Poem Analysis

1914

War broke: and now the Winter of the world

With perishing great darkness closes in.

The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,

Is over all the width of Europe whirled,

Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled

Are all Art’s ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin

Famines of thought and feeling. Love’s wine’s thin.

The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.

 

For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,

And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,

An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,

A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.

But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need

Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.

The first line of the poem “1914” by Wilfred Owen reveals the setting for the poem. You can tell that World War 1 is underway by the first line and the second part of the line could be a metaphor for how the author saw the world. In winter everything is cold and and dark and that is how he describes the time. The second line explains that as more people are dying, darkness is coming over the world. “The foul tornado” is a metaphor for the war with how big and destructive tornados could be where the war was centered. Then the next line is telling you how big the war is spreading all over Europe. To rend something is to break it so a ship with no sails isn’t moving and no progress is being made. To rent or furl is to tear or put something away so Owen is saying that art is going away during the war. In the next line a famine is mentioned which is a shortage so he’s saying people have lost their feelings during the war. “Love’s wine’s thin.” means there is isn’t a lot of love because if wine is thin it’s dry. “Human Autumn” could mean the soldiers and how they are starting to die and “down hurled” means the soldiers are dying violently. The second stanza starts out talking about seasons which could be a metaphor for how the war went on. And by using the words “bloomed” and “blazing” it helps you understand that they were happy times. “An Autumn softly fell,” shows it could still be a happy time but it’s starting to close into winter which symbolizes darkness. Also “slowly fell” means it seemed like it was a long time and there was a lot of increase. Then the next line states they are in the winter of the war and they need spring to come which is happier times but they need blood for it to come.

The Next War

War’s a joke for me and you,

Wile we know such dreams are true. – Siegfried Sassoon

 

Out there, we’ve walked quite friendly up to Death,-

Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,-

Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.

We’ve sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,-

Our eyes wept, but our courage didn’t writhe.

He’s spat at us with bullets and he’s coughed

Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft,

We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.

 

Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!

We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.

No soldier’s paid to kick against His powers.

We laughed, -knowing that better men would come,

And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags

He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.

“The Next War” by Wilfred Owen starts out with a quote from another soldier describing the war from his point of view. In the first line in the stanza, Wilfred Owen tells you that in the war they have “walked quite friendly up to Death,” and “Sat down and eaten with him,”. This means they aren’t scared of dying during the war. The next line could be a metaphor for spilling blood, or killing, in the war. The fourth line could mean they’ve been very close to dying in the war because they could smell its breath. Then he says they cried but they didn’t lose their courage during the war. “He spat at us with bullets” is another metaphor for them being close to dying. Shrapnel is fragments of a bomb thrown out by an explosion. This means there had been a lot of explosions during the war and brought them close to death. Then the last line of the first stanza says, “We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.” This is another way of telling the audience that they  weren’t afraid of death.  The first three lines show more of how they weren’t scared of death like the beginning of the first stanza. The fourth line means the soldiers weren’t scared of death because they knew more soldiers would come along with more wars. The last line is “He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.” and this could mean that in the end they had to fight death to get to the ending point (the flag).

Happiness

Ever again to breathe pure happiness,

So happy that we gave away our toy?

We smiled at nothings, needing no caress?

Have we not laughed too often since with Joy?

Have we not stolen too strange and sorrowful wrongs

For her hands’ pardoning? The sun may cleanse,

And time, and starlight. Life will sing great songs,

And gods will show us pleasures more than men’s.

 

Yet heaven looks smaller than the old doll’s-home,

No nestling place is left in bluebell bloom,

And the wide arms of trees have lost their scope.

The former happiness is unreturning:

Boys’ griefs are not so grievous as our yearning,

Boys have no sadness sadder than our hope.

      The first two lines in “Happiness” by Wilfred Owen are “Ever again to breathe pure happiness, So happy that we gave away our toy?”. Wilfred Owen was a soldier who wrote poems during the war so these lines are most likely him thinking about a time when he was happy because he brought up giving away a toy which you would if you were a child and that would make you happy. The next line also could be him remembering time as a child because he says “We smiled at nothings,”. The next two lines of the poem could be talking about present time because he says they have had moments of laughter that had joy during the war and he’s questioning his happiness. Then to finish out the first stanza, he is talking about how time will go on but sometime in life God will give them happiness. The first line of the second stanza says, “Yet heaven looks smaller than the old doll’s-home,”. This means to Owen, he can’t see a lot happiness in his life and it is also a reference to being a child when he’s talking about a doll. The next two lines are also talking about how happiness is small to him but it could also mean how winter is coming which references darkness because the plants are dying in this poem. Then in the last three lines of the poem he talks about how the happiness before the war never came back, and the grief isn’t as much as their longing but nothing is sadder than the hope they have.

The Book Thief

 

In Molching 1940’s death was in the air.

World War 2 was underway

And Germany was the Nazi lair.

Liesel Meminger caught death’s eye,

And was known as the Book Thief

While the the bombs gave Molching black skies.

The Book Thief first acted after her brother passed,

She took “The Grave Digger’s Handbook”

And continued to Molching on the train.

Then she met her foster parents who scared her at first,

And the nightmares about her brother started

But then Hans Hubermann helped her at her worst.

 

Then she met Rudy Steiner who worked consistently to get her attention.

As time went by she met Max Vandenburg,

Who was a hidden Jew she couldn’t mention.

Their friendship began when it started to snow,

When he was sick and couldn’t wake up.

And once he woke they helped each other grow,

And he taught her the power of words.

When the bombs began their neighbor’s shelter kept everyone safe on the block,

The Book Thief read out loud to calm everyone down.

Then the Nazi soldiers paraded with the Jewish prisoners down the sidewalk.

Hans Hubermann helps an old man who is a prisoner,

And soon faces punishment for his actions.

Max had to leave and soon Hans Hubermann and Alex Steiner were drafted into the army.

 

Rosa gave Liesel a gift from Max,

A book he wrote called “The Word Shaker”.

And Max promised they would be reunited one day.

The bombs got closer as the war raged on.

As Liesel was writing her book her neighborhood was bombed.

Everyone died on her block except her and soon she lived with the mayor.

In the end she was reunited with Max

And then she lived a long life and had her own family.

Why I Read

     All around the world reading is known to be an ancient skill that helps us learn about the world around us. Reading is an essential skill that helps us learn how to do most things in life. Reading can also help you get ahead in life and with your career because you can gain so much knowledge from reading. A lot of people today don’t read as much as people used to. Some people don’t have enough time, can’t find a good book, or just don’t want to read. I read mostly because I have to for school. Sometimes during the school year I will read a few books in my free time during class but I don’t really read outside from that.

     I don’t read that much outside of school because most of the time the book that I’m trying to read doesn’t interest me that much. For me to read for enjoyment I will have to really enjoy the book. When I have to read something for school I usually like the book because I understand it since we talk about it and analyze it. But reading on my own is more difficult for me because sometimes I won’t understand it or other times I just don’t want to read. If I find an interesting book and I can understand it then most of the time I will read it then. So my relationship with reading isn’t the best because I don’t read a lot but it’s still good because when I find a good book I could read a lot. Most of the time though, I read because I have to for school assignments. The genres I read are mystery, teen novels, and in the future I would like to read some classic literature.

A Piece of Art that has Meaning to Me

There are many things of what people consider art. The “Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh is a piece of art that many people around the world recognize and value. Vincent van Gogh painted  “Starry Night” in June 1889 at the asylum he was staying at in Saint Remy de Provence. We now know the “Starry Night” as one of the most recognizable paintings in the world with a view of the night sky. The “Starry Night” shows artistic merit because of how Vincent van Gogh captured the night sky with realism but made it abstract at the same time.

     “Starry Night” is known for its swirling clouds, bright stars, a shining crescent moon, and a cypress tree overlooking a town. What stands out the most in the painting to me is the sky because of how much detail is there. Even though the painting has both abstract and realism, there is still a lot of detail throughout the whole painting. I like how he made the sky swirl together but with a little bit of yellow paint in the cloud. Even though it’s a little detail I think it brings the sky together.  Another thing that gives the painting artistic merit is the how he made the stars stand out. If it was a realistic night sky painting the stars would be bright dots. But since he decided to make it abstract too, he made the stars have bright circles around them making them stand out more. This is another thing that brings the whole painting together.

     Vincent van Gogh painted “Starry Night” in June 1889. A year earlier he checked into the asylum after an incident where he cut a portion of his own ear lobe off. When he was there, he was in his room most of the time which gave him a lot of time to paint. He painted “Starry Night” just before sunrise with the view of the sky outside his window. In his room he had bars on the windows but in the painting he left them out. Before “Starry Night”, Van Gogh usually painted exactly what he saw so this painting shows a break from his usual works of art. There are different views on what Van Gogh meant by this painting and one of them is that it represented hope. Some people believe this because the town is mostly dark with a bright sky. This could mean even when it’s dark you can still find light. “Starry Night” was painted in 1889 and didn’t become known for a while after Vincent van Gogh died but people still know it today as one of the most popular paintings in the world.

How to Start a Successful Blog

     In the podcast “Maria Popova on Being Interesting, Creating More Time in a Day, and How to Start a Successful Blog”, she talked about meaningful ideas that could help you to start writing. An idea that I found the most powerful was to write for yourself, not for other people. Maria Popova states, “The second you start doing it for an audience you’ve lost the long game because creating something that is rewarding and sustainable over the long run requires most of all keeping yourself excited about it which in turn of course requires only doing things that you yourself are in interested in, that interests you.” In short, she believes once you start writing for other people you are no longer excited about writing.

     I found this idea powerful because it relates to me with writing. Sometimes when I have to write about something in school I only write what my teachers want to hear. This is difficult a lot of the time because writing for someone else requires so much more because you are trying to please someone who isn’t you. If you only write for yourself and you don’t try to please anyone but you, your writing will no longer be forced and it could be more meaningful because it’s what you think. Writing for yourself could also make you happier because you are no longer trying to impress anyone else. In the future when you want or have to write something don’t try to please other people, only write for yourself.