Literary Question: Amy's Question #7

7. What is the author trying to convey when he states "We have everything we need"?

The author is trying to remind the readers that when we were children we didn't need any material objects  to makes us happy because nature was our everything; it was our playground and our pastimes. But as we got older we forgot what made us happy causing us to invest our time trying to find some material object that would bring us happiness again; when all we have to do is use our imaginations and the world around us to enjoy ourselves. The author uses aphorism to prove the truth of our childhood.  

Running After Antelope

Little League Haiku

by Scott Carrier

1. Why does the author refer to himself as the "Monster Man"?

2. What is the significance of having "the offense respect and fear us" at the moment of the play?

3. Why is it that the defense team is always spacing out? Why is it important?

4. What is the importance of bringing up Bruce Seymour?

5. What is the meaning of the haiku "The wing brings dry leaves, enough to build a fire"? How does it relate to the the game?

6. Why does the captain of the defense team order his players to "dance around, stand on your head or do whatever you want"?

7. Why did the defense stand around and not follow their captain's orders?

8. Explain why the coach intervened when the captain recited the haiku. What motives did he have for doing so, if he hadn't coached them before?

9. Why was it important for the captain to follow through with his idea?

10. Why  was he captain of the defense team and not the offense?    

Full Moon

 As I watch you from my rooftop I shiver and think to myself, "Why the heck am I up here? I'm freezing my butt off for an assignment that I can make up!", but then I get a flashback to my childhood. I remember my dad always telling me to appreciate nature because one day when it's all gone, I'm going to regret that I didn't take the time to observe all the beauty that surrounded me everyday. I don't mind being cold and alone up on my roof anymore because I know that it's worth it. You have what everyone desires, undeniable beauty no matter what color or shape you are. You and the rest of Mother Nature's wonders are the closest things we have to magic. And as I sit here admiring your face, I think about all the people who take you for granted. I picture the wolves looking up at you, serenading you for your brightness. You are quite an incredible sight that anyone not looking at you is a fool.

A Winter Walk

Beware, beware the myths they swear. Find out yourself to become aware, if somehow they do prevail. It is said that on a winter's night, the tired bodies drag themselves out to the middle of the woods to take one last stroll. One by one they walk twenty-two gruesome miles to reach the place where the ghosts of youth gather. They are not to be feared for they seem to be kind and gentle like a child. They circle and dance around the ancient while luring them to their final destination. A place that no one knows of, except only those that go. So beware of the winter's night that calls all who are vulnerable and weak to the heart of the woods to disappear completely from the face of the Earth.

Song Lyrics and Poetry

Ain’t No Reason

by Brett Dennen

There ain’t no reason things are this way
It's how they always been and they intend to stay
I can't explain why we live this way,
We do it everyday.

Preachers on the podium speaking of saints
Paupers on the sidewalk begging for change
Old ladies laughing from the fire escape, cursing my name
I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing
You can spend you whole life working for something,
Just to have it taken away
People walk around pushing back their debts
Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets
Talking 'bout nothing, not thinking 'bout death
Every little heartbeat, every little breath
People walk a tight rope on a razor’s edge
Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons
It could be a bomb, or a bullet, or a pen
Or a thought, or a word, or a sentence

There ain't no reason things are this way
It's how they always been and they intend to stay
I don’t know why I say the things that I say,
But I say them anyway

But love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set my free, yes.

Prison walls still standing tall
Some things never change at all
Keep on building prisons, gonna fill them all
Keep building bombs, gonna drop them all
Working your fingers bare to the bone
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul
Like a lung, it's filled with coal, sufficating slow
The wind blows wild and I may move
But politicians lie and I am not fooled
You don't need no reason or a three piece suit, to argue the truth
The air on my skin and the world under my toes
Slavery is stitched into the fabric of my clothes
Chaos and commotion wherever I go
Love, I try to follow

Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set my free, yes.

There ain't no reason things are this way
It's how they always been and they intend to stay
I can't explain why we live this way,
We do it everyday.

The song lyrics "Ain't No Reason" has rhyme as most songs do. What makes this song a poem is the consonance ("Prison walls still standing tall"), the similes ("Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets"), the parallelism ("Keep on building prisons, gonna fill them all"), and the hyperbole ("Working your fingers bare to the bone").

Poem for Anthology

Trees by Joyce Kilmer
I'm picking this poem for my anthology becuase I like the truth conveyed within the poem.
I love the personifying description the author gives to the trees and how she gives great and
honorable meaning to the them.

Metaphor and Testimony

Metaphor

Quicksand is a ravenous ocean with a craving for incautious prey.

 Testimony

I have been Berenger when I was in high school. I watched some of my closest friends change into people that I would have never thought they would have changed into. I contemplated for a while to change my ways of being in order to maintain their friendship, but after really thinking about it I figured that I didn't want to be like them. I was conformed with myself.

Six Word Story

Punctured heart. Defective ears. Dysfunctional family.

Transformations Question

23) The last four stanzas of "Red Riding Hood" make many references that equate birth with death. What are these references, and why does Sexton use them?

The last four stanzas equate birth and death because they act as a unity to represent the circle of life; when one life ends another life begins. When the wolf gave "birth" to Red Riding Hood, his time slowly came to an end because of his sinful actions. Red Riding Hood was reborn from her naivety and gained experienced from the catastrophe that had occurred. Sexton used this reference in order to parallelize birth and death with good and evil. The birth of the innocent girl triumphs over the death of the evil wolf. Because Red Riding Hood was naive, she believed that the wolf was honest and kind and that only good things would happen to her. But after her encounter with the wolf she got a glimpse of what the real world was like, thus she was reborn with experience as the sinful wolf expired. Ironically evil gave birth to good.

LITTLE RED-CAP [LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD]

Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red-Cap.'

One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red-Cap, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path, or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing; and when you go into her room, don't forget to say, "Good morning", and don't peep into every corner before you do it.'

'I will take great care,' said Little Red-Cap to her mother, and gave her hand on it.

The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the village, and just as Little Red-Cap entered the wood, a wolf met her. Red-Cap did not know what a wicked creature he was, and was not at all afraid of him.

'Good day, Little Red-Cap,' said he.

'Thank you kindly, wolf.'

'Whither away so early, Little Red-Cap?'

'To my grandmother's.'

'What have you got in your apron?'

'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger.'

'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red-Cap?'

'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just below; you surely must know it,' replied Little Red-Cap.

The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature! what a nice plump mouthful—she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.' So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Red-Cap, and then he said: 'See, Little Red-Cap, how pretty the flowers are about here—why do you not look round? I believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are singing; you walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while everything else out here in the wood is merry.'

Little Red-Cap raised her eyes, and when she saw the sunbeams dancing here and there through the trees, and pretty flowers growing everywhere, she thought: 'Suppose I take grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would please her too. It is so early in the day that I shall still get there in good time'; and so she ran from the path into the wood to look for flowers. And whenever she had picked one, she fancied that she saw a still prettier one farther on, and ran after it, and so got deeper and deeper into the wood.

Meanwhile the wolf ran straight to the grandmother's house and knocked at the door.

'Who is there?'

'Little Red-Cap,' replied the wolf. 'She is bringing cake and wine; open the door.'

'Lift the latch,' called out the grandmother, 'I am too weak, and cannot get up.'

The wolf lifted the latch, the door sprang open, and without saying a word he went straight to the grandmother's bed, and devoured her. Then he put on her clothes, dressed himself in her cap laid himself in bed and drew the curtains.

Little Red-Cap, however, had been running about picking flowers, and when she had gathered so many that she could carry no more, she remembered her grandmother, and set out on the way to her.

She was surprised to find the cottage-door standing open, and when she went into the room, she had such a strange feeling that she said to herself: 'Oh dear! how uneasy I feel today, and at other times I like being with grandmother so much.' She called out: 'Good morning,' but received no answer; so she went to the bed and drew back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and looking very strange.

'Oh! grandmother,' she said, 'what big ears you have!'

'The better to hear you with, my child,' was the reply.

'But, grandmother, what big eyes you have!' she said.

'The better to see you with, my dear.'

'But, grandmother, what large hands you have!'

'The better to hug you with.'

'Oh! but, grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!'

'The better to eat you with!'

And scarcely had the wolf said this, than with one bound he was out of bed and swallowed up Red-Cap.

When the wolf had appeased his appetite, he lay down again in the bed, fell asleep and began to snore very loud. The huntsman was just passing the house, and thought to himself: 'How the old woman is snoring! I must just see if she wants anything.' So he went into the room, and when he came to the bed, he saw that the wolf was lying in it. 'Do I find you here, you old sinner!' said he. 'I have long sought you!' Then just as he was going to fire at him, it occurred to him that the wolf might have devoured the grandmother, and that she might still be saved, so he did not fire, but took a pair of scissors, and began to cut open the stomach of the sleeping wolf. When he had made two snips, he saw the little Red-Cap shining, and then he made two snips more, and the little girl sprang out, crying: 'Ah, how frightened I have been! How dark it was inside the wolf'; and after that the aged grandmother came out alive also, but scarcely able to breathe. Red-Cap, however, quickly fetched great stones with which they filled the wolf's belly, and when he awoke, he wanted to run away, but the stones were so heavy that he collapsed at once, and fell dead.

Then all three were delighted. The huntsman drew off the wolf's skin and went home with it; the grandmother ate the cake and drank the wine which Red-Cap had brought, and revived, but Red-Cap thought to herself: 'As long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.'

It also related that once when Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red-Cap, however, was on her guard, and went straight forward on her way, and told her grandmother that she had met the wolf, and that he had said 'good morning' to her, but with such a wicked look in his eyes, that if they had not been on the public road she was certain he would have eaten her up. 'Well,' said the grandmother, 'we will shut the door, that he may not come in.' Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried: 'Open the door, grandmother, I am Little Red-Cap, and am bringing you some cakes.' But they did not speak, or open the door, so the grey-beard stole twice or thrice round the house, and at last jumped on the roof, intending to wait until Red-Cap went home in the evening, and then to steal after her and devour her in the darkness. But the grandmother saw what was in his thoughts. In front of the house was a great stone trough, so she said to the child: 'Take the pail, Red-Cap; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough.' Red-Cap carried until the great trough was quite full. Then the smell of the sausages reached the wolf, and he sniffed and peeped down, and at last stretched out his neck so far that he could no longer keep his footing and began to slip, and slipped down from the roof straight into the great trough, and was drowned. But Red-Cap went joyously home, and no one ever did anything to harm her again.

I believe Sexton chose to transform Red Riding Hood because it's not only a great tale, but it has a great moral to it and it's told in a way a child or adult could comprehend it. Sexton adds common sense humor to some parts of the story that should be questioned as to why certain actions were taken. Like when the mother tells her daughter to take her ill grandmother a basket of wine and cake to make her feel better, Sexton responds with, "Wine and cake? Where's the aspirin? The penicillin?", to make the tale a bit more fun and playful without losing the moral of the tale.

William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence"

He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

1. The first two lines mean that those who do not temper with 

infancy's innocence will be relieved from any pain and suffering

that could come their way. Meaning that if people gave children 

the opportunity to explore and appreciate the world they were 

"intended to live in" (the world of mother nature) without 

obstructing it, in return they would be rewarded a life without 

fear(death). The last two lines mean that the beginning and the 

ending of a person's life is when the truth stares you right in 

the face with nothing to hide. As an infant and an elder, the 

truth is given and later restored to once again be the only 

important thing that matters in life.

2. Blake uses parallelism as a literary device. He sets up the 

first two lines as an equation: you do this(respect the infant's

faith) and you get that(triumph over hell and death). The last 

two lines are the reasons as to why the equation works. Infants 

are born with innocence and if people abide by it then in their 

time of elderly they regain their innocence once more.