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In the beginning of Aubade, Lines 1-7, Page 1456 "I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. / Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. / In time to curtain-edges will grow light. / Till then I see what's really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible but how / And where and when I shall myself die." Phillip Larkin gives us an example of the speaker's life which seems very depressing but though it is bad, the speaker with no doubt fears death more and would much rather continue to live this rubbish life than face death.

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While reading these lines in "Checking Out" I was extremely shocked at discovering the fact that there are people who set up these types of "Sham marriages" and others who are willing to marry into this to help others get their permanent papers. I am not saying this is right, but the concept behind this must work extremely well. Marry an immigrant, get paid to do so, and then divorce after a year, and then wait for a little while and marry another immigrant for more payment. There must be some way the government can flaw this process.

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After reading both acts, I was sure to find an explanation for the story itself, but I just ended up more confused. The only conclusion I came up with is that both Vladimir and Estrogen are sick mentally. I believe they are making these images in their head and are stuck in a never-ending loop. I believe if one of them parts away from the other then they will break from the loop which is why out of the numerous times they brought it up not once was it done. (UPDATE) After speaking with Dr. Neil I could see this being purgatory and adding onto the idea of the never-ending loop until they find the release from God himself.

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A Far Cry From Africa gives us many powerful lines such as "Corpses are scattered through a paradise" In this line Derek Walcott is explaining a once beautiful land that was deemed as a paradise has been tainted with an abundant amount of corpses. "A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt of Africa" this wind could be viewed as a normal wind giving imagery or the wind which is about to unfold and cause the corpses and grieve.

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These lines from "Checking Out" in a way relate to the lines I reflected on with "Wherever I hang" Obinze during the deportation process notices that his lawyer doesn't truly treat him as human but rather as a duty that he is obliged to complete. Obinze feels insecure in himself and compares himself to a simple "thing" not human but a "thing" He doesn't know where he belongs, so he finds comfort in going back to Nigeria instead of appealing.

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In "High Windows" by Phillip Larkins, the first stanza alone has attached itself to me as no other poem has before. Phillip Larkins doesn't even really use descriptive imagery in this yet I still create a clear and graphic image of what he's communicating to us, the readers. Phillip Larkins stresses the change in culture in comparison to when he was the same age as the younger man he is viewing.

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The writer of "Church Going" isn't a very religious person, but respects the idea of having churches around. He expresses them in such a way that makes them seem like landmarks. He stresses the idea that many can come to a church and land in accordance and that the church is where many are buried, so it will be somewhere where people will continue to visit even if religion gets outdated. He doesn't speak from any point of bias but rather a perspective of logic, reason, and understanding.

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Grace Nichols poem "Wherever I hang" reminds me of friends and family members who came to America at a young age to begin a life and support their families back home. The poem touches on an area that I viewed most people struggle with during the process of immigrating. Lines, 24-27 "I get accustom to de English life / But I still miss back-home side To tell you the truth / I dont know really where I belaang'' These lines shed light on many experiences where immigrants leave their homes at young ages and feel out of place and insecure and scared in their new home.

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Wherever I hang, Lines 16-21 and 24-30 "And is so I

sending home photos of myself

Among de pigeons and de snow

And is so I warding off de cold And is so, little by little

I begin to change my calypso ways

Never visiting nobody 20

Before giving them clear warning"

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I get accustom to de English life

But I still miss back-home side 25

To tell you de truth

I don’t know really where I belaang

Yes, divided to de ocean

Divided to the bone

Wherever I hang me knickers – that’s my home.

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The Season Of Phantasmal Peace, Lines 12-19, Page 1466 "And men could not see, looking up, what the wild geese drew, what the ospreys trailed behind them in silvery ropes / that flashed in the icy sunlight; they could not hear battalions of starlings waging peaceful cries bearing the net higher, covering this world like the vines of a orchard, or a mother drawing the trembling gauze over the trembling eyes / of a child fluttering to sleep"

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A Far Cry from Africa, Lines 1-6, Page 1463 "A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt Of Africa. Kikuyu quick as flies, Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt / Corpses are scattered through a paradise. / Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: "Waste no compassion on the separate dead!"

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Checking Out, Lines 43-46, Page 1589 "Obinze watched him leave. He was going to check a box on a form that said that his client was willing to be removed. Removed. The word made Obinze feel inanimate. A thing to be removed. A thing without breath and mind. A thing.

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Checking Out, Lines 31-39, Page 1579 "You have the money?" the other one asked. / Obinze handed over two hundred pounds, all in twenty-pound notes that he had taken out of the cash machine over two days. It was a deposit, to prove that he was serious. Later, after he met the girl, he would pay two thousand pounds. / "The rest has to be up front, yeah?" We'll use some of it to do the running around and the rest goes to the girl. Man, you know we're not making anything from this. We usually ask for much more, but we're doing this for your cousin," the first one said."

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Waiting For Godot, Lines 1-15, Page 1429 "And if he comes? We'll be saved [Vladimir takes off his hat (LUCKY'S), peers inside it, feels about inside it, shakes it, knocks on the crown, puts it on again.] Well? Shall we go? Pull on your trousers. What? Pull on your trousers. You want me to pull off my trousers? Pull ON your trousers. [Realizing his trousers are down] True. [He pulls up his trousers.] Well? Shall we go? Yes, let's go. [THEY DO NOT MOVE].

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High Windows, Lines 1-9, Page 1455 "When I see a couple of kids / And guess he's fucking her and she's Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm, / I know this is paradise / Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives- Bonds and gestures pushed to one side / Like an outdated combine harvester, / And everyone young going down the long slide / To happiness, endlessly."

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Church Going, Lines 22-29, Page 1452 "When churches fall completely out of use / What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep / A few cathedrals chronically on show, / Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases, / And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep. Shall we avoid them as unlucky places? / Or, after dark, will dubious women come / To make their children touch a particular stone;"

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High Windows, Lines 5-12, Page 1455 "Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives- Bonds and gestures pushed to one side / Like an outdated combine harvester, / And everyone young going down the long slide / To happiness, endlessly. I wonder if / Anyone looked at me, forty years back, / And thought, That'll be the life; / No God any more, or sweating in the dark."

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Aubade, Lines, 21-30, Page 1457 "This is a special way of being afraid / No trick dispels. Religion used to try, / That vast moth-eaten musical brocade / Created to pretend we never die, / And specious stuff that says No rational being / Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing / That this is what we fear-no sight, no sound, / No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with. Nothing to love or line with, / The anesthetic from which none come round."

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I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day

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I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day

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I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day, Lines, 1-4 "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day. What hours, O what black hours we have spent This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went! And more must, in yet longer light's delay" and Lines, 9-11 " "I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree Bitter would have me taste: My taste was me; Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse."

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I noticed a symbol the first time I completed my analysis and essay on My Last Duchess. The symbol surrounds the curtain the Duke pulls back on the painting of his late wife. I believe the curtain symbolizes the Duke's need for control and obsession over his late wife. Even during death his wife still cannot decide when to be seen, he still wants to determine when someone is allowed to view his woman.

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My Last Duchess, Lines, "I said Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance, The depth and passion of its earnest glance, But to myself they turned (since none puts by The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst, How such a glance came there; so, not the first Are you to turn and ask this."

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The horrors of the way women have been treated date back much longer than we could possibly date. This is something we as a whole have faced whether that be men who treat women like this or those who are against it, and the obvious victims of the outcomes, women. Sadly, we face the same dilemma we have faced for centuries with much more strength in the idea of being viewed as equals in the present day but almost just the same strength in the opposite idea. There are many people who believe that women should continue to be in this oppressed state and will not accept the idea of viewing them as equals. This has been a battle since the past, present, and more than likely future.

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All of these excerpts were from poems or stories that were written during the Victorian era period which stretched from 1837-1901 under the reign of Queen Victoria have much in common although they are extremely different. In all of these excerpts, the reader can observe the commonality with rather ease. I picked excerpts that shed light on a very dark reality; that reality being that women were treated like objects or less during this time. Men in this era viewed women with no actual value and the little value they did receive would ultimately objectify them. A great example is the excerpt from My Last Duchess which shows the love he has for his "Duchess" which is truly just the love for the painting which was done by a renowned painter. I felt the need to add the excerpt from Goblin Market to help readers understand the little importance the "men" had for the life of the women in the story. They had knowledge that the fruit would cause great illness and kill the women but would nag until they would eventually give in. This displays the small amount of significance their life means to them. In the excerpt from Lot 99, Grace has to feel apologetic when she decides to tell her brother what her plans of doing with her career are since being independent as a woman is very outlandish and rather silly. Porphyria's Lover correlates with Goblin Market and My Last Duchess since it shows his thoughts on how his lover should think. He believes that she worships him and she belongs to him and nobody else, so he decides to kill her whether it was done maliciously or not; he had no value for her life and decided to selfishly take it from her to display her love and obsession for him.

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Goblin Market, Lines, 301-315 "She night and morning Caught the goblins' cry; "Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy come buy:"- Beside the brook, along the glen, She heard the tramp of goblin men, The voice and stir Poor Laura could not hear; Longed to buy fruit to comfort her, But feared to pay too dear. She thought of Jeanie in her grave, Who should have been a bride; But who for joys brides hope to have Fell sick and died."

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Lot 99, Lines 27 "I thought I'd prepare myself to be a teacher," I said apologetically. This line is an example that Grace doesn't feel comfortable even explaining her desire apart from marrying since during this victorian period such things were viewed as outlandish.

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Porphyria's Lover, Lines 24-36 "From pride, and vainer ties dissever, And give herself to me forever. But passion sometimes would prevail, nor could tonight's gay feast restrain A sudden thought of one so pale For love of her, and all in vain: So, she was come through wind and rain. Be sure I looked up at her eyes Happy and proud; at least I knew Porphyria worshipped me: surprise Made my heart swell, and till it grew While I debated what to do"

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My Last Duchess, Lines 21-34 "She had A heart-how shall I say?-too son made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. Sir, 'twas all one! My favor at her breast, The dropping of the daylight in the West, The bough of cherries some officious fool Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule She rode with round the terrace- all and each Would draw from her alike the approving speech, Or blush at least. She thanked men-good! but thanked Somehow-I know not how-as if she ranked My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name With anybody's gift."

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My Last Duchess, Lines 5-8 "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. Will't please you sit and look at her? I said "Far Pandolf" by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance"

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The idea behind this excerpt can be viewed in multiple ways. The two ideas that are prominent are whether the lover did it with ill intent or if this was done in an act of passionate love. Reading through Porphyria's Lover makes me believe that the lover was not in his true state of mind. I consider something wrong with him, whether that be that he is deeply in love and views this act as a true bond of forever love or that there was a true intent of murder behind what he did.

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Porphyria's Lover, Lines, 31-34 "Be sure I looked up at her eyes Happy and proud; at last I knew Porphyria worshiped me: surprise Made my heart swell, and still it grew while I debated what to do." and Lines, 38-42 "In one long yellow string I would Three times her little throat around, And strangled her. No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain."

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The Buried Life by Matthew Arnold is a poem about the true desire of one's course hidden under their current being. This poem touches on somebody's true wanting despite what they might currently possess or be. It is the never-ending flame that will never smother inside oneself. Matthew Arnold explains that in many lines throughout the poem such as Lines, 47-51 "There rises an unspeakable desire After the knowledge of our buried life; A thirst to spend our fire and restless force In tracking out our true, original course; A longing to inquire Into the mystery of this heart which beats So wild, so deep in us-to know Whence our lives comes and where they go"

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The Buried Life, Lines 47-51, Page 814 "There rises an unspeakable desire After the knowledge of our buried life; A thirst to spend our fire and restless force In tracking out our true, original course; A longing to inquire Into the mystery of this heart which beats So wild, so deep in us-to know Whence our lives comes and where they go."

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These excerpts symbolize Scrooge's rebirth or awakening. At the beginning of the story, Scrooge is mean, bitter, selfish, and all-around very cold in the heart. Once he wakes up he notices everything he's been doing wrong and proceeds to change it instantly by buying a prize turkey alongside a boy he sees around the vicinity Lines, 36-37 "Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?" and Lines, 39-41 "It's hanging there now," and "Is it?" said Scrooge. Go and buy it." This is the beginning of Scrooge's examples of the promise he made to the spirits.

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A Christmas Carol, Lines 8-10, Page 761 "He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears." and Lines 20-24, Page 761-762 "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"

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This excerpt had me reflect on when I was a much younger boy in the workforce. I have countless memories of a boy named Josue whose parents were also immigrants from Mexico, but the one golden difference between two boys working the job of men was immense. I was blessed enough to be born in the United States whilst my dear friend was also from Mexico just like his parents. Once I got to middle school I was able to live my life a bit more to the normality of others, but my dear friend Josue continued to work since he couldn't withdraw the same opportunities from our beautiful country as myself. Many poems such as this one bring me to reflect on my life and how difficult it has been, but I continue to remind myself there is someone out there in a worse situation than mine.

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The Cry of the Children, Lines 67-76 "For oh," say the children, "we are weary, And we cannot run or leap; If we cared for meadows, it were merely To drop down In them and sleep. Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping, We fall upon our faces, trying to go; And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping, The reddest flower would look as pale as snow. Through the coal-dark, underground; or, all day, we drive the wheels or iron In the factories, round and round."

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The Cry of the Children, Lines, 5-10 "The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, The young birds are chirping in the nest, The young fawns are playing with the shadows, The young flowers are blowing toward the west- But the young, young children, O my brothers, They are weeping bitterly." Many people don't understand that we still face the same dilemma we did many years ago in the present day. Just in China alone, the child labor statistic is nearing 17 million with 1/5th of those children centering the ages of 5-11 years of age while the rest fill the capacity of age up till 14. If that isn't already bad enough there are 28 million children missing in those statistics which are mostly girls which signifies they weren't registered under work, so could possibly dictate they're working from home or are younger than the minimum age of five to work.

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While reading the work of Elizabeth Browning I reflect on the lives of many children in different countries working until calluses cover their hands and death embodies their mind. I also reflect on myself working countless hours in hard labor as a younger boy and even the current day. It is a very dreadful reality knowing there are children in many places of the world even in the U.S. facing this horror constantly without understanding they're human since they've never been treated as one.

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The Cry of the Children, Lines 1-2 "Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, Ere the sorrow comes with years?"
and Lines 23-25 "Do you ask them why they stand Weeping sore before the blossoms of their mothers, in our happy fatherland?"

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The Little Black Boy, Lines 23-24, "When I from black and he from white cloud free, and round the tent of God like lambs we joy"
This excerpt touched me in a beautiful way. The little black boy is getting an understanding and considering the outcome of his afterlife.

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My outlook on this poem may seem like a controversial modern cultural fragment, but to my understanding, I don't necessarily see why it would be. I began to link the poem Kubla Khan and the manner it was created. It was through Samuel Taylor Coleridge taking opium and having a dream. I began to ponder on correlations of the modern day and linking back to Samuel's experience. Throughout time we've had countless geniuses who have used psychedelics, depressants, stimulants, etc, to harbor ideas and convert them into works of great achievement. Two great examples of this are Sigmund Freud, who was a true proponent of cocaine and its usage. This same man, who most might doubt or view as a junkie if no knowledge regarding him, created the psychoanalytic theory while high on the same drug others frown upon. Another genius is Stephen King, a legendary American author who has sold more then 350 million copies since 2006. Stephen King abused cocaine, Xanax, valium NyQuil, and marijuana all throughout his career. I'm not an advocate for drug usage, but I also do not negate the fact there is a definite correlation between particular drug usage and the brain working past our capacity. This was evident to Samuel Coleridge and still is to present-day authors and geniuses.

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The main reason I wanted to write an excerpt regarding "Kubla Khan" was the fact that he used a depressant and produced this vision which converted into a poem that some may consider one of the greatest. I wish he would have completed his dream, so we would have a complete version of this poem.

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Kubla Khan, Lines, 37-40 "A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora."
I picked this excerpt from the Kubla Khan poem for the simple fact I found it humorous in a way. If you have no knowledge of the poem itself, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was on opium which was the inspiration of the dream. He instantly began writing once he woke up but only completed a fragment of the opium-filled dream. I still can't seem to find any correlation between this vision and the current vision he was having as a whole. I've come to an inference that his mind was ready to alter a new reality. It could be that or something related to his past or present life that triggered the Ethiopian maid.

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I am ashamed to say that I fall under the category of those who don't cherish the beauty of our planet. I get stuck up in work and school and never get the chance to just stand somewhere and let my eardrums swim with the sound of breeze or allow my eyes to battle the sun temporarily. Not until today after reading this poem and analyzing it did I think to go out and enjoy nature to its fullest capacity.

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The world is too much for us gives great examples of how we don't cherish the beautiful earth in which we reside. Lines 1-4 "The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!", and Lines 5-9 "This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not."

In both excerpts, I thought back to the idea that this poem was written in the 19th century when there were no cellular devices nor the entertainment we have present day. If this was an idea Wordsworth had before, you could only imagine the disbelief he would have if he saw how accurate his poem flourished to be.

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Lines, 5-7 "This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers"
This particular excerpt from "The World is Too Much for us" gives an example of the extent of how far off we are from reality and the beauty of the earth. We have something as beautiful as mirrored water though we don't give it the love it deserves.

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I completely understand John Clare is bringing attention to poachers and the dangers animals encounter, but I felt much more. I feel as if in certain lines John Clare gave the badger an almost human background or feel. I believe he did this, so people would sympathize with the badger on a greater level than just some animal. The Badger goes in to much more depth than spreading awareness for animal cruelty. Line 35-36, "Though scarcely half as big, dimute and small, He fights with dogs for hours and beats them all." This line sets a picture of a child fighting off his bullies and coming out victorious raising awareness to his situation which in this case is the cruelty the badger has to endure.

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The Badger, Lines 32-36 "When badgers fight, and every one's a foe. The digs are clapped and urged to join the fray,
The badger turns and drives them all away.
Though scarcely half as big, dilute and small, He fights with dogs for hours and beats them all."
Although the poem "The Badger" definitely has its theme and idea of bringing awareness to animal cruelty, but it also spikes awareness in actual dangers animals have to face. Humans also being classified as animals in this case.

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Ozymandias is a very good excerpt to reflect on since it has a very ironic and deserved feeling. Ozymandias "King of other kings" being flaunted in this way by nature is a hit to the stomach. It's almost fitting to call it a punchline. The facial expression aligns with the forever feeling Ozymandias has to face until his statue completely decays.

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Ozymandias, Lines 1-5, "I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said- "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart...Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command."

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I reflect on this excerpt and compare it to the endless seeming cycle I'm battling with my school and work. Working the exact hours on different days like a pawn. You lose a bit of humanity in a way and begin to attract the characteristics of a robot. Working repeatedly just to receive the fruits of your labor and instantly have it all flushed away by utilities and necessities. All the hard work and sleepless hours will be an investment on my future. I promise that.

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The world is too much with us, Lines 1-4, "The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" This excerpt is very powerful by clarifying to humanity that this earth may be ours, but we are severely out of touch with it. Humans are living in a sense, but not living.

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The Rights of Woman, Lines 1-4 "Yes, injured woman! rise, assert thy right!
Woman! too long-degraded, scorned, opprest; O born to rule in partial Law's despite, Resume thy native empire o'er the breast!" The flame for equality and power for women has been lit since the 18th century and has flourished to the present day.

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I wanted to reflect on a certain sentence from the following excerpt which was "and the only comfort we had was in being in one another's arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears." I find this excerpt and sentence to be something that struck me most throughout everything that was read regarding his life. I find it very powerful that throughout all the pain and agony they had to endure there was still a window of comfort for them even if it was temporary.

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The west wind in the excerpt "O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghost from an enchanter fleeing," is seeming to be titled or rather the vessel of the breath of Autumn. The West Wind in this excerpt is cleaning or ridding the unwanted dead leaves to invite more space and new life.

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"and the only comfort we had was in being in one another's arms all that night, and bathing each other with our tears. But alas! we were soon deprived of even the small comfort of weeping together"

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Ode to the West Wind, Lines 1-3 "O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,"