again this reminds me of James Baldwin's interview where he says: "they always told me change takes time. . .its taken my fathers time. .my mothers. . ."

love the blending of genre because I really like art thats created when people turn "ordinary places strange" goes back into that idea of the uncanny

I read bleak house a couple years ago, Jo was one of the more heartbreaking characters. From what I recall, there was so much sadness in his condition, yet he was one of the only "honest" well meaning characters. suggesting that these characters are superficial representations of the lower class seems wrong to me. I think Dickens tried to provide a lot of complexity in character relationships (spoiler) If im remembering right Jo dies, and most everyone besides the top wealthy class, are heartbroken to see him go. He becomes a sort of "angel figure" by the end of Bleakhouse

perhaps the "rendering of what was real" had to do with Eliot's positionally

setting is a guide to reveal character, humans are part of the natural world they inhabit so rendering why a feature or trait of a place or person is significant is what she means by "characterization"

Contrasting the "wail" and the poems title "howl" The wailing is being done by the sirens and the ferry. Howling is perhaps prouder, associated with a wolf pack, a community. A wailing sound implies pain or struggle.

Reference to Ezra Pound's birthplace?

so far the poem is listing verbs, inserting one within the first couple words of each stanza. This is a descriptive poem of activity: describing a counterculture, working class, so-called degenerates, or maybe even the "low down folks" and what they do

Definitely have seen people smoking meth on the subway before. I like the way he decided to describe getting high on amphetamines when in transit as being "chained" to the subway. It makes it feel like the purpose of transit has changed. It is no longer about getting to point A from point B. The subway becomes a shelter to get high in without being bothered.

The choice to turn a noun or adjective (purgatory) to a verb is an interesting choice of diction. This use of modified language could be a way to approach a younger/more proletariat audience. He doesn't seem to care about the "rules" of language.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

This line creates a similar image to the one in Ezra pound's In a Station of the Metro . It is a mirage of empty faces against a dark and familiar background. Like folks in the metro, these faces are in a sort of limbo. They are stuck in a cycle of poverty and repression.

this reminds me of the landscape also talked about in the Wasteland. It's describing the same sort of suffering and desperation.

Church can be a unifying entity, prayer is really just well-wishing.

"the still eternity" is a somber line that makes me think of some sort of afterlife, or in this case before life can begin. The repetition and structure of the lines, "The world is cruel, cruel my precious child... Be still be still, my precious child" make this poem feel like a sad nursery rhyme.

This is a love poem full of passion! Inez is described as a radiant, dazzling object of desire. Her choice of: "You! Inez!" as the title, instead of just "Inez" or "you" shows the excitement the poem is trying to convey. It's almost like she's singling out Inez in a crowd of people and professing the poem to her spontaneously.

The mechanical act of sewing transforms the narrator into an object of necessity during wartime. She feels helpless and dehumanized; her function in the war-machine seems futile and stifling.

"Shine" was used as a derogatory term for black Americans, but in this line it might have a double meaning. The man's charisma is masked by the stiff western clothes he wears.The narrator suggests that his "shine" would be visible if he had know African culture: "And he'd be dancin' black and naked and gleaming." His shine is there under the clothes, but it is only visible to her because she shares the same experience of cultural loss-- ancestral identity theft.

The Charleston and Black Bottom were popular "lively" dances in the 1920's. The choice to describe the man's dancing as "dignified and proud" instead of popular and showy makes it seem like the music and dance is meant to be regal and personal-- a dance that is meant for the individual dancer and not the general audience.

"Singing' slow, sobbin' low" reminds me of swing low sweet chariot by Etta James, a biblical blues song.

This touches idea of community being stronger by sharing a passion, goal, or experience.

She states that self has multiple "entities" meaning it is composed of numerous beings.

Charlie Green was a jazz trombonist with the nickname "long Boy". The word ripples functions to describe green's playing with imagery that compares the arpeggiated notes with intricate patterns in water

Dixie was a name for the south in America. Hell for Black Americans is the South, and the white people are the devils.

prominent streets in New Orleans and Memphis

Unlike a manifesto, this poem addresses the audience like they have already acted, and is more a reiteration of the call to action: "strong men gittin' stronger". The "you"and "we" shows that the narrator and audience are one. Despite the poem shifting through time, the shared generational trauma is what connects the speaker to the audience.

Senses are used here to emphasize the imagery. This is a poem that almost makes you cringe to read because the imagery is tied to rancid or noxiously sweets smells, heaviness or touch, stickiness, or pain (like a blister)

If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. 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.

The way Hughes chose to end this poem reminded me of his conclusion in The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. Hughes proclaims the beauty of blackness, and promises that the beauty will be recognized by the white oppressors. In the meantime though he puts it aside to solidify a place: "I, too, am America."

Many of Jacob Lawrence's paintings show black portraits against landscapes. The way the paint is manipulated makes it unclear wether the blue in the landscapes depict sky or water. In that way the ambiguity of the distinction between the two shows that each are likely just as important and natural to people living on the land.

Re-reading this tonight I thought of the riots happening in Chile right now. The privatization of water also comes to mind, literally water is not deemed as an "essential human right"... and here it's marketed like designer clothing ... okay guys i think we might be in the wasteland ... Anyway the riots are definitely charged by a lot of factors (including water privatization) but the riots came to a head over the METRO fees being raised, some photos of the metro stations in Chile after the protests look like a wasteland in the metro. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8acIrtYbb-c

Direct treatment of the “thing” whether subjective or objective. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation. As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome. In Retrospect

I related these two texts for two reasons: Obviously Death by Water is the shortest, most to the point excerpt. Pound probably gave the same advice to Eliot to create this finished product.

This excerpt also does a good job of identifying opposites, and comparing them: "Profit and loss" "rose and fell" "age and youth" by doing so he also followed pound's tip on constructing a unique rhythm.

Another reoccurring theme in the wasteland is sex without passion, love, or even consent. It explores what happens when people really do stop being nice and go apeshit, I don't think Eliot regarded it highly. In this quote the speaker seems sedated. As a coping mechanism she adopts this tired complacency. This meme could also be linked to the routine complacency of the characters in the wasteland So on the other hand Eliot could be saying, look aren't you all tired of living like this? Don't you want to go apeshit?

Matisse coaxed some disapproving responses from his depiction of the female nude in the armory show because his painting presented a caricature of a woman that challenged the stiff portrayals of female nudes made by his predecessors. By creating an abstract representation of the female body Matisse's work did not solely resonate with the male gaze, but made the naked portrait more elusive. However, even in cartoonish proportions, the female nude is still contoversial. In this line of Eliot's poem the male gaze is present and reinforces the same objectification on Lil. The line: "...he wants a good time, and if you don't give it to him, there's others will" emphasizes Lil's function in relation to her husband: a commodity that can be replaced.

I didn’t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman.By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour.

Excerpt from The Yellow Wallpaper

I chose this line specifically because it creates a phantom speaker that beckons us "under the rock" to show an unfamilar fate- - a fearful life in the dry "wasteland". Gilman creates the same phantom "character" through the woman trapped in the wall that tries to communicate with the speaker. The phantom also represents the experience of the main character, they are both trapped, they both share the same fate.

the repetition of twit and jug creates an expected rhythm "so rudely forc'd hurry up" tells us it is a joyless routine-practiced exchange

This repetition seems to be here to make it seem like Lil is trying to convince herself of something, that her situation is bearable. The repetition of "hurry up please its time" gives the impression that she is ripping herself from the safety of the pub where she can forget about her aging burdens.

The way her room is described has a mysterious slightly horrified tone, its like Eliot is describing something he is an outsider to and is trying to make sense of. it could be her wealth, or womanhood in general.

Winter is Sedative. Everything is covered up (snow) Each day is indicative of the next, winter tells us what to do and keeps us comfortable in a weather-bound routine

This seems like he's trying to speak on behalf of a dead loved one while visiting a cemetery to bring lilies he is faced with his own mortality and realizes "i know nothing" of what happens after death

The new life of the emerging lilacs from the grave is "cruel" because it contrasts the melancholic feeling he has of spring. Spring is familiar but something has changed.

throughout this poem she plays with the versatility of words and their different connotations, "that is a word" = that is a singular, unimportant thing out of context, that is just a word. "careless" is an interesting phrase to include in this poem because she follows a pattern and uses words with multiple meanings that can be interpreted many ways, she does this deliberately. not careless at all

She uses repetition of words with the same phonetic sounds and different meanings it feels song like.

This gives the impression of intimacy between the speaker and the recipient. Although the speaker seems guilty, this reads more as a love poem than a confession. Why would you write a poem about eating someones plums unless you knew they would get a kick out of seeing it in their place ??

There is no sentiment behind the "guads" and no history or meaningfulness that make the trinkets special, the "young slatterns" are adorned with emptiness. This is emphasized again with the line "sheer rags succumbing without emotion" "gauds" might intentionally be used to sound like "god"

writing about experiences is better than writing about ideas

almost a haiku!

Contrast of color (white on black) the faces stand out against the dark behind them

He hates the nickname. He feels it represents a persona that is not indicative of his true self.

This is a popular American trope, he is an underdog. By being "down on his luck" he is trying to build rapport.

blue and white are colors associated with virginity and innocence in catholicism. I remember reading somewhere that frost was speculated to be a christian and viewed christ as a prophet but I'm not sure if this is true...... i think his religious beliefs were unclear

His neighbor does not trust outsider. He is set in his thinking and doesn't change his stance that "good fences make good neighbors" so it is repeated twice. The neighbor by doing maintenance on the fence is symbolically keeping up his own outdated ideals as well.

individuality has been an american ideal forever....the double consciousness skews this notion of free will over individuality because it forces an "identity" on black individuals that is grossly introduced at a very early age

This reminds me of the quote "you must be twice as good as them to get half of what they have"

Adams is fascinated by "solving" abstract metaphysical questions unlike his fellow historians who only scratch the surface by knowing history as a mere "true story" and nothing more. "Human movement" is unlocked through his analyzing of our shifting part in history. It is implied that the patterns of human behavior resemble a machine, that it has some sort of quantifiable "sequence".

This is an interesting line especially with the language following it. "respect of power", "pray to it" "silent and infinite force"... It is being viewed as some divine, all powerful, and mysterious entity.

I can't tell if this is meant to be condescending

This makes me picture the ticking seeds as a metronome of sorts. Perhaps the significance of the line "seeds in a dry pod tick, tick, tick..." being repeated at the beginning and end is to say that despite there being human observation of nature, and human interaction, there will always be a steady "rhythm" that is unique to the land itself.

This is a prideful statement. "valiant armor of scarred hopes outworn" boasts perseverance and self reliance

“the bones’ need to sharpen” is threatening and vaguely painful. By using the phrase “the bones need” Levine connects the defense of ones’ livelihood with his physiology to emphasize innate response to suffering

Shatters the hope Levine hints to in previous stanzas, has an apocalyptic air Is this referring to the rapture?

This is a turning point, a call to action, a relic of hope.

I didn’t know what this meant at first Repose: to rest Hung belly: perhaps the hanging of slaughtered animals as part of the butchering process Is he saying the lion grows from a death? Maybe it grows from the way the death occurs without honor, like the death of an animal

referencing objects familiar to manual laborers, associating human emotions to the objects to set the tone of the poem: anger, struggle, bleakness suggested by the dark color of tar and creosote. The black color of these chemicals associated with evil