This is my English assignment

Alisha Smith American Literature Period 7 4 January 2010 Dickinson “Because I could not stop for Death” 1. The poet’s main statement is that death is kind and it waits for you to go through life first. She believes death to be sweet and not evil. She is pretty much saying that life only comes once and when death comes knocking you’ll find out if you spent it well. 2. The biggest imagery is from the outside as she passes by everything. Dickinson is often, when writing poems, writing with exclusion. The speaker is excluded from what is going on in life as the dead are excluded from the living. 3. She shifts from past to present tense in the last stanza as she describes death itself as she changes from the living to the dead. This shows that once you’re dead, you are dead. You can’t get anything back. 4. Death is personified as a person or a sort of suitor which enhances the meaning of the poem by giving death real traits and characteristics that make it easier to explain and understand. There is a rhyme scheme of A B C B. The poem is also written in Iambic Pentameter. 5. Dickinson likes death and believes it to be a good thing. 6. This is Dickinson, not Whitman. 7. The theme of this poem is death and seeing how life passes. “I heard a fly buzz when I died” 1. The poet’s main statement is that death is full of grief but not important in the grand scheme of things. 2. She talks about how the mourners have dried out their tears which shows the grief of death. She describes the silence like the calm between bouts of a storm before death and just then she notices a small insignificant fly which shows the little importance of life. 3. Dickenson talks about the silence and the grief in the room and then she shifts to the fly’s buzz which, again, signifies the insignificance of life. 4. She said “The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air Between the heaves of storm.” This simile depicts the silence in the room magnificently and enhances the effect of the buzz of the fly. 5. The speaker saw death as both beauteous and insignificant as she focused on the fly before she died. 6. This is Dickinson, not Whitman. 7. The theme of this poem is death and its insignificance in the world. “There is a certain slant of light” 1. The poet’s main statement is that a single beam of light can bring on a feeling of intense spiritual melancholy. Dickinson dramatizes how the light can make you feel. She is trying to say that even the smallest thing can bring us into the biggest reality. 2. Dickinson uses images like the heavenly hurt the light gives us and they relate to the fact that little things can make us feel big emotions by showing just that. 3. There is no real shift in the poem. Throughout the whole thing there is a sort of melancholy heavy feel. 4. There is a lot of personification in that the light oppresses and shadows hold their breath. There is an ABCB rhyme scheme. 5. Dickinson feels very strongly about little things bringing about big emotions. 6. This is Dickinson, not Whitman. 7. The theme of the poem is emotion and the intenseness of it that little things can bring. “My life closed twice before its close” 1. The poet’s main statement is that heaven is a beautiful place that people go to when they die, but those of us close to those people end up living in hell. Dickinson believed this to be true. 2. Dickinson uses the imagery of two horrible events and possibly a third to come to show the anguish of the speaker which shows how even though the two horrible events that happened (I am assuming they are deaths because of the heaven/hell reference) resulted in heaven for them, the speaker is living in hell. 3. The only real shift in this poem is from the speaker telling about the two horrible things that happened in her life to her speaking about how, in immortality, a third event may occur. This enhances the meaning of the poem by increasing the anguish and making the poem even more remorse. 4. Dickinson uses vision metaphors like see and unveil for revelation. She has a rhyme scheme of ABCB. 5. The speaker of the poem is in a lot of anguish and believes that even when a person goes to heaven, everyone else is left in hell. 6. This is Dickinson, not Whitman. 7. The theme of this poem is the paradox of heaven and hell. “The Soul selects her own Society” 1. The poet’s main statement is that humans are selective and choose friends once and stay with them. 2. She portrays picking that friend as selective and then uses imagery showing a person shutting a door on everyone else. 3. She shifts from selecting a friend, to keeping everyone else out. 4. She uses personification when she says that the soul shuts the door and she uses a sort of alliteration in the first two lines of the poem with the letter S. The rhyme scheme isn’t really there but if you look closely at the last few letters of the scheme ABAB you see quite the similarity. 5. The speaker feels that this is the way life is, period. Someone chooses something and doesn’t like anything else. A person makes up their mind and is unwavering. 6. This is Dickinson, not Whitman. 7. The theme of this poem is seclusion and its relation to everything. “The Brain- is wider than the Sky” 1. The poet’s main statement is that God created the brain to be smart and better than anything else in the world except him. She is trying to say that the brain is the most important thing there is in the world. 2. The images in this poem are a lot more cheerful than many of her other poems such as the brain including the sky and the brain absorbing the see like a sponge. 3. The shift in this poem is from the brain being better than anything to equal to God. It shows how God created the brain to be as close to him as possible. 4. The metaphor that the brain is wider than the sky and that the brain is deeper than the see show a sort of personification of the brain because it is not really bigger than the sky or sea. There is an ABCB rhyme scheme. 5. The speaker feels God is very important but so is knowledge and that is why God created the brain to be more equal to him than anything else. 6. This is Dickinson, not Whitman. 7. The theme of this poem is knowledge and the importance it serves in life. “There is a solitude of space” 1. The poet’s main statement is that inner loneliness can put you in your own world. I believe that Dickinson enjoys the loneliness and her own world. She is saying that humans can make up their own world that confuses and scares them or makes them feel happy. 2. Finite infinity is a sort of oxymoron that says that infinity has an end and the polar privacy is you by yourself pushing the real world away. A solitude of space sea and death say that they are there for people that need them to survive but others live in their own solitude. 3. There is no shift in the poem. 4. There is a personification of privacy because it cannot be polar or non-polar and there is an oxymoron with the saying finite infinity. 5. The speaker believes that there are some that need the death sea or space but it is the intelligent ones that only need their own infinite privacy in their own world. 6. This is Dickinson, not Whitman. 7. The theme of this poem is inner loneliness and its reason for being. “Water, is taught by thirst” 1. The poet’s main statement is that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. 2. There are many images in the poem such as that when you are thirsty, you learn that water can quench it. When you are stuck on/ in the ocean, all you want is land. We wouldn’t need peace if we didn’t have a thirst for battle. When someone dies you realize how much you truly love them. And just as birds struggle in the snow, she is struggling through life. 3. There are no shifts in this poem, just a deep meaning and relation to her life. 4. There is no figurative language or sound devices, just a deep understanding. 5. The speaker is having trouble getting through life and is relating it to many other difficult times. 6. This is Dickinson, not Whitman. 7. The theme of this poem is something missing and why it is so important. Whitman “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” 1. The poet’s main statement is that sometimes knowing and defining things ruins their beauty. Humans like mystery and sometimes that’s the better way to live your life. 2. The images that come to mind with this poem are facts and figures and charts and diagrams of information and a man running out of the room and looking up at the beautiful night sky filled with stars and while not understanding why or how, just believing in anything. 3. The shift is from learning about everything to running out the door which enhances that people would rather not know. 4. There is a bit of alliteration in the last lines with the mystical moist night-air and silence at the stars. 5. The speaker believes it is far better to love the silence of not knowing then know everything and ruin it all. 6. The importance of the title is that it shows that the astronomer is smart and knows what he is talking about and he portrays the knowledge that this man does not want to know. 7. The theme of this poem is knowledge and how you sometimes just don’t want to know. “By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame” 1. The poet’s main statement is that as one is sneaking or escaping, he may reflect on life, death, the past, loved ones, and people far away. 2. The images that this poem portrays are the darkness and the outline of the tents, fields and woods. 3. The poem shifts from the beauty of the darkness around this man to him sneaking around and being watched. This shift enhances the idea of reminiscing upon life. 4. The shrubs and trees are personified when it says “as I lift my eyes they seem to be stealthily watching me” and the “solemn and slow procession” in a sneak attack on “the tents of the sleeping army.” While the subject is doing this sneaky procession, he reflects on “tender and wondrous thoughts.” 5. Whitman enjoys reflecting upon life and other beauteous things. 6. The importance of the title is that it tells you who and what the subject is (a bivouac- a man sneaking around trying not to get caught by the night guard) and it tells us about his restless wandering and traveling and hiding (his fitful flame). 7. The theme of this poem is reflection and how at the oddest times you reflect upon your life. “I Hear America Singing” 1. The poet’s main statement is that while everyone’s job is different, they all sing equally melodious tunes; everyone is equal. 2. The images of this poem are many and they show every one of these hard working middle class individuals at their job, enjoying themselves and working hard. The poet does not use rich, corporate bosses as a depiction, but common people. 3. The only shift in this poem is from talking about hard working men to women to friendly fellows celebrating at the end of the day. 4. There is a sort of rhythm heard when the poem is given voice and in the length of the lines and a sort of alliteration with the mason makes and the boatman… belongs… boat, not to mention the ing’s. 5. The speaker loves America and the equality within it. 6. The importance of the title is to show the happy pride in the performance of everyone’s labor. 7. The theme of this poem is equality and the happiness found within it. “A Noiseless Patient Spider” 1. The poet’s main statement is that the soul reaches out for a connection, for a meaning, just as a spider spins its thread. 2. The images are a spider throwing out its web trying to string a web and of a person’s mind reaching out, desperately trying to make a connection. 3. The shift is more of a link between the spider and the soul and between stanzas. 4. There is a big metaphor saying that a spider is like the subject’s soul. It’s quite odd to compare one’s soul with a spider because a spider is a rather foul creature which might be why the subject is having so much trouble seeking and anchor. 5. The speaker feels sort of lost in an endless sea and can’t seem to find their way out. 6. The title of this poem shows that the spider/soul, even with all the difficulty and frustration of not finding an anchor, will continue on patiently until something finally takes hold. 7. The theme of this poem is connection of the soul and the patience you need sometimes for it to happen.

Hey everyone, what's up? I've been working on my English homework today. It's crazy. I'm also working on Alec's notes: one a day for the entire break. I haven't gotten all my homework done yet so I'm kinda screwed... I'm working my butt off though. I got to get back to my homework, sorry. Maybe I'll talk later.