Hallows Eve

Spirits of the Dead

Edgar Allen Poe

Thy soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

 

II

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness—for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee—and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

 

III

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not down

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever.

 

IV

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,

Now are visions ne’er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more—like dew-drop from the grass.

V

The breeze—the breath of God—is still—

And the mist upon the hill,

Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token—

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

Halloween is nearing. It's the time for costumes and candy and pumpkin themed bake sales. But not only that- it's the time for the spooky, the creepy, and every imaginable crawly. This time of the year can be anticipated or dreaded- especially for those who are allergic to all things frightful. Thankfully for us AP Lit students, we are immersed in Grendel, a book seeping with dreadful ideas. It really is perfect timing for such a literary work; however, I was left craving something scarier to read- something that would make the hair on my arms stand on edge and make me wish I was seated with my back to the wall. So I searched in the romantic works of the classic Poe. And I can’t say I was disappointed.

Edgar Allen Poe’s Poem “Spirits of the Dead” explores the connection between life and death, describing the afterworld in a scene that chills our bones. He depicts a lone living soul amidst a crowd of spirits of the dead, and in the first stanza he describes the dark state the soul is in.

 

Thy soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

                Poe uses words such as “dark” and “grey” to demonstrate the sad and gloomy thoughts that the person has as they think about death. By depicting the person alone at a tombstone he begins his poem in a morbid place, setting us up for the rest of the poem.

Poe then writes about the how the spirits are in an elevated state and are among the presence of the living.

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness—for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee—and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

 

In the second stanza, the person is surrounded by the “spirits of the dead” whose will “shall overshadow” his. The fact that the will of the spirits will overcome his demonstrates the power they hold. This informs us of their superiority.

Towards the end of the poem Poe personifies nature to create a sense of intensity that displays the discomfort that the living must face in life. The frowning light and the stars that “shall seem as a burning and a fever” seem very hostile. This demonstrates the hostility of everyday life and how it can weigh down on an individual. The fever which would “cling to thee forever” and the thoughts that will “not banish” are everlasting pains. Since human life is so ephemeral, every discomfort can seem like an eternity.

 

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not down

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever.

 

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,

Now are visions ne’er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more—like dew-drop from the grass.

 

In the last stanza Poe uses mist to show the veil between this world and the next and how as long as the veil exists, the next world will be a mystery to the living.

 

The breeze—the breath of God—is still—

And the mist upon the hill,

Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token—

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

 The troubles of this life can not compare with the stillness present in the next. As the soul sits next to that tombstone, surrounded by the crowd of spirits and tortured by the discomfort of life, it sees the most as a promise of the clarity and peace that must surely exist in the afterlife. 

 

Although this poem was deep and thoughtful rather than chilling, it still had that edge of gloom and darkness that Poe never seems to fail to bring. 

Grendel Chapter 5

My initial thoughts about chapter 5 in John Gardner's novel Grendel- when he goes on his trip to meet the dragon. I had to put down my tea and set aside my shortbread cookies while reading this one. 

 

First off, Grendel is woken from his slumber by some sort of mysterious presence, sort of like a call to adventure in a hero's journey, and he comes upon a fright-inducing, seemingly insane dragon. The fierce description, including "eyes not firey but cold as the memory of family deaths" , would make anyone tremble- and the self- pitying, despair bringing beast Grendel is no exception (57 Gardner). He stands frightened with his hands in front of him like a rabbit, forced to listen to the dragon's malicious laughter and what seems to be a madman's ramblings. 

 

This chapter can be very confusing and I spent a long while trying to figure out what the dragon was saying to Grendel in his long wordy paragraphs- but then the thought occurred to me: "what if we're not supposed to understand?" I stopped and pondered. Isn't that the whole point then- That the dragon's understanding surpasses our own; therefore, our minds are not fully able to grasp the concepts which it is spurting out? 

This allows a connection to be made between the dragon and some sort of all-seeing all-knowing deity. This could be an allusion to the Bible, which says in Revelation 1:8, "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty'". And then the concept of free will is brought up- in which the dragon seems frustrated by others' inability to grasp the concept that he does not interfere. He states that his "knowledge of the future does not cause the future. It merely sees it, exactly as creatures at your low level recall things past" (63). It seems a lot like an omnipotent god- yet the dragon's nature and demeaning attitude is very dark. So is the dragon the god? Or is it evil? And if it is evil, then why would it call out to Grendel, give him some long speech and get frustrated by his lack of understanding (even though he can see the future and knew that would happen), and later let Grendel go free, more confused than ever?

 

This chapter was brain twisting and thought inducing, but the one thing it was not is boring. Meeting the dragon, who had a superior and haughty attitude similar to Grendel and Beowulf, was quite the experience. He was terrifying and more than slightly crazy, like a clichéd mad scientist, yet I still kind of like it- it didn't seem to be completely detestable.  I don't fully understand what it all means, and am still perplexed about the overall role of the dragon, but I do not think it is something to worry about, since our minds are not capable of really grasping all that the dragon had to say. But then again... What if they are?

T.S Eliot and Winesburg, Ohio

The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a t. S. Eliot poem filled with juxtaposition which highlights the speaker's insecurity that comes with old age. The poem has a variety of parallels with Sherwood Anderson's novel Winesburg, Ohio, such as the whole idea of a story teller and a listener. Throughout the poem, the speaker addresses the reader directly, inviting us to come along with him in the evening and advising, "Do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit". This idea of a listener is seen in Winesburg, where a young boy named George Willard seems to know all the town secrets. He knows of the hidden pasts of others, the inner thoughts of their hearts, similar to how J. Prufrock pours out his insecurities and wonderings to his listener.
Also present within the poem is the idea of a timid man trapped within society. There is a significant amount of imagery that suggests a feeling of entrapment, similar to Anderson's novel. Passage two of Eliot's poem says

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening

This passage seems to create an image of a cat, a lonely animal, which depicts an isolated stage. Cats are known to keep to themselves, symbolizing loneliness- one of the most prominent themes within the novel Winesburg, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson depicts a town many of the individuals suffer from isolation, wishing that they would find somebody that understands them. Enoch, an artist that lived within the city, is the main character within the short story "Loneliness" in which he fills his void for an understanding companion with imaginary friends. In the poem, the yellow fog is clouding up the windows, representing the concealed speaker. Within Winesburg, windows are a reoccurring motif within the novel, since the majority of the characters are trapped in their pasts, left stagnant. There is an emphasis on the young, like George Willard, and old, like his mother Elizabeth. The  idea of the passage of time comes up as J. Alfred Prufrock remarks upon the troubles of old age. He is insecure about getting old, fearful of others seeing his balding head as he walks down the stairs. There is also an allusion to the Bible with the passage that parallels Ecclesiastes 3 "there will be a time for" this and "a time for" that. Eliot displays how quickly life can pass us by, pondering if it "would have been worth it" to do all the things he could have done. Overall, the Love Story of J. Alfred Prufrock and Winesburg, Ohio are very similar in the characters portrayed and in the effects of time on a human in our society.

In what is supposed to be a love song, J. Alfred Prufrock depicts his isolation and insecurity caused by society in a gloomy and almost morbid way, with "voices dying" and a "dying fall". This juxtaposition of our expectations and the reality within the poem is similar to life- our expectations of youth are cut short by the reality of aging and a broken society.

"The Broken Heart"

"THE BROKEN HEART"
by John Donne

This poem describes the heart’s relationship with the personified love by using a variety of comparisons. Each stanza examines a different view of this love. In “The Broken Heart” John Donne uses violent imagery and personification to reveal the severe impact that love and heartbreak can have on a person’s life.

He is stark mad, whoever says,
    That he hath been in love an hour,
Yet not that love so soon decays,
    But that it can ten in less space devour ;
Who will believe me, if I swear
That I have had the plague a year?
    Who would not laugh at me, if I should say
    I saw a flash of powder burn a day?

 

Donne starts off by demonstrating the connection with time. The first stanza is focused on how others perceive love to be short lived, while he has been in love for a year. He describes how others might mock him if he revealed the dramatic effect that a simple “flash of powder” produced. The speaker uses negative words to describe love throughout the poem. In the first stanza he describes it as “decaying”, “devour” and “plague”. These words have connotations of illness and death, creating juxtaposition with the supposed love he is feeling. They also add a layer of intensity to his words, creating the sense seriousness that comes with life and death. Describing love as a force that seems to be killing him lets us see that the broken heart he describes in the title will not recover.

 

Ah, what a trifle is a heart,
    If once into love's hands it come!
All other griefs allow a part
    To other griefs, and ask themselves but some;
They come to us, but us love draws ;
He swallows us and never chaws ;
    By him, as by chain'd shot, whole ranks do die ;
    He is the tyrant pike, our hearts the fry.

 

The next stanza comments on the nature of a trifle heart when it falls in love. Eating imagery is used when describing how love draws us in. It seems almost as if we are prey to love, who is a hungry predator, so hungry for victims that “he swallows us and never chaws”. This predatory and violent view is also seen when love is described as a tyrant. A tyrant is a “cruel and oppressive ruler”. Love rules over all else, compelling and forcing its prey to suffer grief and die. When speaking of love, the description is ironic; however, the description fits in perfectly with a broken heart.

 

If 'twere not so, what did become
    Of my heart when I first saw thee?
I brought a heart into the room,
    But from the room I carried none with me.
If it had gone to thee, I know
Mine would have taught thine heart to show
    More pity unto me; but Love, alas!
    At one first blow did shiver it as glass.

                The speaker wallows in self- pity and sadness of losing his heart by falling his love. Personifying love allows us to feel that close connection and the loss that he feels from not carrying out his heart with him. He suffers because his beloved did not show affections towards him, as she would have if she felt the same way towards him. He remarks that “at one first blow did shiver it as glass”, adding fragility to his state of being.

Yet nothing can to nothing fall,
    Nor any place be empty quite ;
Therefore I think my breast hath all
    Those pieces still, though they be not unite ;
And now, as broken glasses show
A hundred lesser faces, so
    My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore,
    But after one such love, can love no more.

 

                Lastly, the speaker corrects his first assumption that his heart left him. He remarks that it cannot be gone since it has nowhere to go, explaining that the object of his affections did not accept his love, returning it back to him in pieces. This last stanza describes a physically broken heart, made of pieces of glass, a material that is fragile when whole and sharp and stabbing when broken. He goes on to say that he will never be able to fully recover and love another, even though he is able to “like, wish, and adore”.  This says that once a heart is broken, it can never recover, and that love is an all-consuming intensity that has the power to destroy.

 

 

 

Alice Hindman and Alice in Wonderland

Adventure: an exciting or very unusual experience/participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises/a bold or risky undertaking/to risk, to dare, to venture.

 

Alice Hindman, a quiet girl with a large head and a slight body, is the main character within Sherwood Anderson’s short story “Adventure” in Winesburg, Ohio. The name Alice brings us memories of grinning Cheshire cats and long, winding rabbit holes that lead to a wonderland of disproportion and riddles. Anderson’s “Adventure” compares with Lewis Carroll’s originally named Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to reveal the skewed self images that women hold.

Alice Liddell, a play on the word “little”, holds a confused sense of self. She constantly shifts sizes, from being too small to too large, representing her wavering ideas of whom she is. Similarly, Alice Hindman is described as having a large head that “overshadowed her body” (93). These disproportional bodies reveal the lopsided views that these women have of themselves. Alice H.’s head is way too large, suggesting self-consumption, while Alice L’s wavering body size, which at one point reaches up to one mile high, hints at insecurity. Any appearance that is not considered average draws attention from others, oftentimes leading to a lack of confidence. Alice’s fluctuating height is simply a representation of her already present insecurity that caused her to dream up a fantasy world as an escape.

Anderson displays how one who is lacking fulfillment in life will search out an outlet for that empty feeling. Alice Hindman is “betrayed by her desire to have something beautiful come into her rather narrow life”, similar to how Alice Liddell is sucked down out of her dull and mediocre life into the world of impossibilities and adventures. This wonderland is what Alice H. experiences in her relationship with Ned Currie, the young man that grows to symbolize the concept of adventure for Alice. Their relationship was young, passionate, and dangerous. “A risky undertaking”, if I do say so myself. After he leaves, that loss that she feels is not heartbreak towards the city-bound man, but despair over losing what made her feel alive. She essentially “dies” when he leaves; losing the part of her that was awakened during their affair under the moon. This could be taken in both the sexual and the emotional sense. When Ned and Alice are intimate they spiritually become one, and her feelings of never being able to give herself to another man imply that she feels impure. Several religious allusions within this story demonstrate her attempts to find fulfillment. Wildly running naked through the rain is symbolic of the baptism that she desperately undergoes to seek renewal. However, no matter how many baptisms and “new beginnings” Alice Hindman goes through, she remains empty, still lacking the wonderland that she saw in the love of another.

Anderson’s “Adventure” and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland describe the empty void that humans feel and the ways in which we seek to fill them. Both Alice’s enter their wonderlands and experience an inexplicable loss when they “wake up”. Their adventures reveal the part of themselves that was dormant and gave them ephemeral fulfillment.

Christ in Winesburg, Ohio

Rusty nails driven through thick bone and delicate flesh. Blood streaming out of gaping holes, like an aged Merlot, slowly poured. This gruesome and torturous experience was common practice for punishment two millennia ago. Crucifixion, defined as “severe and unjust punishment or suffering” is a reoccurring phenomena that symbolically occurs within Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.  Many stories have allusions to personal suffering and as Christ-like figures are upon the discoveries of truth, or light. 

Dr. Percival instructs George of a truth that he entrusts him to write in a book in case anything were to happen to him. The simple idea is “that everyone in the world is Christ and they are all crucified” (Anderson 39). This truth seems quite startling at first, and one instinctually begins writing him off as a poor, misunderstood lunatic, but there is in fact validity to what he says. A vast amount of grotesque characters within the book have a number of comparisons to Christ, and the number of biblical allusions is endless. The very first story, “The Book of the Grotesque”, which I might point out is singular, implying that there is only one, is about an old carpenter, who knows about the beautiful truths that people snatched up and led them to become grotesques. This old man, seemingly the author of the rest of the stories within the novel, could very well be George Willard. The common thread between all the stories and the young boy who eventually goes off into the city, George as the old man seems plausible because he is mentioned continuously. Many of the characters, like Dr. Percival and Kate Swift, confess their dreary lives to him, similar to how Christ hears all confessions of sin. Secondly, the fact that he is a carpenter, like Jesus, is a considerably significant sign. George as the omnipresent Christ figure within the novel appears in stories such as “Hands” and “Teacher”, which also include characters who are crucified.

Wing Biddlebaum, a confused old man who is described with overwhelming bird imagery, is trapped within his own body. His trembling hands flutter out to young boys to help them “dream”, and he is cast out of his town after one of his former students accuses him of inappropriate behavior. The poor man is ashamed, although he probably is not fully aware of what happened. He was a teacher (like Jesus), twelve men drove him out of the town that night (the number of disciples Jesus had), he is betrayed by one of his students (Jesus was betrayed by his disciple Judas), and he suffers for an act that he did not commit (self-explanatory).

Although he is one of the most intriguing, Wing is not the only Christ figure within the book. Kate Swift, another teacher, has some similarities also. She was an inspiration to a priest and she holds a truth within her that she desperately tries to tell George of. Kate, like many others within the novel, seems to be subject to severe punishment, crucifixion in itself.

There seem to be many connections between the characters within Winesburg, Ohio who are all similar in an innumerable amount of ways. They all hold their truths and all become grotesques- Christ figures written in this book by George Willard, a favor to the old Dr. Percival.

Tintern Abbey and Frankenstein

William Wordsworth’s poem “Tintern Abbey”, less commonly known as “Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798”, makes an appearance in Mary Shelley’s Novel Frankenstein, first published 20 years later in 1818.

Wordsworth’s poem flows through various descriptions of the nature that surrounds him. First from an external standpoint, and later from an internal reflection, he then goes into an analysis of different eras of his life. The third section of “Tintern Abbey” delves into the connection between external and internal. The nostalgic feel of the comparison between his past and present is overflowing with descriptive oxymorons. He describes his older and more mature attitude towards life as an “aching joy” and as hearing the “still sad music of humanity”. These elevated thoughts are no longer taking place in the abbey, and he is encroaching upon a universal truth of the struggle that exists between past and present, childhood and adulthood, thoughtless naivety and disturbing joy.

Mary Shelley’s novel encompasses a variety of themes, and on pages 138-139 Victor Frankenstein is describing the contrasting views that his deceased best friend held of the world and of the awe-inspiring nature which surrounded them. She includes the lines,

 

“The sounding cataract

Haunted him like a passion: the tall rock,

The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their colours and their forms, were then to him

An appetite; a feeling, and a love,

That had no need of a remoter charm.

By thought supplied, or any interest

Unborrow’d from the eye”.

 

Frankenstein describes his dear friend using this poem because it emphasizes the ardor with which Clerval truly loved nature. Furthermore, it draws a parallel between Henry Clerval and the younger self that Wordsworth is describing. This comparison brings with it an undertone of innocence and youth. Shelley writes that Clerval’s “wild and enthusiastic imagination was chastened by the sensibility of his heart…The scenery of external nature, which others regard only with admiration, he loved with ardour” (Shelley 139).  The word chastened also makes an appearance in Wordsworth’s poem when he describes the “still, sad music of humanity” which has the “ample power to chasten and subdue”. This comparison between the gifted poet Wordsworth and Victor’s beloved friend Henry allows us to truly grasp with what depth Clerval relates to nature and the world which surrounds him. Wordsworth’s descriptions begin to include a “deeper zeal of holier love”, idolizing the nature that he personifies.

 

Henry Clerval, a “worshiper of Nature” is used in Shelley’s novel to bring us to the realization that Frankenstein is no longer able to experience life as his companion does. Lacking the innocence that he loses when he betrays God with the sin of rebellion, he is left a shell of his former being, no longer able to see nature with the divinity that it holds, or life with an eye of joy. The contrast between Clerval and Frankenstein is saddening because we long for our protagonist to experience the joy of life, although we know that he will be mourning the choices he made for the rest of his existence.