Nobody?

For the first blog I decided to discuss Emily Dickinson's poem 288. It reads:

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – Too?
Then there's a pair of us?
Don't tell! They'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a frog -
To tell one's name – the livelong June -
To an admiring Bog!

This poem grabbed my attention more than the others because I found it a bit odd. When most people are young they dream of being rich and famous; a superhero, an actor, or a famous athlete. And though these dreams may change slightly as we get older, most people still wish they were famous with all the glamor and glory.

The speaker of this poem does not follow this popular trend. Instead they seem very content with being a “Nobody” and seems to look down or pity the lifestyle of the “Somebody” by saying that their life would is dreary and never any privacy. The speaker would rather have the peace of privacy and enjoy life with friends as a “Nobody” to the rest of the world than to be famous. Many people these days seem to focus more on what they do not have and what they think they are missing out on and forget about everything they have right in front of them. This poem helped me remember all of the blessings that I have in my life and helped me realize that there is more to life than just material things.

The Dalliance of the Eagles

After reading The Dalliance of the Eagles for the first time I did not quite understand the meaning of the poem. After Stomski’s wonderful presentation the meaning clicked. Whitman uses free verse to express freedom of movement. While walking home one day a man noticed the sun and two bawled eagles. He realized that once the eagles are attracted to a one another, the two bawled eagles began to “cartwheel” through the sky. The eagles lock talons and begin to soar in the sky, before hitting the ground the eagles disengage. I think Whitman is trying to say that people want a perfect life, but are not willing to sacrifice things. The eagles symbolize freedom, knowledge, bravery, and unity. We tend to take life for granite and expect life to come easy. Don’t be scared to be different than everyone else. You can’t live life being scared or you wont get anything out of it. Over all I thought this poem was very inspiring and made me realize that life is what you make of it. Live life in the moment. If you never go and explore than you are never going to learn.

dog

Poem 754 from Emily Dickinson talks about hunting in the woods. To me it comes from the dogs perspective. In line one it says "The owner passed, identified, and carried me away." The word owner is the first word that made me think that it would be a dog. Identify, is giving a name to the animal. Carried would imply that the owner is buying a small puppy to train. It is said that he can speak to the mountains for the owner to me this means that the dog starts to bark. When the mountain reply the bark made hidden animals frightened. This would cause the animals to run so the owner could shoot them. Another hint that I got for it being a dog was " At night...I guard my masters head." The words guard and master are common when we talk about dogs. Also when a dog sleeps with the person he believes is the master they sleep at the foot of the bed or like in the poem by the head to protect them. I think this is a god poem that symbolizes loyalty by using the actions of dogs because dogs tend to be very loyal to their alpha figure.

Cavalry Crossing a Ford

Ellis, William

1-20-09

As we all know, Mr. Whitman did not use and lyrical poetry when he broke away from the norms of his time (i.e. Fireside Talks and the common use of rhyme scheme and meter.) Instead, he created brilliant poems by using free verse and provided vivid and thought provoking mental images for his readers throughout his career. The most intriguing to me being “Cavalry Crossing a Ford”; which is taken from his collection entitled Drum Taps. This poem describes a troop of Cavalry soldiers moving across a stream perhaps on their way to battle or simply engaging in a training exercise. Whitman uses several sensory adjectives to describe the sight of these soldiers and their horses while crossing the stream. These adjectives made me feel as if I were standing alongside the stream watching the soldiers. This poem was particularly interesting to me because of my future career in the Army. I took notice as some of you might have, to the reference of the guidons flapping in the wind. This was a thought provoking line for me because, it exemplified how they were being displayed with honor and also showed how proud the soldiers were to being serving underneath them. This poem left an impression on me that I have reflected on since and have collected a stronger sense of purpose that will help drive me through my career and life.

The Dalliance of the Eagles

In this poem Walt Whitman writes in free verse and his explanation of the two Eagles falling in a gyrating wheel somewhat depicts his style of writing. The Eagles are a symbol of freedom, and Walt Whitman writes in free verse. The way these two beautiful birds latch onto each other fiercely but yet tenderly is amazing. The Eagles show love as well as a sense of rage through their straight fall towards the ground talon in talon. It’s as if they are fighting and when they come close to the earth they break apart and it’s as if everything is suddenly okay again. They have settled their problems and I think that this poem is written to show it’s normal to have rage and love at the same time. It’s going to happen more than once in someone’s lifetime. The Eagles are used because it’s a unique thing to see, and love is a unique thing to find.

The Dalliance of Eagles

The Dalliance of Eagles tells us the story about a person who is probably a farmer considering the time period, who was walking home in the middle of the day. While walking he stops for a second and looks at the sun and sees two eagles flying by, and realized that they were foreplay right before they started the mating process. By bringing the sun in content it makes us wonder how high those eagles are really flying. The poem also tells us about the sea but it present it to us as old, and even surd of imply that the sea is weak. When there food resource comes from the water, while they are flying by and see the pray and just throw themselves down directly into the water in order to catch it. This is something really interesting to watch. Later he tells the story to other people in town that have not seeing eagles mate. This story teaches us that we should impart our knowledge and experiences to others and help them realized and see beyond theirs, for them to not have or commit the same mistakes. Even makes us realize no matter how high you can get in life there is always a possibility of a fall if you are not stable.

Welcome!

Welcome to the ENG 252 02 blog!

Posting guidelines:

You may leave a blog post on any of the readings that we’ve read for that week. Blogs are due on Fridays for MWF classes and Thursdays for TTh classes, and comments for each blog will be due on the following Wednesday for MWF classes and the following Tuesday for TTh classes. Each blog post should be at least 200 words, and each comment should be at least 100 words (excluding quotes, if any). If you wish to write more than the minimum, you may certainly do so.

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9-10 points

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· Ideas are fully developed

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8 points

· Minimum posting requirements met

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· Evidence of active engagement with assigned texts and classmates’ postings

· Ideas are sufficiently developed

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7 points

· Minimum posting requirements not consistently met

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Below 6 points

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· Claims are not developed

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