The "naked and trembling" seems to relate back to the idea of vulnerability and "nakedness". The people in this line are crying and trembling in wither fear or heartbreak over "the machinery of other skeletons". The idea of machinery is something that comes up a lot in the piece and seems to relate to social structures or violent institutions. It's interesting that in this line the subjects of the poem are afraid of or distressed by how "machinery" is deeply ingrained in people.

Although the images throughout "Howl" seem scattered and chaotic, the idea of nakedness is one that repeats itself. The nakedness of the people in the poem–– the "best minds" of the speaker's generation–– shows how they are vulnerable and exposed. At the same time, it also relates to sexual freedom, presenting an interesting duality of freedom and vulnerability.

The image of fire in this line seems to relate to chaos, destruction, and a rebelling spirit. The people in the poem 'burn their money in wastebaskets' as a clear act of retaliation against the society that is created around money. And yet, they are still "cowering" and almost naked as they do so. Rebelling against a powerful institution requires a level of vulnerability.

Earlier in the poem it's explained that "some jokers" laugh as they wait for Ma Rainey to perform, while others wait for her "wid deir aches an’ miseries". Ma Rainey sings about the "lonesome road" and pain that the black community faces, addressing both those who are laughing and aching. It seems that just expressing this pain through her singing helps to lift the community. The contrast between joy and pain is brought together by her performance.

The boisterous crowd waiting for Ma Rainey is compared to "roarin' water" and "wind in river swamps". The comparison to nature here says something about the community that Ma Rainey fosters. They act as a single united force–– such as roaring water or wind–– and find power and joy in that unity.

I thought it was interesting that the end of the poem mirrors the beginning. It feels like the chorus of a song being repeated again. The short lines, rhyme scheme and rhythm all make the piece feel lyrical in a way, almost like a nursery rhyme.

Essentially, this part on the poem is only about the sheer number of people who come from different places just to hear Ma Rainey. This is a set up that emphasizes the unifying force of Ma Rainey's charisma, and yet, Ma Rainey herself is not really talked about. It seems that Ma Rainey's art and influence in the community is more important than her as a person.

The imagery in this brief poem is so potent and rich. The verbs Hues uses–– dry, fester, run, stink, crust, sag, and explode–– add to the richness of it. And yet, much of the imagery is grotesque or about decay. The question at the start of the poem is what happens to dreams when they are deferred or postponed, possibly referring to the unrealized dreams of black Americans, or the American dream that was promised to them and never granted. The speaker wonders if the dream simply "dries up", or becomes lifeless, if it "festers like a sore" or, in other words, becomes a source of bitterness. At the end of the poem the speaker wonders if the dream explodes. This is a powerful way to end the piece; it suggests that the broken dreams of black Americans can becomes a catalyst for something bigger, like a movement.

Langston Hue's choice to incorporate rhyme and repetition in this poem makes the piece read like song lyrics. The repetition "he did a lazy sway" stood out to me in particular. It makes the poem feel musical and deeply emotional, like a blues song.

The blues is shown as an expression of the pain and grief experienced by black Americans. As the man in the poem is playing the blues to channel his pain, the speaker of the poem is doing the same by writing about it.

I wonder what it means to "sing" America and not just "be American". It almost feels like singing America has a more powerful connotation–– the poem's speaker argues that they aren't just American, they are an integral part of the American narrative or collective. To "sing America" also sounds like the speaker is creating America, or singing it into existence. This emphasizes how black Americans are an integral part of the creation of this country, no matter how much US culture may try to ignore it.

Who gets to write the stories taught in school and dictate what is "art"? This seems to be what determines what is seen as "best" and "refined". Hughes applies this to not only art but also history and religion, arguing that even spirituality can be "whitened".

I think this is still an issue today. Even at the basic grammar level, students are told that the various Englishes and accents they speak at home are "trashy" and common, that Standard English is "better". What is actually meant by this is that "white" English is "better".

It's interesting how Hughes points out the dilemma that black artists are caught in. On one hand internalized racism might stop a black artist from writing about their culture. On the other hand, if an artist does talk write about the black experience, they face criticism from both white and black people based on the different expectations of each. He brings up how white people want to be "entertained" by black artists, while still remaining within the stereotypes and perceptions they're comfortable with. I wonder if this is something that is still present today to some extent.

Ultimately, Hughes seems to believe that black artists should explore all the nuances of the culture, good and bad, regardless of what expectations the world has of them. In this way, the artist would not be "afraid of being himself". This does put a lot of pressure on the artist to try to be genuine even when this invites criticism.

Throughout the essay, Hughes argues that black artists should be unashamed of their culture and embrace how it comes through in their art, rather than try to make it more "white". I thought this was a really interesting point since I've seen this happen for myself in my own creative writing. When I was younger I would try to write "universal" stories and poems so a wider audience could enjoy them–– later, I realized what I was writing was not a "universal" piece, but rather a "white" piece, something that was actively erasing my ethnicity.

This connects to what Hughes is saying: because art stems from a deeply personal space, your culture and identity need to be a part of it if you want to make something that is genuine. More importantly, non-white cultures are valuable and worthy of being used in art.

The "heap of broken images" throughout "The Waste Land" is similar to the structure of the poem "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg, which is a long, winding piece that throws torrents of imagery at the reader. Some of the images are more connected than others, but they are all grouped into one big heap.

This is a recording of Allen Ginsburg reading "Howl":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-P2fILsLH8

I think the way he reads it reinforces the idea that the poem is a stream-of-consciousness rapid fire of imagery. The imagery in "Howl" is not as fragmented as something like "Sacred Emily", since there is some kind of form keeping them together, but even then it's clear that the piece is meant to feel chaotic and fragmented.

A few examples of the imagery:

"smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz"

"who lit cigarettes in boxcars boxcars boxcars racketing through snow toward lonesome farms in grandfather night"

"who disappeared into the volcanoes of Mexico leaving behind nothing but the shadow of dungarees and the lava and ash of poetry scattered in fireplace Chicago"

While Howl and Eliot's poems are both a "heap of broken images", Eliot's images seem to be broken in a way that reflects despair. The title of the poem is, after all "The Waste Land", a desolate place full of stumbling zombies and an inevitable sense of doom where the speaker is "neither living not dead". In comparison, Ginsburg's poem is titled "Howl", something that could be a cry of despair but also seems more angry and passionate than "The Waste Land". The people described in "Howl" might be close to madness, but they are not passive. In a way, they seem to be trying to fight the 'zombification' by searching for anything that could make them feel alive, seen in how they "bit detectives in the neck a shrieked with delight in policecars" and "howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manuscripts".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CAz_vvsK9M

The lines about fearing mortality and death staring you in the face like your own shadow reminded me of the song "At The Door" by The Strokes, which is about the inevitability of death.

Some lines from the song:

"I can't escape it/ I'm never gonna make it out of this in time/ I guess that's just fine/ I'm not there quite yet/ My thoughts, such a mess"

These lines relate back to the beginning of the poem, where the speaker found comfort in the "forgetful snow, feeding/ A little life with dried tubers". The snow kept the speaker in a warm, sleepy state where they could forget about their anxiety over mortality. In contrast, the spring and summer "surprise" them by reminding them that life and death keep moving. Similarly, the lyrics to "At The Door" show a narrator who is afraid to face/accept death and is overwhelmed by its inevitability. Just as the speaker in "The Wasteland" is "surprised" by the summer, the narrator in "At The Door" says mortality "Struck [them] like a chord".

The narrator in the song also says:

"Sinkin' like a stone/ Use me like an oar/ And get yourself to shore"

Which is similar to the part in the poem where a corpse is planted and someone asks the speaker if it's begun to sprout yet. In both cases, a dead human body is being used in a utilitarian way, either to add compost to a garden or to help someone row themselves to shore, showing an interesting tension between nature and humans. Death is a part of nature, but we still feel disturbed and scared of it. Using a corpse as an oar is a morbid thought for us, and yet, a dog or animal wouldn't hesitate to "dig [a corpse] up again" as the poem says.

This sled in this line reminded me of the ending of The Giver by Lois Lowry. The protagonist, Jonas, escapes a dystopian society where no one is allowed to feel emotions or make choices. He escapes by riding a sled down a steep snowy mountain into the unknown, where it's uncertain if he survives or not. The wasteland seems to be a dystopian place much like the one in Lowry's book. The fear and uncertainty the speaker of the poem feels going down the sled with their cousin is similar to the uncertainty of the book's ending. It is unclear if the wasteland can be escaped by means other than death.

This is the ending scene from the movie adaptation of the book where Jonas rides the sled to freedom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1PghMqkTo1M

I thought it was interesting that the movie shows how the people of the dystopian society are recovering their emotions and memories of the past as Jonas leaves them behind. The memories all come back in a “heap of broken images” much like what the poem describes. The flecks of joy and pain are things that the people in The Giver had tried to escape from but ultimately needed in order to stay human. The speaker in the wasteland says that man is unable to know what grows from the “stony rubbish”, or what comes next after death or after humanity’s ruin. The only thing mankind knows is the “heap of broken images” that make up existence. This kind of chaotic flash of images seems to be, by the definition of both the poem and The Giver, something inherent about the human experience.

The movie scene shows Jonas arriving at a house, while the book leaves his fate uncertain. The uncertain escape is something that comes up in the wasteland when the speaker asks that question— ‘what comes out of the rubble?’ The scene with the card reading also reflects some uncertainty, since the clairvoyant is someone who tries to give a sense of control by predicting the future, and yet, it’s unclear if her words can be trusted. The person the speaker talks to at the end of this section also asks if the corpse will sprout or not, questioning whether life will continue to move after death.

Tiresias, who is between living and dead, is another zombie in the poem. The woman he describes acts in a zombie-like way too, letting things happen to her passively without seeming to care about anything or anyone. The "half-formed" thought in her brain and the way she moves on from one activity to the next without feeling makes her seem lifeless.

The people on the bridge seem like zombies too, with the way they sigh and look at their feet as if living in a haze. The phrase "death had undone so many" and, later, the "dead sound" of the clock seem to amplify this.

These lines sound like a description of a zombie to me, something that is neither dead nor alive, incapable of expressing itself or somehow relating to the outside world beyond its base instincts (hence, the person can't speak, see, or think).

Although dogs are called "man's best friend" during life, once the person dies that same "friend" wouldn't hesitate to dig up their corpse. I think this highlights how the "domesticated" aspects of life and nature take over once we die, inverting the power structure.

This line made me think about roots and branches creeping through stone ruins, similar to the picture here. The idea that something is slowly coming to light or crawling out from underneath is prevalent throughout the piece.

Lilacs are vibrant and beautiful flowers, usually associated with spring time. It's interesting that lilacs are paired with "dead land" here and used to emphasize cruelty.

This is the only place where the titular name "Emily" is mentioned. Enveloping Emily in all these other phrases, sounds, and images almost feels like when you have a painting of a big landscape and the main subject is a small person in the distance. In a way this makes Emily an "isolate flake".

The emphasis on sounds is also felt here. When you read the poem out loud you can see the great importance that Stein gives to how words roll off the tongue.

This line really brings in the image of the tide pushing and pulling for me. In a way this is a rhythm that the rest of the poem echoes, with the repetition of sounds and words feeling like the push and pull of the ocean.

To me, these lines feel like they sum up the whole piece. By strewing/scattering about images and phrases, the poet brings out the way that a multitude of voices forms a single consciousness. For example, multiple people form a community or society, etc.

The natural environment is placed right next to the people and communities that live in that area, like both are natural occurrences that sprang up out of nowhere. This relates back to the start of the poem, which lists all of these as "pure products".

"throw up a girl" sounds like such a violent and forceful action, like the girl is being vomited up or tossed out. It also makes it feel like the girl is coming from nowhere and being actively created by her environment rather than existing as a human being.

This line seems to suggest a yearning for nature in the middle of all the "filth" and problems in human society. The imagination "straining" feels like the imagination is yearning for an escape to a less contaminated world. The sudden nature imagery also amplifies this since the rest of the poem is not really as connected to nature.

Aging is inevitable, both in a physical sense and in the sense that you lose innocence. As you age you grow more "coarse" and experienced, just as the rose puts on "armor"/ thorns. At the end of the poem, the speaker argues that this loss of innocence helps you cope with the "brutal age" towards the end of your life.

I wonder if this line is talking about how humans refuse to give in to mortality the way that everything else in nature does, becoming "dust among the dusts that blow". The "lever and spade" could refer to industrialization/advancement, which in a way is a result of the human desire to never die.

Love isn't something essential to living, nor is having love enough to fix your life or keep you stable (emotionally or physically). However, people are still so dependent on it/drawn to it that they would "make friends with death" just because they aren't loved.

This ties into alienation–– it's interesting how the wall keeps trying to break down and the speaker and his neighbor have to make a conscious effort to keep repairing it, similar to how people have to consciously keep up the social divides between each other based on race, class, etc.

I wonder if this line is meant to suggest that the speaker can't expect to find anyone nearby who could rescue them (assuming that the ominous last stanza is about them dying) This does kind of tie into haunting, since the speaker has to die in solitude while still lamenting the "promises to keep".

This poem feels pretty haunted as well. The speaker is still tormented by the decision they took all those "ages and ages" ago. The title of the poem itself places emphasis on the path the speaker didn't choose rather than the one they did, showing how burdened the speaker feels thinking about what could have been.

The image of Mr. Flood talking to himself, sharing a drink with himself, and treating that like having someone's company is incredibly sad and shows how lonely being left behind by change is. The title of the poem, which calls this conversation with himself a "party", emphasizes this despair.

This poem almost seems to be the opposite of "The Dead Village". The speaker here returns to a place and finds that, although time has passed, the men there are still the same people as before, and "just as human as they ever were". The speaker calls out "poets and kings" for worrying over the future and change, when both are natural parts of life.

The poem is full of words having to do with death (dead, dull, death, passed away, ghosts, desolate) which is a dramatic way to emphasize how empty this place is. There is nothing that indicates that the people themselves died tragically, only that the village is no longer inhabited. The grief expressed in this poem is purely over the "change" that came "too soon", like the speaker is grieving a culture that no longer exists.

Compared to the other poems, the speaker here seems much more at peace with death and life. The joy this person found in the mundane parts of living is palpable, which is interesting considering the other two (more unhappy) ghosts were focused on philosophical aspects of living.

The idea of change and the disappearance of something is prevalent here. The speaker of this poem is concerned with the narratives that are presented at the village. Although their tone is bitter and they seem to be mostly upset that their "memory and influence" has been lost, there is something to be said about how change can erase history.

Based on the title of the poem, the speaker appears to be the ghost of a poet. The poet seems to lament the fact that they didn't notice all the "patterns" in life–– the poetry in nature and in the lives of people. The use of "patterns" reminded me of Gilman's yellow wallpaper and how chaotic it was. There is a type of chaos in the "patterns" Masters writes about too ("courage, constancy, heroism, failure")

Because she is unable to go out and interact with society or even talk to her family about her feelings, she begins to treat the wallpaper as a metaphor for her inner world.

This is the second time the word "comfort" is applied to her; earlier, she lamented that she was unable to be a "real rest and comfort" for John. The use of the word "comfort" could be a reference to the idea that women should be a part of the domestic sphere and therefore a source of comfort to men. The idea that the narrator should be a motherly figure of comfort is in conflict with the way that John infantilizes her, calling her "little girl" and a "blessed little goose". The expectation to be both motherly and child-like at the same time could be a part of why the wallpaper reflects so much chaos.

The power dynamic is interesting–– it seems the men in her life have more authority over her treatment and body than she does. The tone she has here is casual, but it's clear she's unhappy about not having much of a saying in her health

He places knowledge and education as the path to achieving racial justice/equality. Comparing it to the promised land of Canaan in the Bible emphasizes how vital he thinks this is for black people in America, like the next step after freedom from slavery.

I wonder if the 'blue sky' he was living in when he was younger, a kind of personal happiness he had found, was more of an illusion? It seems like as he grew older he realized just how deep the racial disparity ran and how little opportunities were available to him.

He says that he lived 'above' the veil in a 'region of blue sky' which sounds like a form of avoidance. It seems he tried to find personal happiness with his achievements despite having to live in a racist world.

The symbol of the Virgin is both an expression of fashion/art and of the unknown/obscure? Adams seems to imply both views are correct or compliment one another.

what is the connection between collecting knowledge and ignorance? earlier in the text he mentions how education accumulates ignorance

What does it say about humanity that worshipping what we don't really understand is an 'inherited instinct'? Maybe Adams is so impressed by the dynamo just because he doesn't get how it works exactly

This could be a reference to the working class experience (something that comes up in other places in the poem with the mothers turning to stumps, etc). It could be the speaker is so overworked they need five arms.

The "full flower/ Of the hams" sound like something solid, fleshed and alive. The speaker transitions from this into "the thorax of caves" which combines the inside of a body (a thorax) with something expansive, dark and hollow (a cave). Something physical and solid evolves into something intangible and greater.

There are a lot of references to meat, bones, and body parts (both human and animal) giving the poem a guttural and violent tone. The 'need' to sharpen and stretch in this line makes the growth of 'they lion' seem like an inevitable change, just as growing is inevitable for a body.