Poetry Analysis of The Ballad of the Oysterman

The story of the Oysterman is one of heartbreak and star-crossed lovers (not as I had been hoping for a Superhero who fights crime using oysters, but whatever.) The poem tells of a tall young oysterman who lives across from an attractive daughter of a fisherman. The oysterman sees the daughter call out to him one night urging him to come over. The oysterman thought to himself that it would be a good idea to go see her, so he swam over to her house. He climbed up to her room and kissed her but they heard her father's footsteps so he leaped back into the water. The father questions what just fell into the water and she explains it was just a pebble she threw into the water, but he says that pebbles can't go that fast and she tries to cover it up and say it was a dolphin. The father urges for his harpoon to go kill the dolphin and the girl jumps into the water to stop him. Both her and the oysterman drown and they live on together selling oysters to mermaids down below.

This poem does not have much in the way of symbolism, but it goes for a more direct and head on method of tackling it's issues. There is a small amount of symbolism and reference but for the most part the poem plays out as it is read. The biggest and most obvious reference is the timeless story of the star-crossed lovers who are unable to be together due to an external conflict that prohibits them from being together. There is also symbolism in the role of the father who plays the part of the force that keeps them apart, and the role of the oysters is one of hope that keeps the idea of the lovers being together strong.

The poem is a simply, albeit beautiful one. The story of star-crossed lovers is timeless and numerous people can relate to the tragic story of the two lovers who fate declares shall not be together. Through simplistic and straight-forward writing methods the author, Holmes, manages to paint a hopeless and morose story that shows the tragic story of two souls urging for the others embrace, but finding no solace do to an external force.

Journal #17: Romantic Poem

Nature has awoken with her wrath

She comes to destroying everything in her path

Man has taken advantage of her for too long

Soon humanity will realize what it did wrong

We have raped Mother Nature and left her for dead

Using her for our own gain and ignoring all warnings that had been said

Unbeknown to us she had one last push left

And would punish us for our theft

She roared with thunder and maelstrom

She left not an untouched home.

Showing no mercy for even the smallest of beings

As animals and humans were sent fleeing

The damage she caused was catastrophic

Who she destroyed she did not pick

None could stand up to her awesome might

And in the night there was no hopeful spark of light.

Poetry Analysis of Thanatopsis

The poem of Thanatopsis when taken literally portrays an extremely bleak and morbid view of life and the eventual demise of a man. The first few lines of the poem when taken literally are about how after death you will be one with nature and eventually fade away. Through this you will become one with the planet and all aspects of it. The earth and tree roots will pierce through you and taken you into it as one. You're death will not be lonely and you will be together with all kinds of people. Then it goes on to explain that the amount of people who over the course of time have passed away and become one with nature is massive as opposed to the minuscule amount of people who still remain on the planet in their physical bodies. When you pass away people will be saddened by your loss momentarily but they will move on with their lives and along with you die eventually. Live your life as well as you can and to your fullest ability, but when your time has come accept it without quarrel and be at peace.

The most important piece of symbolism used in this poem is the idea, and picture of death. The entire poem is based around the sole idea of death, it's inevitableness, and the foreboding nature of man's demise. The nature of death is the sole theme and central idea behind the entire poem. The line "So live, that when they summons comes to join The innumerable caravan which moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death," is the best example of the poem's theme. The line explains that when your time has come you should accept it without quarrel and take your place in the hall of death by becoming one with nature and all those who have passed before you and will pass after you.

The morbid and morose theme of the poem helps deliver the meaning in a much more effective way. The cold and calculating emotion central to the poem helps deliver the meaning of the poem and support it's idea of death. The message of the poem, while depressing and bleak, is optimistic under the surface. The idea that one will become one with Earth and all those who have passed or will pass is a hopefully and spirit lifting idea that should leave the reader with a positive outlook on the subject matter of passing away. The poem was extremely effective due to it's methods of using emotion and getting it's point across.

Journal #16: Nature

Ok so I'm just going to throw this one out there. I hate nature. Big time. I don't like going outside for the most part because it is either too hot or too cold and I don't like temperature extremes. I'm an indoor kind of guy and prefer to do my sports and relaxation and basically everything else inside and away from that giant jerk that we call the sun. I'm not vehemently opposed to going outside when it's nice out, in all actuality when it's pretty nice out I might go for a dunk in the pool or lay out in the sun when it's nice. But when it's too hot I don't like going outside and would rather just stay in the nice air conditioned temperate room. Also I'm a nerd so that accounts for my fear of the outside world a bit as well. I absolutely HATE camping. It is the worst thing in the world and I refuse to ever go camping out of my own will. Not unless I was kidnapped and tortured would I ever go along on a camping trip. Evidently Matt's pencil has more of a point. Well yeah all in all when it comes down to it I prefer being inside to being outside. Not much of an outdoorsy guy on this end. I mean hanging out with friends and stuff it's fun but alone or something like that I just really really really don't like going outside when it's too hot or cold.

Journal #15: My favorite band

I have a lot of favorite bands. I really can't narrow it down to just one band so I'll just write about numerous bands that I list as my favorites. I have way to many bands on my computer. I have about 10000 songs and 500 or more bands on my computer. I have so many favorites out of them it's not even funny. Some of my favorite bands are Periphery, Gorillaz, Middle Class Rut, At the Drive-In, Atreyu, Killswitch Engage, The Mars Volta, 65daysofstatic, Maybeshewill, Fellsilent, and quite a few more. I love all of these bands and probably a few more than others. My favorite progressive Rock band would probably be The Mars Volta and Porcupine Tree. Prog Metal would be awarded to Protest the Hero. Instrumental Rock would be 65daysofstatic. Right now I guess my absolute favorite band out of all of these would be Middle Class Rut. They're really awesome and the band only consists of two guys. One of them is on vocals and guitar and the other rocks out on the drums. They've been around for a while and opened for bands like The Receiving End of Sirens (one of my other favorite bands) and Them Crooked Vultures. They just released their first full LP called No Name No Color. It's ridiculously good and I can't stop listening to them. My best friend in Arizona told me about them after he went to a free show they put on and said they were one of the best shows he has ever been to and he's been to a pretty impressive list of shows. So I checked them out and I instantly fell in love with them. So yeah right now I'm going through a Middle Class Rut phase and would call them my favorite band at the moment. Protest the Hero would probably win second place for favorites I guess. They're pretty awesome and they put on awesome live shows. Oh I forgot to mention Between the Buried and Me and Mastodon who are other favorites of mine. I saw them live sometime last year and it was an awesome show.

Journal #15: Logic and Reason

I like logic and stuff. I took a class out at Lincoln Land this summer on logic and the fundamentals of argument. It was pretty interesting and we learned a lot about basic logic and arguing and all that good stuff. The professor was pretty cool too so all in all I liked that class quite a bit. Chess is something that requires logic. It's a game of logic and it's very strategic. That reminds me that I haven't played chess for a few months now. Probably even years. That's a shame cuz I really like chess too. I used to do tournaments and stuff for chess when I was younger and I used to place pretty well in them. I should start that up again and start playing chess and then I will regularly use Logic in my life. Every time I play chess I will think to myself that I am using logic and being a good Samaritan....or maybe just the logic part because I have no clue what being a good Samaritan has to do with playing chess. I mean Russians are really good at chess and everyone knows how evil they are. Freaking Putin plays chess and I mean, despite being pretty awesome at just about everything like being amazing at Judo and killing a freaking whale with a crossbow that man is the root of all evil. Not really actually I have no idea what makes him evil. He could be evil but in all honesty that's just not for me to decide so I'll leave it at chess does not make you a good Samaritan is just requires that you use logic. And there is a supercomputer that is really good at chess so that somehow relates to my story here. That's really all I've got to say on the matter of logic and reason right now and I know that I focused on logic way more than reason but that's the way it's gonna be so you better learn to deal with it....or else.

Common Sense

Thomas Paine was an author, a revolutionary, and a radical. He is known as one of the founding fathers of the United States and his pamphlet Common Sense was well regarded in convincing America to overthrow the tyrannical rule of Great Britain and demand and gain independence as a sovereign nation. His works supported the idea that America should become an independent nation and break off from the British Empire. His role as a revolutionary caused him to write pamphlets and propaganda supporting the Revolutionary cause. Common Sense heavily pushes the revolutionary viewpoint and attempts to persuade the colonists towards sovereignty.

Paine was not a huge fan of the monarchy, and pushes his view many times throughout his pamphlet. He also wasn't a big fan of government but like all wise men knew it was a necessary evil as evidenced 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. (Paine)" This quote demonstrates his distaste for government and although he thinks government is evil he knows a society cannot function without one, and therefore should have the best of the worst to make things more manageable. This is why Paine supports a government by the people and for the people instead of one run by a monarch and his descendants, which he believes to be a very ill form of government. I like Paine's idea that government is a necessary evil and his way of convincing people of this by outlining the fallacy's of monarchy get a strong point across and would have likely invoked much emotion and ill temperament against the crown, demonstrating his skillful approach to propaganda.

Paine's distaste towards the crown is extremely prevalent in this article as evidenced in several quotes such as "Absolute governments (though the disgrace of human nature) have this advantage with them, that they are simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which their suffering springs, know likewise the remedy, and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures. (Paine)" demonstrate his nature of planting ill will in his audience. Paine was a propagandist and his job was to spread hatred of the crown in the colonists to invoke the want of a revolution to dispatch of the Empire and form a new nation. Through his masterful use of language and disgust towards the tyranny of rulers he is able to effectively convey his points and spur the reader into contempt for the crown.

Paine was an extremely efficient propagandist and his writings such as Common Sense were vital to the Revolutionary cause. His papers kept up the moral of the Revolutionaries while opening the eyes of lesser concerned citizens and convincing them of the tyrannical and horrid method the English crown ruled with. Due to his writings the Revolutionaries were able to properly carry out a revolution with the support of the people. His writing style of plain and simple fact was extremely effective in it's simplicity and helped convey his message in his writing.

Works Cited

Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Archiving Early America. Online. 17 Oct. 2010.

Literary Criticisms

When Lemay analyzes Franklin’s autobiography he picks it apart piece by piece and

analyzes every single aspect of the book that he can. He looks at the novel from every aspect

and point of view as possible and does a superb job of analyzing Franklin’s work. Because he

does not take a standard approach to analyzing the book and picks it apart so much is what sets

his criticism aside from others and makes it truly excel in his analysis.

One of the more interesting reasons Lemay gives for the books popularity is as he

says “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.”

This quote evidences the analysis of Lemay’s work. The idea that the book appeals to the

masses due to the disenchantment with the American dream is an interesting one. Usually

people are demanding of something optimistic or a happy ending, but Franklin’s realistic and

cold nature of reality is an appeal to some people and because of this causes his work to be

timeless because we are all at one point disenchanted with our lives.

The aspect of popularizing the American Dream is another interesting aspect of the

literary criticisms Lemay makes. As Lemay says “Franklin is often commonly supposed to

be the progenitor of the Horatio Alger success story of nineteenth-century American popular

literature.” Although Franklin was not the first rags to riches story that everyone had heard he

was well-known and highly revered by the American public and his story coming out around the

same time as the birth of the nation gave Americans something to cling to and make their own.

The analysis of the American Dream due to Franklin’s early timing was a great aspect for Lemay

to use in his criticism of the autobiography.

Another good idea that Lemay uses in his criticism is the analysis of individuality

in Franklin’s autobiography. As Lemay says “The American Dream is a philosophy of

individualism.” This aspect of analysis shows the depth that Franklin created in his accidental

formation of The American Dream. His good timing allowed people to interpret his story as the

ideal dream for American sand his personality and individuality set him apart from people and

made him larger than life person and a hero to most average day people.

The ideas that Lemay presents in his criticism of Franklin’s autobiography show his

analytical depth and his excellent critical thinking skills. His criticism shows his off the wall

thinking method and proofs his excellent knowledge and appreciation for Ben Franklin. Due to

his careful method of picking apart several aspects of the autobiography and carefully analyzing

each one the reader is able to find a new layer of depth and complexity in Franklin’s writing. His

ideas are well thought out and rational and he presents them in a logical and methodical fashion

that allows the reader to easily understand and decipher what he is saying. These skills and his

excellent support for all of his ideas show his great skills as a critic.

Works Cited

Lemay, J.A. Leo. "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." In The 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).

Journal #14: Declaration of Awesome

I am now going to write out the Declaration of Awesome. Now I myself am a pretty awesome guy, ask anybody. This declaration defends my being awesome and proclaims that nobody in the world will ever achieve the same level of awesomeness because mine is exponentially higher than their scores of awesome. Everything I do is awesome. My taste in music is beyond awesome, as is my taste in literature and my taste in film. Really I don't even have to write this declaration because the level of awesome that I am is so high that everybody knows of it. Ask somebody in freaking Tibet about me and they'll know! That's why this declaration isn't even necessary because the world already knows of my level of win. But, due to this being the assignment I guess I kind of have to write this. There are numerous rules to being as awesome as I am and sadly nobody else in the world can even come close to achieving all of these rules and being anywhere near as amazing as I am. In fact you know how humans are made up of like 75% water and stuff? I don't obey that rule instead I'm made of 99% WIN. That's right pure unadulterated WIN is the stuff that I'm made out of. The other one percent is normal H20 but that's beside the point. My awesomeness just can't be contained and due to this I'm the most awesomest person in the world. Yeah, awesomest, you may say that's not an actually word but I say silence mortal my word is law! Some might say I'm narcissistic and egotistical but they're just jealous. They want to be me, but they know they can't so they spread dirty filthy terrible rumors about me to try and bring down my awesomeness and that' s just not gonna happen. I'm too amazing, so sorry but that's how it goes. I am awesome.

Journal #12: Working With A Partner

Comradery! WOOOO. Who doesn't love working with a partner? Me that's who. I really am not a fan of working with other people one important projects or assignments or anything like that. I'm a loner and I just find working by myself to be a lot easier because then I can just plug in my iPod and work at my leisure while relaxin to my music at the same time. That's my take on working with a partner and I can understand why some would want to work with a friend on something but that kind of thing just isn't for me. On something similar to a high priority project some people think working with a partner is good because then you both split the weight 50 50 and it becomes much easier on you as opposed to you taking the entire project on by yourself, but even then if you are paired with somebody lazy then you might be deducted points because their section sucks and yours is good. It's not fair in the same case if you do most of the work and the partner does almost nothing and you both get an A. Also I've found that when working with a partner in class time or something you are a lot less likely to get any work done and instead just talk with them for the majority of the class and end up not getting any work done. Also when working with a partner what usually happens is that you split the worksheet back and front with one person doing each side. Then it ends up that you only learn half of what's on the worksheet and the other person learns their side. That's why in my opinion it is better just working by yourself as opposed to working with a friend or partner because you get a lot more done as a loner and you learn more. That's just my take on things though and I'm sure that some people would disagree with me.

Journal #11: Ethics and Values

Ethics and values are important things to a person. Values are a very important thing to a person's integrity. A person's values tell a lot about that person. The things they value can define and craft their personality. If somebody values their religion then they are most likely a very religious person and are defensive for their beliefs. Good morals are also very important for a person. Morals are good to have and what not and they keep you going down the right path and all of that good stuff I guess. I really have somewhat of a hazy definition of morals and ethics and values and things of that nature so I'm not the best person to write about this stuff but hey whatever. Good morals keep a person straight and down the right path and bad morals will supposedly lead them down the road to sex, drugs, and Satan....or something along those lines at least. I dunno I don't really have a set of morals more just a list or guideline things going on. I guess that's the same thing really but I just don't like the word morals. It's such a righteous term and in all honesty I'm not a very righteous person. I mean I'm good but morals just seems like something for a paragon and I'm definitely NOT a paragon. I mean I'm by no means like a Pariah or anything but morals just seems all morally uncorruptable to me. That's just me though and I'm pretty weird with stuff like that. I dunno I just don't like morals. Strict or loose guidelines just seems like a better term for a guy like me. That's just my take on the whole situation however and like I said I'm kind of weird when it comes to stuff like this. Maybe I'm just over Analyzing the whole issue and I should just use the term morals more loosely but for now I'll just stick with my guidelines if it pleased the judges and that'll be that. The paragons can keep their morals.