Dover Beach

Mathew Arnold takes an interesting approach and four stanzas in order to get his point of the poem Dover Beach across. The prior three stanzas are necessary to the main idea though. Arnold begins by describing three bodies of water, the English Channel, Aegean Sea, and Sea of Faith. The description of the English Channel brings forth the idea of sorrow and "human misery", which is continued with a comparison to the Aegean Sea, emphasizing the eternal quality of this human misery. The Sea of Faith is then used to express the decrease in faith, "but now I only hear it's melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, refresting." This poem is very depressing up to this point, but takes a sharp turn in the fourth stanza. The entire poem is about the tragedies and miserable qualities of life. However, Arnold presents a solution to this problem. "Ah, love, let us be true to kne another! For the world.." He says that despite the horrible qualities of this world, they, he and his lover, can face them together.

GO HOOSIERS!

Sorting Laundry

Of all the poems form this unit, this poem seemed the easiest to comprehend. Elisavietta Ritche begins the poem by comparing laundry with her relationship with her lover. She says, "Folding clothes, I think of folding you intk my life." This makes perfect sense to me. Developing a relationship is much like folding someone into your life. They become part of that life, folded and entangled in everything. The extended metaphor continues to compare various pieces of clothing with aspects of the relationship. "Pillowcases, despite so many washings" expresses the fact that the couple has been together for a while. "So many shirts and skirt and pants recycling week after week, head over heels" says that the couple is still very much in love. However, despite the current healthy state of the relationship, thinking about anything too much can allow someone to find a flaw. This speaker thinks back on an old relationship in which she apparently was left by her lover and then with a sharp change in mood if the poem expresses, "if you were to leave me... A mountain of in sorted wash could not fill the empty side of the bed."

I taste a liqueur never brewed

I am familiar with Emily Dickensin's poems being a little strange, but this one seemed particularly confusing upon reading it for the first time. However, after analyzing the poem more, Dickenson's way of describing the intoxicating feeling that nature can bring is very clever. She says, "Inebriate of air I am", literally meaning drunk off if the air and figuratively meaning the whimsical state that natures beauty brings her mind. I can personally relate to this "Inebriatstion". I went in summer field studies this last summer, an I know that there is no feeling like the high that such pure beauty can bring. Seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time or witnessing the awesome view after climing a mountain is simply indescribable. The aspen of the Seraphs and saints in her poem is also very interesting, especially that the approve of her drunken state, "Till Seraphs swing their snowy hats and Saint to windows run". However, this makes perfect sense. She is appreciating Gods gift of nature, so the Saints look down in approval.

The Convergence of the Twain

Thomas Hardy's The Convergence of the Twain is a very different take on the familiar tragic tale of the Titanic. Instead of the common view of sympathy for all those passengers that suffered the ultimate price for their ticket in the magnificent voyage, he takes a much more aversive view. Twain's view is that in fact, the ship decided her own fate when she was created ultimately in human vain. The poem states, "The immanent Will tht stirs and urges everything prepared a sinister mate." He is saying that the Titanic's fate, from the moment she was created, was destined to crash into the iceberg. To me, this essentially means that the ship had it coming, along with all of the passengers. This seems really harsh, especially considering the horrible occurance that was the sinking of the Titanic. However, he also makes a good point. The "vaingloriousness" mentioned in the poem was definitely present. The ship wa created as extravagant as possible, with the intention to only impress the world. In the end, this led to her downfall.