Sonnet 1: Who Could Love Me Greater Than My Jesus?

Who could love me greater than my Jesus?
His love is not tied by Earth or by Sea,
but through his generous grace he sees us.
Bound by sin, I am no longer but free.
Before the creation of Earth or life,
he loved me, he loved me, oh yes indeed!
His measureless love covered all the strife,
although my sins on the cross he did plead.
Man can only love as long as death bids,
but no man can die for love and still live.
The Shepherd will love his sheep and their kids,
but for one lost sheep his life he would give.
I will not worry: his love will run out,
till Everlasting it will stand, no doubt.

"The Sonnet is a Versatile Poem of Fourteen Lines." Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th ed. New York: Pearson, 2009. 900. Print.

Clamberwhirl

I loved the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, because it really didn't matter what the poem was about. It was fun poem that had a special play on words. I then decided to write my own "Jabberwocky" (if you can call it that).

Up and down that mustic trail the Clamberwhirl when pitter-pat!
It's eye was grue and toes were blue.
Mushy-gushy was his blubber, flubber fat,
that slippered along like glue.

No mortal has seen the Clamberwhirl;
but in the cabes he's there I'm forsure!
His sticky glime and all that churl
can be spotted in the cowhoppers fur!

I set out to find this rugly beast,
to prove the myth wasn't bogus.
I was scafraid; I wasn't going to be his feast,
so I wore amoureeves, clorts, and hogus.

The glump-glump trees and ginormous trees,
were wobbling and vlopping in the sky.
Three days it had been and all I'd found were jabbing bees,
bettle bums, and crawling creasts oh my, oh my!

Starving for some digestable food I search fro and to.
but the only thing I found were snip-snip beans and broaches.
A Squisp, a Scwashup what was I to do,
for up ahead I saw it, and slowly it approaches.

Down the mustic trail the Clamberwhirl was pitter-patting!
It's eyes were grue and toes were blue.
Mushy Gushy was his blubber, flubber fattening,
that slippered towards me like glue!

Poetry

When I hear the word poetry I immediately think of rhythm and pattern. I know poetry doesn't have to rhyme, but poetry that doesn't rhyme isn't really poetry to me it is just writing. I also think of songs. Songs have rhythm and contain a special meaning. Song artist's are able to communicate and connect to their audience by the beat and message the song conveys. My favorite poems are the short, simple ones. Poetry I have read in the past has been very complicated. There can be so many different interpretations. After taking AP Literature in high school, poetry became my least favorite literature to read. I guess I take things to literal, because I had a hard time finding the figurative meaning. I hope through the time we spend on poetry I will gain a better persepctive of poetry.

What's Up With the Prodigal's Brother?

The short story "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" in Luke is a familiar parable about a son who wastes his inheritance and returns home to his father who receives him with open arms. As I read the parable. I wondered why the prodigal son's brother seemed so discontent at his brother's return. The parable is about forgivness and joy but  the characteristics and reason why the elder brother never received the fatted calf in the short story make me to believe he was lost and never found.
Luke says the prodigal son gets his inheritance and "wasted his substance with riotous living". From this quote the prodigal son can be characterized as selfish, careless, and irresponsible. When he realizes his wasteful habits had left him with nothing it says "he came to himself". Personally I believe when the prodigal son came to himself he realized he was a sinner and received Christ in his heart. The prodigals charcteristics change to humbleness. When the son comes home the father rejoices, but his elder brother is angry.
I know I would be angry too if my sister wasted her inheritance and came home to a bunch of gifts, but I would rejoice with my father if she came home saved. I think there is more about the elder brother then what we see. A person who is saved would more and likely rejoice when their brother/sister returned home, especially if he/she was spiritually changed. He/she wouldn't act childish and refuse to congratulate his/her younger brother. All of these are characteristics of the elder brother. Colossians 12: 12-13 says "Put on therefore...bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind....forebearing one another, and forgiving one another." The elder brother does not show any of these qualities by his actions.
The elder brother was also very jealous of his brother. He shows this when he says to his father, "Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid." Maybe if he was saved he would have got the fatted calf.
"The Parable of the Prodigal Son" is nonetheless a story about forgiveness and salvation. But the characteristics and reason the elder son never received a  fatted calf point to a lost man.

Luke. "The Parable of the Prodigal Son." Literature: An Introducation to Reading and Writing Ninth Edition (2009): 399-400. Print.

Where Can I Find A Good Man?

The answer to this question is certainly not in the short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. To me the title suggested that a girl would truly find a good man after many previous attempts. Once I read the story I realized my prediction was wrong.
In fact the story was about a terrible man, the Misfit, who with the aid of a few others kills a grandmother and her family. Pleading for her life the grandmother says, "you shouldn't call yourself The Misfit because I know you're a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell." The grandmother may have just been complementing the Misfit because he held her life in his hands, but I found that the statement had a lot of truth in it.
Most people look on a person's outward appearance to judge how good or bad the person is. The problem is someone can't just look and tell whether the person would act a certain way and no one really knows the heart of man except the Lord. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 16:7, "for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."
Who wouldn't like a built, good looking man? Sure good looks and hygiene are usually on the top of any woman's list of what a good man should look like, but we should consider his heart. If we don't we might end up like the grandmother--dead or broken hearted.
To find a good man one must define what a good man is. Of course each individual has their own personal opinion of the characteristics of a good man. To me a good man is loving, honest, caring, considerate, truthful, and loves the Lord. As I look over my list I think Wow this is going to be hard! I do not know many men out there who has these qualities and those that are are already taken.
The best way to resolve the anticipation is to wait. Waiting on the right guy with a good heart is better than jumping into a relationship with a guy with a decietful heart.

Do Tests Really Test Our Knowledge?

As we reviewed the short story "Luck" by Mark Twain the topic of tests came up. Are tests a reliable measurement of a person's knowledge of a subject? I thought of this question for awhile and realized that tests are probably not the best measurement of one's knowledge.
Throughout my school years I have probably taken 500 tests (at least that is how many tests it seems I have taken). I have done well on most of the tests I have taken but have always wondered what I could have made if I wouldn't have crammed the night before. In the story the narrator helps Scoresby cram for a military test on history. Scoresby luckily does very well and advances. Sometimes I get lucky and do well on a test I thought I was going to fail. Most of the time cramming does not make us smarter; it just helps on
occasion. Cramming is like exercising. Exercising once a week does not benefit your body as it would if you exercised everyday, unless you had Scoresby luck of course.
In class we also talked about those who do really well in class and on homework, but do terrible on tests. Doing poorly on a test doesn't mean the student isn't knowledgable about a certain subject. Test anxiety, little sleep and being sick are a few factors that could defer a students real measurement of knowledge. Math is my favorite subject (sorry Mrs. Watson) and I understand it very well.
We were doing trig and it happens to be my favorite math topic. I did very well on the homework assignments and pop quizzes. When I got the test I forgot how to do angular speed and bearings. Unfortunately a third of the test were on these two topics. Afterwards I felt very dumb because I knew how to do the problems I just couldn't concentrate on the test. My grade will now reflect only the questions I got right, but not my knowledge of the subject. If only there was an effective way to test a person's knowledge that factors in possible room for error.

True Love Isn’t So Dreamy

 In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love is an evident factor throughout the play. The play starts with Lysander’s forbidden love with Hermia, to Demetrius’s undesirable love for Helena, and ends with the tragic love between Pyramus and Thisby. Shakespeare uses these different love situations to show love is complicated.

            One of the hardest ordeals between lovers is being forbidden to be together. This is true for Hermia and Lysander. Hermia’s father does not approve of Lysander and forces Hermia to marry Demetrius or die. Lysander sums up the difficulty of love when he says, “The course of true love never did run smooth” (Midsummer 1.1.134). At this point in the play Lysander is reassuring Hermia by telling her lovers face obstacles. They plan to escape the grim future of separation, but encounter more problems on the way when they get lost and put under the influence of a flower’s magical juice. Most lovers today face obstacles such as distance, financial problems, and death of a relative. Although trust seems a more likely obstacle in a relationship, Helena shows that no love in return is an obstacle in itself.

            The best way to describe Demetrius’s love for Helena is undesirable. No matter how hard Helena wants Demetrius to love her and show her attention he disregards her. Tricked by Demetrius’s once fondled love, Hermia cannot get over the fact he no longer loves her. Demetrius shows his feelings for Helena when he says, “Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, for I am sick, when I do look on you” (Midsummer 2.1.212). Despite the fact Demetrius treats Helena like a dog she considers herself worthy to be treated so. She even goes as far to say, “I am your spaniel: and Demetrius the more you beat me, I will fawn on you” (2.1.204). Hermia’s remark makes me think of those who are abused. Although they are abused they continue to stay because they are in love and would rather be treated like dirt than nothing at all. Hermia faces the hardship of loving Demetrius and tries her best to please him, but does not receive anything in return. Although all of the lovers face many obstacles, they are matched perfectly to the one they truly loved, but Shakespeare includes a comedy of Pyramus and Thisby to show not all true love ends happily ever after.

            In the play of Pyramus and Thisby we once again see a struggle between lovers. Like Hermia and Lysander these characters are separated by something that prevents them from being together and they face obstacles as they go to meet each other. Fooled by a bloody garment Pyramus kills himself and Thisby seeing her true love dead kills herself also. Death, a hindrance in their plan, drove the lovers to suicide. To me losing the one I love would be the most difficult obstacle to face. The fact they meet at a place called “Ninny’s tomb” (Midsummer 5.1.199) is symbolic of the foolish love that puts them both in the grave. Shakespeare may have included this short romantic play in the end to show: the greatest complication in love is death and not all love stories end happily.

            Unlike most fairy tales, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare shows the reality of true love. True love is not easy and many obstacles are faced along the way.

TMB: Too Much Blood

I am usually the type of girl who does not mind talking about gross things while I'm eating. I do not get grossed out when someone is bleeding a little or if I'm bleeding myself, but the dramatized bloody scene in Sweeney Todd was a little too much for me.
It is kind of hard to watch blood squirting out of someones neck with out closing my eyes or making a face. Sometimes it makes me feel as if I am feeling there pain watching them die such a gruesome death. I know the blood is fake, but it still has the same effect as if it was real.
In English last semester we talked about how the tune in the movie Jaws implemented fear in the viewer because it warned him/her the man-eating shark was coming. Now everytime I see Sweeney Todd's razor I am going to think of another blood squirting out-of-the-neck ordeal. The movie is still not over and I have been told there are numerous other victims.
The meat pies are a little creepy too. The idea of eating the flesh of a person has some influence on whether I will be happy to eat Grandma's chicken pot pie (And not because my grandma uses human flesh in her pies).
To wrap it up I just have to say slicing throats are a little much for me. Thankfully the glimpse of Sweeney's razor will warn me of the bloody scene that is coming ahead.

Wanting What We Can't Have

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream love blooms in Athens. Lysander and Hermia are truly in love, but kept apart by Egeus, Hermia's father. She is told she has to marry Demetrius or die. Demetrius more than likely doesn't love Hermia like Lysander, but he wants her because she is Lysanders'. Demetrius is already loved by Helena, but treats her cruelly although she is almost as fair as Hermia. Why does Demetrius want Hermia when he already has a beautiful girl? It is common nature for any person to want what they can't have.
Many people can relate to coveting things they do not have. People always strive for better or unobtainable things such as cars or in this case women. For example, two children may receive happy meals with two different toys. One child is more than likely going to want the other child's toy. The child might even pretend to hate his toy although he truly knows he likes it anyways. This example may be simple even silly, but most of the time it's the small things we desire.
After waking from a crazy night, Helena and Demetrius are in love and marry. And the child in the example is more than likely going to forget the other toy and be satisfied with his own. In the end most people realize the thing they wanted the most was in front of them the whole time.