Final Project

Here is the video of my final project. The piece was inspired by Anne Sexton's poem, The Abortion. I used each stanza from the poem and made a phrase describing that stanza. The phrase the repeats three times is the line from the poem that repeats three times, "somebody who should have been born is gone". Hope you like it!

Final Project

Here is the link to my final project. I created a blog exploring how women are portrayed in film.

http://2013womenwritersfinal.blogspot.com/

BEYONCÈ

http://nprfreshair.tumblr.com/post/69893944129/beyonces-super-secret-album-just-dropped-this

Love that Beyoncè is able to shed some light and draw more attention to a very talented female writer!
She samples an excerpt from a Tedx Talk that discusses how we essentially raise women to be brides and force them into competition with each other only for a man.

And who doesn't love Beyoncè?!

Another Slate Article

I stumbled on this when reading the article Alyssa posted earlier. We've had many discussions about biologically gendered propensities which this article speaks to as well as being reminiscent of Emily martin's article on gendered assumptions shaping interpretations of scientific studies: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/12/hard_wired_brain_differences_critique_of_male_female_neuroscience_imaging.html

Final Project- Wanted to share

Just wanted to share picture of my aunt Sharon who I discussed today in class to give everyone a better understanding.  And I thought this quote was perfect for these pictures.

“In other words, it requires deliberate self-deception, including a constant effort to repress or block out unpleasant possibilities and 'negative' thoughts. The truly self-confident, or those who have in some way made their peace with the world and their destiny within it, do not need to expend effort censoring or otherwise controlling their thoughts.” 
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

http://www.gofundme.com/Kobel-Children-Education

Here is the link for the Education fund for my president of my sorority (Delta Phi Epsilon).  All of the funds go to the kids education and any amount of money would help, there is a brief description of what exactly happened on the link! Thank you all so much, happy holidays!

Fredonia Women Writing Anthology

Here is my email for all interest and questions
Paol9644 @fredonia.edu
Please make sure to emphasize intent in email subject.

I am looking for 10-12 submissions from Fredonia Women.
I am looking for women who have some written piece to share.
Any genre or type of writing is excepted and encouraged.
I will also be including a short biographical paragraph.
Please forward to your friends and peers if you think they'd be interested!
Submissions need to be in by Sunday 12\15

Good luck on finals and papers!
Holly Paolicelli

Etymology of Lady

Soujorner Truth

I really loved this piece and I keep coming back and thinking about it throughout not only our class periods, but at random times throughout the day. The passion behind the work is incredible and in the video we watched last week of Alfre Woodward presenting Ain't I A Women was remarkable. She really emphasized the yearn for acceptance and it struck a chord with me. It truly shows that the topic of women is much broader than we realize. Race, background, orientation, etc. There are so many intersecting components that make up each woman. We shouldn't just honor upper-class white women, we have to take all women, everywhere into account. Not only that, but we should never believe that men are stronger. Women create men! Woo! We're just as strong if not much stronger. The work is absolutely beautiful, and the way Woodward gave her speech was inspiring.

Here's a really interesting article about women writers describing misogyny in the literary canon, and how it made them feel.

Notes Toward a Politics of Location

A part of Adrienne Rich's piece, "Notes Towards a Politics of Location", was on page 1097. She wrote,

"Wherever people are struggling against subjection, the specific subjection of women, through our location in a female body, from now on has to be addressed. The necessity to go on speaking where silence has been advised and enforced, not just the our subjection, but about our active presence and practice as women. We believed (I go on believing) that the liberation of women is a wedge driven into all other radical thought, can open out the structures of resistance, unbind the imagination, connect what's been dangerously disconnected."

When I read this I thought of the intro that we read, but I also thought about Trinh Min-ha's piece as well. From the itroduction, I connected Rich's quotation with what they were talking about how resisitance literature offers various models of racial, gender, and class empowerment and that it engages with many types of interventions. I think that they both relate because in order for the liberation of women to succeed there needs to many types of resistance and people working together to intervine. I also thought this could relate to Min-ha's piece becasue she was talking about how people may be differnt, but when those differences are embraced, there is a sense of empowerment. I understood Rich's quotation to mean that women need to work together, no matter what differences, to fight for women as a whole.

-Jessica Mitchell

Three White College Students File Racial Discrimination Complaint Against Professor Over Lesson On Structural Racism

You can also read the article here.

Zolaria

After reading this short story, I am very disappointed that I was unable to attend the presentation of it. The way that Horrocks was able to maneuver seamlessly through such a vast timeline was wonderful and impressive; and her writing was very fluid and almost prose-like.

The story itself was heart-wrenching, if only because she is able to capture what it feels like to be a child faced with these hardships and the confusion and guilt that comes along with it. She is able to make it believable and relate able, even though these are [I believe?] situations that did not actually occur in her life. That's what makes this piece even more impressive, I think--that she was able to write with such conviction and character that made it vivid enough to seem like an auto-biography rather than a short story. 

I recommend that anyone who didn't attend this reading look this story up--it's really, really wonderful.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-glimpse-at-how-the-media-treated-women-this-year-is-a-look-at-way-too-many-cringe-worthy-moments-aa3-5c-2

Everyone should watch this.  It is a great example of someone speaking up for feminism and how far our media/society still has to go to improve!

A great interview

WI know you're all overloaded with work, but this interview is a wonderful example of two iconic women leaders of resistance and transformation.
Interview: Vandana Shiva and Jane Goodall

Ain't I A Woman

I took Survey of American Literature last year with Professor McGee and we read Sojourner Truth's piece "Ain't I A Woman". We watched the same reading of the piece by Alfre Woodard that we watched today. When I read her piece for today's class, I read it just as the speaker read it in the video. I think that it is interesting the way it is read differently before hearing it read compared to reading it for the first time. If you haven't read it again, you should. You will read it much differently. There is just more power behind the message that she is delivering and I think it really shows how well she could speak, even if she was said to be illiterate.

I was planning on posting that video on here after class if Professor McGee did not show it, but she mentioned that Kerry Washington also did a reading that I was not aware of. I watched that one, and I think I like Woodard's reading better. I just liked the tone and the power behind the words that Woodard used. I felt like that was more like how Sojourner Truth would have read it. To me Washington's reading just seemed a little more passive. What do you think?

-Jessica Mitchell

Trifles

I found this work by Susan Glaspell very well written. Had I not known that she was a woman prior to reading her play, I would have assumed she was a man. If a man wrote this play he would be viewed as extremely sexist and demeaning to females, but because Glaspell wrote it, her sarcasm is brought out by these sexiest comments.

On page 989 Mrs. Hale says, "We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things-it's all just a different kind of the same thing." Had a man written this, it would be perceived by audiences as simplifying women and making it seem as if they lack individuality and all have the same problems. Coming from Glaspell, it is an empowering statement. It relates back to the conversation we've continuously had in class about women criticizing other women. Glaspell is saying that we all have a lot in common. She is saying that we live physically near each other, but keep our hearts apart because we are too busy judging every women by her mistakes and her choices.

I really enjoyed this piece and Glaspell's discreet comedic relief throughout the play.

Wolf Alice

I've read this piece previously in our Novels and Tales class and it's interesting to switch perspectives when reading the piece. After reading it looking at the body, I'd thought it was interesting, but now taking the lens of identity it's intriguing to look at as well. When Alice looked in the mirror she didn't recognize herself, her body image was nothing that she thought it was. Growing up and living with wolves, having no mirrors around it's not surprising that she simply thought that she was a wolf. Taking a look in the mirror, changing and becoming a woman, this must have mentally took a toll on Alice. Who is she really? If she's not a wolf, who is she? What is she? The confusion of identity was probably overwhelming. It's shocking to think about such a life-changing realization. What would I do if one day I realized I'm not at all who I thought I was for the past twenty years? What would you do? How would one react?

5 Reasons to Date a Girl with an Eating Disorder?!?!

So on my Facebook page, I came across this article...

http://www.returnofkings.com/21313/5-reasons-to-date-a-girl-with-an-eating-disorder

The author (obviously a man who does not want to become known) goes by the pseudonym Tuthmosis. Under this disguise, he glorifies the idea of dating a woman with an eating disorder and why it would benefit men. I think this is so upsetting for people struggling with an eating disorder and deteriorates women's self body image even more!

Wolf Alice

This piece was kind of confusing and definitely difficult to read.  However the piece was so interesting I kept pushing through the difficulty I was having with the language and reading until the end.  I think that it was displaying her as child and the different main points in life a woman tends to experience.  When she was described as "all fours" in the beginning I interpreted that as her crawling like a baby.  Then obviously she got old enough to be on her own and was in a house with a male figure.  Duke I believe was her lover.  I do not completely comprehend the wolf aspect, however it was interesting with the imagery and personification used with these animals and what their experiences.  Then she got her period, then wore a wedding dress, and I perceived the ending as displaying death possibly of her lover, Duke.  It seemed as if they were constantly struggling to survive and always had others who were after them wanting to harm them.  But it seemed as if her and Duke's relationship was not strong, yet in the end she was taking care of him.  This was definitely an interesting piece, and as mentioned in class its funny because this type of story line is presented a lot in today's society with mystical creatures or animals that hold human characteristics, such as Twilight.

Margaret Fuller, Beyonce, and "Makers" Presentation

from Woman in the Nineteenth Century

My favorite line from this piece was " Religion was early awakened in my soul, a sense that what the soul is capable to ask it must attain, and that, though I might be aided and instructed by others, I must depend on myself as the only constant friend.  This self-dependence, which was honored in me, is deprecated as a fault in most women.  They are taught to learn their rule from without, not to unfold it from within."  

This quote really caught my attention when reading through this piece because I feel this can relate to many women still today.  It reminds me of that Beyonce song called "Me Myself and I", the line in that song says ".. I took a vow that from now on I will be my own best friend."  Obviously they most likely have completely different meanings to the words, however, Beyonce is a very empowering woman, and I also love those lyrics in her song.  I think that every woman, or person in general, has that similar goal in life of realizing we are our own constant friend.  We enter this life alone and leave just the same, however through our journeys in this world we tend to begin to believe, well most of us anyways, that our sole being depends on others around us.  I think yes, we do depend on each other especially as woman.  However, at some point in time we all realize that we have to like ourselves more than those other people, because if you don't then who will.  

I also think that relating this to men and how back in the day women were taught to depend on men for money, love, and children.  But now a days that is changing.  Women are more independent in every one of those aspects.  But, such as I learned during the "Makers" presentation not too long ago, this was looked down upon by a lot of people.  Women who were as independent as they are today were criticized for not being dependent on the man more and for taking charge with their own careers and lives independently.  So women were taught to "learn their rule from without", meaning know their place in life from the others around them, such as being a mother or wife, "not to unfold it from within", meaning not find their own passion and run with it wherever it may take them.   

Phillis Wheatley

On Being Brought from Africa to America

I thought it was interesting that she used the word "refined" in the end of this poem.  The definition of the word "refine" is impurities or unwanted elements having been removed by processing.  It sounds as if she is mad at white people for the way they look down on black people, due to their being slavery and her being enslaved at the time, but then on the other hand, she is looking down on her own self for being black.

In her bio it states that "Although some African-American scholars have disparaged Wheatley for appearing to endorse a white Christian world view, others have argued that her poetry has a strong Afrocentric and feminist subtext."  However, in this poem I feel that she is kind of ashamed of the fact that she is black because she was taught in the society she grew up in that this had a negative connotation that belonged with it.  And she continues to use the word "angelic train" referring to white people and that black people will be just as great as the white people one day.  For being a black female writer, this does seem weird reading that as one of her pieces, unless it is meant to be sarcastic and I am interpreting it wrong.

Need Participants for My Study! - Ladies Please Read

Hey guys! So I am a senior psychology major and have been working on an independent study with Dr. McFall.  I have been trying to recruit participants for my study all semester and have not had much luck.  I was hoping if some of you ladies qualify if you would not mind helping me out.  Below is the official invitation I have been sending out to students on campus.  If you are a graduating senior and have a GPA of 3.5 or above please read the invitation if you are interested in participating.  It is really quick and I would greatly appreciate your help! Thanks!

Hi my name is Michelle Olesko, I am a senior psychology major here at Fredonia.  I am currently participating in an independent study project with Dr. McFall this semester.  We are conducting a research study about college success and we are trying to find people who are graduating seniors in this coming December/May and who have a GPA of 3.5 or higher.  If you are one of these people you are invited to participate in this study. 

By participating you will help us understand why some students are less successful than others. Participation is voluntary and there will be no direct benefit to you or compensation. However, your answers may help us find ways in which we can help future students become more successful. As a participant in the study you will be expected to show up during the individual appointment time that we will set up together.  You will be asked a series of questions in an interview format about your views on college and success in college.  After the interviews, you will be asked to fill out surveys regarding your demographics, motivation, and personality information. Involvement in this study is not expected to take more than 30 minutes of your time. This study does not entail any major risks that will be deemed as harmful to you, however you may have a slight risk of discomfort when answering questions about your grades, but not any greater and potentially much less than normal interactions with teachers.  

The procedures follow a typical person to person interaction that students like you encounter in everyday life.  If you are interested in participating and/or have any questions about the study please contact me at my email address (oles6881@fredonia.edu), and I will send you time slots to meet with me.  You may also contact Dr. McFall at his email address (joseph.mcfall@fredonia.edu) or Catherine Kilpatrick’s, the associate director in the Sponsored Programs Office, located at E230 Thompson Hall (Catherine.Kilpatrick@fredonia.edu or call:716-673-3528), if you have any other questions regarding the study.

"Makers"

I unfortunately could not stay the whole time during the presentation but I wish I could have.  It was very inspiring to hear the stories to be shared across the wide range of different generations in the room.  In the hour that I was there I learned a ton about the feminist movement and it was even more inspiring because of the women it was being presented by.  It was interesting to hear about how many women did not agree with the feminist movement.  Then, as mentioned in class, the woman who advocated against the movement the most was very contradictory in her opinions compared to her actions of travelling and talking about her opinions against the movement.  She expressed how woman should be stay at home mothers and not pursue their career goals.  Then there was the mention of Hilary Clinton and how she spoke down to women who chose to be stay at home mothers.  Regardless of gender, a stay at home mother or father is nothing to be ashamed of.  On the other hand, the feminist movement was obviously important to open the eyes of society that just like men, women have that choice of staying home or not.

I also found it interesting that there were a few males in the room during the presentation!

Emily Dickinson

I really enjoyed reading Emily Dickinson's poems and was sad that we didn't get to touch upon them in class. I had heard of her before and knew that her fame did not come about until after her death, but I had never read any of her works before. Her poetry is so simple, but so detailed and complicated simultaneously. I especially like that none of her poems had titles. That left the interpretation of her poems to be even more ambiguous because you could choose your own meaning to her words. And the more I think about it, poems don't really need specific creative titles.

My favorite one was "Poem 512." Although all of her poems had a very lyrical flow to them, this poem stood out to me. In line 11 she wrote, "The soul has moments of Escape-When bursting all the doors..." Not only do I find this inspiring, but her continuous use of capitalization throughout the poem is fantastic. She capitalizes each word that holds a more significant and deeper meaning, such as, "The SOul has Bandaged moments." Emily Dickinson mentions "she," and "her," several times throughout this poem which I interpreted as her way of referring to the soul, Dickinson's soul to be exact.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the poetry and skilled abilities of someone far ahead of her time.

Shannon and Abby's Discussion Leading for Friday Nov. 22

What do you think the bird symbolizes?

What were your thoughts when reading the following quote?

At the end of the play, the County Attorney states "Oh, I guess they're not very dangerous things the ladies have picked out. [Moves a few things about, disturbing the quilt pieces which cover the box. Steps back]. No, Mrs. Peters doesn't need supervising. For that matter, a sheriff's wife is married to the law. Ever think of it that way, Mrs. Peters?

What do you think the irony of this quote shows about women vs. men?

County Attorney: Well, Henry, at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it. She was going to - what is it you call it, ladies?
Mrs. Hale: [Her hand against her pocket]. We call it - knot it, Mr. Henderson.

How do you think these quotes exemplify how men viewed women at this time?

Sheriff: Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves.
County Attorney: I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.
Hale: Well, woman are used to worrying over trifles.
     [The two women move a little closer together.]
County Attorney: [With the gallantry of a young politician]. And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies? [The women do not unbend. He goes to the sink, takes a dipperful of water from the pail and pouring it into the basin, washes his hands. Starts to wipe them on the roller-towel, turns it for a cleaner place.] Dirty towels! [Kicks his foot against the pans under the sink.] Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?

Referring to the argument between Mrs. Hale and the County Attorney on pages 983-984, what is your opinion on this argument, and who do you think makes the stronger argument?

Phillis Wheatley

After reading Wheatley's piece, "On Being Brought from Africa to America", I believe that she was trying to prove a point that there was more to her than just being a black woman and a slave. She wrote, "Some view our sable race with scornful eye, / 'Their color is a diabolic dye.' / Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, / May be refined, and join th' angelic train." This made me think that Wheatley was saying that all people can be a Christian, including her. She feels that she can identify as both a black women and a Christian, and that color should not be the only way that she can identify herself. I think this poem shows how aware Wheatley was of who she was, but how the world accepted her in comparison. It just shows the struggle that she faced while trying to adopt multiple identities.
-Jessica Mitchell

Zolaria Review

This story by Caitlin Horrocks was really great! It's too bad I could not make the live reading of it. 


The beginning of her story starts off pleasant as she states, "we have finished the fifth grade alive, and we consider that an accomplishment. We have earned this summer." My first thought was that she was speaking from the point of view as a child, thinking that grade school was difficult, not turning into a tear-jerking story. The way Caitlin Horrocks begins with the scene of an upcoming summer and childhood memories is optimistic. As the story of a childhood unfolds, flash forwards of the future intertwine. The flash forwards always included the narrator and her future family, never her friend Hanna. The "princesses of Zolaria" seemed to have an inseparable bond as children. Once Hanna is diagnosed with cancer and undergoes treatment, she is not present in the narrator's daily play routine. The narrator says that: "I will realize I am waiting for her to be either well or dead." This refers to her struggle of acceptance and prematurely moving on. I think Caitlin Horrocks' writing pinpoints the journey girls take into becoming women. As we spoke of in class, women tend to criticize other women. In the context of this story, it would be girls tend to criticize other girls as a form of acceptance. As the narrator reflects on the memories from 6th grade, I was taken off guard as a reader. The cruelty of tween girls is the worst. Everyone remembers middle school's social challenges. The scene in the story from the girls locker room was just awful as the girls tossed Hanna's wig around. The narrator describes Hanna's appearance as "wearing an awful wig, stiff and styled like an old woman’s perm. The hair will be dark brown, not black, and will no longer match her eyes. She will be pale, with her face swollen, and she will not seem like someone I can afford to know." When she says how she cannot afford to know Hanna anymore, she is worrying about her reputation and part of the popular clique. Even though the narrator was a young girl, she felt no need to help her so-called friend and focused selfishly on herself and reputation. When the story concludes at a later point of the narrator's life, I thought it was interesting how Caitlin Horrocks created a character with had twin girls, who possibly were going to succumb to cancer as well. This was a little too ironic for my taste, but gave the narrator a dose of karma. 


 

http://www.upworthy.com/a-sexist-reporter-tried-to-box-her-in-but-she-took-everything-and-threw-it-right-back

This is a really great 'fake interview' from the show Scandal!  Everything she says within the two minutes relates really well to our class and plus who doesn't love Lisa Kudrow?

Dancing with the Athletes!!!!

Dancing with the Athletes is THIS SUNDAY AT 2:30 PM IN THE MPR! It is a very good idea to buy your tickets in advance, they are $3 at the ticket office in the Williams Center. All of the Fredonia Athletes that are involved have been working very hard, along with the dancers and e-board members of Student Dance Organization. So come support and see an awesome show!

The best part is that the proceeds go to an AWESOME non-profit organization called Moving Miracles! I volunteered there this summer and it is such a great place. They hold dance classes to children and adults with disabilities...check out their website! If you are a childhood inclusive ed. major, you'll definitely be interested!!!!

 http://www.movingmiracles.org/


Hope to see you there! :)

Not you/Like you continuation

In Not you/ Like you, she sort of touches on biologics. She says "That at heart X must be X and Y must be Y and X cannot be Y." This reminded me of "The egg and the sperm: How science constructed a romance." Because each gender has it's chromosome. I think she is saying sarcastically that if you think other wise you end up in rehabilitation or a mental institution because thinking otherwise must be implausible! I believe what she is trying to say, once you look inside of your self you could be X, or Y or even possibly be X on the inside if your Y on the outside or vice a versa. This reminds me of what we touched on in class and how those who are transgendered must feel being trapped in the gender that you feel doesn't belong to you.

Discussion Questions for 11/13

“Not You/Like You: Postcolonial Women and the Interlocking Questions of Identity and Difference” by Trinh T. Minh-ha

1. “How am I to lose, maintain or gain a female identity when it is impossible for me to take up a position outside this identity from which I presumably reach in and feel for it?” (pg 930)

• We have talked about all these different women writers and how experience shapes their writing. Minh-ha is contradicting this. Does this change your perception of our past women writers? Or do you still believe that experience shapes writing?

2. “The moment the insider steps out from the inside she’s no longer a mere insider. She necessarily looks in from the outside while also looking out from the inside. Not quite the same, not quite the other, she stands in that undetermined threshold place where she constantly drifts in and out. Undercutting the inside/outside opposition, her intervention is necessarily that of both not quite an insider and not quite an outsider. She is, in other words, this inappropriate other other or same who moves about with always at least two gestures: that of affirming ‘I am like you’ while persisting in her difference and that of reminding ‘I am different’ while unsettling every definition of otherness arrived at.” (pg 932)

• While reading, how did you interpret this quote?
• Can this be compared to Virginia Woolf’s idea of an androgynous mind in “A Room of One’s Own?”

3. “Identity, thus understood, supposes that a clear dividing line can be made between I and not-I, he and she: between depth and surface, or vertical and horizontal identity; between us here and them over there… The search for an identity is, therefore, usually a search for that lost, pure, true, real, genuine, original, authentic self, often situated within a process of elimination of all that is considered other, superfluous, fake, corrupted, or Westernized.” (pg 929)

• When thinking about the identities of women in terms of this quotation, what/who do you think “other” refers to?
• We have discussed transgendered individuals with previous passages.When she's says identity supposes a clear divide between he and she, is she eliminating them in the discussion of identity? Is this an accurate way to define the identity process?

The Politics of Fiction-Elif Shafak

4. “If you’re a woman writer from the Muslim world, like me, then you are expected to write the stories of Muslim women and, preferably, the unhappy stories of Muslim women.”

• This also goes back to women writing their experience. Do you think that women should stick to writing their experience or should they branch out into what they don’t know and write about what they want?

5. “From her, I learned, amongst many other things,one very precious lesson --that if you want to destroy something in this life, be it an acne, a blemish or the human soul, all you need to do is to surround it with thick walls. It will dry up inside. Now we all live in some kind of a social and cultural circle. We all do. We're born into a certain family, nation, class. But if we have no connection whatsoever with the worlds beyond the one we take for granted, then we too run the risk of drying up inside.”

• Do you think that this correlates with what Trinh T. Minh-ha was talking about in her piece? Do we need otherness in our lives to be strong individuals?

6. “We tend to form clusters based on similarity,and then we produce stereotypes about other clusters of people.In my opinion, one way of transcending these cultural ghettos is through the art of storytelling. Stories cannot demolish frontiers,but they can punch holes in our mental walls. And through those holes, we can get a glimpse of the other, and sometimes even like what we see.”

• Do you agree with Shafak that stories allow for the reader to catch a glimpse of others? Why or why not?  

Caitlin Horrocks

For those of you who weren't able to attend the reading tonight, you missed something fun! This woman writer was extremely fascinating and absolutely captivating to listen to. Caitlin has a book of short stories out called, "This Is Not Your City." She captured everything that a woman writer she be. She was fun, confident and you can tell she truly enjoys writing. The short story she read us was called Zolaria and it was captivating. Watching her read was fantastic. She was able to memorize almost half, if not more of her story. She got so into her work, showing the audience her passion for the story she was telling.
Personally, I'm a very big fan of short stories. I started reading them in high school and they continue to catch my attention. I took a creative writing course last semester and learned a bit about writing them, which she spoke about at the reading. She explained that she used her hometown in Zolaria, allowing her to picture everything she's writing about perfectly, making it more believable to the readers because it's much more detailed. She also enjoys playing with the mixture of realism and fantasy, which is really fun to listen to because it helped paint a picture as she talked about games we all used to play as kids, and shenanigans we all used to get in to! 
I think the most interesting fact was that she said she likes to give herself a task to try to accomplish when she's writing a story. Whether it's playing with scenery or time, which is what she did in Zolaria. I've never heard of any writer doing this before, and it made me think whether or not any other of the women writers we've learned about have done this before writing.
Caitlin Horrocks was truly intriguing to watch as she read her short story to us. I'm extremely happy I was able to go and may even go buy the book! I encourage all of you who weren't able to make it to check out some of her work if you're into short stories. You won't be disappointed! 


 

The Last Quatrain of Emmett Till

I understood this piece to be Brooks interpretation of what this tragedy must have been like for Emmett's mother. People in class were saying that the poem seemed to be really simple compared to the previous poem, and I think that she did that on purpose. I think that because his mother was left with nothing but questions, the poem is not supposed to make complete sense. We can obviously understand that Emmett's mother was sad and upset in lines 7 and 8, "She kisses her killed boy./And she is sorry." But what does Brooks mean by, "She sits in a red room" or "through a red prairie"? I think she is using the word red to point to the fact that it was a brutal murder, with bloodshed that was not necessary. However, the meaning of those lines is not as clear and I think that Brooks did that to show that his mother had an unclear understanding as to why her sons murder was not facing justice.
~Jessica Mitchell

todays class

For the reading we discussed today, I wanted to talk about Lucille Clifton. the first thing i wanted to mention was her quote, "I am a Black woman and I write from that experience." I really liked this quote, and it may have to do with me being half black, because I could really relate to it. Especially because I am an art major and I have incorporated experiences I have gone through, based on being half black, into my art. So that interested me right away because I wanted to see how she incorporated that aspect into her poems.

In her poem "June 20" it was mentioned how she doesn't capitalize I. I agreed with a lot said in class. I feel like she definitely doesn't capitalize it for the effects of dehumanization. There is not emphasis on a particular person, so that makes it more relate-able right off the bat. So anyone can identify with it; I even related to it. It was as if I had gone through her experiences, either on my own or with her. I can not really tell. My favorite lines were, "they will do for each other/ all that they can/ but it will not be enough./ none of us know that we will not/ smile again for years,/ that she will not live long." This is because I feel like marriages now a days do not really mean anything anymore. My parents are divorced and they both are just selfish people. There are few of my friends that I know, whose parents are still together. The value of marriage decreases as years go on and its sad. In this day in age we are allowed to choose who we marry, there are no arranged marriages, but still marriages do not last anymore and they bring kids into this world and it effects their kids.

The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmet Till

I agreed with what Maria was saying at the end of class--this poem is short, but what more is there to write about? This woman's life has no flowing description anymore. She has been hollowed out by the brutal murder of her child. Not only is this short poem very black and white in its meaning, but it is literally about black and white. I think it's crucial to note Clifton's use of colors in this poem and the previous as well. Colors have destroyed this woman's life, and she now sits in a red room drinking black coffee. She sits in a room full of pain and hurt. She sits in red.

Red is used to illustrate a different pain in stanza 110 in "A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon." This is only one of the handful of lines that elude to domestic violence, again the color red being written very purposefully.

Pink Ribbons, Inc - a documentary on the breast cancer marketing campaigns.

"Breast cancer has become the poster child of corporate cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless women and men walk, bike, climb and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labelled a "dream cause," becomes obfuscated by a shiny, pink story of success"

Discussion Questions 11/4/13

1. P. 819 "Woman who shines at the head of my grandmother's bed" Who do you think the woman in this poem is, and why is she so significant?

2. Clifton never capitalizes "I" in her poems. For an author who stresses the importance of identity in her work, why do you think she makes this choice? Is it deliberate, is there a purpose?

3. p. 818 "I am a Black woman and I write from that experience. I do not feel inhibited or bound by what I am" From reading Clifton's poems do you believe they reflect her identity heavily? Are there other identities she expresses (more). In comparison does Brooks reflect a similar identity?

4. In the poem “the mother” she speaks of losing many children, do you think she believes she is still a mother even though she has never actually given birth to one? Why do you think that she thinks this way?

5. In “A bronzeville mother loiters…” Why do you think that she parallels the damsel in distress, usually found in fairytales, to this poem? What is the significance of labeling the characters the way that she does?

6. In “the last quatrain of the ballad of Emmett Till” What comparisons can be made in this poem and “a bronzeville mother loiters…” Does a common theme occur?

Letter to a Daughter at Thirteen and "Poems for My Sons" discussion questions

1.  In Kingsolver's 'Letter to a Daughter at Thirteen' she discussed the use of diaries/journals on pg. 145 and states "My diaries, whose first pages threatened dire punishment for anyone who snooped into them, would actually have slain any trespasser with pure boredom: I resolved with stupefying regularity to be good enough, better loved, happier.  I looked high and low for the causes of my failure."  how does this relate back to the piece 'Talking Back' by Bell Hooks and why do you think females in general use diaries as a place of self loathing?

2.  On pg. 149 of Kingsolver's piece she states "That was my first real lesson as a mother- realizing that you could be different from me and it wouldn't make me less of a person."  Do you believe that society judges a mother's worth as individuals based on the actions of their children.  If you are a female without any children could people see you as less worthy?

3.  Kingsolver writes on pg. 150, "I recognized that when you were in preschool, learning how to be social: having feuds with girlfriends, then forgiving or sometimes moving on.  One week they'd shun you, the next week you were queen bee while somebody else suffered.  It tore me to pieces to watch but I knew it couldn't save you.  You were saving yourself, slowly."  This quote references to a very prevalent issue dealing with Helicopter moms.  Are helicopter moms a negative, positive or neutral influence on a child's life and why?

4.  On pg. 151 Kingsolver states, "Boys want only one thing, which is to have sex with you, which is too nasty even to talk about, and it's your job to prevent it.  They're also stronger than you and likely can do what they want, but if they succeed in raping you it's your fault, actually, because it was your job to avoid getting yourself into a position where you couldn't stop it."  This quote brings up the issue of 'slut-shaming'.  Do you believe that media plays into the stigma that the victim is the one to blame?

5.  Minnie Bruce Pratt grew up in a racially, segregated town in Alabama.  Do you believe that played a role in her coming out as a Lesbian so late in her life?

6.  Line 45 in Pratt's 'Poem for My Sons' she writes to her sons hoping "That you'll never ask for the weather, earth, angels, women, or other lives to obey you; that you'll remember me who crossed recrossed you,"  this connects to Kingsolver's quote on pg. 157 "To say they run the world just doesn't cover it, because we do too, in our less material way."  Both writers address the issue of the possessive male stereotype.  Do you think by Kingsolver and Pratt addressing this, that they are taking a risk by being so open?  And why do you think they are addressing this?

- Jennifer Scofield and Emma Phillips

Medusa - Sylvia Plath

so i actually did this wrong in terms of ordering by answering posts first instead of posting so i apologize that this is kind of late.

but the poem i chose to discuss was Medusa by Sylvia Plath.

while at first i thought at least half of this poem talked about how much Plath loved her mother, i'm starting to think now that it's the opposite. actually, i'm almost 100% sure that this is about how much Plath hates her mother.

when we look at some of her beginning stanzas;

"Off that landspit of stony mouth-plugs,
Eyes rolled by white sticks,
Ears cupping the sea's incoherences,
You house your unnerving head-God-ball,
Lens of mercies

[...]

Did I escape, I wonder?
My mind winds to you
Old barnacled umbilicus, Atlantic cable,"

this sounds like a very repulsive and frightening sea creature rather than a mother. she describes her as grotesque, unnerving; and she wonders if she's escaped from her. and let's look a little later into the poem;

"I didn't call you.
I didn't call you at all.
Nevertheless, nevertheless
You steamed to me over the sea,
Fat and red, a placenta"

this to me sounds like she's saying, "i didn't ask to be born, and yet you brought me into this world, you brought me to you". or perhaps she's saying no matter how many times i try to be rid of you, you're always there, and you won't just leave me alone, and approach me like the monster you are.

"Ghastly Vatican.
I am sick to death of hot salt.
Green as eunuchs, your wishes
Hiss at my sins.
Off, off, eely tentacle!
There is nothing between us."

her mother's expectations of her, or her mother's mannerisms or "holier-than-thou" attitude seems to make Plath sick; anything but loving and grateful. she is tired of her, no longer afraid so much as fed up or exasperated. "off, eely tentacle"; stop clinging to me, stop trying to stifle me, stop trying to control me, capture me, trap me, harm me. there is no relationship here. i'm really, really happy that there was finally a poem talking about how relationships with mothers can also be harmful and somewhat toxic and complicated instead of praised as something abnormally nurturing and loving.

Emily Martin

I had actually never realized the way that scientific papers could be biased in this way. I know that there have been periods of time when science has been teleological but I never realized the way that that happened when scientist write about reproduction. One thing that really struck me was the way tat female reproduction and especially menstruation was not written about as positively as males. (Honestly can they just let us have this one thing?). Martin says that menstruation is written about as a failure. I know that time of the month comes with pains and aches but why is it a failure? The male reproductive system is described using words like remarkable. I know that men are a part of reproduction, but seriously I feel like women but in just a wee bit more work than men do. This article just seriously upset me in a way that no article that we have written yet has. Whats worse is that even female authors write about male reproductive systems as if they are amazing, but treat women's reproductive system as if they are just there. I have seen enough pregnancies in my life to have the utmost respect for women who get pregnant and have children, regardless of the circumstances. Males produce sperm and they release them but women carry children for nine months and have to make decisions about two lives, and it is not all precious kicks and buying cute clothing. They have t change their diets, go through body changes that they are not accustomed to, and literally carry another human being inside of them!! Even if a woman doesn't do this just the fact that they have the potential to is awe-inspiring. Sorry I guess this was more of a rant than a response or reflection.

The Disquieting Muses

this isn't my response post, but i figured it would be interesting/helpful to add that the poem "The Disquieting Muses" by Sylvia Plath was based off of this painting;

                              The Disquieting Muses - Giorgio de Chirico, 1917

Emily Martin's Reproductive Narrative

Emily Martin's article on the reproductive biology of males and females really opened my eyes.  When reading a textbook, magazine article or encyclopedia one never thinks about how something might be degrading them in a passive aggressive way.  Many texts discuss the woman creating the egg, producing a place for it to be fertilized and then grown but after that you never hear of the female reproductive system again.  It seems as if that scientists or writers see a woman's reproductive cycle for one sole purpose, but what if you're reproductive system doesn't carry out this sole purpose?  Is it altogether useless?  These texts certainly depict that.  One text also referred to a woman's uterine lining during menstruation as "debris".  If this isn't offensive, I don't know what is.  Debris is looked at as meaningless trash.  I certainly don't think that what happens during my menstruation is meaningless trash.  But when one looks at how the male reproductive system is depicted it's almost looked at as an amazing act that men can do.  One author writes that is a "remarkable cellular transformation".  Writers use words such as "shed" for women and "produce" for men.  These small connotations make a big difference.  To some people this might not be a big deal.  The author just has a varied vocabulary or thesaurus.com gave him/her some bad suggestions.  But could it be that authors have that voice in the back of their head that is slightly biased in a way?  It seems puzzling that women's reproductive systems are continuously shown in a negative light.  One author wrote that an ovary looks like a "scattered, battered, organ."  Ovaries are one of the most essential things about the female anatomy in that they produce multiple hormones and store the eggs which are essential for life.  It's hard for me to understand why people would call an ovary a "battered organ" when an ovary helped produce the human who wrote that very phrase.

Anne Bradstreet's "Before the Birth of One of Her Children"

"Before the Birth of One of her Children seemed like a very sullen, almost sad poem to me. Bradstreet seems to feel as if her time is coming to an end and my die. What I find interesting about this poem is that you don't often see a writer write about how they are not ready to die, rather often works of literature dealing with death always have some heroic tale of how the protagonist has lived such a great life and they are ready for their time. I think that when Bradstreet says "the many faults that well you know I have" she is almost apologizing for all of the wrong things she has done. She then goes on to write "If any worth or virtue were in me, let that live freshly in you're memory". We all want to be remembered as something great when we die, nobody thinks "when I die I hope I'm remembered as a mediocre person". However, often no one ever says that out loud. I like that she is being so honest, projecting that she is not ready to go, but if she does think of her fondly.

Anne Bradstreet "Before the Birth of One of Her Children"

I really enjoyed the poem, "Before the Birth of One of Her Children" by Anne because it reflected a topic that we haven't done much discussion on yet in this class, death after giving birth. I interpreted it as her writing to her husband before she gives birth. She is telling him that she wants him to remember her for all of her strengths rather than her weaknesses and mistakes. She says this because she is worried about dying when giving birth to one of her children. Anne also makes it a point to comment on the possibility of a Stepmother after her death. She understands the idea of remarriage but, she wants to be sure that he PROTECTS their children from the stepmother which I found to be very interesting. "And if thou love thy self, or loved'st me/These O protect from step dame's injury." I am curious to know my peers thoughts on the protection from a stepmother because I myself have never been in that experience before.

In Emily Martin's piece entitled The Egg and the Sperm, she continuously discusses the passive role of the egg. It seems that doctors of the time were projecting their own ideas about femininity and womanhood on the egg itself, personifying it. It seems that an inquisitive doctor would be more curious about the complex role and life cycle of an egg rather than acting like the female body is the passive ground waiting to be fertilized by a farmers seeds.

Emily Martin- "The Egg and The Sperm"

Emily Martin begins her reproductive narrative by stating how "part of my goal in writing this article is to shine a bright light on the gender stereotypes hidden within the scientific language of biology." I think her deep insight into the entire concept of female and male reproductive systems is very interesting and slightly controversial. This piece really caught my attention because I am not typically a reader of scientific genres of writing. While reviewing her critical insights on the language used to describe a woman's life cycle, I agreed with her opinion. Women are represented in a negative light by medical texts, especially the ones she cited. These texts were written in a male dominated profession. Unfortunately, texts describe a woman's menstrual cycle as a "failure" and incorporates negative connotative words such as "dying, losing, denuding, and expelling." In contrast, men are glorified for producing an overabundance of sperm cells. If roles were reversed, women would surely be looked down upon. Emily Martin's analysis of the symbolic meanings of the gametes was also very critical. By stating how "the egg is seen as large and passive" and how sperm cells are "streamlined" and "efficiently powered" represents the powered gender stereotypes also found in society. "Waking up such metaphors, by becoming aware of when we are projecting cultural imagery onto what we study, will improve our ability to understand and investigate nature."

Anne Bradstreet's The Author to Her Book

I first read the poem as if a mother was talking to her child, and then I read the poem as if a mother was talking to a piece of writing she wrote. I thought about the many ways that books and children are similar and dissimilar to authors and mothers, respectively. In one way, writing poetry allows the author and it's subject to remain immortal forever, whereas mothers and their children cannot live forever. Did you see any other similarities between the two?

Anne Bradstreet (In reference to her children)

I really enjoyed learning about Anne and I also really enjoyed her poems. I n her bio I liked how they showed that Anne Bradstreet stood up for people in her town. When a women was killed for opening up her mouth Anne thought that it was wrong, and she tried to defend the right for women to write and speak.
The poem that caught my eye the more was "In Reference to her Children". In this poem she expresses the mother path she took for each of her children and how they turned out. At the end of the poem she writes,
     "Taught what was good and what was ill,
       what would save life, and what would kill?
      thus gone, amongst you I may live,
      and dead, yet speak, and counsel give:
       farewell my birds, farewell adieu,
      I happy am, if well with you" (pg. 672).
I really enjoyed this section because it summed up the poem, and gave the audience a chance to think of motherhood in a general statement. I think what Bradstreet is trying to get out of these words is that a mother will take care of you no matter what. Your mother will take the role in your life and teach you from what is right and what is wrong. And once she is done giving them all the knowledge she can, her kids give that knowledge to their own kids.

Nick and the Candlestick

Usually, I am one to understand poetry very easily. I'm quick to get what the poet is talking about, and claims to support that. However, when reading Sylvia Plath, I had a hard time deciphering some of her work. My favorite, and I think the easiest to uncover the meaning would be Nick and the Candlestick. I think it is about a child, most likely a son, and she is getting ready for their birth. This is shown by the line "baby in the barn". It's interesting, though to hear her view on the world now. It sounds like she is envious of the safe compartment that her son has. She talks about the world as if it is a vile and dangerous place, and her son is safe with soft rugs and roses. It's strange to think about, but I wonder if this poem would be different in a different time period, or if it would be different if she thought it were a girl?

While reading the readings, Anne Bradstreet's "In Reference to her Children, 23 June, 1656" was the one poem that interested me the most. I really enjoyed how she used birds as a metaphor for her children. I was not only interested in it just because birds are my favorite animal, but because this poem seemed to be the only one I understood. My favorite sections from the poem were, "Great was my pain when I you bred, Great was my care, when I you fed, Long did I keep you soft and warm, And with my wings kept off all harm, My cares are more, and fears than ever." and "Among  your young ones take your rest, In chirping language, oft them tell, You had a dam that loved you well, That did what could be done for young, And nursed you up till you were strong, And 'fore she once would let you fly, She shew'd you joy and misery; Taught what was good, and what was ill, What would save a life, and what would kill?" I really enjoyed these parts because I feel like they both really show what motherhood is about. She talks about her pain she experienced when she gave birth to them and how much she cared. She kept them soft and warm and protected them from harm. Also her cares and fears have greatly increased since having them. She even goes on to give advice to her kids for when they have kids of their own, to make sure you teach them right from wrong because that's what she taught them and will ultimately determine if they will survive or not in this world. Which is a huge responsibility for mothers to make sure their kids live long enough to even have kids of their own. These are all things you would experience as a mother and I thought she did a good job of portraying that.

Plath's poems

It is evident that in the poem Medusa Plath is writing about her mother. She also relates back to birth or the processes of giving birth:

“You steamed to me or the sea,

Fat and red, a placenta”

I somewhat got the feeling that she is describing her love and admiration for her mother by relating it to the connection that they started to develop when she was in the womb. From reading her poems it seems like she writes out of complete respect to her mother. For example when she says, in The Disquieting Muses:

“Mother, you sent me to piano lessons

And praised my arabesques and trills

Although each teacher found my touch

Oddly wooden in spite of scales…”

This really made me think about mother’s love and sometimes it can be blinding, like they can see perfection when others cannot.

Medusa

This poem is clearly written about Plath's mother, and the connection between them which Plath seemingly resents.

"In any case you are always there,
Tremulous breath at the end of my line"

Word choice here (tremulous) indicates that Sylvia Plath may not view her mother as a strong role model. But her use of words like "fat and red, a placenta" are undeniable references to a maternal relationship and its rawness, with its origins being very physical.

The religious references in the last stanzas of the poem reminded me of our class discussion on Wednesday, and the topic of how divine love and maternal love compare. Sylvia Plath expresses frustration with what I perceive to be her mother's spirituality. The line "Hiss at my sins" seemed to me to suggest that her mother's religious beliefs created tension in their relationship, and probably made Plath feel like her mother looked down upon her. Maybe Plath's mental health had something to do with her feelings of being judged. I think this is a common theme in many mother-daughter relationships when a mother's spirituality is involved. Religion itself seems to worsen an already wide generational gap. 

"Off, off, eely tentacle!

There is nothing between us."

This line stings a bit, and to end a poem like this is to end it in anger. Plath has made her decision--she wants to be free of her mother's judgments and expectations. She is hurt. 

Before the Birth of One of Her Children

I think this poem by Anne Bradstreet is about her preparing for the possible death that could happen during labor.  Especially because this was written so long ago, in those days it was more common for there to be complications with women and pregnancy and women giving birth.  When I read the poem the first time around I thought that she was using death to represent the stereotype of women and how maybe her friendships were being taken away from her in a sense once she had a baby.  Such as in the line

 "No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet, But with death's parting blow is sure to meet." 

 Then she continues to say

 "How soon, my dear, death may my steps attend, How soon't may be thy lot to lose thy friend",

but after rereading it a few times I realized the word "death" was not representing anything.

I think this poem was meant to be written to her lover and preparing him for her death and how to deal with it while still successfully taking care of their newborn child.  The line I really liked was the following:

"Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms:  

And when thy lost shall be repaid with gains 

Look to my little babes my dear remains".

This was my favorite few lines because I think she is telling her husband to look to their newborn child for happiness and when he looks at the baby to be reminded of her and all their memories and love they shared together.  Bradstreet said "thy lost shall be repaid with gains" meaning he may have lost her but their newborn child will bring him even more joy and happiness now even after she is gone.  

In addition to this, the reason I think she is speaking to her husband is because of the line 

"These farewell lines to recommend to thee,

That when the knot's untied that made us one, 

I may seem thine, who in effect am none."

I think she is insinuating in these lines of their marriage when she says the "knot untied that made us one", because after her death their knot of love will be untied because she will be gone.  It is a sad poem but realistic and heart warming that she wrote the poem and felt content with passing on as long as her baby and husband are happy.

Nick and the Candlestick

I really enjoyed Sylvia Plath's poems and tried to decipher all of them but mostly came out empty handed. They are all abstract and chaotic but I think that's why I like them.
My opinion of Nick and the Candlestick, is that Plath is talking about the birth of her son. I also believe she is figuratively speaking about her world before her son enters it.

I think that she is saying that her womb and her world was cold and horrid before her son came into it. That he brought "roses and rugs" to make her world more comfortable. I think that Sylvia was expecting that her son would bring happiness and consistency back into her world "You are the one solid the spaces lean on, envious" This idea makes so much more sense in my head :)

Sylvia Plath

Having read Sylvia Plath before, I thought that would help me to understand her poems in this book, but it didn't. The poem that I found easiest to follow was "The Disquieting Muses." Plath talks about her mother throughout the poem. At line 41 she wrote, "I woke one day to see you, mother, floating above me in bluest air." How I interpreted it was that her mother passed away, or was no longer in her life, and she was finally okay with who she truly was. The way Plath described her mother made it seem as though her mother always wanted her to be someone other than herself. In line 35 Plath wrote, "..each teacher found my touch oddly wooden in spite of scales and the hours of practicing, my ear tone-deaf and yes, unteachable." Many parents make the mistake of forcing their children into doing something they are not passionate about. Obviously Plath was not a good musician and her mother refused to accept that. On the flip side, the entire poem could be honoring her mother in some way that I, as an outsider, cannot understand. That is the difficult thing about poetry; it can be hard to decipher what the poet's intentions were at the time the piece was written. Not only that, but Plath had a very unique style and mind.

In Reference to her children-Anne Bradstreet

So, I have never understood poetry, ever.  I feel as if I have tried so hard to understand poetry, both in high school, and through college, and it has never made sense to me.  I’m not sure what it is about this particular poem of Bradstreet’s, but it really clicked with me.  To finally read a poem that I could make sense of the first time I read it was really exciting.  I thought it was so beautifully written; I loved how she was telling the story of all of her children, and how they grew up.  Reading this gave me a whole new perspective on motherhood.  It is one thing to hear someone talk about their kids growing up and leaving home, but her choice to write about them as if they were birds gave her poem so much more depth.  My favorite lines from this poem are “Great was my pain when I you bred, Great was my care, when I you fed, Long did I keep you soft and warm, And with my wings kept off all harm, My cares are more, and fears than ever, My throbs such now, as ‘fore were never” (671).  Bradstreet really does a great job of displaying what motherhood really is in this poem, but these lines stood out to me the most.  The way she wrote this poem offers so much insight to what being a mother really is all about.  As we’ve discussed in class, a mother has the toughest job, but reading about motherhood in this poem gave me a greater appreciation for all of the things they do that go unsaid.  Mothers have to do everything for their kids, and then at some point, let them leave the nest and fly away. This poem was so sad and so beautiful at the same time, because of how real it was, and the emotion she showed through it. 

Nick and the Candlestick by Sylvia Plath

While reading Sylvia's Bio I thought her poems would be really interesting and I would be able to read them well and understand what she was talking about. Her poems didn't make too much sense to me, but the one that I understood the most was Nick and the Candlestick. Obviously she is talking about her son Nicholas. To me it seems like she is writing about the birth of her son and how she brings him home. "I have hung our cave with roses, With soft rugs-" I took this as the part where she brings Nick home, she is referring to our cave as our home. "You are the one Solid the spaces lean on, envious. You are the baby in the barn." I thought this as Nick was the baby home in the barn. Earlier she also says "O love, how did you get here? O embryo" I thought this was Sylvia talking about how this child came into the world, but really knowing how he did. I'm not sure how the candle fits in though. I could be completely wrong with this too, but this is what I thought!  

The Disquieting Muses

After reading Sylvia Plath's poem "The Disquieting Muses" I believe that Plath saw the demons and fears she faced in her mental illness as connected to her mother. As children we are taught so much by our mother's, but the one thing that they never teach us is fear. Because fear is naturally occurring it can be terrifying and baffling for children when their mother cannot "save" them from their fears. Sometimes we may even blame them for their inability to do so. Plath starts the piece by introducing to the narrator's fear that is three faceless women by rhetorically asking her mother what,

"cousin did you so unwisely keep
unasked to my christening, that she
sent these ladies in her stead" (814).

With this I believe Plath is showing how she blames her mother for the experience of this nightmare or fear that could be interpreted as her mental illness. She believes that her mother could prevent her from going through something like this. In an attempt to almost take back or minimize the blame, she questions if her mother could have done something,

"I wonder
whether you saw them, whether you said
words to rid me of these three ladies" (814)

Plath eventually acknowledges that the fear and terror becomes too much for her to handle, "but these ladies broke the panes". This refers to the feeling of safety her mother created for the family. Because her mother was unable to keep the narrator's feelings of fear away, the "ladies" won and were able to have a stronger influence on her life. Later Plath admits how these demons effected her life,

"I could
not life a foot in the twinkle dress
but, heavy-footed, stood aside
In the shadow cast by my dismal-headed
Godmother's, only you cried and cried" (814).

Plath realized that her fears had completely taken over her life, causing her to feel as if she had disappointed her mother. Plath closes the piece by stating how these "ladies", or her fear and mental illness was now constant, "day now, night now, at head, side, feet. They stand their vigil in gowns of stone". The fear is now in the narrators life acting as a mother might. It began to dictate, forcing the narrator to allow it to take over the a mother's role.

In Reference to Her Children, 23 June, 1656

When I read Bradstreet's poem, I knew immediately that she was comparing her 8 children to birds  and that she was describing the "empty nest syndrome" that mothers typically face as their children grow up and leave her house. I think that that comparison works very well for Bradford.

She wrote, "I nursed them up with pain and care,/ Nor cost, nor labor did I spare,/ Till at the last they felt their wing,/ Mounted the trees, and learned to sing," (lines 3-6). I think she wrote this to show that she is proud of what she could accomplish as a women and how strong women have to be to have children.

Throughout the rest of the poem is where I really saw her struggles with "empty nest syndrome". Her children were getting older and leaving home, just as when birds learn to fly the leave the nest. I think she was just sad to see that all what she had put all of her hard work and all of her love into was leaving her nest.

She wrote, "Farewell my birds, farewell adieu,/ I am happy if well with you," (lines 93-94). She is proud of what her children have become and what they are doing wit there life, so as long as they are happy, she is too. However, like all mothers, I feel that no matter how happy her children are she wishes that she could have them forever.

To cope with that she wrote all about what her children were up to and accomplishing, both to show how wonderful she thought her children were, as well as a way to show others that what her children have become was mostly because of her. So, I feel that she is proud of her children, but also extremely proud of herself as a mother.

-Jessica Mitchell

"Nick and the Candlestick"

Overall, I interpreted this poem as Sylvia Plath's writing about her body after she had birthed two children and her husband separated from her. Her lines:

"Waxy stalactites
Drip and thicken, tears

The earthen womb
Exudes from its dead boredom."

To me, I see this as Plath referencing her body as a cave and a dark, dormant cave. Touched long ago, yet now untouched, marked by going through the process of labor. Perhaps "waxy stalactites" refers to the birth of her children. The bio was sure to outline the separation of Plath and her husband and how it showed in her writing and that is what I found myself coming back to with each of her poems.

The disquieting muses-sylvia plath

In this poem I am seeing really how muses are her dislike and rejection of all things related to her mother. She wrote, "Mother, you sent me to piano lessons and praised my arabesque and trills although each teacher found my touch oddly wooden in spite of scales. And the hours of practicing, my ear tone deaf and yes, unteachable. I learned, I learned, I learned elsewhere. From muses unhired by you, dear mother." She is saying although you tried making me into a proper lady with piano lessons and singing, I have learned from other muses who I found myself. She dislikes the idea that she had to be given people to look up to instead of finding her own.

Response to Classmates Posts

When reading Jess Walton's post on Before the Birth of One of Her Children, I definitely agreed with her when she said talking about death could go in two different ways. At first, I also thought she was talking about her own death. But as I read more I got the feeling that she was talking about her relationship between herself, as a mother, and her child. You may loose some things when you become a mother, but you gain so much more.

As I was reading Katarina Kleine's post on Nick and the Candlestick, I noticed similar ideas and concepts she did in the poem. This poem seems to be very religious and uses religious references and terms. In the poem it says, "Those Holy Joes." I automatically think of Joseph. It also even says the word religion in the 6th stanza. I also agreed with that at times it is hard to understand what the writer is trying to say when it comes to poetry and religion. The writer might be trying to say one thing, while his or readers might interpret it in a different way. Sometimes I feel there isn't a right or wrong answer. How you feel about a concept can't be wrong.

Sylvia Plath-Childless Woman

As I was reading this poem I got a sense of loss and sadness. The narrator of this poem is a woman who does not have a child. I do not think it is because she does not want one, but because she can't physically have one . She keeps saying that her world is lost without the feeling of having a child and doesn't know where to go or what to do. The narrator talks about her body and what it is doing to her. She feels like she has no path in life. I think the writer keeps having miscarriages when trying to have a child. She says, "Uttering nothing but blood-" All she can think about is the feeling of not being a mother to her own a child and that she will eventually die alone. I can not relate to this issue, but one of my biggest dreams in life is to be a mother. So I know I would feel just as devastated as the writer is portraying her feelings to her readers. It is life changing.

Before the Birth of One of Her Children (Jess Walton)

I apologize if I get this totally wrong, I'm not the best at analyzing poetry.

The common theme I pulled from this piece was that with the birth there would be a loss. I thought this could be taken two different ways. First, considering the time period, I thought that she could be preparing for her own death. "How soon, my dear, death may my steps attend". The second way was the death of the bond between mother and child. "That when the knot's untied that made us one" I also thought it was interesting that she took this morbid take on birth. Most would see it as a start of new life and happy, she sees it as a loss, be it her life, or the life of this mother/child bond.