Immerse Yourself in Literature

[sometimesalexeats]

Spinach Pesto Soup (vegan, candida diet, scd, bed, gluten free, corn free, soy free, nut free, dairy free, egg free)

Spinach Pesto Soup (vegan, candida diet, scd, bed, gluten free, corn free, soy free, nut free, dairy free, egg free)

Spinach (a lot of it…about a half pound will make one bowl of soup)

Basil (a lot, because it’s delicious)

Arugula (just a small handful)

Garlic or garlic powder

Onions or onion powder

Sea salt

Pepper

Put about a ½" of water in the bottom of a pot and heat on medium.  Add in the spinach.

Cook until wilted, add garlic powder, onion powder, sea salt, pepper.  Cook for a few more minutes.

Dump everything into a blender.  If you’re using raw garlic or onion, add that too, as well as the basil and arugula.  Blend!  Eat!

[attempttotiplescales]

http://srivele.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/exposing-exposure.html  v good and long analysis 

[victoriajoan]

We are only here today not because what does not kill makes us stronger, but because what does not kill us does not kill us, because what takes our breath away leaves us breathing, ‘cause we’re breathing, isn’t that gorgeous, isn’t that miracle enough?

Sam Sax, from “Miracles” (via victoriajoan)

[attempttotiplescales]

returning we hear the larks...

[attempttotiplescales]

Frost- ‘Range Finding’

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/robert-frost-range-finding/

http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/88408.html?page=2

[attempttotiplescales]

Housman- ‘Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries’ (1917)

https://prezi.com/7qb6bjn5wyd7/epitaph-on-an-army-of-mercenaries/

[attempttotiplescales]

Sorley- ‘All The Hills and Vales Along’

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/all-the-hills-and-vales-along-charles-sorely/

http://mural.uv.es/veorca/charlessorley.htm

http://www.poetsforum.com/papers/403_1.html

[days-of-reading]

Hello, I'm an older lady getting back into studying literature for the first time in a long time, and I come on this blog frequently as I admire you greatly. Do you have any tips for analysing poetry- things you look for, a structured way of analysing, or something similar? How long does it usually take you, to analyse one poem? Any resources you could inform me of or just advice from you would be highly regarded. I look forward to watching you grow through this page. Kind regards

Hi! So I typed a very long reply to this when I received it, accidentally closed the window and lost it all, & was too annoyed with myself to type it again! Today is a new day however, so giving it another go.

I’ve found the most helpful thing for me in analysing poetry & learning to probe deeper is reading about how other minds write and think about poetry. This can be in a really academic sense – there are many, many books written about how to understand poetry and I’ve found a couple of them to actually be incredibly enlightening – and also a personal sense, with writers, poets, and journalists chronicling their reactions to and readings of poetry. So here are some book recommendations, with links to pdfs where I can find them (though please do buy if you can – I make them available because I know academic texts are often prohibitively expensive or not available from local libraries, and access is an issue that trumps all others in my opinion). Organised haphazardly from more to less academic:

The Poetry Handbook by John Lennard (if nothing else, this one – so good!)

How Poetry Works by Phil Roberts

The Sounds of Poetry by Robert Pinksy

The Norton Anthology of Poetry (obviously too huge to give a full read, but use the index to find relevant bits of info where needed, very useful)

How to Read a Poem by Terry Eagleton

The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction by Dean Young

My Poets by Maureen McLane (this one is also life-changing)

The Night Sky: the Poetics of Experience by Ann Lauterbach

There are a few other things I do as well: google specific poems I really don’t understand to find commentary from other readers [Genius is sometimes really good for this], listen to the New Yorker poetry podcast, read the Poetry Daily Poem most mornings, read pieces on the Poetry Foundation website, and look through JStor and Google Scholar for academic articles on the specific poem or poet I happen to be reading. Biography also helps a ton & is so interesting.

I know some people have a complicated system of color-coding, extensive note-taking, and so on when approaching poetry, but to me this is 1. not necessary for someone training their mind to approach poetry in general rather than just a specific poem, 2. time-consuming in a way that’s prohibitive – you can only read so many poems when just reading one takes you forever. i end up just underlining lines i find most important, writing short phrases in the margin, maybe circling a word here & there, an exclamation point when I get really excited. Nothing fancy. I just read and scribble as I go, but not in a way that slows me down.

[attempttotiplescales]

McRae- In Flanders Fields (1915)

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides6/Flanders.html

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/in-flanders-fields-john-mccrae/

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/In_Flanders_Fields_lesson_plan.pdf

[attempttotiplescales]

Grenfell- Into Battle (1915)

https://prezi.com/jrh2rtkn0csm/into-battle-julian-grenfell/

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/into-battle-julian-grenfell/

http://siarnsanalysis.weebly.com/into-battle.html

http://war-poets.blogspot.com.es/2010/02/julian-grenfell-into-battle.html

[attempttotiplescales]

Asquith- The Volunteer, 1912

https://greatwarfiction.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/herbert-asquiths-the-volunteer/

http://ww1englitrevision.blogspot.com.es/2010/06/volunteer-herbert-asquith.html

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/the-volunteer-herbert-asquith-2/

[attempttotiplescales]

Rupert Brooke- The Soldier

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/rupert-brooke-the-soldier/

http://www.shmoop.com/soldier-brooke/stanza-1-summary.html

http://www.shmoop.com/soldier-brooke/rhyme-form-meter.html

http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-soldier.html#.VfP8WBFViko

This is a sonnet based on the two major types of the sonnet: Petrarchan or Italian and Shakespearean or English. Structurally, the poem follows the Petrarchan mode; but in its rhyme scheme, it is in the Shakespearean mode. In terms of the structure of ideas, the octave presents reflection; the sestet evaluates the reflection. The first eight lines (octave) is a reflection on the physical: the idea of the soldier’s “dust” buries in a “foreign field.” They urge the readers not to mourn this death, though they implicitly also create a sense of loss. The last six lines (sestet), however, promise redemption: “a pulse in the eternal mind…. under an English heaven”. The rhyme scheme is that of the Shakespearean sonnet: the octave and the sestet consist of three quatrains, rhyming abab cdcd efef and a final rhymed couplet gg. As in Shakespearean sonnets, the dominant meter is iambic. - See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/the-soldier.html#.VfVipRFVikp

[attempttotiplescales]

The Yellow Wallpaper and Feminism

-Commentary on the experience of women in late C1800 in an extremely patriarchal society- made clear by thoughts/writing of protaganist, the portrayal of her husband’s character, and the setting where Jane is placed- signify imprisonment of women and ownership/domination by men

-Narrator locked away in prison created by husband- embodiment of struggles of women seeking freedom/equality (of thought)

-Husband refuses to change her situation though he knows she is unhappy with it- ‘that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on” - reflective of struggles for feminism in every day life. E.g. ‘men’s rights activists’ and fear of politicians to allow further changes because they don’t want to stop dominating/feel threatened by women. Find articulate point for this

the most obvious use of setting to emphasize feminist views comes in the wallpaper itself: “At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars!” (10). The paper itself, though not physically restraining her like the gates and bars, represents a psychological prison. All of her thoughts are devoted entirely to the paper; she is captivated by it, unable to pull her mind from the strange allure of its pattern. This all connects to the image of the woman trapped behind the paper; the protagonist’s mind is not freed until the end of the story, when she has removed most of the paper.

‘John laughs at me of course, but one expects that in marriage’- hint at societal norms

http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/academic/article/317600/The-Yellow-Wallpaper-Feminist-Criticism/

http://publicacoes.unigranrio.com.br/index.php/reihm/article/viewFile/481/472

http://commons.marymount.edu/magnificat/controlling-the-female-psyche-assigned-gender-roles-in-the-yellow-wallpaper/

http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/278949/social-and-medical-attitudes-toward-women-in-the-short-story-the-yellow

[attempttotiplescales]

Rupert Brooke- ‘Peace’

http://www.enotes.com/topics/peace-rupert-brooke

https://vanrossenenglish.wikispaces.com/Breakdown+of+1914+Peace,+by+Rupert+Brooke

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/rupert-brooke-peace/

[attempttotiplescales]

Thomas Hardy- ‘In Time of the Breaking of Nations’

http://ardhendude.blogspot.com.es/2011/11/analysis-of-thomas-hardys-in-time-of.html

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/thomas-hardy-in-time-of-the-breaking-of-nations/

[attempttotiplescales]

Thomas Hardy ‘The Men Who March Away (Song of the Soldiers)’ - Sep 1914

Context- Hardy invited by Cabinet Minister alongside other writers e.g. HG Wells to undertake a literary propaganda effort (Sep 1914) -  England joined WW1 4th August 1914, poem published a month later

Structure-  Five seven line stanzas, unusual structure ABBBAAB. Same words repeated in lines one and six, and same lines repeated at the end of two and seven. Making it very structured and slightly repetitive; both qualities of a marching song. Variety in line-length- 2, 3, 4, 7 shorter than other lines which has effect of bringing a strong rhythm to the poem, again, echoing a marching song

Title- Marching songs allow soldiers to raise spirits and keep time as they march. Reflects two perspectives- onlookers who watch the soldiers, and soldiers themselves 

Purpose of poem- government affiliated propaganda OR is Hardy mocking a patriotic war song?

‘What of the faith and fire within us / Men who march away...’ Begins with a rhetorical question- what is it that gives us (soldiers) faith and courage? Poem seeks to answer this question by examining soldier’s feelings/motivations behind going to war -Alliteration ‘faith/fire’ ‘men/march’ echoes rhythm of marching/continues throughout poem

Voice- ? 

Poem can be seen to typify the patriotic intention of the best known poetry of the first months of the war 

Voice of poetry emphasises ways of Providence (God) who is viewed as omnisciently directing affairs of humanity with wise benevolence 

‘Friend with the musing eye’- a skeptical onlooker suspecting war is nothing but a ‘purblind prank’ (blind joke), questioning if the soldiers have been duped into fighting a war they should not put their lives at risk for 

‘With doubt and dolorous sigh’ - onlooker sad (dolorous) perhaps about their purpose and the fate awaiting them

‘Can much pondering so hoodwink you?’- soldiers confident the situation is right, and of their victory. Accuse man of ‘pondering,’ thinking for too long until he is hoodwinked (tricked) by his own intellectual way of thinking -Ambiguous meaning- man watching may be Hardy himself (expressing own thoughtful doubts as to the war) OR patriotic criticism of over-cautiousness

‘Nay. We well see what we are doing’ - Confident one word rebuttal of doubt by soldiers. Alternatively could show overconfidence, no doubts- may express Hardy’s anti-war sentiments- as shown in his later works

‘Some may not see/ Dalliers as they be’ - Those who question war are uncommitted and lazy, or ‘dalliers’. Men’s voice is patriotic, fitting with the times, they declare ‘England’s needs are we’- presenting the nation-state as helpless without it’s heroes 

‘Her distress would leave us rueing’ - A common emotive personification of England; pictured as a woman needing rescuing by ‘her’ men. Eg as in Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’ 

https://movehimintothesun.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/thomas-hardy-men-who-march-away/

http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Poems_of_War_and_Patriotism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropomorphism

[ourwakingsoules-deactivated2019]

The soft nation is too emotional, too easily moved by the demands of others, and too easily seduced into assuming that claims for asylum, as testimonials of injury, are narratives of truth. […] The implicit demand is for a nation that is less emotional, less open, less easily moved, one that is ‘hard’ or ‘tough’. The use of metaphors of ‘softness’ and 'hardness’ shows us how emotions become attributes of collectives, which get constructed as 'being’ through 'feeling’. Such attributes are of course gendered: the soft national body is a feminised body, which is 'penetrated’ or 'invaded’ by others.

Sara Ahmed on the narrative of “soft touch Britain”, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (via aranrhod)