My Favourite Poet

William Wordsworth

Background:
William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was a major English romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English Litreature with the 1798 joint
publication Lyrical Ballads.

Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi autobiography poem of his early years which the poet revised and expanded a number of times. The work was posthumously titled and published, prior to which it was generally known as the poem "to Coleridge". Wordsworth was England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850.
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First publication and Lyrical Ballads

In his "Preface to Lyrical Ballads" which is called the "manifesto" of English Romantic criticism, Wordsworth calls his poems "experimental". The year 1793 saw Wordsworth's first published poetry with the collections An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches. He received a legacy of £900 from Raisley Calvert in 1795 so that he could pursue writing poetry. That year, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Somerset. The two poets quickly developed a close friendship. In 1797, Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, moved toAlfoxton House, Somerset, just a few miles away from Coleridge's home in Nether Stowey. Together, Wordsworth and Coleridge (with insights from Dorothy) produced Lyrical Ballads (1798), an important work in the English Romantic movement. The volume had neither the name of Wordsworth nor Coleridge as the author. One of Wordsworth's most famous poems, "Tintern Abbey", was published in the work, along with Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere". The second edition, published in 1800, had only Wordsworth listed as the author, and included a preface to the poems, which was significantly augmented in the 1802 edition. This Preface to Lyrical Ballads is considered a central work of Romantic literary theory. In it, Wordsworth discusses what he sees as the elements of a new type of poetry, one based on the "real language of men" and which avoids the poetic diction of much eighteenth-century poetry. Here, Wordsworth gives his famous definition of poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility". A fourth and final edition of Lyrical Ballads was published in 1805.
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Well, the reason that I chose him as my favourite poet is because he was once a great master of poetry. His poems were basically romantic and he expresses the feeling of the poems he write very well, making the reader feel as if they are watching a drama show. Below are some of his famous works of poetry:

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD( Also Known as Daffodils)

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
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She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mosy tone
Half hidden from the eye!
---Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!
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Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

Strange fits of passion have I known:
And I will dare to tell,
But in the lover's ear alone,
What once to me befell.

When she I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June,
I to her cottage bent my way,
Beneath an evening-moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,
All over the wide lea;
With quickening pace my horse drew nigh
Those paths so dear to me.

And now we reached the orchard-plot;
And, as we climbed the hill,
The sinking moon to Lucy's cot
Came near, and nearer still.

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,
Kind Nature's gentlest boon!
And all the while my eye I kep
tOn the descending moon.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
When down behind the cottage roof,
At once, the bright moon dropped.

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide
Into a Lover's head!
"O mercy!" to myself I cried,
"If Lucy hould be dead!"
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* Information Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth
* Poem Sources: http://www.poemhunter.com/william-wordsworth

My Favourite Poem

Title: Welcome Morning
Author: Anne Sexton
Lyrics: There is joyin all:in the hair I brush each morning,in the Cannon towel, newly washed,that I rub my body with each morning,in the chapel of eggs I cook each morning,in the outcry from the kettle that heats my coffee each morning,in the spoon and the chair that cry "hello there, Anne"each morning,in the godhead of the table that I set my silver, plate, cup upon each morning.

All this is God, right here in my pea-green house each morning and I mean, though often forget,to give thanks,to faint down by the kitchen table in a prayer of rejoicing as the holy birds at the kitchen windowpeck into their marriage of seeds.
So while I think of it,let me paint a thank-you on my palm for this God, this laughter of the morning, lest it go unspoken.

The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,dies young

Hyperbole: Hyperbole is a figure of speech which is an exaggeration. Persons often use expressions such as "I nearly died laughing," "I was hopping mad," and "I tried a thousand times." Such statements are not literally true, but people make them to sound impressive or to emphasize something, such as a feeling, effort, or reaction.

Personification: When you make a thing, idea, or an animal do something only humans can do.

Metaphor: Metaphor is when you use two nouns and compare or contrast them to one another. Unlike simile, you don't use "like" or "as" in the comparison.

Similey: Simile is when you compare two nouns (persons, places or things) that are unlike, with "like" or "as."

Symbolism: Symbolism is when something or some one is representing something in the real world.

"outcry from the kettle that heats my coffee" ------- Personification

"the spoon and the chair that cry "hello there, Anne"each morning"------- Personification

" pea-green house"--------Similey

"let me paint a thank-you on my palm for this God"-------- Symbolism

Book Review: Animal Farm

Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely-and this is vividly and eloquently proved in this short novel. "Animal Farm" is a simple fable of great symbolic value, and as the author explained: "it is the history of a revolution that went wrong". The novel can be seen as the historical analysis of the causes of the failure of communism, or as a mere fairy-tale; in any case it tells a good story that aims to prove that human nature and diversity prevent people from being equal and happy ,or at least equally happy.

"Animal Farm" tells the simple and tragic story of what happens when the oppressed farm animals rebel, drive out Mr. Jones, the farmer, and attempt to rule the farm themselves, on an equal basis. What the animals seem to have aimed at was at sort of communism, where each would work according to his capacity, respecting the needs of others. The venture failed, and "Animal Farm" ended up being a dictatorship of pigs, who were the brightest, and most idle of the animals.

The author's mastery lies in his presentation of the horrors of totalitarian regimes, and his analysis of communism put to practice, through satire and simple story-telling. The structure of the novel is skillfully organized, and the careful reader may, for example, detect the causes of the unworkability of communism even from the first chapter. This is deduced from Orwell's description of the various animals as they enter the barn and take their seats to listen to the revolutionary preaching of Old Major, father of communism in Animal Farm. Each animal has different features and attitude; the pigs, for example, "settled down in the straw immediately in front of the platform", which is a hint on their future role, whereas Clover, the affectionate horse" made a sort of wall" with her foreleg to protect some ducklings.

So, it appears that the revolution was doomed from the beginning, even though it began in idealistic optimism as expressed by the motto" no animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers. "When the animals drive out Mr. Jones, they create their "Seven Commandments" which ensure equality and prosperity for all the animals. The pigs ,however, being the natural leaders, managed to reverse the commandments, and through terror and propaganda establish the rule of an elite of pigs, under the leadership of Napoleon, the most revered and sinister pig.

"Animal Farm" successfully presents how the mechanism of propaganda and brainwashing works in totalitarian regimes, by showing how the pigs could make the other animals believe practically anything. Responsible for the propaganda was Squealer, a pig that "could turn black into white". Squealer managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to" all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others". He managed to convince the other animals that it was for their sake that the pigs ate most of the apples and drank most of the milk, that leadership was "heavy responsibility" and therefore the animals should be thankful to Napoleon, that what they saw may have been something they "dreamed", and when everything else failed he would use the threat of " Jones returning" to silence the animals. In this simple but effective way, Orwell presents the tragedy and confusion of thought control to the extent that one seems better off simply believing that" Napoleon is always right".

Orwell's criticism of the role of the Church is also very effective. In Animal Farm, the Church is represented by Moses, a tame raven, who talks of "Sugarcandy Mountain", a happy country in the sky "where we poor animals shall rest forever from our labors". It is interesting to observe that when Old Major was first preaching revolutionary communism, Moses was sleeping in the barn, which satirizes the Church being caught asleep by communism. It is also important to note that the pig-dictators allowed and indirectly encouraged Moses; it seems that it suited the pigs to have the animals dreaming of a better life after death so that they wouldn't attempt to have a better life while still alive...

In "Animal Farm", Orwell describes how power turned the pigs from simple "comrades" to ruthless dictators who managed to walk on two legs, and carry whips. The story maybe seen as an analysis of the Soviet regime, or as a warning against political power games of an absolute nature and totalitarianism in general. For this reason, the story ends with a hair-raising warning to all humankind:" The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which".

Book Review: Blitz

This book is written by David Orme, in a series of books called Sharp Shades.

This book is about WWll and a boy by the name of Martin. He lost his parents and was therefore sent to live with his Aunt, Aunt Josie. Martin loved to live with Aunt Josie but was later evacuated to the country for safety reasons. In the country, he lived with Aunt Minnie but he did not enjoy it although he was well taken care of.

So, Martin escaped from school one day and ran to the train station to buy a ticket back to London. When he arrived in London, all he could see is debris caused by the active bombings. He frantically search for Aunt Jossie and finally found her in a bomb shelter. Aunt Josie was shocked to see him there and asked him to return to Aunt Minnie immediately for his life. She gave him some money and asked him to board a train back to Winchester immediately.

With no choice, Martin left for the train station and boarded the next train to Winchester. However, there was an enemy bombing attack and the train exploded. A lot of people died as a result but Martin was one of those lucky survivors. However, when Martin finally regained conscious, he forgot everything, including his own name.

So he wander around the city, trying hard to find out who he was and what was his real name. When he pass a house full of chickens and a woman feeding them, he suddenly remembers Aunt Minnie feeding the chicken;s in her house in Winchester. Slowly, he remembers his own identity and where he belongs to and that fatal train explosion which nearly took his life.

He went straight to the train station and waited patiently for the next train going to Winchester.

At last, he was back in his Aunt Minnie house. However, this time round, he enjoys staying with Aunt Minnie, because of the peacefulness of the country.

Book Review: Plaque

This book is written by David Orme titled Plaque, in a series of books called Sharp Shades.

Basically, this book is about plaque, a dreadful illness that has caused millions of death throughout history. The Great Plaque of 1665, described in this story, was the last great outbreak of plaque in Britain, causing over 100,000 deaths in London alone.

Henry is a boy living in the period of the plaque. His family consist of him, his parents and a brother, Jasper. His father worked as a saddler. Master Coulter was one of his customers and a good friend. I wanted to be an apothecary and was hence apprenticed to Master Coulter.

When the deadly plaque struck the whole city, Henry's father died and his mother and brother escaped the city to their uncle's farm, leaving Henry all alone to attend to his father's funeral.

After much trouble, poor Henry finally managed to find a person to give his father a proper burial. Then, Henry tries to escape the city by swimming across the Thames river to Camberwell- where his uncle's farm is.

After much hardships, he finally managed to swim across the river. However, at this point of time, the poor boy was down with the deadly plaque. He lie down on the roadside and prepared himself to die.

However, his life wasn't coming to an end. His brother found him lying by the roadside and at once knew that Henry had contacted the deadly plaque. He brought him back to the farm and nursed him, hopping that Henry would recover. Indeed, Henry recovered. It is really a miracle that Henry could survive. Knowing that survivors from the plaque would rarely get it a second time, Henry immediately headed back for the city, to his master's house and continue learning from him.

Book Review: Fire!

This book is written David Orme, titled Fire! in a series of books call Sharp Shades.

This book is about a The Great Fire of London. In this book there are two sisters who were abandoned by their parents when they were babies. They were adopted by the church parish. When the two sisters were old enough, they were sent to work elsewhere. The two sisters are named Martha and Martin. Martin was sent to be an apprenticed to Mr Brown, a shoemaker, while Martha was sent to be a lady's maid.

Martin had a very bad master. Her master was very cruel and gave Martin very little sleep and made sure she worked alot. However, Martha master was a very kind lady just that she was paralysed.

When the great fire broke out, everyone at that time was running for their lives. Martin's master ran away from the fire but left Martin behind.

Martha master was paralysed and hence she could not escape. However, she asked Martha to escape on her own and don't bother about her. Being a loyal person, Martha just could not bring herself to do that.

Similarly, both sisters could not escape. But in the end, The sisters were reunited at Martha's master's house. The old lady tried to escape but fell to her death when she was trying to climb down the stairs and thus Martha was very sad. However, the old lady left behind a will. The will reads" All my possession will go to Martha." So the sisters finally have their own house and they would not have to work for masters again.