John Whittier: My Playmate

The first stanza of the poem depicts the atmosphere. It says that it is dark, and it is May. The blossoms on the trees fall from them in the wind like snow. The birds are singing a song that is sweet and sad.

The writer says that his playmate left her house and moved away. The writer used to work on her father's farm. She told him goodbye then left in May and never came back.

The writer goes on with his life, but he still misses her. All of nature waits for her to return to him, so they can be friends again. The writer wonders if his friend ever thinks of the times they had together. He wonders if she remembers him like he remembers her. He says she does not care that the spot where they played has been taken by other people now. He says that she has forgotten him, and that he and the woods where they played are sad and miss her.

Poetic devices:

This poem uses personification and imagery. Some examples of personification are, "And still the pines of Ramoth wood are moaning like the sea," and, "If ever the pines of Ramoth wood are sounding in her dreams". An example of imagery is "Our mossy seat is green".

I cannot really think of any deep meanings to this poem. I think it is just about a boy who lost his friend and misses her. I think the poem is just trying to express how sad the boy feels about losing his friend.

Childhood Memories

The waves in the ocean are nice to hear.
They whisper and tickle inside my ear.
Singing songs of love and some beauty too,
I wish to not leave them and say adieu.

They start soft and low, but soon they grow strong.
Their mists and salty smells are far from wrong.

When I go to the beach I feel so good.
It reminds me so much of my childhood.
Laughing and smiling and just having fun,
I wish to go back and soak up the sun.

But now I must stay in my teenage years,
and watch as my sweet memories appear.

Thanatopsis

Thanatopsis is a poem about death. It is a pretty good poem though. I do not exactly know what you meant when you said do an analysis for the poem, so I am just going to summarize it.

Thanatopsis says if people love nature, nature will talk to them. Nature will help them get through any feelings they have. If the person is happy, nature is happy, and if the person is sad, nature will cheer them up. Thanatopsis says when you think of death go into nature and a calm voice will talk to you, and a few days later you will die. When you are buried you will become one with the earth, and you will be equal with all the other people who are buried too. It does not matter if they were kings or queens, you will be equal. All of the trees and mountains and everything will be decorations for your tomb. The poem asks, once your gone, what if people will forget you? But it answers that it is okay because everyone dies. Everyone will go through the same process as you, and soon they will join you. The poem tells you to live life well, but when death comes, embrace it and go happily. Do not be scared.

Some poetic devices used were personification and imagery. Personification was used when the poem said that nature talks to you or the stars were sad when you died. Imagery was used when the poem said your tomb will be covered with mountains and trees and everything else of the earth.

I think the figurative meaning is to always look forward to things in your life and to not have fear for things. Everyone goes through the same kind of stuff, so you should not feel alone or scared about it.

Journal #17 Bonding With Nature

I like nature. I love all the different seasons. My favorite season is fall, but I have a certain thing I love about each season. I will only tell about I time I bonded with nature in the summer though.

In the summer I love to go to the beach. I love swimming in the ocean and seeing certain things I normally do not get to see everyday. I used to live in Florida, so the ocean also means something to me. It reminds me of my younger childhood, so I feel really good and young when I go back to the beach. I feel like I am a little kid again playing in the sand. The only thing that is different is that I am not afraid of drowning as much, and I can swim a lot better. One of my favorite times at the beach happened this summer. We went to Florida for a wedding for someone we used to be good friends with when we lived in Florida. We stayed in a really nice hotel that was on the beach. That part was awesome because we usually never stay in a nice hotel on the beach. We usually stay in a condo, and it usually is across the street from the beach. We only stayed in a nice hotel though because it was right by the wedding, and we were only there for one or two nights. Anyways, the beach was absolutely amazing. We had our foreign exchange student with us, and she loved it too. The sand was warm, the water was the perfect temperature, and there was even a small reef right off shore.

The reef was the best part of the vacation. It was small, but it was awesome. Really it was just a bunch of rocks and stuff, but there were small tidal pools with all kinds of crabs and cute little fish. It was really cool because the water was not very deep, so I just put on some goggles and swam with the fish! There were two parrot fish that I followed, and I could have touched them but I decided to leave them alone. I was bonding with nature when I was swimming with all those fish because I was swimming with them, but I left them alone and just watched them. It was amazing!

Journal #16 My Favorite TV Show

I have a lot of favorite TV shows. There are too many to choose from. Some of my favorite TV shows are That 70s Show, Tosh.0, Glee, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars. I love those shows so very much. I like TV shows that can make me laugh. That is where That 70s Show, Tosh.0 and Glee come in. I love That 70s Show because it is so funny. My favorite character is probably Fez. He is so funny all the time. I also love Red. Fez is funny because he always wants..certain things..and he loves candy. I love candy too, Fez. Red is hilarious because he is always so serious and he thinks his son is super gay. Even though he is not gay because he has a girlfriend. When my brother was still in high school we would watch That 70s Show together every day after school.

I love Tosh.0 because it is also really funny. It is basically a show that shows a bunch of youtube videos, and the host, Daniel Tosh, makes fun of the people. It sounds kinda mean, and yeah it actually is pretty mean most of the time, but it is hilarious. It is on Comedy Central, so what else would you expect? It's crude humor. Sometimes though it's really funny because he says things that you will be thinking but you don't want to say it because you don't know if other people think that too. My brother and I also used to watch that show together too. Whenever he comes home from college we always watch those two shows together though.

So not only do I just love those two shows, but I also love that I watched them with my brother. I have five siblings, but my big brother is my favorite. He and I get along so well. We always have. I am a lot like him now because he is pretty much my role model. I love when he comes home and we can hang out.

Glee is also one of my favorite shows. It is really funny, and it has musical numbers in it which is awesome because I am a band/music in general nerd, so I love it. I really wish I was in a glee club. There are new characters now too and one of them is super hot, except he has a really big mouth. I don't like that.

I like The Vampire Diaries because it is pretty interesting, and it is actually pretty intense. Also, pretty much every boy in that show, except for Damon, is super hot. That's not too bad. I don't know how they could find so many good looking people for one show. Some people may think The Vampire Diaries is like Twilight, but it definitely is not. Twilight is dumb. The Vampire Diaries is actually pretty good. It makes my Thursday night.

My last favorite show is Pretty Little Liars. It's not on right now which upsets me a lot. That show is pretty intense too. It's like a mystery for teenage girls. It has a lot of drama, good looking people (again), mystery, and fashion. I like all those things. I like to look at what the girls wear and get fashion ideas from them. Haha. So yeah I just love this show because it's a mystery and I go crazy for a good mystery.

Journal #15 Logic and Reason

I use logic and reason all the time. We are forced to use logic and reason all the time in school. I use it for pre calculus, physics, AP chemistry, psychology, AP American History, and pretty much all my other classes. I have gotten pretty good at using logic and reason with my work. A lot of the time during a test or something we will have to give the answer to the question, and then explain why or how we got that answer. By doing this we are using logic and reason.

Another time I use logic and reason is when I use common sense. Common sense is pretty doing things the logical way. The way that makes the most sense. You also use reason with common sense because you obviously have to have a reason for doing something. I do not really know what else to say about logic and reason. I use it during school. I use it all the time and everywhere I go.

Logic and reason are both good to use. If you do not use logic and/or reason every day you will probably do something wrong. You could do a lot of things wrong. You could do a math problem wrong, walk on the wrong side of the hallway, budge people in the lunch line (not a good idea because people get really mad when you budge them in the lunch line!), crash your car (really bad!), eat something that is bad for you or is spoiled then vomit or have bad bodily functions...yuck.

To stop all these things from happening all you have to do is use logic and reason. They are two very awesome things that come in handy....a lot.

Today I used logic. I used logic in my pre calculus class. I had to do a redo for my test that I got a B on...booo. I used logic and reason to figure out why I did some of the problems wrong. For most of the problems I just had one little part wrong, which messed up like everything else. That made me really mad. So I could I easily gotten an A on the test if I had actually used logic and reason in the first place while taking my test. I should have triple checked my answers, so I would know for sure if they were correct.

Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Thomas Paine was mainly a political writer and a figure for the Revolution. He wrote many things, but probably his most important work was Common Sense. Common Sense was a pamphlet that told people to declare independence from Great Britain right away. Common Sense had a very big impact, and it helped to persuade Americans to believe that they could successfully wage a war against Britain.

In Common Sense, Paine talks about how a monarchy is bad. He says that rule by a king is not very good, and that the rule should be by the people. Paine makes it pretty clear that he does not really like government and that he believes society is very good. He explains it in this quote:

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others. (Paine).

In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest, they will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A thousand motives will excite them thereto, the strength of one man is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might labor out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing; when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him from his work, and every different want call him a different way. Disease, nay even misfortune would be death, for though neither might be mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die. (Paine).

In this quote Thomas Paine continues to say how much better society is than government. He is obviously trying to move the American government into a democracy.

I agree with what Thomas Paine says about society and government. I also think government was way too controlling back then, especially with Great Britain and it's monarchies. I think Paine does a good job in Common Sense of telling people how much better the society is then government. He makes a good argument for America to establish a democracy.

Works Cited

Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Common Sense (1971). Archiving Early America. Archiving Early America, 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2010.

Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream Reflection

Benjamin Franklin was a man of many things. He was an inventor, scientist, statesman, printer, philosopher, musician, and economist (The Franklin Institute). Benjamin Franklin is well known for many of his inventions. Some of these inventions include the lightning rod and the bifocal glasses (The Franklin Institute). Along with inventing things and other activities, Benjamin Franklin also wrote many things. He has a set of his own virtues, he wrote newspapers, almanacs and journals, and an autobiography. J.A. Leo Lemay writes in his, Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream, about how Franklin's Autobiography compares to the "American Dream".

There are many ways in which Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography could relate to the American Dream. Lemay points out one huge relationship between the two. He describes the "rags to riches" opportunities and the "rise from impotence to importance, from dependence to independence, from helplessness to power" (Lemay). All of these things were very important to the American Dream, and they were all apart of Benjamin Franklins Autobiography.

Lemay describes how the people viewed Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography in this quote.

This aspect of the American Dream motif gives the book much of its allegorical meaning and its archetypal power. Readers frequently observe that the story of Franklin's rise has its counterpart in the rise of the United States. Franklin was conscious of this. In the later eighteenth century he was the most famous man in the Western world. Even John Adams, in an attack on Franklin written thirty years after his death, conceded: "His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed than any or all of them."11 And Franklin was famous as an American.12 He frequently wrote about America, was familiar with all the eighteenth-century ideas about America, and knew that his Autobiography would be read, at least by some Englishmen and Europeans, as a book about America. As Benjamin Vaughan pointed out in a letter urging Franklin to go on with the Autobiography: "All that has happened to you is also connected with the detail of the manners and situation of a rising people" (p. 135). And critical articles, such as that by James M. Cox, show that the book has frequently been read as an allegory of the rise to power and to independence of the United States.13 (Lemay).

The people saw Franklin as a model to what America was. When they read his Autobiography, they thought they could become rich and do what Franklin did. His Autobiography was a light of hope for the new world, and it was a historical marker for new American life.

A more fundamental reason for the book's power and popularity lies in the archetypal appeal of the individual's rise from helplessness to power, from dependence to independence. In that normal development that every human being experiences from nebulousness to identity, from infancy to maturity, we all recapitulate the experience of the American Dream.14 That is why the American Dream has been and is so important to so many people, as well as to American literature. That explains the appeal of the myth of the log-cabin birth of our American presidents and the popularity of the role of the self-made man. The American Dream, on this archetypal level, embodies a universal experience. (Lemay)

Once again, Lemay describes how important the rags to riches, dependent to independent, helplessness to power concepts were to Americans. They are still important to people today too. People still come to America for a "better life", and sometimes, they find that life. America may seem like a magical place to some people, but in reality, it is the faith, hope, and perseverance of the American that makes things happen.

Works Cited

Lemay, J.A. Leo. "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." InThe Renaissance Man in the Eighteenth Century. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1978. Quoted as "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." in Bloom, Harold, ed. The American Dream, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BLTTAD005&SingleRecord=True (accessed October 13, 2010).

The Franklin Institute. PECO, 1994. The Franklin Institute Science Museum. 13 Oct. 2010

Journal # 14: Declaration of Halloween

Halloween is a great holiday. Everyone should celebrate Halloween. All the old people who only leave out candy for children to take a bunch are boring. Especially if they leave a note that says "Take One!" Do they really think that people are only going to take one? Losers. So yeah, people should go all out for Halloween. It is the most fun holiday. You can be whatever you want, and you get a bunch of candy! So here are some amendments for my Declaration of Halloween.

1. You must have a good costume. It can be scary, cute, crazy, funny, whatever you want, but it must be good!

2. For all you parents and old folks who are giving out candy, do not, I repeat, do NOT give out the crappy candy that only cost you 50 cents to buy. The good stuff is chocolate.

3. To all you awesome people out there who give out soda, giant candy bars, or even brownies...you are gods. Keep up the good work.

4. Unfortunately, if you are part of the portion of grownups who think they are being unique and cool by giving out coupons to the local ice cream shop...$1 off oh boy! - you might want to watch out because your house will most likely be tee peed that night.

5. If you go to any Halloween party, you must make sure that you have a haunted house and a game of bob for apples. Those two things say Halloween all over it.

6. And now for the final amendment. If you think you are too old or too cool to go trick-or-treating, you are soooo wrong. The cool kids are the ones who go trick-or-treating because we are get free candy. Hello??? Anything that is free is cool. Duh.

So let us see. There can be a billion more amendments to my Declaration of Halloween, but I feel like these ones are the most important. Some other amendments could include no trashy looking costumes (college girls...), no sleeping all the way through Halloween, no going to bed early, you must tell at least one ghost story before the night is through, you must visit a cemetery, and when you are done trick-or-treating with your friends, you all must trade candy until you get pretty much what you want. (The best people to trade with though are your younger siblings because they will trade something gross like gummy vampire fangs for something yummy like a kit kat bar!)

Journal # 13 SPIRIT!!

School spirit is good. I have some school spirit. I am in band. In band we have to have a lot of school spirit. Our band teacher makes us. Our whole school has a lot of school spirit, minus a few people who are boring.

So every homecoming week we have a day at the end of the week called spirit day. Spirit day is very fun. Usually our school day is a full day, but this year it is a half a day so the whole day is spirit day. Usually we have classes in the morning then spirit day after lunch. So at the beginning of the day the band goes up to the band room to get our instruments. Then we walk through the hallways playing the school song and everyone comes out of their classrooms and lines the hallways and claps and cheers. We walk all up and down the stairs a few times and it gets pretty tiring. Then everyone files into the large gym and the band goes in and plays pep band songs while people are filing in. Once everyone is finally in, the band can go sit down in our class sections. Usually some classes dress up as black out or white out. This year the senors are doing white out and the juniors are doing black out. White out and black out are when we all dress up in black or white. It looks really cool when everyone has the same color shirt on. Some people go crazy with what they are wearing.

Once everyone is in the gym, the cheerleaders do some cheers, the poms people dance, and last year the teachers did a dance. It was hilarious. Then people who are doing a lip sync do it. Sometimes its pretty funny, sometimes its just dumb. Then we start the games. Some of the games we play are balloon stomp, tug of war, hike and pass, refrigerator box race, baby bottle race thing, and a bunch of other stuff. We play classes against each other and girls against girls, boys against boys. It is really fun. My freshmen year things kind of got out of control, so last year the student officers (I am class secretary) had to have talk with the whole school before the festivities began saying that we should all have good sportsmanship and everything. Last year everything was fine, and I think this year it will be okay too.

Journal #12 Working With A Partner

Sometimes I like to work with a partner. Working with a friend is very fun. Sometimes it depends on what friend you are working with, because you may not get a lot of work done. I am usually a hard working person though, and so are most of my friends, so we can work and talk and stuff at the same time. Usually, when we are working and talking and having fun, the work is done before we know it!

I really do not like working with people that I do not like or do not get along with. No one likes to do that. We usually butt heads or do not have to same ideas. Sometimes I just cannot understand what other people are thinking. It is really hard to do a project or something when you and your partner have totally different ways of thinking.

Middle school was really hardcore when it came to working with partners, especially the ones that you could not pick. I have had some pretty bad groups for projects. I remember one time we had to do a meidivel project in the sixth grade. We had to pick something that was medievel to research. My partner and I chose to do a project about jousting. I am not trying to sound cocky or anything, but I am pretty smart. In middle school I was hugely known for being the smart quiet girl. I still kinda am, but I am not as quiet anymore. I am only quiet around people that I do not know very well. Anyways, my partner was really dumb. I ended up having to do a lot of the work. We had to make a poster, and I am kind of a perfectionist, so I wanted the poster to look perfect. Well, my partner, being pretty dumb and artistically challenged, made the poster look like poo.

I guess the moral of that story is that I just do not work very well with partners. I am a huge perfectionist and I like to do things my way. I am pretty artistic, so artistry and perfectionism mixed together equals me not wanting anyone to do any of the artsy work because I do not want them to ruin it. I especially hate when people mix really ugly colors together. That makes me mad.

Journal # 11 Ethics and Values

A lot of people have a lot of different values. Christians have different values then non-Christians. Different cultures have different values too.

Some of my ethics and values include not cheating, and stuff like that. Pretty much I try to follow the Ten Commandments. No lying, no cheating, no saying the Lord's name in vain, no stealing, do not commit adultery, honor your father and mother, and all the rest of them too. I think the Ten Commandments are some pretty darn good rules to follow in life. I try to follow them. My family tries to follow them. I think everyone should try to follow them. They are awesome. They are great.

OK, I have a pretty good story about ethics and values. The other day I was at work. It was Wednesday I believe. (I work at passage at the Elementary School.) So I was supervising the children on the playground, and two little girls come up to me with a twenty dollar bill and say they found it in the tire. I said OK and took the twenty dollars and I said I would take it to my boss. Naturally, me being a very poor teenager who looooooooves money (why else would I have a job?, I contemplated whether I should actually give the twenty dollars to my boss or if I should keep it. It was only a little kid's twenty dollars right? And why would the kid put their TWENTY dollars in a tire on a playground that kids play with and not remember to get it back? Usually little kids are just as obsessed with money as the rest of us. I know my little brother is. (He's seven.) So when I finally walked inside the passage the room and came upon my moment of truth, I decided to give the twenty dollars to my boss. It was the right thing to do. Of course I said to myself, why do I always have to do the right thing? Most people would just keep the twenty dollars and say SCORE! But the truth is, I like doing the right thing. I like the feeling of helping someone or doing something that is right even if I do not feel comfortable doing it at first.

So that's pretty much what I learned from that experience. It is good to the right thing, even if I am still poor. (Although I'm not 100% poor anymore because today is my birthday and I'm getting money from people, and I got my first paycheck yesterday which was like 178.67 or something like that. Pretty good.