F08250_jguza

= = by: Sandra Gilbert (1984)** Jenni Guza
 * "Sonnet: The Ladies' Home Journal"

The brilliant stills of food, the cozy glossy, bygone life--mashed potatoes posing as whipped cream, a neat mom conjuring shapes from chaos, trimming the flame-- how we ached for all that, that dance of love in the living room, those paneled walls, that kitchen golden as the inside of a seed: how we leaned on those shiny columns of advice, stroking the thank yous//,// the firm thighs, the wise closets full of soap, But even then we knew it was the lies we loved, the lies we wore like Dior coats, the clean-cut airtight lies that laid out our lives in black and white.

When I first read through this poem I thought it had to do with the celebration of Christmas. I thought this because when the mashed potatoes and trimming the flame and chaos are all mentioned it reminded me of Christmas and how chaotic it really is. But now after re-reading it, I now believe that it has something to do with the real life of a woman. The mashed potatoes now representing how women stay away from whipped cream while on a diet. And how most women just live for the tid bit of chaos and gossip. How we dance in the living room by ourselves using a hair brush as a microphone. We loved each others advice and always have more soap than we needed that would fill an entire closet. It then mentions that it was the lies that we loved. This I think is representing how a lot of people put on this act that they live a perfect life and want to have the name brands of everything, but actually love lying about it.
 * Way 1: First Impression**

After reading the poem aloud to myself, I still did not find any rhyme nor any definite sounds that affect my understanding of the poem. Since I could not identify a definite rhythm or pattern throughout the poem, but I did notice that the last two lines have rhyming words on the end. With no definite scheme throughout the entire poem, but the last two lines displaying rhyme, makes these two lines stand out and makes them important. With this, I believe that the writer of the poem did not really have much thought before writing this poem instead she just wrote down her feelings as they came to her mind. When a reader reads this poem they can picture a woman, who believes in all of these things she mentions, from a clean kitchen to a closet full of soap.
 * Way 2: Engaging with the Text**

With the title of this poem the reader thinks that it is a sonnet because that is how it is stated in the title. According to Brown and Yarbrough a sonnet exhibits a structure that sends certain specific signals to the informed reader (39). Furthermore this means that the some of the words in the poem are clues that help the reader identify the theme of the poem. In this case the words or phrases that help me identify what I believe is the theme is, are kitchen, thank yous, and closets full of soap. The commas and semi-colons also tell the reader when her path of thinking changes to a different one.
 * Way 3: A Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content**

Brown and Yarbrough also state that both lines generally have fourteen lines of iambic pentameter and follow one of several rhyme schemes. The difference between them is the grouping of lines (84). They then go on to explain that an English sonnet usually has a grouping of three groups of four lines and a group of two lines. And the Italian sonnet is divided into a group of eight lines and a group of six lines. So even though the title of the poem suggests that it in fact is a sonnet, the lines do not match up to the line patterns explained in the text, so therefore it is not a true sonnet. With the belief that this poem is not a sonnet, I do believe that it was written in free verse because of the way she jumped from idea to idea in no specific order. For example she goes from talking about a kitchen to talking about advice and thank yous. When she wrote this poem it seems as though she were walking through a house explaining her thoughts room to room.
 * Way 3: Another Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content**

One symbol in Gilbert's poem "Sonnet: The Ladies' Home Journal," is in fact the "neat mom" mentioned in line 3. She is a symbol because the things that are being compared throughout the poem all relate back to this "mom." Such as line 4 where it states that she is, conjuring shapes from chaos. This is support to the symbol because this line means that she is fixing the problems from all of the fumble and jumble that is going on in this household. So in a sense this symbol of a "mom" really is a symbol because of how important a mom tends to be in reality.
 * Way 4: Unpacking Figurative Language**

An additional piece of figurative language happens towards the end of the poem in lines 12-13. These lines mention that of all of the things mentioned, it really was the lies we all loved. This piece of figurative language comes across to the reader as hard to interpret and ever harder to understand, but it truly means something. All of the things explained in the poem, the love, the advice and the thank yous, all of these things are not really what the reader wants you to believe, but what is thought by a lot of people. This image of the perfect life with the love shared between family members and everyone saying thank you is not what always happens in reality, but what people view as the ideal life. 
 * Way 4: Another Unpacking Figurative Language**

Although "Sonnet:The Ladies Home Journal" by Gilbert does not seem to have a definite setting I believe that this poem is taking place in a family home sometime during the holiday season. With lines 2-3 "mashed potatoes posing as whipped cream" or the end of line 4, "trimming the flame" mentioning things that support the idea of the holiday season. Mashed potatoes remind the reader of a thanksgiving dinner and trimming the flame reminds the reader of the candles on the fireplace that have to be trimmed during the holidays. This poem also possesses the idea of verisimilitude as the speaker refers to things in real life such as, "a neat mom conjuring shapes from chaos" (3-4). This line being something that can be seen and brought to reality. The idea Gilbert mentions about paneled walls also stands as a symbol to the setting because of how popular these walls were back in the 80's. I was born in the late 1980's, but I have seen some pictures of my families walls throughout their homes and did notice many of them were paneled with numerous designs and colors. 
 * Way 5: Analyzing the Setting **

This particular poem is being told in third-person limited point of view because this poem is being told be a detached narrator who is not a character in this story, but the poem is indeed focusing on her perspective of what is happening. We as the reader know it is being told in this point of view because we know what the narrator is thinking and what the narrator knows, not what anyone else is thinking or what anyone else knows.
 * Way 6: Identifying and Analyzing Point of View**

My first impression of this poem was that the poem appeared to be written about some sort of stereotype given to a woman or a family in a holiday type setting, but as I began unpacking the poem my impression turned out to be wrong. As I began to unpack the poem for a second time I realized I that the poem was not taken from "The Ladies Home Journal" rather it was a poem written about "The Ladies Home Journal." So therefore I believe that the title has some ambiguity in itself. Like I thought, the reader may have thought that the poem was taken from that journal rather than the poem being written __about__ the journal. Which can lead to two separate understandings and meanings to the poem. If the reader were to read the poem thinking it was taken from the journal, it may have lead them to the idea I had originally thought about something taking place in a holiday setting. If the reader were to read the poem with the assumption that it was written about the journal, they may believe that it is stating all of the different things that may be found in that specific journal. For instance, the first two lines of the poem can be understood in a sense that the journal gives pictures of still food, and the glossy can describe the pages of the journal.
 * Way 7: Analyzing Complexity, Ambiguity, and Difficulty**

Although this poem does not directly relate to a particular place in time, it does represent the ideas and feelings that this author feels towards The Ladies Home Journal. This poem can be related to a culture in a sense because of the things that are mentioned, like trimming the flame, and the kitchen golden as the inside of a seed. These can be somewhat cultural because in some cultures or religions they light the flame during Christmas and in some cultures the kitchen is one of the most important rooms. This poem can be very liked to someone who likes strong opinions and agrees with the feelings towards this specific journal.
 * Way 8: Considering Canonicity **

After reading this poem numerous times, I still do not think that this poem is very easy to understand. I did though, find in a biography about Sandra Gilbert that she tends to direct her works with a feminist theory. The feminist theory indefintiely means that the poem was told through a woman's thoughts how she views the specific things she is writing about. This poem is definitely written and related to the female in a sense because it describes her feelings towards the different things you would find in a Ladies Home Journal.
 * Way 9: Biographical Context**

The important aspect here can be seen through historical and cultural context of this poem. The poem was written in 1993, which was not too long ago, but still has some history sense to it. I was only 4 years old when this poem was written and the one thing mentioned in the poem that jumped out to me and reminded me of when I was little was when Gilbert mentions the closets full of soap (11). This brings me back to when I was younger and my mom would always stock up on soaps and shampoo because when you have little ones you can never have enough soap to keep them clean. The cultural aspect of this poem I believe relates directly to the American culture that I have been raised under. I feel this way because I can personally relate to the things that are being mentioned throughout the poem like the closets full of soap, and the "neat mom" mentioned in line 3. Nowadays, the responsiblity of a mother is much more advanced than it were in the olden days. Mother's went from just raising a family to raising a family, maintaing a job, and still manage to find time for themselves.
 * Way 10: Historical and Cultural Contexts **

The most obvious perspective the reader can understand after reading this poem, would have to be read through the feminist criticism. First the poem is titled, "Sonnet: The Ladies' Home Journal" which leads the reader to believe that it was written from the perspective of a female. This perspective allows the reader to view the poem as if it were written by a woman and lets them understand the poem through her thoughts and feelings about this specific journal. Also since we know that the poem was indeed written by a female, it gives the poem the true meaning through this perspective. Once again, it allows the reader to understand how __she__ is feeling through the poem itself.
 * Way 11: Theoretical Application**

The second perspective the reader can view this poem through would be the psychoanalytical perspective. This perspective allows the reader to view the poem and think about why the author chose the words and phrases that she did and what she initially meant by those words. For example, in lines 3-4, "a neat mom/conjuring shapes from chaos, trimming the flame--"(3-4). Now when Gilbert mentioned this "neat mom" what did she really mean? Did she mean that a mom kept her house clean after the kids had torn it apart or did it mean that she was able to keep her thoughts neat even when things were going crazy in her life? When she mentions "trimming the flame," does she mean literally trimming the flame of a candle persay, or kepping things short and to the point without having problems?
 * Way 12: Another Theoretical Application**

When first reading the poem, the reader can come to the conclusion that the poem is explaining the theme of a family at Christmas time. Then after reading it maybe one more time the reader may believe that the poem is explaining what you may find in reading "The Ladies Home Journal." Finally, after reading and re-reading this poem over and over again and analyzing what Sandra Gilbert was trying to get the reader to understand it is now clear that she was actually writing about her day to day chores and responsiblitlies from a woman's point of view.
 * Way 13: Unifying Interpretation**

I do believe that she wrote this poem from her own personal experience and in other words a feminist point of view. She begins the poem by mentioning food. She mentions this because she was responsible for cooking the food and having it ready for the family. She then mentions the dance of love in the living room. This "dance of love" really is meaning how everyone tends to gather in the living room together because that is where the family spends time together and the memories are made. Next, the thank yous and the closets filled with soap signify how she taught respect and how she kept a stock of soap in the closet because a mom never knew when she was going to run out. The last part of her poem stood clear to mention lies. She mentioned these lies three times in the last part of the poem because that is what people do in today's society. They are afraid to admit the truth so they rely on lies to get by. These lies are what laid our lives out in black and white. This meaning that our lives could be exciting and filled with color, but instead we live our lives in a way through lies, in other words in black and white. 

Brown, James S. and Scott D. Yarbrough. __A Practical Introduction to Literary Study__. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.
 * Works Cited Page**

Gilbert, Sandra M. "Sandra M. Gilbert. 28 Nov. 2008. http://www.sandramgilbert.com/

__Poets.org__. 1997-2008. Academy of American Poets. 28 Nov. 2008. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/754