Month: October 2019

Consider both the comedic and tragic aspects (and the potential relation between the two) in Frost’s poem “Mending Wall.”

 

This poem by Robert Frost is highlighting two neighbors and the decision to build a wall. The narrator’s neighbor believes the wall should be constructed and claims, “good fences make good neighbors.” This poem is written with the perspective of the narrator, and it seems that the two neighbors disagree and don’t get along. This perspective adds to the comedic undertone of the poem. The narrator considers the decision to build a wall preposterous as it seems to bother him much. This is done in a way where Frost doesn’t look to ultimately side with the narrator and makes him unreliable. This ironic narration is comedic and somewhat dark as the poem shifts from disagreement to mental compromise.

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 each stanza of this poem, Yeats reflects back to his past memories and compares it to the present. During his visit to the convent school, he becomes aware of the age gap and the differences between his and the children’s’ generation. He gains answers to his questions from the nuns in the school while observing the children. After looking through the eyes of a little girl, he is then reminded of his childhood love and thinks about her presence image. This eventually led him to question the value of human life and how they grow. However, he comes to an understanding of the beauty of life and the fact about how aging is inevitable. Reality is that the whole is more than its parts combined all together just like how the chestnut tree cannot be divided into leaf, blossom, and bole separately. Yeats addresses these concerns with the audience in order to share both universal viewpoints along with his self-perception of existence.

Consider both the comedic and tragic aspects (and the potential relation between the two) in Frost’s poem “Mending Wall.”

“Mending Wall” tells the story of two neighboring farmers. A stonewall that divides their properties was recently destroyed. The speaker wants to leave the area the way it is but the neighbor is forceful about rebuilding it. This alludes to the thought that privacy is important and division are necessary. The wall acts a barrier to friendship. It is comedic and tragic that while the speaker wants to be closer to his neighbor, the neighbor opposes the thought.

In “Mending Wall,” the speaker and the neighbor have to get together once again during the spring in order to repair their broken wall. The speaker talks about the different ways that the wall gets ruined and how they have to be fixed. Though, when the speaker examines the circumstances around the wall he realizes there is no point in having it if the speaker and the neighbor have different trees on their properties. And so this adds a comedic aspect to the poem in that they have for years fixed a wall which is not needed. This comedic aspect to the poem could be a way for Frost to liven up the tragic aspect that the poem also has. The tragic aspect being that the speaker realizes that he will never get through to the neighbor in understanding that a wall is not needed.

Is McKay’s vision of urban life unremittingly bleak or is there some more optimistic or redeeming aspect to it? Does the speaker’s apparently melancholic or depressive state in some of the poems reflect McKay’s perspective or is he more at a distance from it? How do you know?

Mckay’s vision of urban life is relatively bleak, but there are some redeeming aspects of urban life. Some optimistic aspect of urban life is the life in Broadway. Broadway is full of hundreds of bright signs, crowds, playhouses, cabarets, and inns; it seems almost like a dream. The speaker’s apparent melancholic state in some of the poems reflects McKay’s perspective and I would even argue that the speaker is McKay. The speaker is believed to be Mckay because in “Harlem Shadows” and “On Broadway”, he’s using first-person pronouns such as “I” and “My”. Additionally, Mckay is recalling his experience and perspective of his time in Harlem and Broadway.

Although the poems were written in his perspective, he seems distant from the culture and life he describes in the poems. In the poem “Harlem Shadows”, he sees the secretive and dark life that goes on in Harlem, including illegal activities and prosecution, but he does not engage in any of it. He is merely an outsider and an observer who writes about how the other half lived in Harlem at night. In the poem “On Broadway”, despite Broadway being full of life, light and joy, the epitome of the American culture at the time, the speaker still feels lonely. The poems reveal that Mckay is the speaker in both the poems and recalls the life of Broadway and Harlem in his perspective, but he is merely a distant observer who writes about it. 

 

“When You Are Old” is obviously a very romantic poem but it is also about aging.

The poem ” When You Are Old” is a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeast, which the speaker directly addresses someone else and asks this person to imagine old age, a time of grey hair and general tiredness. This is bittersweet poem that revels the complexities of love. The poem has a fairly bleak outlook on aging, with the speaker suggesting to the addressee that life will  grow sadder and lonelier as youthful beauty fades away. throughout the poem the speaker is emphasizing on beauty of the addressee and how her future will look like . The speaker also hinting that the addressee has so many lovers because of her youthful and beauty which she many not have when she gets older and paler, and that she has to enjoy her young age before she gets old.

“When You Are Old” is obviously a very romantic poem but it is also about aging.

William Butler Yeats is a beloved poet means he likes to write romantic poetry because he also love someone. He is describing his love in this poem by saying that aging and beauty does not matter. He also says that the girl that he love was more beautiful when she was young but when she got old she was not that beautiful. William Butler Yeats tells his beloved in this poem that when you got old read the book that he wrote and realize that he loved her with her inner beauty rather than her outer beauty. So aging and beauty is not always something to love someone.

 

 

The poem “ When you are old” refers to the woman that William Butler Yeats loved. In the poem, he describes his unconditionally love to her. He is telling her that even though she has grown and her hair has become grey. His love for her still the same, because when he loved her was not just because of her beauty but for her soul. In the middle of the poem, he mentioned that many other men also were in love with her but were only for her beauty when she was young. He is trying to show her the difference between the way he loved her and the way others loved her. The purpose of this poem is to show her that no matter how much she changes or grows his love for her will always grow more and he will be there for her. 

What is the relationship between place (e.g. a bedroom, a train station) and memory in the poem?

In the poem “Terminus”, Edith Wharton talks about her recollection of time with her lover. Place and memory have a relationship because this event is happening in the past in specific places. She is remembering the place where this sexual moment occurred, a bedroom. It seems like the train station is where she met her lover. It is confusing as to if her lover is leaving her boarding the train or getting off the train to meet her. Memory is based on her sexual encounters in the bedroom and Wharton uses imagery to set the tone throughout the poem. The bedroom and the train station serve as the same universes for Wharton, the pleasure she shares with her lover. This experience that she has had seems to have changed her in a positive way. The language in this poem can be seen as confusing but the main idea and relationships seen in this poem are noticeable.