ENGL 322 Final Study Guide

A Supermarket in California

"Wives in the avocadoes, babies in the tomatoes" = they're just things you pick up. Superficial. "Shopping for images." He's like a crazy anthropologist obsessively observing someone. Whitman is the weird guy poking around in the meats. He's like a cookie-cutter mom. He knows that he won't fit in, he's trying to survive with his imaginary poet friend. ALL ABOUT NOT FITTING IN. There is an enthusiasm about the supermarket that is odd. Who build the pork chops = a political question. Slaughterhouse.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (describe)

'Woods' is very dark, cold, and empty feeling. It seems like it is about suicide, but it is very ambiguous. Shows the transition of poetry. It goes from happy and Victorian to dark and empty. Now, we go to modernism.

Lucille Clifton

Wishes for Sons

Langston Hughes

The Weary Blues

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Wife of His Youth (describe)

This is about a couple that is split up during slavery and the woman spends the entirety of her freedom trying to find him again. He is ashamed at first and asks his high society friends what the right thing is to do, so they reunite in the end. Shows how freedom re-humanizes slaves.

What poem is this? I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

This is just to say, William Carlos Williams

What poem is this? I placed a jar in Tennessee, And round it was, upon a hill. It made the slovenly wilderness Surround that hill. The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild. The jar was round upon the ground And tall and of a port in air. It took dominion everywhere. The jar was gray and bare. It did not give of bird or bush, Like nothing else in Tennessee.

Anecdote of the Jar, Wallace Stevens

The Yellow Wallpaper (describe)

Author's history is important here. She was treated for hysteria in a similar way. She said that she wrote this not as a horror story, but so that people would NOT lose their minds as she almost did. Story about a woman treated for hysteria and loses her mind in the process. Post-partum depression? Repression is another theme here. Her only creative outlet is being repressed because she is not allowed to journal or express herself. That is another thing that made her go mad. Patriarchy teaches women to internalize. They needed a stronger rejection. The vivid imagery of figures crawling around behind the wallpaper shows how trapped she is, not only literally but also metaphorically because of the patriarchy. Isolation, imprisoned, infantized, silenced. She is infantized because she is in a room with a crib. She is never treated as an adult or with dignity, just as a small child would. Helplessness.

Yet Do I Marvel

Cullen is part of a culture that believes that African Americans need to present themselves as dignified, intellectuals. This poem is a sonnet and has a lot of intelligent language/allusions. In the poem, all tasks noted are futile. Greek mythological imagery of Tantalus and Sisyphus, blind mole, and a black poet are all equated. He thinks that no one will listen. He doesn't understand God/why he is black. He doesn't understand discrimination. The last line is to white Americans. He's showing that his task is exhausting and it will never be worth his time because he has to continuously prove himself. There's irony. There are too many obstacles in the way, such as preconceived notions of what black art is by white people, or the fact that other African Americans will claim that he is not authentic. It's a Catch 22 and there is the issue of double consciousness.

Sylvia Plath

Daddy

Henry James

Daisy Miller: A Study

Michael S. Harper

Dear John, Dear Coltrane

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (describe)

Eliot is an elitist. Things are written complicated intentionally because he doesn't write for the masses. Thisis shocking. Modernism comes through very strongly. There are several voices here. There is the inner side that is alienated and lonely and another side that is bored, but cares what others are thinking. He cannot connect the two worlds, and this leads to paranoia. He believes that no one is out there for him. The world is insufficient. He talks about a woman's arms not connected to a body because he is emphasizing how disconnected he feels from everyone. His claws also show just how drastically different he is from everyone else. He talks about romantic fantasy ruined by human nature and brings it back to reality. Ex: the mermaids. They have Victorian descriptions and then the modernist "they do not sing for me."

Skunk Hour

Explores mental illness. Sense of decay, old money, isolation on this island. He talked about an heiress in isolation during skunk hour (on purpose). There was a millionaire who would only come in the summers, but he left so there is nothing but the decay. The narrator climbs up the hill to watch lovers in cars. He is a sharp observer, but this is grim, and you can tell that he is mentally ill. He sees the skunk, which is a distraction to him. He relates to the skunk. First 4 stanzas: set the scene for an isolated, affluent, decaying island. What are the people like? The heiress is selfish, eccentric. Summer millionaire is a little cynical. He is an observer, not an authentic person. The gay man decorates his shop with touristy fishnet and faux-authentic Maine things. There is a sense of falsity and weirdness. This is section one. Next two stanzas: narrator is peeping, trying to watch people having sex in cars. Confessional like Sylvia Plath's poetry. He is a mentally ill, sharp observer. Section 2, last two stanzas: different ways we might see this image. Maybe he actually finds what he is looking for and sees the people as skunks. Shows dissociation. Also could be literal skunks showing how disgusting this whole place is. It's a blight on him. More importantly, it's something else to think about during his despair. Comes to no conclusion except for difference.

Mina Loy

Feminist Manifesto

Gertrude Stein

Objects

What poem is this? One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think Of any misery in the sound of the wind, In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land Full of the same wind That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

The Snow Man, Wallace Stevens

Dear John, Dear Coltrane

Three voices: Coltrane, his critics, narrator. Tone. Rhythm is lively and jazzy. "What a shame" = tragic tone. It is also a lament. This seeps into the poem's voices and structure. James Brown is a call and response section. Coltrane is a love supreme. Narrator. "Cause I am" = new voice. Mirrors a love supreme. Tone is building defiance and confidence. Tired turns to proud. You can see the pride when "a love supreme" is mentioned in the last line. "I am this way. I am a love supreme."

The Beatniks

A time of immense confidence in the 40s and 50s. Kind of like a mini Victorian era. We are making money. We are living our lives. We are about to have a Korean war, a Vietnam war, put men on the moon, pass civil rights act, etc. There is a suppressed "madmen" culture of the early 60s. This is deeply connected to transcendentalism. You can think of it as anti-American or as revolutionary. Depends on your perspective. An attempt to destroy barriers and be radically honest (the activity of looking at each other and saying the first, most honest thing that comes to mind).

Sunday Morning (describe)

A nice moment in the morning ruined by concern for religion. This shows moments are significant in themselves, they are not meaningless. She has a pleasant morning because of the simple pleasures that it brings. It is ruined by the big ideas of an existential crisis. This exemplifies imagism to me.

Harlem Renaissance

A period in the 1920s when African-American achievements in art and music and literature flourished. African American culture revamp that centered in Harlem and urban areas.

We Real Cool

A poem of form. Internal rhymes, heavily metered, very in control. All words are one syllable. Form of dialect. What is uncanny? A scary truth spread across an unknown number of people. We see a group of people and then we see them more deeply. They are not supposed to know this! They shouldn't know that they will die soon but they do. And they still do it. Defiance, but they are in control. The poem jumps out at you. All authors we looked at today (Clifton, Plath, Brooks): People are managing really intense feelings and say it in a way that doesn't concern them.

Feminist Manifesto (describe)

Aimed at white, mainly upper-class women. Argues that virginity is a problem for women because men's worth is determined by what they can bring and produce, and women's worth is determined by their purity and attractiveness. Virginity dehumanizes women and puts their self-worth into one thing. Virginity should not equal value. Basically the same argument of Maggie: A Girl on the Streets again.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Babylon Revisited

Babylon Revisited

Charlie partied a ton during the boom but was an alcoholic. At the beginning, he has lost custody of his daughter because of his alcoholism. He is trying to win her back. The fight for custody is rough because she's in his sister-in-law's custody. She hates him. She thinks that he is responsible for her sister's/his wife's death. He got past it and was in a really good spot. He's a year sober and has one drink a day. He doesn't want alcohol to become too big for his imagination. To give it up altogether would be almost a submission - it's bigger than him. This way, he has control over how much he gets. You're very skeptical of the character. At the end, he doesn't get custody of his daughter. His sister-in-law kind of defeats him in the courtroom. He goes to the hotel and has one drink and when asked for another says 'no.' this is when we start to trust him. We can see that he is in control. Sister-in-law - Marion - has a ton of reasons to distrust him. She could use some "freedom from." She puts so much pressure on herself to be an upstanding member of society. She needs freedom from that to become a more sympathetic person. Her complete restraint makes her less interesting than Charlie. If it comes up on the final, talk about Marion's self-righteous attitude and how she contrasts Charlie completely. She thinks that she is better than Charlie because she abstains from alcohol. She can't see that he's trying because of her anti-Charlie feelings stemming from her sister's death. Alcohol = symbol for negativity, abuse.

Hills Like White Elephants

Freedom from and freedom to. Freedom from: people being restrained (Daisy Miller). If only we could overcome this, we'll be free. Overthrows a brutal authority for freedom of self-expression. Freedom to: learned helplessness. Not a rebellion but doing what you want. What you do after freedom when you have the freedom to do whatever you want. You want freedom from the patriarchy. Freedom to sleep with whoever you want. Backstory: stock market crashes. This is like the morning after a drunken night - you have a hangover. The stock market is the drunken night. The crash is the hangover. Hemingway is strongly anti-fascist. Man's man. There's a small space for masculinity and creativity. Hemingway was incredibly masculine, but he had very liberal ideas. Really interesting idea. His writing strips out descriptions and is sparse. In the story, the way of life is privileged to the point of boredom. Story centers around a couple that has just travelled together, and they don't have any responsibilities. They're talking about an abortion throughout the story because the man doesn't want his way of life to stop. He's living for pleasure. The conversation is to do it or not. No one has super strong feelings about it, but the woman wanted the baby and the man did not. Without the baby, there's freedom. They can keep living as they are. With the baby, there's less freedom but they can build something. What does the baby symbolize? How is it related to freedom?

Ernest Hemingway

Hills Like White Elephants

Allen Ginsberg

Howl, A Supermarket in California

Huckleberry Finn (describe)

Huck's identity as a poor white child. Raised by an abuser. The beginning when Mark Twain has the notice about not thinking about literary interpretation: tension (bait and switch - he used Tom Sawyer to hook the audience and he uses Huck Finn to comment on social issues), promoting the book, content. Dialect is incredibly important. This is the voice of stories you do not hear told being told by Huck. Superstitions are a way for Huck to feel more in control of his life. Pap: his whiteness is what he believes makes him superior. His whiteness is also exaggerated because Twain shows him as the worst of what whiteness is. Jim: he has genuine love and is a father figure for Huck, but he also needs Huck as his key to freedom. Huck looks up to him, but it's conflicting because he also uses the N word to prevent solidarity and he's convinced that good people are racist and very religious. The dangerous confidence of knowing that you see the world correctly is very important in the story. There is a certainty that there is no uncertainty in the world. Everything is black and white and good or bad. There is no in-between. We can see that in the Widow, Pap, Aunt Sally, Tom Sawyer... this causes compassion and judgement from Huck. Huck's transition from seeing Jim as an object to a person is central to the plot. When Huck plays the trick with the canoe, he can see that Jim has emotion and this is the first time that he begins to see him as a friend. Later, there is the instance of the "Sick Arab" where he fears for Jim in a way that he wouldn't have before. When he writes the letter, we can finally see Huck's character come full circle because he knows that he will go to hell if he doesn't send the letter, but he cares for Jim too much to let that happen. The raft was a symbol of unity - they were isolated and carefree. But it was temporary. It allowed them to escape the evils of the social world for a time. They stopped listening to anybody and just had their own existence. The steamboat - the pinnacle of industrialization - destroys the raft. The American River Life - skates over horrific scenes but passes no judgement. The people are a product of the setting. Puritan mentality leads to many people feeling unworthy and awful, but it allows people to justify anything. The world is just an illusion for signs of heaven and God. Usage of the N word decreases throughout the novel because he humanizes Jim. Huck has two incompatible ways of thinking - how he actually feels about the world vs what he has been taught. This combines religion and racism. Tom represents privilege, whiteness, and money. He also represents a watered-down version of white supremacy. Twain is saying that this is white supremacy in its most deceptive form.

Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn

Wishes for Sons

Huge point of the personal = political. Breaking the taboo of talking about periods, tampons, cramps. Talking about this stuff makes men really uncomfortable. Talking about the female body is in and of itself taboo. "Can you just have a little compassion?" Last stanza: you think you know arrogance? Go to a male gyno. That's arrogance. There's a power dynamic that is unsaid, but you feel.

What poem is this? For three years, out of key with his time, He strove to resuscitate the dead art Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime" In the old sense. Wrong from the start— No, hardly, but, seeing he had been born In a half savage country, out of date; Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn; Capaneus; trout for factitious bait: "Idmen gar toi panth, os eni Troie Caught in the unstopped ear; Giving the rocks small lee-way The chopped seas held him, therefore, that year. His true Penelope was Flaubert, He fished by obstinate isles; Observed the elegance of Circe's hair Rather than the mottoes on sun-dials. Unaffected by "the march of events," He passed from men's memory in l'an trentiesme De son eage; the case presents No adjunct to the Muses' diadem. II The age demanded an image Of its accelerated grimace, Something for the modern stage, Not, at any rate, an Attic grace; Not, not certainly, the obscure reveries Of the inward gaze; Better mendacities Than the classics in paraphrase! The "age demanded" chiefly a mould in plaster, Made with no loss of time, A prose kinema, not, not assuredly, alabaster Or the "sculpture" of rhyme. III The tea-rose, tea-gown, etc. Supplants the mousseline of Cos, The pianola "replaces" Sappho's barbitos. Christ follows Dionysus, Phallic and ambrosial Made way for macerations; Caliban casts out Ariel. All things are a flowing, Sage Heracleitus says; But a tawdry cheapness Shall reign throughout our days. Even the Christian beauty Defects—after Samothrace; We see to kalon Decreed in the market place. Faun's flesh is not to us, Nor the saint's vision. We have the press for wafer; Franchise for circumcision. All men, in law, are equals. Free of Peisistratus, We choose a knave or an eunuch To rule over us. A bright Apollo, tin andra, tin eroa, tina theon, What god, man, or hero Shall I place a tin wreath upon? IV These fought, in any case, and some believing, pro domo, in any case ... Some quick to arm, some for adventure, some from fear of weakness, some from fear of censure, some for love of slaughter, in imagination, learning later ... some in fear, learning love of slaughter; Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor" ... walked eye-deep in hell believing in old men's lies, then unbelieving came home, home to a lie, home to many deceits, home to old lies and new infamy; usury age-old and age-thick and liars in public places. Daring as never before, wastage as never before. Young blood and high blood, Fair cheeks, and fine bodies; fortitude as never before frankness as never before, disillusions as never told in the old days, hysterias, trench confessions, laughter out of dead bellies. V There died a myriad, And of the best, among them, For an old bitch gone in the teeth, For a botched civilization. Charm, smiling at the good mouth, Quick eyes gone under earth's lid, For two gross of broken statues, For a few thousand battered books.

Hugh Selwyn Mauberely, Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley

The Waste Land (describe)

Immediately, we are hit with a shock. "Oh, he's back!" Spring is so romanticized, but here he twists the meaning. His perception of the spring is a contrast between traditional views and his despair. There is a switch between his narrative voice to innocent, sad stories of regret (the Hyacinth girl). There is nostalgia for the order that is lost in a modernist society. There is also a voice of popular opinion - Shakespeare. Bar scene is in a cockney dialect. Lil is in an ordinary bar. Again, this story is naturalist. Her story doesn't matter. She has no teeth, has been abused, almost died from getting pregnant. The other woman talking to her is making her feel awful. The story ends and we never find out what happens to Lil, further emphasizing that her story doesn't matter. The story is told from first person is hugely important. "You could be this person." That's a scary thought. We are way too close and personal with the story and it feels uncomfortable. He employs the voice of the masses; this is what most people believed about sexuality and women. Section 5 shows the landscapes riddled with loss. The rocks are "begging" for water. This emulates the barrenness of the desert. "DA" is very religious. "Give, sympathize, control." This is his plea to the reader. This is what we need to do. This is how we need to be.

Zitkala Sa

Impressions of an Indian Childhood

Sweat

Is Hurston guilty of selling out African Americans? Does she have the right to show these stereotypes? Is it a good story with imagery and the way people talk? In Sweat, Sykes is cruel, hypersexual, lazy, and a wife beater. There are biblical allusions that some may miss because of the dialect. Less obvious. Ex: The snake is referred to as the devil. Delia is also a stereotype because she works endlessly. Other identity politics are displayed in the story, such as gender, domestic violence, women in poverty. To make this story only about race is a mistake. Note conversation. This is where character comes out.

Post-Modernism

It is very difficult to define because the foundation is that definitions are problematic. The correspondence theory of truth doesn't make sense anymore (the idea that something is meaningful because it corresponds with something outside of this representation). Something has meaning because it is embedded in the framework of culture. This is postmodernism. There is nothing outside of the text - we only have access to the world because of the text. Things shift, can follow an ebb and flow, exist on a feedback loop, getting "meta" (a postmodern novelist would have a character say "you're reading a book right now" because he is aware that he is a character). So, postmodernism can also be equated with advertising. A "brand" is a postmodern idea. Money - the thing that can become anything - is postmodern. Critique: connected to capitalism and relies heavily on commercialism.

The Goophered Grapevine (describe)

Julius was trying to convince the white couple to not buy the grapevine because he was profiting off of the grapevine. Mars Maraboo sucked. He had a Conjur Woman put a spell on the grapevine that will kill slaves who eat the grapes. Henry accidentally eats them and then the conjur woman reverses the spell so that he only physically transforms with the grapes. Maraboo profits off of his misery. Dehumanization! He turns to chemical fertilizers out of greed and the grapes die.

The Fish

Language and attention to detail is super important. Bishop revises her work a ton. There is no communication, just observation with a touch of imagism. The thing is sufficient in itself. The poet's job is to look closely. Looks closely and speaks clearly. Her writing makes a mundane task interesting. Vivid imagery, but somehow beautiful and not gross. Not difficult to understand. She is not getting meaning from the world, just speaking clearly and looking closely.

Stephen Crane

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

i sing of Olaf glad and big (describe)

Main character is a conscientious objector. He resists fighting. In the story, he is in the service being tortured, "While kindred intellects evoke allegiance per blunt instruments." Yellowsonofabitch is one line because it's justifying what they're doing. He's other - the us vs them mentality comes through here. "more brave than me:more blond than you" 'you' references white supremacists. Making the point that Olaf is the best of us. He becomes a deity/martyr in the end. Eating shit = kissing the flag because both are equally humiliating to him. This poem is disturbing because we can see how this would happen. You don't understand and can't put yourself in that mindset, but you see how human beings can do this to each other and that's horrifying.

What poem is this? Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn, Grew lean while he assailed the seasons; He wept that he was ever born, And he had reasons. Miniver loved the days of old When swords were bright and steeds were prancing; The vision of a warrior bold Would set him dancing. Miniver sighed for what was not, And dreamed, and rested from his labors; He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot, And Priam's neighbors. Miniver mourned the ripe renown That made so many a name so fragrant; He mourned Romance, now on the town, And Art, a vagrant. Miniver loved the Medici, Albeit he had never seen one; He would have sinned incessantly Could he have been one. Miniver cursed the commonplace And eyed a khaki suit with loathing; He missed the mediæval grace Of iron clothing. Miniver scorned the gold he sought, But sore annoyed was he without it; Miniver thought, and thought, and thought, And thought about it. Miniver Cheevy, born too late, Scratched his head and kept on thinking; Miniver coughed, and called it fate, And kept on drinking.

Miniver Cheevy, EA Robinson

Objects (describe)

Modernism: start with the surface. She is calling attention to the question of representation. Why does it have to mean something? Meanings morph into other meanings. Language is not just the tool. It itself is the meaning. Her titles are important. "A piece of coffee" is unexpected. It sticks in your head because you are struck with the unfamiliar and don't know what happens next. All of her writing could make sense but it doesn't. The repetition of 'S' is important. When you read Stein, you are skipping a rock and just watching things change. Words have a shelf life. Clichés are no longer fresh when you hear them for the thousandth time, so she plays with that. Everything that she says is unique. She questions the goal of reproducing art and stuff. She makes language more than a pointer. Language itself is part of the composition.

Sui Sin Far

Mrs. Spring Fragrance

Mrs. Spring Fragrance (describe)

Parents (father) arranged a marriage, but girl is already in love. Symbol of the older generation literally controlling marriage and sexuality. Mrs. Spring Fragrance is the mother of Laura. Mr. Spring Fragrance is gunning for the arranged marriage because he has found happiness under similar circumstances. Mrs. Spring Fragrance is very intelligent and helps her get out of the marriage. Up to interpretation: is Mrs. Spring Fragrance manipulating him or are they equals? They are modern with the pretense of being traditional. Look at the bill situation with families at restaurants. The letter shows sarcasm and flirting, so their relationship is a little ambiguous. The letter also shows her good use of irony and humor to get what she wants. Mrs. Spring Fragrance is the catalyst for the whole thing, but the men end up breaking up the arrangement. Once again, the woman has all the power, but it is behind the scenes. Shows that she is a little oppressed, but she is also pulling the strings. Her intelligence is hidden.

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (describe)

Parents are the WORST. Alcoholics. Weakness is crushed. Ex: Tommy the younger brother is sensitive and dies. Maggie's attractiveness is determined by men, but this is fleeting. She is shamed for exchanging her beauty. Maggie falls for Pete. She gives him her virginity and is ruined because of it. Chastity = a coin. You only have one coin to spend and you need to wait for marriage. She spent it too early. Ruined women have more economic value because they are essentially forced into prostitution. Suffering is not always redemptive. There's no happy ending here. It's just gross. And you feel sick. What would help Maggie? If she had a job, social services, work with sex workers, the right to vote, if we got rid of the toxic mentality that surrounds poor Maggie's life.

What poem is this? Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim. And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said, "Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked. And he was rich—yes, richer than a king— And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine, we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place. So on we worked, and waited for the light, And went without the meat, and cursed the bread; And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Richard Cory, EA Robinson

EA Robinson

Richard Cory, Miniver Cheevy

Edith Wharton

Roman Fever

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (describe)

Sad, old, in love with beauty. This is Pound's rejection of those ideas/Victorianism. Soldiers represented masculinity and bravery, but they learn the harsh reality of killing later. The killing machine idea is more horrific than people thought. Trench warfare is shown here. Rejects the idea that being a soldier is all good - men didn't feel heroic after this. Some men thought they would be super kick-ass, but they learned the harsh reality of killing people. Others learned that they were good at killing and this was not something that they wanted to be good at. This was hard to deal with. "Old men's lies" and "an old bitch gone in the teeth" - the epitome of telling it like it is. Extreme backlash against not the people they have been following, but also the ideas that they hold. That's why this is revolutionary.

The Man Who Was Almost a Man

Shows how fed up African Americans are. The story is clearly different from Hurston because it shows the worst stereotypes without a good side. Character equates owning a gun with manhood/getting respect. What does that say about him? He needs to defend himself and earn his place with violence. His is a young, young 17-year-old. Super mature. Fear = respect to him His immaturity is really important. He seems like a 10-year-old throughout the story. It's an understandable set of mistakes. He doesn't apologize, though, which is dangerous. But he's not vilified. At the end of the story, he shoots a mule by accident. It's a disaster. Then he runs away with his gun. The character is sympathetic, complex, and very sad. A figure who could end up a violent criminal from a different perspective. He's a scared little kid. He's not full of anger, he just wants to be a man and has a confused idea of manhood.

We Wear the Mask (describe)

Shows that African Americans know that no one will care about their feelings, so why show it? "We want to appear happy so that we are not beaten down." The mask covers pain. Contrasts the portrayal of happy African Americans shown in popular media (Uncle Remus). Grief turns to anger, but that cannot be acted on.

Zitkala Sa (describe)

Shows that other minorities were horribly mistreated during this time. More of a descriptive element. A young Native American girl is taken away to a school where they Americanize her. Her mother doesn't want her to go because she knows what will happen, but the girl insists. She is miserable. "Kill the Indian, keep the man" mindset. Her culture is stripped from her and she is basically forced into Christianity. Shows how she is mistreated in different ways than African Americans were.

The Weary Blues

Shows the productive struggle. You can hear the poem shift drastically. In the beginning, a white man's voice is used. There is elevated language, "negro," etc. This is representative of other authors such as Countee Cullen. He is upper class and is observing the 'poor black man.' In the beginning, there's a distance between the speaker and the 'negro' playing. Later, it gets more personal. The lines get singable at the end. Black art changes the poem into rhythmic and something special.

Richard Cory (describe)

Shows us that wealth isn't everything. Envy vs affection. There is no moral of the story. This is naturalist. The poem is a loose end that just snaps. This would be very different if the poem ended with "and then we all reflected on our lives..."

Robert Lowell

Skunk Hour

The Red Wheelbarrow, This is Just to Say (describe)

Small beauty and small complexities. He asks the question "is it enough?" He is saying that you should lower your expectations and appreciate the small things. Williams is also hugely into imagism. Second poem shows a cute, carefree, fun relationship but it is nothing more than that. It is what it is.

Howl

Tone differs from modernism because it's celebratory/romantic, not despairing. Part one is a massive run on sentence because this is how life is. You get halfway through a page and realize that you don't remember the top, but that's intentional. This is how life goes. This is rebellious, an outcry against culture. "Millions of people are waiting for anything to happen." They'd rather light themselves on fire than simply be cold. Endless thoughts. It's something different to feel something/anything. Hypersexual.

Sonny's Blues

Sonny is arrested for heroin use. Narrator's perception is negative at first. He thinks that it's a class of "good time" people. Sonny's art is available through trauma. Because he has experienced so much pain, depression, emotions like that, he can create music. He expresses it through the piano. The narrator has to go to the club to understand Sonny's art. No resolution. Suffering is a part of life. You can't see if he overcomes his addiction. The narrator has to tear down his defenses/securities/idea of being a responsible family man to really connect with and accept Sonny. The end is a recognition that this moment is a temporary relief, not a cure. "The world outside as hungry as a tiger." Where is the white audience in Sonny's Blues? How does the story imagine its readership? It's for people like the narrator who need some convincing. We need to pay more attention. What is the narrator's relationship to the music? Negative because he equates music with drug (ab)use. Lots of resistance there. What do they share? What is the touchstone? Shared trauma of parent's death. Sonny's art connects everyone through suffering, trauma, grief. It's unique. This is not THE black experience, it is A black experience and therefore a HUMAN experience. It does not reflect upon all black people, but this black person. This is a new way of telling the same oldest story.

James Baldwin

Sonny's Blues

What poem is this? Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost

Talma Gordon (describe)

Story of a murder. Three members of a family are killed and the two sisters are accidentally spared. Later is comes out that they have been "polluted with negro blood" and that is why their family was targeted. Talma was on trial for the murder but was eventually proven innocent. Then, she gets TB and a man confesses on his deathbed. The narrator ends up marrying Talma. Shows the other side of racism and how deeply engrained it is. The "impurity" associated with African American heritage was taken so seriously that people went to extreme measures of violence. Just a social commentary.

What poem is this? I Complacencies of the peignoir, and late Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair, And the green freedom of a cockatoo Upon a rug mingle to dissipate The holy hush of ancient sacrifice. She dreams a little, and she feels the dark Encroachment of that old catastrophe, As a calm darkens among water-lights. The pungent oranges and bright, green wings Seem things in some procession of the dead, Winding across wide water, without sound. The day is like wide water, without sound, Stilled for the passing of her dreaming feet Over the seas, to silent Palestine, Dominion of the blood and sepulchre. II Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams? Shall she not find in comforts of the sun, In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else In any balm or beauty of the earth, Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven? Divinity must live within herself: Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow; Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued Elations when the forest blooms; gusty Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights; All pleasures and all pains, remembering The bough of summer and the winter branch. These are the measures destined for her soul. III Jove in the clouds had his inhuman birth. No mother suckled him, no sweet land gave Large-mannered motions to his mythy mind. He moved among us, as a muttering king, Magnificent, would move among his hinds, Until our blood, commingling, virginal, With heaven, brought such requital to desire The very hinds discerned it, in a star. Shall our blood fail? Or shall it come to be The blood of paradise? And shall the earth Seem all of paradise that we shall know? The sky will be much friendlier then than now, A part of labor and a part of pain, And next in glory to enduring love, Not this dividing and indifferent blue. IV She says, "I am content when wakened birds, Before they fly, test the reality Of misty fields, by their sweet questionings; But when the birds are gone, and their warm fields Return no more, where, then, is paradise?" There is not any haunt of prophecy, Nor any old chimera of the grave, Neither the golden underground, nor isle Melodious, where spirits gat them home, Nor visionary south, nor cloudy palm Remote on heaven's hill, that has endured As April's green endures; or will endure Like her remembrance of awakened birds, Or her desire for June and evening, tipped By the consummation of the swallow's wings. V She says, "But in contentment I still feel The need of some imperishable bliss." Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, Alone, shall come fulfilment to our dreams And our desires. Although she strews the leaves Of sure obliteration on our paths, The path sick sorrow took, the many paths Where triumph rang its brassy phrase, or love Whispered a little out of tenderness, She makes the willow shiver in the sun For maidens who were wont to sit and gaze Upon the grass, relinquished to their feet. She causes boys to pile new plums and pears On disregarded plate. The maidens taste And stray impassioned in the littering leaves. VI Is there no change of death in paradise? Does ripe fruit never fall? Or do the boughs Hang always heavy in that perfect sky, Unchanging, yet so like our perishing earth, With rivers like our own that seek for seas They never find, the same receding shores That never touch with inarticulate pang? Why set the pear upon those river-banks Or spice the shores with odors of the plum? Alas, that they should wear our colors there, The silken weavings of our afternoons, And pick the strings of our insipid lutes! Death is the mother of beauty, mystical, Within whose burning bosom we devise Our earthly mothers waiting, sleeplessly. VII Supple and turbulent, a ring of men Shall chant in orgy on a summer morn Their boisterous devotion to the sun, Not as a god, but as a god might be, Naked among them, like a savage source. Their chant shall be a chant of paradise, Out of their blood, returning to the sky; And in their chant shall enter, voice by voice, The windy lake wherein their lord delights, The trees, like serafin, and echoing hills, That choir among themselves long afterward. They shall know well the heavenly fellowship Of men that perish and of summer morn. And whence they came and whither they shall go The dew upon their feet shall manifest. VIII She hears, upon that water without sound, A voice that cries, "The tomb in Palestine Is not the porch of spirits lingering. It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay." We live in an old chaos of the sun, Or old dependency of day and night, Or island solitude, unsponsored, free, Of that wide water, inescapable. Deer walk upon our mountains, and the quail Whistle about us their spontaneous cries; Sweet berries ripen in the wilderness; And, in the isolation of the sky, At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make Ambiguous undulations as they sink, Downward to darkness, on extended wings.

Sunday Morning, Wallace Stevens

Daddy

Super negative feelings toward her father. The poem is so over the top. This says something about the poem. She doesn't understand why she is so angry. Does she let it out? It doesn't feel resolved. Shows passion and some level of conflict. The idea of you have to have loved someone to hate them so much. It's trying to be a poem about freedom, but it shows that she's trapped by her emotion. This shows an empty rage with nowhere to go. It's trying to reach a resolution where none is possible. If she had an opportunity for reconciliation, she would. "Daddy" is a child's word. Shows her child-like emotions. The whole poem feels like a massive temper tantrum. He's not actually a Nazi and she's not Jewish, but the comparison shows the deep levels of hatred. This is not a legitimate comparison. What if she is aware of the illegitimacy? Furthers the idea that this is a tantrum. This is genuine, but the message is almost tarnished because of how excessive it is. What would a successful version of this look like? If the anger has trapped her in a cycle of immaturity, what does freedom look like? Forgiveness? Letting go? Making peace. Was it intentional to make this so childlike? The rhyme scheme and the stumbling of a poem leads us to believe that yes, it is. This is art. A poem about an anger that kills poetry.

Zora Neale Hurston

Sweat

High Anglo-American Modernism

T.S. Eliot. Elitism. Modernism for intellectuals. Viewing the world as inadequate - it's not good enough for me. I can't relate to the rest of the world.

The Snow Man (describe)

Talks about the freezing landscape. The unimaginable pull of reality. We read from the snow man's perspective because no one can share this perspective. He is imagining an impossible position of looking at the world without meaning.

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins

Talma Gordon

What poem is this? I. The Burial of the Dead April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch. And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke's, My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust. Frisch weht der Wind Der Heimat zu Mein Irisch Kind, Wo weilest du? "You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; "They called me the hyacinth girl." —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Oed' und leer das Meer. Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, Had a bad cold, nevertheless Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she, Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, The lady of situations. Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring. Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, Tell her I bring the horoscope myself: One must be so careful these days. Unreal City, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. Flowed up the hill and down King William Street, To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: "Stetson! "You who were with me in the ships at Mylae! "That corpse you planted last year in your garden, "Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? "Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? "Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men, "Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! "You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!"

The Waste Land, TS Eliot

Uncle Remus Stories (describe)

Tells black stories in a nostalgic tone to send a message. "Remember the happy days when the white man took care of us?" Does not call attention to trauma, just brushes over what the stories were originally written for. Characters are happy in his stories. Uses dialect to show that African Americans are uneducated - almost to make fun. The trickster is Brer Fox. Represents superiority. The rabbit cannot fight back. The rabbit also represents African Americans and their hyper-aggression. Lots of dehumanization.

Henry Adams

The Dynamo and the Virgin

Elizabeth Bishop

The Fish

Charles Chesnutt

The Goophered Grapevine, Po' Sandy, The Wife of His Youth, The Passing of Grandison

What poem is this? Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question ... Oh, do not ask, "What is it?" Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; 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, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. And indeed there will be time To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair — (They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!") My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin — (They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!") Do I dare Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume? And I have known the eyes already, known them all— The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? And how should I presume? And I have known the arms already, known them all— Arms that are braceleted and white and bare (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!) Is it perfume from a dress That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin? Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ... I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet — and here's no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid. And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, Would it have been worth while, To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it towards some overwhelming question, To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"— If one, settling a pillow by her head Should say: "That is not what I meant at all; That is not it, at all." And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor— And this, and so much more?— It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: "That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all." No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— Almost, at times, the Fool. I grow old ... I grow old ... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, TS Eliot

T.S. Eliot

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land

Richard Wright

The Man Who Was Almost a Man

William Carlos Williams

The Red Wheelbarrow, This is Just to Say

What poem is this? so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens

The Red Wheelbarrow, William Carlos Williams

What poem is this? Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Wallace Stevens

The Snow Man, Anecdote of the Jar, Sunday Morning Modernist. Uses imagism. There are two worlds: imagination and reality. He is bridging these two.

Daisy Miller: A Study

The concept of a new woman. Winterbourne: upper-class, not out of his aunt's influence, strongly desires Daisy. He has a shot but he's not taking it. Daisy does what she wants. Represents independence and everything that is terrifying for the older generation. Sex is not the reason people were concerned that she was alone with men. It was the idea that female desire needs to be kept, maintained, restrained. When it's not restrained, what does that mean for us? Women have power when they use that to their benefit. Someone's sexuality is a huge part of their person, so when that is controlled there's not much left to repress. Her death was really important. She was punished for defying society and changing the game. After her death, she was proven to be alright because Winterbourne discovered that she was not engaged. Her purity was what made her redeemable. Only women cried at her funeral, showing toxic masculinity. It's important to note that Roman Fever - a sickness - killed Daisy Miller. The idea of change was viewed as a sickness.

Anecdote of the Jar (describe)

The jar becomes the landscape. It shows a change in perspective. The meaning of the jar makes the world mean something. It gives up the demand for coherence and incoherence - it is somewhere in between. This shows the significance of the meaning that we put on things. Putting a jar on the hill means nothing until we put the jar on the hill and make it mean something.

Roman Fever (describe)

The title is further emphasizing the cruelty shown by the women in the story. Slade was hoping that Ainsley would get roman fever simply because she represented a threat to her potential marriage. She wished literal death upon this woman because society trained her to. Another story about women defying society's expectations. Proper to each other's faces, clearly hiding discontent and anger. Women are more deceptive, smarter than they are given credit for. Both women are manipulative and tricky and cruel, just in unique ways. o Mrs. Ainsley: "I had Barbara." o Mrs. Slade: wrote the vicious letter and tried to make a fool of Ainsley. Ainsley was in love with Slade's fiancée. Mrs. Slade wrote a letter saying meet me at the coliseum so that they could have a night together. Ainsley wrote back to Slade and told him that she would be there. They met. They had a good time. Ainsley became pregnant and was quickly hurried into a marriage.

Po' Sandy (describe)

The white couple wanted teardown the schoolhouse to make a new kitchen, but Julius was using it for church. That was his motivation to tell the story. Maraboo sold Sandy's first wife and gave him a dollar because he felt sorry for breaking up the family. Sandy gets moved around a lot because he is so valuable, and he detests this lifestyle. He found Tenie and loved her. In order to stay with her, she turned him into a tree. He was eventually chopped down and used for lumber for the schoolhouse. This was symbolism for the fact that he was just seen as labor. The South was built off of the bodies of slaves. Slaves were treated as domesticated animals and a natural commodity.

Modernism

There is a class of people who feel guilty. It is a rejection of Victorianism (Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre) because people are going through war and those subtleties don't matter. Minorities are beginning to have voices. WWI is happening. Horrific time - death and PTSD. People wanted to talk about the big issues that the world was facing. These poems usually tell it like it is and end with a punch in the gut. Loss of belief that the world makes sense in some big way.

The Road Not Taken (describe)

There is no reason for taking a path. You choose what you choose, and you have to deal with it. He is mocking the kind of people who obsess over this poem. He knew people would take it the wrong way and try to be cool and original, but that was not at all what he meant by it.

The Dynamo and the Virgin (describe)

Two conflicting ideals. Mysterious forces controlling a culture. Things that you can't actually see (electricity, religious aspects). Industry and the way that things have always been done were suddenly clashing. Two incompatible ideas were coming together, and it was incredibly difficult for some people to reconcile the thought that things were changing. This is a transition into an industrial society.

Joel Chandler Harris

Uncle Remus stories.

Booker T. Washington

Up From Slavery

Booker T. Washington (describe)

Very similar to Sa. Tells the story of his education. Shows how he escaped racism and excelled as a writer. Shows the difference between these two stories of Native American education and African American education. Shows racism and prejudice in yet another way. Someone who was praised by white conservatives because he thought that African Americans should have jobs in labor.

Imagism

Wallace Stevens. No ideas but in things. It's just an image. Think of a common image as art; it is as it is and means only what it means. It doesn't stand for anything.

Gwendolyn Brooks

We Real Cool

Paul Lawrence Dunbar

We Wear the Mask!

Countee Cullen

Yet Do I Marvel

Realism

You are in control of your future - choices are critical. I got here because I made the decisions that led me here. Ex: Daisy Miller.

Naturalism

Your circumstances determine your future. Character is unimportant. Think if you put Hamlet into The Jungle - it wouldn't matter that he's a prince, it's the fact that he's working in a factory that is important. There is no escaping this kind of world. Literature that describes racism/sexism is more naturalist. Ex: Maggie a Girl of the Streets. Tends to be more political.

E.E. Cummings

i sing of Olaf glad and big

What poem is this? XXX i sing of Olaf glad and big whose warmest heart recoiled at war: a conscientious object-or his wellbelovéd colonel(trig westpointer most succinctly bred) took erring Olaf soon in hand; but--though an host of overjoyed noncoms(first knocking on the head him)do through icy waters roll that helplessness which others stroke with brushes recently employed anent this muddy toiletbowl, while kindred intellects evoke allegiance per blunt instruments-- Olaf(being to all intents a corpse and wanting any rag upon what God unto him gave) responds,without getting annoyed "I will not kiss your f****** flag" straightway the silver bird looked grave (departing hurriedly to shave) but--though all kinds of officers (a yearning nation's blueeyed pride) their passive prey did kick and curse until for wear their clarion voices and boots were much the worse, and egged the firstclassprivates on his rectum wickedly to tease by means of skilfully applied bayonets roasted hot with heat-- Olaf(upon what were once knees) does almost ceaselessly repeat "there is some s*** I will not eat" our president,being of which assertions duly notified threw the yellowsonofabitch into a dungeon,where he died Christ(of His mercy infinite) i pray to see;and Olaf,too preponderatingly because unless statistics lie he was more brave than me:more blond than you.

i sing of Olaf glad and big, EE Cummings