De'Sour et Le'Unfitting!

            When reading the poem telling tales of the tragedies the war had to offer, it disgusted me. Even after this poem was published, the same concept of war still stood in today's time. When we think about wars, we think about the bombs, the gas attacks, the emptiness black spots in today's soldiers' eyes, the constant "ecstasy of fumbling" for their lives and having consequences that tore many families' lives apart. How is it sweet and fitting for a soldier to die and leave behind a wife? A child who would never grow up to know who his father was and probably only has a dogtag with his father's name inscribed on it that his father's best friend, who managed to grab the dogtag before the bomb blew off his leg? He was probably the same guy who had to "fling him in" [behind the wagon]. Oh, that's very fitting and sweet, indeed!
            And on top of that, if men were to think that maybe they didn't want to serve our country because, for once, they wanted to be selfish and grow old with grandchildren running around and look back to their lives and say, "t'was a fitting and sweet life!" without the damages of the war etched in their memories. They, then, probably would have been slapped with saying such as "you should be ashamed of yourself" or "you are no longer honorable in the eyes of United States." Isn't it fitting and sweet to be a citizen of United States and be a peaceful person, is it not fitting and sweet to live life in harmony and peace with no hatred or jealousy in this world? But since the world is full of war and violence, it is now de' sour et le' unfitting!

"Dulce et Decorum Est" For honor, love, and Country?

Who is to decide what is sweet or fitting for another. Judgement such as this is in the hands of God, not humans. The title of this poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est," and the mood of the poem are on two completely different ends of the spectrum. The title is portraying to be an honor and sweet to die for your country. The poem on the other hand describes the absolute horror that war has to offer. "If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood / Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs" ( Owen l. 21-2). This doesn't sound sweet. It could be your best friend that is lying there on the ground with a shot to the lung and is bleeding out. Now you've lost your friend and they say that his death was for a cause and that he did his country proud. Well then I have to ask the question how will his death benefit anything? How will the death of anyone benefit? Going through the kind of fear that one goes through in war can not be put into words. The feelings they feel or the things they bare witness to. There is nothing "sweet" about dieing, or war for that matter. I believe that the phrase, and title of the poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est," was said by a nobleman who did not have to fight battles. He rather sat back and mealy watched them unfold. No matter what was lost the end result is what mattered. The loss of a life to them was for the betterment of the cause.

Jason Brown

Ozymandias

This was a great poem, i mean the meaning that was said in this and how many people was speaking in the poem, which i didn't catch until class today but when we talked about it, it great! To me this poem seemed like a ruler/King thought that he had it all. I mean you can only have some much power until you get over powered by your own power, and what i mean is that, you have some much power that you think that no one can conquer you. You can live this great life and have made something out of nothing or made something out of something, it doesn't matter because you come into this world alone and you are going to leave this world alone i think. In this poem is kind of shows that I believe, Of how he had can all this way and all of his works, that he wouldn't be able to take with him when he dies and you can only be remembered for so long so over time people are going to for get what happened and someone else is going take that place where you use to be.

Blog of "Ozymandias"

I totally got this "Clash of the Titans" feel from this story. The imagery painted a very mythological picture for me. A slain Greek statue that once held strength fallen weakly to the ground lying there in shambles but still with smirk of invincibility, "And a wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command". This poem held a lot of irony because the statue like most soldiers feel as if they are invincible as long as they have weapons and military to follow. Allowing themselves to get large egos, and the fact that they will always continue reign. But like the way all wars result someone loses control and as whole everyone loses soul because war can never be looked at without looking at the damages. "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." The statue that was most likely created to give as a gift to some ruler or head commander is really just a fallen victim to the violence and destruction of war. The statue is a joke.

Revision of blog A

At first when I started to read this novel I figured some how it wouldn't be so modern I mean not that I think the nineteen nineties is modern but it was not that long ago. The first thing I found interesting in the novel was the relationship between Amir and Baba, The fact that baba was this strapping manly man with a quaint poet son for a writer and their inner battles to relate and create a relationship very familiar. Ive seen situations like this growing up with some of my male friends their fathers wanting them to be football playing ESPN watching types but instead they were more into skating and the Dead Kennedy's, they each too had mutual love and respect but found it very hard to find common ground and acceptance.They big difference with them and Baba and Amir's relationship is that Baba blames Amir for the death of his love and return Amir accepts this blame which is completely twisted no innocent newborn can be blamed for his mothers death. "And maybe, just maybe, I would finally be pardoned for killing my mother."(pg56). That statement is like he's saying sorry for his mother who made the choice to have a child and loved while he grew inside I pretty sure any true mother would give her life for her child even she had no choice. One part of the story that I find funny is when the boys find out John Wayne is not Iranian and didn't speak Farsi, "Hassan and I were stunned, Dazed. John Wayne didn't really speak Farsi and he wasn't Iranian! He was American, just like the friendly, long haired men and women we always saw hanging around Kabul, dressed in their tattered, brightly colored shirts". Thats also funny they have hippies.

"Digging" into "Digging"

The poem “Digging” by Seamus Heaney starts out with the lines “Between my finger and my thumb/The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”(l. 1-2). The speaker is telling the reader that in that moment he is actually holding their pen writing this poem. Then he looks out his window to see his father “digging” in a garden (l. 5). The image of his father triggers a memory from “twenty years” ago (l. 7) when his father had to dig “potatoes” in order to feed his family (l. 13). With the lines “By God, the old man could handle a spade/Just like his old man.” we learn that shovels have historically been an important tool for his family (l. 15-16). The lines “The squat pen rests./I’ll dig with it” tells us thathe has replaced the shovel with a pen.

The Hidden Lesson In, "My Papa's Waltz"

"My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke, can be read many ways. At first glance I had the tendency to take it a completely different way then the second time. The first time I read it was a child being abused by his father. The line that made me think this way was, "The whiskey on your breath/Could make a small boy dizzy: " (Roethke l. 1-2). Seeing as how this was the opening line by the speaker, to me, it made it seem like the father was a drunk. So drunk in fact that he could make you drunk just by breathing on you. However, after I dug into the poem more I began to see a completely different side. A side of a father and son having fun. A father actually teaching his son to waltz. "You beat time on my head" (Roethke l. 13). The father here is actually helping his son keep in step. This is indication that there isn't abuse, but rather a boys father teaching him. The next indication that it is not a poem of abuse is, "Then waltzed me off to bed" (Roethke l. 15). Here is where the poem is ending. The father and son have spent their time dancing the night away. Perhaps the father is trying to put his son to sleep, seeing as that is where the story ends. This poem has the possibility of being read different ways, you just have to take the time to see them.

Doe Season: Magic Realist Language

In "Doe Season" by David Kaplan many literary forces contribute to making the story a great piece of writing. In the sense of contributing to the story's development characters play the most dominant role, along with setting as a close second. However, language seems to hold its own significance in the story, and even has its own name. Magic realism is a term I was opened up to as I read the background information about the author, presented before the text. This term can be defined as; "working outside the borders of traditional fantasy writing, seamlessly interweaving magical elements with detailed, realistically drawn 'everyday' settings. " For me, magic realism serves to turn an otherwise uninteresting text into an amazingly thought provoking work of art, and this is a great thing. If I were to have judged "Doe Season" simply by its title I would have assumed the story was about hunting, and tossed it aside, regarding it as another lame story about traditional male hobbies. Well, needless to say, I am very glad I didn't , and am grateful for being (in a sense) forced to read it.
Within the first line of "Doe Season" a reader can clearly identify what language can be considered as magic realism, "They were always the same woods, she thought sleepily as they drove through the early morning darkness - deep and immense, covered with yesterday's snowfall" (456) Before I was aware that such a thing as magic realism existed I was noting what great images lines such as this create in my head, never before did I imagine such an elaborate image can be conveyed about woods with such a short set of words. Throughout the story these images continue to be conveyed via beautiful descriptive language, and serve to engage the reader in every scene and setting. "Doe Season" has not only opened up my mind to the amazing works of David Kaplan, but taught me about a new literary technique that I will constantly be looking for in the world of writing.

Awesome band name

"The undertakers cosmetics."
thought i'd share that

Barbie doll

When i first read this i have to admit i related to it quite much. I know what it is like to not fit in for people to see for who you are not and using pain to hide your own existence so much that you end up hiding yourself completely and losing who you are,"Her good nature wore out" "like a fan belt" she snapped and the way she ended could have been symbolically a sucide or maybe a sucide of her innerself either way its a tradegy. A tradegy how women constently sacrifice themselves in many forms just to be accepted, we all might not sell to the same crowds but eventually we do lose a little to an opposing part, that part could be physically, emotionaly or soulful,"So she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up". I hate the end because of the statement "To every Women a happy ending" it reminds me that no matter how much you love yourself you still will be admiring the other girl for something you do not have.

A Memory on Paper

            After reading "Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year" written by Raymond Carver, I had a couple of questions because some of the lines in the poem was not quite clear. When the narrator said, "yet how can I say thank you," (l. 14) it left me wondering what the narrator had wanted to say thank you for. To me it seemed that the narrator didn't know his father as much as a child growing up with his father would, as evidenced by this quote, "Here in this dank, unfamiliar kitchen," (l. 1). It seemed that he came to visit his father in a unfamiliar location, obviously a kitchen he never grew up in.
            Maybe the narrator wanted to say thank you for not passing down the father's traits to him (which in this poem, is the love for fishing [the yellow perch] and alcohol). As for myself, I can totally relate to the person looking at his father's picture and analyzing it with thoughts of thanks and the inability to relate to the father for his hobbies because I am the same way with the pictures that have been passed down in my family. How can you truly know someone if all you have is a photograph, much less have the same hobbies? Yet, it is possible to be able to read the inner thoughts of someone through the eyes as the narrator was able to, "But the eyes give him away," (l. 11) because I have been able to notice the emotions in people's eyes in photographs that I have seen whether it is from my family or photographs that belong to my friends.

Barbie Doll: A Broader Understanding

After reading "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy I had many questions concerning the last stanza. "Her good nature wore out/like a fan belt/so she cut off her nose and legs/and offered them up" (l. 15-18) These lines indicate a possible suicide, and have a sacrificial tone to them. At first I wasn't confident in the idea that the girl did indeed commit suicide nor did i feel positive Piercy intended to convey a sacrificial tone. Although, as I looked into other possible meanings to these lines such as cutting and plastic surgery the message became apparent, and once considering the context of these lines and all possible messages, suicide and sacrifice make the most sense. The context in this poem seems to be very significant in the writings' over all understanding, "In the casket..." and "with the undertaker's cosmetics..." (l. 19-20) struck me as concrete evidence for her suicide, rather than the idea of cutting or plastic surgery.
What I found most interesting about "Barbie Doll" was the sarcasm laced throughout, along with a more vulgar and tragic tone towards the end. The tones of vulgarity and sarcasm in a poem entitled "Barbie Doll" inspire a high interest in learning more about Marge Piercy, and I intend to look into her background, and become more familiar with her poetry.

I feel that the poem Digging is about someone that has a great relationship with there father. It shows in this poem that he really cares for what his family did to get what they wanted in the way of life. In the poem it talks about a pen in relation with a shade. When i was reading this poem it seemed that this boy was talked about a memory that had happened when he was younger watching his father and grandfather work for there money. How they were down on there hands and knee doing hard work to get the money that would let there family live a pretty good life.
The title Digging seems to me that the son of the father that did really hard work to support his family was not doing what his father had to do when he was a young child, at which he does he digging=making a living by using a pen to do his work and that he doesn't have to be down on the ground working to support his family but is every proud to say that his father and grandfather were strong men for what they had to do for there family and now he has to do work with a pen to support his family. I really enjoyed that reading for this poem, it was really interesting how you can pick this from a poem like this and understand it more.

Poems

I think that poems are a great way to say what is on your mind, when you can't tell the person that you are speaking about in person. Poems have a lot of great meaning and can for the most part tell you about someone a lot if what is in there poem is what they real mean. I can write poems sometime but i have to be in this mood that i can't describe...I wonder if that is what happens with other people that can write poems. I can't just go and write a poem off the top of my head. The Poems that i have read are really great and i really enjoy reading them. Poetry is one of the best writtings that a person can write i think and yeah i know that other people think differently but that is what this world is all about. I hope that everyone enjoys reading poetry as much as i do and can't wait to come back to class!