Another poet I like! (Wow! A 200% increase in this semester!)
To me the last line of the 2nd section is what "Sone of Myself" is about: "You shall listen to all sides and filter them from you self." While reading the rest of "Song of Myself" this seems to be a major point for Whitman.
Another major theme of Whitman's is death. But not in a bad or depressing way. Whitman holds no fear of death (at least he claims in his writings.) It gives hope. "They are alive and well womewhere/The smallest sprout shows there is really no death/.../All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses" (line 125-6, 129)
There are many more lines about death, but I like individuality better--so here are a few more of those.
"...conformity/goes to the fourth-remov'd/I wear my hat as I please indoor and out" (line 396-8).
"I exist as I am, that is enough/If no other in thw world be aware I sit content/And is each and all be aware I sit content/One world is aware and by far the largest to me, and that is myself" (413-6).
"I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise" (330).
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Emily Dickenson
Emily Dickenson was the first American poet I liked. So I relish any time to read her work. Four Dickenson poems stuck out to me this time around.
"Sauces is counted sweetest" caught me off guard. Usually success is counted sweetest to those that work hard and end up succeeding. Not those who work hard and end up failing. And that those who have not achieved it are the people who can define victory seems, for lack of a better term, inaccurate. I could agree with the "success is counted sweetest" statement, but I'm not sure of the "can tell the definition" statement. How can one define something they have no knowledge about? The last stanza is truly heart wrenching. To think of working towards a goal and then to die--defeated--within earshot of said goal must indeed be agonizing.
"Much madness is divinest sense" proved a tough difficult to understand at first (the word divinest set me running in two different directions.) But once understood it is so true! Assent to the madness you know is wrong and your accepted but dare to disagree or speak out and your considered an extremist and carted off.
"I taste a liquor never brewed" has become one of my favorite Dickenson poems. To me--and I believe all of Dickenson's poems are up to interpretation--it is about living life to the fullest. Living in excess as one would to become drunk. Enjoy life--every moment--regardless of what others do around you. Live for no other reason than enjoyment--for this is the greatest and sweetest reason there is.
"Tell all the truth but tell it slant." I have heard of this poem so many times but never taken the time to read it. I'm glad it was assigned or else I may have forgotten about it. But I'm not sure I agree with it. Is the truth really too harsh for people to deal with?Does it depend on the person or is it really that "...every man be blind"? Id o like how it says "Tell all the truth..." Perhaps the statement of the poem is to not be brutally honest, but still honest.
"Sauces is counted sweetest" caught me off guard. Usually success is counted sweetest to those that work hard and end up succeeding. Not those who work hard and end up failing. And that those who have not achieved it are the people who can define victory seems, for lack of a better term, inaccurate. I could agree with the "success is counted sweetest" statement, but I'm not sure of the "can tell the definition" statement. How can one define something they have no knowledge about? The last stanza is truly heart wrenching. To think of working towards a goal and then to die--defeated--within earshot of said goal must indeed be agonizing.
"Much madness is divinest sense" proved a tough difficult to understand at first (the word divinest set me running in two different directions.) But once understood it is so true! Assent to the madness you know is wrong and your accepted but dare to disagree or speak out and your considered an extremist and carted off.
"I taste a liquor never brewed" has become one of my favorite Dickenson poems. To me--and I believe all of Dickenson's poems are up to interpretation--it is about living life to the fullest. Living in excess as one would to become drunk. Enjoy life--every moment--regardless of what others do around you. Live for no other reason than enjoyment--for this is the greatest and sweetest reason there is.
"Tell all the truth but tell it slant." I have heard of this poem so many times but never taken the time to read it. I'm glad it was assigned or else I may have forgotten about it. But I'm not sure I agree with it. Is the truth really too harsh for people to deal with?Does it depend on the person or is it really that "...every man be blind"? Id o like how it says "Tell all the truth..." Perhaps the statement of the poem is to not be brutally honest, but still honest.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Bartleby
I enjoy Melville's story. But I don't get it.
At the beginning: (And perhaps this has to do more with my frustration about my current work situation. ) I thought that Bartleby was standing up for workers. He was hired to copy and copy he did. And apparently very well. But he was not hired to examine copies or fetch the mail or play errand boy or fetch other people. I liked Bartleby standing up to an overly demanding boss.
In the middle: When he gave up copying, I dismissed my previous decision and was totally confused. But maybe Bartleby had some deep connection to the place. Obviously he held the fourth key that the narrator had never known where it was. But if he was homeless, where did he stay before the narrator posted a want ad for another copyist? Was he there all along and no body noticed him?
At the end: I had given up trying to understand Bartleby and Melville alike. Until the last paragraph about Bartleby previously working in the Dead Letter office. Perhaps I'm just dense, but what does that have to do with anything? So it might be sad to work with messages that may have been important that never reached the rightful people. So? I find it hard to think that it can make one so sad as to kill them.
Overall, I am confused and annoyed. If anyone can help explain this story I would greatly appreciate it.
At the beginning: (And perhaps this has to do more with my frustration about my current work situation. ) I thought that Bartleby was standing up for workers. He was hired to copy and copy he did. And apparently very well. But he was not hired to examine copies or fetch the mail or play errand boy or fetch other people. I liked Bartleby standing up to an overly demanding boss.
In the middle: When he gave up copying, I dismissed my previous decision and was totally confused. But maybe Bartleby had some deep connection to the place. Obviously he held the fourth key that the narrator had never known where it was. But if he was homeless, where did he stay before the narrator posted a want ad for another copyist? Was he there all along and no body noticed him?
At the end: I had given up trying to understand Bartleby and Melville alike. Until the last paragraph about Bartleby previously working in the Dead Letter office. Perhaps I'm just dense, but what does that have to do with anything? So it might be sad to work with messages that may have been important that never reached the rightful people. So? I find it hard to think that it can make one so sad as to kill them.
Overall, I am confused and annoyed. If anyone can help explain this story I would greatly appreciate it.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Uncle Tom's Cabin 4: Legree
I know I should be writing on Tom's Jesus-like death or Eva's mayrterism or Eliza's final freedom. But I'm not going to. To me Simon LeGree is a fascinating character. (After all I story must have a great antagonist to be truly compelling.) But what made LeGree such a brutal man? Something must have happened in any person's past to bring them to this degree of cruelty. The best/most forward expaination comes in Chapter 35.
Simon was brought up in a conflicted home. His mother was overly pious and his father was hard and unloving. Why he followed his father's example is unknown, but more than likely it was simple rebellion. A child is always with his or her mother and for something new often is drawn to their father. And in many cases with boys, they look towards their father for direction in life. And, thus, Simon started on his path to cruelty.
The second part to Simon's path is when his mother almost persuades him to renounce his sins and become, for lack of a better word, Christian. Such a conversion is difficult and sin has a powerful hold. I think that at this time, Simon was torn in two for the rest of his life. In his heart he knows what is right. But to accept his mother's position after all these years he sees as a sign of weakness. So he goes to the farthest extreme and become more cruel than even.
With a little bit of Simon's background maybe we can see that he was made into what he is. I'm not saying that is makes ANY of his actions right or justified. But it does help to understand him more. And maybe Simon is due for a little sympathy also.
Simon was brought up in a conflicted home. His mother was overly pious and his father was hard and unloving. Why he followed his father's example is unknown, but more than likely it was simple rebellion. A child is always with his or her mother and for something new often is drawn to their father. And in many cases with boys, they look towards their father for direction in life. And, thus, Simon started on his path to cruelty.
The second part to Simon's path is when his mother almost persuades him to renounce his sins and become, for lack of a better word, Christian. Such a conversion is difficult and sin has a powerful hold. I think that at this time, Simon was torn in two for the rest of his life. In his heart he knows what is right. But to accept his mother's position after all these years he sees as a sign of weakness. So he goes to the farthest extreme and become more cruel than even.
With a little bit of Simon's background maybe we can see that he was made into what he is. I'm not saying that is makes ANY of his actions right or justified. But it does help to understand him more. And maybe Simon is due for a little sympathy also.
Uncle Tom's Cabin 3: George and George
Chapter 17 is another of my favorites. I once read a critique of Uncle Tom's Cabin where George Harris was compared with George Washington. So when I read George's vow to freedom that's what I think of. George Washington fought for America's freedom. George Harris at face value fought only for his own. But through Stowe's words, he fights for all Africans who just want to be free to protect their families and live as they choose to.
When George Harris says, "A Mr. Harris, of Kentucky, did call me his property. But now I'm a free man, standing on God's free soil; and my wife and my child I claim as mine," I think of the great speeches of George Washington's. They both stood fighting to be free.
The connection becomes a bit more obvious when he says, "I know very well that you've got the law on your side, and the power...But you haven't got us. We don't own your laws; we don't own your country; we stand here as free, under God's sky, as you are; and, by the great God that made us, we'll fight for our liberty till we die." I get goosebumps.
When George Harris says, "A Mr. Harris, of Kentucky, did call me his property. But now I'm a free man, standing on God's free soil; and my wife and my child I claim as mine," I think of the great speeches of George Washington's. They both stood fighting to be free.
The connection becomes a bit more obvious when he says, "I know very well that you've got the law on your side, and the power...But you haven't got us. We don't own your laws; we don't own your country; we stand here as free, under God's sky, as you are; and, by the great God that made us, we'll fight for our liberty till we die." I get goosebumps.
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