11/26/07

poem

After Apple Picking
by Robert Frost

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

#9

Question 1 poetry

Two poems presented were A Barred Owl by Richard Wilbur and The History Teacher by Billy Collins. Both of these poems have many similarities and differences. Most notably of these are they both explore the children mind, but in doing this one makes excuses while the other explains why this happens.

Both of the poems are from an adult’s point of view analyzing the child mind and how if a child is told fake reasoning for adult situations then there is no harm in that. For example when Wilbur writes “we tell the wakened child that all she heard was an odd question from a forest bird” (lines 3 and 4) he is saying that if excuses are made for any argument in the family to the child then it is alright and no one can complain. When Collins writes “[the teacher told the students that] the soldiers in the Boer War told long rambling stories designed to make the enemy nod off” (lines 20 to 21) he is saying that if a child cant grasp the concept of something it as alright to tell the child false information just so the child doesn’t have to think too hard. Both of these authors are saying it is alright to lie to children about facts of life because they wouldn’t understand anyway.

Some differences explored in both of these poems are the exact reasoning behind why one should lie to a child. Wilbur writes that one should lie to a child because it alleviates fear. If a child was told the truth about its parents fights the child would live in fear about another fight and would sit awake at night listening to those words. Collins writes that if one lies to a child it should be done to explain items that would not make sense to their weak minds. A teacher can make light of the situations adults face such as atomic bombs and wars so therefore the child would be better prepared to face the facts when they are actually placed in front of them.

Both of these poems posses one more difference not explained earlier, their use of literary devices. Richard Wilbur uses an animal namely an owl to cause an excuse for adult fights. He also uses extensive imagery as in “Of an Owl’s voice into her darkened room” (line 2). Billy Collins does not use many literary devices instead he makes light of the situations seen in history.

Both of these poems use lying to a child as a basis for their work. Although the exact reasoning behind each of these is different in the poems. As one last point to enhance the message of the poems literary devices are used.

11/15/07

Metamorphosis Essay #2

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is an allegory which depicts symbols of isolation and conformity. In the novel Gregor Samsa is turned into a bug and locked in his room where he fasts. This set of symbols contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

The bug that Samsa turns into plays the biggest role. Samsa is turned into a bug with weak little legs, no hands and a body that damages easily, but heals quickly. Gregor is refused from society and not even his family can bare to look at him. This image of a bug is in relation to non-conformity. Gregor can no longer fit into society and is pushed away for this. This shows that in real life it’s a conform or die situation and that’s exactly what happens to Gregor.

The second theme that The Metamorphosis explores is isolation. Upon being discovered Gregor’s family locks him inside his room. This Confinement inside his room is a symbol for isolation of the non-conformist in our modern world. This means that because Gregor didn’t fit up to standards set by his family, or any visitors, he could not be communicated with or even seen by many.

During Gregor’s confinement in his little room he refuses mostly all food that is put in front of him. After some time Gregor completely turns down all food and because of this he dies. The refusal of food is another symbol for non-conformity. To survive everything has to eat, Samsa learned that he did not like to eat, because of this and other physical characteristics Gregor didn’t fit in. It was this fasting that eventually led to his death.

The symbol of the bug and the fasting relate to standing out in a conformist society. The symbol of the room stands for isolation. Together these symbols explain that in our society the one who stands out will be pushed away and hopefully die to lift the burden of hiding the outsider.

11/8/07

Metamorphosis #1

The movie Kafka by Steven Soderbergh identifies how the main character, Kafka, is struggling between two opposing ideas. In the movie, Kafka has been asked to join a secret group set to bring down the happenings inside the nearby castle by planting a bomb. He has two choices. First of all he can decide to go with it and join the revolutionaries fight, or he can choose to ignore it and try to blend in with normal society as well as he can. It’s these two opposing influences that Kafka is forced to make a decision about.

Kafka is pulled into the anti-castle world when his best friend Eduard is murdered. As a result of this a secretary at his job, who is in on the whole thing, approaches him to get him to join her group. Kafka is intrigued and wants to meet the gang, but he is not sure if he wants to go all in.

Once Kafka realizes that the group he has been inducted into wants him to go inside the castle and plant a bomb he pulls away as much as he can. It is this pulling away that may have saved his life. The rest of the group is murdered but because Kafka wasn’t there he gets away to eventually fight the fight against the castle and accomplish the goals of the group he once tried to get away from.

Kafka is torn between two sides of a conflict and he is not sure which way to go, at first he is drawn in but realizes the goals and pulls himself back. After some time Kafka realizes that if he wants to continue to live he must join the group in full force and help them out with their biggest achievement. That is killing the enemy before they kill you.

11/7/07

The Hunger Artist

All the preparation for this day had finally come. The hunger artist could finally perform his art. The day he claimed into his cage he made a promise to the cheering crowd not to come out for any reason, not even food, for another forty days, and the door was locked tight. Many people came to see the spectacle and that’s the way the artist liked it. Some of the onlookers didn’t believe his true fasting abilities and sat for hours hatching for the slightest scrap of food to be devoured by the thin man. Other true believers stood and watched with their full bellies and happy jobs. But the hunger artist with nowhere else to go stayed where he was.

This frail man who practiced his art any time he could, loved his job. The amazed children who came and felt his bony arms, the crowd of the cheer and his self-denial, and the actual act of not eating pleased him.

After the forty days he was led out of his cage and shown to the cheering crowd how small his body had become. The crowd cheered as always, and after some time the artist was shown to some food where the entire crowd toasted to his self-denial.

Several years of this wore down and the old man. He now wanted to not eat for longer, and he was tired of only going forty days. So he left the act and joined a circus. Here he was left to his own devices. There was no acting frail and he was allowed to fast as much as he wanted. With no limits he was forced to continue fasting, with this continued fasting the viewers got tired of his antics. The hunger artist was left in a cage in a small passageway to the animals and was just another obstacle in everyone’s way. It was a consensus with everyone that it would be better if he just left.

With no other choices as he was now an old man and enjoyed fasting so much he had no other choice but to stay. After the circus lost count of how many days he had been at his job so did the artist. He began to not even enjoy the few onlookers who had the time to glance at the body in a cage on the way to the animals. One day the nuisance died and it was a turning point for the cage. It could finally have an occupant who was interesting and drew a crowd of cheering onlookers, one thing the hunger artist once was able to do but had lost in his final performance in which he died doing what he once loved to do.

The cage was filled with a leopard, which was lively and jumped at the passing crowds and was especially great at feeding times when it would rip into its food and devour it. Once the circus got rid of the burden known as the hunger artist it could now thrive in everything it did.


1. Why did the hunger artist undergo his transformation?
2. Is the hunger artist a symbol for today’s society?
3. Why would the hunger artist starve himself to death just because he didn’t like to eat?
4. How would the artist survive for forty days without any food?Was the artist really that old when he died?