Lesson 31

1.   As the title tells us, this poem is written in a form called sestina, first used by a French troubadour in the twelfth century. In describing the prosody of Alvarez’s poem, you will be describing a sestina. Hint: Instead of looking for a rhyme scheme, look for a pattern in the repetition of the last word of each line. The last three lines of lines of the poem are called the envoy.

-         In looking at the prosody of this sestina, repetition is one of the main points to address. In each stanza, the end of each line has something to do with the words, “said,” “English,” “closed” “words,” “nombres,” and “Spanish.” Although many of these are in a different tense in a separate stanza, they are always repeated. In a sestina, there is no rhyme scheme because the words at the ends of the lines don’t rhyme, they are simply repeated. In terms of other aspects of prosody, alliteration is seen throughout the poem. The first example I found was in line 2 where the line is, “blonde, blue-eyed,” using the two b’s to explain and exemplify an American girl. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t really much of a meter in this poem. In terms of the line length, although most of them vary in length, none vary enough to have any significance.

2.   In the first stanza, what is the effect of personification and allusion? What is the Spanish counterpart to each? Sum up the meaning of the stanza.

-         In the first stanza, “English” is personified as being “snowy, blonde, blue-eyed, gum chewing” (2). This personification shows a stereotype for Americans, or people who speak English. This example adds a personal feel to the poem, as although this Spanish girl probably gets stereotyped, American people also have a stereotype associated with them. The allusion is found in line 3 when the narrator says, “dawn’s early light sifting through the persianas closed.” The part of this line that is the allusion is when the narrator says, “dawn’s early light.” This is an allusion to our National Anthem. This allusion adds to the personal aspect of the poem just as the stereotype of an American girl adds the same thing.

3.   What mood or feelings are evoked in stanza two? How does language create this mood?

-         The mood evoked in the second stanza is one of calmness. The words used in this stanza promote a feeling of peace. The language used to create this mood is first seen in line 8 with alliteration. The line is, “warm island waters.” What else can someone think of other than peace and serenity when thinking of warm island waters? Other words used to evoke this feeling are “soothing,” (9) and “sol, tierra, cielo, luna” (11). All of these words, especially said in Spanish, are calming. The sounds in the words aren’t harsh at all and evoke a sense of peace. Even in English, they are calm as they are all parts of nature (sun, earth, sky, moon).

4.   What do we learn in stanzas two and three about the difference between names and vocabulary words? How does the example of the plant called the morivivir help illustrate this gap? What does the metaphor of the genii in the bottle tell us about the nature of language?

-         The narrator shows a significant difference between names and vocabulary words in the second and third stanza. In the second stanza the narrator says, “Gladys, Rosario, Altagracia- the sounds of Spanish / wash over me like warm island waters as I say / your soothing names: a child learning the nombres / of things you point to in the world before English / turned sol, tierra, cielo, luna to vocabulary words- / sun, earth, sky, moon- language closed” (7-12). The narrator says the Spanish names are soothing, comparing it warm island waters. The narrator also points out how a set of beautiful words she knew in Spanish were suddenly changed into just plain old vocabulary words in English. The names of words in Spanish were names of things in the world that were pointed to and in English, it’s simply vocabulary; a closed language instead of an open world. In the third stanza the narrator says, “like the touch-sensitive morivivir whose leaves closed / when we kids poked them, astonished. Even Spanish / failed us then when we realized how frail a word / is when faced with the thing it names. How saying / its name won’t always summon up in Spanish or English / the full blown genii from the bottled nombre” (13-18). In this stanza, the narrator uses the morivivir plant to illustrate the gap between names and vocabulary words. The morivivir plant closes when people touch it, just as the English language is closed when she speaks it. The genii in the bottle tells us about the nature of language. This line explains to us, as readers, that although we say the name of something, we won’t always get the actual feeling of something but a “thing” and just a simple vocabulary word instead of the beauty of the sol, tierra, cielo, or luna.

5.   In stanzas four and five, why does the speaker invoke Gladys and Rosario from her childhood? How is her childhood sensitivity to words inextricably bound to Spanish, her first language? What is significant about the allusion to Adam, the first man?

-         The narrator calls on Gladys and Rosario from her childhood because they bring back memories. When the narrator was with Gladys and Rosario, there was no English. The narrator brings up Spanish words many times in while summoning Gladys and Rosario. She says, “palabras,” (21) “el patio,” (23) “el sol” (28) “persianas” (29), and “Etas son las mañanitas” (30). Obviously, the narrator cares very much for words and names as the poem primarily addresses this issue. Her sensitivity to these words is so intricately bound to Spanish because she grew up with these names, not words. They had meaning and memories and they weren’t just vocabulary words. When there wasn’t any English, the words meant more to her. The significance of the allusion to Adam is that although Adam was the first man, and God made the earth, those weren’t the first things she learned. She learned these Spanish words for what everything was long before she learned about the first man.

Lesson 30: Q&A

1.   In what ways does this poem conform to a common sonnet form? What variations are notable, and what is their effect?

-         The first poem, Death Be Not Proud, is in sonnet form because it has 14 lines, just like the traditional sonnet form. Along with the 14 lines, the first 8 lines are in an abbaabba form which is true to sonnets. But, the next six lines aren’t true to sonnet form as they follow the pattern cddcae. The last six lines is the notable variation on the sonnet form. The effect is a non-traditional sonnet with a new rhyme scheme for the second part of the poem. The reader is thrown off at the end with the word “die” which doesn’t rhyme with any other end of the line in the poem. This separates the poem into two distinct parts and then suddenly ends the poem, as if someone died with an un-rhyming word. Apparently, from the back of the book, it is actually a Shakespearian sonnet with three quatrains and a rhyming couplet. This type of sonnet produces the same effect because of it being broken up into different parts and at the end, ending like death.

2.   Describe Donne’s use of apostrophe and personification. How do these devices enhance our experience of the poem?

-         Donne uses apostrophe and personification in his poem by using “Death.” In the first line, he personifies death by saying, “Death, be not proud,” as if he is saying death could be proud. In line 4, the narrator says, “Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.” This is an instance where he uses apostrophe because he is addressing death as if it is there and as if he is speaking to it. Personification and apostrophe are used to enhance the reader’s experience of the poem because it suddenly becomes more personal. Death is no longer just an idea or something that happens, it is seen as a person and as something that can be spoken to.

3.   Paraphrase each of the sonnet’s three quatrains, preserving the clauses but simplifying the syntax. Do the same for the paradoxical couplet. Retain the apostrophe and personification.

-         The fact that the sonnet is divided into three quatrains disproves my answer to number one as it seems like a normal sonnet to me. But anyway, here is when I paraphrase the three quatrains and the paradoxical couplet. The first quatrain is summarized as the narrator is telling death not to be proud because although some people thing death is an awful thing, the narrator thinks it isn’t. The narrator says that even if death thinks he can overthrow other people, they never die and death cannot kill the narrator. In the second quatrain the narrator says that by resting and sleeping, people get “Much pleasure” (6), and that death is like sleeping or resting. Therefore, when a man dies, “from thee much more must flow” (6). This means that death should be even greater than resting or sleeping and the people that have “died” are resting and their soul is delivered. In the third quatrain, the narrator is saying that death is a slave to fate and chance. (“Thou’ art slave to fate, chance” line 9). The narrator points out that death is in close company with “kings, and desperate men,” (9) and with terrible things such as poison, war and sickness. The narrator also says how a person could use poppy or charms in order to make them sleep well and asks, “And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?” (12). He is saying that those things can make a person sleep better than death, so why are you so proud, death, of what you can do? In the paradoxical couplet, the narrator is saying that when death is over, a person awakes for an eternity so death should be no more and death is one that will die. By a person dying, death is dead.

1.   Describe the form and structure of the poem.

-         Anne Finch separated the poem into heroic couplets. Each couplet forms a new and slightly different idea while still paralleling to the main idea. There are two sets of six lines that each forms a sentence. At the end of the poem, there are two rhyming couplets.

2.   Which details personify death? What is their effect? With what attitude does the speaker apostrophize death? What does she request of him?

-         The narrator chooses to personify death just as death was personified in the last poem. Anne Finch uses phrases such as “O King of terrors,” (1) and “Increase thy gloomy kingdom,” (6) in order to speak directly to death. In line 5, the narrator says, “My name is on thy roll,” personifying death as being able to have paper, or a scroll. Again, the narrator personifies death by saying, “And snatch us raving,” (10) as to say that death can just snatch someone. Just like the other poem, a personal touch is added when death is personified. It is no longer seen as just a thing that happens, it is seen as a person that can be talked to. With the apostrophe, the narrator is looking at the path to death as something awful. But, the narrator isn’t fearful of death, only the things that come along with it. She says, “Increase thy gloomy kingdom in the dust. / My soul at this no apprehension feels, / But trembles at thy swords, thy racks, thy wheels; / Thy scorching fevers, which distract the sense….” (6-9). The narrator requests, “Gently thy fatal scepter on my lay, / And take to thy cold arms, insensibly, thy prey” (15-16). This request is for death to take her without any feeling.

3.   Paraphrase each of the three sections of the poem: lines 1-6, 7-12, and 13-16. Use one sentence for each couplet. This time, chance all figurative language to literal rather than retaining the apostrophe and personification.

-         The first section of the poem is when the narrator calls death the “King of terrors,” and points out that every living thing must obey the call to death whether it is a king, priest, or prophet. The narrator points out that even God, if in the flesh, would not be able to escape death. The narrator knows that her name is on death’s list and that she must die. The second section of the poem starts with the narrator pointing out that she feels no fear to die, but she doesn’t like the things that come with dying such as “scorching fevers” (9) and “contagious darts” (11) that affect people. In the last section, the narrator asks death to spare her of these things when it is her time to die and asks that she die without any feeling.

Answering the First Question

Question: Write a post on your page that describes your experience of making your blog. Be honest; share the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Answer: Making my blog was extremely slow. I didn’t mind making it, but it was tough to wait for so long. Because of the security thing on my computer at home, I couldn’t enable the “cookies” and edublogs wouldn’t work at home. But, I’ll keep working on it. I really like the idea of this though. I like how a person is able to pick their own theme in order to fit their personality or their likes on their page. Of course, technology is advancing very quickly and the work force will most likely be using more electronics, such as blogs. I think it is a great idea to do our homework online as most of us type up our work anyway. This will be a great way to discuss things in class so poems such as “The Mosquito” won’t take up two class periods and everyone can get their two cents in. Overall, the experience of making my blog wasn’t all that bad. It was easy to put together, and although it took a long time, it was fun.

Hello world!

Hello, and welcome to my new blog :]]