Baudelaire's Hymn To Beauty is a striking piece that touched me in its analysis of the subject matter - beauty. The poem begins by posing a question– “O Beauty! do you visit from the sky/ Or the abyss?” Firstly, one must note the capitalization of “Beauty”, suggesting that the beauty Baudelaire refers to throughout the poem represents more than the reader may initially consider. By personifying this physical characteristic, Baudelaire emphasizes its significance and describes this idea of Beauty which has been instilled with human traits. It is possible as well that Baudelaire had someone particular in mind when he was writing the poem, and used Beauty, rather than a real name, in an effort to detach himself from the poem and the reader. As the poem progresses, Beauty takes on other human characteristics like an “eye” which “contains the evening and the dawn”. As such, beauty's importance is heightened.
Beauty is something which in today's world can be interpreted in many ways. Not everyone defines beauty the same way. For example, a teenage boy might define beauty as a Sports Illustrated pinup and an old woman will probably find greater beauty in artistic scenery. Thus, Baudelaire's poem shows well the complexity of the notion of beauty and brought me to think about what this word means. Furthermore, such a concept is surely not just physical and this poem brought me to think about the extensive range of possible ways in which something can be beautiful.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Looking At Dickinson
Dickinson’s poem “My Life Had Stood” is a very interesting poem as it can be taken in many directions interpretively. The two most striking interpretations, I found, are that of the author’s questioning God and the woman’s role in a relationship. With regards to religion, one can interpret this poem as a spiritual awakening. The narrator’s “life had stood a loaded gun in corners” until she is lifted up by a higher being and devotes her life in service to her. They walk together in the mountains, for example, which connotes a positive spiritual relationship. There is also a sense of dependency, as Dickinson does not “have the power to die” and serves her “Master.”
This dependency can also be on a husband or male spouse, which would tie into Dickinson’s thematic importance in many of her poems of male-female relationships. In this sense, Dickinson seems to be mocking the notion that a man is a woman’s saviour and that as such she must devote her life to him. She must stand by him as he sleeps, for example, and is “deadly foe” to his enemies. The casual rhythm of this poem, which shows a sort of complacency in the writer, suggests that this is a mockery of male dominance of relationships. Personally, I cannot see how Dickinson would be serious in suggesting that woman’s life amounts to service to her husband, as she is not the sort of woman who would fit that mould. As such, the male-female relationship interpretation of this poem can almost certainly be seen as a mockery. While the religion interpretation may also be facetious, - Dickinson questions the existence of a higher being in many of her poems – it is less likely to be an outright mockery than the male-female relationship interpretation as such a subject is more likely to be taken seriously.
This dependency can also be on a husband or male spouse, which would tie into Dickinson’s thematic importance in many of her poems of male-female relationships. In this sense, Dickinson seems to be mocking the notion that a man is a woman’s saviour and that as such she must devote her life to him. She must stand by him as he sleeps, for example, and is “deadly foe” to his enemies. The casual rhythm of this poem, which shows a sort of complacency in the writer, suggests that this is a mockery of male dominance of relationships. Personally, I cannot see how Dickinson would be serious in suggesting that woman’s life amounts to service to her husband, as she is not the sort of woman who would fit that mould. As such, the male-female relationship interpretation of this poem can almost certainly be seen as a mockery. While the religion interpretation may also be facetious, - Dickinson questions the existence of a higher being in many of her poems – it is less likely to be an outright mockery than the male-female relationship interpretation as such a subject is more likely to be taken seriously.
"The Silken Tent"
“The Silken Tent”, one of the first poems we studied in class, is seemingly an unabashed declaration of love for a woman. At first, we get the sense of a strong and free woman whom the narrator worships. “She is as in a field a silken tent” for example and the tent which the woman represents “points heavenward.” A tent is a metaphor which both represents sturdiness and leniency, as it is a strong structure but is not rigid due to its soft material. It “gently sways at ease” yet it has a “supporting central cedar pole”, which may be taken to represent a backbone of sorts. Thus, a tent seems to be a perfect metaphor for a commendable woman whom the narrator worships.
Yet, there is an underlying sense in the poem that the woman is tied down, as represented by the constraints of the tent. The tent is “slightly taut”, for example, yet there is a sense that the woman yearns to be free. “She seems to owe naught to any single cord, but strictly held by none, is loosely bound” thus one can take from the poem that the woman is purported to be single or yearns to be. I believe that that underlying conflict in the poem is that the man who worships her would like a more committed relationship yet the woman only feels the need to be tied down to a certain extent. The source of the man’s worries is that he sees redeeming qualities in the woman yet by her very nature she cannot be to him what he wants her to. She is “capricious” and while he tries to get her to settle down, she is “of the slightest bondage made aware.”
Yet, there is an underlying sense in the poem that the woman is tied down, as represented by the constraints of the tent. The tent is “slightly taut”, for example, yet there is a sense that the woman yearns to be free. “She seems to owe naught to any single cord, but strictly held by none, is loosely bound” thus one can take from the poem that the woman is purported to be single or yearns to be. I believe that that underlying conflict in the poem is that the man who worships her would like a more committed relationship yet the woman only feels the need to be tied down to a certain extent. The source of the man’s worries is that he sees redeeming qualities in the woman yet by her very nature she cannot be to him what he wants her to. She is “capricious” and while he tries to get her to settle down, she is “of the slightest bondage made aware.”
Book Review
Death of a Naturalist is an anthology of poems written by Seamus Heaney and published in 1966. In it, Heaney touches on subjects such as the natural traditions of his ancestors, their decline, his own childhood and maturation as well as love. Through his direct, colloquial writing style, Heaney gives us a deep glimpse into the traditions of his ancestry while portraying nostalgia and regret for its passing. He parallels the end of the simple Irish life with that of his own loss of innocence and by crossbreeding the two themes creates a deeply layered work. The anthology’s only notable weak-point is its meditations on love which seem an unfitting addition to the work’s otherwise unified product.
Much of the joy in reading this anthology comes from Heaney elevating the sensory aspect of successful poetry to a new level. In doing so, Heaney transports us directly to the fresh, natural environment of his family and by extension his Irish ancestry. Heaney thus purposefully makes the reader long for the extinct past which he himself shows deep nostalgia for in Death of a Naturalist. A prime example of the reader’s sensory involvement within Heaney’s poems occurs in “Blackberry Picking”. The reader is transported directly to the action of Heaney and his comrades picking blackberries through the use of onomatopoeia and alliteration to heighten our senses. “Big dark blobs burned,” for example, makes one feel like they are inches away from the subject of the poem. In “Digging” – the anthology’s first and arguably best poem – one feels at the helm of Heaney’s father’s action of digging for potato roots with such sensory diction as “cool hardness” of “scattered new potatoes.” Paralleling and signifying this fresh and natural imagery in Death of a Naturalist is the colloquial language which pervades the anthology – the simplicity of which does not detract from the deep thematic unity of the poems. In “Personal Helicon”, for example, Heaney explores both the loss of his innocence and the obsoleteness of naturalistic observation with short and unpretentious diction.
Heaney not only describes well the pure essence of his ancestry and family’s traditions but also laments their loss in unique ways. In “Blackberry Picking”, for example, Heaney creates a brilliant allegory for the loss of this natural lifestyle by describing the rotting of previously “glossy and sweet” blackberries and Heaney’s role in the process. Religious imagery such as “thorn pricks” – connoting the crucifixion of Jesus – is included in the poem to heighten Heaney’s lamentation of Ireland’s modernization. In “Follower”, Heaney – through the use of ironic role reversal – is extremely self-critical of his inability to fill his father’s manual labor footsteps. He elaborates on the effect this takes on him with the non-literal meaning of the poem’s last line. It is now “his father who keeps stumbling behind him and will not go away”, which suggests the loss of his past is always at the back of his mind. However in a number of poems he reconciles his own role in this loss of tradition by suggesting that his poetry allows him to relive and commemorate the past. “Digging” is a prime example of this, in which Heaney parallels his own work with that of his grandfather by comparing digging to the art of writing poetry. By delving into his ancestors’ past, he is in effect digging for roots just as his father and grandfather dig for the literal roots of potatoes. The grandfather “nicks and slices neatly” just as Heaney does his words; despite its technical nature and difficulty, digging is clearly described as a sensory and liberating process just as poetry is meant to be – exemplified by this poem being written in free verse. Thus, Heaney rationalizes his breaking with tradition by suggesting that he is continuing his ancestry’s actions by bringing light to them.
Coming hand in hand with Heaney’s criticism of the loss of a simpler time is his own maturation and loss of innocence – a common theme in Death of a Naturalist which is brilliantly explored as its own entity as well as effectively paralleled to Ireland’s maturation. In “Mid-term Break”, for example, Heaney accounts with cold and melancholy diction the accidental death of his four year old brother, describing an event in his life which brought him to a difficult reality and thus helped end his childhood innocence. While this poem deals solely with Heaney’s own maturation, other poems such as “Personal Helicon” brilliantly combine a child’s growing up with the loss of Ireland’s natural identity. “To stare big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring is beneath all adult dignity” is perhaps the most fundamental display of this fusion within the anthology as the sentence evokes intense nostalgia for both the freedom and simplicity of childhood and traditional Irish customs. Not just restricted to “Personal Helicon”, these two respective changes and Heaney’s lament for them are effectively paralleled and combined in Death of a Naturalist.
The only notable Achilles’ Heel of this anthology seems to be the author’s poems about love, which though by no means examples of dull poetry are unfitting in the context of the bulk of the anthology. Death of a Naturalist has a purposeful unity without these additions and makes one question the motives behind Heaney’s choice to include them. For example, “Poem”, which compares manual labor to perfecting love is a neat poem which fits within the boundaries of describing a simple past however is an outlier to the anthology thematically. Such a poem would fit well in another collection where its theme and message can be better developed with similar poems. Poems such as “Poem”, though seemingly unfitting, give only a small dent to the rich and highly-developed work that is Heaney’s Death of a Naturalist.
Much of the joy in reading this anthology comes from Heaney elevating the sensory aspect of successful poetry to a new level. In doing so, Heaney transports us directly to the fresh, natural environment of his family and by extension his Irish ancestry. Heaney thus purposefully makes the reader long for the extinct past which he himself shows deep nostalgia for in Death of a Naturalist. A prime example of the reader’s sensory involvement within Heaney’s poems occurs in “Blackberry Picking”. The reader is transported directly to the action of Heaney and his comrades picking blackberries through the use of onomatopoeia and alliteration to heighten our senses. “Big dark blobs burned,” for example, makes one feel like they are inches away from the subject of the poem. In “Digging” – the anthology’s first and arguably best poem – one feels at the helm of Heaney’s father’s action of digging for potato roots with such sensory diction as “cool hardness” of “scattered new potatoes.” Paralleling and signifying this fresh and natural imagery in Death of a Naturalist is the colloquial language which pervades the anthology – the simplicity of which does not detract from the deep thematic unity of the poems. In “Personal Helicon”, for example, Heaney explores both the loss of his innocence and the obsoleteness of naturalistic observation with short and unpretentious diction.
Heaney not only describes well the pure essence of his ancestry and family’s traditions but also laments their loss in unique ways. In “Blackberry Picking”, for example, Heaney creates a brilliant allegory for the loss of this natural lifestyle by describing the rotting of previously “glossy and sweet” blackberries and Heaney’s role in the process. Religious imagery such as “thorn pricks” – connoting the crucifixion of Jesus – is included in the poem to heighten Heaney’s lamentation of Ireland’s modernization. In “Follower”, Heaney – through the use of ironic role reversal – is extremely self-critical of his inability to fill his father’s manual labor footsteps. He elaborates on the effect this takes on him with the non-literal meaning of the poem’s last line. It is now “his father who keeps stumbling behind him and will not go away”, which suggests the loss of his past is always at the back of his mind. However in a number of poems he reconciles his own role in this loss of tradition by suggesting that his poetry allows him to relive and commemorate the past. “Digging” is a prime example of this, in which Heaney parallels his own work with that of his grandfather by comparing digging to the art of writing poetry. By delving into his ancestors’ past, he is in effect digging for roots just as his father and grandfather dig for the literal roots of potatoes. The grandfather “nicks and slices neatly” just as Heaney does his words; despite its technical nature and difficulty, digging is clearly described as a sensory and liberating process just as poetry is meant to be – exemplified by this poem being written in free verse. Thus, Heaney rationalizes his breaking with tradition by suggesting that he is continuing his ancestry’s actions by bringing light to them.
Coming hand in hand with Heaney’s criticism of the loss of a simpler time is his own maturation and loss of innocence – a common theme in Death of a Naturalist which is brilliantly explored as its own entity as well as effectively paralleled to Ireland’s maturation. In “Mid-term Break”, for example, Heaney accounts with cold and melancholy diction the accidental death of his four year old brother, describing an event in his life which brought him to a difficult reality and thus helped end his childhood innocence. While this poem deals solely with Heaney’s own maturation, other poems such as “Personal Helicon” brilliantly combine a child’s growing up with the loss of Ireland’s natural identity. “To stare big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring is beneath all adult dignity” is perhaps the most fundamental display of this fusion within the anthology as the sentence evokes intense nostalgia for both the freedom and simplicity of childhood and traditional Irish customs. Not just restricted to “Personal Helicon”, these two respective changes and Heaney’s lament for them are effectively paralleled and combined in Death of a Naturalist.
The only notable Achilles’ Heel of this anthology seems to be the author’s poems about love, which though by no means examples of dull poetry are unfitting in the context of the bulk of the anthology. Death of a Naturalist has a purposeful unity without these additions and makes one question the motives behind Heaney’s choice to include them. For example, “Poem”, which compares manual labor to perfecting love is a neat poem which fits within the boundaries of describing a simple past however is an outlier to the anthology thematically. Such a poem would fit well in another collection where its theme and message can be better developed with similar poems. Poems such as “Poem”, though seemingly unfitting, give only a small dent to the rich and highly-developed work that is Heaney’s Death of a Naturalist.
"After Apple-Picking"
Frost’s “After Apple-Picking” is a poem which is both beautiful for its simplicity and meaningful for its metaphorical nature. In line with Frost’s poems on nature, “After Apple-Picking” deals literally with picking apples on a farm and plays to our senses. For example, words such as “blossom end” and “magnified apples” pervade the poem and bring us to the forefront of the action Frost is describing. Such a simple event is furthermore described with great detail. “Every fleck of russet” shows clear, for example. An event which in my mind takes just seconds is described as one of Frost’s longer poems.
The poem is an elegant extended metaphor for someone about to die and looking back on his life. The apples which the narrator picks represent life’s experiences and the narrator is now “over-tired” from the process. Although “there’s a barrel” he didn’t fill, the narrator is mostly content with what he has accomplished and looks back on his life with nostalgia. “Sleep” is repeated throughout the poem yet most surely represents death in the context of the metaphor. Further imagery can be taken in two ways yet in one way furthers the notion of a man looking back on a fulfilling life. His ladder is “pointed toward heaven”, for example. Thus, a seemingly simplistic poem about apple picking proves to be one of Frost’s most profound poems, about looking back at life and knowing that although it was not perfect it had meaning and fulfillment. The brilliant imagery which is used to describe the process of apple picking thus not only highlights an appealing natural process but life as a whole.
The poem is an elegant extended metaphor for someone about to die and looking back on his life. The apples which the narrator picks represent life’s experiences and the narrator is now “over-tired” from the process. Although “there’s a barrel” he didn’t fill, the narrator is mostly content with what he has accomplished and looks back on his life with nostalgia. “Sleep” is repeated throughout the poem yet most surely represents death in the context of the metaphor. Further imagery can be taken in two ways yet in one way furthers the notion of a man looking back on a fulfilling life. His ladder is “pointed toward heaven”, for example. Thus, a seemingly simplistic poem about apple picking proves to be one of Frost’s most profound poems, about looking back at life and knowing that although it was not perfect it had meaning and fulfillment. The brilliant imagery which is used to describe the process of apple picking thus not only highlights an appealing natural process but life as a whole.
Personal Helicon
I was interested by the different aspects of Personal Helicon. It is a poem that, at first glance, is not difficult to understand or comprehend, however the subtleties of the poem are what made it a great poem in my mind.
This poem describes a series of the narrator’s experiences in which he looked down into wells in his childhood. He is nostalgic for the time in his life where he had the ability to do that. In describing the wells, he uses sensory imagery to show how much of an impact the wells had on him, and so that the reader can picture the experience himself. He appeals to the sense of smell by describing “the smells of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.” The sense of sight is also appealed to as he described the wells as “so deep you saw no reflection in it” and Heaney appeals to the sense of touch when he describes dragging “out long roots from the soft mulch” and says he used to “pry into roots, to finger slime.” Lastly, he appeals to the sense of hearing when he says some wells “had echoes, gave back your own call with a clean new music in it.” All of these different ways in which Heaney appeals to the senses places the reader on top of a well, just like the narrator was in his childhood.
These detailed descriptions also give a sense of nostalgia for the narrator’s past. He concludes saying “I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing.” Although he says darkness here, there is no negative connotation; rather it is very positive. He writes this poem and uses the ABAB rhyme scheme to relive his childhood, and remember all the great experiences he had looking down into wells. Along these same lines, he describes the echo within the wells as ‘music’ and he says he “loved the dark drop.” All of these descriptions of his experiences around wells are positive ones, and indicate his longing to be a child again.
As a result, this poem represents a loss of innocence. The narrator states that going to wells now is “beneath all adult dignity.” It is not that the narrator doesn’t want to look down wells anymore; rather he is not allowed to due to social and cultural norms. Also, he begins by saying “as a child, they could not keep me from wells.” In this quote, ‘they’ represents adults or society, which furthers the idea that it is against cultural norms. His coming of age is also evident in the structure of the poem. The first stanza describes his childhood; the middle three are examples of his experiences with wells and the last shows what the narrator has now become.
This poem describes a series of the narrator’s experiences in which he looked down into wells in his childhood. He is nostalgic for the time in his life where he had the ability to do that. In describing the wells, he uses sensory imagery to show how much of an impact the wells had on him, and so that the reader can picture the experience himself. He appeals to the sense of smell by describing “the smells of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.” The sense of sight is also appealed to as he described the wells as “so deep you saw no reflection in it” and Heaney appeals to the sense of touch when he describes dragging “out long roots from the soft mulch” and says he used to “pry into roots, to finger slime.” Lastly, he appeals to the sense of hearing when he says some wells “had echoes, gave back your own call with a clean new music in it.” All of these different ways in which Heaney appeals to the senses places the reader on top of a well, just like the narrator was in his childhood.
These detailed descriptions also give a sense of nostalgia for the narrator’s past. He concludes saying “I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing.” Although he says darkness here, there is no negative connotation; rather it is very positive. He writes this poem and uses the ABAB rhyme scheme to relive his childhood, and remember all the great experiences he had looking down into wells. Along these same lines, he describes the echo within the wells as ‘music’ and he says he “loved the dark drop.” All of these descriptions of his experiences around wells are positive ones, and indicate his longing to be a child again.
As a result, this poem represents a loss of innocence. The narrator states that going to wells now is “beneath all adult dignity.” It is not that the narrator doesn’t want to look down wells anymore; rather he is not allowed to due to social and cultural norms. Also, he begins by saying “as a child, they could not keep me from wells.” In this quote, ‘they’ represents adults or society, which furthers the idea that it is against cultural norms. His coming of age is also evident in the structure of the poem. The first stanza describes his childhood; the middle three are examples of his experiences with wells and the last shows what the narrator has now become.
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