Epitaph

An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, most of the time written on a tombstone. From this, we can tell that it would have been after the death of someone that this is written from the lines “It now says, ‘Cease; at length thou hast learnt to grind / Sufficient toll for an unwilling mind’” (1079). Life seems to have told this person that he has done everything he was meant to do on earth and now must leave. That person seemed to have a fulfilling life in that there was nothing else “sought in [Life] much more than thou couldst find” (1079).

The Convergence of the Twain

This poem is to tell the loss of the Titanic and how it had sunk. The Titanic was a large ocean-liner that was supposedly unsinkable from its sheer size. However passing through the ocean, it had struck an iceberg and sank, killing two thirds of its passengers. The Titanic was a magnificent ship “Deep from human vanity” (1076). The elegance of the ship was incomparable to any ship in its day; everything about this ship gave the creators a pride close to those who created computers. However the ship was under the spell of the “Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything” (1076). Soon the “unsinkable” ship sinks from an iceberg. Before there were no radar like today, only people on post looking out into the sea. They knew icebergs were out there but had no way of maneuvering around them in time if they had ever come close to one, especially in the dark ocean.

Spring and Fall

After reading this poem, I get the idea that the moral of this poem is to tell a child no matter what, there will be changes that they are unable to change. Margaret is grieving over the fact that the leaves are changing and the time is coming for fall. Hopkins tells the child that when he/she gets older, there will be other “sights colder /By and by, nor spare a sigh” (776). However one thing I did not understand is why is it that the child will mourn for Margaret? Is that Margaret the same from the beginning of the poem?

God’s Grandeur

From looking at the title, this seems to have some religious aspect in it and it got my attention on how the idea of religion has changed from the past to the time of this poem. However it seems that it has the same implications that previous authors explain: don’t ignore God and love him. The question “why do men then now not reck his rod?” comes from people not believing in God and doing whatever they please (774). They don’t seem to fear God as He wishes to be feared. However God’s love seems to be ever lasting and “though the last lights off the black West went / Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs” (775).

Symphony in Yellow

This poem seems to just write down what a person sees from a painting. Describing in detail all the aspects of a picture and the color yellow and how the picture seems to show the movement of yellow in the picture. Descriptions like “Big barges full of yellow hay/ Are moored against the shadowy wharf, / And, like a yellow silken scarf, / The thick fog hangs along the quay” (831). The color yellow is described nearly all of the picture till it fades into the river and turns into the color green.

The Subjection of Women – John Stuart Mill

I believe that this passage is one of many that has a big influence or should have an influence on the rights of women. “The legal subordination of one sex to the other is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality” (521). I could not have said it better myself. One problem of the past was that men were always right and women were only second. Never was a women praised for what she did; it was always given to a man affiliated with that woman. The legal subordination of one sex to the other only hinders the growth of the human race and it did for so long.

Victorian Ladies and Gentlemen

The duty of women seems to be the support behind their man. They are in the need “to be of essential service in aiding the judgments of their husbands, brothers, or sons, in those intricate affairs in which it is sometimes difficult to dissever worldly wisdom from religious duty” (556). The role of women seemed to expand from housewife to “house-caretaker” in that they must organize everything under the house, including the people. They help men discern right from wrong, help them to be “a wiser and a better man” (557). “The sphere of their direct personal influence is central, and consequently small; but its extreme operations are as widely extended as the range of human feeling” (558). This sentence states it perfectly what a woman does and her influence. No matter how small that sphere of influence may be, it is one that is important.

Porphyria’s Lover

This poem seems to have a really unsettling feeling after reading because it seems that Browning tells of a woman so in love with a man, he strangles her to death and continues to sit next to her. This illustrates a dark side in Browning in that Porphyria is a beautiful woman in love with a man and wishes only to please him. However the man doesn’t know what to do with the love except kill her with her own hair. It seems “Porphyria worshipped [him]; surprise / Made [his] heart swell, and still it grew” (663). She seemed willing to do anything for him trying to talk to him and get his attention. This attention seemed to get to his head in that he have complete control over her and the one thing he wanted to do after was strangle her with her own hair. Also the last line seems to show that he understands what he did but even “God has not said a word” (663).

The Kraken – Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Kraken is a giant mythical sea monster which roams the sea and supposedly destroys ships. However the Kraken that Lord Tennyson describes is one that stays dormant in the abyss and stays there. He sleeps where the “faintest sunlights flee” (586) and where “Huge sponges of millennial growth and height” (586). What I see Lord Tennyson is doing is describing a mythical being that sleeps in the deep and stays there. But later it gets disturbed from the fire of Judgement Day, which heats the deep. The Kraken rises to be seen again by humans and angels and dies after.

Thomas Carlyle

From a paragraph of Labour, Carlyle helps explain how to better oneself at work and possibly at life. “Know thy work and do it” seems to illustrate how the Gospel tells what a person must do for the better good for everyone. However Carlyle continues to state that some people are unable to understand themselves and are unable to work. However what Carlyle explains is that what one must do is find what they are not good at work and work to make it better. This will make the person better and will later become perfect himself by working. I think Carlyle understands what a man must do in order to better himself in the working environment. I believe that if every person works what Carlyle asks, we would have a much better working environment and everything will become less chaotic. He goes on to tell that “Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by Action alone” (482). This quote seems to have great impact with me because I believe that it is true that doubt will never disappear if you do nothing. The only way is to do something about it and hopefully it will be for better.

The Homes of England – Felicia Hemans

Hemans writes a wonderful piece praising the land of England and the sights that it has to offer. The first lines of each section all give a praise decription of England, “The stately Homes of England”; “The merry Homes of England” ; “The blessed Homes of England” ; “The Cottage Homes of England” ; The free, fair Homes of England” (412). All of these seem to help the reader understand that England is a great place; it is merry, blessed, free and fair. These all seem to help Hemans tell how great the Homes of England is. Also the first quote, “Where’s the coward that would not dare to fight for such a land?” speaks of having pride of ones nation (412). In this case, Hemans is showing her pride for England.

John Keats

The feeling that I get when reading Keats works is that somber feeling when someone is about to die. “My spirit is too weak—mortality/ Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep” (425). Also “Of the wide world I stand alone and think” (425); this line seems to also reiterate the feeling of death. The feeling I get is that Keats is in a situation where all is doomed and near a loss. There is nothing to do except look the world go by and wait for the inevitable end. I can sometimes feel this feeling of “Weights heavily on me like unwilling sleep” (425), in that when I am uneasy, I am unable to sleep. I have so much on my mind that there is something that stops me from getting any rest and this seems to be what Keats is writing about. No matter what we try to do, there is nothing to stop death “Like a sick eagle looking at the sky” (425).

To a Sky-Lark

This poem starts with the speaking directly to a “blithe Spirit” (402), assumable talking about the celestial spirit, or God. I enjoyed the way in which Shelley uses his words to flow evenly throughout the poem. I really like the lines “In the golden lightning/ Of the sunken sun,/ O’er which clouds are bright’ning,/ Thou dost float and run,/ Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun” (402). Shelley does a wonderful job in describing where the Sky-Lark is coming from. The clouds that brighten is where the sky-lark is arriving from and describes the way it is coming down, “Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun” (402). This simile helps illustrate the image very well in that you can imagine what a person looks like before a race begins. He continuously writes as if he is talking to a god-like figure and every aspect of its life is great and he wants to try to be close to it and learn from it. Even though “we mortals” (403) or humans dream of this being, we will never truly understand how it works. One problem that Shelley points out that we have certain feelings that the sky-lark doesn’t have like annoyance and pain. However, he also states that we need these feelings to truly understand the joy of the sky-lark (404).

George Gordon

In the first poem, She walks in beauty; Gordon describes a woman so beautiful she is comparable to the night sky. He continues to describe that her beauty is the “best of dark and bright” (358). The way in which he tells how the light from her eyes are to be denied from heaven to gaudy day. I get the impression that the beauty of this women is so mesmerizing that the light from her eyes are beyond anything seen in heaven or on earth. This seems to be a difficult to express because it is close to blasphemy. However in Gordon’s case, he is comparing the beauty of this woman to the level of divine which is understandable. This same woman has exquisite beauty and also has a “heart whose love is innocent” (358). In So, we’ll go no more a-roving, the overall flow of the poem does not seem to go very well. The word use does not seem to rhyme very well in that the previous usage of the words don’t seem to make it rhyme but the two words themselves rhyme. When looking at the words that are meant to rhyme, they do but when reading the poem altogether, they words seem to lose themselves in the rest of the poem. I don’t know if that is what is meant to be or I am unable to see the rhyme; however, the detail of the poem is expressed well.

Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

This excerpt of Kubla Khan tells how the emperor is telling his men on the details for the new palace. The lines “In Xanadu did KUBLA KHAN/ A stately pleasure-dome decree” (342) He tells the exact location of where he wishes the palace to be. He continues to explain the surrounding landscape and the “walls and towers” (342) are to be girdled round. He goes on to explain other scenic views; the next thing he does is talk about the chasm which “slanted / Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover” (342). Coleridge seems to illustrate a place where a woman’s lover has been taken from her. I like when Coleridge writes all the details in which where the damsel is at; when she starts singing it seems that we are on a journey to find where she is and what we must go through to get to her.

Dorothy Wordsworth

The sister of William really gets some of the same genes from family. The poem expressed to the child seems to tell of the feelings she gets of a child. She is able explain her feelings and write a story of what it will be like if there is a child around. The way she explains helps the reader get a vivid picture of what she tells and had her own way of explaining the situation. She however is different from William in that she seems to show more of personal emotions then him. She tells how the child will “hide in the cave of a rock;/ Then whistle as shrill as the buzzard cock” (292). She tells her story with her emotions written into her words.

William Wordsworth

The way in which William Wordsworth is writing is talking about his life in the present. The previous authors tell stories of other ideas where Wordsworth seems to be talking about his emotions of his life. The very details that he gives seem to set a picture for the readers to imagine and think of along reading. He is able to describe how he remembers the memories like “a landscape to a blind man’s eye” (203). Along with that picture, he describes the different sensations he felt during that time, the “hours of weariness, sensations sweet,/ Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart” (203). The way Wordsworth describe his memories allows the readers to understand the same feeling that he felt of that memory. He tells his sister that when he came to where he is, he came from a past that he was running away from. Wordsworth again shows how much detail he puts into his poems. In his poem Strange fits of passion have I known, Wordsworth tells a story of some feelings he felt before. He explains that his love was like a “rose in June” (213). The way he separates each step towards Lucy’s cottage while riding his horse, I get the picture of him on his horse and the viewpoint the narrator of the poem sees. William Wordsworth seems to be the author that is able quite literally the reality of his life.

William Blake

One aspect that Blake seems to incorporate into his works is the idea of God being almighty and the age of innocence is in the youth and there is where we should start teaching of God. The Lamb illustrates the innocence of youth and asks where the lamb was created. Blake seems to use the idea of God being everywhere and that is how he explains the The Little Black Boy. No matter what color one is, God loves all of his children and we must do the same and show the same love to each other. When he states “When I from black and he from white cloud free,/ And round the tent of God like lambs we joy” (81) he seems to state that the both white and black boy will help each other and only then will there be peace between all races. In his next work, The Chimney Sweeper seems to be a reiteration of his belief that God will love those whom love him. The poem tells of a boy who had lost his parents, and is lost most of the people he knows. Then comes an “Angel who had a bright key” (81). The Angel tells the chimney sweeper that if “he’d be a good boy,/ He’d have God for his father & never want joy” (81). Blake tells the idea of being good and God will take care of you. When a man who has lost everything, the moment he believes in God he will no longer need anything.

Thomas Paine

Paine’s response to Burke’s rights of man seems to have some valid points. One point that I liked was when he talked about the rights of men pass when those men pass. The men of the present should not be concerned with the problems of the past and should try to focus on problems today. “When man ceases to be, his power and his wants cease with him; and having no longer any participation in the concerns of this world, he has no longer any authority in directing who shall be its governors, or how its Government shall be organized, or how administered” (65). Another thing that seems to make sense is when he states that throughout the history of creation, men have been made equal, equal in all ways “with equal natural rights…and consequently every child born into the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God” (69). Whether if be from a religious stand point, men are created equal to each others and there is no one supreme race or a better race; all races are created equal and should be treated as equals. The only difference that God has made is the distinction between man and woman. There is no races differences, or between social classes. Those differences are made from the ideas of man and not from God. That seems to be one main point in the doctrine of equal rights, rights of humans are made by humans and therefore are not the true ideas of equality. What a person must understand is that there is a difference between the idea created by man and one that is necessary in the preservation of man. The rights that help preserve them are those which help men improve on their way of life and others as well. When there are rules impeding us of these rights, it seems that these rights are ones that do not make for an equal world.

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke seems to be the person in which tells of a world that can never exist. At least that is what I believe. He talks about the liberties given to us by our forefathers. He talks about our rights “by this means our constitution preserves a unity in so great a diversity of its parts. We have an inheritable crown; an inheritable peerage; and a House of Commons and a people inheriting privileges, franchises, and liberties, from a long line of ancestors” (49). When talking about these liberties he talks and the policies which create those liberties are made from humans. When Burke talks about us “preserving the method of nature we retain, we are never wholly obsolete” (49), the past is what makes us and we must try to understand how to change it for the better good. That is one aspect that must be seen in order for us to create liberties for everyone. The next thing that got my attention was his idea for the real rights of men. The rights of men seem to be significant factors in previous times where a person was worth how much he had, and how much he contributed to the group. But this same idea can be used in modern terms in that a person owning stock of a company has a say in the group but doesn’t have any real power. They are able to give their beliefs about what the company is doing but they do no have the right to control the path of that company. But each person has that certain right of having their own opinion and their right to express that opinion. One idea it seems to make me upset is when he states that homicide that benefits people is the most pardonable (53). However naïve it may seem, murder is murder and it is never excusable, especially if it benefits others. The way Burke states it makes it seems very selfish in when it is excusable to murder; I think it is better if the overall way of life gets better and not just a certain few, it might become pardonable.

first post

Hello everyone. My name is Joe Liu and I am taking this course for the general education requirement. I also wish to try to have class done solely on-line and wish to experience this type of class rather then the same normal class settings. All I hope for the class is good grades and I am a little anxious about this being my first online course so I have no idea what to expect from the class.