Lovely Literature

Such an interesting woman Margaret Atwood is. I'm not going to lie, the first time I read this poem, it freaked me out a little bit. Let's just say when I heard the title "February," I wasn't expecting the theme to have anything to do with sex and cats.

In one sentence, the theme of this poem is we all have a call to action and it's time to get out of bed and do something.

Actually, I think it's kind of difficult to state just one theme from this poem because there are so many random and weird things it incorporates. Surprisingly though, they all work together. The poem goes through a stream of consciousness in the mind of the speaker who is laying down in bed in the middle of the winter, not wanting to face the day. At first she is criticizing how society is way too sexual and focused on "scoring" [line 20, "he shoots, he scores"], but then she contradicts herself by saying at the end "Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring." I like the outlook the speaker has at the end because it's very optimistic thinking. It reminds me of those "Just do something!" ads. Despite its oddities, the poem is quite memorable and interesting.

The diction of London by William Blake gives off more of a political vibe than a nature vibe as the rest have. It is written differently than most "American" poems with its abbreviations like thro', charter'd, black'ning, etc. The diction also makes it seem like the speaker is walking through the streets of London at night by the river during a war of some sort. He hears manacles, which are like chains, that gives off the impression of imprisonment. There is also many things that the speaker hears, such as "cry of every Man, every Infants cry of fear, Chimney-sweeper's cry." Talk about a lot of crying going on in London...

The poem also sounds dirty. Chimney-sweeper has the connotation of being a dirty and filthy job, and Harlot shares a similar dirty meaning. At the end of the poem, it says "And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse." I am thinking that the disease that is sweeping through London might be divorce or marriage problems because of all the Harlots running around and seducing people. Seems like we have the same problem in America though...

I could consider Robert Frost as one of my favorite poets because when he writes, he uses such vivid imagery that it isn't an overkill, but it more clearly explains what is going on [unlike Emily Dickenson].

When I read After Apple Picking, the first thing I thought was this entire poem is an extended metaphor. It is a metaphor for starting something with passion and excitement and watching it slowly fizzle out as the task continues on. Humans have that weakness, that temptation to quit something when they do not have their whole heart into it.

"And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have hadtoo much
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired."

Actually, that quote reminds me of myself at times when I take on too many things at once and just get tired of doing them all. I like to be busy 24/7, but there are days that I become so worn out that I just want to quit everything I am doing and just sit down for a while. The poem goes on to talk about how "all that struck the earth, no matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, went surely to the cider-apple heap," which gives the impression that it doesn't really matter if there are imperfections as long as it is the best it can be, it will be used. More people need to realize this in life. Even if something is not perfect or exactly as planned, it can still have the best outcome possible.

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.

"Spring" by Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of those poems that is chock full of religious imagery and allusion.

Spring, in the religious world, is thought of as a time of renewal and rebirth. This poem justifies the Catholic belief in that quite plainly. The first stanza speaks more of the physical beauty of spring. As a sidenote, I like spring and all, but autumn is way better than springtime. In the second stanza, however, there is a reference to the Garden of Eden, Christ, lord, and sinning. These religious images are parallel to spring bringing forth new life from the dead of the winter time and Jesus dying and coming back to life. Although...he died and came back to life much quicker than our seasons go unfortunately.

I would have to disagree with the first line of the first stanza though. While I agree that spring is absolutely beautiful, I don't think I can say that nothing is more beautiful than spring. Of course I love it because it gets me out of winter, but there is something about fall that is just so much more appealing to me. Then again, spring is closer to the end of the school year...which tends to be pretty beautiful. :]

Everything I have read by Emily Dickenson is somewhat ambiguous and generally depressing. This poem didn't let me down!

It sounds to me like Miss Dickenson was going through an extremely rough time and really needed to express how brain dead she was feeling. The tone is depressing and funeral-esque [quite appropriate, cough cough, the title], and the diction used connects nearly everything to a slow death[ie. mourners, going numb, finished knowing, hit a world at every plunge]. She uses the senses to back up the tone by making them all seem like they are contributing to her funeral. Her thoughts are the "mourners" in her brain that just continue to fill her mind until there is no more room. Her heart serves as the beating drum, symbolizing the beginning of the event. The "boots of lead" term applies to the emotions that are weighing her down. I feel like something has just happened to her that she cannot handle in her life and she is at such a low point that she feels like she is literally becoming brain dead. Finally, she has a catharsis, letting go of everything that was plaguing her mind, and then the worst part; the poem just STOPS. How annoying is that?! I want to know what happens! Or at least have a little more to think about. That abrupt ending really makes me think that some suicidal thoughts were going on here. Maybe this was written near her death...?

Back to blogging :]

Perrine kind of sounds like he knows what he is talking about since he uses outside resources to back up what he says about poetry, like comparing a poem to "an ink blot in a Rorshach personality test," but I don't agree with everything he says. Let's just start with what I do agree with I suppose. I like how Perrine addresses the fact that a poem can be interpreted in many different ways, but it is not meant for the author to interpret his own poem. I would think the author would want to have some mysteriousness in the writing, so it seems only fair that they keep the true meaning to themself. I definitely completely interpreted the poems differently than how Perrine interpreted them, but I still like my interpretations because that is the beauty of poetry. I believe everyone should be able to read a poem and allow their imagination to wander anywhere it wants to go along the lines of the words.

On the other hand, it really irritates me how he states,"If it is contradicted by any detail it is wrong," in reference to interpreting poetry. That just sounds bad because any person with an imagination can spin something so it includes every detail, including words in a poem. He says that a poem with multiple interpretations should be narrowed down to one interpretation by choosing which ever account sounds more "real..." yeah, I'm not a big fan of that either. Poetry is an art form; therefore, imagination is required. Far-fetched interpretations turn out to the be the best ones sometimes!

I guess I will say though that for reading poetry in class, it would definitely be easier to match the details exactly with interpretations and choose the interpretation that sounds more "real," but I just do not like what that takes away from poetry as an art form. Art is supposed to be expressive and imaginative...so who are we to take away from what the author could actually want us to see in it?