Blog assignment #5 -- "It dropped so low in my regard"

It dropped so low -- in my Regard --
I heard it hit the Ground --
And go to pieces on the Stones
At bottom of my Mind --

Yet blamed the Fate that flung it -- less
Than I denounced Myself,
For entertaining Plated Wares
Upon My Silver Shelf -- 

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830. She was a great poet. She lived mostly an introverted and reclusive life. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence. The poem, simply symbolizes regret, from lines (1-4) the regrets of not making efforts in putting what she loves so much out there to be published because not up to a dozen of her work was published in her lifetime even though she was a productive writer. Maybe it is about her holding something in high esteem, perhaps a person? that was not what she thought it was, like a similar situation in a "Rose For Emily" by William Faulkner.

"Yet blamed the Fate that flung it -- less
Than I denounced Myself,
For entertaining Plated Wares
Upon My Silver Shelf --" this stanza simply means even though her experiences and what she if feeling right now can be atrributed to her own fault and mistakes, yet she chooses to blame fate because she can't stand the fact she is the cause of her own  in life.

blog assignment #4 - Jerusalem by William Blake

The romantic era was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in 18th century in Europe and strengthened in reaction to the industrial revolution and a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms. Jerusalem by William Blake is also one of the work produced at the time.
In the poem William Blake calls for Jerusalem to be built in England, he said
"I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
 In England's green and pleasant land."(13-16)
Jerusalem represents holiness and purity and he takes this idea to speak about the spiritual meaning of Among these dark Satanic Mills? an example personification connected with alliteration is the reference to the holy lamb of God which represent Jesus(1-2). And the line that quotes "Among these dark Satanic Mills?  simply means a holy land Jerusalem cannot be built in a place of tyranny

blog assignment #3 - Bartleby

The whole story deals with the purposeless of much of human life. Bartleby is a man who becomes increasingly isolated from others. He gradually gives up on life. That's why he continually says: "I would prefer not to." (Melville 13). The narrator is confused because he can't seem to help Bartleby. The world in which these characters exist is a kind of slow poison that drains them of their humanity.

The narrator, an elderly Manhattan lawyer with a very comfortable business helping wealthy men deal with mortgages, deeds, and bonds, relates the story of the strangest man he has ever known.
At the start of the story, the narrator already employs two scrivebners, nicknamed Nippers and Turkey, to copy legal documents by hand. . An increase in business leads the narrator to advertise for a third scrivener, and he hires the forlorn-looking Bartleby in hopes that his calmness will soothe the temperaments of Nippers and Turkey.
At first, Bartleby appears to be a favour to the practice, as he produces a large volume of high-quality work. One day, though, when asked by the narrator to help proofread a copied document, Bartleby answers with what soon becomes his stock response: "I would prefer not to." To the dismay of the narrator and to the irritation of the other employees, Bartleby performs fewer and fewer tasks around the office. The narrator makes several attempts to reason with him and to learn something about him, but Bartleby offers nothing but his signature "I would prefer not to." One weekend the narrator stops by the office unexpectedly and discovers that Bartleby has started living there. The loneliness of Bartleby's life impresses him: at night and on Sundays, wall street  is as desolate as a ghost town, and the window in Bartleby's corner allows him no view except that of a blank wall three feet away. The narrator's feelings for Bartleby alternate between pity and revulsion.
For a while Bartleby remains willing to do his main work of copying, but eventually he ceases this activity as well, so that finally he is doing nothing. And yet the narrator finds himself unable to make Bartleby leave; his unwillingness or inability to move against Bartleby mirrors Bartleby's own strange inaction. Tension gradually builds as the narrator's business associates wonder why the strange and idle Bartleby is ever-present in the office.
Sensing the threat of a ruined reputation, but emotionally unable to throw Bartleby out, the exasperated narrator finally decides to move out himself, relocating his entire business and leaving Bartleby behind. But soon the new tenants of the old space come to ask for his help: Bartleby still will not leave. Although they have thrown him out of the rooms, he now sits on the stairs all day and sleeps in the building's front doorway. The narrator visits Bartleby and attempts to reason with him. Feeling desperate, the narrator now surprises even himself by inviting Bartleby to come and live with him at his own home. But Bartleby, alas, "would prefer not to."
 In short the narrator returns to find that Bartleby has been forcibly removed and imprisoned. The narrator visits him. As ever, Bartleby rebuffs the narrator's friendliness. Nevertheless, the narrator bribes a turnkey to make sure Bartleby gets good and plentiful food. But when the narrator visits again a few days later, he discovers that Bartleby has died of starvation, having apparently preferred not to eat.
Some time afterward, the narrator hears of a rumor to the effect that Bartleby had worked in a death letter office, but had lost his job there. The narrator reflects that the dead letters would have made anyone of Bartleby's temperament sink into an even darker gloom. Dead letters are emblems of man's mortality and of the failures of his best intentions. Through Bartleby, the narrator has glimpsed the world as the miserable scrivener must have seen it. The closing words of the story are the narrator's resigned and pained sigh: "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!"

Blog assignment #2- "A Rose For Emily"

 Respect, admiration, and fame from the general public can come at somewhat of a cost. The cost can be anything from a decrease in privacy to an actual effect on ones mental state. This story is narrated in a third person point of view, The story is being told by the town's people and it started off with Ms. Emily's death and how the whole town went to her funeral: "the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly put curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save and old manservant- a combined gardener and cook- had seen in the last ten years"(Faulkner pg.33). From this statement, it shows Ms. Emily was a well known person and sort of a center of attention but yet mysterious citizen in her town.

Faulkner uses Symbolism and foreshadowing to describe the character of Ms. Emily. An example is when the tax collectors came to her house for her taxes, Faulkner describes how the house and Ms. Emily looks. "only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores", this statement explains how the house gives off such a depressing mood. "Her skeleton was small and spare;", this line shows us how her appearance showcases death also.  

When Ms. Emily was younger, her deceased father used to force away all the young men that was in love with her. The summer after her father death, she fell in love with a Yankee by the name of Homer Barron. Everyone in the town was whispering about their relationship and wondering if they were married. After a while they stop seeing Homer and decided that they got married. The townspeople then proceeds by saying that Ms. Emily then died a while after. They didn't know she was sick.

After they buried her, they knew that there was one room that wasn't opened. So after they decently buried her they went to see upon the room. When they opened the room they was greeted by great amounts of dust. They also explain that the "room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man's toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured." They also saw a man's collar, tie, suit, shoes, and discarded socks. "Then shockingly, laying right there in the bed was the man. For a long while we just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin. The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace. What was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust. Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair."

blog assignment #1- A Clean - Well Lighted Place

Ernest Hemingway was one of the young men who volunteered to serve in  the first world war, he was an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross in Italy. according to him, he said "when you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion of immortality...then when you are badly wounded the first time you lose that illusion and you know it can happen to you..." He was injured while running a mobile canteen dispensing chocolate and cigarettes for soldiers and while he was trying to get a wounded Italian soldier  to safety. one thing lead to another, Hemingway fell in love with Agnes Von Kurowsky a nurse he met while in the hospital within a six month span in Milan. After the war, Hemingway returned Home expecting Agnes his found love to join him shortly, only to receive a letter from her ending the relationship. This i think serves as the basics to the way he writes. In "A Clean - Well Lighted Place" the bar represents a perfect place where it is quiet, where lonely people can find comfort, somewhere they can just go to sit, think and relax. The character of the deaf old man symbolizes isolation, separation and living in the present moment, not worrying about the future, it also sort of reflects how Hemingway lived his life as a drunkard like the deaf old man who drank until he is unable to pay for his drinks, and how he took his own life maybe because he had thoughts that he didn't have anything worth living for anymore? and decided commit suicide to save himself maybe the unhappiness, discontent, or just the plain everyday life.