Not Marble, Nor the Gilded Monuments

Reflections on Shakespeare's Sonnets

William Shakespeare's poem "Not marble, nor the gilded monuments" brings the reader to the sense of what is not important and what is. This poem more or less has two message tht he tries to bring out. First, he mentiones that this poem is and will be stronger that any monuments that one does to keep a memory of a loved one. " Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme; But you shall shine more bright in these contents, Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time." (Lines 2-4). Also, another message that he mentiones is love. How love between two people even after everything perishes and vanishes or gets destroyed this love between these two lovers will always still be present. It will be stronger than anything.

This be the verse

How does Philip Lark negotiate levels of diction in This Be the Verse? How does it help the message?

The levels of diction that Philip Larkin uses is low. "They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do." It is informal, it basically uses language of ordinary people. The poem talks about how his parents were messed up, how they messed him up. That whatever faults they had they blamed on him and added more to make themselves feel better. He talks about their past lives and how they themselves were messed up. He advises others not to have kids of their own because of the faults that they will be blaming their kids. That's what I think the last verse more or less means.


This be the verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dadThey may not mean to, but they do.They fill you with the faults they hadAnd add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turnBy fools in old-style hats and coats,Who half the time were soppy-sternAnd half at one another's throats
Man hands on misery to man.It deepens like a coastal shelf.Get out as early as you can,And don't have any kids yourself.

Philip Larkin

The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall

What are some of your initial reactions to The Jilting of Granny Weatherall?

Granny Weatherall was definitely a tough charachter from what we read. " “Get along and doctor your sick,” said Granny Weatherall. “Leave a well woman alone. I’ll call for you when I want you…” she shouted, because Doctor “I pay my own bills, and I don’t throw my money away on nonsense!” She was used to telling people what to do and let no one help her. She had a daughter, Cornelia, who was always around to help her out. No matter how tough things got she stuck around. “I’m chilly, Cornelia.” Lying in bed stops the circulation. I must have told you a thousand times.” Granny always had something to do. She was an independent woman and had no one help her in any kind of way. After she got home from the doctor's office she decided to rest and clean up the attic the next day.

Granny knew that her time was about to come and she wanted to get rid of some old letters that she had up in her attic that she wanted no one to find even after her death. As Granny lies in bed, she ponders her imminent death. The idea of death feels unfamiliar, despite all the time she has spent preparing for it. Twenty years ago, when she was sixty years old, she had thought she was going to die. Next morning as Granny went through the letters she found letters from both George and John. Memories flew through her head and pain that she consumed once reminded her why she had become the way she did.

The jilting of Granny Weatherall has alot to do with the story and her past. Jilting means to be left behind, rejected. Granny Weatherall was at the alter ready to get married till the moment that George stood her up and never married her. Because of this past experince we know why she's that way she is with everyone. She is hard on forgivness and believes that she had no reason to forgive others to hurt her in some way. Not only that but John her husband had died at a young age as well. She didnt let anything get to her and bring her down, she just became stronger and learned form them.

In Everyday Use

In Everyday Use, the family quilt is an item of cultural value. Identify one item that represents your culture and explain why. Please respond to 2 of your peers.

An item that represents our culture in our family would be a China Cabinet that my grandmother has had since her kids were babies. She started out in Puerto Rico and when she moved down to Hialeah, Florida she ordered for it to get here safe. Inside that China Cabinet you will find many dinner ware. Throughout the years my grandmother has collected and taken care of all these sets that you don't find anywhere theses days. I guess that most of the things you can call them antiques. In there she has included her own wine glass set that she used for her weddings and the ones that her three daughters used when they got married. She has dinner plates, soup plates, tea sets, and even coffee sets. They have a significant meaning in our lives. And it's something that she has taken the time to care for and something that she is planning on passing down for generations to come.

The Narrator in The Tell-Tale Heart

How would you characterize the Narrator in Poe's short story? Give specific example to justify your claim.

The narrator of the Tell-Tale Heart is an unnamed person who tries to convince us the reader that he is completely sane. From the beginning of the short story written by Edgar Allan Poe we get a sense of feeling that the narrator isn’t well. “TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?”. The narrator of this story has committed a crime. He has murder and innocent old man just because of his eye. The narrator felt that the old man’s eye was always following him around. “The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once --once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.” The narrator's guilt gets the best of him and he starts to have hallucination that the old man's heart is still beating under the floorboards. Driving him into confessing his crime to the policeman who had passed by his house. Thereby getting caught.