A poem that stood out to me most was “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun.” In this poem, Dickinson personifies and describes the point-of-view of a gun. What really caught my attention was the last stanza:

Though I than He – may longer live

He longer must – than I –

For I have but the power to kill,

Without – the power to die –

“The Futurist Manifesto of Lust” resonated with me because I could not understand it. Specifically, I was awe-struck by the capitalized section toward the end of this text: “IT IS NORMAL FOR THE VICTORS, PROVEN IN WAR, TO TURN TO RAPE THE CONQUERED LAND, SO THAT LIFE MAY BE RE-CREATED.” This manifesto makes the argument that lust is a force that may be used to fuel creation and progress. While this idea is enticing, I was confused by the esoteric rhetoric used by Saint-Point. I do believe that lust can be harnessed to create a desired effect, but I am unclear about several passages referring to masculine and feminine forces. Most notably, I do not know what to make of the justification for rape that I alluded to above. This remark is unnecessary in advancing the argument presented by the author, and it instead makes the reader question her credibility. Coupled with the condemnation of women participating in male roles found in her “Manifesto of Futurist Woman,” this manifesto of lust takes on a highly provocative tone. I am unsure about the context of these writings, and I am probably not catching some sort of irony or meaning. At a glance, both manifestos contained highly questionable arguments. Saint-Point’s use of shock makes her sound less credible, and it distracts the reader from the more important themes in her writing. Perhaps talking about this piece in class can shed some light on my confusion.

“Wild Nights – Wild Nights!” stands out as a poem that conveys its inner meaning through rhythm and texture. In a short series of couplets, Emily Dickson creates an experience almost like biting into a piece of chocolate. This poem evokes a sensation of deep longing and sweet resolution. Because of its song-like structure, this poem takes on the form of a lullaby in the reader’s mind.

The first stanza emphasizes smooth consonant sounds. Dickson uses alliteration to create rhythm, and ends the stanza with “luxury!” This opening section gives the poem a dream-like quality, and establishes longing as a central theme.

The second stanza focuses hard consonant sounds in words like “futile,” and “chart.” This section develops the loneliness expressed in the first stanza into a beautiful image of incompleteness and impatience.

Finally, the third stanza describes an imagined satisfaction of the loneliness expressed throughout the poem. Dickson uses the line “Ah – the Sea!” to project a refreshing sensation into the reader’s mind. Rhythmically, this conclusion also sounds like an ending refrain. The image of “a Heart in port –“ is beautifully completed with the hair-raising request: “Might I but moor – tonight – In thee!”

“Wild Nights!” is a masterful example of a lyric that moves organically and penetratingly. Through the combination of imagery, consonance, and rhythm, Dickson crafted a poem that begs to be read out loud. The cadence and innocence of “Wild Nights!” leaves the reader warm with a sense of wonder.

Emily Dickinson Response

The poem I chose to respond to was “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun”. The reason I was intrigued by this poem was because it was written from the perspective of the gun instead of a person. There was a lot of interesting uses of personification regarding the gun, which gave the gun many traits and characteristics of an actual person. One of my favorite lines from the poem was “And every time I speak for Him The Mountains straight reply” (Lines 7-8). This phrase really brought life to gun because when the gun spoke it meant it was fired and could be heard across a large area. Another line that gave the gun life was its smile being described as a “Vesuvian face” (Line 11). At first, I didn’t know what the word Vesuvian meant, but after looking it up I found out it was based on the ancient volcano Mount Vesuvius that erupted in Pompeii. Dickinson was comparing the explosiveness of a gun to the explosiveness of a volcano, which I thought was a very interesting metaphor. Finally, the last stanza of the poem really concluded the poem well and is trying to imply that even though a gun is strong, destructive, and powerful, it is still useless without a person wielding it. The gun will live on forever even after its master passes away. I found it really ironic that the gun had the power to take anybody’s life, but couldn’t take its own life.

Manifesto Response

The manifesto that resonated with me the most was Mina Loy’s “Aphorisms on Modernism”. The reason why this manifesto was so intriguing to me was because of its flow and also the capitalization of each first word at the beginning of each line. Modernism was an artistic period when artists strayed away from the traditional forms of art and tried to produce art that accurately reflected the new and industrialized world they were living in. I think Mina Loy does a great job of trying to convince people to stray away from many traditional values and concepts and urges them to break free into a new realm. She states, “MODERNISM is a prophet crying in the wilderness that Humanity is wasting its time” (line 1) at the start of her manifesto to make a bold statement to her audience saying that modernism will be the future and that people are only wasting their time if they follow art forms of the past. Each first word that is capitalized at the start of each of her lines are the issues or subjects that she wants to address. For example, in lines 6 and 11 she emphasizes the individual by capitalizing the words “THE and ONLY” to try to convince her audience that there are no limits to an individual and those with ideas that contradict the ideas of the masses will be the ones to lead the world. In lines 14 and 15, she criticizes the traditional concepts of morality and Christianity as failures and says that morality is just an excuse people use for their own self-interests and that Christianity is a failure in itself because it is constantly evolving to correct its own errors. Even a traditional religion like Christianity is evolving, so why shouldn’t people be doing the same to adapt to the period the are living in. This line really summarizes her main point in her manifesto well.

My Own Manifesto and Explanation

The Game Winner

With twenty seconds left on the play clock, the huddle broke.

Bruised, Battered, Exhausted . . . . .

Adrenaline negating all these feelings.

Mind knowing that another championship is only seconds away.

Five seconds remaining, but time seems to be frozen.

It is time.

The ball is launched into Tom’s hands.

Wide right toss was the call.

For a moment the ball is free, its trajectory traveling to the right.

Wide right,

A pair of hands suddenly snatch the ball.

Only two yards away, but this yardage seems to be an endless sea. . . . .

The ball carrier initially seems to be stopped short.

His effort is relentless and his legs keep churning as he falls to the ground.

All eyes are on the officials.

                              raised                    air.

A pair of hands                  into the

Touchdown.

History is made.

Legacies are cemented.

Champions once more.

My manifesto was a depiction of the final play from Super Bowl 51. The form and style of my manifesto mimicked Wassily Kandinsky’s “Seeing” from the Manifesto packet on page 271. I found the style and form of “Seeing” to be very interesting because of the spacing and the line structure that was incorporated to give the reader emotions such as a feeling of eternity (lines 4-5). The way the spacing was used in lines 6 and 7 where the words wider were all the way to the right was also something I took note of when I wrote my manifesto. I used extra empty lines and also periods to emphasize feelings of extended time and endlessness. I also spaced words to the far right in their lines to depict the type of football play that was happening and where the ball was on the field. Finally, my manifesto wanted to proclaim Tom Brady as the greatest player of all time in football and the New England Patriots becoming champions once more after a historic comeback.

I fell in love with this poem after reading the title.  It reminded me of the saying “The truth is hard to swallow” but Emily Dickinson’s diction and arrangement of words made me do a double take.  At first, I thought Dickinson was encouraging the manipulation of truth when she added “but tell it slant”.  However, this doesn’t seem to be the case because she elaborates how “Success in Circuit lies/ Too bright for our infirm delight”.

The truth, it seems, is only successful when it is told in “circuits” or through repetition.  Otherwise, it is too much for mentally weak or plain out stubborn people to handle or accept.  I also found the wordplay on “lies” interesting.  In this context, I assume Dickinson means that successful transference of truth is dependent or lies on repetition.  Positioning “too bright” directly after “lies” is interesting since people tend to associate lies with darkness.  Furthermore, this juxtaposition made me think about how if you tell a lie often enough many people accept it as truth.  Miguel’s song “Lie to Me” is a perfect example of how a lie that’s repeatedly told transforms itself into something sweet and desirable.

In the second stanza the magnitude of “Truth’s superb surprise” continues to be described.  Similar to how children react to seeing lightning for the first time without it being explained to them, truth can startle some people.  Because the truth can shock and disturb someone’s entire framework, Dickinson suggests that “The Truth must dazzle gradually/Or every man be blind.”  Again, the concept of truth being repetitively delivered resurfaces. Since the truth is hard to swallow, it’s better to feed it spoon by spoon rather than wolf it down.  That way, people don’t choke or “go blind” in this case.

By telling a truth “slant” you don’t actually change its substance.  Rather, you change the angle or the way you approach telling such truth.

The manifesto I chose to respond to is called, Aphorisms on Modernism, by Mina Loy. The thing that struck me about this manifesto was her use of a kind of listing of words and their definitions. Another thing I found to be interesting was the title being of rhyming words and the use of the word aphorism meaning a pithy observation that contains a general truth. The word aphorism has a meaning that, in a way, describes what a manifesto is. The association of the title and the style of writing I thought was very clever.

Going onto the content of Loy’s manifesto, on the first line she already states her aphorisms on modernism. Yet, she goes on listing more aphorisms on different words. She describes each word with negativity as if she saying that these aren’t the general truths but the harsh truths. I assume each word she describes has something to do with modernism because she uses a few words listed to define another word. There’s this trend in this manifesto that makes you realize she is associating each word with each other. So, instead of a random list of words they become a whole story with meaning. What that story is what I can’t figure out. She is definitely pointing out the negatives and positives of modernism but is that all? Or is she using these words to point out the flaws in society?

Education is essential to moving forward. Education allows for the human mind to advance and conquer new ideas and ideals.

Education is necessary for everyone in our modern society. It requires devotion, and dedication. It is not easy to obtain or to retain.

Education is a must in our society. Not having a full time job while in school and waiting for the chance to get a great paying job is an opportunity cost that is worth all the struggle. It allows for people to distinguish themselves and gain knowledge in a particular trade or action. It helps people with various knowledge and talent work together and achieve greatness.

Education takes a long time. It results in the frequent questioning of our choices, but continual confirmation in our plans.

Lack of Education will lead to being excluded. One without education in the future will not be able to assist in maintaining our world or furthering our desires.

Those who choose to steer away from education will not know how to analyze certain situations and make the best out of them. They will be unable to find work or pleasure in their lives. They will be excluded from the credit received from future generations and will be remembered as useless and unsubstantial.

Education is important and worth the associated struggles.

—

This Manifesto is a combination of the style found in the Manifesto titled “Futurist Manifesto of Lust” by Valentine De Saint-Point and Mina Loy’s “Aphorisms on Futurism”. Much like Saint-Point’s Manifesto, this one does not specifically tell anyone to do anything, but rather ‘nudges’ the audience to agree with it. The Manifesto says only good things about the good (education) and only bad things about the bad (not getting an education). However, Saint-Point does not talk about the opposite of lust in her Manifesto. By discussing the opposite of education, I am adapting to the style of Loy’s Manifesto where she clearly talks about living and dying. In essence, Loy covers both aspects of the topic her Manifesto is discussing. We see her doing this by using words like “but” which allow us to see another aspect of whatever particular topic she is discussing.

Of the various Manifesto’s assigned, the one titled “Manifesto of Futurist Woman” resonated the most. I found the Manifesto somewhat comparable to the times we are living in now mainly because it deals with the ideas of feminism and feminists. Much to the contrary of how we look at the situation, the author, Valentine De Saint-Point agrees that women are different from men, and seems to elevate woman because they are different (as opposed to just wanting to make them be equal to men). Saint-Point interestingly indicates that without women being the way they are (in charge of raising the children and keeping the house), men would not be successful. She highlights the contributions of women in a wide array of methods including raising children (only until they are old enough to go to war, of course) and satisfying men. Saint-Point seems to be okay with this position in society and does not desire being on same level as men are as long as she is credited with having a substantial part in the war effort. While these ideas may or may not be what early 20th century feminism looked like, the fact that Saint-Point was a woman makes these ideas much more powerful. When comparing her Manifesto to what feminists in today’s society hope to achieve, we see that Saint-Point is okay with her current situation and wants to see some relatively small change in perception as opposed to position. It is for this reason that I find the fact that it is a woman, and not a man making these points to be remarkable, and truly effective.

Living in a world where people and their ideas are swiftly distributed over various means of communication, we are exposed to the teachings of many people. Some of these people use many words, but don’t really say much, while others say a lot while using a few words. People of the latter style tend to leave observers deep in thought. After reading the assigned poems by Emily Dickinson, I see that Emily Dickinson is able to get people thinking through her seemingly short poems. Her poems are all deep, and as a result leave readers thinking of not only the poem, but how her words affect our lives. For instance, in her poem titled “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”, we can interpret the poem to simply mean that it is okay (and maybe even good) to lie. However, we can take much more away from the poem if we are to take another minute to read the poem over again, and attempt to read between the lines. For instance, in the third line, Dickinson uses the word ‘our’. This word usage begs the question of who she is referring to- is she simply having an intimate conversation with the intended audience? Is Dickinson telling this to everyone in the world? The simple usage of this possessive pronoun can lead to a wide array of interpretation and potential action. Our ability to extract such a large amount of ideas from such short poems shows just how powerful her writing is.  

Manifesto of Fire

Red, Red appeared, appeared and blew up.

Metal, heavy pushed and shoved, but wouldn’t break.

From every direction came hissing.

Hose got caught on turns – it seemed endless.

It seemed. It seemed.

You must flow the water higher.

Higher.  Higher.

And you must cover your face with the oxygen mask.

And maybe is hasn’t burned everything yet at all: it’s just that you burned.

Orange flame after orange flame.

And after this orange flame another orange flame.

And in this orange flame an orange flame.  In every orange flame an orange flame.

But that’s not good at all, that you don’t see the light: in the light is

where is it.

That’s where it all begins.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

With a.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    Flame.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

My manifesto was inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s “Seeing”.  I developed this manifesto through my passion of being a volunteer firefighter in the Bellerose Fire Department.  This is my depictions of the first time I was in a fire and what I observed.  I followed Kandinsky’s form strictly but recreating a fire scene instead.  One of the strategies used is manipulated light to create a vivid image for the reader.  This manifesto builds into its surroundings and show the reader what should be happening.  This occurs when I wrote how the water should be on the fire and the firefighter should have an oxygen mask on.   As well as having a single word at the end of the manifesto which in this case is the cause whole fire.