Thanatopsis

The story the "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant is about life and death in my opinion. It can be taken as a warning or even a threat about death depending on how you perceive the poem but I do not see it this way. I see it as more of a calling to accept life and death the same because they are both inevitable. "So shalt thou rest; and what if thou withdraw; In silence from the living, and no friend;Take note of thy departure? All that breathe; Will share thy destiny." (Lounsbury) This quote displays what I was emphasizing on above that death and life is inevitable. When it says "all that breathe will share the same destiny", meaning all that are living will die no matter what. The part before that talking of withdrawing and being silent to me means how one lived their life. Specifically if one lived their life in a somewhat social way and had people around them who cared in their time of dieing and after being put to rest. This is one reason why I disagree that it is a threat of death because I don't believe it is a way of making someone fear death. I think this poem is more about fearing how one has lived their life before their time to leave this world has arrived. "Their sharpness, ere he is aware.When thoughts; Of the last bitter hour come like a blight; Over thy spirit, and sad images; Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,; And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,; Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart" (Lounsbury) The quote displays what I was saying on how one is fearing how they have lived their life when death is approaching. It ways "sad images; of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall", to me this is referring to one reflecting on their own life and seeing things that are painful and one wishes would not have happened. It then says "and grow sick at heart" which means they were truly saddened on the events they were remembering and wish they could take them back. This to me shows that the poem is more of a warning on how you are living your life and how important it is to live a full life than it is saying that we should fear death. Death is not something that someone needs to fear because it is inevitable. It think this poem displays that very well because it shows how death happens. In a way it gives a glorious outlook. Although many people seem to see it as a warning that death is coming to be afraid of it, I think they are skewed away from the real purpose. That purpose IS a warning, but not about death at all! It is about the life that we are all living now and BEFORE our death even comes. His wisdom tells us to live life to the fullest because we should be afraid of leaving this world not making the best of life.

Lounsbury, Thomas R., ed. Yale Book of American Verse. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912; Bartleby.com, 1999. www.bartleby.com/102/. [November 27,2011].

Journal #19

Nature is the one thing that is always there no matter what. Since the day we all began nature has been a part of our lives. Nature has given us cures for our ailments, wood for our homes, and oxygen for our life. Without nature we could not live because without the medicines we make out natures goods and food it provides us, we wouldn't survive a week. We wouldn't even survive one minute without the oxygen it provides to us. Nature is the reason we live and the way we make a living. Everything we have has been made or provided by nature. With nature we live but also with nature we are allowed to leave. It is the wear and tear of nature and life that makes our bodies come to an end as well. We live and we die through nature’s trials and attributes. Nature itself takes us when we dies as well if we are buried or have our ashes spread we return to the earth we took so much from. Though nature keeps us alive it is also the spirituality that keeps many alive. Without some kind of passion for life and spiritual uplifting feelings many can go through life in a fog. Spirituality allows many to make sense of their life and give it a true meaning and purpose. When someone feels they have a true purpose for living, it makes life's trials easier to get through because you are more accepting to the fact that it is supposed to happen. Many spiritual people believe that everything happens for a reason, including myself. Being spiritual does not always mean religious in my opinion. It to me can mean that you just are connected with yourself and know who you are and want to be. Religion and spirituality is connected to much in my opinion. I feel they are totally different. They do not need to have a direct connection to one another because they can come from many different outlets.

Reflection over Fireside

Fireside writing was generated because it was as simple as the name itself. It was poetry that was thought to be read to families while sitting around the fire. ("Fireside Poets") This is probably why I noticed that the story "Old Iron side" was very descriptive with and uplifting ending to it. "And give her to the god of storms,; the lighting and the gale!" ("Fireside Poets") This is the very ending of the poem and shows the uplifting spirits of the bad women being given away. This also begins to symbolize the huge difference from the Puritan era from the Fireside poets. One HUGE difference is the use of God and religion within the writings themselves. The writing The Crucible by Arthur Miller displays puritan writing at it's best. One quote "Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up.(Miller, Aurthur) This describes how it is VERY religious based and no matter what the topic surrounds religion. But when you look at "Old Iron Side" there isn't so much religious aspect as there is a nature and emotional aspect. This is displayed in "The meteor of the ocean air,; Shall sweep the clouds no more" ("Fireside Poets"). When this was written much later than the Crucible the idea of religion being the main concept had faded already because of the Rationalism era. A famous author from this time was the great Thomas Paine, author of The Crisis. From this story he showed the transition from the very religious Puritan era to the very logical Rationalism era. How does this compare to the "Fireside Poets"? The answer is very simple, the ideas of logic are basically thrown out the door. The ideas of imagination and expression flood through much more because there are no logical rules to be followed or analyzed. "And many an eye had danced to see, the banner int he sky" ("Fireside Poets") The ideas of imagination and vision between real and fake is really a true factor when reading this. You don't have to think logically because there is very little logic in it at all. Unlike The Crisis where everything is written blatantly and logically to what makes scientific sense. For example "We did not make proper use of last winter; neither could we, while we are in a dependent state." (Paine 135. While unlike in the "Old Iron Side" quote, there is no thinking that is needed to be done. The statement is basically exactly what it is. So all in all the timeline of the literature is Puritan, Rationalism, and then the "Fireside Poets". This also shows the progression first away from completely religious, then away from completely logically, and then onto the imaginative and nature driven writing. This is personally my favorite and would recommend everyone to read this era of poetry.

Paine, Thomas. The Crisis No. 1. Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., and Douglas Fisher. Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Miller, Aurthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin Group, 1976. 132 Print.

"Fireside Poets" Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 210-211. Print.

Journal #18

Autumn to me is the time of fresh air and falling leaves. When the colors gold, orange, and brown are the normal shades of trees. They gleam when the sun shines through them because of their natural happy glow. Some of them fade though into a deep brown and fall beneath the trees letting them feed the soil beneath them. It is weird in a way of the death of one leaf can help feed the entire tree of which it once lived from. This adds a true amount of the feeling of life in the time of Autumn when everything seems to begin making its circle of life. This is the time wear the warmth of the sun still beats through but the cool winds of winter begin to blow. The feeling of the wind makes my skin shiver but not to long after does the sun begin to warm it again. This feeling is one that only comes during fall. Only the works of nature relieve the cold and relieve the heat on its own. Not the relief of a pool or a warm heater, just the feeling of nature at its best. The smells are just inviting. It's one that can not be described in words or compared to any other scent that I have ever known. It's just known as the scents of fall. This is the time where you can hear the cheers of fans at a football game. You can hear the leafs in the trees louder than ever and the birds are showing their feelings to the cold. The world around us seems to slow down and let us appreciate its true beauty. I feel the true love towards this wonderful time because it is also the time that I was born as well.

Connecting With Nature #17

The bright sun fought the thick branches of the trees to try and reach the ground. I walked under the branches getting the patterned sun look on my skin. The slight covering of the trees cooled my skin from the heat of the sun. The slight sun warmed my skin from the cooling of breeze that was bustling through the forest. I walked along the thickness of the brush bellow touching my hands along every tree as I went. I could feel every bump and crevice in the bark of the trees. It was soothing walking along and feeling nature through my fingers and under my toes. I could hear my friends calling out to me because they got a little bit ahead of me. I ran up to meet them where we came upon a creek. Here the sun was beating down and I could feel my skin begin to heat up immediately. We all had the same idea because we all began to take out shoes off and walk into the creek. The cool water immediately gave me chills because of how warm my skin was from the sun. I could feel the clay-like mud beneath my toes. It felt soothing until I hit something hard. I bent down and dug up to hard object to find a beautiful rock. Me and my friends admired the nature made beauty. That day I felt more connected with nature because I was truly enjoying the many wonders it provides. Trees gave me shade from the wonderful warmth of the sun. The trees trunk through my hands gave me peace and tranquility. The cooling water gave me perfect cooling amount from the hot air. The beautiful rock gave me admiration for the true beauty that nature provides with no help from us as the human race. Sometimes we go through life forgetting how truly amazing the world is around us when we just take time out of our busy lives to enjoy it.

Journal #16

There are actually a lot of ways of communicating without being face to face because of the technology that exists in today's world. There are many different devises themselves that we can use to communicate without ever having to see each other face to face. The first and most popular one for teenagers our age is Facebook. This way we can get to know the person a little more too while we work with them. Facebook is also something we access a lot so we would be very available. Another online source is email, it is easy and very convenient. I keep up with my email more often then I ever have just simply because of school related things and now I get it all to my phone. There are also many other ways online such as IM'ing and blogging. Another not as good way of communicating but still works is twitter, it is pretty vague and not very informative but it is still communication. Another devise is a cell phone. With this you can text which is VERY easy and convenient. This is something that is probably the most handy out of all of the ways. Calling is also a way of communicating with your cell phone but the bad thing is it is not as convenient. Calling has become much more of an inconvenience though because of how busy we are and the difference in most peoples schedules now a days. There are many ways of why this would prepare you for your future. When you get older the amount of face time you will get with someone could be very limited. In college you will need to have ways to communicate with your teacher if you need help because most students in college don't get that one on one time with the teacher. Another way this will prepare you is for the future in your career. For me I am planning on going into advertising, so for me I will have a LOT of communicating to do with many people. I mean I will more likely have to talk with people in places that are far away that I will not have the ability to talk to face to face.

How to overcome distance

When doing a project with someone else from somewhere else it causes a lot of problems as is because you have to combine your thoughts and your ideas into one combined thought. Sometimes this makes the project scattered because your thoughts are not always the same. A way to overcome this is setting up and exact outline that will allow both of your ideas to be able to be shown in the same amount of light. That is just a problem as it is so having distance on top of that. The distance can cause the communication hard to get across. On top of that with the differences in ideas and then the lack of communication. This can make your ideas come across differently and in very small quantities. One way to help overcome this is by using as much detail as possible. Keep the people in your group totally informed on what you think can make it easier to decide on exactly what they believe is valid and want to use and as a group make the project with the best information possible. Another problem is that distance can also cause time schedule differences. When one person is in class the other might not be and working on the project will have to be based on available time. This means that you can base your entire days work off of someones email that they might have sent you hours before. Also you may try to ask them a question and they might not answer or respond for hours when you are done working on the project. A way to help soften the hardness of this, you keep your communication ways completely available at all times. Keep checking your email and Facebook to see if your group has tried to contact you. Also you should try to respond in a fast and speedy manner and stay polite. Politeness can also cause many people to want to work on a project because they want to do good.

Tuckerman- Virtues- Ben Franklin

Ben Franklin then developed the thirteen virtues of which he was going to live by so he truly could get to his goal of moral perfection. He thought that these virtues would help him to become a better Christian as well. The virtues were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. (Franklin 12-13) Temperance means to have self-discipline and to follow the other thirteen virtues. Silence means to speak when it is needed and not fill your conversations with mindless chatter. The next one, order, means to keep things in your life in a very good organized way. Resolution is another virtue and means to have a strong determination to accomplish your goals. Frugality means to basically "spend less than you earn". Industry means to always be a hard worker and put one hundred percent in everything you do. Sincerity means to avoid speaking in a hurtful way to or of others. Justice means to be good in the law and helpful to others. Moderation means to obtain things that you need and don't always shoot for more. Cleanliness means to keep yourself and your home clean and presentable. Tranquility means to control your anger and basically let the little things go. Chasity means to only have sex for offspring or health while not being able to hurt their reputation. Lastly Humility means to be of God and only of Him and how He would live. ("Being Virtuous) Henry T. Tuckerman, a well known analyst of popular writings, wrote on Benjamin Franklin and the virtues he made. He stated "But while official duty and patriotism gave Franklin occasion to propagate and actualize so many useful and requisite principles,—to become the thinker and advocate,—the incarnated common-sense of his country and his time,—there was another sphere of mental activity, another range of sagacious enterprise, in which he expatiated with kindred success." (Bloom, Harold, ed.) Which he is basically stating how Franklin was a very successful man because of these virtues in many ways. He was a smarter and good influence on the people who looked up to him as a patriotic and political figure. Also he basically is saying how with his mind and good heart he became a better person and good influence on the peoples lives around him. "But in the case of Franklin, this practical service of authorship was immeasurably extended and enforced by the prestige of his electrical discoveries, by the dawning greatness and original principles of the country of which he was so prominent a representative, and by the extraordinary circumstances of his times, when great social and political questions were brought to new and popular tests, and made the homely scientific republican an oracle in the most luxurious and artificial of despotic courts." (Bloom, Harold, ed.) Here Tuckerman is showing how Franklin was different than the other authors of his times. He used his knowledge of other aspects in life in his writing which made what he said more in depth and credible. Tuckerman sees what he says as a true remnant of the goodness in society and how we should all base out life on socially, politically, and cognitively most of all.

Bloom, Harold, ed. "The Character of Franklin." Benjamin Franklin, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVBF019&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 3, 2011).



"Being Virtuous: Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues of Life | The Art of Manliness." The Art of Manliness | Men’s Interests and Lifestyle. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. .






Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography. Henry Altimus, 1895. Print.