A Beautiful Mess

Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” follows primarily iambic tetrameter in couplets, but contains slight variations in some lines, having dactylic and trochaic feet in addition to the iambic feet. Moreover, Herrick is purposeful in the mixture of meters, as it creates a slightly off-putting rhythm when read. Instead of being read straightforward in the most commonly spoken meter (iambic), “Delight in Disorder” varies, forcing readers to alter how they read it, giving a sense of disorder within the poem. For instance, line 9, “A winning wave, deserving note,” read in iambic, splits away into a dactylic line of “In the tempestuous petticoat.” The second line within the couplet singles out the disorder within the woman Herrick describes, with the temptation, representing the disorder, contrasting with her “winning wave” and “deserving note,” thus which are fairly orderly. Herrick alternates meter within the individual couplets three times (lines 1-2, 7-8, and 9-10), drawing additional attention to the secondary line in each of the couplets. Herrick further reinforces his purpose in showing that art should be disorderly, as the beautiful work of art he has produced, “Delight in Disorder,” has no abundantly dominant meter (or feet length for that matter) and also utilizes more complicated language like “wantonness” and “tempestuous” (ll. 2, 10) in order to create more chaos in the poem too, as the reader will have a harder, less simple way of deciphering and reading the poem.

In contrast, Jonson’s “Still to be Neat” keeps iambic tetrameter throughout the entirety of the poem. The poem flows nicely and is uniform, as is Jonson’s point that art is to be neat, uniform. Jonson’s poem capitalizes more on surface beauty than anything– it means what it says, and it reads easily with no struggle due to comfortable meter that English is generally spoken in. Jonson speaks to how “art’s hid causes are not found” (li. 5) and how “simplicity [is] a grace” (li. 8). The poem reads quite simply, and Jonson writes the meaning within the poem as well– art is simple and not hidden; it is presented frankly where everyone can understand it, unlike Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder,” where the meaning is somewhat convoluted and hidden within meter and more complicated words. Since Jonson’s poem reads uniformly, thus neatly, it further reinforces the clear meaning of art’s simplicity and neatness, as the poem itself does not contain any sort of messiness or disorder.

In all, I do believe that Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” does a better job in representing and explaining art’s nature. Herrick’s poem is layered with difficult language and has a more complex meter pattern, which reinforces his point greater; even though the poem is difficult at first to read and understand, the more one reads it, the more beautiful it becomes in understanding it. In contrast, Jonson’s poem is too uniform, too simple; it simply speaks to nothing and doesn’t say much. Herrick makes the poem sound beautiful even without delving deeper into the inner workings of the poem, so a reader can still understand that the poem is difficult, yet beautiful; on the flip side, if a reader analyzed the poem to the innermost bones, they would also reveal a disorderly, yet beautiful poem, which to me, is what art truly is. No matter your experience within the subject matter, you can still enjoy it and admire it for its beauty, which Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” successfully does.

Isaak Puth

Herrick and Jonson’s Admiration of Beauty

Both Herrick and Jonson utilize their poetry to illustrate what they believe makes a woman beautiful in society, and even though their pieces were published 39 years apart, they concur that a natural woman exudes beauty over any other woman. In class, we discussed that Iambic is the most common rhythm in poetry, and it is because seeing the easy pattern of what poets want emphasized helps assist in interpreting what they wanted readers to get out of reading their pieces. For instance, in Herrick’s poem “Delight in Disorder,” he uses Iambic tetrameter to emphasize the beauty he sees within women who are scrutinized within society because they are not perfect. In line one, Herrick writes, “a SWEET disORder IN the DRESS.” Reading the emphasis on sweetness and dress while recognizing the slight focus on disorder helped me understand that one may consider the woman’s dress as untidy; Herrick eyes it and admires the untidiness of the woman. While talking about Herrick’s prosody is important, it is also essential to highlight points where he switches the rhythm. In line two, Herrick transitions from Iambic to Trochee. Herrick’s switch-up within rhythm is critical because when listening to rhythm, we are conditioned that rhythm that only stays at one steady pace is the perfect type to consume. Herrick trashes that idea, just like he trashes the idea that only “tidy” women are beautiful.

Instead of switching up the rhythm line by line, Jonson switches up the rhythm as “Still to be Neat” continues. I wasn’t sure if I was scanning correctly, but I started with a trochaic rhythm, and as the poem continued on the last few lines with “me” or “free” or “heart,” I then began to transition into an Iambic rhythm because I believed that those words should be emphasized to convey the poet’s message. While in the trochaic rhythm, Jonson believes that women who wear makeup or a lot of perfume are not his type. Meanwhile, in the Iambic rhythm he praises women who present themselves as simple and wear their hair freely within the Iambic rhythm.

While I enjoyed both poems, I have to say Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” illustrates the nature of art. I say this because of Herrick’s last two lines, where he writes, “Do more bewitch me than when art is too precise in every part.” This quote critiques to perfect art, and the message tells readers to stop trying to aim for perfection because perfection is a constraint. Beautiful things are creative without being bound by the limitation of perfection.

Janayah Applon

The Effects of Shakespearean Sonnets Even After his Death

William Shakspere even after his death with his work still has an effect on society today. In his poem, “ My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” we can see the theme of love and passion that the author has for his unidentified beloved. It also describes the different traits the lover has that the author is attracted towards. In the comedy skit we see Catherine Tate’s character as an annoying student that doesn’t like the fact that her new English teacher isn’t actually English, he’s actually Scottish. Catherine Tate’s character is of English descent and doesn’t think her new English teacher is qualified to teach her class English just because he is of Scottish descent instead. This brings up the topic of class and ethnic background. Which relates to the way Shakespeare wrote his own pieces he would not only write for the high class members he would also write for the middle class members and when she mocked the fact that “No, reading’s for losers”like saying that those who don’t understand poems and can only read are losers unlike her. With both Shakespeare’s sonnet and Catherine Tate’s comedy skit we can see a similarity. The structure of a sonnet is based on a 14 line poem that follows the iambic rhythm as well as an organized rhyme scheme. The similarity between both pieces is that the first couple of lines in Shakespere’s sonnet were utilized to set the theme/mood and then in the last two lines we were able to witness a twist. For example, “My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground./ And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/ As any she belied with false compare.”(lines 12,13, and 14) within these lines we can see that the shift happened when he stopped describing his lover’s beauty and instead focused on declaring his love as something unique and rare.  In the comedy skit we can see something similar taking place. The skit begins with the introduction of the class’s new English teacher to which one specific student, Catherine Tate’s character, doesn’t agree with because he has a Scottish accent. Like in the sonnet the first couple of minutes are used to set the tone and mood which towards the end will change and in this case the teacher had enough of her attitude and turned her into a doll. 

Sandra Landa-Sanchez

The Rhythm of Art or Objectification of Women

Poetry is difficult to understand, and poems are said to be up to the interpretation of the person that is reading/analyzing the poem. This week in our class we have been discussing how an author will use rhythm and mete in order to emphasize what he means in the poem. As we read over both of the poems that have been assigned, “Delight in Disorder” by Robert Herrick and “Still to be Neat” by Ben Johnson, we cans see that both of these authors have used rhythm and meter in order to convey their messages.

In the Herrick’s poem, “Delight in Disorder” we can see that most of the poem can be said to be iambic tetrameter. Although we can find this meter through most parts of the poem there are parts if the poem that free themselves from this rhythm such as line 4, “Into a fine distraction”, I would consider this line to be dactylic then spondaic. The parts of this poem where he breaks form the usual iambic iambic rhythm allows the reader to connect the poem back to the title, the fact that poem isn’t completely orderly and the fact that the title sys that there is “Delight in Order” help us see what the poet is trying to tell us. The disorder that comes with these lines free us from the structure and give us something else to focus on, the freedom can give the read some delight in from the poem. The name can be said about the way that Jonson has included rhythm “Still to Be Neat,” but in this case I believe that the neatness of the poem is being forced upon the reader.

Both of these poems have good use of rhythm and meter in order to enhance and better interpret the message/meaning that the author wants to convey with these poems but I prefer Herrick’s take when it comes to interpreting the art. Yes, bit of the poems had an essence of interpreting art and describing how people may view art, buy Jonson began to objectify females and use a misogynistic view in order to try and relate that to art. With the first stanza of the poem describing what he preserves women to be and that they shouldn’t try and impress men with fake glamour, and talking as if everything women do is for the male gaze, it just doesn’t st right with me. Then going on to say that art does this as well and that this is like adultery as it is a deception of what they really are, as I see it this poem just didn’t really interpret art in a correct and well fitting way. So for the message of the poem I prefer “Delight in Disorder” not only did it use rhythm and meter in a way where it had lines and words work with the rhythmrythymto futher exentuate the poem and the meaning but it also completely objectify a whole gender.

Guadalupe Lemus

Rhythm and Meter

In the two poems, ‘Still to be Neat’ by Ben Johnson and ‘Delight and Disorder’ by Robert Herrick, there is a fascination with not being all proper and dressed in what would be considered, the correct fashion. Both seem to have heavy use of the iambic rhythm, which I feel is trying to convey the feeling of a natural wanting, like the disorder is natural and something that feels more real as well as something that is naturally desired. Though, they both have an iambic rhythm, I feel that in the poem, ‘Still to be Neat’, it starts of with more of a trochaic rhythm and works its way into more of an iambic towards the end, which gives off the impression that the second part of the poem is where the more real feelings come in by having more of a heartbeat rhythm. This is enforced by the fact that the first part of the poem discusses being “powdered and perfumed”and dressed as if one was “going to a feast”. Yet the second half discusses more of what seems to be what the author desires through using the word “me”, which is not seen in the first half and the line “Robes loosely flowing, hair as free;” refer to the more natural state of a person. In the poem, ‘Delight and Disorder’, it seems to be more of a constant iambic rhythm, yet it also is constant in the way it discusses prefering disorder over being proper, which the heartbeat like rhythm enforces by making the poem feel more natural.

I feel that the poem ‘Delight and Disorder’ better represents art because of the fact that it describe the fact that art is better when it is “disorderly” than when it is precise. Art is something that people use to get their emotions, feelings, or experiences across and the world around us and emotions we feel are not always beautiful and perfect, so by describing art as something that more disorderly than perfect displays art as something more real rather than something flawless and perfect meant just to please the eye.

Emily Mayo

Rhythm and Meter

This assignment proved to be far more difficult that I had originally imagined. I assumed it would be a cake walk, considering how much simple the examples in class seemed when we were all collaborating and working to solve them together. However, upon giving “Delight and Disorder” Robert Hedrick and “Still to Be Neat” their first readthroughs, I realized just how silly it was to assume this would be easy. I’m still very new to this whimsical world of poetry, and I find myself easily lost and confused in reading the lyrics of both poems. That being said, I persisted against my doubts and tried my best to form an educated opinion about each of these works, so that I might be able to decide which one more truly represent what art means to me.

After scratching up my printed copy of the works like a confused adolescent cat might tear apart a table cloth, I came to the following conclusions about their rhythm and meter. “Delight and Disorder” is mostly iambic, with four foots per line. There are a few exceptions, including lines 4 and 12 which seem to demonstrate one iambic foot, accompanied by one anapest foot. I say anapest because something is telling me the meter is falling at the end of these lines, providing a moment of relax therefore emphasizing the line right after it. As for “Still to Be Neat”, I guessed. This poem read very chaotic to me, and for the longest time I felt like a couldn’t find a pattern. But after a while I started to see something, its probably very wrong, but it’s my best attempt. Line 1 seems like a basic four foot iambic, and line 2 seems to start with two iambic feet and end with one anapest foot. Line 3 makes it even more complicated, I read it as a four foot trochee. And then line 4 seems to be two foot trochee followed by a one foot anapest, very similar to line 2 only backwards. I might be in denial, but continuing to read the poem I saw this same strange pattern, Iambs dancing around with trochee and anapest foots like its nobody’s business, only solidifying that chaotic feeling that I touched upon earlier. To be perfectly honest, I feel like I sort of tripped and stumbled to these conclusions. I cant say that I’m correct about anything evolving my hypotheses, but having a rhythm to follow in my head made deciphering the other aspects of the poems a whole lot easier.

In my opinion, “Delight and Disorder” portrays more of a wild and carefree message, as it lacks of control.

Rhythm and Experience

Herrick and Jonson both write poems that give is a view into their experiences with art. Interestingly, it feels as if fashion and it’s extravagent simplicity is something they both percieve as an adequate depictor of what is truly art. Although they have similar thoughts about what the true experience of art feels, the rhythm and meter of each poem truly describes individual emotions and senses. While each poems prosody work to reinforce its respective claim and emotion, I believe Herrick does a better job at describing the extent of art and just how far it reaches into a person.

Starting with Jonson, the poem “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” gives the reader examples of moments in time that are related to each other, but may or may not communicate the heartfelt delicacies of art. We can feel that these are interconnected moments through the consistency of the prosody which remains iambic tetrameter throughout. In the first stanza the iambic pattern allows stresses on words neat, dressed, powdered, perfumed, sweet, sound. Still, the unstressed words in between that communicate still and not, shows us as we read that these things that “sound” important they are still, not. In the second stanza, the mood switches, yet the stresses stay on words that feel important: look, face, grace, free, sweet. This time there is no unstressed words that drive us away from drowining in these words, rather the unstressed syllables and words allow the reader to enjoy the descriptions that are being provided and understand why “They strike mine eyes, but not my heart.”

Herrick takes a similar approach structurally in the poem “Delight in Disorder”, maintining iambic tetrameter throughout. However, he inserts more variation and also has a consistent pattern for doing so. The pattern goes 3 imabic tetrameter lines, 1 rhythmically variating triameter line, then repeat. This pattern is delightfully disordered in itself as the reader takes a journey through the lines that can seem to lack consistency, yet communicate consistently. With the three rhytmically similar lines describing whimsical, unusual, sightings and ending with one line with a keyword for the experience i.e distraction, confusedly, civility. How can something be a distraction and be civil? Confusing and civil? Many contradicting words are put together through this poem and the emotions are unusual, but still familiar. The rhythmic structure of the poems aids in this experience and allows more depth into just how unusual the authentic experience of art can be.

Darah Carrillo-Vargas

Rhythm and Meter

When it comes to the two poems, “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” by Ben Jonson and “Delight in Disorder” by Robert Herrick, they both individually tackle varying depictions of the nature of art. To which I believe that “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” is more effective in representing this. This is because while “Delight in Disorder” effectively addresses the complex nature of art in certain ways, by using dactylic prosody which represents the rolling of words in each line to describe how art can slowly hit you all at once. I feel as though with this poem it focuses more on how art is precise and often used as a distraction rather than it being left up to interpretation.

On the other hand, “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” focuses more on how art can be appreciated but not always felt. There won’t be an emotional response every time. Jonson achieves this by using spondaic prosody within his poem seemingly to attempt to strike you with words in every line. It’s more effective in representing art since it prompts us as readers that the nature of art is subjective. And how we see it can vary in comparison to how someone else perceives it.

Patricia Brewer

Rhythm and Meter Post

When it comes to the two poems presented for this assignment it is clear that each work of art is designed to allow the reader to see the author’s own perspective on how they themselves view poetry. When comparing the two poem’s I came to the conclusion that the poem written by Ben Jonson titled “Still to be Neat” is the piece of work that best encompases the meaning of art. “Still to be Neat” is written in a dactylic foot meaning the words are stressed at the beginning and end of each line. This causes a somewhat falling rhythm which helps add stress to the beginning words. The emphasis on words such as “still”, “neat”, and “dressed” just add to the overall effect this poem has on the reader. 

In comparison the poem “Delight in Disorder” by Robert Herrick describes poetry and other forms of art as a beautiful woman that makes the reader fall in love. This poem definitely focuses more on how art can be elegant and appealing, which is true, however there will always be pieces of art that affect the reader more than others. This is why I believe the poem written by Jonson is the most accurate when describing how art should be viewed, since it talks about how dressing up a poem and making it sound beautiful does not automatically make it genuine. The last line of this poem really drives this point home stating “ Than all th’adulteries of art. They strike mine eyes, but not my heart” which helps explain the idea that making art is not just putting down whatever sounds or looks good instead it is taking all of your feelings and emotions and creating a piece of work that resonates with your own experiences.

Jamey Cain

Rhythm and Meter Post

When it comes to the two poems presented for this assignment it is clear that each work of art is designed to allow the reader to see the author’s own perspective on how they themselves view poetry. When comparing the two poem’s I came to the conclusion that the poem written by Ben Jonson titled “Still to be Neat” is the piece of work that best encompases the meaning of art. “Still to be Neat” is written in a dactylic foot meaning the words are stressed at the beginning and end of each line. This causes a somewhat falling rhythm which helps add stress to the beginning words. The emphasis on words such as “still”, “neat”, and “dressed” just add to the overall effect this poem has on the reader. 

In comparison the poem “Delight in Disorder” by Robert Herrick describes poetry and other forms of art as a beautiful woman that makes the reader fall in love. This poem definitely focuses more on how art can be elegant and appealing, which is true, however there will always be pieces of art that affect the reader more than others. This is why I believe the poem written by Jonson is the most accurate when describing how art should be viewed, since it talks about how dressing up a poem and making it sound beautiful does not automatically make it genuine. The last line of this poem really drives this point home stating “ Than all th’adulteries of art. They strike mine eyes, but not my heart” which helps explain the idea that making art is not just putting down whatever sounds or looks good instead it is taking all of your feelings and emotions and creating a piece of work that resonates with your own experiences.