Moloch!
Moloch Is the god that is connected to child sacrifice. Is Ginsberg trying to express in this part of the poem that in order to be in this place, you will your childhood inncent, your rose color glass will fall and you will see the city and the world for what it really is and not what you thought it would be?
who studied Plotinus Poe St John of the Cross telepathy and bop kabbalah because the universe instinctively vibrated at their feet in Kansas, who loned it through the streets of Idaho seeking visionary indian angels who were visionary indian angels, who thought they were only mad when Baltimore gleamed in supernatural ecstasy, who jumped in limousines with the Chinaman of Oklahoma on the impulse of winter midnight streetlight smalltown rain, who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup, and followed the brilliant Spaniard to converse about America and Eternity, a hopeless task, and so took ship to Africa, who disappeared into the volcanoes of Mexico leaving nothing behind but the shadow of dungarees and the larva and ash of poetry scattered in fireplace Chicago, who reappeared on the West Coast investigating the FBI in beards and shorts with big pacifist eyes sexy in their dark skin passing out incomprehensible leaflets,
This Whole lines are about traveling to place and what you could in these places. Yet the lay out of describtion of the location are messy, dark tone describtions it is the very reason why is gives life to the place. "The Chinaman of Oklahoma on th umpulse of winter, the houston seeking jaz or sex". The describtion are rose and pastel colors of perfections of the city but the very darkness is what pulls you in.
who wandered around and around at midnight in the railway yard wondering where to go, and went, leaving no broken hearts, who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing through snow toward lonesome farms in grandfather night,
This four line remind me so much of the theme that we had focus on class about leaving the country for the city life. When you given the images of someone wandering the railway yrad and having no idea where to go. And How the farm that the person is leaving is a Loneseome Farm. Is how a lot of young people must of felt like when they were about to leave there home country town, the farms and a place to get stuck and wanting to go to the city but not know here to go in the city.
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated, who passed through universities with radiant eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war, who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,
The Whole city and the enviroment that it find it self in seems a lot like, hell and death. The words that Ginsbergs uses to detail this city is, Supernatural, skulls and a staggering angel. He is using langauge to describe a city as darkness and hell but in a way that seem that, that very theme is what gives it charm. He does say that this envirment does go will the jazz.
When Ma Rainey Comes to town, Folks from anyplace Miles aroun’, From Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Flocks in to hear Ma do her stuff; Comes flivverin’ in, Or ridin’ mules, Or packed in trains, Picknickin’ fools. . . . That’s what it’s like, Fo’ miles on down, To New Orleans delta An’ Mobile town, When Ma hits Anywheres aroun’. II
The style of writing in beginning is a little different then how it tends to play out through the peom, with the first 18 lines being a colom and the first being full lines, what there a spefic reason why brown, started the poem with a colom style?
When Ma Rainey Comes to town, Folks from anyplace Miles aroun’, From Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Flocks in to hear Ma do her stuff; Comes flivverin’ in, Or ridin’ mules, Or packed in trains, Picknickin’ fools. . . . That’s what it’s like, Fo’ miles on down, To New Orleans delta An’ Mobile town, When Ma hits Anywheres aroun’. II
Ths poem was a little hard to understand, but is "Ma Raniney" about someon coming out of town to new Orleans and everyone is excited for her. Who is coming and why si very excited?
They tried to guarantee happiness to themselves By shunting dirt and misery to you.
a great image of capitalism, with the idea of inorder for one to be happy the other needs to pay the price. "they" as the people who making money off the backs of the people they mistrest are "happy" only due to the misery of others
They point with pride to the roads you built for them They ride in comfort over the rails you laid for them
This is my far my favortie line in the poem, due to the horrible ring of truth in it. How the people who worked there blood sweat and tears in to building the rail roads were given no respect nor thanks and who where admire for their hard work, had done nothing for the rail road but only cauase pain and torture to the builders. On top of the that who enjoyed the out come of there hard work where the same people that totured them.
Harlem Shadows
Shadows is a dark place where anyone can hide so there is a mystery feel to a shadow. The theme of adark and mystery are common in the poem, with words like shadow and dark and veils all have a dark mystery feel to theme. Is that how Mckay see Harlem as a Mystery?
In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall Its veil.
Veils are pplace to hide the face of the person creating a mystery illusion around the person. Havign this describtion in the poem about Harlem is Mckay trying to say the when night falls around Harlem it's a veil hiding the systery of Harlem from all seeing eyes?
I, too, am America.
This line compare to the first line of the poem only have one word of difference , which changes the tone of the line from playful to more of a strong tone. In the first line oyu have the word sing in the line giving the line a more hopful and cheerful feeling to the line. Than you have last line and with out the sing word in the line, it gives the line a more of a sure of himself feel to it.
They’ll see how beautiful I am
This line is powerful due to the theme of the poem, where due to his darker color Hughes is leting us know that the person who is speaking can't eat with eveyone at the table beucase to the people that are at the dinner table the speaker is not one of them. Yet this line tells us he does not seem himself as one of them but as someone beautiful, with so much to give.
I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
The idea of river to be the main theme of the this peom is amazing. Is Langston Hughes trying to connect the idea of the rivers with life, due to the river carry life in them, wit ht he fishes and plants and rivers are made of water, water gives life?
I bathe in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
The theme for this three lines are so will put together with the rivers being a sences of home for the Langston. Euphrates is where he bath, there fore got his water to live off, and he could see the pyramids.
While inter-racial councils have sprung up in the South, drawing on forward elements of both races, in the Northern cities manual laborers may brush elbows in their everyday work, but the community and business leaders have experienced no such interplay or far too little of it
That is a key point that has happened in the past and still do, although some might think that the change with inter racial councils have changed a lot, the thruth in the matter is has not. Yes it is more common to see inter racial groups in people in low power in society yet people with more we dont see as much inter racial groups.
So for generations in the mind of America, the Negro has been more of a formula than a human being –a something to be argued about, condemned or defended, to be “kept down,” or “in his place,” or “helped up,”
As in a formula of creating someething new or old? Is the formal stand for ceating the illusion of not human, but as "something" that has been created?
We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.
Their writing and art work is not to please a race but to express who they are themself. This line gave that feeling that when, writing or creating anything there will be people who will love it and people who will not, but what matter most is what you feel in creating this art work and what it means to yourself.
“I want to be a poet–not a Negro poet,” meaning, I believe, “I want to write like a white poet”; meaning subconsciously, “I would like to be a white poet”; meaning behind that, “I would like to be white.”
I believe he thought that he wanted to be able to be judge on is write as any other poetic. Based on the style of writing and theme not on the base of his color.
Mother is watching your sleep, But you don’t see her tears
this line is bitter sweet likepeom, you have the baby being told not to worry about anything that her mother is watchingover her and to sleep peacefuly yet the mother is cry and the father doesn't hte child to see her tears. Just like how all parents wish to keep that ignorance is bliss feel to a child untill the have brust the buddle and see the world not in a rose color lens but see the world for how cruel it can and will be.
: bells clanging in the ear with sound that drowns the singing of the birds
Could the Bells and the singing of the birds stand for wedding bellling and the eaning behind them. Such as new beginning and hope? This whole Peom is filled with hope and new beginning.
The brain will not deny the days that come with verdure nor the eye
This give the illusion of the character sayign that they will not deny that even in spring time there will be harship, but they will not hide themself from it, for hope is worth it.
The edifice grows huge, becomes unvanquishable mass: the voice and eyes and ears of us who have grown strong on bitter bread, dry root.
The Peom is written during the Great depression, Yet this line has a key of hope in it. "Edifice" mean a large building follinf with the words grows huge. Than we have the line We have grown strong on bitter bread, dry root. Giving the idea that have grown strong during this cold bitter and unhappy winter that can stand for the "great depression" and now the spring, their hope, is coming and with spring they will grow. Their hope of leaving winter and welcoming spring.
Only spring arrived at its fulfillment, at the peak or verdurous blossoming connotes the quick deep breath of hope
Unlike "The Waste Land" spring is fulled with so much life, in the peom "Poem for May First". explaining how it bring hope and life, unlike how the describtion of winter or chistmas time is express in a dark tone, spring is depicted as deep breath of fresh air at this time. That illusion is given described in the following lines.
Not Christmas nor the new year white with snow and cold with dying names emasculate marks for our lives the new year.
Edwin Rolfe in the poeam follows Eliot "The Waste Land" by pairing th oppiste together, sadness with joy. Christmas is a time of ging and happines yet the first line said that there can't a christmas or new years with out snow. Then New years is paired with death, yet New year is a celebration of new beginings, a fresh start. Both Hoildays are filled with hope, yet the peom much like the waste land gives these hoilday a more sad nostalgic feel.
White bodies naked on the low damp ground And bones cast in a little low dry garret,
The Narator is explain to us how the bodies are being lyed down, which in a sence goes will with the peom it self. Becuase the whole peom is about death and here we get for the first time someone who is telling us how a body is being laying down.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed. And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors; Departed, have left no addresses.
by after of all the section of the Waste Land "The Fire Sermon" is the one that I don't understand at all. There so many images of death and huanting and a city that seem gone and present, the line that i highlighted give this idea. With the nymphs departs and leavingno addresses, leaving no trace of them beign there. I'm not sure if Eliot wanted to create that idea of other one? Beucase before this line we have the describtion of nature in way, river and leafs and the wet bank and the wind and the brown land.
Prison and palace and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant mountains He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying With a little patience
The Flow of all this lines are amazing, from the very begining you have the opposite pairing again, with prison and Palace, thunder and spring, yet the work just as well with the flow with the ending. Everything has a place and time, the locationa nd the sounds around the location. The Ending letting the reader know everyone has there time in this world and don't have the patience to see it.
After the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in the gardens After the agony in stony places
Each line carries an oppiste, pairing one object to the other ina oppoiste manner. Torchlight red as a sunset is lovly but not a sweaty face. The describtion on the garden is not a peacful one but a hunthing one. Yet Garderns should be full of life. Stone are paired with agony I do not understand that line. Kind it be connect to stiffness, The stiffness of everyone during that time when the war just ends.
He passed the stages of his age and youth Entering the whirlpool.
Keeping to the theme of in between, this line is just perfect. Talking about how "He" has passed the age of his youth and now is entering the finally stage of his life "whirlpool".
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell And the profit and loss.
The Image of the deep sea and loss, give the idea of death which is a key theme throught the poem. Different stages of describtions of death and power. Which do go alone will the theme of war, that I believe Eliot is trying to descrebe. I always had a trouble in understand the waste Land. Could the scene that I Understand, stnad for a hunting scene, with cry of the gulls and the sea give peace but the idea of lost bring a huanting feeling?
April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land
April brings april shower, which bring life for the world. April show is what get the soil a little more ready for spring. Yet Eliot claim it to be the Crullest Month. On the next line he says the Lilacs out of dead land, is he refencing spring in a postive Manner or in a Negative manner.
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it, From satin cases poured in rich profusion; In vials of ivory and coloured glass Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air
The Descrebation of the women in all of her glory with jewel and stain ect can ether be understand as a way to describe her position, someone of wealth. But bring the idea of the Women character back to a chess bordered, all of the details describing her can be place as her power,influnce in the games. How in the games the Queen move free, due to her power as queen. Maybe showing her wealth is a way of moving around for the women.
The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,
The chair that is described as a throne, whihc can connect to the idea of a royal throne. In chess there are the two royal pieces, the king and queen, both are just as important as the other. The king is the one to determs when the game is lost and the queen has the most power. The was that the line starts and the title of the of the second part of the poem, just to make you picture the "women" as a queen, the one with ost power at the moment.
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
THe broken Images can be a reference of what is left around him after the War. How after the war there are many thing that can seem untouched and redone to look like there were not damage during the War yet they will neever be orginal version of the obeject. Just a poor copy. The dead trees and cricket can be a reference to nature. how the country or Nature no longer give peace after war.
Don’t use such an expression as “dim lands of peace.
The idea of not using expression as "dim lands of peace" does it mean that we can't use metaphors to express what we think of a art work or a written novel?
In a Station of the Metro
In a station of the metro, i think Ezra pound wants to give us a setting of the place.
Petals on a wet, black bough
How it is black and not clear, but like how when you have to much of anything it loses it brightest. What makes it different. Is that what he is trying to say about the "faces in the crowd"?
Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work
THe idea of first in order to do criticism on subject first the person has to have done the work for that subject. you can't judge a book if you never read it. How would your judgement be true to the work if you never read it.
That little of it which is good is mostly in stray phrases; or if it be an older artist helping a younger it is in great measure but rules of thumb, cautions gained by experience.
We had this same idea in our morden criticism class where a young artist or worker worst fear would be having a amazing older artist, someone who he couldn't over some or shine
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
whne you in a station at the metro you see so many faces yet you have no idea what thier stories are or who they are, there just facees in a ocean of faces
Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
He started the list as saying sorry for eating the plum but in the end he just talks about hoe great the plum was.
I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox
He is telling us that he ate a plum. Nothing more.
This is just to say
He is just telling us that he is just writing this down just to tell us.
and we degraded prisoners destined to hunger until we eat filth
The idea that we're in our prison yet we do nothing postivve to get out of the prison, only become worse and wrose to "surive" this method of think does nothing but bring more problems.
addressed to cheap jewelry and rich young men with fine eyes
can the cheap jewelry be addressing a diamond. How young men with fine eyes will view her as something to buy. When she is not for sell.
Mourn in morning.
Mourin in morning,are opposite. a person mourins when something end not when something begins, morning tend to state the beginning of a new day. yet you can also see the idea of a mouring in morning, becuase in order to start somethign new, the old must end.
Who is a permit. I love honor and obey I do love honor and obey I do.
The Permit already creats a manner of power between someone. Then we have on the next line "I love honor and obey I do honor and obey I do." These two line have words that have to do with control and power. someone must grant "permit" and someone must state the rules for there to be something to obey.
It is rose in hen.
Roses are usally connected to the idea of love or spring. so the first this that come to thought was with the rose, It would be a love story.
And I know John would think it absurd. But I MUST say what I feel and think in some way—it is such a relief!
I feel it's like her way of wanting to tell John of her id. Her passion.