Comment critically on the contemplation of death by Benjamin Franklin King (1857-94) in If I Should Die and Christina Rossetti (1830-94) in When I am Dead, My Dearest, paying close attention to comparing how the persona has been constructed and the impact of this on the messages of the poems.

In the former poem, the titling of the texts identifies it as a kind of threat because the word ‘If‘ clearly indicates that what is being explored is a possibility rather than a certainty. The speaker obviously is not speaking seriously because while he is addressing the rather morbid possibility of his own death, he seems to mock the recipient of the poem with the hyperbolic nature of his predictions of the recipient’s possible response to such an event and threats to rise from the dead. The use of fixed rhythm and rhyme here lends a lighthearted tone to the poem, complemented by the use of run-on-lines quicken the pace of some of the lines, rendering it like to a witty repartee or rebuke of someone whom the speaker is familiar with, and the effect is congruent with the almost jokey idea of  him returning from the dead at the mention of the ten-dollar debt. In contrast, Rossetti’s poem is much more serious and the punctuation forces the reader to pause at the end of almost every line and sometimes, in between, resulting in a slower pace to accompany the more serious ideas of how the speaker instructs the recipient what to do or not do when she is dead in the first stanza, and what she will be insensible to once she is dead in the second stanza. The rhyme scheme of When I am Dead, My Dearest creates a delayed, almost languid tone because of the multiple pauses which occur before the rhyme pattern is completed. This lends a kind of distance to the voice being used by the speaker, despite the reference to the recipient as ‘my dearest’, which implies a closer, more intimate relationship. Instead, the languid, distant tone supports the instructions being given, that the speaker wants no showy displays of love with ‘roses’ or a ‘cypress tree’, and that the speaker seems sincere in the desire to be remembered or forgotten only ‘if (the recipient) wilt’. This may, at first seem somewhat cold in the light of the unfulfilled expectation of possessiveness or the expression of a command to be remembered, but when the poem is taken as a whole, it is instead calm and pragmatic in its expectations since the facts are that once she is dead (which is itself a fact, as given by the use of the word ‘when’ in the title and the initial line of the poem), she will lose the ability to sense and experience any kind of life or movement. Whereas, the use of the repeated line to envelop the rhyming couplet in If I Should Die draws attention to the excessive grief that the speaker anticipates to create a contrast between the dramatic physicality of the mourning (‘weeping and heartsick’, ‘clasping my bier’) to the triviality of the ‘then dollars that I owe’, giving rise to the attainment of a very humorous effect through the presentation of the recipient as being possibly ridiculous in behaviour in such a circumstance. The speaker then is like a director of a play, indicating who plays what part and how, removing the autonomy of the recipient. Hence both poems, though they bear a certain similarity to each other in terms of how they both adhere to the use of strict structural form and both express directions or commands to their respective recipients, the tones and effects of the poems are quite distinct experiences for the readers who either become objects of obvious satire or else are extolled to not cling to grief.

...a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils

Consider the ways in which romantic poet, William Wordsworth, and modern American poet, e.e. cummings, create emphasis in their appreciation for daffodils int he following poems, paying particular attention to comparing how tone and atmosphere are drawn out.

These poems were chosen because they were both contemplative and had enough nuance differences of structure, language and imagery to be an intriguing comparison. The feedback received for these poems made it clear that there is still some stretching to be done with regard to being able to hear the voice of the speakers right, as well as arriving at a technically sound reason for comparative claims that are made.

One of the more obvious things to compare would be the structure of the poems. Though separated by about two centuries, both poets have chosen fixed formats to carry their message, and the sequencing of the stanzas in both poems are indicative of progression, in terms of the chronological events of the encounter with the daffodils and the realisation in the aftermath for Daffodils, and the development of the reflection upon various aspects of human experience in In Time of Daffodils. Variations in the used of the fixed formatting creates quite distinctly different tones of voice in the poems. For instance, the consistent alternating rhyme scheme ending in a couplet in Daffodils for each six-line stanza works together with the consistent yet spritely rhythm to create quite a melodious sound as the poem is being read, creating the impression of a speaker who is serenading the flowers which are the object of his admiration. The pleasure of the speaker at the perusal of the flowers growing in abundance on the landscape is reinforced by the certainty and predictability of the rhyme scheme which fulfill the reader’s anticipation and desire for completion and wholeness, particularly with the couplets which form the end of each stanza. The sense of a congruence between man and nature and the pleasure which is being enjoyed is experienced by the reader through the congruence of the visual and auditory aspects of words which look like and sound like they rhyme. cummngs, on the other hand, creates quite a different effect. Though there appears to be a uniformity and order in the formulation of the poem with five tercets of uniform length, the reader is disconcerted by the inconsistent use of rhyme which disrupt the flow and anticipated sound of the poem, beginning with the use of an eye-rhyme with the word ‘how’ disrupting the rhyme scheme set in place by ‘know’ and ‘grow’ in stanza 1, progressing to a complete lack of rhyme in stanzas 3 and 4. The changing sight and sound of the words causes the reader to double back over the lines and to search to ensure that the rhyme hasn’t been incidentally missed in the reading, and this echoes the contemplative process and erstwhile confusion of the speaker who is seeking to make sense in the relation of the concepts remembering and forgetting. The perfectly rhymed 5th tercet presents a positive outlook that the two ideas can be reconciled to each other eventually, though the abrupt switch from non-rhyme to rhyme does create a sense of uncertainty and unpredictability about the contemplative process, suggesting that the speaker’s optimism might not compensate or create coherence for the presence of the paradox. So while Wordsworth’s contemplation remains caught up in the beauty of the experience in witnessing the flower-filled landscape, as reflected in the lyricism of its structure, cumming’s confusion in his attempt to unravel the complexity of human experience reveals itself beyond the superficial uniformity of the verse forms.

‘(In), “Ophelia”, from the album, Amos addresses her own moments of insecurity and self-loathing as a “mature woman”. She observed, “The self-harming mind tries to gain [the] control that [it] feels has been taken from [it]. It’s this very strange paradox where, by doing the wounding on yourself, you’re in the power position. Although, the idea that you’ve become your own abuser – it’s not necessarily being grasped. And so, you can step into that “Ophelia” state of mind – however old you are – where you start that downward spiral and you’re not on the ‘front-foot’ anymore in life, you’re on the ‘back foot’, and there’s a victimization-energy around you.”

This, I think, offers an interesting perspective on the position of Ophelia: to what extent is she her own abuser in the end, in the same vein that suicide is ultimately an attack on oneself. How is the position and power of the woman compromised to the extent that she wants to hurt and destroy herself instead of empowering herself or doing things which are good for her?

My husband and I actually had a similar discussion just this morning because he realised that in the last couple of days I’ve chewed my fingernails right down, and he says that it saddens him that I don’t take better care of myself. And it really made me stop and think: yeah, why do I do that? Why do I make time for other people and other things but can’t take five minutes just to trim and file my nails nicely so that I can have hands I’m not ashamed of? Why do I make myself feel ugly, even on this comparatively low-level way?

It’s the details, people: it’s the details that will give you the clues about all the questions you care to ask about your own lives.

Anyway, here’s the youtube MTV of the song — Tori tends to do rather non-mainstream music videos. This one puzzled me intensely, as did some of the others off the album. But the song is wonderful. I’ve placed the lyrics below for you as well. Enjoy!

Ophelia by Tori Amos

Ophelia your secret is safe
Ophelia you must break the chain
some girls will get their way
some fathers will control from the grave
Ophelia you must remember

Veronica’s America is not like–
is not like Charlotte’s, one to savor
cosmic flavor
then Alison whispers, “remember
Change waltzes in with her sister Pain
waiting for you to send her away
wish her well break the chain
break the chain”
I feel you

Ophelia
“The Eve of St. Agnes”,
a poem he can’t reach you in
Ophelia you know how to lose
but when will you learn to choose
those men who choose to stay
those mothers who won’t look the other way
Ophelia you must remember

Veronica’s America is not like—
is not like Charlotte’s, one to savor
cosmic flavor
then Alison whispers,” remember
Change waltzes in with her sister Pain
waiting for you to send her away
wish her well break the chain
break the chain”
I feel you
Ophelia

A live version of the song is always amazing to watch because the artiste will improvise various parts of the song, or create new emphasis…

Yelsh.

My poor husband who has been a Kate Bush fan since before you were all born would be most appalled. I shall spare his feelings by not telling him what you have done. The dear man was actually the one who showed me the song for the first time when I told him that I was going to start teaching Wuthering Heights, sat with me patiently while I searched for and found version after version of music videos, live versions, montages and covers by other artistes of the same song, and discussed with every ounce of his attention a critical dissection of the lyrics and the use of poetic devices as well as the degree of relevance as a representation of the key romantic relationship within the text.

I thought I’d put up the youtube videos here, so that you can more easily find and reference the following:

a) the version Mr. Ng shared with you,

You guys laughed at the dancing, but it was pretty avant gard for its time because it was when people started adapting and dancing out the meaning rather than adhering to classical dance forms.

Tell you what: since you laughed so much, why don’t you come up with a new version of the dance to symbolise the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff, hmm? If you can do better and look ‘better’ in the process, then you can laugh.

b) the outdoor version of the video that was released in the US,

I wonder what it says that the version for release in the US had to be set so differently and projecting such a different image of Cathy. Red, of course, denotes passion, and Cathy as a character is quite passionate and temperamental. The idea of her (or her spirit, given the lyrics of the song) as a temptress is much stronger here than in the previous video because in the last one, the white dress gives her a demeanor of being forlorn and more innocent than she actually is. The Cathy depicted here is a much more ‘experienced’ or ‘knowing’ one, it looks like.

Think about this image also from the cultural perspective: is your generation familiar with the Chinese superstition that women who die (by suicide specifically) wearing red dresses become some kind of angry female spirits who aim to destroy men (or something like that; I can’t remember if the actual supernatural form is some kind of female vampire)?How does that perspective affect your perception of the figure dancing in this video?

c) Kate Bush performing this song LIVE,

I was wondering if I should add this and then I decided that it was worth the risk that you might all freak out (at least you’ll do it at home where I can’t see it happening).

Watch her expression as she is performing. It’s kind of hard to miss, really. What kind of a Cathy do you think she is trying to portray through this performance of the song? What kind of archetypes do you see playing out in her changes of expression?

Huh. If you guys can express yourselves as vividly and as well in the performance of this song without cracking up, it’d might be something really worth watching for Lit night next year. IF you really adhere to that as the standard — are you up for it?

and

d) the song put to a montage from the 1992 film starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.

As with all film adaptations, the film can’t quite live up to the novel though it may have elements which hit the nail on the head or which offer useful symbolic or alternative perspectives. Mr. Ng plans to show the film later on, I believe. If you decide to seek film adaptations of the novel to watch, please do remember that film-watching is not a substitute for reading the text. There are inevitably nuances in the text which are not encompassed in any film version, no matter how true to the text. You will be examined on Emily Bronte’s writing style, and that you can only examine from her writing, not script-writers’ adaptations of her writing.

That being said, for those of you who have difficulties visualizing in your mind’s eye the landscape or the characters, the film might give your imagination a start, at least. I find that putting images to the words as I am reading helps make the novels I read much more exciting. Re-creating different mental versions also helped me get through reading texts more than once, especially when I had to prepare for exams, etc.

I’m including the lyrics to the song (ref. below), and I want you to take note of how Kate Bush actually uses imperfect rhyme to create a rather disquieting effect because, as you should know by now, even if Heathcliff does love Cathy, she’s actually calling him from beyond the grave which suggests that 1) her soul is not at rest, and 2) if he follows her, he might be walking into a kind of ‘trap’ of eternal damnation.

This actually makes for a rather interesting contrast because when there is use of perfect masculine end-rhyme couplets (night / right) which suggest some kind of harmonious end and completion, it’s actually the opposite because she’s wanting to ‘grab (his) soul away’, and so, rather than creating the impression that they’ll be ‘happily ever after’ when his soul joins hers, it creates the image of Cathy having turned into some kind of succubus who wants to drain away his male power.

Out on the wiley, windy moors
We’d roll and fall in green
You had a temper, like my jealousy
Too hot, too greedy
How could you leave me?
When I needed to possess you?
I hated you, I loved you too

Bad dreams in the night
They told me I was going to lose the fight
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights

(Chorus) Heathcliff, its me, Cathy come home
I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window

Oh it gets dark, it gets lonely
On the other side from you
I pine alot, I find the lot
Falls through without you
I’m coming back love, cruel Heathcliff
My one dream, my only master

Too long I roam in the night
I’m coming back to his side to put it right
I’m coming home to wuthering, wuthering,
Wuthering Heights

Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away
Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away
You know it’s me, Cathy

This last video I just found. It’s not really a video; it’s an audio track of a recently re-recorded (2008) version of the song by Kate Bush.

It is, as one of the viewers commented on the youtube page, “less screechy” than the original, even though she did not do an updated version of the music video. You can, of course, take the initiative to search other covers of the song. Some of the covers have even been sung by men, which is kind of strange, since the recipient of the song is supposed to be a man (Heathcliff).

Ah well, says who men can’t fall in love with male fictional characters and want to knock on their windows and ask to be let in because they’re feeling cold and lonely, hmm?

Here’s one of my other favourite versions, mainly cos it makes me laugh:

It’s The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain. I love the way they chase this couple every which where. Especially for the last chorus repeat.

Boys, isn’t this a great idea if you guys really want to do an ‘SR Arts Adapts Wuthering Heights‘ live MTV for next year’s Lit Night?

1) Looking at the treatment of women in Shakespeare,

2) Understanding how Shakespeare might employ archetypes in his plays,

3) Getting a sense of how the male-female dynamic might emerge in a dramatic text,

4) Understanding that the text is open to interpretation, especially because of Shakespeare’s lack of stage directions,

and

5) Deriving possible direction for the action from the speech.

We weren’t quite able to cover all these areas in depth yet because there’s only so much that can be accomplished in 50 minutes, particularly if you get hung up on the thees and thous and can’t get to the meat of the text in time. Reading Shakespeare is a matter of habit, really — once you’re used to the pattern of the language, it really gets easier to understand what he’s going on about. It’s actually remarkably easy because Shakespeare talks in pictures about everything: the environment, the characters, feelings, thoughts… Everything is in pictures, and all you have to do is put your imagination to work on your behalf. Ask questions like What is he comparing here? Why is he comparing these things? When it comes to the treatment and depiction of women, ask What are women compared to and why? How do the other characters, whether it’s the significant male figures (fathers, brothers, husbands / boyfriends) or the significant female figures (mothers, sisters, best friends / confidants, romantic rivals, ladies-in-waiting / handmaidens / servants) help to illustrate these comparisons, and for what purpose / why?

The Reduced Shakespeare Company was very right in some of their observations of how Shakespeare writes, particularly relevant being the statement of how he’s a method writer and that he basically distilled four or five key tales of the time into his various comedies. You’ll see the pattern repeat over and over again. If you pay attention, you really can’t miss it. But perhaps, given the title I’ve given this particularly blog entry, that should be dealt with in another blog entry.

For today, I want to focus on what the viewing of the various videos of Act 3 Scene 1 — otherwise known as ‘The Nunnery Scene’ — from one of the four great tragedies, Hamlet, was meant to help you to see.

As you watch the various videos I have attached to the blog, please remember that his question to her about her honesty is also a question about whether or not she’s still a virgin, and not just about her truthfulness. Whether the meaning is to be taken chiefly as the former or the latter is affected by the way in which Ophelia responds to the direct question as well as her attitude as it is generally directed.

In truth, the analysis of a text turned audio-visual is no different from the analysis of the on-paper text itself: you need to pay attention to detail and be aware of how you, as the audience or reader, are being manipulated and affected by the text, why you prefer one to the other and vice versa.

Kevin Kline as Hamlet, Diane Venora as Ophelia

In the videos that follow, what I wanted you to look at was:

a) the way in which Ophelia comes across — she seems rather calm, even fairly spirited at some point — and I want you to ask yourselves how this is an effective interpretation of the character in this scene, and

b) treatment of Ophelia by Hamlet — how is the text / speech translated into actions? How is the character’s speech invoking various archetypes of women, and what is the emotional association with these archetypes as he speaks?

Kenneth Brannaugh as Hamlet, Kate Winslet as Ophelia

Here, the key characters come across as having quite a different level of emotional bonding to each other, particularly in the way in which they greet each other. However, what differs is that at some point, there is a sound that alerts Hamlet that they might not be alone. Note how he speaks to and treats her before and after this interruption. Why do you think this is the case; is the anger directed at Ophelia and how is this made clear to whoever is watching?

I did make it a point to highlight how the faces of Hamlet and Ophelia are juxtaposed during the course of the scene: As they stand next to each other, when he is speaking to her before he suspects something is amiss, and then after, when he squashes her against the glass. The distortion of her visage is visually symbolic of Hamlet’s current state of distorted vision; it also heightens the sense of Ophelia as a victim because her discomfort is apparent and is contrasted with Hamlet’s ferocity.

Derek Jacobi as Hamlet, Lalla Ward as Ophelia

In this particular video, Hamlet seems to be quite satirical; he suspects Ophelia being part of a set-up quite early on, and this is signaled by his righting the prayer book that she holds, such that the line, “Nymph, in thy orisons may all my sins be remembered,” said sentimentally in Brannaugh’s version is rendered somewhat sarcastic and admonishing in Jacobi’s depiction. Also note the way he shouts “I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious…” — who is he targeting as the recipient of his speech? The notion of speaker and recipient which we explored in unseen poetry analysis is no less important in drama because who the speaking character is addressing is important — which other character on stage, or the audience or the gods, even — and the interpretation of that changes the intention and the ensuing effect of the text.

In this version, Hamlet’s anguish is brought across quite differently, and you can get a sense of the Danish prince really playing up the madness that he is affecting, not just with threatened violence (Question: what’s with the batting / ‘hit-and-miss’ in the scene? Can we interpret that as an interpretation of the character’s desire to strike out at women but a reluctance to actually hurt the woman he loves?) but with deliberate crudity in the way that he touches her when he says “Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?” such that the reference to sex is made more apparent.

Laurence Olivier as Hamlet, Jean Simmons as Ophelia

I think this is the most beautiful pairing. That perception is, of course, highly subjective. This is one of the more classic film versions, and Olivier in his time was known for playing many Shakespearean roles.

I read somewhere recently that Olivier, in this version of the nunnery scene, changed one of Ophelia’s exclamations from “O, help him, you sweet heavens!” to “O, help me, you sweet heavens!” because he wanted to focus on the romantic relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia and to emphasize the impact of the scene on Ophelia. The man who noticed the change in the text actually called Olivier to ask him why he did that (http://glind.customer.netspace.net.au/prayer.html). I think it’s a great illustration for how the classics are manipulated and adapted by various people through time to communicate their own emphases of what they think is the most important aspect, and all for different reasons.

I think that the change also brings out the fragility of Ophelia and how she’s a victim to the male characters, torn between filial piety to her father and love for Hamlet. Of course, in this particular depiction, as I pointed out in class, Ophelia really looks very pretty, dainty and fragile, and that it’s very deliberate because it heightens the contrast between the angry Hamlet and the weeping Ophelia, and it really creates an impact when he flings her to the ground because she really looks very abused, even though the violence might not be of the same extremity as in the Kline version.

Ethan Hawke as Hamlet, Julia Stiles as Ophelia

I have to admit that I haven’t seen this version in full. I actually forgot that there was this version (then again, there are many versions I have not seen; some which I have refused to see for reasons I will not expound upon here), but stumbling across it, I thought it was interesting to look at as a comparison.

Firstly, right at the beginning of the video, Ophelia’s being implicated in the intentions of Claudius and Polonius is made very clear. She submits to being wired up with a mike; the wired portable mike is, of course, a way of adapting the text to the modern context to replace the idea of there being listeners hidden in a arras, as is indicated in the original script. It also then allows the conversation between Ophelia and Hamlet to take place in the intimate space of Hamlet’s apartment, which then implies the degree of infiltration that the plotters were aiming to achieve, and also then the degree of betrayal experienced by Hamlet because Ophelia cannot deny involvement or claim ignorance when he realizes that she’s wired.

Secondly, the script is quite chopped up, and there are parts missing. What is the impact of having taken out those parts of the text. Why do you think the director / script adapter decided that those parts of the speech could be removed? It means that, for whatever reason, those parts of text have been deemed less important for generating audience understanding. Do you agree?

Thirdly, the encounter between Ophelia and Hamlet is much shorter and she leaves; the later part of the ‘get thee to a nunnery’ speech are turned into ansaphone / answering machine messages which Hamlet leaves for Ophelia. What’s also interesting is that while we hear the voice-over of the messages being left, we see Ophelia burning a photograph of Hamlet — what impact does this create? What impression do you get of how she’s received what he has said and what does the action symbolize?

Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia

Not my favourite version of the text, though one of the first few of the few I have seen in full. I remember at the time that the joke was about how the lead actor’s Australian accent and intonation rendered one of the lines — “Murder, murder most foul!” – quite hilarious to the ear. I didn’t see how it was particularly funny. Then again, many moons ago, my senses were more dull and my ears less sensitive to such things.

This version of the play is also rather heavily edited. I want you to look at the character of Ophelia and how she’s depicted. Somehow, there’s almost something a bit grubby about the way she’s dressed, and there are times when she comes across as being rather more sullen and challenging than cringing and weepy. How does this affect your perception of the degree to which Hamlet’s abuse really affects her and how sympathetic you feel for the character as you are watching the scene? Also, those of you familiar with Carter’s work, you might want to consider how much of her ‘usual’ character comes across in this interpretation of Ophelia.

***

And so, what is your verdict? Which Ophelia is, in your reading of the text, closest to how you envision her in your head? Which is closest to the way that you would direct the text if you had to stage it or film it? Why? Which Ophelia do you feel the most sorry for, and which Ophelia makes you feel that she deserves whatever she suffers in the course of the scene and the rest of the play? Which Ophelia highlights the stereotyping and treatment of women the most clearly, and which interpretation of the character is not, in your opinion, pandering to fewer stereotypes?

Please be aware that text-to-stage and text-to-screen adaptations can be quite different. For a live play, there is only one angle of viewing, and no retakes; for screen, they can do the scene over and over again to get just the right emotion, they usually use multiple camera angles (the more modern the film, the higher the chance that you will encounter this) and can do rapid scene / location changes and make use of other effects not available for putting the play on stage.

As you move into the study of Taming of the Shrew, you need to think in terms of how it would have been put up on stage given the conditions of Shakespeare’s time, so as to understand how they would have made the most of what is in the text to speak for them when physical and technological limitations prevailed, and when you are watching more modern adaptations, understand what was left out and what was kept of the text and how emphasis shifts as a result of that.

Since we did all those sonnets, I thought I’d add a video, as a treat, of a song which I love.

It’s not a sonnet, but it’s got the word ‘sonnet’ in it. LOL.

But it’s a lovely song — feel free to guess why I love it so much.

For those of you who don’t know this song, I’m including the lyrics as well.

Enjoy.

***

Sonnet by The Verve

My friend and me
Looking through her red box of memories
Faded I’m sure
But love seems to stick in her veins you know

Yes, there’s love if you want it
Don’t sound like no sonnet, my lord
Yes, there’s love if you want it
Don’t sound like no sonnet, my lord
My lord

Why can’t you see
That nature has its way of warning me
Eyes open wide
Looking at the heavens with a tear in my eye

Yes, there’s love if you want it
Don’t sound like no sonnet, my lord
Yes, there’s love if you want it
Don’t sound like no sonnet, my lord
My lord

Sinking fast within a boat without a hull
My lord
Dreaming about the day when I can see you there
My side
By my side

Here we go again and my head is gone, my lord
I stop to say hello
‘Cause I think you should know by now
By now
By now
By now
By now
By now
Oh, by now
Oh, by now
Oh, by now
Oh, by now

The focus of this blog is going to be a bit different: Still about sonnets, I wanted to have a look at an introduction and a conclusion, since I overheard some muttering in the classes today along the lines of How to start, ah? What introduction? as well as Conclusion how to write? Must conclude meh?

Seriously, do you think before speaking or do you let it all just flow out of your mouths in the vain hope that somewhere a little kind fairy is listening and will grant you a wish by writing both fiddley bits for you?

Well, this kind (aha ha ha) fairy (of the ethereal persuasion, and not of the other sort) did hear some of you and will grant your wish but with conditions: That you read carefully what is demonstrated and think about the technique which can be replicated instead of just falling back on the ole Singaporean student standby which is to memorize everything. ~rollz eyez~

Anyhoo… The second set of sonnets we discussed were also because I wanted to talk about form. Some of you might have even read the question and thought about it’s different components after the tutorials. Here is the question again for those of you who a) can’t remember, b) can’t find your worksheet cos even though it’s only been a month you’ve lost all your worksheets already, c) can’t be bothered to dig it out of your bag, or d) all of the above in varying orders of priority:

Consider the following sonnets, Without Her by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Time Does Not Bring Relief by Edna St. Vincent Millay: How do the poets make use of the sonnet form to increase the effectiveness of the way in which they address their respective subject matter?

The Introduction:

When writing an introduction, you need to remember what an introduction is for. You should be looking to make sure that you’ve communicated an understanding of the question, and offered some kind of foregrounding, for starters. Those of you who are a bit quicker with understanding the poems and — most importantly — how you are responding to the poems, might also like to give a head’s up about where your analysis and critique are leading, though there is no need to give the entire game away.

The demo–

Both these poets have employed the Italian or Petrarchan form of the sonnet, which comprises an octave and a closing sestet to address their experience of the loss of a relationship. The grief and anguish communicated by both poets’ speakers differ quite distinctly from each other due to the use of voice and imagery, both of which render the enclosed ABBA rhyme formats of the first 8 lines uniquely significant from each other. In addition, the rhyme schemes of the closing sestets differ, but reflect quite astutely the degree to which the speakers’ sentiments are developed, leading, in the case of Dante’s Without Her, to a downward spiral of resigned despair and, in Millay’s sonnet, the frustrated explosion of a vain attempt at forgetting.

What have I demonstrated knowledge of?

What links do I draw between the various elements which I desire to explore in the course of my essay?

Can you anticipate the number of paragraphs that my essay will have, and the order of presentation of ideas / analysis?

What is the end effect that I am driving towards?

***

The Conclusion:

Now the conclusion is where you have to create quite a bit of Oomph! I can’t remember if I told your batch yet, but previous batches (if you speak to the right people) will tell you that I once said that an essay should create a multiply-orgasmic experience for the reader, and the conclusion, therefore, has the function of the one last big bang before you would call it a night metaphorically speaking.

You should therefore aim to sum up all your arguments and — this is the crucial part — tell the reader of your work how it all fits together to create the compound, unique experience of the poem. And, because this was, after all, a tutorial on comparing poetry for Paper 1 Section A, you might also want to make some concluding remarks about how the two poems compare in terms of effect. It’s that easy!

The demo–

It is quite clear that the styles of the two poets are quite distinct, as are the final impressions created by the poems as a whole, despite the use of similar fixed format structures as bearers of their messages. Distinctions in tone and voice are affected by the deployment of appropriate punctuation, whilst imagistic contrasts echo the ABBA rhyme scheme, highlighting to the readers the different ways in which the speakers in both poems are caught up and ultimately focused in their inner states of grief and loss, despite their attempts to reference the world and spaces outside of themselves. The final sestets of both poems also allow the reader to deduce that to the speakers, their inner worlds of feeling and perspective are far more dominant than the ways and rules of the world. However, the repeated questions by Dante followed by the penultimate description of the life he forsees for himself, creates a clear downward momentum in the poem, which draws out and emphasizes how the emptiness of loss overwhelms him, taking the grief to a hyperbolic level that quite exhausts the reader. In contrast, however, Millay’s speaker’s issues of being over-full of memories comes across through the notion of a process, and how her desire to be over the loss is not echoed in reality, and the disparity between what she experiences within her and what she witnesses without her communicates a frustration that is very real, whilst enabling the speaker to recreate the experience of the instance of false hope of the goal achieved quite accurately for the reader, rendering Time Does Not Bring Relief the more realistic though no less dramatic expression of grief.

How have I ensured that my conclusion:

1) Answers the question,

2) Highlights the contrast and builds up towards a clear and distinct reading of both poems

1. In their own right and
2. In comparison with the other poem?

***

And with that, I have reached the end of another tutorial, the class’ experience of misery is at an end, and, I have produced a work of some merit, even if the rubric I’m measuring by is my own personal sense of satisfaction.

All the best, then, lucky-lucky-lucky kiddies who chance upon my blog entry before their class tests…

If these blogs had come out last week, the standards I would mark your work would be higher. Isn’t it a relief that they didn’t?

For those who like a challenge, write one of the paragraphs foregrounded in my introduction and lead it up to the conclusion I arrived at in my conclusion.

Ready? Here we go…

Consider how the Shakespearean sonnet form is appropriately deployed for the subject matter of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 (Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day) and Sonnet 130 (My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun).

The rhyming and rhythmic quatrains in Shakespeare’s use of the sonnet form are quite appropriate to the key objective of both sonnets, which is, ultimately, for the speaker to declare his passionate devotion to the intended recipients of the sonnets. In both and particularly Sonnet 18, the alternating rhyme scheme builds a pleasant harmony, riding on the iambic pentameter to achieve a melodic cadence that renders a serenading effect. The variances in diction, voice and imagery, however, enable both Sonnets to achieve ultimately different effects and for the speakers of the sonnets to achieve quite disparate levels of expressed devotion and love.

In both sonnets, Shakespeare creates an echo of contrast through combining the alternating rhyme scheme with words of opposing meaning. In Sonnet 18, ‘rough’ winds stand alongside ‘darling’ buds of May, and the ‘too hot’ eye of summer is also associated with ‘dimm’d’, suggesting that the season with which the recipient of the sonnet is being compared with has some degree of instability, unreliability. This enables the speaker, therefore, to draw on the pleasant associations of the season’s warmth and joviality while at the same time creating the aperture through which the recipient of his declarations may be perceived to be an improvement: ‘more lovely and more temperate’ than summer, with all of its beauties and none of its faults. This has the effect of elevating the recipient to a level above and beyond the powers and wonders of nature, making it quite clear from the outset that this sonnet is meant to praise, and places the speaker, therefore, at the level of a devotee or worshipper of the recipient. A similar technique of contrasting words is employed in Sonnet 130 with quite a different effect arising, chiefly because these contrasts are highlighted with words which seem to negate the qualities of the mistress who is the subject matter of the speaker’s address. Phrases like ‘nothing like,’ ‘far more,’ ‘why then, ‘ and ‘no such’ all serve to heighten the contrast by declaring his mistress to exist on the opposing end of the spectrum across adjectives which conjure for the reader the descriptive commonly used or associated with ideal beauty. This has the initial effect of giving the reader or the third party being addressed by the speaker that the mistress being spoken of is being set down and quite far down to the point of almost being insulted and declared, somehow, unworthy for all the traits which she lacks. Thus, the alternating nature of the rhyme scheme imposed by the sonnet form finds its echo in the manner in which Shakespeare has deployed the use of contrasting adjectives, creating for the reader a clear comparison and the experience of looking back and forth between two columns of descriptive of the objects Shakespeare wishes to compare for the purpose of addressing his subjects in the sonnets.

In this manner, Shakespeare builds up to the occurrence of the volta in stanza 3 where further contrast of voice within the poem is created. In Sonnet 18, the recipient of the poem is declared to be ‘eternal Summer’, a clear contrast with the first two stanzas which have already detailed the flaws of Summer as a season, with particular reference to it being ‘too short’, and this elevates the recipient yet further than has already been suggested. This superlative association is followed by a list of negations: ‘shall not fade,’ ‘nor lose,’ and ‘nor shall,’ making it even more clear that the recipient is perceived by the speaker to have no faults, no vulnerability, and therefore, to the reader, the worshipping voice of the speaker is rendered even more palpable by this point. The shift in Sonnet 130 is rather more subtle, indicated by the first direct declaration of feeling by the speaker with the words ‘I love’ so that even though what follows are yet more descriptions of how mundane his mistress is by the comparison to music and a goddess, the reader becomes aware that the speaker does care deeply for his mistress, perhaps because of how mundane she is, thus transforming the earlier effect of insults into the impression of a declaration of love rendered in a voice more poignant and sincere for his ability to see the contrast between his mistress and so-called ideals of beauty. Hence, we see how Shakespeare achieves quite different effects for a similar purpose through his use voice, particularly when one considers the attention to heightening contrast with a sharp imagistic turn in the volta.

***

There we go: all done, and quite painless, hmm?

For those of you up to a challenge, comment on this blog by writing paragraph 3 on the use of imagery and how that is employed to great effect given the structure. Hint: Up to this point in my essay, I have not yet addressed the use of the heroic couplets upon which Shakespeare tends to end his sonnets. Can you see a way through to tying the two stylistics together such that you can achieve 1) an observation of how the poem builds up, and 2) how the use of the imagery enhances the heroic couplet ending (or vice versa)?

We’ll deal with content paragraphs and then build up to writing concluding comments for our essays that have proper Oomph!, hmm?

Now I would like to challenge you: After having read what I’ve written on ‘All By My-Self’ and how a paragraph can be constructed to dissect the text, can you write one paragraph as a comment to this blog entry comparing Void Deck by Alfian Sa’at with 2 mothers in a hdb playground by Arthur Yap to answer the following question:

Examine and compare how the poets use the presentation of place and space to communicate their ideas about the society in which they live.

I will examine such entries as might make their way here, and give a prize to the best written paragraph.

This is no April Fools’ Joke. Deadline for submission of paragraph is SUNDAY, 4th April 2010 — it’s just one little paragraph; you don’t need that much time to do it. Just to show you what an angel I am, you have till 23:59 to submit your entry. I can see when you submit your comment cos there’s a time thingy.

Good luck, everyone. On your mark, get set, GO!!

The question was Comment closely and critically on the poem, paying particular attention to the ways in which the poet recreates the experience of being a woman.

I made it a point to take you through a dissection of the question, and pointed out that the question itself can give you a clue as to the direction/s you can aim for, ie. in this case by talking about what kind of experience or how the notion of experience comes across in the text, and by being conscious of what ‘being a woman’ triggers in terms of what you know (stereotyping, gender roles, relations with herself / those around her / society and its expectations, etc.).

You were also required to, in pairs, plan 3-points for developments into paragraphs, ensuring that you have:

1) a focus stylistic — you have to be analyzing a specific stylistic because the question asks you how the writer recreates / puts together the content of the poem. Getting used to reading for stylistics also is good practice because the more you do it, the easier it gets.

2) a rationale / reasoning for what the meaning you derive from the poem given your stylistic focus is.

3) a development of the use of the stylistic through the poem — this is where you are meant to draw out the patterns / changes in the use of the particular stylistic feature as the poem progresses. This will help you to refine what you understand towards a larger meaning or the intention of the poet in writing about that issue in the particular way that he / she does.

d) an effect in terms of how the stylistic works and is effective in communicating the message of the poem, and what conclusions you are lead to in your understanding.

In one of the classes, we developed this idea:

The poet makes use of metaphor quite extensively in this poem, and employs it in conjunction with the personal pronoun “I” to communicate the message of how being a woman is an experience of the lack of freedom and autonomy.

In this statement, we have identified TWO stylistics very specifically — we’re not just addressing imagery in general, but the use of a particular type of imagery, metaphor, which, as we know, is a form of comparing two things by direct co-relation of the two things. The other stylistic is diction or the use of words, targeting the personal pronoun ‘I’. Do notice how my focus is very sharp and specific. In as far as quoting goes, I’ve only quoted one word at this point, and only the necessary word, not a whole bundle of fluff which I’m not going to look at.

With the use of the declarative statement “I am a plaster doll”, the metaphor of the speaker’s identity is represented with the image of the construct of a doll, and how her existence, her ‘reality’ is marked by this artificial and constructed — a man-made — experience. The doll, an item we associate with playthings, creates the initial impression of the absence of autonomy, and that she is subject to the handling and manipulations of others regardless of her own view or desire. The image also carries with it the association of the nature of the treatment: that she, as an individual, and her needs are not taken into account at all. In addition, the material of this construct is fragile and thus gives a more precise impression of the fragility and vulnerability of her identity as, like plaster — or being plaster, given the use of metaphor – it is easily broken.

I have identified my evidence and given my understanding of the meaning — this is what constitutes my rationale. I have also gone a step further to develop a more precise interpretation by examining the adjective / material mentioned in the same statement. If you quote something, you must address what its parts are and how these parts are used. I address the use of the ‘doll’ in quite a bit of detail regarding my understanding of associations with the image, and I also assess the material, plaster, because it is part of my quoted evidence. Even in my initial quoting of the statement, I have included the word ‘declarative’ which says something about how I think the statement functions as  a subtle comment on diction even though this is not the focus of this paragraph. Please note how I refer to the doll as the image because I want to make it clear that in this paragraph I’m focused on the metaphorical image of the doll and not anything else — not language, not structure, not adjective, not tone. Keep your focus tight and write consciously.

The poet goes on to extend the metaphor into a conceit, where the identity of the speaker as a doll now extends into various aspects of her existence such as her living space (“a doll’s house”, stanza 2) and her daily routine / actions (“someone plays with me”, stanza 3), so that by the time we hit the last stanza and the repetition of the metaphor for the speaker’s self is placed before us (“this synthetic doll”), it is clear to us that there are no exceptions to the experience of being a woman — that all of it is directed or manipulated by others apart from herself. The development of ‘plaster’ to ‘synthetic’ makes it clear that what is on the outside (the physical material) is not as important as the quality of the existence and experience — both materials are fake, man-made, and suggest an inauthentic, even dishonest and meaningless experience of life due to the extent to which her life is like being a doll.

I think it’s pretty clear how I’m developing the point about the use of metaphor — I draw attention to how I know the imagery is being developed by identifying the conceit, and I explain how the extension of the metaphor works and builds up to the end, which I also explain. You need to learn to identify the patterns, if they repeat, if they build up or if they change, so that you can then propose WHY you think the writer has chosen to represent it this way. There is always a reason and, should you not be able to decipher the reason, there is still the effect that you can address: HOW the poem is affecting you as a reader and guiding your response to certain ends.

The extensive use of the conceit couched in the employment of the personal pronoun ‘I’ forces the reader into the shoes of the speaker, resulting in the sense of engulfing the reader in this inauthentic experience and its sensations of helplessness and frustrations in the face of not being able to make choices, of being forced at every turn to submit to the will and dictates of others in an existence that has become meaningless. This creates for the reader the understanding of the experience of being a woman through an enforced empathy to the extent that the final line ‘and if I had the tears’ is particularly poignant because it is brought home to the reader that the speaker has so little autonomy that even tears, the most basic form of emotional relief, are denied to her, and she has no outlet for an authentic expression of her identity or her response to her existence. The denial of this right has the effect of being the straw that broke the camel’s back, that makes the reader want to take a strong position regarding the treatment of women and the forcing of women into inauthentic, unautonomous lives so that perspectives and, hopefully, circumstances might begin to change.

See how I have taken the initial direction and made it more clear how it affects the reader and guides the reader response vis-a-vis the persona in the poem. What you want to arrive at here is a position to comment on the quality of the experience created by the stylistic that you have focused on. In this case, I’ve drawn out how two stylistics work in tandem to create the compound effect of empathy which is poignant. This allows me to push the bar a bit more to suggest that the poem is meant to function as a rally call to action to liberate the woman from her erstwhile meaningless existence.

***

This is one paragraph, and how the dissection of one stylistic needs to be taken to a higher level which allows you to tease out an insightful perspective of what the poet is accomplishing in the work.

Other things to note in detail would be: look at the phrasing, and how subtle analysis or impressions are created in my use of adjectives to describe how I think the stylistic is functioning. You can make your analysis more precise by choosing your words carefully to reflect each nuance of your response to the poems and texts.

This exercise feels rather contrived — I’m feeling like some kind of paragraph writing and dissecting doll myself by now — but it’s a necessary part of the process. You need to practice reading your texts and writing about them with this level of consciousness if you wish to do better.