Plath

I thought this poem powerful in its ability to dipict decay and regeneration. Plath looks at death in a unique light writting that "Dying/ Is an art, like everything else,/I do it exceptionally well./I do it so it feels like hell./I do it so it feels real/.I guess you could say I've a call." It is interesting that the emphasis of the poem is the art of dying not writting. At the same time however, through writting about the art of dying Plath showcases her other art, that of poetry.

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

It is heartbreaking to see Prufrock struggle with himself to escape his world of monotony, conformity and falsity only to question himself and fall back in line. The poem starts off with Prufrock’s greatest desire, to go into the dark, dirty streets, away from the confining security of the indoors. But instead he remains inside listening to the absent-minded “women come and go talking of Michelangelo.” He has gotten to a point in his life where he can no longer stand the emptiness of his existence in this high-class, crowded world. No one in that world has depth or anything meaningful to say; at each party the same women come back and have the same unconscious conversation about Michelangelo without ever going beyond the surface. As Prufrock says, “It is impossible to say what I mean!” when he lives in constant fear of what his cocooned society will say about him.
Stanza 8 really stood out for me with its vivid language and the hopelessness of his situation. The people around him already have him pegged and no matter how hard he tries or what he does he will always remain that way in their eyes, “pinned and wriggling on the wall.” There is no way for him to move away from his past because he will forever be pinned there.
Also, the lines: “There will be time, there will be time/To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet” jumped out at me for the truth of its message. It reminds of a Beatles song where the character “Lives in a Dream/Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door/Who is it for?” Many times people (especially people living in Prufrock’s world) put on a mask around others as a way to hide their true selves and avoid getting hurt. All in all it is a sad situation for Prufrock.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

There are many things to touch upon in this poem, but one that always stands out to me is Eliot's use of 'yellow'. It's associated with death, plague - general disease; essentially, death. Also the animal that Eliot uses to describe this yellow fog is most likely a dog. But the first things that come to mind are Cerberus. I'm also not sure about this next association, but in certain mythology, a large black wolf or very large wolf-like creature with red eyes was an omen of death. The yellow fog's muzzle that goes about the streets and rubs against windowpanes is almost like marking those who will be next to die. This is a theme that exists throughout the poem, from the first stanza, where there is a patient about to go into surgery, to the end, where he is a helpless bug pinned to a backing, where he will be dissected and studied. And the feminine presence that Eliot refers to almost holds a death-like fear for the subject as well.

But he is in a dream, and this is most clearly seen by the last stanza, where the human voices will wake him and his companion and then they will drown. But what is important is that no matter if he is dreaming or awake, death is always there.

lady laz

I like the poem “lady Lazarus” also especially because my dorm is Lazarus. Plath’s poem creates vivid imagery, yet the images jump from one picture to another. For example, in the beginning of the poem Plath transforms into a “Jew” with her “face a featureless, fine Jew linen.” I think Plath evokes the image of the oppressed Jew in the Nazi era because she wants the reader to equate her suffering on the grand scale of those who endured the Holocaust. Also, the idea of the phoenix rising from the pyre is the ending image of the poem through “I rise with my red hair.” This symbol parallels with the Jew image as various concentration camps burned people to ashes. Yet, in Plath’s poem, “Lady Lazarus” grows from being killed in the ashes to rising “out of the ash.” Moreover, Lady Lazarus is compared to a “cat” “And like the cat (she) has nine times to die.” Plath’s images are carefully constructed to covey that “Dying is an art.” The entire poem is structured around Lady Lazarus enduring a kind of metamorphosis from one image to another.

Lady Lazarus

I thought this poem was very good especially after reading it over a few times. I believe that in this poem by Sylvia Plath, the speaker represents a female Jesus. She states that she has already died and come back to life three times. The first time she died it was an accident but the second time, she committed suicide. She references "the grave cave" similar to Jesus who was also buried in a cave. Jesus also came back "in broad day/ to the same place, the same face, the same brute." The audience to her death seems to be obsessed with her resurrection . She puts everyone into this audience when she says "you" in line 74. This women is dehumanized by her inability to die and her inability to move, as her right foot is a paper weight. The audience doesn't care who she is, or even that shes human they only use her for entertainment and distraction. Also, the audience is ungrateful if she is dieing for their sins.

"Jubilate Agno"

I found this work to be very interesting, and very modern in style. The piece seemed reminiscent of Ginsberg's "Howl," with it's irregular line length, and the repeated "beat-like" rhythm of the repetition of "For," alongside it's revolution around a single theme, which still manages to touch upon a wide variety of meaning. The author, Christopher Smart, was placed in an asylum for his outrageous public displays of religious fervor, displays which were intolerable for an eighteenth century audience. This selection focuses on his cat. The entire piece serves as a reinforcement for the opening lines: "For I will consider my cat Jeoffry / For he is the servant of the living God, duly and daily serving him." The poem continues with a series of sentences, each addressing the divinity of the cat, or explaining his relationship to the "living God." The cat earns this title of divinity through his natural goodness, "For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation." Smart seems to observe the daily routines of his cat, interpreting each as the actions of a truly pious being. He is physically able ("For the divine spirit comes about his body to sustain it in compleat cat"), yet compassionate ("For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness"). He serves God ("For he knows that God is his savior"), and fights the powers of darkness ("For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life"). To Smart the cat seems the perfect religious being. It has no need to flaunt it's holiness, rather it serves God almost without consideration. To Smart, this would seem a gift, for his methods of praising and serving God were found distasteful, while the cat both celebrated and ignored.

Dream Song 4: Audio

And look at that, would you? I have a file of Berryman reading his poem, as well.

His intonation is strange. He makes questions of several of the lines where the punctuation suggests direct statement. For example, Henry's imagined plea ("You are the hottest one for years of night / Henry's dazed eyes / have enjoyed, Brilliance."), sounds in his reading like it should be punctuated like this:

You are the hottest one for years of night
Henry's dazed eyes
have enjoyed, Brilliance?

Link