Assignment 4

John Berryman
"77 Dream Songs is a hazardous, imperfect book. One would need to see the unpublished parts to decide how well it fills out as a whole. As it stands, the main faults of this selection are the threat of mannerism, and worse—disintegration. How often one chafes at the relentless indulgence, and cannot tell the what or why of a passage. And yet one must give in. All is risk and variety here. This great Pierrot’s universe is more tearful and funny than we can easily bear." -- Robert Lowell.

I actually really liked this one. Although it was kinda random like Howl.. i liked it. I don't exactly know what it is about, or trying to say, but the reaction i get is a good one. Its weird when i read this because I cant analyze them.. i just image the dreams of the writer flashing different images and I feel like that's the point. Dreams are never able to be interpreted, they are what they are and I compare that to this reading.
"but never did Henry, as he thought he did, end anyone and hacks her body up and hide the pieces, where they may be found. He knows: he went over everyone & nobodies missing. Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up. Nobody is ever missing"
this was my favorite section because I became more eager to read. I don't know why this is so intriguing to me, other than the fact that it makes me think of dreams. Henry could of had a dream he killed someone, and believed it to be true but realized in the morning no one is missing.
Everyone could relate to having a dream that seems so real, you wake up and really believe you did that. That's how I take these stories. The 77 dream songs.

Sylvia Plath
Ariel
This poem means NOTHING until you know that her horses name was Ariel. So this would be one of the times footnotes DO help!
ALSO, there are references from other works that would help you greatly!
I read it once, read the footnote, read it again and took a whole different look at it. Although, I still don't get all of the poem, I understand the concrete "horse facts." Being a horse rider helps me gain insight to the text, as well as some of the emotion. Plaths other works describe a hard life with her father and husband, so this would be a "happier" piece. But it wouldn't be Plath if there wasn't some mystery.

I can just imagine her standing on the hill looking across the open field for as far as she could see, "Gods Lioness" was the name of her horse she rode. Standing on the "furrows" that were ready to be planted and the arc of her horses neck ready to run. Then the poem seems to change paths, instead of running through the field she now is describing blackberries "black sweet blood mouthfuls" and the "hooks" being their thorns. (from the poem Blackberrying). Then the way she says "something else hauls me through the air" it almost seems like something unexpected happen and the thighs and hair i literally picture her thighs and the horses mane (where the hairline meets the withers where a rider would sit) And when she uses the term "I unpeel" I feel like she means from riding, from her horse and then she has "dead hands" But the last part I still don't understand..

Anne Sexton
Her Kind
The writer is describing everything she has done, and every "kind" of woman she has been. She seems fearless, and powerful. At this time society would have been threatened by "her kind." The three stanzas seem to describe outcasts, and I wonder if she felt like an outcast because she was not the typical woman. I feel the power behind the writer in this poem, she seems proud to be "her kind"


John Updike
A&P
This was interesting. The vivid descriptions of every single detail was what kept my interest. All the way down to the register noises, he described every detail.
The first thing I think is "are these children!" I cannot picture anyone over the age of thirteen walking around a quickstop at the beach in their bathing suits. When its a child, its not that big of a deal.. but I just pictured 13 or 14 year old which kinda makes this story sick. But then again, whatever. The cashier tells his story of the three girls coming in the store and he watches them walk around the store until they come to pay. The scene where the manager comes up is the best. I just wondered, they are already here at the register, let them get their food. Crazy concept. But instead this cashier is going to quit his job because they were asked to put on clothes? they didn't even have shoes, they shouldn't be in a grocery store with bare feet. What was he trying to prove? did he think these girls would care what he did. This is just an interesting story. I like it, but it wasn't life changing.