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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