“The Skeletons of Dreams” and New Criticism The poem “The Skeletons of Dreams” by Philip Appleman is filled with language of conflict and contradiction that conveys key issues people have regarding the concept of evolution. The conflicts in the poem regard chaos as opposed to silence, meaning as opposed to vanity, and purpose versus emptiness. The language of the poem is suggestive of inner as well as outer conflict as the concept of evolution is pondered. For instance, the poem begins with “He found giants / in the earth: mastodon, / Mylodon, thigh bones / like tree trunks”. The bones are reminiscent of animals and organisms that are now extinct. They once had a predominant existence, but are now extinct and, for the most part, completely forgotten about. Because the observers (human beings) were not around when the giants roamed the earth, “their passing was silent as snails, / silent as rabbits”. This is, however, opposed to the previous lines, saying that the “treetops / trembled at their passing”. There is evidently a contradiction here, and this contradiction presents a problem. The idea is that the organisms that once ruled the earth had tremendous power, but their power has since been reduced to nothing. Their existence was once large and powerful, but now it has been reduced to silence, as “Nothing at all recorded / the day when the last of them came / crashing through creepers and ferns”. Recording is only done by human beings. Since the organisms were not recorded by human beings, their existence is essentially non-existent. Extinction and ceasing to exist may seem fairly obvious regarding the “giants”, but the major conflict in this poem is that human beings will have the same ending as the ancient organisms did. Human beings will grow, sprout, rule the globe as the extinct giants did – but they will eventually die and fade away. Human beings, in effect, “are mortal as mammoths”. Added to this, “we know the last lines of our poem”. The conflict here is between existence and non-existence. The question being asked in “The Skeletons of Dreams” is what it means to exist when every species simply lives, dies, and is forever non-existent. Human beings have always thought of themselves as unique, separate, and superior to the animal kingdom. Added to this, human beings have always assigned meaning to their existence by believing in supernatural powers that guide their lives. Also, human beings have believed that they continue to exist after death. This poem, though, undermines the notion of supernatural meaning by taking note of the great similarities of all species on earth. Every species exists for long periods of time, but the periods of time are ultimately temporary. Since every species is temporary, the time of the existence of each species is relatively short. The speaker notes that Darwin, “in his English garden”, writes that “When a species has vanished / from the face of the earth, /the same form never reappears”. This is a distressing idea for human beings because they have always been afraid of ceasing to exist. That is why posterity is so immensely important in so much literature and history. But humans, the poem says, like all the other animals, will ultimately cease to exist. The meaning of human existence, then, appears to be reduced to vanity when put in this astronomically vast perspective. What the solution is, then, the poem does not say. The poem simply notes that human beings are “Blazing along through black nothing / to nowhere at all, mastodons of heaven, / the stars do not need our small ruin”. This passage is saying that humans, on the grand cosmic scale, are equal to the ancient organisms. The existence of humans is immense today, and civilization is vast, but ultimately they will all come to an untimely end. The end of today’s humans may be studied many years from now by another group of species. Some of these future organisms may reach the same conclusion about existence as the poem conveys.
“Thank U” is a life affirming song by Alanis Morissette. It spreads a message to be grateful for what you do have in life and to be good to yourself and those around you.
The first verse of the song indicates what the rest of the piece is about. Morissette suggests stopping our self destructive behavior with a sort of tongue-in-cheek humor: How about getting off of these antibiotics How about stopping eating when I'm filled up How about them transparent dangling carrots How about that ever elusive kudo
The first line refers to the largest problem of antibiotics: the more you take them the less they work. In this context, the antibiotics are a metaphor for the things we do to make us feel better about ourselves. The next line refers to our over consuming society to the point of being self destructive. The transparent dangling carrots line is one of the most powerful lines in the whole song. The “carrots” are a metaphor for the goals we set for ourselves that don’t really mean anything as far as being a good person. These “carrots” are things like more money, more status, doing what is socially expected. We are being lead around by these things as if we were a horse and someone was urging us forward with a carrot on a stick. The final line is another example of empty motivation that we are searching for; the ever elusive kudos or praise from our peers. The following the first verse is the chorus: Thank you India Thank you terror Thank you disillusionment Thank you frailty Thank you consequence Thank you thank you silence
Because the chorus is repeated three times, one can safely assume that it is important to the message of the song. She is not actually thankful for terror and fragility; she doesn’t think that these are good things. But rather she is thankful she finally saw that in places like India there is such horrible events going on which brings prospective to the problems in her own life. The second verse shows her desire to grow after her eyes have been opened: How about me not blaming you for everything How about me enjoying the moment for once How about how good it feels to finally forgive you How about grieving it all one at a time The narrator is suggesting ways to make her life better after she saw how pointless the little battles she had were. She wants to let go of the little grudges and not letting it overwhelm her. The third verse is a mixture of her struggle and the feeling of elation of her efforts in the previous verse: The moment I let go of it was The moment I got more than I could handle The moment I jumped off of it was The moment I touched down This verse is rife with paradoxes. Obviously, one cannot jump at the exact same time she lands. She isn’t being literal. At first, when she tries to let go of all of the little problems it’s difficult. She’s suddenly gotten “more than she could handle”. But almost immediately, she is able to become grounded. It is now a more purified existence. The final verse she is really speaking to the reader, trying to help guide them to this release: How about no longer being masochistic How about remembering your divinity How about unabashedly bawling your eyes out How about not equating death with stopping The first two lines suggests letting go of the grudges and anger towards other people and the urge to lash out at other. Remember that is it divine to forgive. The third line suggests a therapeutic release rather than an angry one and the fourth and final line of the song reminds us that life isn’t about the material world. There is more if we open ourselves to it. This is a feel-good song if there ever was one. It is an attempt to make us see how all the little things that don’t really matter can really make us suffer in the long run through the use of ironic humor and metaphors.
His “son” is his legacy and after Jay- Z dies, he will explain to everyone who he was and place him among the top rappers. “Ain’t in it for the fame that dies within weeks/ Ain’t in it for the money, can’t take me when you leave/ I wanna be remembered long after you breathe.” (ll. 53-55) In these lines he is saying that he wants to be remembered forever and he knew that the only way to do that was if he made a victory because that would go down in history. Finally he says “This is much more that a song, it’s a baby shower.” (l. 59) With these lines it is clear that he has accomplished his goal and has finally made history. Jay- Z’s use of metaphors was brilliant in this song. He was able to describe victory, success, defeat, death, and even history in a way that personified them perfectly. The unifying theme throughout the song was Jay- Z’s search for victory and at the end he resolved his problems and finally got what he had been working so hard to accomplish, to establish himself in history forever.
Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is divided into thirteen enumerated sections of varying length, rhyme, and meter; sometimes containing neither of the latter two. The poem is absolutely riddled with paradoxes and ambiguities, as each numbered section is remarkably cryptic and seems to hold no relation to the others aside from the recurring image of the blackbird. The first section of this poem mentions “twenty snowy mountains” but never again makes mention of them. This is strange because in stating that there are twenty mountains, the text implies that there is some significance to the number of mountains; otherwise it would not have been so specific. However, this section, let alone the entire poem, never again even talks about mountains. This shrouds the first section of the poem, ironically, in ambiguity. That is to say, the poem is ambiguous by being specific, a paradox in and of itself. The first section goes on to say that “the only moving thing… Was the eye of the blackbird”. It is hard to imagine that the only moving thing amongst twenty mountains that is in motion is the eye of a blackbird, and therefore the text calls attention to the blackbird’s eye. Then, the section ends. No mention is made of the blackbird’s eye afterwards. In the scale of twenty mountains, the tiny eye of a blackbird is an infinitely small thing, and so by calling attention to it the text is being quite specific, but yet again, ambiguous, as the text does absolutely nothing to explain or even hint at the significance of the eye. The second section is slightly more mathematical and logical, yet still comes to no conclusions. It reads as follows: “I was of three minds… Like a tree… In which there are three blackbirds”. When the speaker says he was of three minds, he being only one person, it implies that he is in three different states of mind. The speaker then likens this to a tree containing three blackbirds, and since a tree has no mind, the logical conclusion is that each blackbird has a unique state of mind, one of the three that the speaker mentions. The only way this can be broken down is that the tree must be the body of the speaker, as it is the only singular item in the metaphor. The blackbirds must each be a different state of mind that the speaker experiences. However, this metaphor is paradoxical as it claims that three of the same thing (blackbirds) are three different things (states of mind). This paradox remains unresolved because, like the first section, the second section abruptly ends and the rest of the poem offers neither mention nor resolution of this section. Section three reads as follows “The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime”. A pantomime, being a mute performance, implies that the blackbird was either an actor or a prop. The performance could be a number of things, but the text implies that the autumn winds were a performance, as evidenced by the fact that the blackbird is whirling in them. However, this is still an ambiguous section as there is no text which expounds upon how the autumn wind is a performance. Section four attempts to relate the blackbird to human beings, as it reads “A man and a woman… are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird… are one”. In saying that a man and a woman are one, the speaker implies that there are no differences between the sexes. Obviously this is meant in an abstract sense because there are obvious differences between men and women physically speaking. The same holds true for when the blackbird is added to this equation. It must be meant in an abstract sense because there are even more obvious physical differences between men, women and a blackbird. The conclusion that is drawn from this section is that a blackbird, in an abstract sense, is a human.
The fifth section likens the whistling of a blackbird to an inflection, and the moment just after the whistling to an innuendo. In this cryptic passage the speaker is unsure which of the aforementioned two he or she prefers. In asserting that the author is unsure of their preference, the text implies that there is a choice to be made, and one cannot be had in addition to the other. This is confusing because an inflection is a speech pattern, an innuendo is a figure of speech, and both neither conflict with one another. However, even with this non-conflict presented as a conflict, the conclusion that one can draw from this is that the blackbird is speaking, which, again, is paradoxical as blackbirds lack the ability to speak. Section six depicts the shadow of a blackbird flying back and forth across a window covered in icicles. The last three lines, when placed together, make no sense. This passage is extremely cryptic is it comes to no conclusions and even the words within it seem to no work together in any sense. This passage seems only to add ambiguity to the rest of the poem; throwing off any interpretation the reader may have developed thus far. The last line of this passage seems to describe the whole rather well; “An indecipherable cause”. The seventh section makes mention of a certain character named Haddam, but who he is or what he does remains a mystery, as the text makes no mention of him ever again. The speaker inquires as to why the men of Haddam imagine golden birds. The speaker goes on to ask “Do you not see how the blackbird… Walks around the feet… of the women about you?” Cryptic as usual, but this is the first time in the poem that the speaker mentions a specific person and also the first time that the speaker poses a question. Ambiguous, of course, because the reader is given no clues as to whom the question is posed to other than the “men of Haddam”. Sections eight through thirteen are much of the same; cryptic passages which serve to confuse the reader with paradoxes and ambiguities, with no conclusive resolution in sight. Throughout all of the passages there are few things that can be found in common which prevent an easy interpretation of this piece. However, the title suggests there are thirteen ways to look at a blackbird, and there are thirteen passages, leaving only one conclusion, that each passage represents a different view of a blackbird. Specifically what those views are cannot be ascertained solely through the text.
Morgan Emery “Winter Winds” Mumford and Sons, a recently popular British band with distinctive folk roots, released Sigh No More in 2010, featuring songs like the chart-reaching “Little Lion Man” and “The Cave.” A lesser known track on the CD is entitled “Winter Winds,” a song rife with emotion and containing an ambiguous love story. In the tradition of New Criticism, however, a strict examination of the lyrics reveals a bleaker meaning within the song. Without the inclusion of vocal intonation or a back story, it may be difficult to decipher the meaning of this particular text. As the text stands, however, the narrator explores the loneliness of existence and the inescapable reality of death. While some lines contain hints of optimism, the narrator's ambivalence and doubt seep through each stanza. The first portion of the song contains the observations of the narrator, who refers to the “winter winds” that “litter London with lonely hearts.” The narrator, however, was able to find comfort and solace in the eyes of a woman that is mentioned later in the text. In wondering what sustained them “through the night,” or darkness that loomed over the narrator and the woman, motivations of “fear” and “love” are both suggested. Regardless, it seems as though with each kiss, or display of affection, that the narrator’s “doubt” was quelled. The individual’s relationship with the woman seems to be one of comfort, but the language implies that it is the result of loneliness and desperation. Words like “lonely,” “fear,” “cold,” and “doubt” set the tone for the rest of the song. An interesting paradox emerges in the chorus of the song, in which the traditional roles of the head and heart are reversed. The narrator conveys a conversation between his or her head and heart, in which the head wants to “let love grow.” Usually, the heart is the organ associated with feelings of love, but in this case the head is the one initiating the emotion. The heart, in this exchange, responds with, “this time no.” Not only are the organs functioning in abstract and unorthodox roles, but the emotional ambivalence of the narrator is evident. In most circumstances, the head is depicted as providing the logical argument that must overrule the irrational whims of the heart. However, the narrator’s head formulates a reasoning that would justify the facilitation of love – perhaps through the desperation or loneliness previously mentioned. Instead of the head putting a stop to emotionally fuelled behavior, it is the heart that says, “No.” This could be because the heart can differentiate between actual love and a logical attachment resulting from symptoms of isolation. The heart is, in essence saying, “No, I can’t feel something that I don’t.”
Although there is a great deal more to be said of the chorus, the entirety of the text must be investigated in order to understand its meaning. The second verse is relatively simple in content, as the narrator speaks to the woman, or “girl,” and explains that one day they will both be dead and all that will remain of them are memories and decomposing flesh. In this part of the song however, the recurring word “plague” is mentioned for the first time. In this particular instance the word “plague” acts as a noun that refers to something that consumes the flesh of the dead. It is the third verse that contains the most ambiguity. The list of foreboding words grows with additions like: shame, pestilence, lost and gone; as well as the phrase “no hope will overcome.” The narrator also says that “the shame that sent me off from the God that I once loved/ Was the same that sent me into your arms.” This particular quote suggests that the narrator possesses some sort of shame that would make him or her unworthy of God, but ideal for the woman to whom the song is addressed. An unusual conveyance of adoration serves a dual purpose by acknowledging the person’s “shame.” This “shame” that swept the narrator into the woman’s arms is a contradiction to the aforementioned “warmth” in her “eyes.” Unless the “shame” and “warmth” have a direct correlation, the narrator is conflicted about origin of the relationship with the woman. The final two lines of the stanza are bleak in terms of outlook. According to the narrator, when the woman is “lost,” and he or she is “gone,” pestilence will have won. The term “pestilence” compliments the word “plague” used earlier in the song, but the definition of pestilence’s triumph is not something that can be easily concluded. The mention of the word “plague” earlier in the lyrics related to death and decomposition, and so in this instance, pestilence’s victory is also death. The fact that “no hope will overcome” only serves to emphasize the inescapable nature of death. The final verse seems more optimistic, especially in terms of imagery. The narrator reminds the addressee that “spring swaps snow for leaves,” and that the “winter winds” brought forth in the beginning are not permanent. As the narrator reassures the woman, hope is personified in the form of the ascending sun.
Work Cited Mumford and Sons. "Winter Winds." Rec. 16 Feb. 2010. Sigh No More. Glass Note, 2010. CD.
Vienna Teng’s “Antebellum”: A New Critical Approach Anyone who has been in love will agree that, at times, it can feel like a battleground. Blows are exchanged through words, maybe even fists, and many people can get hurt. Whether a fight happens with a family member, a friend, or a lover, it is always painful. In her song “Antebellum,” Vienna Teng tells the story of two people who could be lovers, family, or even friends; all the reader knows is their love has turned into a war that will never again be a good relationship. To truly understand the meaning behind the speaker’s words, one must delve into the world of New Criticism. New Criticism is a critical method which forces the reader to strip a work down layer by layer, revealing the complexities underneath the surface and giving a more insightful view into the piece. By viewing this piece through a new critic’s eyes, it is easy to see how the literary devices Teng uses—mainly diction and personification—come together to give a vivid understanding of the war that is the speaker’s relationship. The speaker introduces this song by setting the scene: it is fall, and the leaves are on the ground. Fall is a symbolic season in that it signifies the start of the harshness of winter; it is when animals are stocking up on food to survive the onslaught of cold and snow, and people bundle up to combat the frigid air and biting wind. The speaker and his or her foe are “[circling] through the leaves and [talking] about the little ones,” creating the image of two combatants gauging each other’s skill before striking, while tiptoeing around a topic to test the waters. “Little ones” suggests children, which leads the reader to conclude the two people are either lovers with children or family with younger relatives who are closely involved in this dispute. The chorus creates a lull in fighting, like a period of rest between battles. The speaker reveals that some kind of treaty has been struck. Borderlines have been drawn, showing that the two people are actively trying to protect the “wounded,” which could refer to the little ones mentioned in the first verse. Her word choice—“borderlines,” “weapons,” and “wounded”—adds to the war zone idea. A feeling of resignation is conveyed to the reader in the last two lines of the chorus: “I know our antebellum innocence was never meant to see the light of our armistice day.” The happiness and hope the combatants held before the battles have been extinguished, leaving defeat and skepticism behind. Furthermore, “antebellum” and “armistice” are golden words that drive home the speaker’s feeling that he or she is in a war.
The second verse sets a new scene: it is now spring, a season of hope and new growth. Perhaps the two fighters are in a better place now. The phrase “Budding plans” strengthens the hopeful mood of this verse. Halfway through, however, the atmosphere takes a sudden turn for the worse; the reader sees there is more fighting. Harsh words are thrown, leaving both parties wounded. The song ends with repeats of the chorus and a bridge. This suggests the speaker knows the outcome of the war and is waiting out the repetitive fighting until the end. The bridge attests to this endless repetition; one side will leave and come back again as the “seasons keep on marching.” By this time, the war is old news, and only strangers are still interested in the fighting. Sporadic insertions of personification support the theme of endless war. In the second verse, sharp words are “splintering the night.” Their words are like gunshots, hurting as bullets, and loud enough to alert neighbors or strangers. The bridge contains the phrase “seasons keep on marching,” illustrating the speaker’s interminable struggle. Finally, the personification that appears in the chorus and multiple times in the song is “our antebellum innocence was never meant to see the light of our armistice day.” Their innocence did not live through the battles; the speaker sees this as an inevitable side effect of their never-ending conflict. To conclude, Vienna Teng beautifully conveyed the idea of love becoming a battleground through word choice and personification. A theme of changing seasons—the mention of fall and spring—and moving time—marching seasons—pervades this piece, demonstrating the endlessness of war and its effects. Juxtaposition of words such as “spring” and “blood” convey the suddenness and painfulness of the speaker’s battles. Seasons, words, and innocence personified strengthen the resigned tone of the lyrics. All in all, the use of diction and personification in this piece is what allows the reader to truly understand the story of the speaker’s struggle with a loved one.
Mini-Critique: New Criticism Under the critical method of New Criticism, the validity of a work as a good piece of literature is given only through the focus of the main text itself. The time period, author, and other contexts do not matter so much as the actual text and the information provided within just the text. That being said, under New Criticism, Emily Dickenson’s poem “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died” is a good piece of literature for its use of complexities and style. One of the only actions within the still setting of the poem is that of a fly buzzing around the room. It is brought to importance right at the beginning, with it being presented as the main event: “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died— / The Stillness in the Room…” (lines 1-2). The fly is heard first, not seen, and it cuts through the quiet of the room with the actual “buzz”—onomatopoeia for the true sound of the fly. After we are introduced to the fly, he does not appear again until nearly the end. In between these two moments, a quiet, solemn, almost peaceful deathbed scene is painted, but in the third stanza, the fly reappears, almost interrupting this scene much like the way a pesky fly would in real life. “I willed my Keepsakes—Signed away / What portion of me be / Assignable—and then it was / There interposed a Fly—” (lines 9-12). In line thirteen, the poem describes the actual fly as “Blue—uncertain—stumbling,” and in line fourteen, the fly is between the speaker and “the light,” which could have the double meaning of literally in the way of the light or that the fly, which is a symbol for “death, decay, etc.,” is interrupting the speaker’s peaceful progress towards death with its negative connotations. Apart from the fly, the poem has a lot of different literary devices that add to the poem’s slow, fading tone. One in particular is the simile in the first stanza: “The Stillness in the Room / Was like the Stillness in the Air— / Between the Heaves of Storm—” (lines 2-4). This here suggests that the room is in a standstill, almost. No one is really moving and nothing is really being done. Of course, there are actual people with the dying speaker. They aren’t mentioned as physically whole people, but there is the synecdoche of “the Eyes” as in line five: “The Eyes around—had wrung them dry—.” The fact that they are “wrung…dry” shows that the people around him have been crying, are exhausted from crying, to the point where they are beyond the point of crying and are coming to terms with this nearing death. Stanza two makes it very clear that death is coming: “The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— / And Breaths were gathering firm / For that last Onset—when the King / Be witnessed—in the Room” (lines 5-8). The most interesting part in this stanza is the idea of “the King,” which is carefully unspecified but in the context of the stanza has the meaning of either death or the coming of a deity to welcome the speaker to death. In order for the speaker to be reflecting on this moment of death, the speaker must already be dead. It is not just a deathbed scene being shown, it is the speaker showing his or her own deathbed experience. “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died ” (line 1). “And then the Windows failed—and then / I could not see to see ” (lines 15-16). “Windows” are representative to the speaker’s eyes in this context, and the fact that they “failed” and the speaker “could not see to see” shows that at this point, the very end of the poem, is the death of the speaker. The speaker has become an emotionless ghost, floating above the scene and telling of the moment with a flat, almost disconnected tone. To support this, in reconsidering the idea of the fly, the speaker tells of how the fly disturbs the scene, but there is no real annoyance toward the fly, and instead there is a careful observation of it. This is the same consideration the speaker has for the people gathered around his or her deathbed, the signing of his or her will, and the actual death of him or her.
The poem is presented in four stanzas of four lines with careful iambic meter, and the lines alternate between containing eight syllables and six syllables. This would make it like a normal rhythmic poem, but a few elements outside of these prevent this from happening. For example, there is no normal rhyme scheme, with few exceptions such as lines 14(“me”) and 16(“see”)’s endings. Also, throughout the poem the lines are broken up by pauses represented with “—” to create a new, spontaneous rhythm. The new rhythm mimics the choppy, faltering breathing of someone taking there last breaths, which adds to the overall tone and mood of the poem, creating the image of the speaker trying to recite the beautiful rhythm but having these dying breaths breaking it up. Because of these reasons, this poem is valid as a great piece of literature in its strong use of literary devices and stylistic tools. The unexpected element of the fly, the flat-line emotional backing, and the choppy addition to an otherwise normal rhythm give this poem an exciting edge that makes it an essential read.
Death is viewed and interpreted in many different ways by everyone, but death is usually not an amiable situation. Death can be a feeling, a sense, a sensation, but death is not physically present in a person’s life, as a companion or as an enemy. “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” written by Emily Dickinson during the nineteenth century, portrays death as a companion to a living person. The use of personification, along with irony and other elements such as symbolism, within this poem implies a message of a life lived and lost of the central figure of the poem. This figure is not afraid of death, however, and rather seems to compare death to a close friend, love interest, or other companion. “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me.” In this line, “Death” is capitalized, and referred to by the pronoun “He,” meaning that “Death” is referred to as a person within this poem. “And I had to put away, My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility,” is again a personification of “Death,” referring to “death” as “he.” The central figure can no longer work or play because it is time for this figure to go along with “death.” In lines three and four, “The carriage held but just ourselves, and Immortality,” there is again the sense of an idea being portrayed as a companion. In this case, Immortality is capitalized as a proper noun, and is also referred to as being a passenger in the carriage. In line 13, “Or rather he passed us,” the sun is personified, as the pronoun “he” is used to describe the sun. Symbolism is used in conjunction with personification in this poem, as the carriage symbolizes the transition between life and death, as “Death” is taking the central figure for a ride in the carriage. Death “knew no haste,” meaning that the carriage ride was not rushed, but rather enjoyed and accepted. In stanza three, the different objects being passed during the carriage ride represent the many lively things that the central figure will no longer have. These things go in succession of life, from a school, which represents early life, to the “setting sun,” which represents death. These lines reinforce the symbolism represented by the carriage, in that the central figure is transitioning between life and death.
Most of the lines within this poem are written in an iambic meter, with the first and third line of each stanza containing four meters, or eight syllables, and the lines two and four on each stanza containing three meters. The break in the pattern of iambic meter in stanza four represents the change in the form of the central figure. Stanza four uses the sense of “cold” in order to represent the death of the central figure. Gossamer is a sheer fabric which would not be capable of keeping a person warm in the cold ground after life had passed. A tippet is supposed to consist of the fur of a fox, but in this case the tippet is “only tulle,” meaning is it thin and unable to keep the central figure warm. The tulle and gossamer described in this poem are symbols of a companionship, as well, since these are materials that would likely be used for a wedding gown. In the next stanza, the idea of death is continued to be displayed through the “house that seemed a swelling in the ground.” This house is a symbol for the grave of the central figure. Lines 16-18 reinforce this idea because the house is described as “a swelling in the ground,” which is how a gravesite would be described. The poem ends with “I first surmised the horses’ heads were toward eternity.” This refers back to the carriage, which led to her transition into death. The horses carried the carriage which carried the central figure to “eternity,” or death. The irony in this poem is outstanding. The idea of death being a kind companion throughout the poem, when death is usually viewed as something to fear, is an example of Dickinson’s irony throughout this work. Death is portrayed by a kind man in this situation, although death is actually taking the central figure for a “ride” that will lead to eternal death. Another irony throughout this poem is that the central figure seems to be living life and seems to be very preoccupied and busy, yet this character is actually dead. The conflicts of this poem, which seem to be between the ideas of life and death, are resolved in stanza six, when it is clear that the central figure in this poem is no longer alive. However, this conflict is shown through the metaphors used throughout this poem. The literary elements Dickinson uses throughout this poem give the poem meaning and are incorporated in an incredible way. “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” consists of many literary elements which, through analysis, are seen as a major aspect of the writing itself. The use of metaphor, symbolism, and irony throughout this short poem allow the reader to understand the meaning of the poem based solely on the literature. Emily Dickinson is known to be one of the greatest writers of her era, and this poem displays many of the aspects which create “great” work.
“The Skeletons of Dreams” and New Criticism
ReplyDeleteThe poem “The Skeletons of Dreams” by Philip Appleman is filled with language of conflict and contradiction that conveys key issues people have regarding the concept of evolution. The conflicts in the poem regard chaos as opposed to silence, meaning as opposed to vanity, and purpose versus emptiness. The language of the poem is suggestive of inner as well as outer conflict as the concept of evolution is pondered.
For instance, the poem begins with “He found giants / in the earth: mastodon, / Mylodon, thigh bones / like tree trunks”. The bones are reminiscent of animals and organisms that are now extinct. They once had a predominant existence, but are now extinct and, for the most part, completely forgotten about. Because the observers (human beings) were not around when the giants roamed the earth, “their passing was silent as snails, / silent as rabbits”. This is, however, opposed to the previous lines, saying that the “treetops / trembled at their passing”. There is evidently a contradiction here, and this contradiction presents a problem. The idea is that the organisms that once ruled the earth had tremendous power, but their power has since been reduced to nothing. Their existence was once large and powerful, but now it has been reduced to silence, as “Nothing at all recorded / the day when the last of them came / crashing through creepers and ferns”. Recording is only done by human beings. Since the organisms were not recorded by human beings, their existence is essentially non-existent.
Extinction and ceasing to exist may seem fairly obvious regarding the “giants”, but the major conflict in this poem is that human beings will have the same ending as the ancient organisms did. Human beings will grow, sprout, rule the globe as the extinct giants did – but they will eventually die and fade away. Human beings, in effect, “are mortal as mammoths”. Added to this, “we know the last lines of our poem”. The conflict here is between existence and non-existence. The question being asked in “The Skeletons of Dreams” is what it means to exist when every species simply lives, dies, and is forever non-existent. Human beings have always thought of themselves as unique, separate, and superior to the animal kingdom. Added to this, human beings have always assigned meaning to their existence by believing in supernatural powers that guide their lives. Also, human beings have believed that they continue to exist after death. This poem, though, undermines the notion of supernatural meaning by taking note of the great similarities of all species on earth. Every species exists for long periods of time, but the periods of time are ultimately temporary. Since every species is temporary, the time of the existence of each species is relatively short. The speaker notes that Darwin, “in his English garden”, writes that “When a species has vanished / from the face of the earth, /the same form never reappears”. This is a distressing idea for human beings because they have always been afraid of ceasing to exist. That is why posterity is so immensely important in so much literature and history. But humans, the poem says, like all the other animals, will ultimately cease to exist. The meaning of human existence, then, appears to be reduced to vanity when put in this astronomically vast perspective.
What the solution is, then, the poem does not say. The poem simply notes that human beings are “Blazing along through black nothing / to nowhere at all, mastodons of heaven, / the stars do not need our small ruin”. This passage is saying that humans, on the grand cosmic scale, are equal to the ancient organisms. The existence of humans is immense today, and civilization is vast, but ultimately they will all come to an untimely end. The end of today’s humans may be studied many years from now by another group of species. Some of these future organisms may reach the same conclusion about existence as the poem conveys.
“Thank U” is a life affirming song by Alanis Morissette. It spreads a message to be grateful for what you do have in life and to be good to yourself and those around you.
ReplyDeleteThe first verse of the song indicates what the rest of the piece is about. Morissette suggests stopping our self destructive behavior with a sort of tongue-in-cheek humor:
How about getting off of these antibiotics
How about stopping eating when I'm filled up
How about them transparent dangling carrots
How about that ever elusive kudo
The first line refers to the largest problem of antibiotics: the more you take them the less they work. In this context, the antibiotics are a metaphor for the things we do to make us feel better about ourselves. The next line refers to our over consuming society to the point of being self destructive. The transparent dangling carrots line is one of the most powerful lines in the whole song. The “carrots” are a metaphor for the goals we set for ourselves that don’t really mean anything as far as being a good person. These “carrots” are things like more money, more status, doing what is socially expected. We are being lead around by these things as if we were a horse and someone was urging us forward with a carrot on a stick. The final line is another example of empty motivation that we are searching for; the ever elusive kudos or praise from our peers.
The following the first verse is the chorus:
Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence
Because the chorus is repeated three times, one can safely assume that it is important to the message of the song. She is not actually thankful for terror and fragility; she doesn’t think that these are good things. But rather she is thankful she finally saw that in places like India there is such horrible events going on which brings prospective to the problems in her own life.
The second verse shows her desire to grow after her eyes have been opened:
How about me not blaming you for everything
How about me enjoying the moment for once
How about how good it feels to finally forgive you
How about grieving it all one at a time
The narrator is suggesting ways to make her life better after she saw how pointless the little battles she had were. She wants to let go of the little grudges and not letting it overwhelm her.
The third verse is a mixture of her struggle and the feeling of elation of her efforts in the previous verse:
The moment I let go of it was
The moment I got more than I could handle
The moment I jumped off of it was
The moment I touched down
This verse is rife with paradoxes. Obviously, one cannot jump at the exact same time she lands. She isn’t being literal. At first, when she tries to let go of all of the little problems it’s difficult. She’s suddenly gotten “more than she could handle”. But almost immediately, she is able to become grounded. It is now a more purified existence.
The final verse she is really speaking to the reader, trying to help guide them to this release:
How about no longer being masochistic
How about remembering your divinity
How about unabashedly bawling your eyes out
How about not equating death with stopping
The first two lines suggests letting go of the grudges and anger towards other people and the urge to lash out at other. Remember that is it divine to forgive. The third line suggests a therapeutic release rather than an angry one and the fourth and final line of the song reminds us that life isn’t about the material world. There is more if we open ourselves to it.
This is a feel-good song if there ever was one. It is an attempt to make us see how all the little things that don’t really matter can really make us suffer in the long run through the use of ironic humor and metaphors.
For this assignment, I decided to deconstruct Sean “Jay- Z” Carter’s song “History” using New Criticism. Using this method I was able to determine the strengths, in his use of metaphors, and the brilliance of this song. The unifying idea of this song is Jay- Z’s search for victory because if he gets it, then he can make history. Interestingly, he refers to victory as a woman who continues to elude him.
ReplyDeleteIn the first verse of the song, it is clear that he has gotten his victory and is now able to make history. The rest of the song explains his journey getting there. It is in the first line of the second verse that he refers to victory as a woman, saying “In search of victory, she keeps saluting me/ If only we can be together momentarily/ We can make love and make history/ Why won’t you visit me?” (ll. 5-8) In this verse Jay- Z is saying that victory acknowledges him because she “salutes” him, but she moves on. If she stays for just a little bit they can make history together but she refuses to visit him.
As the song continues in the third verse, Jay- Z wants victory so bad that he sees everything else as defeat. He also refers to defeat as a woman and calls her victory’s sister. After this metaphor he uses a simile comparing the misery he feels from defeat to the feeling of missing the last shot of a basketball game which defines whether you win or lose. It is when he misses this “last shot” that he sees victory leaving and he begs her not to go.
He continues to say that no one believes in him or can see what his potential is the way he can. He wants victory “desperately” so they can make history together. Since he can’t get victory, and is stuck with defeat he decides to “flirt with death, hustling like a G”(l. 25) which refers to being on the streets and selling drugs. After the previous line he even says “while victory wasn’t watching took chances repeatedly.” (l. 26) If victory knew he was out in the streets selling drugs she wouldn’t come to him so he had to be low- key. “As a teenage boy before acne/ Before I got proactive I couldn’t face she”. (ll. 27-28) Here Jay-Z is using proactive as a metaphor for getting himself together before he went after victory.
In the eighth verse, Jay- Z uses another female metaphor. Here he says “I swear I met success, we lived together shortly/ Now success was like lust, she’s good to the touch/ She’s good for the moment but she’s never enough.” (ll. 30-31) He is saying that he has had success for a while but it can go away and victory which will help him make history will last forever. He continues to say, “Everybody’s had her, she’s nothing like V/ But success is all I got/ unfortunately.” (ll. 32-33) Here he is saying that everyone has had success so it’s not special and nothing like victory. Jay- Z refers to victory as V instead of just saying victory like he has throughout the song. Since he says that “everyone has had her” this can mean that the woman named success gets around, but V, which can imply virgin, has eluded everybody because nobody has had her which contributes to why Jay- Z wants her so bad.
Furthermore, as the song continues, Jay- Z says that he knows that there is still work to be done “before I get killed ‘cause I can’t get robbed.” (l. 37) This means that if someone wants to rob him, they are going to have to kill him first. After this, success and death team up and he actually uses the word “ménage”. This is a sign that he has to leave to find victory so that they can be together. Towards the end of the song, he finally gets victory and marries her unlike success. Together they will make history which he refers to as his son, once again using another metaphor.
His “son” is his legacy and after Jay- Z dies, he will explain to everyone who he was and place him among the top rappers. “Ain’t in it for the fame that dies within weeks/ Ain’t in it for the money, can’t take me when you leave/ I wanna be remembered long after you breathe.” (ll. 53-55) In these lines he is saying that he wants to be remembered forever and he knew that the only way to do that was if he made a victory because that would go down in history. Finally he says “This is much more that a song, it’s a baby shower.” (l. 59) With these lines it is clear that he has accomplished his goal and has finally made history.
ReplyDeleteJay- Z’s use of metaphors was brilliant in this song. He was able to describe victory, success, defeat, death, and even history in a way that personified them perfectly. The unifying theme throughout the song was Jay- Z’s search for victory and at the end he resolved his problems and finally got what he had been working so hard to accomplish, to establish himself in history forever.
Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is divided into thirteen enumerated sections of varying length, rhyme, and meter; sometimes containing neither of the latter two. The poem is absolutely riddled with paradoxes and ambiguities, as each numbered section is remarkably cryptic and seems to hold no relation to the others aside from the recurring image of the blackbird.
ReplyDeleteThe first section of this poem mentions “twenty snowy mountains” but never again makes mention of them. This is strange because in stating that there are twenty mountains, the text implies that there is some significance to the number of mountains; otherwise it would not have been so specific. However, this section, let alone the entire poem, never again even talks about mountains. This shrouds the first section of the poem, ironically, in ambiguity. That is to say, the poem is ambiguous by being specific, a paradox in and of itself. The first section goes on to say that “the only moving thing… Was the eye of the blackbird”. It is hard to imagine that the only moving thing amongst twenty mountains that is in motion is the eye of a blackbird, and therefore the text calls attention to the blackbird’s eye. Then, the section ends. No mention is made of the blackbird’s eye afterwards. In the scale of twenty mountains, the tiny eye of a blackbird is an infinitely small thing, and so by calling attention to it the text is being quite specific, but yet again, ambiguous, as the text does absolutely nothing to explain or even hint at the significance of the eye.
The second section is slightly more mathematical and logical, yet still comes to no conclusions. It reads as follows: “I was of three minds… Like a tree… In which there are three blackbirds”. When the speaker says he was of three minds, he being only one person, it implies that he is in three different states of mind. The speaker then likens this to a tree containing three blackbirds, and since a tree has no mind, the logical conclusion is that each blackbird has a unique state of mind, one of the three that the speaker mentions. The only way this can be broken down is that the tree must be the body of the speaker, as it is the only singular item in the metaphor. The blackbirds must each be a different state of mind that the speaker experiences. However, this metaphor is paradoxical as it claims that three of the same thing (blackbirds) are three different things (states of mind). This paradox remains unresolved because, like the first section, the second section abruptly ends and the rest of the poem offers neither mention nor resolution of this section.
Section three reads as follows “The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime”. A pantomime, being a mute performance, implies that the blackbird was either an actor or a prop. The performance could be a number of things, but the text implies that the autumn winds were a performance, as evidenced by the fact that the blackbird is whirling in them. However, this is still an ambiguous section as there is no text which expounds upon how the autumn wind is a performance.
Section four attempts to relate the blackbird to human beings, as it reads “A man and a woman… are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird… are one”. In saying that a man and a woman are one, the speaker implies that there are no differences between the sexes. Obviously this is meant in an abstract sense because there are obvious differences between men and women physically speaking. The same holds true for when the blackbird is added to this equation. It must be meant in an abstract sense because there are even more obvious physical differences between men, women and a blackbird. The conclusion that is drawn from this section is that a blackbird, in an abstract sense, is a human.
The fifth section likens the whistling of a blackbird to an inflection, and the moment just after the whistling to an innuendo. In this cryptic passage the speaker is unsure which of the aforementioned two he or she prefers. In asserting that the author is unsure of their preference, the text implies that there is a choice to be made, and one cannot be had in addition to the other. This is confusing because an inflection is a speech pattern, an innuendo is a figure of speech, and both neither conflict with one another. However, even with this non-conflict presented as a conflict, the conclusion that one can draw from this is that the blackbird is speaking, which, again, is paradoxical as blackbirds lack the ability to speak.
ReplyDeleteSection six depicts the shadow of a blackbird flying back and forth across a window covered in icicles. The last three lines, when placed together, make no sense. This passage is extremely cryptic is it comes to no conclusions and even the words within it seem to no work together in any sense. This passage seems only to add ambiguity to the rest of the poem; throwing off any interpretation the reader may have developed thus far. The last line of this passage seems to describe the whole rather well; “An indecipherable cause”.
The seventh section makes mention of a certain character named Haddam, but who he is or what he does remains a mystery, as the text makes no mention of him ever again. The speaker inquires as to why the men of Haddam imagine golden birds. The speaker goes on to ask “Do you not see how the blackbird… Walks around the feet… of the women about you?” Cryptic as usual, but this is the first time in the poem that the speaker mentions a specific person and also the first time that the speaker poses a question. Ambiguous, of course, because the reader is given no clues as to whom the question is posed to other than the “men of Haddam”.
Sections eight through thirteen are much of the same; cryptic passages which serve to confuse the reader with paradoxes and ambiguities, with no conclusive resolution in sight. Throughout all of the passages there are few things that can be found in common which prevent an easy interpretation of this piece. However, the title suggests there are thirteen ways to look at a blackbird, and there are thirteen passages, leaving only one conclusion, that each passage represents a different view of a blackbird. Specifically what those views are cannot be ascertained solely through the text.
Morgan Emery
ReplyDelete“Winter Winds”
Mumford and Sons, a recently popular British band with distinctive folk roots, released Sigh No More in 2010, featuring songs like the chart-reaching “Little Lion Man” and “The Cave.” A lesser known track on the CD is entitled “Winter Winds,” a song rife with emotion and containing an ambiguous love story. In the tradition of New Criticism, however, a strict examination of the lyrics reveals a bleaker meaning within the song. Without the inclusion of vocal intonation or a back story, it may be difficult to decipher the meaning of this particular text. As the text stands, however, the narrator explores the loneliness of existence and the inescapable reality of death. While some lines contain hints of optimism, the narrator's ambivalence and doubt seep through each stanza.
The first portion of the song contains the observations of the narrator, who refers to the “winter winds” that “litter London with lonely hearts.” The narrator, however, was able to find comfort and solace in the eyes of a woman that is mentioned later in the text. In wondering what sustained them “through the night,” or darkness that loomed over the narrator and the woman, motivations of “fear” and “love” are both suggested. Regardless, it seems as though with each kiss, or display of affection, that the narrator’s “doubt” was quelled. The individual’s relationship with the woman seems to be one of comfort, but the language implies that it is the result of loneliness and desperation. Words like “lonely,” “fear,” “cold,” and “doubt” set the tone for the rest of the song.
An interesting paradox emerges in the chorus of the song, in which the traditional roles of the head and heart are reversed. The narrator conveys a conversation between his or her head and heart, in which the head wants to “let love grow.” Usually, the heart is the organ associated with feelings of love, but in this case the head is the one initiating the emotion. The heart, in this exchange, responds with, “this time no.” Not only are the organs functioning in abstract and unorthodox roles, but the emotional ambivalence of the narrator is evident. In most circumstances, the head is depicted as providing the logical argument that must overrule the irrational whims of the heart. However, the narrator’s head formulates a reasoning that would justify the facilitation of love – perhaps through the desperation or loneliness previously mentioned. Instead of the head putting a stop to emotionally fuelled behavior, it is the heart that says, “No.” This could be because the heart can differentiate between actual love and a logical attachment resulting from symptoms of isolation. The heart is, in essence saying, “No, I can’t feel something that I don’t.”
Although there is a great deal more to be said of the chorus, the entirety of the text must be investigated in order to understand its meaning. The second verse is relatively simple in content, as the narrator speaks to the woman, or “girl,” and explains that one day they will both be dead and all that will remain of them are memories and decomposing flesh. In this part of the song however, the recurring word “plague” is mentioned for the first time. In this particular instance the word “plague” acts as a noun that refers to something that consumes the flesh of the dead.
ReplyDeleteIt is the third verse that contains the most ambiguity. The list of foreboding words grows with additions like: shame, pestilence, lost and gone; as well as the phrase “no hope will overcome.” The narrator also says that “the shame that sent me off from the God that I once loved/ Was the same that sent me into your arms.” This particular quote suggests that the narrator possesses some sort of shame that would make him or her unworthy of God, but ideal for the woman to whom the song is addressed. An unusual conveyance of adoration serves a dual purpose by acknowledging the person’s “shame.” This “shame” that swept the narrator into the woman’s arms is a contradiction to the aforementioned “warmth” in her “eyes.” Unless the “shame” and “warmth” have a direct correlation, the narrator is conflicted about origin of the relationship with the woman.
The final two lines of the stanza are bleak in terms of outlook. According to the narrator, when the woman is “lost,” and he or she is “gone,” pestilence will have won. The term “pestilence” compliments the word “plague” used earlier in the song, but the definition of pestilence’s triumph is not something that can be easily concluded. The mention of the word “plague” earlier in the lyrics related to death and decomposition, and so in this instance, pestilence’s victory is also death. The fact that “no hope will overcome” only serves to emphasize the inescapable nature of death.
The final verse seems more optimistic, especially in terms of imagery. The narrator reminds the addressee that “spring swaps snow for leaves,” and that the “winter winds” brought forth in the beginning are not permanent. As the narrator reassures the woman, hope is personified in the form of the ascending sun.
Work Cited
Mumford and Sons. "Winter Winds." Rec. 16 Feb. 2010. Sigh No More. Glass Note, 2010. CD.
Vienna Teng’s “Antebellum”: A New Critical Approach
ReplyDeleteAnyone who has been in love will agree that, at times, it can feel like a battleground. Blows are exchanged through words, maybe even fists, and many people can get hurt. Whether a fight happens with a family member, a friend, or a lover, it is always painful. In her song “Antebellum,” Vienna Teng tells the story of two people who could be lovers, family, or even friends; all the reader knows is their love has turned into a war that will never again be a good relationship. To truly understand the meaning behind the speaker’s words, one must delve into the world of New Criticism. New Criticism is a critical method which forces the reader to strip a work down layer by layer, revealing the complexities underneath the surface and giving a more insightful view into the piece. By viewing this piece through a new critic’s eyes, it is easy to see how the literary devices Teng uses—mainly diction and personification—come together to give a vivid understanding of the war that is the speaker’s relationship.
The speaker introduces this song by setting the scene: it is fall, and the leaves are on the ground. Fall is a symbolic season in that it signifies the start of the harshness of winter; it is when animals are stocking up on food to survive the onslaught of cold and snow, and people bundle up to combat the frigid air and biting wind. The speaker and his or her foe are “[circling] through the leaves and [talking] about the little ones,” creating the image of two combatants gauging each other’s skill before striking, while tiptoeing around a topic to test the waters. “Little ones” suggests children, which leads the reader to conclude the two people are either lovers with children or family with younger relatives who are closely involved in this dispute.
The chorus creates a lull in fighting, like a period of rest between battles. The speaker reveals that some kind of treaty has been struck. Borderlines have been drawn, showing that the two people are actively trying to protect the “wounded,” which could refer to the little ones mentioned in the first verse. Her word choice—“borderlines,” “weapons,” and “wounded”—adds to the war zone idea. A feeling of resignation is conveyed to the reader in the last two lines of the chorus: “I know our antebellum innocence was never meant to see the light of our armistice day.” The happiness and hope the combatants held before the battles have been extinguished, leaving defeat and skepticism behind. Furthermore, “antebellum” and “armistice” are golden words that drive home the speaker’s feeling that he or she is in a war.
The second verse sets a new scene: it is now spring, a season of hope and new growth. Perhaps the two fighters are in a better place now. The phrase “Budding plans” strengthens the hopeful mood of this verse. Halfway through, however, the atmosphere takes a sudden turn for the worse; the reader sees there is more fighting. Harsh words are thrown, leaving both parties wounded.
ReplyDeleteThe song ends with repeats of the chorus and a bridge. This suggests the speaker knows the outcome of the war and is waiting out the repetitive fighting until the end. The bridge attests to this endless repetition; one side will leave and come back again as the “seasons keep on marching.” By this time, the war is old news, and only strangers are still interested in the fighting.
Sporadic insertions of personification support the theme of endless war. In the second verse, sharp words are “splintering the night.” Their words are like gunshots, hurting as bullets, and loud enough to alert neighbors or strangers. The bridge contains the phrase “seasons keep on marching,” illustrating the speaker’s interminable struggle. Finally, the personification that appears in the chorus and multiple times in the song is “our antebellum innocence was never meant to see the light of our armistice day.” Their innocence did not live through the battles; the speaker sees this as an inevitable side effect of their never-ending conflict.
To conclude, Vienna Teng beautifully conveyed the idea of love becoming a battleground through word choice and personification. A theme of changing seasons—the mention of fall and spring—and moving time—marching seasons—pervades this piece, demonstrating the endlessness of war and its effects. Juxtaposition of words such as “spring” and “blood” convey the suddenness and painfulness of the speaker’s battles. Seasons, words, and innocence personified strengthen the resigned tone of the lyrics. All in all, the use of diction and personification in this piece is what allows the reader to truly understand the story of the speaker’s struggle with a loved one.
Mini-Critique: New Criticism
ReplyDeleteUnder the critical method of New Criticism, the validity of a work as a good piece of literature is given only through the focus of the main text itself. The time period, author, and other contexts do not matter so much as the actual text and the information provided within just the text. That being said, under New Criticism, Emily Dickenson’s poem “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died” is a good piece of literature for its use of complexities and style.
One of the only actions within the still setting of the poem is that of a fly buzzing around the room. It is brought to importance right at the beginning, with it being presented as the main event: “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died— / The Stillness in the Room…” (lines 1-2). The fly is heard first, not seen, and it cuts through the quiet of the room with the actual “buzz”—onomatopoeia for the true sound of the fly. After we are introduced to the fly, he does not appear again until nearly the end.
In between these two moments, a quiet, solemn, almost peaceful deathbed scene is painted, but in the third stanza, the fly reappears, almost interrupting this scene much like the way a pesky fly would in real life. “I willed my Keepsakes—Signed away / What portion of me be / Assignable—and then it was / There interposed a Fly—” (lines 9-12). In line thirteen, the poem describes the actual fly as “Blue—uncertain—stumbling,” and in line fourteen, the fly is between the speaker and “the light,” which could have the double meaning of literally in the way of the light or that the fly, which is a symbol for “death, decay, etc.,” is interrupting the speaker’s peaceful progress towards death with its negative connotations.
Apart from the fly, the poem has a lot of different literary devices that add to the poem’s slow, fading tone. One in particular is the simile in the first stanza: “The Stillness in the Room / Was like the Stillness in the Air— / Between the Heaves of Storm—” (lines 2-4). This here suggests that the room is in a standstill, almost. No one is really moving and nothing is really being done.
Of course, there are actual people with the dying speaker. They aren’t mentioned as physically whole people, but there is the synecdoche of “the Eyes” as in line five: “The Eyes around—had wrung them dry—.” The fact that they are “wrung…dry” shows that the people around him have been crying, are exhausted from crying, to the point where they are beyond the point of crying and are coming to terms with this nearing death.
Stanza two makes it very clear that death is coming: “The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— / And Breaths were gathering firm / For that last Onset—when the King / Be witnessed—in the Room” (lines 5-8). The most interesting part in this stanza is the idea of “the King,” which is carefully unspecified but in the context of the stanza has the meaning of either death or the coming of a deity to welcome the speaker to death.
In order for the speaker to be reflecting on this moment of death, the speaker must already be dead. It is not just a deathbed scene being shown, it is the speaker showing his or her own deathbed experience. “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died ” (line 1). “And then the Windows failed—and then / I could not see to see ” (lines 15-16). “Windows” are representative to the speaker’s eyes in this context, and the fact that they “failed” and the speaker “could not see to see” shows that at this point, the very end of the poem, is the death of the speaker. The speaker has become an emotionless ghost, floating above the scene and telling of the moment with a flat, almost disconnected tone. To support this, in reconsidering the idea of the fly, the speaker tells of how the fly disturbs the scene, but there is no real annoyance toward the fly, and instead there is a careful observation of it. This is the same consideration the speaker has for the people gathered around his or her deathbed, the signing of his or her will, and the actual death of him or her.
The poem is presented in four stanzas of four lines with careful iambic meter, and the lines alternate between containing eight syllables and six syllables. This would make it like a normal rhythmic poem, but a few elements outside of these prevent this from happening. For example, there is no normal rhyme scheme, with few exceptions such as lines 14(“me”) and 16(“see”)’s endings. Also, throughout the poem the lines are broken up by pauses represented with “—” to create a new, spontaneous rhythm. The new rhythm mimics the choppy, faltering breathing of someone taking there last breaths, which adds to the overall tone and mood of the poem, creating the image of the speaker trying to recite the beautiful rhythm but having these dying breaths breaking it up.
ReplyDeleteBecause of these reasons, this poem is valid as a great piece of literature in its strong use of literary devices and stylistic tools. The unexpected element of the fly, the flat-line emotional backing, and the choppy addition to an otherwise normal rhythm give this poem an exciting edge that makes it an essential read.
Death is viewed and interpreted in many different ways by everyone, but death is usually not an amiable situation. Death can be a feeling, a sense, a sensation, but death is not physically present in a person’s life, as a companion or as an enemy. “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” written by Emily Dickinson during the nineteenth century, portrays death as a companion to a living person. The use of personification, along with irony and other elements such as symbolism, within this poem implies a message of a life lived and lost of the central figure of the poem. This figure is not afraid of death, however, and rather seems to compare death to a close friend, love interest, or other companion.
ReplyDelete“Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me.” In this line, “Death” is capitalized, and referred to by the pronoun “He,” meaning that “Death” is referred to as a person within this poem. “And I had to put away, My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility,” is again a personification of “Death,” referring to “death” as “he.” The central figure can no longer work or play because it is time for this figure to go along with “death.” In lines three and four, “The carriage held but just ourselves, and Immortality,” there is again the sense of an idea being portrayed as a companion. In this case, Immortality is capitalized as a proper noun, and is also referred to as being a passenger in the carriage. In line 13, “Or rather he passed us,” the sun is personified, as the pronoun “he” is used to describe the sun.
Symbolism is used in conjunction with personification in this poem, as the carriage symbolizes the transition between life and death, as “Death” is taking the central figure for a ride in the carriage. Death “knew no haste,” meaning that the carriage ride was not rushed, but rather enjoyed and accepted. In stanza three, the different objects being passed during the carriage ride represent the many lively things that the central figure will no longer have. These things go in succession of life, from a school, which represents early life, to the “setting sun,” which represents death. These lines reinforce the symbolism represented by the carriage, in that the central figure is transitioning between life and death.
Most of the lines within this poem are written in an iambic meter, with the first and third line of each stanza containing four meters, or eight syllables, and the lines two and four on each stanza containing three meters. The break in the pattern of iambic meter in stanza four represents the change in the form of the central figure. Stanza four uses the sense of “cold” in order to represent the death of the central figure. Gossamer is a sheer fabric which would not be capable of keeping a person warm in the cold ground after life had passed. A tippet is supposed to consist of the fur of a fox, but in this case the tippet is “only tulle,” meaning is it thin and unable to keep the central figure warm. The tulle and gossamer described in this poem are symbols of a companionship, as well, since these are materials that would likely be used for a wedding gown.
ReplyDeleteIn the next stanza, the idea of death is continued to be displayed through the “house that seemed a swelling in the ground.” This house is a symbol for the grave of the central figure. Lines 16-18 reinforce this idea because the house is described as “a swelling in the ground,” which is how a gravesite would be described. The poem ends with “I first surmised the horses’ heads were toward eternity.” This refers back to the carriage, which led to her transition into death. The horses carried the carriage which carried the central figure to “eternity,” or death.
The irony in this poem is outstanding. The idea of death being a kind companion throughout the poem, when death is usually viewed as something to fear, is an example of Dickinson’s irony throughout this work. Death is portrayed by a kind man in this situation, although death is actually taking the central figure for a “ride” that will lead to eternal death. Another irony throughout this poem is that the central figure seems to be living life and seems to be very preoccupied and busy, yet this character is actually dead. The conflicts of this poem, which seem to be between the ideas of life and death, are resolved in stanza six, when it is clear that the central figure in this poem is no longer alive. However, this conflict is shown through the metaphors used throughout this poem. The literary elements Dickinson uses throughout this poem give the poem meaning and are incorporated in an incredible way.
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” consists of many literary elements which, through analysis, are seen as a major aspect of the writing itself. The use of metaphor, symbolism, and irony throughout this short poem allow the reader to understand the meaning of the poem based solely on the literature. Emily Dickinson is known to be one of the greatest writers of her era, and this poem displays many of the aspects which create “great” work.