Help me with 2 poems

[RRR]

Hi everyone!

I found two poems on the net and i must know the meaning of them (for a school exam)...
so, will you help me by posting the explanation of the text?

-----

Factories - margaret widdemer

I have shut my little sister in from life and light
(For a rose, for a ribbon, for a wreath across my hair),
I have made her restless feet still until the night,
Locked from sweets of summer and from wild spring air
I who ranged the meadow lands, free from sun to sun,
Free to sing and pull the buds and watch the far wings fly,
I have bound my sister till her playing-time is done --
Oh, my little sister, was it I? -- was it I?

I have robbed my sister of her day of maidenhood
(For a robe, for a feather, for a trinket's restless spark),
Shut from Love till dusk shall fall, how shall she know good,
How shall she pass scatheless through the sinlit dark?
I who could be innocent, I who could be gay,
I who could have love and mirth before the light went by,
I have put my sister in her mating-time away --
Sister, my young sister, -- was it I? -- was it I?

I have robbed my sister of the lips against her breast
(For a coin, for the weaving of my children's lace and lawn),
Feet that pace beside the loom, hands that cannot rest,
How can she know motherhood, whose strength is gone?
I who took no heed of her, starved and labor-worn,
I against whose placid heart my sleepy gold heads lie,
Round my path they cry to me, little souls unborn,
God of Life -- Creator! It was I! It was I!

----
a sonnet to heavenly beauty - du bellay

If this our little life is but a day
In the Eternal, - if the years in vain
Toil after hours that never come again, -
If everything that hath been must decay,
Why dreamest thou of joys that pass away,
My soul, that my sad body doth restrain?
Why of the moment’s pleasure art thou fain?
Nay, thou hast wings, - nay, seek another stay.

There is the joy whereto each soul aspires,
And there the rest that all the world desires,
And there is love, and peace, and gracious mirth;
And there in the most highest heavens shalt thou
Behold the Very Beauty, whereof now
Thou worshippest the shadow upon earth.

[K Man]

Well RRR, I'm not really one for poetry. I can understand and respect its place in the world...I just have an acute phobia of words that rhyme.

That being said, here's my two cents...neither of which should be taken authoritatively as, again, I'm no expert.

Factories - margaret widdemer

This is sort of confusing. It seems like she's talking about a few things. Perhaps a sort of mid-life crisis? Like she's reluctantly admiting to having placed her inner child so deep within her it's like she's dead. She speaks of robing her of 'her little sister' of life and light, of binding her until 'her playing time is done...'

That or this could be a reflection of a tragic day/event in her life. Being robbed of your 'maidenhood' is often times a sign of rape and this whole poem has a dreary feel to it...like something was taken or suddenly realized as being vile.

I dunno, perhaps others can offer better analogies. Lin? Medesha?

a sonnet to heavenly beauty - du bellay

Again, my retardation for understanding poetry comes into play.

I read this as a plea to angels, to higher spirits or dying. He is talking one moment about how fruitless and pointless it is to dream and hope.

If everything that hath been must decay,
Why dreamest thou of joys that pass away,
My soul, that my sad body doth restrain?

Then he speaks of flying away, 'seeking another stay' as though he is leaving. (I.E. - Death.)

As for the last paragraph, I'm not sure what that eludes to - it seems to validate the heaven/dying/angel theory, except for the last line -

whereof now
Thou worshippest the shadow upon earth.

Not sure where that one is going.

Again, not really sure why I posted here as poetry is lost on me, but let us hope that someone with the brain to decipher will step in and let us both know what they mean.

[Merovingian]

For my two cents this is what meaning I will take away from these to passages.

Factories - Margaret Widdemer

To me this seems to be a lament over a lost child-hood. Now this could simply be that the person feels responsible for the death of the younger sibling but it seems much deeper and seeded in a fact that she feels that she not only caused the death but profited in some way from it that her childhood was brighter because of it. Now the last two lines make me think that the some how caused trauma to her mother who then lost the child. Epically look at the line I against whose placid heart my sleepy gold heads lie This causes me to conjure up a chilled putting her head on her mothers’ stomach feeling the new life within. Maybe she did not want a baby and when the pregnancy failed she was happy as a child and now as an adult is struck with regret.

a sonnet to heavenly beauty - du belay

This is easy he is celebrating the life we have in the beginning he (or she) is pointing out the shortfalls of this human existence. But in the second verse he proudly proclaims that these are not shortcomings but that they are that which make the human experience so mystifying and wonderful. He is saying it is the passion that brevity forces us to express all things in a truer form. That while in the grand scheme we may lay in a brief wisp of time our sole will carry on to the heavens.

But that’s just my opinion.

[Japic]

I by far am no expert either, but I'll let you in on how I saw things.

#1
The first time I read this I got the impression that she was guilty of killing her little sister, and yet lives a full life the sis never had. But when I read it again it sounds to me like the writer of this is guilty of stealing things from her younger sister. Not life literally, but figuratively. The first two lines of each stanza say what she took, and what she got in return for it. It almost seems as though the older sister took a love interest. From childhood friend, to teenaged lovers, to husband. The "I against whose placid heart my sleepy gold heads lie, Round my path they cry to me, little souls unborn" speaks of her having children, but she took them from another.

Just my two bits. Maybe all of out two bits will add up to an answer for you.

#2
The second one.... kinda lost me. I see it as someone (maybe a man) asking awoman why she has to strive and push so hard for perfection. That in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter what she does.

Looking to it again it almost seems like it could be a husband and wife, he asking her why she strayed from him for another unknown man. That everything she ever wanted was right there, yet she worshipped the shadow to look for it.



Good luck on this project. I'm sure a professional will be along shortly to provide a better answer.

[Merovingian]

For me the thing I like most about poetry is the vary thing you may have the most problem with in this forum. Every one will have a different interpretation of what they read. Different life experience to draw on and different definitions of meaning. So the bets advice I can give thinking about it is go with what you feel and just back it up with well rounded thought.

[RRR]

on the first place, I want to thank you for your comments. I discussed the first poem with someone else on school, and it seems that the theme of 'factories' is 'child labour'. On the net I found a collection of poems of this poetist and it's all about child labour. Therefore stands 'factories' probably.
What do you think about this?

[Japic]

The pieces seem to fit. It's not what I had thought of it, but based upon the title, and if the author has a collection of other such poems. It's very possible. Selling her sister into child labor, where she is malnourished and never can live her life. That would certainly fit the feeling of the piece to me.

[Wizard]

I was going to ask when "Factories" was written, 'cause it seemed like child labor to me. But then I saw you'd already figured it out. It is possible, by the way, that it's a lament of a representative member of the upper class, having enslaved their "sisters" (brotherhood of mankind) for material gain.

As for the second, I think Merv got it right. At first Du Bellay (Bellay or Bellet?) is asking the question (translated to prose) "Why aspire to achievement, when all we can accomplish is nothing in the grand scheme of things, and all worth accomplishing is impossible to a mortal?"

And then in the second stanza the author's answer to the question is revealed, and it is, "We are immortal beings in spirit, and are therefore granted the time to achieve greatness. And by the way, there are things greater than we can comprehend, but they'll be within our reach."

[Toptomcat]

I hate exams that make you interpret literature. Too often the teacher has one specific interpretation in mind, even when there's literally thousands of valid ones.

[Lin]

a sonnet to heavenly beauty.

This appears to be talking about the bounty of Heaven. I don't think its existential, as Merovigian said. The beauty of life is existentialism is defined in terms of its limitations, but the actual death is not itself any more beautiful than anything else.

Indeed, "Thou worshippest the shadow upon the eath" directly implies a literal heaven in the sky, casting down a shadow as if it were tangible. Also, the line "Nay, thou hast wings, - nay seek another stay" runs directly counter to an existential feeling. Another stay implies a second or afterlife and wings implies flight or freedom, but perhaps also refers to angels and is direct Christian imagery.

I think you should reread it well with a strongly Chistian tilt. Considering du Bellay is from the 1500s it makes a great deal of sense. Trying to think of it in terms of more modern philosophies might lead to faulty conclusions. The imagery works very well for the theme of, "Endure the burden of earth to achieve the bounty of heaven" or perhaps more accurately "Carry the burden of Earth without complaint, for heaven is the perfect reward"