Week 6

Pied Beauty

By Gerald Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—

                For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

                                For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

                Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plow;

                                And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

                Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how ?)

                                With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

                                                Praise him.

Glory be to              dappled things—

                For skies of couple-                                         ow;

                                For rose-moles                                                 that swim;

Fresh                     chestnut              finches’ wings;

                Landscape                           old,       low,       low;

                                                                                                    

                                With swift, slow; sweet,               dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is             change:

                                                 raise him.

“Days gone by”

1.

And the snow fell covering the earth’s skin,

My nose detecting the burning wood fire.

The man he invited all of his kin

Into the country, my utmost desire.

To explore the backwoods, see what I see,

That water flows clear from unfrozen streams

The wildlife spy from behind the tall tree,

As I breathe in heavy and dream a dream.

One where the city streets are but no more,

And the skyline is made of pines and spruce.

One where the sea is filled with fish galore,

And resources have escaped all misuse.

Yes, this is where my wild dream has led me

Off into the past where I long to be.

2.

“Days gone by” is a Shakespearean sonnet written in iambic pentameter.  It has four stanzas. The tone of this poem is reminiscing of the death of a time now in the past. The tone hints that the author is from a rural place i.e. probably from the bay, definitely not a townie. And, they want to revert to living off the land, or they are older and remember the city before it was a city. We can tell this from third stanza where they mention that they wish cities didn't exist, and people lived off the land like people did in the past. The line “One where the sea is filled with fish galore” may be a reference to cod moratorium.

Week 5

Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is a poem about not dying peacefully when you become old. By this, Thomas means that one should not die peacefully, but instead should be filled with passion, rage, and strong emotion opposed to death. Through symbolism, Thomas’ poem says people should not die peaceful because they should value life, and therefore should fight for every last bit of it.

First, Thomas’ poem portrays that it is about not dying peacefully, but fighting for to enjoy ever y bit of life through the poems tone. Majority of the line of the poem are stated with intensity which is conveyed through his choice of words.  For example, Dylan uses words such as : burn, rave, rage and lighting.  All of these are meant to produce powerful emotion in Thomas’ readers, and this  is intended for the readers to relate to Thomas’ message of being passionate about life through emotion of these words. We can also infer this through his use of command i.e. Thomas’ says “Do not go gentle into that good night” is intense because he is telling the audience what to do in contrast to asking.