Poetry Response #5

Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle

The celebrated windows flamed with light
directly pouring north across the Seine;
we rustled into place. Then violins
vaunting Vivaldi’s strident strength, then Brahms,
seemed to suck with their passionate sweetness,
bit by bit, the vigor from the red,
the blazing blue, so that the listening eye
saw suddenly the thick black lines, in shapes
of shield and cross and strut and brace, that held
the holy glowing fantasy together.
The music surged; the glow became a milk,
a whisper to the eye, a glimmer ebbed
until our beating hearts, our violins
were cased in thin but solid sheets of lead.

—John Updike


I really enjoyed “Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle” by John Updike. The poem had nice very, smooth flow that helped convey its meaning. The imagery allowed me to feel as though I was actually in France listening to this classical concert, watching the intensity of the artists’ performance.

On line 10, Updike described the artists’ performance as a, “…holy glowing fantasy together”. Violins struck furiously together with immense passion; their hearts’ beat rapidly, keeping up with the pace of the music. Updike also chose really strong diction to portray the rapid movements, such as “strident strength” and “blazing blue” on lines 4 and 7. The stalwart diction parallels with the overall feelings and emotions this poem produced.

The ending stanza slowed down the pace of the poem and created an interesting affect on me, the audience. After the swift performance, “the music surged” and the people listening to the music became overcome with emotion. The violins also turned into a glimmer ebbed into their audience’s hearts. I loved the last four lines of the poem because I found it be quite clever. Updike related the passion of the artists with the violins becoming beating hearts. Emotion and passion comes from the heart, and I really liked how he tied the poem all together at the end.

In conclusion, “Evening Concert, Saint-Chapelle” by John Updike was a poem I had never come across before but greatly enjoyed. The emotions and feelings of the artists’ performance jumped off the page; the smooth flow made me feel as though I were in France watching this scene occur.

I am interested to see what else Updike has written...

The Awakening, Ch. 5-9

I really like The Awakening so far. It’s a real story with a plot line and is easier to comprehend than The Darkness, for example. It’s also not just intense imagery with every word meaning something else. So for that, I think it’s a good novel.

One of the interesting parts of The Awakening is a symbol not being represented by something skewed, but rather the symbols are the people. For example, women like Madame Ratignolle and her beauty represent the feminism ideal. That is also the focus of chapters 5-9; it concentrates on two opposite figures, Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier.

Madame Ratignolle is characterized a mother-women who is fully devoted to her children; her identity is them. She is this loving mother that will inconvenience or possibly endanger herself for her kids. For example, Madame Ratignolle is not supposed to lift her children, as she is pregnant, and everyone knows it. It is because she constantly talks about her “condition”, her pregnancy that everyone is aware of what her doctor not to do. Her children and husband tie up her whole world. She wants to be close to her child, in spite that it could put her unborn baby in danger.

Contrasting to Madame Ratignolle is Edna. Edna is the type of women that is constantly trying to put on a good show for the Creole culture. For example, in the previous chapters we saw Madame Ratignolle making clothes for her children, and Edna picked up a piece of cloth and follow suit. She does this because she doesn’t want to get a rise out of the other women; she is the one conforming.

Perhaps the most significant difference between the two women is Madame Ratignolle being a Creole and Edna isn’t. They have been raised in two different cultures. Madame Ratignolle knows how to act within that culture and the so-called “rules” of being mother-women. Edna on the other hand is an outsider, and is still trying to figure out who she is.

The Awakening, Ch. 1-4

The first four chapters of The Awakening were very interesting. I’m glad we looked up information about the Creole society; the information we found applied to the novel. Mr. Pontellier is one of the main characters. He is a man in his 40’s, married to Edna Pontellier, and has two sons named Robert and Raoul. He comes off as a selfish man in a world of his own, and he doesn’t seem to care about his family or how he treats them.

In the research I found, the father is the dominant figure in a Creole household. He does not have to be faithful spouse, but is an indulgent parent. I found this to be apparent in The Awakening. For example in chapter three, Mr. Pontellier had been gone at a men’s club called Klein’s all day and when returned home, everyone was sleeping except for one of his sons. He found his son, Raoul, kicking and talking about crabs. Mr. Pontellier took this as Raoul being sick. “Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needing looking after. He then lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it” (p. 8).

When Mrs. Pontellier denied Raoul being sick, as she had been with him throughout the day and did not see any symptoms, Mr. Pontellier said she was neglect of her children. This made her sob the entire night, as he went off to bed.

Rude.

Poetry Response #4

Still Memory

The dream was so deep
the bed came unroped from its moorings,
drifted upstream till it found my old notch

in the house I grew up in,
then it locked in place.
A light in the hall—

my father in the doorway, not dead,
just home from the graveyard shift
smelling of crude oil and solvent.

In the kitchen, Mother rummages through silver
while the boiled water poured
in the battered old drip pot

unleashes coffee’s smoky odor.
Outside, the mimosa fronds, closed all night,
open their narrow valleys for dew.

Around us, the town is just growing animate,
its pulleys and levers set in motion.
My house starts to throb in its old socket.

My twelve-year-old sister steps fast
because the bathroom tiles
are cold and we have no heat other

than what our bodies can carry.
My parents are not yet born each
into a small urn of ash.

My ten-year-old hand reaches
for a pen to record it all
as would become long habit.

—Mary Karr


“Still Memory” by Mary Karr is the memory in the author’s childhood. It is early morning when her father comes home from working a late night shift as her mother makes a pot of coffee. Karr wakes to the scent of “crude oil and solvent” off her father’s clothes and hears the water dripping down from the coffee pot, releasing a smoky odor. She also hears her sister quickly move across the cold tile in the bathroom. The description of these actions occurring appealed to my senses and gave me a feeling of what mornings were like at her house; it made me feel as though I’m watching this memory replay next to her.

The poem itself is a contradiction to the title, “Still Memory”. It is not one snapshot, many actions occur within (as I previously mentioned). One of the interesting things about this poem is the reoccurring theme of darkness. Karr was deep in sleep when she awoke and reached towards the light. “The bed came unroped from its moorings/drifted upstream till it found my old notch/in the house I grew up in/then it locked in place/a light in the hall –“ (Lines 2-5). When there is no light, Karr is able to stay still and not move forward. It is as though she fears something that comes action occurs. Perhaps Karr is unable to face reality, and that reality may be death. When her father stood in the doorway, “not dead”, and her parents were not “yet born each into a small urn of ash”, Karr illustrates a fear her family dying. She doesn’t want things to change. One final example of that is when she notes the town waking, “Its pulleys and levers set in motion/my house starts to throb in its old socket” (Lines 17-18).

In the last stanza of this poem, Karr reaches for a pen to record what is happening around her. She does not want to forget and writing allows her to remember and revisit her memories.

Heart of Darkness #6

In the final section of Heart of Darkness, Kurtz is carried out to the steamer because he is sick. The natives are very distraught and upset he is being taken back to Europe because he is their sole voice. It is very clear too, that Kurtz is going to die.

When he had a candle in front of him, he could not even see the light. It was unable to penetrate his darkness and now, he is lying in the dark waiting for death.

We come across the mistress who is the complete opposite of Kurtz’s intended. She has seen all of the horrible things occur and represents someone that has been affected. The mistress is completely savage and wild. Kurtz’s intended on the other hand, represents European thinking – she doesn’t understand the darkness. The intended is very naïve too, as she thinks she knows Kurtz but she really doesn’t.

I think Conrad did something very interesting in this passage, and that is while Kurtz is being taken there are shadows covering her. It is like the darkness is growing on her and she is being painted.

Heart of Darkness #5

In this section, Marlow comes to the realization of how dark Kurtz really is. On page 57, he takes a second look at the posts outside of Kurtz’s house and realizes they are not posts with round knobs, but they are in fact skulls!

“I return deliberately to the first I had seen- and there it was black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids- a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth, was smiling too, smiling continuously at some endless and jocose dream of that eternal slumber” (p. 57).

The skulls are very symbolic to how the natives treat Kurtz. The natives worship him, and Marlow beings to think Kurtz actually ordered this. The skulls face towards Kurt’z hurt symbolizing and acting as a visual reminder he is the one with all the power and is in charge. It is his way of showing the he can take their lives at will.

What makes me twitch after reading this passage is that the skulls are actually smiling. How disturbing! We talked about in class actually, that the skulls are smiling for the simple reason of: they are released from Kurtz’s terror. I still don’t fully understand that analysis, but I do understand that sometimes death is seen as being better the act of suffering. And now all I can think of are those poor natives…

Heart of Darkness #4

The next section of HOD focuses on the journey to Inner Station. There is a strong comparison between it and the men possibly becoming cursed after obtaining ivory. Visually, the men are on small steamboat on river, surrounded by hundreds of trees. The forest could easily consume them. Likewise after the men get the ivory, the power of it could overcome them.

There is also a large focus on restraint in this section. As the ship heads towards the Inner Station, pilgrims and cannibals onboard. Originally they'd been waiting to depart the Central Station without a purpose, but that’s not very important to note. What is important is Marlow's admiration for the cannibals and their self-restraint in not eating people on the ship. There isn't a clear reason as to why they don't eat them; the cannibals are just "nice". Marlow very much admires them for this.

Additionally in HOD we, the reader, realize the amount of restraint in the Natives and Marlow have and the minute amount in the Europeans. When the men begin to hear screams from the mist ahead they begin to freak out. They cannot see through the thickness of the mist that is hiding the darkness. (Hello symbolism!) Marlow has restraint himself in not thinking they will be attacked, although he soon finds out that’s not true. He is very static and remains calm in difficult situations, similarly to the Natives. The men on the other hand cannot keep their composure when the ship is attacked.

Heart of Darkness #3

The second section of HOD was a lot more interesting than the first - more action occurs and we finally begin to explore the darkness. There are two means of exploring deeper into the darkness. Literally, the men on the ship travel towards the center of the Congo. Symbolically, Marlow begins to realize the evil of the people around him by the bad things they want to do.

When Marlow overhears the Station Manager and his Uncle talking about Kurtz, Marlow finds out they both want him dead. The Station Manager feels Kurtz wants to get ahead of him and is bring moral reign. Interestingly, they don’t plan on killing him though. The Uncle feels and trusts the darkness of the land will eventually overcome Kurtz and destroy him. This causes Marlow to realize the evil in man’s hearts and is a very large symbol to pay attention to.

I think it is important to note what Marlow was doing during this seen as it also symbolizes the newfound realization of evil. When the Station Manager and the Uncle are speaking it wakes Marlow up from sleeping. Most often than not Marlow provides many details about everything in HOD, but in this scene the details are not so clear. Marlow is awakened, literally and figuratively, to what the men are saying and as I stated previously, Marlow begins to realize the evil in the people around him.