blog 3

Joseph Kamish

Dr. Ellis

EN-101-07

8 March 2020

Event Service Analysis

            A week before spring break I was fortunate enough to see a play over the weekend.  The play was Shakespeare’s “Henry V.”  In the play, the newly crowned king is experiencing poor relations with the country of France.  The son of the French ambassador, the Dauphin, humiliates the king by giving him a gift of just tennis balls.  This sparks a conflict between the two nations. Until it is finally resolved when the two war-torn nations are brought together through marriage.  One aspect of the play that stood out to me the most was the fact that Henry V abandoned a few really close friends only because they weren’t wealthy, which he now was.  Although this was a small part of the play, it connected well with a few thoughts I had when reviewing the poems assigned for reading. The main moral I kept encountering when reading these poems was that, in life, you need to be able to overcome the shortcomings of others in order to truly appreciate them as individuals.

            In “My Papa’s Waltz,” the poem speaks to us about a child’s rough relationship with his/her Papa.  The Papa is hinted at being a heavy drinker which, as is well known, can lead to violence and aggression.  Although this poem opened with a sort of abusive tone, towards the end the author really highlights the amount of love that existed in the relationship, as the Papa carries the sleeping child to bed.  We can see that through the shortcomings of the Papa, like his drinking issues, the relationship is still deeper than can be perceived at surface level. In “My Father is a Simple Man,” the narrator takes a stroll through town with their father.  The father is described to have a 6^th grade education but nonetheless, the narrator loves him unconditionally.  The father even claims that he would give his life for the narrator.  In “Tableau,” two children, one black and one white, walk side-by-side down the street holding hands.  They receive puzzled and surprised looks from others.  It can only be inferred that this takes place during a time when segregation of races was still very prominent.  These two children are able to overlook their surface level shortcomings, as created by society, and have a true friendship.  In “Love After Love,” the narrator looks in the mirror and describes how he or she has accepted that reflection. Unlike the other poems, this specific piece emphasizes how we need to overcome our own shortcomings through self-reflection before we can begin to build meaningful relationships with others. 

            Through all the previous poems, the idea of getting past others’ faults was extremely prominent.  In “Henry V,” the King was not able to move passed the fact his old friends weren’t rich, which destroyed their friendship. In “My Papa’s Waltz,” “My Father is a Simple Man,” and “Tableau,” the individuals in the poem were able to get passed the issues others had, and by result, created a nearly unbreakable relationship.  “Love After Love,” though different from the previous 3 poems, still carried the same message but even took it a step further.  Even though it is monumentally important to be able to see through peoples’ faults, that skill carries no value if one isn’t able to see their own faults beforehand.  Matthew 7:3-5- “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  This quote from the Bible is one that my mother used to always say to me growing up which helped me to always consider my faults before those of my friends.