Madame Change the World

The poem My Tea with Madame Descartes was an interesting read, that really made me stop and think. The poem starts with a reporter running late for an interview. Her interview was not with an ordinary famous person, star or politician. Her interview was with a photographer who had been all around the world taking pictures that opened up the world to those who could not travel. Her photos included pictures of heartache and joy, but she was remembered for those that created the gasps and heartache. Throughout the poem we learn a lot about the characteristics of the photographer, and what her character and personality resemble. Madame Descartes initially comes off as a hard women, her first impression display that she desires to meet in a bar, with an alcoholic beverage, and sits against the wall where she is unseen smoking a cigarette. As soon as the reporter sets eyes on Madame, it is almost as if the reporter was mesmerized by her appearance. As the poem starts, Madame describes to her experiences and almost seems frustrated. She knows everyone has their opinions about her work and she addresses these ideas. As Madame continues to talk about her experiences and work, the reporter almost turns into a child listening to a story, rather than asking annoying questions. The reporter is all ears to what Madame has to say. As the reporter listened to what Madame had to say she is taken on an adventure to the secret place of what Madame felt through all those years. The interview is not long, but is intense in the way that Madame describes her experiences. By the end of the interview Madame has taken the reporters picture and now she is part of Madame’s story.

My first reading of this poem made is seem simple and up front, but the more I read it, the more I realized it was not that simple. Madame wants to come across as hard and not amused with others around her. Through this story we see that she is a complicated woman with hurt. The part that I was really surprised by was when she was talking about her husband. She describes his as “a sweet but stupid man”. My first reading of this was to laugh, and then think she was mean for saying such a harsh thing about a man she married. Then I took a step back and it made me think she did not mean it in a harsh way, she just was not right for him. The point that she said he was sweet, and a lawyer meant that he was a good man, I just believe he was to boring for her. I do not believe she meant to say he was stupid intellectually; in fact he was a lawyer. She intended for the word stupid to imply he was dull, annoying, pointless, and tedious. She had an adventurous side to her and she was not okay with doing nothing with her life. She viewed her husband as to simple for her, not as he was intellectually stupid.

I believe this poem is all about misunderstandings. Everyone has their own story and their individual personality. Through this poem we see a woman who followed her heart and fulfilled her destiny. She was a gifted photographer who wanted to enlighten the world. But through this she came across hardships, and at many points people talked down about her work. Not a lot of people understood her work, but many did respect it. She was viewed as different, but whenever people were around her they would get consumed by her, and then her talent could flow. This poem really reminded me that I need to be me, and we need to follow our hearts, not what other people say we need to be. We can see this when the story starts by the reported being consumed with Madame as soon as she sits down with her, the reporter says “her beauty was singular, volcanic, viscous, and inevitable”. The she talks about the war and how she was just floating through life, so she married a man who did not fulfill her, but that was what people told her she needed to do at that point. When she finally decided to follow her heart and invest her time in something she loved, photography. Madame said “no one could say no to me……the woman with the famous eye”. She followed her heart and got the world.

Another aspect that I loved about his poem was that even though maybe a chapter in her life was over, she did not act as though her life was over. As the reporter sat there and listened to her story she took every word in. When Madame decided she had shared enough she pulled out a camera and told the reporter she was going to now taker her picture. Not many times the person being interviewed takes the picture of the reporter. This only solidifies who Madame is, and what the poem represented, no one could say not to her. It was as if her story was always continuing. She was telling about her life, but by the end of it she was adding to the story of her life. This was an important reminder that our lives are never complete. We are always adding to our life story, and experiences. We should never give up on ourselves, we never know who is going to walk through the door and start asking questions about our life, and maybe our story will begin theirs.

Symbolism

Symbolism is an important part of literature. Without it, literature would be missing a certain zest. Symbolism is what creates a picture in our head for us to view. Symbolism is what creates a picture, or can also be a picture. Symbolism is not always illustrated in picture format. Sometimes the reader is responsible to create the symbolism. During the times where the reader creates the picture, it is important for the writer to use a lot of descriptive words to create the vision the world they are trying to create. Other times authors use pictures to show the meaning. So the saying goes ‘a picture is worth a million words’. An author could at times us a picture or symbol to get readers to use their imagination, or to imply something generally assumed by an image. Symbolism can sometimes be a messy situation. Not everyone has the same thought with every symbol. An example like a stop sign often brings the same thought, to stop, but something like a painting of a leaf might bring different thoughts to different people. Maybe the author wants to imply different mysteries for different people. For example an artist rarely explains their painting because they want to viewer to receive the excitement about using their imagination while viewing the painting. Symbolism reminds me of silent movies. These movies solely relied on symbolism and imagery. The director needed to be creative to get the story line consistently across to the viewer. Imagery is a tricky thing, and sometimes people fail when they are presented with an image. And other times and image can mean a few different things. It is important to keep an open mind when looking at objects around us; I believe we will be surprised with what they say to us.

Pass Blog

I will be using this blog as a pass entry.

Waiting For Godot and Seinfeld

Waiting for Godot, Act 1, was an interesting read. By the time I was done reading I thought to myself, ‘what did I just read?’. The story opens up with Vladimir and Estragon trying to get their boots off. These two boys are best friends and have been together for a long time. Their life is simple, as far as the reader can tell thus far. They spend their days stealing, and then waiting for Godot. On the current day they have been waiting for a long time near a tree. The boys seemed bored while they are waiting. Vladimir is playing with his hat, while Estragon tries for a long time to get his boot off. Estragon falls asleep and has a dream. Vladimir wakes him up because he feels lonely. When he wakes up he starts to tell Estragon his dream. Estragon does not want to hear about the dream and Vladimir gets mad and decides they would be better if they were a part. But before long Vladimir comes back and sits with Estragon. The boys can’t figure out what they should do while they are waiting for Godot. One suggests they hang themselves, but then the other says they should just wait for Godot and ask him what they should do. Soon they hear a cry from and the distance and decide to wait and see what id heading their way.

As I was reading this it reminded me of watching an episode of ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Friends’. There was a lot of talking, but nothing really going on. The story was a lot about nothing. The two close friends are defiantly dependent on each other, and cannot do anything without the other being included. For example when one was sleeping the other woke him up, when one was taking off his boot, he wanted the other to help. I am not sure what this story is about yet, hopefully there will be more understanding in the future acts.

Dr. Horrible

Dr. Horrible’s sing along was very interesting to say the least. It was had a drastic spin to a sad story. Most of the story was about this crazy scientist who was crazy about this girl, Penny. He had never talked to her once, and he only knew her from the laundry mat. When he wasn’t at the laundry mat, he was thinking about her in his science lab. He had just gotten the chance to talk to her, when she approached him during one of his secret scientist missions. Due to the fact that he was in the middle of a mission this caused him to appear rude, therefore Penny walked away. Even though she walked away, they were both excited that they had finally talked to each other. As she was walking away Dr. Hammer, Dr. Horrible’s opposer showed up and saved Penny’s life. Although it appeared that Dr. Hammer saved her life, it was really Dr. Horrible. As the story continues there is a constant battle between Dr. Hammer, and Dr. Horrible. Penny thinks she is falling in love with Dr. Hammer, when all he is worried about is sleeping with her and making himself look good. By the end of the story Dr. Horrible shows up to kill Dr. Hammer, but accidentally though a chain of random events, Penny gets killed.

The ending of this story really surprised me. Yes, there was drama though the entire sing along, but I never saw the death of Penny coming. I would not have been so surprised if one of the Dr.’s would have been killed, but Penny did nothing to deserve the death. This made me think of how crazy life is. Dr. Horrible had this elaborate plan to kill Dr. Hammer, but instead, he killed the only women he ever loved. I guess sometimes life just isn’t fair.

A Squirrel and a Tree

"I went to Lake Bonny Park for this assignment, and I stayed there for at least 50 minutes." When I arrived I will be honest, I was frustrated from a busy, crazy day. I started walking around the path just thinking about my day, and everything I had to do later. As I started my walk I was surprised when I squirrel jumped over my head into another tree. I laughed right out loud because it was so cute. That squirrel got me thinking, it seemed not just happy but joyful. It was just minding its own business jumping from tree to tree. It seemed as though it did not have a care in the world, just enjoying life and doing what he wanted. But then I started thinking, what if I was wrong, what if the squirrel was running away from a predator. What if he was right on the brink of death, and not knowing where to run to next? Suddenly, I felt bad for the little squirrel, I could have easily saved him from a predator, but he didn’t know I could help him, if anything the squirrel was afraid of me to.

The next thing I noticed was all the dead trees. I felt like so many of the trees were half barren, and almost as if they were falling apart. But then I looked to the other side of the path and there were plenty of green flourishing plants. I thought it was so strange that in the same place there could be so much life and death. At first it made me sad, to see all the dead trees, but then I thought but what about the life. Why aren’t I rejoicing about the living trees?

These two things; the squirrel and the trees changed my thinking. There is so much we don’t see in life, and don’t understand. We may not always know why a situation is what it is. But we need to be able to see the whole picture and point out the positives and enjoy life for what it brings, not takes away.

Prayer and Sorrow

For this week I have read two more poems and found them very insightful. The first poem was Praying. This poem was beautiful. It took nature and turned it into something religious and spiritual. It referenced how when we pray it can be something simple or easy as weeds in a parking lot, or small stones. This gives a whole new approach to praying. So many times a lot of us are fearful to pray in public because we feel inadequate, or not spiritual enough. We think that the only people who can pray out loud or those who are leaders in the church. This cannot be correct because in fact, Jesus tells us himself to come to him with child-like faith. Child-like faith does not require big words or anything extravagant, it just requires trust. This poem does a great job explaining the simplicity Jesus wants when he asks us to pray. The second poem, The Uses of Sorrow discussed how to take something positive about being in a dark moment. This poem was short, but very to the point. The poem gives off the feel that we all understand what it feels like to receive a dark moment. It even specifies that we can, and often do receive dark gifts from the people we love the most. For me personally it is not that we only receive dark gifts from the ones we love, but these are often the only dark gifts I notice, because I only am hurt when the gift is from someone I love. If a stranger does something mean I almost expect it, but when someone I love hurts me, it crushes me. But then in the second stanza of the poem it discusses how even from our hardest heartbreak we can find the positive from it, something beneficial, or a lesson learned.

Winter

Walking home from Oak-head really spoke to me. I really related to this poem because it reminded me a lot of home, Western New York. When I think of home, I think of snow up to my hips, and wind so cold and chilling it cuts right to the bone. It becomes dark by around 4:00pm in the winter, and most days are started and ended with cloudy dark skies. On the occasional day when the sun does shine, the world seems to be ignited, as the snow glistens. The author is talking about when she is not at home she feels as though she is in the dark place, between the pine trees in the winter. At home in the winter when I am in a snowy pine forest it is so scary and lonely, which is what I believe the author was trying to get across. As the author continues to talk about the winter atmosphere, such as the snow falling, and the slow wind it gives the perfect resemblance of winter. Yes, there are days when the snow is pouring down, but there are also days when everything is just white and it feels as though the earth is still. I think this really represents our faith in Jesus. Some days we feel as though everything is out of control, but other days we feel peace. My favorite part was the end when the poem discusses what it is like to come inside after you have taken a long walk out in the snow and cold. Once you step inside, the snow begins to melt and everything gets warmer. This relates to when you step away from the weathering of life and into the hands of God, he brushes you off and warms you heart.

State of the Planet

The State of The Planet was written for the 50^th anniversary of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory by author and Professor Robert Hass. The Lamont Observatory is an observatory that specializes in the study and research of the earth; they research everything from the core to the outer atmosphere looking for insight and revelation about anything and everything. The scientist’s in the observatory study information, from the past, present and future looking for ways to enhance our planet. Robert was almost overwhelmed when he was presented by the challenge of writing a poem so broad. Then he said he was inspired by the innocence of a girl he saw walking. This poem discusses a lot about our earth and how we as humans are destroying it and taking advantage of all the good it gives to us. The poem discusses specific parts about specific things to enhance our understanding about the intimacy and the detail nature holds. He continues to write about that humans are always looking for ways to take from the earth, as if the earth owes us something. We are always trying to produce more crops from the land, or take more fish out of the water, it is never enough. But in the end what are we giving back, are restoring it as much as we are destroying it? More than a couple times he makes reference as if he is speaking to Lucretius, who was a known philosopher who was consumed with the importance and beauty of the earth and nature. He writes as a plea to him, explaining our current position with how we are treating our planet, and almost asking him for help. He speaks about the science that we have to divide cells, but we are still destroying our planet. We use nature in order to enhance our human bodies, while in the end we become the earth as well. Through this poem I felt a lot of emotion from the writer I felt as though he really had a heart for his work and he wanted to get the urgency across to his reader, which I believe he fulfilled.

Enemy of the People

Enemy of the people was a great play with a great moral stance. I may not have agreed with his final choice, but he does make a stand at the end, and that is more than most people can say. The play starts out by showing a town that makes all their money off precious springs of water. The springs bring many tourists into the town, and are making the town a lot of wealth. The doctor is one of the main characters that make a sad discovery; the town springs have deadly bacteria contaminating them, which is making the town sick. The doctor’s friends, who write the towns newspaper agree with the doctor and decide together they need to publish the information to warn the town. When the doctor’s brother finds out about the discovery he is horrified. The doctor’s brother is the mayor and knows once this discovery is out the town will lose all of their income. The newspapers get threatened by the mayor, and the townspeople turn against the doctor and his family and deem him an enemy of the people. By the end of the play the doctor’s kids have gotten beat up at school, he and his daughter had lost their jobs, and they had been run out of their home, but he refused to leave town. The doctor refuses to give in to the peer pressure and do what is right, he stands by his family and teaches them “the strongest man is the man who stands alone”. I almost do not agree with the moral of the story. I understand the point of it, and see what they are trying to get across. But I do not agree with him keeping his family in the same town, if that water was so dangerous why did he keep his family there. The character I most related to was his daughter. She was a motivated young girl who almost saw the world in right and wrong. She understood what was right, and valued family as a priority. She was often ridiculed with her father as she would support him. She was often the hard head and ready to defend what was right, even when everyone, including her mother was telling her to stay out of it. The common place for a girl was to serve the men of the house, but she saw the importance of her view and stood by it. I also often agree with my father, and we see eye to eye on a lot of things that people often disagree with us on. We understand the world is not a pretty thing, and take it head on.

Lolita

Lolita was probably the weirdest book I have ever read. Never before had I read a book where someone had been so open about fantasizing about little girls. When I was interested in the book it was referenced as a tragic comedy, I never expected how it ended up. The book was full of twists and turns and I was defiantly always surprised with what happened next. The book started out with a man in love with this young girl but then she died and he got married to try and get rid of his love for young girls. When his marriage failed to fulfill the purpose he had intended, he ended up being in love with young girls again. He ended up at a cottage over the summer and a young girl and her mother living there. Throughout the summer he fell in love with this girl, Lolita. Suddenly her mother decided she was going to go to summer camp for the remainder of the summer. Humbert was heart broken when he found this out because he would be gone by the time she returned from summer camp. Humbert decided in order to remain close to Lolita he would marry her mother, who he cannot stand. When his new wife finds his journal about how he is obsessing about Lolita she was furious and in her tantrum got hit by a car while she was fleeing from the house. Humbert drove to the summer camp to explain to Lolita what tragedy had occurred. When he arrived he took her to a hotel to explain what happened and he claimed she seduced him. After they left the hotel they traveled the country for a year they eventually settled down where he got a teaching job and she started to attend school. Humbert was afraid people are stalking them and that she was being unfaithful to her. Lolita became very ill and Humbert took her to the hospital where she fled with another man. By the end of the story Lolita was left pregnant without a man, and Humbert heart broken in jail.

This story was really crazy for me to read. Lolita started off weird and ended with my mind spinning in circles. I am not sure if I would recommend it to anyone, because it was a little disturbing. The book really helped to identify literature for me. There were a lot of words that I was not familure with and the author defiantly had a specific purpose with everything he wrote.

A Snowy Funeral

No one knew funerals could be so revealing. In this cold, snowy ground laid a girl no one ever knew. Sure, plenty of people thought they knew her, even her husband thought he had revelations about her, but he never knew her entirely. The truth was, no one knew her. The only person who knew the truth was her journal and now me. At the funeral I was not alone; I was surrounded by hundreds of others. Everyone had their own story about this girl. Everyone had some memory, but none were the truth. As we all sat there on the freezing February afternoon crying and staring at the bitter white face of Joy. She looked so peaceful, so at ease, not a care in world. I was wondering if she was watching from heaven now, if she could see everyone who would miss her, and all the tears that were spilt over her. One by one people left, and soon it was just me and her best friend; her husband and her journal. I stroked her blond hair and her white cold face. She was wearing her favorite dress, a simple white cotton dress that covered her like a gown. The white cotton gauze dress wrapped her so delicately; it summed her up so well. She, like the dress was simple, and easy, always willing to go where the wind pushed or pulled her, just like this dress. I wondered how someone so beautiful could die so soon. She was not only beautiful on the outside she was just as pure in the inside. I wondered if she would be mad at me. I remember her telling me in college while we were still engaged, she wanted to be cremated and scattered on the beach. Oh she loved the beach, and she looked like she had been born for the purpose of living on the beach. As soon as I would park the car she would hit the pavement running until she made it to the sand. Then she would walk so softly across the sand like she was walking on clouds, her eyes closed with a smile on her face, every hair on her body would be standing on end with excitement, and anyone could see her spirit come alive. She used to explain to me that the ocean waves were like her heart, so powerful, strong, and consistent, so beautiful, capable of anything if people would just let it take its course. No, I do not think she would be mad, just disappointed; disappointed because she always was trying to embed her love for the beach into me as well. She would succeed when I was with her, but when she was gone I had no desire for the beach. It is just not the same without her; to me the beach comes alive when she is on it. Her smile makes the sun shine on the beach for me; it was not the sound of the seagulls, but the sound of her laughter on the beach that brought me coming back. Everything is grey without her, even the beach.

One thing I know she would be mad about is me reading her journal, this is a fact. She used to protect it with all her might. When she would walk in and I would be holding it she would scream like bloody murder and violently grab it from me. Then she would run to the corner of the room with anger and horror in her eyes, still spitting words of anger at me. Her eyes would turn to fire and she quickly became larger than me as I sat wilting on the bed. I never read one word of the journal; sometimes I would just hold it and stare because it was so magnificent to her. IT was her, everything she couldn’t tell me, it was there, everything she thought, even if she didn’t mean it, it was in the journal. But the real reason I loved the journal was because it made her so mad. You see, in every area she was such a peaceful creature, except for when it came to this journal, and I loved seeing that. I loved to see her angry, as horrible as it sounds, but that was my precious Joy. When she would burn with frustration you could see her neck begin to turn red then it would run into her face, and her face would become red, then her eyes would squint as if she was getting ready to shoot someone with a laser. The anger was so raw, so particular, and so passionate. That was Joy in one word if I had to say it, passionate. She even slept with passion. So many times in the middle of the night I would wake up from her yelling about saving people, or not getting enough work done. She was always thinking about other people and how to help them, even in her dreams. Dreams are a funny thing, they are usually so unrealistic, so unimaginable except for the one dreaming them. Well my friends, not for my love. Her dreams were her reality. The funny thing was she turned everything into a dream, and then succeeded at it. She said it was her dream to go to college, she did it, it was her dream to marry me, she did it, she said it was her dream to drive a motorcycle, she of course did it, once she even claimed it was her dream to open 25 orphanages all in different countries, and that little women did it. Of course she gave 100% of her one dream to me, to be scattered on a beach, and I couldn’t do it. I was the one man standing in her way of fulfilling her last dream. It makes me want to cry but I know what she wouldn’t want me to. She would cuddle me in her skinny, tan arms, and hum love songs to me that I would sing to her in college. She would laugh softly and calm me and I would stare into her loving blue eyes, and feel her smooth face. She was always so peaceful, always so calm, always so loving. Why did my love have to leave me, now we are no longer on her golden sun beach, but she is now sleeping forever in this cold, snowy ground.

Venturing into the world of reading Lit

When Professor Corrigan instructed us to find a literary book and read it at first I was confused. I did not understand what the difference was between a normal book and a literary book. So I started my search by looking at the list he gave us online and looking the books up in the library. Soon enough I found out what all the books had in common, they were all hard to understand. It took me several books to finally find one that I felt I could read. I found the book, took it off the shelf and begin to read it, then five minutes later realized I had no idea what it was saying. After finally finding Lolita, a book that grabbed my attention in the first paragraph, I decided this was going to be my literary book to read.

Much to my surprise the book was nothing like I expected, or nothing like the reviews I had read for it. As I started reading I got about five pages into the book and realized I was already lost, this was not a good sign. I could not read this literary book like a normal book. I had to read it slow, and read and understand each word and what the author was meaning. I soon realized there was a lot more meaning and depth to this literary book that a normal entertaining read. At times it was really hard for me to understand and I would find myself lost in the words, but not like a good lost, like a confused lost. Many times I would find myself reading sentences more than once trying to understand what the author was implying.

I have a lot more to look forward in reading this book. One thing it does not lack is surprises. Many times I find myself gasping at what I read and looking around, hoping no one is watching me read this book. If you are not sure why I should be embarrassed about reading this book, maybe you should pick up a copy and read it for yourself.

Movie Night Questions

A.

The movie began like every other fairytale move out there. A perfect town, in a perfect world, where everyone thought nothing could ever go wrong. Everything was in harmony, animals and humans lived in peace and it was always sunny. One day on the best day of the year “Soup Day” a tragedy occurred, the queen died by means of a rat! Due to the kings sorrow he band all soup and all mice and rats. After this all of the mice and rats were summoned to underground to live in separate worlds and became enemies. In the mouse world a mouse named Desperaux was born very different and courageous. Even though he had positive attributes, because he was different he was seen as a threat and banished to the rat world. While he was there he also escaped to the outside world and met the princess and from there on dedicated his life to making her happy and to protect her. Little did he know his success would affect more than just the queen.

B.

Roscuro- static and round. He was a old, skinny, feebish old rat. The viewers saw him as sweet and kind hearted.

Despereaux- static and round. He was the hero, young, vibrant; everyone could relate to, cute voice, meant no harm to anyone.

Miggery Sow- flat and dymanic. Ugly, sad, sweet heart but got over looked by princess, made audience feel sorry for her

Princess Pea- Flat and dymanic. Pretty, sad, everyone felt sorry for her, she felt no real purpose.

C.

1. The movie deals with a lot of real life situations that are hard to bring up in a children’s movie, but this film handled it nicely. For example with death, it showed sorrow, but then it also expressed that it can be overcome, but it is difficult. By using the main character it showed that not everyone has to be the same, we need to use our differences to better the world. I also liked the aspect that they showed poverty, but they did not get happy when they got wealth, they were joyous that the sun came back, and that life was good again.

2. The film had a lot of good morals that were expressed. The main value was that everyone is different, and everyone has something to contribute and offer, even if people do not see it right away. Another important message was to never settle for what society is telling you how one need to be, we need to be ourselves, and be true to it. Another positive I liked was that they used his punishment; his banishment, as a good thing.

CHARACTER

The characterization in a story is often over looked but is usually a vital part of any literature story. I had never really thought about the importance of the characters until this recent class period. I guess I had always just assumed there were great characters in every story. But in reality it takes a lot to establish a round character. In my opinion it takes a lot of work and explaining in order for a reader to get on the same page as the author when it comes to establishing a character. As an author, one often wants the reader to have a complete understanding of the character in order to understand the purpose of the story. But also, sometimes the lack of knowing a character can add to the story as well. Sometimes in literature an author will reveal very little about a character, but include them in a lot of dialogue. Sometimes I appreciate this kind of work, because it’s like a suspense trying to establish the character with your own mind. But then, in the end the author is still creating the character for you because they lead you through the story and lead you to form what you are thinking.

So as we can see characters in literature often seem up front and obvious, but many times we need to look a little deeper and try and see the character the author is trying to create for us. The characters in literature often revel more than just one layer of information, they often relate to the plot, and story. So, if we have little understanding of the characters, we can probably bet we have little understanding of the story. After thinking about the importance of character I will now begin to notice the importance as I read.

the secrets of poem reading

Often as a student I grow weary of reading poems, stories, and books. After a while I forget to see the meaning in a text, and just desire to finish the reading. Even now enjoyable reads seem to be a chore because our world is filled with so much reading. When I was younger I had such a passion for reading, and school has seemed to destroy that with all the reading. The “How to read a poem” reading really helped me understand how to read with a purpose, and understand poems more.

In the reading it hit the head right on the nail. It started out saying that as readers we often read a poem only once and then try and decipher what the writer is trying to get across. Often we get frustrated because poems are written abnormally and we wish to see a straight forward meaning from them. We need to understand a few things before we jump to assumptions. One of the suggestions in the reading was to read a passage out loud more than once. Hearing the poem will help hear the rhythm, words, density, and emotion. Another tip for an inexperienced reader would be to be patient and observant while reading. One should be open to surprises, exciting revelations, and take time to pause and linger on the words. Many times readers try and pick out a specific meaning for a passage but often times one should go in with an open mind. Often authors do have a specific meaning in mind, but they do not expect their reader to decipher every hidden meaning. Poems are claimed to be a “vacuum” and “open to interpretation” but then why do we try to decipher them and lack the abstract way of thinking about them. This passage has showed me a new way to look at poems, not as straight on, but from every angle imaginable. Perhaps there is no wrong way of interpreting a poem.

joel paintin

The book of Joel is a very emotional pulling book. It talks about destruction, love, peace, and so many other emotions. The book was impactful because it was real life. Joel was proclaiming these words to warn and teach the people what God was trying to communicate with them. The major parts of Joel that stood out to me were the parts about devastation, hurt, starvation, and judgment. Yes, Joel spoke about how the Lord’s people will be protected and set apart. But the world will be invaded and destroyed. The Lord was sending this message through Joel as a warning to the world.

My painting was not a portrait or illustration of a scene from Joel but more of an emotion of Joel. Because the book had so many words of destruction and darkness that was the overall feeling it gave to me. In my picture it is a little hard to tell exactly what I was trying to specify due to the fact that I was working with limited colors, and that it was scanned in black in white. But in my painting I used fire like colors to express Jesus and his power coming to the earth. Then I drew a center to line to show his spirit crossing the earthy line. Then after it crosses the earth line it devastates the green grass and over comes the earth. I used the mutation of the color for the line to show the impact of the God’s spirit, and how Gods spirit totally takes over any space that it encounters. God’s glory will always change an atmosphere and curve it to how God desires it to be. Doing this painting really brought a more impactful way of looking at a specific line in a book. I was using my painting to exhibit the line “The Lord will be zealous for his land”. I believe my painting helped show the power that God has for something or someone that he loves.

saying Joel to the Lake

The lake experience on Tuesday was very interesting. When we read the story of Joel it seems like just another book of the Bible. When we had to read it for homework, I read it out of the Bible. While reading it out of the Bible it was choppy and did not flow very well. I did not really get any impactful revelation from reading it. Then I read the pdf file and it seemed more like a piece of literature. While reading Joel from the pdf it flowed and made more sense. It helped me realize that the Bible is a piece of literature, not just the Bible. Often we think of the Bible as Gods word to us, not as literature, but indeed it is literature.

While reading Joel outside to nature it brought a whole new element. Just like reading Joel without the scripture references brought a new aspect, so did reading it out loud outside. Reading it outside brought a new element because it helped you to understand and focus on the rawness of what Joel was trying to tell the people. I specifically enjoyed the reading it out loud part of it. I am not going to lie I was not yelling it, I was barely saying it out loud but I still understood the point of it. There was a huge difference between reading it to oneself and saying it out loud. While reading it out loud it helped one to understand the authority and urgency that Joel was trying to get across. The words almost seemed to come alive and held new meaning. Hearing it also helped me to understand the context of the entirety, and the book as a whole.

So many times when we read the Bible we just read a couple of verses. We think we get the complete understanding, but we often just get a little snippet of what was meant to be understood. This exercise showed me that we should take the time to read the entire book of the Bible as a piece of literature, not just verse.

blog 7- cemetery

The trip to the cemetery last week was a lot more impactful than I expected it to be. When we first arrived I felt cheery and kind of confused why we were there. Then a fellow student commented on my attire, which was a brightly colored shirt. She mentioned how it did not really fit the mood very well. This comment really got my brain going and it made me realize the rawness of a cemetery and death. When I first arrived I did not really get the point of the whole exercise, but that soon changed when we started class.

At first I was just walking around reading all the headstones at the cemetery and not really thinking about any of it. Then I started thinking about the poem we had just read and the heaviness of it. There was so much heartache and pain in the words. The author seemed not only as if someone else had died but also as if a part of him died. That made me start thinking of all the people in the cemetery, all of the people who had died. They all had people who loved them, who knew them, who missed them. Each headstone was a resemblance of someone who was once on this earth, breathing and living, and now gone. There were so many headstones, some young, some old, but all were gone. On some of the headstones the names and dates were no longer visible, and it made me wonder if anyone remembered that person, or were they just lost now.

We often think of death in a nonchalant way, but this trip brought a new light. After I died, and was buried in the ground would people remember me? Would anyone remember me if my headstone no longer showed my name and date? What do we have to do to make an impact that will last far beyond our headstones?

blog 6

Walt Whitman's poem 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' was a really sad story. I am usually pretty positive with Whitman's works, but this one I was not a fan about. The whole thing is dark, gloomy, and dreadful. When I first read through the poem the first time, I did not really get anything out of it, and did not understand it. But then the second time I felt as though I had a better understanding, but I realized how sad it really was.

The whole story is about death,and the power it has. Whitman does a great job one expressing how such a beautiful thing can seem so broken and cold. He often refers to the lilac, and spring time, which is supposed to be a joyous time. Sprig time is when new things come to life,but Whitman uses it to express death, and loss.

He made it a point to expresses every point of a funeral, and death. He speaks about death as if he had just lost someone he cared about very deeply. He specifies every painful moment about a funeral. Even the aspects that a normal person would not recognize, only a person who just loss someone very dear to them.

At some points of the story it seems as though he is not only mourning for himself, but expressing mourning for a group of people. Throughout the poem he did a great job in referring to things that everyone could relate to; to understand the reference,but to also especially, particularly to the person whom the poem was about.Whitman used so much imagery and reference, that it was very easy to paint a picture in your head of the image he was trying to create.

blog 5

The five poems we read over in class had very interesting meanings behind them. They all seemed a little dark to me but all had a message they were trying to get across. Story number five my Mary Oliver called After Death and From Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot were my two favorite choices. They both discussed the darkness that the world feels. They both spoke about how people in the world felt like they were sad, alone and no hope. But all of the stories had some glisten of hope. This glisten of hope was not specified, but it a Christian was reading it, they would know which the hope was referring to, Jesus.

Out of all five stories I preferred the Four Quartets. Some found this story a little hard to follow but I really believe is it the true journey of a human. Throughout the story it discusses how everything in life comes to an end, everything has a dark side. The aspect that I appreciated about it was the feeling that it gave about how once everything was quiet it was a bad thing. It gave the illusion that once the business and noise was gone there was emptiness in the silence. Towards the end it talked about hope, and how all hope is lost until you bring in some key factors. The key factors were faith, and love. The poem said without one you cannot have the other, but once you had one, the others would come. It said that once you had these factors the silence and the dark were no longer a bad thing, but brought in dancing and celebration. This is a perfect example on how when Jesus comes into our lives he brings a new element that nothing in this world can create.

blog 4

Theme plays an important role in all literature. Theme must be present in poems, stories, art, songs and any other form of literature. The theme gives the story depth and meaning, but it cannot consist of a sentence it must be felt throughout the entire piece. It does more than just summarize the literature, it gives off the feeling, but not directly, it leaves some responsibility to the reader. The audience needs to try and see what the director is portraying, and make sense of all the information combined.
The theme is not a specific line in the story that everything else builds from, but rather it is more of a thesis throughout the entire. There are many tools that an author can use to help get the theme across. Some authors use strong statements, others use description, while still others use color or music. Whichever tool the author decides to use they must make sue it serves the purpose to the audience.
While searching for the theme in literature it is important not to lose the rest of the story. Even though the theme is ultimate message, the content of the story is just as important. The content is what makes the theme so important.The content is what brings the theme of the literature to life.
What makes themes great in literature is that sometimes they are not what the audience wants. As an author one has the power to direct the story any way they want. In directing a piece of literature they have the power to direct a story any way they want. This makes us as an audience, to any piece of literature, subject to it. Whichever way the author leads us, we must always follow. So next time you are reading a piece of literature beware of where it might take you.

blog 3

This story was a sad war time experience about a group of soldiers deep in the heart of Vietnam. The story starts off speaking of all the different things that the individual men carried with them. Most of the accessories are due to protection and survival,but it also seems like everyone carries something personal to keep them motivated, and a reason to live. The soldiers all carried weapons according to their style, some carried big guns, and others carried grenades, while others carried machetes.
The story was sad in the aspect that they all operated like machines and without a heart. But their personal items symbolized a human part of them. It showed that they were all hurting and struggling and needed something substantial to keep them going. My brother is in the army and can testify to this. He always tells us how the military is constantly reminding them that they are property of the arms and they have nothing. So in the story these men's personal items are all they have to remind thy who they were as a person.
I believe in the story the men had to keep in a mental state were they were not vulnerable. They all feel emotion, but they had learned to deny it. Only when they pulled out their personal item did they allow themselves to get lost in the person or people they loved. They often found themselves lost in the one they loved and lost focus of the war. The story represents that in war there is nothing concrete, nothing to ensure tomorrow. And everyone needed something to hold on to, something to promise and convince them that there were going to be out of there alive, even thought they rarely escaped the battlefield.

blog 2

While reading the story about love it brought many interesting and contrasting opinions to myself. While reading early on in the text I understood that the conversation started out heavy and they wer drinking but not drunk. As the conversation went on about love, they became more drunk, and the conversation became more free. The interesting aspect was the different view points that each different person brought up and added to the conversation.

Each different person had a different experience with love. Some had bad experiences, others had positive. But every person had the same underlying opinion on love, it makes one do crazy things, and act out of the norm. For the one couple it caused him to try and murder his wife, then kill himself. For the other couple it caused them to say things and take actions towards eachother that they would never say or do to anyone other than the one they love.

One difference that the story held was if love was a choice or not. I believe when the author was referring to the old couple, they had made a choice to love each other for all those years and when they were now apart, they chose to miss eachother. But the story about the man who tried to kill his wife I think had no choice in it. He could not let her go, or forget about her. Like the saying goes 'he was crazy about her', I truly believe he was.

Love is complicated and as the story shows every couple shows it differently. Love has an effect on every person, especially when alcohol is in the same picture. The more honest people become about love the crazier it sounds. We should never under estimate the power that love has over us.

blog 1

My earliest memory of literature would probably go back to kindergarten. My parents always read to us as children , but I do not specifically recall any memory of literature. Kindergarten started my love for reading.I loved reading in kindergarten and I would often cut other children off in class because I wanted to read not only my part, but theirs. I quickly got pushed up into the higher standard reading classes. I loved going to the library and borrowing books and bringing them home and reading them to my younger brothers. The one specific memory I have of reading is checking out a book about a young Spanish boy named Pedro who would help his dad in the fields. I am not sure why I loved the book so much but I must have borrowed it countless times and read it to my younger brother as least twenty times.
My most recent experience of literature was in high school with a literature class. We read a lot of different kinds of literature and it really opened my eyes to different variations of expression. We read a lot of Shakespeare, and many various old authors, whom I do not remember.
The most significant text that I have ever read was The Waldon, by Thoreau. I had to read The Waldon in high school, and it was like a revelation to me. I loved how he looked at every aspect of life and analyzed it. Yes, there were a lot of points that were really scattered, but the point that he took the time to see the value in everything and absorbed the world around him was really impressive to me.
Literature does not really have a strong importance in my immediate life. I do think it does have value in the sense that it holds historic meaning, and it brings new perspective to new and old situations. Literature can hide a deep meaning, but yet share such obvious meaning. Literature should show a high appreciation but many people choose to not see it or value what it does have to offer.