No Man is an Island

     In Meditation 17, John Donne writes that "no man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main"  I can really connect with this essay as I entirely agree that no person is entirely alone in life and that if something happens to one person, it effects everyone else, as well.  I have been fortunate enough in my life to have been blessed with very close friends and the people I work with have become a family to me.  I am thankful to have them all as I would not be able to be an island; I definitely need to be part of the continent.

Until Death Take Me

     In Holy Sonnet 6, John Donne is talking to Death and mocking it.  He says that "death shall be no more; Death thou shalt die" which is a paradox as death cannot die, and yet if you go to Heaven where there is no death, then death is gone and has died, so death shall die.  This passage really boggles my mind, and yet, at the same time, I understand it.  It's reassuring, in a sense, that after we die, we won't have to worry or even think about Death anymore for there will be no more Death.  "And soonest our best men with thee do go, rest of their bones, and soul's delivery" is the passage I find the saddest of the sonnet in which it speaks of the best people usually dying first.  I find this so true, and so sad, as it is often young, good people who fall prey to Death's friend, Sickness, such as cancer.  My grandmother on my father's side passed away from lung and breast cancer when I was just four-years-old; she was far too young to die.  One of my childhood friends died of cancer a couple years ago when she was just a young teenager.  I had fallen out of touch with her, but she was always so nice and was too young to have been taken by Death.

Carpe Diem

Just like in To The Virgins by Robert Herrick, I want to seize the day and make the most of the time I have on Earth.  I have already gone to Italy and Greece, as shown in the picture above of my best friend and I in Santorini, but visiting Scotland, Ireland, the Ukraine, and Poland are also on my bucket list.  As well as touring those countries from my heritage, I would like to foster and train a guide dog puppy to one day serve a visually-impaired person.  I would also like to get married somewhere tropical, such as this little vacation resort in the Maldives on right.  While at Candy Striping one day a few weeks ago, I saw this calendar with this beautiful picture on it and my dream to be married somewhere tropical with a pier and a short, flowing dress on, became even more real.  I want to be married somewhere with a pier so my new husband and I can jump off the end into the warm water just as the sun is setting.  Although all of my dreams may not be possible, I hope to one day be able to say I have accomplished them.

Make Much of Time

Robert Herrick was a cavalier poet who wrote To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, with the main theme being carpe diem, or seize the day.  "Use your time; and while ye may, go marry" are lines from this poem meaning that you should take advantage of opportunites while you can, or they will be gone.  While at the fair, I went on a majority of the rides, but refused to go on the zipper.  Then a couple of my friends were going on it just after my boyfriend and his friend went on it, and so I gathered my courage, telling myself I wouldn't get another chance to go on the ride for probably another year or two, and I went on it the next time around with my boyfriend and then two of my girl friends in another cage.  I screamed for the majority of the ride and may have cried a little bit the few times I actually opened my eyes, but, afterwards, even though I will probably never go on that ride again, I was glad I summed up enough nerve to seize the opportunity of going on the zipper with mny friends....YOLO as some would say!

The Nymph's Blog

Sir Walter Raleigh's anti-pastoral poem, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd, is about a woman rejecting the promises of a man.  The speaker is being realistic about flowers fading, winter coming, feelings changing.  She says "But could youth last, and love still breed, / Had joys no date, nor age no need, / Then these delights my mind might move / To live with thee and be they love" meaning that youth doesn't last forever and times people and people change, but if there was no such thing as aging and there was no end to joyful youth, then they could be together, but, since people change with age, the pair just can't be together.  This poem is kind of like reality television, such as when on The Bachelor, Emily, whose first husband died in a plane accident, was chosen in the end to marry a man, but then things didn't work out and so she is now currently on The Bachelorette, trying to find love again.

The Passionate Blog

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe depicts the promises of a man to the woman he loves, and is an ideal, fantasy idea of a relationship.  This connects to many Disney movies, such as Cinderella, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, Lady and the Tramp, and many others, for they are pastoral and idealistic, just like this poem.

Sonnet 130

Sonnet 130, by Shakespeare, is an "anti-petrarchan" poem, meaning it is not about the ideal but rather about a real woman and how the speaker loves her anyways.  Our gradnap day reminded me of this poem as the guys were truly scary-looking women, for "if hair be wires, black wires grow on [their] head[s]" and "music hath a far more pleasing sound" than their voices when they tried to be feminine.

Sonnet 116

    Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

It is the start to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

     Sonnet 116 is about how true love is constant.  This passage from Sonnet 116 refers to how love is fixed like the North Star.  It also tells how it is the star to every wandering bark, or ship, meaning that love guides you when you don't know where to go.  And, lastly, it tells that you can never measure true love's worth, for it does not have a price.

Sonnet 29

     This is the lark which represents the volta in Sonnet 29.  At the start, the speaker is wallowing in his misery and he believes that life sucks, but then he thinks about the person he loves and his perspective rises like a bird, for he wouldn't trade places with a king, as he realizes his life isn't that awful after all.

Whoso List to Hunt

    In Whoso List to Hunt, the poet, Thomas Wyatt, is in love with a woman, Anne Boleyn, who he chases like a deer on the hunt.  But he cannot have the woman, for she belongs to Henry VIII.

Renaissance Artists

     The Renaissance, which means "rebirth", began in Italy, just like where these masks came from.  The five main Renaissance artists and poets were Michaelengelo, Petrarch, Leonaro, Donatello, and Raphael.

Medieval Romance

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the best of the English medieval romances, and Harry Potter could also be considered a romance.  In medieval romances there is a love interest, which exists in J.K. Rowling's series in the form of Cho Chang and then Ginny Weasley and some possible other girls, just like Sir Gawain has the lady of the castle as his love temptation.  Harry Potter involves supernatural elements, such as magic, dragons, witches and wizards, and other mythical and magical beasts and beings, just like in Sir Gawain there is a magic green belt.  Harry Potter always opens at a feast, in true medieval romance fashion, in the Great Hall, and the series involves many challenge throughout young Harry's years, such as the Triwizard Tournament, and, the obvious, challenging, and finally defeating, Lord Voldemort.

Sir Gawain's Cowardliness

          Sir Gawain sets out to meet his fate, wearing the magic green belt.  He meets the Green Knight who wields a powerful axe, and, just as the Green Knight swings to chop off Sir Gawain's head, he flinches, exposing his cowardliness.

Sir Gawain's Girdle

     In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the host's lady persuades him to accept a love token, a magic green girdle that will protect the wearer from any harm.

Everyday We Pilgrimage

     The characters of the Canterbury Tales converge at the Tabard Inn before they set out on their pilgrimage.  From left to right: The Monk, with his fine horses and hunting dogs; the Squire, son of the Knight, so obssessed and passionate that he can't sleep; the Wife of Bath, dressed in all red; the Nun, with her small dogs; and the Knight, the Squire's father, on his horse.

Bonny Barbara Allan

 

In Bonny Barbara Allan, a man is sick with love and is dying of a broken heart, and the women for whom his affection is for won't forgive him for getting drunk and hurting her.  The man commits suicide, and Barbara Allan says that "since [her] love died for [her] today, [she shall] die for him tomorrow" and she, too, commits suicide.  From his grave grew a rose, and from her's grew a thorn, and the two intertwined "until they tied a true love's knot - the red rose and the brier".  This poem made me think of Romeo and Juliet in the fact that the two lovers commit suicide so they don't have to live apart from the other.        
                    

Feudalism

SS 10 project!

The three key elements of Medieval society that we explored were the Catholic Church, feudalism and chivalry.  Feudalism was the dominant social system in medieval Europe.  Nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and serfs were obliged to live on their lord's land and give him their labor and a share of the produce in exchange for military protection. Talking about feudalism made me connect back to Social Studies 10 when we did a class game and individual projects to do with the feudal system.  Mrs. Bevington would've been the Crown, and then a few select students were nobels, and then the rest of us were serfs who had to work the land.

Domesday Book

     The Domesday Book was inventory drawn up by William the Conqueror, on who owned all the land.  This book was devised to stop disputes over who owned some sections of land.

You've Been Chaucered!

Geoffery Chaucer is known as the "Father of English Literature", but, before Chaucer, there was very little skilled or accomplished English Literature so he had to use Italian and French sources as guides for his poetry.  This reminded me of my trip to Italy where I relied on my Italian phrasebook and dictionary to understand the new language, much like Chaucer had to rely on Italian sources as guides for his new English poetry.

Epic Blog

Beowulf is an epic hero, and, Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Isildur's heir, and heir to the throne of Gondor from the Lord of the Rings trilogy of books, by J.R.R. Tolkien, and movies, is also an epic hero.  Aragorn is a male, and is one who is partially responsible for the fate of the entire nation of Middle Earth, for he is part of the Fellowship of the Ring to destroy the One Ring and bring peace to Middle Earth again.  After the task is complete, Aragorn returns home and becomes the King of Gondor, just as a traditional epic hero does, just as Beowulf returned to Geatland to become king of his people.

Beowulf's Last Fight

     After going to Grendel's mom's underwater lair to kill her, Beowulf goes back to Geatland and becomes King and grows old.  But there is a fire dragon that is terrorizing his land, so King Beowulf goes out to kill the dragon, but is mortally wounded at the same time.

Beowulf and Grendel

     Beowulf and Grendel battle outside of the meadhall, Herot.  Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from its socket, and the mortally wounded monster crawls to his lair to await death.

Vikings

When discussing the land where Beowulf goes to, Daneland, to free the people from the wrath of Grandel, I connected to the vikings, who were Scandinavian groups of people, primarily the Norse, Danes, Swedes and Ruser.  And so, in remembering vikings, I connected to a song we sung in grade nine social studies by Led Zeppelin called the Immigrant Song:

Ah, ah,

We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore,
Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

So now you'd better stop and rebuild all your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing.