BioMy name is Holli Brown. I have created this website as a way to express my feelings about the readings in English 3320. I chose the colorful explosion on my homepage to convey my thoughts as an author-to-be. I am constantly finding new ideas for my work through song and art.
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Blog Post 1: Anti-War Poetry
Upon first reading “Oread” by Hilda Doolittle, I was under the impression that this creature – whom I later figured out was a nymph from a faerie world – was that she felt overwhelmed and called the “sea” to help her escape her homeland. I thought of how I often procrastinate when I get overwhelmed by workload at school as well as when I’m at work. I shut down at work and avoid the tasks until I figure out a way to take them one by one. After the class period reading, though, I realized I was mistaken. The “pines” were not helping but hurting the nymph and almost brought them to rest in the “pools of fir” referenced in the poem.
At first glance, to me, “My Sweet Old Etcetra” by E.E. Cummings was a poem of love. I did not read it as a post-war poem. For a moment in time, I did not think of it like that at all. After the close reading in class, though, I understand it better: it is a bitter narrative of a man fighting in the war and how he feels about World War I. Every family member has the same point of view: war is honorable, and we must support it. However, the soldier sees it differently. War is necessary but evil at the same time. With his line “mother hoped that i would die,” Cummings shows that he finds the idea of war to be a burden on the soldier.
Parker Carpenter, on the website blogspot.com, insists that “etcetera” is simply a transition from one family member to the next. E.E. Cummings, according to Carpenter, is writing about how a man is “dreaming” of his girl, instead of focused on the war. Carpenter goes on to say that the man is “sick and tired of” hearing stories from his families and just wants to go home.
At first glance, to me, “My Sweet Old Etcetra” by E.E. Cummings was a poem of love. I did not read it as a post-war poem. For a moment in time, I did not think of it like that at all. After the close reading in class, though, I understand it better: it is a bitter narrative of a man fighting in the war and how he feels about World War I. Every family member has the same point of view: war is honorable, and we must support it. However, the soldier sees it differently. War is necessary but evil at the same time. With his line “mother hoped that i would die,” Cummings shows that he finds the idea of war to be a burden on the soldier.
Parker Carpenter, on the website blogspot.com, insists that “etcetera” is simply a transition from one family member to the next. E.E. Cummings, according to Carpenter, is writing about how a man is “dreaming” of his girl, instead of focused on the war. Carpenter goes on to say that the man is “sick and tired of” hearing stories from his families and just wants to go home.
Blog Post 2: Harlem Renaissance Poetry
I read some interesting poetry this week from famous authors I had heard of but never read from before. Two poems that stuck out to me were “For My People” by Margaret Walker and “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay.
I liked Margaret Walker’s poem, because there was a sense of banding together to create a better world for people of color. She called out every group of people to “rise:” the religious, the working, the youth, the learners and teachers, the adults, the impoverished, and the elders. Along with her descriptions of these people she called [her] “people,” she also gave actions of each one of them from “singing” in the first stanza to “standing” in the last. I think her use of gerunds in that sense gave it a feeling of happening at that very moment.
I think Leigh McInnis, in her blog post “For My People” as the Fulfillment of Margaret Walker Alexander’s Literary Manifesto,” said it best when she described it as “the horrors of black life while also being encouraged by its beauties and successes.”
I liked Claude McKay’s poem “The Harlem Dancer,” because he described an exotic “dancer” as someone normal but beautiful all at once. McKay described a lovely woman who might have had insecurities about what she was doing but hid it with a “falsely-smiling face.” When I read the last line, – “I knew her self was not in that strange place” – it made me think of every time I stepped on stage in high school. When I stepped on that stage, I was a different person than the one who was just it. As this woman, this nameless woman, “sang” and “danced,” she must have used a performer’s façade: my music teachers used to call them alter egos. I realized from class readings that that was not what was actually happening, but that was just my thoughts on it.
I liked Margaret Walker’s poem, because there was a sense of banding together to create a better world for people of color. She called out every group of people to “rise:” the religious, the working, the youth, the learners and teachers, the adults, the impoverished, and the elders. Along with her descriptions of these people she called [her] “people,” she also gave actions of each one of them from “singing” in the first stanza to “standing” in the last. I think her use of gerunds in that sense gave it a feeling of happening at that very moment.
I think Leigh McInnis, in her blog post “For My People” as the Fulfillment of Margaret Walker Alexander’s Literary Manifesto,” said it best when she described it as “the horrors of black life while also being encouraged by its beauties and successes.”
I liked Claude McKay’s poem “The Harlem Dancer,” because he described an exotic “dancer” as someone normal but beautiful all at once. McKay described a lovely woman who might have had insecurities about what she was doing but hid it with a “falsely-smiling face.” When I read the last line, – “I knew her self was not in that strange place” – it made me think of every time I stepped on stage in high school. When I stepped on that stage, I was a different person than the one who was just it. As this woman, this nameless woman, “sang” and “danced,” she must have used a performer’s façade: my music teachers used to call them alter egos. I realized from class readings that that was not what was actually happening, but that was just my thoughts on it.
Image of Claude McKay found at biography.com
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Image of Margaret Walker found at projecthbw.ku.edu.
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Blog Post 3: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Throughout the book, or play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Blanche and Stanley tugged both of Stella’s arms, so to speak. Blanche wanted Stella to go back to her old life on the plantation where they both grew up. Stanley wanted Stella all to himself, as a possession and would harm, threaten, or verbally abuse her to get her on his side.
I think the play, especially with Blanche and Stanley, represented a torn United States. Most white people on plantations wanted the plantations to stay that way: a way to make African Americans indentured servants and slaves. Blanche represents that side. Stanley represented the ones who wanted to make something of themselves through labor.
I am not saying that Stanley did not have his flaws. In fact, he was my least favorite character in the play besides Eunice, who was clearly not a good friend for Stella. However, I did not think he was only the villain in the play.
I think the play, especially with Blanche and Stanley, represented a torn United States. Most white people on plantations wanted the plantations to stay that way: a way to make African Americans indentured servants and slaves. Blanche represents that side. Stanley represented the ones who wanted to make something of themselves through labor.
I am not saying that Stanley did not have his flaws. In fact, he was my least favorite character in the play besides Eunice, who was clearly not a good friend for Stella. However, I did not think he was only the villain in the play.
Blog Post 4: War Culture Poetry
“Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was treated as an impostor as soon as she wrote this piece. Plath never lived through the atrocities of World War II, nor the Holocaust, yet she wrote about the “Nazi lamp shade.” People were uproarious when the piece came out, but I read it and found a connection to another poem I had read called “Skinhead” by Patricia Smith. In both poems, people were portrayed as something they were not but in different ways. In “Skinhead,” Smith describes a Nazi man from the nineties as if she were him. I thought this resonated with “Lady Lazarus,” because both are portraying people who had never lived each experience but tried to identify with them, nonetheless.
In “Lady Lazarus,” Plath attempts to identify with the Jewish in the Holocaust. What both fail to realize is that you cannot empathize with someone you have never met. And, Plath disgraces those she is trying to empathize with by her repeated suicide attempts. I know that makes me a hypocrite, because I have tried once, myself, but at the same time, I have never written about something I am not.
“Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin
Kumin takes a very similar subject to “Lady Lazarus” with an almost inhuman glee to it. In fact, I would liken the character in Kumin’s poem with a Nazi, because the way they enjoy killing and gassing the poor woodchucks reminds me of a very Hitler-esque attitude. However, there is a certain analogy there that could be about bugs there, too. How many people kill bugs because they do not understand their nature or think they are gross? Is that not what Nazis did to the Jewish and other people not made in their image: blue-eyed and blond-haired?
Sylvia Plath was treated as an impostor as soon as she wrote this piece. Plath never lived through the atrocities of World War II, nor the Holocaust, yet she wrote about the “Nazi lamp shade.” People were uproarious when the piece came out, but I read it and found a connection to another poem I had read called “Skinhead” by Patricia Smith. In both poems, people were portrayed as something they were not but in different ways. In “Skinhead,” Smith describes a Nazi man from the nineties as if she were him. I thought this resonated with “Lady Lazarus,” because both are portraying people who had never lived each experience but tried to identify with them, nonetheless.
In “Lady Lazarus,” Plath attempts to identify with the Jewish in the Holocaust. What both fail to realize is that you cannot empathize with someone you have never met. And, Plath disgraces those she is trying to empathize with by her repeated suicide attempts. I know that makes me a hypocrite, because I have tried once, myself, but at the same time, I have never written about something I am not.
“Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin
Kumin takes a very similar subject to “Lady Lazarus” with an almost inhuman glee to it. In fact, I would liken the character in Kumin’s poem with a Nazi, because the way they enjoy killing and gassing the poor woodchucks reminds me of a very Hitler-esque attitude. However, there is a certain analogy there that could be about bugs there, too. How many people kill bugs because they do not understand their nature or think they are gross? Is that not what Nazis did to the Jewish and other people not made in their image: blue-eyed and blond-haired?
Blog Post 5: Feminist Poetry
“Who Said It Was Simple?” by Audre Lorde
Lorde describes a population that is often overlooked in the women’s rights movement: the African American ladies who should have been able to participate. Even in the 1970’s, African Americans were treated like servants instead of first-class citizens, like they should have been, according to Lorde’s poem. From the very first stanza, Lorde expresses her outrage towards the white women who were treating the African American women like second-class citizens with one word: “anger.” “…slighter pleasures of slavery” tells the reader that the poet, Audre Lorde, and her African American brothers and sisters are not free.
“Siren” by Louise Gluck
Gluck’s poem is about a mistress who wants to kill her competition: the wife. The husband is oblivious to how the mistress is feeling or just doesn’t care. From the “I could carry eight drinks,” I would say that the mistress is drunk.
Lorde describes a population that is often overlooked in the women’s rights movement: the African American ladies who should have been able to participate. Even in the 1970’s, African Americans were treated like servants instead of first-class citizens, like they should have been, according to Lorde’s poem. From the very first stanza, Lorde expresses her outrage towards the white women who were treating the African American women like second-class citizens with one word: “anger.” “…slighter pleasures of slavery” tells the reader that the poet, Audre Lorde, and her African American brothers and sisters are not free.
“Siren” by Louise Gluck
Gluck’s poem is about a mistress who wants to kill her competition: the wife. The husband is oblivious to how the mistress is feeling or just doesn’t care. From the “I could carry eight drinks,” I would say that the mistress is drunk.
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