Do NOT go Gentle into that Good Night

This was one of those poems i really didn't care for. however, after a class discussion or two, i understand it a bit more. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas is about a man with his father on his death bed. It's very heart wrenching and quite sad once the reader understands the poem. Written as a villanelle (19 lines), the repetition in the poem takes over and takes away from the beauty of this simple poem. The phrase "do not go gentle into that good night" is repeated every other stanza as well as the phrase "rage rage against the dying of the light.

The stanzas start out as memories and similes and metaphors but then transforms into a sad poem about a man watching his father slowly slip away; With depressing lines such as " Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray". Its sad reading about this man crumbling because of his father. Thomas seems to have written this from somewhat of a personal standpoint, which helps a lot when writing a poem or short story. It begs the question, did Thomas write this in the first person, or is this simply a made up poem?

The part I didn't enjoy were the repetitions actually! It doesn't seem to fit within the rhyme scheme, however it does end up completing and pulling the poem back to it's original thought. I thought the two repeated phrases could have been uses in the beginning and the end. the rest of the poem should have been filled with more descriptive stanzas about the situation.

Kate Chopin Works

I really loves Chopin's story Desiree's baby. It surprised me that Chopin would have the courage to write such stories especially back in her day! She was a white woman living in the south writing about a man who supposedly hates black people, who actually turns out to be half black, and unknowningly abandons and resents his 100% white wife and child. You find yourself asking the question "how did he not see that he was half black?" which then gets the answer, it was a different time back then. Which then makes you think about how much times have changed yet also how much they are the same. Chopin's writing transcends centuries with her ability to connect to independent women as well as women of color.

"It means...that the child is not white; it means that you ate not white." Chopin writes this for the husband to say to his supposedly "not white" wife and it is so eye opening to think that is how it was back in her time. Women had to deal with being second rate and their feelings were put on the back burner, never to be a priority. So, Chopin's works are all about empowerment and Independence for women. Surprisingly mainly of a sexual nature!

Langston Hughes Troika

Let America Be America Again, Open Letter to the South , Harlem

I was only briefly introduced to Hughes' work in the 5th grade but after reading these three poems, I can now fully understand and appreciate why he is the most celebrated African American writer of his time. The saying "you write what you know" proves to be very true in all of Hughes' works. America and Open Letter are both deep poems about the need and want for equality among races and more importantly equality for all people in America. In America, he repeats the phrase "i am the..." followed by a certain occupation or race. This repetition draws the reader in and really makes you proud of this man for wanting such lofty things for America especially for his day and age. For example at the end of Open Letter, he writes "White worker,/Here is my hand./Today,/We're Man to Man." This no doubt had some controversy surrounding it back then because it was so unthinkable to have a black man even want to befriend a white man. But the way Hughes writes and the vocabulary he uses, the reader can feel his voice saying these words and it makes you want to keep reading, if not these poems then any of his other works. He even denounces a prominant member of his own race, Booker T. Washington for saying "seperate as the fingers" referring to blacks and whites. The most important line of all 3 poems, I believe, Is in America, "The steel of freedom does not stain." I found it very inspiring and really brought the poem together.
The poem that most people my age are probably familiar wih is Harlem, known to many as A Dream Deferred. This poem speaks volumes of the struggles African Americans were going through during the civil rights movement. The poem is short and to the point but it packs a lot of history into 11 lines. The most powerful line is no doubt the italicized last line "or does it explode?". Now depending on your mood, this could be taken very negatively or it can be seen as an inspiration. This was written when Hughes was almost 50 so he has pretty much found his niche in life, so it's interesting to read a poem about dreaming big and wondering where those unused dreams go.
I think Hughes was a stepping stone for every poet or story teller out there because he pushed peoples buttons and inspired so many other people with his words.

Young Goodman Brown: Verisimilitude

Verisimilitude means the appearance of being true or real. This is what Young Goodman Brown was going through during his "journey" through the woods. What business would a seemingly normal Puritan man have in the depths of the forest late at night?
Nathaniel Hawthorne's take on Goodman Brown's journey through the woods is quite a dark twisted story of Brown's past and his family secrets and his future. However, the main theme is Brown questioning his faith. The fact that Hawthorne named Brown's wife Faith, is a huge symbol/ foreshadowing to the rest of the story. "And Faith, as his wife was named..." is a huge precursor to what Hawthorne wants the reader to think as they read the story. Also this double entendre of a phrase "Faith kept me back a while...", is a very obvious clue that Hawthorne has struggled with his own faith in his family. As many people know, Nathaniel Hawthorne's family were largely involved with the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne has condemned their involvement and it shows in his writing.

As I was reading, I noticed some of the vocabulary used by Hawthorne was very telling that this entire story may in fact be a dream or hallucination of the characters. For example, the words used to describe the person Brown is meeting are "figure"and "appearance" and "shape". It's as if Brown is dreaming and this "shape" is what his subconscious has made up for him. All these symbols and hidden meanings in Young Goodman Brown are all part of an extended, intricate allegory.

Position Paper

One thing I have learned from the research writing process that I will use for future papers is that is important to prepare. The hardest part was figuring out which topic to research. I knew which side of every topic I was on I just had to pick one. In order to even begin an eight to ten page paper, you need to set up some parameters for your topic. Guidelines help lead you in the right direction in regards to your view on a topic. If the topic is too broad or general, it is easy to get lost in your own writing and nothing will make any sense. For example, if your topic is poverty in the US, there should be a theme of that topic that is going to be the focus of your paper, i.e. how much and where has poverty grown in the past decade. Once I took a position on my topic, it was easier to conduct my research because I knew what I was looking for. Before I started writing I went through books and articles about my topic and pulled quotes and statistics that supported my position. This is where my detailed outline came in handy because I could easily place my quotes in the appropriate paragraphs, then build my argument around those facts. I structured my paper so that there was a good amount of quotes from the naysayer side of my topic, but carefully selected info that enhanced my position.

The Love Song of J. ALfred Prufrock Prompt #1

I agree more with the critical essay by Charles Walcutt. T.S Eliot's poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is somewhat confusing to read but if you focus on what he is saying and where he is and what he is doing, it's really not too complicated. Referring to these line in Eliot's poem "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?..." Walcutt says "these otherwise puzzling lines make easy sense" which they do because they are fairly straight forward. It's true you can find a hidden meaning or allusion in every line, but Eliot's poem is really just a nervous, scattered dialogue in his head. Walcutt also describes Eliot's character of Prufrock of being "so unsure of himself" as well as being shy and feeling inadequate to accomplish what he wants to do, which is presumably "propose" to this woman. "And should I then presume?/ And how should I begin?" these lines make a strong argument for Walcutts point of view because Prufrock is second guessing himself and shows little confidence in actually proposing to this woman. Also, not mentioned much in Walcutt's essay are the very descriptive lines of Prufrock describing his insecurities about they way he looks. "With a bald spot in the middle of my hair", "My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin", and "(They will say:"But how his arms and legs are thin!")". A man who wants to have a brief sexual encounter with a woman as Bruce Hayman's essay suggests, wouldn't second guess his looks for a one time encounter. However, I do agree with Hayman that Eliot did suffer from "sexual repression", but the entire poem is hardly about a one night stand. Even though Eliot was only 30 years old when Prufrock was written, these is much more meaning behind this simple yet complex piece of literature than just a sexual desire.

**above picture is one of many images of Dante's Inferno. The epigraph of Prufrock had a quote from Inferno***

3 student papers

Highlights

1. The first essay was good, easy to read and straight forward. Nothing was too off topic.

2. The second one has a lot of good facts about the authors life and ties them into their topic which allows for the reader to have good background info.

3. The last essay i enjoyed the topic of the paper, it was something that kept me reading. I like that he used current events and recognizable names and quotes.

Low lights:
1. The first one seemed like she didn't give enough of her position, but just packed the paper with research ABOUT her position.

2. Although using big portions of an autobiography, it sometimes bogs down the paper with facts that aren't important.
3. The last essay, while interesting to me personally, was a bit casual in regards to referencing gossip in Hollywood. It could have been a bit more professional and used more appropriate language.

Overall, i think i can uses these samples to guide me in the right direction in regards to structure of my position paper. It helps to know where to place quotes and how to build a paragraph around it.