My Number (Billy Collins) vs. I had heard it's a fight (Edwin Denby)

These two separate poems, the first by Billy Collins and the second by Edwin Denby, both discuss the nature of death. Both poems outwardly personify the idea of death, describing it through its actions, but the most important concept to gather is the immediate distinction between the two works. Collins is able to personify death in way for the audience to fear it. This is shown repeatedly by the numerous questions asked throughout the poem: “Is Death miles away from this house / …or breathing down the neck of a lost hiker / in British Columbia?” (1-4), “Is he too busy making arrangements, / tampering with air brakes, / …Or is he stepping from a black car / parked at the dark end of a lane…?” (5-6, 11-12). It can be inferred that Billy Collins seems to be warning his audience about the danger and spontaneity of death; it is lurking behind every corner, ready to follow a single subject. Edwin Denby, on the other hand, has a different meaning in his poem.  Unlike Collins, Denby addresses death as a force to be reckoned with. In the second stanza, the speaker describes the “afternoon it touched [him] / It sneaked up like it was a sweet thrill / …Was it sweet!” (5-6, 9), but then goes on to add, “I decided it was bad, / Cut out the liquor, went to the gym, and did / What a man naturally does” (10-12). Instead of wondering when death will approach, like Collins emphasizes in his poem, Denby ponders over the excitement, the “thrill” of death that the speaker “can’t get over” (14), yet wishes to avoid. It appears that Denby has taken less of a critical approach towards death than Collins, where in the first poem the concept of death is terrifying and in the second it is quite different.  Instead, the excitement of death feels far more rewarding than merely waiting for it to knock on one’s door.

The Picture of Dorian Gray #4

It is evident after reading the seventh and eighth chapters of the Picture of Dorian Gray that Dorian is inadvertently influenced by Lord Henry almost all of the time. This is most clear when Dorian publicly announces Lord Henry’s theories as incorrect, but in the end praises him for his thoughts and opinions. In the previous chapter, Dorian claims that “the mere touch of Sibyl Vane’s hand makes [him] forget [Lord Henry] and all [of his] wrong, fascinating, poisonous, [and] delightful theories” (56). The scene at the movie theater where Dorian rejects all of his Lord Henry’s inputs seem to wash away once Dorian becomes aware of Sibyl’s death later in the reading. The assistance Lord Henry offers Dorian seems to delight him, and Dorian soon realizes the good that has come out of this tragedy: “But I am awfully obliged to you for all that you have said to me. You are certainly my best friend. No one has ever understood me as you have” (76). He feels that he has made a great friend in Lord Henry. Anything Lord Henry suggests seems to stick on Dorian, subtly influencing all of his decisions and actions. Without a doubt, there is a sense of manipulation in Lord Henry, as he is capable of encouraging Dorian to latch on to his bandwagon instead of that of Basil or even Dorian himself. There is no telling whether Lord Henry is as awful as the novel seems to put him up to be, but there is certainly no doubting the obvious fancy Dorian has taken for Lord Henry’s input, even after he has repeatedly refuted him in public. Eventually the audience will learn the truth: whether Lord Henry’s tactics are for better or for worse, and whether Dorian is seriously fixated on the opinions of Lord Henry over that of himself and his other friends.  

The Picture of Dorian Gray #3: Chapters 5-6

Lord Henry has become quite an interesting character in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. His personality has not really changed since the beginning of the novel, but his purpose has become more and clearer due to his manipulative ways. In the sixth chapter of Wilde’s only book, Lord Henry exerts his precedence over both Dorian and Basil by providing his opinion on Dorian’s engagement in another one of his pedantic theories: “‘I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now…we are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do’”. This statement displays Lord Henry as a hypocrite. Throughout the entire book, all Lord Henry has done is approve or disapprove. He constantly “airs his moral prejudices” and always takes notice of what common people say and what charming people do. His statement is merely the antithesis of himself. Wilde sets up a stark contrast between what Lord Henry claims to be the truth and what is actually reality to show the absurdity of his character. Basil is continuously worried about Lord Henry’s influence over Dorian, and the hypocrisy of Lord Henry’s character only makes matters worse. Hopefully Wilde will make Lord Henry’s manipulation attempts more visible to Dorian as he slowly depreciates his youth, innocence, and beauty at the hands of Lord Henry’s outwardly noticeable influence.   

The Picture of Dorian Gray #3

Oscar Wilde continuously reaffirms his beliefs time and time again in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. One of his most prominent beliefs, the one which prompted the novel and his condescending preface, is that of the aesthetic movement and the concept of beauty over everything else. The mere representation of Dorian Gray as a handsome and beautiful young man is not nearly enough to satisfy Wilde’s cravings for the aesthetic understanding. Consequently, he includes Dorian Gray’s love into the mix of all things beautiful, not analytical. When describing the nature of his love for Sibyl Vane to Lord Henry, Dorian seems to exclude everything about the mistress in an attempt to augment her beauty: “‘Sibyl is the only thing I care about. What is it to me where she came from? From her little head to her little feet, she is absolutely and entirely divine’” (39). Based on the context of the passage, we can infer that Dorian is alluding to her physical appearance. He does not care about her past; instead, Dorian is only fascinated by the characters she is prescribed and the natural beauty in all of them. Dorian’s fixation on her beauty rather than her background is a strong resemblance towards Wilde’s view of art altogether. Wilde believes that art should be appreciated for its beauty, not for its symbolism or its underlying meaning. This is similar to how Dorian appreciates Sibyl’s beauty as a human being and not the connotation that comes with her occupation and the characters she portrays. The premise behind the aesthetic movement will appear quite often in the novel through characters, portraits, and scenes, but the goal of introducing these configurations carries no more importance than to alert the audience of what they should truly be focusing on: beauty.

My Son the Man Poem Analysis

Thesis: In Sharon Olds’ poem, My Son the Man, the allusion to Houdini is important in the sense that it sets up a comparison describing the impressions of a mother who fears the ageing of her son to that of a magician who can free himself from any form of restraint.

-          Allusion

·         “Suddely [sic] his shoulders get a lot wider, the way Houdini would expand his body while people were putting him in chains…[he] snapped the padlock [and] unsnaked the chains”. Harry Houdini is arguably the most famous magician in history, and this simple allusion describes efficiently the feeling of having a son transform from childhood to adulthood. The expansion of the child’s shoulders is directly compared to Houdini’s expanding body as the child learns to maneuver through the restraints of growing up just as Houdini maneuvered the physical restraints he was placed in.

-          Simile

·         “This was not what I had in mind when he pressed up through me like a sealed trunk through the ice of the Hudson”. Although this simile is not directly related to the allusion of Houdini, it provides support for the mother’s mixed and confused feelings. The mother says that this “was not what [she] had in mind”, but also accepts this fact by saying earlier, “I know I must be ready, [I must] get over my fear of men now [that] my son is going to be one”. The comparison of the son growing up to that of a trunk sprouting through the ice of the Hudson only exemplifies the significance of Houdini’s purpose in the poem: to justify the child’s actions of entering adulthood, but it also displays the mother’s complex feelings towards the situation. The simile effectively builds off of the allusion stated earlier and allows the spontaneous nature of the child growing up to be more navigable for the mother.