I've always had a difficult time understanding poetry. This year, Hume has come quicker to me than this or Paradise Lost. Poetry is an amazing approach to language. It's mystical, magical, ornate, and beautiful. The height of literature, language, and epics of old was poetry. It was true storytelling. At least for me, when I tell a story, I use a very different form of meter and measure. Plus I can barely speak, much less rhyme every two lines. It might be even harder for me to write like Milton, who had ten syllables per verse. I'd be scrambling through a thesaurus while it came fluently to them. I think a lot about how differently language is seen by poets.
But with this satire, the hilarious exaggerations along with the majestic prose really gets to me. It's different than reading Milton. I felt like Milton's language was higher, even without the rhyming. It was like archaic speech, and I loved it. Pope's poetry just rolls of the tongue. I get through it faster than when reading Milton. I process what I read quicker.
A few lines really got me.
When kind occasion prompts their warm desires,
When music softens, and when dancing fires?
'Tis but their Sylph, the wise Celestials know,
Tho' Honour is the word with Men below.
Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,
Too soon dejected, and too soon elate.
Sudden, these honours shall be snatch'd away,And curs'd for ever this victorious day.
I still haven't put all the pieces together in this poem to really understand the context of what's going on. I see the nymphs and spiritual beings, their descriptions and how they are able to take form, to harm and shield, but are these two lines speaking of the deepest root of desire? Why we are motivated? Why we do good and bad? What does Pope mean by "honor"? I feel like he is eluding to it in more of the sinful/prideful sense, not the heroic or noble one, since this is satire--even if it is a mock-heroic poem.
...............and if I am to be even more satirous (if that even is a word) I would speak on the "honor" of Honors, the Golden Toilet.
"And now, unveil'd, the Toilet stands display'd"
Honestly this was my favorite line from Pope so far. All I could think about was the end of the Honors Project and our prized heirloom of the honors lounge. What a "proud" bunch of people we are in a spray painted toilet. There's satire for any of you who want to write a poem in a fortnight like Pope did.
Overall, I have a lot of questions. I hope to be enlightened tomorrow at 9:30. Kronos has spoken.
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I commented on Caroline's and Rachael's
But with this satire, the hilarious exaggerations along with the majestic prose really gets to me. It's different than reading Milton. I felt like Milton's language was higher, even without the rhyming. It was like archaic speech, and I loved it. Pope's poetry just rolls of the tongue. I get through it faster than when reading Milton. I process what I read quicker.
A few lines really got me.
When kind occasion prompts their warm desires,
When music softens, and when dancing fires?
'Tis but their Sylph, the wise Celestials know,
Tho' Honour is the word with Men below.
Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,
Too soon dejected, and too soon elate.
Sudden, these honours shall be snatch'd away,And curs'd for ever this victorious day.
I still haven't put all the pieces together in this poem to really understand the context of what's going on. I see the nymphs and spiritual beings, their descriptions and how they are able to take form, to harm and shield, but are these two lines speaking of the deepest root of desire? Why we are motivated? Why we do good and bad? What does Pope mean by "honor"? I feel like he is eluding to it in more of the sinful/prideful sense, not the heroic or noble one, since this is satire--even if it is a mock-heroic poem.
...............and if I am to be even more satirous (if that even is a word) I would speak on the "honor" of Honors, the Golden Toilet.
"And now, unveil'd, the Toilet stands display'd"
Honestly this was my favorite line from Pope so far. All I could think about was the end of the Honors Project and our prized heirloom of the honors lounge. What a "proud" bunch of people we are in a spray painted toilet. There's satire for any of you who want to write a poem in a fortnight like Pope did.
Overall, I have a lot of questions. I hope to be enlightened tomorrow at 9:30. Kronos has spoken.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I commented on Caroline's and Rachael's
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