#Sorry I kinda just... Went off there

[obaewankenope]

The thing I learned when analysing poetry in high school English Literature class was that it depended entirely on your own experiences and perspective. Of course there was the Syllabus Approved Answers to things but, largely, if you can look at the material and use it to justify or support your perspective, you're gonna get a good mark on your exam. At least, that's what I got and I largely didn't bother with the "conventional" arguments and explanations.

When reading poetry, it's important to recall that you may not be the audience that poem is meant for but you're still an audience. That means that your interpretation is still valid and if you can look at that poem and go "okay that third line in the second stanza makes me think of this thing (x) and not that thing (y) my teacher says it should, how can I argue my perspective instead?" and usually, the answer is simple:

Metaphor.

Symbolism.

Personal. Feelings.

Literature analysis is subjective and dependent on what you have been through, read, experienced, and how you think. There can be a "right" analysis that comes from the author themselves, and every other analysis is simply "different" or "an alternative perspective/analysis".

For example, The Last Duchess by Robert Browning is a poem that forever sticks in my brain from high school. By and large, it's basically just a poem about a noble going on about his late wife who he felt was just too... Unsuited to being a good representative of his family and his status (as a Duke). There's implications that she was easily impressed, unreliable, possibly unfaithful, and that the Duke was/is a possessive, jealous, objectifying individual.

A feminist reading of the poem would centre on how the poem is an example of how women were perceived at the time the poem was based. Late 1700s if my memory serves (it may not). With how a woman is meant to act as an accessory to her husband, especially with nobility. There is a crassness to the poem when the Duke talks about his late wife and her "flighty" nature:

She had

A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, ’twas all one!

It sounds flowery and like nice prose but a feminist reading can easily go "he thought she was sleeping around/unfaithful and thus this is a shameful thing that he brings up with a stranger who saw the painting (after the Duke purposefully points it out) and shows the Duke has no respect or regard for his late wife or women in general for how casually he remarks on something that, in terms of polite society, would be impolite and even crude to discuss with a stranger".

That reading, btw, is one I generally agree with.

A more neutral reading of the same lines could argue that the Duke saw his late wife as vapid, or easily impressed by compliments but that she lacked any suitable political skills or sense for the position of Duchess. Again, the exact same lines could suggest this, especially: "Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er / She looked on, and her looks went everywhere." Essentially, this differing reading could argue that the Duke cared for how inept his late wife appeared to others, how easily led she was, and the negative impact that had on him and his position. Again, it relates back to his worth and his value, and using the Duchess as a tool to measure the Duke's worth and status.

And for both of these readings of the poem, the following lines can be used as supporting evidence:

She thanked men—good! but thanked

Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift.

Reading #1: suggests she "thanked" men in particular by having extra marital affairs and considered these more important than the status and prestige an inherited, landed name affords her husband (but not necessarily herself, as, like the name, the Duchess only has value to the men in her life, especially her husband who benefits from both his landed title, name, and having her as his 'arm candy' to show off).

Reading #2: the Duchess was free with her kindness and friendliness, even to those below her "station" and the Duke thought this insulting to his family name and his position as a Duke. This pulls in classicism and traditionalist ideology of the belief that the common people were unworthy of respect or value unless they attained wealth, education, and better breeding which the nobility and upperclasses valued.

Both readings are valid and both readings would get you good points in an exam. I can't quite recall which reading I did but I'm pretty sure I spent most of my exam time ripping into the Duke and chatting shit about historical classicism and the societal devaluing of women as possessing their own agency and value.

Either way, I got high marks because my reading differed from what my teacher had been angling my class towards and I used the poem and additional knowledge to back up my perspective.

So yeah.

Any analysis of a poem, a piece of literature, any sort of media that is consumed or created, can be argued for if you're able to use the material and additional knowledge to back it up.

Hello, sir! I'm annotating and interpreting one of your poems, "Conjunctions", for an assignment. Do you have any advice on how to go about dissecting this work, or poems in general? Thanks much. :)

Read it silently to yourself. What's it about?

Then read it aloud. What do the sounds do? What kind of verse is it? Are there things the words do when spoken aloud that you weren't expecting?

What's the overall effect of the poem? How do the things in the poem add up to create that effect? Where were you at the start of the poem? Where did it leave you?

What do you think it was about?

[bittasol]

smile, iruma! | hey ive been here before

[spear-gsun]

Happy 20 years to the Imperishable Night

[jopjab]

kinda late but whatever i just wanted to draw something for halloween and make it about fma somehow

[slamrink]

Nothing to see here just steph stealing glances of klay like he’s afraid he’s going to get caught 😃😃 (via namxsj on twitter )

[lesbian-rook]

could you draw ragatha comforting an abstracting pomni? like ragatha calms her down enough to make the abstraction go away! thanks :3

🎶When darkness is all you see This is our Sweet Blasphemy🎵

[robinfollies]

me and the guy i pulled by accidentally implying i like jazz music

[inky-evergreen]

Bro has been struggeling with the concepts of maturity and immaturity since he was a wee lad

[moldy-flowers]

The interesting experience of being pro Sasuke, anti konoha, pro tobirama, anti Naruto ending, pro Sasusaku, anti Itachi, pro Sakura, anti SasuNaru, pro Tobirama×Izuna, anti Madara, pro karin, anti Orochimaru, pro Uchiha and anti Hashirama. And also as much as I hate the guy danzo was kind of hot when he was younger...

[somedudewithantlers]

i very desperately wanted to draw my joker design but drawing Ain’t Easy for me nowadays so here’s an edited meme to compromise & appease the brain worms

he’s thinking about his very normal rivalry in a very normal villainous way

(writing says “He should have a knife like this” “And also listen to hyperpop”)

[pardonmydelays]

also, just so you know, the eras tour was my final moment as a swiftie

[joznii]

You know, we’re all aware of the Sven vs Faendal argument, but what about Camilla? I’ve heard an analysis saying that she’s stringing both men along with no intention of committing, based on in game dialogue.

So I propose that all three of them deserve to be quarantined in a toxic love triangle in Riverwood.

Yesss i think theres actually dialogue she has with hod or orgnar or someone where he basically tell her to "stop stringing those boys along" and shes like "lmaoo nah" +she immediately starts flirting with the player character too

I kinda interpret her as someone whose SO bored and frustrated in this tiny ass town in a fairly rural province like skyrim and desperately wants more but instead shes stuck here creating drama to entertain herself

She wants to go after the golden claw thieves HERSELF before the DB comes to help and she argues with her overbearing brother constantly about her ideas to improve the store or taking the shop on the road (get her Out of Here)

But yeah i highly doubt she has Any plans on picking either of them even after the letter quest she just likes the attention and enjoys getting fought over, never really even Picking the "winner" in the quest just being angry at the "loser" (i think she didnt expect either of them to stoop so low) , ideally to her she'd get with someone (like the DB) who would actually fulfill her ambitions before ever genuinely choosing either sven or faendal.

They rlly do all deserve the hole theyve dug themselves into lol

(tldr; camilla valerius,,, she should be at the club😔)

[cicada-candy]

I get the sense that Nina is gonna haunt the next season.

[bsotted]

ok well. unfortunate news: sometimes ur niche is so niche u've already niched the niche. this is exactly the same as the feeling of hitting the end of ur ship tag in ao3 🥲

*edit: sorry i accidentally named like every character ever in the tags so ppl are Seeing this post who dont have the benefit of so much as a single crumb of context. if i accidentally namedropped ur blorbo its bc of this post:

anyway. i was excited for recs bc i also enjoy this genre of fictional character. unfortunately as above the niche is niched, it turns out. at least for me, content enjoyer georg, who has apparently already seen or read everything anyone else has already seen or read except for a small handful of specific media properties that i do not wish to see or read for various personal reasons and also not literally everything ever... just the same things as everyone else has already seen and read... u get the idea. ok thnks 👍🏻

[wayfinderships]

Oh boy! :D I can't wait to look through my f/os tag!

-1 HP

-1 HP

-1 HP

-1 HP

-1 HP

[allthecastlesonclouds]

@bardace i got a lil too into it but im excusing myself because i love him. this one is getting inked right now and im. i love him he’s just. delightful