like a dark dusty rose

Review:
There are many poems that were assigned to us, but I chose “Sea Rose” by H.D., which I chose for my second essay that we have assigned because this poem is my favorite among the others. I love debating about women stereotypes, and women’s perfections and imperfections, which the poem is focused on. My essay is mainly on those themes so creating a short imitation of “Sea Rose” will be a good idea since I already analyzed a lot of this poem. For my imitation of the poem, I combined the two themes of women’s perfections and imperfections that shape stereotypical society. 

The original poem has lots of imagery which I also included in my imitation of the poem. I tried to follow the similar structure of the original poem. The original starts off with listing the characteristics of the weak and fragile rose, which I tried to start off as well. I used a lot of imagery to give you a picture of the rose. I did give the rose a pronoun because the poem is about how women are seen in society based off the stereotypes. The “dark rusty rose” is to show that the rose is decaying and dying making her weak and “weightless like a feather.” For line 2, I said that she is dancing very weakly which I tried to connect with lines 5 through 8 to show how she has no control over her body because of how weak she is. The wind in the original poem represents the society and how people in society control women in following their expectations. I made this point clear in the second stanza saying how the wind (society) hits the rose (women) and controlling her movements to paths that societies want the women to follow. In the last stanza, I tried to connect its back to the last stanza in the original. In the original poem, H.D. compares the spice-rose which are considered beautiful and perfect to the rotting rose which is seen as imperfect. For my imitation for that part, I tried to make it seem as if the weak rose saw the perfect spice-rose as perfection but couldn’t relate to that cause of society sees her as imperfect for having flaws and not meeting their exceptions. I also tried to make it seem as the flawed rose is admiring the perfect rose to point out how many women in the world want to be perfect for society, but because of their flaws that are seen as different.

For my imitation on “Sea Rose,” I used a few poetic elements H.D. also used for the poem. H.D. used a lot of imagery, which I also incorporated for my imitation. In the second stanza of my imitation, I wanted to mainly use imagery to show how the wind is controlling the roses movements and guiding it to certain directions to compare it in the real world on how society is controlling women and how they should be. I characterized the flawed rose as H.D. did and using simile to compare woman to the “dark dusty rose,” and then compared the weight of the rose to a feather to show its weakness. H.D. didn’t have much of a rhythm in “Sea Rose,” so I didn’t really focus on having a rhyming scheme. My focus was on the imagery, comparison between women and roses, and women stereotypes.

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Gurranvir Kaur

Enhanced and Altered

“Sometimes the Words Are So Close” by Julia Alvarez improved really well from her drafts. Alvarez was inspired to write this sonnet because of the “33” Sonnet Sequence. The “33” Sonnet Sequence focused on a man and his love towards another man, while Alvarez used this to focus her sonnet on a woman’s love towards reading. In her interview, she mentioned how she felt connected to one of Whitman’s line in his book and she borrowed then altered it to her own to conclude her sonnet. She did mention how she wants the speaker to be a women which means that this poem is representing a woman. So when you are reading the poem, you are basically connecting to a woman’s perspective.

I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t really understand what she was writing in cursive, but from what I can see, she did revise and alter it a lot on certain parts, taking out chunks and lines then adding more lines. We can see that she went from “words” to “poem” then back to “words” in the first line. I would say she did this because she wants to focus in depth and not the whole situation. Not every poem can relate to someone, but we can relate to words. In her draft, we can see there are many places where Alvarez made it seem that the speaker was directing it to herself (“I”, “my”, “me”). There were a lot of parts directed to the speaker herself, but Alvarez changed it and focused more on the context. There are a lot of “you” in the poem. Alvarez wrote her final draft with the speaker talking directly to the reader, then ending it with saying to the reader that when you read and analyze this poem, you the reader are connecting to a woman. Julia Alvarez altered and enhanced her poem based off her drafts. She focused more on connecting the speaker herself to the reader giving more meaning to the context of her poem.

Gurranvir Kaur

“On Broadway” vs “The Barrier”

Two sonnets that I’ve chosen by Claude McKay are “On Broadway” and “The Barrier.” The first sonnet situates on the broadway and the speaker is stating how lonely it is to be around a “merry crowd.” Each of the stanzas start with positive tones then ends with a sad tone: “my heart, my heart is lonely” (On Broadway, line 8). The speaker is saying even though they are around a happy and positive environment, their own heart is lonely. The second sonnet (“The Barrier”) situates on the barrier between love and race. During this time, African Americans were never allowed to marry or be in love with white Americans. The speaker being an African American, is falling in love with a white person. He compliments how the person is illuminated like the sun and their voice flows like a “river reed.” He is slowly falling in love with the person even though their there is a “barrier of race,” since the person they love is fair and the speaker is dark.

These two sonnets relate in tone. They both have a positive yet sad tone when explaining their situations. The speakers in both sonnets are lonely cause they can’t find their happiness because of the barriers within. These two sonnets aline as in telling a story. The speaker is lonely for not feeling happy in an environment where everyone is positive, then it goes on to telling how they can’t love the person they want because of their race, making them more lonely. The speaker finds happiness within the person they love but because of “the barrier of race,” they can’t be with them still making them more alone. Claude McKay was able to relate these two sonnets based on tone and situation. He was able to show how alone it felt when having these barriers and because of these barriers, he was not able to find his happiness.

Gurranvir Kaur

Shakespare sonnet

Shakespeare’s sonnet, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,” has 3 quadrants and one couplet at the end two lines. The turn happens before the couplet with the speaker saying: “and yet..” There are many things going on in this sonnet. The speaker starts off saying how the mistress doesn’t have bright eyes. Many people would compare another’s eyes to the sun for how bright and loving their eyes are, but here the eyes are not compared to the sun. The speaker starts body shaming her saying how her breasts are a dull brown color and not white as the snow. In the first two quadrants, the speaker focuses on more of her body, which he doesn’t find pleasant. He mentions how her cheeks are red, meaning there is no love coming from her. He compares her hair to wires and doesn’t find her looks appealing. In the third quadrant, he starts admiring her voice, but still says how “music hath a far more pleasing sound,” (line 10). 

To answer the question, Catherine Tate performed it with a lot of passion. She used hand gestures and had a fast pace tone when reciting the sonnet. During the skit, Catherine was rambling on and complaining how the teacher is Scottish and not British because she believes that you have to be British to teach an English class. She then abruptly starts reciting the sonnet. The teacher says at the end that another rose wouldn’t be the same as current rose meaning you can’t compare the two, which is stated in the end of the sonnet: “as any she belied with false compare.”

Gurranvir Kaur

Struggles

The poem I chose is “To Abuelita Neli.” This poem shows the difficulties immigrants have to deal with. We can see how much trouble Zamora went through crossing the borders and surviving. He explains the struggles he is having from being in the US to his Abuelita who is in Mexico. 

We know this poem is from around 2009 since he mentions in the poem that “today, this country chose its first black president,” who was Barack Obama. He starts off the poem by saying how many times he had to make fake passports to keep moving around the US and lying about his birthplace in order to hide. He does apologize for lying about his birthplace because it would seem disrespectful. In line 5, he italicized “choose” to emphasize that he doesn’t want to have a choice in marrying. I took that in two different ways: (1) he wasn’t given many opportunities so he doesn’t want to have this choice as well or (2) in the US, it is normal for people to choose who they marry and not do an arranged marriage, so he is following that tradition. He explains to his Abuelita that he can’t go back home because he can’t cross the border. He has already made so many fake passports that he won’t have the opportunity to get papers. He compares himself to a parakeet which are considered small and vulnerable birds. Zamora sees himself vulnerable in a world with so many opportunities that he isn’t allowed to have. Line 8 would be a metaphor since he is comparing himself to a parakeet but he isn’t using any similes. 

Not only does he explain his struggles, we also know that his parents were already across the border before he turned one. In line 11-12, he states how Abuelita and him both celebrated his birthday without his parents. He states that he can’t be a citizen because he can’t get papers which he stated in lines 6-7. He also states how he won’t have to be working anymore since he is hidden in the US away from border control. He ends the poem telling Abuelita that his friends don’t know the real truth about him being in the US. They see him as a traitor and he compares himself to a coconut, which is a metaphor. A coconut has two sides, brown on the outside and white inside. White would be considered as Americans and brown would be referring to the immigrants. His friends claim that he is lying about considering himself still benign one of his family, but since he left and won’t come back, they see him as an American.

Javier Zamora pointed out a lot of the struggles he went through by explaining the issues in hiding and being stuck in the US. He states that he feels vulnerable and small in a big world. He apologizes for not being able to come back and that he isn’t a traitor to his family. For the question directed to the poet: I noticed that in most of your poems, you always add spanish words/phrases in them. Why do you like to mix up the languages in your poem?

Gurranvir Kaur

Haunted by own self-consiousness

Out of the two poems by Natatlie Diaz, I found “My Brother at 3 A.M.” to have more elements that signal a return to the body because there is lots of repetition, imagery, and regret. The poem starts off with the brother crying at the steps and arriving home really late. When his mother opens the door, he starts stating how “he wants to to me.” The mother doesn’t understand what he’s saying and doesn’t see the devil he is mentioning that is standing in the corner of the house, until she notices the sores on his lips. In stanza 5, we can tell that there is a storm with the sky being green and there not being any stars in the sky. The speaker mentions, “his slips flickered with sores,” (line 20) which many addicts tend to get from smoking. From this, the boy starts hallucinating more and describing the “devil” he is seeing: “I can see the tail/see the tail/look at the goddamned tail.” His mother then sees the sores and realizes he is not sober. She starts to understand his hallucinations and sees the devil he is seeing as well, which is himself. From this, we can understand that his self-consciousness wants to kill himself for being an addict. 

There is much repetition going on in this poem. Especially with “O God,” which I took as an exaggeration of the stress and fear the brother and mother are both going through because of the “devil,” but I also interpreted it as a desperate help from God or the brother is asking for forgiveness for being an addict. Many people do drugs as a way of escaping from reality, but there are always consequences/effects when getting high, such as hallucinations. It makes you see things that you don’t want, such as your self-consciousness. The boy in this poem’s sober true self is disappointed for being an addict and wants to get himself killed for using drugs. That is why he sees himself haunting him and calling him the devil. He wants his mother to see the devil he is seeing and keeps telling her to look, but she doesn’t see it at first, until she realizes he is high from seeing the sores on his lips. I interpreted the repetition of certain lines as what we are seeing through the boy’s eyes. As I said, there are many consequences and effects of getting high. Not only hallucinations, but time moves either slow or fast for you. I think the repetition of the lines was him seeing time repeat itself. From this, we can tell how bad the situation is for him for being an addict.

There is also lots of imagery that I found really useful in understanding the severity of the situation. “Weeping on the steps,” meaning he is stressed and is in fear of what is happening to him. The sores on his lips makes it clear he is not sober, which makes him see these hallucinations. The boy looks over his shoulder and sees the “devil” standing at the corner of the house and peeking its head and watching him, meaning he is being haunted by his own self-consciousness. Everyone sees the devil as a creature with horns and a long tail. The boy mentions that the devil he is seeing has a tail. From this, we can tell that he is seeing a devil that everyone normally describes as and we can understand he is still hallucinating. The real true form of a devil is described as having weird shapes and forms. Some are tall and skinny, some are in some weird indescribable shapes, but the boy in this story described the devil with a more common description, which indicates he is hallucinating. 

This poem has repetition and imagery that explains the regret of an addict really well. It not only captures the regret from an addicts eyes, but also the severity of the situation the addict is experiencing. We can tell how badly the addict wants to get away from reality from the stress he is experiencing and the hallucinations that makes this situation even more regretful.

Gurranvir Kaur

Letter Writing Day

The Japanese-American internment camps made a huge impact for the Japanese because they lost their homes, all belongings, and their jobs. Forcing to be in these camps so the American government can keep an eye on them during WWII. They were provided homes and were able to build a community out of it. There were schools, farms, and haiku groups. Many of the people wrote haikus during the war and these showed a lot of experiences they were going through by being in these camps. 

Even though they had no choice, but to stay in these camps, they were still able to communicate with their families outside of the camps by writing letters, which were still monitored by the military. You had to be careful with what you would say because this opportunity to speak with families wasn’t always given to them. 

After going through many of the haiku poems, I’ve chosen a haiku by Kyotaro (Shoichi) Komuro:
Letter writing day

As if hottest day

Had been chosen

The haiku Komuro wrote captured this experience. He first states the situation: “letter writing day.” He goes into saying how anxious and worrying this day is by calling it the hottest day. “Had been chosen” means that this day has come and given to them. As I said before, this opportunity is rare for them because of the war. The American government had a hard time trusting the Japanese-Americans, thinking they were helping the Japanese who were at war with the US. This day was a once-in-a-lifetime experience because it’s rarely given to the Japanese-Americans. So they had to be wise with what they say in case they can’t ever communicate with their families again. Komuro was able to capture what the Japanese Americans had to go through while being in these camps by focusing on the “letter writing day,” which was rarely given to them.

Gurranvir Kaur

Imperfections

There are many symbols of a rose. Some may see it as a symbol of love, pain or death, but it also represents a woman’s perfections and imperfections. After analyzing both poems, I found H.D’s “Sea Rose” poem to be the most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose. The poem questions the conventional meaning of the rose by contrasting a flawed rose with a beautiful rose and narrating the journey of the sea rose, which has imperfections that make it difficult for it to survive in the environment, with the easy existence of the spice-rose.

This poem has a lot of imagery, which is important when challenging the traditional rose. A traditional rose is meant to be perfect and have no flaws. Meaning they have the perfect curves and color, which is what everyone expects from a rose. In this poem, the rose is described as “harsh,” “marred,” “stint,” “meagre,” “thin,” and “sparse.” This rose is being compared to some women and how their characteristics don’t reach the society’s expectations. 

The speaker starts off the poem describing the rough characteristics of the rose. In this poem, the rose is a woman and her imperfections are compared to a rose that is close to death: “harsh rose/ marred and with a stint of petals/ meagre flower thin/ sparse of leaf.” The speaker then starts praising the rose, saying how it’s more special than a traditional rose and independent: “single on a stem.” The situation occurs at a beach when the rose is “caught in the drift.” The speaker starts addressing the reader, saying “you” are the rose. Even though the rose is independent, it is still a small rose: “with small leaf.” Since the rose is seen as a harsh and thin flower, it is still seen as a weak flower. The speaker goes on to say how the rose is being moved and controlled by the environment (society): “flung/ lifted/ drives in the wind.” Stanza 3 shows how the “sea rose” has a hard journey and is fighting to survive against the environment that is trying to keep the rose under control and following their expectations to make the rose perfect. 

The last stanza mentions the spice-rose, which is a traditional rose that has many perfections compared to the sea rose. The sea rose in this poem is shown how it starts off as a weak flower and then has to fight against society and their expectations in order to survive. The spice-rose is seen to have a simple and easy life since it’s already perfect. The poem challenges the traditional symbol of the rose because it compares an imperfect rose to a perfect rose, by showing the journey of the sea rose and how its flaws make it hard for it to survive in the environment, while the spice-rose has an easy life. 

Gurranvir Kaur

Conflicting Between Religion or Desires

The poem that I chose to read and analyze is “Ode 44” by Hafez. This poem has a lot of romance/lust involved, but at the end of the poem you will see the regret and pain the speaker experiences for committing a sin: “How have you ravished this poor penitent,” (line 27). Some may see the relationship between the two people as love, but in my opinion it was pure lust. The speaker was very conflicted between choosing to follow his religion or follow his desires.

The speaker is religious by mentioning the “verses” in line 3: “…verses on her lips.” This line is considered as a metonymy because “verses” are short lines in the bible, but also the writing is arranged in a way that has rhythm. Considering this poem, the speaker was stating how not only they are religious, but the words that come from the woman’s lips flow enough to catch his attention. The speaker mentioned how her eyes are like the eyes of Narcissus: “Narcissus-eyes all shining for the fray,” (line 4) which is a metaphor. Narcissus is a figure from Greek mythology. He was known to be so handsome that he fell in love with his own reflection, which connected back to how the speaker is describing her beauty. He says how her beauty is immaculate, and she is too good for the “fray.” 

The speaker was so attentive to her beauty that he was so ready to break the promises he made, which were to give him “the special privilege of heaven,” (line 20). He even did feel guilty for going against his religion, but he was trying to convince himself why you shouldn’t reject the woman: “Who refused wine poured out by such a girl,” (line 15). Right after he stated that, he came to the realization of the sins he made for drinking and making love with the woman. In lines 22-24, the speaker is speaking to himself trying to convince himself that he is not alone and that there are many more men that broke these promises right after declaring them. Also, how they can’t keep these promises since he considers them to be hard. He caved into the woman’s beauty that he easily broke the promises. Lines 22-26 are a metonymy because he is stating how keeping these promises are difficult when he can’t resist the woman’s beauty.

I think the love in this poem is represented as a rejection of Islamic spirituality because the speaker started off with caving into the woman’s beauty and breaking the promises he made for heaven, then realizing his mistakes and asking for forgiveness, but he starts to convince himself that keeping such promises are impossible since the beauty and looks of the woman are so intoxicating that it makes him desire her. He comes to the conclusion stating how he wants the feeling of the pain and guilt of committing this sin to be “ravished” because when he wants her. 

Gurranvir Kaur

Looks and Simplicity

After analyzing both poems of Ben Jonson, “Still to be neat, still to be dressed,” and Robert Herrick, “Delight in Disorder,” I’ve come to the conclusion that the prosody of these both poems are iambic tetrameters. There is still a variety of foot types in these poems. Such as for Jonson’s poem, there was also a lot of trochaic. For Herrick’s poem, he was consistent with iambic tetrameter, but Johnson was switching in between iambic and trochaic, which broke the flow in the poem. I think he did this because he is switching between the expectations and realities. 

I’ve noticed the big indent in Jonson’s poem on line 11, which is “than all the adulteries of art.” He is showing how attractive a woman’s body is, but it only strikes the eyes and not the heart. He represented the nature of art by saying how women are expected to be in public, but they are neglecting their own selves: “such sweet neglect.” Jonson states the stereotypes and then states the reality saying how you are neglecting your own self by using your body to catch attention, when you can simply be yourself making “simplicity a grace.”

Gurranvir Kaur