IB Plog #1 "The Good-Morrow"

John Donne "The Good-Marrow"

I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I
Did, till we lov'd? Were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on countrey pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the seaven sleepers den?
T'was so; But this, all pleasures fancies bee.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desir'd, and got, 'twas but a dreame of thee.

And now good morrow to our waking soules,
Which watch not one another out of feare;
For love, all love of other sights controules,
And makes one little roome, an every where.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let Maps to other, worlds on worlds have showne,
Let us possesse one world; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appeares,
And true plaine hearts doe in the faces rest,
Where can we finde two better hemispheares
Without sharpe North, without declining West?
What ever dyes, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none doe slacken, none can die.


Good Morrow Commentary

In “The Good-Morrow,” John Donne creates a certain, loving tone to promote the theme that love is the only necessary thing in life. He develops the confident tone primarily through metaphors and diction. John Donne is so certain of the power of his love that he believes all he needs is his lover, and life will be complete.
Donne’s certainty in the strength of his love is emphasized by his contrasting uncertainty that was present before he met his love. In the beginning of the poem, Donne uses many questions to demonstrate the doubt present in his earlier life. Later in the poem, Donne says, “true plain hearts do in the faces rest,” which is a metaphor explaining how souls can be expressed through someone’s eyes. Donne knows his lover so well he feels that he can study her heart by looking at her face. The hearts are “true” and “plain”; Donne is confident that his love is open and reciprocated.
Donne creates a loving tone primarily through metaphors in the second stanza. He begins the stanza with, “And now good-morrow to our waking souls,” which compares their souls to waking people, who are usually refreshed and happy. Those words also create an image of a sun-soaked bedroom, so I envision Donne waking lover, completely satisfied and absorbed in his love. Donne goes on to say that their love “makes one little room an everywhere.” He uses hyperbole to explain the power and satisfaction of love; once again, his tone is completely absorbed in the love contained in one small room. He never has to leave because the room is “everywhere.”
Donne uses metaphors and specific language to create an enthralled and certain tone. This promotes the theme that love is all you need because Donne is so perfectly content in his love.

Act of Resistance

Patti, Kristin, and I all love animals, and we are very concerned about animal rights. Both Patti and Kristin have dogs, but I really want one, if that counts. We wanted to perform an act of awareness that would alert people to mistreatment of animals. Shelters often have to kill unwanted dogs that they can’t afford to keep alive, and puppy mills are partly to blame. They breed dogs for profit, so lots of puppies don’t get enough to eat and they can become physically disabled from being forced in small cages for so long. All three of us found this very sad, and we wanted to raise awareness to help save the unwanted puppies that often get stuck in shelters. 99% of the puppies sold in pet stores were born in puppy mills, so if you are considering getting a new pet, we want you to make sure you know where the dog came from. Buying a dog from the Humane Society or adopting one from a shelter may be more expensive, but you could be saving that dog’s life and telling the companies that breed dogs simply for profit that they are involved in a cruel, unwanted business and you as consumers are standing for animal rights. To spread this message, we decided to take my neighbors’ dog on a walk while informing people about buying puppies. They came over to my house, and we made a sign for Trent (my neighbor’s dog to wear). It said “Adopt a Puppy.” We figured we’d get some questions and maybe convince people to adopt more wisely. Trent was adopted from a shelter, and his first home was pretty abusive. We wanted to tell the people that we passed while on the walk that they could save another dog like Trent. There weren’t too many people walking around this morning (it hadn’t started snowing yet but it was pretty cold), but a few of them seemed interested. I know not too many people are trying to get a new puppy right now, and we weren’t lucky enough to run into someone actively looking for a dog to adopt, but we spread the word, and hopefully convinced someone to save a puppy that really needs it.

The Boycott

SO I went and saw the play tonight, and I liked it overall, but it didn't seem as funny to me as the actual play Lysistrata. It seemed a lot more concerned and depressing than the original, because the play we read didn't stress about the war so much. The women basically said, yep i'd like my husband home more, and then proceeded into their strike. In The Boycott, the actor describes in detail how global warming and the lack of a solution makes her feel. That was pretty depressing, even though most of the play was funny. It actually related back to the original pretty well, and overall I liked the frog and the weird characters and the song. I guess mostly the play was...interesting.

Lysistrato

The Pinky and the Brain video is pretty funny, but it's actually a lot more pessimistic than the actual Lysistrata play. Still, I laughed out loud at some points. Clearly, the video only relates to the taking of the Akropolis part of the actual plot since no one wants to have sex with mice, but the voiceovers are entertaining. They allude to the wine and water oath and many other parts of the play. So, it's flawed but definitely funny. The major theme in this video would have to be that mice can do everything but take over the world. In Lysistrata the major themes point to the idea that people can do anything if they all work towards the same goal. So I guess there's a bit of a difference there. Also, Brain's Lysistrato is funny but not because of the ridiculous amount of sexual puns that are present throughout the actual play- I think it's mostly the play references, if I hadn't already read Lysistrata this video might be just plain dumb.

Pinky and the Brain in Lysistrata

Cooperation Works!

One of the major themes that I discovered during my reading of Lysistrata was that cooperation has many values and definitely can achieve what individuals can't do alone. The women of the play work together to pledge abstinence; all of them make a sacrifice so that the entire country can benefit from the resulting Peace. The men and women then unite to fight against each other. The men's firepots and the women's water just cancel each other out. When everyone decides to finally work as one whole, that's when peace s finally achieved. The women started the strike, but the men all had to agree, and the Spartans and Athenians had to reach a compromise. When all of this was cooperatively done (with Lysistrata overseeing, as she had been doing all play), Peace was at last within reach. Basically, all people have to do is truly want the same thing, and Lysistrata realized the way to make every man and woman of Greece to desire nothing more than peace.

Fue al Restaurante

The language in Lysistrata was the most important and entertaining part of the play. The puns and underlying symbolism throughout the play made a relatively simple plot into a very funny play that we can all learn from. Whether it's Kinesias saying "I was up before I was up"(88) or Lysistrata reminding the Athenians that "On that great day, your only allies were Spartans; your liberty came at their hands, which stripped away your servile garb and clothed you again in Freedom!"(103), language is very present in Lysistrata. In the first example, Kinesias uses a sexual reference to describe his painful desire (I found it very funny). Lysistrata uses a more graceful metaphor to describe the beauty of freedom and friendship. Language is used to different ends throughout the play, but it is used consistently to add drama and comedy (at different parts) to the otherwise straightforward plot.