Mad Girl's Love Song
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)
I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"
How does this poem seemly reflect Ophelia's mind between Acts 3 and 4? Only those who answer here between now and Tuesday at 10pm will receive extra credit.
ReplyDeleteTaylor Floyd's Response
ReplyDeleteThis poem reveals what could be going on in Ophelia's head. Her love for Hamlet seemed a joke and wasn't true love because his actions provd to be different. She felt used and borrowed only for sexual relations. "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead" is the most important in this poem because Ophelia felt she would be more relieved if she died--hence her death. When she closed her eyes, she didn't have to deal with the expectations and heartaches from the world she lived in. Closing your eyes shuts away reality and enters imaginative world or a sweet escape. She had love to give, but people seemed to be more interested in using her then returning the favor.
Taylor, is an unrequited love and untrue love? Do the actions of others mitigate or trump our own hard-won emotions?
DeleteBryan's Response
ReplyDeleteThe poem reveals what is going on in Ophelia's thoughts. "I think I made you up inside my head" represents how she feels about Hamlet. In her mind and in the letters she has received from Hamlet, he is a romantic, sensitive gentleman who loves her ever so much; but, in reality, Hamlet has become a seemingly heartless, bitter, and crazed man who resembles nothing of what he is in her head. "I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead" represents how Ophelia thinks all her problems, worries, and expectations will drop when she closes her eyes which is a reference to killing herself which she did towards the end of Act 4.
Is it possible that we all tend to romanticize the idea of love? Nice thinking.
Delete"I think I made you up inside my head" is the key point in the poem that connect ophelia to it. through out acts 3 & 4 because everything is falling apart in her life all the men in her life left her so I know she must me wondering if she made up t these men that so call her in her life.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
DeleteOphelia tells us the reason and somehow explaining how her mind has progressively been tangled up by her feelings. By saying "I think I made you up in my head," is telling us how she thinks by just "shutting her yes," she can find asylum from her traitorous life. To me, love is described as "hell" to her and that her dreams about love can be applied to all the men in her life (Hamlet, her father,in a way). Is is to my understanding that she wants to end it all, she is going to end her life, because she is right on the brink.
ReplyDeleteIt's now 10:04 and the EC window is now closed. What amazes me about this poem is that while it is not written for Ophelia, it could have been. In fact, the irony of the Phoenix seems quite appropriate given the many ironies in Hamlet. Had Ophelia waited just a day longer she would have seen him return rather Phoenix-like: as a completely changed, evolved and humanistic man. Just the man she dreamed up.
ReplyDelete