Funeral Blues - W. H. Auden

"Music, When Combined With A Pleasurable Idea, Is Poetry; Music Without The Idea Is Simply Music; The Idea Without The Music Is Prose From Its Very Definitiveness."- Edgar Allan Poe

           

                 Poetry, by definition, is the literary work in which special intensity is given to expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. Very similar, if not equal, music lyrics express the songwriter’s feelings through their songs. It can be said that music is indeed a form of poetry. Commonly found in songs, as well as in poems, are the themes of “loss of a loved one”. This theme can be found in W. H. Auden’s poem “Funeral Blues” and Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Ebb”, as well as in Leanne Rimes’ song “How Do I Live”.

            In the poem by W. H. Auden, “Funeral Blues”, the speaker is mourning the loss of a lover who has passed away. There are 4 stanzas that each convey a different tone. In the first stanza there is a very serious and formal tone. “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone … Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come” (Auden 470). Although it is clear that the speaker is in a funeral setting, there is no evidence that the speaker is connected to the deceased. In the second stanza the speaker uses hyperbole. It is in the third stanza that it starts to become evident that the deceased was someone very dear, a lover. “He was my North, my South, my East and my West, my working week and my Sunday rest, my noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.” (Auden 472) What the speaker is trying to convey is that the deceased meant everything to him or her. He or she believed that love would last forever, but as the lover has passed, love ceased to exist as well, In the last stanza, the exaggerations used along with the last line “for nothing now can ever come to any good” (Auden 472), there is a deep sense of sadness and grief conveyed by the interpretation of the lines. It can be interpreted that the speaker believes that nothing has meaning in his or her life anymore without his loved one.

            Similar to Auden’s Poem, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Ebb” is also a poem about the loss of a loved one. Although the loss may not have been caused by the death of a lover, the speaker of this poem conveys her feelings through a metaphor. “I know what my heart is like since your love died; It is like a hollow ledge, holding a little pool … drying inward from the edge” (Millay). The speaker is describing the lack of meaning in his or her life from the moment that their love is no longer with them. There is a strong sense of sadness being conveyed by the metaphors relating to water and to life that the poet is using. The metaphor symbolizes the depth of the love that the speaker has for their lover and the impact on the speaker’s life after losing that love.

            A relating theme, that of “fear to lose a loved one”, can be seen in the song “How Do I Live” by Leanne rimes. In the song, the singer transmits to her listeners the feelings she would have if she ever lost her loved one. “Without you, there’d be no sun in my sky, there would be no love in life, there’d be no world left for me” (Rimes). This theme relates to that of “loss of a loved one” because, as can be seen in the poems, If the individual lost their loved one, there would be a lack of meaning in their life. The tone in the song is one of sadness and concern. At the simple though of losing their loved one, everything that makes the individual whole would be ripped away, leaving them with the inability to “breathe”. “How do I breathe without you?

If you ever go, how do I ever, ever survive. How do I, how do I, oh how do I live” (Rimes).  What this verse is portraying is that she does not know of a life that could possibly exist without her lover. By analyzing the lyrical lines of the song, one is overwhelmed by the power that the lover has over the individual. This love, that is so profound that, in the event that the individual would lose it, the consequences would be so grace as to not being capable of living any longer.

            The poems “Funeral Blues” and “Ebb”, along with the song “How Do I Live”, have intertwining themes that bring out one major theme, “Love”. The theme of love is represented in these pieces in a very powerful manner. As mentioned before, music and poetry are strong devices that convey feelings and emotions that readers and listeners can relate to on some level. Through relating tones, moods and themes, these pieces of literature successfully fulfill their purpose.

Egalitarianism Lecture

"We had these truths to be self evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." (Thomas Jefferson)

A lecture that I really enjoyed was the lecture about Egalitarianism. Egalitarianism is the belief in human equality, a social philosophy that promotes for the removal of any inequality among people. I particularly enjoyed this lesson because much of our history was based on the concept of Egalitarianism. We still experience the the concept of need for egalitarianism on some level today, and being able to learn about the different views and desire for egalitarianism through literature and in pieces like "A White Woman Of Color" was very fascinating to me.  Along with the lecture I really enjoyed the fish bowl that went along with the Alvarez's piece. It was interesting to hear everyones view on the piece.

My Favorite Song

This is one of my favorite songs about love and sacrifice, I also used this song as an example in paper #2.

Enough - Alex Roe

"I'd give it all for you if you let me

This heart don't have a home without you in it, no

I'd stand before you as a man whose been broken

Truer words never spoken

Is that enough?

Is that enough?

For your love?"

My Journey Through English 102

Where to begin? My journey through this class has been amazing. I have had my fair share of ups and downs with writing. I have never been confident about my writing, this class has helped me very much with that. I absolutely loved this class. I looked forward to each class and especially to every "Fish Bowl" to be able to express my thoughts and feeling on the material being covered. Professor Mignano-Brady's energy and passion for literature made me feel so inspired to expand my knowledge on every piece of material covered in class and to do my best to improve my writing skills as a scholar.

This class has taught me to think outside the box when I am writing and not just focus on one concept. I have more confidence in my writing now versus when i set foot in the classroom on the first day. Before, when I would write, I would only focus on the main task at hand, not realizing that sometimes that would hurt my writing in the sense that i would feel blocked and not express my thoughts. As the class progressed and writing prompts were given, the language I use in writing has improved remarkably. I have learned to use vivid language. The professor has inspired me to not just use everyday language, but expand my thinking and use scholarly language. I now use a dictionary to discover the true meaning of words and use unique words in my writing rather than just simple, everyday words. In the past I always thought that my writing was not good enough. After being in this class I have learned that my writing matters and that I can expand my knowledge to be great.

Among everything, the most important lesson i have learned and that I will take with me for the rest of my life is how to be an "active reader". Analyzing and understanding what you are reading is one of the most important things to keep in mind. To fully develop an individual's language and the way that a person thinks, you need to really understand what you are reading and not just read for fun. You need to go beyond the words and understand what the author is trying to convey to the readers. This class has taught me how to do that.

I began this class full of fear, fear that I would be unsuccessful, fear that I would be unable to reach my full potential in writing, fear that i would not do well in this class. It only took the first class with Professor Mignano-Brady's enthusiasm and motivation to make all of that fear disappear. There is a lot that I will take with me from this class, starting with that beautiful lecture about literature and ending with an equally beautiful lecture about poetry that opened my mind. All of the lessons that related to the world outside of the classroom, not only literature lectures, but life lessons. In the limited time we had this semester, I have learned that literature is such an important device for the human being. Everyone has opinions and ideas that matter and should be shared with the world. I hope to be able to use this device to transmit all my ideas to my fellow scholars. In five years I hope to be an Italian professor with at least half the passion that Professor Mignano-Brady has had in our class and has for teaching. Thank you professor for opening my mind and expanding my knowledge this semester, this will be a class and you will be a professor that I most certainly will never forget!

February 6th, 2018

A lecture that I really enjoyed and took a lot away from is one of the very first lectures of the semester. The lecture was about literature. I was very happy to learn from this lecture because it taught me literature's true purpose. Literature is the written word. Through literature we are informed, we are entertained. We can relate and we can use literature to promote social and political change, I love to read, whether its books, plays, articles or poetry. Through this lesson I learned that literature does not only have the purpose to entertain and inform, like in novels and textbooks, but it is also a way to relay ideas to others. You can share your ideas and people can relate to these ideas on their own level.

Literature is the written word, it is the immortality of speech. In the word of Professor Brady "it is the quintessence of the human experience." Audience in literature is a major component. Walt Whitman once said "To have great poets, there must be great audiences." I believe that, being that literature is a device meant to express ideas for which the author intends, the audience matters very much, great literature cannot be recognized without a great audience!

If A Poem Hasn't Ripped Apart Your Soul; You Haven't Experienced Poetry- Edgar Allan Poe

My favorite lecture of all was the "Introduction To Poetry" lecture. I love how poetry is an expression of human emotions. I learned that poetry is not meant to be simply read, it is meant to be heard and felt. This lesson made me realize that a song is not just a song, it is pure poetry. In class we read verses of Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" as a form of poetry. Reading the song in poetry form shed a whole new light on the words for me. I have always listened to songs based on their lyrics, because the words mean something and are not just a bunch of words with a melody accompanying them. Among the poem that were introduced in our poetry unit I was most captivated by "Funeral Blues" by W. H. Auden. The poet was able to convey all of the emotions of a person mourning the loss of a loved one through his words. I believe that anyone that reads this poem can feel the love and the sadness behind the words.

“At all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom from want – for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war.” - Published Writing #3

The concept of egalitarianism is the belief that all human beings are equal, no matter their gender, race or color. Being equal, all humans should have the same rights and equal opportunities in life. No one should have to fight to be treated equally. Although equality is a strong belief among the majority of humankind today, it has not always been this way. Martin Luther King once said “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” By saying this, Martin Luther King is underlining the fact that oppression cannot be defeated by silence. One must take a stand and fight for what they believe. If one stays in silence and waits for freedom, then they shall never be freed. Similarly Eleanor Roosevelt once said “At all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom from want – for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war.” The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins-Gillman, manifests the most powerful form of oppression of all time: Silence. The form of silence that is not forced by violence or imperialism, but rather the dictatorship of men.

 “The Yellow Wallpaper” illustrates the story of a woman who is being isolated from the company of others, following a “rest cure” given by her husband, who is also her psychiatrist. The woman has no way of expressing herself except for her writing, which she has strictly been forbidden to do. ”I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal - having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.” (Perkins-Gilman page 316) She is experiencing a form of entrapment, but in a non-hostile environment. The woman continues to resist her husband’s attempt at silencing her by secretly writing when he is away. “I MUST say what I feel and think in some way- it is such a relief!” (Perkins-Gilman 321) The woman’s statement underlines how important self-expression is. Being forced to inactivity and not being able to have a say in any detail of her life, the women is consequently driven to insanity by this very omnipotent form of oppression. 

In March, The Guardian published an excerpt about silence from Rebecca Solnit’s book, “The Mother Of All Questions”, entitled “Silence and powerlessness go hand in hand – women’s voices must be heard.” This excerpt relates to gender inequality and, similar to the theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, how a woman is often forced to silence in different ways. “Silence is what allows people to suffer without recourse, what allows hypocrisies and lies to grow and flourish, crimes to go unpunished. If our voices are essential aspects of our humanity, to be rendered voiceless is to be dehumanized or excluded from one’s humanity. And the history of silence is central to women’s history. (Solnit) Rebecca explores what it means to be silenced and the consequences it brings forth. The right to express ourselves is what makes us human, if that right is taken away, can we really be considered human beings? Egalitarianism and feminism are two words that have the exact same meaning: The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. If women are deprived of their right to speak, we are not equal, but far from it.

Works Cited

Perkin-Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Norton Introduction To Literature, 10th  ed., W.W. Norton & Company , Inc, 2006, pp. 315–328.

Solnit, Rebecca. “Silence and Powerlessness Go Hand in Hand – Women's Voices Must Be Heard | Rebecca Solnit.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 8 Mar. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/08/silence-powerlessness-womens-voices-rebecca-solnit.

Every Person Has Their Own Perception Of Reality - Published Writing #2

           

            In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, written by Tenessee Williams, there are many instances of illusion. One instance can be observed after Blanche confesses to her sister Stella that she had been violated by her husband Stanley. Stella tells Eunice “I couldn’t go on believing her story and live with Stanley” (Williams 1232). Stella chooses not to believe Blanche’s Story. If she were to have gone on believing her sister that would have meant that her marriage would have been ripped apart. She couldn’t continue living with Stanley if she believed that he raped Blanche because that would mean that he wasn’t the amazing, loving human being she always believed him to be. While Stella believes that what she and Stanley share is pure love, in reality what they share is simply physical attraction, desire.  By choosing not to believe Blanche, Stella has also chosen to go on living with Stanley, based on an illusion, remaining in a fantasy world she has created, ignoring reality and living a lie.

            The human brain is very fascinating. Events, objects, impressions, and reality are not always seen and perceived the same way by everyone. Sometimes people tend to believe in a reality of their own that is different from “actual” reality. These false beliefs or impressions are known to be illusions. People have illusions for many different reasons and situations. The cause is mainly based on perceptions, the brain’s method of understanding.

            Stella’s quote can be related to the concept of sensory processes of sensation and perception in psychology. “When the brain selects, organizes, and interprets sensory impressions into meaningful patterns, we speak of perception” (Coon et al. 142.) The brain chooses what information to process and how to process it. It filters information in an adequate way so that it is not too much to handle. An example of this is “selective attention,” which consists in voluntarily focusing on one object, situation, or event and thus ignoring everything else. Similarly, a person can also suffer from “inattentional blindness,” which occurs when a person neglects to notice things happening around them because they are too focused on something else.

            This study of perception can be strongly related to Stella in regards to her attention on what is happening in front of her eyes. She chooses to focus only on the illusion of her perfect marriage based solely on physical attraction, neglecting to see that in reality her husband is abusive and her marriage is unhealthy. As a result, her perspective and her beliefs are reflected in her behavior as she decides to send her sister to the asylum. 

Works Cited

Coon, Dennis, et al. Psychology: modules for active learning. Cengage Learning, 2018.

Williams, Tennesse. “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The Norton Introduction To Literature, 10th ed., W.W. Norton & Company , Inc, 2006, pp. 1165–1238.

Written Law v. Moral Law: Published Writing #1

“Antigone” by Sophacles is wrapped around the principles of Written Law and Moral Law. In the play, Creon stands by the principle of Written Law, while Antigone stands by Moral Law.Written Law is the law that is established by the state and is to be obeyed, while Moral law is what is believed to be the rightful thing to do. These two principles often collide, in particular when what is morally right is not always legal.
The play is set in the past of ancient Greece, when according to the gods, everyone has a right to a proper burial. This was not the case for Polyneices, who was forbidden a proper burial by a law endicted by Creon because he was considered a traitor of Thebes. Anyone who did not obey this law was sentenced to death. Ismene values the law of the gods and loves her brother but, along with the people of Thebes, she obeys the law of the land. “I do indeed beg those beneath the earth to give me their forgiveness , since force constrains me, that I shall yield to the authorities.” (Sophacles, 1132) Out of fear, she is incapable of going against the written law. Although she obeys this proclamation, she does not hold a grudge against the choice her sister has made. “ Well, if you will, go on. Know this; that though you are wrong to go, your friends are right to love you.” ( Sophacles, 1132-1133)
In contrast to Ismene, Antigone does not fear Creon or death itself. Antigone follows her heart and what she believes is morally right by giving her brother Polyneices a proper burial. In her opinion, she owes her loyalty to her family and the gods, even if that means defying the written law. “ I myself will bury him. It will be good to die, so doing. I shall lie by his side, loving him, as he loved me; I shall be a criminal - but a religious one. The time in which I must please those that are dead is longer than I must please those of this world.” (Sophacles, 1132) In spite of the fact that the people of Thebes obey Creon’s proclamation, they believe that what Antigone has done was a very honorable action and it was unjust for her to face death because of it. In lines 744-746, Haemon reveals to Creon of the city’s thoughts. “The city mourns for this girl; they think she is dying most wrongly and most undeservedly of all womenkind, for the most glorious acts.” (Sophacles, 1148)
In the play, Creon represents the duty of obeying state laws. The king disregarded the moral beliefs of others, including Antigone. By doing so, the actions of Creon brought him great tragedy and suffering. Antigone is courageous and fights for what she believes in, standing by her moral values, she is showing to all that not everything that you must obey is the right thing to do.