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Plants, Animals, and (Almost) Humans (Animals (The Lives of Animals By J.M…

- - - - POWER / CONTROL Ava's power is, often problematically, derived from her sexuality and ability to emotionally manipulate and trick men.
- - - - AGENCY / CHOICE "Stunted, with small leaf, / you are flung on the sand, / you are lifted"
        The rose is being acted upon and doesn't have agency which is part of what makes the environment harsh.
      - GENDER / SEXUALITY The rose is symbol for women and female sexuality. H.D. sees beauty in women fully experiencing the world.
      - POWER / CONTROL "Can the spice rose drip such acrid fragrance?" Acrid is a strong, unpleasant scent but is powerful.
      - "OTHERNESS" The sea rose is contrasted with the spice rose throughout the poem to highlight the ways it is different.
      - CREATION / CREATIVITY The final stanza of the poem
        "Can the spice - rose / drip such acrid fragrance / hardened in a leaf?" clearly shows how the harsh environment that the sea rose survives has created strength and a unique type of beauty.
    - - POWER / CONTROL and AGENCY / CHOICE "your stalk has caught root / among wet pebbles"
      - CREATION / CREATIVITY "what meadow yields / so fragrant a leaf / as your bright leaf?"
      - GENDER / SEXUALITY Once again, H.D.'s flowers represent a female and demonstrate feminine strength.
      - "OTHERNESS" The wild sea poppy is contrasted with non wild flowers.
        "what meadow yields / so fragrant a leaf / as your bright leaf?"
    - - GENDER / SEXUALITY Sheltered Garden is in part a poem about the value H.D. places on female sexual exploration and experience.
      - CREATION / CREATIVITY "For this beauty, / beauty without strength, / chokes out life" "O to blot out this garden / to forget, to find a new beauty / in some terrible / wind-tortured place."
      - "POWER / CONTROL and AGENCY / CHOICE H.D. advocates for allowing woman to have individual agency and power. "Why not let the pairs cling / to the empty branch? / All your coaxing will only make / a bitter fruit -- / let them cling, ripen of themselves, / test their own worth, / nipped, shriveled by the frost, / to fall at last but fair / with a russet coat."
      - "OTHERNESS" H.D. criticizes the Sheltered Garden for not having any "otherness." "in this place, / no taste of park, of course weeds, / aromatic, astringent -- / only border on border of scented pinks."
    - - GENDER / SEXUALITY The Queen - Anne's lace is female and the poem talks about male power and female desire and purity. "Wherever / his hand has lain there is / a tiny purple blemish. Each part / is a blossom under his touch / to which the fibers of her being / stem one by one, each to its end, / until the whole field is a white desire"
      - AGENCY / CHOICE As stated in the above quote, females are not given agency.
      - CREATION / CREATIVITY The poem shows male creation in marking the flower purple.
      - POWER / CONTROL The female flower has no power and is forever changed. "a pious wish to whiteness gone over --"
      - CATEGORIES The poem explores purity and categorizes pure vs un pure "flowers" as seen in their whiteness.
    - - AGENCY / CHOICE The widow makes the decision to turn away from her flowers that used to give her joy.
        "today I notice them / and turn away forgetting"
      - POWER / CONTROL Grief is clearly a powerful emotion, one that competes with the flowers. "but the grief in my heart is stronger than they." The widow wants to rescind control and join the flowers. "I feel that I would like / to go there / and fall into those flowers / and sink into the marsh near them."
      - GENDER / SEXUALITY The widow is shown mourning her husband.
      - CREATION / CREATIVITY The growth of grief is compared to the growth of the garden in springtime. "Sorrow is my own yard / where the new grass / flames as it has flamed / often before"
- - - - CATEGORIES Although the entire poem categorizes horses that she has the ending accepts the ambivalence of categories. "She had some horses she loved. / She had some horses she hated. / These were the same horses."
      - POWER / CONTROL The choice of horse in the poem is significant because they are both wild and domesticated animals and symbolize strength and power.
      - CREATION / CREATIVITY Each individual horse when combined with the others creates an identity that is full of multitudes.
      - AGENCY / CHOICE The repeated phrase "She had some horses" implies that she has individual agency since she has or contains the horses.
      - GENDER / SEXUALITY The poem clearly shows the multidimensional nature of women.
    - - CREATION / CREATIVITY The poem highlights how humans use words and create metaphors to make sense of the world in our own terms. "What can words do / but link what we know / to what we don't, / and so form a shape?"
      - POWER / CONTROL Words give us power over foreign forms by putting them into categories that we can understand.
      - CATEGORIES People constantly seek to categorize foreign forms by comparing them to something we do know. "We look at alien grace, / unfettered / by any determined form, and we say: balloon, flower, heart, condom, opera, / lampshade, parasol, ballet."
      - "OTHERNESS" As previously mentioned, the poem explores how we attempt to make sense of the things that are completely "other" and foreign to us.
        "alien grace"
        "these elaborate sacks / of nothing? All they seem is / shape, and shifting"
    - - AGENCY / CHOICE The human in the story makes the decision to let the fish go after seeing the five previous hooks still in the fish's mouth from other times the fish "got away."
      - POWER / CONTROL Initially the fish is described as very powerless "battered and venerable and homely," however as the poem continues it becomes clear that the fish has escaped many times before.
      - CREATION / CREATIVITY The five hooks in the fish's mouth creates a "five - haired beard of wisdom." The fish's experiences and strength are thus valued in this poem.
      - CATEGORIES The poem clearly demonstrates respect for the fish by creating a moment of connection and commonality between fish and human. "I looked into his eyes"
      - "OTHERNESS" Although there is a moment of connection between fish and human the differences between fish and human are still highlighted. "I looked into his eyes / which were far larger than mine / but shallower, and yellowed, / with the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil seen through the lenses of old scratched isinglass."
    - - CATEGORIES Bats defy categories. "Look up, and you see things flying / Between the day and the night;"
      - "OTHERNESS" "Bats, and an uneasy creeping in one's scalp"
      - POWER / CONTROL "Little lumps that fly in air and have voices indefinite, wildly vindictive" Bats, through the fear they inspire are powerful.
      - CREATION / CREATIVITY "spools of dark thread sewing the shadows together."
      - AGENCY / CHOICE "In China the bat is symbol for happiness. / Not for me!" Humans choose how to define and relate to other animals.
    - - "OTHERNESS" "He squatted there like something unclean" "a disgusting bat"
      - CATEGORIES Cleanness is used as a distinguishing characteristic and to "other" bats.
      - POWER / CONTROL The man is attempting to assert dominance over the bat. "Not in my room."*
      - AGENCY / CHOICE The bat cannot leave the room and enter the daylight. "He could not go out"