dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
These lines are so wonderful. They show how animals are ignorant of human suffering. The "torturer's horse" presumably just helped his master kill someone, and now he's scratching his "innocent behind."
Icarus
Icarus was a figure in Greek mythology. His father made him wings out of wax and feathers. When Icarus took flight, he was so excited to be in the air that he flew too close to the sun, which melted his wings of wax. Icarus fell to his death.
make clear the fresh and ancient sound they sing.
The repetition of this line sounds like bells chiming.
warble
The verb warble makes me think of the sound birds make. I like how Douglas anthropomorphizes the bells.
They look up with their pale and sunken faces,
Barrett Browning does a good job illustrating how such hard work has prematurely aged the children.
The young fawns are playing with the shadows ; The young flowers are blowing toward the west— But the young, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly !
Barrett Browning is arguing that it is natural for young animals to play innocently. By contrast, the children are working very hard.
At twenty I tried to die And get back, back, back to you.
Plath attempted suicide many times throughout her life.
You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white, Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.
This beginning has always reminded me of a nursery rhyme. But the subject quickly turns very dark.
It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.
Class struggle certainly hasn't gone away. How would you define the "new classes" of the 21st century?
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
This is quite a bold statement. Do you think that ALL of history can be understood in terms of class struggles. Do you think class is more important than other factors such as race or gender? Or does it all just come down to economics?
A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism.
This is, perhaps, one of the most famous first lines in British literature. Marx opens his manifesto as though it were a fairy tale, with a ghost at the center, rather than an economic treatise.
The collective unconscious – so far as we can say anything about it at all — appears to consist of mythological motifs or primordial images, for which reason the myths of all nations are its real exponents
Do you think that Jung is ignoring the real differences among cultures? I wonder if it's fair to say that no matter where you are born, you will carry the same archetypes in your unconscious.
archetypes
Archetypes are mythological forms that reappear throughout history. I think we can see some of these archetypes in the poems we're reading this week. For example, Shelley's Ozymandias includes the archetype of the traveler and Owen depicts the archetype of the wounded soldier, returned home. Other archetypes include the mother, the father, the trickster, the helper...etc.
heredity
Can we inherit unconscious ideas?
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits Thanked him; and then enquired about his soul. Now, he will spend a few sick years in institutes, And do what things the rules consider wise, And take whatever pity they may dole.
This is a sentiment I've heard echoed by former soldiers: society does not seem to recognize their sacrifice.
Smiling they wrote his lie: aged nineteen years.
Does this mean that he was too young to register for the army, but they needed men so they believed his lie?
He
Unlike other poems we have read, this pronoun lets us known that this poem is not about the author.
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
This is ironic, because, as John explains, there is very little left of Ozymandias.
Picasso— Why he always show A man with funny shape Head and body all mixed up?
Picasso's paintings really do look like mixed up faces. Check out one example here.
(1960
Singapore was a British colony until 1963, when it merged with Malaysia. This didn't work out so well, so in 1965, Singapore became an independent country.
Does it matter that Singapore was still a British colony when Hong wrote this poem? How does that help you understand its western references?
I
Who does this "I" refer to? Do you think it is the poet? Why or why not?
I of the Many Faces
What a great title! This seems to suggest that Hong has many personas. How does that help us understand this poem?
But still I must admit I don’t like poetry Very much.
Why do you think this poet is telling us that he doesn't like poetry? Does he dislike a certain kind of poetry?
let me
I like how Tagore repeats these words ("let me"). It makes it sound like a song with a refrain or a prayer.
If it is not
Why do you think Tagore starts off with an alternate reality in which he hasn't met his wife?
I’ll rewrite this whole life and this time there’ll be so much love, you won’t be able to see beyond it. You won’t be able to see beyond it, I’ll rewrite this whole life and this time there’ll be so much love.
Why is Shire repeating lines?
The poem can start with him walking backwards into a room.
Why do you think Shire ends the poem the same way that she began it?
Backwards
You can watch Warsan Shire read this poem on youtube.
The poem can start with him walking backwards into a room.
I love this first line because it is so cinematic. It's almost like watching a scene from a movie backwards.
.”
I've always wondered why Rossetti uses quotation marks here when she doesn't in the rest of the poem. Do you think she is marking these lines as different from all the others?
Write a Commonplace Book entry in which you re-write either “England in 1819” as “America in 2018” OR “A Song: Men of England” as “A Song: Men of New York.” Include an image or video to illustrate your revisio
Your entry does not need to be in the form of a poem. A short paragraph would be fine too.
degraded
This is one of the definitions from the OED:
a. To lower in character or quality; to debase.
1652 T. Froysell Gale of Opportunity Ep. Ded. sig. A3 At this news the proud Ruffler is sodainly dismounted, and his courage degraded. 1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Degrade..to reduce from a higher to a lower state, with respect to qualities. 1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World II. 213 How low avarice can degrade human nature. 1784 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations (ed. 3) II. iv. viii. 500 English wool cannot be even so mixed with Spanish wool as to enter into the composition without spoiling and degrading, in some degree, the fabric of the cloth. 1857 C. Kingsley Two Years Ago III. vii. 201 So will an unhealthy craving degrade a man. 1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) V. 41 This custom has been the ruin of the poets, and has degraded the theatre.
Why are we so quickly to judge?
I often wonder this myself!
The Blofsom
This is actually really interesting. Blake spells "blossom" with a "long s" which looks like an F. This is what older printers used to do, but by Blake's time it was becoming outdated. Why do you think he used the long s?
“The Danger of a Single Story.”
Click here to watch Adichie's talk.
I recently spoke at a university where a student told me that it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had just read a novel called “American Psycho” —
I think this story is so funny! American Psycho is about a pretty deranged killer. It was originally a book and then a movie. Warning: there's lots of blood.
I can only imagine what other stereotypes people would come up with if they based their view of America on only one movie or even one person!