1. I think the tiger came out of the door. Remember that she is a slightly barbaric girl, because she shares blood with her father. If it were any other girl, I would have thought that the lady came out of the door. Most lovers care so much for each other that, even though it would kill to see the other with another person, if it can so much as save their lives, then they'll pretend they don't care. We always see this in movies and books. The sacrifice of the lover. It would have been more reasonable to have let the lady come out the door. But she's not reasonable, is she? Her face was white in the crowds. Because she knew he was going to die. Her face would have been red or blotchy if she knew she were going to give him to another girl. Jealousy does not make you white.
2. The plot has a nice introduction, and sets everything up well. The events start going up hill when the princess' lover finds he has to go to trial. The climax is when she gives him her sign and he opens the door. But then there is no falling action, and there is no resolution. This story just leaves you hanging there, not knowing what the actual outcome of the story is. It lets you choose what you think. I hate stories like that. The father is a barbaric person. How could he do that to his own daughter? I think he cares more for his arena than his daughter. That's a really nice father... And a daughter with this kind of father would have obviously tried to hide everything from her father. She hides the fact that she loves someone, hides the fact that she knows which door is which, and hides even from her lover what she's going to do. The princess is a person of insecurities. She is only half-barbaric. The princess' lover, I think, is a very nice person. Can't even seem to think that his love would kill him. I feel bad for him. He gives his trust to her but she betrays it. Sad. There aren't as many figurative sentences in the story as I thought. Maybe because this story just gives you the bones of the story. It's not long, and it's not detailed. But it's a good story.
One example I could find:
"This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own." Simile.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
My Elegy: Someone Like You
What happened to lead us to all of this?
When my troubles were deep, you were not there.
I was alone as if in an abyss.
I thought our close friendship would never wear.
You were the bestest friend I ever had.
We used to hangout all the time, us two.
My handkerchief whenever I was sad,
My partner when there was trouble to brew.
You aren’t those things to me like you were then,
But I just know you are for someone new.
We’ll both just have to make some friends again.......
Maybe I’ll find someone just like you.
When my troubles were deep, you were not there.
I was alone as if in an abyss.
I thought our close friendship would never wear.
You were the bestest friend I ever had.
We used to hangout all the time, us two.
My handkerchief whenever I was sad,
My partner when there was trouble to brew.
You aren’t those things to me like you were then,
But I just know you are for someone new.
We’ll both just have to make some friends again.......
Maybe I’ll find someone just like you.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Free Verse & Blank Verse
FREE VERSE:
Regret is like the glass pitcher
shattering as it hits the ground
CRASH!
Those million shards scream with hate.
Hate for me.
No amount of words
and absolutely no amount of actions
can persuade those pieces to be together again.
My life. A humpty-dumpty.
I spend the rest of my time
wondering what could have happened and
what my life could be like,
who I could be now,
who I could become.
And most of all,
who I can
never
be.
BLANK VERSE:
Without a single word you left,
silent as a summer breeze.
Though summer breezes skip along
bringing smiles to everyone’s faces,
this one came with something different.
It brought lunches, sitting alone.
Brought weekends full of nothing but work.
And also the long nights I’d wait
for you to come on MSN.
You tore my loving heart in two,
like Moses and the deep Red Sea,
and you took a half of myself
leaving me with half of me.
My life became an empty room.
All the pictures still on the walls,
the furniture all in its place,
but no one left to live in me.
Because you left without a trace.
Regret is like the glass pitcher
shattering as it hits the ground
CRASH!
Those million shards scream with hate.
Hate for me.
No amount of words
and absolutely no amount of actions
can persuade those pieces to be together again.
My life. A humpty-dumpty.
I spend the rest of my time
wondering what could have happened and
what my life could be like,
who I could be now,
who I could become.
And most of all,
who I can
never
be.
BLANK VERSE:
Without a single word you left,
silent as a summer breeze.
Though summer breezes skip along
bringing smiles to everyone’s faces,
this one came with something different.
It brought lunches, sitting alone.
Brought weekends full of nothing but work.
And also the long nights I’d wait
for you to come on MSN.
You tore my loving heart in two,
like Moses and the deep Red Sea,
and you took a half of myself
leaving me with half of me.
My life became an empty room.
All the pictures still on the walls,
the furniture all in its place,
but no one left to live in me.
Because you left without a trace.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sonnets
Sonnet 27 - William Shakespeare
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
Lament - S. Alan Burgess
First glance, I see your beautiful brown eyes.
I fall immediately under your spell.
Slipping into a dream, I hear love's sighs
The dream turns out to be a living Hell.
When you said you loved me, did you mean it?
Your lie is poisonous as blackened sin.
Your beauty cannot hide your soul, the pit.
Release the demon that has lain within.
I've looked into your eyes to find your soul
Wherever it has gone, I do not know.
Your mind controls the 'shell' it plays the role.
Your love is ice, as you know how to show.
Though you have proved the demon, played the role
I find all beauty in your broken soul.
ANALYSIS:
The picture for the Shakespearean sonnet is a boy dreaming sweet dreams. The sonnet talks of a guy who, even when physically weary, will always think of his girl. It's love in a sweet form. The picture for the modern sonnet, on the other hand, is a fiery heart. It's love alright, but a love from hell. That's no love at all. A fake love. Why is it that for some reason, it seems the meaning of love has changed over the years?
The poems both have 10 syllables for each line (except maybe the second line in the modern sonnet... I really don't get that) and both have iambic petameter (half the syllables are stressed, half are not). Also, they have the same rhyme scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG. Both have 14 lines, and only one stanza. The Shakespearean sonnet uses a bunch of words from his time, and most people have a hard time understanding it, (although this, I believe, is one of the easier ones). But then anyone nowadays could read the modern sonnet and understand what was happening. Change in language style over the years. But they both still contain the same format for a sonnet, and both talk about emotions.
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travail tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired.
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see.
Save that my soul’s imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.
Lo thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
Lo thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
Lament - S. Alan Burgess
First glance, I see your beautiful brown eyes.
I fall immediately under your spell.
Slipping into a dream, I hear love's sighs
The dream turns out to be a living Hell.
When you said you loved me, did you mean it?
Your lie is poisonous as blackened sin.
Your beauty cannot hide your soul, the pit.
Release the demon that has lain within.
I've looked into your eyes to find your soul
Wherever it has gone, I do not know.
Your mind controls the 'shell' it plays the role.
Your love is ice, as you know how to show.
Though you have proved the demon, played the role
I find all beauty in your broken soul.
ANALYSIS:
The picture for the Shakespearean sonnet is a boy dreaming sweet dreams. The sonnet talks of a guy who, even when physically weary, will always think of his girl. It's love in a sweet form. The picture for the modern sonnet, on the other hand, is a fiery heart. It's love alright, but a love from hell. That's no love at all. A fake love. Why is it that for some reason, it seems the meaning of love has changed over the years?
The poems both have 10 syllables for each line (except maybe the second line in the modern sonnet... I really don't get that) and both have iambic petameter (half the syllables are stressed, half are not). Also, they have the same rhyme scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG. Both have 14 lines, and only one stanza. The Shakespearean sonnet uses a bunch of words from his time, and most people have a hard time understanding it, (although this, I believe, is one of the easier ones). But then anyone nowadays could read the modern sonnet and understand what was happening. Change in language style over the years. But they both still contain the same format for a sonnet, and both talk about emotions.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Villanelle: "The Waking"
I think that the meaning of this poem is life. If I break down the first line, it would go something like "I live to die, and live my life slowly." He uses an analogy of waking and sleeping to living and dying. The second part, I think he takes life slowly, drinking it all in. That's the first refrain. The second refrain, "I learn by going where I have to go", has a deeper meaning too. I think that what he means by that line is that you learn how to live by living. You can't learn what to do without doing and trying it. These two ideas must be important in the poem, because together, they are repeated 8 times throughout the whole thing. He thinks life is precious, that we don't have that much time: "Great Nature has another thing to do/ To you and me; so take the lively air,". The rest of the poem, I admit, I don't understand. There may be even more to it than I see. But I think that this is what he means.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Ballads
TRADITIONAL BALLAD:
We are Seven - William Wordsworth
A Simple Child,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
I met a little cottage Girl: (A)
She was eight years old, she said; (B)
Her hair was thick with many a curl (A)
That clustered round her head. (B)
She had a rustic, woodland air, (C)
And she was wildly clad: (D)
Her eyes were fair, and very fair; (C)
--Her beauty made me glad. (D)
"Sisters and brothers, little Maid, (E)
How many may you be?" (F)
"How many? Seven in all," she said (E)
And wondering looked at me. (F)
"And where are they? I pray you tell."
She answered, "Seven are we;
And two of us at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea.
"Two of us in the church-yard lie,
My sister and my brother;
And, in the church-yard cottage, I
Dwell near them with my mother."
"You say that two at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea,
Yet ye are seven!--I pray you tell,
Sweet Maid, how this may be."
Then did the little Maid reply,
"Seven boys and girls are we;
Two of us in the church-yard lie,
Beneath the church-yard tree."
"You run above, my little Maid,
Your limbs they are alive;
If two are in the church-yard laid,
Then ye are only five."
MY RESPONSE: Firstly, I'll analyze the meter and rhyme of this poem. I think that the meter throughout most of the poem is 4-3-4-3 but I'm not entirely sure. There's a clear rhyme scheme of ABAB throughout the whole ballad (except for in the first stanza). And, these rhymes aren't like the rhymes in my modern ballad (look below) because they are pure rhymes, not just vowel-sound rhymes.
Next, I will analyze the repetitions and message of this poem. If you continue reading the rest of the poem (I have only posted a portion of it) you can see that there is a repetition of the words "we are seven" or "seven are we". That is because the little girl is so convinced that she has 7 siblings. She probably did, once. But two are dead, and so technically, they are 5 now. But she's convinced herself SO much that her family has 7 kids that no one could tell her otherwise. The message of this poem is not being able to cope with death.
MODERN BALLAD:
Way Back Into Love - Hugh Grant & Haley Bennett
MY RESPONSE: If I were to analyze this modern day ballad, according to meter, rhyme, repetition, and the message of the song, it's very similar to a traditional ballad. Firstly, I don't think there is a meter to this ballad. At least, no meter of traditional pattern. There is definitely a rhyme scheme though. Most lines are AABB, with some slight rhymes that don't work when read, but work with the pronunciation in the song. Mainly the last, clearly-heard vowel sound is what makes this rhyme scheme work. "Again" and "end" don't exactly rhyme, but they have the same last vowel sound.
There is repetition of the line "All I wanna do is find a way back into love". It is repeated twice in just the first chorus. There isn't really much other repetition of this line in verses (just the chorus) and there aren't other lines that repeat. The message of this ballad is a story about a girl who wants to fall in love. I'm guessing the story is a girl gets her heart broken, and hasn't loved since, but now she wants to fall in love, and she's wanting the special guy to help her love again.
MY BALLAD:
To Live Again - Kristen Kim
I remember that first day,
when we were in the book store,
you gave a little smile my way,
and I dropped my book to the floor.
I left that book right where it fell,
my face going pink as I went,
when, as graceful as an angel,
you gave me my book like a gent.
You said, "Miss, I think you've dropped your book,"
and my face turned even more red
but I looked in your eyes and gave you my look
of 'please-mean-more-than-you-said!'
You read that look right off my face,
and continued on to ask me to dinner.
I said, "Thanks for cutting to the chase,"
and with a smile, "I'll give you my number."
I must admit I'd never been braver,
than that moment in the book store,
but you were so cute and quite so clever,
how could I admire, but do nothing more?
I cherish that very first day that we met,
with all the love I could give.
How could I really ever forget,
the day I truly started to live?
We are Seven - William Wordsworth
A Simple Child,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
I met a little cottage Girl: (A)
She was eight years old, she said; (B)
Her hair was thick with many a curl (A)
That clustered round her head. (B)
She had a rustic, woodland air, (C)
And she was wildly clad: (D)
Her eyes were fair, and very fair; (C)
--Her beauty made me glad. (D)
"Sisters and brothers, little Maid, (E)
How many may you be?" (F)
"How many? Seven in all," she said (E)
And wondering looked at me. (F)
"And where are they? I pray you tell."
She answered, "Seven are we;
And two of us at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea.
"Two of us in the church-yard lie,
My sister and my brother;
And, in the church-yard cottage, I
Dwell near them with my mother."
"You say that two at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea,
Yet ye are seven!--I pray you tell,
Sweet Maid, how this may be."
Then did the little Maid reply,
"Seven boys and girls are we;
Two of us in the church-yard lie,
Beneath the church-yard tree."
"You run above, my little Maid,
Your limbs they are alive;
If two are in the church-yard laid,
Then ye are only five."
MY RESPONSE: Firstly, I'll analyze the meter and rhyme of this poem. I think that the meter throughout most of the poem is 4-3-4-3 but I'm not entirely sure. There's a clear rhyme scheme of ABAB throughout the whole ballad (except for in the first stanza). And, these rhymes aren't like the rhymes in my modern ballad (look below) because they are pure rhymes, not just vowel-sound rhymes.
Next, I will analyze the repetitions and message of this poem. If you continue reading the rest of the poem (I have only posted a portion of it) you can see that there is a repetition of the words "we are seven" or "seven are we". That is because the little girl is so convinced that she has 7 siblings. She probably did, once. But two are dead, and so technically, they are 5 now. But she's convinced herself SO much that her family has 7 kids that no one could tell her otherwise. The message of this poem is not being able to cope with death.
MODERN BALLAD:
Way Back Into Love - Hugh Grant & Haley Bennett
I've been living with a shadow overhead (A)
I've been sleeping with a cloud above my bed (A)
I've been lonely for so long (B)
Trapped in the past, I just can't seem to move on (B)
I've been hiding all my hopes and reams away (C)
Just in case I ever need em again someday (C)
I've been setting aside time (D)
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind (D)
All I wanna do is find a way back into love (Refrain)
I can't make it through without a way back into love (Refrain)
I've been watching but the stars refuse to shine
I've been searching but I just don't see the signs
I know that it's out there
There's got to be something for my soul somewhere
I've been looking for someone to shed some light
Not just somebody just to get me through the night
I could use some direction
And I'm open to your suggestions
All I wanna do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart again
I guess I'm hoping you'll be there for me in the end.
I've been sleeping with a cloud above my bed (A)
I've been lonely for so long (B)
Trapped in the past, I just can't seem to move on (B)
I've been hiding all my hopes and reams away (C)
Just in case I ever need em again someday (C)
I've been setting aside time (D)
To clear a little space in the corners of my mind (D)
All I wanna do is find a way back into love (Refrain)
I can't make it through without a way back into love (Refrain)
I've been watching but the stars refuse to shine
I've been searching but I just don't see the signs
I know that it's out there
There's got to be something for my soul somewhere
I've been looking for someone to shed some light
Not just somebody just to get me through the night
I could use some direction
And I'm open to your suggestions
All I wanna do is find a way back into love
I can't make it through without a way back into love
And if I open my heart again
I guess I'm hoping you'll be there for me in the end.
MY RESPONSE: If I were to analyze this modern day ballad, according to meter, rhyme, repetition, and the message of the song, it's very similar to a traditional ballad. Firstly, I don't think there is a meter to this ballad. At least, no meter of traditional pattern. There is definitely a rhyme scheme though. Most lines are AABB, with some slight rhymes that don't work when read, but work with the pronunciation in the song. Mainly the last, clearly-heard vowel sound is what makes this rhyme scheme work. "Again" and "end" don't exactly rhyme, but they have the same last vowel sound.
There is repetition of the line "All I wanna do is find a way back into love". It is repeated twice in just the first chorus. There isn't really much other repetition of this line in verses (just the chorus) and there aren't other lines that repeat. The message of this ballad is a story about a girl who wants to fall in love. I'm guessing the story is a girl gets her heart broken, and hasn't loved since, but now she wants to fall in love, and she's wanting the special guy to help her love again.
MY BALLAD:
To Live Again - Kristen Kim
I remember that first day,
when we were in the book store,
you gave a little smile my way,
and I dropped my book to the floor.
I left that book right where it fell,
my face going pink as I went,
when, as graceful as an angel,
you gave me my book like a gent.
You said, "Miss, I think you've dropped your book,"
and my face turned even more red
but I looked in your eyes and gave you my look
of 'please-mean-more-than-you-said!'
You read that look right off my face,
and continued on to ask me to dinner.
I said, "Thanks for cutting to the chase,"
and with a smile, "I'll give you my number."
I must admit I'd never been braver,
than that moment in the book store,
but you were so cute and quite so clever,
how could I admire, but do nothing more?
I cherish that very first day that we met,
with all the love I could give.
How could I really ever forget,
the day I truly started to live?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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