Throughout the poem, the narrator encourages scholars or students, or even perhaps other writers, to drop their books. Instead of gaining knowledge through barren leaves—pages—they should take a more primitive approach by going back to nature for knowledge, for there is more wisdom in the song of a bird than that of a book. While […]
In Oliver Baker’s essay, Belinda’s ‘Sylphs’: Pope’s Games with Precedence in the ‘Rape of the Lock’, Baker argues that there needs to be an understanding of two ordinary themes in order to have a correct interpretation of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. These themes include the understanding of the game Ombre which is played at […]
[spiderpowa-pdf src=”http://www.uwgbcommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/annotation1.pdf”]annotation I chose to annotate the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley bearing in mind that humanity and the reign of man is fleeting and insignificant, and tends to become even more insignificant with the passage of time. The descriptive imagery in the poem in terms of the vastness of the desert and the […]
Books can change lives and like in the lives of real people, books seem to have an impact on the lives of fictional characters as well. In Frankenstein by Mary Shelly the Creature finds three books in the wilderness that he reads and proclaims that they have made a profound impact on his life. We […]
‘The Sisters’ is about a young boy who has an experience in death of a close friend; the priest. The plot revolves around his struggle to deal with the death of an important figure whom he looks up to and cherishes. The narrator admits he was uncomfortable around father Flynn but Joyce never tells us […]
I chose to annotate “Holy Thursday” by William Blake. There are many references to innocence in this poem. The word “innocent” is used twice, and “Wands as white as snow” and “lambs” are a few examples of symbols used. Innocence can have a double meaning in this poem, depending on who is being addressed. When […]
One theme in “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats is the desire for things to stay the same when things are changing. The lovers painted on the Grecian urn are chasing and fleeing, but they will never reach each other. They are stuck in time in their pursuit of one another, which leaves […]
[spiderpowa-pdf src=”http://www.uwgbcommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ARABYenglishfinalblogpost.pdf”]ARABYenglishfinalblogpost Within Araby, a short story by James Joyce, we are shown the feelings of a boy who is at first infatuated with his friend’s older sister who lives across the street. The Araby which he attends is a symbol of his romantic feelings toward the girl. At the Araby, he comes to realize the girls […]
In the short story of James Joyce’s The Dead, we come across a very important scene in which Gabriel’s self-value declines greatly due to the fact that his wife’s heart–Gretta–longs for a different man. A very dead man. How dead you ask? Very dead. In this short story, snow represents death. At the amount that […]
[spiderpowa-pdf src=”http://www.uwgbcommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/CCF30042015_21.pdf”]‘Daffodils’ Annotation
“The Tyger,” by William Blake, represents the presence of evil and sin in the world. Blake uses words such as fire, fearful, dare, and deadly to describe the Tyger, suggesting that it is something powerful and dangerous to be feared. The Tyger’s “fearful symmetry” could mean a temptation to sin. It is too perfect: perfectly […]
Daffodils by William Wordsworth is a complex poem focusing on the line separating what is real from the imaginary. The first line of the poem sets the tone as sad and dreary. The words, “lonely as a cloud” imply that the narrator of this piece is utterly alone. Connecting oneself to a cloud is saying […]
Little Fly, Till some blind hand Thy summer’s play Shall brush my wing. My thoughtless hand Has brushed away. If thought is life And strength and breath, Am not I And the want A fly like thee? Of thought is death; Or art not thou A man like me? Then am I A happy fly, […]
In the beginning of Joyce’s story, I focused on annotating an area of the text in which the boy of the story admits to creepily watching a girl whom he has never much spoken to. Being a friend of Mangan, the girl’s brother, the boy has an innocent reason […]
Although both Heart of Darkness and Poisonwood Bible take place in different time periods and with very different characters, both novels have common themes derived from different perspectives throughout each book. Poisonwood Bible, written by Barbara Kingsolver, is the story of a desperate missionary who drags his family from their comfortable life in Georgia to […]
Marlow’s conversation with Kurtz’s “intended” is one of the most intriguing parts of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The conversation with the Intended does a lot to demonstrate Marlow’s inner turmoil in lying to the Intended about Kurtz. The Intended seems to have a heavily-idealized view of Kurtz, remembering him as a paragon of greatness. […]
For this blog post, I focused on what is defined as sublime during the Romantic Era. For Wordsworth, natural piety was extremely important to incorporate into his poetry, because he believe that in order to achieve true passion and happiness, one must find the divine in nature. To Wordsworth, he discovers that the daffodils bring […]
In his poem Love’s Philosophy, Shelley writes from the perspective of a speaker who, using different types of nature imagery, describes love while trying to ask his unrequited lover why they do not love him back and why they will not show him any affection. Regarding symbolism, the overall concept of nature that Shelley uses […]
Here is my Word document for an annotation on James Joyce’s “Araby” from his book Dubliners that we are currently looking at in our British Literature II class. Joyce annotated chapter
The famous scene written on this page comes from Volume II chapter II of Frankenstein in which Victor Frankenstein converses with his Creature for the first time. In this short passage from this scene, the Creature tries to convince the noncompliant and enraged Frankenstein to do his duty towards him and hear his story. […]
Looking at revisions between two authors can give major insight to the way the novel is finished and what impacts certain revisions have on the novel as a whole. In class, we were given the opportunity to look at The Shelley-Godwin Archive and dissect a page from Frankenstein with Mary Shelley’s revisions and also her […]
Percy and Mary Shelley’s literary styles, though quite different, work together quite well. This observation is evident on page 84 of Draft Notebook A from the Shelley-Godwin Archive. On this particular page of the manuscript, Frankenstein is struggling with one of his countless bouts of inner turmoil regarding his creation of the monster. Mary gave […]
All edits that Percy Shelley made to Mary Shelley’s work, Frankenstein, made the writing seem as if it were written by a person with a higher education. In a book that is in the science fiction genre, Percy made it seem as though it was possible for the monster to be real. Even though […]
On page 51 of Draft Notebook A from the Shelley-Godwin Archive, the scene from Frankenstein being depicted is Victor Frankenstein meeting up with his old friend, Henry Clervall, who has just come to Ingolstadt for college. The first edit by Percy Shelley on this page is a simple sentence structure edit, but the edits that […]
In Draft Notebook A, on the first page of chapter seven, Percy Shelley made very few corrections to Mary’s original draft. This page describes Victor’s initial animation of the creature and how, despite his attempts at collecting attractive body parts, the creature turned out hideous and terrifying. In comparison to the published version of Frankenstein there are […]
Blog post by: Kirk Schchardt and Danielle Wright What is the context of the page within the novel? In this page of Mary Shelley’s notebook, Victor Frankenstein is speaking to the creature in the Alps that he was hiking through. The creature tells Victor Frankenstein that he knows he is trying to kill him. The […]
This excerpt of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shares Victor Frankenstein’s emotions and feelings while he is contemplating to continue his experimental work He hesitates at first because he feels nervous and guilty about hiding his research, but then he realizes that he has been consumed by it and must finish. “I seemed to have lost all […]
On this page Elizabeth writes to Victor in regards to how the family is doing and what is going on within the household after Victor leaves. It also focuses on Justine and her relationship with their Aunt. The way MWS writes is much more personal and comforting as if Justine is part of the family, when […]
In William Blake’s “In A Wife I Would Desire,” he writes: In a wife I would desire / What in whores is always found / The lineaments of Gratified desire. As Blake believed, he was a prophet of Milton whom Blake said was of Satan’s party without knowing it. With this in mind, Blake and […]
“Chimney Sweep: A Little Black Thing Among the Snow” A little black thing among the snow, Crying ‘weep! ‘weep!’ in notes of woe! ‘Where are thy father and mother? say?’ ‘They are both gone up to the church to pray. Because I was happy upon the heath, And smil’d among the winter’s snow, They […]
A POISON TREE I was angry with my friend; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I waterd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And it […]
To The Muses Whether on Ida’s shady brow Or in the chambers of the East, The chambers of the sun, that now From ancient melody have ceased; Whether in Heaven ye wander fair, Or the green corners of the Earth, Or the blue regions of the air, Where the melodious winds have birth; Whether on […]
My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; I could wish my days to be Bound each […]
A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees, Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees. […]
“The Lamb” Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? Gave thee life, and bid thee feed, By the stream and o’er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing, woolly, bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice? Little Lamb who made thee? Dost thou […]
She was a phantom of delight When first she gleam’d upon my sight; A lovely apparition, sent To be a moment’s ornament; Her eyes as stars of twilight fair; Like twilight’s, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful dawn; A dancing shape, an image gay, To […]
“The Tables Turned” by William Wordsworth Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books; Or surely you’ll grow double: Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks; Why all this toil and trouble? The sun above the mountain’s head, A freshening lustre mellow Through all the long green fields has spread, His first […]
It Is A Beauteous Evening It is a beauteous evening, calm and free The holy time is quiet as a Nun Breathless with adoration; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquility; The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the Sea: Listen! the mighty Being is awake. And doth with his eternal motion make A […]
It was an April morning: fresh and clear William Wordsworth It was an April morning: fresh and clear The Rivulet, delighting in its strength, Ran with a young man’s speed; and yet the voice Of waters which the winter had supplied Was softened down into a vernal tone. The spirit of enjoyment and desire, And […]
The Suicide’s Argument by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Ere the birth of my life, if I wished it or no No question was asked me–it could not be so! If the life was the question, a thing sent to try And to live on be YES; what can NO be ? to die. NATURE’S ANSWER […]
“The Human Abstract” http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-human-abstract/ The poem I have selected by William Blake is “The Human Abstract,” written in 1794. This poem is a very deep interpretation of the four values, and why things are the way they are. For example, the poem suggests how mercy would not be needed if everyone was happy, or, that […]
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies. Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand, dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, & what art, Could twist the sinews […]
The Chimney Sweeper By William Blake When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry ” ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!” So your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep. There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head That curled like […]
“The Fly” Little Fly, Thy summer’s play My thoughtless hand Has brushed away. Am not I A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me? For I dance, And drink, and sing, Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. If thought is life And strength and breath, And the want Of […]
A Poison Tree * I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears; And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And […]
In “The Invisible Woman: Eve’s Self Image in Paradise Lost” by Johnathan “Leviathan” Whitfield he gives a feminist view of eve in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. He takes into account Eve’s perspective – the female perspective and tried to make understating of how gender affects interpretation. What I learned from this article were things that […]
In Paradise Lost, Milton continuously speaks of a scheming counsil isn’t what it may seem to be when it is pulled out from the text. Hossein and other Milton scholars claim that this “dark divan” pertains to or has relations to the Turks, and in book 1 Satan is described as the “great sultan.” In […]
Jarod K. Anderson’s article, “The Decentralization of Morality in Paradise Lost” , discusses God’s authority and the idea of otherness — things outside the power of God. Milton uses the concept of otherness to “create a legitimately questionable but ultimately beneficent God”. This adds to the complexity of the poem and is argued by Anderson […]
During his lifetime, Milton was a strong advocate for the freedom of an individual to make decisions based on logical rationalization, which explains why his characters Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost frequently try to understand the world around them with reason as well as faith. In William Walker’s article “On Reason, Faith, and Freedom […]
In Paradise Lost, fate is used in many contexts through out each book. Ben Gray Lumpkin, author of “Fate in “Paradise Lost’, writes that fate is used in either, death, mishap or bad fortune to either Satan and the fallen angels or Adam and Eve. Because of God’s power and omnipotence, many question fate and […]
Areopagitica and the Dynamics of History, written by Loewenstein, argues that Milton diverges from his usual rhetoric in order to send a message through the use of the Areopagitica. Loewenstein suggests that even though Areopagitica was written with a different message than other works of Milton, it still holds much of the tension that Milton is famous […]
The first thing I learned from the article I chose was actually more about the culture during John Milton’s time rather than the actual book. According to Stephen B. Dobranski in his article “Clustering and Curling Locks: The Matter of Hair in Paradise Lost,” as the different sides fought in the British civil wars, they […]
In “Milton’s PARADISE LOST”, Gene Michael Anderson argues his views that throughout Paradise Lost Satan’s weapon is fraud. Anderson analyzes that in heaven, Satan portrays a Great Profit, “A false Moses figure whose misguidance leads to the angelic exodus from heaven.” While Satan continues to con the other Angels, Anderson notes the importance of words […]
Daniel Shore, an assistant professor of English at Georgetown University, writes a compelling article on Milton’s Paradise Lost called Why Milton is Not an Iconoclast. Shore’s credible work has appeared in Critical Inquiry, and this essay will be part of his book, Milton and the Art of Rhetoric. The title of this essay, Why Milton […]
In “Contextualizing Eve’s and Milton’s Solitudes in Book 9 of ‘Paradise Lost‘,” Mary Beth Long explores Milton’s decision to have Eve alone when she was tempted. She also explores the idea of solitude from a seventeenth-century point of view and compares it to Milton’s changing views of solitude in Paradise Lost. In the seventeenth century, […]
Robert E. Jungman critiqued Milton’s Paradise Lost by analyzing Milton’s use of the words “fair defect.” In Paradise Lost Adam calls Eve a “fair defect” and Robert notices that this could have multiple meanings. The assumption is that the word fair is being used to mean beautiful but it could also be used to suggest “free from moral stain” […]
In Lee Erickson’s journal article “Satan’s Apostles and the Nature of Faith in Paradise Lost Book I,” he argues that Milton’s words are motivated by his anti-Catholic, protestant thinking. Furthermore, Erickson picks up on several connections made by Milton between Satan and his devils to Jesus Christ and his disciples. This comparison, argues Erickson, is Milton’s way […]
In Elisabeth Liebert’s “Rendering ‘More Equal’: Eve’s Changing Discourse in Paradise Lost,” the author describes Adam and Eve’s changing relationship and argues how Eve’s mindset changes throughout the Books. After her Creation, Eve is content with her place next to Adam, and I discovered she often addresses him as “My Guide and Head” or “My Glory, my […]
James Fleming’s article “Medusa in Paradise Lost“ (JSTOR) discusses and explores the peculiarity of featuring Medusa in John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Medusa, the fearsome Gorgon from Greek mythology, differs from the various allusions to Greco-Roman mythology that Milton makes throughout Paradise Lost. Fleming states that Medusa in Paradise Lost is not an allusion, but rather is […]
Samuel Fallon of Yale University writes on a series of questions regarding God’s position in Paradise Lost in his article, “Milton’s Strange God: Theology and Narrative Form in Paradise Lost.” The three most important questions that he attempts to answer or debunk are: How does God actually interact with Adam, Eve, and the other characters if […]
Should feminists acknowledge Milton’s efforts to give women full dignity and freedom in a male’s environment or should no feminist have any polite thing to say about Milton’s work in Paradise Lost. The article The Mischief-Marking of Raphael upon Adam and Eve will debate whether Milton “had” to write Paradise Lost book four the way […]
This article centers around the idea that Eve is based off a sort of vine motif – that is, that she is something of a beautiful, fruitful thing that must cling to something else to survive. And that ‘something else’ in this case is Adam. From reading this I’ve come to realize that this metaphor […]