"Counting The Beats" by Robert Graves
So in response to a request, here's what I've come up with. I've chosen a poem by Robert Graves called "Counting the Beats". Robert Graves (1895-1985), began writing poetry at age 15 as a means to escape the bullies at his English boarding school. He fought in WWI as a teenager. He said his war experience forever changed his outlook on life.
As you read the poem, think about all of the meanings of 'heartbeat'. In the foreword to his 1966 book, Collected Poems , Graves said this about the poem, "My main theme was always the practical impossibility, transcended only by a belief in miracle, of absolute love continuing between man and woman." How does this poem and theme connect to Romeo and Juliet?
To help those of you struggling, you may want to check out his biography. Especially note, his relationship with Laura Riding. One biographer finds this relationship to be the basis of the poem, "Sick Love." Does this help you to understand the poem better?
posted by CapEnglish3-4 @ 10:13 PM
19 Comments:
i personally thought this to be a very interesting poem. it took me a while to get it, but i finally did... anyways...
once i really thought about what the author (robert graves) was trying to say, i made some immediate connections with romeo and juliet. when i first got the gist of what he was trying to say, i thought that he was writing about romeo and juliet. he mostly writes about a man and a woman-and about their unconditional love. apparently there's a sea of disapproval surrounding this love, but, even so, the two lovers carry on with their affair. it also seems that the disapproval finally gets to the lovers and they die together, when the author writes, "the bleeding to death of time in slow heartbeats." that also connects to romeo and juliet. the way the language and words are weaved together are also a shared characteristic of both pieces of literature. you have to think under the surface to really know what they are saying.
plunge deep oh so deep into the blue
while the waves toss and turn above you
seek what you came to find till the true
pierces through
they love each other and would walk to the end of the world to be together even if no one else believs they could truley be in love. as time goes by they count every secont of their passion. time cant stop their love becase like r & j they'd die together. everything was fine until they noticed the rest of the world and what it was going to do to them and when death takes on the other will willingly die. before that is to happen they are together and nothing wil kill the passion they share but themselves. this makes me think and what a wonderfull challenge.
i didn't really get what the poem was trying to say but i think after i rea it more i will get it.
I thing this poem was intersting because it took me a long time to find out what is really happening because all stories that i read is confusing at the begenning but at the end it all makes scenes
I like this poem a lot. I read it once and right away I started to understand it. It's a really sad poem that really speeks to me. It says that if your in love with someone, nothing that fate throws at you, even death, can keep you apart from the one you love.
The peom is hard to understand the first time you read it but you have to do some thinking to know what the poem is about. The poem connects with Romeo and Juliet, because it tells about two lovers and how their love is not approved in the world they live in. In Romeo and Juliet, the two lovers, die because of the disapproval of their love and in this poem it shows us that the two lovers are dying together because of their disapproval. The theme the author is trying to prove could be Fate/Destiny. He is trying to tell the readers that eventhough the lovers couldn't live a happy life together, they were destined to die together.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This poem was realy hard for me to understand i had to read it atleast 4 times but when i read it the fifth time i understood that the author was saying that they will love eachother untill eternity same as Romeo and Juliet. The poem quotes, "Counting the beats,Counting the slow heart beats,The bleeding to death of time in slow heart beats,
Wakeful they lie." this means that they might be dying but their love is still awaken and it will never die exactly like Romeo and Juliet.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Have I created a monster? Notice, I've kept it singular with the assumption that I am reading the various alter egos of the same personality.
Just a reminder that the serious posts with real names are getting the bonus points.
Mrs. Henry
WOW!! this pome is really hard to undersand. at least for me butwhat i think this pome is trying to say is that theses two people are soo much in love with each other that even death wont seperate them. and i think that Robert Graves chose the whole dying thing because he was in wwi and he probally was around alot of death so it was probally easy to wright about that because he expierenced it first hand what that was like to see people die.
To earn bonus credit for new posts, you must include information gathered from the biography pieces into your analysis.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
The poem is seriously depressing. At first it might seem like a romantic tone, but the use of words symbolize melancholy and sadness, and it seems to drag on forever, and then suddenly just stops.
P.S. The stalker is Ismal's little brother.
meloncholy is the same as sadness so aren't you being a little repeditive "gost writer" or do you intend to enphasise the depression the poem reeks.
you relly dont know what just happened so... or maybe you dont say what relly is in mind. i understand the not wanting to argue so say what you will.
This is something interesting to blog about. The first thing that came to my head when I was reading the poem was,"Dang, this guy knows this stuff." But after reading the article, I found a connection with Romeo and Juliet. THE BLEEDING TO DEATH OF TIME IN SLOW HEART BEATS,/WAKEFUL THEY LIE.. Romeo and Juliet were seperated at one time and it was death that brought them back together again. YET THE HUGE STORM WILL BURST UPON THEIR HEADS ONE DAY.. I think that can relate to the part when the two families (Montague and Capulet) found out that their children have been married to each other.
it was kinda hard to find a connection with the biography, but in sick love, he says be fed with apples while you may. Clearly that time won't be long. Take risks.
Like jumping off window from the 3rd floor.
OR
Get married to your true love, whether or not he is your foe at birth.
The blog is now closed for bonus points. Mrs. Henry
Post a Comment
<< Home