Sunday, November 15, 2009

rotaion 8

“No worst, there is none” is a fourteen-line sonnet. The rhyme scheme is abbaabba cdcdcd. The poem does follow the regular outline of a sonnet. Hopkins varies where he places the stressed and unstressed syllables like the first line “No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,” is more or less in iambic pentameter. The rhythm changes in the second line; “ more pangs will, schooled and forepangs, wilder wring.” He makes his poems so that sounds are repeated which is alliteration and example of this is “My cries heave, herd-long; huddle in…” and alos “Pitched past pitch of grief.” He also uses assonance in “an age-old anvil…” Another literary element the poet uses is the repetition of words such as “where, where is your…” and then he also repeats “O the mind, mind…” He alos uses words within the line that rhyme like “steep,” “deep,” “creep.” He also combines words to make them compound: “herds-long,” “no-man-fathomed,” “world-sorrow.” He even puts a beginning of a word at the end of a line and the ending of that word at the beginning of the next line like “ling-ering” and “chief-woe.” In this piece there is imagery that relate to religious symbols like “Mary, mother of us.” The theme of this poem has to do with death and mortality and death ending life and how days also die not just humans, which is sort of expresses in the last lien of the poem: “Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.”

“The Windhover” is another of Hopkins’ poems. He continues on the religious path by dedicating the poem “To Christ Our Lord.” The poem is written three stanzas the first stanza has eight lines, and its rhyme scheme is abbaabba the last two stanzas are 3 lines each and their rhyme scheme is cdc dcd. even though the poem is written in three stanzas, the rhyme scheme is the same as in “No worst…” in this poem, the rhythm changes with the lines “Rebuffed the big wind my heart hiding/stirred for a bird, —the achieve of the mastery of the thing.” The poet uses alliteration in this line “-dom of daylights dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn…” another line is “High there, how he…” Words that rhyme within the lines include “Fall” and “gall” in line sixteen. Hopkins hyphenates words to make compounds, such as “blue-beak,” “bow-bend,” and “gold-vermilion.” He uses exclamation marks to express lots of feelings: “In his ecstasy!” and “O my chevalier!” Another way he expresses lots of feeling is putting words in all caps: “AND the fire…” He also uses colons like in “no wonder of it: sheer plod makes plow down sillion.” The image that Hopkins paints with his words of a windhover (or Falcon) shows his respect for the beauty of god’s things, “My heart in hiding/ Stirred for a bird, —the achieved of the mastery of the thing.” He seems to say that even though the bird is beautiful it can be destroyed.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Hoover and the Depression

Ashley Gyer

US History

Chapter 21 Blog

November 12, 2009

Why did Hoover’s policies fail to solve the country’s economic crisis

1. He felt the goverment should not meddle, “because periodic depressions were like storms that couldn’t be avoided”

2. He thought providing direct aid to individuals was unconsitutional

3. He said “economic depressions can’t be cured by governmental action or official decree”

4. He called on busineses to not reduce wages or jobs

5. These busineses didn’t do as he asked because they were protecting their own interests.

6. He called on the goverment to reduce taxes on businesses to put more money in “business,” thinking “trickle-down economics” would solve the problems

7. He had Reconstruction Finance Corporation formed to get money in hands of banks, hopping “trickle-down economics” would get money to the people.

8. This didn’t work as planed because the banks didn’t increase their loans to busineses, and busineses didn’t use the loans they received to hire more workers

9. Because of this the money did not “trickle-down” to the people who needed it.

What would I suggest that he do differently?

1. Consideing the unemploment rate of 25%, the creation of jobs was a key part of recovery

2. The billions dollars that the Recovery Finance Corporation loaned to banks should’ve been monitored and proper loans by the banks and investments by industry to make jobs should’ve been a must for making the loan.

3. Money should’ve been made available by Congress to start other public works projects (Like the Hoover Dam project) in order to make new jobs.

4. Money should’ve been made available to directly aid folks and families that needed help in saving their homes and providing money for food and lodging if needed.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

rotation 6

Rotation 6
blog 1
poem 1

Oh, my love is like a red, red rose
by Robert Burns

The poem Oh, my love is like a red, red rose by Robert Burns is a 4 verses poem that has 4 lines in each verse. The last word of line 2 and 4 in each verse rhymes, making it a pararhyme. This internal rhyme has a rhyme scheme of ABCA DEFD HIHI JKJK. The line breaks do not always end with a mark of punctuation. Lines 1 and 2 of verse 1 are a simile comparing love to a red rose in June. These two lines are saying that his love is beautiful and pleasing but fragile and that if handled in the wrong way can hurt you like roses thorns can hurt. This comparison produces the imagery of the sense of sight and smell. Also in the first line there is and alliteration “Red, red rose.” Lines 2 and 3 of the same verse compares to music, more specifically a melody in tune. These lines are suggesting that his love is almost melodic and smooth because it is so perfect in his eyes. Through out the first verse you never know whether he is talking about love or the woman that he is in love with. The first time he mentions the girl is in the second verse when he says she is beautiful. The last line of the second verse is repeated as the first line of the third verse. Both are simply stating that he will love this woman until there is no more water on earth, which is an extreme exaggeration and makes this a hyperbole. Also line three of verse 2 is repeated as line three in verse 3. Three times within verse three non-standard English that reflects the dialect of the speaker was used. Within verse three he promises to love no matter what happens and will love until the sands of time run out. In the fourth verse, the beginning of the first line repeats as the beginning of the second line and shows even though he loves her they must part but only for a while. In the last line of the fourth verse he shows the lengths to which he will go to love her.

Friday, October 16, 2009

History blog

History

ATF Chapter 11 Prompt 1

October 16, 2009

Sacco and Vanzetti

Legal historians have suggested that in the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, both the prosecutor, Frederick Katzman and the trial judge Webster Thayer were prejudiced and many in the legal profession say, “the trial, by failing to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt, perpetuated a serious miscarriage of justice.” In 1920 there was a division in the nation between American born citizens and Immigrants. The native Americans were part of a group called nativists. They were anti-Catholic, antiradicalism, and were Anglo-Saxon. They were against the radical ideas that were arising in Europe in Marxists and socialists. At this time there was economic problems and unemployment as men returned from the war. They “expressed hostility toward immigrants and foreign political ideas that were perceived as a threat to the ‘American way of life.’” The authors suggest this nativism played a significant role in the Sacco and Vanzetti trial. Judge Thayer was prejudiced against immigrants and anarchists as shown by his jury instructions and comments outside the courtroom. In talking about the defense attorney, Moore, he said, “I’ll show them that no long-haired anarchist from California can run this court.” There were no foreign names on the jury. The judge said, “he was bound to convict these men because they were ‘reds.’”

Katzman, the prosecutor played on the patriotic sympathy of the jury, “the Men of Norfolk” more than relying on valid evidence. He also said of one of his witnesses who was questionable that, “in eleven years he had never heard such a convincing witness.” This was not true, but was not challenged by the judge. Katzman continued to portray the defendants as evil and tried to inflame the jury. Under our legal system the judge is supposed to prevent the prosecutor from doing and saying things that cannot be proven. Judge Thayer ignored his duty. The judge refused to grant motions for a new trial and ignored new evidence that might have cleared the defendants. The court is supposed to protect the defendant and not decide whether they are innocent or guilty. The court is supposed to decide if the prosecution has evidence to establish guilt. If there is not sufficient guilt the judge is bound to set the defendant free. The prosecutor’s duty is to make sure no innocent man suffers. These duties were not fulfilled in this case. In the end the system failed these defendants because the judge and the prosecutor were both prejudiced against foreigners and were affected by the attitude of the time.


ATF Chapter 11 Prompt 2

October 16, 2009

Sacco and Vanzetti

Over the years this trial has created much interest. Many books have analyzed the case and the results. The authors quote a lawyer as asking, “Why all the fuss over the Sacco and Vanzetti case?” At the time the trial was held, the country was in a period of distrust of immigrants. The immigration acts were passed to decrease immigration. There was mistrust of many Europeans because of criminal violence and subversion that was taking place in Europe at the hands of Marxists. American was rejecting its revolutionary tradition and was concerned about the “American way of life.” Sacco and Vanzetti had the appearance for bad people and it made it easy for society to hate them. The attitude of the prosecutor and the judge were just a picture of how society looked on foreigners. As time passed and appeals and requests for new trials were denied, public interest in the case declined. In 1925, new interest was generated when there was a prison confession by a man facing execution. The judge denied the request for a new trail. This generated outrage throughout the legal community. The Boston Herald that had been a supporter of the prosecution. Once this ruling was made they called on the Supreme Judicial Court to overturn this ruling. This decision and an attack by a Harvard law professor turned public sympathy toward Sacco and Vanzetti.

There was also the opinion that there were powerful people that wanted to destroy the defendants because they were a threat to the social order. Throughout Sacco and Vanzetti had remained anarchists. By the time all appeals were exhausted, this case showed the tension that was present if American society. The main groups of people that had an interest in the two were poor workers and immigrants that looked on Sacco and Vanzetti as a symbol of hope. On the other side were the “Men of Norfolk” referred to by Katzman at the trial. They were the Protestant establishment that were suspicious of foreigners and foreign political ideas. In actuality, “all of the fuss” was because there were two nations involved. Sacco and Vanzetti had forced the nation to ask which group best reflected the ideas of freedom and equality that was originally envisioned in 1776.

Monday, October 12, 2009

rotation 5 blog 2

Poem 1

“Abandoned Farmhouse” – Ted Kouser

The poem is divided into three stanzas, of eight lines each. The lines do not rhyme. There is a kind of rhythmic quality about the poem created by the repetition of the phrases “says the … “ and the writer’s use of “and” to join ideas. The language is plain, everyday. The tone is that of an observer telling what he sees in the farmhouse and using his observations to draw conclusions about the people who lived there and their actions. The poet sets up a series of visual images, using objects in the house to gain information about the people. In the first stanza, the farmer is described as “big” and “tall,” which is determined by “the size of his shoes” and “the length of his bed.” He is also religious, since there is a “Bible with a broken back on the floor.” His poor farming skills are shown by “boulders in the fields” and a “leaky barn.”

The next stanza gives visual evidence of the woman who lived with him: “wall papered with lilacs,” and “oilcloth” on shelves. Their child had a sandbox and swing “made from a tractor tire.” The poet even finds clues that they were poor – from the canned vegetables and preserves. The rags stuffed windows meant cold weather.

In the last paragraph, the poet begins by saying, “something went wrong.” He tries to add up all of thes­­­­­e visual clues to get an answer. The empty house says “something went wrong,” in the way things were just left abandoned. The simile of child’s toys left in the yard “like branches after a storm” adds to the sense of abandonment. Kouser also uses alliteration to add to the effects of his images: “Bible with a broken back,” “good, God-fearing,” “farming and fields.” The repetition of “something went wrong” shows the poet’s uneasy feelings about the house along with the words “lonely, “empty,” and “nervous haste.”

Rotation 5 blog 1

Poem 1

“Recuerdo” – Edna St. Vincent Millay

The poem is written in 3 six line stanzas – the rhyme scheme is regular – aabbcc, aaddee, aaffgg. There is a definite rhythmic quality to “Recuedo.” The poet strings together actions with the use of “and.” The first two lines of the poem are repeated in all three verses, emphasizing the emotions of the two lovers and the night they had spent together, absorbed in their happiness. “We were very tired, we were very merry – we had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.” Millay uses alliteration and a simile to describe the ferry: “bare and bright,” and “smelled like a stable.” The young couple, however, was caught up in each other, as shown by the metaphor “we looked into a fire.” Millay uses many sensory words to describe what is going on around the two: “the whistles kept blowing,” “you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,” and “the wind came cold.” The metaphor of the sun rising as “a bucketful of gold” shows how the morning reflects their joy in each other. In the third stanza, the lovers share their joy by sharing their food and money with a young mother they meet. The mood of the poem is joyful as the poet recalls a happy memory. The tone is mellow and conversational and the language is straightforward.

Poem 2

“The One Girl at the Boy’s Party” – Sharon Olds

The poem is written as one stanza with no rhyme scheme. Olds paints an image of her daughter the “One” girl, because she does not fit the little girl stereotype. Olds’s descriptions of a swimming party show her daughter totally uninterested in the boys who “bristle” and “tower” around her, while she only thinks of them in terms of numbers. She is the math geek, the role usually thought of as a guy’s role. The author uses words to show typical boy actions – they “strip to their suits,” and “plunge in the deep end.” Her daughter’s only interest is watching “math scores unfold in the air around her.” Olds uses similes such as “her body was indivisible as a prime number” and she would only see “number bouncing … like molecules.” She continues the math comparison when she says her daughter’s ponytail “will hang its pencil lead down her back.” The poet also says her daughter’s face is closed to what is going on around her “solemn and sealed,” and “a factor of one.” The girl even views the boys as numbers: “eyes, two each, their legs. Two each, and the curve of their sexes one each.” To her, boys are only parts she can “multiply.” The poet sees her daughter as beautiful and a source of pride. Her body is “smooth and sleek,” her face is “sweet,” but she is different.

Poem 3

“A Different Image” – Dudley Randall

This poem is written in two stanzas of six lines each. The line lengths vary but are mostly short and to the point. In each stanza, there is a different rhyme scheme. In the first, the rhyme is abcacb. In the second it is dedeff. “A Different Image” expresses Dudley’s feelings about how the image of the Black man should be changed today from one of a slave or black-faced minstrel to that of a proud African. The poet uses strong verbs to emphasize the changes he wants to see take place. He also speaks directly to the Black man himself when he uses the imperative forms to command him to change his image: “create,” “re-animate,” “shatter,’ and “replace.” It seems as if he is talking to the Black man and to the White man at the same time, letting the White man know that he must change his image of the Black man as well. When he says, “The age requires this task,” Randall stresses that the laws have changed giving Blacks equal rights. The “icons of slavery and fear” were the way Black men saw themselves and Whites saw them. The phrase “the leer of the minstrel’s burnt-cork face” showed another way that whites made fun of blacks, when they put on black face and acted as fools. The way he calls Blacks to see themselves now and for Whites to see them is as “proud, serene and classic.”

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Class Blog Rotation 5

On the Death of Friends in Childhood by Donald Justice

It’s a six-line poem that does not rhyme. The tone of the poem is one of sadness for lost friends and regret that they have not grown to old age so that their friends can " meet them bearded in heaven" or " sunning themselves among the bald of hell." Justice suggests that their ghosts can be found “ in the desert schoolyard at twilight.” This image is of the afterlife that these children would share together. Their activities would be “forming a ring or joining hands” as everyone once did in childhood. He suggests that the way to find them is for the other ones to search “in the shadows” of their memories. The image he paints here is one of “bearded” or “bald” old men whose memories of friends are “shadows.” These men have forgotten the names of games they played as children. The images that the poet uses vividly show the old people trying to recall the memories of friends they have lost years ago.


A Route of Evanesce by Emily Dickinson

It is an eight line that does not rhyme. It seems to be describing humming bird -its wings, its color; it’s sound, by means of a sustained metaphor. The revolving wheel the poet mentions is referring to the wheel of life which is ironic because life is always changing and slowly coming to a close and the title have the word evanesce which means gradually vanishing. The images and the words like emerald bring vibrant color and images to the readers mind.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

HIStory blog

Ashley Gyer

History

October 7, 2009

Wilson’s 14 Points and Vision of the Future

Wilson was in favor of “peace without victory” and during the war he made plans for the peace following the war. He delivered his “Fourteen Points” speech to Congress January 8, 1918. The first five points was based on the idea of an open world. The Next eight points addressed the idea of “self-determination” for minorities throughout Europe. The final point was designed to support a League of Nations to guarantee political independence and peace among the small states.

Points six to thirteen addressed specific territorial issues:

· Point six concerned the evacuation of Russia and settlement of all questions affecting Russia

· Point seven concerned the evacuation and restoration of Belgium.

· Point eight freed all French territory with the return of Alsace-Lorraine.

· Point nine readjusted the frontiers of Italy along recognizable lines of nationality.

· Point ten guaranteed Austria-Hungary the opportunity for autonomous development.

· Point eleven evacuated Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro and provided Serbia sea access.

· Point twelve assured Turkey and other parts of the Ottoman Empire sovereignty. Free passage through the Dardanelles was guaranteed to all nations.

· Point thirteen provided for an independent Polish state.

The first five points were general and applied worldwide.

· Point one was to prohibit secret treaties such as the Triple alliance. The idea was that if a nation did not know about a treaty then the whole structure of international cooperation would be affected. This point would equally favor all nations regardless of size. With is point, then all nations would know about all treaties between other countries and be able to take any action necessary to maintain their commercial and political positions

· Point two provided absolute freedom of navigation on the seas. This point would be of greater benefit to nations with large fleets of ships. Small nations with little or no shipping would receive little benefit other than the fact that they could get shipments from other parts of the world without interference.

· Point three planned to do away with all special commercial agreements that might lead to war. The idea was to have equality of trade among all nations. This point would favor small nations because without it the larger nations could discriminate and deal only with other large nations.

· Point four called for decreased armaments and encouraged only having such arms that were needed to protect a territory from invasion. This point would favor smaller nations with little money for defense and armament. This point would possibly take away some of the power of the United States because they would have to give up some of their power to comply with the reduction of arms.

· Point five called for impartial adjustment of all colonial claims with the interests of the population to have equal weight with claims of the government. This point created some concern by England and France who wanted to make sure it only applied to colonial claims arising out of the war. This benefited England and Japan who were the chief heirs of the German colonial empire. It did produce some loss of original power in these areas.

· Point fourteen called for an association of nations to guarantee political independence and territorial integrity. This led to the formation of the League of Nations. This could have possibly had some effect on the time leading up to World War II, but since the Unites States never approved the League it became an ineffective organization.

Wilson hoped for a post war world that would be open, independent, and free. He envisioned freedom on the seas, free trade, an end to colonialism, and a worldwide reduction in armaments. He believed that all people should be able to choose their own form of government. Most of all he wanted a League of Nations to secure political independence and territorial integrity.

Monday, October 5, 2009

History blog

Ashley Gyer

History Blog

October 5, 2009

The war in Afghanistan and Iraq are unique in that unlike World War I and World War II there is no specific country we are fighting against. It is difficult to think that if we made sacrifices like rationing that it would make any difference. Our resources are so much different now than in those wars, there is no shortage of anything. To institute sacrifices would only serve to make people angrier about the war and would probably have the opposite effect of creating an anti-war sentiment. What is needed is some way to increase patriotism and decrease the negative attitude that is associated with the war.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Rotation 4 Blog 3

Rotation 4

Blog 3

Poem 1

Low Tide by April Lindner

The poem is a 16-line poem with no rhyme scheme. The lines very in length. Even though there is no rhyme, the poem has a rhythmic effect to it, although the rhythm varies from line to line for example, the rhythm, the rhythm in the first 4 lines is alike – U | U | U | U|. However, it changes in the next line to | U | U | U | U | U. It also varies in the next line to and so forth. The poet uses alliteration in “Low Tide” especially the “S” sound, the sound that the water would make along the shore: “surf slips,” “ secrets,” silk. The metaphor in the poem is the comparison between the lowering tides to a strip tease dance. The words ”more strip tease” describe the way the tide slowly falls back to reveal more and more of the shore. The “surf slips back” as a strip tease dancer would “slip” out of her clothing. The poet says the “show” suns two times a day, referring to the two low tides each day and also to the strip tease “shows.” The tide ebbing is also a “slow disrobing” as a strip tease is. The shallows “expose crinkles,” just as a dancer would expose her body. When the poet talks about “what’s left veiled undulates,” she is actually talking about the sea life floating hidden in the currents. The double meaning here is the dancer’s “veiled” part’s of her body, which she moves in an “undulating” or suggestively waving motion. At night when the tide “unfurls,” it lets loose together the things that it exposed in “silk,” or in beautiful moonlight water. In the same way the striper “unfurls” her wrap and hides her “secrets,” or body parts, in “silk,” or her robe.

In addition to the metaphor, Lindner personifies the tide as a stripper, who wraps up he secrets I her robe. The poet also uses a simple very effectively: “crinkles tender as the lines a bed sheet etches on skin.” The lines and marks left by the tide are compared to marks made by lying in bed. Her descriptive images give a lyric quality to the poem as well: “shallows webbed with gold ripple.” Draws a picture of sunlit waves; “rich nether tangle of the rockweed and rotted wrack” brings the image of the under water sea plants; the tide “black and glistening, tipped with moon” helps the reader to picture a silky black robe, tipped with silver that a stripper might wear.

Poem 2

Eleanor Rigby – John Lennon & Paul McCartney

This “poem” is actually lyrics to a song by the Beatles. It talks of the theme of loneliness and isolation of people in a society where no one cares and where people have lost faith and religion. The choice of the title ”Eleanor Rigby” seems to say that this woman represents the many alienated people in our world whose names are unknown or forgotten by others. The poem is constructed of 8 stanzas. The first and last are 2 lines and repeat each other. The line length in the other stanzas varies to from 3 four-line stanzas to 3 six-line stanzas. The 2 line stanzas repeat the sentence, “Ah, look at all the lonely people!” calling the reader’s attention to the social problem from the beginning and emphasizing it at the end. The four line stanzas repeat “All the lonely people,” but further ask, “Where do they all come from?” What is their story? Why are they isolated? The remaining three stanzas tell the story of two of these people – Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie. Eleanor “lives in a dream,” and “waits at the window” for someone to come for her. She’s “wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door.” These words paint the image of a woman who depends on makeup for her “public” appearance. Another image is of Father McKenzie “writing a sermon that no one will hear.” People are not interested in religion. When Eleanor Rigby dies, she is “buried along with her name.” Just as no one came for her funeral, no one will remember her after she is gone. When she dies, Father McKenzie buries her, but “No one was saved.” To the writers, his work as a priest is worthless. She has not been not saved. The tone of the song is a sense of sadness and of isolation. The writers achieve this through the imagery and through the repetition of phrases such as, “All the lonely people, where do they all belong?” There is rhyme in the poem. Lines are repeated to achieve rhyme in verses 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8. In verse 2, “door” rhymes with “for.” In verse 4, “hear” rhymes with “near,” and “there” rhymes with “care.” In verse 6, “name” rhymes with “came,” and “grave” rhymes with “saved.” Although the lines vary in length there is a definite rhyme to the song. Also, the repetition of lines adds to the rhythmic quality.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Rotation 4 Blog 2

Rotation 4

Blog 2

Poem 1

Death be not proud by John Donne

It is fourteen-line poem. The rhyme scheme is abbaabbacddcbe. The poem was written in 1610 and Donne clearly uses the language of the past: “thou,” “dost,” “canst,” “thy,” “shalt,” “art.” Donne also adds accent marks or combines words to fit the rhythm that he wants to achieve: “calléd” and “swell’st.” He uses alliterations of consonance in lines such as “For those whom thou think’st thou dost over throw,” “And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then,” “much pleasure, then from the much more must flow.” In the opening “Death be not proud,” Donne uses the imperative mood to show his belief in deaths lack of power. This is a lyric poem in which Donne personifies death and compares him to a person who is proud of the power that he holds over mankind. However, Donne never capitalizes death even though he speaks to him and addresses him directly as a person. The poet seems to say that powerless and is not all-powerful. He calls rest and sleep “thy pictures” or images of death. He says that actually man will get pleasure from death because death will ring them “rest of their bones, and souls delivery.” They will be released from their body and their souls will be set free. He also paints an image of death as a “slave to fate chance, kings, and desperate men.” In other words we are granted eternal life.


Poem 2

I, Too by Langston Hughes

It is written in five stanzas in varying length. The first and last stanzas are only one line each. The poem does not rhyme. It doesn’t have a definite rhythm. It’s written in plain straightforward language. It’s personal from the eye point of view yet it represents black Americans. The poet’s choice of words shows how he feels about the place of the black man in America: “the darker brother,” “ I, too, am America.” When he says, “I, too, sing America” he talks about how the black Americans and how they praise America and want to be part of the land but yet they are not recognized as equal or part of it. In stanza one he talks about how he is sent to the kitchen when company comes, referring to segregation. At the same time he “grows strong” for now he accepts his condition but he grows in strength and his desire to overcome it. In the third stanza the tone changes and it’s signaled by the word “tomorrow.” It predicts the laws to come that will end segregation by saying “Nobody’ll dare” to tell him to eat in the kitchen. In the fourth stanza the poet holds out hope that the public one-day will accept him for who he is and see his inner beauty. The poet uses the word “ashamed” to express how he hopes the public will feel and will regret how they have treated the African Americans.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

rotation 4 blog 1

Rotation 4

Blog 1

Poem 1


Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll


The poem is a nonsense poem designed by Lewis Carroll as part of Through the Looking Glass. The tone is playful. The explanation on the next pages helps to make the meaning clearer and helps a reader to understand the language that Carroll uses to form his poem. Even with out the explanation, the musical quality of the work and the syntax that he uses give jabberwocky a wonderful childlike appeal. The poem is written in four line stanzas it has a mostly regular rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efgf hihi jklk mnon abab. The rhythm, for the most part, is regular, with some lines varying, usually the last line in the poem. Carroll also uses the internal rhyme, “he left it dead and with its head;” “O frabjous day! Callooh callay.” Examples of alliteration include “gyre” and “gimble,” “mimsy” and “mome,” and “Tum tum and tree.” Another device Carroll uses is to repeat the first stanza at the end of the poem it sets the stage in the story and shows the reader the story is at an end. The language that Carroll uses is, first of all, is dated in style and word choice “t’was,” “has’t thou,” for instance. The most unusual part of the poem is the language the Carroll invents. As humpty dumpty explains the words, Carroll puts together words to create ideas. The following are his “portmanteau” (double meaning) words: “galumphing”—galloping and jumping; “frabjous “—fabulous and joyous; “chortled”—chuckled and snorted; “slithy”—lithe and slimy.

Poem 2


Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

This poem is an eight-line poem with no line breaks. There is basically a regular rhythm except the first and the last lines don’t follow the regular rhythm. Frost uses alliteration, for example, “Her hardest hue to hold.” The theme of Frost’s poem is that nothing beautiful in the world lasts forever. He uses the images of the first green buds of nature that people treasure, which soon disappear. Next, he uses the image of a leaf becoming a flower and then eventually dying as all things do. And he says Eden, a paradise for man, “sank to grief.” In the last two lines, Frost emphasizes once more how time goes on and everything changes and nothing remains the same, “So dawn goes down to day/Nothing gold can stay.”

Cartoon Analysis HIstory

September 22, 2009

History

Political Cartoons Blog

Cartoon 1

The issue the cartoonist is addressing is the United States protection of Cuba from Spain. The cartoonist labels Spain as the villain the U.S as the hero and Cuba as the maiden in distress. He uses the analogy of a stage production to get across his point. The cartoonist’s opinion on the issue seems to be that the journalists are over dramatic in their portrayal in their problems between Spain and Cuba. The cartoon was created before the Spanish American war.

Cartoon 2

The issue the cartoonist is addressing is that many people believe that the U.S. will be so caught up in trying to add other territories just as it had recently added Hawaii, which would cause problems for the country. He labels all the territories: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and Hawaii. He uses the symbol of a disheveled Uncle Sam who is overcome by children. His analogy of the father having trouble taking care of so many children represents America being involved with to many countries at once. This cartoon was created at the beginning of the Spanish American war.

Compare and Contrast

Compare

Both articles were either written before or after the war.

Both articles express negative feelings toward the U.S. going to war.

Contrast

The first article seems to warn the United States really shouldn’t jump in and save other countries from their problems by always being a hero.

The second article seems to say the before we go involved in a war we ought to think about how the results will affect our country.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Rotation 3 Blog 3

Rotation 3

Blog 3

Poem 1

Mending Wall By Robert Frost


The poem is written in a conversational tone as if the poet is speaking to he reader. There is no rhyme or rhythm. The words are easy to understand, but they contain many images. It is written in almost a prose form, with sentences ending in the middle of a line.

The speaker sets out to do a routine farming procedure, replacing stones along a fence separating his neighbor’s orchard from his. However, Frost takes an everyday subject and asks a deeper question, searching for a deeper meaning. He signals that at the beginning of the poem when he says, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” He makes a simple explanation for the damage to the wall— “frozen ground swell,” “hunters,” etc.— but he implies that there is a spiritual force that doesn’t like walls so it tears them down. He goes on to tell of his mending chore with his neighbor. They walk the line together but “ keep the wall between us as we go.” Here Frost implies that they rarely meet and only to complete this task: “and set the wall between us once again.” He compares the repair to an outdoor game, one on a side, not a team, an image that underlines their separateness. Although there is really no need for a wall, his neighbor insists, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Frost expresses his desire to change his circumstances because he sees walls as bad things “what I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence.” When he repeats the phrase “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” Frost actually refers to himself. He compares his neighbor to an “old-stone savage armed.” His purpose, like the savages, was to keep the enemies out. When he says that his neighbor “moves in darkness as it seems to me” Frost suggests the neighbor’s blindness of purpose. Instead of warming to his neighbors and trying to communicate ad become friendly, he is stuck in the past: he will not go behind his fathers saying he clings to tradition.

Rotation 3 Blog 2

Rotation 3

Blog 2

Poem 1

I like to see it lap the Miles By Emily Dickinson

This is a poem in four stanzas. It does not rhyme. The poet achieves a since of connectedness which goes past the line breaks. She uses “and” to string together ideas like the journey of the locomotive. On the other hand she uses dashes to interrupt the lines so that the poem sort of creates a stop and go effect rather like the jerky motion of a train.

The poet compares the train to a horse not just any horse but a spirited horse that gallops proudly around the landscape. She personifies the train as a living thing using action verbs to describe its journey: it “laps” miles “eats” valleys, “steps” around mountains and “pears” into houses. The descriptive adjectives that she uses are also generally used for people: “prodigious” “supercilious” “complaining.”

Throughout the poem the author stress the power of the locomotive until the last several lines when the locomotive is described as “docile and omnipotent.” With these two adjectives, the author seems to say that the horse/locomotive is very powerful but is tamed by the power of man who leads it to its own “stable door,” or station house. All the nouns are capitalized except the last one, “door.“

Poem 2

Annabel Lee By Edgar A. Poe

The poem is very lyric. It has a musical quality created by in rhyme, a regular rhythm internal rhyme repetition of words and phrases and alliteration. The rhyme scheme of the first verse is ababcb; the scheme of the second verse is dbebfb after that the rhyme scheme varies, but each verse has some of the same rhyme sounds, for example the repetition the long e sound in each verse. Examples of words that are repeated often are “sea” “Annabel Lee” “me” “we.” Examples of internal rhymes are “for the moon never beams without brining me dreams,” “And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes.” Phrase that are repeated include “ of the beautiful Annabel Lee”, “to love and be loved”, “many and many.” An example of alliteration is “can ever dissever m soul from the soul,“ “sepulcher by the sea,” tomb by the “sounding sea.” The alliteration is and s sounds like a whisper.

The language is not simple and straightforward. The tone is sorrowful and mournful its created by the words such as sepulcher and chilling killing demons tomb. The poems seems to start out as a simple story at first, but it quickly becomes a bizarre of a man who believed that angles were jealous of his love and so therefore sent a chill wind to kill her. In the end the reader learns that at night-time he lies down by her tomb because he believes their love is stronger than death.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Rotation 3 Blog 1

Rotation 3

Blog 1

Poem 1

London by William Blake

London is a four-stanza poem that has relatively short lines. The poem has a definite rhythm. It has a rhyme scheme, which is abab cdcd efef ghgh. It is a four stanza poem, each with four lines. The poem describes the speaker’s reactions to the people that he meets and the sights that he sees in the streets of London. Blake uses language that is rich in meaning. As indicated in the notes, which go along with the poem, many of the words have connotations, or overtones, that Blake uses to suggest his feelings about the city of London and its government and the way the people have been denied their freedom by the king. For example the streets are “chartered” or restricted. He hears the “ mind forged manacles” or shackles in the voices of the men. In other words everyone feels enslaved there. The churches are “blackening,” either turning black from the soot or figuratively turning black from the corruption of using chimney sweeps to clean them. Blake also describes the way prostitution “plagues” marriage and contaminates the new born babies. Other word choices show the tone of this poem to be somber as well. Some of these include “marks of weakness marks of woe,” repeating the word “cry,” “sigh,” and “curse.” The language of the poem and the images stress Blake’s sense of horror and disgust at the way the speaker sees London in this poem. There is no sense of hope for the future or love for the city.

Poem 2

The winter evening settles down by T.S. Elliot

The poem is not written in stanzas form or verse form. The lines vary from short to very short. The line breaks don’t always reflect the end of a sentence or the end of a thought. It is not always in complete sentences. There is a rhyme scheme although it is irregular and some lines don’t rhyme. The rhyme scheme is abcbddefefegg. The language is simple. Some of the words date the poem as in the past like chimney pots and cab horse. The tone of the poem is dreary and cheerless. The winter evening is described in the terms of routines of the people who live there. The time is six o’clock. It is the “burnt out ends of smoky days,” when the workers are coming home from the factories for their dinner. The description of the winter showers spreading the “grimy leaves” and “newspapers from vacant lots” emphasizes the dirtiness and poverty of the area, as do the “broken blinds and chimney pots.” Everyone has gone inside his or her poor little house and the lights come on. No one is going out for entertainment and fun. Therefore, the cab-horse is lonely.

Friday, September 11, 2009

3 poems in class

Rotaion 3 poem 1 Wild Nights – Wild Nights! By Emily Dickinson

Rhyme scheme

  • · Last word of the Second and fourth line rhyme
  • · 1st stanza abbb
  • · 2nd stanza cdec
  • · 3rd stanza fghg
  • Style tone
  • · very short lines
  • · choppy sentences
  • · uses dashes to emphasize pauses
  • · uses exclamation points to emphasize words such as “Nights!…Chart!… Sea!...Thee!”

Rotation 3 poem 2 I felt a Funeral, in m Brain By Emily Dickinson

Alliteration

· “a service like a drum” metaphor

· “creek across my soul”

Rhyme scheme

· 1st stanza abcd

· 2nd stanza efgf

· 3rd stanza hiji

· 4th stanza klml

· 5th stanza nopq

Figurative language

· boots of lead

· plank in reason

· creak across my soul

· mind was going numb

· as all the heavens were a bell

· hit a world at every plunge

Style

  • · no sentence punctuation
  • · the stanza breaks are at strange points with dashes at the end of most of them
  • · the last stanza it just randomly ends

Rotation 3 poem 3 I’m Nobody! Who are you? By Emily Dickinson

Rhyme scheme

  • · 1st stanza abcb
  • · 2nd stanza defe

Style

  • · uses dashes to lengthen the pauses when used

Naming of Parts by Henry Reed

1) In Henry Reed’s poem Naming of Parts, the language in the first three and a half lines of each stanza is that of an army instructor explaining the parts of a riffle to a now group of soldiers as shown in the first three lines. Stanza 1: “Today we have naming if parts…” The second part of the same stanza is the thoughts of a day dreaming soldier as his mind wanders to a garden scene. “Japonica…”

2) The first half of this stanza describes parts of the rifle and how they work. The second half describes observation of nature. The rifle descriptions are exact and precise. The description of nature uses more imagery.

3) In each stanza there is a phrase with in the stanza that is repeated as the last line of that stanza. While the words are the same they relate to different things. The first being a rifle and how it operates the second to the Japonica plant and its role in nature

4) The effect of using these language differences and similarities is to show what Reed sees as the contest between the world of nature and the World of War.

On another level by using the Japonica flower Reed is expressing anti-atomic bomb sentiments. The origin of the word Japonica is Japan. Reed did not select this flower randomly this is symbolism. Reed indicates that the United States did not have a “point of balance” with the atomic bombing of Japan.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

USDA GOVERNMENT INSPECTED

AFTER THE FACT – USDA Government Inspected.

How effective were the laws?

In 1906 in response to the book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Teddy Roosevelt and his Republican friends in the senate wanted a bill passed that would regulate the meat packing industry. They wanted the secretary of agriculture to administer the law, provide around the clock meat inspections, labeling, and self-financing. In the end there was a compromise that did provide more money from the government for inspections, but the cost was not borne by the processors. The bill did give authority to the Agriculture department with the federal courts as the final judge of the secretary of agriculture’s rulings. The law banned the use of unhealthy dyes, chemical preservatives, or adulterants. More money was provided that allowed a better inspection system that was carried on day and night. Roosevelt had used the office of the President and his proverbial big stick to get the law passed. One of Roosevelt’s best friends, the progressive senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana, said of the President, “It is chiefly to him that we owe the fact that we will get as excellent a bill as we have here.”

Did the laws really create the change that the progressives wanted?

The final law, as passed, did not seem to accomplish what the progressives had wanted. Many compromises had been made. At first it was uncertain how the courts would react to the implementation of the law by the executive department. The amount appropriated by congress turned out to be more than needed and inspections continued. The opposition had fought for total court review with the secretary of agriculture having little authority. It seemed at first that they had been successful in changing the original intent of President Roosevelt in the passage of the law. The meat packers did not challenge the law until 1917 in United States v. Cudahy Packing Co. In this case the federal courts upheld the secretary’s authority. Two years later the Supreme Court narrowed the view and said the labeling of meat “is a question of fact, the determination of which is committed to the Secretary of Agriculture . . ., and the law is that the conclusion of the head of an executive department . . . will not be reviewed by the Courts, where it is fairly arrived at with substantial support.” Finally after thirteen years the progressive movement had the victory that had seemed to evade them in the original passage of the law. The opposition had fought for total court review with the secretary of agriculture having little authority. In the end the Supreme Court supported the progressive side.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

second poem

O Captain! My Captain! - Walt Whitman

Within Walt’s writing the words used are used in a manner that is very old fashioned. The words were not unfamiliar but the contexts in which they are used were slightly confusing. Throughout the poem there was a lot of figurative language and lots of symbolism. The poem was written for Abraham Lincoln’s death and it shows a wide range of emotion from joy to sorrow. The joy was happiness about winning the war and freeing the slaves and at the end of the poem shows the sorrow and despair at what came from winning the war. He portrays Lincoln as a head of a great ship being America. Referring to the ships trip across the sea signifies the civil war and the drawing near to the end of it. He says, “rise up rise up” but the mention of the “pale and still lips” shows the Whitman realizes his great leader is dead. The sentences were long and complex and had old English thrown in to it. Some lines are long and some are short none are direct and none are simple. The poem is split up into three stanzas. At first the poem is cheerful and happy but as the poem nears the death of the captain and the realization of his death it turns dark and depressing. There is a sort of flow to the poem although there is no set rhyming pattern there is a rhythm whilst reading it that naturally occurs.

first poem

Noting Gold Can Stay - Robert Frost

The words are simple and straightforward. The poem feels slightly old fashioned with a contemporary twist to it.

There is a metaphor with in the poem without using like or as its saying that anything good and honest will eventually disappear and no longer exist.

The sentences are simple and direct.

The lines are short and the poem is not in stanzas.

The tone of the poem is at first sight light and airy but after analysis there is a feeling of darkness and hopelessness.

The last word of the first line rhymes with the last word of the second line and the last word of the third with the fourth and the fifth with the sixth.

It is very to the point and displays clearly what the writer want to portray.