Poem and 5 steps of Character

 A Maiden To Her Mirror
He said he loved me! Then he called my hair
Silk threads wherewith sly Cupid strings his bow,
My cheek a rose leaf fallen on new snow;
And swore my round, full throat would bring despair
To Venus or to Psyche.

Time and care
Will fade these locks; the merry god, I know,
Uses no grizzled cords upon his bow.
How will it be when I, no longer fair,
Plead for his kiss with cheeks, whence long ago
The early snowflakes melted quite away,
The rose leaf died – and in whose sallow clay
Lie the deep sunken tracks of life’s gaunt crow?

When this full throat shall wattle fold on fold,
Like some ripe peach left drying on a wall,
Or like a spent accordion, when all
Its music has exhaled – will love grow cold? 



a)  Physical description-  Clearly she is pale with rosy cheeks.  She has fine hair and her neck I believe is long and beautiful.  So this poem is filled with physical descriptions and allows us to picture this character clearly.



b) The things she says-  By her talking about how she will be when she gets older can tell she is insecure about what will happen when she starts getting old.  Where she says when her skin starts to not be fair and beautiful and when her neck becomes saggy like an accordion.  She is worried he will not love her.  You can tell she is insecure too by her thoughts because it never mentions him saying anything about her personality.  


c)The things they do-  This poem doesn't mention anything she does which could also show why she is scared because he never says anything about her accomplishments or successes.


d)  The way other characters resond to them, including the things others say to or about them:  This is about her boyfriend and everything he says is beautiful about her.


e)  Their thoughts if these are shown-  This I put as what she says, but this too could be about the poem itself. I do not know if this is what she is saying or thinking




Here I used this poem with the five steps of character and how we know them in Professor Corrigans handout.

Joel Painting

So this is my painting of Joel where it says
      "Before them fire devours,
       behind them a flame blazes.
       Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,
       behind them, a desert waste—
       nothing escapes them."


So, I am not very good at painting, so I was very scared about our activity so I asked around.  One of my friends was in the class last year and told me were going to have to paint a verse that stuck out to us in Joel.  When I heard this I actually knew which verse I was going to paint about.  It was the verse that stuck out to me in the first place when I read Joel the first time and when I read it again it made perfect sense to draw it.  Because I was so prepared it actually sort of made me lose the meaning of the assignment in the beginning.  But Professor Corrigan not letting us talk sort of forced me to concentrate on the assignment and think about it.  It really helped picturing and then finally seeing it on paper. It made the verse stand out even more.  Just seeing the green and then all of a sudden fire sort of makes you picture it in real life.  When I read it I actually pictured the gardens at lake mirror because I am sure the Garden of Eden was much bigger, but I imagine it being beautiful like that with all the flowers and water flowing.  I actually find it a very scary verse and when Professor Corrigan says a lot of Joel is poetry it makes me wonder if this too is just a metaphor of what God will do.  It is hard to think of God hurting us and His land, but a lot in the Old testament is just that. 

Joel and Poetry

I am not a very theatrical person. At all. I didn't like drama groups or anything while growing up. So when we had to read Joel out loud outside it was different for me. And it wasn't my favorite thing wither usually when I am reading out loud I can't really pay attention to what I am saying. I pay attention to how I am saying it more and when I do try to hear what I am saying I usually start reading in my head again. I also was weary about Joel too. I don't like poetry. In my school since I didn't like poetry in middle school they made me take like this poetry elective. It was awful because I felt like the other kids were catching onto the meaning a lot more quicker than I was. So when reading I just kept thinking what is this about. Instead of like Professor Corrigan said reading it through just to read not thinking about the meaning the whole time. If you do that you miss the whole other part of the poem. So I promised Professor Corrigan I would meet him half way, that he would understand my past with poetry and I will try doing it his way.
But I must say Joel isn’t my favorite when it comes to the Bible. Mostly because I am confused about what to think about it. And how and why Professor Corrigan was telling us to proclaim it to nature. So overall I did enjoy reading without the verses because I feel that if I read with verses I pause at each number instead of reading through the whole thing.

Also the whole time reading Joel I thought about this song we sang in church all the time:



They rush on the city, they run on the wall
Great is the army that carries out His Word
(Repeat)

The Lord utters His voice before His army
The Lord utters His voice before His army

They rush on the city, they run on the wall
Great is the army that carries out His Word

Blow the trumpet in Zion, Zion
Sound the alarm in my holy mountain
Blow the trumpet in Zion, Zion
Sound the alarm
(Repeat 2 times)

Sound the alarm
Sound the alarm

Hope and Despair

I loved the quote from Professor Corrigan article where it says, "One can never understand what hope is really about unless one wrestles with despair." And I kept thinking about that all week because it's true with a lot of good things. If you don't wrestle with despair you won't know what faith is. Unless you are truly tested by God you will never know how it is to rely and believe in Him. We have to realize when were going through something that we need to rely on faith and grow. Also, with happiness. We would never know what happiness is if we don't go through despair. If we never experienced sadness or frustration we would never really understand our emotions of happiness.

Another part of Professor Corrigans article that I really enjoyed was where it said, "Jesus is more interested in living questions--'follow me'--than in finding answers." Jesus doesn't want us to just sit and keep asking why why why. Just go on and live it out have faith and rely on God. If we sit there saying why why why, we will get no where because instead of living out what God wants us to go through we sit there and contemplate every single thing.


James 1:12

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.


Even the Bible tells us to go through the trials that we will be put through. In the Bible there are tons of examples of people who went through many things, but because they did remain faithful to God they did receive the crown of life. Just to remain faithful is what we should do.

So when put through a tough don't lose faith just think about the good that will come out of it. And don't sit there just asking why.

House of Cards

In class we got to build a house of cards.  I hate building houses of cards.  Over the summer me and josh did an amazing race game.  And we were already frustrated with each other.  And we walk into this house and they said you have to build a house of cards.  On tiled floor.  In a kitchen with awful music playing.  It was so frustrating!!!!  And it was even worse that Josh was better at making em then me.  Awful.


But ya so when Corrigan was like build a house of cards I was sort of scared that I would get that irritated again.  But it wasn't bad we had another group by us.  So when we started talking about C.S. Lewis' metaphor I was glad I had my earlier experience with Josh.

Josh said a good point about C.S. Lewis' metaphor though how if you pull one card it all falls.  So if one part of your life is taken away it falls.  That's what C.S. Lewis talks about,  how his wife died and how that just took one card out of his house, and his faith began to fall.  And how he was like should I even build it back up if it will just fall again.   But the part I really liked was how he said God has made it fall.  To show Lewis how his faith was not built on a good foundation and how his faith was.  It was when Professor Corrigan came around the room and was like would you be upset if I pulled card out I said I would be very upset.  And that is what Professor Corrigan was playing, the role of God.  God knew that if He pulled that one card out it would fall and C.S. Lewis would fall apart too. 


So for now I will be learning how to build a house of cards.  So then the next time I am forced to build one I can finally do it and not be so frustrated.  

Cemetary

I went to the Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers cemetery complex for this fieldtrip, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes.

Grief Observed

In class on thursday we talked about Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis.  Professor Corrigan spoke about if C.S. Lewis was being blasphemous when he was calling God an imbecile and everything.  But I feel that in every relationship there are downfalls.  Relationships between spouses, friendships, parents, etc.  And it is because we are human. Humans are not perfect at all and God definitely knows we aren't perfect.  And God wants to hear us.  He wants to hear our sorrows, our anger, our happiness, our joy, our stress, our frustrations.  He doesn't just want to hear about our thanks for good things happenings and our asking for things we need.  He wants to hear our pain,  I think it is better for us to express this pain to God then just completely take him out and not talk to Him at all. 

It is not my favorite part, but I like to hear C.S. Lewis sort of get mad at God.  It makes me feel like I'm not the only one in the world.  When my grandfather was in the hospital I was not happy with Him.  It makes me happy to see this Theologian, this man who writes beautiful words about God, yell at Him.  I don't feel like we should only yell at God, but I think this grows the relationship that we have with God.

I also found it really interesting in class on how C.S. Lewis didn't even love this woman when he married her.  He was only marrying her so she could stay in the country.  I watched this movie over the summer called the Enchanted Cottage.  It is very old like 1945 old.  It was about a couple who got married for convenience.  He used to be beautiful, but went off to war and had an accident.  She was the "ugly duck" of the town.  When they got married they weren't in love, but like Lewis they grew to love each other and see each other as beautiful. 

Field Trip!! yay!

So today in class we went to the restaurant and my group discussed many topics.  Are group was filled with very different people, so it was nice to hear their ideas on literature.  Here are some:

1.  There was a discussion between non-fiction and fiction.  Monica I know does'nt enjoy reading too much, so when she does read she wants it to be purposeful, so she reads nonfiction.  Zac and me agreed that we like fiction better because easier to enjoy and get through.  So we were discussing that maybe non fiction had more purpose for us to read it, but Professor Corrigan came over and made a good point that we should try to learn from everything we learn.  Even stupid fiction should teach us something about life.  I never thought to read to learn especially with fiction.

2.  There was discussion on Star Wars books and Harry Potter books

3.  We talked about how I think that girls have more trouble with reading pornography than looking at it.  I feel that the romance novels people read now cause lust and sometimes the words can be graphic, which to me I consider porn.  Twilight may not be so graphic, but still people lust after that perfect person and especially after the movies the characters now have faces and bodies and girls lust after them (aka Jacob Blacks abs).

Those are some of the topics we discussed.  I really enjoyed the "field trip" today especially since some of the people I had never met before, so it was nice to see new faces and discuss their interests in literature. Also, I didn't write about a Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis because I thought people may have not read it yet, but it is really good.  It talks about C.S. Lewis' thoughts after his wife died.  I recommend reading it it's not a hard read

Fables

I loved James Thurber's twist on Little Red Riding Hood.  He showed how ridiculous some fables and fairy tales can be.  He showed how little girls would probably know better and see better.  Once she saw her grandma she would have known it was not her grandma.  It even says in Perrault's version that not until she undressed to get into bed with her grandma did she start to notice differences.  And I don't know about you, but if my grandma was sick she would not invite me to lay by her.  My grandma would probably make me leave quickly to make sure I didn't get sick.  Some other ridiculous stories are:

Snow White:  I love Snow White it is my favorite Disney princess movie, but it talks about a girl who goes runs away and finds a house.  No ones there and she just sleeps in the house until the dwarfs come home.  And then she lives with them.  She lives in a house with seven men she doesn't even know, but I guess that doesn't matter because they had different morals they wanted to convey.  One was don't take anything from a stranger and especially don't eat it. 


The Story of Goldilock's and the Three Bears: I'm going off the orginal story of where Goldilocks gets eaten. Here we have another great example of entering a home without permission.  Not only does she go in without permission she eats the food, breaks furniture, and trys out all the beds.  Then the bears eat her when they find her sleeping.  This story moral does say you should respect privacy this time, but like Little Red Riding Hood a girl should have had better sense if raised properly.  The newer version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears doesn't really have a moral since Goldilocks runs away.


I haven't read fables or really thought about them in a long long time, but after reading Thurber's The Girl and the Wolf I went back and read some of my favorite ones from when I was little.  I encourage you to do so because you will be surprised at how some are just a little ridiculous.

Tension and love

Frankie and Johnny is the love story of how girl loves boy, but then boy goes and breaks her heart. And even when she kills him she runs and weeps and holds him.  That is one type of love story.  In the story What We Talk about When We Talk about Love has many types of love stories discussed and shown between a group of friends.

First we have Terri and her crazy ex who shot himself.  She swears that it was love. So she is the example of the beaten woman who will not admit that there was no love in the relationship.  She is one of those women who feels like she needed to stay because there was love and even when she did break it off she wouldn't admit it. The crazy ex is the example of a man who wants control and in order to have it he convinces a woman he loves them and then treats them poorly.  He becomes so possesive of her that he is willing to try and kill himself to get her back.

Next we have Terri and Mel.  They are the example of the couple where the man knows everything and she makes little cracks, but allows him to have his way most of the time.  Mel is the drunk guy who knows everything and then gets sentimental and mushy with the one he loves.  You can tell he loves Terri, but he always makes stupid remarks.

Nick and Laura are the perfect couple.  They both come from broken relationships and found each other and now they are very in love with each other.  Even the words that Nick describes Laura with you can tell how he loves her a lot.

Then there is the old couple.  They have a horrible accident and even when completely covered head to toe in bandages, the husband wants to see his wife so desperately that he is depressed.  All he cares about is her and in order to know she is ok he must see her.

There is also Mel and his daughter.  They show the love between a father who wants better for his daughter and he describes even an idea to kill her, but you know its just that he wants her to have a better life.  Not divorced, broke, and living with a boyfriend with his grandchildren.

I find that when reading literature you find all these different types of love stories between different people and the tension created between them is what catches the attention of whoever is reading it