One of the Frost poems I got really into was “Two Tramps in Mud Time.” The idea of uniting vocation with avocation is something that plagues/captivates me regularly. This poem urges me to continue evaluating that, particularly in the last four lines:
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is [...]
Posts Tagged ‘MoPo’
Frost’s Simplicity: Un-thoughtfulness or a Critique of the Complications We Inflict?
H.D.’s Grave
Here are some of the pictures from my trip. I can’t remember if I mentioned this in class, but when I first got to her grave, I spent a while wanting to clean it off, but feeling really uncertain about whether that was respectful. It didn’t seem kosher to be taking stuff (even [...]
“Patriarchal Poetry” Recitation
If you’re getting too dizzy reading “Patriarchal Poetry” by yourself, you might want to check out this video of a couple of students reciting some of it. It looks like they just did it as a school assignment, so it’s not like theirs is a recitation/reading style you necessarily have to follow, but it’s [...]
Stein and Humor
When we started reading Stein and Dr. Scanlon mentioned that she thought “Poetry and Grammar” was hilarious, I was thoroughly relieved. I too was laughing and reading sections of it out loud to anyone in my house who would listen, but later I worried that I was patronizing Stein and not taking her seriously. I’m [...]
Oh, Gertrude Stein
I am having a love-hate relationship with Gertrude Stein. Before reading what we read for class, I had only really read A Very Valentine and I felt generally unimpressed. After reading Poetry and Grammar I feel like I can appreciate her work a bit more even if i don’t necessarily enjoy it. I don’t necessarily [...]
Stevens’s Favoring (or not?) “Of Modern Poetry” (and perhaps a bridge to Stein)
One thing I’ve been asking myself about Stevens is why he thinks poetry is so superior. Or does he? He writes so many poems about poetry, and he has an essay that I think grounds us to understand where he’s going in his poetry. I think without the essay, his poetry would be too ambiguous [...]
“Democracy” Today
I really enjoyed our conversation today about Hughes’s “Democracy.” The message that racial equality shouldn’t have to be something that takes so long to attain really struck a chord with me, especially thinking about how behind we still are, however many years after that poem was written, judging people based on race and other qualities.
I [...]
Audio-Video Adaptation of Hughes’s “The Weary Blues”
Check out this other presentation of “The Weary Blues.” It was done by a group called Four Seasons Productions in their Moving Poetry Series, which you can look into here: http://www.4seasonsproductions.com/
YouTube says this one is narrated by Dr. Allen Dwight Callahan, an author and Harvard professor.
White Masculine Tradition vs. Human Nature
I wanted to extend a comment Alison made in my last post. I really like what she said about how she sees H. D.’s use of couplets to convey Modern messages as a woman working in the structures of a masculine world, in contrast to how I described H. D.’s style as a modern individual [...]
Couplets, Couples, and H. D.’s Culpability for These Connections in Tribute to the Angels
I know this post looks really long - I got a little carried away with H. D. But a lot of the space it takes up just contains sections of the poem reprinted, and I think you could probably just read a couple paragraphs anywhere in what I’ve written and still have something to [...]
H. D. Reads Helen in Egypt
After Dr. Scanlon mentioned that there’s a movie with H. D. in it, but it’s silent, I went searching for a recording of her voice. Here’s what I came up with. I’ll post my reaction in a comment so everyone has the opportunity to listen before reading my perspective. Take note that [...]
Owen and Veterans
Last year I took a Freshman Seminar called “When Americans Came Marching Home,” which was focused on veterans and their war experiences, as well as their lives when they came home from the war. Taking that class gave me a lot of insight into the trials and struggles of combat, shedding light on the truth [...]
A Take on “Disabled”
One of my favorite Owens poems that we have read so far is “Disabled”. Owens manages to paint such a vivid and descriptive picture of what it is like for this man who has been disabled in war and now, upon return home, is forced to deal with the aftermath of his injury and all [...]
Owen Site, “Exposure” Letter and Others, and Audience
I came across The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive, and they have some fascinating things to check out about Owen. What I’ve been doing is looking at letters he wrote while at war. There are a bunch he wrote to his mother, Susan Owen, and his attitude in those letters seems so less [...]
Circus animals and Countess Cathleen
Out of the readings for last class, I think that “The Circus Animal’s Desertion” won most of my attention. The last stanza is probably my favorite:
“Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, [...]
Sailing to Byzantium
After Eliot, looking at poets’ use of allusion has become increasingly interesting for me. Before reading Sailing to Byzantium, I decided to google the city of Byzantium to see if there was anything really interesting mythologically about it. Byzantium was founded by Byzas, who was told by the Oracle at Delphi to find the land [...]
Leda and the Swan by Michelangelo
So, this poem made a lot more sense after looking up who Leda was (which I should’ve just done in the first place). Leda was a daughter of a Aetolian king and the wife of Spartan king, who was admired and, consequently, raped by Zeus while he was in the form of a swan.
Leda is [...]
Why We Should Labour Over “Adam’s Curse”
“Adam’s Curse,” while basically retelling a biblical story, also reworks the tale to underscore the value implicit in studying literature, specifically poetry. In the third line, Yeats introduces the subject of reading poetry and continues to express how much time and effort it takes to make sense of a poem, and that even if you [...]
A Take on “No Second Troy”
“Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire…”
This excerpt from William Butler [...]
You, Me, and the Unrecognizable Us
Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
-But who is that on the other side [...]
Hart Crane: a new take on mopo
Over the summer, encountered a poem that I feel like reveals a new perspective on Modernism and the possibilities of the Modernist era, in contrast to the pessimism of Eliot, “The Bridge” by Hart Crane. I have encountered him a lot in theoretical readings for my classes (long poems especially), but never actually heard him [...]
T.S. Eliot Reads “The Wasteland”
I saw that someone already posted this, but the video’s not showing up on my browser, so I assume that means it probably doesn’t work for others as well. So, just in case, here goes:
Also, just a really inane note, Eliot’s German pronunciation is great. More later when I’ve actually [...]
Prufrock and Putting Time on Hold
It was really exciting to see that other people wanted to discuss “Prufrock” further - what an awesome poem.
One of the big things in the Eliot poems we’ve read so far seems to be a sense of spiritual suspension. That’s something that was more obvious to me with today’s readings, but when I revisited [...]
Thomas Stearns Eliot
Reading of “The Waste Land” by T.S.
Sort of a boring video of still shots, but hey, still him reading it.
First try at MoPo
10:30 a.m. and I am already blogging.
There is so much to remember, thankfully my generation learns by “clicking around.”
I hope this test post works!
~Jules
