English test #2
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 7th stanza: Prufrock projects his monologue into the future, imagining himself showing signs of aging: "With a bald spot in the middle of my hair— "but how is arms and legs are thin" How do you interpret Prufrock's vision of his future self? What are your reactions to Prufrock's questions "Do I dare? and, Do I dare.... Do I dare / Disturb the universe?"
-he feels insignificant, he doubts his worth or ability to not mess things up, he doesn't want to disturb the environment he is in. -Does not want to disturb fate, what has been predestined for him.
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" form:
Dramatic Monologue—A speech by a character (persona) to an implied audience. No dialogue. No analysis of the topic. Allows the reader (audience) to interpret the material.
Robert Frost "Home Burial" As with "Mending Wall," we might wonder if the title "Home Burial" has more than one meaning. Any thoughts?
Something which people in the city don't always deal with
Robert Frost Mending Wall: How do you interpret the title in relation to the poem's content?
instead of mending the wall, title implies that the wall is mending something else
McKay "Harlem Dancer" What do you think McKay means when the speaker says "I knew herself was not in that place?"
-she isn't exactly enjoying herself, doesn't identify with her appearance (this isn't who she is) -lost in thought, her "true-self" is somewhere else, the Harlem dancer is a character being played -dancer by necessity, not her passion: her career is only a means to survive
William Carlos Williams "This is Just to Say" How do the rhythm and line breaks contribute to the "Sense" of the poem
-Separates "I" and "you" from the plums, which are the poem's real subject- they are the image, like the wheelbarrow
Robert Frost Mending Wall: How does the speaker's neighbor feel about the wall? "good fences make good neighbors"
-he believes its necessary in order to have a good relationship with neighbor by defining territory and limitations
Robert Frost "Home Burial" Lines 21-32 reveal what is seen from the upstairs window and what accounts for the couple's interaction. What is it? Why is the man "wonted to it?" How does this influence his perspective/attitude?
-it's his family's house and where he grew up, similar to how he was desensitized to his wife
McKay "Harlem Dancer" How does this poem express double-consciousness?
-speaker is more aware of the situation than the youths, who are only there for themselves -uncomfortable situation for the speaker because she is (to him) obviously not enjoying herself (since her "self" is absent)
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" Looking and listening to "Chicago", what poet from earlier this semester influenced Carl Sandburg? In what ways?
Whitman: free verse, more descriptive with longer lines. Use of repetition, glorifies daily life
William Carlos Williams
-associated w Imagism early in his career -Williams asserted ideas about the importance of the poet to record his/her experiences as they naturally occur -The poet of imagination is aware in the present (spontaneity of the moment) -He saw language (and the mind using language) as a tool that brings life to the natural world and objects (and the other way around): "No ideas but in things"
Robert Frost "Home Burial" In lines 48-69 the man pleads to Amy: "let me into your grief," but then immediately offends her. What does the man accuse Amy of doing?
-"Overdoing", over reacting
McKay "Harlem Dancer" How does the speaker "view" or "see" the dancer?
-as a person; understands her more; more empathy (compares her to a palm in a storm); focused on her voice -possibly a more African-American point of view, while the youths bring a white perspective
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 1st 3 lines offer comparison btw the evening and "a patient etherised upon a table" What mood/atmosphere does this image establish for our journey w Prufrock?
-lonely, wandering, sex in one-night hotels and cheap restaurants -Dreary instead of romantic
Robert Frost: "Road Not Taken" (1st 2 stanzas) are the 2 roads speaker is deciding between the same or different?
-similar in appearance, speaker sees each path fairly and equally
Chicago Renaissance
-sought to move the center of poetry from New England to the Midwest -sought to move poetry from a rual focus to an urban one -wanted to put more emphasis on the working class
William Carlos Williams "The Red Wheelbarrow" Why do you think Williams chose to break the lines as he did? It helps to hear the poem, so read aloud "So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the white chickens"
-to elaborate without words, letting the pauses speak in a way; creates a double meaning if the reader chooses -Different way to hear language, or perceive the image he's presenting (first the wheelbarrow, then the rain, then the chickens); creates a verbal experience, causing us to experience the poem in the same manner we would perceive the scene if we were standing there
Robert Frost Mending Wall: Summary:
A stone wall separates the speaker's property from his neighbor's. In spring, the two meet to walk the wall and jointly make repairs. The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept—there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls. The neighbor resorts to an old adage: "Good fences make good neighbors." The speaker remains unconvinced and mischievously presses the neighbor to look beyond the old-fashioned folly of such reasoning. His neighbor will not be swayed. The speaker envisions his neighbor as a holdover from a justifiably outmoded era, a living example of a dark-age mentality. But the neighbor simply repeats the adage.
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" How does Sandburg's "Chicago" differ from the poems of Robert Frost?
Sandburg's subject matter is urban, while Frost's is rual
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" Sandburg acknowledges some of the more distasteful aspects of Chicago and urban life in the poem. Why would he do this?
by acknowledging both positive and negative, this grounds for the poem in authenticity and gives Sandburg credibility; negative aspects of city life helped strengthen Chicago; reinforces the concept of loving something despite or because of its flaws
In lines 75-92, Amy explains why the man "can't speak of his own child that's dead." What defense does Amy offer for her resistance to the man's words?
perceives this as small talk, breakdown of communication
Robert Frost: "Road Not Taken" (3rd stanza) what does the language "equally lay" suggest?
roads are the same, untouched people
Ernest Hemingway "Hills like White Elephants" What does the man decide about the operation? What does the woman decide about the operation? What seems to be the future status of their relationship?
she has come to some type of resolution -maybe she has decided not to have the abortion -she is no longer concerned with his feelings, she is taking ownership of the situation. Or, she's accepting that she will have the procedure
Hurston "How it feels to be colored me" How did Hurston's childhood contribute to her sense of race and her own identity?
she was "Zora of Orange County," instead of "a little colored girl" as a child, didn't identify with her race as a child because she never felt that she stood out
Robert Frost Mending Wall: How does the poem's speaker feel about the walls? (1st 2 lines) "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,"
speaker questions the wall's function and why its never been discussed btw neighbors; unnecessary/unnatural
Robert Frost Mending Wall: Frost is subtle and clever in his use of common phrases. What are some possible meanings of the neighbor's response, "good fences make good neighbors"?
-metaphor for human interaction, how we distance ourselves from each other; -collaboration btw neighbors, sense of camaraderie, gives them a common cause -walls as a safety net allowing people to come together in a structured way
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" Is the language understandable? How? Give examples
-no obscure references, nothing to break down; descriptive instead of flowery language -written to be accessible
1920s in America
-often called the roaring twenties or the jazz age -time of prosperity and transformation -era of great economic growth and widespread prosperity driven by recovering from wartime -advances in technology -American's sought to spend time and money oversees (in Europe) increased riches and prohibition of alcohol fueled travel -bc this time is marked by lavish spending, wild parties, and the disillusionment that followed in the 1930s, people coming of age during the 20s were coined "the lost generation"
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" What does he mean by "city of broad shoulders?"
-powerful city and confident inhabitants -Train is shoulder to the city -Chicago as support for the rest of America with its industries
Robert Frost Mending Wall: Is there anything ironic about the speaker's attitude toward his neighbor?
-the neighbor views the mending wall as something for them to share but the speaker fails to see the communal value of the wall
William Carlos Williams "The Red Wheelbarrow" This poem utilizes common objects in its statement. Why do you think Williams chose these objects?
-theme of rural/everyday life -"no ideas but in things:" the idea springs from the object
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 5th stanza: What does Prufrock seem to be telling us with these statements?
-there will be time, life is fleeting, call to action
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" What does it say about these women that they are talking of Michelangelo?
-upper crust socialites, educated -maybe intimidating, he feels frazzled -he feels at odds with these women's perceptions -he maybe doesn't feel worthy -he seems them as all the same, stagnant -idea of greatness appears throughout the poem
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 2nd stanza is couplet that is repeated once more in poem. The image of women "talking of Michelangelo" juxtaposes the seedy part of town we've just traveled through and the "yellow fog" of the following stanza. How does this juxtaposition affect your reading of the poem?
-women representative of the place he's trying to get to (a party, tea social): people who are educated, refined, maybe more traditional -disconnect between everyday vision of the city and elite of society (Prufrock attempting to find how he fits into it)
Ernest Hemingway "Hills like White Elephants" Does the couple seem to be talking about something other than the operation? Identify a passage where Hemingway's "iceberg" method is evident.
- She feels that their lives will never be the same, their world will never be the same after the abortion. They are also exploring their relationship in general. Maybe she is trying to hold on to his approval/acceptance.
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" What does Prufrock's 'love song' suggest about Modern man's psychology, sexuality, self-perception, etc.?
- he feels outcasted, alone in his feelings about life passing him by, he is self-conscious, perceptions of masculinity questioned - waivers between reality and imagination stream of consciousness, unstable, he's been unable to make decisions for momentum in his life
William Carlos Williams "This is Just to Say" How does the diction capture the spirit of the event?
-"saving" is the only word by itself in a line (same with "the plums" -"forgive me" isn't a true apology; turns into "they were delicious", almost rubbing it into the face of the plum-owner
T.S. Eliot
-An American born, Harvard educated expatriate who lived most of his life in England -Believed that Modernists must look back in time (tradition) to uphold high standards for literature/art as a way to prevent moral decay ("What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish. Son of man you, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images." (ln 19-21) - His work is noted for its high literary allusions, fragmentation, and juxtaposition. ("Prufrock," The Waste Land, and Four Quartets)
Robert Frost "Home Burial" Frost's language is full of subtext, which supplies his work with subtle double-meaning. How do you interpret "she, in her place," and "blind creature?"
-As a woman, her "place" is under her husband's. "She, (now) in her place," which could also be her state of mind or perception of him -insensitivity to the wife, foreshadowing for the rest of the poem
Hurston "How it feels to be colored me" How do you interpret her "bag" metaphor? Who might the "Great Stuffer of Bags" be?
-God, the creator; etc. -the bag ony defines what you look like, not based on any internal quality (different colored bags don't hesitate different content)
Robert Frost "Home Burial" In addition to the dramatic situation, the poem shows the result of miscommunication and/or ineffectual communication: "Think of it, talk like that at such a time!" (ln 98), "You—oh, you think the talk is all (ln 116), and "A man can't speak of his own child that's dead" (ln 74). How do the concluding five lines answer, resolve, or worsen the couple's conflict?
-He didn't have control lover his child's death, but does have some over his wife -resolves conflict as they can potentially have compassion for each other -complex human experience: multiple meanings (polysemy)
Hurston "How it feels to be colored me" In the fourth paragraph, Hurston uses a jazz club as the setting for where her color and a white person's color become visible in an extreme way. How is Hurston's sense of self presented here?
-Hurston felt the music on a spiritual level, while her white companion is only entertained ("He has only heard what I felt) -Suddenly it's the white person who doesn't belong: reversal of what Hurston experienced as a child
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" How does Sandburg personify Chicago? What is he getting at when he talks about it "Laughing", etc.?
-Joyful, prideful (bragging, as the support for the country); people united and sense of their common goal (Chicago))
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 5th stanza: what key idea is introduced? In this stanza, Prufrock tells us "There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet / There will be time to murder and create," also "And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions"
-TIME
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" What imagery does Sandburg use to describe Chicago?
-like a young man, a fierce dog, or "cunning savage" -bustling, constantly rebuilding
McKay "Harlem Dancer" How do the youths "view" or "see" the dancer
-As an object, less sympathetic to her; focused on her shape; commodify/objectify her by tossing coins
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" How does the poem "celebrate the working people of America?"
-Explicated real lives of workers; Chicago as a symbol of the American spirit because it isn't elitist, and the American Dream is accessible
Robert Frost "Home Burial" (opening stanza) establishes the setting and characters of the poem. Where does the poem take place? Describe how these characters interact.
-Man and Amy pitted against each other -Man's house with stairs and view of cemetery
Modern Art
-Often interprets modernity as an experience of loss -Modern literature is often notable for what it omits (context, explanation, interpretations, unity) -the reader of a modern work is often said to participate in the experience of making a poem or story -Meaning is derived from the participating experience; therefore, meaning is not a set, objective conclusion, rather a flexible concept based on relative assumptions and deductions.
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" The poem concludes with allusions to Greek Sirens, but Prufrock doesn't believe they will sing to him. Sirens lured sailors with their enchanting songs, which caused sailors to drown in their quests toward the song. What does it suggest about Prufrock that he doesn't think he is worth being lured to his own death?
-The death scene at the end of the poem is caused by human voices, which may suggest reality (and perhaps the women at the tea party) create this sense of dread within Prufrock. -Dream-like, ethereal ending, he feels he doesn't deserve even a death by mermaid (siren).
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Interpreting the Epigraph
-We might interpret this epigraph as Eliot's way of suggesting Prufrock's "love song" is a kind of confession (of shame) and/or Prufrock feels stuck in his own private hell. -(take note how this epigraph immediately places Eliot as a "difficult" poet, especially compared to Williams) -Considering the opening lines, the speaker, like Dante's Virgil, might also be leading the reader on an odyssey (through the Modern world). -One interpretation of the poem suggests this "odyssey" takes place in the speaker's mind, especially since the "human voices wake us" at the end of the poem.
Ernest Hemingway "Hills like White Elephants" primarily a discussion between an American couple traveling through Europe. The couple's topic of conversation is broadly called an "operation" (1034). What kind of operation is the couple discussing?
-an abortion, woman is conflicted about having on; upsets her to talk about it -man tries to persuade her to have abortion, makes it seem natural and not an issue -abortion is dangerous, illegal, and not simple at all during this time period -he then tries to detach himself from being responsible for her unhappiness, her stress about it all
Carl Sandburg "Chicago" What is Sandburg saying about Chicago?
-blue collar city: people in Chicago are willing to do labor-intensive jobs. Feel pride for his city despite its difficulties
Features of Modernism "At the heart of the high modernist aesthetic lay the conviction that the previously sustaining structures of human life, whether social, political, religious, or artistic, had been destroyed or shown up as falsehoods, or, at best, arbitrary and fragile human constructions" (678). "Order, sequence, and unity in works of art might well express human desires for coherence rather than reliable institutions of reality" (678).
-conventional narrative form (chronological event that lead to a resolution, etc.) may be an artifice imposed on a more fluctuating and fragmented experience -emphasis on fragmentation Avoidance of clear resolution (certainty/affirmation)
about W.E.B. Du Bois
-double-consciousness emphasizes the internal divide many African Americans felt at the turn of the 20th century -Given Du Bois's descriptors, "unreconciled" and "warring" we can infer this internal divide is a source of conflict -Du Bois's definition of double-consciousness also suggest that to be wholly "black" one would have to reject his American nationality -We see this perception of identity directly addressed in McKay's Hurston's works
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" In the remainder of the poem Prufrock makes a few key comparisons. He tells is he is not a prophet (John the Baptist) and not Prince Hamlet. Rather, he explains he is not a leading man, merely a small part, and that the moment of his greatness has flickered. Given the earlier statements about Michelangelo, how do you interpret Prufrock's comparison to these other figures? What does it suggest about Prufrock that he claims his "greatness" has already passed?
-he does not have a lot of hope for his future, he is realistic of his standing in life, nothing grand, disillusioned, even death is mocking him
Robert Frost "Home Burial" Lines 95-98 offer the central conflict and theme of the poem. The man's words on the occasion of his child's death, "three foggy mornings and one rainy day / will rot the best birch fence a man can build," suggest his worldview and how he deals with grief, yet Amy interprets his words as a lack of care: "you couldn't care." What do you think the man's words reveal about his attitude? How do you interpret Amy's reaction?
-perceives this as trivializing the loss of his child -no matter how well-made a thing or person, death and decay reaches it all the same -Man doesn't see death the same as Amy, influenced by the cemetary outside his window
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 5th stanza: Considering the "Micheangelo couplet" repeats as the next stanza, how might Prufrock's ideas about time apply to the next women?
-questions on whether or not to act or just be
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 1st line "let us go then, you and I"; why does he do this?
-recalls lines from 17th century poets Marvell and Herrick: "Now let is sport us while we may" "Come, let is goe, while we are in our prime" -these poems emphasized urgency, claiming TIME (and life) was always diminishing: "Had we but the world enough and time
Modernist Period
-refers to the literary and artistic movement from the turn of the 20th century to WWII (about 1900-1945) -a 'modernist' is an advocate of newness -> so this period is generally noted for experiments in form, subject, and diction. Of course, there were varying degrees of experimentation
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Lines 4-10 describe environment Prufrock passes through. How would you characterize this part of town?
-seedy, urban, darker
Hurston "How it feels to be colored me" What is your response to Hurston's point of view about slavery in section 2?
-she feels that she isn't defined/held down by the past; free of guilty consciousness -reconstruction and the generation before set up a "race" for her, so she has some responsibility to run it
Robert Frost: "Road Not Taken" (4th stanza) speaker images himself telling the story of choosing which roads to take; Why does he tell us that he will say "I took the road less traveled by, and that had made all the difference." ? Why do you think the speaker will "{tell} his story with a sigh?"
-sigh could be one of satisfaction or uncertainty/disappointment -Frost traveling the road himself undermines the last line; there is no noticeable difference btw the roads, and he'll never be able to compare them -Theme of decisions-whether the road was different or not, what matters is the speaker's decision to take the path (tendency to make more out of our decisions than they are in order to play up our choices)
Robert Frost Mending Wall: What is the speakers opinion about the neighbor?
-speaker believes his neighbor is old-fashioned, uncivilized or outdated; sees him holding a stone in each hand -"He moves in darkness" of an intellectual or spiritual kind, in the speaker's perception
T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Epigraph establishes these ideas:
1. Dante is traversing the depths of hell 2. Guido confesses his shame to Dante because he believes Dante won't return to earth
Marvell and Herrick thinking back to Marvell and Herrick, how would you compare Prufrock's "love song" to their carpe diem poems?
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T.S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" 8th stanza: Prufrock expresses that his present time and consequently his future time are fixed How can these claims be interpreted? " I have measured out my life in coffee spoons"
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