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Rotation 6

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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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.