Intimations of Immortality

ODE--> "Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by William Wordsworth...found on page 57 of the Survey of English Poetry book

Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality" is seen as perhaps one of his greatest poems. It is split up into 11 stanzas in which Wordsworth discusses his connection to nature and his confusion with humans' disconnect from the natural world and the afterlife.

In the first stanza, the speaker says that at one time in his life the earth and "every common sight" was mystical and quite dreamlike--"appareled in celestial light". However, now, as hard as he may try the speaker can no longer see that mysticism. He goes on in the second stanza he says that while he can still see beautiful wonders such as "the sunshine [with] a glorious birth" there is something missing. There is no longer "a glory from the earth."

While the speaker is saddened by the birds singing "a joyous song" he chooses not be to depressed. Instead, he decides to embrace the beauty of the season because everything on the earth is happy. However, the speaker finds it hard to enjoy the beatuy of the earth because he still feels that something is mission as "the same tale repeats....Whither is fled the visionary gleam?..."

In the fifth stanza, the speaker recognizes that "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting" in that we are born with the knowledge of heaven and God but as we grow into adulthood we loose this knowledge. The connection of heaven "fade[s] into the light of common day" as we grow into adulthood and begin losing that love and connection with nature. In the sixth stanza he simply states that everything on earth, from our birth, is conspiring against us to make us forget of heaven or "that imperial place whence he came."

Next, the speaker imagines a young boy, perhaps himself, making his journey through life. He becomes a "little actor [who] cons another part" throughout his whole life. His efforts will simply consist of "endless imitation" becoming someone who he was not meant to be. He goes on to confront this child in the next stanza, asking him why he wishes to rush into adulthood so strongly and bring on the "blindness" it accompanies. As a child, he is so close to heaven and yet he rushes to get away from it.

In the ninth stanza the speaker has a bit of a revelation. He realizes that he and all humans will be connected to nature: "Our soulds have sight of that immortal sea." He means that because of our souls and memories, we will always connect with our childhood and therefore with nature and heaven. Therefore he rejoices in the tenth stanza asking all of the animals which earlier made him sad, to "sing a joyous song!" He knows that because he has memories of his childhood he will always be able to connect with it, and therefore with nature.

Finally, in the eleventh stanza, he says that he believes that everything in his life grows from nature. His memories and belief in heaven and immortality relies greatly on the beauty and faith in nature.

Blog Presentation: [l(a]

e.e. cummings…
· Edward Estlin Cummings was born on October 14, 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
· Son of Edward and Rebecca Haswell Clarke Cummings
· American poet, painter, essayist, playwright, and author
· Received B.A. and Masters from Harvard University between 1911-1916
· Wrote both untraditional and traditional (sonnets) forms of poetry
· Interesting Fact: Despite popular belief, he did not, according to his widow, legally change his name to “e e cummings.” He actually never specified whether he preferred the lowercase or uppercase version of his name.

Paintings by e. e. cummings


[l(a] by e.e. cummings

l(a

le
af
fa

ll

s)
one
l

iness

Analysis:
· separation of the words "loneliness" and "a leaf falls" as the basis of the poem. The poem seems to be mainly about just that--loneliness. Cummings is comparing a leaf falling from a tree to loneliness, which, I believe, is quite a valid metaphor. The image of a single leaf falling from a tree in the fall gives a feeling of loneliness and emptiness.
· Cummings begins by separating the word loneliness from the beginning to the end of the poem. He is conveying that loneliness is separation and that it's both physical and mental. While we may feel mentally lonely (as represented in the metaphor of the leaf falling) we can also be physically lonely as represented by the spacing of the word.
· the letters "la" and "le", the first two lines of the poem, are the feminine and masculine forms of the word "the" in French. In putting such a large gap between the two, he may be suggesting the separation of men and women. He is saying that without a companion or lover, humans feel the ultimate separation and loneliness.
· The 5th line is simply two lowercase L's next to each other: "ll". These L's can be looked at as "ones" when they are viewed as a single line in a poem. In putting them together, Cummings is saying that in the middle of loneliness, that the root of loneliness is one on one contact. Humans simply want one person to attach to and then loneliness is demolished. This can be further supported by his putting the letters O, N, and E on a line together spelling out the word "one." This seems intentional because it is one of the only lines with more than two letters on it.

Blog Presentation: Woodchucks

Maxine Kumin…
· Born on June 6, 1925 in Philadelphia
· Daughter of Jewish parents
· Received her Bachelors and Masters from Radcliffe college
· Wrote poems, essays, short stories, children’s books, and novels
· Won Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1973 for Up Country
· She was a poetry consultant for the Library of Congress and Poet Laureate of New Hampshire
· Interesting Fact: In 1995, Kumin became a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets but resigned four years later, along with Carolyn Kizer, in protest over the board's reluctance to admit poets of color. This act led to an entire reconstruction of the institution's bylaws.

A PIECE OF THIS ARTICLE- From One Poet's Notes
Friday, June 6, 2008
When encountering Maxine Kumin’s poetry one can sometimes become lulled by the steady and resolute direction of her unpretentious sentences. Whether guided by traditional forms and a regular rhyme or filled with the more relaxed sense of free verse, Kumin’s work normally ends up engaging the reader as she steers the content toward a determined end. Even the patterns in her poems, deliberate meditations on nature or mortality and dramatic pieces reflecting personal or political perspectives, rarely seem very surprising and are hardly suspenseful. Yet, this poet’s usually careful control of language and overriding tone frequently prove persuasive enough to enlighten and enrich.

"Woodchucks" by Maxine Kumin

Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right.
The knockout bomb from the Feed and Grain Exchange
was featured as merciful, quick at the bone
and the case we had against them was airtight,
both exits shoehorned shut with puddingstone,
but they had a sub-sub-basement out of range.

Next morning they turned up again, no worse
for the cyanide than we for our cigarettes
and state-store Scotch, all of us up to scratch.
They brought down the marigolds as a matter of course
and then took over the vegetable patch
nipping the broccoli shoots, beheading the carrots.

The food from our mouths, I said, righteously thrilling
to the feel of the .22, the bullets' neat noses.
I, a lapsed pacifist fallen from grace
puffed with Darwinian pieties for killing,
now drew a bead on the little woodchuck's face.
He died down in the ever-bearing roses.

Ten minutes later I dropped the mother. She
flip flopped in the air and fell, her needle teeth
still hooked in a leaf of early Swiss chard.
Another baby next. One-two-three
the murderer inside me rose up hard,
the hawk eye killer came on stage forthwith.

There's one chuck left. Old wily fellow, he keeps
me cocked and ready day after day after day.
All night I hunt his humped-up form. I dream
I sight along the barrel in my sleep.
If only they'd all consented to die unseen
gassed underground the quiet Nazi way.

Some different POVs:
i. Lauren- parallel with the Holocaust
ii. Tommy/Charlie- the “hawk-eye killer”
iii. Michaela- possible parallel between people and woodchucks?

What do you guys think? Is Kumin paralleling the killer with humans or the woodchucks? Is it possible that it is both? Are we both the murderers and victims at the same time?

[l(a]

External Form #4: "[l(a]" by e.e. cummings can be found on page 1042 of the Norton.
Click here to reference the poem that I am referring to. It's different than the one in the Norton.

I have actually wanted to discuss this poem since we read it in class earlier this year. I found so many things within it interesting.

I think the most obvious place to begin is cumming's separation of the words "lonliness" and "a leaf falls" as the basis of the poem. The poem seems to be mainly about just that--lonliness. Cummings is comparing a leaf falling from a tree to lonliness, which, I believe, is quite a valid metaphor. The image of a single leaf falling from a tree in the fall gives a feeling of lonlieness and emptiness.

However, Cummings seems to go even deeper into the subject of lonliness. In the Norton, the spacing of the lines is different than the other forms I found online. Cummings begins by separating the word lonliness from the beginning to the end of the poem. He is conveying that lonliness is separation and that it's both physical and mental. While we may feel mentally lonely (as represented in the metaphor of the leaf falling) we can also be physically lonely as represented by the spacing of the word.

Also, I am not sure if this is too far fetched, but the letters "la" and "le", the first two lines of the poem, are the feminine and masculine forms of the word "the" in French. In putting such a large gap between the two, he may be suggesting the separation of men and women. Further complicating the idea of lonliness. He is saying that without a companion or lover, humans feel the ultimate separation and lonliness.

Finally, right in the middle of the poem Cummings touches on the major theme of this poem. The 5th line is simply two lowercase L's next to each other: "ll". These L's can be looked at as "ones" when they are viewed as a single line in a poem. In putting them together, Cummings is saying that in the middle of lonliness, that the root of lonliness is one on one contact. Humans simply want one person to attach to and then lonliness is demolished. This can be further supported by his putting the letters O, N, and E on a line together spelling out the word "one." This seems intentional because it is one of the only lines with more than two letters on it.

Overall, I think Cummings has presented a complicated an deep poem as simple to fool us into thinking he has overlooked something. Yet, I think he planned it out to a "T" and was pushing us to look deeper for a meaning.

Let The Muse Be Free...

External Form #3: "One the Sonnet" by John Keats can be found on page 1025 of the Norton.

John Keat's sonnet, "On the Sonnet" follows neither the traditional Shakespearean or Petrarchan forms of the sonnet. Keats is actually criticizing both of these forms of the sonnet, saying that have such a restricted structure loses the essence of poetry.

Keats begins by alluding to Andromeda; it is a Greek myth of a woman who was chained to rock and left to die by the sea. He is paralleling the poem with Andromeda in saying that by using these "dull rhymes," poets are leaving their sonnets and poems out to be swallowed and forgotten forever. Keats wants the reader to think out of the box and go beyond Shakespeare and Petrarch. He refers to a letter he wrote called "Poesy", in which he expressed his distaste for the current accepted forms of the sonnet.

He also talks about the"misers of sound and syllable." A miser is someone who is afraid of spending money. In reference to this poem, Keats seems to be saying that in writing sonnets, poets become misers of sounds and syllables and instead of using them as they please they savor them and ultimately lose the meaning of the poem. Keats' final advice to use is to "let the Muse be free" and allow our imaginations to wander. He doesn't want us to be afraid of stepping out of the restrictions of a traditional sonnet. Actually, he encourages us to do so and move beyond the restrictions of time.

a space in the lives of their friends

External Form #2: beware: do not read this poem by Ishmael Reed can be found on p. 1040 of the Norton.

This poem has multiple factors contributing to the external form and its significance to the poem. To begin, the apparent changes in punctuation and grammar stand out quite a bit. The author puts in a lot of spaces and commas as well as punctuation marks where they don't belong. I think he did this to give an exaggerated feeling to the poem. He puts spaces where he wants the reader to feel the detachment within the poem. For example, he uses a lot of spaces when he talks about the old woman in the beginning. We feel her detachment from the world through the author's use of the large spaces between words and phrases.

In addition, the author didn't use any capital letters, including in the title. I think this makes the poem feel more casual and like a story. He is telling the reader a story and giving warning at the same time. However, we do not pick up on the warning right away because of the casual nature of the poem. If the author had used all capital letters then we would get a more alarming feeling; but he chose to use all lowercase which presents a laidback feeling in the poem.

I think that the author used these methods to drag us in to the poem. Ironically, he is warning us not to get dragged in. He is warning us to stay attached to the world outside like the woman with the mirrors did. His imagery of the poem physically swallowing the reader is wen I finally caught his point. He wants us to step back from poetry and instead of letting it eat our minds and bodies, just enjoy it for what it is. Do not become like the old woman with the mirrors and simply become obsessed with your own mind. Share poetry with others and therefore make friends, if you don't listen to what he says then you will be separated from people forever.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun...

External Form #1: Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare can be found on p. 1034 of the Norton :)

This sonnet by William Shakespeare is one of his few outright humorous sonnets. It is written in the traditional English Sonnet format consisting of the abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme. It is fourteen lines, just as a sonnet is classified to be.

Shakespeare uses the 4-4-4-2 format, meaning three quatrains and and one couplet in that order. He uses each quatrain to build up to his ultimate point made in the final couplet. The first quatrain in Sonnet 130 consists of four separate comparisons of the speaker's lover. Each comparison (or lack thereof) is described in one line. For example, the speaker describes his mistress' eyes in line one, her lips in line two, and so on.

However, as he continues, the speaker builds up his argument and utilizes two lines for each argument. This gives the feeling of more passion and thought in the speaker's mind. The speaker uses two lines to describe his mistress' cheeks, breath, voice, and walk. The extra description and space gives more significance the the speaker's opinion of his mistress. However, we must remember that the speaker is building up to a certain point which he reaches in the final two lines, or the last couplet.

Here, the speaker admits that despite the most human characteristics of his mistress, he loves her more than anything. He would much rather love her for who she is than try to make false comparisons to make her seem more beautiful.

I don't think Shakespeare's only purpose in this sonnet is to speak of the mistress. He also seems to be mocking many kinds of the traditional love sonnet. He says that while this mistress may be ugly and less than graceful, she is true and rare. Petrach, an Italian writer, wrote most of his poems describing a woman he did not know but was in love with named Laura. It is possible that Shakespeare was mocking his style and subjects of writing in writing this sonnet.