1984: Literature in Film #3

I didn't know that they made not one but two movies about 1984, which was one of the books that I enjoyed getting into. In the movie, I feel that they made the character what I kind of pictured, like Winston and Julia. With seeing Winston throughout the portion of the movie that I watched, you could see that he was tired with the bags under his eyes by the Party and Big Brother basically running his life. Julia was quite beautiful and she didn't seem seductive like how she was betrayed in the book. It's funny that they released the movie in 1984, and how realistic is seemed to how it was in the book as well. 1980's movies are sort of different then how they are now. You could tell that it was quite old because of the picture. I've always liked books better then movies though, you actually get to know the character better then in a movie. You can feel and visualize the emotions of the character, and their thoughts which you can't see in a movie.

Precious: Literature in Film #2

I didn't really like the movie Precious. They are not the type of movies that I enjoy watching even though it's based about someone's experience that happened to them. When talking to some people they said that the book was better then the movie but how could it have been better when it was based off of true life? What can be more realistic then how the movie was? It was about rape and an abusive relationship not only between her father but between the protagonist and the mother. I enjoyed that some could feel connected towards the character by her feeling isolated and humiliated by the world, and towards her experience as a single mother in a bad community. Other then the bad things that happened, it turned out to be positive for her because she went back to school and got help. I like how she had supporting teachers like Blu Rain and Ms. Weiss who wanted to help her in her situation, and stood up for her when no one else even believed her. It's sad that no one would believe her, she had 2 kids from her father but no one believing her because she is a black single mother, which makes her less dominent and not powerful to the men even though it was made in the 21st century where we have equal rights with race and gender. Yeah the movie was a touchy subject, but I just don't like movie that have to do with rape or abuse for matter of family experiences.

Rebel. Literature in Film #1

When watching the film Rebel, even though it was a student film I was fascinated in the story line. The actors did an amazing job with filming it at the school and also how realistic they made it to be. I really enjoyed the part where Steinberg and Dan were talking about killing kittens in his paper. We later got told that that part was improvised which I thought was awesome! It was so realistic, that it was scripted. The sound was great, you could feel the tension between some characters. Also, you could see the love interest between the characters that you could tell aren't supposed to be together. Kind of like Romeo and Juliet. The film shows us about teenage rebellion, which is why its called Rebel, (duh). Not only do we see the obvious, main character rebel against his parents, but the other characters throughout the short film. The love interest with the two seemed that the girl was trying to get away from her boyfriend and date him. But why couldn't she just leave? He wasn't abusing her, and yeah we're in the 21st century where woman do have their own rights so why did she have to sneak around if she knows her boyfriend doesn't treat her the way she wants to be treated. Overall, this was a great film to watch. I enjoyed it the most because people our age can relate to it, not just by the characters but the background of it too.

Sonnet 29: When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes - Poem #8

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

(Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate;

   For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings

   That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

I don’t seem to know who is speaking in the poem but it is in first person, and it’s hard to interpret Shakespeare because I don’t understand his type of writing. In my mind, it seems that Shakespeare is saying about the troubles and woes of the perfect person. Nobody is perfect but in this poem, it seems to say that the author idolizes the perfect person. He wants to become like that person with their perfect life and perfect friends and wealth and happiness, but he is always left in the dust. Unable to regain his strength and rise to the challenges of life. Life is challenging but it all depends on how you look at it. Life is what you make out of it and this poem seems to portray the author as a sad, lonely man who blames everyone else for his trouble and longs for a better days. However, he seems to give us a clue in saying that he will regain his wealth someday and that wealth will bring upon his happiness. It is kind of sad that he needs money to be happy because money can buy happiness but you won’t find happiness within that money. Money is just an object and happiness is something that you can’t hold but have. Hopefully money will bring upon other desires for the author so that they can find true happiness in other objects of affection. It seems that everyone else, in the eyes of the author, are people who are blessed with the “perfect” life but that is not true because those people are just content with life. Life is what you make out of it and that is a lesson the author had to learn.

The Youngest Daughter - Poem #7

The sky has been dark

for many years.

My skin has become as damp

and pale as rice paper

and feels the way

mother’s used to before the drying sun   

parched it out there in the fields.

     Lately, when I touch my eyelids,

my hands react as if

I had just touched something

hot enough to burn.

My skin, aspirin colored,   

tingles with migraine. Mother

has been massaging the left side of my face   

especially in the evenings   

when the pain flares up.

This morning

her breathing was graveled,

her voice gruff with affection   

when I wheeled her into the bath.   

She was in a good humor,

making jokes about her great breasts,   

floating in the milky water

like two walruses,

flaccid and whiskered around the nipples.   

I scrubbed them with a sour taste   

in my mouth, thinking:

six children and an old man

have sucked from these brown nipples.

I was almost tender

when I came to the blue bruises

that freckle her body,

places where she has been injecting insulin   

for thirty years. I soaped her slowly,

she sighed deeply, her eyes closed.

It seems it has always

been like this: the two of us

in this sunless room,

the splashing of the bathwater.

In the afternoons

when she has rested,

she prepares our ritual of tea and rice,   

garnished with a shred of gingered fish,

a slice of pickled turnip,

a token for my white body.   

We eat in the familiar silence.

She knows I am not to be trusted,   

even now planning my escape.   

As I toast to her health

with the tea she has poured,

a thousand cranes curtain the window,

fly up in a sudden breeze.

This poem turned out to be a bit confusing for me the first read through, I say this because I know that it’s in the perspective of the daughter but that’s all we know. What has happened to the father or the family? I ask because the sentence ‘It seems it has always been like this: the two of us’ is what made me feel that something has had to occur for it to be just the two of them , so what happened? I enjoy reading the bond between the mother and daughter that is being talked about here because it reminds me of the relationship I have with my mother and step mother. Two different relationships but both have a lot of meaning to me. But anyway, this poem seems that they are taking care of each other. The daughter seems to be having migraines from situation which is why her mother is rubbing her temples, trying to make her feel better. Then after that it talks about how the daughter is trying to help the mother take a bath, but that is all that it says. Is there something wrong with the mother? We don’t seem to know the relationship if it’s even good or bad. All we seem to know is that there is a mother and a daughter, there is a bond and there is nothing being said about a family or what has happened. This seems to be a free verse poem, but it seems to be written more as a story then a poem, why? Overall, this poem seems to have so little information, but we can interpret it however we see it.

In Just- Poem #6

in Just-

spring       when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles       far       and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far       and          wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

        the

                 goat-footed

balloonMan       whistles

far

and

wee

The poem was very flowing. The structure of the poem is what I enjoyed the most and the way it was written out is what E. E Cummings is known for. Also being known for  I didn’t understand why the poem was like this but you just get a better feel from it. When I say that, I mean that it’s easier to understand and interpret the poem. It’s like looking at a painting, you can’t look once, you need to concentrate and actually see the detail that’s in, just like this poem. There’s so many things you can find in this poem, like how it’s written as a sonnet, he barely uses capital letters and also that there’s syntax involved. There is a meaning to not only the poem itself but how the poem is set up and I really enjoyed that when reading through. Some of the words like ‘eddieandbill’ and ‘bettyanddisbel’ are all together but it means just that, that the two come as one. Reading like this is better for me because I can feel why E. E Cummings did this and it’s brilliant! Who would have thought to write a poem like this? This poem has to do with being happy and how Spring has finally sprung which is relevant because that’s how it is now. Spring makes everyone enjoy the fresh air and finally come out of hiding (Winter). If you read the poem allowed, you can literally see what is going on (imagery).

To My Dear and Loving Husband -Poem #5

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay;

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,

That when we live no more, we may live ever.

When reading this I would say this is in Iambic Pentameter, which is cool that I could recognize that when we just learned it. Other then that, I enjoyed the poem because it shows the true meaning of what a happy marriage is. You can see that this woman values her husband and shows how much he means to her. I love the use of description and imagery she uses to describe her love for him. This poem reminds me of the meaning of "love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it." And that is how it is in this poem, it's one of those poems that move you. I love the stanza, "Thy love is such I can no way repay; The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray." It is quite beautiful that she thinks of him so highly, that he is such a great piece of her.  And this is how marriage is supposed to be. Why would you want to be with someone that you hate or makes you unhappy. This poem isn't modernized but more romantic, which is why it makes it such a beautiful poem. You can tell throughout the poem that is it a couplet where every last word of each two lines rhyme, but does this make a difference in the poem? What if it didn't rhyme, would it be just as beautiful? Perhaps so. I could say that when describing love, whatever your feelings are, it could still sound as amazing because love is amazing. There is more then one type of love which this poem discusses like romantic love. It discusses for the love of a friendship like when she says "Then while we live, in love so persever, That when we live no more, we may live ever." A friend is always there for you, which is what a soul mate is... everything. A soul mate is a best friend, family, significant other, and all of the above because that's what happens when you connect with someone. The poem made what the true meaning of love was. 

The World Is Too Much With Us -Poem #4

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

In the poem The World Is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth even though it was short it had a lot of meaning. I feel like it means that we take life for granted. In the part "getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;- little we see in Nature that is ours," the author makes it seem that we have powers, like we have a meaning on this Earth, which we do. We have the power to change the world, change a life, change anything we want because that's what us humans do. We were meant to do something, like how people become doctors to help patients become better. Children look at adults as heros for the great things they do but what do us adults do? We don't look at ourselves that great. But why do we take things for granted? Why don't we watch the sunset and become busy with work? Why do we want high school and college to end already to do a career were going to he doing for the rest of our lives? This is what society has made us become; we can't experience life anymore because were so worried about the next step when we should just be in the now. The narrator uses words like nature to emphasize the key points of the poem which when reading through, they discuss that they would rather "have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn," then to waste their life doing nothing. I could agree with this because as I stated before, we waste our time waiting for the future and not just taking it day by day which we should be.

My Papa's Waltz -Poem #3

The whiskey on your breath   

Could make a small boy dizzy;   

But I hung on like death:   

Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans   

Slid from the kitchen shelf;   

My mother’s countenance   

Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist   

Was battered on one knuckle;   

At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head   

With a palm caked hard by dirt,   

Then waltzed me off to bed   

Still clinging to your shirt.

I really enjoyed the poem My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke, with the account of getting a memory with my father. My dad doesn't drink but he always used to dance and sing to me when I was younger. Which is what I loved about him; that he didn't care what others thought. Anyway, at first read through I thought that the story was about a dad who had gotten drunk and ended up beating the mother and son by the line "you beat time on my head." But the whole poem consists of just the father dancing with his son. I enjoy the imagery used through the poem which gave me a better image and understanding when reading it multiple times. I could see when the narrator used "the whiskey on your breathe could make a small boy dizzy," telling us that the child hates the smell of alcohol, which is making him sick. In a more deeper thought past that idea, i wanted to know if the author wrote this poem from his childhood? Was this poem about him dancing with his father? That's just my idea with the amount of detail put in 4 stanzas. With the imagery I could see that the child doesn't know what to do while dancing with the father, and the mother is happy to see them waltzing through the kitchen. I really enjoyed this because it was heartfelt and relatable that I didn't have when reading the previous poems. It got me to unlock those innocent child memories that used to make me happy. It makes the school year a little bit less stressful then it is.

Bells for John's Whiteside's Daughter -Poem #2

There was such speed in her little body,   

And such lightness in her footfall,   

It is no wonder her brown study

Astonishes us all.

Her wars were bruited in our high window.   

We looked among orchard trees and beyond   

Where she took arms against her shadow,   

Or harried unto the pond

The lazy geese, like a snow cloud

Dripping their snow on the green grass,   

Tricking and stopping, sleepy and proud,   

Who cried in goose, Alas,

For the tireless heart within the little   

Lady with rod that made them rise

From their noon apple-dreams and scuttle   

Goose-fashion under the skies!

But now go the bells, and we are ready,   

In one house we are sternly stopped

To say we are vexed at her brown study,   

Lying so primly propped.

When reading Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter by John Crowe Ransom I honestly could not figure out the meaning towards this poem. I know the basics like that it's someone's daughter that the narrator is talking about. But if not reading it again then I wouldn't have caught tht main idea that the little girl died. It was quite obvious by using the past tense of things like "there was such a speed in her little body". But we don't know why. But how did she die? It keeps repeating about geese, but is that supposed to be her? The repetition of the geese could be a statement that the young girl was like a goose. It was quite a confusing story overall. 

Blog #3

The poem that I really enjoyed was Since there's no help by Michael Drayton. When reading this poem I kept thinking that the narrator was dying himself. He was suffering from an illness and he is now happy that he is going to be free from it. That he doesn't have to live on with the hurt that his wife was seeing in him. But then when I read it again I was confused when he said he was canceling his vows, that he can finally be free. Then suddenly, I realized the shift on line 8, this is where I realized that he was leaving his wife (with the help of Ms. Bavaro as well). But why would he want to leave his wife? That is something we don't know. The amount of detail and imagery put into this poem is what I enjoyed about Drayton. With capitalizing words like Love, Passion, etc., that is where I saw that it's important. The love is gone, and before I never realized that love could fade but it does. People fall in and out of love all the time. Maybe from the amount of pain and hurt that these spouses went through in their life that that is how they faded away from each other. But the part that really got to me is the ending, where the narrator wanted hope. Hope that one day they could possibly love again but for now he has to recover from this divorce he wants with her. Some of the questions were difficult because I didn't understand the questions, or the words to the questions (only if I looked them up) which wasn't fair to me. But other then that, it was easy to follow along what the question asked.

Death, Be Not Proud -Poem #1

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Death, be not proud by John Donne talks about soldiers and the war. This reminded me of Social Science, where we've been learning about the Vietnam war; where as the country and people had stopped supporting the war. People on the outside look at war as being heroic, masculine, when they don't know what really goes on inside the fighting zone. But the first line "death, be not proud, though some have called thee." Outsiders look at these veterans as being proud to be fighting for our country but should they be? How is death, which is a 50/50 chance of coming out of the war, something that we don't discuss or look upon? Only if being alive. From the inside, they're not proud for what they are doing which is what the speaker is saying. That's what society has made them look like, if you fight for our country you're doing something right for someone other then yourself. The ending is what caught my eye, how can death really die? Maybe discussing that after everything they've been through that the war is over. "Short sleep past, we wake eternally" is giving us that shift that after everything they've discussed in the earlier stanzas that they can enjoy life now, go on to their lives before. They have done their duty and can now fulfill something that they want to do. But is it really over? The discussion here is that these soldiers will never be how they were before when they've been through "poison, war and sickness dwell". On the outside they are looked at as proud but on the inside they are grateful to be done.

Blog #2

It is helpful to interpret and analyze the poem line by line instead of straight through because you get a better understanding and feel towards it. When reading each line you can get more in depth in the poem. You find the literary devices and can interpret why the author did this. There's a feeling that you can get with the poem, you find out more then if you read it straight through. When reading it through without stopping you only know the plot and who/what is there. You get more out of reading the poem because it's not like a story/novel. It's short enough where you can read it 3 times in a row, but it's also you can read it 3 times in a row and think something different each time.

Blog #1

3 things that I learned: Connotation is what the word suggests. Denotation is the dictionary or literal definition. An example can be the book in 1984. The connotation could be that it's just a book that Winston wrote in, but when you read the book you understand that it's more than that. That Winston wanted to write about what was happening in his time, even though he was gonna get caught he wanted others to be aware.

2 questions I have: For the prompt header, how would you be able to figure out the tone or mood of the story? I don't understand how this is going to tell me about how the story is going to feel like. Does it mean by the prompt header that you're going to know what the story is about? An example can be Crime and Punishment, where you could say the mood could be mad or depressing.

1 skill that I know well that I can teach others is Personification. Personification is when you give inanimate objects human characteristics. I learned a lot about this topic and caught on easily because I believe everything has a meaning even if they can’t talk. It’s like in English class when you’re a reading a book and the teacher asks what the blue curtains mean. If the curtains don’t talk, then how does do we know the they mean depression, as what the teacher would say. This is when we give the curtains a meaning, and a sign of emotion.