Assigned 9/16

Poetry.

Our group disected Ode on a Grecian Urn in class today. It's a very simple poem.

sike (kidding). The only thing quite simple about it is the iambic pentameter, but even that is not stable. This rhythm only lasts a few lines and then takes on a mind of its own. Actually, the poem takes on the mind of the author, changing with purpose. Here's an interesting video I found that pairs with Ode to a Grecian Urn:



What I found rather interesting in class today was discussed towards the beginning of the period, the similarites between Dover Beach and The World is Too Much With Us.

The narrators seem to be absent, distant from the view they present. Nature is fully content without the narrator, as clear in both poems. This is clear throughout the first stanza of Dover Beach: "the tide is full, the moon lies fair...the cliffs of England stand...[the waves] begin, and cease, and then again begin." Here, nature is fine by itself; life has its rhythm, not depending on the author. The same occurs in The World is Too Much With Us. Wordsworth starts, "Little we see in Nature that is ours...this Sea that bares her bosom to the moon, The winds that will be howling at all hours." The narrator is again viewing nature, yet can only conclude that nature is nature, independent of man. This realization pushes both narrators to realize their own mortality.

Here's another crazy video, this time for Dover Beach. The introduction is a little long; the good stuff starts at 1:49. The poem here is actually sung and accompanied by a stringed quartet.


I must agree with our inclass conclusion behind both pieces. Both narrators yearn to believe in something so hard and passionately, even to the extreme of pagan beliefs.

Out.