Poetry in Eb

Predator

Crane depicts death as an animal-like part of life, natural, primal.  It is almost as if man is above everything else but his death levels him to that of the animals.  In chapters 9-10 of Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage Henry’s friend Jim Conklin dies.  His death is a wake up call to Henry, significant to only him as a turning point in the war.  Jim Conklin was injured in the battle that Henry fled from.  Conklin is seen crawling away form Henry and the tattered soldier as they tried to help him.  He repeatedly said “Leave me be—don’t tech me—leave me be—”   He wanted to die a valiant soldiers death, die on the battlefield, rather than face the pains of battlefront medicine.  His death rips at the heart of the reader and Henry.  One can see that Henry is going to blame himself for the death, and the audience feels sad because now not only has the war taken the lives of friends but is potentially going to take the lives of those left behind, vengeance.

Another scene of death is when Henry stumbles upon a decomposing dead soldier in the woods.  This death is symbolic of the death that would happen inside of Henry had he not returned to the war.  Bugs would have eaten him from the inside out much like the ants on the other soldier.  One can infer that that soldier died after he ran away from the battle, just like what could happen to Henry.  It was a sign telling the reader and Henry that one must face their troubles or fears to truly live. 

Crane uses death as a common ground to link the events in the story to the reader.  Everyone has seen death, either through animals or unfortunately through loved ones.  It is sometimes sad and sometimes happy.  There is both a melancholy atmosphere and an anger/upset atmosphere that can arise after such an event.  Crane signifies that death is a part of life.  The war goes on, the battle goes on, even the soldiers walk right past those who have fallen.  In one scene the cavalry is plowing down the road and threatening, through its presence, to steam roll Jim Conklin, the dying soldier, if he does not get of the road.  Life goes on after death.  That is reality, death is natural.  Crane is portraying the fact that those who die are men, and those who survive are men.  It is man’s own thoughts that build individuals up to the level of heroic, and courageous; all based on merit, skill, and accomplishments.  Not only is death a sad event but a common one too.  People die every day, and still only few become heroes.  It believe Crane is attempting to show the injustice of death and war, in that the good soldiers die, and the crappy, Henryesque ones are left to take their place.  Fortunately this event is powerful enough to change men (Wilson and Henry).  

 Let's Get Ready to Rummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmble!!!!!!!!

vs.

Comrades

 Comrade- A person who shares one’s interests or activities; a friend or companion Word History: A comrade can be socially or politically close, a closeness that is found at the etymological heart of the word comrade. In Spanish the Latin word camara, with its Late Latin meaning “chamber, room,” was retained, and the derivative camarada, with the sense “roommates, especially barrack mates,” was formed. Camarada then came to have the general sense “companion.” English borrowed the word from Spanish and French, English comrade being first recorded in the 16th century. The political sense of comrade, now associated with Communism, had its origin in the late-19th-century use of the word as a title by socialists and communists in order to avoid such forms of address as mister. This usage, which originated during the French Revolution, is first recorded in English in 1884. 

Henry has two types of comrades in the army.  First there are his fellow deserters and secondly there are his fellow members of the red badge of courage club.  At his first battle Henry wimps out and follows his fellow comrades who decide to save themselves from the beast that was devouring the insane, foolish men who continued on their ridiculous “heroic” fight.  It is a race between him and his other deserters to escape the clutch of the fowl beast of war.   

            Henry realizes his mistake in following the true and only fools on the battlefield, those that ran, and returned dissatisfied with himself to his regiment.  It is then that he assimilates back into his regiment, that he reconnects with his fellow comrades.  He was injured by a fellow soldier and created a lie about fighting on the right field  to fit in with his fellow soldiers.  He now has a red badge of courage and can now begin to overlook his past, which occurred in the dark, in order to present himself in the light.

            Jim Conklin was Henrys friend.  He was tall and very talkative.  He was injured during the Henry’s first battle.  This causes a conflict in Henry for leaving his buddy to eventually die on the battlefield.  He ran like a coward and his friend died a hero because he stayed and fought.  Conklin’s death causes Henry to feel guilt and corrects his mental folly.  Henry learns to be brave, for his comrade Jim Conklin. 

            Wilson is Henry’s comrade.  The two of them become friends due to their
“experiences,” both have survived their first battle, and changed as a result, and both have lost a close friend, Jim Conklin.  Wilson looks after Henry due to his “battle wound.”  These two are comrades. 

            It is ironic because I describe Henry’s relationships with soldiers as comradery but in reality they were nothing more than lies.  Henry can never really develop any true comrades after his “first battle”  because his friends and him do not share the same experiences.  On one side there is the warred, the battled, the experienced Wilson and Jim, and on the other side is the weak, cowardly, inexperienced Henry.  They do not share the same interests or activities.  They may have a friendship but until Henry commits an act of true courage and bravery he will be all alone in his regiment.  He needs to destroy the barrier that divides his self-image from his appearance.  Henry is neither a coward nor a hero in his own eyes.  He has no true comrades.  If he were to leave the army right this instant he would feel empty and sorrowful for being a coward and leaving his “comrades” to die.  He has comrades but he does not have “comrades” in the sense of true comradery.

Comrade- A person who shares one’s interests or activities; a friend or companion

Courage vs. Cowardice

            The youth in The Red Badge of Courage is portrayed to be a coward in the beginning in chapters 5-8.  He fees from his company’s battle at the very first sight of danger.  He buys into a cheap story of fear and natural instinct to fear danger.  He sites a squirrel’s response to him throwing an acorn at it as evidence that his and others response was legitimate.  The youth deems the others who stay behind to fight as “Methodical idiots!  Machine-like fools!”  The youth forgets all of the glory and respect and purpose of war both tangible and ideological and runs.  “There was a race”  It was a race against the creature of war pursuing the deserters as if only to attack those that fall behind.  The youth is guilty as he returns to his comrades who have in fact fought the beast while he retreated to his mental substitute for what is actually war.

        He has been deceived into believing that the enemy, who is only human, is more powerful than man.  In reality it was an equal battle that was won in the minds of those involved.  “He felt a great anger against his comrades.  He knew it could be proved that they had been fools.”  Courage and Heroism is not buying into the lies and wills of those around you.  It is a form of independence, independence from the physiological wants and desires as well as the mental and emotional desires of man.  It is those who are above themselves, or at least perceived as above themselves that are courageous and heroic.

The Scarlet Letter—-Hester Prynne’s independence form society and her success with it

Beowulf—fearless, crazy warrior.  This is who he is a fighter. 

Courage is those who stand and fight for their cause, or beliefs no matter what is going to happen, win or lose.

            Crane uses a natural approach to show who or how courage and cowardice can be approached.  His character flees form the battle but reaches a realization out in the woods.  He returns to the battle to see what this loud sound of gun fight and sword clashes truly is.  Ironically the coward is returning to the battle to ensure that the regiment is all right.  He knows that his side has won and yet there is still a sense of danger as he returns to the camp.  The youth experiences guilt.  This is the danger that he has charged into headlong.  He at first was a coward but overcame this fear and is now battling to secure his manhood, his right in the army.  Out in the woods the youth sees a dead man being decomposed by ants.  He is discolored and rotting.  “The dead man and the living man exchanged a long look” It is in this interaction that the youth realizes that this will be him.  His guilt from deserting his regiment will eat him up much like the black ants did to the dead, faded, soldier.  Courage is not given to individuals it is not inherited it is earned.  Crane shows this by contrasting those wounded with the youth.  The men with “the red badge of courage” have earned their honor and courage.  The youth has not.  The youth is lost and confused.  Crane twists the courageous into the cowards through the plot of the battles.  One contest is never a way to judge a winner.  It requires a series to see the true colors of a man.      

Realism

            Realms and Naturalism are forms of literature derived from the romantic from of art.  Although popular and growing more and more realism will never completely take over romantic art. 

            Realisms most important influence has been on fiction and theater.  Balzac was a novelist who became the grandfather of literary realism through his series of novels called The Human Comedy.  In which he portrayed all aspects of life from prostitutes to political leaders.  Realism uses description to accurately portray people and things.  The long descriptive writing is the result of no technological vices to fill peoples idle time, they read books.   Balzac used outlandish topics and themes like mysteries and love affairs to base his books upon.  He used a realistic veneer or covering and a romantic base.  He was the grandfather of true realism. 

            Gustave Flaubert in 1857 produced Madame Bovary, a realistic piece of literature.  Flaubert used real stories and events to base his story on.  It was sort of like a biography pic. with a little bit of creative license.  He avoided clichés and stuck to a journalistic point of view.  He did not incorporate any romantic plots or characteristics, becoming a base on which for realism to stand, strictly business, just the facts and no shenanigans.  His novel is an “anti-romantic tract.”  The characters are deluded by the romantic books that the read in the Bovary story. It is an “anti-romantic manifesto” condemning those who do not think realistically, naturally.

            Realism will always exist because literature shifts between the two romantic and realistic to achieve an equal point of view.  Life is both outrageous and uneventful.  It is the best of both sides.  Zola another realist created worlds of intense detail.  He researched his settings and meticulously built a world out of words.  A new type of literature developed through realism, the scientific novel.  Characters of a certain type were placed in a certain environment and the reaction was observed by the reader.  Zola used this and at times used a rough tough exterior.  He was blunt and to the point, but still used a realistic form of writing.  His works were regarded as pornography because of his subtleties. 

            Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris used these French writers works to base there American works off of and successfully introduced realism and naturalism to American themes.  Zola was more modern than Balzac and Flaubert none the less realistic.   Realism and naturalism are forms of literature that are based on the romantic forms of art.  Without the later, realism and naturalism would cease to exist.  Romantics evolved into realistics which evolved into naturals.  A slow declination of make believable extremes has resulted into the realistic work of art.          

            It seems as if realism at first was romantic literature only without the absurdity and as times changed it developed into a dry real representation of life with an entertaining background story, the story being fiction and completely fack but seemingly real.  Realism. 

The Red Badge of Courage

Henry, the main character of the red badge of courage, deals with not only the physical exhaustion of war but the mental bearings as well.  He carries many tangible and intangible objects and ideas around with him. 

Intangible

1.)    Guilt- Henry is feeling guilty because he seems to be the only one that thinks that the war effort is crazy.  He is the only one who is concerned that they may run at the first sight of battle.

2.)    Remorse- Henry feels bad about joining the army.  He thought it was going to be grand and romantic when he left home but it wasn’t.  Know he wants to return home to his farm where the work was hard but worthwhile, unlike this war. 

3.)    Sadness- The youth in the army were tricked into joining.  They were promised to see battles, action and heroism, but instead they sit waiting in boredom for their next orders.  They were tricked into believing that there efforts will be of a romantic war type.

4.)    Hope- the tall skinny soldier is always coming up with word of orders from the generals.  He is hoping to see the actual battlefront, to see some action. 

5.)    Patience- The battalion is always waiting for their next orders.  Patience is a virtue. 

Tangible

1.)    Guns- All soldiers carry a firearm.  While the men were marching one soldier dropped his gun and reached for it only to have his hand crushed by the marching of the following soldier. 

2.)    Knapsacks- One heavyset soldier fought with a young civilian girl over her horse.  He was trying to use it to carry his knapsacks.  One can infer that these were heavy because as the soldiers went deeper into their march many of them left their knapsacks hoping to lighten their load by only carrying a gun and clothing. 

3.)    Tents- All soldiers carried tents.  They set them up in the fields at night to protect themselves from the elements.

4.)    Warm clothing- When Henry leaves his mother gives his warm sweaters to protect him from the cold.  She tells him to send them home as soon as they need mending so she can darn them. 

5.)    Tins- In one scene in a tent Henry sees tins blowing in the wind hanging on the walls of a tent that almost burned down due to the crappy flue.    

What do I carry?

1.)    Guilt-just like everyone else

2.)    Intellect-knowledge that is unbeknownst to others

3.)    Clothing- everyone wears it.  Its all the rage.

4.)    Reputation- everyone has a history, mean, tall, rude, blunt…

5.)    Skill- mad skills- axelogical ontology

6.)    Stuff- Traveldrive x2, a pen, a pencil, a headband, a lot of hair, and some lint

Song

 1. What is the occasion of the poem? What literary device does the poet employ? Describe what you know of the speaker, the listener, and the “she” referred to in the poem. 

Occasion- A guy is sending a rose to speak for him to his courtship

Literary devices- symbolism-rose represents him and his intentions

                        -Personifies the rose as if it was her.

2. Paraphrase each of the four stanzas.

                        I send this rose to tell her that is unsure, that she may finally know, my true intentions and feelings.  She is sweet and fair.

                        Tell her that is young, innocent and inexperienced that if she does not love she will be all alone and die alone because of her childish attitude.

                        Beauty is nothing when you are old.  Tell her to allow me to have her. Thtat she will not be bashful in the eye of courtship.

                        Then, rose, die so that if you are still in her sight she may see that all things do not last.  Remind her of the importance of her decision and its time of reply.  Now or never.

3. Describe the prosody, including stanza form, rhyme, meter, and notable metrical substitutions (spondees), as well as the structure of the poem. How do these choices help to reinforce the poem’s content?

            Prosody- meter (4-8-4-8-8)  it is 4 syllables followed by 8 then 4 and then 8,8.  (Dimeter-tetrameter-dimeter-tetrameter-tetrameter)

                        -rhymes-(a,ba,b,b) (c,d,c,d,d) (e,f,e,f,f,) (g,h,g,h,h)

                        -Spondees-command like phrases “Then Die”  “Tell her”  “Thou must”

                        The author is commanding the rose to control her.  It is controlling but hidden being the lyrical bounce of the poem and the nice rhymes.  It is like his true intentions hidden by the rose. 

Virtue

1. Consider first Herbert’s use of metaphor and personification. In each case, what two unlike things are being compared, and what do they have in common?

Metaphor-The “Sweet day” is compared to the bridal of earth and sky (the morning sunrise).  Both are cool, calm and bright/glorious. 

-The soul is compared to a seasoned timber.  It never gives, remains strong and true to its owner.  

Personification-the rose is characterized as angry and brave as it attracts the eyes of people.  The day of spring is sweet as well as the soul.  These objects of spring are given life much like the life that they have in the spring.

2. How is the poem structured, and how does this structure support its meaning? Consider parallelism, order, and the turn in the poem?

                        The poem presents four objects, a day of spring, a rose, spring the season, and the soul.  Each object in turn has beauty but then is abruptly ended by its, death.  The day ends, the rose dies, and the spring turns to summer/fall.  The final object is the soul.  It outlasts all other beauty.  It is capable of living after death.  That is the beauty of the soul.  It is just a timber in life but in death it is much more than all other worldly beauty.  The three preceding objects set the reader up for the last different topic, the soul.  This is the main point of “Virtue.”  All other “die” but the soul “lives”

3. How does the prosody reinforce the poem’s meaning?

                        The prosody reinforces the poems meaning by repeating the words “must die.”  The author rhymes with this phrase, “bright sky, wipe his eye, compacted lie” in each personifying stanza.  In the last stanza there is no rhyme with “ie”  instead it is gives/ lives.  This difference is the point of the poem The soul is unlike any other beauty.  It is beyond this worlds beauty. 

Promises Like Pie Crust

1. Describe the form and structure of the poem.  What is the occasion of the poem?  What two reasons does the speaker give for refusing to promise a committed love? What compromises does she suggest at the end?

            The author blames love for enslaving individuals toward each other.  She repeats the word “liberties” to show how freedom is within those who are uncommitted; unresponsible for one another.  “Keep we both our liberties”   The title indicates that the author does not want to start something she cannot finish.  “Promises Like Pie Crust” refers to an old English proverb.  Promises are made to be broken like pie crust.  At the end of the poem she compromises with “Let us be the friends we once were.”  She declines a man’s hand in marriage, “If I promised I believe I should fret to break the chain.”  She does not want to break a promise or enslave herself to anyone.   

2. Analyze the effect on meaning of such devices as syntax, repetition, parallelism and paradox.

            The author often places opposites together, juxtapose.  It shows how her view is different from others.  “Promise me no promises, So will I not promise you.”  It is a paradox, promising not to promise.  She repeats the word promise.  It is the focal point of the poem.  It shows how unreasonable it is making promises all the time.  There are so many that they have no meaning or purpose.  This is how the author views marriage, the ultimate promise.  It is only a ceremony and law that can be broken. It does not increase or change love, it puts a strangle on the relationship, law and boundary. 

3. Analyze the effect on meaning of imagery and figurative language.

            “I should fret to break the chain.”  A ball and chain is marriage to the author.  A trap you put yourself in by agreeing to, promising, to serve your other faithfully forever; forever.  Human is to ere.  This promise will always be broken, and the author could not put up with the effects of law and marriage.  Pre marriage love is warm and sunny, but after marriage it is cold and dark and not worth looking forward to anymore.  “Let us hold the die uncast.”  Once the mold has been set there is no turning back, no second chance.  The author is second guessing love and marriage before it is too late.  It is far to complex of a problem to solve.  The end does not justify the means.  The author is probably a literal thinker, always rolling with the odds. 

Auto Wreck

1. What imagery does Shapiro use in the first three lines to evoke sound and sight?  How do these images become increasingly significant in the context of the entire poem?

            The author describes the scene of a car crash.  “soft silver bell beating, beating/ and down the dark one ruby flare/ pulsing out red light like an artery”.  The noise and the sights are described with detail, the red lights glowing the beating of the siren on the ambulance.  The beating and the red is compared to a heart pumping blood through arteries, mans source of life.  It’s like the viewer is holding their breath as they see this fast acting ambulance barrel down the road.   This scene creates the atmosphere and mood of the poem, chaos and havoc rule the streets until the ambulance arrives.  The ambulance signifies death and devastation.   

2. On the literal level, what contextual significance do the following words and phrases have: mangled (line 9), “tolls once” (line 11), “terrible cargo” (line 12), “rocking, slightly rocking (line 13), deranged and composed (lines 15 and 16)?

            Mangled-the people, bodies, mind and scene

            Tolls once- It is the “whuiep”  the siren makes to alert of the officials- The deed is done

            Terrible cargo- death, injured person.-like a coffin-just a body

             Rocking, slightly rocking- peaceful serenity, comforting, soothing rocking

            Deranged and composed- civilians v officers.  Experience v inexperience 

3. Analyze the metaphors in lines 3, 18, 22, 29-30.  What pattern do they create and why is it appropriate to the poem?

            3-the red lights glow like blood on the ambulance

            18- Washing away the blood, getting rid of a dirty deed

            22- the tightening of throats due to graphic scenes.  The body is reacting to the horror being witnessed

            29-30- When is it are time to die?  The wound is the question of when and how each one of us will die.

            The mephores all deal with blood, the source of life, the pumping the pools the sight of it on the road.  It is someone’s power to live spilled out of them.  It is their death.

4.  What is added to the theme of the poem by the metaphors in lines 20-21 and the simile in 24-27?

            20-21-the light is bringing the casualties back to reality-the resurrecting of the individual lives after the fact

            24-27-the promises that we make to never be a victim and then almost immediately forget the whole incident. 

            “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da life goes on bra, la-la how the life goes on.” The Beatles

Complaint to His Purse

1. Describe the form called rime royal: meter, rhyme scheme, stanza form.
Meter- decameter (iambic-pentameter)
Rhyme scheme- ababbcc
Stanza form- three sestets followed by one quintet

2. What is the structure of the poem? How do imagery and argument of each stanza develop and intensify the appeal?
The poem is created as to develop the theme over time more and more. In the first stanza Chaucer begs for money from the Lady or Queen. In the second stanza Chaucer speaks of the golden yellow shimmer of the golden coins in the purse and how it is his supply of life, “Or see youre colour, lik the sonne bright” In the third stanza Chaucer speaks of how if he cannot get money if he can at least escape “Out of this towne helpe me thurgh your might.” In the final stanza Chaucer wraps up the poem by begging the Queen for help to escape his debt (supplication). “And ye, that mowen alle aoure harmes amende, / Have minde upon my supplicacioun.” Chaucer is pleading to the all powerful monarch to help him, the people.

3. In exploring the extended metaphor of the poem, consider how diction accounts for the humor of Chaucer’s parody.
Chaucer sees the Queen as a purse, full of money that needs spending. “To you, my purs, complaine I…” He says “Beeth heavy again” This statement refers to not only the weight of the gold in the purse but also the physical condition of the royal. While the people are struggling to get by, the kings and queens are profiting huge sums from the peasants and plebian. Even though the Queen is all powerful through the poem Chaucer looks down upon the nobility. He pokes fun at them by exaggerating his condition and creating a joke out of his monetary appearance, “For I am shave as neigh as any frère. “Ye purs, that been to me my lives light / and saviour, s in this world down here…” The Queen is a god on earth because of her wealth and power. This is poking fun at the Queen because god is all powerful without money or gold.

4. How does the envoy of a poem continue the tone of the poem even as it addresses a specific person?
It states that King Henry IV is powerful and victorious. It is a plea from Chaucer to the King to reclaim his control over his conquered land and fix the problems of his people quite specifically Chaucer’s. “Have mind upon my supplicacion.”