The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

I really liked reading this story by Mark Twain because Jim Smiley will place a bet on anything that comes his way no matter how dumb the bet may be. In the story Jim has three animals that he places bets on and no matter what their appearances may look like they always turn out to be the winner. the first animal is Jim's horse and her is The Fifteen Minute Nag. This was given to the horse because of how the horse looked so sickly, but when places a bet on the table she turns on the speed at the end of race and wins. Next is Jim's bulldog pup named after 7th president of U.S. when all bets are down the dog character changes and he grabs onto the hind legs of his opponent and hangs on until the fight is over. lastly is Dan'l Webster, Jim's Frog, Which he trains to be the highest jumping frog in Calaveras County. However, Webster loses a the bet because a strange fills his frog with a teaspoon of quail shot while Jim is looking found a frog to place a bet against. I believe that Jim is a lucky person and so how finds a way to win.

Emily Dickinson as a Person

Obviously I do not actually know Emily Dickinson, not very many people alive do. I see that people seem to question Dickinson's faith in some of her poems. Her poem such as "249" discusses wild nights. Some see it as her risque nights at home with her lover. I do not see it as that. I honestly see it as an intimate night praying a loving God. I would not think that had Dickinson not capitalized "thee" in line 12. Had she not done that I would believe that she was referring to a lover, but since she capitalizes "thee" it makes me think she is talking about something greater than herself.
Now with that said, some people don't understand how that matches up with God. God calls for Christians to seek a relationship with Him. In most relationships have intimacy. Correct? So God is no different. It is a way to show one's love for Him. It is the same case here. I feel that she is strengthening her relationship with God. Honestly I don't think that anyone can tell me other wise. That's my opinion and I'm gonna stick to it.

Song of Myself Walt Whitman

As said in the prompt Walt Whitman was ahead of his time and definetly had a hand in the beatnik poets and even some of the pra and hip hop seen today which is often spoken in free verse style. Walt Whitman uses many of the naturalist ideas in his work with a prime example being the, "what is grass," question. He than hits on the ideas of the budhists with his idea that everything is interconnected and when we die we merely move to another state and benefit the world around us. This is very similar to the idea of reincarnation that the buddhists have but without the up and down movement depending on the life that you lived. These types of non traditionalist traits are seen throughout Whitman's work and are what made him such an unconventional but well known and famous poet who was ahead of his time.

Failure Comes Before Success (Blog Post1 Aauzsa Mack)

Emily Dickson wrote series of poems just like the many famous poets before her. Upon using different rhyme schemes, her writings are interpreted in many different ways. One of the poems, poem number 67, really grabbed me because of the first two lines in the first stanza “success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.” Those words alone express a lot of meaning and can be defined in many different ways, but the way I perceive it is that in order to feel the sweetness of success you must have failed at least one point and time in your life. How would it feel to be successful all the time? You would not know how to be thankful that you are succeeding if you have never felt the bitterness of failure. Towards the end of the poem she describes the feeling of the losing side. She used the words defeated, dying, and agonized to describe the scene of the individual that’s watching the opposing team triumph. When you see those three words, defeated, dying, and agonized, there is nothing bright or cheerful about them. Those are words that hurt, words that will put a dent in your pride, words that will either boost you up enough to want to be successful or that will lower your self-esteem even more it is all in the way of how you take it.

Dickinson's Sense of individuality and loneliness

A repeating theme that's prevalent and what sets Emily Dickinson away from Walt Whitman's view of a close community is her willingness to stray away from conformity and become more of an individual. That in itself leads to a meditation on how she views loneliness and death. I believe because she is more alone she thinks more about death as "49" shows about losing someone as well as "449". She leans more on being herself and doing her own thing. "303" and "324" explains her want to not conform to the regular way to worship. She explains to become her own self and worship or concentrate on her issues or important things. Even with her belief in individuality, she writes a lot about longing for someone else or writing how she's apart from someone like in "511" and "249". I believe that those ideas contradict themselves but shows the gloominess she possesses that makes her writing seem so dark.

Jarid's post of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

“Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry” is a poem written by Walt Whitman. The poem is telling a story about a person’s trip on the Brooklyn Ferry and how the people before him and after him will share in this historical experience of riding the boat, being under the same shy at a certain time, feeling the boat hit up against the waves, being amongst the crowd, ect. While on the ferry the author also talks abut what he sees while riding the ferry. He is watching the city itself / buildings and the river sea-gulls, the sky’s reflection in the water. I personally like this poem because he is taking a simple subject such as riding the ferry and he is broadening it be cause he is point out things that people would normally not even pay attention to. The author also uses a since of everyone being equal in a way that everyone has to wait on the ferry when they ride it, everyone sees the same thing , they feel the same thing as they ride the ferry. Finally at the end of Walt Whitman’s poem he says that they are one, he loves him and he won’t get rid of him and that they will be together forever.

a sight in camp in the daybreak gray and dim

A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and grim, by Walt Whitman is a very vivid poem that expresses the title of the poem to the fullest with the setting of the poem. The first stanza gives the reader a great mental picture of the setting. The tone is an awful grim and dark feeling with the notice of death in the air. Whitman uses many kinds of symbolism in the poem; two great examples are spiritual and patriotic. Spiritual is characterized when Whitman states that the middle aged man looks like Christ himself. Furthermore with the three dead bodies represents the three stages in life as well as the trinity in Christianity. Whitman uses a patriotic theme with the setting being in the civil war and seeing these three dead soldiers that have died for their country to fulfill the American dream of being free. With the allusion of the middle aged man being Christ is especially important which ties both of the two types of symbolism as to emphasize the sacrifices soldiers commonly give in war, and the religious view of the colossal sacrifice of Christ. Whitman uses symbolism to with the great use of vivid imagery to draw the reader into the poem.

Song of Myself

Walt Whitman was one of the very first of his time to move from using rhyme to free verse within poetry. He used rhythm instead of language and he was ahead of his time people have said. This was truly amazing because he was the very first to use this style of free verse that was not very popular in the 1800's but is popular today. And within his poem, Song of Myself he used his style of free verse.
Within the first section of Song of Myself, Whitman is talking of celebrating himself and how it seems to be focusing on only him. Praising himself within the entire section. But as you keep reading through the section it shows that he really does care about the entire country and not just himself. Through this section he is also describing that nothing is ever really destroyed and it lives on forever. Which in a way is like the old romantics from last semester but now Whitman is starting into the new age of realism.
From the selection on the syllabus I read section 6, and from this section it shows how Whitman writes on the equality of all of those in the United States. In this section it starts off with a child asking "what is the grass?" Whitman at first does not realize what it was but as he thought more about it in the section he concluded that the grass he is asking about is the United States, and from this Whitman is hitting on the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson. And through the grass everything is interconnected and that when we die we do not really die but are transformed into another being to benefit the world around us.

sucess is counted sweetest

The common of idea of this poem is that not having increaases our appreciation or enjoyment of what we lack. The person that doesn't have much understand that lacking is better than the person that possesses it. Dickinson shows in this poem that the loser knows the true definition about of victory better than the winners. One of the words that stuck out to me the most was the word "purple" because it color was used for royalty. The robes of kings and queens were dyed purple and it also the color blood. The last stanza explains how the dying man ears are forbidden to sounds of the triumph because his side has lost the battle. however, the implication is that he has won because he paid the highest price in death.

Once I Pass'd Through a Populous City

He begins by explaining that he is visiting this city to observe and learn about the place and its culture. In the first line he mentions that there will be "future use" for the information that he is trying to gain but, he does not mention what that use would be. While he is in this city he meets someone that he begins to start falling for. He says that she ends up being the only thing he remembers about the city. Eventhough his purpose was to learn about the city, he does not. He is very happy to have met this person. He obviously does not live around there so he has to leave her. Line five leads the reader to assume that he has come back to visit her a few times. In the last line it shows how sad she is to see him go by describing the look on her face. She seemed to really care about him. The woman did not like the fact that he was going to be leaving her again. She just wishes that he would stay so that they would not have to be so far apart. He came to the city prepared to learn about normal things such as the culture, shows, architecture, customs, and traditions, but instead he learned how it feels to be in love.

A Thought

In Emily Dickonson's poem A Thought Went Up My Mind Today, she writes about ideas, thoughts, and memories lost. She writes to her readers what she and them share in common with forgotten past. When she say's "A thought went up my mind today that iv'e had before" is when memories in the mind are remebered in fragments. Fragments that one cannot pinpoint in exact time. Dickinson emphasizes this by saying "I could not fix the year". Meaning that she knows her thought has occured to her before, but was stored too far away in her past to determine when. The thought's purpose and origin is now unknown to her. She does not know what stimulated her mind to bring the thought forth from her past. Her thought is too diminished to piece together. She explains this to readers, "Nor defintley, what it was have i the art to say". This means to say that whatever foundation her thought once had no longer matters. Her other thoughts that may have supported this thought now and before are shattered memories in her mind as well. She say's "In my soul, i know i've met the thing before" This can be interpreted that memories so far lost may seem not be a reality, just merely a thought of a false memory you thought you once had. She has to find truth between what she knows and what she feels. What she knows is not clear, but what she feels is she had the thought before.

Song of Myself by Whitman begins as a praise of himself. He wants the world to know how great of a writer he his and he feels that everyone is blessed by his presence. Whitman states that he “celebrates” and “sings” his self which shows just how arrogant he really is. Song of Myself 1 shows us Whitman’s selfish side, but as the writings progress and he becomes older and wiser, his writings are no longer only about him. Throughout the entire work, Whitman use symbolism to get many key issues across to the reader. In the sixth section of the poem the use of symbolism is displayed as Whitman tries to explain to the child what the grass was. This section of the poem was written during the Civil War and the grass represented democracy and death. Democracy, like grass, is everywhere and grass feeds on the graves of the dead, which in turn allows for more growth. In the final section of the poem, Whitman talks about his yawp and how he would be remembered. His yawp can be a symbol for everything or a symbol for absolutely nothing, depending on how one viewed him. He states that if one wants to find him he will be under their boot-sole. Whitman grew throughout the entire poem. In the beginning he was really self-centered, but as time progressed he became more realistic and realized that time on earth was short and everyone must die.

"Cavalry Crossing a Ford"

This poem talks about how a cavalry unit is being observed while crossing a ford. this unit is not specifically described. I would presume, that since Walt Whitman was a nurse during the Civil War, that he wrote this poem during his time as a nurse, or maybe even during combat. This poem talks about how a cavalry unit is being observed, but mainly from a distance. The use of wording and dialogue states that he isn't particularly describing one individual soldier, but mere describing them as a whole unit. The unit is being described in color and text, such as the uniforms and the lines of the soldiers and what not. it talks of the look on the face of the soldiers and what they think of the situation they are in. then in the last text, it described the guidons and the color of them to represent the individuality of the unit as a whole. I like the poem and the context of it. Even though the poem was a little short, but it had a good description of the unit itself. Whitman uses positive and very detail descriptions to the point where the reader can get a good mental image of what is being described. The unit itself is what i could picture it looking like, crossing a ford, and having a long line of soldiers in uniform, with guidons and instruments.

Emily Dickinson 49

The poem by Emily Dickinson, poem number 49 seems to describe someone in need of something. For instance, the first stanza in the poem says "I never lost as much but twice" in my opinion what I think the writer is trying to say is that Ive never been this poor, in need, but twice in her life. Another example, she mentions how twice she had stood a beggar as well. I took a closer notice how she mentions twice frequently just to point out the amount of number whatever the case might be. She then continues and starts saying how angels decend and reimbursed her store. In other words to me, i see this as blessings. But then suddenly she appears to blame God for the blessings she has lost. I see this as a give and take away situation. Perhaps her store was full of "blessings" such as food, riches and such and sometimes we just dont know how to appreciate what we have and thats why it is taken away. Eventually we try to blame it on someone else. In this case i think she blames her loses on God. Yet she remains begging for help because she knows God is her true source of life.

Whitman's Ford

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, on Long Island, New York, to Quaker parents. He moved to Brooklyn with his parents, where he attended public school. He ended up moving back to Long Island with his parents where he started his own news paper. He then started to edit papers and write his own poems. One of his poems is called "Calvary Crossing At the Ford"; the very poem I will be analyzing. The first line of the Poem mentions the Calvary; the "they" refers to the soldiers that make up the Calvary. The scene as a whole portrayed is quite broad; it is as if the scene is being viewed from afar at a point higher than that of the Ford. In this poem, first person is to be implied even there is no "I" to be found in the verse. The speaker is situated at the point high above and afar and is gazing down at the Calvary crossing the Ford and explains his view in vivid detail. He is unbiased and nonjudgmental towards what he sees. The soldiers the speaker sees are just soldiers and nothing more. They have no identity but they are still important to the action taking place; they are part of the long serpentine line that crosses the Ford on the obvious task of war. There is a bit of symbolism to be seen from this poem; the serpentine line and brown faces. A serpentine pattern is an obscured line which represents the river that the brown faced men cross. The brown faces represent the backdrop of nature or more appropriate, the trees. The guidon that is held and flown is also identified with nature as it is said to be "snowy". Because the scene is viewed from afar, everything is seen as part of nature, hence the natural symbolism and lack of identity for the soldiers of the Calvary that cross the ford.

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Welcome to the ENG 252 03 blog!

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