Plunderverse

Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, death, thou shalt die.

Death, Be Proud Done

Death, be proud, though thee
Mighty for thou art so;
For those whom think'st thou dost overthrow
Die death yet canst thou kill me.
From rest which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; thee  more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee go,
Rest of their bones, and  delivery.
Thou art slave to, chance, , and  men,
dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
 why swell'st thou then?
One sleep past, we wake can make us sleep as well
death shall be more, death, thou die.

Common Themes

Both Ben Jonson's "On My First Son," and "Death, Be Not Proud," show a theme of the inevitability of death. Throughout, "On My First Son" this idea is reinforced by a couple of main examples such as, "My sin was too much hope of thee[.]" In this example we see Jonson's regret or reflecting on how he could have done things differently, also in this line we can see Jonson beginning to come to terms with his sons death.

Furthermore, "Death, Be Not Proud" reflects this idea as well. This is evident within this example,"For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow" This quote brings forth the idea that people think that can cheat or escape death,when in reality it is an inevitable truth. 

Tone and Ozymandias

In Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" Shelley's tone of pity is revealed through the symbolism, and imagery. Shelley achieves this with the use of the of the images of the crumbled stone statue, and the symbolism of the ruin around the statue.

The imagery of the crumbled stone statue, in "Ozymandias" "two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert . . . near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown." this image gives the reader a tone of pity for the once great king Ozymandias. Shelley is successful in using this imagery to reveal his poetic tone of pity towards Ozymandias.

School Sonnet

When I first started to study at Mun,

So excited to learn my profession.

Boy, I sure thought it would be lots of fun.

This could not be done in just one session,

I quickly learned that it would take some time.

The fun that would be had among my friends,

Before that shiny degree would be mine.

Time for friends only on the weekends,

Working all week long to make my brain strong.

With not one break until the weekend comes.

Sometimes the week days seem so very long,

My hard work gives me blisters on my thumbs.

All year long I will do my very best,

In order to pass every single test.

Writing a Sonnet was one of the hardest forms of poems I've ever had to write. I found it directly affect the poetic language and devices I could use because so much work was put into just finding lines to fit the poetic feet and rhyme scheme. It was the difficultly I had with the fitting words to the tight form that limited the poem of all poetic devices.

Original Poems

Hakiu

Snow

Cold white and fluffy.

Falling from the sky all night.

Crisp bright wet light fun.

Limerick

Snow Days

Sleeping is what I love

Snow days are a gift from above

The shovelling is tough

and the weather is rough

but, snow days are what I love.

Based on my experience on writing these poems, I can say that some poetic forms are very limiting whereas, others are not so restrictive. The more restrictive form would definitely be the hakiu. In most traditional hakius the content revolves around weather/seasons also, it follows a strict syllable pattern of five, seven, five. This strict form makes the content a poet can use within a hakiu very limited. As for the limerick as long as the content fit into the a a b b a rhyme scheme and the five lines the poem can be about anything. Thus a limerick for the most part can have a pretty broad content range; all the way from intense feelings to silly rhyming stories.

A Poetic look at "Acadia"

We all have those certain songs that we feel we relate too on some level. Whether that be on a deep meaningful level or just that it reminds you of some of your favourite memories. A song that I particularly enjoy is "Acadia" by Marianas Trench. Coming from a small town in Newfoundland then moving to a bigger city, makes this song a relatable topic for myself. The main poetic device highlighted throughout this song would be the imagery of all the old memories mentioned within the song. Examples of this imagery can be seen in the lines "Remember Chris in the back yard Laughing so damn hard" and "Ran out of gas on the highway We walked there and I gave Drunken speeches on sobriety" both quotes give imagery of memories the writer of the song now posses. Furthermore, the images presented in these lines make the listener to think back about memories of their childhood.

In addition to this, "Acadia" also relays the feelings of the writer or a tone. The tone of the song makes the listener feel the writers reminiscing feelings, or the sadness when a reference to tearing his childhood home down. In conveying this tone to listeners the writer has successfully made the message of the song relatable to listeners as many people have gone through the same thing. Both the tone and imagery of this song are what make it a enjoyable song for me.

Critical Thinking

Today I read an explanation of critical approaches for interpreting literature, written by Elizabeth McMahan. Throughout the ten different styles of critical thinking identified through this work, The approach that most appealed to me was the cultural technique  Personally I enjoy the cultural method, because it includes many different aspects. Such as; Factual material (i.e: author biographies, history books, etc.), the literature's cultural artifacts exposed through the piece, and finally other culturally notable things from each described society.

Furthermore, I also read "The Second Coming" written by William Butler Yeats. This poem talks about the rapture or the second coming of the Lord. I base this interpretation of Yeats poem based on three main details; the time period in which Yeats lived, The reference to the "blood-dimmed tide" and, the reference to a lion shaped beast with the head of a man looking towards Bethlehem. The time period of Yeats life (1865-1939)  suggests that at the time religion would have been a large part of his life. Thus, the second coming of a saviour would have been a topic he often thought about. The used "blood-dimmed tide" reference, I took to be the sea of blood mentioned in the Bible's book of Revelations. Again relating back to the idea that his poem was indeed about the earth's rapture. Finally the book of Revelations mentions a lion shaped beast  with the head of a man, to be formed in the desert near Bethlehem. This intricate knowledge of the book of revelations that Yeats must have possessed to make such references, is a clear indicator of his meaning behind "The Second Coming"