Directive Analysis

     "Directive" by Robert Frost is a very somber poem about change. The change is going from having a house that is well lived in and kept up, to a cellar hole in the ground. "A house that is no longer a house." This inspiration for his poem is clear. In Vermont there used to be many agrarian based towns where people raised sheep, that are now abandoned due to westward expansion. He uses similes, repetition, and imagery to get his point across. 

     Robert Frost used the simile "Like graveyard marble sculpture in the weather," to describe how this place where someone once lived now looks. Old gravestones are always there, they keep their shape and don't move, but they fade after time and have a look of abandonment about them. This must be how this house looked. You can tell what it is, you can see it's shape. But at the same time it has also been left and forgotten. "A house that is no longer a house' is repeated again in the poem, tying it all up,  giving the reader something to remember.

     Frost also used repetition in one section of his poem to give it a little character and fluidity. 

"A house that is no longer a house

 upon a farm that is no longer a farm

in a town that is no longer a town."

This section really stands out to me, it's poetic uniqueness is very powerful. It sets up a great mood for the rest of the poem. Repetition like this can always have that effect in poems. It helps our brain remember and then we think about it later, making the poem stand out. 

     The imagery in this poem is really what tells the story. Because he is telling about something he has seen it is imperative that he gives us something to picture. 

"light rustle rushes to their leaves" is one of my favorite lines because as i was reading it, it was easy to picture the wind gently rustling the leaves as if they are saying hello. This shows in it's own way,  how nature really has taken over this place, which is really the point of the poem. To me this is a powerful way to say so much in one line.

     In conclusion, Robert Frost's poem "Directive" tells a story perfectly of how a place where a house once was is now taken over by nature and is just a cellar hole, with a few shattered dishes. He does this by using similes, repetition, and imagery to paint a picture and tell a story. This poem is a wonderful example for all these things. 

AT extra credit "You Choose" assignment "Birds"

     If I were a bird I would want to be a songbird.
First of all, songbirds bring happiness to a lot of people with their beautiful calls and make a nice background noise for me as I am writing this. Also, they have a certain character about them that is hard to describe.
      They're mysterious yet common. We hear them all day long, they wake us up in the morning, and you might even see one hopping around your yard. Even so, most of the time songbirds are seen, not heard. They're like your favorite radio host, you get used to the sound of their voice, but never see what they look like, and then one day someone shows you a picture of them and you're thrown completely off guard. You may think a bird is just a brown little fur ball, but then you see it and its beautiful and full of color.
     I feel like I can relate this to my life. People surprise me all the time. I see them around and kno what they look like, but when I finally talk to them it's never quite what I'm expecting. This has taught me to keep an open mind about everyone I meet. A perfect example is my best friend Abbey.
     In sixth grade she was the new friend of my best friend Olivia, and I didn't want anything to do with her. She seemed so boring, and talked with a little bit of a southern accent wich I despised. Even though I didn't like her, I invited her places so that I wouldn't hurt Olivia's feelings. I found, after a short period of time, that she was one of the coolest people I had ever met, and now I'm even closer with her than I am with Olivia. Abbey was like a morning dove, she looked like a boring brown blob, and her song was low boring and monotonous, but once I grew to appreciate it, she became my favorite bird.
     When I was younger I didn't think much about birds, they were nice, but I didn't appreciate how they connect so closely to my life. Now that I understand I have a newfound love for listening to birds.

Turtles

I live in an area of Shelburne with a lot of ponds and streams and every June on the weekend of my birthday we get a visit from the turtle population of Beaver Creek.

They love to lay their eggs in the warm soft soil of my mother's flower gardens. It’s fun to watch, and I look forward to it every year. It’s constant and dependable, like New Years Eve, and the outcome of Groundhog Day.

These aren’t your run of the mill turtles, these are full on, ugly as can be, snapping turtles. The turtles range from the size of a frisbee to the size of a trash can lid. They look like the beginnings of Jurassic Park, and they have claws that would make Edward Scissorhands jealous. They’re also vicious and can bite off your entire hand if you aren’t careful.

And they’re my favorite animal.

This year we saw four turtles laying eggs, but many more probably came that we didn’t see. In the past we have seen sixteen in one weekend. Now that’s a record that’s hard to beat.

In the fall their eggs will hatch and we will watch the baby snapping turtles make the mad dash for the stream to safety.
But not all of them will make it.
Some of the turtles will be picked off by hawks, and eaten. This is possible because their shells will still be soft and easy to break through. It is a sad fact of life, but every hawk has to eat too. And others won’t make it because they were run over, or couldn’t find food or shelter in time.
Watching the turtles every year has taught me a few things about life.

First of all, don’t lay your eggs where a car will easily back over them. Use common sense and think before you act, or you might lose everything you’ve been working for.

Second, when you’re in the wild, it really is the survival of the fittest. The turtles that are fast enough will make it to the stream, find shelter and something to eat, and make it to the age where their shell is hardened. I think this is what makes these snappers so mean. They had to work hard to get to where they are, and they won’t let you, or anyone else screw it up for them. This is the kind of mentality you need to keep if you really want to something you’ve been working for.

Third, life is a circle. Every Hawk has to eat, and so does every turtle, the circle comes back around every year when new eggs are laid and new eggs are hatched. Life is like energy, it can’t be created or destroyed. If one turtle gives its life so another animal can live, it’s just keeping the circle going. Life will always go on.

Fourth, take chances. If you don’t take that first chance, the mad dash to the pond, then you will die without ever living. If I never take risks I’ll never get anywhere in life. I’m just like one of the baby turtles, but prettier.

And Last, just because a couple of your eggs didn’t make it, doesn’t mean you were a complete failure. One of those baby turtles might be the future king of the pond. To apply this to my life, I can’t let the little failures trip me up. I need to keep my head high and focus on the things that did work out. Because it really is only one egg.

On a Journey

On A Journey by Hermann Hesse
Don't be downcast, soon the night will come,
When we can see the cool moon laughing in secret
Over the faint countryside,
And we rest, hand in hand.
Don't be downcast, the time will soon come
When we can have rest. Our small crosses will stand
On the bright edge of the road together,
And rain fall, and snow fall,
And the winds come and go.

The poem “On a Journey” by Hermann Hesse is not as much about the journey itself, as it is about the end of the journey. We have all felt  the feeling when a journey is coming to a close, and you just can’t wait for it to end, eager to get to your destination, or when we are in pain and we need to just hold on to the hope that is ending soon.

One thing that Hesse  does to give this poem a unique feel is by making the moon “laughing in secret” the personification (of the moon especially) makes it dark and mysterious.

“When we can see the cool moon laughing in secret”

This strategy sets up the reader’s emotions, and sprinkles on a certain flavor that is interesting and dark. Opening your mind up to the possibilities of the rest of the poem.  

Something very important about this poem is how the speaker is clearly addressing someone, encouraging a loved one to hang in there, the journey will soon end. When he says “hand in hand” it shows that he is very close to whoever he is speaking to, and is possibly romantically involved. It paints a very sweet and comforting picture in your mind, once their journey ends, they will be together.

This journey they are on is clearly tough. When he says “When we can have rest. Our small crosses will stand...” to me it is implying that they will both both die. The use of the word “rest” is alluding to “Rest In Peace” and “Our small crosses will stand” means crosses that mark their graves. This struck a chord for me if he is comforting a loved one by possibly saying that they will both die, then they must be suffering quite a bit. I can only imagine what they must be going through.  

All of these things give the poem has a very sad tone, and a feeling of a peaceful end to a rough journey.  The journey has worn them down, and now the travelers will find peace. Sadly that peace will be found in death.  All journey’s come to end, just not always so tragically.

Two Butterflies Went out at Noon

 Emily Dickinson uses  metaphors and themes to paint a perfect picture of two butterflies in her poem “Two Butterflies went out at Noon”.  

Picture a butterfly flying around a farm. It never flies in a perfectly straight line. When two butterflies are together they bob and duck around each other. This is the picture that Emily Dickinson was describing when she said

“Two butterflies went out at noon,

and waltzed above a farm-”

She got you to picture that in your head using only one sentence, when it took me three. This is the power of a perfectly worded metaphor. It is much more powerful because it also gives movement to the picture, now it might be a memory of a butterfly you are thinking of, rather than just a static picture.  The use of metaphors is what makes this poem special.

Emily used another metaphor to describe how the (still waltzing) butterflies flew up into the sky.

“Then stepped straight through the firmament”
The firmament is the vault of heaven (or sky). Butterflies don’t have feet, and if they did, they still couldn’t step into the sky. Saying it this way though, gives the poem a dream-like feeling. The fluidity of this line stood out to me. The word choice was perfect for this poem, first using “stepped” works with the waltzing metaphor, and the word firmament implies that they are stepping into heaven, making the waltzing butterflies seem like angels, floating up to the sky.

Through the whole poem she uses the theme of dreaminess. They start in the beginning dancing together and then later they leave together.

“And then—together bore away
Upon a shining Sea—  
Though never yet, in any Port—  
Their coming mentioned—be—”

Implying that our sweet little butterfly friends might be in love, perhaps eloping, leaving to the sea. It’s everyone’s dream to fall in love, run away and go live on the sea.  The thing that makes it interesting and even more dream like is that she says “though never yet, in anyport their coming mentioned be” as if this never happened, just like a dream.

In the final stanza, she ends the piece in a way open to interpretation.

“If spoken by the distant Bird—
 If met in Ether Sea
          By Frigate, or by Merchantman—
           No notice—was—to me—”

This strategy leaves you thinking about the poem through your day. I found myself daydreaming a little about where the delicate butterflies went, and what happened to them. No one knows, or even notices what happens next.
The whimsical spirit of this poem is beautiful and happy, but the unknown fate of the butterflies is melancholy and mysterious. In the beginning of the poem they were just butterflies, and now they are just a dream.

Ode to Cheese

Ode To Cheese,
Which Makes Us Smile,
When Camera's go Clack.
Ode To Cheese,
Which make us taste,
The greatest of flavors, the wackiest of whack.
Ode To Cheese,
Blue, Gorgonzola,
American and Cheddar.
Ode To Cheese,
Beja and Feta,
In all types of weather.
Ode To Cheese,
For those on a diet,
or trying to get fatter.
Ode To Cheese,
with crackers and wine,
with grapes can flatter.
Ode To Cheese,
when you're sad and happy,
Cheese just fits.
Ode To Cheese,
Mountains and Mountains,
or bits and bits.
Unknown

In the “Ode to Cheese” by an unknown poet, a few different sides of a wonderful thing are shown. Who doesn’t love cheese? The poet uses sound to describe action, opposites, and repetition for emphasis.
My favorite line of this poem is the part that says “When cameras go clack” I think it is a creative way to talk about the fact that we say “cheeeeeeeseee” when a photo is about to be taken of us. Sounds used as actions are a fabulous way to show not tell. Show not tell breaks the barrier of lame sentences like “when photos are taken”. Ew? The part that says “With crackers and wine, with grapes can flatter.” Shows rather than tells “Cheese tastes good with wine and grapes.” It’s like comparing a minivan to a mustang. One’s practical and boring, and the other is beautiful and lots of fun.   
The use of opposites is a common theme in a lot of writing, and can be very powerful and give character to a poem. “Mountains and Mountains, or bits and bits.” is a very cool section of the poem. The difference in size between a mountain and a bit shows that cheese can be eaten many different ways, but it is always wonderful. From the tiny samples you taste in shelburne farms, to the piles and piles of different cheeses at a huge wedding.
Repetition in poems gives strong song like emphasis on a thing. In this poem the refrain was “Ode to Cheese”. Not all poems have a refrain, but it gives a nice touch to something. The way it is used in this poem, the repetition glorifies cheese, (which deserves a lot of glory if you ask me). Without the repetition, this is just a list of great things about cheese, I hear something similar from my sister almost every day.
In conclusion, cheese is great and this poem does a very good job at giving a few reasons why. The elements used prove that point very well. The use of sound, and creative description gives the poem flavor while the opposites and repetition emphasize the pionts.

Ode to the turtle

Oh you mighty turtle you,
crawling in the grass,
what would summer bee without you?
Without your courageous hike up the hill,
just to lay your eggs,
what would inspire me,
to take risks,
without you?
What would we look forward too,
without the tittles,
hatching in the fall,
how would they get there,
without you?
Slow and steady wins the race,
this means nothing,
without you.