Poetry according to Perrine

When first reading Perrine's thoughts on interpreting poetry, I didn't really agree with him or understand what point that Perrine was presenting. I enjoy personal interpretation when reading things. In my opinion, literature or even poetry is enjoyable because of the freedom to think and interpret for oneself. I always became frustrated when a teacher would grade a question that dealt with interpretation and then mark it wrong. I think that interpretation is open to more than just one specific thing. When reading a story, an author does write for a purpose, however, the reader is entitled to think what they want to think, right? I do understand what Perrine means though. When one has to really analyze poetry or any type of literature, there are certain things that make interpretation right and wrong. We, as readers, cannot just think that anything and everything is correct. Some poems can have multiple meanings, but that doesn't mean that we can interpret anything we want from them. 


When I  re-read the poems and picked up on how they were to be correctly analyzed, I began to see what Perrine meant. (especially with the Emily Dickinson poem) Yes, it is true that a garden can be inferred and imagined from the words written, but analytically there is much more than just a garden. It makes sense to see that Dickinson is describing a sunset. The meaning of the poem to be a sunset is much more compatible and appropriate with every single word and detail. I think that this is a good example of how to analyze and interpret poems throughout this next quarter. There can be a lot more to poem beyond the surface. It is easy to say that a poem may be describing a sunset, but through analyzing every single detail, the correct interpretation becomes apparent to the reader. Also, from reading Perrine's thoughts, I have come to see that looking past literal interpretation is sometimes important in poetry. I think it will be difficult to correctly interpret and analyze poems in this way. It seems as if it if will take really observant, attentive people to pick up on the details and learn to connect and interpret in this way...

The end (Never Let Me Go- 20)

"I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart. That's how I think it is with us. It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever" (page 282)


Even though I was disappointed with everything that had happened in the last couple of chapters, overall I really did enjoy this book. It was very insightful and in the end it had a really good message about friendship and love. Kathy and Tommy really showed how innocent and good friendship can be and how good friends are there for each other. Throughout the entire book, Kathy and Tommy showed how important friendship was, and even though they didn't get their happy ending, they still had a really great friendship. I also really liked the first person point of view for the narrator. It was a lot different after reading Brave New World. I was able to connect to Kathy and really understand the type of person she was. I don't think I would have liked this book as much if it were told in a different perspective. Also, the concept of cloning and inhumane practices arose in this book as well and it has a lot to teach people who live in today's society. Life isn't something that we can just throw away and practice on. We can't clone people. We are all apart of God's creation and I think that people forget about how valuable life is sometimes.

Disappointing (Never Let Me Go- 19)

"'We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls.  Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all'" ( page 260).  

The whole climax of this book really confused me. I didn't think that Miss Emily would be helpful at all but I guess in a way she kind of was. I found it weird with this whole cloning concept. The author made it very apparent that it was an inhumane practice. I thought that Tommy and Kathy would be at least considered for a deferral, but that didn't happen either. I guess that it is a good thing though because I really don't see how three years would change anything. This book is realistic in the sense that endings aren't always "happily ever after." and I think that Ishiguro made this very apparent. However, in the end, I was surprised that Kathy was very nonchalant to everything that had happened. Seeing as she was a carer for so long, she was used to the practices and the concept of death. However, the type of character that she seemed to be throughout the novel was not one who stood by and watched as everything happened. Kathy was a really smart girl and she knew what was going on. But in the end, she just accepted everything that had happened to her. I guess there wasn't really anything she could do anyway. 

Well that was upsetting (Never Let Me Go- 18)

“So that feeling came again, even though I tried to keep it out: that we were doing all of this too late; that there'd once been a time for it, but we'd let it go by, and there was something ridiculous, reprehensible even, about the way we were now thinking and planning.” (page 241)

I am upset. So, I've been waiting for Tommy and Kathy to finally get together. But, it's too late now. Tommy has had his third donation now and he is about to give his fourth. I have a question too, how many donations to they give? And how are they not  dead after the third or fourth? I really am upset that it's too late for Kathy and Tommy. Even if Madame agrees to give Kathy and Tommy a deferral to be together longer, how is Tommy going to survive very long? Wouldn't normal people be basically lifeless at this stage? I just hope that there is a somewhat happy ending for this book. I can't take another depressing ending like Brave New World. As long as Kathy doesn't kill herself, I think I can manage. 

I'd like to say that I'm actually getting into this book, I didn't think I would. But the fact that I was upset when I found out about Kathy and Tommy, showed me that I like this book. Who knew.

Forgiveness (Never Let Me Go- 17)

"'Kathy, ' she said, 'I don't really expect you to forgive me ever. I can't even see why you should. But i'm going to ask you to all the same.'" (page 231)

When Ruth and Kathy are together and Ruth is dying, Ruth apologizes to Kathy and says "The main thing is, I kept you and Tommy apart, and that was the worst thing I did." (232)  I feel so bad for Kathy! I wanted Tommy and Kathy to be together this entire book and Ruth was always in the way. But now, Ruth is admitting that she was just with Tommy to keep Kathy away from him. Ruth's selfish character was very apparent throughout this entire book and this is why I am very surprised that she is actually apologizing for what she did. But, I guess death can make you think about things in a different perspective and I believe that this is what happened to Ruth. I applaud Ruth for what she did. I know that it probably took a lot of strength for her to tell Kathy she was wrong and that it was all her fault. Now, Ruth wants the best for her friends and she wants Kathy and Tommy to enjoy the time they have together. 

The Kathy and Ruth friendship roller coaster (Never Let Me Go- 16)

"Tommy's been telling me about his big theory. He says he's already told you. Ages ago. But now, very kindly, he's allowing me to share in it too." (page 193)

There is an external conflict between Ruth and Kathy in this chapter. As always, Ruth seems to be upset about something that Kathy has done. However, this time it is a little different because it is jealousy that is feeding the anger that Ruth has towards Kathy. Ruth is jealous that Tommy told Kathy about the idea he has about the artwork in the gallery. Out of anger and jealousy, Ruth tells Tommy about how Kathy laughed at Tommy's farm animals. Obviously, this hurts Tommy. Tommy has always been able to turn to Kathy with everything. Kathy was Tommy's go to girl and now he feels betrayed by her reaction to something he was proud of. Now, a conflict may occur between Kathy and Tommy. I'm actually upset about this. I wish that Kathy and Tommy would have gotten closer, especially because of the friendship and bond that became even more apparent when they went to Norfolk. However, I don't think that anything will get better from here because of the foreshadowing at the very beginning of the book. It was very apparent that the relationship between Tommy and Kathy and Kathy and Ruth wasn't the same as it used to be, and maybe this is the reason why.

Art reveals their souls (Never Let Me Go- 15)

"Suppose two people say they're truly in love, and they want extra time to be together. Then you see, Kath, there has to be a way to judge if they're really telling the truth. That they aren't just saying they're in love, just to defer their donations. You see how difficult it would be to decide?" (page 175)

Tommy and Kathy have come up with this idea that through the art work they created at Hailsham, their souls are able to be revealed and thus the true love between two people is also revealed. I don't necessarily think this is true. Personally, I know that if they were truly clones, they wouldn't have souls because the are cloned! But, that is beside the point. I think that maybe it is possible that someone from the art gallery is trying to prove that these clones have souls through their art work. I don't think that the true love would be able to be told throughout the art work as well though. I think that if people were trying to save these students from being donors and then dying they would do more to keep the two together. Especially because a deferral only keeps the couple together for 3 years. But, I think that maybe there are more people behind the art gallery, like Madame, that are working to find out how to save these people from the life they are destined to.