Poetry in Eb

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.”

Spring and Fall

 1.  Hopkins’s short lyric shares some elements with the sonnet, but it is a nonce form, invented for this poem only. Hopkins’ idiosyncratic meter, which he dubbed “sprung rhythm,” uses accent marks over certain syllables. What is the dominate meter and line length? What is the rhyme scheme? Describe the poem’s structure.

            Meter-7 and 8 syllables            lines- 15 lines                rhyme scheme- couplets separated by an odd line 9

2.  What is the effect of the frequent use of alliteration in the poem? Combined with assonance and consonance, what mood does this device create?

            The alliteration and the sound devices create a sad mournful mood.  They create a rhythm that makes it feel as if it was meant to be and that there is little to nothing that we as man can do in hindsight.  “ by an by, nor spare a sigh”  “worlds of wanwood”  “heart heard”  It sounds like a eulogy.   

3.  Comment on the effect created by such unusual diction as Goldengrove and unleaving (line 2), fresh (line 4), wanwood and leafmeal (line 8), springs (line 11), and blight (line 14). How do the connotations of these words create the poem’s mood?

            Margaret does not want to leave Goldengrove.  Unleaving is a double negative that throws the reader off.  The language is uncommon, creating a sense of distance.  Death is created through the loss of matter and connections.  Distance = death.  The plant matter (leafmeal) is alluding to Margaret’s death. 

4.  Anaylze the poet’s use of figurative language.  How doe it suggest the theme of the poem?

            The figurative language is showing how there is a season for everything.  Everything is of the earth and will return.  No matter how misshapen man makes something it will return to the earth. 

The Oven Bird

1.  Frost’s poem, like Hopkin’s, borrows from the sonnet form.  What is the meter, rhyme scheme, and structure?

            Meter-decameter (one-two-tri-pl-et-tri-pl-et-two –one)

rhyme scheme-aabcbdcdeefgfg

structure-fallows the meter (a)-(a)-(b-c-b)-(d-c-d)-(e)-(e) + an ending quatrain

2.  Paraphrase the three messages of the oven bird, then analyze the meaning of the word fall as it encapsulates the theme of the poem.

            The bird is warning the others of the limitations of their happiness.  All good things come to an end.  The Fall of spring/growth.  The Fall the Season.  The fall of man “But that he knows in singing not to sing”.—allusion to Eden and the tree of knowledge.   

3.  Paraphrase the last four lines of the poem.  How does the oven bird symbolize the human condition?

            Human condition- help those who can’t help themselves.  Experience v. Inexperience.   The bird is experienced and lets the others know through song that Spring does not last.

            He would stop but he knows he must not sing as if happy but to warn the others of their mistake.  The good times will end and then where will the birds be.  What are the birds to do if the end is to come.

            Frost has a pessimistic view on good things.  If they all end what is the point in celebrating or singing.    

The Story We Know

Bilingual Sestina

1.   Sestina?

The poem is 6 stanzas of 6 lines and a 3 line ending stanza.  Words are repeated at the end of each line in this pattern, abcdef, faebdc, cfdabe, ecdfad, deacfb, bdfeca.  It ends using all of these repeated words in the last

3 line stanza.

2.  What is the effect of personification and allusion?  What is the Spanish counterpart to each?  Sum stanza 1.

The author personifies the English language as “snowy, blonde, blue-eyed, gum chewing”.  She compares the English language to a ditzy blonde who mindlessly chews gum.  The language has no deeper meaning or thought, compassion.  The first stanza says, some things just can’t be said in English like they can in Spanish, camas, nombre.  The accents and use off the palette evoke a deeper meaning in the word.   

 3.    Mood in stanza two?  Language=mood?

The mood in stanza two is one of regret and disparity towards the authors troubled perplexed position.  “the sounds of Spanish wash over me like warm island waters as I say your soothing names.”  “a child again learning the nombres of things you point to in the world before English turned sol, tierra, cielo, luna ti vocabulary words…”  The English language is a antagonist to the author.  It belittles the effects of romance language.  The pause—in the poem creates a negative feeling towards the English vocabulary words that follow. 

4.   Stanzas two and three, difference between names and vocabulary words?  Morivivir illustrated this gap.  The genii metaphor and the nature of language?

Words are only a mere representation of the actual thing that they name.  In no way can a word create the same feeling within the person using it as the actual tangible object that it names or the experience it describes.  Words are frail susceptible parts of language.  Language is frail, limited by its own components, much like the internet and AOL and text messaging.  They all create a false feeling, not the true natural amazingly complex feeling that the morivivir created.  As children this plant was so unique that even morivivir could not describe it.  The “playing dead”, in English, even that name does not do justice to the plant.  It is sheer genius, the creation and sight of this plant, wilting as if it were dead on impact as to survive predation and immediately after returning to “health”.  The “genii in a bottle” is referring to the truth that is hidden behind the language.  No word can rub the lamp or the bottle to get the magical feeling to come out.  Language is limited much like a genii.  Trapped within its own limits.

5.   Stanzas 4+5 speaker involves Gladys and Rosario from her childhood, why?  How is her sensitivity to words inextricably bound to Spanish, her first language?  What is significant about the allusion to Adam, the first man? 

The author refers to her childhood to show how the world is different viewed form both languages.  As a child her innocence is compared to Spanish and as an adult her responsibilities of life are compared to English.  Spanish is playful and deep.  English is monotonous and work oriented, it gets the job done the best and fastest way possible.  Adam was the first uncorrupted man.  She was at first uncorrupted by English and now that the author knows it she cannot forget it.  It is like the sin that Adam committed in the Garden of Eden.  English to the author is sin to Adam.  Like Adam there is a deep desire to fix what went wrong just as man strives for good, the author strives for Spanish her native language.      

Death Be Not Proud