The Feminine Divine

While thinking about our Myths project I stumbled in to a rather deep thought. I have the Female Divine Myth and we are focusing on "The White Buffalo Calf Woman". In this myth the Goddess of Life is depicted. This Goddess creates one's cultures and life in a group of people. In this myth the woman visits the Lakota tribe and sets the guidelines that they still follow and creates hope for them by giving them a sign. An attribute of the Goddess of Life in myths in general is that they avoid a life of violence and they tend to live in harmony.

I started thinking about this as most Native American tribes, like the Lakota tribe, follow these two qualities as well as they also live in harmony with nature more than other groups of people do. In doing more research I found that many matriarchal societies, like the Lakota tribe, have these qualities as part of their culture. I could not help but think of the United States as a patriarchal society having many exact opposite features at the root of their culture. The whole history of the Founding Fathers versus the Native Americans suddenly became a matter of much more than land and greed to me. It became a matter of culture and a matter of spirituality.

One aspect of a myth is to better understand one's beginnings and roots. Reading this myth I discovered not only the Lakota tribe's roots but also the roots and culture that are the foundation of everything US students are taught about our history. One of the Lakota tribe leaders, Chief Arvol, was saying a lot of the Myth has to do with the equality and harmony of all humans and to remind us that no one is better and no one is more powerful than others because nature is the real power and the one that truly changes our world.

In hearing this, I couldn't help but think of all the benefits our society would gain, both in and out of the classroom, if we had a sense of true equality like many matriarchal societies do. It would allow for more peace and result in gaining better understanding. In aspect of the classroom, it would open it up to true, honest discussion where students would feel comfortable being themselves and questioning and expressing their ideas without fear of embarrassment. Such a powerful broad idea can relate so intimately to each individual and if taken seriously on that level really could change our prejudiced filled society.

Like the White Buffalo Calk Woman says, Change is Coming when White Buffalo Calves are born. Chief Arvol said over the past years they have started to see one of those be born once a year. Perhaps this speaks to the kind of change that might be made....

Two Original Poems

POEM #1
"When I Lay My Head Down"
You're a sweet sweet melody
that keeps playing in my head.
And as your chords pour over me,
I'll be singing you all night long.
When I catch a glimpse
of my future walking by me,
I wanna grab a hold of ya
Cuz I'm at home with ya
in my arms
And I hope
And I hope you know,

When I lay my head down,
When I lay my head down,
All I see is you
All I see is you
You'll never be alone now
cuz when I lay my head down
all I see is you
and I know you see me too.

Tell me that I'm dreaming
There's no way this could be true.
Just stop for a minute
I just gotta take a long look at you.
You amaze me everyday
Take this ring I never stray
from your side I'll be yours
hold you tight forevermore.
Glorious you make me feel
the world spins around when were standing still
What you and me got this is real
I still get chills and I always will.

POEM #2
"The River"
I despise sitting at home, knowing flowing
water rolls hypnotizing those people casting
to deep holes holding gold under glass. Grass
edged music in motion, love potion for those
that love knowing holding just below the emerald
glow lies an underwater gift.

Examples of Audience, Persona, Assonance, Alliteration, and Musicality of Poems

Persona:

1.     Opposite sex:

a.     I need to get a brand new car

But it’s Valentine’s Day and I got a girl

I know she wants some Kay Jeweler’s bling or,

Maybe she’ll settle for a ride and a whirl.

2.     Someone younger:

a.     I love my baby bear

He plays with me and cares

For me. I like to give him hugs

After he kills those yucky bugs!

3.     Someone older:

a.     Ah, when I think back to the good ol’ days

When a good time meant a porch and a pop

And your girl would sit on the handle bars and sway

And you would ride down the shady path and talk.

Audience:

4.     Child:

a.     Beautiful girl, why are you sad?

Did mean old Jimmy steal your cat?

Well, it’s okay and you know why?

‘Cause that cat will make him cry.

5.     International:

a.     In front of me sits the horizon of promise

What sort of promise? I am unsure

All I know is that I am nervous

I so badly want to be a person of grandeur.

6.     Opposing Politics:

a.     I know you think you have it all together

But if you give me a minute of your time

I can open your eyes to something worth a dime

And will change your life. I know, ‘cause I’m right.

1.     Alliteration and assonance list (10)

a.     Today, tonight, tomorrow

b.     Twisting, twirling, turning

c.     I love lollipops that look looney.

d.     Meek monkeys are mildly monstrous.

e.     Leaping lizards lick like leopards.

f.      Dunking donuts in deep drinks.

g.     Crystal loves coke and cake pops.

h.     French Fridays include fried freaks.

i.      Geeky girls go guppy fishing.

j.      Things that are thin are thinking thick.

k.     Go around the ground to find the owl.

l.      I sleep in my sheets and I tend to dream.

m.   I ate tacos, burritos, and them some fritos, and durritos.

n.     Leaping and gleaming and seeming as if I am happy.

o.     I ate great maize when I go to May’s.

p.     Two blue shoes.

q.     A gray bay in May shows little sun rays.

r.      Jump in a lump of dump.

s.     Crying and sighing during my good-bying.

t.      I love my uggs and giving hugs.

2.     Metaphors for life (10)

a.     Husband: My husband is my foundation.

b.     Graduating: Graduating is like jumping off a cliff not knowing if it will bring you success or failure.

c.     Aging: getting older is like wine, you only get better.

d.     Birthing: Birthing a baby is like writing an essay, you put it off for the entire time and in the last minute you give a big push to finish it.

e.     Love: Allow yourself to take a leap and don’t be worried if you fall in love.

f.      Getting married: I have found my other half.

g.     Finding a soul mate: I have found the missing piece to my soul puzzle.

h.     Life: Life is a marathon- not a sprint.

i.      Losing a good friend: Losing a young friend is like dropping your ice cream cone.

j.      Failing a class: Failing a class open’s your eyes.

3.     Lyrics and Musicality (find a song and rewrite the lyrics)

"Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"

  

Oh, Joey, yeah

I made tacos, yeah

Oh, Joey, yeah

I made tacos for tonight

The party’s gonna be tight

Oh, no

Don’t look now I’m gonna cry

We don’t got all the fixin’s right

Jose’s got the hot sauce and I need it now

Gotta call him up to bring the heat, yeah

Do we got the cheese?

Yeah

Do we have sour cream?

Definitely

What about the guacamole?

Uh…

You better find the guacamole!

The party has better be right

Oh, Joey, yeah

I made tacos, yeah

Oh, Joey, yeah

I made tacos for tonight

The party’s gonna be tight

Now throw the meat up on the grill

If you cook it well I’ll get you a nice cold beer

If you wanna party you better make it taste good

Cuz we got it goin' on again

Yeah

Do we got the cheese?

Yeah

Do we have sour cream?

definitely

What about the tortillas?

Uh…

You better find the tortillas!

The party has better be right

Oh, Joey, yeah

I made tacos, yeah

Oh, Joey, yeah

I made tacos for tonight

The party’s gonna be tight

So everybody, everywhere

We got tacos, and they taste good

I'm gonna tell the world, make you understand

As long as there'll be tacos, we'll be comin' back again

Peer Reviews

This last week in school we were working on our first draft of our first essay and Professor Wexler told us to look over our papers in peer reviews. The dreaded peer reviews! It's the time when students have to share their thoughts with their fellow classmates and get criticized! It is everyone's nightmare no matter what age you are. It seems that no matter what state the draft seems to be in-even if it looks to the peer reading it as almost perfect, it is always "not even close to being finished", or "mostly brainstorming", or even "terrible and confusing so don't bother really reading it". I have found in my classes that this is always the case. Even if the student worked very hard on the first draft, their effort always gets dismissed. This phenomena finally occurred to me this week as completely unnecessary. Even as seniors at a University, we are too often embarrassed of our work, especially drafts, to take pride in. I realized that this truly is a depressing situation. As soon as someone dismisses their work as unnecessary to read, the peer reading it does not take their job of critiquing it seriously and ends up almost wasting their time.

Peer reviewing is an excellent idea and could really benefit both parties if taken seriously. The key to this is self-pride. The student whose paper it is must know that they worked to put together a paper that never has been before and it is a product of their creative ideas. They should be proud. They also need to have confidence and know that a critique of their paper is not a critique of themselves. They have to have a balance of separation from their draft. Secondly, the reader needs to have self-pride to feel as if their opinion matters. If you think your words mean nothing then you will have no input to give, however, if you know you can say something worthwhile, you will be more likely to.

As future teachers, we need to instill this confidence and pride in our students. We do this by giving them the knowledge they need and by providing a safe environment to grow and be challenged. Hopefully, we can achieve this and make peer reviewing a poignant step in the essay writing process.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Kelsey Morgan

10 February 2014

Eng 495 ESM MW 12:30

Prof Wexler

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

            Someone once said: “the best way out is always through” (“Robert Frost Quotes”). The man who said this is a man of high popularity, great success, and an understated ability to connect, through poetry, humans to their raw, honest emotions. Basically Poet Lauriat, Robert Frost filled the hearts of Americans with very simple poems that held within them heavy, usually melancholy, ideas. Frost believes that the “best way out is always through” and does this through his poetry. His poetry was a way out for him and people like him who were burdened by life. In his poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, Frost reveals his struggle with depression through his rhythm, his imagery, and his euphemisms.

            Robert Frost has this ability to capture his audience in to a solemn, lonely, ponderous state that leaves one silent and satisfied through his entrancing rhythm. It has long been debated whether he was a Modernist or a Romantic with successful arguments on both sides. Many argue, however, that he was a “turn of the century poet”, which meant that he had a mixture of different poetry forms to play with. “Though his career fully spans the modern period and though it is impossible to speak of him as anything other than a modern poet,” writes James M. Cox, “it is difficult to place him in the main tradition of modern poetry.” (The Poetry Foundation) Frost repeatedly stays in a traditional form of structure, arguably, so that “they [can] liberate him from the experimentalist’s burden” (The Poetry Foundation). People knew this clean meter and rhyme and he felt with form, it would allow the writer and reader to be more honest. His use of a four stanza structure with a clear AABA rhyming scheme allows for one to get lost in the poem and use the very familiar meter to submerge themselves. This also makes the poem very simple. It is extremely understated- something of which Frost excels at doing in a very poignant way. The slow simple cadence of this poem captures the moment that is being talked about. It conveys a serene, simple, calming state of mind that gets juxtaposed with the overwhelming sense of depression in the poem that gets revealed. It reveals that this “romantic” explanation of nature is not what it seems and the poem is actually very complex and has a serious issue embedded in it.

            The form of this poem may seem easy; however, it is rather very clever. It has four almost identical stanzas with an iambic stress and an AABA rhyming scheme. Despite this simple form, the B line is a premonition of the next rhymed word in the following stanza. For example, in the first stanza, the unrhymed word is “here” and in the next stanza the rhymed words are “queer”, “near”, and “year”. He does this with each stanza. This is not that easy especially as he uses a vernacular of English. He does not switch the syntax around to make the rhyming easier but, in fact, speaks as one would day to day. (The Poetry Fundation) This, indeed, makes this simple form complex, which alludes to the content of the poem also being more complex that what it seems.

            The imagery that fills this poem is one that easily accesses the reader’s mind and allows for connection. The first stanza starts off with the narrator being introduced just after the situation started. This suggests that the reader has caught him in the middle of something. It begs the question: “What was happening before?” “Where was he traveling from?” With this in mind, the understanding of him having responsibilities that he is, for the time being, ignoring becomes much more plausible. “He will not see me stopping here/ To watch his woods fill up with snow” has so much meaning packed into it. The man who owns this house is not here because he is living his life full of responsibilities. This can be argued as the narrator taking time to appreciate nature, whereas, the owner has become to caught up in life to really enjoy it, however, in the context of the rest of the poem, the second argument is stronger. The second argument suggests that the narrator is the one who needs help, as he is the one being drawn into the darkness and the owner is living his full life. Throughout the poem, words like: “frozen”, “”darkest evening of the year”, “mistake”, “wind”, “downing flake”, and “dark and deep” come up. In many cases the woods suggest adventure, beauty, and grandness, but in this poem it is a dark unknown that is calling him away from his duties in life and trying to pull him in by putting a spell on him by being so calm. Another aspect of imagery that suggests depression is that he is in someone else’s woods. He is not satisfied with his own property- or life (Rice). He may be having a mid-life crisis and the horse is the one who tries to shake him out of his eminent demise- his “mistake”. One last imagery Frost uses is setting up his situation between a frozen lake and dark woods. H. William Rice, author of a commentary on this poem, says: “For the person who is depressed, the somber winter landscape mirrors the dark, frozen world inside. It could seem as if one has finally gotten to the heart of life itself, and there is nothing there.” All of this imagery packed into one poem is what gives the seemingly serene setting such overwhelming emotion. It makes one think, “something is wrong here, it is too quiet.”

            Frost’s use of euphemisms really brings together the whole idea of his understated style both in the language of the poem as well as the structure. There are two great euphemisms here. The first one is in the last stanza. When he finally breaks away from the spell the woods have cast on him, he says: “But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep/ And miles to go before I sleep”. This leaves great ambiguity for the reader to read into and I think this is where Frost is a genius. It allows for people from every walk to connect with this poem. Whether the repetition of the last line is simple to convince him or something else anyone can relate. The euphemism comes in the reading of the two “sleeps” being different. The first line is talking about sleep in the literal sense. He has many miles to go before he gets back home to go to bed. The second “sleep” is the euphemism for death or more likely, suicide. Rice comments on this: “Camus wrote in The Myth of Sisyphus: "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide." Hamlet sums the issue up in six words: "To be or not to be." Faced with this ultimate question-if that is indeed the way one reads Frost's winter landscape-the narrator of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" does exactly what my father did: He decides to look away from the dark woods and move on (Rice).” This poem really is a celebratory poem. The narrator, faced with an opportunity to just go into the darkness, something that entices him, chooses to live his life and return home. He knows he has miles of his life left to live before he dies. The second euphemism is that this poem is an epigram, which is a lot like a euphemism. An epigram is defined as: “a short, often satirical poem dealing concisely with a single subject and usually ending with a witty or ingenious turn of thought (“epigram”).” The poem as a whole is very understated and then in the end Frost lends a way for one to see what he is truly getting at. The entirety of the poem is a euphemism for contemplating suicide and overcoming it. It really is a small victory on the road of life when one deals with depression.

            Robert Frost is one of the most famed poets in history for a reason. The reason is his ability to use such simple forms of poetry to reach the deepest part of his readers’ hearts and to challenge them to think about life in a particular way. Through his enchanting rhythm, poignant imagery, and beautiful euphemisms, he makes Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening a poem to be remembered. It challenges life itself.

Works Cited

"epigram." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 06 Feb. 2014. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epigram>.

Rice, H. William. "Sharing Those Woods, Dark and Deep." The Chronicle of Higher Education 59.28 (2013). General OneFile. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.

“Robert Frost.” : The Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.

"Robert Frost Quotes." Robert Frost Quotes (Author of The Poetry of Robert Frost). N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.