Response to Course Material- 9/27

            While we are only a few weeks into AP Literature, I have learned a few valuable aspects about the course that will certainly help in the future. Our first big annotation assignment was on The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Michael Harvey. We had ample time to complete it, and although I was well aware that it was fairly long for reading in a single sitting, I still ended up starting the day before it was due. While I regret this decision because of the unnecessary stress it brought me, it did not affect the appreciation I had for the content of the piece. I especially enjoyed Harvey’s breakdown of the “pompous style” and how using too many nouns and linking verbs can prove fatal in academic writing. It made me reconsider my own style of writing and whether I hide behind the same clumsy phrases that clouded his examples. In many cases, I find that there is usually a much clearer way of stating something using simpler language, which can then more effectively develop truly complicated ideas.

            The academic skills emphasized in The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing contrast sharply with the other focus of the class so far, which is the “theater of the absurd.” We were first introduced to this through a general article describing the history of the practice, and have begun to analyze its use in Albee’s The American Dream. The dialogue is almost disorienting in its lack of meaning and direction. Conversations in the play never mean what is spoken, never amount to anything, and always fall into incongruity and non-sequiturs. The irony in this style is that deeper existential meanings hide behind the utter lack of consequence in the script. The absurdity discussed in the article seems to exist in order to hide a rather sophisticated commentary. This is the kind of play that only an already understanding audience could appreciate, because the true entertainment lies beneath the surface of the scene, setting, and even the characters. Sometimes as we read it in class, it can be hard to not laugh at the ridiculous contradictions that arise. It is actually fairly interesting how we would transition from reading something like Harvey’s book, which focuses on making the purpose of the writing more explicit, to Albee’s play, which goes completely in the opposite direction.

            The other article that we annotated, Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of her Peers” had very different messages from both of the other pieces. To me, this story used plain but direct language to illustrate the lack of equality between the sexes in an early 20^th century rural setting. The men in the story only consider the women useful for comforting one another and worrying about trivial domestic tasks, when in fact they use their mutual understanding of the situation of another woman to deduce her involvement in a gruesome murder. I found it intriguing how they hide the evidence, as if to say that the events that led her to commit the crime, mainly linked to an abusing husband, were enough to justify her actions through the eyes of her “peers.” As with The American Dream, I look forward to the class discussions where we will be able to share insights into these works with one another, deepen our understanding, and form a variety of interpretations. 

Closed Prompt #2- 9/20/15 My Own Response

“In the two poems below, Keats and Longfellow reflect on similar concerns. Read the poems carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare and contrast the two poems, analyzing the poetic techniques each writer uses to explore his particular situation.”

            In “When I have Fears” and “Mezzo Cammin,” Keats and Longfellow use a variety stylistic techniques to meditate on the fear that they will not accomplish all that they envision for themselves in life. However, each poet addresses what can only be interpreted as a “mid-life crisis” through emphasis on different concerns. While each expresses worry about the future, Keats presents a tone which reflects more positively on what he has done with his life up to the moment that the poem describes, while Longfellow articulates his despairs about his life in general and places particular weight on what went wrong. While each conveys his individual message and style through different structural patterns, the common subject of the poems produces similarities as well.

            One can plainly see upon first reading that each of these poems contain similar messages. In “When I have Fears,” Keats reflects primarily on two fears. The first is that he will not write everything he feels he can before will “cease to be” (2). This is an anxiety commonly felt by artists of any kind, because art attains value through recognition. Keats alludes to the fact that he has great potential referring to his “teeming brain” and the “full ripen’d grain” of his work (2, 4). While these words suggest that he acknowledges his own intrinsic value, his second fear is that he will not enjoy material accomplishment with the line, “Till love and fame to nothingness do I sink” (14).  In general, he sees himself as on the right track to success, but at the moment considers that it is possible he may never realize his aspirations. However, Longfellow takes a different approach. In “Mezzo Cammin,” conveys a much greater sense of hopelessness, specifically mentioning how he frittered away his early years, saying, “…I have let / The years slip from me and have not fulfilled / The aspiration of my youth…” (1-3). Keats focuses only on the future, while Longfellow spends a great deal of the poem describing what lead him to this moment of despair. Interestingly, he claims it was “a care that almost killed” that led him to be midway through life with the feeling that he has accomplished nothing (7). Keats looks ahead and sees the daunting expectations he has set for himself, while Longfellow dwells on the folly of his past.

            In addition to theme, the poets use similar imagery to convey their messages. In each poem, the future is depicted as being above the past, with each speaker standing on a plane in between. In “When I have Fears,” Keats looks up to see “huge cloudy symbols of high romance,” and Longfellow sees “The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights” (14). While each paints a similar picture in the mind of the reader, the implications are strikingly different. Keats sees his hopes and aspirations in the sky, but cloudy and undefined, which makes him anxious for the future. Longfellow’s waterfall, on the other hand, symbolizes the inevitable conclusion to what he fears will be a pointless existence all together. In the case of Keats, his future is ridden with uncertainty which exists only out of the haphazard nature of life itself. Yet, Longfellow looks down from his vantage point and sees “[a] city in the twilight dim and vast,” a terrifyingly insignificant portrait of his “past” (11, 9). As he ponders this, he looks at the waterfall above him and its irreversibility as a reminder of his own grim fate. Both poets metaphorically portray the course of their lives and express despair at the daunting future ahead, but Keats sinks “to nothingness” in the sense that he fears he will amount to nothing while Longfellow considers it the essence of his being.

            Keats and Longfellow offer two evaluations of themselves midway through life. In doing so, the offer the reader two different reasons to fear his/her own obsolescence. “When I Have Fears” is for the reader who has not yet reached his/her goals, still striving for success, but perhaps pondering the possibility that he/she will fall short. In contrast, “Mezzo Cammin” allows no consideration of success, only that worrying about the future is more damaging to it than any type of “indolence…pleasure” or “fret of restless passions” (5, 6). Through their language and imagery, both poems leave the reader questioning the value of his/her life so far, in addition to what is to come. 

Closed Prompt #1-2008 Question 1- Comparing John Keats’ “When I Have Fears” to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Mezzo Cammin”

Analysis on Essay by Student 1A (9)

            This student shows an excellent understanding of the similarities and differences in the two poems, and is able to compare them regarding both the themes and the poetic devices used. While the argument is not highly sophisticated, it provides adequate evidence for its claims and remains persuasive. The student does a good job in the introduction by immediately giving a brief overview of the common subject between the two poems, which he/she phrases as “unfulfilled dreams and the imminence of death,” and summarizes the way in which the authors interpret this subject differently. The student emphasizes the different perspectives by stating that the imminence of death threatens Keats’ aspirations, while Longfellow considers his inevitable end to leave him devoid of aspiration all together. However, Longfellow does actually say in line 8 that sorrow kept him from what he “may accomplish yet.” The student perhaps ignores some more ambiguous language in the Longfellow poem to aid in the discussion of the differences stated in the thesis. The second paragraph seems to build on the idea that the similarities are mostly restricted to the beginnings of the poems, but this is understandable since the prompt emphasizes “poetic techniques,” and is supported by ample evidence. The third and final paragraphs provide very persuasive comparisons using the imagery and the differences in context, and overall the essay certainly deserves an 8. If the student had more closely defined the terms “anaphora” and “alliteration,” it may have qualified as a 9.

Analysis on Essay by Student 1B (5)

            While there are few conventions errors in the piece and the language flows fairly well, the flaws with this essay that earned it a lower score arise in the structure. The student does not establish a strong thesis in the beginning, pointing out a main difference and a weakly summarized similarity. The student spends most of the essay beating into the ground a few obvious metaphors that caught his or her attention. While the interpretation of these metaphors is well thought-out, it operates under the premise that the existence of the metaphors themselves is a valid point of comparison. In addition, the analyses of the two poems are never brought side-by-side, leaving the student’s argument unpersuasive. Had he or she added another paragraph in which to address similarities, he or she may have earned a 6, but it is unlikely considering the shallowness of the existing comparison. This student would have fared better if the prompt had favored individual interpretation over compare and contrast.

Analysis on Essay by Student 1C (3)

            There are many problems with this essay in structure, mechanics, and quality of interpretation. The student does not elaborate on any of his/her claims, which show only basic understanding of the poems. In the first paragraph, the student opens with a similarity about what one can only assume is the rhythmic pattern of the verse, although he/she never elaborates, probably because the observation is only a general one. The main point in the second paragraph is that Keats presents himself as “ready to die.” However, the poem suggests quite the opposite in some ways, which include the final couplet, “Of the wide world I stand alone and think, / Till love and fame to nothingness do I sink.” These lines imply that the speaker has desire for success and romance, but is facing a crisis over the time he has left and his impending fate. Regardless, such a counter argument is essentially moot, since the student has not provided enough evidence to support any interpretation. The third paragraph addresses the Longfellow poem in much the same way by making generalizations and then redundantly concluding from them. The conclusion does little more than combine the two main generalizations about each poem, for which the position is already questionable. The essay does not demonstrate the proficiency of any higher rating due to its ineptitude, and avoids being labelled as a 2 only because of overall coherency.