Mark Leibovit's of VR Goldletter thinks gold will rise strongly over the summer

Chief market strategist for the VR Gold Letter.com, Mark Leibovit's interview is well worth watching. He has some very interesting charts! Mark is the number one intermediate market timer for the last ten years in the US. ( " Timer Digest Magazine")

http://watch.bnn.ca/the-close/june-2009/the-close-june-25-2009/#clip187264

"The Applicant" by Sylvia Plath

The poem was published in her famous collection of poems, "Ariel", a couple of years after her death in 1965.

- The Applicant

First, are you our sort of a person?
Do you wear
A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,
A brace or a hook,
Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,

Stitches to show something's missing? No, no? Then
How can we give you a thing?
Stop crying.
Open your hand.
Empty? Empty. Here is a hand

To fill it and willing
To bring teacups and roll away headaches
And do whatever you tell it.
Will you marry it?
It is guaranteed

To thumb shut your eyes at the end
And dissolve of sorrow.
We make new stock from the salt.
I notice you are stark naked.
How about this suit----

Black and stiff, but not a bad fit.
Will you marry it?
It is waterproof, shatterproof, proof
Against fire and bombs through the roof.
Believe me, they'll bury you in it.

Now your head, excuse me, is empty.
I have the ticket for that.
Come here, sweetie, out of the closet.
Well, what do you think of that ?
Naked as paper to start

But in twenty-five years she'll be silver,
In fifty, gold.
A living doll, everywhere you look.
It can sew, it can cook,
It can talk, talk , talk.

It works, there is nothing wrong with it.
You have a hole, it's a poultice.
You have an eye, it's an image.
My boy, it's your last resort.
Will you marry it, marry it, marry it.

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

Resources for studying Sylvia Plath's "The Applicant"

One source which possibly moved Sylvia Plath to create her poem was Cliff Richard's 1959 release, "Living Doll". With hindsight and the benefit of time, even he is embarrassed by the "dodgy" lyrics of the song. He thinks that he needed "guts" to sing it. Who would produce such sexist lyrics today?


Another important source for the poem was a painting by the Belgian surrealist artistRené François Ghislain Magritte (21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967).



Here's an extract from an essay which discusses this painting and its relationship with Plath's poem.

"The Applicant"

"Plath also denounces the role of wife, especially in "The Applicant," in which a man goes into a shop to purchase a wife. A salesperson interrogates him about his needs, recommends a model with many skills, and then summons one for him, saying "Come here, sweetie, out of the closet" (Hughes 1981, 221). Plath's image is eerily similar to Rene Magritte's "Homage to Mack Sennet (1934, "Huldigung an Mack Sennet," Musee Communale, La Louviere, Belgien), which portrays an armoire with one door open to reveal a floor length, white, long-sleeved, semi-transparent silk gown hanging from a wooden coat hanger with the front of the gown facing the door opening. The ugly, styleless armoire seems shoddily made. The mirror on its closed door reflects nothing; it is a flat surface on which gray fades into black. Nearly everything in the painting is dull, ordinary, common, and shabby-in browns, beiges, grays, and blacks-except the bodice of the gown itself, whose shape appears to cover two nippled, very realistic woman's breasts. There is no indication of hands, feet, head, or body--just breasts, which change the shape of an otherwise two-dimensional nightgown. The rest of the gown hangs limply from its hanger, without humanity or sexuality. Here--as if for sale and certainly for the taking by whoever so desires--is a hollow nothingness. Magritte, like Hollywood and Madison Avenue, has reduced woman to a pair of perfect, emblematic breasts. Forever available, this is a sex symbol which will never disagree with, annoy, or betray any man.

Similarly passive and available, Plath's mannequin waits in a closet too. It is capable of performing all wifely and housewifely tasks; it will provide a hand when its husband's hand is empty: "It will bring teacups and roll away headaches / And do whatever you tell it." Her mannequin is a "living doll" (Hughes 1981, 221); "It can sew, it can cook / It can talk, talk, talk," and is guaranteed to have "nothing wrong with it" (222). Like Ira Levin's later creation, the Stepford wives, its only function is to satisfy a husband's needs--including sexual intercourse--but does so without interest, affect, or feeling. Like Magritte's breasted gown, Plath's mannequin lacks individuality and any will of its own. All hers can do is "talk, talk, talk," but it almost certainly does so without ever saying anything worth listening to. (11)

Plath takes a painting that does not have feminist content and transforms it into a poem that does. But, unlike a feminist who thinks of other women as her sisters, Plath, in each case, attacks the woman who has accepted her role and presents the woman as subhuman--as ape, as lollipop, and as robot. Plath herself wanted to have it all."

Websites: articles, essays, comments, etc.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1566011/sylvia_plaths_the_applicant.html?cat=38

http://education.theage.com.au/pagedetail.asp?intpageid=1595&strsection=students&intsectionid=3

http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/sylviaplath/1437/comments/2

http://www.iun.edu/~plath/vol1/browne.pdf

http://www.uta.fi/~tiina.r.koivisto/AmLit9.pdf

"My Shoes" read by Charles Simic

The Belgrade born, US poet reads his own poem.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/audioitem.html?id=604

"Ecstasy" by Sharon Olds

From page 73 of "Emergency Kit: Poems for Strange Times", Sharon Old's poem shares themes and ideas that are present in several other poems in this anthology. The poem's depiction of sexual experience and its imagery and focus on how "language" can also separate us recalls Adrienne Rich's "Two Songs".

Metaphysical poets and their poetry

This is a good starting point for understanding what metaphysical poetry is, who produced it and when.

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/metaintro.htm

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/metaphysical.htm

Expressive readings of John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud" and George Herbert's "Love"

Donne's metaphysical poem belittles personified "Death" because of its temporary victory, after which it is paradoxically fated to "die" itself, with the Resurrection.  Herbert's dialogue is reveals a male soul's entry into heaven and God as "Love" assuring the  hesitant narrator's soul of its welcome to heaven. Its "Lord" is definitely a New Testament one! Both poems would be useful to write about for AO5ii, (The historical context)  AO1, (Use of  poetic technique) and AO3 (form, structure and language). There seems to be a progression between them. These AOs refer to Edexcel's legacy syllabus. 


Julian Glover's reading of this poem is spot on!


Herbert's poem was read by Poetry Animations

Chinese students laughed at Timothy Geithner's assurances over the Dollar

This says it all! It's a tribute to Chinese students that they are up-to-speed on the Dollar. It's also an embarrassment for the world's foremost power.
http://www.gata.org/node/7461

Notes on Metaphysical and Cavalier Poets

Here's link for further study with interesting information on metaphysical poetry and its features.
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl331/donne.html

"To His Coy Mistress" - presentation

To His Coy Mistress - Andrew Marvell

View more OpenOffice presentations from Andre Oosthuysen.

John Donne's "Death Be Not Proud" - Notes

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides3/DeathBe.html