Solitude

Solitude

By: Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

    Weep, and you weep alone;

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,

    But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer;

    Sigh, it is lost on the air;

The echoes bound to a joyful sound,

    But shrink from voicing care.

Rejoice, and men will seek you;

    Grieve, and they turn and go;

They want full measure of all your pleasure,

    But they do not need your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many;

    Be sad, and you lose them all,—

There are none to decline your nectared wine,

    But alone you must drink life’s gall.

Feast, and your halls are crowded;

    Fast, and the world goes by.

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

    But no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

    For a large and lordly train,

But one by one we must all file on

    Through the narrow aisles of pain.

The second poem I chose to do for the Poetry Out Loud is Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. This poem is a very intense poem. It does a ton of juxtaposing. The structure is essentially a very elegant compare and contrast. One line talks about being happy, and how people will flock to you. The following line then directly contradicts it’s predecessor, and discusses how the world will almost ignore you if you are sad and alone. This structure is essential to the point Wilcox is attempting to make. She wants to convey that society and the world will shun you if you are not happy, outgoing, successful, and generous: people take advantage of you when you are successful, but avoid you when you’re not. The structure of Solitude contributes to this because it directly compares for example, how one is treated when they laugh as opposed to when they cry.

Another reason why I took a liking to Solitude is it reminds of my cottage on the shore of Lake Superior. More specifically, the line “But no man can help you die” is what made me think of my refuge in the UP because this implies you have to do things on your own. When I am up north, I am by myself—it is just nature and my own thoughts. I love the time I get to be there up there alone: I get to reflect, recharge, and escape the people I don’t care to see on a regular basis. It is truly amazing. This excerpt also means that no matter the great pile of friends you have, nobody can help you die. It is something you must do yourself. Just you. Solitude. Wilcox also intends to mean only YOU can help yourself, only YOU can determine YOUR happiness, only YOU can live YOUR life. You cannot depend on others to do things for you. This notion is what made me envision the time I am able to spend in the north country, and why I love the poem, Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

The Daring One

The Daring One

By: Edwin Markham

I would my soul were like the bird

That dares the vastness undeterred.

Look, where the bluebird on the bough

Breaks into rapture even now!

He sings, tip-top, the tossing elm

As tho he would a world o’erwhelm.

Indifferent to the void he rides

Upon the wind’s eternal tides.

He tosses gladly on the gale,

For well he knows he can not fail—

Knows if the bough breaks, still his wings

Will bear him upward while he sings!

This is the first poem that I chose to recite for the Poetry Out Loud project in class. What drew me to the poem was the theme it presented: be daring, courageous, and most importantly, trust yourself! I think these themes relate a lot to my current life, especially when I begin to think about college just a few short months away. When I get to East Lansing in August, I need to have confidence in myself, and be daring. I need to be able to trust my abilities and my skills. I know I will adapt readily to college, but I need to trust in myself. This poem also has some undertones of daring yourself to do new things. Be like the bird who flies into the wind unafraid. At Michigan State, I want to try new things and meet new people—I need to be daring.

            This theme of confidence and bravery is highlighted through the lines “Knows if the bough breaks, still his wings / Will bear him upward while he sings!” This passage demonstrates how this bird has full trust in himself that he will be able to fly if something goes awry. “If the bough breaks” the bird doesn’t freak out because he knows “his wings / Will bear him upwards.” The excerpt “I would my soul were like the bird / That dares the vastness undeterred” displays how a bird dares to fly into the wind because he knows his wings will carry him. The bird is confident. 

TPCASTT of Evening Hawk

1. Title:
When I think of Evening Hawk, I literally think of a hawk flying through the evening.

2. Paraphrase:
The sunset light forms lines and shapes with it's rays
The sun is setting, with just a little light left
A hawk comes swooping through the last of the light
The hawk's wing cuts through the air

The hawk climbs the through the last of the dying light
The unforgiving Earth flies below him, and his eye sees everything

The last breath is still
His widow is ancient and immense
The star is steady

3. Connotation:

Imagery: There is a lot of amazing imagery in this poem. The main type of visual imagery. Warren does a great job of enabling the reader to picture what the hawk. and the scene is doing.

Diction: Warren uses numerous geometric and shape references to bring to light the scenery of the hawk flying at sunset.

Symbolism: The Evening Hawk is riddled with symbolism. in general, the sunset is symbolic of a life coming to a close, and the hawk itself represents death searching for its next victim. The lines "The crashless fall of stalks of Time" and "Scythes down another day" and "Who knows neither Time nor error, and under / Whose eye, unforgiving, the world, unforgiven, swings" demonstrate the heavy use of symbolism in the Evening Hawk. The stalks very well could be human lived being cut down, or ended. A scythe cuts down another day from our lives. The last passage is symbolic of the unforgiving nature of death. No matter your education, wealth, poverty, looks, etc. death is not picky: you can die at any moment.

4. Attitude:

The attitude is dark and ominous. The hawk seems to be feared, yet revered in the same token. This is representative of death: we fear the day we die, always trying to prevent that last moment, but for some, death can be relief and a beautiful thing.

5. Shifts:

The Evening Hawk begins with heavy description of the scene: the hawk soaring through the dying light of the sun. The poem is smooth and flows. There is obvious shift in the fourth stanza with the words "Look! Look!". This break is where the poem shifts from a mere description to a in depth and ominous description of human death.

6. Title:

Now looking back of the title, The Evening Hawk, I no longer think about a literal hawk cutting through the rays of sunset. I now picture a messenger of deaf coming down upon it's next victim. The sunset is symbolic of a life coming to a close.

7. Theme:

The theme of the Evening Hawk is solely about death, and the end of a human life. It describes a hawk, gracefully flying through the evening. Time, regrets, misfortunes, accomplishments, etc. are unimportant at this stage. Death overcomes all. Our days are numbered--humans are not invincible, and death shows no mercy.

Mr. Steinbeck

            In class, we have started a new book, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I have not read too far into it, but I can already tell why it has won so many awards: the way in which Steinbeck writes this telling tale is profound. He is able to weave words together so beautifully it seems it was meant to be. Furthermore, Mr. Steinbeck has a talent for describing an action or an object in such detail that it transcends the simplicity of the thing he is describing. Steinbeck is able to take an insignificant detail in the book, and word it in such a way that is truly remarkable.

The passage “The concrete highway was edged with a mat of tangled, broken, dry grass, and the grass heads were heavy with oat beards to catch on a dog’s coat, and foxtails to tangle in a horse’s fetlocks, and clover burrs to fasten in sheep’s wool; sleeping with life waiting to be spread and dispersed, every seed armed with an appliance of dispersal, twisting darts and parachutes for the wind, little spears and balls of tiny thorns, and all waiting for animals and for the wind, for a man’s trouser cuff or the hem of a woman’s skirt, all passive but armed with appliances of activity, still, but each possessed of the anlage of movement” (Steinbeck 20) illustrates the masterful way in which this iconic author can weave his words. It is remarkable the amount of detail he uses to describe the seemingly insignificant process of fertilization.

 Steinbeck utilizes multiple metaphors and an extremely long sentence structure in this specific excerpt to convey the mood of America during the Great Depression: long, drawn out, and exhausted. Everybody was depressed, worried, and beat. This description of a plant waiting for someone to pass by so it’s seeds can hook a ride is symbolic of America in the 1930’s. People were waiting for someone or something to come and save them; to transport their families to a better place so they could grow. Steinbeck clearly shows how imagery should be done to accurately describe something. I can only hope to be an ounce of the writer John Steinbeck was.

Caught'ya #46, 47, & 48

Brainstorming

            For my paper that compares the iconic novels The Catcher In The Rye and The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, I plan to discuss how the influence of the parental figures in both books caused Holden and Huck to leave what the knew behind in search of direction in their lives, someone to simply listen to them, and to find happiness. I am confident I can come up with a compelling argument to back up my thoughts, but I need to first critically think about the different points of evidence I can use in my persuasion. That is the point of this blog post.

            At the very beginning of The Catcher In The Rye, we get a very brief description of Holden’s parents. It is literally a few sentences. That’s all. This briefness is symbolic of the roles they play in his life: they seem to be detached and uninterested in Holden. They fail to recognize Holden’s need for a parental figure. Throughout the whole novel, he is desperately searching for someone to talk to. From Ackley to Stradlater to the whore to the cab drivers to Sally to Mr. Antolini and finally to Phoebe, Holden is searching for someone to confide in. All of these figures in his life, save for dear Phoebe, fail to not be “phony”. Phoebe is the only one that Holden can finally feel happy with. He can share his feelings with his sister. This desperation to let out his struggles stems from the absence of his parents in Holden’s life. He is lost. He is depressed. He wants to kill himself. Even when he goes home, Holden sneaks around to avoid his parents. Their unapproachability leads Holden to become lost and consumed by his own thoughts after his brother, Allie, dies.

            Pap, while he is interested in Huck’s life, he brings Huck down. All pap wants from Huck is Huck’s money and intelligence. Pap eventually kidnaps Huck and traps him in a cabin in the backwoods. Pap gets drunk. He rants. He screams. He nearly kills Huck. This violence and unstable home situation lead Huck to leave and set off down the Mississippi River. Along the way, he meets Jim, a runaway slave. Over the course of their adventures, Huck comes to love Jim because he represents everything pap isn’t: a father, caring, loving, and loyal. Jim fills pap’s shoes. The two stick together throughout the book, and when Jim is nabbed by the Phelps family, Huck devises a plan to steal him back. At many points throughout The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, Huck could’ve easily abandoned Jim. But he didn’t. He remained loyal to him because Jim was like a father to Huck, and that was something Huck had never had before.

Themes and Episodes in Catcher

Today in class, we took a look at certain episodes within The Catcher In The Rye, and how those episodes related to the whole, or how they were important. When Stradlater comes back from his date with Jane, Holden and Stradlater get into a fight because Holden believes Jane and Stradlater had some physical play during their date that night. Holden punches Stradlater, and then continues to verbally duel with him. This aggressiveness is due to Holden’s insecurities as well as unresolved feelings about Jane. Stradlater is everything Holden isn’t –handsome, intelligent, smooth, a lady’s man, etc. Even though Holden thinks he is all of those aspects, he isn’t. Heck, he cannot even close the deal later in the book with a prostitute. Additionally, Holden has some unresolved feelings about Jane. They have been childhood friends, and still continue to be close. This act of violence against Stradlater could be suppressed feelings about Jane. This specific episode is crucial, because not only do we get a little glimpse into Holden’s clouded mind, it makes him leave Pencey early, and start his epic journey to New York

            Another episode in The Catcher In The Rye that is essential is the whole scene where he is in Central Park, and tries to convince the phony girl, Sally, to run away with him and escape the bowels of society. While trying to persuade her to flee together, Holden lets all of his inner emotions shine through. The floodgates have been released. This is Holden uncensored. He spews all of his hatreds about society at Sally in one big conglomerate of speech – about the phoniness of New York City, Pencey, the professional world, people, education, and all the like. The lines, “I hate living in New York and all. Taxicabs, and Madison Avenue buses, with the drivers and all always yelling at you to get out at the rear door and being introduced to phony guys that call the Lunts angels, and going up and down in elevators when you just want to get outside, and guys fitting your pants all the time at Brooks, and people always – ”and the “It’s full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddamn Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making you believe you give a damn if the football team loses,” clearly illustrate the extreme pessimism Holden faces when he looks at the world – he is unable to look at anything that gives him any joy. Negativity. Negativity. Negativity.

Even though he is very judgmental, he has some amazing points about the system called society. Holden is able to look past all the fakeness of the professional world. He can see past the faces people put on, the materialistic obsessions, the ‘phonyness’, etc. of the world around him. While reading this episode in particular, I connected to Holden on a lot of levels. It was refreshing to read about Holden calling everything out that is fake. I really was keen about the materialistic obsession he observes from countless humans. The reason I can sympathize with Holden on this point is I can see that same fixation in my own friend group – it is sickening. With that being, however, Holden cannot look past that fakeness and find a meaning in his life. There is no beauty to him. This inability to see any light in darkness is his major flaw in The Catcher In The Rye.