"Tulips" by Sylvia Plath
In my drawing, I chose to depict Sylvia Plath's poem "Tulips." While I am not a very good artist, I tried to convey the feelings she so beautifully described in her writing. In my drawing, Plath is on her hospital bed, her head "propped between the pillow and the sheet-cuff/Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut." When I showed the drawing to my friend (a much, much more talented drawer than I), he told me to make her head bigger so that the focus would be on her and not the passing nurses, but I think her smallness conveys the fact that she is drugged and scared and in a foreign place. The room is like a box containing her. If I could redo the picture, I would make the tulips brighter, because they clearly are the center of the poem. Plath describes them as being "too red" and says she can hear them breathe, eating her oxygen. "Now the air snags and eddies around them," she writes, so I drew little whisps of green around the vase.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Eric Fischl, the painter
Erik Fischl is a painter from the Neo-figurative school who approaches subjects like love, sexuality, and American life with a sometimes vulgar honest in his work. During the reign of more abstract art, Fischl returned the focus of art to the human body and daily life. This is comparable to the Confessional school of poetry in that it focuses on more intimate aspects of human life (from the shocking and dysfunctional to the bland and mundane). Nothing is held back in Fischl's art, evoking a strong response from whoever is viewing his paintings.
In "Love," the first thing my eye focuses on is the woman in the bathing suit about to eat the burger or hotdog or whatever it is. Behind her is a man, embracing her, and directly in front of her is another man swigging a beer. They're watching a wedding on the beach, drinking and eating from a table with a large wedding cake.
"Love" is a strange painting. Why are these people in swimsuits? Are they part of the wedding ceremony or are they just crashing it? This seems to be what they are doing, since they are very detached from the wedding proceedings happening below. The background wedding is painted in bright colors, with mustard-yellow sand and a vibrant blue sea with skimming sailboats. The people in the forefront, however, are painted in mostly darker, gray-ish blue tones. Their skin is contrastingly darker than the pale-skinned people in the wedding; viewing this painting, I get the feeling that the bride and groom have travelled to a beach paradise to have their ideal wedding and the natives are crashing it, eating their food while everyone else concentrates on the ceremony.
Like confessional poetry, this painting could be depicted in many ways. There is no way to tell for sure what Fischl is trying to say, but it is clear that he's not holding back any information. In "Love," it feels as if Fischl is trying to accurately portay a feeling or opinion, but at the same time he is also stepping back and letting the viewer decide for themselves what he means. In many confessional poems, this same technique is used, which makes them relevant because of the debate they inspire in the literary world. This discussion is part of the reason works of art and poems remain in focus today, years after they were created or composed.
In "Love," the first thing my eye focuses on is the woman in the bathing suit about to eat the burger or hotdog or whatever it is. Behind her is a man, embracing her, and directly in front of her is another man swigging a beer. They're watching a wedding on the beach, drinking and eating from a table with a large wedding cake.
"Love" is a strange painting. Why are these people in swimsuits? Are they part of the wedding ceremony or are they just crashing it? This seems to be what they are doing, since they are very detached from the wedding proceedings happening below. The background wedding is painted in bright colors, with mustard-yellow sand and a vibrant blue sea with skimming sailboats. The people in the forefront, however, are painted in mostly darker, gray-ish blue tones. Their skin is contrastingly darker than the pale-skinned people in the wedding; viewing this painting, I get the feeling that the bride and groom have travelled to a beach paradise to have their ideal wedding and the natives are crashing it, eating their food while everyone else concentrates on the ceremony.
Like confessional poetry, this painting could be depicted in many ways. There is no way to tell for sure what Fischl is trying to say, but it is clear that he's not holding back any information. In "Love," it feels as if Fischl is trying to accurately portay a feeling or opinion, but at the same time he is also stepping back and letting the viewer decide for themselves what he means. In many confessional poems, this same technique is used, which makes them relevant because of the debate they inspire in the literary world. This discussion is part of the reason works of art and poems remain in focus today, years after they were created or composed.
The things I know about Confessional poetry
Confessional poetry is a term assigned to the ultra-personal poems that entered the literary scene beginning in the mid-20th century. This school of poetry has been the subject of much criticism and analysis, with some people claiming that this style of poetry is not new at all and symbolizes the progressive debasement of the meaning of what constitutes poetry. Most people, however, find the confessional mode of expression refreshingly human and moving in its emotional intensity.
When reading a confessional poem, the reader feels as if he or she has a connection with the author. In many poems, there is a sort of epiphany that often comes towards the end of the poem. The poem seeks to establish a bond with the reader, making the reader feel as if they are walking alongside the poet in his/her self revelation. Confessional poems often provide insight and emotional depth, yet they encompass a wide variety of topics.
Some argue that the Confessional school is annoying because the poets are clearly "self-absorbed" and "narcisstic." I, for one, did not get that sense at all reading poems from Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Sexton, WD Snodgrass and Theodore Roethke - while their poems referred to themselves and their own experiences, they had a sort of emotional verity that struck me as very unique. I almost got the sense that writing this poems were a sort of therapy for the authors, and further reading lead me to discover that most confessional poets did indeed have some sort of mental illness. Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton were depressed their entire lives and committed suicide (both in the same way - carbon monoxide poisoning), and Allen Ginsberg lived a socially aberrant life as a homosexual Beat poet. Theodore Roethke suffered from bipolar disorder and used it as an impetus for his work.
I think the confessional school achieved what literature should achieve - emotional expression. The vivid imagery in Sylvia Plath's later poems, depicting some dark, shadowy area in her mind that she was trapped in, made me view poetry as a form of art not so distantly related to visual art. Confessional poets have an ability to put to words vague emotions, feelings and beliefs into words. Reading a confessional poem, you don't even have to be a well-versed in poetry to understand the talent that this poets had in expressing themselves through writing.
Of course, it's undeniable that confessional poets fictionalized themselves in their writing; to what extent this fictionalization occurred, however, is open to debate. Reader involvement in confessional poetry has led to the creation of poets into celebrities, perhaps where some of the criticism of narcissim originates. After Plath's death, her fans delved deeply into her husband's affair and criticized his publication of her work, much to the anger of her daughter. To take any one poem and say that it can be directly applied to any certain aspect of the poet's life, or to base an opinion about the poet's personality on any one poem, is to dilute the true meaning of the poetry. Reading confessional poems, I know that the poet is revealing intimate information about him or herself, but there are times in which I think making an impact on the reader has taken prevalance over absolute honesty.
When reading a confessional poem, the reader feels as if he or she has a connection with the author. In many poems, there is a sort of epiphany that often comes towards the end of the poem. The poem seeks to establish a bond with the reader, making the reader feel as if they are walking alongside the poet in his/her self revelation. Confessional poems often provide insight and emotional depth, yet they encompass a wide variety of topics.
Some argue that the Confessional school is annoying because the poets are clearly "self-absorbed" and "narcisstic." I, for one, did not get that sense at all reading poems from Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Sexton, WD Snodgrass and Theodore Roethke - while their poems referred to themselves and their own experiences, they had a sort of emotional verity that struck me as very unique. I almost got the sense that writing this poems were a sort of therapy for the authors, and further reading lead me to discover that most confessional poets did indeed have some sort of mental illness. Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton were depressed their entire lives and committed suicide (both in the same way - carbon monoxide poisoning), and Allen Ginsberg lived a socially aberrant life as a homosexual Beat poet. Theodore Roethke suffered from bipolar disorder and used it as an impetus for his work.
I think the confessional school achieved what literature should achieve - emotional expression. The vivid imagery in Sylvia Plath's later poems, depicting some dark, shadowy area in her mind that she was trapped in, made me view poetry as a form of art not so distantly related to visual art. Confessional poets have an ability to put to words vague emotions, feelings and beliefs into words. Reading a confessional poem, you don't even have to be a well-versed in poetry to understand the talent that this poets had in expressing themselves through writing.
Of course, it's undeniable that confessional poets fictionalized themselves in their writing; to what extent this fictionalization occurred, however, is open to debate. Reader involvement in confessional poetry has led to the creation of poets into celebrities, perhaps where some of the criticism of narcissim originates. After Plath's death, her fans delved deeply into her husband's affair and criticized his publication of her work, much to the anger of her daughter. To take any one poem and say that it can be directly applied to any certain aspect of the poet's life, or to base an opinion about the poet's personality on any one poem, is to dilute the true meaning of the poetry. Reading confessional poems, I know that the poet is revealing intimate information about him or herself, but there are times in which I think making an impact on the reader has taken prevalance over absolute honesty.
Reaction to reading poems from the Confessional school
I chose the Confessional school of poetry to study for my final project because of a poem I had read awhile ago by Anne Sexton, called "The Kiss." I was surprised by the intimacy Sexton conveyed in the poem; it was no wonder, then, that I learned from Mr. Cook's class that her particular school of poetry was called "Confessional". Reading the poem, I felt a connection to the author that I had not felt when reading other poems. I also got the sense that the poem was written with the intent to sound as natural and free-flowing as possible, though I suspect that great thought was taken in the development of it. Reading Theodore Roethke's "In A Dark Time," I noticed that both he and Sexton used the word "I" frequently in reference to themselves as the speaker. Allen Ginsberg's poems were honest about various different aspects of living; some of his poems were about being high on laughing gas (actually, a lot of his poems were about being high on something), some were about his strongly felt views about politics and others described in details that might make some readers uncomfortable his sexual encounters. Allen Ginsberg is also considered a Beat poet, and his style of poetry was revolutionary.
Reading some Confessional poems made me wonder how they could be written and published without the author being a bit embarrassed. Sexton brutally depicts her depression and unhappy marriage in "45 Mercy Street," and it was reading that poem that I realized that this kind of straight-forward honesty was what I liked about the Confessional school. All of the poems I read by the poets in this school were in some way profound or interesting yet they seemed unpretentious in the way they were written and styled. The only poems by Allen Ginsberg I disliked were the ones that were rambling and not framed in sentences; some poems, like "Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber" were a little too much for me to handle.
The emotions and feelings expressed in these poems had a direct impact on me. For example, when reading Sexton's "Welcome Morning," I felt like I understood and shared her optimism and hope about daily living. Although I knew of Sylvia Plath and that she committed suicide as a young woman, I had not read beyond her most well-known poetry; reading the book Ariel, in which the last, rough-draft poems of her life were presented, I felt almost sick and distracted with thinking about how tortured this young woman must have been. Sylvia Plath's ability to express in her poetry a variety of different sensational experiences gave me only a semblance of an understanding of how much she felt emotionally. To see in her poetry the impact that her emotions had on her and the way she experienced them as a human being made me realize how unthinkably tragic her depression and subsequent death was. It seems to me that Plath was just too emotionally attuned for this life, but she produced some amazing poetry because of it.
One of my favorite poems in Ariel was "Barren Woman," which depicted a reproductively incapable woman as a grand, abandoned museum in which "marble lilies exhale their pallor like scent." I wouldn't want to be a childless woman and read this poem! The skill with which Plath describes and illustrates the bleakness of this woman is amazing. Plath is like a painter of words; her poems actually show something instead of describe it. I got the same impression from Theodore Roethke, though he seemed to distance himself a little bit more from his poetry.
It's clear to me that the poets under the Confessional school viewed poetry as a means of expression and communication. I felt (maybe incorrectly) that rhythm wasn't the biggest focus in the writing of these poems, but rather the meaning behind the words, and that is what I believe is the most important part of poetry. Having purchased the Collected Poems of Allen Ginsberg 1947-1997, I feel as if I am getting to personally know the man! I feel fortunate that I chose the Confessional school, as it forced me to delve into the poems of poets I only had a cursory knowledge of.
Reading some Confessional poems made me wonder how they could be written and published without the author being a bit embarrassed. Sexton brutally depicts her depression and unhappy marriage in "45 Mercy Street," and it was reading that poem that I realized that this kind of straight-forward honesty was what I liked about the Confessional school. All of the poems I read by the poets in this school were in some way profound or interesting yet they seemed unpretentious in the way they were written and styled. The only poems by Allen Ginsberg I disliked were the ones that were rambling and not framed in sentences; some poems, like "Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber" were a little too much for me to handle.
The emotions and feelings expressed in these poems had a direct impact on me. For example, when reading Sexton's "Welcome Morning," I felt like I understood and shared her optimism and hope about daily living. Although I knew of Sylvia Plath and that she committed suicide as a young woman, I had not read beyond her most well-known poetry; reading the book Ariel, in which the last, rough-draft poems of her life were presented, I felt almost sick and distracted with thinking about how tortured this young woman must have been. Sylvia Plath's ability to express in her poetry a variety of different sensational experiences gave me only a semblance of an understanding of how much she felt emotionally. To see in her poetry the impact that her emotions had on her and the way she experienced them as a human being made me realize how unthinkably tragic her depression and subsequent death was. It seems to me that Plath was just too emotionally attuned for this life, but she produced some amazing poetry because of it.
One of my favorite poems in Ariel was "Barren Woman," which depicted a reproductively incapable woman as a grand, abandoned museum in which "marble lilies exhale their pallor like scent." I wouldn't want to be a childless woman and read this poem! The skill with which Plath describes and illustrates the bleakness of this woman is amazing. Plath is like a painter of words; her poems actually show something instead of describe it. I got the same impression from Theodore Roethke, though he seemed to distance himself a little bit more from his poetry.
It's clear to me that the poets under the Confessional school viewed poetry as a means of expression and communication. I felt (maybe incorrectly) that rhythm wasn't the biggest focus in the writing of these poems, but rather the meaning behind the words, and that is what I believe is the most important part of poetry. Having purchased the Collected Poems of Allen Ginsberg 1947-1997, I feel as if I am getting to personally know the man! I feel fortunate that I chose the Confessional school, as it forced me to delve into the poems of poets I only had a cursory knowledge of.
Explication of the poem "Lady Lazarus"
"Lady Lazarus" is one of Sylvia Plath's most horrifying poems. It requires a little bit of knowledge of the author herself, much like most of her poetry. Plath's confessional, autobiographical poems are the reason for her larger-than-life celebrity status in the writing world, made even more dramatic with the knowledge of her suicide and troubled marriage. “Lady Lazarus” is written about her suicide attempt, with allusions to her past brushes with death.
The first stanza begins with, "I have done it again --/One year in every ten/I manage it" - she's almost killed herself. Plath then goes on to describe herself (the speaker) as a "Nazi lampshade" with a "featureless" face of "Jew linen." Her references to the Holocaust perhaps are indicative of her feelings of being a prisoner within herself, or maybe her feelings of being a victim of the people trying to rescue her ("So, so Herr Doktor/ So, Herr Enemy").
In the way she describes herself in the poem, it's as if she is a rotten, walking corpse just waiting to die; her "sour breath will vanish in a day." The linen that hides her face (maybe a reference to a mask she puts on for daily living?) can be peeled back by her enemy (herself) to reveal her nose, eye "pits" and full set of teeth. It sounds to me like she's talking about a skull.
At this point I begin thinking that her audience for this poem was herself. It seems like she is directly addressing herself, as if there's some kind of inner demon she's trying to speak to. In an ironic, dark style she refers to her readers as the "peanut-crunching crowd" lining up to watch her misery as if it was some form of entertainment. They "unwrap" her "hand and foot -- / The big strip tease". It's like she's describing her dead body on the coroner's table, wrapped up in bags ready to be dissected by her admirers who see her as some sort of prodigy instead of a person.
"I may be skin and bone,/Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman." Is Plath trying to say she's dead inside, the same living as she is dead? Despite the references to death, "Lady Lazarus" is about a failed suicide attempt, about having to live on after having come so close to death. What tortures Sylvia, it seems, is not the act of suicide itself ("I do it exceptionally well ...It's easy enough to do it ... It's the theatrical/Comeback in broad day .../ That knocks me out." I think Plath is trying to say that she is comfortable with the idea of death, but the failure of dying and having to deal with "the same place, the same face, the same brute" afterwards is what really kills her.
The "same brute"? Could that be a direct reference to someone, or is she thinking more abstractly? Fans of Sylvia Plath who are knowledgeable about the whole drama that caused her suicide (her poet husband, Ted Hughes, had an affair with her friend) would claim that she is referring to her husband. The last stanza in the poem goes like this: "Out of the ash/I rise with my red hair/And I eat men like air." This would be a good argument in favor of those who view Sylvia Plath as a feminist icon. She has risen, like a phoenix, using the feminine vulnerability in her poetry to force the world to acknowledge her ignored position as a depressed woman.
The heavy subject matter of this poem is rendered a little more bearable with the light, ironic tone in which Plath discusses her suicide. To some people, this conversational, anti-climactic discussion of her many suicide attempts is the most horrifying aspect of the poem. In this poem, she is mocking the drama with which her life is received by her readers, and the god-like status she attained in the world of literature. "For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge." She is "your opus," "the pure gold baby/That melts into a shriek." For Sylvia Plath, being a poetic mastermind is not very fun.
The first stanza begins with, "I have done it again --/One year in every ten/I manage it" - she's almost killed herself. Plath then goes on to describe herself (the speaker) as a "Nazi lampshade" with a "featureless" face of "Jew linen." Her references to the Holocaust perhaps are indicative of her feelings of being a prisoner within herself, or maybe her feelings of being a victim of the people trying to rescue her ("So, so Herr Doktor/ So, Herr Enemy").
In the way she describes herself in the poem, it's as if she is a rotten, walking corpse just waiting to die; her "sour breath will vanish in a day." The linen that hides her face (maybe a reference to a mask she puts on for daily living?) can be peeled back by her enemy (herself) to reveal her nose, eye "pits" and full set of teeth. It sounds to me like she's talking about a skull.
At this point I begin thinking that her audience for this poem was herself. It seems like she is directly addressing herself, as if there's some kind of inner demon she's trying to speak to. In an ironic, dark style she refers to her readers as the "peanut-crunching crowd" lining up to watch her misery as if it was some form of entertainment. They "unwrap" her "hand and foot -- / The big strip tease". It's like she's describing her dead body on the coroner's table, wrapped up in bags ready to be dissected by her admirers who see her as some sort of prodigy instead of a person.
"I may be skin and bone,/Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman." Is Plath trying to say she's dead inside, the same living as she is dead? Despite the references to death, "Lady Lazarus" is about a failed suicide attempt, about having to live on after having come so close to death. What tortures Sylvia, it seems, is not the act of suicide itself ("I do it exceptionally well ...It's easy enough to do it ... It's the theatrical/Comeback in broad day .../ That knocks me out." I think Plath is trying to say that she is comfortable with the idea of death, but the failure of dying and having to deal with "the same place, the same face, the same brute" afterwards is what really kills her.
The "same brute"? Could that be a direct reference to someone, or is she thinking more abstractly? Fans of Sylvia Plath who are knowledgeable about the whole drama that caused her suicide (her poet husband, Ted Hughes, had an affair with her friend) would claim that she is referring to her husband. The last stanza in the poem goes like this: "Out of the ash/I rise with my red hair/And I eat men like air." This would be a good argument in favor of those who view Sylvia Plath as a feminist icon. She has risen, like a phoenix, using the feminine vulnerability in her poetry to force the world to acknowledge her ignored position as a depressed woman.
The heavy subject matter of this poem is rendered a little more bearable with the light, ironic tone in which Plath discusses her suicide. To some people, this conversational, anti-climactic discussion of her many suicide attempts is the most horrifying aspect of the poem. In this poem, she is mocking the drama with which her life is received by her readers, and the god-like status she attained in the world of literature. "For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge." She is "your opus," "the pure gold baby/That melts into a shriek." For Sylvia Plath, being a poetic mastermind is not very fun.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Reflection on the Confessional school
I chose the Confessional school of poetry to study for my final project because of a poem I had read awhile ago by Anne Sexton, called "The Kiss." I was suprised by the intimacy Sexton conveyed in the poem; it was no wonder, then, that I learned in English class that her particular school of poetry was called "Confessional". Reading the poem, I felt a connection to the author that I had not felt when reading other poems. I got the sense that the poem was written with the intent to sound as natural and free-flowing as possible, though I suspect that great thought was taken in the development of it. Reading Theodore Roethke's "In A Dark Time," I noticed that both he and Sexton used the word "I" frequently in reference to themselves as the speaker. Allen Ginsberg's poems were honest about various different aspects of living; some of his poems were about being high on laughing gas (actually, a lot of his poems were about being high on something), some were about his strongly felt views about politics and others described in details that might make some readers uncomfortable his sexual encounters. Allen Ginsberg is also considered a Beat poet, and his style of poetry was revolutionary.
Reading some Confessional poems made me wonder how they could be written and published without the author being a bit embarassed. Sexton brutally depicts her depression and unhappy marriage in "45 Mercy Street," and it was reading that poem that I realized that this kind of straight-forward honesty was what I liked about the Confessional school. All of the poems I read by the poets in this school were in some way profound or interesting yet they seemed unpretentious in the way they were written and styled. The only poems by Allen Ginsberg I disliked were the ones that were rambling and not framed in sentences; some poems, like "Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber" were a little too much for me to handle.
The emotions and feelings expressed in these poems had a direct impact on me. For example, when reading Sexton's "Welcome Morning," I felt like I understood and shared her optimism and hope about daily living. Although I knew of Sylvia Plath and that she committed suicide as a young woman, I had not read beyond her most well-known poetry; reading the book Ariel, in which the last, rough-draft poems of her life were presented, I felt almost sick and distracted with thinking about how tortured this young woman must have been. Sylvia Plath's ability to express in her poetry a variety of different sensational experiences gave me only a semblance of an understanding of how much she felt emotionally. To see in her poetry the impact that her emotions had on her and the way she experienced them as a human being made me realize how unthinkably tragic her depression and subsequent death was. It seems to me that Plath was just too emotionally attuned for this life, but she produced some amazing poetry because of it.
One of my favorite poems in Ariel was "Barren Woman," which depicted a reproductively incapable woman as a grand, abandoned museum in which "marble lilies exhale their pallor like scent." I wouldn't want to be a childless woman and read this poem! The skill with which Plath describes and illustrates the bleakness of this woman is amazing. Plath is like a painter of words; her poems actually show something instead of describe it. I got the same impression from Theodore Roethke, though he seemed to distance himself a little bit more from his poetry.
It's clear to me that the poets under the Confessional school viewed poetry as a means of expression and communication. I felt (maybe incorrectly) that rythm wasn't the biggest focus in the writing of these poems, but rather the meaning behind the words, and that is what I believe is the most important part of poetry. Having purchased the Collected Poems of Allen Ginsberg 1947-1997, I feel as if I personally know the man! I feel fortunate that I chose the Confessional school, as it forced me to delve into the poems of poets I only had a cursory knowledge of.
Reading some Confessional poems made me wonder how they could be written and published without the author being a bit embarassed. Sexton brutally depicts her depression and unhappy marriage in "45 Mercy Street," and it was reading that poem that I realized that this kind of straight-forward honesty was what I liked about the Confessional school. All of the poems I read by the poets in this school were in some way profound or interesting yet they seemed unpretentious in the way they were written and styled. The only poems by Allen Ginsberg I disliked were the ones that were rambling and not framed in sentences; some poems, like "Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber" were a little too much for me to handle.
The emotions and feelings expressed in these poems had a direct impact on me. For example, when reading Sexton's "Welcome Morning," I felt like I understood and shared her optimism and hope about daily living. Although I knew of Sylvia Plath and that she committed suicide as a young woman, I had not read beyond her most well-known poetry; reading the book Ariel, in which the last, rough-draft poems of her life were presented, I felt almost sick and distracted with thinking about how tortured this young woman must have been. Sylvia Plath's ability to express in her poetry a variety of different sensational experiences gave me only a semblance of an understanding of how much she felt emotionally. To see in her poetry the impact that her emotions had on her and the way she experienced them as a human being made me realize how unthinkably tragic her depression and subsequent death was. It seems to me that Plath was just too emotionally attuned for this life, but she produced some amazing poetry because of it.
One of my favorite poems in Ariel was "Barren Woman," which depicted a reproductively incapable woman as a grand, abandoned museum in which "marble lilies exhale their pallor like scent." I wouldn't want to be a childless woman and read this poem! The skill with which Plath describes and illustrates the bleakness of this woman is amazing. Plath is like a painter of words; her poems actually show something instead of describe it. I got the same impression from Theodore Roethke, though he seemed to distance himself a little bit more from his poetry.
It's clear to me that the poets under the Confessional school viewed poetry as a means of expression and communication. I felt (maybe incorrectly) that rythm wasn't the biggest focus in the writing of these poems, but rather the meaning behind the words, and that is what I believe is the most important part of poetry. Having purchased the Collected Poems of Allen Ginsberg 1947-1997, I feel as if I personally know the man! I feel fortunate that I chose the Confessional school, as it forced me to delve into the poems of poets I only had a cursory knowledge of.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Anna Karenina is a truthful depiction of a variety of different subjects, laden with subtle criticisms of society interwoven in the general plot. When reading Anna Karenina, I was most impressed by Tolstoy’s ability to present his characters honestly and without judgment – he leaves that up to the reader. Characters are not vilified or made into martyrs, though many possess devastating faults. Sometimes Tolstoy will spend more time discussing the mundane details of Russian life rather than the more important events in the novel in a further attempt to make his depiction of Anna Karenina and her Russian aristocratic friends more realistic. Despite this illusion of reality, it’s undeniable that Tolstoy meant to convey very strong messages about his beliefs about the individual and society.
Anna Karenina is not a love story, though it is centered on two characters struggling with love; Anna herself, who becomes torn between her emotions and her desire for acceptance following her adulterous actions, and Levin, who is madly in love with a woman who keeps refusing him. These love stories are merely the prism which Tolstoy uses to illustrate the clash between modern living and antiquated values. Anna Karenina is shunned by her friends because she cheated on her husband, but her husband was cold, uncaring and detached. Anna is hardly portrayed as some sort of harlot – in fact, she resists the affair in many ways, and her relationship with Vronsky is detailed in only emotional terms. She mostly cares about her son, who is cruelly taken from her when it is discovered that she is an adulteress. Levin, a passionate man and a bit of an outcast, chooses to live in the country rather than engage in the frivolous pursuits of the Russian aristocracy. Dedicated to the cultivation of his land and building a respectful relationship with the peasants who work for him, Levin goes out into the fields and does hard labor beside them for a day to better understand their position. He plans to write a novel about agriculture and economy that will defy the current system of Russian farming, underscoring Tolstoy’s consistent theme of modernization in the novel.
I particularly liked Levin for his revolutionary attitude and loner status. His pining over Kitty, however, somewhat disappointed me. Kitty seemed to me a symbol of the decadence and purposelessness of the Russian elite, though I am not sure if Tolstoy intended to portray her that way. She had little personality (in contrast to the passionate Anna) and was incessantly unsure of her decisions. After being rejected by her preferred suitor (Vronsky, who would ironically then turn to Anna), Kitty realizes that she wants to be married to Levin and his problems are seemingly solved. Tolstoy is consistent with the complexity of his characters, however, and Levin’s passionate, artistic, restless nature is not cured.
This is the most frustrating part of the novel for me. If this was meant to be a love story (which I know it wasn’t), then Levin and Anna would be absolutely perfect matches. I wonder if Tolstoy maybe meant to portray it that way, because Anna and Levin are kept apart throughout most of the novel, though they share the same small social circle. When they do speak (towards the ends of the novel), I was surprised at how well they related to each other. Unfortunately, this was only when both were bogged down with problems of their own. It made me wonder what a romance between the two would have been like.
In a mere two pages, Tolstoy depicts a distraught Anna Karenina throwing herself in front of a train, committing suicide. Levin, in some senses, kills a little bit of himself when he gives himself over to Kitty. I think by contrasting Levin and Anna, Tolstoy was trying to send the message that the desire for change exists in every person, no matter how alone they may feel in their rebelliousness or conformity.
Anna Karenina is not a love story, though it is centered on two characters struggling with love; Anna herself, who becomes torn between her emotions and her desire for acceptance following her adulterous actions, and Levin, who is madly in love with a woman who keeps refusing him. These love stories are merely the prism which Tolstoy uses to illustrate the clash between modern living and antiquated values. Anna Karenina is shunned by her friends because she cheated on her husband, but her husband was cold, uncaring and detached. Anna is hardly portrayed as some sort of harlot – in fact, she resists the affair in many ways, and her relationship with Vronsky is detailed in only emotional terms. She mostly cares about her son, who is cruelly taken from her when it is discovered that she is an adulteress. Levin, a passionate man and a bit of an outcast, chooses to live in the country rather than engage in the frivolous pursuits of the Russian aristocracy. Dedicated to the cultivation of his land and building a respectful relationship with the peasants who work for him, Levin goes out into the fields and does hard labor beside them for a day to better understand their position. He plans to write a novel about agriculture and economy that will defy the current system of Russian farming, underscoring Tolstoy’s consistent theme of modernization in the novel.
I particularly liked Levin for his revolutionary attitude and loner status. His pining over Kitty, however, somewhat disappointed me. Kitty seemed to me a symbol of the decadence and purposelessness of the Russian elite, though I am not sure if Tolstoy intended to portray her that way. She had little personality (in contrast to the passionate Anna) and was incessantly unsure of her decisions. After being rejected by her preferred suitor (Vronsky, who would ironically then turn to Anna), Kitty realizes that she wants to be married to Levin and his problems are seemingly solved. Tolstoy is consistent with the complexity of his characters, however, and Levin’s passionate, artistic, restless nature is not cured.
This is the most frustrating part of the novel for me. If this was meant to be a love story (which I know it wasn’t), then Levin and Anna would be absolutely perfect matches. I wonder if Tolstoy maybe meant to portray it that way, because Anna and Levin are kept apart throughout most of the novel, though they share the same small social circle. When they do speak (towards the ends of the novel), I was surprised at how well they related to each other. Unfortunately, this was only when both were bogged down with problems of their own. It made me wonder what a romance between the two would have been like.
In a mere two pages, Tolstoy depicts a distraught Anna Karenina throwing herself in front of a train, committing suicide. Levin, in some senses, kills a little bit of himself when he gives himself over to Kitty. I think by contrasting Levin and Anna, Tolstoy was trying to send the message that the desire for change exists in every person, no matter how alone they may feel in their rebelliousness or conformity.
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