The Convert

What astonished me most about the final chapters of Tess was Alec D'Uberville's re-emergance in her life.It is almost as if Hardy wished to test Tess once again despite all he has already put her through. It is an extreme blow to the pride, confidence as well as sanity of Tess to be forced to entertain the presence of Alec. In addition, Alec does not leave Tess be despite her please and even asks her to pledge never tempt him. It is almost impossible to imagine the pain which a encounter by one's rapist would be, yet despite it all Tess remains extremely composed, de-sensitized almost by all of the other trials which she has been put through. In addition, the encounter with Alec almost seems to be Tess' final shot at happiness. For after discovering that even her beloved Angel is an extremely flawed man, Alec is brought into the picture as reformed from his old days-but still enamored with her. She is forced to chose between two unhappy situations and now the only question left is that in choosing Angel is she choosing the lesser of two evils?

'Liza-Lu

At the very end when Tess and Angel are spending their last night at Stonehenge, Tess tells him to marry her sister in the event of her death. Up until this point, 'Liza-Lu has played a very insignificant role in the story. She is around a little in the very beginning, then goes to fetch Tess when their mother is ill. Other than these few tidbits, all we really know about this girl is that she has suddenly grown tall and Tess is impressed with her beauty. Tess's wish for their marriage caught me off-guard for this reason--Hardy never really establishes a connection between the two sisters. The way he describes 'Liza-Lu, though, as a "spiritualized image of Tess, slighter than she, but with the same beautiful eyes" serves its part in making her fit better in this place. Her relationship with Angel at this point is never spelled out directly, and only the fact that they were holding hands gives us any clue. My interpretation is that the younger knows of the older sister's wish, she is beginning to get to know Angel Clare, and a relatively happy future may lie in store for them. This seems like a fitting ending, injecting some hope into an otherwise tragic story.

Tess's End

The mind state of unworthiness that is ingrained is Tess is seen up until her very last moments with Angel. Instead of wishing that Angel eternally mourn the loss of his only “love” after she has departed, she only wishes that he take up with her sister, who she sees as “all the best of me without the bad of me” and as “so good and simple and pure.” She wants Angel to have the image of perfection and purity that he always sought, and this comes in the form of her sister. Her reasoning is that, “if she were to become yours it would almost seem as if death had not divided us,” but I see it as her giving up her only wish, to be Angel’s one and only love, so that he may be with the woman that he always thought she was. I have conflicted feelings about her last action, as I feel that while her selfless nature is at points commendable, I just wish that in her last moments she had stood up against the numerous injustices brought upon her and demanded something for herself. Tess accepts her fate of death with a peacefulness and understanding that implies she still believes that it is what she deserves, but I only wish she had raged “against the dying of the light” as Dylan Thomas put it.

Stonehenge...the end

The setting in the last few pages of the novel is important because this is where Tess meets her ultimate fate; death. She falls asleep at Stonehenge where she is eventually taken away by the police to the gallows. I think Hardy chose Stonehenge as symbolic scene for his heroine’s demise because Stonehenge’s name actually means hang or gallows, which is how Tess dies. Also, Stonehenge is ancient and in a way a kind of ruins, which is exactly the story of Tess’ family and name D’Urberville. For example, Angel says, Stonehenge is “older than the centuries; older than the D’Urbervilles!” Also, Tess sleepily rests on an “altar” which is a place for sacrifice or a religious ceremony. This is an appropriate place for Tess because her life becomes entwined with sacrifice and society’s view of religion.

Purity of Tess

During class discussion today, when Steph was talking about how Tess has never done anything to deserve what has been done to her - well, it set me to thinking about that. It made me realize how Hardy manages to never place Tess in a situation where she is to blame. You have the early situation with Prince, where before he gets killed, Tess dozes off, so she cannot be blamed for his death. She was up just as late as her parents, and although she was not recovering from a hangover, she must've been just as tired, not to mention she had spent part of the day marching about and dancing with her walking club of other women.

Then with her child, Sorrow. Far too young to be a mother, and not emotionally ready to be a mother, Tess cannot be blamed for the death of her child. While it may have seemed that the infant was healthy enough, it wasn't a child that was planned, it was forced upon Tess and her maternal instinct was all that could exist to encourage her to love the child. Yet it must've been difficult to take care of the physical evidence of her rape; regardless, she does take care of the child and only wishes the best for it.

Both of these are situations with death involved, but those are the two forefront events that come to mind.

But I wonder (and I'm interested in what everyone else has to say), whether there actually are situations that places Tess as the person who is to blame for what has happened to her.

Hardy's Advice

Near the end of chapter XXXIX, where Clare returns home to visit his family, Hardy once again addresses the reader directly. As Clare, having masked his bitterness to his family, sits alone in his room he begins to rave at his absent wife. Hardy juxtaposes his bitterness and resentment with the innocence and love of Tess: "This night the woman of his belittling deprecations was thinking how great and good her husband was." (264). Indeed, even Clare's parents hold on to this idea: "I quite see her. And living in such seclusion...you were her first love?...The perfect woman, you see, was a working woman, not an idler..." (262-263). Ironically, Clare's parents still reinforce his Pauline views on chastity and its connection to morality and purity: "Since she is pure and chaste she would have been refined enough for me." (263). This is nearly too much for Angel, who has to flee the room, knowing that his beautiful wife, though hard working, will never be a refined lady, neither in his eyes nor in the eyes of his family. However, by the end of the chapter, Hardy himself declares that Tess is indeed a fine and virtuous lady. He calls Angel's judgments on Tess limited, and states that Angel cannot see, for "No prophet had told him and he was not prophet enough to tell himself." (265) Here, Hardy becomes the prophet himself, declaring that Tess is as deserving s praise as any woman of the Bible: "Her moral value having to be reckoned not by achievement but by tendency." (265). Hardy shows his tendency for determinism here by holding that morality is not shaped by events (or "achievements") but rather by the way in which one reacts to the events of life that are unfolded before them. Tess, whose life has been a series of unfortunate events, has nonetheless acted with a great tendency towards goodness, virtuosity and love.

Socrates and Tess

I know that this is kind of pushing a connection but hear me out. Socrates holds the belief that it is better to be unjustly harmed than to commit injustice. I think that Hardy must have held a similar belief. As I said in a previous post, Tess' universe is completely unequal when one compares the good and bad events in her life.  The bad events are ones that we as modern day people view as Tess being unjustly harmed (her rape, her marriage falling apart due to her rape).  However, as Tess proves to us, she too feels again and again that she deserves this harm done onto her. Time and again Tess fails to stand up for herself against Angel and even the workman who recognized her from her work at the D'urbervilles, insisting that she is getting the punishment that she deserves.  My theory is that Hardy, who admitted to being in love with his heroin, wanted Tess to be a morally upstanding individual.  He may have done this unintentionally, but Tess definitely is unjustly harmed and never commits any REAL injustice. P.S. The greeks saw rape as a horrible offense against the soul of a woman and the man who commit it was therefore killed. How did it get so turned around as to blame the woman?

Angels Love for Tess?

I was not in class on Thursday so I am not sure what was discussed, but from the time Tess tells Angel about what happened to her until the end of the reading (pg 303) I find it very hard to seriously consider Angel to be "in love" with Tess. Tess is obviously extremely vulnerable after she informs Angel of her past and instead of being sympathetic or sensitive at all, he is upset with her and says that she is not who he thought she was. This upsets me, the reader, because it implies that it was her fault that she was raped as if she had done something wrong. This is a sad reality if that's what the times were like at this time period, because Tess has had to deal with so much in her early life and the fact that nobody has any sensitivity or sympathy for her is sad. Also, the fact that this story would change his view on her makes me seriously question whether he loved her in the first place, or if he just loved that idea of her and marrying a beautiful country girl. I think Angel is a fake, because he talks of how much he likes the farming life-style and does not care for organized religion and rich family custom; however, he refuses to be with her because of how other people will judge them and look down upon them. Either he is a coward, or he is a fake, because prior to this moment the reader can only assume he is a man of character. I also do not understand why he is not held accountable for his "sins" which were worse than hers. I am not sure if these questions can be answered in the book or if these characters are a product of their time and culture, but reading this section I must say I do not think Angel genuinely loves Tess and furthermore I think he is a coward and a fake. When he goes to visit his parents he does not tell them about what happened with Tess because he is too much of a coward, where as Tess, who in fact has more to loose by telling her parents, almost immediately tells her mother that she told Angel the truth and that he went away from her. She shows great character and strength in my opinion by the fact that she is honest with Angel, her parents and anyone else, even when it is hard to do so.

The Effect of Time and Distance

Tess humanizes the money that Angle gave her and they seem to represent their short history together. “they appeared to have had as yet no other history than such was created by his and her own experiences.”(273) For this reason, Tess was reluctant to part with the coins. However the winter comes and there is less work for Tess, she becomes short on cash and needs to spend the money he gave her, “and one by one they left her hands”(273). Time in coordination with distance is starting to take its toll and pulling the two lovers further and further apart. However this was anticipated for “when two people are once parted – have abandoned a common domicile and a common environment – new growths insensible bud upward to fill each vacated place; unforeseen accidents hinder intentions, and old plans are forgotten.” (246)

The falling birds

Tess finds herself with nowhere to go. She cannot be with Angel due to her past, which Angel cannot forgive quite yet and her family is ashamed that she had to seek refuge with them. Tess ends up deep in the woods as she flees where she “scraped together the dead leaves till she had formed them into a large heap, making a sort of nest in the middle.” As Tess nestles into her bed she hears “strange noises.” In the morning Tess discovers that the unusual noises came from falling birds that were being hunted. Hardy’s use of bird imagery serves to reveal Tess as a natural being. Her state is very much like the birds that are fleeing. Tess sees some of the birds have not fully died as they stumble around suffering. She pities the birds because they are similar to her. After all, Tess wants to die and now that Angel has left her she is scarcely alive. Therefore, Tess helps the birds by killing them because she wishes someone would help her in this same manner. She “killed the birds tenderly.” Hardy’s depiction of the killing is unusual because the words “tenderly” and “killed” are contrasting. The juxtaposition of these words illustrates Tess’ desire to have someone alleviate her suffering. While Tess is ending the suffering of the poor creatures “She was ashamed of herself for her gloom of the night, based on nothing more tangible than a sense of condemnation under an arbitrary law of society which had no foundation in nature.”Tess has a moment of clarity as she realizes the “arbitrary law of society” does not apply in “nature” and Tess is indeed a product of nature. Hardy espouses this epiphany in the depths of the woods in nature’s setting because Tess is close to nature. After all, she rises from her “nest” and sympathizes with her fellow suffering creatures.

Tess's Love

Tess begins to lose herself more and more the deeper she falls in love with Angel. His love for her becomes overwhelming and she becomes like a “plant in too burning a sun.” He is more frequently referred to as a God-like figure rather than as a regular person, which is illustrated when she “tried to pray to God, but it was her husband who really had her supplication.” At this point she realizes that “her idolatry of this man was such that she herself almost feared it to be ill-omened.” She feels that her love for him is the only thing keeping her protected from the suffering of her past, and this leads her to lose some of the independence that was such a part of her before.

Double meaning

On page 164, Hardy states that Tess "is an unimpeachable Christian, I am sure; perhaps of the very tribe, genus, and species you desire to propagate." Angel used this reference to demonstrate the legitimacy of Tess's Christian faith. Genus and species is part of the binomial nomenclature developed by Linaeus in his taxonomy system. This system was based on the physical traits of the organisms he was classifying. I thought there may have been a pun here because this system of classifying organisms is different than the phylogeny system developed by Carl Woese which is based on molecular and rRNA evidence for classifying organisms. I thought that there may have been a pun because Tess only seems to be a "good" christian at first glance. However if you dig deeper into her past you can see that it is not the case, at least in the eyes of the conservative christians prevalent at the time .  

Blood and Sense (posted for Ashley Albright)

The question I have concerning phase 3 of the novel is why it is that Tess finally admits to herself that she has as much as her mother's blood in her as she does her father, as if such an affirmation comforted her in her new surroundings. What I find intriguing however, is the fact that while she may blame her father's blood for being the cause of her despair and recent illegitmate child, she does not acknowledge it as a fault of her mother's blood, when in actuality that is from whom she has recieved her looks, as is repeated throughout the novel. This relationship between blood and sense of place is obviously dominate during the times in which Tess lived, yet it is always an astonishing reminder of how one's ancestry can comfort one in a strange land with strange people whom they have never met. For Tess it also seems to be that the fact that she does have her mother's blood in her means she also has the possibility of forming for herself a new destiny, that the failure of her efforts (in the name of her father's blood) does not mean that she must resign herself to that lifestyle, but rather has another option. (Ashley Albright)

Bothersome

I don't have much to say about this reading except for this: I feel that for some sense of equilibrium, good and bad things both need to happen.  The problem with Tess of D'urbervilles is that her "bad things" may not out number the good, but they certainly over power the good.  We know that there is no way that the marriage between Tess and Angel will lead to anything good.  So despite the fact that she is happy at the dairy farm, she will leave and have some unhappy experience with Angel.  I find it very bothersome that nothing truly good and every lasting seems to happen to her.  Poor Tess.

The jewels

Once Tess and Clare finally unit a package arrives containing Angel’s grandmother’s heirloom jewels. Angel is anxious for Tess to put the jewels on as he shrieks, “put them on – put them on!” Like an overly excited child, Angel waits for Tess to frost herself with diamonds that were sent. Yet, when Tess does put the jewels on Clare says, “The gown isn’t right.” The jewels do not fit Tess because she is a simple maiden. She will never really be quite perfect because of her past. The jewels reveal that something is not right with Tess and her union with Angel. Angel has Tess alter her dress so the neckline matches the cut of the necklace and only then does he say that she looks beautiful. Angel admires her as he says, “As everybody knows, fine feathers make fine birds.” Angel is changing Tess’ true identity by hiding her real self with these “feathers.” The jewels continue to reveal the uneasiness of Tess’ and Clare’s relationship. When Tess begins to tell her past to Angel concerning Alec the diamonds begin to change from something wonderful and beautiful to something “sinister.” For example, Hardy describes “ each diamond on (Tess’) neck as giv(ing )a sinister wink.”

Tess's baby

In the second phase Tess finds herself a mother to a nameless baby, something that she struggles with mightily, as is reflected in her short relationship with it. She struggles between two very strong polar emotions; a distain for the baby and what it represents, and a need to care for and protect it from possible eternal suffering. She sees the baby as a reminder of the painful loss of her innocence; a reminder that is displayed for the rest of society to observe. She handles the baby with “indifference that was almost dislike” and views it as an “intrusive creature,” yet when the baby must be saved from damnation she does everything in her power to help it. At one point she even cries, “O merciful God…heap as much anger as you want upon me, and welcome; but pity the child.” Although she may have never grown to love, or even become fond of the child, she does not want anyone else to suffer for her “sins”, as she shows time and time again throughout the novel.

Tess's Roommates

It was refreshing to get some comic relief in Phase the Third, which I found in the lovestruck milkmaids Marian, Izz, and Retty. The way Hardy described the three of them at the window sighing over Angel made the whole scene very easy to imagine. Even the way he differentiates them physically brings the stylized characters of a Disney cartoon to mind: "All were watching somebody in the garden with deep interest, their three faces close together: a jovial and round one, a pale one with dark hair, and a fair one whose tresses were auburn." One plump, one tall, one small. The mention of Izz kissing Angel's shadow also served to get in a few much-appreciated laughs.

This trio also made the scene at the puddle a memorable one. I could just imagine each of them inwardly swooning as they were carried across, and Hardy's summation of the experience was especially enjoyable: "Marian had been like a sack of meal, a dead weight of plumpness under which he had literally staggered. Izz had ridden sensibly and calmly. Retty was a bunch of hysterics." I was glad that no jealousy existed between them when they acknowledged Angel's preference for Tess, as this preserved the three's status as comical characters.

Morality

It seems as though Tess is concerned about whether or not God will forgive her for what has happened. This is shown through her brief conversation with the man carrying the bucket of red paint. Later, she sees a rainy day as an expression of God's grief towards her "sin". However, on page 85 Hardy states that "the world is only a psychological phenomenon, and what they seemed they were." I think that this implies that the only reason Tess thinks she has sinned and that God is disappointed with her is because she believes it to be true. If only she stopped believing in it, this stress, anxiety and depression concerning the act would leave her.

Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture

One aspect of this poem that I found interesting was the description the author gives of the torture chamber. She describes what an old cliche of a torture chamber would be, a "thirties horror / dungeon with gauzy cobwebs" and a more recent cliche of a torture chamber, "sexy chains and / leather-goods from the glossy porno magazines". However, the reality of the torture chamber is neither of these and is much more familiar to you then would be expected, as she compares it a British Railway station.

As Tess matures...

One part of the reading that caught me was in the beginning of chapter fifteen, in Maiden No More. From page 98-99, it is the process of Tess maturing. Except I wouldn't quite call it a process, as the next page begins with "Almost at a leap Tess thus changed from a simple girl to a complex woman." It is the paragraph before that is an expansion on how she viewed the world as 'blighted'.

It is when she is looking over the important dates of her life year by year and she realizes, quite out of nowhere, "that there was yet another date, of greater importance to her than those; that of her own death". She wonders when it is and how years go by but she does not know the day. It is an odd thought to have, but less odd now that she has gone through the horrors of rape, then losing a child that she had grown to love. While it seems that she may not be the best of mothers, there is respect due because of her maternal instinct. Although seemingly latent, it comes in full force when her child is dying. She feels that she must preserve its soul and that it must be buried with a proper Christian burial. What is sad is that neither of those really come through, she must perform the baptism herself, then the infant is buried with sinners in an almost hellish area of the graveyard.

It is after this that she begins to mature and shortly realizes that it is time for her to move on and away - "she could never be really comfortable again in a place which had seen the collapse of her family's attempt to 'claim kin'". She knows it is time to move on when she still "felt the pulse of life...warm within her". She wants "[t]o escape the past and all that appertained thereto was to annihilate it, and to do that she wold have to get away". She may force herself to believe this but it is obvious that after she falls in love with Angel, no such dream is possible. Her happiness seems doomed. But for right now, she is more mature than she was when the novel began.

Tess' relationship w Angel Clare

Tess is plagued by her very existence. She does not think she deserves happiness. For example, she loves Angel but does not think she is worthy of his affections. She continues to push him away as she tells Angel how “pretty” the other girls look and how “they skim better” than she does. Angel however does not like the other dairymaids as he says they “are not better” than Tess. Tess muses on the idea of marrying Angel but she is jolted out of her dreamlike state when she reckons that she “could never conscientiously allow any man to marry her now, and had religiously determined that she never would be tempted to do so.” Tess has a pure heart but Alec D’urberville ruined her soul. Therefore, Tess feels she can never love another without sinning. She is destined to be unhappy because of the male dominance in her society. Even Angel overpowers Tess and will not let her be herself. After all, she insists upon being called Tess but Clare flirts with her by calling he r “Artemis” and “Demeter.” Throughout the novel Angel gives Tess various names that she does not accept. He casts her as goddess but that is not her true self because she has been corrupted. Although I do think she is like Artemis because like that goddess she has sworn off men.

Tess's Parents

One tragic aspect of the story of the first phase is how Tess's parents essentially push her into going to live with the D'Urbervilles. All the father cares about is having a horse to support himself and his drinking habits, and making the most of his family name. The mother is too excited by the prospect of Tess marrying "a gentleman" to really worry about where it is she's sending her daughter. That bit when the mother thinks, "Hm, maybe I should have made sure that guy was a good person before I let Tess go off with him...Oh well!" (I'm paraphrasing here!) really annoyed me. They seem to know that Tess is the most sensible member of the family, but they don't trust her when she voices her instincts about not wanting to go.

The Name

I found that the first few pages created a foreshadowing of Tess' downfall. As the parson and Derbyfield speak, the importance of history and names is discussed. This conversation highlights the great past that was perhaps Derbyfield’s heritage and yet how it has become fairly meaningless in terms of its affects on Derbyfield's life. What can be seen as the foreshadowing in this section is how the importance of a family name and it's history, a history dominated by males. The idea that Derbyfield was also descended from knights is also interesting because knights are associated with rescuing the virgin maiden from some horrible fate. Here however no one rescues Tess.

Tess v Melia

Hardy’s novel “Tess of the D’urbervilles” has a similar theme as his poem, “The Ruined Maid.” Both works are about a woman’s loss of innocence. In Hardy’s poem the woman; Melia is decadently dressed in “gay bracelets and bright feathers” because she says “that’s how we dress when we’re ruined.” This is an odd way to think of what becomes of a woman once she has lost her virginity. Melia ‘s sarcastic tone throughout the poem hints that wealth is worth the trade for her sexuality. She never has to “work” because she is “ruined.” Yet, she speaks of herself as “ruined,” which means she cannot possibly be fully satisfied with this state. I think Tess in Hardy’s novel feels a lot more “ruined” after Alec takes advantage of her because unlike Melia she would prefer her innocence over the vast wealth Alec can give her. Tess is a tragic character because she is fated to be unhappy. Hardy makes Tess fated because she is a woman, therefore she is forced and cannot get away from Alec’s dominating manhood. Alec asks Tess, “why do you always dislike my kissing you” and Tess responds, “I suppose-because I do not love you.” Alec cannot fathom why Tess resents the kisses he plants on her, yet it is obvious that Tess does not want to be coerced into a relationship especially with someone she has not true affection for. In fact, Alec makes Tess very uncomfortable and she tries to thwart his attempts to seduce her but ultimately fails when he rapes her in the night.

William Blake "The Sick Rose"

I enjoyed Blake's poem and its illustration of the destruction of beauty. Transcendentalists often use the contrasts of death and life as well as the ugly and the beautiful to illustrate that one cannot exist without the other. Blake's uses this same logic with the analogy of the "worm" and the "rose." The "worm" is clearly analogous as Blake give it traits no true worm has "The invisible worm/ That flies in the night" Though Blake uses the word "he" in the second stanza to describe the "worm" it seems as though this word applies to a deceitful person not a worm. The rose too is uncovered to be a person when Blake uses "thy" to refer to what the "worm" kills.

Sonnet 130

I love Shakespeare's poem Sonnet 130 for it's unconventional approach to praising a female. In many poems written with the intent of fawning over a loved one the cliches that Shakespeare lists often appear, and they are displayed by the poet as proof that their love could not be any greater. However, here he one-ups any other love poem by declaring that his love goes beyond any mere comparison to the physical world. His love goes beyond the physical world because it does not do justice to how she looks to him; it confines his ability to describe her true beauty. In this way he has truly given her the greatest of compliments. The way the poem is structured also adds to the effect of what he is saying. Instead of just starting out by saying "your beauty is more than can be described by anything on earth" he waits until the end to make this sweeping statement. The insulting nature of the poem builds and builds until the point where you could almost see the woman he is presenting this to walking away in a fit of rage. At this exact point he drops the last two lines, making everything he said before become sweet-natured and somewhat comical.

Sestina

Sestinas are possibly my favorite form of poetry.  I love the repetition and the plays on words that the poet is required to make.  I think this particular sestina by Elizabeth Bishop is fantastic.  The fact that Bishop is able to use the obscure word "almanac" and make it work well in ever stanza is very impressive.  I love how the grandmother's tears turn into tears from the tea kettle and then into tea in the cup and then finally back to tears. I also really like how the relationship described in the sestina, that of the child and the grandmother, is one that isn't regularly explored in poetry.  Typically its more of the relationship between a child and a parent.  Anyway, overall I love this poem, not just because of the form but because I think Bishop pulled it off and made a story beautifully.

Sonnet 130

I thought Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare to be a sarcastic poem based on the falsity of love and the superficial image. Shakespeare addresses the cliches in declarations of love with how he discusses the beautiful qualities such as the whiteness of snow and the red of coral and how his lover does not match these. Her breats are of dun and her cheeks lack the beauty of both red and white roses. Our author's lady does not hold the vibrancy and compelling aspect of the sun in her eyes and her breath "reeks" compared to the delight of some perfumes. This poem addresses the absurdity of lover's opinions on their partners, how they will decorate their partners with the perfections of fantasies when they in no way can compare. Yet despite the false images which lover's create they still desire their partner and believe they are completely intrigued with them. This poem most certainly brings to discussion the power of love and its control of one's entire being. or is Shakespeare addressing the issues which inevitably come with romantic feelings, such as loss of them? what is one to do once the *magic* of new love has faded and no longer is the couple seeing eachother in an enhanced way by raging hormones, is it still called love then?

Blake's "The Sick Rose"

WilliamBlake’s poem, “The Sick Rose”is a rather disturbing piece. William Blake has poems from two anthologies; Songs of Innocence and Songs of experience. “The sick Rose” must be in the latter anthology because it embodies the idea of corruption as the “worm” “destroy(s)” the “rose.” The poem as a whole is ambiguous. Even the title connotes an ambiguous object; the rose. After all, a rose is beautiful, sweet smelling, and a symbol of romance yet, the “experienced” reader knows that a rose also has thorns. The “worm” that corrupt(s)” the rose is a phallic symbol, which is conveyed through its “fly(ing) in the night” to the rose’s “bed.” This poem is far from one of Blake’s Songs of Innocence pieces because the worm furtively goes to the rose’s “bed” where the act of “crimson joy” is committed. Blake emphasizes that the worm is robbing the innocence from the rose, which is the opposite of pure intentions. If the worm “flies at night” and is “invisible” is corruption through “experience” inevitable? I do not think one can possibly avoid an “invisible threat.”

Sestina

The poem 'Sestina', I think, encompasses many elements of a family that was once whole, as well as different conceptions of time. I took away that the grandmother and child are the only two remaining of this family. The father and mother of the child are absent, and it is not clear where they went, but it has left the grandmother and child with the company of kitchen appliances and an almanac. What I also saw was that the grandmother knows she is nearing death, and I think the almanac tells her this, as well as the Marvel Stove. But even in the first stanza it is obvious that she is close to death.

"September rain falls on the house.
In the failing light..."

"She thinks that her equinoctial tears..."

These two quotations are evidence that the grandmother is dying because September rain means that it is nearing the end of the year, thus the end of her life. The failing light also represents this, and also implies that the failing light is happening faster than usual (as realized by the grandmothers mentioning that it is time for tea), faster because winter is soon upon them.

The adjective equinoctial also represents the grandmother's death drawing closer. Equinoctial means (as found and directly quoted from the OED) "Happening at or near to the time of the equinox; said esp. of the ‘gales’ prevailing about the time of the autumnal equinox." The equinox is the turning point of the year, but it also represents the end of one period of time and the beginning of another. This is the end of the boy having his grandmother, and the beginning of him living alone. I wonder if the other equinox, the one of summer, was when the parents left the child to the grandmother.

There are many meanings to what the repetitious tears are, but I think one of them is that the grandmother is mourning that the boy will soon be alone as well as "the teakettle's small hard tears", which are mourning the loss of life in this house. I mean to say that the father and mother, who have left, have taken away life from the house, and now when the grandmother dies, there is more loss of life.

Reasons for Attendance

I liked the poem Reasons for Attendance because it is interesting to see the stages of this man’s thought process and how he came to a final decision. The poem starts out with a man drawn to the window of a dance club, where he ponders whether to join the couples inside or remain outside. He sees these couples who are supposed to have “the lion’s share of happiness” and knows that this is pure “inaccuracy.” By the end of the poem, the question is no longer whether he should go in or stay outside, but rather, where he can find happiness. The couples inside the club believe that they have found it together through dancing, but he knows that the music will not help them find the happiness they are looking for.

Reasons for Attendance

I thought "Reasons for Attendance was an interesting poem. The poem appears to be about a guy who is contemplating to go into a dance hall with "dancers-all under twenty-five" or not. I thought the phrase "on the beat of happiness" because it was a great way to combine the music playing with the emotions and actions of the young couples dancing. I found the space in between the second and third stanza's interesting because there is no punctuation at the end of the second stanza. The sentence carries from the end of the second stanza through the begining the third stanza without a comma or period or anything. The division of stanza's in this poem are interesting because each stanza does not have a certain subject, time or space or rhyme pattern, just 5 lines to each stanza with the same thought dragging throughout. My favorite part of the poem is the last stanza where he states "Therefore I stay outside.....they maul to and fro...both are satisfied...if no one has misjudged himself." I liked how this is the conclusion of his thought, which is what the poem is a persons internal debate to go and dance or stay outside and watch. I do not know why the poet uses "himself" instead of "themselves" because it is clear he is talking about "they" implying couples or youth in general (people inside dancing).

John Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”

I thought this poem was a beautiful way to express parting from a loved one and the loss that accompanies it. The second stanza stuck out to me and set the tone for the rest of my reading. Donne shows here that he is romanticizing the idea that he and his lover should not tell other outside their love about it, that doing so would defile their love. “‘Twere profanation of our joys/To tell laity our love." These last two lines of the second stanza stand apart from the rest of Donne's poem where he and his lover feel a higher love that will always connect them and lead Donne back to his lover. This left me wondering, why is mourning so disrespectful to their love?

Becaus I Could Not Stop For Death

I have read this poem by Emily Dickinson before, and everytime it strikes me simply because of the nature of the poem when in comparison with the life of the author. Obviously the speaker is a woman, it is possible that this woman was considered passive agressive suicidal due to the first line with "Because I could not stop for death", or possibly at an older age and waiitng for death to come to her. In addition there is no concept of after-life to which the speaker retires but rather just a stateless non-existent. An idea which is rather depressing for the very fact that it lacks any faith or questioning on some form of existence after life, such acceptance of bland endlessness is unique. I found it important how the narrator described the common society around her as the scenes she is passing by, if this poem was based on the pysche of Emily Dickinson, these would be astonishing and important scenes to her, as throughout her lifetime she never/rarely ventured outside of her home. Does anyone know if this a more autobiographical work?

More on 'Disabled'

After class I was still caught by the line that we were discussing at the end of class, the three line stanza where the issue was whether or not it was comedic.

"Some cheered him home, but now as crowds cheer Goal.
Only a solemn man who brought him fruits
Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul."

The image that came up with this, as I believe Sofia mentioned, is possibly that a priest is doing rounds on the wounded soldiers and wishing them well, most likely before they die.

I'm aided by a bit of background information - I read this article in my history class last semester, where it concerned what exactly the soldiers wanted who returned from the front. What is more unique about this soldier was that he was so young, and he will die so young as well. But it seemed that each soldier, when they returned from the horrors of the front, wanted a more gender-traditional female to take care of them and nurse them back to health. Instead they found more modern women, women who dressed like men and sadly for them, few women who filled out the image that they dreamed of while they were fighting and losing comrades in the trenches. In this particular situation, where "he noticed how the women's eyes/ Passed from him to the strong men that were whole", these women are not described as being more modern, but they still ignore him.

This is supposed to get back to the idea that the gratitude given to him by the priest, or simply well-wisher, is what he wants and that there isn't anything comedic about it.

"Because I could not stop for Death" notes

To me, this poem was about the inevitably of death and the eternity that comes with it. There is only one period in the whole poem and it lyes at the end of the first stanza. I believe this signifies the end of the speakers life and the start of a new beginning. Death is the new beginning while the lack of periods and presence of dashes signifies how death is infinite. The words with capitol letters imply significance, although i could not decipher the meaning for all of them. In the fourth stanza the words "Gossamer", "Gown", "Tippet", and "Tulle" all imply the absence of a shield from the "chill" of death. In the fifth stanza, the words "Ground", "Roof", and "Cornice" relate to a coffin.

Herbert's poem, "The Collar"

Herbert’s poem; “The Collar” is set up to reveal religious meaning through the last lines. For example, the ending lines, “Methought I heard one calling, Child!” “and I replied, My Lord” reveal the religious context of the work. The word “Child” suggests that the “I” in the poem is a “child’ of the “Lord.” The parting phrases of the poem enable the other lines and details to become cohesive. For instance, the title, “the collar” becomes symbolic of perhaps a Clergyman’s attire. However, the collar is ambiguous because it also symbolizes an actual collar that restrains (like a dog collar). The “I” in the poem jumps from line to line questioning being “free” from the restraints of this “collar” yet the parting lines of the poem serve to lasso the “I” back into the chokehold of the “collar.” Herbert’s language throughout the work suggests a sense of captivity with the words, “cage,” “rope,” and “tie.” I think the poem is about a man wavering about his faith and servitude towards God. The man questions freedom in juxtaposition with the “suit(ing) and serv(ing) of God.” Ultimately he is pulled back by the “calling” of God, which ends the “raving” of the man, just as the poem ends as well.

Study notes for "Reasons for Attendance" and "Sestina"

I just posted study notes for Larkin's "Reasons for Attendance" (515) and Bishop's "Sestina" (392). Be sure to read them before class -- and don't forget to post something on the blog!