We are about to begin discussing works from The Great Depression as we read Of Mice and Men. One piece of poetry that appeared during this time was Lament by Randolph Goodman. Read this poem and then share your feelings on its theme and the line the lines that best express this theme.LAMENT
Sweet the water—
Bitter to taste
In a world submerged
In a maelstrom of haste . . .
Fair the sun-rays—
Dark to see
From workaday deeps,
Depths unhappy, unfree . . .
Sweet the blossom—
Acrid to smell
From an earth encrusted
With the Patines of Hell . . .
Fair the breezes—
Harsh to hear;
Discordantly blowing,
With the discord of Fear . . .
Sweet this Life—
God! to feel
Held tight to a Rack,
Fettered fast to a Wheel.
Bitter to taste
In a world submerged
In a maelstrom of haste . . .
Fair the sun-rays—
Dark to see
From workaday deeps,
Depths unhappy, unfree . . .
Sweet the blossom—
Acrid to smell
From an earth encrusted
With the Patines of Hell . . .
Fair the breezes—
Harsh to hear;
Discordantly blowing,
With the discord of Fear . . .
Sweet this Life—
God! to feel
Held tight to a Rack,
Fettered fast to a Wheel.
(The deadline to post a response to this blog question is midnight Sunday, March 13, 2011.)
6 comments:
I think the theme of the poem "Lament" is mostly revealing the feeling of the people during the Great Depression. It shows how the citizens have become depressed, hopless, and unhappy. It uses words to describe how the people view simple things in life, such as nature,to be horrible instead of being beautiful and pleasant. I think the line "Sweet the blossom—Acrid to smell" best expresses the theme by showing how people no longer find things in life to be pleasant. This also supports the theme by showing the citizens have lost all of their hope.
The theme of this poem is mainly the hopelessness and depression of the people. There seems to be no light to the darkness which they are all facing. None of the people see any hope to salvation. The lines "Fair the sun-rays-Dark to see From workaday deeps, Depths unhappy, unfree" show that the light they all once knew is now barely there. All that is left is a massive lack of hope without the slightest hint at happiness.
I think this poem's theme is the feeling of what the people were going through during the Great Depression, the feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. The writer shows this in the lines "Harsh to hear; Discordantly blowing, With the discord of Fear..." These lines show because it tells how they feel like everything is just weathering them down, and simply making them fearful of what will come next.
I think the theme of "Lament" is showing how the people felt during the Great Depression. They just feel hopeless and gloomy. They do not look at anything anymore as being good to them. The lines "From an earth encrusted
With the Patines of Hell . . ." supports how the people believe that nothing left on earth is pleasent to them.
I think the theme is that during this period of history people knew how they were supposed to feel, but this was overshadowed by the torture the world had become. The lines, "Sweet this life- . . . Held tight to a Rack" show that every person values each moment of life, because they know what it is supposed to be like, how wonderful life is supposed to be, even though each moment is a moment of torture.
To me, it seems as though "Lament" is about how wretched and hopeless people felt during the time of the Great Depression. There was good in life all around them, but they were unwilling to see past their own troubles. The line that most clearly shows this would have to be, "Fair the breezes—Harsh to hear;Discordantly blowing,With the discord of Fear". It speaks of how the times are fine, but people can only see the bad in them, and are fearful of the change.
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