AP English

I define heroism as humanity at its best, someone who bravely puts they’re all into improving the lives of others. Likewise, a coward is one who is cares only for himself, and is willing to put others at risk in order to maintain his well being. Beowulf is an example of a traditional hero, because he bravely put himself in grave danger to defeat the evil Grendel. Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter is a hero, as she continues to live her life despite her disgrace so she can provide for her child.

      Henry shows cowardice by running away from the battle. A true hero would have stayed and fought to protect his friends and his self-respect, but Henry thinks of neither of these things. In his first fight, Henry feels like a cog in a great machine. Ironically in his second fight, he turns and calls his comrades “Methodical idiots! Machine-like fools!” Henry suddenly loses that feeling of connection with his comrades, and flees. Although his side is winning, he believed the enemy was more powerful than him, forgetting that he was not the only man on the field that was fighting for his life. He selfishly and cowardly flees the battle, keeping his body in tact, but shredding his self-respect.

A comrade is defined as a person who shares one’s interests and activities; a friend or companion. Henry considered Jim and Wilson to be his comrades, however Jim and Wilson are brave and fight, while Henry runs away in cowardice. Jim, Henry’s supposed “friend” stayed, fought, and died on the battle field while Henry fled, leaving his “buddy” to battle alone. Wilson, one of Jim’s friends, also stayed and fought. Henry and Wilson become comrades because they both have lost their friend Jim. However, this is where the similarity between the two stops. Jim and Wilson were Henry’s friends, but Henry’s lack of fighting experience keeps them from being true “comrades”.

Crane’s depiction of death is natural and an inevitable part of life. This makes the war seem animalistic and primitive. This can be seen when Henry finds the decomposing body of a fellow soldier in the woods. There are ants devouring the corpse, symbolizing the guilt that would devour Henry if he did not return and fight. Jim’s death shocked and horrified Henry, as it does the reader. Crane uses death to link the reader with Henry, as we all have experienced death in one form or another. The reader needs this sort of link with the cowardly Henry in order to understand his actions. By showing us this animal-like death, it poses the question “What would you have truely done if you were in Henry’s position?” Would you have bravely stayed and fought, surrounded by a haze of death, or would you have followed your instincts and high-tailed it out of there? By showing death as primal and animal-like, it makes us realize that Henry’s so called “cowardice” was also mearly primal and animal-like instinct. Humans, being primarily prey creatures for animals like lions and tigers, have developed a fight or flight response; that is, if given an escape route, we will flee, and when backed into a corner we will fight.

Realism is defined as an accurate representation without idealization, while naturalism is defined as a late 19th- and early 20th-century literary approach of French origin that vividly depicted social problems and viewed human beings as helpless victims of larger social and economic forces. I enjoy realist and naturalist art and literature, as it tells life as it truely is. Realism has had a profound effect on modern literature. Most novels today, apart from fantasy, are based on real life with real characters. Even tv shows, like the ever present sitcom, have been influenced by realism.

     Realism was especially prevalent in France, where it produced several realist writers, such as Honore de Balzac, known for his writings on all aspects of French society, and his attention to detail. However, due to his unrealistic plots, Balzac’s writings are still pretty much Romantic writings, only with a Realist spin on them. Gustave Flaubert’s book Madame Bovary follows the parameters of Realism better than Balzac’s in that, although the plot of adultery and suicide may seem unrealistic, Flaubert does not justify it like Romantic works would. This type of writing would be a precursor for more modern Realist works.

     Naturalism, a term coined by Naturalist writer Emile Zola, is much like Realism. However, Naturalism does not go into the long-winded descriptions that Realism is prone to do. Zola’s writings are written from a scientific viewpoint, in that they focus on heredity and one’s environment. Zola’s works have had a profound effect on American literature. The reality of Zola’s writings fit snugly with the American character, and would fuel future works as the film noir style detective novel.

     I love realist novels like the Grapes of Wrath, which appeals to my natural sense of cynicism, but a part of me likes to escape fron reality through fantasy books like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Both types of novels have had a profound effect on my personality.

1. Describe the subtle changes in setting and analyze how these shifts reveal Eve’s fall from grace.

The subtle changes put emphasis on how she went from happy innocence to miserable disgrace. The poem begins with Eve in the orchard happily picking berries, while the snake comes and tempts her to walk “Down the dark path to/the Blasphemous Tree.” In the final scene she is seen laying outside of the orchard, weeping and hungry.

2. How does the poem’s diction contribute to tone and meaning?

Adjectives such as “sweet” and “white” describe Eve’s innocence, while the snake is “silvery” and “low”, which describes his dulcet, seductive and deceptive tones. Innocence and deception are juxtaposed in the poem. Words like “whispered,” “wondering,” and ”tumbled,” and “hated” serves to show Eve’s fall from innocence.

3. Consider the poet’s use of figurative language. How does the choice of comparisons influence tone and meaning.

The snake is given a harmless quality when it is said that he was “mute,” which makes him decieving. This creates a tone of seduction, in which the snake leads Eve from paradise with sweet soft tones.

4. Describe the meter, line length, and pattern of enjambment. What does the rhythm contribute to the mood of the poem?

 The meter is dactyllic, and there are two dactylls per line. The poem uses enjambment in almost every line. This creates an upbeat tempo that contrasts with the meaning of the poem.

5. Describe the use of repitition and rhyme. Look for patterns. What does the repitition contribute to the mood of the poem?

Each stanza has three repeating rhymes, but there is no rhyme scheme. The words “bells and grass” are repeated three times in the first stanza, as is the word “Eva” in the the sixth stanza. In stanza 7 the birds are asking “How…how…how” which shows the stunned feeling of the birds.

1. Describe the form and structure of the poem. What is the occasion of the poem? What two reasons does the speaker give for refusing to promise a committed love? What compromise does she suggest at the end?

The poem has three eight-line stanzas of iambic tetrameter with alternating rhyme. The speaker is refusing to exchange vows with her lover because they can’t know each other’s past and she doesn’t know how she will feel in the future. At the end she says that she hopes they can both be friends.

2. Analyze the effect on meaning of such devices as syntax, repetition, parallelism, and paradox.

The words promise and promises are repeated three times in the first two lines, emphasising the meaning of the poem. In lines 4 and 6 the speaker says “Never false and never true” and “Free to come as free to go” uses repitition and parallelism to show that their relationship is failing, and she wants to have the freedom to come and go as she pleases. In line 22 she poses a paradox, saying “Nothing more and nothing less,” which shows that she wants to remain friends like they were before.

3. Analyze the effect on meaning of the imagery and figurative language.

 In line 5 the speaker says, “Let us hold the die uncast”, meaning that their marriage is fated to fail, so it is better not to start it. Lines 9-12 give the image of sunlight and warmth to symbolize her partner’s fickle nature, and the love that she had once had from other lovers. Line 15 alludes to the “fade of an image from a glass,” meaning that the past is slipping away, as is her freedom. 

5 tangible: 1.  Clothing 2. Blankets 3. Haversacks 4. Canteens 5. Arms and ammunition

5 intangible: 1. Aspirations of grandeur 2. Rumors spread by fellow soldiers 3. Morals 4. Courage and 5. Fear of fear.

What do I carry in life?

For tangible things, I carry my wallet, my pocket PC (which has become invaluable to me), and a never ending supply of gum. For intangible things, I carry my uncertainties in my future, an cynical outlook on life, and my own hopes and dreams for humanity and myself.

1. What imagery does Shapiro use in the first three lines to evoke sound and sight? How do these images become increasingly significant in the context of the entire poem?

Shapiro evokes sound and sight through the description of the bell as “quick”, “soft”, and “silver”, the “beating, beating” like a heart, and the “dark…ruby flare.” These warning signs signify that a horrible accident has just occured.

2. On a literal level, what contextual significance do the following words and phrases have…?

The word mangled is used as a noun in casual way, which increases the effect of the word. The toll of the ambulence is symbolic of the tolling of a funeral bell. By using the phrase “terrible cargo,” the author dehumanizes the victims, adding to the overall horror. The rocking sensation of the ambulence is symbolic of a cradle rocking, a comforting action that is out of place in the poem and serves to ironically show how the victims cannot be comforted. The police, who are “composed”, are used to seeing these things, as opposed to the “deranged” witnesses.

3. Analyze the metaphors in lines 3, 18, 22, and 29-30. What pattern do they create and why is it appropriate to the poem?

The ambulence’s “pulsing” light in line 3 is a metaphor for the human heart pumping blood. In line 18, the policeman is seen using a bucket of water to wash the “pools of blood” into the gutter. In line 22, the witnesses throats are “tight as tourniquets,” which are devices that are used to limit or stop bloodflow. In line 29, the witnesses touch “a wound/That opens to our richest horror.” The witnesses refuse to leave the scene, and in doing so continue to let their emotional “wounds” bleed. The metaphors create a pattern of bleeding and blood, which parallels the action in the poem.

4. What is added to the theme of the poem by the metaphors in lines 20-21 and the simile in 24-27?

The theme is that sudden and meaningless death can make us question our own views about life. In lines 20-21, the cars are compared to “empty husks of locusts,” which seems to suggest that the victims have “molted” from their bodies in death. In lines 24-27, the witnesses are compared to “convalescents intimate and gauche.” Their smiles are “sickly” and they make “grim jokes.” The witnesses have been emotionally traumatized by this gruesome event, and the fears of mortality that they have worked so hard to repress come flying back to the surface.

1. Describe the form called rime royal: meter, rhyme scheme, stanza form.

 Rime royal contains iambic pentameter, has a rhyme scheme of 3 ababbcc rhymes, and is a seven-line long stanza.

2. What is the structure of the poem? How do the imagery and argument of each stanza develop and intensify the appeal?

 The purse in the first stanza is seen as a “lady” that will have mercy on him and save him from starvation. The second stanza contains the image of coins rattling in a purse. He calls his purse the queen of comfort. In the 3rd stanza he calls the purse the light of his life and asks it to help him leave town. Through the image of a shaven monk, we see how he is deprived of material goods.

3. In exploring the extended metaphor of the poem, consider how diction accounts for the humor of Chaucer’s parody.

 In the extended metaphor, Chaucer compares his purse to a lady of nobility. This lady seems to have devine powers that will save the speaker from certain death. He prays to this lady and asks her to “help me thurgh your might.” Her power grows as the poem progresses and by the end she has become his “lives light/And savior.”

4. How does the envoy continue the tone even as it addresses a specific person?

The envoy flatters Henry IV, calling him a “conquerer” and a descendant of Brutus. It keeps its tone by saying that Henry IV has the money to give to the speaker, and save him from starvation.

1. What is the dominant meter and the line length? What is the rhyme scheme? Describe the poems structure.

The poem consists of 15 lines. It’s dominant meter is iambic tetrameter, and it’s rhyme scheme is a perfect rhyme comprised of mostly couplets with the exception of lines 7, 8, and 9. For the most part, the poem follows the structure of an Italian sonnet, with the first 8 lines in couplets that explain the situation, the 9th line containing the turn of events and an extra rhyme, and a sestet.

2. What is the effect of the frequent use of alliteration in the poem? Combined with assonance and consonance, what mood does this device create?

The frequent use of alliteration, assonance and consonance creates a mood of sadness. Words like “grief/gold”, “sorrow’s/springs”, and “heart/heard” reinforce the bleak mood.

3. Comment on the effect created by such unusual diction as…How do the connotations of these words create the poem’s mood?

Goldengrove gives the reader an image of a grove of trees whose leaves have turned golden in autumn. The word “unleaving” is used so we would look at the grove in a new way, as a child would. “Wanwood” is used to describe a pale color, like the color of death. “Leafmeal” gives an image of rotting and decaying leaves. “Springs” describes both underground springs and tears. The word “blight” describes death and bleakness.

4. Analyze the poet’s use of figurative language. How does it suggest the theme of the poem?

The figurative language in the poem, like “heart grows older” meaning human emotion weakening and dulling, seems to suggest that the theme is that the prospect of death is much more intense and frightening to an innocent child than it is to an experienced adult.

5. What is its meter, rhyme scheme, and structure?

The meter and rhyme scheme are iambic pentameter and a nonce rhyme scheme of aabcbdcdeefgfg. The poem contains 14 lines, and is structured around the narrator’s interpretation of a bird’s song.

6. Paraphrase the three messages of the oven bird, then analyze the meaning of the word fall as it encapsulates the theme of the poem.

The bird says that in midsummer the leaves are old and there are only 1/10 of the flowers in spring. It says that the falling of petals in early summer is past and the next fall, the one we call autumn is coming. The bird says that the dust from highways covers everything. There are three forms of “fall” on the poem: the fall of the petals in late spring, the fall of the leaves in autumn, and the fall of man’s innocence.

7. Paraphrase the last four lines of the poem. How does the oven bird symbolize the human condition?

Unlike other birds the oven bird realizes that spring and summer will not last. The bird is asking us what we will make of a world destroyed by human progress. The bird is symbolizing the destruction and disregard of nature by man’s carelessness.