Circles 1-5

Circle 1: Limbo
• Unbaptized and virtuous pagans
• All virtuous non-Christians
• Guiltiness damned are punished by living in a deficient form of heaven
• Disappointment and regret
• Homer, Euclid, Socrates, Julius Caesar

Circle 2: Lust
• Those overcome by lust and sensual love
• Thrown by terrible winds of a violent storm w/o hope and rest. First ones truly punished
• Dido, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Paris, Tristen
• Paolo and Francesca are murdered before they could repent carnal courtly love as sin

Circle 3: Gluttony
• Not only overindulgence in food and drink but also other kinds of addictions
• Gluttons lie here not being able to see their neighbors to represent selfish and empty sensuality of their lives
• Lay in vile freezing slush produced by ceaseless foul, icy rain
• Ciacco of Florence

Circle 4: Avarice and Prodigality
• Attitude toward material goods deviated from the appropriate mean
• Abused material goods
• Many clergymen, popes, and cardinals who hoarded possessions
• Joust using as weapons great weights which they push with their chests
• He finds the poets of antiquity who have been luminaries of his own intelligence.
• Latin Poets: Horace, Lucan
• Roll stones to crash against one another

Circle 5: Wrath and Sullenness
• Wrathful fight each other on the surface
• Sullen lie gurgling beneath the swamp-like water
• Filippo Argenti

Cantos 23-25

[Canto 23]
Aesop's fable story is about how a mouse asked a frog to help her get across the river. The frog tied the mouse's front leg to her own back leg using a piece of string and they swam out to the middle of the stream. The frog then turned traitor and plunged down into the water, dragging the mouse along with her. The mouse's dead body floated up to the surface and was drifting along when a kite flew by and noticed something he could snatch. When he grabbed the mouse he also carried off her friend the frog. Thus the treacherous frog who had betrayed the mouse's life was likewise killed and eaten. The noise reminded him of this and how the hypocrites can be referred to as the frog.

[Canto 24]
The way the serpent looks reminds Dante of the other monsters he encountered. The way the snake wraps it's tail around the sinner reminds Dante of the way Geryon's tail moved. The idea of tails is very important and in medieval times a beast's tail showed the ferocity and strength of the beast.

[Canto 25]
"To be sure my leader heard, I signaled him" This is showing how Dante is gaining confidence and independence. In the beginning he was begging Virgil to not leave him and stay by his side but now as he as almost gone through all the circles of hell he has finally gained confidence. Cianfa belonged to the Donati family in Florence. This is significant because Dante blames Corso Donati for the downfall in Florence and for sees him being dragged into hell by a beast.

Cantos 20-22

[Canto 20]
"God grant you benefit of this book" This Dante's warning to us to avoid hell. This can suggest that the point of this book is to scare us and resist the urge to sin. Dante also may be aware that he is going to hell and is now praising god.

[Canto 21]
"Pulled me across toward him from where I stood." Even Virgil knows that Dante is going to hell so he is keeping him away from the beings that are there right now so they don't take him in early.

[Canto 22]
"Guided by land or star! We journeyed now with the ten demons." This could be an allusion to the three wise men who where knew by the a star that baby Jesus was born. Dante is the guidance and signal star that the demons are waiting for so they can take him.

Cantos 17-19

[Canto 17]

The beast Geryon is the guardian of the eigth circle. Geryon is sometimes identified as a death-demon with the tail of a scorpian but the face of an honest man. In Greek mythology he is described differently as a monster with one head, three bodies, and two arms and legs. His apperance was also that of a warrior. It is ironic that he has the face of an honest man but is in hell, this can suggest that he could be similar to Dante or that he liked him. The idea of the three different faces could suggest three different sins that all belong to one person.

[Canto 18]

Venedico Caccianemico, a noble Bolognese Guelph, was said to have been a procurer of his sister Ghisolabella to gain the favor of Obizzo II of Este, this being the reason he belongs in the eigth circle of hell. The greek hero Jason is also in this circle. It seems to be the pattern that noblemen and heros are in placed in hell.

[Canto 19]

In this canto the people are very curious who Dante is and Virgil tells him to lie to them. He is also confused for Pope Boniface who was Dante's political enemy. It is probably important for him to hide his identity because many of the people in this circle are people he had conflicts with.

Canto 16

The three man wheel in this canto consists of Guido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci. All of which were Florentine citizens. Guido was a political figure, Tegghiaio was wealthy and known, and Jacopo was a well mannered knight of the court. Dante does not like the people from Florence hence why they are in hell. Also they men are accused to violence against god. This suggests that Dante also has a problem with them because they are of higher status which can mean that he is not. The wheel they create together could be compared to the wheel of life. The image of the wheel of life looks as if some sort of beast is hanging on to it and controlling it. This relates to how the men must keep moving and stay in a wheel to survive hell which is controlled by the devil.

Canto 13, 14, 15

[Canto 13]

• "No fruit but poisoned thorns" This can be compared to as the garden of Eden. In the garden the fruit that Adam and Eve partook of was poisoned and then turned the way they looked at life and the garden. The poisoned thorns can represent how they saw the fruit tree after they ate the apple.

[Canto 14]

• The rain of fire relates to the destruction of Sodom. God destroyed it with brimstone and fire. The name Sodom is related by some as sin. The idea of falling fire and coming all of the sudden and brought down by God is connected to the rain of fire in hell.

[Canto 15]

• Dante wants Beatrice to explain Brunetto Latinie's prophecy. He claims she is a women of good wit and knowledge. He probably wants her to tell him because he is claimed to be a man that had a lot of intercourse and maybe he assumed that she would know of him. She is also a Florentine women who Dante is very fond of.
  

Dante's Inferno cantos 3-12

[Canto 3]

• "the souls unsure" these are the souls that believed in God but did not fully follow him and were eventually sent to hell.
• "You will be brought to shore another way" this is setting Dante apart from the others and saying that he will get through it. He also thinks that he is one of the good souls that were brought to hell.

[Canto 4]

• "A heavy clap of thunder startled me up as by force" This can be symbolized as the presence of some great figure. For example to show the presence of God there was typically a great sound of thunder
• "The poet began dead pale now" This just reinforces the idea of how terrible and uncomfortable of a place it is. The idea of children, women, and men shows that even innocent people are there.

[Canto 5]

• In this canto they are where the people with lust are sent to. He lists off many names of people that died due to their love. This can signify how it proves the point why it was wrong for those certain people to die because they ended up in hell.
• "With raised wings steady against the current, glide guided by will to the sweetness of their nest." The idea of wings and flying could represent how the lovers are also like angels stuck in the wind of hell and can't get out. Through out there are many who are trying to escape hell and dont really belong there.

[Canto 6]

• "Threw goblets of earth down each voracious throat" It says how they struggled to devour it and ate it like they were gnawing meat. Virgil knew how to get past the beast and this shows how the people in hell pretty much make up all of the land and they live off of it.
• "When you return to earth's sweet light" This should be giving Dante confidence that he is going to make it out of hell because it doesn't say if or maybe it says when you return to earth. He is going to make it through all stages and hell and return back to earth.

[Canto 7]

• "Here I saw more souls than elsewhere spreading far to the left and right" This level of hell was for those who loved and depended on materialistic things. This can connect so much to the time that we live in and how wealth and everybody outdoing eachother is all that matters in people's lifes.
• Through out many this canto he refers to Virgil as his master. God is usually the master of people but in this division of hell they worship and think of materialistic things as there leader and master. Dante could specifically be calling Virgil master in this canto to prove that he does not belong in this division of hell.

[Canto 8]

• "who are you to come before your time" It is obvisous for the dead souls to recognize that Dante is there before he is dead. Not only does he have a body with weight unlike the others he probably shows a great deal of fear because he does not know what is to come.
• " It is fire blazing eternally inside of them that makes them appear within this inner hell." The idea that hell has caused them to turn red shows how hell changes a person from the inside out and they are not who they are not totally who they were before they got there.

[Canto 9]

• The three hellish Furies bring wrath and tourment. These can be compared to the description of Virgil, Statius, and Ovid is probably because in real life that is how Dante saw them.
• The erinyes are dresses and bright green hydras but are blood stained. These two contrasting ideas show how they seem to be sweet and try to hide who they really are like the tower in the begining.

[Canto 10]

• "dear guide believe me, I do not hide my heart from you" He is starting to feel a sense of abandonedment and does not want to be left alone in such a place. He is also putting his life in the hands of his guide.
• Farianta the leader of Florence gives Dante a scorful look as if it came straight out of hell. He died before Dante was even born so this shows how Dante probably didn't think very well of him when he didn't really meet him.

Literary Terms

Paradox: A statement that contradicts itself.
"A dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tale when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased and wag my tale when I'm angry."

"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."

"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery."
"Ignorance is strength."

Periodic: A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended sytax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word--usually with an emphatic climax. Contrast with loose sentence.

"Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills, when we sang and wallowed all night and day in caves that smelt like Sunday afternoons in damp front farmhouse parlors, and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears, before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse, when we rode the daft and happy hills bareback, it snowed and it snowed."

Confessionalism Poetry

Characteristics:

• emerged in 1950s and 1960s
• the poets use personal history for inspiration
• they choose to use their own lives for subject matter, often using personal trauma as fuel for literary or dramatic effect
• the theme of madness is used by many of the poets
• emphazises the intimate information about the poet's life
• explores personal details about the authors' life without meekness, modesty, or discretion
• poems about illness, sexuality, and despondence

Poets:

• John Berryman
• Allen Ginsberg
• Robert Lowell
• Sylvia Plath
• Theodore Roethke
• Anne Sexton
• William De Witt Snodgrass

"The Ball Poem" by John Berryman

What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,

What, what is he to do? I saw it go

Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then

Merrily over—there it is in the water!

No use to say 'O there are other balls':

An ultimate shaking grief fixes the boy

As he stands rigid, trembling, staring down

All his young days into the harbour where

His ball went. I would not intrude on him,

A dime, another ball, is worthless. Now

He senses first responsibility

In a world of possessions. People will take balls,

Balls will be lost always, little boy,

And no one buys a ball back. Money is external.

He is learning, well behind his desperate eyes,

The epistemology of loss, how to stand up

Knowing what every man must one day know

And most know many days, how to stand up

And gradually light returns to the street

A whistle blows, the ball is out of sight,

Soon part of me will explore the deep and dark

Floor of the harbour . . .I am everywhere,

I suffer and move, my mind and my heart move

With all that move me, under the water

Or whistling, I am not a little boy.

Modernist Movement Poetry

Modernist poetry puts emphasis on traditional formalism and diction. Most early modern poetry takes the form of short compact lyrics. It has two main features the first one being technical innovation through the extensive use of free verse and the second a move away from the romantic idea of an unproblematic poetic "self" directly addressing an equally unproblematic ideal reader or audience. The questioning of the self and the exploration of technical innovations in modernist poetry are intimately interconnected. Collage, found poetry, and visual poetry are used so the reader's mind can open up to questions regaurding the nature of the poetic experience and not be influenced by the author. Another important feature of much modernist poetry in English is a clear focus on the surface of the poem. Much of this focuses on the literal meaning of the words on the page rather than any metaphorical or symbolic meanings that might be imputed to them.

Authors:
Ezra Pound
T.S. Eliot
William Carlos Williams
Walt Whitman
Oscar Wilde
Robert Browning
Emily Dickinson
Gerald Manley Hopkins
A.E. Housman
E.E. Cummings
Robert Frost
Sylvia Plath

"Funeral Blues" or "Stop All the Clocks" by W.H. Auden

Her Kind

Sexton is comparing the witch to someone that does not fit in and is dfferent from everyone else. The women is explained in words that make her seem very powerful and strong. The witch is said to be possessed which is saying that she is looked at as being evil and different from everybody. Braver at night dreaming evil suggests that the girl feels more confindent at night. Night is typically a time of darkness and evil coming out. The second stanza is compared to mythical things. This can sybolize how the girl doesn't even feel real. The third stanza talks about a girl that seems to be determined and well known. "A women like that is not ashamed to die," this says how she feels important and as if she has done all that she could.

After Apple-Picking

In this poem I think Frost is talking about how time is passing by fast and how we should use every minute we have andd make the most of it. The idea of apple picking is setting the season to summer and when he is looking out the window it is winter time. The tree can symbolize the tree of life. The apples can symbolize all the opportunities life gives us. The empty barrel symbolizes how the reader did not make the most out of what he was given. The apples on the ground show that it was not hard to use and take in all opportunities that were pretty much handed to the reader. In the winter time he wishes there were more opportunities for him and is dreaming about the apples in the summertime. As the ladder begins to sway and apples are coming faster he is getting older and it is talking about how life throws so much at you at once. "Lift down, and not let fall" the reader is telling to pick off the fruit and don't let it fall which means to live life to the fullest and get everything you can out of it. "No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, went surely to the cider-apple heap," this is saying that no matter how big, small, or bad an opportunity you can still make the best out of it. Woodchucks sleep all through winter. The reader compares human sleep to woodchuck sleep. This could be saying how every winter he just keeps waiting for more and more apples and can't wait for the summer and wishes he could sleep through winter.

After the Attack

I think this poem is about a boy who is fighting death but lets go in the end. His perspective of death also changes when he looks at the painting unlike before when he had his backed turned to it. It tells how the boy is sick and still. "The bandage around his jaw reminds one of an embalming" which is a way to treat a corpse with preservatives to prevent decay. Also his spectacles are thick as a diver's which could symbolize being buried and going under the surface. These two statements show that he is on the verge of dieing and knows it.

But when he looks at the wheat field painting he feels the peacefulness of death. Wheat is a symbol of life and resurrection. When he sees the man in the field but can not see his face may be saying that he boy does not want to look death in the face. The picture begins to grow on the boy and have deeper meaning to him. He lets go and sees the light. The idea of the wheat head throwing off light as if to wake him up could symbolize resurrection because when the boy sees the light he has died but when they wake him back up he is resurrected. "He comes nearer" the man is coming closer to the boy meaning the boy is about to pass.

I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair

I think this poem is about a man who is deeply in love with a women not of his social status so they only can go out and see eachother at night, much like Romeo and Juliet's secret realtionship. But I think it is talking about the man searching for the women who did not show up one night. The man in this poem seems very attached to this women and by the time darkness comes around he can not wait to see her. "I prowl though the streets" suggests that in the night he is looking for her without being seen. The speaker talks about how the dawn disrupts him because then he can not be with the women. He can not stand to be with out her, but because of their statuses he has to wait to see her. So instead of actually being with her it sounds as if he just watches her through out the day. He notices every little thing about her and loves and strives for it. In the end the speaker talks again about searching for her in the night. He compares searching for her heart like a puma in the barrens of Quiltratue. This symbolizes a puma hunting for a deer in a dessert. The idea that the puma will not find the deer or survive in the desert symbolizes how the man can not find the women tonight and can't live with out her unless he moves on.

Beloved

24.) "I don't even have to explain." Sethe starts to acknowledge the fact that Beloved is her daughter and begins to like her there knowing that she does not have to explain herself on why she was killed.



25.) " Paul D. must know who she is or what she is." Stamp Paid is frightened when he sees Beloved and the fact that he thinks of her as something and not a person can suggest that she doesn't even look human and Sethe is too sucked into her she doesn't even recognize it.



26.) " Everything they touched was looked on as stealing." This just reenforces on how ruff it was for them in slavery and they were always being judged and watched.



27.) "The deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside.....It was the jungle the whitefolks planted in them." This is saying that the slaves are compared to as soil and the white people are planting seeds into them and controlling their life. The fact that their lives are compared to a jungle suggest that they have many wild attributes and characteristics.



28.) "When Sethe locked the door, the women inside were free at last to be what they liked, see whatever they saw and say whatever they liked." Once the three girls are in 124 they feel protected and free. The house can symbolize freedom and is as if it is not even attached to the earth and they are seperated from everyone else.



29.) "I won't never let her go." Once Sethe acknowledges Beloved is her daughter she comes too attached and feels she can not live without her. This quote is a foreshadow on how things become bad when she comes to attached.



30.) Sethe's perspective on killing her child changes and she starts to say how she really didn't want to and it was her only choice. This shows that she really is messed up and kind of has a second look on everything once Beloved comes back.



31.) When Beloved has the section where she is talking there is no puncuation. This shows her age of her being only two. It also talks about the connection between life and slavery and how you do not have a voice when you are in slavery.

32.) When Beloved, Sethe, and Denver voices come together it symbolizes them becoming a family.


33.) "He stayed alive to sing songs, that murdered life." Sixo was always singing songs. And he would never stop which is why he was killed.

34.) "Night gives them more time and protection of color." Throughout the book many good things and bad things happen in the dark. Being in the dark is usually scary forsomeone but it is a sense of protection for them.

35.) When it says that Sixo was singing and shouting seven-o seven-o this could be saying that the thirtytwo mile ladie is carrying his child and he is now numbering him meaning when he is born he is not going to be free.

36.) "My house is your house too." Once again Stamp Paid thinks of everybody as family and has a strong connection to them. I think because he helps them across the river and become free he probably thinks they are his responsibility and he has to help them survive and live a better life than what they had on the otherside of the river.

37.) "It was as though her mother had lost her mind." A reoccuring sighn that Sethe is not who she used to be and is now acting totally different around Beloved and giving her all the attention.

38.) "Denver began to drift from play.......Beloved was in danger." Denver realizes that her mother is becoming way to attatched to Beloved and might repeat history.

39.) "Beloved accused her of leaving her behind." This shows that Beloved does not understand why Sethe killed her and shows her age of two not being able to understand.

40.) "Ax the trunk the limb will die." At this point Beloved can be compared to the trunk and Sethe can be compared to the limb. Beloved is all Sethe is living for and takes care of her more than she takes care of herself.

41.) "Honor thy mother and father that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." This is an important piece to the book because it shows how Sethe thinks Beloved is just honoring her and how nothing but her is a really big deal.

42.) "Her mother serving a girl not much older than herself." Sethe is aging quick and Beloved is sucking the life out of her. This suggests that Beloved knows she will not last for ever and is trying to make this the most life like experiance before it is all gone again.

43.) "Change from one mind to another." Beloved and Sethe have pretty much changed minds and Beloved has brainwashed Sethe in a way making her serve her. Sethe's memories are also what making her be Beloved's slave. She is trying to get them out and she is now feeling a sense of guilt.

44.) Beloved takes action to go get help. Once she gets a job she becomes free because she is doing things for herself and healing the past.

45.) Not only did Denver leave 124 but Paul D. also left 124 to become free and heal the past. It is as if 124 enslaves people and makes it so they get to the point where it captures them and makes it so they do not realize how bad it is.

46.) "Everybody's child was in that face." This shows that Denver has a childish face. In this book it was better to be a child than a man. It might be the same for women and Denver having a child face symbolizes that she has an easier time to forget because she was so young. It also shows how she never aged when she was lonely in 124. The idea that she has not aged can mean that she has much more life and that she has room to start over a new life.

47.) "Nobody needs a visit." This fits into the theme of family. It is as if everybody knows when somebody needs help and they all have gone through the same thing in slavery so they share many memories.

48.) "124 was a way station." A way station is just a stopping point on a journey. Many members of the family leave 124 to endure on their journey of life and becoming a free individual. Sethe does not leave 124 and is eventually enslaved by Beloved. Denver starts her journey of becoming a free person when she leaves 124. 124 is still like a way station to many people.

49.) "Rain, Rain." Beloved is screaming this in her sleep. Water symbolizes rebirth but what Beloved is talking about is her death. This can show that Sethe is going to be reborn when Beloved leaves.

50.) "Ella didn't like the idea of past errors taking possesion of the present." This shows that Ella knows Beloved is her daughter and that she thinks people need to forget about the past. This suggests that she had a very rough time in slavery that is hard for her to forget.

Belove Part 1

1.) "The boy's chased off by the dead one." (pg. 6) This shows that the ghost is displayed as a reoccuring image that scares the boys off.

2.) "Fire and brirmstone all right, but hidden in lacy gloves." (pg. 7) This is saying how evil is hidden and people can hide there past to themselves and cover it up.

3.) "Annoyed that she had not needed Halle or him in doing." (pg. 9) Paul D. is annoyed at the fact the Sethe has been taking care of herself and Denver with out the help of a man. This shows that the women in this book are strong and the men feel they need to be needed.

4.) "It's not evil, just sad." (pg. 10) Sethe is telling Paul D. that the spirit in the house is nothing to be afraid of. This can foreshadow that when Beloved comes Paul D. should not think of her as a threat.

5.) The pulsing red light is a symbol of the babies spirit and their sadness. The red light can also be a danger signal or an instruction to stop or discontinue. This could be telling Sethe to move on.

6.) Shoes are a motif and can be seen as protection and security. When you do not have shoes it shows you are not very weathly and is one less piece of clothing you have to take off.

7.) Colors in this book are seen as comfort and fortunes. The orange squares on the blanket make Beloved happy. Grandma wants a certain color of tea. Amy wants purple silk.

8.) "No body comes around." (pg. 17) Denver is saying how they have no company. Sethe has shut both her and her daughter out from the rest of society because of her grief and pain of memory.

9.) Sethe's back looks like a chokecherry tree because she has been whipped so much. A chokecherry tree is a common wild cherry tree with small bitter black berries that are favored by birds. The tree can be compared to how she is providing for everyone else, they can be compared to the birds.

10.) Paul D. calls a tree brother and that shows how the people of Sweet Home are connected to the land and it is a big part of their lives.

11.) "But he to was nothing but a man." (pg. 27) The men in this book are known to leave and are known as nothing but if he is a boy is somebody because he doesn't leave.

12.) Denver's birth was brutle for her mother and herself. She was born in a canoe and a kind white women helped deliver her. The way Denver's life started could foreshadow that she is going to have a hard end.

13.) "Sure you can, Lu. Come on!" (pg. 41) Amy is seen as a very encouraging and positive person. If it weren't for Amy, both Denver and Sethe might not be alive.

14.) Snakes are a symbol of poison and death. Snakes are always referred to as killing people. Sixo tells the girl he loves to use the excuse the excuse that she got bit by a snake and that's why she's late.

15.) "Anything dead coming back to life hurt's." (pg. 42) This is foreshadowing that when Beloved comes it's going to hurt other's. Paul D. because of her presence and Sethe and Denver because she leaves.

16.) Denver says nothing ever dies and she can be referring to memories. Her mother's bad memories will never go away. Denver will always have Beloved in her heart.

17.) "None could appriciate the safety of ghost company." Everybody knew of the ghost in the house but thought it was there for the wrong reason. The boys knew but it scared them. Grandma baby knew but it sadned her. Nobody loved it and saw that it was there for the wrong reason.

18.) The idea of abandonment and death is a reoccuring theme and is seen in the wrong way. Sethe thought the Halle abandoned her and the children but really he abandoned them because he couldn't live with what he saw.

19.) When they first run into Beloved, Sethe recognizes she has nice shoes and hands and she analyzes the situation. This shows that Sethe is smart and has a very good thought process.

20.) Paul D. assumes that Beloved has cholera because of her symptoms which shows he is educated.

21.) " It there had been an open latch between them, it would have closed." This is talking about the relationship between Paul D. and Denver. They never really had a connection or understood each other. They also have different feelings towards Beloved which tares them even further apart.

22.) Shadows is a motif in the book. The image of a person as a shadow isn't very clear and it doesn't tell you much about them. A shadow is also just the outline of a person. When they are seen in shadows they seem to be getting along.

23.) Once Denver meets Beloved she realizes how it feels to have her mother. Having Beloved ask her mother all the questions help her realize her mother's past. Denver feels more comfortable with having another girl her age and not so alone.