Keta3’s Weblog

O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting
 
          fingers of
purient philosophers pinched
and
poked
 
thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy
 
      beauty      .how
oftn have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and
 
buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
        (but
true
 
to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover
 
          thou answerest
 
them only with
 
                        spring)
 
Poem by E.E. Cummings

Wow crazy poem, how its spaced and stuff, makes me really have to concentrate on what is going on and it kinda distracts me from the meaning of the words.  The stanzas kinda have a pattern, but then again they don’t because in the last maybe half of the poem the lines skip the four line stanza and the weird part really almost starts where the parenthasee starts.  There are also either misspelled words, or words that are leaving out letters on purpose, they can also be the mark of the time they were in when they used that older style of English.  In the third stanza there is a caesura in the form of a period.  Pretty sure that is the only period in the whole piece.  This piece is about Earth and how people are forever messing with it.  The scientists are forever trying to find out all of her secrets, philosophers are always trying to figure out how the world works, in a very abstract sort of way, and the religious people are always trying to find God’s in the Earth or on the Earth.  But Earth is never in winter all year long to retaliate to the wrongs that all these groups do to her, but always bounces back in the form of Spring.  This is very forgiving of Earth, I think if I was Earth and I felt all the proddings of these different groups, I would have Spring everyother year deffinatly, and then maybe people would learn their lesson.

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient sleepless eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors;
No yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever or else swoon to death.
 
Poem by John Keats

“And watching with eternal lids apart”, wowzass I really like that line, there is personification because stars don’t actually watch, but I really like the eternal lids part, it really makes me think about how long stars actually are on this world, its pretty amazing.  In the line before splendour is spelled differently but not wrong.  I think John is listing all the things that are on Earth that happen and that are, and then goes on to say , But!  Even those things are not as strong and eternal as my love for you, and your love and devotion to me.  It’s some pretty heavy stuff so he must be really into this girl.  Other noticings that I see, There is a lot of caesura in this poem in the way of commas, a lot of different spellings of words showing that this poem was in fact written  in the old times.  Pillow’d is spelled with an apostrophe, and I cant remember what that is called but the apostrophe took the place of the E or the vowel sound, poets usually use this when writing iambic pentameter, so that the syllables will match up.  Some words were used that I did not know before er⋅e⋅mite – a hermit or recluse, esp. one under a religious vow.//

And, ablution, which is a cleansing with water as a religious ritual.  So both these new words have to do with cleansing and being religious, maybe Keats thinks love and God and the Bible all tie together, that by finding love one also finds all of God’s glory in the process.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise,
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints -I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
 
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Wow, I did not know that Elizabeth Browning wrote this poem.  This has got to be one of the most famous love poems in all of history.  In lines one, three, six, seven, eight, ten, and thirteen there is either a caesura with a dash, question mark, or period.  There is also a lot of enjambement in this poem, this poem being a love poem is obviously very euphinous sounding, it is very pleasing to the ear because she wrote this to someone that she loved, and you would not write nasty ugly sounding words to someone that you loved.  There is also an anaphora in the middle lines with the words I love thee and then it goes on to say how she loves him.  I think the I love you repeated three times really pounds it into the poem what her feelings are for this guy, also in the second to last line there is a bit of catalouging, with smiles and tears.  This is also a couplet, the stanzas are just not separated, I suspected this because the last two lines sounded different from the rest of the poem, and this makes sense, because the volta or the turn around would naturally sound different from the rest of the poem.  Some of the lines in this poem are end stopped.  Elizabeth also puts her I love you themes into metaphors comparing love to being pure and a man trying to right wrongs, also this is one humongous apostrophi, or an ode, that is posititve throughout the whole poem.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty

Your subjects hope, dread Sire--
The crown upon your brows may flourish long,
And that your arm may in your God be strong!
O may your sceptre num'rous nations sway,
And all with love and readiness obey!
But how shall we the British king reward!
Rule thou in peace, our father, and our lord!
Midst the remembrance of thy favours past,
The meanest peasants most admire the last
May George, beloved by all the nations round,
Live with heav'ns choicest constant blessings crown'd!
Great God, direct, and guard him from on high,
And from his head let ev'ry evil fly!
And may each clime with equal gladness see
A monarch's smile can set his subjects free!

I think this poem is hoping for the end of a ruling king, or maybe the end of a ruling like a mean person.  In a lot of places in this poem apostrophis are used to take the vowel sounds out of words.  It makes the poem sound more provincial and peasent like, maybe the feel that she was going for, I can just hear an accent when I am reading this poem.  There is no enjambment in this poem, because you see that more in modern day poetry.  There are a lot of end stops with the use of an exclamation point.  There are also cesora’s throught out the poem in the way of commas.  A lot of words are spelled differently too, like scepter, and favours.  This also adds to how old this poem is because you just don’t see those words in todays world.  There is a lot of talk about God when talking about the King and monarch.  It makes me think of the olden days when kings said things like, “God spoke to me last night and said we needed to go to war”  A lot of rulers said that they talked to God when they probably did not.  It’s sickening how they misuse their power in this way.  In a way I can see how the separation of church and state is good now because that enables people to no longer abuse the power of God, they can no longer use his power to further their own in an unscrupulous manner.