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Cool Jew

  • Last seen on Dec 2 2:56 PM 2006. Member since February 14, 2006.
  • I have 3 comments

My other items

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  • The Feast (1st Draft) at allpoetry
    I am preparing for myself a feast of words,
    a banquet of utterances
  • Call and Response at allpoetry
    what has already occurred
    from fake accented words
  • Open Book at allpoetry
    Trace the lines of this palm
    open and with digits reaching

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  • on The Waste Land by T S Eliot, on July 3, 2006
    Aside from focusing completely on this poem for about 3 weeks in the Modern British Poetry class I took last semester, I wrote a 12 page paper on this and the Four Quartets. I am definitely not an expert on this poem (I leave that to scholars who've had years to research and reread...), I think I can safely say that while juvetrant is right in one possible theme, there are so many motifs and themes that I think it's all but impossible to pin down one meaning for the poem.
    For example, my paper highlighted overriding themes of sexual and creative frustration. My professor suggested that, perhaps, one is meant to treat the poem as a metaphor for life, in that the reader is supposed to find his/her own meaning.
    I basically think that, the more you read and study this, the more you get out of it. That's the way it worked for me, anyway.

  • on Funeral Blues by W H Auden, on June 28, 2006

    Brilliant irony

    Auden was an extremely intelligent and interesting poet, and that's why I love reading his poems.

    While this poem does have great rhythm and beautiful language, what I've loved ever since I studied it was how completely ironic it is.

    Though Auden did have really interesting ideas on love, they tended to be very cynical and anti-romantic. In fact, his ideas on death and poetry itself ran pretty much the same way-- just look at "In Memory of W.B. Yeats."

    What he basically did here is mockingly string together every elegaic cliche that he could think of, as a subtle way of expressing his contempt for them. The idea in the last line that "nothing now can ever come to any good" directly contrasts his actual views on death.

    Many people-- including the makers of 4 Weddings and a Funeral-- take this poem at surface value, but I've always been fond of it's subtle irony and wit.

  • on Portrait Of A Lady by T S Eliot, on March 3, 2006

    Great Social Commentary

    I recently did an explication of this poem, and the more I read into it, the more fascinating I found it.

    All the smoke and sight references indicate a kind of smokescreen hiding 'the truth,' and The Lady has a definite air of performance surrounding all of her actions-- both theatrical and musical.  Both of these are  part in parcel of the high society in which she eagerly participates.

  • on Birches by Robert Frost, on June 17, 2004
    When I was a sophomore, I had to memorize this poem and recite it in class. It was not really easy to memorize, but I was able to do it, and I've had a soft spot for this poem ever since. I think my favorite part was where Frost was referencing reincarnation-- very very cool.