Journal 17 Romanticism Poem

The leaves fall down and the colors grow,
Winter is coming and the weather grows cold.
Clear the ground of green, make way for the snow
As the beauty of winter is about to unfold.

Winter is the time of rebirth,
It is the foundation of the rest of the year
The whiteness will end and the new beauty will unearth.
Spread your wings, fly and have no fear
As the seasons change it is a sight to see,
Will you my beauty come to me

OLD IRONSIDES ANALYSIS

Literal Meaning:
Take down the flag of the Constitution; it is has been up for a long time; many people have looked and seen the flag waving in the air; under it there was battle and the cannons firing; the meteors will not be in the sky anymore. The ship's deck was stained red from blood of heroes where the dead enemies knelt, where winds were running over the flood, where the waves were white below, no more shall it feel the winner's feet or know their knee, the monsters of the shore will pluck the eagle of the sea. It is better her shattered mass should sink in the sea; her thunders made the deep tremble, and there her grave will be, nail her flag to the mast, set all of the thin, aged sails, and give her to the god of storms, lightning and wind.

Poetic Devices:
There are really not very many poetic devices used within Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell Holmes. However, there is a lot of imagery in this poem that describes past scenes that have taken place aboard this ship. It also describes that dignity of this ship and how glorious and respectable it is. There is also the use of stanzas, being three stanzas total in this poem. It is kind of just a sad poem about how this beautiful ship should not be retired.

Figural Meaning:
The poem Old Ironsides is about an ironclad ship, the Constitution and how it is being retired. The writer is clearly very sad about the retirement of this ship which has fought and been victorious in many battles. He thinks the ship better be at the bottom of the ocean in its grave than be taken out of commission. It is clear the writer had very strong feelings toward this beautiful ship and did not want to see it go.

Poetry Analysis of Thanatopsis

Literal Meaning:
Nature is beautiful and speaks to people.
When someone dies, people are sad, and their world is dark.
A person who dies is forever in the ground.
The human essence is lost and mixed with nature.
The oak tree will embrace you.
You will not die alone and you cannot ask for a better resting place.
Everyone is the same after death.
Nature is a giant tomb for man.
Everyone of all ages is sad about death.
People on Earth are a small amount of people that rest in the earth.
Embrace your death, or become lost and alone.
Who will notice you when you die?
Everyone dies.
People will move on, but eventually join you in death.
Regardless of age, they will follow you in death someday.
Live life to the fullest, so it’s not agony when you die; you die happy.

Poetic Devices:
There are many poetic devices which are used in William Cullen Bryant's Thanatopsis, One that sticks out a lot to me is Imagery. There is a ton of imagery in this poem regarding the heavens, nature, and then a large portion about death. It wants you to think death as a peaceful thing and so it refers to beautiful things that surround us our whole life.
There are also metaphors within this poem. They are a little rare, but they do reside within the poem. Bryant compares the last thought of death to a bad omen over your soul in the first stanza for an example. Bryant uses metaphors to put forward an easier way to read, and a recurring thought of death with his metaphors within Thanatopsis.
I do believe that William Cullen Bryant uses a small amount of personification within his writing like when he mentions the valleys and the brook, he says they are respectable and they stretch in silence, which they cannot do.
Bryant uses many similes within this poem. It occurs many times throughout the poem like when he says,"the hills rock ribb'd and ancient like the sun," or, "When thoughts of the last bitter hour come like a blight over thy spirit."
There are also three stanzas within this poem as they all reflect it seems to be different stages of accepting your death.

Figural Meaning:
The meaning of Thanatopsis is very deep. It says that you should accept your death. You should not be afraid because whatever you did on earth is forgotten once you die; you are just another part of the earth like past kings or thieves. Nature will embrace you once you are dead no matter what you have done in your life. So live peacefully and do not think about death.

Journal 17 - Bonding with Nature

I like nature. Nature is one of the most beautiful and saving things that you can have to use to your advantage. Whenever I need to calm down I just go outside and go for a walk in the woods behind my house. It is so peaceful just to walk around and think about everything. I seems that nature just seems to take out all of the bad things that are happening in your life and it replaces them with happy thoughts. It is like nature takes you to your own happy place. Then when there are storms it is even more amazing. I love to watch a steady rain, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and then thunderstorms are the best.One time that sticks out to me in particualr that I felt one with nature was probably about two yers ago. I was out for a run in I am going to say mid April. It was about seven in the evening I would have to guess and it was beginning to get dark. There was a thunderstorm rolling in off in the west and I could see the lightning striking and I could hear the thunder rolling in. Before too long it started to rain. At first it was just the steady rain where it is not too hard but just kind of raining. Then it began to pour. It was raining so hard you could not really see very far in front of you. Whenever it is raining this hard it is just straight impressive. I had never felt so great in my life. I felt like I was running so fast and I felt like there was just another spirit or something with me. It was so amazing that I could ahve ran forever. I ran fourteen miles that day when I set out to do just three. It was absolutely fantastic and I think I would be pretty sweet if it ever happened again.

Journal 16 - My Favorite Toy

I have many toys that I play with like four different bikes, seven guitars, drums, piano, legos, cds, action figures, hot wheels, army men, slinkies, a car, assorted balls, hoops, baskets, trails, and so much more! I love all of my bikes, one is an old 1960's Schwinn cruiser that I restored from a pile of rust. Then I have an early nineties Specialized Allez. It was one of the first transition bikes ever made where they took the shifting from the down tube to the end of the handle bars. Then I bought two bikes over the course of this last summer. I bought a Surly mountain bike that is the model of the Instigator. I love to take it out on the trails and just ride for hours. Then my pride and joy is my Trek TTX 3.0 Traithalon bike. It is so sexy. It is a sleek silver with a royal blue accenting color and IT IS FAST. I averaged like 28 miles an hour one time with it on a thirty mile bike ride. The bike is amazing!!! That is probably my favorite toy of all. I also love to play music. My guitars are a double neck custom electric guitar, a Washburn acoustic, a Gibson acoustic, a Fender Telecaster, a B.C.Rich Warlock, a piece of crap electric guitar that is less valuable than a Wal Mart guitar, then my favorite an Ibanez bass guitar. My main guitar is the bass guitar so it is my favorite. Soon I will trade this Ibanez for a much nicer Fender Jazz Bass more than likely. Then I love my piano. I love to play piano and I am actually pretty good at it. My piano is easy to play so it is amazing. It just needs a little bit of tuning. My car is a 1996 Pontiac limited edition Grand Prix GTP two door. Needless to say, it is probably the coolest car ever. I love driving it around. It is easy to drive and fun. Plus it is pretty fast.

Journal 15 Logic and Reason

The point when someone decides to use logic and reason is really whenever they want to. Say if some one is planning on jumping off of a building. They are standing up there on top and looking at the ground. It is this point when they would use logic and reason. They would be thinking, "if I jump right now, I am going to die and never live again." This would be the point where many people would think, "Okay, I am not going to jump because I want to live." Then they would use logic and back slowly away from the edge. That is one of the many times you could use it. Or say if some one were playing baseball and there was a runner on first and second. The ball gets hit to the third basemen who is pretty far away from his base. There is one out. The third baseman could run over to his base and get the out and maybe, just maybe. get the batter out at first. This would preserve the man from being at third. Instead, he throws it to second then the ball goes to first and the double play is completed. This logic of getting two outs instead of one is brilliant and protects the man from being on third, and gets the team out of the inning. It would be smart if many people thought about things before they actually did them, but many times that is not the case. Many times people just walk around all willy nilly and do their actions without thinking about them at all. This is just stupid. People should always use logic and reason when doing anything whether it be running a race or buying toilet paper at County Market. Many times things end up better when you use logic and reason, so you should do it! Go Logic and Reason! You will end up having a better, and full life.

Common Sense

I do not know the way I feel about Thomas Paine's Common Sense. Many of these things I would not classify as common sense. Like I do not know near as much about government as Thomas Paine knew about his government. I do agree with him however that it is kind of Bogus that the ruling of England was controlled by a kind and no one else can become the king unless they fell underneath his family lineage. Could you imagine having no one but George Washington's family be President of the United States? Our policies would never change and we would never expand our horizons or do different things. I completely agree with what Thomas Paine was trying to get through that statement. I really like what Paine was trying to get across to his readers under his OF MONARCHY AND HEREDITARY SUCCESSION (Paine). The first paragraph was dead on with my beliefs where it says it is true that every man was created equal but in no shape or form is any body treated equally. The poor were treated poorly, and the females were seen as lowly creatures who got no respect. Even in the Declaration of Independence it says, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Yet we see it not just throughout the world, but in the United States today racism and feminism even when the very document that the country itself was founded upon says all men are equal. We see later in the document Thomas Paine speaking of the Great Britain government ending, "The authority of Great Britain over this continent, is a form of government, which sooner or later must have an end:And a serious mind can draw no true pleasure by looking forward, under the painful and positive conviction, that what he calls 'the present constitution' is merely temporary (Paine)." I too would be upset with the government of England at this time. All the government was was an arrogant ruler trying to control all of the world that he possibly could at one time. I agree with Paine when he says, "Men do not change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name" (Paine). This is agreeable as to say if Al Queda changed their name to the American Loving Society. Just because their terrorist operation changed their name to something good about the people who are fighting the war on terrorism against them does not mean they will be friends. This goes along with any other good guys versus bad guys in the world. I really like the point Paine got across with this argument. I do not like Paine's idea of splitting each one of the American Colonies and splitting them into six, eight or ten districts. What would the colony of Rhode Island do? There is a very small land mass there and It would be interesting to see the amount of population represented by those districts. Also say if there were a very small amount of people living in one district and none of them wanted to be involved with the politics, how would that go over with the congress? It is all very interesting to me.

Paine, By Thomas. "Thomas Paine's Common Sense - Text Version." Archiving Early America: Primary Source Material from 18th Century America. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. .

Literary Criticism

What J.A. Lemay says in his literary criticism of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is that it is one of Benjamin's Franklin's greatest work of art. However I do not agree this truly was his greatest work of art. I do however like the ideas that Lemay uses when trying to explain why the Autobiography was Franklin's greatest work. He uses legitimate background information to prove his point to his readers. He also uses good quotes from other people about Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography to prove how great the book actually was. A good one that brings his point across is, "Franklin's Autobiography is the first great book in American literature, and, in some ways, it remains the most important single book. One cannot claim for it the structural perfection of, say, Henry James's Ambassadors or Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, nor does it possess the grandiloquent language of Melville, Whitman, or Faulkner. But Franklin's Autobiography contains those 'short quick probings at the very axis of reality,' which, in Melville's opinion, were a touchstone of literary greatness" (Lemay). This is a very strong point he makes. He states it is not the most perfect book in the world and it does not have perfect grammar or anything, but the idea of the book and its content is what makes it one of the most important books of all time. In my opinion, it is better to say that something is not the greatest in everything because nothing in the world can be the best in every single category. I would rather have something be great in some key categories of which I am looking at it, then it can be truly great. It is like when you compare the an Mac computer to a windows computer. It is true macs are not good for gaming like windows are, but overall they are a better computer. Macs only have a dozen known viruses where windows have thousands. Macs are way faster and function better, and are just an overall better computer. Another thing I really like about Lemay's criticism is he asks the reader questions and challenges his readers to actually think. In the criticism he asks what the American Dream is (Lemay). No one knows what the American Dream actually is, it could be different for many people depending on what they are looking for. Lemay does not give a straight answer and just says there is a common cliche and no set 'dream'. This leaves room for reader questions and gives them a chance to put some of their own thoughts into Lemay's writing. Whether this is on purpose or not, it is a great literary element for this kind of writing. Lemay actually tells us what the main theme of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is and explains to his readers what the book is going to be about if someone would want to read it. This is nice because it does not tell us any of the events that happen within Franklin's book, but it gives the reader somewhat of a heads up and an idea of what they are going to be reading about. I hate when you read something and do not know what its purpose was, then you get an idea of what it is about and you read it over again and you understand it. This is a help to a situation such as this.

Franklin, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. [S.I.]: General, 2009. Print.

Lemay, J.A. Leo. "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." InThe Renaissance Man in the Eighteenth Century. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1978. Quoted as "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." in Bloom, Harold, ed. The American Dream, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. October 11, 2010.

Journal 14 Declaration of Kirk

The Declaration of Kirk is a very precious thing. It is how the man named Kirk Robert !@#$% lives by. It goes a little like this - I Kirk Robert !@#$% am on this day of the third day of this December in the year of nineteen hundred and ninety three in the village of Alytus in the beautiful and godly country of Lithuania am now born to this planet they call earth. From this day forth and for all of the days of my my long and prosperous life will I always be the best man alive. When I am young I will move to the village of Springfield in the state of Illinois and be nice to everybody around because I am just that nice of a kid. I will walk around like I own the place because I do. I am Kirk Robert !@#$%! If someone comes by me on the street and waves at me I will wave back because I am a nice kid. I will be loving towards all the creatures of the land. I am one of these creatures of the planet and I follow the golden rule. When I grow to the age of two, Nile !@#$%^&* and I will play the game of soccer and we will thrive on the prarie grasslands of central Illinois and create a dynasty that no one besides Alexander the Great can compare. I will go to the school of Pleasant Plains throughout my life and try my hardest at school because I care! I will respect women when I am on a date, I take them to a park and maybe the museum and I will only try to kiss them if they are ready. I will help my mom and dad by getting a job so I can help pay for school supplies! When I walk into a house I will wipe my shoes on the mat because someone just cleaned that floor. I Kirk Robert !@#$% will live by these values and I will be a very nice person to everyone.

Journal 13 Spirit

What do I think of school spirit? That is quite a question. Sometimes I like the idea of school spirit but other times I do like the idea of school spirit. I really like homecoming week because it makes you get a sense of actually belonging to your school if you actually do participate. It is fun to compete against all of the other grades for points to see which grade actually likes their school the most. Sometimes however school spirit can go a little to far. That point is when you start arguing with other kids from other schools about how much better your school is than theirs. Or like a couple of years ago a bunch of kids from Pleasant Plains vandalized the Lutheran High School and wrote go Plains all over the building. That is when it becomes too much. But showing pride in your school is never a bad thing. It is nice to go to the mall or something and walk around to see people walking around with different school logos and athletic teams or clubs on their shirts or pants, or maybe even hats to go a little crazy. People should be proud of their school because it is where they learn many things and have many great experiences in what many people call the time of their lives. One thing I dislike about homecoming week is the girls. Many times girls get too involved in the activities and start bossing people around telling them they need to dress up for this day or do that in the pep assembly. Earlier during homecoming week some kids in my grade, who will be unnamed, got in a fight with a different group of friends about what the lip sync for the pep assembly was going to be. The group of friends that started the argument ended up getting the so called "honors" to do the dance and never even organized an actual thing. Then Zander and Luke stepped up and did the Napolean Dynamite talent show dance and won! That dance was pretty great and it showed what great class pride they had! It was a great way to step up for the sake of earning points for our grade. Another good thing I saw during homecoming week was the penny race. It is fun to have a competition that raises money for a good cause like the Pleasant Plains can drive or whatever it is called.

Journal 12 Working With a Partner

Some people work better when they work with a partner.Other people tend to struggle while working with partners. To me working with partners is a valuable skill to learn for the future. Imagine you are the co-boss of a company and you share the company with your worst enemy. Your company is the biggest manufacturer of stools in the whole world. Recently however, people have not been buying stools and the stool economy is heading way down hill. You decide your company needs to make something else rather than just stools, but you cannot do this alone because the company is owned and managed by someone else as well. You have to work together with this person in order for you to make a living but you hate this person. You have to have this skill of working together that you learned when you were a young child of working with a partner. This is why people learn to work together and share when they are little so stool companies can flourish throughout the world. If people did not work together then what would the people behind me right now be sitting on? I can tell you it would not be stools! I think people should never be able to pick their partners during classes because then it is like you get to pick people you already know and get along with. It is fun to get thrown in that awkward situation with somebody else (not really). If only people would get thrown into awkward situations everyday, then there would be a lot of pretty turtles walking around. The I love turtles kid would be very happy then indeed even though he was clearly dressed as a zombie. Whenever people love turtles as much as him, they get into Daniel Tosh's show and get made fun of quite a bit. I am a taken man by a very lovely woman.

Journal 11 - Ethics and Values Amongst the World

Who here has any values? No one? Alright, it has been established nobody in the world has any values at all. When we look at the world as a whole, it is easy to see the world is ethically and valued challenged. The world is basically at a war because there are so many countries fighting somewhere for some reason. They do not care what it hurts or who it hurts. They just do not care at all. It is absolutely ridiculous how stupid the world is. I wish I had no values like most of the world. But no I actually care about things and people. I am such a good person. People are just so obsessed with me that I would think the world would become a much better place. They would follow the excellent example I give to everyone of being an amazing person. If only the world actually followed my example. There would be no wars, or disagreements, and a lot of Muse. No crappy music. Maybe that is what gives all the people in the world bad values. They listen to terrible music like Soulja Boy, or Jason Mraz. They are pathetic and make people go angry and want to make people riot against each other. Maybe fight each other. People are so jealous and selfish it also makes people go crazy. some people are just so stupid today. I hate so many people and it just gets really annoying. If only people were like me. I would never argue with them. This whole obsession with me being a utopian human being is just to get three hundred and twenty five words. Sometimes it is just hard for me to collect all of my thoughts on one subject and pile it into a blog from. I can not concentrate enough to get all of those words. I do not have the mental capacity for it.