This page features students’ noteworthy writing. Just click on “View Comment” to see the first example of a student’s excellent work.
This page features students’ noteworthy writing. Just click on “View Comment” to see the first example of a student’s excellent work.
The following is a copy of the poem that Pablo chose and a copy of his analysis. His work on this assignment exemplifies the method and effort needed to “get” a poem. He also wrote his analysis with a flair that makes it a pleasure to read. (I wish you could see his printed poem and his annotation because he filled up the page with comments and questions.)
NOTE: If you have something to say about this student’s work and analysis, feel free. Just hit the red “Comment” button at the end and type your comment.
“Politics”
by William Butler Yeats
How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here’s a traveled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there’s a politician
That has both read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war’s alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms.
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Pablo’s analysis:
This poem is interesting to me in that despite, or maybe even because of its short length, it allows my mind to play and try to pry the meaning and history behind its clouded contents. In short, I think this poem is about a man, who once had love to run to, who instead decided to run in the direction of war. Perhaps he was drafted. Perhaps he volunteered. And although he may have been filled with romantic notions of duty and honor and bravery, he too late realized that the impassioned speeches of scholars and politicians may stir the soul and beat the drums of war (maybe war in Spain against Facism, or the U.S. entering World War II), but in the end the love of a girl was more important to him and he now regrets her absence.
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[Following are the insightful and creative comments of Nathaniel DeCoste on Richard Rodriguez's speech that we read in class.]
Nathaniel DeCoste: Ideas on Richard Rodriguez thoughts are about:
1 The New American Individual
R.R.S “I am not in any simple sense, the creature of multiculturalism. I am the creature of something more radical and that’s the penetration of one’s culture by another, one race to another.”
•I Nathaniel Francis Anthony DeCoste am product of some my species races and cultures.
• 2 The Melting Pot (American Individual’s adopted traits)
R.R.S “We change one another in contact with one another. You’re going to end up looking like the person next to you.”
• You end up like other people; you will adopt ones walk, another’s speech, a person’s perspective, and so on and so forth.
Cultural exchange –noun
An exchange of students, artists, athletes, etc., between two countries to promote mutual understanding.
R.R.S “That for all of your physical differences, for all of your age differences, for all of your cultural and religious differences, you have extraordinary things in common and that you are also responsible in various ways for making each other.
• The Human races are not isolated any more. The plane and the radio have brought us closer together. The continuing practice of mixing and intermarriage between the races, and blending and contamination of cultures.
3 The Old Vocabulary no longer fits:
• The Old Vocabulary: Five Major races of the USA
They are White, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, American-Indian, and Hispanic.
• A guess is this might be considered politically incorrect by some people. Or it could be that people are using these words incorrectly in their vocabulary and understanding.
4 You not one thing, your many things:
R.R.S: “Here we are in 1997, and we do not know what to make of Tiger Woods. We don’t know what to name we should give him? African. Yes. Tiger Woods. Exactly. African. Asian. Indian. European. Californian. (From the audience, “He’s a golfer.”) And he’s a golfer.”
• I am a Nathaniel, a DeCoste, an American, a white, French Canadian, Western European, Swedish, French man, romantic, artist, an alien, a freak, lover of the strange, Christian, Roman Catholic, Former High school Student, a Boston Yearup student, Nina Hagen Fan, Marc Almond admirer, a Klaus Nomi Follower, a Satanist, a God believer, a UFO believer, a New Englander, a Human(to my Knowledge) a fan of retro entertainment, Ex-Caddy, Idealists, Communist, Capitalist, believer in democracy, a nice guy, a Listener, a critic, please and thank you kind of person, a socialist, a cat owner, a bad cook, and experimenter with socializing with others.
R.R.S: “ All Americans will identify themselves by culture rather than by race and that is interesting… That not simply a racial identity is at stake here but our cultural identity. How many Mormons are there in the room? How many gays are there in this room? How many widows are in this room? How many southern are in this room? There are new ways of organizing the information about who we are, that are cultural and not simply racial”
Jamilah Johnson
October 10, 2008
Robert Rodriguez Paragraph
Mr. Micheal Boyle
After reading Mr. Rodriguez’ speech and annotating it a bit I began to
develop an idea of what I believe to be the purpose of the speech. I
believe that the point Mr. Rodriguez was trying to make was that people
shouldn’t concern themselves so much with defining themselves by race,
but instead they should just consider themselves human. Mr. Rodriguez
emphasized this point by giving some of the history of all the mixed
cultures in his country and explaining how rare it had become over time
to find anyone in his homeland of Mexico who purely consisted of one
race. He also emphasized his point by telling the listeners stories of
times when he was asked what race he was and he responded by saying
something that he knew would completely shock the the person receiving
his answer. Once I began to think about what I gained from Mr.
Rodriguez’ speech I realized that it actually did give me sort of a new
perspective on how I should define myself. Me being a person whose never
really studied my roots or family history has always just defined myself
as Black and nothing more. But now I realize that their is a great
possibility that I am much more then just a that, and that instead of
considering myself black I should start defining myself in ways that
make me feel good about being who I am. I might even begin to think way
outside the box and follow Mr. Rodriguez’ lead by responding to a race
question by saying something like green, which is one of my most
favorite colors for various reasons. Reasons that reflect the things I
do not about myself; for example I believe I look awesome dressed in the
color and it represents special moments that happened in my life that
contributed to me being the person that I am today. Instead of saying
black which doesn’t define who I am at all. But instead is simply the
way people expect me 2 respond when they see the color of my skin.