Blake and Grendel

William Blake, a man with little formal education who was thought mad by many, criticized the world and wrote genius ideas about society. His poems are works which display paradoxes and in "Introduction (Song of Innocence)" and "Introduction (Song of Experience)" he comments on the ignorance of the unenlightened and the despair of the enlightened. These contrasting poems still manage to work together, similar to how John Gardner uses the contrasting ideas of innocence versus experience in his novel Grendel. 

In “Song of Innocence”, Blake writes about a child telling a piper to “pipe song about a lamb” which symbolizes Jesus and purity. The piper is then instructed to drop his “happy pipe” and sing “songs of happy chear” then lastly write his songs in a “book that all may read”. These artistic forms of portraying the joyous song demonstrate the association that art and music has with innocence. This relates to Grendel in his early days of inexperience, before he was touched by the knowledge of the evil, pointless world. The Shaper’s song sounds much like the Piper’s song. The song about religion, people weeping with joy, it all sounds very familiar. However, Blake does state that a shortcoming of innocence is that it can be ignorance. This can be seen clearly within Grendel because the people were entranced by the Shaper’s words, ignorant to the truth, or lack of truth, behind his words.

The contrasting poem, “Song of Experience” would then demonstrate the Dragon’s perspective. The Bard “who Present, Past, & Future sees” sounds like the exact description of the Dragon, who is also all-knowing. The dragon’s “ears have heard The Holy Word” of the Shaper, but they have also experienced the darkened world that those who gain knowledge see. Grendel is engulfed into this world when he accepts the dragon’s perspective and is tortured by the darkened world, only seeing the experience side of life.

Blake himself never identified himself wholly with either view of innocence or experience, and he stood on the outside pointing out the fallacies in each. While the balance of both would be perfection, Grendel experienced such a tormented experience because of the imbalance he found in his life. He abandoned the Shaper’s ideals about innocence and inhaled the scent of the dragon, letting experience become his aura. This imbalance can be seen in Chapter 7, where he narrates his story in two parts, Cut A and Cut B- Cut A containing all of the content and Cut B being empty. This imbalance, Blake would likely claim, is what led to Grendel’s death. He was metaphorically torn, and eventually was physically torn, his cause of death.

In both introductory poems an idea of conflicting sides of humanity is expressed. These conflicting views are demonstrated in Gardner’s Grendel with the ideologies of the Shaper and the dragon. The lack of balance between the two states is what leads to Grendel’s end, and the fallacies of both perspectives are demonstrated in the poems and in the novel alike.

Truth

             What is this truth that we keep reading about? That every character within every book we read seems to be searching for? Does it even exist? Is the fact that a truth doesn’t exist- the truth itself? Seen prominently as a motif within Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, this idea is also demonstrated in John Gardner’s novel Grendel, where the melodramatic protagonist is torn between two concepts and confused as to which one is the ultimate truth. Even in Shelley’s romantic novel Frankenstein, we pondered upon the truth behind creation. So what is it?

Each novel we read contains allusions to the Bible’s creation story. In the story a truth is presented in the Garden of Eden. This truth, this knowledge, is seen as the fruit in the tree. The twisted apples in Winesburg, or the shiny apples that Grendel threw at poor, miserable Unferth.  The search for truth can also be seen in the Greek myth concerning the contents of Pandora’s Box and in many more stories across cultures. The opening of the box, or discovery of the truth, leads to disasters of massive proportions. Adam and Eve lose their connection with God and are kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and Pandora’s Box releases miseries of all kinds. In Winesburg, each person was destroyed, turned grotesque by the truth. In Frankenstein once Victor was exposed to the truth about creation, misery found him at every turn. After Grendel finds the truth, whether he believed it to be the shaper’s words or the dragon’s, he lives miserably and ultimately dies. He falls off a cliff. Let’s not pretend he didn’t jump joyously into death. These truths, whatever they may be, do not seem to bring any positive outcomes. No one is elevated to a god-like level; in fact, they all seem to be cast down- like Satan after his attempt to overreach the boundary between angel and God. The characters, like Lucifer, are all cast into a pit of self-pity and misery and chained to their despair. They are doomed to live a wretched, unsatisfied, and isolated life.

Perhaps no one will ever quite know what the ultimate truth is, and these books are only creative, well written attempts by authors who are just trying to figure it out themselves. And maybe, just maybe, we’re best left not knowing, seeing as to how all the stories end.

 

Grendel Vs. Beowulf

Grendel meets Beowulf. The scene we’ve all been waiting for.  We’ve either dreaded or awaited it eagerly, depending on how much we enjoyed reading the novel… Personally, I feel as if I was ready for Grendel to die, and I do not think he minded it much himself, yet a little part of me did feel sad to see baby Grendel go. Beowulf, his undoing, is seen with such a heroic and arrogant light in the epic from Anglo Saxon times, yet John Gardner’s Grendel tells a completely different story.

 Meeting Beowulf is quite the scene. The amount of foreshadowing and irony presented in chapter 11 is incredible and Gardner portrays the hero, or perhaps villain, in a new “twisted” light. Let’s just take a minute and address the admiration with which Grendel looks at Beowulf and the almost infatuated state of mind he was in. He was entranced with his body… stating that he could “drop into a trance just looking at those shoulders” (Gardner 155). The glorification of Beowulf’s body is extremely ironic since it is these beautiful shoulders that will be tearing his shoulder from its socket, leading to his demise. With his “cold eyes” and his dramatic arrival as “gray wind teased lifeless trees”, Beowulf does not seem the least bit heroic or even “good” (Gardner 152). His lifeless stares and boasts that hinder others are evil, and Gardner illustrates the tone towards him very clearly using diction. Everything in the chapter is “gray”, “dark”, and Beowulf is described as “grotesque” more than once, a word which brings back memories of a small miserable town in Ohio. The connotations of the words used to describe the scene are not very favorable, connoting horrible evilness. As Beowulf physically tortures Grendel he decides it is not enough and decides to psychologically infest Grendel’s mind to prove a point. What point? What was Beowulf trying to say? Also noteworthy and similar to Winesburg, Ohio are the allusions to the Garden of Eden. All throughout the chapter Gardner describes objects as twisted, and as Grendel stares at his enemy he gets a glimpse of a memory of “twisted roots, an abyss…” (Gardner 164). This could connect to the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, as a truth is also mentioned throughout the chapter. “They were like trees, those strangers”, just like Hrothgar in the ruling of his kingdom, yet the roots are twisted because of the injustice found in the base of the society. The evil that is the foundation of it all. However, if the Anglo-Saxon society were the true evil and Beowulf/Hrothgar were antagonists within the story, it would make Grendel the true hero of the novel, which would make sense since he is our protagonist.

When looking at Chapter 11 we can see that Gardner truly emphasizes the gray, antagonistic qualities within Beowulf, a very different perspective from that of the much older epic- yet it all makes sense, because all along we’ve wanted to know that Grendel was truly “good”, a protagonist, and a fulfillment of our expectations of what a main character should be like.

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.