Poems, and novels, and AP English. Oh My!

Spring and Fall Gerard Manely Hopkins

1. Hopkin’s short lyric shares some elements with the sonnet…What is the dominant meter and line length?  What is the rhyme scheme? Describe the poem’s structure.

Answer:

The poem consists of fifteen lines, and has perfect rhyme, that consists of two lines each, except in lines 7, 8, and 9, where the rhyme has three lines (sigh, why, lie.) The rhyme is as follows: aabbccdddeeffgg.  The poem has three to four accented syllables in six lines.

(According to the back of the book, this poem most closely reassembles the Italian sonnet.)

2. What is the effect of the frequent use of alliteration in the poem? Combined with assonance and consonace, what mood does this device create?

The overall mood is filled with sadness and sorrow, the speaker is trying to comfort Margaret as she grieves. Alliteration is located in line 7 (by and by, spare and sigh), line 8 (worlds of wanwood, leafmeal lie), line 11 (sorrow springs), and line 12 (heat heard, and ghost guessed). Line 7 by itself is a rhyme inside the poem.  Alliteration in line�8 slows the line down because of the sounds produced when you read it aloud, line 11 and 12 do the same.  Alliteration has a deeper meaning in the fact that when reading the poem aloud, it really does give a sorrowful tone to it.  Alliteration also connects previous lines and words together.

3. Comment on the effect created by such unsual diction as… How do the connotations of these words create the poem’s mood?

Goldengrove has to be a term used for trees whose leaves are getting ready to fall, as it is autumn. Unleaving refers to the leaves falling, this term is interesting because it makes you imagine leaves falling in a entirely new way. It’s like the leaves are falling off the tree all at once.  Fresh refers to new, Margaret is a child, she has a different way of looking at things, hence why she can imagine “goldengrove unleaving.” Wan means pale or sickly, therefore wanwood must refer to a pale color, a pale world of wanwood, perhaps suggests death? Leafmeal refers to the fallen leaves laying on the ground, and they are beginning to crumble into dust. A spring is a body of water, (of a sort), here the spring is created by the girl’s tears, over the fallen leaves.  Blight refers to disease (usually of plants and causes death), but since it comes before man, it must refer to the impending death of all men.

4. Anaylze the poet’s use of figurative language.  How doe it suggest the theme of the poem?

Answer:

The theme of the poem is that the knowing and fear of death lessens as we age, and learn the truth of it.  It is only as children that we fear it, as children have the largest “hearts”, children have a higher capcity for emotions. But as we get older, the “heart” gets to be more controled, and therefore, we have less fear. Our “mouth” and “mind” which come with expirence of death and life, can surpress our “heart” our emotions.  As a child, you don’t have the ability to comprehend death, but as you age, you do, and you think more with your mind, then with your heart, and this, you no longer fear death.  The speaker, no longer fears, and is trying to council the child who does.

The Oven Bird Robert Frost

1. Frost’s poem, like Hopkin’s, borrows from the sonnet form.  What is the meter, rhyme scheme, and structure?

The poem consists of 14 lines, the rhyme is as follows: aabcbdcdeefgf.  The poem consists of three lines about the bird, then the speaker interrupts, another line, the speaker interrupts, three more lines about the bird, the speaker interrupts, then four last lines about the bird.  The speaker interrupts to tell his own feelings.

(According to the back of the book, the poem has iambic pentameter and a nonce rhyme scheme.)

2. Paraphrase the three messages of the oven bird, then analyze the meaning of the word fall as it encapsulates the theme of the poem.

Answer:

The birds first message is that the leaves are now old, and that the number of mid-summer flowers, is 1/10 of how many there are during the springtime. The bird’s second message is that mid-summer is after the time when the blossoms of the pear and cherry trees fell like a shower that covered the the sky.� And that the fall that we call fall is coming, in other words autumn is on it’s way. The bird’s third and final message is that the dust of the highways that man made, coats the true beauty of nature. There are three falls in the poem, one is in spring, the blossoms falling, the other is autumn, the leaves falling, and the third, the third fall is represented by lines 10-14. The fall of man, as our “dust” covers everything, and everything is diminished.

3. Paraphrase the last four lines of the poem.  How does the oven bird symbolize the human condition?

The bird represents the feelings of loss that we as humans are facing when we look at the world it is now.  The bird’s song is a message to the other birds, that spring does not last forever, it dies and gives way to summer, that dies and gives way to autumn. The bird’s song is telling us that mankind is ruining nature, and it sings it’s sad song for the past, when the world wasn’t a “diminished thing”.

Yeah I don’t think I did that great with this one, and to top it off, I lost half my work and had to redo it, cause edublogs went down, and it didn’t save it, and I didn’t realize, and went to publish, and bye-bye work.

So, was anyone else happy about the snow day? Or disappointed?

 1. Descibe a villanelle by explicating the stanza pattern and the rhyme scheme of the poem.  How many different end rhymes are in the poem? How many times is each sound repeated?  Which words are repeated exactly at the ends of the rhyme, in what pattern?  How does the last stanza use the rhyming words? Why is this appropiate at the end of the poem?

Answer:

The poem consists of six stanzas, that have three lines each.  There are two different end rhymes, words that rhyme with Hello, which we will call A, and those that rhyme with fine, which we will call B. Rhyme A is repeated thirteen times, while rhyme B is repeated six times. The rhyme scheme for the first five stanzas is aba, and for the last it is abaa. The words ‘hello’ and ‘know’ are repeated often, hello  four times (lines 1,6,12, and 18), know is repeated four times (lines 3, 9, 15, and 19).  The last stanza uses both words, and it helps reinforce and repeat the poems meaning.

2. Isolating the b rhymes (middle line of each tercet) gives us this list: fine, wine, nine, line, pine, sign.  What is the significance of each of these words to the whole poem?

Answer:

Fine is a term we use when some one asks how we are, one we use when we don’t really care to reply. Wine is a great start to a romantic relationship.  Nine is the time when the relationship ends (when they say good-bye). A line is what we use to pick up someone, it also suggests that the speaker is right, it’s always a story, therefore its scripted. Pine here can be “the tall white pine” suggesting that winter is coming, meaning a cold time in the relationship.  It can also be that you are pining away, longing. Sign is used as here as a stop sign, the relationship ends (good-bye).

3. Incremental repetition tends to augment meaning and accumlate significance.  What variations in meaning are present in the following groups of repetitions and what is their effect?

Answer:

Line 1: This is merely the first Hello’s, just “the way to begin”.

Line 6: Having lunch, another hello, apparently more simple, and sane, when it really isn’t, unlike the first hello, this one begins a relationship.

Line 12: Hello here is used to enforce the speaker’s thoughts that all relationships are the same, the story begins with hello, and ends with good-bye.  The hello is always the same.

Line 18: This line reinforces line 12. It is very cold, suggesting that “hello and good-bye is the only story.”

Line 3: The first good-bye is merely a parting, you meet again.

Line 9: Is more sad, it suggests that in the end good-bye is a story we all know, this good-bye is worse then the first.

Line 15: This good-bye is the worsest. This is not in the end. This good-bye IS the end. The end of every relationship, the end of every story.

Line 18: This good-bye reinforces the idea that every relationship is just the same old story, like the final hello it is very cold.

Line 3: This begins the idea that every story has the same beginning and end. The speaker mentions why should they pretend, as good-bye always follows hello.

Line 9: Reinforces the previous line.  We all know the story, so why bother reading into the details?

Line 15: Like the line for good-bye is cold, both in meaning, and literally.  It is the cold night, when we know for sure that this story ends, this relationship ends with the word good-bye just like all the rest.

Line 19: Repeats we know twice, suggesting that the speaker is filled with sadness in the truth.  It’s like when you say “I know, I know”, you feel defeated, the speaker feels that way as well.

Only one poem this time, but it’s a long one.

Bilingual Sestina

1. As the title tells us, this poem is written in a form called a sestina, first used by a French troubadour in the twelfth century.  In describing the prosody of Alvarez’s poem, you will be descending a sestina.  Hint: Instead of looking for a rhyme scheme, look for a pattern in the repetition of the last word of each line.  The last three lines of the poem are called an envoy (The shorter final stanza of a poem).

Answer:

The repeated words consist of: English, Spanish, words, nombre(s), close(d), and say(ing) (said is included in saying).  Each line in all the stanzas end in one of these words, except for the last, in this case the poet uses the Spanish word for English. The repetition of these words create this:

• Stanza One is abcdef
• Stanza Two is faebdc
•  Stanza Three is cfdabe
• Stanza Four is ecbfad
• Stanza Five is confusing is it does not repeat the previous stanzas, it includes new words, but we can conclude that worlds replaces words, and numbering replaces nombres, therefore Stanza Five is: deacfb
• Stanza Six: bdfeca
• Stanza Seven: (is this included even though it is an envoy?) is bfb.

2. In the first stanza, what is the effect of personification and allusion?  What is the Spanish counterpart to each? Sum up the meaning if the stanza.

Answer:

The languages are being personified, by describing them as people. English is “snowy, blonde, blue-eyed, gum chewing.” This is a stereotype of your typcial Amercian girl.  She uses “dark-skinned girls” as her personification for Spanish (the women remind her of her childhood).  Allusion is located in the line “dawn’s early light”, which is a line from our National Anthem.  It’s Spanish couterpart is that the light shining through reminds her of those dark-skinned girls from her home.  The poet can translate simpler words from Spanish to English, but she has trouble with the word persianas, which means blinds.  Ironically the use of closed blinds, suggests how she is closed off from English, letting those simpler words flow through the cracks in the blinds.

3. What mood or feelings are evoked in stanza two?  How does language create this mood?

Answer:

The speaker is recalling her childhood. The mood set is very calming, as she describes how the Spanish words soothe her, and how the island was warm. The stanza also recollects her childhood in the fact that, by learning the English language she is like a child all over again, having to relearn the simplest words like: sun, earth, sky, and moon. This stanza is very reminiscent.

4. What do we learn in stanzas two and three about the differences between names and vocbulary words?  How does the example of the planet being called the morivivir help illustrate this gap?  What does the metaphor of genii in the bottle tell us about the nature of language?

Answer:

Names preserve the emotional context, while vocbulary words just label an object. Vocbulary words close language, like how the morivivir plant closes it’s leaves when a someone pokes them. They don’t allow any ”summoning” of emotion, sometimes even names don’t summon emotion. Words are frail when they are faced with what they name. The genii in the bottle metaphor suggests that language can never truly summon the pure and true object itself, it can only come close, through who rubs the bottle, or rather who sees the object, and uses the language.

5. In stanzas four and five, why does the speaker invoke Gladys and Rosario from her childhood?  How is her childhood sensitivity to words inextricably bound to Spanish, her first language?  What is significant about the allusion to Adam, the first man?

Answer:

Gladys is “summoned” from her childhood to open the house, which here is symbolic for her childhood.  Gladys could open the closed windows, allowing the speaker to stop neglacting the “dusty and awakard” Spanish. Rosario is the one who first taught her first words,.  She hopes that by “summoning” him that he will once again sing to her and teach her, her first words again.  The speaker wants to summon back her old teachers, so that she can go back to her bright childhood, a time when there was no English, where there was no trouble in translating.  A time when things where simple and when her world was intact. Her childhood is bound to her language, as Spanish is how she saw her bright and happy world, and English lacks the intimacy that Spanish has (English, here could also represent her adulthood, which is not happy or bright). The allusion to Adam is important in the fact that she says that she is not Adam, but a simple country girl, loving the words and objects she is learning.  She was not the first to count the stars and grass, but she loved doing it anyway.

There done.  That was a long one, but I liked it, question one anyway, that is the first time that I completely understood the rhyme scheme (or lack of).

I didn’t have my book with me over the weekend, so I couldn’t do Monday’s homework. So now I am rushing to get this done third period, and it is really horrible. 

Death Be Not Proud 

1.  In what ways does this poem conform to a common sonnet form?  What variations are notable, and what is their effect?

The poem is a sonnet in the fact that it consists of fourteen lines, and consists of quatrains of three lines, then a rhyming couplet. The varation is that the rhyming is not abab, but abba, abba, cddc, and then returns to a to rhyme with the couplet. The effect is that the unsual rhyme makes the poem stand out more.

2. Describe Donne’s use of apostrophe and personification.  How do these devices enhance our expierence of the poem?

The use of apostrophe is to bring our attention to our so called enemy Death.  Donne is “putting death in his place”.  Death is not mighty or dreadful, but poor, “he” deserves pity.  Death is a slave of fate, who has no free will. Death is poison, war, and sickness. By doing this Donne makes Death seem less feared, by giving it/him human qualities, he makes death pitiful and weak. Even saying that Death can be killed. For personification, Donne makes Death mortal, “Death, thou shalt die.” He infers that death is like a poppy or a charm that makes us sleep, he reduces death’s powers. He even gives Death the human quality of pride.

3. Paraphrase each of the sonnet’s three quatrains, preserving the clauses but simplifying the syntax.  Do the same for the paradoxical couplet.  Retain the apostrophe and personification.

Death, you have no reason for being proud, even though some of called you mighty and dreadful, you are not. Those whom you think you kill, do not die.  Poor Death, you can not kill m either. Rest and sleep, which are just like you, are pleasuring to us, so from you we must get that same feeling. The best people die the soonest, resting their bodies, and delivering their souls. Death, you are a slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men. You keep company with poison, war and sickness. Drugs, and charms can make us sleep, just as you can make us sleep in death, so why do you swell with pride at nothing? You have no power as our death is just a short sleep, to reach our eternal life, to immortality. And when we awaken to that life, you will have no power, no purpose, and you will no longer exist.

To Death

1. Describe the form and structure of the poem.

The poem consists of sixteen lines, and the lines are in couplets. The rhyme scheme is interesting as it begins and ends with aa.

2. Which details personify death? What is their effect?  With what attitude does the speaker apostrophize death?  What does she request of him?

Death is personified as a King of terrors, who has unbounded power, and that all must obey him.  Death is above; kings, priests, and prophets.  Death is a warrior, and a torturer, a bringer of diseases.  Death is a hunter who takes his cold prey into his arms.  Finch realizes that Death is absolute, it/he has power over everyone/thing.  She does not fear the end of Death. She instead lists the processes of death that are terrifying.  She than asks to be spared from a violent death, and wishes to die peacefully.

3. Death is the King of all terrors, and we all most obey him. Kings, priests, and even The Prophet are yours. Not even God can deny you. I know, that I too will die. I will join your kingdom of the dead, at this I feel no fear. But I tremble at the fevers and diseases that bring upon death, the ones that kill those all around the deathbeds. If I spared of these ways (fevers, and diseases), then I have no fear of death.  I know I am mortal, and that I will die, and it is your job to take me. I do not know when you will come, but I wish to die peacefully.

My first comment is that I love having road runner at home. The school’s computers were very slow, for obvious reasons of course.  I spent a whole period just trying to blogroll, and change the site around a bit.  As for creating a blog, this is really cool.  I like the idea of doing my homework on the internet, instead of having to print out page after page of Lessons, my poor printer is now offically dry.  Technology intergration is awesome, plus blogging is a hobby of many people, and it something we all should learn to do. So here’s to something new, and no English essay this weekend.