Thursday, September 23, 2010

Bradstreet's Poetry: Repeated through Time?

Throughout American literature, poetry has been used as a creative outlet to express historic movements, change, friendship, grief, and among other things romance. One poet I took a liking to was Anne Bradstreet. As stated in class, Puritan poets are to instruct more than to delight. When writing “A Letter to her Husband” she used metaphysical symbols associated with the body: “ I, like the Earth this season, mourn in black, My Sun is gone so far in’s zodiac, Whom whilst I ‘joyed, nor storms, nor frost I felt, His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt”(183).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzF87zDXlUQ





I believe that Anne Bradstreet set a precedent for women in literature and poetry. Anne’s use of heartfelt symbols such as marriage might have set a precedent for thematically intertwining marriage and poetry. Bradstreet’s poem, “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment.” The style and rhythm of this poem was very similar to me. From looking at the poems of Anne Bradstreet, I immediately related them to those of Gjertrud Schnakenberg, more specifically the poem “Love Letter.”

I studied Gjertrud Schnackenberg in a Poetry class last year, and was fascinated by her ability to convey strong emotions onto the readers. “Love Letter” is strikingly similar to “A Letter to Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment” because they are both odes to their men whom they wish were closer to them. Not only that, but there use of minute objects around them come to life, such as Schnakenberg's sheets, or Bradstreet's zodiac symbols.



Love Letter: Gjertrud Schnakenberg

Dear love, though I am a hopeless correspondent,
I found your letter habits lacking too
Till I received your card from H.-lulu.
It made me more-than-slightly-less despondent
To see how you transformed your ocean swim
Among dumb bubble-blowers into meters
And daffy rhymes about exotic tweeters
Beyond your balcony at 2 a.m.

I went to bed when you went to Hawaii,
And shut my eyes so tightly I saw stars,
And clenched my sheets like wadded-up memoirs
And made some noise like wah-wah-wah, i.e.,
I find your absence grimly problematic.
The days stack up like empty cardboard boxes
In ever-higher towers of cardboard
Swaying in senseless-lost-time's spooky attic.
I'll give the -atic rhyme another try.
To misconstrue the point-of-view Socratic,
Life is a painful stammered-out emphatic
Pronunciation of the word Goodbye.

Or, as it came out on the telephone,
Sooner-the-better is the way I see it:
Just say, "I guess not"; I'll reply, "So be it."
Beloved, if you throw this dog a bone,
TO readopt the stray-dog metaphor,
I'll keep my vigil till the cows come home.
You'll hear me howling over there in Rome.
I have no explanations, furthermore--
But let me say I've had it up to here
With scrutinizing the inscrutable;
The whys and how-comes of immutable
Unhesitating passion are unclear--

I don't love you because you're good at rhymes,
And not because I think you're not-so-dumb,
I don't love you because you make me come
And come and come innumerable times,
And not for your romantic overcoats,
And not because our friends all say I should,
And not because we wouldn't or we would
Be or not be at one another's throats,
And not because your accent thrills my ear--
Last night you said not "sever" but "severe,"
But then "severe" describes the act "to sever"--
I love you for no reason whatsoever.

And that's the worst, as William S. the Bard
Wrote out in black-and-white while cold-and-hot:
Reasons can be removed, but love cannot.
The comic view insists: Don't take it hard,
But every day I'm pacing up and down
The hallway till I drive my neighbors mad,
And evenings come with what-cannot-be-had
As lights blink on around this boring town,
Whence I unplug the phone and draw the shade
And drink myself half-blind and fantasize
That we're between the sheets, your brilliant eyes
Open me and, bang, we have it make--
When in reality I sit alone
And, staring at my hands, I think "I think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink"
While hating everything I've always known
About how you and I are sunk as well.

Under the aspect of eternity
The world has already ended anyway.
And, without you, my life can go to hell
On roller skates, as far as I'm concerned.
Two things are clear: these quatrains should be burned,
And love is awful, but it leads us to
Our places in the human comedy,
Frescoes of which abound in Italy.
And though I won't be sitting next to you,
I'll take my seat with minimal complaints.
May you sit in the company of saints
And intellectuals and fabulous beauties,
And not forget this constant love of Trude's.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Emphasis and Correlation of Religion and Education in Puritan Times



     



 As I was going through this week’s readings, I realized that religion and education were prominent and essential aspects of Puritan life.  I found this intriguing, because as stated in class, Puritanism started out as a minority religion, and rapidly grew in popularity.  As strong as religion and education are in our society today, they were even more essential for Puritans because they would often go hand-in-hand. Nowadays however, teaching religion is controversial and frowned upon.


While reading, I was engrossed with the Puritan correlation between religion and education.  For the Puritans, they not only went hand-in-hand, but they “viewed education as a means of promoting religious orthodoxy and social stability”(100).  I found this interesting because much like today, as one increases their capacity for education, they are more likely to feel social stability.  In the 1600s however, education was an instant variable to be more proficient in religion: “they placed great emphasis on the ability of individuals to read and interpret the Bible”(99).  The Puritans had an incentive to learn because it would bring them closer to God, as well as being able to interpret the Bible.  








Thursday, September 9, 2010

Initial Thoughts on Native American Literature

When defining American Literature, one has to keep in mind that the topic has many layers and definitions.  We cannot simply define American Literature because it does consist of cultures from the North, South, European, African and more. While analyzing the readings from this week, I took a particular interest in Native American literature and history.  


I am deeply fascinated with Native American oral culture.  This is almost unheard of in this day-and-age, simply because we waste away our precious time with technology.  Everyone is too busy, our society doesn't look up from their phones, we don't pay attention, and so often we interrupt when someone is telling their story. Who or what has turned us into these creatures? And how are we going to survive in the future if no one is paying attention now? 


The Native Americans created this oral culture to pass along ideas and stories, but also to persuade others of their stories.  Although outsiders may have copied their story-telling, tribes had a captivating way to entertain that no one else could emulate.  While learning about oral culture, I started to reflect on American traditions that could have derived strictly from Native Americans.  For example, improvisational comedy, slam poetry, or plays.  Can we necessarily call these "American", or do they derive from the tribes who discovered America first?  Comedy in general reminds me of Native American oral culture, because comedians tell their stories to an audience, strictly for purpose of entertainment.  I strongly believe that Americans try to claim that everything is theirs, when really a lot of our culture derives from other cultures who don't receive enough credit.  


As my last point, I would like to talk about Native American culture and how it is romanticized.  In my Native American Literature class, we discussed the fact that it is romanticized because people don't have a full idea of what exactly the different tribes do.  Some people might think that it is spiritual or "Native American-like" to have a dreamcatcher (as Dr. Long stated), or to sit around a fire, or go hunting.  When in actuality a lot of tribes don't hunt all day, instead they fish.  My Native American Literature teacher, Danica Miller, introduced us to a Sherman Alexie poem, "How to write the great American Indian novel", a poke at what outsiders think of Native Americans:


"Indian men are horses, smelling wild and gamey. When the Indian man
unbuttons his pants, the white woman should think of topsoil.
There must be one murder, one suicide, one attempted rape.
Alcohol should be consumed. Cars must be driven at high speeds.
Indians must see visions. White people can have the same visions
if they are in love with Indians. If a white person loves an Indian
then the white person is Indian by proximity. White people must carry
an Indian deep inside themselves. Those interior Indians are half-breed
and obviously from horse cultures. If the interior Indian is male
then he must be a warrior, especially if he is inside a white man.
If the interior Indian is female, then she must be a healer, especially if she is inside
a white woman. Sometimes there are complications."  



This is a classic example of the stereotypes that are correlated with Native Americans.  Sherman Alexie pokes fun at this, but he does it to raise a point.  Because a lot is unknown about Native Americans, we are quick to judge, or make up stories, or romanticize their culture. However instead, we should be intrigued and willing to learn about the primary people who came to America