Analyzing poems (yay)

Poem 1:
“When I Have Fears”
-John Keats (1818)
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
Poem 2:

“Mezzo Cammin*”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1842)
Written at Boppard on the Rhine August 25, 1842,

Just Before Leaving for Home
Half of my life is gone, and I have let
The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
The aspiration of my youth, to build
Some tower of song with lofty parapet.
Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret
Of restless passions that would not be stilled,
But sorrow, and a care that almost killed,
Kept me from what I may accomplish yet;
Though, half-way up the hill, I see the Past
Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,—
A city in the twilight dim and vast,
With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,—
And hear above me on the autumnal blast
The cataract** of Death far thundering from the heights.
*from the first line of Dante’s Divine Comedy: “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita” (“Midway upon the journey of our life”).
**A large waterfall

The big question presented in the prompt regarding these two poems is how the speaker comes to see his situation/predicament as his thought on it deepens. Keats’s poem answers this question by ending on a note of meaninglessness as the speaker realizes his fears of death will get him nowhere, and Longfellow’s has a more hopeful ending as the speaker sees the time he has left to live as an opportunity.

Thesis: While Longfellow’s “Mezzo Cammin” reflects feelings of regret from the speaker for not accomplishing the things he wanted to in his youth and optimism when looking towards the future, Keats’s “When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be” puts a fear of death at ease by making the powerful parts of life seem completely irrelevant.

BP 1: Symbolism is used in each poem to portray the path of life and the things of great value that come with it.

Keats: “‘Til love and fame to nothingness do sink” 

Longfellow: “Though, halfway up the hill, I see the Past”

BP 2: Imagery shows what each speaker’s outlook on life boils down to and ultimately how he will live out the rest of his life.

Keats: “The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights”

Longfellow: “Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love—then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone”

Hamlet’s madness

During our discussion about Hamlet’s state of mind and whether he maintains his sanity, I realized that throughout the play, I kind of assumed that he actually started to develop some real madness (which is why he was so good at pretending to be mad). His plot to convince everyone of his mental instability acted as a kind of outlet for his real, raw emotion to show without him feeling any kind of remorse for it. I think that to Hamlet, anything he did during this time was justified because of his “honorable” cause of avenging his father’s death. Even before he develops his plot and pretends to be crazy, Hamlet’s mental state is already very questionable. He moans about wanting to die after he feels the grief of his father’s death, and says “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (I.II.133-138). Hamlet shows signs of depression and melancholy just as himself.

Hamlet also seems to risk everything a sane person would hold dear in order to avenge his father. He kills Polonius without knowing who he was killing, he threatens his mother, and speaks violently towards Ophelia. “Mad as the sea and wind when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, Whips out his rapier, cries ‘A rat, a rat,’ And in this brainish apprehension, kills The unseen good old man” (IV.I.6-12). What I think happened to Hamlet here is that he took his sanity for granted, acted irrationally, rashly, and angrily for his role, and seemed to blur the line of his true self and the person he was pretending to be. The facade of him acting mad is only acts as a catalyst for his real madness to show itself. I think the reader does not know for sure if Hamlet is slipping into madness because Hamlet himself isn’t aware of it. We are left questioning and assuming just like he is, and I think that really adds to the depth and darkness of Hamlet as a character and this tragedy overall. 

English III AP

I really enjoyed all of the discussion I took part in when I came to English class this year. The discussions about current politics or personal beliefs made me pretty uncomfortable, but I think it was a good, challenging uncomfortable. It scared me because it made me question my personal beliefs or morals because of the firmness of someone else’s beliefs. But now I trust my own morals much more than I did at the beginning of the year, but I will listen to and truly respect the principles of others because I can see the truth in them.

I also found much joy and interesting thought in the discussions about literature we had. I would not have fully understood the famous books we read without the different perceptions and observations of the other students in my class and the guidance of our teacher. It has expanded my mind to see the depth of this great literature and then to discuss it even more deeply with peers and an experienced person with a great amount of knowledge and insight for these books. These discussions usually did not make me as uncomfortable as the discussions about politics or religion, but the two types of discussions did often intermingle.

I have grown a significant amount personally due to this class, and I am and always will be really grateful for that.

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalists, although they believe in God, the all powerful Christian God, did not agree with the beliefs of the typical Christian church of their time. They believed they could discover and develop holiness not only in the church, but in themselves and in the power of nature. Transcendentalists believe that they possess the power of the universe inside of themselves and only have to unlock it through self awareness and meditation. This power inside them they believe to be equal to the power of God himself.

This core belief of Transcendentalists got them into trouble for blasphemy with the church, and they were scorned for it. They did not trust or believe in the established society of man, and did everything they could to escape its stronghold on them due to their desire for comfort and respect from other men.

Well known Transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman wrote famous essays that contained ideas completely intertwined with Christian beliefs, but also ideas that blatantly questioned and discredited Christianity. The Transcendentalist believes that what he perceives as morally correct is what he should follow and believe to be correct. If one believes he is a child of Satan, for example, he should still follow what he believes in his heart to be correct. These are the ideas that created Transcendentalism.

-E

Forks in soup is illogical; just as a man in air. With no wings to fly or flaps to soar, why would a man want to visit a sky to only find nothing but a surplus of clouds? Birds own our sky and our sky owns all its birds. Birds, with strong wings that consist of continuous tiny, fluffy, floating wings, do not own ground a man walks on. Bound to sky but starving for food on our ground, it is a fight just to push on and stay living.

Why would a man want to visit this vast dump anyways? No living things unknown to us stay up in our sky. I call it our sky, but it is not ours to own. Birds own our sky and our sky owns all its birds. Our sky owns our sky, and nothing man can do will allow man to own any sky. Man can visit all day for all his days and still not own what our nomad birds own. Man still visits occasionally, though out of angst and frustration for what will always stay unruly and unknown to him.

short story

As I open my eyes to a field blurring by outside of a window, I hear the briefcase rattle beside me. Attached to my arm. I slowly struggle to look around for some explanation, and I find a note in my pocket. “Find the key.”  I checked my pockets again thoroughly. I hear a train horn. I look to my right and see a girl– passed out– wearing the exact same outfit as me. I look closer with still fuzzy vision. We have the same hair. I try to move her head so I can see her face, but for some reason I can’t touch her.

With great effort, I manage to get up out of my seat and walk towards her to see her face. It’s my face. I start to become confused and try to wake her up, but it’s not working. I feel that the field outside moves by faster as my heart rate quickens, and as I sweat I can see a fine, moist fog hanging in the air outside. I remember the note and resume my search for the key with trembling hands. It grows dark outside as I begin to despair that I will not find this key. Suddenly, I see that the me beside me has begun to sweat, but she still remained unconscious. I looked at the window, and walked over to it. I opened it to find a key floating alongside the train, attached to nothing but somehow keeping speed. I reach out and grab it. I try to unlock the handcuff with the key. No luck. I then see  a small keyhole on the briefcase, and I try the key there. I hear a soft click and the briefcase pops open. Outside the window becomes pitch black and cold. I look in the briefcase to find a similar darkness that seems to be growing larger; I fall into it and I can see and hear and remember nothing as a fall but go only farther into darkness as I close my eyes.

As I open my eyes to a field blurring by outside of a window, I hear the briefcase rattle beside me. Attached to my arm. I slowly struggle to look around…

CURRENT EVENTS

The recent events that took place at the University of Oklahoma are ones that result in shock and horror. The racist fraternity has received their punishment, but not without causing a near standstill in the nation. Some people think racism is over with, but with things like this being surfaced, how could you think that? When only a few generations past from ours owned slaves and supported lynchings.

I personally think we have made leaps and bounds as far as racism goes, but too much of the country’s feelings toward the subject of racism are so forced by media and quickly developed governmental legislation that the people have not had enough time to really think for themselves and start coping with the terrible things that took place in America’s past. It is hard to come to terms with, but avoiding the subject will do only harm. I think this current display of blatant racism should not be looked at only to be shoved away. We must learn to acknowledge past mistakes and proactively speak of righteousness.

PETS

I’m a pretty cliche girl. I love animals and I love the idea of having my own. I have a little, hairy, loud dog who is about 5 years old and our entire family loves her to death. Even my 19 year old brother (he would never admit it but we all know he’s a big softy when it comes to the dog). Her name is Tillie, and she’s a Cairn Terrier. The same breed as Toto from The Wizard of Oz. Before Tillie we tried to add a Lab to our family, but she was completely insane and we had to give her away. That was pretty tough, and I think it’s the closest I’ve come to really experiencing the death of a loved pet. We had another dog before that who ran away during a thunderstorm, but I was too young to really remember her (notice how all the dogs are female. My mom didn’t like the…boy things the male dogs did). My brother really missed that older dog though. Her name was Cody –a white and light brown mutt who he shared a lot of memories with. Now as I think about our little tap-dancing, howling, lizard hunting jumping bean no longer being a part of the family after she gets old, I really feel a deep sadness like I would missing a relative. Does she love us the way we love her? We’ll never know, but would it be love if we expected anything in return?

Ralph Ellison

Ellison, a well known American author, was…interesting to observe in the interview he had with Robert Hughes. An observer can tell he is deep in thought as his eyes seem to fix on one thing at a time, but his body language is very relaxed as though he is talking only to good friends. He twirls his glasses around in his fingers and shifts his body weight from shoulder to comfortably stretched shoulder. He thinks about his words before he says them, but not before stuttering over a couple words while still mulling over what he is saying. He brings interesting ideas to light in which “a lot of people are going to be interpreting [his] place and [his] statements in terms of [his] biracial identity rather then in terms of the quality” (3:45). He acknowledges that his fame and influence and obstacles as an author in his time period can be credited to his own attributes and how people perceive him and not the impact of his work.

He speaks very simply about the origins of the ideas for “Invisible Man”  in modestly describing his thought process as “playing with the idea” and even admitted to “starting to reject [the idea]…but it intrigued [him]” and soon enough, “it became a novel” (12:07).  Although his sentences were sometimes long and hard to follow, I found this interview interesting as I got to know the great knowledge and depth behind the creator of “Invisible Man” and many more great memorable works.