The convergence of Twain

When I first read this poem I failed to see the subtitle that mentions the titanic. This made the poem extremely confusing and it wasn’t until the second to last stanza that I started to wonder if maybe the poem was about the titanic. When I saw the subtitle I was very relieved that I wasn’t missing the point entirely or that I knew nothing about Mark Twain. For the most part though this poem changed a lot of my view on the titanic, it made me think on a different level from a different perspective, about what happened. Especially since at first I didn’t realize it was about the titanic. In fact, I’m actually glad I didn’t see the subtitle at first. It made me read the poem from a completely oblivious perspective without being completely oblivious, if that makes sense.

Those winter Sundays

This poem seems to hold somewhat of a general central theme. It seems to me it could be taken a few different ways. First off the obvious approach would be to take the “father” figure to be the speaker’s father which makes sense however it doesn’t exactly explain the Sunday part of the poem. It is plausible, however, Sunday is a day associated with God and the father, in that case, would obviously be God. I think that maybe some of both of these could be the more correct interpretation. Perhaps the father is the father of the speaker but the speaker sees him as a higher power in the same way the speaker sees God. In this case the Sunday morning is just enough of a hint to give this type of identity to the father without making it seem as if the father figure is only God and nothing more. Hopefully of this is in the cone of reason. The tone of this poem seems to be somewhat reserved however it sends a clear message that whoever the father is or is representing he is underappreciated.

I felt a Funeral, in my brain

I think that this poem is filled with symbols because I think that the poem is an allegory. Overall the poem seems to be representing the speaker going insane. The fact that the speaker is hearing and experiencing his/her own funeral speaks enough for itself and how it demonstrates this point but further details also reveal this. In line 8 the speaker says, “My mind was going numb.” This seems to be symbolic of the fact that the speaker is almost aware of their growing insanity but doesn’t do anything to prevent it (maybe because they’re insane.) The way the speaker seems to die, in a way, at the end seems to show that at that point they are beyond the point of no return and have completely gone insane. The poem also seems to be phrased so that it progresses pretty slowly for instance when treading is repeated early on in the poem it makes the poem drag on.

Spring

To me it is interesting how Hopkins chooses to portray the weeds. When I think of weeds I think of them as a nuisance but the way Hopkins portrays them shines an entirely new light on them. When I read Hopkins description it makes the weeds sound much more exotic and makes the whole area seem to be untamed and free. The tone of Hopkins poem seems to be kind of light and carefree. He seems to write without too much direction in the first stanza, just describing things he sees as he sees them. The second stanzas tone seems to change though. Many more of the words have a more negative connotation such as cloy, sinning, strain, and sour. He seems to start to snap out of the ignorant bliss he had in the first stanza and focus more on peoples impurity’s and how we are not deserving of this beauty, at least that’s what the reference to Eden makes me think.

London

In this poem I think it is very interesting how Blake seems to allude to his dislike for Governmental structure. Although he doesn’t directly address it, I get the feeling that in lines such as when he says “I wander through the chartered street” he is indirectly targeting government, since there isn’t any other clear reason for specifying that the streets are chartered. Also, “chartered” is the only word that is defined on the side of the page which leads me to believe it of some sort of importance. The Poem seems to have a very negative tone that is shown in many places such in lines 11-12 when he says, “And the hapless Soldier’s sigh runs in blood down Palace walls.” The diction here holds a very dreary tone and when this tone is associated with the title, it seems very clear that Blake sees something wrong with London. Blake also makes an allusion to the river Thames in line 2. This river flows through central London and I think is simply a reference to the fact that Blake writes this poem as if he is walking through London. This allusion demonstrates Blake’s ethos since many people outside of London wouldn’t know what the Thames is.

The Nature of Proof

As far as Perrine's views on the "correct" way to interpret poetry I would say I partially agree. Only partially because she says that ". . .That all interpretations of a poem are equally valid is a critical heresy. . ." I think that in many cases poets are deliberately ambiguous and, in fact, purposely put things in a poem that can be read 2 or sometimes many more different ways. I definitely agree with Perrine when she says that the solution that relies on the fewest assumptions is probably correct. As simple as that sounds I think that many times people overlook simple things like this when trying to interpret poetry. This concept really struck me when I reread the poems we had previously interpreted because I came up with more than one idea of what I thought the poem meant but when I simply looked at the numbers and which of my ideas had the fewest assumptions I found that interpretation to be correct.

This reading has definitely helped me to better understand poetry that I will read in the future. I used to look at poetry as just kind of a useless form of writing that didn't have any type of real deeper meaning other than to sound pretty. Now I feel like interpreting poetry and realizing that not all interpretations are completely correct, that poetry doesn't simply mean what I see it to mean, can allow me to better appreciate poetry and see it has some worth. I think that Perrine provides some real incite into interpreting poetry. I also like how Perrine looks at it almost from more of a numerical standpoint when she considers the number of details that don't rely on assumptions. I myself am more of a numbers and facts based person. I like science and math and that is something that has really distanced me from poetry since in many ways it seems to be the opposite of the "numbers" way of thinking. Now, however, I think I won't have as much trouble with poetry since I can look at it through more of my own way of thinking.

Final Blog

This book hit me in a few different ways. At first I thought it was pretty decent, hearing a few war stories. Definitely an improvement from the last book. However, then I found out that all of these stories at best are grossly exaggerated and probably mostly fake. This really set me off in a bad way. I don't think that he should need to make up the stories and sure maybe some people will say that we need to read into the fact that they're made up and analyze them. Really though, I hate over analyzing literature. I think that analyzing it is fine but I think there comes a point when you begin to read too far into the literature and trying to see connections that just aren't really there.