The doctor reminds them of something, I assume, they cannot change. They're poor so they can't help their children. The doctors good intentions become a constant, awful reminder of their powerlessness.

The sweetness suggests a pleasure in this transgression but the cold may suggest some regret.

Her "rescue" condemns her to a life of hard labor. The dalliance that bore her was a between the working class people described above. In effect, we see the cycle repeat here, as most likely this girl who begins working at 15 will soon be a young slattern herself.

This connects to what we've been reading. The narrator anticipates a need to develop a protective shell around the mind in the modern age. Like Robinson and Masters, she finds the modern world to be frightening and, like them, presents a trepidatious attitude towards it.

He was destroyed by powers beyond his control. A rusted iron column is a great image to communicate that idea. He, like an iron column, stood strong and tall. Ultimately, circumstances, the rains, tunneled through his pride and his life.

The metaphor of bartering away a memory for food is just a great image. It also makes the stakes of her decision (to trade love for peace of mind) bigger, which makes her refusal to do so that much more impactful.

The neighbor is portrayed as simple, close minded, and perhaps even a little scary. He's compared to a stone wielding savage of old and moves in a darkness beyond just the absence of light. I think Frost is trying to subtly suggest the violence inherent in the neighbors close minded, traditionalist outlook. I don't think Frost is saying there will be violence between these two, but that the neighbors general mindset can create violent outcomes in other situations.

Frost spends the entire poem making it understood that the narrator is going to stop here in the woods. Instead, he realizes he has obligations to meet and continues on. While the woods are pleasant, the journey to come seems arduous. It also seems important to note that the woods are not his, but someone else’s.

Much of the poem establishes that both roads are about the same. But once he's already made his decision, he decides to romanticize it a bit, flattering himself by saying it's the one less traveled by. It's funny that many popular interpretations of the poem agree with this more romantic view.

Robinson insists on the humanity of the clerks, praising them for weathering the passage of time and keeping their vitality. It feels similar to what Du Bois is doing in The Souls of Black Folk, only Robinson is working along class lines instead of race lines. He goes on to address the reader, trying to make them understand that people of supposedly superior statuses are actually no better. Du Bois addresses white intellectuals, portraying for them the struggles and hopes of black people to make his reader see them as fully human.

Here's another dead Masters narrator who thinks that society is degenerating. I wonder if the poem intends us to side with the narrator or if there's a hint of irony in this last passage. Throughout her life, she faced hardships (the death of eight children) but seems to admonish the next generation for their negativity. Are we to believe that she didn't feel sorrow or weariness?

There's a continuity with Adams here. The narrators of both texts see the world around them changing and leaving them behind. In Adam's case, the science moves too quickly for him to keep up. In the case of Seth, his community destroys the institution he created to educate the public. One's problem is progress, the others is regress.

This treatment borders on becoming solitary confinement. To be left alone in an ugly room with nothing to do to occupy ones mine for hours at a time is horrific.

It's interesting that, even in her delusional state, the narrator recognizes that her husband has trapped her. John created the circumstances which would worsen her mental health issues by restraining her to her room. "... you can't put me back!" is an apt statement considering what she's been through.

It's a small detail only mentioned twice, but the barred windows make this room feel like a prison, which, for our protagonist, it effectively is.

While Adams was born before the civil war and Du Bois was born after, they both were witnesses to the last half of the 19th century from different vantage points. Du Bois watched the effects of widespread systemic racism on the newly freed black population. Adams looked at the effects of technology and education on the national consciousness.

Both Adams and Du Bois are struggling with existential problems. Adams has trouble defining himself in rapidly evolving modern world. Du Bois struggles with a white power structure defining who he is.

Here, Du Bois and Adams appear to share a skepticism for education, albeit for different reasons. Du Bois sees traditional education of that time produce justifications for racism. Adams sees that traditional education can't keep up with a rapidly changing world.

What notion is he talking about here? The power of the horse? Is this still engaging with the Virgin and Venus? The rest of the passage talks about the power or lack thereof of goddesses, so is it somehow related to that? I probably just need more familiarity with Michael Angelo and Peter Paul Rubens.

It seems like, through the ida of the Virgin and Venus, Adams is trying to assess the psychological state of the nation. Since Americans don't feel the psychological force of either, A Virgin can't command any power. Because we are sexless, a Venus can't exist. But since Adams uses both symbols in ways I can't fully account for, referencing ideas and texts I haven't read, I can't say this with any confidence. Every paragraph which talks about either symbol holds some confusion for me.

I would need to know way more about Epicurean philosophy to even begin to understand what he's getting at here. Also, what schools is he referring to? The entire American education system? Higher education? Something else entirely? I'm not quite sure, but it seems crucial to understanding the passage. Also, this is in between to Latin quotes I can't read because I don't know Latin.