LoL: Lots of Labels

Skunk Hour - Robert Lowell (the village creep)

post-discussion

Probably not intended as a personal outing. But you know. Maybe.

The skunks were rather underrepresented in my interpretation; the mother skunk's nurturing side makes them the characters with the most enviable familial ties in the poem.

"I myself am hell" is a line from Paradise Lost.

This is an example of confessional poetry because it is a glimpse into the life of the poet himself.

The tone is lonely, cynical, melancholy and hopeless.

Acting Like A Tree - Jonathan Aaron

"How to Make a Company Party Bearable and Be with the Wolves"

I wasn't actually far off on this one. I neglected to use the word "anthropomorphism" and note the alliteration in "red ribbon of a river," and I didn't know that there was a tradition of humans becoming trees that pertains to a name I don't think I caught that sounded like Avid.* But this guy. He didn't need to be with people because he was rich inside his head.

Because You Asked about the Line Between Prose and Poetry - Howard Nemerov

The title is interesting because it's a sentence fragment and creates a conversational tone, and the reader expects an answer to the question he never actually asked, and he probably expects it in the form of a definition.

The last stanza is a rhyming couplet, and prose falls while poetry flies.

Also, it was recommended that we read Emily Dickinson's poem that begins with the line, "A bird came down the walk."

*Ovid. Metamorphosis. That was silly.

Eigentlich Nicht: Second Thoughts

Here are some things I learned in class discussion.

Sylvia Plath - The Colossus

I should've just skipped the title. I was closer the first time.

Anyway, the consensus reached seemed to be that the poem was probably written about Plath's frustrations as a female writer and with her husband Ted Hughes, whom she viewed as sort of a father figure with whom she had an unhappy marriage. Hughes was the British poet laureate, and the theme of Greek antiquity throughout the poem seems to have been utilized to indicate Plath's feeling that there was no way for her to escape male dominance in the poetry hierarchy.

The poem is an allegory. The "mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles" probably point toward Hughes' poetry, which often dealt with animal sounds. She writes to convey her years of laboring to make herself known. She cleans the ruins of The Colossus of Rhodes to see if it has anything to say, but she is only an ant, and her efforts are fruitless.

The enjambment, which emerges only in the latter stanzas of the poem, imitates the unending debris of this monument.

Though we discussed that the "red stars and those of plumb-color" act as a symbol often ignored by analysts of the work, we spoke about the association of the colors with pain, and I proposed that stars turn red as they die. Also, I am realizing as I type this, she says she is "counting" them, which makes a lot of sense with the theme of fruitless labor.

No one can count the stars.

Robert Lowell - Epilogue

I was more on track with this one, though I missed some things. I think I was projecting a little bit.

The poem was less about seeking inspiration and fearing being too realistic and more about the constraints of writing in general. He perceives poetry to be an art dealing with recollection, which consequently relies on fact and is paralyzed by this. He expresses a certain self-consciousness about the shortcomings of his writings, but then he goes on with this:

"Pray for the grace of accuracy

Vermeer gave to the sun's illumination

stealing like the tide across a map

to his girl solid with yearning."

assonance

alliteration/consonance

more assonance

What he wants is to bring his poetry to life--to give it a certain timelessness--and he envies Vermeer's ability to do so.

DHC. Deathly Hallows... Character.

"(Yes, 'Thomas' was the D.H.C.'s name.)" - p. 118

Unfortunately, I still have no idea what Bernard and Lenina are doing on this Reservation. However, I did catch on to the fact that Linda is the DHC's long-lost-ladyfriend. Hey, alliteration.

I didn't write myself any helpful notes while I read this chapter because I was too focused on reading it, which I perceived would take Herculean effort, but it wasn't so bad, in spite of the dinosaur paragraphs.

I have actually never seen Hercules.

Anyway, the only thing I can think to do is speculate where this interesting plot development will take us. John seemed a little smitten with Lenina, there. Maybe he'll teach her the importance of monogamy... or something. And Linda will maybe offer interesting insights into the brainwashing effects of the outside world. One would expect her surroundings to have split her infinitives or rubbed off preposition on her more by now. Instead, she's so overwhelmed with relief at the sight of someone "civilized" that she starts crying and hugging.

I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit.

"Your affectionate and afflicted father,

Alphonse Frankenstein

Geneva, May 12th, 17--"

- p. 47

It rather annoys me to think that anyone would deliberately place such massive quantities of alliteration/assonance/consonance/what-have-you in a letter closing. Just... who... does that? Yes, yes, very impressive, Mr. Frankenstein. I'm sure your son is very impressed with your skills.

I assume that his purpose was not to annoy me, and I think that's a pretty safe assumption, as he is fictional, and also he is the brainchild of a lady who lived a long time ago who never had any reason to suspect I would exist. In poetry, I suppose it sounds nice, but in a letter closing, it just makes my reading brain-voice feel scared and confused, like my reading voice-voice would have stumbled there, and my brain-voice lucked out.

"People reading tongue twisters silently actually take longer to read tongue twisters than non-tongue-twisting sentences." - Hank Green

So was Shelley just trying to make me take my time? I doubt that she put that much thought into it, really. She was busy coming up with "a" and "f" sounds to put really close together.

Hopping.

"Spring" contained some lovely alliteration, which always just makes everything better. We had "long and lovely and lush" weeds in wheels, and there were five consecutive lines that began with the "th-" sound.

Also, there was an allusion to the Garden of Eden, which brings about the whole theme of the poem. Youth is finite; innocence is temporary, as we recall from Adam and Eve's first sin. Likewise, spring doesn't last forever. Winter inevitably arrives.

EB blogged about how the poem reminded her of Easter, and I could see that; I also pointed out that the author's name is Hopkins, which is just a silly coincidence, but nonetheless.... The Garden of Eden is unquestionably religious imagery, as is "heavens" and "sinning" "Christ, lord." "O maid's child" could refer to Jesus, which would make the final stanza an invocation on behalf of the children. The speaker hopes Christ will save the "girl and boy" before they lose their innocence to sin.