What a Mood - Madalyn Dillard

 I have to be honest when saying that I have no brain power while reading the poems and writing about them. Anyways, I would like to try and write about the fact that even though these poems were written a while ago, they still have some relatable factors to them. In today’s terms, we would say that they are a “mood”. 

The first instance that I see my generation relating to is when Auden writes in his poem Muse’e des Beaux Arts, “For the miraculous of birth, there always must be children who did not specially want it to happen…” Even though it is a dark thought, it is still very popular. 

Another instance where I can see people relating, especially in the month of love that is coming up, is in the poem As I Walked out One Evening. In this poem, we are introduced to a person who is in love. Not only do I love how the poem flows in the verse of the lover, I can also see how personable the lover is. In this day and age, people do not emphasize poetic love like in old poems and books, but I can still see that same type of love in modern people. The lover states that they would love their lover until “China and Africa meet”. This can be seen in good and bad relationships nowadays. 

The last one I would like to mention is from Aubade written by Larkin. While reading this, it reminded me of a midlife, or quarter life crisis. The thoughts of death, what little time we have, and what little we have done so far is very familiar to people who ponder much on the distant future. To other people the future is not so distant. 


Comments:

Comments

  1. Joshua NaqviJanuary 31, 2022 at 1:31 PM

    I agree that the various poems assigned are in many ways relatable. They are oriented towards the darker side of life. That is not to say that the darker side is all that exists. While some aspects of life are inevitably heavy, there are many aspects that are positive. I think the historical context of when these poems were written definitely swings the darker direction. Especially Auden, who wrote his poems in the late 1930s and 1950s, not long after WWII. The time they were written was scarred from wars and past terrors that seeped into many aspects of life, including literature.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Emma Kate PattersonJanuary 31, 2022 at 3:49 PM

    I agree that the poems although written a while back are still relatable in modern times. I particularly liked how Auden's "As I Walked out One Evening" emphasized love and the power of love. This is still true in society today and it is also relatable when it talks about time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Haylee LyndJanuary 31, 2022 at 10:13 PM

    I agree that Auden's poems can relate to today. It is part of the reason they are so good. I thought "Muse’e des Beaux Arts" related to today because he discusses how human life goes on and people keep doing what they would normally do even as violence and suffering goes on around them. This is a point I feel I could argue is even more applicable today than it was when the poem was written. I mean, shootings are almost normalized now.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousFebruary 1, 2022 at 9:41 AM

    I was finally able to comment on Emory and Lilly's posts.

    -Madalyn Dillard

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A House Divided//Emily Otts

The words Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 remind me so much of this play: "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." (Matthew 12:25) King Lear, at the end of the day, is about a family being divided multiple ways. These divisions arise over greed and hatred for one another and cause the whole family to be ruined because of it. King Lear first divides the kingdom after his daughter Cordelia does not proclaim her love to him, so he banishes her. Later, his daughters go against him for not doing as they asked, believing he is unfit and unworthy to be king, secretly plotting against him. But all of this comes to a head in Act 5. After capturing King Lear and Cordelia, Edmund plans to have them killed. You would believe the sisters would be able to work together because their plan is working, but an even greater division has risen between them. Both of them wish to have Edmund for themselves, and they plot against each o...
Read more

The Plague in Everyone// Emily Otts

     In part 4 of the Plague , Tarrou tells Rieux about how he has had the plague forever. Except, this is not the same plague as the one ravaging the town. Tarrou speaks of how his father was a lawyer who believed in the death penalty, how he saw so many people support it and be comfortable about it, and how he had to witness the executions of prisoners. He explains how this sort of mindset is a plague itself, one Tarrou had been fighting for a long time. " That's why everybody in the world looks so tired; everyone is more or less sick of plague. But that is also why some of us, those who want to get the plague out of their systems, feel such desperate weariness, a weariness from which nothing remains to set us free except death" (Camus, part 4, chapter 6). Tarrou wants to desperately not submit to such awful ways of thinking.      Tarrou does not realize it, but the plague he is talking about is sin. Everyone has it, some people give in to it and let...
Read more

The Thirst for Knowledge

     With Book Seven of Milton's Paradise Lost, Raphael is continuing his exposition on Satan's apostasy. The plan is to expose Adam and Eve to the wretched fate of those who cross God's will. The more he shed's light on the subject, however, the more Adam is inclined to ask for more information. He wants to know everything about the subject, as well as God and His creation.      However, while the taste of such knowledge leaves Adam yearning for more, there are boundaries. It is like a toddler eating a cookie... and eventually begging her mother for the rest of the jar. Is it a coincidence that the one thing Adam and Eve are not to touch is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? Most readers know how the story ends: these toddlers are never going to be content with a few cookies. They're going in for the jar.   There is a statement in the Bible that is constantly being repeated throughout the Old Testament: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ...
Read more