Response to The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street People

David Ferry composed an intensely emotional poem called "The Guest Ellen at the Supper for Street People," in which he delved into the heart and experiences of a deprived and scarred human being. Throughout the poem, he speaks in limited omniscient point of view to concentrate primarily on "the guest Ellen" who is just another street person among the crowed at this dinner. He continuously addresses her as such to keep her distant from the audience and merely a guest to demonstrate her feelings of being lost in a sea of these people like her. It conveys she feels alone and unnoticed. He utilizes a symbolism of the body while describing the people. He describes the "unclean spirits [that] cry out in the body," "being poor day after day in the body," and things done "by the father's body, to or upon the body of Ellen," to emphasize the distant relation Ellen has with everyone around her and to uncover certain traumatic events in her past that may have led to the ruin and scarring of her physical identity. Another repetitive motif in the poem is the enchantment and spiritual imagery he so often refers to. He states, "they are all under some kind of enchantment," and follows on to highlight  Ellen's enchanted, dream-like and detached state of mind. Ferry uses either "enchantment" or "unclean spirits" and "torment" at least once in every stanza which continues the flow of this uncertainty, detachment and raw misery of the street people, namely Ellen. He also describes her as a "prisoner of love," and "possessed one of the unclean," to reveal that she is a victim to some terrible fate and futureless life from which she is possessed and cannot break free. 
There is not much of a shift in the passage, except gradually growing from introducing Ellen as "a body" among other "bodies" to a deeper understanding of what's going on inside her and where these emotions and this detachment all root from. Ferry utilizes symbolism, figurative language, and mystical, enchanted imagery to express the thoughts of a woman, Ellen, who's as alone as one can be, and to depict the lifelessness and distance that many "street people" feel between them and the rest of humanity. Ferry bluntly and accurately portrayed the separation that lies between the poor and the not poor, but more so he reveals how one's circumstances (or a large group's) can lead them further away from the comfort and hope of community and into the hands of false reasoning and despair and utter emptiness.

Response to “Ode on Solitude”

Alexander Pope’s “Ode on Solitude” speaks figuratively and literally on the subject about the beauty of being alone. In the literal sense, he describes the peaceful lull one experiences when immersed in solitude, and how that is a fortunate thing to come by. However I believe his whole attitude and opinion towards solitude symbolizes his view on death, and how death is perhaps the best way to truly escape from the chaos of the world and people and everything else.

He divides his stanzas strategically to keep the reader following his thought process fluidly. The first two stanzas describe a hypothetical “man” who is happy, “content to breathe his native air, in his own ground,” and “whose trees in summer yield him shade, in winter fire.” This quiet, peaceful, natural imagery sheds light on both the comfortable sweetness of solitude in one’s home and also points toward being buried and being at peace in the “ground”. However then it shifts to a more general description of those who can find “peace of mind,” and quiet surroundings while the “years slide soft away.” His aesthetic and pondering diction here gives a more universal look at what it means to be at ease and unbothered, in one’s every day life, or after it. Clearly Pope is suggesting a permanent solitude in his descriptions and that this permanence brings forth true peace and freedom –and the reader must have death in mind, being the only real, permanent escape from the world.

         In the last couple stanzas, Pope talks about innocence, which I believe he suggests comes along with peace and aloneness and “meditation,” perhaps a true sense of self. Pope reveals he would rather be left alone in his life, “unseen, and unknown,” and “unlamented,” in his death so he can achieve his goal of a peaceful life and death and anything after. Pope utilizes peaceful imagery, whimsical diction, and an almost sinister tone in order to compare the great achievement of finding solitude in life with finally reaching a permanent solitude.

"Confession in a Booth at the Hollow Log Lounge"

Georganna Greene

 Maria Jernigan

English AP Lit

February 1, 2011

            At first I believed “Confession in a Booth at the Hollow Log Lounge” by R.T. Smith was a typical woman’s story of how she has coped with divorce over the years and how it has shaped her further in her own passions. But after reading it for a second time, I realized that the focus was on her work- her passion for sewing towels. Judging by the last couple lines she is speaking to some individual she finds interesting, not just the general public. Smith reveals to the reader who she is, what she cares about, and how she got there, simply by speaking in her regular voice and including details of her life experiences.

            The speaker’s colloquial speech and conversational tone give the serious, universal topic a light-hearted approach, projecting a sense of humor in the her character. Smith’s blunt diction and local color reveals her southern, lower-class background. She works in a sweat-shop, sewing towels, and even though she recognizes that it is no serious occupation, she takes pride in her work and gives it her all. She merely brushes over the fact that she went through a divorce and her husband “had another woman on the side.” She then plunges right back into how she ended up working for Dundee in Georgia. She depicts her “Florida-hot” surroundings with raw, real southern imagery such as describing herself as “right fleshy,” and “been so hot I’d get the hives and swell up like sourdough rising.” But all this, the heat, the hives, the low-income was worth it for the satisfaction of knowing she completed a hard day’s work –not to mention, without a man’s help.

            Smith connects her pride and devotion to sewing with the idea of marriage, reminding the reader of her tragic past failure with her ex-husband. Smith may have included this comparison and repetition of the image of partnership and commitment to suggest that her hard labor and devotion to her work has been similar to a second chance at marriage. She lost someone she trusted and was committed to, and now has something else to fill the void and to spend her time and thought on. Smith’s casual and comical southern lingo reveals her easy-going disposition and her “blushy pride” and thorough detail over every aspect of her work as a cloth maker reveals in her a character a very positive outlook on life and a most driven means of living life to the fullest while making ends meet. 

"A Sunset of the City"

Georganna Greene

Maria Jernigan

English AP Lit

February 8, 2011

Response to “A Sunset of the City”

            Through her monologue, Gwendolyn Brooks compares the passage of time and the seasons to her own process of change and inner growth.  She has no detectable rhythm or rhyme, except for in a few choice lines, but she develops her thoughts about what is there in front of her now and what is to come using nature imagery that mirrors her shift in tone. Starting out in a summer setting, Brooks introduces up front her feelings of being forgotten and less important. With regards to her personal life she recalls, “my daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls,” her despondent tone ringing in her feelings of being left behind. And her reference to the seasons here is that she cannot be fooled into thinking its still the warm, lively, summer just because the sun is in the sky.

            As she continues to dive into her own sea of emotions, winter kicks in. She describes in a now hard, fixed tone, “There is no warm house that is fitted with my need.” She conveys she is “cold in this cold house this house whose washed echoes are tremulous down lost halls,” revealing her harsh sense of depression and loneliness in even the place she should be able to call home. It is when her children are long gone and she “hurries through her prayers,” that she portrays the dead of winter –the darkest time of her year. It is in this darkness that she begins to question her doubt and we see some spark and some fight in the speaker. She consults whether she should “dry in humming pallor or to leap and die.” Brooks knows she can either accept this lost, dismal and aging lifestyle or she can take measures to find joy and value in herself and her life even after what she has lost, and even if that means taking emotional risks that could end in more heartbreak and disappointment.

             I believe the overall purpose behind Brooks’ poem is that everyone experiences loss and disappointment in life as one grows older. However just as winter always passes to spring again, even the darkest of times will pass and there will be a new dawn and a new chance to make the most of life. It is never too late to seize the day. This demonstrates a strength and wisdom in Brooks’ character that she must have accumulated over the years and with her experiences.