Friday, October 31, 2008

Can It Be Considered A Facebook?

Bartleby’s facebook is not one of fashion. His picture would be of complete black chosen by Bartleby himself, for he strongly believes a blank picture would represent his personality better. Bartleby’s status would say, “I prefer not to, so leave me alone, I’m not bugging you.” The central theme of Bartleby’s page is blankness. His page contains almost nothing about himself besides the fact that he prefer not to. As far as friends go, Bartleby would have no friends. This is not because know one likes him but rather he won’t accept anyone. Bartleby seems to be in a state of complete isolation, purposely keeping himself from others.
The biggest mystery to Bartleby’s facebook is that he logs in everyday. This analysis makes one wonder what he is doing. He has nothing about himself, no picture, no music, no friends, and he only has comments from people asking him what he does online. Bartleby’s favorites would be very unusual sites that most have not heard of.
Bartleby’s facebook has no purpose, serves no communicational purposes, and basically is a page of nothing. When asked why he doesn’t edit his page, he responds, “I prefer not to.” This seems to sum up the entire story of Bartleby. For being such a cyber guru, one might think he would have the fanciest page of them all. Bartleby lives his entire life on his facebook because he feels at piece. He is a reserved person who would not like to be bothered and that is why his facebook stands in complete blankness, in hope that he would turn people away with his plain facebook with nothing but nothing.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

"First Fight, Then Fiddle"

“First Fight, Then Fiddle”
The world as a whole has had problems and conflicts between societies, cultures, and world leaders. When asked the question of war people have many different opinions based on the organization of their beliefs and even religion. In many instances war is a duty of many young men trying to figure out their lives. Life is not very easy and more often than not it’s unbelievably tough. Lately I have learned to set my priorities and life will get easier. Gwendolyn Brooks has a similar approach in her poem “First Fight, Then Fiddle.” In this poem, her approach is to stress the importance of focusing on the important parts of life, and then once you have conquered the necessary you can enjoy life the way it should be enjoyed. Now you may read Brooks’ poem and wonder how it is about war, but it’s not about the type of war with blood and battle. Instead it’s about the biggest war: Life. Just like the young men who believe that their first priority in life is to battle for their country, many humans battle everyday trying to figure out their priorities. This is why I enjoyed Brooks’ poem because I felt I could interpret it. After reading this poem I had an understanding that Gwendolyn really believes that it is important to battle through the roughest parts of life so that you can enjoy life to its max. Brooks’ shows this many ways based on her writing of “First Fight, Then Fiddle.” In this analysis I have chosen three main lines that I believe support Brooks’ main purpose in the poem. I will analyze each of these lines to help readers of “First Fight, Then Fiddle, understand the poem more in depth beyond the line they read.
The first line that I think is important to study comes late in the poem. The line says; “Carry hate in front of you and harmony behind.” This can easily be interpreted many different ways but I looked at as keeping the unwanted things that may be tough in front of you and the fun, exciting things for when you have completely mastered the unwanted duties of life. The definition of hate is to dislike passionately; to be unwilling. If reviewed based on the second part of the definition, to be unwilling, you can conclude that Brooks intends to show that the most important things should be put ahead in life and they are often the things that we don’t want to do, things that we absolutely hate but have to do because it is a priority. Gwendolyn Brooks doesn’t stop with this line, as the poem continues she uses more exquisiteness descriptions to translate the meaning of her poem.
The next line says, “Be deaf to music and to beauty blind.” This line has almost the same meaning as the first line I analyzed. The only difference is this line only stresses the importance of keeping the attractive parts of life away. The first part, be deaf to music, is quite simple to me. This part of the poem is depicting music as something great and exciting. It doesn’t necessarily mean stop listening to music but instead it’s using this term to give an example of the parts of life we all want but know we can’t have until we finish the important life challenges. The second line has the same meaning but instead of using music as the example Brooks uses beauty. Everyone loves beauty because obviously it’s beautiful and in this line Brooks suggests being blind to beauty. Brooks gives advice in this line. She basically is saying give yourself an opportunity to succeed in life. She says this by advising you to be blind to beauty, meaning just because something looks fun and more appealing don’t let it distract you from your goal.
Brooks ends the poem with this line: “For having first to civilize a space wherein to play your violin with grace.” This line summarizes the entire poem giving an ending on what has been said throughout the poem. “For having first to civilize a space” can be understood like this, now that you are done with work. I believe this because of the way I interpreted the poem as a whole. This second part of this sentence says: “wherein to play your violin with grace.” In this part Brooks finishes the poem with great meaning. As stated before this poem is about doing the important things in life before you enjoy luxury. With this line the meaning is finally uncovered with the interpretation, now that work is done have fun and live life the way it should be.
Life, at times, may seem hard and unfair but you can’t let it discourage you. It’s almost like school and by this I mean it’s hard. When you have a paper doesn’t it seem like the only thing you do is procrastinate? When you are done you feel great and you enjoy whatever you’re going to do next even more. “First Fight, Then Fiddle,” by Gwendolyn Brooks, shows this by providing imaginary evidence. Just like the men fighting for us now, fight through life. It’s going to be hard no matter what you do and that’s just the cold hard truth, but look beyond the thick and see the thin. For once you have overcome the toughest parts of life, there is nothing left but good. Take Gwendolyn Brooks’ advice and fight the war, the war called life, before you take on beauty. Beauty has to start somewhere and in life the beauty comes after things are well served. The only way time will be given back is if you put in time.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

"First Fight, Then Fiddle"

“First Fight, Then Fiddle”
The world as a whole has had problems and conflicts between societies, cultures, and world leaders. When asked the question of war people have many different opinions based on the organization of their beliefs and even religion. In many instances war is a duty of many young men trying to figure out their life. Life is not very easy and more often than not it’s unbelievably tough. Lately I have learned to set my priorities and life will get easier. Gwendolyn Brooks has a similar approach in her poem “First Fight, Then Fiddle.” In this poem her approach is to stress the importance of focusing on the import parts of life, and then once you have conquered the necessary then you can enjoy life the way it should be enjoyed. Now you may read Brooks’ poem and wonder how it is about war, but it’s not about the type of war with blood and battle. Instead it’s about the biggest war, life. Just like the young men who believe that their first priority in life is to battle for their country, many humans battle everyday trying to figure out their priorities. This is why I enjoyed Brooks’ poem because I felt I could interpret it. After reading this poem I had an understanding that Gwendolyn really believes that it is important to battle through the roughest parts of life so that you can enjoy life to its max. Brooks’ shows this many ways based on her writing of “First Fight, Then Fiddle.”
The first line that I think is important to study comes late in the poem, the line says; carry hate in front of you and harmony behind. This can easily be interpreted many different ways but I looked at as keeping the unwanted things that may be tough in front of you and the fun, exciting stuff for when you have completely mastered the unwanted duties of life. The definition of hate is to dislike passionately; to be unwilling. If reviewed based on the second part of the definition, to be unwilling, you can conclude that Brooks intends to show that the most important things should be put ahead in life and they are often the things that we don’t want to do, things that we absolutely hate but have to be do because it is a priority. Gwendolyn Brooks doesn’t stop with this line, as the poem continues she uses more beauty descriptions to translate the meaning of her poem.
The next line says; be deaf to music and to beauty blind. This line has almost the same meaning as the first line I analyzed. The only difference is this line only stresses the importance of keeping the attractive parts of life away. The first part, be deaf to music, is quite simple to me. This part of the poem is depicting music as something great and exciting. It doesn’t necessarily mean stop listening to music but instead it’s using this term to give an example of the parts of life we all want but we know we can’t have until we finish the important life challenges. The second line has the same meaning but instead of using music as the example Brooks uses beauty. Everyone loves beauty because obviously it’s beautiful and in this line Brooks suggests being blind to beauty. Brooks gives advice in this line. She basically is saying give yourself an opportunity to succeed in life. She says this by advising you to be blind to beauty, meaning just because something looks fun and more appealing don’t let it distract you from your goal.
Brooks ends the poem with this line: For having first to civilize a space wherein to play your violin with grace. This line summarizes the entire poem giving an ending on what has been said throughout the poem. For having first to civilize a space can be understood like this; now that you are done with work. The reason for me believing this is because of the way I interpreted the poem as a whole ahead of this line. This second part of this sentence says: wherein to play your violin with grace. This part of the poem finishes the poem with great meaning. As stated before this poem is about doing the important things in life before you enjoy luxury. With this line the meaning is finally uncovered with the interpretation, now that work is done have fun and live life the way it should be.
Life, at times, may seem hard and unfair but you can’t let it discourage you. It’s almost like school and by this I mean it’s hard. When you have a paper doesn’t it seem like the only thing you do is procrastinate, I know I do, but think about it when you are done you feel great and you enjoy whatever you’re going to do next even more. “First Fight, Then Fiddle,” by Gwendolyn Brooks, shows this by providing imaginary evidence. Just like the men fighting for us now, fight through life. It’s going to be hard no matter what you do and that’s just the cold hard truth, but look beyond the thick and see the thin. For once you have overcome the toughest parts of life there is nothing left but good. Take Gwendolyn Brooks’ advice and fight the war, the war called life, before you take on beauty. Beauty has to start somewhere and in life the beauty comes after the well served. The only way time will be given back is if you put in time.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

"In a Station of the Metro"




Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” in my opinion is definitely a poem. It may be short but there are many ways to discuss and interpret this poem. Poems are readings that require anaylizing and sometimes reading between the lines. “In a Station of the Metro” is perfect for this because it is so short. In fact it may be more of a poem than some others just because the fact its short. “In a Station of the Metro,” is definitely a poem because it involves imagery. In line one Pound uses imagery by describing the crowd having a type of look on their faces, also in line two he describes the petals as wet on a black bough maybe creating an image of something sad, scary, or romantic. The fact that you have to read between the lines suggests that this is a poem. Although this is extremely short and many may not consider it a poem it has several aspects to discuss. I feel this poem is a scary poem because line one describes the looks of the crowd creating a sense that the crowd may be scared of something. In line two the petals show quietness and mystery along with these petals being stationed on a wet black bough it also demonstrates a sense on dark mystery. It’s almost a guarantee that this is a poem. It demonstrates most things that create a poem. Yes, it is short but it creates a sense of question when read as well as a great sense of imagery, which both are necessary when identifying a poem. Pound breaks this poem down into two basic lines of imagery. This poem is considered great by many scholars because it requires an imagination and for this reason I believe, with no question, that this piece by Ezra Pound is very much a poem.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Casabianca by Felicia Dorothea Hemans




A boy with his burning ambition.


In casabianca, by Felicia Dorothea Heman the author states that the flame lit the battles wreck, which shows the audience the significance of the battle. This seems to start the mood because by her starting it off this way the reader is able to catch the greatness of the fire as it lit up the entire place.

In the poem the boy stands strong on a burning deck keeping his post, waiting for every last instruction, and though he is just a boy he is proud of himself. As danger neared the boy never moved for he wanted the instruction that would tell him he could. He waits for his fathers signal and yet nothing came. He calls hopelessly to ask if his task in hand was finished and yet no response. He continued to stand with death nearing, for he won’t move unless told to. Again he signals for his father and again no response, the only problem is the boy doesn’t know that his father is unconscious. So as the boy stands strong, based on instruction, the flames from battle continue to close in. Once again the boy calls in hope for the return of his father’s voice giving him freedom. The fires eventually swallowed the ship with a loud noise and boy was gone.

In the last part of the poem the author does not clearly state that the boy is dead. Instead she askes where is he is and fallows that with a statement to ask the wind at sea. The very last set of lines is probably my favorite piece of the poem. It says, “With mast, and helm, and pennon fair, that well had borne their part, but the noblest thing which perished there was that young faithful heart.” I understood this last part as every man did their part but fled to safety but the hero of the poem is the boy and his faithful heart.