Lovely Literature

This poem is rather intriguing to me. Why would someone write an elegy for someone who is not actually dead...? Unless that death would be metaphorical in that the person has shut them out of their life, but the speaker has not shut out his father in his life. His father seems to have the mentality that he is ready to go when he is ready to go, but the speaker is not ready to think about death. Even though he is not ready to go, the speaker is speaking about his father as if he is dead...kind of seems like a juxtaposition to me there.

"I think he wants to go,
a little bit-- an new desire
to travel building up, an itch"

Death is not presented in a bad way in this poem. Instead, it is the end of an old journey and the beginning of a new journey. The speaker is not ready to end the current journey he is on and he wants to experience more while his father is over his current journey and is ready to move on to another place. The speaker feels as if his father is so ready for this new journey that it is almost like he is dead. He is not living to live anymore but living to die. Then again...aren't we all living to die?

This poem might be one of my favorites in this unit because I am a big fan of the Titanic and its history. The structure of this poem is repetitive in that it has two short sentences then a long one for each stanza. I especially like the juxtaposition between the initial thought of the Titanic and what it became. The Titanic was this regal, sophisticated steamliner that was the biggest and the best of its time. Only the best of the best, or the truly lucky, could afford a ride on the cruise ship. Its beauty is juxtaposed with how its fate ended up-- in the bottom of the ocean.

"Over the mirror meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls--grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.

Jewels in joy designed
To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind."

The way this poem says it, I feel like its fate saying, "Haha, that's what you get for being a stupid, prideful human!" What was once so beautiful and regal is now a home for decay and sea animals, thousands of feet under the ocean.

I also like that the poem relates the iceberg as a part of the ship's fate. It was fate for the two to meet, even though it was a deadly fate. The Titanic serves as a lesson to the rest of humankind to never underestimate the power of mother nature.

I have learned to love juxtapositions as well as alliterations ever since last year in Mrs. Sander's class when it took me forever to understand what a juxtaposition actually was. Now that I understand them, I find them quite often.

"And if he marries me, like he's always promised he would, that would be the end of all the romance."

On page 58, Frances is speaking to Jake about Cohn's behavior toward her lately. They have been an item for many years and she is expecting marriage. Unfortunately, she knows that he will not marry her and is planning on leaving her. You would think that marriage would be the beginning of romance, but not in Frances and Cohn's case. Cohn changed in college because he was outcasted, so he had to become very tough. I feel like this gives him relationship problems with nearly everyone. Oh well, Frances is a money seeker anyway.

"We have got the loveliest hotel," Mike said. "I think it's a brothel!" [page 89].

This quote is just weird. Mike is weird character though because he is enagaged to Lady Brett, who is known for her promiscuity, and yet he has every intention of still marrying her no matter her affairs. He calls her out on the affair she has with Romero and other men that she encounters, but he does not say he wants to break off the marriage. Plus, he tends to be drunk all the time [but who isn't in this novel?], and he is constantly bankrupt.

Ahh, juxtapositions! O'Brien loves these juxtapositions and figurative language.

"I was ashamed of my conscience, ashamed to be doing the right thing." [page 49]

"I was a coward. I went to the war."[page 58]

Ooh. That last one gets me for some reason. If you think about it...every single person is a coward at some point in their lives. The biggest cowards generally are the people we respect the most and whose hands we put our lives into. I'm not denying that they aren't brave, because I sure as heck respect all the people protecting me and my country and giving me the opportunity for the safe life I live because I know I couldn't do it. But somehow, being the biggest coward can make you brave.

How's that for a contradiction for you? Hm...ponder that one.

One last thing. Sometimes you have to fake it until you believe it [whatever "it" is]. I feel like that's exactly what O'Brien felt like he had to do.