Rachel's Blog

Read: Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees”

In this poem, there is a lot of figurative language. The part where she says “I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree” is a simile. She uses personification when she says “A tree whose hungry mouth” because trees don’t have mouths and they can’t be hungry. And also when she says “the earth’s sweet flowing breast.” The whole poem pretty much is made up of figurative language. There is only one simile but the rest is personification. I like the lines of this poem because I like how it is giving all of these human qualities to a tree. It sounds really peaceful and it’s very nice to read. There were a few words that I didn’t know though. The word that I didn’t know was prest. It’s a pretty simply poem though and the words are pretty easy to understand. The sentences are pretty long in syntax because it’s pretty much just long sentences. The sentence structure is the same throughout. There are two lines in each stanza and the rhyme pattern is AA, BB, CC, DD, EE, FF.

Rachel Bernstein

October 18, 2011

Blog Post

“Rain” by Edward Thomas

I didn’t really understand this whole poem at first. He’s describing rain in a metaphorical way- that it cleanses not just the outside but the inside too. I think it also was talking about love and how he doesn’t feel loved. He repeats the word “solitude” a lot. I think he’s describing rain in a sad way. I think that he’s saying that when it rains it reminds him of people he’s lost, and that he’s now alone just watching the rain. He uses a simile when he says “Like a cold water among broken reeds.” He’s saying that the rain can’t fix what’s broken. He’s not just talking about the broken reeds but maybe he’s also talking about a broken heart or people he’s lost or people that have died. The first two lines where he says “Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me” I can picture it really well. I see a small home and he’s looking outside a window and all he can see is the darkness and the rain. This description affects my view on what the poem is going to be like because it is the first line of the poem, and when I think of rain, I think of it being dark, gloomy, ugly and sad. This foreshadowed the rest of the poem because it was a pretty dark poem. The line “Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff” sounds interesting to me because they help me, the reader, visualize what he’s describing better and relate it to the other parts of the poem. The sentences are pretty long and fairly complex. The diction isn’t hard, but there were a few words that I didn’t know.  I’m glad that the words weren’t too difficult because it had a better effect on my reading and understanding of it. After I read the poem the first time, I didn’t understand it that well but now that I’ve read over it several times it’s becoming more clear to me. The effect created by all that I have noticed is that he sees rain as something that will happen on good days and on bad, and that it keeps going regardless of what else is happening in the world.

Read: Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Dream Within A Dream”

I don’t really understand this poem very much, but the way its phrased is really neat sounding. Some unfamiliar words are avow and amid. The word pitiless is an interesting way to describe a wave, and I don’t think I would ever choose that word but it fits well with the rest of the text and in the context of the poem. I also like the image of the golden sand that he describes. Some figurative language is “hope has flown away” because it’s not a physical object that can fly, but I still like the meaning that it portrays. The phrase “a surf-tormented shore” also stands out to me. I’ve noticed alliteration- stand amid the road of a surf-tormented shore, grains of golden sand, while I weep. The stanzas don’t have the same amount of lines in them. There is rhyming all throughout (usually A A B B C C…). In syntax, the sentences vary from being short and long, but most of them are rather long. In general, the diction isn’t too complex but there are a few words that I wasn’t familiar with. All the lines are pretty much the same length. The image that he created with his description of the beach with the sand and the waves stood out to me because I could picture it really well. The effect of his lines all being about the same length and his rhyming pattern makes it easier to connect the lines together and find the meaning of what he’s saying. He uses figurative language and detailed descriptions to give the effect of a dream, which is what his whole poem is about. It’s written in first person and he seems to be talking to himself more than to the reader or anyone else, so the effect of doing that is maybe because he is trying to answer the question himself- is it a dream within a dream? He wrote this the way he did to help the reader get the feeling of the images and details that he described, and so that they have an effect on the reader too.

Rachel Bernstein

September 14, 2011

English Blog Post

Read: Maya Angelou’s “Alone”

There’s a lot of repetition in this poem. There is also a lot of rhyming throughout the poem. After most stanzas, she follows it with “Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody Can make it out here alone.” This repetition adds a lot of meaning to the poem because it’s something that she’s emphasizing and it makes her meaning clearer for the reader to understand. She has really good imagery and figures of speech in this poem: “how to find my soul a home”, “where water is not thirsty”, “to cure their hearts of stone.” These are basically saying that most people are lost and need to find a place or a person that makes them more comfortable. Her meaning and phrasing of it makes a lot of sense to me and I really can relate to what she’s talking about. In syntax form, the poem doesn’t read as well or send as strong of a message. The sentences are particularly long when it’s in syntax. In general the diction is lowbrow but that doesn’t mean that what she’s saying is simple.

Langston Hughes’ “Life Is Fine”

There is again lots of repetition in the poem. In each stanza, he’s talking about a different situation but in the same format. At the end of each stanza, he says a common line that’s pretty much the same except for a few different words. There’s also repetition throughout the poem. There aren’t really any specific figures of speech, but the poem as a whole I think is kind of a metaphor. I doubt he literally jumped in a cold river, but the point of what he’s saying is that life will be hard at times, but you get through them because life itself is worth living for. I really like the last line of the poem that says “Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!” because it just shows how great life is. I also like the line “But for livin’ I was born” because it means that even though times can get hard, you shouldn’t sacrifice your life because of them because you were born to live. The syntax makes the sentences pretty short and simple. The diction is very simple but the overall meaning is something that takes reading the poem a few times to understand it. The structure is pretty much the same for the whole poem. The number of lines in each stanza is the same and the length of the lines are all basically the same.

William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”

He worded this to make it sound really pretty and give it a lot of imagery. I like how he describes the daffodils as “golden” and “a host.” His descriptive details like “fluttering and dancing in the breeze” and “Tossing their heads in sprightly dance” make it really easy to picture. He has a lot of figurative language. Some phrases that stood out to me are “they stretched in never-ending line” and “dances with the daffodils.” A simile is the first line and the title of the poem, “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” His point in this poem is that when you’re lonely, you don’t need other people to make you feel like you’re not alone. He saw these flowers as beautiful and they made him feel less alone. The sentences are pretty long in syntax, and the diction is not easy, but not fairy difficult. There is rhyming throughout the whole poem and the structure is the same- there are 6 lines per stanza, and the line length is about the same for each line.

Blog Entry #1

Read: Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice”

The words “desire” and “destruction” sound good in context of the poem. The phrase “tasted of desire” gives good imagery and is very descriptive. Another phrase “I think I know enough of hate” shows his views on himself. In syntax form it reads like sentences and makes it clearer to understand what he is saying. Even though the poem sounds/looks simple, after reading it a few times you can really see the complexity and beauty of his poetry. The diction is not very highbrow but the way that it’s phrased makes the words sound more complex. There’s only one stanza. Rhyme scheme throughout the poem. It isn’t consistent but all of the last words rhyme with another line. The line length varies from line to line.

Emily Dickinson’s “There Is Another Sky”

Words like “serene” give specific imagery to the sky she’s describing. She says “Austin” so maybe she’s telling this story to a sibling or young child. Her descriptions are really clear and pretty like “silent fields” and “unfading flowers.” Uses “be” instead of “is” in line 4 which sounds better as poetry but not as a sentence. The phrase “there is another sunshine, though it be darkness there” jumps out because its unusual sounding. In syntax form the sentences are really long and fairly complex because there are so many descriptions. The diction is fairly lowbrow except for the word “prithee” and it’s not used very often. It does rhyme but not a consistent pattern. There is meter throughout. All lines are about the same length.

Rachel Bernstein

Fallon

English II

12 April 2011

Henry David Thoreau Web-quest

1. Who was Henry David Thoreau?
   1. When did he live?
      1. He lived from 1817 to 1862.
   2. Why is he famous?
      1. He is famous for his perseverance in protesting against slavery, and his thoughts on it are expressed in his works Walden and Civil Disobedience.
2. What is Walden?
   1. When was it published?
      1. Walden was published in 1854.
   2. Why is it important?
      1. It is important because he brought up many brilliant points and people were very fond of his ideas and how he expressed them in writing.
   3. Where does the title come from?
      1. The title comes from Walden Pond in Massachusetts.
3. Find three opinions about Thoreau—preferably from people you have heard of.
   1. “He is as ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and rustic, though courteous manners, corresponding very well with such an exterior. But his ugliness is of an honest and agreeable fashion, and becomes him much better than beauty.” -Nathaniel Hawthorne
   2. “I cannot help counting it a fault in him that he had no ambition.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
   3. “Thoreau’s thin, penetrating, big-nosed face, even in a bad woodcut, conveys some hint of the limitations of his mind and character. With his almost acid sharpness of insight, with his almost animal dexterity in act, there went none of that large, unconscious geniality of the world’s heroes.” -Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Find one “fun fact” about Thoreau.
   1. Some people in Concord of 1845 believed that Thoreau was a stealer of pies.

Rachel Bernstein

Luongo

English

1 February 2011

“The Rake: A Few Scenes from My Childhood” by David Mamet

1. Mamet describes several scenes from his childhood in this essay, only one of which involves a rake. Why, then, does he entitle the piece “The Rake”?

He entitles the piece “The Rake” because his incident with the rake was very similar to every other incident that he mentioned. The piece is about making mistakes and  having to deal with their consequences, and the rake symbolizes that all together. His first example of this was when his sister didn’t eat her dinner, and therefore their mother wouldn’t let her go to her play performance. Then, after her stepfather abuses her she was still forced to go to school and pretend that she was fine. You learn that the mother’s childhood was similar to the way that Mamet’s sister grew up- they both dealt with abuse and neglect. The rake was the final example of how Mamet was forced to make others suffer, like his sister, because of his own wrong doings. “The Rake” is the title of the book because the story of it is an overview for the idea of how not only he and his sister grew up, but his mother as well.

1. What is the tone of Mamet’s essay? How does it compare to the tone of E.B. White’s essay?

The tone of Mamet’s essay was calm and descriptive, but not quite as descriptive as E.B. White’s. It was right in the middle of “The Bath”, which wasn’t detailed at all, and “Once More to the Lake”, which was very elaborate and illustrative. Since the memories that Mamet told were not all ones that he experienced himself, it differs in that way from White’s. In White’s piece, he told a personal anecdote about the connection of the lake with his childhood as well as his adulthood. The majority of the stories that Mamet told were about his sister, so he couldn’t be as descriptive as White anyway because he didn’t actually experience most of them. Also, since he told several different memories, he couldn’t spend all his writing on just details. White’s piece was about one memory in specific- the lake, which is why he could elaborate more on it. Their pieces were both similar and different from each other.

Rachel Bernstein

Luongo

28 January 2011

English

“Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White Blog Post

1. How does E.B. White’s style differ from Raymond Carver’s? Do you think E.B. White could have written the same story in Carver’s minimalist style? Why or why not?

E.B. White’s style is very different from Raymond Carver’s. Carver’s “minimalist” style was non descriptive and he didn’t spend a long time talking about a single detail. White’s however, was extremely detailed and specific. Because White’s story was him telling about a past memory, giving details was necessary to get the feel of how he felt. Therefore, this story would not have been as good had he written the same story in Carver’s minimalist style. The details that he provided for this story were very helpful in grasping his feelings and the scenes which he described. I prefer this style of writing over Carver’s because it’s more visual and entertaining. Especially with a story like this in which the author is reflecting on something, the intense descriptions and details that he provided were definitely necessary in understanding the story.

1. What does E.B. White’s description of his summer vacation tell us about the perfect family?

White’s description of his summer tells us that no matter where you are or when its happening, being in a familiar place with your family makes time or place irrelevant. He kept saying how when he went back as an adult with his son, he realized that his son was just like he was, and he is just like his father. The father-son relationship in this story is a true example of the perfect family because they’re so comfortable and content with everything. He pointed out the differences between when he was a boy and when he was an adult, but at the end, he still said “Everywhere we went I had trouble making out which was I, the one walking at my side, the one walking in my pants” (274). His descriptions of the camp are so vivid that he makes life there seem so perfect and untroubled. The reminder of his own childhood when seeing his son shows how the perfect family can be anywhere and at any time.

Rachel Bernstein

Luongo

26 January 2011

English

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates Blog Post

1. In depicting the character of Connie, Oates writes, “everything about her had two sides to it: one for home and one for anywhere that was not home . . .” What are Connie’s two sides? How do they compare to one another?

Connie’s two sides are her outgoing, friendly, happy side that is present when she’s out with her friends, and then her unpleasant, disagreeable side that comes out when she’s around her mother or other family members that disapprove of her. Since she was always second to her sister, she felt like she didn’t owe anything to her family. Even though she had more to offer than her sister June, like that she was prettier, her mom was always more proud of her sister. Since Connie was always focused on boys and her appearance, she friendly side comes out when she wants to seem cool and happy when out with her friends. These two sides compare because she always wanted to seem happy with her friends and didn’t care much about her family, but when Arnold Friend came around, she immediately stopped caring about herself and was worried that he would do something to her family. Her two sides, though appearing so different from each other at first, were completely switched when she was in an uncomfortable situation.

1. What kind of commentary on family life does this story make?

This story makes family life seem more important than anything else. This is because if Connie were to have gone to the barbeque with her family, she would never have been in that situation with Arnold Friend. She continued to show how uninterested she was with her mom or family, but this shows that she really did care about them once Arnold threatened to harm them. It’s typical of a teenager to not want to be close to their family, but deep down there’s usually always care and love there. Even though her mother and father should have paid more attention to her and shouldn’t have made her feel so useless most of the time, she still showed that they meant something to her. Family is a prominent characteristic of a modern American lifestyle.

Rachel Bernstein

Luongo

25 January 2011

English

“The Bath” by Raymond Carver Blog Questions

1. Carver is known for his “minimalist” style, a style that presents only the essentials of a story in simple, straight-forward prose. How does this style affect the overall feel of the piece?

Because of Carver’s “minimalist” style, the overall feel for the piece is very honest and bare. The story is told in an honest and direct tone showing no emotion, even though the story itself is rather harsh. The feel for the book seems kind of monotonous because it’s not expressing any feelings or expressions. Since he does have a very straightforward way of writing, it kind of takes away from the story and makes it less interesting. The way he describes people or situations is very to the point. Without any anticipation or suspense, I as a reader found it harder to get into the essay.

1. How does “The Bath” characterize the modern American family?

“The Bath” characterizes the modern American family as imperfect. The “American Dream” makes America seem like a perfect place where nothing goes wrong. This story gave a realistic perspective of the life of a modern American family. The tone of this essay made it seem more real and straightforward since it was so direct and without any specific emotion. It showed the meaning of family in America, and the fear and worry that is there once a family member is harmed. This story started out with a perfect family but ended up showing tragedy and misfortune. The perfect mom was picking up a cake for her son’s birthday, but once he got hit by a car, everything else went wrong. “The Bath” showed not only what’s on the surface and what America is seen as, but how families react to the unpredictability of modern American life. This story showed the reality in America and the importance of family.