As far as making a decision on which side of Larkin I prefer, I really don’t know. This is one of the times that being incredibly indecisive is getting the best of me. I think that to fully appreciate Larkin it is not quite possible to look at these two sides separately. I think that both sides of Larkin and his poetry are fundamental in understanding the other. You need his dark, witty side to understand his yearning semi-religious works.
Out of this collection, “Toads” is probably one of my more favorite poems. Larkin’s tone seems very sweet and true through this poem. He can’t help but be slightly romantic and sentimental in this, showing his witty side as well as a little bit of his beliefs in it. He seems slightly sarcastic and cynical, but it still seems very truthful. He seems to not be taking sides in this poem, but rather observing sides as well as himself. He seems to be accepting in this poem, acknowledging that life happens, and you just have to go with it. Larkin recognizes that what one desires in life will always lead to another desire, and the cycle continues. “Toads” emphasizes this internal struggle and desire for something better while still connecting to the basic human tendency to stay in one place.
Larkin’s slightly religious side, however, comes through more in “Church Going.” This poem seems to have much more room for Larkin’s feelings and his reflections on life and religion. While Larkin doesn’t necessarily seek a religious belief in this poem, he still seems to be on a search. He seems to be searching for something to replace religion with. In going to a church, Larkin recognizes something respectful in himself, but is not sure why he should feel this respect. He seems to be trying to find transcendence in something, but deep down, he knows it is not a possibility. Larkin recognizes that for some, church is a serious matter, but for many, like himself, there is not a deeper connection. He seems to acknowledge that maybe they should be more serious, but he does not understand why. This shows that the search is never ending and that we will always question everything.
So back to which I prefer, I am still sticking to my idea of needing both. I don’t think I would appreciate “Toads” without “Church Going” and vice versa. I need his search in religion to understand his romantic side. “It pleases me to stand in silence here,” seems to sum his poetry up pretty well. While standing in silence, not only can he observe, but he can also search, without ever having to move. It is these moments in life that Larkin is able to be a witty, romantic, and cynical all at the same time.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
James Schuyler's "October"
I chose to focus on “October” by James Schuyler for this post. “October” seems to fit into the theme of our class in that this poem is much like a painting. We were talking the other day of how Schuyler was more like a painter in the way he presents his images. He shows a certain quality of light in his work and the end result seems to be more important than the process of getting there.
“October” is much like a painting in Schuyler’s descriptions of his images. He uses simple, but pleasurable language to make this poem sweet, short and sound beautiful. This could also easily be another poem written from his window. It is easy to imagine him sitting by his window, watching the outside world, as he notices the summer change to fall. His bed is littered with books, just as the outside is littered with leaves. Here, he is able to reference the natural world and the city world together.
This poem is also representative of time passing. He is remarking on the changes that are happening, specifically those relating to death, as fall brings the leaves to the ground. This could be remarking on a return to the natural world as well. Living outside the city, Schuyler could be commenting on his own potential mortality as well as just a desire to return to nature.
James Schuyler, being a paranoid-schizophrenic, might have also been having trouble with his emotions at time. If this was the case, then he would possibly have been tormented with emotional distance, a feeling of self-importance, and anxiety. This in mind, this poem could be a representation of how Schuyler felt emotionally distant from the world and this poem could show his lack of interest in the changes that were taking place around him.
I think “October” is a beautiful poem that just shows you how beautiful the month of October really is. (Not just because that is my birth month either.) October is when the air changes to slightly cooler weather and fall begins to take shape. The leaves change to a bright reddish-orange before they fall to the ground. The leaves could be Schuyler's representation of light in this poem as well. I was just thinking of how pretty the leaves look in that color when the sun shines through them on the trees. If nothing else, this poem is just about what Schuyler is seeing on a rainy October day from the window at the Porter’s house.
“October” is much like a painting in Schuyler’s descriptions of his images. He uses simple, but pleasurable language to make this poem sweet, short and sound beautiful. This could also easily be another poem written from his window. It is easy to imagine him sitting by his window, watching the outside world, as he notices the summer change to fall. His bed is littered with books, just as the outside is littered with leaves. Here, he is able to reference the natural world and the city world together.
This poem is also representative of time passing. He is remarking on the changes that are happening, specifically those relating to death, as fall brings the leaves to the ground. This could be remarking on a return to the natural world as well. Living outside the city, Schuyler could be commenting on his own potential mortality as well as just a desire to return to nature.
James Schuyler, being a paranoid-schizophrenic, might have also been having trouble with his emotions at time. If this was the case, then he would possibly have been tormented with emotional distance, a feeling of self-importance, and anxiety. This in mind, this poem could be a representation of how Schuyler felt emotionally distant from the world and this poem could show his lack of interest in the changes that were taking place around him.
I think “October” is a beautiful poem that just shows you how beautiful the month of October really is. (Not just because that is my birth month either.) October is when the air changes to slightly cooler weather and fall begins to take shape. The leaves change to a bright reddish-orange before they fall to the ground. The leaves could be Schuyler's representation of light in this poem as well. I was just thinking of how pretty the leaves look in that color when the sun shines through them on the trees. If nothing else, this poem is just about what Schuyler is seeing on a rainy October day from the window at the Porter’s house.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Painters & NY Poets
For this assignment I decided to go with one of Willem de Kooning’s untitled paintings from 1976. This painting was done as an oil painting on newspaper mounted on paper, then mounted on linen. I think part of what is so inspiring about Kooning’s paintings is the unfamiliarity with distorted images. This painting seems to contain multiple parts. From one angle, this appears as a pained face. From a different angle though, it looks like the busy streets of New York City whipping by a cab window, all of the images distorted by streaking rain at high speeds.
It seems that this painting invokes a hurried, anxious feeling that many poets can probably relate to. This painting also seems to express a sense of being alone in a city of millions. It seems that the pained face in the foreground is larger than the landscape, creating a feeling of being on top of the world. I’m sure that for some of the New York poets this painting, like many other paintings of this nature, leant itself to the anxious, lonesome, creative feeling of not being able to create unity in the busy city life.
I think that Kooning’s painting was influential because of the angst that it invokes upon the viewer. It is like being trapped in a vacuum, spinning a million miles per hour, and trying to scream. Life just happens and it must be seen.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Life happens in time
“Skunk Hour” seems to resolve Robert Lowell’s Life Studies sequence in that it brings you in a full circle, just as life does. The sequence begins with Lowell as a young child, five years old, spending his last afternoon with his Uncle Devereux Winslow. Lowell at this point is remembering his childhood and reflecting on all of the people that helped to mold him into who he is.
He makes mention throughout his Life Studies sequence of his father and his father’s connection with the navy. In “Commander Lowell” we see his father, booming “Anchors aweigh,” in the bathtub. These lines show his father’s feeling of defeat in his professional life after leaving the Navy.
While put away for bouts of manic depression, Lowell describes in “Waking in the Blue,” his feeling of belonging to the “house of the mentally ill.” It is here that Lowell first accepts what and who he is. This poem seems to demonstrate Lowell’s ability to deal with certain aspects of life whereas his father had previously given up.
In “Home after Three Months Away,” Lowell has made the transformation from self into father. He now is able to stand in his father’s previous position and understand the complexities of life that drove him to quit. “Dearest I cannot loiter her/and lather like a polar bear,” makes reference to the attempt to stand still in life. Even if one could stand still in life, life cannot nor will not stand still for you.
Throughout the Life Studies sequence, Lowell uses imagery to reflect the natural world. In doing this, he is able to help resolve the study with “Skunk Hour” by representing the natural world as cyclical, coming back to the first poem of the sequence, “My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Winslow,” with the mention of “our Alpine, Edwardian cuckoo clock.” This image of the clock seems to help the overall message of “Skunk Hour” by the pure representation of time passing. Lowell is reflecting upon his life and all that has contributed to his life.
The skunks seem to represent Lowell himself. He has spent his life searching for something, battling his inner self, just as the skunks are searching through the garbage for their next meal. Lowell relates to the skunks in their search, recognizing it is not just a search for food, but for life. In his search for life, Lowell has been in a manic state, unable to stand back and observe life happening. In this moment of observing skunks rummage through garbage, Lowell is able to step outside of his head for a moment and realize that life does happen. The moment that Lowell is able to separate himself from his dizzying mind, he is able to experience life in a way that he has been unable to do previously. He is able to achieve an objective point of view and enjoy life. In this moment of relating to the skunks, Lowell gets a moment of salvation from his manic head and realizes that life is instinctive survival, and that the weak are the ones who will not make it.
He makes mention throughout his Life Studies sequence of his father and his father’s connection with the navy. In “Commander Lowell” we see his father, booming “Anchors aweigh,” in the bathtub. These lines show his father’s feeling of defeat in his professional life after leaving the Navy.
While put away for bouts of manic depression, Lowell describes in “Waking in the Blue,” his feeling of belonging to the “house of the mentally ill.” It is here that Lowell first accepts what and who he is. This poem seems to demonstrate Lowell’s ability to deal with certain aspects of life whereas his father had previously given up.
In “Home after Three Months Away,” Lowell has made the transformation from self into father. He now is able to stand in his father’s previous position and understand the complexities of life that drove him to quit. “Dearest I cannot loiter her/and lather like a polar bear,” makes reference to the attempt to stand still in life. Even if one could stand still in life, life cannot nor will not stand still for you.
Throughout the Life Studies sequence, Lowell uses imagery to reflect the natural world. In doing this, he is able to help resolve the study with “Skunk Hour” by representing the natural world as cyclical, coming back to the first poem of the sequence, “My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Winslow,” with the mention of “our Alpine, Edwardian cuckoo clock.” This image of the clock seems to help the overall message of “Skunk Hour” by the pure representation of time passing. Lowell is reflecting upon his life and all that has contributed to his life.
The skunks seem to represent Lowell himself. He has spent his life searching for something, battling his inner self, just as the skunks are searching through the garbage for their next meal. Lowell relates to the skunks in their search, recognizing it is not just a search for food, but for life. In his search for life, Lowell has been in a manic state, unable to stand back and observe life happening. In this moment of observing skunks rummage through garbage, Lowell is able to step outside of his head for a moment and realize that life does happen. The moment that Lowell is able to separate himself from his dizzying mind, he is able to experience life in a way that he has been unable to do previously. He is able to achieve an objective point of view and enjoy life. In this moment of relating to the skunks, Lowell gets a moment of salvation from his manic head and realizes that life is instinctive survival, and that the weak are the ones who will not make it.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
"Howl" and when will we be there?
Trying to get to the next level is not always an easy task. For Allen Ginsberg and his friends, “Howl” is the next level. With an examination into the lives of Ginsberg and his friends, “Howl” shows the constant battle in the minds of these people, trying to reach the next level, the level of knowing.
“Howl” shows the struggling minds of Ginsberg and his friends and how the world is a constant pressure, weighing them down, making them suffer, trying to reject their inner artistic minds. Ginsberg examines the ways in which society tries to repress their individualities and how they strive to reach the next level.
For them, it is all about transcendence. They are constantly trying to achieve their optimum level of all knowing power. With the help of hallucinogenic drugs, Ginsberg and his friends are able to reach, for them, the level of knowing all. Through reaching this point, they are able to see how the world is trying to continually suppress them, and to keep them as a fixed point in society, one that fits in with the rest and does not question everything.
The point in transcendence is to question everything. Ginsberg does this through “Howl,” finally reaching a point of acknowledgement in which he realizes the world and society do not want him in a level of all knowing power. In part II of “Howl,” Ginsberg describes Moloch, the ancient God in which children were used as sacrifices. Moloch, for Ginsberg and his friends, is the societal pressure to conform as well as the pressure to sacrifice their individualities to society. They are forced to face Moloch, standing up to Moloch, to try to reach past Moloch and transcend beyond it to reach their level of satisfaction in life.
By part III of “Howl,” Ginsberg shifts back to Carl Solomon, to whom the poem was written for. He repeatedly tells Carl that he is with him in Rockland. This is an expression of how close Ginsberg and all of his friends were. If one of them is suffering from the tortures of Moloch, the others are with them. It does not matter to them if one is considered mad, for they are all mad in some sense. They have all lost something along their journey.
The last two sections of “Howl” seem to wrap up the idea of transcendence in that Ginsberg brings the poem full circle. Starting with dedicating “Howl” to Carl Solomon, Ginsberg traces the steps of his friends and himself, through the streets and city to face Moloch, back to Carl Solomon, saying that he is with him forever, wherever he is in life. He is with Carl no matter what. They are all with him. They have all faced the world, intoxicated, looking for the passage to an all-knowing mind, have felt the pressures of Moloch, have repressed the urge to conform to society. They have all been searching for one thing, transcendence. Using hallucinogenic drugs to reach this level, for some, is the correct path. They have achieved a “higher” level of understanding, searching past what they know to seek what they believe to be the truth. This “higher” level search that they have been on is “Howl.” The journey is the important thing.
“Howl” shows the struggling minds of Ginsberg and his friends and how the world is a constant pressure, weighing them down, making them suffer, trying to reject their inner artistic minds. Ginsberg examines the ways in which society tries to repress their individualities and how they strive to reach the next level.
For them, it is all about transcendence. They are constantly trying to achieve their optimum level of all knowing power. With the help of hallucinogenic drugs, Ginsberg and his friends are able to reach, for them, the level of knowing all. Through reaching this point, they are able to see how the world is trying to continually suppress them, and to keep them as a fixed point in society, one that fits in with the rest and does not question everything.
The point in transcendence is to question everything. Ginsberg does this through “Howl,” finally reaching a point of acknowledgement in which he realizes the world and society do not want him in a level of all knowing power. In part II of “Howl,” Ginsberg describes Moloch, the ancient God in which children were used as sacrifices. Moloch, for Ginsberg and his friends, is the societal pressure to conform as well as the pressure to sacrifice their individualities to society. They are forced to face Moloch, standing up to Moloch, to try to reach past Moloch and transcend beyond it to reach their level of satisfaction in life.
By part III of “Howl,” Ginsberg shifts back to Carl Solomon, to whom the poem was written for. He repeatedly tells Carl that he is with him in Rockland. This is an expression of how close Ginsberg and all of his friends were. If one of them is suffering from the tortures of Moloch, the others are with them. It does not matter to them if one is considered mad, for they are all mad in some sense. They have all lost something along their journey.
The last two sections of “Howl” seem to wrap up the idea of transcendence in that Ginsberg brings the poem full circle. Starting with dedicating “Howl” to Carl Solomon, Ginsberg traces the steps of his friends and himself, through the streets and city to face Moloch, back to Carl Solomon, saying that he is with him forever, wherever he is in life. He is with Carl no matter what. They are all with him. They have all faced the world, intoxicated, looking for the passage to an all-knowing mind, have felt the pressures of Moloch, have repressed the urge to conform to society. They have all been searching for one thing, transcendence. Using hallucinogenic drugs to reach this level, for some, is the correct path. They have achieved a “higher” level of understanding, searching past what they know to seek what they believe to be the truth. This “higher” level search that they have been on is “Howl.” The journey is the important thing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)