LATE: Blog 3, Love Poems

Two contrasting views of love that I found were in the poems "Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay and "Weighing the Dog" by Billy Collins. In "Love Is Not All", the speaker has love and is able to place it in a relatively healthy context. The speaker is able to recognize the difference between the emotions that he/she feels in that moment and how those feelings subside and become less meaningful over time. Perhaps this is not a realistic view of true love, as the speaker in "Weighing the Dog" might assert, as he/she is in a very different position. The speaker in that poem is definitely dwelling on some lost love, being reminded of it in the totally random act of weighing a dog. This person is unable to put their emotions in the context of the speaker in "Love Is Not All" and sell their love for peace, which I think is a pretty neat phrase. Instead, the love has festered and is disturbing normal, everyday activities that should not be disturbed. I think that the speaker in "Dog" should take a leaf out of the "All"'s speaker's book and get over him/herself. You left your lover! If it meant so much to you, go back. If it didn't, get over it! Regardless, quit confusing your pet and make a decision. Jeez.

LATE: Blog 1, Identity and Culture

I know that I wrote a lot and I know that the prompt said 350 words, but I felt like I should because this is late and all.

The poem "The Quiet Life" by Alexander Pope depicts a very zen existence. All this guy wants is to chill on his farm and be one with nature, to be content with the harmony of the land around him. Unambitious, healthy, and completely at peace, the speaker values his relationship with his little plot of land above all else, with absolutely no desire for anything glorious or material. Having just finished my meaning of life project, I just revisited my thoughts on The Iliad in which the Greeks have the exact opposite mentality. compare and contrast! yay! To the Argives of old, the greatest accomplishment of a mortal is to be remembered forever, which is the closest thing a mortal could get to immortality. This is a bizarre contrast in it's own right because these men, as it is pointed out in the story, are the only creatures in existence who are doomed to die and know that they're doomed to die, so they try desperately to avoid it by gaining glory on the battlefield, but in this quest for glory they almost invariably die. This leads to the conclusion that these soldiers value their posthumous recognition more than their mortal existence, the exact opposite of Pope's poem. However, a significant chunk of the story is about Achilles essentially rejecting that whole idea. Insulted, tired, and sick of the fighting, the Greeks' greatest warrior simply stops caring about glory one day and plans to return home and chill on his farm, much like Pope's speaker. Achilles realizes that glory doesn't matter because it doesn't contribute to a man's actual happiness. And how could it? You're dead! Even if everyone in the world had a statue of you on their front lawn, you would never see them. Is a the spirit of man comprised of the aggregate thoughts of other people?

"They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” - Banksy

I have no idea, but the idea of existing through others after your dead is as fascinating to me as it is divergent from this discussion. The point is that Achilles decides to value his own experience on this Earth above all else, and, even though he does rejoin the fighting (and dying) by the end of the book, he does so out of a hulk-esque display of vengeance for his slain friend rather than any change in his meaning of life philosophy. So, are Achilles and Pope's speaker right, or are the Argive warriors right? I mean, according to the opposing philosophy, Pope's speaker should just bury himself in his neighbors crops so that the plants can use the chemicals in his body as nutrients. 'What's the point', they would cry, 'of a life that impacts nothing?'. And he would probably retort, 'You are one of 7 billion people on a speck hurtling through an infinite sea of mystery and nothing, so what's the point of all your effort if you can be content with just a quiet farm?'. Personally, I think Pope's speaker's view is pretty terrifying, but does that make it any less true? On the other hand, everything becomes pretty meaningless when viewed in the entirety of the macrocosmos, so if you can find meaning in a good fight, why not go for glory? [in a perfect Mr. Pope impersonation] I don't know!



The second poem that I chose is "Identity Card" by Mahmoud Darwish. This poem reminds me of a list of useful fears that I have been slowly growing:
1) The patience of an enemy
2) A fool with a following
3) The anger of a gentle man
This poem definitely ignites that third one pretty hard.
Anyway, I think that this poem relates to the discussion above because the speaker doesn't really have the luxury of choosing which side of this dilemma he's on. His life is basically one big struggle to stay calm and resist the external forces that are disrupting his way of life. The life he describes in the poem suggests that he is just trying to provide for his family, which is leaning more towards the Quiet Life camp, but what would Pope's speaker have to say about defending your farm from those who would see it ruined? The speaker in "Identity Card" doesn't have anything close to what Pope's speaker has and probably doesn't have the resources to perhaps move somewhere else and buy a new farm. I think that the question of how far you should go to protect what you have needs to be addressed when discussing these matters, and this poem definitely raises that question.

"News Report, September 1991" by Denise Levertov

The Black Mountain poets were a group of poets in the mid-20th century centered around Black Mountain College, an experimental educational institution in Black Mountain, North Carolina that emphasize the study of art as central to a liberal arts education. Black Mountain College attracted various prominent intellectual and educational figures at the time, including Charles Olson, Robert Creely, and Denise Levertov. Black Mountain poets tended to focus on progressive themes and were also revolutionary in developing an innovative poetic form known as projective verse or "open field" poetry, which was espoused by Charles Olson in his 1950 essay "Projective Verse." Open field poetry was designed by Olson to replace more restrictive forms of poetry black Mountain poets believed limited the creative process.

For this blog, I chose to analyze the poem "News Report, September 1991" by Denise Levertov, one of the more renowned Black Mountain poets. In this poem, Levertov criticizes the rationale behind the Persian Gulf War--and in general, all war. Levertov was known throughout her life to be an adamant anti-war activist, and many of her poem, such this one, concerned the futility of war. Satirizing the death toll incurred by military operations in the Persian Gulf, Levertov remarks that the body count was "impossible" and also includes commentary from Lieutenant Colonel Hawkins: "Schwartzkopf's staff estimated fifty to seventy thousand killed in the trenches." Levertove concludes by mentioning the although U.S. military operations in the Persian Gulf resulted in massive human losses, it was "cost-effective," further condemning the actions of the U.S. military in pursuing war.

In addition to its exploration of progressive themes, a major characteristic of Black Mountain poetry, "News Report, September 1991" complex with the form often associated with Black Mountain poetry; that is, it employs the open field style of poetry devised by Charles Olson. As a result, the form of this poem is based around each line, with each line constituting a single though or "utterance." In summary, this poem is a highly appropriate example of a typical Black Mountain poem.

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot

Symbolism was a middle to late 19th century artistic and intellectual movement than served as a link between the romantic and modernist movements. Originating in French, Russian, and Belgian poetry and other arts, most notably with the publication of poetry collection Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) by Charles Baudelaire, symbolism was largely a reaction against naturalism and realism, advocating for the depiction of ideals and transcendence in the arts and literature as opposed to the harsh realities of daily life. In their yearning for transcendence, symbolists often stressed imagination and dreamlike, surrealistic settings and made extensive use of metaphors and symbols in their works, thus the name "symbolism." Renowned symbolists include Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, W.B. Yeats, and T.S. Eliot.

For this blog, I chose to analyze the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot in the context of its overall meaning and its compatibility with symbolist ideas and motives. This poem, like many by Eliot, is extremely difficult to comprehend. This attribute is typical of symbolist works; after all, as previously mentioned, symbolists sought to imply ideas through symbols, so a great deal of their work is highly obscure in meaning. Nonetheless, from what I understand, I believe that "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" concerns humanity's social and psychological state in the modern world, more specifically men's social and psychological state in the modern world. This poem was written in either 1910 or 1911, during a transitionary period in which Americans began to renounce the puritanical morals of the Victorian Era in favor of the decadence and debauchery characteristic of the Jazz Age that would soon follow. The women's suffrage movement was also beginning to gain various successes across America at this time while the horrors of World War I would soon be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. In essence, the United States in the early 20th century was undergoing dramatic societal change, which Eliot attempts to capture in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The speaker of this poem, according to Eliot's perspective, is the ordinary modern man, educated (to at least some degree), conflicted, hesitant, and anxious of the change that is occurring around him, yet totally unable to prevent such change from coming to fruition. Throughout the poem, Prufrock seems to be addressing a woman he loves, a woman who apparently does not share his feelings of affection. Though he would like for his relationship to the woman to progress, Prufrock is afraid of possible rejection, stating his many inadequacies as evidence that there could never exist any sincere relationship between him and the woman: "Time to turn back and descend the stair, / With a bald spot in the middle of my hair-- / (They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin.' / ...(They will say: 'But how his arms and legs are thin.')." By the end of the poem, Prufrock concludes that he is only mediocre in status--that he is "not Prince Hamlet"--and is therefore unworthy of the woman's love.

Through Prufrock and other symbolic imagery, Eliot conveys the increasing fragility and emasculation of the modern American man in the early 20th century as a result of drastic society changes occurring during this time. The poem in its entirety embodies the characteristics of the symbolist movement due to its extensive sue of metaphorical imagery and idealistic lamentations.

Amiri Baraka - "Ka 'Ba"

A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and black people
call across or scream or walk across
defying physics in the stream of their will

Our world is full of sound
Our world is more lovely than anyone's
tho we suffer, and kill each other
and sometimes fail to walk the air

We are beautiful people
with african imaginations
full of masks and dances and swelling chants

with african eyes, and noses, and arms, 
though we sprawl in grey chains in a place
full of winters, when what we want is sun.

We have been captured, 
brothers. And we labor
to make our getaway, into
the ancient image, into a new

correspondence with ourselves
and our black family. We read magic
now we need the spells, to rise up
return, destroy, and create. What will be

the sacred words? 

Amiri Baraka was the founding artist behind the Black Arts Movement, a largely literary movement which emerged from the reaction to Malcolm X's assassination. The Black Arts Movement (or BAM) has been characterized at times as the aesthetic equivalent of Black Power - indeed many of the works of the movement are very explicitly in favor of black power & black seperatism. Ishmael Reed, an artist often associated with the movement but who never formally joined it, characterizes BAM as the beginning of a political multiculturalism which rejects the assimilation of marginalized groups in favor of "doing your own thing."

In "Ka 'Ba", Baraka clearly reflects on these themes. The title immediately elicits a connection to Islam, as the Kaaba is the most sacred place in Islam, a shrine in the religion's most sacred mosque. Islam was often associated with Black Power, as the Nation of Islam provided much of the leadership for this movement. Baraka thus agrees with the Nation of Islam in that he seems to view Islam as integral to the development of a black seperatist identity.

BAM works are also often defined by their open celebration of blackness and black people, and this is clearly evident in Baraka's work - he says that black people "[defy] physics in the stream of their will" and that their "world is more lovely than anyone's / tho we suffer." This radical celebration of blackness, even whilst acknowledging the hardships of black people in America, is fully characteristic of the concept of Black Power endemic to BAM. Baraka closes the poem by asking "What will be the sacred words?" that will free his people from bondage. Given the title of the poem, we may be led to believe that these "sacred words" are Islamic, but perhaps the words he has just used are indeed the words he speaks of - BAM could then fulfill its ambition as the literary wing of black liberation.

Alexander Pope - "Argus"

When wise Ulysses, from his native coast 
Long kept by wars, and long by tempests toss'd, 
Arrived at last, poor, old, disguised, alone, 
To all his friends, and ev'n his Queen unknown, 
Changed as he was, with age, and toils, and cares, 
Furrow'd his rev'rend face, and white his hairs, 
In his own palace forc'd to ask his bread, 
Scorn'd by those slaves his former bounty fed, 
Forgot of all his own domestic crew, 
The faithful Dog alone his rightful master knew! 

Unfed, unhous'd, neglected, on the clay 
Like an old servant now cashier'd, he lay; 
Touch'd with resentment of ungrateful man, 
And longing to behold his ancient lord again. 
Him when he saw he rose, and crawl'd to meet, 
('Twas all he could) and fawn'd and kiss'd his feet, 
Seiz'd with dumb joy; then falling by his side, 
Own'd his returning lord, look'd up, and died! 

Alexander Pope was an Augustan poet. Augustans were early-18th century poets marked by their political themes, satire, and revivals & translations of classical texts.

In "Argus," Pope draws on the story of Odysseus and his dog, Argus. When Odysseus returned home after many years at sea, he went unrecognized by everyone he once knew, even his own wife. Only his faithful old dog, Argos, recognized him. Argos mustered the last of his strength, walked over to his master (who could not acknowledge his old friend, as he was undercover) and died.

Pope takes a new, witty spin on the story by dedicating the second stanza to recounting Argos' viewpoint. Much of the irony and wit of this stanza comes from the dramatic & overwrought style in which the viewpoint of a dog is recounted - "longing to behold his ancient lord again" is absurdly grandiose language & in fact obscures the simplicity of Odysseus and Argos' relationship which is frequently viewed as central to the story's significance. Pope thus implicitly satirizes the tropes of his medium, applying its styles in a way which reveals what it lacks. There is also a possible political satire here - Argos sacrifices all of his strength & life for his "ancient lord", who barely acknowledges him. The directness with which Pope describes Argos' death - "look'd up, and died!" - satirizes the idea that such a death for a higher noble would be honorable and worthwhile. Indeed, this death is unglamorous and sudden. It seems Pope sees no honor in the sacrifice of self for an uncaring lord.

Stylistically the poem matches the patterns of Augustan poetry - it is written with heroic couplets in iambic pentameter.

Gregory Corso was the man

Gregory Corso was a poet of the Beat period that really resembled the spirits of that generation. Fulfilled by the anti-establishment spirit, he wrote on many topics that seemed to be satirical and angry of societal norms. I read "Marriage", one of his most famous poems, and actually really enjoyed it. The whole poem is focused on his different imaginations of marriage and different situations of who he would marry and imagining the life he would have someday. He asks many rhetorical questions, common with the Beat characteristic of sharing a "sense of personal frankness". This can be expressed through his frank questions, an example being the opening line and theme throughout the whole thing: "Should I get married? Should I be Good?" The entirety of the poem goes into these thoughts of his almost cynical attitude towards marriage and all of his doubts of meeting her parents. There's a significant shift between the second to last stanza when he brings up the topic of love. Obviously, love is, or should be, the basis of marriage, but Corso is taking a cynical look on it because he talks about how he's forgotten about love going into a marriage. This is incredibly significant to the Beat period, as the tone of this period, according to the site, is "satirical, angry, and ranting as well as tender and meditative". Corso completely demonstrates these characteristics in his poem, Marriage.

Jack Nicholson with longer hair??

E. E. Cummings

I Like My Body When It Is With Your

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body.  i like what it does,
i like its hows.  i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones,and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the,shocking fuzz
of your electric furr,and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh….And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you so quite new

E. E. Cummings is the quintessential modern poet because his writing disregards all rules of standard english including sentence structure, capitalization or punctuation. He is also just too edgy, the stuff he writes it so deep and esoteric that most people don't even scratch the surface of his work. In a great deal of his poems he also uses spacing and indentation to augment his writing, like in this one. the last two lines are kind of a playful addendum to the more religious mood of the rest of the poem. He is describing to a lover what he enjoys about being intimate with her, describing details with great texture imagery(electric furr, trembling-smooth-firmness, feel the spine) in an almost reverent tone, espousing every detail which draws him closer to early transcendence. The final two lines kind of dash all the hoighty toighty description by simply stating that he might also just like the thrill of it.

Adrienne Rich

"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers"
Adrienne Rich
Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

This poem by Adrienne Rich addresses many issues but the main issue addressed would be women and feminism. The poem is about a woman who's life is dominated by the man in her life. Everything she owns is still his, for example, "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band" demonstrates that it is the man dictating her marriage because she refers to her ring as his property. Also, I'm not positive that the tigers in this poem are, but I am sure that they are Aunt Jen's and only Aunt Jen's. I think when the speaker says that once Aunt Jen dies "the tigers...will go on prancing, proud and unafraid" this shows that Aunt Jennifer's property can only be free and hers, once she is free of her marriage--so when she's dead. I enjoyed this poem because it wasn't too hard to grasp the meaning and I'm always a sucker for a good rhyme scheme.

Ntozake Shange

Shange was a black woman, furious with her double subjugation in the black male world. After unsuccessfully attempting suicide multiple times, Shange decided to instead focus her rage into art and created a new work called a "choreopoem" which incorporated dance, music, drama and poetry into one. She was a hit. I am not sure what movement to classify her in, because she was a part of so many. She was a feminist, a black rights activist, a poet, a dancer, a theatre aficionado, etc. Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOy8XmA9hBc

Because of the versatility and artistic uniqueness of her work, I thought it would do Ntozake better justice to provide a link than text.

"Black Mountain"- Robert Creely

Robert Creeley was born May 21, 1926 and died March 30, 2009. He was a black mountain poet.

"America"
America, you ode for reality!
Give back the people you took.

Let the sun shine again
on the four corners of the world

you thought of first but do not
own, or keep like a convenience.

People are your own word, you
invented that locus and term.

Here, you said and say, is
where we are. Give back

what we are, these people you made,
us, and nowhere but you to be. 

In This form of poetry, every line is supposed to get to the point and only take one breath to read. "Projective Verse" was made by Charles Olson, another Black Mountain poet, and served as a sort of manifesto to all black mountain poets. "America" follows that manifesto because it leads a reader to a certain perception, which then leads to further perception. Also, you can say every line in one breath and every line is short. Robert Creeley was a professor at other colleges also. He was awarded the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.

"Hope is the Thing with Feathers" -Emily Dickinson

Hope is the Thing with Feathers

By: Emily Dickinson

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

I chose this poem because I recognized it from an account on 9/11 I read back in middle school. Thinking it would be interesting to revisit it, I chose it for today's analysis. 

"Hope is the Thing with Feathers" is a rather light and simple poem. The speaker notes hope as a bird that is within all of our souls. The bird sings incessantly without cause or reason and is the "sweetest in the Gale."This poem discusses how the bird continues to sing through hardship - "unabashed in the storm" - and can be found anywhere - from "chillest land" to "strangest sea." What this translates to is that hope is ever-present and will always be there with you, even if you don't want it. 

Emily Dickinson's poetry was written during the last part of the Romantic period. Unknowingly, she greatly influenced this era. Her poems, packed with imagery, insight, and intuition, left a prominent mark on literature that helped define the Romantic literary era. 

"I Am Waiting" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919 - Present) was one of the preeminent poets of the Beat Generation. His poem "I Am Waiting", one of his most well-known, is a perfect example of the style that the beats tended to favor. The poem is delivered as if spoken all at once, a stream-of-consciousness that characterizes many beat works. Furthermore, the constant repetition of "I am waiting" makes the poem feel as if a rant. Ferlinghetti wants to see countless things happen in America, and in this way, he expresses these hopes for the future. Even though many comments are satirical and anti-establishment ("I am waiting / for a reconstructed Mayflower / to reach America / with its picture story and tv rights / sold in advance to the natives"), Ferlinghetti expresses his earnest desire for peace and happiness in the world. The political themes of the poem and the mythical references especially give this poem away as being from the beat movement. Ultimately, no matter how lyrical the poem is, Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a simple man with honest hopes and dreams that he manages to express in a pretty, funny, and uncomplicated way.

The Dolphin

Robert Lowell Poem: Dolphin, 1972 My Dolphin, you only guide me by surprise, a captive as Racine, the man of craft, drawn through his maze of iron composition by the incomparable wandering voice of Phèdre. When I was troubled in mind, you made for my body caught in its hangman’s-knot of sinking lines, the glassy bowing and scraping of my will. . . . I have sat and listened to too many words of the collaborating muse, and plotted perhaps too freely with my life, not avoiding injury to others, not avoiding injury to myself-- to ask compassion . . . this book, half fiction, an eelnet made by man for the eel fighting my eyes have seen what my hand did. This was written during the postermodern/contemporary era in literature, and this poem is definitely categorized as contemporary. It’s experimental in the sense that it uses free verse and is anti-conventional. The poem centers around the idea of life being spontaneous, his life feeling out of control, and his manic depressive state. The dolphin symbolizes the force which guides him through life; it takes him on a lot of ups and downs but tries its best to lead him in the right direction. The poem also touches on the idea of life being a trap, like the idea of being “caught in its hangman knots of sinking lines.” Lowell also uses repetition to convey his sense of inescapable doom, as noted when he says “not avoiding injury to others, not avoiding injury to myself.” We want to pity him after these lines because they carry such a heavy emotional burden. I can only imagine the pain Lowell suffered through his depression and mania, and this poem reflects that feeling.

W H Auden

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

Epitaph of a tyrant 

This poem is meant to criticize the tyrannical rule of Adolf hitler in Germany. He was searching for "perfection, of a kind" which refers to hitlers purging of all people he saw as below other Germans, primarily Jews. He talks about how he was a brilliant politician in a way because he had the elites of Germany and truly most of the common Germans on his side but immediately counters this compliment by referring to his brutal and unholy ability to not only allow but encourage the murder of so many innocent people.

"Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath

"Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath

I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it--

A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?--

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.

This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.

What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand and foot--
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies

These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.

The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut

As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.

It's easy enough to do it in a cell.
It's easy enough to do it and stay put.
It's the theatrical

Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:

'A miracle!'
That knocks me out.
There is a charge

For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart--
It really goes.

And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood

Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.

I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby

That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

Ash, ash--
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there--

A cake of soap, 
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.



Plath, Sylvia. "Lady Lazarus." Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 27 April 2014




During her rather short career as a working poet due to a long history of mental illness and instability, Sylvia Plath served as a pioneer for the Confessional movement that arose following the end of World War II. The movement emphasized personal connections to poetry through the usage of personal pronouns, revelations of love affairs and suicidal thoughts, and expressions of feeling. Above everything else, the poems from the Confessional movement exposed the anxieties and doubts of Americans living in the suburbs under a cloud of mass consumerism. 




Like most of her other work, "Lady Lazarus" exemplifies the tenets of the Confessional movement using death, violence, and suffering as themes for her work. Starting with death, it is clear that the central actor of the poem is not a clear mental state having committed "it" multiple times, presumably suicide attempts considering Plath's background. In her mind, she sees herself as a victim of the Holocaust, a recurring motif in Plath's work. Moreover, the speaker is obsessed with both literal and metaphorical death because she sees herself as a victim of circumstance. In conjunction with the theme of death, Plath makes the poem incredibly violent referencing Nazis and graphic details about the state of the speaker's body. This theme of violence helps the audience understand the speaker's obsession with death a little more understandable. Personally, I find the third primary theme of the poem to bit a little sick but the speaker's desire to suffer like Jews murdered during the Holocaust plays a major role in the poem. 

Character (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The poem, Character, though short and simple, really brings about a lot of the characteristics of the Romantic period that the link talked about. Character uses nature to describe something bigger ("The sun set, but set not his hope: Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:" by comparing the sun and his hope, and he continues to do this throughout the rest of the poem. 

Again, the Romanticists described something as more of the sublime, somethings so beautiful and big, which is described throughout Character as well: "His action won such reverence sweet As hid all measure of the feat." Emerson takes the meaning of "all measure of the feat", something big and probably intimidating, but slides it into his poem with significance on how the words were "soft as rain". Emerson's emphasis on how these ordinary things created character in a person were extremely significant of writers of this period. 

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W.B. Yeats Extra Credit

W.B. Yeats was an Irish poet. He was born June 13, 1865 and he died January 28, 1939. He was a symbolist poet.Also, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1923. In his poem, "Adam's Curse" Yeats reminisces sitting with his love discussing poetry during the summer. Yeats says how difficult poetry is, yet how unappreciated it is by most. He also says that a woman must work to be beautiful, because being beautiful is what will get her far in life. But for men they must labor, and have had to labor ever since "Adam's fall." Also, he remembers how they spoke of love and just watched the sunset and the moon come up. If I had to guess this was a poem about a wife, or love that had passed away.I am pretty sure this is written in iambic pentameter. Symbolism poets favored imagination over realism, so maybe this was just part of Yeats imagination. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172057

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams

To A Poor Old Woman

munching a plum on
the street a paper bag
of them in her hand 

They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her

You can see it by
the way she gives herself
to the one half
sucked out in her hand 

Comforted
a solace of ripe plums
seeming to fill the air
They taste good to her

Period and Dates: Modernist, 1934-1935 near time of Great Depression

In this poem Williams clearly describes a rather poor woman eating a plum. He uses American free verse, which he was one of the first to use. This is very characteristic of the Modern period because the poets didn’t use previous conventions, they simply invented their own. He repeats the line, “They taste good to her,” and breaks the lines randomly and uses lots of enjambment. Each line break with this phrase helps the poet to convey a different meaning other than just that the plums taste good to the woman. Also in the poem the poet focuses largely on the plum rather than the woman. This is also characteristic of modern poetry; it usually does not address an individual just an object. I believe the meaning of the poem is somewhat about this woman savoring a plum and how much it means to her, because she is poor and in a difficult time.

Medusa and Perseus

The story of Medusa and Perseus goes like this: Medusa was one of three sisters, the gorgons, but she was the only mortal one, but they were all beautiful. Medusa was so beautiful that Poseidon was in love with her, but she didn’t care about him. This made Poseidon mad so he turned her and her sisters into monsters with live snakes covering their heads. Medusa kept her beautiful face but everything else was monstrous, whoever dared to look into her face ended up being turned into stone. Perseus comes into play. He was told to bring the head of Medusa back for King Polydectes. He asked Athena and Hermes for help they provided winged sandals to fly him to the end of the world where Medusa lived, a cap that made him invisible, a sword and a mirrored shield. The latter was the most important tool Perseus had, since it allowed him to see a reflection of Medusa’s face and to avoid being turned into stone.  With these, he cut her head off and was able to fly back and bring her head back to King Polydectes Later, Perseus used Medusa’s head as a weapon in many occasions until he gave the head to Athena to place it on her shield.

I don't really remember what I was supposed to talk about, maybe something about hair? Anyways, I'll just talk about that. I think hair can speak volumes about a person. The color and style can almost tell you right away what kind of person they are--mostly for girls, sorry guys but your hair is much more general. I guess I like my hair, but most of the time it's a pain to deal with and I'm surprised it's craziness  doesn't turn people to stone too.

A winter's night

The pale moon shining from a pallid sky Lit half the street, and over half she laid Her folded mantle; through the dark-browed shade White windows glittered, each a watchful eye. The dim wet pavement lit irregularly With shimmering streaks of gaslight, faint and frayed, Shone luminous green where sheets of glass displayed Long breadths of faded blinds mechanically. the night was very still; above, below, No sound, no breath, no change in anything; Only, across the squares of damp lit street, Shooting a mocking double from his feet, With vague uncertain steps went to and fro A solitary shadow wandering. Arthur symon  When this poem was written, street lights were a very new technology and fairly rare. This poem is about the strange new nighttime world that is now illuminated by these lights. It mentions the previous source of nighttime light the moon and how now it only lights the parts of the street not in the gas light areas. Also there is a man walking alone at night which was uncommon before street lights because of street crime. And finally the man is looking at illuminated windows and the street lights not the moon or the sun, this is because the new technology and illumination down here on earth has won this mans attention away from the infinite illumination of the stars.

Pilate and Jesus

Pontius Pilate was at Herod’s palace when Jesus was brought in being condemned on blasphemy. The Jews that brought him in accused him of disturbing public peace hoping that Pilate would go along with what they said and agree to what they wanted. Pilates didn’t believe them and they came up with a better accusation. Pilate still believed that Jesus was innocent but he didn't want to upset the Jewish leaders. He first declared him innocent and many of the Jews were angry. To settle this he sent the case to Herod who forced Pilate to make the decision. He eventually chose to give the people the opportunity to pardon one of the criminals. Their choices were a murderer and Jesus. The people chose to pardon the murderer and Jesus was convicted. Before sentencing Jesus to death Pilate washed his hands hoping to show that Jesus was innocent and the people would be satisfied. But, they were not and Pilate had to go through with the conviction and pronounce Jesus’s crucifixion.

I have never had to deal with judgement in this large of a sense before, but everyday I deal with it in small ways. In the past I have constantly been scared of being judged, but this year I have learned that in the grand scheme of things that doesn’t really matter. Also, I see people everyday judging one another and it is usually not in a positive way. Pilate’s judgement was very influenced by his surroundings, and this still happens today with people and their friends.

E.E. Cummings

E.E. Cummings was born in October 14, 1984 and died September 3, 1962. He was a modernist peot.

In The Rain-

in the rain-
darkness,     the sunset
being sheathed i sit and
think of you

the holy
city which is your face
your little cheeks the streets
of smiles

your eyes half-
thrush
half-angel and your drowsy
lips where float flowers of kiss

and
there is the sweet shy pirouette
your hair
and then

your dancesong
soul.     rarely-beloved
a single star is
uttered,and i

E.E. Cummings poem "In The Rain" is about how much he thinks of his lover. He compares seasons and objects to his lover. His repetitive use of metaphors alludes to the beauty of his lady friend. Cummings also uses imagery, such as "half-angel and your drowsy lips where float flowers of kiss". The theme of this poem is that when you are in love, it is at the forefront of your mind. The extreme imagery and hyperbole ("the holy city which is your face") helps push Cummings theme that love should be valued above all else. This is a perfect example of a modernist because it reduces the human experience to fragments. Cummings' poem "In The Rain-" gives the audience a snapshot of a man thinking of his lover.

Pilate and Jesus

Jesus was brought to Herod's palace by the Jews because they were accusing him of disturbing the public peace. At Herod's palace was Pilate and the Jews helped that he would go along with what they said and do as they wished. He didn't believe them and still believed that Jesus was innocent. On the other hand, Pilate didn't want to upset the Jewish leaders. Because so many people were upset with Pilate declaring Jesus innocent, he sent the case to Herod. Herod didn't make a decision regarding the case because he forced Pilate to decide. He gave the people an opportunity to either pardon a murderer or Jesus, the people went with the murderer. Before being sentenced to death, Pilate washed Jesus' hands to hopefully show the people his innocence, but they were not convinced leaving Pilate to go through with the crucifixion.

Pilate had to face a large group of people that were angry with him and he was extremely uncomfortable with them not agreeing with him. I think that everyone innately wants to be accepted and not judged for who they are and how they feel but as we get older it becomes easier and easier to just not care. We have all judged someone or something at some point, and we have all been judged because judgement is part of the society we have been brought up with.

Walt Whitman

Song of Myself, X

Alone far in the wilds and mountains I hunt,
Wandering amazed at my own lightness and glee,
In the late afternoon choosing a safe spot to pass the night,
Kindling a fire and broiling the fresh-kill'd game,
Falling asleep on the gather'd leaves with my dog and gun
by my side.

The Yankee clipper is under her sky-sails, she cuts the
sparkle and scud,
My eyes settle the land, I bend at her prow or shout
joyously from the deck.

The boatmen and clam-diggers arose early and stopt for me,
I tuck'd my trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a
good time;
You should have been with us that day round the chowder-
kettle.

I saw the marriage of the trapper in the open air in the far
west, the bride was a red girl,
Her father and his friends sat near cross-legged and dumbly
smoking, they had moccasins to their feet and large
thick blankets hanging from their shoulders,
On a bank lounged the trapper, he was drest mostly in skins,
his luxuriant beard and curls protected his neck, he held
his bride by the hand,
She had long eyelashes, her head was bare, her coarse straight
locks descended upon her voluptuous limbs and reach'd
to her feet.

The runaway slave came to my house and stopt outside,
I heard his motions crackling the twigs of the woodpile,
Through the swung half-door of the kitchen I saw him
limpsy and weak,
And went where he sat on a log and led him in and assured
him,
And brought water and fill'd a tub for his sweated body and
bruis'd feet,
And gave him a room that enter'd from my own, and gave
him some coarse clean clothes,
And remember perfectly well his revolving eyes and his
awkwardness,
And remember putting plasters on the galls of his neck and
ankles;
He staid with me a week before he was recuperated and
pass'd north,
I had him sit next me at table, my fire-lock lean'd in the
corner. 

This poem attempts transcendence of time and place with its anachronistic vignettes. Whitman lays out several scenarios that taught him something, that gave him some insight into the human experience. The first scene is peaceful and simple the magnitude of the night sky and the dark wood envelope him. The feeling of spotting land from the deck of a clipper is one of existential joy and he shares unadulterated friendship with the clamdiggers. He sees true love in the western wilds of his country and shows true compassion to the needy slave. This poem is a perfect example of Romantic style because it shows how everyday people and situations exemplify some of the finest and most moving parts of all of our experience. Whitman shows magnificence in the lives of the common man, universal truths that go unnoticed underneath the veil of the everyday. 

Hilda Doolittle and Imagism

Imagism is, as its title alludes, a style and era of poetry in which images are highly important. Most poetry uses imagery or figurative speech in some sense, but Imagism is known for its "clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images" and its depiction of ideas with very precise language, void of excess words. 

I THE HARD sand breaks,
And the grains of it
Are clear as wine.
Far off over the leagues of it,
The wind,	5
Playing on the wide shore,
Piles little ridges,
And the great waves
Break over it.
But more than the many-foamed ways	10
Of the sea,
I know him
Of the triple path-ways,
Hermes,
Who awaiteth.	15
Dubious,
Facing three ways,
Welcoming wayfarers,
He whom the sea-orchard
Shelters from the west,	20
From the east
Weathers sea-wind;
Fronts the great dunes.
Wind rushes
Over the dunes,	25
And the coarse, salt-crusted grass
Answers.
Heu,
It whips round my ankles!

This poem demonstrates the extreme simplicity of verbiage, trademark to this movement.
I actually think it is boring. Imagism followed in the footsteps of Georgian Romanticism and was apparently annoyed with its predecessors use of muddy and abstract descriptions.The goal of most imagist poets was to create an idea or image in the mind of the reader instantaneously and without confusion.

Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken

1. The Road Not Taken

By Rober Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;         5   Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,         10   And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.         15   I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.         20   [source] Arguably Frost's most famous poem, this poem is about the illusion of nonconformity and how we use it to perceive our decisions as meaningful. This poem was in a collection of poems that were generally about the difficulties and complexities of life, which was consistent with Frost's general style. In general, realism is a pretty good term to describe Frost's style, and this movement is consistent with the time Frost was in school and published the poem (Sparknotes says the Realism movement ends around 1900; Road Not Taken published in 1916). Frost also showed a continued fascination with nature, as can be seen in this poem's forest imagery. This can be viewed as a form of naturalism, which Sparknontes says is a subset of realism. Basically, Frost tells it like it is. The two roads are the same dummy. Your life is not special. "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." ~ Yogi Berra [source]

Andrew Marvell

Andrew Marvell was a poet who wrote during the metaphysical era. This time period was known for its introspective meditations on love, life, death, God, and human frailty. It was much more realistic than other eras and is known for its obscurity. Poems are often witty and filled with irony and great paradoxes. 

Poem: To His Coy Mistress
Period and Dates: (1621-1678)

Had we but world enough and time,

This coyness, lady, were no crime.

We would sit down, and think which way

To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

My vegetable love should grow

Vaster than empires and more slow;

An hundred years should go to praise

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;

Two hundred to adore each breast,

But thirty thousand to the rest;

An age at least to every part,

And the last age should show your heart.

For, lady, you deserve this state,

Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.

Thy beauty shall no more be found;

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound

My echoing song; then worms shall try

That long-preserved virginity,

And your quaint honour turn to dust,

And into ashes all my lust;

The grave’s a fine and private place,

But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue

Sits on thy skin like morning dew,

And while thy willing soul transpires

At every pore with instant fires,

Now let us sport us while we may,

And now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rather at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapped power.

Let us roll all our strength and all

Our sweetness up into one ball,

And tear our pleasures with rough strife

Thorough the iron gates of life:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

[Poem source]

Let's start with the meaning of this poem. An anonymous speaker appeals to his lover and asserts that she doesn't have time to be so coy - they must have sex! now! He stresses that, were they to have more time, her coyness wouldn't be a problem. But since life is short and death is forever, they need to get a move on. My description sounds as if the guy is a total ass. However, though intense, he speaks sweetly and with admiration of her body and soul. To me, the meaning of this poem is that life is short. Thus, we need to do whatever we can, whenever we can and with few regrets. 

Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is an ideal example of a metaphysical poem. The poem's big topic on sex is one often found during this era. Also, the overall theme and meaning of the poem is familiar with this time period. As I said before, the meaning is that life is short. This "live life to the fullest" mindset is one often found during Marvell's metaphysical era of writing. 

eyebrow game strong

John 11: Jezus and Lazarus

The story of the raising of Lazarus begins with Mary of Bethany and her sister Martha sending word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus was sick. Upon learning of his sickness, Jesus proclaims that this sickness will not be the death of him. After two days, he decides to go to Judea to visit Lazarus despite the fact that some of the Jews there had tried to stone him. When the disciples protest, he says that Lazarus has died and that he must awaken him. When he arrives, he learns that Lazarus had been in his tomb for four days. Martha comes to him lamenting that he had not been here to save Lazarus from death. Jesus assures her that he can raise him from the dead because he must prove that all who believe in him will never truly die. When Mary comes to see Jesus, she says the same thing as Martha, and he is moved by their weeping. After weeping himself, he comes to the tomb of Lazarus. He instructs the people to remove the stone from his tomb, and after some hesitation, they do it. Jesus yells, "Lazarus, come out!" Lazarus emerges from the tomb completely fine.

This story is ultimately a literal manifestation of the "eternal life through Christ" concept. It also serves as foreshadowing for his own return from death. Lazarus went on to start a chain of successful department stores or something, eventually being acquired by Macy's.

Roses Only

Roses Only You do not seem to realize that beauty is a liability rather than an asset - that in view of the fact that spirit creates form we are justified in supposing that you must have brains. For you, a symbol of the unit, stiff and sharp, conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority and liking for everything self-dependent, anything an ambitious civilization might produce: for you, unaided, to attempt through sheer reserve, to confuse presumptions resulting from observation, is idle. You cannot make us think you a delightful happen-so. But rose, if you are brilliant, it is not because your petals are the without-which-nothing of pre-eminence. Would you not, minus thorns, be a what-is-this, a mere perculiarity? They are not proof against a worm, the elements, or mildew; but what about the predatory hand? What is brilliance without co-ordination? Guarding the infinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience to the remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be re- membered too violently, your thorns are the best part of you. Marianne Moore Poem chosen: Roses Only (1924) Literary Period: Modern imagist movement, "clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images." (poets.org). This poem is full of powerful images that convey setting, tone, and theme. This poem revolves around female sexuality. It is about a woman who waits at the hands of another man. Like the rose, the woman is beautiful on the outside, but she has thorns that people forget about. This woman is only observed, just like a rose, and that could reflect her feelings toward men. The use of lowercase letters symbolizes inferiority towards men, a stylistic choice I find very interesting. The image of the rose is a key element in this poem and it correlates with the literary movement of the time. At the end, Moore says “your thorns are the best part of you” and this powerful ending stuck with me. She is telling the reader that the parts of you that people may not see or may attempt to look past are often your best attributes.. it could be anything, from wit to intelligence to sarcasm.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) is considered to be part of the Black Arts Movement. These poems are associated with the Black Power movement where people "grew frustrated with the pace of the changes enacted by the Civil Rights Movement" and tend to be aggressive and politically-powered challenges to white establishments (Literary Movements Review).

This short poem has a very powerful message behind it. It can be interpreted to be from the point of view of a teenager (since she refers to school and gin) who basically lives day-by-day on the streets, The speaker doesn't care about school and seems carefree and happy and "cool". But he comes to realize that things around him are actually bad, and this is reflected in the last line "we die soon." This is Brooks' call to action to show that the quality of life had not yet improved despite the Civil Rights Movement, and that's how this fits into the Black Arts Movement category of poetry.

We Real Cool	Buy the CD
by Gwendolyn Brooks
00:00 02:14
THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15433#sthash.urMDS5Vd.dpuf