A close reading of the Parados from Antigone

1. Dirce was a Naiad who was married to king Lykos of Thebes. She was cruel to her niece Antiope however, and as a result she was tied to a wild bull and killed. Since she was a dedicated follower of Dionysus he made a stream flow for her near Thebes. The significance of armies fighting by the waters is that they are near a place where the nymph's loyalty was rewarded. Just as their loyalty to--or against Thebes shall have consequence.

2. "Windy phrases" means that Polyneices used lofty words of glory to rouse his troops.

3. A metaphor in the Parados is "He the wild eagle screaming insults above our land" (lines 94-95). A simile from the passage is "Rose like a dragon behind him" (line 104).

4. The pronouns "them" and "their" in this passage refer to the participants in the battle.

5. A couple examples of personification from this text are "The Earth struck him" and "O marching light."

6. I think "he" in line 100 refers to Polyneices, but I'm not 100% sure.

7. When we hear the word "bray" in line 106 we are supposed to think of horses that Sophocles implies the men resemble.

8. The word "he" in lines 107-110 refers to the gods looking down on the battle.

9. Lines 119-122 tell of the demise of the two opposing brothers in a long raging duel.

10. I don't think that line 124 can be called personification because it refers more to the residents of Thebes than the city itself.

Read Along of mentor text #3

- Right off the bat I notice the MLA formatting, this makes it very obvious that I'm reading an academic essay.

- The title follows a similar format to the previous mentor texts (entertaining bit!: a ____ perspective of ___)

- The opening paragraph makes an argument as to why the formalist lens is the best way of analyzing Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

- The first paragraph contains the thesis. (Surprise!)

- The second paragraph defines a frame narrative for readers AND explains its significance to the text.

- The text then shifts gears in the third paragraph to analysis of the character Marlow.

- The text then connects Marlow to the framing narrative.

- Wow, this text actually has a decent and (kind-of) fleshed out conclusion.

- Since this is a formalist essay, the only text mentioned in the works cited is the novella.

Sometimes, Ignorance is Bliss!

 

Walt Whitman has an interesting perspective on knowledge and beauty in his poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer". In the poem, the narrator describes how he walks out on a brilliant astronomer's lecture on the science of cosmos because he simply wishes to see the beauty of the night sky. Now I have to agree with Whitman's message that you don't necessarily need to understand something to see the beauty in it. For instance, would you rather look at this on a romantic date?

By  Michael J. Bennett (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

OR, would you prefer to see this image of the material stars are made of?

By Borb [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

I think the answer is fairly obvious for most of us. I believe that as a species humans have a lust for knowledge and beauty, its part of what sets us apart from animals. However, we shouldn't let one of these pursuits overtake the other. What good is knowing how rainbows are formed without an appreciation for their breathtaking display of colors? And shouldn't the sight of a gorgeous rainbow spark the urge to better understand it? It's like a magic show, we suspend our disbelief to enjoy an illusion and then wonder "how did they do that?".

So while I mostly agree with the poem, I feel that Whitman's perspective of beauty over knowledge to be a bit one sided. Let's take a look at Chopin's Nocturne op. 9 no. 2 which can be found at the following link. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGRO05WcNDk) I loved this song long before I even knew what on Earth a nocturne was. And I'm sure that any of my readers can see a similar haunting melancholy in the composition. However, the effect of the piece can be further amplified by knowledge of the sad life that Frederic Chopin lived. He was a romantic in exile from his native Poland, suffering from chronic illness and financial strife. Knowing the story of Chopin's life allows listeners to hear his music as a window into his struggles. It elevates the piece to a new level of emotion, one of empathy for the creator.

So... That's my first blog post. Thanks for reading, and have a wicked good rest of your day!