I chose William Wordsworth as he, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature. He also intrigued me because of The Prelude, his semiautobiogaphical poem that was expanded to become 13 books long! wordsworth also beilieved that poetry should be written in the natural language of common speech rather than elaborate words that were considered "poetic".
William Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 in Cockermouth in Cumberland, which was part of the scenic Lake District in northwest England. He was the second of five children, and his father not only taught him poetry, he also allowed Wordsworth to rely on his library. Wordsworth visited France in 1791 and fell in love with a French woman, Annette Vallon. He had one child with her but due to a lack of money and Britain's tensions with France, he reutrned alone to england in 1792. In 1802, he was finally able to see Annette and his daughter again when he returned to France.
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent , bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did the sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
Written In March by William Wordsworth
The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,
The lake doth glitter
The green field sleeps in the sun;
The oldest and youngest
Are at work with the strongest;
The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
There are forty feeding like one!
Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated,
And now doth fare ill
On the top of the bare hill;
The plowboy is whooping—anon-anon:
There's joy in the mountains;
There's life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,
Blue sky prevailing;
The rain is over and gone!
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth
http://www.geocities.com/infinitum_poetry/bioswilliamwordsworth.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/wordsworth/section7.rhtml
Out, Out by Robert Frost
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behing the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap -
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all -
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart -
He saw all was spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off -
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. The hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then - the watcher at his pulse took a fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
Little - less - nothing! - and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
- How are the figurative language used in the poem? Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?The poem uses a lot of personification, usually referring to the saw. “The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard” and “At the word, the saw, As if to prove saws knew what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy's hand”. This gives the saw a vicious and violent personality, such as when it cut off the boy's hand.
- Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words. This poem can relate to anyone who has experienced a death in their life as it tells them to move in. It shows how unpredictable death can be. At the beginning of the poem, all is going well. It seems as though it is a normal day “And nothing happened: day was all but done”. But when his sister tells him it’s time for supper, he gets excited, and accidentally cuts off his hand. The poet states that by saying “Call it a day” death could have been avoided. If the boy had decided that that was enough, shut the saw off and went on, he never would have cut his hand. This stresses how unpredictable death can be, and how it can end a boy's life just as easily as it can end an older person's life.
Q: Traffic woes are part of a bustling city. Discuss.
In a modern city such as Singapore, traffic jams are common at peak hours. Because of its small size, the Singapore Government has implemented two schemes to help ease congestion, Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) and the Vehicle Quota System. Although these measures have been somewhat effective, jams are still unavoidable. Because of this, many people wake who need to go to work or school wake up much earlier than their shift or session starts, just to ensure that they will reach their destination on time. Although many people use Singapore's efficient public transport, Singapore is still too small to completely avoid jams.
People buy and drive cars beucase of the more comfortable journey and flexible commute. However, they often don't see the cons to buying their own car, such as fuel and maintainence.
After posting my previous entry about Swine Flu, I was reminded that the school had temporarily "disabled" the infamous "capped at 69%" rule due to the Influenza A virus outbreak. I was reminded of a particular incident where one of my classmates, after nearly vomiting at school, was informed that his mother was coming to pick him up. In response to this, he said, "Can I take my history test first?" There is another incident, where one of my classmates went home early because he was sick. He came back later that day just to take his chinese exam.
I don't think that the school had these situations in mind when they made this rule. It forces them to stay in school just to take an exam even if they are not feeling well. This is a really bad decision. If the studenet in particular has a contagious illness and stays in school to take his test, whose fault is it? The student for not being responsible or the school for setting such rules in the first place?
I feel that the student is not to blame. It is not his fault that he has fallen sick on this particular day and capping his marks even though he has a valid reason seems to be too harsh.
We had a current affairs panel discussion yesterday about video game addiction. It was quite lively as usual, with most people supporting video games. One panellist that particularly interested me was Zhong Yang, who took on the role of a mother whose son died as a result of video game addiction.
My views on this issue basically echo that of the CEO of a video game company. Video games are just amother form of entertainment, like films and books. However, their interactivity allows people to replay them just for high scores, or to play through the game’s story in a different way. Therefore, people tend to spend more time on video games then they do on books.
I feel that the highly-publicised cases about people that die as a result of video game addiction are very rare, isolated cases. Video game ratings are there for a reason. If the parents of a child allow him or her to play mature games when their child is 7 years old, they have no right to blame the video game company for making the game in the first place, since they were not responsible parents themselves.
P.S. I hate blogger. It deleted this post and my swine flu post, so I had to rewrite them. L
Well it seems the recent swine flu scare is declining, as Singapore’s DORSCON flu alert level is back to yellow. So we probably won’t get an unexpected holiday, but it makes no difference to me since the June Holidays are coming in a few weeks. There will not be so much temperature taking as we have experienced a few days ago, but we still have to be vigilant, of course.
I personally think that Singapore handled (and is handling) the swine flu outbreak quite well. With the horror of SARS still fresh in our minds, the precautions, which some people may view as stringent, were effective in ensuring that the Influenza A virus did not spread. Even though though there are no reported cases in Singapore and Tamiflu has already been proven to be effective against it, our vigilance is key in ensuring our safety and health.
Sorry for the inactivity, I have been too busy with my exams L. At least our exams will finally end next Thursday! Sadly, from my results so far I have deproved quite a lot since Term 1, but on the bright side, my Chinese seems to have improved.
Not quite happy with my results though, on Chinese paper one, I missed A1 by half a mark, missed A2 in Science by half a mark, and I missed A2 in Math by 2 marks.
L
Still quite busy though, with some ACE activities, the end-of-term birthday celebrations, and my project’s day project (my group hasn’t done anything since the Prelims!).
Regardless of my results, at least everyone will finally get a much-needed break after very busy term.
