Stuck on Sestinas

I decided to attempt my own sestina and I included this graphic to show the line pattern you must follow in each stanza (the roman numerals are the stanzas and the numbers are the end words). It was tricky to write in the exact form, but also sort of fun to try.

High School Sestina

First day starts,

and our hearts race.

Young, open eyes

observe their habits.

Freshmen feel lost,

as Seniors break free.

Everyone feels free,

as second semester starts.

Uncertainity is lost,

we enter the race.

Routines form habits,

as knowledge opens eyes.

Using new eyes,

we visualize ourselves free.

No freshman habits

plague our fresh starts.

Continuing to race

forward, worries are lost.

Two years lost,

but futures grab eyes.

Juniors now race,

yearning to break free.

College search starts,

time steals old habits.

Accepting new habits,

we avoid feeling lost.

Saying goodbye starts

fear in our eyes.

Trapped and free,

almost leaving the race.

A fair race?

Just made these habits.

Content being free?

Still finding the lost.

Seniors close eyes,

imagining our new starts.

Very close to free from the race,

Everyone starts to anticipate new habits.

Ready to feel lost again with open eyes.

Pasting My Poetry Perceptions

Shakespeare

After doing some research of Elizabeth Bishop for our paper this weekend, I began to think about poetry and contemporary poets, and for some reason the idea of a current individual being a poet for their career baffles me. I do not feel this way because I think poetry is by any means a waste of time or a superfluous profession, it just is a strange thought to imagine someone in their house simply “being a poet”. I know this depicts a stereotype, and I am positive poets have other hobbies, interact with people, and do not stay cooped up in their house writing all day everyday. Still though, embodying a poet back in Shakespeare’s day seemed quite normal, but now a common response to someone claiming “I’m a poet” for their job might elicit a response of, “well yea, but what do you do to make money?”. This saddens me as I reflect on how I too think of this question when imagining someone simply writing poetry as their career. I suppose that like any career that follows a creative passion, the risk of never becoming discovered or making a profit presents itself.  I think it is completely amazing that people still take this creative art seriously enough to dedicate their life to it, and thinking of contemporary poets actually felt oddly refreshing.  When reflecting on how many times adults ask children in our culture, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”, it becomes evident that the normal responses usually consist of; “fireman”, “policeman”, “astronaut”, “superstar”, and usually not “poet.” Even when asking young adults, “what do you plan to pursue in the future?”, I think a safe number or students choose broad topics like; “science”, “math”, “teaching” or “engineering”, as opposed to “poetry”. Even if poetry depicts their passion, they may say “English” instead to make it sound more open with possibilities. When assessing this, it seems completely ridiculous to me that our culture almost frowns on this profession, because poetry actually plays a huge role in our lives. Other than giving English classes plenty of material to analyze and discuss, poetry also appears…

1. in lyrics and a part of every song we have ever listened to.

2. in many childhood books, songs, and nursery rhymes that stick with us throughout life. 

3. in almost every slogan or jingle that we hear incessantly repeated on television, the radio, billboards,  and everywhere else.

4. in many of our everyday reflections or conversations about life, problems or perspectives.

This contemplation of poetry has helped me to diminish my own misconceptions of contemporary poets and I think everyone should try to appreciate and understand poetry’s influence on our lives. 

How Blogs Fix Sticky Situations in AP English

A feeding frenzy of AP English students begins as the discussion starts and we all almost literally envision the points out in the big, open room and all try to grab them at once. Everyone knows the feeling of a new topic shooting out into the circle and taking over just as you think of a really great point for the last one. Unfortuanetly, the moment passes and now your argument has little or no relevance to the conversation, and our determination not to embody “the one” (who simply says random quotes just for a grade) takes over, and we must sit back and accept our defeat. Everyone also knows the feeling of sitting up straighter in your chair and getting a little nervous as you decide to enter the main ring of feeders because a great idea pops into your head that simply must be heard. Basically, a continual overlap of interruptions from eager over-achievers became of the graded discussions that used to define our English lives.
Then the blog project came along. 

Your own personal page created so that every idea that missed that crucial moment of relevance in discussion can finally come forward and become heard. Every angry, disagreeing thought that you may feel too shy to say in class (because Henry will then disagree with you of course) can finally become explained. Every creative tie from your life to English class can finally become expressed in an interesting way without judgment.

I think that this changed us. 

A group of AP English students begin a class discussion and as the discussion starts, they all choose to ignore the points they envision in the middle of the big, open room and instead decide to share them and take turns speaking. The occasional moment of thinking of a great idea that then becomes rendered irrelevant by a topic shift easily passes with the reassuring thought; “I can just blog about it”. The students still sit up straight in their chairs as a heated point arises, but this time the student who runs out of time to say their opinion or feels too much a minority on the topic, easily shrugs it off with another, “I can just blog about it”. The discussions still seem intelligent and passionate, just simply more relaxed and laid back as everyone depicts more mature and calm AP English Students.

Thanks blogs.

 I found this funny cartoon online and decided to share it because it humorously shows the opportunities blogging has opened up for us. Also, I became really excited when I realized we basically are only one step away from becoming famous bloggers! Yes.  So even if you do not believe that we have changed as a result of the blog project...at least we have that going for us. 

Stuck on Blogs

 After taking the survey in class on Friday on our opinion of the blog project and whether we want it to stay next semester, I decided to dedicate my post to why I think it should continue and how I have concluded that even though we may complain at times, I believe that we all have our own certain obsession with the blogs. Some people depict “fish feeders”-the people that go to every blog and feed those really fun interactive fish that almost everyone has somewhere on their page. Others embody “poll-takers”-the people that choose to ignore the fish but browse every blog to give their opinion on randomly polled topics. Some probably depict “creepers”-those who read and observe many blogs, but choose to ignore all polls, fish or anything else letting anyone know they ever looked. I am sure we have a considerable number of “Bobbie’s Blog Banter lovers”-people who strive to become a regular on the show so they always go home and read the entries Ms. Serensky mentions in class to learn from the professionals. Others may depict the “self-centered bloggers”-those who only look at other blogs when required for the weekly comments, and use the majority of their time obsessing over adding excessive images, gadgets and polls to their own blog. Lastly, and I can safely say I show this certain form of blog obsession, depicts the “page view number-lovers”. I am not a very competitive person by nature, but for some reason I absolutely love the excited feeling I get when I see the number of page views my blog has received. It would be a lie to say that I do not occasionally browse the other blogs and see how my page views compare to some of the other counts on people’s pages. For example, today as I logged onto my blog to begin deciding on information for the final exam, I got a little too excited when I saw my number of page views corner read “401”. Not by any means does this depict the highest that I have seen, but still I am pretty proud that I have managed to break into the four hundreds. So, no matter which specific obsession you may feel, I think we all can safely agree that as we near the end of our blogging relationship on our second to last blog of the semester, we all may miss some obsession if the blog project stops.

Eyes Glued to "Shutter Island"

So…I love Shutter Island. With the same star (I can sympathize with Serensky’s obsession with him) and similar feeling throughout as Inception, what can you possibly not like?

I have been excited since we first got the new calendar for this week of watching the movie in class because I could not wait for other people to see it and get excited and creeped out like I did in my first viewing. While watching the movie throughout this week for my second time, I loved it just as much as the first, and this time I found myself noticing many extra details and hints to the twist that I already knew was coming. I had a really great time seeing these sneaky details and wrote them down during class (as I also did productive notes of course) and decided to share them now. So if you did not really like the movie and do not feeling like hearing more about it, this probably is not the blog post for you. 

-I found that the guards, doctors, and all island personnel exchanged many umcomfortable glances at eachother throughout the movie that on the first time around we interpret as conspiracy related, but the second time around it become obvious they all feel uncomfortable because of the charade put on for Andrew. For example, when he throws the light house guard to the ground his “are you going to kill me?” seems extremely calm until we realize there are not bullets in the gun.

-I noticed some of the camera tricks the director used to hint at the unrealistic, dillusianal “reality” shown in the majority of the movie. For example, when Andrew interviews one of the patients, she takes a drink from a glass of water, but as the scene quickly cuts to her lifting the glass to her lips, it’s not actually there! Her hand is empty, and this just blew my mind and I think that it depicts the director’s way of hinting at the insane "reality" Andrew imagines and the audience gets pulled into.

-I finally understood the reason the creepy, old lady in the garden says “shh” to him as he walks by when first arriving on Shutter Island. On my first viewing I shrugged her off as just another scary insane lady, but at the end the doctor reveals that everyone on the entire island played along with his charade, (including the patients) and it become evident that this woman simply is not doing a very good job of keeping the secret and playing along.

-I noticed the characters that function in Andrew’s imagined reality and how they actually fit into his life at the asylum. The movie obviously gives away that Chuck depicts his psychiatrist, but also I saw this time around that the woman whom he sees as the "fake" Rachel Solando (the one in her room-not the cave) is the nurse leaning over his bed as he wakes up at the end and tells the doctor and policeman his real life! I thought this displayed an interesting detail showing how his psychotic fantasy world formed.

-I noticed the reoccurence of water throughout the film as a symbol of his fear of the truth of his wife drowning their children and how it haunts him. Water becomes used through the repetition of “why are you all wet baby?”, the imagined horrible thunderstorm, the start of the movie as him having sea-sickness on the ferry, and the appearance of water in almost all of his “walking nightmares”.

I really enjoyed understanding and noticing these details because it made me appreciate how the director masterfully created this film to force the audience into Andrew’s shoes so then the jolt of everything shattering as we realize his psychosis truly affects us. This brilliant movie was a wonderful choice to watch in class because of its obvious relevance to the book and also its abundance of interesting aspects and details as a film.

AP English Stuck Into Bananagrams Addiction

    “Bananagrams! Catch. Pot. Baggage. Aiming. Lobotomy. Is. An. Queen. Riff.” I excitedly proclaimed to my brother, mom and dad as they all examined my board to make sure that it looked legitimate enough before we all shoved our tiles to the center again and started another round.

    My family received this game called Bananagrams on Christmas from Santa Claus. Bananagrams basically embodies a new and improved version of scrabble where every player gets a certain number of tiles and races against the other players to form words and make their own personal scrabble board using all the tiles. Since we first opened the gift on Christmas morning, I can pretty safely say that my family has played a slightly unhealthy amount of this extremely addicting game. I do not know if it is the endless possibilities of words, race against the other players or something else that makes my family love this game so much…but regardless of the reasons, our addiction continues to grow and interfere with work and activities that should actually happen (kind of like data sheeting).

    So here is where AP English ties in. With two smart, avid readers for parents, and an English major for a brother, I am at a slight disadvantage because of my age and other various factors when playing vocabulary based family games. My family used to always play scrabble and until recently, I am not embarrassed to admit, that I basically lost almost every time.  But now I am excited and happy to say that I actually can hold my own in Bananagrams and even win a handful of times, which I think I have to directly thank AP English for. As I showed in my example at the beginning, I even found myself using “lobotomy” in one of my boards, which displays just one instance where my expanded vocabulary came in handy. So even though I may not have the opportunity to throw some of my AP English terms and words into everyday conversation…at least I can play a mean game of Bananagrams with them. If that does not show AP English functioning in the real world, then I do not know what will.