Poetry Analysis

Poetry like any other form of creative work is there to express the authors thoughts, opinions and feelings to their audience. There are vast strategies that can be applied to help readers make sense of it. Which method you use relies heavily on the poem you are reading. Different poems call on different aspects of poetry, ways of reading, and the relationships between feelings, images and meaning. It is the purpose of this essay is to discuss elements of analysis that are designed to help readers identify the way poetry makes its meaning. Looking at the poem The Black Art, we will discuss how the piece achieves its effects for the audience. To begin reading a poem, I believe that it is imperative to identify major indicators of meaning, this includes aspects of setting and topic, as well as the voice of the person dominating or directing your reading. This can be achieved by looking for a clue as to the identity of the narrator, is it coming from a feminine or masculine point of view? The Black Art comes from a feminine point of view, the narrator is clearly female. The first stanza refers to women, a woman who writes feels too much, this stanza is ended with the key line Dear love, I am that girl. The use of singular prose I tells the reader the author is speaking of herself. As a female reader the author has established a common ground with the opening line. Women are commonly referred to, as emotional beings while men are rational. Therefore as women we would naturally all have material to write about. For myself this allows me to identify with the author. The words used in a poem and their literal meanings are not the only way to decipher what the poem is about. The diction, intonation and nuance of the phrases in the stanzas can convey to the reader the attitudes to its subject. A reader can take the words for face value or take a closer look to see if the author has meant these words to have a different connotation. The literal meaning of this poem could be taken as a women confessing simply how she feels about her relationship with the male subject of stanza two and three (e.g. Dear love, I am that girl & Never loving ourselvesWe love each other, precious, precious). However when we take a closer look at the addition of the words as if and wasnt never enough and the repetitive pattern of their inclusion before the phrases, cycles and children and islands and erections and congress and products, the tone of commentary appears sarcastic. The similar shape of stanza one and two (e.g. line length, spoken rhythm of the poem), serves to emphasize the continuing satirical nature of the piece when switching from talking about herself to talking about the male subject. In the first stanza, I believe the author is trying to suggest that although women have important roles as mothers, and caregivers, it is only a small part of our identity as a person.

Another example of the satirical nature of the poem is in the line she thinks she can warn the stars. The reference to the stars is the author making fun at the sheer possibility of women being ambitious (reaching for new height). The author is using a poetic technique called imagery, to allow the reader to create a vivid picture of exactly how far away we are from the stars, emphasizing her point. There is an overwhelming feeling that the author sees women as dangerously giving, even to the peril of their own hearts. This would make sense of the line, A writer is a spy and a spy puts their own life on the line to complete missions for others. The author has used the word spy as a rhetorical figure, using word play to produce an unanticipated effect without actually changing the meaning of the word used. In stanza two the author switches from talking about herself to talking about the male subject, Dear Love, you are that man. We are able to make a clear distinction between the topics of the two stanzas by paying attention to some key terms of the poem. In stanza one the word cycle perhaps refers to the female menstrual cycle and to the feminine point of view, while the word erection pertaining to a mans genitals, highlights the switch to talking about the masculine perspective. As in stanza one, I believe the author has used sarcasm to comment on her belief that even though men possess a majority of power in world (e.g.as if machines & galleons and wars were never enough), they still crave more, to achieve the impossible (with used furniture he makes a tree.). For myself, it is clear from the line A writer is essentially a crook., the author is again using rhetorical figures to describe the male subject as a thief taking self-esteem and capability away from her. This comments on the inequity of power within the relationship. I enjoyed Reading the poem The Black Art , as I derived quite a strong feeling of familiarity with the content of the poem. The author established a firm identification with the female audience. I dislike that women are often plunged into roles of mother and wife, with out consideration given to our many other talents as individuals. I think the lack of figurative language in the poem attracted me. I find metaphors, similes and so forth distracting sometimes to the true meaning of the poem. However the play on such words as spy and crook in the The Black Art cleverly comments on the power struggle between the giving nature of women and the taking temperament of men.

Mark Twain had said that The Prince and the Pauper was a tale for young people of all ages. Primarily, it is a children’s book, and the dominant themes running through the books are of childhood fairy tales: death of a parent, cruel substitute parents, abandonment, lost identity, and injustice. However, the two most major themes represented by the book are that of lost identity and confronting injustice with righteousness and mercy. Mark Twain starkly contrasts the two worlds from which the two boys come from and hence the tattered brown paper on one side, and shiny glossy wrapper on the other side. The Pauper hales from Offal Court, a crowded slum, and the Prince from a spacious palace. Mark Twain describes two central characters as “Prince of Poverty” and Prince of Limitless Plenty” Tom Canty, the pauper, and Edward Tudor, the prince of England are exact doubles. The most crucial scene of the book is obviously when they encounter each other. Edward says “O, prithee, say no more, ’tis glorious! If that I could but clothe me in raiment like thine, and strip my feet, and revel in the mud once, just once, with none to rebuke me or forbid, meseemeth I could forgo the crown!”

That scene is in the center of the collage. As the book progresses, the reader realizes that Tom Canty is the smarter the one. He is the one who is trying to adapt to the situation. Edward Tudor always refers to his father in times of danger. He is very pompous. Both of the boys are described as being mad. But Tom Canty, who is mistaken as the prince is taken great care of just because he is a prince and wears splendid clothes. Edward Tudor, who is in rags, is considered completely mad and no one takes care of except Miles Hendon, but he still believes that Edward is insane. Edward on the other hand believes Hendon’s tragic story. It is very obvious, that in sixteenth century England, clothes determines your identity and status. The theme of Mercy is evident throughout. It is Tom Canty, acting as the king when Henry VIII dies, starts the reform in England. He revokes the Duke of Norfolk’s death sentence and also grants pardon to a mother and daughter who were consider witches. He also gives a less cruel punishment to a man who was ordered to be boiled to death. Edward continues this reign of mercy and justice when he regains the throne. Mark Twain is pointing out that children are the hope of the future. After Henry VIII’s bloody reign of religious zeal and prosecution, peace is finally returning. He also points out that sixteenth century England was a time of superficial thinking where one’s status and clothes determined the way one was treated. Tom was treated well, in spite of him being “insane” because he was thought to be the prince. Edward was treated harshly because he was considered a pauper and was poor. Toward the conclusion, one hopes that through all the experiences Edward had of being a Pauper, he will rule England with justice and mercy.

We have been studying 3 of Sheena Pugh’s poems which all relate to earth and mankind . In poem one titled ‘the craft I left in was called Esau’ , it shows the weary travellers that had to leave earth for one reason or another in a timid and nervous mood , simply searching for a new place to live. The poem makes the reader feel tense almost waiting for something to happen. The fact they had to leave portrays a sense of imminent danger , the fact they scratched the word Esau on the door makes it seem like it was done in haste as if to say they could have been wiped out at any moment.

The name Esau on the door relates to the bible story when Esau sells his heritage to his brother Jacob for a bowl of pottage which is to say that we’ve abused the earth. The second poem we read was called ‘Do you think we’ll ever get to see earth sir? ‘ and it shows our characters taking trips to see earth like sightseers . Our teacher Christie stating the ideas concepts pointlessness as there is hardly anything to see. The third poem was called ‘Geography 1’ and is about an island called Surtsey which was actually a volcano.

This means that in the order of poems it shows the ‘end of the earth’ , ‘returning to earth’ , and ‘a new bit of earth’. In poem 1 the craft is called Esau because it insinuates that mankind threw away it’s inheritance. They say in the text the name Esau was scratched on the door which portrays a sense of immediate danger or emergency which forced them to leave. ‘Incongruous’ is used in the text and means something does not fit the pattern and so while the travellers are ‘joking nervously’ it doesn’t feel quite right somehow.

We know the travellers are on their first journey of this kind because they were joking nervously as if they were just trying to ignore the fact they were travelling into the unknown. I don’t think they are coming back because the reason they are nervous is that they know that if everything goes wrong then they don’t have a safe-house to return to. The poet uses the word ‘still’ twice in succession to emphasise it (the stillness) , a new ocean portrays a new task or challenge waiting to be mapped out.

They say “it seemed natural to look for a horizon” because the word ‘natural’ because it suggests that they’re going purely on instinct while if it were normal then it would be a tried and tested method of tracking position. The ‘charted coastlines’ mentioned in the poem suggest an unstarted map , a blindly followed path in search for a new home. “Our late guesthouse” suggests it’s not the last part of the story , it isn’t the end as if there’s more to come or they are part of a much deeper plot.

This poem has no poem but has simple language however the reader is compelled to continue reading just in case they miss something important that’s about to happen. The second poem we have studied that is written by Sheena Pugh is called ‘Do you think we’ll ever get to see earth sir? ‘. It is about a cynical earth survivor getting quite emotive about the concept of savouring lost memories or in this case , earth.

The poem is written as a brief lecture to a student , which almost instructs the student about what to do if he sees even the smallest image of the past. The writer makes us think about the future by making us think about how we will be remembered by our descendants. While reading you can’t help but think about what fate could lead to the evacuation of earth , the thing that hangs in my mind is the concept of a nuclear war , the reason this ties in with the poem is that we hear the teacher say “they’re still toxic” …… nuclear war could potentially do this.

This poem has a person telling it with a very sharp , sarcastic tone in their voice , this gives the impression that this person just wants the chance to forget. This poem makes me feel insecure because the best thing about earth is the sense of security you get when say… at home in your room because in a way nothing can touch you there. The other thing about this poem is that it has no verses as if all the points that are made are inter-twined and need not be separated.

The word ‘look’ is used very often as if to say be a part of it not just stare and gaze upon it. She says things like “see it with your skin” etc which I think means that you should see it with all your senses and not just sight. If I had to pick one , my favourite word would be ‘damascening’ because it sounds like a very rigorous describing word. The third poem we have studied is called ‘Geography 1’ and the person in the poem is describing the birth of a new part of earth , the island of Surtsey.

Surtsey was a small island that was formed by a volcanic eruption , Surtsey was said to be important because it was like seeing the earth being born again. I think Surtsey was used as a lesson to the pupils because it shows a fresh start which can lead on to better times. Throughout the poem I believe Sheena is trying to say that novelties do eventually turn old and unimportant. The mood of this poem is of a non-caring , ignorant – to – the past mood for example when he says “fancy that , but I hadn’t time to look properly”.

Throughout the poem Pugh makes us feel gripped and embraced until the ironic ending. The language does encourage this mood with powerful describing phrases ie “flood of colours”. I think this poem is written in verses to separate the different points the poet is trying to convey , for example in the 4th paragraph they show the novelty of Surtsey by saying “Surtsey was important” but the 5th paragraph contradicts this by saying that it was forgotten, “even the birds nested in a few years”. Christie is supposed to be teaching a Geography lesson in the poem.

I quite like the phrase “with angry energy , it wanted to shout” because while reading it you do get a rush of energy. I do not like the phrase “Surtsey was important because it was like seeing the earth being born again” because I feel this point is obvious and has already been made. I do like the poem however because it has powerful phrases and has a point (volcanic eruption), which can be easily pictured because unlike the other two poems it is a concept that man can currently experience.

I definitely prefer this poem as it has good describing phrases and high octane adjectives. The first poem made me feel quite tense because you had to imagine being on a ship seeing your life fade into the distance , poem two made me feel quite cynical as the fact it’s a personal poem makes it easier to fal into the very plot of the character Christie and so you do see the point he is making.

The third poem ‘Geography 1’gave you a feeling of having too much energy followed by too little because it’s a transition from “that flood of colours” to “just an offshore island”. I did prefer the third poem because as I said before it has a conceivable concept. These three poems do show ‘the end of earth’, ‘returning to earth’, ‘and a new bit of earth’, this shows devolution but in a way evolution because a new bit of earth implies a new, fresh start.

Steven R. Goodman AASP100 England May 5, 2010 Reaction #2 Langston Hughes Poetry A Literary Analysis of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” The Harlem Renaissance can be considered as “the cultural boom” in African-American history. Spanning from the 1920s into the mid-1930s, the Harlem Renaissance was an apex in African-American intellectualism. The period is also recognized as the “New Negro Movement”—named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke. Alain LeRoy Locke was an American educator, writer, and philosopher, who most consider as the father of the Harlem Renaissance.

Historians recall him as a leader and chief interpreter of the movement. In his anthology, he brings out a montage of works by many well-known Africans and African-Americans including such figures as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barth, William Grant Still, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ralph Bunche, and John Dewey (Locke). One of these figures wrote one of the most profound poems still read today. Langston Hughes was an American poet whose most prominent works came out during the Harlem Renaissance.

The poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” was Hughes’ first published poem and it was his signature too. Only 17 years old when he wrote it, Hughes created the poem while he was on a train headed to Mexico where he would live with his father for a year. As his train crossed the Mississippi River, he was astonished by how beautiful the river was and the thought of how that river had a role in maintaining slavery in America came into his mind and he started writing. Let’s start off with the title. The title has the term “negro” in it. Now how can we identify this?

Well, the term “negro” tells us about the time period which takes us back to the early 20th century when “negro” was self-identifiable with the black community for that is the term that they adopted. However, we see that the term is only used in the title which places emphasis on its overall collective meaning of the ideas it portrays. Now let us dive into the poem. There are two metaphorical themes in this poem and they are “rivers” and “darkness. ” In line one, the Hughes says, “I’ve known rivers. ” In this line, “I,” the speaker, is standing for the entire black community throughout history.

All of the rivers mentioned in the poem constitute as part of an extended metaphor that is comparing the souls of black people to the ancient, wise, and great rivers of the Earth (Shmoop). In the line two, the simile, “as ancient as the world,” is constructed to emphasize the comparison of the age of the rivers to the age of the Earth. In line three, we see rivers being used as a metaphor to depict the rivers of blood that flow through human veins. So the flow of blood in veins is compared to the flow of rivers. In line for, Hughes creates a simile comparing how deep his soul is to how deep the rivers are.

Now as we get to line five the story of the path of the black community in history unfolds. In line five we start off with the first river, the Euphrates River, which is supposedly where all life began; known as the cradle of civilization. Hughes notes that he bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. This symbolizes that there was peace and freedom. Line six entails the black community’s journey into central western Africa. In line six we continue with the second river, the Congo River, where he built his hut and it lulled him to sleep. The black community is still undergoing peace and freedom.

They are building a civilization. In line seven we see Hughes going into the third river, the Nile River. Now in line seven, we can certainly say that freedom hasn’t necessarily stopped, but history has shown that black people amongst white people, and yellow people were slaves and all participated in the building of the pyramids. Lastly, Hughes enters into the fourth and final river, the Mississippi River. Hughes describes here the moment in history when Abraham Lincoln sailed the Mississippi River and he witnessed the horrors of slavery at its finest.

In this same line, Hughes has the river come alive when he describes the river singing. In lines nine and ten Hughes creates some imagery when he tells of how the sun setting on the Mighty Muddy Mississippi R. changed its color to gold. He also personifies the river when he depicts it having a “bosom” acquiring feminine attributes. The second theme of “darkness” can only be seen when literally picking away at the poem. We see that Hughes is very descriptive when he introduces darkness and light throughout the poem. In lines nine and ten we see Hughes describing how the Mississippi R. oes from “muddy” to “golden” as the sun departs and the night arrives. So we can also take from this as muddy being a metaphor for skin color when talking about slavery. Once the river becomes golden, slavery is abolished and slaves are freed. As we view the word “dusky” when describing the nature of the rivers, the metaphor can be not just for skin color, but also to remind our reader about the author’s past which haunts him. In line 13 the poem ends with “My soul has grown deep like the rivers. ” What can we take from this?

Everytime the black civilization moves to a different point in time, the rivers get deeper, as well as the black man’s soul. The author has seen the upbringing of civilizations, he has contributed in building the pyramids, and he has witnessed slavery being abolished. This poem is a time machine of events. In conclusion, Langston Hughes was a New Negro because as a voice for the black community, through his poetry he influenced other people to take pride in their heritage, culture, and triumphs noting racism when needed while showing pride in the black community. Alain Locke. ” The #1 Site for African American Literature – Books, Novels, Authors, Movies, Resources, Discussion and More African Diaspora. Web. 06 May 2010. http://aalbc. com/authors/Alainlocke. htm. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay. ” Shmoop: Study Guides & Teacher Resources. Web. 06 May 2010. http://www. shmoop. com/negro-speaks-of-rivers/symbolism-imagery. html.

Give some ex. males. Very realistic and descriptive imagery. ‘The furious Bandleader’s” 9. Does the poem have meter? If so, what is it? NO. 10. Does your poem have a rhyme scheme? Ifs, what sit? The lilting rhythm Of “Jawbreakers” helps the narrator’s cause. It makes the p memo easy to remember, and it keeps the story moving forward at a regular clip. 1 1 . What other sound devices(alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia) have be en included byte poet? Give examples of each.

All the exclamation points in the middle are what give our storyteller his cues to gesticulate wildly at us while relaying the epic battle, and so even though the rhythm stay s constant, we have some good changes in volume. ” Beware the Jawbreaker my son! ” “A d burbled as it came! ” 12. What figures of speech are included ( metaphor,simile, personification, why parole, metonymy, apostrophe, etc. )? Include examples and explain the effect each o en has on your understanding and appreciation of the poem. Speaking of volume, and wonderful uses onomatopoeia. Snickering! ” “who piffling” “galumphing” and “chortled” 13. What is the mood Of this poem? Explain your answer. Violence, Perseverance, Men and Masculinity, Good v. Evil, and Men and the N trial World. 14. Identify words which have a connotative meaning which help to clarify the author’s tone. Explain each example. Beware the Jujube bird, and shun the furious Bandleader’s! ” “He left it dead d, and with its head he went galumphing back. ” 15. What is the author’s tone (his or her attitude toward the subject?

He is warning and than triumphant. 16. Explain the significance of the poem’s title. To hence the fact that the poem is pure nonsense . 17. Write a paragraph in which you briefly summarize the poem. The poem begins with a description of the setting and continues into an after noon, with strange, monounsaturated milling around and making noises. Then, we have some dialogue. A father tells his son to beware of something called a “Jackbooted” hat lurks in the woods and has horrible claws and teeth.

There’s also some other nasty stuff out there – the “Jujube bird” and the “Bandleader’s”. The son takes his sword and goes out looking for these creatures, and finally finds and kills the Jawbreakers. Upon r turning with the creature’s head, the father is overjoyed and they celebrate. The first s Tanta repeats, and things appear to return back to normal. 18. Based on your analysis, what do you think is the authors purpose in writing g this poem? That is, what universal truth does he/she want to share with his/ her readers (theme)? Over coming your fears.

James Douglas Morrison’s poetry was born out of a period of tumultuous social and political change in American and world history. Besides Morrison’s social and political perspective, his verse also speaks with an understanding of the world of literature, especially of the traditions that shaped the poetry of his age. His poetry expresses his own experiences, thoughts, development, and maturation as a poet — from his musings on film at UCLA in The Lords and The New Creatures, to his final poems in Wilderness and The American Night.

It is my intention to show Morrison as a serious American poet, whose work is worthy of serious consideration in relation to its place in the American literary tradition. By discussing the poetry in terms of Morrison’s influences and own ideas, I will be able to show what distinguishes him as a significant American poet. In order to reveal him as having a clearly defined ability as a poet, my focus will be on Morrison’s own words and poetry. I will concentrate on his earlier work to show the influence of Nietzsche and French poets such as Arthur Rimbaud and Antonin Artaud and the effect they had on Morrison’s poetry and style.

Morrison’s poetic style is characterised by contrived ambiguity of meaning which serves to express subconscious thought and feeling—a tendency now generally associated with the ‘post-modern’ or avant garde. His poetic strength is that he creates poetry quite profound in its effect upon the reader, by using vividly evocative words and images in his poems. While it is obvious that Morrison has read writers that influence his work, and their influence remains strong in subject and tone, he still manages to make it his own in the way he adapts these influences to his style, experiences, and ideas.

We would expect to find remnants of quotes, stolen lines and ideas, in a lesser writer, but Morrison shows his strength as a poet by resisting plagiarism and blatant ‘borrowing,’ in order to achieve originality in his own verse. As T. S. Eliot has said, “Bad poets borrow, good poets steal. ” Morrison’s poetry is very surreal at times, as well as highly symbolic — there is a pervading sense of the irrational, chaotic, and the violent; an effect produced by startling juxtapositions of images and words. Morrison’s poetry reveals a strange world — a place peopled by characters straight out f Morrison’s circus of the mind, from the strange streets of Los Angeles boulevards and back alleys. Morrison’s speech is a native tongue, and his eye is that of a visionary American poet. He belongs to what poet and critic Jerome Rothenberg calls the “American Prophecy . . . present in all that speaks to our sense of ‘identity’ and our need for renewal. ” Rothenberg sees this prophetic tradition as: Affirming the oldest function of poetry, which is to interrupt the habits of ordinary consciousness by means of more precise and highly charged uses of language and to provide new tools for discovering the underlying relatedness of all life . . A special concern for the interplay of myth and history runs through the whole of American literature. Thoreau, Emerson, and Whitman saw the poet’s function in part as revealing the visionary meaning of our lives in relation to the time and place in which we live . . . we have taken this American emphasis on the relationship of myth and history, of poetry and life, as the central meaning of a ‘prophetic’ native tradition. The lasting impression of Morrison’s poems is that they attempt to render the dream or nightmare of modern existence in terms of words and imagery, quite bizarre and obscure, yet compelling at the same time.

An important aspect about the body of his work and his commitment to his particular style, one closely aligned to Rothenberg’s ‘prophetic’ tradition, is that it is in the tradition of what other poets of his time were writing. Morrison’s early experiments with poetry and prose, written between 1964-69, depict — in the language of an intellectually ambitious film student — the strong influence of people such as Nietzsche and Artaud, and his ideas on aesthetics, philosophy, life, and film in particular.

His early writings are the foundation on which he develops his poetic style. All the motifs, symbols, and imagery introduced in his first collection of poems recur continuously throughout his later works. The Lords and The New Creatures was conceived as two separate books; however, it was published as one book containing Morrison’s ideas and poetry. Essentially, it is a forum for the fleshing out of style. The first half of the book The Lords: Notes on Vision, is a collection of notes and prose poems; while the second half, The New Creatures, is an assortment of poetry.

The Lords is a motley work of ideas and prose, loosely held together with motifs of death, cinema, and the reinterpretation of mythical and theatrical theory. While originality seems to be in short supply, and naive idealism in abundance, it is interesting for the allusion to, and presentation of philosophical and aesthetic ideas, central to Morrison’s poetry. Stylistically, The Lords reflects his propensity for ‘dark’ imagery and self-mythology, which would later be a fundamental characteristic of his poetry and performance.

The motifs that pervade all of his poetry abound; the ‘city’, ‘sex’, ‘death’, ‘assassins’, ‘voyeurs’, ‘wanderers’, ‘deserts’, ‘shamanism’, and so on. The autobiographical and historical references in the poems reflect the myth making process of turning fact into fiction: the inner world of the psyche and its perceptions of surroundings, a mythological landscape of Morrison’s mind. The poetry, however, has a strong sense of place; the strong observational power of the astute outsider, works well in the invocations of strange border towns and locations. His vision of Los Angeles, or ‘L’america’, is profound in its focus and impressions.

It is even stranger because of the ambivalent nostalgia Morrison seems to hold for the place, where he had lived and performed with the Doors: “Los Angeles is a city looking for a ritual to join its fragments. ” At first, for Morrison, it was musical theatre that would attempt to provide the ‘ritual’ for the city, using his shaman principles to try to ‘join its fragments’, and bring his audience together. When that failed, and the ‘summer of love’ and the notion of hippie solidarity had dissipated, he turned to his poetry as the ritual that would piece together the fragments of his own experience.

Like Eliot’s ‘fragments’ shored against his ruins in The Waste Land, Morrison’s words and poetry are the means by which he can make sense of his world and guard against his aesthetic mortality. However, as always in his poems, there is a sense of cynicism, directed toward himself as well as the reader. Almost as if, his suffering and sacrifices, made in the name of art and cultural freedom, were not for his own benefit but for the benefit of “you,” the reader: Words are healing. Words got me the wound and will get me well

If you believe it. This segment from the absurdly titled, ‘Lament for the Death of my Cock,’ reflects Morrison’s pessimism and poetic idealism. The sense of suffering expressed in this later poem is also found in his earlier work The Lords, in relation to the idea of sacrifice for the good of all: “What sacrifice, at what price can the city be born? ” Morrison’s early awareness of society’s ills, and his benevolent sense of social responsibility, meant that he had a personally doomed and intense experience of America and its ideals.

In particular, the ‘Western Dream,’ as expressed in his apocalyptic invocation of a ‘brave new world’ of dreamlike existence and ritual: “We are from the West. The world we suggest should be a new Wild West, a sensuous, evil world, strange, and haunting. ” With his own experience informing his work, Morrison begins The Lords by addressing the reader rhetorically, as if revealing some truth about modern existence. He introduces his analogy of a society’s relation to place, in terms of a ‘game’. His vision of the city is one of a dystopian environment—it is an interpretation of the American condition and all modern civilisations.

Morrison sees the city in modernist and symbolist terms: the metropolis as a metaphorical reflection of society: We all live in the city. The city forms – often physically, but inevitably psychically – a circle. A Game. A ring of death with sex at its center. Drive toward outskirts of city suburbs. At the edge discover zones of sophisticated vice and boredom, child prostitution. But in the grimy ring immediately surrounding the daylight business district exists the only real crowd life of our mound, the only street life, night life. Diseased specimens in dollar hotels, low boarding houses, bars, pawn shops, urlesques and brothels, in dying arcades which never die, in streets and streets of all-night cinemas. Like Eliot’s invocation of the “unreal city” in The Waste Land, inherited from Baudelaire’s line about the “[s]warming city, city full of dreams, where ghost’s in broad daylight catch the walker’s sleeve,” there is a relation of person to place. Rimbaud’s perception of a city is more in line with Morrison’s, when he cries: “O sorrowful city! O city now struck dumb, / Head and heart stretched out in paleness / In endless doorways thrown wide by time; / City the Dismal Past can only bless: / Body galvanised for sufferings yet to come. Morrison’s almost socialist perception of American society and its negative effect upon culture and people, is one of the main concepts behind The Lords. He defines it as: the feeling of powerlessness and helplessness that people have in the face of reality. They have no real control over events or their own lives. Something is controlling them. The closest they ever get is the television set. In creating this idea of the lords, it also came to reverse itself. Now to me, the lords mean something entirely different. I couldn’t really explain.

It’s like the opposite. Somehow the lords are a romantic race of people who have found a way to control their environment and their own lives. They’re somehow different from other people. The concept of the ‘lords’ is a philosophical construct and a poetical device used to distinguish society as hierarchical. Morrison’s idea of the lords can be related to Nietzsche’s view in The Will to Power (1967), of “the Lords of the Earth — that higher species which would climb aloft to new and impossible things, to a broader vision, and to its task on earth. The lords are the poets and artists — the people who are revolutionaries, who seek to change the conformist culture in which they exist and lead society forward: The Lords. Events take place beyond our knowledge or control. Our lives are lived for us. We can only try to enslave others. But gradually, special perceptions are being developed. The idea of the “Lords” is beginning to form in some minds. We should enlist them into bands of perceivers to tour the labyrinth during their mysterious nocturnal appearances. The Lords have secret entrances, and they know disguises. But they give themselves away in minor ways.

Too much glint of light in the eye. A wrong gesture. Too long and curious a glance. The Lords appease us with images. They give us books, concerts, galleries, shows, cinemas. Especially the cinemas. Through art they confuse us and blind us to our enslavement. Art adorns our prison walls, keeps us silent and diverted and indifferent. Door of passage to the other side, the soul frees itself in stride. In contrast to The Lords, Morrison’s companion text The New Creatures, emphasises the nightmarish existence of other ‘creatures’ who are submissive and almost sub-species in their herd mentality and hellish existence.

The violent imagery and surreal nature of the verse in The New Creatures, creates a disorganised and chaotic collection of poetry that seems to have no apparent motive or logic. The content is highly subjective and foreign to most readers; some allusions and imagery are familiar in their generality, yet pointless in the apparent obscurity and juxtaposition. The poems’ personal content unfortunately makes most of The New Creatures inaccessible in their metaphorical and symbolic rendition of Morrison’s psyche.

In parts, Morrison evokes a tone and a cadence with the structure of word and image interplay similar in effectiveness to the lyrics he wrote for The Doors, some of which he actually performed: Ensenada the dead seal the dog crucifix Ghosts of the dead car sun. Stop the car. Rain. Night. Feel. Most of the poems in The New Creatures seem strange and unrelated. Morrison gives the reader a clue to his method of poetry, by his comments on art forms like film, especially when his poetry is so obviously cinematic in its style and effect.

He states, with a reference to the modernist idea of art replicating ‘stream of consciousness,’ that he was “interested in film because, to me, it’s the closest approximation in art that we have to the actual flow of consciousness. ” Many of Morrison’s poems throughout his work are like film-clips in an avant-garde surrealist cinema. There is an intellectual, yet dreamy quality to his juxtaposition of ideas and insights about the world. Like the main technique of crowd manipulation he used on stage, Morrison uses the pause for great effect, yet not in the conventional grammatical or formal sense.

Instead of a caesura, an ellipse, or a new line (all of which he also uses to effect), he uses an image as a barrier to overcome, to be ‘broken through’: Savage destiny Naked girl, seen from behind, on a natural road Friends explore the labyrinth — Movie young woman left on the desert A city gone mad w/ fever This pause, this break in flow or subject (in this case the metaphorical ‘labyrinth’) renders the verse as a staccato series of images rather than a progressive stream of ideas and words. In other words, the structure of the poem does try to replicate the irrational logic of stream of consciousness.

Often these poems differentiate themselves from Morrison’s more coherent pieces; characteristically, they are like abstract paintings of violent and bizarre scenes, giving the reader a sense of the intoxicated state prevalent throughout much of Morrison’s notorious, alcoholic and drug-abused, life. Reading some of Morrison’s less adept poetry is like reading notes someone took while experiencing an LSD trip. This is what a vast percentage of them actually are according to legends of Morrison’s excesses.

The same elements combine in his more proficient poetry; in intonation, profound visions, states of consciousness, and hallucinatory images, all culminating in a unique contemplation of the world. His cinematic technique of image juxtaposition also emulates the effects of a ‘psychedelic’ experience, which could also be interpreted as no less than an experience of Morrison’s world and the ‘60s itself. Poetry, and his idea of the Poet, was the genesis for most of Morrison’s experience. Poetry inspired and vocalised his love of the cinematic visual, performance art, and musical lyricism.

It also expressed his most profound thoughts, philosophies, and beliefs; it was a means to relay his world, which was increasingly close to destruction. In The American Night, his poem ‘An American Prayer’ echoes Frazer’s Golden Bough along with the philosophies of Artaud and Nietzsche. Morrison appeals in his lament for understanding, for a consensus that technology and so-called ‘progress’ is not necessarily better or more exciting than the mythically imbued past: Let’s reinvent the gods, all the myths of the ages Celebrate symbols from deep elder forests . . . We have assembled inside this ancient and insane theatre To propagate our lust for life and flee the swarming wisdom of the streets . . . I’m sick of dour faces Staring at me from the T. V. Tower. I want roses in My garden bower; dig? In this sense, his attitude toward modernity is one of disdain, similar to Eliot’s perception of a defunct Western civilisation in The Waste Land. Consistently, throughout his poems, Morrison is anti-TV, almost as if he sees it as responsible for contemporary society’s decline.

It is paradoxical in that he vehemently supports a view of the world through the camera lens of the filmmaker’s eye. Apart from this cinematic aspect that carries through from his earliest work, the consistent use of dark and violent imagery, and the allusion to sublime philosophy and art, there is no one unifying aspect to his poetry. There is, however, an element of autobiography in the poems, subtly placed in the symbols and motifs associated with the lead singer of the Doors: Snakeskin jacket Indian eyes Brilliant hair He moves in disturbed Nile Insect Air In The New Creatures, references abound to his clothes, ‘Indian’ visions, Alexandrine hair, and shamanic dance moves — it is a story about himself. We then are introduced to the poet’s perception of his reader: You parade thru the soft summer We watch your eager rifle decay Your wilderness Your teeming emptiness Pale forests on verge of light decline. More of your miracles More of your magic arms “You,” are the reader along for the journey; “we” are the ‘lords,’ the poet speaks—enlightened ones, the ones who can see ‘your wilderness’ . . America? He continues: ‘You’ are lost now, ‘we’ are still the one’s who can see what the reader cannot. Morrison invites us into his world, but the reader is always kept at ‘arm’s’ length. In the next section of the poem, we are introduced to the state of the world and its inhabitants; disease, despair, images of torture, and the ominous presence of death always lurking in the background. A strange exotic world is revealed, with rites and customs straight out of Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough: Bitter grazing in sick pastures.

Animal sadness and the daybed Whipping. Iron curtains pried open. The elaborate sun implies dust, knives, voices. Call out of the Wilderness Call out of fever, receiving the wet dreams of an Aztec King. The ‘elaborate’ sun is elaborate in its context; the ‘iron curtain’ forcibly opened reveals war, communism, Stalinist tyranny etc. The ‘sun’ could be a reference to the east, the land of the rising sun (also the name of a city in Ohio); its place in the wilderness ‘implies’ its ancient and customary qualities of meaning.

The Aztec King brings a whole new dimension and significance to the sun as the ancient Mayans used the blood of human sacrifices to strengthen the daily journey of the sun across the sky. The characters of the poems are ‘creatures’ of a nightmarish world. It is only upon realising that the creatures are meant to be us—we modern humans—that the fragments of society, held up to us as a mirror of ourselves through the experience of the author, become familiar.

Robert Duncan, a poet from Morrison’s era, in a passage reminiscent of Morrison’s credo of ‘wake up’ and the paradoxical consequence of his (Morrison’s) beliefs, perhaps best sums up the poet’s meaning and reason for creating such a world: It is in the dream itself that we seem entirely creatures, without imagination, as if moved by a plot or myth told by a story-teller who is not ourselves. Wandering and wondering in a foreign land or struggling in the meshes of a nightmare, we cannot escape the compelling terms of the dream unless we wake, anymore than we can escape the terms of our living reality unless we die.

Later in his life, as a more mature and serious writer, Morrison attempted to awaken from his own ‘ living reality,’ he had become very aware of the naivete of his early work. He reflects on the significance of some of his early ideas and acknowledges the limits of his experience and youthful literary talents in terms of an expression of his life, art, and as a ‘prophetic’ poet: I think in art, but especially in films, people are trying to confirm their own existence. Somehow things seem more real if they an be photographed and you can create a semblance of life on the screen. But those little aphorisms that make up most of The Lords — if I could have said it any other way, I would have. They tend to be mulled over. I take a few seriously. I did most of that book when I was at the film school at UCLA. It was really a thesis on film esthetics. I wasn’t able to make films then, so all I was able to do was think about them and write about them, and it probably reflects a lot of that.

A lot of passages in it — for example about shamanism — turned out to be very prophetic several years later because I had no idea when I was writing that, that I’d be doing just that. The motif of the city in Morrison’s poetry is as surrealistic as it is symbolic in the strange juxtapositions of vivid imagery, symbol, and metaphors of human consciousness. The truth is, one can never truly understand the mind of the American Poet. We are here, humbled by grandeur of his work, basking in the shadow of a creative mind we cannot comprehend.

I have based my life’s work off the poetry this one man has sent left behind, and here is my humble attempt to make a third person understand, not the poetry, but what I took away from it. I have reached a point in life where I feel the need to broaden my horizons, to move on from my never ending obsession with Morrison and his words, so I write these words not to have them read or heard, but as a rite of passage. Goodbye Jim Morrison, and thank you for every thing. I shall forever be waiting at the harbor for the one day when the Crystal Ship comes in. Forever waiting for one last word to the world, from Mister Mojo Rising.

English 1302, Composition II Poetry Analysis Assignment: Choose ONE of the prompts below; then write a 3-4 page poetry analysis in which you analyze the use of literary elements in one of the assigned poems listed: “America” (Claude McKay); “” (Paul Laurence Dunbar); “Harlem (A Dream Deferred)” (Langston Hughes); “Mirror” (Sylvia Plath); “The Bean Eaters” (Gwendolyn Brooks); “To The Mercy Killers” (Dudley Randall); “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” (Dylan Thomas).

Your purpose is to explicate (interpret) and analyze (examine) one poem, defending your interpretive claim (a clear, concise, debatable, and assertive thesis statement that explains what the poems mean and how literary elements (i. e. speaker, figurative language (metaphor, simile, synechdoche, metonymy, personification, hyperbole, oxymoron, paradox), imagery, sound patterns, format, theme, persona, tone, symbolism, connotation, or denotation) are employed to convey the poem’s message.

Your primary support must come from the poem itself; however, you will be required to incorporate at least two secondary sources into your work. You must use literary present verb tense in reference to the poem and sources; however, you may not use first-person (I, me, we, our, us), second-person (you) references, or contractions (isn’t( is not). Neither off topic nor late essays will be accepted; also, plagiarized essays automatically receive a zero, and they may not be made up. In this paper you will adhere to the following: Make and support a claim regarding some issue in an assigned poem. • Have a clearly-stated thesis that includes literary elements and gives the basic overview of your argument. • Use quotes from the poem to support your major points. Also, use literary criticism from relevant and reliable sources to support your major points. • Make interpretive arguments about the language, tone, imagery, and figures of speech in the poetry, all toward proving your thesis. • Put slashes between words to indicate a line break when quoting less than four lines: “We wear the mask that grins nd lies, / It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,–” • (Anything more than four lines should be put into block format, indenting 10 spaces and double spacing the text) The opening stanza of Louise Bogan’s “Women” startles readers by presenting a negative stereotype of women: Women have no wilderness in them, They are provident instead, Content in the tight hot cell of their hearts To eat dusty bread. (1-4) • Provide parenthetical citations that indicate line numbers for any quoted text. In the first reference, use the word “lines. ” Thereafter, use just numbers.

For example, the above lines would be followed by this notation: (lines 1-2). • Avoid writing merely a summary of the poem. Length: 3-4 pages (3-full page minimum); Works Cited page (MLA format) Format: MLA format: 1-inch margins, Times New Roman font, point-size 12; typed, double-spaced, printed; stapled; header and pagination Sources: 3 sources minimum (1-primary sources (the poem in the textbook); 2-secondary sources (scholarly literary criticism from books, journals, magazines, and newspapers)) Resources: TJC Library Databases (http://www. jc. edu/library/find_articles/); Purdue OWL (http://owl. english. purdue. edu/owl/resource/747/01/); Writing Center (Jenkins 1108); Literature and the Writing Process, pp. 98-106. Due Dates: Outline: ________________________ Peer Edit, Rough Draft (completed, typed, and printed): ________________________ Final Draft: Outline, Peer-edited Rough draft, Final draft: _______________________

Evaluation: Topic Selection/Appropriateness; Guidelines: Minimum length; MLA style (manuscript); Clear, assertive, and analytical thesis statement; Effective organization (structure), analyzing literary elements; Effective paragraph structure (topic sentences, unity, coherence, development); smooth and proper MLA integration (lead-in statement, concrete detail, commentary/analysis), citation (parenthetical citations), and documentation Works Cited); Good, varied sentence structure (few or no comma splices, fragments, and fused sentences; few or no errors in subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and verb tense consistency); Good word choice; Proper grammar and punctuation. Writing Prompts: 1. Examine and defend a claim about social protest poetry. Analyze theme in one or more of these poems: Claude McKay’s feelings in “America” about living in a racist country; analyze those expressed by Paul Laurence Dunbar in “We Wear the Mask”; or analyze those expressed by Langston Hughes in “Harlem (A Dream Deferred). 2. Examine and defend a claim about imagery OR symbolism in one or more of the following poems: Claude McKay’s “America,” Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask,” Gwendolyn Brook’s “The Bean Eaters,” or Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror. ” 3. Examine themes about identity (self, cultural, gender, professional, community/social, national), masks, and/or deception in one of these poems: Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask,” Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror,” or Claude McKay’s “America. ” 4.

Examine the use of irony (verbal, situational, dramatic) OR motivation (extrinsic, intrinsic) in one or more of these poems: Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask,” Langston Hughes’s “Harlem (A Dream Deferred), Dudley Randall’s “To The Mercy Killers,” Claude McKay’s “America,” Gwendolyn Brook’s “The Bean Eaters,” or Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night. ” 5. Examine theme, specifically the attitude toward death expressed in one or two of these poems: Dudley Randall’s “To The Mercy Killers” or Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. 6. Examine conflict (internal and external) in one or more of these poems: Claude McKay’s “America,” Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask,” Gwendolyn Brook’s “The Bean Eaters,” Dudley Randall’s “To the Mercy Killers,” Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night. ” 7. Examine persona or speaker in one or more of these poems: Claude McKay’s “America,” Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask,” Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror,” Dudley Randall’s “To the Mercy Killers,” Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night. 8. Examine some aspect of figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, synecdoche, metonymy) in one or more of these poems: McKay’s “America,” Plath’s “Mirror,” Brook’s “The Bean Eaters,” Hughe’s “Harlem (A Dream Deferred). ” Scratch Outline: Poetry Analysis I. Introduction A. Attention-Getter (Hook) B. Background Information (T-A-G) C. Thesis Statement: The “Poem” relies on figurative language, imagery, and tone to convey this theme. Thesis should be clear, concise, assertive, and arguable) II. Body Paragraphs A. Poem Synopsis (Summary) 1. Point 1 2. Point 2 B. Poem’s Theme 1. Identity a. concrete detail b. concrete detail 2. Denial/Deception a. concrete detail b. concrete detail B. Poem’s Explication (Explanation): Figurative Language 1. Metaphor 2. Personification C. Poem’s Explication: Imagery 1. Visual 2. Tactile D. Poem’s Explication: Tone 1. Reflective 2. Resigned III. Conclusion IV. Works Cited