Paper 1 Commentary Outline

I. Intro
Thesis - Thomas Hardy, in his poem "The Voice" uses diction and alliteration to convey the speaker's feelings of loss and weakness due to the death of a loved woman.

II. Body 1 - Diction
Topic Sentence - Hardy uses empty diction to show the speaker's feelings of loss as well as the reality of the death of the speaker's loved one.
~Examples: "the voice" "were" "air" "dissolved"

III. Body 2 - Alliteration
Topic Sentence - The use of alliteration in each stanza was made to convey insight to the speaker's feelings on the death of a loved one. In looking at the alliterations, a sense of loss and felt absence are seen at first. The speaker then moves on to reminiscing, want and sadness, weakness, and finally ends the poem in the feeling of pain from his/her loss.

IV. Conclusion
Restated Thesis

As I Lay Dying - Whitfield

Whitfield is one of the character that was only mentioned a few times in the book, however he plays a huge part in the Bundren family. In piecing together both Addie's and Whitfield's narratives, we find that Addie had an affair with Whitfield. There is also speculation that Jewel may be Whitfield's son (as we know that he is not Anse's son) however this was never directly stated, and it may be possible that Jewel is the product of another man; Addie may have had multiple affairs.
Because Whitfield does not have many parts in the book, it is hard to get a full reading on his character. It is quite apparent that he is a very religious man; he is a reverend and his entire narrative is full of references to God and Satan. He is wracked with guilt over his affair with Addie, and when he hears that she is dying decides to confess to Anse about what he did. Though a noble gesture, when coupling this with more details, as well as the fact that he did not confess in the end, Whitfield seems to actually be somewhat of a weak willed and cowardly character. First, the fact that he waited so long to confess shows that he must not have a strong desire to do so in the first place (he had to "wrestle with Satan" to do so). Also, he waited until Addie was on her death bed to confess, which may show that he is scared of her; she did not want him to say anything and for him to confess now, when she is too weak to do anything, and that there is no chance of her getting better to get back at him, shows that he is weak and that if she were healthy he would not think of confessing. Whitfield is constantly also looking for the "easy way out." First, he was going to try to make Addie confess and tell the "story" instead of him, and when he found out that she died, he did not say anything to Anse about it. Also, it seems that Whitfield was more looking for forgiveness in God, and not from Anse - Whitfield constantly makes interpretations about God's will and means, and in simply thinking about confessing he says "It was already as though it were done. My soul felt freer, quieter than it had in years." Whitfield does not want to confess and confront Anse, he just wants to feel as if he had, and get the guilt off his chest. He is quite selfish in that he is not looking to do the "right thing" (confessing at this point would only bring up bad feelings and would cause Addie to die in anger, and with anger toward her from Anse and the famly), he just wants to make himself feel better.

Siren Song

Atwood, in her poem "Siren Song," establishes both the speaker and the audience as well as comments on why the siren song works and the sirens themselves. She does this through her use of diction and tone, as well as the actual content of the poem.
One of the first things that Atwood does is she establishes who is speaking, as well as who the audience is. She does this through both the title and content of the poem, identifying that she is talking about sirens, then identifying that the speaker herself is one of the sirens in the passage

"I don't enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical
with these two feathery maniacs."

As Atwood describes the speaker as squatting on the island with to feathery maniacs, the reader is fairly safe to assume that the speaker is a siren as well. Doing this, it is possible to say who she is talking to, or singing to. Simply knowing the facts about sirens, that they sing to sailors and travelers, we can then assume that these sailors and travelers are the intended audience.
In identifying the speaker and audience, it is possible to make the connection that this poem is actually a song - the same song that the sirens sing to lure men to their deaths. Looking at the poem in this sense, it is more possible to see why sailors and men are lured to their death. One of the main qualities of the poem that gives insight to both the sirens and why men are lured are the various changing tones. The poem starts off as a warning, saying what will happen to those who hear the sirens' song, and gives off a dangerous, warning tone through its strong diction such as "irresistable" and "forces." The tone of the piece then takes a drastic turn, and it conveys a "damsel in distress" message. The speaker talks about how horrible her life is and how she wants to escape and how "only you" can help. This both boasts the listener's ego, and creates the idea for them to become the knight in shining armor, causing them to do just what the speaker said they would do in the first two stanzas. Finally, the last stanza takes on a tone which really gives insight to how the siren feels about what she does. She says

"at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time."

The siren shows a sort of accomplishment at what she just did, as well as a twisted pleasure that even though she had warned these sailors in the begining, she was still able to make them drown.

"Follower"

Seamus Heaney, in his poem "Follower," is able to depict the relationship between a father and child, and how each is perceived as time goes on, through his use of diction and imagery. This poem deals with two time periods; five out of the six stanzas talk about when the speaker was a child, and the last talks about when the speaker is grown up. Overall, this poem is about the speaker's father, and in these first five stanzas, Heaney conveys a sense of wonder and awe that come from the speaker as a child. He believed his father to be perfect, flawless. He was "an expert" and could "map the furrow exactly." His father could make no mistakes, and was not only strong but was even a greater man for being able to put up with the speaker as a child, constantly tripping and stumbling behind him, constantly talking. As a child, the speaker looked to his father in a superhero sense, that he was not a real man, but a wonder set to always be as he was. This perception changes however, as the speaker grows up. The speaker's view of his father as a child is broken, and a sense of reality and the switching of roles is seen in the last stanza. The speaker has taken his fathers place, and the father, who used to be untouchable, has been reduced to a child, a nuisance. The relationship between the two is there, however earlier in the poem, the where the father allowed the speaker to follow him, the readers were lead to believe that it was not from annoyance, but from love, or at least indifference. Now in the last stanza, the speaker's annoyance at his father is clear, however we find that he may allow his father to keep following more out of a sense of duty, or repayment than actual want.

Midterm Break

At first glance of "Mid-Term Break," it seems as if the speaker is very indifferent and emotionless over the death of his younger brother, however, after looking deeper into the poem, it becomes apparent that Seamus Heaney uses time and age to express the speaker's feelings of grief.
First, Heaney uses time to express both the speaker's impatience and his feelings of fear and regret. The first stanza is...

"I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home."

This stanza gives a few examples of time expressing the impatience felt by the speaker. First, he says that he "sat all morning....counting bells..." This phrase can be counted as either boredom, in a regular setting, however in the context of the poem, it shows how the speaker is waiting to go home - the morning seems to strech out longer, as his impatience causes time to slow. Just as when one counts sheep as they wait to go to sleep, the speaker counting bells can be seen as his way to pass the time, and makes the time seem much longer. The second way Heaney uses time to express impatience is with his use of "two o'clock" and later in the poem, "ten o'clock." These two times are very important, and are the key times when the wait which the speaker experiences ends. At two o'clock, he was able to go home. At ten o'clock, the abulance arrives with his brother's body. By using specific times, Heaney really expresses that the whole day is centered around those two events, and that the time inbetween is just a waiting game.
Heaney also uses time to show the speaker's feelings of fear and regret. Even though the corpse had arrived at 10 o'clock that night, the speaker waited until the next morning to go up into the room to see his brother. This wait can be interpretted that the speaker could not go up to see his brother the night before, it was too painful, and it would destroy the denial that he was feeling over his brother's death (stages of grief). Heaney then uses the speaker saying that he "saw him for the first time in six weeks" to express a feeling of regret and guilt, as the speaker realizes that squandered that time that he could have spent with his brother.
Finally, Heaney uses age to show the overwhelming feelings of sadness felt by the speaker. The fourth stanza shows a contradiction between the age of the actual speaker-

"And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand"

As seen, he is said to be the eldest and is away at school, so it is assumed that he is an adult, or young adult. However, it is shown in the line following that the speaker is holding his mother's hand. This reduces the speaker back into the role of a small child, taking comfort in his mother. There is also the use of "old men" and the "baby." This could result in a number of different interpretations. Heaney could be hitting upon how a full life is the progression from a baby to an old man, and it furthurs the tragedy of the young boy's death that he was not able to experience that. It could also be that all the "old men" were not all old men at all, however to the speaker's reduced age, or in comparison to the boy's short life, all other ages simply seem old.

Forbidding Mourning

John Donne's poem, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" is a poem of one lover speaking to the other about death. To explain the lover's ideas and beliefs of death, Donne using altering stanzas dealing with the ideas, actions, and beliefs of the general public, and the ideas, actions, and beliefs of the lovers. The first stanza is posed to be speaking about people in general, and how as someone passes away, they may be at peace with themselves, however their friends, and those that care about him/her, can either be at peace with the death as well and accept it, or can be in denial, and mad or depressed. Donne uses this to introduce the situation of the lovers, as one lover tells the other that in their death situation, they should accept the situation, and be at peace with the death of the other. The next two stanzas are once again in general. The first stanza in this is:

"Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent. "

I took this to be taken as the general view of death. Donne relates how men fear the unknown, and make up meaning and explanations for it, however the unknown is not necessarily bad or evil. This is just like death, many view it to be bad, and a tragedy, however simply because it is unknown does not make it a bad thing.
The second stanza in this series of general is used to describe the difference between normal lover's love, and their love. The speaker compares how regular lovers can't admit the death of their lover, or the "death" of their love, because they need it. The speaker however, says that their love is above that of regular love, and it is not the physical sense that is important, but that they are connected in their very being and mind. The speaker further goes on to explain (in the rest of the stanzas) that very difference. About how unlike other lover's, the separation that their souls endure because of the death is a new adventure, it strengthens their love, and their souls.

“The Good-Morrow” Commentary

“The Good-Morrow” by John Donne is yet another poem about love by Donne, in which he expresses the feelings and effect of love through metaphors and imagery. The metaphors and imagery are split into three different phases; before love, as seen in the first stanza, during love, as seen in the second stanza, and finally, what love is, or the total accumulation of what love is, as seen in the third stanza.
In the first stanza, Donne expresses how pointless life was without love. The main metaphor used to express this was with the line “But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?” Donne compares how his life before love was simple, or meaningless, through using country pleasures. “Country pleasures” is meant to mean lust based relationships, meaningless relationships.
The second stanza is used to talk about how love makes one feel. Donne says that love “makes one little room an everywhere.” The little room refers to how love, physically, is a small thing between two people, however mentally, love is unconfined to “a little room,” it is boundless, it is anything and everything.
Finally, in the last stanza, Donne tries to express what love is through the metaphor “Where can we find two better hemispheres, without sharp north, without declining west.” In using hemispheres, Donne makes a comment how there are two parts to the one whole, two hemispheres to the one world, two people to make up one world. However, Donne further comments upon the overall unity of love by stating how though though the two hemispheres are separate, they are “without sharp north, without declining west,” meaning that they do not have bounds or limits. So Donne is saying that though physically two people in love are separate, they make up one whole, and are not bound to stay separate.
Throughout the poem, Donne uses imagery and metaphors to communicate the ideas and feelings he has about love, to help everyone understand and relate to his ideas of love.