The Speckled "Band"

The first plot device I recognized was definitely "suspense". The author made Helen seem very "helpless". He describes here trembling from being cold. She tells him that it is not from being cold but it is from fear. It adds a little bit of suspense with her adding that it was terror, which implies that it is worse then we expected. When she begins to tell the story it creates a "frame story." Also when she describes Grimseby starting to change and telling a short story of how much he has changes, points right him that he must have murdered Julia somehow.It is like we are seeing into her thoughts and her re-living he horror all over again so it translates onto us. I found that it was a "twist ending" when we find out that it was not gypsies or fear and shock that killed Helens sister, but it was a speckled african snake. When I think about the way Julia described it as a speckled "band" I see that just looking at a snake it would look like a band.

I did have some trouble with this so if anyone disagrees or wants to give some input I would be completely open to that.

Homework for this week

1. Study for the exam!

2. Read/ annotate The Adventure of the Speckled Band. You'll find it here:http://168.144.50.205/221bcollection/canon/spec.htm

Blog- What does the author use to  create suspense in The Adventure of the Speckled Band?




Extra study- review the chapter on allusion on your book to help you study! Also, if you want practice on the plot diagram, plot the Adventure of the speckled band!

Side Note- I am still missing some of the Allusion assignments. (That's the one on Faust, Midas, and Myself and Liar, Liar). I will be docking 10 points for every week I don't have them. No exceptions. 

Yes I'm posting a second blog

Did you guys find the The Most Dangerous Game homework particularly challenging? I gnawed on the assignment with dread until I did it and found it deliciously challenging. Another thought I had as well, are we supposed to answer the questions of the "Plot and suspense checklist" ? I did...? Not sure if we were supposed to. Alright. That's basically it.

Come Thou Fount

The first paragraph doesn't really have any allusion that I can see. Ebenezer in the dictionary is a memorial of divine aid. So the first line of the second paragraph could mean honoring the Lord. When I hear line five paragraph two I think of the good Samaritan. like the story of the good Samaritan this song speaks of Jesus saving us. Most of the other allusions are similar. Like line one paragraph three , it says "O to grace how great a debtor". The song is referring to Christs sacrifice.

Come Thou Fount

 This is a poem of gratitude and petition. In the first stanza, the author expresses his love for The Almighty with songs and praise. In the second stanza, the author proclaims his faith when he writes "Here I raise mine Ebenezer;", which is a biblical reference to when Samuel erected the stone between Mispah and Jeshanah as a physical testimony to God's love. This line in the poem can be interpreted as "declaring one's faithfulness". The third stanza confesses the author's tendency to stray, and asks God to "bind my wandering heart to thee". All in all it's a wonderful poem.

Come Thou Fount

Come Thou Fount is a hymn known and loved by many, however it oftentimes is not fully understood. Robert Robinson uses the book of 1 Samuel as his main allusion throughout the Hymn but many other references involving the Bible are made as well. In the lyrics “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;” Robinson is making a connection to 1 Peter 2:25 which refers to believers as “sheep going astray”. All blessing come from God is another message the song conveys particularly in the first line when it reads “Thou Fount of every blessing” which deals with the fact that good is responsible for all blessings despite the fact we cannot do anything to deserve them. “Interposed his precious blood” is the most meaningful allusions in the poem because it is clearly referring to Jesus dying on the the cross for our sins which is quite simply the central theme of the Bible. By mentioning Biblical themes Robert Robinson accomplishes giving his hymn a great meaning that only a spiritually inspired work can attain. 

Prone To Wonder

          In the song “Come Thou Fount”written by Robert Robinson it sings of grace. Grace can be defined as the love and mercy given to us by God because God wants us to have it. Where Robert sings “Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. “I think it is asking God to show us how to sing like angels, day and night singing holy holy holy is the lord God almighty. What is Robert singing when he says, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come.” Well in the book of 1^st Samuel it says, “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer; for he said, "Thus far the LORD has helped us.” So an Ebenezer is a stone that represents when God helped Samuel in battle. But in the song Robert saying that God has helped him in his walk with God. And daily is Robert constrained to be like the lord who has grace on us who are sinners and deserve death.

One Giant Allusion

     When I first read over "Come thou fount" this week I thought the only allusion was the line "Here I raise mine Ebenezer," but I found this line was only a part of what the true meaning to the song is.  When I read the poem as a whole I thought the author was just trying to pronounce his faith in the Lord, but then I realized that the poem was about the life cycle of a Christian.  In the first stanza it describes the early life of an unbeliever (or a wandering Christian) asking Christ to come into their life, "tune my heart to sing thy grace" and "Teach me some melodies sonnet" are some examples.  The second stanza describes how once he is saved now he's on fire for Christ and is so grateful that He came into his life.  As portrayed in the line "Here I raise mine Ebenezer" he says he has risen his "stone  of help" to help God however he wants him to use him.  In the second half of the second stanza he states that "Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God" stating how he was lost but Jesus saved him.  In the third and final stanza, it describes when a Christian has been a Christian for a long time and he starts to drift away (if he does not study God regularly), but he does not want that to happen so he writes, "Bind my wandering heart to thee".  In the last two lines he begs Jesus to prevent him from wandering away "here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above".  The author wrote this hymn as one giant allusion to life as a Christian and his hope in Christ.

Robert Robinson, the author of "Come Thou Fount" incorporated many beautiful allusions in his hymn. One of them in the beginning of the song,
          "...Streams of mercy, never ceasing..."
alludes to Jesus as he was beaten and nailed to the cross, his blood 'streamed' down. Robinson uses this allusion to say that Jesus's mercy and love never ceases.
Another allusion in this song is,
           "...Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above..."
These lyrics refer to angels as flaming tongues above. Robinson is asking to be taught a sonnet or a song of God by the angels.
       
         A beautiful song!! Love it.    

Come Thou Fount

     Before I started reading the song, I had to find out what a 'fount' was. (a source or origin.)
"Come, Thou, fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,"
Here it is very boldly saying that God is the source of each blessing and all the mercy that is put upon us, and the author is asking God to help him express his gratitude for this. I found an allusion when it said "Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above" - the flaming tongues are angels, who are, by far, more adequate at praising and thanking God than we are. I found these lyrics easy to understand, but once I began to decipher them, I found new meanings to what was being said. "Here I raise my ebenezer" is saying, 'I raise my rock of help to remind myself of all the ways that You have helped and protected me in the past.' 

The Warning

The poem makes the connection between the slave and Samson. It says "there is a poor blind Samson in this land" It also says "the poor blind slave". Meaning the slave and Samson were similar if not exactly the same, for instance the were both fighting for freedom as shone in this line "Till the vast Temple of our liberties". In the next line "A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies" it most likely meaning the slavers would lose there own freedom because they had slaves

Every Blessing

    “Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’m come; and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.”  The following was an excerpt from Robert Robinson’s hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”.  The excerpt contains an allusion to 1 Samuel 16:7 that says, “Afterwards, Samuel took a stone and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen.  He named it Ebenezer, explaining, ‘The Lord has helped us to this point.’”  When we look at Robinson’s hymn as a whole, we see that it is a song of gratitude.  To fit the purpose of showing gratitude, the hymn alluded to the story in the Bible where Samuel sets up a stone to show gratitude to God for defeating the philistines.  One can sing this song today in thankfulness of what God has done for them. 

"Come Thou Fount..."

              Robert Robinson's hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is a praise song about the mercy of God and salvation. The key word for the allusion in the hymn is the word Ebenezer.  Robinson uses this word in the line "Here I raise my Ebenezer." The Ebenezer stone is mentioned in 1st Samuel 7:12, " Samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer, which means "the stone of help" for he said, 'Up to this point, the Lord has helped us." The following line in the hymn, "Here by thy great help I've come" reflects how the stone was a symbol of God's help. The Hymn says "Prone to wander... prone to leave the God I love." which alludes to the unfaithfulness of the Isrealites to God in the Passage in 1st Samuel.

Come Thou Fount!

In "Come Thou Fount" I found one allusion in the lines from "Jesus sought me as a stranger" to "Mortal tongue can never tell." I think these lines are referencing before Jesus came that we were lost as a stranger to God because we were so lost in the world and he finds us and sacrifices himself on the cross as pursuing us. It is so great that ortal person can tell how great that was.
Another good one I found was in the lines "Prone to Wander" to "Seal it for thy courts above." I think the author is portraying that we can't stay with God by ourselves. We are made to wander away from him and leave him so we ask him to almost shackle our hearts hime (like a fetter) and to mold and seal our hearts to stay with him for his purpose.
and FINALLY, the allusion to "HERE I RAISE MY EBENEZER" is a reference to Samuel chapter 7 where  Samuel takes a stone and calls it Ebenezer to help defend against the Philistines to keep them out of Israel territory. God had his hand against the Philistines so they wouldn't invade. So the author is calling on the help of God to have him "safely arrive home."

Tune my heart to sing thy grace.

I found several allusions in Come, thou Fount, even in the first line! The meaning of the title is stating that God is so good to us that his blessings constantly spring forth, like a fountain always puts forth water. Another allusion I came across was the one found in the second verse: here i raise mine Ebenezer. After researching, I found that Ebenezer goes way back to a Hebrew word meaning "stone of help." Obviously, we can't live in this world alone, we have to present ourselves to God in our helpless state. The third and final allusion I discovered and loved is in the third verse when it says, let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Fetter is defined as a chain or shackle place on the feet. I love this! The composer is praying, God, let your goodness invade my straying heart and become fixed there until I see His face.

No more wandering.

      The first allusion i found in Come Thou Fount was in the first verse when he says "streams of mercy never ceasing". By this i believe the author is saying that God has mercy for us that never runs out, no matter how much we mess up. Just like a real stream never stops flowing, it never runs out of water.
 The next is "here i raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come". Here he is alluding to a story in Samuel, when Samuel names a stone Ebenezer and raises it for help, so knowing the allusion he's using i would say that the author means that he needs God's help, he can't do it on his own.
 The last one i found is "bind my wandering heart to thee". Our hearts and minds are all over the place most of the time. We're always somehow wandering from God. We get ditracted and we start to think less about God and more about our earthly things, so therefor we put earthly things before God. We're wandering from him. So when Robert Robinson wrote this line, he was saying he wants his heart to be fully focused on God and nothing else. He doesn't want to wandering from him any longer.

Here I Raise My Ebenezer

In "Come Thou Fount," the author uses an allusion to create meaning. "How?" you may ask. First, we must look at the allusion itself: "Here I raise mine Ebenezer." After a long period of mourning and hardship due to disobedience towards God, Israel repents, re-committing their hearts and minds to the Lord. In memory of this restoration, Israel's new priest and judge Samuel, erects a memorial, and publicly dedicates it to God. It stood there, reminding everyone who past that God's mercies are everlasting; his covenant is forever. In "Come Thou Fount," the author uses the allusion "Here I raise mine Ebenezer." Meaning that  he/she is re-committing his/her life, and is seeking God's help. We should all re-evaluate our lives and raise our Ebenezer to God. 

Finally! I get it!

I found three allusions in this. Two are minor and may not be legitimate allusions but I found their participation in the hymn helpful to create images in my head.

Fetter
Ebenezer
Streams

"Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee." 
Meaning we are supposed to abandon our other desires, accept God's goodness
and bind our hearts to him and his glory. 

Ebenezer 
² Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,^[a] saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
"Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come;"
Raising the mental monument of gratefulness to his help and acknowledging that we have only reached the point of thanking him by his assistance. 

Streams 
" ...(S)treams of mercy never ceasing..." 
Like literal streams, God has mercy that abounds and, like a stream, won't ever stop. 

Finally! I get it!

A Big Old Rock

        Samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer -"the stone of help"- for he said, "Up to this point the lord has helped us!" -1 Samuel 7:12

Samuel used the stone as a marker to show how God protected the Israelites when they were being attacked by the philistines.  When Robert Robinson says "Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help i've come; and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God; here to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood.", he is saying he was lost and away from God and that God found him and saved him in a time of trouble.  He alludes to Samuel putting up a giant rock called Ebenezer to remember how God helped the israelites. The writer creates meaning by using the allusion and saying he is raising up his ebenezer, which means he is remembering how God helped him.

Come Thou Fount Lyrics

1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
 tune my heart to sing thy grace; 
 streams of mercy, never ceasing, 
 call for songs of loudest praise. 
 Teach me some melodious sonnet, 
 sung by flaming tongues above. 
 Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, 
 mount of thy redeeming love. 

2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer; 
 hither by thy help I'm come; 
 and I hope, by thy good pleasure, 
 safely to arrive at home. 
 Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
 wandering from the fold of God; 
 he, to rescue me from danger, 
 interposed his precious blood. 

3. O to grace how great a debtor 
 daily I'm constrained to be! 
 Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 
 bind my wandering heart to thee. 
 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
 prone to leave the God I love; 
 here's my heart, O take and seal it, 
 seal it for thy courts above.

Homework this week

Sorry that I'm a few days late putting this up- I've been staying with a family while their parents are out of town and it's given my normal routine a run for its money. 

For this week I am expecting excellent work. I was really pleased with how class ran on thursday and I'm going to be grading by that standard from now on. What that means is, I may not ever discuss again how I want your blogs to read, but I expect you to know it is required every single time you post. 

A friendly re-cap of some major points in class:

1. Take notes.

2. What does it say?

What does it mean?

What are the applications?

3. Your blog posts must answer the prompt in 5-7 sentences. Any other sentences are welcome, but not required. Also, if you tell me what you had for dinner and then write 4 sentences on the prompt, I will count your work as 4 sentences. 

4. NEW LATE POLICY

For every week you turn your work in late, it will drop a letter grade. Blogs included.

I'm very serious about that.

This Weeks Homework

 

Read and do all of the work in the book for Chapter 4. 

Read the Hymn (which I have posted on the blog) Come Thou Fount and blog on How the Author uses allusion to create meaning in this work. Remember to comment as well.

Sapere Aude

Mallory Searcy

The Warning

"The Warning" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Is it just about Samson? Or does it have a deeper meaning.... First, let's look at the title: "The Warning." This is very significant and a huge hint to what Longfellow is alluding to in this poem. He is "warning" the American Government that slavery will tear the United States apart and "...shake the pillars of the Commonweal, Till the vast Temple of our liberties. A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies."

Slavery Allusions

 Henry Longfellow uses this poem to describe the effects of slavery on our nation. In the poem, our liberties are represented by the temple, and slavery is represented by Samson. In a nutshell, Longfellow was trying to communicate that slavery would crumble our liberties to nothing more than "a shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies". This poem was written in 1842, and the civil war started in 1861. Longfellow predicted that either the moral aspect of slavery would divide the country, or slaves would rebel, 20 years before it actually happened.

The Warning by Henry Longfellow

Henry Longfellow makes several clear references to the book of Judges in his famous poem, The Warning. The main point the poem made was that people were underestimating the appalling nature of the approaching Civil War that would divide the nation. The book of Judges ends with Samson revenging himself against the Philistines, who have taken him slave, by using his super human strength to destroy the pillars holding the temple up which caused the whole structure to collapse. Longfellow shows he feared that a civil war would have the same affect in that no one would come out a true victor and every would be harmed. His fears proved to be somewhat true when the North finally won the civil war but at an unbelievably high cost. Henry Longfellow did an impressive job of not only warning people about the dangers of war but also using alliteration to give his poem a much greater value. 

Achilles Heel

There are two different story's to what happened to make Achilles invulnerable.
The more classic story is that there was a prophesy which claimed Achilles would be killed in battle.
So when he was a baby his mother dipped him in the river Styx which would cause invulnerability however his mother was careless and forgot to dipped the one part she was holding which happened to be his heel.
The ironic thing is  because she forgot this Achilles was killed by Paris the brother of Hector who was killed in battle by Achilles.
The saying Achilles heel has come to mean a persons weak spot or their vulnerable spot as was Achilles' heel.

THE WARNING

So. For some stupid reason I was trying to annotate this poem BEFORE I read Judges 13-16 which was not a good idea. But, once I read it the poem made so.much.more.sense. By first breaking down the whole poem and writing about how the author is using the story of Samson, I was able to make connections between slavery and the poem. When Longfellow says 'Shorn of his noble strength and forced to grind', I feel like that is referring to how the slaves were stripped of all their rights, taken advantage of by their 'masters', and forced to do the hard work that was demanded of them. Even thought Samson [slaves] may just be one person who was weak after having his head shaved, he [the slaves] are/is still capable of tremendous things through God.
I just reread that last sentence and it's confusing but it makes sense to me. oops.

Warning!! by a Longfellow..

     
         
               This poem, by Henry Longfellow, uses the story of Samson from the Bible to describe slavery in early America. The first few paragraphs of his poem, old Henry explains the story of Samson found in the book of Judges. Samson grew up to be a man with unusual strength given to him by God for a certain purpose - to bring down the enemy of Israel at that time. But Samson had a weakness and eventually it led to his imprisonment and finally his death. In Longfellow's last paragraph, he uses Samson's predicament to explain how the black slaves before the civil war were treated and how they felt. When he states "There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, Shorn of his strength and bound in bonds of steel," he is referring to this. 

The Warning

When I first read this poem the allusions I could find to slavery in WW2 was that Samson was representing slaves and discrimination against blacks. the themes of the poem and Judges do have a resemblance which made a little bit more sense. I like how instead of working it says grinding in prison which was a nice touch, I think. I like Longfellow's way of wording things especially at the end where he says "A shapless mass wreck of rubbish lies." I think that shows the slavery point of view and the view of Samson.

Samson and the Slaves

     This poem was on the harder side for me for a few reasons. The allusions weren't as subtle as the allusions before, but what he was alluding to was hard to understand. When I first read the poem I thought Wadsworth was alluding to the story of Samson in the Bible, and how he was a slave to himself in a way. But upon further inspection I found that the real allusion was in the last half of the poem. In this part he started using Samson as a metaphor for slavery. In the first line of the last stanza the poem says "There is a poor, blind Samson in this land", and if you replace Samson with slavery it reveals the true meaning.  Everyone and the government is blind to the problem of slavery which will create a land where "thousands will perish" and "shake the pillars of this Commonweal".

"The Warning"

         The predominating theme in "The Warning" by Longfellow is the story of Samson from the book of Judges. However there are hidden meanings throughout the poem. By using this Biblical passage, Longfellow alludes to slavery prior to the civil war. When he describes Samson to be "In prison..." he reflects how the slaves were taken from their families to serve their masters. Longfellow tells how Samson was "forced to grind" refering to the hard work the slave-owners demanded of the slaves. Lastly, he compares the story of when Samson destroyed the Philistine temple with the rebellious actions of the slaves. He makes this comparison when he writes, "There is a poor, blind Samson in this land... who may... raise his hand, and shake the pillars of this commonweal, 'till the vast temple of our liberties a shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies."

The Warning

This poem was a little more on the difficult side for me, not because I didn't know the story of Samson, but rather I felt like you couldn't get by just by annotating it - you really had to think about what Longfellow was alluding to. That's where it got me, allusions are my weaker point. However, I managed to get through the poem and actually understood it! Longfellow did an amazing job with the way he worked the allusion. He really took to heart how awful slavery was and used Samson as an example. Just like the slaves were treated, Samson was stripped of the one thing that really mattered to him: his hair. Now for the slaves it wasn't necessarily their hair, but we see the brilliant allusion here. The two verses within the poem pretty much summed it up as a whole: "there is a poor, blind Samson in this land, shorn of his strength and bound in bonds of steel." Oh how cruel slavery was.

The Long Fellow

      Longfellow sought to refer to slavery as a practice that looked seemingly safe and embedded in the culture, but can still turn into political turmoil that would result in the downfall of an entire nation.  Henry was probably searching for a clever way to say this, so he wittingly pulled the story of Samson off the shelf and used it as an allusion in his poem.  Samson in the poem represents slavery in our nation.  In a nutshell, Samson is feeble, and slavery is seemingly harmless.  But Samson tore down the pillars of the temple killing thousands when people were mocking him for his weakness.  Longfellow was saying that slavery would eventually do this to us.  Though, it may not happen physically, slavery would morally rot out the values of our nation and our government would die from the moral decay.     

“They’re gonna put ya’ll back in chains.”

-Joe Biden

There is a poor blind Samson

This was a hard poem for me. Mainly just because i'm not good with allusions and i didn't really know this story. But I found that the author of this poem was using Samson to allude to the slaves. Because back in the day when blacks were treated so poorly, the got taken advantage of and all their right were taken away even though they had the same rights as the whites. Sorta like in The Warning when he says "There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, shorn of his strength and bound in bonds of steel."

A Shapeless Mass of Wreck and Rubbish

        I discovered the allusion to Samson when the poem read, "upon the pillars of the temple laid" but finding the allusion and uncovering how the author uses it to create meaning are very different.  To understand some writers you must look at things from their point of view. Longfellow saw the slaves before the Civil War and obviously doesn't see our time when blacks and whites are treated the same. Longfellow is saying that by owning slaves they had doomed themselves. He saw having slaves as an injustice. He creates meaning by using Samson as an allusion to all black slaves. Because the U.S. enslaved blacks, they were destroying their own "temple of liberties" by destroying the liberty of slaves. Longfellow said their government would fall because everything they stood for was thrown in the dust along with human rights. And it might become "a shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish."

The Warning

  Hello Everyone!

At first, I was very apprehensive about approaching The Warning on an allusion point of view because I, unlike many other homeschoolers, wasn't exactly fed Bible verses like a fat king as a kid. It was an exciting challenge and I was up for it and after much deliberation I decided to tackle it from a new position, one of openness and excitement. Accordingly, after reading it the second time, I realized my eyes were just scanning the words and I wasn't reading the words, digesting and moving on, that's when I noticed in the black print, the name. Samson.

                                  Duh.

 After much research I learned the story of Mr. Samson like the back of my hand and I deduced that the poem was scanning an overview of the story first and then concluding with the last stanza pertaining to the current (in his time) slavery. Longfellow states something to the liking of  'there are many types of Samson-like people (Slaves) who are blind and enslaved and then one day they will'  "...shake the pillars of the Commonweal..." meaning that until we get over our "liberties" then we likely won't notice the jewel of that person and how we are all equal. The state of the slaves being “bound in bonds of steel” obviously meaning tortured, depreciated etc…

Really enjoyed it and enjoyed getting to know Samson, one more Bible story to chalk up to a great week :)

                                                       -Christy

Homework this week

1. Exercise 2 and 3 in book pages 35 and 36

2. The Warning by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Blog- How does the author use Judges 13-16 to describe the state of American slavery before the civil war?
Annotated and bring the poem to class

3. EXTRA CREDIT WORLDVIEW ASSIGNMENT
This is an extra credit 10 point assignment. It can be considered like a blog skip, if you do this assignment it will count like an extra blog credit.

Read "The Bible is an Antique Volume" by Emily Dickinson
This poem is an attack on Christianity and uses several allusions.
2 Peter 1:21
Matthew 2:1
Gen 2:10-4
Revelation 12:7
Luke 22:47-48
1 Samuel 16:14-23
Romans 3:23
Classical Allusion: Orpheus

Explain why Dickinson is attacking Christianity and how she is using these allusions to create meaning. Write also what your response would be to her poem, how would you share with her what you believe?
Typed. Minimum of one page.

Achilles Heel

Achilles Heel

In modern day, when someone mentions “Achilles Heel” they are referring to a story in Greek mythology about a character named Achilles. In this myth, Achilles’ mother, Thetis, took him to a body of water that possessed the ability to make anyone who was immersed in it invincible. When Achilles was dipped in the water by Thetis, she held him by the foot, which never touched the water. This mistake proved to be fatal when her son was shot in the heel with a poisonous arrow. The expression Achilles Heel refers to someone who is very sound in general or overall but has one weakness that can negate all of his strengths. 

On His Blindness....

I really enjoyed reading this poem it made me think hard not only about the poem but about Matthew 25 also.  I loved the line, "God doth not need either man's work or His own gifts." This really stuck out to me that God doesn't need our works are our good deed but we have the pleasure the honor to even serve a God as merciful and gracious as He is. This also alluded to the story in that the master did not need the talents he just wanted to know who was "a good and faithful servant" a who was a " wicked and slothful servant."

   Another allusion in this poem is when he says, "When I consider how my light is spent ere half my days in this dark world wide, and that one talent which is death to hide." This is quite a obvious allusion but as I thought more deeply on these two little sentences I realized there was more than just  them both talking about talents. He is talking about salvation in general that before he was called to believe he was in a "Dark world wide". He says that, "The one talent was death to hide," alluding to the servant that hid his talent and did not please the master by doing this, but also in the poem he is saying that just that one decision to disobey would be the death to his relationship to his master and his God.

     In John Milton's poem it seems as though he has read this scripture and applied it to his life and how obedience is so important in the eyes of God. This poem has not only taught me to serve God to the highest extent that I can, but to do it expecting nothing. Finally, this poem is not only how we should honor God in our works but how we should also treat our authorities in our every day life. 

Achilles Heel

Achilles was the son of Thetis and Peleus. After it was prophesied that Achilles would die in battle, his mother, Thetis panicked. When Achilles was born she attempted to make him immortal by dipping him in the River Styx. As she immersed him, she held him by one heel. Forgetting to dunk him a second time, the place where she held him remained untouched by the magic water of the Styx, therefore, keeping it vulnerable. Achilles grew up to be a great war hero. However, the vulnerability of his heel still haunted him. One day in battle, a poisoned arrow flew towards him. Bam! It hit his heel. Normally it wouldn’t affect him, however, his heel was still mortal. Therefore the arrow buried into his skin, spreading the poison, thus killing Achilles. To this day, any weak point is called an "Achilles' heel". For example, “My Achilles’ heel is procrastination.” I also thought it was interesting that we refer to the strong tendon that connects the muscles of the calf of the leg with the heel bone as the "Achilles' tendon".

Johnny Boy

     Johnny Milton was a famous English writer next to William Shakespeare.  Milton had a great passion for writing, but by 1654, he became blind.  The word "light" is used to refer to his blindness on line 1.  Since he is blind, he considers himself as a useless poet even though he desires to serve God with his writing.  Milton at one point, concludes that God wants him to do smaller tasks since he is blind, but then he alludes to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30.  He is worried that if he were to bury his talent as well, it might become lost forever and he will then be cast into God's darkness.  He does not want that.  Milton also makes reference to the Bible by saying, "Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best." He also says that you can serve God simply by standing and waiting for him.


         

John Milton's "On His Blindess"

What an awesome poem done by Milton. I loved how, when reading this, you could see his train of thought on what he thinks about using God-given talents in this "dark world and wide." Not only was it a great poem in general, but it was clearly referring to the parable in Matthew when it talks about using your talents to further the Kingdom instead of greedily keeping them to yourself. I think this was a good reminder (or maybe an eyeopener) for us.  May we all serve the Lord with the talents he's granted to us!

On His Blindness

I have been struggling a bit with allusions, but I did really enjoy reading this weeks poems. I thought 'On His Blindness' was beautifully done, talking about how we should not put our talents to waste and we should remain obedient to God. My favorite line was the very first one - "When I consider how my light is spent". Milton is questioning how his 'light' is being used in the world. Some people will interpret this light as being his capability to see, but others will see it as his spiritual light. I love how the   poem can go different ways depending on who reads it.

On His Blindness...

For starters, I thoroughly enjoyed the poems this week. Though  the sheer volume of work was a little scary at times but careful consideration and delicacy yielded actual fun from it.
I myself resolved in the beautiful poem On His Blindness that the writer is trying to convey a message of Using your wisdom and individual gifts that were bestowed upon you "...(T)o serve therewith my Maker..." Don't hide them for your own selfish gain. Trade them in and build on them to further your wisdom and gifts for Christ. Just my personal take. It was very challenging.

Achilles' heel

           When an expression, involving the mention of "Achilles heel" is used, that person is alluding to the
story of  Achilles from Greek mythology. According to the myth, when he was only a baby, it was foretold that he would die in battle. To prevent the tragedy, his mother dipped him into a river said to possess the great power of invincibility. However, when she dipped him in, she held him by the heel leaving it unexposed to the magical river. His heel became his weakness due to his mothers mistake. This weakness proved to be fatal when he was shot in the heel by an arrow in battle. Despite his weakness, he is still remembered as a great warrior. An example of an expression alluding to the story of Achilles would be: Although Dana was on a strict diet, brownies were her Achilles' heel.

The Useless Man

     I think the poem was mainly putting this verse from the bible into its own words. Yet the poem went into deeper detail. Obviously it was referring to the meaning of the parable. The parable was about how men with more money generally get more money because they invest and work with it. Now the poor man just ran and burred it in order to save the money. So while the other men were using there money to make more the other man was just literally sitting on it. In the poem it states that "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed And post o'er land and ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait." In other words God doesn't need our money or gifts. He needs our minds to serve him just like the smarter workers used there minds to make there master richer and the other man was so close minded that he ended up getting fired.

On His Blindness

        I really liked "On His Blindness"! It gives a really good example of how Christians and Christianity is. I think what it was saying was if we were just to "waste our light" we are wasting the opportunity to spread  the light God has given us to others. If we work "after God's own heart" for example like David, our resources here on earth are greater spent being after God's heart. I personally got a little but of a reference to that between the lines. In this poem it asks if God looks for gifts for him and works that we do to get to heaven. He only looks for in us is bearing his witness upon us and to show that in everyday (why do you think we have the kids song "This little light of mine"?) God wants the thousands of us working for him to not hide the talents we have, but to let them shine and not let them die. If we do this and stand by God we will be rewarded.

Allusion to Matthew 25

   The meaning of this poem is that man is supposed to serve God and please him(God both not need either man's work or his own gifts, who best bear his mild yoke they serve him best.) In Matthew 25 it talks about a man entrusting three servants with his wealth. The man with the least amount of money buried his (and the one talent which is death to hide). But the other two put their money to work and gained twice as much as the had. The man was very proud of the two who doubled theirs but was disappointed with the one who hid his talents.

Achilles Heel

     Because I am a geek about Greek mythology I couldn't pass the chance to write about Achilles. Achilles was the best warrior who ever lived discounting any demigods because they are half god. His mother was told that her baby Achilles was to die in war, so to try and stop any chances of that she snuck down to the edge of the underworld and bathed him in the river Styx. This river was supposed to grant invincibility. Sadly Achilles mother made a huge mistake, she held Achilles by his heel. The heel was now the only part of Achilles that was mortal. Later Achilles grew and grew until he was a strong warlord. Because of his blessing, he led battles and didnt even get a scratch! Until one day a poison arrow flew towards him. Usually this would bounce off his iron-like skin but this arrow flew directly into his heel. The poison spread, killing him in minutes. The allusion to Achilles heel is found in many stories. One way to use Achilles heel as an allusion would be to say "My Achilles heel is grammar" and that would be the same thing as saying "my place of venerability is grammar."

by Liam Searcy

"On His Blindness"

    
   This poem clearly alludes to a parable that Jesus told about 3 servants and their talents (found in Matthew 25).
   John Milton hints at the story when he states: 

   '...That one talent which is death to hide...'. 
   
  He is alluding to the unfaithful servant who buried the talent in the ground instead of using it to multiply the talent while his master was away. When the master returned, he punished the unfaithful servant and threw him 'outside into the darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth'.
   The poem continues to allude to the parable, and state:

   'Either man's work or his own gifts, who best Bear his mild yoak, they serve him best, his State is Kingly.'

   Meaning that those who serve the master (GOD) best and use what is given to them wisely, will be richly rewarded. 

Poems for this week

On His Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait." 

-John Milton


Religious Learnings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-E. E. Cummings

Homework for this week

Remember to read everything three times and annotate it. This will be a part of all of our assignments.

1. Read and do work in textbook pages 27-33 (This is the one assignment you don't have to annotate or read 3 times)

2. Find at least 2 allusions in "Religious Learnings" by E. E. Cummings. Write down the biblical reference for the allusion.

3. Listen to/read the lyrics to Faust, Midas and Myself by the band Switchfoot, and the song Liar Liar by the Fine Frenzy. Research these classical allusions and write 3 paragraphs on how these artists use allusion to create meaning. HINT: use specific examples in the lyrics to back up your opinion.

4. Originally I was going to have you blog on achilles heel (and if you still choose to do that you will not be deducted points) BUT I think that you might enjoy this more:
Read On His Blindness by John Milton and read Matthew 25:14-30 and explain the biblical allusion in this poem.



Bonus/ Extra work
Continue to read the Count of Monte Cristo
Read and find the allusion in this poem:
Robert Frost "Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same"

What Man has Made of Man

I thought Wordsworth's poem was beautiful. He tells the beauty/simplicity of nature, and is so descriptive and clear that his words actually reach and impact you. It is written in sadness which I love, because it helps you feel and relate with the emotional pull of the poem so much more. My favorite line has to be "And 'tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes." I like reading things like this so much more than the Scholar one, just because there was so much feeling put into every word.

unexpected turn of events

      As william is writing this he must be watching a fascinating view and "in that sweet mood with pleasant thoughts bring sad thoughts to the mind." was not what i expected to come next. in this poem William Wordsworth, who has an extraordinary last name, finds pain by watching beauty."but why" you may ask (and if you did then just wait and i'll tell you). he looks at nature a different sort of way. He finds that because nature is beautiful he sees how the human nature is not and it grieves him.  "have i not reason to lament what man has made of man?" i see this is a beautiful poem, and i believe all that i can, that this assignment has made me think, of what man has made of man.


a blog on Lines Written in Early Spring
by Liam Searcy

Shakespeare..

                          "Love," - "It is the star to every wandering bark,
              Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."

             

             I love how Shakespeare can take a subject, such as love and 

             describe it so vividly that a person can almost see it. In those 

             few short lines, (after annotating) I could see what he wanted

            his readers to imagine! A fantastic poem, and a fantastic writer!

            I would love to annotate more of his work!!