"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.

"The Lamb" and "The Tiger" by William Blake

“The Lamb” is a poem full of peace and calm and innocence whereas “The Tiger” is filled with intensity, darkness, mystery, and fear. Despite their vast difference in tone, both poems are centered around the maker of these two creatures. They both puzzle over God’s creation. The first poem is phrased like a children’s poem and sounds like a father speaking to his child and asking rhetorical questions which he expects to answer later. In addition to the connotation of a lamb as an innocent creature, the diction throughout the poem such as “stream… delight… softest… bright… tender… rejoice” all reflect innocence. The second stanza talks about how God sent his Son, the Lamb of God, to earth as a child. Even though the connections are largely Scriptural, the attitude with which they are presented here suggests the way in which a caring parent makes ideas as readily connectable as possible for children. The second poem is extremely different. While the first poem solves the question of “who made thee?” the second leaves it primarily a mystery, or at least leaves a questioning in the air. The imagery of a tiger “burning bright…in…the night” is the sort of picture that is actually Hell-like. Blake expresses awe that anyone would dare to construct the “fearful symmetry” of the tiger. The description in the fourth stanza of the tiger being made in a blacksmith’s foundry gives him all the more warlike and fierce aspect. Blake also refers to how the sinews of the tiger’s heart are twisted, implying its perversely wicked predatory nature. Interestingly, the symmetric, anatomical, and mathematical characterization of the tiger makes him seem more terrible. It is as if the structure to the evil makes it far more severe. The second poem emphasizes the terror found in God’s creation which reflects his power and moral perfection, while the first emphasizes his loving kindness. Since God is both just, powerful, and loving, I do not have to choose one of these poems to agree with in this case. Both showcase different attributes of God that are equally important to understand.

Heart of Darkness vs. Apocalypse Now

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, was portrayed fairly well in the film Apocalypse Now, despite the many factual differences. By setting the movie in the Vietnam War, an era all too familiar when the movie was released and still relevant today, instead of the Belgian Congo, the movie seems more relevant than Conrad’s book. Pages could be filled with the similarities between the works. The misty atmosphere of jungle with dangerous natives on all sides, the dingy aquatic craft, the gruesome displays at Kurtz’s temple, the attack of harmless arrows, the spear that kills the helmsman, the strangely out of place Western worshiper of Kurtz, etc. One of the interesting traits of Kurtz is his existence as not much more than a voice. While he does not seem as sickly in the movie as he is described in the book, he nevertheless acts calmly. In the book, his voice holds incredible sway. In the movie, the effect of his voice is more implied, but for a while, his face is not shown, so he does seem to be primarily a voice. The most poignant similarity between the two is the statement of “the horror, the horror” as Kurtz’s last words. Both contain the themes of desire for adventure and the collapse of “noble” characters. Conrad’s Kurtz, however, seems to fall into darkness primarily for the purpose of material gains. As such he retains a selfish desire to make it home and be rich and famous. Coppola’s version seems to indicate Kurtz’s withdrawal into a kind of contented hopelessness. He wants his son to know what happened to him and how he overcame the deceitful suffering that he found all around.  Both works’ philosophies involve the rejection of morality in favor of instinctual intellect, but in the movie, Kurtz indicates that there is still a compartmentalized morality left. He values truth to self and others more than his wicked deeds. In the movie, the observer, Captain Willard, manages to avoid falling into the “trap” that Kurtz fell into of becoming the pagan idol of others, but there is no such trap in the book.

Explication of "Yet Do I Marvel" by Countee Cullen

“Yet do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen is an interesting poem written before the Civil Rights Movement when Blacks were still extremely outcast. Most of the poem consists of allusions to attributes and puzzles of God. He knows from Scripture that “God is good,” but it puzzles him that so many things appear wrong or out of place with this fact. He starts with a petty trouble, the blindness of moles. Personally, moles live a pretty good lifestyle underground, so they do not really need eyes. Do worms have eyes, but he then moves all the way to the ultimate quandary of the inevitable death and decay of all flesh that is supposed to be in the image of God. Can it get any more severe than that. Cullen makes his final point even stronger by conjuring problems even more severe even though he blends different allusions to do so. He brings out the harrowing torture that Tantalus and Sisyphus from Greek mythology suffer. Tantalus is terrible thirsty and submerged in water that recedes whenever he tries to drink and has fruit above him with which he longs to satisfy his hunger, but the branch always moves beyond his reach. Sisyphus must roll a boulder constantly up a slope without ever reaching the top because the bolder always rolls back down, at which point, he must start over. After all of these examples, his main point is outlined with the understatement that it is a “curious thing” for God to choose him to be a poet and Black since it was hard for Blacks to be successful in such positions. In the context, the allusions give his struggle an epic grandeur and a colossal scale, which it probably does not deserve as hard as his task may be, but it certainly highlights his troubles in a way that may catch the attention of unsympathetic people. Throughout the poem, Cullen underscores the idea that it is not his place to know the answers to these questions because his mind is corrupted and his body and hands as a result are also corrupted. At the beginning, he points out that God could tell why, but the poet does not have the right to demand for God to stoop to that point. The whole poem could possibly be a parallel to real life if God is compared to the white people who mistreat Blacks without stooping to tell them why. Thus, he vents himself in the poem with little hope that anything will be changed even with his flattery.

The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad

Over the course of “The Secret Sharer,” the narrator becomes more and more confident in his abilities as a commander. Near the beginning, the narrator instructs his mates that after the hard work done recently, he would take the first watch of the night alone. After saying this, he feels “painfully” that he, a “stranger” is doing something unusual. He also comments that all of the phrases of the sea are familiar to him, but he feels strange because he is not used to being in command. Because of his newness to command and his disposition to quietude, he feels uncomfortable in his new position. Throughout the course of the book, the narrator interacts with his “other self,” the murderer from the Sephora, who has a remarkable calm and determination in the face of terrible calamity and harsh situations. By the end of the short story, the narrator has acquired the other man’s calm determination. It is as if, the final wordless clasp of hands between the two, caused the narrator to acquire the other’s spirit and being. The narrator’s old self is then washed away when the other man jumps overboard. The result of the transformation is apparent when he declares that he is alone with his ship, and that no one in the world should stand between them. The captain even finds that he has “the perfect communion of a seaman with his first command.” He no longer timidly orders the crew around, but the chief mate from the Sephora has helped him become confident and assertive. The change in the narrator causes him to feel mentally and emotionally torn for most of the time while his “double” is on the ship. Aside from the influence of his “double’s” character, he is forced to make arbitrary commands and take extraordinary precautions. In these ways, his normal adherence to custom and timidity are forcibly strained until he finally releases them.

Passage Analysis from Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Here is an excerpt from Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, which I will be analyzing.

“Did you understand a word of all that?" the chief clerk asked his parents, "surely he's not trying to make fools of us". "Oh, God!" called his mother, who was already in tears, "he could be seriously ill and we're making him suffer. Grete! Grete!" she then cried. "Mother?" his sister called from the other side. They communicated across Gregor's room. "You'll have to go for the doctor straight away. Gregor is ill. Quick, get the doctor. Did you hear the way Gregor spoke just now?" "That was the voice of an animal", said the chief clerk, with a calmness that was in contrast with his mother's screams. "Anna! Anna!" his father called into the kitchen through the entrance hall, clapping his hands, "get a locksmith here, now!" And the two girls, their skirts swishing, immediately ran out through the hall, wrenching open the front door of the flat as they went. How had his sister managed to get dressed so quickly? There was no sound of the door banging shut again; they must have left it open; people often do in homes where something awful has happened.

“Gregor, in contrast, had become much calmer. So they couldn't understand his words any more, although they seemed clear enough to him, clearer than before - perhaps his ears had become used to the sound. They had realised, though, that there was something wrong with him, and were ready to help. The first response to his situation had been confident and wise, and that made him feel better. He felt that he had been drawn back in among people, and from the doctor and the locksmith he expected great and surprising achievements - although he did not really distinguish one from the other. Whatever was said next would be crucial, so, in order to make his voice as clear as possible, he coughed a little, but taking care to do this not too loudly as even this might well sound different from the way that a human coughs and he was no longer sure he could judge this for himself. Meanwhile, it had become very quiet in the next room. Perhaps his parents were sat at the table whispering with the chief clerk, or perhaps they were all pressed against the door and listening.”

In this passage, people other than Gregor first begin to realize that something is wrong with him, that his voice sounds like an animal’s. This is a case of dramatic irony because we know that Gregor is a bug, but none of the characters besides him know that. These paragraphs also show a complete contrast between the behavior of Gregor and all of those outside the room. Gregor’s family and the chief clerk at his company together rush about and are generally in a state of confusion. While, as Gregor points out, they act sensibly by calling for a locksmith and a doctor, their demeanor is chaotic. His family and coworker behave like bugs while he behaves a bit more like a human. Bugs typically scurry here, there, and everywhere, as does his family. Bugs also quickly dive for cover when something bad comes their way, just as his family quickly runs for help. Gregor on the other hand acts extraordinarily calm, cool, and collected despite his outlandish transformation and job predicament. He does not behave quite like a human though, because he should be freaking out about his plight. He also never even considers the problem to his family which his transformation might become in his first interactions. Throughout his normal lifestyle, Gregor has been living an emotionally and socially detached life from the rest of the world and even the rest of his family. His longing to be cared for and brought back into the rest of humanity can be seen in the comfort he finds from the idea of being “drawn back in among people.” His indiscriminate attitude toward the help that a locksmith and a doctor could give shows that he is desperate to once again feel connected with the rest of humanity and would be just as satisfied if his boss could help.

Poetry Out Loud Selection: "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

            “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson is one of my favorite poems. I chose it because I tend to enjoy poems about war and military, particularly those of noble feats. This poem is based on the Battle of Balaclava from the Crimean War. Through a series of errors, the Light Brigade was sent down a valley for a mile and a quarter to seize eight heavy artillery. While they did eventually make it to the line of cannon to slaughter those defending them, the regiment returned with only 426 out of 673 men who set out, and of those, only 195 still had horses. Tennyson brings up some interesting themes about war in his poem. In the second stanza he talks about how the duty of the soldiers required them “not to make a reply” to their orders, “not to reason why,” but just to “do and die.” It makes me consider the heavy weight of mistakes in war they tend to cause great bloodshed. The lines, rhythmic construction, and various forms of repetition somehow make the poem itself sound like a cavalry charge. The repetition involves not only many short or repeated phrases, but also a spread of similar unifying words. The unity could possibly reflect the uniformed nature of the military. There is also a ton of parallelism to mirror the ranks of the cavalry. This can be seen in the “Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them” and in other places. The repeated patterns fall apart in the fourth stanza. Instead, the word choice is more varied and arrhythmic such as in the lines “Plunged in the battery-smoke/ Right thro' the line they broke.” The number of lines per stanza rises from the beginning to the climax in paragraph four, and then decreases to the calm ending concerning the glorious legacy of the Light Brigade.