Blog 2 E.E. Cummings "she being Brand... "(XIX)

Looking at one of the Cummings poems, analyze how his style assists the meaning of his text.

After reading this poem one distinct thought came to my mind, Bow chica wow wow. The whole poem alludes to the idea that the poet is taking the virginity of a woman, she being the “Brand-New” car. The author’s use of a car as the metaphor for the women is quite interesting. During the 1920’s a typical sex scene every one was familiar with was the date ending up in a backseat of a car. The car may also be used as a metaphor to show male dominance, the fact that he is in control of her and the car. As the poem continues the author explains the process of getting her started, or what would be considered foreplay. As he gets started something unexpected happens as he “Floods the carburetor.” This may be due to the fact that he started to quick and her initial reaction was kicking back to neutral and reverse. The author then explains how he nudges her back into action as he begins to get going the right way. He then goes “greasedlightning” shifting her gears, getting her going in high gear. As he continues through the poem he describes what can soon be interpreted as a mutual orgasm as they both came to a dead trembling stop.

The style of this poem assists the meaning of the text by giving the reader a sense of sexuality. He starts the poem capitalizing “Brand-new” to emphasize her virgin quality. He also capitalizes other parts of the poem for sexual emphasis. I believe he capitalizes ok the way he does because it is when he is breaking into her, representing initial pleasure of starting the act. As the poem continues the line breaks are placed strategically to get the sense of heavy sexual breathing. The lines start up small and get bigger then smaller again. I believe this grouping of lines shows the sexual rhythm from slow to hard and long and back to soft to an end in a poetic Orgasm. Along with structure, the speaker adds punctuation and hyphens to elongate the words and allude to pleasure in the speaker’s voice. More capitalizations are used to show ups and downs and the pleasure he is feeling. Once he says he slammed on the breaks the next two words internalexpanding 
& 
externalcontracting describe deep breathing as they both let out a mutual orgasm. This image is emphasized by the structure he uses at the end with erratic punctuation, capitalization in the middle of words and words smashed together to form the image of the orgasm.

Blog 1 Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn."

Summarize Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn." What conclusion does the speaker come to and how does he feel the urn teaches us that?

Keats “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a poem he wrote in response to viewing an urn from ancient Greece. While the poem progress it seems as if the author is trying to interpret what is depicted on the urn and give stories to the picture. He seems to ponder life and death as he speaks of frozen images in time. Keats curiosity leads him to ponder questions about the urn that he can’t answer. The urn speaks to Keats and the poem is his way to give the reader the lesson he gained.

In the first stanza Keats describes the urn, as an object that as time goes on remains the same. The Urn is described as a historian that is it tells its story of the past as time continues. The author soon begins to question the images on the urn. It seems as if he cannot make up his mind whether the images are gods or people. He soon gives up on this thought and leads into the second stanza. Here he describes a story of a musician and his love. He seems to play it up as perfect world of music unheard and beauty, which would never age. This description of beauty and perfection lasts through to the third stanza. This conclusion he draws is however downplayed when he says in the second that the two however can never kiss and in the third he mentions that those frozen on the urn will forever have a parched tongue and burnt head from the sun. With the beginning of the fourth he starts to think of the organ of the people on the urn. When describing the town he cannot make clear a specific location, he states the streets are empty and now and no one is left to tell the story. As he realizes the origins cannot be known he begins the fourth stanza. Here he says how the urn teases his thoughts exemplifying his curiosity and quest to find some deeper knowledge or fact in the Urn. Keats concluded the beauty is truth and truth is beauty. The way this is communicated through the urn is the fact that as the author searched for truth in the piece all he could find was its beauty. The truth is that you can find the beauty in almost anything. Keats was able to look at an urn, which to most people represents death, and to see the beauty in it. He came to the conclusion that everyone should look for the beauty in life because the truth is everyone will die.