Monday, November 30, 2009

Week 4D - Song quote-response

"Eleanor Rigby
Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been,
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window
Wearing a face that she keeps by the door
Who is it for?"
(Lennon,McCartney pg. 553)

This part of the song tells me what Eleanor Rigby is like, even if it was more elaborate or longer I don't think I could get a better sense of what she feels like as a woman.
She puts her face on and waits ready for her wedding, which I am given the impression will never happen just by the tone of this verse.
I wonder if the question "Who is it for?' is asking a larger question. Who is she doing the waiting for? Herself? Her parents? Society? Religion? Her imagined children? I think it's for her own happiness.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Week 4C - Haiku

~My Baby~

Round soft head,
Dimples - hands,feet,cheeks
Smell newness sweet!

Week 4B - Poem Paraphrase

Theodore Roethke page 503
Root Cellar

The cellar was so unsatisfactory that we couldn't keep anything in it
It was moist, not dry so the potatoes, carrots, etc. would spring shoots and spoil
It created a scary scene, all the shoots coming down from the ceiling and springing up from the walls
It smelled of dead things
Compost was forming
It was hard to even breath!

Week 3C - Freestyle

I wonder, how do art and reading relate? This is along the same lines as my first freestyle, my daughter loved to color from an early age (1). She has always been meticulous in her art and is very good, she learns with exceptional speed she was reading halfway through Kindergarten with no prior school (Pre-school) and loves her school day, every bit of it.
My son has never liked to color or draw or do anything that requires him to sit down. He doesn't try to do well with any of his art projects and has a hard time grasping concepts.
I wonder, is it because of a 'built-in' attention to detail, maybe a part of the brain that develops more as to allow faster learning? Or is this just a coincidence that happens, most girls like art and do well in school and most boys prefer not to pick up a crayon or pencil unless absolutely necessary and take a little longer to enjoy the classroom. (My emphasis is on "most" not all)

Week 3C - Quote-Response

"But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest." (O.Henry,168)
This quote pretty much summarized the whole story, it states why this story was told. Jim and Della were the wisest of the wise because they gave what was most precious to them to the one they love the most. This is an act that gives to both the person who gives and the person who receives. The giver allows themselves to love someone else freely and unselfishly ( a great gift to yourself) and the person who receives the gift knows that one person in this world regards them higher than themselves ( the greatest gift we can receive, unselfish love).

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Week 2C - Freestyle

I was reading an article about how reading affects our life for this class. Before I go to sleep I have been reading the Anne of Green Gables series, it's fun reading and I don't have to think about it. I haven't read the books since I was about 11 years old. As I've been reading I find a lot of the things that the character "Anne" does or did I have also done something similar. What do you think about the theory that what we read as a child influences our lives even if we don't realize it? Hmmm... something to think about!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Week2B Quote-Response "Miss Brill"

"And Miss Brill's Eyes filled with tears and she looked smiling at all the other members of the company. Yes, we understand, we understand, she thought-though what they understood she didn't know." (Mansfield, 86)
When I read this part of the short story I became emotionally involved. I felt her lonliness, she imagined all of these people in the square as her friends and allies in the Sunday production of the park. Up to this point she was just a woman who liked to put on one of her favorite things and go and listen to music in the park.
If she wouldn't have shown such emotion when the two young lovers made fun of her and quietly wished she would go away, it wouldn't have been such a big deal. But they were betraying her, her friends. It made me like her a little more and feel disdain for insensitive people who only can see themselves as the stars of their own production.