2013 Literature in English Poetry Prediction

1) Any one of Keat's poems- Mostly sonnets
2) Lawrence poem- Maybe Snake
3) Heaney- Potato Digging/Casualty
4)A Browning Poem
5) London vs Chimney sweeper by Blake

Any 3 of these are possible Q's. These are just predictions, so please do not take my word for it
I am just studying Blake, Keats, Lawrence & Heaney.

You can't win a gamble unless you gamble, can you now?

Analysis of D.H. Lawrence’s “The Ship of Death”

“Have you built your ship of death, O have you?” D.H. Lawrence asks in his dark and compelling work of poetry entitled “The Ship of Death”. Written shortly before his own death in early 1930, the poem is divided into ten separate parts that proceed in what seems like a circular motion, efficiently chronicling the long and painful process of aging, the deceptive “suddenness” of death, and the pink, fleshy reappearance into the world with a miraculous rebirth. It centers itself around the images of a boat, our “ship of death” that allows the soul to survive the “soundless, ungurgling flood” that threatens to sweep us up and, if not for “the ship of death,” would swallow that little shred of ourselves that is left as the abysmal sea of eternity submerges “the last branches of the tree” of the individual’s earthly existence.

D.H. Lawrence uses excellent imagery when describing the process of aging and the woes of the elderly in this poem, beginning the piece with the idea that: “it is autumn [with] the falling fruit / and [that] the long journey towards oblivion” has begun. In this sense, he is speaking of the “autumn” of the body itself, when everything is wrinkled and sags and the ancient corporeal form in which the soul has resided for so long is nearing its eternal demise. The first forty lines of the piece, proceeding through the first half of the poem’s numbered stanzas, seem to beckon to the reader, crying “die the death”! as it moves through a slow, almost painful to read, approach to death itself. In the same sense that the dark and melancholy imagery (I.E. “The grim frost is at hand,” “The dark and endless ocean of the end,” ) increases the overall feeling of hopelessness, fear, and loss, the way Lawrence constructs this piece, dragging on and on but inevitably arriving at death nonetheless, makes the actual event all the more welcome when reached.

Some of Lawrence’s lines through this section are reminiscent of the opening passages of the second stanza of William Butler Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium,” where he states “An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick”. Consider, for example, lines 32 - 34, where Lawrence suggests that “Already our bodies are fallen, bruised, badly bruised, / already our souls are oozing through the exit / of the cruel bruise.” Both communicate the ragged scab of a man that the most disturbing (and possibly leprous) elderly males eventually become, with the tell-tale smell of death hanging about them. The entire forty-line process of dying seems to reek of death! “Ah! Can’t you smell it?”

“Piecemeal the body dies,” begins stanza six, heralding the descent into the death of the individual and the coming of the flood which Lawrence associates with eternal death, but it is not until stanza eight that complete and utter death occurs, culminating with the line: “Everything is gone, the body is gone.” The climax of this little section of death is buried in lines 56 & 57, where it reads: “Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies / and life departs.” The actual process of death, like the process of aging and dying before it, seems to drag on and on, as does the actual process, (in most cases, especially violent ones, which it seems Lawrence was trying hardest to portray,) giving the individual time to construct his little “ship of death” and fill it with all manner of supplies. ( Lawrence mentions food, clothing, wine, and a ‘all accouterments’) It’s almost biblical, the way Lawrence uses the idea of a vessel built to allow the individual to survive a great flood, even going so far as to refer to it as “your little ark”. Apparently, however, Lawrence gets most of his imagery, indeed the entire “ship of death” idea from an ancient Viking death ritual where the deceased is lain on a raft (or boat) with a few of their earthly possessions, and sent “down the river,” as it were, after the boat has been set on fire. So, drawing from these two images, (Noah’s ark and the flaming death-raft,) Lawrence seems to have constructed a unique form of “ship,” one which, like the Viking rafts, carries the dead out upon the water, but at the same time seems to serve the purpose of preserving life, like the Ark. Lawrence’s spiral into the depths of death continues with the steady darkening and slipping into oblivion that begins with lines 65 & 66, where it reads “There is no port, there is nowhere to go / only the deepening blackness darkening still”. As the poem progresses from this point, the little ship promptly disappears, swallowed by the encroaching night of eternity and slipping into the sacred void of oblivion, until all seems utterly lost.

What happens next seems to cry out “but wait!” as eternity seems to finally part, revealing the hazy, pink dawn of rebirth. It does not start immediately, however, but is a slow, steady culmination which first makes its appearance at the beginning of stanza nine, where Lawrence speaks of the sudden materialization of a “thread” that “separates itself on the blackness,” and “fumes a little with pallor upon the dark.” As the poem progresses from this point, the melancholy feelings instilled by Lawrence throughout the earlier parts of the poem seem to evaporate, allowing the little thread to brighten and expand, becoming “the cruel dawn of coming back to life”. Our little ship has reappeared as dawn breaks, “faltering and lapsing / on the pink flood”. The individual re-appears near the end of the poem, seen “strange and lovely,” indicating the transference of the soul to a new body, one both unfamiliar, and yet beautiful in the way that infants are beautiful. Lawrence describes the individual as having a heart full of peace, which is reminiscent of how an infant is when he or she first finds its mother’s breast, and lays down in a calm, relaxed state of quiet love. That is, until the final line of stanza nine which hangs like a dark cloud on the horizon, ominous and full of a dark promise: “and the whole thing starts again.”

And so, we are born anew, age, die, and, having braved the torturous flood of oblivion, are again, born anew. In this sense, “The Ship of Death” is a circular piece, and could, theoretically, be read over and over again with no real definitive end. His use of autumn and winter, interspersed throughout the piece with the phases of night and day seem to communicate his central theme of dying, death, and rebirth in a way that is not only brilliant, but seems to hearken back to the days of the ancient Greek philosophers and the little riddles that arose from that period in human history. In all, it is an excellent and very well written piece which bravely dives into the darkest waters of oblivion and returns alive, yet remains haunted by the final line of the final stanza, which solemnly states the inevitability of death in seven carefully picked words, reading “For the voyage of oblivion awaits you.”

Analysis of D.H Lawrence's - Piano

The rhythm of the poem has a slow, reflective quality, accentuated by the punctuation. He mentions dangerously emotive words such as "heart" and "weeps" without saying that this is what he is doing at this moment. To those who have happy memories of childhood days at home, he is pulling the heartstrings. This is a word connection he did not, strangely, make with the piano strings - perhaps he was taking a gamble that our inner consciousness would make the subliminal connection.

The similarity of "clamour" and "glamour" is clever, but may not be be all that necessary to the general success of the poem. Lawrence then goes on to outline, that although he has achieved much of what he wanted to achieve as a man, in breaking out from his father's and his mother's bindings, in doing so he has lost something. Something ephemeral, priceless and dear. Most of us feel this. It is a necessary part of true maturity. Yet it hurts all the same.

Lawrence appears to accept that he is looking through rose-tinted spectacles, by his use of the word "glamour" for childish days. Glamour is accepted to be a sort of gloss - something which wears off and does not last. So here he shows that he is being realistic. This avoids sentimentality. Only at the end of the poem does he allow us to guess that, perhaps at some low point of depression or failure or guilt in his life - he may have felt such sorrow as to actually weep tears. Many people have things they wish they had done differently with their parents when growing up. It is only when we are adults ourselves that we realise how hard things may have been for them. He has prepared us for this sorrow by carefully setting the scene.

The question is how to speak of human emotion without slipping into sentimentality ourselves. Learning from Lawrence, we see that sentiment must never be gratuituous. It must be truly felt, simply expressed and speak directly. We can set the scene and evoke atmospheres by careful choice of word and rhythm, but if we indulge in passionate self-pity, sickly supplication and florid description we miss our target as our readers will be switched off.

If Lawrence's poem works, it may be because he speaks directly to our hearts about
a truth which we recognise.

Analysis of Keats'- On the Sea

In Keats’ ‘On the Sea’ we see the transcendence of the sea into a majestical, sacred force. It is not a human ruled asset for our exploitation, leisure or travel; it is God-like power that shows our minute nature against its sublime nature. From this sublime nature, it becomes a God-given source of rest and restoration. The human suffering of the senses is expressed in the lines: ‘who have your eyeballs vexed and tired… who ears are dinned with uproar rude… or fed too much with cloying melody’, but it is through the sea that we gain back our senses. By personifying the organs, an emotional resonance is then created in the audience to feel the presence of their suffering. However, Keats exclaims, ‘Oh ye!’ emphasising his advisory nature and eagerness to his revelation: ‘feast them upon the wideness of the sea’. The metaphorical description of the sea being something to feast on highlights it’s nourishing essence to the body, a vast wide banquet for one to feed on as a source for rest, peace and resolution from the blocked senses.
Furthermore, the polarity of the nature of sea is described: ‘Often tis in such a gentle temper found… when at last the winds of Heaven were unbound’. The oxymoron of gentle and temper emphasises it’s dual nature while the association of the Heavens emphasises both the god-power of the sea, but also the Romantic connection that nature was god – all powerful, awe inspiring and truly untameable.
Though the imagination, nature is revealed to be restorative and nourishing, not a mundane part of the environment that we use for our wellbeing, that can be restricted or understood by technology and logic. The creation of the everyday into the exotic has therefore given birth to a pantheistic appreciation of the environment through the imaginative exaltation of nature, as Wordsworth believed, Nature is a nurturer and restorer, a force whose restorative qualities could sooth the battered spirit and provide refuge.

Analysis of Hopkins- “No Worst, There is None”

“No Worst, There is None” is one of the poems that date from 1885 and are referred to as his “terrible sonnets”. This is not a comment on the quality of the poems but a reference to their subject matter, which is the experience of a man going through the terrors of severe depression, which he fears will end in either death or madness. In the case of the sonnet under review, the title, which also comprises the opening words, summarises the mood of the whole.

Hopkins was an innovator with verse forms and the inventor of the “curtal sonnet” of ten and a half lines. However, he stuck to the traditional fourteen line sonnet form for “No Worst”, with a distinct break in sense at the ninth line to form the octave and sestet of the Petrarchan sonnet. In some editions Hopkins’s sonnet is printed with a line break at this point to emphasis the two parts.

Hopkins also stuck to the ABBA ABBA rhyme scheme for the octave, which is the Petrarchan pattern, but for the sestet he used CDCDCD, which is not typical of either the Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnet.

The sonnet form is often a vehicle for a carefully constructed formal poem in which an argument is expounded as a sort of conservation between octave and sestet. Many sonnets appear to be exercises in verbal dexterity and thus tend to be low on emotional content. It is not the form one might expect for a poem in which the poet is pouring out his soul in a state of despair. However, this is exactly what Hopkins is doing here in a poem that is remarkable for dealing solely with his state of mental suffering and analysing it in painful detail.

Hopkins begins by emphasising the depth of his despair:

“No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,

More pangs will, schooled

at forepangs, wilder wring.”

Hopkins uses several poetic devices here to achieve his effect. For example, there is repetition (and thus reinforcement) of key words (pitched/pitch; pangs/forepangs) and alliteration in “will … wilder wring”. In particular, the ambiguity of “pitch” is effective in that the word can mean “thrown” and also refer to the level of a note in music (Hopkins was an accomplished musician as well as a poet). There is also the connotation of “pitch blackness”. All three meanings could be relevant here. The general sense of these lines is that the agony of grief is made worse by the pain that the sufferer feels due to remembering his earlier pains (“schooled at forepangs”). This is a highly accurate account of how a depressed person typically allows their grief to feed upon itself.

Hopkins, as a Jesuit priest, would naturally have sought solace in prayer, but in lines three and four he echoes the despairing words of Christ on the Cross (“Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?”):

“Comforter, where, where is your comforting?

Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?”

The following lines continue to build the grief, using some typical Hopkins word-form constructions such as “herds-long” to describe how his cries stretch out like a string of cattle walking past. His griefs “huddle in a main”, with “main” having the double meaning of “broad expanse” and “the most important part”. “Huddle” can also mean either “crowd together” or “drive hurriedly” (as in “the people were huddled towards the exit”).

Hopkins now expands his grief into something that is beyond himself. It is a “world-sorrow” that is “age-old” and in which he is now participating. In trying to seek a cause for his depression, Hopkins is convinced that it derives from the original sin that afflicts all people in all times, such that there is no escape from it. In fact, Hopkins appeared to be suffering from what is known as “endogenous depression” that is an illness in the way that influenza is an illness. There was therefore no underlying cause, but that was not going to stop the sufferer from seeking one. If one is convinced that one is being punished there must surely have been an offence that merited the punishment.

The poet now puts words into the mouth of “Fury”, who: “had shrieked ‘No ling- / ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief”. It is interesting to note that Hopkins splits the word “lingering” between two lines, which not only allows “ling” to rhyme with other end-words in the octave but also makes the word “linger” when read. This is a good example of Hopkins stretching the sonnet form to fit his poetic purpose rather than allowing himself to be constrained by it.

“Fury” can be understood either in religious terms, as the “God of Righteousness” or as the power of truth expressing anger that is aimed at the evil inherent in the sufferer. The blow that causes the distress must be short and sharp, “fell” in the sense of “lethal” and “force” meaning “perforce” but with the overtone of “being forceful”, which is yet another example of Hopkins letting a word perform more than  one function.

The sestet comments on the octave in quieter tones. Hopkins expresses his mental condition in general terms:

“O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall

Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. … ”

In other words, the manic depressive condition can produce great highs and deep lows that the sufferer can switch between at any moment. No-one who has not experienced this can properly understand what is going on (“Hold them cheap / May who ne’er hung there”) and the anguish of despair cannot be endured for long (“Nor does long our small / Durance deal with that steep or deep. … ”). Hopkins uses the internal rhyme of “steep or deep” to good effect, especially in conjunction with “creep” at the end of the line, as this emphasises the connection between the highs and lows and the need to “creep / Wretch” into whatever comfort might be available.

At the end of the poem Hopkins seeks relief in the knowledge that “each day dies with sleep” and that this escape from the day’s terrors is always available. However, this is coupled with “all / Life death does end”, and this reference is ironic for a Catholic believer like Hopkins. Just as another terrible day may present itself tomorrow, death will only lead to an afterlife of punishment for the evils that he believes are inherent in him and are the cause of the earthly punishment that he is suffering now. This irony belies the poem’s opening line, because there is indeed something worse than the pain and grief of his condition, namely the everlasting pain that is to come. This fear is only adding to his current grief.

This poem is disturbing and painful to read, because the reader cannot help but feel something of the grief of the poet. It is all the more disturbing if the reader has been through a similar experience, or has lived with someone who has. They will also recognise the extra degree of anxiety that is added when the sufferer has strong religious convictions and believes that they are being punished for their sins.

The comfort for the reader is that Hopkins did recover from his depression during his last years, and that his writing of poems such as “No Worst” (and it must be remembered that they were not intended to be read by anyone else) was part of the self-imposed therapy that helped him to come to terms with his condition and find his escape from it.

Analysis of Gerard Manley Hopkins-"Felix Randal"

 Later in life, however, Hopkins began to question his purpose in life, as he was often sick and his faith was “tested sorely” (773). His poetry became much more pensive as a result. “Felix Randal” is a transitional work; while it still has a Christian theme, the poem has a much more reflective and personal tone than his former works.

In fact, though the title is “Felix Randal”, the poem is just as much and perhaps even more about Hopkins’ ministry. Note that Hopkins’ reaction to the news that Felix is dead is neither sorrow nor joy but a comment that Hopkins own duty toward Felix is “all-ended” (line 1,776). He does not go on to speak of the good times in the man’s life, but rather how his greatness diminished. He describes how he has watched the physical decline of this man, “…his mould of man, big-boned and hardy handsome/pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it and some/Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended” (lines 2-4,776). Felix Randal was a “farrier” (line 1,776), a blacksmith. It is interesting that his decline suits his profession; he loses his shape like a piece of metal in the forge, becoming amorphous.

The second stanza concentrates on Felix as the object of Hopkins’ ministries. Hopkins gives Felix Extreme Unction, “Sickness broke him. Impatient he cursed at first, but mended/Being anointed and all;…” (lines 5-6,776). Extreme Unction is the final sacrament in the Catholic Church, meant to prepare one’s soul to enter heaven. However, Felix’s attempt to skirt Hell began before the Anointing of the Sick near his deathbed, “though a heavenlier heart began some/Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom/Tendered to him” (lines 6-8,776). Notice that the emphasis is on the sacraments the man has received even more than the attitude change that has occurred. This is not a tale of a deathbed conversion. The focus is not on the dying man, but on Hopkins’ work with the man.

The next stanza is explicitly about Hopkins’ specific ministry to Felix. Hopkins describes the connection between the two of them, “This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears./My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears,/Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal” (lines 9-12,776). It is interesting that Hopkins portrays the relationship as reciprocal. Hopkins and Felix are both endeared to each other. Felix’s tears which he wipes away touch his heart. That a whole stanza is given to the mutual aspect of the relationship rather than just Hopkins’ one-sided ministry to the man is significant. Perhaps Hopkins was trying to console himself to the idea of ministry, that it was not a constant giving with nothing in return. He needed to know that his personal sufferings had a purpose. Not only that, he wanted his spiritual exercises, his writings, to be missionary. He longed for recognition and was “…preoccupied with his lack of an audience” (774).

The final stanza highlights the difference between the Felix Randal of life versus on his deathbed. In life, Felix Randal was a productive citizen, lively and “boisterous” (line 12,776). His work as a blacksmith garnered him respect, as he was “powerful amidst peers” (line 13,776). However, as he approached death, he seemed the exact opposite: weak, cursing, and unlikeable. Hopkins notes the distinct difference, “How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years” (line 12,776). It is possible that this illustration of a distinct difference in personality and form between youth and old age had its roots in Hopkins’ own disenchantment with his vocation. His later years found him frustrated with a sense of “poetic infertility” (774). In addition, his ministries were tiring, as he later noted, “It made even life a burden to me” (773).

Maybe “Felix Randal” should really be titled “Gerard Manley Hopkins”, as Hopkins seems to have as much trouble reconciling himself to his life as Felix has to his deathbed. Hopkins, like Felix the blacksmith, created much in his early years, but later was overwhelmed by a sense of thwarted purpose. Indeed, the poem focuses more on Hopkins’ reactions and musings on Felix Randal than on Felix Randal himself

Analysis - 'Punishment' - by Seamus Heaney

The poem "Punishment" by Seamus Heaney is a very vivid voyage through his imagination as he describes a corpse that was found in 1951 of a young girl who had been brutally tortured and killed as punishment for adultery in a way that was custom for the time period the body dates. Heaney writes as though he can see the girl near the time of her death and even feel her tethers and bonds as though he were experiencing it first hand. He uses excruciatingly detailed imagery giving the poem a very dark and ominous feel. Also, the use of enjambment is used very artfully to flow the reader along in a progression of thought, and moves seamlessly from past to present. He devotes the entire first half of the poem to description alone, with lines like "her shaved head / like a stubble of black corn," fifth stanza, that force the reader to picture the detestable manner in which she was treated.

The title, "Punishment," does not really tell the reader what to expect. It is one ambiguous word, which may mean different things to different people. However, one common part that could likely be assumed is everyone would describe punishment as being something that is deserved. Entering the poem with this in mind leads to a quick shock as the reader begins to realize what Heaney is describing. What is punishment? Punishment is defined as a penalty imposed for wrongdoing, but who decides what wrongdoings are and the appropriate punishment for each deed? Heaney draws more on this as he connects the girl found in the bog to those women who were punished during much of the turmoil and war in Ireland for having relations with the British. Heaney mentions in the last two stanzas of the poem that he did nothing as he watched those women being stripped and tarred in the streets, almost as if he is placing the blame partially on himself; not just himself, but all those, like Heaney who stood by and did nothing. The situations are similar in this way because even those people who were not directly involved in executing the punishment share the guilt of the mistreatment for their complacency. We are all complacent as things progress and wrongs are done all around us. It is the old evils paralleled to the new; they have changed very little. Heaney writes in stanza eight "I almost love you / but would have cast, I know, / the stones of silence." He imagines his own part in the events leading up to her death and they mirror his inaction in the end of the poem in reference to his present time.

There is also the possibility that he is receiving his own punishment in this piece. It starts out with all the feelings of the young girl being transferred to the first person. He feels the restraints that were placed upon her because they are symbolic of his own restraints: the feeling of being in a crowd and seeing someone become the subject of ridicule; those who defend the person become in party with the victim, and in the volatile condition of Ireland at the time, could have very well received similar punishment for taking their defense. Therefore, no one helps, they choose to remain part of the crowd, but their guilt becomes their burden and a punishment of its own. The "little adulteress," what crime did she commit but love. Her crime pales in comparison to the atrocity she received as punishment, just as those women who chose to associate with the British were dealt with unjustly. Heaney even seems to set himself up as the imaginary co-adulterer with his selection of words when describing the young girl in a very personal tone. He calls her "My poor scapegoat," and refers to a time before she was killed in stanza seven: "you were flaxen-haired, / undernourished, and your / tar-black face was beautiful." This may also be re-enforced by the voice choosing to mention the girls nipples in the cold wind, which to me seems out of place other than to illustrate her nakedness, not only to the elements but also to her peers, to those enacting this horrible judgment, and to the fact of approaching death she faces. It is as if there is a duality in his perception of her; he refers to her both lovingly and in an awkward cruelness that sets a very strange feel to the poem.

Sources: http://voices.yahoo.com/a-reading-response-poem-punishment-seamus-2881652.html?cat=37

Major Thems- The Fly by Mansfield

Major Themes

Mansfield never explained exactly what she meant “The Fly” to signify, and the story has spawned a variety of interpretations. It is frequently seen as an indictment of the brutal horror of World War I, along with the hopelessness and despair left in its wake. Many scholars have remarked that the timetable that the story sets for the death of the two sons coincides with the 1915 death of Mansfield's brother, a victim of wartime fighting. The war dead, it is claimed, are likened to flies and innocently slaughtered by cruel forces over which they have no control. Some critics have pointed to references Mansfield made in her journals and letters about flies to show that the fly represents herself, struggling to fight the ravages of her tuberculosis, only to be crushed in the end by a selfish and cruel father much like the boss in her story. Other critics have resisted such autobiographical interpretations, insisting they detract from a more universally compelling existential message concerning the inevitability of death and man's unwillingness to accept this truth. These scholars see the story as essentially about the boss's brief realization of his own pitiful ambitions and mortality before he subconsciously tries to suppress this horrible knowledge.

Much attention has been paid to the central character of the boss. He has been seen as a symbol of malignant forces that are base and motiveless, a representative of the generation that sent its sons to their slaughter in a cruel war, and a god-like figure who, in the words of King Lear, toys with the lives of human beings for sport. Most critics agree that the reader's early good impression of the boss is continually undermined as the story unfolds. In the end, some have claimed, he can be viewed as a sadomasochist who likely cowed his son as he does Woodifield and his clerk. He is a bully who torments the fly for boyish pleasure, and his sense of loss is no more than self-pity. However, some commentators claim that the boss should not be viewed as an unsympathetic character, but simply as a man whose experiments on a common housefly are manifestations of an unconscious metaphysical questioning about the meaning of life. The answer comes to him briefly, but he becomes frightened and quickly pushes it out of his mind. Other critics have seen the boss as a man coming to terms with his own selfishness and heartlessness, who recognizes briefly that his grief for his son has been based on a kind of self-deception. As a result, when the fly dies the boss suffers a spiritual death.

Critics have also remarked on the story's multi-layered symbolism. The vigorous boss is at first seen in contrast to doddering old Woodifield, but by the end of the story both men have forgotten about their son's deaths. Woodifield, in his dotage, is likened to a baby, and the boss to a greedy boy; both men are immature and lacking in real strength. Neither of them visits his son's grave because of their respective weaknesses, but while the frailty of Woodifield is immediately apparent, the deficiency of the powerful boss is revealed to be far more disturbing. The fly seems to be a symbol for, among other things, the men under the boss's control. The boss treats the fly condescendingly and benevolently as he does Woodifield who is “on his last pins.” He also demands that the fly “look sharp,” the same order he gives his clerk. This leads us to wonder if his son did not suffer the same unthinking treatment at the hands of his father, and if the boss's grief is in fact genuine.

HOPKINS- GOD’S Grandeur

            HOPKINS

GOD’S Grandeur

The poem begins with the surprising metaphor of God’s grandeur as an electric force. The figure suggests an undercurrent that is not always seen, but which builds up a tension or pressure that occasionally flashes out in ways that can be both brilliant and dangerous. The optical effect of “shook foil” is one example of this brilliancy. The image of the oil being pressed out of an olive represents another kind of richness, where saturation and built-up pressure eventually culminate in a salubrious overflow. The image of electricity makes a subtle return in the fourth line, where the “rod” of God’s punishing power calls to mind the lightning rod in which excess electricity in the atmosphere will occasionally “flame out.” Hopkins carefully chooses this complex of images to link the secular and scientific to mystery, divinity, and religious tradition. Hopkins is defiantly affirmative in his assertion that God’s work is still to be seen in nature, if men will only concern themselves to look. The olive oil, on the other hand, is an ancient sacramental substance, used for centuries for food, medicine, lamplight, and religious purposes. This oil thus traditionally appears in all aspects of life, much as God suffuses all branches of the created universe. Moreover, the slowness of its oozing contrasts with the quick electric flash; the method of its extraction implies such spiritual qualities as patience and faith. (By including this description Hopkins may have been implicitly criticizing the violence and rapaciousness with which his contemporaries drilled petroleum oil to fuel industry.) Thus both the images of the foil and the olive oil bespeak an all-permeating divine presence that reveals itself in intermittent flashes or droplets of brilliance.

Hopkins’s question in the fourth line focuses his readers on the present historical moment; in considering why men are no longer God-fearing, the emphasis is on “now.” The answer is a complex one. The second quatrain contains an indictment of the way a culture’s neglect of God translates into a neglect of the environment. But it also suggests that the abuses of previous generations are partly to blame; they have soiled and “seared” our world, further hindering our ability to access the holy. Yet the sestet affirms that, in spite of the interdependent deterioration of human beings and the earth, God has not withdrawn from either. He possesses an infinite power of renewal, to which the regenerative natural cycles testify. The poem reflects Hopkins’s conviction that the physical world is like a book written by God, in which the attentive person can always detect signs of a benevolent authorship, and which can help mediate human beings’ contemplation of this Author.

Analysis of William Blake's- Little Boy & little girl, clod and the pebble, London

                                   William Blake

"The Little Boy Lost" and "The Little Boy Found"

Summary

A little boy cannot keep up with his father, so he cries out for the older man to slow down or speak to him so he can find his way. No one answers and the darkness rolls in, so the boy begins to weep.

In the companion poem, God hears the little boy’s weeping and appears to him in the image of his father dressed in white. He leads the boy home to his mother, whom the boy greets with weeping.

Analysis

Both “The Little Boy Lost” and “The Little Boy Found” are two-stanza poems composed of two quatrains. The first poem has an erratic rhyme scheme, ABCD ABCB (although it is possible line 2's “fast” is a slant rhyme with line 4's “lost,” making the first stanza ABCB). By contrast, the second poem is clearly ABCB in both stanzas. The first poem's near rhyme adds to the tone of discomfort and fear the boy feels toward his too-quick father. The second poem's rhyme is more easily identified, making it seem more organized and “right” to the reader's senses.

The little boy of these two poems represents the human soul or spirit, seeking God the Father in a sin-wracked world that seeks to obliterate the signs of His presence. In the first of the two poems, the boy calls out to his earthly father, but is left behind to fend for himself. Blake suggests that earthly religious practices, philosophies, or institutions cannot lead the soul to absolute truth and peace. In following the “father” of the world, the boy only becomes more lost.

It is only through the intervention of God Himself in the second poem that the child returns to a state of safety, possibly intended to suggest the salvation of the regenerate soul, in the arms of a maternal figure. The nurturing mother is able to give comfort where the earthly father and or the society created by such men only offer abandonment and hopelessness. That it is the female figure who actually comforts the boy is telling. Blake may be suggesting a stronger healing power within “mother earth” than within the “father church” of his day. He may also be seeking to balance the male and female aspects of creation: the male, in this case God the Father, leads the soul to its destination, while the female passively awaits the soul to offer it bliss. Nonetheless, the mother figure is more positively represented in these two poems.

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"The Little Girl Lost" and "The Little Girl Found"

Summary

These two poems parallel the similarly titled “Little Boy Lost” and “Little Boy Found” of Songs of Innocence. In fact, these two poems were originally written for Songs of Innocence, but were moved to Songs of Experience due to their eschatological themes. In the first stanza, Blake returns to his prophetic voice from the first two poems, envisioning a future in which the Earth has been unbound from the chains of Reason and seeks her creator. In that day, the wild desert in which the little girl will wander later in the poem becomes “a garden mild.” The seven-year-old girl, Lyca, represents the human soul, lost and wandering “in desert wild” as she searches for meaning or solace. Unlike the “Little Boy” poems, Lyca’s parents seek after her with desperate hearts. In her wandering, Lyca cannot rest as long as her mother weeps for her. Eventually her mother stops weeping long enough for the girl to go to sleep, and it is here that she finds the beginning of her own paradise. The wild animals, most notably a lion and lioness, surround Lyca’s sleeping form but cannot or will not harm her because she is a virgin. The lion, an echo of the protective king of beasts from “Night” in Songs of Innocence, weeps “ruby tears” while the lioness disrobes Lyca, symbolically removing her soul from her material body in death. The lions then take Lyca to their cave to sleep.

The second poem follows the parents in their search for Lyca. They grow increasingly desperate, a state that is only increased when they dream of her starving in the desert. They encounter the lion, who at first knocks them to the ground then stalks around them. Smelling their scent, or more likely the scent of their daughter Lyca, the lion licks their hands and speaks to them, telling them to cease weeping and follow him to his “palace” wherein their daughter rests “among tiger-tiger first line of the poem is very powerful, with the use of the first syllable emphasis (trochee) and the second word being repeated. On a literal level this is obviously talking about a Tiger and with the use of exclamation marks to give the impression of a statement or a warning, something to be feared and that is dangerous, it could also be someone addressing the Tiger itself, calling or maybe shouting for its attention. The next few words of the first line 'Burning' and 'bright' makes you thing on a literal level of perhaps the colour of the Tiger orange .On a slightly more philosophical level the word burning could be associated with a fire which, used in this context is relating the ambivalence between the Tiger and the fire, on one side fire when controlled is an essential asset and vital in life. But on the other, when uncontrolled can be wild, unpredictable, and dangerous and in some cases can destroy life. This is much the same as a Tiger, which is beautiful, yet can deadly. The use of the two 'b's' 'Burning' and 'Bright' as alliteration is also used to emphasize that of the power and fear of the Tiger. In the forests of the night, In contrast to the first line the second line is filled with darkness and on a literal level can be associated with the night, being dark and tin the deep of a jungle or forest there wouldn't be much light and it would seem very dark. Yet, Blake uses the darkness to represent more on a philosophical level. The night, the night is often associated with danger and mysterious and terrible things happening. For example, witches and ghosts only come out at night. But also, the forest as well as being physically very dark is also a very morally dark place. Where terrible immoral things take place. An example of this is the fairytale story Hansel and Gretel who go into the forest and are captured by a witch, in other words, child abduction. What immoral hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? These next two lines are one of the most crucial in the whole poem, firstly on a literal level, a question directed to the tiger itself asking 'who has made you?' .On a slightly more philosophical level 'what immortal' or really 'what God or Gods' and the use of 'hand' and 'eye' words associated with making and creating something, meaning in this context 'What God or Gods have created you' But the real question comes in the next line. The use of the word 'frame' making you think of something controlled or contained and also connected with symmetry, with perfection. Something symmetrical is associated with something well made .So through this line Blake is trying put across the idea that because the tiger is so well made it must have been created by someone or something very important like a God or Gods. 2nd Stanza: In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? In the first line of the second stanza Blake uses the words 'deeps' and 'skies' this on a literal level makes you thing of the deeps as the ocean and Skies as, the sky. On a philosophical level this is a very elemental line with the uses of water and air (deeps being associated with oceans and skies) also the distant meaning that these are two extremes and comparisons. The next line reintroduces the relevance of 'fire' by using the word 'burning' also adding another element to the stanza. On a literal level the words 'burning' and 'eyes' you could associated with cats eyes which do appear to glow.

"The Clod and the Pebble"

The difference in perspective aligns with the “experiences” of the two inanimate speakers. The clod has been “Trodden with the cattle’s feet,” so that it is malleable, but also easily shaped to the will of others. The pebble has been hardened by its time in the brook and therefore offers resistance to any who would seek to use it for their own ends. By contrast, the clod is somewhat mobile, whereas the pebble must remain at rest in its place on the bottom of the brook.

Nonetheless, the poem does not allow the reader to side completely with the Clod and its view of love. Both clod and pebble experience loss; the Pebble rejoices in the loss of others, while the Clod rejoices in its own loss of ease. Even the Clod's Heaven is built on the despair of Hell, thus "taking" from another in order to increase. In the "Experienced" mind, exploitation of others is a requirement for progress of any sort.

Structurally, the poem appears at first to be two balanced syllogisms of the respective viewpoints. The word “but” in line 6 is the turning point from the Clod's argument to that of the Pebble. The former argument is one of Innocence, while the second shifts to Experience. That Blake chooses to end the debate with the Pebble's argument lends to this poem an interpretation that favors the Pebble's hardened point of view regarding love. However, the balancing lines "And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair" (line 4) and "And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite" (line 12) force the reader to see the two views as balanced and to reach his own conclusions based on personal experience.

"London"

Summary

Blake’s London is a dismal place, populated by crying infants, poor chimneysweepers, violent soldiers, and brazen prostitutes. Here the prophetic voice of the Bard returns to decry the existence of such a place. Everywhere he sees “Marks of weakness, marks of woe.” Like and Amos or Jonah of old, the Bard calls London to repent of its wickedness, its oppression of the poor, and its cultivation of vice, or be destroyed.

Analysis

"London" follows an ABAB rhyme scheme throughout its three stanzas with little deviation from iambic tetrameter. Only "Mind-forg'd manacles" and "How" and "Blasts" in lines 14-15 are irregularly stressed. "Mind-forg'd" is stressed to further its contrast from the preceding three lines, each of which begins "In every" to create a litany of cries throughout London. Lines 14 and 15 give irregular stress to the two words in order to further disturb the reader, leading up to the oxymoron of the "marriage hearse" in line 16.

The poet expresses his disdain for the urban sprawl of post-Industrial Revolution London in terms as harsh as his praise for nature and innocence are pleasant. A society of people so tightly packed into artificial structures breeds evil upon evil, culminating with the “Harlot’s curse” that harms both the young and the married. It is as if a system has been created specifically to destroy all that is good in humankind, a theme Blake takes up in his later works. The reader is warned off visiting or dwelling in London, and by implication urged to seek refuge from the world’s ills in a more rural setting.

Blake's critique is not aimed only at society or the system of the world, however. Only the third stanza directly addresses one group's oppression of another. Instead, much of the poem decries man's self-oppression. One reading of the poem suggests that the Harlot of the last stanza is in fact Nature herself, proclaimed a Harlot by a narrow-minded, patriarchal religious system. In this interpretation, Nature turns the marriage coach into a hearse for all marriage everywhere, because marriage is a limiting human institution that leads to the death of love rather than its fulfillment in natural impulses.

Analysis of TS Eliot's - Preludes

T.S Eliot’s Preludes, is one of his most prominent poems because it presents his view of society as a wasteland at that time. He does this by using concrete objects and images to metaphorically explore the nature of life and society. In this poem, we discover society as corrupt and desolate going through a cycle of meaningless routine where people bare a false hope of a divine source overlooking and protecting humanity. 
The title itself holds significant meaning. A prelude in general and particularly in a musical sense characterizes an introduction to something. This is suggesting that the characteristics of society we are provided with in this poem are merely an introduction to what we should be viewing society like. The first stanza introduces the tone of the poem with a description of a typical street from an omniscient point of view. We are first given the impression of a desolate, corrupt and exhausted society through use of a variety of verbs like x is accumulation of verbs is heavily supported through a the use of alliteration of the “s” sound in words like x This technique evokes our sense of smell imagining the picture Eliot is describing. Throughout the first stanza, we are given the suggestion of the presence of people though it is not actually ever stated. This is evident in the mentioning of “smell of steaks…feet.” This effectively communicates to us that this is a fragmented world where nothing is whole. The darkness of the first stanza is concluded with a pause, creating anticipation followed by the line “then the lighting of the lamps…” This line gives us a feeling of hope as the darkness is contrasted with the mentioning of light.
However, the start of the second stanza marks the next morning yet the tone is still identical to that of the first. Eliot stresses out the fact that it is now morning, the possibility of a new start, through the use of personification. But we are soon to discover that nothing has changed. The lines that follow it give us the feeling of a “hangover.” This is depicted by the mentioning of “faint stale smells of beer from the sawdust-trampled streets…” Once again the alliteration of “s” reminds us of the sense of smell of the image we are given. The rest of the stanza continues the motif of emptiness created in the first stanza with the extensive use of “muddy feet…hands.” The last line introduces a change in perspective as we now focus on a more personal view, assuming the point of view of one particular person.
The shift to the second person immediately leads us to become more involved with the situation. The first three lines depict a haunted and restless night using the repetition of “you” and the accumulation x whole stanza constructs a shattered and desolate life, strengthening the picture painted from the earlier stanzas. This is portrayed by the “sordid images of which your soul was constituted…” The woman in this stanza even goes through an epiphany, in which we are shown that she herself makes a discovery of life to be meaningless. This opinion of society is reflected as an opinion shared by the whole society since this particular woman is representative of everyone because she is just one of “a thousand furnished rooms.” 
The final part of the poem embraces the climax of the poem’s message and wraps up what is stated. After three stanzas of describing a failing society, this stanza suggests it is an ongoing cycle. The view is now switched to another particular person, a man this time. The alliteration of the “s” is reintroduced here in the first line “soul stretched tight across the skies…” Eliot points out the action of ‘stretching’ to suggest a sense of pain and agony created by restlessness. This idea could also be extended to almost make it seem like the man is vulnerable and fragile since his soul is personificated to be “stretching tight.” The accumulation of “four and five and six o’clock” infers a rhythm and a busy ongoing routine which society goes through, almost like in a mechanical way. This further outlines how society is so meaningless since we are forced to go through the same routine everyday. The “evening newspapers” is a reference to the people who travel in public transport everyday and reading the paper in the evening, a routine many people share. 
The final three lines are very dramatic as Eliot reveals that people are constantly “assured of certain certainties” outlining the lack of uniqueness among society and yet again explaining how we are part of a meaningless routine. The sharpness of the following statement “conscience of a blackened world” is extremely heartbreaking. Eliot for the first time in the poem no longer uses a metaphor to bring across his message but instead makes a definite statement about the fate of society and ultimately, the world. This rather harsh statement gives us the total impression that there is no hope left in society and that we all live in a doomed world with nothing to save us, a truth we, as the reader, are forced to discover and accept. This forms a climax in the poem as we share the despair in the words that conclude his opinion.
However, the next stanza directly contrasts this lack of hope. The perspective changes to the first person with a very personal view. His mentioning of “the notion of some infinitely gentle infinitely suffering thing” is a reference to Jesus, a divine source, whom many people of society rely on for hope. Eliot is stating that he is succumbing himself to the hope of a god to save him and society. This denotes that this is exactly what people think of for hope, a divine intervention of some sort to save humanity. But Eliot quickly dismisses this source of hope in the final concluding stanza. Using an extremely harsh and savage tone, Eliot totally disregards the hope of a god saving the world. This yet again brings us back to the tone of a sense of hopelessness, as the world has no one to save it. The use of the world “revolves” tells us that society is still undergoing a continuous process, a reminder of the idea of a meaningless, mechanic routine which society goes through. The very last line “gathering fuel in vacant lots” is a very bleak and terror-filled tone, which the poem concludes on. The ‘vacant lots’ brings us back to the first stanza, a street where the society is corrupt, desolate and fragmented.
Eliot’s Preludes, is a poem that expresses his view of society as a hopeless world where the streets are lonely, shattered and exhausted and its people are mechanical, going through a constant, meaningless routine that lacks vividness and uniqueness. Discoveries are forced upon the reader as we are faced with the harsh reality of society. Divine sources are what people believe in for hope but he dismisses this idea as well, stating that it doesn’t exist and that no one will save this world from its doomed state. And so, with this in mind we truly discover what our world faces and how there is no god to save us.