Poem #2: "To My Dear and Loving Husband" Anna Bradstreet

"If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever."

The first thing that came to my mind after I read the poem was that it was very bland and cheesy and basic. She clearly loves her husband very much and prizes him more than gold mines but I think it's the way that she went about explaining it that made it seem so.. boring. It felt like one of those things teenage girls scribble on the margins of their notebooks. Compared to Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, the reason why it was so interesting to read was because of the faults he managed to point out in his mistress against other women in love poems. In the end, the message was that regardless of these faults what makes her so beautiful was her ordinary-ness. There wasn't complexity within the writing of the poem but rather the purpose behind it and I think that makes it even more meaningful, at least in some cases.

Anna Bradstreet's poem to her husband talks about that kind of love most of us hope to find, I think. The one that makes us write really cheesy poems about how it's the best thing ever and can't be compared to anything else or anyone else's love. On the other hand, when I read this poem it felt like having to listen to a friend go on about their boyfriend.

Poem #1: "Death, be not proud" John Donne

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."

I loved the attitude of the speaker in this poem; it made me feel like he was talking in a way where he was trying to stick it to Death and let him know that he isn't that great or anything to be feared.

Although poems like these are hard for me to understand because of the old English, what I understood from the beginning when reading it over again was that the speaker is telling death he shouldn't be proud when people call him "Mighty and dreadful" because he really isn't and he holds no power over the speaker. He says that all that's ever mentioned about Death is pictures of rest and sleep, which to him is nothing more than a source of pleasure. The most powerful lines to me in the poem were "Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men" because, here, it's like the ultimate burn and he lets Death know that he's not even really in charge or gets to decide when one dies.

I believe the speaker of the poem has a very valid point about treating death as just a long, permanent sleep. I think the reason as to why that is is because, to me, it's not dying that I'm afraid of but how I die. So the idea of thinking about it as nothing more than an enjoyable rest is actually comforting. 

Dylan Thomas "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" Reflection

   When I first read the poem, I thought it was really beautiful and inspiring how he went about basically saying that when the time has come in your old age, you should fight and "rage" against death rather than simply submit to it. I was able to pick up on some of the pattern that the poem has, it was also very easy to visualize any imagery that the author was using. What was very interesting was how he managed to juxtapose these old characteristics that the men have with powers that are way beyond their capability, "Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay". Reading it the second time around helped me to focus in on the structure more and analyze where and when the author uses literary elements so I could better asses why.

   

Sylvia Plath's "Mirror" Reflection

   When it came to reading Sylvia Plath's Mirror the first time around, I loved how the poem was one big personification of these objects, the lake and the mirror, and it was the idea that they are reflecting on what they literally reflect. I've always thought it to be very difficult to write a something in the perspective of an inanimate object but now that I think it about it, it might not be so bad because they would be capable of doing whatever it is you write them to do. It was a bit hard, at times, to visualize the images they were depicting, like when the mirror says, "The eye of a little god, four-cornered" or when the lake says, "Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish". What I question is if whoever is speaking is this abstract idea of reflection or the actual mirror and lake.
   Reading it again helped me to focus more on the structure of the poem and the different elements that the author uses to put it together. It also gave me a chance to try and identify any patterns or rhymes that it might consist and if so, where they are at.
Answering the questions was very hard for me because I realized some were asking things that I had either completely missed within the text or disregarded as a major detail. Also, some questions have answers where more than one can fit, it's just that one usually more literal in meaning while the other is abstract. It makes it hard to answer what the author means by something when you have choices like that, so I think I would need more instruction about those types of questions.

How to Analyze Literature: 3, 2, 1

   There were many points throughout the packet that stuck out to me, either because they were new or I had never paid attention to them and how they effected the structure or meaning of the story as a whole. One point was when it said, "Guard against the temptation to assume that the narrator is the author...there is always some distance between the author and narrator".  I can't say I've ever taken into consideration this distance between the two components and how much it could change the story. Through these narrators is how the author relays the story but some might not be as reliable as we perceive them to be. The closer they are, the more accurate the story but the farther, the more distorted it becomes. That is something I would want to take note of when analyzing the structure of the story. A second point, and one that is completely new to me is, "When an event can't be explained by whatever preceded it, ask why the author withheld that information". This is actually a very good point because I had never thought to back track the events to take note of what the author's purpose was or what they wanted to create.Third, and the one that I can never get right, is the meaning of the work as a whole. "Themes are truths-as the writer sees them- about life, so a statement of theme will never mention characters or details from a work BECAUSE THOSE ELEMENTS ARE FICTIONAL". That makes so much sense and I wish I knew that before. I always try to relate what's in the text to the real world but completely disregard that what's in the text isn't in the real world.

   One thing I think I could still work on is how to actually break down the text so that I could be able to analyze the different elements that compose it. Rather than what happens in the beginning, and the end. Another thing is not just being able to see what the author does, but also being able to see why they do it and the ability to clearly explain the purpose behind it. "No what without why".

   One skill I feel I know very well is noting the pace and rhythm of the text as well as the changes within it.