Poetry Analysis: A Loving-Cup Song by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Katie and I analyzed the poem "A Loving-Cup Song" by Oliver Wendell Holmes. I personally liked the poem, although it was also a little difficult to understand. Katie and I thought of what the literal meanings to each of the sentences was, although it was hard to pick the sentences out as there were many semicolons and three word sentences. However, the literal meanings are as follows:

• Come gather the wood.
• The fire will burn again.
• The summer is over.
• Pass the cup around and tell stories and memories.
  Give me a flower to pin onto my shirt.
• He likes flowers and they remind him of the boys.
• Spring is coming from under the snow.
• They do not think that life will be as fun as it is in the winter.
• They know that it will still be fun, and life is not a task.
• Life is about love and filling each others cups.

Figuratively, the poem means much more. Holmes uses mainly personification in this poem to make the love and memories shared between people to be in this giant cup. It reminded me a bit of America being called the "Great American Melting Pot." However, this poem is dealing with family, and uses the metaphor of the changing of the seasons to represent people aging and getting older. However, that is just what I believe the changing from winter to spring is symbolizing. Usually, spring is thought of as being the rebirth as all the flowers come into bloom and all the little baby birds hatch. Therefore, I made that connection between the changing of the seasons to mean that people are aging and getting older, but they get a chance to start over new.

A figurative meaning that I thought of as I was reading the poem a third time was that Holmes was trying to get a meaning of love and life. Clearly, because he says, "till life and love are spent" a couple of times. I think Holmes is saying that we haven't lived life to the fullest until we have lived and loved as much as we can. We should therefore live our lives like it could be our last and share our love with as many people as we can, in all types of ways.

I did enjoy reading this poem, and that is what I got from it about love and life and a loving cup.

Journal 18: A Poem

I am not all that good at writing poetry, especially poetry that has to have a rhyme scheme and ten syllables in each line, but I gave it my best shot. Enjoy.

Maple Tree

Walking down the old weather beaten trail
Among the trees and the pretty cattails
I saw an orange fox and also a deer.
I heard the sound of water that was near
Walking along with a camera in hand
Instead of water, I found a grassland

Crawling with bugs and not many people,
I stopped to look at a giant maple.
Wondering how many had looked at it
And stopped along the way to sit and knit.
The tree I stood before was tall and great,
And engraved in the side was the name Nate.

I thought of the many things in nature,
All standing tall and proud with great stature.
I love that it is extremely peaceful,
And that it costs almost nothing or null.
Those are the reasons why I love the outdoors,
Plus to get away from my bro who snores!

Poem Analysis: Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant

While working in class, Matt and I came up with what each sentence in the poem means literally. They are as follows:

• Nature is beautiful and speaks to people.
• When someone dies, people are sad, and their world is dark.
• A person who dies is forever in the ground. The human essence is lost and mixed with nature.
• The oak tree will embrace you.
• You will not die alone and you cannot ask for a better resting place.
• Everyone is the same after death.
• Nature is a giant tomb for man.
• Everyone of all ages is sad about death.
• People on Earth are a small amount of people that rest in the earth.
• Embrace your death, or become lost and alone.
• Who will notice you when you die?
• Everyone dies.
• People will move on, but eventually join you in death.
• Regardless of age, they will follow you in death someday.
• Live life to the fullest, so it’s not agony when you die; you die happy.

After rereading the poem again, I still continue to be depressed by the fact that it is talking about death. However, Bryant is not trying to be super depressing in my opinion. He is talking about a natural occurrence, and that it does not really matter who you were before you died because you all end up in the same place: the ground. Therefore, the poem could be sending a mixed message figuratively about how you should live life to the fullest as yourself and not try and act like anyone else, since in the end, it does not really matter. But, that does not mean just mosey along through life. People should make something of themselves so they will be remembered after their death, because it can happen to anyone at any time, of any age. So, that is what I got from this somewhat depressing poem. When you stop and actually think about its meaning, it is not so depressing. Bryant is just stating how when we die, we form a new and deep bond with nature. No pun intended. It was quite a well written poem, with a much deeper meaning to it than just its literal meaning.

Journal 17: Bonding With Nature

Our family is big into nature, so I spend a lot of time outdoors. For the past three vacations, two of the three have been nature oriented. We went to the south west, and walked around the Grand Canyon in Arizona, which was very nature filled. I think the one thing I loved most about that trip was that we got to see the sun set over the canyon, which was really pretty. Then this past summer we went to the Smokey Mountains, and spent every day outside hiking in the mountains, which was also really pretty. We got to see all types of waterfalls and wildlife that we do not have here in Illinois.

I think one thing I love about nature is the fact that it is all natural. Well, duh, that would make sense seeing as nature is derived from the word natural. However, the one thing I did not like about the Grand Canyon was that on the rim, it felt way to modernized and overpopulated because there were so many people there, and there were constant trams, and people who were not just enjoying the natural wonder in front of them. But in the Smokey Mountains, it was just our family and we were able to enjoy nature by itself, in all of its natural wonder and beauty.

My favorite part of that vacation was the waterfalls, which I am still amazed at how powerful they are. I find it hard to believe that water can have such an impact on people and nature in general and that they can be peaceful and calm, but then be powerful and thunderous at the same time. I find that unique and cool about nature. Nature is both soothing and calming at times, but at other times it can be loud, noisy, and full of action. Either way, nature is still cool and fun to be around.

That is basically why I love nature!

Journal 16: My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings, cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels, doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles, wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings, girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, silver white winters that melt into springs, these are a few of my favorite things...

So my favorite song in the entire world would have to be bed of roses by Bon Jovi. For some reason I really like that song, and can listen to it all the time, and I do not think it will ever get old. Although the lyrics could be considered depressing and sad, I still love the song, and sing along to it on my Ipod in the car. Although, I guess I really can't say I have one favorite song. Because I categorize all of my favorite songs, movies, and books. I guess I just can't seem to make up my mind and pick just one.

As for favorite movie, my all time favorite is Ocean's Eleven. All the rest I have "categorized" for my second favorites like western, which is Man From Snowy River, musical, which is Thoroughly Modern Millie, and then science fiction is Star Wars.

I have read a lot of books in the past sixteen years I have been alive, and one of the best books that I can read over and over again is The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. For some reason, I love that book, which covers the life of Anne and Mary Boleyn and does not end in a happy ever after. But, it is my favorite book of all time and I read it a lot.

So, although my favorite things are not quite as cute or creative as those in Sound of Music, I still have many favorite things.

Journal 15: Logic and Reason

Logic and reasoning. We use these two qualities a lot on a daily basis. I use them a lot , especially in physics, pre calculus, digital electronics and just on a day to day basis. As for common sense, we have to use logic and reason to think things through and decide what is actually the right thing. As for reason, we have to reason a lot with parents.

For example, I have to reason with my parents if there is something I want to do then I have to reason with them so that I can do what I want, but make them happy as well. I use logic when I am cooking, and know not to touch the stove because it is glowing read and hot. I also know not to walk in front of a car, because it could result in injury. Therefore, we just use logic on a day to day basis whether we realize it or not.

Logic is not something you just know either. It takes time, and learning from mistakes to understand whether or not we should or should not do something. More times than not, you are always learning from your mistakes, therefore gaining logic and knowledge.

One thing that I always think of when thinking of logic and reason is Sherlock Holmes and the quizzles we would do my freshman year in Geometry. Sherlock Holmes uses logic and reason to solve crimes in London, England. When I watched the movie for the first time, I thought it was neat how they tied together all the clues that no one had really noticed. After watching the movie a second time, I watched for the clues and what logic Sherlock used to solve the crime. The quizzles used x's and o's to figure out certain scenarios after being given some clues. I thought they were fun,because it used logic to solve them.

So, we use logic and reason on a day to day basis, sometimes without realizing it.

Thomas Paine's Common Sense Criticism

Well let me just start by saying that I was quite overwhelmed by Thomas Paine's writing style, and it took me a really long time to understand what exactly he was trying to say throughout his article. I gathered he was talking about government for a while and the human race and its flaws, but I do agree with some of his points.

Thomas Paine is quoted saying,

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer! Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others" (Paine).

I agree with Paine's statement here because he is saying how corrupt the government actually is, and how it does not agree with the people of the country. The government makes us do things that we really do not want to do, but we are forced to do them because we do not want to get in trouble. Therefore, I see already that the government is corrupt, and has been ever since, in some way, shape, or form.

Paine goes on to talk about the size of the government body, which I found interesting and I totally agree with. Paine says,

"But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as at first, when their number was small, their habitations near, and the public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the convenience of their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and who will act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they present" (Paine).

I very much agree with this statement, because the smaller the government body is, the easier it will be to come to a conclusion, in my opinion. The meetings would be a lot more productive, and everyone would get their say in the matter. Also, if there are less people, the government officials should have similar mindsets, according to Paine (Paine).

So although it took me a little while to fully comprehend what exactly Paine was trying to convey, I think I got a slight idea of what he was talking about in his article about common sense.



Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Printed by W. and T. Bradford, Philadelphia, 1791. accessed October 16, 2010.

Criticizing a Criticism on Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Overall, I found J. A. Leo Lemay's criticism of Ben Franklin's Autobiography to be quite interesting. I was a bit overwhelmed at first by the complex writing style, however I found the style to be similar to adjusting to Shakespeare; once into the flow of the writing, reading and comprehension becomes a lot easier. Lemay brings up many good points throughout his criticism that I did agree on. While reading it, I highlighted the points I agreed with, the first being "The simplest possible answer, as well as the most common general impression, is expressed by the standard cliche, the rise from rags to riches" (Lemay). Although I have not read the entire autobiography of Ben Franklin, I can tell what Ben Franklin was trying to convey, and I agree with Lemay in that Franklin is trying to show how a poor man can become someone and end up doing something great with his life, much like Benjamin Franklin did.

Another thing I noticed while reading this criticism was that Ben Franklin was actually quite humble. Lemay puts it nicely saying, "Although Franklin writes of his early poverty a number of times, he rarely mentions his later wealth" (Lemay). I believe that Franklin's reasoning in being humble was that he had started out poor, and become someone important. However, he had probably been raised to be thankful for whatever he got, especially when he did not have much. Therefore he felt it unnecessary to brag and boast about his wealth and riches, as he more than likely had some idea what others would think of him if he were to go around broadcasting the fact that he was now rich, because who likes a braggart?

Lemay brings up a good point saying "[Ben Franklin's Autobiography] is the rise from impotence to importance, from dependence to independence, from helplessness to power" (Lemay). I really liked this point a lot because I agree with it. In general, people need to just step up and face the music so to speak. Lemay is saying that Ben's Autobiography is his way of telling people to wake up and do something with themselves. Because at this point, most of us are juniors in high school, one of the most important years in our high school career. I felt the point Lemay made relates almost directly to juniors in high school. Just because, for the past two years the majority of us have just sort of moseyed along and we have not actually sat down and thought about what we are going to do with our lives. However, at this point we all need to stop depending on others and become independent, stop being so helpless and become in power of our own lives, and make what we want to achieve important and our number one priority in our lives.

In reading J. A. Lemay's criticism about Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, I felt reading this criticism helped me. I was able to analyze what Lemay was trying to convey to his audience about Ben Franklin's writing, and I thought about my own life a little bit more and how relevant this article is to the lives of juniors in high school. Therefore, I found the article quite interesting to read.


Lemay, J.A. Leo. "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." In The Renaissance Man in the Eighteenth Century. Los Angeles: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1978. Quoted as "Franklin's Autobiography and the American Dream." in Bloom, Harold, ed. The American Dream, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=1&iPin=BLTTAD005&SingleRecord=True (accessed October 12, 2010).

Journal 14: Declaration of Life

Since I am extremely uncreative, I do not know what to declare. Therefore, I am declaring absolutely positively nothing at this moment in time. I have nothing to declare about my life, other than I am pretty happy with the way I am living it, and the goings on in it. I believe that the meaning of life is that we all should just live with what we get, and hope for the best. I mean, sometimes things happen to us that we are not expecting and we should just sort of go with the flow. I think that is probably one of people's problems in today's society, that we are always trying to make everyone happy, and that is not always the case. Not everyone can be happy all the time, and disappointment is a part of life that we have to learn to accept and move on when necessary. However, it is human nature to make everyone happy, which will in turn make ourselves happy, and when we can not make others happy, we get sad and depressed and have to turn to others who will in turn make us happy. Therefore, at least one person will always be happy.

Ok, so I have no idea what exactly I am saying, but I am just babbling on and being completely pointless. Although, sometimes we need some random and pointless moments in our lives. Because we get going and completely stressed out, that we forget what it is like to have fun, and just need to be random and have some carefree moments. Because if we are always living our lives in a constant rush and trying to please everyone else, we often forget about ourselves, and lose that sense of balance and we will always be living our life for others instead of ourselves sometimes.

Although no one knows for sure the meaning of life, it is still interesting to get the different perspectives of people and what their thoughts are.

Journal 13: Homecoming Spirit!!!

Homecoming Week: a week of fun and crazy dress up days, with a fun pep rally on Friday! This week we are celebrating homecoming week. This is probably one of my favorite weeks of the school year, because we get to dress extremely goofy and crazy, and no one will look twice or get talked about in a bad way. Like yesterday was eighties day, so I was able to have a side ponytail and dress in a big tshirt and I fit in with everyone else who participated. I really do like school spirit, because it shows how our school comes together, mostly to beat the seniors.

We just got in a discussion about how the pep rally activities are not rigged, and it just seems to be that the seniors always win every year. However, last year, the teachers surprised us by creating their own lip sync routine and danced it for us. The entire student body was going crazy in the gym, as we cheered on the teachers and sang along to the song playing. So, there was a lot of school spirit that day.

Tomorrow is school spirit day/blackout for the junior class. After getting points for showing school spirit, the entire junior class is having a black out, where everyone wears black to counter the seniors, who will be having a white out. The gym is going to look pretty awesome tomorrow at the pep rally.

Because I am also in band, we help contribute to the school spirit. At every home football game we perform pregame and also play the school song whenever our team scores a touchdown. Then, we keep the audience entertained by performing a half time field show. After the game we play the school song again, regardless of winning and losing the game, and we just help with the atmosphere. That is probably why I love being in the band so much, because we help contribute to the night and make it more fun, which also shows more school spirit.

Journal 12: Working With A Partner

Partners. I typically do not like working with partners, because I tend to always do a majority of the work. However, if I have the opportunity to work with a partner that I get along with, and I know that we will both do our share to get the project done, then I do not mind it so much. However, because I am thinking the reason we have the topic of how we like working with partners is because we will be working with a partner from a different school, I can enjoy working with partners, it just depends on if they will pull their side of the wait. Although because I am assuming it is an honors English class, the people in the class will most likely have the same mind set as the rest of us.

In middle school, we had a lot of projects and had to work with partners a lot. So, I got all kinds of experiences with working with many types of people. For instance, there are some people I would definitely work together with again because they had to same drive that I did. But there were others that I had to do all the work, and I got really mad when they got the A along with me, because I had gone and done all of the work while they sat around and watched me work. So, like I said, I typically do not like working in partners and tend to be very irritable when I am working with someone I do not like, or I know will not do as good a job as I want to do. If I am given the choice, I choose to work along because I can work at my own pace, and do what I want to do and make it look the way I want it to look.

Therefore, I choose to work by myself most of the time, and tend to not work in partners when I can, because I prefer to work alone.

Journal 11: Ethics and Values

As for my ethics and values, there are many things I believe in, and are against. For example, I am against drinking and smoking, as I have seen the effects it can have on a person, and how it can tear families apart, and just a person in general. Therefore, I have decided not to ever drink, nor try to get into any situation that would make me test those values on my life.

Just recently, I was in a car wreck, and I now value my life a lot more. I believe in always wearing a seat belt, because they really do save your life. After my accident, I realized how much I need to appreciate everything I have, and not throw it all away foolishly. Because, I realized I have so much to live for, and have a lot more of my life to live, so I re-thought about my values and the way I live my life.

Another value I have is the belief to not have sex before I am married, or at least engaged. Because, in today's society there are so many teenage girls who get pregnant at such a young age and have to become mothers without being able to live the life they were intended and supposed to have. Therefore, I read about those statistics and think "I do not want that to happen to me," so to prevent that, I just do not have sex before I am married. Because, I know already that I would not be able to support a child or be able to provide for that child as much as I would if I was actually ready to be a mother. In addition, my mom got pregnant with me before she was married, however she was engaged to my dad, so I think that scenario is okay, cause I am here now. :) However, my parents have both raised me to believe that true love waits, so that is what I intend to do. That belief also follows my church, which I also follow.

So, those are my ethics and values in my life.