The awful daring of a moment’s surrender Which an age of prudence can never retract By this, and this only, we have existed
Fragmentation
Here, the motif of fragmentation is linked to the idea of moments of surrender and spontaneity being the only instances of genuine existence. This underscores the disintegration of societal norms and values, as well as the fragmentation of individual experiences in the modern world.
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell And the profit and loss.
Fragmentation
This instance portrays Phlebas as a fragmented, lifeless figure. The motif of fragmentation here highlights the ephemeral nature of human existence and the disintegration of identity in the face of death.
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song. The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends Or other testimony of summer nights.
Fragmentation
The description of the river as no longer bearing "empty bottles, sandwich papers, silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends" suggests a departure from the idealized past. The absence of these items signifies a fragmentation of tradition and a decline in cultural values.
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
What is the significance of the cards, particularly the one that is blank and the one representing the drowned Phoenician Sailor? How do these specific cards connect to the broader themes of the poem, and what might they symbolize in the context of the poem?
And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke’s, My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
How does this memory relate to the themes of the poem, and what emotions or ideas does it evoke in the speaker?
April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land
The opening lines of "The Burial of the Dead," the speaker describes April as the "cruellest month" and mentions the breeding of lilacs from the dead land. What is the significance of this description, and how does it set the tone for the poem?
Loveliness extreme.
The line "Loveliness extreme" from "Sacred Emily" and its exploration of the theme of beauty and aesthetics reminds me again of The Sandman as it often explores the idea that dreams and stories have the power to shape perception and reality. The concept of "Loveliness extreme" can be seen as reflecting the idea that the beauty and aesthetics within dreams and stories can be so powerful that they transcend ordinary perceptions.
Put measure treasure. Measure treasure.
Again with the repetition and the rhyme before and how interesting with this play on the words "Put measure treasure. Measure treasure." The use of valuables and how different it may be for different people as it gives a one mans trash is another mans treasure sound to it.
Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
The idea of repetition and the symbolism with them being different throughout the poem really reminds me of the symbolism in The Sandman with the different siblings Dream has and what they represent with the line Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
you were probably
The poem addresses a second person, suggesting that the plums were not meant for the speaker.
They enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all save that they enter. All about them the cold, familiar wind—
The poem metaphorically describes the arrival of spring as the birth of a new world. The beings entering this world are described as naked, cold, and uncertain, emphasizing vulnerability and the unknown.
By constantly tormenting them
The opening lines of the poem highlight the School Physician's repeated actions. He constantly reminds parents about the issue of lice in their children's hair. The word "constantly" emphasizes the regularity of his reminders, suggesting that he is diligent and unwavering in addressing this concern.
The day she did her armour on?
Her armour on, is interesting because the armour is suggesting what? Could it be a lover? or just a plant although not said we could infer it being a metaphor for what has happened to the speakers life and how they are the delphinium and they are the rose and how both need to grow as later on in the poem says it as well.
A rusted iron column whose tall core
The rusted iron column is interesting play on words, my immediate thought of this is his grave. This could be his unmarked grave if he was forgotten as nobody mourns him. The play with the words the poet has for the stillness and things around him really is interesting.
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Love being the theme of this poem sets the reader up to really ponder what love can be or ones memories of love. The speaker of the poem could be a past lover of someone and reminisces on it on how it actually makes them fee.
Better to go down dignified With boughten friendship at your side Than none at all. Provide, provide!
The calls to Hollywood could be selling out? Could he be talking about an actress and the dark sinister side of Hollywood? The poem touches a lot of the corruption of Hollywood.
I found a dimpled spider, fat and white, On a white heal-all, holding up a moth Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth — Assorted characters of death and blight Mixed ready to begin the morning right, Like the ingredients of a witches’ broth — A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth, And dead wings carried like a paper kite.
Very interesting opening to the poem and the description of the spider and its things that it is currently doing. The beauty of words Frost has with how he paints the picture in the readers mind and gets them hooked to the poem and get them to read it to the end.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
The likes of both roads to Frost show how different the paths are and what they partake in could we infer in the earlier part of the poem that he regrets taking the path he took in the end?
No life, no love, no children, and no men; And over the forgotten place there clings The strange and unrememberable light That is in dreams. The music failed, and then God frowned, and shut the village from His sight.
This line is interesting and is essentially the opposite of the first stanza a village full of life that ended up failing. so interesting to see.
We were married and lived together for seventy years, Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, Eight of whom we lost Ere I had reached the age of sixty. I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick,
Masters showing his life and how he has lived can show us his standings during the time and how good of a life he must have lived.
That no one knows what is good Who knows not what is evil; And no one knows what is true Who knows not what is false.
I like the idea of good and evil it kind of sort of draws the line between light and dark being so very thin and how the lines are blurred to some people.
I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.
John here in the beginning is shown to be a very supportive husband, but as the story progresses we can see her communication between them deteriorating and her mental health as well, as later on conjures up a story of a woman behind the wallpaper.
And John is so queer now, that I don’t want to irritate him. I wish he would take another room! Besides, I don’t want anybody to get that woman out at night but myself.
This woman on the wall does she conjure her up in her mind to deal with John not listening to her? It also shows the neglect she has been given from John as she now does not want to bother him at all and this story of the woman behind the wallpaper what does this symbolize to the woman?
“I can’t,” said I. “The key is down by the front door under a plantain leaf!”
Why would John not just check under the leaf like she said earlier about the key, it seems that John does not seem to listen to her most of the story and it obviously shows here.
One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
Du Bois viewpoint here speaks volumes as it shows the clashing ideals of African Americans and their strife to figure out what is best to represent themselves with. Adams always believed in the idea of capitalism and technology, but what happens when these ideas look at you differently or they do not include you in the plans.
Away with the black man’s ballot, by force or fraud,—and behold the suicide of a race! Nevertheless, out of the evil came something of good,—the more careful adjustment of education to real life, the clearer perception of the Negroes’ social responsibilities, and the sobering realization of the meaning of progress.
Du Bois perspective of progress to him is a far cry from Adams as he thought the dynamo and the virgin to be working cohesively to make progress but we can see the negative takes and views it had shaped through slavery and even with emancipation the view on African Americans are skewed due to cultural views and values. This to Du Bois shows the true intention of progression and its end results of it.
The red stain of bastardy, which two centuries of systematic legal defilement of Negro women had stamped upon his race, meant not only the loss of ancient African chastity, but also the hereditary weight of a mass of corruption from white adulterers, threatening almost the obliteration of the Negro home.
Interesting to see how Du Bois and Adams differ in the perspectives as Du Bois is an African American and him having to go through hardships as to opposed Henry Adams who was essentially the same as Du Bois but differed in color and was looked at differently and how the progression to Du Bois regressed rather than progressed.
Society regarded this victory over sex as its greatest triumph, and the historian readily admitted it, since the moral issue, for the moment, did not concern one who was studying the relations of unmoral force. He cared nothing for the sex of the dynamo until he could measure its energy.
This passage seemed interesting to me as I wonder if Adams during his time as the start of modernism was essentially at the end of his life his thinking was an early form of modernism?
The year 1900 was not the first to upset schoolmasters. Copernicus and Galileo had broken many professorial necks about 1600; Columbus had stood the world on its head towards 1500
The author names these significant figures in history that changed education. It's interesting to see other historical figures such as the author looks at different scholars and teachings to show how during Adams time he was looking to seek even more knowledge than what was found out already and to do it differently.
Here opened another totally new education, which promised to be by far the most hazardous of all. The knife-edge along which he must crawl, like Sir Lancelot in the twelfth century, divided two kingdoms of force which had nothing in common but attraction.
This caught one caught my eye as I love the story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table and how the author compares the newfound education to Lancelot and his betrayal to both the Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur for his sin it shows the author's newfound knowledge of education really set aflame a revolution of some sorts.
And all that was hidden burning on the oil-stained earth
"...oil-stained earth" really caught my attention because the world is ran by oil and the hidden burning of the oil sounds so poetic as we all know about oils properties and how people fight over it especially Levine using the word hidden as behind the backgrounds people will fight over oil
Out of the gray hills
Could Levine be referencing the people as lions as he uses "Out of..." multiple times to give the audience what the "Lion" has gone through?