HUMALIT: My Papa’s Waltz

My Papa’s Waltz by Theodore Roethke was given as an example of irony in class. The poem used waltz as its title which is a romantic dance between two persons. It was used in the poem in order to clearly show the irony.

By reading its title a reader would usually assume that the poem has a positive meaning. However, going through the poem we clearly analyzed that the poem was meant for a boy that was being beaten to death by his drunk dad. In the 1st stanza, we can see that his father was drunk and he beats him without any reason. “Such waltzing was not easy” of course being beaten is not a good feeling for the child. In the 2nd and the 3rd, we can see that the beating continuous and the boy was clearly incapable of fighting back so he had to go with it. Up to the last stanza the boy was being hit by his father and until the end the boy was thinking that the battering of his father will continue until he helplessly falls to sleep.

The author used waltz in order to describe the beating that the boy is going through. It is kind of weird comparing waltz with battering of the father to his child. Having the kid as the author, he was probably teasing his father that his beating was nothing more like a romantic dance which is a waltz.

HUMALIT: Python in the Mall

During the last meeting we listened to a song of Bob Dylan and a poem with a title I can’t remember. We had discussions about how a sound can affect a poem and give different meaning. Like one of the examples that had a very positive meaning but when combined with the sound the meaning was in fact a negative one. After that, we moved to the poem “Python in the Mall” by Marne L. Kilates.

Python in the Mall is a poem written by Marne L. Kilates that talks about an urban myth. It talks about a snake like creature that lives in a basement of Robinson’s Mall. Personally, I do not know the urban myth, but as I asked my mom she knew the story well and that there were celebrities that even confirmed the existence of this snake like creature. In the discussion, we had different versions of the story, one of these is that the snake like creature was the son of Gokongwei which he keeps isolated in the basement of the mall. In other versions it is said that the creature is the twin of Robina Gokongwei. The creature eats women that use the dressing rooms of the mall. The mirrors of the dressing room serve as his portal to the basement. I think that this urban myth spread fast during that time. Also, this story was confirmed by a celebrity, named Alice Dixon which makes this urban myth more interesting.

The poem was very interesting since it revolves around an urban legend. I think that this urban legend was believed to be true that time and it resulted to different versions because people tend to have different views about this creature; however, I do not believe this story. Furthermore, I think that this story is made up by the imagination of different people and to be exact no one has seen this creature in real life.

To be able to fully understand the poem we used the literary images and even analyze the sound the poem provided. In our discussion the dominant sound of the poem is letter “S” which represents the hissing of the snake. The sound also is related with the theme of the poem which is Consumerism.

All in all, the entire poem was great and interesting. The way Marne Kilates played with the sound and literary images provided the full grasp of the idea about the myth. It also provides how the myth of the snake like creature in Robinson’s Mall goes.

HUMALIT Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, a great poem written by John Donne that shows his love for this certain someone. At first, I thought that the poem was about death mainly because of the first stanza that was referring to the acceptance of death. However, as we go deeper the poem is actually meant for someone that he loves. It was to help his loved one to overcome the fear that their loved could vanish with the distance between them.

The poem made a different perspective of love that we all knew. All I know is that love can be strengthen and kept because couples are always together, never far from each other. However, the author, John Donne was trying to help us realize that love cannot vanish over the distance between two lovers. With the use of his poem he made us realize that distance can only make the love between couples stronger and more intense. As I read the whole poem I was able to understand different things that he used in order to give definition for love. As for a romantic poem I was expecting for different things like heart, letter, flower etc. But John Donne made this amazing comparison of love; he compared love with gold not for its value but for its malleability. In addition, he also compared love with a compass. With the use of the compass, John Donne ensures that there is no reason for crying because he will definitely come back to her. It was amazing that he gave definition for love with these things that are not related with it.

I think the poem was great despite the fact that I was confused with the way he represents love. The poem can be applied in different situations in life just like now that there are people all over the world that are miles away from their loved ones. This poem also helped me change my perspective of love. Before, I thought that love wouldn’t last if lovers are far from each other and now I have realized that if you truly loved someone you have to endure that distance.  It is just a sacrifice you have to make in order to keep that love for someone. Furthermore, each of us has our own purpose in life so we can’t always be together. We have to trust each other and in the end we can long for that embrace or kiss from our loved one and we can return to them.