too cool for school

 On my search for a poem for the poetry panel project I came across a poem by Emily Dickinson that I absolutely loved, yet we ultimately chose not to go for in the project: “Hope” is the thing with feathers BY  EMILY DICKINSON “Hope” is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm - I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.    I loved the imagery of a bird in our hearts keeping us filled with hope, but what intrigued me was this line: "sings the tune without the words - and never stops - at all-".     If you notice it never said that we stopped hearing the bird's song, but only that the bird never stops singing, and for that, I really loved this line. Hope is always in us, yet sometimes ...

   This week as a class we were asked to raise our hands if we didn't like poetry, and to my surprise almost everyone raised their hand. People stated reasons such as the difficulty of finding meaning within strands of words that don't seem to fit in, the plethora of literary devices and terms that come with learning poetry, and many more, but I for one disagree. I think that the fact that it's so hard to decode a poem makes the final message all the more influential and worthy to us, and the fact that there is no one message makes poetry so much more fitted and personal to every one of us. I love the fact that you can put a lesson worth a million words into a mismatch of 3 stanzas, I love how every time you read a poem you notice something new and intriguing, and most of all I love how poetry is like a puzzle, where it may be frustrating to piece together, but when you do you have something to look back on for years to come. How I feel when I write poetry   Now I don't...

I hope this resonates with some of you, and if it doesn't... well... I hope it one day might.     Reflections... something we all sometimes forget to do, yet something integral to all of our individual growths. Looking back on this last semester, I have a lot to thank for in Ms. Feldkamp's AP Lit class, one of which is the new spiritual journey of sorts that I find myself in. This started over the summer while reading "The Alchemist" as I felt a connection with Santiago's journey, but more than that, his yearn to discover his Personal Legend. What struck me at the time was how people responded to the novel. Most people I asked thought it was corny or boring, but I couldn't understand this. The deep nature of the words telling the tale of every person, the way that anyone could mold the story to fit their life, but more so the purpose that Santiago was trying to find within his own life really intrigued me more than I thought it would. Even moving on to second ...

     Every author has written a story with no end. Every published novel, poem, and even song has an everlasting journey that stands the test of time. You might be wondering why this is, but the answer lies in the hands of the readers. As quickly as society may change, so does a whole population's opinion of a book , and this has led to many stories’ downfalls . Does known social barriers within a novel result in self-imposed narrations created through suppositions , or does it leave the reader lost in the intellect of the author ?  

Listening and reading Othello this past week made me notice many different symbols throughout the piece, but it also made me ponder about how love blinds the eye of all evil...    The song "Willow," was a pretty eye catching part of the play- not only was it a little creepy, but it also just made me confused. The song was a strong symbol in the play for the acceptance of infidelity, and it was about a women who was betrayed by her lover. This showed the audience that Desdemona felt alone by the fact that Othello wouldn't believe her, but why is she so quick to accept this fact? I mean before she dies, Emilia asks her who tried to kill her and Desdemona responds with, "Nobody, I myself. Farewell"     Why would someone try to protect the person that killed them!? I suppose it must be because she still loved him, but how did she not see that he never actually loved her back? This, I think, has part to do with the setting of this play, the late sixteenth century. Wo...

      When people think of being stressed, they usually associate negative things with it- but I'm here to change that. To most, stress is synonymous with school, the thought of the future, maybe even life in general, and people often then feel burnt out from this and then kind of give up on life, but in fact, stress is like blooming flowers on a beautiful sunny spring day, and here's why. First of all, when you get stressed, you most likely will feel the need to stay inside and not leave your house to cope, and this in turn means that you won't need to worry about having to drive to places, which ultimately means that you'll save hundreds of dollars because of how much gas prices have been rising. So basically, you're going to become rich by osmosis. Next, by never leaving the house, your parents will never have to worry about your safety. Our parents and teachers have always warned us about "stranger danger," but by being so stressed out that you refuse ...

  Why is it that going against the “norm” warrants so much hate from those who comply with societ y ' s wants and expectations ? We praise those who find success from carving their own paths, yet we tear them down every chance we get until they get there. People must sacrifice their place in society to explore their individuality, yet this exact thing can be what leads them to their downfall.