Themes from Poetry Packet

Sonnet 130 by Shakespeare

Conventional methods of flattery are not adequate, or even a humorous way, of showing amorous emotions.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe

Love promises happiness when lovers are together.

Death Be Not Proud by John Donne

One should not fear death because by dying, one conquers death by living eternally.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick

Do not squander youth and innocence because the future will not be as fulfilling and will always lead to death.

The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet

It is difficult to let a piece of one's own creation to be exposed to the world without being able to control it after the release. 

To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

Love does not need to be reciprocated for it to be true and continuous.

Sound and Sense by Alexander Pope

Diction will influence comprehension.

The World Is Too Much With Us by William Wordsworth

Death is more pleasant than watching a cause that is important be neglected.

She Walks in Beauty by George Byron, Lord Byron

Beauty is capable to be expressed in any characteristic.

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelly

It is a tendency to strive to create memorabilia that will last beyond oneself for a sense of fulfillment and legacy.

When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be by John Keats

Death will take away many aspects of life that some find important to possess.

The Children's Hour by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Fathers will never forget the time that they spend with their children because it is sacred to their memory like a fairy tale type of innocence.

Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe

Though people could try to separate lovers, even after the death of one, the love from the other will not be destroyed.

O Captain, My Captain

In times of celebration and victory, a death of the leader will create a somber and nostalgic mood. 

I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died by Emily Dickinson

The time before death is romanticized falsely as a time to try to reflect, but it is not as serious or dramatic.

Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

Even though the world is melancholy and at a state of unrest, people should show positive affections.

Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

Life as it is deemed that should be is a facade for the truth of the pain and suffering endured.

Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Rituals and Symbols live past their need in order to keep peace.

Mirror by Sylvia Plath

Obsessions with self image can  be haunting to the psyche. 

 

Grapes of Wrath Action Project

Before I could write a letter to the Pope in Rome, I had to investigate this issue further.  I first “Googled” several keywords, but instead of finding honest articles, I found a lot of garbage and hate. I then found this article: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/catholicism/pope-benedict-xvi-suggests-pedophilia-was-acceptable-1970s which, seemed be helpful.  I then decided to look at a Catholic view of the issue, so I found on Catholic.com, this article: http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/celibacy-isn%E2%80%99t-the-problem.  The more I researched, the more I learned that the problem is not the actual crime, because truly it was more of a scandal than a widespread issue like the one I thought. After reading several more articles I came to a conclusion.  The real issue was the Pope’s reaction.  I feel that he gave insufficient justification on how this was allowed in the first place, how the church planned on making sure it did not happen again and etc.

I decided that I was going to try to email him first because it may warrant the quickest results.

This is the email that I sent to him using his English email address  benedictxvi@vatican.va

Dear His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI,

            My name is Emily Shriver.  I am a student from Alden, NY, USA, a part of the Diocese of Buffalo. I first want to commend your leadership in attempting to reform the relations between the United States of America and Cuba in the last several months.

            My real reason for contacting you is for an assignment for my Advanced Placement Literature class at my high school.  We are reading John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and for an action project, we were assigned the task of contacting a large institution or company and have a question answered by the highest part of the chain of command as possible.  I decided to contact you because since mid-1980 or so the church has been affected by a great scandal, one involving the clergy.  I have personally experienced this tragedy at my own church twice several years ago.  I saw the devastation that occurred in the parish after such news was spread. I know that the actions of men should not make faith falter, but sometimes it does.  Similar to the Joad’s in the aforementioned novel, many Catholics look to the East for the source of their problems. In Rome, you have much authority to change people’s opinions about the tragedy and I believe that your official statements have not given the world a satisfactory explanation for what the Church plans on doing for prevention of more tragic occurrences from happening to other parishes and families.  I believe that because of this the idea of Catholicism has been tainted.  With many other religions that believe similarly, the Roman Catholic Church has which has been associated with such a heinous unresolved scandal, seems to be unfit for many people.  I believe that since the word Catholic literally means universal that our religion should not be excluding people because they are not able to receive the information needed. Overall, I would like to know how the Roman Catholic Church plans to make sure these crimes are not going to be reoccurring and the plan of action if they occur again. I would also like to know how the Church plans to reestablish itself to match the modern age.  When Jesus said to let the little children come to Him, he was speaking literally and metaphorically, but how can families let their children into the Church to know Him, if they feel it is unsafe to do so?  Thank you for reading this letter and I hope to receive a response.

Sincerely,

Emily Shriver

If I do not receive word within the next couple of months I plan on mailing the letter directly to

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI
Apostolic Palace 
00120 Vatican City

As well as emailing him again.

I hope that my questions will be answered accordingly and that the church makes further efforts to change.

After I emailed the letter, I received a notice saying that the email did not reach the sender. I am going to attempt to find another email.

I had first used http://www.osv.com/OSV4MeNav/TheHolyFathers/PopeBenedictXVI/Contactthepope/tabid/1597/Default.aspx this website for the contact information.

I will try sending the letter to benedettoxvi@vatican.va which is his Italian email address according to that website.

I found http://www.popebenedictxvifanclub.com/faq.html#contact, but it gave me the same email address. [I wonder if he had given email up for Lent and forgot to reinstate it… haha Catholic Joke…]

Next I tried this website

http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm

On this website I found more official documentation on the Chuch’s response http://www.vatican.va/resources/index_en.htm

I hope to find an email that works, but in the mean time, I will find an envelope and use snail mail. 

Chinua Achebe Article Reflection

In this article, Chinua Achebe reflects on the racism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and its context in western culture.  He explained how people were surprised to hear that there were African histories and literature.  He was not very surprised, but dismayed, and a little disappointed in all actuality.  He resents that Heart of Darkness is world-renowned as a classic piece of literature when indeed it is so racist in writing.  He points out some of Conrad’s personal racisms and anti-Semitic nature, which had not been discussed in other biographies and psychoanalyst’s studies. He also discusses how he did not appreciate Africa as the antithesis of European civility or as the plain backdrop for the story where Kurtz lost his mind.  These are some points that I found interesting.  Achebe’s comparison to the one-sided travel logs of the time, dating back to Marco Polo, and Conrad’s novella was eye opening for me because I never took Conrad’s book as a literal travel log or as a true picture of Africa, but apparently people did.  The article opened my eyes to how much I did not notice reading the novella because I was not looking at it through that lens.  Achebe pointed out that many people are taken in by  Conrad’s insidious phrasing and artful manipulation of the language when they first read the novella, but when Achebe took the time to dissect the pages’ contents, he was able to identify the pure racism enclosed.  He also noticed that Conrad tried to distance himself from the very writing in the book by using a narrator who was retelling Marlow’s story, thus making Conrad two steps removed from the contents. This may show that Conrad was aware of some of the misgivings the book entailed because he did not take full responsibility for the contents by separating himself as such. Overall, I enjoyed the article, and I could tell that Achebe wrote this after thorough research and with much passion and dedication to his statements.

Response to Essay by Joyce Dyer

In the essay, “‘A Green and Yellow Parrot. . . .’”  In The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings,   Joyce Dyer explains the significance of the Farival Twins and the Parrot in the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin.  Dyer found that the idea of imitation was very important in understanding the character, Edna Pontellier, and Chopin as an author.  Dyer first gives some background to Chopin’s life noting that she did not like popular types of media and felt more appreciation towards authors like Maupassant, who at that time were generally unpopular.  She also notes that Chopin deliberately chose subjects that would lead to rejections by conservative editors in the 1890’s.  Dyer backs up her thesis by providing examples of how other authors have used birds to symbolize female imitation and limitations. She cites several pieces of literature where birds are used contrastingly to show women as free and caged and how Chopin shows the same type of avian imagery.  The Farival Twins, Dyer describes as a classic usage of the twin motif.  She notes that Chopin always has the twins and the birds in the same imagery. The juxtaposition of two ideas that are always repeating themselves and found slightly tiresome by all around them is seen as a common thread in Chopin’s work, citing “Boulôt and Boulotte,” a children’s story published in 1891. 

            I think that Dyer’s position was well researched, but lacked original thought. She cited many other articles, but she rarely made her opinion clear. She also seemed to go on tangents that were more interesting than the topic about which she was originally writing.  She made  many worthy connections, and explained her reasons why she made them articulately, but she was not persuasive that her thoughts were fact.  I agree with Dyer about the parrot and the twins being motifs that represent parts  of Edna’s character and Creole community itself.  However, I wished that she would elaborate more on what their significance in the book itself, rather than how they were symbols in general.  I liked her tangent about Adele.  She makes great connections on the ideas of imitation and irony with Adele and Edna.  I think that she could have written a completely different essay on it though.  Overall, it was well researched, and  worth reading.