June 20: Tuesday

When the plane finally landed in Heathrow airport England it was 5 o'clock in the morning London time, it was Tuesday now. 

We knew we were supposed to take the train to our hotel and we had supposed had supposed that someone knew the train route. Everyone walked with determination but no one knew where we were going. In the end we took 3 trains, during rush hour, with what seemed to be our body weights in luggage. This is when we discovered that the English have a different sense of spacial awareness, we were jostled and pushed from all sides. It was a rather surreal experience, our first experience on the subway or "tubes," we were all completely exhausted and we were often separated by the crowds. We went through King's Cross Station, but the adults were too jet lagged to care. 

Before the trip I designed and sent out Hogwarts letters to all the girls coming with me to London, the letters said they had been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We were supposed to be at platform 9 3/4 at 11:00 on June 20th. We missed our train.

When we arrived at the appropriate tube stop we walked what seemed like a mile to our hotel the "Jury's Inn at Islington." We arrived too early to check in to the hotel, so we dropped off our luggge and went out to breakfast. We ate at a pub called the "York" I ate a delicous breakfast sandwhich 

June 19: Monday

My journey to London began at Linn’s house; she is my old girl scout leader and Lia’s mother. The other members of the group were Emily, her mother Shelly, Nicole, her mother Sandy, Kathi, Alisha, and me! From Linn’s house a mini-bus took us to the airport. We flew British Airways on a Boeing 747-400; I sat in row 47 seat C, the isle seat. It was the biggest plane I have ever been on, 50+ rows and three sections of seats across. There was an upstairs to the plane as well, but you couldn’t go up there unless you were first class, or as British Airways calls it ‘World Traveler Plus.’ We were slumming it to London in the coach section. Coach was actually very nice.

The initial flight announcements included words that made very little sense to me. The flight attendants said they would provide life “cocks” to babies in the events of an emergency. If there is a real emergency who has time to acquire a better life jacket?

There were video screens in the back of each seat. The screens were formatted in such a way that I couldn’t see what the person next to you was watching. My neighbors were very quite, they told me it was there first time across the Atlantic or “across the pond” as well.

The TV was not working. Then I discovered…ooo … it’s a touch screen! I could choose from 60+ movies as well as listen to music cds and watch the moving flight progress map. I brought a mini-dvd player with me but I didn’t end up using it on the plane.

Because we went through a tour company we were unable to choose seats ahead of time, I couldn’t even see my friends from my seat. They were in the wing section, I was near the tail.

The British stewardesses have a different sense of space than there American counterparts. They don’t ask if they can move your seat, they just do it. Later in London I noticed this difference again, Europeans have much smaller space bubbles.


The food was interesting, asked for fish, and got (I think) chicken accompanied by a weird corn thing and some bad vegetables. Dessert was cheesecake, that was good…and some sugar coated in chocolate… and fresh mozzarella.

Later on they fed us breakfast. I barely slept on the plane.

This image is a collage of pictures of Europe in the early 1900's, the peak of the modernist era. The working environment in which the European modernists worked was the inspiration for their poems. I hope that with these images I can capture a piece of the mood of the modernist age. The quote on the bottom of the page is taken from the poem "Ithaca" by Cavafy. 

The Dessert
Matisse

This painting, also known as “Harmony in Red” shows an image of a woman setting a table; it is only through the title that we known that she is putting out a delicious dessert. In the background of the picture is a window through which we seen a summer garden. The wallpaper in the inside of the house has pictures of flowerpots and plants; this image is also repeated on the table cloth. The plants on the table cloth look as though they are climbing up onto the table. It looks as though the garden is invading the house! While the outside garden is well kept and organized, it is a jungle inside. The lady in the picture is being overwhelmed.

This painting has a clear connection to the modernist movement. The observer of the painting, like the speaker in a poem it is possible that the observer is not Matisse, feels in “Harmony” with the garden it simulates the observer emotions and a journey of the imagination.

European Moderists

The European modernists challenged the stereotypical poetry of Europe in the late eighteen hundreds and in the nineteen hundreds. Earlier poetry Modernists poetry was at its height in the early nineteen hundreds, before the modernist period was the infamous impressionist period which was marked by its great artists such as Monet and his water lily paintings. The impressionists captured the truth of their surroundings; they wrote and painted what they saw in nature. The modernists used the influence of nature and their surroundings and created art and poetry that reflect the influence of nature on the self and the human condition.

In the case of the poetry of Pessoa he experimented with expressing the influence of his surrounding on his identity, how sound, motion, and color effect mood. Many of Pessoa’s poems have a definite sense of motion and of distance from both ideal memories and from the physical. Pessoa writes about remembering his lover and his distance from her now that they are apart. Rilke’s work has a definite connection to his environment, Rilke connects the abstract to what his speakers are currently experiencing and observing. Cavafy reflects upon how in written human history people have changed very little, Cavafy reveals the connection between us all.

My initial response to these poems was interest, I enjoy understanding the context the narrators of the poems are speaking from, understanding the connection between the visual and emotion is essential for my understanding. Existential dilemmas are fine, but I would like to know what triggered the dilemma if I am going to have any sympathy. Pessoa kind of confused me.

Explication

Adam
High above he stands, beside the many
saintly figures fronting the cathedral's
gothic tympanum, close by the window
called the rose, and looks astonished at his
own deification which placed him there.

Erect and proud he smiles, and quite enjoys
this feat of his survival, willed by choice.
As labourer in the fields he made his start
and through his efforts brought to full fruition
the garden God named Eden. But where was
the hidden path that led to the New Earth?

God would not listen to his endless pleas.
Instead, He threatened him that he shall die.
Yet Adam stood his ground: Eve shall give birth.


In this poem the speaker is observing and giving life to a statue of the biblical image of Adam seen on a church spire, the speaker seems to be very satisfied. The poem uses standard stanza and line breakage, each paragraph is one long sentence and each line is about the same length. This set up is unusual for modernist poets but no unusual for the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. The speaker’s Adam seems confused, yet satisfied with his position on the cathedral: “Looks astonished with his own deification which places him there… Erect and proud he smiles, and quite enjoys this feat of survival.” The speaker recalls the story of Adam in the next few lines, of how Adam was promised a better life on “New Earth” and how Adam plead with god for his own life. In the beginning of the poem the speaker was in awe of the majesty of the cathedral, but by the end the speaker is infatuated with the story of Adam, one of the many stories represented by the reliefs carved on the cathedral. The cathedral and its statures dwarfed the speaker but by recalling the story of Adam the significance of an individual to humanity is brought to life and the speaker seems less insignificant compared to the cathedral. The overall tone of the poem is one of satisfaction, the concluding line of the poem which mentions the birth of Adam and Eve’s child shows the superiority of man, god may have threatened Adam with death but Adam lives on through all his descendants, all humanity. Adam stands up to god, just as the speaker stands up the cathedral, a temple of god, by asserting the importance of the individual through the wisdom of Adams story.

Reflection

The European modernist poets use the inspiration of their surrounds to define themselves and their view of their society. The Greek poet C.P. Cavafy, though he lived in the twentieth century, is greatly influenced by ancient Greek lore. Rilke personifies living and non living images such as cats and statues. Pessoa writes through his heteronyms, he is also influenced greatly by his environment; his ideas are more abstract than those of Cavafy's and Rilke's.
Rainer Maria Rilke's work is a bridge between post-impressionist and modernist styles. A majority of his poems are composed of the traditional four line stanzas. Rilke uses images such as a panther to express ideas: "But sometimes the curtains of his eyelids part, / the pupils of his eyes dilate as images/ of past encounters enter while through his limbs/ a tension strains in silence/ only to cease to be, to die within his heart." In this stanza from the poem "The Panther" the great cat reveals its weariness of life experience held within its heart. This panther is both an object of nature and a metaphor for the very human conception of memory. Rilke’s panther is very reminiscent of Blake’s “Tyger, Tyger burning bright.” Rilke’s poems do not draw only from animals, in his poem “Going Blind” Rilke uses the image of a women to represent abstract ideas: “She followed slowly, taking a long time,/ as though there were some obstacle in the way;/ and yet: as though, once it was overcome,/ she would be beyond all walking, and would fly.”
In comparison to Rilke, Cavafy is influences by myth rather than by his current surroundings. In his poem “Ithaca” Cavafy uses the epic saga of Odysseus as a metaphor for a journey of self discovery and teach the meaning of home: “Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage. /Without her you would have never set out on the road. /She has nothing more to give you. /And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you. /Wise as you have become, with so much experience, /you must already have understood what Ithaca means.” Cavafy’s poems are organized in a way very similar to the epic Greek poems, the stanzas are long and sentences are divided. In anther poem entitled “The Alexandrian Kings” Cavafy uses the characters to express stagnation: “Caesarion was full of grace and beauty /and the Alexandrians rushed to the ceremony, /and got enthusiastic and cheered /although they full well knew what all these were worth, /what hollow words these kingships were.” Cavafy many be suggesting in this poem that falsity is part of human nature and has been seen throughout human history.
Pessoa writes very moody poetry. Pessoa is famous for his heteronyms, but these are not readily available in English translation. His poetry has a feel of movement to it, one poem called “Seen from the Train” describes what may be the speaker’s soul chasing the train, Pessoa’s other poems have the imagery of movement and distance. Pessoa, compared to Cavafy and Rilke, is very abstract the next step in modernism.

Poems

C.P. Cavafy
Monotony
Trojans
Alexandrian kings
Ithaca
As Much as You Can
Rilke
Adam
Black Cat
Going Blind
The Panther
The Swam
Self Portrait
Pessoa
Alentejo Seen From The Train
I am the escaped one
Meantime
On An Ankle