Outline

A.- Introduction

B.- Context in which the poem was written

1. Some facts that inciated the outbreak of world war II
2. World War II

C.- Quotations and my interpretations

D.- Conecction between the poem and EFL

E.- Conclusion

September 1 1939

I have to admit that I don’t like poetry at all. Every time we read a poem I felt discourage because I knew I would like it. When I starting reading “September 1 1939” the feeling was the same, but while I was reading my feelings started to change. I actually understood the poem and I have an opinion about it. “A psychopathic god” is one of the stanzas that called my attention. We were discussing the poem in groups, and that sentence called the attention of the whole groups, but not mine. They told me that was because I did not believe in god, but they were wrong. I told them that for me religion was a personal issue. If god was psychopathic according to Auden, who am I to judge him? It was incredible the discussion we had. The poem made us talk about feelings in relation to a lot of things. I am kind of understanding poetry, finally.

I checked Mª Antonieta's entry

Money' Importance
Acoording to the narrator, money is of the utmost importance because it keeps women from possessing a room of their own. Due to the fact that women do not have power, their creativity has been suppressed throughout the ages. In other words,as the narrator writes, “Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time . . .” In this case, Virginia is questioning the fact that only a few number of women have been successful in writing poetry. Indeed, the author believes that the writing of novels allows the writer to start and stop easily and frequently, therefore, women are more likely to write novels than poetry. For instance, women must frequently face several interruptions because they are usually deprived of a room of their own in which to write. In short, I believe that what the narrator wants to emphasize is that without money, women will stay in a second place in comparison with their creative male counterparts. She is criticizing the financial discrepancy between men and women present in those times and pointing out how it has perpetuated the myth that women are less successful in writing.


Mª Antonieta Rojas:

After reading your entry I can say that I have a doubt. What do YOU think about what the author says? You write about the author’s point of view, so I could see a little about your own thoughts. Regarding to the topic you choose to write about I can say that I totally disagree with the author’s point of view. I don’t think that woman need money in order to be considering a good writer. Money and creativity have nothing in common. According to your post, the author is trying to say that if you don’t have enough money, you are not capable or writing a good novel. I think that women and men are not different in this sense. Woman can write even better than men, and I think that trough out history they have proved that.
In relation to the other point of your post, when you talk about how women don’t have enough time to write because they have other things to do, I can say that I agree. We suffer from many interruptions, because we have a lot to do in our house and we also have a life. Housewives, sisters, girlfriends, friends, we have a lot of roles in one day, so we need to have time for everything. Being a woman is way harder than being a man.

You chose a good topic to write about, Congratulations.

The waste land

First of all, “the waste land” is a very difficult poem. It is very difficult to understand what Eliot wanted to say. I will try to explain what I understood from the poem.
This poem was written after World War I and during the “preparation” of World War II. I think that through the poem he was trying to say what he was feeling, but in the end he did not care if the reader will understand the poem or not, he just wrote. I think that war was confusing for the entire society, especially for Eliot. Therefore his poem is confusing too. The settings are changing all the time, and also the narrators. It is incredible to see how war can affect people’s life. I think that the poem is a mess because that time was a mess too.
I know that poetry is difficult to understand, and that you need to read a lot in order to get the main ideas of a poem. I haven’t got the time to express how I feel about poetry and I think that this was the time. It has been really difficult to read poetry for two reasons. First, because I don’t like poetry, and second because poetry is difficult to understand. “The waste land” made me reflects a lot about how I felt about poetry and I really appreciate that.

What a mess

I did not like the story “Odour of Chrysanthemums” at all. It was too dark and sad for me. However I did like the story “The rocking horse winner”, even though it was a bit sad too. Why did I like it? because I found a lot of interesting topic to discuss about. The most interesting topic for me is the relation between love and luck. Paul love his mother, so he wanted to make her happy. He realized that they were having money problems because they did not have any luck. He manages to win some money, but neither the house nor his mom was happy, they wanted more. Paul get sick, the gardener bet for him and he won again. He gave the money to his mother. At the end of the story, before he dies, Paul says "I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I'm absolutely sure – oh absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!"
I think that Paul was trying to win his mother’s love. His mother was worried about materialistic things rather than her children. For Paul’s mother, luck meant money, and her husband was able to earn enough money for her. Paul feels that is his responsibility to help his mother to be happy, but all that pressure killed him at the end. I think it is not fair that children have those responsibilities. When they are young they are suppose to enjoy their childhood as much as they can. The main issue here was that Paul’s mother was absolutely out of focus. She loved money more than her own children.