Week 1: Ode, Elegy

ode- a lyric poem with complex stanza forms
elegy- a mournful poem; a lament for the dead

A little unsure of what an ode was I looked it up, so I got what I posted above. My selection is in the category of Medieval Lyric Poetry by Anonymous, with a subtitle of "Deo Gracias/Adam Lay Ibounden" (does that mean it is not anonymous if there is an author?)

I didn't feel like typing the poem out, so i searched for it on google and i found this instead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DocrO_hRW2w

Its this group of singers who sing the poem, only its a little more repetative, ut all hte same stanzas are in it never the less.

The poem embodies the literary device of euphonys, which makes sense becasue it is able to be sung. A euphony appears to the ear to be smooth, pleasant, and musical. Deo Gracias has somehtign to do wiht thanks, (gracias) while deo is a conjugated verb which most likely is from dar, which means to give. This poem plays wiht the word "bound" (ibounden, bounden, bond) in the first stanza to really get the point accross of an attachment. The second stanza focuses of "appil", which really is an "apple" which symbolizes somethign forbidden, since this poem is biblicly (sp?) based the apple plays of Adam and Eve. In the third stanza it talks about "appil take ben" and "hadde never our lady" which emmulates hte adam and eve theme moreso.

I was drawn to this poem becasue I thought it emmulated the theme of an ode becasue of its lyricy, and i was happy i could find a song to go wiht it. The style it was written in was a little hard to understand, but nice none the less.

Favorite Poems: Mostly My Nightmares Are Dullby Andrew Hudgins

Page 857 of the Norton

It is kind of a long poem, so sorry I am not typing it out. Anyway, I was drawn to this poem (in the tone section) because of its sarcasm and snarl, which I find amusing and sympathy toward the writer. The speaker talks about "autum nights" and hte death of his relatives. I think that the speaker is stuck in a suburbia, due to the fact that there are seasons and autumn, where you need a house to have leaves to rake.

This speaker also alludes to Shakespeare's "To be" speach where dreams are what occurs during death, and how they could be nightmares or good dreams. The speaker dreams of his dead relatives, therefore having a nightmare.

I expecially like the last "couplet" so to speak the concluding three lines of the poem:
"I wake, they die again, and I walk out
into a day, I'll live as carelessly
as if I'll only-fat chance- live it once"

This excerpt sums up his ideas regarding his nightmares, and how they reoccur. His tone of "fat chance" seems resentful and condesending, as if he jsut wants the nightmares to go away.

Favorite Poems: After a Death Roo Borson

After a Death
pg. 967

Seeing that there's no other way,
I turn his absence into a chair.
I can sit in it,
gaze out through the window.
and then go out into the world.
And I can return then with my useless love,
to rest,
because the chair is there.

I was drawn to this poem becasue of the imagery that was set up in such a simple poem, as it is short. I like this poem becasue it sets up such a feeling of sadness and comfort in only eight lines. This poem is under the language section, appropriatly, as seeing how she uses a chair for a metaphor of hte loved one she lost. The speaker, presumeably a woman, as she talksabout "his love" might be talking about her father or a lover, as the poem is unclear. The ambiguity however allows the reader to use their imagination and interperate the poem uniquely.

If she were talkign about her father, the "chair" might be the support of her parental figure, and how she still needs his support to live in saying "seeing theres no other way". The cahir is her stability, as it is "always there" which provides comfort for the girl in her sorrows. The peom can easily be about her lover or husband, as she takes her "useless love" (maybe she is not ready to go back out into the world) as she returns to the chair. The window acts as a means of distraction, and a look into the other side of sorts.

External Form, Continued: Sonnet 23 - Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?
And would the sun for thee more coldly shine
Because of grave-damps falling round my head?

I marvelled, my Beloved, when I read
Thy thought so in the letter. I am thine—
But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wine
While my hands tremble ? Then my soul, instead

Of dreams of death, resumes life's lower range.
Then, love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!
As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
For love, to give up acres and degree,

I yield the grave for thy sake, and exchange
My near sweet view of Heaven, for earth with thee!

Continuing on my death themed sonnets, Elizabeth B. B. reminds me of Shakespearean poetry, as she was one of the most respected poets of the Victorian era in the early 1800's. Her external structure in ryming is a little odd, as she uses an abba, abba, cdcd, cd pattern, which is less common with sonnets. Her stanzas are normal, with three four-lined stanzas, and a concluding couplet.

Elizabeth writes about how a woman dies for her husband, and wonders if she would appreciate her sacrafice. Once again, This poem has an illusion to dreams as Elizabeth writes of "dreams of death", which relates to Hamlets' sililoquy and-I'm inferring- an influence by Shakespeare. She begs her signifigant other to "love me, Love! look on me—breathe on me!" as she wants him to miss her/depend on her and need her. I get the impression that she wants to feel needed and is looking for companionship or her husband to depend upon her.

External Form: Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire by Rupert Brooke

Oh! Death will find me, long before I tire
Of watching you; and swing me suddenly
Into the shade and loneliness and mire
Of the last land! There, waiting patiently,

One day, I think, I'll feel a cool wind blowing,
See a slow light across the Stygian tide,
And hear the Dead about me stir, unknowing,
And tremble. And I shall know that you have died,

And watch you, a broad-browed and smiling dream,
Pass, light as ever, through the lightless host,
Quietly ponder, start, and sway, and gleam --
Most individual and bewildering ghost! --

And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead.

Form and Background:
I found this sonnet on the internet and it ammused me, so therefore I decided to write about it. The external form follows the sonnet ryme scheme of abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Rupert Brooke has three stanzas, and a concluding couplet at the end of his sonnet as well. I never heard of Rupert before, so upon a little research i found out he is a Brittish poet known for his war poems about WWI, yet he never experienced combat first hand. He was also described as "the handsomest young man in England".

Analysis:
This poem struck me as interesting because of its capitalization of the word "Dead", he does not capitalize "died", yet one of his lines goes to say "hear the Dead about me stir", meanning Dead is a propper noun, much like people and their names. He notes that watching you smile is like a dream, which is interesting in the sense of how it reminds me of the dream-like state Hamlet belives is related to death. Hamlet also beleives he sees his fathers ghost, and Rupert references a gleaming and bewilderign ghost in which he believes to see, as his punctuation references exitement.

He also relates nature into his poem, as i was unsure of what "mire" was, and it is muddy gorund much like a bog or a swamp. He talks about "lost land", which might mean lost time. The "Stygian tide" is a glum reference, as it is defined as infernal and hellish.

His couplet "And turn, and toss your brown delightful head
Amusedly, among the ancient Dead " adds to my theory of how the subject is not accually dead, but death is a metaphor. As to state the obvious, dead people dont "turn and toss", unless the subject was a ghost as mentionined in the third stanza.

External Form: First Fight. Then Fiddle. By Gwendolyn Brooks

The title Gwendolyn chooses for her poem creates an interest for the reader in why she has put the order of events as so. Her poem flows, yet the ryme scheme is a little different then the typical sonnet. Brooks chooses the pattern of: a b b a, a b b a, c d d c, e e which is not common, but acceptable. Her sonnet has fourteen lines, and does conclude with the couplet which ends and defines her poem.

The title goes to summerize the plot of the poem in the very first line: "First Fight. Then Fiddle." which is pretty straightforeward, yet many rewordings occur during the poem to convey the message: "Carry hate/Infront of you and harmony behind". The tone changes around line eight, where "malice and murdering" is the first violent image the arises during the poem. The reader is left to question Brooks's motives, where in her couplet she says "For having first to civilize a space/ Wherein to play your violin with grace." She believes that music is not to be heard in a place of warcraft, and in celebration for a victory and peace music is to be played.

External Strucutre: [My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun] by William Shakespeare

This is my favorite Shakespeare poem, as it is humorous yet has an important message. Shakespear is remarkeable becasue he has an entire book of poetry in the sonnet formation. There is not really much to out of hte ordinary about the external structure of [My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun], as the ryme scheme follows the a b a b, c d c d,e f e f, g g pattern of ryming, and the poem has 14 lines as well, which follows the structural rules of a sonnet.

The comparisons Shakespeare uses provide the reader with a great ammount of imagery the allows the reader to picture his "mistress". His stanzas describe her as not the most desireable woman around, wit her "eyes nothing like the sun" and "black wires grow on her head". Yet in the couplet, which is known to end hte poem and provide an overall message, Shakespeare does just that. He writes: "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/As any she belied with false compare" which provides a change of heart. He realizes she may not be perfect, but hte rare love they have for each other allows him ot see past her appearence and allows them to be togeather out of pure love.