blog 3.1

This image depicts the scene that "Lady Macbeth becomes wracked with guilt from the crimes she and her husband have committed. She sleepwalks and tries to wash imaginary bloodstains from her hands, all the while speaking of the terrible things she knows." (Wikipedia) Lady Macbeth kneeled down and was staring fixedly at her hands with a nightdress on. The periphery was pitch dark, and there's only a lamp gave out a dim light. I chose it because this scene was eloquent of Lady Macbeth's expression and gesture when she was tortured by perpetrating a crime. Also, the gloomy atmosphere matches with her anguish of guilt. One symbolic action that i recognized in this scene is that Lady Macbeth fall on her knees. Usually, people genuflect for praying in some religion. Her kneeling figure seems that she was penitent for her sin and begging for mercy.

  

Ghostface June: Entry 2.2: Wanderer / Magician

Ghostface June: Entry 2.2: Wanderer / Magician: "My first archetype is a Wanderer. Out of many images of wanderers this picture appealed to me the most, because it shows a modern day wander..."

Jennifer: Blog Entry 2.2: Wanderer

Jennifer: Blog Entry 2.2: Wanderer: "http://www.annettesmusic.com/kellberrygallery/main.php/d/4034-2/chobits-wallpaper-26_1_.jpg About This Picture Chobits is a Japanese anima..."

blof entry 2.2: wanderer

         After i finished " The Heroic Myth Self-test ", the result reveals that my main archetype is wanderer. I think this is the most suitable image for me. I'd rather describe myself as a "mental wanderer". Even though i live and study in the U.S, my mind inclines to my home town every moment. Also, I'm a person who is full of curiosity, so I'm interested in many things, and there are so many works i want to do. Even though i chose fine arts as my major, I also want to be a psychologist and businessman. So, i always think about that if i should change my major or not. We don't know what might happen or what we can see next when we row a boat in the river. However, i believe that if i go with the stream, i can approach somewhere i belong one day.

blof entry 2.1

         Christina Rossetti was a remarkable poet in 19^th century England. Her parents were from Italy, and they have four children. Rossetti had discontinued going to school at the age of 14 owing to a nervous breakdown. She started to write poems when she was only 7. Her mother, sister, and she participated in the faith movement of the English church positively. Her poems and private life were affected by such a religious background. Rossetti brought “Goblin Market and Other Poems” into the world when she was 31, and “Goblin Market” is one of the most famous poems of all her works.

         There was a goblin market in the town where Laura and Lizzie lived in. Goblins sold all kinds of appetizing fruit, and they always cried “in tones as smooth as honey” (line 108) to attempt the sisters to buy. Laura was deceived by goblins one day. When Laura said that she has no money to buy the fruit, goblins answered that she can pay them a golden curl instead. Once Laura had tasted the goblins’ fruit, she craved that she could meet the goblins again so she could buy the fruit. However, she couldn’t hear the goblins’ cry. Then she couldn’t eat that tempting fruit. Laura became thin and drawn as day follows day. Lizzie screwed up her courage to go and deal with the goblins. Finally, she gained the antidote, then she rescued Laura from the breakdown.

         When Rossetti described the spectacle of selling, she mentioned fruit in great variety through line 5 to line 27. These fruit connote temptation. “Sweet to tongue and sound to eye” (line 30) indicate how attractive the fruit are. However, the author wrote “poison in the blood” (line 555) to show that those fruit are gorgeous apparently, but they harm us when we eat it. Rossetti gave us a hint that there are all sorts of worldly enticements around us, but many of them are injurious.

         One of the archetypes that I found in this poem is Lizzie. When her sister was getting worse day by day, “Lizzie weigh’d no more” (line 322).  She stood against the goblins determinedly instead of hanging back. Even though the goblins “ cuff’d and caught her, coax’d and fought her, scratch’d her, pinch’d her black as ink, kick’d and knock’d her, maul’d and mock’d her” (line 424-429), Lizzie still said “ never mind my bruises” (line 467), “for your sake I have braved the glen and had to do with goblin merchant men” (line 473,474) to Laura. These interpret that people can endure any pains for their families. They are ready to sacrifice in case of need. Willing to do everything in one’s power to help the family is the instinct of human beings. “For there is no friend like a sister” (line 562) reflects the fact that blood is thicker than water.

         In my opinion, this poem is about the instinct of human potentialities. Laura tempted by the goblins and fell into evil ways. Her sister, Lizzie, extricated Laura from dangers. Everybody may step in the wrong way at one point in life by dazzling temptation. Our family will always try to guide us onto the right path in that case.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/rossettibio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti

blog entry 1.3

          Xu Zhimo is a Chinese poet and essayist. He was born in 1897, and died in 1931 by an airplane accident. Since his family was pretty rich at that time, he had been to many countries such as Russia, Germany, Italy, France and so on. He also studied in Columbia University and King’s college, Cambridge. The poem I chose is “ Saying Good-bye to Cambridge Again”.  In his third Europe traveling, he went to Cambridge quietly without a notice to find his English friends. However, none of his friends was there. Only the familiar Cambridge was waiting for him silently. The passed memory came across his mind, so he wrote this poem on his way back to China.

          In the first stanza, Xu used ‘quietly’ three times. Quietly means ‘without making much noise’. The purpose of using that word continuously is to emphasize the quietness of the atmosphere. He even said good-bye not to people but “to the rosy clouds in the western sky”. I have a feeling that how desolate he was!

           ‘Bride’ means ‘a woman who is getting married or who has just got married’. Brides symbolize the beauty. The author likened the golden willows to young brides for depicting the beauty of the Cambridge. Then, he used ‘shimmering’, which means ‘to shine with a soft light that seems to shake slightly’, to described the waves so that it add all the more to the beauty.

           ‘Sway’ means ‘to move slowly from one side to another’. ‘Leisurely’ means ‘done slowly because you feel relaxed and are enjoying yourself’. ‘Sways leisurely’ signify the freedom. At the end of the third stanza, Xu wrote “I would be a water plant” to show that he had intense aspirations toward freedom.

            The word ‘rainbow’ connotes the dream in the fourth stanza. However, we can observe that the author’s dream couldn’t be granted by phrases such as ‘from the sky’ and ‘shattered to pieces’.

            In the fifth and sixth stanza, he expressed his deep regret for the reality that he couldn’t go back to former life to seek the dream.

            In the last stanza, ‘gently’ symbolize that the author was unwilling to leave. However, he left his dream and memory behind and went away. 

Saying Good-bye to Cambridge Again

Very quietly I take my leave
As quietly as I came here;
Quietly I wave good-bye
To the rosy clouds in the western sky.
The golden willows by the riverside
Are young brides in the setting sun;
Their reflections on the shimmering waves
Always linger in the depth of my heart.
The floating heart growing in the sludge
Sways leisurely under the water;
In the gentle waves of Cambridge
I would be a water plant!
That pool under the shade of elm trees
Holds not water but the rainbow from the sky;
Shattered to pieces among the duckweeds
Is the sediment of a rainbow-like dream?
To seek a dream? Just to pole a boat upstream
To where the green grass is more verdant;
Or to have the boat fully loaded with starlight
And sing aloud in the splendor of starlight.
But I cannot sing aloud
Quietness is my farewell music;
Even summer insects heap silence for me
Silent is Cambridge tonight!
Very quietly I take my leave
As quietly as I came here;
Gently I flick my sleeves
Not even a wisp of cloud will I bring away

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Zhimo
http://baike.baidu.com/view/14176.htm