Poem 4/27

The poem ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley was surprisingly a very interesting and nice poem. I enjoyed the tone of the poem, I loved how the author used words like ‘dessert’, decay’, and phrases like ‘antique lands’, ‘colossal wreck, and level sands’ to get across this feeling of desolation, and loneliness. The way this poem was written made the mood how I felt reading the poem very calm, sad, and mysterious in a way. From my initial impression when reading the poem I felt like I was in the middle of an abandoned, desolate, and barren land where a empire once stood. I really liked that aspect of the poem, I feel it magnifies the overall feeling of the poem and idea of the fall of ‘all’ empires and kingdoms that once ruled a long time ago but eventually fell to ruins. After reading the poem I did research on the title and found out that ‘Ozymandias’ was an Egyptian ‘King of King’ also known as Ramesses. He had an enormous statue of him a tribute in a way, yet it fell only leaving the feet and legs. Then in 1817 the British Museum announced a new addition, a 7.25 ton head sculpture of Ramesses II. This is what inspired Percy Shelley along with others to write this poem. In a way he expresses his fascination and sorrow for the fallen empire and ‘fallen’ king. I enjoyed the mood the poem portrays but I don’t think the poem has any deeper meaning to it, as if there’s only a layer or two. I can say that the imagery, symbolism, and diction made up for the lack of depth but I still was looking for more. I couldn’t really relate to this poem at all, whereas the other poem I chose to read out of curiosity didn’t fail to appeal to my senses or push my comprehension of new themes and ideas.      

Poem 4/30
‘On Being Brought from Africa to America’ by Phillis Wheatley is again another one of my favorite poems. From the title you know the poem is going to be about slavery. Although you don’t know exactly from whose point of view it’ll be told. The last poem I read that had to do with slavery,‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ by Langston Hughes was told through the eyes of a Native African. Being told from that point of view made the poem a lot more personal adding this genuine sentimental emotion to the poem as a whole. Although it made the poem more sad and really made reader think about what the poem was trying to get across, I felt stepping away from that typical point of view and switching it to maybe a ‘slave master’ or ‘northerner against slavery’ would add a new twist on what the poem would say other than; ‘I’m a slave, I’m sad, I was taken from my home.” It’s all too familiar and wanted something new. 

Now as I read the poem I found again it was told from the point of view of a ‘African’, or ‘slave’. Even though I was looking for that twist I felt the diction/ word choice was specifically picked to strike imagination, curiosity, and deeper meaning. The first line captivating enough. “ 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land.” This line is a satire itself, ‘the white man is mercy’ yet the white man showed no type of mercy when it came to slavery and discrimination. The next lines, “Taught my benighted soul to understand, That there's a God, that there's a Saviour  too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.” These lines basically say that bringing the Africans to America introduced them to Christianity, a God and savior - which is another satirical comment because the ‘white man’ is a christian but treats the slaves wrongly. Lastly, “Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die”, says that discrimination is huge and that the ‘diabolic die’ that ‘African Americans’ are born with separates everyone from being a whole. And the last line, “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refined, and join th' angelic train” again satirized slavery, referencing, the ‘trains’ of Africans they chained together, and talks about how the can be refined.

Poem 4/23

The poem ‘The Naming of Parts’ was an odd poem for me to read. When I read the title I asked myself what exactly am I naming the parts of. I thought initially thought the parts to a machine or everyday item. For instance a clock. When I think of these parts in a clock I think of how there are the inner workings of things that create and allow us to see a bigger picture and comprehend more.  So based off of my interpretation of the title and 'machine's' I came to my first conclusion which is the poem will end up focusing on the government, and everyone who works for a living and how they contribute to the government as a whole, helping it function ultimately. Although me thinking the poem was about everyone working separately and in the bigger picture making a stronger united force, as well as others having more money, opportunities depending on where you stand in the system (machine). Again although my first interpretation of the poem had to do with almost like government knowledge I learned quickly that my interpretation was incorrect.

Once I read these line everything became clear and apparent. The poem was about war. Specifically I felt it was about how in our society war is looked at as almost the ‘easy’ way out of having issues with another and solving those issues. Also I felt it had to do with how young some of the soldiers were in certain wars, and how they were taught to kill, as if a second nature. "And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this, Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers: They call it easing the Spring" Lastly I felt this was a satire in a way if you analyze the last three words, “easing the spring.” I see two different springs; spring in a pen and the season. If you use the season, you can interpret spring as a new beginning. The flowers were in hibernation and come out again and this process repeats. And there’s idea that from destruction comes a new life; almost like a Phoenix. This reminds me of ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ which is also a satire.

Poem 4/20

The poem, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick from the title my first impression is another poem their targets this universal idea of innocent and the innocence being lost along one's path in the world. I say this because the word 'virgin's implies innocence and purity. Another word in the first line of the poem 'rose-buds' again makes the target seem it's again the innocent. Rose buds I think of early spring, no full bloomed flowers yet. Also I think of the word/phrase 'deflowered'. This is weird to bring up but it connects, this word is often used when referring to a woman loosing their virginity. Which would be almost foreshadowing the idea innocence and losing that aspect of one's self. After reading the poem I got the same impression from the authors choice of words and attitude. I interpreted this similar idea but slightly more towards the idea of getting married, ("gather ye rose-buds", "marry") and satirizing the urge to get married in young girls. The poem plays on this idea of how in the American culture we 'teach' girls to want to get married, like it's a life achievement and once you are 'of age' everyone needs to rush and find a husband. This one specific line really expresses this this idea. "The sooner will his race be run, And nearer he’s to setting. That age is best which is the first, When youth and blood are warmer." In this line, I got really sad because I realized that in our culture we drill in it little girls minds that marriage is less of a want and natural given but more of a essential for survival. And when I thought about it I found it sad girls are so pressured into these 'cultural norms'. "And while ye may, go marry; For having lost but once your prime, You may forever tarry." Women eventually lose their opportunity to live their individual lives, follow their dreams, and are no longer in their "prime"; the point in one's life where they are at their peak of mental, physical, emotional, and financial capacity. This was basically a satire or parody of the American culture to push people to think about the reality's of the world.

Poem 4/16

The poem, ‘The World Is Too Much With Us’ by William Wordsworth, I have to say is another one of my favorite poems. The title itself caught my attention and intrigued me. The title made me question how and why the world is too much with us and what exactly does this mean. After reading the poem I immediately picked up of the theme and main idea/target. William Wordsworth expressed this distance humans have from the world in which we live. In the first three lines of the poem “The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!", when read says almost subtly humans are too distracted and need a wake up call. The section in line one, "late and soon" much like line "little we see in Nature" to me say as humans we only notice, appreciate, and take heed in the world in which we live at younger ages ("soon", ages four to ten) skipping a large section of our lives until our older ages ("late", 70 and up). And in that large section that is 'skipped', little does the human eye see in nature. We get so distracted with other events we fail to realize how blessed we are to have a beautiful home (earth). This makes sense considering children enjoy the outdoors, using all their energy to run free and play. And with the elderly, ones energy is almost depleted leaving them to sit and watch the world around them 'pass by' in their remaining years because no one lives forever.

Lastly the beautiful imagery and figurative language in the poem appealed to me when reading, really touching my heart and making me think twice about it all. "This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.” you can imagine the moon glistening on the surface of the ocean along with the stars, and you can almost hear the howling of the wind throughout the day, for many years. Then the poem states, "for this, for everything, we are out of tune", again saying we are out of touch with mother earth, neglecting her our love. By the end the speaker states that they just want to appreciate the earth for what it provides, wishing they could "Have sight of Proteus rising from sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wretched horn".

Poem 4/13

Before reading the poem “The Rite of Passage” by Sharon Olds, I immediately interpreted a theme, or central idea. The title and first line of the poem made it very apparent that the poem is about ‘the rite of passage’ or ‘coming of age’. This idea of growing up and becoming an adult. In this poem the author focuses the poem around a boy having a birthday party; therefore the poem is about the coming of age specifically talking about the male sex. From basic knowledge the rite of passage is like a ritual, where a young man completes a number of tasks in order to be considered an adult. This is a cultural idea that is slightly more ‘primitive’ dating back to cavemen, although many cultural events like quinceaneras, sweet sixteens, bar mitzvah, ones eighteenth birthday, birthday punches, etc. that are events humans still part take in, in modern times. These are remnants of those type of rituals. Most of these event are for boys in which they become men. And this poem Sharon Old is definitely hinting at these ideas and how their primitive in a way. She’s also hinting at how in most cases, with age come this idea of corruption. As a child when you’re ages one to four you don’t understand much of the would like adults do still having ‘innocence’ in them. Yet once your are ages five and up, you begin to understand more of what you witness. In our culture you begin elementary school at the age of six. I feel like ‘Sharon Olds’ is trying to say at that specific age one begins to lose their innocence and begins to become corrupt. In this quoted line that corruption is very much shown. How old are you? —Six. —I’m seven. —So? They eye each other, seeing themselves tiny in the other’s pupils. They clear their throats a lot, a room of small bankers, they fold their arms and frown. I could beat you up, a seven says to a six,”.

Formalism, Structuralism, and How to Analyze Literature

1. Denotation is the more literal meaning of a word or phrase. If the the word is, ‘war’. The Denotation is - a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state. The Connotation is what the word may imply due to the circumstances of the work. The connotation of the story would be ‘to keep peace, or destruction, or even death.’

2. Another thing I learned was when it comes to structuralism is that it's very similar to lego blocks. All the Red lego blocks can be figurative language, Blues can be symbolism, Yellows can be mood and tone, Greens can be diction, Whites can be imagery, and Blacks can be any other literary devices. Now that you have these blocks you can throw them together in any order and get a mess of colors. Or you can think of the picture you want to make, for example a 'tree in front of a blue sky on green grass'; you now know that you will most likely use the Greens (diction) for the leaves and grass, The Blues (symbolism) for the sky, and a mixture of Red and Green (diction and figurative) for the tree trunk.

3. When it comes to readers with less experience with serious literature, they improve their skills by focusing more on one element at time. Focus on one element at time and and you can then create meaning with the separate elements and then piece them all together to then form an even LARGER meaning. going back to the lego block analogy. Looking at and analyzing all the Reds can mean B, looking at the Blues can mean A, all the Yellows can mean R, the Greens can mean N, the Whites can mean E, and last but not least the Blacks could mean L. They all have separate meaning, but piece them together and your message could be B-A-R-N-E-L.  

Spring and Fall; Gerard M. Hopkins

   I believe if I were to read this poem from beginning to end and was then asked to analyze the poem and create a theme from what I read; I can guarantee I would have interpreted something completely different compared to analyzing ‘every’ two line of the poem individually. When analyzing two lines of the poem individually, and repeating that process; in a way you’re creating a theme statement for each line. The poem is total of fifteen lines, which is eight lines grouped in twos. For every two lines you glare at the words before you tearing it apart. Then you say what does this piece mean, and what does this piece mean, and that piece mean, then puzzle piece them back together everything cohesively binds and you thus receive a small piece (meaning of two lines) of the larger picture (the entire poem). By tearing apart two lines you can determine the mood, tone, point of view, connotation, denotation, any symbolism, figurative language, imagery, irony to form a miniature theme that plays or changes throughout the poem. You can think about it like it’s the universe, the universe is made up of millions of galaxies, galaxies are made up of stars, meteors, planets, and even black holes. Those ‘smaller’ things make one thing, and a collection of that ultimately makes something greater (the poem itself and the universal message). Again reading and analyzing poems this way ended up being a new and interesting way, compared to simply reading. It may take slightly more time but in the end it you achieve a better understanding of the poem, besides it rhymes and has ‘deep’ meaning. You learn more about that ‘deep’ meaning. What specific lines help you understand that?, What literary devices are used to magnify or push forward that? This way of reading and analyzing poems is very helpful and from using it I interpreted a theme that; ‘Spring and Fall’, is about the inevitability to aging, growing up, no longer being a child, or coming of age. I achieved this theme by again taking apart two lines each. The first two lines are, “Márgarét, áre you gríeving, Over Goldengrove unleaving?” From them I interpreted that a woman named ‘Margaret, is sad/grieving over a grove - group of in a forest, unleaving, or in other words going into the season ‘Fall or Autumn.’ A woman is sad/upset about a grove going through the changes from spring to autumn. The next two lines are, “Leáves like the things of man, you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you.” From these two lines I interpreted that there a simile comparing man to leaves. Simply saying man is nature but also hinting towards - men are leaves, leaves are falling of the trees in Golden Grove because it’s Fall, when the leaves fall of the trees they die. So men ‘fall of the trees’ and die, because of ‘fall’. Then there’s, “you With your fresh thoughts care for, can you.” I thought; “fresh thoughts”, fresh means new, I hear new and I think newborn or baby. Then, “care for, can you?” Someone is questioning can I care for new thoughts, or newborns. I completed my line analyses and from there I put them together. Someone is upset because ‘the seasons are changing’ and men are dying, and she does not know if she can care for newborns. That’s only a rough draft if you will but then you think about that and eventually it comes to you. Newborns and men, there’s a huge age difference between them. Trees bud in the spring, fully grow leaves, then fall arrives within six months, (which is fast) and they fall off and the process repeats. For men to fall of trees and die they must first be buds or ‘newborns’. So Margaret is upset/sad because newborns are growing up too fast, getting old too fast and are dying. Aging is inevitable so can she even care to care. All that to say, aging, growing up, and coming of age is inevitable and does happen pretty fast. It’s a sad reality to face but as humans we can’t really care too much, we can’t stop it.

A Diagnostic Test/Exam Packet

Personally ‘Mirror’ by Sylvia Plath was more of an appealing poem. The literary devices she used had a positive effect on the poem as a whole. I really enjoyed how she used personification, similes, metaphors, point of view, and imagery; it really set the mood for the poem. The fact that Sylvia Plath combined both personification and point of view in the first line of the poem is fascinating and new. By writing, “I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions”, we learn that the ‘mirror’ is telling the ‘story’. The mirror is being personified, making it less of an inanimate object to more of a person. The mirror thinks, feels, and expresses it’s experiences with the world it sees. Personally I love when inanimate object posses the ability to comprehend the world us humans live, it adds another point of view, (they, the man, or the woman) beyond the human point of view, (I, me, or my). For an author to express emotions in a story or poem in this case with words can be apparent to the reader, but to express human emotion through ‘outside’ eyes and from an inanimate object made into a ‘real’, human like, or comprehensible thing can be more difficult. It’s definitely different and says a lot more about human nature than if it were human commenting on another human. This aspect really sets this sorrowful, almost regretful mood to the poem. The mirror has it’s purpose, can’t change that at all but has to deal with the constant “faces” that appear in it. This repetition of faces peering into it to me  says humans are self conscience creatures that need to feel attractive to themselves to be attractive to others and have now become obsessed with their appearance so much we look for “liars” like “the moon, and candle” to appear more flattering. Even though without science there would be nothing to change about appearance. Maybe it’s primitive, and and animal instinct but lions, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish don’t look in reflective surfaces we the motive and conscience thought of being more or less ‘attractive’ in their own eyes. Again this poem really caught my eye, said something deep and complex, and really struck thought within the first two lines; only using personification and point of view.      

1/21 Poems,

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne, was a longer poem compared to the previous poems that I have read and felt like a lot of imagery, symbolism, similes, and metaphors to remember and I may have ended up missing them and not interpreting them way I should or could have. I eventually went back to read the poem again using the strategy of analyzing each group of lines separately but before doing that i made the conclusion that the poem was about death. But more specifically I interpreted that  about losing a loved one in the war, and coming to terms with the lost and resuming your life and finding love again eventually.

When I went back and read the poem I focused on the beginning four lines and ending four lines. The beginning four lines, “As virtuous men pass mildly away,  And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say,  The breath goes now, and some say, No:", expressed that morally correct men/people are 'leaving' or dying, something or someone is whispering to their souls (I think death). People who loved them protest, are sad or upset that they are leaving. The last four lines, “Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th' other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.” I felt like these lines were saying, Who other than the man/woman I loved could be apart of me like my foot is and help me ‘run’ or function like he/she did. Because he/she is dead, I’m back at the beginning of living life ‘happy’ (because the mood of the poem is sorrowful, full of grievance - hence the title), because without them there’s no ‘us’, my life with him/her is over. Like a carousel I’m back where I began, finding love and living life content. I put them together and came up with the poem still being about love, war, and lose.

Poem 4/8,

‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ by Langston Hughes, I have to say is my second favorite poem besides 'Mirror'. I say this because I can really relate to this poem  considering my race/color of my skin. This poem was clearly about race as expected considering the title and if you look closely to the words Langston Hughes used and the way he uses them. The lines, "I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins”, expresses this idea of the motherland or native land where one or all originates from. More specifically people of color originate from one place, Africa. This explains the words like ‘ancient, blood, and veins’; I recently learned that Africa is where all life originated and from that continent people branched off thus populating other land masses and creating the world we know today. Africa is almost like the Garden of Eden emphasizing this ancient feel/mood. The middle of the poem and in my opinion the most powerful part of the poem, “I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.”, says this sad yet powerful statement. The poem clarifies that Africa is the continent where everything began. But then we move from the ‘Congo’ in African to ‘New Orleans’ in America. The poem is called ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ so we can now infer that the poem is about slavery since we change scenery; Africa to a southern state in America. We can say that this individual was ‘free’ in Africa and was then taken to America to be a slave and this person saying, “I’ve known rivers”, is symbolism of slavery; being taken from your home and being forced to treat another place as your home.  

Poem 4/10,

When reading ‘Death be not Proud’ John Donne, due to the language of this poem considering it was published in the 1600’s, I found it extremely difficult to understand and analyze. Words like “‘art’, ‘thou’, and ‘dost’”, confused me and became a distraction from what the poem was trying to say. Besides the obvious theme presented in the title, and in the first and fourth lines, which is death. From line eight an on, “Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms 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.”, I soon realised that this poem is referring to death but caused by an “illness”. I started my research on trying to figure out a theme. The poem was published in the 1600’s and I looked up an outbreak of the ‘Black Death or Bubonic Plague’ remembering that the a plague did terrorize Europe but wasn’t exactly sure. Sure enough The Black Death started the 1300’s in China caused by fleas and rodents and spread to Western Asia and Europe killing around 25 million people ending in the 1600’s. I now understand that this poem is about the ‘Black Death’ killing people. Now I understand the tile of the poem and the first line of the poem. The title of the poem is more like the first line is less of a simple statement or title, it’s as if the author is speaking to the ‘Black Death’ itself as if it’s this entity or live person. The author is telling the plague not to be proud even though you have been given this name that goes down in history a something ‘Mighty’ because you aren’t. The poor died with no help, and kings with riches tried all types of vaciences, antidotes, ‘charms’ to stop it in it’s tracks. “One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.” Then three years pass and eventually the ‘Black Death’ is gone, the ‘Black Death’ has died and is no more.