I love English class!

This is Mark Turner, he is the best English teacher ever. 
We thought this was precious. :)

Tear Drops, My Escape

 

My life full of misery helps me become what I am
All those moments of sadness as I am alone in a dark room
Only make me stronger
I let myself know crying is my form of escape:
 Soft, silk skin
That seems to be full of life
Yet endless misery is what feeds the heart

As I gather to the beginning of my journey I ask myself
Why do I have to be a carrier of pure sadness?
Why do I have to stain this sacred face with agony?

However, I realize that is not my reason for creation
I am who gets rid of the undesired pain
Rolling down the cheek, I feel a chill
A silence that kills me,
I wish I could scream that everything will be okay
But how?
There’s no escape to what I am living through
Nothing but myself makes all be better

My salty taste is regretful
My wetness is purity
My feeling is sincerit
Once I fall from the cheek
Into the unknown
I know I have let the pain out
The end to my journey has arrrived.

Looking into the distance I seek myself
After all those tears
I find myself
Where have I been all this time?
Was I a lost soul?

My face, a storm
Who destroyed my smile
Those lips that opened and showed the bright joy of life

All this destruction created
A better me

A different me
One who understands crying is okay.

Transformation, Faith, and Devotion

Reading "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" with different aspects opens the mind to different interpretations with themes Coleridge trys to convey to the audience. Although there are several themes that are acknowledge throughout the poem, a few of the most significant are transformation, faith, and devotion.
The mariner and the wedding guest go through major transformations that change their lives with the event they live through, either physically or imaginatively.
Faith, not something the mariner first realizes he possess of is outputted as he lives through a horrific event after being so delighted and happy. Not caring, he shoots and kills an albatross which will later be his curse. "For all averred I had killed the bird That made the breeze blow." While everyone else in the ship dies, he is left to suffer life-in-death. That is where faith comes back to him because he wishes he went not on with this situation. "Ah wel-a-day! what evil looks Had I from old and young! Instead the cross the albatross About my neck was hung." The albatross he killed with no regret now filled the empty space he had on his chest. Like many who are devoted into a religious surrounding and carry a symbol of faith, this too did the mariner wish to do. "I looked to heaven and tried to pray But or ever a prayer had gushed, A wisked whisper came and made My heart as dry as dust" indicates his seeking in other ways to show faith.
Devotion is put in perspective along with faith to show the transformation the mariner goes through in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

Blake's Prophecies Revealed

Looking through the list of blogs my fellow classmates have done thus far, I was impressed and interested in finding out what "Blake's Prophecies Revealed" created by Edde Diaz, Makenna Childers, Alex Pinzon, and Hanh Tran was about. At first glance, I was impressed with the layout that was used for the blog posts. The layout alone, marks a strong impression that without a doubt, the blog post support it. Thus making it easily for others to learn about William Blake and his peices of work that marked the great time period of Romanticism. Not only does it provide information but the pictures create a better understanding on what is being conveyed.

I also found very helpful the diversity the blog. It reveals different poems William Blake wrote, ones that I may not have read about and understood without the help of this blog.

I was astounded with Edde Diaz's prose poem because it describes a place and feeling that many are ignorant of. I can connect to the prose poem which makes me want to repeadily read it over because I can connect to it.

 

For anyone who is interested or curious to learn about information we are not always exposed to, this blog serves as reference to educate about a significant figure in the Romanticism period.

A Silver Heart

She was anxiously waiting for a man she wasn’t sure she wanted to see.

She was staring intensely t the black jacket she wore, pulling off every cat hair that clung to the fleece. One by one, each short white imperfection. She was trying to distract herself from the fact that he was late. Only by a mere minute, but it was enough to slowly encourage her fears that he wouldn’t show. Her stomach knotted.

She wondered if he would ever go back to the way he used to be. The man she remembered and she cared for. When she meant the world to him.

The last few years have progressively gotten worse for her, but they both shared the same laid back, easy going attitude that she wouldn’t let anything upset her. She never knew the source of her downfall would be him. She would try again and again to tell him, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him anything that would hurt him.

The dogs asleep on the living room floor, where she perched, opened their eyes and perked their ears. She knew what they must be hearing; his car in the drive way, his feet on the porch, all of them could hear the screen door squeak. Did she really want to see him? It seemed like this visit would just cause more pain in the end.

The knock on the front door sent her heart into a flurry.

She opened the door and saw the same familiar face. The smile that made his eyes crinkle was identical to her own. “Merry Christmas” he said and handed her a small package. His gift for her.

Opening the small box revealed a silver heart shaped necklace. “You are always in my heart” had been engraved into the heart. In return, her defense crumbled, her heart melted, and the two embraced. He could only stay a minute, he had to go back to the airport. With a promise that “We’ll talk more often” he was gone.

She gazed at the beautiful gift, and turned it over in her hands. On the backside was another engraving “Love Dad”

By Kerri Peetz

Coleridge! Coleridge! Coleridge!

The man who wrote this amazing poem, his name is Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I figured after reading all this fantastic information about “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” you might want to know a little bit about the man who wrote it. Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the leaders in the British Romantic movement. He was born on October 21, 1772, in Devonshire, England. His father was an exceptional grammar school teacher, he was married twice and had fourteen children. Samuel was the youngest of all fourteen children and attended his fathers school and became an awesome reader! His father died in 1781 and Coleridge decided to attend Christ's Hospital School in London, where he makes friends with a classmate named Tom Evans, who introduced Coleridge to his family. Coleridge fell in love with Tom's older sister Mary. Coleridge's father’s dream for his son was to be to be a clergyman, so when Coleridge started Jesus College, University of Cambridge in 1791, he focused on a possible future with the Church of England. However, Coleridge's religious views, began to change over the course of his first year at Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Coleridge also accumulated a large debt, and financial problems continued to stay with him throughout his life.  He constantly depended on the support of others. On his way to Wales in June 1794, Coleridge met a student named Robert Southey. They began an instant friendship, the men shared their philosophical ideas. Influenced by Plato's Republic, they constructed a vision of pantisocracy, which means equal government by all, this involved emigrating to the New World with ten other families to set up a little village on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Coleridge and Southey envisioned the men sharing the workload, great philosophical discussions, and freedom of religious and political beliefs. After visiting Wales, Coleridge went back to England to learn that Southey had become engaged to a woman named Edith Fricker. Marriage was a very important part of the plan to move to the New World, so even though Coleridge was still in love Mary Evans, he decided to marry Sarah Fricker, Edith’s sister, because Mary was already engaged to a different man.  Coleridge and Sarah’s wedding was in 1795, Coleridge's marriage was terrible and unhappy, they spent much time apart.  During that period, Coleridge and Southey collaborated to write a play. While they were still planning pantisocracy, Southey abandoned the project to pursue a job as a lawyer. Coleridge spent the next few years beginning his career as a writer. He never returned to Cambridge. In 1795 Coleridge met, and became friends with William Wordsworth who introduced Coleridge to the idea of Romanticism. Later Blake created his very, very famous poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which as you know what this whole blog is about!:) I need to give some credit to the people at Poets.org, because considering the fact the I don’t know all of this information off the top of my head, I needed a little bit of help from them, so thank you! 


By: Jordan Currier

Best Blake Blog!! :D

My amazing classmates and friends, Austin Schwartz, Erika Hewgley, Veronica Sanchez, and MJ Roy all are co-writers of The Blake Blog that's Better than the "Best Blake Blog". It is pretty obvious that these four students have created a very entertaining blog about the romantic poetry works of William Blake.  These four students have promised two things, that they will inform and educate you on William Blake and his work, and they have done an excellent job in doing so. They also have promised that they are “the hottest people in turners class” which that one, I am not so sure about. This is a great blog, so check it out!:)

Personally I am normally one who likes to blog themselves but I don’t really enjoy reading others’ blogs. This blog is much different though, I really enjoyed reading it! At first glace the blog is very  clean and organized and does not over whelm you with too much going on. The blog is very easy to navigate, and is also very first time blogger friendly. I learned that not only was Blake a poet he was also an artist. That’s awesome! Would you have ever thought that you could have connected an 18th and 19th century poet and artist to today’s pop culture? Well you can! Blake has influenced so many things in our culture today, such as: The U2 song, "Bullet in Blue Sky." The movies "V for Vendetta" and "The Watchmen" share the same main ideas as most of Blake’s work. Blake's poem “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” is featured as a preface in C.S. Lewis’ book “The Great Divorce.”  This blog is also a great way to get yourself introduced to romantic poetry, there is so much information on Blake’s life and some of his work, art and poetry, is displayed very clearly on the blog. Seeing some of Blake’s work displayed is intriguing and makes you want to go right away and learn all you call about Blake and all the other romantic poets. Even if you don’t think that you would like Romanticism, give it a shot, cause at first I didn’t think I would like it either, but now I absolutely love it. This blog is awesome place to start too!


By: Jordan Currier