blog post #1 Michelle Smart

After reading the poem "My Last Duchess" my initial responses to the ranking of the considerations for interpretation have changed, yet not significantly. My original ranking is as followed:

Authorial intent

A clear understanding of vocabulary

An understanding of traditional literary elements

Contemporary cultural context

Author's beliefs

Modern cultural context

Scholarly context

Personal beliefs

After reading the rankings changed as followed:

An understanding of traditional literary elements

A clear understanding of vocabulary

Authorial intent

Scholarly context

Contemporary cultural context

Modern cultural context

Author's beliefs

Personal beliefs

The main changes that I think are significant is the ranking of authorial intent from a strong first choice in the beginning coming down to my number three. In the poem i did not believe that the authorial intent was a huge consideration to the understanding of what was happening in the poem. it is about a Duke that has very conflicting thoughts on his last Duchess and does not want his next to continue in her pattern. The Duke is the main focus not what author thinks or believes. I stuck with vocabulary being my number two since I believe to truly understand anything written you must first understand what the words mean. Moving understanding traditional literary elements to number one was kind of my break through with this poem. It was in a number three position, which is high for the beginning but now I strongly put it at number one. In this poem we need to understand who is the speaker and if we believe him to understand the meaning of the poem. Most of the rankings after 3 are pretty much similar, so i do not have anything significant to point out. I think that I am swaying to a New Critic way of thinking, even though I can see an intrinsic writing point of view as well. i love to dive into a piece and fully understand it with my point of view as long as the raw untouched new critic version.