Dead Poets Society

Today we could choose between two tasks. I've chosen the one that sounded like this:

• Read page 30, 31 and 32.
• Look at the VIEWPOINTS tasks, choose either 1 or 2. Write a short text (max. 100-150 words) in your blogs"

VIEWPOINTS

• Choose one of the quotes above that you especially like.

1. What does this quote say that you think is important?

I think it was really hard to choose ONE quote, because all of them are great, and tell important things! Still, I’ve chosen this: “What a child doesn’t receive he can seldom later give.”

This quote attracts the parents’ attention to how important it is to “teach” their child.  Even if it’s just a song or it’s something bit more complicated, it’s important that children learn it at a very early age. Obviously if there is something they don’t know, because their parents didn’t tell them, they can’t “give it” to their children. That’s why it’s so important that parents do actually give important “things” to their child, such as treating adults with respect or prioritizating important before unimportant things. Many elders and adults mean that today's kids don't respect them. Well, it's probably because they grew up with parents who meant it wasn't necessary to teach that. This is somehow an "evil-chain" because: These parents didn't teach their children --> their children probably won't teach it to their children, and so on. 

To summarize up the things I've said, it's important that if there's something you want your children and their children to know, YOU have to teach it!

Thursday September 10

Today’s class was really interactive. We had to go outside and just observe and stuff. We had to describe the road we were walking on. I really liked this task because fall is seriously one of my favorite seasons. The nature is SO BEAUTIFUL and you can finally wear your knitted sweaters and big infinity scarves! So today we went outside to take a look on the early-fall landscape! After that, we had to write a poem about it.. (the first thing that came in my mind was a song, by Lily Allen. The first few lines of “Somwhere only we know” fits perfectly to this task in my opinion.) Well, I CAN'T write poems, but okay, here it is. A "poem" inspired by the wonderful autumn environment:

Writing a poem is not my thing

But at least I can write,

I could eat a chicken wing,

Yes, I want a bite.

But sadly this tiny pathway,

Covered full of pinecones

Doesn’t lead me to KFC

Only to some big stones.

I hear the sound of a car

Driving on the road

I don’t know where does it park

But I can hear, it slowed.

There’s not much I can see tho’

Because of the fog,

But the landscape isn’t like Bordeaux

I stood in a bog.

I love the smell of a KFC

But now I only smell cow

It's pretty sad isn' it,

how this "poem" turned out?

THE END

Okay, I already knew that I’m not Shakespeare, but this is actually worse than I thought it’s going to be…-.- Sorry, I tried my best.

Bye c:

No Man is an Island

Working with poetry and song lyrics

»        John Donne - No Man is an Island

»        Paul Simon -I am a Rock

»        Rogers and Hammerstein - You’ll Never Walk Alone

1) What do they say about our relationship with each other?

2) Write a brief comment on your blogs, describing the difference.

3) Which song did you like best and why?

The first thing we had to read today was “No Man is an Island” by John Donne (1572-1631).  This poetry is from the 17^th century, that’s why it was a bit challenging to understand the meaning behind it, but I have found out that the whole verse is a metaphor.  An island is isolated from the continent but it still belongs to it. Which in other words means that even if it seems like we don’t need each other, or like we are separated from each other, we don’t. We do need each other and none of us are entire of itself.

The next song was I am a rock by Paul Simon. This song is about a person who emotionally is a rock, someone without feelings. There are some great examples in the lyrics which show how this person tries to avoid all kind of emotions. “I’ve built walls” and “I have no need of friendship” are one of them. It seems like he doesn’t even want to hear the words “love” or “friends”, but actually, he WANTS friends and love. I think these lines “Friendship causes pain” and “If I never loved, I never would have cried” means that someone hurt him in the past that’s why he’s afraid of getting hurt again. The last two lines describes perfectly why he is a rock, “And a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries”. So this song is the exact contrast of “No Man is an Island”, where Donne writes about that you can’t do anything alone.

The last song was “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – by Rodgers and Hammerstein. This song was originally written to a musical called Carousel.  You can hear it when the cousin of the main character tries to comfort Julie, after losing her husband.  I’m pretty sure there are different opinions about what does this song mean but now, I’m going to tell you my own opinion. I think the first few lines, are about holding on and not giving up even when “you’re walking through a storm”. Don’t give up because “at the end of the storm,There's a golden sky”. Which in other word means you’re going to get over it, and it’ll be okay til’ the end. No matter how hard it is now, you’ll never walk alone, there will always be someone beside you. I think the main message of this song is, that you should never give up because even when you feel really lonely, and you feel like you don’t have anyone, you will never be completely alone.

So these were the three different lyrics. I think all of them are amazing on their own way, but my favorite is “No Man is an Island.” I really like that first you don’t really understand what it tries to tell you, but after a few re-reading you’re like “wow”. I’m totally agree with John Donne, because my opinion is basically the same. People need each other, even though loads of us think that they’ll be okay alone. Nope, I don’t think so. “No man is an island, entire of itself”.

About me

Hello everyone c:

I'm Zsofia and I'm the owner of this blog. I'm from Budapest, but I live in Tønsberg which is a nice city in Norway. I'm 16 years old and I have an older sister. I love music so much and I play the piano too. I made this blog for a school project, but maybe I'm going to use it for other everyday stuff too. Hope you'll enjoy my writings ;)