(no subject)
Personally, i didn't really enjoy the poetry we studied this week. I wasn't really drawn into the poetry by Swift, and while it is amusing to see such crude literature come from someone from that period in history, the poem was so drawn out, and frankly, quite boring! I can only read so much of a poem, before i get to the point that it loses my interest. While Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (i'm sorry if i don't have the title exactly right) is just as long, if not longer than Swift's poem about the lady's parlor... Whitman's poem managed to capture and keep my attention, while Swift lost me after the third of fourth line. Perhaps it is the subject matter, but most likely, it is the use of language in such a way that makes even boring topics interesting! I learned a lot about the costumes of their day though, and the process that occurred for women to get ready for tea parties (who would have known!?!?!)
So perhaps Swift's poem was useful as a means of preserving an important piece of history, the female process of preparation for tea parties. It would have been interesting to have gained insight into what readers in Swift's time thought of the poem. Perhaps i'm unenlightened as to the sexual and crude matter of Swift's time, and i'm increasingly realizing just how dirty some oldies are (Beatles, Beach Boys, even the innocent groups!) And I find it almost ironic that while not all the lyrics are suggestive but mostly subtle, the sexual suggestiveness and crudeness was still present, yet today, it is out in the open more, and we get frowned upon for it.
While i'm not saying that we are right in being open about it, as i believe that sexuality today (in general) is way out of whack, i would argue that it has always been, and again, not to justify our actions today, and the skankiness of attire worn by men and women alike, but i'm finding out more and more just how dirty different periods in history were! In my Shakespeare class, almost every class, in every play, (ok, maybe not Richard II as much) there is some sexual joke or innuendo, or perhaps a theme throughout the entire play! (What they don't teach you in highschool!)
In Indigo the other day, i saw a book along the lines of Erotic literature through the ages, from Pompeii to _______ (I didn't write the title down, but it was something like that) While i didn't believe that people in the 400's and the 1200's and the 1600's were sexually dormant or dead or anything, i just never realized how much of it was prevalent in their literature and the media! (And to think, i thought sexuality and mention of it was taboo in those periods!)
So perhaps Swift's poem was useful as a means of preserving an important piece of history, the female process of preparation for tea parties. It would have been interesting to have gained insight into what readers in Swift's time thought of the poem. Perhaps i'm unenlightened as to the sexual and crude matter of Swift's time, and i'm increasingly realizing just how dirty some oldies are (Beatles, Beach Boys, even the innocent groups!) And I find it almost ironic that while not all the lyrics are suggestive but mostly subtle, the sexual suggestiveness and crudeness was still present, yet today, it is out in the open more, and we get frowned upon for it.
While i'm not saying that we are right in being open about it, as i believe that sexuality today (in general) is way out of whack, i would argue that it has always been, and again, not to justify our actions today, and the skankiness of attire worn by men and women alike, but i'm finding out more and more just how dirty different periods in history were! In my Shakespeare class, almost every class, in every play, (ok, maybe not Richard II as much) there is some sexual joke or innuendo, or perhaps a theme throughout the entire play! (What they don't teach you in highschool!)
In Indigo the other day, i saw a book along the lines of Erotic literature through the ages, from Pompeii to _______ (I didn't write the title down, but it was something like that) While i didn't believe that people in the 400's and the 1200's and the 1600's were sexually dormant or dead or anything, i just never realized how much of it was prevalent in their literature and the media! (And to think, i thought sexuality and mention of it was taboo in those periods!)