My Wallace Steven's Poem

Farewell to Florida

Go on, high ship, since now, upon the shore,
The snake has left its skin upon the floor.
Key West sank downward under massive clouds
And silvers and greens spread over the sea. The moon
Is at the mast-head and the past is dead.
Her mind will never speak to me again.
I am free. High above the mast the moon
Rides clear of her mind and the waves make a refrain
Of this: that the snake has shed its skin upon
The floor. Go on through the darkness. The waves fly
back.

Her mind had bound me round. The plams were hot
As if I lived in ashen ground, as if
The leaves in which the wind kept up its sound
From my North of cold whistled in a sepulchral South,
Her South of pine and coral and coraline sea,
Her home , not mine, in the ever-freshened Keys,
Her days, her oceanic nights, calling
For music, for whispering from the reefs.
How content I shall be in the North to which I sail
And to feel sure and to forget the bleaching sand...

I hated the weathery yawl from which the pools
Disclosed the sea floor and the wilderness
Of waving weeds. I hated the vivid blooms
Curled over the shadowless hut, the rust and bones,
The trees like bones and the leaves half sand, half sun.
To stand here on the deck in the dark and say
Farewell and to know that that land is forever gone
And that she will not follow in any word
Or look, nor ever again in thought, except
That i loved her once...Farewell. Go on, high ship.

My North is leafless and lies in a wintery slime
Both of men and clouds, a slime of men in crowds.
The men are moving as the water moves,
This darkened water cloven by sullen swells
Against your sides, then shoving and slithering,
The darkness shattered, turbulent with foam.
To be free again, to return to the violent mind
That is their mind, these men, and that will bind
Me round, carry me, misty deck, carry me
To the cold, go on, high ship, go on, plunge on.

Citizen Kane

The Greatest Movie of ALL Time!....Really? Citizen Kane has been labeled as one of or the greatest. Why? What does this movie have to receive such a honorable title? The movie was filmed over 60 years ago and yet it is still considered one of the greatest; after all these years we still have not topped Citizen Kane?

The story line is what pulled me in. The film starts off by giving you all the answers and then asks a question. Who is Rosebud I kept thinking throughout the movie. I really was getting curious who this Rosebud was, and what had she done to effect Charles Foster Kane's life. The movie consisted of journalist talking with Kane's past acquaintances in hopes of getting a lead. Rosebud was the last thing that Kane uttered before he passed, and the journalists were hoping that his last breath would answer all the questions of his life. What kept me interested in the movie was the fact that I wanted to know who Rosebud was. "It'll probably turn out to be a very simple thing," Mr. Rawlston quoted in the movie about Rosebud. He even went on to infer that it may even be a girl that Kane saw but never met. During the duration of the movie I kept looking for clues about Rosebud. I was hoping to have the mystery figured out before the end. I had developed my theory of Rosebud as being a lady from his adult life to maybe something dealing with the women of his childhood--his mother. The very last scene of the movie when the reporter was saying something about how Rosebud will never be understood and that's ok, a lightbulb went off in my head and I thought maybe it had something to do with the sled. Just as my new theory arose the camera passed over the name of the sled revealing the name Rosebud. This however did not answer all the questions of Charles Foster Kane's life but yet instead lead to more questions.

Much like the beginning of the movie; the answer is revealed and then followed by more questions. Maybe this is one reason the movie has kept its appeal, it doesn't answer questions but yet reaches into the viewers thoughts and causes them to make their own answers.

"Daisy Miller"

Henry James created a nice little novella, "Daisy Miller" that on the surface was just a nice afternoon read. Daisy, an American traveling through Europe with her mother and little (annoying) brother, meets Winterbourne. Winterbourne is also an American, but he has spent so much time in Europe that he conveys the image of a European rather than an American. Winterbourne throughout the book was trying to convince his aunt (and even himself) that Daisy was just a young innocent girl, and she didn’t know what she was doing was causing eyebrows to raise and gossip to hum throughout the community. Daisy, unfortunately, knew what she was doing was considered taboo, and yet she still let her free spirit loose. Daisy took no consideration to the customs and traditions in Europe but instead just acted the way she would have back home in America. This behavior changes Daisy’s image from innocent and spirited to ignorant and unsophisticated. Winterbourne eventually at the ends gives up trying to help "educate" Daisy. In the end, the actions of Daisy are what destroy her.

I believe Daisy is meant to resemble America: young, innocent, fresh and yet beyond the first impressions unsophisticated and ignorant. Then on the flip side Winterbourne is meant to resemble Europe: educated, experienced, and level minded. I think that Henry James had fun playing with the characters throughout the book to make his own impressions of America and Europe known.

The most interesting point to me was when Dr. Sexton mentioned to take special notice of the names. It really struck my thoughts. I find it very perplexing that his name is Winterbourne (Winter) and her name is Daisy (spring). I previously had not taken notice to the significance of each name. I’m sure that Henry James picked these names for several purposes. However, I am having a hard time in figuring out exactly how he wanted the reader to interpret this combination. Henry James may have just been using the names as a way for the reader to visualize the characters. Although I don’t have any profound or complex analysis of this, each time I think of the book that is the first thing my thoughts wander too.