Almost as long as there has been life, war has been a part of it.
Mankind continues to wage war even though the consequences often breed
nothing but misery. However, when a person is called to defend his or
her country, or protect other defenseless people, it is his duty to
fight. There is no question that there is evil in the world and we must
not rest on our laurels and say it is none of our business. We cannot
stand by and watch while others are being persecuted. It is the duty of
mankind to uphold justice.
W.N.Hodgson (1893-1916)
"Before Action"
By all the glories of the day
And the cool evening's benison,
By that last sunset touch that lay
Upon the hills where day was done,
By beauty lavisghly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
Make me a solider, Lord.
By all of man's hopes and fears,
And all the wonders poets sing,
The laughter of unclouded years,
And every sad and lovely thing;
By the romantic ages stored
With high endeavor that was his,
By all his mad catastrophes
Make me a man, O Lord.
I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of Thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say goodbye to all of this;--
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.
sources: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1914warpoets.html
notes:
The soldier is contemplating the impending action (fighting) and asking
that the Lord will help him do his part with honor. War is often
portrayed as glorious and much has been written to glorify war. He has
been blessed to not have had to fight before and did not realize that
this was a blessing because of the warrior mentality of men, especially
soldiers. Most seek to be in the action. Now,
faced with seeing action he is not sure of his abilities to excute his
training. This is a common concern for those seeing action for the first
time. They ask themselves if they will be able to kill as trained when
it comes to the moment. The seriousness of taking another's life is
beginning to hit home.
He is beginning to realize the castarophe of war,
but praying to face his fears and fight like a man. Also, as a man
(someone who is mature) he wants to have the right perspective. War is
not the romantic thing of stories. It costs lives, stills laughter and
is in fact a mad castasrophe.
And now he has come to the realiziation that he may
die very soon. He thinks about not only himself, but of those who went
into action before him and died. If this is also his fate, then let him
die with honor. Many have died even that day and now his turn may come.
He is weighing the cost that he has agreed to pay and prays for strength
to pay the ultimate price if this is his time.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
What Is Drama??
Drama is a literary composition
involving conflict, action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by players on a
stage before an audience. This definition may be applied to motion picture drama as well
as to the traditional stage.
Apply these questions to a recent movie you have seen or a radio or television drama,
Conflict
The Place of the Actor
Work Cited: http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/Drama.htm
Apply these questions to a recent movie you have seen or a radio or television drama,
Conflict
- What did the leading character want?
- What stood in his way? (People - environment- personality, etc,)
- What was the high point of tension or the crisis? (This is where the leading character must make a crucial decision that will effect the outcome of the play.)
- Are the characters true to life or are they types or caricatures?
- How is the character revealed?
- What is the driving force of each leading character?
- If a character changes, are the causes convincing and true to life?
- Are the sets appropriate?
- Are they attractive?
- Are they authentic?
- What is the chief emphasis (ideas, character, atmosphere)?
- What was the purpose? (entertainment, humor, excitement)?
- Is it realistic or romantic?
- Does it show life as it really is or distort life?
- Does it present any problem of human relationship?
- Does it glamorize life and present an artificial happy ending?
- Tragedy -- In general, tragedy involves the ruin of the leading characters. To the Greeks, it meant the destruction of some noble person through fate, To the Elizabethans, it meant in the first place death and in the second place the destruction of some noble person through a flaw in his character. Today it may not involve death so much as a dismal life, Modern tragedy often shows the tragedy not of the strong and noble but of the weak and mean,
- Comedy -- is lighter drama in which the leading characters overcome the difficulties which temporarily beset them
- Problem Play -- Drama of social criticism discusses social, economic, or political problems by means of a play.
- Farce -- When comedy involves ridiculous or hilarious complications without regard for human values, it becomes farce.
- Comedy of Manners -- Comedy which wittily portrays fashionable life.
- Fantasy -- A play sometimes, but not always, in comic spirit in which the author gives free reign to his fantasy, allowing things to happen without regard to reality.
- Melodrama -- Like farce, melodrama pays almost no attention to human values, but its object is to give a thrill instead of a laugh. Often good entertainment, never any literary value.
- Medieval mystery plays -- dealt with Bible stories and allegorical mysteries.
- Chronicle plays -- dealt directly with historical scenes and characters.
- Masques -- were slight plays involving much singing and dancing and costuming. They were usually allegorical.
The Place of the Actor
- The player should respect his play, his part, his fellow players, and his audience.
- He should have imagination enough to create character for us instead of merely exploiting his own personality.
Work Cited: http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/Drama.htm
What is Poetry?
Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is an art form in which human language is used
for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content.
It consists largely of oral or literary works in which language is used in a manner that is
felt by its user and audience to differ from ordinary prose.
It may use condensed or compressed form to convey emotion or ideas to the reader's or listener's mind or ear; it may also use devices such as assonance and repetition to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poems frequently rely for their effect on imagery, word association, and the musical qualities of the language used. The interactive layering of all these effects to generate meaning is what marks poetry.
Because of its nature of emphasising linguistic form rather than using language purely for its content, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another: a possible exception to this might be the Hebrew Psalms, where the beauty is found more in the balance of ideas than in specific vocabulary. In most poetry, it is the connotations and the "baggage" that words carry (the weight of words) that are most important. These shades and nuances of meaning can be difficult to interpret and can cause different readers to "hear" a particular piece of poetry differently. While there are reasonable interpretations, there can never be a definitive interpretation.
Work Cited:
It may use condensed or compressed form to convey emotion or ideas to the reader's or listener's mind or ear; it may also use devices such as assonance and repetition to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poems frequently rely for their effect on imagery, word association, and the musical qualities of the language used. The interactive layering of all these effects to generate meaning is what marks poetry.
Because of its nature of emphasising linguistic form rather than using language purely for its content, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another: a possible exception to this might be the Hebrew Psalms, where the beauty is found more in the balance of ideas than in specific vocabulary. In most poetry, it is the connotations and the "baggage" that words carry (the weight of words) that are most important. These shades and nuances of meaning can be difficult to interpret and can cause different readers to "hear" a particular piece of poetry differently. While there are reasonable interpretations, there can never be a definitive interpretation.
Work Cited:
Monday, September 30, 2013
Turtle Soup by Marilyn Chin
You go home one evening tired from work,
and your mother boils you turtle soup.
Twelve hours hunched over the hearth
(who knows what else is in that cauldron).
You say, "Ma, you've poached the symbol of long life;
that turtle lived four thousand years, swam
the Wet, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze.
Witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang,
grazed on splendid sericulture."
(So, she boils the life out of him.)
"All our ancestors have been fools.
Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles
to kill a famous Manchu and ended up
with his head on a pole? Eat, child,
its liver will make you strong."
"Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice."
Her sobbing is inconsolable.
So, you spread that gentle napkin
over your lap in decorous Pasadena.
Baby, some high priestess has got it wrong.
The golden decal on the green underbelly
says "Made in Hong Kong."
Is there nothing left but the shell
and humanity's strange inscriptions,
the songs, the rites, the oracles?
Sources : http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120223144136AAE3yGy
Exploration of the Text
1. Notice the author's choice of the word "cauldron" in line 4. What images or connections does this word evoke? Why might the author have chosen " cauldron" rather than "pot"?
Cauldron is a large metal pot with a lid and handle, used for cooking over an open fire. The adult who talks says what else is in that cauldron which i would say it's a pan. The images that the persona tried to show os cauldron of turtle soup reflects the ancient Chinese tradition of eating turtles as interpreted by a first generation Chinese-American. In line four at first stanza:
(who knows what else is in that cauldron).
Not only that, there a connection when mother had to kill the turtle for the sake of the children, she believe the turtle can make her children strong. Its has been prove in stanza 3 line 4 and 5.
2. Chin refers to "the Wei," "the Yellow", "the Yangtze." Why does she reference these rivers in China? Why not include the Nile, the Amazon, or the Mississippi?
Chin was refering those thing in her poem because of she tried to expose the readers that its is a culture of chinese heritage but not about the cultural heritage of the other country. the river that she mention in this poem was actually the huge river in chinese and there is where the turtle live for four thousand years. what related to this poem is the turtle is special in chinese tradition because it had an experience through the river that she mention above.
3. What is the tone of the poem?
The tone that suggested in this poem is angry. There a conflict between mother and children when the mother had cooked the turtle soup after the son back to home from work. The persona had make the mother cries show there an argument between them.
You go home one evening tired from work,
and your mother boils you turtle soup.
Ideas of Writing
1. "Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice." Write about this quote within the context of an immigrant family. What might a family gain or lose by moving to a new land?
This poem about turtle soup reflects the ancient Chinese tradition of eating turtles as interpreted by a first generation Chinese poet who tries to remind her mother of what should still be sacred from the old country. In the context of an immigrant, we actually not leaving all the thing that we have. When we move to the other country they automatically bring up your culture along and surely they would practice their culture in a new place, but they might considered the other culture too. In this poem, the persona and the mother are the Chinese family who migrate to somewhere out of China. When the persona back home in one evening feel so tiring, the persona got a situation regarding his/her belief in culture. The mother is boiling turtle soup, in line 2 “and your mother boils you turtle soup.”, something that against and forbidden to do in their belief. Turtle is believed to be sacred because it is the symbol of symbol of longevity, patience, grandeur, and antiquity as stated in line 6 but the irony is that it ends up in a swirling soup far from its ancestral home, poached by her mother, who has no interest in the turtle as a cultural symbol, “that turtle lived four thousand years, swam.” By this situation, the mother had lose her ancient Chinese culture when the moving to the other places.
and your mother boils you turtle soup.
Twelve hours hunched over the hearth
(who knows what else is in that cauldron).
You say, "Ma, you've poached the symbol of long life;
that turtle lived four thousand years, swam
the Wet, up the Yellow, over the Yangtze.
Witnessed the Bronze Age, the High Tang,
grazed on splendid sericulture."
(So, she boils the life out of him.)
"All our ancestors have been fools.
Remember Uncle Wu who rode ten thousand miles
to kill a famous Manchu and ended up
with his head on a pole? Eat, child,
its liver will make you strong."
"Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice."
Her sobbing is inconsolable.
So, you spread that gentle napkin
over your lap in decorous Pasadena.
Baby, some high priestess has got it wrong.
The golden decal on the green underbelly
says "Made in Hong Kong."
Is there nothing left but the shell
and humanity's strange inscriptions,
the songs, the rites, the oracles?
Sources : http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120223144136AAE3yGy
Exploration of the Text
1. Notice the author's choice of the word "cauldron" in line 4. What images or connections does this word evoke? Why might the author have chosen " cauldron" rather than "pot"?
Cauldron is a large metal pot with a lid and handle, used for cooking over an open fire. The adult who talks says what else is in that cauldron which i would say it's a pan. The images that the persona tried to show os cauldron of turtle soup reflects the ancient Chinese tradition of eating turtles as interpreted by a first generation Chinese-American. In line four at first stanza:
(who knows what else is in that cauldron).
Not only that, there a connection when mother had to kill the turtle for the sake of the children, she believe the turtle can make her children strong. Its has been prove in stanza 3 line 4 and 5.
2. Chin refers to "the Wei," "the Yellow", "the Yangtze." Why does she reference these rivers in China? Why not include the Nile, the Amazon, or the Mississippi?
Chin was refering those thing in her poem because of she tried to expose the readers that its is a culture of chinese heritage but not about the cultural heritage of the other country. the river that she mention in this poem was actually the huge river in chinese and there is where the turtle live for four thousand years. what related to this poem is the turtle is special in chinese tradition because it had an experience through the river that she mention above.
3. What is the tone of the poem?
The tone that suggested in this poem is angry. There a conflict between mother and children when the mother had cooked the turtle soup after the son back to home from work. The persona had make the mother cries show there an argument between them.
You go home one evening tired from work,
and your mother boils you turtle soup.
Ideas of Writing
1. "Sometimes you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice." Write about this quote within the context of an immigrant family. What might a family gain or lose by moving to a new land?
This poem about turtle soup reflects the ancient Chinese tradition of eating turtles as interpreted by a first generation Chinese poet who tries to remind her mother of what should still be sacred from the old country. In the context of an immigrant, we actually not leaving all the thing that we have. When we move to the other country they automatically bring up your culture along and surely they would practice their culture in a new place, but they might considered the other culture too. In this poem, the persona and the mother are the Chinese family who migrate to somewhere out of China. When the persona back home in one evening feel so tiring, the persona got a situation regarding his/her belief in culture. The mother is boiling turtle soup, in line 2 “and your mother boils you turtle soup.”, something that against and forbidden to do in their belief. Turtle is believed to be sacred because it is the symbol of symbol of longevity, patience, grandeur, and antiquity as stated in line 6 but the irony is that it ends up in a swirling soup far from its ancestral home, poached by her mother, who has no interest in the turtle as a cultural symbol, “that turtle lived four thousand years, swam.” By this situation, the mother had lose her ancient Chinese culture when the moving to the other places.
This poem in a way also talks
about tradition and long life and there is conflict happened between the persona
and the mother. The persona was angry to his/her mother for cooking the turtle
soup which is against in their culture while the mother was cooking the turtle
soup for the sake of her child as stated in line 14 and 15 “Eat, child, its
liver will make you strong.” The son was complaining about the mother killing
the four thousand year old turtle for a turlte soup, but the mother just tells
him to eat it. What I got out of the quote above is that the son should just
eat the turtle and be grateful because it was sacrificed to help him live and
stay strong.
It also talks about the circle of life when it mentions "Sometimes
you're the life, sometimes the sacrifice." Furthermore, the mother has
sacrificed for him too. She has moved away from her home country to a foreign
one, she has lost some of her culture, her history, her relatives and even her
son makes her feel like an outsider.The persona wants his/her mother to
preserve their cultural heritage because both of them now are far from China,
the persona still want to keep their culture and shall not forget those of it.
Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note by Amiri Baraka
PREFACE TO A TWENTY VOLUME SUICIDE NOTE
By: Amiri Baraka
Lately, I've become accustomed to the way
The ground opens up and envelopes me
Each time I go out to walk the dog.
Or the broad edged silly music the wind
Makes when I run for a bus...
Things have come to that.
And now, each night I count the stars.
And each night I get the same number.
And when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.
Nobody sings anymore.
And then last night I tiptoed up
To my daughter's room and heard her
Talking to someone, and when I opened
The door, there was no one there...
Only she on her knees, peeking into
Her own clasped hands
The ground opens up and envelopes me
Each time I go out to walk the dog.
Or the broad edged silly music the wind
Makes when I run for a bus...
Things have come to that.
And now, each night I count the stars.
And each night I get the same number.
And when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.
Nobody sings anymore.
And then last night I tiptoed up
To my daughter's room and heard her
Talking to someone, and when I opened
The door, there was no one there...
Only she on her knees, peeking into
Her own clasped hands
Explorations of the Text
1.
What is the mood
of the speaker in the opening lines? What images suggest his feelings?
The
mood of the speaker in the opening lines is despair, alienation, and self-depression.
“Preface to a Twenty-Volume Suicide Note” was filled with images of the stultifying life of
convention and respectability. From the first stanza, the line “Lately, I’ve become accustomed to the way”,
and “Or the broad edged silly music the
wind” show the speaker’s feeling of depression. Then, the images of American popular culture like allusions to jazz and popular
music and references to characters present in a good number of the works.
2.
What is the
significance of the daughter’s gesture of peeking into “her own clasped hands”?
The
daughter’s gesture of peeking into “her own clasped hands” is the daughter still have faith and hope in God and it
shows that there's still hope for the prayers to be
answered by God. in the daughter's eyes which probably the
reason why the speaker do not end up his life with suicide.
3.
What does the
title mean? How does it explain the closing line?
The
title “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” means expresses dislocation and political stasis, implicitly questioning the role of the poet as a social voice of suicides. There also had its religious aspect. When the father had gone into his daughter’s room, he found her praying. He go to daughter's room
and heard her. Talking to someone, and when he opened. Only she on her knees, peeking into. Her own
clasped hands.” Just speaking into her own clasp hands, as it seems from
his point of view. It shows that the father does not have a
strong relationship with God as we can see
from the last stanza The closing line shows that there is still hope when the daughter pray to God.
4.
Why does Baraka
have three short lines, separated as stanzas? How do they convey the message of
the poem?
Baraka
separated the short lines as stanzas because he have an important message in each stanza. Futhermore, he make readers easy to understand what he tried to say and the readers could follow their messages better.
5.
Why does Baraka
begin stanzas with “Lately”, “And now” and “And then”? What do these transition
words accomplish?
Baraka
used the words in the beginning of the stanzas to show the
order of events in his poem. These words make the readers understand
the reason why he wanted to commit suicide, his expression and the
incident that make him back to the reality which make him responsible to his intention.
6.
How does the
speaker feel about his daughter? What does she represent to him?
The speaker feels blame and responsinle when he saw her daughter on that night. Her daughter want a guider along the way she do in her life. She represents of loveness and hopeness that makes the speaker woke up from a world of selfish.
Sources: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/baraka/onlinepoems.htm
Thursday, September 26, 2013
“A million tear”
“A million tear”
by Nurhidayah Yusop
Peaceful world hard to be
When come to a million tear out there,
See the days go by and still I wonder why
I wonder why it has to be this way
I wonder why it has to be this way
Destroying dreams
in a blink of an eye
Like drops of rain in the sun's light
A million tear wishing you were here
Hoping this day
will be the last.
My hands are tied
My head is dizzy
My eyes have cried
My head is dizzy
My eyes have cried
Taking away everyone dear to my heart
One day we'll all be free
And we proud to be
Singing songs of freedom
And we proud to be
Singing songs of freedom
Feeling peaceful till the end of the days.
Explanation:
I
wrote this poem inspired from Shihab Nye’s “All Things Not Considered”. After I read it, the poem was about inhumanity of soldiers that killed
innocent people especially the kids. So, I create this poem to express my wish to against this unhuminity problem and Im hoping this would be last and we live in peace.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Incident by Countee Cullen
Incident
by Countee Cullen
by Countee Cullen
Once
riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled,
head-filled with glee,
I
saw a Baltimorean
Keep
looking straight at me.
Now
I was eight and very small,
And
he was no whit bigger,
And
so I smiled, but he poked out
His
tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”
I
saw the whole of Baltimore
From
May until December;
Of
all the things that happened there
That’s
all that I remember.
Explorations of the text
1) What is the nature of the interactions between the two boys?
- The interactions between the two boys is about the different between black and white people during that time and its called racism in 1925. There also a prejudice side in this poem
2) Why does the speaker remember nothing more than the incident,even though he lived in Baltimore from 'May until December"?
- In my opinion, the speaker which were the kids just remember bad thing when people insult or hurt them whether mentally or physically. For example when someone called him as a "nigger"
The reading/ writing connection
1) In a paragraph,compare your experience of prejudice with the persona in the poem?
- My experience about prejudice when i was in secondary school. My friend told me that i'm the one who not supposed to be prefect because i'm not a good ones. As a friend we must be supporting each other rather than condemning a friend that maybe you dont know well inside. They look down of me but they don;t know me well.
Ideas for writing
1)what do its form and rhyme add to this poem?
- The rhyme in this poem is ABCB. This poem contain 3 stanza and 4 line in each stanza.
2) What is the power of language? What are the effects of the use of the term nigger?
- My point of view,the power of language is how we use the language and the effects when the receiver is understand or not what we are trying to say. Whether the information is delivered well or not. The effects when using the term "nigger" that insulting people really make the kids down deep because the kids know what term is used for.
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