Walt Whitman (Worked with Marcela Criado)

1) Choose 10 interesting facts about Whitman and post them on your blog.

– He quit school when he was just 11 years old.

– There were reports that he was homosexual or bisexual.

– An autopsy revealed that his lungs shrunk down to 1/8th of their normal breathing capacity causing his death.

– He admired Shakespeare’s and Homer’s work.

– He  struggled financially most of his life. Writers both in US & in England sent him “purses” of money so that he could get by.

–  Walt Whitman ate four raw eggs for breakfast every day for the last 20 years of his life. 

– He was a poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist.

– He was often called the father of free verse.

– Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War.

– Whitman’s major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in1855.

 

2) Name a contemporary writer or artist influenced by Whitman.

– Gary Snyder (Winner of Pullitzer Price of Poetry)

Favorite Song “Im Awesome – Spose”

i’m awsome!!!
no you’re not dude don’t lie
i’m awsome!!!
i’m drivin around in my mom’s ride
i’m awsome!!!
a quarter of my life gone by and
i met all my friends online
i’m awsome!!!
i will run away from a brawl
i’m awsome!!!
there’s no voice mail nobody called
i’m awsome!!!
i can’t afford to buy eight ball
and i talk to myself
on my Facebook wall

1) Indicate the rhyme used:

” gone by and online”

“ball and wall”

2) Which words are repeated:

“I’m awesome”

3) Interpret what the song means to you. (minimum 5 sentences)

The song is about a guy that is about 25 years old, lives with his mom, doesn’t own a car and doesn’t have a job. He talks about how awesome he is, even tho he knows he’s not even a little awesome. He doesn’t have friends, well he does but they’re Facebook friends and he doesn’t really know them at all. For me, this song means the opposite of what the song is saying, because he says he’s awesome, but it’s the exact opposite. A quarter of his life has gone by and hasn’t accomplished anything in life, he’s not heading anywhere. They’re trying to show us how we shouldn’t be doing what he’s doing, wasting time. 

3) How does the repetition and rhyme enhance the songs meaning? (2 sentences)

It helps us understand if the singer is being funny or serious, by the rhyme, if the rhyme is more serious or sad its because the person means what he or she is saying. If the person is being funny the rhyme might be more vivid and funny.

The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Compare and contrast Roderick and Madeline Usher. (minimum 7 sentences)

Roderick Usher is reserved, habitual and excessive on the other side, Madeline is the one who always causes the tense and angy. In comparison, they’re both reserved and quiet and are friends with the narrator, they both create tension and supense throughout the whole story. The House and the walls are dark, so are the characters, they’re reserved and quiet, which In life is pretty much being a little dark.