Friday, February 18, 2011

IF IT IS NOT TOO DARK

This is poem is really inspiring and is about loving others, love the things you do and loving the people around you. By the beginning of the poem author tried to push readers think about simple things that life offers to us from day, fresh air, sun and the spouse or lover, to enjoy them and to think positively. “Go for a walk, if it is not too dark, Get some fresh air, and try to smile. Say something kind.” These are just few ideas about how to reflect in positive way towards things we do and a life in general. It is interesting that almost all sentences of this poem started with a verb which means that author’s intention was to prompt the readers about the way of thinking and the way of acting toward the love, because it is hard to live without love.

The day Sky

This is a short poem which again has its spirit based in love like most of Hafiz poems. “Let us be like two falling stars in the day sky” when I read this verse I was thinking, it is really unusual to see even in night sky the falling stars, but in the day it’s by all means impossible. Author talks about the life our existence and tried to tell us that it exceed every description happiness and love.

THE GIFT

This poem is really meaningful because it represents what is a real gift when you decide to give to someone especially to your lover. This poem somehow teaches us that different gifts should be given in certain moment and a certain occasion especially when it has to do with someone we love. It is interesting that every need of the partner Hafiz answered with a gift. Firstly, when she was cold, Hafiz gave a blanker to cover her. When she was hunger he went to garden to dig some potatoes, if she felt confusion and needed guidance, he offered a book and in the end when she was feeling loneliness he said to her “Here’s a rope, Tie it around me, Hafiz will be your companion for life.”

Friday, February 11, 2011

'Love Story" by Erich Segal

Oliver and Jenny get married after some time and they decided to get a new apartment for rent. Oliver get into hot conversation with his father and they discontinued talking to each other. Jenny always encouraged Oliver to go in the law school and she gave up going in Paris and follows her dream, but she never regret for that. She was happy that was living with Oliver and had a beautiful life. After some time, Oliver graduated from the law school and got a really good paid job, where now they had a chance to save the money and buy a bigger house. I liked most the character of Jenny because despite the fact that Oliver's parents didn't like Jenny trid to thaw the relations between Ol

iver and his father. The turning point of this story is when they went to doctor to understand why Jennie couldn't become pregnant abd the doctors found out that she was sick and suffers from leukemia. It was so sad for a perfect couple who were just settled in a new life and perfect harmony, received such depressing news. Therefore, Jennie's desire was to continue living a life as normal as possible as she is never going to die, but she went so sick that she should have go to the hospital. In order to pay those bills, Oliver needed to go to his father and ask for a help where he faced a big help from him. Even though, you understand that Jennifer is going to die, in a way you don't like to admit that she will die in the end. In the end,when Oliver was leaving the hospital he met his father where he told him that she died and for the first time in his life Oliver cried in the arms of his father. This book is amazing and a great one. I thought when I first read half of it that this is a love story with a lovely ending because it was so happy, exciting and fun, the ending of it was so tragic which I never would expected to happen.

"Love Story" by Erich Segal

"Love Story" is one of the best books that I have read. This story is about a boy called Oliver Barret IV a Harvard college student which comes from a wealthy and educated family with a high standard class and a girl Jennifer Cavilleri which is American with a Italian descent and comes from a poor social class. Alth

ough they are different in many ways from their personality to their social class they fall in love. Jennifer is a pianist and love The Beatles whereas Oliver is a hockey guy. They both met in the library where all the conversation starts and they arrange a meeting to go for a coffee. Jennifer was a smart girl and she has a sense of humor. When Oliver asked why she went out for a coffee with him she said " I like your body." Oliver asked Jennifer to come to watch a hockey game of him and when she asked why she should have come, he said: because I will play. Therefore, she went to watch the game, and the whole game Oliver was thinking about her. One day while Jennifer was talking about her plans to visit Paris, Oliver proposed her to be married, and when she asked him why he said:"Because." They felt in love with each other so madly but the social difference made them feel not so good in front of Oliver's parents. Even though, Oliver's parents were not so good with Jennifer, she still liked them, nut Oliver couldn't admict the fact that they didn't like Jennifer. Oliver called his father Sir and not by his name or dad, where as Jennifer called her father Phil and when Oliver asked her why you called him like this, she said because that's its name. Her mother died in a car crash when she was young, therefore Phil took a role of a mother and father for her and that's why she loved so much her dad. This part of the story is really interesting and fun to read.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

"Yoko" by Thom Gunn

"Yoko" written by Thom Gunn is the name of the poem which describes a dog's behaviors and character. The author describes in the beginning of the poem how the dog hears the firecrackers outside and is to moodily lumber across his room, and he is so gloomy trying to thing something else and not what is going outside. Later, Yoko hears a tread and think, "it's him, my leader, my love.

" In this case, his leader and his love is the man who owns the dog who cares about him, therefore, for a dog he is his leader. In this poem author describes the curious nature of a dog and his loyalty and love toward his owner. They go out for a walk, and dog is feeling a joy and no longer confusion as in his wardrobe gloomy. "Returning to you (as I always will, you know that) are thoughts of the dog that were trying to interpret to its owner, showing loyalty and love for him.
"Tonight I can write the saddest lines" written by Pablo Neruda is a love poem and a sad one. The author tries to explain through the verses how much he have loved his girlfriend. "I love her, and sometimes she loved me too" tells us that maybe the girl wasn't enough in love with him as he was with her but maybe he just thought like this after they were no longer together. Author describes how the night is endless without her. In the same time, he tris to forget his love and to convince himself tha he doesn' love her anymore. I think that these effort was made just to forget her, because it was so hard for him to forget his love, and he said " Love is short, forgetin is long."
“You are my drunkenness” written by Nazim Hikmet is one of the best poems that I have read and it is so simple. The poet talks about a man’s feelings and passion for a woman. He talks about how all the problems that a man has all the pain and injuries, headache will forget when he is in front of a woman. All his problems and pain no longer will be felt when a woman is around him.

"Aubade" by Philip Larkin

"Aubade" is a poem written by Philip Larkin which indicates our everyday life related to death. The poem starts with the sentence "I work all day, and get half-drunk at night." and thinking where and when he will die. He is showing a fear of dying and is aware that death is inevitable. Death is the only phenomenon that doesn't care if you are good person or bad, rich or poor, thin or fat, one day sooner or later we will die. This poem pushed me to think how people despite the fact that they know one day they will die, they continue everyday routine of living, wake up in the morning, do our ordinary things and sometimes forget the fact that all of us will go in the same direction, towards death.

The Stranger (Part IV and V)

Part IV of this book talks more about judging part of Meursaultin the court and the final verdict that has to be pronounced in the end of the session. It is interesting that the whole speech of the prosecutor was concentrated rather in the personal life and and personality of Meursault than in his crime, which in my opinion is much more important.Prosecutor mentioned several "facts" which seemed to me really irrelevant to his crime that tells the personality and nature of Meursault as a criminal and unconscious man. Prosecutor mentioned his heartlessness, in funeral of his mother where he wasn't able to state the age of her, and didn't weep. I guess his aim was to say that if he doesn't show any emotion toward his mother, he should, as well, be emotionless toward others, and  be a threat to a society. Prosecutor continued to speak the story of the crime and how Meursault shot for more times afters firs one, on the Arab's body to make sure that he is dead. H said that Meursault was fully aware of what he was doing because he was an educated and intelligent man. All what he was trying to emphasize is that it was not a sudden impulse of reaction but a fully aware decision for the crime, which in reality was not real. In this position Meursault wasn't able to explain to the court that how his crime was committed with no intention and was because the sun and the sudden impulse from the fear. Meursault wished he could explain to them in a friendly way that moment, with sincerity, but his position as a "criminal" prevented him from such explanation. Meursault admitted that the prosecutor was much more convincing and had more talent than his lawyer, and he realized that his fate has to be decided by others and doesn't have the ability to do much about the final decision. Thus, he was thinking just to go as soon as possible to the jail's cell to sleep and do nothing else. In the end of the session he has been asked to say the last words, and he said that he really had no intention ti kill the Arab. Regardless his point, while he saw for the firs time Marie in the court the verdict was read and he has to be decapitated in front of crowd of people.Therefore, he was moved to new cell, which was with the view to the sky. There, most of the time he laid to his back and watched the moving clouds of the sky. He tried to find a peace with his mind, relax and just think. He was thinking mainly about 2 things: the dawn and the appeal.Meursault refused to several times to see the chaplain but in the end he saw him but in the beginning refused to talk to him. He doesn't want to spend time talking with the chaplain about why he don't believe in God, but chaplain understood him and even cry for him. Chaplain said to Meursault that he is going to pray for him. Therefore, he felt a feeling of relief for a moment and asked him to leave.Meursault continued to think about the phenomenon of death and trying to convince himself that this course of dying will never stop, and it doesn't matter if you are going to die now or after forty years, what matters is that you are going to die either way.

Monday, February 7, 2011

"The Last Toast" By Nicanor Parra

"The Last Toast" by Nicanor Parra is a poem that really reflects the truth of our lives. Most of people are pursuing the happiness and maybe a better life, that's why they are concentrated in the future, therefore, losing the time in the present. Author said in the beginning that we have three choices: "Yesterday, today and tomorrow." It is obvious that the past is gone forever so all what is in our hand to change is the present and the future. I liked the sentence "I raise my glass To the day that never arrives." where maybe tomorrow will never come. In my opinion, the message of this poem is cherish good memories of the past and forget the bad ones because they are dead and live the life today because the future may not ever come.