Experience

Experience

Some men break your heart in two,
Some men fawn and flatter,
Some men never look at you;
And that clears up the matter.

Title: The title of this poem is very vague due to the fact that the reader does not know what it is refers to. It is interesting how she uses a general topic to introduce what the poem is about.
Paraphrase: Some men break your heart, some men drool over you and others just compliment you, some men never even look at you, and that's that.
Connotations:
"Some"- Parker has to qualify what she says to imply that men are extreme in their actions because we see that for everything she explains, she qualifies her argument.
"Break"- This word is negatively connotative word referring to how men disrigard a woman's feelings and just end a love affrair without caring; she's they are careless.
"Fawn"-
1.
to seek notice or favor by servile demeanor
servile-
slavishly submissive or obsequious; fawning: servile flatterers, characteristic of, proper to, or customary for slaves; abject, yielding slavishly; truckling, extremely imitative, esp. in the arts; lacking in originality.
2.
(of a dog) to behave affectionately.
"Flatter"-Just the use of this word makes it imply that love or the strategy for a woman to fall in love with a guy is very strategic and easy (which is not true).
Attitude: The attitude of this poem is quite sincere and curt.
Shift: The shifts are after she describes what each type of man does or acts towards women.
Theme: The theme of this poem is that men are very predictable. She realizes this from personal experiance.

The Last Question
New love, new love, where are you to lead me?
All along a narrow way that marks a crooked line.
How are you to slake me, and how are you to feed me?
With bitter yellow berries, and a sharp new wine.
New love, new love, shall I be forsaken?
One shall go a-wandering, and one of us must sigh.
Sweet it is to slumber, but how shall we awaken ---
Whose will be the broken heart, when dawn comes by?

This is quite an interesting poem especially because the highly connotative diction. Let me explain....
Title: The reader wants to know more about what the last question really is and wishes to read more in order to find out what the speaker is referring to. When breaking up the title, it seems interesting because "last" implies that there was some action or situation that made it be the final, ultimate question. Question implies uncertainty and confusion. It seems it was used in order for the speaker to possibly solve the problem? Or solve it?
Paraphrase: New love, new love, where are you going to take me now? You'll lead me through a narrow curve that'll be a crooked and wavy curve, How are you to ditch me and let me go? How are you to feed me? With bitter yellow berries and wine. New love, new love, should I just let it go? One shall go wondering and one should just sigh. Slumbering is sweet but now it's time to wake up, who is going to be the one heartbroken, when dawn comes by?
Connotations:
"Love": The speaker refers to a genuine love at the beginning. This word generally implies someone who is faithful and loyal. Who cares about the other and take care of the other.
"Lead": This is a highly negatively connotative word because it implies that her "love" does not truely love her but is leashing her on a string and leading her on. Possibly implying he doesnt love her?
"Narrow": Implies that her lover is blinding her and leading her down a very specific path and she can not see anything but the path on which her lover leads her through.
"Crooked": Implies that there is a deformity in the path in which she walks through. Something isn't right about it. It also implies that it is possibly impacting her negatively because she is gearing off on the wrong path.
"Slake": Implies ditching, betrayal, abandoning
"Feed": Can imply that her "love" keeps her coming back for more or that she relies too much on him.
"Bitter"/"Sharp": Refers to her love's actions and words. Not very nice.
"Wine": When someone consumes too much alchol, it causes drunkness...which causes distortion of reality.
"Sigh": Implies sadness/depression.
"Dawn": The beginning of light, prevailing light.
Attitude: The speaker feels pretty accepting towards the end to prevail over her lover's influence of her.
Shift: Towards the beginning, she describes the influence of her lover and how negatively he impacts her. At the end, she shifts her attitude to accepting letting him go.
Theme: .....Love has a very powerful affect on people and can take over and influence all your actions.
Title: The last question...is whether or not you want the feeling of love to have THAT much influence on you.

Deep.

Pride and Prejudice

Well, I have to admit, there was a lot of wit in Pride and Prejudice so I thought I'd dedicate an entry to that. At first I noticed that Austin uses wit through the way some of her characters respond to each other (specifically Mr. Bennet and Elizabeth). The reason why she does this, I think, is in order to mock society's social roles and distinctions of social class.
For example, on page 4 of the novel, Mr. Bennet responds to Mrs. Bennet by stating, "you're poor nerves. They are my dearest friends". It seems that Austin does this to mock the way in which the Mrs. Bennet tries to follow proper decorum to such an extent that she is being fake.
Another example is when Mr. Bennet says, "And if you do marry him, I will never speak to him again" when Mrs. Bennet threatens Lizzy to marry Mr. Collins or she'll never speak to her again. It's funny because Mr Bennet knows Lizzy doesnt love him and does not want her to marry for money in order not for her to make the same mistake as she did.

Love and Wit

Prophetic Soul

Because your eyes are slant and slow,
Because your hair is sweet to touch,
My heart is high again; but oh,
I doubt if this will get me much.

Title: According to dictionary.com, the word 'prophetic' has two distinct meanings;
1) of or pertaining to a prophet
2) predictive; presageful or portentous; ominous
It seems that both these definitions apply to the poem. The first definition refers to the 'soul' because the subject possibly knows of something that is not commonly known by many and the second definition applies because the subject of the poem can possibly suggest that the speaker knows of the consquences of whatever is to happen. the word 'soul' is interesting because it has many connotations distinctly referring to the inner self or inner being, possibly very deep personal opinions or feelings about something. It also suggests that the speaker is speaking from the heart or from experiance where she has learned something important.
Already, I sort of took the title in a witty way because it seemed to be an overstatement or sarcastic when referring to its subject.

Paraphrase: Because your eyes are sideways and sort of crooked and slow, because your hair is very sweet to touch, my heart is high again and I am deeply giddy from being in love with you, but oh, i doubt this is a good thing or it will get me anywhere.

Connotations: As I already stated, 'prophetic' and 'soul' are highly connotative words used in the title. The word 'eyes' suggests appearence or knowledge (possibly indicating the motif of appearence versus reality) which emphasizes the fact that the speaker knows that being in love is all a facade. "slant' and 'slow' do not have positive connotations due to the fact that 'slant' implies that something is not straight which implies a somewhat of a deformity. the word, 'slow' indicates that the eyes of the one she is in love with is slow (possibly indicating that he does not realize she is in love with him?) 'sweet' generally does not refer to texture which could imply the extreme sensation that she recieves when touching his hair. The word 'heart' implies love. The word 'high' possibly indicates the speaker's deeply giddy emotions evoked from being in love. 'much' indicates that fact that the speaker belittles the benifits of being in love.

Attitude: It is obvious that our speaker is quite distraught with being in love and does not see a point because it seems as if the man she is in love with does not realize it.

Shifts: The speaker first describes the one she is in love with and subsquently shifts in describing her emotions about being in love and then shifts once more when indicating the fact that she thinks there is no point.

Theme: The theme of this poem is that there is no point of being in love with something who does not even realize you feel the same way about him.

it is obvious Parker is not fond of being in love
:)

Chapter 1: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Chapter 1.

It is very interesting how Lucky Jim begins with an empty college campus (a strategy to reveal that Amis is strictly interested in satirizing the faculty of the university as opposed to the students themselves) because he presents the members of the staff and their actions and practices. He presents Professor Welch as the first character who seems to be representative of the strict and traditional standards of an old English university. This is interesting because, in context, him like many others professors are presented to be teaching new universities different from the traditional old English ones. It seems that the book will be about the humor of the situation of these traditional professors to be teaching students from different economic and social backgrounds. As it is, our narrator (presumably introduced as Jim Dixon) has quite a critical and spectical eye for things which presents the humor of the introduction of the setting. He is very critical of those around him even though he does not act that way but this thoughts reflect his true feelings. He shows the reader that he is not that interested in academic achievement. This is reflected when he asks Welch if his paper is worthy or intellectual enough yet the ironic thing here is that Welch himself does not know and has to ask other administrators (Amis is being witty here because he is mocking Welch in the sense that he is supposed to be highly scholarly yet he can not even comment on Dixon's work without the approval of another). I must say, I love the way Amis presents Dixon's character so far though; his imagination creates humor so far in the novel such as when he imagines Welch stuck in a toilet and how he puts images to express his strong feelings of frustration. He also plays with language by mocking what the characters say and how "proper" they try to act but in reality, it shows how pathetic they are. Welch tries to use so much proper English and says "my word" when he tries to curse which just makes him seem ridiculous. It's so obvious this novel is going to satarize education.

Wit and Hearthside

Hearthside by Dorothy Parker

Half across the world from me
Lie the lands I'll never see-
I, whose longing lives and dies
Where a ship has sailed away;
I, that never close my eyes
But to look upon Cathay.
Things I may not know nor tell
Wait, where older waters swell;
Ways that flowered at Sappho's tread,
Winds that sighed in Homer's strings,
Vibrant with the singing dead,
Golden with the dust of wings.
Under deeper skies than mine,
Quiet valleys dip and shine.
Where their tender grasses heal
Ancient scars of trench and tomb
I shall never walk: nor kneel
Where the bones of poets bloom.
If I seek a lovelier part,
Where I travel goes my heart;
Where I stray my thought must go;
With me wanders my desire.
Best to sit and watch the snow,
Turn the lock, and poke the fire.

For some reason, this poem subconciously made me really pensive just because of how Parker presents her purpose. I'm going to start off by discussing this poem's purpose a bit rather than just delving into the TPCASTTing. Parker really examines the aspect of knowing she is restricted and will probobly not take a specific course in life where she will neer "walk nor knell where the bones of poets bloom" and seek the many other "lands [she'll] never see". It is quite interesting how Parker somewhat manipulates this sad tone and makes it a tad more cheerful in a sense because in the end she realizes she does have control over her life but it would be "best to sit and watch the snow" instead of venture out into the world and discover her "desires". Her purpose is most deffientely effective because throughout the poem, she referances many different Greek allusions such as singing voices of the Cyrins. Her powerful imagery that runs throughout the poem places her readers in the many different places that they could be visiting yet the reader realizes eventually that they must not turn out like the author and actually go out and discover these places. I think Parker brings in her role in society towards the end because women at the time this poem was written were not necesserily allowed to break out of the "norm" and their traditional roles in society which is why she, at the end, decides to just "sit and watch the snow" despite her awareness that she could be seeking different places and advanture.
How does this poem able to reach such a vast audience? Because of how Parker takes such a universal idea and personalizes it so that it reaches everyone. How? Because this poem mocks how people both know and once knew that they do not decide to take a chance or a different oppurtunity to break out of their traditional lives to experiance something new. By doing so, Parker makes the audience really think of their lives and why they decided not to take the chance (as the speaker of the poem decides to blow off the idea by the end). It is quite sad but it's often true.

Symptom Recital

Symptom Recital
I do not like my state of mind;
I'm bitter, querulous, unkind.
I hate my legs, I hate my hands,
I do not yearn for lovelier lands.
I dread the dawn's recurrent light;
I hate to go to bed at night.
I snoot at simple, earnest folk.
I cannot take the simplest joke.
I find no peace in paint or type.
My world is but a lot of tripe.
I'm disillusioned, empty-breasted.
For what I think, I'd be arrested.
I am not sick. I am not well.
My quondam dreams are shot to hell.
My soul is crushed, my spirit sore:
I do not like me any more.
I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.
I ponder on the narrow house.
I shudder at the thought of men.
I'm due to fall in love again.

Title: The title is pretty vague which is a strategy to grasp the reader's attension. Symptom ususally implies the prerequisits to obtaining an illness which is generally negatively connotative. It can also imply an anticipated event to occur since there are symptoms occuring before then. By using the word, "recital" right next to it, it almost seems as if these "symptoms" or "prerequisits" are what caused them. Is Parker going to speak of how something was a result of something else? The reader soon finds out.

Paraphrase: I hate my state of mind, I'm bitter, cold, I like to fight, I hate my legs, I hate my hands, I don't care or want to go to better places or live in a better home, I dread the light before dawn, I hate going to bed at night, I hate sleeping, I laugh at simple people, I can't stand doing anything (not even painting or typing), My world is nothing but depressing, I'm disillusioned, I have no heart, I'd be taken away or arrested for my thoughts, I can't take a joke, I'm not sick but I'm not ok, All my aspirations are shot to hell, My soul is crushed, my dreams mean nothing anymore, my spirit is dying, I don't like this anymore. She wonders about the narrow house, She shudders at the sight of men, she's doomed to fall in love again.

Connotations: There are a lot of them in here. I feel as if Parker uses very vague works that evoke a series of powerful emotions and images to the reader.
"State of mind"-I've always been curious about this phrase. Parker begins by being blunt. It is almst as if the reader can picture her "state of mind" as a dark room or narrow hallway. I'm not sure why I got this image but whenever I hear this, I always get the image of this. She is giving power to her mind here because it is what is controlling her at the moment.
"bitter"-I thought it was interesting how she uses this word to first describe her. She get her tone already from the second line of the poem because this word is strongly negatively connotative. It almost presents the idea that the speaker already knows she a horrible person but it only gets worse as the negatively connotative diction continues throughout the poem.
"hate"-As compared to her poems, Parker is so much more blunt to describe the subject of the poem. I'm pretty sure she does this because she is trying to reach a general audience (aka the "common man") here because we can all relate to this poem at some point or another.
"legs": Ha, I found this hilarious for some reason just because I've heard so many people say this. It can be taken bother literally and metaphorically. I thought it was a metonomy because it represented where people decide to go with their lives and the misdirections they take.
"hands": This can be taken the same way as "legs" but in a different light. "Hands" are more action based towards more specific doings. "Legs" take you there. "Hands" actually make you do something. Why would she choose these two seperate body parts? Hands and legs? I thought this was a message Parker was trying to explain...People in society have the chance to go, live, love, discover...yet they don't. They just accept what they have and get depressed about it. I wouldn't say she's necesserily mocking this fact. It's just pretty sad though when the reader realizes what Parker is trying to explain.

Attitude: Parker has two attitudes going on here. The first is slightly mocking but underneath this tone, there is a sad and solumn tone of how many in our society are not satisfied with themselves and how love is a painful thing due to our insecurities and doubts.

Shift: There's a shift after Parker speaks of the narrow house in which she thinks about. Because previous to this, she expressed her state of mind and how she felt about herself, the underlying message lies in the last two lines where she speaks of how shes bound to fall in love again because of all these insecurities. The thing is, the reader does not know if she is falling in love or if she is already in love because we often know that while in love, we have strong insecurities.

Theme: There are two themes in this poem: The first is the struggle many in our society face with themselves. I know all of us have strong insecurities and these usually arise when something ignites us to feel a particular way.