justinbasdeo

06:27 pm: Hope For This Difficult Time
School is winding down, there are tons of assignments, tests, exams, and essays due and many students are left with a sense of hopelessness and despair. I thought this poem about hope would be good for this time of year and may help us get through what seems to be never ending work.

Emily Dickinson
Hope Is The Thing With Feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

“Hope Is The Thing With Feathers” is a poem by Emily Dickinson that uses imagery and metaphor to attempt to describe Hope as a bird. The first line of the poem is the same as the title, which is not an uncommon trait in Dickinson’s works. The line tries to relate that hope is like a bird with its feathers, which is free to fly and spread its wings over us from the sky above. One may assume that all birds have feathers but it must be taken into consideration that some birds have their wings and feathers clipped, making it impossible for them to fly.

The second line proposes that hope resides in the soul of all of us. It also can be seen as a metaphor for a bird, which perches itself in a tree. In the same way, hope perches itself in our soul. This further gives hope the characteristics of a bird.

The end of the first stanza relates that the bird sings the song of hope and it never stops at all. This discusses the notion that hope is always there in all of us, even in the hardest of moments. This idea is further discussed in the second and last stanza.

Both stanzas talk of hardships and turmoil in which a bird would face. Examples such as storms, chilling lands, and strange seas are given. These can be metaphorical for the hardships in which humans face. However, it does say that despite these hardships, the bird’s song can still be heard. This means that even though humans face hard times, they still persevere, maintain and have hope.

In the last two lines, Dickinson informs us that the bird of hope asks for no favor or price in return for its sweet song.

Yet never in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Hope is a free gift. It exists for all of us. All we must do is not clip the wings of hope and let it fly and sing freely. Its song can be heard over the strangest seas, coldest lands, and in the worst storms. It is a song that never ends as long as we do not let it.

01:28 pm: Allusions In Elliot's Waste Land
T.S Elliot’s work The Waste Land makes a host of allusions and references to events, places and works. To remind you, an allusion is a stylistic device in which one implicitly references a related object or circumstance that has occurred or existed in an external context. An allusion is understandable only to those with prior knowledge of the reference in question (as the writer assumes the reader has). Therefore, Elliot’s work was understandable only to literary scholars and people in the educated upper class. However, this posed a problem because Elliot’s target audience was not just the upper class but was instead the population as a whole.
Elliot was a very well educated writer and had experience in numerous fields. So therefore when he wrote his poem he incorporated much of his acquired knowledge into it. However the problem of audience and allusion surfaced many times. This is why when the poem was first published it was not received well by critics. They believed that the poem was difficult to read for a few reasons. The first was that it alluded to many things that the average reader would not possess knowledge of. The second was that it was full of cut and paste culture, language, conversations, and literature. And the third is that he provided footnotes at the end of the poem, which was unheard of at the time and it outraged critics who believed Elliot was making a joke of the poem.
What they did not understand is that Elliot realized that his poem was difficult to read and knew that if literary scholars and critics had a difficult time reading it then the average person would as well. This is the reason why he provided the footnotes. He was hoping to reach a greater audience, to produce a poem that broke barriers of class and background. It was not written in one language but four. Throughout the poem are traces of English, Latin, German, and French. It also carries different levels of diction, making sure to include the upper, middle, and lower classes.
As mentioned above Elliot poem alluded to many different works. Some of the sources from which Eliot quotes or to which he alludes include the works of Petronius, Virgil, Ovid, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Gérard de Nerval, Thomas Kyd, Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Joseph Conrad, John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Charles Baudelaire, Richard Wagner, Oliver Goldsmith, Hermann Hesse, Paul Verlaine, and Aldous Huxley. Eliot also makes extensive use of Scriptural writings including the Bible, the Hindu readings and the Buddha's Fire Sermon, and of cultural and anthropological studies such as Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough and Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance.

09:52 pm: War Poetry
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Wilfred Owen 1893-1918

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
-Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Anthem for Doomed Youth is one of the best known and most popular of Wilfred Owen's poems. It employs the traditional form of a sonnet. Much of the imagery suggests Christian funeral rituals but the poem itself is a lament for young soldiers whose lives were unnecessarily lost in World War I.
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The Anthem in the title may be reference to "The National Anthem;" or it can be seen as an important religious song (often expressing joy); here, perhaps, a solemn song of celebration.

The “passing-bells” in line one are the bells that are rung after someone's death to announce the death to the world.

The words “patter” and “orisons” are used in line four, patter means to talk very rapidly and an orison is a prayer, in this case the prayer may be at a funeral. Indicating that people are dying so fast that funerals are rushed to make room for more. Or it is seen as an everyday ceremony that people know off by heart and almost have memorized.

Line seven continues the funeral references when it calls the choirs “demented.” The word literally means wild, crazy, or frantic. The choirs mentioned here are not the actual church choirs but is an allegory to the repeated gunfire “wailing shells.”

Line eight also talks of the events taking place at home. The “bugles” blowing from the “shires” is proof of this. The bugle was traditionally blown in military funerals and the shires refer to the English countryside where many of the soldiers came from.

The candles in line nine may be the candles that are lit in churches or the candles lit near the coffin of a dead person. It may also be representative of vigils that take place to remember those who have past.

The last line of this sonnet carries much symbolism. “Dusk” refers to when the sun sets in the evening, signaling the start of night, of darkness. Where the light of those who were ready to fight in the war was quickly dimmed into the darkness of death. And the
“drawing-down of blinds” is usually a preparation for night. Closing the blinds because there is no longer sunlight outside. However, in this poem it may also be symbolic of the life of the soldiers, where their light will come to an end and the blinds will be closed on them. This is a ritual of many funerals in which the blinds are closed in the room in which a dead person is.

12:20 am: Rudyard Kipling Is Garbage! Here Is Why...
Imperialism is defined as,

1. The policy of extending the rule or influence of a country over countries or colonies
2. The political, military, or economic domination of one country over another
3. The extension of power or authority over others in interests of domination

These definitions in modern contexts would turn stomachs and leave most people in disgust. The reason for this is because it as seen as politically incorrect and out right immoral. This idea of imperialism stemmed from colonialism. In which the great European powers raced to take over the world and exploit other countries for their resources and at the same time stealing their culture and imposing their own. Slavery was a primary result of colonialism and is seen by me to be a hiccup in the development of mankind. Many people today look down on the actions of the past and try to forget them and move on. However there are writers who glorified these ideals and won noble prizes from their works.
Rudyard Kipling was an English short-story writer, novelist and poet, who celebrated the idea of imperialism. In 1920 British author Virginia Woof wrote, "It is true that Mr. Kipling shouts, 'Hurrah for the Empire!' and puts out his tongue at her enemies"
One of his best-known and controversial poems “The White Man’s Burden” is an example of this. At face value it appears to be a rhetorical command to white men to colonize and rule people of other nations. Due to the length of this blog, I have provided a link to the poem for you to read instead of posting it in its entirety.

http://www.online-literature.com/Kipling/922/

The first verse of the Kipling poem reads:

Take up the White Man's burden
Send forth the best ye breed
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

A straightforward analysis of the poem may conclude that Kipling presents a Eurocentric view of the world, in which non-European cultures are seen as childlike and demonic. This view proposes that white people consequently have an obligation to rule over, and encourage the cultural development of, people from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds until they can take their place in the world by fully adopting Western ways.
I understand that within a historical context the beliefs in the, "virtues of empire" was widespread at the time. And he may have been seen as a marvelous writer of his time. However, as a black man of Caribbean decent; I personally find him repugnant and can’t believe that he is still regarded as a great writer today. And for the record if I were not of an ethnic background and were to look at it as a white man, I would still find his works offensive and would not appreciate any of it. How do you guys feel about his poetry and what he stands for?

11:00 pm: Rap and Poetry, continued
Earlier on in the year I posted the essay entitled Rap vs. Poetry. However, I haven’t continued this discussion with any more depth. As you may recall, the essay argued that rap lyrics are often poetic and are not just composed of superficial words that carry no profound meanings. However, in this blog I will attempt to take this further and show that rappers are not just lyricists but poets as well. Many people may not realize that rappers often write poetry, not to be used as lyrics, but to be taken as poetry itself. Tupac Shakur one of the most famous rappers of all time, he is known for being a great lyricist and poet. There are actually university courses dedicated to his works. I chose his poem “Life Through My Eyes” to analyze and interpret for this weeks blog.

Life Through My Eyes

Life through my bloodshot eyes
would scare a square 2 death
poverty, murder, violence
and never a moment 2 rest
Fun and games R few
but treasured like gold 2 me
cuz I realize that I must return
2 my spot in poverty
But mark my words when I say
my heart will not exist
unless my destiny comes through
and puts an end 2 all of this

- Tupac Shakur

This poem is really powerful and reveals the life of not just Tupac; but countless other people growing up in poverty in urban cities. This does not relate just to the U.S but can also be applied to us here in Canada. The poem starts off by him describing his life. “poverty, murder, and violence.” These are words that get associated with many negative emotions and feelings. It gives the reader a sense of the urgency of the situation as well as a sense of sympathy for the speaker. The poem then says that fun and games hardly ever come along but when they do, he treasures them. And then he is forced back into his world in poverty. This is symbolic of many people in poverty and similar situations. They often get a glimmer of hope and peace before they are thrown back into the reality of their life. Tupac then vows to change his life and quite possibly the life of other people as well. He calls it his “destiny”. What do you guys think of this poem? Does anything strike you or stand out?

11:52 am: The Effect of the Dramatic Monologue in “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning
The dramatic monologue is unprecedented in effect because it blurs the line between sympathy and judgment. The monologue aspect alone signifies that the reader must adopt a viewpoint as entry to the poem and this is simply a means to the end whereby the speaker tries to win our sympathy by giving us nothing but “facts from within”.
This goal to “ameliorate the affections of the reader” as perfected by William Wordsworth was an important aim of Romantic literature, which Robert Browning took even further with such works as “My Last Duchess”. Browning’s dramatic monologue attempts to bring a general change in sensibility through its lyrical intensity. At first glance the poem is simply about a cruel Italian Duke of Renaissance who out of unreasonable jealousy killed his Last Duchess and is arranging a second marriage for the sake of a dowry. Our principal response is that the Duke is evil. However, what makes a difference between our initial reaction and final conclusion is the form. The form of the poem shapes our meaning although the content is present. The positioning of words and overall presentation of the subjective story can overtake the central actions made by the character as proven by the case of the Duke.
The Duke’s utterances tell the story of his first duchess to the envoy of the second. The situation alone requests condemnation; however this would be the least interesting response because the reader essentially just wants to understand the speaker. The Duke is characterized by his intelligence, superiority and amorality as he maintains his poise and taste for art with high-handed aristocratic manners that he uses to break ordinary rules. The reader wants to share in the Duke’s power and freedom and so they suspend moral judgment. The novelty and complexity of the Duke guarantees our participation for he captures our interest. If we pitied the last Duchess the poem would hold no surprises. The Duke on the other hand does not grow in wickedness after his cleverly hidden murder account but rather grows in strength of character, arrogance and poise as he commands the situation. This willingness to understand or sympathize is a necessary condition of reading the poem and the key to the form. “The Last Duchess” is an ideal example of the dramatic monologue because its sheer genius in presenting the slick villainy of the Duke makes a split between moral judgment and sympathy. It can easily fool the careless reader and therefore the careful reader must maintain some distance from the text.

04:47 pm: Romantic Poetry,Nature, and Wordsworth
The sublime is the quality of transcendent greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual or artistic. The term especially references a greatness with which nothing else can be compared and which is beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation. Wordsworth and the Romantics pursued the sublime when seeking inspiration for their poetry and also attempted to achieve sublimity in their work through the way they wrote. They most often found the sublime in nature, where for the most part they were alone with; in solitude and reflection. It is in this reflection that emotions and feelings are recorded and translated into poems. As Wordsworth says,
“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”
In lecture we discussed the idea of seeing things that are not there; or alternatively amplifying and exaggerating what is present.
The following poem is by Wordsworth and incorporates everything discussed above and in lecture.


William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.

I am sure that many of you have seen this poem before. It is one of the most famous poems in English Romantic literature. Through the poem we can see Wordsworth’s love for nature. He takes on the form of a cloud, looking down on the beautiful landscapes below. We receive the imagery of hills, valleys, lakes, trees, daffodils, and breeze. Wordsworth often wrote his works in solitude and reflection and we can see this in the poem. It is very easy to imagine him in an open field in Switzerland looking at the landscape surrounding him. We can also see his exaggeration in the second stanza. He talks of countless daffodils, more continuous than the stars that shine, stretching in a never-ending line. Obviously this is not true. However, being so overwhelmed with emotions and awe, Wordsworth believes it to be so.
There have been many interpretations of this poem and countless essays and papers written. Some believe that is a statement about the beauty of nature while others see it as a statement of the importance of solitude and reflection (me time). Does anybody have any ideas on what else this poem can mean? Furthermore, are there any other things in the poem or poems you have read that strike you as sublime?

10:50 pm: The Possibity of a Poetic Drama
This is the opening paragrah to T.S Elliot's essay (cited below). Interesting stuff isn't it? I encourage all to read the essay, even though it is long..it is very informative.


T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism. 1922.

The Possibility of a Poetic Drama

THE questions—why there is no poetic drama to-day, how the stage has lost all hold on literary art, why so many poetic plays are written which can only be read, and read, if at all, without pleasure—have become insipid, almost academic. The usual conclusion is either that "conditions" are too much for us, or that we really prefer other types of literature, or simply that we are uninspired. As for the last alternative, it is not to be entertained; as for the second, what type do we prefer?; and as for the first, no one has ever shown me "conditions," except of the most superficial. The reasons for raising the question again are first that the majority, perhaps, certainly a large number, of poets hanker for the stage; and second, that a not negligible public appears to want verse plays. Surely there is some legitimate craving, not restricted to a few persons, which only the verse play can satisfy. And surely the critical attitude is to attempt to analyze the conditions and the other data. If there comes to light some conclusive obstacle, the investigation should at least help us to turn our thoughts to more profitable pursuits; and if there is not, we may hope to arrive eventually at some statement of conditions which might be altered. Possibly we shall find that our incapacity has a deeper source: the arts have at times flourished when there was no drama; possibly we are incompetent altogether; in that case the stage will be, not the seat, but at all events a symptom, of the malady.

09:06 pm: Romantic Poetry
The romantic poets came after the great "Enlightenment" in the western world. Accordingly their poetry reflects this change in thought, but in the rejection of it. The poets wrote a great deal about nature and earth. This was the new spirituality they were experiencing. It was not the stern religious beliefs of the past, yet it encompassed God through its view of nature. Also at this time there was a surge in nationalism that helped shape the poetry. The poets were interested in expressing individualism, imagination and life experience through nature. I’ve taken the first four lines of William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence, to explore these concepts. The poem itself is quite long so I did not post it in its entirety. However, there are many resources online in which you can find it if you wish. I have provided a link to one of them.
http://www.artofeurope.com/blake/bla3.htm


William Blake (1757-1827)

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower
Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
(Auguries of Innocence)

Just within these four lines we can see the idea of pantheism. Blake sees “heaven” in flowers and the “world” in a grain of sand. When he states- infinity in the palm of your hand in line 3 it could refer to the grain of sand or the flower in which he is holding. In these things he sees God in Nature and is left with a sense of sublime. He is so overwhelmed with the beauty of nature that he finds an eternity within an hour.
Does anyone else see any other meanings within these lines? Or have a different interpretation of them?

10:44 pm: Satire
Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change.
Since we looked at satire in poetry in lecture, I thought it would be appropriate to post a poetic satire looking at something that can be criticized today, an issue that affects women in our society more than we think. Dieting.

The Diet That Works

Range Rover Rachel is preparing to pray
She checks her mascara, her hair seems okay
She assembles her prayer-stool, it's upholstered with wool
Her brown shiny knees won't become at all dull

Places prayer stool on carpet, it was made in Iran
Many coloured but subtle, won't compete with her tan
You can buy them mail-order, or online from Habitat
She prays for her midriff - three ounces of puppyfat

''Kensington, Atkins, high protein or none?
I've tried every diet but the lard hasn't gone
I've bought special devices, focus workout on tummies
I've tried to stop eating by sucking at dummies.''

Didn't expect an answer, but a vision she's seeing
Thank God for body-hugging, guaranteed panty-line free, super-absorbent undies, Rachel fears she is peeing
''YOU WONDER,'' says God, ''WHICH SCHEME MAKES YOU THINNER?
THE HUNGRY AND HOMELESS - INVITE THEM TO DINNER.'

This is a poem about a woman who has been dieting for a long time and tries to find the perfect diet. She goes through many different systems and programs but still can not get rid of her tummy. She even resorts to praying to God for help. And what was God’s reply? Instead of her not eating her food, by either throwing it away or throwing it up…she should give it to the hungry and homeless to eat because they need it so much more.
This poem criticizes our society that looks at pursuing a perfect body image when there are so many needy people suffering from our own selfishness. It helps us to realize that we should be grateful that we have the food to eat and realize how many people go hungry every day. I personally came up very hard when I was younger and was raised in a household where every bit of food mattered. Wasting was not an option, and we made sure to stretch our resources as far as possible. Now that my situation has changed, I still carry the same values, and hate to waste food or see it go to waste. Its too bad that much of North American society does not appreciate what they have and are ignorant to the many number of people who are needy in their surroundings. What do you guys think of the poem?