Literary Theory: Mimetic Theory

Literary Theory: Deconstruction Theory

Task 103: Convenience Store

Write about an experience you’ve had at a gas station or convenience store.

Task 102: Handle With Care

Write about a very fragile or delicate object.

Task 101: Mirror, Mirror

What if your mirror started talking to you? 

Eco Criticism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAUhuWTAqz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAUhuWTAqz4

Poem #117 Backwards See

Believe in me out drinking

Backwards see Two in the bush

The Whatness of our whoness

Bird in the hand flattening

Sirens the voice of god

With a handgun

Task 100: Greeting

Write a story or poem that starts with the word “hello”.

Task 99: Food

What’s for breakfast? Dinner? Lunch? Or maybe you could write a poem about that time you met a friend at a cafe.

Task 98: Eye Contact

Write about two people seeing each other for the first time

Poem #116 Friction Required

Kick like amen

Kiss like a plague

Lie like someone mean and measured

Live like ends and multitude

Everything else a cavity of details

Drawn into life with a

wail, clip, and clasp,

only to  shudder, dwindle and die. 

Task 97: The Vessel

Write about a ship or other vehicle that can take you somewhere different from where you are now.

Task 95: Caught Red-Handed

Write about being caught doing something embarrassing.

Task 96: Interview

Write a list of questions you have for someone you would like to interview, real or fictional

Task 94: Last Person You Talked to

Write a quick little poem or story about the last person you spoke with.

Task 93: Random Wikipedia Article

Go to Wikipedia and click on Random Article. Write about whatever the page you get.

Task 92: Name

Write a poem or short story using your name in some way or form.

Task 91:Telephone

Write about a phone call you recently received

Task 90: Slip Up

Write about making mistakes

Task 89: Alarm Clock

Write about waking up.

Task 88: Insult

Write about being insulted

Task 87: What You Don’t Know

 Write about a secret you’ve kept from someone else or how you feel when you know someone is keeping a secret from you.

Task 86: Coffee & Tea

Surely you drink one or the other or know someone who does- write about it!

Task 84: War and Peace

 Write about a recent conflict.

Poem #115 Public School

Public school

I don’t like the way it looks at me

I don’t like the way it talks to me

And I don’t like the way it lives.

Poem #114 Student

I am a person with nothing much to do:

Not talking

Not screaming

But I can’t afford to do nothing

Not smart enough

Being something is very hard on you

Being nothing is worse

Task 83: Missed Connections:

If you go to Craigslist, there is a “Missed Connections” section where you can find some interesting story lines to inspire your writing.

Poem #113 certain miserable days

I once promised myself

That is not now likely to happen

I can see only the window

Capital, some people will tell you

It would be divided equally

Generation after generation

Let us take up obscure cases.

I can feel certain miserable days

Going over to sit inhabited good shots

Traditions for irregulars

Black leather walked with the old days

Entered their mess, possession of the

White heart races

Never told the burdensome of necessity

Dull his hearts passion with jealously

Clearly gallant captain hate

On the verge of wishing ways

Shocked silence –

A blackguarded to self-respect

It is the kind of screw

introduced by

turning

Into the world

Task 82 : Dictionary Definition

Open up a dictionary to a random word. Define what that word means to you.

Task 81 : Eavesdropper

Create a poem, short story, or journal entry about a conversation you’ve overheard

"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?” An Analysis of John Milton’s “When I consider how my light is spent”

Milton's Poem, "When I Consider How my Light is Spent" is centered around the question posed by the narrator (presumably Milton himself) to God as to how he became blind and how he is to continue to serve God within a state of blindness. The sonnet presents an internal dialogue in which the poet attempts to overcome his own personal discouragement through his faith in God, and ends in a recognition that God will successfully intervene in times of doubt. The references to blindness serve as a physical means of illustrating a metaphorical circumstance within the poem: The lack of ability to “see” (read: have faith in) God. Despite the fact that blindness in the poem is ostensibly attributed to the speaker himself, it is clear that the poem is considering the potential disabling affliction which may exist within the reader as a loss of faith.

The first word of the poem--“When”-- provides the reader with a feeling of suspense, a lingering question of “considering how [his] light is spent,” which is not resolved until seventh and eighth line, when the question that such consideration raises is finally articulated: “Doth God, exact day-labour, light denied?” Upon reading the first lines the reader is immediately taken by a sense that something is coming to an end; there seems to be a tone of sorrow or mourning. The metaphorical use of light is made clear by the fact that light cannot literally be “spent.” Light presents a way for the speaker to consider how, and to what extent, he used his sight prior to his blindness. The alliteration in the second line, “world” and “wide” places, emphasizes the overwhelming darkness of the world after the speaker’s loss of sight. Milton also makes it seem as if the entire world has run out of light, rather than growing dark because of a personal affliction. He therefore universalizes his condition through alliterative diction.

In the Lines 3-4, “And that one Talent which is death to hide/ Lodged with me useless,”

Milton raises concern regarding the use of his “Talent” and makes reference to the Parable of Talents from the New Testament[1]; talent, in this sense, refers both to the biblical unit of money as well as to skill. In the narrator’s case (Milton), presumably his intelligence and his writing of poetry are both his trade and his skill[2]. However, due to his early blindness, this "talent" is "lodged" or buried within the speaker in the same manner as the money or talents in the biblical story.[3] While the speaker claimed that his money is as useless as money buried in a desert, he now asserts that, “though my Soul more bent/ To serve therewith my Maker, and present” (ll.4-5) this uselessness is not a result of his own will. To the contrary, his soul desire is "bent" for the very purpose to use his skills in the service of his Maker.

He continues, frightful of the consequences of his own ability to use his talents and his concerns that God will scold or "chide" him: “My true account, lest h1e returning chide”(ll.6). The word "account" here implies both senses of the word record—a narrative as well as a financial balance sheet. Here the speaker looks onto God as he is presented in the parable, who might easily cast the poet into a darkness more fearful than the one created by his physical blindness, in that the poet can no longer serve God through his writing and therefore is subject to His punishment. The speaker then wonders whether or not God requires physical work or "day-labor" from his followers, even when they lack sight: "Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?” (ll.7) Using the term “exact” here as demand or charge, refers back to the concern alluded to earlier; that god might punish him and require him to pay something in return for the labor he has not performed despite the gift that he has been given.

While traditionally most Italian sonnets contain a volta or a sharp thematic turn dividing the two sections, in this case the awkwardness in lines 7-8 is intentional. The first section is consumed by the speaker’s attempt to formulate his question, while the second is that of "Patience" interrupting the speaker. Therefore, the transition mimics the awkwardness of someone (Patience) ‘preventing that murmur’ (l. 7-9) from the speaker, which has nonetheless already been articulated in lines 1-6.  The relationship between speaker and audience (in this case, Patience) is intrinsically intimate here, due not only to the speaker’s interruption, but also because of the intense confessional nature of the first six lines and the comfort provided by the voice that appears in line 9. These are not two strangers speaking. The use of Patience as the name of the respondent evokes Christian undertones in that patience is often seen as a vehicle for achieving other virtues, such as courage and wisdom. However, Patience can also be read as the inner voice that provides comfort to his consciousness. The prediction of the murmur by Patience could have only been made by someone who knows the speaker well, or is the speaker.

Here "Patience" (or his inner voice) responds, "God doth not need Either man's work or his own gifts” (ll.9-10), implying that God does not require the physical works of men because He has his own power and the Angels in Heaven to do as He desires. God does not require anything because in and of himself, God is complete and perfect. Patience finally disputes the speaker’s concern of punishment: “His [God’s] state Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o'er Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait" (ll.11-14). Here, God is more kingly than he is tyrannical; thus, the God of the parable from whom the speaker feared punishment is not one with whom the speaker will meet. If God controls a "state" as large as the entire earth, what need does he have for the use of everyone’s labor? Those who remain strong and wait through the trials of their life are rewarded in Heaven and are also serving God. Patience concludes with vindication of the speaker’s forced passivity due to his disabling affliction through the claim that there are those whom also serve him by only standing.

The poet here in the concluding couplet answers the initial question in regards to God’s treatment of individuals who do not have the ability to perform day-labor, and further answers the predicament of those suffering a disabling affliction. Those who “rest” and “wait” are perhaps just as useful as those who toil needlessly in His service. The words “rest” and “wait” are emphasized by their juxtaposition with enjambments throughout patience’s murmur. The enjambment in lines 8-12 is halted in line 13 by a caesura after the word “rest,” at which the reader must pause. The pause in line 13 emphasizes the last line and foils the reverence for action created by the enjambment. Milton concludes the poem with the line, "they also serve who only stand and wait"(ll.14). This becomes a comfort to not only the speaker but also to the reader. To stand becomes active and therein does not stand in contrast to the thousand who in lines 12-13 “speed . . . without rest.”

This end pause after line 13 is symbolic of a type of physical rest, which the reader receives, and the original speaker now presumably acknowledges as also an act in service of the lord. The long awaited rest which the enjambments did not grant since the utterance of the question by the speaker in line 7 might have been reflective first of the original speaker’s restlessness at not servicing God, and then patience’s description of the actions of those in service of God. This allows for the entire poem to serve as a self-reassurance and a re-discovery of faith through the active discourse[4] with Patience that brings both faith and wisdom—and grants the speaker the subservience to wait. Thus "how [his] light is spent" becomes symbolic of not only the speaker’s physical blindness but the reader’s blindness to the symbolic light of god, a light which both the narrator and the reader learn to await.

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[1] In Mathew Chapter 25, the Lord entrusts three of his servants money or "talents.” While two of the servants use the money to make more money for their master, the third buries the money. When the Lord returns he is pleased with the first two servants and provides them with more responsibility; however he is furious with the third servant whom he exiles to darkness that is equated with death.

[2] Though in line 7, it seems that he is referring only to manual labor; one which is physical in nature, though this may only be that day-labor can apply to any craft not necessarily only the physical sort.

[3] The inherent irony in this is not lost on me, given that despite Milton’s lack of light it does not prevent Milton from writing this sonnet and therein the act of writing the sonnet becomes a futile one and its conclusion suffers from a loss of meaning in that Milton himself is capable of continuing his day labor.

[4]  Discourse here intended in the platonic sense, through a question and answer forum rather than an actual dialogue. 

Task 80 Escape Plan

Describe your ultimate escape plan (and tell us what you’re escaping from).

taken from https://dailypost.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/365-days-of-writing-prompts-1387477491.pdf

Poem #112 I Loved My Friend

I loved my friend

Imperfectly understood

He went away from me

No one to blame for this

The odds against it are encouraging

Still I want to be happy

Until I know:  That line lies

I love my friend. 

Poem #111 A Christian walking

A Christian walking

Shall not pass away

A second eve to win

Mark me now

To believe I am

A sedated look 

Poem #110 Woman’s March,2017

That is wit?

What means this?

Bigness writ by opinions

A millennium in limbo gloom

No man-child, happiness as sad

Rood of time, no substantiality

A very scurvy word from eternity’s mansions

Hercules, the wrinkled generation

What means this?

Nineteen lives in the house jack

Humpty dumpty never fell from a taller wall.

Task 79 Nostalgia

Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a child. What became of it?

Task 78 Six Impossible Things

Impossible “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – the White Queen, Alice in Wonderland. What are the six impossible things you believe in? (If you

can only manage one or two, that’s also okay.) 

Task 77 Silver Screen

Take a quote from your favorite movie — there’s the title of your poem or story. Now, write!

Task 76 Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law says, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Write about a time everything did — fiction encouraged here, too!

“Gentle Cock” The Courtly Romance, the Homeric Epic, and the Moral Fable in Chaucer’s “Nun’s Priest Tale”

Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest Tale calls upon devices from three distinct genres. While the most apparent is the moral fable,[1] elements of the courtly romance and Homeric epic are employed to surprising effect.  The question then raised is: what is the purpose of entertaining all three genres within a single narrative? The romantic facets of this tale serve to make the animals more human, but the epic style of the tale endows them with a superhuman quality. In turn, the personification of the animals embodies the human in an animalistic form. Thus, the coalescence and interaction of these genres simultaneously elevate and subordinate the human condition.

The Clerk’s Tale, Miller’s Tale, and Shipman’s Tale can be read as responses to the Knight’s version of the courtly romance, in that each adapts the love-triangle model the Knight introduces. Only in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale does the anthropomorphization of the animals, and use of Homeric forms of address, serve to comment on that trope in a new way. In this paper, we will ask: Does the use of these three genres in “The Nun’s Priest Tale” in any way serve as a reification of the courtly romance, the Homeric epic[2], and the moral fable? Are these forms antithetical to the content of the narrative, or complimentary to it?  And in either case, how do the languages of courtly romance, epic and fable function as commentary on the “moral” the tale ostensibly conveys?

By portraying these animals as larger than life, the tale says something about the status of the human condition by way of the human characteristics the animals possess. The fable subordinates our false sense of superiority (over animals) and the epic reinforces that false sense of superiority in its aggrandizement of the human animal.

Chanticleer for instance is called a gentle cock and his crowing, sweeter than that of any other cock: "Thanne crew he, that it mighte nat ben amended" (2858). Pertelote is described in aristocratic terms such as “a faire damoysele” (4060). She is courteous, discreet, gracious and companionable in addition to having the best coloring on her throat. But the personification of these animals indicates that even if we are “Gentil,” we might still be in the same boat as these foul with regards out animalistic nature.

The use of the Homeric epic can be noticed in the narrator’s asides:  “O false mordrour, lurkynge in thy den!” (3226), and “O Chauntecleer, acursed be that morwe / That thou into the yerd flaugh fro the bemes!” (3230–3231). These narrative choices are reminiscent of the vocative address in works such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, and promote an epic style that can be traced throughout the entire work. However this tone is continuously contrasted with mundane, trivial, and domestic events, which are not often found in the epic genre.

The comparison between the “Certes, he Jakke Straw and his meynee / Ne made nevere shoutes half so shrille / Whan that they wolden any Flemyng kille, /As thilke day was maad upon the fox” (3394–3397) as well as the multitude of other historical references adds to the aggrandizement of the circumstances, as if raising them to the level of historical epic. The actions of the main characters in the tale, however trivial, still attract more attention than the events around them, however grand. The widow and the two daughters who chase the fox, for instance, somehow exceed the ruckus made by the rioters from the peasant revolt.

The narrative however does not take on the form of grandeur but rather appears mundane and ordinary. There is a widow, having two daughters. She has cattle and sheep as is typical with the villagers. She has a cock and many hens. This is clearly not the beginning of an epic: there is no calling on of the muses[3]and also no reference to the rage of Achilles[4]. Thus, the landscape and characters are not intrinsically epic in and of themselves. Rather, it depicts the pastoral landscape typical of the animal fable, but the setting is elevated by the use of the language of a philosophical poem.  Imbued with the characteristics of grandeur, the cock and the hen behave, talk, argue, and conduct themselves like extraordinary human beings. For example, Chauntecleer and Pertelote are a "married" couple and bicker as humans. Furthermore, they also "love" each another. "He loved hir so that wel was him terwith" (2876). Even their act of lovemaking appears an epic human feat rather than the mating of animals. “He fethered Pertelote twenty tyme, / And trad hire eke as ofte, er it was pryme. [He clasped Pertelote with his wings twenty times, and copulated with her as often, before it was 6 A.M]” (3177–3178). The courtly romance here adds an element of humanity in the description of both as distinctly human and subject to the human/ animal desires.

            Additionally the fowls are learned and philosophical. They have discussions about dreams and address issues central to the human condition. In place of two fouls (Chauntecleer and Pertelote), we see two philosophers both intent upon sticking to their point of view, but (not unlike the conversations at St. John’s College) end without a conclusion or consensus.

It is not essential, however, to the telling of the Nun’s Priest Tale to place the fowls within the stature of grandiosity, and therefore must be a stylistic choice on the part of the Nun’s Priest. The story might as well have gone:  there is a widow, having two daughters. She has cattle and sheep as is usual with the villagers. She has a cock and many hens. Once, a fox carries away the cock, but the cock later he escapes. The extended amount of time devoted to relaying the dream sequence calls upon epic conventions, but this dream sequence amounts to a tangential aside, and has no bearing on the moral fable. The musings about dreams are simply disregarded once the fox appears, and never returned to again. It in fact draws attention away from the moral aspect of the story, and therefore the epic serves to subvert the fable.

While the supposed moral significance of the story could have been portrayed without the dream sequence, it is nevertheless tempting to center discourse around the Pertelote’s and Chauntecleer’s dream dialogue (as was the case with our class discussion about this tale). However, the tangential nature of the dream sequence—this prolonged conversation has no bearing on the actions of the characters—asks us whose philosophy of dreams is correct: Chauntecleer's, or Pertelote's? This point is further confused by Chanticleer’s philosophical aside, which implies that one should pay attention to dreams, but when the fox comes (as his dream foretold), not even Chanticleer heeds the advice he gave himself, and instead falls prey to the flattery of the fox.[5]

            Because of the seemingly incompatible natures between courtly romance, Homeric epic, and moral fable, the Nun’s Priest Tale creates tensions that are not easily resolved. The aspects of the epic are placed in the foreground, but nevertheless underline the moral fable, in that the Cock’s philosophical musings and romantic inclinations allow for the moral of the fable to find its voice. If Chauntecleer had heeded the advice of his own philosophical and intellectual ramblings, the moral fable could not have existed, and the point concerning flattery could not have been made. The true moral of the story is conveyed not by the plot, but by combination of the three genres that, commenting on one another, reflect on the status of the human condition. The foul, the human being, and the epic hero, are all subject to the romantic and philosophical in this story. To be animal, human, more than human, is still to be subject to base desires.

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[1] A moral fable, according to Ben Edwin Perry in his essay Studium Generale : relates a fictitious event in the past for the obvious purpose of illustrating an ethical truth (19).

[2] Aristotle defines the epic as: the tragedy of a conspicuous man, who is involved in adventures events and meets a tragic fall on account of some error of judgment, i.e., Hamartia, which throws him from prosperity into adversity; his death is not essential.

[3] The first lines of the Odyssey begin with a call to the muses

[4] The Iliad

[5] It could be that Chanticleer is a personification of the Nun’s Priest himself. Is he himself fancy himself a chivalrous romantic, prone to flattery? Is he ignoring the advice of his own fable, by using epic and romantic conventions?

Poem #109 January 21, 2017 Woman’s March

Punching great grandmas’ womb

Still tied to Liberty’s by a navel cord

Sold us all

From the door of her guard

A sedated look

Snowed in in the midst of winter

Courageous of angels

With a very scurvy word

Poem #108 Invented love in her better days

Invented love in her better days

Somewhere between nine and five

Luck let me laughs and I gave it as a gift

Worked us to time

Task 75 Ode to a playground

 A place from your past or childhood, one that you’re fond of, is destroyed. Write it a memorial.

Taken from  https://dailypost.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/365-days-of-writing-prompts-1387477491.pdf

Task 74 The Hero’s Journey

Write  A hero’s Journey that includes all of the following components:

1. The Ordinary World:  Introduction to the hero. Life is normal, but something happens that signifies things are about to change. (The Ordinary World can be physical, but also a state of mind.)

2. The Call to Adventure: Something shakes up the Ordinary World, either external or something from within the hero. Your hero is forced to face the beginnings of change. Otherwise known as the inciting incident.

3. Refusal of the Call: The hero feels fear of the unknown. Another character may express uncertainty. The antagonist might enter here to keep the protagonist from entering the fray.

4. Meeting with the Mentor:  The protagonist finds someone who gives him training or advice that will help him face the unknown. (Another character can take on the mentor role briefly during the story.) Or internally, the hero reaches within to find a source of courage and wisdom.

5. Crossing the Threshold:  The hero commits to the story and the challenge.

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies:  The hero encounters challenges and tests, is fully committed and has no choice but to move forward and keep fighting.

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave:  The hero is on the edge of danger and prepares for the major challenge. (Keep up the conflict!)

8. Ordeal:  The hero confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear. Out of the moment of death comes a new life. (Death: Physical, psychological, or professional.)

9.  Reward (Seizing the Sword):  The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death. But it’s not over yet. Things might look brighter but they will get worse.

10.  The Road Back:  The hero is driven to complete the adventure and loses what is most important. Death does happen here…psychological, physical, or professional.

11.  Resurrection:  The hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home. Protagonist is changed forever and commits to a new plan. The meaning of the journey is clear.

12. Return with the Elixir:  The hero returns home, transformed. Satisfying, surprising-but-inevitable ending.

Taken from: http://howtowriteshop.loridevoti.com/2012/01/creative-writing-prompts-inspired-by-the-heros-journey/

The Rape of Leda: An Analysis of Supernatural, Victimization, Nationhood and Potential Vindication in Yeat’s Leda and the Swan

Yeats sonnet, “Leda and the Swan” is an aesthetic experience of the bizarre phenomenon of a girl’s rape by a massive swan. The sonnet evokes a sensory experience, one which brings to life the coming of a new age. However, through the bold and vivid images of abuse, the narrator brings attention to the victims of violence and draws attention to their helplessness. With phrases such as “staggering girl,” “helpless breast,” and “terrified vague fingers,” the reader is forced to empathize with the victim due to detailed description and alterations in personality—“Did she put on his knowledge with his power”--that this abuse unfortunately evokes.

In the poem the elements of the public and private and uncomfortably intertwine, in that the coming of age of the girl--the end of innocence coupled with her burgeoning womanhood, becoming a mother and simultaneously a victim—is portrayed on a grander scale. Yeats draws attention to how the narrative lens privileges Zeus as the statutory offender. Yet, it is only through the title “Leda and the Swan” that we are provided with a direct link to Greek mythology and literature, the only other indication being the reference to Agamemnon. The reference to Zeus symbolizes the supernatural, fate, beastliness, masculinity and the uncontrollable, and raises serious moral and philosophical issues, both in the relationship with gods, relationships with human beings, and relation with fate and the natural.

The caesura at the center of the first verse, “A sudden blow; the great wings beating still” (ll.1), highlights the unexpectedness of the Swans appearance, which heralds the supernatural or inexplicable. The large bird is already identified as larger than average, with its “great wings” and its ability to so easily dominate this girl: “Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed.” The reader is as shocked as Leda and experiences the same disorientation due to the lack of context around the sudden violence.

In Lines 3-4 we finally discover the identity of the molester: “By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,/He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.” The reader is encouraged to identify “him” and “he” as Zeus.[1] In the first stanza, diction such as great wings/staggering girl, thighs/webs, nape/bill creates parallels between the girl and the swan, a parallelism which stands in stark contrast to the rhythm of the first stanza. The diction finally converges in the last line of the stanza with the use of a word ascribed both to dominant bird and the subjugated girl: “He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.”

The beginning of the poem creates a sense of urgency with words like sudden blow, beating, staggering, shudder, mastered, burning, as well a portrait the girl’s weakness (caressed, helpless, terrified, vague, loosening). The alliteration in the poem strengthens the significance of the events, such as ‘great wings beating still Above the staggering girl’ as well as assisting to create the poem’s melody. This part of the poem’s rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD highlights the words ‘still’, ‘caressed’, ‘bill’, ‘breast’ and ‘push’, ‘thighs’, ‘rush’, ‘lies’.

The second stanza is more philosophical, one which brings forward two questions and draws attention to the strangeness of the events. These questions not only reflect on the disembodiment experienced by the rape victim, but the direct address to the reader draws attention to their inexplicability and Leda’s inability to fully reconcile the violation of body with the supernatural perpetrator. When in lines 5-6 the narrator asks “How can those terrified vague fingers push/ The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?” the implied answer is she could not. The use of the terms “vague” and “loosening” in association with Leda’s body leads one to ask whether or not the “terror” conveyed by the narrator translated physically into a committed resistance. In short, her body is helpless in comparison to the strength of Zeus.

            In Lines 7-8 this body is no longer Leda’s body: “And how can body, laid in that white rush,/ But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?” The lack of the possessive pronoun forces us to become the body—it is, quite literally, any body. In fact, Yeats never establishes a distance between reader and Leda; like her, we can only see "white rush.” The heartbeat she hears is both that of an animal and a god, and therefore decidedly inhuman and “strange.” We are placed so close to the swan that we can hear the heartbeat, and faintly make out the white rush of the feathers. Yeats evokes her helplessness in the “vagueness” and strangeness of the material details which might orient us in space and time.

The tone changes at sestet, where the poem’s subject shifts from Leda and the swan to Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and the Trojan War. The shift or turn is the completion of the sexual act: "A shudder in the loins” echoes a shudder in the poetic lines.  The "broken wall" and "burning roof and tower" refer to the famous burning of Troy. Leda here, while not the direct cause of the Trojan War, “engenders” that conflict through her victimization. This stanza links together the prior scene with Leda and the swan to Leda and Zeus’s daughter, Helen and Leda and Tyndareus’ daughter, Clytemnestra, who supposedly bring the death of Agamemnon and the fall of Troy: “The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead.” Lines 10 and 11 are very dramatic, and seem to emphasize blame while not explicitly giving that blame an object. Could it be the narrator is evoking the sense that the victim is to blame? In this sense, “being caught up” reads essentially as a blaming of the victim. Zeus himself remains untouched by the narrator’s scrutiny; the use of the term “brute” in the next line seems to compliment the strength of the swan, rather than an accusation. If Leda is “mastered,” then it could fall on her as being too easily taken or “caught up”. Despite that “caught” echoes line 3, in which Leda was “caught up” in the Swan’s bill, it is easily read metaphorically as caught up in lust, or the emotions of the moment.   

The verb tense shifts to the past in lines 11-12: “Being so Caught up,/ So mastered by the brute blood of the air”. The narrator seems to ask if the girl, “mastered by the brute blood”, changed and herself became a ‘brute’—this act of uncompromising, self-seeking, “indifferent” violence against her inspiring violence to rival this force. The poem concludes with a rhetorical question that remains unanswered: “Did she put on his knowledge with his power/ Before the indifferent beak could let her drop” (ll.13-14) The reader much like the ‘staggering girl’ is dropped from the emotional apex of the poem. The sudden divergence from the iambic pentameter-- that is present throughout and creates and shapes the textual authority of the poem-- emphasizes and allows for this sudden drop. It is also suggests a divergence from the former order created through the iambic pentameter, and thus symbolizes the first act nation building, one which is the destruction of the former order to allow for the building of a new one. This may indicate transference of power prior to the “drop” in that is raises the question of whether or not Leda acquired some of Zeus’s powers. That the question remains unanswered asks us whetehr the brevity of the event allowed for this transference.

Zeus’ indifference to Leda and to the reader—outside of the brutality of rape—raises a variety of questions as to the relationship between the ‘gods’ or the ‘supernatural’ with humanity and civilization. The narrator-as-observer of the rape adopts an ambivalent tone in the last six lines, a rhetorical and historical distance that echoes Zeus’ indifference. In the last line the indifference on part of the brute is seemingly harsher then the rape itself. After the brute receives his release—achieved his goal— he leaves. How is one to reconcile this helplessness of Leda, and her placement at the forefront of a mythical war, with the indifference of her supernatural rapist?

The poem allows for a multitude of approaches. One can read the girl as a victim of sexual abuse who, through this one scene, is either transformed from victim to agent, or becomes simply a vessel for Zeus’ power. Another reading casts Leda as a representation of civilization itself, subject to the whims of the supernatural and powerless despite futile attempts in resistance. However through the act of birth, this power of the supernatural power is claimed and commodified, capable of being harvested for the utilitarian purpose of the new generation. The third approach is to view the violation of the girl as a necessity, and thus questions our individual relationship with the events that we are unable to explain, let alone justify.  In the events of one’s own life, let alone the lives of others, one is forced to take on the role of the helpless bystander, a witness who nonetheless and paradoxically becomes progenitor of an unforeseen outcome.

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[1] Yeats expects that his readers have a familiarity with the myth of Leda and the swan and therein know that "he" means Zeus. 

Task 73 “We are who our ancestors dreamt of”

Respond to “We are who our ancestors dreamt of”

Task 72 "The Revolution is Coming"

Respond to “The revolution is coming”

Task 71 Days of the Week

Describe the days of the week as if they were people. 

Task 70 Words to a Favorite Song

Write out the words to a favorite song. It can be a pop song, silly song, camp song, or even a nursery rhyme. Next, rewrite the words to create a new rhyming song! If you need help thinking of words that rhyme, use the Rhyme Zone tool. Here’s an example:

DO YOUR EARS HANG LOW? (original)

Do your ears hang low?

Do they wobble to and fro?

Can you tie them in a knot?

Can you tie them in a bow?

Can you throw them over your shoulder

Like a continental soldier?

Do your ears hang low?

NAUGHTY DOGS (rewritten)

Do your dogs have fleas?

Do they hide your Dad’s car keys?

Do they chew your brother’s socks?

Will they steal your sister’s cheese?

Do they bury all their bones

And lick your ice cream cones?

Do they love to tease?

Taken from: http://writeshop.com/poetry-writing-prompts-for-kids/

Task 69 Weird Facts

Write a poem about a weird fact or several odd facts that you know.

Poem #107 Novice news

Caught the wind up,

Visage cooking the world

Ounce at a time

Waking and awaking

To a pouring rain. 

Poem #106 weren’t they saying

“come all you fair and tender lovers”

Weren’t they saying madame butterfly

That I am a Minnie? Let us say this stint

Wandering weather and sable wining

Nail down talks of a complain

Stay where you’re dummy

Poem #105 New Year

January morn

Band your hands going in,

Bind your heads coming out

Tubtail of a Monday 

Task 68 Radio

Turn on the radio to any channel. Write a poem inspired by the first thing you hear (lyrics to a

song, a commercial, etc.)

Poem #104 Smoke!

Smoked!

What a top-heavy hat you’re in

Dancing corridor through the mountain Motts

Fresh off the fray of

a hush lillabilla lullabay

O moan, (silence)

Fire!

This is the sowing

This is the heist

This is the Au! Au! Aue!

This is the A lala

Lightening!

Its glass so gay

Fizz like a tubtale

Drowning kisses

Sledge nosed, to the day it’s a pass

Drowning kisses

Ashes!

Poem #103 Jan 20, 2017

Atom unsplitable

Hiroshima, Nagasaki

A life once lived

Shattering. 

Task 67 Sounds Around You

Close your eyes and listen to the sounds around you. If the sounds are peaceful, write a poem with

a violent word as the title. If the sounds are loud, write a poem with a kind word as the title. 

Task 66 Hidden Love

Write a poem that has the word “love” hidden in it somewhere. You cannot use the word “love” by

itself, it must be hidden (such as in the word “glove” or in two words like “halo venom”).

Task 65 Ten Metaphors

Write a poem made of ten metaphors. 

Task 64 Ten Images

Make a list of ten images of things you have seen in the last 24 hours. Use all of them in a poem.

Task 63 Nicest Thing

Think of the nicest thing someone ever said to you. Write a poem about a rainy day and something

flooding. End the poem with the good thing someone said.

Poem #102 Love

Love: Parallel lines that meet

Task 62 The Last Thing You Remember

Write a poem that begins with the last thing you can remember someone saying to you today or

yesterday. See if you can use that line two or three times.

Task 61 Another Seven Words

Grab the closest book. Go to page 29. Write down 10 words that catch your eye. Use 7 of words

in a poem. For a bonus , have 4 of them appear at the end of a line.

Task 60 Seven Words

Grab the closest book. Go to page 29. Write down 10 words that catch your eye. Use 7 of words

in a poem. For a bonus , have 4 of them appear at the end of a line.

Task 59 Nothing is True

Write a poem about yourself in which nothing is true.

Task 58 Letter to Future Self

Write a poem in the form of a message or letter to your future self.

Task 57 Poem Perspective

Write a poem from the perspective of a character in a fairy tale.

Task 56: Dream

Write a poem based on a dream you had. Try to reproduce the sensations of the dream.

Task 55 Your Shadow

Write a poem about your shadow. (Some ideas for brainstorming: How does it change when you move? What does it look like in different kinds of light, in different situations? What would happen if you lost it? Does it have a secret life?)

Task 54 In a Fog

Write about not being able to see ahead of you physically or metaphorically. 

Poem #101 Viva Voce

They’d been playing for a funny

Screwed up his red eyes

In the house

There’s people I don’t like

Studying through

The telephone telling morning over

Something out hung up Young man

With all your stories

Be polite introduce people

Fell down dead

Don’t ask a lot of questions

I’d know the truth about exactly what happened

A curious case down the gravel path

Give you a lead until you get the statement

So horrified by the sight: Man with the red nose

Laid them on top of the ready pile of jammed powder

I’ve tasted the luck been my very worst friend,

Beginning to the end a touch hangin’ round by his coffin

A minute before morning

Drunk out beer bitter hanging

Laid on the shelf

Tell him for hours

In fountains of air,

Eyes flood, salty sea.

Task 53 Set of Three

Choose a set of three elements and write a story that contains all three of them! 

1.    A stolen ring, fear of spiders, and a sinister stranger.

2.    A taxi, an old enemy, and Valentine's Day.

3.    Identical twins, a party invitation, and a locked closet.

4.    A broken wristwatch, peppermints, and a hug that goes too far.

5.    Aerobics, a secret diary, and something unpleasant under the bed.

6.    An ex-boyfriend, a pair of binoculars, and a good-luck charm.

7.    An annoying boss, a bikini, and a fake illness.

8.    The first day of school, a love note, and a recipe with a significant mistake.

9.    A horoscope, makeup, and a missing tooth.

10.  A campfire, a scream, and a small lie that gets bigger and bigger.

Extreme challenge: combine three of the elements with one of the other short story ideas on this page.