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 Tuesday.
Use this space to engage with our texts, with each other, and with your confusion.
54:
ReplyDeleteI thought it was pretty obviously discuusing death. Dickinson understands the life will not after she is dead she wants it to continue as if she never left, but like Whitman she understands that her body will merge with the earth. She also loves the idea of returning to nature. She only refers to herself once and focuses most of the poem on the world and death.
142:
The poem is structured to four lines per stanza. The list of names reminds me of Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Although there is no real connection made between the speaker and the people in the poem. I could not find any metaphor in this poem. I tried to equate it to death or love, but I couldn't find any real evidence to support either. There is a connection between the location they are in and nature. Dickinson refers to the valley and bees. I couldn't see anysymbolism for the these references. This poem was much harder to understand.
142-
ReplyDeleteI thought this poem was very confusing, like almost every other one..I think some of the key words in the poem include: The Heaven, Earth, Hemisphere, Universe, and alone. In the first stanza, I think she is describing feeling blocked off from the heavens. By saying, "I saw no way" and "The heavens were stiched" it seems as if there was no possible way that she could get in because to her they were closed. When she begins to talk about the earth, it reminds me alot of Whitman and his connect with nature and the earth. It seems as if she feels just as connected to the universe. Dickinson also describes herself of being alone, and just one speck on the ball which reminds me of the poem we read in class today. She feels as if she is so small in a world so big, and she gets lost in flight. When she refers to a ball I assume that she is refering to Earth. I have no clue what the next part means, "Went out upon circumference- beyond the dip of bell". That is the most confusing part to me. I am not so sure I even remotly understand what this poem means as a whole, although if I had to guess I would say that she is again talking about death and what happens when you die.
374-
Some of the key words in this poem include: hearts, mighty, sea, hurricane, and insufficent. First of all I think it is safe to say that this poem was written for a lover based on the tone, way it was written, and word choice. She begins by comparing a heart and a sea. Then explaining that the heart is "mighty" and it has a never ending bass (the heart beat) that is always the same pitch, in her case I'm assuming a sad one based on her choice to use the word blue. As for the next stanza, I have no idea. Maybe by describing a hurricane biecting a heart, she is talking about a lover or letting someone into your heart. This is a sense of merging with someone. Moving on to the last stanza, she is describing how fragile the heart is. It is so important, but it can be destroyed within seconds. These two poems connect to oneanother with her understanding of nature. She talks about the sea and hurricanes and uses major metaphors in both of these poems.
54:
ReplyDeleteEmily Dickinson's fifty-fourth poem depicts her love for watching a man in agony because it is impossible to fake this emotion. Some key words I found were: agony, convulsion, throe, beads, and anguish. All of these words revert back to her liking towards the face of pain. Key metaphors in this poem include "the beads upon the Forehead." These beads symbolize sweat coming from a man in pain. Also, "the eyes glazing once," as Dickinson points out, represents death. I thought this poem was really straight forward. However, one point of confusion or ambiguity I found in this poem was whether or not Dickinson continues her line on the end of page 29 with "True-" and continues the word with "men" on the top of page 30. I am confused whether or not she is saying, "true-men" or starting a new line. However, this question does not cloud my understanding of the poem as a whole.
374:
Dickinson's three hundred seventy-fourth poem describes the heart as very sensitive. Dickinson uses the words, unremitting, convulsive, demolish, and dissolves to describe the actions of the heart. Dickinson uses a metaphor of the heart as she takes the reader on a journey through narrow banks and the sea until approaching the wall. Dickinson's clearly expresses that an instant push can break a heart, yet her middle stanza is quite confusing. I don't understand the concept of a hurricane bisecting the heart, although I guess I comprehend that when a heart is broken in a specific area, it recognizes this and becomes more sensitive to and afraid of being hurt their again, like other weak muscles.
Connections:
I believe that the two poems I chose represent the dichotomy of Prometheus vs. Eros. Dickinson's 54th poem personifies Promethean qualities through manly pain that is genuine, and never fake, while Dickinson's 374th poem depicts characteristics of an Eros personalities in the sense of having a sensitive heart that has been hurt once, and does not look to be hurt again. However, despite the dichotomy, a clear theme with the two poems is pain. Whether that be physical pain in her 54th poem that can never be hidden, or the emotional pain described in her 374th poem that can be hidden, pain is an evident theme in these two poems.
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DeleteI found that these two poems had somewhat opposite meanings. In 142, the poem was centered on the idea that once things are done, there is no turning back or changing things. It says that the Heavens were stitched, and I think that this means that the poet thinks that there is no hope of entering heaven any more, and therefore, they give up on the eternal permanently. The mood here seems very depressing, and the idea of the Earth reversing her hemispheres is very confusing because it personifies the Earth and makes it seem like it can do human actions. The idea of loneliness then comes up because the poet feels as though she is alone and that she is only a speck in the earth. The word “speck” stands out to me because it describes a tiny, insignificant thing. Then, another phrase that sticks out to me but confuses is “Beyond the Dip of Bell.” In poem 374, the message is much different than in poem 142. This is because this poem is about change. The poem talks about the heart and compares it to the sea. It then brings up to traits that describe the heart, but these traits are opposites. The first trait is mighty, and this seems like a strong trait. Then the other trait is “Blue Monotony.” Monotony means sameness, and the idea of blue monotony seams weak and powerless. However, it also seems peaceful, and then there is the sudden change where there is the word “hurricane.” This shows that even when there is peace and consistency, there is the possibility of sudden, unexpected change. However, there is also the possibility of change back to peacefulness. There is a metaphor that compares the calm to a wall of gauze, and this shows that the calm does not last long because good things can change instantly. This idea of change contradicts the idea in poem 142 that things cannot change and that bad things are set in stone.
ReplyDelete54:
ReplyDeleteA few key words through the poem were "Agony", "Death", and "Anguish". All three of these words make it clear that Dickinson is talking about death. Like Akee said above I think she wants to continue life like she never left, which is much like Whitman. Whitman felt that after death you continued on as part of the earth and therefore you were still apart of the whole. The body merges to become one with the earth. The thing that confused me was the word "Throe", I never understood that and thereore i just skipped it.
142:
The key words were "Heaven", "Universe", and "Speck". Heaven was important because i think Dickinson was talking about reaching heaven after death. She then goes on to say she became merged with others becasue she "touched the Universe" meaning she felt part of it. The last word "Speck" was confusing to be because I never clearly understood the last part of the poem. But the emphasis on the word made it seem important. For me the most confusing part of the poem was the last line "Beyond the Dip of Bell". What does that mean? I think she was talking about the earth in this stanza but what does this line have to do with the earth?
142-
ReplyDeleteIn this poem, I see a lot of big words/terms like The Heavens, The Earth, Hemispheres, and the Dip of Bell. I think location is important in this poem. When she talks about The Earth, it reminds me of Whitman. This poem makes me think that there is a girl stuck in her own part of the larger world around her. Then she gets put back and ends up alone and relates herself to a speck on a ball. When she says that she is a speck, she is trying to show us what she is in the world and what kind of role she plays. In this poem, the first metaphor is when she says "The Heavens were stitched" which is just trying to show us that she is trapped. The other one is when she says "I touched the Universe". I'm no fully sure what this means but I think she is trying to show how powerful this girl is.
374-
When I read this poem, I kind of got the oceanic feeling going on. This is probably because I read the words Banks, Sea, and Hurricane. In the first stanza, I got that the Heart is powerful but limited. She says that it measures like the Sea which shows how big and powerful the Heart is but it has narrow Banks which are the barriers. I'm not really sure what she means when she says that the Hurricane bisects, but I think that it has a negative sense to it. Something is disrupting the heart and its power to love possibly. In the last stanza, "That Calm is but a Wall" shows that calmness is always there right around the corner. It's just a wall sitting there unattempted. I'm not really sure what it means. In both of these poems, I see an idea of merging and the oceanic feeling being brought up. Both of the poems use terms that relate to Whitman's poems.
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ReplyDelete54: Some of the key word in this poem are Agony, Death, and anguish. Like Coco said, I also think that she has a simular mindset to Whitman. After death, she wants to continue on with life... She wants to become part of the world. The Phrase "I like a look of agony" really stood out to me. Like Whitman, she has also suffered, and has embraced her pain, and empathizes for the man she refers to in this poem. The phrase "homely Anguish" trips me up a little because not only is anguish capitalized, but they seem to contradict themselves.
ReplyDelete374: When reading this poem, I connected Leaves of grass, and its theme of merging with the world. When she states, "The Heart has narrow banks", i think she is implying that the heart is powerful, yet without the rest of your body, you cannot survive. This is simular to Whitman's ideas because he too believes that everybody and everything is equal. She also states that the heart learns. As we stated in class, learning is also a way to merge with the world.
[54]
ReplyDeleteI found this poem to hold plenty of key words that truly open up the interpretation of the poem. These words include agony, true, convulsion, stimulate, death, and anguish. I find that the idea of thruth is the biggest key idea in this poem. Dickinson says that agony is true. I don't think that she is necessarily appreciaing agony, but she is aware of it. This relates to her feeling of death. Most people understand that death is coming; however, we are not all in acceptance with this. I beleive that Dickinson likes agony for how it makes people express the truth. Agony or sadness is not something that one can hide. Our agony will always show no matter how much we try and hide it. I beleive that this entire poem is a metaphor for total suffering, feelings, and emotions. She does no sugarcoat the idea of a slow and painful death, and the sweat coming down ones face as they face total anguish in death. She is making these feelings real and true and that is what makes this poem so powerful.
[142]
The key words in this poem include heavens, felt, alone, and universe. I beleive that this entire poem is a way for Dickinson to open up about her faith. She is expressing her belief in religion and in something more than just the earth. In the first two opening lines she is stating that she has "seen no way - the heavens were stitched." I beleive this is a confession of seeing that there is a heaven but she struggles to find a meaning for it. She is experiencing a realization in God. She is "touching the universe", "sliding back alone", and is a "speck upon a ball." She is smaller than what she is trying to comprehend. She is trying to comprehend something that she will almost never be able to fully understand. This is the oceanic feeling.