Tragedy--> Macbeth

A.) Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more.
It is a tale Told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Macbeth's response upon learning of Lady Macbeth's death is one of the most powerful passages of the entire play. This passage displays his dependence upon Lady Macbeth for strength and motivation and his deep love for her. He feels that life in no longer worth living now that she is gone. He relates life to a "tale told by an idiot...signifying nothing" because he feels that life is basically not worth living without his wife just as a tale told by an idiot is not worth listening to. This passage ties into the theme of masculinity vs. femininity that is present throughout the entire work. The fact that Macbeth was so reliant upon Lady Macbeth for willpower and support was a typical gender role reversal. Lady Macbeth was the one with the real control in their relationship. She was the one manipulating Macbeth by telling him he could not be a coward and making him feel he had to prove his masculinity. This is ironic because behind the scenes she is the one playing the cards. Lady Macbeth is not your traditional loving, innocent housewife; she is dominant, demanding, and absolutely insistant upon Macbeth obtaining the power of the kingship.

As soon as Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth slowly begins to crumble because he was so reliant upon her. He basically consulted her on every move he made and looked to her to justify and assure himself that what he was doing indeed was the right thing to do. After her death, Macbeth's downfall and ultimate murder follow fairly quickly. In this passage, Macbeth pretty much says that life is just going to drag on and on with no point whatsoever now that his wife is gone. Lady Macbeth definitely would not have felt the same way if Macbeth had died. In this relationship, although both of them are fairly horrible, Macbeth is the softer and more caring while Lady Macbeth is the more canniving and guiltless. Macbeth actually struggles with himself and the person he is becoming a couple of times throughout the course of the play, while Lady Macbeth washes her hands clean of the blood and moves right on. She is certainly the more aggressive and hardened character.

B.) Macbeth is most certainly categorized as a tragedy. The character of Macbeth, through his own actions and ambition, causes his own downfall. Though once credited as a brave military leader, Macbeth lets his greed and desire for power ultimately destroy him. The definition of a tragedy is a dramatic composition dealing with a serious or somber theme typically involving a great person destined through a flaw of character to downfall or destruction. Macbeth obviously falls under this category because though he could have been great and revered for his abilities, he wants more and more and lets his ambition destroy his personality. The reader has to feel some degree of sympathy for Macbeth in this play because his greed causes him nothing but more and more misery and despair. I think Macbeth realizes the wretched person he has allowed himself to become when Lady Macbeth dies and he is left with basically nothing but to await his death, which he seems to know is inevitable as an army marches toward him.

The difference between the Macbeth that is engulfed and blinded by his own ambition and the Macbeth that could have lived happily had he not been given the witch's prophecies is so dramatic that the reader must pity the way things turned out. This drastic difference and change in personality when presented with an oppurtunity for power enforced the theme that power can be costly, even deadly, and can cause changes in people that could never have been expected.

C.) I enjoyed this play but it was probably my least favorite of the Shakespearean plays we have read this year. I thought the killing got to be a little too much and was not really necessary after a while. The theme of the desire for power being a force too powerful for Macbeth to overcome was clear and I did not really think quite that many murders were needed to accentuate the theme. I did like the gender role reversals in the beginning of the play and the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth was an extremely powerful character, though terribly evil, and she served as the driving force behind Macbeth's actions, assuring him all along that he was doing the right thing and manipulating him by making everything into a test of masculinity.

Lady Macbeth is not your traditional wife, especially in the time that this play was written, and I appreciate the fact that in the actual plays she is almost always depicted as fairly attractive. Generally evil people are depicted as ugly or deformed, but Lady Macbeth is deceiving because her appearance does not parallel her personality. I also found myself pitying Macbeth, even though he was a pretty horrible person, because he was so mislead and power-hungry that he basically destroyed his own life and caused his own misery.

Comedy-->A Midsummer Night's Dream

A.) My favorite parts of this play were definitely the conversations between Bottom and his idiotic friends while preparing their play. Their complete foolishness, mis-wordings, and conceit were hilarious. One of the most ridiculous exchanges is here.
STARVELING:
I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
BOTTOM:
Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to
say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that
Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more
better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not
Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver: this will put them
out of fear.
QUINCE:
Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be
written in eight and six.
BOTTOM:
No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.
SNOUT:
Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
STARVELING:
I fear it, I promise you.
BOTTOM:
Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to
bring in--God shield us!--a lion among ladies, is a
most dreadful thing; for there is not a more fearful
wild-fowl than your lion living; and we ought to
look to 't.
SNOUT:
Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.
BOTTOM:
Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must
be seen through the lion's neck: and he himself
must speak through, saying thus, or to the same
defect,--'Ladies,'--or 'Fair-ladies--I would wish
You,'--or 'I would request you,'--or 'I would
entreat you,--not to fear, not to tremble: my life
for yours. If you think I come hither as a lion, it
were pity of my life: no I am no such thing; I am a
man as other men are;' and there indeed let him name
his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.


I chose this passage because it really displayed the studpidity of Bottom and his fellow actors, if we can really call them actors. Bottom is so impressed with himself that he genuinely believes his acting may confuse and frighten the audience and feels the need to add in a prologue just to assure the ladies, whom he obviously considers very fragile and easily deceived, that the lion is actually a real man and that no one will actually be harmed with their swords. Bottom is the ring-leader of the charades in the group and he is definitely the most egotistical. He pretty much declares that he should just play all the roles when Quince is naming the parts. The way he makes adding the prologue and being way overly-sensitive so as not to frighten the audience such a big and important issue proves that he really has nothing better to do with his time. The funniest part of the entire scene is the fact that Bottom does not recognize his arrogance at all. He does not filter what he says and he certainly does not try to avoid making himself seem arrogant and conceited. He does not even realize how obnoxious he sounds.

Another part of the diction that immensely contributed to the comedy was the frequent misuse, misspelling, and incorrect pronunciation by these characters. In the passage above, Snout asks whether the ladies will be "afeard" of the lion. A grown man mispronouncing this word in such a childish way evoked a really comical image in my head. I could picture the group of men prancing around like toddlers thinking up all these "clever" ideas to make their play even better than it already is. Bottom is the glory-hog, constantly fighting to be the center of attention and have everyone recognize and praise his amazing capabilities. The fact that he thinks he is so great and yet his name is Bottom is also comical and ironic. The name Bottom, to me, connotates someone low down and barely mediocre yet Bottom seems to think he is the cream of the crop.

The way Bottom is genuinely trying to cater to the ladies in the audience by repeatedly ensuring them that the play is not real and the characters are actually men is hilarious and ironic at the same time. Bottom obviously is under the impression that the ladies in the audience will be so weak-minded and fragile that they will be fooled by the outstanding acting in the play and think the events are actually occuring. He feels so strongly about this that he insists upon a prologue and constant reminders throughout the play's production. The irony is in the fact that Bottom seems to feel the ladies are the foolish ones yet he is the biggest fool of all. He looks down upon others yet he is the one at the bottom of the intelligence and reality scale. Shakespeare made great use of diction to develop the comedy of this play.



B.) Although I do not generally think of Shakespeare as a comedy writer, he did a great job of representing a seriuos theme in a jovial and light-hearted way. The theme of this play was that love is often misleading and does not always, or usually for that matter, go as planned. Generally Shakespeare's themes of love are created in tragedies and dramas but this play was different. I enjoyed the fact that Shakespeare used a comedy to depict love's hardships and complications rather than a tragedy and was still able to get his point across. Love is saved and order is restored only by the magic of the fairies in the play. This tie to magic symbolized that love rarely happens according to plan and it is truly magic when love does play out perfectly.

Shakespeare establishes humor throughout the play by incorporating the misspellings and mispronunciations of the Athenian craftsman and through many of the comic exchanges between Demetrius and Helena, who is basically an obsessive stalker. I found Demetrius' blunt and harsh responses to Helena's love very comical. Shakespeare utilizes irony in the scene where both Demetrius and Lysander fall in love with Helena and want nothing to do with Hermia and Helena takes it as cruel joke. By mixing up the love lives of the characters, Shakespeare effectively incorporates love's confusion and complexity.

C.) This was my favorite of the Shakespearean plays I have read because I actually found it very funny. Shakespeare uses a very dry sense of humor in this play that I happen to really enjoy. This play was a nice break from the usual tragedies and horrors that I tend to associate Shakespeare with. The character development was one of Shakespeare's best, in my opinion. He created several very different personalities and constructed the play with a couple of unique story lines that all run into one another at the conclusion. I found this play easy to follow and to understand as well. It was interesting because it switched from one story line to another so the reader did not lose interest in what was going on at any point.

I appreciated Shakespeare's ability to tie a real theme into an extremely light-hearted play. The concepts of love, magic, and nature were clearly present throughout the play even though as you were reading it you did not feel the need to get too in depth or interpretative of the words. There were no hidden meanings or obscure themes, at least that I know of. I did not find myself struggling with the plot or the overall meaning of the work at all which made it more fun and relaxing to read.

History--> Richard III

A.) "The tyrannous bloody deed is done/ The most arch of piteous massacre/ ...Their lips were four roses on a stalk,/ Which in their summer beauty kiss'd each other/ A book of prayers on their pillow lay"

This passage was particularly catching because of Shakespeare's excellent use of imagery to evoke sadness and horror within the reader. This speech was given by Tyrrel after having Edward IV's children killed. Richard wanted the children killed to secure his position as king and summoned Tyrell, a lowlife, to get the job done. The fact that Tyrell, someone detached from the family, feels such guilt over the murders of the two princes adds to the overall wretchedness of Richard, who takes in the news with joy. These contrasting reactions to the deaths really relay Richard's indifference and lack of conscience. Tyrell feels remorse yet Richard is thoroughly pleased with the news.

The imagery of the passage effectively contributed to the characterizion of Richard as a brutally heartless egotist. The contrasting images of "a bloody deed" and "piteous massace" to the images of "roses on a stalk" and "summer beauty" signify the loss of innocence, a major theme in this play. The children are described with references to nature in this passage representing the fact that they are the innocent and honest heirs to the throne and Richard is disrupting the natural flow of power in order to get what he wants. One line in the passage, "We smothered the most replenished sweet work of nature", speaks to the loss of innocence theme. Nature symbolizes purity which is being destroyed by Richard's selfish motives.

In this passage, the murder of the two children is depicted as bloody to make it all the more horrific. Although the children were smothered with a pillow, their death is portrayed as brutal to further enforce Richard's cruelty and callousness. The fact that Richard could have two innocent children murdered is a realization of Richard's unbelievable and unstoppable ego. Even Richard's most faithful followers are taken aback by his lack of compassion. When ordering Buckingham to have the princes taken care of, for the first time, Buckingham hesitates to do as he is told. He starts to understand that Richard will literally stop at nothing to gain the kingship. This passage does a terrific job of eliciting repulsion of Richard from the reader by appealing to one's emotion with the description of the poor harmless princes clutching each other in death. It is somewhat of a turning point in the play as Richard's followers get a taste of his bitterness and start to understand that absolutley no one means anything to Richard and he will let no one get in his way of the throne.

B.) Shakespeare was able to create an intiguing play from a historical genre, something difficult for any author to achieve. Generally, history fails to be extremely interesting and captivating, at least in my opinion, and I give a lot of credit to Shakespeare's ability to tie the history and the facts in while still creating an entertaining play. Shakespeare dramatizes Richard III's cruelty and personalizes his wicked deeds to draw the audience to his work. Instead of just listing the facts and dryly running through each murder, Shakespeare sets the scene by portraying both sides of the situation. He personalizes the character of Richard by tying in his insecurities over being born deformed. This helped the reader to understand the historical context of the play in full by educating the reader on what most likely were Richard's inner motivations for his extreme egotism and desire for power.

The opening scene alone lays out Richard's feeling of worthlessness. In his opening monologue sketching out his evil plans, it is clear that Richard feels disempowered and extremely bitter about his physical appearance and he is determined to shatter that image of himself by gaining power and evoking fear and respect within the people around him. By adding this personal side of Richard, Shakespeare initially creates some element of pity and sympathy for Richard, which he later destroys as he describes Richard's callous and cold-hearted murders and utter lack of remorse. Shakespeare is able to get the reader involved in the history, taking away the boring aspect of the sheer facts and contributing emotion and attachment to the characters. The people become not just names but actual beings and the reader is able to relate to Queen Elizabeth's despair at the death of her sons and the Duchess of York's grief over her divided family.

C.) I personally enjoyed this play a lot which is something I definitely did not expect. I am not usually the type of person to enjoy reading nonfiction or historical works and assumed I would dislike Richard III based on the fact that it was a history. I was surprised by Shakespeare's capabilities as a writer because he excellently drew in his audience by appealing to the emotions of the reader. I actually felt sympathy and compassion toward the characters who lost their loved ones in Richard's ruthless campaign for the throne.

Shakespeare also provoked frustration from the reader as many of the characters were very niave to Richard's callousness and alterior motives. Richard's ability to win over LadyAnne, despite the fact that Richard killed both her husband and father-in-law, was beyond aggravating to me. Shakespeare incorporated the people's initial blindness to Richard's true- self to make the reader somewhat pity their inability to see the big picture. The frustration created by the people's ignorance added to the suspense and intensity of the play because the reader could foresee the misfortune ahead. Richard's clever way with words and power as a speaker, though frustrating in some circumstances, was an excellent device that he utilized well in getting what he wanted.

Shakespeare constructed the character of Richard in a very dynamic way. Even though I was repulsed by Richard's lack of remorse and conscience, I had to give him some credit for his slyness and way with words. He was able to turn even the worst situations in his favor and he used this to his great advantage in playing those around him to ultimately become king. Shakespeare presented a very complex character in Richard, portraying his inadequacies and feeling of worthlessness as the ultimate motives for his vengeful desire for power.

Poem 236- Dream of Fair Women

A.) "Dream of Fair Women", written by Ann Hayes, is about the difference between reality and fantasy. It is a very simple but eloquent poem that contains a message of the feminine role. The poem is written in four triplets called tercets due to their aaa-bbb-ccc rhyme scheme that make the poem very flowing and rhythmic. The poem includes some of the roles women have historically been marked with and recognizes the vast difference between the real world and the dream world and the acceptance of reality. The speaker is unidentified but I believe that it is a girl realizing that the images of the mother Mary and Eve have caused somewhat of a disillusionment of what women really are. The speaker is also coming to terms with her own fantasy world and grasping the reality that life is not perfect and no human being is without flaw. The lyrical sound of the poem makes it almost like a nursery rhyme which represents the message that, although we have been exposed to images of perfection and images of what women are supposed to be since childhood, we have to understand that these do not constitute reality. There is irony in the sound and sense of the poem being that the flowing childlike sound contradicts the underlying message that childhood fantasies are not real.

B.) The most prevalent literary device used in this poem was allusion. The poem contained allusions to Eve and the mother Mary from the bible and to sleeping beauty. These represented the images of women we have been exposed to since we were children. Eve was the foolish woman who naively fell for the devil's tricks and caused all of humankind to experience guilt and death. This reinforces the stereotype that women are always innocent, lack independence, and are in need of sheltering and protection. The allusion to sleeping beauty also contributes to the image of women as needy and reliant on the protection of men. The women are the victims that must look to the men to save them. The mother Mary represents the stereotype that women are angelic, lacking sin, and always doing good for others. Women are constantly depicted as innocent, which is something we see and imprint on from the time of our childhood. The speaker is referencing these stereotypical feminine roles to emphasize the fact that this simply is not reality. The speaker comes to terms with the fact that men are not "knights in shining armor" as is shown in the last stanza, "A sleeping beauty dreams her lover's grace,/ Opens her eyes upon a human face,/ Keeps up the human race" (Hayes 10-12) and is trying to convey the message that women are not helpless dependents either. Everyone must accept that humans are imperfect and that the image of ideal love is nothing more than a childhood fantasy. The poet also makes good use out of the repitition of "the lady gave her trust" to depict how constantly the woman is displayed as handing over her trust innocently and selflessly, as in the case with the mother Mary, to a man. Mary places her full faith in the angel Gabriel, sleeping beauty relies on the prince's kiss to save her, and Eve trusts the snake in the Garden of Eden. The repitition of this phrase emphasizes the images of women that are ingrained in our heads pretty much since we were born.

C.) I liked this poem because it was short, sweet, and to the point. It was not difficult to understand exactly what the poet was trying to say and the message was one of importance. I think alot of people have to realize that the common stereotypes our society places on the genders are foolish. Children are taught stereotypical gender roles through cartoons, music, video games, and a wealth of other things. Society tends to enforce these false images, which makes it difficult when it comes time for people to recognize and understand that relationships and people are much more complex than the Disney characters allow. I think Hayes used excellent allusions as examples of common stereotypes and they definitely helped drive home the point that women are much different than we are influenced to believe as children. I also enjoyed the contradiction between the nursery-like flow of the words and the message of breaking from childlike beliefs.

Poem 224- Desert Places

A.) This poem, by Robert Frost, describes the lonliness that is an unavoidable part of human nature and discusses the fact that lonliness is something that comes from within. The poem is a quatrain of 4 stanzas with a three-line rhyme scheme that goes AABA. The speaker is unidentified but is clearly someone who suffers from depression and feels that they are trapped with no facet for their emotions as demonstrated in the line, "With no expression, nothing to express"(Frost 12). I am going to refer to the speaker as "he" just for simplicity. The poem has a numbness that is greatly attributed to by the references to the cold and isolated aspects of nature. The poem is established in a very orderly fashion and the rhyme scheme helps it to flow smoothly. I think this contributes to the overall fact that life will go on despite the speaker's feeling of inescapable sadness. The pattern of the third line not rhyming with the rest symbolizes how pitfalls in life are a part of the human experience and we are going to hit some bumps along the way but life will continue nonetheless.

B.) Frost uses several literary devices including paradox, personification, imagery, and irony. The speaker is paralleling his emotional state of lonliness and desolation with the snow, nightfall, and infinite emptiness of space to convey the point that his lonliness is natural to him. The paradox is the fact that these vast things do not hold as much lonliness as the speaker holds within himself in his mind. The lines, "They cannot scare me with their empty spaces"(13) and "I have it in me so much nearer home/ To scare myself with my own desert places" (15-16) symbolize how the speaker feels about his lonliness. This paradox conveys the message that sometimes things seem so much bigger than they really are when we are personally experiencing them. The speaker believes he contains more lonliness and desolation, as symbolized by his "own desert places", than the entire universe. To help the reader better identify with the speaker's feelings toward his inner lonliness, Frost personifies the snow and the nightfall in the lines, "A blanker whiteness of benighted snow/ With no expression, nothing to express./ They cannot scare me with their empty spaces" (11-13). This also represents how the speaker cannot express his sadness just as the snow cannot; he is blank as well. The imagery of the poem adds to the meaning and experience of the poem also due to its ability to conjure an image within the reader's mind. The snow connotates cold, blankness, and winter, a time of death, while the nightfall conjures images of infinite darkness and lack of color and life to add to portray the speaker's utter emptiness and state of depression. Imagery also comes up in the lines, "And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,/ But a few weeds and stubble showing last"(3-4) represent how the speaker's situation is only going to get worse as the snow completely covers everything but also serves as a reminder that there is still life under the snow that will show again adding to the message that life goes on. Irony with the connotation that the stars in the line, "Between stars-on stars where no human race is"(14) brings adds to the message that things are not always as they seem, as with the speaker's feeling that his lonliness is bigger than the universe. Stars generally bring about images of inspiration, magesty, and happiness but here they are just another vast expanse of emptiness and isolation. This shows just how desperate the speaker feels toward his emotional situation.

C.) I really enjoyed the complexity of this poem that was hidden beneath the surface. Although it was definitely not an uplifting type of poem, it did represent the fact that life goes on despite anything that makes us feel like we will never be happy again. Everyone has circumstances or emotions that make them feel down and like they are just never going to feel good again but, when put in perspective, nothing is that big of a deal. Once we get past those initial feelings of loss and emptiness, we are generally able to see the bigger picture. I enjoyed the imagery of the poem as well because there are certainly times when I feel that there's just nothing I can do to pick myself out of a slump as was symbolized by the vast emptiness of the snow, night, and universe. I thought Frost did a superb job of tying in a great deal of meaning with the three-line rhyme scheme, paradox, personifcation, and irony to immensely contribute to the experience of the poem.

Poem 258-The Victims

A.) Sharon Olds poem "The Victims" is a personal account by a child that is now an adult and is reminiscing and venting on her childhood. I am going to refer to the speaker as her though it is not stated that the speaker and the poet are one and the same. The speaker is one of a couple of children who witnessed a bad relationship between their parents and were glad when their mother finally kicked their father out. The poem begins in the past tense discussing "when Mother divorced you" and how the kids were relieved and happy. The poem then changes to present tense as the child transitions to speaking as an adult and the mood somewhat changes to one of disappointment and loss from the previous spite. There is no real order to the poem which represents how the speaker is angry and resentful and just wants to get her words out and finally reach closure on her feelings. The sentences are all run-on and the speaker somewhat rambles to get her thoughts and memories out. There are odd breaks in the sentences indicating the speaker's emotional response to having to write out these suppressed feelings that she has obviously held with her for quite some time. The father in the poem seems to have been abusive in some way though it is not clear whether it was physical, verbal, or through neglect. I interpreted that the father was neglectful of his family, always choosing work over them, and possibly had affairs judging by the line, "your secretaries taken away,"(Olds 8). As an adult, the speaker seems more matter-of-fact and cold toward her father, basically feeling that he got what he deserved and now that so much time has passed there really is not much of a chance of ever reconciling their relationship. The mood of the second half is much more somber, accepting, and final symbolizing how the speaker has come to terms with the essential loss of any chance of a relationship with her father and her acceptance of the fact that he was selfish and only punished himself in the end. The switch from past to present tense adds to the finality of the situation and the overall fact that the speaker is done with concerning herself over her father. It is clear through the partially rushed sentences and many memories that the speaker wants to move past this disappointment and just look forward now. The structure adds to the somber mood of acceptance and need to express her repressed feelings.

B.) This poem utilizes a couple of literary devices including allusion, repition, and word choice that add to its meaning. The poet references Nixon's Watergate scandal in the lines, "Then you were fired, and we/ grinned inside, the way people grinned when/ Nixon's helicopter lifted off the South/ Lawn for the las time"(3-6). The father in the poem was compared to Nixon in that the father was the head of the household and Nixon was the head of the country and both failed to meet the standards of the people who relied on them. Both the father and Nixon were let-downs and the people around them both were happy to see them leave. The repitition in the lines "She took it and/ took it, in silence, all those years...(1-2) symbolize just how strained and emotionally taxing on the children the relationship between the parents was. This is repeated again later in the poem when the speaker is discussing how she sees bums on the street and wonders "who took it and took it from them in silence until they had/ given it all away..."(23-24) reminding the reader that she does not forget just how hurt she was by her father's behavior. The speaker mentions a list of things that were taken away when her father was fired such as the secretaries and the luncheons indicating just how much joy the children got out of seeing their father lose everything. The speaker seems very pleased to see these material possessions that were chosen over her and her family taken away from her father. She clearly feels that her father truly lost 'everything' when he lost his family but he was too selfish to see that and only really felt the pain when he lost his material goods. "Would they take your/ suits back, too, those dark/ carcasses hung in your closet"(11-13). This line particularly stuck out to me because the reference to dark carcasses in the closet evoked the connotation of skeletons in the closet which adds to my feeling that the father had affairs while on the job. The comparison of the bums which she calls "slugs" to her father emphasizes the extreme feelings of dislike and lack of respect for him. Although the second part of the poem is more sad than angry, it is not sadness directed toward the father but sadness directed at the fact that things had to turn out the way they did.

C.) I really liked this poem because I found it to be one of the most powerful that I have read so far. It is easy to put oneself in the speaker's shoes because she makes it so personal and specific that you feel like you are a part of her life. It is also easy to understand her emotions especially in today's society where divorce is so common and relationships are often times very strained and lack communication. This poem displayed just how badly a child can be affected by seeing this kind of neglectful relationship throughout their childhood and how pent up emotions can cause a great deal of psychological stress. The random pauses greatly assisted in representing what an emotional trauma the speaker has carried with her since childhood. The speaker clearly has bottled up her feelings toward her father and is finally releasing these pent up emotions so as to move on and reach closure on her loss of relationship.

Poem 295-I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

A.) This poem, by William Wordsworth, appears to be very simple but when looked at closely actually contains a great deal of meaning. The poem discusses the speaker's lonliness and how, when he is feeling down, he gets joy out of thinking upon the daffodils dancing in the breeze. This small natural occurence evokes happiness and inspiration in the speaker. The message of the poem is that sometimes the small things that often times go unnoticed in life are enough to bring about great thought and cheer and that nature is something that should be admired. Though the speaker is not identified, you may be able to connect the speaker to the poet as taken from the line, "A poet could not but by gay,"(Wordsworth 15). This line, of course, does not necessarily tie the speaker to the poet but it is a possibility. It is a quatrain-couplet, having four stanzas of six lines each all of approximately equal length. The poem has an ABABCC rhyme scheme that goes along superbly with the lyrical flow of the words. The rhyme scheme and orderly nature of the poem add to the overall pleasant and peaceful tone. The speaker begins by comparing himself to a wandering cloud which depicts his desolation and even possibly depression at times and then goes into the descriptions of the swaying daffodils and the joy they arise symbolizing simplicity and the inevitable bond between humans and nature. The rhyme scheme, numerous references to nature, and set-up of the poem enhance its ability to flow off the tongue which adds to the meaning and tone of the poem. It is clear through the poet's lay-out and word-choice that the poem is one of harmony with nature and is supposed to provoke happiness and warmth.

B.) Wordsworth utilizes numerous literary devices to enhance the quality of his poem. The most prevalent device was definitely the imagery provided. The images of the daffodils "twinkling", "tossing their heads in sprightly dance" and out-doing "the sparkling waves in glee" immensely contributed to the beauty and natural feel of the poem. The pictures brought on by these words attributed to the power of the poem as a whole. The continuous personification of nature as with the daffodils, "Tossing their heads in sprightly dance"(12) and the waves with,"The waves beside them danced..."(13) and the comparison between the speaker and a wandering cloud add to the message that humans are entwined with nature. Wordsworth writes, "I gazed- and gazed- but little thought, What wealth the show to me had brought:"(17-18). This repition of the speaker "gazing" symbolizes the substantial impact this simple scene had on him. I liked the poet's word choice of 'wealth' as well because I think it makes the statement that material possessions are not the only things that make up wealth. Wealth can be a variety of things even though most people tend to look at it in terms of financial success and materialistic possessions. He did not realize just how alluring and magnificent nature could be until he realized that the scene had a great effect on him being that he later writes, "They flash upon that inward eye, Which is the bliss of solitude;" (21-22), meaning that the scene is imprinted in his memory and comforts him in his lonliness. The phrase "bliss of solitude" also stuck out to me because it seems to me that the speaker struggles somewhat with lonliness. He clearly does not completely dislike being alone as he describes solitude as 'bliss' but it seems that he only enjoys solitude in moderation. I interpreted from the poem that he gets tired of being on his own at times which is why he searches for things such as the daffodils to keep his attention and lift his spirits.

C.) This poem struck me because of its pleasurable, magestic quality. It is definitely a feel-good type poem which holds alot of meaning. It is considerably deeper than it appears when just reading through quickly. I personally felt I could relate to this poem because there are many things in life that bring about happiness even though they are small and may seem insignificant. Sometimes the simple beauty of nature can be extremely uplifting and help you out of a slump. I found the poem to be inspirational and enjoyed the rhythmical flow of the lines. I also liked how the sound and sense of the poem went together smoothly in that both the topic and the flow of the poem were calm and relaxing.