Thursday, February 12, 2009

Hyperbole of My Dog

Little Girl is my dog.
She sleeps like a log.
She has a huge mouth,
And eats like a hog
In her excitement
Her tail is a whip times ten.
When she sees food
Her eyes start to spin.

Some examples of hyperboles are she sleeps like log, and eats like a hog, her tail is a whip times ten, her eyes start to spin.

I think that the poet Autumn Jones used these hyperboles because she wanted to give us an image about how her dog reacts to food when she is being feed.



Monday, February 9, 2009

Red Cross

Red Cross

by Jessica Rawls

There she is
Ms. Fisher on the steps of the Red Cross
She sleeps there, you know
"The dog who jumps in the sea loses his bone!" she
shouts
We laugh, my friends and I, and swiftly walk by
I notice a tear form in the crack of her eye
I went to her one day at the steps of the Red Cross
She sleeps there, you know
The day after she smelled of shoes
The skin of her face looked as if it were peeled, dried or
fried around her cheeks
Probably from crying
Crying, she pulled me down and whispered in my ear
"When a butterfly is pinned down a stream of time
stops"
I closed my eyes and shuddered because her breath
smelled like moldy
Porkchops
I smiled
Gave her a dollar
And left.
I went home and asked my mother about the woman
always on the steps of the
Red Cross
She sleeps there, you know
She said her name was Vanessa
I thought to myself that Vanessa means butterfly
I heard she was crazy, my mom said
I ran upstairs and called the police,
"There's a woman on the steps of the Red Cross
She sleeps there, you know"
The police went
They looked
She was asleep to the point where she couldn't open her
eyes
It surprised me
Vanessa Fisher
"When a butterfly is pinned down..."
Her stream of time stopped.

The mood of the poem to me is confusion, misunderstood, and depressing because in the poem it says she slept there you know and that is kind of depressing because that means that she is homeless I guess. I think that the poet wrote this poem with these moods because she wanted us to see that the lady that slept on the Red Cross was misunderstood and that confused a lot of the people that saw her.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Poetry Response: Bronx Masquerade

The poem Bruised Love makes me feel like this girl Chankara Troupe has seen and gone through a lot of problems happen in relationships and she is sick and tired of seeing girls get hurt. This poem makes you take the time and think the types of girls that get hurt are the type of girls that let themselves get hurt. I think that the message of this poem is that girls should really take care of themselves and not let their boyfriends hit them because that shows who they really are. If you see that your boyfriend gives you a lot of souvenirs you know that they hit you for little things and if you see that he barely hits you that is how you know that he doesn't mean to hit you but you just really got him mad at you. No I can not relate to this poem at all because I
don't let people hit me because that shows them that they can hit us all of the time and they will continue to hit you if you don't show them that they can't hit you and you give them the satisfactory of hitting you all of the time.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Poetry Response: Bronx Masquerade

Open Mike
Attendance
By: Tyrone Bittings

I like this poem because he talks about everyday life. Tyrone makes this poem sound like he is saying this poem out of frustration or rage because he says that his dad got shot and died. He also talks about how we should celebrate living our lives the right way today. I feel like he also says that we should celebrate our futures because once we find ours we can't change it. Tyrone talks about where he lives. This reminds me of a song called "California Love" by Tupac and another song called "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg that talk about where they live and what they feel about their home towns (or in Tyrone's place his block).

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Stopping by the Woods

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.



The mood that this poem creates is the mood of depression and the feeling that he is tired. The other types of poetic devices that Robert Frost are rhythm, rhyme, repetition, and alliteration. I think that Robert Frost repeated the last line twice to get his point across and i think that his point is that he is tired but there are way more important things to do before he goes to sleep. I think that the speaker is feeling tired because and depressed because he says that he has miles to go before he goes to sleep and he just wants to travel those miles before he goes to sleep.

Monday, February 2, 2009

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.


The inferences that I can make about this poem are that the poet Maya Angelou is comparing this bird to life. I can infer that because she says that the world is waiting for this "bird" to spread his wings and fly. She wants him to fly for everything he wants and everything he believes in.
The best word to describe this poem would have to be excitement because Maya Angelou is telling this "bird" all of the possibilities he has waiting for him and if he tries to spread his wings and fly. She is telling him that if he wants to he could achieve anything that he wants to by trying his all and never giving up what he wants.
The meaning of this poem to me is that when you want something really bad don't let it go too fast because when you lose your meaning in life you lose everything you stand for.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Why...

I don't understand...

I don't understand...

why there is terrorism
why the sky is blue
why the highest number is infinity
why there is Valentine's Day

But most of all...

why there is war
why you must be over 35 to be president
why some people don't believe in aliens
why the Twin Towers had to fall

I do understand...

why plants help us
why people look the way they do
why we go to school
why there is music

Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night


Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night means that once you die you can't go back to living. So you must live your life and know that death is coming so when it does you are not surprised.
The mood that Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night sets the mood of depression and fury. For example, in the
poem it says " Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light," and that means that you are getting older and your young days are over. Once your time comes to permanently leave to
give it a fight and not to die that easy.
I think that the poet uses poetic devices because he want s to get his point across. The other two poetic devices the poet uses in this poem are simile and metaphor. The meaning of simile is comparing two different objects using the words like or as. Metaphor means comparing two different objects without using the words like or as.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Recognition

The wonderful poem below was written by a fellow classmate of mine named Ana. I re-wrote it in my blog to show you how well she did with her Barack Obama poem. Keep on rocking Ana. Great Job with your poem. I personally love it.

The Power of Change

The power of change
We have the power to change the world,
to change our minds,
to think different this time.
Since we have change,
we have hope,
we have faith ,
all around the world.
We don't judge a book by its cover,
just because is old damage or it has a color that you don't like.
The color could be ugly,
but the words help you change the country.
Open your eyes ,
see through what people don't see.
Open your ears and hear him ,
like you hear a white mans speech.
THE POWER OF CHANGE!

Amigos