BA #12**

C. Millay's "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" is a great example of a feminist poet writing to show society what a woman's perspective on war is. The imagery of the birds vanishing shows that this particular women has had lovers, and they have gone to war and died. She now has no birds, or men in her life because there are none left. The birds are male, so readers can assume that Millay is referring to a hawk, or an eagle. Men were the one's who were shipped off to war, not the women. They were left at home. Many women did not marry because there were no men left. What would you think about if this poem were written by a man? Is the woman in the poem necessarily promiscuous? Do you think the woman will move on from the lost birds?

BA # 12

C. Carole Satymaurti's "I Shall Paint My Nails Red" contains view points of a feminist. Men are typically known to expect women to look like a certain image, and the speaker in this poem is fanatic about dying her hair, and painting her nails red. She does these things because she is insecure. Women are typically not stereotyped into using their hands to do work. Men are the ones who usually do the dirty work, but this poem shows that a feminist wrote it because the speaker says "Because I am proud of my hands" (line 2). The poet seems to be a feminist because she puts a situation in the poem about a mother and her daughter not always having the best relationship. "Because my daughter will say ugh"(6) suggests that not all relationships are happy. Some questions I would ask are: What are some more of the social expectations of women that can be applied to this poem? Does the poet seem to know the feminist side of things, and the speaker does not? Does the persona of the poem feel insecure in being a woman, or is she strong?

BA#8

After reading "The Ledge," by Lawrence Sargent Hall I began to think about the series of events that lead up to the final culmination of the deaths of the Fisherman, his son and nephew. It seems as if there were many options that would have taken these characters in different directions. For example, I can't help but wonder how the story's outcome would have been entirely different, if the Fisherman had returned home to retrieve his tobacco when he realized he hadn't brought it along with him. What if he had tied the boat up before they went out to retrieve the dead ducks? It seems as if author's knowingly take the turn away from what is an easy route, to create a "happy ending," and instead opt for the difficult task of writing a tragic, emotionally disturbing peice instead. What makes an author decide a specific ending when writing a peice of literature? How does one seemingly insignificant event lead to a tragedy? How does both a tragedy and a "happy ending" have different effects on the emotions of a reader?

BA#8

I read the short story The German Refugee by Bernard Malamud (BASS page 438). It tells the story through the perspective of Martin Goldberg, an English tutor living in New York City during WWII. Although he has numerous pupils, he becomes intrigued and close with one particular student, Oskar Gassner, a German refugee who fled his homeland to escape the wrath of the Nazis, leaving his wife, a Gentile, behind. He is a man without much hope and purpose, but he happens to get a job at the Institute of Public Studies, where he has to give a lecture in English by the summer's end. He and Goldberg make progress at first, but then, in his frustration, Gassner decides to stop the lessons. However, Goldberg, knowing that Gassner is "aleinated" (Malamud 444) from everyone, with " finiancal insecurities, being in a strange land without friends and a speakable tounge"(444) spends more and more time with the lonely man. However, the more time Goldberg spends with Gassner, the more depressed he himself becomes, and the more worried he grows about the depressed Gassner. However, they start their English lessons again, and Gassner pulls off the feat of the lecture in the I.P.S. But, three days later, when Goldberg goes to Gassner's apartment to visit him, he finds that the refugee killed himself; a letter was found from his anti-Semetic mother-in-law, who tells him that in spite his wife converted to Judiasm and was captured, taken away and shot by the Nazis. This story is interesting in the fact that although he hated Germany and was able to leave it, the memory and beloved he had in Germany ended up getting the better of him. The message of the story would be not to take it upon yourself to save someone that you cannot save, like Goldberg tried to do for Gassner, spending most of his time worrying about the man and becoming just as depressed as him. Despite his efforts, Gassner was already damaged from the memory of his wife he left in Germany, and the occurences going on in Germany itself. This story shows that no matter where you are, you can't really escape your past.

BA #7

B. This is from "The Ledge" by Lawrence Hall

"The boy did for the fisherman the greatest thing that can be done. He may have been too young for perfect terror, but he was old enough to know there were things beyond the power of man. All he could do he did, by trusting his father to do all he could, and asking nothing more."(383)

The fisherman's son is realizing that his father had no control over the skiff's disappearance, and while his father is carrying him across the water, he is thinking this. Even though his father is always in control over things, and always careful, he is not perfect. The son's tone went from excitement to seriousness when he found out the boat was not there. The fisherman's tone was always serious, but the young boy's new that they were in a jam, and so their thoughts changed. Sometimes it is better to just "ask nothing more". The fisherman is always careful, and the one time he slipped, his life falls into danger. It is very ironic that that happens.

BA#7

I read, "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death," by William Butler Yeats. I chose this poem from a book called, Western Wind on page 128. This poem's repetition, parallelism, and meter create significance by re-instating the speakers love for adventure, and his reasoning in enlisting in the military.

"Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight,
drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death." (Lines 9-16)

In lines 9 and 10 of "An Irish Airman," several examples of repetition show how law, duty, and glory, did not persuade the speaker to join the military. Yeats wrote this poem in the early twentieth century, so the speaker probably was an airman in World War I. The poet's use of repetition establishes the speaker's enlistment in the military, which was solely for the adventure of flying an aircraft. The words "balance" and "breath" (Lines 13-16) are seen twice in this poem which shows how the speaker found his balance in life to be in the sky. It also demonstrates how his passion for adventure was his "breath", oxygen, and lifeline.

Parallelism is used in lines 13-16. Lines 13 and 16 are parallel because they both show how the speaker found solace in life and death in flying an aircraft. Lines 14 and 15 are parallel because they demonstrate how his life before flying or without flying would be a waste of breath and he might as well be dead if he couldn't explore his love of adventure.

The poems meter is iambic tetrameter. This is meaningful because the poem is about balance, and if the poem was written in free verse, it would detract from it's meaning, as free verse is without balance and consistency.

BA #7

C. After discussing in class today the conflict within Eudora Welty’s “The Hitch-Hikers”, I am still left wondering about Tom Harris’ overall detachment from the events in the story. We addressed several conflicts, most notably helplessness/control, friendship/anonymity, no connection/connection. There was also the conflict of silence/noise that was present between Sobby and Sanford, which was concretely shown by Sanford’s insistent plucking of the guitar. But what is hidden in Tom that is the root of his conflicts? Is he doomed to forever be disconnected—and if so, why? He has the opportunity to be with Carol, to blend into the town and finally become connected, but why does he resist it?

BA #6

I read "Perfect Dress" by Marisa de los Santos. The poem can be found on page 444 of our Intro to Poetry book. This poem is full of both tropes and schemes to help create meaning.

"the girl in the photograph, cobalt-eyed, hair puddling
like cognac, or the one stretched at the ocean's edge,
curved and light-drenched, more like a beach than
the beach. I confess I have longed to stalk runways,
leggy, otherworldly as a mantis, to balance a head
like a Faberge egg on the longest, most elegant neck" (lines 5-10)

The rest of the poem is about a teenaged girls diary entry where she wishes she could just wake up beautiful, super-model beautiful, the girls in the magazines beautiful. She seems to have an unrealistic view that somehow the perfect dress would reveal her inner, hidden beauty.
The author, Marisa de los Santos uses a rhetorical question, at the beginning of the poem to get us thinking, she also uses a similie in lines 7-8 and 9-10 above; comparing the body to a beach, and her head to a Faberge egg. Santos also uses imagery when describing the fabric of and the dresses the speaker tries on and looks at at the time she wishes she would just step into her "perfect evening".

BA 6

I chose the two poems "A Route of Evanescence," by Emily Dickinson, and "Reapers," by Jean Toomer to look at for the sixth blog assignment. The first poem describes a "resonance" and "rush" of colors as flowers die, signifying death. The first line, "A route of evanescence (line 1)," is a reference to the path of dying, with evanescence meaning "soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing (American Heritage)." The symbolism all involves the end of something, flowers wilting, colors reaching the end of a resonance, except the spinning wheel, which symbolizes the circle of life. Because of all of these things, I believe this poem is about the path of death, and how it is natural and a part of existence. The second poem, "Reapers," Addresses death through metaphors, telling the story of "reapers" who sharpen their scythes to begin "their silent swinging (line 4)." While cutting grass, they hit a field rat and continue, ignoring it and moving on. This poem describes death as a way of making the earth cleaner. The poem is different from the first because it does not describe death as a path, instead as an action. You do not journey to death, you just die by the hands of another. These poems compare different beliefs on dying.

 Dickinson's poem: http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/dickinson/ed_1463/index.htm

Toomer's poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/reapers/