So...

The Desert Places poem by Robert Frost post made me a little blue, so I'm going to do a less serious post now. :) I read somewhere that said that just looking at cute pictures can lighten your mood instantly.

I hope you always

find a reason to smile :)

Fearless.

It's better to be absolutely ridiculous

than absolutely boring -- Marylin Monroe

^ This reminds me of 500 Days of Summer :)

Note to self:

Just Breathe.

Deal.

Desert Places

I found this poem by Robert Frost to be slightly depressing but very beautiful at the same time.

Personally, I don't like winter. It's too gloomy, too cold, and too monochromatic. It is most definitely my least favorite season. Winter is a pathetic excuse for a season.

Okay, I'm not that bitter...it's just winter is too gloomy for my taste. I love the sunshine. I love warmth. I am okay with admitting that I am completely biased towards summer.

Robert Frost begins his poem with imagery that we, as Coloradoens, can relate to -- falling snow. As he explains the weather outside, he links human emotion to it, which I found to be incredibley touching. "I am too absent-spirited to count; The lonliness included me unawares."

There is no doubt that winter is the lonliest season, and I think that is why I dislike it as much as I do. And I think Robert Frost compares this feeling to the cold outside because a blanket of snow outside relates to the lonliness of people -- it captivates the bleak and vulnerable side of humans, that fighting against the cold of the snow, must wear a jacket. Or fighting against the cold of lonliness, you need someone there for you.
As for the title, at first I took it very literally then I read the poem and I realized it was talking about the complete opposite. As I was imagining a hot, sandy desert, I was struck with bitter cold, and icesicles. Needless to say, I was not pleased. But I think that Robert Frost used "Desert Places" as his title so that you would imagine a scorching hot desert, only to make your mind switch settings and actually feel a cold, winter day. And I think he also meant it not as a desert place (with sand and no water) but rather, a deserted place ... with no one there. Deserted is how he feels inside and how I feel inside when I read this poem.

All of this adds to the overall tone of the poem -- which I interpreted as very feeble and melancholy. He uses four stanzas for the structure of the poem, which feels relatively average. However, I totally thought of four stanzas -- four seasons, and with every stanza, he's lonliness and sadness seems to heighten. :( I didn't realize the rhyming scheme until about the fourth time I read it; he does it very sneakily.

A

A

B

A

It's almost like you forget that the last "A" rhymes with the previous two "A's" I'm not sure why Robert Frost did that, but it's pretty cool when you figure it out. :)

Much Madness is Divinest Sense

Emily Dickinson rocks. That's all.
...Only not really becuase I don't think I could consider this a blog if that really was all. :)
Anyways, I think the most obvious theme she is trying to convey in this poem is that there is a very fine line between sanity and madness- which is true. People look at Albert Einstien and can argue both sides of him being sane and completely mad.
Besides the obvious reference to psychology, I believe this poem is also interpreting the side of the sociocultural approach to psychology -- the way a person affected according to their surroundings and social interactions / customs.
In the second line, she says, "Much madness us a divinest sense to a discerning eye." I think Ms. Dickinson means that madness is only in the eye of the observer. As Americans, we may see something of a different culture that, because it differs from our customs, seems mad. Other cultures look at the American culture and also see it as completely insane.
Then, "'Tis the majority in this, as all, prevail." -- The majority of those who think something is mad or sane are right. OR the majority will always be the sane / the one's with reason.

"Assent ( I had to look this word up; it means to agree or approve. Cool :)) and you are sane." Basically, conform and agree with the majority, and your intentions and sanity will not be questioned.

"Demur ( Again - I looked this up, but I assumed it meant disagree. I was right. :)) you're straightway dangerous and handled with a chain." If you disagree with the majority, you are seen as crazy and in dire need of help.

I think the theme of this poem is how conformity is seen as "normal." If you step outside the norm, you are "handled with chains" and basically seen as insane. It's a haunting poem that makes one think in what ways one has conformed to society -- at least I did.  I'd say this poem is kind of ike 1984 but with less brain-washing. :)

100% Guilt Free :)

So it's super late. I took a lovely nap earlier today, and now I can't seem to fall asleep. At least we have today off! :D And in celebration of that, I thought I'd do a fun little post. I love Glamour Magazine, and I especially love one specific page that comes in it. It's titled, "The 100% guilt-free page!" This is where people of the magazine come up with witty, guilty pleasures that are totally normal. It's a fun and cute way to relieve stress, and with this gloomy weather, I think it's very much needed! I usually find myself ripping open to this page whenever I get the newest issue, so I rounded up a few of my favorites to share. :)

Hey, it's okay!

...to stay in and go to bed early, even if everybody else wants you to go out.
...to not wash your veggies sometimes. :)
...to leave your cell phone at home/off/out of battery on purpose.
...to shove it in your closet and consider your place clean.
...to change outfits seven times...and then back into the first one.
...to think that the solution for dying batteries is pressing harder on the remote.
...to hate Mondays and not try to hide it. At all.
...to complain about all the messages people send you but get seriously offended when they don't.
...to ask your friends for advice and do the complete opposite.
...to secretely love being sick because you get to stay home in bed all day. :)
...to take the bigger piece.

JUST LIVE.

These just make me smile, and I hope some of them made you smile too :)

Untitled.

So this poem is totally intense on imagery. I picture the dry and deserted desert with nothing but a man and a creature. I can picture this creature eating his own heart, crouched down, with blood everywhere. Gruesome. Soo I did a little bit of research and it said Stephen Crane was notorious for being a very modern writer who could have potentially inspired the Modernists; this gives reason to how modern this poem feels. So it makes sense that Stephen Crane would write in such a modern style.
In the sixth line, the man asks this creature if his heart tastes "good" in which the creature replies to as being "bitter." First and foremost, why is this man not freaked out by this creature who is EATING HIS OWN HEART?! But besides that, I think the man is not asking this the creature whether his heart tastes good, in the actual taste-bud, edible 'good', but in the wholesome, kind 'good.' Like "You just volunteered for a million hours! You're such a good person!" :DD
...Yeah, he's relying in senses to convey a different message. (the same goes for 'bitter')

This is how I picture this poem going down: The man is like, "Hey, you're eating your own heart. I'm totally not freaked out at all. Did you discover anything?" and the creature is like, "Yeah, man. It's like, super bitter." And being the crazy creature that he is, he says he like it, which is totally absurd!
But what he/(she?... it?!) means by this is that he is a bitter creature :( (Which isn't ironic because everyone thinks of creatures to be like this.) ... and he's okay with it because it's who he is, and he can't change it.
"I like it because it's bitter, and because it is my heart."

And then there's a deep, awkward silence between the creature and the man.

Oh! And as I was looking up information, I found that the reason it's called, "Untitled" is that this poem is a short passage from one of Stephen Crane's pieces. I believe the piece is called, "Into the Desert." But I could be completely wrong since I just watched "Into the Wild," so my decision making skills could be completely biased.
I must say, I was slightly disapointed there wasn't really a deeper meaning for this title. . . :(

Of Mere Being

LOVE. :) Wallace Stevens starts off by using a sort of reversed idea ( I forgot what it's called) like, instead of saying saying, "a mind at the end of a palm," he says "a palm at the end of a mind." I don't know, was I the only one who thought this to be peculiar? What I got from this statement is an open mind. I pictured a person holding all of their ideas in the palm of their hands; kind of like "wearing your heart on your sleeve," or whatever cliche can be appropriately inserted here. :)
Then he goes on talking about a bird, that seems to come (there's a better word) out of the palm of his hand. He describes the bird as being "gold-feathered" and "sing[ing] in the palm without human meaning. Without human feeling, a foreign song."
Birds sing. So for Stevens to refer to the song of the bird as foreign was a neat approach in describing its presence.
I interpreted this poem in being a man looking into the human element and how every person percieves things differently. The mind uses different senses to interpret something, and I think that he chose a bird because it's symbolic in the sense that it is free. People are free to think what they want to, and everybody has a different, foreign song. I also pictured this bird to be very majestic, with its gold feathers and long wings. By giving this type of description, I totally pictured somebody's creativity soaring without limitation. A bird is an animal often connected to freedom, so I think this ties into, again, the freedom of thought. When Stevens says, "without human feeling," I don't think he he necessarily means apathy, but that there isn't a marked emotion that can describe every body's thoughts -- each person differs. Perhaps I'm not really getting the true meaning of this poem, but this is how I took it, and I'm okay with that. :)
Plus -- I read this poem and immediately thought of Stravinsky's Finale of the Firebird Suite. I listened to it while I read the poem. The imagery was amazing! :)