Allusion: To His Coy Mistress

"...I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews."

The speaker in this poem is an older man and he has set his sights on a much younger woman. He is trying to express to her his great love for her by saying that if death did not exist and they had all the time in the world, he would spend it all praising her beauty and greatness. He would have loved her for all of eternity, even before the Flood, and she could refuse him for a long time. His love would not fade, though. He would spend years upon years telling her the beauty of each aspect of her appearance. And, he would spend ages upon those qualities which make up her personality, her heart being last because it is the greatest and most important. He says that she deserves all this praise and glorification before anyone he would even try to physically be with her. However, they don't have all the time in the world. He says that they must use the time they have been given and not waste it on coyness. The speakers tone is mostly lustful and desiring. He is praising this woman that he greatly craves so that she will give in to him.

Symbolism: Hazel Tells LaVerne

"an i hitsm with my mop
an has ta flush
the toilet down three times
me
a princess"

On the surface of the poem, the reader recognizes a somewhat humorous tone. The story told of a hotel maid beating down and flushing a talking frog who has promised her that he can make her a princess is funny to consider. However, the real symbolism in the poem is that of the frog as the maids aspirations. It seems as ridiculous to her that she could be anything more than a hotel maid as it is to consider the fact that kissing a frog that hopped out of a toilet might make one into a princess. She has no confidence in becoming anything more than a hotel maid. She really has no confidence in herself at all. In fact, she considers it completely ridiculous to even believe that she could ever be a princess. She has become so comfortable in this hard-working and defensive lifestyle that she doesn't even dare to imagine anything else. She's almost become scared of change. But, the ending line of the poem that says "me a princess" almost gives the feeling that she imagines it for a moment after her speech has concluded. She lets herself dream for a bit. But, she doesn't really feel that she is good enough to be a princess or anything of the sort that is better than the lifestyle she already leads.

Allegory: Dover Beach

"The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
It's melancholy, long, withdrawing roar..."

The author of this poem expresses his feelings on science and religion through the speaker's view of the ocean and nature. The sea symbolizes the world. As it washes upon the shore when the writer is listening, he hears the repetitive sound of the misery of humankind. This is caused by science and its destruction of faith in God and believing in his power. The speaker says that there was once goodness in the world when the Sea of Faith washed upon the earth's shore, and it was beautiful. This was before science and when people trusted in God. But now, men don't believe in love or feelings; they believe in science. the the world lacks the joy, love, and light that it once possessed. The author doesn't understand how people could so easily abandon God. He himself only has to look at the ocean, the stars, and the wonderful land forms around him to feel God's presence. He asks the question how can Darwin support evolution when "the cliffs of England stand glimmering and vast" and how can Lamarck have supposed this theory when "on the French coast the light gleams". To the author, these are proof that God must exist, and he is sad that humanity has gone so far astray.

Mood: The Apparition

"And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected, thou,
Bathed in a cold quicksilver sweat, wilt lie
A verier ghost than I."

The atmosphere conveyed by the author's diction in this poem is somewhat frightening and threatening. The speaker in the poem is a man who is in love with a woman who constantly rejects him, and he is bitter for that reason. He even resents her for it and believes it will be the death of him. But he says that even in death he will not leave her alone. When she is lying in another man's arms believing she is safe, he will come back and haunt her. This new man will not respond to her cries, and she will be left alone to face the words of this rejected lover.  She will be terrified by his mere presence, and his words will only make it worse. However, he does not want to reveal what he will say to her in that moment for fear that it may not scare her anymore. And, he doesn't even want to threaten her anymore because it makes her less at fault for his situation. It is safe to say that the speaker both loves and hates this woman that he so desperately seeks. He loves her enough to keep going after her day after day knowing that she will never love him, but he also must hate her enough to want to haunt her after death and make her feel absolute guilt and fear.

Syntax: My mistress' eyes

"I grant I never saw a goddess go, --
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare."

The author's use of inverted sentences really adds to the artistic value of this poem. The speaker compares his lover to a variety of different common objects, but he states that his lover does not even possess the beautiful qualities that these objects have. Her eyes are not bright like the sun, nor are her lips red like coral, and she doesn't have good smelling breath either. It seems at first that the speaker must be completely repulsed by his lover. He is describing her in such a negative way. But, the truth is the opposite. He admires her dearly and believes she is at least as beautiful and fair smelling and lively as any woman. She is equally good. The real point that the speaker is trying to prove is that when people describe their lovers as having the most beautiful white skin, the reddest lips, the voice of an angel, and rosy cheeks, there is at least some hint of exaggeration. These types of people don't exist. The author puts forth the point that his lover does not need all these traits and he doesn't need to lie and say that she has them. He knows her real value, and he doesn't have to exaggerate it.

Satire: Mr. Z

"Not one false note was struck-- until he died:
His subtly grieving widow could have flayed
The obit writers, ringing crude changes on a clumsy phrase:
'One of the most distinguished members of his race.'"

This poem was both somewhat sad and somewhat angering to me. While I feel bad for Mr. Z who lives in a society where he is looked down upon for what he is, another part of me wants to scold him for not even trying to make a difference. He completely relinquished his entire background and person for social acceptance, which is something that many people do which angers me. However, the poet uses the story of Mr. Z in order to satirize society for its lack of vision beyond skin color. Mr. Z played the perfect part of a white man. He gave up all cultural associations that he had with the African American community and rather adopted white culture. He clung to the "Anglo-Saxonized" ground rather than that of his own race. He strove to be as "white" as he possible could and even considered the status of the woman he married so that he may not even be judged by that. But, even through all his efforts, through all his accomplishments and every assimilation to white society that was possible for him, in his death, he was only seen as an accomplished black man. He was not just a distinguished member of society but rather "one of the most distinguished of his race".

Dramatic Irony: APO96225

"So the next time he wrote, the young man said,
'Today I killed a man. Yesterday, I helped drop napalm
on women and children.'"

This one particular statement in the poem is the central idea that is communicated. The entire poem consists of a mother trying to relate to her boy at war, but he knows she can't handle it. In  order to prove it to her, he writes her one letter that tells her the truth of what is actually going on, and consequently she becomes very upset. The poem communicates both a negative and positive aspect of the world. While it states that war is horrible, unjust, and cruel, it also effects the idea that we as Americans are lucky to live in a country where war doesn't occur on the home front, and we are not subject to the awful sights that accompany it. We all like to believe that we are more emotional sturdy than we actually are. Before the mother is presented with the actual occurrences of war, her mind and perception of the concept tell her that she can handle whatever her son needs to relate to her. She wants to be there for him, and she believes she is strong enough. But in reality, the truth is that no one is ready for the reality of war. Some people are just forced into it because it is necessary, but no one is actually ever ready for it.

Understatement: Sorting Laundy

"pillowcases, despite so many
washings, seams still
holding our dreams."

The speaker in this poem uses household chores and items to describe her relationship with her lover. Her phrases mean something deeper than what she literally says; therefore, it is an example of understatement. The speaker says that as she folds clothes, she relates it to how she has "folded" her lover into her life.
She says their sheets are "like the tablecloths for the banquets of giants" implying that their sheets are special and luxurious, but I don't believe she means because of quality. Rather, I think she is implying that because they are subject to their love, the sheets are special. The surprises that the speaker finds as she goes through the clothing symbolize the surprises in their relationship. Some are good, while others are bad, and even others are unimportant, but they are all a part of who she and her lover are as a couple. Though the memories like the items in the washer somewhat decay, they will always be there to remind the speaker of the good moments in their love. She states that if her love were to leave her, her clothes alone would not be enough to "fill the empty side of the bed". His absence would be evident in laundry and sleep. She would feel alone in life.

Situational Irony: Ozymandias

"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..."

This poem incorporates irony into the loss of power. So many people strive to be rich, powerful, and controlling. Like Ozymandias, they build up representations of their influence whether in reputation, wealth, materials, or position. They show these tangible signs of power to the entire world in order to communicate that power and feed themselves with pride. Ozymandias in the poem did something similar with the great architectural works that he had instructed the people to build. He was harsh and unrelenting which intimidated his people and gave him confidence. However, many years later, his power was no longer present. His own statue had been broken into pieces like his power, and the many works he had created were long gone. He strove for power all his life because he thought it would make him eternally powerful, but now he barely has influence on a passerby like the speaker in the poem. The only message that his statue and diminished works communicate is that power isn't worth attaining like so many people strive to do because it doesn't last forever.

Paradox: Much Madness is divinest Sense

"Assent-- and you are sane--
Demur-- you're straightaway dangerous--
And handled with a Chain--"

Dickinson uses a paradox as the central focus of her poem: madness is sense. At first, it seems that this in itself is madness. How can madness be sense? But, the message that Dickinson tries to communicate is that it is insane for people to act as if the madness in the world is no big deal and to let it go in order to keep oneself from being criticized. Often people agree with social policy, despite whether they actually believe the fundamentals of it or not. It keeps them out of trouble. Dickinson is bringing to light the insanity of this idea, that people can just let illogical and unreasonable actions take place before their eyes without questioning them in order to save themselves. She says that this sort of "madness", developing one's own opinion and expressing it, is really true sense. Though it is treated as madness to question society, it is this questioning that makes us humans, that makes us logical and reasonable. Without it, society becomes lacking in justice and meaning.

Odd Characterization: The Joy of Cooking

"I will have my brother's heart,
which is firm and rather dry,
slow cooked. It resembles muscle
more than organ meat
and needs and apple-onion stuffing
to make it interesting at all."

Elaine Margarrell uses the tongue of the sister and the heart of the brother to stand for the speaker's brother and sister. In describing each of their body parts, using aspects that would be describe that particular body part, she also reveals something about the personalities of the people who own them. When the speaker says that she has "trimmed the roots, small bones, and gristle" of her sister's tongue, these words imply that her sister is sharp and tough like bones and gristle. The hump "slices thin and neat", meaning that she is defined, strong, and directed. By stating that her tongue is "best served with horseradish", the speaker also suggests that she is sarcastic and biting. Her brother's heart, on the other hand, "is firm and rather dry", which shows that he lacks depth of emotion, especially caring. Because she says "it resembles muscle more than organ meat", that his heart does not function in the normal compassionate way that a heart should function. It is more like a strong and resistant muscle. Her brother's heart "barely feeds two", meaning that he is boring and can not entertain. He is bitter and irascible because his heart is served "in sour sauce".

Simile: Dream Deferred

"Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?"

This entire poem is a series of similes. Thought the speaker suggests many fates for dreams, they all are bad ends in which the dream has died, decayed or disappeared. The speaker's point is that dreams can not be put off if one wants it to become reality. In the same way a raisin dries up if it is subject to sunlight, dreams dry up if they are subject to time. Or, it can be compared to a festering sore, becoming harder and harder to heal as time goes on. Dreams become harder to attain the more time goes on and the more one puts them off. Like the smell of rotten meat reminds one of its presence, a deferred dream will always be in one's mind as a constant reminder of what could have been. Maybe this same concept can make it seem like "a heavy load" bearing down on the dreamer. It is even possible that a deferred dream can be compared to something that has exploded. If a dream is put off too long, it is no longer possible. It is dead and gone without hope of return.

Verbal Irony: A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

"So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love."

Donne uses a lot of verbal irony in his poems in that he often says more or less than what is meant. The very first line of the poem says "as virtuous men pass mildly away", implying that these men are content with dying. However, it is merely to get the point across. No one is actually okay with dying, but these men are more accepting of it. In the same way, the speaker and his lover, though not happy to part, must know that this is not the end for them because their love is strong. He states that they should skip all of the emotional expressions of goodbyes like "tear-floods" and "sigh-tempests" because they know that it is not the end of their love. These phrases exaggerate the crying and moaning that often occurs during parting in order to make them seem  more negative. Tears do not literally come in floods, nor do sighs in tempests. He says that he and his love are not two but one soul. This is of course not literally true, but it is how he feels. And, if they are two,  it is in the way that compasses are two (they will always point the same direction) or that feet are two (they always return to being side by side).

Extended Metaphor: I taste a liquor never brewed

"Inebriate of Air--am I--
And Debauchee of Dew--
Reeling-- thro endless summer days--
From inns of Molten Blue--"

Throughout the entire poem, the speaker sounds like he or she is talking about becoming drunk. However, in reality, the poem  is about a type of spiritual intoxication, rather than the literal type. This is made obvious by the first line of the poem because it is impossible to have "a liquor never brewed". It is the summer days that intoxicate the reader instead and give him or her a drunken feeling, and "Not all the Vats upon the Rhine Yield such an Alcohol!". The speaker compares the dew and air to the drink and the sky to the tavern. This is the setting in which she develops this feeling of intoxication. The bees and butterflies are his or her drinking partners, but because they gain their satisfaction from something physical, the flowers, their joy will end eventually. But the speaker states that his or her joy will never end and uses impossible events that will cause the end in order to emphasize this. A seraph does not wear a hat, and a saint would not run to a see a tippler.

Personification: Bright Star

"No--yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel forever its soft fall and swell,
Awake forever in sweet unrest..."

Keats uses a lot of comparative figurative language in this poem. The speaker talks about the star as if it has human qualities because he wants to be like it: always constant and undying, watching the world move "like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite." At first the speaker admires the star's consistency because it gets to observe the beauty of the world. However, in line nine, he switches focus and says "Now--yet still steadfast, still unchangeable, pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast..." The speaker still desires to be constant like the star, but for a different reason now. He attributes the stars' form of observation to a more human-like desire. He wants to be always with his love. He wants to hear her breathe constantly and forever in the same way that a star observes the sort of breathing and movement of the world constantly and forever. He wants to be the "sleepless Eremite" that lies against his love's chest just to hear her breathe instead of hanging aloft in the sky. His love is more beautiful to him than the nature that the star watches over.

Mood: London

"I wander through each  chartered street
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe."

The diction and syntax of this poem creates an obvious atmosphere of distress and hopelessness. Whether through anastrophe like that found in the line "The mind-forged manacles I hear", or in words like "cry of fear", " mind-forged manacles", "black'ning Church", and "hapless Soldier's sigh", Blake successfully achieves a mood of serious chaos and danger inside the reader's mind. The reader wants to help but can't. It seems that these people whom are burdened with terrible fates are just poor innocent souls undeserving of this punishment. Even the Harlot is portrayed as "youthful" and along with that quality comes assumptions of innocence and feelings of sorrow for the woman. And because she is confined to such a path in life, she too leads to the destruction of the values of marriage and the good ways to raise children, whether they're her own or those of her partners. The Church and hierarchy are made out to be the villains here. The line "Every black'ning Church apalls" shows the Church's lack of compassion for those who express their anguish. They rather expect the suffering people to bear it in silence. The hierarchy in the same apathetic way send the soldiers off to die without considering twice the value of their lives. Readers feel sympathy for the suffering who exist in this world of corruption.

Relevance!:To Autumn

"Then in a wailful choir the smal gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, bourne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;"

I am ecstatic that this was one of the poems assigned to us because lately I've been thinking about how much I love Autumn and how unappreciated it is. It seems that in the poem, the season has just arrived as it has in the real world as well. By the end of summer, everything seems dried up and dusty, almost dead. But when fall comes around, things gain new life. The rain comes back around. The leaves, although in the process of dying, transform into an array of colors. Fruits and vegetables like apples and gourds become plump and ready to consume. Autumn fills these life-forms with "ripeness to the core." Even the air of Autumn lets one know that the world is alive through its "winnowing wind". Like Keats points out, spring is often the celebrated season of life. He asks "Where are the songs of spring?". However, this is followed by "Think not of them, thou has thy music too..". People don't appreciate the new life of fall because they are so focused on the coming winter that they fail to recognize it. The main purpose of Keats's poem is to emphasize the beauty and life of Autumn that is never really recognized. It is praise to the Autumn which is so frequently overlooked.

Tone: The Convergence of the Twain

"In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she."

The diction and details used in this poem set an obvious tone for its reading. It creates a feeling of sadness and sympathy. This ship that was so innocent and unknowing, standing for the people of the time, became to proud and boastful. It was too big and splendid, planned by the "Pride of Life". This was her downfall. People at the time of the Titanic (which this poem is written about) had begun moving quickly in the ways of technological advancement. They no longer stopped to consider the consequences. It was innocent pride, but pride nonetheless. As people's pride grew, so did the danger that accompanies pride, symbolized by the iceberg. "No mortal eye could see" the damage that the iceberg would do to the Titanic or the way the ship's sinking would affect civilization. Everyone was rooting for this new piece of technology, even the reader, regardless of whether it was overflowing with pride. And when the reader realizes that this beautiful ship so full of life now lies with "sea-worms" and "dim moon-eyed fishes" he or she is overcome with sadness and a feeling of discouragement, inspired by the beginning but only resounded by the rest of the poem.

Personification: I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

"And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down--
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing--then--"

From what I've read of Dickinson's work, it seems that one style tool frequently used by her is personification. The funeral in her brain does not center on the death of a person, but rather her mind and sense. Though they are portrayed as a person, they are not actually. Dickinson's use of personification enables her to compare the event of losing her mind to a funeral, which in turn allows the reader to comprehend the seriousness and eventfulness of it. The rest of her brain stood by and watched it go. It appeared that "Sense was breaking through", but it was really just her lack of realism and admittance of the actual circumstances. Like we want to deny the death of loved ones, Dickinson tries to deny the death of her own sanity. The beating of the drum tells her that their is no going back. The death of her sanity becomes more and more assured with every thought and the drum assures the death of the personified mind. Dickinson frantically tries to save her mind before it is buried. But once the deed is done, she stands silent and solitary, knowing it is finally over. Her mind is dead. Her sanity is gone. With the breaking of the last straw of sanity or rather "a Plank in Reason", she plunges into insanity.

Symbolism: The Widow's Lament in Springtime

"I feel that I would like
to go there
and fall into those flowers
and sink into the marsh near them."

This poem inspires a feeling of sympathy in the reader. A woman who spent a long happy life with her husband has just lost him. He died, and now everything is receiving new life. It's a reminder of what she has lost and how her husband receives new life in the beyond. Like the cherry blossoms that the woman sees weigh down on the branches of the trees, so does her grief weigh on her heart and in an even stronger way. The beauty of these flowers that "color some bushes yellow and some red" that used to bring her joy is now trivial and unimportant. The yellow symbolized the friendship with her husband while the red symbolized love, and now that he is gone, she does not have either. They too have become trivial and unimportant. In the end, the woman talks of falling into the white flowers and sinking into them. White is the color of purity, and purity comes with death and Heaven. She wants only to sink into these beautiful flowers that make her happy, to be taken from the earth and made pure, and to be taken to Heaven, where she can join her husband once again.

The Nature of Proof in the Interpretation of Poetry...How I See It

The first sentence of the poem made me think that I would agree with a majority of the information that Perrine supplies: "That a poem may have varying interpretations is a critical commonplace."

However, the sentence immediately following that changed my mind: "That all interpretations of a poem are equally valid is a critical heresy."

There were some things in the essay that I disagreed with, but once I got through the entirety of it, I ended up understanding Perrine's perspective and actually thinking the same way. I was initially surprised when he suggested that an author is the worst interpreter of his own work. Though it seems paradoxical at first, when Perrine explains his backing, it comes to make more sense. Though it is true that an author knows best what he means, what he reveals publicly is not the extent of his true feeling. Therefore, a reader may stop midway in his descent into what the poem truly means and specifically what it means for the reader himself. If the author says that his poems mean one thing, the reader won't look for anything else. Like Yeats once said, "If an author interprets a poem of his own, he limits its suggestibility."

But, it is also true that, like Perrine states, not all interpretations, even if it is how the reader sees it, are correct. The connections made between the interpretation and the actual words have to be logical and without flaw. Perrine's first example of his claim using the Dickinson poem were somewhat weak, I felt. He based it on just very basic and general happenings that contradicted the interpretation of the poem, but the world isn't always as general as he makes it out to be. In his second example, he provides much more reasonable and effective proof for this theory. He points out the words like "beaming", "bright", "gleam", "twinkling", and "shining" that make it much more clear and visible that Melville's poem addresses the stars, not an army corps, and he also uses the contradictory elements of the poem such as the fact that the soldiers marched without a chief in order to make the original idea about the poem (that it was literally about an army corps) seem illogical. Even in his paragraphs about symbolism, he shows that interpretations have boundaries. Certain details set the limits for how our minds can perceive a certain image. In one example, he says a horse without the word "roan" can be interpreted as many different types of horses (i.e. a "workhorse", a "clotheshorse", etc.), but with that one word added it can only be viewed as a real horse. Even just the word "horse" limits the reader's interpretation because a horse cannot be a cow. 

Like the details in a poem limit the poem's meaning, so do details surrounding a symbol limit the things it can symbolize. I guess this essay just proves the point that readers must go deeper than just the surface or hovering right underneath it when interpreting literature.