Pretty Poems

Margaret Atwood
迷失. This "word / in a foreign language" (Atwood, 19-20) means lost, which is how, I believe, the speaker in Margaret Atwood's "Disembarking at Quebec" felt. I like this poem very much. Although I would be exaggerating my own experience if I say that I felt the same when I "disembarked" at Victoria, the sense of loneliness and not fitting in that Atwood so precisely describes have definitely came across me.  I am also quite fond of the way Atwood arranges the poem's structure. For example, creating spaces for the line "this space cannot hear" stresses the feeling of isolation. Likewise, aligning the word "Freedom!" in the middle of a new paragraph of its own also adds to its emphasis.

Stevie Smith
As a city dweller, I have no problem acknowledging that nature is not so "pretty" all the time - I'm not exactly a huge fan of mushy earth, decaying leaves, or basically any kind of insects. But for some so-called nature lovers, Smith's sarcastic poem "Pretty" may be a heads up for the fact that there are times of inevitable cruelty in nature. We cannot turn a blind eye on things that would destroy our version of nature where there is no hunting, killing, and dying. If we allow ourselves to avoid accepting the whole of nature, soon we will not even recognize our indifference.  

Edward Kamau Brathwaite
Ah, the sea, we meet again. Brathwaite discusses the disparity between White people and Black people. There are a number of good use of colour words in the poem. For instance, the "blue stares" represents how the rich look down on the poor. Brathwaite also captures the visual beauty of the coin as it falls through the water - "now black/ now bright, now black, now bright" (Brathwaite, 14-15). This can also be interpreted as the integration of the Black people's struggle of poverty and the White's "bright" and prosperous life.

The Dying of the Light

Death has appeared as the theme of a poem a several times in this journal now. No doubt that "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," considered as one of Dylan Thomas's finest works, is a wonderful addition. However, I started to wonder: with so little experience in life, how much of the poet's message and feelings can I really understand? The message of this poem seems pretty straightforward. Even when we're old and weak, we should still fight death to the last moment instead of going gentle and giving in. Makes sense, doesn't it? But if death is a choice, a relief, is it still the right thing to do to "rage against the dying of the light" (3)? If death is near anyway, is it absolutely wrong, especially for the family and friends that would be witnessing the death and left behind grieving, to go gentle and hope that their loved one is really going into a good night?

Hollow Men, Stuffed Men

T.S. Eliot uses a lot of imagery in "The Hollow Men" to criticize certain members of the modern civilization who are "hollow" (1) in terms of personal thoughts and passion, yet "stuffed" (2) in a way that they don't have room to accept anything new. Imagery like "broken glass" (9), "dead land" (40), and "broken jaw of our lost kingdoms" (56) provide a strong sense of lifelessness in the world that is filled with hollow men. They live in the "Shadow" (76) that comes between ideas and acts. I like how the poem ends: "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper" (97-98). The world is so lack of substances and meanings that it doesn't even cause a "bang" when it ends. Also, I think the drawing Men of Straw in the book goes very well with the context of the poem, and really helps with the readers' visualization.

Things Fall Apart; My Memory Cannot Hold

I think it is fair to say that I have a pretty good memory, but when I looked at the title of William Yeats' poem "The Second Coming," nothing came up my mind. So I opened the textbook, revisited the poem, and I knew why: I don't really understand it. I got frustrated until reading what SparkNotes says:

Because of its stunning, violent imagery and terrifying ritualistic language, “The Second Coming” is one of Yeats’s most famous and most anthologized poems; it is also one of the most thematically obscure and difficult to understand. (It is safe to say that very few people who love this poem could paraphrase its meaning to satisfaction.)

Yeats believes that history occur in two-thousand-year cycles. After the period of Christianity which was marked off with the birth of Christ, a new era would be inaugurated by another figure. A "rough beast" (21) with "lion body and the head of a man" (14), perhaps? If his beliefs are true, then the second coming should have happened by now. Who is the beast?

A possible answer below...?
http://www.cartoonink.com/2008/12/02/what-rough-beast/

War

Nobody likes war. Many start wars, fight them, or even want them for what they believe will come at the end (if they win) but nobody likes war itself. Therefore it is important to know as Wilfred Owen suggests in "Dulce et Decorum Est" that the old saying in the title is a lie. It is not sweet to die for one's country; Nothing is proper about hurting someone and getting hurt in wars. The imagery of desolate battlefields and torturing deaths act as an effective wake up call for people who holds a heroic view of war as glory, conveying the message that wars should be avoided, not encouraged.

However, it is a painful fact that wars do happen, and people do need to fight. Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" offers an entirely different view on war which can somewhat consulate the soldiers going to war, especially for those who are conscripted there, not by choice. The pastoral imagery of England shows Brooke's patriotism and pride in his country, and also serves as a temporary distraction from the nasty images that are to be seen on the battlefields. His idea that if soldiers (from England in this case) die, "there's some corner of a foreign field / That is forever England" (2-3) gives their death a meaning, as if they will be more than just another corpse lying on the ground.

Fact, Fact, Fact!

"Instruments that record analyses summarize organize debate and explain information which are illustrative non-illustrative hardbound paperback jacketed non-jacketed with forward introduction, table of contents, index that are indented for the englightnment, understanding enrichment enhancement and education of the human brain thru sensory root of vision... sometimes touch"

If you have seen the award-winning movie "3 Idiots," you would know that this 47-word definition can be easily simplified into one word, books.

And after reading excerpts from Charles Dickens' Hard Times, we now know that "Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth" is the definition of a horse.

I can already hear you asking: why would we need to know the "facts", the definition? What is the problem of knowing things simply by their names? These are exactly the questions that both the novel and the movie are trying to evoke as a comical way to criticize the educational theory that focuses solely on "facts" instead of critical thinking, creativity, or other things that are actually useful. In the novel, Dickens' use of caricature is also a very effective way to further exemplifies his criticism.

Emily & Emily

"Song" by Emily Bronte and "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson are so far my two favourite poems about death. In their words, death is gentle, death is courteous, death is not scary.

Bronte's "Song" not only describes death as a "tranquil sleep" (23), but also as I imagine, a sleep on a bed of flowers in a Eden-like forest with "wild deer" (5) and "wild birds" (6) gathering around - just like a scene from a Disney movie. It is such a beautiful idea to think that the constant blow of "west wind"  (25) and "murmur [of] summer streams" (26) will replace the temperamental weeps and sighs. I think this is a very lovely poem that can provide some consolation to people who has lost their loved ones. 

Although we are all aware that it is only a poem, Dickinson's "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" provides a rather favourable suggestion of how one's encounter with Death could be like. Words and phrases like "kindly" (2), "he knew no haste" (5), and "civility" (8) set the tone of the poem and the gentleman-like characteristics of Death.

Senior Citizen

I'm afraid this is yet another entry that leans towards the Orient.

Tennyson's "Ulysses" is a dramatic monologue that illustrates Ulysses' frustration of staying home doing nothing, after being the hero for so long. I think it is very interesting how I can often find songs or poems from my native culture that have resemblance to the English literary pieces we've been learning.

This time, finally, a representative from my homeland Hong Kong! Believe it or not, there is actually a song called "神奇女俠的退休生活" which means "The Retirement of Wonder Woman." (I'm not making this up, I promise) The lyrics are pretty delicate that I'm not confident enough to translate them. Basically it is about Wonder Woman's frustration about her inability to save the world and her boredom of living a commoner's life. Underneath it all, the song is indeed a criticism of Hong Kong's societal problems. Even so, I can still relate "Ulysses" to some parts of the song: how both the hero and the heroine "cannot rest from travel" and they are both still restless at heart - "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!"

The Brownings

"My Last Duchess" is Robert Browning's most popular dramatic monologue. The Duke in the poem is an arrogant, possessive, and demanding man. I wonder if he knows that he is being way too proud and self-centered in order to quickly establish a sense of power and pride that is sure to follow after the marriage, or he is just arrogant in nature he doesn't even notice it himself? By mentioning his last duchess' death which is potentially caused by him - "I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together" (45-46) - he is increasing the chance of the marriage engagement being cancelled when the envoy reports back to his master. Or can he somehow be a good man? He is showing the envoy what his expectations of a good wife are, and  so if this wife-to-be is not suitable or ready for this kind of marriage, there is still a chance to call of the engagement and he won't destroy the girl's life.....?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 14 carries a straightforward message: "love me for love's sake" (13). Nowadays, we always hear what the speaker asks her lover not to say: "I love her for her smile - her look - her way / Of speaking gently" (3-5). While some see this as a shallow love for beauty or youthful appearance, I think this is not entirely true. When you love someone, everything about that person becomes ten times as good or beautiful as it normally does. For example when parents look at their new born baby, every move, every little noise, every change in facial expression becomes just one more reason to love the baby more. Being the apple of someone's eye can also be a way to be loved.

And I was unaware

Although the first two stanzas of Thomas Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush" are depressing, the poem gives out some hope and optimism at the end. All the gloomy grey weather and frozen landscape are suddenly lightened up by a bird's "fullhearted evensong" (19). This restores the speaker's faith and makes him believe that there must be "Some blessed Hope, whereof [the bird] knew" (31). It is noteworthy that he doesn't turn bitter, annoyed, or jealous that the bird has a "cause for carolings" (25) and he doesn't, showing that he still has faith in happiness.

Often when we are strangled by depression and frustration, we magnify our own problems and discontent. We think only of ourselves and our misery, and sometimes turn hostile to the world - "why is this happening to ME? Why can't I have what they have? I hate this world!" We have to remember that the world doesn't revolve around ourselves, that we are just a tiny tiny part of it. We should be appreciative that there are still reasons to rejoice, and hope that next time they will be somewhere we know.

The Wailing Sea

Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" reminded me of a famous Taiwanese song that my generation grew up with called 聽海, which literally means "Listening to the Sea." This is my attempt of a translation of the lyrics (It may sound weird in English, but, I tried...) 

Write me a letter and tell me what colour is the sea today 
How does the sea that stays with you every night feel? 
"Gray" means you don't want to talk, "Blue" means melancholy 
Then what about your wild, drifting heart

Where is it stopping?

Listen to the wailing sea!

Sighing that someone is heartbroken again yet is still blinded by love

It couldn't be me, at least I'm calm

But my tears, even my tears won't believe it

Listen to the wailing sea!

This sea is too emotional, weeping with grief until the break of day

Write me a letter for one last time 
Tell me, what were you thinking when you left me?

While the speaker of the poem mourns the loss of religious faith when listening to the sea, the speaker of the song mourns the loss of her lover and his faithfulness. Having lived in cities that set on islands – Hong Kong and Victoria – the sound of the sea is nothing new. Unlike the speakers in both the poem and the song, I always find the sound of the waves very soothing and calming. I guess it is our own mind sets that determine what we interpret the sounds of nature which, actually, are emotionless. All the “eternal note of sadness” (14) and the “granting roar” (9) are just in our heads.

Starry Starry Night

Stars are one of the most beautiful things in nature. Simply magical.

John Keats’s “Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art” reminded me immediately of the saying that love is “the star of every wandering bark” in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116. The shining, sparkling feature of stars is usually the first thing that comes up in people’s minds when they think about them. In the poem, however, Keats emphasizes mainly on the bright star’s “steadfast” and “unchangeable” (9) nature which allows it to overlook everything that happens on Earth. The imagery of “moving waters” and “soft-fallen mask / Of snow” not only adds to the underlying theme of nature’s beauty, but also shows that only by staying still on the sky can the star observe them, suggesting that one can attain so much more in a relationship with faithful and undying love.

Nonetheless, the bright star is not all that perfect.  Its loneliness of hanging on the sky eternally with no companion cannot be compared with the speaker’s joy of spending his life with his “fair love” (10). He is not fond of being a “sleepless Eremite” (4) like the star. Or perhaps we can say that, unless we can find someone that has the same persistent view towards love, we might as well be just like the star, shining alone in the dark.

King of Kings

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away". 

1.     What Kind of a person was Ozymandias?

He was a very arrogant, powerful, and cold man who thought that he was the “king of kings” (10). The huge pieces of his statue’s remains suggest that the original statue must have been gigantic, showing the sense of superiority he saw in himself.

2.     Underline words and phrases in the poem that illustrate his character.

3.     Why did Ozymandias have the inscription (lines 10-11) put on his statue?

To boast to everyone who sees his statue, if they haven’t already figured it out just by looking at it, that he is the “Mighty” (11) king and people should feel “despair” (11) knowing that they can never be compared with his greatness.

4.     Restate the meaning of this inscription in your own words.

My name is Ozymandias, king of all kings. Look at my mighty and grand work, and feel sorry for yourself

5.     What is the theme of the poem?

Even the greatest, most powerful people cannot escape the diminishing of significance through the passage of time. Ozymandias’s civilization and kingdom are gone, his statue is now merely broken pieces “half sunk” in the desert, and all has been turned to dust by the impersonal and destructive power of history.

6.     List some historical characters from the past and present who were or are like the character of Ozymandias.

Hitler, Louis XVI, basically all the kings in the past.

Mountain High Ocean Deep

Byron’s “Apostrophe to the Ocean” conveys his admiration and love for the ocean. The exclamation “Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean – roll!” (10) is where this is first established in the poem. In the second stanza, he shows the insignificance of man compared to the vastness of the ocean. Although men are the destroyer of nature – “man marks the earth with ruin” (12), their “control / Stops with the shore” (12-13), and becomes only as trivial as “a drop of rain” (16) when they sink into the ocean. The last line of the stanza further stresses the insignificance of humanity.

In the fifth stanza, Byron compares the ocean’s power with that of great empires in history. He suggests that empires like “Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage” (38) received power from the ocean, but then they brought tyrants to rule. Now that their “decay / Has dried up realms to desert” (41-42), the power of the ocean remains unchangeable regardless of the passage of time – “Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow” (44).

The last stanza is a bit different from others because Byron expresses his personal relationship with the ocean – “I have loved thee, Ocean!” (55) Being an excellent swimmer, he has trust in the waves and tides of the ocean that he compares swimming in it to riding a horse. I agree with Byron about the power of the ocean, but I dread it more than I admire it. So many accidents can happen in the ocean and as the poem itself suggests, people can die in the ocean “Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknonwn” (18) and never be found again.

It isn't a spelling mistake

Like horoscopes, Chinese zodiacs also have twelve signs, each represented by an animal. A few years ago when it entered the year of Tiger, I saw my dad’s email for his former literature students saying “Tyger Tyger, burning bright. Happy New Year!” and I thought: you are the dean of the faculty of arts and you misspelled tiger?

Little did I know that William Blake’s “The Tyger” is such a renowned piece of literary work. It has six rhyming quatrains, consisting unanswered questions only. Right at the first stanza, the tiger’s “immortal hand or eye” (4) and its “fearful symmetry” (4) shows that the tiger is a symbol of power and evilness. Blake suggests that all creation must in some way reflect the nature of its creator. The reference to the lamb – “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (20) – reminds the readers that both the tiger and the lamb were created by the same God. The open awe of “The Tyger” contrasts with the easy confidence, in “The Lamb,” of a child’s innocent faith in a kind and loving world. Blake leaves us readers to figure out by ourselves that that if even God has both good and evil in Him, then isn’t it just obviously true that there is an undeniable existence of evilness in all of human, and people just need to accept this?

Tim'rous Beastie

It is said that Robert Burns wrote “To a Mouse” after finding a mouse and its nest in ruins. In the first seven stanzas, the speaker apologizes to the mouse for ruining its life with his plough and for the way human treats other creatures. He sees not with the view of “man’s dominion” (7) but treats the mouse as a “fellow mortal” (12). He also confesses for smashing the mouse’s shelter with his “cruel coulter” and feels terrible that it now has to “thole the winter’s sleety dribble / An’ cranreuch cauld!” (35-36) because he accidentally made it homeless.

In the last stanza, the speaker sighs that even with all the problems a mouse could have that he has just addressed and apologized for, it is still better off than the speaker himself. He envies that with “The present only toucheth thee” (20), the mouse doesn’t have to be restrained by the past or to be afraid of the future like he does. However the fact that he thinks the mouse only has the present to worry about reflects his underlying opinion of mouse being an inferior species of animal instead of an “earthborn companion” (11) of human. If the mouse could hear Burns or actually answer him, it must have not been very pleased that he automatically assumes that his own problems and fears are more important and of a greater scale than that of the mouse’s.

Rest in Peace

My homeroom teacher in grade 4 loved to dive, she used to tell us exciting experience of seeing sharks or almost running out of oxygen all the time. October 1st 2002, I remember that it was a public holiday. That night her name was on the news: she was said to be missing after an accident happened while she was deep down in the ocean. The next day back in school, when the news about her unfortunate death was announced, everyone in my class started sobbing, some crying out loud. That was my first time dealing with death.

Last summer, I learned that my Mandarin tutor passed away after a long fight with cancer. Although we hadn't been in touch for almost six years, my sister and I still went to her funeral to show our respect. I was surprised how emotional I got when I was there because we were quite distanced by then.

I guess this is the thing about death. We dread it, we avoid it, we wonder, and we fight. It is the one thing that is inevitable to absolutely everyone, even the proud and the mighty must one day lie beneath the earth like everybody else. A sad but true line in Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” points out that “The paths of glory lead but to the grave” (36) and we’ve been walking that path since the day we were born. Even though we are all well aware that death will approach us and our loved ones sooner or later, losing someone we know (they don't even need to be really close to us) is still heart wrenching because there is too many uncertainties about what happens after death. Even if there really is an afterworld where everything is perfect and worry-free, it doesn’t change the fact that there is one less of us in the world we know.

忽必烈

Yes, these are Chinese characters.

My eyes opened wider as we read the introduction of the poem “Kubla Khan” not only because it has something to do with ancient China, but also because I had no idea who Kubla Khan was. So I googled it right after class, and it turned out that I did know him (phew!) only by a different name. (Because he was a Mongol king; Mongol people and Han people, who are the majority of Chinese, have totally different languages and cultures. But that's a story for another time)

I find the little in-class activity “Imagination and Connotation” quite interesting. I put bath tub for lifeless ocean; cream for milk of Paradise; red riding hood for ancient forest; and dead body in the sea for flashing eyes and floating hair. To further show that I didn’t link up my knowledge of Chinese history with their names in English, I actually wrote mythical God as the connotation for Xanadu. It’s funny how they mean so differently in the poem from what I first thought of.

Rise and Shine

Wordsworth wrote “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” on his way to France with his sister Dorothy. In simpler words, Dorothy also wrote about the beautiful scene in her journal:

"It was a beautiful morning. The city, St. Paul's, with the river, and a multitude of little boats, made a most beautiful sight as we crossed Westminster Bridge. The houses were not overhung by their cloud of smoke, and they were spread out endlessly, yet the sun shone so brightly, with such a fierce light; that there was something like the purity of one of nature's own grand spectacles."

It must have been a magnificent view for even Wordsworth, who is known for his love for nature to think of it as “A sight so touching in its majesty” (3). The peacefulness of dawn, when the sun – the only part of nature in the city – is the first to awake while all the other man-made parts “seem asleep” (13), is the main reason why Wordsworth was so enchanted by the view. He finds this rare moment of the city that is lack of human activities and flooded with sunbeam even more beautiful than sunrises he has seen over “valley, rock, or hill” (10).

I’ve seen sunrises a few times, but only twice on purpose, both on a mountain top. The closest experience I got with Wordsworth’s was when I stayed up all night studying or working at home, and I would go out to my balcony at dawn to watch the sun rises from the sea. It was nice to be the only one around wide awake, there’s a sense of calmness and privacy. Then more buses and cars started to go on the road, and the silence of the night is broken. Men started to emerge everywhere, school buses started coming around, newspapers started to be delivered, and alarm clocks started ringing. Then it all just fell back to an ordinary day.

The Ladies

Lady Mary Chudleigh

For centuries the society had considered women’s role only in the household, their ultimate goal in life was to get married, and their duty was to just stay that way. It is no surprise that married women were supposed to be inferior to their husbands, in “To the Ladies”, Lady Mary Chudleigh even saw the relationship the same as that of a master and a servant. Marriage in her eyes was nothing but a “fatal knot” (3) and a “nuptial contract” (12), under which the wives had no freedom “to look, to laugh, or speak” (11). We are lucky enough to live in today’s society where women’s rights and sexual equality have come a long way since Chudleigh’s time. However, I think that there is still an underlying belief that marriage is absolutely essential to a satisfying life. I recently read an article about how being single is still such a big deal in society’s eyes and I think it is very thought-provoking.

Sex and the Single Girl: Why American culture is still so scared by single people

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

In Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s “An Answer to a Love-Letter in Verse”, the speaker is refusing the pursuit of a married man and chastising the man for being so vile and unfaithful with love and marriage. Marriage back then were often not based on love, and as suggested in “To the Ladies,” men were superior to their wives who could not ask for a divorce, therefore wooing another woman was not a big deal for married men. The speaker condemns the man for not being “bound by vows, and unrestrained by shame” (15) when he decides to write her a love letter not because of her charm but because she is “new” (6). She then insinuates that the man will soon be moving on and wooing other women – soon some other nymph inflict the pain” (31), further stressing on men’s fickleness. 

Hannah More

Hannah More’s “Slavery, a Poem” is a poem about banning slave trade in the British colonies and outlawing slavery itself. More criticized the British for feeling so superior over people with “casual colour of the skin” (6) and having a double standard due to this prejudice. She said that the same feeling of national pride was “In Afric scourged, in Rome deified” (24). Why should the British be glorified as hero for conquering the “sabled race” (2), taking away their freedoms and possessions, killing the ones who didn’t obey? More made a firm accusation of the British being “White Savage” (25) who sugar-coated their immoral and illiberal enforcement of slavery – “Conquest is pillage with a nobler name” (40). 

Lit is everywhere!

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, my iTunes was on shuffle and songs that I haven't listened to for years kept coming up. There was an interesting one that I didn't quite remember, so I looked up its lyrics and the first two stanzas were....

Anne Boleyn she kept a tin,

Which all her hopes and dreams were in,
She plans to run away with him, forever (never to be seen again)
Leaves a note and starts to choke,
Can feel the lump that's in her throat,
It's raining and she leaves her coat in silence.

We're sorry but we disagree
The boy is vermin, can't you see?
We'll drown his sins and misery
And rip him out of history

(Transylvania   -by McFly)

From the music video

Though I didn't know who exactly the man in this song is, but having read "Whoso List to Hunt," I somehow fantasized that he is Wyatt. At that moment I felt like I was "behind the scene" knowing all the secrets and details behind the song - so cool!

Dear Diary, it's me again

“A Journal of the Plague Year” is a fictional diary written by Daniel Defoe. Writing diary is about recording keeping track of one’s encounter of events and his feelings and opinions towards them, therefore faking one must be a tough task. Defoe did a great deal of extensive research and interviewed survivors from the plague in order to portray the tragic event as realistically as possible. Through the perspective of the narrator H.F., Defoe was able to incorporate many details of the happenings at the time including the escape of the Royals and the rich, the locking up of an entire family because one person was infected, and the public measures taken by the Magistrates.

If I were to write about a plague, I would probably choose to write about SARS. Like Defoe, I experienced the incident but only at a young age, so I would need to do a lot researches. I was nine years old during the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong which traumatized the entire city. I remember seeing the number of cases and deaths going up every day, then very soon all the schools were closed and I was thrilled for a short moment until teachers started emailing us homework. My mom made me and my sister carry hand sanitizers everywhere we went, and masks became part of everyday life, magazines started teaching people how to make masks into a fashionable item. The streets were quiet, cinemas were empty, door handles and elevator buttons were covered in plastics that were changed hourly. People never fully walked out of the shadow of this pandemic. In 2009, when a swine flu case was reported in a tourist, the fear of another plague like SARS led the government to quarantine the entire hotel for a week. 

   

Dear Diary

I've always thought of keeping a diary. I started one in grade 7 when I went to England for two weeks because it was my first time travelling without my family. But then I got lazy and that was it. Although there weren't any big secrets in my attempt of a diary, I wouldn't want anyone reading it because, after all, diaries are meant to be personal. However I doubt if Pepys would agree, with his published diary enjoying such huge success even until today.

I think the main reason why his diary is still read after a few centuries is that, in the form of a diary, he captured and recreated the daily life of his time. It is filled with vivid imagery and interesting details that make the readers feel like they are in that time period by Pepys’s side witnessing everything together with him. Moreover, the diary entries are quite lengthy, making them more like short stories gathered in a book. I cannot imagine writing that much every night before going to bed, but then I’ve never witnessed a fire or an execution, phew!

Of the three important events he recorded in his diary, the London Fire is my favourite. I can picture the incident in my head just like a movie as I’m reading it. It first started with Pepys being informed of the fire but, thinking that it was far away, not showing much concern. Later when he realized how powerful the fire was, he toured around London and made observations to what was happening around. He also carried information to the king and organized fire fighting teams. These all became historically significant evidence that’d be helpful for people learning about the great fire. Besides, I find the part about him safeguarding his possessions very realistic and interesting. 

Sir, the Baby is Served

If Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” is a modest proposal, I don’t think I understand the word modest anymore. Of course I’m being ironic, to go with the theme. Quite frankly, though I understand that this is a reputable satire essay, I’m not exactly thrilled with all the gruesome imageries depicted. But still one cannot deny the power of Swift’s words in terms of attacking the two groups of people in his essay: the English government and the Irish people themselves. The full title “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick” clearly states the contents and purpose of the essay as well as establishing the insensitive, straight-faced tone that makes the essay even more satirical.

Swift proposes that the children of poor people should be fatten up and then fed to the rich. They should be sold into meat markets at the age of one, when their meat is the most fresh, as a way to solve the problems of unemployment and overpopulation and sparing the poor parents the expense of child-rearing. He extensively uses understatement such as parents wouldn’t care if their children would be eaten and eating children would save pig’s life. He further suggests the beneficial outcomes of his proposal by saying that eating babies would improve the culinary experience of the rich people. Here he uses techniques like overstatement with all the different cooking methods, and irony with the idea of serving children at weddings and christening. Talk about sending shivers down my spine!

RESTORE THE LOCK!!!

Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock is considered one of the best mock-epic ever published and I guess the reason is pretty obvious. Based on the event that occurred to Arabella Fermer, it is about the trivial event of a Baron cutting the young woman Belinda’s one little lock of hair. To satirize the vanity of high society and how people make a big deal out of nothing important, Pope coats the story with epic characteristics – Belinda is equivalent to the epic hero, the scissors and hairpins are the weapons of the hero, the card game, the actual cutting of the hair, and the fight at the end are depicted as the epic battles. The title of this mock-epic also has its significance, not only does it catches the readers’ attention immediately, the use of the strong, violent word “rape” is such an overstatement for a cut of the hair, which once again serves the purpose to satirize the high society’s idleness and sole emphasis on appearance. 

When we think about it, the problem of emphasizing on physical appearance actually still remains in today’s society, especially with the media’s portrayal of a certain standardized beauty of many models and celebrities getting more and more accessible to the general public. Pope makes Belinda’s reaction really exaggerated to a ridiculous extent in order to make his point, which reminds me of some of the crying girls in the makeover episodes of the reality show “America’s Next Top Model” when they are given a haircut. But just to be fair, I would probably be pretty mad too if someone just cut my hair for no reason. Not letting this happen!!