The Yellow Wallpaper

To me both short stories were a little confusing. They were very descriptive, but kind of hard to understand. This is a good thing though because we are analyzing the stories. I found The Yellow Wallpaper to be a more interesting story. It kept my interest more than the other story, and I am very interested in re-reading it and researching about it to understand it better.

Analyzing Literature

There are many things to know about analyzing literature. Sometimes it can be difficult, and sometimes it can be easy. I have learned quite a few things about analyzing literature. One thing, and I think this is the most important thing I learned is that when analyzing a piece of literature; there is not just one hidden meaning. There could be many different meanings, but it all depends on how, I, as the reader interpret it. Though, the the conclusion that I come up with about the meaning must make sense and be backed up by evidence. Evidence is another important step to analyzing literature. There must be a lot of good evidence when you are proving what you think the meaning of a piece of literature is.
Also, when reading, it is important to understand what is being read. Avoiding pitfalls is very important. I learned that when I am reading something I should't highlight just to highlight. ONLY highlight key passages, phrases, and turning points in the story. When highlighting, there should also be notes in the margin about what has been highlighted. Doing these things will allow for a better understanding of the story, and also a not so frustrating experience when trying to understand it.

Poem 5

Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

This poem is very sad. It was written awhile ago but still today we see the same things. Girls trying to look like what the girls look like in magazines and tv. You're supposed to be perfect, skinny, good nose, perfect skin. I think this is what this poem is trying to say. She was born a girl and in her time she was expected to be the perfect girl, but when she started to grow up she was told she wasn't good enough. She was told to do so many things to get to where she needed to be as a girl, but then she got rid of her flaws and dies because of it. When she was lying in the casket then did she get approval of how she looked. Marge Piercy says at the end, "To every woman a happy ending" It should be this way, but only this way when you are comfortable with who you are, not in the way that you try so hard to be what is expected that you end up dead, or sick.

Poem 4

The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop

In this poem Elizabeth Bishop uses great description. She talks of catching a fish, and not just any fish but a fish that had been caught many times and let lose. This fish did not fight because it already knew what was happening. She describes this fish so wonderfully. From her description you can get that it is an old fish, kind of beatin up. She decribes that in his lip are still hooks from where the fishing line has broken before many times, and now it seems that the fish has just given up. At the end of the poem though she lets the fish go, a happy ending to this poem.

Poem 3: We Real Cool

This peom is called We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks

Reading this poem makes me think of teenagers out of control. I interpret it as teenagers doing everything they are not supposed to be doing. They are skipping school, they stay out late, they cause trouble, they drink, they have sex. Everything about this poem is rebellion to me, and the reader says by doing these things that they shortening their life with the line at the end of the poem," We Die soon." All of the things they are doing is leading up to an earlier death. Maybe suggesting these things are not so great to be doing? Are they really cool if they die soon?

Poem 2

We Wear the Mask by Paul Luarence Dunbar

This poem was interesting to me. I read it through about 7 times, and thought about it. I really think the meaning of this poem is how people hide their emotions, everyone goes around acting happy but a lot of people inside are sad or angry. Especially he illistrates this to me in the line, "With torn and bleeding hearts we smile," I think this is so true, many people don't express the way they truly feel, and in many ways conveys that people are fake. We walk around with fake people acting happy and as if life is wonderful, not all people are like this but a lot. Though, it is not common for people to go around sharing their feeling to random strangers, but still this happens everyday, almost everyone is hiding an emotion. Thus, "We wear the mask!"

Poem Blog 1

I read, To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet

I really like this poem because she so much expresses her love and how grateful she is to her husband and how wonderful their love is. It is very beautiful and romantic, I think. In this poem it is easy to see how much she truly loves her husband and how happy she is with him. It is such simple, straighforward poem about her and her husbands love. I really liked reading it, I like romantic things. My favorite line in the poem is the first line. When I was looking for a poem I would like to read and write a blog about, this particular stood out to me and made me want to read it. It says, "If ever two were one, then surely we" this line obviously expresses how much in love they are, and how close they are it is like they are one person. A love like that must be wonderful.

My Poetry Experience

So far, I have not had much experience with poetry. I have never been a big fan of poetry and in high school when poetry was touched on, I didn't pay much attention to it. It never really made sense to me, and I had never been taught how to read poetry. I never knew there was a way to read poetry, and I never knew you had to work at reading it. It really helped to me to appreciate it more because I now knew how much you had to work at poetry. Learning how to read a poem in this unit, definitely made me appreciate poetry more. I still don't care for poetry, but I have more of an appreciation for it now.

How to Read a Poem: Beginner's Manual

This poem is a lot easier for me to understand than most. I like that about this poem, it is nice for me to read because I do understand it. I don't so much like the work that goes into reading poetry. This poem says that poetry can be liked by anyone, no matter how smart you, or who you are. It says to just read poetry, to not be scared, which I also like very much. It says a poem can grow, you make think one thing at first but it grows into something beautiful. It also says that after practicing poetry for awhile, one day the poems will just be understandable. One day you will just be able to read poetry. I really liked this poem.

Poetry by Marianne Moore

This poem was difficult at first to understand, to me that is how most poetry is. Once it is broken down and thought about it is a little easier to see the true meaning of this poem, but that is exactly what this poem is about. It is about understanding poetry and gettin it down to its raw meaning. The quote which says "Imaginary gardens with real toads in them" to me explains poetry perfectly. At first it may seem like the poem is imaginary or not real, but in the end there is a real meaning in the poem somewhere.

How to Read Poetry

I found this reading very interesting. Poetry has always been one of those things that is a little scary for me. I feel like when I read poetry I am afraid of it because I don't understand. It is hard for me to except things I don't understand, so I tend to stay away from poetry. I liked this reading because it reassured me that poetry doesn't always come easy. I like how it gives you steps on how to better understand a poem. The whole reading made me want to learn to read poetry. I can't say that I will like reading after I learn, but I hope that I will like it much better than I do now. I do not want to be afraid of it. I like that face that it tells you to talk to the poem and ask questions about the poem. It talks about the rythm of poetry and how sometimes that can give the poem a whole different meaning, that was interesting to me because I never knew that about poetry. I also like the part where it says that you have to work at poetry. No one has ever told me this before. I never understood that you were supposed to work at it rather that just understanding it like a regular reading of a book or something like that.

Where I Lived, and What I Lived for: Chenel Roosa ENGL 1020

This reading by Thoreau, was a little boring to me. Though some parts I find to be some beautiful writing, so that is mainly what I am going to be talking about. In the first paragraph of this piece, he says "Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly." I really like this because I just think it is very beautifuly written. Also, his decriptions of place in this piece is very good. I really like a lot of his decriptions of where he is or what he is talking about. In paragraph four there is part where he is talking about place he wants to buy and describes some of it, "the gray color and ruinous state of the house and barn, and the dilapidated fences, which put such an interval between me and the last occupant; the hollow lichen-covered apple trees, nawed by rabbits, showing what kind of neighbors i should have." There is sentence that is also on this page, in paragraph eight, "The winds which passed over my dwelling were such as sweep over the ridges of mountains, bearing the broken strains, or celestial parts only, of terrestrial music." He describes things so well. This description, just of the wind is so beautiful. In one sentence he gives a wonderful description of the wind. This shows what a great descriptive writer Thoreau is. In this one chapter from Walden, he gives so many wonderful descriptions.

USFS 1919

I found this book very interesting. The history and how things were so much different, was really interesting to me. the Forest Service in particular. It required no schooling and the men were picked to be on the Forest Service depending on who was the toughest in town. Also, towards the end of the  book when he makes it into Hamilton. Everything about the town life was interesting to me. The people that it consisted of, and how small it was. Also, I really like the descriptions he gives when he is staying up on Grave Peak as a lookout. Especially when he is talking about the mountains moving. He talks about being sick as a child and his mom putting him outside to get better. He just watched the mountains. He never got bored because he knew there was always something to look at. So, when he is sent up to be the lookout he talks about how it really isn't a punishment because he doesnt mind watching the moutains move.
I also really liked his description of the cook. He at first talks about him as wearing low canvas shoes but he doesn't say much else about him until page 135. He describes the cook like a bluejay, "he looked like a bluejay, cocky, with his head on a slant and a tuft of hair on top of it". I think that description is very good. Alot stood out to me about this book. The way he describes everything around him is amazing. He can almost paint a perfect picture in your mind about where he is at. I really enjoyed reading this book.