William Wordsworth

Robert Browning

Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" was something different to read. The poem was so beautiful and sweet (well at least the beginning was). I like the fact that he descibed the weather conditions outside, "The rain set early in to-night, the sullen wind was soon awake" (pg. 662), because it really sets the tone for the poem as well as show how much Prophyria really loves him. The fact that she walked through the storm to get to him was a true testament of the love that she has for him. Browning made the poem even better by describing the interaction between the 2 of them inside the house/cottage. What a lot of people sometimes don't get is that it more often than not it's the simple things that mean the most to people of significance and Browning really grasped those small endearing things, "She put my arm about her waist, and made her smooth white shoulder bare, and all her yellow hair displaced, and, stooping, made my cheek lie there" (pg. 662). But once I got to line 38, "...and all her hair in one long yellow string I wound three times her little throat around, and strangles her" (pg. 663), everything I thought previously went out the window. I am really mad that he straight killed her like that and then had the nerve to sit there with her as if she were still alive and everything was all flowers and sunshine. This poem is a classic example of a psycopath who can't bear to lose the only love they have ever received from another human being so they kill that person in order to permanently retain it. This poem was so creepy but so good at the same time.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

John Keats

It sucks that Keats died at such a young age because if he had lived to be even just 40 years old or so I honestly believe that he could have composed some of the best poems ever because the few that we do have are great. His poems seem to deal a lot with death and I guess that is to be expected since his father, mother, and brother all died and he personally cared for 2 of them until their dying day.

I liked "To Autumn" because it made me feel calm as I was reading it. I'm personally a summer person but I liked how he described the wonderous things that the autumn season brings and what he is going to miss about it. When I read the the mini cliff note that was given for the word "autumn" it said that there was a double meaning to this poem, "The ode evokes two competing but related senses of autumn: the social context of harvest bounty; and the symbolic association with death" (pg. 443). I grasped the poem in the context of harvest and its social applications but I really didn't see how death was incorporated into this poem as well. The only thing I could think of was the changing seasons is like the changes that occur throughout life and maybe the cold that winter brings can somewhat correlate with death in some way I think. That part really did confuse me but other than that I really loved reading this.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Oh my gosh, Browning's stuff was so beautiful. Before I get into her work I first have to make a few comments about her life prior to meeting Robert Browning. It really bothered me while reading her biography that her father was so overprotective and I really wonder why. With 11 children it really makes me wonder what he was so afraid of. Like the fact that he did not want ANY of his child to get married. This woman was 40 years old when she met Robert and she had to hide her relationship from her father and eventually elope so that he wouldn't find out. That is unbelievable. I know it was a different time and things were done quite differently than they are now but I refuse to believe that a woman who is old enough to be my mother has to hide her relationship from her father. I mean at this point what can the man really do to her?

"Sonnets from the Portuguese" was the most beautiful thing I think I have ever read, no lie. I loved it so much because the love that she had for Robert and the love he had for her really saved her life, "Straightway I was 'ware, so weeping, how a mystic Shape did move behind me, and drew me backward by the hair; And a voice said in mastery, while I strove,--"Guess now who holds thee?"--"Death," I said. But, there, The silver answer rang,--"Not Death, but Love"" (pg. 530). At 40 years old and not in the best of health this woman was still able to find love and the best love she could ever have. She really expressed that in this sonnet and it's an example to all that you are never to young or to old to find true love.

French Revolution

Helen Williams' writings on the French Revolution were really good. It is common knoledge that the French and the English don't get along (I personally don't think they ever di or ever will) so it was really cool to read about the French Revolution through the eyes of and Englishwoman and it wasn't rude or hateful in the least bit. They were just regular letters about her time in France and how much she enjoyed it there and I liked that the most about them. I don't know if it's right to assume that she was biased in her views of the French people or not because even though she was English she might as well of had been French solely based on the love and affection she had for them and the country.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

"Pirates of the Caribbean" on deck!!! Sorry, that was me being slow but on to the poem. What on earth was the point of this poem? I really just don't get it. I get that the Kraken is a mythical creature and Tennyson is talking about him sleeping and his surroundings and eventually being awaken by humans but that makes absolutely no sense to me. I really chose to blog on this particular poem because it comfused me so much and I'm really hoping someone can clue me in. It doesn't even seem to blend in with any of his other poems in my opinion.