Gustave Courbet Stormy Sea (1869)

Lake Starnberg (German: Starnberger See) — called Lake Würm (German Würmsee) until 1962, and also known as Fürstensee — is Germany's fifth largest freshwater lake in terms of area and, due to its great average depth, the second largest in terms of water volume.

This line ties together the rock and mountain of Chapter I and the water of III and IV and gives us continuity.

Claude Monet The Sailing Boat, Evening Effect (1885)

Gustave Dore illustration of Dante Purgatorio Canto XIX:115-145 The Avaricious: Their Punishment (1868)

Gustave Courbet's A Burial at Ornans (1849)

WikiWikiWhat:

"Canto XXVI line "Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina" ("Then hid him in the fire that purifies them") which appears in Eliot's closing section of The Waste Land as it does to end Dante's canto... The Waste Land is dedicated to Pound as "il miglior fabbro" which is what Dante had called Arnaut Daniel.. Daniel was an Occitan troubadour of the 12th century, praised by Dante as a "the best smith" (miglior fabbro) and called a "grand master of love" (gran maestro d'amore) by Petrarch.. In the 20th century he was lauded by Ezra Pound in the The Spirit of Romance (1910) as the greatest poet to have ever lived."

This is an interesting juxtaposition to me. Water swells at the surface, not in the deep..To have a swell without a surface reference point is essentially impossible. It even reminds me of, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, did it even make a sound?"

Swell Defintion

The repeated reference to famed European bodies of water is interesting, following Chapter I Starnbergersee with the Thames.

The continued and varied references to light (glowing, radiating, reflecting, fire, etc.) are noticeable and very different from the harsh transition of winter in Chapter I.

Stein has gone from "center pricking," to "button," to "pressing," to "thimble," and I'm seeing this connective thread being woven, but this word moment first clicked the connection for me throughout text with references to "pin" and "push" and "sew" and "cow" and "cotton" and the later barrage of thimble references, so is there some kind of forlorn seamstress situation thing happening??

Is this in reference to branches? Is this contrasting with prior brightness reference? Is this drama? This is clearly important in it's seven time repetition, but I'm not getting why.

This seems to be so Tourette's random and disconnected but maybe this is tying in with "measure" two lines later and tying in with sewing references?

What's happening with cousin here again? Is there another tipping issue here? Or are we skewing the word "causing" with this word morphing Mr. Toad's Wild Ride situation?

She went from "parts of place nuts" at the beginning and now we are at "pay nuts renounce".. Nuts as a crazy reference?

Roses are so historically romantic and iconic of love and the fragile vanitas of life.. The same can be said of the traditional poetic connotations of the rose, and when this traditional romantic iconography is juxtaposed with the steady, standard pine tree we come to see that Masters wants out with the old romanticized notions of the world. It is a call to not only see the real world as we live in everyday, but to revel in it.. Romanticizing the "unromantic," and exalting the possibly mundane.

Interesting choice of word here considering that this poem describes no party I've ever attended.. The irony of this title is a key factor in this poem and while it reads in a melodic, almost singsongy fashion it is quite certainly not a cheery tune at all.

"Auld Lang Syne" (Scots pronunciation: [ˈɔːl(d) lɑŋˈsəin]: note "s" rather than "z") is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song. It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world, its traditional use being to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight. By extension, it is also sung at funerals, graduations and as a farewell or ending to other occasions...The song's Scots title may be translated into standard English as "old long since", or more idiomatically, "long long ago", "days gone by" or "old times". Consequently, "For auld lang syne", as it appears in the first line of the chorus, might be loosely translated as "for (the sake of) old times".

Roland (Frankish: Hruodland) (died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was military governor of the Breton March, responsible for defending Francia's frontier against the Bretons. His only historical attestation is in Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni, which notes he was part of the Frankish rearguard killed by rebellious Basques in Iberia at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.

The story of Roland's death at Roncevaux Pass was embellished in later medieval and Renaissance literature. He became the chief paladin of the emperor Charlemagne and a central figure in the legendary material surrounding him, collectively known as the Matter of France. The first and most famous of these epic treatments was the Old French Chanson de Roland of the eleventh century.

Ache is not only a descriptor of current physical pain, but also the faint constant pain that lingers after an injury.. There is a certain implication of time tied to an ache, something only time can heal that cannot necessarily be treated. Ache is not only a physical marker of pain, but also signifies an emotional pain or longing desire that you can feel not only in your soul, but in your bones. The suffering desire for the "sublime."

I just can't help but correlate her continued obsession with the "order," or "disorder," of this thrashed, heinous wallpaper with her own mental and/or emotional "disorder" which has also consumed her life and psyche.

"Weir Mitchell treatment – A method of treating neurasthenia, hysteria, etc., by absolute rest in bed, frequent and abundant feeding, and the systematic use of massage and electricity."

Nothing makes you feel better and like a capable, sane, healthy human being again like constant babying, feeling stuffed in bed and being reminded you are not well!

Sarcasm?

At first read, the perspective of this question posed really surprised me, and set the introspective personal tone we feel throughout the chapter. My surprise wasn't regarding the validity of him posing this question, but the perspective.. Why would he ask why God made him "a stranger in mine own house" instead of asking why or how could God make other people so cruel or narrow minded? This question of his own "status," of self, versus a question toward others here says so much about him and this piece.

I didn't know one could so seamlessly humanize the unhuman, whilst dehumanizing the human in one seemingly simple sentence fragment.

WHOA.. Okay, so but tell us how you really feel.

The consistent, if not constant, return to "force" is notable, but I find the repeated and increasingly amplified equating of technology to Christianity both fascinating and honestly quite shocking.

Thanks internet: The coherer is a primitive form of radio signal detector used in the first radio receivers during the wireless telegraphy era at the beginning of the 20th century. Its use in radio was based on the 1890 findings of French physicist Edouard Branly and adapted by other physicists and inventors over the next ten years.

Googled it: Guglielmo Marconi, (1874 –1937) was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. He is often credited as the inventor of radio, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy"

Technology as religion: Perhaps not as new of a development as I had previously thought.

Philosophical Sidebar: In religion, God created man, so man worships God, because God is powerful.. Right? So then alternatively, if man created technology, and man worships technology.. Are we not just worshipping ourselves?

This connection and comparison of the industrial world to the natural world is ringing some Levine bells..

Not going to pretend I knew what it was.. Googled it: A dynamo is an electrical generator that produces direct current with the use of a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundation upon which many other later electric-power conversion devices were based, including the electric motor, the alternating-current alternator, and the rotary converter.

Preach. "The wise man knows he knows nothing."

I can't help but consider if this is a football reference in some way, like pig skin? Especially considering that the line following is "From the ferocity of pig driven to holiness".. I get this visual of some ferocious young athlete propelled to glory or stardom only to have all that glory fade ("From the furred ear and the full jowl") and come to literally devolve into "The repose of the hung belly."

Sorry to highlight an entire paragraph, but I had to comment on Levine's interesting summation of all the prior distinctive visual references all "mish-mashed" and remixed together in an entirely new way. Ie: Hands/fists, sins/holiness, car, children/aunties/mothers, oak and wall/tree and fence post, sack and belly. I like that he spent all this time making this rhythmic almost trance like progressive flow in the beginning, basically shredded it, and then picked it back up and brought it all back again a little different. I just keep hearing this faint voice of a hype man in my head shouting, 'This is the remix!"

Is this maybe a particularly male reference? Just me?

The doubled down usage of the word "sweet" is clearly deliberate, and it upsets me that I don't understand why he is doing this. If we are being totally honest here, my first mental image was a gaggle of dudes betting on ponies (glues of trotters) at the race track, maniacally clenching, waving and shaking their fists (formerly open hands "from the full flower").. But this purposeful twice usage of the word "sweet" really confuses me.

I don't think I can adequately express "annotatively" (sorry English class, I had to) how much I truly love everything about this anchor line including the impact of it's religious usage throughout the poem. The true power of this simple "improper" sentence and the feeling it evokes.. Well, iPhone wants me to say, "Ducking love it," so I guess I will just stick with that.

To me starting out with these "old world" basics and progressing on to "creosote, gasoline, drive shafts, wooden dollies" really sets this distinctive momentum of a negative progression that carries on throughout the poem. Also, the fact that he starts of repeating "out of" religiously in the beginning and then abandoning it entirely by the end really solidifies the feel of this progressive devolution.