Reflection: "Dover Beach" and "How do I Love Thee"

"Dover Beach" uses natural scenes to convey the emotions felt by the poet. The entire poem seems to be the words of one person directly to another. It starts out describing a beach scene at night. It is beautiful yet it conjures up feelings of heartache for the poet and all who hear it. He uses the recessing tide as a metaphor for the recessing faith of humanity. With Darwin and the Industrial Revolution the changes brought forth to the world not long before his time caused people lose their old faith in god. The first stanzas are filled with sadness but the final stanza takes a turn to a slightly cheerier side. The words seem to say that you should never mind the troubles of the world. The world in itself is simply a space to occupy. It is what you make of it, if you let it cause you grief that is because you let it. The events of the world do not actually have some sort of emotion attatched to them-- it is only with in your mind that you associate emotions with them. In "How do I Love Thee?" Elizabeth  Browning writes of the love she posesses for her husband. She lists off all of the ways she loves him. Her love is completely pure. It is so strong that they will continue to be in love even after death.

Vincar

I am in control of my own soul

Although not the world around

I cannot control the outside forces

That will someday bring me down

Some things are beyond my control

It is they that set my fate

There are simply things I'll never be

Things I'll never do

Not planned out by some mythic being

Life determined in advanced

There are simply too many outside forces

of chance and circumstance

Reflection: "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter"

Both poems by Lewis Carroll are more or less nonsense peoms. "The Jabberwocky" tells the story of a boy slaying the Jabberwocky and happiness returning to the land thereafter. It features a number of made up words that can really have any meaning the reader wants to give them. Despite being made up it still follows the general rules of poetry making it sound nice. It has rhyme and rhythm."The Walrus and the Carpenter" at least uses real words but the story, events, and characters are strange. It tells of the two characters from the title walking on the beach where they meet a group of oysters. They manage to get some of them to follow them and then proceed to eat them. It is hard to say if either of these peoms really had any greater meaning. There have been various different interpretations of each, many of which make sense, but probably none of them were what the author intended.They could very well be just silly poems with no real reason or meaning.

Reflection: "Spring and Fall" and "The Harlot's House"

Wilde's poem " The Harlot's House" is very interesting. It uses words to beautifully create an image of these haunting beings dancing. His words actually feel like they are twirling around as if dancing. I think the poem is about lust and how he dislikes it. The couples dancing are not really in love, it is lust that brings them together. He describes the dancers as evil creatures showing how evil he sees their actions. I had a hard time interpreting "Spring and Fall." I think it is using of spring as a metaphor for life and fall for death. It is about teaching a young child about those two things and how they can be difficult to understand. The girl is crying because she knows she will one day die too just like the trees and all living things.

Reflection: "Meeting at Night" "Parting at Morning" and "The Woodspurge"

Browning's "Meeting at Night" creates an image of scenery and visuals to create a romantic mood for his poem. It is a love poem telling of a journey of one lover traveling on a beautiful night to meet his loved one. The scenery in itself creates a romantic tone. "Parting at Morning" accompanies the previous poem, picking up the story the morning after the romantic evening. Again it uses scenery to create a mood and fitting to the events that take place in the poem. It is bright and cheerful despite it being a "parting." The sun beckons him to return to "a world of men," presumably his work life. It almost seems like this romantic meeting was in secret because of the dark setting of the first and what it says in the second. "The Woodspurge" is a much sadder poem. It focuses on someone walking through the woods aimlessly in grief with his head to the ground. He sees woodspurge plants. I think he is trying to get his mind off the cause of his sadness by focusing on the flowers. Thats something a lot of people try to do when they are sad, look for something to keep your mind off of it.

Reflection: "Invictus"

This poem is yet another example of English stoicism. The poet seems to be injured and dying but he is not sad or scared. He keeps going unafraid of his inevitable death. He does not express the pain and suffering he has endured. Through all of the challenges he has faced he has overcome them. He is in charge of his own fate. It is a dark poem yet at the same time shows the strengths of man.

Reflection: "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "Flower in the Crannied Wall"

These two poems of Tennyson. "The Charge of the Light Brigade" tells the story of a group of soliders who are directed to charge into battle. They ride in and fight but many are killed. They had died honorable deaths. The bigger message of this poem is that war is bad. Soldiers are asked to fight and die just because that is what they are asked to do. One line reads "Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die." Soldiers are supposed to obey their command, not to stop or think about what they are being asked to do.The second poem "Flowers in the Crannied Wall" is a bit more difficult to interpret. I think maybe its showing how the relationship between this flower and man is like man and god. The flower was able to come to life out of nothing, a cranny in a wall. I guess that like how life was created out of nothing. Then man is able to kill the flower just by plucking it out of the wall. God is said to have the same power in the life of man. In that way, understanding the relationship between himself and the flower the poet is able to somewhat understand man's relationship with god.

Reflection: "The Lamb" and "The Tyger"

The two poems by William Blake seem to work together for their greater meaning to become. The lamb is shown as an innocent peaceful creature, macrocosmicly representing goodness. On the other hand "The Tyger" focuses on a animal characterized as a fearful, evil being, or on a larger scale all that is evil. In both poems the poet questions who created these two very different creatures. He wonders how god could create such a good thing as well as such a bad thing. The lamb is kind of heavenly, a happy, innocent, fluffy, warm animal. Whereas the tiger is hellish, firy, and frightening. In a way, it shows how he thinks that god created everything in the earth both good and evil.

Reflections: “She walks in beauty” ”When we two parted”, “The Waning Moon"

Lord Byron's two poems are poems of being in love and being heartbroken. They express his affections beautifully.You can feel his emotions coming off the page as you read them. "She Walks in Beauty" is pretty happy, focusing on all the things he loves about this woman. "When We Two Parted" takes a much more depressing tone, expressing the heartbreak experienced in a break-up. Shelly's poem compares the waning moon to a frail old woman. It is a dark yet peaceful work. That poem and "She Walks in Beauty" are rich in metaphor. All of the poems use nature to in some way convey their emotions. Both poets use simple rhyme schemes yet their words do not sound childish or forced. Their words are well crafted and flow nicely.

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A thousand hands of skeletons reaching upward

Their fingers gnarled and bent

Hands of dead giants

Grasping at the only source of color they can find

A pale sheet of blue just out of reach

From which a light shines

One that the hands once knew

That will return color to their limbs

Yet, me and the wind like it here

Wandering through a graveyard just before the dead come back to life

Reflection: “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge”

The poems  “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge” have a lot in common. They both deal with a similar theme of finding beauty and peace in your surroundings and joy in solitude.They use words to create images of scenes that you can picture and share the poets' emotions as if you were there.Each poet is able to capture tones of sadness as well as joy in the very same poem. They are lonely and sad but at the same time there are hints of happiness created by the beauty of nature and the world. In "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" the poet, Wordsworth, finds beauty within the natural world, he does not like the new polluted  world that has been formed by the Industrial Revolution. He finds better company in daphodills than he does in a bustling city filled with people. In the poem "Composed on Westminster Bridge" he does view the city as a place of beauty but only in the morning just before the people fill the streets and smoke fills the sky. Again he finds peace just observing the beauty of the world unsullied by other people.

Why We Strive For Perfection

There are many factors that might go into why people try to do their best at everything. I don't think anyone necessarily strives for perfection-- unless something has a defined limit there isn't really any way to be perfect-- but it does seem like in most cases people want to do the best they can. Pressures and expectations can be contributed to why we have this drive. For one, the better you do the better rewards you receive. If not a physical reward it gets people to think of you differently. The same goes for the consequences for not trying and doing poorly on something. It seems like the main things that people strive to do better in are school and work. People try hard in school so they can get into a good college. Doing well in college gets you a good job. Doing well at your job gets you promotions and more money. It's a never-ending cycle of hard work leading to something else to work hard at. It seems that a common idea is that hard work grants you success and success leads to happiness. Then again why do people strive to be the best they can be at things that no one else will see or care about? I think a lot of people think that those things don't matter but some do. I think there is some joy that comes just from personal accomplishment. I'm not sure if this trait is set upon us by society or if it is naturally ingrained deep within our souls but everyone seems to strive to do their best at almost everything. Either way it is important for all of humanity that people have this state of mind. If no one worked hard at anything the world would be a much different place.

If I Could Do Anything Knowing I Could Not Fail

With the power to do anything with the knowledge that I would succeed no matter what I would want to do something of great impact that would be impossible otherwise. I would do something to make the world a better place such as ending world hunger or all violence or, better yet, make sure everyone in the entire world was happy. These are things that are impossible but that is why I would do them. I would like to make the world a better place but since I would have this immense power to not fail I could do even the most unreasonable thing. I wouldn't want to do something just anybody could do that would be kind of a waste of the capability. Since I can't even comprehend how I would accomplish something like that or what even the end result would look like I'm not sure what the repercussions would be. It is possible my actions would cause more harm than good.

Still Waters Run Deep

The expression "still waters run deep" is generally used to say that someone who appears simple may in fact be very complex internally. As a metaphor it means a seemingly uninteresting thing, still waters, has a whole lot hidden beneath it's surface. Personally, I don't think thats very true. Honestly, there are people who are "deep" and those who are superficial no matter how they act. I don't think it pertains to any one group. To me its kind of a generalization. The opposite of this statement, all outgoing people are shallow would not go over well. However being deep is recognized as a good thing so I doubt many people would have a problem with it.