Shan’s Blog

This poem by Davis Matlock reminded me a lot of the Cooper one about the tub. Cooper says that people are essentially trapped in their own tub, and they need to look above the rim and see the world. Matlock, like Cooper, is telling all the people to “live it out like a god.” He compares people to bees, who spend all their life in the hive, working. And he states that they never truly live unless they are out in the sun, stretching their wings. He declares the truth to be that “the nature of man is greater than nature’s need in the hive.” This means that man’s need to be out in the world and be free is greater than the need of the work that needs to be done in society.

This can also be connected to the poem by the Unknown, who caged the bird. He took away the hawk’s freedom, and Matlock is saying that, by being confined to responsibilities and work, man is not truly free. The hawk, in the Unknown poem, died in captivity, and Matlock is warning people of dying in that same way.

I really liked the poem by The Unknown, because it was about redemption, which a lot of people can relate to. This person (presumably a man, since they were hunting), shot a hawk and wounded him. He put him in a cage, maybe to be kept as a prize. But in doing so, he took away the bird’s freedom. I can see the relationship between this and Jody’s need to control Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God. By having her tie back her hair, symbolizing the forced restrain of her independence, Jody is limiting her freedom and, in a sense, putting her in a cage.

Luckily, Janie was able to escape, but the hawk in the poem dies as a captive. The Unknown then says that he searches for the soul of the dead hawk, in hopes of making amends. This shows that the wrongdoings in life can still haunt you even after death. Consequently, you are also able to redeem yourself, and it’s never too late to apologize.

I really liked the poem by Thomas Ross, Jr., when he describes the event of the mother swallow and the snake. When the snake tries to harm her nest, the swallow kills him, and only an hour after, she is killed. Ross connected this to his own life, saying that after he overcame one of his own obstacles, he was killed by his brother’s ambition.

This reminds me of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie overcomes her struggles with her two marriages. Then when she thinks she is finally safe with Tea Cake, everything goes wrong. During the storm, which could be represented by the shrike, disaster and death occurs, and Janie loses her love.

We discussed the poem by Aner Clute a little bit in class today, and I really liked it. First of all, when she talks about the boy and the stealing of the apple, she says that everyone labels him a thief. Therefore, he becomes a thief because that’s what everyone is calling him. Suppose that he took the apple because his family was poor and he was starving. Instead of calling him a poor boy that should get help, everyone looks at the negative and says he’s a thief instead. Because of this, he can’t get a job, and can’t earn money, and so has to steal more to survive, and it becomes an endless cycle.

In Aner Clute’s case, I think she’s talking about herself, and how she was promised to be married to Lucius Atherton. Because everyone kept saying it, it became true. Instead of being with Homer Clapp, she married Lucius instead because that’s what the people expected of her.

In a way, this whole love triangle reminds me of Gatsby. Aner (Daisy) meets Homer (Gatsby) and falls in love with him. However, she marries Lucious (Tom) instead, who is young and fearless and has a love of adventure. Homer’s heart gets broken and, like Gatsby, he puts everything at stake in hopes of becoming the kind of man that she would want, someone rich and powerful. But in the end, he loses everything.

One thing I noticed while reading these poems is that a lot of the characters have had good lives, and then have tragically lost it. For example, the poem by Doctor Meyers starts out telling of his life when he was respected and wealthy. He had a wife and children and lived a good life. But it was all ruined when Minerva came to see him, and after she died in his care, the newspapers denounced him and he died unappreciated and unvalued.

This reminds me a lot of Their Eyes Were Watching God, because Janie had a good and full life, but after one tiny incident, it all fell apart. This relates to the theme of going from having everything to having nothing once you’ve reached your personal peak.

Also, the poem by Hare Drummer reminded me of this, because he told us about his days when he was younger, and he and all his friends would go and play together. They seemed like the golden days. But then he asks where his friends are now, and gives the reader the feeling that he, too, has died alone.