1.
Read Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus”, then select one specific symbol and explain what it represents in the context of the poem. Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus”, after the biblical character who was brought back to life by Jesus Christ, is a poem about Plath’s tragic ideals of life, and suicide. In the line “And like a cat I have nine times to die”, she uses the symbolic context of a cat’s nine lives to describe her ability to reinvent and reform herself.It also documents the events in the poet’s life, from her father’s passing on to her tumultuous relationship with her husband Ted Hughes—all of which accounts for her numerous “deaths” and “rebirths”.
2. Read William Butler Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium”, then select one specific symbol and explain what it represents in the context of the poem. In “Sailing to Byzantium”, Yeats opens with a line that says, “That is no country for old men”—which at once showcases the negative qualities attached to age and weakness.Yeats talks about Byzantium as a kind of utopia where art is at its height, and human and natural capacities are at their finest. The vibrant images negate common colors attached to aging, which are usually dark and gloomy. The poem qualifies, though, that age may be forgotten if the presence of soul and spirit for art are alive.
3 What does Byzantium represent in the poem? Byzantium is actually an ancient European city, now known as Istanbul. It was the symbol of civilization and progress in art, as well as commerce, politics, and culture.The poem’s use of Byzantium is akin to a land of a faraway place and time, which cannot be brought back. Hence, Yeats’ Byzantium may not just be a reference to the actual place, but a representation of utopia, or heaven, where everything is alive, colorful, and flourishing in art.4.
Read Archibald Macleish’s “Ars Poetica”, select one couplet, and explain the symbolic significance of the couplet to the art of poetry. Macleish’s “Ars Poetica” is a poem featuring the poet’s creative philosophy.Its last couplet (“A poem must not mean/But be”) illustrates Macleish’s view of how a poem should be written, how it should be read, and its relevance to readers. Through this line, he also negated poems written by other poets—many of which give untold meanings, preach particular morals, and represent various ideologies.
Macleish believes that a true poem should not be coated in layers of truths, as seen by its creator. It should just be—a work of art that expresses the mind of the poet, without imposing on the reader.
