Poetry

Lucasta:
Someone is leaving their lover for war and possibly trying to explain themselves.
Dulce Et Decorum Est:
Sounds like the civil war. I think it is a soldier saying that war is terrible.
Cinderella:
I have read this before! I could actually decipher this one. I find the ending curious however, for it sounds almost like a loveless marriage to me in the end.
London:
Well it was depressing. I think it was about sadness, and how there were no women in it except the lat stanza where they were harlots.
The Chimney Sweeper:
Wow, I liked this. It was very easy to read, and it spoke of dreams, and aspirations, and good things all the while having a sad and dark undertone.
Ozymandius:
Time has no care for those that it pasts by, the ancient remains only a memory, and power, sweet power, destroys like the pomegranates of Hades. There, that's exactly what it means.

I think the only one I had problems with was most likely London. It didn't feel it it had a real..background story to it other than history itself, which is hard to summarize, for though there is indeed sadness and misery, there is also love and joy. Babies are supposed to be happy things, so I was rather saddened by this poem.

A Rose for Emily

This woman was a necrophiliac.

I actually enjoyed how this was written. I liked how it was all out of order and made you actually use your head to figure out exactly what was going on, however, I think that Emily's servant(The Negro) was either her secret lover or a personification of the devil, like Bingo Pajama in The Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robinson, who is this hardly ever seen character, but when he does, this air of mystery comes with him. He's creepy too.
I thought that the allusions to royalty and to people's imagination was an interesting way of describing Emily's life to the reader. It was similar to Yellow Wallpaper because both women went a little off the deep end, and the reader got to watch, or infer what happened. I like how at the end of Emily, they found a silver hair, and of course, a dead guy.

Time is the antagonist within this novella(at least I hope that's what it is). While I was reading, it seemed like there was this specter, something...evil, or dirty. The time line was a mess, and that's why. I could feel this...creepy, almost, graveyard like feeling through the entire thing. Of course, time just HAPPENED to be the theme of the whole story. Poor Emily.

Yellow Wallpaper much?

The Yellow Wallpaper was one trippy novella(?).

Her(the main character) imagination ran away from her due to being "bored" or rather, locked away from everything. I had a similar experience when I was really young. Somehow I managed to convince myself that I had never been outside in my life(even though I had), and was locked within a building with many windows. It was a very odd sensation. So I kind of understand how the main character was feeling. You are filled with this desperateness to get out, and all you have is your mind. It's rather frightening.

I think that Gilman told the story through the captive's perspective because it described exactly how she felt, and the reader understood her descent into madness and how it came about. It was like YOU were the narrator. I think she went mad because she probably underwent postpartum depression, and her husband made it worse by treating her like a child and not listening to her, and then it just went downhill from there.

After reading this short story, I felt very odd. My thoughts were disjointed and jumpy, and I was slightly skittish, kinda like how I am when I hear the Xfiles theme.

It also reminded me of Brave New World where everyone has no stimulation for the mind, and they are all practically children in their thinking processes. Then comes along a "savage" and everything goes crazy.