BEST BLOG OF THE CLASS Wednesday, Nov 19 2008

I think Nightwrighter’s blog is the best blog of class because it has everything that we were supposed to have and more.  This was one of a few blogs that actually had that right amount of blogs that we were supposed have.  This blog also so didn’t feature a poem that somebody else did in the class (I think I counted four people writing about “The road not taken” by Robert Frost).  There is also plenty of dialogue about the poems that Nightwrighter uses.  I also liked the poems too.  One important thing else that I noticed on this blog was that material was easy on the eyes, there were some blogs that you couldn’t read some of the posts because they were too small or typed in a bright color.  Good job Nightwrighter, you have the best blog in my opinion.

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DO YOU FEAR THE WIND? Sunday, Nov 16 2008

1395. Do You Fear the Wind?

By Hamlin Garland

 

DO you fear the force of the wind, The slash of the rain? Go face them and fight them, Be savage again. Go hungry and cold like the wolf,         5     Go wade like the crane: The palms of your hands will thicken, The skin of your cheek will tan, You ’ll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,     But you ’ll walk like a man!

 

 

This is a wonderful poem about facing your fears.  Everybody has fears like being afraid of the eating new foods or snakes.  Some people go through their whole life fearing certain things to the point where they plan their life around that fear.  They are simply letting their fears control their lives.  I have a friend who can’t swim because he has a fear of drowning and no matter what my other friends and I do, we can’t get him to overcome this fear.  He has to do it all by himself or he will continue to be afraid of drowning all his life and he will miss out on some of the fun benefits of learning to swim.  Although Garland is speaking of a fear of wind and rain in this poem, it doesn’t matter what the fear is and Garland is just saying that everybody needs to face their fears to become a better person.  “Go face them and fight them,”  He wants everybody to know that even though your fears can be the result of the terrible things that might happen to you if you confront them, he is just suggesting that you need to confront them at some point in your life so that it doesn’t end up controlling your life.  I know that after I saw the movie “Arachnophobia” I developed a fear of spiders.  I was so scared of spiders that I would avoid them at all costs.  As I got older I knew that I had to be a man face this fear of spiders, now I don’t scream or runaway from them, I confront them (either by squashing them or moving them to another location).  “You ’ll grow ragged and weary and swarthy, / But you ‘ll walk like a man!”  Although this is a short poem, the meaning is very important and I think that Garland would appreciate the fact that his poem is being discussed many years after he wrote it.

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The only thing left undefiled Monday, Nov 10 2008

1244. A Girl of Pompeii

By Edward Sanford Martin

 

A PUBLIC haunt they found her in:     She lay asleep, a lovely child;     The only thing left undefiled Where all things else bore taint of sin.     Her charming contours fixed in clay         5     The universal law suspend,     And turn Time’s chariot back, and blend A thousand years with yesterday.     A sinless touch, austere yet warm,     Around her girlish figure pressed,         10     Caught the sweet imprint of her breast, And held her, surely clasped, from harm.     Truer than work of sculptor’s art     Comes this dear maid of long ago,     Sheltered from woeful chance, to show         15 A spirit’s lovely counterpart,     And bid mistrustful men be sure     That form shall fate of flesh escape,     And, quit of earth’s corruptions, shape Itself, imperishably pure.         20

 

 

For those of you who are not familiar with what major event happened in Pompeii, here is a summary of what happened.  

“Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples and Caserta in the Italian regin of Campania, in the territory of the commune of Pompeii.  Along with Herculaneum, its sister city, Pompeii was destroyed, and completely buried, during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in AD 79.  The volcano collapsed higher roof-lines and buried Pompeii under many meters of ash and pumice, and it was lost for nearly 1700years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748.  Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinary detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire” (Wikipedia).

This poem is clearly talking about what happened to the city of Pompeii and this young girl and you can see it in the second stanza.  “Her charming contours fixed in clay / The universal law suspend, / And turn Time’s chariot back, and blend / A thousand years with yesterday”.  The clay that the narrator is talking about is the ash that buried the girl a thousand years ago.  The people of Pompeii that did not flee from the eruption were preserved in the ash that covered them at the moment of their death and they can still be seen today if you were to go to the ruined city of Pompeii.  That is why there are many references to the girl being trapped in ash, like, “Her charming contours fixed in clay”, “Around her girlish figure pressed, / Caught the sweet imprint of her breast”, “A PUBLIC haunt they found her in: / She lay asleep, a lovely child”, and “Truer than work of sculptor’s art / Comes this dear maid of long ago”.

Knowing what I know of what happened to Pompeii, this poem makes think about what it would be like to live in Pompeii during the eruption.  It must have been a terrible sight to see everything around you covered in hot ash.  This poem also made me wonder what it would have been like to discover the ruined city of Pompeii.  It probably would have been quite shocking to see bodies preserved in ash in the middle of the roads showing the many people who failed to escape the city in time.

Rhyme scheme: A,B,B,A,C,D,D,C,E,F,F,E,G,H,H,G,I,J,J,I

 

 

 

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“BOOKER T. AND W.E.B.” Sunday, Nov 2 2008

Booker T. and W.E.B.

By Dudley Randall

“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“It shows a mighty lot of cheek
To study chemistry and Greek
When Mister Charlie needs a hand
To hoe the cotton on his land,
And when Miss Ann looks for a cook,
Why stick your nose inside a book?”

“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.
“If I should have the drive to seek
Knowledge of chemistry or Greek,
I’ll do it. Charles and Miss can look
Another place for hand or cook,
Some men rejoice in skill of hand,
And some in cultivating land,
But there are others who maintain
The right to cultivate the brain.”

“It seems to me,” said Booker T.,
“That all you folks have missed the boat
Who shout about the right to vote,
And spend vain days and sleepless nights
In uproar over civil rights.
Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse,
But work, and save, and buy a house.”

“I don’t agree,” said W.E.B.
“For what can property avail
If dignity and justice fail?
Unless you help to make the laws,
They’ll steal your house with trumped-up clause.
A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot,
No matter how much cash you’ve got.
Speak soft, and try your little plan,
But as for me, I’ll be a man.”

“It seems to me,” said Booker T.–

“I don’t agree,”
Said W.E.B.

Poem from: http://www.huarchivesnet.howard.edu/9908huarnet/randall.htm

From the title of this poem you can clearly tell that this poem is about two famous African Americans writers and how they held different views.  They are Booker T. Washington who is most known for his story “Up from Slavery” and W.E.B. Du Bois who is better known for his story “Souls of Black Folk”.  Both of these writers had this idea of helping other African Americans to become more “powerful” like other successful white Americans, but they had different views on how they should accomplish this goal, which Randall has stated in each of the stanzas in this poem.  Booker T. Washington believes that African Americans should learn a trade like being a cook or a farmhand in order to save up money and buy a house.  Owning property back in the late 19^th and the early 20^th century was a sign of power and this is why Booker T. wanted African Americans to work and buy property to show that they were not as weak as white Americans thought that they were. You can see examples of this in the lines, “When Mister Charlie needs a hand / To hoe the cotton on his land, / And when Miss Ann looks for a cook, / Why stick your nose inside a book?” in the first stanza and “Just keep your mouths shut, do not grouse, / But work, and save, and buy a house” in the third stanza.  W.E.B. Du Bois believes that African Americans should become educated so that they can vote and make new laws.  You can see an example of this in the second stanza which says, “But there are others who maintain / The right to cultivate the brain.”  We are all told that knowledge is power and this is what Du Bois wants African Americans to believe according to Randall.  Randall argues for Du Bois by saying that if you do not help create new laws, then you will be responsible for your own lynching and the burning of your own house that you worked so hard for.  You can see an example of this in the fourth stanza which says, “Unless you help to make the laws, / They’ll steal your house with trumped-up clause. / A rope’s as tight, a fire as hot, / No matter how much cash you’ve got”.

After reading this poem I asked myself this question, who would I agree with Booker T. or W.E.B.?  I would agree with W.E.B. because I believe that being educated you can do almost anything, opposed to learning a trade where you can only do that trade and not much else.

Who would you agree with?

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HOW shall we know it is the last good-by? Sunday, Oct 26 2008

625. The Last Good-By

By Louise Chandler Moulton

 

HOW shall we know it is the last good-by? The skies will not be darkened in that hour, No sudden blight will fall on leaf or flower, No single bird will hush its careless cry, And you will hold my hands, and smile or sigh         5 Just as before. Perchance the sudden tears In your dear eyes will answer to my fears; But there will come no voice of prophecy,— No voice to whisper, “Now, and not again, Space for last words, last kisses, and last prayer,         10 For all the wild, unmitigated pain Of those who, parting, clasp hands with despair:”— “Who knows?” we say, but doubt and fear remain, Would any choose to part thus unaware?

 

The first line in this poem asks a very important question, “HOW shall we know it is the last good-by?”  This is a question that we all have asked ourselves at one point in our lives whether it has to do with a sick family member, a separation with a long time lover, or the loss of a friend.  What Moulton tells us in this poem is that there will be no signs to let us know that the end is coming for our friends and loved ones, “The skies will not be darkened in that hour,/ No sudden blight will fall on leaf or flower,/ No single bird will hush its careless cry,”. 

Moulton also asks in the last line, “Would any choose to part thus unaware?”  In some cases I think that most of us would not want to know when a friend or loved one was going to go away forever, but knowing so can allow you to make the best of the situation by saying all that needs to be said.  I can honestly say that I wish I had a sign to let me know that when I said good-bye to one of my good friends that it was going to be the last time that I was going to do so.  I would have said something different other than just “Peace out”.  He died a few days later in his sleep, a month before he turned 21.

Rhyme scheme for this sonnet: A,B,B,A,A,C,C,D,E,F,E,F,E,F

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Big Lady Liberty Sunday, Oct 12 2008

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Emma Lazarus, 1883

 

“The footnote to the 1888 Poems of Emma Lazarus, the source of the present text, reads “Written in aid of Bartholdi Pedestal Fund, 1883.”  The sculpture by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) was a gift from the French people, but Americans, led by the newspaper mogul Joseph Pulitzer, raised money to pay for the massive pedestal required by such a huge, heavy statue.  During the mid-1870s thousands of Americans saw how colossal the Statue of Liberty would be, for part of the statue, the hand of Liberty holding aloft the torch, was displayed for months in Madison Square in Manhattan and also displayed at the great Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia.  (The statue is some 305 feet from ground to tip of torch, 151 feet from top of the pedestal to the tip of the torch.)  Fittingly, in 1903 this entire poem by Emma Lazarus was engraved on a bronze tablet and affixed to an interior wall of the pedestal.”

“Emma Lazarus.” Norton Anthology of American Literature, 1865-1914. Ed. Nina Baym. 7th ed. Vol. C. Boston, MA: W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated, 2007. 520.

 

 

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land”.  The first two lines of this sonnet speak of the Colossus of Rhodes, a famed statue that was given the title of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.  It seems fitting that Lazarus choose to speak of the famed Greek statue because it represented something far greater than it actually was, just like the Statue of Liberty.  In this case, the Statue of Liberty stood for freedom for all those who chose to call America home.  Maybe Lazarus is trying to say that the Statue of Liberty should be considered to be one of the new wonders of the world. I know I would vote for it to be.  I like how Lazarus refers to the Statue of Liberty as the “Mother of Exiles” because of the fact that the statue is the first thing that many of the emigrants (or exiles) from Europe would have seen on their way to becoming U.S. citizens, sort of like how when we are born, the first person (other than the doctor) that we recognize is our mothers.  Now for the most famous lines in this poem, ““Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!””.  This statement is the epitome of what the U.S. stands for because it clearly says that America welcomes everyone who shares the common goal, of living free from oppression.  The “golden door” in the last line would refer to the opportunity that one would find in America that they might not find in their native land.  This is a very moving piece and it doesn’t surprise me that it was chosen to be part of the legacy of the Statue of Liberty.

Rhyme scheme: A,B,B,A,A,B,B,A,C,D,C,D,D,C

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Old Medieval Knight Sunday, Oct 5 2008

209. My Books

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

SADLY as some old mediæval knight Gazed at the arms he could no longer wield, The sword two-handed and the shining shield Suspended in the hall, and full in sight, While secret longings for the lost delight         5 Of tourney or adventure in the field Came over him, and tears but half concealed Trembled and fell upon his beard of white, So I behold these books upon their shelf, My ornaments and arms of other days;         10 Not wholly useless, though no longer used, For they remind me of my other self, Younger and stronger, and the pleasant ways In which I walked, now clouded and confused.

 

This is a sonnet that any older person can relate to.  This sonnet is about an old man who is looking around at his old stuff that brings back memories of his past.  I shouldn’t state that this poem only relates to older people because I wouldn’t call myself old and I sometimes get caught looking at some of my old stuff that I don’t use anymore and it can trigger some memories from my past, like my old bowling balls.  My bowling balls are like this guy’s sword and shield, we both keep them “full in sight” and we both stare at them and remember our past glories.   The old man remembers tournaments and “adventure in the field” and I remember my past tournaments and the different places I had to go for them. The only difference between me and the old man is that I am still young enough to wield my arms unlike the old man.  “Gazed at the arms he could no longer wield”.  My favorite line is “For they remind me of my other self”.  I like this line because it reminds me of how some people tell a story about their past and the person in their story is someone who is completely different from the person telling the story.  I remember my dad telling me stories about how he and his brothers would go out and party all the time and now that he is older, he is a totally different person.  As for the last lines of this sonnet, “Younger and stronger, and the pleasant ways In which I walked, now clouded and confused”, may suggest that this old man is having trouble remembering exactly what happened in his past.

The rhyme scheme in this sonnet is: A,B,B,A,A,B,B,A,C,D,E,C,D,E.

 

 

 

 

 

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Crane’s Journey For Truth Monday, Sep 29 2008

1628. The Wayfarer

By Stephen Crane

 

THE WAYFARER, Perceiving the pathway to truth, Was struck with astonishment. It was thickly grown with weeds. “Ha,” he said,         5 “I see that none has passed here In a long time.” Later he saw that each weed Was a singular knife. “Well,” he mumbled at last,         10 “Doubtless there are other roads.”

Wow! What a great poem.  In this poem the narrator tells a short story about a man and his quest for truth and how the path to gain it, is full of obstacles.  I totally agree with what the narrator is saying in this poem.  Throughout our lives, we are always on a quest for something whether it is for truth, love, money, etc…, and what we find out on our quest is that it isn’t as easy as it looks.  There are always some obstacles that we must overcome before we can obtain our goal.  If one person wants to become lawyer then he or she would have to overcome the obstacle of going through law school (not an easy task).  The man in this poem gets excited when he comes to the path that will lead him to the truth that he seeks because he sees that nobody has gone through that path in a long time.  Every human in the world gets excited when they come up with a “master plan” that they think that nobody else has ever tried and then they find out why.  ”Later he saw that each weed Was a singular knife”.  They, like the man in the poem, find out the road to their goal is not always paved for easy travel.  Then and only then do they realize that many others have had the same goal as do, but they chose to give up due to the obstacles that they would have to overcome.  The last line in this poem can clearly state this, “Doubtless there are other roads”.  If there were any other paths to take, others would have already taken them.

The definition of a wayfarer is a traveler going on a trip (often by foot). This seems to be a fitting title for a poem about a journey that many of must face at some point in our lives.

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“Mirror, mirror on the wall” Monday, Sep 22 2008

Chicago Poet by Carl Sandburg

I saluted a nobody.
I saw him in a looking-glass.
He smiled-so did I.
He crumpled the skin on his forehead,
frowning-so did I.
Everything I did he did.
I said “Hello, I know you.”
And I was a liar to say so.

Ah, this looking-glass man!
Liar, fool, dreamer, play-actor,
Soldier, dusty drinker of dust-
Ah! he will go with me
Down the dark stairway
When nobody else is looking,
When everybody else is gone.

He locks his elbow in mine,
I lose all-but not him.

 

It is easy to tell that this person that the author is speaking about is actually himself.  This is possible because the “looking-glass” that he speaks of is a mirror. You can see this in the line “I saw him in a looking-glass. He smiled-so did I”.  This was the line to me that first made me think that he was looking at his reflection in a mirror and this allowed me to enjoy the poem more because I didn’t have to go crazy at finding out what was going on in the poem.  My favorite line in this poem is, “I said “Hello, I know you.”
And I was a liar to say so”.  I like this line because of its meaning of how we truly don’t know who we are even though we say that we do.  Overall this poem was cleverly written and worded smoothly that it rolls right of your tongue when you read it out loud.

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A simple choice given by Frost Monday, Sep 15 2008

 

Fire And Ice

 by Robert Frost

 

 

 

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

 

 

This is short, but really good poem about what a person would do if they were faced with the option of chosing their own death.  It makes you think if Rober Frost ever thought about killing himself.  I don’t know if I agree with him on chosing fire before ice because I think it would hurt alot more to burn to death then to just freeze to death.  At least with freezing to death, you might get lucky and die in your sleep instead of being awake and on fire.  I like the flow of this poem with it’s ryming words like “fire” and “desire” and so on.  Even though this poem is shorter then most poems, I think that if it was any longer it wouldn’t be as good as it is, “short and sweat”.

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