This Living Hand

Imagery:

·         this living hand

·         of earnest grasping

·         icy silence of the tomb

·         heart of dry blood

·         in my veins red life might stream again

Interpretation:

            In “This Living Hand” by John Keats, very interesting imagery is created in this short yet fascinating poem. Keats shows this imagery when he starts the poem off as being full of darkness and despair which could be possibly describing the eventual end of his life. When Keats writes “earnest grasping” (line 2), it seems more dramatic then what one might think. This is because when I think of grasping, I think of desperately holding onto something as though I am not going to let it go. I believe that Keats is describing a love that he has for someone and is trying to describe how he feels. He mentions the “icy silence of the tomb” (line 3), which could mean that he is talking about his heart because whoever the poem is for might not realize how he feels.

            Keats continues on with this somewhat dark tone in line 4 when he writes “thine own heart of dry blood” and this imagery is very interesting because he seems to be hoping that his love would reach theirs so that his can once again be filled with “red life”. This is also interesting imagery because as he describes his heart being filled with red life, I think it means to be filled with blood again because blood could be seen as life inside someone’s heart. Towards the end of the poem Keats begins to lose the dark tone and creates a feeling of hope and explains to his lover that even though he may one day die he believes that their love could last longer and that he hopes she would accept it. I believe that Keats uses this imagery of death and love throughout the poem and he writes one half of the poem using dark tones and the rest using light and hopeful tones. Although it may seem he feels discouraged at first, the last line of the poem “I hold it towards you” explains what he really feels.

Analyzing "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" by Richard Brautigan

             In Richard Brautigan’s poem “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”, Brautigan shows his anti-technology tone and message through the small parenthesized statements that are spread throughout the poem. He adds exclamation points to the ends of these statements to create a somewhat sarcastic tone and this helps the reader understand that although it may seem these quotes sound pro-technology, their meaning is in fact the opposite. These quotes seem to be misplaced and they felt as though they were mocking the rest of the poem. Brautigan places these small statements after the first line in order to give a clue to the reader that this is what he believes and does this in every stanza, indicating that he really doesn’t agree with nature interacting with technology. Another example of how this would seem as anti-technology poem would be Brautigan’s description of humans being able to return to nature, only to be “watched by over by machines of loving grace” meaning we could lose control of technology, causing it to take over.

            This poem also shows a pro-technology tone and message because of Brautigan’s word choice and phrases used to describe the interaction between technology and nature. He uses words such as pure, free, harmony, loving, peacefully, and grace throughout the poem which all seem to create an image of goodness that will be brought through the interactions of nature and technology. The images of nature and technology being in harmony with one another create this sense of peace, as described in the phrases “programming harmony” (line 6), “cybernetic meadow” (line 3), and “machines of loving grace” (line 25). These images all have positive and natural meanings to them and Brautigan’s choice to use these images of things being pure and natural can cause the reader to think that technology should be natural and society should welcome this for its own benefit.

            I believe that this poem should be seen as anti-technology because the combination of the first three lines at the beginning of every stanza creates many different contrasts to the feel of the entire poem. The importance of the first three lines doesn’t seem to agree with the tone of the poem, and this is what causes the sense of mockery with the rest of the poem. Brautigan’s use of the small quotes causes the reader to create a tone of sarcasm, which causes the natural word choices to seem all sarcastic as well. The tone of the poem creates the understanding that he is mocking this idea of technology instead of agreeing with it.

Exploring the Universe

I will never be able to fathom how great the universe is. The Halo universe has allowed me to expand my imagination and understand what could be out there. Halo is a video game I enjoy playing and is also now a series of novels. The video game allows you to play through this war between the Covenant, a theocratic alliance of different alien races, and Humanity. Although the video game has many ways of describing the Halo universe, I feel that the novels do much more in expanding my thoughts and imagination about it. This is because they break down the situations that occur throughout the series of games and let you use your imagination to understand what is happening between the Covenant and Humanity instead of it being shown graphically through the game. The  main protagonist in the Halo universe is John-117 or Master Chief, he is a SPARTAN, which is a biologically and cybernetically augmented and enhanced super soldier. He is the last of his kind and helps save humanities' last stronghold against the Covenant, Earth. The video games do not explain his entire story and neither do the novels, but if they are read and played in a certain order then you can completely follow Master Chief's entire journey to save the Human race from destruction and chaos. This sequence starts off with the first novel The Fall of Reach, then the first video game Halo: Combat Evolved, then the next two novels The Flood and First Strike and then the next two video games Halo 2 and Halo 3. The novel where my title comes from is my personal favorite out of the Halo novels, The Ghosts of Onyx, which is the last part of Master Chief's journey. The novels give details of the Master Chief's journey as well as describing stories of other characters in the Halo universe. After reading novels like these, I am able to think in a much broader spectrum of what could be around us in this universe. Literature allows our minds to become free and this causes our imagination to go wild.