With my heart heavy in dread, I approached the looming, dark door; the only bit of light coming from the gleaming golden knocker. My fist gripped the engraved gold and made three heavy, low thuds.
The door creaked open a few silent moments later and I saw her: the Intended.
Her face was downcast, shadows spilling over her stiff black dress. After a year of knowing of Kurtz's demise in that black forest, she still wore the strict clothes reserved for mourning.
"May I help you?" she asked meekly, staring at the cold stone ground.
"My name is Marlowe," I answered with great reluctance, "I knew Kurtz in his final breaths."
She looked up immediately with her bland and empty eyes widening.
"Please come in," she said in a hushed tone.
I entered and she led me into her living room. The lights were dim and the air felt thick with sorrow and longing. The darkness was barely kept at bay by the candles that were scattered about.
The Intended sat on the edge of an over-sized chair, her face pale, and I on the sofa across from her.
We sat in uncomfortable silence for what felt like an eternity. She finally looked up at me and cracked the silence with a sigh.
"So, Mr. Marlow, you knew my fiancé?" she asked solemnly.
I looked into those glassy eyes but before I could speak, she continued.
"You were present at his passing?" she asked in a whisper.
I swallowed hard. "Yes."
She seemed a little hesitant. "Please, what were his final words?"
I could feel my heartbeat increase. She obviously needed closure, but I couldn't bring myself to disrupt her world.
"Please," she begged again with more intensity.
I closed my eyes and nodded once. I felt I needed to confess this awful truth to the woman who most deserved to know.
"The horror," I whispered, "the horror. Those were his final words."
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
"Beginning Again" Poetry Blog.
Beginning Again
"If I could stop talking, completely
cease talking for a year, I might begin
to get well," he muttered.
Of alone again performing
brain surgery on himself
in a small badly lit
room with no mirror. A room
whose floor ceiling and walls
are all mirrors, what a mess
oh my God-
And still
it stands,
the question
not how to begin
again, but rather
Why?
So we sit there
together
the mountain
and me, Li Po
said, until only the mountain
remains.
-Franz Wright
Antecedent Scenario- Before writing this poem, Franz Wright was probably thinking about new beginnings and why people feel the need to start over again. Maybe he felt like he needed his own fresh start, but questioned why.
The Climax- The climax of this poem seems to be when he says, "Why?" Here he gets to the point: that it isn't about how to begin again, but why we should do it in the first place. It is structurally significant as well; he puts the single worded question by itself for impact.
Tone- The tone of "Beginning Again" was a mixture of exasperation, bitterness, contemplation, and sarcastic. The words "muttered," "brain surgery," "oh my God," and "Why," led me to the conclusion that, in regards to beginning again, Franz Wright's poem had those tones in it.Meaning- This poem is all about how to begin again- to start over. It says that to do so, one must stop talking, look into one's own mind ("brain surgery") in a place without distractions, but with mirrors everywhere to see and criticize oneself. It asks, "What's the point?" Why should we sit there trying to create a new beginning for ourselves as things change around us?
"If I could stop talking, completely
cease talking for a year, I might begin
to get well," he muttered.
Of alone again performing
brain surgery on himself
in a small badly lit
room with no mirror. A room
whose floor ceiling and walls
are all mirrors, what a mess
oh my God-
And still
it stands,
the question
not how to begin
again, but rather
Why?
So we sit there
together
the mountain
and me, Li Po
said, until only the mountain
remains.
-Franz Wright
Antecedent Scenario- Before writing this poem, Franz Wright was probably thinking about new beginnings and why people feel the need to start over again. Maybe he felt like he needed his own fresh start, but questioned why.
The Climax- The climax of this poem seems to be when he says, "Why?" Here he gets to the point: that it isn't about how to begin again, but why we should do it in the first place. It is structurally significant as well; he puts the single worded question by itself for impact.
Tone- The tone of "Beginning Again" was a mixture of exasperation, bitterness, contemplation, and sarcastic. The words "muttered," "brain surgery," "oh my God," and "Why," led me to the conclusion that, in regards to beginning again, Franz Wright's poem had those tones in it.Meaning- This poem is all about how to begin again- to start over. It says that to do so, one must stop talking, look into one's own mind ("brain surgery") in a place without distractions, but with mirrors everywhere to see and criticize oneself. It asks, "What's the point?" Why should we sit there trying to create a new beginning for ourselves as things change around us?
Sunday, September 11, 2011
"The Halo That Would Not Light" Poetry Blog.
The Halo That Would Not Light
When, after many years, the raptor beak
Let loose of you,
He dropped your tiny body
In the scarab-colored hollow
Of a carriage, left you like a finch
Wrapped in its nest of linens wound
With linden leaves in a child's carboard box.
Tonight the wind is hover-
Hunting as the leather seats of swings go back
And forth with no one in them
As certain and invisible as
Red scarves silking endlessly
From a magician's hollow hat
And the spectacular catastrophe
Of your endless childhood
Is done.
-Lucie Brock-Broido
My first observation of this poem is its structure and arrangement of the lines. There are many indentations and spaces that create a certain drama. The spaces put an intenstity in between the sentences and adds to the sharp and somber tone.
As to the meaning of the poem, I like to go stanza by stanza or, in this case, line by line. To me, the beginning seems to be replacing the idea of the stork that drops off babies with a raptor; this creates already a sad idea. The raptor dropped "you" into the hollow of a carriage as if "you" were wrapped in a nest-like thing of linden leaves like a finch. This example of the helpless bird wrapped up and stuck in a child's cardboard box is a vivid image that helps enhance the tone and main idea. Then, it goes on to describe the swaying of empty swings in the wind and how there are similar to red scarves coming out of a magic hat. These empty swings being "hunted" by the wind adds to the somber and slightly cold tone of the poem. Finally, it says that the "spectacular catastrophe of your endless childhood is done." I'm not exactly sure what that last line means, but I think it has something to do with the end of the magic that goes along with childhood and innocence. It is a very strong ending with the impact of the "is done" at the very bottom right of the poem.
I'd like to understand how the title relates to the poem, but I can't think of how it does.
When, after many years, the raptor beak
Let loose of you,
He dropped your tiny body
In the scarab-colored hollow
Of a carriage, left you like a finch
Wrapped in its nest of linens wound
With linden leaves in a child's carboard box.
Tonight the wind is hover-
Hunting as the leather seats of swings go back
And forth with no one in them
As certain and invisible as
Red scarves silking endlessly
From a magician's hollow hat
And the spectacular catastrophe
Of your endless childhood
Is done.
-Lucie Brock-Broido
My first observation of this poem is its structure and arrangement of the lines. There are many indentations and spaces that create a certain drama. The spaces put an intenstity in between the sentences and adds to the sharp and somber tone.
As to the meaning of the poem, I like to go stanza by stanza or, in this case, line by line. To me, the beginning seems to be replacing the idea of the stork that drops off babies with a raptor; this creates already a sad idea. The raptor dropped "you" into the hollow of a carriage as if "you" were wrapped in a nest-like thing of linden leaves like a finch. This example of the helpless bird wrapped up and stuck in a child's cardboard box is a vivid image that helps enhance the tone and main idea. Then, it goes on to describe the swaying of empty swings in the wind and how there are similar to red scarves coming out of a magic hat. These empty swings being "hunted" by the wind adds to the somber and slightly cold tone of the poem. Finally, it says that the "spectacular catastrophe of your endless childhood is done." I'm not exactly sure what that last line means, but I think it has something to do with the end of the magic that goes along with childhood and innocence. It is a very strong ending with the impact of the "is done" at the very bottom right of the poem.
I'd like to understand how the title relates to the poem, but I can't think of how it does.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
"Inoculation" Poetry Blog.
Inoculation
Cotton Mather studied small pox for a while,
instead of sin. Boston was rife with it.
Not being ill himself, thank Providence,
but one day asking his slave, Onesimus,
if he'd ever had the pox. To which Onesimus replied,
"Yes and No." Not insubordinate
or anything of the kind, but playful, or perhaps
musing as one saying to another:
"Consider how a man
can take inside all manner of disease
and still survive."
Then, graciously, when Mather asked again:
My mother bore me in the southern wild.
She scratched my skin and I got sick, but lived
to come here, free of smallpox, as your slave.
-Susan Donnelly
First I looked up the terms I didn't know:
1) Cotton Mather- He was a New England Puritan minister in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was a very important person both socially and politically; he was also very well educated.
2) Inoculation- taking a vaccine as a precaution against contracting a disease.
3) Onesimus- This is a biblical name for a slave that fled after robbing his master and was then religously converted.
With this, the first two lines make more sense: Cotton Mather was a minister, but he studied small pox instead of "sin" for a while. He wasn't ill himself so he was researching the disease because so many others had it. He asked his slave Onesimus if he had ever had small pox. Onesimus says "yes" and "no." Technically, Onesimus had the pox when he was young, but he lived through it and in that way did not have the pox.
The last stanza is in italics to emphasize what Onesimus is saying; he was born in the "wild," got deathly sick and survived, and then came to be Cotton Mather's slave. Instead of quotation marks in the previous stanzas, this one stands out gramatically and in meaning. It seems to be more than just an anwer to Mather's question, but an idea and his life story. He survived something major, but then became nothing more than a slave.
As to the title, "Inoculation," it seems to just be referring to the medical need to get a vaccine to protect oneself from a disease like small pox. But, in this poem's time, there wasn't a vaccine for small pox, so maybe it's not a vaccine that one needs to protect from small pox, but something less material.
Cotton Mather studied small pox for a while,
instead of sin. Boston was rife with it.
Not being ill himself, thank Providence,
but one day asking his slave, Onesimus,
if he'd ever had the pox. To which Onesimus replied,
"Yes and No." Not insubordinate
or anything of the kind, but playful, or perhaps
musing as one saying to another:
"Consider how a man
can take inside all manner of disease
and still survive."
Then, graciously, when Mather asked again:
My mother bore me in the southern wild.
She scratched my skin and I got sick, but lived
to come here, free of smallpox, as your slave.
-Susan Donnelly
First I looked up the terms I didn't know:
1) Cotton Mather- He was a New England Puritan minister in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was a very important person both socially and politically; he was also very well educated.
2) Inoculation- taking a vaccine as a precaution against contracting a disease.
3) Onesimus- This is a biblical name for a slave that fled after robbing his master and was then religously converted.
With this, the first two lines make more sense: Cotton Mather was a minister, but he studied small pox instead of "sin" for a while. He wasn't ill himself so he was researching the disease because so many others had it. He asked his slave Onesimus if he had ever had small pox. Onesimus says "yes" and "no." Technically, Onesimus had the pox when he was young, but he lived through it and in that way did not have the pox.
The last stanza is in italics to emphasize what Onesimus is saying; he was born in the "wild," got deathly sick and survived, and then came to be Cotton Mather's slave. Instead of quotation marks in the previous stanzas, this one stands out gramatically and in meaning. It seems to be more than just an anwer to Mather's question, but an idea and his life story. He survived something major, but then became nothing more than a slave.
As to the title, "Inoculation," it seems to just be referring to the medical need to get a vaccine to protect oneself from a disease like small pox. But, in this poem's time, there wasn't a vaccine for small pox, so maybe it's not a vaccine that one needs to protect from small pox, but something less material.
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