Too pretty, dreamlike mimicry!O falling fire and piercing cry and panic, and a weak mailed fistclenched ignorant against the sky!
Speaks to the themes of dealing with grief, in this case the loss of the wilderness around them. A topic Bishop struggled with herself.
The ancient owls' nest must have burned.
This representation of a "home-life" has been destroyed in this sense.
Father
Bishop highlights family, something she yearns for.
Somebody loves us all.
Bishop struggled a lot with a sense of belonging. I find it interesting that in this poem she used inanimate objects to understand this theme of being loved no matter what.
I have ridden in your cart, driver, waved my nude arms
Sexton has been shamed for having children out of wed-lock. It seems as though she has given up on trying to be accepted by her community. She's also given up her will to live, as she is not ashamed to die.
from my life with no flag,no belly,no cry.
Sexton would die peacefully. She had already accepted death and sees it as a release not an escape, as she does not have a surrender flag or is retreating.
I want to die.
This speaks to the suicidal thoughts Sexton had.
We unlearn. I am a shorerocking off you. You break from me. I chooseyour only way, my small inheritorand hand you off, trembling the selves we lose.
This last stanza of the piece is absolutely heartbreaking. It's hard to not feel everything Sexton feels as they take away her child.
You sense the way we belong.But this is an institution bed.You will not know me very long.
Sexton makes herself so vulnerable in this poem. Obviously she's speaking to the events of her institutionalization after suffering from post-partum depression, but she writes this almost as a stream of consciousness.
I held my breathand daddy was there,
I feel as though Sexton was writing this poem to express some of her complicated feelings that stem from the abusive relationship she had with her father.
Is something the matter, dear," she said, "That you sit at your work so silently?" "No, mother, no—'twas a knot in my thread. There goes the kettle—I'll make the tea."
I LOVE this ending!! The entire poem is actually inside Millay's thoughts. It's what she wishes she could be doing rather than sitting and sewing. It almost breaks a wall in this poem.
And it's little I'd mind the fuss they'll make, Huddled dead in a ditch somewhere.
I love how she phrases this. It reminds me of how a lot of people say "why do this because you can't take it to your grave." Don't do things for the approval of others because what will it matter once you're dead.
r the roof of a house, or the eyes of a face.
Very adventurous. Telling of an empowered female experience.
But out of this house, lest my heart break, I must go, and off somewhere!
A subtle embodiment of feminist ideals. She desires more than just being a housewife.
Less at its features than its darkening frame Where quince and melon, yellow as young flame, Lie with quilled dahlias and the shepherd’s crook. Beyond, a garden. There, in insolent eas
This is a perfect example of how Bogan is known for being economical in her words. She describes things in a fashion others would never think to do, but it works so well.
The water will always fall, and will not fall, And the tipped bell make no sound.
Very interesting paradoxical nature to this section. Possibly to describe the fickle nature of her life.
When the bare eyes were before me And the hissing hair, Held up at a window, seen through a door. The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead Formed in the air.
This could possibly be an allusion to her mother. Since her mother was a seductress and had multiple affairs, this would make sense of how she'd embody her.
She dreamed of,
This highlights a little of Bogan's past. Having to live a nomad lifestyle of moving from place to place continuously would make someone wish for something as simple as permanence.
ell me, Was Venus more beautiful Than you are,
I know that Lowell was also known to have had a "Boston marriage", so I wonder if this poem was written for a female friend in particular. She drowns her despondent in so many compliments and admiration that it's hard to imagine that she wasn't completely taken and in love with someone while writing this.
Than the words I blow about you
I absolutely love this line. Lowell is conveying just how powerful a person's words can be, especially compared to material gifts.
By
I almost wonder if this piece is meant to be a criticism of religion and religious figures in her society. She alludes to temples, gardens, and pillars, which are all well-known symbols of various religions. She also notes that once all the "good folk" go to bed, her mind is finally free to wander. I think she may be trying to relay the confinements a religion can put on a person.
To-day I can only gather it And put it into my lunch-box, For I have time for nothing
While reading this poem, there was clearly a strain between what Amy Lowell's current situation is and the what's going on in the larger world around her. In front of her appears to be a peaceful and joyful scene, but Lowell cannot enjoy these scenes because her mind is too preoccupied by the horrible war going on around her. That's why she's forced to "store" this memory away for later, at a time when she can be fully in the moment for it.
And how it is not sudden and it is not given But is creation itself like the growth of a tree.
This is an interesting theme to write on. I never took the time to dissect the concept of happiness before, but I do appreciate Sarton's insights on the matter. I like how she compares it to a tree, how it is slow growing in peace yet undetectable.
at
Sarton truly stopped me in my tracks by her opening line to this poem, "It is not so much trying to keep alive// As trying to keep from blowing apart// From inner explosions every day." (269) I mean, wow, what a penetrating message. I know Sarton wrote a lot about everyday life and this would be an important adage to continue living. You have to remind yourself that to sustain your own life it the most important things. You can't control what others may do to you, but you can control yourself and that realization grounds you. It could also be alluding to all of the illnesses that befell Sarton, so that it would feel as though it were an inner battle everyday.
il
May Sarton truly creates beautiful imagery in her words. This affair is described in such an intimate and delicate way, it feels as though any sudden change would cause it to disappear. I almost wonder if this is meant to be an ode to her homosexual relationships. That in the beginning they are too good to be true and they cannot last because society would not allow it. I love that she chose to describe this type of relationship through nature because it is a natural thing itself.
One might depart at optionFrom enterprise below
Is she contemplating suicide here? The title is "If I should die". What's interesting about this is that Dickinson, being as obsessed as she is with death, knows that it is inevitable. So the fact that she's questioning dying leads me to believe that maybe she's actually questioning when she would die or if she can decide when it'll happen. This was especially apparent when she writes, "One might depart at option...". After all, if the world will continue on as it was before, what difference does it make?
If I should die,
I feel like the reading of this poem feels rushed and almost overbearing. She's listing so many aspects of life in a row.
Don’t you know?
I think this idea of a concept being more abstract drives Dickinson a little crazy. The fact that this can't be proven, held, or taught really bothers her.
I went to School But was not wiser
Dickinson also writes of things personal to her, so it'd only be natural to include pieces of her own life in her works. For example, she went off to a seminary but left before graduating, these were probably the same feelings she had which led her to leave school. If she felt she wasn't gaining anything from it, what was the point?
Easiest of Arts, they say When one learn how
I've always known Dickinson to be a very serious writer, but there are elements of subtle humor in her pieces. Here, she's saying that the easiest thing to do once you learn something is to forget it.
seemed
I took note of Dickinson's slant rhymes here and her iambic pentameter rhyme scheme.
And Finished knowing – then –
This is such a final way of death. When we cease to know anymore, when our mind is dead, our brain no longer functioning, with it goes our identity. Since we are only able to exist and create ourselves through our mind, this is the only way we can truly exist in this world.
Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro
This is a great example of Dickinson's obsession with death and mortality. I know that Dickinson would define death in many different forms, but the death of the mind, or "...a Fruneral, in my Brain,", as she puts it is the most tragic and ultimate death.
Betsey faced him sturdily, being amazingly like him, with a feminine difference; as like as a ruled person can be to a ruler, for the discipline of life had taught the man to aggress, the woman only to defend.
Jewett highlights how society has taught men to be aggressive and for women to be submissive. Jewett often adds in very subtle details like this to highlight the gender roles of the time.
pulled that shutter with much difficulty; it had always caught and hitched and been provoking -- a warped piece of red oak, when even-grained white pine would have saved strength and patience to three generations of the Knowles race.
Here Jewett utilizes symbolism to describe how the Knowles sisters could easily avoid struggles and trials by simply taking the easy path, i.e. replacing the red oak, but would rather chose the more difficult journey.
"Mrs. Downs knew that her husband would resent her first statements, being a sensitive and grumbling man. She had formed a pacific habit of suiting her remarks to his point of view to save an outburst.
Jewett describes Mr.Downs as "sensitive and grumbling", which is an excellent reversal of stereotypical gender roles.
The very first time I went out, it was to Jenny's grave. It was a chilly, dark December day, a week or two before Christmas. I was sitting on an old flat grave-stone, crying.
Jewett uses the setting, a dark, cold December day, that she establishes to build an emotional connection to the plot, her mourning the death of her close friend.
Farmer Garrow's purse was well filled. She was the only child. Jenny didn't care much for the lovers,
Jewett makes mention of how Jenny doesn't actually care for her male callers. This is a great example of how women at the time were just expected to marry and anything else was abnormal to society.
with an old woman to write it, even, instead of one of those young men or women who use such long words, and have the same story over and over again, with different names. Well, that's nothing to me.
Jewett is commenting on the climate of writing in this time. How society would only purchase the works of younger authors, who wrote nothing of true substance. Even though it is an old woman writing this piece, she believes it's what gives it its integrity.
Poor woman! she was so young, -- only a girl yet, in spite of her having lived more than fifty years in that plain, dull home of hers, in spite of her faded face and her grayish hair.
I loved that Jewett was able to convey how youthful Miss Cynthia's spirit was despite her physical appearance. It's an example of how a person's age is not determined by the number of years they've inhabited the earth.
He looked amazed that a girl should have thought of it, and as if he wished to ask me what good I supposed I could do, though I was twice his size.
Jewett was skillful in her mention of sexism being portrayed. Her word choice of the boy being "amazed" captures the feelings of men at the time. This is definitely a reinforcement of her activism as a feminist.