by reillyr2013 on October 30, 2011 at 8:40 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The Winter Evening Settles Down- T.S. Eliot
Imagery- The whole poem really is imagery; for example “With smell of steaks in passageways. . . The burnt out ends of smoky days” This phrase makes the reader feel like they’re in an industrial city with all of the smoke, and definitely not a rich city either. This is suggested when Eliot uses the word “grimy” to describe the scraps of leaves on the street. The poem seems to depict a run-down but still functional industrialized city except for the last line of the poem which is “And then the lighting of the lamps.” which suggests hope for the city during the day. Somewhat odd rhyme scheme, The first three lines don’t rhyme-ABC, but then it starts to have a consistent patter of ABABAB after those first couple lines.This poem is relatively lowbrow making the poem focus on certain words that everyone knows, so the reader can have a common idea with the rest.
The Eagle- Lord Tennyson Alfred
Rhyme scheme- AAA BBB which gives the poem a consistent sentiment of might and being majestic. Each line within the two stanzas is focused on imagery. The most powerful line of them all really seems to come from the final line of the first stanza, “Ringed with the azure world, he stands.”. That line focuses on the mightiness of the eagle to stand above the world and be on top of it, almost like he own the world. Similes are used- “And like a thunderbolt he falls.”. This poem is low brow making it easier to understand with all of the less complex words and ideas.
by reillyr2013 on October 18, 2011 at 8:28 am · Filed under Uncategorized
“Touched by an Angel” by Maya Angelou
Three stanzas- ranging from 6- 8 lines within each. There is an inconsistent pattern of rhyming, “and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.”. The use of personification is used with Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls. This line connects the idea on how love is so powerful, that is rids people of bad thoughts and feelings because love is such a happy beautiful thing. One word in particular stuck out, “ecstasies” which means an overwhelming feeling of happiness and enjoyment. This word ties in the whole poem because Angelou isn’t just explaining how love is great and nice, it much more because it gives people this overwhelming feeling of happiness and the use of the word ecstasies really highlights the experience of love in the poem.
“The Runaway” by Robert Frost
It’s one run on stanza with no line breaks at all. Inconsistent rhyming pattern where in the first few lines its ABCB or the next couple of lines will be AABB. The poem contains a lot of with concrete images such as snow, bolt, flakes, stone, cold and all these words help set the environment of the poem as cold and maybe the beginning of winter. Poem was hard to follow, because you’re not sure who this “colt” character is, obviously a young child or maybe even an animal that can’t fend for its self in the cold, because it’s mentioned that Colt should be with his “Mother”, so i think it could go either way. The poem contains abstract ideas, one the stuck out was “alone”, this means one to be on his own, so the small child or animal is totally freed from any ties of family, friends, or connection to anything beyond itself.
by reillyr2013 on September 25, 2011 at 10:54 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
“A Girl” by Ezra Pound
Simple and short stanzas; with five lines within each stanzas. Theres personification through out the first four stanzas- “The tree has entered my hands, The sap has ascended my arms,”. This could be connecting the idea of Mother Nature through the form of a tree entering a young girls body. One word that stuck our from the rest was “folly”- this means lack of good sense or foolishness. This is said in the last line of the poem “And all this is folly to the world.”, I’m not quite sure how this line connects with the rest of the poem, possibly because it’s saying that there is foolishness in the world, possibly talking about the idea of a girl becoming a tree being foolish?
“A Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe
I think the poem could be interpreted as the author of the poem being happier when he is asleep dreaming rather than awake. This is shown through the first stanza in the last two lines “But a waking dream of life and light Hath left me broken-hearted.”. The poem has four stanzas contain four lines within it. Rhyme scheme- ABAB ABAB ABAB ABAB. One word that stuck out was “Chiding” in the second line of the third stanza ” While all the world were chiding”. Chiding means to scold or to express sharp disapproval. This goes along with dreaming at night being better than being awake in the world because it’s so unhappy and angry. The poem is relatively lowbrow with simple vocabulary and easily taken in when read.
by reillyr2013 on September 15, 2011 at 5:48 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
“Annabel Lee” is written in Iambic Pentameter- first four verses make verses read aloud are read naturally. Rhyming scheme; generally consists of ABCBDB. “The angels, not half so happy in heaven,Went envying her and me-. . .” this jumps out because their love; even as children make the angels jealous. It made me think that their love is so powerful it could last forever. The verses are short and simple, but with powerful images accompanied by them- “That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.”. There are six stanzas with six or eight verses within them. No evident allusions; it seems we are supposed to know that the angels are usually nice, but in the case of Annabel Lee and the author’s love, they are jealous.
“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
Rhyming scheme- ABCB through out the poem. Consists of eight stanzas all with four verses within them; except for the last one which has fifteen. I think that is because the last stanza is really supposed to evoke the pains and struggles of african- american people, and the perseverance she has to rise above it all. There’s some personification- “You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness. . .”. There is also similes used; for example “But still, like air, I’ll rise.”.
by reillyr2013 on September 9, 2011 at 10:13 am · Filed under English III and tagged: English III
William Butler Yeats “Leda and the Swan”
Iambic pentameter; with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFGEFG. Powerful words were used to evoke emotion- blow, push, staggering, and beating. There is tons of imagery of the rape of Leda by the Swan,
“ Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill. . .”. Leda’s weakness is very present in the poem by word choice using phrases like “How can those terrified fingers push. . .”. Allusions are also included in the poem, for example “ An Agamemnon dead.”- this alludes to King of Mycenae who was the commander in chief for the expedition against Troy. So, from this we can tell the poem is based off of Greek mythology.
Robert Frost “Fire and Ice”
Very short and concise, with a lot of symbolism- “Fire” represents desire and “Ice” represents hate. Both fire and ice are deadly, and Frost tells of how these two images are sins that he has experienced. “Fire” being the sin of of lust and desire and “Ice” being hate. The first line of the poem is “Some say the world will end in fire
some say ice”, earth symbolizes life, and we can destroy our lives by either temptation or hate. There is interesting rhyme scheme consisting of ABAAB ABAB.
by reillyr2013 on February 3, 2011 at 12:04 am · Filed under Uncategorized
- 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”?
David Mamet does describe several scenes from him and his sisters childhood, but they all serve a purpose for the main scene involving a rake. One scene described leading up to the rake scene is the family table made of glass; where there are countless instances where at the table; the step-father would get so angry he would break/ throw things and cause bleeding from the mother and himself picking the shards of glass up. This sets the tone that this family is used to the idea of physical and emotional abuse occurring within the family home. Another scene described is when Mamet’s sister won the lead in the school play, and the night of the play she did not eat because she was so nervous (which isn’t explicitly explained). When the mother asked why she wasn’t eating; her reply was “not hungry”. The mother’s strict nature then called the school saying that her daughter wouldn’t attend the play, and didn’t give a reason why; even though the teachers explained how hard her daughter and the other students worked. These events all add up to the rake event where Mamet accidentally hit his sister with a rake, and her face started profusely bleeding. Mamet’s sister refused to tell her mother that it was Mamet who was to blame, so she sat at the family table and continued to bleed. These events are important because it shows how cruel and violent events happen at the family table where in theory; the family table is supposed to be knows as “happy times”.
- 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 is very dark and to the point. Mamet doesn’t go into to to much detail about the events, but there is enough detail to know what is going on. Mamet is not focusing to much on the details, because he is trying to get across how family history repeats itself and how family never will be perfect; since such a thing doesn’t exist. This is very unlike E.B. White, because his sentences are so detailed and eloquent that the reader almost forgets that there is a point to the story. Also differing from Mamet is his point. Although they do share the same general idea that family history repeats itself; White believes that there is such a thing as the “perfect family” and how nothing ever goes wrong and no such violence occurs at all.
by reillyr2013 on January 31, 2011 at 11:49 am · Filed under Uncategorized
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 style of writing differs a great deal from Raymond Carver’s style of writing. White’s story is all about the details of places and events, but we never get a sense of the actual plot itself. Raymond Carver on the other hand focuses more on the actual plot, and there is little to no detail about any of the events occurring. White could not have written in the same minimalist style because if all of the events described in White’s story were vague, then we would then have really no plot or sense of what is happening. The piece would have no sense of direction and the reader would be quite confused about how White got from point a to point b.
2. What does E.B. White’s description of his summer vacation tell us about the perfect family?
From the description of the summer vacation, it shows that there isn’t really a perfect family. The family described in the story is pretty far from perfect; the family is just the father and the son, and in the previous generation; as far as we know it was just the father and his dad before. We also see how the current father and son do all the same things as the father and his dad before. So, we see that the “perfect family” stays the same for generations and generations to come. We also get a sense that the perfect family has no problems or worries, but a sense of a calm and peaceful nature to it. There is no conflict presented through out the story, so we can assume the perfect family has no strife or disturbances; only tranquil and free of disturbances. Even the death of the father in the story is not a conflict, just an event ending the story.
by reillyr2013 on January 28, 2011 at 1:30 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
- 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 at home is almost a completely different girl compared to the Connie she is outside of her home. At home, she is innocent and hides her promiscuity side of her completely. “She wore a pullover jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home” (930), this quote describes how she might have the same clothes as the original Connie, but outside of her house its completely transforms and looks different. The two worlds, the mature and promiscuous Connie , and the innocent Connie never collided before until Arnold Friend shows up at her house mashing the two worlds together. Connie realizes that she is not the mature and sexy girl she longs to be, but her innocent 15 year old self when Arnold questions which one she actually is. This is proven when she starts to realize she will never see her mom again when she leaves with Arnold.
- What kind of commentary on family life does this story make?
Oates depicts family life very strained. Connie’s mother is very disapproving of Connie’s life in general, her looks, personality, and the difference between her and June, Connie’s older sister. The family life is also very emotionally detached in ways. The parents never really ask what Connie is doing with her nights or who she is spending them with. The only time true compassion is shown between Connie’s family is when Connie cries out for her mother when Arnold Friend starts to really scare her.
by reillyr2013 on January 27, 2011 at 11:24 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
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?
They style of the story is very confusing. The phrases and sentences are all very vague, leaving the reader at some points questioning who is actually talking. For instance at towards the end of the story, the Woman receives a call from whom we presume is the doctor, but it could be the baker. So, the style I think is supposed to be intentionally confusing, but it is sometime so confusing that the reader gets lost.
How does “The Bath” characterize the modern American family?
I think the modern American family is shown in a very strained and un- emotional light. Although the mom in the story at some points expresses compassion like holding her son’s hands in lap, there still isn’t a lot of feeling going on. The modern family is very uniform and not original, the family in the story doesn’t seem to have any characteristics setting them apart from the family in the waiting room in the hospital.
by reillyr2013 on January 20, 2011 at 8:02 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
“Even those who claim to be immune to its charms must deign to have the occasional slice; a staggering 93 percent of Americans eat pizza once a month.” (Miller 479).
This quote connects to the idea of the melting pot, but in almost a bad light. It shows how people in America who claim to not like pizza conform by force because it so popular in this country. This phrase defines the story of “American Pie” by showing how many Americans conform and consume the Americanized pizza.
“Pizza was no longer the province of first- and second generation Italians.” (Miller 482)
This phrase perfectly describes how America frowns upon diversity within its inhabitants. When Italians came to America, they also came with their set of ideas and customs including food. Once Americans had a taste of the original pizza, people changed it so much to a point where it wasn’t Italian, but Italian- American.
“The American School Foodservice Association that year announced it was bested only by hamburgers and hotdogs in the cafeteria popularity contest.” (Miller 484).
This doesn’t seem like it, but this quote is very powerful. This phrase sticks out because to group pizza with hamburgers and hot dogs makes a big statement considering both hot dogs and hamburgers are pretty much the only original “all American” food. So, for pizza being popular with adolescents shows how quickly it became part of the normal american foods.
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