IMPORTANT UPDATE for those working on “Mourning Picture”

It just came to my attention that the version of the poem “Mourning Picture” on the site we have been using is incomplete.  Since it’s so late in the semester, I will not fault you if you only use the first two stanzas as you write about the painting and poem in your essays.  However, the final stanza might be very helpful for you, so I want to offer you the chance to read the whole poem–look for it here.  If you want to talk to me about this correction and what it means for your essay, please get in touch with me either by talking to be before or after class or by e-mailing me, or by talking to me in my office during an appointment or my office hours.

I hope this new information helps!

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Explication

In your explication of the poem written about the painting you have already examined, you want to think about what the poem says, as well as how it says it.  You will certainly think about the painting in this essay, since the poem refers to it, but the painting is not your main focus here–the poem is.  Think about how it looks on the page, how it sounds read aloud, and how it reflects on the painting.  Look for repetition, rhythm, rhyme, other uses of sound, metaphoric language, poetic forms that would not work in prose, syntax and punctuation, stanza and line breaks, mood or tone, in addition to thinking about the content of the poem.

There are many resources that can help you write your explication.  The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University has some helpful information about writing about poetry.

Here is a checklist for drafting an explication, borrowed from Literature for Composition, edited by Barnet, Burto, and Cain:

Overall Considerations

• Does the poem imply a story of some sort, for instance the speaker’s account of a love affair, or of a response to nature?  If so, what is its beginning, middle, and end?
• If you detect a story in the speaker’s mind, a change of mood–for instance a shift from bitterness that a love affair has ended to hope for its renewal–is this change communicated in part by the connotations of certain words?  By syntax?  By metrical shifts [changes in the meter or rhythm of the poem]?
• Do the details all cohere into a meaningful whole?  If so, your explication will largely be an argument on behalf of this thesis.

Detailed Considerations

• If the poem has a title other than the first line, what are the implications of the title?
• Are there clusters or patterns of imagery, for instance religious images, economic images, or images drawn from nature?  If so, how do they contribute to the meaning of the poem?
• Is irony (understatement or overstatement) used?  To what effect?
• How do the connotations of certain words (for instance, dad rather than father) help to establish the meaning?
• What are the implications of the syntax–for instance, of notably simple or notably complex sentences?  What do such sentences tell us about the speaker?
• Do metrical variations occur, and if so, what is their significance?
• Do rhyming words have some meaningful connection, as in the cliches moon and June, dove and love?
• What are the implications of the poem’s appearance on the page–for example, of an indented line, or the stanzaic pattern?  (For instance, if the poem consists of two stanzas of four lines each, does the second stanza offer a reversal of the first?)

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Reading Response To “The Lamb” by William Blake

I thought this poem was cute but kind of boring. He’s talking about a lamb and I mean, how much can you write about a baby sheep? It’s about the innocence of a lamb and its soft wool. Then at the end of the poem, he compares himself to a lamb. Because he has the qualities of a lamb such as being meek and mild. It’s kind of creepy if you think about it. He might be talking about something in the bible because sometimes the bible mentions a lamb so maybe he’s talking about that kind of lamb.

 

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the lamb by William Blake

this poem is about lambs and their importance to us humans mostly. to poet shows us how we use lamb for clothing and food. he also uses  a lot of repetition, questions and statements and rhyme to proove his point. the author might be thanking the lambs for all the things they do for us.

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The Lamb by William Blake

This Poem starts off by asking questions to the reader, as if the reader was the lamb. Then it describes the wool of the lamb as clothings, then asks the same question as before. After this stanza William Blake answers the question but does not give a clear answer to the reader. I think the poem has a religious meaning, the lamb could be us, and were asked a question of “who made thee” and Blake answers who made us.

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The Lamb and The Tyger response

After a long inward debate with myself, I decided that it is better if I respond to both “The Lamb” and “the Tyger” poems by William Blake simultaneously, so I can fully express my thoughts about them. Even if these two were made years apart, I know that they are connect , these two poems are a classic case of opposites, first off the names seem alike — using the animal’s name as the title, but notice how Blake spells “tyger” almost as if he is afraid to say is properly as to incur the tigers wrath. Both poems are set up alike as well, with the lamb he complements how soft its coat is and how tender its voice can be, as if making the creature so fragile that it can break on the slightest show of strength; with the tyger however, he compares it the fire itself — wild, uncontrollable, dangerous, and able to consume everything in sight. And most importantly, Blake, with both the lamb and the tyger, asks them both the question of who made them, as to inquire about the thought process of the cosmic being and how this being can produce such extreme opposites so completely. but in the end though, it is obvious that Blake is questioning not the meekness of the lamb or the voracity of the tyger, instead he is conflicted about the nature of us, for if the universe can make such pinnacles of weakness and strength, kindness and malevolence, light and darkness such as these, than what is man’s place in the spectrum of good and evil, are we lambs to the slaughter or tygers on the prowl

P.S.: I am aware that the poem “The Tyger” may not had been part of the homework, but after ready them both I knew that doing either of them separately would weaken the powerful focus of the whole

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the lamb by william blake

i think the poem is about a child who refers to himself as a limb. it talks bout who gave him clothes, who fed him and who have everyone praising him. but at the end it says “god bless thee” so i think they realize that god gave all those thing to him and everyone else

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The Lamb by William Blake

In this poem, Blake talks about a lamb and asks who created this creature. He asks who gave it life, fed it, gave it its soft fur skin and blessed it with such a tender voice that makes people rejoice when they hear it.

However, when Blake mentions at the end,

“He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:”

I had a feeling that he was no longer talking about an actual lamb. I sensed he was talking about a human being now. But maybe I’m wrong and he is just talking about a lamb.

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Starry Night poem

The stars and moon shine so bright
How could this be such a regular night?

And the town seems so very quiet
With absolutely no type of riot

Why does this place seem so desserted?
Maybe someone should be alerted

Or perhaps they’d find this normal
And say they live their life formal

Me, myself wouldn’t be able to live here
Not even consider a place near

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girl before a mirror peom

Everyone is staring at her
She’s only staring at herself

Everyone around her is in the glow of joy
She is in the mist of dispair

Everyone together pears to the future
She alone views back to her past

Everyone is getting ready to go see her wedding
She’s preparing herself to be summoned to her funeral

Everyone sees her joy
She knows her pain

Everyone sees that she’s full of life
She sees only her empty soul in the mirror starring back at her

It knows that everyone cannot see her

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