O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
1
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
2
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths-for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
3
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
1) How are the figurative language used in the poem?
This poem “O Captain! O Captain!” written by Walt Whitman uses a lot of figurative language. The phrases "O Captain”, “O heart” and “O Shores” are the use of hyperbole. Hyperbole is a form exaggeration as the author wants to make a great impact on the readers. When the author keeps repeating the words, it make the reader feel sad for him as his father is dead. The phrase “the vessel grim and daring” is an example of personification. By writing that, the author wants to portray the image of the vessel as a daring person, which in turn makes the readers want to respect the vessel. For the use of metaphors, the phrase is “fearful trip”. I think that the symbol used is the vessel because the vessel is daring and victorious (victor ship).
2) Why do I like this poem?
I like this poem because it shows a contrast between happiness and grievance. Happiness is the fearful trip being accomplished and the grievance is the death of the author’s father. The author felt joyful at first and later, he felt crestfallen due to his father’s death. This poem uses a lot of figurative language, which is personification, hyperbole and symbolism. These factors make the vessel and the trip more life-like, which in turn makes the poem interesting. Also, this poem does not have any difficult words, and is readable for all ages. From the poem, I can feel that the author is trying to manipulate the readers’ feelings between happiness and grievance. (112 words)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
My favourite Poet
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
"Poets, come out of your closets, Open your windows, open your doors, You have been holed up too long in your closed worlds... Poetry should transport the public to higher places than other wheels can carry it..."
This was what Lawrence Ferlinghetti said because he thought that poets should be engaged in the political and cultural life of the country. Sounds intriguing, right? I think so too. Also, other than being a famous poet, do you believe that he was also a philosophical painter, army soldier and a politician? I was shocked when I realised it too. When he was in his twenties, he served the US Naval Reserve and was in charge of to defend the Pearl Harbour. That was in the time of World War II. He fought bravely, and fortunately, he survived and escaped back to American after the Japanese won the war. Then, throughout his life, he was a philosophical painter and a poet.
In my opinion, I think that Ferlinghetti is a selfless man who likes to contribute to the society. From what I know, he was the most active poet as he had a lot of occupations and made significant contributions to his country. From his poems, I infer that he is a sensational man as he knows how to write different types of poems.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1919. After spending his early childhood in France, he received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina, an M.A. from Columbia University, and a PHD. from the Sorbonne. He married in 1951 and has one daughter and one son.
Ferlinghetti is the author of more than thirty books of poetry, including Americus, Book I (New Directions, 2004), San Francisco Poems (2002), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems, 1955-1993 (1993), Over All the Obscene Boundaries: European Poems & Transitions (1984), Who Are We Now? (1976), The Secret Meaning of Things (1969), and A Coney Island of the Mind (1958). He has translated the work of a number of poets including Nicanor Parra, Jacques Prevert, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ferlinghetti is also the author more than eight plays and of the novels Love in the Days of Rage (1988) and Her (1966).
In 1994, San Francisco renamed a street in his honor. He was also named the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 1998. In 2000, he received the lifetime achievement award from the National Book Critics Circle. Currently, Ferlinghetti writes a weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle. He also continues to operate the City Lights bookstore, and he travels frequently to participate in literary conferences and poetry readings.
Poetry as Insurgent Art
"Poets, come out of your closets, Open your windows, open your doors, You have been holed up too long in your closed worlds... Poetry should transport the public to higher places than other wheels can carry it..."
This was what Lawrence Ferlinghetti said because he thought that poets should be engaged in the political and cultural life of the country. Sounds intriguing, right? I think so too. Also, other than being a famous poet, do you believe that he was also a philosophical painter, army soldier and a politician? I was shocked when I realised it too. When he was in his twenties, he served the US Naval Reserve and was in charge of to defend the Pearl Harbour. That was in the time of World War II. He fought bravely, and fortunately, he survived and escaped back to American after the Japanese won the war. Then, throughout his life, he was a philosophical painter and a poet.
In my opinion, I think that Ferlinghetti is a selfless man who likes to contribute to the society. From what I know, he was the most active poet as he had a lot of occupations and made significant contributions to his country. From his poems, I infer that he is a sensational man as he knows how to write different types of poems.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1919. After spending his early childhood in France, he received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina, an M.A. from Columbia University, and a PHD. from the Sorbonne. He married in 1951 and has one daughter and one son.
Ferlinghetti is the author of more than thirty books of poetry, including Americus, Book I (New Directions, 2004), San Francisco Poems (2002), How to Paint Sunlight (2001), A Far Rockaway of the Heart (1997), These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems, 1955-1993 (1993), Over All the Obscene Boundaries: European Poems & Transitions (1984), Who Are We Now? (1976), The Secret Meaning of Things (1969), and A Coney Island of the Mind (1958). He has translated the work of a number of poets including Nicanor Parra, Jacques Prevert, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ferlinghetti is also the author more than eight plays and of the novels Love in the Days of Rage (1988) and Her (1966).
In 1994, San Francisco renamed a street in his honor. He was also named the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 1998. In 2000, he received the lifetime achievement award from the National Book Critics Circle. Currently, Ferlinghetti writes a weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle. He also continues to operate the City Lights bookstore, and he travels frequently to participate in literary conferences and poetry readings.
Poetry as Insurgent Art
I am signaling you through the flames.
The North Pole is not where it used to be.
Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.
Civilization self-destructs.
Nemesis is knocking at the door.
What are poets for, in such an age?What is the use of poetry?
The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.
If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.
You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words....
The Changing Light
The changing light
at San Francisco
is none of your East Coast light
none of your
pearly light of Paris
The light of San Francisco
is a sea light
an island light
And the light of fog
blanketing the hills
drifting in at night
through the Golden Gate
to lie on the city at dawn
And then the halcyon late mornings
after the fog burns off
and the sun paints white houses
with the sea light of Greece
with sharp clean shadows
making the town look like
it had just been painted
But the wind comes up at four o'clock
sweeping the hills
And then the veil of light of early evening
And then another scrim
when the new night fog
floats in
And in that vale of light
the city drifts
anchorless upon the ocean
The North Pole is not where it used to be.
Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.
Civilization self-destructs.
Nemesis is knocking at the door.
What are poets for, in such an age?What is the use of poetry?
The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.
If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.
You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words....
The Changing Light
The changing light
at San Francisco
is none of your East Coast light
none of your
pearly light of Paris
The light of San Francisco
is a sea light
an island light
And the light of fog
blanketing the hills
drifting in at night
through the Golden Gate
to lie on the city at dawn
And then the halcyon late mornings
after the fog burns off
and the sun paints white houses
with the sea light of Greece
with sharp clean shadows
making the town look like
it had just been painted
But the wind comes up at four o'clock
sweeping the hills
And then the veil of light of early evening
And then another scrim
when the new night fog
floats in
And in that vale of light
the city drifts
anchorless upon the ocean
To the Oracle at Delphi
Great Oracle, why are you staring at me,
do I baffle you, do I make you despair?
I, Americus, the American,
wrought from the dark in my mother long ago,
from the dark of ancient Europa--
Why are you staring at me now?
in the dusk of our civilisation--
Why are you staring at me
as if I were America itself
the new Empire
vaster than any in ancient days
with its electronic highways
carrying its corporate monoculture
around the world
And English the Latin of our days--
Great Oracle, sleeping through the centuries,
Awaken now at last
And tell us how to save us from ourselves
and how to survive our own rulers
who would make a plutocracy of our democracy
in the Great Divide
between the rich and the poor
in whom Walt Whitman heard America singing
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
I rather be the city rat than the country rat
I would rather be the city rat than the country rat. Why is this so?
It is because I can get to eat more food and have a nice and comfy place to live in. If I were to live in those dirty villages, I would not have enough food to eat as the rubbish disposed by the villagers is little. The villagers not wasting resources so easily causes the low amount of rubbish disposed by the villagers, sadly for me, food for rats is insufficient. Also, due to the presence of my enemies such as snakes and cats, I cannot find a safe and peaceful place to live in.
However, if I were to live in cities, where buildings and transportation are common, I would then able to find plenty food and a safe place to live in. It is because the city folks do not treasure resources as much as villagers do and as a result, the amount of waste disposed is high. I can then able to find food from the rubbish in the bins, such as half-eaten fish and expired canned food. Also, I can find a safe place to live in by hiding in man-holes or buildings, where snakes and cats are not around.
That is enough. Let me change back to myself; a student! From the words above, I think you can guess the irony between the village and city.
In villages, people cherish things and they would not dispose things just because they are useless. For example, if a canned food has expired, the villager will not throw it away, but to either feed it to dogs or eat it himself. For city folks, it is a different case. Due to the ample amount of resources, they do not cherish them and can bear to throw them away without hesitation. This shows the good point of living in villages from the view of a rat.
Next, there are no snakes or few stray animals in the streets of cities as the people want to have a clean and peaceful environment to live in. However, in the case of the villages, there are a lot of snakes and wild animals. It can be due to that the villagers do not really care or they do not emphasis on hygiene. From this piece of evidence, we can infer that cities is better than villages in terms of hygiene.(I know it is a long post. Pls bear with it. J)
It is because I can get to eat more food and have a nice and comfy place to live in. If I were to live in those dirty villages, I would not have enough food to eat as the rubbish disposed by the villagers is little. The villagers not wasting resources so easily causes the low amount of rubbish disposed by the villagers, sadly for me, food for rats is insufficient. Also, due to the presence of my enemies such as snakes and cats, I cannot find a safe and peaceful place to live in.
However, if I were to live in cities, where buildings and transportation are common, I would then able to find plenty food and a safe place to live in. It is because the city folks do not treasure resources as much as villagers do and as a result, the amount of waste disposed is high. I can then able to find food from the rubbish in the bins, such as half-eaten fish and expired canned food. Also, I can find a safe place to live in by hiding in man-holes or buildings, where snakes and cats are not around.
That is enough. Let me change back to myself; a student! From the words above, I think you can guess the irony between the village and city.
In villages, people cherish things and they would not dispose things just because they are useless. For example, if a canned food has expired, the villager will not throw it away, but to either feed it to dogs or eat it himself. For city folks, it is a different case. Due to the ample amount of resources, they do not cherish them and can bear to throw them away without hesitation. This shows the good point of living in villages from the view of a rat.
Next, there are no snakes or few stray animals in the streets of cities as the people want to have a clean and peaceful environment to live in. However, in the case of the villages, there are a lot of snakes and wild animals. It can be due to that the villagers do not really care or they do not emphasis on hygiene. From this piece of evidence, we can infer that cities is better than villages in terms of hygiene.(I know it is a long post. Pls bear with it. J)
Confessions of an alcoholic
Let me introduce myself first. I am a manager, working for Fedlex. My monthly salary is two thousand dollars. I am married with two children. Everyday after work (about 8pm), without fail, I will go to a coffee shop to drink beer, the shop which I patronize the most.
Okay, I know you will say that I should go home right after work to play with my kids, but I really cannot control my urge to drink. Moreover, the so-called “drinking session” is the only time for me to take a good rest after the long day at work. Also, if I go home too early, my wife will start nagging at me for coming home too early, and she will say that I should spend more time working overtime and earn more money, instead of coming home to slack.
I started drinking beer when I started working as I really could not cope with tremendous stress that my boss gave me. Therefore, I can only drown my sorrows with beer. Of course, I know that drinking too much beer will harm me and family a lot. I may have lung cancer in a few years’ time but the beer seemed as drugs to me and I really cannot control myself.
Normally, I will spend one hundred bucks after every “drinking session” and I don’t really care about it very much. I know, I am not supposed to drive after consuming beer as I may harm the lives of road-users and myself. However, how should I go home if I cannot drive? Taking a cab home and abandon my car?
By drinking beer, I feel high and all my worries are gone. Beer is the only thing that I can think of when I am sorrowful. Although some of you may say that the effects of drinking beer is the same as consuming drugs, but the only thing different is that drinking beer is legal but not for drugs. If you were in my shoes, what would you do? Playing sports or exercise will not help as I do not have any friends to play with and I hate to sweat (haha!).
I have confess to you all of myself being an alcoholic. Can you really understand my plight?
Okay, I know you will say that I should go home right after work to play with my kids, but I really cannot control my urge to drink. Moreover, the so-called “drinking session” is the only time for me to take a good rest after the long day at work. Also, if I go home too early, my wife will start nagging at me for coming home too early, and she will say that I should spend more time working overtime and earn more money, instead of coming home to slack.
I started drinking beer when I started working as I really could not cope with tremendous stress that my boss gave me. Therefore, I can only drown my sorrows with beer. Of course, I know that drinking too much beer will harm me and family a lot. I may have lung cancer in a few years’ time but the beer seemed as drugs to me and I really cannot control myself.
Normally, I will spend one hundred bucks after every “drinking session” and I don’t really care about it very much. I know, I am not supposed to drive after consuming beer as I may harm the lives of road-users and myself. However, how should I go home if I cannot drive? Taking a cab home and abandon my car?
By drinking beer, I feel high and all my worries are gone. Beer is the only thing that I can think of when I am sorrowful. Although some of you may say that the effects of drinking beer is the same as consuming drugs, but the only thing different is that drinking beer is legal but not for drugs. If you were in my shoes, what would you do? Playing sports or exercise will not help as I do not have any friends to play with and I hate to sweat (haha!).
I have confess to you all of myself being an alcoholic. Can you really understand my plight?
My favourite character in Village by the sea
My favourite character in Village by the Sea is Lila, one of the main characters in the story. She contributed to her family by assuming the role as the mother as her mother was severely sick.
Lila has to wake up early in the morning to make tea for Bila and Kemal before they go to school. In the afternoon, she has to wash their clothes and prepare the meals for the family. At night, she cannot sleep peacefully as her father will make a lot of noises by breaking the clay bowls. In other words, she received nothing in return for her contributions to them. If I were Lila, I would surely feel unfair as I cannot receive education, unlike my younger siblings, who study and will have a bright future. Her spirit to persevere makes her want to continue her “mundane” lifestyle. She can choose to throw tantrums at her parents for the unfairness they treated her or abandon her family for Bombay, like Hari. I dare to say that if Lila abandon her family and leave for Bombay to find a job, her life will be better and more meaningful. Sadly, she did not as she wanted to stay with her mother and siblings to take care of them. Therefore, I really admired her spirit of selflessness and perseverance.
Some people might say that Hari is the same as Lila, as they both contributed much to the family. However, Lila’s case is somehow different from that of Hari’s. Hari hated his father so much that he wanted him to die, but for Lila, she accepted the fact that their father is an useless man. Also, Hari left for Bombay in anger as he hated his father very much, neglecting the feelings and welfare of his family. Who will be the breadwinner if Hari leaves? It is obviously Lila, thus, her “workload” increased. However, Lila did not grumbled as she knows that being the eldest silbling in the family, she has the responsibility to take good care of her family.
Now, do you know why she is my favourite character in the story?
Lila has to wake up early in the morning to make tea for Bila and Kemal before they go to school. In the afternoon, she has to wash their clothes and prepare the meals for the family. At night, she cannot sleep peacefully as her father will make a lot of noises by breaking the clay bowls. In other words, she received nothing in return for her contributions to them. If I were Lila, I would surely feel unfair as I cannot receive education, unlike my younger siblings, who study and will have a bright future. Her spirit to persevere makes her want to continue her “mundane” lifestyle. She can choose to throw tantrums at her parents for the unfairness they treated her or abandon her family for Bombay, like Hari. I dare to say that if Lila abandon her family and leave for Bombay to find a job, her life will be better and more meaningful. Sadly, she did not as she wanted to stay with her mother and siblings to take care of them. Therefore, I really admired her spirit of selflessness and perseverance.
Some people might say that Hari is the same as Lila, as they both contributed much to the family. However, Lila’s case is somehow different from that of Hari’s. Hari hated his father so much that he wanted him to die, but for Lila, she accepted the fact that their father is an useless man. Also, Hari left for Bombay in anger as he hated his father very much, neglecting the feelings and welfare of his family. Who will be the breadwinner if Hari leaves? It is obviously Lila, thus, her “workload” increased. However, Lila did not grumbled as she knows that being the eldest silbling in the family, she has the responsibility to take good care of her family.
Now, do you know why she is my favourite character in the story?
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