poetry response #6

Holly Patton

Mrs. Jernigan

English IV-AP

28 February 2011

“The Ruined Maid”

Thomas Hardy

            In this rhythmic sonnet, author and poet Thomas Hardy breaks from the traditional fourteen-line format, and he takes on the narrative from the perspective of a girl. His only two subjects in this work are both female, and his tone and diction ring strongly of that of our own Tess of the d’Ubervilles. This paradoxical narrative portrays a girl marveling at the grandeur of a former servant who is taken aback when this prosperous woman replies, “O didn’t you know I’d been ruined?” She further emphasizes her misfortunes by returning all of her compliments with repetitions of her “ruined” state. His AABB rhyme scheme adds to the pleasure of reading this poem because of its steady flow. It allows the awestruck girl to express all of her jealousies in the first three lines and the ruined maid to give a sad reply in the fourth (except in the sixth stanza, where the Maid has the final word).

            Hardy’s thematic approach to this poem clearly displays his opinions on the benefits of wealth. Many long and hope for it, dreaming of escaping their “hag-ridden dream” and faces “blue and bleak.” Yet this woman, who has risen from the ashes to attain a high status, shuts down all of this girl’s praise with the assurance of her ruined nature. Wealth, standing alone, does not make one happy or content. In accordance with Hardy’s belief, it can produce quite the opposite result. One can be bedecked in the latest fashions, poised and refined, living in lavish lifestyles, and yet be completely discontent with themselves. 

poetry response #5

Holly Patton

English IV-AP

Mrs. Jernigan

23 February 2011

“The White City”

Claude McKay

            Poet McKay clearly has harbored a disgruntled dislike for this “white city” (which, if I were to take a guess, is a metonymical representation of the white race) deep within his soul for most of his life. His paradoxical lines express the common view that this city is “mighty” yet his hatred for it is a “dark Passion that fills [his] every mood/ And makes [his] heaven in the white world’s hell.” McKay holds true to the structure of the traditional, fourteen-line sonnet, but he manages to relay his deep-seeded loathing in the correct format without sounding stifled or hurried. The structure assists McKay in that his words do not sound scathing or overly vehement. On the contrary, the specific format contributes to the poem’s genuine intensity.

            McKay sounds as if he has been slighted by this “white city” for the span of his life. In researching his life, he spent  a majority of his life in Harlem at the peak of  racist movements. He hated every aspect of it, yet his first line in this poem shows almost passive nature to its treachery: “I will not toy with it nor bend an inch.” Is he scared? Does he see it as a futile attempt? These questions are left unanswered. What is not unanswered is his unadulterated hatred for the society he sees prospering around him. 

poetry response #4

Holly Patton

Mrs. Jernigan

English AP-IV

15 February 2011

“Sonnet 116”

William Shakespeare

            Out of Shakespeare’s numerous sonnets, his 116^th abounds in raw honesty and a pure outlook on love. It looks past any perspective that love is purely enchanting. It addresses that love contains “impediments” and that it “looks on tempests.” Shakespeare and countless others know this all too well. Lack of trouble in a relationship or marriage does not determine or define true love; rather it is love triumphing over any sort of shortcoming that portrays its purity. As Shakespeare expresses, “Love is not love/ Which alters when it alteration finds…it is an ever-fixed mark…and is never shaken.” Shakespeare must have been privy to such a feeling of love; either that or he was a victim of love that indeed alter when it found alterations. Whichever scenario Shakespeare used as a lens for this beautiful sonnet, his words boast in earnestness and convey emotions from the deepest parts of one’s soul.

            While he took some liberty in expressing suppressed emotions of the human soul, Shakespeare did not break the format of the traditional Elizabethan sonnet. Even in keeping the ten beats per line, his words do not sound rushed or stretched merely to keep the correct format. He manages to let meaning overflow in structured walls, something with which many poets seem to have trouble. While his depth fills every line, the universal statement (the last two lines) truly convey his adamant belief in this depiction of love: “If this be error and upon me proved,/ I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” He stakes his entire reputation on his belief, almost daring anyone to contradict him.

poetry response #3

Holly Patton

Mrs. Jernigan

AP English IV

7 February 2011

“The Bachelor’s Soliloquy”

Edgar Albert Guest

            In this satirical piece, Guest poetically incorporates the woes and follies of a bachelor, spinning it off of Shakespeare’s famed Hamlet speech. Guest confronts many conflicting aspects of marriage as he argues, “To wed; to smoke/ No more;…’Tis a consummation/ Devoutly to be wished…To wed; perchance to fight; ay, there’s the rub.” He voices the overarching concerns of many men about to enter into the covenant of marriage. While he wavers at first, finding marriage appealing, he soon views it as a slow usurpation of a man’s power when they “have honeymooning ceased.”

            Guest highlights his perspective of marriage with the stereotypical activities of housewives: shopping, singing, meeting with neighbors, mothers-in-law. It seems that he may have been married to one such character or else had seen his friends befall the same, as he would deem it, fate. He emphasizes a man’s want for comfort and simplicity, the want to “Stay home at nights/ In smoking coat and slippers and slink to bed/ At ten o’clock to save the light bills.” His words also express his opinion that he finds the activities of many women to be overall frivolous and the mindset of men to be indisputably practical. An audience of men that would read this would probably run the other direction when faced with a commitment. Guest portrays marriage as a tedious job or a duty instead of the adventure that it is intended to be. He seems to want to enter into a marriage that never for a second loses its luster–I cannot speak from experience, but it seems that marriage’s luster comes and goes in waves. However, if someone holds Guest’s perspective that marriage merely means a “pale cast of chores,” they should probably hold off on a ceremony for a while,

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