This month's poetry packet focuses on the art of scansion. Scansion is essentially the separation of poetry into measurable units in order to understand rhythmic patterns.
Your task:
1.) Read over chapter 25 of Bedford's Introduction to Literature on "Patterns of Rhythm" (your packet), annotating and highlighting new information.
2.) Analyze any poem of your choice from the packet and comment on how the rhythmic patterns develop the poet's tone or theme.
3.) Comment on another's posting. Did they discover something you hadn't thought of? Can you add something new to their analysis?
EXPECTATION: 2 posts per student
DUE DATE FOR POSTS: 4/1 @ 12 A.M.
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The final stanza of the William Blake poem "The Tyger" is on one of the pages in our packet; I found the full poem here: http://www.artofeurope.com/blake/bla2.htm
ReplyDeleteThis poem is clearly tetrameter, and the syllables alternate between stressed and unstressed, but irregularities prevent a clear determination that the poem is iambic or trochaic, as most of the lines begin with a stressed syllable, but most also end with a stressed syllable.
The tetrameter reinforces the focus of the poem on nature. While groupings of three beats were often used for ecclesiastical matters, and pentameter was used by the upper class, groupings of four beats (also known as common time) are reserved for common subjects. Also, the number four often symbolizes nature, which relates to the poem's focus on the tyger.
Whether the feet are iambs or trochees, the consistent alternation between stressed and unstressed syllables causes the poem to flow at a more rapid pace, as though the poet is in a hurry to tell his audience what he has to say.
I chose Theodore Roethke’s poem My Papa’s Waltz. This poem would be identified as iambic trimeter for it is composed of sentences that alternate between unstressed and stressed syllables. I was able to identify this by using the sentence in the second stanza, “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” This sentence contains three pairs (or feet) of unstressed and stressed syllables making the meter of this poem to be iambic, and since there are three pairs in each line it is more specifically known as an iambic trimeter. Roethke switches up the pattern of this poem disrupting the iambic rhythm. Several lines contain seven syllables rather than six, causing for some instances of an uneven pattern with only the last two syllables forming an iamb. Due to the weaving of irregularities within the poem, it takes on a form known as a “ballad meter.” The variations in meter cause it to have an informal conversation like feel enabling the readers to identify the authors tone throughout the course of the poem. The author of this poem now a man is reflecting upon his childhood at how his father and him used to spend their quality time waltzing which is a metaphor for roughhousing one with another. I thought that the unsteadiness in this poem could be accredited to the mishaps that occur while they are dancing for instance “At every step you missed”, the original pattern dissolved when the father misses a step leading to an irregularity in the poems meters.
ReplyDeleteThe tone I thought could be associated with a poem such as this would be nostalgic reminiscence. The moments the son and father were able to exchange (even if their mother disapproved of their actions because of the mess that would be found later in the kitchen as a result of the pans sliding off the shelf) before his Papa “whisked” him away to bed will linger in his memory always.
This led me to decide that the theme of this poem is memory. I chose memory for I viewed this poem as a remembrance to a deceased relative, in this case I assumed his father. The idea occurred to me that if he wrote about his happy times he experienced with his father it would help through the hardships that come with the death of a loved one.
Well seeing as Mathguy is the only one to have posted something on here so far, i guess i will comment on yours :P
ReplyDeleteAs i followed your link and read up on this poem it occured to me that Blake was not only discussing nature but more specifically the creation of the Earth. Did you happen to notice this?
You had mentioned that his choice of meter caused the poem to seem like it flowed rapidly and it could have a connection with the fact that the author was in a hurry to get his point acrossed. I wonder if the rhythm of his poem had anything to do with the symbol he used with this poem, for a "tyger" is commonly known for its fast pace which allowed Blake to keep his poem at a fast tempo. Which was completely opposite to that of Blake's earlier poem which was about a lamb (commonly known for being reserved and quiet) and it builded up the devout christians which also is quite opposite to this poem which was discussing a new (or different way other than the way Christans believe) way of how the world was created.
Does Blake even know what he himself believes???
William Butley Yeats' poem, That the Night Comes, is mostly in the form of iambic trimeter, which can be seen by the stressed, unstressed patterns in sets of three. The only time it changes is in line 9,where it goes to trochaic. There could be a correlation to the rhythm being changed and the subject of the poem. Its just a guess, but I think it shifts because of the introduction of something in contrast to things associated with the queen. Whereas the things with the queen were dark and almost gloomy such as the idea of the death and such, the king is associated with loud, bright things such as a trumpet or kettledrum. It would be the ideal time for there to be a change in the rhythm. I believe this is how the overall rhytmhm of the poem affects its tone. A shift in rhythm indicates shift in mood.
ReplyDeleteResponding to flipflops' response to my comment:
ReplyDeleteYes, the main focus of the poem does seem to be creation. Also, Blake's use of the archaic spelling for tyger provides a primal mood to the poem, transporting the reader back in time. The elision of various words in the middle stanzas also contributes to the rushed pace.
Regarding what Blake himself believed, I read part of the William Blake article on Wikipedia (so take it with a grain of salt). The article said that he was raised as a Christian, but later developed his own mythology. It stands to reason that at some point in his life he would have been unsure of what he believed. Rereading the poem, I think there is merit in your suggestion that at the time of its writing he did not know what he believed.
In The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the main rhythm is dactylic, with evert line in dimeter. It begins with "half a league, half a league." The word "half" is stressed. "A" and "league" are unstressed. The falling meter is followed throughout most of the poem. However some dactylic feet are followed by trochaic. For example: "SHAttered and SUNdered." Plus the last line of every stanza ends with this dactyl followed by trochee. This puts the emphasis on the "noble six hundred."
ReplyDeleteDactyl can give the sound of horse hooves beating on the ground. DUH duh duh... If that made sense... This pushes the tone of the poem to be (in my opinion) to be lighter. Maybe more hopeful. The poem is talking about a charge of men on horses that go through a battlefield without fear.
In a couple lines, the masculine ending helps give emphasis to something important such as "ALL in the VAlley of DEATH" The stressing of the word death shows that the brigade are facing danger but the show no fear.
Response to Flipflops:
ReplyDeleteI agree with your tone of reminiscence. However, I believe it is a mournful rememberance of a drunk father... The addition of the feminine ending of many lines led my to believe the author feared his father as they "romped." And most would say the feminine voice tends to be the passive voice.
The fact that the author could smell the whiskey on his fathers death gave me the impression that the father was drunk. When the author said "But I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy," I thought that the author was trying to keep composure and hold on. His mother could not "unfrown herself" because she could not stop the father in his drunken rage.
In the poem Chicago by Carl Sandburg,Sandburg seems to write this poem in in free verse because he is trying to accentuate the spontaneous and uncoordinated nature of the city. Sandburg also touches on the fact that even though a city can becorrupt, it is a place of endless opportunity for "common people". I think the theme of this poem is "common people" because, in the poem Sandburg brings up the troubles of a city, in some cases is barbaric and cruel, an example in this poem is "gunman kill and goes free to kill again" but he also bings up the fact that every one trying to earn a living at the end of the day. What is intresting about this poem is that the poem finishes with an emphasis on the experience of laughter.When thinking about laughing, you think of joy and happyness, but this poem, up to the end was mostly writen in a solemn tone.When I read this part of the poem I referred back to the fact that the poem was written in free verse and it came to me, that Sandburg was stating that a common city or person is deserving of celebration and livelihood in presence of difficiulties and inprovement.
ReplyDeleteThe poem I chose to look closely at was Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz." It is written in what is known as iambic trimeter, which I think, really gives way to the whole idea and the overall feeling of the poem.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading it, I almost got the feeling that I was there waltzing around the kitchen with them. Waltzes are in 3/4 time, meaning you would count, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, each beat getting a different sort of accent. With iambic trimeter, it's the same idea. The three meters give me the impression of feeling the roudy waltz as it occurs, and seeing the pans fall of their shelf due to such a ruckus.
And while it may be roudy, it doesn't feel uncomfortable. It almost makes me nostalgic, remembering the days when I used to dance on my dad's feet.
The meter used in this poem is, I'm sure, intentional and adds to the flow and meaning of the poem.
FlipFlops-
ReplyDeleteI didn't even read yours before I posted my post...But it seems we were heading down the same road as far as the way that the poem leads to a nostalgia that everyone has about their childhood. And while one might be offended or overwhelmed by the whiskey on their father's breath, I have a feeling that for this speaker, that smell is something that brings them to this moment with fond memories.
I like the idea of the theme being memory...But is there a better word that could encompass more of the poem's thematic elements? I feel like "memory" doesn't reach to all the corners of the poem.
I chose the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. Reading through it, the meter came across as iambic trimeter, which to me related to the title because a waltz has that 1, 2, 3 pattern that was reminiscent in the TRI part of the meter. I enjoyed the consistency of the poem, how it kept the same meter throughout and stuck to the same rhyme scheme. It seemed as though the framing of the poem represented the role that the speaker’s father played in his life: consistent. The boy could count on his father to always come back home to him and have a dance, even if he was drunk. I also thought the consistency of the poem showed how the boy’s love for his father won’t fade over time; it will always remain strong and steady despite his drinking habits or the disapproval from mom. The tone for this poem came across as appreciative. The boy was appreciative that his dad came back home and spent time with him at the end of the day, that his dad made the playful gesture of counting time on his head, and also appreciative of the hard work his dad completed (“with a palm caked hard by dirt”) in order to take care of him.
ReplyDeleteThe Poem "That the Night Come" by William Butler Yeats is written in Iambic trimeter. This rhyme scheme seems to be fitting to this poem because of its portrayal of what might be a person of royalty. "She lived in storm and strife" and "But lived as twere a king" These two ideas present the idea of conflict between being behind the scenes of greatness. In a sense Yeats is portraying a woman who is behind the man. Through a feminist lens we could see that Yeats potrays a woman who waits for the night to come. In a way night could represent an equality between the sexes and that could account for the change in stressed syllables. The masculine ending gives us audience the seriousness of the message. "That the night come." The tone at this point is optimistic while even though this woman is always behind the scenes every day she will be equal in the night as everyone sleeps.
ReplyDeleteTo Kiyeon
ReplyDeleteCheck the spelling on Butley *Butler lol
Actually I agree with kiyeons thought that this poems portrayal was about a queen but I believe his message is more of a portrayal of women in marriage in general. I think that just like the king and queen relationship the queen or woman is constantly seen behind the king. Yeats could be calling attention to the fact that even though the general society believes that men are the bread winners who have to support their families. Yeats wants us to see that in the end women and men are exactly equal and that in the night (the end) everyone is treated equally. Everything else that kiyeon stated I agree with so I applaud mine and kiyeons similar thoughts. Good Job Kid we made it.
The poem I chose (like everyone else) was My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke. This poem was very interesting to me because of the meaning behind “the waltz”. When I first read the poem I truly was imagining a son learning how to dance from his dad, but once I read it again I realized there was more to the story. The first hint that there was something more was the alcohol on his breath that “could make a small boy dizzy” thus us inferring that h is an alcohol which then leads to the other problems mentioned in the poem. In the poem the “papa’s waltz” is a metaphor for his authority in the house; when he would miss a step his “right ear scraped a buckle”. This meant that every time the author would not follow, like the dance, his orders correctly he would get beat, thus why his fathers knuckle was bruised.
ReplyDeleteThe rhythmic style of this poem matches the theme very appropriately. Beside the similarity between the trimeter and the 1-2-3 step of the waltz, which I thought I was smart for catching but saw that everyone else had too, was the irregularity of the meter. Generally throughout the poem, it follows a trimeter rhythmic pattern, however, there are a few times when the rhythm breaks, “With a palm caked hard by dirt”. This fits because during their “waltz” there would be problems or “missteps”, so the break in rhythm would be like their relationship, smooth at times but rocky when he doesn’t follow his father’s orders.
In "My Heart Leaps Up" by Wordsworth, the literal scenario is a man looking at a rainbow remembering his childhood, while looking at his future at the same time. The man in the poem looks at the rainbow and his "heart jumps" which indicates excitement. He relates it to how when he was a little kid, he was excited by the little things in life, such as a rainbow. He's proud he's still facinated with the smaller things in life (rainbow) and states that if when he is older, and he doesn't enjoy small things; he'd rather "die!" This poem's rhythm was somewhat easy and difficult at the same time. At times during the poem, I knew for sure it was iambic as I read aloud, but then when it got to lines 6-7 as well as the last word of line 9, it didn't stay consistant with the iambic pattern. When I read further in the notes about the poem by the author of the entire packet, I leaerned the word "enjambment" which is when one line runs over from one line to another. When I applied this technique to the poem and read it aloud again, I noticed the stressed and unstressed syllables didn't change out of iambic the entire time, it just depended on how I read. The importance of iambic being used for the rhythm of this poem is critical because even though it's a short poem, it has a deep meaning of purpose of life to it. The iambic rhythm causes drama in my opinion to the words being used which relates well to the purpose Wordsworth had intended for this poem while writing it.
ReplyDeleteThe poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke contains an equal amount of run-on lines as it does end-stopped lines. The poem is a trip down "memory lane" for the speaker, who describes a bed time ritual that his dad and he went through. The father would dance with his child and eventually lead him to his bed. The need for a run-on and end-stopped line combonation throughout the poem is justifiable because without such a combo, the author would not have been able to create the illusion of a happy time to his reader. By one line ending with a run-on and the successive line being end-stopped, the author is able to convey strong imagery to his reader without being too short and choppy. The author's purpose is to create an image of a happy time, and this image is best conveyed by Roethke's choice to utilize a run-on/end-stopped line pattern.
ReplyDeletewalderson -
ReplyDeleteI love your thoughts of the Waltz poem. I read your post then read the poem and felt the rhythm as if it were a song that I could dance to. Now, I've never attempted to do the waltz, and I'm not going to pretend that I have, but if I knew how to waltz I would imagine it does need some sort of rhythm just like any other dance. The way the poem flows with the iambic trimeter completes the poem the same way music would complete a song.
To FrenchToast,
ReplyDeleteWhen I initially read the poem "My Papa's Waltz", I took the poem for its literal meaning, which was a boy having a dance with his father. I had interpreted the "whiskey" in the father's breath as just the father having a drink after a long day at work. My interpretation was that though the father worked hard, he still made time for his son and wife. However, after reading your interpretation of the poem, i have been "enlightened" (its the only word I could think of). I read past the fathers "battered...Knuckle", which you interpreted as the hand he chose to abuse his son with, and blew off the lines that stated the father's misteps resulted in a "buckle" for his son. After reading your analysis, I am leaning towards the interpretation of abuse that you presented. Thanks for the insight kid. Good job!
To Paradox
ReplyDeleteTo some degree I agree with the fact that he had some sort of appreciation for his father, especially the line, “With a palm caked hard by dirt”. But other than that our views of the poem are completely different. From reading your analysis, it seems you think that the story is, in fact, of the love of between father and son despite the faults of the father. However, I felt that this kind of treatment of the son would hinder and hurt the relationship, not create an appreciation. A question I have, which you vaguely mention, is what do you mean about the “disapproval from mom”? Because I felt that she was worried about the abuse of the child, and wouldn’t say anything or do anything about it, out of fear. So what exactly is her disapproval of?
The poem My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke is unlike more poetry as it remains the same in both meter and rhythm through out the poem. The rhythm really adds to the story because it is not the way a small child would talk, and first time i read this poem I thought it was a small child speaking. It leads you to think about an older man, perhaps with children of his own thinking back on a time he had spent with his father and how it had affected him, such as the alcohol on his breath, which fallowed up by the description of a bruised knuckle leads me to think that he is remembering his father not being the best always, because as they waltz, the way the speaker uses the rhythm to set the tone when the pans fall from the shelf he tells of his mother not being unable to unfrown, as though she is angered by what is happening like worried that the father will suddenly snap and become dangerous. However the last line "still clinging to your shirt" it makes me think that perhaps at the time this was happening the child was too young to realize what was truly happening.
ReplyDeletejuniormint......
ReplyDeleteI love your analysis on the poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke. i like how you stated that the author is making a trip down "memory lane", now that i read it several time over i get what you are saying. At first i had no idea what this poem was saying or meaning lol ( i thought that the kid was being beaten up or something) but than i read it over and over again and now reading what you posted i can make the connection that it is indeed a trip down memory lane.
And I think the reason for the run-on/end-stopped line pattern is to imitate the real waltz beat.......
In response to French Toast,
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the violence being directed towards the child, but I see where you're going with the belt buckle. But the line before that one is "every step you missed" which makes me think that perhaps the son already knows how to waltz and is simply waltzing with his father, but he is too drunk to waltz correctly.
"Chicago"
ReplyDeleteI chose to analyse Chicago. When i first started reading it, i thought the author did not like chicago,it gave off a hateful tone, because in the second stanza the speaker starts saying that he was told the city was wicked, evil, murderous, but then it shifts at line 7, it changes to a tone of pride, the speaker talks about "sneering" at the people who trash talk chicago, and challenging them to find another city who holds their head high even with all the crime and poverty, showing pride even when facing adversity. The speaker talks about cursing while working, which i think meant that they will push their way through anything even if they dont like it. Also when the speaker says "under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth" I thought it meant enduring, they will endure anything, and take it in stride. The overall meaning of the poem is no matter how crime ridden, impoverished someone is, pride and enurance will get you through it.
To FrenchToast,
ReplyDeleteWhen I read My papa's waltz, I did not think of the child getting beaten for messing up the dance when i read the poem. when i read it i thought the waltz was the kids struggle with the father, i thought they were fighting,maybe the kid standing up or defending himself, and the kid was trying to wrestle the father, thats why he smelt the whiskey on his breath, the pans fell from the shelfs from them hitting them in the struggle, thats why the hand with the messed up knuckle(from hitting the kid) was grabbing his wrist, and when he was being taken to the bed, he was still holding the shirt, beaten, but still not quiting.
In The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson the rhythm reminds me (extremely) of marching and going to war. Although this seems severely obvious given the title and literal scenario of the poem being about war; I still believe the rhythm and word choice is purposeful and means to really drive home the point of being a military march. The beat also (as I'm sure it was intended to) reminds me of the rhythm of feet (human or horse) marching across fields, undoubtedly to battle. Now this constant reminder of war and it's effects can only bring with it certain connotations; and the tone I see clearest is one of passion. The beat, the diction, the subject matter.. To me, it all adds up to soldiers fighting and crying out and marching passionately; all for individual reasons that motivate them personally.
ReplyDeleteTo JuniorMint ;
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of the author's purpose in using the run-on sentences to portray a "happy time." However I think you made a valid argument, and upon rereading the poem with your views in mind, I have to say I agree with you. I also think that the broken sentences help add to the realistic portrayal of his memory because (in real life) when people relate stories of their past, they're often not extremely eloquent or smoothly flowing. In fact, usually they are choppy and have bits and pieces mixed up. Your points really helped me to come to that conclusion; nice insight :]
As I read "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, there were several things that really stood out to me as being important to the flow and tone of the poem. The first was in the first couple lines of stanzas 1, 3 and 5, the use of the dactylic dimeter gave me the impression that these lines were meant to be read with speed, helping to convey the confusion and fury of the battlefield. The next thing I noticed was that while the overall meter was dimeter, most of the lines were: /UU|/U|/, dactyl and trochaic with an extra stress at the end to make it a masculine ending. It doesn't continue on to the next line so I'm not sure what to call this type of meter. Anyways, I think it was purposely made to end this way to emphasize how rough war is. At the same time, the feeling I got as I read these lines was that for every line like this in succession, the reader should read them faster and faster, with more intensity. Then, the third thing I noticed, the pace returns to normal upon reading the dimeter lines with dactyl and trochaic. I also felt that there should be a slight pause after these lines before the reading continues. The last thing I thought stood out was the last two lines in stanza four: "Then they rode back, but not
ReplyDeleteNot the six hundred."
There is a caesura, shown by the comma, followed with a dramatic pause after the first line, and then the reveal. All of these combined helped enforce the author's theme: the Light Brigade should be honored for their heroic act.
Response to FrenchToast
ReplyDeleteUmm… it’s a little weird for me responding ‘cause I feel like I’m taking a position where I’m supporting child abuse. Before I get into answering your question, I would like to agree that yes our views really are completely different, so I’d like to refute some of your arguments ;). My first reading of the father’s “battered knuckles” made me think of him getting into a scrap at the bar, then coming home with the injuries. And with the “right ear scraped a buckle” I imagined the boy on top of his father’s shoes dancing with him. Granted that he was young, he would be short and come up to about his father’s waist. On the literal level, I thought that line seriously only meant his ear scraping against his dad’s buckle because of how close they were dancing. And on the figurative level, I’d say that represented the closeness and intangible bond that existed between them. I don’t think this was abuse in any way, despite the misleading inclusion of the word “beat” in the poem, I think it was quality time between father and son.
The mom would be disapproving of her husband staying up all night drinking. She would be unsatisfied with the way he sauntered home and played with his son as if nothing was wrong, even though she probably needed him home hours ago to help out. But I felt as if the mother’s condemnation added to the meaning of the poem since the boy paid no attention to the negative consequences of his father’s actions, he was just glad to be with him in the moment. To me it showed the willingness to accept someone you love in spite of their shortcomings.
To FrenchToast
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read "My Papa's Waltz" I saw it as more of a happy remembrance than anything else and, after reading your argument and reexamining the poem, that is still my belief. The reason that I can't agree is that there are two things in the poem that I think disprove your argument. The first was in the lines "At every step YOU missed My right ear scraped a buckle." If it had said that every time the author missed a step, I could agree with you. But, I get the impression that the father is just unsteady on his feet and is accidentally running into the boy. Also, the title of the poem points towards the positive in my opinion. The word Papa usually has a positive connotation to it, much more than the cold, unfeeling 'Father'. I just can't see the son giving this poem a positive connotation if he had had a rough childhood, it doesn't fit.
Response to FML:
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with how the rhythms contribute to the poem. The meaning of the poem i see is a little different though. I did some background research on the poem and found out it was an actual event in 1854. It was a disastrous invasion on the Russians by the British. In light of this information and rereading the poem, i think that in addition to courageousness, there is an automatic sense of hoplesness and despair as the mention of Death rises up multiple times throughout.
Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz" has iambic trimeter, with multiple interruptions, to convey the fearful, turbulent tone of the author. The author uses a trimeter which would most closely resemble the three beat rhythm pattern of Waltz. By incorporating the song-like rhythm, Roethke tries to appear casual in his speech, and to disguise his detestation toward the actions of his father that are depicted. The poem begins with an iambic trimeter; since iambic meters consist of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, one would think that the poem will have masculine endings- that is endings with a stressed syllable. Instead, lines 2, 4, 10, 12 end with words such as dizzy, easy, knuckle and buckle which end with unstressed syllables and thus have feminine endings. The use of a "feminine" ending is communicating the speaker's vulnerability and his inability to act against his father who is potentially abusive; signs of domestic violence are evident in textual clues such as "the whiskey on [father's] breath," the father's hand which "was battered on one knuckle," how his father would "beat time on my head." The speaker describes his own state of mind as "dizzy" and he found that "such waltzing was not easy." Still he waltzed according to his father's needs and relentlessly "hung on like death" to his iambic trimeter." Why? Perhaps his fear toward his father was that immense, so immense that he found it hard to escape the taunting beats of the waltz. Or perhaps the speaker wanted to show us domestic violence in homes through the eyes of a child. It says that "at every step [the father] missed," the speaker's "right ear scraped a buckle," hinting that the speaker can barely reach his father's waist. Children are often associated with lyrical songs- they are often surrounded by cute little songs and find great interest in memorizing songs from Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, etc... The fact that the speaker is a mere child, still infatuated with childish songs and rhythms makes the violence depicted in the poem much more detestable.
ReplyDeleteTennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" the dactylic rythm portrays a sort of hope through his structure and organization, the usage within the dimeter in each line, highlights most of the words that relate to a more Valor theme. The literal scenario would basically be, brave soldiers or knights due to the time period, riding into battle putting emphasis on them being 'brave' and 'bold' putting them into worthy situations like 'into the jaws of death' and 'the mouth of hell'. When reading this, one could think of Leonidas and the 300 Spartans, and how they perged into battle with only 300 to fight til the death. When reading this poem one could think of the heroism within that story and relate it to Tennyson's depiction of knights, or these specific kind of men/soldiers in his poem. The structure within each stanza gives the reader a enjoyable read, due to the sincere way that the lines are organized and also the urge to read on when Tennyson uses repetition with "Rode the six hundred" putting emphasis on 'the six hundred'...as each stanza moved on, it was like scenes in a movie, step by step the stanzas told a story to what happens next with the six hundred and towards the last stanza, the 'hero' theme to remember the six hundred when the first line of stanza six states "when can their glory fade?" putting forth a thought within the readers mind on although the soldiers glory had faded, what they fought for and how they displayed themselves will always be remembered as "noble six hundred".
ReplyDeleteto flipflops
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the idea that the poem is speaker's reflection on the quality time which he spent with his father (I see that you mentioned that waltzing was a metaphor for roughhousing but the roughhousing in your context does not seem to have a negative connotation...) I do agree that the instability in the poem is established by the father 'missing his steps,' although I don't think it is to be interpreted quite so literally as in your commentary. The father 'missed his steps' in the relationship he shares with the family. As the father engaged his son in the hectic waltz, the pans slip from the kitchen shelves and left the speaker's mother disgruntled. Mothers generally come to represent the protectors of peace, stability and the loving relationships within a family. Seeing how kitchens are related to traditional roles of mothers, the speaker may be communicating that his father's violence has agitated and almost dissolved his family and the bond thereof. Also the irregularity in the poems that you have mentioned occur by the appearance of extra unstressed syllables, thus altering the endings to feminine endings, in lines 2, 4, 10, and 12. In lines 2 and 4, the irregularity is caused by the words "dizzy" and "not easy" which fails to carry out the iambic norm of the poem; these words are feeling of the speaker, directly induced by the cruelty of his father. The next two irregularities has been brought about by the presence of his father as well, this time as the speaker described his father's physical attributes: "battered... knuckle" and "buckle." The 'knuckle' and the 'buckle' come to symbolize domestic violence as they are often tools of violence themselves. Children are often beaten up with knuckles of abusive adults and even whipped with belts.
I agree that the tone is that of reminiscence; I disagree with you that the speaker is necessarily nostalgic. The speaker mentions in the last line that as the father tucked him in bed, the speaker was "still clinging to [the father's] shirt. The speaker's attachment toward his father could resemble attachment of captives to captors resulting from Stockholm syndrome. In midst of the daily violence and abuses, the smallest act of benevolence, i.e. sudden absence of violence, of the abuser can be seen as an act of kindness by the victim from which the victim will develop gratitude; in presence of a much stronger and threatening abuser, the victim may develop unintentionally emotional attachments to the abuser in order to amplify his own chance of survival- which is if you as me...not a cordial affection.
Response to Crazy Child:
ReplyDeleteI didn't think about the mother too closely, but I feel the way she could be worried. The knuckles part just scared me,the last part when Roethke stated "clinging to your shirt" i felt that it was a connection to "but hung on like death" maybe stating that it could have a negative connotation, less of the fact that it meant the 'kid', or speaker didn't know anything, I think he felt that there was something wrong if he felt like he held on "like death" so he could have known something, but I do like your insight.