Conrad Poem Meta Cognitive

Carla Castillo Mr. Gallagher
P.2 AP lit.

Heart of Darkness Meta-Cognitive

After completing Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad it left an impression on me of how maybe if Marlow had known what this journey would have truly brought him, would he have gone on it to begin with. In my poem I tried to retell the novella in Marlow’s perspective but in a more morbid and depressing manner. I felt like this eerie way of portraying Marlow’s journey really gives a different but really similar interpretation of Heart of Darkness.
“A haze vanishing the flatness
holding our hearts together
the air was dark and motionless
I let him run on”.
I titled my poem I let him run on because I feel like its almost an interpretation of Marlow letting him self and his apprehensions about going on this trip be released from his conscious. I feel if he had thought about what he was getting himself into there is a chance he wouldn’t have even tried to go on this trip. I started my poem by talking about the journey itself in my head I pictured the opening of a scene a misty river in between a jungle. Deep green is seen in every direction the sky is dark gray from the fog and Marlow is in his own mind thinking of what is awaiting him.
gaze at the moon
miserable and sick stillness
looking at us two It arrested me
the movement almost black
I wanted to provide a lot of imagery in my poem just like Conrad did in Heart of Darkness. The imagery of Heart of Darkness is what really made the story so invoking to the reader and I wanted my poem to have a similar affect on the readers of my poem.

Conrad Poem

Let him run on (93)
A haze (65) vanishing the flatness
holding our hearts together(65)
the air was dark(65) and (92)motionless(65)
I let him run on (95) gaze at the moon (95)
miserable and sick (94) stillness (94)
looking at us two (94) It arrested me (92)
the movement (92) almost black (92)
there was no hurry (90)
I had given up (99)
But they didn’t (98)

I heard voices approaching (99)
Somewhere (103) in another existence (103)
I can tell you (104) a glimpse (105)
an improved specimen (106)
I lifted my eyes (108)
Approached cautiously (107)
After so many months (109)
Can you turn back? (117)
It takes a man (113)
I made no move (113)

I looked at him (129)
His very existence (129)
Was altogether bewildering (129)
Glamour urged him (129)
To move onwards (129)
A dark blue space (130) had (143)
Had fallen over him (142)
To invoke him (143) he was alone (143)
To dream the nightmare (148)
Mistah Kurtz –he dead (148)

1-2 Images from research paper artist

In the painting Urano en casa 4 by Jorge de la Vega he uses different colors, abstract paintings techniques and textures in his painting. At first glance you are really taken back by the painting it is so much to take in De la Vega uses bold colors in his painting like red, orange, turquoise, blue, light yellow, and grey on a cream colored canvas that he did not completely color but regardless of whether he colored it or not it is actually a part of the painting. Black is also a color that almost hides in this painting while I was looking at it I was so taken in by the other colors and textures I barley noticed it. I was trying to figure out how he mad those textures appear on his painting but I still can not figure it out, the audience would think he just painted it on himself like it was just an optical illusion but if you look closely he actually created the texture out of cloth or paper.It looks like the painting is just a mess of colors but if you study the contours of the lines and what they create a shape slowly starts forming. The colors reminded me of a circus because how the were really bold and in your face and I had seen this painting before and thought it was fascinating but when I did this assignment I saw something in the painting that I had not seen before or noticed at all there is an elephant in Jorge De la Vega’s painting. So when I thought about it those bold and crazy colors that had reminded me of a circus before now fit perfectly. The painting gives this feeling of hectic ness and stress but at the same time it is really calming.So if you were to picture it think of this whirl wind of colors on this cream canvas it almost seems like you are being pulled in by this gravitational pull. It gives you this feeling that you want to be a part of it; the viewer is almost hypnotized by it. Then as you see this whirl wind and swirl of colors things almost appear to slow down and you look closely and see this shape start to come through and as you look closer it this animal jumps out at you and elephant. Then your almost thrown back like you can hear its trunk swinging out at you and then this calm appears again and you almost become a part of it like the viewer and the elephant become one. So when this calm replaces again you feel almost satisfied like it changed your mood. It makes the viewer think of the world and how there are so many obstacles, and hurdles to jump. How some times the noise all around you grows so loud you can barley hear yourself breathe let alone think. People always feel like the have to get away from the noise and find some silence by going to the country side or going on vacation or leaving their everyday lives to escape. After looking at his painting I noticed that when you are surrounded by all this noise and craziness you are able to find yourself and sometimes the noise is more calming then the silence, De la Vega makes you realize that the silence is not always comforting. De la Vega shows you that every day you pass by millions of people and all these faces just go by and no one ever stops to get to know them and life is just like that but that is how you live it.I wanted to talk about De la Vega’s technique you really need to look at this painting to understand it if you just stare at it nothing come out but when you look at it more than once you start to feel its atmosphere, then you get lost in it and find the true meaning of it, its almost mind blowing to see all the things you had missed before. The fact that he choose an elephant is really interesting because elephants have a lot of different meanings to them. People say elephants are a symbol for fertility which is interesting to the viewer of the art because could De la Vega be saying something about birth, it is a possibility. Elephants are also a symbol for strength, an elephant ways about two tons so it is easy to see why strength would be a symbol for an elephant.Wisdom is also something that is connected with elephants, which fits in with the theme of De la Vegas painting because it gives you a new perspective on life. And this elephant’s presence makes the paintings whole purpose be communicated to the viewer. This wisdom given by the elephant gives a whole new meaning it makes the viewer feel as if they are the elephants this strong, and wise being with all this potential and drive to live their life. Elephants are also a symbol for luck, like an elephants presence is a good luck charm. So this gives the painting a feeling of a spiritual sense as well as a metaphorical sense. So obviously De la Vega had many reasons as to why he included and elephant as the animal in his painting other than something else.In Jorge De la Vega’s painting Urano en Casa 4, he creates this world for his viewer of craziness and hectic-ness to make this feeling of uneasiness but as the viewer looks at the painting they slowly start to see what De la Vega was trying to show them. That our lives are this jumbled, crazy mess but in all of the craziness there is beauty and if you are so narrow minded and can only focus on the bad you miss out on the bigger picture in front of you. Silence is nice because it allows you to get away from your life and think about everything you are going through, but what De la Vega is trying to show you is that the running away to that silence doesn’t always solve your problems sometimes it just makes it worse, and De la Vega does this effortlessly.

Frank O'Hara Explication

Carla Castillo
Mr. Gallagher
Period 2

Frank O’Hara Explication

In Having a Coke with you by Frank O’Hara, O’Hara tries to send out a message to his readers that that anything in comparison to love seems small. He brings the reader into his poem by the title being the actual first line of the poem. Through this poem O’Hara wants the reader to visualize all these beautiful places around the world and these marvelous paintings. Then he wants the reader to realize that these things are all master pieces but can never measure up to finding the missing part of you in someone else.

Having a Coke with you by Frank O’Hara pulls the reader into to this subtle love story that he creates of a man telling the woman he loves that all experiences in life would be meaningless with out her. In his poem he lists all the places he has seen and how they mean nothing in comparison to her. He says
“San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona”
These are some of the most beautiful places in Europe and he says that having a coke with this mystery woman is more fun than all of those places.

The speaker of the poem begins to describe his other half and uses lots of repetition he says
“partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on” (O’Hara)
This way of having the reader describe their love on is definitely effective because it shows the reader that it isn’t just some ones looks or their money or one quality about them that causes their other half to fall in love with them it is every single thing about them that causes love to occur.
The speaker talks about how things that used to amaze him now seem ordinary.
“and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them”(O’Hara)
the speaker wants to prove their love towards the other person so as they go on and on about all the things in life they have seen or experienced they realize that none of that matter anymore because love has blinded them of all things of beauty.


The speaker of the poem is madly in love and nothing else could change that. Whether he is with his love in Barcelona or at New York at a café it doesn’t matter the only thing that does is her. He says “thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time” The speaker wants every moment of the rest of his life to be in her presence with her by his side. Love makes the world go round is definitely something the speaker of O’Hara’s poem definitely believes in.

In Having a Coke with You by Frank O’Hara, O’Hara tries to send out a message to his readers that that anything in comparison to love seems small. In O’Hara made his speaker into someone who had seen the world, some one who knew beauties that other men had only dreamed of. Until that point his speaker was convinced he had all that he needed or could ever want until he had her in his life. O’Hara wanted his readers to see the vital importance of love and how with out it all other things seem meaningless.