In The Secular Night by Margaret Atwood
“If one is not connected with God and other people, then one will risk falling into loneliness and despair.”
There are three stanzas in this poem. The first stanza reflects upon the speaker’s past when she was sixteen. The next stanza then transitions forty years later, the present. The last stanza ends with the speaker’s ideas about God. This transition from past to present to the speaker’s thoughts is very significant to the message of this poem.
We can see that Atwood used a 2nd person point of view to bring a more lonely and isolated mood to the poem. Also, in the first two stanzas, past and present, Atwood highlights many times of the speaker’s isolation and unstableness. These two stanzas result because of the speaker’s views mentioned in the third stanza. She wanted to show that being isolated from society and feeling distant from God can result a person in loneliness and despair. There are many literary devices that affect the mood, tone, and rhythm of this poem as well.
Through this poem, perhaps Atwood is trying to tell many of us need to be careful. She is warning us that many of us are not connected with God and other people, and could fall into loneliness and despair. Look at the last sentence of the poem, “The century grinds on.” The word “grinds” gives a negative connotation. This tells that even the world is not connected with God. Atwood had her up and down moments with her relationship with God. Maybe she is portraying her experiences and views about God in this poem, and wants to give us a chance to avoid that risk of becoming left out and isolated from God and others.
2008년 11월 5일 수요일
2008년 11월 4일 화요일
Poetry Blog # 3
Ava Gardner Reincarnated as a Magnolia is a poem that displays a tragic flaw in human nature. The tragic flaw can be seen in two different ways. One is the speaker’s tragic flaw of being too beautiful; the other is the society’s quick judgment of beauty.
After reading this poem, I felt a bit bad for the speaker, Ava Gardner, for being beautiful, which is kind of ironic because I envy beautiful women and are sometimes jealous of them. I felt as if Atwood is trying to send a message that beauty is judged too quickly on the outside and that it can be destructive to both the society and beautiful women, which is why Atwood criticizes both the men and the women who get jealous in the poem. Beauty is a tragic flaw in so many ways. It causes temptations and low self esteems for the “other” people. It causes loneliness and bitterness to the beautiful ones. This “flaw” (which people don’t view beauty as) leads people to their fall, like how the speaker ended up in her “fall” by the end of the poem. I think Atwood is trying to tell us to see “the beauty beyond the beauty”, and that we should all be criticized for only seeing what’s on the surface. As I read this powerfully written poem, this message stuck out. It was interesting because it was from a beautiful woman’s perspective. We usually hear quotes like “don’t judge a person by how they look” and we used it for people who aren’t “beautiful and thin” so that everybody will be treated equally. But in this poem’s case, the message is in a beautiful woman’s point of view. I love that Atwood wrote the poem in this way because it makes the readers ponder about this issue in a different perspective.
After reading this poem, I felt a bit bad for the speaker, Ava Gardner, for being beautiful, which is kind of ironic because I envy beautiful women and are sometimes jealous of them. I felt as if Atwood is trying to send a message that beauty is judged too quickly on the outside and that it can be destructive to both the society and beautiful women, which is why Atwood criticizes both the men and the women who get jealous in the poem. Beauty is a tragic flaw in so many ways. It causes temptations and low self esteems for the “other” people. It causes loneliness and bitterness to the beautiful ones. This “flaw” (which people don’t view beauty as) leads people to their fall, like how the speaker ended up in her “fall” by the end of the poem. I think Atwood is trying to tell us to see “the beauty beyond the beauty”, and that we should all be criticized for only seeing what’s on the surface. As I read this powerfully written poem, this message stuck out. It was interesting because it was from a beautiful woman’s perspective. We usually hear quotes like “don’t judge a person by how they look” and we used it for people who aren’t “beautiful and thin” so that everybody will be treated equally. But in this poem’s case, the message is in a beautiful woman’s point of view. I love that Atwood wrote the poem in this way because it makes the readers ponder about this issue in a different perspective.
Poetry Blog # 1
Atwood, Plath, Dickinson. Who am I most like? To be honest, after researching these talented women, I couldn’t find anyone similar to me. So I decided to choose the poet that inspired me most with her poems. That would be Margaret Atwood.
After researching her bibliography, there were only two things that I could find in common with her. The first one is growing up in the wilderness. I didn’t live my childhood in Northern Quebec, but I did grow up in the suburbs of Seattle climbing trees and running around outdoors. I didn’t quite experience the same kind of wilderness as Atwood, but I was always outdoors close to nature. The second one would have to be her feminist views. As a female myself, I have strong views about women and their inequality in society. I think Atwood’s poems are very beautiful (but also sad). I felt like I connected with her the most through her poems. In most of her poems, the protagonist experiences a “fall”. We can connect these “falls” with Atwood’s views and experiences in life. I personally can connect with her messages, because I’ve experienced many “falls” in my life. For example, the poem In the Secular Night, as a class we came up with a theme statement of how if one is not connected with other people and God, one will risk falling into loneliness and despair. I agree with Atwood’s message from this poem. There were times in my life when I was left all alone and in despair because I didn’t connect with God and the people around me. Marsh Languages is another poem that inspired me. This poem really made me ponder about Atwood’s message of language is losing its true meaning. The poem doesn’t relate to me, but it connected with me. Atwood’s feminine view of things connects in some way with how I view the world; a lot are very similar.
After researching her bibliography, there were only two things that I could find in common with her. The first one is growing up in the wilderness. I didn’t live my childhood in Northern Quebec, but I did grow up in the suburbs of Seattle climbing trees and running around outdoors. I didn’t quite experience the same kind of wilderness as Atwood, but I was always outdoors close to nature. The second one would have to be her feminist views. As a female myself, I have strong views about women and their inequality in society. I think Atwood’s poems are very beautiful (but also sad). I felt like I connected with her the most through her poems. In most of her poems, the protagonist experiences a “fall”. We can connect these “falls” with Atwood’s views and experiences in life. I personally can connect with her messages, because I’ve experienced many “falls” in my life. For example, the poem In the Secular Night, as a class we came up with a theme statement of how if one is not connected with other people and God, one will risk falling into loneliness and despair. I agree with Atwood’s message from this poem. There were times in my life when I was left all alone and in despair because I didn’t connect with God and the people around me. Marsh Languages is another poem that inspired me. This poem really made me ponder about Atwood’s message of language is losing its true meaning. The poem doesn’t relate to me, but it connected with me. Atwood’s feminine view of things connects in some way with how I view the world; a lot are very similar.
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