Paper One Blog

Introduction:

In "The Voice" by Thomas Hardy the poet tells the story of a lover who has lost his better half. The word choice, diction, and sentence structure that the poet uses express and develop and underlying theme of concern and disillusion at the lost of a loved one. The extended metaphors that the poet uses combined with the defying similes add to the mood and set the tone of the poem.

Body:

Thomas Hardy creates the sense of disbelief and concern with his diction.

• "Can it be you that I hear?"
• "Or is it only the breeze..."
• "Heard no more again far or near?"

The poem carries an underlying tone of desperation and anxiety

• "How you call to me, call to me..."
• "When you have changed me from the one who was all to me,"
• "Where would you wait for me"

The poets use of exntended metaphor and use of similes add to the theme

• "Even to the original air blue gown"
• "In its stillness traveling across the wet mead to me here..."
• "Wind oozign thin through the thorn from norward..."

Conclusion:

Thomas Hardy uses several literary techniques to elaborate on the underlyign tones of desperation and disillusion that the lover feels now that he has lost his loved one.

Anse Character Analysis

The characters in "As I Lay Dying" tend to bring different colors and perspectives to the sequence of the plot in the novel. One of these characters is Anse. Anse is the husband of the family. Together with Addie he has fathered: Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell and Vardaman. He also has a step son named Jewel.

William Faulkner, the author, describes Anse as lazy when he references his inability to sweat. Anse alos has deformed physical characteristics such as his hump in his back and the lack of a full set of teeth. In terms of relationships with his family and his close friends we can say that he is a very non-emotional person. Through the passing of Addie, his wife, and their journey to her burrial, Anse seems unaffected by this and carries on with his own personal, which is to get to Jefferson and get his new teeth.

His personality and role in the story can be summed up as the role of a flat character. He seems to be two dimmensional due to his lack of showing his emotions, better yet, emotions period. If it can be argued that there is a disconnect with Addie and her family then there is a bigger disconnect with Anse and his family, because Addie is dead and maybe has lost her chance to be there for her kids, but he is alive but he puts their feelings to the side so that he can cater to his own needs.

In this novel the overall complexity and multi dimension of all the characters is used by the authors to portray the different points of the story and reveal more in detail the importance of each character and family member.

Atwood Blog

In "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood uses conceit to show the ego of men. The theme shown throughout the poem is one of "everyone falls for flattery". However, the author also manages to portray the cry of desperation of women; a cry that makes them feel like sirens.

Sirens are mythological creatures that are half women and half bird. The tale of these creatures reveal to the reader that these sirens seduce men into jumping out of their votes so that they can listen to their song. However the intent of the author is to show the human side of the sirens.

Atwood writes in the third stanza of her poem "Shall I tell you a secret, and if I do, will you get me out of this bird suit?". The bird suit is a representation of the stereotype that women have been placed under. The song that many call to be a "bad song" is nothing but a cry of desperation, a cry for help and not a dangerous trick that the siresn play on the sailors. The siren also reveals in this stanza that she does not enjoy sitting on the island looking mythical and picturesque. In a way or another Atwood is telling the reader that women do not enjoy conforming to the role in which society has placed her.

Although, the above mentioned theme is very importan, Atwood changes the direction in her writting on the fourth stanza. She begins to make the siren seduce the men by telling them that they are the only one that can save her. By doing this Atwood presents the idea that all men are very egotistical and want to be the hero in every situation and also shows that women know this. But why is this is? Seems to be Margaret Atwood's question to society. Why have we converted women into strange mythical creatures that need to be saved by men?

Heaney Blog 2

Follower

My father worked with a horse plough,His shoulders globed like a full sail strungBetween the shafts and the furrow.The horses strained at his clicking tongue.An expert. He would set the wingAnd fit the bright-pointed sock.The sod rolled over without breaking.At the headrig, with a single pluckOf reins, the sweating team turned roundAnd back into the land. His eyeNarrowed and angled at the ground,Mapping the furrow exactly.I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,Fell sometimes on the polished sod;Sometimes he rode me on his backDipping and rising to his plod.I wanted to grow up and plough,To close one eye, stiffen my arm.All I ever did was followIn his broad shadow around the farm.I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,Yapping always. But todayIt is my father who keeps stumblingBehind me, and will not go away.

Commentary:

In "Follower" by Seamus Heaney the author uses an extended metaphor to compare his dads labor to that of a sailor. Heaney manages to create a mood and sense of admiration by doing this. The poem carries the overall effect and impact that this idea on the mind of the son throughout the entire poem.

On the opening lines of the poem Heaney choses to compare the hard working farmer dad to a sailor. By doing this he constructs this picture of admiration and the pride as seen from the eyes of his son. This is because the son views the hard labor of his dad as a heroic move from his part which ellaborates on the idea of a role model which in turn connects to the presentation of the task that the father accomplishes as a set example and role figure for the child to follow.

Sailors are often seen as brave and very attrective figures in the eyes of many. To a small child a sailor or the dream of being like on is just too amazing to even comprehend so the child or speaker of the poem uses this picture and idea to associate it with his father and his ability to do all this hard work.

As the poem comes to a conclusion we see that the author mentions that it is his dad that is now doing the following and we comprehend the idea of this trasitional circle of life that the author is tryinf to represent in this poem.

Heany Blog 1

Mid-Term Break


Mid-term Break

I sat all morning in the college sick bayCounting bells knelling classes to a close,At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home.In the porch I met my father crying--He had always taken funerals in his stride--And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pramWhen I came in, and I was embarrassedBy old men standing up to shake my handAnd tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,Away at school, as my mother held my handIn hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.At ten o'clock the ambulance arrivedWith the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw himFor the first time in six weeks. Paler now,Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple,He lay in the four foot box as in a cot.No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.A four foot box, a foot for every year.

Commentary:

In Seamus Heany's "Mid-Term Break" the speaker uses diction to show the theme of separation between the speaker and his family. The first instance in which this theme is shown is in the title of the poem. "Mid-Term" represents the interruption of the lifestyle that the narrator has felt so far from his family. "Break" show the separation that the narrator or speaker has with his family.

The word choice that the author uses and his constant reference to time add to theme of separation because the use of these elements create an atmosphere of disconnection and separation that the narrator is in. Word such as sick, crying and hard also add to the effect that the diction used by the author is trying to convey on the reader.

The theme of separation is also seen in the line in which the speaker claims to feel embarrased by old men stading to shake his hand and telling him they were sorry for his troubles. This portionm shows the separation between the narrator and his family in two different ways. First the use of the word embarrased shows his discontent to be at the funneral of his younger brother and thus making him feel a disconnection with his family. The second interpretation could be that he feel embarrased to be given sympathy from those around him because he feels as if he wasnt part of the family.

Once more the diction shows his separation as one line says "my mother held my hand in hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs." This line show this theme because we see that it is his mother who is reaching for his hand and not him who is and she also cries angry tearless sighs which shows his moms discontent with his separation from the family. As the poem comes to a conclusion the narrator says that he goes up to see his brother for the first time in six weeks which once more illustrates the theme of separation as he hasnt been around for a long time and seems as if he didnt mind that. Overall the wording and the concluding thoughts of the poem show his disconnection not only physically but also emotionally from his family.

Donne Blog 2

THE BAIT.by John Donne
COME live with me, and be my love,And we will some new pleasures proveOf golden sands, and crystal brooks,With silken lines and silver hooks.There will the river whisp'ring runWarm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun ;And there th' enamour'd fish will stay,Begging themselves they may betray.When thou wilt swim in that live bath,Each fish, which every channel hath,Will amorously to thee swim,Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth,By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both,And if myself have leave to see,I need not their light, having thee.Let others freeze with angling reeds,And cut their legs with shells and weeds,Or treacherously poor fish beset,With strangling snare, or windowy net.Let coarse bold hands from slimy nestThe bedded fish in banks out-wrest ;Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,For thou thyself art thine own bait :That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,Alas ! is wiser far than I.

Commentary:

In "The Bait" by John Donne, the author uses diction to concentrate on the shifting of the sentiments that the speaker has towards love. Donne uses this poem to portray the idea to the reader that love can be something that is at firs very attracting but in reality is nothing but an illusion of what love truly is.

Through the opening stanzas of the poem Donne uses nice and sweey words to establish a romantic mood towards his lover. The initial format of his stanzas connects his ideas and help express his thoughts. Also the established rhyme scheme serves as a platform for the pattern that the author uses to focus his spectrum on love and its deceitful ways.

Without any doubt the speaker is speaking to a lover or a potential one at that. He is asking the lover to be his and in a way he becomes aware of the deceit that love has. As the thrid stanza comes to an end there is a shift in the authors tone towards the idea of love. He goes from using words such as "amorously" to words like "treacherously" to show his realization that what he believe was so beautiful and pure is nothing but a big lie, in a way.

Donne brings the poem to conclusion when he mentions that "That fish, that is not catch'd thereby, Alas, is wiser far than I" which in my interpretation means that the men that are not attracted to all the glamour and beautiful deceit of the bait are so much better than what he is as he is unable to catch that and escape from it.

John Donne Commentary (1)

THE GOOD-MORROW
by John Donne

I WONDER by my troth, what thou and IDid, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then ? But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly ? Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den ?'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be ;If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.And now good-morrow to our waking souls, Which watch not one another out of fear ;For love all love of other sights controls,And makes one little room an everywhere.Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone ;Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown ;Let us possess one world ; each hath one, and is one. My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears, And true plain hearts do in the faces rest ;Where can we find two better hemispheres Without sharp north, without declining west ?Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally ;If our two loves be one, or thou and I Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.

Commentary:

In "The Good Morrow" by John Donne, the author uses diction to express to the reader the idea that he has found the love of his life. Through his language choice Donne furthers his central idea and emphasize his tone and the mood that the poem tries to establish. The repetition of key words and elements as well as the rhyme used help further develop the poems intensity and emotions. Donne chooses to allude to biblical images when he mentions the Seven Sleppers in the opening stanza of the poem.

Also, the timing of the poem and the tenses used throughout it add to the unique diction that identifies this poem. The poem itself can be viewed as the transitional story of a love-filled soul that has found his true love after having "sucked and country pleasures" and that now sees the "good-morrow". The transition that is stated beneath the surface of the poen add to its value as it is through diction that the authors sense of change shows his maturing into a passionate lover.

The last stanza shows more examples of his use of diction to emphasize his happiness. He talks about the two lovers becoming one and goes on to say that "where can they find two better hemispheres". He concludes by expressing his true feelings when he mentions that "Love so alike that none do slacken, none can die." which is a clear reflection of what he feels for his loved one as he knows that no matter what the love between the two is unbreakable and will forever go on.