These two men have very different personalities and to watch them interact with each other was kind of interesting. Guildenstern was more of the philosopher type and kind of more serious. Rosencrantz is kind of the juviniel adolescent. He is always trying to impress Guildenstern. He just wants to experience everything and he fails to bring experience to words. The only thing they ever know is the next task and ten they are iffy itll it happens. Then they don't accept it once it happens. And in that way when they are together, they are kind of the same character almost completely the same person except there is still only two of them. These charcters come into being when they are summoned. They cease to exsist when they are not needed. It's kind of like this movie showed us their true character which may or may not have been anything special. I mean we got to see some sides of them but when they are with hamlet that is when they come into exsistence to help hamlet because he is the star. And we already got to see them in hamlet like that, because the were only in the script when they were needed to move things along. That's why before this movie we only know wat they've toldus. Because they're only tow characters on a page. Then when we see behind the closed door and get to experience their life a little bit, we understand that character and their purpose. This helped me to understand the concept that thigns arent's just happening while we're seeing them. Just like how ms.able was talking about how we don't jkust cease to exsist one we leave the classroom. Even though that's all she knows, that's not necesssarily our whole life and she knows that. We all know that.
We all know that there's more to anything, that there's more than meets they eye about basically everything we know. Sometimes all we have though is the words that other people are saying about it. and because all we know is what other people are saying about it, than all we have is those words. This places us kind of in a bad situation in sort of a box kind of life because you can't see everything or know everything no matter how much you want to or no matter how hard you try. but life in a box is better than no life at all, at least you have chance. That's what this movie made me realize is ya, i can't do everything and i can't change anyone and i may not be able to change anyone else, but i have a purpose of own to fulfill and i CAN change myself. Why not at least try to make the best out of this chance right now and do all i can with it no matter what because face it, it's all i've got. It is the chance i've got and if it's the only one than hey, it's what i've got to live with and learn to make the best and figure my purpose for myself.
have solicited. The rest is silence."
These are the last words that hamlet says before he dies. I thought this was the perfect ending. I mean, he's turning the throne over to Fortinbras and saying, "i'm ok with him being the king of Denmark he's going to win the election anyways, and so as i die, i give him my own vote as well." Then i just found so much meaning in the last part of this quote. Yes Hamelt is saying to tell Fortinbras that given the recent events that occured, that now the rest is silence. But he is saying so much more than just what he is relaying to Fortinbras. Hamlet has been fighting this whole play to get back at his stepfather and to make things even and fair. And all that really happens is that everything becomes a huge mess. Everybody becomes a huge mess. But Hamelt accepts it as he dies. He accepts that his mother had to die because of all of this and he accepts that his uncle may not have fuly got what was coming to him. Yes, he wanted to get back at his uncle but maybe he said the rest c ould be silence because in a way, him dying was how he got back at his uncle. Hamlet knew that if his uncle never would have killed his father, then none of these events ever would have occured. Now his uncle has to deal with the guilt of killing his brother to steal his wife and marry her. He has to deal with the guilt of kiling his own wife to safe his own reputation and he has to deal with Hamlets death as well. All because he killed his brother he lost everything that he had gained, everything he knew, and he lost all his family. however messed up that "family" might have been...but still he lost them because of his evil ways.
I look at all of these things that Claudius did all of the hurt feelings, feelings of revenge, anger, sadness, and even deaths that he caused. I wonder how Hamlet can still say, "oh i can't kill him because he's praying he's so good and he's going to go to heaven. Really it's just hard for me to get a hold of this concept. Because i do blame the death of everyone who died in the course of this whole story on claudius. Every death can be traced back to him and can be said that it occured because of Claudius choices and actions. And ya, i guess that that is the whole point of hte story because that's the opening event of the play is the kings death. From all of this it can obviously be drawn that Claudius was not a nice perons.
List of offenses against Claudius:
Killing his own brother. Marrying his sister in law so soon after the murdering of his brother so that it can be assumed that he may have possibly commited adultery and helped her cheat on her husband. Trying to kill hamlet through a note. Trying to poison hamlet but in the long run killing his own wife that he worked so hard for her to become his wife. (wow claudius really does like the whole poision thing, i mean first dumping poision in his brothers ear, then poisiong the tip of Horatio's fencing sword in hopes to kill hamlet and then the whole poision jewl thing in the drink or whatever. Oh sure Claudius...what, do you....have a garden of poision or something. Talk about an endless supply, a bottomless bit, a black hole...whatever you want to call it, this guy knew it. Sure seems that it was his area of expertise) Claudius also made Rosencrantz and Guildenstern be his spies to spy on hamlet even though they were hamlet's best friends. Seriously? i mean, exactly what kind of moral compass do you have Claudius? I think it would be appropriate right here to quote the book in matters concerning claudius all i want to say is, "and reason panders will." this may have been part of the problem that he was facing who knows why he did what he did but it sure made a good story. Also this reminds me of something we disucessed in class how Everyone wants to play hamlet. Which by the way i totally said this to somebody the other day. because the were acting like hamlet like they wanted to be the star and have the last say and like they were going crazy and thought they knew what was up. But that's part of what i got out of the play that relates to my life is that every one does want to play. Because everyone wants to have people pity them to have everyone respect them, to have people remeber them. But Hamlet ends up dying which leads to Horatio concluding about everything that, "what would you like to see? if it's a tradgedy you've come to the right place." Amen Horatio.
Acutally, pretty much everytime that Prospero said anything, it was kind of profound. You know besides when he was plotting against everyone and being mean to the monster, Caliban. In act four when prospero says, "Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep." When prospero says this in the play, it's almost as if he's likening himself toa playwirght by asking the audience for applause. This quote was interpreted in two ways for people in shakespere's time. Yes, it was part of the play and prospero said this because he was just remembering the plot against his life and he said this talking about how he is revealing the wedding masque in order to deal with this plot against hm. but it also can be interpreted as shakespeare talking as himself about, himself through his character, Prospero. when propsero mentions this great globe, through prospero it was the world but when he mentions it through shakespear it is interpreted as him talking about the globe theatre. What Prospero is saying here is kind of trippy. That maybe all of this was only a dream and that he is going to lose his magic and then it wil all be over for reals. Shakespeare's meaning behind this could've been that when the play is over it's done for good. but look at where shakespear is now even though he is dead.
I think that we really did see alot of shakespeare in his character prospero. for example how prospero is this great scholar who is so devoted to his books that he almost is not even part of the world. Wow, i don't know if my interpretationis right but, from what i'm thinking shakespera might have thought alot of himself. Because of course shakespeare was a great scholar because he wrote so many plays and sonnets and poems and what not that have lived their greatness down in time and have survived history and changes in our world. Prospero is a sympathetic cahracter because he was wronged by his brother but because he is kind of just mean and rude ot alot of the other characters thoughtout the play, and he uses his magic and some of his speeches are kind of bunt so it makes him kind of hard to like. Prospero also has the hunger for more knowledge and he pursues knowledge becasue he wants to learn more. We can assume that this is also kind of what shakespeare wanted to be like too. Also comparable between these two is how much love prospero has for his daughter Miranda. He is an awesome dad i mean pretending to hate the boy that miranda loves and wants to marry while really all he was doing was setting them up secretly . and it was all his idea, but he made it look like it was only just two young lovers. Oh please, if only this would happen in real life. I think miranda really loved and appreciated her father more because of htis act that he performed. This old time shakespeare playwright reminded me of our modern day story of Harry Potter. Because in the fourth book dumbledore knows that he has to set
- Mood:
restless
Then all of the sudden these birds have a leader and they have formed a society that is only birds and where only birds can be let into the soicety and they have marked out all humans from their life completly. Pretty soon this community of birds became very popular and everyone wanted to be a bird and to travel there to join this group and to be part of this society. Everyone was hearing about how awesome it was and everyone wanted to be a part of it because it was so cool. It's like the persuassive technique bandwagon. That is what the society was using maybe unintentionally but everyone knew about them: non the less whether they wanted to be famous or not. The whole world was saying, " come on we have to do that , we must be part of that society because everyone's doing it." -jump on the bandwagon- I couldn't help but to compare this event that occured in the play to our very own lives. As high school students we encounter persuassive techniques in the forms of peer pressure, responsibilites and motives, wants and goals. Almost everyday we are pressured to jump on the "bandwagon" whether it be to ask someone to a dance becuase everyone else is going, or something not quite as happy like, partying illegally because, "everyone else is doing it."
Everyday we are pressured to be better, to be someone better, to grow and to learn and to prepare ourselves for the future. We must learn materials and study for all the classes that we have. We have to learn to balance our time between homework, schoolwork, extra-curriculars, among those some being included, such as, relationships and social events. And being teenagers we feel the importance of living up to our peers and we feel the competition and challenge of outdoing our peers and showing off and being able to find some way to be accepted by them. There is always that group of people that we see in teen movies and chick flicks about high school life, and even though that popular group in hollywood is over done and dramatized alot, there is still the truthfulness behind it because in high school everyone has a status quo. Everyone wants to belong to someone, to have a group of friends of just even a friend. As human beings it is our nature to want to feel loved and to long for the best for ourselves. Teenagers in high school only look to be accepted, we're searching for that cool group like in the birds, that we can belong to and that we can be in because everyone else is. Now i don't necessarily believe any of this business about changing yourself into a bird to fit in, and i don't want to be in a society of birds or anything, acutally i think that that is not most high school students cup of tea at all. (i'm just using the analogy) But i can say that i do feel that pressure of being a teenager and feel the feeling of experiencing this status quo- human natuer feelings that come along with being in high school. And the way this play, "The Birds" ended showed me and helped me to understand the importance of being able to handle any situation and the importance of deceiding ahead of time, outcomes of choices and wants beforehand and to understand how to make things work. It put everything in a different perspective and light and overall was a very enlightening reading for myself.
- Mood:
thankful
I personally just cannot understand how jason could even have the slightest incling of a thought enter into his mind to give him the idea that he should leave medea. He should have felt lucky to have such a wonderful girl like medea. because medea did so much for him. i mean, for reals, dude, she just saved your life. i thought that jason should feel eternally endebted to medea and always want to be with her and hold on to her and cling to her steadfastly and love her uncondintonaly. I wanted to tell Jason, that, "it's not every day that you find someone as great as medea, someone, who loves you uncondintionally and would give the world to make sure that you are happy and someone who truly wants to be with you." And ya, i mean medea may seem a little crazy and we don't understand how she could kill her children and come off as so unsympathetic towards everything. The thing is though, is i completly think that what medea did is jason's fault. Not that her killing her children is socially acceptable or anything except for in greek myths, which it totally is. The point i'm trying to make is that Medea was only unsympathetic towards her circumstances and when she carried out the plan to kill jason's signifiganct other along with her children, because jason turned her into an unsympathetic character.
Medea as we learn from the pre story to the play was more than a sympathetic, kind character before she met jason, then once jason so rudely left his own wife. Medea changed, or maybe she really was just showing her true colors through? Personally i think that this is how every girl is. Every girl has this side to them when it comes to terms of boys. It's the stupidest thing because if a girls' "guy" gets with another girl, all that girl can think about is how she wants to get revenge by, "fighting that girl". Medea got her own revenge by killing that girl.. Which i must say that i've got to give props to Medea for that sabotage. If i lived in the olden days... well, let's just say that i would be the first to sign up to take a lesson out of medea's book because i like her ideas for revenge alot better than any of the ones that are running through my mind. Anyways girls always seem to come to the conclusion that they need to want to hurt the other girl and they're always mad at the other girl when in all reality, when you look at it logically, the only person the girl should be mad at is the boy because that's where her heart lies. and it's not the other girls fault, the boy is just wanting to get some. In Medea's case though ya she got mad at the other girl. But she used the girl to get revenge on jason not to hurt the girl. I mean she didn't say let's fight you, or anything she just didn't care about the princess and said, oh ya this will get revenge on jason and make him hurt and then he'll see what's up and get whats his. Well overall, i really enjoyed the story and i loved the character medea. It's easy to see that if i was to live in the same time as medea, i'm pretty positive that medea and i would have been great friends. Then i could' ve stopped her from killing her own kids because that was not my favorite thing that medea did. Everything else she did was ok. Wait, on second thought, maybe the kid thing was ok because it fulfilled the "fully get revenge-make jason hurt-" thing for her, yes medea, at least, as if it matters, i do not think you are bad and crazy.
- Mood:
crazy
The line that i thought that was hilarious from this story was on the third page in the second paragraph, it says, "She said once when she was a maiden lady seh had been courted by a Mr. Edgar Teagarden from Jasper, Georgia. She said he was a very good-looking man and a gentleman and that he brought her a watermelon every Saturday afternon wiht his initials cut in it, E.A.T." Oh my goodness i don't know if the grandma was making this up, if it really happened to her, or if she just wanted it to happen to her. Any way, i'm pretty sure that i'm gonna tell my grandkids this story just so i can sound cool because they'd better apprecitate it.
Something we disussed in class about this story was the quote, "you can't see any clouds, but you can't see any sun either." This means that everything is just kind of in the middle just chill for reals. I guess in a way that's how the story was. I mean ya it was not good that the grandma died in the end along with all of her family. But then again, she died along with all of her family and she didn't really know what was going on anyways. So basically well everything is not that bad, it could be worse but it just is what it is.
Becuase this princess in the story wasn't looking for love, of course it found her. That's just what happens, that's why it's called falling, becase you don't plan to, it just happens. But maybe what these two people shared in this story wasn't love. Andre just thought the were a good match. I wish that he would've believed this so strong, that he would have found the courage to make things work. I wanted more than anything for them to end up together and for them to find each other and for things to work out. The ending to the story was sad only because it didn't happen the way i wanted it to but whatever. It said about the princes that, "She did not want a lover". Whatever princess, i'm pretty sure that you should've just taken this chance. Because if you would've taken this chance, then you would have discovered that it was worth it and you could have still had everything you wanted and it would be better with someone to share it with. Only that's my opinon.
After war it's true that everything is just kind of tired out because everything has been dragged out and so crazily awesome. I like how in the story it portrayed that these two people were wore out and different and changed just the same as the war. It showed how the war affected them both together and apart. In the last paragraph of the story it says, "And now he betrayed all that, and lost he thing worth having , after all." Maybe this is why he didn't fight for her becuase he had to see her to belive her and to finally get the realization of what he needed to do, but by then it was already too late. The last line of the story says, "...that he had lost it all, had fought for nothing, that there was no princess in the castle." He realized that he had been fighting for the wrong thing all along. That he was wrong in the way that he fought and that everything was his fault.
This story was so sad. I"m pretty sure that i didn't know which side to take of the story. Was it better that all of these people could be happy and free because this one small child was trapped and so so sad and hurting. But were these people truly happy. How can you be for reals happy if you don't ever know sadness. You would have nothing to compare to. It's like this quote that says, "I'm starting to figure out that it's easy to have faith and belief in the world when everything's good, great. but its's when really bad things happen that you find out what you really belive, and how strong your faith is." This is real life, this is the only way that you can really find true happiness is through hard work and trials and having to deal with sad things.
It really reminded me of The Hunger Games. How they forced children to fight to the death and survive in an arena rigged to kill them. How there was so much poverty and starvation and how messed up this world was that they were living in. What i understood about this story was so confusing becuase it never really explained how the city of omelas worked. The only thing that made sense was the people who walked away from Omelas. The last line in the story says, "But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas." This proves that it is better to have sadness in the world and deal with it. because the people who leave know what they are doing and that it's bad to have that child impriosned.
I can't imagine how the people of the city could be ok knowing that the mangled, dehumanised small child was the farthest thing from ok. the child didn't even have any idea or slightest incling of the feeling of happiness. This seriously just makes me fell like i could puke how can children be treated like this. I know that this story isn't even true but there could be a hidden meaning. The deeper side that's trying to help this world understand the issue of child abuse. The things that need to be done to stop this issue, how wrong this stuff that's happening is. This story didn't really explain what we could do but it gave us a pretty general idea and at least the way that i interpreted it, it raised my awareness.
I absoloutly loved the character Taylor. I don't think that i could have handled any of what she had to go through and deal with. Like the whole thing with turtle... Taylor is just given this baby and she just takes it and takes care of it like it's her own. How many people in this world are able to do this. Especially people who are in the situation that Taylor is. Her whole life it's just been her goal to not get pregnant. She just wanted to graduate high school and to not be like all of the other girls in her town who end up by themselves, husbandless, with a baby that they have to take care of themselves. Taylor accomplished this goal too and she got away from this small town. She was finally amounting to something and accomplishing something. She was going to experience new things and see new things. Then she gets turtle and her life is everything that she did not want it to be. The whole time she's been running away from having this life with a baby that she has to take care of by herself. Then as she accomplishes not having it, all the sudden her life is flipped and she does have her own baby that she has to take care of by herself. It almost made me not know how to feel about turtle. Because on one hand turtle desperatly needed that care from taylor but on the other this was not what taylor wanted. this is why i looked up to taylor so much and thought she was awesome, because she had such a big heart. I want to be like taylor in the aspect that she wants to help people and that she serves people selflessly. This book she grows so much and learns so much and it such a strong independent lady. I want to be that kind of girl who can be strong in life and do the things she needs to and handle trials the right way when they come.
At the very beginning of this book i found a quote that said, "Whatever you want the most, it's going to be the worst thing for you." This for sure relates directly to the plot of the story but i thought about how true it was in my life too. All i could say was AMEN, and that you just have to keep trucking through no matter what comes. It reminded me of this lady i know who told me, 'anything worth it, you have to fight for. but anything worth fighting for, is worth it.' Another quote that i liked was, on page 145, it said, "don't let the grass grow under you feet, but make sure there is something everywhere else." This is what i meant when i said that this story was so real life and actual events. Because i found these quotes that made me think of actual events in my life relating to the quotes in waht's going on in the book. Another quote i liked was, "I was amazed. There seemed to be no end to the things that could be hiding. Waiting it out, right where you thought you could see it all." this reminded me how important it is to not ever forget to notice the little good things in our life, because sometimes they're the most important things, the things that help you hold on and keep going. That besides sights, sounds and scents, there are the hidden things. Like how deep in the ground there are rivulets of water fighting an endless battle against earth and stone. These things i found in the book were so insightful. This whole book was so insightful. The part that i liked the best out of the book that i thought was an important theme was on page 252 where it said, "some folks are the heroes and take the risks and other folks do what they can from behind the scenes." That's why it's important to look at all the little things and to appreciate the hidden things.
- Mood: shocked
These two short stories, along with "The Story of an Hour", all share the same basic theme of principle. The events that occur in these stories is showing and teaching us to not jump to conclusions. In "Araby" the boy thinks that if he goes to this bizzare that he will be able to impress this girl that he loves. This kid does not even know whether or not this act is going ot impress this girl. He makes this big ol assumption and just acts on it without even knowing if that will impress this girl. He counted his chickens before they hatched. However you want to put it, this kid ended up feeling stupid and coming to a sad realization because he jumped to conclusions about the unkown. The main character learns in the story that you can not let your imagintaion run away with you. He showed us this because he imagined this real elaborate plan, but it got him no where. He did not accomplish the thing he set out to do, the thing which he had wanted to do more than anything. He could not accomplish the thing which he had such a strong mind set about. This is no good if you fail, all you can really do is fight until the end. And the boy in this story discovered, he had a realization that he doesn't want what he thoguht he wanted after all.
An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge showed us the same basic principle. I thought it was good that he was having these happy thoughts while he was dying even thought he was just imaginging the whole thing anyways. So what is better always pretending and imagining when you know what's yet to come. No matter how much you think about it and want to change it.. it is what is and that's all you can do. Sometimes you just have to accept that it really is the end at that it's time to let go. But i like how they guy in this story accepted it but he chose to accept it in a good way. He was happy he went out with good memories and thinking positivley. Even though, in all reality, he couldn't really change it, he made the best out of what he had. This story also shows us that you can not jump to conclusions. You always have to go through the beginnnig and middle to get to the end no matter what those parts bring to you.
These stories showed me that you have to learn things for yourself. You can not trust anyone better than yourself. They have they overall them and create the feeling that you must be true to yourself and use the brain you were given. It's important to think things through and be smart. The best thing that you can learn is that everything is not always what it seems. The truth is always there and you can find it, even if it ends up being sad and not at all what you wanted. That's the acceptance that you have to learn and experience for yourself, becuase that as a whole will hurt you less than if you were to just jump to conclusions.
Something that i thought was cool from this story is when the story is talking about when geore's handicap goes off and the narrator explains it saying, "A buzzer sounded in George's head. His thoguhts fled in panic, like bandits form a burglar alarm." I liked this analogy because it really helped expalin what the purpose of the handicappers was. How the handicappers made you forget everything and scatter your train of thought super fast so that you culdn't get too deep into anything in your brain. It showed the things that george, and other people in this world, had to deal with everyday with his handicappers and the way his whole life worked. At the end of the story it's funny because the narrator repeats him self alot. "he said" & "Hazel Said" and this is how he explains their whole last conversation. I thouight that by him writing this he wasn't writing like at a first grade level, but trying to show us the substance that these people were capable of. This is how their converstaions went, always. In this world this is all the people could be capable of. By writing like this, the author shows the vain repition of these people's cruel lifes and shows how it would be to live this kind of life. This story was good and i liked it and the ideas presented in it, but i also have to say that it helped me realize that i'm greatful for things that challenge me and for things that i have to think about. I'm greatful for people's opinions and for people's advice and things that people say everyday. I'm greatful for the kinds of freedoms we have now to be seperate but equal. Also the story made me realize, what i wouldn't give for a man like Harrison. Ripping off metal straps and breaking padlocks to reveal a super handsome face and a strong, tall, nice, body. Being a super genious, breaking out of jail, plotting to overthrow the government, and dancing so great that he could fly. yep, he sounds like my kind of man!
- Mood:
energetic
For my ninth birdthday i wanted nothing more in the whole entire world than to go horseback riding. So my daddy roped up two horses and saddled em up and got em ready to go. However in the first fifteen minutes of our journey venturing out into the wilderness on horseback, we encountered some fallen down barbed wire. My daddy was in front of me and his horse was fine stepping over it, but when my horse stepped on that barbed wire, he got really spooked. He bucked three times, before i fell off and this being my first time ever riding a horse, i freaked out and i made my dad lead my horse almost the whole rest of the way. However when we got on the road that led back to the horses home, they started walking faster and it was safer cause i didn't have to steer them or worry about barbed wire anymore. As we made our way back on the road heading home, my daddy explained to me how the horses knew that they were headed in the direction of home and that's why they were walking faster. The horses were excited to get back. But the thing i was curious about was how they knew exactly were their home was. I thought it was interesting that horses do this. I often find myself thinking about this experience and many times in life i realize that i am like the horse, we all are like horses, because we have this desire. Because we encounterd experiences like this too and i have thought about this when things get me down. Becuase sometimes we get spooked or we're going strong all excited and we suddenly get bucked off but we'll be ok, we just have to get back up and keep going even if we need help.
This reminded me of the story of Odyssesus. This character in greek mythology was always trying to get back home. Since Ulysses is the roman name of Odysseus, this same basic concept can be applied here to this poem too. Just like in my story about the horses and how they wanted to get back home and towards the end they knew and they went faster, this poem also shows that this is our ultimate goal. I know that after a long day of school, so many classes, so much work and homework, having responsibilites, worrying about social stuff, scholarship & essay, cross country practice, college, test taking, and flat out everything that comes with being a senior, i want nothing more than just to go home and have that peaceful feeling you only find with people whom love you they way only your family can in that peacful sanctury you share as an escape from the world. It's like the ninth line in this poem says, "at times i have enjoy'd Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone;" this is what we find and have to deal with but this is why we find ourselves wanting to go back.
This whole section of poems takes on the theme of finding yourself and finding the place where we belong. We as humans all have to go through this, at some point we must find out who we are. The twenty second line gives great reasoning as to why we must fulfill this obligation. It says,"How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!" We are all here for a purpose, and we all have something to offer, we all have something to give. The poems are trying to help us realize to, take the time to find ourselves and discover the something we have to give, and to use it to help others. Alos that we should give others the opportunity to show us what they have to offer. I believe this so strongly, we are here to help each other if not us than who? Because like it says in the poem us just alone is, "Were all to little, and of one to me LITTLE REMAINS." But at the end of the poem, and this is how it is in the end of everything, it says, "one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." Everything is going to be alright, just be strong and believe. That's what we must accomplish here in this life to return back home. Sometimes it's hard to keep that courage and that positive attitude but if we endure to the end and find ourselves we will reap the blessings that are in store for us. And we will be able to return back home after our hardships, after we have proven ourselves so that we can have that feeling of peace and love and finally be safe in that sanctuary.
- Mood: sad
My whole entire life is always put to song lyrics. For example, when i hear the song, "THE RE-ARRNAGER" by mates of state, my head is instantly flooded with memories of cross country season my junior year, of college algebra with bledsoe, of wearing a zebra headband in my hair, and of countless drives into the sunset with my hair blowing in the wind. And hips don't lie by shakira means e.f.y. 2006. I don't know what it is about them, but somehow it's easier to understand your life if you can relate to something. Especially if you can sing to that something, because i'm pretty sure just driving down the road jamming to my favorite songs is basically the only way that i am ever truly happy because i get to think about my best memories. My own journal is filled with my favorite song lyrics, or just songs that i like a certian line from or that i received an epifany from. Usually i'll start my journal entry with a song lyric as a topic that totally ties in, and it always works and helps me understand what's up.
I can pull the same thing from this piece, "hazards of love." Putting it to music, strangly enough, made me understand alot better and made my anitating so much easier. I like this new twist we've put on our poem readings i think it's really suitable, especially for our class because we all love music... and getting jiggy. But i guess everything in our life ties in to music, it's basically a universal thing that connects us all because it's something we understand. My sister went to Europe this summer and everyone there watched the dutch music video channel all the time. When jess came back one month later the same songs she heard in Holland had become a hit in American too. We're listening to world wide music and we all are connected. Music is a very big part of our lives whether we like it or not. Think about it, what is the first thing you think about when you see sesame street characters, or the sun? "sunny days, sweeping the clouds away." And i always know when a harry potter movie is playing in my living room because i recognize the theme song. This is just one of the many ways that we relate things to each other.
At first when i heard the singer explaining all the events that were going on, and then he says, " oh the hazards of love" i had to wonder about this. Then after finishing the whole story i started thinkning about why this was the title of this particular poem. What exactly is the signifigance of "Hazards of Love?" How could those two words even be put into the same string of words together? Then he said, "still the wanting come in waves." Because love is one of the hardest things to figure out and to get right, it's like a foreign language or knowing what the proper way to make pizza is. This lady Margaret, went through alot, even in the fourteenth song the last two lines of the first stanza basically made me cringe because of what was happening to her. But through all of this, love conquers all, as it usually does. It's the hazards of love because it's not meant to be easy. Let's face it nothing worth it is ever going to be easy, and that's why it's always worth it. Hazards of Love are the events that occur that make us stronger. It reminds me of Romeo & Juliet, the story we've all heard also often referred to as the story of my life, you know minus the whole poision thing, sorry Juliet, i guess i really just wanted to get past the age of fourteen and not be so intense and dramatic, because it's not like anyone' s writing a biography anyways, so why make it interesting? Also i started reading the hunger games yesterday and i finished the whole book in a day, that's how good it is and i highly reccomend it. This book is full of hazards of love, but i'm not going to give any it away. I'm just saying. Also my favorite part of the poems is when they say,
O my true love
O my tur love
Can you hear me love
Can you hear me love?
This is defintaly something that is mandatory to worry about. It makes everything so much more intense an romantic and of course it has to happen, it's just part of the " hazards of love."
I thought that in "The Fish" it was very interesting that the narrator looked at this fish that he caught so closely. Usually if we had a goldfish out of water we'd be all, " oh ya, what evs' this one is going down the toilet like the rest because it's been hurt a lot of times and is going to die anyways." This poem didn't have even the slightest hint of this opinon, and not just becuase it was a tremendous fish that wouldn't fit in the toilet anyways. The narrator went in to great depth and detail about the fish. He analyzed it a lot, even though it was just an almost dead fish. I mean we would look it and think wow, i caught a huge fish good thing i have dinner tonight. This narrator took time to think about the life of the fish and of all the tiny details. I think that if i had all the little detials and actually took the time to listen and care, then everything would be so much better, and i would save myself from alot of trouble. In essence, this poem looks at the things that break us and why we hurt and we die. It finds the deeper meaning, the things that a lot of us just never really think about. I think that we may not want to ever find deeper meanings becuase it's the easy way out and because we fear the unkown and don't want to be accepting.
It's easier to alwasy pretend that we're gonna be ok or that we are ok. We just pretend that we're happy go lucky. Just like in the poem "Richard Cory." Sometimes we act like this guy in the poem because no one ever really listens to us. Because everyone thinks we're happy go lucky and they don't care to find out the truth, which is that, we are dying inside. It remind me of this quote from a book called "An Abudance of Katherines." It says, "As long as I act like I'm okay, everyone else will be too. So what's worse? Seizing the day , knowing there's a chance your attempt could blow up in your face? Or not even trying at all, and always wondering whether or not something amazing would've happened if you had tried? Something that might change your life forever- for the better?" Everyone will always be okay if i act like i am too, because i wouldn't want to disturb the order of things. We all pretend, but it should be called lying. When really it would mess everything up if we all stopped acting like we knew what was going on and if we took time to uncover things, would it really suck to have that kind of honesty, and truth that dramatic of a change? These poems helped me realize how i can become better and how i can grow. Also they taught to, don't ever forget to notice the litte good things in your life, because sometimes they're the most important things, the things that help you hold on and keep going.
- Mood:
thoughtful
I must start out by saying that this set of poems was infact the perfect ending to a great week of a lot of poems. Also i feel like by now i basically earned a gold medal in anitating. I heard that we're having an awards ceremony at the end of this class because it is such a challenging course. Personally i either want the "I'm so good at anitating that i do it 24/7 for everything, even things that are not class related." or i want the "I"m not exactly like harry potter, I AM HARRY POTTER award." What i'm trying to say is that the poem, "The Horses" reminded me of the fifth book of harry potter, becuase in the eighteenth line of this poem it says, " We would not listen, we would not let it bring" and harry acts exactly like this in the fifth book, he is just grouchy all the time and both of these intertwined show an example of how we want to hear so we can ignore. This line ties directly into the twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth line. It says that we know they're there, and we can relate this to people in our lives, or literally tractors- we can see their presence and we may even want to open ourselves up to this, but we know we are vunerable, thus we are scared and so we ignore something that we know could be great. And of course we wonder about it, why wouldn't we? What is the purpose of wanting to hear only so we can ignore or find our revenge, but this happens to the best of us, no matter how stupid and unreasonably it is in all reality.
I'm not exactly sure if "On the Pulse of Morning" is supposed to be from a religious stand point, because my views are not always right at first glance. For example, and i'm not even embarrased to say it, that when i read boxes and bags, i thought the title could be changed to boys and girls to give the poem it's hidden meaning. But then that just makes for a very crud poem and a lot of bad "that's what she said" jokes. (since all of those are bad anyways.) but who ever gets things right the first time right? I thought that this poem could be symbolic of religious events. Figurativly the rock could be the people becuase it "cries out to us, clearly, forcefullly." Aren't all people always looking for some kind of support, some kind of something more. And the River ,or figuraively Jesus, is always calling out to them, he is always there, We are supposed to "Plant yourself beside the river" or to be steadfast in the word of god and in the love of our savior. The tree is that word of god that's planted next to the river and cannot be moved. This shows that there is at least one thing that is solid and unchanging. It also talks about in the sixteenth, 20th and 21st stanza how this is for all the world. This must be for everyone and we all are connected and we all are children of god. Sorry to go all churchy mixed with school, that's just what the poem means.
Even though "There will Come Soft Rains" is not exactly my bowl of soup, If you know what i mean the whole natureistic point of view is defintaly incorportaed. I thought about how when it says, " not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly;" What about if bird or tree perished, would mankind mind? I don't know about Sara Teasdale cause i'm pretty sure you can see the whole form of the author's opinion portrayed throught their work. But this is defintaly one of those poems that the title was made up only before the poem was written. I liked the title of this poem alot because to me it meant that not everything is going to be hard and cold and unpleasant. The other thing that i loved from this section of poems was the poem "Pride." How it says that, "Even rocks break, I tell you, and not from old age." Even the most constant and solid and strong things in our lives eventually break and are gone. Our first loves, our relationships, our family members, our wordly things, our possesions, our beliefs, our bodies, and the strongest thing of all our minds. And yes it does come as a surprise because we always think that things will always be constant, especially the things that are most prominent in our lives. But the only thing that we can be sure of now is that , the only thing that's constant in life is change.
- Mood: thirsty
The band Carolina Liar, has a song called "Show me what i'm Looking for." This poem made me think of some of the lines from that song. For example in the last stanza the last three lines say, "Till the bridge you will need be formed, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer tread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul." The guy in this poem is anitating himself and looking at his life thinking about what is up. It reminded me of a lyric from that caroina liar song that says, "Save me I'm lost...i'll pay any cost, save me from being confused, Show me What I'm Looking For." This guy is comparing his life to a spider in that way. He's explaining how the spider can mark its life by itself and how it understands its place and connections. Then he's saying how he wishes he could be like the spider that he is wathcing on the promontory. He's saying how he knows that his soul is not standing in a place that he wants to be. His sould is not surrounded or attached to anything. This man is explaining that he is trying he just wants to be saved, and he's at a point where he's lost. But he wants to be anchored and caught some where. He may even "pay any cost" because he no longer wants to be a free bird. As he watches that spider he sees that he also would like to posses the traits of being noiseless and patient and that he wants to be found.
#6, FROM "SONG OF MYSELF"
In the movie the lion king, there is a song that portrays the theme, "The Circle of Life." Well because that's the title and lyrics of the song. Anyways this poem is basically the same message as that song. Probably because it was written by Walt Whitman. He lived from 1819-1892 which means that the time he wrote his poems in was the time of the contemporaries. Yes in deed, Whitman was a contemporary. This means that he wrote about nature very specifically and mostly just straightforwardly. As was demonstrated in the first poem of this set and this poem was also written about nature. Lately grass seems to be a very symbolic symbolism of a lot of different things. The figuritive interpretation of the symbolism of grass in this poem was very meaningful to me. So far out of all the references to grass, i must say that this has been my favorite way of looking at it. I like how it was portrayed and the way it was discussed. The second to last stanza of this poem reads, "The smallest sprout shows there is really no death, And if ever there was it led forward to life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it," Oh how glorious this line is, for it shows the death only progress the process of life. And not only human life but nature life and animal life all the same. That's why the poem is entitled "Song of Myself" because it is the song of all of us and it relates to everything.
O Captai
What a great tribute this poem is to our beloved fifteenth president, Abe Lincoln. The last line of the second stanza says, "It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead." Of course the people of the ship do not want to believe that their Captain is dead. For like it says just before this line, "Here Captain! dear father!" - it shows that their Captain was loved like a father. That they all looked up to him and were very close to him, Or at least the narrator was. Obviously Abraham Lincoln is interpreted as the captian of the ship which is figuratively America. So the same reasoning can be applied. The Captain was taken suddenly and too soon and the people are sad because he was a good captain. It even said in the third line of the last stanza that the captain died to save his ship. Because of these actions of the captian, the people say that they are going to mourn and honor him. Why wouldn't they?
- Mood:
cranky
What i found in the poems is that they all look at the aspect of events that happen in life. They show how to deal with different things. They teach us the type of attitudes that we should have and things that will help us in certain situations. But not all of them come right out and say, this is for life it can be applied to everyone. There is hidden meanings to each one, by the relations that are made in such ways like personification and onomatopoetic words. These poems talk about everything and anything! Like for example in "Jazz Fantasia" when first read, you see that it is adressed to the musician and that it is telling him to play on. Then through some anitating you can see that if we apply this to us we could be the jazzmen. The last two lines of the poem say, "a red moon rides on the humps of the low river hill... go to it, O jazzmen." So why couldn't we be the jazzmen, that should go out there to expand our horizon to do our own free style thing and to work toward something better and bigger. If not this is to be the purpose of life, to learn, to grow, to find ourselves-through music or by some other means- and to grow up, then what is it to be? In this context music could also be symbolic of experices and hardships. You know at first, it's hard to find the balance until you know the instrument, and then you can be good at playing music. Then, maybe you can even start to make your own music and fly to who you are through this talent you have found. You learn your instrument by playing music as you can and you get better. You learn life as you go by experiences and challenges then you become the better person and the stronger more talented person.
In "Cool Tombs" i loved the line in the fourth stanza that says, "tell me if the lovers are losers." Wow, this is a big concept, and if anything got me thinking deep today, it would defintaly be this line. Is it pointless to love, do you lose love anyway. So is it better to have never have had love and lost it just becaus, or to lose love like it's going to happen anyways. This is not just applied to love either, it's asking us, "what do you want out of life?' Do you lose everything anyways, you knowledge, your possesions, your prizes, your talents and abilites,and is it all worth it? Though i've got to say i can not agree with the point of view of this poem. Because if what he's telling us about tomb life is true then what beauty are we to find in the world, what are we to do with ourselves, and what are we to believe in? This just makes everything bleak, but it is infact opening our minds up to something that we must think about if we are ever to gain more knowledge. The poems"Grass" and "Bricklayer" were at a tie in my book tonight. They talked about simple things, things that happend and things we can learn from events and the examples we have. The last stanza of "Grass" says, "I am the grass Let me work." It only took me two seconds to see grass in a whole new light. I've always loved grass, who doesn't? Grass means that sweet smell of your whole yard while you're laying in it freshly cut after you mow it. It means summer time, running through the sprinklers, jumping on the tramp looking at the stars, being barefoot, drinking lemonade, hanging laundry on the line, running, and doing cartwheels. In Carl Sandburg's poem to the speaker grass is symbolic of harry potter's invisibility cloak or the room of requirement when you need a place to hide things. This is the work of the grass, and it shows us there's more to everything than meets the eye. Take time to explore and wander and wonder, look at things through a new light and learn, think about things and be respectful, for there can be meaning found and sense made through this.
Recently someone told me, "The truth about love... it is great when you're in it." When I heard this I was like, ya that's totally right, love IS great when you're in it. Then I thought about it some more and after reading these poems, I realized that, that is not the whole truth though. These section 5 poems prove that there is more than just happiness to love while you're in it. I know this because of the poem, “Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines.” The third to last stanza says, “I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” This honestly just kills me because he is only remembering loving her, and he no longer loves her. That is the hardest balance to find, that’s why everyone hates break ups so much. That is also why so many people in high school have the on again off again relationships. As this narrator speaks of love in this context, we find that love can be happy when you’re not in it. He shows us that he’s no longer in love but he’s happy because he has the fond memories of being in love, he feels that happiness, the happiness that only the feeling of being in love and knowing it and thinking about it can bring us.
I don’t know why, but part of life is how you can have someone you’re close to, and then… they’re gone. This event happened in “Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines” and in “The River Merchant’s Wife”. In the last stanza of this poem it reopens the issue of the truth about love. It talks about how she has love and she still has it but she’s forced to wonder about it. It reminds me of how you can hold sand in your open palm and it will stay there even though you’re not confining it. But then when you try to close your fingers around the sand and hold on to it tight cause you don’t want it to slip through your fingers… all that ends up happening is that you have no sand left in your hand. Kind of like in “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd.” She tells him basically that “ya dude, love is love but I don’t know, cause can you provide for me? The Nymph tells her suitor all of this because he’s expressing his really strong feelings and she mostly is just wishy washy. Love must never hold on, never hold tight, but let go. When you have this kind of freedom and trust in love then they will not pull away and run away, the sand stays in your hand.
We all want a love, even if you don’t know it, you do. In the last stanza of Pound’s poem it says, “The paired butterflies are already yellow with August- Over the grass in the West garden; They hurt me. I grow older.” She’s saying how she’s seeing everything in pairs and it hurts her. She longs for a lover too and she’s sad about it. It’s like how when we see couples and can be like how cute and then on after thought we think, I want to be a couple, I want to have a love. I don’t know maybe that’s just me because couples are my absolute most favorite things in the world. I think right now though that at this time in my life the poem I can relate to the best is “Tonight I can Write the Saddest Lines.” This poem is from the book, “100 love songs and a song of despair.” I think that this is symbolic of the idea that we hurt more than we are hurt. The concept of that time period where you’re in the valley and down, And then because of that valley you get a time period where you’re on the mountain. And wasn’t that valley, that one song of despair, worth the amount of happiness you felt while on top of the mountain?-those 100 love songs.
- Mood: loved
All of these poems opened my eyes to the different people that are effected by war and to the different way that all these people look at war. The poems show how the soldier is effected. In one poem, it shows the different things the soldier says to comfort the people he loves. This just goes to show how different we all are from each other in this life. Kind of like how we all read the same poems every night. But from our reading, we all pull something different. Our raves have so many good insights. Everyones do, but just according to our personalites we all write different things. The same can be said of different perspectives of war. Because there is so many different sides to it. People even fight about war. isn't it kind of ironic? Fighting about fighting. There's always got to be an adversary.
I do have to comment though on the poem Echo. I especially liked how this one portrayed war. Even from the title i found a hidden meaning. Echo could be showing like the aftermath of an event. You know the post yelling or in this case post fighting. Because i'm pretty sure we all know what echo means and we know how to spell it. Except for that girl that i beat in the spelling bee in 3rd grade.... thankyou echo! i loved you then and i still love you now. I've always loved this song by the hushsound, It's entitled ECHO. But as i listened tonight and anitated it from a war point of view, i though it related very nicely to the poems. " The tempest created this tide, you are the brick i am so unpredicatble, led by the current away. Echo, my voice is an echo of places i don't know we all are connected, for historys sake, would you please take notice?" oh ya, i know anitating my music. Dude, i just can't help it anymore, i'm pretty sure every movie i watch every class i'm in, every lesson i learn, every song,and everything i read, even cereal boxes and labels on hairspray, get annitated. Hey like i learned from these poems, we all look at things differently wherther it be cereal or war. There's always a hidden meaning and there will always be a good and a bad side. Whether you have to find the bad in the good or the good in the bad.
- Mood: cheerful
I, deveney jeffs, just had an epifany after a lot of anitating. Oh, Tuesday night...it seems like such a long time ago. That is when we raved about the first set of poems. All of those poems talk about life and events of life and going through life. Then last night, section two poems, were a bit more depressing. The poems made us think about death and everything that comes with it. Then there's the Section 3 poems. Which can i please just say now, i loved every single last one of them. This was overall my favorite section. I actually enjoyed reading these poems because they were about something happy and something that is unkown. All of these talked about the after life. The authors got to show us their view points and we got to make our own asssumptions and interpretations. We've been learning about the whole process of life over the time period of only three days, through these poems.
In the other sections of poems, i've always had one poem that i've favored over all of the others. Tonight i'm loving every single one and wanting to talk about all of them. "Ithaca" is described as an island but is infact fuguratively god or heaven. Even, sailing to Byzantium has the same idea as ithaca. Byzantium can be interpreted as heaven, and sailing there is the journey that we go on, called life. Byzantium and Ithaca are the same place. The T.S. Elliot poem also makes refrences to jesus and heaven. In this poem the tea party is heaven. All of these authors are basically just talking about what they think will come after death. They're wondering themselves, even, what it will be like and if there will be something more. We are left to dream and interpret the unkown with only the help of people who know no more about this subject than we ourselves do.
Isn't it nice sometimes though to have images and stories like this to wonder about. Ya, we don't have to believe them, or even agree with them, but that is what helps us gain our own opinions of subjects that it can only be human nature to wonder about. I don't know about any of you, but i think being a senior is the scariest thing in the whole entire world. Growing up is not fun. Period. The Poem, "anyone lived in a pretty how town" scared me and made me sad. It brought into reality things that i'm scared of and worried about. LIke i don't want to forget all of my childhood memories, but that's just what happens. I could totally relate to this poem, it's my life but in a really sad way. It made me realize that i have to accept growing up because time is not gonna freeze, and tomorrow we'll be in our caps and gowns. My favorite quote out of all of these poems is from "The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock." It's the last two lines of the sixth stanza it says, "In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse." We've got to choose carefully and learn carefully. This shows us that we've got to be strong for ourselves and that we shouldn't ever regret something because at one time it was really what we wanted.
- Mood:
sick
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