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.