This is just to say that I didn't mean to put this off

“This is Just to Say,” William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Yes I'm doing another poem again. I just like poetry. I wish we could does known artists though that would be cool. Either way I am going to be talking about this poem today. The first feeling that I get from this poem is one of blissful defiance. Yes he knows that he broke a silent pact, but it made him happy so it's okay in the long run. The tone that the speaker is using in this poem is not one of great repentance or of excessive worry, he seems to be taking it easy, like he knows that the owner of the plums will easily forgive him. It seems as though something like this had occurred in the past, like the owner of the plums should not have left the speaker alone with them because the owner should have known what would happen.  The way the lines are set up, how they are all so short and simple, also sheds light on how the speaker feels about the situation. He is not trying to cover up anything with a silver tongue, he is simply stating the facts. He feels that he has nothing to be guilty of.  There is a curious mixture of selfishness and unselfishness in this poem. The selfish part is most obvious since he simply at the plums because they were delicious, sweet, and cold. Te unselfish part is slightly more subtle. Although he does not apologize, the act of leaving a note is a sort of kind gesture to the owner of the plums. He is turning himself in, keeping the plum owner from extensive wonder. He also acknowledges that the owner was probably going to eat them for breakfast. This shows that he did not just mindlessly eat the plums because they were there, he ate them clearly aware of their purpose and the fact that he admits that is pretty selfless. Another interesting part of the poem is the use of the word icebox. That of course con notates a feeling of cold, frigidness, similar to the seemingly cold relationship between the plum water and the plum owner is. Oh I just thought of something. The cold motif  and the fruit motif cod be combined to show a different meaning in the poem. The fruit eating could be a loss of innocence or purity and the cold motif could be the peoples feelings towards what happened. The speaker does not seem particularly happy about what happened, he may Ben be silently regretful, something that may be seen in someone who made some sort of innocence losing mistake.  This could be connected to a literal loss of purity such as sex of course. Another thing to note in this poem is that the plums were meant for breakfast,  so they were meant for the morning.  The morning connotates discomfort, grumpiness, anger.  So maybe the  speaker was even trying to enjoy the forbidden fruit before it spoiled in the morning. Interesting. 

Long, Too Long Since My Last Post Oops

"Long, Too Long America" by Walt Whitman

Long, too long America, Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn'd from joys and prosperity only, But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not, And now to conceive and show to the world what your children en-masse really are, (For who except myself has yet conceiv'd what your children en-masse really are?)

I just really like Walt Whitman and his poetry. Maybe it is because of his descendant, May Whitman, being a very good actress (her?), or maybe it is because of how he lived his life. Either way, I really enjoy his poetry, so I picked another of his poems for this week. The title of this poem is "Long, Too Long America." By this the speaker is saying that America has prospered and seemed perfect for too long, so now they are suffering from it. The denotations of the word "too" is in addition; to an excessive extent or degree; more; extremely. So the time that America has spent just going along like everything is great is excessive. The speaker is criticizing America, telling them to take on greater tasks, to try harder, not to just cruise along. "Traveling roads all even and peaceful," signifies how easy America's reign had been so far in the past. "Even" has a denotation of level; flat; free from variations; uniform in action, character, or quality, equal in measure or quantity. So everything that America had accomplished so far was not difficult, there were not great mountains to climb over or any other difficulties in their attempts. "Peaceful" which means not argumentative, also solidifies this idea that America just went along with the flow and accepted all off the good things that were coming to them without really trying to get the good things. They did not fight for what they wanted, they were just lucky and it came to them. "You learn'd from joys and prosperity only," here the speaker continues to comment on how easy America has had it so far. In the next line the speaker says, "But now, ah now". These few words show a complete tone shift from the firs line. The first line seemed to be more joyful and thankful, while this line starts out with the speaker seeming bitter and sounding more like the speaker knew it all along. He seems much more stuck up in these few words than he did before. "To learn from cries of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate and recoiling not." In these next lines the speaker seems to have a bitter tone, like he is thinks America is getting what it deserves. The denotation of "anguish" is excruciating or acute distress, suffering, or pain. This word contrasts highly with "peaceful" in the first line. The speaker is saying that America has completely fallen down and are now suffering as badly as they can. The speaker seems a little smug about this because he thinks that America deserves to feel what many of it's citizens feel. Not every American is prosperous, and the speaker claims that in the next line, saying "show to the world what your children en-masse really are." "Really" gives off the feeling that America has been lying about or masking what has actually been going on with their people. They have just been putting up a front of glory and prosperity, when really many of their people are suffering. "En-masse" just means together, as a group, so all Americans are feeling this pain because the government refused to admit that anything was amiss before everything went downhill, or at least that is what the speaker is saying. Then in the next line the speaker seems to say that he is at a higher loevel of understanding than most people, claiming that only he has fully realized how badly Americans are suffering. So, in this poem the speaker calls America out for acting like they were great for so long that their people ended up really hurting.

The Lonely Extremities

A comparison of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Elliot and Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson.... Well the main theme of "Prufrock" that I really took away was that life is stressful and then you die. There is a lot of terminal feeling diction in this poem as well as much evidence of sulking. In Winesburg however the main thing I pulled away was that being lonely and thinking too much causes uncool abnormalities in your life and personality. If we trace this lonely idea throughout "Prufrock" there appears to be some of that in there too. Like in the first section where the speaker is talking about "one-night cheap hotels" and "half-deserted streets" (lines 6 and 7). Those are not phrases often used to express contentment or friendship. The cheap hotels part is basically a euphemism for hiring a prostitute, so since the speaker is drooping down to this level, he obviously does not have anyone to accompany him on a regular basis. This imagery is also seen in the same section on the next  line with "oyster-shells" which are another euphemism for sex. Along this same idea of lonely sex, in Winesburg George seems to be looking for a girl to get it on with in many of the stories that he is the center of. With Louise, who seems to have been his first lover, Kate, Belle, and then finally Helen, George is looking for a girl to spend time with. Until the end with Helen, George does not really have any friends, so he is always alone except when he is hearing peoples' stories. So these two works connect in the way that the two main characters are looking for a woman, presumably, to take to bed, but even more just to have as a friend. Along with this connection, there is also the feeling of fragmentation in both works. In Winesburg it is most often with hands, while in "Prufrock" it is seen with eyes, muzzles, arms, legs, hair. Most often it seems to be seen with arms. There is an interesting similarity, both works have that hand/arm thing going on. These are from the limb that is most active and both main characters are having trouble becoming active. They are not really able to do much with their hands/arms since they have no one to hold/touch. This idea also fits back into the loneliness aspect of both stories. So in my opinion that is the biggest connection that can be found between both stories. There are important themes of loneliness and fragmentation in both stories, signifying the characters' inability to connect with the people around them.