Poetry Glossary 3/3

Addie Ramonda
Per. 3

My First Morning in New York City

by Rich Accetta-Evans

The sleeping-bag was soft on the bare wood floor

And I might have slept for an hour more

But I was wakened by a flashing light

From the silvery bellies of pigeons in flight

Who turned and turned and turned in the sky

And looked so pretty it made me cry.

Title: I think the author is going to describe his first night in NYC

Paraphrase: This poem is pretty straight forward it is describing the authors first night in NYC in a few simple sentences but allows you to create an image. 

Connotation: Rhyme: the author uses rhyme in order to create a catchy poem. Imagery: by describing the color of the pigeons it creates an image in the readers head allowing them to go to where the author is describing. 

Tone: The tone is reflective. The author is looking back and describing a night that is obviously important to him

Shift: There isn't really a shift in this poem, for the most part it is just describing a scene. 

Theme: The author is describing an important night, being reflective. 

Poetry Glossary for 2/24

Addie Ramonda

Guilt- Rich Evans 

Right now, your guilt is heavy fruit,

Growing on your branches, bearing them down.

Your springy sapling strength is overcome.

You cannot keep your longest limbs

From bending with the weight.

They will brush their leafy ends

Against the the ground.

But do not ask too soon to be relieved of guilt.

If picked when green, this heavy fruit

Is hard , sterile and sour.

Let it grow til its season comes.

Let it ripen, sweeten, soften.

Then it will loosen its grip.

And drop of itself to the waiting earth,

Carrying seeds of a new resolve.

Title: I think this poem is going to describe the feeling of guilt

Paraphrase: In the first stanza the author is comparing the feeling of guilt to fruit growing on a branch and weighing it down. The author is describing the feeling that you feel when you are guilty. In the second stanza I believe the author is saying don't be too eager to get rid of your guilt. Wait until the right time to confess. 

Connotation: Allusion: By comparing guilt to fruit it creates an allusion of the Bible when Eve eats the apple from the apple tree. Metaphor: Comparing guilt to fruit the author is using a metaphor. Personification: The author gives human-like qualities to the fruit as well as guilt in line 13. 

Tone: The tone is informing. The author is describing the feeling of guilt in the first stanza, informing us what it is like. In the second stanza the author is informing us on what to do with that guilt. 

Shift: The main shift comes from the first stanza to the second stanza. The author goes from discussing the feeling of guilt to telling us what to do and not do when we feel guilty. 

Sonnet #4

SONNET 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st; 
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 



Title: I think it's just referring to how many he had written. The title doesn't say that much. 
Paraphrase: Shakespeare begins by comparing "thee" to a  summers day, he then goes on to say how summer isn't that great and I get the sense that he's trying to say all beauty fades eventually. The author is saying how the "prime" years aren't going to last forever. In the end Shakespeare is saying how as long as humans exist his poem will still be accurate. 
Connotation: Personification is used in line 4 when the author is talking about summer and winter as if they were real people. He's hinting that summer is a temporary thing whereas winter is more permanent. Summer is used as a metaphor to describe his"beloved" it helps  the reader relate by using something so common as summer to describe his point. In line 1 Shakespeare uses a rhetorical question to get the reader thinking. 
Tone: The tone of the poem is arrogance. The speaker is acting as if he has the upper hand, as if he's informing us of something that we don't already know
Shift: The poem shifts when the speaker starts talking about how summer actually isn't that great. It makes the reader stop because we thought the speaker  was just saying how great summer is. 

blog #3

I don't think that you can ever get life "right." That's why the movie Groundhogs Day isn't real. Mistakes are what make us who we are. We can chose to be bitter from the mistakes we've made or chose to grow and learn from them. If we always knew we had a second chance we would take it for granite eventually. It would be nice to have a second chance for a few things that are really important to you. For example if someone died and you didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Things like that stick with you forever and shape you into the kind of person that you are. I think if the universe was to have me re-do a day until I got it right it would be prom day junior year. I don't think it would take me as many tries to get it right as it did for Bill Murray. Not being able to have a second chance makes you fully appreciate a moment and try your hardest to get it right the first time.

Poetry analysis #3

Ballad of Birmingham

BY DUDLEY RANDALL

“Mother dear, may I go downtown

Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Other children will go with me,

And march the streets of Birmingham

To make our country free.”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For I fear those guns will fire.

But you may go to church instead

And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,

And bathed rose petal sweet,

And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,

And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child

Was in the sacred place,

But that smile was the last smile

To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,

Her eyes grew wet and wild.

She raced through the streets of Birmingham

Calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,

Then lifted out a shoe.

“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,

But, baby, where are you?”

Title: I think that the poem will have something to do with a day in Birmingham Alabama.

Paraphrase: In the first few stanzas a child is asking if he can go outside and celebrate with other children and his mother replies in the next stanza saying no that she would rather him just stay inside or go somewhere safe like church. In the next stanzas the mood shifts when the mother hears an explosion and she suddenly becomes frightened. In the last stanzas it is the mother looking for her child through the ruins of the explosion

Connotation: “But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Other children will go with me," Is rhyme it helps the poem roll off the tongue and it's easier for the reader to read. 

"Her eyes grew wet and wild" is imagery, you can image the way this woman looked when she heard the explosion and it makes it more real for the reader.

Attitude/Tone: In the beginning the tone is playful, just a conversation between a mother and her son. But towards the end it shifts to fearful when the mother hears the explosion and then sadness when she is looking for her son.

Shift: The last two stanzas shift the poem. It goes from playful to worrying and then to sadness. This shift makes the poem more serious and gets the meaning through.

Theme: The time that this poem is about was when racism was really popular in the South and bombings like this were very common. 

Poetry analysis #2

Addie Ramonda

Per. 3

AP Lit

Across the BayBy Donald Davie

A queer thing about those waters: there are no

Birds there, or hardly any.

I did not miss them, I do not remember

Missing them, or thinking it uncanny.

The beach so-called was a blinding splinter of limestone,

A quarry outraged by hulls.

We took pleasure in that: the emptiness, the hardness

Of the light, the silence, and the water’s stillness.

But this was the setting for one of our murderous scenes.

This hurt, and goes on hurting:

The venomous soft jelly, the undersides.

We could stand the world if it were hard all over.

Title: I think that given from the title this poem will be about the water. It will probably have to do with a view by the ocean or some body of water. 

Paraphrase: I think that Donald Davie is describing a murderous scene. When reading the second stanza it is an allusion of death when he talks about the "silence and stillness." He talks about the scene being so great but then "hurting" because he is reminded it is a murderous scene. Using a metaphor about jelly fish by saying they look soft and not harmful but when you touch them they sting. 

Connotation: Allusions to death are made when he talks of the "silence and stillness." A metaphor is used when talking about the jelly fish and how they don't look harmful they when you touch them they are, just like the scene seems peaceful until you realize what goes on there. "For one of our murderous scenes" is apostrophe, referring to something as though it is human, it makes it seem more real and important. The poem is extremely detailed I think he does this in order to help the reader create the scene and feel as though they are there as well. The theme of the poem is that we can enjoy things to a certain extent and how something may seem so perfect but actually have an awful secret. The title does represent the setting in this poem . There's a shift in the last stanza breaking you from this beautiful view and back to reality when he starts talking about a murderous scene. 

Unreliable Narrator blog post #2

Addie Ramonda
Per. 3

Caroline. She's the love of my life, her golden blonde hair and light complexion is almost impossible to resist. I've been around for millions of years and have yet to come across anyone like her. She will never be with me though. I killed so many people that she loves and ruined the life of her boyfriend Tyler. He's a werewolf though, come on Caroline. Caroline deserves someone much more interesting for example a hybrid, like me. I only do these evil things because I'm troubled. My feeling were shut off, I didn't have a conscious. Of course since Caroline I have begun to feel again but I have to keep up my evil reputation or else I won't be respected. I'm an original, I've seen things and over the years they have gotten to me. There is no other way to be than bitter. And when you come so close to breaking the curse only to be fooled out of it, that would leave anyone in an awful mood. See if I had it my way I would break the curse and no longer be a vampire. I could have real human emotions, live a normal life, settle down maybe, have a few kids. But this is nearly impossible now since my only plan seemed to have been ruined. But any ways back to Caroline. She's stubborn, so stubborn that it frustrates me to the core. Everyday I reply the things she says and try to figure out what is going on in that brain of hers, but I can't. She's independent too. Always trying to figure things out for herself and doesn't like others help. Horses, she loves horses. I know this because once when she was dying and I saved her life she mumbled it to me that she loves them. I painted her a picture of a beautiful horse, and I swear I almost had her but then she snapped out of it and realized who had given it to her. I guess I will have to get used to watching her from a distance.
-Klaus (Vampire Diaries)