[WH] - Why Bronte will never be a journalist

"Cathy stayed at Thrushcross Grange five weeks: till Christmas.  By that time her ankle was thoroughly cured, and her manners much improved" (page 45).

As a trained journalist I cringe at the sight of every chapter and all major events beginning with a factor of the time of day, length of the embrace or time passage since a previous event.  I could not help but think to myself that this must be important.

It did not hit me why the time and setting was important until Nelly failed to mention a time frame for me to base the timeline.

"Her husband lies in the same spot now; and they have each a simple headstone above, and plain grey block at their feet, to mark the graves" (pg 146).

The word "now" was ambiguous to me (granted this whole novel seems pretty ambiguous) because I had to decide if it was Nelly still speaking in the past sense of the word now or the present sense of the word now.  Imagine my confusion when I thought someone else died, but then imagine my joy when I realized that no one died, but that she was talking in the present sense of the word now.  While in most novels the time frame of a story is not important, Wuthering Heights requires a time piece to be present because of it's two main style features.

• The story is a frame story where Lockwood is recalling what Nelly told him.
• The story, up to now, is almost entirely a flashback as Nelly talks about her past at Wuthering Heights.

This time thing really messes with my head.  I think I need to practice telling time more.

"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.

"next to of course god america i"

"next to of course god america i

love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh" (1-2).

In "next to of course god america i" by e.e. cummings, I really had to wonder if I prefer this style with no punctuation versus Emily Dickinson's idea of capitalizing every noun.  Judging by the quotation marks and last line, I conclude that this entire poem was originally spoken.  I believe that this poem has verbal irony.  When I read it, I kept getting caught up on all of the clauses that could either end the thought or start a new one, but when I read it out loud, my natural inclination told me when to place the commas or break up the flow of the poem.

The speaker creates an overall excitement and love of America in the first line when he - Let's act like it's a guy - blatantly compares his love for America being second only to God.

List of what he loves -

1. God
2. America

This love starts out as merely a list of cliches, but as the speaker goes on, there is a clear shift (Thank you to question number 3).  This shift from "thy" to "your" (line 7) shows that the love is eternal.  While the men who drafted the Constitution would have said "thy," we today still have liberty.  After this realization, the speaker tells of why patriotism survived.  The speaker ends with a rhetorical question to power in the idea that liberty will never die.  I believe this poem is in such an odd style of no punctuation merely because it was spoken and has multiple interpretations when read or heard (ambiguity) and because it was spoken in a hurry - as though something bad had just happened.

P.S.  I hope that you enjoy my new look on the blog.  I think the joke I found spelled alliteration wrong!  I will change it either every quarter or every unit based on how lazy I am... Let's just assume it will be quarterly.

"I taste a liquor never brewed"

"Inebriate of Air- am I-

And Debauchee of Dew-

Reeling- thro endless summer days-

From inns of Molten Blue" (5-9).

In "I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson, the speaker seems to contrast the rural definition of drunkenness with the more common urban definition through an extended metaphor.  If you asked anyone on the streets of down town Indianapolis, then they would say that drunkenness is directly related to how much alcohol one consumes, yet the speaker in the poem is talking about being drunk off air in the above excerpt.  The speaker goes on to show that not only human's suffer from a summertime intoxication, but even the "bees and butterflies" (symbols for the different types of people) become addicted by summer.  I do not actually understand the first stanza, but I think that it is an allusion (?) to Germany's stereotype of being big on drinking beer.  Maybe it is hyperbolizing the amount of beer that Germany manufactures in an effort to show the magnitude and ease with which summer than cause an intoxication effect on the victim?

The last stanza goes back to the city definition of intoxication, but with a twist.  In this scene, even the seraphs and saints are eager to learn where the town drunkard got tipsy.  When the "tippler" is leaning against the sun, I think that represents a street light, but I really cannot figure that last line out.

I am started to understand Dickinson's style of poetry.  All three of poems of hers that we have read have had a literal meaning that is very obvious and a deeper meaning that takes a little more digging, but is usually easy to figure out based on her very helpful titles.