What does Nancy think about In Memoriam A.H.H [Prologue]?

"Thou seemest human and divine"

Seemest. I guess what Tennyson is saying is that He, God, is the holiest of manhood, and yet I get the feeling that Tennyson is questioning his faith. Afterall, he did lose his best friend. How horrible it must be to lose a best friend - a person who you shared all your hopes and dreams with, someone who you thought would be there forever.

And then, they're dead?! How beaten Tennyson must have felt. But to say he has lost his faith would be ridiculous...how would people look at him. I wonder what people would say if I told them that I have lost faith. Perhaps they wouldn't care at all...I am in a horrible profession in life. They wouldn't care. Ah, but Tennyson. He's a writer; people look up to him - it must have been hard going through all this.

And yet, there are some parts of this poem where I can see Tennyson recoiling from God almost in disbelief of his Power. The word seemest suggests that he is not taking what the world or what God has dealt him at face value and won't accept the way everything is supposed to work out.

It doesn't seem fair, really.

Sike's Thoughts on Tennyson's Prologue to In Memoriam A.H.H.

So much said in just 11 stanzas! There is a grief, truth, fear, confusion, and a humbleness in Tennyson's words that seems to capture the feeling of the London streets these days. So many things are changing each day and yet so much is the same. Scholars act like they have the answers to why man is here and what man should do with his life from science, and priests and rulers act like they have the answers from God, but then death and sorrow prove both confused and scared. And what of the criminal who know's he has no answer's to life's mysteries nor no real importance? If scholars, priests, and poets can't be comforted through the loss of a friend nor can solve the mysteries of life, how is a criminal like myself supposed to feel about the importance of life and my own death? It makes me sad to think that what concerns me is what my next meal will be rather than what the point of life is like Tennyson does. But then, if men like Tennyson can't resolve it I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about my life because no one has the answer anyway, so why should I try? We will all face death alone and with no knowledge of what lies ahead, if anything at all does.

Comments on Browning's "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church" by Sikes

This poem got me to thinkin' 'bout who will remember me when I'm dead 'n gone. If a bishop got no hope of being 'membered 'cept for how big and fancy his tomb is, what worth does my life have in the schema' things? All my life I've been livin' day to day with no regard to the future, 'specially not my death, and 'specially not after my death. What can a criminal hope for out of his life if a bishop can't e'en make sure his life will be remembered? What dif'rence have I made? Who knows what I'ma even sayin' anymore, I'm going somewhere far worse than that Bishop anyways. I guess it don't matter whether I worry over these things anyway's, maybe I was meant to be forgotten. I tell you wot, if I was his son's I'd be getting my hands on that lapis stone and spend rest of my days somewhere better than this gloomy London.

A Few Words by Sikes on "My Last Duchess"

Finally, a male author in this damn anthology! Browning does an excellent job portraying the Duke of Ferrara, and in a lot shorter length than his wife did in "Aurora Leigh". I guess even the rich can't avoid the inconwiencies and embar'sment that women bring. At least his wife knew her job was to obey men, but she obeyed all men instead o' her husband! She treated her husband just as nicely and happily as she treated any other man. Some women just too happy for they own good. Well, off to the streets to find my next house to rob, hopefully Fagin ain't out and 'bout, I don't need no little kid to train today.

The Esteemed Mr. Bumble on the matter of loving marriages

Well my dears, I am quite the expert on marraige. After all, I am married to Mrs. Bubmble, ain't I? I wooed her and won her fair heart sitting next to her fire and counting her dishes. Now, my dears, that is the way to win a woman, not all this fluff about havin' a title to offer, which Mr. Browning seems to think quite important in "My Last Duchess," eh? No no no. None of this disobedience on the part of the Duchess and there must certainly be no "spots of joy" in her cheeks. Even if she does go fishing for compliments from Pandolf the painter, she should not revel in them, eh my dears? The Duchess finally wakes up at the end of the poem and stops smiling and takes her husband's commands, as she rightly should, eh? The law says that a woman should take direction under her husband, right my dears? This Duchess should not be threatening the poor Duke's enviable manhood by treating his 900-year-old title as a trifle, eh? We men do not stand for wives as such who go about threatin' our manhood. Just ask Mrs. Bumble, my dears. I should let her read this poem as a warning of what may become of her someday if she doesn't cooperate with me, eh my dears? She may end up in a fair painting on my wall, for all the parochials to come by and admire.

Sikes' Response to Browning's "Aurora Leigh: Book 5"

This metaphor that Browning uses at the end of the Book, claimin' poets and their poems nurture the people of their age just like a woman's breast nurtures her young and so woman can naturally be poets just as good as any man, this metaphor really gets under my skin. If it weren't for men, women wouldn't never have those babies that they feed. I mean, I guess I can understand her wantin' poets to focus on their own time, but women don't have enough of a grasp of the times to be a poet. They have their own womanly roles to fulfill and anything important to an era is controlled by men. And I tell you wot, I need to start hiding this here anthology because I don't like the way Nancy been lookin' at me and talkin' at me these past few days. This Browning isn't a poet, she's the devil tryin' to disrupt all of society!

Nancy's Response to Aurora Leigh: Book Two

Ah..A twentieth birthday. She has such life in her... she's only a few years younger than I. And look at me...I don't have nearly as much life in me as she does. So young...she will be a great poet. Yes, a poet. She can obviously write just as well as any man.

Ooh, and that Romney...from reading Book One, i got a bad taste in my mouth from thinking about that man. See how he brings her down! Or tries to at least...she's too strong to be brought down. And then to propose afterwards? To say such things to her and propose? I mean, hell, he basically just said that women are dumb compared to men! I'm glad she turned him away...she'll be a great poet.