Hey guys so for my creative project I wrote a song inspired by the relationship between Cosimo and Viola in The Baron in the Trees. The song is on youtube which you can get to by clicking the link below!


my creative project

Running After Antelope question response

Explain the meaning of "They had the structure of the Golden Gate Bridge-a high, sinewy arch with built-in springs and pulleys, and long toes stretching out for purchase." What literary device is shown here? (21)

        The author uses these lines at the end of a paragraph which he spent describing how beautiful and aesthetically pleasing this girl was. At the end we find these lines comparing her feet to the Golden Gate bridge. Several literary devices are cooperatively at work here. Most obviously is the use of imagery in which the reader develops an almost majestic and beautiful picture of this woman in their minds. In addition to the imagery, there is the metaphor or her feet being like a bridge; not just any bridge but the Golden Gate Bridge. Her tendons and muscles in her feet also are implied to be like the cables of the suspension bridge. The last device while maybe not particularly important is simply the allusion to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Running After Antelope Questions

Trout stream families

1. Why does the author repeat the first and last lines of the story?
2. Why does the author use the third person point of view for the entire story?
3. Explain what is meant by "This is the beginning the story." (pg.26)
4. What does the "ghost of an Indian" symbolize?
5. Explain the image of "what the snake had in its mouth." (pg.26)
6. What do "the poems of Rilke on the desert blacktop highway" represent?
7. Explain how the author heavy use of imagery in the story.
8. Why does author choose to say the three year old is  "nearly out of his mind with possibilities"?
9. Why do the three group of people(men, women, children) not interact with each other?
10. What is the author saying about family relations in this story?

My Full Moon Experience

It was cold, too cold to be in just a tank top and shorts. But I didn't care. The night's refreshing bite made me feel alive, more alive than I've felt for a few days now. I went outside a few minutes to minutes planning on taking a quick glance at the full moon and rushing back inside. After looking at the moon for a few seconds I realized I was captured, no paralyzed by it. What is about the moon that is so encompassing? It's astonishing to think the mood simply reflects light and is nothing more than a cold, windless, rock. Then I realized by feet had gone almost completely numb and I couldn't feel my ears. How long had I been outside? Was it still today or had it vanished into tomorrow? I hesitantly headed back inside, but as I did I could've sworn something or someone wanted me to stay outside and keep looking at the moon.

A Winter Walk

One dark and treacherous evening, a man betrayed the love of his life after fifty bitter years of marriage. The man packed his bags and left the country in a carriage with his new young bride through what was known as the King's Forest. Stubborn as a mule, the old hag was determined to follow him to his grave. She threw a few items into a suitcase, grabbed her cane and headed into the blizzard after him. Knowing that she would follow him, the man had paid the townspeople to terrorize her as she journeyed through the forest. Scared out of her wits and thinking that Death had imprinted her name in his book, the old lady succumbed to her fate.

My version of Amazing Because It is!!

Hey guys so here is my version of the song Amazing Because It Is. It's a pretty rough haha but oh well I thought I'd share with everyone anyways. The song is pretty much a modern version of Amazing Grace will a little spin! Let me know what you think !!

Click here to listen:)

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKygDoeIJBc

There is a link to the song! I suggest you guys listen to it!

"Why are you so far from me?
In my arms is where you are to be
How long will you make me wait?
I don't know how much more I can take
I missed you but I haven't met you
Oh but I want to
How I do,
Slowly counting down the days
Till I finally know your name
The way your hand feels round my waist
The way you laugh, the way your kisses taste
I missed you but I haven't met you
Oh but I want to
How I do
How I do
I've missed you but I haven't met you
Oh how I miss you but I haven't met you
Oh but I want to,
Oh how I want to
Dear whoever you might be
I'm still waiting patiently"

 I consider this song a poem because it has several different literary devices at play. First off there is a plot to the short song. The story can be interpreted in several different ways, but the most basic interpretation would be an individual waiting for there true love to come along. However,  it uses ambiguity because the individual is using tons of imagery to describe their true love that they haven't met yet.

Poem

I chose "I Do Not Love Thee" by Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton because the poems describes romantically loving a person but not being able to stand them. This contrast of love and hate creates a powerful emotional poem that was very interesting for me to read.

HOPELESSNESS

Hopelessness is a wildfire in the soul.
I acted like a rhinoceros when I tried to be relativist!

6 word story on love

Love is heaven's paradise in hell

Beauty and the Beast

So today I watched Beauty and the Beast in 3D at the movies(it's the first time I've ever seen it) and I have to admit I was pretty amazed by it. Not only was the 3D animation pretty eye catching and technologically just awesome, I caught myself analyzing the whole movie. After the movie, I ended up going home and reading the original version of the fairly tale which comes from French folklore. It was pretty cool to compare a French fairytale to the German ones we've been reading in class by the Grimm brothers. I imagine in my head how Sexton would transform this fairy tale much like she did in Snow White and Seven Dwarves. While I did enjoy reading the tale better(which is often the case) I thought Disney did a pretty decent job producing the film!

"Transformations" Questoin

Explain the opening stanza of “Hansel and Gretel.” Why does Sexton choose to retell this story?

            The opening stanza is the only part of the poem which is in the first person point of view. That person would seem be the witch from the story of “Hansel and Gretel,” although it is uncertain because the stanza opens up with, “Little plum said the mother to her son,” and the witch as far as we know doesn’t have any children of her own. Regardless Sexton uses a confession-like style of writing to allow the reader to see the inside thoughts of the mother. Heavily dowsed in the grotesque, it foreshadows the story to come. Sexton might have included this stanza as her personal connection to the witch in the story, almost as if exploring her own sanity (or lack thereof) while the reader follows along. Another explanation may be that Sexton included this stanza to expand what the reader knows about the cannibalistic “mother”.

Hansel and Gretel

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Hansel and Gretel

Hard by a great forest dwelt a poor wood-cutter with his wife and his two children. The boy was called Hansel and the girl Gretel. He had little to bite and to break, and once when great dearth fell on the land, he could no longer procure even daily bread. Now when he thought over this by night in his bed, and tossed about in his anxiety, he groaned and said to his wife: 'What is to become of us? How are we to feed our poor children, when we no longer have anything even for ourselves?' 'I'll tell you what, husband,' answered the woman, 'early tomorrow morning we will take the children out into the forest to where it is the thickest; there we will light a fire for them, and give each of them one more piece of bread, and then we will go to our work and leave them alone. They will not find the way home again, and we shall be rid of them.' 'No, wife,' said the man, 'I will not do that; how can I bear to leave my children alone in the forest?—the wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces.' 'O, you fool!' said she, 'then we must all four die of hunger, you may as well plane the planks for our coffins,' and she left him no peace until he consented. 'But I feel very sorry for the poor children, all the same,' said the man.

The two children had also not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their stepmother had said to their father. Gretel wept bitter tears, and said to Hansel: 'Now all is over with us.' 'Be quiet, Gretel,' said Hansel, 'do not distress yourself, I will soon find a way to help us.' And when the old folks had fallen asleep, he got up, put on his little coat, opened the door below, and crept outside. The moon shone brightly, and the white pebbles which lay in front of the house glittered like real silver pennies. Hansel stooped and stuffed the little pocket of his coat with as many as he could get in. Then he went back and said to Gretel: 'Be comforted, dear little sister, and sleep in peace, God will not forsake us,' and he lay down again in his bed. When day dawned, but before the sun had risen, the woman came and awoke the two children, saying: 'Get up, you sluggards! we are going into the forest to fetch wood.' She gave each a little piece of bread, and said: 'There is something for your dinner, but do not eat it up before then, for you will get nothing else.' Gretel took the bread under her apron, as Hansel had the pebbles in his pocket. Then they all set out together on the way to the forest. When they had walked a short time, Hansel stood still and peeped back at the house, and did so again and again. His father said: 'Hansel, what are you looking at there and staying behind for? Pay attention, and do not forget how to use your legs.' 'Ah, father,' said Hansel, 'I am looking at my little white cat, which is sitting up on the roof, and wants to say goodbye to me.' The wife said: 'Fool, that is not your little cat, that is the morning sun which is shining on the chimneys.' Hansel, however, had not been looking back at the cat, but had been constantly throwing one of the white pebble-stones out of his pocket on the road.

When they had reached the middle of the forest, the father said: 'Now, children, pile up some wood, and I will light a fire that you may not be cold.' Hansel and Gretel gathered brushwood together, as high as a little hill. The brushwood was lighted, and when the flames were burning very high, the woman said: 'Now, children, lay yourselves down by the fire and rest, we will go into the forest and cut some wood. When we have done, we will come back and fetch you away.'

Hansel and Gretel sat by the fire, and when noon came, each ate a little piece of bread, and as they heard the strokes of the wood-axe they believed that their father was near. It was not the axe, however, but a branch which he had fastened to a withered tree which the wind was blowing backwards and forwards. And as they had been sitting such a long time, their eyes closed with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep. When at last they awoke, it was already dark night. Gretel began to cry and said: 'How are we to get out of the forest now?' But Hansel comforted her and said: 'Just wait a little, until the moon has risen, and then we will soon find the way.' And when the full moon had risen, Hansel took his little sister by the hand, and followed the pebbles which shone like newly-coined silver pieces, and showed them the way.

They walked the whole night long, and by break of day came once more to their father's house. They knocked at the door, and when the woman opened it and saw that it was Hansel and Gretel, she said: 'You naughty children, why have you slept so long in the forest?—we thought you were never coming back at all!' The father, however, rejoiced, for it had cut him to the heart to leave them behind alone.

Not long afterwards, there was once more great dearth throughout the land, and the children heard their mother saying at night to their father: 'Everything is eaten again, we have one half loaf left, and that is the end. The children must go, we will take them farther into the wood, so that they will not find their way out again; there is no other means of saving ourselves!' The man's heart was heavy, and he thought: 'It would be better for you to share the last mouthful with your children.' The woman, however, would listen to nothing that he had to say, but scolded and reproached him. He who says A must say B, likewise, and as he had yielded the first time, he had to do so a second time also.

The children, however, were still awake and had heard the conversation. When the old folks were asleep, Hansel again got up, and wanted to go out and pick up pebbles as he had done before, but the woman had locked the door, and Hansel could not get out. Nevertheless he comforted his little sister, and said: 'Do not cry, Gretel, go to sleep quietly, the good God will help us.'

Early in the morning came the woman, and took the children out of their beds. Their piece of bread was given to them, but it was still smaller than the time before. On the way into the forest Hansel crumbled his in his pocket, and often stood still and threw a morsel on the ground. 'Hansel, why do you stop and look round?' said the father, 'go on.' 'I am looking back at my little pigeon which is sitting on the roof, and wants to say goodbye to me,' answered Hansel. 'Fool!' said the woman, 'that is not your little pigeon, that is the morning sun that is shining on the chimney.' Hansel, however little by little, threw all the crumbs on the path.

The woman led the children still deeper into the forest, where they had never in their lives been before. Then a great fire was again made, and the mother said: 'Just sit there, you children, and when you are tired you may sleep a little; we are going into the forest to cut wood, and in the evening when we are done, we will come and fetch you away.' When it was noon, Gretel shared her piece of bread with Hansel, who had scattered his by the way. Then they fell asleep and evening passed, but no one came to the poor children. They did not awake until it was dark night, and Hansel comforted his little sister and said: 'Just wait, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have strewn about, they will show us our way home again.' When the moon came they set out, but they found no crumbs, for the many thousands of birds which fly about in the woods and fields had picked them all up. Hansel said to Gretel: 'We shall soon find the way,' but they did not find it. They walked the whole night and all the next day too from morning till evening, but they did not get out of the forest, and were very hungry, for they had nothing to eat but two or three berries, which grew on the ground. And as they were so weary that their legs would carry them no longer, they lay down beneath a tree and fell asleep.

It was now three mornings since they had left their father's house. They began to walk again, but they always came deeper into the forest, and if help did not come soon, they must die of hunger and weariness. When it was mid-day, they saw a beautiful snow-white bird sitting on a bough, which sang so delightfully that they stood still and listened to it. And when its song was over, it spread its wings and flew away before them, and they followed it until they reached a little house, on the roof of which it alighted; and when they approached the little house they saw that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows were of clear sugar. 'We will set to work on that,' said Hansel, 'and have a good meal. I will eat a bit of the roof, and you Gretel, can eat some of the window, it will taste sweet.' Hansel reached up above, and broke off a little of the roof to try how it tasted, and Gretel leant against the window and nibbled at the panes. Then a soft voice cried from the parlour:

'Nibble, nibble, gnaw,
  Who is nibbling at my little house?'

The children answered:

'The wind, the wind,
  The heaven-born wind,'

and went on eating without disturbing themselves. Hansel, who liked the taste of the roof, tore down a great piece of it, and Gretel pushed out the whole of one round window-pane, sat down, and enjoyed herself with it. Suddenly the door opened, and a woman as old as the hills, who supported herself on crutches, came creeping out. Hansel and Gretel were so terribly frightened that they let fall what they had in their hands. The old woman, however, nodded her head, and said: 'Oh, you dear children, who has brought you here? do come in, and stay with me. No harm shall happen to you.' She took them both by the hand, and led them into her little house. Then good food was set before them, milk and pancakes, with sugar, apples, and nuts. Afterwards two pretty little beds were covered with clean white linen, and Hansel and Gretel lay down in them, and thought they were in heaven.

The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there. When a child fell into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a feast day with her. Witches have red eyes, and cannot see far, but they have a keen scent like the beasts, and are aware when human beings draw near. When Hansel and Gretel came into her neighbourhood, she laughed with malice, and said mockingly: 'I have them, they shall not escape me again!' Early in the morning before the children were awake, she was already up, and when she saw both of them sleeping and looking so pretty, with their plump and rosy cheeks she muttered to herself: 'That will be a dainty mouthful!' Then she seized Hansel with her shrivelled hand, carried him into a little stable, and locked him in behind a grated door. Scream as he might, it would not help him. Then she went to Gretel, shook her till she awoke, and cried: 'Get up, lazy thing, fetch some water, and cook something good for your brother, he is in the stable outside, and is to be made fat. When he is fat, I will eat him.' Gretel began to weep bitterly, but it was all in vain, for she was forced to do what the wicked witch commanded.

And now the best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Gretel got nothing but crab-shells. Every morning the woman crept to the little stable, and cried: 'Hansel, stretch out your finger that I may feel if you will soon be fat.' Hansel, however, stretched out a little bone to her, and the old woman, who had dim eyes, could not see it, and thought it was Hansel's finger, and was astonished that there was no way of fattening him. When four weeks had gone by, and Hansel still remained thin, she was seized with impatience and would not wait any longer. 'Now, then, Gretel,' she cried to the girl, 'stir yourself, and bring some water. Let Hansel be fat or lean, tomorrow I will kill him, and cook him.' Ah, how the poor little sister did lament when she had to fetch the water, and how her tears did flow down her cheeks! 'Dear God, do help us,' she cried. 'If the wild beasts in the forest had but devoured us, we should at any rate have died together.' 'Just keep your noise to yourself,' said the old woman, 'it won't help you at all.'

Early in the morning, Gretel had to go out and hang up the cauldron with the water, and light the fire. 'We will bake first,' said the old woman, 'I have already heated the oven, and kneaded the dough.' She pushed poor Gretel out to the oven, from which flames of fire were already darting. 'Creep in,' said the witch, 'and see if it is properly heated, so that we can put the bread in.' And once Gretel was inside, she intended to shut the oven and let her bake in it, and then she would eat her, too. But Gretel saw what she had in mind, and said: 'I do not know how I am to do it; how do I get in?' 'Silly goose,' said the old woman. 'The door is big enough; just look, I can get in myself!' and she crept up and thrust her head into the oven. Then Gretel gave her a push that drove her far into it, and shut the iron door, and fastened the bolt. Oh! then she began to howl quite horribly, but Gretel ran away and the godless witch was miserably burnt to death.

Gretel, however, ran like lightning to Hansel, opened his little stable, and cried: 'Hansel, we are saved! The old witch is dead!' Then Hansel sprang like a bird from its cage when the door is opened. How they did rejoice and embrace each other, and dance about and kiss each other! And as they had no longer any need to fear her, they went into the witch's house, and in every corner there stood chests full of pearls and jewels. 'These are far better than pebbles!' said Hansel, and thrust into his pockets whatever could be got in, and Gretel said: 'I, too, will take something home with me,' and filled her pinafore full. 'But now we must be off,' said Hansel, 'that we may get out of the witch's forest.'

When they had walked for two hours, they came to a great stretch of water. 'We cannot cross,' said Hansel, 'I see no foot-plank, and no bridge.' 'And there is also no ferry,' answered Gretel, 'but a white duck is swimming there: if I ask her, she will help us over.' Then she cried:

'Little duck, little duck, dost thou see,
  Hansel and Gretel are waiting for thee?
  There's never a plank, or bridge in sight,
  Take us across on thy back so white.'

The duck came to them, and Hansel seated himself on its back, and told his sister to sit by him. 'No,' replied Gretel, 'that will be too heavy for the little duck; she shall take us across, one after the other.' The good little duck did so, and when they were once safely across and had walked for a short time, the forest seemed to be more and more familiar to them, and at length they saw from afar their father's house. Then they began to run, rushed into the parlour, and threw themselves round their father's neck. The man had not known one happy hour since he had left the children in the forest; the woman, however, was dead. Gretel emptied her pinafore until pearls and precious stones ran about the room, and Hansel threw one handful after another out of his pocket to add to them. Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together in perfect happiness. My tale is done, there runs a mouse; whosoever catches it, may make himself a big fur cap out of it.

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Maybe Anne Sexton chose this fairy tale because of the ironic twist in the end. Instead of the lost children ending up dead from some creature they end up outliving their terrible mother than selfishly convinced their own father to abandon them in a forest. This tension between mother and offspring seemed to be a noteworthy mention to Sexton(i.e. "Their mother you'll be glad to hear was dead" (pg. 105 in Transformations by Anne Sexton)

To see a world in a grain of sand...

 "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour."
William Blake

This stanza reflects the complexity and simplicity of life. It speaks of being able to see "a world" in something that some people may believe is completely insignificant. Then it goes on to say that it is possible to see unfathomable beauty and splendor in a simple wild flower. The next to lines are a bit harder to analyze but holding infinity in the palm of your hand may refer to the intricate complexity of every single human being. Every person has a uniqueness ,regardless of what their personality or attitude, their being holds significant meaning. The last phrase could be the realization that in the end, time is simply relative to what we assign it to. It could be the case that outside of our galaxy or space, all of what we know as eternity could be a mere second or snapshot.

Symbolism plays a big part in conveying the meaning of this stanza."A world" and "heaven" aren't literally physically a world and heaven. The author uses the word to convey the ideas of beauty, greatness, and magnitude. Therefore these words are symbols that merely represent the surface of what the author is trying to get at.

Quote of the Day

"You don't have a soul. You are a soul; you have a body"

C.S. Lewis

This quote summarizes my philosophy on life.  To me a person's physical body is barely a drop in the bucket of what their "entirety" consists of. If a person lives in such a way that they recognize they have an eternal soul rather than a body with a deadline, life becomes something that words cannot express.