Monday, December 7, 2009
music
I always heard when I was in elementary school in music and art classes that music was the universal language. Until the last couple of years I really have not given that a lot of thought, but it occurred to me two days ago that music truly is the universal language. It is amazing to me that you can sit down with someone who knows barely anything about music and just sit there and make amazing music. For example, I have a friend who knows very little about music. He used to play guitar a lot but has stopped the last few years because he has gotten older, more responsibilities, etc… anyway, I also do not know a ton about music but I know a little bit thanks to my previous roommate, who was a music major and I have been practicing my guitar religiously the past year because I have finally found a band/genre that I find very inspiring. Also a lot of my friends that I grew up with and went to high school with, if they did not play a sport; they played an instrument. So I went over to my friend’s house the other day and he had like 3 guitars and a drum set. So we both picked up a guitar and he started playing some chords and I followed and then he would lay something else down and I would run scales, or soloing, over the chords he was playing and we were playing some pretty good tunes, or at least I thought so. The best part was when I decided to get on the drums. He started playing this major chord progression and then repeated it and I picked it up on the drums and we started jamming. It was amazing. We pretty much came up with a whole song, chorus, bridge and everything, without saying a word to each other. It was one of the best musical experiences of my life. Music truly is the universal language.
holidays
I am really looking forward to the holiday season this year. I am ready for this semester to be over so I can be closer to being done with undergraduate school and closer to my ultimate goal of going to law school. Hopefully this will happen. As soon as school is out I am driving to Atlanta to start celebrating Christmas. I am going to be celebrating an early xmas there with my grandparents and my aunt and uncle and cousins from my father’s side. I have been to Atlanta so many times this last month or two because my grandmother has been really sick, but apparently she is doing better so that is a plus. It has also been good because it has helped me build my relationship with my two younger cousins who definitely could use some guidance in their lives. After that, I am going to be working for four days and then Christmas will be here. The day after xmas, I will be going up to Chicago to see my brother and my mom’s side of the family. Then, it will be off to KY to stay at my brother and sister in law’s home for a couple of days. After that, I will be getting home on New Years Eve Eve and then driving to New Orleans with a couple of my friends to spend New Years in the Big Easy at one of my friend’s houses. I am looking forward to the holidays!
homework 12/8
1. Marianne Moore – “Silence”
Reading this poem makes me think that the author did not have a good relationship with her father. I think it starts off by her writing about how her father told her it was good to be silent and not make long visits. It sounds like, to me, that her father did not want to talk to his daughter a lot. It seems that he preferred to be alone. He did not want his daughter to stay long at his home either. So, either the father just really disliked his daughter, or he was just naturally not a very warm or friendly person. At the end of the poem, she says that her dad said to make his home like an inn to her. This could be another reference to the fact that he did not want her to be completely comfortable or stay very long because, as the author points out, inns are not like homes, but rather places you go to and just sleep and spend very little amount of time at. Her father sounds like a man who wanted to spend very little time with anyone except himself.
2. John Clare – “Mouse’s Nest”
I think that this poem is pretty self explanatory from the title. I could be wrong but after rereading it several times, I did not find any hidden allusions or metaphors, or at least I do not think I missed any. This poem does do a really good job of placing the reader at the scene. It is very descriptive and makes it easy to come up with a vivid image in my mind of seeing a mouse’s nest. He does this by using words and images that everyone knows such as hay and wheat. While reading this poem, I imagined myself walking through a barn and seeing something stir. Then out of the corner of my eye I would see a mouse with all her little babies attached to her teats. The mouse would see my and then scramble back under the hay to her home.
3. Carl Sundburg – “Grass”
This was my favorite poem of the three I read for Chapter 15. I liked it because it is not just a straight forward poem, but has a deeper meaning behind it. Sandburg tells the story of grass and how it spreads and grows and eventually covers over everything. It covers things like the dead bodies we have from wars or the trash we leave on the ground. I believe that this poem is all about washing away or covering up our sins. Everyone has things that they have done in their life that they are probably not proud of and I am sure would love to just cover them up and never have to worry or think about them again. The grass is the best thing to do this. We could have a huge genocide one day and not even know it the next if we have the bodies all buried beneath the dirt. It is hard for people to believe things that they do not see. So if the grass can cover up our sins and our mistakes they aren’t visible to anyone so it is like they never happened. This will eventually happen to every human being. We will all eventually be buried beneath the dirt and covered by the grass and no one will know we were even here. The same could be said about cities and countries that were once great and then crumble and fall and are buried and covered by the grass.
Ch. 17
1. Charles Simic – “Fork”
Simic uses very good imagery to describe a fork. I do not think I will look at the fork the same again. He likens it to a bird’s foot, possibly from hell, that we use to stab our food with. This is very appropriate as he includes hell and stabbing food all in the stanza. I will always see my fist now as sort of the head of the bird whose foot is my fork. Like a bird’s head, my fist is bald. Unlike a bird’s head, my fist does not have a beak or eyes. As he is describing the fork, he almost makes it seems as if it is an object used by beasts or cannibals, not an instrument used by everyday, ordinary people. It is amazing how he takes an ordinary object like a fork and attaches all of this evilness to it. The best part to me though is that when you really think about it, it fits.
2. Jean Toomer – “Reapers”
When reading “Reapers,” the first thing that caught my eye was the line about the blade silently swinging. I think that is the most perfect description of the image she was trying to portray. I can see a blade silently swinging; like in the “Pit and the Pendulum” right above someone, waiting to do its damage. I believe the way she is describing it though, the blade is attached to horse and pulley and is used to cut the grass. I think it is very appropriate to include the blade reaching the field rat. I would wonder how you could have a blade in a poem and not have do anything, or hint at affecting an object in some way. After the blade finds its first victim in the field rat, it just keeps on going like nothing happened. It is a machine almost, feeling no remorse or regret, it just keeps on chopping.
3. Arakida Moritake – “The Falling Flower”
I decided to do a haiku for my last poem because although they are short, they often have the most to say. This particular poem is no exception. After reading the poem a few times over, I was able to put myself in position to see what the author saw (maybe). I can see myself sitting in a field or grassy null on a nice fall day. The leaves are falling everywhere so why would this particular leaf be any different, but it is. For some reason or another, this leaf floats back to the tree. On better inspection, it seems that I have been fooled and the leaf is no leaf at all, but instead a beautiful butterfly. I could also see a person interpreting this poem as maybe someone who is not yet ready to leave the nest or home; or does leave home and wants to come back to help or show that they are ready to now leave. They, like the leaf, are being forced from the branch because the tree can no longer offer it life. The leaf goes off into the world, but only to return home a bigger and better object, a butterfly.
Reading this poem makes me think that the author did not have a good relationship with her father. I think it starts off by her writing about how her father told her it was good to be silent and not make long visits. It sounds like, to me, that her father did not want to talk to his daughter a lot. It seems that he preferred to be alone. He did not want his daughter to stay long at his home either. So, either the father just really disliked his daughter, or he was just naturally not a very warm or friendly person. At the end of the poem, she says that her dad said to make his home like an inn to her. This could be another reference to the fact that he did not want her to be completely comfortable or stay very long because, as the author points out, inns are not like homes, but rather places you go to and just sleep and spend very little amount of time at. Her father sounds like a man who wanted to spend very little time with anyone except himself.
2. John Clare – “Mouse’s Nest”
I think that this poem is pretty self explanatory from the title. I could be wrong but after rereading it several times, I did not find any hidden allusions or metaphors, or at least I do not think I missed any. This poem does do a really good job of placing the reader at the scene. It is very descriptive and makes it easy to come up with a vivid image in my mind of seeing a mouse’s nest. He does this by using words and images that everyone knows such as hay and wheat. While reading this poem, I imagined myself walking through a barn and seeing something stir. Then out of the corner of my eye I would see a mouse with all her little babies attached to her teats. The mouse would see my and then scramble back under the hay to her home.
3. Carl Sundburg – “Grass”
This was my favorite poem of the three I read for Chapter 15. I liked it because it is not just a straight forward poem, but has a deeper meaning behind it. Sandburg tells the story of grass and how it spreads and grows and eventually covers over everything. It covers things like the dead bodies we have from wars or the trash we leave on the ground. I believe that this poem is all about washing away or covering up our sins. Everyone has things that they have done in their life that they are probably not proud of and I am sure would love to just cover them up and never have to worry or think about them again. The grass is the best thing to do this. We could have a huge genocide one day and not even know it the next if we have the bodies all buried beneath the dirt. It is hard for people to believe things that they do not see. So if the grass can cover up our sins and our mistakes they aren’t visible to anyone so it is like they never happened. This will eventually happen to every human being. We will all eventually be buried beneath the dirt and covered by the grass and no one will know we were even here. The same could be said about cities and countries that were once great and then crumble and fall and are buried and covered by the grass.
Ch. 17
1. Charles Simic – “Fork”
Simic uses very good imagery to describe a fork. I do not think I will look at the fork the same again. He likens it to a bird’s foot, possibly from hell, that we use to stab our food with. This is very appropriate as he includes hell and stabbing food all in the stanza. I will always see my fist now as sort of the head of the bird whose foot is my fork. Like a bird’s head, my fist is bald. Unlike a bird’s head, my fist does not have a beak or eyes. As he is describing the fork, he almost makes it seems as if it is an object used by beasts or cannibals, not an instrument used by everyday, ordinary people. It is amazing how he takes an ordinary object like a fork and attaches all of this evilness to it. The best part to me though is that when you really think about it, it fits.
2. Jean Toomer – “Reapers”
When reading “Reapers,” the first thing that caught my eye was the line about the blade silently swinging. I think that is the most perfect description of the image she was trying to portray. I can see a blade silently swinging; like in the “Pit and the Pendulum” right above someone, waiting to do its damage. I believe the way she is describing it though, the blade is attached to horse and pulley and is used to cut the grass. I think it is very appropriate to include the blade reaching the field rat. I would wonder how you could have a blade in a poem and not have do anything, or hint at affecting an object in some way. After the blade finds its first victim in the field rat, it just keeps on going like nothing happened. It is a machine almost, feeling no remorse or regret, it just keeps on chopping.
3. Arakida Moritake – “The Falling Flower”
I decided to do a haiku for my last poem because although they are short, they often have the most to say. This particular poem is no exception. After reading the poem a few times over, I was able to put myself in position to see what the author saw (maybe). I can see myself sitting in a field or grassy null on a nice fall day. The leaves are falling everywhere so why would this particular leaf be any different, but it is. For some reason or another, this leaf floats back to the tree. On better inspection, it seems that I have been fooled and the leaf is no leaf at all, but instead a beautiful butterfly. I could also see a person interpreting this poem as maybe someone who is not yet ready to leave the nest or home; or does leave home and wants to come back to help or show that they are ready to now leave. They, like the leaf, are being forced from the branch because the tree can no longer offer it life. The leaf goes off into the world, but only to return home a bigger and better object, a butterfly.
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