A POETIC RESPONSE TO WAR

During this term, in British Literature class, we have reviewed several poems by British writers. Most of the poems were related to feelings and emotions that the authors had regarding specific topics. In this particular case, I will focus on the feelings that two poets had regarding wars, its characteristics and the response they emitted to this theme. I will base this essay on the first stanza of a poem named “September 1st, 1939” by W.H. Auden. Also, as a way to complement the explanation of the poem, I will compare it with a stanza of a poem by another poet; William Butler Yeats. The reason that I have to base my essay on these poets and their responses to war is that the role that poets played during war time is something admirable and worth analyzing, due to their powerful influence in people’s life.
To start, I am going to contextualize the situation that the world was living regarding wars. In 1939, Germany launched its invasion to Poland. Poland was easily defeated because the Nazi Force, leaded by Hitler, was very strong and it was allied with the Soviet Union. This event marked the begging of the Second World War. As a result of the starting of S.W.W., a response by poets was almost unavoidable.
First, I will explain the fist stanza of the Auden’s poem; September 1st 1939.


“I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.”



In the first five lines, the poet explained the mental and physical situation he was living. He described the place in which he was. He said he was sitting in a type of bar, with bad feelings about the future and without many encouraging possibilities to success or to get over the military situation he was living.
In the next four lines, Auden described the atmosphere that was surrounding him. First, he explained that anger and fear were the feelings that could be perceived. Also, he pointed out that shadows of suffering and pain were sensations that he could feel. These feelings were not suitable for anybody; in fact, they were the ones who maintained people scared. In the last two lines he

mentioned the odour of death and what it caused to the moment he was living. These words are tremendously descriptive, as a matter of fact, these are the words that make the reader feel and think the way the writer was feeling.
Clearly, the author of the poem was not feeling good with the events that were occurring during September 1939. He responded to the war with a strong and direct poem, in order to make people feel that what was happening was horrible and necessarily they need do something about it, at least, to reflect about the actions that governments were making.
Meanwhile Germany and Poland were holding a war, some people, such as W.H. Auden was reacting to these actions, but through a very soft and romantic way. What could be more opposite and at the same time similar to war than poetry? Wars are events that are developed in very noisy and dangerous places. On the other hand, poems are pieces of writings that are generally written in quiet places; maybe a library or a café, but they have strong and sometimes destructive intentions, these intentions can also be appreciated in wars.
As a way of complementing the analysis of poems about war, I will present another piece of writing related to war’s response. In 1916, several years before W.W.II, William Butler Yeats wrote a poem in which he exposed his point of view; regarding the military situation that Ireland was living. On April 24, 1916 British troops stood duty in Dublin, as a way of under press the country. Clearly, Ireland was not living a good moment because it was being invaded by British forces. While, all these events were taking place in Dublin and the rest of the cities, a poetic response was about to be written. W.B. Yeats wrote a poem named Easter 1916. In this piece of writing he expressed his feeling of sorrow and dissatisfaction.


“I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered (wait) awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe (aggressive person)
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley (colored faces) is worn:
All changed, changed utterly(completely):
A terrible beauty is born”


What I could appreciate from this poem was that the author had done many things that he barely reflected on. When he explained that said meaningless words, he claimed that he was doing certain actions just because he was use to do them, that is to say, he did not did them consciously.
Also, in lines from seventh to tenth, he explained the hard relationship he established with other people. He said his companion were under the fire that a place had. It recalled the battle field in which soldiers were, and also that they were close to enemy’s weapons and bullets. In line number ten, he described the type of make up that soldiers wore. He made reference to paint the soldier must use when battling.
In this poem Yeats reflected his way of seeing regarding some war’s topics. The same thing occurred with Auden: he also gave his point of view and critic to wars. Both writers did not agree with the military moment that their countries were living, and instead of reacting physically, they preferred to do it by writing. This way, their response will last in the time and could be read and studied by other people.
I really enjoyed the way writers participated of wars. This is so admirable since they allow people like me to know about wars, but not throughout the typical way, which is by reading historical book or attending to history lessons. I did not know that poetry could get me in touch with historical facts the way these authors did.
To conclude, I want to point out is the way in which both authors dealt with the topic of wars was very intelligent and precise. Auden and Yeats chose a different way to react to wars. They decided to do by writing, instead of fighting or protesting in streets. Clearly, both of them selected a way in which their opinion could prevail in time. In some way, both poems echo each other, even though they were written in different times. What did not change was the way they responded to war.







Work Cited
Auden, Wystan Hugh September 1st 1939.

Biege, Bernd The Easter Rising of 1916 - British Revenge Leading to Stronger Nationalism.

Yeats, William Butler Easter 1916.

Outline

I. Introduction

II. Analysis of the poem.
1. Explanation first stanza.
2. Audens' reaction.

III. Conextion between Auden's poem and Yeat's poem.
1. Explanation of one stanza.

IV. Personal point of view

V. Conclusion.

About Rocio's blog entry.

"The most important topic in Virginia Woolf’s essay is the genre issue. During those times, woman did not have the same rights than man, but do they have them now? I don’t think so. We have the same problem 70 years later.
In terms of writing, women were not suppose write or read certain topics like philosophy, religion, science fiction, and so on. After a few years, women started writing and reading what they wanted, but they were always critized because of it. Virginia discusses if women are able to write or create pieces of work as good as men do. At that time, women were not allowed to enter to all of the university or even to walk on the grass. Women were left a side, but they started to win their territory step by step.
The most interesting part of this essay, for me, was the fact that the problems those women lived 70 years ago are still an issue. Women are still mistreated, earn less money and men tend to believe that women are less intelligent than men. We need to change that way of thinking. We need to realize that women can do thing sometimes better than men, and the other way around too. Women have their weaknesses, but we have our strengths too."

Rocio:

I share the idea that you have developed in this blog entry. I think that the author of this piece of writing has dealt with a topic that was very strong in those times, and it is still strong nowadays. I think in our society, women have certain disadvantages that men do not. Specifically, women have differences in terms of money, job opportunities, rights, etc. The problem is that the society does not do concrete actions regarding women rights. I think men and women have the same qualities to develop. Nonetheless, there are some areas in which men work better than women, and the other way around.
What I liked from this poet is that she could come up with the idea of women rights in those times. That current society was even stronger than the one are living today, so raise those types of ideas was something almost forbidden, but she did it anyway. Such a brave girl, don’t you think?
I enjoyed the theme you selected to develop. It is very controversial and it has a lot of edges to debate.

Eliot and his poem....

I think that Eliot wrote a confusing poem. In the one hand, tried to mix many elements related to nature. On the other hand, he brought some features related to the war that was being developed in those times.
I have to accept that I did not understand the poem very well. It was a little hard for me to dig it. Regarding the elements he included in the poem, I would say he wrote it not thinking about a piece of writing but about a piece of art. Maybe that is the reason why I could not understand it well. Art may be abstract, and sometimes not possible to understand.

Two stories!

I can say that D.H.Lawrence had a particular of writing. He used to relate some personal features to their writings. In "Odour of Chrysanthemums" he developed the idea of a miner worker and everything that is related to the way miners live. It was not casuality that his father was a miner, and in a way, he tried to describe some situations that he probably lived with his father.
On the other, in "The rocking horse winner” he showed the problems that a kid faced. That kid was worried about the troubles that his mother was living. Those problems were related to money and material possessions' issues. What this kind wanted to do was to get money in order to help his mother. I think helping parents is well, but sometimes children or adolescences do this to get closer to their parents. Nowadays, some parents tend to leave their children aside when they have to deal with economical issues.
I think that this author wrote about some situations that were, are and will be present along the whole human life. Sometimes is surprising to realize how some problems do not change in the society, even if several years have passed.

V Woolf

After reading the Virginia’s text, I could realise that she had some preferences to women’s than men’s pieces of work. She analysed a piece of work written by a woman. She highlighted many aspects related to women, not to man’s.
In classes, with some classmates, we were discussing this preference that the writer had by women. We concluded that probably she had sexual preferences to women. Perhaps she liked women. I am not saying this is good or bad, I’m just referring to the fact that it is so common that people who analyse writers, artists, etc. use to make emphasize on their sexual inclinations.
I think it should not happen. I do not think that sexuality determinates the quality of someone. Sometimes, people tend to discriminate others because these reasons and this is not fair at all. Personal life should not interfere in professional life.

Children's behaviour... time ago and current time.

The story of Oliver twist shows many facts that belong to the same reality. One hand, the story is developed in a crowded England, in which the opportunities were not so much. On the other hand, the story developed the idea of a child who used to steal. Taking into consideration both topics, I can infer that, in a way, the society could be responsible for Oliver’s action. I am not saying that Oliver’s actions were right, but they may be occasioned because of the problems he had to face.
In today’s world, specifically in our country, there are some features that are closely connected with the English’s 19th society. Our city is very crowded. Most of people have a car and because of that streets are full of them. Related to public transportation, the problems that Santiaguinos had to live were several. There were not enough buses to move to the quantity of people that the city have. This problem showed to society how much people need to get a bus for many reasons.
Probably, England does not have this problem today, but there are others countries that are facing these problems now. I think every country have their time to face radical changes.

The signal man...

After reading this short story and discussing in class, I could appreciate how people were living during those days. On one hand, the population increased very fast, on the other hand the space for people to live was not big enough. However, people continued immigrating from the country side to the city.
The signal man represented the other side of this process. He preferred to live in the darkness of an inhabited place. Instead of spending time with the rest of the people, he lived his life by himself. With this fact, it can be understood that there some people who did not share the way the current society was being developed.
Nowadays, it is hard not to be in contact with people, at least the way he did, because we lived in a very cooperative society. Everyone has a role to do; we are all part of a balance. It is difficult to imagine someone living underground and not sharing with others. What we can see are people who are very selective with their friends. They do not like to have relationships with many people.
I think we are all different. If someone decides to have a reduced group of friends, then that is OK.

Little Frank!

After reading this book, what called my attention the most was the discrimination that it has behind. In the moment that Frankie was born, the society immediately started to highlight his differences. It is very unfair that people judge others just by their characteristics. It is common to see people making fun of others, but the problem with these actions is that they do not know the way their “victims” may feel.
I am not sure about others countries, but at least in our reality people use to make fun of others without any consideration.
Nowadays, there is a definition called bullying that deals with problems; especially at schools. Every day children are more and more disrespectful with other kids. They embarrass them because of any feature they have. These features may be considered as “not common” by their classmates and this characteristic is enough to start bothering his/her.
I strongly believe that parents and teachers should work to eliminate these actions, because they are starting to be more common day after day.

daffodils...

Wordsworth bases his poem on nature features. He talks about daffodils, clouds, trees, etc. He tries to express his feeling through these elements. I feel he writes this poem with the intention of showing to people he has another option, in terms of sexuality. Probably, he is not accepted by people as he would like to be. Maybe, he compares himself with platns, which are always with other plants around, whereas he is not as surrounded of people as he would want.
Clearly, homosexuality is an issue difficult to develop. In todays' world, discrminiation sound loudly when people refer to the persons who have deceided to take others ways. I think this option is up to everybody. If someone decides to take this alternative that's fine, anyway, that's his/her life. The only thing that I do not like of some homosexuals it's when they pursue to other people to change their status. I do not share these sort of attitudes, apart from that, they have their life and I have got mine...

Loneliness

When I read this poem I try to imagine the way the author felt when he wrote this. It can be appreciated that he was not living a good moment in his life. He related his words to the fear of death. I think it is so common that people feel fear about death because it is something almost unknown. The only thing we can be sure about is we will die someday, but How about next? would it be good? bad? happy? hurtful? peaceful? No one knows it, and this is what frighten people. In a way, I think people feel alone when they face death. When we have to be in front of situations that may include any death feature when need to concetrate and try to be quiet.
I think we have to be in peace when we think about death. If we start to try to guess what happen after life, we may beacome insane, and this is not good for anybody.

Nature and poetry.

Kubla Khan tried to show something he felt about love. He showed how he appreciated romantic features in nature. He used to relate the nature with his feelings. In a way, nature plays a crucial role in his poems.
I can appreciate the capacity of imagination that the writer develops. He always relates tacit features with intangible characteristics. I think this is what causes a difference among him and some others poets.

The sun rises on both sides.

Trejo (2007), in his poem “the little black boy” points out some features that make a black child think about the differences that he lives in contrast with white children. The black boy tries to find the reasons that lead the human beings to act the way the act in front of white person and in front of a white one. The black boy asks some questions to his mother and she tries to explain him that the differences only occur in the tangible world, which is the one they live. She says in the intangible world, every single person will be treated the same way; there will not be any differences.
The author relates the tangible and intangible characteristics of the world to god. He states that the differences people may live will be experienced just in present live but not in heaven.
I appreciate the way the author refers to discrimination as a good way to deal with this issue. It has been seen along years that people who suffer this problematic situation experiment horrible psychological problems. So, as a way to help them to overcome this awkward situation, they can believe in god and all the benefits they will get once they arrive to heaven.

Final Essay

Women’s Rights.

The following essay will expose a point of view regarding women’s role during XVI century. I will take the example of Portia, from the movie The Merchant of Venice. I will explain they way she lived, how she was treated, and what her rights, as a woman, were. After explaining these topics, I will make a comparison with the actual situation that women live in our society. At the end of the essay, I will write my opinion about the exposed theme, and the conclusion of the presented work.
In the movie The Merchant of Venice, there was character named Portia. She was a girl who belonged to the royal family. She was destined to get married by his father and by the society. The problem with this was that she could not select who her husband will be. The reason of that was she had to wait until a prince went to her castle. There, they had to choose among three chests, and if they pick the one with Portia’s image inside they would marry Portia. Even if Portia did not want to marry the prince, she had to because that way the way in which princesses get married in those times.
Every time a prince went to the castle, she was thinking she did not want to marry him. She could not do anything regarding this situation; she was obliged to marry the one who choose the right chest. With this example, I can appreciate that women’s rights were absolutely left away. Their marriages were used as politics issues. Fathers were not interested if his daughters wanted to get married or not, they just leaded them to this condition.
On the contrary, nowadays women’s rights are absolutely different. Now, girls can decide if they want to get married or not. They can decide who her husband will be, and also, they can decide when her marriage will be. There exist a very respectful way of thinking regarding women’s rights. In our society, fathers do not intervene in his daughter’s marriages. They just help them to choose a good man, to make good decisions, and they advice his daughters. If women want to do the opposite of what their fathers say, they just do it. There is not a legislation that hinders women to make their own decisions.
Although our society respects the decisions of women, the law interferes if there are certain conditions that women do not accomplish. If an under age girl want to get married, she will have to ask for a legal permission to access to marriage. This permission must be signed by both of her parents. If they parents regret of signing the document, she will not be allowed to marry. In this sense, there are still restrictions for girls, but the reasons of these impediments are that sometimes girls are not mature enough to get married.

In my opinion, women’s rights were very ignored during XVI century. They should be allowed to decide whether they want to marry or not. Their thoughts were not taken into account, girls were just leaded to what their fathers thought was right. I believe these actions were absolutely incorrect. People cannot make decisions by someone else. We are free to decide what our future will be, even though people do not share our decisions. I think the society developed during XVI century was wrong because its way of thinking. It did not respect women and I think this is serious. It can not happen again. We are all human beings and differences because of sex can not occur again.

To summarize this essay, I want to say that societies have changed a lot with the pass of the time. In the past, women’s future was decided by someone else. They did not have the opportunity to select what they thought was correct. Many girls were sad because of these actions; they had feelings and thoughts, but they could express them. Women were really oppressed by many factors; fathers, families, society, people, etc.
Fortunately, things have changed. Nowadays women are absolutely free to take the decision they feel or think are rights. Now, girls can get married if they want. They can be mothers, even if they do not have a husband. They are family head if a man is absent. Our society is very different than in the past. Now women are respected by people, even though there are still differences between man and women.

Discrimination.... old or new issue?

The following paper is focused on the movie “The merchant of Venice”. This story occurs in Venice, in XVI. During these times, people use to differentiate to other people because of their religion. The most dominant religions were Catholic and Jewish. Jewish people had to wear a red hat in order to show their religion. This paper will be focused in contextualize the situation in which Jewish people had to live and how they were treated by the existing Catholic society.

The main Jewish character was a man called Shylock. He was an usurer; someone who lend money to people and then people had give it back with some taxes. This action was not accepted by the society at all. But anyway people use to do this business with Jewish people.

During those times, people did not treat Jewish in a good way. They hit them and split them all the time. Jewish were treated as something inferior by the Catholics, even though there as human as them. Once, Shylock, who was the main Jew character in the film, decided to yell at a Catholic. He said Jewish were the same than the Catholics. They cry, laugh, blood, take revenge, feel and think as much as Catholic. He did not agree with the current society.

Antonio, who was a Catholic person, needed to help his friend Bassanio. Bassanio needed money because he wanted to impress a girl to marry her. As Bassanio did not have enough money for that, he decided to ask Antonio for some money. He did not have the amount that Bassanio was asking for, so he decided to talk with Shylock and ask him for 3.000 ducats. Even though, this action was not acceptable for Catholics, Antonio spoke with Shylock, who accepted to lend him money because he was a very good merchant.
As Shylock did not want to loose his money, he asked Antonio for a condition. Shylock asked a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he did not pay the money in the next three months. Antonio accepted the condition because he really loved his friend, besides he was sure he will receive more than 3000 ducats in one his business the next month.
One day, people knew that Antonio’s businesses were ruined. His ships got lost in the ocean. As Antonio’s money was in those ships, he would not be able to pay the bill he had with Shylock. So, Shylock decided to ask for his part of the deal. When he decided to go for Antonio’s flesh, he went into a judgement because of that action. The lawyer, who in fact was Porcia, gave Shylock the right to take the flesh but he could not drop any blood. As he could not take Antonio’s flesh without dropping blood, he could take his flesh. Later, he was discovered a conspirer and the state asked him for his positions.
Porcia wanted to help Antonio, for that reason she pretended to be the lawyer. Her plan worked and Antonio got saved.
At the end of the film, people noticed that the rumour of Antonio’s ships was false. They all landed without any problem.
After watching the film, I could realise that discrimination is something that has been present during many years. They way people behave in front of someone they consider different has not changed at all. They way society acted in film was totally disrespectful. They treated Jewish as something absolutely inferior and with different rights. They were split and hit them every day. But what people could not see was they were as human as everybody else. They feel, think, see, eat, and sleep as much as Catholics. There were not differences; the only thing they did not share was religion. That was the only reason because they were discriminated, religion.
At least, now people choose their religion freely. But even today, religion issues emerge among people. Perhaps this rivalry will never end.

Outline

Introduciton.
-Jew treatment.

Brief summary of the film.

Personal Opinion.

the letter...

In "letter to Sir Walter Raleigh" Spenser wanted to express his feelings and messages through a different way. He did not want to write the content explicitly but he wanted to do it in hidden way. He starts the letter by saying it is an allegorie, which means people will not get the real message just by reading it but they will have to interpret the meaning that is behind of the sentences. Maybe he decided to write the letter that way because it may be in wrong hands. So, if someone would read the letter he/she wouldn’t understand the real meaning of it.
He mentions more than an important character in his letter. He refers to King Arthur, Homer and Aristotle. I think he decided to mention these people because he wanted to show some characteristics through them. They were and still are people very known by everybody in the world, so who better than them to express the characteristics he wanted to express?
I do really think the only purpose of his letter was to let W. Raleigh know about the topics he wanted to say. Besides, Spencer did not want that every single person know about the real meaning of the letter, so he decided to write it in way that W. Raleigh could understand but not the rest of the people.

What women love most.

Women are special, that’s something that has not changed during the whole life. It’s so common so hear men complaining because of their wife. This is because girls feel differently to men and this difference produces a “brake” between them. Historically, women and men have always had problems of “understanding” each other.
What I really appreciated from the story was the girl who thinks a “so liberal” way. I totally agree with her when she talks about sexuality. She says it isn’t just to give born but to enjoy it. Viewing this from the point of view of the epoch, she had a very advance way of think.
For the society of these times, she may look not as a girl from the right wing. Anyway, I like her way of think because she felt free to think the way she wanted, which is something that even in 21st century does not happen.

An appreciation of "truth"

I think Geoffrey Chaucer called "truth" to his poem because he thought that people need to be conscious about what are the real things that happen to them. When he says “greed entails to hate” he may refers that bad actions with end in bad consequences. Many times people do actions that bring unfortunate consequences for others, this way the affected people create resentment to the ones who acted in a bad way.
I would say a religious implication in this poem may be that people need to be in the right side of the track in the sense that they need to do well in order not to injure others.
I think we should think about it for a while and reflect about the times we have made something just in our favor and knowing that this "something" hurted someone else. This is the thuth, a truth that conect us with the reality and make us think about what do or did.

My definition of an Epic Poem.

Epic Poems are stories that are closely connected with heroes' life. These poems talk about what they did, who they have lived with and some brave situations that they had to deal with.
Epic Poems are related with issues that occurred in the very past time. They are connected to the time of world’s conqueror and to the time when history was starting to be written.

Opposite

For this blog entry I chose a quotation written by Kennedy and Gioia. “No text provides self-contained meaning; literary texts do not exist independently of readers‘interpretations. A text …is not finished until it is read and interpreted....religious, cultural and social values affect readings”
I really agree with this paragraph in the sense that it says that texts have more than one interpretation. The interpretation will depend on who is going to read the text and what will be the impact that it is going to cause in the reader.
For the same text, there will be several different interpretations because every person has their own point of view. If I read a text and then I analyze it, I may agree with some points and disagree with others. If someone from another genre or country or age read it, he/she may have other point of view about the same text. It does not mean that we can not have things in common, but it means that we are all different and that we may have opinions that will not be the same.