How to forgive, but not forget.

When seeking forgiveness one must cease resentment;
the devil will boil inside of you,
steam will escape through ears,
like when holding hot coal
holding on leaves you
burnt and left with scars.
Leave the coal, leave it there,
glowing with evidence of a fire.
But be careful, one must not let it fade,
for a good character can be corrupted by self indulgence.

Intro:
Paragraph 1:
Thesis statement: Through analysis, it is evident that the two poems ‘Hawk Roosting’ and ‘Golden Retrievals’ contrast with aid through imagery.
Points:
· Hawk Roosting
o No falsifying dream/ Reherse perfect kills and eat
§ No time for play, or happy things, only for things
o High trees/ Sun’s ray
o Tearing off heads
o Bones of the living
· Golden Retrievals
o Balls and sticks/ Bunny, tumbling leaf, squirrel/ Muck, pond, ditch, residue, dead thing
§ All elements of play
§ Such simple entities bring joy to the dog, but not to the human
o Fog
§ Shows the difference between humans and animals
§ Animals are much more simple and straightforward...
Paragraph 2: symbolism
Thesis statement
Points:
· Hawk Roosting
o The sun
§ ‘The sun is behind me now’
§ The sun is a warming entity in which provides a light... it can symbolise play, happiness and more.
§ When the Hawk describes the sun as behind it, it explains that he has no use for play.
§
· Golden Retrievals:
o
Paragraph 3: Tone
· Hawk Roosting
o Negative
o Through words such as: perfect kills and eat, tearing off heads, death, bones,
o
· Golden Retrievals:
o Positive
o Simple entities can make any dog happy
o The dog sees the happy in the world, people are unable to see.

My Papa's Waltz- Theodore Roethke (1948)

The whiskey on your breath

Could make a small boy dizzy;

But I hung on like death:

Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;

My mother's countenance
sad
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;

At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head

With a palm caked hard by dirt,

Then waltzed me off to bed

Still clinging to your shirt.




Theodore Roethke's poem, 'My Papa's Waltz' is an interesting poem to read in that it can be perceived in different ways. As I first read the poem over a few times, I was convinced that the young boy's Papa was inflicting violence on him. A reader can comprehend this negative tone through diction such as 'whiskey' on his 'breath', 'death', 'romped', 'hand that held my wrist', 'battered', 'scraped', 'beat', and 'clinging'. Yet, through more critical analysis I have come to a realization that this is invalid. This poem is an examination of father-son relationships and is in fact a positive tone. A more playful admiring tone. The young boy looks up to his father and attempts to keep up with him. Masculinity is a prominent theme in this poem which helps us understand the roughness of their play. A great example of this is when they 'romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf'. According to dictionary.com, romped can be described as lively, merry play. The young boy described their play as 'not easy' for he had to hang 'on like death'. Thus he was holding on, to remain at the same level of masculinity and strength as his big ol' Pop. To add, they played so much that it became destructive. A very unfeminine quality. To aid this idea of masculinity, the boy describes his mother as frowning. Moreover, the whiskey on his Popa's breath which could make a small boy dizzy and his battered knuckle adds to his fathers masculinity as it relates to other themes such as being worn and mature.

There are many other devices which aid the poem to have a playful and admiring tone. First, the poet speaks as if he is describing his father's masculinity, remembering the days when he was still strong. As I read it, I imagine a grown up boy, sitting with his old and now weak father, telling him of the old fun times they used to have and how he looked up to his father. This can be seen through the poets use of personal pronouns and past tense. He uses 'you' and when referring to himself as young he says 'a small boy'. He also uses verbs such as 'held', 'missed', thus it is apparent that the not so young boy is reminiscing about the past. Second, the poet uses nouns which one can relate adjectives to. Some examples include whiskey breath which is associated with maturity and waltz associated to a consistent and predictable kind of play. Last, the son describes his Papa with great admiration. This can be seen as he attempts to keep up to his father: 'every step you missed, my right ear scraped a buckle', 'clinging to your shirt', 'hung on like death' and more.

the world as i see it

the world as i see it is no longer romantic.
knights and princesses do not dance,
no acts of chivalry or proper morality,
nor the relevance of kindness,
for the purpose of each human is for oneself.

the world as i see it is no longer happy.
poverty stricken and broken,
hunger, thirst, omnipresent,
sometimes not for food,
lack of care for those unfortunate.

the world as i see it no longer sees morality.
blood diamonds and sweat shops,
beautiful valuables disregarded,
the collective is least important.

the world as i see it is no longer valid.
secrets and lies are its structure,
filled with fake smiles,
few souls are true,
the end of a happy ending is never happy.

i am no longer able to apprehend the world.

My First Post: Margaret Atwood's Chronology

Margaret Atwood wrote a beautiful yet sad chronology. The poet spoke of the progression in which a human grows through the transition of childhood to adulthood. Through this transition, time plays a large part in this poem. The poet is clearly not unchanged. This is evident through her transition of adjectives from the beginning to finish of the poem. For example, as a child, she describes herself as 'invulnerable' and like a 'helmet'. Yet, as an adult, she uses descriptive words such as 'unshelled' and 'like a horse with a broken back'. As such, the reader views the vast change in persona in the poet.

There are many other effects which aid the success of this poem. For example, the line breaks in this poem gives a mind-cue to the reader that each short paragraph is a 'chapter' in her life. Each chapter is a section in which influenced her in some way. Thus it aids to the fact that it is a transitional piece, and in fact the knowledge acquired in the end is conjured up over a long period of time. Another example of great effects which aid the success of this poem is the poets use of figurative language such as 'greasy with guile' (personification), 'shed knowledge like petals' (simile), and 'the snail' (symbolism).


Chronology

I was born senile and gigantic
my wrinkles charting
in pink the heights and ruts, events
of all possible experience.

At 6 I was sly as a weasel,
adroit at smiling and hiding,
slippery-fingered, greasy with guile.

At 12, instructed
by the comicbooks already
latent in my head, I was bored with horror.

At 16 I was pragmatic,
armoured with my wry red lipstick;
I was invulnerable,
I wore my hair like a helmet.

But by 20 I had begun
to shed knowledge like petals
or scales; and today I discovered
that I have been living backwards.

Time wears me down like water.
The engraved lines of my features
are being slowly expunged.

I will have to pretend:
the snail knows
thin skin is no protection;

though I can't go on
indefinitely. At 50 they will peel
my face away like a nylon stocking

uncovering such incredible blank
innocence, that even the mirrors
accustomed to grotesques
will be astounded.

I will be unshelled, I will be
of no use to that city
and like a horse with a broken back
I will have to be taken out and shot.

-Margaret Atwood