Author: KRISHNA SINGH

In “An Arab Shepherd Is searching for his Goat on Mount Zion,” there are two main characters, the Arab shepherd and a Jewish father. The poem revolves around both characters experiencing a tragedy; the Arab searching for his goat, and the Jew looking for his son. Both climb two hills, hearing each other at the top. The climbing of the hills suggests the struggle each man is willing to go through in order to find their loved one. Although the author suggests the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is present during this poem, both men choose not to fight, but rather work together to find their loved ones, even laughing and crying once they were found. This shows that while there can a major cultural conflict, it can be disregarded if a personal tragedy is also occurring.

In “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost, there are two neighbors who have conflicting views about a wall built between their properties. One neighbor believes the wall serves little purpose, while one believes there should be a wall. This poem is ironic due to several phrases brought up. The phrase”Good fences make good neighbors” implies that the more time the neighbors spend away from each other, the more they will get along. While having personal space is useful, having a barrier limits how much the neighbors can interact with each other. This is also tragic because it shows that one neighbor would rather just keep away from the other, and spend time fixing a wall that has been beaten down by nature. Nature destroying the wall could show that people are supposed to be closer to each other by nature, rather than staying apart.

In “The Lady with the Dog”, Chekhov introduces Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, the main character, as a womanizer and woman killer. While married with children, Gurov considers women to be “the lower race,” and is continuously unfaithful with his wife. Before his encounter with “The Lady with the Dog,” Gurov believed that he had the ability to “allure women and dispose them in his favour,” showing that he thought he had a sort of power over the women and felt no emotional attachment to the women he was unfaithful with. However after meeting Anna Sereyevna, he realizes that he had somehow become infatuated and in love with her, completely stripping away his previous identity of being a woman killer. By travelling to her city and following her, Gurov shows that he was not a woman killer, but simply had not found the right person. The story tells us that while we can have a self-proclaimed image about ourselves, an event can occur and immediately change that self-proclaimed image, exposing our true selves.

 

Consider Blake’s use of images and metaphor in his various poems and proverbs.

In “The Gates of Paradise” by William Blake, Blake uses imagery to show the destructiveness of a society solely focused on monarchy and religion. In a description of the young Chimney Sweeper, he writes “They clothed me in the clothes of death… And are gone to praise god and his priest and king.” The parents have left the young boy to do a dangerous and dirty job, only so that they can go pray and appease the king. The imagery of a young boy in the snow covered in soot evokes rage towards the parents and society because it shows that the life and happiness of one’s own child is held secondary to the church and state.

In a description of everyday people, it appears that all of them are unhappy with their lives. Blake writes,  Men “cry”, Infants, “cry of fear”, and hapless Soldiers “Sigh.” However, later in the poem, Blake writes, “And are gone to praise god and his priest and king, who make up a heaven of our misery,” showing that the king and priests live a life as though they were in heaven while the common man and child suffer.