"At the round earth's imagined corners" by John Donne

“At the round earth’s imagined corners” by John Donne discusses the resurrection of the dead at the end of time. It does not have a regular rhyme scheme, but all of the lines have at least a slant rhyming counterpart. At first, the poem discusses the return of the dead to their bodies. It then presents a gloomy list of how many of the people died. Most of the list is contained within line six which has the sound of a death knell with its string of accented syllables in the words “war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies.” These words also possess a preponderance of pronunciation that causes them to slow down on top of the steady accent. The diction thus supports the solemn statement. Earlier, when Donne refers to “you numberless infinities of souls,” the rhythm moves rapidly forward with only three accented syllables among the ten syllables in the phrase, suggesting how uncountable and numerous are the souls. The last line contains words that take a while to pronounce, thereby emphasizing the abiding longevity and significance of the “pardon” that the Lord “hadst sealed.” Donne comments on how he wants the Lord to let the resurrection of the dead wait for the Lord to teach him how to repent because once the dead “sleep” no longer, it will be too “late” for Donne to receive forgiveness from his sins. The word “Here” which begins the hopeful idea of learning to repent, which, according to the promises of God, is the chief component of salvation, is set off both by being an accented syllable preceded by an accented syllable, but also by being the beginning of a new sentence. The last few lines have a notable absence of any hard “k” sounds to reflect the tender effect of God’s grace despite the previously impending judgement.

"Stanzas" by George Gordon, Lord Byron

“Stanzas” by George Gordon, Lord Byron is an interesting poem about fighting for freedom that relates such quests to the olden days of various time periods. The predominant meter is anapestic as illustrated by the following scansion.

1 anapestic tetrameter

2 anapestic trimeter + unaccented last syllable

3 anapestic tetrameter

4 anapestic + unaccented last syllable

5 anapestic tetrameter

6 anapestic trimeter + unaccented last syllable

7 spondee, anapest, anapest, anapest

8 iamb, iamb, iamb, trochee, trochee

The author does an excellent job of tuning the reader’s ear in to the standard rhythm of the first stanza and the first couple lines of the last stanza before shifting to emphasize his meaning. The author starts off by exhorting men to fight for the freedom of others, but his use of the phrase “glories of Greece and of Rome” does not seem particularly apropos. While the Greeks and Romans may have fought for their own freedom, they did not have a habit of fighting for the freedom of others. Instead, this serves to enhance the romantic and glorious mood of the poem. After all, the author wants it to sound enticing to go fight for the freedom of others. The anapestic meter fits the battle cry and glorious nature of the poem with its rolling rhythm. The first two lines of the second stanza continue in the same meter and provide more reasons why the freedom of others should be supported. The last two lines have a sudden change from the “let us” and its accompanying subjunctive mood to the imperative mood. Appropriately, there is a sudden change in meter that seems to put special emphasis on “then battle.” Then the last line has a completely different meter that first shows the catch to the author’s exhortation with iambs and then has confident trochees to emphasize the potential opportunity for being knighted. The lines that end in unaccented last syllables are the lines that end in hard punctuation, so the extra syllables help to soften the pause and make the line trail off.

"Thistles" by Ted Hughes

“Thistles” by Ted Hughes discusses the terrible annoyance of thistles. In the home, the thistles actually presented as being warlike, which adds a bit of slapstick comedy to the tone. Lines two and three of the first stanza have a slant rhyme in the words “air” and “pressure.” In the third line of that same stanza, the word blue-black closely relates the word pressure back to the  statement that the thistles are cracking open because “BL” sounds like a release of pressure. The second stanza has many “ST” sounds forcing the violent harshness of the thistles.  This can be seen in the words “Burst,” “Grasped,” “Fistful,” “Splintered,” and “Icelandic frost thrust.” The “ST” sounds fairly sharp, not to mention the fact that this collection of words literally causes pointed discomfort for people who are reading out loud. “Burst” and “Fistful” connect their respective lines because they are a half feminine slant rhyme.  While there is no true rhyme in the poem, many words come close. For instance, the words “frost” and “thrust” have consonance but lack the accented assonance, yet the “st” sound takes so much time to say that it marginalizes the “o” and “u,” causing this to feel like rhyme. In the first line of the last stanza, we see another case of alliteration in the comparison between men and thistles, which “grow grey.” In the first line of the poem, “hoeing hands” is also an alliteration. The first line of the third stanza contains assonance between the words “stain” and “decayed,” and in the following line, “pale” and “hair,” although the former is more effective than the latter. The assonance of the first example serves to strengthen the connection between the “stain” and the “decayed” because they both came from the “Viking.” Finally, “grow” is connected by assonance to “mown,” and “feud” is tied to “appear” by a curious embodiment of assonance.

"The Three Horsemen of Apocalypse"

“The Three Horsemen of Apocalypse” is a curious story by G.K. Chesterton about the Prussians having too many men follow orders too closely. The short story is found in a collection called “The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond.” The main story of interest concerning the Prussians and Polish is told primarily in quotes by Mr. Pond even though the story opens from the perspective of a young boy whose father knows Mr. Pond. The story is presented as a riddle. The first time through, Mr. Pond only tells a slice of the story, which does not make much sense to his audience, who then request that he tell the whole tale. Based on the title, it is no surprise that this first story in the collection contains several paradoxes. For instance, “Paul Petrowski was one of those utterly unpractical men who are of prodigious importance in practical politics.” At first sight, such quotations make no sense, but after Chesterton argues on for the next paragraph, his point, among many, that practical politicians always have practical objections and thus never accomplish anything makes more sense out of the initial nonsense. In fact, the main story of which Paul Petrowski is only a small part happens to be a paradox. How could it possible have cost the Prussians dearly to have a military that is too disciplined, obedient, and seamlessly constructed? “The Blue Cross’s” unexpected happenings and the paradoxes of “The Three Horsemen of Apocalypse” both involve twists of reality and a variety of fascinatingly unexpected arguments throughout. A prevailing trait of Chesterton’s writing seems to be his desire to turn matters on their head. The question remains, however, whether he does this for specific ends or merely for entertaining and witty writing. Based on the political and moral tidbits found in these stories, I would argue that the answer is both.

The Blue Cross by G.K. Chesterton

“The Blue Cross” by G.K. Chesterton is an excellently written detective story reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, but with a greater focus on the unexpected. I enjoyed reading this story much more than I have any of the other short stories we have read thus far because while many of the stories from “Dubliners” and Kafka are concerned with feelings, moods, and themes presented through picturesque and often ambiguous language, Chesterton infuses his stories with far more logic. This is not to say that he leaves descriptions and themes out of the picture, but more that the stories are far more complete, clever, and satisfying.  A major theme in “The Blue Cross” is unexpected occurrences. From its very beginning, the main character, a detective, is not the common traveler that  any passerby would expect. Moreover, he is a French detective in England, which is slightly surprising. Throughout the story, the detective watches for anything unusual as he wanders about the city tracking Flambeau. It seems ridiculous that the detective should be able to connect switched salt and sugar, a star shaped hole in window, overturned apples, and switched merchandise signs With his target, but that is just another one of the unexpected aspects of the story. Even the criminal in the story is himself a man of incredible intellect. In the greatest unexpected occurrence of the whole story, the innocent looking priest seen at the beginning turns out to be clever enough to outwit the criminal and surprise the detective. The rationalizations used by the French detective, Valentin, for his seemingly foolish tracing of strange occurrences and the theological arguments between the two “priests” (one is Flambeau) show some of the added argumentation thrown into the story. Chesterton also adds a discussion of the type of intelligence possessed by the Valentin and sharply comments that he “was not ‘a thinking machine’; …a machine only is a machine because it cannot think.” This quote shows a little bit of the witty writing style of Chesterton.

"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold

“Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold starts by painting a peaceful picture of the Dover strait between France and England with its “cliffs” and “moon-blanched land.” The scene, however, is not what it seems. The constant roar of the turbid water on the beach, churning up pebbles, is meant to convey sadness and that because of human misery. The reference to Sophocles, although historical, also alludes the misery of his plays. It indicates that the ebb and flow of the ocean brought Sophocles the inspiration for writing about human misery just as much as the ebb and flow of the English channel’s water does for the narrator. While the imagery remains similar, the metaphorical meanings seem to switch at the beginning of the third stanza. He laments the loss of faith, presumably in God, that he observes all around him. The faith which used to be so complete around the world (at least the Western world) is receding like the tide over the beaches. Despite the narrator’s apparent displeasure at the loss of faith, he does not cling to God but to his love in the final stanza. His understanding of the value in faith recedes with the rest of the world. Everything is falling apart around him (33-37). He indicates that the world which seems to be so wonderful, ebbs and flow like the sea, and has no solace for the times of suffering. The Bible instructs believers to cling to God because the world will fail them as Arnold realizes, but the narrator here rejects his faith in favor of something more tangible, his lover. Diction associated with storms can be traced throughout the poem, which reflects the turmoil within the speaker caused by the empty hope in the world and in his faith. The tone is forlorn with the speaker lamenting the state of the universe.

Discussion of Hunt Hawkins "Heart of Darkness and Racism"

Hunt Hawkins disagrees with Achebe’s concern over the racist qualities of “Heart of Darkness” and instead praises its outcry against human atrocity. His argument could be much stronger if he chose, so I do not understand why there is so much unclear waffling between ideas. Aside from that, I find it fairly convincing that Conrad’s supposed racism was mostly just the prevailing opinion of the day and most of what he was concerned with was destruction of the morality of whites when exposed to such primitive surroundings. Conrad repeatedly discusses the sham of the whites’ intention to better the natives and, as Hunt points out, there are several examples of abuse that cause Marlow concern such as the natives under the dark tree near the beginning and the native shot dead in the middle of the road. He also alludes to the false sense of morality that whites have with the description of how women live in a crystal world that is unrealistic and with his description of how Kurtz’s morality fell apart with the absence of any sort of civilization or police. I disagree with Hawkins when he claims that the evil is brought to the natives by Kurtz. I will acknowledge, however, that the natives have an integrity of mind, body, and soul that Conrad admires. The primary point for Conrad is not that Kurtz corrupted the natives, but that the practice of imperialism is flawed in several ways. Conrad laughs slightly at the hubris of whites who assume that they are gods in front of the Africans, when in truth they are “empty.” I would argue that the Africans are equally empty, but they have no façade of civilization to fill, so they can live their lives with primitive energy. This type of primitive lifestyle, according to Hawkins, has some sort of appeal, which causes Imperialism to be even more dangerous as it can ruin Western advanced civilization as it did Kurtz. The reason the primeval and Satanic way of live has an appeal is because all of mankind inherently hates the influence of God unless the Spirit chooses to show them that its paths lead to death. Thus, by leaving all structure and possibility for accountability, it is a false paradise of fickle freedom.