Virginia Woolf: THE Lady in the Looking Glass

Virginia Woolf is a challenging modern poet for me to understand. After reading her bio and extra information from Wikipedia, I could understand why her style of writing was the way it was. She had many psychological issues, including depression as well as she suffered from mental breakdowns for much of her life.
In the Looking Glass, she writes about the life of a Lady through what of her belongings one can see through a mirror hanging over her mantle. The mirror is something that Woolf enjoyed using in her work; having it illuminate the idea that writing is supposed to mirror reality, but Woolf was very skeptical in that even the best writers cannot utilize language and words to explain something as well as when someone actually experiences something. She was a firm believer that words and language have limits and they simply are no substitute for the subjective experience of something.
She begins with the following comment, “People should not leave looking- glasses hanging in their rooms any more than they should leave open cheque books or letters confessing some hideous crime” (p. 1224). This certainly hints to the fact that Woolf believes that firstly, when looking through a mirror we get a pretty good glimpse of reality and secondly, looking at a person and their belongings through a mirror can give you a good idea of their personal identity. She then describes everything that can be seen in the room through the mirror’s reflection including a sofa, a path outside the window, curtains blowing, and a rug. She describes the images seen through the mirror as, “held there in their reality unescapably… things had ceased to breathe and lay still in the trance of immortality” (p. 1225), which is very true; they are stuck there forever as if in a picture book as opposed to real life.
Woolf begins to describe the young lady who lives in this house. “But one was tired of the things that she talked about at dinner. It was her profounder state of being that one wanted to catch and turn to words, the state that is to the mind that breathing is to the body, what one calls happiness or unhappiness” (p. 1227). This sentence gives a lot of interesting ideas for the reader to interpret. First, she discusses certain things at the dinner table probably because those are things expected of a young lady. She was not taught to discuss how she was feeling. Woolf may be hinting to some issues she has with gender roles of the time. Secondly, interestingly, Woolf uses the word “profound” to describe the state of being happy. This word seems to be reserved by most people for well versed public speakers and intriguing novels not for a woman’s state of being. Thirdly, Woolf desires to have the woman’s state of being interpreted into words; but, turning a subjective feeling into words for others to comprehend seems like a very difficult task. Lastly, she makes the claim that happiness is to the mind that breathing is to the body, which I’m not sure is scientifically valid, but considering Woolf’s constant state of depression, she is certainly aware of what it is like to live in a state of unhappiness.

James Joyce's Dubliner's Clay

James Joyce’s talent in narration and novel work is evident in “Dubliner’s Clay” as he portrays the life of Maria, a special member of Dublin by Lamplight laundry, which is a refuge for the prostitutes of the city (footnote 5, 1134).  In modernistic style, Joyce portrays the nontraditional lifestyles of the city in which women lives independently of men with prose uncensored from vulgarity.

The women of this age is clearly portrayed as hard working and independent as “women began to come in by twos and threes, wiping their steaming hands in their petticoats and pulling down their sleeves of their blouses over their red steaming arms.”  The independent working women are just one of the drastic differences addressed by modern authors of the twentieth century.  Here, Joyce gives a good example of this theme.

Joyce continues to show Maria as a woman who is past her primes and lack of beauty.  She lives a life full of interaction, only to hide the loneliness within her soul.  Her situation is sad, as we can see that her desires still exists when the author constantly teases her with events and jokes relating to marriage.  For example, Maria’s misery is evident as she is frustrated with the “young men [that] don’t seem to notice her” (1135).  As a result she thinks she “would have to stand in the Drumcondra tram” while waiting to go to Mass.  Her situation becomes worse as she learns that the nice “elderly gentlemen” who befriends her in lieu of the “young men” has only done so as to trick her of her “plume cakes.”  With “shame and vexation and disappointment,… she nearly cried outright” (1136).

Her lack of a companion, in part, may be due to her looks as well as her age.  The author uses fine imagery to illustrate her strangeness as we can imagine her ridiculous features of “small” statue with a “very long nose and a very long chin” that the “tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin” every time she laughs.  Her appearance is further stressed as this very line is repeated many more times in the story.  She appears to not fit into any member of society.  Although not a prostitute, she works in Dublin’s Lamplight Laundry.  She goes to mass even though she is made fun of by the “next-door” girls.  And the only person who genuinely treats her nice, is the married Joe.  One of her laundry friends even  jokes (as she done so every year before) about her getting the “ring” during her game of Hallow Eves at Mass.

Maria’s final song “I Dreamt that I Dwelt,” represents a resolution to her true feelings as she sings “But I also dreamt, which pleased me most, That you loved me still the same” (1137).  This line does not just represent Maria’s desire for companionship, but also of her desire for those around her to truly love her as she does them.  Only in her dreams does she fulfill this false happiness.  The story of Maria, in a unique way, is representative of the modernist poet, in that Joyce illustrates the imperfect love that secretly haunts Maria through daily experiences filled the vulgarities of life.  In “Dubliner’s Clay,” Joyce does a fine job at portraying the modernistic view of the independent woman and the experience of love’s miseries and imperfections.

William Yeats: The Second Coming

The title of this poem can be defined as the return of Christ on Judgement day according to the footnotes.  There is lots of imagery in this poem.  In the beginning, "things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."  Every thing is pretty much in chaos.  The view of the "shape with lion body and the head of a man, a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun," I believe is the view of heaven and hell on judgement day.  Also, the image of the lion is the image of a rough Jesus taking his followers home to him.  This was an interesting imagery of the second of coming of Jesus.

William Yeats: No Second Troy

Yeats poem “No Second Troy” is a poem of rejection and heartbreak He compares Maud to Helen of Troy. In his poem he writes, “Why should I blame her that she filled my days with misery” (line 1 and 2).   It’s as if he came to the realization that he was only miserable because he allowed her to make him feel that way. Basically Yeats is kicking himself for allowing Maud to make him feel miserable, he realizes that she could only make him feel that way because he allowed her to.

Going back to Helen of Troy, she was a political figurehead, a ruler. She was to be loved by all, yet she causes chaos and destroyed a country. Keats uses the comparison of Helen of Troy to show the great destructive power women have. At the end of the poem he writes, “With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind That is not natural in an age like this, Being high and solitary and most stern? Why, what could she have done, being what she is? Was there another Troy for her to burn?” Again the comparison is evident, but when he asks if there was another Troy for her to burn its context is a mystery. It could be a variety of things; he could be wondering if this was the only heart scorned by her love? He could also be wondering, if there are more countries that will be destroyed by women with too much beauty and power?

Thomas Hardy: Channel Firing

Hardy lived during the time of Word War I and the events of the war influenced many of his poems. His poem “Channel Firing” was written before World War I which shows that had a huge impact on the thoughts of Thomas Hardy.  Hardy wrote “All nations striving strong to make/ Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters, they do no more for Christes sake, Than you who are helpless in such matters” (third stanza).These verses of the poems show  the madness and helplessness of war. Later Hardy attempts to justify why war is necessary, but here he shows the hatefulness of war. “All nations striving strong to make/ Red war yet redder” (third stanza), this give me an image of complete chaos. I imagine a sea of people from all over the world, or in this case near the English Channel, just slaughtering one another. I know that “slaughter” is not a very appealing word, but it conveys the intended meaning of a “Red war yet redder.” Since this particular poem is refereeing to military exercises this verse is of particular interest. He doesn’t take sides, he mentions “All nations” (1line 14), and this is a way of sharing the blame. Saying that all are partaking, all are striving to cause the chaos that is war. His concise words and thoughts added to the poem immensely. 

Gerard Hopkins: I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day

After reading this poem, I felt there was a deep dark tone throughout the poem.  I am not sure what Hopkins referring to, but I'm guessing that he is lamenting or mourning about a death or a hard time he is going through.  Hopkins seems to be very bitter in this poem: "I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree Bitter would have me taste: m taste was me; Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse."  He seems to be blaming God for the situation and his loss.  At the end of the poem, :"I see The lost are like this, and their scourge to be as I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse."  He seems to try to accept the fact that he has lost the one he loved, but he will not forgive himself for the loss.

Gerard Hopkins: Spring and Fall

In the beginning of the poem he talks about a girl who is "grieving" over the leaves falling. This poem sounds like a grown up teaching an innocent child of how things may come and go. Generally when people grieve it's over something like a person who has died, but she is so innocent she is able to grieve over leaves, which she seems to believe is dying. He explains to the girl that "As the heart grows older, It will come to such sights colder," which i believe he is telling her that, as she grows up, she will experience much more things such as true death, and other cruel things which she doesn't quite understand just yet. As the leaves are falling, they symbolize death. Leaves are always falling, and people are always dying. Children begin to realize death more and more when they grow up, and this child will one day realize that leaves aren't as important than people dying, and she will eventually no longer "spare a sigh" for the leaves.