The Raven...

I happened to bring in The Raven on Monday so I already had a little jump start on this blog, but I think that the response has changed since I read it a second time.  At first, and the reason I brought the poem in, I wanted to contrast the short, silly, cutesy poems that I had brought in before with the dark and "dreary" tone of The Raven which is one of the random poems that I tend to enjoy.

The rhythm of The Raven is what first brings the reader into the poem, then once you are there you get stuck into the rhyming scheme, and before you know it you have read the entire three-page poem.  The other point that I would like to mention about why I like The Raven is that it tells a full story starting with the man sitting in his chamber, then the rapping on the door, he goes to answer it an no one is there, then there is tapping n his window and when he answers that tapping, a raven flies in a positions itself above the door, and when the man questions the raven as to the memory of Lenore, the bird replies with Nevermore.  Now the raven sits above his chamber door, to taunt him of the late Lenore, and his spirits shall be lifted nevermore.

Top Ten...

1. Messy Room - Shel Silerstein
2. seeker of truth - e.e.cummings
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
4. Men - Maya Angelou
5. Dream Deferred - Langston Hughes
6. Dora Diller - Jack Prelutsky
7. The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe
8. The Dead - Sylvia Plath
9. Sea Shell - Amy Lowell
10. Kissass - Allen Ginsberg

Of these ten, the two that i would have to favor most are The Raven and Dora Diller. I think that The Raven is a dark and deep poem (one side of poetry) and Dora Diller is very light and silly (the other side). Having these two polar opposites on the same list is an oddity, but i feel that they really express the way that I feel about poetry; I like the depth that poetry can expose and the expression of emotion used, but then again I think that it has to be leveled out with something that can pull you out of that dark place that poems like The Raven take you to. If all poetry was one way or the other, I think that the genre, as a whole, would fall apart. No one can stand the sunshine of a poem like Dora Diller all day long, but the same has to be said for the depression that The Raven expresses.

I feel that poetry should be used to convey the author's emotions at the time, so both of the two that I chose reflect that. Dora Diller is very silly and talks about a little girl who ate a caterpiller. The Raven is very deep and discusses a mans interaction with the haunting image of a raven. The thing I just realized is that they are both linked to animals, very odd...

Wednesday Class...

Banana Peel Haikus...
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A banana peel
On the floor, it smells
I wish she would slip

A monkey sits up
And asks politely please
Banana peel off


Inspired by Song of Myself...
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I celebrate and sing of summer grass

Invite my soul and I assume that you assume,

Every good atom of me belongs to you, every atom of my blood

Born of parents from parents, and their parents the same,

Never forgotten, vows for sickness or health, strength at every hazard

I, now thirty-seven years old in perfection begin, hoping to cease not until our death.

Pick Your Poetry..

Being that Lewis Carroll is one of my favorite poets, I chose three of his poems for this assignment: The Walrus and the Carpenter, A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky, and How Doth the Little Crocodile.  They may be somewhat simple in terms of literary analysis, but they are fun and light in terms of topic and easy to read.  They seem to fit, very well, into what I enjoy reading and keep in the back of my mind as favorites; especially The Walrus and The Carpenter because I absolutely love the way that it rhymes and is childish, but can still grab the attention of adults all over.

The other poems that I picked: To My Wife- With a Copy of My Poem by Oscar Wilde, As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed by Jack Prelutsky, and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein are mostly light, fun, and easy to read.  The whole series of Shel Silverstein's poetry books were ones that I was hooked on when I was younger and still think of when I am asked about my favorite poetry because they make me think about life, but not to the point where I am depressed about what I see.  As Soon as Fred Gets Out of Bed is one that my mom used to recite to me when I was being silly as a child, so it sticks with me because of that.  

Haikus...

Oh, the Haiku.  The most basic of all poetry forms, that most of us were taught how to write when we were very little but, I also feel that due to their short nature they have to be deeper and more creative than other poems. 

With prose poetry, the author doesn't have to conform to any one way of writing.  In those types of poetry, the words don't have to rhyme in any pattern, or follow any rhythm in terms of beats, so there is much more freedom as to the words that the author can use and the length of their poems equaling an ease in expressing the meaning of their poem.  With a haiku, the words have to fit into a rhythm so length of the words and the syllables used in them are limited; and I feel that because of these limitations on the format of the poems the authors need to be more focused on what they want to convey to their audiences in contrast to the authors of prose.

That Girl...

That Girl

She was a tall girl, long blonde hair and big brown eyes. I would have normally categorized her as the popular chick we all knew in high school, but she didn’t have that skinny model body type. She was full, I don’t know how else to say it, not fat, not muscular, not sporty, and just kind of full. Anyway, she came into my office, all bubbly and cute, to ask for my help.  I didn’t think that there was much i could do but I offered.  She met me later, wearing just jeans and a hoodie, in this little hole in the wall coffee joint she suggested. The funniest thing was when she pulled up; I could see her through the window.  This bright yellow, 2-door hatchback focus parks right in the first spot.  The black decaled flames popping out and the matching black and yellow leather racing seats inside were just too funny.  To complete this outer pimpage of the little car, the head and taillights had both been switched out for the more European type with a little more flare. At this moment I knew I was in love, I mean come on what type of girl pimps out her focus?

Sometime, take a third person look at yourself and evaluate whether or not you like who you see...

Oh, love poems....

The simplicity of "love poem" is something that I haven't seen in the genre of love poems on a regular basis, but it is something that I really enjoyed when I am faced with it.  There was not a complicated rhyming scheme, nor is there long and drawn out stanzas with flowery, lyrical words used to describe the author's emotions.  You get the same idea, that they are in this magical state, without being sucked into the stereotype.

The way that the poem "How Do I Love Thee" discusses the emotions that are inspired by falling in love are a smooth expression in words.  The rhyming scheme is easy to follow but does not do the obvious matches such as love and above, but instead uses sets like Grace and day's.

In terms of what I think of when I hear the words "love poem" I think that it fits the stereotype.  It is very mushy-gushy, and lyrical in terms of the words chosen to express the emotions that this person is feeling once they find their match in life.  I normally don't gravitate to something like this, but I have always counted this poem as an exception to my distaste for the happy love poem.  I tend to like ones that are questioning their love choice and then things turn out in the end.  You get more of a realistic view of life and how things are in reality, rather than the picture of perfection that being in love can present.

Second Response to Lucky...

In the first section that we read, it talked about her parents' relationship with each other as very distant and very non-affectionate.  My group thought that this might have explained some of Sebold's behaviors and her attitude towards life, but in the next section that we read, we learn that her parents not being very "lovey-dovey" didn't really affect her as much as it made her wish that things were different.  

For example, there is a scene where she is visiting potential colleges with her father and they are spending the night in the same hotel room.  She thinks that it would be funny to put small ice cubes at the foot of her father's bed, so that when he returns from reading in the lobby his bed will be cold and wet.  When he discovers this present that she left for him, he tosses the ice cubes back at her and this begins an ice cube war.  At this point, Sebold writes that at moments like that she pretended he was the big brother he never had.  What I think that this passage tells us, is that although he is not affectionate and is VERY into his studies and work, he has given her a happy childhood along with fond memories of her father.

First Response to Lucky...

So far so good, I guess.  Being that I have only read up to the third chapter so far, I don't think that I can really comment on the work as a whole yet, but what I have read has me interested.

The way that Sebold organized the chapters has me curious.  She jumps right into the graphic trauma of her rape in the first chapter.  Normally, most writers would putz around making small talk for the first couple of chapters and then have the rape as the climax.  But, here, she makes it the introduction so that you know exactly what her background is for the rest of the story.  Especially, when she returns to her home town.  

The way that she explains how things look back home, and how she feels that fire has somehow marked her life, has the sense that the narrator has a hole in her soul.  There is a dreary tone to her entire life.  Her parents were removed from her as she grew up (her mother a panicked addict and her father was a devoted workhorse) and fire marked how she felt about her childhood, and then once she finally has the chance to get away from that scenario, she gets raped.  I just couldn't believe that her life sucked so badly and yet she turns it into a story that can help others who have been there (or curious people who just read it for the interest).  Even when people she ran into while researching "Alice Sebold's" rape and they claimed to be her best friend, when in fact she had no recollection of these strangers. She kept on going, whereas I think I would've been very upset that these randoms were claiming to be part in this tragedy just to be close to what Sebold calls a "celebrity" life.  I think that in no way is a victim should be like a celebrity, they have been through enough, just let them be.

A Good Man is Hard to Find...

Talk about irony! The title and the fact that in the diner the grandmother was saying how hard it was to find a good man. It seems like in her day things were different and she wants to go back to that point in time.

I have read this story before, I think it was in high school, and wasn't satisfied with it then. The second time around I still didn't really like it; I mean, the family is having a good time going on a road trip, then boom! They're in a ditch. They could've been killed in the accident, but no that wasn't exciting enough for O'Connor, she has to have them murdered.

The first couple of pages totally foreshadow that they will eventually meet up with The Misfit, but you don't know how. And then the mentioning of the grandmother's cat tells you that something not good is going to happen there. The fact that she sneaks it into the car the morning that they are leaving, shows that there is something else going on.

Also when O'Connor tells us the way that the grandmother dresses before going on this trip, like a lady in case of an accident, is very telling, so that when you get to the accident, and she is trying to be a lady and save The Misfit you're not really surprised. Truly, the only thing that was surprising was how willing the rest of the family went off unto their deaths. I mean honestly, how did Bailey not know that when the boys walked off into the woods with the other two criminals that they were going to be shot? And then once they heard the gun shots in the distance, how did the mother take June Star off into the woods without any protest? How did they, as parents, lead their children off to die? And then there is the grandmother who is just sitting there talking to her family's killer to calmly? Some elements of this story are just off a little, but I guess it is a valid entry into literary cannons.

A Rose for Emily

When reading through Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" you as the reader are taken through the town's perspective of the life of a very private woman. The responses that were written go into more detail about the differences between the privacies and public areas of her life, but why would he want to write the entire short story from the perspective of a third-person narrator, without any personal connection to the main character?

As a reader, one might not feel any emotional connection to Emily. There were no really telling quotes from her, just a few actions that might give us more insight into who she was; like refusing to pay her taxes and telling the aldermen to see a dead man to exempt her from paying. As an author, Faulkner may have done this to purposely remove the reader from emotion. The story had a very solemn tone, but he may have not wanted that feeling to creep into the reader's mind as they went through the story. If the reader got too close to Emily, they wouldn't see the perspective of the townspeople and how they never really got to now Emily. The people of Jefferson never knew her, never really got anything besides gossip and a few actions to give them a hint into what kind of person she really was.

This was a specific tactic of Faulkner to give depth and reasoning to "A Rose for Emily." The people of Jefferson never knew her and neither do the readers, and I think that was the point.

The Management of Grief...

One of the questions for discussion at the end of the story asks about how close attention the author pays to the significance of particular words. The way that the meaning was emphasized was either straight out saying the meaning or by putting in anther language and then having a sub-script on the bottom.

The way that Mukherjee talked about how she never had to tell her husband that she loved him, that he just knew how she felt, showed the difference between the way the she was brought up verses the way that her daughters are going to go about their lives. Another major difference between her and her daughters, is the fact that she never felt comfortable calling her husband by his first name. Now, there is no way that a woman would marry a man that she couldn’t call by his first name.

The words that were written in Punjabi were ones that would have a particular significance. Words like landowner, hymns, and a Hindu Holy man, have importance to someone who has moved from their native culture into that of Canada and needed to hang onto something that was more familiar to them.

The way that the whole story was put together really emphasized the meaning of those particular phrases.

How to: Make carmels/fudge...

Making carmels or fudge are somewhat alike. Both take a ton of patience adn concentration to have them turn out properly. If they are nto cooked long enough, they will be grainy rather than smooth and creamy. If they cook too long they will be too hard and crack.
First, obviously, you need a recipe. I always use my great-gradmother's just for the traditional aspect. Then you need equipment: a candy thermometer, measuring spoons and cups, a 3 quart pan, and something to pour the finished product into once it hits the proper temperature.

"How"

When reading “How,” by Lorrie Moore, there is no specific description of what it is a handbook to.  Moore decided not to title it vividly something like “How to leave your husband” or “How to have an affair” but just simply “How” to allow the readers to put it together as they go along.

            Now, when I say the reader that is another part of the story that Moore leaves up to us.  Due to the attitude of the style and the different scenarios that are offered to the reader makes it seem as though this particular piece was written for an advice column of a newspaper, but with the detail that is given to the reader, it seems as though the author is going though the same situation as she is advising on.  This makes me think that it may be more like something that she would’ve written in a diary or a journal to convince herself that what she was doing was right, but also trying to distance herself from the moral concerns she may have with leaving him by offering the alternative scenarios.

            The details into the wife’s thoughts are convincingly realistic to a woman in the character’s position, which supports the journal entry theory: “You will feel passing waves of dependency, and sentimentality.  A week, a month, a year, and he has become you family,”  “You will fantasize about a funeral. At that you could cry.”  These insights into the mind of a woman in this situation are almost too realistic to think that the narrator has not been there.

Things you need to know...

• First of all my name is Charlotte.  I am Anne's roommate.
  
• I have a Mini-Schnauzer named Abby, I pre-apologize if she is all I talk about in class.
• I am a junior; Public Relations major; English minor.
• I have two brothers.  One is 24 the other is 13.
• I am from Bloomfield Hills, MI.
• I guess I'm a cancer... 

If there is anything else that you are curious about, feel free to ask or Facebook me.