Blog 1

The popular sonnet "My Mistress' Eyes are nothing like the Sun" by Shakespeare had a few somewhat controversial interpretations. When he is comparing his mistress to objects, he often says she is less than instead of equal to it. Most people felt as though Shakespeare was saying his mistress was not good enough, and nothing compared to the other women that are equal to the most beautiful things in nature. When describing her he says "I have seen roses damasked, both red and white,/ But no such roses I see in her cheeks;" However, others much like myself viewed this sonnet as Shakespeare explaining that even though his mistress is not a perfect, stereotypical "dream girl" he still loves her for everything she is. It seems as though he loves her more because she is not like all the other women men in his time fantasized about. 

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is dark, but what is more haunting is the story is based off Gilman's life. Of course there was no magic wallpaper and women "creeping" around her yard, but there was mental abuse by her husband in both real life and the book. Gilman was married to a man that condemned her to her bedroom, convincing her she was mentally ill, leading her to later on experience hallucinations. During her episodes, Gilman wrote her short-story "The Yellow Wallpaper." Throughout the story she described a figure of a woman "trapped" behind the vines in the yellow wallpaper in her room that only tried to escape at night.  I then put together that John, her husband, was metaphorically the vines in the yellow wallpaper, trapping the woman in one place and the narrator saw herself as the woman trapped behind the vines, also known as John. At the end of the story the narrator tore down the wallpaper and freed the wom...

W.H Auden, who lived from 1907-1973 was a unique poet. He was known for his anti-romantic poetry and was very blunt in his work. After reading the poem "Stop all the Clocks, Cut off the Telephone" I was very interested in his work and looked more into him. Something I admired about him very much was the fact that he was openly gay and often wrote about it in his poetry, making him even more unique than others. It was very rare in the time he lived for a man to be publicly gay, and to fearlessly express his sexuality in his work brought him much respect. In his poem "The More Loving One" he explains his pain he feels through the lack of love he receives from others. It is unclear whether Auden is speaking about a significant other or about those who dislike him because of his sexuality. The line "That, for all they care, I can go to hell." Led me to believe Auden was addressing the homophobic side of his argument, and explaining how he will get used to the ...