Beloved 4

"For twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings, this is the book that spurred them into dialogues on race and gender and other thorny issues that still haunt our national debate just as the ghost of Beloved haunts Morrison’s novel. As such, this book will continue to loom large over current day American fiction." (Reviewed by Ted Gioia) http://www.thenewcanon.com/beloved.html

I felt that this book was very southern and depicted the time period very well. I loved the use of southern and African language found throughout the text.

"You forgetting I knew her, "Paul D was saying. "Back in Kentucky. When she was a girl. I didn't just make her acquaintance a few months ago. I been knowing her a long time. And I can tell you for sure: this ain't her mouth. May look like it, but it ain't." (p. 217)

"Yonder," he said.

"You ain't got no business walking around these hills,miss." "Looka here who's talking. I got more business here 'n you got...." (p. 108)

I also like the nature references made throughout the book. You can find many references to the chokecherry tree and chamomile. Visually you can see the corn stalks moving at the 'union' of Sethe and Halle. Also, the use of corn in a sexual reference describe by Halle.

All in all I enjoyed this book by Morrison. I would love to read some more of her work. I have started to read more books set in the south, and I think the exposure to Morrison will add other great works to my book shelves.

CJ

Beloved 3

Sweet Home

Men of Sweet Home

Halle, Paul D., Paul A., Paul F. and Sixo these were the men of Sweet Home. These characters kept the land of Sweet Home. This is also where Sethe met the men. Sixo was a character that was willing to venture off the land to be with his Thirty-Mile Woman. Halle was a nice hardworking man that wins over Sethe. He also bought his mother Baby Suggs' freedom. These men represented a large number of male slaves in the South. It was interesting to see how Morrison developed each of their character.

Owners of Sweet Home
Mr. and Mrs. Garner better owners than Schoolteacher of Sweet Home. I would say for a slave the people of Sweet Home had a 'better life' while the Garners were running the plantation. I wonder how Morrison would have played the book out if she would have reversed the order of owners?

Sethe at Sweet Home

Sweet home was a place for Sethe that brought memories of rape and memories of union. Although Sethe's union to Halle was sex in a corn field witnessed by the other men of Sweet Home it still had a sweet memory for her. Unpleasant moments would occur at Sweet Home for Sethe like Halle witnessing Sethe's rape. This was a place that brought friends together, but also held a thorny spot in her chest. Many references where made by Sethe and Paul D. in the memories they had of Sweet Home and during their flashbacks. I know they must have been hard to relive, but it seemed that they were at peace with their past and looking towards their freedom.

CJ

Beloved 2

Sethe

I feel that Sethe is the glue that holds this book together. She is a strong independent woman who wants the best for her children. Sethe is willing to go to extreme measure to make sure her children do not have the life she had. This is especially true for her girls. Knowing the life she has had at Sweet Home, Sethe does not want rape and abuse for her girls. She is a mother who is willing to kill her children so that they do not have to continue the life she has/had.

When I was beginning to read this book the teacher I work with mentioned she loved Morrison's work. I asked her to tell me some of her favorite parts of the book and she mentioned Sethe's love for her children. When Becca, the teacher I work with, was reading this book she was pregnant with her little girl. She said that the love that Sethe had for her children made her cry almost every time she picked up the book to continue reading. Becca also stated that the book made her realize the love a parent has for their child. Willing to take them out of the world so that they do not have to carry around the burden as she had to was a concept Sethe must have had to prepare for.

Sethe also mentions early in the book that "I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house, and nothing in between but the daughter I am holding in my arms. No more running-from nothing." (p21) *(Haint- Southern colloquialism def., ghost, apparition, lost soul) I feel that this statement to Paul D led to very high emotions in the book. Sethe has been living a hard life caring that weight around with her and even though there is a spirit in her house and nothing to her name she is tired of running from things in her life. Throughout the book Sethe is rooted in the past with Beloved. She dwells in the past affecting her family and her future. It is not until she realizes in the present and future that she can let go of the past.

Overall, Sethe was a strong woman who centered her world around her children. She was willing to take them out of this world to provide them a better 'life'. I am not a parent, but I know when I do become one I will want the very best for my children. I do not know if I could go to extremes the way Sethe did though.

CJ

Beloved 1

Below is an audio interview with Morrison. She speaks about Beloved, being a writer and her family.

Notes from the book Beloved As I read the book these are some of the notes I jotted down.

Toni Morrison received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Beloved won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. (taken from the back cover of Beloved)
As part of her Nobel acceptance speech, she said, "Language as power, language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names."

Names:
Sweet Home
Beloved
Stamp Paid
Schoolteacher
124
Unique to culture and time period. The referred to names remind me of some of the name choices made in Sea Oak. Both stories used unique names for important aspects to the underlying concept.

Location:
Kentucky
Ohio
One state holds freedom while the other represents suffering.

Style:
No chapters- 3 sections
smooth, steady
flashback

Content:
Mother/daughter relationship
Community
Slavery
Loneliness
Death
Love


Research:
Reading of the book in Middle School and High School- While doing research I found several websites, blogs and even YouTube videos of HS and MS students studying Beloved I do not know if I would read this book in either school settings. I feel that college students are more geared towards this book. I would have to sit and plan for the instruction of this book to bring it to a level of HS or MS students.


Please watch the video interview of Morrison here: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200811/20081119.html#
It is 2:45 and she is speaking about "her creative process and what drives her to write." It is really good to see how her art is created.

CJ

* Wright

So, this post is on "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow."

I thought this short story was a timeline in the life of Wright. I like the realistic language used in the story. The choice of words and use of quotations made the story very real for me. I could visualize setting in the South. From a young age he was taught to hate the white man, but as the story progresses he then ask the white man for help in checking out books. I see this a a progression for both races coming together to help each other. Even though the time period was not as a race coming together, it was nice to see that there were people willing to over come stereo type.

For example, it was almost impossible to get a book to read. It was assumed that after a Negro had imbibed what scanty schooling the state furnished he had no further need for books. I was always borrowing books from men on the job. One day I mustered enough courage to ask one of the men to let me get books from the library in his name. Surprisingly, he consented. I cannot help but think that he consented because he was a Roman Catholic and felt a vague sympathy for Negroes, being himself an object of hatred. Armed with a library card, I obtained books in the following manner: I would write a note to the librarian, saying: "Please let this nigger boy have the following books." I would then sign it with the white man's name.

I found 2 websites that have information on Jim Crow and lesson plans.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/education_activity_one_ste.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Crow Gateway

(About website) Explore teacher and student evaluated Web sites on a wide variety of topics pertaining to Jim Crow history and literature. The sites on this gateway have been recommended for their quality and resource value to teachers and students.
* This site also has external links related to authors we have discussed this semester.
Literature Resources
Ralph Ellison
Ernest Gaines
Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston
Harper Lee
Toni Morrison
Alice Walker
August Wilson
Richard Wright
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/gateway.htm

I hope these help you in your teaching adventure!
CJ

I found this video that aired 1/12/2010 about Philip Levine. It is really good! Hope you enjoy it!
CJ

Shorts this week (Saunders & Boyle)

Sea Oak

WoW! What an interesting story. I have to say that I don't think I have read anything with as much harsh language as I have today. I have to agree with Heidi this story was nasty! There was a lot going on in it between the characters lives, the language and the aunt coming back to life I think I got lost in the message of the story. I do have to say that the story captivated me. I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. I don't know if that is the author's intention, but it happened. The characters and the setting also confused me.

I know that the story dealt with poverty, death, education and life. Near the end the aunt wanted for her family to have better that she had.

Chicxulub


This story was great. I have never lost a child, but heaven forbid it is were to happen I know that it would be like a Chicxulub on my universe. I like the comparison to losing a child to the asteroids coming to Earth.

My point? You’d better get down on your knees and pray to your gods, because each year this big spinning globe we ride intersects the orbits of some twenty million asteroids, at least a thousand of which are more than half a mile in diameter.
But my daughter. She’s out there in the dark and the rain, walking home. Maureen and I bought her a car, a Honda Civic, the safest thing on four wheels, but the car was used—pre-owned, in dealerspeak—and as it happens it’s in the shop with transmission problems and, because she just had to see her friends and gossip and giggle and balance slick multicolored clumps of raw fish and pickled ginger on conjoined chopsticks at the mall, Kimberly picked her up and Kimberly will bring her home.
You pray for everything to be alright. You provide the safest materials, yet you have no control of what happens. We must believe in our God to provide our family a safe stay here and be tankful for the time we have with them.

CJ

Espada

In the poem "Bully" the once fight to keep minorities away, has now back fired. Roosevelt who helped during the Spanish-American war was now rolling in his grave, knowing a school named after him was full of Puerto Rican children. These children have changed the name of the school from Theodore Roosevelt High School to Hernandez. They are even plotting to deface school property with graffiti.

This passage helped me to understand the setting of the poem.


The setting of the poem is significant. Boston has had nearly forty years of racial divisiveness throughout the community; a great deal of the conflict has centered on Boston's public schools. White flight, brought on by rampant immigration, left behind neighborhoods comprised almost entirely of minorities. Desegregation orders, lawsuits, forced busing, and racially-motivated school violence resulted. Espada uses this setting as a measure of our progress. Have we progressed from the pro-eugenics, imperialistic society we once were? Are we now a society that honestly appreciates diversity, or does each culture seek merely to strengthen its own place within our society? The on-going struggle for racial equality in Boston makes the question debatable.

* After reading this I am still unaware in the setting of "Bully" was in Boston. I think the writer of this explanation was just comparing the poem, to the school district in Boston.


*Photos taken from a trip to Puerto Rico with my husband!
CJ

Adrian C. Louis

I am really enjoying the poems by this culture. I do not think I have had a good exposure to the background of Native Americans. Issues from other culture seem to make there way into the media. As far as the battle over land I do not know a lot about the troubles Native Americans face today. Through these poems by Louis I have been able to see more of a "history" of the Native American life. His poems are eye opening.

After doing some background digging on Louis, I am honored to be among a journalist like Louis. I think that not only is he a good poet (from what I have read), but also a leader. It is a great accomplishment for someone to co-found the Native American Journalists Association. Being a journalist myself, I would love to meet with him and speak about his experiences as a writer, teacher and journalist.


Shedding Skins: Four Sioux Poets

Edited by

Adrian C. Louis

To be Indian is not to be a savior for white people.
To be Indian in a city is not tragic.
And now you ask me where I am from.
I understand your question,
but will answer it with, "Next question."
Alive in America is all we are.
Let's leave it at that.
—From "The Question," by Trevino L. Brings Plenty



Here's the myth: Native Americans are people of great spiritual depth, in touch with the rhythms of the earth, rhythms that they celebrate through drumming and dancing. They love the great outdoors and are completely in tune with the natural world. They can predict the weather by glancing at the sky, or hearing a crow cry, or
somehow. Who knows exactly how? The point of the myth is that Indians are, well, special. Different from white people, but in a good way.


This was taken from Louis' work Shedding Skins: Four Sioux Poets. It is a powerful message from the poet to the reader.

CJ

Louise Gluck

Gluck's poems seemed to infuse human voice and mythology. I got a strong sense that the poems were about wanting to be with the ones you love. Time was meant to be spent with the ones you loved. No matter how long you had to wait to be with them you waited.

In "Penelope's Song " Penelope wanted to be with her lover.
Wait at the top, attentive, like
A sentry or look-out. He will be home soon;
It behooves you to be
Generous.

In "Quite Evenings"
They are together, and she hopes they will stay together.

from this point on, the silence through which you move
is my voice pursuing you.

I'm not sure if I am on the right track with this hunch. I did like Gluck's style. I need to refresh my Greek! The fusion was nice.

CJ

Sherman

These poems by Alexie reminded me of stories, not poems. Out of all the poems assigned these year, these by Alexie were the easiest for me to follow. It seems that he is very proud of his heritage, but has strong feelings for his cultural and people. I really saw this through reading "Evolution".

...................................................................The Indians
pawn their hands, saving the thumbs for last, they pawn

their skeletons, falling endlessly from the skin
and when the last Indian has pawned everything
but his heart, Buffalo Bill takes that for twenty bucks

While researching Alexie and the time this poem was set I came across information that really helped me focus on the time and what was happening to the people.
By seizing the "heart" of the last Indian and subsequently closing the doors of the pawn shop, Buffalo Bill seals out the possibility of repossession. This act deprives the culture of its lifeblood. The new museum freezes "NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES" in place, on display, behind glass cases. The painted over sign recalls the years of government manipulation of Indians in which new treaties invalidated old ones that the U.S. no longer wished to honor. The glossing over of old wounds and forms of cultural exploitation--feeding a people someone else's idea of what they should be--cap this poem with the absurd reality of a perverse history.

Not knowing much about this act that was happening to the American Indians, Alexie's poems helped open my eyes to what the government and people were doing to the Natives. I can now see the hardships and problems these people faced.

I enjoyed his work, and look forward to reading more from him.

CJ

* Updated-Levine, Ashbery & Rich

Levine

These poems by Levine were very interesting to me. I thought that the style and titles were twisted just enough to make me say "huh". I noticed an animal theme throughout Levine's work. It was not until researching him did I find that the poems were written to reflect the time period.
"They Feed They Lion" was a unique poem. Not until I read it aloud and found a video reading of it did I realize how angry and powerful it was.
Ashbery

"Street Musicians" made me picture vaious cities and places I have seen street musicains. From New Orleans, New York City, Washington D.C., Los Angles to Paris I was immeadiatly drawn back to the people I saw. Not knowing their story or there name, but hearing their music there life. This poem made me reflect on these people, and the reason they are playing. Is it for fun? Their only source of income?

It also reminded me of an article, about street musicains and how you never know they may be a famous musican.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Rich

Another poet from this week using animals! I liked the way that power was written. This poem was unique. This poem was very real feeling for me. -Judith McDaniel

In her two most recent books Adrienne Rich explores the potential for women's power. . . . The complexities of this power are inherent in the story of Marie Curie, who discovered the vital properties of uranium, and who died from radiation poisoning, "denying / her wounds came from the same source as her power." Marie Curie did not know--literally--how to handle power. Once again Rich's poetic image--the woman holding in her "suppurating" fingers the test tube of uranium, source of energy and death--unites the abstract and political difficulties of power.

I liked reading these poems and seeing women being addressed in them.

All in all good week of poetry!
CJ

Happy Endings

I just love all of the short stories we have read!


I really liked this short. I thought the different situations were a wonderful contrast to "Happy Endings". Never was an ending happy. The beginnings and middles of the situations were fairly happy, but never an ending. This is something we need to look in our on lives and see that right now is our "happy" a our "ending" is approaching. So, is there a such thing as a "happy ending"? There may be happy and sad moments in the middle, but when the end is near do we consider all of the moments happy and sad?

After reading this short I couldn't get Taylor Swift's song, "White Horse"

Maybe I was naïve,
Got lost in your eyes
I never really had a chance.
My mistake I didnt know to be in love
you had to fight to have the upper hand.
I had so many dreams about you and me
Happy endings;
Now I know

I'm not a princess
This ain't a fairytale
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet
Lead her up the stairwell
This ain't Hollywood,
This is a small town
I was a dreamer before you went and let me down.
Now its too late for you and your White Horse,
To come around.


I don't know if it's just because the lyric "Happy Endings" was included.
CJ

Nick & Laura - Mel & Terri

Love

What a wild showing of love from two different couples. One couple who have been married just over a year, and a couple who have been married for five years. One couple is still going through the "honeymoon stage", while the other is bickering exploring their past relationships. However, the introduction of the older couple involved in the car accident shows another type of love that is timeless. Almost if you can make it to 70 your back in your "honeymoon stage". The husband just wants to look at his wife. Which was the best way to love? Is it through violence, killing like the love Mel and Terri were shown or showed? Should we be naive and think nothing will interrupt our love? Should we be like the elderly couple and be great for to be alive?


I like how the story went back and forth through time. This short was easy to follow and well written. I enjoyed it.

The Balloon

This short still baffles me. I believe the man placed the balloon to have something tangible and visible to have while his wife was gone. While the rest of the city did not have a clue why it was the, he new the real reason. I guess, when loved ones are gone we like to have something close by to remind of us them. So maybe the balloon is a symbol of filling the empty space that is left when someone we love is gone.

What do think?

CJ

An Interview with John Updike

I throughly enjoyed reading this short story! I thought the story was easy to follow and read. I love the lust factor of the boy towards the girls. This was very vivid to see. I also enjoyed the way Sammy stood up for the girls, and follows through with quitting his job.

Here is and interview I found of John Updike talking about "A&P". It is a very good interview about the beginning to end of "A&P"

I hope you enjoy it.


An Interview with John Updike

CJ

Oh, John

Have read the work by Berryman I has a sense of pain. I felt like he was exposing himself through his poetry. "29" I could not break through the surface to understand the true meaning or story about the poem. I did however like the style the poem was written in. "45" I had a feeling that he was writing letters to someone. There was loss and promise in this poem. I do not know much of Berryman's background, but I do think a lot of it played into his writing. I did read that he died by throwing himself over a bridge. There must have been a lot in his life that would lead to something this drastic. I can not wait to hear more about this poet tonight!
CJ

Plath, Lowell & Sexton

Through my readings of these poets I like the fact that they are all connected. I feel that you can see this in their poetry as well. This must have been a great escape with your buddies to sit back a discuss poetry. This really relates to how many poetry clubs are formed. The three poets fit well under the "Confessional" style of poetry. I enjoyed reading the selected poems from these poets.

While studying their work I also like reading about their relationships with each other and other poets. This selection is taken from Poets.org

Plath’s poetry is often associated with the Confessional movement, and compared to poets such as her teacher, Robert Lowell, and fellow student Anne Sexton.

Plath:
Often, her work is singled out for the intense coupling of its violent or disturbed imagery and its playful use of alliteration and rhyme. poets.org

It was also interesting to see that "The Colossus" was the only poem published while she was a live. It would be nice to hear from Plath after the publication of her other poems and see how much of an impact it has made on her.

Through her poems they are very woman driven, and the role of the woman exposed. I feel that her poems were very easy to read, and enjoyed the style in which they were formed.

Lowell:
I liked Lowell's poem Skunk Hour. This poem was written for Elizabeth Bishop. Having done my lesson last week on E. Bishop I like the connection I see between the two poets. Shunk Hour showed a lot of Bishop's likes in it. Her love of travel and imagery were found throughout.

Lowell's friendship with Plath also played key roles in his writing as it was Plath and Bishop who reviewed his work.

For the Union Dead was and interesting poem. It seemed to cross time lines. I like the line /... Behind their cage,/ yellow dinosaur stemshovels were grunting/. This was a very vivid moment for me in the poem.

Sexton:
Here again we have made a connection between Lowell, Plath and Sexton. Sexton was Plath's student and attended a workshop of Lowell's. I not aware if Lowell and Sexton had any connection outside of the workshop. Sexton work that we read this week was up and down for me. I understood most selections, but had trouble with other.
"Her Kind" was easy to follow, while underneath meaning was not very straightforward for me."And One for My Dame" seemed to follow the life of her father, and then end with the life of her husband. I could be completely wrong, but this is what I took from the poem.

All-in-all, I enjoyed reading the poems from these poets. I would like to see a round table discussion with the Sexton, Lowell and Plath. I think this would be a very interesting event that would give an insight into the life of these 3 poets!

CJ

2-3-2010

I just wanted to say thanks for allowing my lesson of Elizabeth Bishop to run better than I expected. I learned a lot from you all about the 2 poems we read. I liked the way you get each other thinking, as well as myself about Bishop's work.

Wednesday also opened my eyes to the O' Hara and Ginsberg poems.

I really liked the fact with Ginsberg, that his poem was meant to be read aloud. Hearing the different readers allowed to me to focus on the message. (I tend to read these poems to myself, but have started to read them all aloud.) Also, the activity when we created our poem was neat. It showed that this poem is timeless. Great job Stephen.

O'Hara were better explained to me after the lesson. The group work allowed me to talk out my interruption of his work and hear others as well. I liked it.

Digging down deep into poetry is new for me. I've never been taught how to look at it any differently then the words right in front of my eyes. Besides reading them in class, or reciting "The Road Not Taken" this class is helping be break through the surfaces of the poems.

This class has been eye opening, and I love the exposure to the different poets!

CJ

Ginsberg

I do not know what has made Ginsberg write this poem, but I am interested to find out. The style was different, but the message was clear. He was clearing speaking about generations. This was a timeline of sort. Just reading the first part was interesting. This poem inculded personal events, national and worldly. I can't wait for the lesson and lecture of this poet!

Frank O'Hara

Not the most straightforward poet. He must have wanted readers to dig down deep to find the meanings of his work, or his work might not have mush of a meaning. Particularly "Today" this poem looked like words thought up and put into a poem. "Why I am Not a Painter" was a better written poem for me. I do not have much to say about O'Hare, hopefully after tonights discussion I will have more to say.
CJ

Roethke

In the poem "My Papa's Waltz" you can since the affects the boy's father has had on him. You can take each of these stanzas and break them down and still have the same results. It seems as if an alcoholic father is once again after his boy for who knows what. The boy then seems to "waltz" with his father, he is trying to get away from the rage of his father. They take this so called waltz through the house (kitchen). Once he is finally caught he gets a belt up side the head. Then the waltz is started again as father takes him to bed at the sons objection.

I do not know of Roethke's background, but it must have been a world of alcoholic dad, mother who does not interject and abuse.

My Papa's Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.



Not the image I picture after reading this poem.

CJ

Short Stories

Welty & Olsen

I Stand Here Ironing


This short showed to me the drive of an single parent. Her child left in the shadows of everything else in her life. The mother daughter relationship seemed distance but also close. The daughter had problems stemmed from this relationship that interferred with her own life. She had problems with her other siblings, health and emotions. The mother seems to know that all of these trails will make her daughter into a "complete" woman someday. With each wrinkle in her life she will be a better woman. "... she is more than helpless than this dress on the ironing board, helpless before the iron." All things will smooth out in time.

I truly liked this story. It was an easy read. Like I have mentioned before I could see this story turned into a Lifetime Friday night special. It is timeless!


Why I Live at the P.O.

The title of this showed that the reader would find out why they live at the P.O. After reading the short you see that "Sister" is completely against her family members. Her family doesn't care much for her either, they are more tied up on her sisters return. "Sister" had been through a lot with her sister running off with her man, to her return with a child. With problems in the family on the rise "Sister" sets herself free from her family as she takes her stuff from the house to the back room at the post office. Finally free from her family.

This short was hard to fallow at times. I'm assuming it is a monologue (but could be wrong). I think I would have to read more of Welty's to know if I like her work.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Here again another new poet to me! Brook's poems showed violence that the African Americans faced in America. The Boy Died in My Ally, tells not only of one boy who died, but the countless others who were put into similar situations. The opening speaks of shootings, death and the speaking with witnesses. The witness states that they have heard the shots a thousand times. Nothing has been done for these boys., nothing has changed over time. The details are all the same.
Brooks makes me picture the witness thinking back to the past times an instant that has happened either in her "ally" or elsewhere in the world. I also sense a longing to have some way helped these boys/people. She feels because she did nothing to help them, it inadvertently added to their death. She has always heard the cries for help, but done nothing.

Brooks poems were an easy read. They were very much song like.

I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge.
Gwendolyn Brooks

I've always thought of myself as a reporter.
Gwendolyn Brooks

Look at what's happening in this world. Every day there's something exciting or disturbing to write about. With all that's going on, how could I stop?
Gwendolyn Brooks

I can not wait for discussion on Brooks poems!

CJ

Elizabeth Bishop

I can first saw that I have never read any of Bishop's poems. After assigning "One Art" & "The Man-Moth" I have to say that I like Bishop's work.

In "The Man-Moth" there is a sense of outcast, failure and distrust issues that arise. "Man" is scared to surface into the public, being surrounded by failure and those outside his world. Bishop takes us into the Man-Moth's world of making this journey to the surface and being among people and his first hand reaction. Readers also see that though time and life are moving forward the Man-Moth faces backwards on the subway, so not to know what lies ahead.
Then he returns
to the pale subways of cement he calls his home. He flits,
he flutters, and cannot get aboard the silent trains
fast enough to suit him. The doors close swiftly.
The Man-Moth always seats himself facing the wrong way
and the train starts at once at its full, terrible speed,
without a shift in gears or a gradation of any sort.
He cannot tell the rate at which he travels backwards.

One-Art was a rather easy read. It was complex but simple. Bishop opens with, "The art of losing isn't hard to master;" this is true. All sorts of things are lost everyday. Bishop mentions small things to big things. However, no matter what is lost it is not a disaster. I took from this poem a feeling of contentment that no matter what we may lose in our lives that in the end we must have hope. We must expect that loss will come, but know that it doesn't have to end in disaster.

"One Art" By Elizabeth Bishop from Walter on Vimeo.

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CJ

Hurston

"What's it got to do with you, Sykes? Mah tub of suds is filled yo' belly with vittles more times than yo' hands is filled it. Mah sweat is done paid for this house and Ah reckon Ah kin keep on sweatin' in it."

She seized the iron skillet from the stove and struck a defensive pose, which act surprised him greatly, coming from her. It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did.

A woman writer from the Harlem Renaissance, I think this one had a lot to say. "Sweat" was an interesting short story to read. Though hard to follow in certain places due to wording/spelling the point was made. Hurston did use many Biblical notions in her writing of "Sweat". References to the tree, snakes and ultimate life.

During my reading I did not see how this short story or author tied into the "Harlem Renaissance" writing other than the time period. Her writing even though a short did not read as those poems from McKay, Hughes or Johnson.

You did see the struggle of Delia's everyday life of being a washer and a wife. Skye was not a gentleman.
This poem could easily be made into a Lifetime movie, it has drama, sadness and a woman overcoming odds.

Hughes

These poems by Hughes showed emotion! "Negro" showed Hughes pride in his ancestry. The style of Hughes in the poem was very different than the poems of Johnson. This poem seemed chopping, whereas Johnson's' were smooth. This poem is also rooted in spiritual ties.
I've been a singer;
All the way from Africa to Georgia
I carried my sorrow songs.
I made ragtime.

Then reminds puts a vision in my head of gospel songs being sung, then of music from the ragtime era.

Park Bench

This poem made me think "I'll show you!" The character in my mind seems to be waving his finger at the rich and greedy, and stating "That I might, just maybe,/In a year or two,/ Move on over/ To Park Avenue/ as the people walk by. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pMg7BOoi2A

Great reading of Negro Speaks of Rivers!

McKay

Anger much? McKay voiced his anger at the world, his world. In these two poems from the 40's the a time of war in our world. Though short these poems were packed with information, voice and anger. McKay is connected with his ancestry during his writing. Lines like /Which bind me like a heavy iron chain, it is the Negro's wound I want to heal/ show representation of his link to the past, but his fight for the future.

His poem "Look Within" is as if a prayer to God, but also a message to the world. Lines 1-9 suggest the prayer, while 10-14 seem to be the message to the world. Almost a "you just wait, you haven't seen anything yet" message.

After reading these poems you could tell that McKay was also a well educated man by the words he used throughout his work.

McKay's poems were insightful, however I do not know if his work is my favorite.

James W. Johnson

After reading both "O Black and Unknown Bards" & "The White Witch" I got a sense of rhythm and song from his writing. Johnson's words were easy to follow in these two poems for me as well. The lines 9-16 from "O Black and Unknown Bards", showed Johnson's spiritual feelings and views of his ancestries path.
Heart of what slave poured out such melody
As “Steal away to Jesus”? On its strains 10
His spirit must have nightly floated free,
Though still about his hands he felt his chains.
Who heard great “Jordan roll”? Whose starward eye
Saw chariot “swing low”? And who was he
That breathed that comforting, melodic sigh, 15
“Nobody knows de trouble I see”?

I can only envision what the early twentieth century was like from books, television and movies. These poems brought out feelings and emotions Johnson shared with the world of his culture, background and spirituality. Both poems are laced with strings that are being pulled back and forth on these three topics.

I enjoyed this step back into time through Johnson's poems.

T.S. Eliot

I enjoyed both selections from Eliot. He was very easy to follow and read. I'm the more times I read the poems and the footnotes I will catch something new each time. I do not have much to say about Eliot, except for I am excited to learn more about him and these selections tonight. He seems interesting. He has a style that was easy to read, reflect and imagine.

I enjoyed the religious aspect of Journey of the Mag I like different views and accounts of what people from the past to to endure. I feel that the account of the Magi were examined very well.

I look forward to reading more from Eliot.

If I could ask T.S. a few questions about our selections they would be:

1. What was your inspiration for A Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock?

2. How do you view your style of writing from that of your colleagues?

3. Where were you doing your writing of Journey of the Magi? Did it play a role in the birth of the poem?

... for now,
CJ

...Stevens..."What are you talking about?"

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbird... this poem blew my mind! I could not find a connection with it at all. The numbers confused me, and the connection to man, woman, and tree. All of the pieces looked like a jigsaw puzzle to me. If you can shed some light to me about this one I would be more than grateful. This was not a good poem to open my world of Stevens poetry!

I then read Study of Two Pears, this was a poem that my imagination took flight with. I saw a vision of myself sitting in "Intro to Drawing" during my undergrad. schooling and thought of my teacher and the objects we would draw. The phrases and symbols all came rushing back into my head! This poem teleported me back to 2005, to one of the most eye opening and out of the box classes I have ever taken. This was a class out of my element. I was out of my social circle of friends, and into a classroom that looked nothing like any one I had been in. It was FANTASTIC! I loved it, I could be or do anything I pleased. My drawings set me free to explore a new realm of art I had not before. This poem seems very free and open to interruptions, just like the class. The pears are objects to be drawn, however they may not appear on your paper the way they look on the pedestal in front of you.

This poem restored my faith in Stevens as a poet! I must read more like this one!
CJ

Enlightened by poems

I have to admitt that a book of poems is not what I grab first off the shelves. I can honestly say that I have really only read poems in high school and if any were assigned during undergrad I do not remember them. I hope this book of Modern American Poetry will open my eyes to new poems and poets. I need to retain some aspect of poetry to be more diversed in my readings and teachings. Who knows I may find my favorite poet or poem!
So here we go...


Robert Frost

In the poems assigned I saw a string of similarities that they were all entangled with some aspect of nature. The poems that stuck out the most with me was Gathering Leaves & Neither Out Far Nor In Deep.

In Gathering Leaves, the poem really spoke to me as a collection of thoughts or memories that a person may carry with them over time. These thought/memories do not have to be heavy or light. Some people may know that they are there, some may feel there retibrutions during the day. These feelings bottled up may rise and fall over, but we must never let them completly take over. We may keep these feelings bottled up, because "whose to say where the harves shall stop." I liked this poem for its refrences and enlightenment.

Neither Out Far Nor In Deep, I think I liked for its refrences to the ocean. People rather set sail to forget about problems that may lie on land. I see this true with people who take to the ocean for pleasure. They are excaping their lives to see what the ocean has in store for them. The ocean however does not hold all of the answer they are looking for. The tide always rolls in and so will the people. Back to reality. They may have looked to the far distances and the depths of the ocean, but responses were not made availible.

After reading selections from Frost I am intrigued to venture farther into his work and read some more from him.
CJ

*(This is Updated)Hills Like White Elephants

By: Ernest Hemingway

Wow... I was way off by this short story after reading it once. After the discussion in class I had to go back and reread it. I then noticed the relation to the abortion. Even though it was not flat out stated that it was the main concept or the story, there are suggestions to it. I'm glad that I know what I now know.

I would think that people who may be going through this similar situation may have similar conversations. This couple I thought was at a breaking point in their life. The female was over the heartless comments of her companion. The male was trying to make the situation a minor one in their life.

This subject is one that many people know happen in the world, however it is not widely accepted or talked about.

I have not read much from Hemingway, however this short story makes me want to read more.
CJ

A Rose for Emily

http://www.fotosearch.com/bthumb/ARP/ARP124/rr_so_plantation.jpg
By: William Faulkner

With every word that zoomed across my eyes, an image projected in the back of my mind like a tiny film being played just for me. I think that is what William Faulkner ultimately wanted his reader to be able to imagine with his story of Miss Emily. I could see Emily's home, belongings, the people of the town and even even Emily herself. I love the line "... Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into lumps of dough as they moved from one face to another..."

As I continued to read, I got a sense that Emily was alone in her town and home. She did have family in Alabama, a hand servant and Mr. Homer. However, these could not fill the empty space within her. After Homer went away and then returned I do feel that he was the recipient of the arsenic. I do not know the underlining circumstance of him receiving it, since the happenings of the inside of the home were not mentioned. I do have a strong feeling that the arsenic was not for rats, unless he himself were a "rat".

If it were not for the snood people in the town wanting to see a dead women's house we may have not known that it were Mr. Barron in the upstairs. Finding the grey hair in the pillow next to him either lets me know that Miss Emily would visit him, or she was there when he passed.

All in all, I feel that "A Rose for Emily" was truly an intriguing short story!
CJ

Lit. Class Welcome

Well here we go another semester for us here at Piedmont. I hope the words expressed in blog enlighten you in some way. May this class be good to you!
Until next time,
CJ