For the last couple of classes we have talked about Jonathan Swift and his view on satire.  He has a famous quote in which he essentially says that in the world, satire is like a glass where you can see everyone else’s reflection except for your own.  This is funny because it’s contradictory in itself, in the sense that satire is supposed to “make fun” of something or someone for the audience to see, but because people don’t see their own reflections, or refuse to, it doesn’t apply to themselves.  This quote is very interesting because I think it really brushes on what a majority of the people in our society are sub-consciously like.  People are able to see the flaws and wrong-doings of the others around them, but when it comes to assessing ourselves, it takes a little more effort to pick out the flaws.  I’d like to think it’s human nature, because we can observe from the outside, but what’s inside of us is hard to really observe and address because it’s happening in the moment.

The way I look at it is just like sports.  I’ve played basketball for most of my life and I’ve also coached and referee’d before as well.  Being a player as oppose to, say a coach, is very very different.  When a coach is talking to his players, he tells them what they’re doing well and he also addresses the flaws and tells his players how to correct them.  But as a player, it’s much more difficult to assess the flaws and correct them right on the spot because you’re in the thick of things, trying to do so much at once.  Of course it’s more difficult than someone just watching and nit-picking.

This is the same when comparing a person’s view on the people around them as oppose to themselves.  We’re watching the world around us, making it easy to say what should be done and what should happen or be improved, etc.  But when it comes to addressing ourselves, we are definitely biased, making it a little more difficult.  I think that’s what Jonathan Swift’s view on, not only satire, but in life is, and I think he has a very strong point.

For our second essay, I wrote about the relationship between the body and spirit within a poem.  I chose to write about “The Preparitive” by Thomas Traherne.  When I really analyzed it, it truly opened my eyes to what I thought Traherne was trying to accomplish through this piece of work.  Traherne’s view on the spirit compared to the body was that the spirit was more free to experience things, as oppose to life where we have limits and boundaries.  These restraints, if you will, do not exist while we are in a spirit form.  I also found it very interesting how Traherne formatted the poem.  When talking about life, he had short details inserted into stanzas, symbolizing that life had a time limit, whereas everyone dIes.  But when talking about the spirit, he used the majority of the poem to convey this idea to symbolize that the spirit is endless and free.

The poem of Death Be Not Proud, is actually very interesting!  Donne talks about how “Death”, in a somewhat degrading manner.  Many people view death as something so mighty that they should fear, when in reality, Donne is telling us not to fear it so.  He then goes on to name reasons as to why we shouldn’t fear death as much as some of us do.  He brings up the point that in death, we look like we do when we sleep.  And also that to anyone, whether it be a King or a simple man, death is the same, it doesn’t change.  He also mentions that even the simplest or smallest things, like a poison or charm could kill us.  He then concludes it by saying that death is quick, it basically has no way of competing with the lives that we live because after death, we then move onto an eternal afterlife.  I actually really love this piece of literature because it puts things into perspective.  A lot of people live life in fear of dying but Donne does a good job of belittling it and almost giving people a sense of hope and optimism so that they don’t fear death.

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