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An Analysis of the Ides of October






  1. The Narrator of the poem had satisfied all her debts, “Paid for” all the happiness by the “Ides” of October. That is to say that she has no debts.
  2. She “used” to feel the presence of the child “All around [her].” Emotional and in the past tense.
  3. The poem then begins to draw some unique imagery. “Slough” means “Snake’s Skin”. As if the snake’s skin was a charm of some sort. The poem will get into further imagery, likening the Narrator to a mythological portrait. That of a woman wearing a Snake’s Skin and hedge of Roses.
  4. She wears the snake’s skin. Drawing an almost mythological figure for the narrator.
  5. Drawing from the emotion of bearing a child. She is “Flushed” like a “Peach.” Further making the portrait of a mythological birth, being that the narrator uses terms like “resurrection” in contrast to the sun. I sense no mythological foundation or framework in the poem. The woman is being likened to the Virgin Mary, this mythological figure carrying someone important. Not to the line of idolatry, either. It is simply a feeling, like the Narrator were the virgin Mary, or some figure like such.
  6. The figure has roses wrapped around her waist. She had made love in the “Ides of October” and bore her child in June. She is likening herself to a mythological figure, with roses wrapped around her waist and a snake’s skin as a sash.
  7. Now the narrator is in a New October, where she places the family portraits on the “Spanish Chest.” Likening to the archetype of familiarity, likely something she had growing up, or has sentimental attachment to.
  8. “Imagery”— Describing the child. Since the man is absent in the work, the imagery describes the child with “Emotion” “Animated” in his “cheeks.”
  9. She alludes to the “Moon” nursing the “Stars.” Emotion driven imagery, drawing the metaphor of the poem that she is nursing her baby.
  10. The Silk Worms’ nests are likened to the narrator’s child’s hair. “The” is used, setting the child apart from the mother, solely focusing the poem’s emotions on him. It strengthens the emotion of the piece, yet creates the awe stricken wonder of the scene.
  11. The imagery here is esoteric, likening the child to “Death”. Drawing the imagery from the cocoons, where the larvae must have metamorphosis before there is “Birth”, or the becoming.
  12. The child cries, and his lips tremble.
  13. The child loves his mother. The emotional impact of this verse is where the poem’s tension is weighted. She is describing the love of her child for her. Perhaps the poem a metaphor for Postpartum depression.
  14. The child’s fingers are nude, grasping the mother’s breast while giving suck.





Thoughts: It seems the poem is a metaphor for Postpartum depression. The last line really draws the feeling of the mother, while the thirteenth line draws a metaphor on the baby’s love for the mother. I must admit it’s a bitter poem, but woven are the images of the snake’s skin, which is perhaps foreshadow. Perhaps an affaire brought on the pregnancy, which is alluded to by the absence of the father. The poem expressing the melancholy of Single Motherhood. I think the poem is expressing the wisdom of a mother with a child. She is like Mary Mother of Christ, but on the flip side there is a Cognitive Dissonance entangled in her single motherhood. It’s wielding dual emotions, the conflict of a mother in her situation.





Milton, Gabriela Marie. “The Ides of October.” WordPress, 2020. https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/132705124/posts/8322. 8/14/2020. Web.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Speaking into the Vortex
		
	
	

		

Speaking into the vortex
What is ancient past
Is dissolved.

None of it is understood
As man must relearn the ancient truths
All over again.

You have worked hard to make
This modern world its own context.
For, the only thing understood
Is what is new, what is visceral
What is seen in the present day.
Ancient truths happen
Yesterday, and the day before
And when history gets made
None take a passing glance at it.
For all things are new.
All things are made now.

The vortex spins
And all of the past has been washed
So that men see today
And reflect into the past
Visions of the modern world.
The past?
It is forgotten
As Ancient Persia
Gets replaced by Greece
And Greece gets replaced by 
Some unknown specter which
Believes speech ought not be free.

Why have free speech?
If there is only the vortex?
If only the colors in the eye
Are what's true?
The visceral pleasure
The modern vocabulary.
Ancient words are but dust
Ancient stories
So we can make them new?
No, just to forget them and the morals they hold.
For modernity is sufficed by myriads of facts
Which were created by the vortex.
We find instances in history
Which we deem pleasing
And we base our reasoning on such
Never once investigating whether it were the norm.
It was not.

No, but we create our modern world
And pioneer it with the present
Forgetting the past
And living only in the vortex.



		
	
	


	



			
				


			

			
Everyone is Speaking
		
	
	

		

Everyone is speaking
Nobody is listening.
Therefore, I have chosen a poor profession.

Everyone assumes to know 
What someone is saying.
Do they know?
Do they really?

From my long diatribes,
I have learned to enjoy poetry
Because it gets me out of my own thoughts
And I can invest time in someone else's.
It lets me escape my own egocentric predicament
And that's the enjoyment of poetry.
Of really writing in general
Is being able to listen to someone else's ideas.

Agree with them.
Disagree.
Why does everything need to be agreed or disagreed with?
The purpose of art
Of poetry
Is expression.
Yet everyone wants to express
And nobody wants to know
What that poem is really about.

I can't make money in a culture
Where everyone wants to simply
Live in a vacuum of their own ideas.
A reverberating echo chamber of simplistic truths
Espoused by minds that you can't even be sure are alike.
Do we really share blogs with one another
To hear what others have to say?
Or do we have them to read into
Other's thoughts what are essentially our own?

I chose a poor profession in the twenty-first century.
Great novels cannot be written
Because everyone would argue with them.
And I think things ought to be left as they are
And understood for what they say
Before we open our mouths and opine
Why that individual is wrong.
Or, more necessarily
Understand that truth
They wanted to communicate.


	


	



			
				


			

			
Amazon in the Forest
		
	
	

		

There is an Amazon in the forest. 
Lusty she is, bare, exposed
Easy to take and be pleased.
Yet, she will tear you limb from limb
And take your leg upon her gnashing teeth.
She will bite it, with blood down her chin
And her hair is knotted with the blood of men.

Pleasing she seems far away
Until you come close to her
And she is too big for loves.
You cannot marry her
But become her slave
Where she will malign you
And break your spirit.

I say, I have seen the Amazon kingdom
And it is frightening.
All men stay indoors
And are frightened to peep
Out the lattice, 
For the giantess walks among them.
Elephant for steed
And lust in her eyes.

	


	



			
				


			

			
It’s Said of Kant
		
	
	

		

It's said of Kant that he built a towering
Defense of the Conscience to prove God exists
Only to watch it come tumbling down
And be the death of God.

As I've said, God merely died;
And yet He raised.

People believe these things are sufficient unto themselves
That the conscience is universal among all men.
However, it is God who gives men their conscience
And it is God who takes it away.
Man without God is more like a beast
Than the two horses I saw united
With each other their lover.
It seems the horses understand something that
Philosophers will not.

	


	



			
				


			

			
My Politics
		
	
	

		

The price of a candy bar in 2003 was 43 cents.
The going rate at the same store is $1.65.
In 1992 a 23,000 dollar a year salary
Is worth a 70,000 dollar a year salary today.
Amazon pays its employees about 15 dollars an hour.
That is $3.20 today's money.

Inflation, in the past 20 years, is at 300 percent.
Worker pay has stagnated. No, actually stayed at about the same rate.
People today, the average worker, is making about 25,000 dollars a year.
That amount was like making 70.000 dollars a year today
Back in 1992.

The Stock Market is at 31,000.
The super wealthy are getting more wealthy.
And as Cenk said many times,
That the 1950s were a good era to live in
Let's go back to the tax rate of that era.
70% on those making billions of dollars.
Force the big corporations out, 
The little business will get more business.

Not to mention,
There's a nasty fact that Walmart
Had a local trust developed with its 
Local warehouses.
Squeezing that same store
Where I monitored the prices
Out of existence.
Trusts, if you don't comprehend
Are illegal.

Oligopolies ought to be.
But, since perfect formulas exist
The copyright needs to be 
Only in the inventor's lifetime
And unable to be extended
And certainly not valid 70 years
After the death of the inventor.
Who the hell needs the money
Beside the inheritors of that wealth?

And furthermore
Free speech means free speech.
It's the same for a Nazi or Antifa.
It's the same for a BLM or KKK.
That way I'm protected too.

	


	



			
				


			

			
How Can a Common Fact
		
	
	

		

How can a common fact
Bring two different brands of ideology?
Trying to prevent the fact from manifesting
Brings the very fact repeated
Over and over again.
It must be because no one can
Learn the truth
But must relearn it
Over and over again
Until one day the truth stops getting learned.
And on that day
A trumpet will sound in the sky
And there will no longer be a mankind
Of which to understand.

	


	



			
				


			

			
A List of New Literary Devices
		
	
	

		

1. Ekphrastic Motabilem – Detailing the process of creating a work of art, or describing the process of skilled work. More specifically, utilizing Ekphrasis through describing the art form or skilled work in its process. Otherwise called “Ekphrasis”, but more technically called Ekphrastic Motabilem.












  1. Example: “Go, Ploughman, Plough” By Joseph Campbell
  2. Example: Jeremiah 18:4 “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”







2. Hyperloxy or pl. Hyperloxa – An oxymoron expressed through hyperbole, to especially emphasize the last statement and make it stronger than the previous statement, which otherwise should be stronger.





  1.  Example: “He is not very wise, but has an infinite wit.”
  2. Example: “Jude, he is not so strong, yet unrivaled in might.” Neifert, B. K.. Fairyland, “The Children’s Crusade”. Kindle Direct, 2020.





3. A Vulgar – When taking something that usually isn’t vulgar, or even taking a Euphemism, and making it vulgar through tone.





  1.  1. Example: From Wordsworth’s “Transubstantiation”: “And, while the Host is raised, its elevation/ An awe and supernatural horror breeds,”





4. Cantor – When a work breaks into a text with a voice dissimilar to the one established throughout the work, intentionally or unintentionally. Especially where it can be readily noticed. Derived from the word “Cantor” a responsive hymn, where the solo is the break in voice, and the choir is the established voice.





  1. Example:  The Gospel of John as opposed to the Synoptic Gospels.
  2. Example: The Egyptian Maid or White Doe of Rylstone by Wordsworth, as opposed to the rest of his body of Work, reflects stories in the forms of Southey or Coleridge.
  3. Example: The Last few segments of The Riddle in the Sea, by B. K. Neifert, where the form breaks to create an added effect of suspense.
  4. Example: The use of “Mirkwood” in Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthrur.





5. The Objective Other – An objective characterization where an artist portrays what appears to be a specific individual, yet the individual portrayed in the piece is meant to apply generally. Not to be confused with a Character; however, some characters are examples of The Objective Other.





  1. Example: Anna Karenina in Tolstoy’s titular piece.
  2. Example: George Wickham in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
  3. Example: Christian in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.





6. Nominal Symbolism – A kind of symbolism where the name of a prominent historical figure, town or god is used to represent an archetypal story. Sometimes where the symbol relates to a specific individual.





  1. Example: “Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.” King James Bible Isaiah 46:1
  2. Example: “Tell me, Lydia, by all the gods I beg you, why you are in such a hurry to destroy Sybaris with your love.”  Horace. The Complete Odes and Epodes. Translated by David West. Oxford University Press, 2008. (pp. 32.)
  3. Example: Xenophanes, you poetically and surgically/Weave your origins of doubt.





More will be added to this list, as I discover them.

	


	



			
				


			

			
An Interpretation of 23
		
	
	

		






  1. David’s—the character in the poem—mental state is likened to Beksinski, trees and war.
  2. The “bellicosity” of his roots—that is the roots of poverty, which gives one the will to persevere through trial— Fragmented, therefore a complete thought. It is Juxtaposed with the “Evening” which “Descends in a sob.”
  3. There is a colorless chill—imagery invoking an action shot, or dramatic scene, drawing its image from movies. And a “Gelid Whisper”. Making the imagery that of bitter cold being carried by a light wind. “All of it”
  4. “Is Whispering and whimpering”—juxtaposed with the former character trait of strength, given to him by his roots. The character is on his own, and is fluttering on his own.
  5. He speaks of home again. The home is likened to a “Moraine”, with phonetic similarity to “Murrain”. He’s home sick. And Home is like a towering Geological Structure.
  6. “Imagery”
  7. “Imagery”
  8. “Imagery”
  9. “Imagery” The following four lines give imagery of a Moraine, an ancient geological formation, something natural, old, timeless. All of the descriptions are of Moraine structures, which can produce beautiful colors and patterns on the layers of their geological strata—Poem will further allude to this pattern when it likens David’s homesickness to the “morphology” of the rock layers.
  10. “Thoughts wince into vision”, an allusion to one’s complete vision of the Mind’s Eye fading into sight. Then what’s seen are “Starlings” breaking the moment with “Jocose Murmuring”. That is to say the bitterness is being disturbed by the “Starlings”. Starlings are a type of blackbird.
  11. The image of the flock of starlings “Tears” at the sky and one is reminded
  12. “In a state of subtle sadness.” The image invoked is that of the sadness invoked by the image of the Starlings. Their nonchalance elicits a response from David of, what is perhaps, his low estate.
  13. “It takes years to digest”. There is a slow decent into becoming, oneself, trivial. It is slow, and methodical, and it turns oneself into a background like character, rather than the central focus of the story. The feeling is being minimalized, and finding oneself unimportant.
  14. “It takes shape within oneself”
  15. “To gain contour and morphology” relating the feeling to the set geological foundation of Moraines. Settled against the abandonment from home, and the recognition that one’s place in the world is minimalized.
  16. One being reminded—by the moraines—of “David fluttering on his own.” The unforgettable
  17. Nature of “Otherness.” Which the poem meditates on. The somber feeling of the Moraines in their geological form, cold and splendid. The moraines elicit the same kind of feeling, which is analogous with the briskness of the moraine. Related to the nature of there being other things, and being cognizant that we—our own ego—are not the only ones occupying this world. We find ourselves barren by the realization. Yet we lose it—kind of like how a child grows into an adult, and no longer needs the parental guidance to survive. However, the poem analyzes it in relation to the moraine.
  18. “We lose ourselves gladly.” I don’t think people want to meditate on the rumination, to have that awareness that they are alone, or are not central to the world. It’s an eerie feeling, recognizing we are not central to the movements of the world, and when we’re left all alone, it can be cold.





Thoughts: I think the poem expresses the notion of recognizing we are not central to the world, and that other wills and forces exist, which are out of our control. Much like the geological forces of the glaciers which create the Moraines. The notion is an eerie feeling, which separates us from our ego, and gives us an outside perspective, minimalizing us. I commented on Joao-Maria‘s blog, feeling the emotions of the poem, but not really understanding it. So I decided to do an in depth analysis of it, and this is my take from the poem.





João-Maria. “Poetry Without a Place, 23.”  WordPress, 2020. https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/143826840/posts/2482. 6/16/2020. Web.

	


	



			
				


			

			
Odes of Strangers XV
		
	
	

		

The Savanna is rubicund
With delightful golden grains.
Most gorgeous are her valleys
With the hills among the rolling veldt.

I, the animal, enraged
By Serengeti hunger
Am driven into mindfever
Where I cannot perceive
Nor understand;
No, I am crazed by possibilities.

If I had you, your plains would be mine
And I would be the lion
Within his Pride.
There would be only nature and I.
It would be of no use
For only the air of the veldt
Could satisfy me
Should I be satisfied by you.
I would desire nothing more
And would never wander from my bounds
In the safelands,
Where poachers could not find me.
For I would stay upon your plains
And meander among your hills.