Emily Dickinson Journal 1

By Jessica Granse
March 19, 2009
"He glanced with rapid eyes, / That hurried all abroad - / They looked like frightened Beads, I thought," (lines 9-11, page 85, poem 359 [328]).

In poem 359, or 328 in Johnson’s The Poems of Emily Dickinson, she describes the simple scene of a bird she observes. This bird comes down the walk, eats an angle worm, drinks some dew, moves to let a beetle pass, looks around, and flies away after she offers him a crumb. These lines are showing the bird’s fear as he looks around.

The mark of a good writer is if you can really envision a scene just from the descriptions given. In a poet, this seems even more of a challenge, due to the shorter amount of space one has to work with, although this provides a more narrow focus of subject. Emily Dickinson definitely has achieved this talent. She is able to describe this bird’s actions and demeanor very vividly. When describing his "rapid eyes" as looking like "frightened beads", if you’ve ever witnessed a bird before, you can really imagine what this looks like. Also, in the last two stanzas she describes the graceful motion of his flying. Notice, that she uses only two lines in the first two stanzas to describe each action; The third stanza starts to bring a change as she spends a full stanza on his frightened demeanor; Then once again only two lines for her offering a crumb; But, ends the other two lines of that stanza and the last stanza all on the flying. This really is where she is stressing importance. In spending so much time on the descriptions of his fearful eyes and his flying she is trying to emphasize the point of this poem. This poem must be looked at in a discipline of eco-criticism. The third and fourth stanzas are really showing the relation of human and nature. The bird looks around at the big world in fear and her offer of the crumb scares him away. Then, her description of the flying is an emphasis on the beauty of this natural motion. She relates the way his wings move to someone in a boat saying that the wings "rowed him softer Home - / Than Oars divide the Ocean" (lines 16-17). This really is much like the way that humans travel is almost an obstruction to nature. Our oars could never be as graceful as this bird’s flying. You can much relate the flying and the bird’s fear of getting close to her to the fact that humans will never fly on their own. They cannot spread their wings and partake in this graceful act, so she sits there just witnessing it. This is what you’d expect from a naturalist point of view, but then when you consider the last two lines, she compares his gracefulness to being even better than butterflies as they "Leap, plashless as they swim," (line 20). She is placing the bird’s flight high above anything else. It’s one of her most breath-taking descriptions. If you follow the timeline of her poetry on wikipedia, this seemed to be right around the time when she experienced a transition to more themes relating life and death, while this seems to still hold ground in her period of sentimentality towards nature.

Whitman Journal 2

By Jessica Granse

March 12, 2009

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself, / And what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you," (30).

Whitman’s poem seems to have a big struggle between the self and everyone else. He starts off the poem with these lines, which seem to be some type of explanation saying that you are he and he is you, everyone is everyone else. He puts it at the beginning of the poem, it seems to me, because it is something you should know first and foremost before diving into the meaning of the rest of the poem.

There’s a lot of confusion between whether he is talking about himself or the reader or everyone else. Some critics see him as simply egotistical. The way I see it, he is talking about not just himself, not just the reader, and not just everyone else, but how these three fit together. It seems to be a poem of unity. His first section seems to discuss that the audience and himself are all the same, physically and thoughtfully too because he says "And what I assume you shall assume," (30). This is much like saying, as humans they are both endowed with the same common sense. They both tend towards the same assumptions about the world around them because they are the same. Everyone assumes that if they are to walk off the edge of a cliff, they will inevitably fall. In the second section, he seems to be talking about the unity between himself, and thus all humans, with nature. This is why he "will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked," (31). He is saying that we are nature. He takes his clothes off because clothes aren’t nature. Humans are, though. There is a lot of emphasis by critics about the sexual content of the poem, which seems to be introduced within this section. The images of him naked in the woods and him describing the "few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms," (31) as well as some possibly phallic references, seems to be the first examples of the sexual nature of this poem. This seems to further stand for the unity between himself, or humans, and nature. Nature is a very sexual thing. On Cliffnotes, they explained this by saying that, "Sexual union is a figurative anticipation of spiritual union." I couldn’t have said it better myself. He’s using these sexual images to further the union theme that seems to be the basis of this poem. I believe this is also the reason for the sexual images in section 11 where the woman, and Whitman it seems, are watching the 28 young men bathe in the sea. I would also like to mention the child in section 6. The child asks what grass is and he says he is as clueless as the child. This again shows the unity theme by connecting the ages: this young child to the grown man. He does go on to give an explanation of him believing that grass is the child of nature. This shows another prevalent theme in the poem of age or of innocence itself and the cycle of life. The grass represents the beginning of something in nature, but at the same time it is found over the graves of the dead. This also shows a unity between nature and ourselves because no matter what it is present. This young child holds grass in his hand at the beginning of the section, but it also is present at the graves. It is present throughout our lives. There is this unity because everyone witnesses grass. It is everywhere. There are numerous examples throughout the rest of the poem to back up the theme of unity and list could go on forever.

Whitman Journal 1

By Jessica Granse

March 12, 2009

"Borne hither ere all eludes me, hurriedly, / A man, but by these tears a little boy again, / Throwing myself on the sand, confronting the waves, / I, chanter of pains and joys, uniter of here and hereafter, / " (26).

In these lines, Whitman presents the contrast between man and boy, especially where he says "A man, but by these tears a little boy again," because it seems to be an examination of a moment of growth where a boy becomes a man.

I view this poem as an observation of this moment when a boy learns his relation to nature and learns about death, thus, in Whitman’s book, becomes a man. He seems to be observing nature very closely. He’s listening to the bird, considering what the bird is trying to express in his song and translates it. He’s also listening to the waves. This boy is using nature as a type of companion it seems. He’s all alone in nature and he simply listens and attempts to understand nature, especially when he tries to translate the bird’s song. This also seems to represent the maturing of a poet. The boy is learning to look around him and listen to what the birds and waves are saying. This is exactly what a poet must do and thus, what Whitman does. He puts this question of boy or man in this poem to show this growth. He is now a man because he has the ability of observation. He is able to see and hear all around him. He also is able to, rather than continue to cry, ask nature and try to understand the importance of himself. He calls himself a boy because of his crying, but he seems to cease when he really starts to observe nature. This is a reason that I view this poem as a poem of growth for this boy. Not only does he examine this growth of his ability to understand what is happening around him, but he also is able to present this question about the obsession the living seems to have with death. Many ask what the point is of life, and questions of this nature at one point in their life at least. In this case, I view his question of "The word final, superior to all" as a question of that nature. He listens to the waves for his answer and the return back death as the word. I think this is Whitman’s way of almost saying that’s the "Why?" in life. Everyone wonders "Why?" like why are we here? Or what’s the point of life? By the answer to the boy’s question being death, it makes me think that he’s trying to show you the irony that in life we are obsessed with death. We try to accomplish as much as possible before death, what makes one most sad is death, everyone fears death, everyone wonders what happens after death. I believe he’s showing this at the end of the poem by making death the most important and final word. Maybe he’s trying to get the lesson across that you should just enjoy life rather than being so obsessed with death. This is a really interesting lesson.

Chopin Journal 2

By Jessica Granse
March 5, 2009


"She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father’s voice and her sister Margaret’s," (635).

At the end of "The Awakening", we witness Edna swimming in the sea. She swims far out until she is tired and it is implied that she drowns herself. Before the end of the novel, Edna thinks about her husband, her kids, and Mademoiselle Reisz; She hears Robert saying "Goodby-because, I love you"; She thinks about Doctor Mandelet; She hears her father’s voice and Margaret’s voice; Then she hears a dog barking, a cavalry officer walking across the porch, the hum of bees and smells the pinks in the air.

Some literary critics say that Edna did not in fact drown herself, but wikipedia even states that most believe it was a suicide. I believe there is enough evidence to assume that she does, especially when it says "Perhaps Doctor Mandelet would have understood if she had seen him-but it was too late; the shore was so far behind her, and her strength was gone," (625). Everything seems to go to past tense. Chopin is saying that maybe Doctor Mandelet would have understood, but that doesn’t matter anymore because she has already swam far enough out that she’d inevitably drown, so the question now would be whether it was intentional or not. I believe the statement about how foolish Mademoiselle Reisz would have thought she was because a real artist would just defy the laws of society proves the suicidal aspect of her drowning. Reisz would have not thought her as giving up unless it was a suicide. In this case, I’m pretty confident in my belief that this is a suicide. Now the next question I have is about why Chopin made the last thing she heard before the dog barking and the cavalry officer was her dad and her sister’s voices. I believe her suicide was mostly caused by her realization that no matter what, she could not be free from the restraints of society on how she must act and who she must be. This is mostly clear when she attempts to explain to Robert that she is not Mr. Pontellier’s possession at the end of chapter 36 and he doesn’t understand. After she has to rush off to be with Madame Ratignolle, she comes back to only find a note saying, "I love you. Good-by-because I love you" from Robert. I think this is one of the main things that made her realize she could never be free from her societal duties. Even when she tells the man she loves that she is free and wishes to belong to no one, but wants to be with him, she is pulled away by her duties to Madame Ratignolle since she told her that she would be there for her. By the time she gets back, it’s too late and he’s gone. His note also could imply that he believes she should follow her duties. It could be interpreted as him saying, "Good-by-because I love you", meaning that he cares. He could be saying that he knows it would be best for her if he wasn’t around, so she would get back to her duties as a wife and mother. This could make it seem that he even believes she isn’t to be free. This could have been the last straw. Her knowing that going against all these restraints still will not allow her the freedom of being with the man she does love could have put her over the edge. This I believe was really the cause of her suicide. Then one idea about the reason for Chopin to have her father and sister’s voices as the last things she hears before the sounds of her surrounding could be because her family is the first society she is placed into at birth. Her father is an authority figure, so by her hearing his voice, it’s like her remembering the first installment of these rules. This leaves the question of her sister Margaret, though. If you refer back to chapter 24, she refuses to go to her sister’s wedding. Her father says that by her not going he won’t be able to ever forgive her and he knows her sister won’t. Knowing this, I think hearing their voices is her realizing that all her family and all of her friends would not be able to accept this new her. Life would just be too hard when doing what she wants to do isolates her from everyone she loves. I think this is really why this sentence was placed at the end. It fulfills why both her sister and her father’s voices are there and gives reason for the importance of their voices.

Chopin Journal 1

By Jessica Granse

March 5, 2009

"Her white neck and a glimpse of her full, firm bosom disturbed him powerfully," (533).

When Chopin is describing the sexually driven scene between Calixta and her lover, Alcee, in section II of "The Storm", you notice her description of Calixta also accents the paleness of the skin on her neck. I also noticed that in the beginning of "The Awakening", in chapter IV, she gives this same attribute to Adele Ratignolle when describing her as being unbelievably beautiful.

Chopin is famous for her revolutionary ideas towards feminism and her openness about female sexuality in a time where sex was viewed as a chore for women in order to please their man. It was not believed that they enjoyed it. Wikipedia attributes her strong ideas about feminism to her upbringing by strong women. Her ideas are really different from others at that time because the women she writes about have these sexual wants and needs that aren’t fulfilled within their marriage, which leads them to find these needs filled elsewhere. Although she pushes the envelope with this idea of sexual desire in women, she also keeps to a norm of how women should look. When describing the characters that are to be seen as beautiful, she sticks to certain similar characteristics. The three similarities I saw were the white neck, blue eyes, and really red lips in both Calixta of "The Storm" on page 533 and Madame Ratignolle in "The Awakening" on page 540. The description of Ratignolle is obviously over-the-top in the description of her beauty. She says that her husband would be a brute to not appreciate her and all men find her beautiful. She makes it really understandable that this character is to be found as absolutely gorgeous. Then, in "The Storm", during the scene between Calixta and Alcee, she’s describing Alcee’s desire for her and she mentions these three characteristics in her as well. By mentioning this when discussing the sexual desire between them, it emphasizes that these are things that are found sexy in her to Alcee. Back then, there wasn’t sexy, there was only "beautiful". I find it very interesting that although Chopin is presenting this brand new view of women’s sexuality, she uses really traditionally looked for physical traits in these women. In psychology class in high school, we studied the fact that there is basically a "universal beauty". This is a template for what everyone finds beautiful in a man or woman. In "Studies in the Psychology of Sex" by Havelock Ellis, which can be found on google books, he also presents these three characteristics as something that’s very consistent in what one sees as beautiful. On pages 97 and 98, he concentrates on these ideas and presents examples from different cultures that proves this true. This is how we are able to attribute this to psychological aspects of ourselves, rather than cultural. This seems like the main difference between Chopin’s ideas about society’s views on women sexuality and how she describes her characters to make them beautiful. This beauty isn’t simply a societal view, it’s a psychological trait we all seem to have, while the views on women’s sexuality is just the societal view. She changes what could be changed: the simple societal view. Another thing that shows this is the fact that even now the societal view is changed, but the valued traits remain the same. Women are able to be seen as sexual characters, but a lot of the time many women that are seen as beautiful on tv and in magazines are often, not always, but often ones with red lips, blue or light eyes, and white skin. They’re often skinny too, but that’s a whole other discussion.