M2504’s Weblog

Suppose you’re a creator. Among architecture, sculpture, music, and literature, which do you think offers the most promise of an enduring monument? Explain your answer.
Architecture, sculputre, and literature are the most likely to endure I think. Architecture will be conseved through many years and studied as well as a sculputre, but with literature you can really explain the reasons and give much more detail of the time. I dont think that music endures because we can se the many changes in music taste through the years and it is not likely that many people will appreciate it.

Irony is the discrepancy between expectations and reality. Explain the fundamental irony in the sonnet.
The fundamental irony in the sonnet might be that the legs in the desert where a sculpture from a great king and that is what he wanted when someone passing by saw that the sculpture was from the king of ozymandias, but now after many years the sculpture was left as a ruin and nothing else. 

Discuss what you think is the speaker’s message about pride -and whether it also applies to artists.
In some way he expresses that feeling pride is useless because it won’t leave you anything at all in the end. It can be applied to artists because they think that what they do is so awesome that it will never be forgotten and it is not that way at all.

Could this poem apply to any contemporary figures who wield political power? Explain.
Politics are not interesting for me in any way, but I guess I can say that in some way it applies. Politicians expect to rule over everyone and over a very long period of time, which is not true and the power they reach at some point won’t last for more than a few years. 

In the poem She Walks in Beauty, by Lord Byron, what in the woman’s appearance does the speaker praise? what conclusions does he draw about her character and personality?
she appears to be a beautiful woman which he compares to night clouds because of her beauty, and he wishes her beautiful expressions and her beautiful face. He states that she is a woman who has a lot to live for because of her beauty and that she has a innocent soul.

This poem has been criticized as sentimental and dependent on clichés. Tell me whether or not you agree and why.

In my opinion, this poem is sentimental. He expresses his feelings for her openly, stating that she is very beautiful and gives details about her and her beaty. We can tell from this poem that his feelings towards her are strong.

Do you think that inward nature can be revealed by outward appearances? Explain.
Inward nature is nowhere near of being revealed by the physical appearances. As the saying “do not judge a book by its cover”. Many people may seem nice, beautiful, and kind at first sight, but once you get to know them better you discover the real them, which may be mean, liar, and ugly inward.

There was a time in American History (or Unitedstatesian, as you say) when almost every schoolchild could recite parts of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Find four stanzas that strike you as particularly quotable. What situations in contemporary life would you apply the lines to?

The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he!
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.
This stanza can be used by someone at the sea who presenced the drowning of someone else.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was allaround;
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swoind!
This can be used by people living in very cold places like in alaska. Maybe used by some men dedicated to transport things in big trucks over the ice.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.
This stanza can be used in contemporary life by anyone feeling alone and depressed. It also shows some who is holding a grudge because no one really helped him or her.
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest !
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
This can be used as a farewell to someone that is dying.

Coleridge once said that he would have preferred to write The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as a work of “pure imagination”. He believed that it had “too much” of a moral, and that the moral was stated too openly. Do you agree or disagree with Coleridge about the message in this poem? Why?
An ancient Mariner meets three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detained one. The Wedding-Guest is spell-bound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale. The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the Line. The Wedding-Guest heareth the bridal music ; but the Mariner continueth his tale.  The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole. The land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be seen. Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality. The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen. At the end of the tale the mariner is cursed to tell the story everyday for the rest of his life. The message of this tale was really hard to understand for me because I didn’t read the poem in class, but with what I undertood I may say that I agree with the message because it teaches a lesson and shows how actions are always followed by reactions, these could be good or bad, in this case bad.

This ballad is famous for its use of vivid figurative language and memorable sound devices. Find examples of especially effective examples of simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, assonance and internal rhyme (one of each).

Simile
The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she

Metaphor
The Sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he ! 
And he shone bright, and on the right 
Went down into the sea.

Personification
Almost upon the western wave 
Rested the broad bright Sun

Alliteration
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ; 
Water, water, every where, 
Nor any drop to drink.

Assonance
The repeating ‘a’ vowel sound in ‘Alone, alone, all, all alone’.

Internal Rhyme
In the four-line stanzas, the second and fourth lines usually rhyme.
In the five- and six-line stanzas, the second or third line usually rhymes with the final line.
The meter alternates between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.

Have you ever felt fear, joy, wonder, or grief because of an animal? To remember incidents, create a list of family pets since you were young. To recall other animal encounters, create associations from the words circus, outdoors and camping. And don’t forget “lowly” animals like bugs and mice: any experience that raises lingering feelings or questions is a good topic.

Write a poem to another creature, -fly, cockroach, spider, moth. Imitate Burns. 8 lines

Penguin, I think it must be very nice
To stroll about upon the ice,
Night and day, day and night,
Wearing only black and white,
Always in your Sunday best
Black tailcoat and pearl, white vest.
To stroll about so pleasantly
Beside the cold and silent sea
Would really suit me to a T!
I think it must be very nice
To stroll with penguins on the ice.

Why do human beings do evil? Why do evil people sometimes prosper? Why does God allow innocent children to suffer?

If you could cry out against an evil of our day -and get people to listen-, which social problem would you choose? Why would you choose it?

 In The Poison Tree, by William Blake, the speaker describes what happens when anger is left unresolved. What happens to anger that is allowed to grow and fester, anger that is nurtured with our own deceit?

Think of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. What does confession mean to you? What purpose does confession have for the teller and listener? Is a listener even necessary? Why do you think the act of confession plays such an important part in law and religion?