Homework following the poetry shuffle
To steal a phrase from someone from the voting...I'm interested in finding out more about which of these poems "speaks to you" the most. There are 2 parts to this blogging fun:
- Write a response focusing on one of the poems we viewed in class today. This could be the poem you liked the best, the one you would like to analyze further, the one that confused you the most, or whatever. Of course, please tell us why it speaks to you and be sure to highlight at least one specific example from the poem. As always, I'll be the first comment...so follow my lead.
- As soon as the comments come pouring in, comment on someone else's comment. I'll obviously be commenting as well because I'm interested in what you liked about these poems!
One last thing, let's try to be civil here. No badmouthing Margaret Atwood or any other commenters simply for stating an opinion.
3rd Block - due by 9:00 am on Thursday, 11/8
5th Block - due by 7:20 am on Friday 11/9
7th Block - due by 10:38 on Friday 11/9
In the Secular Night
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-secular-night/
Bored
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bored/
Spelling
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/spelling/
Postcards
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/postcards/
Siren Song
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/siren-song/
The Rest
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rest/
Variations on the Word Love
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/variations-on-the-word-love/
Variations on the Word Sleep
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/variations-on-the-word-sleep/
posted by Mrzhire at
12:50 PM
97 Comments:
The poem that speaks to me is "Siren Song" mainly because we are reading the Odyssey in freshman english and they are one of my favorite parts. I enjoy the line: "Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?" I like it because I think there is a shift here...I think this is part of the song. I think the speaker seems clearer, like it's one out of three sirens, emploring to a poor sailor that she is unhappy with her situation and needs help! That she's caught here with "two feathery maniacs" which I also like because the word choice is so unexpected when you consider the topic of greek mythology. Also "bird suit" implies that the sirens are not what they seem...reminds me of big bird. It's also ironic, very Atwoodesque, that this big bird song is "irresistable." That's so funny to me...but there are some people out there who are just intoxicating, you know? And then they stab you in the back! I think the poem muses on the existence of such a thing as a siren but also connects with relationships today.
Sad...I can't figure out how to attach a picture of a siren...
"In the Secular Night" really interests me because of of all of the loneliness in it. It makes me feel that the narrator is someone that isn't liked by anyone in the world. "Everyone has deserted you" and dancing "by yourself." I think that the title also adds to the loneliness. Secular is a long period of time so I'm guessing that she/he has been alone for a very long time. I thought it was strange that it changed from loneliness to something happy in the middle of the first stanza with all of the ice cream and music. Then it went back to the awareness of being alone. Something that really confused me was the last stanza where she/he says that "I have too much white clothing." Why put it into the poem at all? It just seems so out of place. I guess that the only thing I could think about for that is the white represents a blank canvas that hasn't been touched yet so it could represent loneliness. I don't really know though... Another thing that confused me was the last line where the "century grinds on." What does the word "grinds" mean in this context? I was guessing that it was moving noisily on which could add to the overall idea of the narrator feeling a sense of lonliness.
"Variations on the Word Sleep" totally reminded me of a Diana Ross song "When You Tell Me That You Love Me". In the poem, the first stanza and most of the third one, "I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully". It just seems like such an optimistic poem for such a dark poet. The speaker wants to 'protect you from the grief' and 'become the boat that would row you back carefully'. How cute! But the end spoils it "I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed". This is a recurring theme from "This is a Photograph of Me" that the speaker wants to go unnoticed. She wants to be one with this other person and keep them safe, but only "for a moment" and she doesn't want them to know?! Come on now, we need to express our love! It also connects to "Shadow Voice" because the moon shamed the speaker for wanting a warm body for a blanket. Here the speaker wants just that, yet doesn't want them to know, like it's wrong. But love and comfort and protection are all good things! If it comes to the superficial reality vs. the true reality, I will take the superficial reality of being able to have relationships and not feel guilty for it. The speaker wants to be the dominant protector too, quite a change from normal Atwood...
I think that Shannon's thoughts on "Vaiations on the Word Sleep" were really interesting. I never thought of the narrator as someone real who wants to be with the other individual. During class, Erin and I thought of it as something that was imaginary. I think that it makes sense because the narrator wants to "watch you sleeping" but it "may not happen" along with a lot of other wishes which can't be done. I guess it could go either way. I have to disagree with Shannon's comment on Plath's different approach. Plath is a poet who enjoys writing dark poetry, so why would she write poetry that could fall under the catagory of love? I actually think that it portrays its darkness in the last stanza. "I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary." Maybe it shows the extreme differences and the fact that they will never be together no matter what happens because something can't really be unnoticed if it's so important to an individual right? I don't know though. Maybe Shannon's right, Plath could have changed her style of writing for this particular poem. We'll never know...
I'm guessing, Kathryn, that when you say Plath you really mean Atwood...? I think lots of Atwood's poems could be about love...or loss of love...or the confusing nature of love...or society's contorted obsession with love...I could go on and on. And now I want to agree and disagree with Shannon when she says that Atwood is "dark." Yeah yeah, she explores the darker side of human nature in some of her poems...but I think you also need to search for the light at the end of the tunnel (sorry about the worn out metaphor, George). Try looking at it through a realist lens!
Also...I hope there are a lot of late night bloggers out there... :)
Atwood's poem "The Rest" stands out most from those that I read in class today. The common consensus was that the poem was 'strange', even disturbing. Some interpreted it to be about a pregnancy, what with "pain..slow race", ""cluster of cells...bursting." The pregnancy view seems to make sense in some regard, but it is a twisted view. The woman in the poem is isolated, divided from "the rest" by a barrier. It seems as though the woman is studied by the rest, which reminded me of Orwell's "How The Poor Die" in that the horrors of pain are transcended by its intrigue. However, at the end of the poem the speaker describes how the rest would like to call out to the woman cheering. The woman's race is figurative, but this cheering implies struggle, which lends support to the labor and pregnancy interpretations. The final line of the poem, which says something to the effect of 'pain without progress' leads to a pessimistic view of such life. That living is futile: we undergo grotesque pain but achieve nothing.
Diana No said...
The poem that spoke to me the most was The Rest. When my partner and I were discussing this poem, we thought that maybe it had something to do with racial issues and one person’s struggle to fit into society. When it says, “The rest of us watch from beyond the fence as the woman moves” I thought that the “fence” was the barrier that separates the two races, and while this one woman is trying to achieve a goal or a purpose, the rest of the people only watch her from a distance as if they were intrigued by her aspiration but not wanting to get too attached to her. Another reason why this poem could be about race is because the reader can feel the pain and hardships that this woman is going through. “Running in black smoke…swelling…boiling…bursting…” All of this diction and imagery allows the readers to see that the task that the woman has to handle is not an easy one, and as we all know from history; it wasn’t easy for many of the ethnic groups to find a place in society. I also like this poem because of the very last line. “There is pain but no arrival at anything.” This reminds me of the saying “no pain no gain” but the woman in the poem has gone through all the pain, and yet the poem says that she has gotten nowhere and has achieved nothing; all that pain for nothing. I just think that this poem is fascinating because it has so many connections to history.
In connection to what Kathryn commented about “In the Secular Night” she said that poem had to do a lot with loneliness and how the voice of the poem realizes that they are lonely. I think that loneliness could also be a theme that’s found in “The Rest” because the woman is alone as “the rest of us watch from beyond the fence.” There are people around but the people don’t want to get too close to the woman; they want to keep their distance. In some sense, the distance between the people and the woman is discouraging and is making the woman fail at the task that she had set out to do. So when I see this connection, maybe one of Atwood’s many themes is loneliness and how that can affect one’s performance in life. This poem should make readers feel guilty if they interpret it the way that I did. In our lives we are surrounded by people but sometimes we seclude ourselves and create that barrier, that fence, which prevents us from ever wanting to embrace new people into our lives.
"Variations on the Word Sleep" speaks to me. You almost feel like your in the dreamworld during this poem. The image of the "smooth dark wave slides over my head" seems like an allusion to the blanket of stars metaphor. Its almost like the speaker drowns in the sleep, except the image is possitive with 'slides'. The tone is very calm almost sleepy because of the long structure with only some enjambment. I wonder why she repeats "grief at the center"? Could this be refering to the purpose of the poem? Like the 'you' of the poem is suffering and the metaphor is of a dream? I also like the imagery of a "watery sun and three moons". It is a very natural image that contrasts in its light with the idea of the cave. At this point there is a tone shift that I think is glorious. Also, the personification of the boat and the way it "rows you back" shows the unnaturalness of the dream world. Also the image of the body lying next to the spirit has an unnatural connotation that slightly makes me reconsider falling asleep (except that IB has already made that decision for me, sorry Mrs. Hire). I did find it odd that the speaker wanted to be unnoticed but necessary like the maids at a high end hotel or an unappreciated lover. Perhaps that is the sacrifice that the speaker is willing to make to remain intimately close with the sleeper.
In connection with what Mrs. Hire said about "Siren Song" I disagree that the bird suit quote is the shift and is part of the song. Instead I think the shift occurs right after this quote. Here the speaker changes to a sort of self centered attitude mentioning only I and trying to catch the emphathy of the audience. I also saw a shift at the very end of the poem. "Alas it is a boring song but it works every time". It seems at this point that the luring is over with and she now is speaking to herself about how boring but effective her job is. I agree with Mrs Hire about the connection with the siren and society today especially in the sort of manipulation in higher class women and the 'countertop' dancers Atwood refered to in the poem about Helen of Troy. It seems like the women are angry and bored at not having a purpose so they use the mystery to trap their victims, mostly men (seems awefully like a golddigger mentality).
The poem Bored was the most interesting to me. This is because if it was taken at face value it could be concieved as a poem about a woman being bored but as kareem and i read through it we found some underlying sexual tones. These include the use of a him and her apparent interest him even though she proclaims her boredom as well as the diction she chose to use using logs and such. Kareem and i might have seen the poem in a different way but we though it interesting that she talked about doin what "animals do" as that meant a sexual connotation for both of us. This poem could be interpreted in several different ways, that was tru even for us this made it interesting, it had many different meanings to me individually.
I agree with hughs interpretattion of "the rest" as a birthing. The poem is a definite downer and i think the way she achieved this was through the use of harsh imagery as pointed out by Hugh. I however interpreted the end as being the struggle of birth without the fruit of the child, this could be interpreted as a metaphor for life and that we world through it for nothing, that we go through the labor to get no fruit at the end.
Shannon's comment is reallly interesting, particularly the part about "I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary." because i thought about it a different way. i think that the speaker is saying that she loves this person so much that she wants to be able to have the other person take her sleeping with them for granted because it is a regular occurence in their lives. I think its interesting that the speaker is both unnoticed AND necessary. But i think i get what she's saying. it would be nice to love someone and take for granted that you can come home to them every night and they'll be ther. However i definatly think that Atwood's theme of you can't atttain happiness even though you know its there is echoed in those lines. to be taken for granted also implies the problems of a relationship.
"Variations on the Word Sleep" was the poem that caught my attention the most. To me it was like the process of entering into sleep if you know what I mean. Like at the beginning it pretty much says, I want to watch you sleeping. Then in the second stanza it says I want to walk with you... which is like your 'drifting' into sleep, and then in the final stanzas it goes on in a way that sounds dreamlike to me. So maybe the speaker is talking to 'dreams' if that makes any sense...
I think this poem spoke to me because it is dreamlike, and dreams sound really good to me at the moment. :D
The character string generally reffered to in the english dialect as a "poem" which when personified vocalizes itself in my general direction...(sorry i was missing orwell and his politics of the english language)... is Postcards. What really stands out in the poem is the disjointed imagery. Atwood pairs the trite phrases we associate with postcards like "i'm thinking about you", "outside the window",and "wish you were here". these phrases are follwed by unexpected images that make the poem seem not quite right. the poem is also about a relationship...perhaps like her poem "You Fit Into Me" she is taling about a relationship that seemed perfect and "trite" but became discordant.
Gabrielle - I liked Postcards as well...because it was so random. And I feel like a motif that is echoed in Atwood's poetry is the blurred line between actual reality or truth and percieved reality or truth. In Postcards...you have the Hallmarkish sayings that Orwell would refer to as overused and cliche such as "wish you were here" and then mixed in there are some weird distorted images of like places different people may have visited. Again with the contrasting imagery and diction. Yay.
I really liked an idea behind the poem "Postcards". When I first began to read the poem I thought the "Postcard" idea was kind of strange. Yes, she's addressing a "you" audience, but she does this in most all her poems at one point or another (although it is strange that this "you" seems even external to the reader, but this may just be because the reader thinks it may be a letter). But anyways, I love how the poem almost creates the essence of a postcard. For one, just the overwhelming sense of imagery, for example: "At this distance/ you're a mirage, a glossy image/ fixed in the posture/ of the last time I saw you". This imagery is reminiscent of a postcard because it has a sort of unchanging "glossy image". This example is also interesting because it also demonstrates a sense of time (Kind of frozen in time). The idea of time is then something that I find to be interesting because the general sense of this motif is that time is just stuck or slowly moving ("Time comes in waves here...I move up, it's called/awake, then down into the uneasy/nights but never/forward"). This motif is then more of what I liked about this poem because this does make me think of a postcard, as a postcard is something that someone might impatiently wait for, and as one does this time seems to take forever to progress. It's kind of like with anything we wait for though, time just stops and it feels like we're waiting for an eternity.
I think the comment Gabrielle made on the "disjointed imagery" in "Postcards" is really interesting because I honestly have no clue on how it would fit in with what I was talking about with time. All the imagery does seem really random and so it's almost like time would be really random (?), but that doesn't seem like the point. I mean, some of them make sense in the context of time, like "Each spring/there's a race of cripples": as if time is going so slow that cripples are suddenly racing (as if moving quickly). It just seems like this imagery is sort of disconnected from a lot of the other stuff going on, but then maybe the speaker feels disconnected (in this relationship possibly).
Although I'm not really sure I enjoyed any of the poems (mostly because I had no clue what they were talking about) I'd have to say the one that interested me the most was "Sire Song". After looking over it multiple times I've gotten two possible meanings out of it.
My first interpretation was the much more feminist one. In the poem, no one besides the sirens know the song because those who have heard it are dead. The speaker is a disgruntled siren who does not enjoy “squatting on this island/looking picturesque and mythical” and singing with “these two feathery maniacs”. The siren reveals the fatal and infamous song is a “cry for help”. She admits it is a boring song, but “it works every time”. It seems that Atwood’s poem is a critique of the role of women in culture and how they are supposed to be weak, like a bird. She implies that every man cannot help himself from saving a damsel in distress and man’s pride is his downfall. The siren does not truly need help: she is independent, and is a siren only because that is her job.
The second interpretation I got was one on relationships. Atwood could be thinking or implying that she feels as though no relationship she has been through has gone past the "Siren's song". Atwood implies that men "hear her song" and are attracted by it, but don't stay. They don't survive through the relationship. Knowing this Atwood wants to be saved by someone from the Sirens curse. Later, she realizes that she can't be saved unless her mate comes and saves her. That would be difficult.
Well the peom that leaves the most questions for me is "The Rest". What the measage of this peom and what does it mean?
One intepretation that I tried on this peom is that Atwood is trying to describe to thoughts of a person running in some sort of race. This seems though to be to superficial for it to be the greater meaning of this peom.
After that I tried to evaluate the peom by treating every idea as an metaphor representing something greater that the object or idea itself. This resulting in the peom seeming to be a comment on societies tendency to fence itself from other portions of society.
I would like to know what other people thought of this poem...
In response to Hugh's interpretation of "The Rest" and Nick's comment. I think that the poem being a description of "a birthing" seems to be abstract but if evaluated in the correct context it seems that the poem can be seen this way. The imagery certainly supports this idea. But if the peom were about "a birthing" one would think that Atwood could have used a more concrete comparison that would have made the comparison at least evaluated form multiple contextes. Anyway I think that this is an interesting idea to explore further.
“Siren Song” was the one poem that really stood out to me above the others. Maybe because it reminds me so much of “Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing,” which was an awesome poem to analyze. In both poems the female speaker manipulates and exercises a (fatalistic) control over her audience of men. The men are always taken in by the surface beauty of the speaker (Helen of Troy’s beauty, the Siren’s song). It’s also similar the way the speaker lures her audience in by switching to second-person: “Only you,/only you can,/you are unique.” It reminds me of the lines in “Helen of Troy,” “I don’t let on to everyone,/but lean close, and I’ll whisper…/You believe that? You can take me out to/dinner.” The speaker is deceptive in both poems. I like the switch in “Siren Song” when she suddenly reveals, “I don’t enjoy it here…” It reflects that overarching theme in much of Atwood’s poetry that surface appearances are not always reflective of reality. The last stanza seems to have another switch – “Alas/it is a boring song/but it works every time.” Does she mean her plea for help is really the fatalistic song she sings to lure men to their deaths? That’s an interesting twist on the traditional “damsel in distress” role – she doesn’t actually need help, but instead, uses it to her advantage.
Regarding Kathryn’s comment on “In the Secular Night” –
It’s interesting that she points out that “secular” may mean a long period of time in this context because I initially took it as meaning non-religious. Now that I look at the poem again in terms of secular as relating to time, I see that the motif of time is definitely strongly echoed throughout the poem too. This scene is something “you remember…from being sixteen,” which, “forty years later,” would probably seem like a lifetime ago. And then, in the last stanza, “Several hundred years ago/this could have been mysticism…” and “The century grinds on.” It’s interesting that she seems to be measuring time in large intervals – decades and centuries. At the same time though, I think Atwood is playing on the multiple meanings of “secular” because she does also write, “The sensed absence/of God…” I’m not sure what this all means… to me, it contributes to that overall lonely/dark mood. Things have changed in the last several hundred years, but not, it seems, for the better – back then “this could have been mysticism/or heresy. It isn’t now.” There is no religion left in anything – nothing is sacred anymore. Perhaps she suggests that several hundred years ago they would have cared if someone were run over, but not now. “The century grinds on” – reminds me of a hit-and-run. Society doesn’t care about the individuals who have fallen off (how Orwellian…), and that’s why she’s moping around the house, “deserted” and eating lima beans.
I loved Variations on the Word Love. It just... it was so right for what i felt this summer. In class, a bunch of people were saying how Atwood makes the point that love can't even begin to fill what her and her lover feel... but i took it in the exact opposite sense... it seemed to me that Love is what is thrown around so much, but when it comes to her, it can't even do anything, there's nothing there. They can't even fill the holes in their relationship with the word Love. It just seems so... open. The whole poem is about semiotics, including how she phrases it. There could be the interpretation that things are going better than "LOVE" can speak... but there's also the fact that Love is used so frequently, but it can't even begin to fill in whats missing.
Anywho... Amy discussed how Variations on the Word sleep seemed to go into the sleeping state... but i took it as a whole spectrum of sleep. It does seem to transcend the stages into sleep, but there also seems to be this dozing, dreaming, falling, nightmare, ascending, dreaming, dozing, awake type trend... but who knows.
The poem that speaks to me is "Siren Song" because the speaker of the poem seems to be a siren herself. The poem tell the reader that he/she is 'unique' and that only he/she 'can help'. The poem seems to be wily and cunning because the poem begins as a narrative about how the siren song has left many people dead or crazy, but as the poem goes on, it becomes clear that the poem itself is meant to be a siren's song. The intent of the first tone, the narrative tone, suggests that the speaker was trying to gain the trust of the reader. Once the reader had become convinced that he/she was above the siren song, the speaker began to actually reveal that she was a siren. It makes the reader think twice about whether or not they were takin in by the beginning mood, and humbles them if they were.
The poem that I enjoyed most was "Siren Song" mainly because it took me untill half way through the poem to realize that it was the siren that was speaking, I felt brillient (so sue me, I haven't read the Odyssey in a while). I think that the lines
"I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer." represent a shift in the poem, more of a realization that the beginning of the poem may have also been apart of the siren's song. The beginning secions of the poem where the Siren complains about her fellows can be portrayed as part of the song because of these lines, meant to draw the reader into her deadly song. I also feel the ending stanza
"at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time."
can show the malice monsters are capable of, the monsters inside of us, because this is greek mythology we're talking about as well as poetry.
In response to Amy's comment on "Variations on the Word Sleep", I thought that the poem was also meant to have a dreamy tone. I think that Atwood used many words which may remind the reader of other connotations of the word sleep, but she let the poem remain true to the true definition of sleep. I think that the poem was meant to comment on the undertones of language today, and how innocent words can have dirty connotations. She may use words that could be considered sexually connotative, but the poem itself is not, and therefor the reader has recognize the undertones and come to terms with his/her own definitions of the words.
I'm going to comment on Kareem's interpretation on Variations on the Word Love. While I do see Kareem's point, and somewhat agree with it, I feel only the first stanza supports this mentality. In the second stanza the diction such as "metallica silence" and "deep bare vaccumes" creat a negative tone regarding the word love and by association the feeling of love and the ephermal quality to it, how we can never be sure it exists.
I really liked the poem "Variations On the Word Love" because... well I'm not really sure why. I can still barely even begin to interpret it. However it's a wonderfully written poem that just really stuck out to me for some reason. That's what poetry is all about right? I just want to know who she is talking to or about in the poem. And I really want to know if she was married before her current husband. Froc and Phil were saying today that she doesn't like men and that she's "anti-men." I just get the feeling she only dislikes one man. Maybe a man cheated on her? Maybe he never loved her the same way she loved him? I just really want to know because the message I get from most of her poems is just her being against one man who hurt her in the past. Maybe we could e-mail her about it?
To Kathryn's first comment:
Secualr also has to do with the church. I am by no means Church educated so I wasn't sure what the poem may have had to do with the church. I just thought I would put that idea out there. Also, I think the last stanza is sort of a stream of consciousness. In the first two stanzas, she is beating herself up for being alone all of her life. Then in the third stanza, she beats herself up for beating herself up. She realizes that she thinks about herself too much and all of the stupid things like "I have too much white clothing" when she should have been thinking about the people who have been "run over." Or maybe she is the person that has been run ove by other peopl her whole life...
Looking at Nick's comment, I like what he says about the difference in interpretations between whether you take a poem at face value or really look for deeper meaning. I think Atwood in particular puts a lot of deeper meaning into all of her work (how else could we have spent half an hour analyzing a 4 line poem?) and thus she should be very good for commentaries since we can really discuss that deeper meaning. Also, it can be kind of entertaining to find sexual innuendo in really random bits of poetry ;)
Personally, I liked the poem "Variations on the Word Sleep" because I really found the progression from being awake to dreaming to be interesting. I absolutely love her description when she talks about a dream world with "a watery sun and three moons" and "towards the cave where you must descend, towards your worst fear," it's such a, for lack of a better word, poetic way of describing the alternate worlds to which our dreams take us. The shift in this poem I felt came right after the first stanza, when Atwood seems to shift from the real world to the dream world. She uses the metaphoric line "smooth dark wave slides over my head" to describe the blackness of closed eyelids transitioning ourselves from reality to dream. I was trying to figure out why she'd name the poem "Variations On the Word Sleep" and the only real reason I could come up with was that the word sleep only describes the physical sensation of putting our head on a pillow and shutting our bodies down, sleep truly consists of something much greater, and that something is dreams.
I fell in love with "Variations on the Word Love". From its playful beginning about everyday love, "a word we use to plug holes with" to its stronger illustration of romantic love,"a mouth that says O again and again in wonder and pain, a breath, a finger grip on a cliff side. You can hold on or let go", i certainly felt all bubbly inside reading it. Atwood continues her rad style of general observations which lead to deeper in this case more intimate observations. I appreciate this style, and enjoyed tracing it through out many of her poems. My favorite line of the poem is "O again and again in wonder
and pain, a breath, a finger
grip on a cliff side. You can
hold on or let go" because to me that expresses the emotions intertwined in first love, fear of letting go and loosing your self, balancing the rest of the world when all you want to do is love and love and love, and the constant warmth in your belly knowing that when the one you care about looks back at you its all going to be good.
the poem that speaks to me is "variations on the word love." I didn't get to read it during the poetry shuffle so I just read it now, but I love it! I see the pattern of Atwood, vague to specific, basic description to personal connection. I especially like it in this poem because it creates a contrast as well. In the beginning, shes talking about how love is just a word thrown around "to plug holes with." But then in the second half, its super personal and she uses love as not being enough, a word full of its own strength. My favorite line in the poem is the last one "you can hold on or let go." I like this line because it really underlines the contrast that Atwood creates in the poem with the two contrasting ideas of love. I think she means "hold on" as in hold on to the true meaning of love and "let go" as in let the valueless meaning of love take over you.
I agree to what Ms Hire said about alot of Atwoods poem's being "about love...or loss of love...or the confusing nature of love...or society's contorted obsession with love..." especially the last one. The poem Variations on the Word Love really did show society's contorted obsession with love and you can see how this rubbed off on Atwood as she wrote with her two perspectives. Its kind of sad that most of her poems (except the first one we read) is about unhappiness with love and such.
I had not considered the poem "The Rest" to be about pregnancy and reading Hugh, Nick, and Finch's comments have put the poem in a new light for me. I agree that the woman in the poem is involved in a struggle which leaves her estranged from "The Rest", the on lookers. In the poem is says "and the grasses light up with forgiveness", perhaps this suggests that the woman's child will be a bastard,and those surrounding her separate her from them for this reason, but pity her and there for forgive her. But the women is estranged for a reason and can not go back to "the rest"
I found "Siren Song" to be the most interesting of the poems...
I loved how she says everyone wants to learn the song of the sirens; since women want to know how to use and men want to know how to avoid it. It seems to have the structure of a little hill too (3-3-12-3-3-3). It builds in saying the men are the ones getting owned (the song that forces men /
to leap overboard in squadrons /
even though they see beached skulls), then it there is some questioning and it builds down to her saying being a siren is miserable and that she needs to be rescued.
The tone, by the end, seems to be kinda nonchalant. Almost like being a siren is a "git r dun" profession.
And interesting device used is the nearly anthromorphism of the bird suit. However, it's not a true anthropomorphism because the bird suit can taken off, therefore the siren isn't truly a bird in human form. Or is it?
Have a good one guys.
Yo finch, I like ur interpretation of The Rest bein a race; kinda makes the title some what of a paradox too since you're certainly not resting during the race. However, i don't believe that this fact is the extent of the metaphor. The race, i believe, could be a metaphor for the mundane, daily grind of life. Some clues Atwood appears to leave are the fact that woman just seems to be going and not thinking. "We see her body in motion but hear no sounds." Also, in the last lines, it's said that there's nothing that can be done; cept let her git r' dun. No cheerin'. No gains.
I'd like to hear what others have to say about this.
Werd.
-Sreyas
I think the poem that stuck out the most to me from last class was variations on the word sleep. The part that i remember the most was near the end. It was the part about breathing about how the narriator wants to be the air that the person breathes. It says I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary. I dont know why but i just like that part. I think the part that i like the most about it is just how the narriator wants to be so important to someone. I think that the poem might as well just be called variations on the word love and not variations on the word sleep...
The poem that spoke to me was "In the Secular Night." I really liked how the diction contrasted with the motif of loneliness. Being lonely has a negative connotation but the diction is mostely positive. I also thought it was interesting that babies were mentioned a couple of times (the babysitting and the baby lima beans) but babies have a postivite connotation. Usually when babies are in poems it is talking about new life and joy, completely the opposite of misery and solitude.
I like Amy's comment on "Variations of the Word Sleep." I had not thought of the poem itself representing the process by which we fall asleep. I really like the stanza that says "and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear" because it feels like a dream. I can picture a dream - or maybe a nightmare - where people are walking through a mystical sort of forest (the three moons) and into a cave. Also the idea that they are walking into the cave represents the progress of a person falling into a deep sleep.
I enjoyed the poem "In Secular Night" with its lonely tone. The speaker in the poem is not said to be a girl, but like many of Atwood's other poems, the reader senses that she is. This is conveyed through the actions of the speaker, who is associated with words like "baby sit" and "baby lima beans." The word baby in both of these make the speaker seem nuturing, which is most commonly associated with women. Through the speakers actions, she also seems defiant and detached from the normal people of society. With her "mouth circled with purple" and "blowing the smoke up the chimney," paired with the fact that she is alone, she seems like a recluse. The final line: "the century grinds on" adds to the feeling that no one cares about her, as if we are all just trying to get through the task that is life.
I enjoyed "Siren Song" the most. Probably because it is so manipulative. It plays off of such human traits as the desire to be unique (I am reminded of those shirts that many people now sport that say things like, "Congratulations: You're unique. Just like everybody else.) as well as the desire to help.
"I will tell the secret to you,
to you, only to you." seems to me to play off people's desperate need to be special, to have something that sets them apart from someone else."Only you, only you can,
you are unique
at last. " These sirens, this siren in particular with her song, offers the men from the boats th ehope that indeed they are special "only you" only to ruthlessly squash that hope, "Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time". (Insert manic laugh here). Not only do the en not accomplish what they set out to do, they aren't even special... Sucks huh?
The sirens also play on men's desire to help (as several people have already meniontioned the trait of rescuing damsels in distress, butI think even more basic than that.) "Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
out of this bird suit?"Here the siren expresses her dissatisfaction and desire for help, and the men on the ships (foolishly for being human)try to save her, responding to the call of "Help Me!" Manipulative, 'tis true, but I guess that's why I am so fascinated by it. :)
In respones to Logan's comment, I also wasn't sure exactly what the poem meant, since so many of the metaphors could be perceived in multiple ways. However, the poem seemed to be about a pregnancy to me, though I still cannot decide who the speaker is. It could just be any woman. But I think it may be about a woman that is disturbed like Plath, basing it off the all the lines of the poem leading to the final line: "there is pain but no arrival at anything." saying that having children isn't really as great as people think it is, or no progress is really made.
I liked Sarah T's comment on Secular Night...about the babies and how they are usually cute...but sometimes I think babies look like aliens and that puppies are way cuter! The Weses and I talked about this poem today in 3rd period and I really enjoy how she highlights the shift from adolescence to adulthood or old age...from ice cream to lima beans. Both are secular and indulgent...but it's skewed when she's older...lima beans as indulgence? That IS a lonely life. It reminds me of the fishhookeye again.
Postcards is alright. The imagery is aboveboard and it isn't the 'meh' of the other poems. It may yet be the only poem of Atwood's I have read that isn't about sex or pregnancy. I like how it tells something of a story, walking the reader through the scenery, as opposed to her other poems which are erm.... lackluster in this respect. It seems to explore levels of reality to an extent. Or so I hope; I need something I can make stuff up off of for my commentary.
I'd like to respond to Amy's comment. Actually, I wouldn't necessarily like to, but I kinda have to for the assignment. I feel like Amy is missing the overtly sexual undertone of the poem. As if sleep didn't have the obvious implication already. Moreover, I'm skeptical about Amy's interpretation of the speaker. Who is talking to whom here? I believe there are a couple of imaginary characters; the context is really more important.
I really liked the poem "Postcards" by Margaret Atwood. I thought this was a cool poem because of the imagery that really makes you feel like you'reyou're "a glossy image fixed in the posture" of the postcard. I thought this was a way random poem, but it totally makes sense too. Like how she talks about the ocean, but it makes sense beacuse a lot of postcards that you would pick up from the store have pictures of the ocean on them. I think that the motif of lonliness and distance is prevelant. Just the fact that someone is writing a postcard to someone that is far away expresses the loneliness of the speaker. This is reinforced when Atwood says "At this distance, you're a mirage." It makes the reader feel sad for the reader, even though we don't know the details of the relationship.
In response to Weston's and Roby's comments on "Siren Song" haha I didn't know the speaker was the Siren until I read it like twice so don't worry Weston, I'm in the same boat. But anyways, I think it's interesting how Atwood plays up the whole unique theme. It's funny that Atwood repeats that theme so many times in the poem, that the theme in itself almost looses its uniqueness.
My favorite poem is "Variations on the Word Love" mainly because it grasps that the only way humans can love is through a flawed love. When Atwood writes," Love! Love! sing the soldiers, raising their glittering knives in salute" the picture is grotesque and oblique, yet in her attempt she shows a love stained and poisoned by nationalism. In Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars" lyrics he sings,"...Those three words are said to much, they're not enough..." which links to Atwoods theme of love when she expresses,"...this word is not enough..." I feel that as the speaker Love is described as "empty" "bare" "too short" in an attempt to tell humanity what fools they are for even partaking much less thinking some kind of fulfillment can come from "red heart shaped vacancies."
Well... the poem that i found most interesting.. was spelling... and no one commented on it! i guess it "spoke to me" because it was the first one i read in class! Anyway, i liked it for a few different reasons. First, i like how Atwood like other authors we know.. like say.. Orwell.. talk about things that seem a little sketchy or like everyone knows and does a certain thing but they actually point it out.. I love that! In Spelling i was expecting it to be about her daughter learning to spell and how she is the joy of her life. When actually i got the impression that it was Atwood questioning and wondering how many women give up having children to persue their profession. My favorite line of the poem was "a word after a word after a word is power." This line i felt was great because it's true even a child that spells one simple word at a time eventually learns to spell and the words that they write can be powerful. Another thing i just thought of is when she says a word after a word after a word... This is like 3 words, and she talks about a child spelling their first name... Well if the child can spell their whole name, first, middle, and last.. That child, and really what that name has the potential to become is powerful all in itself... Just a thought!
I liked Nandita's analysis of the last line in "Variations on the Word Love." She says,"I think she means "hold on" as in hold on to the true meaning of love and "let go" as in let the valueless meaning of love take over you." I never really looked at it from a positive point of view but I can see how maybe instead of tossing the word around or even uttering it we should remain silent and just feel what love is and let go of all of the mumbo jumbo in between. Maybe that was the point she was trying to make by setting the poem up to appear as though love is a hopless feat yet in the end remind the reader that it can be accomplished if practiced in a pure and unflawed manner.
In response to Carlyann's comment, i totally thought of snow patrol's song too! And i do agree that the use of the phrase "i love you" is used too frequently and often times without any reason... I also agreed with and enjoy how Atwood can create so many images in my head in each of her poems... the condradicting comparisons are crazy! Also Atwood is able to take these everyday words or subjects for her poems and make them controversial and have different meanings... she ususally writes about what exactly i think the poem is not going to be about!
The poem that spoke to me the most during class was Postcards. I liked all the strange and sometimes contradictory images that Atwood uses. The images seem to have nothing to do with postcards at all at first. “the smell of backed-up drains, too sweet, like a mango on the verge of rot” These images don’t seem sweet at all but give you the feeling of abandonment. This feeling of abandonment could relate to feelings felt while waiting for a postcard or even writing one. I also liked the motif of waves and sickness which made me think of sea sickness. The first time she used this description was with time and then with love. Atwood also used random images to describe the passing of time, like “the roosters crow hours before dawn”, a child “howls and howls”, and the building of the hotel “nail by nail.” Atwood depicts time as passing by way too slowly making the wait for a postcard impossible.
I enjoyed siren song very much. It has an interesting duality to it. At first it seems as if the subject of the poem is the song. The siren is lamenting about how she is stranded and forced to suffer and is behind rescue. Then you realize that that could possibly be the song itself. Just her lamentations and her appeal for real help strike a chord that cause men feel obligated to rescue her. The confiding would strike the men as unique, meaning that they would feel overly compelled to fulfill her request.
Feminazi....
I enjoyed Anna's comment on "Spelling." I liked the connection between the three words making up a person's name and power. When I first read the poem, I didn't know what the meaning that Atwoods was trying to get across. Now I can see how Atwoods is relating words to power, especially with the line about the ancestress. I'm still confused about Atwood's opinion on having children though. Is she for it or against it?
As J-Mc stated, Postcards is fairly devoid of adult themes. Some have argued that you will find sex if you go looking for it in Atwood's poetry but the same goes for any other theme. We cannot be certain of Atwood's intent or meaning and thus can never rule out the influence of sex upon her work. The theme of pregnancy also contributes to the feminine themes in Atwood's work (feminazi or not).
I really enjoyed 'Variations on the Word Love', enough to write a ToK journal on it!
Anywho, unlike Kareem, I took the good ol' perspective on it that the word love doesn't mean anything to anyone else (from her perspective) because it's thrown around so much, and it can be sold if you "add lace", and she goes completely cynical saying "rub it all over your body and you
can cook with it too." which completely undermines the meaninsg of the word 'love'. She also says it could be one of the debaucheries of the slugs, or something soldiers cry out as they draw their weapons. By the end of the first stanza 'love' means nothing.
The second stanze is where she starts talking about 'us', assuming that the other character is her lover. For them the word is too short and too simple to "fill those deep bare vacuums between the stars" which puts so much pressure on what love needs to mean. It seems like the second stanza, especially with the last line "you can hold on or let go" really has 'love' as the word being the main focus of her relationships. It seems like that little word is determining the relationship.
I don't know if the purpose of this poem was to really talk about how love only means something to her and her lover, or to show how every couple, when they trully fall in love, will understand what it is, but until then 'love' is everything described in the first stanza.
I really enjoyed the poem "Variations of the Word Sleep" because the tone of the piece sounded extremely intimate to me, as if the speaker of the poem was falling in love with some far off person. The first and second stanzas really seem to play off of that idea of just wanting to be there to support the one they love, however the second stanza has a more surreal look to it wit "watery sun" meaning that possibly that the speaker has fantasies about this person whom they 'love.' I am also curious as to what this 'worst fear' that is mentioned in the second stanza, and I'm thinking possibly that it may be actually the speaker's worst fear, "to descend" and possibly being alone, relating Atwood's other piece "IN the Secular Night." It becomes dark there, but in the third stanza, the speaker automatically reverts back to positive imagery, which may be the speaker's way of running away from their worst fear, focusing on the silver branch and white flower which appear to me as symbols of purity and innocence, relating to the positive connotations of nature and bright colors but with the mention of grief so very much, the speaker can't seem to revert back to the positive imagery. I like the next bit in the third stanza as it does go back to the intimacy that was originally presented in the beginning, but still stays in the darker imagery because it shows that even through dark times and when even if the speaker's 'love' is far-off they'd be willing to die for them and bring them back as seen in the lines: "I would like to follow / you up the long stairway / again & become / the boat that would row you back." Yet what confuses me the most is the line in the last stanza, "I want to be that unnoticed" as if the speaker is already close to the one they love and the ability to admire from afar has been extinguished. And it appears also as a contradiction to me with "& that necessary." So the speaker wants to be unnoticed but necessary?
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I feel compelled to comment on Gilbert's analysis, just because he had to say 'feminazi' at the end, which kind of makes me want to put antifreeze into his tea.
I have to agree that at some point it strikes the reader, that the lamentation of the siren, IS the song, but there is no specific shift in the poem that triggers the realization. I think it's interesting how she says it is a 'boring' song, so this heart-wrenching confession she had about how she doesn't want to be singing the song, is actually pretty boring to her, the emotions of a suffering being that she is faking are unreal to her and she can almost mock them by manipulating them.
On to the feminazi comment:
Perhaps it is the only way for a woman to be noticed: play like you're weak and defenseless and men will either want to manipulate you to their own advantage or feel a machismo urge to protect the helpless little woman. Here you have a poem showing that actually it is the women who are doing the manipulating when they pretend to be weak and you call her a femenazi, what does that say about you as a member of the male population?
Chew on that, misogynist.
A number of people have commented that "Variations on the Word Sleep" and how it was supposed to reflect sleep itself. Kareem stated it was more like "this dozing, dreaming, falling, nightmare, ascending, dreaming, dozing, awake type trend..." And in comparison with my own reflection, I can see that the 'love' so longed after may just be a dream in which the speaker created and that the speaker confuses reality with the dreamworld, unsure of where they are which may just explain the contradiction I found at the end of being unnoticed but necessary.
The poem that speaks to me most is “Postcards” mainly because of the sickly diction and imagery used throughout. I think this type of imagery and diction is used most prevalently in the first stanza, especially in lines like “What we have are the usual fractured coke bottles and the smell of backed-up drains, too sweet, like a mango on the verge of rot,” because of the contrast between sweet and pristine things and the squalor that exists in reality. I believe that this type of diction and imagery is used in order to emphasize the contrast between the pristine conditions of a place portrayed on a postcard and the conditions that actually exist there. Furthermore, I think that this type of diction and imagery speaks about the emotional state of the narrator (who is presumably alone on the vacation or situation in which a postcard would be sent, due to the opening line “I’m thinking about you”) in that the initial appeal of a vacation alone dissipates after the feeling of loneliness sets in and the narrator realizes that he or she needs what is really important in life: human contact and a meaningful relationship.
In response to Alex Byers’ comment, I thought it was very interesting that your interpretation found almost a pristine nature in the imagery throughout the poem and that time was the primary focus of your interpretation. When I think about time, I think of something very metaphysical and therefore clean of any “particulates”, if you will, that the real world infuses with it. I found a sickly and disgusting undertone throughout the entire poem and I think it is very interesting that Alex would notice things so pristine and clean from the poem.
The poem "Bored" speaks to me the most. It kind of makes me feel as though the speaker just got a divorce and regrets it to some extent. I think she acknowledges that she loved her partner, but things maybe got out of hand. It is almost like the story of any high school student eager to leave home who finds himself yearning for his mother once he is gone.
Atwood's repetition of the word "holding" at the beginning of the poem has a connotation of having to be patient through a relationship that was possibly not optimal. The speaker may have suffered from abuse, or may have needed money from "him", so she withstood the boredom and possible pain the relationship brought her. She states,
"All those times I was bored
out of my mind. Holding the log
while he sawed it." It sounds like she has to hold on despite boredom or whatever else might come with being with this man. Later she says,
"Or sat in the back
of the car, or sat still in boats,
sat, sat, while at the prow, stern, wheel
he drove, steered, paddled."
This also makes it sound as though the man is in control of the relationship (driving it) and it makes me feel sad for the woman speaking.
Perhaps the biggest reason the poem speaks to me is because it reminds me of my mom. She had problems in her marriage, and because of this she got a divorce, but I don't think there is a day in her life when she doesn't feel nostalgic about the time when she was with my dad...I guess I just relate to the speaker because I see it in my mom all the time.
I liked the poem Variations in the Word Sleep because the imagery is very dreamy and it could be interpreted in many ways (just like dreams). In the third stanza, there is nature imagery along with the colors silver and white which could resemble something pure or holy. The subject to whom the narrator is speaking is unclear and it could be just about anyone. It's possible that it's the narrator's child because of the motif of protection or it could be a lover or it could be the narrator's own subconscious mind that takes over during dreams.
In response to Adam's comment, I can totally relate to the situation of seeing postcards depict pristine scenes only to find out the harsh reality later. I went SCUBA Diving in a very tourist-y spot a couple of years ago. The beach there truly is beautiful and is often depicted in postcards. However, when I went underwater, what I found was much less than beauty. It was a night dive, so I got to see all the fish sleeping next to beer cans and various trash bags wrapped around the coral. The sand looked blackish from everything that had been dumped in. Of course, since most tourists don't dive, this doesn't need to be covered up, but the reality is that regardless of the beauty that postcards show,the coke bottles really are there for those who look carefully to see, and I like how Atwood explores this issue.
I really liked the poem “Postcards”. I thought there were a lot of interesting ideas presented in it, because a lot of them conflict with generally accepted connotations and realities. For example, a postcard is something you send when you go away on a relaxing vacation, but it doesn’t sound like the speaker is in any sort of paradise: “What we have are the usual / fractured coke bottles and the smell / of backed-up drains, too sweet, / like a mango on the verge / of rot, which we have also. / The air clear sweat, mosquitoes/ & their tracks; birds & elusive”. The speaker also mentions a the building of a hotel, which seems like it would be associated with progress and would contribute to the comfort and living standard of those vacationing wherever this place is, but instead, it is described as a “damn hotel” that is “someone’s crumbling dream”. Old buildings are generally thought of as being decaying and crumbling, so it’s an interesting idea for a new one to be described that way. It’s also kind of interesting how the speaker says “Wish you were here” since that specific vacation spot sounds like the last place anyone would want to be.
I liked Amy's comment on Variations on the Word Sleep because she saw the subject as the dreams itself which also makes sense. During dreams, the reasoning part of your brain seems to be turned of so after you wake up there are countless interpretations and meanings to what happened in your dreams. The subject in this poem is just like that.
At first glance, the poem "Siren Song" seems to be a siren sharing her distaste for her own behaviors, saying how she is weak in this respect. However, after rereading, i realized that the poem itself is a siren song, meant to ensnare those poor souls who love to save the damsel in distress or those men who were sappy enough to listen to her story, and would rush to her aid. "I will tell the secret to you,/to you, only to you./Come closer. This song/is a cry for help: Help me!./Only you, only you can,/you are unique/at last." This quote represents my argument. She almost fake cries the song, attracting those "heroic" men who would come to her aid. Little do they know that they, and even the reader, have already fallen into her trap.
I like Zak's statement about the siren only doing what she's meant to do. Though I am unable to determine the intentions. Is the siren capturing the hearts of headstrong men for the sole purpose that she's a siren, or does she experience some amount of happiness from her domination of those "brave" souls?
In response to Kirsten R's comment, I didn't really notice how the poem goes back and forth from the different ideas within the stanzas. It's kind of interesting how it goes in a circle, talking about something in the beginning and then revisiting the same idea in the end. It makes the poem kind of symmetrical within itself which I think is pretty cool.
Holy cow! I loved Bored, it spoke to me! It was such a great poem and connotation for me with my childhood, hanging out with the family on hikes and camping trips. I would always get bored, because we always did the same exact thing over and over. We would rent a boat and go on a lake, like Grandby, and my dad would drive the boat and we would go find firewood and I would help, well you get the jest of it. Well anyway I really loved Atwood’s message here, or at least the message I got from this poem, that a lot of times we don’t value these special times we have and the essence of how beautiful they really are. This is emphasized by her contrast starting with her talking about being bored and in the last stanza saying that now she “wouldn’t be bored.” Atwood states that, “Perhaps though boredom is happier.” I love this because I agree in a sense, being bored is great, not having to work or have to do anything productive. Sometimes I wish I could be bored, but when I was a kid it was the exact opposite. At the same time she might be being sarcastic. She then relates boredom to dogs and groundhogs which as you can imagine probably do get bored a lot, but in a sense their simple lives may be a happier way to live instead of living in the rat race we live in today. The imagery associated with nature, “looking hard...at the small details,” reminds me of well, me, but I wasn’t really absorbing it, I was just so bored that I looked really closely at everything just to do something but ended up being even more bored. The ending of this poem is the best part with, “Now I would know too much. Now I would know.” And I totally agree with Atwood, if I could go back to those times then I would appreciate it so much more and would realize the little things as treasures like the rocks and trees, and the limited time that I get to spend with my family. It is just a really great poem that makes you think twice about how you look at time, you should make the best of your time, because you will never get it back. It makes me sad. Well said Atwood.
In response to Nick 7, I guess I see where you are coming from with the sexual stuff, but I don't think it is about that at all. I didn't even think about it in that way until I read your comment, and now it lures over me when I read it, thanks a bunch. haha. Sarcasm! Anyways the sexual connotations don't really go with the entirety of the poem especially the part where she is describing all of the little details of things around her, but then again I am sure you could think of something that would tie in. Anyways, I think that its cool you saw it a different way and all but to say it bluntly, I think your wrong, Atwood doesn’t have that dirty of a mind.
"variations on the word love" was the poem that spoke to me the most because although many of her other poems have metaphors, i believe the one she constructs with this poem is much more extensive and direct. the way she lists the false love as something "you can
rub it all over your body and you
can cook with too" made me appreciate the point of commercialized love much more then say the siren metaphor could help me appreciate the way women can get men without fail. Also I have never encountered poetry about love quite like these before and for the cliché nature of most of the poems around this topic Atwood took a fresh stance on it. That is in my opinion anyways.
Nick Smiley
just in the nick of time!
"variations on the word love" was the poem that spoke to me the most because although many of her other poems have metaphors, i believe the one she constructs with this poem is much more extensive and direct. the way she lists the false love as something "you can
rub it all over your body and you
can cook with too" made me appreciate the point of commercialized love much more then say the siren metaphor could help me appreciate the way women can get men without fail. Also I have never encountered poetry about love quite like these before and for the cliché nature of most of the poems around this topic Atwood took a fresh stance on it. That is in my opinion anyways.
Nick Smiley
Hugh's observation that "The woman in the poem is isolated, divided from 'the rest' by a barrier" is something that I don’t believe I recognized as very important when i read the poem the first time. I thought that the deeper meaning lay in the fact that Atwood was telling everyone about a pregnant woman but Hugh made me revisit the poem and he is correct in the observation that much of it is about how that woman is feeling. thanks Hugh old buddy ol pal.
"Siren Song" brilliantly portrays the vicious cycle of depression and suffering: "the song nobody knows/because anyone who had heard it/ is dead, and the others can’t remember". The siren seems, like celebrities or romanticized figures, extremely beautiful and content, but in reality she is trapped, in a "bird suit". Everyone accepts their own perceptions of her, ignoring the fact that her luring cry is actually a plea for help. "Alas
it is a boring song/but it works every time." It's an interesting concept that the siren hates her situation, but, because of the nature of her song, she is trapped in it. When she cries for help, people only hear what they want to hear, "the song/that is irresistible". This inability to correct sadness also presents itself in "In the Secular Night", when the speaker eats lima beans instead of ice cream. At the end of the poem, however, we disconnect ourselves from the siren's song, reflective of how society continues while some fall behind. Dovina's comment that the siren actually uses her apparent misery to attract sailors is quite an interesting perspective. The siren's sadness really is all she has, surrounded by "two feathery maniacs" and a bird suit...
In reference to Doug's entry on Siren Song, I agree very much with him. However, his point about the siren appealing to the damsel should be somewhat expanded. The damsel is in fact confiding her imprisonment as a way to attarct her prey. She draws them in by making them think that she trusts them without question.
to quote myself, the poem that "speaks to me" the best was "Variations on the Word Love." I felt a sense of irony in how we throw the word around to fil the emptiness. i enjoyed how Atwood presents her distaste for the way we use the word within our culture with such images as adding lace to it in order to sell love, putting it at the end of our letters as a salutation, and cooking with love.
I also loved Atwood's stab at nationalism and war. the lines "Love! Love! sing the soldiers, raising their glitttering knives in salute" sums up the irony within the poem, with the soldiers singing their love to either their country or to the enemy. I don't think it's the latter.
By using "the two of us," Atwood brings her point to a personal level with the reader. she says that "this word is not enough but it will have to do. I am reminded that there are five words for love in Greek in order to determine the level of love, such as the love of god, said to be infinite, as compared with the love of people. the poem shifts when Atwood says that Love, even if it loses it's meaning, is the only good thing we have in this world.
"Variations of the word love" was simply a very interesting and well written poem. My favorite thing we read in class was the prose, but that doesn't seem very helpful for the oral. But I really did like this poem because of the way in which Atwood interpreted the word and the misuses of it. Either we use the word too much and don't truly understand the meaing behind it, for example the fact that we put love into our cooking, or the idea that when love truly exists the word doesn't come close to enough. So love is too little or too much, but never true. I think that Atwood is commenting on society and, similar to Orwell, society's misuse of language itself. Society doesn't appreciate what love truly is and when we are lucky enough to obtain it love doesn't give enough. But does a word ever truly evoke the emotion that we feel? I think that Atwood is saying that emotion is not tangible and that is the true beauty behind it. When words escape how we feel then we are truly feeling. I simply loved this poem.
Kareems comments on the same poem were very interesting as well. I was actually thinking of TOK when I wrote my response and then Kareem had to say semiotics, but he's very right. Love is so much more and less than it can be. I love it and Kareem made me think of it in another light.
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t is difficult for me to say which poem quote 'speaks to me.' If I had to chose, it would not be the most thought provoking, which in my opinion would be 'spelling,' nor would it be the popular 'siren song.' In order to have a poem truly speak to me, it would have to relate to me, to move me and change me. Postcards it seems fits this category. To me this poem reflects the deep trouble between two lovers, as if the relationship is beautiful in theory but ultimately proves to be ugly as there affairs continue. You see they want 'a universe that includes you can't be all bad, but
does it?' but ultimately their satisfaction is left unattained. I can say with complete certainty that we have all felt the waves of time, flow, no not flow, but crash over us. Perhaps these 'sick waves' parallel the decay and detachment of this broken love affair. I enjoyed all its fantastically depressing imagery. Through the imagery Atwood is able to convey a sordid tone for here readers, it is through the fragmented imagery that Atwood is able to implore her characters and her audience to make connections between the images, as if in an effort to make sense of her own fragmented world and perhaps to makes sense of our own fragmented world.
I liked Johnny's comment that "Postcards" "seems to explore levels of reality to an extent." I thought that was a cool way to look at the postcard imagery, with the first level being like the postcard picture itself, and then the further layers revealing things behind the picture like fi;t and sickness, “What we have are the usual fractured coke bottles and the smell of backed-up drains, too sweet, like a mango on the verge of rot,” it kind of reminds me of seeing the fair at night (like the glossy picture) and then seeing it when you have to clean up the next morning.
Sweetness.
I found Atwood's "The Rest" to be disturbing because it focuses on the pain of pregnancy. Throughout the poem a woman experiencing pain is watched by 'the rest,' they don't understand what she is going through but speculate on her pain. At the end of the poem they wish to cheer to her, implying that despite her isolation in pain, she is struggling against it. However, Atwood closes the poem by saying that no forward progress is made. This is a depressing view of pregnancy because it implies that the pain is meaningless, that life is meaningless, and that nothing is gained.
I agree with Hugh's ideas on "the rest". It takes a rather pessimistic view on life, especially if a baby was actually born. Atwood implies that this is not progress and that the pain of pregnancy was futile.
The poem that spoke out to me the most was definitely "Bored." I definitely agree with Rebekah though, not Nick and Kareem. I guess judging by some of the other poems by this author that we've read, it's easy to see sexual innuendos everywhere in her other poems too, but I don't think Bored is an example of that. I think maybe that's why it called out to me more, because it was different, plus I'm one of those weird people who enjoy things that aren't dirty.
I can see how the person she's talking about could be a husband or boyfriend or something like that, but I saw it as more of a father-daughter relationship. How typical is it for a parent to try to share things that are special to them with their kids, but the kids don't care at the time? She helped him garden and she helped him fix things, but she was bored, like most of us would be doing our chores. When he pointed something out that he thought was interesting, she "would look at the whorled texture of his square finger, earth under the nail." She didn't really find interest in what he was pointing at.
The part about "what the animals spend most of their time at" is performing the mundane day-to-day activities, which Atwood says straight out, so no offense Nick or Kareem but I don't know how you could get anything dirty out of that unless it's what you wanted to find. I thought this line was really interesting because when I'm performing mindless activities, I do the same thing as Atwood and start to notice the tiny details, because all of the obvious details have already been noticed.
Alyssa, period 3
I really love Siren song the best!
I agree with Ms. Hire that an interesting part to the poem is the different shifts as you read it. I can't decide if it's really a siren or if the whole poem is basically a metaphor for something else. Maybe it could be about women power like Ms Hire mentioned, doesn't it remind you of Helen of Troy Dances on Countertops?? All I know is that I absolutely love the repetition in this poem! My favorite line has to be " I will tell the secret to you, to you, only to you" or something thereabouts. It's so seductive!And there is a similar line that really grabs the reader with more repetion and imploring usage of "you" later on that just gives me the chills. Hooray for Atwood!
I really enjoyed variations on the word LOVE...which I know is not one of the supposed top four but oh well. i just think it is totally dool, how it talks about the misuse of the word love in every day society to the point that "love" is no longer strong enough to label the feeling becasue people have simplified it so much. I think there is a lot to talk about, like similes and metaphors, imagery... You could kind of connect it to Orwell's decline of the english language. Anyway, maybe I like it for the wrong reasons but it really speaks to me. I guess it may not be the best to use for the commentary, at least not for everyone, but I r3eally liked it. Anyway, I think it is really funny how I want to say I "loved" this poem but it would be very ironic for what the poem is criticising. So yeah, it speaks to me because I "love" it and I "love" love, plus I totally agree what it is saying, I wish I could take credit for the ideas. haha
1)"Postcards" is the poem that speaks to me the most. First of all, the imagery throughout the poem is very interesting. When I read it, I think of a once-paradise now hell-hole type of place. For example, the lines "The palm trees on the reverse
are a delusion; so is the pink sand.
What we have are the usual
fractured coke bottles and the smell
of backed-up drains" seem to give contrasting images of beauty (pink sand, palm trees) vs disgust (delusion, bottles, smell). Furthermore, perhaps more intriguing, is who Atwood is trying to speak to. The lines "Wish you were here" come straight out of a "postcard," but why a postcard? There is also an interesting symetty in the last two stanzas in the poem such as the correlation between:
"Time comes in waves here, a sickness, one
day after the other rolling on;"
and
Love comes
in waves like the ocean, a sickness which goes on.
2)In response to Gabrielles comment, quote:
'perhaps like her poem "You Fit Into Me" she is taling about a relationship that seemed perfect and "trite" but became discordant.'
A relationship is an interesting take on the poem. After all, love is a recurring motif, but love comes in "waves" indicating that it is dynamic and changing. Thus, it would make sense it could change from "paradise" to "hell-hole"? hmmmmm?
The poem "Variations on the Word Sleep" is probably my favorite poem that we have read so far. what really gets me in this poem is how the word "sleep" first seems innocuous in the context of the poem, but then, upon a second reading, branches out and allows for more than one meaning. The imagery of the poem also stands out to me. As with the other Atwood poems, it is very vivid and precise, but in this poem in particular the imagery gives a very clear and trance like feeling to the poem.
I like how the mood and feeling of the poem descends, just as the persona does, into a dream, and approaches "the grief at the center." In the center of the dream lies the conflict of the poem, the speaker wishes to help resolve the other's fears and problems. This seems to be indicative of an intimate relationship, but whether it is romantic, maternal or even paternal is open to the reader's interpretation. The end of the poem is surprisingly hopeful, after exiting the dream state, the speaker and the other both feel at peace, and the speaker hopes to be unnoticed and necessary - an interesting combination of words.
in response to the interpretations of "The Rest" as a poem about pregnancy, I disagree. I don't see the wording as consistent with the physical condition of pregnancy, but in more abstract terms, I think it is reasonable to view the poem as a poem of rebirth through pain.
Greetings... this is my SOAPSTONE h/w which is somewhat overdue... put it on this blogpost since the other one is way down the page, and i'd have to scroll down a ways...and you prbly don't check it nemore.
SOAPSTONE FOR "POSTCARDS" :
Speaker: I imagine the speaker to be female and somewhat depressed/pessimistic. I don't know why I think the narrator is female, it's just feel (perhaps the imagery is that typical of a girl: ie. pink beaches...). She seems mad or depressed as she is describing what should be a paradise with characteristics of a slum. The speaker could be Atwood or not, but would this make a difference? The poem seems to be more about the audience ('you') than the speaker.
Occasion: The occasion, as gabrielle said, could be a broken relationship. I personally viewed it as a strong relationship that is somewhat suppressed by some distance (like the ocean).
Audience: She refers to her audience as "You" as if she is talking to a single person. I interpret it as the audience is the reader him/her self and the speaker "wishes you were here" (you being the reader).
Purpose: I believe the purpose of the poem lies in the connection between love and distance. How does love relate to distance. For example, is it a direct proportionality or an inverse proportionality? Does love tend to decrease as distance increases (linearly? exponentially?)...The image of the ocean seems to represent this distance... and "waves" of love coming from this distance indicates that perhaps these waves originated at "you" who is in the distant "horizon."
Subject: The subject is love
Tone: Emotionally, the tone is somewhat dull and pessimistic. As far as how it sounds, the poem is very rhythmic with ups and downs like waves. You have good and then bad then up and then down...
I would have to say that the poem that really caught my attention although I'm not sure if its my favorite or not but the Siren Song is the one i most clearly remember. In this poem i felt that it can be interpreted as Atwood commenting on human nature and how curiosity is our fatal flaw (I wrote that on the poster). I felt this because through the poem the siren is asking the reader/sailors if they want to know a secret and then has them come closer to save her/learn the secret. Then they die. I also thought it was interesting how the siren in question, whether as part of her song or not, discredits and separates herself from the other two sirens in order to gain the trust of sailors so that she may later lure them onto the rocks and to their deaths. This again can be taken as a commentary on human nature how if we think saying something in particular will help us complete our goals regardless of others health or life we will do say said things and continue on with life.
In response to Alex G's comment i also thought that the siren song had that interesting duality to it that the other pieces i read lacked. As others have mentioned there is a definite change in the tone about half way though that is characteristic of Atwood's writing style and that this definitely lent itself to this dual theme and this kind of ties back to my previous comment with the deception and curiosity, two possible messages that are quite aptly represented through this poem.
In response to Doug's question, I believe that the Siren sings just because that is what she's supposed to do. I'm not sure that she's even aware of what she's doing anymore as it seems that she is genuinely calling out for help and in the end it proves to be just another "Siren Song". However she may be very well aware of what she's doing and does get some sort of pleasure out of it. Those are the two most prominent interpretations that I've gotten out of it.
the photograph of me really seemed to stand out. i interpreted it as a women reflecting on a time in her life when a part of her died, whether it was her childhood or her general emotions. i felt the drowning suggested a smothering and empty feeling, and with the parenthesis, i felt this death of her led her to devalue herself. It could also be taken literally with the speaker being a ghost, but i think that might be a shallow interpretation.
in response to g-man, i would have to agree. i believe postcards discusses a crushed dream or rather a disappointment, but perhaps not of a city but of her current life in general. Perhaps she is talking to the person she used to be? I fell the poem is a reflection of the author's self.
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