English Teacher

I had this dream during a short nap I took yesterday. I only laid down from 4:30 to 5:30, exhausted after a long, lingering day, but this was a really odd dream. I remember being in a European city (I would say it looked like London, or my vision of it) and I had a disposable camera. I kept taking picture of small shops, beautiful, grand statues in the park, landscaping of trees, and old-fashioned light posts. As soon as the picture was taken, I could see it as if I had a digital camera viewing lens. I noticed that the pictures I was taking were not developing as I had orginally taken them. They were awfully dark, and the visions I photographed were misrepresented. The trees look bared in the picture, when in actuality the ones I snapped had leaves. The lamp posts were lit, but in the photo they were not on. Even the statues looked totally different from the they were they appeared in the actually scene. I just kept going around taking these changing pictures, but I wasn't surprised, or annoyed, as if I knew they would change after the flash and photograph. Very strange.

I had this dream on Saturday night. I was walking through my house, looking in all the rooms. I picked up the phone, I sat on a chair, and acted quite conscious. I also remember waving to my mother when I was walking around. I used my computer, fed my fish, and drank a glass of water, and even watered the plans in our kitchen. I went through my entire list of daily activities, but the weird this was I was asleep! I never saw myself in bed, but I was walking with my eyes closed, my pajamas on, and I was snoring loudly, even when I do not snore in reality. The only thing I did not do was speak. It was like my whole dream was a silent film.

I wanted to know if anyone ever had a dream where they could observe themselves dreaming? I found this dream to be extrememly wacky! I have never heard of this kind of dream, especially since I was sleep walking, and fully functional.

For my reflection, I chose to speak about Pound’s “In the Station of the Metro.” I found Richardson’s explanation of the poem to be wonderful. As he says, “hold this slide to the light. Hold this one over it.” When I first read this poem, I recognized the metaphor, but because there are so few words, I was not sure if I captured the meaning of the poem. This envisioning of the slide really puts the whole poem into perspective. The whole idea of looking at a slide shows complete "vision" which fits the poem. There are no moments of other sensory perception. It is such a compact visual poem that the reader is not welcomed to feel, touch, or hear anything. This makes the feeling of the poem stark, and empty, even with the acknowledging that there is a mass of subway riders in the poem.
In my opinion, the example of looking at the slides is also like envisioning putting the cube into a square frame, and a tube into a circular frame. It seems like when you put the slide of the face on top of the petal and the black bough on the station, they become one. The faces take on the delicate shape of the petals, and the backdrop of the subway submits to these petals by becoming a dark background. This connection of petals to the faces make the people appear surreal. There is such perfection and beauty in these faces. Yet, there is also something dismal about the idea of people as these petals because they are not distinct. The idea the people as petals and apparitions (ghosts) makes the beauty seem ordinary because of the indefinite and blurry nature. This interpretation would obviously make sense because there would be no distinction of one person in a mass of people in a crowd.
I really am interested in this poem because of the lack of a verb. When you think of people in a subway station, there is an implied action. I perceive a fast paced scenario in the subway, but the poem. Using petals on a bough makes the scene seems stagnant. This inactivity, placed with the shortness of the poem made it unique.

I had this dream over the weekend, and it was really frustrating. I was sitting at my desk trying to solve math problems. I remember seeing the numbers on the page, but they seemed to be floating off in the air. I would try to keep them down, but they would not stay still. When I was trying add using the two, it would be somewhere off in the sky. I would have to stand up, reach up to grab the numbers, and bring it back to the page. Unfortunately, when I would get the two back down, the other numbers would be off the page. It was unbelievable! I do not know why I would not write the numbers, but for some reason, I just kept trying to keep the numbers in hands reach.

English 399W: Study Guides for Honors Exam
Middle English Literature for Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
Summary of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

The later Middle English Literature of the 14th and 15th centuries varies greatly from earlier works. I am going to refer to these two centuries together because they are linked so explicitly. Indeed, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, due to historical and literary overlaps, contain many of the same tenets, questions and themes.

The issues:
From the time of the Norman conquest of Britain in 1066, to the year 1300, Normans were still a strong influence on England. Much of the works composed from 1066 until the black plague (1349) were lost. This interim to the fourteenth century is known as the time of early Middle English. In the later portion of the fourteenth century, however, British Kings began asserting their pride and power, which altered the heavy French influence in language and literature. In addition, the 1300’s also brought on a split between the Norman society when John Wycliffe, a criticizer and disapprover of the Catholic Church, began to follow the British Bible. This time period experienced a change from the Old English, and Early Middle English language. Although words may have been pronounced differently to our English, the fourteenth and fifteenth century literature is written in a more understandable (more modern) Middle English which incorporates some simplicity from the French influence. Geoffrey Chaucer, who will be discuss in another students study guide, is known to have written the first piece in “standard” modern Middle English (“The Canterbury Tales”) at the end of the fourteenth century. Other writers had written Middle English pieces in different dialects (Sir Gawain).

The Tenets
The themes of the works also began to change slightly. The 1300-1400’s topics began to shift to an aristocratic frame of reference. The topics of literature during this time shifted from religious works and works geared to the uppermost of society to works of chivalry and romance. It is during the fourteenth century that literacy expanded, and a middle class emerged. Until this time, books were not commonly read by people unless they belonged to the wealthy (who owned mostly religious service books). Knights and courtly honor became themes of interest. Much of the writing during this time centered on “courtly love,” where a woman is in love with man who is in her social class but provides service to her, and so it appears she would be lowering herself. Themes of secrecy, jealousy, and separation became prevalent in these works. Prominent works arose out from the Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is a fourteenth century work of Arthurian Romance. This work shows mixes of it Anglo-Saxon heritage, but includes language of architecture and art which was a new theme for this period.

Due to expanding literacy, topics of romance, fashion, and hunting emerged (reflecting the preference of the commoners). In addition, the idea of morality was established. Many writing became didactic, teaching lessons on right and establishing a social morality. It is also during these centuries that debate and dream writings occurred. Writing often included fictitious facts about real locations, adding interests to these locations.

The fourteenth and fifteenth century writers are known for borrowing from other, earlier famous poets. Some of the themes, vocabulary, and the idea of the stanziac verse, are things that such writers borrowed from their predecessors.

The fourteenth century is known to have had an alliterative revival. Alliteration was seen in both the miracle and mystery plays but also in many of the fourteenth and fifteenth century poetry. Poetry of this time had common themes such as the tradition of English iambic meter with four stresses, and any number of unstressed words per line. This facilitated in producing two stressed beats per half line of poetry. End rhyme emerged as a tenet of poetry form this century. The poetry has distinctive vocabulary that centers on the themes. In addition, allegory was also a characteristic of this time period, as often a character would be in place of an institution of vice (example of this would be a character being the vice “greed” or “gluttony,” which is allegorical personification often found in morality plays. Works from this time were often romances, chronicles, and political satires that reflected that disunion of church and state.

There were also a large majority of religious works that were written during this time period because of the tradition of religious prayer books and private devotion. These “mystical writings” as they were called became popular in the fourteenth century. Julian of Norwich’s works show the introduction of “affective piety” which was a physical and emotional reaction to their quest for a union with Christ. During this same time existed the medieval drama cycles which were entertaining and didactic. They were performed during the fifteenth century by play guilds. They contained many of the tenets of this time period, such as lessons on morality, and technical aspects like alliteration and end rhyme.

Fourteenth Century works that may appear on the exam:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (General Prologue, Knights Tale, Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Parson’s Tale)
Langland’s Piers Plowman
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Winner and Waster (1352-3)
Gower’s The Lover’s Confession or The Tale of Philomena and Tereus
Julian of Norwich’s Book of Showings (chapters 3, 5, 59 appeared prominently)

Fifteenth Century Texts (later middle age texts) that may appear on the exam:
The Second Shepherd’s Play
The York Play of the Crucifixion (1425)
The Croxton Play of the Sacrament (1461)
Mankind (1470)
Everyman (1485)
Sir Thomas Malory Le Morte Darthur
It may be good to have an overview of the four major cycle productions: (N-town (Towneley), York, Wakefield, Chester)

Works Cited

Bolton, W.F, ed. History of Literature in the English Language: The Middle Ages.
Vol.1 London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1970.

Coleman, Janet. Medieval Readers and Writers: 1350-1400. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1981.

Damrosch, David, ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. 2nd Ed. Vol. 1.
New York: Addison-Wesley Publishers, Inc, 2003.

Everett, Dorothy. Essays on Middle English Literature. Patricia Kean,ed. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1955.

Kane, George. Middle English Literature: A Critical Study of the Romances, the
Religious Lyrics, Piers Plowman. London: Methuen & Co, LTD, 1951.

Links to other students study exams:

Since the 14th and 15th centuries are considered the Middle Ages, this Middle Ages Overview relates well to get a full view of the time period.

In addition, I mention Chaucer as one of the more prominent writers of the 14-15 century overview because of his use of modern Middle English in The Canterbury Tales. Here is a link to information on Chaucer.

I had this dream, and the dream I will be writing next, back to back last night....

I had this dream after my Daughter dream. I was picking out a dog at an adoption center. I was walking around picking up all of the puppies when one puppy began tugging at my jean leg. I picked the puppy up and it began to chew on my jean jacket. I thought it was so cute to watch the dog playing, but the shop owner got enraged that I would let that behavior go on. He insisted that I must not let the dog take any control over me, and that I was rewarding the dog for bad behavior. He took the dog from me and hit it, telling me I was not going to take the dog, and I was just making the dog misbehave for another customer. I got mad at the gentlemen, and so I bought the dog. I remember walking the dog down the street, she behaving so well. I decided to walk past the store to show him what a good dog she was.

Last night I had a dream that I was walking in a room surrounded by mirrors. I would walk up to each mirror looking into it, but the reflection would not resemble my stern face. One of the mirrors was laughing at me, one was of me sitting and crying, one was of me eating pounds of chocolate with smudges of melted chocolate all over my face. One of the mirrors had me naked with a necklace on. I was getting really freaked out because the visions in the mirrors were moving while I was still. Then I went to one really oblong mirror, and when I looked inside it looked like my spirit was floating around the mirror. Very strange. I felt like I was in a twisted fun house, or in a room in Dali's dream of Venus in a way.

I had this dream last night. I woke in between the dream, and it continued as if I had merely paused it. I was walking in a large field. It was extraordinarily sunny, and the whole field was covered in flowers. The flowers sparkled in the light, and had a golden glow. I was skipping around the flower, twirling and turning in the breeze. I woke up here, but went back to sleep when I saw the time (3:30 AM) The dream continued. My dress was flowing around and I seemed to be a some place of strange joy. I was wearing a hat, which would blow into the hair, and always fall back onto my head. The hat was also a piece of paper (oh condensation) and I was able to fold the paper and make different objects from the hat. I made a bird, a dog, and other small creatures, and I was able to watch the dog really run and bark. The dogs looked like they have papery fur, but I could see faint organs in their body. I remember laying on the ground, on warm sweet smelling grass. I could see the clouds moving by so slowly, and the sun looked like a person dancing in the sky, and I woke up when my alarm clock went off.

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CHOICES

If i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do

It's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do

If i can't have
what i want . . . then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more to want

Since i can't go
where i need
to go . . . then i must . . . go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral

When i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal

I know
but that's why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry

Written by Nikki Giovanni
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I thought this was a great poem when I read it. Choice is clearly a major theme, but how the choices are address is what captured me. Giovanni explores the use of capitalization. At first, the speaker's "I" is lower case, which is a reflection of her/his self treatment. The "i" proves that she belittles herself and her importance. This continues until the last stanza where she says "I know" with capilization which shows there is a change, an enlightening of information, a confirmation of the self.
I also see the complexity of her work, the same complexity felt when making choices. In the first stanza, there is a total puzzle:
If i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do
Here we see that if you cant do what you want, then dont do what you do not want to do. Even when you have no choice, there are still choices. And we also see the use of contractions "can't" and "don't" which informalize the writing, making it more personal to the speaker.

The total lack of punctual, and the irregular stanza add to the complexity, but once again, it was CHOICE Giovanni had made.

The poem also holds the theme of isolation. It is aided through the word choice (the i) and also through the irregular meters and stanza. The speaker says implies in the second to last stanza that there is some inability to communicate, and furthers this feeling when she says that choices, and not being able to express oneself is "why mankind/ alone among the animals/ learns to cry." This emphasizes the isolation with the word "alone" and also shows that we are associated with the animal kingdom, but they lack the range of thoughts and emotions they we do, thus losing their ability for choices.