In this first post, simply free-write for 20-30 minutes on one of the following poems you read tonight: 142, 327, 374, 54. Start your post with the number of the poem you've chosen.
Your post should touch on three things: something specific you understand, something specific you do not understand, and an idea about the poem as a whole.
I'm grading these only on the seriousness and effort you apply to them.
Due before the start of class Thursday.
Use this space to engage with our texts, with each other, and with your confusion.
142
ReplyDeleteI understand the line "I felt the columns close." When Dickinson says this, she means that Heaven has blocked her off. These columns are the gates of Heaven closing on her, telling her she is not allowed to enter.
I do not understand the line "Beyond the Dip of Bell."
The idea of the poem as a whole is that you must not sin because when you do, you are denied from Heaven. When this happens, you become trapped in the universe alone. You are merely a speck on the outside of the earth.
374
ReplyDeleteI understand the first stanza; the heart is just like the sea in that it narrows as it reaches the shores and is an endless enormity.
I dont get the last three lines about gauze and a question being demolished by an instant.
The main idea of the poem I think, is that just like the sea, a heart is enormous in its complexity but continues its pitch like someone speaking in monotone. The heart for some reason somehow is learning, and calmness is a wall of gauze.
Page 142: this poem was realy confusing, but i thought the first stanza was about how this girl's happiness was being closed. She said "The Heavens were stiched" so i thought Heavens was happiness. Then it says "Earth reversed her Hempisphere" so maybe thats her world being flipped and she doesnt understand it anymore. She "touched the Universe" so maybe that means she barely understood it. She just touched the surface of the meaning of the world.
ReplyDeletethe next stanza was a lot more confusing thatn the first stanza. the first line "and back it slid-and i alone-" maybe means that something went missing from her life and now she's alone. She says "a speck upon a ball" which i thought meant she was completely meaningless in the world. "Went out upon Circumference" and "beyong the Dip of Bell" dont make sense to me.
54
ReplyDeleteThe first two lines represent the writer knowing something is true and is upset, because he doesn’t want to admit the truth. I was confused by the second stanza as a whole. I think the person is still mad but it mentions Death. I do not know what a "throe" means in the fourth line. I think Emily Dickinson is trying to talk about the truth of things and dealing with them.
142
ReplyDeleteI understood the first stanza when it said,"I felt the Columns close- I touched the Universe-" She is describing how someone is so close to the Heavens. He is almost able to touch it and reach Heaven.
The lines I don't understand is, "Beyond the Dip of Bell".
I think that the main idea of the poem is that people are constantly trying to reach Heaven, but many end of falling short and sliding back into the darkness of the world. Many people think that they have done enough, but they are just short.
#142
ReplyDeleteThis poem could mean several different things. In the first stanza, when the poet says that she "saw no way" and that "the heavens were stitched," I feel as if she is referring to her belief in God. I think that she had been so faithful but is about to encounter some form of doubt. In the second stanza, she says "and back it slid-and I alone/ A speck upon a Ball." I think that this represents her transition into doubting God. She now must return to earth as a human amongst an entire society to try and find her faith again? However, the last line, "beyond the Dip of a Bell," is confusing and I don't understand it.
374
ReplyDeleteThis poem is about the heart where the first stanza uses words like bass monotony and measures to somehow relate the heart to different musical terms. These terms are used for imagery to help show that the heart is like the bass and monotony of a piece of music. In the next stanza, it talks about a hurricane coming. Up until this point when the hurricane comes and changes things up, the heart was beating steadily with bass and monotony. This hurricane can be symbolic of many different things that would change the way that a person's heart is functioning. The hurricane targets a certain part of the heart just as a hurricane hits certain parts of the world, and this part of a person's heart will forever be changed just like a city can forever be changed by a hurricane. The opposite of the hurricane is the calmness that the heart uses to counter it, but this calmness can easily be blown away. The calmness can be related to the first stanza where the heart is being related to music, so it is calm like music. Then the hurricane comes and stirs the heart up and changes it forever.
54
ReplyDeleteThe poet wrestles with the question of what is reality and what is not by using a metaphor of what can be faked and what cannot. She describes how agony and uncontrollable shaking cannot be faked by someone, because they are natural responses that are genuine. Death is also genuine according to her, and pain and death are the only things that represent true reality. The poet envies pain and death because she appreciates their veritable nature and the way they cannot be manipulated or faked, unlike many other things in the world that are not what they appear to be.
327
ReplyDeleteI understand the line "And now, among Circumference". This is describing a woman going out of her normal comfort zone. The circumference is relating to the cycles in Whitman's "Leaves of Grass". It is her world and bubble of people she is familiar with. I do not understand the line "She staked her Feaths-Gained an Arc". This poem is about a woman ready for a change.
374
DeleteThe beaches along an ocean are all that is there to protect it; it acts as a buffer. The first line says that our hearts have narrow banks, meaning that there is not much cushion zone... or like a crumple zone on a car (the area where the impact of a crash is absorbed). Our hearts measure like the sea, as in both are vast and mysterious and the depth of both are unknown. We find out how deep our heart goes when a "hurricane bisects" meaning a storm or intense current of emotion crosses us. When we feel immense heartache is when we understand how deeply we love and care. People often reject intense emotion creating a wall of "calm." Though this wall protects them from the heartache, they never experience the emotion that makes us alive, and they never truly exercise their hearts. In the end she pushes us to make a decision in an instant and to go for something. "An instant's Push demolishes/ A questioning- dissolves." We should go for it and stop sitting around on a calm sea content with the stability of our lives. We should stop worrying and through caution to the wind an in an instant's decision our questions will dissolves into the vast ocean that is our heart.
142 - I feel like the poem is describing a soul who has died. The soul sees heavens closing, touches the universe, and slides back alone. The soul is only a small soul in a large atmosphere, and now is on the outskirts of space and the universe alone.
ReplyDelete374 - I think she is talking about an istant death, such as a heart attack. It talks about how strong the heart is in the first stanza. It compares it to a mighty sea. But, only until a hurricane, or heart attack, bisects the heart and it discerns. I think the last stanza is talking about the death of a person when it says "An instant push demolishes - A Questioning -- dissolves." I think life is all questioning, and when the heart stops, that questioning dissolves.
Delete54 - The only pure look a person shows is agony, men do not fake that. Its impossible to fake unless you really feel it. I dont understand the last two lines of this poem though.
DeleteI really dont understand 327.
DeleteNeil
ReplyDelete54
The subject of this poem is a person who is dying. It could be one of Emily Dickison's experiences with death in poetical form. This person seems to be dying of sickness and not something immediate. Dickison is saying that you cannot fake the look of death when it strikes you. There is no escaping it. Dickison says, "The Eyes glaze once-and that is Death- Impossible to feign." This could mean when you are dying and you have the look of glaze in your eye, there is no escape for you, you are going to die. She says it is impossible to feign, meaning that it cannot be faked, this look cannot be achieved unless you are going to die. The beads upon the forehead could be beads of sweat which is a sign of fever common with death. This whole poem is the description of a slow death and the expression of a person while it happens to them.
374-
ReplyDeleteThis poem talks about the heart and how it beats in rythym "unremitting bass" and "monotony". This characterizes the timing and sound of the heart beats. Then a "hurricane" comes which upsets the natural rythym and beat of the heart. the hurricane could be something like a heart attack or being electricuted which both would upset your heart beat. Then the end describes death as your heart stops and becomes "calm". I am not sure what the end means but maybe a forever irregular heart beat or death because the heart stopped
327
ReplyDeleteI was confused when I first looked at this poem but I soon figured it out. Dickinson is explaining Noah's Arc within this poem. Many of the capitalized words point directly to this answer. However, Dickinson chooses to tell the story through the eyes of a bird. It appears, to me, that this bird is debating on whether or not to stay, but this internal debate is different for the bird because she is not jealous or worried about men. She is only looking out for her self. I believe a bird is the perfect representation of a newly free woman.
142
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and exciting poem. I enjoyed the part about not getting into heaven. She says, "I saw no way - the heavens were stitched." She is saying that the opening to getting into the heavens were sewn shut. I did not understand the part about the hemispheres reversing. At first i thought she meant that she went from the up hemisphere to the down one AKA hell. But then she says that she was a spec on a ball AKA Earth. As a whole this poem was phenomenal. It had great insight on what she believed happened after death. She has a very morbid view about the afterlife and seems to believe all humans are bad.