Author Archives: Brooke Fortune

Marriage and Death in “The Railing / The Loom”

In the poem, “The Railing/ The Loom,” Jeffrey Pethybridge focuses on the image of hands, and how the tasks hands fulfill play into life and death. The poem begins with the idea that “there is a formula for the earth … Continue reading

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“Theme for English B” in Common Ground

Langston Hughes’s poem, “Theme for English B” from “Montage of a Dream Deferred” was published in an issue of Common Ground in September 1949. Interestingly enough, “Theme for English B” is only one of three poems in the entire issue, … Continue reading

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A Woodman in Spring Time

I really loved Robert Frost’s “Two Tramps in Mud Time,” and thought it offered a really lovely portrayal of the transitory nature of Spring time, and the contemplative beauty a simple task like wood cutting can hold. As I read … Continue reading

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The Triumph of the Inhuman in “Hurt Hawks”

In his essay, “Violence, Violation, and the Limits of Ethics in Robinson Jeffers’ ‘Hurt Hawks,’” Jordan L. Green asserts that “Hurt Hawks” is a poem that is both “a harsh portrayal of an unforgiving wilderness” and a challenge “of the … Continue reading

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Tracking 1924

Arts and Culture On February 12, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was performed for the first time at the Aeolian Hall in New York City. The composition combined elements of classical music with jazz and secured Gershwin’s a reputation as … Continue reading

Posted in Chronos: Arts & Culture, Chronos: Science, Technology & Ideas, Chronos: Social Change, Chronos: War, Politics, & Nature | 1 Comment

Regionalism in Modern American Poetry

Project Description: Often, Modernism is perceived as a transnational, cosmopolitan literary movement. While that is true, it’s interesting to examine Modernity not on a continental scale, but through the more marginal perspectives: work that doesn’t seek to engage with the … Continue reading

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Common Grit in “The Wasteland”

One of the sequences I found most interesting in Eliot’s “The Wasteland” are lines 139-172 from A Game of Chess. The speaker of this section converses in a bar with a woman named Lil whose husband, Albert is returning from … Continue reading

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Self-dependence in “Tea at the Palaz of Hoon”

In “Tea at the Palaz of Hoon,” Wallace Stevens uses the self and the mind as a point of stability in a world teeming with questions and uncertainty. The chaos of the post-war environment is left behind in favor of … Continue reading

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From Publication to Destitution: Maxwell Bodenheim

William Carlos Williams’s “The Young Housewife” was published in December 1916 in the third volume of Others magazine. “The Young Housewife,” in addition to several other of Williams’s poems including “Danse Russe,” is sandwiched between chunks of poetry by Maxwell … Continue reading

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“Sunday Morning” in Negation

I really loved the second stanza of Wallace Stevens’s “Sunday Morning.” It presents such a hopeful, Romantic outlook on the world, as opposed to the more pessimistic responses seen in poetry such as Eliot’s. That being said, I thought it … Continue reading

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