Satire

YouTube Video


I found this clip to be very interesting and humorous. It is Will Ferrel from Saturday Night Live impersonating and making fun of President Bush and his dumb comments he made throughout the years. In this particular clip it rehashes the best of the worst George W. Bush quote. What is so funny about this clip and the sketches in it, is that Bush, our former president elected by democracy, actually said these things. It is shocking and embarrassing to America however, it was put into a humorous light by Ferrel and the SNL team. Now I am able to see how adding satire into a book or article can bring humor or help emphasize the topic.

If Poisonous Minerals

"If Poisonous Minerals" by John Donne has three quatrains and a final couplet like all sonnets. Also, like all sonnets there is a major tone shift after the first two quatrains. In the first two quatrains Donne is critical of why he goes to hell but animals don't. He writes it as a soliloquy by using God in the third person.  This helped define Donne's audience in the poem. In the third quatrain Donne used an apostrophe to change the mood from being defiant to a prayer. The line "But who am I that dare dispute with Thee?" is where the shift in tone begins. The punctuation helps us know that he is praying to God and the poem has now turned into a prayer. The last two lines combines the first tone as well as the second tone. Although this is true for most sonnets I really like the way that Donne writes this poem using this technique. By using multiple tones the reader is more capable of relating to the poem. When something detrimental happens to a person their emotions will change and by realizing that Donne does a nice job of allowing the reader to relate. Also a good technique that Donne used was when he used interrogatory sentences in the first two quatrains. I really enjoyed "If Poisonous Minerals" mostly due to John Donne's writing techniques. They keep the poem enjoyable and readable. 



(sorry this is late)

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" is sixteen lines of an extended metaphor. Honestly, I did not enjoy this poem as much as I did "Those Winter Sundays" however I chose it because I think that Herrick was very clever with his word choice. If you choose to read the poem literally it means you should go outside and pick flowers but when you break down each sentence you are able to infer several meanings through it. 
In the first stanza he used personification to describe the flowers. Also in the first stanza he uses the word "rosebuds", this could mean several things including childhood, virginity, and innocence. However, the meaning that the reader infers depends on how the reader interprets the poem. The interpretation of the poem can be influenced by the reader's personal experiences and education level. By only saying "rosebuds" the reader is able to take what they want from the poem. Additionally, the last stanza says "go marry". By this the author connotation is go get married to a man however, the denotation is go be merry and have sex while you are still young. This sends to very different messages in my opinion. The first being to settle down and do what is expected but to me the second sounds less responsible and honestly, more fun. Lastly, "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time" is to me what seems as continuing verbal irony. Once interpreted, Herrick says to the young girls to make use of their youthful figures and go enjoy themselves while they are still able to, yet right after that he goes on to say that dong so could cause them to be rejected in society. This sends mixed messages to me, why would a girl do something that could cause her disgrace? Even more contradictory is he then said that if you don't have sex "you may forever tarry". Tarry meaning waste, it seems that you are out of luck either decision. 
In the end I believe that "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" is a poem written by a man wanting women to offer themselves to him without him having to commit. The poem basically says that either way you won't be worth much so might as well enjoy yourself and have great sex while you are still able to.

Those Winter Sundays

"Those Winter Sundays" takes the reader back to a memory of when they weren't as thankful as they should have been forcing them to wipe a tear from their face.  Robert Hayden used incredible imagery in describing his father and how he sacrificed for his family's well being. From the "cracked hands that ached" to the "blackbaud cold" that "splinter[ed] and [broke]" Hayden was able to create a scene in the reader's head of this family's home and the father working hard to "drive out the cold." 
The first stanza the speaker, an adult reflecting on his childhood, creates the image of his dad. The father had cracked, aching hands due to strenuous work during the week. This told that in addition to waking up early in the morning in order to warm the house so his family is comfortable that he worked just as hard during the week to make sure that his family is able to afford food and other necessities. It is also able to be inferred that they were not a wealthy family. Not only would a wealthy family have a housekeeper to warm the house for them but the father would not have a job that left his hands cracked and aching. The father in this poem most likely had a job in the middle class. In the last line of this stanza the speaker says, "No one ever thanked him."  
In the second stanza Hayden continues his the story of his father and reveals to the readers that his house was filled with "chronic anger". However it is also revealed that despite no one thanking him his father was still thoughtful and would wait until it was warm in the house before waking up his family. With such few words used, Hayden did a fantastic job carefully choosing words such as "splintering" and "breaking. If he had chosen to just say it was very cold the poem would not have the same effect on the reader. 
"What did I know, what did I know/ of love's austere and lonely offices" those were the last two lines of the poem which were so moving. The first line used repetition to engage the reader and pull out their emotions by exposing his regret of the misuse of his father. According to the speaker the speaker's father was very caring and loved him dearly yet the speaker never accepted his father's love. He rather focused on the unfortunate qualities that his father had such as his anger. Overall, however, "Those Winter Sundays" was an outstanding poem that inspired the reader to reflect upon themselves on relationships in their lives that they might be abusing. For myself this poem has taught me to have a greater appreciation for all the work my mom does to provide for us and Robert Hayden did an excellent job involving the reader in feeling how the speaker felt. 

The Computation by John Donne

In "The Computation" John Donne used date to make the reader become involved with the poem. After all, computation means an act, process, or method of computing or a calculation according to Webster's Dictionary. The first time that I read the poem I read it literally and added up all the years after I was done. The total was an outrageous number which posed to me the question: was John Donne being literal or just figurative. I then read the poem again and paid close attention to the last line which said,"Yet call not this long life; but think that I Am, by being dead, immortal. Can ghosts die?" This line makes the reader think. Knowing that Donne had written the poem in a time period where Catholicism was the predominant religion, I thought that he had intended the reader to conclude that the man was in purgatory while waiting to move on. However, the reader can infer many things from this poem such as thinking that the ghost is the memory of his girlfriend. None the less, there are many ways to interpret the poem which is, in my opinion, is what the beauty of poetry is about. 

The person speaking in "The Computation" is not John Donne but rather a man or a woman that is unable to get over the loss of a loved one. The main purpose of the poem is for that person to express the sorrow of loosing their beloved. The reader is able to gather this by Donne's use of alliteration and hyperbolas through-out the poem.

Selfishness in Shakespeares "Tempest"

"Remember whom thou hast aboard/ None that I more love than myself" (1.1.17-18)

The prior was said in a conversation between Gonzalo and the Boatswain in the beginning of the play, the first line by Gonzalo and the second by the boatswain. It was said on the boat they were on was being thrashed around by a ferocious storm, The Tempest.  When Gonzalo told the boatswain that there were more important people on the ship then the boatswain, he responded very honestly by saying that none of whom he loved more than he loved himself. In saying this the boatswain was being rightfully selfish or self concerned about what his own fate is. In my opinion Shakespeare was introducing a theme of selfishness throughout the play or putting yourself first to get ahead. At the time however, while still foreshadowing upcoming story lines of selfishness, Shakespeare used it to show how frightened an experienced sea man was by the storm. If a boatswain feels like this storm could end his life then it has to be a powerful storm. For example, if you see a doctor that is surprised or confused by your injury you will become more anxious because you look to the doctor as someone who should know what to do or at least be familiar with what to do. However, when he is not that can indicate a more serious issue. In the next scene when we learn that Ariel created the storm it showed us how powerful Ariel was. Overall this quote gave us insight into many sides of the play. 

While brainstorming my question that this quote sparks the thing that kept coming up into my mind was "What would you do if a plane was crashing and the person next to you was passed out? Would you put their mask on first? Would your answer change depending on who the person was e.i. your sister, your mother, your friend, a person who was detained by the police in handcuffs, a stranger that looked well dressed, a stranger that looked dirty, a priest, your child, your spouse?" Relating it back to the text however, the situation would be different. So my question is: will the characters remain selfish throughout the play or will the love in the relationships prevent that from ultimately happening?