Author: KRISTINA KHABAROV

In “The Schooner Flight” Walcott builds a certain back and forth between the narrator’s love of his wife and what home once was and his  pursuit to leave the island and sail the sea. This tension between the two sides of desire is amplified best through the use of imagery, simile and metaphor as Shabine often draws back to thoughts of his wife. In fact, even as he was leaving, he couldn’t help but note that the, “sky burn above Laventille pink as the gown / in which the woman I left was sleeping” which was followed by the statement “…I look in the rearview and see a man / exactly like me, and the man was weeping / for the houses, the streets, that whole fucking island.” To “look in the rearview” is the same as looking back and as Shabine looks back upon his life on this island he realizes how unhappy he was with it as the man “was weeping”. And yet, even then he can’t help but think of his wife, the woman that was left sleeping. The pull of back and forth is further seen as Shabine is already aboard the ship, ready to sail off and yet he still can’t help but think of his wife. He states,  “I knew when dark-haired evening put on / her bright silk at sunset, and, folding the sea, / sidled under the sheet with her starry laugh, / that there’d be no rest, there’d be no forgetting.” This use of imagery and metaphor to describe his wife shows that even as he leaves her and watches the “evening”, “sunset”, and “starry” night come, she will never leave his mind. However the best example of the strain  depicted between his inability to remain at home and passion for his family is most clearly shown when he states, “I loved them, my children, my wife, my home; / I loved them as poets love the poetry / that kills them, as drowned sailors the sea.” The repetition of “love” and “my” really emphasizes the feelings of fondness he has for his home and family but because of it thats where lies the true heartache, that what you love most will eventually wear you down. Walcott really shows the tension by highlighting that often times the things you love and care for most will be your downfall and to avoid such a downfall Shandine must leave even if his thoughts are forever filled with his wife, his children, and what was once his home.

 

In the poem “Harlem Shadows” the audience get a peak at urban life but only as outside viewers, observing people in their natural habitat. In the poem the events are not happening to the speaker rather it is things “I hear” and things “I see”. The poem depicts urban life as rather dark and it’s not just the setting. Sure it takes place at a time when “night lets fall / its veil” and that adds to it’s unpleasant feeling but it’s really the fact that the poem artistically points out things like prostitution when it states, “shapes of girls who pass / to bend and barter at desire’s call”. Harlem was a place of poverty, where women sold themselves and children ran around in “summer jackets” even when the wind was strong and cold. McKay’s word choice in general really emphasizes the negative perspective of Harlem as he writes, “sick and heavy air”, “swallowed in the deafening roar”, & “captive winds”. Words such as “sick”, “swallowed”, “deafening” & “captive” all have rather harsh and negative connotations and she creates this strong contrast between the dark and sinful Harlem and “islands of lofty palm trees blooming”. By concluding the poem with beautiful description of an island with a calming night, fresh and free the negativity of the always moving Harlem night filled with footsteps, crowds, desired calls, and deafening roaring winds is highlighted even more. McKay doesn’t seem to view urban life pleasantly and he almost makes it seem as though it is not where he belongs. That in Harlem he simply observes and his heart lies in the fresh, free fields, with palm trees and tropic seas. 

The obvious tragedy in this story seems to be that Mrs. Anerton fell in love with Rendle and was never loved back regardless of how she tried to twist the facts. But the truth is that she was loved; people forget love comes in many forms and while Rendle did not love her in a passionate sense she was indeed important to him whether he admitted it or not after all, “He had the genius of friendship, and he spent it all on me. Yes, you were right when you said that I have had more than any other woman.” He made her a muse because he connected with her soul, he enjoyed their conversations and her company, he found her comfortable that is all a way of loving someone. It is not the one-sided love that was truly devastating in this story it was this idea that because of her love she allowed herself self-delusion sparked by the opinions and gossip of those who read Rendle’s poetry.  The story clearly comments that as soon as whispers spread of her being the “Sylvia”from Rendle’s sonnet she became someone everyone sought after, why? Not because she was simply Mrs. Anerton but because to the outsiders she became Rendle’s Mrs. Anerton, his muse. In the story Mrs. Anerton even states that suddenly, “I was invited; people made up to me in the hope of getting to know him; when I was in London my door-bell never stopped ringing. Elderly peeresses, aspiring hostesses, love-sick girls and struggling authors overwhelmed me with their assiduities.” And because of all of this she couldn’t help but dilute herself into believing that maybe she was Rendle’s “Sylvia” after all as she states, “they almost made me think so too”. Her love clouded her ability to see the truth even though she states, “deep down, I knew he had never cared”. It has always been human nature to choose to believe in what satisfies self interest than in what is actually the reality. In addition, because of her love for him she fueled the fire and tampered with the letters to make it seem as though the passionate parts were left out. She lost herself, always wondering did Rendle love her, making excuses, tampering with the letters and indulging in the critics to the point that when she finally realized she had lost herself it began to hurt more. As she states, “At first I was afraid — oh, so much afraid — that you cared for me only because I was Silvia, that you loved me because you thought Rendle had loved me” the audience finally understands the true tragedy was that Mrs. Anerton no longer knew if she was worthy beyond her title as Rendle’s muse and that’s the true muse’s tragedy that they become just that, a muse. To the rest of the world they are forever connected to the artists, poets or writers who created them that title of “muse”.

I think the reason the story is only limited to their meetings is because a major theme in the story is this idea of freedom, acting freely on emotions, wills and ideas. Dmitri seeks other women to feel free as he is shackled by his wife and children. He states that he is unfaithful often because he likes the company of women and that “when he was in the company of women he felt free”. And Anna too escapes to Yalta for the very same feeling of freedom. She states that, “I wanted to live! To live, to live! . . . I was fired by curiosity . . . you don’t understand it, but, I swear to God, I could not control myself; something happened to me: I could not be restrained.” She is shackled by the husband who she considers “flunkey” and the life she is expected to live when all she wants is to have a sort of adventure. The two characters connect in this aspect in their search for tasting freedom and the story revolves around them indulging in the freedom of escaping their spouses and going on adventures. In fact, “every evening they drove somewhere out of town, to Oreanda or to the waterfall; and the expedition was always a success, the scenery invariably impressed them as grand and beautiful”. When they were together they were unconfined, free to travel and move, always walking somewhere doing something, escaping the everyday. It was almost as if they’re world was separated from everyone else’s and he states, “every man had his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy.” It seems according to Chekhov the real freedom is the kind you experience when nobody else is looking, when you are in your own world, far from the charades of everyday life.

The beginning of the short story mostly revolves around the events of the party, a party so grand everyone and their mother attends as “it was always a great affair” but Joyce wants the audience to see that this event and these people aren’t particularly exciting. In fact, the characters are really just living in a “grey impalpable world”. They’re not really living, not the way Michael Furey did, he was able to “pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion”. Throughout the story the audience can sense the monotony of the world these characters live in. They have no real desire behind their actions, everything they do is simply because that’s how it’s always been. Joyce emphasizes that living passionless as the characters do is no different than being dead, that’s why the story is titled “The Dead”. She uses a lot of repetition and characterization to maintain this sort of mundane world. A good example is Freddy as it states, “they were dreadfully afraid that Freddy Malins might turn up screwed” & “Freddy Malins always came late”. Throughout the story Freddy remains an aloof alcoholic and its terms like “always” that really stress that Freddy will never change, and this applies to almost all of the characters. Joyce even repeats certain phrases such as in the quotes, “rubbing the knuckles of his left fist backwards and forwards into his left eye” & “began to rub the knuckles of his left fist backwards and forwards into his left eye”. This “backwards and forwards” that’s repeated really creates this dull loop. And the story on multiple occasions repeats “snow” which seems to be a symbol of death. Towards the end she writes, “snow was general all over Ireland” & “His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” The statements, snow is “general” & fall “upon the living and the dead” further highlights Joyce’s claim that the way these people are living is no different from the dead.

 

Dickinson’s use of dashes is interesting because it’s one of the many things that makes her poetry different from other poetry. However, really understanding why Dickinson uses dashes is difficult because every part of the poem uses them a bit differently. I think the dashes allow Dickinson to make words and phrases seem more important and thought provoking as well as create a certain style to her writing. The lines in the poem are split into fragments by these dashes and beauty of a dash is that is allows the continuation of a sentence without a blunt end such as a semicolon or period, instead the reader is visually able to move from one fragment to the other following the line. For example when she writes, “There’s a certain Slant of light, / Winter Afternoons – / That oppresses, like the Heft / Of Cathedral Tunes –” the dash separates the first and second line from the third and fourth line allowing for each to hold individual significance but not disconnecting the train of thought. The dashes create an emphasis on parts of the sentence and take on the role of either commas or parentheses. When she uses the dashes as commas like the stanza from above it shifts the focus on the words that follow the dash, so the phrase “that oppresses” is meant to resonate with the reader. In addition, throughout the poem Dickinson uses dashes to frame specific terms. When she writes, “When it comes, the Landscape listens – / Shadows – hold their breath – / When it goes, ‘tis like the Distance / On the look of Death –” the dashes still end the lines but they also put emphasis on the statement “hold their breath” because being sandwiched between two dashes on the same line draws the reader’s attention. In this case Dickinson uses dashes to replace the use of parentheses because while parentheses are a subtle way to add key notes, dashes are a more intrusive, blunt method to make a side statement. Plus, it seems that the dashes are a stylistic choice as its kind of formats her poem in a pattern and makes it seem like a sequence of fragments rather than sentences. Ultimately, I think the purpose of the dashes is to give specific parts of the poem more significance and by doing so Dickinson wants to make the audience more attentive and thoughtful about what they are reading.