How do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee?

I´ve chosen this poem because I really enjoyed reading it. I could really visualize the writer feelings towards his husband-to-be. Her love towards him is so intense that she mentions she will love him, even after death. By mentioning love after death, readers may infer that this pure and unconditional love will continue in heaven, and that it will be even better there. Readers may also infer that the writer believes in God. And when she mentions the lost saints, she means that she loves him in the way she loved saints as a child, refering to the blind faith of children.
For me, love poems are really fascinating, And this is no the exception, Love can change everything; it can change negative aspects of one´s personality, it can make one appreciate life, and it may even save one´s life. Love is everything!!!  And I´m not only talking about couples´ love, I also talk about Love in all forms, family, friends, pets, etc. I believe that Love is the only way to achieve happiness.

My glogster shows what I felt while reading the poem. I have included two videos one of No Doubt another of Sahnia Twain and the BSB. The second video mentioned is really special for me. I hope you enjoy my Glogster!

http://www.glogster.com/mariaisabeltrabaina07/-mariaisabeltrabaina07/g-6l6hpt9rol26fi5ulstasa0

IN MEMORIAM

 IN MEMORIAM (sections 54-56)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)

After some research I’ve discovered that this poem is part of a very long poem which is a requiem for Tennyson’s friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833. I was amazed to learn this poem was written over a period of 17 years. According to Bradley and Johnson we can distinguish four different themes throughout its sections: despair (1-27), doubt (28-77), faith (78-102), and hope (103-131) .

In the sections selected (54-56) the poet fluctuates between faith and doubt. He presents humanity as God’s most beloved creation but at the same time wonders whether there is a purpose, a goal in human existence. Tennyson also portrays Nature at strife with God, Nature does not care about human being’s needs and desires, and suggests the human race might disappear as many other species have extinguished. That’s why I’ve included the pictures of natural disasters. The lines quoted below express human being´s insignificance in comparison to the vast universe.

“But what am I?

an infant crying in the night:

 an infant crying for the light:

and with no language but a cry.

I think everybody has felt like this at least once in their life.

Tennyson also challenges religious certainties. He questions the existence of eternal life, and debates with himself whether we should believe that God is love and that everything happens for a reason, or believing that faith and the pursuit of truth and justice is in vain.

I’ve chosen this poem because I was deeply touched by it when I read it and felt identified with the questions posed by the author. It’s simply marvelous how the poet can express our human uncertainties so beautifully! I found the poem so thought provoking, it reminded me of those moments I find myself daydreaming, wondering about the meaning of life, asking myself what is the purpose of everything I do…

I’ve chosen different sounds for the two feelings the author expresses: “Tristeza de un doble A” (Piazzolla) for sadness and despair, and “Innuendo” (Queen) for a more optimistic view. And I’ve included a beautiful poem that came into my mind when reading In Memoriam: “Adam cast forth” (Borges). In this poem the author also challenges the existence of the Garden of Eden. I’ve posted two versions, the original in Spanish and a translation (I don´t know whether this is the best translation).

In my opinion the reflective tone of the poem can be related to the novel “To the Lighthouse”, especially to Lily Briscoe’s constant considerations about the meaning of life. What’s more, as some critics believe the whole poem “In Memoriam” is an account of Tennyson’s thoughts and feelings as he copes with his grief throughout the years, we can relate it to the different stages of mourning that Lily Briscoe undergoes in Woolf´s novel.

How do I Love Thee?

I have chosen this poem not only because of the beautiful way this writer talks about her love towards his couple, but also, because of the story which lies behind it. After doing some research, I found that Elizabeth Barret Browning suffered from a strange illness which caused her an incapacitating weakness. When she published a volume of her poems, Robert Browing sent her letters telling her that he loved her poems. After a long time of communicating through letters, they were arranged to meet each other in person. When they met, they instantly fell in love. They eloped to Italy because her father didn´t approve of their union. Elizabeth claimed that her health improved greatly because of the happiness and love that her couple gave her. Some fifteen years later, she died in her couple´s arms.

This is my favourite part of the poem:


"...I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, – I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death. "

What I very much liked about this poem is the fact that she expresses her love, not an earthly love, with a more eternal perspective, the fact that she will love him even after her death. She also expresses the way she loves him, with all her human attributes. I could really feel her love is sincere and pure.

When reading this poem, I couldn´t help thinking of The Ramones´song " Baby I love you" and of many images related to my favourite love moviy that I´ve seen, such as Noha´s Diary.

i like my body when it is with your

i like my body when it is with your is a poem by e e cummings.

After reading all the poems, this was chosen for two main reasons: the lowercase letter i and what it made me feel.

To understand why he used lowercase, I did some research and I found this excerpt that explains his peculiar style:

 ¨... In his poems, he didn't use punctuation or capitalization.  Capitals were used only for special emphasis.  Punctuation marks were used only for a shock effect.  He was also noted for the use of the lowercase letter "i" in his poems. [...]   His work looks like random words and phrases thrown together, and the reader must stop and think beyond the written text.  E.E. Cummings was a different breed of poet.  He used his unconventional, yet brilliant style to send a message to the reader.  In his work, E.E. Cummings didn't use capital letters, proper punctuation, or proper grammar.  He used this to his advantage in mixing the message into the poem. He deliberatley [sic] confused the reader by having them follow the winding paths of words he had created because he felt that a straight one would narrow the reader's mind."

Taken from: http://english11poets.pbworks.com/w/page/19005388/ee%20cummings
(I decided to write in bold the main concepts)

After reading the poem several times, I experienced strong feelings like love, passion, desire, longing... 

This poem is about the physicality of a new loving relationship (concept taken from this webpage). It stimulated my creativity and, therefore, this was the result.




It was easy for me to visualize the story that was told in these stanzas. 

I imagined these lovers could have felt that they were flying into the heavens, that's the reason why the wall of my Glogster is a sky. Besides, I found another relation with the Passion this couple could have felt in the extract of a lecture that was given by the character of Barbara Streisand in the film The Mirror Has Two Faces.

I associated each image with a different moment in the poem.

The image of the couple that is hugging with the lines:

" i like its hows. I like to feel the spine of your body and its bones"

and the image of the couple kissing with the following line:

"kiss, I like kissing this and that of you"

While I was reading it for the third or forth time, I found myself humming the song "Loving you" and I decided to included it as well. I embedded this video that is not the original version, but it was made of lovely pictures of couples, which I found pretty appropriate.

This was the analysis and the Glogster of the beautiful poem: i like my body when it is with your by e e cummings made by Marina Robledo.

Because I could not stop for Death (Emily Dickinson)

BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH 

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste, 

And I had put away

My labor, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove

At recess, in the ring;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;

The dews grew quivering and chill,

For only gossamer my gown,

My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each

Feels shorter than the day

I first surmised the horses' heads

Were toward eternity.

Having read all the poems provided, I’ve chosen “Because I could not stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson because the fact that death is the main theme of this poem caught my interest.  In my opinion its protagonist must be a woman for the words she chooses to describe how she is dying.  To be honest, I couldn’t help feeling identified with her.  The first stanza clearly states that she seemed to be “busy” to realize that she was about to die. She must have been so immersed in her duties that she couldn’t even stop for death. In this trip, she is the only person travelling with Death. This idea is emphasized throughout the poem by  interchanging the first person singular and plural. Dickinson uses the third person singular just once to introduce Death.

 The fact that death is personified as a man also called my attention.  Generally, the writers who portray death as a human being tend to depict it as an evil woman who outrageously takes people’s lives.  In this poem, Death is pictured differently. He is not described as a frightening man, but as a kind one who took the time to do what the victim couldn’t.  

In the second stanza, she regrets leaving her labor and leisure but not people. Dickinson describes the trip in which the speaker is embarked on as a pleasant one. Although she knows that she has died, she’s neither terrified nor worried. On the contrary, she seems to go through this new experience in a relaxed mood.

In the third stanza, the world the speaker is passing from is described. In the following stanza, she corrects herself by stating “or rather –he passed us”. It’s now when she realizes that she is no longer a human being, but a soul travelling to the great beyond. In this stanza Death is shown in a more conventional form. The protagonist faces the coldness that is said to be experienced when dying. However, she knows that this part of death leads her to eternity, the ultimate goal.

This poem can be related with some of the works we dealt with in class. In The Lagoon, the Turn of the Screw and To the Lighthouse, death is one of the main themes.

In the post I’ve prepared, I’ve included pictures connected to death. The colours that prevail are black and white, except for the shadow around the two phrases, which represent the light that is said to be seen once we’re dead.  I’ve chosen a young woman as the speaker of the poem because, while reading it, I imagined her as a lady in his early thirties.  There are two pictures depicting what eternity represents and in the central image Death is portrayed. There are two phrases: the first line of the poem and one which reflects how many people conceive death. I also included a video with the poem read and the story performed. The background music is ideal because it shows the feeling of peacefulness the speaker is experiencing. As regards the wall chosen, I wanted to highlight how Death must have stopped the young woman's life.

The Lady of Shalott 1842 edition. Part 2

Though the plot of The Lady of Shalott –PartII, shows a girl who is under a curse and lives a solitary life, observing but not participating in society, the tone in this section of the poem is not a gloomy or depressing one. We don’t know how or why she is confined in the castle on the island (Part I), but judging from some of the words chosen, such as “magic web”, colours gay”, “glad”, “delights”, “plumes”, “lights”, “music”, which contribute to a quite cheerful atmosphere, it seems that the lady is happy in her place or at least she is accustomed to her lifestyle, and enjoys weaving her tapestries. However, by the end of the poem the lady has a voice and her attitude changes. This is a turning point in the poem and we can anticipate that something wrong will happen to her. Because a curse will befall on her if she looks down to Camelot, she does not dare to look directly outside her window, so she has managed to contemplate the outside world through a mirror. . The images she sees on it (people, nature, the highway, etc) are described as “shadows”. Though she does not seem to lament, she eventually becomes tired of these “shadows”, of looking at life as reflections in her mirror (line 35 “I’m half-sick of shadows,” said The Lady of Shallot). I first felt pity for this lady, because though she does not seem to be suffering, I can imagine that her total isolation and loneliness are unconsciously torturing her. Then I realized that this lady is a respectful character who has dignity to express her frustration and take a decision that will change the course of her life (rather will put an end to her life!). On a surface reading, I found several similarities between this poem and Wide Sargasso Sea in connection to main characters, themes and symbols (see below **). Broadly speaking, both stories have as a main character a lady deprived of love, imprisoned and isolated from the world. However, on a deeper analysis, the poem can also be related to To the Lighthouse. Some critics claim that The Lady of Shalott is about the conflict between ART and LIFE. In this perspective, considering ART as a way of life, the lady would be the artist who enjoys weaving magic webs and singing beautiful songs (as Lily loves painting) and who voluntarily cuts herself off to the rest of the world, represented by a group of damsels, an abbot, a young shepherd, a page, etc., who stand for common people in their daily activities (similarly, Lily decides to be an independent woman, and becomes like an outcast who does not conform to the expectations of society- she wants to be an artist but society demands her to be a wife and a mother). (**) Wide Sargasso Sea and The Lady of Shalott Themes: Appearance vs Reality -WSS: different representations of reality through dreams, letters, rumours (no clear distinction between dream and reality, madness and sanity, superstition and reason) -TLS: “shadows” and reality. Reality for her is what she sees in the mirror. The Supernatural -WSS: practice of obeah. It inspires fear. -TLS: black magic. The lady suffers from a mysterious curse. Love -WSS: Antoinette is a lonely young girl. She grew up without her mother’s , parents’ or friends‘ love. She married Mr. Rochester who never loved her either, and brought her downfall. -TLS: The Lady of Shallot is a lonely girl. (she has no loyal knight). Identity -WSS: names: Antoinette is deprived of her identity. Rochester calls her “Bertha” and “Marionette”. -TLS: No name, the main character is referred as The Lady of Shalott. She is a mysterious figure, nobody has seen her (PartI). Symbol: Mirrors: can stands for the DOUBLE -WSS: mirrors symbolize duality (Jane Eyre could be the double of Antoinette, Antoinette finds her double in Tia) -TLS: (mirrors were set behind the tapestry so that the worker could see the effect from the right side). The mirror is the only thing that connects the lady to the world. But the images she sees are merely “shadows”, not the real world. The mirror in both stories is a symbol of the characters’ isolation. The Lady of Shallot uses a mirror to see the world but cannot interact with it. In WSS, Antoinette’s madness stems from her imprisonment: when she is locked up in the attic and she faces a mirror, she cannot recognize herself.

Morning Song -  Sylvia Plath

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.

The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry

Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.

In a drafty museum, your nakedness

Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I’m no more your mother

Than the cloud that distils a mirror to reflect its own slow

Effacement at the wind’s hand.

All night your moth-breath

Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:

A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral

In my Victorian nightgown.

Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. the window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try

Your handful of notes;

The clear vowels rise like balloons.

 http://www.glogster.com/ericavallone/flypaper-glog-by-ericavallone/g-6l78na4sh2a45on6aajkpa0

I have chosen the poem Morning Song by Sylvia Plath basically because I liked it, and it evoked several images while I was reading it. In this poem we can see from the point of view of a mother the different stages she goes through from her pregnancy to the moment the baby utters her first sounds. First she describes with happiness her pregnancy and the moment she gives birth to her child. Then, we are told about her worries and fears as she gets up at night to see her baby is sleeping peacefully. And finally, she describes her baby’s attempt to produce sounds in the morning.

I associate the poem with soft colours, such as white, grey, pastel pink because they symbolize purity. For me, the purest thing in the world is a young baby. I tried to include a picture that show every moment the mother describes. The poem makes me feel peace, love, and tenderness.

This poem could be related to the role of women played by Mrs Ramsay in To the Lighthouse. A kind of mother devoted to her children, being unconditional. It also reminds me of the character of Annette in Wide Sargasso Sea, especially her relationship with her son, Pierre. As he was a handicapped child, she focused her attention on him. Because he was weak, she had to protect him all the time.

They are three examples of caring and protective mothers.