Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
There are three basic seas in this poem. The significance of each one is important to the meaning of the work. The first place is the English Channel. When the speaker is standing at Dover Beach and looking out, he is able to see the English Channel. He sees a beautiful sight at first, but then listens and can hear only depressing and almost scary sounds. The "eternal note of sadness" (Arnold) is not only heard by him though, he says that Sophocles heard it long ago. This means that the sound is timeless and has gone on for a long time now. The Sea of Faith is dwindling and it is actually very depressing. It is not only his faith though, it's the faith of the entire world. People are losing faith and the speaker's call to action is not to go back and return to faith and try to strengthen it. He looks to his love and says "ah, love, let us be true to one another!" (Arnold). The world is not what it seems and there really is nothing good for people to have faith in. His call to action is to rely on one another to get through the tough times because people are losing faith and they need to struggle and fight through life together.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Potpourri Blog Post #3
Sorting Laundry by Elisavietta Ritchie
THEME: the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work
The theme of this poem is that the more one thinks about a situation and picks away at every single little detail, the more the situation is blown out of proportion. The theme is revealed through the structure of the poem. I noticed a sort of progression with the poem as I read it. The first stanza showed me that I was reading about someone folding laundry, but it was what that person wast thinking about as she folded that was what the poem was about. The articles of laundry that she is pulling out and folding all have significance to the kind of relationship that the speaker has with her significant other. They have had a healthy, long relationship with light, color, and fun involved. They aren't perfect, but they still stay strong and get by. Most importantly, the articles get smaller and smaller as each one is pulled out and folded. The speaker is getting smaller and smaller into the details of what she is thinking about as she is folding. This helps lead to the shift in lines 39 to 42. The speaker is thinking and pulls out a "broken necklace of good gold you brought from Kuwait, the strangely tailored shirt left by a former lover...." (Ritchie). The tone shift goes to a sort of panic in the speaker. She starts to think about what would happen if her significant other were to leave her and how she wouldn't be able to deal or cope emotionally with the loss. This progression shows what happens when (I'm sure everyone has done this because I know I have) we freak out about something that is going perfectly fine and we are happy with things. We look at the small things and pick away until it is literally the worse possible situation and, in reality, we are just over-reacting.
THEME: the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work
The theme of this poem is that the more one thinks about a situation and picks away at every single little detail, the more the situation is blown out of proportion. The theme is revealed through the structure of the poem. I noticed a sort of progression with the poem as I read it. The first stanza showed me that I was reading about someone folding laundry, but it was what that person wast thinking about as she folded that was what the poem was about. The articles of laundry that she is pulling out and folding all have significance to the kind of relationship that the speaker has with her significant other. They have had a healthy, long relationship with light, color, and fun involved. They aren't perfect, but they still stay strong and get by. Most importantly, the articles get smaller and smaller as each one is pulled out and folded. The speaker is getting smaller and smaller into the details of what she is thinking about as she is folding. This helps lead to the shift in lines 39 to 42. The speaker is thinking and pulls out a "broken necklace of good gold you brought from Kuwait, the strangely tailored shirt left by a former lover...." (Ritchie). The tone shift goes to a sort of panic in the speaker. She starts to think about what would happen if her significant other were to leave her and how she wouldn't be able to deal or cope emotionally with the loss. This progression shows what happens when (I'm sure everyone has done this because I know I have) we freak out about something that is going perfectly fine and we are happy with things. We look at the small things and pick away until it is literally the worse possible situation and, in reality, we are just over-reacting.
Potpourri Blog Post #2
I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed by Emily Dickinson
EXTENDED METAPHOR: is a metaphor that is developed over the course of multiple lines, details, paragraphs, etc.
I enjoyed this poem a lot and actually understood it. The whole poem is an extended metaphor. I saw the main message as the speaker getting drunk on nature. They simply cannot get enough of it and want to drink in all the good beauty that God has put on this planet for us to enjoy. There are many images in the poem that help to describe this sense of intoxication the speaker feels when outside. Right of the bat, the reader can tell that this is not a literal poem and the speaker is not actually getting drunk. It starts out, "I taste a liquor never brewed--" (Dickinson). This shows that the whole poem is about something that is not actually a liquor because it has not actually physically been brewed. Then the speaker goes on to describe the fact that their glass is full of clouds (Pearl) and that not any vat anywhere could brew such an alcohol. Another image is the foxglove turning away the bees and the butterflies renouncing their drams. So, even when the actual nature is done drinking everything in, the speaker "shall but drink the more!" (Dickinson).
EXTENDED METAPHOR: is a metaphor that is developed over the course of multiple lines, details, paragraphs, etc.
I enjoyed this poem a lot and actually understood it. The whole poem is an extended metaphor. I saw the main message as the speaker getting drunk on nature. They simply cannot get enough of it and want to drink in all the good beauty that God has put on this planet for us to enjoy. There are many images in the poem that help to describe this sense of intoxication the speaker feels when outside. Right of the bat, the reader can tell that this is not a literal poem and the speaker is not actually getting drunk. It starts out, "I taste a liquor never brewed--" (Dickinson). This shows that the whole poem is about something that is not actually a liquor because it has not actually physically been brewed. Then the speaker goes on to describe the fact that their glass is full of clouds (Pearl) and that not any vat anywhere could brew such an alcohol. Another image is the foxglove turning away the bees and the butterflies renouncing their drams. So, even when the actual nature is done drinking everything in, the speaker "shall but drink the more!" (Dickinson).
Potpourri Blog Post #1
The Convergence of the Twain by Thomas Hardy
At first, I did not understand this poem very much, but after discussion and further analysis, I liked the poem a lot because there was more meaning in it than I had first thought. I believe that the overall message of the poem was that God, or fate, or some other supernatural power was punishing the human vanity that The Titanic embodied. The structure of the poem emphasizes this because the first two lines of every stanza have to do with the lavishness of the ship while it is above the ground. In lines 10 and 11, the "Jewels in joy designed To ravish the sensuous mind" (Hardy) the glamorous side of the ship is described. But in the third line, those jewels and glory now "Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind" (Hardy). The third line is the longest and has to do with the life of the ship below the sea. This was the maiden voyage of The Titanic. It had not been around for very long before it was destroyed, so it's life above the sea was much shorter than it's eternal life under the sea. The poem is about the convergence of the two things--the iceberg and the titanic. The iceberg was put in place because of the human vanity that was exemplified in the ship. They came together because of fate and because that kind of vanity is not supposed to be present in our world today.
At first, I did not understand this poem very much, but after discussion and further analysis, I liked the poem a lot because there was more meaning in it than I had first thought. I believe that the overall message of the poem was that God, or fate, or some other supernatural power was punishing the human vanity that The Titanic embodied. The structure of the poem emphasizes this because the first two lines of every stanza have to do with the lavishness of the ship while it is above the ground. In lines 10 and 11, the "Jewels in joy designed To ravish the sensuous mind" (Hardy) the glamorous side of the ship is described. But in the third line, those jewels and glory now "Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind" (Hardy). The third line is the longest and has to do with the life of the ship below the sea. This was the maiden voyage of The Titanic. It had not been around for very long before it was destroyed, so it's life above the sea was much shorter than it's eternal life under the sea. The poem is about the convergence of the two things--the iceberg and the titanic. The iceberg was put in place because of the human vanity that was exemplified in the ship. They came together because of fate and because that kind of vanity is not supposed to be present in our world today.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Gender Blog Post #4
My Mistresss' Eyes by William Shakespeare
1. The speaker draws a contrast between the qualities often praised in exaggerated love poetry and the reality of his mistress' physical attributes. Construct the series of "false compare[isons]" that this poem implies other poets have used (for example, eyes as bright as the sun, hair like spun gold, etc).
2. What is the speaker's tone in lines 1-12? Is there anything about those lines that his mistress might find pleasing? (In Shakespeare's time the words "reeks" did not have its modern denotation of "stinks.")
I enjoyed this poem. It didn't seem like many of Shakespeare's other poems where I had no idea what the heck he was talking about at all. This one made sense to me. I find the speaker to be a realist in the sense that he isn't painting his mistress to be completely perfect and like completely void of any flaws. He lets her come of as a real person. She doesn't have eyes that shine like the sun or the reddest lips in the world. She also doesn't have the perfect snow-white skin that is exaggerated in many love poems. The speaker says his mistress' hair is like black wire and that he doesn't see rosy red cheeks. Finally, her breath smells sometimes, her voice isn't like the chirping of birds to him, and the way she walks is not like an angel floating on air. I think this poem is bringing to light the unrealistic love poems that paint the woman in them as being completely perfect. There are somethings that could be found pleasing in this poem though. It is not all just saying how imperfect she is. He doesn't say her breath smells all the time, and he still loves to hear her speak. So there are some positives in the poem. I would rather have this love poem said to me than any other one because I know the other unrealistic and exaggerated love poems would be complete lies. I would smack the man I love if he told me I had perfect skin and golden hair and walked like a goddess. He would probably be making fun of me and try to make it a joke. I'd hope I wouldn't love someone who was being completely serious about that nonsense. The speaker says, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare" (Shakespeare 885). The speaker is being real with the woman he loves. He has a rare love because he can be real and recognize that she has flaws, but she is not all flawed. He still loves her regardless of the imperfect things and doesn't try to cover it up and lie about it to his mistress.
1. The speaker draws a contrast between the qualities often praised in exaggerated love poetry and the reality of his mistress' physical attributes. Construct the series of "false compare[isons]" that this poem implies other poets have used (for example, eyes as bright as the sun, hair like spun gold, etc).
2. What is the speaker's tone in lines 1-12? Is there anything about those lines that his mistress might find pleasing? (In Shakespeare's time the words "reeks" did not have its modern denotation of "stinks.")
I enjoyed this poem. It didn't seem like many of Shakespeare's other poems where I had no idea what the heck he was talking about at all. This one made sense to me. I find the speaker to be a realist in the sense that he isn't painting his mistress to be completely perfect and like completely void of any flaws. He lets her come of as a real person. She doesn't have eyes that shine like the sun or the reddest lips in the world. She also doesn't have the perfect snow-white skin that is exaggerated in many love poems. The speaker says his mistress' hair is like black wire and that he doesn't see rosy red cheeks. Finally, her breath smells sometimes, her voice isn't like the chirping of birds to him, and the way she walks is not like an angel floating on air. I think this poem is bringing to light the unrealistic love poems that paint the woman in them as being completely perfect. There are somethings that could be found pleasing in this poem though. It is not all just saying how imperfect she is. He doesn't say her breath smells all the time, and he still loves to hear her speak. So there are some positives in the poem. I would rather have this love poem said to me than any other one because I know the other unrealistic and exaggerated love poems would be complete lies. I would smack the man I love if he told me I had perfect skin and golden hair and walked like a goddess. He would probably be making fun of me and try to make it a joke. I'd hope I wouldn't love someone who was being completely serious about that nonsense. The speaker says, "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare" (Shakespeare 885). The speaker is being real with the woman he loves. He has a rare love because he can be real and recognize that she has flaws, but she is not all flawed. He still loves her regardless of the imperfect things and doesn't try to cover it up and lie about it to his mistress.
Gender Blog Post #3
Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy
1. In what ways is the girl described in this poem different from a Barbie doll? Discuss the poem's contrast of the living girl, a human being with intelligence and healthy appetites, and the doll, an inanimate object.
This poem sort of depressed me because it is a very real situation. The stuff that girls our age and younger go through is horrible. We are pressured to start wearing makeup and try to have the best body. In reality though, this isn't possible for some girls, and some girls are even prettier when they are just their natural self. The bullying is also very real too. The girl in the poem is obviously not perfect, but what is the definition of the perfect girl? Certainly, some would say a Barbie doll, but others would disagree. There is no real perfect girl that every other little girl should try and live up to being like. The girl in the poem had "strong arms and back" (Piercy 835). This is the first difference from Barbie. Barbie has no muscle tone whatsoever. Barbie also doesn't have "a great big nose and fat legs" (Piercy 835). This girl is a real girl. She isn't some inanimate plastic doll that everyone sees as perfect. She has a real body and real feelings. She is healthy and was happy, that should be all that mattered. The girl killed herself, though. The final line of the poem speaks volumes, I think. When it says "Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending" (Piercy 836). I believe that everyone woman wants to be remembered as being beautiful in someone's eyes. Their happy ending would be to have someone to think they are pretty and remember them as pretty. Any girl who says she doesn't want someone to find them beautiful is lying to you. Every girl wants that, what they don't want is to be constantly told they are imperfect and need to "fix" themselves.
Gender Blog Post #2
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell
3. What common assumptions about women are shared by the men in the story? How do they try to show that they do not think women to be their inferiors? How are their assumptions ironic?
One common assumption the men have about women is that they are supposed to be good housewives and keep the place looking nice. They believe that women are supposed to be good in the kitchen. When the county attorney is looking around the kitchen and kicking pans, he says, "Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?" (Glaspell 412). He's making a jab at the fact that women really have one job and she can't do that job. I find it funny when they are talking about the preserves and how the women in the room are thinking about Mrs. Wright's feelings about the ruined fruits because the men just kind of laugh and are like "oh she's on trial for murder, I'm sure she's going to worry about her fruit". This short story is very stereotypical of men and women. The irony in the situation is that the men don't think of them as inferior, yet they brought them along to investigate. The women are the one's who do the real investigating though. They actually figure out motive and can rationalize why Minnie murdered her husband. The men don't realize that the quilt, the box, the birdcage, they were all evidence that pointed to Minnie's motive. They just brushed them off as jokes because they're men and don't take anything seriously.
3. What common assumptions about women are shared by the men in the story? How do they try to show that they do not think women to be their inferiors? How are their assumptions ironic?
One common assumption the men have about women is that they are supposed to be good housewives and keep the place looking nice. They believe that women are supposed to be good in the kitchen. When the county attorney is looking around the kitchen and kicking pans, he says, "Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?" (Glaspell 412). He's making a jab at the fact that women really have one job and she can't do that job. I find it funny when they are talking about the preserves and how the women in the room are thinking about Mrs. Wright's feelings about the ruined fruits because the men just kind of laugh and are like "oh she's on trial for murder, I'm sure she's going to worry about her fruit". This short story is very stereotypical of men and women. The irony in the situation is that the men don't think of them as inferior, yet they brought them along to investigate. The women are the one's who do the real investigating though. They actually figure out motive and can rationalize why Minnie murdered her husband. The men don't realize that the quilt, the box, the birdcage, they were all evidence that pointed to Minnie's motive. They just brushed them off as jokes because they're men and don't take anything seriously.
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