tone

Pole vault is all fundamentals; you don't even get to go into the pit until you learn how to run with the pole, build the strength to carry the pole, and have the right form when you run. The pole is too high, start over. Your steps are off, start over. You need to run faster, start over. Then, once you actually get to go into the pit, you don't get to go over a bar. The bar is a rubber band that is kind of a so called "kitty" bar. The whole going over this band doesn't happen. You have to practice the first form of pole vault that you learn on the ground, except now it's in the air. Day by day, a pole vaulter learns form, literally from the ground up, till one day you get to actually put the puzzle together and perform the jump. Maybe one day I'll actually get to pole vault.

I Thank You God

Unlike the rest of these poems, this one is somewhat lively and positive, unlike the other depressing and remorseful poems. It's important to recognize that the capitalization of YOU is important. The author is emphasizing that he is thankful for his amazing day not because of who was in it but of God giving him this marvelous day. It sounds like someone who has been lifted and forgiven for a sin because the author talks about being born again, and now the ears of my eye awake and the eyes of my ear are opened. It's weird how this is put because it's completely flipped. It's very positive because it is the birthday of life and love and wings; this doesn't sound too sinister to me. For once, this person is finally seeing the light and being forgiven and relinquished from their sin. This might be a person who has finally accepted God and church into their life and is finally seeing life from a broader point of view. I can relate this to when I first started going to youth group and was open to the idea to having faith in God; I really see a lot of myself in this poem.

thanksgiving poem

Thanksgiving is a time of joy,

so don't be to coy.

It's a time to eat your fill,

when the turkey is killed.

Football on the big screen,

thats sure to stir up a scene.

Pumpkin pie, apple pie, cherry pie,

be sure to eat before you say goodbye.

Vergissmeinnight

Forget me not; that's really the true meaning behind this poem. It's interesting how the poet looks at an enemy soldier's outlook because he feels sympathy towards the soldier. There is a picture of his girlfriend or wife that is next to the soldier and the reader feels a strong sense of remorse. No matter whose side a soldier is on, the soldier is still human and has people who care for him. It's really the despair behind war, and this poem is able to bring that out through it's descriptive explanation. The poet talks about how the gun won't decay like the body who used it and I though this was an interesting perspective because something that was so indestructible killed the user instantaneously. It may symbolize how war will kill many but the idea that stands behind the war will last forever. "For here the lover and the killer are mingled"-this sentence also explains the meaning of soldiers and how an average teenage guy back home is a killer on the front, and that the combination of two diverse lives makes war seem all the more awful and distort. When the soldier was trying to fight for rights and peace, he caused a war inside a woman who loved him. This poem definitely gives what war really does to soldiers and their family from both sides of the front.

The Snow Man

Wallace Stevens does a magnificent job of showing how a snow man feels in the winter. This is a 5 stanza poem with three lines in each that has some significant word choice; the word choice is my favorite part about this poem. Such words as "bare" and "crusted" bring out what the readers pictures in their mind. It's the viewpoint of winter through the eyes of a snow man. The snow man doesn't think of the "misery in the sound of the wind" "blowing in the same bare place." It's the snow man's only environment he gets to live in and makes the best of what it can offer. The tone is very bleak and desolate, kind of like how people picture winter. The last two lines where it says, "nothing himself, beholds nothing that is not there and the nothing that is" gives the reader a sense of loneliness, despair, and hopelessness that accompanies a freezing, cold winter winter day. It makes the reader look for the future that will entail more happier, warm summer-filled days.

On Reading Poems to a Senior Class At South High

At first when I read this, I was very confused but towards the end the idea made sense. It's definitely a smirking, sneering tone with lots of sarcasm. I can completely relate to this poem because I know how it feels to feel like your drowning in a classroom; I've had lots of classes like that. Everybody is talking and "thirty tails whacking words" around which definitely happens. Also, the relief after class, knowing I learned a lot and can go home and relax; I admire that feeling. This poem doesn't have any certain amount of lines for the 7 stanzas given, and the wording is kind of choppy; it definitely doesn't flow that well. It's neat how the author relates a classroom full of students to a bunch of fish in an aquarium. That analogy he paints in my head makes the experience he is talking about all the more vivid.

Acquainted With The Night

Nighttime is so mysterious and dismal, and I love that this poem is all about nighttime. There are 4 stanzas each with 3 lines, and there is a meter of aba for each stanza. The last stanza only has two lines though which makes it stand out. Also, the first and last line match exactly. This poem has a tone of somberness and scorn to it; this piece definitely doesn't have cheerfulness. I almost get a feeling of scariness like the person in the poem is under the glare of the watchman, and the scream the person hears is chilling yet the person can't say anything -almost like it's a normal, daily thing to hear. The poet talks about how "time is neither right or wrong" which kind of goes along with night because night is all the same until the sun come up, and a person can't really tell the time until the morning arrives. The lonely ally ways and the rain all make the images very dark and bleak, and that's how most people view night as-not a time to be up but instead be in slumber. I personally love the night, yet it's definitely a dark, dreary poem.

A Work of Artifice

This poem kind of looks at life with a different perspective. Instead of this tree growing strong and monstrous, the owner decides to keep it small and cozy, domestic and weak. The reader would think that a bigger tree would have more to offer such as shade and maybe a place for an animal to live. When it talks about bound feet and crippled brains and the hair in curlers, the poet is relating it to a person. Since this was written in 1936 we had just gotten out of a world war. I can't help but think that this poem is related to that time. How lucky the tree is to have a pot to grow in is one of the lines in the poem, and this probably represents the Depression in America and people got by by not making a scene and just being thankful for what they had. The hands you love to touch could be related to the greediness people had and how Americans tried to get their hands on everything they could. Just like the tree being cut down at an early age, young children had to learn to deal with what little they had at a young age. This poem must definitely represent a period of history, and it's really neat how the author compares that with a stunted tree.

Unveiling

This poem is just down right simple. The structure of it is just line after line with no stanzas and rhyming. I was able to read straight through this poem and get exactly what the poet was meaning to say. It definitely is vivid because it paints a picture of the poet's family members lined up in the graveyard just like around the dinner table. I can relate to that feeling of loneliness because after losing a loved one I felt so left behind, almost like being kept out of a secret as the poet puts it. When the writer talks about how she is not yet old enough to learn this lesson, I relate that lesson to wisdom. A person must grow old and experience more of life before a person can truly experience being "in their shoes." The appreciation of life can't truly be appreciated till a person lives life and can see life from an old person's point of view. I like how she says that she isn't sad about it and depressed but merely left out. I mean isn't that truly how we feel? Death is inevitable and happens to everyone eventually in due time. This poem kind of puts a silver lining on death in a way that I hadn't looked at before.

Wallflowers

This poem is about using unusual words in a poem and I love how the poet relates words to different places or rooms or moments in people's lives. She talks about words that are like shy shadows at a high school dance, and I really like that because words can be like that; the writer is just shy to use them. I know the feeling of learning a new word and how it makes the writer feel so much more intelligent because the writer can actually use the word in context. It's so nice to have a complex word that can describe multiple feelings. For the example the word "good" which is used over and over again, but when a new word is found to replace such a used word, it's marvelous. She relates unused words to orphan children which gives a vivid image of how words can actually feel abandoned and unused. Her imagery is very strong in this poem and gets her point across so much more clearly. This poem has five stanzas, yet there is no pattern to how many lines are in each. This structure gives the reader a more free flowing type of feel to the poem. This look into how unused words "feel" definitely painted a picture in my head and how many words are out there that I could still learn; it's very inspiring.

For A Duro

This poem is really symbolic of Christmas; I felt like this poem really shows Christmas at it's best. I kind of took the Duro as symbolic of what people really value. Christmas is so different for every person, especially when the reader kind of can compare American Christmas to Tanizia. For some Christmas is a time for new electronics and the latest gadgets but in this poem the author values having a roof to sleep under and a soldier who is lucky to get a cigeratte. A Duro can make a difference in anybodys life, and as the author dreams about having a butler and such leads me to think that the key to success has to start somewhere. Unless a person is born a kid of a superstar, most people have to start from scratch and build up. The Duro could be symbolic of starting from small, poor livings and building into having a good income. Also, the little things in life are also the some of the best moments. Such things as animals in a hospital getting better or getting a meal when your starving are some of the best gifts you see in life. Who knows where one Duro could go or do.

Lost Brother

I really like this poem! It makes me think of this book I read over and over again as a child. It was about this kid who loved this huge willow tree, but time past and the boy grew into a man where he didn't have time for the tree. The tree became sad and lonely and began to die. In the very end the man becomes old and weak and looks for the companionship of the tree, and the tree provides shade and for the old man to rest. Its one of those books that looks at the passing of time and I can completely relate that theme to this poem. It made me realize how humans and trees go through so many obstacles and troubles and survive through it, but then one day the tree gets cut down just like humans simply die of old age. This poem also mentions how the nature has the same mother as the human race and that is so true because all living beings have to die at one point or another. The last sentence is kind of comical because it talks about how a bag of wind will cut me down, yet wind shouldn't even harm a human or a tree. Thats why I related to the wind to death because it's so sudden and weak compared to all the obstacles that could of killed a human or a tree in the past. This poem does a fantastic job of showing how time ages us and that life should be valued for what it is.

Blackberries for Amelia

I really like this poem because it brings back memories of my own. I love that this poem kind of shows time change and how the blackberries start out as "five-petaled blooms of chalky white" and end as "dark berries, savage-sweet and worth the wait..." The word choice that the author uses really gives the reader a painted picture in their head. I remember when my grandpa and I would go out in our backyard in Steamboat Springs and pick raspberries. My face would be stained and my hands colored red. I remember how sweet and juicy the berries were and how my grandpa would tell me to grab the berry at it's stem and not the bottom otherwise I would squish it. It was just a moment time that I had with my grandpa where we would talk and he would share his memories and wisdom with me. I don't have this anymore because time passes and my grandpa past away. Thats why I love this poem because that's exactly what it represents is time passing by. The little memories that I remember I treasure, and it's the little moments in this poem that make memories so special.

1943

This poem kind of surrounds me with the image of war. To think of 17, 18 year old boys in school and the next moment in war and being killed really is a depressing thought. As talked about in class, milk is seen as a nurturing aspect. I see that as kind of supporting our troops and doing what the American people can do back home. We can nurture our troops to help them the best Americans can do. The analogy of frostbitten feet as white as milk was kind of weird. I mean I guess I can picture cold as white because snow is white and the sky is usually white. Also when bodies turn white it symbolizes a dead person, and milk is cold just like frostbitten feet. I can't really relate to people in my life who have gone off to war. I have had great uncles and my 2nd uncle go to Vietnam, but I do know neighbors and friends who live in fear every day because they are worried about their loved ones overseas. I can't even imagine how painful that feeling would be. This poem definitely brings out the pain and impact of war not only on the soldiers but loved ones back home.

My Fear

I took this poem as like a fear of death; I saw fear as a person "he looks through his sack, his black sack of trouble." This part really paints a picture in my mind. Our dreams are kind of a wondrous insight to ourselves, some of the most personal part of a human being. Dreams kind open us to our biggest fears in our life at that moment in time, and I kind of got that feeling from this poem. The structure is 6 stanzas with 4 lines each, so it kind of flows. There are no lines that really stand out because of the structure. Dreams kind of teach people a lesson, almost like a way of looking at your life from a bigger perspective. Whether that bigger perspective is scary or not depends. This poem talks about fear falling through your pocket and be small and I think thats what everybody wishes for-small troubles and fears that won't immensely impact us and cause too much harm. We talked about this poem in class and really can be looked at from many perspectives.

Poem 1 Response: Beginning Again

This poem, honestly, kind of depressed me. The poem's first sentence even says, "If I could stop talking, I might begin to get well." After doing research on this author, I found that the writer, Franz Wright, struggled with drug and alcohol problems and depression. This information really shaped the way I looked at the poem, for the piece is definitely not a happy-go-lucky poem. The poem, with its somber tone is really the first thing that pops out at the reader. The reader gets the sense of the writer being lost and confused with the imagery that is given when he mentions trying to perform brain surgery on himself in a badly lit room with no mirrors, then does the complete opposite when talking about the room and how all the walls are mirrors. I took this more like him being in a crazy person's institution because the patient is trying to figure out what is wrong with them self (the brain surgery) and the institute around them (the walls with mirrors) represents that the patient is reminded of their reality and where the patient is at. Even the structure of this poem is interesting. There are four stanzas, all with different amount of lines, yet the third stanza only has one word: why? This makes me think that this word is important; it kind of sounds like what a crazy man would yell because of what he has become. The last stanza raps it up with the writer sitting with Li Po, a Chinese poet known for writing fantasy and was exiled from multiple countries for his beliefs, on a mountain until only the mountain exists. It was a kind of blissful way to end such a depressing poem with the author inferring that life goes on no matter how crazy that person gets.

Ok so I finished the last book for this summer and I'm really glad I ended with The Great Gatsby. This book was a pretty easy read and it went fast. What the book was about was actually kind of intriguing and made me continue to keep turning the page!

This book is really good at describing it's characters. For instance, how Daisy's voice is so melodic and how Fitzgerald was able to play up her character. Same with Tom with his authoritative voice and body, he seemed like a tough guy that nobody was going to mess with. Nick, the main character, really seemed like he was an all-around guy with his head on his shoulders type of guy. Through out the book you could tell when he had made up his mind about a decision such as when he knew that he would have to be the one to take on Gatsby's funeral at the end of the book; he was just a very logical guy! Then there was Gatsby who was a very deep character and he definitely took some time to figure out. He was honestly the guy who came back from war who lost his love because she couldn't wait any longer. He was a man with a name of great parties but nobody was truly friends with him, guests just liked to go to his parties that he threw. Gatsby was a successful man, but he lacked the true love, family, and friends which I thought was really tragic. He was able to make a success through the drug-store chain he had, but money doesn't buy happiness and in the end he needed Daisy, but she was married to Tom. All these characters when intertwined made a really good story, and how Myrtle (who Tom was having an affair with) got hit by a car in the end by Daisy and Gatsby ends up getting killed in the end for it just makes this story so much deeper and meaningful.

I used the method of establishing territories in this book, not for any reason but that that was the only one left. I cross-referenced terms such as "abandoned," "loneliness,"purposeless and alone," because all those words kind of connected to the theme of the book. These terms were constantly used and seemed to have a connection. What worked with me for summarizing was summarizing page by page into a sentence and subject matter at the bottom of the page if it was an important part of the book. This took a while but summarizing actually helps me a lot because I'm able to remember it better. I really tried at the key words and realized that when I looked over my keywords it helped me see deeper into the book. Such as "dishonesty," "good girl," "old sport," just kind of gives off the idea of what it was like in the 20's and how women and men interacted. The glossary helped to cause I was able to better understand the text by finding the meaning of an important word.

Honestly, this type of method was probably the most efficient for me and The Great Gatsby wasn't too bad of a book. I'm done with summer homework!! That's always a plus too.

Heart of Darkness

Lets see the Heart of Darkness... this book was a very difficult read! As a reader I definitely had to slow down and re-read some parts. This book is quite intense and has very deep meaning to it that can be missed very easily! For this book I used the annotating method of establishing territories. At first I thought I would really like this method because I'm good with rhetorical analysis, but as I made my way through the book I realized there was so much to remember to do when I read that I forgot I was actually reading a book. Because this book is very complicated I much rather of read it than trying to remember to annotate it. It was like the purpose I was getting out of the reading was not what the text was saying but more for a search of rhetorical devices and tone; I lost the meaning of the book in my search. I would have to annotate a part then go back and read the text to get the full meaning. I didn't like this method at all, or more like I picked the wrong method to annotate this book with. I feel that this way of annotating should be used on a more simplistic book that's easier to understand because I understood this book more when I read faster through it than to stop and analyze.

Marlow, who tells the tale, is a very interesting character. At first it took me a while to realize that this book was pretty much going to be a story he was telling because on parts of the book, such as on pg. 52 or pgs. 108-109, where his story-telling dialog and the dialog of the characters in the story I would confuse. This was probably, in the sense, a style of Conrad's writing to make the stories more real, but I still had to slow down and figure out who was talking. Also the author used a ridiculous amount of listing when Marlow is telling his tale. There would be a list of descriptive words or words of feeling and then a dash and then the sentence. This was used on page 124: "There had been enemies, criminals, workers- these were rebels. " Such sentences as that were used constantly, and the author also used a lot of sentence variety which made a more boring, descriptive paragraph sound more interesting and made the words flow together. Through the piece I also boxed off lots of amazing word choice he used. The vocabulary the author uses is ridiculous! I could make a list of a 100 words easily that made his sentences more vibrant-"dazzling splendor," "gesticulating," "sagacious," prudence," "obsequiously," "abject." Some of these words I didn't know but it made me pretty jealous that I don't have a vocabulary like that because I would definitely use that in my writing. Even in this blog I use more dashes because of all the dashes in this book! I underlined numerous metaphors and similes that made what he was talking about more visible, and there were lots of prepositional phrases with commas to get all the detail in!

The most common word I found in this book was darkness. The whole book is based on bleakness, dismal states, dreary sights, death, evilness- all of which give the book it's character. It's definitely not a happy-go-lucky book. Even the type of sentences he used gave off the tone of the book. When the author used short sentences it was to get to the point, and when the writer used long, drawn-out, descriptive sentences you got the feeling of being lost in darkness. Darkness was definitely the tone and theme of the book!

So I decided to start with the Kite Runner because it looked like the biggest and longest,and I'm not going to lie, I had trouble writing in a book I had just bought. I got used to it though and I used the annotating process of creating trails throughout the book.

At first this method seemed very boring and because I'm a fast reader it made me slow down and relate my thoughts to my own life. A lot of the characters in the book, like Baba the father, I could easily relate to my dad for his wiseness. Like my dad known for his famous football stardom back home, Baba was known for wrestling a bear and helping people in need. Baba constantly said some of the wisest things and, like my dad, could say words that would "sting me" because they were so true. His idea of the biggest crime was stealing because you can steal the truth of a person was one of my favorite part of the book. I never thought of stealing in that sense. Baba and his friend, Ali, talked of all the mischive they got in to in their childhood years and my dad and his friends were exactly like that.

At times I could relate to Amir. I've always tried to impress my dad just like Amir. Of course in the end the reader finds out why Baba admired Hassan so much. This part came as a big surprise to me when I found out that he was Amir's half brother. It was cool though because it tied in with the idea of culture in this book and how the ranking of Hazaras was so stupid. Amir though was a lot like because I don't always stand up when I should, just like when Amir didn't stand up for Hasaan in the alley way. This part I think was the turning point of the book where it pretty much went from Amir's innocent childhood to real life and the pain and grieving in the world. I've always grown up in American, so this book really opened up my ideas to what people from other cultures feel when foreigners come to our country. Amir went through so much trauma that I've never come close to feeling. I've felt fear, hatred, panic, and carsickness but not like to the extent that Amir did.

This book, I thought at first, was really boring and began very slow with details I didn't care about. Then, to my realization, the towards the ending the book relates back to every detail mention. It made me realize that every detail at the beginning of the book was put in there for a reason and to make a point towards the end of the book. That was probably my favorite part of the book. I related this book more to other books like 1983 and Harry Potter than I did movies. The one movie I did think of was The Boy in Striped Pajamas which was about a Jew in a concentration camp and a little boy who wasn't a Jew and was free and how they bonded and were really good friends. In the end the Jewish boy dies and it reminds me a lot of Amir and Hasaan and their friendship they had. This book also held humor even though it is a very serious book. It helped make the story flow a lot more and I needed the good chuckle every once in a while. I related this also to how white people treated black people during the civil rights movement and the cruelty people possessed towards each other in that time. I don't know if I like this way of annotating and relating myself, but it definitely got me thinking deeper into the text.