She finds herself standing in the middle of a field that opens up to a dusk emblazoned sky. It could have been any field in any town. People are milling about, some have camps set up around small fires. Various music from throughout the decades can be heard playing on small transistor radios scattered across … Continue reading The Field at Dusk
Author: Lilly
Christian Symbolism, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Godot
Waiting for Godot burst on the scene, or rather stage, in 1953. Written by Samuel Beckett on the heels of WWII, which finally ended with a literal bang when the atom bomb was unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, post-modernism and the theater of the absurd was ushered in with the two act play considered highly … Continue reading Christian Symbolism, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Godot
Jekyll Gives Birth to Prufrock
Robert Louis Stevenson first published his short novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in the year 1885. Technically, Stevenson is considered part of the Victorian Era, the period of time between Romanticism and Modernism when Queen Victoria ruled England, a time in which the idea of propriety, manners, and position were … Continue reading Jekyll Gives Birth to Prufrock
The Twitch
I have a small twitch inside of my brain, A terribly tricky and ticklish tick. A thing in itself that is quite insane; A thing in itself that is truly sick. It crawls and it slithers, it finds its way; It screeches aloud and calls me by name. A sound like madness, like death, like decay, … Continue reading The Twitch
I am Not You: In Response to “Daddy”
I am not you. I can live in this black shoe laced so tight my toes are blue. I am not you. You dug up the earth before the grass grew before the worms were even through. But I suppose you always knew when they finally came for you you'd choke yourself on that achoo. … Continue reading I am Not You: In Response to “Daddy”
Prufrock’s Love Song
When the word modern is uttered, the initials T.S. come to mind. When the word poetry is mentioned, the name Eliot follows. T.S. Eliot, in a word, exemplifies what modern poetry is all about. Eliot began one of his greatest poems at the dawn of the twentieth century amidst the increasing industrialization, never-before-seen technological inventions … Continue reading Prufrock’s Love Song
Sylvia Plath: The Death of Daddy
In the late fifties a new form of poetry was taking shape. These poems were of a personal nature and the more personal, the better. This poetry of unrestrained, autobiographical poetry was coined “confessional” by M.L. Rosenthal in 1959 (Bawer, 7). Sylvia Plath is one of the most widely known and widely celebrated confessional … Continue reading Sylvia Plath: The Death of Daddy
In the Waiting Room
"In the Waiting Room" is a poem written by a girl reflecting on a past experience of waiting in the reception room of a dentist’s office, looking at a 1918 issue of National Geographic (noted for its articles on anthropology, nature, and culture) while her aunt is keeping a dentist appointment. In Worcester, Massachusetts, I … Continue reading In the Waiting Room
Watt and Nietzsche: Meaning Versus Truth
The most intriguing and dangerous characteristic of postmodernism explored, specifically and to an uncanny degree in Watt, is the idea that truth is not objective as previously believed, but subjective. This idea of subjectivity in regards to truth, which plays out through the character of Watt, is not an original premise. Friedrich Nietzsche expounded the … Continue reading Watt and Nietzsche: Meaning Versus Truth
Watt’s Garden
Samuel Beckett’s novel, Watt, is a perfect example of postmodernist literature. From the unreliable narrator (an inmate at an insane asylum certainly qualifies) to the temporal shifts (the beginning of the story does not actually appear in chapter one), Beckett takes the reader on a strange often times incomprehensible postmodern journey. The post-modern characteristic that … Continue reading Watt’s Garden
