Now we may not be the same
But I feel humans are always to blame
The times have change, we both know that
Though I’m sure there is still prayer
You were sad and I was strong
Human emotions gone so wrong
Like a balloon it fills up inside
I’m sorry it caused you to die
You should have let it out and let leave
Instead it became all you believed
Those human emotions sure are strong
Guilt, greed, sinning, longing have always found a way to belong
It crept inside and your body became it’s cave
To your own emotions you were a slave
If death was your only solution
Peace of mind must have forced you into execution.
Now lay and rest with your new found tranquility
I am here still trying to find sensibility.
As my piece of art I decided to make a poem identifying the sadness and misery many of those in the Confessional Poetry Movement felt. Many were driven insane by their personal lives and I feel my poem is a small tribute to all the dark feelings they harbored. Although, I used a simple rhyming pattern which only a few poets in the movement used, I found it somewhat simple and almost as a conversation. I want the poem to be me reassuring the poets that if their illness drove them to death, I hope they have found peace. I hope that they are not the confused poets writing autobiographical poems anymore. This is not a promotion to suicide, but an understanding of how art and life drove them mad.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Explicate.
History by Robert Lowell
History has to live with what was here,
clutching and close to fumbling all we had--
it is so dull and gruesome how we die,
unlike writing, life never finishes.
Abel was finished; death is not remote,
a flash-in-the-pan electrifies the skeptic,
his cows crowding like skulls against high-voltage wire,
his baby crying all night like a new machine.
As in our Bibles, white-faced, predatory,
the beautiful, mist-drunken hunter's moon ascends--
a child could give it a face: two holes, two holes,
my eyes, my mouth, between them a skull's no-nose--
O there's a terrifying innocence in my face
drenched with the silver salvage of the mornfrost.
Throughout the poem “History” by Robert Lowell death is identified with human actions and emotions. The speaker’s tone seems passionate as the poem flows and as his descriptions of life and death become graphic. The first line of “History has to live with what was here” relays the poem’s title, but also creates a sense of time. As if whatever has happened will be evident for many times to come. The second line reveals how something was almost lost in the struggled that occurred in the place where history will have to live with, creating a relationship between what has past and the future since both are or will become history. The two following lines which criticizes the nature of dying and contrasts it from writing ties in very well the previous beginning lines from the poem. The way that Lowell points out life is not like writing creates a feeling of longevity that exists with each life and the suggests that although death may come life may not be over. The fifth line identifies the first person in the poem, but the character is conveyed to the topic of death because as he was “finished” death was not distant. This plays a large role in the first two lines explaining history because when does one know death is coming. It techniqually always is, unfortunately, from your first breath of air. However, as you begin to live your life and finish one accomplish or fall in dark times, will it be enough and will you have proven yourself before death comes? The sixth line addresses the issue of how powerful death can be once it is coming for you. The “flash-in-the-pain” which amazes the nonbelievers are the signs your life might be coming to and end. This does not explain horrific accidents which swipe you from the Earth in a second, but suggests the long waiting process of it as you age. Lines seven and eight state how when those signs become apparent everything and everyone but you could notice it. The crowding of the cows and the baby’s constant crying possibly suggests that the cows and child sense something. Through lines nine and ten the criticism of religion seems to be described as the speaker suggests religion, the Bible, will not save you from your time. The next line begins to physically describe the appearance of death or what portrays it as it comes. The repetition of “two holes” creates a comparison between the speaker and what is coming for him. The “two holes” are two sets of eyes and two sets of mouth, one which belongs to the speaker and another to death. The description in line twelve of a skull with no nose creates the imaging of a skeleton and a human body decomposing after death to become that skeleton with no nose. The “terrifying” innocence in the speaker’s seems to state that the awareness of what is coming and always will be coming for people throughout history and the future which is to become history is purifying. It is pure, true knowledge that one possibly might feel as their time approaches and as it brings clarity of the mind. The last line the “terrifying innocence” is covered with salvage from the morning frost. This last line reassures the reader that the speaker is not scared, but actually saved. The next morning has rescued him from what he thought had finally arrived after a lifetime of waiting. The last line reinforces the first line of the poem because the images of living one from day is also reminded that one’s time is still coming and it will come promptly someday. It has previously come before, millions of time throughout history.
History has to live with what was here,
clutching and close to fumbling all we had--
it is so dull and gruesome how we die,
unlike writing, life never finishes.
Abel was finished; death is not remote,
a flash-in-the-pan electrifies the skeptic,
his cows crowding like skulls against high-voltage wire,
his baby crying all night like a new machine.
As in our Bibles, white-faced, predatory,
the beautiful, mist-drunken hunter's moon ascends--
a child could give it a face: two holes, two holes,
my eyes, my mouth, between them a skull's no-nose--
O there's a terrifying innocence in my face
drenched with the silver salvage of the mornfrost.
Throughout the poem “History” by Robert Lowell death is identified with human actions and emotions. The speaker’s tone seems passionate as the poem flows and as his descriptions of life and death become graphic. The first line of “History has to live with what was here” relays the poem’s title, but also creates a sense of time. As if whatever has happened will be evident for many times to come. The second line reveals how something was almost lost in the struggled that occurred in the place where history will have to live with, creating a relationship between what has past and the future since both are or will become history. The two following lines which criticizes the nature of dying and contrasts it from writing ties in very well the previous beginning lines from the poem. The way that Lowell points out life is not like writing creates a feeling of longevity that exists with each life and the suggests that although death may come life may not be over. The fifth line identifies the first person in the poem, but the character is conveyed to the topic of death because as he was “finished” death was not distant. This plays a large role in the first two lines explaining history because when does one know death is coming. It techniqually always is, unfortunately, from your first breath of air. However, as you begin to live your life and finish one accomplish or fall in dark times, will it be enough and will you have proven yourself before death comes? The sixth line addresses the issue of how powerful death can be once it is coming for you. The “flash-in-the-pain” which amazes the nonbelievers are the signs your life might be coming to and end. This does not explain horrific accidents which swipe you from the Earth in a second, but suggests the long waiting process of it as you age. Lines seven and eight state how when those signs become apparent everything and everyone but you could notice it. The crowding of the cows and the baby’s constant crying possibly suggests that the cows and child sense something. Through lines nine and ten the criticism of religion seems to be described as the speaker suggests religion, the Bible, will not save you from your time. The next line begins to physically describe the appearance of death or what portrays it as it comes. The repetition of “two holes” creates a comparison between the speaker and what is coming for him. The “two holes” are two sets of eyes and two sets of mouth, one which belongs to the speaker and another to death. The description in line twelve of a skull with no nose creates the imaging of a skeleton and a human body decomposing after death to become that skeleton with no nose. The “terrifying” innocence in the speaker’s seems to state that the awareness of what is coming and always will be coming for people throughout history and the future which is to become history is purifying. It is pure, true knowledge that one possibly might feel as their time approaches and as it brings clarity of the mind. The last line the “terrifying innocence” is covered with salvage from the morning frost. This last line reassures the reader that the speaker is not scared, but actually saved. The next morning has rescued him from what he thought had finally arrived after a lifetime of waiting. The last line reinforces the first line of the poem because the images of living one from day is also reminded that one’s time is still coming and it will come promptly someday. It has previously come before, millions of time throughout history.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Work of Art. American Beauty.
Lester: “I'd always heard your entire life flashes before your eyes a second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all. It stretches on forever, like an ocean of time. For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars. And yellow leaves from the maple trees that lined our street. Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper. And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand-new Firebird. And Janie. And Janie. And ... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but its hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. Then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain, and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry. You will someday. “
This clip is the ending scene from "American Beauty" is the story of middle-aged Lester Burnham who has recently found himself in a mid-life crisis. He begins to question how he is living life or actually is not living. He decides to make changes and finds himself quitting his job, buying a mustang, and working out. With his new change he describes his wife’s distance from their marriage and her recent developed affair. Lester also realizes he does not know his teenage daughter and she also knows very little about him in return.
I found the ending scene to this movie an example of the deepest and most personal confession made in art. Lester faces the greatest shock of all in the movie, discovering life was racing past him while he forgets he was even alive. Like many of the poets, Lester was depressed and stuck in a life he did not even recognize. The scene I chose is my favorite of the entire film because of the clarity in Lester’s thoughts and his remembrance of the simple things in life because nothing really simple that simple as we become older. The dark film finds light in its message to live simply and openly to everything around one’s life. It questions what memory will be your most cherished, your most beautiful. The film questions the phrase, “a second before you die your life flashed before your eyes“, but how do you fill an entire life in one second. I think Lester is right when he says it stretches out much longer than it, your life stretches out like an ocean, forever. What we fear in life is what cripples us from living at times and finding ourselves simply getting by. Confessional poetry is a release of all that fear. Poets put it out into the world as a way to rid themselves of it, so maybe, just maybe they can truly live. If they do purge themselves of all that cripples them how do they really know they are living. Signs of living are similar to Lester’s thoughts, it is genuine happiness that you feel from your core by being yourself without any phoniness. It is seeing everything in your pretentious, sometimes empty life and finding it beautiful. There is beauty out in the world and it is not the typical kind apparent to each eye. It is hidden under darkness and becomes brighter with each moment one stops and look. Lester attempts to find beauty by throwing away all of his responsibilities and cynicism as a way to find himself and truly life. In the end he has no anger for the man that killed him because he finds the living after death much large than how he was living before.
Confessional Poetry History
Poetry which uses unflattering, honest, personal details of the poet’s own life. The topics of poems include childhood, sexuality, death, and sickness. It became a popular style of writing in the later 1950s to the early 1960s by poets Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and W.D. Snodgrass. It had been untraditional to include such dark personal accounts of the poets life in the poem before. However, they were written in an autobiographical way which allowed many poets to released their trauma and depression. This was all evident while I read several of the poems from those poets. Before reading them I read a small summary of the poet's life and achievements and found that over half of them had committed suicide. The most apparent case of life influencing art is Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” which describes her distant relationship with her father although he died when she was only eight. Many of the confessional poems I had read were written in such a conversational style due to the poets confession of their darkest experience as an autobiography. Many of Anne Sexton’s poems concentrate on the darkness of women and how everywoman experiences the same dark thoughts in each of them. This concentration comes from several years she spent depressed. As Sexton aged her mental illness became worst and her poems became morbid until she committed suicide.
Reflection
History by Robert Lowell
Morning Song by Sylvia Plath
Her Kind by Anne Sexton
For The One Who Would Not Take His Life In His Hands by Delmore Schwartz
The Spring by Delmore Schwartz
The Truth the Dead Know by Anne Sexton
The End by Sharon Olds
Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath
The Reckoning by Theodore Roethke
In Those Years by Adrienne Rich
Confessional poetry is often seemed like dark human emotions put into words, creating painful story while I was reading it. All of the poems are raw and open in their explanation of what the poet is feeling or experiencing. All of the poems, however, were modernly written and did not have difficult rhyming schemes. They were almost full sentences and conversation from the poet. This made understanding and enjoying the poems much easier than I usually find poetry. My favorite poems came from Delmore Schwartz because of his intellectual references and the simplicity in the style they were written. His poems are written for the middleclass society in the way he explains everyday life. He connects human nature with ancient philosophers. This connection could possibly be to show how the flaws and nature of man has not changed from the thought’s of great philosopher. In our case, Schwartz plays the mediator by relaying our actions to prove how the philosopher’s thought were in fact right or wrong about man.
The imagery used in almost all of the poems are descriptions of natural, instinctive behavior. The ease each poem contains works well with the movement of confessional poetry. The languages are descriptively styled as in they would be part of conversation and each is the summarization of an emotional experience. “In Those Years” by Adrienne Rich the narrator describes the growing apart people face in their lives and how it seems a part of life, occurring in everyone’s life at one point or another. She begins to describe the separation and the person changing the reference from “we” to “I” as she shows separation through the poems language; “In those years, people will say, we lost track/ of the meaning of we, of you/ we found ourselves/reduced to I.” People often lose contact with each other unintentionally because of different lives and paths they take. The poem suggests that the different paths people take are due to the selfishness we all have towards our own life. Adrienne Rich’s honesty describes how although a group of people are together on their minds they have their own intentions in mind. The poem states, “They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and/pinions drove/along the show, through rages of fog/where we stood, saying I” conveying that although physically people are together their minds are acting as individuals and they see their path as their solo journeys.
Morning Song by Sylvia Plath
Her Kind by Anne Sexton
For The One Who Would Not Take His Life In His Hands by Delmore Schwartz
The Spring by Delmore Schwartz
The Truth the Dead Know by Anne Sexton
The End by Sharon Olds
Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath
The Reckoning by Theodore Roethke
In Those Years by Adrienne Rich
Confessional poetry is often seemed like dark human emotions put into words, creating painful story while I was reading it. All of the poems are raw and open in their explanation of what the poet is feeling or experiencing. All of the poems, however, were modernly written and did not have difficult rhyming schemes. They were almost full sentences and conversation from the poet. This made understanding and enjoying the poems much easier than I usually find poetry. My favorite poems came from Delmore Schwartz because of his intellectual references and the simplicity in the style they were written. His poems are written for the middleclass society in the way he explains everyday life. He connects human nature with ancient philosophers. This connection could possibly be to show how the flaws and nature of man has not changed from the thought’s of great philosopher. In our case, Schwartz plays the mediator by relaying our actions to prove how the philosopher’s thought were in fact right or wrong about man.
The imagery used in almost all of the poems are descriptions of natural, instinctive behavior. The ease each poem contains works well with the movement of confessional poetry. The languages are descriptively styled as in they would be part of conversation and each is the summarization of an emotional experience. “In Those Years” by Adrienne Rich the narrator describes the growing apart people face in their lives and how it seems a part of life, occurring in everyone’s life at one point or another. She begins to describe the separation and the person changing the reference from “we” to “I” as she shows separation through the poems language; “In those years, people will say, we lost track/ of the meaning of we, of you/ we found ourselves/reduced to I.” People often lose contact with each other unintentionally because of different lives and paths they take. The poem suggests that the different paths people take are due to the selfishness we all have towards our own life. Adrienne Rich’s honesty describes how although a group of people are together on their minds they have their own intentions in mind. The poem states, “They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and/pinions drove/along the show, through rages of fog/where we stood, saying I” conveying that although physically people are together their minds are acting as individuals and they see their path as their solo journeys.
Literary Merit
The book I choose was Emma by Jane Austen due to how mainstream Jane Austen has recently become. In the past year two movies have been made around her life and the message her books send. I found the novel enjoyable, but the society the characters live in seems highly unbelievable. I have read other Austen books, Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, and society is always a critical theme. Emma embodies the society through her vanity and insistence to be a matchmaker. Although her intentions are admirable at first, her connection to the rest of the world outside of her high society makes her blinds to the wants of others.
The theme of marriage becomes a priority in the actions of the characters. They do not marry because of love, but for successful matches in society. The marriage between those who are not equal suggests hardship for the couple. Once I read this I connected it to speculation that Jane Austen’s only love was a man out of her social class and when the opportunity for them to be together came she declined because she knew their social differences would cause hardship not only in their marriage, but to their families as well.
Although at times Emma’s belief in society is too much to handle, her personality is as a heroine to readers. Her independence and persistent causes much of her conflict with Mr. Knightley when he exposes her flaws. She is admirable in her intentions to help find her friends what she believes is happiness. Their society tells them a strong, well planned marriage is the ultimate goal and that being in high marriage of society the woman gains power and independence which was not typical of women to have in their age.
The theme of marriage becomes a priority in the actions of the characters. They do not marry because of love, but for successful matches in society. The marriage between those who are not equal suggests hardship for the couple. Once I read this I connected it to speculation that Jane Austen’s only love was a man out of her social class and when the opportunity for them to be together came she declined because she knew their social differences would cause hardship not only in their marriage, but to their families as well.
Although at times Emma’s belief in society is too much to handle, her personality is as a heroine to readers. Her independence and persistent causes much of her conflict with Mr. Knightley when he exposes her flaws. She is admirable in her intentions to help find her friends what she believes is happiness. Their society tells them a strong, well planned marriage is the ultimate goal and that being in high marriage of society the woman gains power and independence which was not typical of women to have in their age.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
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