[WH] - Apples and Oranges

"The Grange is not a prison, Ellen, and you are not my jailer" (pg 209).

"Our first thought, on his departure, was to force an exit somewhere" (pg 234-35).

The 1991 (that's before I was born) prompt asked antsy AP test takers to bore through an epic essay in forty minutes about the difference between two settings and how they contribute to the meaning of a work as a whole.  I will now embark on a tale much less drawn out in a meager blog post, but first let me show you a picture of something near and dear to my heart.

Okay, now I know what you are probably thinking, "Max, how does a picture of a ribcage, while they are close to your heart, at all relate to the plot contributions made by the differing settings of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange?"  Okay Mr. Costello, imagine this for a moment.  What does a ribcage do for the heart?  It traps it and protects it from harm.  Is this a paradox I feel coming?

As you can see from my chosen quotes, one of the settings (hint: Thrushcross Grange) was thought to not be a jail to Cathy, but the differing setting (spoiler alert: Wuthering Heights) turned into a legitimate prison to Cathy.  I find it ironic that the immense amount of love that Nelly and Edgar had for Cathy caused her to feel trapped and exiled from Linton, but at the same time I have to somewhat have absolutely no pity for Cathy since she was her own means of entrapment in Wuthering Heights.

Sorry Cathy, but I think you should think more about your ribcage next time you think your own father is trapping you from the world.  Without that support and guidance, your heart could be trapped by an outside means or, God forbid, someone else's ribcage.

"Delight in Disorder"

"A sweet disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness" (1-2).

"Delight in Disorder" by Robert Herrick was the epitome of a poem I that I read and immediately wonder if it is really as easy as it seems.  Oh, and the poem is a sonnet - I have gotten really good at making that connection!  Wantonness is a very strange, yet suiting word for this situation.  See, I kept staring at the first option and trying to figure out how it related, but we want the noun version - a lustful person, usually a woman (they are in a dress, PLEASE be a woman).

I think that this poem uses metonomic imagery?  Since the disorder is delightful (Emily Dickinson would agree), we also have a paradox in order.  Time to prove those two theories in the cone of realism.

The imagery is not really able to be proven unless you just read it.  Really, do you not just see a woman in a dress, scarf, cuffs, waving, and shoes?

Note to self:  Erring does not equal earring.

Okay, it is metonomic (definitely the adjective form of metonomy...)  because each article of clothing represents a new part of her life.

The dress hides the lust and makes her feel safe.  The scarf distracts the people, but traps her stomacher.  Her cuffs are tearing.  All this is further hidden behind her waving.

Waving.  Who waves?  The queen of England or a Miss American model would wave so graceful.  Delight in disorder?  The speaker is mocking these people who hide behind perfection.  I think...

"Death, be not proud"

"Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but they pictures be,

Much pleasure - then, from thee much more must flow" (4-6).

John Donne's "Death, be not proud" was a very nice poem for a variety of reasons, some of which are not nice.  For one, the title of them poem immediately told me that the poem was an apostrophe towards death - or atleast I hope so, since this is the first time that I have noticed a work being an apostrophe.  Also, since this poem is fourteen lines, my English teacher taught me that it is probably going to be a sonnet with a call to action in the last six lines.

The title conveys the message that the speaker will be telling us all the reasons that death is not as mighty as it thinks it is.  I smell personification and lemon cleaner, the latter being more prevalent.  The above lines did not make sense to me until I started typing that last sentence, but now I actually find the excerpt quite humorous.  Let me just paraphrase them for you:

"Dear death, you cannot kill me, because

I, like everyone, enjoy naps

and death is just a long nap."

This, my dear friend, is flawless logic if I have ever heard any.  The speaker does not fear death per se, but the speaker is definitely trying to rap his mind around the idea that death is not something that should be considered so... deadly?  Let me explain (I am getting graded on that part after all).  If the speaker fears death - which is predestined by fate or just blind chance (a.k.a. inevitable) - then what happens after you die?  See, this is where the call to action happens!  The speaker actually gives me the answers in a barrage of paradoxes - thanks for making it more difficult on me.  Since death is just a nap, and everyone wakes up from a nap, after death there will be nothing for the speaker to fear then.

P.S.  Did John Donne just pass Emily Dickinson in the latest label war?

"Batter my heart, three-personed God"

"Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me" (12-14).

"Batter my heart, three-personed God" by John Donne is an excellent example of how poets are able to write in a multitude of styles and not always confuse me.  I definitely learned that this poem can be summarized in four words.

Paradox after annoying paradox.

While the word paradox is fun to type and say, the implications in a poem like this go far beyond the realm of imagination - big words are fun!  Anyways, the first sentence introduces the idea of "battering" someone's heart in order to heal it.  This is basically the equivalent of telling someone to stab me in the head because I have a headache, but it makes sense in context.  The speaker has turned towards the Devil's influence and needs to have the evil hammered out of "him."  (Can we just make this understanding that all speakers are guys unless it is explicitly stated otherwise?)

Another paradox is in the last two lines (thank you question 3).  It is odd to think that by trapping the speaker, that God will be freeing his thoughts, but it is more symbolic of starting a new leave (is that the phrase?) without the Devil's influence on his life.

The last line of the poem is also a paradox (shocker).  Basically, without God intruding on the speaker's personal bubble - is that a nice way to put it? - the speaker will never experience His grace.

P.S. I enjoy the time in class to read the poems.