Blog Portfolio D

Below are a number of posts representing my personal thoughts on certain topics. Some of these topics have been initiated through the HL English class, while others have been posted based on my own personal interests. I encourage you to read them, and post whatever comes to mind. Whatever your opinion, feel free to share it.

The majority of the posts in this portfolio involve various interpretations of poetry. We’ve read a number of poems this quarter, both independently and during class. In class we read The Cowboy by James Tate and Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden. After reading through my classmates’ blog posts, it has been interesting to see how varied our interpretations of a single poem are. Furthermore, all these interpretations have been justified so succinctly, that I’ve realized that there is no “correct” answer or analysis to a poem, as long as your analysis is justified through excerpts of the poem.

“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood”

T.S. Eliot (Famous English poet, playwright, and literary critic of the 20th Century)

Discussions: As expected, some of my posts incited a number of varied responses on certain issues. Therefore, debate ensued and in some cases, conclusions were made. It was rewarding to see comments on my blog; I felt that people were clear when presenting their opinions and ready to share and discuss their ideas.

The Cowboy: Is Life Fleeting and Meaningless?

Xenoblogging: I feel that one of my strengths as a blogger is my ability to post detailed responses and questions to peoples’ blog posts. I made sure to follow up on their responses, and contribute to the entire online class community.

Suruj’s Blog (Comment Primo)

Anushka’s Blog (Comment Primo)

Shannen’s Blog (Comment Grande)

Rohit’s Blog (Comment Grande)

Carl’s Blog (Link Gracious)

Justin’s Blog (Link Gracious)

The Cowboy: Is Life Fleeting and Meaningless?

After reading The Cowboy by James Tate, the reader is left with a sense of longing and displeasure. The alien that the narrator meets, states that “I’m going to die tonight. It’s really a joyous occasion, and I hope you’ll help me celebrate by watching The Magnificent Seven.” This sentence characterizes James Tate’s poems, which are known for their synthesis of and sorrow and comedy.

The tone of the poem shifts from a comic tone in the first few lines to a serious and then somber one as the poem comes to a close. “Roger was a practical joker of the / worst sort, and up till now I had not been one of his victims, so / I knew my time had come”. However, this supposed “practical joke” turns into reality, as “there was a nearly transparent / fellow with large pink eyes standing about three feet tall”.

The overall central purpose of the poem is to emphasize that life is fleeting and meaningless, an important concept for the typical existentialist. This theme is brought out in the last five lines of the poem, during which the narrator questions the alien’s attitude towards his impending death.

The poem evokes pathos in the reader because the alien is an innocent, amiable creature. The alien has a strong desire to meet a cowboy on Earth, and the narrator plans to make the alien’s dream come true. “I’m going to get the maps /out, we’ll see how we could go there”. Nevertheless, these plans come to an unfortunate halt when he learns about the alien’s impending death. The narrator’s human response to this looming event connects to Kafka’s writings on the philosophy of existentialism: that life is fleeting and meaningless. The speaker is unable to relate to the alien’s frankness regarding death. “I felt an unbearable sadness come over me. Why must/you die?” The narrator’s diction—consisting of short phrases and simple questions—illustrates his confusion and disturbance regarding the alien’s approaching death. Furthermore, the poet James Tate has written poems containing nihilistic and absurdist elements, typical of the existentialist perspective on the meaningless of life.

The Cowboy also brings tears of joy and laughter to the reader. The alien’s childlike behaviour causes the reader to become attached to the alien. “No but I have some orange juice. It’s good for you, / I said. He drank it and made a face.” Yet at the same time, his simple nature does at times hint that he may be experiencing a potential period of sadness. “…he was dancing on the kitchen table, a sort of ballet, but / very sad.”

Although The Cowboy doesn’t contain all the elements of typical poetry, such as a set of metaphors, similes, allusions, or allegories, The Cowboy is still a form of poetry, known as prose. The Cowboy is prose poetry due to its reliance on narrative and objective presentation in order to convey its central meaning and purpose.

 

Messy Room-By Shell Silverstein

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater’s been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or–
Huh? You say it’s mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!

Yet Life Calmly Sails On: An Analysis of Musee des Beaux Arts

The painting The Fall of Icarus inspired W.H. Auden to write Musee des Beaux Arts, a poem that illustrates the overall insignificance of Icarus’ death. In Greek mythology, Icarus used wings made by his father Daedalus to fly, but ignored his father’s warnings, flying too close to the sun which melted the wax on his wings. As a result, Icarus fell to his death and drowned in the ocean.

W.H Auden brings forth the message of failure being inevitable in Musee des Beaux Arts. Icarus failed to listen to his father despite Daedalus’ warnings. “That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course”. Auden establishes the context of Icarus’ death, using a metaphor to illustrate how Icarus was putting his life at risk by flying too close to the sun, “skating on a pond at the edge of the wood”. Furthermore, the diction and imagery adds to the central purpose of the poem, which is to illustrate the triviality of Icarus’ death. For example, “Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer’s horse” explains how Icarus fell to death in a mere corner that dogs occupied. “Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry” adds to this imagery, portraying a simple farmhand “leisurely” hearing his last words before dying.

The last five lines of the poem demonstrate the tone and meaning Auden intends for the reader to grasp. Life goes on for the ploughman who saw Icarus fall from the sky into the ocean, “But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to”. Another group of people witnessed Icarus’ grand fall as well, “and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,” nevertheless, it had little impact on their voyage, as they “had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on”. Evidently, all those that witnessed Icarus’ death were indifferent to his demise.

In terms of setting and historical context, Icarus himself was not a God in Greek mythology. Rather, he was the son of master craftsman Daedalus. Icarus’ hubris led to his tragic downfall, but sails calmly life on, just as the delicate ship does in The Fall of Icarus, indifferent and unmoved by Icarus’ death.