Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129. Post by John Meyer
I found this sonnet to be insightful and creative in its exploration of sexual desire, fulfillment, and memories. It is clear that the speaker has experience in these matters, but he takes an impersonal approach and doesn’t directly refer to his own experiences. The poem can be a little confusing because it jumps around in time, so I think that it helps to break this poem down into how Shakespeare portrays people as thinking about sex before, during, and after the act. The Shakespearean sonnet form lends itself well to this way of viewing the poem because the different quatrains, which all possess the standard rhyme scheme abab, each address some new aspect of the lusting/shame process involved with people’s sexual desires.
The poem opens with an almost violent image of lust’s consummation. Sexual fulfillment is described as, “Th’expense of spirit in a waste of shame is lust in action.” This image serves to grab the reader’s attention. Shakespeare then retreats in time to a description of lust before this consummation. Nine negative descriptions or adjectives of lust are given, demonstrating how so many people view their sexual desires as a despicable aspect of themselves. In the next quatrain, Shakespeare demonstrates how quickly people go from lust before the act to shame immediately following. Shakespeare employs a number of methods to demonstrate how quickly one’s feelings change. As soon as the physical enjoyment is finished, it is “despiséd straight.” When people lust, the verb “hunted” is used to describe the search for the object of lust, but as soon as the act is consummated the hunter becomes the prey as if they had “swallowed bait.” The idea of sex being a sort of trap for people is continued with the fourth line of the quatrain: “On purpose laid to make the taker mad.” There seems to be no way that a person can resist this “bait” because their lust leads them to hunt for it in a way that is “savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust.”
The final quatrain examines how sexual desire, fulfillment, and memories are all felt in unreasonable ways. Everything about sex is irrational and out of the range of our normal emotional scale because it is “mad in pursuit and in possession so, had having, and in quest to have, extreme.” Quickly sex goes from a “joy” to a “woe.” Shakespeare uses the word “dream” to say how it will be remembered, but his earlier descriptions would make it seem it would have to be a dream of madness. The final couplet wraps things up by taking a step back and saying that everybody is familiar with these sorts of irrational feelings, yet nobody seems to be able to deny their sexual desires. The poem makes me wonder whose understanding of sex Shakespeare is trying to portray. Is this his take on the matter, societies, or how people view sex due to the Church of England’s influence?

On Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130"

In William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130”, he is concerned with discussing his mistress and comparing some of her traits to other elements of life, such as nature. He weighs his mistress’ eyes, lips, and breasts against the brightness of the sun, coral, and snow; the natural elements all seem more dazzling and intense in color compared to the dull-like description of the mistress’ features. Overall, the poem divides its private and public characteristics because Shakespeare is talking intimately about his loved one, but at the same time he is proud enough of her uniqueness to share it with others. Although his description of his mistress appears inferior to the comparisons at first glance (which likely relates to a woman’s conventional beauty or behavior at the time), Shakespeare embraces her eccentricity and is content with it. Even with hairs of “black wires” and cheeks that are not rosy, the mistress captures Shakespeare’s attention and acceptance. He is so focused on her that he transforms depictions of her assumed imperfections in the first half of “Sonnet 130” into attributes of a woman with unconventional rarity by the end. Shakespeare supports his mistress’ peculiarity by using more endearing words and sentence structures. While he begins the sonnet by saying, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” Shakespeare later changes his tone when he says, “I love to hear her speak, yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound.” The sonnet’s structure includes some ABAB line formations and alternating between himself and his mistress as the subjects, both characteristics of other Shakespearian sonnets. With this poem, Shakespeare shows that he can accept and love someone with all of their flaws. He probably wrote “Sonnet 130” to express and discover things about his own personality, yet he simultaneously reaches out to others (of any time period) who may have relationship dilemmas based on superficial personal reservations.

Rhetoric terms of the day: epanalepsis, inclusio, chiasmus

EPANALEPSIS: Repetition at the end of a clause or sentence of the word or phrase with which it began.

Examples:

"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice."
(The Bible, Phil. 4.4)

"Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow,
How can thine heart be full of the spring?"
(Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Itylus")

"Mankind must put an end to war--or war will put an end to mankind."
(John F. Kennedy, Speech at the United Nations, 1961)

CHIASMUS: A verbal pattern (a type of antithesis) in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first with the parts reversed.

Examples:

"I flee who chases me, and chase who flees me."
(Ovid)

"If black men have no rights in the eyes of the white men, of course the whites can have none in the eyes of the blacks."
(Frederick Douglass, "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage")

“0h, Sophonisba, Sophonisba, Oh!”
(Thomson, “The Tragedy of Sophonisba”)

“Oh, Huncamunca, Huncamunca, Oh!”
(Fielding, “Tom Thumb”)

"Don't sweat the petty things--and don't pet the sweaty things."
(anonymous)

INCLUSIO: a scheme of repetition using epanalepsis (duplication of the same word or phrase at the beginning and end of a clause or sentence) not to mark off merely a sentence or clause but an entire passage--that is, beginning and ending a poem, paragraph, story, play, or even novel with the same word or group of words. Many psalms include this structure, beginning with a phrase, illustrating that phrase, and then repeating it again at the end. Also known as bracketing or envelope structure.

Example:

Psalm 8:

1 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!1






References:
http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/epanalepsisterm.htm
http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/chiasmusterm.htm

Brueghel's "The Kermess"

This is the painting that William Carlos Williams wrote about in his poem "The Dance:"

http://images.artnet.com/picture.asp?date=20041208&catalog=70600&gallery=111548&lot=00011&filetype=2

Robert Herrick - "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" (Post by Chris Kotecki)

In reading Robert Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” I found myself torn between two possible meanings that the author was trying to convey. The first time I read through the poem, I felt that he was addressing society as a whole, urging everyone to take advantage of every single day, because life will be over before we know it. He wants the reader to live life to the fullest and never take anything for granted.

In the first two stanzas, Herrick describes how quickly each day passes us by, along with the subtle details of the world around us that we may fail to notice. He describes how the sun rises and soon sets, and how a flower that is in bloom one day may be dead the next. He wants us to notice the passing of time through our surroundings.

In the last two stanzas, he describes the importance of a person’s youth, which also seems to disappear very quickly with the passage of time. He claims people are in their prime at a younger age when “youth and blood are warmer.” If a person is unable to take full advantage of their life during their prime, they will “forever tarry,” realizing that life somehow managed to pass them by.

After reading the poem a few more times, I started to feel as if the poem had a sexual connotation, especially since the poem is addressed to “the Virgins.” In a way, Herrick seems to be telling these virgins to take full advantage of their youth and beauty before it fades away with their old age.

Overall, I liked the poem, regardless of the interpretation. I think that sometimes at this age we forget about our youth. Society today encourages us to grow up a little faster than we probably should. Herrick recognizes us, and encourages us to seize each and every day, because if not, we will regret it in our old age.

John French's Post on "After Apple-Picking" by Robert Frost

“After Apple-Picking”, by Robert Frost is a personal poem about the internal struggle of an old and tired apple-picker to find his own self-worth. Superficially, it seems as if the apple-picker is simply making trivial observations about his occupation and his surroundings. However, after closer inspection, it is apparent that the apple-picker is relating the apples to people in society. Frost subverts cliché by the use of symbolism to express the apple-picker’s internal strife rather than explicitly stating his internal conflict. The apple-picker sees himself as one of the discarded apples that is considered “worthless”. He struggles to find the worth of himself and the significance of his existence.

At the start of the poem, the apple-picker describes the emotions that one feels after a long day of work. Although not explicitly stated, we can assume that since the ladder is “still” pointing toward heaven that the apple picker has been out for a while picking apples. We get a sense that the apple picker has gotten tired and frustrated to the point that he cannot work any longer- a mood that every reader who has worked tirelessly is able to emotionally connect with. It seems as if the barrel that the apple-picker does not fill with apples is symbolic of missed opportunities and unfulfilled goals. The wording of the line “But I am done with apple-picking now” can be interpreted two ways: He is done for the day, or he is done for the rest of his life.

The poem goes on to describe the seasonal change from fall to winter. The apple-picker describes a “strangeness” that he got from something he saw. When thinking about the nature of an apple-picker, one might agree that the occupation does not require much qualification nor does it entail anything out of the ordinary. The apple-picker, therefore, can be interpreted to represent an average man. The fact that the apple-picker cannot “rub the strangeness from his sight” is significant. Something out of the ordinary has caused the apple-picker to become anxious.

We come to find that the “pane of glass” that the apple-picker has skimmed out of the trough might be the reason for the apple-pickers’ strange feelings. The apple-picker holds the piece of glass out against the world of “hoary grass”, or in other words, the overused grass. The overused grass signifies the countless times the apple-picker has walked on the grass to travel to the apple orchard. Like the overused grass, the apple-picker has lost his youthfulness and he is no longer as strong and efficient as he used to be. The poem elaborates on the internal struggle between the apple-picker and his sense of self-worth. Everything from the dreams of apples, to the ache in his foot from standing on the ladder, to the sounds of loads of apples in the cellar bin prevents the apple-picker from getting his mind off of the apples and ultimately his struggle with his self worth.

In the last part of the poem, the apple-picker mentions the intense caution he had while picking apples. He explains that if he were to ever drop an apple, regardless of it being bruised or damaged, then it would be added to “… the cider apple heap/ As of no worth.” It is evident that the apple-picker is not concerned with such trivial matters as apples, but instead he sees the apples as people. It seems as if he finds himself in the same category of the apples that were carelessly dropped and consequently considered worthless. The apple-picker is struggling to find his worth within society. The mentioning of the woodchuck signifies that the apple-picker’s struggle has advanced to a point where he finds it difficult to align himself with the rest of humanity. One might suggest that the apple-picker has spent so much time up in trees that he feels as though he might as well be a woodchuck rather than a human. Unfortunately, the woodchuck has left for the winter and is not there to help the apple-picker distinguish himself as a human.

By the end of the poem, winter has come and the apple-picker has not come to an ultimate decision about his self-worth. It is possible that the old apple-picker will die before the next harvest time and it is up to the reader to determine whether the apple-picker will resolve his internal conflict before he passes away.

Jacinda: We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

Although the poem We Real Cool, by Gwendolyn Brooks, is short, the simplicity of it is what makes it significant. The poems straight-forward message for teens and adolescents during this time was to immediately get their attention and inform them that the lifestyle they chose to have is unacceptable. The basic meaning of the poem was to describe the journey of seven teens that chose to drop out of school and play pool in the meantime, while drinking and living a carefree life. The poem also insists that this life leads to death. The irony in the poem is that with the title being “We Real Cool”, the reader immediately thinks that the poem is about some people who are living the fabulous life, meanwhile these people are headed for destruction, as Vendler stated. Personally, I thought the poem would be the opposite because of the way the title was written. “We Real Cool, instead of “We Are Real Cool”, kind of gave me the since that is was going to be about the opposite type of person. I felt that Brooks wrote this because of the abundance of African American teens that dropped out of school in the 1960s, while trying to get them to return to school and understand that life on the streets did not lead to success. I feel like she wanted to approach this issue with such a simple poem that even the “drop outs” could comprehend. I also think she wrote the poem in three word sentences so that it would seem as if the teens were saying it, since they lacked the proper education.

Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz”

“My Papa’s Waltz” compares a child’s rollercoaster of a relationship with his father to a three step dance. The dance is not a pleasant one for the narrator, who must cope with his father’s alcoholism and abusive behavior. This metaphor is extended through the entire poem. The poem is also written in a triple meter, mimicking the rhythm of a waltz. The narrator offers a tender reference to his past as a glimpse into his private life. Amazingly, despite all of the father’s attempts to push his son away, the narrator fights to stay with his father. Even though his father lashes out at him, the narrator still possesses an undying love and admiration for his father. The narrator also mentions his mother who shows through her countenance that she did not agree with his father’s behavior. The use of the word “countenance” and the absence of any other reference to the mother suggests that she was also subjected to the father’s violent outbursts.
The poem experiences the moment of disequilibrium in the two concluding lines. The narrator explains that he still stuck with his father after using the last fourteen lines to show his darker side. The ending brings the poem back into a brighter light, indicating a positive influence from the narrator’s father. Although his father was not the ideal figure for his child, his son undoubtedly loves him and still appreciates him. Roethke’s decision to use memories from childhood shows how influential his father was on his maturation into an adult. He could not have achieved such a powerful message from any other point in his life.

Kimberly Welch on "The Sick Rose" by William Blake

William Blake's poem "The Sick Rose" is short, concise, and pleasing to the ear. It has a certain lyrical lit, which makes it naturally pleasant to read, and contains just enough content to savor and chew upon. Firstly, one can take note of the structure of the poem. It is two stanzas of four lines, each following an abcb rhyme scheme. The reader is naturally lead to ask why the author chose to use this format. To answer this question I needs look to the content of the poem. Upon inspecting the title, and reading through rapidly, one may assume that Blake is meditating on the death of a rose brought on by a worm that is devouring it, and thereby killing it; however, upon closer inspection, the poem seems not so much about a thing as it could be about a person. Firstly, the word rose is capitalized in the first line, indicating it's a proper noun, and thereby a person. So we know by the first line that it is a person by the name of Rose who is sick. The second line is an allegory coinciding with the idea of an infected flower. So what could make Rose sick that could be compared to a worm? The two other words, 'night' and 'howling', along with 'worm' invoke a sexual bent, which is supported by the next stanzas reference to a bed and 'crimson joy'. Crimson is the color of passion, which is also associated with roses. It is generally thought that one gives red or 'crimson' roses to a lover. The fist line of the final couplet summarizes what we have already gathered from the earlier lines, that it is a man who comes secretly in the night for sexual romances. And it is this 'worm' of a human being who had infected this woman, Rose, with a deadly disease. Blake's poem seems darkly satirical now, this lover who should be giving his beloved lovely red roses has instead given her sickness and death; the gift of physical love has been perverted. The paradox of the poem reveals itself in the rhyme of 'joy' and 'destroy' in the final stanza. Back to the structure of the poem, one can now surmise that the poem is divided into the description of the man who is responsible for this crime, the first stanza, followed by a description of this man's actions, the second stanza. This theme of the horrors and pain of sexually transmitted diseases seems to be a theme in William Blake's poems, as it is the final horror found in the poem "London", and is perhaps indicative of a personal or public struggle with maladies of this kind.

The Dance

William Carlos Williams’ poem The Dance is notable for its structure and its interesting use of grammar.  The poem itself consists of two sentences.  The first sentence begins “In Breughel’s great picture, The Kermess”, and the last sentence ends with the same phrase.  This phrase, which establishes the setting at the beginning and closes out the scene at the end of the poem, gives the poem a circular quality.  This circular structure is reminiscent of the medieval dance that Breughel represented in his painting.  The peasants in The Kermess drink beer and dance around in circles, circulating around and around just like the poem does.  This is an example of the poem’s form imitating real life, with the correlating circular motions of reading the poem several times and being able to envision the medieval dancers as they “go round, they go round and around.” 

The poem’s use of language is also patterned after the reality of the painting.  The syntax is unconventional, and the grammar is often wrong.  The repetition of words in quick succession creates the impression that perhaps a drunk peasant at this medieval dance is uttering them.  The fragment “the squeal and the blare and the tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles tipping their bellies their hips and their bellies off balance to turn them” is somewhat jarring because of its grammatically incorrect appearance, but accurately portrays the speech and thought process of someone happily and drunkenly dancing the day away. 

Both the structure and the grammar of The Dance are artificial poetic structures that serve to imitate real life.  The circular nature of the poem, and its curious, almost scatterbrained grammar adds an extra dimension of truth and reality to the poem.  The external patterns in the text emphasize the internal themes in the poem.

D.H. Lawrence, “The Snake”

The “Snake” by D.H. Lawrence is both a private and public poem which explores his personal versus societal ideas. Superficially, the poem presents a natural scene near a water trough where a snake drinks slowly and silently. The snake has arrived at the water-trough before the poet who observes the snake as he waits to approach the water with his pitcher. However, the poem is truly about how the poet feels toward homosexuality; although he has learned from society that such a matter is wrong, he wants to accept the community without feeling anger. Through the events in this poem, I believe that Lawrence describes his own evolution of thoughts toward homosexuality.

Initially, the poet merely observes the snake without describing any personal thoughts. He sees the scenario as any other person may and describes the obvious physicality and actions of the snake; however he often notes the snake’s origin of darkness. In society, the snake is seen as a symbol of evil which carries from what we learn of stories in The Bible. Lawrence takes this idea of learned evil and compares it to his initial response to homosexuality. Before truly thinking about accepting the matter, he denounces homosexuality as all others do. In fact, he denounces such ideas without allowing his mind to wander. He forms no personal opinions on the matter, and he merely acknowledges that homosexuality exits with sinful connotations. Lawrence describes, the snake, as he does the idea of homosexuality, as coming from “the burning bowels of the earth.”

The next stage in the poem presents Lawrence’s inner conflict between his personal thoughts about the snake versus what the “inner voices” believe. He confesses how he likes the snake and how he is glad it has visited him. He also describes the snake as “peaceful [and] pacified” and feels sorry the snake must “put his head into that dreadful hole.” These lines represent his sorrow for the homosexual community who often feel they must live in shame although they do nothing to harm society. On the other hand, he ponders whether or not he is a coward for not wanting to kill the snake. As his unsure thoughts build, he decides to throw a log at the snake. This part of the poem represents how society overtakes him and his thoughts. At this point, although he wanted to accept the snake, as he does homosexuals, his “voice of education” causes him to act in an angered way.

Once Lawrence throws the log at the snake, he feels upset with himself as he does with his denouncement of homosexuality. In fact, he calls his actions “vulgar,” and “mean.” Furthermore, he states, “I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.” These lines represent how he is upset with himself for not accepting the snake and homosexuality as natural and beautiful. Also, Lawrence is angry at society for forcing homosexuals into a world of darkness among most people’s views.

Blog Post over "Nineteen"

The poem that I would like to talk about is Nineteen by Elizabeth Alexander. This poem has many hidden details and elements to it that I did not realize until after I re read it about 3 times. One of the things that I did not understand at first was why this young nineteen year old girl was falling for an older Vietnam veteran at a campsite. “I snuck around with an older man who didn’t tell me he was married…At nineteen it was my first summer away from home.” Throughout my lifetime I have experienced a lot of different things and I have found that when young girls are never allowed to go out, they tend to become ‘wild’ when they finally get a chance to get out. Her new freedom that she has gain, has led to her falling for a guy so quickly. Most fathers do not let their daughters have the freedom they deserve because they are afraid of the men that they will encounter. In this case, her non-freedom has led her to an older, married man.
Another element of this poem that interested me was the mystery of the older Vietnam veteran. It is common for soldiers to not talk about their experiences from war or oversea jobs. Their experiences may have been traumatizing and something that they would rather forget than live with daily. After the young lady had asked many times about his experiences in the war, the soldier never gave a true answer that reflected on his experiences in Vietnam. It is clear to see that he did not want to live with his past and wanted it to be forgotten. At the end of the poem it is storming hard and he makes a comment that lets us see into him. I understood his comment as if the rain falling onto the van sounding like gun shots in Vietnam, which caused him to jump up in the van. It was as if he was re-living his traumatizing time in Vietnam.