Friday, April 29, 2011

Terence, this is stupid stuff

Terence, this is stupid stuff

A. E. Housman

“Terence, this is stupid stuff:

You eat your victuals fast enough;
There can’t be much amiss, ‘tis clear,

To see the rate you drink your beer.

But oh, good Lord, the verse you make,

It gives a chap the belly-ache.

The cow, the old cow, she is dead;

It sleeps well, the horned head:

We poor lads, ‘tis our turn now

To hear such tunes as killed the cow.

Pretty friendship, ‘tis to rhyme

Your friends to death before their time

Moping melancholy mad:

Come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad.”

Why, if ‘tis dancing you would be

There’s brisker pipes than poetry.

Say, for what were hop-yards meant,

Or why was Burton built on Trent?

Oh, many a peer of England brews

Livelier liquor than the Muse,

And malt does more than Milton can

To justify God’s ways to man.

Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink

For fellows whom it hurts to think:

Look into the pewter pot

To see the world as the world’s not.

And faith, ‘tis pleasant till ‘tis past:

The mischief is that ‘twill not last.

Oh I have been to Ludlow fair

And left my necktie God knows where,

And carried half-way home, or near,

Pints and quarts of Ludlow beer:

Then the world seemed none so bad,

And I myself a sterling lad;

And down in lovely muck I’ve lain,

Happy till I woke again.

Then I saw the morning sky:

Heigho, the tale was all a lie;

The world, it was the old world yet,

I was I, my things were wet,

And nothing now remained to do

But begin the game anew.

Therefore, since the world has still

Much good, but much less good than ill,

And while the sun and moon endure

Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure,

I’d face it as a wise man would,

And train for ill and not for good.

‘Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale

Is not so brisk a brew as ale:

Out of a stem that scored the hand

I wrung it in a weary land.

But take it: if the smack is sour,

The better for the embittered hour;

It should do good to heart and head

When your soul is in my soul’s stead;

And I will friend you, if I may,

In the dark and cloudy day.

There was a king reigned in the East:

There when kings will sit to feast,

They get their fill before they think

With poisoned meat and poisoned drink.

He gathered all that springs to birth

From the many-venomed earth;

First a little, thence to more,

He sampled all her killing store;

And easy, smiling, seasoned sound,

Sate the king when healths went round.

They put arsenic in his meat

And stared aghast to watch him eat;

They poured strychnine in his cup

And shook to see him drink it up:
They shook, they stared as white’s their shirt:

Them it was their poison hurt.

--I tell the tale that I heard told.

Mithridates, he died old.


To say I know exactly what this poem is about would be a complete lie. I see it touches on the subject of beer, and also the disloyalty of royal servants, but beyond that not much. So in my best efforts to find a theme I will say this poem is on Gluttony (or over indulgence.)

So we start the poem off with the narration of someone talking about/to Terence. Mentioning the way he eats, and drinks, and makes rhyme and music. The picture that is burning hot in my head is the image of some Viking bar, where a bold bartender with a long mustache is handing out pints of beer to his over-comfortably weighted guests. What I think get from the first two stanzas is that the poet is trying to tell how this man is eating, drinking, and dancing his way out of reality, that is ultimately futile.

In the next stanza I think he’s kind of wrapping up his point in saying that even great kings who have huge feasts, and can continually drown themselves in food and drink, so to end up dying from the poison, maybe that poison being cholesterol.

Like I said before there is a lot in this poem that I don’t get, most of them being allusions that I am unfamiliar with.

Hope you enjoyed dat!

For a Lady I Know

For a Lady I Know
Countee Cullen
She even thinks that up in heaven
Her class lies late and snores,
While poor black cherubs rise at seven
To do celestial chores.

Well here we go for poem number two that has stumped me; though there is not a whole lot of poem to draw from.

First off when speaking of cherubs and classes, I think the ABAB rhyme is quite fitting making the feel of it childlike. But as to what the theme pertains to, I’m pretty sure it is on the inequality of black and white children.

In the poem I feel is based on a teacher who is troubled by the fact that even in heaven (a place of justice and fairness) that the white kids in her class would still be allowed to sleep in as the black “cherubs” would do the work that needed to be done in heaven, though I don’t know how labor intensive those jobs might be.

And that’s about it.

Happy reading.

Oh No

Oh No
Robert Creeley
If you wander far enough
you will come to it
and when you get there
they will give you a place to sit

for yourself only, in a nice chair,
and all your friends will be there
with smiles on their faces
and they will likewise all have places.

You know…I’m not sure about whether or not this was the intended theme but I finded supported enough and I like the idea so lets go for it: the theme of the poem is insanity.

Everyone is told stay on the beat and path, although sometimes it’s fun to explore around the path. But it was the word “wander” that caught my eye in this poem. Because if you wander too far of the path, people will think your crazy, they’ll start talking about you, they’ll start saying things that might not even be true but it doesn’t matter because you’re a loon and you might as well have done it. Eventually when they (maybe society, or your friends) have had enough, someone will intervene. They’ll wrap you in a coat, put you in a comfy chair, sit, and talk with you.

And it’s the last line that trips me up because either:
1) they will all have places to sit so that they can talk to you
or 2) they will all have their own crazy seats in your mind, and you will intervene with them telling them all about your loon’s epistemology

I especially liked writing this one, and I hope you enjoyed it.

at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989

at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989
Lucille Clifton
among the rocks
at walnut grove
your silence drumming
in my bones,
tell me your names.

nobody mentioned slaves
and yet the curious tools
shine with your fingerprints.
nobody mentioned slaves
but somebody did this work
who had no guide, no stone,
who moulders under rock.

tell me your names,
tell me your bashful names
and i will testify.

the inventory lists ten slaves
but only men were recognized.

among the rocks
at walnut grove
some of these honored dead
were dark some of these dark
were slaves
some of these slaves
were women
some of them did this
honored work.
tell me your names
foremothers, brothers,
tell me your dishonored names.
here lies
here lies
here lies
here lies
hear

I believe I am in love with Clifton.
The theme of this poem is recognition, remembrance, or maybe white man’s regret?

I love the develop that Clifton keeps in her poems. Like she’s taking us through a journey. First by telling us the setting, then the events that happened there, then the conflict (there were no names to thank for those labored rocks.) She tells in her italics of her discovery and its limitations. And after the blank reality sets in that the names are lost, she only has the “silence” that drums into her bones, and the best she can do is “hear”.

I think remembrance is the main theme, and I think it is something important.

Love to “hear” what you think.

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
Walt Whitman
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns
before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add,
divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured
with much applause in the lecture room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.

I know we’ve done this one in class already so I feel it is kinda cheating if I identify the same theme so I’m going to day that the poets intent is to question the running definition of Learn’d.

What does it mean to be educated?
That you can take a planetary system and convert it into binary code for anaylsis?
Or you can list the major cities of the world from 1456 to the current era?
Or that you can take a brilliant piece of poetry and break it down to every syllable?

The man in this poem would be of the school that says learning is being able to experience the subject in a meaningful manor. Despite being able to see the charts, or the math, or the lecture, he’d rather see the stars because that’s what he loves, not the science.

And there you go. Hope you enjoyed yourself

Sunday, April 24, 2011

I Remember the Room was Filled with Light

I Remember the Room was Filled with Light
Judith Hemschemeyer
They were still young, younger than I am now.
I remember the room was filled with light
And moving air. I was watching him
Pick brass slivers from his hands as he did each night
After work. Bits of brass gleamed on his brow.
She was making supper. I stood on the rim
Of a wound just healing; so when he looked up
And asked me when we were going to eat
I ran to her, though she could her.
She smiled And said, ‘Tell him . . .’ Then ‘Tell her . . .’ on winged feet
I danced between them, forgiveness in my cup,
Wise messenger of the gods, their child.

Through some research I’d like to point out that the poet in this case is actually not Judith Hemschemeyer
but actually the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova (Judith Hemschemeyer being here translator.)

I think the theme of this poem is that parents are the gods of our childhood.

I hope that any AP lit students reading this will appreciate a little bit more, the information we just learned in our last class.

The poet begins by letting us know this is a memory of her father (who we will learn later works in an electrical wiring factory.) She has hurt her self in some way and is confronted with the fact she must tell him. She runs to her nanny. And she, in her paternal way smile, but tells her to tell the two (her mother and father) about the wound. And like the messenger god Hermes, she spins the tale of her accident to Zeus and Hera. Side note: Zeus is the god of thunder, or electricity; Therefore it makes sense that the brass he pulls from his hands is the brass they use for electrical wiring.

She is a child of the gods, and that is where I get the theme that: in our childhood, our parents are our gods.

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading.

The lesson of the falling leaves

the lesson of the falling leaves
Lucille Clifton
the leaves believe
such letting go is love
such love is faith
such faith is grace
such grace is god
i agree with the leaves

This is the second poem, by Clifton, that I’ve read and I, thus far, appreciate her view of human nature.

Think to the long season past of fall. Of course you know where I’m going with this: In the fall the leaves fall from the trees. They float to the grown in hopes that there decay and departure from their old friend will result, win cold winter ends, with new life and the continuation of the trees life. This is what I think the poem is speaking of: that though it hurts to leave those we care about, it ends with new opportunities, adventures and friendships for them.

The leaves love the tree, but if they were to stay the tree would never be able to escape its dead appearance. So the leaves depart with love for the tree, loving in hopes that it is able to grow into something better, hopes that are based in faith, and the faith is that the tree will choose to continue growing (because if it doesn’t grow the leaves sacrifice was in vain. But the leaves trust, and have faith in the tree.) The faith is a virtue of grace. And the grace is only available by the grace of god.

The author poet uses “such” to show how one simple act, the leaves falling, going to college, or the passing of a loved one, is so much more then simple; it means more (ie. love, faith, grace, and god.)

Again hope you’ve enjoyed it.

What the Mirror said

What the mirror said
Lucille Clifton
listen,
you a wonder.
you a city
of a woman.
you got a geography
of your own.
listen,
somebody need a map
to understand you.
somebody need directions
to move around you.
listen,
woman,
you not a noplace
anonymous girl;
mister with his hands on you
he got his hands on
some
damn
body!

I believe this poem is what people should think when they look in the mirror. Not a reflection for the purpose of bettering oneself for other, but for a reflection on how good he or she is. The theme of this poem, according to what I get from it, is that every women is an unique object of respect not only from herself, but from others as well.

I consider the listens, not only as the author’s trying to gain the attention of the reader, but also breaking up the poem into specifically different parts. Part one: Just the women, Part two: The women and others, Part three: A message to others.

Part one: Women, are unique, have the complexity of a city, have bodies that are different from any other.
Part two: People can’t approach the city (a women) with the assumption that they know their way around.
Part three: That any man, needs to know that this is not any girl, but is SOMEBODY.

Though this analysis had largely contained summary, the poem itself contains specialized development, and blatant meaning.

I love the theme, I think it should be applicable to all people, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog.

Many Red Devils

Many red devils . . .
Stephen Crane
Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page.
They were so tiny the pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.

Well we’ve all read little of Crane’s writing, and this is another of his poems which I, after having to go through some interpretation, have grown to love. I believe the theme of the poem to be that writing, more specifically poetry, is a method or mending heart break.

Crane brings the image of devils, specifically red (either to represent rage, or love, or some other deep emotion, which run across the page. Then he uses words like mash, struggle, and muck to describe the way in which his writing has freed him of these demons. That even by the end of the poem thay cease to be devils and are simply things from his heart.

This poem is strangely heart warming and I hope you like, and will comment on my analysis.