Thanatopsis- Reflecion

I read the poem Thanatopsis by William Bryant Cullen.  I have many thoughts on this poem.  There was one passage that I particularly liked that I will used to start off my reflection.

"She has a voice of gladness, and a smile

And eloquence of beauty, and she glides

Into his darker musings, with a mild

And healing sympathy..." (Cullen).

I chose this passage to start off my reflection for many reasons.  I liked it because of the description.  I always like when boys describe girls and make them sound so wonderful and beautiful.  When I read this piece of the poem Thanatopsis, it makes me think of a girl who is not only beautiful looking, but also had a beautiful soul.  A "healing sympathy" makes me believe that the woman being described in this poem is a very good person.  If someone were to have a "healing sympathy," I think that they would be a person who would be very generous with their time and emotions to help out others who are having problems.  She is most likely selfless, and is legitimately more worried about the well being of others than the well being of herself.  After reading the passage I have selected over again, I also picture this particular woman to be kind, but also mysterious.  Almost like her kindness givers her some sort of power.  She is obviously a strong human being, and is most likely admired by many.  I just really appreciate when male writers take the time to recognize the beauty, strength, and mystery of woman, and do so in a way that is very flattering to all who read it.  I absolutely love being a female.

There is another part of the poem Thanatopsis by William Bryant Cullen that I also very much liked and found it to be pretty interesting:

"Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature's teachings, while from all around--

Earth and her waters, and the depths of air--

Comes a still voice..." (Cullen).

I think I liked this part of the poem because of the way it is talking about nature.  Nature is obviously the purest form of the planet earth.  I feel like with new technology and our need for expansion, manufacturing products, and so on, people forget about what nature is really all about.  In all honesty, this section of the poem reminded me of Pocahontas.  Maybe that is why I like it so much...but seriously.  Pocahontas always talked about how important it was to connect with the earth and understand how much it really means.  This part of the poem is pretty much saying the same thing.  It is telling you to go out into the heart of nature, and soak in the experience.  There is so much that people, in any generation, can learn from pure nature. It is untouched, and for that it is beautiful.  William Bryant Cullen is telling the reader that nature has its own voice, and if you listen carefully enough, you can hear what it has to say.

"Thanatopsis, by William Cullen Bryant." Poetry Archive | Poems. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/thanatopsis.html.

Journal #19- nature and spirituality

I think that nature and spirituality are very important in the cycle of life and death.  I feel like your spirituality has a lot to do with your death, because what you believe in and what your spirituality is decides what happens to you if you die.  Some people believe that when you die, you go to Heaven or Hell.  Other people believethat when you die, you are reincarnated into something else.  Depending on how you lived your life, you will either be reincarnated to something better and nice or something gross and bad.  I hardly even know how this has anything to do with the topic of this journal.  In my opinion, I think that everyone should have a relationship with nature.  Is using the word relationship and nature in the same sentence weird?  Who even cares.  I really do not even know what this journal is supposed to be about because I literally just did a journal exactly like it.  So to take up words, I am just going to rant about an idea that I may or may not agree with.  I can not even think right now.  I think that nature is important because it teaches people what the world is like without human influence, and without the interference in human life.  How many words has this taken up?  Human life and all of the things that we have created have basically destroyed nature.  The amazon rain forest gets smaller and smaller every year because of our selfish need for paper.  Save the planet!!  Recycle or something!!  Make the world a better place!  I feel like I belong in the 1960's or something.  I would have so been one of those radical teenagers.  I was born in the wrong century.  I already listen to the Beatles and Grateful Dead and everything.  Why did I have to be born in this age where all we care about are material things and making our world more comfortable?  Give peace a chance, everyone. <3

Fireside poet- reflection

For my fireside poet, I chose to read a poem by William Cullen Bryant.  I did not choose him for any specific reason.  The poem that I read is titled A Dream  by William Cullen Bryant.  In this poem, William Cullen Bryant talks about a dream that someone had. In this dream, nature plays the biggest role.  Along with nature comes with growing old, which also plays a role in the poem, but not as great as nature in general.  I guess they can both be considered parts of nature.  Either way, the dream is about life.  The dreamer describes the dream as sunny, warm, and beautiful in the summer.  Everything was happy, colorful, and buzzing of life.  One particular part of the poem, I found especially nice.

"Fast climbed the sun: the flowers were flown,
There played no children in the glen;
For some were gone, and some were grown
To blooming dames and bearded men." (PoemHunter).

I think I liked this passage because of the description.  I picture lovely ladies in old fashion, pretty dresses and classy looking men in old fashion, business-casual suits.  Pretty much, I get a scene from the movie Gone With the Wind in my head.  I also liked how nature is described in this passage.  I am an individual who really enjoys and appreciates the outdoors, so the vision of the warm, shining sun and a meadow of flowers added to the detailed description.

If I were to compare a fireside poet like William Cullen Bryant and his writing style to the style of a Puritan, I would argue that they are very different.  The Puritan style of writing was pretty much solely based on God and religion.  As you can read from at least ten of my other blogs from this class, I have done a lot of work on the Puritan's and their form of writing.  The Puritan writers are known for including their religion and how God was relative in their lives.  God and religion were always the main focus of the entire written piece.  On the contrary, the fireside writers were different.  They were from the Romanticism period.  During the Romanticism period, their focus was more on intuition, emotion, and based on feeling.  Nature was included in this because it is pure and not man made.  Obviously, the example from A Dream by William Cullen Bryant shows that perfectly.  The fireside writers did not include religion because it was not as important to them.  The Puritans thought that God controlled every single thing that happened in their lives, and they were either destined to go to Heaven or destined to go to Hell.  The people of the Romanticism period were not as worried about it as the Puritans.  They believed in having faith, but it was a much more open faith.  The people during the Romanticism period basically sat back and enjoyed life for what it was.  This included the good and the bad, which is reflected in many fireside poet's poems.  They did not have the rules and regulations like the Puritans did.

PoemHunter.com. N.p., 5 Apr. 2010. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://poemhunter.com/poem/ 

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Journal #18- autumn

In my opinion, the perfect autumn day includes many things.  Each of the things that make a perfect autumn day can be related to all five of the sense.  A perfect autumn day would have plenty of sunshine.  The sun would warm you up just enough so that the crisp, chilly wind does not make you shivery cold.  The leaves have turned colors.  They are to the point where they are colors such as red, orange, and yellow, but not quite to where they are brown and falling off the trees.  I think that the changing leaves on the trees is the most beautiful part of this season.  On the perfect autumn day, I picture going to some sort of outdoor festival.  Last year, and in years before, I went to the outdoor art festival.  It was perfect because the weather was gorgeous, and they were serving things like hot chocolate and pumpkin pie.  When I think of autumn, I also think of the tastes.  This would include things like caramel apples, pumpkin pie, hot apple cider, and hot chocolate.  Those are the main staples of this season, but other foods could include turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, and anything else that you would normally eat on the holiday of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is coming up!!  Only a few more days until my favorite time of the year!!  Autumn brings Thanksgiving, which in turn brings family together.  I love this time of year because I get to see members of my family that I do not see very often.  I love autumn!

Journal #17- nature

At time when I was bonding with nature?  That is pretty much my entire childhood.  I was such a tomboy back then!  I used to spend all of my time outside, and I would always wish I could be like Pocahontas and run around without shoes on and not step on anything or hurt my feet.  I was also a huge fan of anything that had to do with history.  I remember when I was very little, we lived in Carlinville, Illinois.  Our house had a very big front yard and we lived out in the country.  There was a very big tree in the very front and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever.  It was absolutely huge and there was a little space at the bottom of the tree where my little self could fit.  I called it my Secret Tree.....I was also very weird.  I do not remember a specific time where I bonded with nature, but if we can include pets and animals under the nature category then I guess I will just talk about that.  I sound really dumb for separating my words, but I just want to take up as much words as I possibly can.  I have always loved animals.  It does not matter what kind, any animal has a place in my heart.  I am such a sap sometimes.  When I was five years old, we got our first Great Dane.  We grew up together, and I can honestly say I will never have another dog (or friend...awww) that I will love as much as I loved Elke.  I miss you, old girl.

Journal #16

There are several possible tools that we, as a class, to communicate with our Franklin virtues project partners from other Pleasant Plains High School english students and the Farmington high school student.  Is this journal not the exact same as the one we just did last class?  Oh well, I guess I will just say the exact same things as I did two days ago because no one is here to explain what we are supposed to do.  One way to communicate for this Benjamin Franklin virtues project is Twitter.  I think that this will probably get used the most because when we did the video chat with the students from Farmington High School, they told us that the students in their school use Twitter a lot.  I also have a Twitter (aslifer18, follow me!!), so this will probably be the option that my group and I will use the most.  Another option of communication for this project could be messaging through Facebook.  I do not have a Facebook anymore because I deleted it, but I am sure that other students in different group will use it.  I doubt that they will write on each others walls because everyone can see it.  The email messaging on Facebook is more personal, and you have the option to send it to more people.  I think that this will be a very popular form of communication.  I feel like I am repeating everything I said last class and it is making me kind of mad.  The third option of communication for this Franklin Virtue project would be the use of cell phones.  There are many ways that you can use a cell phone to communicate with people.  One way is texting.  I gave out my number to these people I hardly know, even though last blog I went on a rant about how I probably did not want them to have my number forever.  Well, I forgot that I said that I guess because I just sent it in an email.  Who even cares.

Journal #15- overcoming challenge

I think there are many ways that I, as well as the other students in the English classes from both Pleasant Plains and Farmington High School, can overcome the challenges of working with a partner who is not from the same area as us.  In my opinion, social networking is probably the biggest thing that can be used.  Things like Facebook and Twitter will be a big help in several ways.  There are ways you can message people via these sites, which is personal and an easy way to get a hold of someone.  You can either right on someones wall on Facebook, or just message them.  On Twitter, a person can be tweeted or messaged, similar to an email.  These online social networking sites are also helpful because it is very easy to transport and exchange online information.  In this class, we do a lot of online stuff.  It is pretty much one hundred percent online...even though we are not getting an internet credit, and it is extremely inconvenient sometimes.  Links can be easily accessed through Facebook, Twitter, and basic email.  Another way to keep in touch with the people from different areas that we are working with is texting.  This is not as easy with a group project because texting is strictly from one person to another person, but it is still very easy to use.  I think that I will mostly be using Twitter and emailing.  I do not really want these people to have my phone number after this project is finished.  I would used Facebook, but I deleted it because of too much drama and I never got on.  I am not about to reactivate it just for some project.  I think that if I get people in my group who are actually willing to work and will not slack off and make me do all the work, this can be very fun.  Someone just said something about calling the people in our group...no thanks.  I am not about to talk to strangers on the phone; that would be the most awkward thing on the planet.  I think I will just stick to what I know: texting and Twitter.

Reflection- Tuckerman

 In The Character of Franklin, written by Henry T. Tuckerman, he states in the second paragraph that Benjamin Franklin's character was definitely more on the practical side (Tuckerman).  I would say that I agree with this for many reasons.  Based on The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and what I was forced to read in this English class, Benjamin Franklin had a thought process that did not include much emotion, personal opinions, and religious beliefs.  He focused only on the real facts, and did not muddle the facts with what he thought, whether he agreed or disagreed. 














Bloom, Harold, ed. "The Character of Franklin." Benjamin Franklin, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVBF019&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 3, 2011).