Thanatopsis

Thanatopsis literally translates into "The View of Death".  That was the first thing I looked up about the poem because I had no idea as to what that word meant.  It is a very unique word that I have never heard of before.  Anyways, when I saw what the title meant, I was a little bit disturbed because it is a very depressing title and I was thinking that I really did not want to read this poem, but I did.
The story starts off in a somehwat happy mood however.  "To Him who in the love of Nature holds/ Communion with her visible forms, she speaks/ A various language; for his gayer hours/She has a voice of gladness, and a smile" (Bryant 1).   It is what the child thinks of death.  It may be saying that a child does not really care at the time, but it uses the words gladness and smile, whereas the title is a different story.
After the little bit of joy comes out of the poem, it is immediately followed by sadness.  "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; go forth, under the open sky, and list to nature's teachings, while from all around earth and her waters, and the depths of air comes a still voice yet a few days, and thee the all-beholding sun shall see no more.
It goes right into death and what will happen in this part.  After you have lived, there will come a point in time, where there will be no more life and it all will be over.  It is sad to think about this, but it is true in saying this.
Bryant does however make death sound happier when he says that you will be buried in the darkness of a narrow house (Bryant 21).   However, the criticism that I have found is upset with how Bryant said where you will be laid after your time has past.  The criticism said that instead of writing that description of a burial, he should have just said coffin (Huff).  I would rather go with Bryants way of saying it because, coffin sounds depressing.  It makes me think of death and I really do not like or want to think about death.  The poem says that everyone will die and be buried in the ground.  The poem also makes it sound like being buried is such an amazing thing.  It makes it sound so fantastic in away that people might actually believe it (Bryant).  I really have never thought of being buried as an amazing thing, so I do not know where this is coming from.  It also states that you should not fear dying and being buried.  You can be buried with all the other lonely bodies out there, and it will not just be you (Bryant).  I do not find comfort in this as well.

My internet just came up.  Sorry it is late.

Bryant, William Cullen. "16. Thanatopsis." Bartleby.com. Web. 23 Nov. 2011.

Huff, Randall. "'Thanatopsis'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 23 Nov. 2011.

Journal 19

The cycle of life is something that is pretty basic, but we all live through it.  Life is an amazing thing that we have the privilege to go through.  We do not relish the fact that our life is so good.  We do not start thinking about the things that we need to do to get into ultimate life which is heaven.  Spiritituality is so important if you want to go into heaven.  You need to believe in God and believe that he is the one and only.  That is not the only thing that you need to do, but it helps if you are spiritual in your life.  The cycle of life is usually thought of as you are born, you life your life, and than you die. I think of it as that and than a little more.  After you die, I believe the circle of life continues, in two separate ways.  One way is that you go to hell.  You can get to this point, which I do not advise, by not believing in God and by going against him.  The other path that you can go down is the good one in my opinion.  It is the heaven path.  You can continue on your cycle by going down this path.  It is not easy to get there but it definitely is possible if you try to go down here.  You have to try and be like God.  The circle of life, continues in the way you want.  You make your future by how you live your life in the circle of life.
A good reference of nature is the Lion King.  I remember that there is a song call The Circle of life.  This is a good movie that references the circle of life.  Living your life is considered being apart of nature because you are living in the world.  I think that the spiritual part of the circle of life is more important, just because it can continue your life.

Fireside Poets

The first style of writing we had was the Puritan style of writing.  This was probably my least favorite stories to read just because I thought they were not as good as stories as the rationalists was, but that is my opinion. This style of writng was based on God, and he was the base for everything.  Any explanation that was needed was all based on God.  You can see how this could lead into some problems, but this is whow the Puritanistic writings were.  Any problem, they based their punishment with God.  It was a weird way to do things just because it does not necessarily sound like it is the right way to do things, even though it can be true.
The last rationalist writer that we covered was Benjamin Franklin.  He may have been the most famous rationalist writer ever, and definitely the most famous rationalist writer that our class has covered.  Franklin wrote something that clearly shows he was a rationalist my staiting that he was a deist.  It was clear that he was, but I can not seem to find the exact quote.  The quote was a characteristic of a rationalist writer, and it lead to Frankin's virtues, which we all know were very thought out and based on logic and facts.  These thirteen virtues are what Ben Franklin based his life on, so you know, him being a rationalistic writer, would have used his reason on how to life his life.
Going from a rationalist style of writing to a romanticism style of writing is a big change.  You may not know all the details or characteristics of each style, but you would definitely be able to tell which was which if two writings were put in front of you.  The headings are very telling though.  Anybody could probably figure them out.  If you were to tell somebody with no knowledge of what we were doing, they could still probably do it.  Rationalist:  This would be a little tougher, but if they had any sense or knowledge at all they would know that they are being rational.  They are being smart with the decisions that they are making.  Romanticism:  When you think of romantic, you most likely think of love, or something to do with that.  They are going to use more heart with their decisions rather than God or their brain.  They will go with their gut.  It is just what most people will put if you were to tell them to explain what each one is.
I read the Old Ironsides story and something that backs up the romantic style is this quote..."Her deck, once red with heroes' blood," (Holmes).  When you read something like this it is like a girl fantasizing about her want to be husband or something, in saying that heroes were here.  It will be like dramatic plays that we will be reading, so I hope they go well.  I have a feeling that the girls will like them more than the boys.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autoboigraphy of Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1895. PDF.

Holmes, Oliver Wendel. "Old Ironsides." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 211. Print.

Journal 18

A beautiful autumn day in my opinion is where the leaves are almost off the tree, so that you can see them on the ground, but you can also see them falling off of the tree.  Not only is it nice to see the leaves falling off the tree but it is beautiful when the leaves are different colors.  That would be included on my perfect autumn day.  The colors would be green, yellow, red, and orange and they would be mixed up like it was a bag of skittles, or a  rainbow.
The day would start up by me being able to sleep in and than I would wake up to a great breakfast with hot chocolate.  I could look out the window and see the leaves flying away due to the slight breeze in the air.  College football would be playing on the television and Illinois would be winning.a  At halftime, I would go outside.  It would not be too cold, but it would not  be hot, it would be comfortable, and I would get a bunch of kids together and we would play a game of football.  After the game, my dad would be grilling some sort of meat on the grill, for lunch.  After that I would watch more football and relax for the rest of the day.  It would not only be a great autumn day, but it would be a great overall day.
When I think of an autumn day, I think of the times that I had at my grandparents house, when I was younger.  We always had fun playing in the leaves or playing football.  I made some adjustments to make the day better, but I got my background from the times I had as a child there. My favorite season is summer, but I always have a great time in the autumn.  It stinks if the weather is too cold, but if it is somewhat comfortable, it always makes for a good day.

Journal 17

When I was younger, my family, a few friends and I went blueberry picking.  I was excited to go because I was younger and it sounded like it would be so much fun.  I was really excited it was going to be fun.  I was younger so things like that sounded fun and they interested me.  So we went out and it was like a half an hour away so it made me so anxious to get out of the car and start picking.  When we finally got there, being the competitive person that I am, I set the goal for myself to pick the most blueberries out of everybody there.  I would do anything and everything to get me the most blueberries.  So right when we got out of the car, I dashed right to the bushes or whatever they are to start picking.  I was going to win.  As I kept picking, I knew I was going to win because everybody else was complaining and starting to take break, but I kept going steady and soon, I had filled up almost all of my bag.  When we were there, there was a lady from the newspaper taking pictures.  She was taking pictures of people picking blueberries.  She took one of me but I had no idea of what was to come.  The next day my picture of me picking blueberries was in the paper!  I was so excited not only had I picked the most blueberries but a picture of me was in the paper.  Right away I bragged that my picture was in the paper and not my sisters.  Going out and picking blueberries was a great time.  I will always remember it because of the picture in the paper, but it really was a fun time to pick blueberries.  They were pretty good to, and my mom made blueberry pie because we had a ton of blueberries.  It was a fun time that I had with nature.

Journal 16

I accidentally switched up journal fifteen and sixteen, by putting the tools for journal fifteen instead of what are some obstacles.  So this blog will be the obstacles.
There are many obstacles that we have to overcome in doing this project with kids that are not in our class, and that is the first obstacle.   Our group members are not in our class.  If we have a question or a problem that we can not figure out, we can not get up and go to our partner because they are not in our class.  It makes working on the project a little more stressful.
The other thing that goes along with this is that we have members from a different school.  We do not even get to mee them and it makes it harder because we do not know who we are working with, and what type of people they are.  We do not know what their specialty is and what they are not.  There are ways to figure that out, but people can lie, so it just makes it more difficult to find out what type of person they are.
I think that we will be able to get this blog done, but it will be hard because we are going to have to work on it by ourself a lot and then find ways to translate it to our partners.  We are going to have to work together and each person will have to do their role.  This is another dilemma that could come up.  Group members may not want to do anything.  Usually there is always one person in a group that does this, and I hate it when it happens because it puts more work on yourself.
I hope that this blog goes well and everybody does their share.  There will be problems that arise, but as a group we have to work past the differnces and just get the project done.

Journal 15

There are multiple ways to overcome the obstacle of not being by your partner or group.  It will definitely be a lot harder to get through the project, but if you work together with your group and find ways to communicate, it will make it a lot easier to get along with your partners and to get a good grade on your project.
I think that the most obvious way to get through the obstacle is to email them.  Everybody has an email, which make communication very easy.  It is just like a text but it is on the computer, therefore, you can just send it to everybody else's email.  It may not be the most fashionable way to communicate, but it is definitely the msot easy way, in my opinion
It was kind of hard to say that emailing was the easiest way, when there is facebook, but I am not sure if everybody has a facebook, or if everybody uses facebook.  If they do, it is great, but if not the data will not get through to everybody in the group, because everybody has an email.  Facebook would work great though just because so many peopl are using facebook.  It would be a real easy way to communicate with your group.  Along with this, is twitter.  I would say that more people have facebook than twitter.  I do not have a twitter that could help communicate, but if it would help the group, I would get one.
The last way that I can think of to help us work together is to text and call.  It would be easy to get each other's numbers, and once we did that we could go back and forth more quickly.  Texting or calling would definitely be the quickest way to get information across, but it might be hard to do in class, because we are not supposed to have our phones in class.  However, I think that you, Mr. Langley, would be generous enough to let us use our phones to help us with our projects.

Ben Franklin Virtues

There are some things that you admire anybody for doing.  Benjamin Franklin started a task and than finished that task.  His task was not a one minute, one hour, or even one day task, his task was around a year.  It took him so long to finish what he was trying to do but he focused and finished the job.  His task to me sounded pretty boring too.  Sitting there and working on thirteen virtues each day for who knows how many hours does not sound fun to me.  Franklin worked so hard to figure out how he should treat each virtue and how that related to God and his daily life.  For that I respect him.  You see so many people start a job and never finish it.  I fall under this category, we all probably do, and our tasks are probably easier and more fun, but Ben Franklin perservered through the difficulties and finished the task on hand.
"Its fame, however, had become so thoroughly identified with American institutions and life, that an artistic memorial is far more important as a tribute of gratitude and reverence, than as a method of keeping his example before our minds or his image in our hearts. Yet it is, on all accounts, a subject of congratulation, that at length we have, in the city of Franklin's birth, and from the hands of one of her own sons, a statue of the patriot and philospher worthy of the man and the place" (Tuckerman 1).  Tuckerman right here shows his feelings for Franklin.  He really enjoyed reading what Franklin had to say. The thirteen virtues were really cool to see.  You got to see how an intelligent man viewed each one and you got to see ways to relate that to how you live your life.  The thirteen virtues are temperance, silence, resolution, order, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility (Franklin 149).  I do not know if he put any in front of the other, but there are some that I think may be a little more important to me than some of the others. Resolution: "Resolution is the firm determination to accomplish what you set out to do. In this post, we looked at the story of Alexander the Great conquering the island of Tyre as an example of manly resolution. From Alexander’s conquest at Tyre, we extracted four ways to help improve your resolve in life" (Mckay).  I like this one because it basically says do what you have set out to do.  This also goes, with Franklin because he set out to make the thirteen virtues and he did.  It applies to myself with this blog.  I really do not want to do it, but I set out to do it so I must finish.
The next one that probably is my favorit is frugality: "American’s savings rate is negative. That’s right, Americans are spending more than they’re saving. With the sluggish economy and soaring gas prices, practicing frugality is quickly coming back into style. While there are countless blogs that go into detail about how to live frugally, it all comes down to one principle: spend less than you earn."  People are spending money on things that they do not need, and it is especially bad time to do this in this economy, but people do it.  They are so worried that they will not be cool if they do not have the newest and hottest item, that it forces them to spend money on something they really do not need.  Sometimes I do this, but I try not to.  People need to be happy with what they have!  There are more that I like but those are my two favorite.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Henry Altemus, 1895. Print.

"Being Virtuous: Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues of Life | The Art of Manliness." The Art of Manliness | Men’s Interests and Lifestyle. Web. 02 Nov. 2011. <http://artofmanliness.com/2008/06/01/the-virtuous-life-wrap-up/>.

Tuckerman, Henry T. "The Character of Franklin." Facts on File. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.