Thursday, March 28, 2013

Sorting Laundry

"Sorting Laundry" by Elisavietta Ritchie

When initially reading this poem, I believed the speaker to be a mistress of man she seemed to be speaking of. The line "left by a former lover..." (Ritchie, line 42), first confused me as I believed the speaker was referencing the man. Once understood, it made sense for it to be about the girl realizing and remembering her own former lover and the remnant she has left from the relationship  Also, the beginning of the poem in the first stanza, it made me believe that the speaker wanted the man to be folded into her life and not that the man was already a major part of her life. The hyperbole in the last stanza of the poem explains and exemplifies the enormous feeling the speaker has for the man. Clearly, the speaker has a large piece of their time, energy, and life in the man she lives with. The piece is so large that she cannot image how empty she would fell and how she would fill the emptiness. Lastly, the shift in line forty comes as if I was to place myself in the folding positon. When I find something with a memory attached around the house, I reminisce and sometimes the feelings come back. The speaker experienced this in the poem and the tone of the poem shifted when she found an object that brought back a swirl of memories that cause her to question and wonder about her current relationship. 

I taste a liquor never brewed

"I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson
"And Saints-to windows run-/ To see the little Tippler"(Dickinson, lines 14-15).

The title of this poem can be misleading from the beginning. The title mentions liquor and the subject may seem to be of liquor. Instead, the poem relishes on the idea of being drunk on the nature given to us. By the speaker stating that the liquor is never brewed, the liquor is known to be just a figurative and metaphorical comparison to something else. As the speaker transitions into making earthy comparisons to being drunk, it becomes understood that the drunkenness experienced is on the nature and surroundings of the world. As the last stanza begins, it can be confused by the Seraphs and Saints. Being Godly beings, the Seraphs and Saints would be out of character to be running to the window to see a drunk person slumping on a lamp post. Also, because the poem is not literal, this cannot be taken literal either. The Seraphs and Saints are running to see the other people who are drunk on the nature and environment around them. It would be especially important as the nature around us was created by God for us. To praise and be drunk on it would be something a Godly person would run and rejoice to see.

Batter my heart, three-personed God

"Batter my heart, three-personed God" by John Donne
"Take me to you, imprison me" (Donne, line 12).

This poem exemplified irony as a way to reach the meaning. The irony of what the speaker requests God to do in this poem is not what would typically be asked of God. The speakers mentions that he is captive by the devil or an evil. In order to get out of prison with the devil, God must release him and imprison him in God. The irony of the contrast between what is expected and what the speaker requests  allows for a meaning to come across. The speaker appears to be blaming God for be wrapped in evil. I would believe that most religions believe that you must come to God. Instead, this speaker wants God to come get him from the evil he is in. Also, this poem can be taken and applied to many things. When we are wrapped in an evil such as fighting with our parents or siblings or being alcoholic  we may want to blame God for letting us leave him for the evil. This poem expresses that attitude. Instead, we can take this poem and see how it does not work that way. We must escape the evil and return to God instead.

The Convergence of the Twain

"The Convergence of the Twain" by Thomas Hardy
"Or sign that they were bent/ By paths coincident/ On being anon twin halves of one august event," (Hardy, lines 28-30).

"The Convergence of the Twain" was the clearest poem to me from all of the poems from this unit. I noticed the boat shape of the stanzas early on in the reading as I was trying to figure out the purpose of the stanzas. The one thing that left me perplexed was the number of stanzas. To my knowledge, there is no importance of the number eleven to the Titanic. The overall comparison of the Titanic to human vanity spanned the entire poem as if it was an extended metaphor. Although it was not necessarily a comparison in a metaphor, the poem conveyed the comparison between human vanity and the Titanic. As the poem progresses to complete the comparison on the fate of the iceberg meeting the Titanic. The quote above exemplifies this. Just like human vanity is to meet its opponent, the Titanic met its opponent, the iceberg. The overall meaning and message of the poem is conveyed through the comparison that spans the entirety of the poem. The meaning is that the human vanity of the Titanic at the time, will collide with something that will cause a disruption. The symbol of human vanity, the Titanic, met its end with the iceberg and the speaker sees this as a continuing issue for the human society.