The Beauty in Art

The poem that is most effective in representing the nature of art would be Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” mainly because of how its title brings significance to the poem. Just by reading it, it could be immediately concluded that Herrick wrote about a woman, but is he? That’s where the poem gets effective. The title may be questionable, especially in the aspect of how it connects to ‘disorder’ and “delight’, however by scanning its metrical and rhythmical side, its connection can be found. The poem begins with an Iambic Tetrameter, this is cut short when the word “Kindles” is introduced. It is a trochee. At first, while scanning the poem, I started to think more trochees would appear, which another did on line four, “Into”. This may seem like that’s how the metric feet are meant to be, but closely scanning through, I noticed the trochees were set as a distraction. The trochees were inputted on purpose to make the reader scan through the entire poem and not realize the poem’s prosody is an Iambic Tetrameter, which was answered on the first line. The way the trochees stand out reflects how it’s a disorderly poem overall, and the way the poet expresses it is quite interesting since he could have simply expressed it with words, but instead he hid the message with meters.

On the other hand, though Jonson’s poem also has a dominant iambic tetrameter, and his sound pattern is more organized and straightforward, his poem is generally suspicious. The meters and rhythm fit rather too perfectly with the words Like “Give me/a look, give me/ a face”. The tone and the rhythm sound like a heartbeat. This is where I believe he did very well in expressing his main idea. But overall, I was still left with many unanswered questions about his poem. Like what was his motive to make his poem so neat? Why make readers suspicious? Is he trying to purposely have readers overthink his poem’s intent? This is why I chose Herrick’s.  I believe Herrick was more precise on the nature of art than Jonson.

Claudia Dominguez

The art of Nature

When considering rhythms in poems and understanding the different variations, I believe that “Still of be Neat “ by Jonson, best represents the nature of art. When scanning this poem, I mainly got a dominant prosody of iambic tetrameter. Which I believe best fits this poems, meaning that appearances can be deceiving. Therefore, when reading this poem, I feel as if it is portrayed as a scene of a man talking to a woman who is dressed up neatly. Then, as I continued the poem, I also got some anapest meter inline six, which gave the poem a different feeling to the scene as if, it was a monolog, and the man was speaking in his mind. Therefore, we were all listening to how he truly felt towards the women that are neatly dressed. Line six best shows this by saying, “All is not SWEET, all is not SOUND”. This line explains how even though the woman is dressed up neatly and has a graceful face, he still sees her adultery actions. Therefore, lines eleven and twelve can capture his distaste and distrust of overly neat women. This makes me wonder if his preference for women would be for a more natural look. Therefore, that could signify that he believes that women who dress up more naturally and modestly have a more kind and true nature. Overall all these different variations in meters make a sound of patterns that create a visual for us readers to visualize in our minds.  

As for the poem “Delight in Disorder” by Herrick, I feel does represent the nature of art, yet it never created a visual in my head with the rhythm of the poem. The poem seemed so full of metaphors, that it took the visual it could’ve created. The dominant prosody was also an iambic tetrameter, therefore this visual for me was more of us readers listening to a man’s monolog. He suggested with all the metaphors that beauty and attractiveness are not perfections but rather imperfections. This statement can be seen in line twelve when he says, “I see WILD civiliTY”, therefore explaining that all sexy dressed women have the same wild informal behavior and speech. Also, like Jonson, through his use of diction, we readers get a sense that he prefers the way people look naturally when they enjoy their lives, not when they are putting up an act or façade. Through this whole poem full of metaphors, imagery, and personification, I was too caught up in trying to understand the meaning of each line that the visual was never created in my mind. This poem is more a hyperbole that only has an audiovisual of just a man talking, making no suspense to capture our attention.  

-Jeshua Rocha

What represents art?

Considering the two poems “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” by Ben Jonson and “Delight in Disorder” by Robert Herrick, “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” by Ben Jonson best represents the nature of art. I say this because the fluidity of Jonsons poem is beautiful and easy to follow. While being ‘easy to follow’ is definitely not required of art or of anything to be beautiful, there is a certain fluidity that I see to be required of anything artistsic. It can be messy and make sense or it can be fluid and hard to understand. In the end, both situations end up representing the arts meaning and allow it to make sense to the admirier. I specifically feel that Jonsons poem does best at this as it is easy to follow and the rhythm of voice as you read it flows very well and easily. It strums across your tongue like music and is very artistic in that way. Though it is fluid and easy to read, it still carries some anomolies that may be surprising to hear when reading this poem aloud. For example line 7 says “give me a look, give me a face” which, when read, sounds like many unstressed, falling meters, Anapest perhaps.

Sarah M Rix

Chaotic Beauty in Simple Form

Each poem makes a note of how art is not a precise and “neat” form that needs a step by step way of creating nor is it something that is always complex but can be rather simple. From Herrick’s poem I get, as in the title, a more chaotic disorder of what art is, definitely giving me the idea that beauty portrayed here is not a clean and all straightened up thing but more of as stated “Kindles in clothes a wantonness” (Herrick line 2) wantonness being a reckless and freeing act which is being corelated to beauty and art. Herricks poem gives me the sense of not only beauty and art but of love, a sort of romantic feel, something I see closely within the genre of Romanticism. There is that hint of disorder often associated with the genre that shows hints of itself within this poem. Although Herrick’s poem is lovely I dare say Jonson’s poem is seemingly more effective to portraying art. Jonson’s Still to Be Neat also has that unruly and disorderly description to it but in a way the structure and rhythm has a sweeter note. It describes the neat way of how art can be seen and viewed but then goes on to describe how the neat “lady” ,as art is being personified as, does not give the writer the same feeling or as he put, “Such sweet neglect more taketh me” (Jonson line 10) how the neglect of order and formality does not catch his attention as much as the “neglect” or unruliness that art is given form to does. His poem personifying art as a lady who does not need to be a “proper” lady with all her presumption but is better as a lady with “Robes loosely flowing”(line 9), it gives a sense of freedom and carelessness, is much more effective in representing the nature of art and all of the chaotic beauty it entails.

Beauty is Messy

I believe Robert Herrick has done a more effective way in representing the nature of art. In this poem, Delight in Disorder, it is followed by an iambic tetrameter. I found it to be that Herrick’s poem had vivid wording that captured the beauty of nature within women as both being one art, even for her messy attire. On the first and second line, he is describing the dress of a woman as “disorder” which can symbolize the appearance of her clothing. On lines one to four, Herrick had mentioned that the dress is “A lawn about the shoulder thrown” (Herrick 3). It was captivating how he used “A lawn” to describe a woman’s shoulder. According to Oxford’s dictionary, a lawn can be referring to a garden or a fine linen. In this case, “A lawn” can be portrayed as something improperly taken care of, such as the woman’s dress towards her revealing shoulders. Due to the woman’s shoulders being exposed, this leads it to be a “fine distraction” (Herrick 4) to a man. In addition, this just describes how messy art and poetry can get. They both describe how the beauty of something messy reflects a message that others might have a hard time grasping. Just as the woman in this poem, her attire is all so chaotic but the man finds it to be a taunting spell. In lines twelve to fourteen the man is bewitched by the woman’s beauty through her many pieces of clothing such as ribbons, a petticoat, dress, and shoestring. All in which are considered a complete odd appearance but attractive.

On the other hand, Ben Jonson didn’t really capture the nature of art within the poem, Still to Be Neat. In this poem it is also an iambic tetrameter and Jonson had also described a woman getting dressed, powdered, and perfumed, as mentioned in line one two three. These are what are described within women who dress up and like to look the part. In addition to Jonson’s poem, lines seven to nine described the flow within a breeze of hair that surprisingly followed by the rhythm of the poem, giving it a soft touch of what a light wind in the air might feel. Although Jonson described the “flowing hair as free,” (Jonson 9) it wasn’t as skeptical in details as Herrick portrayed in his poem. 

Celeste Tejeda-Menera

The Beauty of Nonconformity

Jonson’s and Herrick’s poems at first glance seem to be  in contradiction as a result of the poems titles, they both share a common ground, that true beauty that enthralls the soul is the small chaos that people exude. Both poems utilize similar rhythm schemes, that being an iambic tetrameter, in order to pull the reader into the story which each poem tells. While both talk about how the nature of beauty is not found in precise strokes, ordered lines, or perfection, but rather it is found in the imperfections that seem to escape the deliberate acts. Between the two poem however, “Delight in Disorder” seems to more efficiently represent where the nature of art can be found.

This comes to the forefront when Herrick describes the clothing of a woman in detail, but focuses on how despite using words that would be deemed insulting to a person, the words instead do the opposite and cause the woman to gain more appeal to the reader’s mind. The woman is not held down by conforming to the standards of proper attire but rather frees herself from those shackles and gains the freedom of expression, which is the essence of art. The constant use of iambic tetrameter causes the reader to feel as though they are in a song marching to the beat of one’s heart, most seen in the line of “do More beWitched me thaN when Art is Too Precise In every parT.” The main subject of Herrick’s poem boils down to the idea that no matter how a person attempts to appear, the true nature of the person will find some manner in which to appear, and capture the attention of the audience.

Isaac Ruiz

Rhythm and Meter – Edmund Feng

First, I decided to look at Ben Johnson’s poem, “Still to be neat, still to be dressed.” Overlooking the entire poem, it’s very clear that it’s supposed to represent something about the appearance of women. This is indicated quite literally, when he talks about “Be powdered, still perfumed,” and “neat, still to be dressed.” However, we’re given this information exactly when he says “Lady, it is to be presumed.” Now, we look at the poem lines. There seem to be around 6 lines per section, with each line having 8 syllables. There’s a lot of emphasis placed on the appearance of the woman, emphasis on words like dressed, powdered, perfumed, and the description of her outfit that apparently is “loosely FLOWING.” This poem is definitely an iambic tetrameter, due to there usually being around four iambic in each line to create what seems to almost be a whimsical musical, through repetitive repeats.

Now, we look at the second poem, Delight in Disorder. Once again, it seems to be directed towards the outfit and dressing of women, such as the “sweet disorder in the dress,” to an “erring lace, which here and there.” When looking closely at the story, one can make the connection between The dressing of women, and the disorder and messiness that comes before it is inherently pleasing to the eye, a playful feeling almost. This poem has 14 lines, around 7-8 syllables every line, and seems to stress words that describe the dress itself – such as “Lace,” “neglectful,” “tempestuous,” and so on. Delight in Disorder is an iambic tetrameter, the same as the previous poem, also following a very music-like fashion through the repeat and repetitions.

Personally, I really do prefer the poem Delight in Disorder, mainly because I’m a firm enjoyer of direct repetition. While the poem by Ben Johnson is quite nice as well, I Simply just more so prefer the style of Robert Herrick, which is almost essentially a wall of letters and words that follow a more specific pattern.

-Edmund Feng

“But not my Heart”

Ben Johnson’s “Still to be Neat” and Robert Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder”, on the surface, are talking about two different women. One in a more eccentric outfit and the other in a more simple description, Johnson’s poem seems to take in the beauty of simplicity more than layered meaning for the nature of art. Herrick enjoys seeing the crazed chaos in art as “a sweet disorder in the dress”. These two poets offer great views as both are equally enjoyable. I must say that I agree more with Robert Herrick, not that I don’t agree with Ben Johnson, I simply see more of the truth in Herrick’s work. I find change more interesting as well as more captivating rather than simplicity. The title of this post reflects my choice, I found that to imagine Johnson’s poem was nicer but to imagine Herrick’s was a ride. I could imagine a erring lace or lot of ribbons flowing, the waves in a coat or a careless shoestring. Near the end, Herrick offers what he views,
“A wild civility”, I think this captures the nature of art as it is rather than what was offering in Johnson’s poem. I reiterate, I prefer Herrick to Johnson because the nature of art is more captivating and offers more depth than just the simplicity of itself, Johnson’s meaning is only meant for “mine eyes, but not my heart”.

Roman Arroyo

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

Rhythm and Meter Analysis – Still to be Neat

Both Jonson and Herrick talk about the natural beauty of women although they found that beauty was not something so simple, instead that it was messy. I found that the two poems did a good job of demonstrating women and their struggles although I found that Jonson’s writing was the most effective when comparing the nature of art.

I found that the poem “Still to be Neat” by Ben Jonson was the most effective in representing the nature of art because it felt like the poet was using a lot of imagery to portray women. I found the poem to be talking about the sculptures of beauty and how the women described in the poem felt the need to impress others or had the pressure of society. In line 6 Jonson says, ” All is not sweet, all is not sound.”. I felt like I heard a large emphasis on the “not” meaning that the women who feel the pressure to be a certain way are far from perfect. I also noticed how the poem had 8 syllables in a lot of lines and a couple that stood out had only 7 syllables, which I found peculiar as it might’ve been an emphasis on those lines. Also portraying women’s beauty or the societal pressure to act one way is a sensitive and hard topic for most and Jonson seemed to portray it well without offending others.

Yue Wu-Jamison