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Sunday, January 13, 2013
Dickinson 1
In this first post, free-write for 30 minutes on two of the following poems you read tonight: 142, 327, 374, 54. Post your writing as a "comment" to this one. Start your post with the numbers of the poem you've chosen.
Your post should touch on three things: key words, key metaphors, and points of confusion/ambiguity. Write about what puzzles you; use writing as an opportunity to think through the poem.
Explore connections between your two poems as well as connections back to the poems and themes we discussed in class.
If you follow instructions and spend 30 minutes writing to think through the poem, you get full credit.
Due by 8 am Wednesday.
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Morgan:
ReplyDeletePoems: 54,374
I am choosing to write about these two poems because of one word, convulsion. Hopefully the more I write something will come of it.
In poem 54 Dickinson seems to be writing about how pain and discomfort are some of the best things in life because they are honest. It is hard to hide pain and it is hard to fake it as well. Dickinson writes, "Impossible to feign." This line comes after she mentions death, so it is confusing whether or not she is talking about pain or death, or if they are the same thing. Where I get lost is in the last two lines when Dickinson writes about the beads upon a forehead. In my mind I picture a man in agony sweating. I assume this is the image that she is going for. I believe that what Dickinson is saying is that while many would think that this image of a man in pain is negative, it is actually a good thing because while he is in pain he is being honest. "The Eyes glaze once- and that is Death," I have trouble fitting this line into the poem. Dickinson is known for writing about death, and this poem is about pain, but this line confuses me.
In poem 374 Dickinson again brings up the theme of discomfort, but in a more discreet way. She talks about Bass that never stop moving, and the word monotony means a lack of variety, but I, for some reason, do not believe that this is the proper defenition for the word because she writes "Blue Monotony." The main metaphor that holds the poem together is the reference to the heart as sea. So the question is, if the heart is the sea, then what is the hurricane? When I read about the hurricane and then I read the last stanza it makes me think that Dickinson is saying there comes a point in life where everyone realizes that there is tragedy, and we must accept this. The hurricane comes and tears down this wall. A wall that we thought was strong, but really it is brittle. A slight push will make it crumble, and having not believing in it will make it fall as well. I don't know I could be completely wrong about this.
Sam:
ReplyDeletePoems: 54, 142
Upon first glance, I reall have no idea what to think of these two poems except that they are both depressing and they both have death-related themes. What is particularly interesting to me is her use of capitalization in these poems. I noticed the capitalized words in poem 54 are all negative words (Death, Convulsion, Agony, etc.) and in 142, they are all sort of positive words (Heavens, Columns, Earth, Universe, etc.). The capitalized words are staying true to the theme of the poem.
In poem 54, she says that she likes the look of anguish. What is that all about? Was she abused or something as a child and has that left her with mental scars which is why she likes the look of anguish? Is this even her talking or is she imagining another person who likes the look of anguish? When she says "I like the look of Anguish because I know it's true - men do not sham Convulsion, Nor simulate, a Throe - " I think she is implying that men are untrustworthy and that they fake a lot of things. Indeed anguish is part of a group of things that cannot be feigned. Anguish is a tangible feeling, unlike a feeling such as love, that is abstract. Death is very tangible and final and fate-driven (if you believe in that) because you only die once "The Eyes glaze once - and that is Death - impossible to feign"
Upon closer reading of poem 142, it seems that it is also negative because she talks about the Columns (assuming that those are the columns of heaven) closing and how the Way was stiched. She could not get into heaven. I'm out of ideas.
Kenny:
ReplyDelete142, 374
142 seems ambiguous, but still seems to send a message of realization that we're all tiny humans on a big earth ("and I alone-/A speck upon a Ball-"). The first statement, "I saw no way," starts the ambiguity, yet still confirms she's feeling hopeless for whatever the scenario is. The metaphor, "I felt the Columns close," re-confirms a sense of hopelessness. The second half of this stanza is more about the Earth and space, which is a clear connection to the "connections" Whitman wrote about. In Dickinson's view, it's more tragic or even possibly a disconnection. The second stanza gets more in depth; "A speck upon a ball" is true to DIckinson's existential nature found in the first stanza. The last two lines serve as a confusing metaphor that could be interpreted in a bunch of ways, and I still don't know how to interpret it, but what I got out of this poem is the sense of hopelessness one can feel on Earth. It's like we're big when we're happy, then when things start to fall apart, we realize our existence and how we're small specks on a ball. I, personally, enjoy Whitman's approach to accepting our small existence better.
374: Dickinson seems to make really ambiguous metaphors, yet can still put in direct meaning statements as well; this poem is a prime example. What's direct is the poem is about how things never run perfectly, in this case love. The Hurricane may be interpreted as several different things, but it's clear the Hurricane is something that will make something less than perfect. The last stanza is super confusing. The metaphor of the Wall easily being destroyed seems, to me, that she's saying love is fragile and can be ruined easily, but I remind you Dickinson can be very ambiguous. The last line, "A Questioning-dissolves," is where I become so stunned by the ambiguity. Whatever it means, I still see "dissolves" as a metaphor that correlates with the Wall being destroyed and the water dissolving something. The last half of this poem is very confusing.
Reggie
ReplyDeletePoem: 142
The key words are capitalized- Heavens, Columns, Earth, Hemispheres, Universe, Speck, Ball, Circumference, Dip of Bell
Important Metaphor is "I alone - A Speck upon a Ball"
I’m Confused with the phrases "I touched the Universe", "Went out upon Circumference", and "Beyond the Dip of Bell"
What I took from these phrases "I touched the universe I assumed floating in space in the Universe of physically touching it. "Went out upon the Circumference" I thought the person had fallen off the world and "Beyond the Dip of Bell" I thought it might be going past a star alignment and the Dip of Bell being the star alignment.
What the writer is trying to say in this poem is that she saw no way that the heavens were stitched or connected. She felt the columns possibly doors or gates of heaven close. The earth reversed her hemispheres meaning that the rotation of the earth changed into the opposite direction. She physically touched or is just floating in the universe. She describes herself as a speck upon a ball meaning she is just one of many that is on the world. Went out upon circumference I believed to mean she has fallen off the earth into the universe. Beyond the Dip of Bell I assumed she met going past the start alignment known as the “Dip of Bell” like the big dipper. What I took from this poem is heaven closing its gates to the ending world as people fall off. I thought of this poem as the end of the rapture do to the end of the world. The world ending is people falling off the world into the universe as the earth rotates in the opposite direction.
Poem: 54
The key words are Agony, Convulsion, Throe, Eyes, Death, Beads, Forehead, and Anguish
Important metaphor would be “The Eyes glaze once - and that is Death”
What confuse me are the phrases “The Beads upon the Forehead” and “By homely Anguish strung”
“The Beads upon the Forehead” I thought could have been sweat popping up on a forehead like little beads. “By homely Anguish strung” I thought this phrase met a series of un elegant anguish or represented by strung a long string.
What the writer is saying in this poem is that she enjoys the face of anguish because she knows it is a true feeling. Men will not fake pain or create false pretenses of it. Upon death a man’s eyes become glazed or glassy hinting how a person looks before crying. This is impossible to represent can only be experienced. The Beads upon the forehead I believe represent sweat. A man does sweat and cry when struggling from pain. It is a constant string of un elegant pain. The message I take from this poem is that nobody can fake death because the signs of dieing of absolute pain are to truthful, real, and convincing.
Brian :
ReplyDelete54: The major words that stick out to me are agony, true, Death, homely. The “look of agony is one of pain, but Dickinson claims that it is one that she likes. This shouldn’t seem to make sense, although her reasoning is that it is true. Men cannot fake pain of death. Death is a major factor in this poem, as it is in many others. She recognizes the signs, and even takes comfort in these signs. First he is sweating, but then he arrives at a “homely Anguish.” This phrase confuses me because these two words seem to be contradictory. Is it homely because it is an accepted anguish or possibly because it signifies the end? The main theme that I see is the close relationship with death, but it is an unusual one.
142: Key words that I noted in this poem are stitched, speck, circumferences, and dip. Stitched and dip seem important, although I have not fully figured out the significance of these words. Stitched seems to give the image of the sky closing up, the clouds coming. She is writing in a manner as though she just experienced some great tragedy. Looking at her other poems, one would be inclined to think that someone close to her may have died. This one was different, though, because she reacts differently. “The Earth reversed her Hemispheres.” This seems to refer to Dickinson’s state of mind. She felt like the world shifted, like major things just happened. It made her think of her place on this “ball”. She felt insignificant like a “speck”. I don’t understand the entire last line, but it makes me think that she want somewhere to avoid the pain.
Mason-
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested 54 and 374 beacuse 54 deals with the real feelings of pain. Sure, many people can fake happiness, but not "agony." Those feelings of defeat are not faked because they are not desirable. Therefore, when they are seen, they must be "true" and not a "sham." "The Beads upon the forehead" that represent the distress are. All of it is genuine, the "The Eyes [glazing]" and the "Anguish strung." When I think about it, Dickinson brings up a very good point. How many times do you walk down the street and someone fakes a tear or a visage of agony? Never. Smiles are constantly shown on those faces, real or not. But then there are the times you can see the distress and the pain in someone's eyes and we try to comfort them. Never do we believe it fake, because it is a "privileged glimpse into the human heart" unlike any thing else. Then I wonder why Dickinson is so depressing in the poem because genuine happiness also gives us a look inside someone. I feel Walt Whitman would back me up on that.
374 on the other hand could be viewed as a precedent to 54 because the poem talks about (what I believe is) a broken heart. Thus the broken heart would lead to pain therefore lead to poem 54. Dickinson is contradictory in that "The Heart has narrow Banks" yet it "measures like the Sea." The "Sea" is large and the heart is physically small. Our hearts could be metaphorically large but she says they have "narrow Banks." Later she writes, "Till Hurricane bisects" meaning when our hearts break there isn't enough capacity for the defeat "Its insufficient area." But because of this tough heartbreak, the "Heart," although "convulsive," "learns" how to handle it. But that "learned" "[Calmness] is but a wall," or an interference. Then suddenly, something can happen, "An instant's Push demolishes" that "wall" we built up to combat the heartbreak because the moment is fragile. What I don't understand well is the "unattempted Gauze." I'm not even sure "unattempted" is a word, it is coming up with a red underline as a write it. The "Gauze" represents a bandage, but why is it "unattempted" because one tries being calm. Overall, the poem is very meaningful describing the downside of love I think and goes through the pessimistic and disappointing side of it.
Alex
ReplyDeleteI am very interested in 142 and 374 because they remind me of Whitman's oceanic feeling. The initial tone of 142 was that of a closed door; however the tone seems to change with the statement "I touched the Universe." Touching the Universe is reminiscent of the oceanic feeling that we have seen with Freud and Whitman and is not at all reminiscent of a closed door. The idea of being "A speck upon a ball" is also related to that oceanic feeling of being a part of something much larger than yourself.
The opening line, "The heart has narrow banks" does not really seem like something that is going to share the theme of the oceanic feeling. The next line though, is what is really important because it states that the heart "Measures as the sea." This idea is consistent with the oceanic feeling because many comparisons are made between the oceanic feeling and the seemingly infinite expanse of the sea because of its connection with every single person. the line "And Blue Monotony" also gives you the idea that she shares Whitman's idea that deep down everyone is the same. She also states that the heart has insufficient room for its size, which probably implies the heart's massive compassion. However, she also says that calmness is merely a bandage, as shown in her use of the word "Gauze." This is an interesting idea, but I'm not sure what exactly it's bandaging.
Nick
ReplyDelete11
In poem 11, i felt like the words forbidden, Host, nectar, sorest, and distant were all crucial to the meaning. Dickson writes "To comprehend a nectar Requires sorest need." Nectar refers back to success which is described as the 'sweetest', and Dickenson writes that to understand you must have 'sorest need'. Sorest means 'causing pain or distress' so my guess is that she is refering to the oceanic feeling. The oceanic feeling is a success because we want to feel apart of something greater, yet once we do, the outside world brings suffering and causes pain.
The next stanza was too deep to understand but the final one added more meaning to the poem. I thought the phrase 'forbidden ear' seemed very meanful because its something the dying man wasnt mean to hear. I think it refers to the 'distant strains' of triumph which refers to the success described earlier in the poem, but i cant tie the two together without the middle stanza which i dont understand.
In Poem 374, the description of the heart seemed strange. the heart is described like an sea, with banks, beating like the waves in a 'blue monotony'. While the sea is certainly blue, the heart is not. A blue heart represents coldness, which is the opposite of a warm, loving heart. This reconfirmed my suspision of Dickinson thinking poorly of the oceanic feeling that Waltman praises. Poem 11 discusses the oceanic feeling negetively and the description of the heart here only supports that thought.