Sunday, September 25, 2016

One-Zen Stand

My meditation session was a complete revelation for me and had a definite correlation to “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” in being able to think back to a time that brings a certain type of pleasure or peace. Although it was my first experience, I think understand meditation as well as the emotion of the speaker in William Wordsworth’s poem. 
            My experience meditating was definitely calming and seemed to be near what Dr. Davis was explaining, letting your brain and body become perfectly still and at rest from the business that constantly occupies it. Although I was totally self-aware during the session, I felt a release and serenity. When the speaker in “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” refers to a pleasing or happy solitude that he feels when he thinks back to that moment, I could definitely relate. Meditation for me was definitely a oneness or solitude that brought a complete bliss.
            Although I can’t attend meditation again, the experience was good enough to make me want to try again on my own. Hopefully, the emotion of serene solitude is one that will be able to center me, as well as be able to relate to other poems with a similar message.
           
            Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, and the “The Birthmark” a common theme is the degradation of woman’s role in society as well as a lack of appreciation for the beauty that is right in front of people. This theme conflicts severely with John Donne’s two poems, “The Flea” and “Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”.
            In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman the narrator’s experience seemed to be a direct contrast with to love expressed in either of Donne’s two poems. The kind of experience that the narrator goes through is a possessive controlling love, without any trust or appreciation. Though “The Flea” may have been in jest, it still showed and appreciation of the beauty and the honor of the woman, while in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is completely undermined by her husband.
            Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” on the other hand has a similar issue but with an even worse setting. Hawthorne’s story has a darker connotation and shows a resounding idea of not being content or appreciating what one already has. It also shows the idea that a woman has to be presented as beautiful and have to conform to certain standards of society. In the “The Flea” Donne consistently is acknowledging beauty, “The Birthmark” shows a near opposite where although Georgina is completely perfect save for one flaw, Aylmer cannot bring himself to see her beauty.
            Wordsworth relates Donne’s poem, with the notion of being able to connect to an experience even in solitude, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” ends with a reflection upon the idea that even in solitude the speaker can think back to that moment and his heart fill with bliss, which is synonymous with “Valediction; Forbidding Mourning” and the idea of never truly parting with an experience or a positive effect on life.

            

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