Sonnets and such continued...

Just a question: are we responsible for looking up and printing a copy of everyone's sonnets?

- my Italian sonnet:

IX---by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Here is a wound that never will heal, I know,
Being wrought not of a dearness and a death,
But of a love turned ashes and the breath
Gone out of beauty; never again will grow
The grass on that scarred acre, though I sow
Young seed there yearly and the sky bequeath
Its friendly weathers down, far underneath
Shall be such bitterness of an old woe.
That April should be shattered by a gust,
That August should be levelled by a rain,
I can endure, and that the lifted dust
Of man should settle to the earth again;
But that a dream can die, will be a thrust
Between my ribs forever of hot pain.

- my English/Shakespearean sonnet: 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Happy Holidays Everyone

This is... my contribution to the blog.
Because I think we all need a break.

When will it snow?

What is the point?

Through all the agitation at the end of class, I don't know if we came to a final conclusion... what is the point of Sir Gawain? Other than to not take panties from promiscuous ladies.

I kind of feel like its the idea that failure is a part of life, no matter how virtuous/good you are. Gawain is the best of the knights (who are supposed to be the more pious people). Even the best of the best fails at some point.

Christian Symbolism in SGGK

To kick-start our discussion for tomorrow, and so that we will have a place to bounce ideas off eachother, I'm going to share some of the Christian references I picked up on in SGGK.

We have already talked in class a little about the symbolic nature of the shield and the girdle. Towards beginning of the poem, we can see Gawain's Christian faith through his prayer to the Virgin Mary, and through the symbols on his shield (the pentangle and an image of the Virgin Mary). I read that the pentangle symbolizes "the virtues to which Gawain aspires: to be faultless in his five senses; never to fail in his five fingers; to be faithful to the five wounds that Christ received on the cross; to be strengthened by the five joys that the Virgin Mary had in Jesus (the Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and Assumption); and to possess...the five virtues of knights: friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety." The Virgin Mary's image on the shield ensures that Gawain never loses heart. The shield symbolizes Gawain's faith in the protection of God and Christ. Later in the poem, however, Gawain forsakes his trust in God and instead turns to the girdle given to him by Bertilak's wife for protection.

I also think Gawain's replacement of his faith in God with the girdle establishes a Genesis parallel. In Eden, Adam succumbed to Eve and ate the forbidden fruit. In SGGK, Gawain surrendered to Bertilak’s wife by accepting the, if you will, "false idol"--the girdle. Though Gawain knowingly sins (he immediately runs off to confession after receiving the girdle) by putting his faith in the girdle, the Green Knight pardons him. The Green Knight's mercy towards Gawain supports the Christian idea of a merciful God.

My last sentence puzzles me. Can we explore a little more the idea of a God or Christ figure in SGGK? Because I think certain aspects of the text support Gawain as having similar experiences to Jesus (see next paragraph), while others point to the Green Knight as being somewhat supernatural or divine.

My last point comes from the very end of the poem. The poet finishes the poem with a parallel between the green girdle and Christ's crown of thorns. Just as the crown of thorns represented both humiliation and triumph for Christ, the green girdle acts as a constant reminder to Gawain of his shame for his sins and as a reminder of his triumph in the beheading game. The girdle is ultimately like a scarlet letter which serves to remind Gawain of a time when he excessively valued his own mortal life. This carries the Christian message that we should not become to attached to our mortal life; it should be lived in a Christian way (trying to spread Jesus' word) so that we may have the reward of eternal life in heaven.

Comments? Other Christian symbols/allusions? Also, does anyone have any thoughts on the last line of the poem: "HONY SOYT QUI MAL PENCE"? I read that it literally means "shame to him who finds evil here," or, more fully interpreted, means "let the shame be to him who finds humility shameful."

Midterm!

Ok so Theresa just reminded me that even though we do not have an actual test on SGGK, there is still the midterm to think about. So let us reserve this post as a study guide of sorts for the midterm. Lets list all the material that we think/know will be on the exam (in an organized way please...well as much as possible). Laz, your input will be greatly appreciated (hint!).

This Weekend

I had meant to ask in class on Friday- what exactly are we supposed to be working on this weekend?

I'm printing out poems and figuring out the differences between the different kinds of poems. Should I be doing anything more?

Anisha

Random Thoughts

Hey guys,
I read something really interesting in an article about Sir Gawain today. It was talking about the significance of the number three. Reading over Laz's idea sheet for the paper, it talks about symmetry (two) but I found more interesting things in the number three.
The lord's wife came to Gawain's bedroom three times. He was tempted to do evil three times. The hunts were on three different days. The Green Knight swings the axe three times. On the third day of the hunt/his stay, Gawain doesn't give the lord everything. On the third axe swing, the Green Knight gives him a small scar (but not deadly). While this in itself is pretty obvious stuff, I thought the Christian/pagan connection was interesting. In Christianity (as some of you know and can explain better than me), there is a connection between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This doesnt necessarily connect to just Christianity, though. Three is significant in many cultures. The idea that life comes in three stages (birth, life, and death/afterlife), "all things come in threes", etc. The passage I read said that this was the authors way of saying that everything is (in this story and in life) connected. The passage specifically suggested that it was a Christian reference. While I would agree that it might be, because three is such a significant number in many cultures (http://www.shawlministry.com/significance_of_three.htm ) , I don't know if we can say this reference is directly Christian. But its interesting.


PS: Did you know that JRR Tolkien translated a version of Sir Gawain? His translation is supposed to be one of the better versions. It's funny... Tolkien came up in my research of Beowulf as well (he had done a couple of essays on the monsters in Beowulf)

Class Discussion

Hi guys,
I noticed Elizabeth posted- but my comments weren't relative to symbolism, so I figured I'd start a different post for this.
I was wondering if we drew some kind of conclusion on the class discussion today. We talked a lot about the beheading game, morality, and the choices that Gawain made. We jumped in and out of a lot of things, and it got a bit confusing, so I just wanted to leave the floor open on some concluding thoughts on the topic.
I was wondering what everyone felt about Gawain's guilt. I looked for passages that pointed specifically to Gawain's guilt before he was caught (after receiving the scarf from the lord's wife), and could not find any. It really draws me to the conclusion that he wasn't really guilty until he was caught. But then... what's the point? What is the message of this story?
As we were walking out of the room, we began to talk about how the "Golden Age of Knighthood" was ending. I kind of wonder if the author is trying to prove that this golden age never really exsisted. There was never really a time when everyone was 100% good, followed all rules of chivalry, and left out all human emotion. Even King Arthur's greatest knight falls to human emotions multiple times. I think this shows the imperfections and therefore intruths about this "Golden Age of Knighthood"

I realize this post kind of jumps around, but I just wanted to put some thoughts out there.

Colors and Shapes: Symbolism in SGGK

Symbolism plays a huge role in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, so I decided to do some research on the most popular symbols...


The Color Green: Obviously this symbol is connected to the Green Knight, as well as the Green Chapel and Bertilak's wife's girdle. Critics have many theories about the significance of the color green. Throughout literature, green has represented the cycles of nature and rebirth. This ties into the cyclical time frame of the story; the store starts and ends in the New Year (rebirth) and with the Green Knight challenging someone's life. In medieval England, green also represented witchcraft and devilry. This accounts for the Green Knight's devilish appearance as well as Morgan's control over all the events. Through witchcraft, Morgan gives the Green Knight his appearance and his ability to survive once his head has been chopped off. Also, when paired with gold (as in the Green Knight's costume and the girdle), green is representative of the fading away of youth. In this poem, Gawain has just been knighted and is one of Arthur's youngest knights; he then goes on a journey in which he is forced to give up his idealistic views of chivalry and how it applies to human nature. Finally, the Celts superstitiously claimed that green was a symbol for death and misfortune (fairly self-explanatory I think).



The Color Red: Though not as important as the color green, red plays a significant role. It should be noted, for all of you who don't know this, red is placed opposite from green on the color wheel. The most significant showing of red in this tale is on Gawain's sheild. The pentangle is inscribed in gold on a shield of "gules." In heraldry, gules stands for "warrior," which aptly describes Arthur's knights. In this story, Gawain's greatest adversary (besides himself) is the Green Knight, thus it is fitting that Gawain's shield would be the opposite color of the Green Knight. The Green Knight is also described as having red eyes... I'm not sure of the significance of this but if anyone else has any ideas, please share. It should also be noted that red and green are Christmas colors, which is when the story takes place.



The Pentangle: Perhaps the most significant symbol in this story. This story is the first time that the word "pentangle" has been used in English and it is the first time that it is described as the "endless knot." This is also the only story in which Gawain's shield has a pentangle on it. To Gawain, the pentangle is a representation of all the virtues to which he aspires: to be faultless in his five senses; never to fail in his five fingers; to be loyal to the five wounds of Christ; to gain strength from the five joys of Mary; and to possess brotherly love, courtesy, piety, and chastity. In short, to be chivalrous. At the beginning of the story, the pentangle is the main symbol which represents Gawain's ideals of chivalry. However, at the end of the story, the pentangle's significance is overshadowed by that of the girdle.



The Girdle: The green girdle has many meanings throughout the story. In the third section, Bertilak's wife claims it has magical powers and Gawain desires it to keep himself safe during his meeting with the Green Knight. However, once he gets the girdle and finds out that it has no protective powers, Gawain is ashamed that he gave up his chivalrous ideals for such an object. Gawain now sees the girdle as a badge of cowardice and shame for both his actions and his love of mortal life. Once he returns home, in true archetypal manner, the other characters do not understand what the girdle represents to Gawain and they see it as a symbol of his knightly skills. As with the actual events of the story, the meaning of the girdle is cyclical in nature.

These are just some of the most important symbols in SGGK... if you have anything else to add, please do!

Sonnets and Such

Hey guys,
I found this site for the basic explanation of what a sonnet was, and I thought it might be useful. http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/sonnet.html

So since I'm the first one to post (Because... I'm cool), I'm going to take claim to my sonetts, if that's okay?

My Italian Sonnet will is going to be by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It is Sonnet XLIII from Collected Poems. It begins with the line, "What lips my lips have kissed....".

My English/Shakespearian one is Sonnet 78 by Skakespeare, staring with the line, "So oft have I invoked thee for my Muse"

Just a note about that... I was trying to find a English sonnet that was not Shakespeare, and I could not find one that held to the pattern abab cdcd efef gg. There were others with altered patterns, but I'm not really sure if they still qualify for English sonnets, or if these have other names, so I'm going to stick to Ol' Shakespeare.

My Spenserian sonnet is by (surpise) Edmund Spenser. It's Sonnet 75 from Amoretti and the first line is "One day I wrote her name upon the strand" (Why did I think it was sand for some reason?)

So... who's going for poetry tomorrow (Not Fatima)

PS: Did you know the word "sonnet" means "little song"?

The Joys of Poetry...

Hey guys... quick question.

In poetry, the same rules of puncuation apply, so you don't need a comma at the end of every line. This might be a stupid question, but does the first letter of every new line (even if its not a new sentence) have to be capatalized? Like...

He renamed himself Edgar Allen Poe
and pretended to fight enemy foe.

(Don't ask)
But is the "a" in and supposed to be capitalized?

Poem

I'm sure all of you are well underway to writing your poems.
I have a question though. How big are you all making your characters? Should they take up a page or is it ok if I have all 10 characters on one page?
Laz, if you see this, input would be greatly appreciated :D

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

What a crazy story O_o
While a bit hard to understand at times, it was pretty intriguing nonetheless.

The Green Knight was clothed in green (obviously) and gold. According to heraldry, green stands for hope and loyalty in love and gold stands for generosity. I'm not quite seeing those traits in the Green Knight except when he chooses not to kill Gawain.
I found it pretty interesting that the advances of the woman (who turned out to be the Green Knight's wife) was a test of sorts. I found it even more interesting when the Green Knight was actually the host of the castle where Gawain stayed. This reveals a whole network of relationships (Morgan is Gawain's aunt and Arthur's half-sister... crazy)

The three days of hunting where the "game" took place was interesting. First off, it kind of implied a homosexual relationship between the lord and Gawain. The lord said that they would exchange whatever they've won at the end of the day with eachother. Gawain, being stuck with such a beautiful lady as the lord's wife, was undoubtedly going to win some type of sexual favor, be it a kiss or whatever. The lord was out hunting. The lord's and Gawain's willingness to kiss does raise a few eyebrows. Could this just be that kissing was considered a bit looser than it is today? Or is there really something homosexual going on?
I read that the animals the lord catches decrease in value during the course of the three days. Deer are highly valued because, while they don't put up much of a fight, they challenged the hunters and their pelts and meat were of value. Also, the hunting party caught a lot of deer. The boar, while still of value and does challenge a hunter, can really only be valued due to its meat vs its fur. Lastly, the fox is the least valued animal. In Medieval times, while challenging to hunt, were thought of as deceitful creatures and it was very un-noble to hunt these. Their pelts were also of very little value.
The hunting parallels the "hunting" of Gawain performed by the host's wife. The wife essentially captures Gawain and pins him to the bed. He doesn't, however, give up without a fight. He complains and tells the lady that he must keep to his knight code. He does, however fail because the two qualities being challenge at the moment, chastity and courtesy, present a paradox when dealing with the lady. Refusing her advances preserves Gawain's chastity, but shows little courtesy. Accepting her advances, oppositely, preserves courtesy, but undermines chastity. As Gawain gives in little by little to the lady (accepting one, then two, then three kisses and a girdle), the hosts brings back decreasingly less valuable game.

Hmm. That's it for now.
Remember to post a comment in the Canterbury Tales post!