Progression of Women

Throughout British literature poetry is used to express. I'm going to compare three poems that refer back to classic tales for women, each from a different period of British literature. How do these poems reflect women?

In the Romantic Period, "Ode to Psyche" by John Keats refers to the mythological story of Psyche, a beautiful woman whom Cupid falls in love with and becomes a goddess. The narrator of the story is enamored by Psyche and goes into great detail of her beauty, "loveliest vision," "my own eyes inspired," thy voice, thy lute," etc.

In the Victorian Period, "The Lady of Shelott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson refers back to the medieval tale of King Arthur and Lancelot. Lady Shelott is cursed to weave in a tower the reflection of what she sees in a mirror of what's behind her. She sees Lancelot and sacrifices her life to escape the tower and be with him. The narrator of this poem uses colorful words, emphasising description, "four grey walls, and four grey towers," "page in crimson clad," "hung in the golden Galaxy," etc.

In the Modernist Period, "Leda the Swan" by William Butler Yates refers to the mythological story of Zeus coming to Leda as a Swam. Leda was the most beautiful woman, so of course Zeus had to come rape her. The child becomes Helen of Troy. The poem focuses on specific body parts often, "her thighs caressed," "her nape caught in his bill," "terrified vague fingers," etc.

In all three of these poems the women appear to be the victims of something due to their beauty as a woman, their misfortune in love, or both. Psyche must work for Cupids love, yet the author would love to keep her. Lady Shelott must not look at the town or die. She chooses to die for Lancelot, who loves someone else. Leda is rapes by a swan, yet the poem makes it sound as if she almost allows it in some ways. All three of these women almost brought their misfortunes upon themselves. It appears the woman of these three poems make poor choices in respect to love.

Also the language of the poems reflect something as well. "Ode to Psyche" used beautiful, emotional words. This is normal for the Romantic period and its idealistic, imaginative ways. "The Lady of Shelott" is detailed and shows a woman's relation to her duty, common in the Victorian period. "Leda and the Swan" is rather graphic and realistic. This reflects the Modernists broken and harsh views.

British Literature Flashbacks

This semester in Britist Literature we've covered three main periods: the Romantic Period, the Victorian Period, and the Modernist Period. Each contrasting the others in it's own way. Let's take a blog to have a flash back on British Literature has evolved...

First there was the Romantic Period (1789-1830). This period was characterized by imagination, emotion, idealism, inclusion of everyone, and everything was fluid. Everything about this period was new and opposite from everything before it. Much of the texts we covered in this period had political opinions. However I'm not really into politics so my favorite text we covered was Ode to e Grecian Urn by John Keats. I enjoyed how it covered art as a way to leave something behind, a way to preserve memories.

Next came the Victorian Period (1830-1901). This was an age caught up in technological jumps and urbanization. Everything was expected to be proper and polite at all times. Tradition was valued above all. I really enjoyed how many writers of this period brought a duality to their characters. No one was entirely good or entire bad. My favorite was My The Last Duchess by Robert Browning. The Duke could be seen from so many different angles. He could be a murderer or he could be a broken hearted lover. He could be egotistical or he could be vulnerable.

Last we covered the Modernist Period (1914-1938). Modernists had an elitist view where only a select few could understand what many of their writers were talking about. They were atheistic, random, divided in their person, and full of brokenness. With the Great War going on a lot of the literature was reflecting on war. My favorite text was Hap by Thomas Hardy. It is a poem angry at god. All of us have question god at some point, and I enjoyed Hardy's reflection on it in a poem.

So that's are moment to reminisce on British Literature! Certainly covered some extraordinary writers and texts. We've see how literature changes and evolves through time. Literature is even still changing!

Scrooge-iness

In A Christmas Carol, the character of Scrooge is well known as a penny pencher. He certainly had his share of sad experiences that led him to be so and also his own faults that he allowed to flourish. I've certainly seen my share of Scrooge's and shown a little Scrooge myself.

For almost three years now I've had the glorious job of a waitress. Actually having the job completely changes your view of the job. It's hard work dealing with people on the level we do. People very often forget we are people too; souls and all. Just like how Scrooge over looked his clerks person in A Christmas Carol. We very often have been working hours upon hours on our feet for a "generous" 10%.

People hold many false beliefs about servers. Many people would like to say "Oh, waiters can make hundreds of dollars in a night! My penny penching won't hurt them!" Wrong. Rural areas don't have high tippers. Also, it's not your waiters fault if you don't like the food. It's the kitchen staffs. We get around $2.50 an hour. The rest of our pay entire depends on our customers. Side thought- if you and your spouse are fighting, don't come out to eat. It's just awkward for your server to deal with.

Overall, servers work harder than people realize. Mind they do have their bad days, but they're trying to support a families and live out dreams with the tips you give them, and are working for a living just like you. They don't need to be Scrooged.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I believe everyone is familiar with the classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde written by Robert Lewis Stevenson. What I find most startling is how Stevenson is emphasising the duality of characters, however Hyde is only portrayed in the light of evil through the other characters eyes. Why is it that Stevenson left out the personal account of Hyde yet allowed the other characters to have multiple dimensions?

I believe Hyde is may be portrayed as evil so that we will stop and think. When we're catching personal accounts from all the characters but one, it is possible Stevenson was doing this so we would dig deeper about the character of Hyde. Is Hyde truly evil? Or are we just not getting the details needed to see him in a fair light?

It is also possible Stevenson characterized Hyde in pure evil so that in our questioning we would relate it to ourselves. How often do we judge others as "black" or "white" without knowing the details. Often we will make assumptions of people from that a friend has said with out having a real conversation with the person. Perhaps it has a social lesson mixed in.

Overall it's very interesting how Stevenson chose to cast Hyde with out a personal account and in pure evil. Whether it be for contrast in the characters, to make us think, or to teach us a lesson, Hyde's character certainly has caught our attention in this classic.

Peom on Spring Allergies

Having read many peoms lately, I feel somewhat inspired to write one of my own. The following poem is in reflect on my spring allergies. I'm no poet, but this was fun!

Spring is Here

The flowers bloom in full color,
Freshly green they greet on another.
Their yellow dust coats the out of doors.
I feel my throat is growing sores.

My nose begins to sneeze;
the flowers I want to sqeeze.
I feel my eyes itch,
and down my brows begin to twitch.

Many medicines I do try,
But their failure leads me to cry.
Tissues cover my floors,
And left undone are my chores.

The rain cannot keep it at bay;
It gives them more energy to play.
I'll simply sleep through this season,
Due to my allergies fuzzy reason.

Following Romney's Dreams

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a poem "Aurora Leigh" that is a Kunstlerroman, or coming of age story for an artist. Aurora's life is paralleled with E.B.B.'s own life. Aurora faces a fork in the road when she realizes her life's dream is to become a respected poet. Romney proposes to her and she declines his offer. Being with him would mean her own dreams wouldn't be allowed, she would only be helping him accomplish his own. There is no doubt we have all had those moments where we have to encounter our Romney and explain our dreams or accept his.

My mothers always wanted me to become a doctor or scientist. Doctors make a lot of money after all. However I have the habit of passing out around blood. My father would like for me to do something I love. I love talking with people about their lives. Perhaps a psychologist would be the thing for me. However my father has his masters in counseling and pointed out it's a very depressing career listening to peoples problems, addictions, and secrets day in and day out. Of my four siblings only my oldest sister has accomplished her goals, or she was the only one that had any. My brothers simply work odd jobs here and there. None of my other family members have done anything to brag about either. My father would love to be able to say his daughter was a doctor, or rocket scientist, and I'm sure my mother would like very much to know I had achieved some genius degree that pays loads of money. With the intention of accomplishing things to make my family proud I am majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry and psychology. Hopefully I'll become a children's dentist one day (I can deal with that amount of blood).

I'm going into my junior year and I've began thinking alto about what I want and need for myself. I sometimes doubt whether I enjoy science as much as someone majoring in it should. My grades are good, but to be a genius doctor you need a GPA above a 4.0 no doubt. Getting into med school is extremely competitive. Every time I bring up this topic with my parents I'm always told to just focus on my grades. I refuse to quit on a degree I've began, but will it make me happy in the end to do this the rest of my life? In a way I feel like an Aurora who is engaged to her Romney. An Aurora who has put someone else before herself. I'm a Tabitha committed to making her family proud and setting a new tone for my family's achievements.

Connecting and Seperating

In the Victorian Era in Britain, the people of the age were caught in a worlewind of technology and innovation. Trains were cutting travel times drastically. This led to fasted transportation of not only people but also of goods and ideas. Factories were changing production from individually crafted to mass produced. Not only changing production but also the lives of people. People were cramming into the cities. With other inventions such as the telegraphy, photography, and steam ships, everything was being touched by change. Some people adapted with these changes. Others fought them with all their might. In our lifetime we've seen the Facebook revolution in its fullest. How has Facebook effected our lives?

Before Facebook communication was mainly done via telephone, email, or personal interaction. But since its creation, it has changed the way we communicate forever, just like the Victorian Era's communication. Facebook began as a college social network (as anyone would know who has seen "The Social Network"). It quickly spread to be worldwide. I personally feel Facebook has connected us and separated us in many ways.

Now it is common to here the phrase "Facebook me" or "did you see what so-and-so put on Facebook?" We find out more about people on facebook than in real life. I can watch my baby nephew growing up on my sister's Facebook page without so much as ever even seeing him. I can chat with my friend in Denmark with out ever even hearing her laugh.

There is no doubt we are connected to each other more than ever through Facebook, but how has it damaged communication? I know a number of friends who will talk on Facebook with a new friend and later realize that person never talks to them in actual passing on the Quad. What will we say on Facebook that we would never really say? Businesses often research a perspective employee on Facebook before hiring. I personally have a friend who wasn't hired for a teaching position due to a photo of her holding a drink from years before. Facebook is a personal archive. Perhaps too personal.

Like a said, there is no doubt Facebook is connecting us. But it is also destroying communication skills. Some people don't understand that EVERYONE can see what they put on Facebook. Facebook is a tool for communication but should not be relied upon to heavily as our culture is doing. Facebook has changed the way we communicate forever. It's just not that personal anymore.

Keats' Past Influences

John Keats was a famous poet of the second generation romantics of British literature. I feel his upbringing influenced the way he wrote and what he wrote about. How did his past reflect in his writing and why did he allow it to reflect on his personal life?

Keats parents weren't upper class. His father was a stable keeper who married the owners daughter, however they were able to send Keats to a good boys school. His father died when he was only nine. Quickly after his mother remarried and ran off with her husband for the next four or five years, leaving Keats and his siblings to live with their grandparents. Despite his mothers neglect, Keats adored her. On her return due to sickness he cared for her until she died when he was fourteen. He was trained as a apothecary but eventually fell into the favor with some well known poets who encouraged his writing to the point that he is now famous for. He died very young at the age of 25 from tuberculosis, the same disease that took his mother. With his medical training there is not doubt he saw the signs of his approaching death.

In Keats poem "Ode to the Grecian Urn" he is admiring how the pictorial story on the urn will always be the same. The people on the urn will always be together and the moments they're in will be constant. But he also realizes that even though they will be together forever, they won't have the opportunity to enjoy life. The men chasing the women will never catch her. The couple will never be able to finally kiss. All because they're frozen in those moments. It seems as if Keats is mourning the quickly approaching end of his own life and wishes he could freeze or cherish moments in his own life. But at the same time he is grateful he at least got to experience the moments in reality.

In his poem "Ode to Psyche" Keats tells a story of the mythological Psyche. She was the most beautiful women and bragged about it to the point where Venus sent her son Cupid to punish her. Cupid immediately fell in love with Psyche and her with him. However Cupid would only come to her at night and wouldn't let her see him. One night she lit a torch and greatly angered Cupid who cast her out of his favor. To get back to his love Psyche had to complete a number of tasks. She eventually did achieve them and won back not only the love of Cupid but won over his mothers favor who promoted Psyche to a goddess. Keats seems to stubble upon Cupid and Psyche and falls in love with her. He is so enamored by her his decided to build a temple for her to out do all her past lovers. However this temple his in his mind where they can meet when ever he likes. Perhaps Keats had to build a temple for his mother in his mind in a sense. When she disappeared after his fathers death when he needed her most he needed to cope. He may have done it by overly-building her up in his mind rather than focusing on the betrayal.

It seems to me that Keats past is reflected very often in his poems. Perhaps it was just an accidental mental reflection, perhaps it was purposeful to get a point across, whether is be to get his feelings out or to show people they're not alone in what they go through. Whatever his cause, I like how Keats incorporates his past in his poetry. It makes it all the more dimensional.

Reflections on a Nature Walk

Nature has a calming effect. I don't know how, perhaps because nature is what we were made for and are drawn towards. The Romantics drew their inspiration from nature. Silent meditation on nature was believed to be far more productive than reading a book. Due to the fantastic weather we've been having I decided to go for a walk by the river and see what inspiration came of it.

At the beginning one can feel awkward walking somewhere by themselves, especially in an unknown environment such as the Broad River. We're so used to constantly being surrounded by people (especially in college) that when we are by ourselves it is at first uncomfortable. It's almost sad how some of us become so accustomed to no alone time. It's important to have time alone with your thoughts. It's simply mentally healthy.

On the banks of the river it was a bit muddy. With special attention I could see the tracks of the different animals that had come out of the clustered safety of the woods the the edge of the river for a drink. I came across some opossum, muskrat, and deer tracks. This got me thinking about the consideration we should have for things even though we may not always be able to see them. Aside from conserving what untouched nature we do have this can also relate to everyday life. Sometimes we get in negative moods and unknowingly spread them to the people we come into contact with everyday.

Also along my walk I would see trash that had washed along the river. People should be more aware of how their trash can have an effect downstream. Keep in mind that things you do today will effect tomorrow.

Slowing down and learning from nature is productive. I may not go as far as to say it's more important or less important than reading a book, but we can learn a lot from the analogys of nature.

Ode to the West Wind

In Percy Shelley's poem "Ode to the Wests Wind" wind is a the central poetic factor. The poem can be hard to understand at first read, but by breaking it down it can be understood more easily. Each stanza has a sort of theme. What is the significance of the wind?

Stanza one talks about the death of people, such as "cold and low," "dark wintry bed," and "ghosts." Leaves are the main natural image here.

Stanza two is talking about a sort of apocalypse, in ways such as "angels of rain and lightening," "black rain and fire will burst," and "fierce Maenad." The main natural force in this stanza is clouds. There are illusions to Greek Mythology.

In stanza three it is speaking of the ruins of the old being all that is left behind, such as "saw in sleep old palaces and towers," "azure moss, and flowers" cover the ruins. The main natural force is the waves. The ruins give a Mediterranean, Greek feel.

Stanza four is asking for help from the wind, "prayer in my sore need." Helping is being asked of the wind because it can control all the other things: leaves, clouds, and waves. The wind is "tameless, swift, and proud." The grouping of words "I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!" give an illusion to Christianity and Jesus.

The last stanza, stanza five, is about how the writer wants this change, or rebirth. He is getting old but stills wants to be used for change, "to quicken a new birth." The phrase "The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind," certainly points out this is a poem from the Romantics, because they thought they were the prophets of their times.

Songs of Innocence OR Songs of Experience?

William Blake wrote a series of poems, "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" in the late 1700's. On a quick read through, many of the poems convey overly happy tones for life and the world, if you will. However, when one slows down and truly reads into Blake's poetry, one sees quite the opposite of happiness. Instead of sheer innocence you can see he actually is meaning for it to be almost sarcastic, or seen as the opposite; a binary (good/bad, innocence/experience, etc).

In his poem, “The Echoing Green,” Blake uses beautiful imagery:

“The sun does arise,
And make happy the skies;
The merry bells ring
To welcome the spring;”

One cannot help but picture a warm, sunny spring day. Blake continues on to tell how the elderly are laughing as the innocent children playing happily. They also reminisce of the innocent playing they did on beautiful day when they were young:

"Such, such were the joys
When we all, girls and boys,
In our youth time were seen
On the Echoing Green."

But the adults and elderly are not laughing because of the joyful memories they have. They are laughing because they know the hardship and struggle the children will one day face. The hardship that will end the happiness the children once found so easily.

“Till the little ones, weary,
No more can be merry;
The sun does descend,
And our sports have an end.”

Blake uses the happiness of spring and the innocence of children to draw the readers to the opposite thought. Thoughts of how happiness ends and the harshness of reality the children will one day face. The reader must also keep in mind this poem was written after the Industrial Revolution. The urban-carefree lifestyle was becoming unheard of. The “Green” was becoming unheard of; Leading to only its “Echo” left behind.

Mary Wollstonecraft's Effect on Women's Rights

Mary Wollstonecraft was a leading figure in the feminist rights movement. In a culture that put women on the level of animals and children Wollstonecraft spoke out. Through her writing she spread her logic to others in 18th century Britain. Through her lifestyle she lived all that she preached. Today her words are just as true as they were when she first put them to paper.

Today, I personally believe, women are almost completely equal to men. "Women cannot, by force, be confined to domestic concerns," Wollstonecraft wrote. This was not possible when she originally began her writing, but today a woman is just as excepted working outside of the home as men are. However work on women's equalities is still preceding. On average the salary of men is still higher than women. Luckily this gap is closing between men and women.

Women were once taught "should they be beautiful, every thing else is needless..." We are lucky to live in a society that now can value an intelligent women. We cannot be ignorant that appearance is still valued though; however it is also now valued in men as well. Take for example the Miss America Pageant. On the Miss America website they say, "Miss America represents the highest ideals. She is a real combination of beauty, grace, and intelligence, artistic and refined. She is a type which the American Girl might well emulate." This values a well-rounded women, a renaissance women if you will, not solely based on looks.

Regarding marriage, Wollstonecraft says love will cease to exist "and the time will inevitably come." She believes marriage is unnecessary and if it must happen it should be of friendship and companionship, not "passion that sinks into mere appetite." This belief is certainly understood today where less and less people are getting married, despite the increasing population. Perhaps people now can marry out of true love and companionship, unlike previously where it was necessary to marry to gain possessions and gain children to help care for the household.

In modern times one can see obvious progressions in women's rights and equality to man from what it once was. We women now can acceptably work outside of the home, have the choice of independence in contrast to marriage, and true intelligence and personality can now be appreciated.

Burke -VS- Paine

Burke and Paine have completely opposite views on the French Revolution. Burke sees the Revolution as a "strange chaos... of all sorts of crimes jumbled together..." whereas Paine sees it as not a revolution against the King "but against the despotic principles of the government." Burke thinks the Revolution is unnecessary and violent. Paine thinks it is a just and due cause.

As Burke quoted himself "Non satis est pulchra esse peomata, dulcia sunto" or "It is not enough that poems be beautiful, they must also be sweet Horace)." He gave an elaborate prediction of the violence the Revolution could bring about. People want to listen to intriguing stories over cold hard reasoning. Paine stuck to his "Nu-uh's" for all that Burke had to say rather than proposing topics independently. Mind you, Paine had some good come backs.

It is common sense in modern time that all men (and women) are equal and united. However it used to be quite the opposite. Through Paine's writing he brought out the reasoning we take for granted. There is no distinction between the rights of men and women in "God created he him; male and female created he them." There is "a unity of man." The people had the right to rebel against an illogical government.

Personally, I believe Burke's argument is more persuasively appealing regarding the French Revolution, however Paine's argument is more logical and reasonable. Burke independently formed all of his points of argument, whereas Paine spent most of his writing simply opposing all that Burke had proposed. Both presented their cases as they saw fit and both cases were heard.