blog 6

Essay #4
English 102, 0001
Dr. C Jason Smith
October 28, 2009


Last Love [Canzone]


Love hath a chamber all of imagery;
And there is one dim nook,
A little storied web wherein my heart
From leaf to leaf is read as in a book.

One part in the middle of the web begun
and left unfinished;
a face with ravelled threads falling over
it and hiding it. Love says
that the time has come to resume and
finish this part of the web,
though much has come between since it
was begun.

For the garlands of heaven were all laid
by,
And the Daylight sucked at the breasts of
a Lie.

The wounded heart and the dying swan
Were side by side
Where the rushes coil with the turn of
the tide—
The hart and the swan.

Withinthose eyes the sedulous yearning
throe,
And all the evil of my heart
A thousand times forgotten.

Ah if you had been lost for many years,
And from the dead to-day were risen
again!




Daniel Gabriel Rossetti was born on May 12, 1828 in London England and died in April 9, 1882 in the country house of a friend on Easter Sunday. In addition to being a poet Daniel Rossetti was also a marvelous painter. In Rossetti’s poetry was described as “Victorian Poetry” due to it being written in the Victorian period. Some persons believed that Rossetti’s poems as well as his paintings contained pornography and the female body was a “specter” that indicated desire. He settled in London in 1824, married, and became Professor of Italian in King's College, London. After his first wife died he got married again however she died while giving birth to their child which also died. “Last Love” was written in 1870 and 287 poems in all.
The poem consists of six stanzas and twenty-eight lines. The poem is as most poems are centered in the page. The rhyme scheme is in ABCB in stanzas 1and 3,ABCDEFGA in stanza 2, ABCBA in stanza 4, ABCD in stanza 5 and ABC in stanza 6. The poem also consists of 7 sentences. In the poem there are multiple instances where “web” and “heart” is mentioned.
“Last Love” describes person who is in love but it didn’t last. This reader having the knowledge that Rossetti lost both his wives and that the second wife died during child birth may consider that this poem was written for the last person he loved. As in the in stanza 2 line 1 and 2 he stated that “one apart in the middle of the web begun and left unfinished” which means that when he was in love with this person the love ended prematurely in the middle and the y didn’t get to finish it to see how far they could go a better way to look at it is that this person love one died and they didn’t get the chance to see if it had lasted longer what would happen. This poem could be linked to both Rossetti’s wives as they both died. In stanza 5 lines 1 and 2 he states that “within those eyes of sedulous yearning throe” these two lines means that within the eyes of his love one he sees constant or persistent pity or sadness and agonizing trouble, throe could also mean the pain of child birth. In the last stanza he says “Ah if you had been lost for many years,And from the dead to-day were risen again!” this states the person he loved had died and that if she had risen from the dead he could spend more time with her and his web could finally be finished.

blog5

Our assignment was to review page 3 which is act 1, scene 1 and is a conversation between Theseus and Hippolyta . We were asked to answer question 1 on page2. The book states that Hippolyta and Theseus are engaged to be married as the book states that Theseus is the duke of Athens and, fought a battle with Amazons of which Hyppolyta was the queen and won her love with or as he stated “I wood thee with my sword and won thy love doing thee injuries” this states that it could be that she fell in love with him because she was an Amazon warrior and him been a worrier as well or it cold be that at one point they both fought and he once injured her ( won thy love doing thee injuries). On page3 Theseus starts out talking about their 'nuptial hour' or wedding day getting close. He also states that 'She lingers my desires, Like to a step-dame (stepmom) or a dowager (widow w/ money) long withering out a young mans revenue he could be saying that he wants her so much that the wedding seems like its taking forever as well as she could be older than him. Hippolyta then answers by saying “four nights will quickly dream away the time” when she says this it sound as if she wasn’t as exited as Theseus or maybe she is jus willing to wait. Theseus then tells Philostrate get everyone up, and to celebrate. He then speaks to Hippolyta and talks about how he won her love by his sword and injuring others, but soon there will be a celebration, triumph and "merry Making" which is having sex. I believe he is more excited to be having sex, since that’s what he starts out talking about and wanting in the first stanza.

brownie

In the poem titled “Brownie” written by A.A Milne contains both poetics and hermeneutics as all poems do. Poetics is how creative writhing works and hermeneutics are how or what it means. I think the poem is written for children as it as may rhymes and speaks about a curious child. The theme of the poem could be a curious child. The form of the poem consists of two stanzas ten lines and five sentences. It has a rhyme scheme of ABAB for the first stanza and ABCABC for the second. In the poem the curious child keeps looking behind the curtain but each time he looks the ‘Brownie” which could be the shadow of a tree or even the curtain itself moves. The image the child is seeing could resemble a brownie which is why he refers to it as a brownie or this could be a magical world where these things are real and are called brownie. In the poem the child says “(nanny isn’t certain too)” which suggested that the speaker was whispering. The speaker is also a child. The speaker also states that the "Brownie never wait to say, 'how do u do'" which states that the shadow goes away very quickly or the magical Brownie moves so fast u can't see them and they never say goodbye. this poem makes it easy to be understood by the child and also makes it easy to read.

readers and meaning

One of the way literature is understood depend on the person who is reading it and the "knowledge that readers and writers bring to their encounters with texts" as stated by Culler. Culler also pointed out that "the way readers make sense of literature is called the "readers response criticism" which means that the meaning of the text is the experience of the reader. when a person tells a story about a given piece it theorists called the "horizon of expectations" which means that a reader from 20 or 30 years ago my interpreted differently in modern times i think it also depends on a person's culture as in the poem "Leda and the Swan" some Greeks may have believed that the Swan was a God and so Leda should be happy that a God choose her however other persons may believe that it was immoral and that Swan should have been found and killed or maybe it was possessed. Another factor that could affect horizon of expectations would be feminism criticism also in 'Leda and the Swan' is where a feminist would say its degrading and why is it that just because Leda is a female she should be taken advantage of. In music videos or even the songs themselves some feminists may claim that the women are being exploited and being referred to as "bitches" which is also degrading and the guys who refer to women as that do not think of it as degrading.

blog three

So far i have learned about symbolism and how it can be identified. I have also learned about literature what it is and how it can be identified. seen that from the beginning of class our readings have been based on religion and symbolism i think the essay should also be based on that. For essay2 i think a question that gives a poem or short story and asks us to find the symbols, metaphor and simile would be ideal for me as well as the class. literature should also be incorporated into it, however, seen that we are given two of three questions to choose from, one could be based on literature while the other is based on symbolism and religion