John Keats’s sonnet seems to be dedicated to a love because of its final quatrain, lines 8 through 12, but the message is actually different. It uses imagery and poetic forms to express the persona’s fear of dying before his time. The fear of dying is present throughout the sonnet, starting from the first line with “When I have fears that I may cease to be”. The anaphora of “When” shows the conditional aspect of his future productions. The use of the simile “like rich garners the full ripen’d grain” (l.4) shows the productivity, and what should have a function on the world. The personification of the night, with its “starr’d face” (l.5), exemplifies the Romantic importance of Nature, and how it can teach the true nature of love through its “cloudy symbols” (l.6). But the sonnet also shows the tragic love of the persona. The temporary stay of the love, “the faery power” (l.10) of a “fair creature of an hour”(l.8), sends the persona into a state of complete loneliness. This is shown by the rupture from the rest of the sonnet with the change from the conditional to the present, as seen with “I stand” (l.11), “think” (l.11) and “sink” (l.12). The rupture is furthered by the dash present on line 9 that breaks the rhythm but also the meaning visually. The image of “the shore / Of the wide world” (l.10-1) illustrates the separation of the persona from the rest of the world. He is leaving it “alone” (l.11), jaded, with no interest in discovering something new after his losses. His stance on the brink of the world represents his presence on the ledge of Life right before falling to Death, without even leaving a legacy, since “love and fame to nothingness do sink” (l.14), preceding him. This sonnet is unique in the way it brings forth the relatable pain of the persona and how it does not resolve the persona’s problem in the final couplet in the nice way one would expect, but by making the situation even worse (and still more truthful).
...This sonnet commences with: “APPLAUDING” (line 1), which, because of the capitalization seems like indications for the reader who is immediately thrown into an appreciative crowd. Indeed, the lector first receives a point of view of the dancer through the young audience “devouring her with their eager [and] passionate gaze” (line 11). The Harlem dancer almost seems illusive since no facial traits are described. As far as the reader is concerned, she is just a “half- clothed body” (line 2) singing and dancing. McKay builds a paradox in line one that hooks the reader right away. Terms such as “youth” and “young” which have an innocent connotation are being associated with the theme of prostitution. [...] At this point, the focus has shifted from the audience upon the dancer herself. The reader sees the dancer as a paragon of virtue; nevertheless, the audience is tossing coins to her, which is absurd since they are in absolute admiration of her perfection. [...].The young boys and girls from the beginning are now called “the wine- flushed, bold- eyed boys, and the girls” (line 11). Innocence has been stolen by the presence of alcohol and prostitutes; it is a drastic change of values. In the last two lines, the reader can recognize the principle of: appearance versus reality. This beautiful dancer is not at her place in this environment; she dances gracefully, “falsely- smiling” (line 13). As a matter of fact, no one in the poem seems to be in the right place, the boys and girls could be adults and the dancer is an outsider “in that strange place” (line 14). Overall, the dancer represents an ideal that is not being appreciated enough yet, devoured by young looks. Therefore, in the blend of admiration and under-rating, she does not feel in the right place.
In Shakespeare’s sonnets (29 and 73), we have a very melancholic and depressive mood that evokes reminiscence or nostalgic feelings about the author’s youth and past, as he approaches the darker side of life, closer to death. He talks about being an outcast in sonnet #29, and also introduces the question of God’s existence: “And trouble deaf heav'n with my bootless cries”. When all hope is los and we are in an unfortunate situation, it is a typical reaction to name God, to ask to be saved or to blame. In this case, Shakespeare ends his sonnet by saying that his love is the one who pulls him through the darkness. The imagery of twilight in all aspects possible is exhausted in sonnet #73. The idea that he will be loved more now, seeing that he is going to die is the message Shakespeare evokes in this poem.
The idea of regret and nostalgia are present in Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. There is great presence of sorrow and pity built around the image of a statue half buried in the sandy deserts of a king’s land. He cries to the sight of all that he has done turned into “nothing but remains.’ There is a great contrast in words; from “pedestal” to “remains”… this shows what the great “king of kings” has become. Like Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley uses the idea of deception and regret as a source of inspiration in his sonnet.
In sonnet #73 Shakespeare writes to a woman before his death. In this sonnet Shakespeare seem to want this woman love by making her pity him. This is also an Elizabethan sonnet; the quatrain are separated by theme that are mostly metaphors of his dying state. In the first quatrain he evokes autumn, reminiscing the summer and spring when “sweet birds sang”(l.4), he talk about the trees loosing their “yellow leaves”(l.2) having “none, or few”(l.2) left. And for him, just like for the few remaining leaves, time is limited, before he too dies. The second quatrain evokes the twilight; thats is referred to as “death’s second self”(l.8) It’s also in a way the death of the sun; Shakespeare uses this a metaphor to explain that, much like the sun he is slowly going to die and disappear. The Last quatrain is about fire; Shakespeare says there is a fire that soon will and “must expire”(l.11) and that the youth in him is know turning into ashes. Although it might seem that Shakespeare wants this woman to pity him redeems him self in the last couplet. Instead of using another natural phenomenon as a metaphor for his death; he says that now only in the face of death that he realizes how much his love for her is “strong”(l.13) Perhaps Shakespeare was regretting that he didn’t confess his love to her or didn’t love her as much as he should have.
First of all, some of the sonnets only explore the ideal woman. They are the most recent ones, starting with Rossetti and including Heaney and McKay. We will observe a pretty obvious progression in the way the feminine gender is considered from the 19th to the 20th centuries. In Rossetti’s “In An Artist’s Studio”, woman is really described as a pure ideal. The drawing is untouchable, eternal, and perfection can be easily attained. The artist is developing a common one-sided love for this ideal that he will never be able to talk to or share time with. Now in the 20th century, people are now much more open, and sexuality is more easily treated. Heaney, on the opposite of Rossetti, is going to describe a single moment, almost like a photo. The moment described is a very sensual and intimate moment shared with this woman, including strong senses: “Her breath in mine”, “pulled against her”. We feel the emotions shared, which are this time reciprocal. Even if he also uses Rossetti’s one sided love, McKay puts a lot of modernity in his approach of the common ideal. The girl described is a black stripper during segregation, acclimated by young white men, disrespecting her as a human being. Like Heaney, he uses sensual images: “her perfect, half-clothed body sway”. As we can see, the modern ideal woman is not out of grasp, and more than just spiritual presence, she is desired by the author, one sided or not
In the first part of Shakespeare's poem he speaks of his state of mind by introducing it with “when”. He tells us first of what he is doing which is “in disgrace […] I all alone beweep”. Basically the author feels disgraced both by “men” and “fortune” which causes him to isolate himself and feel self pity. With the anaphora of “and” he describes his sadness and then the avarice that derives from this self hatred with the verbs: “Wishing” and “Desiring”. He also uses the anaphora “like him” to emphasize how much he loathes being in his own skin and desires nothing more than to be a copy of another man, any man, for he is a miserable human being. The author experiences a turn of mood at the first line of the first tercet with the volta “yet”. He reflects upon himself and says: “Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising”. In this he means that he has wept and bemoaned his state but loathes to do so for he feels weak in his sadness and moaning. As he experiences this turn he rises up out of depression which causes him to “think on thee”. This person rises his spirit and completely changes the mood of the following tercets. From the imagery of loneliness emerges that of happiness which rises him “ like to the lark at break of day arising”. By comparing himself to the lark Shakespeare's metaphor is clear: he has been the lark all along but plunged in dark night and when his friend the sun arises he does too. The sun is a symbol for his friend, the lark for Shakespeare himself, and the “state” of day and night a symbol for his changing mood. This happiness of loving and being loved rises him from “sullen earth” to “heaven’s gate” and this state of bliss shows him that he is wealthier than kings in his “state”. The word “state” can mean economically and socially, as well as morally. This friendship makes him realize that he is far luckier than many men for he has a state that no one can compete with and that is love.
In #5 From Clearances, Heaney shows the reader what he means instead of telling directly. In this poem, he does not need to say something along the lines of “Ah! I love this person so very much!” because the sonnet is already imbued with this sentiment, and the reader can translate the images and physical descriptions into feelings: “her head bent towards my head, / Her breath in mine” (l.13-14) and understand what intimacy and closeness exists through the fact that the narrator was “all hers”(l.2) “when all the others were away at Mass.”(l.1) Heaney uses imagery in this sonnet to say less, but the result is quite the opposite: instead he says a great deal more because the reader can understand more of his thoughts through this method: “the parish priest at her bedside / Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying” (l.9-10) —here, “hammer and tongs” is such a violent combination of images that we immediately understand that the parish priest’s actions are not gentle as one would imagine, but rather harsh and sudden. They are not appreciated by the narrator—who contents himself to remembering this afternoon of peeling potatoes, and the small details such as the mingling of their breaths—an image and feeling frozen in time that, he argues silently, is far more important than any prayers for the dying. Heaney wants us to remember life, these instants, and not stay “responding” and “crying” (l.12) when faced with death, for it is these small moments of the mundane quotidian that truly matter a great deal more. It is this dialogue of “fluent dipping knives,” (l.13) this constant communication that we maintain with those around us throughout our lives that we must remember, even if it was made up of simply peeling potatoes. These are our “things to share / Gleaming in a bucket of clean water” (l.5-6): memories that must remain so: clear, cherished. The simile “like solder weeping off the soldering iron” (l.4) allows the poem to keep a grounded, earthy feel that is very different to the feel of Shakespeare’s sonnets, where the narrator is lifted to heaven like a lark, or looking far away, to the “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” in Keats’ “When I Have Fears that I may Cease to Be”. Instead of trying to look elsewhere, to the unattainable, to find beauty, Heaney reaches around him for simple things, and wishes to make us understand and feel the wonder of familiar things, because they are what truly makes us who we are in the end, that define us for “the whole rest of our lives” (l.14) as this seemingly banal moment does for Heaney. He therefore shows us that the ordinary, everyday things can be just as poetic as any fair lady, or ravishing dancer—for in writing a sonnet largely devoted to peeling potatoes, he proves that sonnets are not limited in subject and can, and should, reach into every domain. Yes, he deals with a certain love in this poem as is it is often the case—but it is not necessarily a romantic love, as it is thought that sonnets must be about, it is a simple intimacy and the remembrance of this relationship that is explored. In fact, the sonnet was about Heaney’s mother.
John Keats’s poem is mostly about him not being able to write down all his ideas before dying. He uses anaphora to express his desire to have more life to be able to write by repeating “when”. We can also find all these words relating to his writing such as “pen,” “high-piled books” which represents the many ideas he has, “cloudy symbols” which represent the letters and “trace.” First the poet talks about how he wants to express himself, saying he has too much to say and he has to let his ideas out. His ideas are referred to as a “full ripen’d grain” meaning that they have grown and have developed to the fullest. By doing this, he is using the image of a harvest also seen with the word “garner”. There is an alliteration in “g” with the words “glean’d, garners and grain. His many thoughts are perceived through the words “high-piled” and “rich”. This abundance in thought is turned into an abundance of letters with the “charactery” and the “huge cloudy symbols.” The author wishes to plant his ideas into his books which will eventually become “high-piled” when harvested. The poets’ though are turned into letters but he obtains these though by looking at the sky who here is the “night’s starr’d face” and these are transformed by the “magic hand” which traces those letters. As the sonnet progresses, the letters turn into love represented by the “fair creature of an hour.” The poet worries more about not being able to write about love, no longer a thought, but an emotion. Love becomes powerful, a “faery power” because it is actually “unreflecting love”, another word for unrequited love. It turns out being the source of his ideas. The last two lines at the end of the sonnet represent a moment of revelation, when the poet realizes that love and fame will be of no importance once he is no longer able to write. It is something he realizes himself, alone “on the shore”, which represents a separation between land and sea. The sea might represent the dreams and ideas he had while the land represents reality, his really situation where death will not enable him to write what he wishes to write.
My favorite poem is Ozymandias by Percy Shelley. This poem analyzes the human inferiority among time and death. The story of this traveller telling his experience to the narrator is a metaphor for man’s disadvantage against life and its course. The traveller tells in fact the story of a statue he saw in the desert. The inscription on the statue and the shape of the sculpture scares the reader. Ozymandias, the king in honor of whom the statue was built, tries to transmit power and superiority throughout this statue, and the poem describes perfectly this feeling of greatness. Unfortunately all the king’s possessions were lost in with time, and the powerful Ozymandias and his statue are nothing but dust.
I was amazed by this poem, because it illustrates perfectly how man feels strong and powerful during life only for the superficial, materialistic goods possessed. The story of this statue, built to transmit greatness and power throughout time, shows how man will never be able de defeat death and time. Ozymandias tried to remain in history thank to a monument able to scare not only the reader, but time and death as well. This sculpture will die as the man for whom it was built, and death will erase everything he worked for during a life for which we all commit sacrifices and choices to make perfect. Unfortunately this life is miserable compared to everything else we have around, and its miserable compared to death as well. This poem describes well man’s superficial thoughts, with the desire of power and the really subjective view on life; but it illustrates as well how time destroys all the small things man cares about, things that are really small compared to the rest of nature, the universe and imagination. Imagination plays in fact a key role in this sonnet; the poet uses a short story, with a touch of unrealistic point of view, to help the reader adopt an objective point of view on life. We are all meant to lose against time and death.
#29. Shakespeare: This sonnet was written by Shakespeare, I like how Shakespeare uses the structure of his sonnets, 3 quatrains 3 ideas 1 couplet 1 conclusion. I liked how each of the quatrain contained an image that represented an idea. The first is Autumn "yellow leaves,"metaphor for his death. Each year when Autumn arrives I get this feeling in my head that it is the end of the long sunny days, where I would go out to the park and enjoy the life in the paRK, autumn is the death of nature the beginning of hibernation trees lose their leafs and the temperature lowers, I loved how Shakespeare took autumn to represent that the narrator is going to die soon as autumn introduces winter. The second talks about twilight "the twilight of such day," the night is often seen as a second death, the death of day. The third talks about fire "glowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth lie," here we see that the narrator is nostalgic, he is living on his memories while he is dying. This image makes me think of the last glows of fire I would see when I would sit besides the fireplace at my grandparent's house. To see something so beautiful die little by little, Shakespeare took this metaphor and with it represented the person dying little by little like a fire.
I don't agree with what Roman said, about the women's pity for the man's death. I think the author just want's to explain, throughout a poem, that death doesn't only scare the person dyeing, but the people loving the person in question as well. The sufferance becomes everybody's when one of us is dyeing because the love felt becomes more intense and real when time is up: it is too late to fix all the mistakes, there is no more time left to see the person or just even talk to him, touch him or listen too him. Pity is not the emotion that the author want's to transmit to the women for whom the poem was written, he just wanted to illustrate how death is able to let emerge people's feelings, and the women he talk's about is probably the person that owns his heart, that is why he uses her to present his argument and defend his thesis that combines love, time and death.
This sonnet was written during the Victorian era of British literature. It represents a time of flourishing of literature and the arts in the United Kingdom, assimilated to a “Second Renaissance.” This poem discusses and, at first, valorizes the true source of the artist, which eventually leads to hurt the artist. The poem mainly discusses the inspiration for an artist. In this case, it is his muse, a “nameless girl.” As soon as the sonnet begins, the poet places the anaphora “One” in the first two lines. Through this, we see how unique and important this individual is to the unnamed artist. Following this, the assonance in “a” on line 3 sends an image of the respecting this muse and paying her homage by representing her in “all” (line 1 and 4) of his works. The first quatrain serves as an introduction to what this muse represents to the artist and sets the mood for what we will learn next about her. Following this are three dependent clauses that serve to describe this girl as depicted in the paintings: “A queen in opal […] dress,” “A nameless girl in freshest summer greens,” “A saint, an angel” Another anaphora is perceivable with the repetition, again, of the “A.” This girl is presented under solely positive and even divine images: “angel,” “freshest,” “queen.” These literary figures take up the entire line and are not separated by any enjambments. These images are reflections, as emphasized by a “mirror,” of what is inside this individual’s head, wanting to be pure, just like the form of the sonnet. There are equally words that illustrate the totality of what she represents for this artist: “all,” “every,” “true,” “one.” In addition, “one” is part of an enjambment between lines 7 and 8. This totality seems to turn into obsession as “He feeds upon her face day and night.” By this point, artistic inspiration gives way to something much unhealthier for the painter. We could imagine that he represses any idea of any negative effect on him because he is so caught up in her image, in what she represents, and in how much she means to him. The third and final quatrain serves as the peak of this description of an artist’s studio as it is isolated by the Volta “he feeds” and is ended by the negation “not.” This specific word overflows into the rhyming couplet of the sonnet: “Not wan […] Not as […] Not as…” which furthermore illustrates the totality and obsession of the artist with his muse. Indeed, it is interesting to see how the form of such a rigorous art piece can be utilized to express a character’s feelings. The couplet shows what she truly means, not for reality, but for the artist. Rossetti suggests that the muse is “not as she is, but when hope shone bright […] but as she fills his dream.” She renders the idea concrete that what is on the artist’s canvas and in his mind are projections of what he wants her to be. Rossetti wrote this sonnet during the Victorian era, and most probably used this rigid and respected form to justify and put in valor the work and inspiration of an artist. Nonetheless, in doing this, she also establishes a work that criticizes artists’ inspiration during a strict and rigorous era of British literature.
I like the way Luisa exposes a link between the feelings of the author is trying to express with the visual and literary structure of the poem. The term "rupture" is relevant because there literally is one in the text.The author switches tenses, beaks the rhyme order, symbolizing the rupture of the love between two individuals.The form mimics the meaning of the text. This sonnet exposes the truth rather than giving us a pleasant ending. The pain and loneliness are exposed and therefore experienced by the reader, allowing him to understand the message behind the sonnet.
John Keats’s sonnet seems to be dedicated to a love because of its final quatrain, lines 8 through 12, but the message is actually different. It uses imagery and poetic forms to express the persona’s fear of dying before his time.
ReplyDeleteThe fear of dying is present throughout the sonnet, starting from the first line with “When I have fears that I may cease to be”. The anaphora of “When” shows the conditional aspect of his future productions. The use of the simile “like rich garners the full ripen’d grain” (l.4) shows the productivity, and what should have a function on the world. The personification of the night, with its “starr’d face” (l.5), exemplifies the Romantic importance of Nature, and how it can teach the true nature of love through its “cloudy symbols” (l.6).
But the sonnet also shows the tragic love of the persona. The temporary stay of the love, “the faery power” (l.10) of a “fair creature of an hour”(l.8), sends the persona into a state of complete loneliness. This is shown by the rupture from the rest of the sonnet with the change from the conditional to the present, as seen with “I stand” (l.11), “think” (l.11) and “sink” (l.12). The rupture is furthered by the dash present on line 9 that breaks the rhythm but also the meaning visually. The image of “the shore / Of the wide world” (l.10-1) illustrates the separation of the persona from the rest of the world. He is leaving it “alone” (l.11), jaded, with no interest in discovering something new after his losses. His stance on the brink of the world represents his presence on the ledge of Life right before falling to Death, without even leaving a legacy, since “love and fame to nothingness do sink” (l.14), preceding him.
This sonnet is unique in the way it brings forth the relatable pain of the persona and how it does not resolve the persona’s problem in the final couplet in the nice way one would expect, but by making the situation even worse (and still more truthful).
...This sonnet commences with: “APPLAUDING” (line 1), which, because of the capitalization seems like indications for the reader who is immediately thrown into an appreciative crowd. Indeed, the lector first receives a point of view of the dancer through the young audience “devouring her with their eager [and] passionate gaze” (line 11). The Harlem dancer almost seems illusive since no facial traits are described. As far as the reader is concerned, she is just a “half- clothed body” (line 2) singing and dancing. McKay builds a paradox in line one that hooks the reader right away. Terms such as “youth” and “young” which have an innocent connotation are being associated with the theme of prostitution. [...] At this point, the focus has shifted from the audience upon the dancer herself. The reader sees the dancer as a paragon of virtue; nevertheless, the audience is tossing coins to her, which is absurd since they are in absolute admiration of her perfection. [...].The young boys and girls from the beginning are now called “the wine- flushed, bold- eyed boys, and the girls” (line 11). Innocence has been stolen by the presence of alcohol and prostitutes; it is a drastic change of values. In the last two lines, the reader can recognize the principle of: appearance versus reality. This beautiful dancer is not at her place in this environment; she dances gracefully, “falsely- smiling” (line 13). As a matter of fact, no one in the poem seems to be in the right place, the boys and girls could be adults and the dancer is an outsider “in that strange place” (line 14).
ReplyDeleteOverall, the dancer represents an ideal that is not being appreciated enough yet, devoured by young looks. Therefore, in the blend of admiration and under-rating, she does not feel in the right place.
In Shakespeare’s sonnets (29 and 73), we have a very melancholic and depressive mood that evokes reminiscence or nostalgic feelings about the author’s youth and past, as he approaches the darker side of life, closer to death. He talks about being an outcast in sonnet #29, and also introduces the question of God’s existence: “And trouble deaf heav'n with my bootless cries”. When all hope is los and we are in an unfortunate situation, it is a typical reaction to name God, to ask to be saved or to blame. In this case, Shakespeare ends his sonnet by saying that his love is the one who pulls him through the darkness. The imagery of twilight in all aspects possible is exhausted in sonnet #73. The idea that he will be loved more now, seeing that he is going to die is the message Shakespeare evokes in this poem.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of regret and nostalgia are present in Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. There is great presence of sorrow and pity built around the image of a statue half buried in the sandy deserts of a king’s land. He cries to the sight of all that he has done turned into “nothing but remains.’ There is a great contrast in words; from “pedestal” to “remains”… this shows what the great “king of kings” has become. Like Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley uses the idea of deception and regret as a source of inspiration in his sonnet.
In sonnet #73 Shakespeare writes to a woman before his death. In this sonnet Shakespeare seem to want this woman love by making her pity him. This is also an Elizabethan sonnet; the quatrain are separated by theme that are mostly metaphors of his dying state. In the first quatrain he evokes autumn, reminiscing the summer and spring when “sweet birds sang”(l.4), he talk about the trees loosing their “yellow leaves”(l.2) having “none, or few”(l.2) left. And for him, just like for the few remaining leaves, time is limited, before he too dies. The second quatrain evokes the twilight; thats is referred to as “death’s second self”(l.8) It’s also in a way the death of the sun; Shakespeare uses this a metaphor to explain that, much like the sun he is slowly going to die and disappear. The Last quatrain is about fire; Shakespeare says there is a fire that soon will and “must expire”(l.11) and that the youth in him is know turning into ashes. Although it might seem that Shakespeare wants this woman to pity him redeems him self in the last couplet. Instead of using another natural phenomenon as a metaphor for his death; he says that now only in the face of death that he realizes how much his love for her is “strong”(l.13) Perhaps Shakespeare was regretting that he didn’t confess his love to her or didn’t love her as much as he should have.
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ReplyDeleteFirst of all, some of the sonnets only explore the ideal woman. They are the most recent ones, starting with Rossetti and including Heaney and McKay. We will observe a pretty obvious progression in the way the feminine gender is considered from the 19th to the 20th centuries. In Rossetti’s “In An Artist’s Studio”, woman is really described as a pure ideal. The drawing is untouchable, eternal, and perfection can be easily attained. The artist is developing a common one-sided love for this ideal that he will never be able to talk to or share time with.
ReplyDeleteNow in the 20th century, people are now much more open, and sexuality is more easily treated. Heaney, on the opposite of Rossetti, is going to describe a single moment, almost like a photo. The moment described is a very sensual and intimate moment shared with this woman, including strong senses: “Her breath in mine”, “pulled against her”. We feel the emotions shared, which are this time reciprocal.
Even if he also uses Rossetti’s one sided love, McKay puts a lot of modernity in his approach of the common ideal. The girl described is a black stripper during segregation, acclimated by young white men, disrespecting her as a human being. Like Heaney, he uses sensual images: “her perfect, half-clothed body sway”. As we can see, the modern ideal woman is not out of grasp, and more than just spiritual presence, she is desired by the author, one sided or not
In the first part of Shakespeare's poem he speaks of his state of mind by introducing it with “when”. He tells us first of what he is doing which is “in disgrace […] I all alone beweep”. Basically the author feels disgraced both by “men” and “fortune” which causes him to isolate himself and feel self pity. With the anaphora of “and” he describes his sadness and then the avarice that derives from this self hatred with the verbs: “Wishing” and “Desiring”. He also uses the anaphora “like him” to emphasize how much he loathes being in his own skin and desires nothing more than to be a copy of another man, any man, for he is a miserable human being. The author experiences a turn of mood at the first line of the first tercet with the volta “yet”. He reflects upon himself and says: “Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising”. In this he means that he has wept and bemoaned his state but loathes to do so for he feels weak in his sadness and moaning. As he experiences this turn he rises up out of depression which causes him to “think on thee”. This person rises his spirit and completely changes the mood of the following tercets. From the imagery of loneliness emerges that of happiness which rises him “ like to the lark at break of day arising”. By comparing himself to the lark Shakespeare's metaphor is clear: he has been the lark all along but plunged in dark night and when his friend the sun arises he does too. The sun is a symbol for his friend, the lark for Shakespeare himself, and the “state” of day and night a symbol for his changing mood. This happiness of loving and being loved rises him from “sullen earth” to “heaven’s gate” and this state of bliss shows him that he is wealthier than kings in his “state”. The word “state” can mean economically and socially, as well as morally. This friendship makes him realize that he is far luckier than many men for he has a state that no one can compete with and that is love.
ReplyDeleteIn #5 From Clearances, Heaney shows the reader what he means instead of telling directly. In this poem, he does not need to say something along the lines of “Ah! I love this person so very much!” because the sonnet is already imbued with this sentiment, and the reader can translate the images and physical descriptions into feelings: “her head bent towards my head, / Her breath in mine” (l.13-14) and understand what intimacy and closeness exists through the fact that the narrator was “all hers”(l.2) “when all the others were away at Mass.”(l.1) Heaney uses imagery in this sonnet to say less, but the result is quite the opposite: instead he says a great deal more because the reader can understand more of his thoughts through this method: “the parish priest at her bedside / Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying” (l.9-10) —here, “hammer and tongs” is such a violent combination of images that we immediately understand that the parish priest’s actions are not gentle as one would imagine, but rather harsh and sudden. They are not appreciated by the narrator—who contents himself to remembering this afternoon of peeling potatoes, and the small details such as the mingling of their breaths—an image and feeling frozen in time that, he argues silently, is far more important than any prayers for the dying. Heaney wants us to remember life, these instants, and not stay “responding” and “crying” (l.12) when faced with death, for it is these small moments of the mundane quotidian that truly matter a great deal more. It is this dialogue of “fluent dipping knives,” (l.13) this constant communication that we maintain with those around us throughout our lives that we must remember, even if it was made up of simply peeling potatoes. These are our “things to share / Gleaming in a bucket of clean water” (l.5-6): memories that must remain so: clear, cherished. The simile “like solder weeping off the soldering iron” (l.4) allows the poem to keep a grounded, earthy feel that is very different to the feel of Shakespeare’s sonnets, where the narrator is lifted to heaven like a lark, or looking far away, to the “huge cloudy symbols of a high romance” in Keats’ “When I Have Fears that I may Cease to Be”. Instead of trying to look elsewhere, to the unattainable, to find beauty, Heaney reaches around him for simple things, and wishes to make us understand and feel the wonder of familiar things, because they are what truly makes us who we are in the end, that define us for “the whole rest of our lives” (l.14) as this seemingly banal moment does for Heaney. He therefore shows us that the ordinary, everyday things can be just as poetic as any fair lady, or ravishing dancer—for in writing a sonnet largely devoted to peeling potatoes, he proves that sonnets are not limited in subject and can, and should, reach into every domain. Yes, he deals with a certain love in this poem as is it is often the case—but it is not necessarily a romantic love, as it is thought that sonnets must be about, it is a simple intimacy and the remembrance of this relationship that is explored. In fact, the sonnet was about Heaney’s mother.
ReplyDeleteJohn Keats’s poem is mostly about him not being able to write down all his ideas before dying. He uses anaphora to express his desire to have more life to be able to write by repeating “when”. We can also find all these words relating to his writing such as “pen,” “high-piled books” which represents the many ideas he has, “cloudy symbols” which represent the letters and “trace.”
ReplyDeleteFirst the poet talks about how he wants to express himself, saying he has too much to say and he has to let his ideas out. His ideas are referred to as a “full ripen’d grain” meaning that they have grown and have developed to the fullest. By doing this, he is using the image of a harvest also seen with the word “garner”. There is an alliteration in “g” with the words “glean’d, garners and grain. His many thoughts are perceived through the words “high-piled” and “rich”.
This abundance in thought is turned into an abundance of letters with the “charactery” and the “huge cloudy symbols.” The author wishes to plant his ideas into his books which will eventually become “high-piled” when harvested. The poets’ though are turned into letters but he obtains these though by looking at the sky who here is the “night’s starr’d face” and these are transformed by the “magic hand” which traces those letters.
As the sonnet progresses, the letters turn into love represented by the “fair creature of an hour.” The poet worries more about not being able to write about love, no longer a thought, but an emotion. Love becomes powerful, a “faery power” because it is actually “unreflecting love”, another word for unrequited love. It turns out being the source of his ideas.
The last two lines at the end of the sonnet represent a moment of revelation, when the poet realizes that love and fame will be of no importance once he is no longer able to write. It is something he realizes himself, alone “on the shore”, which represents a separation between land and sea. The sea might represent the dreams and ideas he had while the land represents reality, his really situation where death will not enable him to write what he wishes to write.
My favorite poem is Ozymandias by Percy Shelley.
ReplyDeleteThis poem analyzes the human inferiority among time and death. The story of this traveller telling his experience to the narrator is a metaphor for man’s disadvantage against life and its course. The traveller tells in fact the story of a statue he saw in the desert. The inscription on the statue and the shape of the sculpture scares the reader.
Ozymandias, the king in honor of whom the statue was built, tries to transmit power and superiority throughout this statue, and the poem describes perfectly this feeling of greatness.
Unfortunately all the king’s possessions were lost in with time, and the powerful Ozymandias and his statue are nothing but dust.
I was amazed by this poem, because it illustrates perfectly how man feels strong and powerful during life only for the superficial, materialistic goods possessed. The story of this statue, built to transmit greatness and power throughout time, shows how man will never be able de defeat death and time. Ozymandias tried to remain in history thank to a monument able to scare not only the reader, but time and death as well. This sculpture will die as the man for whom it was built, and death will erase everything he worked for during a life for which we all commit sacrifices and choices to make perfect. Unfortunately this life is miserable compared to everything else we have around, and its miserable compared to death as well.
This poem describes well man’s superficial thoughts, with the desire of power and the really subjective view on life; but it illustrates as well how time destroys all the small things man cares about, things that are really small compared to the rest of nature, the universe and imagination.
Imagination plays in fact a key role in this sonnet; the poet uses a short story, with a touch of unrealistic point of view, to help the reader adopt an objective point of view on life. We are all meant to lose against time and death.
#29. Shakespeare:
ReplyDeleteThis sonnet was written by Shakespeare, I like how Shakespeare uses the structure of his sonnets, 3 quatrains 3 ideas 1 couplet 1 conclusion. I liked how each of the quatrain contained an image that represented an idea. The first is Autumn "yellow leaves,"metaphor for his death. Each year when Autumn arrives I get this feeling in my head that it is the end of the long sunny days, where I would go out to the park and enjoy the life in the paRK, autumn is the death of nature the beginning of hibernation trees lose their leafs and the temperature lowers, I loved how Shakespeare took autumn to represent that the narrator is going to die soon as autumn introduces winter. The second talks about twilight "the twilight of such day," the night is often seen as a second death, the death of day. The third talks about fire "glowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth lie," here we see that the narrator is nostalgic, he is living on his memories while he is dying. This image makes me think of the last glows of fire I would see when I would sit besides the fireplace at my grandparent's house. To see something so beautiful die little by little, Shakespeare took this metaphor and with it represented the person dying little by little like a fire.
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ReplyDeleteI don't agree with what Roman said, about the women's pity for the man's death. I think the author just want's to explain, throughout a poem, that death doesn't only scare the person dyeing, but the people loving the person in question as well. The sufferance becomes everybody's when one of us is dyeing because the love felt becomes more intense and real when time is up: it is too late to fix all the mistakes, there is no more time left to see the person or just even talk to him, touch him or listen too him.
ReplyDeletePity is not the emotion that the author want's to transmit to the women for whom the poem was written, he just wanted to illustrate how death is able to let emerge people's feelings, and the women he talk's about is probably the person that owns his heart, that is why he uses her to present his argument and defend his thesis that combines love, time and death.
This sonnet was written during the Victorian era of British literature. It represents a time of flourishing of literature and the arts in the United Kingdom, assimilated to a “Second Renaissance.” This poem discusses and, at first, valorizes the true source of the artist, which eventually leads to hurt the artist.
ReplyDeleteThe poem mainly discusses the inspiration for an artist. In this case, it is his muse, a “nameless girl.” As soon as the sonnet begins, the poet places the anaphora “One” in the first two lines. Through this, we see how unique and important this individual is to the unnamed artist. Following this, the assonance in “a” on line 3 sends an image of the respecting this muse and paying her homage by representing her in “all” (line 1 and 4) of his works. The first quatrain serves as an introduction to what this muse represents to the artist and sets the mood for what we will learn next about her. Following this are three dependent clauses that serve to describe this girl as depicted in the paintings: “A queen in opal […] dress,” “A nameless girl in freshest summer greens,” “A saint, an angel” Another anaphora is perceivable with the repetition, again, of the “A.” This girl is presented under solely positive and even divine images: “angel,” “freshest,” “queen.” These literary figures take up the entire line and are not separated by any enjambments. These images are reflections, as emphasized by a “mirror,” of what is inside this individual’s head, wanting to be pure, just like the form of the sonnet. There are equally words that illustrate the totality of what she represents for this artist: “all,” “every,” “true,” “one.” In addition, “one” is part of an enjambment between lines 7 and 8. This totality seems to turn into obsession as “He feeds upon her face day and night.” By this point, artistic inspiration gives way to something much unhealthier for the painter. We could imagine that he represses any idea of any negative effect on him because he is so caught up in her image, in what she represents, and in how much she means to him. The third and final quatrain serves as the peak of this description of an artist’s studio as it is isolated by the Volta “he feeds” and is ended by the negation “not.” This specific word overflows into the rhyming couplet of the sonnet: “Not wan […] Not as […] Not as…” which furthermore illustrates the totality and obsession of the artist with his muse. Indeed, it is interesting to see how the form of such a rigorous art piece can be utilized to express a character’s feelings. The couplet shows what she truly means, not for reality, but for the artist. Rossetti suggests that the muse is “not as she is, but when hope shone bright […] but as she fills his dream.” She renders the idea concrete that what is on the artist’s canvas and in his mind are projections of what he wants her to be.
Rossetti wrote this sonnet during the Victorian era, and most probably used this rigid and respected form to justify and put in valor the work and inspiration of an artist. Nonetheless, in doing this, she also establishes a work that criticizes artists’ inspiration during a strict and rigorous era of British literature.
That poem was "In an Artist's Studio," by Christina Rossetti
ReplyDeleteI like the way Luisa exposes a link between the feelings of the author is trying to express with the visual and literary structure of the poem. The term "rupture" is relevant because there literally is one in the text.The author switches tenses, beaks the rhyme order, symbolizing the rupture of the love between two individuals.The form mimics the meaning of the text.
ReplyDeleteThis sonnet exposes the truth rather than giving us a pleasant ending. The pain and loneliness are exposed and therefore experienced by the reader, allowing him to understand the message behind the sonnet.