Poem Interp, 4: I Wandered as a Lonely Cloud by Wordsworth

I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud

 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The waves beside them danced, but they

Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;

A poet could not be but gay,

In such a jocund company!

I gazed-and gazed-but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

 

Analysis

The speaker “wandered lonely”, having no company since he was “float[ing] on high o’er” the other people he was around. The speaker feels as if he has better knowledge and understanding, and since he feels that he is so high, he is “as lonely as a cloud”. “A host of golden daffodils” catch his eye because they are not the same as the monotonous and rolling green “vales and hills” that he had been floating over.

The speaker begins to admire the daffodils, noticing how far they have spread around. There are “ten thousand that [he] saw at a glance”. Such a huge group of these flowers was a pleasant thing for him to see. These lively flowers are constantly “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”. The speaker compares their movements to the “twinkling on the milky way” and “sprightly” dances, showing the reader that he sees them in a somewhat magical light.

The bright and yellow daffodils have his full attention. He describes the flowers as gleeful and believes that any person could look at such joy and “not be but gay”. The speaker himself is totally filled up with the  beauty of his “jocund company”. In his elated state of mind, he is not thinking about “the wealth” of the scene he stumbled upon.

When the speaker goes back to reality, he will feel the dread of being alone again, lying on his couch. However, seeing the daffodils has caused a change in him. From this point on, anytime the speaker is “in vacant or pensive mood”, he remembers the sweet pleasure of the flowers and imagines “dancing with the daffodils”. Not only is he able to remember the time he had with his “sprightly” friends, but he can now have joy while being alone. He has the “bliss of solitude”.

Poem Interp. 3: Ispahan Carpet by Elizabeth Burge

Ispahan Carpet

 

Rough timber gallows on which the carpets are woven

By a silent, sallow, dark-eyed Persian family

Fills the room, bare but for blackened pots and jars

In the cavernous hearth. A flickering fire

Lights on the sensuous jeweled arabesques

Shadowing the makers of the webs.

 

Eight-year-old girls sit sparrowed on a plank

Rope-rising with the pattern, their unsupported bird-bones

Bent like old women. Only such little fingers,

Following the guides of coloured wool upon the warp

Left by their aunts and sisters,

Can tie such exquisitely minute knots-

One hundred to the square centimeter, says the guide proudly-

For the most desired Tabriz or Karmenshah.

 

One hundred knots in the space of my thumbnail

One hundred heartbeats of a young child’s growing

One hundred hours for the space a foot will crush down.

 

O, eyes whose whole horizon is the carpet

And it’s traditional beauty! Who can unravel

The world’s weaving?

 

My swollen hand is gentle on the greenstick shoulder

Her large eyes look back at me with a speaking darkness

 

Analysis

The poem is set in a Persian rug-making facility. Throughout the entire poem, the speaker uses deathlike and cadaverous images to describe the world around them. The speaker is a tourist who is observing and questioning the reason for the conditions in which these people’s souls are.

The speaker refers to the looms, which the eight-year-old girls use, as “rough timber gallows” that are used to hang people. The whole family acts as if they are strangers, being “silent, sallow, and dark eyed”, like all of the life has been sucked out of them. The room is naked, all except the bleak look of the “black pots and jars”.

The only colorful descriptions in the whole poem are about the fire in the hearth and the carpet that the girls are working on. The speaker only describes what the “flickering fire” light does to the carpet. Nowhere does it say that the people were warmed by it, or that is showed the hope in their eyes. It actually does the opposite, casting a shadow on “the [carpet] makers”. The fire seems as if it is there only to make the “sensuous jeweled arabesque” carpet more and more beautiful. Since everything else in the house is bleak, it is easy for the reader to assume that the life has already been taken from them to improve the look of the woven and “coloured wool”.

The speaker correlates the image of colors with life. In doing this, the speaker has made it seem as though the colorless “girls sit sparrowed on a plank” that belongs to the gallows. As they continue in their carpet weaving, the “rope [rises]”, putting them nearer and nearer to death. Soon their bones are “unsupported” and they resemble old women. This change could be analyzed with a literal approach; all of the hours of labour turn the girls' youth into a form resembling “bent…old women”. Approaching it as a metaphorical statement, their souls are hung and become decrepit, “bent like old women”. Either way, the girls themselves had been tying “exquisitely minute knots” for their own nooses.

Though the guide is proud of the work that the Persian family has done, the speaker questions the morality of the situation. The whole third stanza is the speaker realizing how unimportant the making of these “most desired” rugs are. The speaker questions the carpets beauty. “Who”, they wonder, “has decided what is beautiful and what is not? Is a human soul not as beautiful as a rug”? She simultaneously questions the tradition of the carpet makers. She wonders why they, as human souls, would ever ask themselves “who [is capable] of unraveling the world’s weaving”. Why would bad traditions have to be kept?

The speaker lays her “swollen” hand on the fragile girl’s shoulder. The reader can see that the speaker is disgusted with her full and plump condition in comparison to the Persian families’ condition when she describes her hand as swollen; it is something unnecessarily large. The girls' souls are doomed because they are following a beaten path and no one sees the harm in their carpet making. When the speaker does show their kindness and sympathy, all they get in return is a gaze filled “with a speaking darkness”.

Song Interp. 2: Sister Disco by The Who

 

Sister Disco

As I walked through that hospital door

I was sewn up like a coat

I got a smile from the bite of the wind

Watched the fresh fall of snow

 

I knew then that my life took a turn

I felt strong and secure

And with adhesive tape over my nose

I felt almost demure

 

Goodbye Sister Disco

With your flashing trash lamps

Goodbye Sister Disco

And to your clubs and your tramps

 

Goodbye Sister Disco

My dancing's left you behind

Goodbye, now you're solo

Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

 

Bye, goodbye Sister Disco, Now I go

I go where the music where the music fits my soul

And I, I will never let go, I'll never let go

'Til the echo of the street fight has dissolved

 

I will choose nightmares and cold stormy seas

I will take over your grief and disease

I'll stay beside you and comfort your soul

When you are lonely and broken and old

 

Now I walk with a man in my face

Ooh, a woman in my hair

I've got you all lookin' out though my eyes

My feet are a prayer

 

Goodbye Sister Disco

With your flashing trash lamps

Goodbye Sister Disco

And to your clubs and your tramps

 

Goodbye Sister Disco

My dancing's left you behind

Goodbye, now you're solo

Black plastic; deaf, dumb and blind

 

Analysis

In this song, disco is personified as a troublesome woman. The narrator has had a coming to, realizing that he doesn’t like disco anymore, because it’s bad. Though some may see disco music as something that’s good, he feels that it encourages “grief and disease” with its “black plastic” characteristics. To the narrator, disco is simply a thing of the past. When disco is mentioned in this song, the term refers to the whole disco style of living as well as the music.

The song starts out with the narrator entering a hospital. When he says that he “was sewn up like a coat”, the reader can assume that he went into the hospital because he had some bad wounds. Right in the first stanza, the narrator refers to the happy feelings he got “from the bite of the [changing] wind”. He also describes his observation of the “fresh fall of [white, pure] snow” inside of a hospital. He is reflecting on the change that is going on within himself.

He “knew then that [his] life took a turn”. Even though he had just been hurt, he “fe[lt] strong and secure…almost demure”. The reader understands why he feels this way when he next mentions that he has “left [sister disco] behind”. He hates disco’s “flashing trash lamps, clubs” and whores. He is glad to leave her solo. When the narrator says, “my dancing’s left you behind”, the reader can get a mental picture of the situation. He is dancing in his joy towards the music that “fits his soul” (rock and roll), and in so doing he leaves sad disco all alone. He hopes to stop all of the “street fight[ing]” that disco had created. A street fight may have been what put him in the hospital.

Further explaining his dislike for disco, the narrator “choose[s the] nightmares and cold stormy seas” that would come with soul reflecting music rather than choose the fake and evil disco. He feels he is better for not picking disco since he will be able to “stay beside [it] and comfort [it’s ignored] soul” when everyone else chooses not to have disco, too. He is now complete; he has sense and expirience “in [his] face” and understanding love “in [his] hair”.

Song Interp. 1: Silas Stingy by The Who

Silas Stingy lyrics

Once upon a time there lived an old miser man

By the name of Silas Stingy

He carried all his money in a little black box

Which was heavy as a rock

With a big padlock

All the little kids would shout

When Silas was about

 

[Chorus:]

Money, money, money bags

Money, money, money bags

There goes mingy Stingy

There goes mingy Stingy

Money, money, money bags

Money, money, money bags

There goes mingy Stingy

There goes mingy Stingy

 

Silas didn't eat, which was just as well

He would starve himself for a penny

He wore old clothes and he never washed

'Cause soap cost a lot

And the dirt kept him hot

All the little kids would shout

When Silas was about

 

[chorus]

 

In the back of his head

Was a voice that said

"Someone will steal it all

You'll be lying in the gutter with an empty box

The thieves will be having a ball"

 

[chorus]

 

He bought a safe to put the box in

And a house to put the safe in

And a watchdog on a chain to make quite sure

And his face was very funny

When he counted up his money

And he realized he hadn't any more

 

Analysis

From the very first words, “Once upon a time”, the reader can tell that this song will tell a story that is meant to teach a lesson, just as all stories that start out with those same words do. The writer uses the name of the “old miser man” to describe his characteristics, since the reader is likely to see the character in that light if his name describes him that way. The fact that the children, which have long been depicted as symbols for purity, happiness, and livliness, recognized and taunted Silas because of his strange habit makes him seem a little sinister. The image of a “black box” and the fact that he “didn’t eat” add to his sinister appearance, raising images of evil, sin, and secrets into the readers mind. These are all very story-like, sing-song attributes.

The alliteration used makes the fact that “Silas Stingy” is stingy more obvious. The reader is also told that he puts every bit of “his money in a little black box”, which is a very stingy act. The box he stores his money in is as “heavy as a rock”, which allows the reader to assume that he had a lot of money in the box. The box also has “a big padlock” to keep out “the thieves” hand and possibly his own, since he is stingy.

He never took care of himself, even though he could; “He would [rather] starve himself for a penny”. Because he “didn’t eat…wore old clothes and never washed”, others, like “little kids”, feel fine calling him “mingy Stingy”. Since Silas has replaced his love for people with his love for money. Silas Stingy can help his appearance but chooses not to since his love for money is so severe. This act almost encourages their jokes; “he would [ruin his name] for a penny”.

The reader never observes any words spoken to Silas other than the name-calling that the children do, and that is most likely because he is socially awkward. In this poem, he has no relationships with other people. If this is true, then the reader can understand why he would only harbor feelings of paranoia toward people. His paranoia has “a voice [in the back of his head]” telling him he will lose all of his money to the people he hates, and they “will be having a ball”.

In his state of paranoia, he buys many different objects for his money’s security, “realiz[ing] he hadn’t any more” only after he had counted it. Money can be used as a very loose symbol in this poem for anything material. The moral of this poem is that being “stingy” does no good, especially when it makes a person crazy enough to ignore their own morals.  I have no idea what the social implications were that might have inspired this poem. I do know that 1967 was the last year that the American dollar was actually worth a dollar, and that everyone (in any decade) meets a stingy person.