Thesis

Criticism essay:

Although Mullaney provides a persuasive argument, he is undermined by his assumptions in relation to homosexuality, gender and misogyny.

Metrical Analysis:

Shakespeare uses meter to bring this monologue to life and act as an exhausting life, driving the audience on while providing long pauses as false rest, and then forcing the reader to move on.

OED:

. In one definition fell means ‘savage’ or ‘cruel’, and in another it refers to ‘human skin’. These two definitions change the struggle of the narrator from external to internal, and by shifting the meaning of just one word the interpretation of the line, stanza, and poem are changed.

Poetry Comparison:

Auden argues that the world will keep turning regardless of what great tragedy is taking place, as can be seen in the fall of Icarus which is only a small part of the bigger painting by Breughel. Glück agrees with his theory by creating a poem in which the biggest drama plays a minor role and the main focus is on daily life. These two poems are combined not only by their underlying theories but also through their verb tenses, format and parallel situations.

Theses

Metrical Analysis: By examining Shakespeare’s use of trochaic and spondaic substitutions, caesura, and the clever gendering of both meter and word choice, the reader discerns that Hamlet’s internal conflict is not only a question of life or death, to be or not to be, but also of gender, to be a man or to be a woman. And a battle of masculine versus feminine emerges.
Poetry Comparison (Donne & Piercy): Both poems use paradox, expressed through diction, metaphor and imagery, to uncover and praise their central figures—for Donne his female mistress and for Piercy everyday, inanimate objects. However, Donne uses paradoxical language and imagery in his treatment of secular love as sacred love to seduce and coax his object of desire and, in doing so, seeks to gain power and agency over her. In contrast, Piercy uses paradox to praise inanimate objects and, in the final strophe, a female figure as well. Through her chosen diction, she employs them both with power and agency—rendering them the subjects not objects of her poem.
OED: Through the interplay of definitions of the word legend as both “the story of the life of a Saint” and “an un-authentic or non-historical story,” (OED) Donne further pushes his paradoxical conceit. However even more interestingly, by also examining a third definition of the word legend as something that is written a new reading of Donne’s poem emerges—that it is about not only the canonization or of profane love but also the canonization of the poem (the written verse) itself.
Criticism Review: In her introduction to Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire, Eve Sedgwick presents two central arguments or claims upon which the forthcoming chapters of the book are hinged. The first is that “concomitant changes in the structure of the continuum of male ‘homosocial desire’ were tightly bound up with other more visible changes” (1); that is to say that patterns of male friendship, mentorship, rivalry, and hetero and homosexuality, which all fall within the continuum of male homosocial desire, were in an “intimate” and changing relation to the more visible structure of class (1). The second is that “no element of that pattern can be understood outside of its relation to women and the gender system as a whole” (1). Sedgwick asserts that there is an undeniable link between the socially constructed, subjective gender system and male homosociality and that the role of women cannot be taken out of the equation when examining male homosocial and homosexual relationships.
*Decided to post my entire intro paragraph because I'm not sure there's a clear thesis in my criticism review
-Devon

My thesis statements:

Scansion:
Shakespeare employs a variety of metrical and poetic devices to forward these aims and to suggest that Hamlet is indeed speaking to an audience. Hamlet's speech is not internalized--rather his monologue is characterized by a universalized rhetoric, with scattered points directed towards his auditors. These aims are both accomplished through metrical aberrations in his speech.

Poetry:
Essentially, she reverses his point on human indifference to suffering through subverting his language, allusions, and tone to suggest that human empathy, particularly love, can be more powerful.

OED:
Yeats’ use of the word brute then works on multiple levels—thematically, structurally, and allusively, to promote the idea that the animalistic nature in humans will continue to promulgate violence throughout history.

Theses: K.S. Anthony (Kal)

K.S. Anthony

ENGL W3001 Literary Texts, Critical Methods

Poetry Comparison Paper: 18 October 2011

The Long, Dark Night: The Language of Hope and Despair in Milton and Hopkins

            John Milton's Sonnet XIX and Gerard Manley Hopkins' "I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark Not Day" both address depression and darkness, literally and metaphorically, in Petrarchan sonnets. Although both deal with despair and question God's role in suffering while using ostensibly identical forms, the language and punctuation couple with the content to lead the reader to very different conclusions. Milton's darkness is a road to hope, while Hopkins darkness signals a descent into despair. I shall examine the similarities and differences between the two texts, paying particular attention to the way that they utilize word choice, tone via punctuation, and the Petrarchan form.

K.S. Anthony
W3001 Literary Texts, Critical Methods

Prof. Julie Crawford
TA: Olivia Moy

22 October 2011: OED Assignment: A Massive Emptiness: the Vacuitie of Hell in Paradise Lost

            The word "vacuitie" appears only once in John Milton's Paradise Lost. The line in which it appears is one of the shortest in Book 2-- just five words--in a scene that baffles Satan as he seeks escape from Hell. He spreads his wings and begins to fly "Audacious, but that seat soon failing, meets/ A vast vacuitie: all unawares/ Fluttring his pennons vain plumb down he drops" (931-933). The meaning here seems simple enough: Satan takes flight, daring the heavens once again, but suddenly hits an air pocket--turbulence--and begins a spiraling plummet while beating his wings in vain against its force until being fired back into hobbled flight and a new direction by a thundercloud (935-950, not quoted here in the interest of space). The word "vacuitie" evokes the word "vacuum" in the modern mind and it's easy to gloss over the line without really probing its full meaning. I shall explore the depth of Milton's use of the word here as a powerful negation that, like "darkness visible" (1:63), serves to create an image of Hell that is, paradoxically, unimaginable. In "A vast vacuitie" Milton creates a vision of emptiness that is far more powerful than anything that could be described loco-descriptively. This is what Hell is: it is space empty of God, the absolute and total absence of God, paradise not simply lost but negated and unreachable.

K.S. Anthony

ENGL W3001 Literary Texts, Critical Methods
Metrical Analysis Essay: 30 September 2011
A Darkness Visible: Surveying The Sights of Hell Through Meter

In Book One of Paradise Lost, Satan has been cast out of Heaven and is surveying Hell. In lines 56-69, John Milton describes in blank verse the landscape that is to be Satan's kingdom. Milton shows the unrest in both Satan's visual and emotional experience of Hell through the unexpected use of trochaic and spondaic substitution that enhance his sparing imagery that follow the subtle and dramatic transitions created by hard and soft enjambments. The nightmare landscape does not demand visceral images. Indeed, Milton's depictions of Hell are sparse and vague: this vacuum of imagery paves the way for form to effect mood. This essay shall illustrate how by simply altering tone, meter, and rhythm, Milton engulfs the reader in the vastness of Satan's "darkness visible." 

In Book One of Paradise Lost, Satan has been cast out of Heaven and is surveying Hell. In lines 56-69, John Milton describes in blank verse the landscape that is to be Satan's kingdom. Milton shows the unrest in both Satan's visual and emotional experience of Hell through the unexpected use of trochaic and spondaic substitution that enhance his sparing imagery that follow the subtle and dramatic transitions created by hard and soft enjambments. The nightmare landscape does not demand visceral images. Indeed, Milton's depictions of Hell are sparse and vague: this vacuum of imagery paves the way for form to effect mood. This essay shall illustrate how by simply altering tone, meter, and rhythm, Milton engulfs the reader in the vastness of Satan's "darkness visible." 

 

Metrical Analysis--"In this poem, Dickinson uses no regular meter, and through her use of dactyls, trochees, spondees, and a forceful caesura, she has created an unstable environment that contradicts the safety and relative serenity of the dead."

Poetry Comparison--"In both 'Musee des Beaux Arts' and 'Palais des Artes,' the underlying poetic structure, controlled imagery, and calm tones create an atmosphere of passionate restraint reinforced by the narrative arcs of Bruegel's Icarus and the lovers by the pond."

OED--"Stella holds a lofty position in the poem compared with the simplicity of Astrophel, exemplified by the poem's transition from the ideals of Queen Virtue's court to the simplicity of a man of straw."

Criticism Review--"Using this construction for her argument allows her to move Ophelia's character out of just literary criticism into a more historical perspective, allowing a deeper contrast between the Ophelia of Shakespeare's times when the role was played by a man, and the modern depictions of Ophelia that have evolved out of contemporary psychoanalytic readings."

Theses

So I'm listing the theses that were intended to my theses although in the edits I realized other lines and sentences could've been a better wording:

Metrical: Specifically from line 57 to line 70, Shakespeare divides the monologue into three main parts that depict Hamlet's fluctuations in thought; beyond just these plot differentiations, he also achieves distinct effects with unique stylistic and metrical usages in each division. Through deliberate emphases, well placed caesuras, and metrical fixtures, Shakespeare does his best to deliver Hamlet's depressing dilemma in the most effective manner possible.

Poetry Analysis: While Housman makes use of pristine imagery and implements an optimistic tone in his poem, Larkin takes a more somber approach with a darker, connotative diction. At the same time, the two share common grounds in incorporating consonance and overall structure to enhance their respective portrayals of trees in connection with their larger significations. The ultimate result is two differing thematic life messages presented to the reader. In comparing the thematic elements, structure, and literary choices (consonance and diction), one can see how Housman and Larkin wrote in tune with the morals they desired to communicate.

OED: At an initial cursory scan, one can see that Herrick uses a different metaphor to represent the nipple and breast in almost every line: A red rose, a cherry, a lily, a strawberry; the list goes on. However, his usage of the word “beam” in line 5 isn't only another metaphor. Rather, its dual definitions and connotations detailed in the Oxford English Dictionary allow it to be interpreted as both serving as a descriptive metaphor of the nipple and a unit of structural cohesion that ties the poem together.

Criticism Review: Although Barthes has an effective introduction and interesting implementation of examples, his overall structure and attempt at cohesion of these are slightly hectic and implausible. Some of his structural choices are questionable, and he overgeneralizes certain aspects throughout his essay.

Theses

Metrical Analysis Essay
In her poem “How many times these low feet staggered”, Emily Dickinson guides the reader through an examination of a deceased housewife. Moving from her feet to her mouth, forehead, hair, and fingers, the poem spotlights housewife’s features in a gradual revealing that ultimately fails to rid the reader of the sense of mystery and anonymity. Through the use of a four-beat accentual meter, Dickinson establishes an underlying forward-jerking rhythm and builds up the expectation for a consistent pulse. In the second and third stanzas, however, the trochaic tetrameter with a regular leading dactyl is disrupted by further dactylic substitutions and frequent caesura. By varying the stresses and creating a disjunction between the rhythmic expectation and the visual caesura cues, Dickinson portrays as futile the attempt to understand what the housewife’s rhythmic, routine life was like by visual postmortem examination alone.

Poetry Comparison Essay
In Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover” and Robert Lowell’s “Skunk Hour,” the exposure of the speaker’s insanity occurs with a linguistic shift halfway through the poem. By juxtaposing the effect of the style and form with the effect of the shift, Browning and Lowell successfully portray characters that transition between two extremes of the insane mind.

OED Assignment
In John Donne’s “Elegy 19: To His Mistress Going to Bed,” the tension between the power of the speaker’s verbal eloquence and the power of the mistress’s physicality is encapsulated in line 2, where Donne uses the word “labour” both in its verb form and in its noun form: “Until I labour, I in labour lie” (2). This repetition creates a juxtaposition that emphasizes the differences in the subtly varying definitions of verb “labour” – definitions which, when considered simultaneously, foreshadow the bawdy tone of the poem and accentuate characteristics of the poet and the speaker.

Criticism Review
The question that arises upon reading “The Storyteller” is whether Benjamin is writing an essay – or a story. While the lack of characters and plot and mainly informative nature of the piece characterizes “The Storyteller” as an essay, there are significant indications of story-like traits in Benjamin’s writing. Indeed, Benjamin seems to craft this essay as a hybrid of information and story, simultaneously adding to it both vividness and ambiguity.