Their Eyes Were Watching God Journals 1-14 (Sort of)

1.) The Dialect as a Whole
Through the dialect of the characters of the novel you can determine a lot about them. Had you not had previous knowledge about the novel, you could tell from the dialect that they are lower class, African-American citizens of the south.

2.) "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board." (pg 1)


3.) "Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget." (pg 1)


4.) "He was a seal-brown color but he acted like Mr. Washburn or somebody like that to Janie." (pg 27)
 When Janie first sees Joe Starks, though he is a black man, he carries himself like a white man.This novel is set in time where there are obvious class separations. Even though the African-Americans were free from slavery, they really weren't considered a part of society. So, why is Joe walking around like he owns the place? From the description of his clothes, you can tell that he is well-off. He wants to buy land so he can prove that not only the white people can have power. He likes to be in control and by acting like a white man, he may be able to achieve his goal of owning land. 

5.) "Free, single, disengaged." (pg 35)


6.) "Us talks about de white man keepin' us down! Shucks! He don't have tuh. Us keeps our own selves down." (pg 39)
 This is a very odd thing for a black person to say in this time period. Most colored men would blame the white folks for holding them back. Coker realizes that they are free men now and should have the same rights as anyone else. Most African-Americans would say that it's the white man's fault, but he realizes that they have to work for what they want.


7.) "What with him biting down on cigars and saving his breathe on talk and swinging round in that chair, it weakened people." (pg 47)


8.) "There was no doubt that the town respected him and even admired him in a way. But any man who walks in the way of power and property is bound to meet hate." (pg 48)
This may be a foreshadow to something that will happen to Joe because of his excessive power. The town (or Janie) will eventually come against him and either take over, kick him out of town, or just make his life miserable.

9.) They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down." (pg 50)
This marks the start of Joe's hunger for power. Joe has always wanted a voice in something big. Being mayor of the town is perfect for what he wants. But since he has such an overbearing personality, the people seem to be sort of afraid to disagree with him. Without knowing so, the townspeople have put him on a pedestal and made him feel like a king. Being treated like a king is what Joe's self conscience has always wanted. He said he just wanted his voice to be heard, but deep down, he wanted to have power over everyone; like the white man's power over the black people.

10.) "'Tain't no earthy use. They's jus' some puny humans playin' round de toes uh Time." (pg 54)
This shows how the power has gone to Joe's head. He think that he and Janie are above everyone.

11.) "This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly...That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was." (pg 55)
Jody may get jealous of other men when they look at Janie because he knows how disrespectful he is to her. He thinks that if another man were to show an interest in her;  she would see how badly he treats her and leave him without a second thought.

12.) "You have tuh power tuh free things and dat makes you lak uh king uh something." (pg 58)
Janie tells Joe this after he frees the mule from Matt Bonner. She notices that Joe has let the power that comes with being mayor go to his head. This is dangerous for many people because if Joe gets to much power, he will think that nothing can stop him.

13.) "But you ain't goin' off in all dat mess uh commonness. Ah'm surprised at yuh fuh askin'." (pg 60)
This also shows how Joe's power has consumed him. He thinks of himself and Janie as the 'royalty' of the town and everyone else is just a peasant.

14.) "The flock had to wait for the white-headed leader..." (pg 61)
This may be a reference to the power that the white men still have over the black people. Though this passage is actually talking about vultures, they still have a leader that they have to follow and alert every time they want to do anything. Even though slavery is over, the black people are still afraid to do anything for fear that the white people will come after them.


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The Waste Land: Part Five

The theme of What the Thunder Said, the final section of The Waste Land, is resurrection. Elliot wrote this poem about what he saw during and after WWI. He saw that the war had destroyed most of Europe and that everyone had lost faith in God. The European people had lost all hope.

The first stanza is about the aftermath of the war. "After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying Prison and palace and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant mountains He who was living is now dead" (Lines 3-9) These lines also allude to the death of Christ, from the time Jesus was taken out of the Garden of Gethsemane, to the time he was crucified.

The second stanza enforces the title of the poem, it tells about a wasteland where 'sweat is dry and feet are in the sand'  and 'one can neither stand nor lie nor sit'. The land is barren and dry. There is no water. "If there were water" (Line 25) The idea that if there was water is what keeps some people from not losing hope.

"Who is this third who walks always beside you?" (Line 39) This is an allusion to the Bible. In Luke 24:13, (this is after the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus) two of Christ's disciples are on their way to Emmaus (about seven miles from Jerusalem). As they walked, Jesus approached them and asked them what they were talking about. They didn't recognize him and one of them, named Cleopas, asked him "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" (Luke 24:18) Upon Jesus asking "What things" did they tell him about Jesus of Nazareth; how he was a prophet and son of god, and how three days after his death when the women went to his tomb, they found it open and the body of Christ no where to be found. The women were approached by angels that told them he had risen from he dead. Christ replied by calling them foolish for believing everything the prophets have told them. He then gives them a scripture lesson. The three men reached their destination and Jesus continued on as if he was going father. The disciples urged him to stay with them because it was getting dark. The men sat down to eat, and Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke the bread and handed it to the other men. Their eyes were then opened (metaphorically), and once they realized they were in the presence of Jesus Christ, he vanished. The men never knew if Jesus had been with them or not.

The first line of the sixth stanza refers back to the description of Cleopatra in A Game of Chess. This relates the failed relationships of section two to the failed relationship between the countries of WWI.  "And bats with baby faces in the violet light Whistled, and beat their wings And crawled head downward down a blackened wall". (Lines 59-61) Bats represent darkness and death, but these bats have baby faces, which is a way of saying that these bats aren't evil to their core; there is still some good in them. "And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells". (Line 64)  This line states that there is still no water or life.

In the next stanza we go to a grassy mountain and a chapel which is an allusion to when King Arthur's knights are looking for the Holy Grail and one of them has to go to a chapel. The Holy Grail is a symbol of hope. Whomever possesses the grail has the power to rejuvenate his land. "Only a cock stood on the rooftree Co co rico co co rico" (Lines 71-72) This is an allusion to Peter's denial of Jesus. At the last supper, Jesus tells Peter that he will be disown Jesus three times before the Rooster crows. In a courtyard after Jesus has been taken prisoner, Peter denies Christ three times before the cock crows twice. He remembers what Jesus had said and breaks down crying. The stanza ends with hope though: it begins to rains!

The thunder speaks in stanza eight. The thunder is an allusion to the Christian God and also the Creator God in the Hindu religion. When ever God speaks in the Bible, his voice is big and booming like thunder. The Creator God says three things that sound like thunder: datta, dayadhvam, and damyata, or give, sympathize and control. He instructs the lesser gods to 'give' things despite their natural cheapness and 'control' their rowdy behaviors; and to the cruel demons he says to 'sympathize'.

The final stanza is about the Fisher King. The Fisher King has the Grail but he is wounded and can't use its 'powers' to revitalize his land. Lines 106-108 is an allusion to the original Dante's Inferno.

The last line of the poem is not only an onomatopoeia, but a happy ending. "Shantih   shantih   shantih" sounds like rain falling. Rain helps regenerate the land. Once the rain falls, things will start to grow back and come back to life, hope is once again restored to the people. After WWI once the people regained their hope and faith in God, 'the rain fell' and everything was going to be ok.

The Waste Land: Part Four

Death by Water, the forth section in The Waste Land, is easily the most important, though the shortest, because it contains the turn. The turn backs up the importance of water in the poem, and the entire theme of the turn is in fact water.

The whole section is about Phlebas the Phoenician sailor drowning. This is odd because until now, there has been this consistent lack of water. Now, there is so much water that it has killed someone. Water is usually a life giving force, it is needed to keep people alive. Water is essentially life itself. Too much life could result in death, such as a reduction of resources; too much water could also be death. So really, in this poem, life is killing itself. It is driving it's land into a wasteland and its people into a zombie like state of the living dead.

The main idea of the section is that though water is needed, too much of it will kill you. I believe that this section is also a foreshadow to the upcoming rain in section five. Why would the author go an entire poem stressing the fact that there is no water, and in one tiny section have too much water, if the water wasn't going to come in the end?

The Wasteland: Part Three

  The Fire Sermon starts out with the description of a river. The land is brown and unheard which indicates that nothing has lived on it for awhile. "The River bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers, Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends Or other testimony of summer nights." (Lines 5-7) Usually along the banks of a river, there is some sort of trash showing that someone was there. On these rivers banks there is nothing of that sort there, which is an sign that there is no life.

"The nymphs have departed." (Line 7) Nymphs are mythological female spirits that were associated with a particular landform or location. Naiads, were a type of nymph that preside over running water such as streams, springs, fountains, and rivers. Naiads were bound to their bodies of running water, so if the water were to dry up, the nymph would die. Even though the river in the poem hasn't dried up, everyone, human and animal alike, have stopped visiting the river banks; which has caused everything to die. When the speaker says the nymphs have departed it means that their 'souls' have died with the river. By the speaker only saying they are gone, knowing that nymphs die when the water dries up, and also knowing that the river still has water in it, you can infer that the nymphs have left the river in search of a river with life.

The river does however have elements of death. "A rat crept softly through the vegetation" (Line 15) Rats are disgusting creatures that eat dead, such as people or other animals. This rat connects to the previous section when the man says "I think we are in rats' alley Where the dead men lost their bones." Rats probably stole the bones. In this section there are dead bodies all over the shore of the river.

In the second stanza of this poem there are allusions to Marvell's To His Coy Mistress. In Marvell's poem there is man trying to seduce a woman. He doesn't love her and you can conclude that she doesn't love him either. This backs up the idea of love / the lack of love. There is also an allusion to the nightingale's song which backs up the same idea of lack of love.

The poem than states that Mr. Eugenides (the one-eyed merchant from the first section) hits on the merchant which backs up the idea of lack of love (lust). He invites him to lunch at the Cannon Street Hotel and then to a weekend at the Metropole.

The poem moves on to a scene in which we encounter Tiresias, a blind seer. Like the fortuneteller in the first section he tells of a scene that he has 'seen'. He tells about a woman sitting at home in a messy apartment. Her guest arrives and they have dinner. After dinner he can't take it anymore and essentially date rapes her. Though it sort of seems like she couldn't care either way. This also backs up the idea of lust instead of love and life in death.

There is also an allusion to Queen Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester. Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester supposedly had an affair, though the queen had to deny it because she was supposed to remain a virgin and reserve herself for the royalty of other nations. This supports the idea of lust instead of love.

The Wasteland: Part Two

Section two begins by describing a room with a woman in it. The first ten lines illustrates the seven-branched candelabra, the two cupids, the candle light dancing off the jewels the woman wears, and the polished chair she sits upon. The woman appears to be rich.

The way Eliot describes the room is an allusion to Antony and Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra's backstory is that they are in a relationship, even though Antony is married, he goes to Alexandria and crowns Cleopatra and himself gods. Octavian, a triumvir of Rome, goes to Alexandria to fight Antony and Cleopatra after beating Antony in a battle on the sea. After the battle goes to sea, Antony loses the battle and Cleopatra sends word that she has killed herself (kind of like Juliet). Instead of Antony rushing back to see 'dead; Cleopatra like she planned, he commits suicide the Roman way, sword through the stomach. Cleopatra then kills herself by the poison of an Asp. The whole point of this allusion was to point out a failed relationship.

The main theme of this section is failed relationships. In the first paragraph alone there are three allusions to failed relationships, well two failed relationships and a forceful rape. The first being Antony and Cleopatra, the second allusion alludes to the Aeneid. (Line 16) Aeneas's lover the Carthaginian queen Dido, kills herself after he leaves.

The third allusion to a failed relationship occurs in lines 23-27. It alludes to Metamorphoses, more specifically a rape.

The second part of section two is also a failed relationship. It is a man and woman talking, mostly the woman though. The woman is complaining that the man never speaks, he never says what he is thinking. By the sounds of the man's replies, he is not happy in the relationship and would get some peace if the woman would stop talking.

The third part is not only a failed romantic relationship, but perhaps a failed friendship as well. There is a woman talking to someone in an English pub, she is complaining about  Lil and her husband Albert. Albert is being discharged from the army and is on his way home. Lil's friend and her had a pervious conversation  before his return and she is now grumbling to someone in the bar about her conversation with Lil. Lil's friend, is wanting to know what Lil will tell him happened to the money he gave her to get new teeth. Lil probably spent the money on booze and drugs. Her friend wonders if Lil will grant Albert a good time, meaning will she have sex with him. Lil and Albert have five children already, Lil took drugs to get ride of the last pregnancy, so she obviously doesn't want any more children. She is 31 one and looks terrible, but old as well. She is missing teeth, and after taking the drugs to prevent that last pregnancy from happening, she has never been the same. Lil is probably both mentally and physically exhausted. She has took take care of all of those children by herself. The dialect of this part is also supposed to show you that the characters are lower class. The friend tells Lil that she should be ashamed of herself and asks her why she got married if she didn't want children. She also tells her that if she won't satisfy Albert's needs, there are plenty of people who will. It's closing time at the bar, which means that the friend is probably a usual. Most people don't go out for a drink right at closing time. She also knows everybody's names.

The overall theme of this section was failed relationships, and through his allusions and direct 'examples', Eliot backs up the major theme of love / lack of love.

Wastelands: Part 1

So, this entire first section confuses me. I understand the difference between the speakers and the narrator, I'm just not understanding how they all relate to each other and a wasteland.



The first seven lines make sense because wastelands are dry and barren. In a wasteland, April would be the cruelest month (line 1) because April marks the beginning of spring and usually things grow/grow back in spring. In lines 5-7, winter is sort of described as not necessarily the 'best' month, but definitely a better month than April. Winter is a common symbol for death. A wasteland would prefer winter because it is cold and nothing grows. (And if winter there is anything like winter here, nobody wants to venture outside for very long.)

The first speaker is an older German woman, named Marie, who relives an experience from her youth.

The second speaker is also a woman.

The third speaker, again a woman, is a fortuneteller who is telling someone's fortune/ her own fortune, I'm not really sure.

The fourth speaker/narrator talks about London being like Limbo. They talk about how the people of London walk around without purpose, sort of in a trance, or like a zombie. This last paragraph backs up the idea of death, and death being a central theme in a wasteland, because wastelands don't usually having many living things, and the people of London may as well be dead.





I apologize for the crappiness of this explication but this really all I can come up with. This poem really confuses me, because I don't really know how all of these things tie in together.

To His Coy Mistress Explication

In Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress, the main theme is sex, or rather the lack of sex. The speaker and his special lady friend are never actually identified. Though, each stanza has a sub theme that gives us a little insight into the characters. 

"Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no Crime" (lines 1-2) The first stanza is about time. If the two characters had more time and space, then her 'coyness' would not be a crime. Coy by definition means artfully or affectedly shy or reserved; slyly hesitant; coquetish. By modern standards, this woman could be considered a tease. She pretends to not want to have sex with the man. The speaker also states in lines 13-18, that had they more time he would try to 'woo' her by complimenting every individual part of her body. Once he is done, she should show him her heart. Heart here is perhaps a metaphor for both the mistress's love and having sex. 

"For, Lady, you deserve this state, Nor would I love at lower rate" (Lines 19-20) The speaker tells the woman that she is worth being ogled at for thousands of years and deserves nothing less than first-class. Meaning that she does not deserve to be taken advantage of. 

In the second stanza the speaker becomes a little more hasty because they don't have enough time. Death is upon them. "And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity." (lines 23-24) He says that death is forever. "Thy beauty shall no more be found, Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song: then worms shall try That long perserved virginity,"(lines 25-28) Once she is dead, her beauty will fade with her decaying body in her 'marble vault' or coffin. His words will 'echo' in her ear (though she is dead and therefore cannot hear, so this possibly means that her soul will forever remember his words). The speaker then turns into a regular old 'Creepers McGee'. He tells his mistress that while in her grave, worms will have sex with her... (Side note... what the hell? I thought this guys was supposed to be trying to get laid, not frightening the woman into having sex with him.) In lines 30-32 the speaker says that if she doesn't have sex with him, his sexual desires will turn into ashes, which sort of implys that if he can't have sex with her, he won't have sex at all. 

The third stanza lightens up the speaker's tone a little. He states that because they are young, willing and able, they should just listen to their natural desires and just have sex. "Now therefore, while the youthful hue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires," (Lines 33-36) In line 38 he tells his mistress to be 'like amorous birds of prey' meaning mating birds of prey. Perhaps he is describing that he wants to have rough sex with her because birds of prey are dangerous, aggressive birds. "Rather at once our time devour Than languish in his slow-chapt power." (Lines 39-40) The speaker says that he is a prisoner to time. They only way to break free is to have sex with the woman.

The speaker is essentially sexually frustrated and just wants the woman to have sex with him because he thinks it will solve all his problems. The mistress however has different ideas. Her ideas may be related to the different denotations of the word 'mistress'. The most common definition is a woman having an affair with a married man. Although in the 1650s, during Marvell's time, the use of mistress could refer to a woman being loved or courted by a man. Mistress is also the feminine form of the word master. This definition would give the woman in the poem an element of power. This power could be as simple as being a tease by taunting the speaker with her beautiful body, but never giving him what he really wants: sex. 

Death be not proud Explication

"Death---the last sleep? No the final awakening." - Walter Scott

In John Donne's poem Death, be not proud, the speaker basically tells Death to go f*** himself, but in a diplomatic, religious way. The speaker through the use of smack talk and name calling, tries to get under Death's skin. 

In line five the speaker compares Death to rest and sleep.These are two very nonthreatening things, and when you kill people for a living you would prefer to strike fear in the hearts of many. "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men," (Line 9) The speaker calls death a slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. He suggests that death does not work of his own free will, but is controlled by people like a slave. Slaves are weak; when you are supposed to be this macho, scary guy, you don't want to be compared to a slave by anyone. "And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;" (Line 10) The speaker tells death that people die because of these reasons, the 'people' that deaths hangs out with, not Death himself. 

The speaker is a man of assured faith that does not fear death. His faith in God is what gives him the strength to stand up to death because he knows that death is just like a little nap and he will wake up in the presence of the eternal father. "One short sleep passed, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die." (Lines 13-14) The Christian faith believes that once you die, you aren't really dead, just sleeping. You sleep until Judgment Day. Once Judgement Day arrives, Jesus Christ will take all good Christians to reside in Heaven for eternity. 

Death, be not proud is a Patrarchan sonnet, therefore it is closer to the Italian sonnet. Donne does play around with the form a little. The traditional Patrarchan sonnet has a rhyme scheme that goes ABBAABBA CDCDCD. The last six lines in Donne's poem however, seem to follow the rhyme scheme of CDDCAA. Though for the last words of the last two lines to rhyme, you would have to pronounce eternally as eternal-lie. Since no one is entirely sure what Renaissance English sounds like, it is quite possible that they did pronounce words like that. The last six lines could also follow the rhyme arrangement CDDC AE. With the volta ending in AE the rhyming of A relates it back to the beginning of the poem. While the E rhyme gives the poem a whole new idea, the turn. In traditional Italian sonnets, the turn happens in line 9. In Death, be not proud, the turn occurs in middle of the last line. "Death, thou shalt die." In the entire poem, the speaker is basically trash talking Death, calling him names and telling Death that he isn't afraid of him. In this last line he tells Death that he will die. He doesn't tell Death that he should die, he tells Death that he will die. 

Death, be not proud Questions

1. Death isn't proud and death is rest and sleep
2. In line five the speaker compares Death to rest and sleep, two very nonthreatening things. "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men," (Line 9) The speaker calls death a slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. When you are supposed to be this macho, scary guy, you don't want to be compared to a slave to anyone. "And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;" (Line 10) The speaker tells death that people die because of these reasons, the 'people' that deaths hangs out with, not Death himself. 
1. The speaker's main reasons are consistent because he continuously tells Death that he isn't afraid of him. "Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so" (Line 2)
3. I think the speaker is a man of assured faith that death is not to be feared. His faith in God is what gives him the strength to stand up to death because he knows that death is just like a little nap and he will wake up in the presence of the eternal father. "One short sleep passed, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die." (Lines 13-14)
4. Death, be not proud is a Patrarchan sonnet, therefore it is closer to the Italian sonnet. Donne does play around with the form a little. The traditional Patrarchan sonnet has a rhyme scheme that goes ABBAABBA CDCDCD. The last six lines in Donne's poem however, seem to follow the rhyme scheme of CDDCAA. Though for the last words of the last two lines to rhyme, you would have to pronounce eternally as eternal-lie. Since no one is entirely sure what Renaissance English sounds like, it is quite possible that they did pronounce words like that. The last six lines could also follow the rhyme arrangement CDDC AE. With the volta ending in AE the rhyming of A relates it back to the beginning of the poem. While the E rhyme gives the poem a whole new idea, the turn. In traditional Italian sonnets, the turn happens in line 9. In Death, be not proud, the turn occurs in middle of the last line. "Death, thou shalt die." In the entire poem, the speaker is basically trash talking Death, calling him names and telling Death that he isn't afraid of him. In this last line he tells Death that he will die, it's not suggested, Death will die.

Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape - Take Two

"I've had all I can stand, I can't stands no more." - Popeye the Sailor Man

In John Ashbury's Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape, the characters come from the comic strip turned cartoon, Popeye the Sailor Man. In most of the Popeye cartoons, Popeye is usually saving his love, Olive Oyl, from different enemies. In this poem though, Popeye has been forced to flee the country and left Olive and Swee’Pea to sort of fend for themselves. Why? Because his father, Poopdeck Pappy, was jealous of him. Jealousy is one of the major themes in this poem

Where in a fight most people have back up, Popeye has spinach. After being clobbered, usually after someone hits on his ‘sweetie’ Olive, Popeye eats spinach which then gives him the strength he needs to kick some serious butt. Since Popeye has fled the country the Sea Hag and Wimpy decide to vacation in his apartment.

“Meanwhile the Sea Hag was relaxing on a green couch: "How

   pleasant

To spend one's vacation en la casa de Popeye," she

   scratched

Her cleft chin's solitary hair. She remembered spinach

And was going to ask Wimpy if he had bought any spinach. “

(Lines 4-7)

The Sea Hag may be jealous of Popeye’s strength. Wimpy replies with "M'love," he intercepted, "the plains are decked out in thunder Today, and it shall be as you wish." (Lines 8-9) The plains may refer to the fields where the spinach and other vegetables (like rutabagas) grow.

Another idea that backs up the theme of jealousy is Poopdeck Pappy. In lines 20-24, Olive Oyl sets up the reason why Popeye is M.I.A.  Popeye’s father is jealous of his apartment, which is odd because in line two it compares the apartment to a shoebox. Pappy isn’t jealous of the apartment itself, he is jealous of what it symbolizes. Popeye has a loving family that consists of Olive Oyl and their adoptive son Swee’Pea. Popeye’s mother has been out of the picture for a long time so Pappy is all alone. Poopdeck Pappy just wants a family of his own.

Popeye, the main character, doesn’t show up until the last tercet of the poem. The description of the thunder being domesticated refers to the fact that Popeye is a family man now, not just a sailor. The green thunder alludes to spinach. As long as Popeye has spinach to give him strength, the Sea Hag and Pappy are no match for him.

Ashbury sets up the poem in a sestina. The important end words of the poem are: thunder, apartment, country, pleasant, scratched and spinach. Thunder symbolizes the power that spinach gives Popeye. Apartment refers to the softer side of Popeye, the family man aspect of Popeye’s life. The apartment brings his family together. Popeye loves his country, after all in the cartoons he is enlisted in the navy. Country may also describe the place where Popeye grew up, raises his family, and farmed spinach. The use of scratched may hint at the minor setbacks in Popeye’s normally pleasant life, such as temporarily being forced away from his family and home.  Spinach is the source of Popeye’s power. It is the substance that gives him the strength to fight for his woman as he does so many times.

Ashbury writes many of his poems with the intentions of not caring whether or not it makes sense. It doesn’t matter if the reader understands the meaning of the poem because most of the time there is no one definitive meaning. John Ashbury was also a lover of the arts; so many of his titles allude to something that sounds like a painting. Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape is no exception to any of these things that characterize another of Ashbury’s masterpieces. 

Sonnets

·      Italian

o   A sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern a b b a a b b a, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern c d e c d e or c d c d c d

o   Example: London, 1802 by Wordsworth

§       Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee: she is a fen

Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dower

Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;

Oh! raise us up, return to us again;

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life's common way,

In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart

The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

·      English

o   The English sonnet has the simplest and most flexible pattern of all sonnets, consisting of 3 quatrains of alternating rhyme and a couplet:

§  a b a b | c d c d | e f e f | g g

·      Example: Sonnet LXXIII by Shakespeare

o       That time of year thou mayst in me behold,

When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou seest the twilight of such day,

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self that seals up all in rest.

In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed, whereon it must expire,

Consumed by that which it was nourished by.

This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.

·      Spenserian

o   The Spenserian sonnet, invented by Edmund Spenser as an outgrowth of the stanza pattern he used in The Faerie Queene (a b a b b c b c c), has the pattern:

§  a b a b b c b c c d c d e e

o   Example: Sonnet LIV by Edmund Spenser

§       Of this World's theatre in which we stay,

My love like the Spectator idly sits,

Beholding me, that all the pageants play,

Disguising diversely my troubled wits.

Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits,

And mask in mirth like to a Comedy;

Soon after when my joy to sorrow flits,

I wail and make my woes a Tragedy.

Yet she, beholding me with constant eye,

Delights not in my mirth nor rues my smart;

But when I laugh, she mocks: and when I cry

She laughs and hardens evermore her heart.

What then can move her? If nor mirth nor moan,

She is no woman, but a senseless stone.

·      Hybrid

o   There are, of course, some sonnets that don't fit any clear recognizable pattern but still certainly function as sonnets It's rhyming pattern of a b a b a c d c e d e f e f is unique; clearly, however, there is a volta in L9 exactly as in an Italian sonnet:

o   Example: Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

§        I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, (stamped on these lifeless things,)

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

=(

I have no idea what this poem is about. I have no idea where to even begin. I looked at the links on the blog and the essay just confused me even more. =(

Home Alone

The wind blows

Knock, knock, knocking

The rain falls, shaping puddles

A man looks through my window.

Knock, knock, knocking

I turn to see the noise

A man looks through my window.

I run up the stairs

I turn to see the noise 

The man bursts through the door

I run up the stairs 

The man calls after me

The man bursts through the door

Stops, stares into the dark crevasses of the room

The man calls after me

Chasing me up the stairs

Stops, stares into the dark crevasses of the room

(Don’t follow me)

Chasing me up the stairs

I scream, tripping on the steps

(Don’t follow me)

The rain falls, shaping puddles

I scream, tripping on the steps

The wind blows