poetry #6

Poetry #6
Neal Chapman

HOW CAN I HATE YOU?

I shall leave you
If I have to.
I shall forget you
If I have to.
I shall forgive you
If I have to.

But I shall not hate you
Even if I have to.
How can I hate you,
Whom I have loved so devotedly
And so unreservedly? 

title: the title of this poem at first glance, makes me think that there was a person who the author was close too, than betrayed him. it could have been a lover, or close friend, just from the title it is hard to tell.

paraphrase:  the beginning of the poem is about a person trying to forget another person. the second half of the poem is the same person saying that they could never hate that person.

Connotation: I believe that the connotation of this poem is that people who have ever been intimate, or a parent child relationship can never hate each other.

Tone: the start of the poem has a angry tone, while the second part of the poem has a more sad tone.

shift: halfway through the poem there is a tone shift from angry, to sad.

Title: The more i look at the title of this poem i think that this poem is about a parent, child relationship that goes wrong.

theme: the theme of this poem is love, lost, and forgiveness.

poetry #5

Poetry #5
Neal Chapman

Two Kinds of Intelligence

There are two kinds of intelligence: one acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from the new sciences.
With such intelligence you rise in the world.
You get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining
information. You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more
marks on your preserving tablets.
There is another kind of tablet, one
already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness
in the center of the chest. This other intelligence
does not turn yellow or stagnate. It’s fluid,
and it doesn’t move from outside to inside
through conduits of plumbing-learning.
This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.

Title: the title of this poem"Two Kinds of Intelligence" is trying to spark conversation in the readers mind. the reader has to think what the two kinds of intelligence are, than which kind do they have.

paraphrase: the poet says that the first kind of intelligence is the one you get from being good at school, and reading books. the second kind of intelligence is basically creativity that you can't get more or less of. you are born with a certain amount of intelligence in the second sense of the word.

connotation: this poem tries to tell people that while learning from a book is good, and you can do good in life with it, you are born with  certain amount of "intelligence" and that there is not much you can do to change that.

Tone: the tone of this poem is upbeat. it says that even if you are not book smart, you still are intelligent.

shift: there is a big shift when it switches what type of intelligence it is talking about. it starts off kind of melancholy, then it switches to a more upbeat, happy tone for the second half.

title: the title of this poem really speaks to the individuality of people. no two people are the same, and that includes there not just being one way to measure intelligence.

theme: the theme of this poem is individuality in people.

Short story

Short story
Neal Chapman

The twigs brush my face as I race by, the cold air stinging the scratches left behind. I glance up to see the moon start to appear behind the clouds. my heart starts beating faster and faster. my only thought is to keep on running, try and get away from all of the people I care about. Whenever i glance behind me and see the lights from my village the word faster flashes in my mind. Suddenly, a root grabs my leg and pulls me to the ground. i stumble into the fringes of a clearing. while on the ground i can feel a tingling in my extremities. "no, no no!" I yell out loud. I look up to the sky to see a full moon staring back at me. It started with my fingers, my nails extending, while my fingers shorten into paws. the bones in my fingers breaking as they conform into their new shape. it moves into my arms, the cracking sound was almost as bad as the actual bones breaking. after about a minute of excruciating pain, i passed out. In my sleep, I saw flashes of what i hoped had been a dream. the flashes consisted on faces that i recognized, their eyes clouded with death. everything was cloaked with a maroon filter.

I look around, seeing nothing but a sunny ski above me. i look to my left, and see the tree line, thick with spruce trees. I slowly rotate my head clockwise, and see that i am in a clearing of the forest, it looked strangely familiar. As i complete my head turn to my right, I see exactly what I didn't want to see. I could see the back of a head laying right next to me. Their was no body connected to the head. i jump up and the contents of my stomach empty themselves onto the grass. My mind is racing, what have I done, is repeating itself throughout my head. I look down at my body with horror, i was naked, streaked with dried blood. I get up and started running, i was running away from not just my village, not just from the people who i have killed, but also from my very life. The knowledge that once every month i turn into a monster and have to murder people,  made it that i could not enjoy life. As i was running, i saw a cliff in front of me. i run to the edge and look down, the river hundreds of feet below rushed by with the ferocity of bear. i jumped, knowing that the world will be abetter place without me. as the wind rushes by my face, i smile. i smile with the knowledge, that i would not be able to hurt anyone else anymore. the river rushes towards my eyes, than everything goes black.

poetry #4

poetry #4
Neal Chapman
sonnet Vl

Then let not winter's ragged hand deface,
In thee thy summer, ere thou be distilled:
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed.
That use is not forbidden usury,
Which happies those that pay the willing loan;
That's for thy self to breed another thee,
Or ten times happier, be it ten for one;
Ten times thy self were happier than thou art,
If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity?
   Be not self-willed, for thou art much too fair
   To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.

Title: the title of the sonnet is just sonnet Vl, i don't think that this title had very much thinking behind it.

paraphrase: i think the poem is trying to tell a girl to not grow old with time, but the poet knows that growing old is part of life.

connotation: in the first two lines when the poet is talking about summer and winter, i think he is talking about time passing in general, and not specific seasons. the last two lines are telling the girl that she is much to pretty for death to turn her body into a home for worms.

Tone: i think the the poet is talking in a deppresed kind of love he is in love with this girl =, but instead of seeing the good parts, all he can see is her dying in the end.

shift: before the last two lines, the poet is talking about what the death would do for him, and how sad it would make him. in the last two lines he shifts to talking about the girl directly.

title: once again the title is just a number.

theme: i think that the theme of this poem is knowing the inevitable. the poet knows that hte girl will die eventually and cannot stop thinking of that point.

blog post #3

blog post #3
Neal Chapman

If i were to do any day over again it would be this last Friday. after working for 4 straight years just trying to get better, my high school hockey career ended. I always knew it would end, but i can't quite believe it is actually over. The hardest part about it ending is the fact that it could have gone for a little longer, while making school history in the process. Since we were the 4th place in our conference, the team would have to play state powerhouse west valley high school. we had played them 3 times already this year, each one ending with a 8-1 loss. while some people might look at this as a definite loss for the bears, i have always been the kind of person who could see the silver lining. I honestly thought that we could win the game. the first period went good until the last 8 seconds, when west valley scored their first goal. the rest of the game went like this, our team playing solid, except for a couple of points, which the other team would exploit and score. our team could only muster 13 shots to west valleys 46 and the final score was 3-1. while it was much better than any other, i was finished. it took me a couple minutes to fully comprehend that it was truly over. if i were to change anything i would have changed that day, to try and keep my hockey career going. although i know that nothing can be perfect, even if i had one that game, or even won the state tournament, i would still be sad that my hockey career was over.

poetry #3

Poetry #3
Neal Chapman

Hope

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,

- Emily Dickinson,

Title: the title of this poem really describes the rest of the poem. Hope really is a living idea and more than just a thought.

paraphrase: the poem is describing hope as if it were a bird, and more than just a thought. it wants to make the reader believe that hope is a living breathing organism.

Connotation: Song birds have always been used a symbol of peace and tranquility. If you watch a Disney movie, song birds are used to try and calm down the watcher. the reader compares hope to a song bird because the bird is happy, peacefull symbol known to most of the world as such.

attitude: the attitude in this poem is lighthearted and blissful. it talks about a bird that never stops singing, which is a good thing in this poem.

Shift: there is not much a shift in this poem.

title: looking back at the title, the word hope is used because of how good of the connotation is.

theme: the theme of this poem is hopeful.

poetry anaylais #2

poetry analysis #2
Neal Chapman

Fire and Ice
Title: the title of this poem is supposed to confuse the reader, while adding a little bit of excitement. Fire is a exciting thing to see, but the clash between fire and ice is s spectacle. also fire and ice can't ever mix so a poem with the name fire and ice is slightly confusing.

Paraphrase:  the poet is talking about the end of the world in either an Armageddon, nuclear way, or in a slow way such as another ice age. 

Connotation: i think the the fire is a metaphor for a nuclear bomb. Robert frost lived during the time of the second world war and could see what the nuclear bomb was capable of doing. I also think that the ice is a metaphor for another ice age, even during the time that frost lived, they knew about the ice ages. he knew that an ice age would be able to destroy a large amount of life on this earth.

Tone: the tone of this poem is that of apathy. Frost does not really care how the world ends, all he knows is that i will end.

shift: after the favor fire line, the tone shifts from a slightly more upbeat tone, to a depressing tone. ice is a slow killer and he knows that if the world were to end in ice, everyone would suffer a lot more pain. at least if the world ended in fire, it would be almost instantaneous.

Title: the more i look at the title, the more i think that the poet is truly trying to confuse the reader. there is now way that fire and ice can be next to each other for any sort of time, one would destroy the other, so putting them together with the word "and" makes it seem like the poet is truly trying to connect two things that just cannot be connected.

Theme: this poem is about the destruction of the earth. this would include the poet and everyone he knows and loves to perish. the thing is, is that he doesn't really seem to care all that much. he just wants to let it happen.

Blog post #2

Blog post #2
Neal Chapman

I was looking for my ring that was stolen from me. maybe i should back up my story a couple of years. I was one of the first 15 beings put down on this land, and i just wanted to be nice. I was not the most popular at first. i was always second, My good friend Morgoth, was always peoples favorite. i wanted to be just like him, everybody knew his name, no one knew my name, i was a nobody. I really wanted to be a famous. with the fall of Morgoth i knew it would be my time to shine. I really wanted for everyone on Arda to know me. I built the greatest tower ever known on this land, I started to get on everybody good side, starting with the orcs, trolls and goblins. they were very receptive, all i had to give them was some land and materials and they were in love. then I decided to try and befriend the humans. the people to the east and south were nice and friendly. i just said 'hey guys, want to extra land to the west, there is plenty of land, i am sure the men of rohan and gondor wont mind". little did i know that the men of the west, the elves and dwarves were going to be such dicks. They did not want to give any of "their" land to the orcs, goblins, trolls, and other humans. they have so much open land, the mirkwoods themselves and almost entirely empty save a few spiders, and the people of rohan have an entire fortress with a complete tunnel system empty. they only use it for running away, something they would not have to do if they would just listen to me. i thought, oh hey, the other creature might like me more if i were to give them some precious golden rings, something to unite all of the races together. i worked with the elven smiths and forged 20 rings, 3 for the elven lord, 7 for the dwarf lords and 9 for the kings of the men. the last one was for myself, just to have something in common with all of the other races. I didn't know at first why they took my rings, but I wanted my stuff back. I assume it was just the elves being greedy.  i put in all of the effort into making those rings. i was successful in taking back 17 of the rings and gave the 7 to the dwarves and the 9 to the men an kept the one for myself. the dwarves were greedy as they always were and just saw them as a gold ring. all they wanted was more gold., eventually they became so greedy that they all threw their lives away for gold. the men were the only people that were happy with me. they became my best friends. too bad the damn elves corrupted the humans of Númenóreans to join their side. i was surrounded and had nowhere to run except back to the black tower. the man known as isildur cut off my finger and took my ring. Now i am stuck in my tower, looking for the ring that was taken from me.

Poetry #1

poetry #1
Title: the white fires of venus is a title meant to intrigue. venus is a different world, and anything that comes from there would draw peoples attention. already fires will draw peoples attention, but a white fire from venus will hook some readers who are just passing by.

paraphrase: this poem is about a guy struggling with loneliness and depression. he feels ike he is on another planet and people are staring at him like he is different.

Connotation: this poem uses the fact that people look at other planets like their weird. he feels weird, different, isolated like a other planet. people stare at him as if he were another planet and for away from their own lives.

attitude: the authors attitude is a very sad, depressing, lonely tone. he writes the poem like he is searching for someone out there. for the last paragraph the author switches to slightly more upbeat. thankful for what he had.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19654
 

new years resolution

new years resolution
Neal Chapman

#1 stop procrastinating
 I am really bad at leaving things till the very last minute. i will always leave my homework till the last day, and even sometimes the morning before. it is something that i have always wanted to change but never have really gotten around to it.

#2 graduate
I have already been accepted into my dream school and applied for housing, so the only thing i need to do is graduate. trying to force myself to do the work and make sure i don't fail any of the classes i need will be hard. i have already been tempted to not show up to class.

#3 take up yoga
Every time i have done yoga i have liked it. i always feel better after i am done, but, for some reason i have never found any time in my schedule to do so. i have always wanted to put yoga into my regular schedule but i have not really had a regular schedule.

#4 explore my spirituality
I was raised religious and went to church of the first about 9 years of my life. After awhile my family stopped going. getting back in touch with god and my spirituality is a big deal to me.

#5 swim with sea turtles in Mexico
I have never been to Mexico, and i have always wanted to swim with sea turtles so this seems to be a good fit. going to other country's and experiencing different cultures is something that i like to do. i also like to dive and i have always wanted to be able to swim with sea turtles.

Litterary Device glossary #10

Litterary device Glossary #10

Tragic flaw: A flaw in the character of the protagonist of a tragedy that brings the protagonist to ruin or sorrow.

example: Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. (pg. 167 hamlet)

explanation: Hamlet has a very obvious tragic flaw, which is that he is incapable from acting on his words. the ghost of his father is telling him to avenge his death, but what does hamlet do. he postpones and sets up elaborate traps so he does not have to kill his uncle. he has the perfect opportunity when he is alone with his uncle and his uncle is unaware that hamlet is in the room. but instead of just killing him there, and making him not have to die in the end of the story, he tries to find a better time to kill him. the constant postponing and trying to find a better time ends up leading to his death. if hamlet had just killed his uncle when he was praying, then hamlet would not have to die. but, instead he waits until there is a less perfect scenario where multiple people have to die.

Blog post narrative #3

Blog post narrative #3 Neal Chapman

In the final part of my trilogy of blog post narratives, Huck finn ends with a bang, and someone getting shot. This section of the book starts with Huck and Jim continuing down the river on the raft and meeting some interesting characters. They meet two “aristocrats” who are con-artists and go by the Duke and the Dauphin. Huck, a kid, and Jim, a black man, have no power to tell the two men what to do, which goes back to the theme of power in the book. It shows a similarity between kids and slave in the fact that neither can do much under the current laws. Before I get yelled at for saying being a kid and a slave are the same thing, I do not think that they are the same, they are both not fair, but being a slave is obviously worse than just being underage.

Eventually, the con artists try and trick a town to be the brothers of a recently man and claim his inheritance. Huck tells the dead man’s daughter about the con and she finds the gold. The con-men, Huck and Jim continue down the river. This is something that I do think that Huck and I would have done the same thing. I think that I would have also told the daughter, I don’t like to take stuff from people, and I like to help people whenever possible.  

The con-artists than sell Jim to a family and Huck has to go to the family. The family ends up being the aunt and uncle of Tom Sawyer. Huck pretends to be Tom, when Tom comes to vist, He pretends to be his younger brother. They try to make a plan to free Jim and Tom ends up being shot. In the end everything is great and it all works out. When Tom’s aunt asks to adopt Huck, he says he’s had enough of the south and moves out west to California. This is something that I would have done. I have never been a fan of the south, especially during this time period.                                                                                                         

Litteary Device Glosarry #9

Literary device glossary #9 Neal Chapman

Quote: I must be cruel only to be kind: Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. (act 3, scene 4)


 Oxymoron: a combination of words that have opposite or very different meanings.

Connection: Hamlet has just kill Polinious because he was behind the curtain and Hamlet thought that it was his step-dad. he was talking with his mother when he heard movement and pulled out his sword and stabbed without any thought. he obviously was a little saddened when he kill Polinious because his daughter, Ophelia, is the love of his life. after he murdered Polinous he went into a long speech towards his mother to try and prove that he in fact is not crazy. to be cruel only to be kind is a oxymoron because cruel  and kind are opposites.

Litterary device glossary #8

Litterary Device Glossary #8 Neal Chapman

Quote:  Living in a house and sleeping in a bed felt confining, but I’d take breaks from it by sneaking out and sleeping in the woods sometimes, at least until winter came. I liked my old way of living best, but I also liked the new ways a little bit. (p25 Huck Finn)

Situational Irony:  an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected, the difference between what is expected to happen and what actually does. 

Connection: In the book The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is a poor boy who found a lot of money with his friend Tom Sawyer. After he found all of this money, Huck became one of the richest kids in his town and was adopted by a wealthy widow. even after all of the good fortune that Huck ran into, he still liked to stick with his old ways. this includes skipping school and sleeping outside. this goes against all common thought of what a poor to rich person would do. the common thought would that this kid would want to get away from his old life, which makes it ironic. when the reader sees that Huck likes to sleep outside, it is humorous to the reader. 

reader response blog narrative #2

Reader Response Blog Narrative #2

For the second third of the book, Huck Finn, Huck and Jim for the most part are on a raft on the Mississippi river. Huck and Jim find a house floating in the flooded Mississippi  and loot it, which becomes a recurring theme in the story, and continue down the river. going down the river they start by meeting a group of robbers. to continue the theme of the story, Huck and Jim steal from the robbers. their original plan was to get to the mouth of the Ohio river, than take a steamboat up north. of course that does not happen and this is where Huck and I differ in ideas. Huck and Jim continue down the river, while i would not. Huck is traveling with a freed slave and wants to continue down a river leading him to the deep south. that just seems like a terrible idea. i would leave the raft and try and head up north on land and try to catch a steam boat. I feel like Huck is a little naive about the world and racism. he thinks that other people will act like him, while in fact the world is fll of terrible people. i do think that it is funny how the book is full of stereotypes.

reader response blog narrative #1

Reader Response Blog Narrative #1

In the first part of the novel that i read, Huck Finn has put all his money into the bank and has been living with widow Douglas. He was not really liking the whole trying to fit into higher society life. his friend, tom sawyer, was trying to convince him to stay with Douglas as tom was already a middle class citizen.  there is not much that i really connect with from this far into the story. i have never been a poor boy living in the south who then finds a lot of money. the one thing that i can kind of connect with the the fact that i also like to save money rather than to just spend it all once i get it. Huck put his money into a trust with the bank which is smart move for him.
After awhile with Douglas, Hucks dad, a drunk, comes back and demands Hucks money. while on judge wants to side with Huck, another gives Hucks back to his dad. the dad beats Huck. once again i cant really connect with any of the characters. although i can't connect with Huck, i do feel for him. since he is under age, he has no power over his own life. his dad, a terrible person, can just come into his life and ruin what was becoming a good life. this is something that can still happen to this day. for come reason people think that a unstable adult will be better for a teenager than living by themselves, or even living with other people who are financially and mentally stable. i stopped reading the book after Huck faked his own death to escape from his dad than met up with Jim, Douglas sisters slave. he than is met with a moral problem of what to do with Jim. personally if i were in that time period that i don't really know what i would do. i would like to think that i would travel with jim and not turn him in but this is a different time than when i was raised in.

Lit blog post #7

Neal Chapman
Blog post #7

For what its worth by Buffalo Springfield is a song about what is going on socially and politically in America. This fits right in with the Marxist theme which we have been talking about. Marxist criticisms look at the social and political themes in a piece of writing. 

This song was written by Stephen Stills in 1966 and released in 97. The origin of this song is based in curfew in LA. When Buffalo Springfield were preforming on the Sunset Strip at a club named Whisky a Go Go, annoyed residents encouraged the passage of a strict 10:00 pm curfew. This was directed at the club going youth. The youth were than angry at a perceived breach of their civil rights. The local radio station announced a rally at a local club in LA and fliers were sent everywhere. The Times reported that there were as many as 1,000 demonstrators. Stills wrote the song three weeks after the riot.

The song starts off with "There's something happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear, there's a man with a gun over there, telling me i got to beware." This paragraph talks about how, there is something happening, but people don't seem to understand what is happening. the man with a gun is symbolic of the entire government, he is telling the populus that they need to be scared. they then say "I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look - what's going down." The children that is talked about in the song is the youthes that were at the rally, angry about the curfew. they then tell the youths to stop and look around, to look at the injustice that is going on towards not only them but to everyone.

letter

letter to Mrs.Bennet in pride and prejudice
Neal Chapman

Dear Mrs.Bennet
I regret to inform you that thy actions which i saw were most unreasonable.  thy instances on marrying thy daughters to any man who were to show you there coin. i witnesses your acts towards thy daughter Elizabeth while on my walk near the pond. I saw thou whist my own eyes. thy was berating thy daughter, yelling about marrying her cousin. what is wrong with thous mind. why doth thou think that thou should control thys daughter.

I am sorry for my first part of the letter. i was quite angered when i saw thous actions. Me, being a women of high influence, don't want your lower breed  to many anyone of power like me. you  should never marry or spread any of thous seed to corrupt any other family.

Literary device glossary

Neal Chapman
Literary device glossary #7

flashback: A literary or cinematic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative.

Example: "The motive professed was his convection of its being owing to himself that Wickham's worthlessness had not been so well known, as to make it impossible for any young women of character to love or confide in him." (p.275 pride and prejudice)

Function: Darcy has acted very preoccupied, and distant. this has lead to Elizabeth not taking a liking to Darcy. at first she hates Darcy. than Elizabeth gets a letter from her uncle explaining that Darcy caught Wickham cheating on his sister, this is what lead Darcy to acting distant. After wickham gets married, he starts to act nicer. this is an example of flashback because it is a retelling of past events, that were not told previously told.  Darcy catching wickham is what lead to him acting the way he did, the flash back explains that to the reader to make the reader more understand why Darcy is acting this way.

litterary device glossary #6

Neal Chapman

Foreshadowing: an advance sign or warning of what is to come in the future. The author of a mystery novel might use foreshadowing in the early chapter of his book to give readers an inkling of an impending murder.

Example: it was a large, handsome, stone building, standing well on rising ground. (pride and prejudice, p207)

Function: Mr. Darcy is a quite, rude, socializing person. he like Elizabeth, but shows it in a weird, rude sort of way. Elizabeth starts off by hating Darcy. Eventually Darcy starts to grow on Elizabeth, but not before he proposes to her. she turns him down. When Elizabeth and her family go to pemberly, the house owned by Darcy. she goes on to describe it like it was the most amazing thing she had ever seen. she wanted to make sure that Darcy did not see her looking at the house and falling in love with it though. This is foreshadowing because Elizabeth falling in love with Darcy's home is the same as her falling in love with Darcy. Eventually she does fall completely in love with Darcy and does marry him.