"Spring and Fall" by Gerard M. Hopkins

Notes From Spring and Fall Poem

• The First thing I noticed was the title of the poem. The poem must have something to do with the seasons of spring and fall. 

Line 1:  Golden grove is unleaving, and Margaret is asked if she is grieving because of it? 

Vocabulary & Diction: The first words noticed are Golden Grove and unleaving. Is golden grove a person, or a place given the physical properties of a person? Does unleaving relate to the leaves in the fall? 

Line 2: You is Margaret. Can she care for the leaves, similar to the things of man.

Vocabulary & Diction: The words in these lines relate to the unleaving in the previous line. There is a connection between the leaves, leaves falling, and the nature of man.

Line 3: As we grow older, we will see things worse than the falling of leaves. Winter comes after the leaves fall.

First impressions: Speaker starts with the word "Ah." showing they had a thought, or an idea of some sort. 

Line 4: What is leafmeal? Something about singing words of wanword? Is Wanword another location?

Discerning patterns: There is a different pace in this line. "By and by", "nor spare a sigh."

Line 5: Margaret will know why she cries.

Discerning patterns: The idea of crying relates to grieving; both usually go together. 

Line 6: Sorrow is the same, no matter what name is pinned on it.

Symbolism, schemes, tropes: Spring's sorrow could be a metaphor for the sadness Margaret feels. 

Line 7: The mind cannot express what the heart feels, or the mouth. 

Discerning Patterns: What the heart desires to express is left out. 

Line 8: Man was born for death, and someone mourns for Margaret.

  Point of View: In line 2, we assume You is Margaret, but you cannot mourn for Margaret if you is Margaret.

How To Analyze Literature

Three Important Things I Learned

• The AP Exam challenges the writer to search for the "meaning of the work as a whole." We arrive to that truth by breaking apart and synthesizing the tools used by the narrator including: fictional characters, settings, plots, and language. Analyzing the work as a whole is essential towards doing well on the AP exam. The elements of what is being studied is divided into two categories: the parts of the work and the tools used by the author to transmit meaning. 
• Annotation is a huge chunk of reading analytically; in addition, the text provides a mantra for the analysis, "no what without why." It is important to understand what happens and then think about why the author made that specific choice. I am very used to assuming the narrator is the author and I never could break them apart from one another. This reading allowed me to understand there is some distance between both the author of the text and the narrator of the text. 
• I was intrigued by the author's approach to plot. I was so comfortable with pairing the plot with the word story, but the plot is actually the arrangement of the story. Analyzing the plot includes the questions of what, when, and why. If the story does not take place in exact chronological order, then we can study why that is. In addition to plot, setting also contributes to plot and it includes the whole context of a story. I was amazed by how setting could contribute to the mood and atmosphere of the text. Also, the setting may explore why the character acts the way they do. 

Questions or Skills that still need to be learned

1. How can the reader study symbols in a text without assuming everything in the text is symbolic?
2. What is an efficient way to study Tone and Mood without confusing the two closely connected concepts?
3. Is there a helpful analogy or different way to view Tone and Mood in connection to one another?

A Skill That I know Very Well

I think my best skill is annotating both short stories and novels. I haven't had much practice with poetry but I'm sure they are very similar in nature. Reading as a writer and reader, I cant read a text without annotating something in it so this is a skill I have been practicing since I started reading. Now, I can apply some of the techniques addressed in this text and my annotations can allow me to express my ideas in a more articulate way. 

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