Tuesday, September 2, 2014
The Tempest (Please help me with this!!!)
Even after reading through 'The Tempest' several times, I still cannot manage to derive any meaning- I tried to Google it but couldn't find anything. There were several lines that really captured my interest, but just added to my frustration when I couldn't make sense of it! "The rapture was over." (stanza 1 line 8). The word rapture evokes images of total destruction, apocalypse. That being said, I'm struggling to find any other evidence to support the occurrence of such an event, so I have to assume that it's metaphorical. The description of the woman in stanza 1 really illustrates despair and grieving, but this person seems so disconnected from the rest of the poem...in the second stanza, the pronoun switches from 'she' to 'you'. I cannot even attempt to analyze the second stanza, as it left me completely bewildered. I'd be very interested to hear what others have to say.
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Yes, the poem is purposefully disorienting. It will be interesting to talk about the reasons for and effects of this in class. Thanks for your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI was just about as bewildered as you after reading "The Tempest", but after the discussions in class today I was able to make a lot more sense of it.. Tying the poem to the idea of the Harlem Renaissance period and highlighting the transitory tone of the piece helped to formulate a general sense of the poem, especially with the whole idea of moving from Mississippi to New York.
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