Poem: Even As I Hold You by Alice Walker
Poem Video:
SCRIPT
ANALYSIS:
This poem speaks through the voice of a lover; a man. I believe the speaker is a man because in line 6, the speaker says "your black hair slipping through my fingers." In this statement, I can picture a man brushing a woman's hair back. Also, usually the men hold the women in their arms. It may be a stereotyped image of a man and woman in love, but that is what I pictured as I read this poem.
The first three lines of the poem already hint out the insecurity of this relationship. Notice how in line 3, Alice Walker uses the word "far" twice to notify the long distance of the two people even as they are physically right next to each other--practically one being.
After this first 'sentence', the next sentence is the rest of the first stanza. Let's break this sentence up and look at it more closely.
The speaker begins to describe the lover's eyes as "pennies in a bowl of dark honey" in line 4. This indicates that the person probably has hazel or dark brown eyes. The next line, line 5, says those eyes bring "sweet light" to other people. The speaker continues to use words that are related to a sweet taste such as honey. Instead of simply saying that his lover has brown eyes, Alice Walker used a description that made it visible to the readers.
Color plays another role in the next line as the speaker mentions "black hair" slipping through his fingers. I thought it was quite ironic to have the word "honey" only two lines before, and then "slipping" in line 6. When you think of honey, you visualize something sticky and unable to get rid of. However, here, her black hair is slipping through his fingers.
Lines 7-8 almost remind me of taking a photo with the word "flash." The word "smile" in the first part of line 9 also relates to this analysis of a photograph. He has a picture of this woman as she makes her walk away from him. The sad part of this idea is the smile "breaking", also in line 9. As the revolving door makes a "flippant last turn" in line 10, it tells readers how quickly and shamelessly the speaker's lover walked out the door.
Lines 12 and 13 express the emotion changing from grief to acceptance as the speaker is "emptying" his lover out of his mind. The lover is "changed" and is now "away".
Alice Walker separates lines 14 and 15. This symbolically means the distance the is created as the speaker is letting go of his lover. It may also contain the meaning of how no matter how much the speaker holds on, he already knows that the lover is long gone.
The overall meaning of this poem is quite straight forward: the speaker senses a change, a difference in his lover. As mentioned before, Alice Walker separates the last two lines in a separate stanza. "Even as I hold you / I am letting go." This short, but deep sentence pretty much summarizes the entire poem. The man has prepared his heart and mind to let go of the woman because although her physical presence is with him, her heart seems to be elsewhere. Line 6 mentioned before can also relate to this theory; the slipping hair through his fingers represent how she is slowly slipping away from him.
"Even As I Hold You" isn't a poem with rhymes or one specific meter. The lengths in the lines change constantly. I think Alice Walker focused more on sending a message through words, rather than portraying her ideas with form or structure of the poem.
WHY: I specifically chose this poem because even when it was my first time reading it, I could feel the speaker's urgency about the situation. Although I've never experienced something like this, Walker's choice of words to describe certain emotions felt allows me to understand the feeling of having to let someone go while still in love. Betrayal seems to take part in this poem, and I do have some experience in that area. I liked how the poem was able to reach out to someone even like myself--someone who is an amateur to not only love, but life itself. The speaker is in no way desperate, simply cool about it.
Thesis: Toni Morrison uses the main characters of her two books, Beloved and Song of Solomon, to explain that identity is found through suffrage.
Outline
1. What creates identity?
a. Names
i. Beloved
ii. Milkman
iii. street names
b. Innate characteristics
i. Beloved -- dead baby, arousing motherhood in Sethe
ii. Milkman -- same characteristics as father
c. Searching deeper within
i. Taking a second look
ii. Find a new side --> then decide towards which side one leans closer towards
iii. Stephanie A. Demetrkopoulos CRITICISM on Denver: By giving birth to her Self and through her connection with her father, Denver is guided a step further. She boldly faces reality and ends up being the caretaker of her caretaker.
2. How is identity lost?
a. One questions self
i. Is this really who I am?
ii. What is my purpose?
b. Uniqueness disappears
i. Beloved’s ghostly figure
ii. Sethe’s tree on her back
iii. Milkman’s “disability” & past
c. Society wins individual
i. One judges self through the eyes of society
ii. Individual follows the paths of society, rather than finding own path
3. How much does the society affect one’s identity?
a. Occupation
i. Milkman’s life at work & at home
ii. Theodore O. Mason, Jr. CRITICISM: Her narratives make sense of the real world by
interpretation, not simply by understanding.
b. History
i. Linda Krumholz CRITICISM: 3 States of “rememory” involve a personal reckoning with the
history of slavery.
JOB QUESTIONS The Bible as Literature: The Book of Job
AP English
How do you cite a quotation from the Bible? Please don’t forget that OWL Purdue is the preferred grammar source for KIS.
- In parenthesis, you write the version of the Bible, book, and then chapter and verse. There is no underlining or italicizing when writing the books.
When is the word bible capitalized and when is it not?
- The word bible is capitalized when you are referring to the specific book, The Bible. If you are referring to just a "rulebook" or such, then you don't capitalize the word. For example "this is the industry bible."
Write the MLA citation for the Bible.
- (Bible version, book. chapter#:verse#)
Copy and paste 5 of the most important lines from Job. Cite the locations correctly.
- But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. (King James Bible, Job 2:5)
- Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? (King James Bible, Job 4:17)
- I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause: (King James Bible, Job 5:8)
- If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. (King James Bible, Job 8:6)
- A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness. (King James Bible, Job 10:22)
What does iniquity mean? Why is this word important?
- Iniquity means immoral or grossly unfair behavior.
List one other word that people who read Job should know.
Find 2-3 figures of speech. Copy and paste the lines and identify what figure of speech is used.
Is the Book of Job a tragedy, romance, history, or comedy?
Poem: Even As I Hold You by Alice Walker
Poem Video:
SCRIPT
ANALYSIS:
This poem speaks through the voice of a lover; a man. I believe the speaker is a man because in line 6, the speaker says "your black hair slipping through my fingers." In this statement, I can picture a man brushing a woman's hair back. Also, usually the men hold the women in their arms. It may be a stereotyped image of a man and woman in love, but that is what I pictured as I read this poem.
The first three lines of the poem already hint out the insecurity of this relationship. Notice how in line 3, Alice Walker uses the word "far" twice to notify the long distance of the two people even as they are physically right next to each other--practically one being.
After this first 'sentence', the next sentence is the rest of the first stanza. Let's break this sentence up and look at it more closely.
The speaker begins to describe the lover's eyes as "pennies in a bowl of dark honey" in line 4. This indicates that the person probably has hazel or dark brown eyes. The next line, line 5, says those eyes bring "sweet light" to other people. The speaker continues to use words that are related to a sweet taste such as honey. Instead of simply saying that his lover has brown eyes, Alice Walker used a description that made it visible to the readers.
Color plays another role in the next line as the speaker mentions "black hair" slipping through his fingers. I thought it was quite ironic to have the word "honey" only two lines before, and then "slipping" in line 6. When you think of honey, you visualize something sticky and unable to get rid of. However, here, her black hair is slipping through his fingers.
Lines 7-8 almost remind me of taking a photo with the word "flash." The word "smile" in the first part of line 9 also relates to this analysis of a photograph. He has a picture of this woman as she makes her walk away from him. The sad part of this idea is the smile "breaking", also in line 9. As the revolving door makes a "flippant last turn" in line 10, it tells readers how quickly and shamelessly the speaker's lover walked out the door.
Lines 12 and 13 express the emotion changing from grief to acceptance as the speaker is "emptying" his lover out of his mind. The lover is "changed" and is now "away".
Alice Walker separates lines 14 and 15. This symbolically means the distance the is created as the speaker is letting go of his lover. It may also contain the meaning of how no matter how much the speaker holds on, he already knows that the lover is long gone.
The overall meaning of this poem is quite straight forward: the speaker senses a change, a difference in his lover. As mentioned before, Alice Walker separates the last two lines in a separate stanza. "Even as I hold you / I am letting go." This short, but deep sentence pretty much summarizes the entire poem. The man has prepared his heart and mind to let go of the woman because although her physical presence is with him, her heart seems to be elsewhere. Line 6 mentioned before can also relate to this theory; the slipping hair through his fingers represent how she is slowly slipping away from him.
"Even As I Hold You" isn't a poem with rhymes or one specific meter. The lengths in the lines change constantly. I think Alice Walker focused more on sending a message through words, rather than portraying her ideas with form or structure of the poem.
WHY: I specifically chose this poem because even when it was my first time reading it, I could feel the speaker's urgency about the situation. Although I've never experienced something like this, Walker's choice of words to describe certain emotions felt allows me to understand the feeling of having to let someone go while still in love. Betrayal seems to take part in this poem, and I do have some experience in that area. I liked how the poem was able to reach out to someone even like myself--someone who is an amateur to not only love, but life itself. The speaker is in no way desperate, simply cool about it.
Thesis: Toni Morrison uses the main characters of her two books, Beloved and Song of Solomon, to explain that identity is found through suffrage.
Outline
1. What creates identity?
a. Names
i. Beloved
ii. Milkman
iii. street names
b. Innate characteristics
i. Beloved -- dead baby, arousing motherhood in Sethe
ii. Milkman -- same characteristics as father
c. Searching deeper within
i. Taking a second look
ii. Find a new side --> then decide towards which side one leans closer towards
iii. Stephanie A. Demetrkopoulos CRITICISM on Denver: By giving birth to her Self and through her connection with her father, Denver is guided a step further. She boldly faces reality and ends up being the caretaker of her caretaker.
2. How is identity lost?
a. One questions self
i. Is this really who I am?
ii. What is my purpose?
b. Uniqueness disappears
i. Beloved’s ghostly figure
ii. Sethe’s tree on her back
iii. Milkman’s “disability” & past
c. Society wins individual
i. One judges self through the eyes of society
ii. Individual follows the paths of society, rather than finding own path
3. How much does the society affect one’s identity?
a. Occupation
i. Milkman’s life at work & at home
ii. Theodore O. Mason, Jr. CRITICISM: Her narratives make sense of the real world by
interpretation, not simply by understanding.
b. History
i. Linda Krumholz CRITICISM: 3 States of “rememory” involve a personal reckoning with the
history of slavery.
JOB QUESTIONS
The Bible as Literature: The Book of Job
AP English
How do you cite a quotation from the Bible? Please don’t forget that OWL Purdue is the preferred grammar source for KIS.
- In parenthesis, you write the version of the Bible, book, and then chapter and verse. There is no underlining or italicizing when writing the books.
When is the word bible capitalized and when is it not?
- The word bible is capitalized when you are referring to the specific book, The Bible. If you are referring to just a "rulebook" or such, then you don't capitalize the word. For example "this is the industry bible."
Write the MLA citation for the Bible.
- (Bible version, book. chapter#:verse#)
Copy and paste 5 of the most important lines from Job. Cite the locations correctly.
- But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. (King James Bible, Job 2:5)
- Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? (King James Bible, Job 4:17)
- I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause: (King James Bible, Job 5:8)
- If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. (King James Bible, Job 8:6)
- A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness. (King James Bible, Job 10:22)
What does iniquity mean? Why is this word important?
- Iniquity means immoral or grossly unfair behavior.
List one other word that people who read Job should know.
Find 2-3 figures of speech. Copy and paste the lines and identify what figure of speech is used.
Is the Book of Job a tragedy, romance, history, or comedy?