I'm curious at which word these asterisks are supposed to be in place of. I know from reading up on Ginsberg that his mother had schizophrenia and was lobotomized, and he had a lot of guilt about it. Maybe that? Or "dead?"

I imagine that lines like this were what led to Ginsberg being accused of obscenity - referring to homosexual sex, particularly in a positive light.

Here, Ginsberg conjures up the horrors of corporate life and the advertising machine. This seems to be a major viewpoint of the "beat" generation, and I read that before this poem was written, Ginsberg was encouraged by his therapist to quit his market-research job to fully pursue his passion for writing.

This seems to be another POV within the New Negro Movement. Still looking ahead. Still having hope in America. But acknowledging its ugliness.

the alliteration of "bathe" "brown" "blades" and "bending" add beautiful language to the beautiful image he is vowing to go back to one day.

McKay seems to be suggesting that America should feel dishonor and disgrace for putting these girls in this position.

Bennett chooses to use a more informal, bluesy dialect here.

This harkens back to the search for truth and honesty that Hughes talks about in “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain"

Bennett makes a clear distinction here between the quiet patience that she is calling for, and giving up entirely. There is an urgency in this poem even though it does not call for the "explosion" that Hughes suggests in "Harlem"

I think Hughes is laying out a lot of options for how to deal with the American Dream that has been deferred. He is asking the reader - do you give up? Do you let it destroy you? Or do you use the pain as fuel for an explosion of creativity and progress?

Beginning this stanza with the word "Tomorrow" evokes the hope and forward-thinking that was the basis of the New Negro Movement

Here, Hughes seems to be laying out the point of this poem - to show that he has a deep history in his blood - much of it including suffering, which has made him who he is. Someone with a deep soul.

This seems to be a central idea of the New Negro Movement - that there can be vibrant, new, and rich artistic expression that adds to the greater cultural consciousness. Not only that, this ingredient is necessary to further facilitate the social and political progress that is yet to come.

The mentioning of shortcomings is interesting, as Hughes also includes this idea - that for the modern black person, artist or otherwise, they must embrace all of themselves - both good and bad - in order to live authentically and get away from the grasp of what white America has told them they must be.

Locke seems to focus a lot of this essay on the idea that, for decades, many black people have been performing an "imitation" of what American society thinks a black person is and is not. As he says earlier, "the Old Negro had long become more of a myth than a man." So the visuals of shedding the "old chrysalis" of this image - this preconceived notion - is helpful. For him, it's the first step in breaking out, discovering oneself, and achieving this "spiritual emancipation."

For Hughes, this is the ideal mindset of a black artist. He's saying, "be happy if what you do pleases white people. Be happy if what you do pleases black people. But if it please neither, it doesn't matter, as long as you are expressing your blackness in all its beauty and ugliness." For him, this is the future of art, he hopes.

This push and pull that a black artist of the time (and possibly even today) must deal with is interesting. There is pressure coming from both white and black audiences to not be authentic. The temptation to a) please the people in your community and b) make money from the people not in your community must be strong.

This classification, along with the one before it ("the home of a self-styled 'high-class' Negro"), seems to highlight a crossroads in black culture that Hughes is grappling with. For him, upward mobility has caused some black folks to lose sight of who they are and where they came from. This is, in turn, detrimental to black art.

In this section, the motif of zombies (neither this nor that) can be seen in the line “And bats with baby faces in the violet light.” Aside from having an aura of creepy undeadness, the bats with baby faces are not quite human, not quite unhuman. They lie somewhere in between baby and bat. The un/natural time motif can be seen in the line “Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours.” But unlike in my previously annotated section, this marker of time is unnatural. Bells are manmade signifiers of the passage of time, unlike the seasons or sunsets/sunrises. The “voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells” is clearly an example of the voice motif, but unlike my previously annotated section, these voices are, perhaps, humans, using actual human speech. Either way, there is general sense of exile in this section – the woman seems to be in a cave-type setting, cast out from the rest of the world and stuck with creepy bats against a “blackened wall.” The voices singing out of empty spaces also make me think they are calling out for something – help, maybe – so this last line uses the motif of desire frustrated.

One could see the motif of voices in the first two lines of this section: “But at my back from time to time I hear / The sound of horns and motors” The speaker hears the sounds of horns and motors, which are, in their own way, a voice (speaking in the language of “motors”). These sounds tell the speaker something – they make the speaker imagine a motor bringing Sweeny to Mrs. Porter. The reference to Sweeny going to Mrs. Porter could perhaps be an example of two other motifs: women/men and desire. It seems like Sweeny is a man who desires to be with Mrs. Porter, a woman, and can only do so in the spring. They are otherwise apart, which would be an example of a frustrating, unfulfilled desire. The motif of un/natural time can certainly be seen in the reference to Spring. These two character’s lives – particularly their lives together - are governed by the “natural” time increments of seasons. Eliot also uses the motif of dry/wet in the line “They wash their feet in soda water.” Finally, I looked up “Et O ces voix d’enfants, chantant dans la coupole!” and it is a line from the poem “Parsifal” by Paul Verlaine, which Eliot “plagiarizes” and “remixes” into this poem.

I love the sound of these two lines together - probably because they rhyme. But this poem seems to be free verse, so I'm confused by the sudden rhyming.

The scene seems to change dramatically here. This poem was about nature in the beginning, and now we are talking about a clairvoyante

I'm confused as to why he choses to switch to German here, and curious as to what it means.

Here, the speaker seems to be judging Freddie (as does his peers) for being too "frigid," etc. This focus on the importance of personality over morals is very modern,

Here, the modern theme of a "veil" can be seen in Freddie's ability to imitate the persona he needs to imitate to blend in. They can't see the real him (or can they?) but he can see them.

The imagery in this stanza really stands out. It gives me a foreboding sense of death and decay. The road seems uncertain - perhaps mimicking the uncertainly of what this contagious disease is bringing to the future.

One could say this is the first line of the poem - this is how a note like this would start. No wasted words here.

I love the use of enjambment here - the first line ending in "bathed" (like, clean), and then the meaning being flipped with the next line "in filth."

Here, Pound seems to be acknowledging that poetry isn't always the right medium, particularly if what you're trying to say has already been said well in prose form.

To be honest it kinda seems like he's treating it like dogma

I do like this idea that there is so much embedded in one single image, and therefore simply expressing an image can relay that "intellectual and emotional complex" to the reader.

A vivid image. Although I'm struggling to find its meaning

This makes me think of how we find and lose and find and lose love over and over again throughout life.

"an old woman who is thin and ugly."

I remember learning once that the "lovely, dark and deep" woods could be a reference to the enticing thought of just giving up and dying. Here, the speaker stops to consider this almost peaceful idea, but choses to keep on trudging through life.

A sad sigh? Or just a wistful sigh?

I've heard this phrase used before.

It's interesting that Frost choses to include this detail. Perhaps he's highlighting the silliness of this wall. Why keep it between us as we go? Why not cross that boundary here and there, at least while mending the wall. Maybe he's also referring to an emotional wall that they maintain between them.

This is interesting because it seems as though Mr. Flood is technically alone throughout this entire poem. Perhaps this is an indication that he once again felt his aloneness. At times he is able to keep himself company by literally talking to himself, and here he is maybe truly lonely.

I like how Robinson speaks directly to the reader here, in an almost antagonistic tone. "You think you're so special? So noble? We are all just clerks in different forms. And these clerks may be even more noble and good."

I'm struck by this passage - the casual way in which the narrator mentions a chance moment that led to seventy years of life together, and all that those years brought. Life is wild.

Such a compelling way to begin a poem (or anything really) - writing in the voice of someone who is dead, and knows that they are dead.

I couldn't fully visualize what she meant by "creeping" until this line, and it is a haunting image. She is essentially crawling around on the floor? Yikes.

ew

I love how Gilman adds some immediacy to the story by having the narrator writing in real time - she is worried about John seeing her, so she has to stop writing and pick it up two weeks later.

This line makes me as a reader think this house might have a sordid and mysterious past - something that could lead to hauntings. This seems to get the reader on the narrator's side a bit.

Here, Gilman shows the narrator's sheer helplessness. She is stuck without a voice.

A striking phrase, highlighting the dismissal of African American struggles as self-imposed.

This line resonates as true even today. The specter of slavery still haunts this nation.

Throughout this piece, Adams seems to be grappling with the change of modern times, and seeks to bridge the gap between the old and the new; the bowing to religion and the bowing to science. His use of"force" as an example is effective, and here he seems to relate his job as a historian to that of a scientist.- both trying to figure out where something came from and where it went to.

I enjoy this sentiment.

It's interesting that Adams chose to write about himself in the third person. Perhaps it was to remove himself from the story, giving him freedom to play with the "truth" a bit.

Is this repeated line supposed to sound like "they lie and grow?"

I keep coming back to this phrase. I like the assonance of "candor" and "tar" - it sounds pleasing out-loud even though the speaker seems to be describing hardship.