The Road Not Taken

I am choosing to write about the poem "The Road Not Taken," wrttien by Robert Frost because I think it has a meaning to everyone who can understand it. I say that because it is pretty difficult to comprehend the first time you read it. I got a better understanding after discussing it in calss and realized that it actually had several different meanings, a literal and figurative. I personally got the impression that it was about life. For example, there is always more than one path in life to take. It is just important to choose the best path for you. The poem has four stanzas, short, but impressive with meaning. In the story he said that he was going to take one path, that wasn't the most popular, he was taking is own path, and might take the other at another time. It is important to do things your own way and not do things because everyone else is or everyone wants you to. Take the road that leads you to your happiness.

We Real Cool

I decided to write about one of the simplest and easiest poems to understand. "We Real Cool" is written by Gwendolyn Brooks. When I first read this poem, I read it as if it were just another poem and didn't really care much for it becuase it wasn't too intruiging. After Sweeney played the video of Gwendolyn Brooks reading the poem that she had written, I was immediately more interested. I reread the poem in class and imagined her reading it along with me. It was very simple, very unique, and I imagine very realistic for some people. It is crazy to see how big of a difference a poem can change just by hearing the person who wrote it, read it, the way they  meant for it to be read. To me, the poem went from meaningless to heart renching, because she put her all into that poem to show the feelings and emotion behind it.

Retired Greyhound II

I decided to write about this poem because I read it and I found it to be pretty interesting. I am a real dog lover and it was intruiging to read a poem describing how animals may feel. In this poem, the dog has experience being abused and because of this, the dog is scared and skiddish to any human. The dog shows some compassion towards the woman, who was attacked by a dog. It was cool to see the irony in that the woman liked the dog, although she didnt like dogs becuase she was hurt by one and the dog liked the woman, although he was abused by a human. it seemed as though this pair had some sort of connection that drew them together, regardless of their awful past experiences. It goes to show that no matter the dreadful experiences one is put through, there is hope that something or someone will come along and maybe change things. I wish we could have had time in class to talk about this poem because after class discussions, I always get a better, more in depth understanding of what was read.

Dulce et Decorum

Dolce et Decorum was written by Wifdred Owen. This is also known as a war poem. I didnt realize this when I was reading it the first time because I pretty mcuh just didnt understand what it was talking about. When we went over them in class Mr Sweeney said that it was about like some man recalling his experiences of a war.This poem, like the others didnt rhyme, I did enjoy reading it though because it has such vivid descriptions.

Facing It

Facing It is another poem we were assigned to read in class this week. It is written by Yusef Komunyakaa. This poem I could tell is a war poem, because it clearly says in the poem "the Vietnam Veterans Memorial" and it seems as though it is someone talking about how he is feeling as though he has been through alot and feels like he is still remembering things that he may have experienced and then realizes that what he sees isnt what he thought. I think.

Aristotle

Aristotle is another poem that we were assigned to read this week. It is written by Billy Collins. The main point that I got from this story was that it described the beginning, middle and end of a journey. This journey could be describing pretty much anything. it expresses that the best part of the journey is the beginnign. the middle become more serious and has more complex things going on that can minimize the amount of joy experienced. The end is thought to be the worst part of the journey, because the end is just the end, you face the reflection of all past memories and it is just over. This poem also didn't rhyme and was probably the shortest poem, and/or story we have had to read, making it my favorite.

The Fish

The Fish is a short poem written by Elizabeth Bishop. When I first read the poem I really thought it was just anout a fish and did't have much of a meaning to it. Then it was discussed in calss and I learned in further detail that the poem was really thought to be a war poem as though the fish was like a soldier, containing battle wounds and being a hero. The fisherman, I assume looked at the fish as if it was a soldier and let it go. Or he may have felt sorry for the little fish and let it go. Other details about the poem are that it doesn'r rhyme, it is about 2 pages long,and really not too hard to comprehend.

The Glass Menagerie

"The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams is the longest story we have been assigned to read so far. I just finished reading the play and it pretty much followed the movie very accurately. It contains 7 scenes. There are a few differences in the movie and the play so far, mainly in just some of the things said such as wording and also being able to pay attention to detail as through reading the play itself. Because the movie hasn't ended yet in class I was surprised to see how the play ended. The gentleman caller named Jim ended up coming over for dinner and of course Amanda dressed herself and Laura all pretty for him. Amanda ended up telling him to join Laura who was alone in the other room. He made her feel more comfortable talking about remembrance of high school. He ends up getting her to dance and then kisses her. Immediately after he apologizes, claiming he is going steady with a girl named Betty and says he needs to leave. Amanda enters the room around this time and he proceeds to give the information that astounds her also informing them that they are engaged to be married. He leaves to get Betty so she doesn't have to wait. After he leaves Amanda is infuriated with Tom for allowing this to happen and he just leaves. She told him to go and he did. The last paragraph is something Tom says, I’m not quite sure what it fully means but he says he is gone, just like his father, and sees Laura at a glass place and tells her to blow out the candles. I don’t know how to interpret that yet.

The Glass Menagerie

"The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams is s play assigned to read for a quiz on Friday while we have been watching the movie in class. So far I have read Scene 1 of the story and I am glad that we have been watching the movie because now I can put a name with a face. Scene 1 begins involving dinner and Amanda(the mother) nagging already and talking about eating, and chewing and mastication and so on, annoying Tom. Tom eagerly expresses his annoyance and it merely causes a set of arguements among them. Amanda continuously tells Laura to stay fresh and pretty for gentlemen callers as if she has any. Laura tells her that she has none and of ocurse Amanda says that is impossible to have no callers at all. Tom is still there moaning and groaning in annoyance from his mother. The nagging Amanda tells a repeated story about her having 17 gentlemen callers. Scene 1 ends when Laura says "Mother's afraid I'm going to become an old maid." I think that the mother, Amanda is really annoying and Tom is respectively losing it because of her constant nagging and annoyance. Laura seems to have something mentally wrong with her because she is just so passive and seems to really do nothing but be there.

Hills Like White Ellephants

Hills Like White Ellephants is a short story about 4-5 pages and is written by Ernest Hemingway. In the story there is a girl named Jigs and an American Man. They sit on a bench drinkng alcohol while waiting for a train. After discussions about the story a conclusion was made that the girl, Jigs was having a mysterious operation, otherwise known as the abortion. The American man is thought to be much older hence being called a man while Jigs is simply named the girl. It doesn't say in the story whether or not the abortion took place but while they are sitting on the bench drinking the alcohol they do pay close attention to the left and right sides of their views; one being life and the other being death. They also see the clouds and Jigs thinks they look like white elephants, which can be portrayed as something for a babys room. It is obvious that the man wants the abortion to take place because after the operation there lives will be happy again and tells her that it is really a simple operation, although he continues to tell her that if she doesn't want to then she doesn't have to.

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper was kind of an interesting story in the sense that the woman clearly had something wrong with her. She constantly found something wrong with the room, (nursery) she was living in as her own bedroom with her husband who was a doctor. I don't know how she got her nervous disorder, she mentioned that the woman taking care of her said that her "sickness' could have come from her writing, but the things she would say in her journal and throughout the story were just weird. That the wallpaper had so many different shades of yellow and that it moved and that it merely had a personality and that behind the wallpaper there was a woman crawling around and shaking the wallpaper. I also paid attention to the way she described her husband and brother who are doctors, as if they thought they were "know it alls" because they have that title in that profession. Towards the end of the story, she begins to actually like the room, a little; because they are going to be leaving it. On the final day of her having to stay at that house with the horrendous yellow wallpaper, she tears it apart, acts like a crazy person(she is) teaming up with the so called woman behind the wallpaper to get rid of it. Her husband comes home in such shock that he faints.

Well, I am choosing to write about the story The Chrysanthemums. I thought the story was kind of interesting although at times it was hard to understand. I didn't like the character of the man with the wagon because I am not a fan of a begger. He asked to do some work for money and she denied, so then he chose to manipulate her and make her feel bad. After there "moment" of her feeling happy and proud giving him some of her precious flowers to give to the neighbor, she decided to find something for him to do for fifty cents. After his disappearance, she got ready for her husband to come home and then go to a nice dinner. On there way to dinner she saw the flowers that she had given to the ol dirty, and grungy man thrown out on the road. From her character, I took that she wanted to have more respect, like a man. Her and her husband Henry don't have children. She stays at home and from the story, she laid out the man's clothes for him, and stayed in the garden for the majority of the day, as if that was her job because, she was just a woman and couldn't have a real job; only to stay home and provide for the man.