QCQ #1 – John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn
Quote: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know” (Keats, stanza 5 lines 9-10).
Comment: The tone of this quote could either be seen as reassuring or condescending, depending on the way you view it. The lines “that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know” could come off as reassuring because it could be telling you that you don’t need to worry about any deeper meaning, as long as you know that “beauty is truth”. It could be implying that that is all there is to know, all that is humanly possible to know. It could also come off as slightly condescending, like “don’t worry about it, this is all that you need to know”, implying that there is more to know, but maybe the reader or viewer isn’t capable of understanding or figuring out what else there is to know.
Question: I wonder why Keats chose to say “beauty is truth, truth beauty” instead of “beauty is truth, truth is beauty”. Does this wording really make a difference?
QCQ #2 – Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Charles Augustus Milverton
Quote: “I looked at that delicately-curved nose, at the marked eyebrows, at the straight mouth, and the strong little chin beneath it. Then I caught my breath as I read the time-honoured title of the great nobleman and statesman whose wife she had been. My eyes met those of Holmes, and he put his finger to his lips as we turned away from the window” (Doyle 8).
Comment: I find this quote interesting because it is the last few sentences of the story, when the reveal of who the woman is is made. I thought that the choice to not say directly who the woman is, like her name or if there is relation to Holmes and Watson was interesting because it forces the reader to really think about the context clues in the rest of the story. It leaves the story almost open ended, or on a cliffhanger but at the same time the reader basically knows that it was one of Milverton’s former victims that killed him.
Question: Why was there a photo in the window of the woman who killed Milverton?
QCQ #3 – Elizabeth Bishop, First Death in Nova Scotia
Quote: “Arthur was very small. / He was all white, like a doll / that hadn’t been painted yet” (Bishop, stanza 4 lines 1-3).
Comment: I thought it was interesting that Arthur was described as all white, and like a doll that hadn’t been painted yet. It seems like this is a description of a porcelain doll, so he could also be seen as small and fragile like a doll because he is a young child. It also sounds like all the color from Arthur’s face has been drained because he is dead, which is evident because he “hasn’t been painted yet”.
Question: Does she view him as a doll because she is a child and she doesn’t know what to compare him with other than a toy?
QCQ #4 – Virginia Woolf, The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection
Quote: “Under the stress of thinking about Isabella, her room became more shadowy and symbolic; the corners seemed darker, the legs of the chairs and tables more spindly and hieroglyphic” (Woolf 217).
Comment: Throughout the short story, Woolf personifies the room and the objects within the room, but it is at this moment in the story that I wonder if the room is actually changing in accordance with Isabella. The room could actually be getting darker: the sun could be going behind a cloud, the sun is starting to set, etc. But it’s also possible that the narrator could just be perceiving or imagining the room to be getting darker because of their own thoughts on Isabella. Maybe the room isn’t getting darker, but the narrator is feeling darker after thinking about her, and now the whole room feels “more shadowy and symbolic”. I also wonder what is it about Isabella that is making the room darker.
Question: Is the room really getting darker, and the narrator is just attributing that to it being “under the stress of thinking about Isabella” or is the room staying the same, but the narrator is thinking of Isabella and then perceiving the room to be darker?
QCQ #5 – The Hill We Climb By Amanda Gorman
Quote: “So while we once asked, / how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? / Now we assert, / How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? / We will not march back to what was / but move to what shall be” (Gorman, lines 72-77).
Comment: This quote is really interesting because to me, it is saying that we as a country have already faced countless challenges and survived through them, so we believe we can face any challenge ahead of us. The other part of this quote is saying that we will not make the same mistakes, but we will use our past experiences to prevent those old mistakes. This isn’t to say that we won’t make mistakes in the future, even the same ones as the past, but at least we have a framework of what worked and what didn’t in the past. I also think that the language between “asked” and “assert” is interesting because asking has a different tone, more inquisitive, maybe even slightly passive. “Assert” is a strong word full of certainty, we aren’t asking anymore, we are sure of our answer.
Question: This quote assumes that the entirety of the country is “moving to what shall be”, but can we guarantee that the country won’t move backward? There are already things happening this year that can be considered “marching back to what was”, are those going to continue or will we really move forward?
QCQ #6 – Richard Blanco, One Today
Quote: “One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes / tired from work: some days guessing at the weather / of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love / that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother / who knew how to give, or forgiving a father / who couldn’t give what you wanted” (Blanco).
Comment: These lines, and really the whole poem, reflect a sense of comradery that people have for another. In other words, it is implying that “we are all in this together, we are living similar lives, we all look up to one sky”. One line from this quote that really interests me is: “some days guessing at the weather of our lives”. To me, this is kind of showing how people don’t know what their lives are going to be like tomorrow, or even a couple hours from now, just as they don’t know the weather for certain. It could be sunny with no clouds in the sky and then a few hours later it’s pouring rain. Or the opposite could be true, the sky could be dark and cloudy but then turn into a beautiful sunny day. I think this line reflects that uncertainty of life in comparison to the uncertainty of weather.
Question: Why did the poet choose this kind of tone for the poem? It seems a little cheesy almost in comparison to other inaugural poems, like a kind of “we’re all in this together” message.
QCQ#7 – Elizabeth Alexander, “The Venus Hottentot”
Quote: “My neighbor to the left is The Sapient Pig, “The Only Scholar of His Race.” He plays at cards, tells time and fortunes by scraping his hooves. Behind me is Prince Kar-mi, who arches like a rubber tree and stares back at the crowd from under the crook of his knee. A professional animal trainer shouts my cues. There are singing mice here.”
Comment: This quote shows that the woman in this poem feels like she is being treated like an animal, and in reality she is. There are animals on display around her, just as she is and she is being gawked at and treated the same as these other non-human animals. There are pigs and mice doing tricks around her, and “a professional animal trainer shouts [her] cues” as if she is one of these animals doing tricks for an audience. This part of the poem is really important in showing how a black woman is treated as a show animal for other people in society simply because of her looks and her gender.
Question: Was she actually expected to perform some act for people like the animals or was she only expected to stand as people looked at her?
QCQ#8 – Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”
Quote: “She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.”
Comment: I feel like this quote almost sums up the whole short story. It wasn’t that Mrs. Mallard hated her husband or wanted him dead, the opposite was true; she loved him and knew that she was devastated and would be once she truly saw that he was gone. However, she also felt a sort of freedom that she was unable to feel while being married to him. When you are in a marriage the two people are joined in life until death or divorce. You are your own person, but you are also a part of a couple. With her husband dead, Mrs. Mallard feels like her own complete person again without the expectations that come with being a wife to someone. She wasn’t “Mrs. Mallard”, she was just herself. So when it is revealed that her husband didn’t die, I don’t think that she died because she was upset that he was alive, I think it was likely just the shock of seeing someone she believed to be dead.
Question: I wonder if she hadn’t locked herself away what would the reaction of those around her be to her whispering “free, free, free!” to herself?
QCQ#9 – Bharati Mukherjee, “Jasmine”
Quote: “Lara asked about Port-of-Spain. There was nothing to tell about her hometown that wouldn’t shame her in front of nice white American folk like the Moffitts.The place was shabby, the people were grasping and cheating and lying and life was full of despair and drink and wanting. But by the time she finished, the island sounded romantic.”
Comment: Jasmine hadn’t come from the best conditions, so she felt ashamed to tell wealthy people exactly what her life was like. She likely didn’t want to be looked down upon or pitied. So, she instead romanticized her hometown so that it seemed nicer than it was. I think a large part of this short story is that Jasmine wants to be seen as equal and doesn’t want to be looked down upon or pitied. She is trying to live her life happily, and seems to have found that with the Moffitts. They treated her well, and didn’t care that she lied about being a student.
Question: Why was Jasmine still ashamed of her upbringing even though she was supposedly in a better place now?
QCQ#10 – The Carters, “Apesh*t”
Quote: “I can’t believe we made it (this is what we made, made)
This is what we’re thankful for (this is what we thank, thank)
I can’t believe we made it (this a different angle)
Have you ever seen the crowd goin’ apeshit? Rah!”
Comment: In this quote, Beyoncé is singing about how far she and Jay-Z have made it not only in the music industry, but also in social status and wealth. Neither of them were born into wealthy families, yet they have still amassed wealth and social capital through their own work. In these lyrics she is likely thanking their fans (“This is what we’re thankful for”) for supporting them in their work (“Have you ever seen the crowd goin’ apeshit?”). The setting that they are in also shows how their wealth and social capital have changed. They are filming the music video in the Louvre, which is arguably the most well-known museum in the world. It not only requires payment to visit, but also shows artwork and sculptures worth millions of dollars. Being able to afford to film a music video in this setting shows just how much wealth and social capital The Carters have amassed.
Question: There are many other places they could have chosen to film that would have shown off their wealth, so I wonder why they chose the Louvre specifically?
