Even though we had a really good discussion in class about "The Gifts of War" by Margaret Drabble, there were a few issues I wanted to explore more for my blog. The story really impressed me a lot with its complexity, and to me one of its strongest themes concerns the institution of marriage. When I first read the piece and before the class discussion, I felt that "The Gifts of War" was primarily focused on marriage, and the other themes of war and class fell to the background for me. I think this is because Drabble paints such a harrowing picture of marriage--the abuse stayed in my mind long after I finished reading the story.
One of the most interesting parts to me was how Kevin's mother (nameless--just another victim of the "war" that is marriage) felt that she had no choice but to accept her "lot" as she calls it. She says that she is ignorant and doesn't "expect to know anything" (2824); the wife has to just be silent and keep living her horrible life. This makes sense because I know many people who are this way in their marriages, especially because Kevin's mother is poor and really has no chance at a better life. Another reason she says she perseveres through life is because of her son. He is the only happiness in his mother's life, and her man-hating hasn't been able to touch Kevin yet because he is still young: "He wasn't a proper man yet, he couldn't inflict true pain" (2824). Drabble equates being a man with inflicting pain on others, and uses other unsavory adjectives to describe her husband such as, "stubbly, disgusting, ill, malingering, unkind" (2827). Kevin's mother is trapped in an abusive marriage, but luckily has her son to keep her happy (or as happy as she'll ever become).
The other really interesting part of this to me is how Drabble compares and contrasts Kevin's mother with Frances and the other younger girls. They might have different views from her about class and the war, but the most important and stressed differences are in how the two generations think about marriage and men. Kevin's mother says that she was "penniless then as now, but still hopeful" (2827) when she was a young girl looking for love. Today, she is penniless but has lost all hope in the idea of marriage; she even says that she envies the young girls who have romantic ideas about men because she is so disillusioned with the whole thing. Kevin's mother wants to say to these girls, "What do you think you're playing at? Where do you think it leads you, what do you think you're asking for?" (2827). Kevin's mother goes on to compare girls like Frances to "condemned cattle and sacrificial virgins" (2827). This shows exactly how the older woman feels about marriage: it is a trap and a sacrifice of good women. While for Kevin's mother's generation of wives, "time had taught them all" (2827), Frances is young and silly about love. She says that she spends hours thinking about her emotions and feelings for her friend Michael, and protests the war for him, even though it is the last thing she would have done herself. The contrast between the two women is drastic.
Clearly, "The Gifts of War" is about many different issues, but I saw marriage for women as one of the central ideas the story explores. That being said, I understood Kevin's mother's breakdown at the end of the story as an epiphany of sorts about her life in general. I thought that she finally understood she would always be defeated in her life no matter what, the same way she is defeated in her marriage. The woman is suffering from the war in general, but she is most affected and disillusioned with the world and the people around her because of the war that is her daily life in her marriage.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Explication of "Poem" by e.e. cummings
First of all, I really wanted to have a copy of the poem in this post, but it is a little long for that. So instead, here is a link that can take you right to the poem!
http://www.nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/4/cummings/beauty.htm
Modernism is one of my absolute favorite literary periods; I love all of the radical changes occurring during the years 1900-1950. The changes were happening in every part of life: science, technology, religion, economics, and social views. One of the most drastic changes in my opinion happened with the rise of capitalism and materialism in America. This country became the place of frozen meals and barbie dolls within a matter of years, and many Modernist writers reacted to that sudden boom. e. e. cummings was merely one of many, but he is worth taking note of because he not only argued about the changing times, he performed that argument in the form of his poetry. For example, cummings broke traditional poetry norms all over the place by having irregular lines, crazy syntax, broken-up words, and punctuation that was the furthest thing from "traditional." His writing shook people out of their comfort zones, and his approach to the changing time period he lived in was unique.
This poem, which is humorously titled, "Poem, or Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal," is set up in the typical style of cummings: no regular form at all. He breaks lines wherever he wants to (though his line breaks are highly important), uses no regular rhyme scheme, and (though not important to the form exactly) all rules of grammar go flying out the window. The speaker of "Poem" speaks in a very casual tone to readers; he even addresses readers of the poem as "kiddos" in the first line.
The plot of the poem is harder to summarize because it isn't a narrative. The speaker seems to be having a rant of some sort, and the ensuing words are jumbled and somewhat confusing. It seems strange at first because the poem is mostly made up of popular brand names, slogans, and famous songs and people's names. For example, he cites the brands Gillette razor blades, Kodak, and Wrigley gum. He also randomly throws into the poem slogans such as "Just Add Hot Water and Serve" (Campbell Soup) and "comes out like a ribbon lies flat on the brush" (Colgate toothpaste). What cummings seems to be doing by mixing together all of these popular symbols into a jumbled mess is critiquing the rising materialism of American society. This is revealed in the negative language he uses toward both America and the mass-produced items. cummings rewrites the lyrics to the patriotic song "My Country Tis of Thee" when he says, "my country, 'tis of/you, land of the Cluett/Shirt Boston Garter...of you i sing: Abraham Lincoln and Lydia E. Pinkham/land above all of Just Add Hot Water and Serve" (3-12). Pinkham was a popular figure during this time; she created a pill that supposedly instantly cured all kinds of 'women's ailments.' By putting someone like her next to the figure of Abraham Lincoln and equating their positions, cummings is saying that Americans value the contributions of Pinkham and Lincoln equally as much, which is ludicrous. However, it is a comment on the rampant consumer culture existent at this time.
Each of these stanzas in "Poem" is just as rich and complicated as the one before it, and it takes a lot of outside research to figure out exactly what product from the early 1920s each brand and slogan represents. The pessimism continues throughout: "A/mer/i/ca, I/love,/You. And there're a/hun-dred-mil-lion-oth-ers" (36-42). Near the end of the poem (or collection of phrases and product names), he describes Americans as "tensetendoned and with/upward vacant eyes painfully/ perpetually crouched, quivering" (48-50). The reader expects some kind of closure in the last lines of "Poem," but cummings stays true to form and concludes with only the Colgate toothpaste slogan.
While America's materialism is the most obvious theme in the poem, I found a smaller and more interesting idea in lines 30-33: "...according/to such supposedly indigenous/throstles Art is O World O Life/a formula." Writing about art in art is a topic we've talked about a lot in class, but it was a surprising theme in a poem like this one, surrounded by discussion of "stuff" when art is so valuable and intangible (the opposite of material goods). cummings is saying that according to some people, art is an exact formula that people follow; however, to him that is not the case (and he proves that throughout all of his poetry). cummings even just proved he could create art out of the meaningless brand names and slogans and materialism. I think calling this piece "Poem" reiterates that fact; he is making a sly comment that this is art, and can simply be called what it is. Obviously, there is much more to go into with this poem (my analysis only covered the tiniest portion of this piece), but it is clear that cummings not only wanted to say something in his poetry, but also DO something different from anything readers in the early twentieth century had ever seen before.
http://www.nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/4/cummings/beauty.htm
Modernism is one of my absolute favorite literary periods; I love all of the radical changes occurring during the years 1900-1950. The changes were happening in every part of life: science, technology, religion, economics, and social views. One of the most drastic changes in my opinion happened with the rise of capitalism and materialism in America. This country became the place of frozen meals and barbie dolls within a matter of years, and many Modernist writers reacted to that sudden boom. e. e. cummings was merely one of many, but he is worth taking note of because he not only argued about the changing times, he performed that argument in the form of his poetry. For example, cummings broke traditional poetry norms all over the place by having irregular lines, crazy syntax, broken-up words, and punctuation that was the furthest thing from "traditional." His writing shook people out of their comfort zones, and his approach to the changing time period he lived in was unique.
This poem, which is humorously titled, "Poem, or Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal," is set up in the typical style of cummings: no regular form at all. He breaks lines wherever he wants to (though his line breaks are highly important), uses no regular rhyme scheme, and (though not important to the form exactly) all rules of grammar go flying out the window. The speaker of "Poem" speaks in a very casual tone to readers; he even addresses readers of the poem as "kiddos" in the first line.
The plot of the poem is harder to summarize because it isn't a narrative. The speaker seems to be having a rant of some sort, and the ensuing words are jumbled and somewhat confusing. It seems strange at first because the poem is mostly made up of popular brand names, slogans, and famous songs and people's names. For example, he cites the brands Gillette razor blades, Kodak, and Wrigley gum. He also randomly throws into the poem slogans such as "Just Add Hot Water and Serve" (Campbell Soup) and "comes out like a ribbon lies flat on the brush" (Colgate toothpaste). What cummings seems to be doing by mixing together all of these popular symbols into a jumbled mess is critiquing the rising materialism of American society. This is revealed in the negative language he uses toward both America and the mass-produced items. cummings rewrites the lyrics to the patriotic song "My Country Tis of Thee" when he says, "my country, 'tis of/you, land of the Cluett/Shirt Boston Garter...of you i sing: Abraham Lincoln and Lydia E. Pinkham/land above all of Just Add Hot Water and Serve" (3-12). Pinkham was a popular figure during this time; she created a pill that supposedly instantly cured all kinds of 'women's ailments.' By putting someone like her next to the figure of Abraham Lincoln and equating their positions, cummings is saying that Americans value the contributions of Pinkham and Lincoln equally as much, which is ludicrous. However, it is a comment on the rampant consumer culture existent at this time.
Each of these stanzas in "Poem" is just as rich and complicated as the one before it, and it takes a lot of outside research to figure out exactly what product from the early 1920s each brand and slogan represents. The pessimism continues throughout: "A/mer/i/ca, I/love,/You. And there're a/hun-dred-mil-lion-oth-ers" (36-42). Near the end of the poem (or collection of phrases and product names), he describes Americans as "tensetendoned and with/upward vacant eyes painfully/ perpetually crouched, quivering" (48-50). The reader expects some kind of closure in the last lines of "Poem," but cummings stays true to form and concludes with only the Colgate toothpaste slogan.
While America's materialism is the most obvious theme in the poem, I found a smaller and more interesting idea in lines 30-33: "...according/to such supposedly indigenous/throstles Art is O World O Life/a formula." Writing about art in art is a topic we've talked about a lot in class, but it was a surprising theme in a poem like this one, surrounded by discussion of "stuff" when art is so valuable and intangible (the opposite of material goods). cummings is saying that according to some people, art is an exact formula that people follow; however, to him that is not the case (and he proves that throughout all of his poetry). cummings even just proved he could create art out of the meaningless brand names and slogans and materialism. I think calling this piece "Poem" reiterates that fact; he is making a sly comment that this is art, and can simply be called what it is. Obviously, there is much more to go into with this poem (my analysis only covered the tiniest portion of this piece), but it is clear that cummings not only wanted to say something in his poetry, but also DO something different from anything readers in the early twentieth century had ever seen before.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
To Strive, To Seek, To Find, & Not to Yield
Ulysses -- Alfred Lord Tennyson
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
>From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
>From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill
This labor, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
I mainly wanted to unpack this poem for my blog (even though it's quite long!) because I am currently in Mythology, and we just finished reading the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer. It is interesting to realize that Homer was writing around approximately 700 B.C.E., while Tennyson composed his poem in 1833. It's really cool when writers like Tennyson choose to build onto already existing stories, especially when they change aspects of the originals or decide to focus on different themes than the original writer. The Ulysses of the Odyssey travels for about ten years before he is able to return home; in that time, he has faced and conquered many obstacles and monsters that normal men could never survive. Ulysses in Tennyson's poem, however, has reached home and finally regained peace and quiet.
The most important themes I found in the poem were about escaping the tedium of everyday life through adventure, and how old age should not be a factor in stopping anyone from leading an exciting life. Ulysses is old in years, but he is not old in spirit; that is shown throughout many lines of the poem: "I cannot rest from travel" (6), "...always roaming with a hungry heart" (12), "Tis not too late to seek a newer world" (57). There are innumerable examples of how Ulysses wants to leave the monotony of his life at home and continue exploring the world. I thought this was a cool theme that still applies a lot to people today, since so many of us get complacent the older we get. Hungering for life the way Ulysses does is preferable to, say, the life of the Lotus-Eaters in Tennyson's other poem concerning Greek mythology. His crew is introduced to a delicious flower that causes a drowsy contentment, and they want to stay on that island forever and forget about living their real lives. That poem is in stark contrast to this one; Ulysses wants nothing more than to have more exciting experiences around the world, even if that causes his death. He states, "For my purpose holds/To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths/Of all the western stars, until I die" (59-61). His experiences in the real world have changed his life, and now he is too restless to stay somewhere in peace.
The most interesting part about this poem for me was that Tennyson's techniques tie in nicely with what we have been discussing in my Theory and Criticism class. The story of Ulysses is not an original one to Tennyson; he obviously "poached" the ideas for this poem straight from the words Homer had already written centuries before. However, we've been talking a lot in Theory about how artists have always borrowed ideas from other artists, and how that act of stealing ideas is "good" plaigarism if the author adds to or complicates the previous author's ideas. I think that is exactly what Tennyson is doing here with Homer's story of Ulysses. Homer was a mastermind and genius who was able to create a character like Ulysses that went through many adventures and then longed for rest. Tennyson's Ulysses has acheived the rest that Homer's so desperately wanted, but now is bored with his life. His message through this poem is to remind readers (and maybe even himself) that an exciting life is worth living, old age is not the end of a great life, and that it is better to press on and continue living rather than becoming complacent and in a trance like the lotus-eaters. There are powerful messages throughout the poem, and it's interesting to see how Tennyson is able to build upon another great writer's ideas, and, in turn, make them his own.
Monday, October 8, 2012
The Wonderfully Awful Miss Clack
"Once self-supported by conscience, once embarked on a career
of manifest usefulness, the true Christian never yields.
Neither public nor private influences produce the slightest
effect on us, when we have once got our mission. Taxation may
be the consequence of a mission; riots may be the consequence
of a mission; wars may be the consequence of a mission:
we go on with our work, irrespective of every human consideration
which moves the world outside us. We are above reason;
we are beyond ridicule; we see with nobody's eyes, we hear
with nobody's ears, we feel with nobody's hearts, but our own.
Glorious, glorious privilege! And how is it earned?
Ah, my friends, you may spare yourselves the useless inquiry!
We are the only people who can earn it--for we are the only
people who are always right" (Collins 227)
Miss Clack from The Moonstone has to be one of the most-hated characters in all of literature. Not only is she nosy and judgmental, Miss Clack is clearly sexually repressed. She feels it is her personal duty to "save" the souls of everyone in her family, and puts on quite a show for the reader in doing so. Wilkie Collins obviously has a reason for including such a character in his story, and I believe she serves a largely symbolic purpose. Miss Clack is a symbol for the type of religious people who are the furthest thing from the embodiment of Christ, and are the very kind of people who turn others away from religion.
This idea of the symbolic nature of Miss Clack developed for me all throughout her narrative, but specifically when she says the quote above. It baffles me that she could say such a thing and not hear all of the things wrong with what she is saying. For example, "We see with nobody's eyes, we hear with nobody's ears, we feel with nobody's hearts, but our own." This is an awful thing to say because Christians (and decent people in general) are supposed to be empathetic, charitable, and loving to all others, and think of themselves lastly. Seeing issues and ideas from another person's point of view and understanding their opinion (whether you agree with it or not) is one of the most important parts of human interaction, and she is completely closing her mind to that. Also horrible, she goes on to say that the only people who earn the "glorious privilege" are men and women exactly like her. They are the only ones who receive this because they are "the only people who are always right." Any decent human being can see the obvious problems with this kind of mindset.
The other interesting thing about Miss Clack is the sacrifices she is willing to make in order to "share the good news" with people. She states, "Taxation may be the consequence of a mission; riots may be the consequence of a mission; wars may be the consequence of a mission: we go on with our work." What she is saying is that violence and money are necessary evils of the Christian faith (even though Jesus preached against both). Miss Clack seems to have no regard for the Jesus of the New Testament, but chooses instead to focus on the fire and brimstone hell of the Old Testament. Jesus preached about compassion, love, empathy, and mercy; Miss Clack, on the other hand, presents a superior attitude to the "sinners" around her. Sure she says she's trying to save them, but Miss Clack is a terrible example of the Christian faith. It is no wonder that all of her family members avoid her.
Miss Clack is clearly one of those narrators that readers love to hate. She is absolutely horrible, but also provides a sort of comic relief. Her superior attitude to everyone around her is quite funny at times, and the way she "clacks" on and on about how pious she is makes the reader both hate and pity her. I don't believe that Collins had a personal vendetta against religion in general; however, I think it is quite clear that Miss Clack is a symbol of the worst qualities of "religious" people in general.
Miss Clack from The Moonstone has to be one of the most-hated characters in all of literature. Not only is she nosy and judgmental, Miss Clack is clearly sexually repressed. She feels it is her personal duty to "save" the souls of everyone in her family, and puts on quite a show for the reader in doing so. Wilkie Collins obviously has a reason for including such a character in his story, and I believe she serves a largely symbolic purpose. Miss Clack is a symbol for the type of religious people who are the furthest thing from the embodiment of Christ, and are the very kind of people who turn others away from religion.
This idea of the symbolic nature of Miss Clack developed for me all throughout her narrative, but specifically when she says the quote above. It baffles me that she could say such a thing and not hear all of the things wrong with what she is saying. For example, "We see with nobody's eyes, we hear with nobody's ears, we feel with nobody's hearts, but our own." This is an awful thing to say because Christians (and decent people in general) are supposed to be empathetic, charitable, and loving to all others, and think of themselves lastly. Seeing issues and ideas from another person's point of view and understanding their opinion (whether you agree with it or not) is one of the most important parts of human interaction, and she is completely closing her mind to that. Also horrible, she goes on to say that the only people who earn the "glorious privilege" are men and women exactly like her. They are the only ones who receive this because they are "the only people who are always right." Any decent human being can see the obvious problems with this kind of mindset.
The other interesting thing about Miss Clack is the sacrifices she is willing to make in order to "share the good news" with people. She states, "Taxation may be the consequence of a mission; riots may be the consequence of a mission; wars may be the consequence of a mission: we go on with our work." What she is saying is that violence and money are necessary evils of the Christian faith (even though Jesus preached against both). Miss Clack seems to have no regard for the Jesus of the New Testament, but chooses instead to focus on the fire and brimstone hell of the Old Testament. Jesus preached about compassion, love, empathy, and mercy; Miss Clack, on the other hand, presents a superior attitude to the "sinners" around her. Sure she says she's trying to save them, but Miss Clack is a terrible example of the Christian faith. It is no wonder that all of her family members avoid her.
Miss Clack is clearly one of those narrators that readers love to hate. She is absolutely horrible, but also provides a sort of comic relief. Her superior attitude to everyone around her is quite funny at times, and the way she "clacks" on and on about how pious she is makes the reader both hate and pity her. I don't believe that Collins had a personal vendetta against religion in general; however, I think it is quite clear that Miss Clack is a symbol of the worst qualities of "religious" people in general.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Love of Nature
The World Is Too Much With Us--Wordsworth
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!
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.
Even though we looked at this poem in the very beginning of class, Wordsworth has had a real way of sticking with me throughout the whole Romantic period we've studied. He definitely became my favorite Romantic poet that we examined (although each one--Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats--is very interesting for their own individual reasons!), and I think that many of the topics Wordsworth focused his poetry around are still relevant today. I guess that is what I wanted to focus this blog around: the themes in this sonnet that still speak so strongly to me today.
One of the greatest things about literature (being an English Lit major, I'm pretty nerdy about it) is the way it continues to speak to readers even centuries after it was written. In my opinion, that is one of the things that makes a certain book or poem great literature, whether it can transcend time and still be meaningful in different contexts than it was created. I don't think Wordsworth will ever go out of style because Nature (I'm being Wordsworthian and capitalizing it!) is so enduring and constant.
In this sonnet, I saw there being themes about not only Nature, but also materialism, our consumer society, and a loss of connection with the world in general. Just listing them all makes me realize how even more pertinent these ideas are to our society today than they were in Wordsworth's time. We live in a time when "getting and spending" (2) is the most important thing, and most people don't even realize how much they're giving up--family time, seeing the world, or happiness in general--in order to keep up and get ahead in the capitalistic society of America. A quote from the Dalai Lama comes to mind regarding this subject. When asked what surprises him most about life he said, "Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he
sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious
about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being
that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is
never going to die, and then dies having never really lived." What an accurate description of the life most Americans are living today.
Wordsworth, I think, sees a deep connection between the human soul and the soul of Nature. We are meant to go together, hand in hand, and being obsessed with money and "stuff" gets in the way of this horribly. A love of Nature and a love of material goods just do not go together. I'm reminded of the Native Americans who had an intimate relationship with Nature and lived completely off the land. They were able to appreciate Her beauty and goodness, move around wherever they wanted because they were not drowning in "stuff", and I believe that they lived healthier and happier lives than we are able to now. "We have given our hearts away" (4) in America today, and I think this disconnect from Nature is hurting us greatly. It's difficult though because the more materialistic we become, the more we stay indoors and sit in the house all day. But the more we become disconnected from Nature, the more material goods we believe we need to be happy. It's a vicious circle.
I think Wordsworth sums it up best when he simply states, "...we are out of tune" (8). I have to remind myself constantly to not get caught up in the materialism of the world, especially when I am so lucky to live in this beautiful place. I like to believe that if Wordsworth lived today, we would be great friends and kindred spirits. His love and reverence for Nature is truly inspiring to me, and I think his words resonate strongly in the backwards-thinking society we live in today.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Extra Credit Wordsworth Sonnet
"Composed Upon Westminster Bridge"
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
Analysis--
This is another Wordsworth sonnet, and it really spoke to me because I felt like it differed from the other poetry by him we have read in class. This sonnet uses iambic pentameter and has the rhyme scheme ABCAABBA CDCDCD. Like other Wordsworth sonnets, the focus of this poem is nature. The setting is Wordsworth looking at the scenery around him (presumably from Westminster Bridge, hence the title), and feeling elevated and calm gazing around him. The octave is one idea, while the sestet is a separate but related idea. The speaker of the poem starts by expressing the beauty of the earth and states that the person who could pass by such a sight has a dull soul. This was probably my favorite line of the whole poem. It spoke to me because it insinuates that it takes a certain kind of soul to appreciate the beauty of nature, which I agree with. The next part is also beautiful because Wordsworth uses a metaphor to describe the city: "This City now doth like a garment wear/The beauty of the morning" (4-5). This created a beautiful image for me: a city landscape draped in the sunshine as if it was wearing it. He has already set up such a calming poem in those early lines.
Where the sonnet is different in my opinion is where Wordsworth describes the city. He lists "Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples" (6) as "bright and glittering in the smokeless air" (8). This is radically different from his other poetry because a city instead of straight nature. It's interesting to see this other side to Wordsworth, as if he can find beauty in anything, even cities. The city is clean (smokeless) and covered in sunshine, and Wordsworth states that he has "never felt, a calm so deep" (11). This last section of the poem is absolutely beautiful and full of striking imagery. The river gliding along at its own sweet will (12), the houses seeming to be asleep (13)... everything he says just paints an amazing picture of his surroundings. Even though he is in a city, Wordsworth still feels very connected to everything around him. He even creates a very vivid metaphor in the last line of the sonnet saying, "And all that mighty heart is lying still!" (14). Here I thought he was calling the city a mighty heart. This brought to mind images of a heart beating and pulsing with life, but since the city is empty the heart is lying still. This gives Wordsworth a calming feeling, and he is able to see the beauty within the city like he usually sees in natural surroundings.
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
Analysis--
This is another Wordsworth sonnet, and it really spoke to me because I felt like it differed from the other poetry by him we have read in class. This sonnet uses iambic pentameter and has the rhyme scheme ABCAABBA CDCDCD. Like other Wordsworth sonnets, the focus of this poem is nature. The setting is Wordsworth looking at the scenery around him (presumably from Westminster Bridge, hence the title), and feeling elevated and calm gazing around him. The octave is one idea, while the sestet is a separate but related idea. The speaker of the poem starts by expressing the beauty of the earth and states that the person who could pass by such a sight has a dull soul. This was probably my favorite line of the whole poem. It spoke to me because it insinuates that it takes a certain kind of soul to appreciate the beauty of nature, which I agree with. The next part is also beautiful because Wordsworth uses a metaphor to describe the city: "This City now doth like a garment wear/The beauty of the morning" (4-5). This created a beautiful image for me: a city landscape draped in the sunshine as if it was wearing it. He has already set up such a calming poem in those early lines.
Where the sonnet is different in my opinion is where Wordsworth describes the city. He lists "Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples" (6) as "bright and glittering in the smokeless air" (8). This is radically different from his other poetry because a city instead of straight nature. It's interesting to see this other side to Wordsworth, as if he can find beauty in anything, even cities. The city is clean (smokeless) and covered in sunshine, and Wordsworth states that he has "never felt, a calm so deep" (11). This last section of the poem is absolutely beautiful and full of striking imagery. The river gliding along at its own sweet will (12), the houses seeming to be asleep (13)... everything he says just paints an amazing picture of his surroundings. Even though he is in a city, Wordsworth still feels very connected to everything around him. He even creates a very vivid metaphor in the last line of the sonnet saying, "And all that mighty heart is lying still!" (14). Here I thought he was calling the city a mighty heart. This brought to mind images of a heart beating and pulsing with life, but since the city is empty the heart is lying still. This gives Wordsworth a calming feeling, and he is able to see the beauty within the city like he usually sees in natural surroundings.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Explicating Wordsworth
"London, 1802"
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
Analysis-
This is a sonnet written by Wordsworth, and I chose to explicate it because we didn't get to cover it much in class and I thought it was a beautiful poem. As I said it is a sonnet using iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDDECE. The poem is so interesting to me because it is not like the other Wordsworth poems we covered in class: it does not merely focus on nature, but addresses a specific person. The plot of the sonnet follows the rhyme scheme; in the first section (ABBA ABBA), the speaker of the poem addresses John Milton and laments the fact that he is no longer living. The speaker states that England is in need of him because they have forgotten how to be happy, have turned selfish, and need Milton to give them "manners, virtue, freedom, power" (8). In the second section (CDDECE), Wordsworth praises Milton and his character, even calling him "pure...majestic, free" (11). The stark difference between the octave and the sestet is the contrast between the character of the people of England and the character of Milton.
The most important thing that jumped out at me about this poem is that, while the focus of Wordsworth's thoughts is not nature, he still incorporates nature through the characterization of Milton. In the first 8 lines the image of England we get is that of a "...fen/Of stagnant waters" (2-3), while the image of Milton is pure nature: his "soul was like a star" (9), his "voice whose sound was like the sea" (10), and he is "pure as the naked heavens" (11). Milton, for Wordsworth, had an untarnished soul that was intimately connected to nature, while the people of London today are like stagnant waters. He says they are "selfish men" (6) and "have forfeited their...happiness" (5-6). By marking this difference between the two, Wordsworth was putting Milton on a pedestal, as he usually does with the concept of nature.
The poem has a somber tone, and I couldn't help but be a little sad when I read it. If Wordsworth lived today he would be disgusted with the state of things. Not many people today appreciate and love nature the way Wordsworth did, and I think America today would also qualify as a fen of stagnant waters. This poem echoed both Emerson and Thoreau for me, two of my absolute favorite writers. They also noted people's lack of inspiration from nature, and urged us to return to it in order to find true happiness. It seems like Wordsworth wrote "London, 1802" after being disgusted with his fellow man's apathy in life, and was yearning for the time when men like Milton were not few and far between. I felt like the last three lines of the poem show how much Wordsworth deeply respects Milton:
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
(Lines 12-14)
Wordsworth obviously had an enduring respect for Milton, and I think it would be good for modern readers to look to this poem often as a reminder as to why Wordsworth thought we were losing our happiness and becoming more selfish. As Thoreau said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" (Walden). The answer to this desperation is to be found in nature, which I think is the ultimate meaning of this sonnet.
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
Analysis-
This is a sonnet written by Wordsworth, and I chose to explicate it because we didn't get to cover it much in class and I thought it was a beautiful poem. As I said it is a sonnet using iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDDECE. The poem is so interesting to me because it is not like the other Wordsworth poems we covered in class: it does not merely focus on nature, but addresses a specific person. The plot of the sonnet follows the rhyme scheme; in the first section (ABBA ABBA), the speaker of the poem addresses John Milton and laments the fact that he is no longer living. The speaker states that England is in need of him because they have forgotten how to be happy, have turned selfish, and need Milton to give them "manners, virtue, freedom, power" (8). In the second section (CDDECE), Wordsworth praises Milton and his character, even calling him "pure...majestic, free" (11). The stark difference between the octave and the sestet is the contrast between the character of the people of England and the character of Milton.
The most important thing that jumped out at me about this poem is that, while the focus of Wordsworth's thoughts is not nature, he still incorporates nature through the characterization of Milton. In the first 8 lines the image of England we get is that of a "...fen/Of stagnant waters" (2-3), while the image of Milton is pure nature: his "soul was like a star" (9), his "voice whose sound was like the sea" (10), and he is "pure as the naked heavens" (11). Milton, for Wordsworth, had an untarnished soul that was intimately connected to nature, while the people of London today are like stagnant waters. He says they are "selfish men" (6) and "have forfeited their...happiness" (5-6). By marking this difference between the two, Wordsworth was putting Milton on a pedestal, as he usually does with the concept of nature.
The poem has a somber tone, and I couldn't help but be a little sad when I read it. If Wordsworth lived today he would be disgusted with the state of things. Not many people today appreciate and love nature the way Wordsworth did, and I think America today would also qualify as a fen of stagnant waters. This poem echoed both Emerson and Thoreau for me, two of my absolute favorite writers. They also noted people's lack of inspiration from nature, and urged us to return to it in order to find true happiness. It seems like Wordsworth wrote "London, 1802" after being disgusted with his fellow man's apathy in life, and was yearning for the time when men like Milton were not few and far between. I felt like the last three lines of the poem show how much Wordsworth deeply respects Milton:
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
(Lines 12-14)
Wordsworth obviously had an enduring respect for Milton, and I think it would be good for modern readers to look to this poem often as a reminder as to why Wordsworth thought we were losing our happiness and becoming more selfish. As Thoreau said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" (Walden). The answer to this desperation is to be found in nature, which I think is the ultimate meaning of this sonnet.
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