""'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'" Line 11
This entire poem is one giant metaphor for the inevitability of man's mortality. Shelley uses vivid imagery, talking of the "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand[ing] in the desert..." to show the loneliness and barren atmosphere of this spot that was once a great center of a mighty kingdom. There is no doubt ancient Egypt was a powerful and innovative civilization that ruled the world for thousands of years. Their vast empire was remarkable in its efficiency and organization. However, it too, as all great civilizations do, fell. Greece followed this pattern, followed by Rome, and in our modern world, the British Empire and the Soviet Union. The irony is in the words on the engravings that remain, that this Pharaoh was so conceited as to tell others to despair when they saw the might of his kingdom. He is now the king of sand and desert, and his once great civilization is nothing more than ruins now.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
"APO 96225" by Larry Rottman
"'Dear Mom, sure rains a lot here.'" Line 3
War is hell. And this poem makes it quite obvious. We all know this familiar story. We see it all over the news today. A young man goes off to war. He writes back home, expressing all of the positive aspects of the hostile environment he lives in so as not to worry his loved ones back home. However, this poem takes it a step further by the young man literally describing some of the horrors of what he goes through. His mother and father are horrified at what he says. Their son, their beloved son, killed a man. he murdered innocent civilians: women and children were burned by napalm because of him. It is also ironic in that his mother repeatedly asked him to tell her how it was. She knew war was terrible, and wanted him to express the things he did and saw to her; however, when he reveals the true nature of his work, his mother was "upset" and he again reverted to his vague letters back home.
War is hell. And this poem makes it quite obvious. We all know this familiar story. We see it all over the news today. A young man goes off to war. He writes back home, expressing all of the positive aspects of the hostile environment he lives in so as not to worry his loved ones back home. However, this poem takes it a step further by the young man literally describing some of the horrors of what he goes through. His mother and father are horrified at what he says. Their son, their beloved son, killed a man. he murdered innocent civilians: women and children were burned by napalm because of him. It is also ironic in that his mother repeatedly asked him to tell her how it was. She knew war was terrible, and wanted him to express the things he did and saw to her; however, when he reveals the true nature of his work, his mother was "upset" and he again reverted to his vague letters back home.
"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy
"Her good nature wore out like a fan belt." Lines 14-15
Piercy expresses a theme that's hard to miss. Moreover, she does it satirically. Piercy shows the problem with the media's idea of what a woman should be. The young girl in the poem grew up with kitchen sets and baby dolls, following the ideal girl's childhood traditions. However, at the age puberty set in, although she was perfectly normal, her appearance was brought to the attention of others in her class. One must question why she was "apologetic" over her differences, since otherwise she was intelligent, dexterous, and behaviorally normal. this social isolation, this bullying, drove this girl to do the unthinkable. Piercy brings to light the struggles young women face all over the world to live up to the standards set before them on womanhood. She also warns of the dangers of keeping this standard, and shows the extremes that it can lead to.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
"Toads" by Philip Larkin
"Why should I let the toad work Squat on my life?" Lines 1-2
Larkin cleverly uses a toad as a representation of stress. Stress, like a toad, "Squats" on everyone's lives. It uses its "sickening poison" to take up the days of our week, just to "pay the bills". the "Folks who live on their wits" are intellectuals who seemingly overcome the struggles of stress. In reality, is this true? From the poor working man's perspective, it certainly seems that way. They don't feel the stress of a low income job. On the other end of the spectrum, those who live "up lanes", who live simply and quietly in the country, seem to live without toads bothering them. This man, caught in the middle of the two worlds, is obviously bitter about it. He feels it deep in his soul, "cold" and "hunkering". It restricts him from finding life's real luxuries and inhibits his success. What a cynical poem this is.
Larkin cleverly uses a toad as a representation of stress. Stress, like a toad, "Squats" on everyone's lives. It uses its "sickening poison" to take up the days of our week, just to "pay the bills". the "Folks who live on their wits" are intellectuals who seemingly overcome the struggles of stress. In reality, is this true? From the poor working man's perspective, it certainly seems that way. They don't feel the stress of a low income job. On the other end of the spectrum, those who live "up lanes", who live simply and quietly in the country, seem to live without toads bothering them. This man, caught in the middle of the two worlds, is obviously bitter about it. He feels it deep in his soul, "cold" and "hunkering". It restricts him from finding life's real luxuries and inhibits his success. What a cynical poem this is.
"Pink Dog" by Elizabeth Bishop
"Oh, never have I seen a dog so bare! Naked and pink, without a single hair..." Lines 4-5
Bishop's poem is much more than a simple tribute to Carnival in Rio de Janerio. She uses the pink dog as a metaphor for a human. The speaker of the poem, speaking to the dog, is a metaphor for society and media influences. She repeatedly tells the dog how pathetic and strange it looks. Furthermore, she tries to frighten the dog, saying that beggars, cripples, idiots, and drunks are murdered for their social undoings. She says, "what would they do to sick, four-legged dogs?" in an attempt to frighten the dog into wearing something for carnival. She tells it to dress up nice, just as the media tells us to do certain things and act certain ways. In my opinion, there is a naked pink dog inside each and every one of us.
Bishop's poem is much more than a simple tribute to Carnival in Rio de Janerio. She uses the pink dog as a metaphor for a human. The speaker of the poem, speaking to the dog, is a metaphor for society and media influences. She repeatedly tells the dog how pathetic and strange it looks. Furthermore, she tries to frighten the dog, saying that beggars, cripples, idiots, and drunks are murdered for their social undoings. She says, "what would they do to sick, four-legged dogs?" in an attempt to frighten the dog into wearing something for carnival. She tells it to dress up nice, just as the media tells us to do certain things and act certain ways. In my opinion, there is a naked pink dog inside each and every one of us.
"Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes
"What happens to a dream deferred?" Line 1
Hughes' work is one of shattered dreams and cool anger, compressed into a very short-yet very effective- poem. Imagery is widely present in the "what if"s in the reading. This particular poem also uses many similes in its short span. These describe the possibilities of what happen to a dream. Though not literal, they are all significant in that they represent what can happen if a goal is put off for too long a period of time. Perhaps the goal will "dry up", in that the motivation needed to pursue it no longer exists: it runs out, dries up. Or the dream could "fester like a sore", become something terrible and deformed, no longer driven by good intentions but with a wayward objective. Maybe the dream would "stink like rotten mean", again becoming foul from not being taken advantage of at the proper opportunity. If it "sags like a heavy load", perhaps it is now such a burden it cannot be loved or appreciated any longer. Hughes effectively emphasizes the bitterness and disappointment of a lost dream through his similes and imagery.
Hughes' work is one of shattered dreams and cool anger, compressed into a very short-yet very effective- poem. Imagery is widely present in the "what if"s in the reading. This particular poem also uses many similes in its short span. These describe the possibilities of what happen to a dream. Though not literal, they are all significant in that they represent what can happen if a goal is put off for too long a period of time. Perhaps the goal will "dry up", in that the motivation needed to pursue it no longer exists: it runs out, dries up. Or the dream could "fester like a sore", become something terrible and deformed, no longer driven by good intentions but with a wayward objective. Maybe the dream would "stink like rotten mean", again becoming foul from not being taken advantage of at the proper opportunity. If it "sags like a heavy load", perhaps it is now such a burden it cannot be loved or appreciated any longer. Hughes effectively emphasizes the bitterness and disappointment of a lost dream through his similes and imagery.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
"The Joy of Cooking" by Elaine Magarrell
"I have prepared my sister's tongue," Line 1
Magarrell satirically speaks of preparing her siblings' organs as a meal. Her central theme is that she is fed up with her brother and sister, tired of their obvious flaws and short comings, and decides to write about it. She accomplishes this by describing her brother and sister through characteristics of the body part she is preparing. She implies that her sister is foul-mouthed, since she had to "scrub and skin" her tongue. Also, she calls her cheap, saying she is "economical", and that the tongue perhaps will "grow back". Her brother she describes as having a "dry" and "firm" heart, implying a meanness and cruelty in him. He is also boring, since his heart needs "apple-onion stuffing to make it interesting at all". Furthermore, she describes him as unkind, saying his heart is small, in that it "feeds only two". She is calling out her siblings, telling them to open their eyes and see the wrong of their attitudes and ways.
Magarrell satirically speaks of preparing her siblings' organs as a meal. Her central theme is that she is fed up with her brother and sister, tired of their obvious flaws and short comings, and decides to write about it. She accomplishes this by describing her brother and sister through characteristics of the body part she is preparing. She implies that her sister is foul-mouthed, since she had to "scrub and skin" her tongue. Also, she calls her cheap, saying she is "economical", and that the tongue perhaps will "grow back". Her brother she describes as having a "dry" and "firm" heart, implying a meanness and cruelty in him. He is also boring, since his heart needs "apple-onion stuffing to make it interesting at all". Furthermore, she describes him as unkind, saying his heart is small, in that it "feeds only two". She is calling out her siblings, telling them to open their eyes and see the wrong of their attitudes and ways.
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