To be, or not to be; that is the question

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.


I think this was vary instrumental in the English and American culture . This passage from Hamlet questions of whether life is worth the pain of living. This is a somewhat difficult question for Hamlet who goes through the resent murder of his father, and of his girlfriend Ophelia. I thought it was funny that he compared her to a Nymph and I looked it up and found that they were always seen as beautiful maidens in Greek mythology. This is a passage that is most likely vary prominent to youth as growing up they can go through problems which are, to them are to difficult do endure. I thought Hamlet is a vary good read. The grammar and story are compelling and it is a challenge to those who are unfamiliar with Shakespeare.  

To be? Or. Not to be?

To be, or not to be: that is the question:            - Whether to live or to die: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer           - Is it better to suffer mentally
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,    - The stumbling blocks of destiny, 
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,         - Or attack the problems,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;    - And end them by opposition? To die; to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end            - No more sleeping; and yet by sleep we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks  - all the heart ache and pain
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation           -  That people are doomed to face.
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;              - It is something I desire: to die and sleep...
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;  - To die: possibly see the afterlife: there's the problem 
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come  - For in death's sleep what might happen
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,        - When we no longer belong to our mortal bodies,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect            - Must make us stop and think: there's the thing
That makes calamity of so long life;                  - That makes our troubles last so long
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,  - For who would withstand the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,  - The wrongs of the oppressor, the proud mans insults,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,        - The pains of unreturned love, the delay of justice,
The insolence of office and the spurns              - The scorn of officials and the rejection
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,           - That happens to those who don't deserve it,
When he himself might his quietus make          - When he himself might end it all
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,     - With a mere knife? Who would bear the burden,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,             - The blood, sweat, and tears of a labored life,
But that the dread of something after death,     - But the fear and dread of life after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn    - The unknown land from which 
No traveller returns, puzzles the will                  - No one returns, confuses the mind
And makes us rather bear those ills we have    - And makes us prefer to bear the burdens of life
Than fly to others that we know not of?            - Rather than face the unknown troubles of death.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;  - Thus our thinking does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution                 - And so the natural color of courage
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,     - Is sickened by the paleness of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment        - And actions of great importance 
With this regard their currents turn awry,        - With this thinking in mind, are forgotten,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!   - And lose their reputation. Quiet!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons        - The beautiful Ophelia! Fair lady, remember my sins 
Be all my sins remember’d.                              in your prayers.

Soliloquy

To be, or not to be--that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--

No more--and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep--

To sleep--perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause. There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprise of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action. -- Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia! -- Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

Should i continue to exist or not

would i think more highly of myself if i just suffer

all the trials of bad luck

or if i go against the tide(meaning life)

and just end my life

it would stop all the heart ache

and all the bad surprises life brings

the difference between sleeping and dying is dreams

when you die you don't dream

that's what makes life so long

so why suffer if you can die and ease the pain

some people would rather deal with life than the uncertainty of where they will go after 

when we retire from life we will be worthless

why worry about the burdens in life

when there is uncertainty about the after life

the after life is an unknown place from which 

travelers never return

maybe it is better to keep living rather than dying

and going to some unknown place

the thought of the great endeavors slur the "native hue of resolution"

it makes you sick just trying to imagine it

at some point the troubles of life will go away though

so Ophelia please remember me in your prayers

The Road Not Taken--Poetry Analysis

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. The Road Not Taken is about the paths and choices we make in life. Whether young or old, we still have important choices ahead of us.  The poem is specific.  Two paths made which are very important to the traveler.  The Traveler wants to go down both, but cannot and so must choose.  From a religious stand point these could be seen as the turning point in a persons' life.  A point where they either choose to do good or bad. The Traveler ended up choosing the better choice because he traveled the path less traveled which to him made him happy. Others might not be happy with this idea but this Traveler was and made that choice as we all have to choose in this life.

Homework this week

For those of you who did last weeks blog:
Read and annotate Acts 1-3 of Hamlet. I will be checking your annotations to make sure you read it.
You can find the script here: http://www.william-shakespeare.info/script-text-hamlet.htm
You can also blog this week for extra credit if you so desire.

For those of you who DID not post last week:
Blog analyzing every line of Hamlet's Soliloquy on death from Act 3 Scene 1
Essentially you're doing the same assignment we did last week, just with this instead of a poem of your choice. Review the instructions from last weeks assignment if you have questions. And don't forget to comment:)
- Read and annotate Acts 1-3 of Hamlet

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.

Robert Frost "Nothing Gold Can Stay" analysis

1.Nature's first green is gold,

2.Her hardest hue to hold.

3.Her early leaf's a flower;

4.But only so an hour.

5.Then leaf subsides to leaf,

6.So Eden sank to grief,

7.So dawn goes down to day

8.Nothing gold can stay.

1. In the first line of the poem Robert Frost is speaking of new borns and how they are like gold.
2. Right here he is saying that the precious babys wont last forever.
3. Her early leafs a flower, a young girl blooming into a mature woman.
4. It doesnt last long, but only so an hour.
5. Now she is getting older and is soon to leave the house of her father.
6. Eden sank to grief, which could be related to when Adam and Eve left the garden of Eden, as Eden sinks to grief so will the parents of a child who has to leave the house.
7. This line means that now life must go on.
8. Nothing gold can stay means that children grow old and leave and parents grow old and die it happens.

Poem Analysis

The N**** Speaks Of Rivers

By Langston Hughes

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers

Line:

1.  Rivers in this poem I think represent the slavery in history.

2. Further elaborating about how rivers are intertwined with slavery in history.

3. He talks about how his soul has grown deep like the rivers. Maybe because he is depressed?

4-6. In these lines he is talking about his race as a whole and how they have been a major factor throughout history.

7. This line is similar to the previous lines except it is more personal. It talks about how when Abe Lincoln went to new orleans the mississippi "sang" and the muddy bosom turned into "a golden sunset" which is talking about how he took out slavery and "transformed" the south.

8-10. It describes here how the rivers "In my interpretation" have become ancient and dusky like the times when his race had equal rights.

     When Langston Hughes wrote this poem, he was on a train headed to Mexico riding along the Mississippi River. He wrote this poem in a time when racial injustice was very prominent in America. Langston uses rivers as a metaphor for slavery throughout history and he speaks about how Abe Lincoln turned it around and turned it into a sunset.