Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace, Has pushed the timid little feet of clay, The sacred brown feet of my fallen race!
I would compare this to Brown's version of "low-down folk." Those who are faced with poverty, dishonor and disgrace, but have a sense of unity within their community because they are in it together. McKay doesn't shy away from the reality of the people in Harlem.
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth
This sounds very encouraging and like Hughes' "I, Too, Sing America," it sheds hope that one day their struggles and neglect will ease in the country they are a part of.
I shall return to hear the fiddle and fife Of village dances, dear delicious tunes That stir the hidden depths of native life,
Like Brown, McKay talks of dances and tunes as characteristics of their community like those waiting for "Ma Rainey."
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
Seems as if Eliot is trying to say that not one person can for sure know the meaning of things in life, and therefore cannot create the illusion of knowing. I think he, too, like Gertrude, wants a lilac to be just a lilac just as a rose is a rose. No other meaning to the noun than what it simply is.
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went
It is confusing to me, not knowing who the narrator is in this poem, but maybe that was Eliot's intention. Rather than focusing on who the narrator and his/her experiences, he maybe wants readers to look at this from different perspectives of others and their outlooks on the seasons.
April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.
I find these lines interesting because he contradicts what is supposed to be a symbol of life. Lilacs growing in the spring is a sign of life and rejuvenation, which to me sounds hopeful, but in the same line he mentions death.
I love honor and obey I do love honor and obey I do
It is as if she is repeating this in many forms to convince herself, but does not believe it. She does not want to obey, but something, or someone, is trying to enforce that on her.
Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the waste of broad, muddy fields brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen patches of standing water the scattering of tall trees All along the road the reddish purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes and small trees with dead, brown leaves under them leafless vines— Lifeless in appearance, sluggish dazed spring approaches—
It well may be. I do not think I would.
This poem is similar to Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" because both speakers have a double consciousness: one that questions, or is curious, and one that "does." In "Mending Wall," the speaker questioned why it was that he and his neighbor mended their dividing wall every year, but he still went every year to mend it, even if he did not like it. In "Love Is Not All," the speaker wonders how "love" can be so essential to one's life, even though she knows it is not a physical necessity such as food or water, yet she would not want to be without it either.
He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake
The narrator is personifying his horse by saying it is his horse that is confused, but in fact it is the narrator that asks himself if it is a mistake to be there. The narrator does not seem to be sure if he should be stopping there, or keep going. The poem, since I've first read it, really did make me think about death, more specifically, suicide. He seems to be in conflict of making the choice to die, or continue going on for "miles" before he "sleeps."
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out
Here the narrator is saying that before he builds the wall, he would want to know why he is building the wall in the first place, but earlier before in the poem he said that he is the one that decides the day to mend the wall. It seems as though he too will not "go behind his father's saying," or break tradition, since the narrator himself still continues to mend the wall as well as his neighbor. To some extent, he must want the wall there as well, even though he does not understand why he wants it.
Poets and kings are but the clerks of Time, Tiering the same dull webs of discontent, Clipping the same sad alnage of the years.
These last three lines, too, remind me of "Petit, the Poet" and how both poems seem to view old poetry as the same: boring, dull, and similar. Old poetry, to these poets, have the same message of "time passing by" and "discontentment" like Whitman and Holmer seem to have written about.
What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, Anger, discontent and drooping hopes? Degenerate sons and daughters, Life is too strong for you– It takes life to love Life.
To me, these few lines are saying that those who spend too much time of their lives dwelling on the sorrow, anger, discontent, and weariness will never learn to love life if they do not learn how to live past it. In order to love life, one must take in all the negative aspects of it, too, and let them help you grow and appreciate more what it means to live.
While Homer and Whitman roared in the pines?
This line seems to me that the poet is criticizing Whitman for his writing style and content. It sounds as if this poet does not find it necessary for one to go out into nature, or write about nature to begin with, and forget civilization in order to find beauty and be conscientious. The poet seems as though he is tired of poetry and poets that came before him, such as Homer and Whitman.
John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage
I find this line interesting because the narrator is being sarcastic about being laughed at by her husbandr, and how it is a casual occurrence in their relationship. It sets the tone for the rest of the reading and it gives an indication to the type of person John is, more than the direct description of him tells the reader of his character.
There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will
This line reminds me of our last reading by Du Bois, most specifically on the topic of the "veil" and its meaning. In this writing piece, I compare the yellow wallpaper to being the narrator's form of a "veil" and the more time she spends locked in that room with the paper, the more she realizes the oppressive state she is in with her husband, or metaphorically, the more she begins to see through the "veil." I feel as though her ripping through the wallpaper is her metaphorical way of freeing herself from the societal constraints, and her husbands, by gaining some independence in doing something on her own volition.
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self
This theme of "double consciousness" once again presents itself in Du Bois piece as it does in "The Dynamo and the Virgin," but here Du Bois describes his falling into double consciousness as involuntary, unlike in Adams' writing. Adams' falls into double consciousness to objectify himself and achieve looking at the world from different perspectives, but Du Bois almost describes it as a coping mechanism that grows within African-Americans to relieve themselves of the stress imposed on them for not being "truly American," in their American society.
That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine. But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them. Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my head,—some way
From this excerpt, I am reminded of Henry Adams' piece because in a sense, this is Du Bois' "force" that he holds highly such as Adams had a "force," and his, too, was advancement. Du Bois' force is education because it is what will push him forward in his society if he advances in it such as the white Americans, while Adams' force was advancement in technology and how it changed him. This also reminds me of Douglass' narrative because he, too, like Du Bois, decided that education was an escape and small form of freedom from being oppressed by their society.
The force of the Virgin was still felt at Lourdes, and seemed to be as potent as X-rays; but in America neither Venus nor Virgin ever had value as force–at most as sentiment
I believe here he is stating how that during his time, America was advancing technologically because some people began branching out and began to develop a stronger attraction to science rather than religion, whereas other countries were strongly devoted to religion. He's possibly referring mostly to himself that science influenced his life more than religion did, and eventually the knowledge and power of science was becoming more dangerous than spiritual beliefs.
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts
This sentence made me curious because I find it to be very relatable to some situations due to the current events happening in our country and the world around us. It really made me realize how true it is that having knowledge does not make you any smarter or different than others if you do not know how to apply it wisely, which can either be critical to success or create ignorance.
Historians undertake to arrange sequences,–called stories, or histories–assuming in silence a relation of cause and effect. These assumptions, hidden in the depths of dusty libraries, have been astounding, but commonly unconscious and childlike; so much so, that if any captious critic were to drag them to light, historians would probably reply, with one voice, that they had never supposed themselves required to know what they were talking about
It is as if he is criticizing himself, as a historian, since he says histories are often "childlike," but considering that most of this passage itself has been about history and technological advances he has observed, he seems to be judging himself for also being similar to those historians.
They Lion grow.
After this third stanza and final, repetitive line of "They Lion grow," I believe "they" is used as referring to society, the government, or authorities. "Lion" sounds as if it is referring to a specific group of people or class, maybe even a race. Each stanza before seems to give characteristics or actions of what "Lion" people do that distinguishes them from those who are not "Lion." If the line was rephrased from "they Lion grow" to "they grow Lion," the meaning could be similar.
Also, the noun "Lion" makes me curious as to why that title was chosen to label a certain group of people (if that was the intention) because lions themselves can be defined by people very differently. To some, lions are majestic, strong, and inferior, whereas to others, lions are described as frightening, aggressive, threatening, etc.