no matter who they are with everyone has memories inhabiting their mind reflecting back on past lovers in comparison to a present lover. The enjambment of the lines shows the quick flow of thoughts and the rush one feels after making love. By enjambing "the past/and its inhabitants" shows that hearing about someones past involves hearing about the people and past lovers in that persons life.

Theory Questions: "Slight Rebellion Off Madison"

2008-05-09T20:45:00.000-07:00

Although we didn't read JD Salinger's "Slight Rebellion Off Madison" in class, and no one did an introduction to it on the blog, I feel as though Cultural Poetics fits it so perfectly that it's worth writing questions for anyway. "Slight Rebellion Off Madison" is one of the two short stories JD Salinger published in the New Yorker magazine that he would later expand on with The Catcher in the Rye. Here is a link to the short story if you're interested in reading it: link. If you read The Catcher in the Rye you'll be familiar with what happens in the story. Pretty much the story details Holden Caulfield going home to New York during his Christmas vacation from Pencey Prep. First he goes to the theater with his girlfriend (kind of girl friend anyway) Sally Hayes, and then later he goes ice skating with Sally. At the rink he asks her to runaway to the country with him, he gets mad when she turns down his offer, and finally after they part, he gets really drunk and calls Sally in the middle of the night to tell her that he would like to come over her house and help her trim her Christmas tree. This story is particularly appropriate to be analyzed by Cultural Poetics, because it's basically all about Holden trying to deal with all of the various constraints society puts on someone. He tries his best to resist, but he just ends up getting treated like a fool by those like Sally who are perfectly happy to embrace the restraints her culture has set for her. Maybe the lesson of the story is that resisting a society's constraints is somewhat futile, and anyone who attempts to do so will end up drunk on the floor of a men's restroom with a soaked, dripping wet head in the middle of winter.

1. What are some examples of how Holden initially attempts to follow his culture's constraints?

2. What is the significance of the conversation Holden has with Sally at the ice rink? How does she respond and how can this be related to the concept of Cultural Poetics?

3. What does alcohol and Holden's getting drunk have to do with Cultural Poetics and the ideas of constraint and mobility?

"Slight Rebellion Off Madison." New Yorker, 22 (December 1946), pp.76-79, or 82-86

theory Questions for " Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"

2008-05-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

Literary Biography of Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night"
Find the text, online, here: http://www.bigeye.com/donotgo.htm
Find one of Dylan Thomas' biographies here: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/dylan_thomas/biography

One literary theory that applies well to this poem is the theory of Literary Biography. To put it simply, this is finding ways in which the author's life has influenced the text.
Dylan Thomas, the author of this poem, was born in 1914 in Wales. There is much that could be explained and detailed about Thomas' life, but the important information to know in relation to this poem is about where he spent his time and who influenced him. He enjoyed visiting the beautiful seashore where he grew up and he, often times, visiting on his relative's farm. Dylan's father was a school teacher and an advocate of poetry and language- one website says, "Thomas' father also gave the poet an early awareness of the native Welsh traditions, as well as the classics of English literature." It is because of his father's passion for poetry and language that Dylan was so influenced to peruse poetry. This poem, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" , is written in the year 1952, the same year that his influential father died, and it, therefore, only makes sense that this poem is directed to his father during his last days ( his father died in December of 1952). The speaker of the poem is speaking to a dying father ("and you, my father, there on the sad height"-line 16) and pleading for the dying father not to give up and just let go. Thomas admired his father and learned all about his passion in life from him and is used to seeing this man as his inspiration and stronghold and it is, therefore, painful to see him giving into death so easily.
Readers can easily understand this poem by looking into Thomas' own relationship with his father and understanding how difficult it would be to watch a man that has influenced him so much become weakly. The imagery of the poem is also, perhaps, influenced by his frequent visits to the seashore
Critical Questions:
1) In the second stanza, Thomas speaks of wise men, in the third he speaks of good mena, in the fourth he speaks of wild men, and in the fifth he speaks of grave men. Does this seem to be a progression? Based on what we know of Thomas' relationship with his father, is he at all comparing the father in this poem to these types of men?
2) What is the tone of this poem? Does it seem to be conducive to the relationship between Thomas and his own father?
3) Why are the lines, “Do not go gentle into that good night" and” Rage, rage against the dying of the light" repeated throughout the poem? What effect does it have?
4) What imagery of the poem, if any, seems to be influenced by his surroundings and experiences?

Thomas, Dylan. "Do not Go Gentle ino That Good Night." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 275-276.

Theory Questions of "The Silence of Women" by Liz Rosenberg

2008-05-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Rosenberg's poem displays gender criticism ideas. The entire poem is about women becoming more vocal and demanding as they grow older. It the poem suggests this is the case because in younger years the women had to be quiet and listen to what the men have to say. The poem comments, "A lifetime of yes has left them/ hissing bent as snakes (6-7). The poem discusses patriarchal ideals and women being submissive, but as the couples grow older these roles switch. The switch in roles is seen in the line, "the chicken hatching back into the egg" (12).

This poem clearly in cooperates gender criticism ideas through discussion of roles in men and women's lives.

Questions:

1) Does this poem take on patriarchal ideals or feminist?

2)How does imagery in the poem further our understanding of these ideals?

3) Is there any symbolism in the musical references found in the poem?

Close Reading: The Hunchback in the Park by Dylan Thomas

2008-05-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Lines 7-13 of "The Hunchback in the Park" by Dylan Thomas

"Eating bread from a newspaper
drinking water from the chained cup
That the children filled with gravel
In the fountain basin where I sailed my ship
Slept at night in a dog kennel
but nobody chained him up."

The first image presented to the reader in this passage of the poem is the hunchback eating bread from a newspaper and drinking water from a chained cup filled with gravel. The idea of the "chains" suggests that perhaps the hunchback is imprisoned. The idea of gravel and chains gives a sense of immobility. The image of the ship suggests the antithesis, as if it represents what the hunchback long for his is freedom. The idea of sleeping in a kennel makes it seem as though the hunchback is no more important than a dog, except for the fact that no one chained him up. This comparison between the hunchback and the dog is demoralizing further because it only seems to suggest that the hunchback is only slightly higher in society than the dog.

Close Reading of "Sad Steps" by Philip Larkin.

2008-05-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

Sad Steps: Philip Larkin

"Groping back to bed after a piss
I part thick curtains, and am startled by
The rapid clouds, the moon's cleanliness.

Four o'clock: wedge-shadowed gardens lie
Under a cavernous, a wind-picked sky.
There's something laughable about this."

Larkin employs specific diction in the first line of this poem to jolt the reader out of a poetic mindset. The words "groping" and "piss" are words that one typically wouldn't expect to find in poetry, and therefore sets the tone of the poem. He uses imagery to try to plainly describe the moon and sky with the terms "cleanliness" and "rapid clouds", but seems to struggle to define them in such a way that isn't a cliche. He begins the next stanza with the words "Four O'clock" which tells the reader that he has been awoken during the middle of his sleep cycle, which further adds to the groggy feeling of the poem of the poem. The term "Wedge-shadowed" gives a sense of fullness to the night. Imagery is further employed to describe the sky for a second time, until a shift occurs where the speaker steps back and looks at what he has been saying as laughable. He feels that there is no new way to describe things like the sky and moon, and that the idea of it is laughable.

Theory Question Gwendolyn Brooks "We Real Cool"

2008-05-08T18:28:00.000-07:00

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “We Real Cool.” The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed.
J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 92.

Cultural Poetics can be applied to "We Real Cool" because the theory states that literature should be looked at as a product of the time, place, and society from which it comes. The poem, written in the 1950's is a form of beat poetry. The poem as a whole is a product of that time and though period of the early fifities. The concept of live hard and die young, reminds you sort of the "Grease" mentality of the time. The poem "We Real Cool" is a product of the time in which it was wirtten.

CRITICAL QUESTIONS:
1. Does "We Real Cool" make a certain claim or statement about the time in the 1950's in which it was written?

2. What aspects of the 1950's culture affect your understanding of the poem?

3. How does the writing style in "We Real Cool" add to or takes away from the understanding of the poem?

-Kelly Gore

Theory Question on Mary, Lady Chudleigh "To the Ladies"

2008-05-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

Lady Chudleigh, Mary. “To the Ladies.” The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed.
J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 22-23.

The theory that can be recommended to this particular poem "To the Ladies" would be feminism/gender. The definition of feministic criticism is that all men and women are politically, socially, and economically equal. (Bressler 184). Lady Chudleigh addresses the poem and its contents to women, and after spending the first twenty or so lines pointing out how men believe a woman should behave as a wife, she then ends the poem saying to women:
"Value yourselves, and men despise:
You must be proud, if you'll be wise(23-24)."
The poem was written in 1703 and even then it was apparent to women that they were not exactly being treated equal by men who viewed them on a whole as "Wife and servant are the same(1)" Her anger and need for woman enpowerment leads her to say to despise men, according to feminism both should be equal.

CRITICAL QUESTIONS
1. How does the fact that you know the poem is written to women by a woman affect your opinion of it and it's meaning? If it were written by a man would it change your opinion of the poem?

2. Do you think the time period the poem was written in effects the understanding of the time? Is it shocking? Would the meaning of the poem for women or men change if it had been written in 2008 rather than 1703?

3. Does the stereotypical characterization of female roles in marriage affect the meaning of the poem and of journalism as a whole?

-Kelly Gore

Close Reading : The Whipping by Robert Hayden

2008-05-08T17:23:00.000-07:00

Hayden, Robert. “The Whipping.” The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed.
J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 49-50.

She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling
boy till the stick breaks
in her hand. His tears are rainy weather
to woundlike memories:(lines 9-12)

The poem at this point is describing the way the older woman is beating the boy, her literal actions and his equal reaction to her beatings. The use of consonance in repeating the "s" sounds in strike and shrilly and she, are placed in a rythem of how the actual blows to the boy would be spaced. Each "s" sound could be read and imagined as the next strike of the whipping from the stick until it literally breaks from the force that the woman is using it. There is also dramatic irony in the poem, by the end of it we as the audience know that the old woman is whipping the boy to purge herself "...for lifelong hidingd she has had to bear(23-24)." The boy getting beat doesn't seem to be aware of the reason why he is being beat by this face that he once "knew" and "loved." A metaphor can be found in the camparison of the boy's tears to rainy weather. And the fact that the boy is circling in an attempt to hide himself from the blows gives for a better understanding of how circling and confusing being beaten and doing the beating can be for the two. It is a good word choice because it lets you picture how the woman must have been so wrapped up and encircled by the action that she doesn't realize she's hurting the boy until after the fact. The boy on the other hand would be confused for getting beaten and the actual action could leave him dizzy and circling to get away. And the action cirlces around the speaker who seems to be remembering being beaten himself. The technical aspects of the passion really do help in understanding what the greater meaning in Hayden's poem may be.

-Kelly Gore

Theory Question

2008-05-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a theory question post on a wierd little poem. It's anonymous and it's found on p. 209 of the Norton. It reads,

There was a young girl from St. Paul,
Wore a newspaper-dress to a ball.
The dress caught on fire
And burned her entire
Front page, sporting section and all. (209. 1-5)

This is just a funny little limerick but it is an interesting piece to look at from a feminist's perspective. The second thing we learn about the girl, after where she's from is what she is wearing. Clothing being such a stereotypical preoccupation for women, we already know that this poem is going to play with cultural attitudes towards women. The part of the paper that catches on fire is the "front page" and we can only imagine what the sporting section might be. The front page of the newspaper is always what people first look at; it's what is made specifically to catch people's attention. This is similar to the way women are made to feel they need to present themselves. The assumption is that they will be judged on attraction and material attributes before substance. Further, the sporting section is the part that all men (stereotypically) are most interested in. We brush the other stuff aside just to get to that sports section. But once this girl's dress is ruined, she is essentially ruined. Once she loses her attraction no one will be interested in he anymore according to the persona. So here are some questions:

1)Does the fact that this girl is from St. Paul contribute anything to the feminist interpretation of the poem? Does this say anything about Christianity and attitudes toward women?

2)Her dress is ruined when it catches on fire. What can the burning of he dress be a metaphor for?

3)Does the newspaper dress go beyond feminism and adress social status as well? If so, how does social status connect with cultural attitudes towards women?

*****It was a fun semester--Thanks to everyone and good luck!*******

Theory Questions: To the Ladies

2008-05-07T16:06:00.001-07:00

Last post! Awwwww...

Anyway, I saw this a couple of posts ago, liked it, and snatched it up for a feminist critique.

To The Ladies, by Mary, Lady Chugleigh

Nothing about this poet doesn't scream "feminine critique!" at me, except for maybe a line or two that's calling for a Marxist critique, but since we didn't cover that this semester I won't go there. The first line, "Wife and Servant are the same," sets up the tone for the entire poem and the fact that this was written in 1703 amazes me beyond words. It's very Feminine Mystique-very second wave feminism--and yet, comes 150 years before Seneca Falls. If anything, this poem proves that there is, in fact, inherent discrimination in marriage and it's not some modern-liberal propaganda. Anyway, here are the questions that I think should be asked about the poem:

1. How does Chudleigh justify her claim in the first line?
2. What message(s) is Chudleigh trying to send to women?
3. Why is Chudleigh comparing men to God? Is this a positive comparison?
4. What significance does the date hold?

ps- feel better professor...

Close Reading: Death, be not proud

2008-05-06T19:07:00.000-07:00

Donne, John. "Death, be not proud." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 533.
Find it here: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/death-be-not-proud/

“Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, Kings, and desperate men,
And doest with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charm can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die” (lines 9-14)

The speaker of Donne’s poem is mocking death from the first line to the last, thus working to diminish its power and grip over human life. In this particular part of the poem, the speaker denounces death by saying that it is the one that has to associate with “poison, war, and sickness” and really all that it does is make us sleep, and, eventually, that sleep leads to eternal life. Donne turns the sting of death on its head as he gives it no credit and, instead, says it does him good, as it is death that leads him to the ultimate pleasure of the afterlife. The line, " Death, though shalt die"( 14) is powerful because it uses the concept of death against itself ( which humbles and belittles its power)
The fact that Donne has personified death makes it easier for him to critique death and stand up to it. I enjoy this poem because I can so clearly see the speaker laughing in the face of death- the speaker of this poem comes across, to me, as incredibly witty.

It is important to note that in this Italian sonnet there is a steady rhyming scheme throughout (a, b, b, a, a, b, b, a, c, d, d, c) the whole poem. However, the last two lines ( which, I suppose, would be ‘e’ and ‘f’) do not follow this rhyming scheme, they stand alone as independent lines, not even rhyming with each other. It is interesting to note that these lines end with the two most important and crucial words in the poem, and the fact that they do not rhyme suggests the significance of the last two lines and the last words of the lines, “ eternally” and “die”, in particular- these words are meant to stand alone and stand out. These two words which do not rhyme with any other words, or with each other, infer two completely opposite happenings; one refers to the end of a life, and one refers to a life that never ends. Death is usually credited with being our worst enemy and bringing about our ultimat finish, however, Donne plays with this idea as he claims that death actually leads to a world where death is never a fear again.

Introduction: Bodega Dreams

2008-05-06T13:50:00.001-07:00

1. Quinonez, Ernesto. Bodega Dreams. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.

2. "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez follows the life of Chino in Spanish Harlem. We get a taste of his younger years in the beginning of the book as well as his marriage to his girlfriend Blanca. Chino's best friend Sapo introduces him to Willie Bodega. What Bodega does is buy up old run down buildings, renovates them, and sells the appartments cheap to people who would serve him if he would ever need it. Bodega needs Chino to get in contact with Blanca's aunt Vera. Vera and Bodega's lawyer, Nazario, ended turning on, and killing Bodega.

3. I read this book about a month ago for a presentation and I really enjoyed it. Bodega had a dream, and that dream was to make something of his life. He did, but he trusted the wrong people. This book really comes down to trust. Trust between Chino and his wife, trust between Chino and Bodega, trust between Chino and Nazario, and even between Bodega and Nazario. Blanca left Chino "for a while" towards the end because she couldn't trust him in telling her anything straight up. Chino trusted Bodega to a certain point, but didn't trust Nazario at all. Bodega on the other hand trusted Nazario completely. That trust came down to Vera. Bodega said to Chino that Vera loved him, not her husband. Turns out she really loved Nazario. Her and Nazario killed Bodega after he trusted them so much. The element of trust rings true today as, out in the real world, you don't know who you can really trust.

4. The aspect of a dream can be compared to "Great Expectations." Willie Bodega had a dream to make something of himself to impress a woman. Pip had a dream to become a gentleman to, you guessed it, impress a woman. Bodega's dreams came true, well, until they were crushed when he was murdered by the same woman he wanted to impress. Pip's came true to a certain point. He became a gentleman, but he didn't impress Estella, nor did he become a better person.

Introduction: Death and the King's Horsemen

2008-05-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

1. Soyinka, Wole. "Death and the King's Horseman." The Longman Anthology World Literature Vol. F. Ed. David Damrosch. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004. 997-1017.

2. "Death and the King's Horseman" was written by Wole Soyinka in 1975. The play builds upon this story to focus on the character of Elesin, who is the King's Horseman. According to his people's tradition, the death of the Chief must be followed by the ritual suicide of the Chief's Horseman. Elesin was the horseman of the king so he must now commit suicide and be buried with him. The first half of the play shows the process of the ritual. Elesin keeps putting it off, and is eventually arrested for his own safty. The plays ends with Elesin's son committing suicide in his father's place to keep the honor of his people.

3. I had to do Acts IV-V for a presentation in my World Literature class and I liked what I read. Olunde, Elesin's son, comes home to bury is father because he got wind that the king was dead. What I found intriguing is that Olunde didn't agree with people trying to keep his father alive. He saw his father's self sacrifice as a noble gesture towards the king. He knew that his father's suicide would keep order in his people because it was a tradition to so if you were the horseman to an authority figure. The white man didn't see it that way. They saw it as a black man being foolish and throwing his life away. When Olunde saw his father alive he was very disappointed and said "I have no father..." (Soyinka 1007). I found it interesting that self sacrifice was so sacred to them that they shunned even family when they didn't go through with it, whether they were stopped by an outside source or not.

4. I suppose you can compare this to "Great Expectations" in a way, particularly self sacrifice. In the play Elesin has to make a sacrifice by killing himself, but because he hesitated, his son made that sacrifice instead. In the novel Pip makes a sacrifice in trying to get the prisoner to safety. Pip lied to the police, and abandoned his teachings as a gentleman to break the law and aid a criminal. Pip also sacrificed his home life to become a gentleman and to be with Estella. Pip's relationship with Joe was strained because of it, and he never ended up with Estella. Though Pip didn't die, his sacrifice was made.

Theory Questions on "Barbie Doll"

2008-05-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

Piercy, Marge. "Barbie Doll." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 27-8.

Find it online: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/barbie-doll/

The theory of gender criticism applies immensely to this poem. The poem focuses on finding self worth from physical appearance, while addressing the standards of beauty that are held for women. Women are the ones that are meant to be physically beautiful and alluring, and, from this poem we can see that these are overwhelming expectations that society has for women. This poem is understood through looking at a woman's role in the world- the thought that all she has to offer, in her role as a woman, is her beauty. The last line of the poem is particularly haunting as it bulks women as a whole and speaks of their need and expectation to be pleasing and concerned with their appearances. There is a lot to be said about our society and the pressure that has been put on women if it is not until a woman's death that she can finally stop searching and seeking the perfect image. Piercy ends her poem commenting on this fact, " To every woman a happy ending" (line 25) - she works to paint the picture that there are so many expectations for a woman that she can never be happy until she is removed from those expectations ( in this poem, that is through death), yet, even when she is dead othere still hold her to those expectations ( she is dressed up with make-up and delicate clothing).

Critical Questions:
1. The woman of this poem is first presented with dolls and miniature stoves and irons. What do these toys say about gender roles and expectations of girls early on in life? Would young boys get different toys? What would those toys say about their gender roles?
2. What is the tone of this poem? How does the speaker of this poem feel about this woman’s life? How does he/she feel about gender roles? Do you think the speaker is a male or female?
3. Why does the speaker specifically mention the fact that woman’s nightgown is pink and white, and that she is wearing cosmetics?

Intorduction to "The Birthmark"

2008-05-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne's " The Birthmark"
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “ The Birthmark.” Hawthorne’s Short Stories. Ed. Newton Arvin. New York: Vintage Books, 1946. 147-165.

You can find the short story online here: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1777/

-Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of this story, was an important early American writer who wrote in the early to middle 1800s during the romantic era. Many of his stories are allegories, as this specific one is said to be, and are influenced by his puritan beliefs. In this story, a scientist settles down and marries a beautiful woman by the name of Georgiana. One particular evening, many days into their marriage, Aylmer, the scientist, notices a birthmark on his bride's face that is very distinct and in the clear shape of a hand- he sees it is a major flaw in her beauty and it begins to haunt him every time he looks at her. While Georgiana so innocently saw it as a "charm", Aylmer corrupts her view and asks, " has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?" Aylmer can no longer look at his wife without seeing this mark as a flaw; he does not see his lovely wife any longer, he sees damage. Since Georgiana sees that she can no longer have a happy marriage with this mark on her face, she allows Aylmer to remove it, no matter what the danger. While Aylmer works to redeem his wife's value and make her more lovable, the absence of the handprint from her face leads to her death.

-This story seems basic and, perhaps, bland. However, while there is not much actually going on in the story in terms of an intense and exciting plot line, the development of the characters and the sympathy that they demand from readers, along with the symbolism and moral meaning that can be derived from this text is where my appreciation for this short story lies. The characters of Aylmer and Georgiana were incredibly human to me, and the more that Aylmer became focused on changing his innocent and sweet wife instead of loving her, the more that I wanted to jump into the pages of the text and strangle him. The problems that Aylmer finds with his wife and his constant discontentment are human problems and, thus, easy to relate to. I got to the end of this short story and found myself incredibly emotionally connected to the story. I also appreciated how this story was so simple, yet was so relatable and complex at the same time because of the symbols that Hawthorne chose to use and the uncertainty of the ending. I found myself seeking to understand the symbolic nature of the hand and why Hawthorne would end his text with a mysterious laughter.

- I’m having a tough time relating this story with one that we have read this semester. I think that Hawthorne really wants his readers to come away from this text questioning many things: our control over others, our obsession with the physical world, and our definition of love. I think, in keeping these concepts in mind, one piece to compare this story to is “Porphria’s Lover” (I think we read this in class….), the men in both of these works seek to do what is best for the woman, but end up ruining them in their vain attempts of finding perfection and pleasure in the physical world of beauty.

Close Reading "To the Ladies" by Mary, Lady Chudleigh

2008-05-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

"To the Ladies"
by Mary, Lady Chudleigh

Located in our poetry anthology on page 22 and online: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/ladies.html

The lines I looked closely at are:

"Wife and servant are the same,
But only differ in the name:
For when the fatal knot is tied,
Which nothing, nothing can divide,
When she the word Obey has said
And man by supreme law has made...(1-6)"

In this poem there is a lot of tension between the patriarchal society and the role of women. In line one a wife is metaphorically compared to a servant. Therefore the wife has no say in anything because even though she may be a lady, she is in no position of authority, her only task is to 'serve her husband. This is a very 'male' view of the time period that this poem was written in 1703. Line two continues with the only actual difference between a wife and a servant being the title of 'wife.' In line three of the poem, explicitly says 'fatal knot is tied,' which is an obvious reference to being married, however there is a paradox of a wedding, tying the knot, to being fatal. Marriage is normally associated with a positive light, a new beginning, but in this poem the speaker is saying that once your married there is no way out, and marriage is a death of any freedom. Line four the speaker points out the permanence of marriage, obviously now if the marriage is as bad as the speakers, divorce is an option. But for the speaker in the poem the only option is death itself. In line five the poet emphasises the word Obey with a capital O and the word being italicised. Obey is a very strong word the OED describes it as basically taking orders from someone in authority. The woman in this marriage has no say in anything what so ever, her only function is to take orders. Line 6 enforces the fact that men are in complete control over women. This poem is about a women in a bad marriage warning other women of the consequences of saying obey and I do... You will lose complete freedom over your life, everything you do will be because it is what your husband wanted. The rhyme in the first 6 lines is a,a,b,b,c, d.

Eavan Boland "Anorexic"

2008-05-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

Eavan Boland "Anorexic"

1.) Boland, Eavan, The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 335-336.
You can find this poem online by going to this website: http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/eavan-boland/anorexic/

2.) I think that this poem is about ones insecurities with their looks. The narrator of the poem is uncomfortable with their body calling it a "witch". The narrator begins talking about "torching" her curves, and ruining her once womanly figure. It seems that the speaker is doing this for someone else. She says that
"How she meshed my head
in the half truths
of her fevers till I renounced
milk and honey
and the taste of lunch."
The speaker says that now whoever this other person may be, is burning, and that because she is now starved and curveless, she has learned her lesson. But, I feel that the speaker may also be talking about herself. She may be talking about the woman inside her who thought she needed to starve herself to seem attractive, or more comfortable in her skin, and now because she is starving, she is suffering the consequecnes.
Overall, I believe this poem is talking about ones insecurities with themselves, and the struggle they've had with this disease.

3.) I thought this was a pretty descriptive poem of what it is like to struggle with anorexia. You can feel the confusion and anger that the speaker feels. I liked that from just reading the poem, you can feel how much this person hates their appearance. I also have never read any poems about something like an eating disorder, and I think that people who have, or who have struggled with one, could read this and see that they were not the only one.

4.) I can honestly say this poem does not remind me of any poems I have read. If anyone knows of any please comment and let me know!!

2008-05-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

last friday the Helix put on an International Poetry Event from 10 to 1 i think. anyways after class i went for a bit and it was really impressive. the poets there were pretty established writers and the work they read was really good. poets such as Sudeep Sen, whose has had myriads of publications and award read some of his poem and he was extremely impressive. Aimee Nezukumatathil is also a frequently published poet who appeared. Those were the only ones i saw, they were both very good. you should check them out

Theory Questions: Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

2008-05-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

Someone posted Shakespeare's 130th a while ago. Full text here and a bit of deconstructionism here:

Through the entire sonnet, Shakespeare is comparing a mistress to things of relative beauty like the sun, flowers, perfume... in stating that she's nothing like any of them. According to the author, the woman is this ugly, greyish creature that smells and has black wires sprouting from her head. The twist in the poem is in the last two lines, when Big Willy Shakes states that "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare" (Shakespeare, 13-14).

The text is really full of binary oppositions; every time Shakespeare compares a part of his mistress to an object society looks highly upon (the sun, white snow, roses, perfume, music...), the viewer assumes that the mystery woman is nothing like whatever he's comparing her to. The entire poem relies on preferences in binaries, because that's how it makes it's point. If we didn't instinctively know that the sun was brilliant or that roses were beautiful, we would completely miss the point of the poem. Because of this fact, the text clearly lends itself to deconstructionism.

Questions:

1. How does the poem fulfill its intentions of distinguishing the opposing binaries, in each individual case? (ei: white, dun; perfume, reek)

2. How do cultural 'truths' effect our view of the mistress? Is there any basis for this assumption?

3. What is the major binary in the poem?

Close Reading "London" by William Blake

2008-05-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

The close reading is lines 9-14:

"And the hapless soldier's sigh
Runs in blood down palace-walls.
But most, through midnight streets I hear
How the youthful harlot's curse
Blasts the new-born infant's tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage-hearse."

"London" by William Blake, can be found in our poetry anthology page 33. And online at: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/2370/

This poem is part of Blake's series on innocence, in which he wrote about the bad conditions in London. Basically the poem. Blake talks about all of the sadness caused by poverty which he sees in the streets of London. In the poem he describes the people he meets/ passes on the streets.

The tone of this poem is very sad and depressing. The poem has four rhyming quatrains. The poem has an abab rhyming scheme. The poem is set in London in the poorer sections, at midnight. Line 9 talks about the sad state that the soldiers are in. I was not sure what exactly hapless meant so I looked it up in the OED and it means 'unlucky'. Interpreting this line it seems like the soldiers are just as unlucky as any one else is, the soldiers seem powerless when compared to line 10, where the blood of everyone 'runs' down the palace walls; which is personification. The palace seems to be distant on the inside from everything going on around it, including the blood on the walls outside. In line 11 the streets are talked about from a midnight point of view, when most people are sleeping, and the rest of the population comes out, like prostitutes. It is interesting that Blake chose to describe the prostitutes as youthful, because it implies that they are pretty young, like they had to turn to prostitution because they had no other possible way of surviving, or of making a living. In line 13 the young prostitute curses the birth of the baby, this line strongly suggests that the prostitute is not happy about the baby, but only sees it as another mouth to feed. Line 14 is a very interesting because the prostitutes are visited by married men whom then give any Sexually transmitted deasies to their wives. Obviously cheating on the spouse may involve the end of the marriage, but also if an STD that a wife was given by her husband from his sleeping with a prostitute could end up creating bigger, nasty problems. There is also an interesting paradox of marriage, with is thought of as a new beginning of two lives, and a hearse which is something that deals with the transportation of dead bodies.

Theory Questions: Nazim Hikmet, "I Come And Stand At Every Door"

2008-05-03T13:49:00.000-07:00

Nazim Hikmet
“I Come And Stand At Every Door”

Hikmet, Nazim. "Poetry Of Nazim Kikmet Ran." I Come And Stand At Every Door. 01 Jan 2004. 22 Mar 2008 .

This poem exhibits a unique ability to utilize a historical approach to the work itself. The historical aspect is essential to the poem's relevance to the surging anti-war sentiment of the 1960s. Hikmet uses the image of the bombing of Hiroshima to evoke the violent nature of war and the harsh realities that lie behind it. The poem brings up many disturbing images that capture the readers mind and allows it to show remorse for those who have witnessed tragedy such as this.

1. What specifics of the poem allow the artists of the 1960s feel that this poem was so relevant to their anti-war feelings?

2. Why does the poet use such an image of death to convey his message of peace?

3. Would you feel that this poem would be relevant in today's world?

Monday's Reading for 12:00 Class

2008-05-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here is the link for Allen Ginsberg's "America" which is the reading for Monday's Theory Presentation on Cultural Poetics.

link

Theory Questions of "Living in Sin" by Adrienne Rich

2008-05-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

"Living in Sin" by Adrienne Rich is a poem that clearly connotates patriarchal values using the feminist theory. It portrays a speaker, a woman, who believes that by simply keeping a clean house and doing her womanly duties that her marriage would be fulfilled. She states this from the opening line, "She had thought the studio would keep itself,// no dust upon the furniture of love" (1-2) This statement is followed with images of patriarchy: "a cat//stalking a picturesque amusing mouse" stairs writhing under a milkman's tramp and "sepulchral bottles" of milk. These binaries clearly show a dominance over recessive things just as men dominate women.

The statement of feminist values is further made through the actions of the man. All that the man is seem doing are self-centered. He yawns, plays the piano, looks at himself in the mirror, fixes his beard, and leaves for cigarettes. He is first described with a yawn, which shows his indifference and lack of involvement in his family life. He then takes leave of the poem and the house because he went out for cigarettes, not at all involving himself with the duties of the house. The fact that while he is doing this, the woman makes the bed and dusts. She is frustrated and her frustration is shown through the coffee boiling over.

The patriarchal standpoint of this poem is brought home at the end when she says she is "back in love again," yet dreads the morning because she knows she will have to do her duties once again.

Questions:

1) Is there a connection between daylight and her feeling of suppression?

2) How is the woman "Living in Sin?"

3) What is meant by the statement "half heresy" in line 3 before describing the perfect house?

Close Reading of "Dancing With God" by Stephen Dunn

2008-05-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

Im doing the close reading of lines 49-54:

nice man
with whom I'd slept
and grown tired,
who danced wrong,
who never again
could do anything right.

In the poem the speaker and a man are at a dance, when a stranger asks to dance with the speaker, and the stranger is then compared to God. These lines are the aftermath of that dance. Because the dance was so blissful for the speaker, nothing can compare, especially going back to the dull norms of the previous life.

In these lines, the first technical aspect i notice is the line breaks. These lines are separate, short, and precise, paralleling the way in which people think about things. Through Dunn's short lines, the speaker's thought process is conveyed. The speaker says the man is nice, that they have slept together, but grown tired and the nature of these lines seem as if thoughts were thrown on a page as they occurred to the speaker. Therefore, the statement made that the man attending the dance with the speaker could never do anything right again is a presumption. The dance with God changed the speakers life so much, that at that moment afterwards, it was known no other man, especially the one currently with, could never measure up to the perfection of that one dance.
Also, the meter of these last lines is very strange. The lines are stagnant and hard to read for there is no rhythm to them. A very important word is the trochee "never" for not only is it a very strong word in denotation, but the sound is sharp. It is placed in the second to last line and stands on a line alone to make the point of never that much more significant.

Further, there is not a clear meter until the last line which states "could do anything right." This line is in iambic pentameter. It is almost as if the speaker's thoughts beforehand were not concrete until the realization in the last line. The combination of lines 53 and 54 create a powerful statement in its denotation which is made more powerful through the technical aspects Dunn in cooperates.

Literary Event: Great American Sidewalk Novel

2008-05-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

I went to the Great American Sidewalk Novel yesterday. The theme was a prehistoric sci fi alien story, I think.

The writing itself was interesting to look at. There were many different fonts and colors. Some of the writing was written circularly, or zig zaggy rather than left to right. Some pictures were interspersed, the two I noticed were of an elephant and a robot.

At the time I looked at it, there were 17 “chapters”. I didn’t have time to look at all of them in depth but from what I saw, it reminded me of Mad Libs. The chapters seemed to be irrelevant from one to the next. One of the chapters had something to do with the trix rabbit. The first one had something to do with Authority as a character. I remember a quote from the paragraph said “Education isn’t for the educated but for those who had enough to pay for it.” Throughout the novel pizza came up a few times and elephants, robots, and so on.

I wish that I had the time to participate in it. I certainly will next year. It looked like a lot of fun and a great way to express yourself. Thanks to the rain, its all gone now :(

But there’s my literary event.

2008-05-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Theory Questions to: "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood

Feminism Theoretical Approach

Atwood's poem, "Siren Song", introduces a heavy feminist subtext involving the stereotypes that men have about women, stereotypes that are represented by the Greek myth of the sirens. Moreover, the speaker of the poem seems to be resisting patriarchal values. Women during this time were said to be weak, subservient, and helpless and at the same time, dangerous to men and wanting to trap them into a commitment. After reading the poem a couple times it seemed to me that the poem takes a familiar myth and turns it around posing it from the siren's (women's) point of view. It could be said that it is actually a man's compulsion to always be the "hero" and save the damsel in distress and this is what ultimately leads to their destruction. Moreover, the speaker is clearly frustrated that as a female, she must perform an age old patriarchal role.

Questions:

1) What do the "sirens" in Atwood's poems symbolize?

2) After reading Atwood's poem, would you say that the poem is resisting patriarchal values, why or why not?

3) If this poem was written by a male, how would we as readers interpret the poem differently?

Atwood, Margaret. "Siren Song." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007.109.

2008-05-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

Theory Questions: Sylvia Plath, "Daddy"

Feminist Theoretical Approach

When discussing a poem that addresses a feminist approach the first poet who comes to mind is Sylvia Plath. In her poem, "Daddy", Plath conveys that there a women who have to deal with oppressive and controlling men. The poem describes the speakers feeling of oppression as well as her battle to come to terms with the issue of this imbalance. This poem also invokes the struggle that many women have to face in a male dominated society. The main conflict in Plath's poem is male authority and control versus the right of a female to be true to herself and who she is, make her own choices and not be held down by a male domineering figure. It is clear that Plath's struggles begin with her father and then with her husband. Plath uses words such as, Luftwaffe, panzerman, and Mein Kampf, these words are used to describe her father and husband as well as all maledomination. The frequent use of the word black throughout the poem conveys a feeling of gloom and suffocation on Plath's behalf.

Questions:

1) How do the descriptions of Plath's father and husband convey to the reader that Plath feels stripped of her own self?

2) How does Plath use her life to manipulate her poetry?

3) What type of words does Plath use to convey to the reader that she may have reached a resolution towards the end of her poem? Did she find resolution? Did she find freedom?

Plath, Sylvia. "Daddy." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007.467-69.

Theory Questions for "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"

2008-05-01T18:11:00.000-07:00

I believe that "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," by Walt Whitman, could be veiwed from a deconstructionalist theory. This is because the poem can be read from at least two different vantage points. One being the poem is about the little boy who encounters death for the first time, and therefore his loss of innocence. Another way the poem could be read is from the vantage point of the adult male looking back at the point in his life where he first encountered death. You could read the poem from the vantage point of the poet remembering one of the experiences in life that led the man to become a poet. If you wanted to you could also read the poet from the mocking bird's point of veiw. The poem contains a lot of binaries, a few examples are life and death, the moon and sun, and so on and so forth, the poem contains many.

1.) What ideas or concepts do the binaries in bring to the poem?

2.) Can you look at the poem in a different way if you approach the binaries in the poems another way?

3.) If the poem can be read two different ways, how do these two different ways work together or work against each other?

2008-05-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

Close Reading to: John Keats, "Sonnet to Sleep"

Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes:
Save me from curious Conscience, that still hoards
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul. (Lines 9-14).

We as readers can almost interpret the meaning of the poem through its title. The initial impression I had upon reading the title of Keats' poem was that he is describing one of the most pleasurable experiences anyone can experience: sleeping! I say this only because when one sleeps, the mind is free to wander wherever it wants, there are no worries and your body is in a state of total relaxation. It is apparent that Keats is using personification; he is trying to give a human faculty to something that is abstract, something that we cannot hear or even touch. After reading the poem a few times, it becomes more evident that Keats is showing the reader there is something that he wants to forget. In the lines, "Save me from curious Conscience that still hoards..." (Keats line 11). This verse conveys to the reader that the speaker is still alive and suffering from something and the only solution is to await death. When discussing the structure of the poem, it is clear that the poem is made up of two quartets and two trios, it seems the rhyme scheme is, A-B-A-B and A-B-B. In this last stanza, we as readers can say that the author emphasizes his wishes. The last line in the stanza above is a metaphor, "casket of my soul" (Keats line 14). The author is expressing his feelings; he knows that the only option that he has is to leave what he wants behind in life. In this poem, in my own opinion, the author seems to be very frustrated; I can also sense that he feels powerless against the world and what will become of him. I find a contradiction between sadness and happiness but my general understanding of the poem is that he is simply awaiting death.

Keats, John. "Sonnet to Sleep." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 266.

Close Reading (T-minus 3 classes)

2008-04-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

Time to get serious about this blogging business.

Emily Dickinson- I'm Nobody! Who are you?

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there's a pair of us?
Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!

The passage, in relation to the poem as a whole, is Dickinson's discovery of another 'nobody'; the later half of the poem is a reflection on how she would never want to be a 'somebody.'

I think this passage sounds great, and the narrator has such a strong voice that it can't help but come through in the reading. The repeating vowel sounds 'oh', 'ou' in the first two lines give a great sense of unity, as does the repetition of the words 'nobody' and 'you'. The fact that Dickinson is also addressing a second person gives the reader a sense of intimacy, alienating them from the 'they' (the 'somebody's) she speaks of.

Most importantly, I think that the punctuation adds to the mood of the poem. The poem is strongly iambic because of how it's punctuated--after ever stressed syllable, a dash, comma, or question mark is put into place. Through this, the reader is forced to read the poem a certain way that really adds to the poem's food. Especially through this passage, Dickens is excited upon her discovery--and through her stilted speech, this becomes apparent. There's a very urgent feel to it, like Dickinson has finally found someone to confide in and just needs to unload: again, adding to the intimacy.

Close Reading of "Rachmaninoff's Elegy"

2008-04-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

"Rachmaninoff's Elegy" by Linda Pastan

for William Lyoo

Though only 16,

you played the piano

at your mother's funeral,

to honor her, you said,

and the music was like water

washing over a wound

each note a footfall

through a darkness

you will negotiate

for years.

For my close reading of Linda Pastan's "Rachmaninoff's Elegy," I will start with the fifth line of the poem. In that line, "and the music was like water," we find a simile. This simile, comparing the music played by the young man at his mother's funeral to water, is further extended in the next line when it is said to be "washing over a wound." Of course the wound in question is the death of the young man's mother. This simile suggests that the music he is playing has some soothing aspect of it. Nonetheless water alone is not enough to heal a wound and this is made clear in the last four lines of the poem. In line eight we find a metaphor which states that every note was a "footfall." These are not merely footfalls, but as the next line states, these are footfalls "through a darkness." A footfall is basically the sound of a foot step. These two lines create a sense of feeling lost, of feeling incomplete, and of not knowing exactly where one's place is in the world. These seem to be perfectly appropriate sentiments to be associated with a poem about a very young man losing his mother. The last two lines make clear that this type of devastating loss is not something one gets over quickly, but something one must "...negotiate / for years."

Pastan, Linda. "Rachmaninoff's Elegy." Alaska Quarterly Review 25 No 1 & 2 (2008): 214.

Introduction to "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking"

2008-04-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

1.) "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," originally entitled "A Child's Reminiscence" by Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass part of the "Sea Drift" section. 1891-2 ed.

2.) "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" is set on the beach, which is referred to in the poem as Paumanok. The poem begins with an older man whom "A man, yet by these tears a little boy again" (23). The poem is about a young boy's first encounter with death. It is also about two mated mockingbirds who make their home on the beach. In the poem Whitman gives a voice to the male mockingbird through italics; the boy in the poem interprets the mockingbird's song for us. In the poem one day the female bird leaves the nest and never comes back. The male bird in grief calls out persistently for his mate, who never returns. In the poem the male mockingbird introduces the young boy to death. Deducing from the language used in the very beginning of the poem I think that the person the young boy is grieving for is his mother: "Out of the ninth month midnight" (3). However, the poem can also be read another way, it could also be about the poet looking back at his first encounter with death and mourning that loss of innocence. There is a definite feel of the poet and his language, after all the poet was once the boy, who became the man, who eventually became the poet. And it was the experiences in life that have shaped the poet. The poem is all about the loss of innocence when a young child has his first encounter with death. It is a poem about dealing with the loss of someone close that you love.

Here is a link to the poem online http://www.bartleby.com/142/212.html

3.) I picked this poem because it is one of my favorite poems that I have read by Whitman, it is a elegy, which makes it a very sad poem, yet it is also a complex poem. Reading this poem made me think about my first encounter when grieving for a lost loved one, and I found that I could really connect with the poem. I really love Whitman's use of imagery in the poem, while reading it I can hear the sound of the ocean on a dark night. Whitman uses language to convey the movement of the waves in the lines of the poems by using enjambment. I like the fact the this poem is complex and that every time I read it I take out something very different from the poem.

4.) I would have to say that "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" reminded me of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold (pg 104) because the setting of both poems is on a beach by the sea at night. But both poems have a deeper meaning. "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" is about grief from loss of a loved one and dealing with that grief, the young boy in the poem is questioning death and loss. In "Dover Beach" Arnold is comparing the sea to religion and faith and how it has been slowly washing away, and in his own way Arnold is coping with loss, and in his own way is grieving about the dwindling faith of religion, he seems to be questioning his own faith in the poem as well.

Introduction: Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis

2008-04-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

1) Marquis, Don. The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel. Ed. Michael Sims. New York: Penguin, 2006.

I'm citing this new anthology of "Archy and Mehitabel" poems, because the annotations are really helpful and it's the most readily accessible. You can read some of the most famous poems at This site. ("The lesson of the moth" is my favorite!)

2) Don Marquis wrote pot-boiler newspaper columns in the hey-day of newspaper columns, and his "Archy" poetry spanned from 1916 to about 1922. Turning out columns was bleeding him dry and he had trouble coming up with enough to fill the space, so he invented a guest columnist, Archy, who happened to be a vers libre poet whose soul had transmigrated after death into the body of a cockroach. Archy had trouble operating all the keys on the type-writer, of course, being a cockroach, and he couldnt' use capital letters or punctuation. This gave Marquis plenty of gimmicks to take up space with, and at one point Archy became a roaming reporter, commenting on WWI from Europe or riding around in the trouser-cuff of the former czar of Russia. (If you remember your history, the Romanovs were executed during the Russian Revolution of 1917, so Marquis was cashing in on the rumors that one of them--Anastasia, Alexei, or in this case Nicholas--had escaped.) So of course, Marquis's column was mostly made up of satire on current events. Using Archy as a columnist with a unique view from the "underside," both literally and figuratively, he also explored some deeper themes and actually accidentally made capital-L Literature out of the ramblings of a fictional poetic cockroach.

3) This book is the most dog-eared and underlined book I own. I keep returning to it, and I definitely think it deserves more publicity and acknowledgment as a real classic. In Archy, Don Marquis created the most odd, endearing character. He's really an all-encompassing every-man sort of character both in spite of and because of the fact he's a cockroach. It really plays into the smallness that everybody feels sometimes. In fact, Marquis really identified with Archy and seems to frequently have spoken through him. As a guest columnist in Marquis's column, Archy was the starving artist with higher aspirations and Marquis was the big mean boss-man, reversing the role and oppression Marquis frequently felt in his career as a newspaper writer. What I'm trying to get at, I guess, is that Archy is a bug with ambition, frequently thwarted, but doing the best with what he has. And there's something in that that I think a lot of us can relate to.

4) I'm going to make kind of a leap here and say that Archy and Mehitabel is comparable to "The Hitchhikers" by Eudora Welty we read in the short stories unit. There aren't a whole lot of really obvious surface similarities--a compilation of free verse poetry written by a cockroach and a short story about a truck driver? What I'm thinking of is the kind of working class sensibility. Both Archy and Tom are pretty isolated and have seen better days. They're both kind of down on their luck and trod on by the greater workings of society. We get the information that Tom used to be a musician, and it's still something he yearns after, though. It seems something a little incompatible with his truck-driving, though, and is a kind of symbol of everything he's lost or lacking. Archy also has artistic aspirations which are extremely at odds with his status as a cockroach, yet he doggedly pursues them. Typing on a type-writer means leaping and bashing his head on the keys, but he keeps at it with a superhuman effort. So while Tom's is a story of not being able to break out of a mold, Archy's is more optimistic and expresses the possibility of transcending limitations.

Beowulf vs. Beowulf

2008-04-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

This is my first post so I hope I'm doing this right. I have finally found some time to do this thing so I thought I'd start with something I know, movies. In this case the film based on the epic poem "Beowulf." The original epic poem dates back to between the 8th and the 11th century. The poem follows the main character Beowulf as he rescues Heorot from the beast Grendel. From there our hero battles and kills Grendel's mother. He soon goes home to become king and battles a dragon which leads to the death of the dragon and Beowulf himself. Any English major knows the story. If you watch the 2007 film you'll notice many differences, which is classic Hollywood style. To me there are seven big differences between the poem and the film. Starting at the beginning and going to the end: In the poem Grendel kills because he's a miserable beast and can't stand the happiness going on in Heorot, but in the film Grendel seems to have an ear problem as his ear throbbed when he heard loud noises. We learn in the film that Hrothgar is Grendel's father while in the poem Grendel is described as being a descendant of Cain. We get an epic battle between Beowulf and Grendel's mother that ends with his mother beheaded, but in the film we get the beginning of a love scene. That love scene ends up with a son, and that son is the dragon that attacks Hrothgar's, now Beowulf's, kingdom. It's quite different in the poem as the dragon is a real dragon and attacks Beowulf's home land that he's the king of. Beowulf's death is quite different as well. In the poem he dies from a dragon bite, but in the film he dies because he cut off his own arm to kill the dragon. In general observations, Grendel speaks and Hrothgar has no children. This is a classic case of Hollywood ruining a great piece of literature.

"Defender of the Faith" Theory Questions

2008-04-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

I think Philip Roth's "Defender of the Faith" is a good short story to view through the lens of cultural poetics. It's interesting because the short story shows the convergence of a people of a Jewish background with the United States Army which seems to have been a very WASPy institution back when this story is set. Roth shows us the two paths one can take when dealing with an organization whose cultural makeup is completely different than one's own. There is the way that Nathan Marx tries to do his job well and blend in as though he was just like everyone else, and then there is the way Sheldon Grossman tries to use his cultural background to his advantage within the institution. It's also interesting to look at the short story through the lens of cultural poetics because the Army is very much one of the ultimate forces of resistance in society. Someone in the Army does not have the luxury of doing what they wish to do, but must conform to the Army's strict rules and regulations.

Questions:

1. How does Sheldon Grossman attempt to resist/avoid the regulations set upon him by the Army?

2. What different values are associated with Sheldon Grossman and Nathan Marx in regards to their individual relationships with the cultural background they both share?

3. How does both Nathan and Sheldon use their cultural background to manipulate others and get what they want?

Close Reading: H.P. Lovecraft "The White Ship"

2008-04-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

H.P. Lovecraft, "The White Ship"

Lovecraft, H.P. . "White Ship." HP Lovecraft - The White Ship. 01 Jan 2008. 26 Apr 2008 .
.

Link To Text

This selection is not the same as my previous post, which was the original text from 1919 written by the author H.P. Lovecraft. This is the song written by the band H.P. Lovecraft in 1967 that was released on their debut album during the summer of love. This song, however, has nothing to do with love or anything remotely similar. The song, written in homage to their inspiration, is a very eerie look into the writings of Lovecraft's work of 1919. The lyric poem has a very interesting tone, as it is very repetitive in its first two stanzas, as well as the next two with "the white ship" as the dominant line. The writer of the song wanted to capture the mystic journey that H.P. Lovecraft (Author) had given his character Basil Elton. The lines of the piece transcribe well against the original publication by Lovecraft. The piece includes very vivid imagery with lines "Home through the night here in my darkened room / Sails of white across the misty moon / Floating across the sky," (Line 6-8) that visualize the psychedelic nature of the times as well as the eerie nature of the short story written 48 years earlier.

Close Reading: "The White Ship" H.P. Lovecraft

2008-04-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

H.P. Lovecraft, "The White Ship"

Lovecraft, H.P.. "The Works Of H.P. Lovecraft." The White Ship by H.P. Lovecraft. 01 Jan 2003. DragonBytes. 26 Apr 2008 .
.Link To Text

"Out of the South it was that the White Ship used to come when the moon was full and high in the heavens. Out of the South it would glide very smoothly and silently over the sea. And whether the sea was rough or calm, and whether the wind was friendly or adverse, it would always glide smoothly and silently, its sails distant and its long strange tiers of oars moving rhythmically."

This selection, taken from H.P. Lovecraft's "The White Ship" describes a very imaginative lighthouse keep by the name of Basil Elton. This particular selection is very crucial when trying to understand the image that Elton sees when he visits the ocean in a very intimate circumstance every night on full moons. This selection describes just what he sees when the mysterious white ship appears. The author has a very keen eye for description as throughout the entire story there are numerous situations that the author describes in full detail of what is appearing before the reader. This story has a very interesting tale; when the Basil Elton's journey with the white ship has ended, he wonders if it were truly an experience of reality or was it just the imagination wandering. Lovecraft's writing describes this journey, almost similar to Homer's odyssey, as Elton visits islands that are not of this world, thus giving him the impression that it may not have been real.

THE TEMPEST

2008-04-24T12:39:00.003-07:00

i figured there would be a bunch of blogs on the tempest, or that what i thought i heard but i dont see any. so maybe im at the wrong blog. anyways, i went to the tempest. ive read it before and i thought i knew what it was about but i dont think i do anymore. or maybe im stupid. i think thats probably more likely than anything else. but anyways im glad it was free. there were a lot of special effects, which was nice, and girls with lots of cleavage and skimpy outfits but the actually play itself seemed watered down by this. i also couldnt really hear alot of it and i was close to the front so i dont think my hearing was the problem, althought it could have been the 90 year old woman behind me talking about how cute everyone looked. anyways, there were people acting like ostriches of some sort which was extremely entertaining, but i dont know, the overall performance seemed weak and could have been stronger. im sorry to anyone who was in the tempest because im sure your extremely nice and a great actor and everything else, but i just dont think the actually performance was that good and it was hard to pull anything out of it due to the fact that there were people running around all over the place and crazy special effects, especially for a Shakespeare play. and i guess that may be what you need to do to spice up a play thats 400 years old thats been done probably a billion times. this one just didnt do it for me. sorry.. nice outfits though. if anyones truely affended ill allow you to give me one free wedgy behind the jungle gym. -bryant scott

THE TEMPEST

2008-04-24T12:39:00.001-07:00

Theory Question: Paulette Jiles' "Paper Matches"

2008-04-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

Feminism

When I think of the feminist approach to literature this poem is exactly what comes to mind. The speaker is struggling with accepting the cultural stereotypes assigned to men and women . (Not that they should neccesarily be accepted). Her aunts are washing dishes and he uncles are playing outside in the sun. The speaker questions "why are they out there[?]" (4), and the response she receives is "That's the way it is" (5). The speaker and the other women in this poem feel insignificant. They feel as if they are subject to the rules of a man's world, and they regulated to be serveants and aids to the people who are really important. The last two lines, "We come bearing supper,/ our heads on fire." (13-14), provides brilliant imagery of how frustrated these women feel. Delivering supper and washing the dishes afterwards, (inversed in this piece) are generally tasks assigned to women in patriarchal households.

1) When the speaker says that women are like paper matches, "One by one we were/ taken out and struck," (11-12), is she referring to physicle violence against women?

2) What might the men playing with the garden hoses be a symbol for?

3) One of the aunts says she has "the rages that small animals have" (7). What constructs of society might make women feel small?

Jiles, Paulette. "Paper Matches." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter.
New York: Norton, 2007. 333.

Introduction: “Chamber Music, VI” James Joyce

2008-04-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

Introduction: “Chamber Music, VI” James Joyce

Joyce, James. "James Joyce's Chamber Music." Chamber Music. 12 Feb 2006. 22 Mar 2008 .

Link To Poem

James Joyce's sixth section of "Chamber Music" is a very eerie yet magnificent introduction to his work outside of prose. The entity of "Chamber Music" has thirty four sections that make up his epic journey through lyric poetry. His initial idea was to use the piece as lyrics set to music. Though I don't believe that this has happened entirely, the sixth section was set to music and included on Syd Barrett's 1970 solo album The Madcap Laughs. The version represents the vey haunting yet beautiful nature of the poem.

My favorite stanzas, the second and third, both exemplify the very imaginative imagery of Joyce's work, "My book was closed:/I read no more,/Watching the fire dance/On the floor. / I have left my book,/I have left my room/For I heard you singing/Through the gloom...) (Line 5-12) I came across this poem through Barrett's arrangement on his album and instantly fell in love with it. If you are curious to hear it, it will be well worth the listen.

Theory Questions: "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning

2008-04-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Deconstruction might be an interesting approach to "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning. The poem's speaker is a murderer, and, as it appears to the reader, kind of insane. Since we hear the story through him, everything's a little twisted and traditional ideas of life/death and good/evil are inverted. Yet, the poem itself doesn't seem to offer any commentary on this. If we think that what the speaker did in murdering Porphyria was "bad," then we're applying our own mindsets to the situation described, because to the last, the speaker doesn't seem to have any sense of loss or the badness of what he's done, only a sort of daring, ambiguous hush as the speaker observes "And yet God has not said a word!"

1) Examine the binaries of life/death, purity/passion, good/evil and any others that occur to you as they appear in the relationship between the speaker and Porphyria. How do they seem to invert the regular values placed on these ideas?

2) At the moment preceding Porphyria's death, the speaker says "That moment she was mine, mine, fair, / Perfectly pure and good: I found / a thing to do" and that thing was to murder her. What does it mean that he goes from seeing her as "pure and good" to strangling her with her own hair? What values is he creating for himself?

3) The poem ends "And yet God has not said a word!" We don't know why God "hasn't said a word" any more than the speaker does--it's left ambiguous whether this means consequences are still impending for the speaker or if he's operating in a sort of figurative inverted universe all his own where his actions are effectively justified. What might Browning be hoping to convey with this? Why not end with the speaker being hauled off by the police, for example?

Browning, Robert. "Porphyria's Lover." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 529-31.

Theory Questions for "Oliver Twist"

2008-04-22T08:28:00.000-07:00

I think that a feminist theory can be related to "Oliver Twist" because there are so many female character's in the novel. There are three main women in the novel. Oliver's mother who concieved Oliver out of marriage, we don't get to much about her only that she was of noble birth and she left her family because she was pregnat, and at the time period the novel was written in aprox. the 1830's, to have a baby out of marriage was highly scandelous. There is also the character of Rose Masile who is described as all that is good and angelic, she is described as being pure and perfect. Then there is Nancy who is a prostitute, and she alone gets to decide wether she wants salvation or not, yet she choses to stay with Sikes, which results in her death.
Some questions to apply to "Oliver Twist"

1.) Why does Dicken's include Nancy? Why would Dicken's chose to keep Nancy in the position of a Prostitute through the entire story?

2.) How are the women portrayed in society in the novel?

3.) How does the feminine imagery portray Rose as being 'the perfect woman' in the story?

Intro to "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens

2008-04-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

1.) Dickens, Charles, "Oliver Twist: The Parish Boy's Progress." Penguin BooksLtd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England. 2002. Penguin Putnam Inc., New York, New York.

2.) "Oliver Twist" was first published between 1837-8 in a serial publication. "Oliver Twist" is a Newgate novel. A Newgate novel is a novel about crime. The genre of "Oliver Twist" is a social protest novel, a detective story, and in a way a children's story. The story is narrated by a third person omniscient narrator. The tone of the novel contains irony, and some sentimentality. In "Oliver Twist", Oliver, the main character is a young orphan who leaves the country to go to a workhouse when he is 9 years old. But when Oliver asks "Please Sir I want some more" (15). He is denied more and veiwed as a bad apple. Oliver is then 'put up for sale' and goes to work for a undertaker. But while there the undertakers young apprentice talks badly about Oliver's dead mother Oliver attacks, and is then locked up. Oliver escapes only to get in with the wrong crowd, Fagin and his boys who are criminals who rob from the rich. When Oliver discovers that these guys are morally wrong and runs after they rob some one. Thinking that Oliver is the robber he is arrested. But the old gentleman, Mr. Brownlow, takes pity and takes Oliver in. Unfortunatly for Oliver he then is kidnapped by Fagin's gang again and forced to break into a house. The whole novel contains a lot of foreshadowing, and Oliver is constantly being pursued by a man named as 'monk.' The novel concludes with all of the mysteries foreshadowed in the story being solved.

3.) What I really like about this novel is that it is hard to put it down when reading it. And though some parts of the novel are dark, some parts are highly humerous, and sarcastic. Like the character's Mr. Bumble, and the character of Master Bates. I really like the detective side of the novel, trying to solve the case as to who Monk is, and why he wishes Oliver harm throuhout the entire novel. I really like the fact that the novel's third person omniscent narrator takes the reader into the different character's minds in the novel.

4.) There are similarites between "Oliver Twist" and "Great Expectations." In both novels there are the questions of morality. The differences between right and wrong, and a young boy trying to find his way to the path of having a good morality. There is a male figure in both stories that takes the side of showing the main character what good morals are, and there is also in both novels the man showing the opposite side of having bad morals. There is also the same question of family and what makes a family and what a real family is. There are also social problems in both novels between the aristocracy, and the lower class. Both novels take on what makes a good person and the fact that no matter what social class you are born into does not reflect on what you will turn out to be as a person.

2008-04-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

Close Reading: Claude McKay's "If We Must Die"

If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us through dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
(Lines 5-9)

This is a very powerful piece. Since the poem took place in the year 1919, a speculation of mine would be that this poem resonates the feeling of a conflict between whites and blacks because of the race riots that took place in the United States during this time period. The speaker of the poem cries out to his audience, or to his men at arms, to fight back against those that oppress them and are objective to killing them. McKay's poem evokes a strong and inspiring reaction. This is achieved through his rhyme and rhythm scheme, through alliteration as well as repetition in lines one and five. It seems as though he wants to be killed in a kind manner rather than being hung or terribly tortured cruelly. McKay strives for justice as he insists blacks to partake in the battle by stating, "O kinsmen!" Further reading indicates McKay's inspiration as well as courage to continue the quest for equality (Line 10). The tone of the poem clearly indicates a war between two races which is presumably whites and blacks. By realizing the rhyme, line structure and metaphor presentation in McKay's poem, the audience can realize that McKay wanted the black race to stand up and fight back with opposition. Referring back to the title of the poem, McKay seemed to strongly believe that if we must die, we will go out with a bang!

close reading: Shakespeare's "Not marble, nor the gilded monuments"

2008-04-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contéents
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgement that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lover's eyes.

This sonnet explores a classic poetic theme in a classic poetic form. The english sonnet is structured as such; two sestets followed by a couplet. The concluding couplet is sometimes refered to as the turn, and as we see here it gets its name from a twist of theme, revelation, or change of mood. The rhyme scheme is abab/cdcd/efef/gg. The first two sestets build on the importance of the subject of Shakespeare's poem using metaphors and imagery. He builds an atmosphere of monuments, stone, the sword of Mars, and fire that serve to contrast the main theme of love, as expressed though the look that "dwell[s] in lover's eyes" (14). Although the first twelve lines of the poem are ambiguous as to what the subject of the sonnet will be, the effect we get from learning it is about love in the couplet makes the poem all the more enjoyable. Love is personified by Shakespeare, as he refers to it in the 2nd person throughout the sonnet. It seems as if the subject might be a woman becuase of the use of personification, but the couplet implies the subject is love in a general sense.

2008-04-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

Intro. to "Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde

Lorde, Audre. "Hanging Fire." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton 2007. 79-80.

2. This poem is basically about a fourteen year old girl that is sitting in her house preparing for graduation the next day and has to learn how to dance for her graduation and is frustrated because she does not know how. The speaker looks into the future and contemplates what could have been. Audre Lorde uses a lot of descriptive imagery to show how this girl is scared about growing up and becoming older.

3. I really liked this text simply because of the title that caught my eye. "Hanging Fire" or "holding" is an idiom, which means delaying, as in the delay between the firing of a gun and its explosion. I tried to consider the predicament of the speaker, who is afraid that the truth about her will be revealed when she dies. The speaker seems to not know when she will die, or how much time will pass, and there is "too much/ that has to be done" according to the second stanza (lines 20-21 ). In essence, she is "holding" fire. How much time will pass before her gun or "the truth" will explode? The answer to this question lies not in the speaker's literal death, but in the death of her silence. The speaker must resolve to identify all the parts of herself, especially that which she has kept hidden, not only from the reader, but possibly from herself. In reading this poem I believe it could be interpreted differently than I have interpreted it, but I was more or less intrigued by the title of the poem and how it relates to the structure and meaning of the whole text.

4. If I would relate this poem to one we have read in class, I would relate it to, Keats' Poem, "To Autumn." First reading over Keats' poem one could say that he is simply describing the main characteristics of autumn and the human and animal activities related to it; although, a deeper reading could suggest that Keats talks about the process of life much like Lorde's poem and the strife that the speaker is faced with in life's hardships.

Theory Question 2

2008-04-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

Deconstruction:

Nemrov, Howard. “The Town Dump” The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 195.

Deconstruction lends itself to this poem because of the multiple meanings present in the literary work. The images and meanings can be interpreted in several different ways. While the reader can assume and choose which meaning to follow, one may not choose the correct meaning. Nemrov uses a city dump to represent an actual city but also as a reminder to not take possessions for granted; the “one man‘s trash is another man‘s treasure” complex. This entire poem is a symbol. One object is used to represent another; nothing stands for what the reader thinks it does. Since everything can be interpreted in several ways, one can never be sure of the meaning, and attempting to define what the symbols stand for would be pointless because the reader is not the author.

Critical Questions:
1.) Why did Nemrov feel it was necessary to white this poem based on symbols? Why would he not be straight and to the point?
2.) Could Nemrov have wanted to convey the point that no matter how much certain aspect of life might annoy us, every single part is important to a functioning society?
3.) What other meanings, aside from life, could you conclude this poem is about?

Close Reading: "Paper Matches" by Paulette Jiles

2008-04-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

"Written on me was a message,
'At Your Service' like a book of
paper matches. One by one we were
taken out and struck.
We come bearing supper,
our heads on fire."
(lines 9-15)

Jiles uses the simile-turned-metaphor of a match to convey the anger and self-defeating nature of the gender roles enforced when she was a child. Matches are small, relatively insignificant items that are sold in packages, and one is indistinguishable from another. They're nothing except when they're in use, and from the very nature of the job they're put to--being burned down to nothing--they're only good for one flame. These connotations brutally pare down what Jiles saw as woman's status in society when she was growing up. It seemed to her that women were hardly more than servants and not allowed much individuality--they all had one function, one appearance, etc. Another facet of the match-comparison is that matches are passive. Someone strikes up a flame with it, but matches can't do anything of their own decision.

Jiles' anger is conveyed by the final two lines, "We come bearing supper, / our heads on fire." This continues the match-metaphor, but also implies anger directly resulting from the servitude involved in bringing in supper. If someone's angry, they might be called "hot-headed,"--Jiles' women's heads are figuratively on fire, they're so incensed at their position.

Something slightly ironic in the image is that the match's/women's usefulness starts at their heads. In the male-dominated society Jiles describes, women's heads--brains--wouldn't be very valued. That their heads are on fire in the end suggests that their anger at their position is borne out of the fact that they can think, reason and realize the limitations being placed on them, and this in turn suggests a basis for women's equality and the injustice of their situation in this poem.

Jiles, Paulette. "Paper Matches." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 333.

2008-04-19T08:18:00.001-07:00

Response to Theory Question 1: Gender Criticism

I think that Plath wrote about an outcast because at that time, the "outcasts" were not supposed to be talked about but they did exist and by writing about them these "outcasts" knew they weren't alone. The time was considered taboo for that time period because everyone was supposed to be the same and if you were different then there was something wrong with you and no one wanted to be associated with someone wrong. I feel that a fair amount of women and family can relate to this issue because even if only 1 in every 2o women have this problem then everyone who they care for will know and hopefully try to support them.

Rebecca Zinsser

2008-04-18T05:50:00.000-07:00

Introduction: "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner

1) Coleridge, Samuel, T. " The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel T. Coleridge Illustrated by Gustav Ublmann. Yellow Springs: Kahoe & Spieth,1927

2) This is a very long and complex poem published by Coleridge in 1817. The poem begins with the "mariner" stopping a man on the way to his relatives wedding and compelling him to listen to his tale. The "mariner's" tale is of a sea voyage around uncharted waters. At one point the ship is guided safely by a Albatross. The "mariner", for no apparent reason kills the Albatross. His crew members force him to wear the Albatross around his neck and one by one they die. Ultimately the "Mariner" is the only survivor and he is compelled to carry on and tell all he can about his ordeal.

3) I have found this poem interesting for a number of reasons. First of all, growing up I had often heard my father say something like, "we all have our own Albatross". I never knew what he meant. Now I see it is much like saying, " "we all have our own cross to bear". To the mariner the Albatross is symbolic as his cross. I recently read a historical account of "The Essex", ( the ship of "Moby Dick"), after the wreck of "The Essex" the crew drifted aimlessly at sea and eventually resulted in cannibalism of their fellow crew members. The voyage of the "Mariner" is very similar to that of the "Essex". The Essex was a whaling ship out of Nantucket and had travelled to unknown territory around Cape Horn around the same time period. I got a feeling that maybe the Mariner's "Albatross" was a symbolic representation of this same scenario. I can think of no heavier cross to bear than eating a person.

4) I can't think of a poem that we have studied in this class that correlates with this poem. However, I would suggest reading the book " The Loss of The Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale: First Person Accounts". I think if you do you too will make some correlations.

Theory Question 1

2008-04-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

Gender Criticism:
Plath, Sylvia. “Barren Woman.” The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 563

Gender criticism lends itself to this poem because it emphasizes the social struggles that women of the time period had to deal with. Many women were not thought of as much. Many thought women were only good for making a house a home and having children. Plath using the term “barren” suggests the cultural values placed upon fertility. Not only is the speaker not having children, she is unable to; “empty” in a sense. The speaker will never have children, which is a very hard fact for one to accept and cope with. “Barren” also refers to the lack of the ability to create life. It is a right bestowed on the majority, and not being able to singles the speaker out. All in all, this poem represents the social standards women had to live up to and how one comes to terms with accepting they one is different.

Critical Questions:
1.) Why do you feel Plath chose to write a poem about being an outcast? Was this subject considered a taboo for the time period? Do you feel many women or families related to this situation?
2.) Why does Plath use an empty museum as a metaphor for being a barren woman? Could it be because museums are places used to house creativity and once they are empty they become somewhat pointless?
3.) Are the images of stone statues representative of the feelings one has when one finds out that they are different; solitude, alone?

Close Reading of "The Caged Skylark" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

2008-04-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

"As a dare-gale skylark scanted in a dull cage
Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house, mean house, dwells--
That bird beyond the remembering his free fells;
This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age.

"Though aloft on turf or perch or poor low stage,
Both sing sometimes the sweetest, sweetest spells,
Yet both droop deadly sometimes in their cells
Or wring their barriers in bursts of fear or rage."
(lines 1-8 of "The Caged Skylark" by Gerard Manley Hopkins)

Gerard Manley Hopkins uses sound in his poems to make meaning. Alliteration, repetition, and the occasional cacophony are key. Almost always, the sound of the words directly and overtly mirror what they mean.

In line six, the "s" sound recurs and by "sweetest, sweetest spells," this causes the poem to sound soft and sweet. Yet he uses alliteration for the exact opposite in the second line where the recurring "m" and "n" sounds drone and almost buzz, investing the line with a harsh, defiant tone. The repetition of "bone-house, mean house" makes it all the more insistent. If he had used, say, the "s" effect in that line instead, it would alter the tone and meaning of the whole poem by making it sound more soft and resigned.

My favorite line is "This in drudgery, day-labouring-out life's age." It's really hard to say, and the hyphenated "day-labouring-out" slows the line down to a crawl. All of this combines to really illuminate the kind of slow, futile, dragging imprisonment of the "dare-gale skylark" and the human soul.

2008-04-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

Close Reading
Robert Frost
"Fireflies in the Garden"

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in their size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.
1928

The signifigance of this poem can be found in its tone, alliteration and ryhming. The tone of the poem is rather "matter of fact;" the speaker is assuming that the reader knows the fact that fireflies can only live three weeks before dying. The speaker's opinion on the theme of stars is that there is really only one type of actual star and those are the ones in the sky, the ones on earth seem to be cheap imitations to the speaker. Alliteration in the use of the "s" sound repeatedly keeps the image of a star in you mind but all the "s" sounds also begin to sound like a fly after a bit of reading. The comparison and relation to stars and fireflies is apparent even in the sounds of the words. The rhyming of the lines links the first three lines to how there are stars in the sky and on earth, but the next lines point out the distinct differences about how one can last and the other can not and the change in rhyming at that point is what signals the change in meaning. The rhyme is essential for understanding the poem's meaning and shift in meaning.

Kelly Gore 298

2008-04-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

INTRODUCTION: "Cutting the Cake" by Virginia Hamilton Adair

1.) Adair, Virginia Hamilton. “Cutting the Cake.” The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul
Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 299.

2.) This poem was written in 1996 about a wedding day and the ritual of the bride and groom cutting the cake. The poem's main rhythem is that it has no end-points; it just flows from stanza to stanza, like one long rushing breath. That is suitable for the poem because it adds to the anxiety that the poem paints for the male or the groom when the bride chops the cake. The chopping of the cake symbolizes his freedom being chopped and the little girl bitting the head off the manikin on top of the cake symbolizes the praying mantis-like effect some women have on men.

3.)This poem is enjoyable because it begins seemingly as just a sweet poem about a wedding but then you realize it is not a happy poem about a bride and groom it is a poem essentially about the bride and how the whole day revolves around her and the power trip she acheives from it. That power trip is even shown as passing down generations as the little girl bites the head of the toy groom when it topples off the cake. There is female power present in the poem which is humerous because that freaks men out.

4.)This poem is similar to other poems we read in class that focused some deal on feminism and gender analtsis and roles. Adair focuses on the woman empowerment and ownership of a special day. In a poem we read by Plath however the focus is on how the woman cannot bear a child and the downside of being a woman. Both deal with different ways woman might think of them selves and how that in turn effects directly how a man might think about them. Also in learning about gender roles it is interesting to read how in Adair's poem the man seems frightened but gives into the submissive role, letting the bride wear the pants so to speak.

Kelly Gore 298

Theory Questions for "Greenleaf" by Flannery O'Conner

2008-04-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

I think feminist literary theory seems particularly applicable to Flannery O'Conner's "Greenleaf." Mrs. May is the main character, and one of only two women in the entire story surrounded by men. She is the one character to really exert her authority anywhere, and given the era it was originally published (1957), this is a little surprising. It is interesting, too, that her exertion of authority ultimately leads to her death, literally on the horns of the opposing force in the form of a bull. Questions to consider:

1) How does Mrs. May's characterization and take-charge nature seemingly oppose the traditional values of the patriarchy? Remembering that Mrs. May was forced into this position by the death of her husband, does this change anything?

2) There are two very different women in the story: Mrs. May and Mrs. Greenleaf. How do their differences illuminate the gender-role conflicts apparent in the story?

3) Mrs. May meets her end on the horns of a bull. How do she and the bull illustrate the battle-of-the-sexes motif of the story? What does it mean that there's no clear winner?

O'Conner, Flannery. "Greenleaf." The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Ed. John Updike and Katrina Kenison. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. 348-368.

Marcus White Living Room Presentations

2008-04-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

Widows Rule in Chaucer,s Troilus and Cruseyde- Denise Bellmore Steele spoke to us about her papr. In her paper she spoke about how in chaucer,s Trolius and Criseyede widows were treated as if they are evil. In the medieval ages widows were looked down upon. If you were a widow, there is no second chance at marriage, the woman is supposed to continue her life alone. Denise's presentation was done fairly well except that she did not speak clear enough for me to fully understand what she was talking about. The basic thing she wanted to get across in her paper was how widows were treated in the Medieval ages compared with Chaucers piece, either how they differ or compare.

Twitter- A special studies major student here at CCSU by the name of Alex presented a new way of using the internet and applying literature to it. He is taking a class called Digital Literary Studies. He explained how he was working on this thing called twitter, which compares with the status updates on facebook. It is the same concept except, a person takes these little status updates and forms poetry out of them. Alex makes sure we know that there are many things a person can do with these little short words of human experience. There is a website that uses twitter and not only can a person form poems out of these words but, a person can add weird music and picking random pictures. The pictures and words can be taken off of some random person's facebook page or any other interactive website of the same type and the music is created digitally to fit the picture and words. Alex believes that there are more things to do on the internet and we should take advantage of the cool things we can do. He is thinking about writing a book using twitter but, it will be very hard because, he is taking peoples words right from their facebook pages.

Unspeakable Words Spoken: Toni Morrison , Literature Censorship and the Modern American Classroom- Sharon Kenniston worte her thesis about the censorship in the high school classroom when it came to literature. Toni Morrison's "Beloved" is still not permisable to read in the high school classroom because of its adult content. In Sharon's paper, she says that it is not right to ban great pieces of literature just because it has violence in it or adult content. By the high school level they should be exposed to things like this and react thoughfully about the events they just have read. Some people are against having violent books or things of that sort brought into a high school english class but sharon argues that some people actually are for it. Some teachers want their students to reflect thoughtfully about the scenes in the book and they want the students to be more accepting of people that are different then them. Teachers want to promote reading, not just for school but lifetime readers. By reading a book like the "Beloved" students will have a better english experience and will learn a lot about life and struggle.

Executive Boards- Margrat, a Political Science major wrote a thesis about the use of exuecutive boards and if they should be allowed. I did not really understand her presentation. She was not a well spoken person and she seemed kind of shy in fron of the audience. I did however, learn that there are these things called Executive Boards and they are policies of action that if the president signs becomes law. Margrat wanted to inform us that even though we live in a democracy there are still some dictatorship charactaristics to how things are run or some laws are passed. Goerge Bush has used many executive boards but, statistically democrats use more of them. Republicans use them as well but, only for popularity and emergency. Executive boards are said to be constitutional which is why presidents are still allowed to use them.

That was the end of the presentations, there was a brief Q&A session, Some of the questions i caught are below.

1- to alex: What do you think are the historical benefits of twitter?

response- I think it is a metaphore for the internet, which is arguably the best form of conversing. I believe robots are coming and everything will be electronic. He continued on a tangent, but he basically wanted us to know that the future is computers and digital works.

2- the second question was unclear to me but, it had something to do with the candidates. She said that the candidates were asked to attend a science debate and no word from them has been heard. Other then that there was no other questions, unless i missed one..but to the best of my knowledge that is all.

Introduction: "I Come And Stand At Every Door" Nazim Hikmet

2008-04-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

Nazim Hikmet
“I Come And Stand At Every Door”

Hikmet, Nazim. "Poetry Of Nazim Kikmet Ran." I Come And Stand At Every Door. 01 Jan 2004. 22 Mar 2008 . .

http://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/nazim/icomeandstand.html

This particular selection is a very interesting text that had a profound following in many folk circles of the 1960’s. This poem, written by Nazim Hikmet, had been a staple of the anti-war protest songs arranged by various folk artists in their effort against the war. The poem was originally written as a solemn plea for humanity to live in peace, a fitting cry for justice for the young ones of our future. With poignant and chilling lines such as “I'm only seven although I died/In Hiroshima long ago/I'm seven now as I was then/When children die they do not grow…” (Line 5-8), one may come to think of Vietnam as a vivid mirror of what happened so long ago.

I particularly enjoyed how the poem is very thought provoking and it offers a very different point of view of the world and its many disturbances. Those 4 lines above, convey a very harrowing message that is still relevant today as it was in the sixties for many of the musicians who arranged this poem to their music. It was a bold, but bittersweet statement that had affected many. This poem is a powerful look into what makes literature and word such a magnificent tool to shape our lives. I also enjoy the musical arrangement by The Byrds, from their 1966 Columbia/Legacy album Eight Miles High.

I cannot really find a poem that we have read in class that deals with this particular subject. I did, however, find connections between this poem and the way Auden’s “Musee des Beaux Arts” had been constructed. Looking at a catastrophe and creating imagery from illustrations both real and fable.

Introduction to Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

2008-04-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

1. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/barbie-doll/

Piercy, Marge. "Barbie Doll." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 27-8.

2. Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll was written in 1973. It is a poem that reflects on the way that little girls are brought up and the images that they are taught and how reality is different than these images. A girl expects Barbie doll perfection and, once she goes through puberty and realizes that she is not like that, she spends her life trying to make herself that impossible image. She is dead at the end due to trying to look a particular way because she thinks that looking like a Barbie will bring happiness.

3. What particularly drew me to this poem was the manner in which Piercy questions what happiness really is. She makes the point more effective by relating Barbie to false happiness. Barbie is a universal symbol of perfection but one must realize that a Barbie is also fake and plastic. There is no real depth of thought or emotion that is connected to a Barbie. This point is hit home at the end of the poem when the girl in question is dead. She may have tryed to achieve looking like a Barbie but now her being is more like a Barbie than ever. She is dead and therefore has no feeling or emotion, much like a real Barbie.

4. This poem is similar to Adrienne Rich's poem Power. Both poems revolve around women seeking to achieve something that will make them powerful or more memorable. The girl in Piercy's power is looking to be attractive and therefore, achieve the power of confidence that comes with happiness. Marie Curie in Rich's poem is seeking to be a powerful woman of science. Ultimately, these goals and hopes that they carry out to become happy result in their deaths.

2008-04-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Intro. "Because I could not stop for Death"

Dickinson, Emily. "Because I could not stop for Death." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton 2007. 531.

In this poem, the speaker is personifies death as a nice and selfless gentlemen who takes her on a long journey in a carriage toward "eternity" as said in the last line of the poem; however, at the end of the poem and after she has finished her voyage, she then discovers that she had died a long time ago.

I happen to love all of Emily Dickinson's poems and this poems text really caught my eye. After reading it a few times it becomes clear that life is a cycle. The poem has a lot of symbolism and signifies the three stages of life: Childhood, which is recognized in the third stanza ("Children strove), youth which is represented by "the Fields of Gazing Grains" in line eleven, and characterizing the end of life, is symbolized by the "setting sun" in line twelve. On this journey, the speaker views the youthful children at play and the grass in the fields and at last, the speaker sees that the sun is setting on her journey. This is a strong stanza because it gives the reader a clue of her passing by this world. Moreover, it shows life as a cycle and uses a conflict relationship between reality and the speaker's thoughts. This poem displays a lot of tension. At first, the speaker does not realize she has died and there is mixed tones in the poem that add to the speaker's confusion. I really liked the tone in the last two stanzas, Dickinson uses a sad tone and this shows the reader that the speaker perceives reality, thus becoming very calm once she realizes her fate.

This poem could be related to, Howard Nemerov's poem, "The Town Dump." In class, we discussed that Nemerov's poem had a lot of symbolism and glorified the things of people's lives that were in the dump. When taking a closer look at Nemerov's poem, it could be said that Nemerov is summing up "results" and the city is symbolic of life in general. All of the animals in the town dump co-exist beautifully with each other. The town dump is its very own city and way of life. Just like Dickinson's poem showing life as a cycle, Nemerov's poem symbolizes life and the cycles of life and the "results" we get when we put everything together.

Intro. to "Body and Soul" by Charles Wright

2008-04-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

Wright, Charles. "Body and Soul." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton 2007. 227-28.

This poem covers a lot of ground in each stanza using a plethera of figurative language. It reminds us how much there is to life, to not live close minded. My favorite part of the poem is the last lines,
Walk as though you'd been given one brown eye and one blue,
Think as though you thought best with somebody else's brain,
Write as though you had one hand with the last pencil on earth,
Pray as though you were praying with someone else's soul.

I enjoy these lines because they state in a short and simple manner to live with an open heart.

I like the way Wright uses metaphors and similes and his word choices. The poem is full of contradictons in that Wright states what we think we are, and says that we are not; for example, "The world's body is not our body,/ although we'd have it so." I really enjoy the Wright's style.

This poem relates to John Keat's poem "To Autumn." Wright uses the seasons to describe how we overlook the world that we are in. Keat's poem reminds us of all of the things that the changes of the seasons bring about. It reminds us that the world exists beyond ourselves as does "Body and Soul."

Intro. "The Goose Fish" by Howard Nemerov

2008-04-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

Nemerov, Howard. "The Goose Fish." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton 2007. 234-35.

This poem begins with two intimate lovers on the beach. Then a dead, ugly goose fish washes up on the shore right before their eyes. The poem takes a turn with the appearance of this fish as the two lovers are revealed to have feelings of guilt, leaving the reader to assume a possible affair is happening here. The goose fish is said to be "smiling" at them, almost mocking their feelings for each other and their guilty consciences.

I like the turn in this poem. I also enjoy the sense of ambiguity in that we are not sure why the lovers are there or what their situation is, but there is a sense of guilt with the appearance of the goose fish. I find it rather humorous to envision to people getting intimate with each other on the beach when all of a sudden this hideous dead fish washes up and interrupts them, then the focus moves to the fish.

This poem relates to another Nemerov poem, "The Town Dump." This poem describes what one would encounter at the town dump. It glorifies the things of peoples lives, deemed as trash, all collected in one place, even referring the dump as a "city." This poem takes something ugly and makes it significant just as the goose fish is given meaning in that poem.

Introduction: "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg

2008-04-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

1. Ginsberg, Allen. "A Supermarket in California." Collected Poems 1947-1997. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006. 144.

link

2. In this poem the speaker imagines seeing Walt Whitman in a supermarket one night. One stanza focuses on the speaker watching as Whitman interacts with the various people inside the supermarket. Whitman asks the prices of of products, leers at the grocery boys, and samples the artichokes. In the last stanza the speaker imagines leaving the supermarket with Walt Whitman, and strolling along, "dreaming of the lost America of love."

3. This poem is really easy to find online, due to the fact that it's Ginsberg's most anthologized poem. This is probably because, unlike other Ginsberg poems, there's nothing in it that would be considered obscene or offend anyone. There are many aspects of this poem that I like. First of all Ginsberg writing a poem about Whitman is pretty cool since the poetic techniques that Whitman developed throughout his lifetime significantly influenced Ginsberg. Ginsberg is heavily indebted to Whitman when it comes to style as well as content matter. As with most Ginsberg poems his use of adjectives is something I admire. He always describes things in interesting somewhat unusual ways. The supermarket is described as a "neon fruit supermarket," and he describes himself as having a "head-ache self-conscious." Every time I read this poem I get a kick out of Whitman asking "Who killed the pork chops?"

4. This poem reminds me a little bit of "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" by John Keats and "When I Read Shakespeare" by D.H. Lawrence. Both are about art and how an audience interprets art, which is what "A Supermarket in California" is about to a certain extent. Ginsberg never knew Whitman, but based on the speaker in Whitman's poems, Ginsberg is able to construct his own imaginary Walt Whitman companion. "A Supermarket in California" also reminds me of "Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes" by Billy Collins, which is not a poem we read in class but is featured in the Norton book. The comparison is pretty obvious with these two poems. In both cases the speakers are imaging that they are interacting with long dead poets.

Introduction: I, Too by Claude McKay

2008-04-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

1)Kckay, Claude. "I,Too." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Comp. Paul J. Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. Ed. Peter Simon. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 438.

2) This poem is about a black man who is clearly a slave. He speaks about eating in the kitchen and his supposed inequity to his masters. But he proclaims that he too is American.

3) What caught my eye about this particular poem is the opening line, "I, too, sing America" (1). I like that he does not say he is American too, but that he "sing[s]" America, like he supports the country and is just as American as everyone else who sings about it. The simplicity of the poem's statement and the speaker's optimism about being treated equally and not "eat[ing] in the kitchen" (13) is what lured me to write about this poem.

4) "I, Too" is compatible with "The Town Dump" by Howard Nemerov because both poems have traits that are not apparent at first glance. In "I, Too" the speaker does not appear American, but he is, and in "The Town Dump" a dump does not look like a city or to have any value, but to some organisms live there and one man's trash is another's treasure. Overall, the subjects of these poems are not similar in the slightest, but the message each portrays is similar.

Introduction: Sonrisas by Pat Mora

2008-04-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

1)Mora, Pat. "Sonriasa." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Comp. Paul J. Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. Ed. Peter Simon. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 239.

Sonrisas
I live in a doorway
between two rooms. I hear
quiet clicks, cups of black
coffee, click, click like facts
budgets, tenure, curriculum,
from careful women in crisp beige
suits, quick beige smiles
that seldom sneak into their eyes.
I peek
in the other room señoras
in faded dresses stir sweet
milk coffee, laughter whirls
with steam from fresh tamales
sh, sh, mucho ruido,*
they scold one another,
press their lips, trap smiles
in their dark, Mexican eyes.
--Pat Mora
From Borders, 1986.
* lots of noise

2) Sonrisas is a short poem where the speaker describes him/herself as living between two doorways. In one room a quiet setting of uptight women is described. They do not really talk or smile and stick strictly to business. In the other room a setting of loud women who are boisterous and happy is found, they are Mexicans.

3) I like this poem because it describes two different cultures through coffee, and the atmosphere women create when drinking it. I also enjoy the use of Spanish, the fact that it does not rhyme, and the image of different smiles in each culture's eyes. It made me aware of the way Mexican-Americans, or any mixed race, must feel in the world.

4) "Sonrisas" reminded me of "Living in Sin" by Adrienne Rich. The use of coffee to represent a woman's state of being/mind is a commmon factor in these two stories. "Living in Sin's" speaker let the coffee boil over on the stove top. This small neglectful element is very telling of her state in the poem. She could boil over from the patriarchal dominance of her culture. "Sonrisas" uses the coffee to explain the difference in two cultures in the same setting. In one, she shows, "quiet clicks, cups of black coffee, click click like facts, budgets, tenure, curriculum..." (3-5). Then, in the next setting we see, "sweet milk [being stirred] coffee, laughter whirls with steam from fresh tamales sh, sh, mucho ruido" (11-14). The use of image of coffee in both poems reflects the situations portrayed.

Tweet Tweet (URCAD Responce)

2008-04-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

I'll try to keep this interesting, since I'm sure half of the class will be posting on this! (It's amazing what you can motivate college students to do with the right incentives.)

The first presentation was about Chaucer's Troilus & Criseyde. The speaker focused on the widow and her role in society, starting off with a Gloria Steinman quote: "Men should think twice before making widowhood the woman's only path to power." The basic plot of the poem is that Criseyde, the protagonist widow, must somehow balance the power and money given to her through widowhood with a relationship with Troilus, the knight that protects her. Her solution ends up being that she will keep the power by remaining a widow while continuing her relationship with Troilus for protection, but will keep the affair a secret so as to retain the respect of the society she lives in. The basic moral of the story was really very Steinman--through not only marriage, but societal constraints, men and woman imprison each other; men are expected to worship women and hold to a strict moral code, but in actuality are forcing them to become subservient.

I'll save the second presentation for last, because I want to have fun with it. (And yes--by 'have fun with it', I mean ramble pointlessly so I can put off doing my American Lit homework for just a little bit longer.)

The third speaker did a bit about censorship in high schools, focusing on Tony Morrison's book Beloved. Although the book was Morrison's key to winning a Nobel Prize, most public schools view the book as 'inappropriate'; still, the student believed it was important not only for it's historical and cultural content, but for it's ability to become a safe place to confront sexual and racial discrimination. The book, based in a post-Civil War America, follows the story of a mother that is forced to kill her child to save her from the horrors of slavery, as well as a varying cast of characters and the discrimination they face in a predominantly Caucasian / patriarchal society.

The fourth speaker discussed one of my favourite aspects of government: the Executive Article and the Peoples' naivety about it. (Somehow, I'm hoping the sarcasm in that came through online...) Basically, the second article of the Constitution is never really challenged, but the 1926 court case Myers v. US proved that the Executive Article is, indeed, constitutional. The article gives the president the power to do, really, whatever he wants; the loophole is most often used by unpopular presidents so when they can't score votes, they can use the power they already have to do what they'd like. But, of course, because this is America, we'd like to at least pretend that the people have a chance at questioning the law. In order to have an Executive Article overturned, one would have to sue the government. The case would then have to make it's way through three levels of courts, get chosen by the supreme court, and get simply void. Or, you could convince a super majority (3/4) of congress to veto the law.

But here's where things get good. Student Alex Jarvis, whom I've known in a roundabout way for a while now, is probably one of the wittiest kids I've ever know. That said, he's also currently enrolled at CCSU in his very own major which combines technology and humanities (very Life 2.0). His presentation focused on the combination of what will soon be known as "classic literature" (anything that anyone has ever physically written), and the phenomena known as Web 2.0: a movement where users, not a l33t group of geeks, controls the internet. Things like Digg, RSS, Myspace, Wikipedia, Youtube, Facebook--and even Blogger, are all allowing users to add their personal content to the ever growing pool that is cyberspace.

Now, although Alex had a lot (and I mean a lot) of interesting things to say, I'll focus on my favourite: twitter poetry.

Twittering is when at every single moment of your life, one feels compelled to let everyone around them know what is going on. Ei: "I'm walking across the room to pick up my pencil. I'm picking up my pencil. I'm walking back across the room. I'm sitting down. I'm writing. I'm writing my name. My pencil needs to be sharpened. I'm getting up," etc. Twitter.com, must like Facebook's status option, lets users post miscellaneous thoughts infinitely, and lets everyone on their friends page know instantly.

Twitter.com had quickly become and endless achieve of people's moods, feelings, and spontaneous thoughts. These little synapses of life is what, Jarvis believes, makes up poetry. His thesis is this: based on any combination of tweets (individual user twitters), one could easily write collective poetry. Simply go to twitterscan.com to search the cornucopia of tweets. Type in "bike," and you'll get a list of posts that involve bikes; type in "literature," and you'll get a post by user raewhitlock that claims "Now I don't feel so bad for throwing that guy's literature in the trash when I saw a stack of it at Starbucks recently." Ouch.

Anyway, if anyone's interested in how, exactly, I created the next poem, you can find all of the instructions on alexjarvis.pbwiki.com; I think I've used up enough space on here (I could make a living off of rambling and blogging), so I'll just post my own bit of Twitter Lit.

The Madness
Exhausted.
At home and in bed with caffeine and no lights. Should stop the madness.
Just because I'm sick doesn't mean I can't be productive.
I'm 100% convinced that limiting my pace to 24hr days is unnatural. I stay awake as long as possible, coding and consuming literature

Authors: noefool, blueeyedbanshee, angiolillo, choosetheforce
Words Used: exhausted, caffeine, caffeine, literature
Compiled by: Marissa Blaszko!

I'm not going to lie--that was way more fun than I expect my writing American Lit paper to be. A highly recommended tool for procrastination, for sure :]

Literary Event: URCAD

2008-04-03T06:11:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is our Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day. Undergrads from all over campus will be presenting their work in a variety of formats (last year I moderated a panel of presentations, one of which was a film prepared by a student in anthropology who visited Ghana and chronicled the art of drum making--it was the coolest bit of undergrad "creative activity" I'd ever seen!). Any part of this would be perfect to write up on the "literary event" page. And there's free food. Here's more info from Jason Jones, who organizes URCAD:

Dear everyone,

This is just a quick note to say that tomorrow is Undergraduate Research & Creative Achievement Day (URCAD). Please announce it to your students, and encourage them to come see student work!

The full schedule is here:

http://www.ccsu.edu/urcad

Some highlights include:

The plenary session in Marcus White Living Room at 9am will feature Amanda Johnson, who has won the Burritt Library Undergraduate Research Prize. (This session includes FREE BREAKFAST!)

From 11.15-12.45, there will be a poster session in Founders Hall. (This session includes FREE LUNCH!)

At 1pm, in Marcus White Living room, a breakout panel will include Sharon Kenniston's paper on Toni Morrison & high school censorship, as well as Alex Jarvis's presentation on "Literature 2.0."

Please consider dropping by one of these events to support our students!

Introduction to "When our two souls stand up" by Elizabeth Barret Browning

2008-03-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

1- Browning, Elizabeth, Barrett." When our Two Soulds Stand Up." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 99.

The poem can be viewed here: http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/elizabethbarrettbrowning/poems/sonnetsfromtheportuguese/whenourtwosoulsstanduperectandstrong.html

2- This poem was written for Elizabeths husband Robert Browning, and it is a sonnet from her well known sonnets from the portugese. This poem is written during the victorian era which was awkward since those times in England were filled with much religous oppression and freedom of thought. This sonnet is basically a love note to her husband explaining to him how their love is so strong that even in the hereafter they will still be together. She feels that the love she has for this man is timeless and can withstand the test of time.

3- I really liked this sonnet because, it shows the authors passion. It is obvious she was very in love with her husband Robert Browning but the large statements she was making made her passion fact. I dont know how to explain the feeling that came over me while reading this poem but it makes a person think about there own relationship and compare to what Browning felt towards her husband. The last line drew me in to the poem and made me want to read it over and over again. good poem.

4- This poem can lightly be comapred to William Shakespeare's "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore" Even though, this poem does not directly compare with Browning's they both make a statement about time and death. Browning explains how she just wants to live in love forever and even in death. She even, realizes that she does not have all the time in the world to feel this feeling. In Shakespeare's poem he makes a statement about how minuets and time go by to shape the future. As i said it can be compared with Browining's poem but not in a great way.

Shakespeare, William. "Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 215

Close Reading: "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning

2008-03-31T08:03:00.000-07:00

The rain set early in tonight,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake:
I listened with heart fit to break.

These are the first five lines from Robert Browning's dramatic monologue "Porphyria's Lover." Browning's diction in describing the weather is an attempt to set a very dark tone from the very beginning of this poem. Browning calls the wind "sullen" and attributes its actions as the result of "spite." Giving these natural elements such human qualities is clearly a type of personification. The characteristics attributed to the weather are characteristics that mirror those of the speaker in the poem. He is sullen and he is spiteful. When the speaker describes the wind tearing down the elm trees, one can clearly see a connection between the action of the wind and the lover's own behavior in the rest of the poem towards Porphyria. Thus the terms in which the natural elements are being described really foreshadow the forthcoming events of the poem. Even still, it's almost if the speaker sees the destructive events that are occurring outside his window and knows that perhaps his actions will be just as destructive. Therefore as the speaker sees the actions of nature and anticipates his own actions, he can't help but react with a "heart fit to break."

Literary event

2008-03-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" Directed by Michael Bolinski
On reccomendation from Bryant Scott.

Bryant, thanks for the reccomendation, it was definately a play worth seeing. However, I think better than sex is a bit of a stretch. Although it did last alot longer and I didn't feel guilty leaving right after it was done.

"Endgame" is without a doubt an interesting play. The main characters are an immobile, blind, miserable old man, and his half-witted, and resentful servant/companion. They have a twisted relationship based on control, fear, and dependancy on one another. If Bryant didn't inform us that this was post WWII, I would've thought they were a couple of survivors of some catastrophic nuclear event. The play is pretty ambigous concerning background information. If you've ever witnessed a pitifully unhealthy relationship in which helpless people, void of any kind of emotional, social, or interpersonal skills waste away their days in shared misery than you have an idea of what these guys are like. They are somewhat aware of themselves as the sources of their own grief, but are unable or unwilling to change. The blind man's parents live with them, and are confined to these huge garbage cans in the living room. The blind guy gets off on ordering his friend around, and rationing out food portions to everyone in the house. He is a seriously sick guy. They are all just waiting for death to finally swallow them up, bringing an end to thier pain and suffering. The two main characters spend amuse themselves with trivialities, and routine, but they also make an effort to ask questions like, "Who are we? Why is the world the way it is? Why doesn't God help us? and When will this all end?" The plot fails to ever really take off, but with characters like these, that is probably appropriate. One of my favorite parts is the memories shared by the mother in the garbage can. There is alot of symbloism in her speeches about the past, and love. On a couple of occasions she cries "Yesterday" and with that one word you can feel how heart-broken she is over losing the life she once had. You can feel how happy she once was, and how far she has fallen. With one word she tells a story about who she once was. The actress really did a wonderful job. This is not a date play. It isn't an action lover's play. And it isn't a play for the faint of heart. But as I said before, it is a play worth seeing.

"Siren Song"

2008-03-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer: This song

is a cry for help; Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique (Atwood 19-24)

In these two stanzas from Margaret Atwood's "Siren Song" the female speaker lures in a listener. The diction and the poetic devices set-up a slow, soft mood. If the speaker wants to tell a secret she is probably whispering and gesturing for the listener to come near and pay attention. End stops are used in the first stanza to maintain a nice, slow pace. Suddenly the stanza shoots into the following stanza by use of enjambment. The speaker cries, "Help me!" When reading this section one almost feels the screaching cry pound on thier eardrum. It's as if the reader were drawn in close and listening hard because of the first stanza, and then this bird screams directly into the reader's ear. The phrase "only you" that speaker used in the first stanza is twiced repeated in the second, except it takes on a new and desperate tone in the latter. The shrillness of the speaker's cry is expanded on by the bird conceit employed throughout the poem. However, the speaker also has a dual identity as a woman searching for a man. The shrillness of a cry from a bird is demonstrated in the above lines, while the literal meaning is more closely linked to the feelings of a woman speaker. The meter of the lines is irregular, but I did find that the almost even mixture of iambs and trochees might be also linked to the duality of the speaker.

REMINDER!

2008-03-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that we won't be having class on Friday. I'll be around though, so if you'd like to come by after 12:20 or so, particularly to discuss your thesis statements (most of which, to be honest, could use some work), I'd be happy to see you.

Here's the schedule again for the next several days:

Mon., 3/31: Read: From SS: Elkin, “Kibitzers,” and Roth, “Defender”; Bressler, Chapter 9.
Write: CQ (following Bressler 226).

Wed., 4/2: Read: From SS: Cheever, “Country Husband”; Carver, “Where I’m Calling From”; Updike, “Gesturing”; Moore, “You’re Ugly, Too”; “Culture” (handout)
Write: LE

Fri., 4/4: (Back on schedule now) Read Harrower, Blackbird
Write: CQ

Mon., 4/7: Harrower, Blackbird
Paper is due

Close Reading: "The Night-Wood" by Emily Bronte

2008-03-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

"The Night-Wood" page 108
"I sat in silent musing,
The soft wind waved my hair:
It told me Heaven was gloriuos,
And sleeping Earth was fair" (5-8).

This section of poem may seem simple, however I believe that it has a deeper meaning. If you read the entire poem and then come back to this section it seems as if the speaker is contemplating suicide. When the speaker says that Heaven is glorious but Earth is only fair what else is the reader left to think? Throughout the poem the speaker argues with Nature on how he wishes to be left alone even though they have been constant companions for the speakers entire life.
There are some words in this poem which fall into the category of onomatopoeia such as waved and murmur. There are normally five feet in a line, and it falls into iambic pentameter. There is no constant rhyme shceme, however there are a some lines that rhyme.

Rebecca Z.

Close Reading: It’s Not a Just Situation

2008-03-25T07:14:00.001-07:00

It’s Not a Just Situation:
Though We Just Can’t Keep Crying About It
(For the Hip Hop Nation
That Brings Us Such Exciting Art)
by Nikki Giovanni

You can find the full poem here. I'd recommend looking at all of the paintings and photography on that section of the site, too. It's nothing you'd expect from a fine art gallery--it's graffiti and paintings of LL Cool J.

Anyway, this poem blew me away. I was in DC over break, and while wandering through the National Portrait Gallery, stumbled upon a large instillation fill with graffiti and hip-hop portraits. This poem was on one of the walls and being read by the poet over some speakers and I was just totally, totally blown away by the fact that a national museum was actually considering this art.

Anyway, here's the passage that I'm taking a look at:

You are just
trying to show the beautiful soul of your people
You are just
trying to say “I’m alive”
You are just
determined to be more
than what the powers who
Just hate the idea of you want you to be

I love the use of the word 'just'. In that stanza, it takes on two meanings: either just as in 'simply' or just as in 'suddenly'. In the title, it could even work as in 'justice'. The thing that I find really effective is that the meaning isn't hidden somewhere deep in the poem or buried in Oxford's. In parts, the poem even openly makes the connection between the meanings ("You are/ just, if there is any/ justice...") It's an accessible poem about accessible things.

I think that fact adds even more to the poem. I think I rambled about this before on here, but I think it's really important for poetry as a genre to invite people in that would otherwise be told that poetry is on some pedestal that they're never going to reach. I loved the whole exhibit, just because of how inviting it was. Needless to say, it had a lot more visitors than the Renaissance masterpieces on the same floor.

I really don't know what else to say. I think the narrator (and poet) have an incredibly strong voice, and I don't really want to butcher the poem trying to explain it anymore than need be. /end rant, I guess.

Shakespeare's Tempest

2008-03-24T18:07:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking of going Thursday the 17th, if anyone would like to join me. It's an odd but tremendously entertaining play. I think you'd really enjoy it.

SAMUEL BECKETT "ENDGAME'' IN THOMASTON

2008-03-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.thomastonoperahouse.org/

ENDGAME by Samuel BeckettDirected by Michael BolinskiPresented by Hijinx & GravitasMarch 21, 22, 27, 28 & 29 at 8:00pm
March 30, 2008 at 2:00pmIn the Arts Center

ITS BETTER THAN SEX

READ ME. i felt it nessasary to put that, first off, because unfortunately it doesnt seem that many people actually go through and check out most of the blogs, maybe due to lack of time or whatever, but this play is awsome and i hope it gets someones attention and interest. "Endgame" is a play by Samuel Beckett and it is nothing but your typical play. it is filled with dark humor, and really focuses on very philisophical questions in a time where the essential meaning of life was being questioned by many artist. in a post-world war world samuel beckett's play questions the basic meaning of human existence. it is anything but a theatre goers play, it is a play filled with puzzling, humorous and deep questions, it is a poet's play. there are no scenes and it is basically four people living in a dark room questioning meanings and ocasionally lookiing out the window at a bleak cold earth. "Your on earth, there is no cure for that" echoes through the play. "god does not exist" leaves its reminents through the play, giving it a feel of existentiallism. it is an incredible play, samuel beckett is incredible, and it is well worth the trip and the price (20$). it is in a small dark room, and there are only about 30 seats, so you will get a good spot and you can talk to the cast afterword which only consists of 4 people and the director. it is an incredibly well acted play, very funny, and extremely well done. GO SEE IT! TODAY. if you want to see a really good play that isnt fruity, or cheesy, there is no singing or dancing or anything like that. it is a really cool, dark, modern play. IT'S THE SHIT. GO SEE THIS SHIT NOW..

Close Reading: “The Doe” by C.K. Williams

2008-03-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

“The Doe” by C.K. Williams

"All that moved was her pivoting ear
the reddening sun shining through
transformed to a color I’d only seen
in a photo of a new child in a womb. "(Williams, lines 5-8).

This poem is representative of the peacefulness and serenity of nature at its most natural state of being. The author clearly is speaking of a doe, and how calm they can be when alone in the woods. The author compares the doe’s physical characteristics to that of a child in the womb; another symbol for calmness. These two images parallel one another in their ability to be tranquil. This poem means that when objects are left to their own devices, they are the most beautiful. The author wants the reader to grasp the beauty of nature. The author does not use any type of rhyme scheme throughout this poem, and I cannot pick up on a set meter. I feel these absences represent how nature is constantly changing; growing and dieing all at the same time. The author does use persona to express his feelings towards the doe; as the reader, we are receiving the authors point of view. The author uses some form of alliteration with the repetition of “ing” words. I feel this aids in the meaning of the poem by having something constant. When one thinks of the concept of “calm”, repetition comes to mind. If things are erratic, then they usually are not calm. This form of consonance sticks out in ones mind because it is familiar. Familiar gives the comfort of calmness.

*Williams, C.K. “The Doe”. The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 59

Close Reading: “In This Strange Labyrinth” by Lady Mary Wroth

2008-03-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

"In This Strange Labyrinth" by Mary Wroth

"In this strange labyrinth how shall I turn?
Ways are on all sides while way I miss;
If to the right hand, there in love I burn;
Let me go forward, therein danger is;
If to the left, suspicion hinders bliss;
Let me turn back: shame cries I ought return
Nor faint though crosses with my fortune kiss." (Wroth, lines 1-7)

This passage means life and all of the uncertainties that come along with it. One never knows where life may end up; one minute it could be perfect, certain, terrible, or unknown. It is about the choices one must make and the consequences of those choices. This poem is written as a persona along with being a lyrical sonnet. The author uses the labyrinth as a metaphor for life. The author use of the stanza format aids in breaking apart the differences throughout the poem. In the first stanza, and the first half of the second stanza, the author groups the feelings of life together (represented by right-love, forward-danger, left-suspicion, back-shame). This represents how life comes as it is; that one must accept the good along with the bad, and the connotations one associates with everyday right, left, forward, and backward. She does not get into dealing with life until the later stanzas. The author also uses an every other line rhyme scheme. I feel this helps ties the poem together by helping it represent life. Life needs to be connect to other aspects, such as feelings or activities, and this rhyme scheme demonstrates that by linking every other line.

*Wroth, Mary. “In This Strange Labyrinth”. The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 263.

The Post-Structuralists and "Keeping Things Whole"

2008-03-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Strand, Mark. "Keeping Things Whole." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. Ed. J. Paul Hunter, Allison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2007. 252.

The Post-Structuralists believe that signs are arbitrary and their importance lies in the difference among signs. The ideas of "absence," "missing," and "part[ing]" are abstract and only exist in contrast to a designated sign of a concrete entity such as "field" or "air." The poem seems to be ambiguous because the speaker intends it to be that way. Progressively, the speaker gives more insight to the reader about their ultimate purpose, but the reader's understanding still relies upon the speaker's willingness to state the truth. However, even in the end, the idea of wholeness is left open for interpretation. Full of ambiguities and places where the poem fails to concrete certain understandings, Post-Structuralists would confirm that Strand's "Keeping Things Whole" is just a play of signs and therefore open to many interpretations.

1. What ideas are established through the binaries of existing in place and being absent?

2. Which of the two binaries (from question one) seems to be privileged?

3. How does the privilege on that sign affect the interpretation of the poem?

The New Critics and "The Pillar of Fame"

2008-03-13T10:34:00.000-07:00

Herrick, Robert. "The Pillar of Fame."The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 285.

The New Critics analyze words, content and structure/form in order to find tensions that ultimately resolve. The poem can be analyzed merely as a self-contained entity and has a singular effect. The visual structure of the poem most notably lends towards tension. While a pillar seems strong in its foundations, there is a frailty presented in the word choice of "charmed and enchanted" (line 3). While most of the poem exists within the realm of perfect rhyme, the few partial rhymes draws extreme attention to conflicting ideas. These partial rhymes occur in the center of the poem (where the poem is at its theoretical weakest) and at the very end (where the poem is at its theoretical strongest). The tension between weakness and strength of a pillar is in the end resolved, implying that despite its trials, the pillar will stand as a foundation.

1. What is the relationship of the title to the rest of the poem?

2. What do you believe is the chief paradox in the text? What is its importance?

3. How do all of the elements in the text support the text's main paradox?

D.H. Lawrence "When I Read Shakespeare"

2008-03-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Lawrence, D.H. "When I Read Shakespeare."The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 403.

And Macbeth and his Lady, who should have been choring,
such suburban ambition, so messily goring
old Duncan with daggers!

How boring, how small Shakespeare's people are!
Yet the language so lovely! like the dyes from gas-tar. (lines 10-15)

D.H. Lawrence's "When I Read Shakespeare" acts as a critique of the most renown writer of all time. The speaker's diction and rhyme suggests that he/she is mocking the very things that makes Shakespeare's works famous.

The speaker attempts to describe Shakespeare's characters through utilizing words such as "choring" and "boring." These words are considered informal vernacular and drastically differ from Shakespeare's ornate diction. By discounting the importance of language, the speaker shows how trivial the characters truly are. Without the fluency and beauty of diction, Shakespeare's Macbeth is merely and blatantly put a "messy" murderer.

The repetition of the "ring" sound also adds to the unremarkable quality of the characters. Suggesting that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth "should have been choring," implies that there is a certain admirable trait to carrying out routines (but Shakespeare routine has become creating the familiar character). The routines of these characters has become the task of murder and therefore, is another boring and predictable trait of a Shakespearean character. The rhyming scheme itself begins to become redundant and boring, rhyming perfectly with no distinctions until reaching the end of the sonnet. In the rhyming of "daggers" and "are" there is a partial rhyme, suggesting that perhaps the characters are not quite as boring as the reader had begun to think. The importance lies on the "daggers" though, not on the characters themselves, showing that weapons used have more substance than people created. In the last stanza, the rhyme becomes perfect again, reaffirming the redundancy.

The last stanza states that language is lovely "like the dyes from gas-tar." Immediately, the reader can understand that the colors of gas-tar are not lovely things, but dark and dirty. Gas-tar is a not formally accepted term and its very comparison to Shakespeare's language is contradictory to the rhetoric that Shakespeare employed. The final line, for this very reason, reflects on the striking question of "Why is Shakespeare's work so significant if merely redundant in character styling and language?"

2008-03-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

Theory Questions
Peeling an Orange by Virginia Hamilton Adair
Norton p.111

This poem is about a woman and her lover after they have had sex. The speaker's lover goes to eat an orange, and then they involve the speaker by eating the slices of orange off of her. The speaker pays special attention to the slices of orange, how they symbolize the sun, and the impact they have on the two lovers. Examining this poem from a feminist point of view there are many different angles you could take on this poem. First of all, is the speaker's lover male or female? Arguments could be made for both gender because there are various clues scattered throughout the poem which lend themselves to each gender. Secondly, is the orange supposed to represent male power? Constantly comparing it to a powerful and elusive sun, this orange could be a representation of the Sun God.
1. If the speaker's lover were female, how would that change the impact of the poem?
2. If this poem were written by a man then would the events in the poem change from loving to lustful events?
3. Would this poem have been accepted by society if it had been written by a man in the 1950s or earlier?

Rebecca Z.

2008-03-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

In my infinite recesses of time, I have recently managed to read “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran and it is without a doubt worth mentioning. It was triggered by the mention of Nietzsche in a previous post because this book in a broad sense followed the same format as “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” but with much more down to earth rational and spirituality. It is however, not less prolific because of it. This book addresses a serious of issues spoke by a prophet, and Is written very poetically and skillfully. It’s also a pretty short read, and comes complete with William Blake-ish pictures to compliment the age old questions of man. Things like “good and evil” and “time” and many more questions are examined in a very spiritual way, maybe somewhat religious, but in a good way. The writing is almost soothing and ethical and its teachings are serene and peaceful. It is a book that will become more useful as time passes and is a good reminder to us all of the things that are really important; the things that really bring satisfaction especially in times of grief or struggle.
“And a woman spoke, saying, "Tell us of Pain."
And he said:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears. “
This prophet also challenges a lot of the binaries that we experience in our everyday lives, and addressed them and then reverses them, opening up a doorway to new thought. In examples like this one he challenges the pleasure/pain binary and shows us that the only way we can experience and know pleasure is through feeling pain. He does this same thing with good and evil, death and life and other basic binaries that contain our the basic structure of our lives. It extracts the raw essence of all the substantial elements in one’s life and through teaching and questioning it forces someone to open their eyes to a light that they may not have seen before and an acceptance of realities they may have resisted before such as pain or death. There are underlying tones of many philosophical elements in each sentence which adds to the creation of a world that is more raw and real, and at the same time more forgiving and peaceful, taking all that we truly are as a main focus rather than what we obtain or contain today or tomorrow or yesterday. Khalil Gibran captures the everlasting breath of the earth and releases it through "the prophet". -and just to be clear it is not some silly religious garbage although it is spiritual and posesses something that is penetrating and soothing to the soul.

Literary Event This Evening

2008-03-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

JIM DANIELS READS AT CCSU
Tuesday, March 11th, 5:00 pm at CCSU BOOKSTORE
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

CCSU Bookstore
Student Center
105 Ella Grasso Blvd.
New Britain, CT 06053

Jim Daniels won the Blue Lynx Poetry Prize for his book, Revolt of the Crash-Test Dummies (Eastern Washington University Press, 2007). Two other books were published in 2007, his third collection of short fiction, Mr. Pleasant (Michigan State University Press), and his eleventh book of poems, In Line for the Exterminator (Wayne State University Press).

A Man Said To The Universe

2008-03-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

1. A Main Said To The Universe
A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

Crane, Stephen M. "A Man Said to the Universe: by Stephen Crane." Poem Hunter. 10 Mar. 2008 http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-man-said-to-the-universe-2.

2. This poem seems to echo everything Sartre, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche had to say. Simply put, crane(through the universe) is asking the reader why the universe should care that he or she exists. Just because they're here--is that reason enough to celebrate? The man is presented about as important bug, thumbs or no thumbs. The free-verse poem is short for a reason. Like Man, it feels it has something to say; also like Man, it's rather small and upon first glance it seems rather insignificant. It was written just before 1900 (Crane's death), although I couldn't fine the exact date online.

3. I absolutely love everything about this poem. The first time I looked at the piece (two or so years ago?), I actually laughed; it reads like a big, cosmic joke, and I think the fact that it is so short and almost sets up a punchline really adds. Personally, I also love easily accessible art. Not because of laziness, or because it's 'easier' to write, but because it can reach a wider audience that wouldn't otherwise be able to connect with a piece. Although there'll always be room in my heart for TS Elliot and Sylvia Plath, I think that poetry is dismissed by a lot of people because they don't understand it--therefore, it's not worth their, or anyone else's, time. Crane has managed to sum up an entire school of thought in five lines--and it impresses me to no end. Plus: existentialism? Always relevant.

4. I think Crane compares to two poems pretty well. The first is Cleghorn's The golf links lie so near the mill, for stylistic reasons. Both poems seem to share an anti-romantic tone, because of both the topics and presentation. Crane delivers an existential punch in five lines--claiming the universe cares nothing of us--and Cleghorn points her finger at the rich in four lines. Both poems are simple, to the point, and accessible to anyone that would care to read them.

The second poem that I think was relevent to Crane's was Keat's On Seeing the Elgin Marbles, because of the content. Eightyish years before Crane's poem was called into existence, Keats was sitting in England, looking at some ancient Greek pillars, and reflecting on his purposelessness. Both poems, I think, are meant to put the reader in his or her place: both under time and the universe.

"Once again the rhythm starts"

2008-03-08T09:10:00.005-08:00

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/once-again-the-rhythm-starts/
"Once again the rhythm starts" Mujtaba Hussain
mujtaba Hussain is a teacher in Melbourne, Australia. His genre might be called the terrorism era writers.
“Once again the rhythm starts,” is a poem about a “suicide bomber.” Hussain uses word repetition and fragmented thoughts to illustrate the scrambled mindframe of a person who is about to commit a horrible act of violence. The speaker is going over themes of violence, prayer, and death in his head. He/she says things over and over representing the amount of misguided logic that is drilled into the heads of violent extremists, as well as how much they must convince themselves of the righteousness of their acts. Time is slowed down in this portrait of a stream of consciousness spanning a few moments in the mind of a murderer.
I found “Once again the rhythm starts,” to have some similar qualities to William Shakespeares, “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore.” Both deal with time running out. Shakespeare says that since our birth each fleeting minute brings us closer to our death. However Shakespeare establishes time as both a giver and a taker, a paradoxically blessing and damning reality. In Hussain’s poem time literally is running out for the speaker. He is experiencing probably the last of his moments here on earth. For the bomber, even though he repeatedly uses the word time, he is in his mind about to enter into another life where time ceases to exist. Death is in a way the conquering of time.

Auden and the Art

2008-03-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to the Brueghel painting that's the subject (in part) of the Auden poem I assigned for Monday. Isn't it awesome?

Metonywha?

2008-03-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

Regarding our fascinating discussion today about whether "sip" is a metonym or synecdoche, it struck me that the reason some of you might have been so ... convinced ... that sip is a part of drink is the nature of "drink" itself. That is, it's already a metonym for "beverage" or "glass of whatever." Much in the way we might call food "eats" (well, I wouldn't, but I've seen it), we refer to a beverage by what we do with it rather than by a part. So when one says "yes, but a sip is part of the larger act of drinking," I say, "ok, but 'drinking' is still a metonym for what one drinks."

Now, had I said "grape" for wine ...

Isn't figurative language fun?

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

2008-03-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"
Dylan Thomas

Thomas, Dylan. "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 275.

http://www.bigeye.com/donotgo.htm

I can't help but love this poem. Maybe it's because it's a villanelle, maybe it's because I can relate to it. I'm not entirely sure.

One thing I know, however, is that once again a poet is attempting to make something important stick in the reader's mind by repeating it over and over. "Do not go gentle into that good night/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light," speaks to someone important to the narrator. The narrator is attempting to convince this person not to give up and to keep fighting the illness they have. The fact that he uses the words "night" and "dying of the light," helps back this up, since darkness and night are often associated with dying. It's interesting that he chose to use "dying of the light," though, since most people associating dying with going towards the light of Heaven. It might be that Thomas was attempting to draw a comparison between the two words. If night represents death and dying, then light would probably represent something like life and living.

It's an incredibly emotional poem too. Thomas uses different examples of people (wise men, old men, etc.) to try and persuade the person not to give up and to keep fighting. I know that I've definitely experienced moments like this in my life, where I just want to grab the person thats sick and make them keep fighting.

I think that the main reason this poem is so well known is because it's a villanelle and it wouldn't be nearly as powerful without the repetition of those two lines.

Robert Herrick's "The Pillar of Fame"

2008-03-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

Herrick, Robert. "The Pillar of Fame."The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton, 2007. 285.

Tho Kingdom's fall,
This pillar never shall
Decline or waste at all;
But stand for ever by his own
Firm and well fixed foundation. (lines 9-13)

In "The Pillar of Fame," Herrick's use of one structured stanza noticeably employs visual devices to cement the strengths and "weaknesses" of a pillar's form. The center lines, such as "Tho Kingdom's fall," suggest that struggles may arise that can weaken a man made kingdom. This short and abrupt line is complete with punctuation which emphasizes the pause and consequent importance, infering the apparent frailty. However, the lengthening lines following, show that these things will not affect the immorality of the pillar. Endowed with the firmest of structures, spaced liberally and deliberatly through out, the pillar itself is regaining its strength after the threat of trials have been made. Still lengthening the line, the last couplet concludes as a solid foundation to an everchanging, yet ever strong poem.

Herrick also employs various poetic traits. The ending words in lines 9-11 are masculine rhymes, rhyming one syllable "perfectly." These perfect rhymes suggest that at this point in the poem, the speaker's understanding of the pillar is diffinative. Fall, shall, and all are very strong words, determined to set the tone of absolutness as the reader nears the end of the poem. However, as the reader comes to the last two lines, there is no perfect rhyme. This lack of a perfect rhyme, or use of partial rhyme, draws an extreme attention to the last line "Firm and well fixed foundation." This emphasis shows that while the pillar is indeed strong, it is perhaps not strong in comforming to the ideals of society. Understanding that rhyme represented the flow of the universe, the speaker's deliberate use of partial rhyme suggests that the pillar is above the societal understandings of the universe because the pillar of fame is the one who has actually transcended time. The alliteration in the last line shows that the pillar is the foundation, a simple basis which stands on its own merits.