Thursday, August 28, 2008

Tone

"The Telephone"
The tone of this poem is just a little bit hopeful. From the first stanza "when I was as far as I could walk from here today" it sounds like the speaker is leaving, but then they find a flower. The flower gives the speaker an excuse to go back to where he came from, because he says he heard "someone said come". This is exactly what the speaker wanted because they didn't want to leave in the first place.

"Love in Brooklyn"
Fielding- I can't find this poem

"The Flea"
Most people kill bugs. They are pests, but the tone in this poem suggests something else. The speaker is envious of the flea because it has done something that he wants to do. He wants to join his life (his blood) with the woman's. Most of us would think nothing of killing a flea, but the speaker of this poem feels that it is three sins, not only killing the bug, but him and the woman too.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the Sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

The age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Time still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Road Not Taken

1. No the speaker in does not feel that he made the wrong choice. The sigh that he makes isn't one of regret, but instead a sigh of satisfaction that he made a difference. What the speaker does regret is not being able to take both of the paths.

2. There will be a big difference because the road that is less traveled would be a completely different experience than the road that is more traveled. It would have a kind of untouched beauty that wouldn't be on the other road where people have already left their mark on the path. On the road less traveled, there would be a thrill of leaving your own mark without having it blotted out by those of other people. And, the fact that the speaker will walk a fresh path on the road not taken might cause others to follow the same way he chose until the path that is more traveled becomes the path that is less traveled. Then if the speaker came back to the same place a few years down the road, he could still take the road less traveled and go on the road that he didn't get to walk on the first time around.

I think this poem is about a person who came to a time in their life where they had to make a decision. The choice is between doing the same thing as everyone who has gone before him, or stepping out of the box and doing something new and exciting. When the speaker says that taking the road less travelled has made all the difference, he is not neccessarily talking about himself, but also of the others who would have followed his example and benefited from the experience of something new and not just conforming to society.

Monday, August 25, 2008

After Apple-Picking

1. auditory imagery-the rumbling sound of load on load of apples coming in. Olfactory imagery- essence of winter sleep is on the night, the scent of apples. Kinesthetic imagery- my instep arch not noly keeps the ache, it keeps the pressure of a ladder-round. To me, the imagery in this poem created a feeling of being tired of and bored with the job of apple picking.

2. The speaker in this poem feels that his work isn't that important, and because of this he has done his job poorly (empty barrels and apples on the boughs that weren't picked). He finds the work tedious and isn't happy with its results.

3. I think that the speaker shifts to the present tense because he is experiencing what he thinks he will dream about. Not nessecarily the magnified apples, but the feel of the ladder rungs and the sound of the rumbling apples. The speaker has experienced the apple-picking so much tha he feels he will dream about it.

4. Later on in the poem, the speaker talks of the woodchucks sleep (its hibernation). I think this is what the speaker means when he is talking of sleep. He wants to have that same sleep that the woodchuck does. To be able to go into a dreamless sleep after a lot of hard work and preparation (the harvest). The speaker has an attitude of envy because he wants to be able to go into that long sleep and wake up later when all the hardships are over. He doesn't fear it and in fact looks forward to it. The speaker expects to have a dreamless sleep.

5. a) the ladder- it is two-pointed representing what the speaker wants and what will probably happen to him. b) the season of the year- autum is the season of preparation and stocking for the winter, and the speaker thinks he hasn't gotten anything by working atapple-picking for the harvest. c) the harvesting- the preparation for the long months ahead. Like the woodchuck storing up on food and getting fat to prepare for hibernation. d) the "pane of glass"- a sheet of ice that was on the water trough. Something that distorts the world if you look through it because it isn't perfect.

6. The woodchuck's sleep is different from just some human's sleep because it is long. A woodchuck hibernates and it is a sleep where they aren't haunted by dreams of things that they have done often. If the woodchuck had human sleeps, it would most likely wake up as often as we do from the dreams.

I think this poem is not noly talking about the picking of apples, but about how the narrator feels about life. He feels that if you miss a few things that you were intending to do (the missed apples on the branches) that it is not something you should make a huge deal about. And he also feels that if you life is not as full as you think it should be (the empty apple barrels), that isn't a big problem either. The narrator still feels that you will be tired when the time comes for you to sleep.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Imagery for The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

the fog/the smoke- the fog in this poem is metaphorically conected to cat. Some cats can be considered an omen, so the fog could be an omen to the narrator of this poem to not go to the party. Fog and smoke are both things that go away quickly. For example, all it takes for fog to disappear is the sun or a little bit of wind shifting it in another direction. The fog and smoke could symbolize to the narrator the shifting satisfaction of actually going into the party (his wondering of "is it really worth it").

the color yellow- by some definitions, the color yellow means cowardly. The way the color yellow is used in this poem could be telling us that the narrator's indecision to go to the party is actually the fear of rejection from the woman who the poem is for. Yellow can also mean jealous or envious, meaning that the narrator is not necessarily jealous of people being at the party, but that they get to socialize with the woman the song is for and he doesn't.