Not the best week...

For lack of a better term, this week was not the bee's knees. I was sick all week, and a lot of stuff I do not really want to get into happened early on in the week. We lost again in football, and it rained all weekend. Rather than write an entire blog about how crappy my week was, I want to try and share the better and more notable parts of the weekend.
I had the pleasure of visiting Haverford College and getting to hang out with its Men's Lacrosse team for the weekend. It was really great meeting the team, especially because Haverford is a school that I am extremely interested in. I love the feel of a nice, small, liberal arts style of college, because it reminds me so much of my current school, Wyoming Seminary. At such a small school, I feel like its easy to connect with the student body. One of the most fascinating parts about the school though is its Honor Code system. Other than letting students take tests at their own leisure, the system helps the students develop a sense of integrity, even trust.
While reflecting on this code system, I thought about a poem I had recently read, "may i feel said he" by e.e. cummings. This poem too, involves a man and woman undergoing some sort of trust. Although the man has a wife, he has some sort of sexual encounter with a woman. Whether it is by force or not, it is unclear; nonetheless, there is a great deal of honor and devotness towards the two individuals.
Also at my visit, I had the opportunity to watch a classic movie, "M*A*S*H." Although by the end of the movie, the characters realize that laughing can oftentimes help somebody cope with anything, some of the veterans were at one point or another bringing up the idea of suicide. When suicide came up, I thought about a poem I read earlier in the week, "Resume" by Dorothy Parker. Overall, the message of the poem is to say that there is no foolproof way of committing suicide, and living life just seems like a better deal overall. Regardless, I love that poem because of the way that it changes tones from super serious to crude and humorous.
I thought of Dorothy Parker again while I was getting interviewed at Haverford. The individual speaking with me was a gender studies minor at the school, and while talking about my poetry experiences, we talked about her poem "The Lady's Reward." We then went into a book I read titled, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. After leaving the interview, I was, frankly, mad about how women did not have equal opportunities. NOT COOL!

Well there you have it. There goes my weekend. Oh and I got sick a little bit too, but no one wants to hear about that!



-Permitpat

THE SOUND MY BOOTS MAKE WHEN WALKING ON THE SNOW

The summer is gone, and the fall is here. As a student, especially a senior, this fall term will be so important and so busy with school work, studio work, SATs and college application stuff. I’ll have to work my ass off, but everything will be done in no time. Time will fly once again, and I will be done, and finally it will be winter.

         Winter -- I have this love/hate thing with winter. I hate being cold and having to get out of my warm bed in the morning. Since I am a girl, I would rather go cold and look nice than wear layers and layers of clothes that I will suffocate in (sigh). Cold hands and feet are always annoying, and the half-broken heater in the dorm room is just as annoying. However, I love looking out my window to see the snow falling and piling on the ground. I love putting on a pair of boots and listening to that soft sound my boots make when I walk on the snow. A relaxing Saturday afternoon on my bed with a book that I have been saving for a better time with snow falling outside and maybe a cup of hot chocolate would be ideal for me, and a Snow Day is always exciting for everybody! And Christmas is the best of all. AH, I can’t wait until the winter is here. :)

         Snow is awesome, and I think everybody will agree with that. This week in class, our teacher, Mrs. Lewis aka the Sassy Librarian, told us her love story with Mr. Lewis. The Blizzard of 1993 was apparently a good thing after all because that sparked their love and many others’ loves with a lot of babies born in that year.

As she was telling the story, I could imagine the snow falling outside piling and piling, and it got me thinking about poems about snow. I’ve never tried before, but after reading through some poems on snow, I came to think that it’ll be just as nice to read some winter poems on that ideal snowy day of mine. So here we go, this is my favorite one called “A Little Snow Was Here and There” by Emily Dickinson.

A little Snow was here and there

Disseminated in her Hair —

Since she and I had met and played

Decade had gathered to Decade —

But Time had added not obtained

Impregnable the Rose

For summer too indelible

Too obdurate for Snows —

         I love the way it’s simple and easy worded, but at the same time very delicate and emotional. I feel like I see a girl loving the snow that has fallen but will be gone soon. I think this is such a sweet poem that makes me want to read more and more of these. Let’s wish for a beautiful snowy winter! :)

Week 3 of Poetry.. What did I learn?

Every week I learn something knew in poetry which is always very exciting. I enjoy reading about new poets are their poems. I enjoy analyzing the different writing styles of each poem, and I enjoy learning about the poets background. This week in class, we learned about two great poets, Mr. E.E Cummings and Ms. Dorothy Parker. I enjoyed reading "may i feel said he" by E.E Cummings, a very sexual and powerful poem. There is some many ways to read and interpret this story which makes it very unqieu and amazin.g I learned that each writer has their own style of writing, their own element which gives them so much success. One of my favorite poem was "Resume" which was written by Dorothy Parker. This poem is so dark, but at the same time it has a little bit of humor. I learned that Dorothy Parker was ahead of her time as a woman. She lived her life different, not being a housewife. This was very interesting because it showed the way she felt about womens rights in "The Lady's Reward". I am excited for this next week in poetry, so i can learn about great poets, and read their spectacular work which has made them famous.

LOVE

A tired week just passed, but I had a wonderful poetry class on Friday because my poetry teacher Mrs. Lewis told us about her love story.

I've been curious about Mr. and Mrs. Lewis' love story since I was a sophomore (2 years ago). They are the only faculty couple who would hold hands and walk at campus just like they are students dating in college. I would like to see my parents do that but I know they won't. I made a decision right after the class that I would find some poems match with their love strory!!!


Two parts of Mrs. Lewis' love story are very impressive. First, Mr. Lewis fell in love with Mrs. Lewis when he saw her for the first time and their love last for almost 20 years. Sencond, as I mentioned before, they love to hold each other's hand. Here I recommend two poems from a website called "100 best love poems."

Love at First Sight
Virgo
Is there such a thing as love at first sight?
That's the question I used to ask
Until I laid eyes on you.
How is it possible to feel so much for a stranger, a passerby?
Love has no limits, no color, no time.
That's when I realized I had fallen in love-
Love at the first sight.





Hand In Hand
ShoeBowl
Nothing could be more right,
There's nowhere else I want to be.
Let's talk a walk my only love,
Hand in hand, you and me.

(Read the whole poem)


"Love at first sight" is a free style poem. Virgo uses two questions and two answers to express his understanding of love at first sight. "Love has no limists, no color, no time" is my favourite sentece in this poem. "Hand in Hand" is one of my favourite poem from all the love poems I read. We can find rhythms at the end of the 2nd and 4th sentence of each paragraph. ( check out another poem called "The Sweet Taste of Love") The poem builds a warm and sweet atmosphere for the readers successfully.

It seems like love poems can be written in different forms and they are all great, some are sweet, some are painful, but they all attract me by their emotions. I cannot wait to read more poems about love!!!

Well, back to the begining of this post, all I want to say is, I want to marry someone who can hold my hand forever and be a lucky wife just like my poetry teacher. :)

Weekend of Ups and Downs!

This weekend had some large ups and downs. It started off well Friday night, because I got to relax after a long workweek. It was finally nice to slow things down and not have to worry about homework or college apps for a short period of time. After going out to Tommy's Pizza, an awesome pizza place in 'NEPA'[Northeast Pennsylvania], I got a chance to buckle down, watch TV and get some sleep. I skipped out on going to the movies with a lot of my friends, but I was content with my decision. Before I went to bed, I realized that the choice I made sort of reflected a poem I read earlier in the week, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." The poem basically talks about a man who is stuck between two roads in life that diverged. Although my conflict was obviously not as vital as the conflict in this poem, I was happy to know I made the right choice to get some more rest, which "made all the difference." 

After waking up feeling like a million dollars, my Saturday was bittersweet. We had our home game season opener for football, and we lost! My football team snapped our 10 game winning streak at home. What made me the most disappointed was midway through the game our teammates started arguing with eachother. Once again, during the game, I had a poetry flashback. The team arguing was similar to the Union States and Confederate States fighting in the 1860's in Walt Whitman's  poem "America." Yeah, I understood that we were losing the game, but if there was a time to regroup and dig ourselves out of trouble, it was that moment. We rose to the occasion after halftime, but it was too late. Being optimistic though, I am fortunate that we lost now, rather than later in the season. Because of this loss, I am confident our team will become stronger, and if we stand united, we will not fall again. I could not think of a better piece of literature to describe that feeling than Whitman's poem. 

After the game, our team was depressed, no question about it. However, we managed to regroup, and hung out in the dorms together. Even though a couple hours beforehand we were all muttering in disappointment, nobody pointed the finger at anyone after the game. We realized that no matter how good our best players were, we were only as good as our slowest man. Admittedly, there was much progress that had to be completed before we were content. As Robert Frost says in his poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, no matter how far and successful we were, there were “miles to go before  [we could] sleep [and be content].”

My weekend was filled with so much poetry. Now I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all (it’s actually a great thing), I just find it strange how the only class I use outside of school has been poetry. For whatever reason that is, I'm not sure, but I hope this continues for quite some time. 

-Permitpat

What did i learn this week in poetry?

Earlier in the week, we learned about another two famour contemporary poets, Mr. Walk Whitman and Mr. Robert Frost. What I learned about these two poets compared to Browning and Tennyson is that, their style of writing has more to do with situations in peoples lives. It touches more the hearts of the readers and of people who experience the same situations. For example, Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" tells a story of a man thinking of losing himself forever in the forest, but the thought of his family keeps him strong, and avoids the awful temptaion of giving up in life. Walt Whitman's "America" conveys the message that we Americans, are as equal to the man/woman beside us, no matter of what skin color, or working class. Whitman expresses his feelings after seeing a country torn apart from a Civil War, believing that when the war is over, the United States of America will reunite. This type of writing is very different from what we have seen with Tennyson and Browning, where they write of fairy tales in "Blow Bugle Blow", and of an impossible mission in "How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" which would have at least taken a few days.
I enjoyed this week a lot due to the fact that we learned about different poets in different periods of time and how their styles differentiate from one another. I enjoy learning about the works of different author through time and learning about the way writing stlyes transform.

SOUND OF SENSE IS THE WAY TO GO

It has been already three weeks into the term. We have learned about some great poets like Tennyson, Browning, Whitman and Frost and their awesome poems. We have watched some funny and great videos of Def Poetry by HBO. Also, we had the best cookies ever on earth made by Mrs. Lewis, our Poetry Class teacher. (They are beyond great, and I almost feel sorry for those of you who might be reading our blog posts but never get to meet her and her fabulous cookies, because you will see more of these cookie comments throughout the term. Hopefully!? <3) And we just had our first test of the term, and it got me thinking about the literary styles of the poets. Without a second of hesitation, I thought that my favorite was the ‘Sound of Sense’ used by Frost for sure.
What happens to me oftentimes is that I don’t understand what is going on in the poem because of the author’s complicated way of using vocabularies and grammar. To be honest, I had NO idea what was going on in Tennyson’s “The Bugle Song”. But when I first read Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, for the first time in many days, I felt like I actually understood what was going on! I was very excited when I came into class the next day, and I learned that it was because of the Sound of Sense that helped me understand the poem. Sound of Sense is the literary style used by Frost that uses everyday language, speech and rhythms to make a poem. I thought his poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” sounded very natural and smooth, and I could visualize the scenes better. I hope to find some more poems like this with our awesome class:))!

TOO EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS???????????

I know it is too early to talk about X’mas, but I keep thinking about X’mas after I read Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”.I really enjoy reading Frost’s poems because it is not hard for me to understand and I just love the rhythms. I am in love with the scenery of the poem—imaging if I am riding on a horse in the woods on a snowy evening, it must be beautiful!!! My imagination is unfortunately totally different from the poem’s background. My poetry class’ teacher Mrs. Lewis (she makes the best cookie in the world) tells us that Frost wrote this poem based on his own experience and he was actually really depressed at that moment. He was planning to get some X’mas presents for his children but he couldn’t get any money. There must be one moment he just wanted to stay in the woods, but he had to face to the real life and go back home.

I still remember the first time when I got my X’mas present. It was a huge packet of chocolates and a box of cute bells. I was really excited at that time because I thought Santa Claus would not come to Asia. The present was actually from my mum, she put it next to my pillow after fell asleep. I can imagine children’s huge desire to receive X’mas present because I expected to have X’mas present even though I am from different culture background. X’mas is just the best time of a year, it makes you feel warm love and peace. This poem reminds me of an event of SEM (my school) called Angel—Tree. Students in my school can volunteer to buy X’mas presents for some children from poor families. I hope everyone who reads my post can something like that at X’mas this year. Let’s make more children have a great X’mas and help some parents who are not able to get present for their children.

Here is a warm song about X’mas, I personally like it so much. Wish everyone will have a great X’mas this year.

POETRY IS AMAZING!!!!!!!

I cannot believe that I’ve been taking poetry class for two weeks. I worried a lot at the beginning because poetry was something really hard to write and understand in my mind based on my culture background. So I am a Chinese; there is a tradition in china that all the children should memorize some old poems when they are little. All the poems in my memory are hard because we have many rules. (OOPS, I FORGOT I HAVE TO CAPITALIZE, GONNA START TO DO IT NOW). FOR EXAMPLE, ALL THE POEMS SHOULD BE 4 OR 8 SENTENCES WITH SAME AMOUNT OF WORDS IN EACH SENTECES; MOST IMPORTANTLY, RHYTHM!!! SO OUR POEMS LOOK LIKE THAT

空山新雨后，天气晚来秋。

　　明月松间照，清泉石上流。
　　竹喧归浣女，莲动下渔舟。

随意春芳歇，王孙自可留。

AFTER I READ “THE BUGLE SONG” BY TENNYSON, I WAS SURPRISED ABOUT ITS STUCTURE. ENGLISH POEMS GAVE THE WRITERS MORE FREEDOM TO USE DIFFERENT FORMATS AND WORDS. EVERYONE CAN WRITES POEMS. I WROTE MY FIRST ENGLISH POEM IN MY LIFE AND I WAS SO HAPPY TO HEAR THE APPLAUSE FROM MY CLASSMATES. BESIDES READING THE POEMS, I REALLY ENJOY READING THE STORIES OF THE POETS BECAUSE MANY OF THEM HAVE ABNORMAL LIFE EXPIRIENCE AND THEIR POEMS ARE AOMETIMES CONNECTED TO THEIR LIVES. IT IS STILL HARD FOR ME TO GET WHAT THE POETS ARE TRYING TO TELL IN THE POEMS, BUT I AM EXCITED FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS BECAUSE I ALREADY HAVE A PASSION OF POETRY!!!IT IS SO ATTRACTIVE!!!

WEEKEND = MOVIES

Weekend = Movie Time

    After five full tiring days of school and homework, it is finally weekend, and it is time to chill out and have some fun. Nobody should be sitting down at their desks trying to do their math homework or bio lab report. Leave the Spanish book or The Great Gatsby behind for a while, and plan something fun to do instead. You’ve worked hard, so enjoy your precious weekend until it’s gone for another week!
    How do you spend your weekend? Some people go out to dinner, and some go to gym and play basketball. Some go shopping, and some watch television shows that they missed during the week. In my case, catching up on sleep is a very important one. However, I think that most of the people pick movies as their one of the favorite activities for weekend. I see a lot of people getting on the movie van and head down to the Movies 14 on Friday/Saturday evening. There are also movies going on in the Wallace Room. I mean, who doesn’t like movies? Movies are great, they are fun and good for killing time. A great movie with a comfy comforter/pillow and some snack and drink with your friends - sounds like a good plan to me.
    I’m about to suggest you guys this movie (although I think a lot of you might have already watched it), which I found very touchy, sad, and rather scary. it is Toy Story 3.
You know, Toy Story series has always been an all-time classic movie. It also has the reputation of just a children movie, but I strongly disagree with that - at least up to some point. I think the movie carries some very important moral lessons that we sometimes belittle or forget, such as justice, righteousness, and faith, in very imaginative and fun way of Disney. Toy Story 3 starts with Andy packing for college. The toys have long been left un-played since he grew up, and they are accidentally sent to a daycare. At first, most of the toys think that it is a great place since they will get played again. However, they grow to hate that place, and plan an escape. I don’t wanna be a spoiler, so I’ll stop here, but I assure you that it is a great movie!
    The reason I’m talking about this modern children movie and its moral lessons is because I see this connection with the children’s poems and stories in the past. The children’s poems and stories had important moral lessons for kids to learn, and it played a big role in their education. Rudyard Kipling was a good example. He was a great English poet and author who wrote many poems and later short stories. His poems illustrated “animals in the jungle or ships at sea. Vibrant colors reflect the strong emotions of each poem-Viking women widowed by the sea, seal mothers singing lullabies to their young.” His another most-known work was The Jungle Book, which I’m sure everybody knows. This is an example of his poem, called “If”

If

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

    Weekend is almost over, and I’m sure everybody is busy doing their homework. Hope everyone had a good weekend though!:)

    P.S. This is WHY Toy Story 3 is scared.

What did I learn this week in poetry?
This week in poetry, I learned about two great poets, Mr. Tennyson, and Mr. Browning. I also enjoyed reading and analyzing their work. I enjoyed learning about these poets because, I never new anything about poetry, and now I know of two great poets. I enjoyed anazlyzing and breaking down each line of their poems. I also learned that, a poem cannot be unsterstood and enjoyed after reading it once, it becomes so much more meaningful after the third and fourth time it is read. I loved Tennysons great descriptions in "The Bugle Song" and I absolutely enjoyed Browning's "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix", how Browning made the reader a part of the story, making the reader feel as if he is riding on a horse. I learned how to break a poem down by each line, because each line of a poem is as important as the previous line or the next one.
This week, I also learned how to create a blog! I never created a blog before and I am really excited to be able to put my work up on the internet so people can see it. I enjoy writing poems so I would like other people to enjoy it as much as i do.

What an eventful week!

WOW! It's finally great to get writing on this blog. Over the past week I have had so much fun in my Contemporary Poetry class. Not only was my belly filled with some of Mrs. Lewis' legendary cookies (For the record, they were so good that I had to stop back in the library after school to get some more), but I also managed to learn a thing or two about poetry. I realized that if a person ever wants to make some sense out of poetry, he or she has to start from ground zero and work his or her way up. I learned this concept first hand Monday night. While reading "The Bugle Song" by Alfred Tennyson, frankly, I had no idea what was going on. After reading a short biography about Tennyson and his life, I thought that the content in this poem was in correlation with his emotions after his friend, Arthur Hallam, died unexpectedly in Austria. However, I was completely wrong. Nonetheless, I came to class the next day with a desire to interpret the poem, and I succeeded. Without spoiling the storyline for you, I linked to the poem earlier in this post. The secret to understanding a poem (at least I think so) is to have it read outloud, line by line. Half of the battle for a poet is just getting the words down on paper; the other half is to have a message behind it. After being read out loud, a poem's words gain more power. If poetry was not supposed to be read outloud, Gill Scott Hermon's piece "The Revolution Will Not be Televised" contradicts that concept completely. Needless to say, this class has already opened up my eyes in two weeks. I can not wait for the rest of the term!

-Permitpat

hello group :)