Moby-Dick Commentary: Ch.21-22

Going Aboard

Melville has dictated an entire chapter simply for the act of boarding the Pequod. Why? On the surface, it seems a chapter that easily could have been an extension on the chapter before or combined with the one following. Perhaps it is meant to emphasize the point of no return. Entering the rabbit hole.

Pg. 95 "Unless its before the Grand Jury."

Meaning God?

Merry Christmas

The title of this is peculiar to me, for I don't recall any indication that it was in fact Christmas or even the holiday season. There is no celebration, and only one comment about the date in the whole chapter. Christmas = Birth of Christ. Who is christ? What does christ symbolize in this novel? The launching of the ship = Birth of Christ? Who does it save, from what sins?

Moby-Dick Commentary: Ch. 19-20

The Prophet

Pg. 90 "And nothing about his losing his leg last voyage according to the prophecy."

A prophecy implies the unalterable will of God. Enforces the idea of whaling as religion.

Pg. 91 "Elijah."

A 'prophet and hero', known for his courageous act of standing up to King Ahab, for introducing an idol to the Jewish Kingdom. Like King Ahab, captain Ahab, and all the sailors who follow him, treat whaling like worship. Elijah the prophet was also known for bringing turmbulent weather; foreshadow?

All Astir

Pg. 93 "never did any woman better deserve her name...Aunt Charity"

From a feminist perspective of the novel, Aunt Charity is a deeply respected and needed member of the Pequod. While she herself doesn't sail, she provides all the neccessary items and goods for the crew before sailing. She seems empowered and confident.

Pg. 94 "I said nothing and tried to think nothing"

Is this blind following, act of trust the same as 'faith'?

WWI Reflected in 'The Big Two-Hearted River'

The First World War was the greatest, most horrific war mankind had ever seen up until that point. A war fought over morals of justice, equality, freedom, it served as one of the most immoral periods in man's history as civilians became targets and mass-bloodshed became common. By some, it was called "La Guerre du Droit (the War for Justice)"; by others "The War to End All Wars". In this way, WWI was a "Two-Hearted River". Also, as soldiers serving in the War felt patriotic, proud, and righteous, many returned home experiencing extreme shell shock (now known as post-traumatic stress syndrome) and were never able to recover. In this way, military service and role of a soldier was a "Two-Hearted River".

Nick is a soldier. This is seen in his ability to bear heavy loads and his extreme physical endurance. It is seen also in his lack of luxury needs, his desire for silence and solitude, and his appreciation of a cigarette.

The black and burnt landscape which he returns home to in reminiscent of a bombed and exploited landscape. Like the aftermath of war, the aftermath of the fire has left the area lifeless, empty. What was once lush, is now charred. It also reinforces the idea of shell-shock experienced by soldiers at war, who often return home and cannot appreciate and reconnect with it. After their traumatic experiences at war, home for them becomes a lifeless landscape.

The trout, like politicians and, more often than not, the enemies, they are unharmed by the massive fire, protected by the cool river. The insects in the story seem to represent civilians in the face of war. While Nick pities a blackened one trying to reestablish life at one point, he ruthlessly fashions them for fish bait at another. Like most soldiers at war, Nick was able to eradicate feelings of pity when a job needed to be done, and lives had to be sacrificed to achieve that. This again reinforces the 'Two-Hearted" nature of soldiers in war.

"The Sun Also Rises" is arguably written in a similar fashion as this short story: dancing around the theme of war, while keeping its presence entirely implied. Reading "The Big Two-Hearted River" can help one prepare for Hemingway's novel by training the mind to see references to war when they aren't directly stated. Perhaps characters in the novel share the same 'two-hearted nature' as the character in this short story. By reading this short story before hand, the nature may be more easily identifiable in the characters of the novel.

Dialectical Journal: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Pages 80-193)

Pg. 89 "In search of things"

The disallusion of material items.

Pg. 90 "Mislove"

Mistaken Love. Was that the emotions and actions of Janie's Grandma? Or has Janie misconstrued her Grandma's love in such a way to make it sound less than it was. What is love?

Pg. 96 "He was jumping her king"

Janie's king is this false front that she worked so hard to establish; the mastered disconnection between her appearance and true emotions. This fellowis playing at more than just a game of chess. He knocking down more than her hard won kings.

Pg. 99 "quenching the thirst of the day"

Do we live for rest? How much of the world that Janie lives in works in the day only to sleep at night?

Pg. 100 "Fact is, she decided to treat him...around there again."

Playing hard to get? For a woman complaining about how old she has grown, she sure is acting like a school girl. If she really did't care for him, she wouldn't intentionally treat him one way or another, just laugh off his advances like she does all the rest. She must like him.

Pg. 101 "Crazy Thing!...beaming out with light"

So much for treating him coldly. Amazing how simple kindness can overcome negativity.

Pg. 102 "they made a lot of laughter out of nothing"

Janie is loving life now, at this moment, with Tea Cake. The speaker has created a great connection between happyness, laughter, and love. For Janie at least, one cannot exist without the other.

Pg. 102 "Tea Cake went out to the lemon tree..had lemonade too"

The fruit motif. Life literally gave Janie lemons and she made lemonade. Metaphorically, too.

Pg. 116 "Hurry up and come...never could be mad with you!"

Sounds just too good to be true. I don't think that this bliss can last much longer.

Pg. 128 "she tooks things the way he wanted her to"

Maybe its innocent, but it seems that Tea Cake is getting a little too much control over her.

Pg. 132 "they made good money, even to the children...up with the present"

Foreshadow: perfection never lasts long.

Pg. 141 "Us oughta class off."

Mrs. Turner, human in her aspirations, and human in her flaws. Her close association with Janies proves that 'class' is only an illusion created in the mind.

Pg. 141 "You reckon?...We'se too poor"

Janie has grown.

Pg. 145 "all gods who recieve homage are cruel"

Interesting. We give gods the power to be cruel over us. Like Janie's grandma who saw material wealth as the end all of end alls. And how Janie saw Jody. The bodies Janie returned from at the begining of the story, mindless people "with their eyes thrown wide in Judgement", are those who worship at unattainable alters. Their eyes were watching God.

Pg. 145 "Half gods are worshipped...require blood."

Tea Cake...a half god? What blood will God soon be demanding?

Pg. 156 "If I never see you no mo' on earth, Ah'll meet you in Africa."

This was a phrase originally used by those slaves brought to America from Africa, by people who dreamed of returning to their home, freedom. These characters are still enslaved, although law declares them free. Slaves to class and to economics.

Pg. 156 "Others hurried east like...snakes and coons."

Formal education and money keep Janie and Tea Cake planted while others leave, which seems to be a bad descision of the part of Tea Cake and Janie. Again, we see people compared with animals. Only, in the case I predict that these natural instincts will be more valuable than anything taught in school. Books won't save you from a Hurricane.

Pg. 157 "Don't care how good anybody sould play a harp, God woudl rather to hear a guitar."

This speaks mountains about these characters. I have to say, I love this line. A guitar can capture the sorrow, soul, and spirit of these people in a way no refined, eloquent instrument could. If God's require blood, they demand a sacrifice of yourself. He wants the suffering, pleasure, and soul of these people. Pompous wealth means little to Him.

Pg. 159 "If you kin see de light at day break, you don't keer if you die at dusk."

Like all great saints, Janie has found the true meaning of purpose and God. When Moses saw the burning bush, he didn't care what he had to risk to get his people free.

Pg. 163 "swim, man. Dat's all."

This author has a sick sense of humor, naming him 'Motor Boat'.

Pg. 172 "De ones de white man knows...laughed with her"

Janie and Tea Cake fell in love making 'laughter out of nothing'. Is that what they are doing here? Finding humor in the empty anger and prejudice of people, that really amounts to nothing.

Pg. 184 "Tea Cake crumpled...teeth from her arm"

Has he gone to Africa?

Pg. 192 "Lawd! Pheoby breathed...about livin' fuh themselves"

So, Janie may free her people after all. She ain't no moses, and her people are slaves in a different way. But god is guiding her all the same.

Pg. 193 "Tea Cake, with sun for a shawl"

He is her burning bush. Tea Cake showed Janie the word of god.

Pg. 193 "She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net...over her shoulders"

A tree preparing for winter, pulling the nutrients from its leaves into its roots, and then dropping the golden leaves to the ground to create soil for others. Winter is coming in Janie's lifetime. She never had children, but one can already see rebirth in others. Pheoby 's won't be the only eyes Janie opens.

Dialectical Journal: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Pages 1-80)

Pg. 1 "Ships at a distance have every man's wish onboard... That is the life of men."

A very pessimistic tone with which to begin the book. It seems to be a metaphor appliable to all people. "Men" seems synonymous with "humans".

Pg. 1 "Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget."

The narrator has drawn a distinct line between men and women. Perhaps this foreshadows a theme of "the role of women in a man's world". The speaker voice must be woman. Has she had some kind of experience with men to give her this judgmental attitude.

Pg. 1 "The dream is the truth."

There seems to be something desperate in this line. Someone who believes this must be living in a situation where the present is only bearable because of hope for the future. What dream is this speaker holding onto that she needs so desperately to be true?

Pg. 1 "It was time to hear things and talk...They say in judgment."

These characters are living in a society where the right to free speech is oppressed. The fact that they exercise their right in darkness shows that humanities and ethics still exist among them. Maybe this will become an optomistic book. At least these characters have thinking and judging minds, if only at night. I don't think the speaker is necessarily criticizing them, perhaps empathizing with them.

Pg. 2 "Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times...It was mass cruelty."

Okay, strike what I said before, the speaker does not empathize with these characters. It's interesting that she refers to this as 'mass cruelty', but not having to deal with the bloated bodies earlier in the day.

Pg. 2 "A mood come alive. Words walking without masters; walking altogether like harmony in a song."

Group think.

Pg. 2 "What she doin coming back here in dem overhalls?...wid her hair swingin' down her back lak some young gal?"

So, the speaker is not a typical woman in that society. Is she rebellious? Certainly is a noncomformist, at least by those men's standards.

Pg. 2 "Why don't she stay in her class?"

Considering the men were describing money, and nice clothes earlier, she must be from a "higher" class than these men or at least they perceive her to be. And as we heard earlier, she percieves women (including herself) to be higher intellectually than men.

Pg. 2 "The porch couldn't talk for lookin"

Again, the speaker classifies all these men as one in the same. A single thought.

Pg. 2 "They, the men, were saving with the mind what they lost with the eye."

What have these characters already lost in dignity and humanity to have no desire for respect and self discipline.

Pg. 2 "It was a weapon against her strength and if it turned turned out of no significance"

Was she leading a rebellion? Is seems the 'it' may have been the death of all those people who's bodies she buried earlier.


Pg. 4 "They hope the answer were cruel and strange"


Are these characters in such a tough spot in life that they must find suffering in someone else to find pleasure in their own lives? The author draws a comparison between people and animals in some situations, but in thsi the characters seem distinctly human. What other animal finds pleasure in the suffering of another of its kind? What other animal feels envy and seeks revenge?


Pg. 5 "An envious heart makes a treacherous ear."


This book already seems to be developing the theme of a class struggle.


Pg. 6 "dis year and a half y'all aint seen me"


It seems like a great story is being foreshadowed, about hat year and a hafl she was gone.


Pg. 8 "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf...dawn and doom was in the branches."


Trees in leaf are plump full of sun a nutrients from summer and spring. However, it means that winter is up and coming and the tree must quickily draw the nutrients into itself and drop the leaves. Whatever Janie has just returned from must have filled her with happiness, joy, sustinence, and she is displaying that to the world, but now she senses a 'winter' coming, or maybe its time to bear fruit, for the rush of her life to end and another to begin. Oh, maybe she's pregnant?


Pg. 14 "De nigger woman is a mule..as ah can see"


The metaphor and motif of mule appears again. Why is it that the workers, those who bear the responsibility of carrying the load which all are dependent on, are looked down upon?


Pg. 18 "In de black dark...by de river"


A reference to moses? Is this baby supposed to be the saviour for her people? Has that sense of purpose been passed to Janie?


Pg. 20 "cracked plate"


It's not that 'it doesn't have much use left in it" but that its a dish other people use, depend on, in their daily lives. Use without thanks. People need it to feed themselves. They often pray over the food on the plate, but are never grateful for the plate itself. It's cracked because those using it haven't taken care of it. Even when its cracked though, a plate is still useful. It's jsut not something you put out for company. Perhaps something you don't like to use yourself, and would like to throw out.


Pg. 21 "There are years that ask questions and years that answer...the sin the day?"


If this is a year for asking questions, it is foreshadowing a year for answers. Answers that will probably be contradictory to what she is told now or expects.


Pg. 21 "often-mentioned 60 acres"


Sarcam, or bitterness in these words. Killicks must be a man of wealth; and Janie sees wealth not in possessions or property but in the pollenation of a fruit tree.

Pg. 25 "a bloom time, a green time, and an orange time"

A lifetime...or a childhood...

Pg. 25 "A stallion rolling the in the blue pasture of ether"

A wild, bucking, uncontrollable thing intentionally sedated itself. Or thinks its free while it cripples and limits itself. The animal, curious, natural side of humanity suppressing itself through civilized society and economy.

Pg. 25 "Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman"

If for women "the dream is the truth" than how does having a dream die make a girl a woman? Perhaps the speaker is noting that women do not have far-fetched, fantastical dreams. The present is what it is, and women make it as good as it can be, without chasing a wishful thought.

Pg. 55 "The the matter of the mule, for instance"

So, Joe can draw a comparison almost unconsiously between "his woman" and a mule. This enforces the perception of women as livestock.

Pg. 56 "Mule has sense"

No longer is the person 'animalified', but the animal 'personified'. I finally get it, I think. Matt and his mule is symbolic of a relationship between a man and wife. Perhaps a foreshadow of where Janie's relationship is heading.

Pg. 56 "The was a little seriousness...didn't cost him anything."

Matt probably cares for his mule, doesn't spoil it, but doesn't mean to really neglect it. Joe looks down on men like Matt, but would Joe be able to handle himself and get over a situation like the ones Matt is put through? I doubt it.

Pg. 56 "She snatched her head away from the spectacle...Wish't Ah had mah way wid 'em ali."

Why does Janie pity the mule? Does she conciously sympathize with it? Perhaps she remembers what her grandma said about mules and black women. Maybe she no sees the truth in the statement.

Pg. 58 "Didn't buy im fuh no work...tuh do it."

Joe redemed. If the mule incident was a symbol for a man and wife, potentially a foreshadow for Janie's life, at least it has a happy ending. Of perhaps its a story of how her life would have been is she had remained married to Killicks, but like the mule, she was rescued by Joe.

Pg. 60 "the joys of mule-heaven to which the dear brother had departed this valley of sorrow...the raw-hide to his back"

Haha. Considering the mule symbolism for black women...what is heaven like for a black woman? Humorous.

Pg. 65 "Nature makes caution... He made nature and nature made everything else."

Funny, the two 'dimmest' seeming characters thus far in the story, stumble upon one of the greatest truths. Perhaps this is reenforcing the idea that formal education and economic wealth is insignificant in a life, when one loses sight or becomes unaware of the natural truths in a life.

Pg. 72 "She had an inside and an outside...not to mix them."

A year for answers.

Pg. 76 "Now and again she thought...and considered flight"

Bird motif. We are all birds part of a flock. Can fly high, but can never quite reach heaven. Flight: running away from the bad? Or running toward the good, a dream? or both?

Pg. 76 "She didn't read books so she didn't know...boiled down to a drop"

Reenforcing the theme of formal education vs. instinctively or naturally obtained knowledge. She didn't need books to understand morality and rightness.

Literary Device: Catalexis

Incompleteness of the last foot at the end of a verse.

Example:

One more unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death!

Function:

The first and third lines given are dactylic, but the second and last lines are missing the syllables which would normally complete the dactyl. Perhaps the author employs the techniques because the incompleteness in the lines emphasizes that the life lost was not yet complete, the character not ready to die. Or perhaps it was employed in order to add an 'abrupt sounding' quality to the piece, reenforcing the premature nature of the death.

Literary Device: Hyperbole

an evident exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.

Example:

"For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God!"

Function:

In Luke 18:25, Jesus is teaching his disciples about wealth. As a merchant passes by on a camel, he uses the hyperbole to stress the importance of his message.

Literary Device: Rhyme and Meter

In order to pass the "Poetry" section of the AP Literature and Composition exam, one should use necessary terms and (as the great Alaskan Governor would say) "verbage" in order to impress your reader. Here are some that may help:

End Rhyme- the rhyming of words that appear at the ends of two or more lines of poetry
". ...I am going to choke you,
Until you turn blue.
Or will you turn red?
I'll just choke you till you're dead..."

Approximate Rhyme- words that sound similar but do not rhyme exactly
"...he who likes slavery,
has no morals to live by..."

Refrain- a line or phrase repeated throughout a poem, sometimes with variations, often at the end of each stanza.
"... a dog that misbehaves,
deserves to be beaten
and also you,
deserve to be beaten..."

Meter- the basic rhythmic structure of a verse, and usually depends on acoustic properties of the spoken words, such as the length or stress of their syllables.
"
Iamb- a two-syllable metrical foot consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by one accented syllable.
" I had a little dog,
It's fur was soft as wool;
It followed me around,
My home, my street, my school."

Trochee- Reverse of the iamb. A metrical foot of two syllables, one long (or stressed) and one short (or unstressed).
"Trochee/ trips from/ long to/ short"

Anapest- A metrical foot of three syllables, two short (or unstressed) followed by one long (or stressed).
"And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold"

Dactyl- a three-syllable metrical foot, consisting of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables.
"Picture your self in a boat on a river with
tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es"

The Second Coming!

Cried Chicken Little.

In a typical 'doomsday fashion', the Second Coming fears for survival (spiritual and literal) of mankind. Not to say that it is an insignificant poem, because it is not. The fact that the 'deeper idea' presented in the poem will be familar to nearly all audiences is part of what makes the poem timeless. What this poem is saying in 1920, people would still say today in 2008:

"...the center cannot hold;...surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand..."

Female Power in 'A Game of Chess'

I know, I know, the titled of this post is a little Oxymoron. But that was intentional. Throughout T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland" we see themes and motifs that tie together the 5 sections that differ so much in format and tone. One such motif is female power. The motif itself is sometimes tied to the theme "the becoming of female power in a wasteland created by men" as well as "the loss of female power". In the second section, A Game of Chess, this motif is explored in depth, representing both themes.

A description of a woman on 'throne-like' furniture, the opening of the section, is a reference to a historic female ruler Dido, who was known for acting on emotion and passion. However, many regarded Dido as 'act of control', 'unstable'. After a description of her luxurious furnishing, the attention of the poem is turned to the 'Unstoppered' perfumes. Not only does dowsing herself in perfume (used to hide odors) enforce the motif of 'false reality, unreal', it is transforming this queen-like figure into a more desperate, sadder, entity.

Again, the poem is turned to decour. This time to a wooden mantel. Specific references to water ('sea-wood', 'dolphin swam') are reminicent of "Ophelia", a great female character of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" who lost her life drowning.

References of nighten-gales begin appearing. Traditionally the song of this bird was sad, and of lament, as it was often associated with rape of revenge.

The female entity has become a wasteland, trapped like a piece in a game of chess.

Lyrical Terrorist

Can poetry be a form of terrorism?
Apparently so.
Here is an article published in 'The Times' November 2007
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2836243.ece

"She had the ideology, ability and determination to access and download material, which could have been useful to terrorists.”

“Poetry can be described as disturbing, shocking, even repulsive. What is the intent? Is it to shock, to revolt? That in itself doesn’t make it criminal and it doesn’t help you to get into the mind of who has written it.”

How to Behead

Hold him
Tie the arms behind his back
And bandage his legs together
Just by the ankles
Blindfold the punk
So that he won't hesitate as much
For on seeing the sharp pointy knife
He'll begin to shake
And continuously scream like an eedyat
And jiggle like a jelly
Trust me – this will sure get you angry
It's better to have at least two or three brothers by your side
Who can hold the fool
Because as soon as the warm sharp knife
Touches his naked flesh
He'll come to know what'll happen

Helpful Link: What the Thunder Said

While browsing the net for anything remotely related to T.S. Eliot that could help me pass the upcoming poetry test for AP class, I came across this incredibly helpful site: What the Thunder Said. It is a " a site devoted to the works and life of T.S. Eliot". Are there such things as Poetic Extremists?

Literary Device: Connotation

an association that comes along with a particular word. Connotations relate not to a word's actual meaning, or denotation, but rather to the ideas or qualities that are implied by that word.

Example:

I saw on the slant hill a putrid lamb,
Propped with daisies. The sleep looked deep,
The face nudged in the green pillow
But the guts were out for crows to eat

Function:

In Richard Eberhart's "For a Lamb", those feelings associated with lamb (such as innosense, peace, purity, gentleness) only highlight the ugliness of the situation. So, the connotation of the word serves to reenforce the tone of the poem.

Immature Poets Imitate; Mature Poets Steal

For those of you who avidly follow this blog, you may remember the post "Theivery", in which I placed a link to a sight listing allusion within "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". Well, I have now realized that the quote I presented in that post was incomplete. Here is how it is finished:

"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal;

bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different."

- T. S. Eliot

A Little Something About 'Tarot'

For anyone reading "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot, I would think that having a basic understanding of Tarot is critical. If you are anything like me, you have found yourself facing the poem without any background or knowledge of these 'fortune-telling' cards. Here is a link to 'The Pictorial Key to the Tarot' by Arthur Edward Waite.

Also, applying an author's personal background to their work can reveal a deeper understanding of the text. In case anyone was wondering, the tarot card that matches Eliot's birthdate (9/26/1888) is 'The Heirophant'.

Blues...

Can't hear the wind no more
I said, can't hear the waves no more
I listen and listen. That wind is gone for good.

Can't hear the waves no more
I beg, only for a whisper
I can't remember what it was they used to say.

Can't hear the wind
Can't hear the waves
Are they speaking?
Or is it I who has forgot how to listen.

Literary Device: Caesura

A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by metrics.

Example:

At dinner, in that careful rouge of light
of five or six martinis, you could pass
for Ginger Rongers; we could dance all night
on tiny tabletops as slick as glass
in flying shiny shoes. As Fred Astaire,
my wrinkles grow distinguished as we dine,
my bald spot festers with the growth of hair,
I grow intelligent about the wine.

Function:

In Ted Kooser's "Anniversary", the literary device 'caesura' is employed to reenforce the atmosphere of a couple's anniversary wedding. As the couple are drinking, forgetting their age, the lines breaks are placed in such as way that the poem read very quickily. When the poem turns to descriptions of age and reality, line breaks are placed at natural pauses in speech (caesura's) and underlined with punctuation, making the poem read particularly slowly, like an old persons movement.

a Tear for a Toss

Form: a new challenge? or a suffocating restriction? For the students of Skagway's AP class, writing in traditional form would hopefully help them to recognize the subtle techniques and statements one can control through the form of a poem. Here is my first ever 'published' poem, a villanelle. Enjoy :)

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed

Sweet Nectar coated hands to never touch again

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Damp wings beat against the glass without end

Dawn reveals colored husk to never hatch children;

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed.

Dew drops clung to fallen leaves and the dead

Dark bone, cracked by an axe. Layers of rings, the grain

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Dimming spots, like a river, bled and bled

Down into the dust, the goddess of felines slain;

Peach pit tossed into the sea before bed.

Distant bird calls, screeches; they have all fled

Dark painted people, moving on, ways forgotten

Ask, What are tears for; When should they be shed?

Grey sky parted, pouring rain the color red

Never enough moisture to quench the parched earth. Again

That damned peach pit tossed into the sea before bed!
If not this, what are tears for?
When, if ever, should they be shed?

May Death Unite All

"The Heights of Macchu Picchu, III", translated by James Wright, suggests that disease and death obtain their power not in the people or lives they eliminate, but in their ability to make all individuals equal. As the title of the piece explains, the poem is discussing the the great civilization of the Incas, who built their empire amongst the jagged cliffs of the Andes. More specifically, it recalls an event that may have been what destroyed them: a plague of an unstoppable, uncurable sickness.

Beginning with the comparison of the 'human soul' during an epidemic, to the harvesting and storing of corn (1-2) seems to clarify that the story is being told by an indigenous speaker (rather than by an outsider of the culture). Choosing 'maize' (1) as the crop of harvest also bears significance to the poem. Maize was a plant worshipped by the Incas, the source of all life and substance. So, it seems to be suggesting human souls approach 'cleanliness' during plagues of suffering. As the poem continues, it explains why that is.

These diseases, the poem states, contain the ability to wipe out a population (4-5), causing "not only one death, but many deaths". But it then discusses the insignificance of a death, calling it "a tiny death..a light flicked off in the mud..pierced into each man like a short lance" (5-7). The author is reenforcing the idea of equality. When sickness strikes, each man has an equal chance of dying; each man that contracts disease faces the same fate and each man that dies lays motionless in the same way. Earlier, 'souls' during an epidemic are suggested to be approaching 'godliness' (1-2). Equality is considered morally right, as 'godly' as 'maize'.

People from all walks of life were apparently taken by the plague; from "the captain of the plough" to "the rag-picker of snarled streets" (10-11). Although on the surface level, the poem may seem to be depressing, pained, in tone when it says "everybody lost heart, anxiously waiting for death", but it is actually spoken in a tone of reverence. The people are waiting for sleep and rest, and one can argue that in those finals moments of life, the Incans must have reached a point of acceptance, drinking their bad luck with "shaking hands".

Sonnet This, and Sonnet That...

"Everyone should write at least one sonnet in a lifetime."
- Conrad Geller

As I have read, there are really only two basic guidelines for a 'traditional' sonnet:

A. There are 14 lines.

B. The poet introduces at least one volta (or a jump or shift in direction of the emotions or thought), usually somewhat after the middle of the Sonnet.

There are then two distinct style of Sonnet: Italian and English.

The Italian Sonnets-

Often referred to as "Petrearchan" Sonnets, were is existance before the now more popular 'English' Sonnet. Apparently, they are usually written with a long line of five beats (iambic pentameter), and use 'envelop rhyme'. Some believe it may have developed from the sestina. However, as I am unable to read or understand italian, I can't personally discuss an Italian poets rhythmatic schemes.

The following is an English translation of a Petrach sonnet:

Soleasi Nel Mio Cor
She ruled in beauty o'er this heart of mine,
A noble lady in a humble home,
And now her time for heavenly bliss has come,
'Tis I am mortal proved, and she divine.
The soul that all its blessings must resign,
And love whose light no more on earth finds room,
Might rend the rocks with pity for their doom,
Yet none their sorrows can in words enshrine;
They weep within my heart; and ears are deaf
Save mine alone, and I am crushed with care,
And naught remains to me save mournful breath.
Assuredly but dust and shade we are,
Assuredly desire is blind and brief,
Assuredly its hope but ends in death.

Translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson

The English Sonnets-

Often referred to as "Shakespearean" Sonnets, developed from the Italian sonnet. Apparently they use 'alternating rhymes' and the number of rhymes is 7 and concludes with a rhymed couplet.

The following is one of the most famous pieces by the father of English sonnets:

Sonnet XVIII

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this and this gives life to thee. by William Shakespeare

Sweet Blues!

Hard Time Killing Floor

by: Chris Thomas King

Hard time here and everywhere you go

Times is harder than ever been before

And the people are driftin' from door to door

Can't find no heaven, I don't care where they go

Hear me tell you people, just before I go

These hard times will kill you just dry long so

Well, you hear me singin' my lonesome song

These hard times can last us so very long

If I ever get off this killin' floor

I'll never get down this low no more

No-no, no-no, I'll never get down this low no more

And you say you had money, you better be sure

'Cause these hard times will drive you from door to door

Sing this song and I ain't gonna sing no more

Sing this song and I ain't gonna sing no more

These hard times will drive you from door to door

To hear this poetry put to music, click on the title of the poem, or visit this website:
http://www.last.fm/music/Chris+Thomas+King/_/Hard+Time+Killing+Floor+Blues

An Explication of 'Punk Pantoum'

Our society lives in a disconnect.

As Noam Chomsky would say, we are becoming obsessed with consumerism, capitalism. 'Punk Pantoum' is a commentary on that disconnect, and what it does to a life.

In this poem, we hear the speaker, asking a lover to commit suicide with him. The speaker comes from a wealthy background and was raised in a place of fine horses, elegance, prestige. However, he connects the place he lives in with 'rats, a severed fetlock, muscle, bone and hooves'. He sees that artificiality in those who feel comfortable in capital success. However, 'there's a new song' for the speaker and his lover. A new release, escape from the disconnected world. Like many youth in the world today, the speaker and his lover have turned to 'cutting' to find focus in an artificial world, to feel real pain. "Blood jewels" are enticing to him, because unlike shiny, cold jewels, these ones are real, require pain to create, and were once part of someone. The 'new song', or solution, to their situation is to commit suicide together. The speaker mentions his lovers 'final bruise', after death, she can have no more bruises. With a razor, they plan to create tracks more real than those raced on and bet over by the wealthy.

Literary Device: Symbol

from Greek word 'symbolon' meaning "token, watchword" (applied c.250 by Cyprian of Carthage to the Apostles' Creed, on the notion of the "mark" that distinguishes Christians from pagans). Something which stands for something else - Online Etymology Dictionary

Example:

-- a poor
dry stick given
one more chance by the whims
of swamp water— a bough
that still, after all these years,
could take root,
sprout, branch out, bud—
make of its life a breathing
palace of leaves.

Function:

In Mary Oliver's "Crossing the Swamp", the 'poor dry stick' struggling to flourish in the dark swamp symbolizes the typical, simple man trying to achieve success. By using this technique of symbolism, the author was able to create an even deeper relationship between the speaker and swamp.

Helpful Link: Punk Pantoum

The Pantoum is a vital format to understand if you wish to be successful on the AP Literature and Composition exam in May, or so my teacher says. Here's a link to a pantoum poem you may find helpful. "Punk Pantoum" by: Pamela Stewart
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/aupoem149.html

AP English: What's the Point?

Of the poem. Not the class :)

When considering James Wright's "Lying in a Hammock At William Duffy's Farm in Pine Islands, Minnesota" without the last line of the poem, the speaker sits placidly in a hammock describing the world around him: a butterfly on a tree trunk, sounds of cowbells, a chicken hawk flying overhead. The speaker seems very observatory, attune to the details such as how butterfly wings are blown by the wind "like a leaf in green shadow". He is a person content, comfortable with him surroundings, which he often describes as "golden", able to "lean back" and fall asleep in his outdoor hammock.

The title alone enforces the relaxed tone of the poem. 'Lying in a Hammock' is a relaxing past-time. The fluid shape, that rocks with the wind, creates the image of a restful afternoon. Farms are often associated with 'simple' ways of life, men being connected to the earth and land. So, the fact that the speaker is on a farm promotes and earthy, raw, satisfied tone in the poem.

Although descriptions of different things going on in the farm seem a little disconnected, it just seems the magnify the images of those separate things.

However, all of these interpretations are made without considering the very last, and perhaps most vital, line of the poem "I have wasted my life". Now let us consider the scene and speaker again.

A solitary speaker watches the world around him (a sleeping butterfly, blown by the wind, cows moving with the herd undirected, a lonely hawk) contemplating the waste of his life. He seems to be a lazy individual, as he lays in a hammock from morning, through the afternoon, and into the evening, rocking in the wind. He mentions 'the empty house', highlighting his lonely life style, perhaps he has no family.

The title sheds light on his life style: a farmer of Minnesota. It clarifies that all the images the speaker is describing, are being watched from a hammock: an insecure (although comfortable) place of rest. As the poem describes the actions of a day, from morning until dark, perhaps it is a reflection of his life, beginning to end, and the title compares his life to 'lying in a hammock'.

All of the speaker's descriptions of the natural world are separated, each an individual image, and often presiding an adjective such as 'bronze' or 'gold', lasting metals. As a farmer, he has a certain connection to the land, perhaps he is seeing himself in these small scenes.

"I see the bronze butterfly, asleep on the black trunk, blowing like a leaf in green shadow." Like a the sleeping butterfly, he is in a state of rest, blown and control by the wind, 'bronze' lasting, in the shadow of 'life' (green).

"The cowbells follow one another into the distances of the afternoon." Men, like a herd of cattle, travel undirected, ringing their bells for the world to hear. Perhaps he feels like he too followed others to the end of his life (afternoon) never really going anywhere beyond 'the ravine'.

"A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home." He is the chicken hawk, floats on the winds, looking for his cause, where he belongs, a place to land, a family.

Like the sun pattern in the course of a day, the poem goes from seemingly warm and open (like the rising sun and 'bronze' butterfly) transferring into a sweating, dreary mood (like the hot summer sun and baking horse manuer) and finally ending in lonely exhaustion (like darkness after the sun has set, a solitary hawk, a wasted life).

Lesson of this exercise: Every line in a poem bears significance. If it didn't, the author would not have included it! So consider the importance of every word choice, every statement, especially the note that the author chooses to end on.

La Sestina de Popeye

John Ashbery's "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape" represents the classic sestina; six stanzas of six lines, with a tercet conclusion.

A visual representation by Shelby Surdyk of "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape"

The poem itself is based on the characters of the Popeye comic. On the surface, it is a dramatic scene within Popeye's apartment, involving the Sea Hag, Whimpy, Swee'pea, Olive, and Popeye, as represented in the image above. The Sea Hag, a seemingly ugly woman as her cleft chin is described as having a solitary hair, lays on the couch of Popeye's apartment. Whimpy, who seems very concerned with eating spinach, seems to feel constrained by the apartment that the Sea Hag is comfortable in. An unexpected arrival of the character Swee'pea shakes things up a little further, as he has a note 'pinned to his bib'. The note itself seems threatening in nature, perhaps to discourage the sea hags presence there. Suddenly a fourth character, Olive Oyl, enters the apartment via the window. She announces that Popeye 'heaves bolts of loving thunder', which thunder within and around the apartment. Olive threatens the Sea Hag, saying she would only have darkness and thunder to grow old to, then grabs Swee'pea and exits. The Sea Hags seems perturbed at first by the interupption, and even 'fearful', but quickily finds comfort again within the darkness, the thunder, and Popeye's apartment. In the end, it is discovered that Popeye watches from a distance, as thunder overtakes the apartment.

However, one must assume, by the 'mysterious' nature of the piece, and the technically difficult aspect of creating the sestina, that author intends for the reader to see something deeper.


Some meaning can be extracted from the title itself: "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape". Rutabagas used before pumpkins to create jack-o-lanterns, symbols of trapped souls. Farm Implements could mean techniques, reasoning, and 'laws' of farm life, or equipment needed for farm life, or both. Farm- a symbol for 'rural', 'simple', or perhaps 'uncivilized' life. So, the title seems to be suggesting that the poem is about trapped souls, the items necessary for 'farm life', and simple-minded reasoning all within one landscape, one scene, the apartment.


The repeating words of this poem are (in order of how they are in the first stanza): thunder, apartment, country, pleasant, scratched, spinach.

The Villanelle

One Art
by: Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something everyday. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing further, losing faster:
places and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

The poem 'One Art' is literally a story of the speaker's lost things in life (items, places, people, etc.). However, in a deeper sense, as the title implies, it draws a connection between the mental control one gains after over coming loss, and what it takes to maintain 'poetic control'. Although the speaker of the poem discusses loss (something normally associated with sadness, depression, negativity) the tone of this villanelle is not mournful or regretful. Rather it has an encouraging and seemily controlled tone (saying that a loss 'wasn't a disaster') like a victim who has now recovered, not forgetting past events, but not letting them dictate the future.

Using the format of a villanelle was therefore extremely effective for the author. The repetitive rhyming scheme invokes witty and technically difficult lines. For example

'Lose something everyday. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.'

This line skillfully capture the 'sing-songy' moral lessons of folk songs and rhymes 'an apple a day, keeps the doctor away', so keeps the light hearted nature of the poem.
The repeating lines emphesize how unavoidable loss is. As you read through the poem, you become accostomed to the repeating lines, the same way one becomes accustomed to loss.

Traveling Through the Dark

In William Stafford's "Traveling Through the Dark", the speaker reaches a dilemma. Does he toss the dead doe, swollen with a still alive unborn fawn, into the canyon? Does he leave the 'heap' on the side of the road, because he hasn't the heart to throw an unborn fawn to its death? Or does he take more of his own time, to figure out someway to save it?

When he sees the dead dear on the of the road, he pulls over to get rid of the dear so that no other cars must swerve for its body, which could potentially cause more deaths. This shows that the speaker is a considerate person. However, he seems disturbed by the idea of 'swerving', which shows that although considerate, he doesn't enjoy throwing himself off track in mercy or attempt to save something else. When he pauses, to give the dilemma more thought, he refers to the moment of reflection as his 'only swerving', before tossing the carcass into the canyon. It was the only time he spent 'swerving' or avoiding his original goal; throw the deer off the road. As 'swerving' can 'cause more deaths' and is referred to negatively else where in the poem, it seems that is speaker is proud that the pause was his only 'swerving' but disappointed he swerved at all.

This poem is made of up contrasting imagery: descriptions of the narrow canyon road, the dead doe carcass, the warmth of its living fawn, and the mechanical car in idle. Perhaps the dark, narrow road is symbolic of the narrow passage of life that chasing a career can lead you too. The death-like canyon representing the consequences of 'swerving' from that path. The dead deer; the humanity, pity, mercy that can still exist inside a man driven for corporate power. The car, which is given animal like qualities such as 'purring', is perhaps commenting on the confusion between living and 'artificially life', mechanical life; quality of life vs. corporate success. In the end, the speaker choses to return to his vehicle, after only a slight 'swerve'.

As far as structure of the poem goes, there is some rhyming scheme in place. The end words of the second and fourth lines of each stanzas are slightly similar in sound. 'Road' 'Dead', perhaps reflecting the negative perception of the road by the author. 'Killing' 'Belly', the speaker's dilemma is over killing what lies in the belly of the doe. 'Waiting' 'Hesitated', he hesitated for the fawn. 'Engine' 'Listen', in the end, the speaker listened to the call of 'society', returning to the road. It exists between the first and third lines of the second and third stanzas as well. 'Car' 'Cold', again the connection between the cold hearted nature of the mechanical world, driving along the road towards corporate success. 'Reason --' 'Born' this seems to illuminate the speakers more compassionate side, his 'natural instict', reason, is connected to 'birth', he wants the fawn to be born. Also, the sheer contrast between the end words of the first and third lines of the second stanza, versus those of the third stanza seems to bare some importance. 'Cold' and 'Car' draw from the corporate world, and seem negative in their connection. 'Reason' and 'Born' draw from the natural world, using good reaon, natural instinct, and birth, and seem to be positive in their connection. Finally, the last stanza has only two, giving the impression that it is unfinished. Perhaps this is because the speaker was not completely content with his final decision; still uneasy, unsettled about throwing the unborn fawn over the edge.

Finding Tone

With a hastily cut-out image of "Dumbo" taped to my shirt, I stood to begin the class debate.

"Good afternoon. Today, I will be representing the affermative side of the resolve 'Current immigration laws should be enforced.'
Let me first begin by saying what a fine president we have in office today..."

By this point, the advantage of my class, as well as my opponent was starting to giggle. How can that be? If we look literally at the situation, I was displaying an elephant (symbol of the republican party) on my outfit and was only starting the introduction of the debate. The key to making that situation funny was the tone. Now, I am by no means a republican, but was assigned to represent the 'conservative' side of an argument for class. So, when speaking of our republican president, I did so with over exaggerated fondness. The tone of my presentation was in no way serious or in agreement with the resolve.

When reading a piece of literature, you must determine what the tone of the piece is, in order to fully appreciate it. Understanding how to identify tone, and how it may change throughout a piece, will help you not only get an 'A' in AP literature, but allow you to have a more memorable experience and develop a deeper bond with that which you read.

Here is my interpretation of 'tone' from three poem.

"The Telephone" by Robert Frost:

"When I was just as far as I could walk
From here today,
There was an hour
All still
When leaning with my head against a flower
I heard you talk.
Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say--
You spoke from that flower on the windowsill--
Do you remember what it was you said?"

"First tell me what it was you thought you heard."

"Having found the flower and driven a bee away,
I leaned my head,
And holding by the stalk,
I listened and I thought I caught the word--
What was it? Did you call me by my name?
Or did you say--
Someone said 'Come'--I heard it as I bowed."

"I may have thought as much, but not aloud."

"Well, so I came."

Here is a piece that goes from being very confident in its tone at the beginning, to what seems a little desperate and unsure, but the overall tone of the piece is hopeful. The lead speaker of the poem may have stumbled in his confidence, the energy of the poem remains hopeful at the end.
"..When leaning with my head against a flower, I heard you talk. Don't say I didn't..." This line shows the main speaker's confident attitude

"The Flea" by John Donne:

MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.

O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
' Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.

I started Early-- Took my Dog

Emily Dickinson's poem, "I started Early-- Took my Dog", is a prime example of an allegorical poem. Through a system of related symbols, she transforms a walk to the sea, to an encounter with a man.

I started Early- Took my Dog
And visited the Sea-
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to look at me-

And Frigates- in the Upper Floor
Extended Hempen Hands-
Presuming Me to be a Mouse-
Aground- upon the Sands-

But no Man moved Me- till the Tide
Went past my simple Shoe-
And past my Apron- and my Belt
And past my Bodice-too-

And made as He would eat me up-
As wholly as a Dew
Upon a Dandelion's Sleeve-
And then- I started-too-

And He- He followed- close behind-
I felt His Silver Heel
Upon my Ankle- Then my Shoes
Would overflow with Pearl-

Until We met the Solid Town-
No One He seemed to know-
And bowling- with a Mighty look-
At me- The Sea withdrew-

How Peculiar, are the Nature of Choices

Have you ever made a choice you regret? Held two stones up to the light and compared the way light dances on their surface, only to pocket the one less brilliant?

In "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, we see the story of a speaker, walking in a yellow wood, who must choose between two paths when arriving at a fork in the road. The speaker chooses one, expecting to come back another day to the other, but realizes that "way leads on to way", and that more choices and forks will arise, she won't be coming back. Later, she will embellish the story of the paths in the woods and tell others that she 'chose the one less traveled by' , although both paths had looked similarly well trod at the time.
As she reflects she 'sighs', signaling the regret she feels for her choice. As the saying goes 'the grass is always greener on the other side', and the speaker desires the possibilities of the 'other path'.

Why is it that a choice between two similar roads would make such a big difference many years later? Although the two paths were worn 'about the same', they take you in different directions. Either choice you make, you will end up in a different location than if you had taken the other. As time passes, you come to more forks in the paths, are confronted with more choices. Each choice you makes, multiply's the force of the one you made before it. Years later, you have gone so far from the original diversion in the yellow wood, you can only wonder where choice 2 could have taken you.

As readers (and hard working AP students!) we are confronted with a diverged path as well: how we choose to interpret the text. One way you could consider the poem is a young woman's choice to have an abortion...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

Yellow is the color of cowardice. A young woman pregnat looks at the two 'paths' diverging before her, and fears where either would take her. One, an abortion- destruction of a life. The other, birth- a heavy responsibility, a harder life.

And sorry I could not travel both,
And be one traveler, long I stood

She is sorry that she can't both save the life of a child, and maintain her same lifestyle.

And looked down one as far as I could
To where is bent in the undergrowth;

As she looks down the path of birth, what does she see? Well to a young woman, the path looks bent and dark, like the path in the undergrowth. It would take her away from the life she has now, bring more responsibility and work. Perhaps it would cause negative responses from her peers and society, bringing shame and embarrassment.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim,

So, she chooses the abortion, which doesn't seem so unnormal or wrong. In fact, it may even be better for the child, than to be brought up in a household unfit for raising it.

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Grass is green, the color of life. The choice of abortion would seem to preserve her way of life, and is what seems encouraged by society.

Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

But although she can tell herself all these things about either choice she makes, she sees that there will be regrets either way.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

And she see how had either choice might benefit her, the joys of raising a child.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to ways,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

She thought she could save birth for later in life, but sees as the path she has chose leads to new things and further from motherhood; she doubts it is ever a choice she will return to.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Sigh, a signal of regret.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

And Which Road Will You Take?

"You have to be careful of that one: it's a tricky poem- very tricky."

- Robert Frost, on his poem "The Road Not Taken"

Even the author of this poem predicted that many people would misinterpret what it means. Here's a great website discussing different ways to interpret the poem. (Make sure to read the comments at the bottom of the page!)

http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/robert_frost_s_tricky_poem

Aren't We All Apple-Pickers, After All?

For the speaker of 'After Apple-Picking' by Robert Frost, life revolves around the harvest. The apple trees he is dependent on are dependent on the seasons. So he must pick with the changes natures.

He has a great desire to make a good harvest, but as he descends the ladder pointed towards heaven after apple-picking, he sees what little he truly has achieved during the season: the barrels that are left to be filled, and apples left unpicked. When he dreams, the apple-picking is never ending. In nature, winter is the end of the year, the time of rest. As he approaches the end of his apple-picking season, and the beginning of winter, he fears what type of rest awaits him.

Literary Device: Allusion

1548, from L. allusionem (nom. allusio) "a playing with, a reference to," from allus-, stem of alludere (see allude). An allusion is never an outright or explicit mention of the person or thing the speaker seems to have in mind. - Online Etymology Dictionary

Example:

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; do doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
Almost, at times, the Fool.

Function:

In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", Prufrock wishes to approach a woman and declare his love for her, but fears being rejected or disturbing the society around him. Seen in the lines above is a reference to William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Prince Hamlet was an intellectual, passionate character who suffered from internal struggle and who took extreme, hasty action in the end. Eliot employs this reference to show that Prufrock was not a man of action or youthful passion. The reference to 'the fool' Polonius, the father of Prince Hamlet's lover, is further create's the idea that Prufrock is an old man. Perhaps to old to for a passionate act of love.

Thievery

"Immature poets imitate, Mature poets steal."

-T.S. Eliot

Eliot is a thief. He knows it. He admits it. And he expects his readers to understand it. He expects them to recognize where he has stolen thoughts, lines, and ideas from. He expects you to see the connections between those stolen goods. Poetry is a complex system of symbols and images. If a reader cannot process the allusions created by T. S. Eliot, they miss the meaning of his poetry completely.

In the case of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", here is a great site that points out the allusions within the poem. What? You haven't read Dante's Inferno? Well...better get started.

http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/5616/prufrock.html

Prufrock's Universe

As a teenage girl, I've heard about a million love songs (played on the radio, danced to on T.V., and hummed incessantly by many of my friends) but none have been so depressing in their realism, descriptive in their images, or thought provoking in their nature as "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".

It seems to me that Prufrock is a man established in society; one who understands social custom and etiquette. He lives in a universe where all actions and thoughts are prescribed, expected, and have their noses powdered. In all of the mannerisms, all of the conformity, Prufrock sees that he is beginning to disintegrate. Love, union with another being, with a woman, seems to be the only thing he truly desires. It would give his life sustenance; protect him from the loneliness of old age. So, this poem is the internal struggle, "Does he dare?" disturb the universe, offer his heart up for a woman, and risk being rejected? "Does he dare?" take no action what so ever, sit and wonder 'what if?', and ultimately end his life as one of those lonely, pipe-smoking men he so despises?

"The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep."

Prufrock is the yellow smoke. Rubbing his back upon the window-panes. Disconnected from the world on the other side, viewing it from behind a glass wall. Like the fog that lingers, Prufrock lingers in indecision and inaction. Like the yellow smoke, Prufrock is only in the present, to fade and disappear in time.

"Arms that are braceleted and white and bare,
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it the perfume on the dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And how should I then presume?
And how should I begin?"

This imagery of a woman shows Prufrock's desire for her. His appreciation for her beauty; his distress over how to approach her.

"I do not think that they will sing to me,
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves,
Combing the white hair of the wave blown back,
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown."

Mermaids are unreal, imaginary, untouchable. Prufrock fears that any spark, attraction he has felt between himself and the woman may have only been imagined. Prufrock decides that 'We' as people of this universe, let ourselves become lost in these wishful thoughts and games, only to be forced back to reality where we find ourselves not with mermaids, but lost at sea. Prufrock does not approach the woman.

2008-2009 AP Literature

This blog serves to make the work and assignments completed by Shelby Surdyk in AP Literature and Composition readily available to her classmates and instructor. To see course description and instructor insights, visit http://skagwayap.blogspot.com/
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