Week 4 points

• p147,p147, "Questions for Reflection" #2, 3 re: Stopping by Woods "Questions for Reflection" #1, 3, 4 re: London

 Frost uses end rhyme on the first and second lines, he doesn't rhyme the third line, and then he end rhymes the last line to the first two. His poem is comprised of 4 stanzas, all employing this same quatrain pattern. This contributes to the poems tone by breaking up the stanzas in an interesting way. It causes the reader to pause at the end of the third line, and to read the last line of the quatrain- almost as though it no longer connects to the first 2 lines. The third lines end rhyme sets the next stanzas 1st, 2nd, and 4th line end rhyme.

Both speakers are wandering. There are no other people about, but in Frost's poem, he is not exactly alone- he has the company of his horse. They are different in the way that in Blake's poem there are other people about, but the subject is in no way interacting with them, just listening and observing. He is in the city, Frost's subject is in the woods. Frost's subject is observing his natural surroundings, and Blake's is observing his man made, man inhabited surroundings. The din created and the feel of each poem is entirely different. Blake's feels harsh and ugly and desperate, and Frost's feels calm, if not a little spooky.

The tone of the poems are set by the meter. It is the tone that gives them their unique qualities of harshness or calm/stillness. Blake's breaking of the pattern is kind of like, repetitively hitting a punching bag, it is very much like being hit with his use of language. The effect lends itself to the feeling of desperation in his poem. Frost's smooth and regular meter, leaves the reader a little less anxious. It gives us more time to pause and ponder what has been written.

• p229, "Questions for Reflection" #1, 2 & 3 comparing poems on p. 228-9

Williams' title seems to focus more on the landscape and less on the fall. As though he is inferring that this is what the artist was focusing on, and that Icarus was just a side note. Auden's title seems to infer he will be talking about an entire collection held in the "Museum of Fine Arts" , or perhaps he is saying that the artist's piece should be included in the collection.
I like Auden's interpretation better, it has more striking and beautiful imagery for me, and feels less amused with itself. I like Williams' as well, just in a different way. I think Auden's is definitely more persuasive. It just allows you to see the utter uncaring nature of humans. Auden basically says that everyone in the painting had other things to concern themselves with, therefor could not be concerned with Icarus' drowning. I think Williams' speaker thought it may be a regular occurrence that people are just to busy to notice. I am unsure how to interpret his thoughts.