The Telephone by Maya Angelou

In The Telephone, Maya Angelou personifies a telephone to portray the loneliness that the lack of phone calls causes the speaker of the poem to feel.  The speaker of the poem refers to the telephone as "a strict and spinstered aunt."  That image in itself, often viewed as an old woman, sitting alone, surrounded by cats and an endless supply of knitting projects, evokes a feeling of loneliness and desperation.  Then, the speaker of the poem expresses how this spinster ignores her as the spinster is busy interfering in the lives of others: "busy with the hemming of strangers' overlong affairs of the darning of [her] neighbors' worn-out dreams."  Through this metaphor, one can infer that others are constantly on the telephone, building the foundation of their social lives.  But for the speaker of the poem, however, the telephone "sits silent," as she gets no telephone calls.  Unlike the other people around her, the speaker of the poem lacks the companions and social life to receive many calls from friends, lovers, and family, which she finds distressing.  The speaker of the poem ends the piece with "Ring.  Damn you!"  This statement, though incredibly simple, shows the disappointment and anger that the speaker feels from her lack of telephone calls.  Instead of ending the poem with a period, she uses an exclamation point, which shows how strongly she feels about the subject and how truly upset she is.

A Broken Appointment by Thomas Hardy

The speaker in the poem addresses the idea of love and how that concept relates to loyalty.  The speaker of the poem is forgotten by the woman that he loves.  She does not come to meet him like he thought she would.  He takes this as a sign that she does not truly love him, especially not how he thought she did: "You love not me."  He jumps to this conclusion because "love alone can lend you [the] loyalty" needed to fulfill a promise, such as meeting him.  Needless to say, the speaker is heartbroken.  He is especially confused since this decision of hers is not congruent with her past behaviors in which she "came to soothe a time-torn man."  He finishes this statement with the idea that she does not love him, which implies that this time-torn man is, in fact, himself.  The speaker is arguing that love is not the only thing that brings about the loyalty to have her meet him.  If that is the case, then why did she not come this time?  Maybe the woman once loved the speaker of the poem.  Maybe there were extenuating circumstances that caused the woman not to come.  The poet probably leaves the answer to this question unknown to show the uncertainty in human emotion.  We, as a society, never truly know other people's thoughts and motives.  Unless people express how they feel, we will never truly understand.  Human nature is incredibly ambiguous, especially regarding love.

35/10 by Sharon Olds

In this poem, Sharon Olds contemplates the ideas of getting older and approaching death.  It is when the speaker of the poem is brushing her daughter's hair that she herself notices her hair becoming gray with age.  Although she could view this as a positive aspect of her life, since with age comes wisdom and knowledge, the speaker takes this as a sign of her numbered days and mortality.  Instead of viewing aging as the growth and maturing of her mind and soul, she views it as a decay of her body, especially through comparison to her young daughter: "As my skin shows its dry pitting, she opens like a moist precise flower on the tip of a cactus."  The speaker describes her aging as dangerous and unmanageable, like a pit.  She describes her daughter's aging and maturing as beautiful and natural, like a flower.  Although, the flower is surrounded by the dangerous spikes of a cactus, possibly showing how this beautiful maturing will inevitably become something bad and dangerous: the decay of body and soul.  In the end, the speaker of the poem views aging in a selfish manner, claiming that growing old and eventually dying is simply a means of replacing mother with daughter, old with new.

God, A Poem by James Fenton

Through his lighthearted manner, James Fenton discusses the serious concept and belief in God, and all that He provides to the average person.  He initially blames God for commonplace, unpleasant events, such as "a drawing-pin caught in your sock."  After listing a few humorously unpleasant events, Fenton claims that these unpleasant events are "all that you'll get from th'Almighty," and that the afterlife is not any more pleasant than that.  He then goes on to claim that God does not care about major catastrophes, such as the Flood, nor is he responsible for amazing phenomenon, such as Salvation.  In this poem, God claims to be "a crude existential malpractice."  God then uses the same unpleasant events to describe the speaker, saying that he also will be no better in the afterlife or be seen better after he has died.  Fenton describes the common struggle we, as a society, have with religion and grappling with the idea of an existing higher power, in which the extent that God sees, is responsible for, and cares about is questionable.  In this way, this poem is very relatable to the common person.  Fenton expresses a belief that God is truly responsible for very little, yet can determine each individual's outcome.  This idea goes along with the belief of an unjust, unmerciful higher power.  In addition, Fenton also expresses the idea that God is not fully aware of every person on the planet, that we, as individuals, are truly insignificant.

The Picture of Dorian Gray 7

The theme of beauty is one that is commonly addressed in The Picture of Dorian Gray.  One's appearance, as suggest by Dorian, is much more than a meaningless body that holds the soul.  This is first apparent in the beginning of the novel when Dorian becomes unreasonably distressed with the thought of physically growing older and losing his attractive appearance.  His looks, after all, are the basis for his happiness throughout the novel.  For example, Basil befriends the boy because he is attractive.   This idea is also linked into our present day society.  There is such a focus on looks and how one presents himself in society and how that will dictate one's success and how one is perceived.  Here, Dorian acknowledges that, due to his attractive appearance, he will not be questioned for the evils acts he has committed, since "those finely-shaped fingers could never have clutched a knife for sin, nor those smiling lips have cried out on God and goodness" (Wilde 128).  Had he been an unattractive man with misshapen fingers and a permanent scowl, the people present would have believed him to be a murderer, since one's physical appearance dictates how one is viewed.

The Picture of Dorian Gray 6

Vanity and hypocrisy are both common themes in The Picture of Dorian Gray.  As seen through both Dorian and Lord Henry's fixation on the physical appearance of a person, how others perceive a person is far more important than the beauty of his personality.  In addition, Basil, Lord Henry, and Dorian all act in hypocritical ways.  This is first seen with Basil in the beginning of the novel.  After declaring that art should not contain the artist's influence, he refuses to show his painting of Dorian to the world because he put too much of himself into the piece.  Practically everything Lord Henry says is hypocritical to either society or to his actions.  For example, he condemns the idea of marriage, and yet he is married.  Combining both themes of vanity and hypocrisy, Dorian claims that he "love[s] scandals about other people, but scandals about [himself] don't interest [him]" (Wilde 109).  This statement portrays the theme of vanity because Dorian cares so much about how other people view him that he does not like them talking about him or his actions.  This statement also is hypocritical.  Although Dorian does not mind, and even enjoys, the downfall of others' social status, he does not want the same to happen to him.

The Picture of Dorian Gray 1 & 2

Basil, similar to Oscar Wilde himself, is extremely contradictory, especially in his opinions about art.  In his preface, Oscar Wilde discusses how art is "useless," almost ignoring the fact that he himself is an artist (Wilde viii).  Similarly, Basil explains to Lord Henry that personal feelings should be left out of art: "An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them" (Wilde 8).  This statement is most obviously contradictory and hypocritical because Basil says this after creating a painting of Dorian Gray that he claims has too much of himself in it.  If he truly felt that art should not be personal towards the artist, he could have simply painted the portrait as such.  There is also an underlying sense of uncertainty and possible hypocrisy in this statement.  Oscar Wilde was criticized by society regarding this novel because it was the common belief that the novel reflected on who Wilde was as a person and what his ideals were.  If this novel does in fact reflect Wilde and his beliefs, there is an underlying sense of hypocrisy in Basil's claiming that art should not reflect the feelings and opinions of the artist.  Based on the beginning of the novel, Basil shares the same sense of contradiction and hypocrisy as Wilde, which could possibly imply that Wilde did reflect himself in the novel.