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.