Pests

                March 20^th 2013, there was a power cut in Japan’s tsunami-crippled nuclear plant. When reading this article it discussed how the cause of this was a six inch rat, which was found dead by the switchboard. This caused the power to be out in the plant for three days. I related this article to a poem by Seamus Heaney, called “The Early Purges.” This poem starts out with talking about kittens drowning and how it was needed because they were “pests.” As the poem continues it talks about rat traps and shooting crows. In the end the poem ends with, “But on well-run farms pests have to be kept down.”

                When reading about the article about the rat that caused problems for the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant, it related to this poem because of the pests. In the beginning of the poem the boy was scared by seeing Dan drown the kittens. Just like in the article, they were scared at first because they didn’t realize why the power had gone out. Towards the middle of the poem the boy starts to understand why this is happening. He shows this by saying, “I just shrug, ‘Bloody pups’. It makes sense”. The article then talks about how they were without power but finally regained it back within two days. This shows that they regained their power just as the boy finally understood the need to trap or kill certain animals. Then at the end the boy realizes that living on a farm, certain animals are pests and that in order to run a good farm pests need to be kept down. In the article it shows that pests need to be kept down because they can cause many problems like cutting off power.

Rat Article
The Early Purges

Everything in Life

Everything

Everything’s looted, betrayed and traded,

black death’s wing’s overhead.

Everything’s eaten by hunger, unsated,

so why does a light shine ahead?

By day, a mysterious wood, near the town,

breathes out cherry, a cherry perfume.

By night, on July’s sky, deep, and transparent,

new constellations are thrown.

And something miraculous will come

close to the darkness and ruin,

something no-one, no-one, has known,

though we’ve longed for it since we were children.

Anna Akhmatova

 http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/everything/

                When reading Anna Akhmatova I was very interested in her poetry because it was about her life and the struggles she was going through. This poem, “Everything” I found interesting because it describes her feelings in only a few stanzas. In the first stanza it talks about how everything is betrayed and traded. It then mentions why does the light shine ahead? When reading this I found that she is discussing how everyone and everything is being betrayed and everything bad is going on right now, so why continue to keep going each day. When reading this poem the tone is very deep and sad. I feel like Akamatova wanted to explain to her readers that she didn’t want to live after what she has been feeling and living with. She mentions, “black deaths wing overhead” I took this as her not knowing if she wants to live if this is what her life is going to be like.

                As she continues on with the poem she starts thinking about her town and how day by day it might start to become better. She explains this by talking about the mysterious wood and cherry perfume. I think that she wants to realize the reasons why she wants to live and what she is living for. She then goes on to discuss the new constellations. I think that this allowed her to find something new each night and realize that something new can come out of living her life.

                When I get to the last stanza of the poem she talks about how something miraculous will come, something that could be like the constellations. I think she is starting to realize that she lived her life and something good will come out of it if she lives it to the fullest. She ends her poem with saying, “though we’ve longed for it since children”. I think she makes her point here with the poem saying that everyone has lived this hard life since children so if they just deal with everything, something will change. I found that when reading this poem I found it being about herself and her struggles with everything she has to go through. I think she also wants  to hope for the best and believe that with waiting and pain and suffering that everything will change just like they had been all waiting their whole life. 

The Guillotine

“Tale of Two Cities”, this is a book most people know by the famous author, Charles Dickens. While reading this book I did some close reading and tried to discover what Dickens was telling his audience while reading the book. I decided to take a part of the book that talks about the guillotine. This is how most people were killed during the French Revolution. In this book Dickens explains how he feels about the Guillotine.

                “It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for headache, it infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey, it imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close: who kissed La Guillotine, looked though the little window and sneezed into the sack. It superseded the Cross. Models worn on breasts from which the Cross was discarded, and it was bowed down to and believed in where the Cross was denied.

                It sheared off heads so many, that it, and the ground it most polluted, were a rotten red. It was taken to pieces, like a toy-puzzle for a young Devil, and was put together again when the occasion wanted it. It hushed the eloquent, struck down the powerful, abolished the beautiful and good.  Twenty-two friends of high public mark, twenty-one living and one dead, it had lopped the heads off, in one morning, in as many minutes. The name of the strong man of Old Scripture had descended to the chief functionary who worked it; but, so armed, he was stronger than his namesake, and blinder, and tore away the gates of God’s own Temple every day.” (Dickens)

This part of the book I did a close read on. I found that Dickens talks about the guillotine in a sarcastic matter. In the first paragraph he mentions how it is the best cure for headache, which shows that he is almost making fun how much they used the guillotine during the French Revolution.  He describes it by turning hair grey, meaning making a person older, in other words death.  He talks about the complexion it makes to one person, which also describes leading to one’s death.

 When getting into the next paragraph he talks about how he feels about the guillotine. He explains that it is like a toy for the Devil, which shows how people come and gather to watch people die. This is like a toy because so many people come to watch one another die and cheer them on instead of looking at the reality of what is happening. As the paragraph continues it shows how Dickens didn’t like the idea of the guillotine. In this case dickens uses irony to show how he is feeling towards the guillotine and how he didn’t agree.