The Analysis of a Poetry - Billy Collins’s "Weighing the Dog"

  After the final exam, I read some poems and write down my reflections and analyses. Although this poem's title is "Weighing the Dog", in fact the speakers talked about a broken relationship between the speakers and his lover. At first, I tried to use my imagination to figure out what the true meaning behind the literal words and phrase was, but I still did not make sense of the poem. Because it was really confusing and nonsensical that the author clearly narrated about the process of weighing the dog. It must have a real implication behind these simple phrases. Therefore, I tried to be the speakers in this poem,and I gradually grasped the general idea of this poem, but I do not still understand the detailed points in this poem.


Weighing the Dog
It is awkward for me and bewildering for him
as I hold him in my arms in the small bathroom,
balancing our weight on the shaky blue scale,

but this is the way to weigh a dog and easier
than training him to sit obediently on one spot
with his tongue out, waiting for the cookie.

With pencil and paper I subtract my weight
from our total to find out the remainder that is his,
and I start to wonder if there is an analogy here.

It could not have to do with my leaving you
though I never figured out what you amounted to
until I subtracted myself from our combination.

You held me in your arms more than I held you
through all those awkward and bewildering months
and now we are both lost in strange and distant neighborhoods.

Billy Collins (b. 1941)

  In Billy Collins’s Weighing the Dog, he conveyed a much deeper concept than simply weighing a dog. It talked about a broken relationship. The dog symbolized his lover. The first and the second stanza – “It is awkward for me and bewildering for him as I hold him in my arms in the small bathroom, balancing our weight on the shaky blue scale, but this is the way to weigh a dog and easier than training him to sit obediently on one spot with his tongue out, waiting for the cookie.” The speaker, on using the method with the dog, he found an analogy to his lover. When they were together, he could easier measure his lover’s love just like training the dog to sit obediently on one spot with his tongue out, waiting for the cookie. I think when they were together, the girl was willing to do everything for the speaker, and then she might just expect a love from him in return just like the dog. However, after separating with the girl, the speaker discovered her significant and the distance between them; thereby he might say “It is awkward for me...” The lover’s affection or heart was far away from the speaker, so the speaker used the metaphor to describe that nowadays when he wanted to know the dog’s weight, he needed to takes the awkward method. Their relationship was not as close as before, and the speaker thought he could not gradually understand and feel his lover’s affection as easily as yesterday. Collins talked about in the third stanza – “With pencil and paper I subtract my weight from our total to find out the remainder that is his, and I start to wonder if there is an analogy here”, it means that only when he ignored himself did he realize how important his lover was. In the fourth stanza – “It could not have to do with my leaving you though I never figured out what you amounted to until I subtracted myself from our combination”, the speaker never realized the girl’s value until he started to leave; by that he just knew what the girl had contributed to their relationship.

  

The Analysis of Reading Poetry - Sylvia Plath’s "Metaphors"

    Last two weeks, I read Sylvia Plath’s Metaphors. I want to analyze this poem, because it use lots of metaphors. Even its title is also a metaphor. Therefore, I spend some time to figure out what  the meaning of the poem is, what the poet wants to talks about, and what each of the metaphor in the poem symbolize. The second reason that I chose Metaphor to write an analysis is that if people read it only by the literal meaning, it totally confusing. We need to use imagination, and then the sentences just make sense.

Metaphor

I'm a riddle in nine syllables, 

An elephant, a ponderous house, 

A melon strolling on two tendrils. 

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers! 

This loaf's big with its yeasty rising. 

Money's new-minted in this fat purse. 

I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf. 

I've eaten a bag of green apples, 

Boarded the train there's no getting off. 

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

   Fist, I define the literary technical device - metaphor and then discuss its usage in Sylvia Plath’s Metaphors. Metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two essential unlike things that actually have something in common; in metaphor, the comparison is not expressed but is created when a figurative term is substituted for or identified with the literal term.
   Plath chooses many metaphors to describe her pregnancy in this poem. The poem is actually a riddle, which is revealed in the first line – “I'm a riddle in nine syllables,” Next, in the second Plath describes herself firstly with visual metaphors. Elephants and ponderous houses both remind people of the images of figures that are massive and bulky, as she feels weighty in her pregnant body. However, there are other connotations. Elephants have very long gestation periods. Plath’s pregnancy may feel endless. Moreover, a house is not only the image of a ponderous item but also a family container. There is the Biblical connotation of the body as “house of the soul.” In the third sentence – “A melon, strolling on two tendrils” the reader can easily picture a pregnant woman’s round belly and thin legs just as a melon strolling on two tendrils. 
    The fourth sentence is “O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!” One after the other, Plath also uses the metaphor. Red fruit is a Biblical allusion “fruit of thy womb” and clearly relates to having a child. In addition, I think the internal melon is a red fruit, just like the color of the new-born babies. Ivory and fine timbers both have metaphors: the ivory is the most valuable and costliest thing on an elephant’s body; the house is worthlessness without the fine timbers which is constructed from. These three figures are all the metaphors that describe the unborn child’s importance. The fifth line – “This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising”, the line about a rising loaf of dough, is an even more understandable metaphor, because there is a modern pun on a familiar disparaging reference to pregnancy as "a bun in the oven." The sixth line also uses the metaphor again. Plath describes herself as “Money’s new-minted in this fat purse”. Minting is the process of making coin from base metal. Coins are placed in a purse; thereby a fat purse is a prize, due to have many coins inside. The purse has no great worth in itself, but contains great value. The sixth line is the metaphor about the relationship between mother and child – Plath is just like the purse; without the valuable child, she is just an ordinary person.
    In the seventh line – “I’m a mean, a stage, a cow in calf”, Plath describes herself as a means, a stage, a cow in calf. A means is that she is just a way for a baby to be born, but does not feel maternal. A stage is that the child is on the center of the stage, while the mother is just the platform for the child’s performance. Then a mother is just as the breeding cow that is valued for the calves she can produce. In the eighth line – “I’ve eaten a bag of green apples”, Plath also uses metaphor. First, when someone eats an entire bad of apple, he/she must is extremely fill up. Moreover, the apples are green. Green fruit is sour. People must feel pain after finishing a whole bag of sour apples; the feeling is just like a pregnant woman having a morning sickness. Furthermore, there are more abundant meanings than that: it could be another Biblical allusion. Eve was strictly punished for eating just one apple in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, while Plath feels that she must have eaten the whole bag, so she suffers such a painful feeling. The most important is that the apple reminds the reader of the Biblical consequence of Eve’s origin sin: God punished Eve with bringing suffering on all women during childbirth. “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” (Genesis 3: 16) The last line – “Boarded the train there’s no getting off”, the train that the woman can not get off is the process of the birth. Nothing can stop the train until it arrives at the destination - it is just like nothing can stop a pregnant woman until she delivers the baby. In the whole poem, Plath uses at least fourteen metaphors. The nine lines all have metaphors.
    In this poem, Plath choose many metaphor to describe her pregnancy. I feel that theses metaphor are describing that she does not enjoy the the "miracle" time. she seems to be complaining about the time she is pregnant and is excited until nine months is over.

    

The Controversy about the 18 Optional Literary Credits - (2)

  The English department of our school, Soochow University, rules that students in this department must study >choose at least eighteen literary elective credits out of fifty three elective credits except the two required literary courses that are Introduction of >to Western Literature and Introduction to English Literature before graduating >graduation. In my opinion, the eighteen elective literary credits are too many to most students. The first reason is that when students are freshmen, there are already two required literary courses that are Introduction of >to Western Literature and Introduction to English Literature. When students study the two courses, they may know that their interests of the courses. For instance, after taking credits of the two courses, students will have the basic knowledge and study skills of the western literature. After studying the two courses, I believe that I have the basic knowledge such as the tradition of old Greek and Rome, Bible literature and so on, also, study skills such as simile, irony and so on. With this basic knowledge, it will be enough for us to understand western world and whether to study further or not; it can be easily decided to >by everyone. The rule of the eighteen literary elective credits are too much >is not reasonable and I/we think that the number of the credits should be decided by every student.

    The second reason that the eighteen optional literary credits are too many is based on one of our department’s educational goals - the curriculum is designed to improve students’ listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating abilities so that they are equipped with language aptitude and specialties in related fields for future careers. Besides the solid and basic language training, students can follow their interests and career plans to choose three academic groups - English and American Literature, linguistics, practical English application. Therefore, in order to achieve the education that is based on each student's potential, interest and life planning, the school should not limit students to elect eighteen optional literary credits in >out of the fifty-three optional credits before graduation. Take myself as an illustration >example; I am a double-major student, for the sake of avoiding education retardation >being late in graduation I need to select the literary credits. In order to reaching the standard of "eighteen" optional literary credits before graduation, I have no choice but to give up the chance to study translation courses which I am interested in. However, when I was a freshman, I was completely indifferent toward literature matters. Finally, when I take the literary class, my attitude is a little reckless and careless;in the meanwhile I feel quite depressed and impotent. Although I clearly know that that it is not a right attitude toward my study, I can not just raise my passion for literature and poetry which I am definitely disinterested in. It violates the educational goals that say "follow students' interests and career plans". To sum up, there is a huge room for the discussion and the reduction of the eighteen credits.

The Practice of a Description - The First Time to Pick My Idol Up（２）

  As I arrive at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 10 o'clock, my friends and I hurriedly search for the Terminal I in the airport lounge just like having ants in our pants. Losing the sense of direction, I try to make myself calm and then seek for the aid of the service counter. Moving in the direction of the Terminal I with the brick steps, we are all excited and fevered.

The situation in the Terminal I that day

   When we finally reached, hundreds of fans,who waited for the arrival of the Korean pop male group - INFINITE(인피니트), come >came into our sights. There are >were about three hundred INSPIRIT(인스피릿), the official name of INFINITE's fans) who waited for the arrival and surrounded the glass fences in the arrival waiting area - almost eighty percent are >were females, and the remainder are >were all males. Whoever carries >carried either the high-technique camera or the smart phone, discussed how he/she will >would do when the idols arrived and how deep he/she had been obsesses >obsessed with INFINITE. As time passes >passed by, most fans gradually lose >lost patience, started to hanging >hanged out in the arrival hall, and sit >sat chatting and taking some breaks. Suddenly, thundering scream rushed to my ears, I raised my head and stand >stood on tiptoe, and try >tried to move to the front line so that I can >could clearly know what happened. To everyone's surprise, the monitor of the timetable turned to the word "Arrived" from the words "on air". The uproarious sounds from chatting, laughing and joking are >were getting louder and louder. Everyone is >was ready for INFINITE's arrival with the expected and impatient face. I am >was just like having the butterflies in my stomach. 
  After a half hour, around half past eleven, the deafening shrills instantly bursted out, I watched my idols walking from the door of the Terminal I. The seven members give >gave all the fans the wave in greeting. My heart almost leaps >leaped out with excitement when I watched my favorite member - Lee Sungjong(이성종) cracking an angelic but a little weary smile with >to my own eyes and walking away. However, it is >was a pity that I only see >saw him within 1 second because I was immediately jostled away by the crazy and mad crowd. Countless fans raised their cameras, smart phones, supporting boards, meticulously prepared letters and presents to welcome the seven charming princes. The whole situation totally loses >lost control. In about 20 seconds, INFINITE go >went aboard, and the stream of people are >were just like the surging waves highly beast >beat upon the rocks and howled upon the seashore; then the waves calmed down abruptly. The huge throngs of people hastily empty >emptied the entire lobby, and we are >were just back to school to go to the next classes.

Lee Sungjong(이성종)

INFINITE(인피니트)

The Controversy about the 18 Optional Literary Credits

    The English department of our school, Soochow University, rules that students in this department must study at least eighteen literary elective credits of fifty three elective credits except the two required literary courses that are Introduction of Western Literature and Introduction to English Literature before graduating. In my opinion, the eighteen elective literary credits are too many to most students. The first reason is that when students are freshmen, there are already two required literary courses that are Introduction of Western Literature and Introduction to English Literature. When students study the two courses, they may know that their interest of the courses. For instance, after taking credits of the two courses, students will have the basic knowledge and study skills of the western literature. After studying the two courses, I believe that I have the basic knowledge such as the tradition of old Greek and Rome, Bible literature and so on, also, study skills such as simile, irony and so on. With this basic knowledge, it will be enough to understand western world and whether study further or not, it can decide to everyone. The rule of the eighteen literary elective credits are too much that credits should be decided by every student.

    The second reason that the eighteen optional literary credits are too many is based on one of our department’s educational goals - the curriculum is designed to improve students’ listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating abilities so that they are equipped with language aptitude and specialties in related fields for future careers. Besides the solid and basic language training, students can follow their interests and career plans to choose three academic groups - English and American Literature, linguistics, practical English application. Therefore, in order to achieve the education that is based on each student's potential, interest and life planning, the school should not limit students to elect eighteen optional literary credits in the fifty-three optional credits before graduation. Take myself as an illustration; I am a double-major student, for the sake of avoiding education retardation I need to select the literary credits. In order to reaching the standard of "eighteen" optional literary credits before graduation, I have no choice but to give up the chance to study translation courses which I am interested in. However, when I was a freshman, I was completely indifferent toward literature matters. Finally, when I take the literary class, my attitude is a little reckless and careless;in the meanwhile I feel quite depressed and impotent. Although I clearly know that that it is not a right attitude toward my study, I can not just raise my passion for literature and poetry which I am definitely disinterested in. It violates the educational goals that say "follow students' interests and career plans". To sum up, there is a huge room for the discussion and the reduction of the eighteen credits.

The Practice of the Narration - A Valuable Lesson from a Quarrel -（3 ）

    It was my first time to have the most furious >silent quarrel with my best friend when I was in the twelfth grade in senior high school. The exam was upcoming; every classmate was under huge pressure, including my friend and I. In the beginning, nothing seemed to be going to happen. We spent our time normally just as in the past, eating at the noon, chatting at >during the break and get together after school. However, as time passed, there seemed to be something the matter with >unhappy occur to her. She gradually had fewer and fewer words to me. At first, she just had few words to say and nodded to me when we were chatting and eating together. I thought maybe she just had nothing to say because the life of being an examinee is extremely monotonous and wearisome. Therefore I do >did not mention my feeling to her. Little did I know that she would finally stay in her own seat, keep silent and then just study. I was too frustrated and enraged to say anything; hence I just had a cold shoulder with her. Three months had passed, one day afternoon she eventually came to talk to me, and apologized to me for her immature behavior. “I am sorry for my selfish behavior. I am >was under huge pressure but do not know how to release it, so somehow I give vented my temper on you. ”, she embarrassedly said. Actually, I was very shocked at first, but after listening to her speaking, I also felt regretful to her. Consequently, I said “I am also sorry to you. I have fault >It was my fault, too. I am >was so childish and tender that I am >was not concerned for you but just want to make representations to you and treat back as same as you treated me.” Eventually, we both forgave each other’s faults and forgot the unhappy memory. 
    “Forgive and forgot” – I have learned a valuable lesson from this experience. There are three reasons why I think people should always follow this true attitude toward people who have had wrangle or grudge between each other. First, if I really care about someone and value him/her beyond my self-esteem, I should chose >choose to forget the fault that he/she has made. Being unwilling to throw away the meaningless self-esteem will sometimes make me lose the people who truly love me. Self-esteem is just like a high, cold and untouchable wall, it keeps all the warm care off and makes me heartless. Finally, I will lose the people who love me because the selfish and proud self-esteem has cruelly hurt them. The wall-like self-esteem will crush me down at last. Second, as a proverbs goes, "Anger is taking others' mistakes to punish yourself." Being tolerant to others' mistakes is a noble behavior that can makes you much maturer and brighter. Third, Warren Buffett had said that "Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future." Everyone makes mistakes, but the most important thing is that we should mend our ways. Hence, we should give other people a chance to reform instead of endless blame and hatred >endlessly blaming and hating. If one day you make some mistakes, other people may also give you a chance as you give them. Then everyone has the chance to become a better person. To sum up, this is why “Forgive and forgot” is so meaningful and significant not only for a sinner but for every human being!