Worked Tirelessly to Understand the Literary Works

¶ … worked tirelessly to understand the literary works of a variety of authors including poets Pat Mora, Shirley Geok-Lim, John Keats, and Robert Frost, and short-story writer DH Lawrence. As we have compared the works of these poets and determined how common themes are shared, and through a deep reading and literature analysis of Lawrence's short, I have been able to explore different writing and analytical approaches that have allowed me to develop, review, and strengthen my writing style and capabilities.

One of the first assignments we were given was to perform a comparative analysis of two poets: John Keats and Robert Frost. In this paper, Keats' and Frost's individual fears are analyzed through a close reading of "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" and "The Road Not Taken," by Keats and Frost, respectively. These poems forced me to look beyond what Keats and Frost had written and analyze how symbols, metaphors, and imagery are used to convey the poets' individual perspective. Because the two poems were published a little less than a hundred years apart, this comparative analysis also allowed me to see and understand recurring themes and fears of individuals and the human condition. Also, I was able to see how each poet viewed himself in relation to the natural world around him. Of the three papers, this one was my favorite because of its universal themes, which help me to better understand how people develop their individuality, and helps me to better understand why people make the choices they make, even when they are initially afraid to do so.

It was initially difficult for me to determine what elements of "When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be" and "The Road Not Taken" I was going to analyze, but as soon as was able to consider the multiple meanings hidden within the texts, I began to better understand what each poet must have been thinking. It is always difficult to analyze this type of poetry because I sometimes fear that I have misread something and have misinterpreted in my analysis. This piece is significant, in the terms of my writing, because it allowed me to explore poetry in a manner I had not considered before and also taught me what elements of literature I should pay attention to when reading and analyzing poetry.

In order to successfully determine what I was going to write about when comparing Keats and Frost, I performed a deep analysis of each poem on a line-by-line basis, which was then proceeded with an analysis of each stanza. It was important for me to perform these two types of analyses because I needed to first understand what each line meant and then I had to understand what each line meant within the context of the entire poem. This then allowed me to pick out common themes and literary devices, which would become the basis of my outline, and eventually, my paper. I would later use this poetry analysis approach to perform a comparative analysis of Mora and Lim's poems.

The skills learned in the process of analyzing these two, more traditional poems, was helpful in writing my next paper in which I compared the immigrant experiences of Pat Mora and Shirley Geok-Lim in "Immigrants" and "Learning to Love America," respectively. Through the analysis of these poems, I was able to understand how a subject told from a similar perspective -- that of an immigrant -- can be interpreted differently. I was surprised at how culture influences the perception of America and how culture shaped each poet. Unlike Keats and Frost who explore their individual relationships in contrast to nature, Mora and Lim present their narratives from a social and cultural perspective

I was able to translate my literary analytical skills into the explication of DH Lawrence's "The Horse Dealer's Daughter." Because of the complexity of the story, I did not only have to take into account what Lawrence was attempting to comment on, but I also had to look beyond the author's personal perspective and consider what was going on in history at the time the story was written. In this story, Lawrence comments on gender roles and inequality and contends that both genders often experience similar obstacles. As a longer story, it was more difficult to analyze Lawrence's "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" because I had to examine the relationships of the characters in the story, how they interacted with each other, and how their relationships were formed.

The writing process for this assignment was more tedious and complex than the previous two papers because it required additional research, which later had to be synthesized into a coherent argument. Performing research was complex not only because I had to determine what sources were applicable to my argument, but I also had to analyze and interpret various interpretations by other writers about what the symbols, characters, and metaphors in the story meant. Once I determined what sources I was going to use, I had to then determine if and how they supported my arguments. Once I was able to organize my thoughts, I was able to construct a rough outline that what I wanted to say.