boyles

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Paige Boyles
=Walt Whitman=

 Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Town of Huntington, Long Island. He was born to Quaker parents and later became a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism. Unlike other authors of this time, we wrote about both sides of this transition. He was an American poet, journalist, essayist, and humanist. He died on March 26, 1892 after bronchial pneumonia left an egg-sized abscess on his chest had eroded one of his ribs. =When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer = When I heard the learn'd astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them; When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars

In the poem, "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer", the word choice is scientific and proper. The words: "proofs, figures, diagrams, add, divide and measure" make the subject seem a little overwhelming to the author. As I read though the poem, I think the author starts to lose the meaning of what is being taught. In the second half, the poem becomes more mystical. I think that the understanding is more clear at this point. Sometimes people get caught up with the technical terms of a subject, in this case astronomy, and forget what is important. The astronomer is trying to quantify something mystical and maybe this is impossible. I feel like the true beauty in astronomy is lost and us as readers must understand this. I feel like Whitman is not only trying to teach us about the beauty in astronomy that is past the technical terms but how we can relate it to anything that we might get too caught up in.

Beat! Beat! Drums!
Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!Through the windows—through doors—burst like a ruthless force,Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,Into the school where the scholar is studying,Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride,Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gathering his grain,So fierce you whirr and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles blow. Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets;Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds,No bargainers’ bargains by day—no brokers or speculators—would they continue?Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case before the judge?Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow. Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!Make no parley—stop for no expostulation,Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer,Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties,Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses, So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.

Since the poem, "Beat! Beat! Drums!" was written in 1861, we can infer that the poem is about the Civil War. According to the footnotes, it served as a recruiting poem when first printed. All of the exclamations make the war seem more exciting. Since this poem was used as propaganda, the purpose was to only show the "fun" or "exciting" parts of the war to convince young men to join. Although only the good is pushed through uses of propaganda, we learn that the war affects everyone. The farmers, the church, school and bridegroom. In line 2, the word "ruthless" is used. To me, I get a sense of power from this word choice and I feel like it was used to give the reader a sense of strength. The last stanza is about not minding the weak which also makes the reader feel strong. The repetition of the phrase, " Beat! beat! drums!" reminds the reader that the war is constant.

= Elizabeth Bishop = =The Fish=

code I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook fast in a corner of his mouth. He didn't fight. He hadn't fought at all. He hung a grunting weight, battered and venerable and homely. Here and there his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and its pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper: shapes like full-blown roses stained and lost through age. He was speckled with barnacles, fine rosettes of lime and infested with tiny white sea-lice, and underneath two or three rags of green weed hung down. hile his gills were breathing in the terrible oxygen --the frightening gills, fresh and crisp with blood, that can cut so badly-- I thought of the coarse white flesh packed in like feathers, the big bones and the little bones, the dramatic reds and blacks of his shiny entrails, and the pink swim-bladder like a big peony. I looked into his eyes which were far larger than mine but shallower, and yellowed, the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil seen through the lenses of old scratched isinglass. They shifted a little, but not to return my stare. --It was more like the tipping of an object toward the light. I admired his sullen face, the mechanism of his jaw, and then I saw that from his lower lip --if you could call it a lip grim, wet, and weaponlike, hung five old pieces of fish-line, or four and a wire leader with the swivel still attached, with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth. A green line, frayed at the end where he broke it, two heavier lines, and a fine black thread still crimped from the strain and snap when it broke and he got away. Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom trailing from his aching jaw. I stared and stared and victory filled up the little rented boat, from the pool of bilge where oil had spread a rainbow around the rusted engine to the bailer rusted orange, the sun-cracked thwarts, the oarlocks on their strings, the gunnels--until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go. code

Elizabeth Bishop was part of what is known as the Confessionalist Movement. Writers during this period shared a lot about their lives and feelings through their poetry. Elizabeth Bishop’s detailed poems speak volumes about her feelings toward nature and how we should all embrace it. Bishop lived in the mid-twentieth century amidst the turmoil of the war and the uncertainty after the war. Her poems suggest we embrace the natural world that still exists before we ruin it. In her poem, “The Fish”, Bishop writes about an old fish whom the speaker catches and ultimately lets go. She begins the poem with a detailed description of the fish’s worn out body. She presents the fish as vulnerable and tells us “he didn’t fight” (5). By looking into the fishsThrough the speaker’s close analysis of the fish’s torn body, the reader learns the fish has been caught and released five times previously. She describes the hooks and remnants of fishing line as “medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering” (61-62). To conclude the poem, the speaker offers a description of oil which “had spread a rainbow around the rusted engine”(69-70). The idea something of such natural beauty coming from spilled oil is interesting because it offers hope that although humans will ultimately continue to destroy the beauty of the earth, the beauty will always shine through.

= EE Cummings =

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=O Sweet Spontaneous=

code O sweet spontaneous earth how often have the doting

fingers of prurient philosophies pinched and poked

thee has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy

beauty      how often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive gods but true

to the incomparable couch of death thy rhythmic lover

thou answerest

them only with

spring code

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In the poem "O Sweet Spontaneous", philosophers, scientists and religious leaders try to explain the Earth. It is impossible to explain because it is spontaneous. In the beginning of the poem, the writing style is more structured then it becomes more spontaneous, much like the meaning of the poem. I found the word choice in the poem very interesting. For example, the word "prurient" is used. The word prurient means unwelcome interest or desire. To me, the meaning reflects a negative diction. Maybe the philosophers explanation of the earth is not welcome or accepted by most people. Another negative diction I realized in the poem was "naughty thumbs of scientists" (8). Unlike the philosopher's explanation, scientists are exploring the bad sides of the Earth. This is different from the philosopher's view because their idea may be accepted by most people but the subject is all negative. In addition, there was one more negative diction I discovered in the poem. It was the use of the word "scraggy" in line 13. This word use implies that the view of religions was looked down upon. Since there are many religious views, many opinions, not only about the Earth are overlooked or ignored all together. To me, I feel like everyone is trying to explain the Earth but the beauty is that it is unexplainable and spontaneous.======

= Denise Levertov =

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In the poem, "To the Snake", the speaker had a desire to hold the snake and is fascinated by the snake. Although the speaker is fascinated, the snake is described with the words "cold", "hissing", and "dryness". The words describe the snake as scary and unpredictable. The word choice made me very curious because these are not words that normally get someone's attention or interest, instead, they tend to make people shy away. The speaker admits he "truly had no certainty" (10) but wanted to hold the snake anyway. This is described in the poem in line 13 as "a long wake of pleasure". At this point, I feel that everything is back to normal because of the snake's brief appearance. This is inferred because "the leaves moved", the snake as slithered away. After reading the poem, I learned that somethings that may be out of our element and sense of security can be beautiful and fascinating. We have to learn to explore our fears and uncertainties with confidence because nothing lasts forever.======