Bermudas

I find that I like this poem a lot better than To His Coy Mistress because I think it makes more sense and is different from the previous ones we have read that have been about love and sex and men trying to have sex which gets pretty old when reading about it during the sixteen hundreds. I think this poem makes sense becuase it's easy to understand how these sailors have just survied some sort of unexpected event and they are praising God and his will to make sure they get through it. They thank him for providing them with furit and shelter and an island to live on and for making the fruit taste so good and for providing the seas that give them life. They hope that their song reaches God's ear's and is then echoed throughout the sea for all to hear and gain inpiration and faith in God. I think that this makes sense to the reader and delivers the messge in a creative way by placing it in a song and giving a story to give the reader some context as to who and why the song is being sung. It is inspriring and could give people hope who have not only been shipwrecked but to anyone who has been in dark time and can't find a way out of it.
unespied- to not see or catch sight of.
Prelate- bishop or high figure in the chruch.
ambergris- a waxlike substance that originates as a secretion in the intestines of the sperm whale, found floating in tropical seas and used in perfume manufacture.

Sonnet XIX When i consider how my light is spent

I found this poem very confusing to read and understand at first and it took me a few readings to somewhat understand it to the point where I got the general message. I think it is harder to read because of the lack of punctuation which makes the first half of the poem seem like it's rambling on. I think that the author is trying to explain that he is questioning his purpose in life and wheather or not he is serving God in the right way in the right amount. It seems to me that he has this dark talent but feels guilty about exploiting it and feels that he should be more dutiful to God. He ask's God if labour is the right way to serve him and God responds by saying that this is not the most important thing to him and that his best "disciple's" are not those who labor but rather those who carry his modest message of fatih and salvation with them every day and present themselves as examples of Christ's power to everyone they meet. These are the people who serve him best. Patience is a very important thing also and this is what allows someone to truly become a man of God. If they can wait with the other thousands to send God's message across the land or to simply recieve God's message whather it be thorughout a lifetime or thorughout a single day.

Man

I know these notes are a little late but they can help to study for the final. The man seems to me to be a very profound poem that Vauaghan wrote to explain to himself and others how humans think and live their life. In a broad sense the poem is divided into two sections. The first consists of the first two stanza's and they talk about nature and how it nature lives its life. The second part consists of the last two stanza's and they talk about the way man kind lives their lives. It seems ironic to me that the part of man kind is easier to read and understand than the first two stanza's. Vaughan gives three examples of how nature thinks by sowing us the birds, bees, and flowers. The basic point of these examples is to show us that nature does not ask why or what about something. Nature takes time as it is and whatever it brings. Nature also stays steady following the patterns of the seasons and what their genetic code tells them to do. They are not like humans where they are continually moving about and looking for change or better things. Nature is content with the present. Humans on the other hand tend to ask questoins about everything and why stuff happens. We are continually moving and don't have a home. We may think we have a home but it's not a permanent one as in nature of a plant or tree. Ww don't know exactly where our home is. We wander about this earth hoping to find one but we will never on this earth. Our permanent home will be found in either heaven or hell. There is one line in particullar that caught my attention: And intercourse of times divide. This seems to be complicated but it actually is quite simple. The time of the birds crosses the understanding of time by us. Time is whatever we make it and we divide it up so we can better understand it into minutes, hours, seconds, days, years, etc. The birds only understand time by that which is defined by the temperature and the seasons. IT is harder for us to udnerstand their time but easy for us to understand it as it is defined by our culture. Time is different in many cultures and it is whatever you make it.

The Retreat

Here are some of my notes from class about The Retreat. There are two different meanings of the title. The first meaning is a physical trip to get closer to God. One where you would normally go with some sort of church group. The second is a step backwards as in a millitary retreat but one where you retreat your mind to an early point in your life where you were innocent about God and the whole concept of religion. You have the best relationship with God when you are youngest in life because you know not of sin or temptation in an evil sense. As you get older temptation for sin becomes apparent to you and you can easily stray from having a strong relationship with God. The greatest glory in one's life would be to go our of your life as you had come in. Being innocent of all things of the world and having a strong relationship with God. There are also three different races which one goes through before during and after their life. THe first is before you are born. That is time spent your soul spends with God in heaven. This is the closest one will get with God. The second is your departure from God to come and live on this Earth. The third race is where you depart this Earth, hopefully innocent again, to hopefully reunite with God. You are never the same however, after living a life of sin on this Earth. I think this poem is very interesting and makes one think about the metaphysical world we live in.

Henry Vaughan

Much like George Herbert, it seems that Vaughan had a privileged childhood in regards to his education. He and his twin brother wer taught privatley then attended the college of Jesus at Oxford. Vaughan left college to study law in London but then joined the Royalists in the Civil War and Fought in South Wales. This experience could have influeneced him in his writing by making him more of a secular/physical thinking person rather than being more like Herbert who believed strongly in writing about God and religion in general. It seems to me that Vaughan was more interested in writing about women and people rather than God. This is appartent in his Poems with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished in where he writes about Mrs. Katherine Phillips. Vaughan's first few sets of poetry are very much about the secular world, Women, and a metaphysical state of mind. He only starts to write about religion when he is inspired by Herbert's work. Vaughan's poetry greatly reflects Herbert's The Temple. Vaughan is still interested though in natural abjects and mystical communion with nature where Herbert seemed to wrire strictly about religion. Overall I think that Vaughan is a very interesting man who gives us a good mixture of religion and secular thoughts. I think that we can learn a good deal from Vaughan about how to connect these two topics in our own life. It's also interesting to see this metaphysical poetry evolve over the years from Donne to Herbert to Vaughan. This evolution can partly be attributed to the fact that Donne influenced Vaughan but only through what showed through Herbert.

George Herbert/Easter Wings

After reading his biobragphy i foiund out that George Herbert was an amazing young man who did not let diversity get in his way of becoming educated. I think it is remarkable that he and his siblings all recieved a high quality education even though they were raised by their mother, sister and heiress to Sir Richard Newport. I also found it interesting that Donne and Herbert were close friends and that Donne even delivered the sermon at Herbert's mother's funeral. This also shows that Herbert's family was important and that the sermon must have been well written since Donne was the most respected Preacher in all of Europe at that time.
In regards to Easter-Wings I find it to be a poem that is giving glory to the lord but also criticizing him for giving up all his wealth and assets. By just looking at this poem one can see that there is a pattern to how it was written and that it must be important to the flow of how it should be read. The first and third stanza's go in a descending orderof words per line while the second and fourth go in an ascending order. I can compare this to a piece of music that starts out as a decrescendo but then gets louder and goes through a grescendo but repeats the process to finish with a bang. The lines of the corresponding stanza's also relate to each other. For instance the firt line fo the second and fourth stanza start with 'with thee' then continue to request something from God; 'o let me rist' 'let me combine'. The last lines of these two stanza's also relate to each other. They actually say the same thing but in different wording. The fall and affliction are both things that are negatvie but two things that will make the speaker stronger. The last two lines of the first and third stanza's also relate to one another. The second to last lines are 'Till he became' but then change to that 'that I became'. This shows that the reader has been chagned by the grace of God. The last lines 'Most poor' and 'Most thinne' both show that there is nothing to either the lords name or the speaker's name that makes sense or is valuable in any way. Overall I like this poem and am looking forward to disscussing it in class.

The Flea and Holy Sonnets

After reading these three different poems I have come to the conclusion that the Flea is much harder to understand than the holy sonnets. While i get the basic gist of the poem that he thinks of the flea as a thing that unites them in something greater than marriage, I find that it has a good deal of symbolism and hidden meanings in every line which makes it confussing and harder to read and understand. I do get though that he and his lover have been sheltered from the outside world by their parents and this has given them some crazy notions of self killing. He didn't want to believe that the flea was real but once it came and it bit both of them he like the flea becuas their blood now mixed in one thing and this brought them together closer. He also say's that when the flea dies it will take the life from him because the flea held there lives safe and together and peaceful. It was their wedding ring. I agree with chase that this poem is so ridiculous that it is almost comical.
The sonnets are much easier to read and I liked them more. For the first one I understood it to say the he wants salvation from God because he's seent he angles and how they have been healed of there afflictions from earth. He knows that it's too late to ask for it when he reaches heaven so he's calling out to God now so that he can live forever with the countless number of angels. The second sonnet is along the same lines as the first but it describes his feelings of salvation in more detail. It is a much more realization on his part that he can no longer solve his problems by himself so he wants to give it all up to God and knows that if he does this his temptation to be with the enemy will go away and his life will be taken care of. He says that God can come into him and exert his mighty power to liberate him form the enemy but never from God himself. He will always be held by God.

John Donne

I find John Donne to be a very interesting person who was very smart and had an attitude about him that he wanted to do his own thing. This is exemplified by his imprisonment by Sir Thomas Egerton for his seccret love with his Egerton's daughter. I think that Donne was one of those people who gave anything he did 100 percent of his effort even if he didn't think that he would be good at it. This work ethic was shown in his development as a preacher. At first Donne wasn't sure if he would be good at it but over time he developed his style and become one of the best preachers ever known. He was also fond of reading anything and gaining any information possible. This also shows his hard work ethic. The two poems are hard to understand the first time you read them. I think that the first one about forbiding mourning is more easily understood than the second one which is written with a lot of symbolism that hides the message. If you read it more than oncce though and analyze it closer it will make more sense. I can see why Donne was such a popular preacher. His subjects addressed issues that were not normal for that period of time. His poem about forbbidding mourning suggests that we should celebrate a life since it is starting to live its eternal life. This was a rather rennassance based idea and that's what people wanted since he was writing right after rennasance and just at the beggining of the reformation. Overall I don't like these poems as much as the things they carried but it does give a glimpse into the thinking of that time period. If anyone can elaborate on meaning of any the two poems but especially the second one that would be great.

Life after Ms. Hughes

I think that the rest of this marking will be relatively easy compared to the first two marking periods where we learned about books that were very old and had not relevance to our culture today. I think that the things they carried is much more interesting Beowulf, Hamlet, even 451 and BNW. This marking period should seriously help my grade since all that has to be done is read and take a quiz on comprehension. The subject matter also helps to keep me interested inthe class and actually pay attention. While this last half won't be as easy as the first half was under Ms. Hughes, I think that it will still be easier than our previous three marking periods. There's only six weeks to go and we already survived most of the year.

451

I'm up to page 130 now and the story is starting to get very suspenseful with Montag being on the run. The scene where he is attempting to cross the boulevard is very exciting becuase the beetle is approaching but you don't know if it is the cops or not. When the car passes and Montag makes the connection that it might have been the ones who killed Clarisse it is a thoguht that brings the reader and Montag back to the beliefs and actions of Clarisse. I find it a bit ironic that he wouldn't be crossing the street if he hadn't of known Clarisse but his change of mind didn't really come until he fouind out that she had died. So for him to encounter the possible car that killed her while he was doing the same thing she was doing (for all we know she could of been running away also) is some what ironic. It's as if there is a natural element in this society that gets rid of people like this. People who think differently and disturb the peace. The 'normal' people don't cross the street and for good reasons. The one's who are not 'normal' must cross the streets to get away and in this way the streets are a tool to kill these people. I find it bery brave and rightgeous of Montag to place those books in the house of his fellow fireman. I felt as though he gained revenge on the people that held him down by doing this and by burning Beatty. Montag is certainly out to change the world.

451

Having read most of 451 now, I find it much more interesting than Brave New World. I feel that it more of a realistic book that actually has a plot that can be followed rather easily. I also find it interesting how the ways of the society in which Montag lives are presented to the reader. For example, late in section two the narrator describes Montag stopping at the bank, to get the money for the printer, which is oppened all the time with robot tellers working. This shows thourgh the context of the plot that their banks are differnt than ours and that they as a society have evolved their mentality of what are appropriate hours to bank. The people of this future society have made it the most convenient to bank and the author has showed this in a way that is not blatant to the reader as being a fact of that society. Throughout this book there are examples of this and by having these facts and descriptions of the soceity intertwined with the plot it allows the story to flow and evolve easier than I believe the story did in Brave New World. By the way what class would Faber be? He's smart but has cowardice.