Potpourri Unit 4

     Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost is about the speakers state of depression.  The speaker is extremely lonely and this is proved by the solitary use of "I".  The speaker is completely isolated.  The watchmen in the poem, although present, does not play an emotional role in the poem.  The continue use of the pronoun "I" shows this.  Even when the speaker hears "an interrupted cry" (7) he says that the cry is not meant for him because he has no one waiting for him.  The speakers depression has reached a point where he cannot connect with society anymore.  He walks at nights because that is when it is the loneliest.  The reader does not know if the speaker will ever come out of depression because he only goes out at night.  For this reason, the speaker is literally, acquainted with the night.

Potpourri Unit 3

     In Batter my heart, three-personed God by John Donne, the speaker wants God to break through to his heart so he can release him from Satan.  He loves God even though he lusts for Satan.  He is asking God for help to use his power to keep him away from the devil.  The last few lines is a paradox that shows how much the speaker wants to be free of Satan.  He says "Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free. . ." (11-12).  The speaker is saying that he wants God to save him from Satan only if God can imprison him.  He will only be free if he is enslaved under God's power.  The speaker contradicts himself but is true in all that he says.  It is in God's hands to save him.  He told God that he loves him but it is God that has to take him in His hands.

Potpourri Unit 2

     I taste a liquor never brewed by Emily Dickinson is an extended metaphor.  Intoxication is being compared to nature and spring.  There are drinking images of nature.  For example, "Inebriate of Air" (4) and "Debauchee of Dew" (5) show how intoxication is being connected with nature.  The speaker is not really drunk but is displaying the certain feeling they get from being around nature.  The summer days and air make the speaker feel as if he/she is drunk.  The butterflies and bees in the poem are the insects that get the same feeling.  The end of the poem shows the Seraphs and Saints being alright with the drunkenness of the speaker.  They are so curious that "to windows run" (13).  The poem accepts and encourages the intoxication that nature brings upon people.  That is how great nature is.

Potpourri Unit 1

     In The Convergence of the Twain by Thomas Hardy the use of imagery allows the speaker to convey the meaning.  Focusing in on a specific part, the author uses words such as "The Immanent Will" (18) and "the Spinner of the Years" (31) to move the poem along.  The reader can conclude that both of these images refer to some type of destiny or a god.  It is "The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything" (18) and the "Spinner of the Years Said 'Now!'" (31).  These images show that there was sort of destiny of the ship and that it was meant to or going to happen no matter what.  It was fate and the lack of attention to what was actually going to happen caused the outcome.  Using some sort of destiny proves the authors point in showing the sinking of human pride and the results of too much pride.  The speaker shows that jewels and riches are more important than anything else.  Humans are not even referenced in the poem.  The pride of our minds are gone and the imagery in the poem proves that.