Lately, I’ve found myself reading far too much into things. This is great for analyzing poems, not so great for wondering what the slight eye-twitch my roommate exhibited this morning when I asked her where my pillow went means. See, I get into phases really easily. My mom used to worry that I had some mild form of obsessive compulsive disorder as a younger child because whenever I would read a book or see a movie about a particular person or thing that interested me I would continue to research that subject until it was almost entirely exhausted, I would become so obsessed with something that I had to squeeze every bit of juice from it before I let it pass into the recesses of my mind. I am still that way, you all know that by now. One of my longest obsessions has been with swimming, others have been involving television, photography, architecture, writing, the state of California, soy sauce, and much more. Now, when I say obsession, I do mean it in the typical can’t-get-enough-of-something way, but I also mean that when I become interested (or, obsessed, if you prefer) with something, I tend to start seeing it everywhere – in the books I read, in the dreams I have – I could be writing a paper on macaroni and cheese and could probably find a way to talk about my favorite building (architecturally speaking) in downtown Dallas. You’ve all seen me do this in these World Lit DBE’s with television. Though my mom worries about me (what else is new!), I think that this tendency in me, while perhaps a bit manic, is something that is a benefit to me, rather than a detriment. My tendency to exhaust certain subjects has made me curious, for, when I’m researching one thing I usually stumble onto another that I find to be intriguing, and the cycle continues from there.
You’re probably wondering, ‘what on earth does this have to do with the poems we’re supposed to analyze?! Has Spin completely forgotten what it means to ‘hammer into unity’?!” Fear not, I do have a point to make. What I am leading into is that one of my “obsessions”, if you will, as of about my sophomore year of high school is religious symbolism. I have always been interested in exploring other religions – I myself am a self-proclaimed Christian, and I feel that I owe it to myself, my religion, and other religions to learn about and explore other faiths in this world. Truth be told, I find the entire concept of religion, of God, of destiny, of the idea that there could be a master-plan out there in this world for us to be utterly fascinating. As a result, I have become obsessed, as I stated above, with finding religion in everything – aka searching for religious symbolism. I find this in books, in television, in a casual conversation with a friend – and I love when I do. Which is why, after this long introduction, I have to say that I was incredibly excited when I read all of the poems and short stories written by Blake, Harrigan, and Hopkins. The religious undertones almost cannot be called undertones because they are so blatant, and though I am sure to not understand many of the religious references, I am having fun studying them now and hopefully continuing to study them.
The poem that resonated with me the most was, ironically, the most confusing for me to understand at anything deeper than face value. Hopkins, “The Windhover” is an obvious poem about the flight of a majestic bird through the air. However, several words in this short piece stood out to me. Words like: "striding", "rein" (though spelled differently from reign, I got the sense that it was an intended use of the same-sounding word), "ecstasy", "valour" – these words stirred in me the notion of something majestic and powerful – more so than simply a windhover would be (Hopkins, "The Windhover", 159). I zeroed in on a particular word after reading the line, “Times told lovelier, more dangerous, Oh my chevalier!” and decided to look up the word “chevalier” (Hopkins, "The Windhover", 159). I found it to literally mean, “horseman” or “knight”. It all made sense. My own interpretation of this poem was that it symbolizes the ride of the four horsemen in the apocalypse, described at detail in the Bible’s book of Revelations, riding effortlessly through the earth and bringing those who Christ has chosen with them. The final phrases of the poem, most especially “Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion” seemed to me a description of some epic event wherein violence (gash) leads to beauty and light (gold-vermillion) (Hopkins, "The Windhover", 159). The entire poem had an apocalyptic feel to me, but not in a terrifying or doomsday way that many works of writing dealing with a similar subject do. Rather, this piece of work felt joyous, excited at the prospect of whatever event it was symbolizing. 
Blake's two poems were easiest for me to read because they were rather straightforward and pleasant to think about. Especially his, “The Lamb” reminded me of a poem or a story that would have been typically read to me in Sunday School at church as a child. It is a poem about, to the best of my knowledge, reminding us of who Christ is and explaining that we are all made equal in the eyes of God. The interchanging words of “child” and “lamb” provided in my eyes this sense of equality I spoke of earlier and it seemed to me a purpose of the poem was to provide a rosy image of a loving, caring, all-protecting God who we should be grateful for.
Blake’s “The Tyger” was a different story. Though just as short and intriguing as his other work, this poem showcases more of a – I don’t want to say sinister but perhaps ‘imperfect’ side of life and of this world. Where “The Lamb” portrayed a world of peace and love, this poem showcases the ugly side of humanity with phrases like, “What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain?” (Blake, "The Tiger", 146). There is certainly an acknowledgement in this poem that God not only created the lamb, but also the – some would say – evil tiger. How I reconcile this within myself and my own religion, I am not yet sure. I have to say, my favorite line of any poem I read this evening came from this piece of work. Though I am not sure what it means, reading it honestly sends chills down my spine: “What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry? (Blake, "The Tiger", 146).
Finally, I read Harrigan’s “The Tiger is God” and, while I was not disappointed with the story, which kept me completely on the edge of my seat the entire time even though I knew what happened from the very first page, I cannot say that I was struck over the head with religious symbolism like I was when reading the above poems. More, I felt that this was a story of a ferocious animal who was “surprised, frightened, and reacted instinctively,” (Harrigan, “The Tiger is God”, 154). This story did, as I’m sure with many of my classmates, recall images of the poem “The Tyger” and even fleshed out what I believe Blake was trying to say with his work. There are two sides to humanity, two sides to the world, and there is also a significant grey area between the two in which many humans and creatures operate. Depending on who you ask, God designed this, God allows this, or God is a made-up explanation for all of this. This story addresses that, in a way.
Though in different ways, each of these works talks about God and the varying forms He takes on - not to mention the different ways that we as humans see Him. I look forward to researching these works and others by these authors more in the future.
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