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Harlem Literature

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Submitted By Cking35
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“Harlem”

* Of the six images, five are similes. Which is a metaphor? Comment on its position and its effectiveness.
“Or crust and sugar over-“ The metaphor helps create the shift in the poen and also gives a deeper meaning of what the poet is trying to say with greater impact.

* What specific denotation has the word “dream”? Since the poem does not reveal the contents of the dreams, the poem is general in its implication. What happens to your understanding of it on learning that its author was a black American?
The specific meaning of “dream” is to be in pursuit of something, or a goal on e wants to accomplish. The understanding of the poem reveal some struggles and hopelessness because as a black American in the early 1900s it was difficult to do anything or even aspire to dreams.

“The author to Her Book”

* Vocabulary: haiting, feet, meet, vulgars. Line 3-4 refer to the fact that Bradstreet’s book The Tenth Muse was published in 1650 without her permission. * Haiting : feet or impoerfect * Meet: to become aquainted with * Feet : standing position * Vulgars: ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste, crude

* The poem is an extended personification addressing her book as a child. What are similarities does the speaker find between a child and a book of poem? What does she plan to do now that her child has ben put on public display?
“ill-formed offspring” tells that something was wrong with the baby, but in different connotation saying her book was not finished and had errors. “my rambling brat” would be name for a child that say unmeaning things or talks to much and in this sense her book may have been the one that could’ve had incomplete phrases, or incomplete thoughts. “I stretched thy joints to make thy feet even” suggests that she tried to better the baby by fixing its position but she actually trying to fix her book and its contents. She now plans to take her name off the book or have little to do with it.

* Trace the developing attitudes of the speaker toward the child/book. Why does she instruct the child to deny it has a father (22)?
She seems to be embarrassed or ashamed by what she might have created in the book. So the little connection they have, the better her situation.

“A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning”

* Vocabualry: valediction, mourning, profanation, laity, trepidation, innocent, sublunary, elemented. Line 11 is refernce to the spheres of the Ptolemaic cosmology, whose movements caused no such disturbance as does the movement of the earth-that is an earthquake. * Valediction: an act of bidding farewell * Mourning: grief, or sadness * Profanation: not devoted to religious or hold purposes * Laity: the body of religious worshipers * Trepidation: tremulous fear or agitation * Innocent: incapable of causing any harm, or not at fault * Sublunary: pertaining to the world, beneath the moon on the earth * Elemented: a group of people singled out for different behaviors

* Is the speaker in the poem about to die? Or about to leave on a journey? (the answer ma be found in a careful analysis of the simile in the last 2 stanzas and by noticing that the idea of dying in stanza 1 is introduced in a simile.)
I believe the speaker is ready to leave and is leaving everything behind as if her were dead.

* The poem is organized around a contrast of two kinds of lovers: the laity and, as implied opposite, the priesthood. Are these terms literal or metaphorical? What is the essential difference between their two kinds of love? How, according to the speaker, does their behavior differ when they must separate from each other? What is the motivation of the speaker in this “valediction”?
The terms are both metaphorical for conditional and unconditional love. One is a forgiving, everlasting love while the other comes and goes. The speakers going away will be a test to the true love that is talked about. Even though they would be far apoart, they will know where they stand in terms of love. The speaker can not stay any longer for the love is “forbidden” by what people or standards uphold.

* Find and explain three similes and one metaphor used to describe the parting of true lovers. The figure in the last 3 stanzas is the one of the most famous in English literature. Demonstrate its appropriateness by obtaining a drawing compass or by using two pencils to imitate the two legs. “Like gold to airy thinness beat” their parting is worthy anad pure and will be soon be nothing “assitff twin compasses are two” they can never be separated or taken apart in a sense of spirit “ Dull sublunary lover’s love” other people have an earthly, love but the speakers love is greater than earth and its existence.

“To his Coy Mistress”

* Vocabulary: coy,humber,trainspires. “Mistress” has the now archaic meaning of sweetheart; “slow-chapped” derives from chap, meaning jaw. * Coy: shy or reserved * Humber: a river in England * Transpires: sweats

* What is the speaker urging his sweetheart to do? Why is she being coy?
The speaker is urging the sweetheart to be with him and stop being so shy because it seems as if he they are older.

* Outline the speaker’s argument in three sentences that begin with the words “if”, “but”, “therefore”. Is the argument valid?
If she would give him a chance, he would make her his forever, but time is running out for both of the, therefore they should make time last and be together.

* Explain the appropriatenesss of “vegetable love”. What simile in the third section contrasts with the distance between the Gangtes and the Humbler? O what would the speaker be “complaining” by the humbler?
His love is tender and just right. The vegetable describes his love. “Sits on my skin like morning dew” contrasts the distance. He would complain that he can’t have her.

* Explain the figures in lines 22, 24, 40 and their implications.
The figures suggest that time is running out but that wouldn’t change the time he had with her, nothing would be rushed or wasted.

* Explain the last two lines. For what is “sun” a metonumy?
Even though they can’t determine when they will see the “light”, or the sun, they will make love last and wiat for it to come back. Enjoy what they have right now.

* Is this poem principally about love or about time? If the latter, what might making love represent? What philosophy is the poet advancing here?
The poet is talking about the time and he’s philosophy speaking to carpe diem, sieze the day. Love could represent anything that one wants to accomplish or do, take advantage of life and live it to the fullest.

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