Journal #5: 

Write a 2QCQ (2 Quotations-a comment-a question) that synthesizes at least two of these works in any combination of painting/poem/essay. To write a 2QCQ: Choose 1 quotation or example from 2 different works. Write at least 5 sentences that comment on what you see in each example separately and, importantly, what becomes visible as you bring them together. Use this synthesis to raise a question or set of questions for discussion. Your question should be interpretive/analytical in nature, open-ended (not a yes/no question), and follow directly from your commentary.

My Response: 

Quotations: 

1. John Seelye, “Mourning Picture”: 

Final stanza: “On Judgment Day throughout New England what a gust of children’s voices will be heard! A million school yards compacted into one great swirl of wind-chime laughter spinning, spinning like Dorothy into a bright green sky.” 

2. Adrienne Rich’s “Mourning Picture”: 

Final Line: “I am Effie, visible and invisible, remembering and remembered.” 

My understanding: The grief of her absence is visible and her belongings are still visible although she is invisible and physically gone her spirit and spiritual presence is very real and visible  

She is remembering and reflecting on her life while also being remembered by her parents and those that love her  

My Interpretations of the work separately:

John Seelye, “Mourning Picture” from “Six Poems” (2006), pp. 11 

Notes: 

• A reflection on childhood death/ loss of innocence/ connections to afterlife 
• More culturally and literary focused
• Many different literary references. I don’t get them all. Maybe too many in my opinion. 
• The “little girl” referred to is an archetype of children who have died in Literature and in real  life.  
• How childhood death is treated specifically in New England and with the mindset/ ideologies of religious 19th century.  
• The references and comparisons to the Wizard of Oz story

Over the rainbow= Death

Kansas= Purgatory (a place haunted by loss) 

• There is definitely a lot to unpack here. I had to read the piece several times. I feel as though the real message gets buried by all the references being made. Although they are good and relevant references if you are not familiar with them all it is easy to get lost in the text. 
• Mark Twain Reference 

Overall my takeaways/ main themes that I am picking up on are as follows

Youth, Innocence, Vulnerability. 

Example: The symbolism behind the Doll and the Lamb references 

Childhood death reimagined as a journey to a magical afterlife. 

Example: “Tiny tombstones like the low doorways at the bottom of fairy gardens, fairy tail entrances into eternity.” 

The real life grief/pain of child loss. 

Example: Mark Twain reference. Mark Twain’s daughter Susy clemens died young the poem implies that Mark Twain “never returned to his Hartford home” because of the grief and that “Even now he hears light footsteps in the empty rooms and angles wings appear on dusty floors”   

My overall biggest takeaway from this poem is how we use art, literature, fairy tales, and religion to cope and escape the reality and the pain that goes along with the loss of a child/children. 

Adrienne Rich’s “Mourning Picture” 

Notes: 

• I am a film fanatic so the first thing I think of is the movie “The Lovely Bones” . It is a movie that is narrated by a dead child. 
• More personal 
• Use of past tense language 
• Effie reflecting on how well she can recall the fine details of her life/home

My Overall takeaways and theme that I am getting from this poem are 

How the dead live on through memory, art and grief. 

The tension between what is lost and what remains 

Moramarco, “Speculations” pp. 23-27, 30-33

My interpretation of the work together: 

They Both cover the topic of Youth, Innocence, Vulnerability and The real life grief/pain of child loss

Both also look at death with the unique perspective that it can also be a beautiful and transformative thing. And that beauty can coincide with pain when dealing with death and loss.