Billy Collins - Respond Under This Post

Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.

He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark

that he barks every time they leave the house.

They must switch him on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.

I close all the windows in the house

and put on a Beethoven symphony full blast

but I can still hear him muffled under the music,

barking, barking, barking,

and now I can see him sitting in the orchestra,

his head raised confidently as if Beethoven

had included a part for barking dog.

When the record finally ends he is still barking,

sitting there in the oboe section barking,

his eyes fixed on the conductor who is

entreating him with his baton

while the other musicians listen in respectful

silence to the famous barking dog solo,

that endless coda that first established

Beethoven as an innovative genius.

Cathedral - Respond Under This Post

In addition to your regular response, answer the following question regarding Raymond Carver's short story Cathedral.







The term "epiphany," coined by James Joyce, has been used frequently in 20th century fiction to describe moments of "revelation" in a story where "everything becomes clear" to a character. The critic Malcolm Cowley defines epiphany as "that sudden reaching out of two characters through walls of inarticulateness and misunderstanding."

To what extent does "Cathedral" end in an epiphany? How do you know?



Please do not forget to use headings:

• A Title for your response "Be Creative"
• Basic Passage
• Correlation
• Difficulties

I am looking for complexity in the correlation--a surprising or new angle.

Please separate each section.

For example:

Title: Diet Coke Is The Reason

Intro to author: We, as readers, know very little about Billy Collins from the small amount of information the book entails. Billy Collins was born in 1941 in a New York City hospital he claims William Carlos Williams worked as a pediatric resident. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of California at Riverside in which he specialized in the Romantic Period. Now, he teaches at Lehman College of the City University.

Basic Passage: “and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.”

Correlation: I can definitely relate to this! I believe I am the one person out of all my friends around me who has the shortest memory. I feel like I am on the same level as my grandmother who is in the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease. No, I don’t forget my name or the names of my family and friends I see often. But as it says in the passage, I believe I forget a piece of information or a memory every time I study, learn something new, or create a new memory. I believe this “forgetfulness” of mine is related to my obsessed addiction to Diet Coke. Maybe if I start taking Gingko Biloba, it’ll counteract the Nutrasweet that leads to memory loss. But all joking aside, this poem demonstrates how valuable the present moment is. The knowledge that we will forget make "now" all that more important. We must surrender to this knowledge, this loss. This poem is bittersweet. It is about both
loss and life in the guise of forgetfulness.

Difficulties: I had no problem reading or understanding this poem.

Required questions:

Identify the cause of human suffering—Tragedy
How can the tragedy be turned into a comedy?
Identify the cause of joy or happiness—comedy

Baraka -- Comment Under This Post

A photograph of Amiri Baraka, activist, poet, (Racist?) and the photograph that spurred Abel Meeropol to write the poem "Strange Fruit" which was later song by Billie Holiday.



Notes on "Biography"

Another look at "Strange Fruit"Below are the lyrics to Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, 1939, written by Abel Meeropol, New Yorker, Jewish schoolteacher, American Communist:

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop


In Walked Bud
(Listened to CD in-Class)

Audio File of "In Walked Bud"
When you go to Salon type the title of the poem in the search window.

http://www.salon.com/ent/audiofile/index.html?item=/ent/audiofile/2005/10/31/listens/index.html



Backstory on the Theolonius Monk Piece "In walked Bud " "As the musicians were packing up their instruments after the show, the police stormed the club and went after Monk. He refused to show his identification, and was forcibly arrested. A fan barred the door and challenged the officers. They tried to push him aside, but he wouldn't budge. 'Stop,' he yelled. 'You don't know what you're doing. You're mistreating the greatest pianist in the world!' At this point a nightstick came down on his head like a lightening bolt. The young fan was Monk's best friend, Bud Powell. He was dragged along with Monk, and thrown into jail after his injury was superficially treated at the hospital. After his release Powell complained of alarming headaches. He eventually checked into Bellevue Hospital, then spent three months in Creedmore Hospital. There he was treated with various psychoactive drugs and shock therapy. His artistic career had barely started, but henceforth he would be bedeviled by psychological problems. Monk was aware that Powell's intervention had saved him from a similar fate. For his ill-starred protege, he wrote 'In Walked Bud', '52nd Street Theme', and 'Broadway Theme', otherwise simply known as 'The Theme.' The numbers were intended to be Bud's property alone, and Monk never recorded them."

KINCAID "Post One" Respond under this post.

Key points:

• Jamaica Kincaid often writes about the longing for maternal love and a childish bewilderment with the adult world.

• She seems to hold resentment toward her mother and her homeland.

• Kincaid is outspoken.

• Girl's voice only appears twice within an enormous list of "how-to's"

What is the effect of the list?

• Some of the instructions involve social mores. One big question you might tackle is whether or not you think these mores are essential.

In addition to your own correlation, please relate/synthesize the following into a paragraph of at least 50 words:

1) Kincaid's unforgiving rage at both her mother and homeland
and
2) "Everything passes through the self"

Big two Hearted River By Ernest Hemingway Post 2 by Daniel Wise

Soupbone 4 discussed in his or her comment on The story Big Two Hearted River, that Nick was trying to escape from the problems and sense of anxiety becvause he traveled home from War and found his home burned to the ground and was remorsefull for comming back but wished to seek sollitude by going somewhere pleasant that he remembered such as the river nearby. I would agree with him or her that they were thinking right that this caused his stress and emotional problems to build. But I have also in times of my life wished that I could just get away from my stress band problems, the frequent headaches and go somewhere peacefull. When at home I frequent a fishing lake nearby for peacefullness and its quietness because it is a place where I can think about my problems and relax and spend some time fishing for fun. But There have been times when I have felt just like Nick when I have gotten home and felt like it really wasn't there any more such as the time when my family had to move from an old house to anew one. This caused some of my anxiety and depression for several months after moving into the new house. I soon found this lake to be aplace of refuge and serenity.

Big Two-Hearted River "Post One"

Comment under this post for Hemingway's story "Big Two-Hearted River"


Don't forget to use headings in your response: Title, Basic Passage; Correlation; Difficulties.

When correlating, be sure to relate the story to yourself--your response should not sound like something from the internet.


Themes we discussed in class include: Resistence, Stoicism, The paradox of strength coming from destruction and sterility, Movement = Happiness; non-movement = Sadness.

That Evening Sun

That Evening Sun - by William Faulkner

Wiliam Faulkner was from New Albany, Mississippi. He was born in 1897. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949 and in 1925 he met Sherwood Anderson in New Orleans to discuss publishing some literary works. He published many literary works such as poems and both fiction and non fiction/

"I scared of the dark," Nancy said. "I scared for it to happen in the dark." "When yawl go home, I gone." Nancy said. She talked quieter now and her face looked quiet, like her hands. "Anyway, I got my coffin money saved up with Mr. Lovelady."

This passage means that Nancy was afraid of Jesus and that he would kill her when she went home at night. The setting of the sun represented the end of the day and in this story represents Nancy being afraid of the dark and of being afraid of dying.


"And then about half of the time we'd have to go down the lane to Nancy's cabin, and tell her to come on and cook breakfast. We would stop at the ditch, "because father warnwed us not to have anything to do with Mr.Jesus, because he was a short black man with a razor scar on his face and father disliked him. And we would go down and throw rocks at Nancy's cabin untill she came out."

In this passage it is obvious to see that Dilsey's father is very strict about them not hanging around Mr. jesus or Mrs. Nancy's house. But the children disobey their father. This applies to my life because I too once was told not to associate with someone but disobeyed my parents instructions. The Bible teaches us that we should not be afraid of our enemies but that we should pray for them, and that the first sinner should cast the first stone.

No I do not think that people would accept Dilsey's or her friends behavior towards Mr. Jesus and Mrs. Nancy. I wish that they had learned to be cautious of Mr. Jesus instead of throwing rocks at his doorstep.

Yes a life lesson about how to be cautious and stay away from unfriendly or mean people is an important lesson which can be usefull for a person and his or her career.

The cause of human suffering was when Nancy was thrown in jail and beaten by the guard while she was pregnant. This act showed the cruelty of whites towards blacks during an era when slavery was present. It showed a sense of moral prejudice and anger which would set the stage for Nancy's fear of Mr. Jesus.

This tragedy can not be considered a comedy because the act that Nancy endured was severe and inhumane treatment for a pregnant woman to face and there was nothing funny about it or her sense of fright of Mr. Jesus.

The cause of joy and hapiness in this story was the family's time spent gossiping around the breakfast table each morning. And the funny but rude jokes made by Nancy and Dilsey. such as when Nancy said ":I ain't studyin my breakfast," I got to get my sleep out," I bet you're drunk," Dilsey said.