How Not to Say the Wrong Thing ~ Silk & Goldman

~ By Susan Silk & Barry Goldman

"It works in all kinds of crises -- medical, legal, even existential. It's the 'Ring Theory' of kvetching. The first rule is comfort in, dump out." An expository text, the article is meant to pose a problem the authors noticed and consequently offer a solution. The purpose is to aide oblivious people with the social etiquette of responding to a crisis that they are not the center of. 

Indicative of this would be the organization of the article. The first two passages provide a set of personal experiences where people responded inappropriately to to those most affected by what was happening. These provide a backdrop for the next paragraph, which goes into an explanation of a technique one of the authors created, the Ring Theory.

Adopting an overall casual tone, the authors lean towards a more conversational approach to get their point across. To illustrate, the authors use contractions instead of spelling out words like "cannot." The text is more fluid than, say, a scientific paper concerning turtles.  Friendlier than a formal paper, the article sounds much like a friend, one who is perhaps advising you as the reader to think for a moment before acting. 

Annabel Lee ~ Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes! - that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

~Excerpt from Annabel Lee - Edgar Allan Poe

Annabel Lee, her name is said seven times. She is the one whom the narrator speaks of, the object of his focus, if not obsession. Annabel is a variant of the name Amabel, meaning loving, beautiful. The narrator says that she "has no other thought than to be loved by me," this and the narrators claim that the reader may know this maiden both serve to make her seem but a fantasy and not a wholly real girl. It begins lightly with Annabel Lee and their "love that was more than love," but ends rather darkly with the readers' discovery of her death and his now apparent obsession with her despite this fact.

The reader doesn't find out about Annabel Lees' death until line 26, where the narrator says; "...chilling and killing my Annabel Lee." This is the only part where her death is explicitly mentioned. For the rest of the poem, the word sepulchre is used in its' place. A sepulchre is a tomb, the narrator speaks of her tomb as a stand in to talk about losing her without mentioning her death. One line of particular interest is line 19. "...to shut her up in a sepulchre." This indicates the narrators' view that her tomb is a prison, rather than a resting place. Five times the "kingdom by the sea" is brought to the readers' attention, and this in the first 4 stanzas. However in the very last stanza it is not the kingdom that is paired with the sea but rather the sepulchre instead. A kingdom is no kingdom without people, without life to fill it. A sepulchre is merely an empty room without the dead to fill it. Where the poem began with life, it ends with death.

Are you the new person drawn toward me? ~ Walt Whitman

Are you the new person drawn toward me?

To begin with, take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose;

Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?

Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?

Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction?

Do you think I am trusty and faithful?

Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerant manner of me?

Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?

Have you no though, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?

~"Are you the new person drawn toward me?" - Walt Whitman

"I am surely far different from what you suppose" It speaks of the  expectations people have of each other, the opinions formed even without any words ever having been exchanged.  Reality is rarely in line with perception, especially in regards to people. Things are not always as they seem. "Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?" This poem is a warning, "Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy'd satisfaction?" the narrator is asking if the person thinks it will be easy, and without effort on their part. Essentially trying to find out whether the persons' intentions are purely selfish or not.

A Pact ~ Ezra Pound

I make truce with you, Walt Whitman --

I have detested you long enough. 

I come to you as a grown child 

Who has had a pig headed father; 

I am old enough now to make friends. 

It was you that broke the new wood, 

Now it is time for a carving. 

We have one sap and one root-- 

Let there be commerce between us.

~A Pact - Ezra Pound

Contextually, Pound wrote a paper named "What I feel about Walt Whitman" which made apparent his extreme dislike of Whitman several years before writing this poem.

In this poem it seems he is, albeit begrudingly, retracting his former strong opinion of Whitman. Some of his words, such as "...as a grown child," and "...old enough now to make friends." suggest that he has gained maturity since writing his article. Not to mention his  "I come to you as a grown child Who has had a pig headed father" highlights his evolved view of Whitman as a paternal figure, admitting Whitman to be somewhat of a source of inspiration.

"It was you that broke the new wood" implies that Whitman paved a new way for poets such as Pound, however he turns around and backhandedly says "Now it is time for a carving." So he admits to Whitmans' having a role in his own career, but even so implies that Whitmans' work is inferior to his own which refines the art into something that is viewed as much better, such as a block of wood compared to an intricate wood carving.The backhanded compliment conveys the sense that Pounds' negative opinion of Whitman will never truly change. despite his progression from a strong loathing to a less severe dislike.

Fire and Ice ~ Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire, 

Some say in ice, 

From what I've tasted of desire 

I hold with those who favor fire. 

But if it had to perish twice, 

I think I know enough of hate 

To say that for destruction ice 

Is also great 

And would suffice

~ Fire and Ice - Robert Frost

This poem is designed to be easily understood and uses words with broader meanings than what might be picked up on first glance. Fire, ice, and desire are all words that are applicable to more than than just their literal definitions. This not just leaves more room for interpretation but lends deeper meaning to the seemingly direct poem. By attaching fire with desire, and ice with hate, the speaker implies that the two ways that the world is to end are both as a result of the human condition. Continuing with that, the narrator is referring to extremes. Fire and ice are opposites. Fire representing an excess of passion and conflict while ice represents a lack of. The world ending from one or the other signifies imbalance. Regardless of how it ends, imbalance will be the ultimate cause as an excess anything is destructive.