Tiffany Simon
Not much was said about this is lecture, but I did my paper on it so i thought i would fill in the gaps.
this poem was written after an opiate dream. Coleridge fell asleep right after reading a line in Purchas's Pilgrimage which said "Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto: and thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall". When Coleridge awake he wrote down all the things which he could remember but in the process was called away on business and was unable to remember the rest of his dream upon return. because of this the poem is not finahsed and the true meaning cannot be figured out.
Another theory is that Coleridge was asked by Byron to write a poem about Orientalism and critiquing the British looks on foreigners which could be just so by using sexual imagery. if read closely it is evident that there are many sexual images throughout the poem which could be Coleridge writing a poem that seems to be beautiful but underneath all of this beauty is the savageness of sex. thus showing how underneath all of the properness of the British there is also a savageness which makes them no better than people from the east.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Blake: not just a poem but also a picture
Tiffany Simon (discussion 1B)
this was covered in the beginning of class and he put a lot of energy into it which makes me think it may be important for the final.
*All of his work was accompanied by pictures
*pictures were usually done by one person and the words another... BLAKE DID BOTH!!
*this connected them because the poet was able to put his thoughts into pictures as well as words which give the poems a deeper meaning.
*work was put onto a copper plate and etched into the copper.
*pictures were then done the same to.
*work was put together.
*Blake did everything himself:
- mixed his own ink
-sketched out everything
-pressed his own work
DEDICATION!!
the website that was given to look at other works by Blake: www.blakearchive.org
this was covered in the beginning of class and he put a lot of energy into it which makes me think it may be important for the final.
*All of his work was accompanied by pictures
*pictures were usually done by one person and the words another... BLAKE DID BOTH!!
*this connected them because the poet was able to put his thoughts into pictures as well as words which give the poems a deeper meaning.
*work was put onto a copper plate and etched into the copper.
*pictures were then done the same to.
*work was put together.
*Blake did everything himself:
- mixed his own ink
-sketched out everything
-pressed his own work
DEDICATION!!
the website that was given to look at other works by Blake: www.blakearchive.org
The Life of Jane Austen in Relation to Her Works
There are many biographical links from Jane Austen's life that seemed to have influenced her literary works, specifically in her novel Persuasion
The first obvious link was that Austen's family was of the lower side of the landed gentry class, loosely meaning the English social class that owned land. Her father, George Austen, had risen his way through his family's profession as Wool manufacturers into the landed gentry class, while her mother Cassandra was of a prominent family. This relationship mimics the protagonist of Persuasion, Anne Elliot, who is of a noble family, and Captain Wentworth, who had risen his way up in the ranks of the British Navy. Austen's parents relationship could be seen as part of the beginning of the changing times of England becoming a working middle class country, and its entanglement of relationships between its former elite and aristocracy which the novel expounds.
Another strong connection between the fictitious relationship between Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot and Austen herself is that, when Austen was 21 around 1795/6, she fell in love with her neighbor's nephew Tom Lefroy. They apparently both had strong feelings for each other visible by all and letters later obtained between Austen and her eldest sister Cassandra, talk about spending a lot of time together. Sadly, the possible marriage was "impractical" because neither had the money and Lefroy's tentative legal career was being supported by a great uncle, and the Lefroy family intervened and sent Tom Lefroy away from Jane, never to be seen by her again. This unfortuante incident echoes the first encounter between Captain W and Anne, which begins and ends in a very similar way, yet only in the novel does he return and he and Anne get back together.
A third connection is that in 1800 Austen's father moved the family to Bath. Bath is one of the central settings of the later period of Persuasion, and it was said that Jane Austen was very upset about leaving the only home she had ever known for Bath. This would be very similar to Anne Elliot having to leave Kellynch Hall, which was Anne Elliot's only home. Here in Bath as well, Austen was proposed to by a man Harris Bigg-Wither, whom was said to be ugly, aggressive, and tactless. Austen accepted the proposal originally however because they both had known each other for a long time, and he was rich, which would help her provide for her family comfortably. Austen's rationale for accepting the marriage based on financial comfort is a major theme in Persuasion and many of her other novels, and this connection shows that it was still prevelant at this time and specifically for Austen. Austen ended the engangement shortly after the proposal however.
There are many other themes that pertain to Austen's work, but it seems important to understand a few to truly get a real understanding of Austen's motivation for her character's, settings, plot, and dynamic.
The first obvious link was that Austen's family was of the lower side of the landed gentry class, loosely meaning the English social class that owned land. Her father, George Austen, had risen his way through his family's profession as Wool manufacturers into the landed gentry class, while her mother Cassandra was of a prominent family. This relationship mimics the protagonist of Persuasion, Anne Elliot, who is of a noble family, and Captain Wentworth, who had risen his way up in the ranks of the British Navy. Austen's parents relationship could be seen as part of the beginning of the changing times of England becoming a working middle class country, and its entanglement of relationships between its former elite and aristocracy which the novel expounds.
Another strong connection between the fictitious relationship between Captain Wentworth and Anne Elliot and Austen herself is that, when Austen was 21 around 1795/6, she fell in love with her neighbor's nephew Tom Lefroy. They apparently both had strong feelings for each other visible by all and letters later obtained between Austen and her eldest sister Cassandra, talk about spending a lot of time together. Sadly, the possible marriage was "impractical" because neither had the money and Lefroy's tentative legal career was being supported by a great uncle, and the Lefroy family intervened and sent Tom Lefroy away from Jane, never to be seen by her again. This unfortuante incident echoes the first encounter between Captain W and Anne, which begins and ends in a very similar way, yet only in the novel does he return and he and Anne get back together.
A third connection is that in 1800 Austen's father moved the family to Bath. Bath is one of the central settings of the later period of Persuasion, and it was said that Jane Austen was very upset about leaving the only home she had ever known for Bath. This would be very similar to Anne Elliot having to leave Kellynch Hall, which was Anne Elliot's only home. Here in Bath as well, Austen was proposed to by a man Harris Bigg-Wither, whom was said to be ugly, aggressive, and tactless. Austen accepted the proposal originally however because they both had known each other for a long time, and he was rich, which would help her provide for her family comfortably. Austen's rationale for accepting the marriage based on financial comfort is a major theme in Persuasion and many of her other novels, and this connection shows that it was still prevelant at this time and specifically for Austen. Austen ended the engangement shortly after the proposal however.
There are many other themes that pertain to Austen's work, but it seems important to understand a few to truly get a real understanding of Austen's motivation for her character's, settings, plot, and dynamic.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Royal Exchange
Addison’s Royal Exchange (p. 2479)
Category: prose
Date: 1711
-London as center of business, many different nationalities represented
-global trading/import and export
-humanitarian, respects and enioys diversity
-people united by trade – food grows in one country, sauce in another
-England alone is barren
-all are interwoven
-trade is beneficial – multiplied the number of rich, made estates worth more, brought new exotic products
ashley smith
Category: prose
Date: 1711
-London as center of business, many different nationalities represented
-global trading/import and export
-humanitarian, respects and enioys diversity
-people united by trade – food grows in one country, sauce in another
-England alone is barren
-all are interwoven
-trade is beneficial – multiplied the number of rich, made estates worth more, brought new exotic products
ashley smith
Royal Exchange
Addison’s Royal Exchange (p. 2479)
Category: prose
Date: 1711
-London as center of business, many different nationalities represented
-global trading/import and export
-humanitarian, respects and enioys diversity
-people united by trade – food grows in one country, sauce in another
-England alone is barren
-all are interwoven
-trade is beneficial – multiplied the number of rich, made estates worth more, brought new exotic products
Category: prose
Date: 1711
-London as center of business, many different nationalities represented
-global trading/import and export
-humanitarian, respects and enioys diversity
-people united by trade – food grows in one country, sauce in another
-England alone is barren
-all are interwoven
-trade is beneficial – multiplied the number of rich, made estates worth more, brought new exotic products
Deserted Village
Goldsmith’s “Deserted Village” (p. 2877)
Category: Poem
Date: 1764
**Irish poet
-commentary on the Enclosure Acts (govt taking Yeoman’s land away to use for farming/natl parks)
-luxury (wealth, city, BAD) vs. rural (virtue, equality, happiness)
-nostalgic lament
-all virtues leave the land – rich possess and corrupt all and throw everyone into poverty
-birds no longer fill forest with song, instead there are bats
-happy egalitarian huge gap between wealthy and poor
-ashley smith
Category: Poem
Date: 1764
**Irish poet
-commentary on the Enclosure Acts (govt taking Yeoman’s land away to use for farming/natl parks)
-luxury (wealth, city, BAD) vs. rural (virtue, equality, happiness)
-nostalgic lament
-all virtues leave the land – rich possess and corrupt all and throw everyone into poverty
-birds no longer fill forest with song, instead there are bats
-happy egalitarian huge gap between wealthy and poor
-ashley smith
"And from his native land resolv'd to go, / And visit scorching climes beyond the sea;
With pleasures drugg'd he almost long'd for woe / And e'en for change of scene would seek the shades below."
---
This quote is from Byron's Childe Harold. Look out for the "Byronic hero" in the IDs, archaisms borrowed from Spenser, and Spenserian stanzas (eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine [twelve syllable iambic line], and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC).
Childe Harold is basically an outsider looking for distraction in foreign land. This poem is useful in thinking about Orientalism, as our hero is resolved to visit the "scorching climes beyond the sea." One can also approach the poem from the "self and imagination" angle. Byron's character closely represents himself, and the creation of such an identity is based off vice in relation to foreign countries.
Crystal Lie / Ian Newman's section
---
This quote is from Byron's Childe Harold. Look out for the "Byronic hero" in the IDs, archaisms borrowed from Spenser, and Spenserian stanzas (eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine [twelve syllable iambic line], and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC).
Childe Harold is basically an outsider looking for distraction in foreign land. This poem is useful in thinking about Orientalism, as our hero is resolved to visit the "scorching climes beyond the sea." One can also approach the poem from the "self and imagination" angle. Byron's character closely represents himself, and the creation of such an identity is based off vice in relation to foreign countries.
Crystal Lie / Ian Newman's section
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