Church Going

In Larkin's "Church Going," a scene is described as being as a beautiful empty church. The church is being examined by an un-belonging biker; the biker seems to be familiar with the church's innards and examines them thoroughly. He seems not to appreciate the church for its religious aspects, but for its features and architecture. He then begins to examine the reason for the church in the first place, he seems to have almost a sad tone when describing that the church has been reduced to a once a week, superstitious ceremony along with weddings and baptisms. It seems that he can recall when religion played a larger role in society. He has realized that belief is dieing, and he begins to wonder what will happen when it is dead. In particular, what is going to happen to the building after belief has disappeared?

The Goosefish

Howard's "The Goosefish," is a rather strange poem. It begins with two people having sex on a beach; there is blood everywhere, which suggests the girl is losing her virginity. In the second stanza it goes on to describe a very inviting moon during their romantic act. This is contrasted by the appearance on the beach, of a big, dead, smiling, ugly fish. The couple does not know what to make of the fish, they look to it as some kind of symbol and its appearance makes them feel guilty for what they have just done. This is kind of creepy because they describe the dead fish as watching them, smiling with amusement, and they wonder if this symbol is a precursor for their future.

The Passionate Shepard to His Love

When looking at Christopher Marlowe's poem "The Passionate Shepard to His Love," It is important to understand what kind of writing this is. This is a pastoral poem which is a poem used to describe the timeless, painless, beautiful life of a poem. The author walks us through what I would assume to be his pasture, which is full of beautiful and captivating things. The Shepard in this poem seems almost like he is inviting us into his life and his lifestyle. He shows us the delights of this beautiful, carefree, place, which to most reading it, would seem heavenly in comparison to the average Joe's hard labor.

On Her Loving to Equally

In Aphra Ben's "On Her Loving to Equally," she describes her feelings for two different lovers. She goes on to say that when she is one of her lover’s arms, she longs for the other, and her heart is divided. She can't seem to make a choice in between her two lovers. This poem is written like a confession, in hope of advice. She makes it seem as though she’s writing it to cupid. I think that these strong feelings for two are making her feel, increasingly uneasy and she is beginning to realize that this cannot go on for much longer. She is awaiting a sign for advice for her decision.

The Word Plum

In Helen Chasin's "The Word Plum" she describes through words, the image, and taste of a plum being eaten. She uses language filled with adjectives and describes the moment of bliss when eating a plum. She uses this language to make a plum seem like a piece of heaven. The way this is written reminds me of an advertisement, or some form of persuasion. After reading this I can honestly say I wanted to go out and buy a bag full of plums.

One Perfect Rose

The poem by Parker uses the classical symbol of a rose. Which usually represents love and romance, Parker puts her own spin on this common symbol. She describes how a rose is fragile and how your heart is enclosed in it. She goes on to describe it's perfect smell, and pure image. These descriptions reiterate and strengthen our previous definitions of a rose's symbolism. In the last few lines, we see a change in the entire view of the poem, by asking "why not a limousine?" This shows that a rose is nice and all, but regardless, it is still just a flower. I think that she sees the rose as a cheap, somewhat, crappy gift, and would much rather have her lover show his affection through materialistic goods.

A Symphony in Yellow

In A Symphony in Yellow the author paints a picture of a yellow, possibly fall, landscape. Wilde walks us through several scenes that involve yellow objects in them. To me, yellow is a color that represents welcoming, happiness, and sunshine, all positive symbols. This poem reminded me of a troops returning poem because of the yellow ribbon that is associated with troops returning from battle. I thought that it was rather interesting that it went from yellow, to green, because green is a color that is used in camouflage of troops. The Thames is a river in London so I thought that it could be possible that he is leaving in a boat to go to war.

My Papa's Waltz

My Papa's Waltz was a poem about a man and what I think was his son. The father is under the influence of alcohol and has come home to his son is dancing with him drunk. Since the father is drunk, he is being ruff with the kid and not careful. He hits the kids face on his belt buckle. Although the father is drunk I think that this is all in good fun and I think the child still enjoys this. This is kind of a sweet story under the circumstances. I like the word choice romped, death, dizzy, but all and all I think that this story is happy, even though the author makes it seem like somewhat of a fight.

The Lady with the Dog

I found this story to be particularly interesting; it was a romantic story about forbidden love. The story's setting is in Russia, starting out in the fall and working its way into the winter. The two main characters of this tale are Anna and Gurov. Anna has a husband back home, yet has an affair with Gurov while she is in Russia. Anna seems like a nice girl, just one who got bored with life. From the very first page of the story we see Gurov is not a real nice guy, he talks about women like they are below men, he even refers to them as "the lower race." Their forbidden love troubles Anna deeply and we can see this throughout the story when she cries a few times, she thinks of herself as disgusting for having the affair. Gurov does not understand this because the women he usually has affairs with don't care about what they’re doing; he eventually falls in love with her for this reason, because she is so different. In the very end of the story we see them both being troubled by the fact of their forbidden love, and they don't know it.

The Cask of Amontillado

The Cask of Amontillado is written like a confession note or diary entry by Montresor. This confession starts by stating his hatred towards Fortunato who has wronged him terribly and painfully in some untold manor. Montresor lures Fortunato down into his own wine cellar to get him drunk and then murders him. I thought that this story was pretty dark but I really liked it. I thought that by writing this story maybe Poe is releasing the contempt and anger we sometimes feel toward our friends, in a dramatic and drastic way. Maybe this confession is Poe’s way of dealing with his own problems. I think that by analyzing the author more we could possibly learn more about where this is coming from. Very interesting.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

A good Man is Hard to find is a story from the deep South about the murder of a family. The story starts off boringly slow. The family is planning on going to Florida but the loud obnoxious grandma doesn't want to go and makes the excuse that a killer is on the loose in the same area after reading the paper. The family ends up over ruling the grandma and still travels to Florida. At this point it is a typical family road trip stops to eat kids yelling. Then the grandma convinces the family to get off course and go down a old road to revisit a childhood memory that she thought she had there. Then the author catches us off guard by making the car flip multiple times in a horrific accident. At this point in the reading the entire story begins to crash as well. The family is stranded till a car comes along. Men get out of the car and the grandma recognizes one from the paper she had read, as a killer. The killer decides the only thing he can do is kill them all. The grandma is the last to go after much pleading and begging for her life.
My favorite part of the story was how the author makes the whole story fall apart with the car crash. At this climatic moment he took the story from "a Chevy Chase movie" to "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." I love everything after the crash it makes the beginning worth while.

The Flea

This is by far the strangest poem I have ever read. it is about a flea biting a boy and a girl and the boy trying to convince the girl that it is now part of them. The girl kills the flea which upsets the man. I think the man likes the flea because it is a combination of their fluids, which he wants to do more of in a different way. This poem is from the 1500's and although the wording is a little difficult to understand I think that its subject matter is still timeless. Men are to this day still trying to find cleaver ways to go to bed with their lovers. ;)

How Do I Love Thee?

This was the epitome of a sappy love poem. It was about a girl writing about all the different ways she loves her man. In this day and age this poem would be considered over the top. The references to god like this are also not of current times. I like the imagery but I think this writing style is a little to sickeningly sweet for my tastes.

Elephant in the Village of the Blind

I found The Elephant in the Village of the Blind to be a very good story with powerful morals. This story is about a man traveling by elephant to a village of blind people. When the Blind people try to figure out what he rode there they all walk up to it and touch it. Since Elephants are so big they all get a different body part (ex. trunk, leg, ear, stomach) and they cant agree on what it is. In the end they all share what they have found to discover what it is as a whole. This was a well chosen introductory short story because we can directly relate this story to literature because there are infinite ways of perceiving literature. We all have our different interpretations of what we find or feel, no one is wrong when interpreting literature. Also through class discussion we should be able to focus on the big picture.