Blog 4: Reflection 1

I really like the topic supernatural that we are focusing on in this class. It is fascinating to discover the symbols and the hidden meaning in a poem. I’m familiar with blogger. com from the last semester and I really enjoy it. The blogging is interesting, all of the classmates are connected and we can comment on each other’s blogs. The feedback really helps us because we get different opinion for our post. I ‘m always worried writing an essay, because English is not my first language. But with the blogging and the feedback, I can see my own mistakes, fix them and develop my writing skills. I use Google and Wikipedia for my research.

Blog 3(Essay 2):Tone and symbolism

The poets are able to guide us through the whole poem with the literature techniques like tone and symbolism and all of the poems have hidden meaning. I choose the poem “The Sleeper” by Edgar Allan Poe because I believe in spirits. Also I believe in love that exists inside every human, the love that every person feels towards the loved one, the love that never dies. In this poem the author Edgar Allan Poe uses the symbols to represent the death of his loved one.
The poet Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most remarkable writers in the history.He became popular in Europe for his fiction tales in the 19 Century. He reinvented science-fiction, the genre in his work is Gothic romance, horror fiction, and detective fiction. After his wife’s death he became unstable and started to write poems with theme “death”. Except horror Poe wrote humor tales and hoaxes, with theme irony. With the poem “The Raven”, Poe had instant success. Poe died on October 7, 1849,sources have said that his final words were “Lord help my poor soul”.
Tone is the attitude the poet takes towards his work in the poem. Tone is used to show emotions for example optimism, seriousness, irony, love, humorous and other feelings. With the tone we understand how the poet feels. In this poem the poet uses the words shadows, opiate, slumber, ghosts, which gives a feeling that he is in a dreamlike scene, he is in denial, doesn’t want to accept the reality. He is in a misty valley with a lake and a cemetery, and wondering in which grave Irene is laying. He still feels the love towards Irene.
Symbolism is the written word in the poem that represents something else. Characters and actions can be used as symbols. Most of the symbols used in poetry have the same meaning to all readers. Poe uses the symbol “sleep” in this poem which represents death. Through the whole poem Poe claims that the beautiful Irene is sleeping and also uses the symbol “soul” that represents her dead body. In the poem “rosemary” is a symbol of remembrance. The name of the beautiful women Irene symbolizes the Goddess of peace in Greek mythology."Looking like Lethe, see!the lake", Lethe in Greek mythology is a river in Hades, in the poem the water of the lake is symbolizing the deep and forgetful sleep.
With Poe using the literature elements tone and symbol we understand the emotions and the meaning of the poem. Being able to understand the poem also means being able to understand the poet, and what he is trying to say to us. As a reader I know and feel how the poet feels, denying the reality. Irene is not dead but she is sleeping and like Poe I hope that this beautiful lady will have heavenly eternal rest without suffering.

The literary elements and the image can be found on this websites: http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/literary_elements.htm
http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles5/115834/projects/270287/1158341248214995.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_allan_poe

Blog 2: Poetry

I used Google.com and I was able to find very interesting poems about spirits and love. I read couple of poems by Edgar Allan Poe because I think he is very remarkable writer and I liked all of them. But the one that I liked the most was
“The Sleeper”.

At midnight, in the month of June,
I stand beneath the mystic moon.
An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,
Exhales from out her golden rim,
And softly dripping, drop by drop,
Upon the quiet mountain top,
Steals drowsily and musically
Into the universal valley.
The rosemary nods upon the grave;
The lily lolls upon the wave;
Wrapping the fog about its breast,
The ruin moulders into rest;
Looking like Lethe, see! the lake
A conscious slumber seems to take,
And would not, for the world, awake.
All Beauty sleeps!—and lo! where lies
Irene, with her Destinies!
Oh, lady bright! can it be right—
This window open to the night?
The wanton airs, from the tree-top,
Laughingly through the lattice drop—
The bodiless airs, a wizard rout,
Flit through thy chamber in and out,
And wave the curtain canopy
So fitfully—so fearfully—
Above the closed and fringéd lid
’Neath which thy slumb’ring soul lies hid,
That, o’er the floor and down the wall,
Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall!
Oh, lady dear, hast thou no fear?
Why and what art thou dreaming here?
Sure thou art come o’er far-off seas,
A wonder to these garden trees!
Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress!
Strange, above all, thy length of tress,
And this all solemn silentness!
The lady sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,
Which is enduring, so be deep!
Heaven have her in its sacred keep!
This chamber changed for one more holy,
This bed for one more melancholy,
I pray to God that she may lie
Forever with unopened eye,
While the pale sheeted ghosts go by!
My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,
As it is lasting, so be deep!
Soft may the worms about her creep!
Far in the forest, dim and old,
For her may some tall vault unfold—
Some vault that oft hath flung its black
And wingéd pannels fluttering back,
Triumphant, o’er the crested palls
Of her grand family funerals—
Some sepulchre, remote, alone,
Against whose portals she hath thrown,
In childhood, many an idle stone—
Some tomb from out whose sounding door
She ne’er shall force an echo more,
Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!
It was the dead who groaned within.

This poem and also other poems can be found on the website: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178355
This website is very useful for finding poems about religion, mythology and other categories, also poets. The poem “Sleeper” is about a woman that died, and Poe has to deal with the loss. He can’t accept that his loved one is gone. In the poem is described the connection between love and death. The love still remains strong even after someone loses his lover. He prays that God will give her rest and not to be disturbed by ghosts. In the poem he used the name Irene, in Greek mythology is the goddess of peace. Poe believes that his beautiful Irene is not dead but she is sleeping. He wants her to have a deep sleep forever. But actually he is the one that is dreaming by not accepting her death. He doesn’t want to see the reality and wants to know what she is dreaming about. I do believe the strong love never dies and the woman’s spirit will always stay in his mind. Her spirit will be around Poe forever and he will remember her as a beautifull woman that she was before she died.

Blog 1:About me

My name is Nadica.I'm from Macedonia,a small country in Eastern Europe. I came to this country three years ago.For now my goal is to graduate from Laguardia and later transfer to a four year college.