Really long poem, but bare with me

Alice And The White Knight

Alice was walking beside the White Knight in Looking Glass Land.

'You are sad.' the Knight said in an anxious tone: 'let me sing you a song to comfort you.'

'Is it very long?' Alice asked, for she had heard a good deal of poetry that day.

'It's long.' said the Knight, 'but it's very, very beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it -
either it brings tears to their eyes, or else -'

'Or else what?' said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.

'Or else it doesn't, you know. The name of the song is called 'Haddocks' Eyes.''

'Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?' Alice said, trying to feel interested.

'No, you don't understand,' the Knight said, looking a little vexed. 'That's what the name
is called. The name really is 'The Aged, Aged Man.''

'Then I ought to have said 'That's what the song is called'?' Alice corrected herself.

'No you oughtn't: that's another thing. The song is called 'Ways and Means' but that's only
what it's called, you know!'

'Well, what is the song then?' said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.

'I was coming to that,' the Knight said. 'The song really is 'A-sitting On a Gate': and the
tune's my own invention.'

So saying, he stopped his horse and let the reins fall on its neck: then slowly beating time
with one hand, and with a faint smile lighting up his gentle, foolish face, he began:

I'll tell thee everything I can;
There's little to relate.
I saw an aged, aged man,
A-sitting on a gate.
'Who are you, aged man?' I said,
' And how is it you live?'
And his answer trickled through my head
like water through a sieve.

He said 'I look for butterflies
That sleep among the wheat:
I make them into mutton pies,
And sell them in the street.
I sell them unto men,' he said,
'Who sail on stormy seas;
And that's the way I get my bread -
A trifle if you please.'

But I was thinking of a plan
To dye one's whiskers green,
And always use so large a fan
That they could not be seen.
So, having no reply to give
To what the old man said,
I cried, 'Come tell me how you live!'
And thumped him on the head.

His accents mild took up the tale:
He said, 'I go my ways,
And when I find a mountain-rill,
I set it in a blaze;
And thence they make a stuff they call
Rowland's Macassar Oil -
Yet twopence-halfpenny is all
They give me for my toil.'


But I was thinking of a way
To feed one's self on batter,
And so go on from day to day
Getting a little fatter.
I shook him well from side to side
Until his face was blue:
'Come tell me how you live,' I cried,
'And what it is you do!'

He said 'I hunt for haddocks' eyes
Among the heather bright,
And work them into waistcoat buttons
In the silent night.
And these I do not sell for gold
Or coin of silvery shine,
But for a copper halfpenny,
And that will purchase nine.

'I sometimes dig for buttered rolls,
Or set limed twigs for crabs;
I sometimes search for grassy knolls
For wheels of hansom-cabs.
And that's the way' (he gave a wink)
'By which I get my wealth -
And very gladly will I drink
Your Honour's noble health.'

I heard him then, for I had just
Completed my design
To keep the Menai Bridge from rust
By boiling it in wine.
I thanked him much for telling me
The way he got his wealth,
But chiefly for the wish that he
Might drink my noble health.

And now if e'er by chance I put
My fingers into glue,
Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot
Into a left-hand shoe,
Or if I drop upon my toe
A very heavy weight,
I weep, for it reminds me so
Of that old man I used to know -
Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow
Whose hair was whiter than the snow,
Whose face was very like a crow,
With eyes, like cinders, all aglow,
Who seemed distracted with his woe,
Who rocked his body to and fro,
And muttered mumblingly and low,
As if his mouth were full of dough,
Who snorted like a buffalo -
That summer evening long ago
A-sitting on a gate.


As the Knight sang the last words of the ballad, he gathered up the reins, and turned his horse's head along the road by which they had come.

Lewis Carroll

 I found this poem from Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and immediately new it was perfect for my blog. The poem is trying to explain that there is no way for people to avoid death and growing old. The old man in the poem is continuously saying that he has been able to stay alive by doing these fantastical things like "hunt(ing) for Haddock's eyes." Because the only things that can keep him alive are impossible, it is implied that the speaker will never be able to replicate this old man's feat.  The last stanza of the poem lets the reader know that the old man did in fact die, "I weep, for it reminds me so/Of that old man I used to know -/Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow/Whose hair was whiter than the snow,/Whose face was very like a crow,/With eyes, like cinders, all aglow,/Who seemed distracted with his woe,/Who rocked his body to and fro,/And muttered mumblingly and low,/As if his mouth were full of dough,/Who snorted like a buffalo -/That summer evening long ago." The descriptions like "speech was slow", "face very like a crow", and talking as if his "mouth was full of dough" don't portray a pleasant decent into old age for the old man and create a bleak out look for the message of the poem. In the beginning of the poem The White Knight says that his song makes everyone cry, they cry because they realize they are going to die and that it may not be pleasant, but that it is a fact that needs to be accepted.

First Poetry Blog! Get excited! (March 12)

Having a Coke with You
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles
and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it
Frank O’Hara

The poem, Having a Coke with You, is one of my favorite poems. It is a love poem, but it is not written like a Hallmark card and overly "mushy." The speaker in the poem is clearly an art enthusiast, because he alludes to many pieces of artwork and artists. I feel a personal connection with the poem because in the first stanza the speaker speaks of, "the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary." In high school it is typical that people become infatuated with people that "they aren't supposed to." This unfortunate high school cliche is my current situation. I understand the secretive glances toward each other, the smiles that everyone else sees as simply kindness. The symbolism of the color orange, that is mentioned twice in the first stanza, is very important in my connection because orange is symbolic of energy and liveliness. The color is there to describe how the speaker feels when that special person is around. The butterflies that arise and the happiness that bubbles up inside of you when that one person is there. The many comparisons of the lover to the beauty of certain pieces of art and the way the speaker wants nothing more than this love. Nothing can compare to their love. It's special. 
The poem makes me think of my favorite book, The Hunger Games, in which Peeta is so desperately in love with Katniss that he will do anything for her. They are the "star-crossed lovers" like a modern Romeo and Juliet. He is willing to lay down his life for her and he tells her that even though he noticed a lot of other girls, but "none of them ever stuck, not like (Katniss)." Every time I read "Having a Coke with You" I immediately think of The Hunger Games. The typical love story with a twist is a similar tale to this unconventional love poem.

Allusions at work

Throughout our study of King Lear, it has become blatantly obvious that Regan and Goneril are meant to represent Adam and Eve. They are the beginning of the chaos cycle. They commit the original sin in lying to their father. Once their lies became so grand, Cordelia knew she could not say anything more than they had said without lying to her father and being just as bad. Thus spinning the wheel of fate and putting everyone else's live into a downward spin. The second piece of evidence that they are allusions to Adam and Eve occurs when Goneril originally becomes infatuated with Edmund and then Regan suddenly ignites feelings for him as well. Both sisters fell into temptation for evil. However, Regan did not fall for him until after Goneril did. Does that make Goneril, Eve; and Regan, Adam? Edmund is the serpent offering the sisters his forbidden fruit in exchange for power. The simple fact that these two princesses would risk their safe and cushioned lifestyle for a chance at more power, doesn't make sense. Which leads me to my third point. Adam and Eve were tricked into wanting something that was never really important to them. Regan and Goneril already had quite a bit of power. They had no true motivation for needing anymore. Edmund was the bastard son of a man that had an older, legitimate, son that would later inherit his power and authority; whereas, Edmund would get nothing. Edmund, like the devil, saw something he wanted and found two people that insured that whichever one he'd end up with, he'd gain more power than he ever dreamed.

The Falling action of King Lear- 2/06/12

               In a typical play format there is the introduction/background section, the rising action, the climax, the falling action and the ending. In King Lear we have read all the way up to Act IV in class. We have seen how it all began, Lear's disowning of Cordelia, his daughters' betrayal, and the climax where Lear realizes that having a lot and having beautiful things does not necessarily mean you have everything. Tom's raw humanity made Lear see that it truly is better to be yourself fighting against the constrains of society than to be unnatural. Now in the falling action, I am starting to wonder if it is really a "falling." With Cornwall dead, Regan is single and wants Edmund. With Albany and Goneril in an unhappy marriage, Goneril wants Edmund. Sisters fighting in this time can draw blood. In my opinion there is no way this is a falling action, it seems to be more action than what was preceding it. Tragedies, both Shakespearean and not, end with death and sometimes there are multiple deaths. A death is not a falling action. Sisters fighting to death is not a falling action. And having multiple realizations , as done by Lear, is not a falling action. Do tragedies truly have a falling action until the deaths are all finished? Or are the tragedies simply cliffhanger stories that leave you wondering what it is going to happen now? What will happen to the people that are left behind and what could have been done to change the outcome? There is not a falling action to this tragedy. There is simply an end.

King Lear Climax- Jan. 30, 2012

Today, every group in our clas agreed on one thing; the climax of King Lear. The only problem with this agreement was that we were completely incorrect. I think that everyone thought Act III. Scene 4. Line108-120 was the climax of the play because this is the one part of the play where we see Lear completely throw everything to the wind. He has lost everything, he doesn't know what to believe anymore, and he is learning the truly important things. Lear admires Tom's (Edgar's) blunt honesty in his nudity and style of life. He sees Tom as being nothing but who he truly is. Tom is not changing himself through the clothing he wears or his lavish lifestyle, he is simply Tom (Edgar). I believe the main reasoning all of the groups found in choosing this passage the fact that Lear sheds his clothing. Nudity is always a signal for a character returning to an innocent/childlike state or becoming one with nature. In this sense I see Lear as going to his true natural state. I don't know for sure which passage is the true climax, because I believed strongly that this pasage was the climax. However, my best guess on what the climax passage is, is Act III. Scene 4. lines 27-42. I see this as the climax because this i one of the first times that Lear has a realization about just how much of his life was unnecessary and how much of his life he could make it without. His first thought of truly going back to nature. The main line that made me believe that this is the climax is line 39 where Lear says, "Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou may'st shake the superflux to them/And show the heavens more just." Lear basically says how he has a surplus of items and would rather live as poor Tom does. Lear is going back to basics and that to me is the climax of this play.
-Maddie