Poem Blog#6

A Fairy Song

Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough brier,

Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire;

I do wander everywhere

Swifter than the moon's sphere;

And I serve the Fairy Queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green.

The cowslips tall her pensioners be;

In their gold coats spots you see -

Those be rubies, fairy favours,

In those freckles live their savours.

I must go seek some dewdrops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

This poem is from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night's Dream Act 2 Scene I. Puck meets a Fairy and asks her 'how now, spirt; whither wander you? 'And this is the poem which the Fairy replies. I think this reply is a wonderful description of the powers that a Fairy has. It brings me a magical picture to know how the Fairy flies and works. It emphasizes the magical dream-like of quality of the play. This poem is quite full of rhymes. There are fourteen lines and one stanza. Hill, dale, bush, pale, flood and fire are symbolisms in this poem. I can use different tone to read this poem. If I use trippingly rhythm to read, it feels like the Fairy is happy to do her job. If I read it as a lower tone, I feel like the Fairy is tired to her job and complaint to do everything. Like Dr. Smith said that we could play different voices to read any poem. I found it very useful when I read this poem, gave me a different thinking of this poem.

Helena Blog 5

Questions of our group are 1) Talk about Helena and her situation. 2) Identify key words and phrases that bring out her character. 3) What’s your impression of Helena?

There is a dance of the lovers map which is showed in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (p10) that Helena loves Demetrius who love Hermia. And Helena and Hermia are best friends. In our group, three of us have different views about lines 180-207. There are three emotions which are her angry, jealousy and envy that Helens shows in her speeches. In line 181, ‘call you me fair? That ‘fair’ again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!’ Helena is angry because she is pretty as Hermia, but Demetrius doesn’t love her. Also Hermia is in relationship with Lysander, she doesn’t love Demetrius. So that Helena and Demetrius are unrequited love in their situation. Helena says ‘sickness is catching. O, were favour so, your would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;’ （p15. line 186-187)Helena is jealous Hermia so much because Hermia’s beauty can attract people who love her. She wants to be Hermia’s beauty that let Demetrius loves her. From the conversation ‘my ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, my tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody. Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated.’(p15. line 188-190) Helena envies Hermia who has pretty eyes and sweet tongue that Helena doesn’t have. She wants herself to be the most beautiful girl, she can make the one who she loves love her. After my analysis, I think Helena is a girl who dares to love and hate. She shows off all her emotions to other people.

Brownie Blog #4

This was the first time that Dr.Smith taught us how to analyze a poem. It is still strange for me to understand a poem. The first challenge is language, from the poem I cannot clear to know what the ‘Brownie’ means. In dictionary, there are several means for it, such as a elf, a cookie and a junior division of the girl. However, I thought this poem was talking a story of a elf who wants to protect a kid. And the elf tried to play a game of hide-and-seek with the kid to make him/her happy. I saw a happily poetics from this poem. It also showed a child’s simplicity from the word ‘quite certain’, ‘quickly’. Be honest, I couldn't understand this poem. I will do my best to improve my reading skill and writting skill.

Something gonna happen blog3.2

In chapter 4 of Literary Theory, I understand the meaning in literature that Culler explains what mean stand for. Literature is a part of art language that many people can use it in different ways. Therefore, there is different understanding in meaning. In here, Culler list 3 proportions or level of meaning: word, utterance and text. For example, the poem from Langston Hughes,

Dreams
Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

When I read this poem, it really opened my eyes to know about how people really see themselves. Langston Hughes use words to inspire us to never give up on our dreams and to always dream big any time. Also don’t despise small beginnings when we start to make our dreams come true. ‘Broken-winded bird’ as oppose to our cruel reality, even many people have their wonderful dreams, they cannot hold it for a long time just because some of us can’t overcome the real life. However, Langston constantly reminds people to retrieve their dreams. ‘Frozen with snow’ helps people to deep thinking about themselves, no matter how frozen is it now, when there is a dream, there is a hope and the hope is the only thing which left to us in a bad time.

Essay #2 topic blog3.1

From three weeks, we study about what literature is. From my understanding, literature is not for entertainment, it is the language of art. It brings some artistic value for people to read and discussion. We discussed about different symbolisms, religions and cultures about literture during class. For the essay NO.2, my topic is ‘Literature’, simple word.