Sunday, March 29, 2009
To His Coy Mistress
It would almost seem as if he's presenting an argument to his love why they can't be idle in their love, including the physical aspects. If they had all the time in the world he would love her still as passionately as he does now, even if she were to be hesitant until the very end. his ability to love her is passive because she is so hesitant, even if she is not trying to be. he says this love grows with time and he would continue to admire her from far. Since humans don't live forever, she could find herself hesitating until her very death, thus his love for her would never be found although his love would continue to sing within his soul even after death.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Death, be not proud
basically John Donne is mocking death for being a supposedly might and horrible thing. He believes death resembles sleep, and that sleep is joyous. This also says that he believes life is tedious and and that the livelihood of day is worse than the unconciousness of night. perhaps this poem was written during the industrial revolution when workers had 12 hour shifts and lived under horrible living conditions. furthermore he shows the accomplices and cronies of death - poison, war, and sickness - showing that death is not accompanied by anything it should be proud of. furthermore, with medicinal products humans can sleep better than they could if they were dead, and much less painfully so than a deadly stroke, so why should death be proud of its effects?
the last two lines are obviously a further mocking of death, but i can't seem to understand what he is implying fully. i'll have to ask this in class tommorow.
the last two lines are obviously a further mocking of death, but i can't seem to understand what he is implying fully. i'll have to ask this in class tommorow.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
My Papa's Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
- This stanza is in the past tense, obviously the father's son reminiscing of his alcoholic father and probably what he said while he was drunk (aka his breath making him dizzy). The son perhaps wants to belief in his father and what he stands for but it's hard for him to stay on this path.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
- Again in past tense, the boy might be reminiscing of his first sexual experiences. after reading the questions and analysis that was posed at the end of this story in the book I realized two odd word choices that Roethke made: "We romped UNTIL the pans slid from the kitchen shelf" and My mother's countenance could not UNFROWN ITSELF". It is as if he wants to change his sexual deficiency when he was younger, but the memories will not change for him, he still bothers his mother in his memories.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
- The son again reminiscing of his father. It is possible to believe the father has beat his son with his hand and his belt buckle. Roethke shows the pain that the son remembers by expressing where the buckle was scraping him: the tender body part of his right ear. he also doesnt blame the buckle hitting him, merely that his father missed and that his knuckle was battered. it can be assumed that the son, while reminiscing of his father's beatings of him, has completely forgiven the acts of his father or believes that it was merely the nature of things in his past.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
still clinging to your shirt.
- Another reminscence of the son's father. His father possibly just came back from a long day's work. He most likely works at a job that requires a lot of physical labor, based on the dirt on his hands. He beats his son again, trying to teach him the lesson of time and how to use it. With the ammount of work he does, he is possibly teaching his son to make something for himself instead of ending up where he is today. the last two lines shows that the father gives the son rest, perhaps even forces rest upon him because of the term "waltezed", which seems to imply a leadership. "still clinging to your shirt" might imply that both in his memories and also now he clings to his father's lessons.
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
- This stanza is in the past tense, obviously the father's son reminiscing of his alcoholic father and probably what he said while he was drunk (aka his breath making him dizzy). The son perhaps wants to belief in his father and what he stands for but it's hard for him to stay on this path.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
- Again in past tense, the boy might be reminiscing of his first sexual experiences. after reading the questions and analysis that was posed at the end of this story in the book I realized two odd word choices that Roethke made: "We romped UNTIL the pans slid from the kitchen shelf" and My mother's countenance could not UNFROWN ITSELF". It is as if he wants to change his sexual deficiency when he was younger, but the memories will not change for him, he still bothers his mother in his memories.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
- The son again reminiscing of his father. It is possible to believe the father has beat his son with his hand and his belt buckle. Roethke shows the pain that the son remembers by expressing where the buckle was scraping him: the tender body part of his right ear. he also doesnt blame the buckle hitting him, merely that his father missed and that his knuckle was battered. it can be assumed that the son, while reminiscing of his father's beatings of him, has completely forgiven the acts of his father or believes that it was merely the nature of things in his past.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
still clinging to your shirt.
- Another reminscence of the son's father. His father possibly just came back from a long day's work. He most likely works at a job that requires a lot of physical labor, based on the dirt on his hands. He beats his son again, trying to teach him the lesson of time and how to use it. With the ammount of work he does, he is possibly teaching his son to make something for himself instead of ending up where he is today. the last two lines shows that the father gives the son rest, perhaps even forces rest upon him because of the term "waltezed", which seems to imply a leadership. "still clinging to your shirt" might imply that both in his memories and also now he clings to his father's lessons.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
A Streetcar Named Desire
Having watched much of the movie in class I found it pretty easy to visualize the scenes. It was surprising at the end that Stanley needed to rape Blanche even though he had won the war against her already. It was hard for me to really find a character that i could totally sympathize with, each character had an ugly side and a beautiful side. As far as the transference from the play to the movie, their were little to know changes, although I believe the scene between Mitch and Blanche after their date is in a different setting in the movie and her explanation of the boy she fell in loved with and hurt was completely different from the movie (if i'm not mistaken he is depressed in the movie and she calls him weak, but in the book he is actually gay and she calls him disgusting). definitely can't wait to watch the movie version and how it changes the two last scenes, it's an older movie so they probably changed the scenes drastically as to avoid references to rape, although i hope they keep it true to the play; it has a lot of significance to every one of the character's decisions in the last scene.
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