The issue of the ends, serving as a justification for any means has been the source of internal and extrenal struggles and conflict, especially when dealing with basic survival. The use of oxymorons in Margaret Atwood's "Red Fox" emphasizes the moral conflict taking place in the poem-Is survival by any means, even thievery, justified because it is a primal instinct shared by both humans and animals?
Basically, the poem deals with the narrator's sighting of an emaciated mother fox in search of nourishment-no matter what. "Red Fox" essentially reflects this common moral issue: Is survival the ultimate justification for any means to achieve it?or Is thievery justified by the struggle to preserve oneself or one's children? The speaker of this poem observes the fox, thin and starving, and reflects upon the way the fox may alleviate this hunger. The moral; conflict of survival by thievery (necessary, primal)vs.poverty and hunger as the result of honesty (not stealing or killing for sustenance) is demonstrated first by the oxymoron, which is a self-conflicting phrase or set of words. In asking "Why encourage the notion/of virtuous poverty?" this is evident. Poverty, on one hand, has negative connotations, while virtue, on the other shows a sharp contrast to this. This emphasives honesty in starving versus surviving through deception as the issue at stake. Phrases such as "elegant scoundrel"also show this same type of contrast, since elegance has connotations of a lavish lifestyle and affluence as well as beauty, compared to a scoundrel-usually perceived as a lower member of society. In addition to emphasizing the moral conflict affecting us, this previously mentioned phrase also serves the purpose of describing the fox-showing how she is able to use her beauty as a tool to survive. In short, we oftensee the issue of the ends versus the means, both in history, as well as daily life. Atwood does a unique job of showing this conflict in morals through oxymorons.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Venturing Into No-man's Land
Often times, an artist, author, poet, or musician voices his/her opinions through the establishment of tone and mood of a piece. This can be done through vivid imagery appealing to every physical sense, violent and compelling diction, and the use of analogies, metaphors, or comparisons-all of which are important in adding emphasis and strengthening impact. Heaney, for example, uses detailed imagery in combination with an extended metaphor in order to emphasize the tense and fearful tone in "From the Frontier of Writing", and, in doing so, establishing his personal thoughts on the subject of writing.
The first thing one reads is the title-"From the Frontier of Writing", which, in itself, kickstarts the extended metaphor that makes up this poem. A frontier is, in this case, referring to the
warzone, implying that writing is like a battlefield- dangerous. There is thepressure to be
believable, and to compose work that is acceptable to a certain audience. This recurrence of
violent conflict is very common in Heaney's work-due to his life as a poet torm between the English and the Irish. To carry on the conflict, the first two stanzas literally describe an
inspection of a vehicle conducted by "the troops" who "inspect/its make and number, and, as one bends his face/towards your window, you catch sight of more/on a hill beyond, eyeing with intent/down cradled guns..."(2-6) This image of a warzone creates the feeling of scrutiong, which is emphasized by the constant threat of violence. The presence of more 'troops" or critics on the hill, holding guns, implies that a writer is constantly under social pressures, and constantly threatened with criticism.
Heaney seems to love violent and rather dismal comparisons, which is why the extended metaphor comparing writing to a battlefield is no surprise. Like I've already said, Heaney has been strongly infuenced by the Irish people, as well as his English upbringing, along with the persecution of Irish. Its no wonder he compares writing to war, for one has to think: perhaps the life of a writer really was at risk in this time period. Imean, if they tarred and feathered girls for dating Englishmen, I can hardly imagine what they' d do to a writer who's work has pro-English
connotations, hence the "interrogation" portion of the third stanza and the sergeant telling everything about the writer in the fifth. This suggests, that in order for an author to be socially accepted, his/her entire life comes under the microscope-he/she must have the "desired" or "proper" characteristics in order to be acceptedby the pressures of critics and society, and even...self.
The first thing one reads is the title-"From the Frontier of Writing", which, in itself, kickstarts the extended metaphor that makes up this poem. A frontier is, in this case, referring to the
warzone, implying that writing is like a battlefield- dangerous. There is thepressure to be
believable, and to compose work that is acceptable to a certain audience. This recurrence of
violent conflict is very common in Heaney's work-due to his life as a poet torm between the English and the Irish. To carry on the conflict, the first two stanzas literally describe an
inspection of a vehicle conducted by "the troops" who "inspect/its make and number, and, as one bends his face/towards your window, you catch sight of more/on a hill beyond, eyeing with intent/down cradled guns..."(2-6) This image of a warzone creates the feeling of scrutiong, which is emphasized by the constant threat of violence. The presence of more 'troops" or critics on the hill, holding guns, implies that a writer is constantly under social pressures, and constantly threatened with criticism.
Heaney seems to love violent and rather dismal comparisons, which is why the extended metaphor comparing writing to a battlefield is no surprise. Like I've already said, Heaney has been strongly infuenced by the Irish people, as well as his English upbringing, along with the persecution of Irish. Its no wonder he compares writing to war, for one has to think: perhaps the life of a writer really was at risk in this time period. Imean, if they tarred and feathered girls for dating Englishmen, I can hardly imagine what they' d do to a writer who's work has pro-English
connotations, hence the "interrogation" portion of the third stanza and the sergeant telling everything about the writer in the fifth. This suggests, that in order for an author to be socially accepted, his/her entire life comes under the microscope-he/she must have the "desired" or "proper" characteristics in order to be acceptedby the pressures of critics and society, and even...self.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Mmmm... Rotten Berries!
Usually, when we think of imagery, we're tempted to think only of images-visual images. Man! It goes so much deeper than that! Our sense of sight is only the tip of the iceberg. In addition to it, there are a bouquet of lovely, er...senses, such as taste, smell, audio, touch/feel...
In lit and poetry, I, based on my experience usually don't see all of these clumped together so closely, but it makes sense to do so, as we often experience multiple senses simultaneously. So,
Ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen and ladies, friends, Romans, countrymen-
In Seamus Heaney's "Berry Picking", he manipulates imagery in order to emphasize the change in tone and mood between the first, more fresh and joyous stanza and the following, which evokes frustration and disappointment.
Man- this poem seems as if its entirely comprised of imagery-which is excellent for the establishment of the tone and mood because of the strong appeal to the senses,. In appealing to said human characteristics, Heaney is doing a couple of things. First of all, he's appealing to a huge crowd-the majority of us humans are strongly affectedby the images ( of all types) that we are physically experiencing or reading in black or blue ink. Second of all, he's appealing to one of the things that make us inherently human-to be affected at an emotional level through word, sense, and image. In this case, "You ate the first one and its flesh was sweet/Like thickened wine" Whoa. Take a step back. Obviously, ther's the strong presence of visual imagery and the sense of taste, as well as the simile comparing the ripened fruit to thickened wine-but what does all of this stuff do?The simile has a strong impact-when wine is thickened, it essentially means that it has not been diluted by water- its alcoholic effect is extremely strong. By comparing the fruit to thich, sweet wine, Heaney is suggesting that the fruitis not only pure and euphorically
sweet, but he's also hinting at the effect of the fruit-Like alcohol, the sweetness ogf the berrry
turns into an addiction-it causes the speaker to become drunk with joy and escitement of harvesting more berries. In my opinion, this line does a pretty good job of characterizing the first stanza- with its tone and mood having strong connotations of excitement and joy.
Just as the imagery is capable of bringing such joy in the first stanza, it quickly stomps on it in the second. Note: the imagery emphasizes the change in mood and tone because "when the bath was filled we found fur/A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache./The juice was stinking too."
You know-the "rat-grey' description (visualimagery) stood out at me-seeing as it really has a strong impact emphasizing the frustrated tone of this stanza. Seeing as rats are pests crawling with disease, the useof the rat-like description seems fitting-It emphasizes the frustration of this stanza by saying that this fungus, this decay which spoils what we worked so hard to get-is a pest destroying both joy and excitement.
In lit and poetry, I, based on my experience usually don't see all of these clumped together so closely, but it makes sense to do so, as we often experience multiple senses simultaneously. So,
Ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen and ladies, friends, Romans, countrymen-
In Seamus Heaney's "Berry Picking", he manipulates imagery in order to emphasize the change in tone and mood between the first, more fresh and joyous stanza and the following, which evokes frustration and disappointment.
Man- this poem seems as if its entirely comprised of imagery-which is excellent for the establishment of the tone and mood because of the strong appeal to the senses,. In appealing to said human characteristics, Heaney is doing a couple of things. First of all, he's appealing to a huge crowd-the majority of us humans are strongly affectedby the images ( of all types) that we are physically experiencing or reading in black or blue ink. Second of all, he's appealing to one of the things that make us inherently human-to be affected at an emotional level through word, sense, and image. In this case, "You ate the first one and its flesh was sweet/Like thickened wine" Whoa. Take a step back. Obviously, ther's the strong presence of visual imagery and the sense of taste, as well as the simile comparing the ripened fruit to thickened wine-but what does all of this stuff do?The simile has a strong impact-when wine is thickened, it essentially means that it has not been diluted by water- its alcoholic effect is extremely strong. By comparing the fruit to thich, sweet wine, Heaney is suggesting that the fruitis not only pure and euphorically
sweet, but he's also hinting at the effect of the fruit-Like alcohol, the sweetness ogf the berrry
turns into an addiction-it causes the speaker to become drunk with joy and escitement of harvesting more berries. In my opinion, this line does a pretty good job of characterizing the first stanza- with its tone and mood having strong connotations of excitement and joy.
Just as the imagery is capable of bringing such joy in the first stanza, it quickly stomps on it in the second. Note: the imagery emphasizes the change in mood and tone because "when the bath was filled we found fur/A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache./The juice was stinking too."
You know-the "rat-grey' description (visualimagery) stood out at me-seeing as it really has a strong impact emphasizing the frustrated tone of this stanza. Seeing as rats are pests crawling with disease, the useof the rat-like description seems fitting-It emphasizes the frustration of this stanza by saying that this fungus, this decay which spoils what we worked so hard to get-is a pest destroying both joy and excitement.
First impressions/goodbye Johnny
Back when I was working with Donne's poems, I found myself unable to formulate a strong like or dislike for him. On one hand, its certainly impressive how he's able to maintain structure and rhyme, as was the definition of a poet in his day, while manipulating diction and imagery in order to emphasize his message. On the other hand, I was frustrated with his use of imagery-the whole metaphysical (beyond physical) style- just seemed so intangible and difficult to grasp or visualize in a normal situation. Though I don't care much for poetry, Icertainly admire the techniques of poets-this became especially evident when moving on to Heaney. I adore the way he makes his conflicting patriotism clear through his manipulation of extended metaphors and imagery appealing to all senses. On top of that, the imagery he produces is completely tangible- In other words, I'm able to feel the fermented berries or stand in the eye of the storm on the island. Anyway... On to the commentary I should have started
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