Love, love, love

Briefly summarize the emotions the speaker experiences during Porphyria’s Lover. For example, in the first ten lines his heart is breaking as he listens for Porphyria’s arrival, and then he relishes the warmth and cheer she creates. 
First, as stated before, his heart is breaking as he listens for Porphyria’s arrival, he is anxious and nervous awaiting for her. Then he is joyful with the warmth and cheer she creates. They are in love, sharing romantic moments, and enjoying their blooming emotions. Then something changes in the speaker’s tone.

How do the speaker’s emotions change as the poem progresses?

Why do you think the speaker murders his beloved?

Use words, symbols, sketches, or images to create a collage that summarizes the content of Sonnet 43 and communicates the emotions presented in it.

 

Do you think that the emotions presented in this sonnet are universal? Why or why not?
Yes, everyone has experienced emotions like love, eternal love for someone, being willing to lose everything for that special person. Love is not different in cultures, I mean the traditions are of course different, but the emotion is the same, everyone has ways of expressing love, but the feeling itself is universal.

The most famous line in Sonnet 43 is “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”. Why do you think this line is so popular?
It expresses countless love for the other person, love that is so profound and pure that there is infinitive number of things she loves about him. She says she loves him to the depth, breath and height her love can reach, this actually does not have an exact number. This phrase is popular because anyone madly in love can say that their love for the other is uncountable.

 

 

Love and Loss

TEARS, IDLE TEARS
List three adjectives that the speaker uses to describe the past and explain how the adjectives are different or similar. Briefly state the tone of the poem. What does the speaker believe is precious about the past?
- Sad as the last which reddens over one
- Dear as remembered kisses after death
- Deep as first love and wild with all regret.
The three of them are different because the first one expresses sorrow, the second one expresses happiness and joy, and the third one refers to deep emotions, not necessary good or bad. The tone he uses to describe the past is the same as the adjectives, sad, strange, fresh, deep and undescribable. What is precious about the past is that it brought us to the present, and he seems very content with what he has done of his life, this meaning that he is sad for the past because he can’t live it again but he would not change anything about it.
Do you think the speaker had a joyous or miserable past? Why?
The speaker had a joyous past because otherwise he would not be sad about the fact that he can no longer live it, but joyful that he moved on from a miserable time. He is only sad because there are certain things he would not be able to experience again, sad because he leaves memorable things behind with no right to claim them back.

THE EAGLE: A FRAGMENT, FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL
Explain how each quotation reveals the message of the poem.
“Close to the sun in lonely lands”
In this poem the eagle is an independent animal, he travels the world alone, and this is how our truly state is in life, we are in fact alone, and yet dependent from many others.

“I could understand what you are… I should know what God and man is”
The speaker says that to understand what the flower is, is the same as to know what God and man is. The message I get from this poem is that there are certain things in life that we will not be able to explain but it is our faith in them that would make them believable.

What is the speaker’s attitude toward nature in each poem? Nature keeps amazing him, he compares flora and fauna with each poem, the eagly completely independant and yet so strong, and the flower coming out of a wall is something he cannot explain.

In what ways are the two poems different? They are both about nature, but one is about an animal, and the other one about a flower. One is about something that he can explain, something concrete, and the other one is about something “abstract” so to speak, something he cannot explain how it got there and what it truly is.

THE LADY OF SHALOTT
What associations do you have with the following words from the poem? Use words, symbols or images to communicate the ideas or emotions you associate with each of the following poem.
Cracked       Mirror        Curse            Shadows.

Explain the meaning of the above words in the context of the poem.
I choose these images because I think they represent exactly what those words communicate to me.
Cracked: when one is feeling broken, incomplete, sad.
Mirror: the way we looks at ourselves in the mirror, the image we have or ourselves.
Curse: something we regret, maybe an action or a decision that is a curse.
Shadows: the past which hunts us down, things we cannot move on from.

Why do you think the Lady of Shalott becomes “half sick” of the shadows she sees in the mirror? Because it was part of her curse, the process of her death was relying on those shadows, from which she becomes half sick.

The Eye of the Beholder

What in the woman’s appearance does the speaker praise? What conclusions does he draw about her character and personality? He caresses everything about her, from her outer beauty to the way the light reflects in her body. He idolatrous her delicacy, her features, her sparkle. Then he describes her as eloquent, naive and calm.

This poem has been criticized as sentimental and dependent on cliches. Tell me whether or not you agree and why. To me the poem does not act as cliche. This poem finds a different way of portraying beauty, and yes it is somehow sentimental but he finds her beauty, other than on her features, on her elegance and innocence.

Do you think that inward nature can be revealed by outward appearances? Explain. Yes I do believe that how you feel inside is reflected on the outside. Sexiness and beauty comes from comfort with ourselves. How you act and interact with people reflects how you are feeling with yourself. We have to be comfortable with the way we look and that will reflect beauty more than pure beauty itself.

Shadows of the Past

Remembering the past: do you find it sad or satisfying to look backward? You’re probably thinking, “Obviously, that depends on what’s being remembered -happy or sad times”. But is that the only view? Is there a way in which memory itself -the very FACT of the past- always shadows life in the present? Yes the past shadows life in the present, only the thought of the past itself can affect people’s present. Some people tend to get hold of the past, seize upon experiences, these people have trouble moving on. As we get closer to the end of the year, the idea of leaving school and finding independence is becoming a reality. I for once find the past sad, even though most of it was great, I cannot imagine leaving people who made me behind. I cannot imagine going through life with different people than those I know and those who know me. Past affects the present because there are always things we wished we have done different, or events we would like to go through again. Unfortunately, the past has two main purposes, to learn from mistakes we have already done and avoid to do them again, and to remember beautiful experiences, feeling blessed we had the opportunity to live them. Sadly, as the present becomes the past, we leave people behind, we move a step closer to our true destiny, we head to different experiences, overcome other obstacles, and most importantly remember that all we did before, was for one reason only THE FUTURE.

"It is not that I am afraid of the future, I am just afraid to go through it without them"

How can tears be “idle” -can you cry without knowing why? Yes, in my opinion human beings often find themselves in a position were they can no longer control their emotions, or most importantly do not know where these come from. Particularly when we are going through adolescence and hormones are all over the place, we can suddenly find ourselves notably happy or burst into tears without knowing why, after all we are humans and not everything can be explained. Some may say that idle tears are wasted tears, but tears are the expression of emotions, whenever we cry we are expressing from pride, to regret. Sometimes we just ignore the reason, but anything that shows an emotion is never idle.

What do you think the “divine despair” is in line 2? Could you relate it to Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis -would that story explain the speaker’s existential sadness? To me the divine despair is indeed the human mistake. We write our own destiny, we take our own decisions and face our own consequences. The Genesis is the brutal story of our so believed reality. Eve was trapped between her humanly weak desire and her so called expectations. She commits the fatal sin, which is believed to affected us. The story explains the speaker’s anguish because we sometimes face obstacles were we often take the wrong decisions and end out doing evil things. Luckily we learn from life to fight to get to our ultimate destiny which is eternal life. The author portrays guilt as it is trapped in our mind.

Does the contradiction in the phrase “Death in Life” (line 20) make sense to you? Explain. What is your response to this line? Have you ever felt this way? Death in Life actually makes sense, it means to have no goals, no purpose in life, live because you were brought to the world for no apparent reason. People who are death in life are empty, shallow and selfish. They are just a substance occupying valuable places in earth. We all have somehow experience death in life, but not all of us manage to defeat that state. We experience this when we feel left behind, alone, when we feel that we do not belong somewhere. Those who do not overcome it and spent the rest of their life just wondering around, with no purpose on earth whatsoever are the weak ones, are those who believe their existence is in vane. We were all brought to life for a reason that goes beyond our knowledge, but just knowing we have a reason to be alive is more than enough encouragement to find out that reason and fulfill it.

Swept Away

When you read Ode to the West Wind, consider why people find such power (and fear) thrilling. What moves Percy Shelley so?  Why would he shout to the wind, “Be thou me…!” Emotions have mysterious ways presenting themselves, sometimes you may realize the emotion you are filling does not match the event you are living. Nature as well is one of the biggest things in life, it presents itself through many ways, it could be an earthquake, a hurricane, or even just an amazing sight. I do not think that people enjoy being part of such terrifying events, but the emotions they feel after surviving one of those which makes them feel great and strong. Shelly on the other hand is amazed by natures beauty. He describes a beautiful setting that is transportable.

Have you ever experienced the sublime aspect of nature? When? Freewrite about the scene and your emotions.

I have been blessed with many opportunities to see nature at all its expression, I consider myself lucky for I have watched many sights you would not believe.

For once, I went to the Niagara Falls on New York, it was amazin how nature could create such beautiful sights, and to think I had the privilege to be a part of it.

Once I had the opportunity to go to Vail, Denver. It is the trip I will never forget for two reason, first I was with my family and second it is the most beautiful scenery anyone could ever imagine.

When I was 10 or so, we took a family cruise, it is also one of the greatest memories because we had the chance to meet many places on a very short time, we went to Tortola, San Jose, and the one I remember best Puerto Rico. They were similar and different at the same time, each had it enchantment but I fell in love with Puerto Rico more than anywhere else.

Last year, my brother got married in Punta del Este, Urguay, his wife is originally from Montevideo. Before her (call me ignorant) I never actually thought of Uruguay as a traveling place, I was much rather interested in Argentina, which I also had the opportunity to visit, but when I got there it was magical, I can dare to say I liked it a lot better than Argentina, mostly because is a much smaller country, but everything about it was just charming, the people, the places, the food, everything.

Last but not least I would like to mention something that we can call our own, Lago Atitlan. Guatemala has many beautiful places to visit, but Atitlan, for me is the most special. Mainly because you are entirely surrounded by nature, water, mountains, volcanoes, fauna, etcetera.

I guess I consider myself blessed because I have met amazing places, as I said before I have encountered nature at its best expression and yet have managed to avoid natural disasters, because I know people that have survived earthquakes, and people that have actually faced hurracaines and storms like Katrina or Gustav. I have seen beautiful settings and I have felt emotions I did not knew I could, so I can say I have experienced the sublime aspects of nature.

The Test of Time

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. Among all these arts, I choose architecture, for once music can be easily forgotten or out of time, not everyone enjoys and understands literature, sculpture’s are sometimes difficult to understand as well, so you cannot go wrong with architecture. Architecture is the art I respect the most, mostly because once someone has done anything architectonic is going to be seen and judge more likely than any of the others, also it has to be functioning. To do this kind of work is very brave for me and a job well done will last forever.

Irony is the discrepancy between expectations and reality. Explain the fundamental irony in the sonnet. The traveler is describing his view of the sculpture, saying that something so lively is surviving on a desert. “The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed”

Discuss what you think is the speaker’s message about pride -and whether it also applies to artists. The speaker’s message is clear. He says that the sculpture he is seeing is still alive, after so many years it still portrays a message of pride, how something done with such emotion is still persevering its purpose now. This applies to artists because it encourages them to perform better, giving a clear example of something of art that still fulfills the same way years later.

Could this poem apply to any contemporary figures who wield political power? Explain. It may apply to a political figure because if they do remarkable work, it may endure like the sculpture. It could also apply because the traveler says that he stands beside something lifeless which yet survives; a political figure, once removed from the power is “lifeless” so to speak.

Water, water, everywhere

• He holds him with his glittering eye -
  The Wedding-Guest stood still,
  And listens like a three years’ child:
  The Mariner hath his will.

• This could be in applied in any event of life where people gathered to celebrate something and end up listening to someone with interest.

  The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone:
  He cannot choose but hear;
  And thus spake on that ancient man,
  The bright-eyed Mariner.

• There is always people that get stucked in conversations that they do not want to hear, people that out of respect and education have to listen to it anyway.

  “The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
  Merrily did we drop
  Below the kirk, below the hill,
  Below the lighthouse top.”

• This is a clear example of times when people take long trips and families and friends come to the airport to say farewell.

  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.

• When people is out on the sea for too long they get used to seeing the sun rise upon the left, this could happen to fishermen or cruise crew.

Do you agree or disagree with Coleridge about the message in this poem? Why? I disagree because the poem itself has no lack of imagination whatsoever. When but in fiction will you see a boat that moves quickly towards you with no wind at all? Also, I liked a lot the message of the story, first he shoot the albatross with his crossbow and since that moment he felt guilty for killing something so priced, not appreciating nature.

SIMILE: “As green as emerald”, “As idle as a painted ship”, “Her skin as white as leprosy”.

METAPHOR: “The day was well night done”

PERSONIFICATION: “The sun came up upon the left”, “Out of the sea came he”

ALLITERATION: “The western wave was all a flame”

ASSONANCE: “He holds him with his skinny hand”

INTERNAL RHYME: “The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared”, “The guests are met, the feast is set”

The Power of Imagination

Poem to a cockroach

I am not afraid of the obviously dangerous;

can appreciate the snake, or the spider.

But you, what purpose do you serve besides your own ugliness.

Last night I heard you whispering the soft

and unmistakable grating of your wings

like skin peeling, just for a moment, then disappearing.

In the morning I found your crisp and iridescent body.

I imagine you everywhere that is dark and unacceptable,

like an undeniable truth, like a haunt
across a grave, dragging your armor of indifference.

Turtles, hamsters, fish, paraqueets, rabbits, chick, hen, rooster and at last a dog. Since I was a little girl I’ve always felt passion towards animals. I used to go to my farm two weeks at the end of each year and also for any of my cousin’s birthdays. All the time I spent in my farm I was surrounded by animals and I loved it. My uncle and I share the same passion for animals, so we used to take long walks and he explained me every animal that came in our way, from the smallest bug to the biggest mammal. I can say that thanks to him I feel no fear to almost any animal, except for sharks and crocodiles. My mother never liked animals, the only kind of pet she allowed home were either at a tank or at a cage. Until one day when I was in 5th grade we did a project involving a rabbit. I bought it with a friend, but when I took him home my mother was so angry she kicked him out. Later that same day she found me petting my rabbit and crying; she felt compasion, she offered me a deal I could not reject. She said, and I remember clearly -”if you keep up your grades and behave well, i MIGHT think of giving you another type of pet at the end of the year.” The word might and end of the year meant nothing to me, and I immediately made research on what types of dogs were most recommended for children, where could I get them and how much would they cost. Finally on May 2002, we bought Chato, a beautiful Shih-Tzu that is still with us today!

Why do human beings do evil? Why do evil people sometimes prosper? Why does God allow innocent children to suffer? Everybody seems to have a wrong concept of God. He is indeed the almighty, miraculous and superior being. But the moment he died for us, he gave us freedom; freedom of speech and action. Most people live life according to their religion beliefs and parameters. The being they worship and their beliefs mark those parameters with evil and good. Human beings do evil for many reasons, neither justifies the means. Some may do evil because the status they are trapped in “forces” them to do evil, like rob to get food. The problem is that the first time is the hardest, so after they have done it once or twice they get used to it. People in our society need money to get by, sometimes the only way to get money for some people is robbing. Others do evil because they are trapped in drugs or other sustances that may cause them to act different than they would sober or clean. Others may do evil because they have mental problems, and some even become addicted to do evil, like kill, rape or kidnap. It is not that God allows people to do evil, it is simply that he gave us freedom to act. There is actually little he could do about it. And yes, you may think, then why does he protect some people and still allows evil things to happen to others? Again it is not that he protects just “some” people, but maybe he gives priority to those who need it most, or those closest to religion. After all he is the only one that knows our destiny and he makes no mistakes. Everything that happens to us, every decision we make and any event that comes in our way are tests God send us that will bring us a step closer to our final destination. Everyone was born with a task in life, innocent children were brought that way for reasons that go beyond us. It is neither their fault nor God’s fault.

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? If I could choose any topic of evil of our day I would choose murder and violence. I would choose it because it is one of the most unfortunately popular subjects today. There are always news on the radio, newspaper and TV about violence in Guatemala. If I could get to people about something it would definitely be this.

What happens to anger that is allowed to grow and fester, anger that is nurtured with our own deceit? It is never good to let anger grow inside of us, mostly because we tend to react different and impulsive when we are angry. When too many emotions are kept inside (especially anger, sadness, etc) we reach a moment we cannot keep anything else, so then we burst, some into tears, some towards someone else and so on. Most of the times anger that is nurtured with our own deceit just grows and grows until it becomes dangerous, feeling hate is not good, and when too many anger is allowed to grow there is a moment we start feeling hate towards anything that remind you what started it in the first place.

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? Confession is telling someone your most embarrasing and deceitful moments to heal. The teller feels relief when confessed and maybe even fear, the listener may be shocked (depending on the confession) or comprehensive and help the teller. To me a listener is definitely necessary because most of the times the teller needs orientation if he or she has harmed someone or something else. Confession plays such an important role in law because it is necessary to be 100% sure if the defendant is in fact guilty. Meanwhile in church, confession is important because the only ones, besides God, who have the power to forgive your sins are “padres”.

Euthenasia

It is not easy to write about a controversial issue such as death sentence or euthenasia. Have you ever been in any situation when someone so dear to you is suffering to death, has no chance of getting better and there is nothing he or she can do about it? Well I am all for euthenasia; for me euthenasia is not killing, per say, it is just letting people with no chance whatsoever, rest in peace. I am a catholic woman, I know that it is not okay for anyone to decide when your time has come but God. Even though I do believe in miracles, in these cases I prefer to avoid waiting for one to happen and to let people go. After all you are taking a decision for someone whose life has just ended.

My grandmother spent 4 years in a “vegetable” state, she was suffering indeed, but there was nothing she could do about it. I think it is selfish to want someone to stay in that state, in fact that is not a way of life, it is selfish because when you are so attached to someone you do not want to let them go so instead of letting them go and rest in peace, people decide to keep them alive even if it is artificially. This is no way of life, it isn’t since the moment people cannot survive by themselves and are in need of any machine to keep them going. I have many experiences with this issue. Do you imagine to spend 4 years of your so called “life” breathing artificially and not being able to do ANYTHING on your own? My grandmother had to be feed by a tube, the same was for going to the bathroom, she could not even hold her saliva, she was completely depending from machines and her helping crew. This was not only difficult for her, but it was hard on the whole family, my mother tells me that whenever she went visiting, she find it hard to hold it together because she could not stand watching her mother in law, who was always active and independent, in such a state.

As I said before, I have some experience in this subject. When my grandfather had his first “derrame”, he lost control over the left side of his face, he could not talk, he could not eat on his own, anything. This alone was difficult already. When he had his second lapse he said to my mother that if anything else where to happen to him,

Sketching a Friend

A true friend is someone who understands you, someone who shares your own interests. Friends are made, not born. The majority of your life lasting friends are made at school. Well, this is where I met one of my best friends. We share more than interests, the same values. When it comes to partying and meeting people, I am very peculiar and she is the same way. We always have fun together, we laugh like we are 5 years old. We have known each other forever, even though we did not talked a lot before, we have always been together in activities. We played basketball together in elementary school, our team was a great group, we were no more than 10 players, but since we were a team for almost 7 years, we acclimated easily. Most of elementary school I limited my number of friends to one person. She was my best friend until one day, out of the blue she stop talking to me. That same day I promised myself I would have many friends and I would talk to anyone despite the differences we could have. Everyone has a “dark age” so to speak. Well mine was in the 6th grade where I used to hang out with people who weren’t exactly good friends. Thank God it only lasted for less than one year when I finally realize that we did not share the same interests or characteristics. In the 7th grade they started the new section, section C. I was moved to this section with people that I had not actually take the time to meet. It was a good change for me. I made a lot of friends here, most of them are still good friends of mine today. Well in this section I also became a very good friend of the person I am writing about. We immediately clicked. Sometimes it happens, that you meet people you instantly realize you are similar and you create a bond. A bond very difficult to break. Well we have overcome many problems. She is the one person who knows everything about me. Sadly we were mostly friends in school. When it came out to partying we hardly bumped into each other. Still every monday morning we both came to school anxiously waiting to tell one another our weekend. She is one of those who you know you can trust right after you meet. Until today I know I can tell her anything I want to and be sure she would keep it to herself. People like this are hard to find. She has a great heart, always wanting to help, and besides all her amazing characteristics she is brilliant in school. She has been for the past 5 years, as I recall, number one in our class, or at least number one in my account. I am very proud of her because I know that everything she owns, the merits and accomplishments, she has worked for them and I know she will do great in every aspect of her life. I think the best years for our friendship have been 10th, 11th and 12th grade. This is probably due to the fact that we both grew up and our friendship grew stronger. Since the 10th grade she sits next to me in school, she is the kind of person you can tell anything without feeling any shame and knowing that she would never judge you. We share the same interests like TV shows or sports and values as I said before, but besides this we have almost the same type of humor, we always make each other laugh. Having the same humor with someone can be somehow negative, because people may feel a competition and push the other person away, this was never a problem for us, having the same humor made it easier for us to get along. A true friend is hard to find and being able to overcome problems and prevail friendship with someone as special as my friend is overwhelming. The person I am talking about has become family to me, she is my unrelated sister, she understands me like nobody else, different blood is the only thing that prevents us from being family. We even have the same dog. We tell each other everything!

As I said before, it is a shame I did not take the time to meet her before, because now that we are in 12th grade, only a step out of school, I realize that we are inevitably growing apart. We both are going to take different paths; of our friendship I am not worried, I know it will last forever, it is the fact that she has been there literally with me in every important moment of my life. Lately we have not had the opportunity to hang out the same way we used to do, it may feel like we are both meeting new people, this has been, from my side, maybe unconsciously, because I am used to the fact of having her everyday with me, and I know next year that will not happen. Maybe I’m just trying to make the most difficult time of my life a little bit easier. I am not scared of the future, i am only scared to go through it without her, after all she is, the most special person in my life. She understands my like no other, just the idea of this year being our last one together, bums me out. I know we share an unbreakable bond, because she is my best friend, my unrelated sister, my confidant!