Alain Locke writes “The Negro himself has contributed his share to (the portrayal of the Old Negro) through a sort of protective social mimicry forced upon him by the adverse circumstances of dependence.” The character of Slim Greer seems to subvert this idea in a way, as Sterling Brown uses satire to mock the stereotype and reveal more relevant truths.

Alain Locke describes “the Old Negro” as “a stock figure perpetuated as an historical fiction partly in innocent sentimentalism, partly in deliberate reactionism.” Slim Greer was a satirical character created by Sterling Brown to mock the stereotypes perpetuated by the “the Old Negro”.

Langston Hughes writes that "no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself" and Ma Rainey is not afraid to go back to where she belong.

Puts human struggles into perspective and shows how temporary they are in the context of the history of the world.

The poem advocates caution in navigating it, as if the connections it makes are dangerous and easy to get lost in.

The “son” is questioned here. He is asked how he can understand the broken images of the poem. Two lines later the “sun” shines on these. The “son” cannot understand, but the “sun” illuminates.

Eliot seems to describe the poem here. It is “a heap” of fragments that he has shone the sun on.

The boat and see are personified, they respond to the sailor gaily. He is so skilled that they are obedient to him.

The soft, almost indiscernible sound of a woman brushing her hair is usually unnoticeable, but when you take time to listen can sound like music.

The indistinguishable figure of a shadow is like a lurking presence. It is unidentifiable and seems alien.

She brushes her hair automatically, without thinking about the action. The description is mechanical hand reflects the mechanical arm of the of the gramophone. They both repeat themselves without thinking about it.

A stereotype that did not reflect reality and was more society's creation than a real individual.

An internalized method of suppression. Underrepresentation in education teaches people that their art is not valued and not worth studying.

The art is a mirror that will reflect themselves and show them something they hadn’t seen before.

There seems to be a fine line between celebrating something and protesting it. The child’s death of hunger is treated as a something to support the cause of the revolution. The American Legion encourages patriotism despite the wars that have caused veterans suffering.

These people from across the world are brought together by the cause that they fight for. They are connected like the seemingly random images of the modernist texts.

A recurring theme in the poems is people growing strong on insufficient food. Their anger is fed by hunger and it strengthens the revolution.

It reminds me of the opening line to this song

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfEkDqP34xo)

This image is so refreshing

There is an understated beauty to this poem. In it’s short length it seems to capture a spontaneous moment of realization. It’s almost like an epiphany as he observes just how beautiful the faces are in contrast to the dark station. It reminds me of a haiku.

The flowers seem to be personified as men and women. The delphinium is referred to as a him and is described as “unthorned”, whereas the rose is described as a “she” who wears armor that “may pierce”. The armour of the thorns could represent the flower’s personality; the delphinium is more trusting and unguarded, whereas the rose protects herself.

The absence of love is more of a threat to life than the physical injuries that are described in the previous lines. Questions what is more bearable, physical pain, or emotional.

The Hollywood trope of ‘live fast, die young’ is treated like the moral to a cautionary tale. Hollywood actors either die young and are glorified (like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean), or live long enough for their lives to descend into scandal.

Frost is discussing the prejudice against older female actors in Hollywood, that existed at the time the poem was written and continues to exist even now. In old age female actors must have such an established following and respect for them that they “occupy a throne” or they risk being demonized and called a “crone”, who is ridiculed for how she has aged.

In the recent drama Feud, which is set in Hollywood during the 1960s, Joan Crawford’s boss tells her "Men age, they get character. Women age, they got lost."

Abishag is an interesting comparison, as in the bible, she was renowned for her beauty and chosen to be a servant to David. She cared for him in his old age and slept next to him to keep him warm, but never slept with him. Similarly, the women of Hollywood are also renowned for their beauty and chosen to metaphorically sleep next to their male fans in their imaginations, but the men never sleep with them.

This reflects the conclusion (or lack of conclusion) in Henry Adam’s The Dynamo and the Virgin. Masters seems to share his belief that knowledge is not absolute, but is ever changing.

The rhythms of poetry are found in nature as well. The ticking of the seed pod is similar to the stressed syllable of an iamb. The full breeze could be seen as the other syllables of the poem, that brings the seed pod and the poem to life.

The Clerks share a “shop-worn brotherhood” in contrast to the poet and the king who are isolated by their solitary occupations. Despite the prestige that comes with these, they still question whether the clerks’s are more rewarding.

As her mental illness progresses, the story becomes more dream like, as the lines between reality become blurred and her obsession with the "pattern" takes control of her.

She describes her relapses as if she is being physically assaulted by the “pattern” of her mental illness. She struggles to convince anyone that she is suffering and tries to translate her psychological torment into physical pain, in order to understand it better.

The “pattern” represents the thought patterns of mental illness; she thinks she has mastered them and then loses control again. Her obsession is a repeating pattern that she can’t escape from.

The idea of a “second-sight” is very interesting, as it suggests that, through the “veil”, Du-Bois see’s two worlds, the real world and the world he is expected to see and he must consider his actions in relation to both of these worlds.

Du Bois initially writes that he remembers when “the shadow” of the veil “swept across (him)”, as if before that point he lived without it, but here he says that he was born with it, making the veil seem like something more permanent and inevitable, instead of something that was cast over him by society.

Du Bois does not describe his genuine reactions, he only describes the reactions that others perceive through the “vast veil” that he describes being covered by. He does not directly say that the “southern outrages make (his) blood boil”, he only says that he reduces “the boiling to a simmer”, without attributing “the boiling” to anything. The “veil” that he is covered by forces him to react from a detached point of view.

By juxtaposing the power of the dynamo and the image of the baby Adams personifies the dynamo; it seems simultaneously dangerous and considerate. It chooses to warn others to respect it’s power, but decides not wake the sleeping baby, as if it had a will of its own.

The hyphened and alliterative phrase “monthly-magazine-made” reads like a magazine slogan itself. Adams satires the mass produced nature of the American ideal of female beauty.

The use of “translated” is interesting as it usually suggests that meaning has been found. You would assume that if science “translated” something it would be easier to understand, but Adams seems to find it harder. The mathematical definition of “translated” does not apply either, as that refers to moving something without changing it in any other way, whereas this world has changed a lot. The use of “translated” is ironic and somewhat of an oxymoron.

The unvarying repetition of “They Lion grow” builds tension as “They Lion” is continuously fed by the world that is described throughout the poem. In the main body of the stanzas the repeated phrases vary between “out of”, “from”, and “come”, which creates the sense of a journey through the world that feeds “They Lion”. Throughout the changing scenery of this journey “They Lion(’s)” growth is a constant feature, until the end of the poem, when the tension finally breaks and “he comes”.

The capitalised name of “They Lion” and his presence at the end of every stanza suggests that he is the subject of the poem, but the main body of the stanzas focuses on the world of “They Lion”. The scenery described changes, but “They Lion” remains the same, only every described as growing. As a metaphor for anger, “They Lion” represents how the feeling of discontent is an unchanging feature that is constantly fed; despite the way the world changes, it never stops feeding “They Lion”.